Round 3 - Quilt Along

Against my better judgement I have decided to jump in again and join round 3 of the Old Red Barn Co. quilt along. You can follow the progress of all the quilters on the flickr group at www.flickr.com/groups/oldredbarncoquiltalong2009 but the latest updates for the wonky blocks are being posted at http://www.quiltdad.com/ . I am using a Riley Blake fabric "Just Dreamy" and while I love the fabric once it's all sewn together it is much brighter than I had originally thought. Looks like a quilt I should make for a sick child to brighten their day. Any ideas or who might need a quilt to brighten up their lives at the moment? 

UT quilt in progress

Well I missed kickoff for the first game of the year but am still hoping to have this complete by the first "cold" weather kick off. Lucky for me we don't get cold weather in Austin any time soon. I am still playing around with the blocks and need a few more but overall not unhappy with it at this point.

We can almost see the finish line.....

If you have been following all the excitement on the "Iraqi Bundles of Love" website, facebook or twitter you know that we are getting very close to the finish line. The deadline for sending bundles is Tuesday, Sept 8th so if you haven't sent your bundle or still have more "fabric stash" in your closet you still have time to be a part of the fun. You can go to http://www.ibol.wordpress.com/ to follow along and see the lastest going on and how many bundles have arrived; you'll be amazed at how many bundles are there already!

Some other good news Mr. IBOL has proclaimed Sept. 6th as IBOL Sundae, so get yourself a nice bowl of ice cream with plenty of toppings, post a picture for history and enjoy with no guilt, you've earned it.

So go now and rummage through that closet, or spend some money to buy some new and help the America economy and build yourself a "bundle of love" and you'll feel the warmth all the way from Iraq to your heart.The women of Iraq are going to feel the love of the American quilters, sewers, knitters, crafters very shortly :)

Sometimes I wonder what will happen to all

my unfinished projects when I die. Whenever I go to antique stores and see all the lonely unfinished quilts and projects I feel the need to save them all. I found this quilt awhile back and the yellow sashing was in very poor condition, holes and rust spots etc. so I took it apart and added new sashing and now I'm trying to figure out how to quilt it. It will go much faster if I stipple it but since it's old I feel like I should take the time and hand quilt it. Why I feel the need to save other peoples unfinished projects when I have a closet of my own is beyond me.

Getting ready for some cool weather....

I can't hardly believe after 67 days of 100+ degree days it is 2:00 in the afternoon and only 87 degrees, woo hoo I think fall is just around the corner. So... I decided to pull out my rag rug I cut out last year and start sewing it together. It is about 95 % flannel. Here's the first run at laying it out to see how the colors work.

Where does all the time go....

Can it really almost be Labor Day? I've spent the last few days watching the memorial and funeral of Teddy Kennedy and was moved by his dedication to his family, so many things about him we never really saw or heard bout since everything always seemed to be about his political career. I knew of all the hardships and bad days but had never realized the love story he was living the last years of his life. We will truly miss him. I have recently been involved with a group spontaneously put together by the husband of an online quilter, Kristen LaFlamme. Art LaFlamme is in Iraq and leaving very soon and has summoned the online quilters to help put together boxes of fabric to be handed out to the women of Iraq before he leaves on Sept. 7th. Take a minute to stop by his site and check out the story and send a bundle of your own. He also have a "secret" group called "Old Mother Hubbard" to help put others things together for a another needy group but have about a month for this project. The project is operating under the name of Iraqi Bundles of Love at http://www.ibol.wordpress.com/ . Robin of http://www.simplyrobin.blogspot.com/ put out a seperate challenge when Ted Kennedy died for us to mail a seperate package and send in purple as an honor all he's ever done for these in need.
This is all such a wonderful experience and I thank them all for putting this together and allowing me to be a small part of it all.

