Happy Birthday to my youngest son!
Today he is 15!

and a blessing to have around.
We are having family over this evening for hamburgers and cake then tomorrow night we will go bowling with some of the family. He loves bowling. We don't get to do it as often as he would like but every now and then we go. Bowling has gotten so expensive to do regularly. I remember when it was cheap!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to Anthony,
Happy Birthday to you,
And many more....

Love you, Mom

My tulips are starting to bloom! Yeah! I think they are lovely. I can't wait until they are all in bloom. I have never grown tulips before but always admired them. Just thought I would share.
Guild day today. A morning meeting and a night meeting. A long day.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

The is the housewarming quilt after it is quilted. My friend quilted it on my frame in an all over large meander. It looks great.

Here is some pictures of her quilting it on the frame.

I don't know why but a quilt always looks good to me when it is on the quilting frame. It may have something to do with seeing a quilt loaded in an old time quilt frame and being quilted by hand from pictures long ago.

She is trying hard to concentrate when starting out at the beginning of a row. It doesn't take very long to get to the end of the row because the sewing machine is a Juki a 9 inch bed. I only have about 6 inches of sewing space to work with at the beginning and depending on how big the quilt is I may only have 4 inches at the end of the quilt. It's frustrating but I can't afford a larger system right now. I'm saving up. It is teaching me patience. HA!

Today I'm quilting one of the Home of the Brave quilts that the mini group made. I have two of them to finish. My friend is quilting one on her regular machine. All together we will have four of them finished soon. Feels good to get projects done.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Thought I would show you what I was up to yesterday. This is my friend sewing the border strips together for a quilt she is making for a housewarming gift. She started it on Monday and needs it finished for Sunday. The blocks were all done when I went to help her yesterday. We laid it out on her design board and decided on a setting. Started sewing the rows together. It went so fast with two people working together.

This is the finished top. (Sorry for the blurriness) It came out so good. I love the setting we chose. It measures 57 x 81 inches. A good lap size. If you click on the picture you can see the border better. We sewed the two border strips together first then sewed them on as one border. I love the way it adds a design element in the corners of the quilt.

This is a close up of the blocks. It is a Jacob's Ladder block. A lot of pieces. I don't know how she got those blocks together so fast. She said she did sleep!

I had a request for a picture of the machine my husband used to make the table leg. Here it is. The lathe was given to my husband by his Dad. He could not use it anymore so he passed it on. My husband loves woodworking and the lathe is a new toy. I think he will enjoy using it.

Thought I would show you what it started out looking like. This is how it was cut from the tree. My husband had to shave off quite a bit before he could put it on the lathe.

This is the boards he glued together to make the top. It will measure 18 x 20 inches. A little bit oval shape. This is all the wood he has and is having to make do. I'll show more pics when it is further along.

Today my friend is coming over with the housewarming quilt to quilt it on my frame. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pics when it is finished to show you.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

My husband was given a lathe by his Dad. He is trying to learn how to use it. This is what he did this weekend and last night. The wood is from a cottonwood tree that I grew up playing under. My Dad had it cut down several years ago because it was becoming dangerous to his house (we do live in Hurricane country!) My husband took some of the bigger cuts and has been letting them dry out. This will be a side table in my living room next to one of my chairs. I love the way it looks. I love that it is made by my husband and that the wood has some sentimental value as well. It will be a special piece of furniture for me for sure! It measures about 5 inches in diameter and stands about 2-1/2 feet tall. It will have feet on it also. I can't wait for it to be finished but it is fun watching the process too.

My daughter's duck. She had two of them at one time. Her husband had bought them for her for Easter a while back. The female died last year and her companion (this male duck) was a little worst for wear for a little while but he bounced back and is doing well. They brought him over this weekend for my niece to see. When they put him down he went straight back home and to his pen. (They live right next door to us) We found this funny that he would know his way back home and right to his home instead of wandering around in the yard. He is a beautiful duck. I love the color of his beak and his feathers are a lovely white. His name is Deuce. The female's name was Daisy. My daughter is allergic to cats and dogs and most other animal dander so she has really enjoyed being able to take care of the ducks. The female even laid eggs and they would enjoy them for breakfast (well my daughter would, my SIL didn't want to eat them).

Today I'm making binding for a Home of the Brave quilt I finished quilting this weekend and I'm also making the binding for the other three that my mini group just finished putting together. I'll try to get pictures of them tomorrow. I'm also going to work on my UFO BOM's for February. I did one of them week before last it is a Thimbleberry BOM from 2005. I have three other BOM UFO's. Two of them have two blocks for each month. It is alot of work. But this method of doing only one month at a time like they were intended to be done works and takes some of the pressure off.

That's all for today.
Quilt til your arm falls off...

Here is a raised flowerbed my husband built me. I could not bend over to tend to it so he made it raised. This is the rosemary that I have on one end. I would love to have more herbs in it. Maybe later on. It is full of purple and yellow tulips.

Here on this end I have parley.

Here is the whole thing. It is very lovely with the look of the wood. I can't wait until the tulips are all in bloom. I will take pictures again when that happens.

Here is the Heart and Friendship quilt finished top. I just sewed the borders on and I'm happy to say it is ready for quilting (just as soon as I find a backing for it. I'm real happy with how it turned out and I didn't have to buy any fabric for it. It is all from my stash. Boy does that feel good.
The hearts have been in my stash since 2001. I ordered them from Keepsake Quilting. I didn't know what I would do with them except that I knew my daughter loved bright jewel tone colors but never got around to using them. I have the hearts in 1930's fabric also and that quilt will be finished next. That quilt has nine-patches instead of friendship stars but is put together the same way.
Because I used my stash and I wanted to use the turquoise fabric for sashing and I only had 1-1/2 yards I had to make my sashing 1 inch instead of the 2 inches I intended to use but it all worked out because I love the way it looks. The 2 inch might have made it look chunky and I like the way the blocks are the focus. What do you think?
I also have 5 more 4-patch blocks that I was going to add to the bottom row but it would have made it out of proportion, long and skinny, so I chose to not put them on. Now I have 5 orphan blocks. I'm not sure what I will do with them but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Well it's time for me to go. Hope a great day everyone!

Quilt til your arm falls off...

This is a picture of the blocks I have been working on since before Christmas. There are 70 friendship stars and 70 appliqued hearts. There will be sashing in between the four-patched hearts and stars. I'm looking for just the right batik to go with these brights and jewel tone colors. Maybe it will be too busy with a batik. Maybe I should go with a solid. What do you think? Any suggestions? It is a very busy quilt. I have another one I am working on that is exactly the same except it is in 1930's fabrics and the friendship stars are nine-patches. I am looking for a fabric for the sashing on that one too. I will try to get a picture of that one on another day. I love all of the colors in this. The quilts are for two friends of mine that are stepdaughter and stepmom to each other. They are wonderful people. Always friendly and uplifting. Good friends. That's all right now. Have a blessed day.

I know I haven't posted in a while. I have been a little under the weather. I have a case of bronchitis. I am beginning to feel better but the coughing fits still happen sometimes. The nights are the worst. I will begin teaching my beginner quilt class on the 15th of this month and I have been busy getting ready for that also. I have not taken any pics of my workshop and hope to get that done so I can post them soon. I have also worked on some older BOM's that were in my UFO pile and it sure feels good to be getting them done. Well hopefully I will start to post more in the future. That's all for now.

Quilt til your arm falls off...