What I'm reading

Covenant by Naomi Ragen
In view of the situation in the Middle East this book is especially poignant. I haven't read any of the other books by this author but I will look for and read some of her previous ones now.

Looking for Peyton Place by Barbara Delinsky
I like books by Delinsky - she writes about relationships. In this book it's the relationship and resentments between 3 sisters that interested me. With my Mom getting older and having some health issues I saw some parallels between the sisters in this book and my relationship with my 3 sisters.

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
The plot is somewhat odd but I like books by Kingsolver - I didn't realize until I wrote this post that this book is from 1998 - I'm not sure how I missed it when it first came out.

The Courts of Love: The Story of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Jean Plaidy
I like historical fiction - this is one of many written by Plaidy and I enjoyed it.

Priorities

My to do list

The next couple weeks are going to be busy with a overnight trip for a wedding shower, a 5 day trip to Seattle, and miles to hike to continue my preparation for the Breast Cancer 3 day walk.

My quilting goals during that time are to:

1. bind and label the wedding quilt
2. load my aunt's top on the longarm and start quilting it
3. put borders on the scrappy blue and green rail fence that I worked on last week at Mom's

I didn't get started today because I needed to walk 13 miles to keep up with my training. I didn't feel well enough to be out on the trail so I broke down and did all 13 miles on the treadmill - 10 this afternoon and the final 3 after dinner. I think as the training miles increase I'll have to do more of them here at home.

Flying

I head back home in the morning and hopefully the delay for screening at the airport won't be too bad. I fly back to Atlanta through the Newport News/ Williamsburg airport which is pretty small (although it's gotten really busy in the last year or so) and I'm planning to carry on only my book and purse. Of course just because I'm not carrying on a ton of baggage that has to be screened doesn't mean everyone else won't!

Judy posted how much she dislikes flying but luckily I don't mind it. I love to travel and with all my family living some distance and Keith traveling frequently for work I usually fly at least once or twice a month. People always tell me how much they hate the airport in Atlanta but it's been been our *home* airport for the last 4 years and when you're used to flying out of there it doesn't seem so crazy. However, I'm sure the delays out of Atlanta will be bad until the threat level goes back down. Maybe things will settle down before we fly to Seattle on the 23rd.

Working on another UFO

Thanks for the comments about my Mom. She had her cataract surgery this morning and did fine. She's resting quietly today because she's a little woozy from the medication they gave her and I worked some on another UFO.

I'm not as organized as some other members of our group with my scraps but when I'm cutting for a scrap quilt I do try to think ahead 2 or 3 quilts and cut for more than one at a time. Before leaving home Saturday, I grabbed my blue and green strips that have been waiting to be made into a donation quilt.

The strips I'm using have been picked over a couple times and so far I'm not liking the combination as well as I thought I would. I'm just using a simple 2 rail fence pattern like this one made from the leftovers of a quilt I made for Becky (Chris' fiance).

I'm back in Virginia/What I'm reading

I flew back to Mom's on Saturday and for the last few days I've visited with Mom and my sister.

Ann has been working on a wall-hanging that she wasn't completely happy with so we looked through Mom's books and found some additional applique to add to it. She finished the wall-hanging before she left for home today and seemed to be happy with it now.

Mom has cataract surgery tomorrow so we'll be up and out of the house early. When we get back I hope to get to work on another UFO I brought with me.

The latest books I've read:

Angels Fall by Nora Roberts
Break No Bones: A Temperance Brennan Novel by Kathy Reichs
Vanishing Point by Marcia Muller

I liked the novels by Reichs and Muller and I was disappointed in the Nora Roberts one. I don't expect a lot from Nora Roberts - usually just an light entertaining read but this one was just OK.

Just one more post before I get off the computer

I finally caught up, visited everyone's blogs and just have to post one more picture.

Patti posted several pictures of scrap quilts on her blog, I have many of the same books and loved them all. I also have a quilt made for me by my Mom from one of the patterns she showed. It goes perfectly over the quilt on my guest bed.

By the way, the quilt on this bed is the same color scheme as the wedding quilt that I'm not going to post a picture of - yet.

