I've been quiet on the blog lately, but have been busy sewing. Just no photos of anything, so I thought I'd share a photo of the two cutest grandkids around.
I've been completing some quilt tops and spent yesterday pin basting 3 quilts. I really dislike the basting process and have been putting it off as long as possible. All 3 quilts I basted will be donation quilts and I'm going to work on my free motion skills while quilting them. I have a really hard time with the quilting step. I never seem to like the design or the technique I've used. The only way to get better is to practice, practice, practice!

I'll be sure to take photos before turning the quilts in to our community service coordinator.

She's 1 today

Obviously Hayden wants the world to know how old she is!

Birthday time

Hayden's first birthday is actually next Wednesday, but her birthday party was today. She enjoyed her cake! She also enjoyed eating melon with Grandpa. (click photos if you want a larger view)

Photos of recent work

Here are the photos from the projects I mentioned yesterday. This first photo is a faux log cabin from our quilters' day out session in May. We were all supposed to bring one jelly roll pack and were provided the pattern. I wanted to use a different layout-one that looked more like a log cabin-but I didn't have enough contrast for the layout I wanted so I ended up with this layout. Once I quilt this, I'll probably donate this to one of our guild's charity projects.


This table runner is the first of two I made while getting my precise piecing lesson from Karen. I finished the quilting after taking the photo and now need to finish the binding.




This sunflower wallhanging caused me a great deal of angst. This is the project started when 9 or 10 of us took a lesson from Judy Heyward up in Karen's studio. I wrote about the class here where you can also see a photo of what the original pattern looked like. I didn't want to make my project exactly like the pattern, but wasn't having much luck in making a composition I liked. I finally ended up with this design and while I don't love it, I don't hate it like I did an earlier version. The fabric for the inside of the sunflower and the brown border at the top and the left was made by weaving together thin strips of 3 fabrics. It was a lot of work for not much effect.


Finally here is my version of the origami bag which one of my fellow Ducks demoed for us last week. I put my handles too close to the edge. The bag starts out as a square and is folded in such a way to make some small pockets inside before stitching. This one measures about 14" x 16".


As always, click on the photos for a larger view.

Busy in the studio

I've actually been sewing lately. The summer heat hit with a vengeance this week and it's just easier to stay in the air conditioned house sewing. I don't have any photos yet, but I promise I have been working. I'll try to get some photos posted tomorrow.

Today I finished a top that I started at our guild's Quilters' Day Out in May. Earlier this week I finished the top I started in the Sunflower class we took with Judy Heyward. On Tuesday our mini-group, the Ducks, had a demo on the construction of an origami bag and I made one of those this week. Also today I quilted a table runner that I made in a piecing class with Karen. I'm not a precise piecer and Karen offered to give me a couple of lessons to improve my piecing technique. It's amazing how much better things look when you take your time and do it right!

Early today a group of us met at Sew n' Sew fabrics for their annual $1 fat quarter sale. Sew n' Sew is in a really small building and it's tight quarters on a normal day. Today is was shoulder to shoulder quilters pawing through the boxes of fat quarters. I didn't really need anything and just went along to join in the fun.

More on Memorial Day

Here are a few more photos of our Memorial Day weekend. (all are clickable for a larger view)


Here are Ned and Linda. They are good friends of Jim and Susie and live near them in the Washington, DC area. We first met them about 10 years ago when we all vacationed in Myrtle Beach and have also vacationed with them at the Isle of Palms.
Ned recently had foot surgery as he's dealing with diabetes related circulation issues. Hopefully he'll be back on both feet soon. We hadn't seen Ned & Linda for several years and it was great to see them again.



This is John. Jerry, Jim and John all served together on a submarine back in the 70s. The first night we were there Linda kept the Bloody Marys going for John and he was feeling no pain.



This is June who is married to John. She's showing off the pirate booty that John shared with her! June also had recent foot surgery and has learned the penguin walk really well. She expects to be back to normal soon.