Though my blogging has not been very successful I have actually been quilting and stitching and getting things done one day at a time.I have been very busy working on projects and trying to keep up with all the BOM's I've signed up for and try to still find time to quilt. This is my Chubby Chicks project I worked on early in the year but haven't had time to quilt yet working with orange.
In keeping with the orange theme I just recently started working on an improvisational quilt using some "Texas" orange. I was inspired to start this after seeing Stephanie's anniversary quilt in progress. You can see her progress at http://www.stephpea.typepad.com/. Eventually all my blocks will get squared up with white borders and I'm not sure yet if I'm happy with all the blocks yet. The longhorn is only paper for the moment but will eventually be appliqued on the orange square. I am also still mulling around having a gray border and would somehow like to have a large longhorn on the back. The blocks will be 12.5 " squares so I'll probably end up with 20 squares when it's all said and done and obviously won't make kickoff but it will probably be an early Christmas present so he can enjoy it during football season.

I am planning to start a new quilt-along with John from http://www.quiltdad.blogpost.com/ which will be wonky log cabins and I think I will do these in fall colors and since it all starts on Sept. 1st I really need to make a decision on this pretty quickly.

The last quilt along I did was hosted by Dana at http://www.oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/ and I did this one in reds and turquiose and once it was done it just said "summer" to me so I sent it to A&;G for them to use as a beach/water park quilt. I added the little bow to help keep it neatly tucked inside the backseat.

I ended using the leftover blocks on the back and then made them a label using a photo I had taken of them a year or so ago at Longwood Gardens in PA.

Christmas mini houses quilt

Now that Christmas is over I can upload this photo of a coffee table sized quilt I made for my sister. I fell in love with this concept by Jacquie at www.tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com . I made one for my sister and another for a good friend and they both loved them. Thank you Jacquie for your great ideas and inspiration! These will definately be on my gift list for next year and I am planning to further personalize them. I added a jewelry store on my sisters, a quilt store on my friends and both had cat houses since they both love cats.

Christmas Treats....

We had all vowed to spend less this year and use our many talents and make more homemade gifts. I just had to share all the many wonderful goodies I received yesterday and will have to fight off eating them all at once. My sister Cindy and her husband Theo made me some lovely handmade and decorated Apease cookies and some granola. My son Aaron and his girlfriend Greta, made me some wonderful cut out cookies from an old family recipe and I even got my name on a snowman. They also were so sweet to send me some holiday coffee and stuffed peppers from Philadelphia, which they know I love. My good friend Carol made me some cranberry bread and my Aunt Jean sent me some lovely hand towels from one of her holiday trips to Vermont.


All these lovely items make me feel so loved and the comfort of home baked goodies can’t be matched.

Giving back....

I have always known what a wonderful job I have, what a wonderful life I have and the love of friends and family around me; unfortunately not everyone has this life.


Our office adopted a family for Christmas instead of exchanging gifts this year , so today a couple of us went to deliver the gifts. The single mother was out of work and lives with her mother and 2 kids. They were so happy to show us their tree and we placed all the gifts underneath and it was such a wonderful experience. Our economy sucks right now and anything we can do to help each other means so much. I get caught up in this "Christmas" season of buying and wrapping gifts and I love the holiday but it's the giving from our hearts that God expects and enriches all our lives with.

This Christmas will mean so much more to me after having met such a gracious family in need this year.

May you all have the opportunity to give to someone in need.

Merry Christmas,

As 2008 comes to a close

Well it's getting pretty close to the end of the year and I've been thinking about my resolutions for the new year. In the past I always say I'm going to lose weight and spend less but this year I'd like to simply make the commitment to live a more simplistic life. I began 2008 much the same as other years but sometime around the middle of the year I found the etsy website and was taken aback by all the wonderful "handmade" crafters and starting buying things for the holidays. By late in the summer I had the bug again to sew but since I had given my sewing machine away about 10 years ago I knew that would have to be step one. I researched for weeks and finally ended up with a Janome 4900 (that I love by the way). One thing led to another and I found a quilting blog http://www.crazymomquilts.com/ and the hook was set. I have been pretty much just watching from the behind the scenes, building some fabric stash again, took a basic machine peicing class and decided to make a quilt for my son and future daughter in law. The quilt is now made and safely in a box under their tree in Philadelphia just waiting for Christmas morning. I can only hope and pray that they love it and since they know how much fall means to me it will always be a reminder in years to come even after I'm gone. So now all I have to do is organize, get ready for the holidays and begin my list of How to live Simple in 2009!

In the beginning...

I have finally decided after all this time watching from the sidelines to start my own blog! Since I don't know how it works it may take me some time to catch on but in the meantime step 1 is complete!