My entry for …

 

Diamonds for Tina Sue.

 

 I found a tutorial on The Modern Quilt Guild’s blog to make the half rectangle triangle. By placing the dark side of the rectangles together the diamonds came to life.

 

 I really enjoyed sewing the wonky letters together to make her name.

 

 

Here’s the little sweetie pie!

 

 

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats
Finished Quilt Size – 57″ X 71″
Machine pieced, and machine quilted
Quilted by myself, Julia Graber
Best category – Throw Quilt, Two Color Quilt, Baby Quilt

I’m trying to make a quilt for each of our grandchildren. You can see them here. And now I have one more yet to make for Talya. 

I’m still working on Tina Sue’s crib quilt.

 

I have the straight lines quilted and now I’m working on the loop-dee-loops in the blue diamonds. The blue thread doesn’t show up much on some of the fabrics and it’s hard to see where I’ve quilted and where I need to quilt. I guess I should have picked a thread with higher contrast.

 

And today I practiced a little to put Paul’s name on his shirts. I used the coffee filter for stabelizer and it tears away very nice. The “Trucking” looks like “Tricking” and needs more practice.

 

This is our first year to plant cotton.

 

The fields are white unto harvest …

Cotton makes wonderful quilt fabric, don’t you think?

~~~ Parting Shot ~~~

Tonight we celebrated Paul’s folks 59th wedding anniversary.

Those of us from around here met at KFC for supper and fellowship.

 

Now say, aren’t Mom and …

 

… Daddy good sports? !!!

Yesterday we attended the wedding of Paul’s niece Vicki to Jed.

 

Then for supper we invited in all the Grabers and their company.

 

Our house was “buzzing” with people. We want our home to be open and everyone welcome, so our slogan is, “There’s alway’s room for one more.” We counted 90 guests! We had hoped to visit and eat outside, but alas the weather turned cold so we opted to fellowship inside.

 

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After working hard on the combine and …

 

… and fixing up the farm truck, …

 

… Perry bought Blue Bell ice cream and …

 

… treated the farm hands.

 

Miriam gave Kenneth this whopper of a unicycle for his birthday!

 

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Emily & I went to the Pine Belt Quilt Show in Hattiesburg where my “Climbing Higher — Jacob’s Ladder” quilt won an honorable mention ribbon.

 

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Gabriel showed me a few things he’s getting done on his Leagle Eagle ultralight.

I finished this quilt for The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) Raising Awareness & Funding Research Through Art.

 

Stripped Bare

 

As a tree is stripped bare of it’s leaves, so my Father was stripped of his memory and often wanted Mother to finish the stories he would tell. He often asked “Now, (pause) how was it? I can’t quite remember.”

 

Detail

 

The back.

Today I have Emily’s airplane quilt on my design wall. She said this is going to be a slow process for her to get the whole alphabet in hanger talk on to this quilt.

 

And do you remember my “Jacob’s Ladder” quilt from an earlier post here and here? Well, I started quilting it in the center and going out to the edges. I used 2 layers of batting because I wanted it to puff up.

 

Not good, not good! The more I quilted it the worse it got. Aaarg!

 

So, … I cut it up and started the layout all over again.

 

Just look at all the different ways to put the blocks together.

 

Now I’m to this point and need to keep at it until it is finished. No more changing my mind!!!

So, here’s my Jacob’s Ladder quilt on my “design floor.”

 

Remember the SLM quilt that Emily and I are making for charity? Well … it’s finally finished and we are so pleased with the results.

 

You can see this quilt in progress at the bottom of this post “The Blue Chair.” Below is a picture of the quilt that gave us the inspiration. We started in the bottom left hand corner and worked our way up and right trying to make our quilt similar to the original one. Of course we had different fabrics and colors to work with and then we wanted our quilt to be much bigger in size to fit a bed, so we just kept adding blocks and sections as we went.

We got our inspiration from Film in the Fridge’s “Lotta Charm” quilt pictured below. Can you see any resemblance?

 

This is a QAYG (Quilt As You Go) quilt that we quilted each section with straight lines about 1/2″ apart, some going vertical and some horizontal.

The back of the quilt looks like this.

 

We made a label by sending fabric through the printer that had been ironed to freezer paper.

 

Can you tell we are pleased by our smiling faces?

 

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Last Friday I helped serve hot lunches at our Christian Day School.

 

No, you don’t have to take any radishes!

 

Aaaww, do we have to look at the camera?

 

Mmmm, that spaghetti was good!

 

The upper grades waiting their turn.

 

Chowing down!

And then they played hard at a good game of dodge ball.

My life has been a whirlwind lately.

Sewing Circle came and went and I only got one good picture. Here Nicki helps her mom Jen wind the crank to cut strips of fabric for carpet rags.

My sister Emily has finished quilting her “Shadow Boxes” quilt. It turned out great.

 

Paul loves watching the cotton crop. The bolls are opening and it is time for defoliation.

 

Dustin left this week for NY to see his fiance Gina. He delivered the airplane somewhere in DC and then took the boat on to it’s future home in NY. His wedding is coming up way too fast!!!!

 

Recent guests in our home have been Gabriel’s girlfriend, Dana from Atlanta …

 

… and Rick & Leona from Colorado.

 

 

 

 

Paul and I recently had a trip to Ohio with my sister Coleen & Glen. The men had a SLM board meeting and then we took in the Ohio Haiti Benefit Auction.

We took Angie and Tina Sue along and they enjoyed a visit with her parents and family.

 

Coleen and I reading, visiting, and doing puzzles while we travel.

 

We spotted this beautiful flower quilt in front of a near by restraunt.

 

Paul liked this refurbished John Deere tractor that was auctioned off.

 

Coleen is previewing items that will be sold on the auction.

 

We had a yummy breakfast the day of the auction. Here they are making mass quantities of scrambled eggs.

 

And these donuts, maple long johns, and apple fritters look so delicious.

 

Aunt Vera Rose sat next to us during the auction. She was delighted to hold her new granddaughter, Kyana.

 

I enjoyed watching the quilts sell …

… but I was disappointed this fresh modern quilt didn’t bring more money!

 

This was a popular booth for the children. They loved buying toys and candy.

 

For these boys, the swings and slides was a wonderful place to hang out with your buddies.

 

Chris and Joy kept the SLM booth in order and helped sell doilies that were made by the Haitian ladies.

 

 

 

 

What fun to have the grandchildren come home! We are missing Tina Sue who has been traveling.

 

Dustin helped entertain them by getting a kite ready to fly.

 

Only, there wasn’t enough wind. The boys loved it anyway!

 

Emily pieced this quilt top in a fast sort of way and it turned out great. I love her taste of color and fabric choices.

 

Scott had a birthday recently and Amy fixed him a cake.

 

He wouldn’t let on, but I think he secretly enjoyed the party!

 

Paul bought some jumbo shrimp the other day. I was glad for Amy and Gabriel’s help to clean them. I can’t stand the smell and working with slippery slimmy things like that.

 

They were glad to do the work to help eat them.

 

Stacy loves to play with my Russian dolls.

 

Recent guests in our home have been … Mike & Evelyn M. …

 

… and Paul & Vada S. Mike and Paul are cousins.

 

Jesse S. and our new school teacher, Stanton R.

 

My sister Emily & Perry and son Scott.

 

And I’m not sure if our children are guests, but I took their pictures anyway. Joel & Sheila and family.

 

Quinten & Evie and boys.

 

Craig & Angie and Tina