We see John and June fairly often as they live only about 20 minutes away.



Here's another photo of Jerry in his pirate get-up. He especially liked his sword.

Somehow we managed to miss getting Susie in any photos this year. You can see her in last year's photos here.

I hope all of you are lucky enough to have friends as great as these!

Memorial Day weekend

We spent Memorial Day at Lake Gaston (at the North Carolina/Virginia border) with a number of friends. Jim and Susie own a house on the lake and invited us and 2 other couples to join them for the holiday. Unfortunately we were invaded by pirates while there.


Jerry even had his parrot with him...




Jim looks a bit scary don't you think?



As always it was a great weekend and far too short. We drank too much and ate too much but had lots of fun. (photos are clickable)

Such a smile!

Chrystal took this photo of Hayden today. She sure looks happy doesn't she?

The romper she's wearing is one I made for her. I've made a few others - but seem to be having problems getting the size right. It's much easier to sew for someone when they're right there for quick measurements.

Fun day in the studio

On Saturday 10 of us were privileged to take a class with Judy Heyward, an award winning quilt artist. We're lucky she's a member of our guild. We all trekked up to Karen's studio with sewing machines and fabric in hand and spent the day creating our own version of Judy's sunflower wallhanging.

Here is a class sample. (all photos clickable for a larger view)














Most of us got quite far on the center part of the wallhanging, but still needed to put the borders on.


This is Betsy's version of the main part.















Here is Virginia's version. I think she got the most done during the class and was getting the check border sewn just before leaving.

















After class Karen and Jolene - pictured below- surpassed all of us and completed their entire tops before going to bed that night. You can see their completed tops and more photos of the class at Karen's blog here and some photos Judy took at her blog here




My version is going slowly and I don't have a photo to share yet. Hopefully soon.

Latest Hayden photos

These photos are from last week. Cute as usual don't you think?

What will YOUR obituary say?

Mine will say...

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Mother's day gift

My mother recently asked me if I had a wall hanging laying around that had spring like flowers on it. The request was a surprise because she doesn't get excited about any of my quilting - it's just not her thing. Now that she's living in the independent/assisted living center though she wants something to hang outside her door. The residents all like to decorate with the seasons.

Since I don't have things just laying around, I made this wall hanging from a kit and will be sending it to her for Mother's Day. Hope it fits in the spot by her door! (photo clickable for larger view)

Hayden

Hayden tried on her new dress the other day. I'm not sure she likes it. What do you think?

Quilters Day Out

Yesterday my guild held a Quilters Day Out. We do this a couple of times a year as a social get together. Typically the organizers have a quilt planned for us to do but the participants don't have to if they'd prefer to work on their own project.

Our project yesterday was a simple mock log cabin that could be made using Jelly Rolls. I don't usually buy Jelly Rolls, but purchased this one by Moda specifically for the class. The colors are fun, but they didn't work out quite right for the pattern. We had samples of a number of different layouts for our blocks and the layout I liked best just didn't work because I didn't have enough lights for a good contrast. I did find one layout that will work and will end up with quite a bright quilt.

It was a fun day and it's always good to spend time with quilting friends.

Another dress for Hayden

This is the dress that took me an entire year to smock because I worked on it so seldom during the year. I finally got it constructed this weekend and it was a big pain to do. The instructions with the pattern were horrible! I actually still need to put the buttons on, but turns out I don't have just the right ones so I'll have to go out for some.

I've been feeling sick on and off since Sunday. Actually got sick yesterday. A few years ago I had a weird virus with nausea that lasted on and off for about 5 days and this sort of feels the same. I'm hoping it won't last that long. I'm feeling better this evening so maybe I've turned the corner! (although when I had it before I lost 9 pounds in those 5 days...hummm...I wonder if it's worth it. NOPE!)

