Quilt #2 out of Daddy's shirts is pieced.  I am now working on squaring up the pieces for quilt #3.  This is going a bit faster than I expected.  I now know I will have at least one completed (sandwiched, quilted, and bound) by Christmas to take with us when we go to see our daughter, everyone else is in the same state as we are and it will be easier to get them delivered so they may be a little after Christmas, but who knows.

My shawl that I I am knitting using the Caron Big Cake in the color Cherry Compote.  I thought the colors looked very autumn, but living near Blacksburg I see Virginia Tech colors now that it is progressing!

And we had some visitors the past several weeks.  We have had three hummingbirds hanging around and filling up on their way south.

Sew Long for Now!

It's been a year since I have posted.  It's been an interesting year full of times I said I needed to update my blog, but for one reason or another I put it off.  I posted on instagram on and off, but I just couldn't make myself sit down and write a blog post.  I did some sewing, but not as much as in past years.  We have all heard of writers block, well I had sewing block.  I sat staring at a box of my Dad's shirts that I wanted to make into quilts for my sister's children and my children.  I sat and sat and then on Jan. 1 I decided I need to make myself get started.  When my Momma passed away I never really had a chance to mourn, I had to help Daddy.  After Daddy passed away I was just numb.  I felt like the last several years had been a roller coaster and I just wanted to rest.  But starting in January I began cutting up the usuable shirts Dad had.  I took 4 months to cut them all up, he had a lot of shirts!  Then I had to decide on a block to use the material in.  I finally settle on a modified log cabin because legend has it that the center block represents the heart of the home or fire and the sides represents the walls of the home.  I thought it would be a good representation of family.  I finally used up almost all the material and began to square the blocks and this past weekend got one of the 8 quilts I am making out of the material put together. 

Squaring up one of the blocks for the quilts from Dad's shirts.

One of the scrappy modified log cabin quilts all made from Dad's shirts.

In the meantime with the advent of fall weather on the horizon I have been feeling the need to knit.  I made a lot of new dishcloths for myself.

Then I have moved on to a shawl for fall.

And what blog post isn't complete without a cute picture of a dog!  Smith deciding the afghan I am crocheting in my basket is his and literally laying claim to it.

Sew Long for Now!

Block 5 of 12

I have really meant to be more regular in my updates.  I started a new loan position at work and I have been working different hours from day to day and it has thrown off my schedule.  I have made sure to squeeze in at least an hour of sewing most days.  

 

Block 6 of 12

All of my children except my youngest are off living on their own.  Our youngest, who is still here, is now 20 and works full time most weeks and is a full time college student.  I am grateful that I can get in so much sewing.  I still remember the days I longed to be sewing, but because of other responsibilities could not.  I know I am blessed and have so much to be thankful for!

Block 7 of 12

As you can see I really have been productive on a UFO I started last year, but was not able to complete.  My plan is to complete it before the end of October.

Block 8 of 12

Block 9 of 12

Each of these blocks are marked and quilted before I move on to the next block.  It is a quilt as you go pattern.  They are all completed up to block 9 that I finished piecing today.  I am getting excited to see the finished quilt.

I know this weather can't last and Indian Summer will be on us soon, but with the break in the heat and the cool temps I could not resist planting fall flowers in my planters around the house.

I have been thinking about what I will work on next and I have several UFO's and a million ideas.  One thing though is my sister gave me all of our Daddy's shirts she had over the summer.  I want to cut up all of his shirts I now have and make quilts.  One for my sister and I, one for each of her girls, one for each of my children.  at 16 squares by 16 squares of six and a half inch blocks I hope I have enough shirts to get at least 8 quilts.  I will try for more.

Sew Long for Now! 

I finished the quilt for my niece's wedding! 

The label was added the morning of the wedding.  Nothing last the usual last minute completion.

The happy couple sharing the first dance!

Now to clean my sewing room and work on some UFO's!

Sew Long for Now!

We spent a lovely Saturday afternoon at Douthat State Park Lake.  This is a really nice place with a lovely beach near Covington, VA.

The grandchildren had fun playing with a friend's son in the sand, we swam and road around the lake on a john boat.  I didn't want to leave it was so relaxing.