Challenges

All these challenges going on this month have got me thinking. I'm already on minimal buying for fabric - mainly just backgrounds and borders when needed for a specific project but I read that someone added books to their challenge. Now that's one I can stand to participate in.

Cher and Hanne have also made personal challenges so I'll jump in too. Right now the two hardest things for me are limiting my quilt book purchases and NOT beginning new projects (I've got a set of fat quarters sitting on my cutting table just calling my name).

So my personal challenge for August will be to not purchase any quilt books and to not start any new projects. If it goes well I may even extend it into September. I think I'm going to go move those fat quarters - hopefully out of sight will be out of mind.

Help

I finished quilting the wedding quilt today and it's off the machine and trimmed. Just have to bind it and make a label and that will be one more thing checked off my list.

Next up is a top my Aunt Nancy sent me to quilt. I'm going to quilt feather wreaths in the plain blocks but I'm not sure what to do in the borders. I'm thinking about feathers - I'd like to quilt half the feather in the dark and half in the light in two of them but there are 4 borders. What would I put in the other two? Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Another 10 miles and progress on Chris' quilt

To respond to recent comments about my hiking, I'm still preparing for the Breast Cancer 3 day walk in October so regardless of the weather I feel I have to be out there *training*. It's tough with the heat and humidity but I drink LOTS of water.

Keith has been out of town since Monday morning and was waiting for me today when I got in from another 10 mile hike. He took me to dinner at one of my favorite places - PF Chang's - and because it was unexpected it was especially nice!

I've only got about 1/4 of the quilting left on the Wedding Quilt - this pantograph is taking a little longer than usual but I like how it's looking.

I won't post a picture of the quilt so it will be somewhat of a surprise but Chris does know the color scheme - scrappy red/beige - and the pattern - double 4 patch - so I'll post my EQ5 drawing of the quilt. You'll have to image the quilt as scrappy and the lights ranging from cream to tan. I like quilts without borders and this one doesn't have one. To see this in green - check out Mom's version that I quilted for her a month or so ago.

Yesterday

Yesterday I loaded Chris' wedding quilt on the longarm and started quilting it. It's a scrappy red/beige double four patch - the reds were from Mom's stash and the beiges from mine. I'm using a pantograph called Rhapsody - its the pantograph I decided not to use on the Butterfly quilt.

I washed and dried 4 of the 9 donation quilts that will go to both project Linus and the Ronald McDonald House this month.

I also shipped Mom's 2 quilts back to her along with another quilt pattern and some books.

And finally, I had a wonderful 2 hour massage!

Today I'll work some on Chris' wedding quilt and do a 10 mile hike.

Honeybee

I had a lot of comments on Mom's Honeybee so I thought I would post the book I found the pattern in. I bought my copy at Joann's but it's been a while and I had a hard time locating it online but finally found it on the site Alibris. I did look and couldn't find it at the usual sites - Amazon, B&N, or even the Leisure Arts or Oxmoor site.

Great American Quilts Book Nine

What I'm reading

I finished Twisted by Jonathan Kellerman a couple weeks ago. He's another one of my favorite authors and while I like his books that feature Alex Delaware better than the ones featuring Petra Connor I did enjoy this book.

I also just read Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs. It's probably not the best one she's written but I still enjoyed it. I've watched a couple episodes of the TV show Bones since I last read one of these and it's funny, the actress from the show was how I pictured the main character while I was reading this book. Has anyone else who reads these books seen the TV show?

Someone commented a while back about not enjoying one of the books I'd blogged about. It was one in a series and probably not the best one at that. I really enjoy reading about the same characters so I frequently find myself reading what I consider series books. It's rare that I think they are all great and it's not unusual for a series to get stale - for example, Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, and even Tom Clancy. When that happens I stop buying every book they write and pick and choose more carefully which ones I'll read. Even with that I think I'm more tolerant of a mediocre book if it has characters that I like in it.

Guild

Friday I went to my guild meeting where Sally Collins was the guest lecturer. Her work is quite impressive and she went out of her way to not be judgmental but she really preaches perfection in quilting. Not something I aspire to. While I'm not an advocate of sloppy work I don't get overly concerned about imperfections. I think that I make pretty nice quilts and as long as I'm learning new techniques and improving as I go along I'm happy.

