Two quilts pieced

This one is waiting on the owner to give approval before I quilt it.  It doesn't look like it in the photo but the squares are different sizes so the sashing is different sizes too. 

This one has been taken home and will return the first week of January to be quilted.  There is one square for each grandchild plus some blank squares for future grandchildren. 

The next quilt is on the machine and stabilized.  I'm guessing it will take about 4 days to complete.  I'm a long way from my goal of finishing all the quilts by the first week of November.  That's ok though because it was only a personal goal and not a customer deadline. 

Thank you everyone for the advice on the vitamin D.  I didn't explain myself right.  Must have been after effects of the illness.  I wasn't planning to take as much iron as I was given as a child.  I know that would be too much iron.  Back when I was a child iron was different.  It wasn't concentrated in pills like it is today.  I was planning to take a vitamin that says plus iron.  Something for seniors like maybe centrum silver or a similar one.  I'll add vitamin D too.

One of the things I really want to do over the holidays is make my hints blog a little easier to search.  I'm going to use blogger pages feature to set up some links for the different topics.  For example if someone wants to read only the posts about quilting they can find them all on the quilting page.  Or if a reader is only interested in frugal recipes those can be found on the recipes page.  It will take quite a bit of time to look at 300 posts, decide on which page it should be found, and then write 300 links.   

Actually, I have quite a few goals for things I want to accomplish over the holiday break.  All of them are organizing and cleaning goals.  Everything around me seems to have gotten out of control.  From the stuff on my computer to the stuff in my kitchen to the stuff for crafts.  I want to start the new year off with a clean and organized life..... again.  How much I get accomplished isn't as important as just getting done what I can.  Each day delayed starting is simply a day less to accomplish the goals. 

I got more work finished on this quilt.  It's almost complete.  The photo is of my design wall.  The wall is behind my machine so when I work from it, everything is sideways. 

I got another quilt on the machine and started stabelizing it.  I want to have this one finished by the weekend if possible. 

Not much else to talk about today.  My daughter has the house inspection this weekend.  I've heard this inspector is very thorough.  I sure hope so. 

Oh, I forgot something I wanted to tell you.  Remember that Ladybug just turned 2 last month, right?  Well we are sitting at the table.  I'm making tabs for my freezer bags.  I lay them in a stack beside me.  Next thing, Ladybug starts picking them up one at a time and counting them.  Counting!  She counted from one to ten and started over.  I didn't know two year olds could count.   I thought most kids learned, at best, to say how old they are at that age.  I thought the counting was learned in kindergarden.  Geeze, have I been that out of touch?  That's a wake up call for me to get out of the studio more often and visit the grandkids. 

There was a really bad accident at the corner last night. Someone said it was caused by a tire blowout and speed. A child got thrown out of the car that had flipped over on top of another car. The child was said to be about 10 or 12. I don't know because I didn't go down to see. I didn't want to see. Why don't people use seat belts!!





Early this morning I did more work on the clothing memory quilt. I didn't have the chance to work on it yesterday. I think this will have to be an early morning project for awhile because I need to get another top loaded onto the machine.

How on earth does she manage it?? My SIL was here yesterday to start working on her next quilt top. I'm there with her the whole time. I think I'm keeping a close watch on her so there isn't a mistake made. Yet..... this happens.

I had her cut 64 ten inch squares using a slotted ruler. I have her first cut a 10 inch strip. Then turn the strip to cut the 10 inch squares. Next I have her cut a strip off one side of the blocks to start a backwards piecing project. I tell her I will pin them together for her while she starts cutting the pieces for another top. I get down to the very last two sets..... and this.

So how does she make one (in a stack of 4) nearly an inch smaller than the rest? All I can do is laugh at the impossibility of it happening. Yet, there it is. I tell you there's never a dull moment with my SIL. I spend a lot of time laughing at the things she manages to do.... even when I think it's not possible.

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I later figured out that one strip had a wrinkle inside the fold that neither of us noticed. It frustrates her. It's especially frustrating to her when I bust out laughing.... but I can't help myself. I think its absurdly funny. She knows I don't mean anything by it. The only reason it frustrates her so much is because miss cuts cost money. She's frugal like me.

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So she cuts another strip and then a square and everything is back on track.

Memory quilt work

Yesterday I worked some more on the clothing memory quilt. I believe I have all the basic blocks finished. Now I will start adding pieces to make it all fit together.

I'm not sure how much of it will get finished today. My SIL is due here, at any minute, for a day of cutting out her xmas quilts for this year. I hope to keep her on track for getting them finished way before the last minute.

hmm.... she's here already.

About the memory quilt

I realized I forgot to say that the Mommie is out of town this weekend. She won't be back until very late Monday night. That's why Ladybug and I are together for the whole time this weekend.

I was asked about the hat in the memory quilt. Yes, I'm using it like this. The mother who lost her son requested it be included if it could be. I took it apart and removed the hard insert and the back of the bib. I'll remove the threads when I applique it down by hand. Of course I can't quilt over the hat. It's way too thick. What I will do is quilt around it. I rarely ever do any hand work on quilts. The exception is for memory quilts. Memory quilts are precious to me. They give me a sense of great satisfaction to create. When I create memory quilts, it's like I hear an angel whisper in my ear telling me how the quilt should be made.






Included in this memory quilt are a few shirts that I'm leaving the collars on too. I cut out the back and layered it (right side up) so the block will come out with 4 corners. When the hand work is finished I'll cut out the excess on the back. I use a very strong thread, (used for coat buttons) so the pieces will remain if the quilt is ever washed.

This will also be included in the quilt. It's a part of his blankie that his mother saved all these years.

When I create memory quilts it's like I hear an angel whisper in my ear telling me how the quilt should be made. I do sometimes have trouble thinking of "how" something should be added but it never bothers me for very long. Somehow the angel whispers the answer. I've used sport coats, ball gowns, graduation tassels, underwear, socks, pajamas, sweaters, and lots of different things in memory quilts. If it can be sewn.... I can put it in a memory quilt.

Oh oh, Ladybug is awake and wanting her breakfast.....

A stay at home retreat day

I worked on the memory quilt for quite a while yesterday. It may not look like it but there are quite a few rough cut blocks in this stack. I have them prepared for the hand stitching of some parts. I'll show those as I get them finished.



When I'm working on something like that quilt my mind can't keep quiet. The ideas seem to flood through so I keep a pad and pencil handy for making sketches or writing notes. It also happens when I'm searching through quilt books for a quilt that I remember seeing.... just not which book. Yesterday I was looking for a quilt pattern my SIL wanted to make for her first great-grand. The shower is in a couple of weeks. Needless to say my SIL once again waited until the last minute to work on them. Sigh.....

Oh well, I can't trade her in for another, might as well work with her as she is. (wink) Today we will work on her quilts and see how far along we get. Might as well treat it as a stay at home retreat. My daughter is going out of town on business this weekend so I won't get much work done. Ladybug won't let me.

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The thought of an out of town business trip isn't so bad anymore. I'm just grateful my daughter isn't one of the people being let go at Humana. Soooo many people loosing their jobs. It's very sad. No way can anyone convince me the economy is getting better when there are still hundreds of people loosing jobs and homes. Ok, before I get myself in a bad mood, I'm heading for the studio to prepare for a long day of quilt piecing.