Happy Fourth of July!

Stay safe this Holiday and remember

why we are celebrating ...

Let Freedom Ring!

Quilts of Valor Meeting

Posting some photos of quilts turned in quilted and/or bound at the June meeting of the CT Quilters QOV Group in Tampa, FL so I can link up with Alycia's blog.  A big "thank you" goes out to our great longarm quilters.

The little cards pinned to the quilts are the tracking system we use so we now where the quilts are in each stage of the process.  Some awards pictures to follow soon - we have made 44 awards so far this year!

This Day in History

Celebrate Flag Day today!

 

According to The History Channel, on June 14, 1877, the first Flag Day observance was held on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Stars and Stripes. As instructed by Congress, the U.S. flag was flown from all public buildings across the country. In the years after the first Flag Day, several states continued to observe the anniversary, and in 1949 Congress officially designated June 14 as Flag Day, a national day of observance.

Recap of the Busy Times

I am s-o-o-o-o not used to being busy.  I live a pretty nice, dull and sedate life with an occasional outing.  But I ran into a spate of things that each took up a little time and blogging fell by the wayside.  One more big occasion (for me) and I’ll get back to my regularly scheduled programming … sewing and snoozing ...

Here’s a synopsis of the last few months:

Out of town visitors

Got to meet and greet and shop a little

Yardwork

Planted some new annual sacrifices (and no, the delphiniums aren’t going to last thru the heat) – lots of mushrooms are growing because we’ve had tons of rain (that we really needed)

Golf

I get to substitute when the boys aren’t available to play with my husband ...

My "caddy" retrieving my ball - lol

this ibis tried to get the cranes to adopt him - his tribe soon came to gather him up

Travel

Had a wonderful trip to Indiana to visit my cousins/spouses/children/grandchildren/aunt

unset on the river from my cousin's front lanai

Sewed and quilted

Got a box off to Wrap-a-Smile and almost have one ready to go to Quilts Beyond Borders

Tammy assembled these quilt tops and I quilted and put the bindings on

Bought a new car

I love my smaller SUV – a stripped down Jeep Cherokee with almost no bells and whistles (but had to keep my Sirius radio – love that)

stock photo - mine has no chrome

Lots of Vet visits

The dog rules in my house – she’s almost healthy now - had a paw infection - lots of pills and creams and cream cheese

One more bit of traveling on the schedule and then it’s back to normal !!

Happy Easter!

National Quilting Day 2017

Since today has been designated as National Quilting Day by the National Quilt Association, I thought you’d like to read the 10 Historical Facts About Quilting at the AGF (Art Gallery Fabrics) blog:

  http://www.agfblog.com/2016/06/10-historical-facts-about-quilting.html

Fascinating facts – especially #5 about the earliest known surviving American quilt from 1704.  Imagine something you made lasting 300 years and still admired!  Awesome …

There are also some wonderful free patterns on their site – check out their gallery at:

http://liveartgalleryfabrics.com/free-quilting-patterns/

And, since it’s Sewing Day, I’m working on a Disappearing 9-Patch.  Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope you find your pot of gold!

The Old Weir Bridge

Killarney, Ireland

Image courtesy VintageHolidayCrafts.com

Happy Pi Day

Once again, it is Pi Day.

Yep, 3.14 almost rolled right past without me acknowledging it properly.

You, too, can get your T-Shirt at the ilovescience store.

No quilty news today, just dreaming of pie (oops, I mean Pi).

Check out the Nine Kinds of Pie at Philip Nels Blog.

http://www.philnel.com/2014/03/14/9kindsofpie/

Sneak Peek Sunday

It’s that time of year again – when I rant about Daylight Savings Time.  The original purpose of DST was to add an hour to standard time to make better use of daylight and conserve energy.

Germany was the first country of the modern era to use DST in 1916 (during WWI) to minimize artificial lighting to save fuel for the war effort.  In the US, President Wilson continued the worldwide trend by signing DST into the law; again, to support the war effort.

The Water Clock inside The Children's Museum of Indianapolis

But the history and usage of the idea goes back centuries.  Ancient civilizations adjusted their daily schedules to the movements of the Sun.  The Romans used water clocks with different scales for different months of the year.  Now that’s an idea I can get behind – gradual changes per month would be easier for me to adjust to rather than this twice a year disruption!