One of the things that I really enjoy about the guild are the lectures from nationally know quilters. I haven't taken any of the classes - they don't particularly interest me but I love the lectures and seeing all the quilts they bring to show.

Done!

I should meander more quilts - this went fast. The colors in the picture are more true than the one I posted this morning. It's quilted with a maroon thread that blended with the fabric so you see texture not the thread.

Laura's quilt

Today I'm loading and quilting the top Mom made for Laura (my youngest sister's daughter) who is heading off to Virginia Tech this fall. I'm just going to do a simple all over meander on it - quick and easy!

The color in the picture is a little off - It's maroon and 2 shades of orange. The lighter one looks yellow in the picture but it's orange.

It's a McCall's pattern but I couldn't find the magazine with the quilt in it so I worked it up in EQ5.

Stash Quilt blog ring

It looks like the ring is still down.

Luckily, I have bloglines set up but for those that manage to get to this site - check your browser history - that should hold the blog sites you typically visit OR you can go into the comment sections on your own blog . By clicking on the links you can travel to the profile of the person commenting and from there to their blog. Just a couple ways to get to your favorite blogs even with the ring down.

Mom's Honeybee Quilt

I finished quilting Mom's top today and got it unloaded and trimmed. It's all ready to ship back to her but I'll wait until I quilt the top she made for my niece and send them both back together.

Books to Read (or not)

I finished reading Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan. I have to repost about this book because when I posted initially I was enjoying the book.

Now having read the entire book, I would not recommend it. I found the beginning different but interesting, the middle was horrible - very difficult to get through, and the end was OK.

I did continue to struggle through the book because I wanted to see what was going to happen to the characters.

Heading home

My brother is back from his vacation and I'm heading home tomorrow.

It's about a 10 hour drive and I will be driving PAST Mary Jo's in Gastonia WITHOUT stopping. How's that for dedication to stashbusting?

Name Change

My oldest son Chris was 6 when Keith and I got married and for years he talked about changing his name to Johnson. He emailed me yesterday that it's done - he is now Chris Johnson. He decided to go ahead and make the change official before his wedding in October and that will certainly make it easier on Becky - now she'll just change her name once.

I worried some that my Adam (my younger son) would be upset but he says he doesn't mind. He doesn't feel any need to change his name but said if he did he wouldn't change it to Johnson. He'd choose McLaughlin - my maiden name. Being born on the day after St. Patrick's day, he has a strong affection for his Irish roots.

Both boys still see their father but have a wonderful relationship with Keith and in Adam's words feel he is their *real dad*.

I remembered

Couldn't sleep last night and lying in bed I finally remembered the other book I just finished - Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver. Glad to know I'm not the only one who doesn't remember.

Laurie commented she likes the Elm Creek books by Jennifer Chiaverini and Janet Evanovich. I've missed a couple of the Elm Creek series but like both of these authors.

Cynthia's reading Deadly Kisses by Brenda Joyce - a good romance is my book of choice for a bubble bath. I'd read other ones by Joyce but haven't read this one so I'll have to put it on my list.

Eileen's book group is reading Secret Lives of Bees next and she also reads Nora Roberts, Janet Evanovitch, and James Patterson. I read a lot of Patterson too and usually like his books.

****
Laurie also asked how I was doing on my weight loss. I haven't been back to Weight Watchers for 4 weeks because I've been out of town on my regular meeting day. According to my scales my weight loss is about 30 lbs but I haven't lost any in a couple weeks. Too much traveling and I haven't been as strict. I'm OK with that and I could easily live with my weight now but it would be nice to lose a few more pounds so maybe when things settle back down I'll start to lose again.

I am going for another hike this morning so even with all the travel I'm keeping up with my walking/hiking.

A visit to the bookstore

It's been two weeks - longer than I usually go without my B&N fix so this afternoon I spent a couple hours browsing through books and magazines. I bought the new Quilter's Newsletter special edition 9-patch Quilts and a handful of books.