The next day my husband road with me to the Quiltery in Fairfield, Va on an emergency quilting trip.  I have around 3 weeks to finish the quilt I am working on and I ran out of the sashing fabric.  It just happened to be the last day of the shop's Christmas in July event and she put two of the tins off the Christmas tree in my bag.  I was happily surprised to find emergency treats and holiday dollars to spend in them!  I really like the tins too.  I will have to find something special to put  in them...maybe more emergency treats so I always have a stash on hand.

Trying to find somewhere to lay a row from the quilt to get a visual about how it is coming together.  After I get a few rows put together I am going to even them up and start putting them together.  I had thought about putting batting up on a wall to make a design wall in the room I recently moved all my sewing to, I actually have a blank wall that I could use for that.  The next problem is to just make myself make the time to accomplish the task.  

Sew Long for Now!

I needed some more blocks for the quilt I am making and the blocks I have been making are very time intensive so I decided to make some scrappy fence rail blocks to scatter through the quilt.

Now I have begun bordering all the blocks with the coral color.

I hope you noticed my new cutting mat.  I accidentally sat my iron on my old one and it warped in these waves so it was very hard to cut because I was trying to get the mat to lie flat.  After I get the blocks bordered then I get to put them together.  I have 3 weeks.  Why am I always pushing deadlines?

Every month my sister and I try to meet somewhere half way between where we both live and have lunch and shop.  We met in Radford, Va. the end of June and they have a really great quilt shop called Sew Biz in a historic downtown building.  I didn't tempt myself with any fabric since I have this project that I have to finish, but I did pick up the cutest coffee mug!

Sew Long for Now!

Has it really been almost a year since I last posted?  So much has happened.  After my Momma passed away my sister and I took care of our Daddy.  Last year I posted right after Father's Day a picture of him looking vibrant at 85.  In July he turned 86 and had met a lady who he was developing a friendship with.  The picture of him in his favorite purple shirt was when he took me out in October for my birthday right after he came back from a trip to Montana.  He spent Thanksgiving in Georgia with my brother and nephew and their families.  When he came home he was ill and thought he just needed to get some rest, but a day later he was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia.  He never left the hospital.  He went from a regular floor to intensive care and a week later passed away.  I miss him everyday.  It was hard enough to loose my Momma, whom I called everyday.  Daddy came to stay with me every week and I went to every doctor's appointment for him.  He had cancer, diabetes, heart trouble, and arthritis, but you would never know because he was always on the go and he never stopped.  It was none of those that brought him down.  In the hospital as he got worse they discovered he had undiagnosed COPD and that combined with the pneumonia is what ultimately stopped my active Dad.

This May we made a trip to Kansas to see our daughter graduate from Emporia State University with her Master's in Library Science.  A week later she was hired as a full time librarian in Kansas and is enjoying setting up her own place and being out of school for the first time in a long time. 

 Our daughter with her Father's parents.

Her and her youngest brother posing nicely for Mom.

Our middle granddaughter turned 3 during this past year, in a few months she will be 4.

 

Her brother turned 2 in May.  

Our oldest granddaughter turned 5 in June.

In the world of sewing I made my husband a barn raising quilt using Kansas Troubles fabric.  He loves it! 

For graduation our daughter ask me to make her a fox quilt.  I started it two months before graduation and her and I finished the binding the week before when I got to Kansas.  I would advise anyone wanting to make this project to give yourself a wee bit more time!  I was really stressed out with this time frame. 

Now I am working on another quilt with a deadline.  I started with other fabric and another pattern and just did not like where it was going for the occasion.  I had in mind to make a disappearing nine patch, but since I had jelly rolls of the fabric I wanted I am making what I have termed as crazy squares.  It could be called a disappearing 16 patch I guess.  To get the blocks a reasonable size using 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch squares I sewed them together in four rows of four blocks and then cut them up like a disappearing nine patch and rearranged them and sewed them back together. 

Over Father's Day weekend we made a trip to Waynesboro to put flowers on Dad's grave and we stopped by one of my favorite quilt stores, The Quiltery in Fairfield, Va.  I found the best fabric to use as sashing between the blocks.  With all the busyness of the blocks I thought a more solid type fabric to break them up would make the top look more pleasing to the eye.

 

I have been wanting to write a post for a long time.  It's take a bit to get back in the swing of life.  I hope to post more often.

Sew Long for Now!