LAST WEEKEND WITH JONAH

We spent another weekend with Jonah and now we are lonely grandparents again. Here is a picture of Jonah & Mommy feeding some ducks.

Going down the slide all by himself - like a big boy!
I forgot to put this in my last post - a picture of me using my Featherweight in the camper. I was fixing the new shower curtain. I also worked on the star blocks pictured below.
These are the star blocks that I will be making into doll quilts.
I won another giveaway from Barb in American Samoa!!! I got this bracelet and...
these awesome batik fat quarters. Any suggestions as to what I should make with these? Aren't they gorgeous? Thank you so much, Barb!

OUR FIRST TRIP IN NEW CAMPER

This was the first trip with our "new" camper, so I have to share some pictures. This first one is at Warfield Point Park along the Mississippi River in Mississippi. You can see the river behind the camper.

This was a beautiful sunset our first night there.
We just relaxed the next day and I got some quilting done my my cheddar cheese & crackers doll quilt.
This is a duck that lived near DS#2's apartment in Florida. I hate to say it, but it is rather ugly.
We camped one night at Lake Perry, Mississippi on our way to Florida.
However, we didn't see any alligators!
On our way back for our second weekend with Jonah, we stayed 3 nights at Hot Springs National Park. This is the stream we camped near (about 50 feet). It was just gorgeous!
We did some hiking on the trails around our camp site and took pictures to prove it!
See my hiking boots? They are great! (The first pair I ever owned).
I went to one of the bath houses in Hot Springs and had a 20 minute soak in the hot springs water. It was a huge jacuzzi tub with jets - heavenly!

No tent camping for us! We enjoyed all the features in our camper, including A/C, heater, microwave, refrigerator, stove with oven, hot water heater and tiny bathroom with shower! It also has a TV which is not hooked up yet, but we watched some DVDs before bed.

We really enjoyed camping this way and tomorrow will be heading for home.

A VISIT TO FLORIDA

After our weekend in Arkansas, we went to Florida to to visit DS#2, DIL & Abigail for a weekend. It was such fun to get to spend some time with Abigail (16 months) again. They change so fast at this age! She's learning to feed herself!

It's hard to get these sunglasses on! They keep falling off.
We visited the Pensacola lighthouse.
This is the home attached to the lighthouse decorated as it would have been in the 1800's. Don't you love the quilts?
A cradle for the baby.
We found some good camping places too and I'll post a few pictures next time.

FUN IN ARKANSAS

Today we spent the day taking care of Jonah and took him to a discovery museum for kids. He had lots of fun playing there this morning.

He enjoyed "playing" the piano. He is a little sweetheart, that's for sure!
On the way home, we stopped at a garage sale and I came upon some gorgeous crocheted doilies that the relatives didn't want! They look brand new and are in perfect condition. The workmanship is excellent. I felt very lucky today!!

Monday we will really go camping!

TWO OF MY FAVORITE QUILT SHOPS

On March 27, I met a blogger (quilting memories) from North Carolina to go shopping. Her DH drives a truck around the country that hauls a race car and they display it at various stores (such as Home Depot, Walmart, etc.) for the Scott company. I met her for the first time about 2 years ago and they were back in TX. This time I took her to the 3 LQSs that I shop at most.

First we went to Just Stitchin' in at 605 Cedar Street in Cedar Hill, TX. This is the shop closest to me, so I go here the most. I usually see friends from my quilting guild here when I shop (some of them work here).

The had the quilt from the Cedar Hill Quilters Guild on display. It is a gorgeous quilt and will be raffled off in October.
We also went to Common Threads at 315 Rogers Street, Waxahachie, TX. This is my favorite reproduction fabric store. Almost all their fabric is reproductions! I love going to Waxahachie. It is such a neat old town.
Here is an adorable doll dress quilt they had on display and will be having a class to make it. I'm sorry if these pictures don't enlarge. I forgot to bring my camera, so I stole these pictures off of Quilting Memories. If you go there, they will enlarge.
Today we are going to get our camper ready to go and we will be leaving tomorrow for Arkansas. Over the weekend we will be taking care of Jonah and then we plan to do some camping!!! Finally!!!

Oh! and BTW, I won another drawing!

I WON A GIVEAWAY!!!

I won this fabulous giveaway from Debi at Debi Quilts! Look at all the goodies - a book, Easter socks, FQs, a charm pack and thread! Thank you so much, Debi! These will all be put to good use.

Yesterday I went to JoAnn's to see if I could find some thread for my GD's quilt. I decided to go with the variegated thread in green, yellow and orange. Below you can see some of it on part of the quilt with the backing fabric (the peach). I hope it will look good. GD loves bright colors, so I think she'll like it.
While at JoAnn's, I just happened to notice that Debbie Mum fabric was 60% off - which came to $3.19 per yard!! I purchased about 7 yards. I just couldn't help myself!

Our tax appointment turned out quite well - we'll be getting a refund. Yea!!

BOM TOP FINISHED

First, I need to show off a picture of GS Jonah petting a goat! We are going to travel to Arkansas to take care of him for 2 weekends in April while our DS & DIL attend foster parenting training! Can't wait to see him. We can already see he has changed a lot since Christmas!