I've been reading a couple older Nora Roberts books - you know the kind - no thought involved just a quick mindless read. I'm also about halfway through Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan. I enjoy her books and while this one is somewhat different I'm really liking it too.

I finished Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag last week. I'd mentioned in a previous post that I was reading it and got a kick out of it being set in Minneapolis.

I know I finished something else last week but I can't remember what it was. Does anyone else read so much that they have trouble remembering which books they just finished? It's not that I wouldn't remember the story if I had the book in my hand - I just can't remember what book I was reading. Very sad.

More progress

Mom finished another top today

I pieced a quick strippie quilt to donate yesterday so now I've finished a couple tops since I've been here at Mom's.

While I was out hiking 10 miles today, Mom finished piecing this top. Cute isn't it? It's from the book Growing up with Quilts.

Tonight I'm helping her go through her magazines and ripping out the patterns she wants to keep. I found that having mine in a binder makes them more usable and I don't have keep the rest of the magazines.

Stay at home retreat

Mom's Quilt
My UFO

Today, Mom and I particpated in a stay at home retreat on my Stashbuster list.

I finished piecing a top - a UFO. I'd wanted to make some windmill blocks and this was intended to be a quick donation quilt. It sat around for a couple years so it certainly wasn't quick. It's plain looking but it WILL look cuter when it's quilted! I hope.

Mom was working on a quilt for my niece. It's based on a McCall's pattern but I couldn't find the magazine so I drafted it in EQ5. We'd picked out the fabric when I was here last week and I cut it out for her then too. It's looking better than my UFO.

Home for a day

I flew home from Mom's last night and am driving back with Chesty tomorrow. My brother is going to be out of town all next week and with Mom not feeling well lately I wanted her to have someone around if she needed something.

I've been running around today getting the car serviced and Chesty groomed so we (Chesty and I) can head out in the morning. Keith was in California this week while I was in Virginia and he won't get back before I leave. It will be another week before I see him.

I'm packing a couple projects to work on while I'm there. Fabric for one of my super simple strippies and a UFO that just needs assembly. I'm really not crazy about this UFO but I've done too much work on it not to finish and donate it.

The Wedding Quilt

I'm visiting my Mom in Virginia and we've been working on Chris' wedding quilt between going to her doctor's appointments. We finished the top tonight but I'm not going to post a picture because Chris reads my blog!

Here's a picture of Mom pinning the blocks for me to sew.

Stashbuster's update

I finally finished the binding on UFO #10 tonight - the 2nd Braid quilt I'd intended to finish last weekend when I left my binding kit at home.

The picture shows both Braid quilts - one will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House through my guild and the other one will go to Project Linus.

In addition to the UFO challenge on the stashbuster list I'm also tracking my stash yardage used for the 100 Yard Dash from Stash. I'm only up to 42 yards of stash at this point but that's mainly because the quilt has to be finished to count the yardage. I have a few tops that are waiting for quilting that will count as soon as I get them quilted and bound.

Bloglines

I debated whether or not to subscribe to Bloglines but after reading a couple posts about it I decided to go ahead and set it up.

It took two days but I added ALL the members of Stash Quilts. Rather than just subscribing to part of the group, the time I save not going to sites that don't have updated posts can be spent reading the newer blogs.

So while 36 blogs seems like a lot I think I'll actually spend less time catching up with everyone.


*********
On a side note - Just for fun I did try out that What Flower are you? site that Norma posted but I came up as a Shrinking Violet!! Well - OK it just said Violet (I added the shrinking part) but here's the blurb:

"You have a shy personality. You tend to hesitate before trying new things or meeting new people. But once people get to know you, you open up and show the world what you are really all about."

Just because I'm anti social and love to read doesn't mean I'm a shrinking Violet! Anyway, try it yourself - it was kind of fun.

Progress on the Honeybee

Today's a better day and I'm making good progress on Mom's Honeybee. I had comments asking how I was going to quilt it so I thought I'd post a couple pictures.

In the large squares I'm doing a modified designs with lines pattern. Most of the fabrics are too busy to mark anything so I just chalk the registration lines and then quilt the feathers freehand.

The second picture is one of the leaves I decided on after ripping out the sashing quilting yesterday. They look much better.

