Slow day at work...

  Since it turned out to be a slow Tuesday at work, I decided I'd come home and finish up these baby quilts. I still need bindings on both of them, but I thought I'd show the quilting on both. I thought it would take longer to quilt the blocks individually, rather than the circle within a circle pattern, but it really didn't. I'm happy with both. Click on the picture to see a close-up.

It's time to grab a bite and run on over to Dad's. We're trying to scale down the amount of hours the homemaker has to be there. He's getting around so much better that he's willing to be alone for a while. But, I still feel like I need to be there for a while. The boys come and go during lunch, so he's not totally alone for long. Judy pops in, too, so he's got people checking on him periodically.

another bear quilt

This has proven to be a popular quilt with some of my clients. I've had requests for two of them. I put this one together tonight so you can see it's very easy. It's a little smaller than the one in the previous post, but it's more a crib size, for a baby.

The picture of the first quilt showed me that I really need to pay attention to how I place the triangle blocks. If you look close enough to the first picture, you can see where I placed them in the wrong position. Since I was aware of that in this quilt, it went together much better. I'll try to get it quilted tomorrow night.

Dad's visit to the cardiologist was a good one. He's doing well and we just have to continue to watch his fluid build up. I hope we can start getting him out to places like the Senior Center. He's a little gun-shy about getting out in public with his walker or quad cane. He's still a little wobbly. His face is finally looking normal after his little encounter with the cabinet handle.

We have a new little baby in the family! My brother is now a grandpa! Little Journey was born yesterday at noon, our time, and weighed 5 lbs. 15 oz. She's little bitty and so cute. Got to see pictures soon after she was born. Can't wait to see her in person. I hope the Oklahoma crew can make it to Rob and April's wedding next month since little Journey decided to get here earlier than she was planned. What fun would that be!!

Quick quilt

Here's an easy pattern that can be whipped up in a few hours. I have another friend who has had surgery and has been having a bad time. I thought she needed a comfort quilt. She loves bears so I went searching for a bear fabric that wasn't too juvenile. It feels good to finish something again. I know, I finished the tablerunners, but it's just not the same as finishing a larger quilt.

It's time to get to bed. I have an early day tomorrow since we have to take Dad for a follow-up visit to the cardiologist at 8:30. That means getting to his house at least by 8.

New Santa panels

Easiest runner, yet! This Santa panel comes in three's so I just left them intact and just did some free-motion quilting all over it. I put a small border on it because that's all the batting and backing that was left around the main piece. Then I put a binding on it and called it done! I'll take it to work and see if someone is in need of a Christmas tablerunner.

We were supposed to go to Lubbock tomorrow to see the cardiologist, but they called and suggested we see our local guy. Good idea. Will save us a trip. The guy in Lubbock is there if we need him, though. Good news today! The kidney doctor dismissed Dad and told us his kidneys are working at 40%! His numbers are dropping so he is staying far away from dialysis. We are excited!

I'm a bit tired after working on this little runner. Took me two hours and my eyes are really bothering me. I must make an appointment to have my contacts cleaned. '

Who said...

"Mistakes are design opportunities"? I have two cases in point here. The bridal shower quilt, to the left, finally got it's borders. But, in my haste, I decided to sew the narrow border and the wide border together before applying it to the quilt. Good idea if I was going to miter the corners, but not so hot idea if I didn't miter. Ends up that the smaller border gets extended out to the ends, thus cutting into the total look of the wide border. You can see that in the top left and right of the picture. Thanks to Deborah for suggesting that I use a solid for the small border. I had to dig through my stash to find something suitable, and I did. All that's left to do now is to iron on the freezer paper onto the backs of each block. It really is a pretty little quilt top.
Now, this little quilt top, made for a client who underwent bilateral knee replacement yesterday, was a little bit of a challenge. I got the pattern from a book called, "24 Hour Quilts" or some such nonsense, lol. Actually, this pattern says you can do it up in about 5 hours. And you probably can if you don't mess it up in the cutting like I did! When cutting the sewn strips to make the blocks, I layered them, right sides together, so when I cut, I had mirror images. Not supposed to do that. I ended up with blocks that didn't fit into the design, hence the corner areas you see in the pictures. The darker corners in the body of the quilt are not supposed to look like that, but I kinda like it, don't you? I didn't add a smaller border, (I got lazy) and just used extra blocks for the corners since I didn't have enough of the big border.

So, see, mistakes really ARE design opportunities! I have to believe that or I would never finish anything.

We, Judy and I, took Dad on his first real outing yesterday. We ran to Farwell for a little while of fun at the local "for amusement only" casino. A little hole in the wall where you just play the machines and win tokens to play some more. I think he really enjoyed it.

