Show us the QUILTS!!

Ask, and ye shall receive. Seems I've heard that somewhere before??

This is the quilt that I made for my sister's 60th birthday.  She doesn't turn 60 until September, but the plan was to go to Phoenix on July 29 for her party. The party happened, but because of dealing with family issues (mother-in-law), I just didn't feel good about leaving.  As it was, I think Dennis and I put over a 1,000 miles on the car searching for the perfect placement for her.  We finally found it.  She's at Eagle Lake Village in Susanville. If you've never seen an assisted living facility, let me tell you, they are not what you'd expect.  They are like having a room at the Ritz!  Its amazing!!

But, back to the quilt.  I made this one in a hurry (I think its called a split nine-patch?) with some charm squares I'd purchased to match the colors of my sister's house.  Unfortunately, I hadn't thought to purchase sashing at the same time.  That meant a trip to our local hardware store (yes, I said "hardware store") to look for some.  Dennis picked this out from their limited supply...what do you think?

I used Kristina's Quiltazoid (mine is on its way) to quilt the blocks and then just did feathers and some weird loopy thing in the sashing (good thing my sis isn't a quilter *chuckle*).  Lesson learned: When using the QZ, fill in some of the empty places to balance quilt density.  Unfortunately, since I was on the clock, trying to get this done before I flew out, I didn't go back and do that.




A couple pictures of the back.  I love it when the quilting shows! (okay, so you may have to click on the photo to make it larger so you can see it, but it does show...really!)

I think she'll be happy anyway.

Oh, and here's a little test for any of you that are puzzle solvers:  There's something wrong with a photo in this post--can you see it??

Birthdays Year 'round

I picked up the mail the other day and had a squishy package.  Funny thing was, I hadn't ordered anything and I'm not the one collecting the blocks for our exchange; so what was it?? It was a package from my friend Kristina in Ely!!  Its a birthday present!!  Yippee...I love presents!!!  Who cares if my birthday was in January?? I certain don't.  I'd be happy if people remembered my birthday on a monthly basis, everyone on a different month and then I could get a presents year 'round!! That would be most excellent!!

Inside the package were these wonderful things:

 

"Less Stress Feathers" is by Jodi Robinson and it looks like she's actually accomplished this.  I can't wait to have time to load my practice piece and try her method.  I'm always looking for a way to make my feathers look better and to keep from stressing over doing them!  The round item that looks like a CD is actually a really cute card.  Neat idea!  And finally...look at these:

Really cute earrings with a quilting motif...what could be better.  Thanks, Kristina.  Everything is lovely, as are you.  I can hardly wait to actually meet you and Shannon this summer...oh what fun we'll have!

Not to be too maudlin, but isn't it funny how people you've never met face-to-face can become such good friends?  I'm not sure what got Kristina and I talking the first time, but we've had phone conversations and exchanged e-mails for months now.  Shannon found my blog a few months after I'd started it and e-mailed me to say it was time to update it.  My last post had been three months before she found it.  After all, I thought, who in their right mind would want to read it??  I still don't have many "followers," but that doesn't matter so much anymore. It just feels good to put my feelings down on paper and if you read it and like it and want to sign up to follow...great! (just click the "follow" button)  But if you read it once and never come back, or if you just want to read and not "follow," that's fine too.  Its just nice to know that there are a handful of people out there that seem to care or have an interest in what I say.  Thank you, it means alot to me.

Milestones...

Okay, so maybe its not a milestone exactly, after all, people do have birthdays all the time, but yesterday, I turned 50.  Its a weird concept for me.  I don't feel 50, I certainly don't act 50 and hopefully, I don't look 50.

I had a really fun shopping day yesterday in Reno.  We went down in the a.m. to shop for house/yurt items.  Just a few of the things we bought: area rugs for both the house and yurt, shelving (mudroom & yurt), furniture (matching!) for the house, flip flops (I'm really tired of wearing soggy slippers back and forth to the hot tub), and a desktop file box with an orange lid to help in implementing my new filing system (future blog topic, if it works). By the time we headed home, the dogs had to ride up front because the back was completely crammed with stuff!

The best part of yesterday was having a phone that let's me get my e-mail.  My friend Shannon (of Pieceful Kwilter fame) sent me this picture.  Is this not the most stunning snow man you've ever seen?  I LOVE it!!