Just my luck

I'm finally going to be home a few days and my plan was to start to quilting Mom's Honeybee top. By the time I made all the phone calls, emails, and faxing that I needed to it was already afternoon - but that's OK because Keith has a dinner tonight so I still had lots of time to quilt.

Things started off pretty good and considering I hadn't done any free motion quilting in a few weeks I was pretty happy with the top two borders. Unfortunately I didn't like the quilting in the sashing and although I rarely rip quilting out - I decided I had to rip and try something else. So most of my quilting afternoon was spent ripping out rather than making progress on this quilt.

I did quilt a couple more hours after dinner but now I'm going to call it a night. I'm reading a pretty good book that believe it or not is set in Minneapolis. It's Tami Hoag's new mystery Prior Bad Acts. I've a bunch of her books but for the life of me can't remember where the other ones take place. I always like reading a book that is set in a city I know. It just adds something to be able to actually picture the setting that's being described.

What I'm reading

I was traveling again last week so I got a lot of reading done. I found Mercy Falls by William Kent Krueger in the *local* section of the book store. It's a mystery that takes place in Minnesota - I enjoyed reading it and I'll have to look for more of his books.

I also took The Devil Wears Prada with me and the latest Stephanie Plum novel from Janet Evanovich. Both good summer reads - light, entertaining, and quick.


Mercy Falls
William Kent Krueger


The Devil Wears Prada
Lauren Weisberger


Twelve Sharp
Janet Evanovich

Forgetful

After going through all the trouble to collect a binding *kit* - scissors, clips, thread, needles, thimble - and tossing it in a small case to bring with me this weekend, I walked off and left it sitting on the bar at the house.

Mom's quilt

I finished quilting a top for my Aunt last week and today I'm loading this top of my Mom's. The block is called Honeybee and she used a beautiful set of fat quarters. After quilting this top, I still have one each of my Aunt's and my Mom's waiting to be quilted.

My Quilting Studio

Moving will at last force me to completely and ruthlessly purge my quilting supplies and material. None of the housing we're looking at will have the kind of space dedicated to quilting that I have now so before leaving on this trip I started going through my books and magazines.

I'll donate a ton of my quilting books to the library and I've already started to rip out pictures of quilts I like from my magazines. They'll be placed in a binder and the rest of the magazines will be tossed. Going through the magazines has made me realize how many magazines I get that have absolutely no quilts that appeal to me in them. I'm going to let all my subscriptions end and in the future just buy issues that appeal to me.

I haven't decided for sure how I'm going to decrease my stash but some fabric will be donated, some cut into strips for future scrap quilts, and possibly some cut into fat quarters.

I'm finding that I prefer making scrap quilts and I like working with fat quarters. When I participated in our guild cut-in for our charity quilts we cut a lot of donated yardage into fat quarters and that seemed to work well for the patterns for scrappy quilts that were distributed.

I did get some quilting done between all the visits to and from family. I quilted both blue braid quilts that will be donated and a queen size top my Aunt sent me to quilt for her.

Minneapolis

We arrived in Minneapolis on Friday afternoon and spent a couple days looking at townhomes and condo's. Just as I thought, a condo isn't going to work for us but Keith wanted to look at them so we did.

We found a townhouse community by the river within walking distance of downtown that I really love. They're more expensive than I wanted to spend but not more expensive than I can afford so they're my first choice of places to live.

Keith hasn't definitely decided to move yet but even if we don't relocate to Minneapolis with his company we decided we're selling our house and we have it on the market.

Now Keith just needs to make a decision and the house needs to sell and we can move ahead in one direction or the other.

What I'm reading

Having recently read two of Jodi Picoult books, Vanishing Acts and The Tenth Circle, I bought a 3rd book of hers the other day.

I finished reading Keeping Faith tonight and liked this one even more than the two previous books. I will definitely read her other books. Click on the title to read a review of the book.

Family

The Johnson's
The Johnson women (I'm on the far right)

A whole week without blogging that's unusual for me.

The house is listed for sale and my fingers are crossed that we'll be able to sell it by November. Sooner would be nice.

