Rachel's Day

Rachel had quite the day. She had a piano recital at 3:30, then a violin recital at 7:00. Above is a pic of her piano teacher (in the white skirt) and all her teacher's students. This was the most fun recital ever. It was just so enjoyable. All the pieces were well selected and executed. Every student did such a good job. I was sorry when it was over.

Rachel is in the front row in the plaid skirt. She won the award for obtaining the most points in the point system her teacher had for practice times, extra work, pieces learned, etc. I am so happy for her. She will be attending a live symphony orchestra performance with her teacher soon as a reward.

~Joan

Baby Quilt Half Pieced

Here is the layout of the batik baby blocks. They don't seem to have as much red as they did when I was at the fabric store!! But once I get the outer border on, it will look better...I hope.



Here I have about half sewn together. I usually have much smaller units. There is not much size lost after the units are sewn together on this one, so it will be fairly large (for a baby quilt). The top left corner is sewn together and the bottom right is not. Not much difference in size, is there?

The unsewn pieces on the right have little papers with the row numbers. I love setting quilt blocks on point, but it does make sewing the rows together a little more complicated. Having the rows numbered help me keep things in order.

I am taking a break from working on this...not feeling 100% today.

~Joan

Baby Quilt Progress

Here is what I meant in the last post by double sewing the diagonal seams. When the block units are sewn, usually one would cut 1/4" away from the seam and throw away the extra (yikes!). I simply sew another seam before cutting so that I have an extra (very small) half square triangle set. I am trimming them down to 1-3/4" square after ironing, and they will make some very cute little pinwheels. I think I'm going to make a third baby quilt from all the pinwheels. No sense throwing them away, right?

I use my presser foot as a guide, sewing a scant amount away from the left edge of the foot. No, this is not the standard 1/4" seam allowance, but it is sufficient.
Here I am showing the measurement of the seam before cutting. You can see that ideally it would be 1/2", yielding a 1/4" seam on both sides. This slightly smaller measurement has never been a problem in the past. I just might get one of these out of all my small meant-to-be-discards.

Here is my small pile of double sewn units ready to be cut and ironed.

Last, but not least, is the progress on this top so far. My children were doing part of their yearly achievement tests this morning, so I sewed while they were racking their brains for the correct answers. I know they are going to do just swimmingly like every other year!

You can see the red setting triangles in the picture here. They bring out the red in the fabrics. There are ten different batik fabrics in the blocks. This is about half of the quilt. The outer border will be PURPLE!!

~Joan

Beautiful Batiks

I have had one more quilter ask me to trade a set of 25 blocks for my spool quilt. We both sewed them yesterday, and in about two weeks, we will get to see each other's work. My new b-friend lives in New Zealand. So eager to see Leeanne's work!! Her blog is "quilt me kiwi".

In the meantime, I have been wanting to sew a small quilt with batik fabrics for some time. I was curious how they would sew up. I wanted a variety for a baby quilt and found a jelly roll on eBay for a very low price. Yesterday I went to Mary Jo's and got the background fabric (which is a light tan batik...hardly stands out from my design wall fabric). The setting triangles are going to be a mostly-solid-looking red batik. The little pinwheel in the bottom right corner is made from double sewing the diagonal seam when putting the units together. I think I'll incorporate those into the back of the quilt. Aren't they cute? The little pinwheel measures 3" square. The two-piece units from the larger pattern (called "Kitchen Sink") measure 4-1/2 " square.

Now I'm sending this pic to my friend to see if she's up for this type of fabric or if she wants something more traditional. I make all my friends I Spy quilts when they have babies, but she got one two years ago. Time for something new.

~Joan

Sew Many Things To Do

I have had questions about the blocks on my spool quilt that seem to disappear. They both happen to be pink. Here is the first one. There is very little contrast between the spool and the background. I think it adds a little more charm to the quilt.

Here is the second one. Again--a very low contrast of fabrics.

And, sew far, so good. I have turned the corner and am just adding length now. When I snapped the pic, the top two corners fell back (no assistants today). That is the top "square" edge of the quilt. I know how many more blocks I have, just need to figure out how many more I need. Who ever said math was not useful on a daily basis? Not a home schooling mom, that's for sure.

Do you see my two pink disappearing blocks in the body of the quilt?

Last, but not least, is the Texas Braid row I added to while putting the spool quilt blocks together. One more spool, one more braid strip, one more spool, etc. Makes both projects go faster than clipping the threads after every new spool block was added to the row. The braid is about 88" long. Needs a few more strips to be complete.

Tomorrow AM is our adult Sunday school snack Sunday. I am making two pans of home made cinnamon rolls and a mini chocolate chip cake to take. I need to run Luke to work, then home to bake, exercise, and shower. That should make the day complete, I think.

Have a good evening.

~Joan

G. I. Joe

Here is our friend Josiah's platoon in formation on the parade deck. There were about 300 graduates. They started with over 400. The large group was divided into 6 platoons. This was the first time we saw him in over 3 months.


Here is Joe's group marching past the bleachers. Notice that except for the flag bearers, they are in order by height, front to back.

The climax of the AM was when the drill instructors yelled, "Diiiiiiiis-missed!" and all the grads could relax for the first time in months, literally. Joe bolted for the bleachers and was the first one to reach his fans! We counted 42 family and friends that made the journey to congratulate him.

Here is my family with the happy grad. Joe's dad is on the far left with the sunglasses on. Our neighbor, and Joe's friend, Luke, is by Joe's left shoulder. The rest is my family (two of my children were unable to attend). Joe's battalion color was BLUE, so we all dressed accordingly. Left to right are Rachel (12), Emily (18), Susanna (15), Josiah. Next row Isaac (10), me, Wes, Benjamin (13). Front: Luke (17). It was sunny!

Here he is smiling (for the first time in 3 months, he commented) and chatting with all his well-wishers. He had the highest combined physical fitness and combat fitness score for his platoon. Way to to, Joe!!

Welcome home, Josiah!!

~Joan

Parris Island--Here We Come

Thursday after lunch our family loaded up in the big white van and took off for Parris Island, SC. A friend of our family was graduating from Marine boot camp the next day at 9 AM.

We stayed in nearby Beaufort, SC. After we arrived and settled in at the hotel, we drove to Port Royal Sound. These land lubbers rarely get a chance to see the ocean. While this was not the ocean in all its wave-crashing glory, this was the best we could do with our time constraints. It is a testament of God's beauty in creation.

The top picture is my husband and youngest son. The second is a picture I snapped right after we arrived. It was nearly sundown, and the clouds and sun made a lovely view. This is the way I mentally picture the sky moments before Christ returns for His saints. The sun's rays shining to the left in the pic are the perfect place for His appearance, don't you think?

~Joan