I finished putting together this BOM top last night and it is going to be given to my GD for her birthday in June. I'm pretty sure she doesn't look at my blog, but if she does, oh well! I plan to machine quilt it myself and need some advice. Do you think I should use white thread? black thread? or another color? I'm leaning toward white thread. I will be doing an over all quilt design - maybe stippling. I don't have too many options for my design as I haven't perfected any fancy machine quilting yet.

This morning I layered & pinned the cheddar cheese & crackers doll quilt. I'm going to hand quilt this one, so I hope it will be finished soon. Right now, I have about 5 quilts that need quilting - yikes! I better get busy!
The top five FQs on this stack were purchased at one of my favorite quilt shops when I went shopping with the sweet blogger from quilting memories. It is my favorite reproduction fabric quilt shop.
Now I need to get ready for my tax appointment. Happy April!!

STOCKING/LAUNDRY BAG

Several months ago my sister sent me a bag that was my mother's, but now my sister used it to put her dirty stockings in. I was in horrible shape (I don't even want to show it to you) and she wanted me to make her a new one. So I decided to fashion it after a vintage laundry bag that I had seen - only this is smaller. I made a couple extra ones (as long as I was making one, I might as well make three, right?) and here is one of the extra ones.

The red one is the one I sent to my sis for her birthday and now I can put in on my blog! She was happy with it! She's a piano teacher, so I thought she would like the music fabric.
On Saturday I met a blogger (Quilting Memories) from North Carolina and we went to the three quilt shops that I go to most. She treated me to lunch at a tea room and we had a lovely time. I forgot my camera, but she is going to send me some pictures from her camera. I still can't get over how amazing quilting bloggers are!!

I'm exhausted. I just finished washing my kitchen floor on my hands and knees (the only way, according to my mother, that you can get your floor clean). I think she's right, but that doesn't mean I'm going to do it every time. I came across a lot of dirt down there in the corners and crevices. Yuk! I don't know what got into me!! Hee Hee!

WALL HANGING FINISHED!

I just finished my hand pieced and hand quilted wall hanging. It isn't exactly hanging, though because it is too long to hang above the fireplace, so I just draped over the picture that had been displayed there. I really like the way it looks.

This is the whole wall hanging.

These are a couple sample blocks of the Mansfield Park quilt that I am going to make for my guest bed. It is designed by Karen Montgomery and I bought the pattern about a year ago at a quilt show. I'm using reproduction fabrics for the baskets (so what else is new?).
In between the quilting, we're getting our camper ready. We have had to get some adjustments made to our truck and it all takes time. I'm hoping to hang my new curtains in it tomorrow!

TUMBLER TABLE RUNNER FINISHED

Last night I finished my tumbler table runner. It measures 18" x 31" and now lives on my coffee table. I tried to upload a picture of it on the table, but it wouldn't work. Maybe next time it will. I'm almost finished with the matching wall hanging. Both of these were all hand pieced, hand quilted and hand bound. (Except, when it was time to sew the binding onto the wall hanging I used the machine to sew the binding on, but then sewed it to the back by hand). I wanted to make a quilt the old fashioned way! It remains to be seen if I will do a bed sized one that way. Hee Hee!

The backing is some reproduction fabric that was on sale for $2 per yard (probably because it wasn't very pretty). It makes a good backing.
Yesterday we went to Fair Park in Dallas to a huge garage sale and a separate vintage/antique sale. Below are a few treasures I found. I try to grab up anything with tatting on it.
Notice the doily with the embroidered girl on it with the tatted edge and also a tea towel with a fancier tatted edge. And an old card of vintage buttons! I got two sets of the Beatrix Potter books - one for Jonah and one for Abigail (only 50 cents per book)! The little bag with the "J" embroidered on it has an "H" on the other side - my MIL's initials. It's stained, but I thought it was a good find.
I'll show you the wall hanging on my next post - maybe tomorrow!

We woke up to snow this morning. That is unheard of this late in the season here!

GRANDMOTHER'S FLOWER GARDEN

My Grandmother's flower garden lap quilt has been buried for over a year. There isn't much of the piecing left to do and I was looking for some hand sewing that I could pick up. I worked on it a little the last couple nights. This morning I was reading blogs and Joan at Keeping you in Stitches was showing how she was hand sewing her apple core quilt to the border. It was just what I needed because that is what I will be doing soon to finish this lap quilt.

I don't consider myself a real experienced quilter, but wanted to show how I pieced this together. At one of the first quilt shows I ever went to, I saw someone selling these paper pieces and I bought a package. I don't know if this was the same company or not, but she was sitting in her booth piecing these together and she showed me the easy way to do it.

She said to cut squares of fabric just a little bigger than the piece.
Then fold the edge of the fabric over the paper (it is similar in thickness to a 3x5 index card) and stitch the fabric at the fold. Do NOT stitch through the paper. I think some of the instructions I have seen tell you to stitch through the paper, but it isn't necessary.
See how the fabric is folded around the paper?
To sew them together, just take tiny stitches along the edge catching both sides and being sure you don't catch the paper (if you catch a little paper along the edge, that is OK).
When you have them all sewn together you can take the paper pieces out and re-use them. I will keep all the paper pieces around the edges in until ready to sew onto the border.
Also, I cut the excess points that are there because I was folding a square of fabric instead of carefully cutting out hexagons.
I'm sure there are other ways to do these, but this is the way I do it and it seems to work for me. Be sure to visit Joan's blog to see her gorgeous quilts!

BTW, APQ bloggers, I mailed my blocks today.