Keith's brother and sister and their families have been visiting and just went home today. We spent a couple days here at the house and then went up to Big Canoe for a couple days. They all left today and while we had a wonderful time, I've spent most of today getting both places straightened up and started washing all the sheets and towels used by our 7 guests. It will take a couple days to finish the laundry and get all the beds made back up.

In the next couple days I also hope to get a binding on the second braid quilt I finished quilting last week and to load my Aunt's quilt on the longarm.

Monday

We're back from Virginia and we had a great time. I really miss spending time as a family so it was good to have both boys (and Becky) with us.

Today I spent some more time getting ready to get the house listed and preparing for the next set of company coming on Wednesday. I've washed a pile of sheets and towels in the last few weeks and stripped and made up beds repeatedly. This next week should be the last company for a while.

I did get a binding sewn on my blue braid quilt otherwise known as UFO #9. I'll take and post a picture in the next day or so. It's a small donation quilt but it's nice to have another one finished.

Speaking of one of the blue quilts, Adam saw the string quilt top when he was home for graduation and promptly claimed it for himself. That's one less quilt to donate but the boys each get about one quilt a year so it's nice to have Adam's next one already pieced. Chris' next one will be a queen sized wedding quilt which will hopefully be done by the wedding.

I did squeeze in an hour hike today - the weather cut it a little short and I was soaked by the time I finished but I'm continuing to lose weight. I had my Weight Watchers weigh in today and was down another 1.6 lbs for a total loss of 28.4 lbs since mid-January.

What I'm reading

I had an email from Jackie who reads my blog and commented that she missed my posts on the books I'm reading. I haven't posted about my reading material in a while but haven't slowed down. The last 3 books I've read are:




DIGGING TO AMERICA by Anne Tyler
I enjoyed this novel written about 2 families who adopted foreign babies.











DARK TORT by Diane Mott Davidson
The latest in a series of mystery's featuring a crime solving chef. I always enjoy these books by Davidson.










VANISHING ACTS by Jodi Picoult
Very good also - about relationships within a family and between the main character and two friends from childhood.

Graduation Day

Adam graduated yesterday. It feels good to have both boys out of school and working.

Today we all go to Virginia to visit my family and for Becky (Chris' fiance) to meet them before the wedding in October.

This is a big year for us - a graduation, a wedding, and a major move. Somewhere I have to find more time for quilting.

Super Simple Strips

I love seeing different versions of a particular quilt pattern. I was reading Vicky's blog and saw she had posted her version of this quilt and decided I'd post mine too. This quilt was given to my sister-in-law last year.

Bits and pieces

Chris and Becky were visiting this weekend and we met her Mom and sister for the first time. We went to a tasting at the wedding facility on Saturday and the wedding plans are moving along.

Chris and Becky took me to lunch for my birthday on Friday and then Keith took us all to dinner.

Keith found out on last week that his company is closing their offices here in Marietta and moving them to Minneapolis - will we move with them? Keith hasn't decided yet but will make a decision soon.

I have gotten some quilting squeezed in between other things going on. I loaded and quilted the small braid quilt which is now waiting for binding and then loaded the 2nd braid quilt and have the quilting started.

Adam graduates next week

Adam had not intended to attend the graduation breakfast and ceremonies for his culinary program but changed his mind at the last minute. This morning we attended the breakfast and next week we'll attend the graduation ceremony.

Another NON quilt related post

Another weekend passed without any quilting but I am going to load one of my UFO's on the longarm before heading out for a hike.

We had a long weekend up at Big Canoe with friends visiting from Florida. Chris also showed up for a couple days which was nice! I got to see both him and Adam in the same week.

Saturday we went for a boat ride on the lake and then on Sunday showed our friends a couple waterfalls in the area. Chesty normally HATES water but he bravely crossed this stream at one of the waterfalls to come to me.

Canoeing

Adam (my youngest son) came to visit for a couple days so we headed for the mountains. This afternoon we went canoeing and had a great time. Keith gets home from California late this afternoon so we have dinner plans overlooking the lake for this evening.

I took my small camera with us and as you can see from the 2nd picture, the one of me, the camera went bad after about a 1/3 of the pictures. I'm so upset because I had some really great pictures. The camera is about 2 years old but probably more expensive to fix than to replace. I guess I'll have to see.

