A bountiful feast was enjoyed by all

So much food and laughter.  It is a blessing to be living near my family these last 5 years.

Sharing lunches, church, suppers and shopping trips has been wonderful.  So much to be thankful for.

I have barely begun on Bonnie's new mystery.  Trying to decide if I want to really mix up the neutrals

with the other colors.  I am afraid if I use the blue print neutrals with the dark blue and switch it will 

look disjointed.  So here I go mixing them up. Will have to get on the stick if I want to get this part

 done before getting the new clue on Friday.

Dexter is being treated for either Kennel Cough or the new virus/bacteria that is running rampant in the 

dog world.  He has been on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories for over 3 weeks.  He is so sweet.

The Donat ladies went to the Plant Place on friday to get poinsettias and it was wonderful.  They

have rooms and rooms of every color and they are gorgeous.

This is just one of the rooms filled with plants.

After getting the cargo area of the vehicle full of poinsettias we headed to 

Origins restaurant for a delicious lunch with libation.

It was our version of shopping on Black Friday.

Thankful quilting y'all

 

Boo yall

 How it got to be the end of October I'll never know.  I think this is the busiest month of the year.

Love the cooler weather and leaves falling if it just were not accompanied by acorns.  Dexter loves to pick them up then I have to give him a treat to spit it out.  They make him sick.  He just got a FFF and bath and he looks like a fluff ball.  

Lily came and cleared and cleaned up my pots to get ready for pansies and the back porch and tiny yard look so clean and nice.  Just have to cut back the rose of sharon tree/bush and the non blooming brugmansia I got 3 years ago at Transplanted Gardner.  I do miss that place.

Finished my jacket from the class at Bernina and some sew bags from another class. Thank goodness between C and P my featherweight is fixed.  I had changed needles to 90/14 for work on the bag and put it in wrong so it would not pick up the bobbin thread.  Whew.  Love that machine.

Love to quilt with C and P who really inspire me to break out of my comfort (Kaffe) zone.  I will try to make a Christmas Tree quilt again.  

I have finished these blocks from Scrap Basket book.

This is the front of my jacket.  The last seams from arm to side have not been sewn in this picture.

This is one of the sew bags.  I love picking out the four fabrics to do these.  It takes about 2.5 yards of fabric in all, three 12inch zippers and one 20inch zipper.  

I am making a pinkish one now.  Better get to it.

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween.

Scary Quilting?

its fall y'all

 Finally some cooler weather even if it comes with drizzle or showers or clouds. I'll take it.

I decided to take a workshop at the local Bernina Store to make a jacket.  I have not sewed

clothing in a long while.  Got to the workshop an hour and a half late but caught up and am ready to go today to finish.  Hope it fits.

This is not the jacket.  My pictures don't always come on in the right order.  This is Dexter and he is waiting for Sunday when he will be blessed for the third year in a row.  Hope it takes this time!!!

This is my new project.  It was different.  Putting strips together to make the fabric so I 

could cut out the pattern pieces plus batting and lining.

We will do pockets and put pieces together today and binding which I made.  

I had planned to take my featherweight sewing machine again but it decided to be 

unhappy with the stitching so they are letting me borrow a machine.  I will have to wait for 

next thursday when P and C come to see if they can heal my featherweight.  I even orgered this bag to carry my little machine because the box I have weighs just about as much as the machine.  Love the bag.  It has lots of little pockets.

Nephew L had a great flounder season with his charter business "Spot On Charters" and  finished with the last day on the rough water with his brother and father.  Caught fish so we are all having fish tonight at L and J's house.  Hope I can take Dexter.

Cooler quilting.

Fall is near

September has been hot until this morning.  Boy what wonderful cool air.  When Dexter and I went out this morning at 5:30am the sky was full of bright stars.  It is the first time since last winter I have been able to see so many of the constellations. I saw Taurus, the Seven Sisters, Casseopia, the big dipper and of course Orion.

Yesterday was a bit busy with hair appointment, picking up family from the airport, letting out dogs, and canning 8 quarts of sweet bread and butter pickles. It was good to be tired and glad to have brother and wife home.

Like this new scrappy book "Scrap-basket Knockouts" by Kim Brackett and am on the second pattern from it. 

This is the first pattern I decided to make. It is called" Three Patch." I just love how many different blocks you can make with squares and rectangles. I liked making light and dark blocks and how the design comes alive when it is together.

This is a simple but eye-catching little quilt for my great-niece? 

This is a quilt I made 10 years ago that the quilting was off and it was too small.  So I made one large enough to cover the pillows on my queen bed.  It is really large and I just finished getting the binding on by hand.