So now that I have the rant behind me, here’s a sneak peak of the two quilts that I have finished quilting recently:

I have four new pantos from Urban Elementz that I have been auditioning.  The two for today are both designed by Sarah Ann Myers and digitized by Patricia Ritter.  The one on the brown quilt is called Alfalfa.  I like that one a lot.  And the one on the red/green quilt is called Retrographics 2.  I like the design, but I will adjust that one to make it more compact the next time I use it.  I wanted a more open design so my children’s quilts wouldn’t be so stiff, but I think the way I did this one is too open.  It does look good, but there will be another time!  More photos when these get bound …

What's Up Wednesday

It’s pretty late and “today” is almost “tomorrow”, but I got busy quilting – you all know how that goes!

So, What’s Up with Today in History?

Today in 1903 was the first day that people saw the “Teddy” bear” that store owner Morris Michtom devised.  Michtom had received permission from President Theodore Roosevelt to use his nickname for the new toy.  Although the stories differ, it is often told as being based on a compassionate act of Teddy Roosevelt to save an adult black bear.  When political cartoonists later portrayed the bear as a cub, they were intending to show a sensitive side to the macho, he-man image of Roosevelt.  No matter how it began, the Teddy bear is now beloved by children and adults alike. 

This cute teddy is Brogan - Available at plushhub.com

Since I love Teddy bears, this is the backing fabric that I have selected for a panel that was sent to me to quilt up for Quilts Beyond Borders; it will be next on the quilting frame: 

And, here is a pattern that I bought at a quilt show when I saw and fell in love with the sample:

One day, I will make this quilt!

Celebrate!

Happy Valentine's Day !!

Groundhog Day

It's official.

You-know-who has forecast 6 more weeks of winter. 

It's been cold off and on down here in West Central Florida, but that only serves to give us a few days to wear those clothes with the layered look that we like.  Today it is forecast to be sunny and back up to 76 degrees.  Not bad!

But last weekend was still cold and I kept inside to finish this quilt top from long ago.

It had been buried in the to-be-quilted basket for way too long.  One of my Sunshine On-line Quilt Guild members put it together at their Lake Tahoe retreat that I couldn't attend.  My contribution was quilting some of the 100+ tops that they made.  This is the last one to be finished.  It has such cute prints - they were looking at me while I quilted!

Today I'm working on a cat applique to add to a jelly roll top that I thought needed a little something to perk it up.  This is what I have so far:

Thursday - Catching Up 2015

I am trying to get all of my 2015 quilt photos into the right galleries on this blog.  I am splitting the Quilts of Valor and the Project Linus quilts into their own pages - hopefully without losing some photos!  I apologize for those that Follow or get the RSS feed if there are too many updates ...

2016 is to continue shortly!

 

A Lovely Package

Packages are fairly rare around here.  We are not big internet shoppers - although a few fabric sales have caught my eye in the past and my husband is getting entirely too savvy on Golfsmith and LostGolfBalls dot com sites - lol!

But I did receive this wonderful package today from a fellow Sunshine On-Line Quilt Guild member in New Jersey:

It was chock full of goodies:

my watch bear was enthusiastic!

Lots of extra fabric (think Backings) and fresh longarm needles and even a little extra surprise.  And lots of quilt tops that are now patiently waiting in line for that pesky longarmer to get on the stick!

I still have the below from my friends' retreat to quilt, so the above will have to wait a short while.

quilts at top of photo - backing at the bottom

And I was surprised this morning to see the robins stop by on their way South.  Some years we see them and some we don't.  They were very skittish so I didn't get good pictures, but I had to document their arrival (and departure soon thereafter):

My beloved dog is really not allowed in my sewing room on the second floor.  I have a baby gate in the stairwell to assure she stays out and doesn't get stuck with pins dropped onto my Berber carpet up there.  She has been scanned, pawed over and poked so much recently as they test for reasons why her liver enzymes are elevated, that I relented and let her up with me recently: She was fascinated by the view from the second story!  Too funny:

She had an all-day vet visit today to have a blood test every four hours - testing for Cushing's disease, an adrenol gland disorder that allows too much cortisol in her system.  We'll know the results next week.  Meanwhile, I'll sew and wait ...