Other Things

I confess that from time to time I do other things besides quilting. Recently, I took another "glass" class. Here are some of the results. I made these three necklaces and tomorrow I'll go pick up the other pieces I made last week. The piece below will be a night light when I attach the light to the back.

I forgot to post these beautiful flowers that I got for no reason at all (unless he was trying to cover something up! haha) I got them a week and a half ago and they're still pretty.

More Quilts

Calista has the quilting bug! I helped her a little bit with this one but she mostly did it by herself (including the quilting). She did some straight-line quilting and then I added free motion to the borders. She even sewed the binding down by herself.

Now here is the label from the quilt in my last post:

And here it is with the binding on it.

My latest big project

I finished this quilt for my brother and sister-in-law about a week ago. Here it is still on the machine before it was finished up (by Kat LeFevre--thanks Kat!) Kat took these pictures while it was at her house, so it doesn't have the binding on it yet but anyway you can see how it turned out. I am SOOOO pleased with it. These are not normally my colors but my sister-in-law wanted a purple and blue quilt so this is what I came up with.

Tim likes it so much I think he'd like me to keep it (and he doesn't normally make a big deal out of the quilts, even though he's one of my biggest fans! haha) But alas, I already sent a picture to my sister in law and she loves it as much as Tim does. So it will go away soon.

In the meantime, I will look at it and marvel at the beautiful quilting that Kat did. And think about making another one similar to it for Tim.

giveaway

Check out this fabulous giveaway.
http://abbeylanequilts.blogspot.com/2010/03/give-aways-to-celebrate-national-quilt.html

More of Spring Break

Last week we had planned to take a trip to Missouri while my daughter's kids were off school. Circumstances changed for everyone and we ended up not making the trip. So.....(or should I say SEW...) we decided to work on some projects. Calista (oldest daughter--the pregnant one) is getting so good at making these bags that she doesn't even have to read the pattern. In fact, the pattern is loaned out so we couldn't look at the pattern. Aren't these just so cute? She made these three as a set for one lucky friend.

The grandboys kept themselves occupied (well, mostly) while we sewed. I still have all my son's legos so they built things...

mostly ships...

and boats....

and did "arts and crafts" as Timothy calls it. He loves paper (not colored paper, only blonde!--which means white-- with nothing written on it. In other words, don't give him any scrap paper!)

See how happy art supplies make him?!

Spring "Break"?

Friday the temperature was in the 70's. It was a beautiful day.
Saturday and today have been a different kind of beautiful. I think we got at least 6 inches of snow yesterday. Then a lot of it melted off. Yesterday afternoon the streets were clear.

Then sometime in the night it started again. I woke up to sleet beating against our bedroom windows. Our church services had been cancelled last night so I just ignored the sleet and went back to sleep. This morning I measured almost a foot of snow on my front porch. Here you see 8 inches in the flowerpot. Most of yesterday's had melted off that pot by last night.

Here is the bench on my front porch with 11 inches.

So....what next? I won't complain because it is so beautiful and I enjoy being inside watching it. But I will go ahead and pretend that we're really close to spring and Easter by hanging a spring quilt and displaying my Easter eggs.

Some of the eggs on the tree are hand painted from Slovakia. The brighter ones were decoupaged by my daughter Calista. I made the quilt last fall and Loretta Rogers quilted it.

Company

Last week we were blessed to have our friends the Abrmans here for a few days from Slovakia and my neice here from Missouri.

Anna Abrman loves to do many kinds of crafts and is anxious to learn more about quilting. She had never worked with fusible products before so I taught her how to use "Heat n Bond". I took her to my stitch group on Thursday. She enjoyed it so much. She has managed to find a couple of quilt shops in her country but they are nothing like we have here. I took her to the Cotton Patch where she was amazed. She has trouble finding brown fabric over there so she did make a couple of little purchases to take back with her (even though she is VERY limited on the amount she can stuff in a suitcase)

In the meantime, I taught Brittany how to do English Paper Piecing with hexagons. Before she went home on Sunday she had made at least 12 flowers and had appliqued one onto a background. She was a quick learner.

Here are some of her flowers.

In the middle of all the company, I managed to teach an English Paper Piecing class at the Cotton Patch and throw a pot luck dinner party at my house as a reception for the Abrmans with 26 in attendance. We took Brittany back to MO on Sunday to meet up with her parents and I crashed on Monday.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I thought maybe I could get my cat Skippy to participate in a little St. Patrick's Day greeting... She has the green eyes and I prepared a green bow for her hair...

Doens't she look festive?

So Happy St. Patty's Day....I HAVE to say that! I have a son-in-law named Patrick Michael Murphy. It's my duty to celebrate.

More later...I was so busy with company last week that I didn't have time to blog so I'll try to start catching up soon.

Another oldie

This is another old quilt. I made this one for my Mom several years back. It's the first quilt I ever made for her. My neice Brittany owns it now and brought it with her on her visit with us. Yesterday was Mom's birthday so I thought posting this picture would be a good tribute to her. I miss her so much.

Making a trade

Today we drove to Springfield, Missouri to pick up my neice so she could spend her spring break with us. I can't imagine that Tulsa would be more exciting than her little town of Caledonia, MO but maybe it is. Or maybe it's just that Tim and I are exciting to be around! haha Here is Brittany.

Here are her mom and dad--my sister Greta and her husband Joe. We traded a quilt for Brittany. Eleven years ago I made this quilt for my daughter. She loved the quilt but it brought back memories of a spoiled marriage that she didn't want to think about so we decided it should be given away. I had intended to donate it somewhere, but when I looked at it after having not seen it in many years, I remembered that the baskets were hand appliqued by my mom. She passed away Aug. 1 and I just couldn't bear to send it away. Then I thought of my sister and I just knew she would like to have it. I was right. We made the trade off today. The quilt is a little worn and faded but I'm sure it will be loved nonetheless.

Timothy

A face only a mother could love... ...well, maybe a grandmother, too.

I seem to recall his own mother with chocolate pudding all over her face back some years ago. I won't say how many, because she claims to be only 29. ; )

Grandboy quilts

It's happened! I've influenced my oldest child and made a quilter of her! And she likes it! I helped some but Calista mostly made these quilts by herself. Here's Timothy with his. From the look on his face, I'd say he's pleased. We made them long and narrow because soon the boys will have to share a room (Booo!) but on the bright side, they get bunkbeds (Yea!) So we made the quilts so they wouldn't hang over the sides too much therefore making it easier for them to make their beds (Yeah, right!) The quilts are not quite as long and narrow as they appear in the pictures (it must be the perspective)

This one is Gabe's with an outer space theme. I made the block near the top in the middle. The quilter (Kat LeFevre) quilted his name on it: SS Gabe

Here is Gabe under his new quilt with the back facing up.

The all-important labels.

Who knows? Maybe someday my younger daughter will quilt too! (In defense of both of these wonderful girls, they made quilts when they were young kids.)