I hate to send this one back

I'm finished quilting Mom's 4 Patch and I wish I didn't have to send this one back to her.

Laurie Ann commented on my color coordination and I can't take too much credit for this one. It's kind of a convoluted story but in a nutshell - Mom had bought a bundle of fabric at Tiny Stitches when she was visiting me, made a quilt top and sent it to me to quilt last year. The woman helping me care for my father-in-law fell in love with that quilt and Mom let me keep the quilt and give it to Emmorgean to thank her for her help in caring for my father-in-law.

So what does that have to do with this quilt? Well, I gave her these fabrics to replace the ones she'd used in the top she gave me. Most of them came in a fat quarter bundle - again bought at Tiny Stitches and I bought the border to coordinate at the same time.

Norma asked how I planned on quilting it - well, the fabrics are pretty busy so I did what I usually do on scrap quilts - I used a pantograph. This one is called Frisky Feathers by Lorien Quilting.

Mom's 4-patch finally loaded

The practice muslin from my bee meeting is finally off the machine. Saturday I did spend some more time practicing some freehand designs and then removed the muslin.

The plan was to load and start Mom's 4 patch top on Sunday after Keith left for California but I was in a lazy mood and decided to read instead.

Finally, this afternoon I loaded and started quilting Mom's top. I love this quilt. It's a larger scrappy version of a 4 patch quilt in the book 40 Fabulous Quick Cut Quilts. I have strips cut out in greens to make myself a king size version but haven't started piecing mine yet.

This is much better!

After the new carpet

Before the new carpet

Here's a picture I posted in January of the downstairs bedroom in the condo with the new quilts - although we replaced all the carpet in the condo - the improvement was most dramatic downstairs.

No quilting but I do have new carpet

We did get our carpet installed at the condo today which is good news but they took the molding off and there's about a half inch of unpainted wall in all the rooms I had carpeted. Next I'll have to find someone to paint and/or replace molding. Funny how one home improvement project leads to another.

Another day without quilting - by the time I get home Friday it will be two weeks without working on any of the quilts on my to do list. I still have the practice muslin loaded and want to play some more before taking it off and loading one of my Mom's quilts then I'll quilt a couple UFO tops.

*****
Thanks for all the nice comments and emails about Mother's Day. I'm glad both boys are living on their own but now I guess I'll have to get used to not always having them at home for special occasions. Kind of like my Mom had to do when I moved away from Virginia 16 years ago!

I miss my boys!

I'm kind of depressed - I miss my boys and won't see either of them tomorrow on Mother's Day. I am glad they are both living on their own but I miss seeing them.

Bee Meeting

I had my Bee meeting today at my house and everyone had a chance to try the longarm. I enjoyed showing how the machine works and demonstrating different quilting methods - pantographs, freehand quilting, and marking with stencils. It's been a while since I'd loaded any practice muslin so I had fun trying out some new quilting designs after everyone left.

I've been a member of a guild for several years but have started attending a bee meeting in the last 6 months. I'm really enjoying the smaller group.

We're back at Big Canoe for the weekend so these are my *after* pictures with the vinyl floors. Much better than the carpet.

This busy week is almost over

Finished
Mammogram done, bathroom floors installed, guild cut-in for Ronald McDonald quilts attended, helped a friend shop for fabric to make a quilt from blocks her grandmother made.

Still to go
Cleaning my sewing room and the downstairs in preparation for my Bee meeting tomorrow, grocery shopping, piece batting scraps and load practice muslin on the long arm for the Bee meeting, bake a coffee cake.

Bathroom floors finished

The floors are finished. The bathrooms definitely look better than with the carpet but I don't like the molding.

The baseboards in the upstairs bathrooms will need repainting anyway and the wall needs touching up downstairs so I'll hope the trim will look better once that's done. I really need to repaint all three bathrooms but its been a long time since I painted myself rather than having someone do it for me. Not sure I want the hassle of doing it myself.

Well the pictures wouldn't post and I left the disk up at Big Canoe so I'll have to add pictures to this post this weekend.