This is the second pattern I wanted to make.  It is called "Knots and Chains" but this is the alternate lay out. Again with squares and rectangles and light and dark blocks to make the contrasting patterns.

These blocks are easy to make but a lot of seams join and sloppy sewing will make you scream and unsew to make it fit.  Just sayin'.

This is the body of "Points and Peaks" by Kaye England.  I love bold colors and they don't come any bolder than Kaffe, my hero. It took a lot of sewing and unsewing to get the rectangle/triangle unit right so I would not cut off the points when I put the blocks together.  I did put a small white inner border and then a pieced outer border.  P gave me the perfect design for the corner block.

This is my Dexter after his hair cut by a mobile groomer.. So Precious on last Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt that I tackled.

This is the border for Points and Peaks. Now for the binding.

Have to get back to it.  

Cool quilting for today.

 

What happened to May June and July?

 Time Out.

It is hard to believe that it is the end of July except for the excessive heat.  I know it is summer. It comes every year.  I only like the heat to compare to when it is 40 degrees outside and we are walking.

Also Sunday is Dexter's birthday.  Hard to believe he will be 2.  He is maturing and I am talking to him a lot. 

I finished two tops and now need to find backs and get them quilted.

The first is Turning Flowers using Kaffee reds and pinks.

The second was from a pattern from P and I call it Rainbow Quilt

This is Grace Church Cathedral in Charleston where our choir sang and priest gave the sermon.

We had lunch here on Friday.  It was established in 1893 but the food was fresh.

I have finished the body of this quilt another pattern from P but have decided to put on borders of white, one pieced and finish with white.

That should catch me up.  Not sure where to go next.  Still have a king sized quilt to do the binding.

I am waiting for a rainy day.  :-}

Cool quilting.

After Easter

 I can hardly believe that Easter Sunday has come and gone.  The service was glorious and made even better by the weather. As dreary as it began the day finished with a beautiful afternoon.  Lunch prepared for 14 by J and L was fantastic and fun for all.  With the Masters Golf tournament to watch even the men were entertained.  Dexter was home resting because  the possibility of wet weather and 6 dogs running in and out was a little too much to handle.

Had a wonderful day Thursday in Wendell with P and C quilting and talking and eating.  I had finished the string quilt with leftover Kaffe fabrics from the Seed Packet quilt that I turned over to the quilter on Wednesday. I left there to go home let Dexter out grab a bite to eat and get to Maundy Thursday service at St. Pauls.

Some Gerbers to brighten up the front bed.

Easter at St Paul's

Snapdragons from a fall planting.

This is a beautiful star cactus plant that was a gift from a friend.

My niece who is a landscaper recommended these last year and they are awesome.  she calls them "Ever bloom Begonias"

This is my nursery for brugmansia from last years seeds. Hope they grow big by the time our church picnic and the plant swap.

And this is the string quilt before sashing which is a dark purple/blue grunge.

Have been working in yard to get flowers planted.  At least I did not have to worry about watering!!!

Hoppy Quilting.

Sally

Mud Puppy

 Well that was so much fun I thought I would post again.

My niece Joy invited my puppy Dex and me to sit on her porch this beautiful Thursday afternoon.

We could solve the worlds problems and Dex could play with his "cousins, once removed" in the 

fenced in back yard.  There was fencing on three sides and a bulk head on the fourth for the 

canal leading to the intercoastal. Well we were talking and I missed Dexter.  The others, girls, were in

the house.  Panicked we went up and down the street calling for him.  A neighbor hollered that she 

saw him in the mud.  Did I mention it was low low tide and sure enough somehow Dexter had found 

his way into that low tide mud and was stuck up to his tail. Joy got on the dock and managed to snag his

collar and drag him onto the dock.  Did I mention she was wearing bright yellow jeans?

I fetched towels, we wrapped him up dripping mud everywhere and Joy put him into the bathtub which

had just been cleaned that morning. Mud flew every where but finally after a half bottle of Dawn he

was clean and she was not. I cannot thank her enough for doing that. I probably would have strangled 

him in the process but he was so scared I felt sorry for him. Before and after pictures.

Some of my latest quilts follow:

The above is the inside of the Seed Packet quilt by Kaffee.  I have the outside rows on except for the bottom which is half done.  

This is a baby quilt which I loved making.  Simple but sweet. Love the loud border.

This is a quilt I made for my friend Zona.  I used mostly, except for 2 or 3 strips of Tula, Kaffe fabrics.

I have made others but this is enough right now.

Did some cleaning of beds this am and potting some seeds that had sprouted into little peat pots for our

Plant exchange in May at church.

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Grow your quilting.