Garment sewing

I don't do garment sewing very well. I was a Home Ec. major in college and actually had to take a clothing construction class, but I'm still not very good at it. (I suppose the fact that I cut most of my clothing classes probably contributed)

The other day I FINALLY finished the smocking on a dress for Hayden. I started the smocking a year ago! I was getting ready to go down to Florida to deal with one of my mother's injuries and hurriedly had a dress pleated up for smocking so I could take it with me on the trip. Since at that time Hayden hadn't even arrived I wasn't in much of a hurry to finish.

After returning from Florida I ended up only working on the dress when I was at my twice-monthly mini-group and sometimes not even then. It got to be a joke that Hayden wasn't going to have the finished dress until her high school graduation.

Last night I started finishing the dress - you know, actually putting it together after finishing the smocking - and I'm having a heck of a time. It has taken me about 4 hours just to get the neckline finished and I still have to do the sleeves. I'm beginning to think delivery of the dress before her high school graduation is pushing it and this thing won't get to her before she finishes college!

Craig's birthday

Yesterday was Craig's 35th birthday. I guess it's time for me to stop saying I'm 39 years old if my baby is now 35! Noah hates it when I call his dad "My Baby!" and always insists that Craig is HIS dad, not MY baby. Craig just rolls his eyes when I call him that.

Here are some photos of my baby when he really was a baby.







The first 3 were taken when he was somewhere between 6 and 12 months old and the last one was taken at his first birthday party. I usually have trouble seeing the resemblance between people, but I do see a little bit of Hayden in the photo of him sitting up in the blue outfit. I love the photo of him in his pram, which was his mode of transportation the entire time we lived in Scotland. Since our fridge was so tiny and had no freezer(you can see it in the corner behind him in his birthday photo) we would have to make a trip to the store almost every day. I would put him in the pram and off we'd go. The shops in town were very small and it was common for the babies in the prams to be just left outside the door while the parents were inside shopping. (although the dogs were allowed in, and you'd see far more dogs than kids in the shops with mom.)
Happy birthday to my baby!

Cooper River Bridge Run

One of the big events in Charleston every spring is the Cooper River Bridge Run. A 10K race over the bridge that spans the Cooper River. The race starts in Mt. Pleasant and ends in downtown Charleston. Yesterday was the 31st running of the race. In the past I have run the race, but that was a number of years and a lot of pounds ago. (and before my knee started giving me problems.) It was always a fun race and it was nice to be in a large enough event that I was not the last finisher. (several times when I would run in smaller races, I ended up being the last person to finish. It's very disconcerting to try to run with the police car signifying the last runner right behind you with the flashers going.)

Jerry and his running buddy John took part in the race yesterday. Unfortunately, Jerry hurt his ankle several weeks ago and could not really run. He ended up walking the distance with John's sister who came to town just for the race.

Here are John and Jerry before the race started. (Jerry is on the right.)

as always, click on photo for a larger view

More Palisades views

Our Pacific Palisades townhouse was up a hill - the area was referred to as the Highlands. We used to watch the fog roll into the canyon and it would actually be below us. It was really cool to look down on the fog. Jerry used to call those houses below our "Whoville." He thought he was funny.















This photo was taken from the end of our street before it went up the hill to our house. It shows where Sunset Blvd. and Pacific Coast Highway meet. (photos are clickable for a larger view)

Vista

We lived in the Los Angeles area (Pacific Palisades)from 2003 to 2005. Pacific Palisades is located next to the ocean between Santa Monica and Malibu. We lived in our rented townhouse for several months before we realized we had an ocean view. On a really clear day (there weren't very many!) we could see Catalina Island. This was the view from the back of our townhouse at sunset. (click on the photo for a larger view and you'll see the island)













While living there, an on-line friend challenged me to make a quilt based on the word "Vista" so I used the photo from our house as inspiration. This piece is only a little bigger than a piece of paper so it was quick to make.














Here's a detail shot.