Update on the lone star quilt

The owner came to pick it up today. She loved the quilt. She started crying.... then so did I. We wound up hugging each other and crying together. What I thought was a mean statement was in fact just her own frustrated feelings about things not done before her husband passed. I felt the same things when my husband passed. (years ago) When someone we care about passes..... we just naturally wish for "just one more day" to say the things we want to say and do the things we never got around to doing. Of course we can't get that one more day so we feel frustrated and sad.

This customer has decided to get some quilts made out of his clothing to be given to their kids. She says she will get back with me when things settle down.... for the both of us. Probably in the fall or next spring. It will give her time to grieve and time to pick out the favorite clothing. It will also give me time to finish up long past due quilts. She asked me if I thought I could make something out of baseball caps? Her husband collected them and had several hundred. Hmm.... I wonder? This really has me thinking. Maybe I can get three or four from a thrift store to experiment with them?

In the mean time the Derby party is in full swing here in the west end. People everywhere! Barbecue smoke so thick it looks like a fire someplace. Music of all kinds blasting while the young girls dance in the street and young boys play street ball. Adults sit around tables playing dominoes or cards while drinking and laughing. I'm a couple of blocks from Broadway so I'm not sure what's happening there.

Me? I have the next quilt on the machine. Although I do go outside several times to watch everyone and see some of the neighborhood kids that are all grown up and visiting home with their kids.




When I got near the end of stabilizing this quilt; this is what happened. The batting was too short.... huh? I used a king size which is 120 inches. But the intake sheet says the top is 104" so what happened? I rolled back to the beginning and remeasured..... you guess it.... the top is actually 134". It needed another 14" batting piece.

I did this while it stayed on the machine. I simply whip stitched the batting together. Taking large 1" stitches that would hold it together while I pressed the stabilizer using the belly bar as the pressing surface.

Now it's all stabilized and waiting for me to get back to it on Monday. Tonight I'm going to my daughter's to watch the baby tomorrow while Mommy and Daddy rest. Both are feeling terrible. While I'm there I'll make a big pot of chicken dumpling soup. It will help them and I can bring some home for me in case I catch it too.

I'm actually glad to be going away from home tonight. The noise of the motorcycles racing through the streets on Derby night get really loud! And the thump, thump, thump of the cars rattle the windows. It's hard to sleep with all the noise. Tomorrow morning it will all be over for another year..... whew.