Time to get ready for the day. We've got the bridal shower today and Jim thinks he needs to eat breakfast. lol Have a great day!

Tryng to catch up

April's bridal shower is coming up this Sunday so I decided to whip up a siggie quilt for guests to sign. The idea for this pattern was taken from Linda J. Thank you! I will add a few borders in the next day or two. Now, I have a question that I hope one of you bloggers (or more) can help me with. You'd think that as long as I've been quilting, that I would know what kind of pen to use for these signature quilts. I have yet to find one I REALLY like. Help! I want something that will write boldly and clearly. I usually use a Micron 05, but I'm not crazy about it. Any ideas?
I have been wanting to make a cap and booties to match the pink shell afghan, but only got around to making the cap. It was so easy to make that I made one out of the white yarn that Judy made her afghan from.
Here's a picture of Judy's afghan. She made this for Journey, Henry and Shanon's granddaughter (due in Oct) These are the afghans we made while sitting with Dad in the hospital. I couldn't resist taking a picture of my pink shell with the blue ribbon it won.

Took Dad to the doctor today to remove his stitches. He's doing well. Tired tonight, I'm sure, since he walked quite a bit at the doctor's office and then back out to the car. The doc also gave him an antibiotic to fight a bug that seems to be going around. I think I had it a couple of weeks ago. They also gave me an antibiotic for a sinus infection - the source of my headaches lately.

I'm off to cut borders for the siggie quilt.

Pink ribbon quilt

Here's the pink ribbon quilt quilted, bound and labeled. I still want to make a travel pillowcase to match. I figure she'll need a pillow for all her trips to and from Lubbock.




Dad is doing much better. I want to take some pictures of his face now that he's healing. Judy sent me some pics of his face at it's worst. I'm not sure I should show those. lol He really is doing much better, though.

I'm really tired tonight for some reason. I was going to work on that pillowcase tonight but I think I better wait until I'm rested.

Dad has another "adventure"!

We spent the evening in the ER last night with Dad 'cause he fell and cut his nose horribly. He hit his head on the handle of the kitchen cabinet just below the sink. Oh my goodness! He looks like a boxer now. lol Bless his heart. It took 7 stitches and they did a CT scan but all is well. He tripped on the leg of his walker. Joe was home with him at the time and he was able to put his first aid training to use. Today, April suggested he looks a little like the Beast in "The Beauty and the Beast". LOL He really does.

Here are two more tablerunners made per request after clients saw the one I made for Leota. These panels are great to make up these quick runners. One of them even has a reversible look to it. I made them all using the reversible quilt method. My next project is to finish quilting the DWR I showed in a previous post as well as finishing the pink ribbon quilt.


After getting home from the hospital at midnight last night, I went straight to bed with the chills. I was so cold I was shaking and every inch of skin on my body hurt to the touch. I was up several times before 6 a.m. and then went back to bed and slept until nearly 1:30 p.m.! That's really unusual for me. I hate wasting all that quilting time! But, I guess I needed that. I'm feeling much better right now, but I did sweat a cold sweat all afternoon.

It's back to normal tomorrow.

September 1st

Wow. Already. September 1, 2007. Can't help but remember this day in infamy. Well, in my life, anyway. 34 years ago I married my oldest son's dad. Three years later we were divorced. All I got out of that marriage is my beautiful, 32 year old son, Joe. I used to ask Mom, "Why did you let me go through with it? (getting married). She would say, "You wouldn't have listened." Smart woman, my mom, but then I would counter with, "You could've at least tried!" Can't blame her, though. At 18, I was pretty strong-willed and hard-headed, as most 18 year olds can be.

But, that was then, and this is now. I've been married to Jim for almost 25 years now and my sweetie is working on retiring from the Post Office in only one more month! How exciting is that? Scary, too. But, he's ready and because he'll only be 62, and is in extremely good health, I know he would like to embark on perhaps another, albeit not as demanding, career for a while. We'll see...
On a quilty note...Here's another tablerunner ready to be quilted. This one is for April's brother, Perry and his new bride, Amanda. Rob told me their colors are red and black and I had a hard time deciding what to use as the corners. I knew I needed something lighter so they'd stand out, and the white actually has the word "Love" written all over it. I hope to get it quilted this weekend.

Last, but certainly not least, Dad is hanging in there. We're still working to get his meds "just right" but I think that's going to be an ongoing proposition. He calls me several times at work just to say "hi" and I am so happy to hear his strong voice on the phone. And, it's good to know that he's feeling well enough to get on the phone!

I'm off to get ready for work. Jim is off today but I've got a pretty full schedule. Mary C., I miss you!