Birthdays

Since today is my birthday I thought it would be fun to post a photo of a past birthday. I don't know which birthday this was, but I suspect I was about 4. I'm the one on the left. Next to me is my brother Claude. Next to Claude is Liz who is one month younger than me. There there is Barb (half hidden) and Margie on the far right. I think that arm there on the left belongs to my brother Ed.

This photo was taken in our living room. Don't you just love those drapes? If I remember correctly they were green and orange and red!

Liz, Barb, Margie and I were always doing things together as kids. Barb lived 2 houses away, Margie lived 3 away and Liz lived across the street from Margie. A couple of times we put on shows for the neighborhood that must have been a real hoot for the adults. I wish we had videos of our performances!

Mass Hysteria?

There was a blood drive at the local mall today and I went to donate. It's always a well attended drive with about 10 - 12 donation seats that were filled pretty much the entire time. I have really hard veins to find and as usual, it took some time for a good vein to present itself. (they NEVER seem to take my word for it when I tell them exactly where to stick me. They always want to try to find a better one.) It took 3 people but finally one got things going.

All was well until the woman in the chair to my right got up after completing her donation. As she started to walk away she suddenly got really lightheaded and crumbled to the floor. The workers got her back in her chair and brought cold wet towels for her forehead and back of her neck. As this was going on I was ending up my donation and all of a sudden I started feeling lightheaded. I alerted the worker and they brought ME the cold wet towels. Then as I was sitting there feeling lightheaded and a bit nauseous, the woman in the chair to my left passed out. More cold wet towels were produced. I then looked up across the room and the big burly guy over there was getting his OWN cold wet towels. When I was feeling better the nurse told me it happens often that when one person goes down, others follow. The Red Cross version of mass hysteria.

This is the second time in a row that I've felt lightheaded after donating. I'm obviously not eating the proper food before going.

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

A talented writer is a member of one of my on-line quilt groups. Joshilyn Jackson wrote Gods in Alabama and Between Georgia. Her next book is called The Girl Who Stopped Swimming and the main character is an art quilter! Jos asked another member of the list, Pamela Allen, to make a quilt to go with the book. Pamela makes wonderful art quilts with the most fabulous quilting you'll ever see. You can see the quilt she made for the book
here on Jos' blog. I think you'll agree that the collaboration between quilter and writer is fantastic.

I can't wait to get the book! You can preorder it on Amazon if you want!

Finally finished

One of the members of my guild, Judy Heyward, is a VERY talented quilter with the awards to show for it. One of her quilts, Charleston Beckonings, (which can be seen here scroll down to "First Entry in an AQS Contest and click on the link) has won awards all over and was a finalist in the $100,000 Quilting Challenge (winner to be announced in March.)

Judy recently taught a class on a simpler version of her winning quilt and I knew I had to take the class if only to have some of her massive talent rub off on me!


This is the quilt I made from the class. It is supposed to have another border and the leaves were supposed to be appliqued onto that border. I decided I didn't want to add that border, so I appliqued the leaves on the inner border. The outside edge is very narrow and needs a good pressing before I submit the quilt into our guild show. A day or two before the class I decided I wanted to do a pieced background for the Palmetto rather than use one fabric. I rather like the effect but all those seams ended up being a problem, so there isn't much quilting in that area. The quilt isn't really that out of square, I just pinned it to the wall to take the photo and didn't do it very well.

I wonder how many others from the class will submit quilts!

Happy New Year!

I've been neglecting my blog lately and don't really have a reason. We haven't been that busy, although I have been dealing with a cold the last few days.

I've actually been sewing this week. I finished one wall hanging and am in the process of quilting another. Our quilt show is coming up quickly (see the countdown over there on the right??) and I need to get some things done for the show.

I don't have photos of the quilts, but do have these cute photos of Hayden eating dinner tonight. Looks like she enjoyed it doesn't it?