Sewing with Susanna Again--Lucky Me!

The above pictures were taken last night at Ann's Cozy Quilts. Susanna and I went to their all-night sew again, for the second and last time. That was the last one they had scheduled. We both hand sewed the whole time (about four hours). Above you can see her using her hand-made template to line up the quilting lines, then in the second picture marking them with a Hera marker (my favorite marking tool for straight lines), then holding up her Not All Thimbleberries, Not Even Charming quilt. The white squares are 3-D, not sewn down. She did such. a. good. job. The reason for the name is because she did not realize one Moda square had slipped in there and that there was a duplicate Thimbleberries fabric!!

I purchased the cutest fabrics for an I Spy for a friend expecting in January. She reads my blog, so the fabrics will have to stay top secret until she sees the finished product. Let me just throw a teaser out there and say that it includes bears and lime green.

I finished all the hand quilting on my Autumn Splendor quilt and got one side of the binding sewn down by hand last night. I truly hope to finish that this weekend. I will put it on our kitchen wall as soon as it's washed and dried. Not too early for pumpkins and other fall decorations. Here it is before I left for the shop. I had to quilt one star, a tiny bit of the checkerboard, and all eight leaves.

~Joan

Quilt Show Pic #9

Black and white are perfect for this optical illusion quilt...I nearly got seasick gazing at it at the show.



Susanna and I are off at 5:30 to sew, sew, sew!! I can barely wait. I have high hopes of completing my Autumn Splendor. I made and sewed on the binding by machine last night (the hanging sleeve, too), so all is left is hand quilting the leaves and sewing the hanging sleeve and binding down. Here's hoping!


One of my challenges (and they are legion) is to stay on top of all my responsibilities. When I get a handle on laundry, meals to go pot. When school is going swimmingly, the house is a disaster zone. You get the picture. I often dream of the free time I would have if we never had to ingest food. No planning, shopping, storing, preparing, serving, eating, cleaning, etc. I did make an inventory sheet of our big freezer this AM, so that is a little step in the right direction.


Count your blessings,

~Joan

Nine Patches and Flood Waters

Here are a couple pictures from a week ago when our basement was nearly flooded. It's hard to get the scale in a picture. We have a ranch with a finished basement. From the front of our house, it's hard to tell we even have a basement. These pictures were taken in the dark (6 AM) from the deck off the main floor of the house. The water was sooooo close to going into our basement. You can see the wood of the deck in the front of the pictures. The noise from the creek turned river was incredibly loud.

I also sewed a few more nine-patches this afternoon. It was my, "Yay--another school day finished" treat to myself.

Susanna and I are going to an all-night sew tomorrow night from 6 PM till midnight. Fun on the horizon.

~Joan

Happy Birthday To Me

Today was my birthday. It has been an unusual day in several ways. My husband told me last night that I should take the day off and do whatever I wanted. I took the opportunity to go to water aerobics, which I have not done in weeks. Rachel went with me, so the two of us went out for breakfast afterwards.

Many times today I reflected on how blessed I am because of my husband and children. My sweet husband thinks of others so often. He works diligently and efficiently to provide the many earthly things we enjoy. I am reminded of his hard work every time I use our appliances, drive in our Pilot, put on clothing he has worked to provide... He. is. amazing.

Each of my children wrote me a note, and several gave me gifts. I enjoyed each and every one.

I have to brag on a few things my kids have done recently. One of my daughters has moved in with a family temporarily to help the mother. The mom had a baby about four weeks ago and has had an unexplainable incapacitating headache ever since. Doctors have ruled out several things, but there is still no answer, and the headache is still there. My daughter is cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, home schooling two of their boys while she still attends college herself, and works at a local restaurant. I am so proud of her sacrifical spirit for her friend.

Another daughter cooked me an amazing birthday lunch and made my favorite cake. She is always giving rides to others and being generally useful to our family and others.

One of my sons frequently (and today!) meets financial needs of others by buying them a meal or providing a small gift that really boosts their spirits. He is so generous.

Another daughter goes to a nursing home every Monday. There is not much in it for her, but she goes to be a blessing and an encouragement...and she IS!!

That is just a smackerel of things for which I am grateful.

~Joan, thankful for another year :)

...and The Rain, Rain, Rain, Came Down, Down, Down

We had torrential rain storms all night with a lightning show like I've never seen. I went out back at 6 AM to see what was causing a loud noise. The creek at the back of our property had overflowed its banks and was about ten feet from our basement wall. Our upstream neighbor's shed had floated off its foundation and was now in our backyard. Three of the fence sections between our houses were broken off and on the far edge of our yard now. We also have most of the yard debris from the upstream neighbors' yards collected against our fence.

I was praying hard for the rain to stop and the waters to recede. Thank God they did. God's power is awesome. We had a little damage to the house because of a leak in the roof of our back porch, but the worse of it is the yard mess. Thank God for protecting us. I tried to get pictures, but it was so dark that they did not turn out.

Who is This Man?

It's a bird...it's a plane...it's...my daughter's boyfriend!! A couple of you have asked for a picture of our reason for the Florida trip, my daughter's reason for the same trip a couple days later, and the man who flew up to visit with us this past week. Yes--he was also the reason I got up at 3 AM on Monday. But...he's worth it.

~Joan

Making a Hand Quilting Stencil

I was doing some more hand quilting on this little runner and realized it would be neat to use the shape of the six-pointed star in the center of the "rings" and in the edges. It was easy to make a stencil template to trace around. I got a plastic file folder and set it on the block, then traced with a Sharpie marker. I put it where I wanted on the quilt to see how it would fit. I cut it out with scissors inside the marker lines. Perfect! and FREE!! The perfect price.

I just realized that on the next picture, I would need to rotate the shape a little to get it to form the diamond where the pieced star falls.

~Joan