Our church was invited to Willard & Jen’s for a picnic under the shade trees.

 

Here Tressa enjoys one of her, (Is it 13?) great grand children.

 

Our congregation has many little children and young parents again after a long dry spell.

 

The youth group enjoyed each other’s company.

 

Dana & Thelma played “corn hole”  with …

 

… Jewel and Alma. Leland helped keep score.

 

Jeff visited with brothers, Otis & Elmer while their wives, Marie & Anna Mae who are sisters share together.

 

“Happy Birthday to You” made Diane smile for her 25th birthday.

 

Hiedi visits with the “birthday girl.”

 

On Sunday evening we gathered at Roy & Tillies for an outdoor hymn sing. Brother Roy is bedfast. He enjoyed the music from the open window.

 

After the singing these girls appeared at my side to shake my hand and get a pink lozenge. I failed to have the candy on hand, so I took their picture instead.

 

 Oneida rounded up a baby goat …

 

… for the children to pet.

I recently acquired 2 new books for my quilt library. The first one, “Color & Design by Heather Thomas” is an eye catching book. I found it at JoAnn’s in TN when I was at a Mountain QuiltFest. I had finished my shopping and decided I’d sit at the table to browse through this book while I waited on my sisters. This book is full of rich colorful photos of quilts and great designs and inspiration and ideas for quilts. I drooled quite a bit! There was a fellow sitting across the table from me and we engaged in small talk. He had been cutting trees all day and was tired. He brought his wife to JoAnns to indulge her and then they were going to go out for supper. When he realized that I really liked the book I was looking at he offered to buy it for me. Well … who am I that this stranger should buy a book for? And he was dead serious. We talked some more and I ask him to meet his wife. He finally found her and I met the sweetest lady, and yes, they like to bless people and would love to buy the book for me. With the 50% off coupon the $29.95 book was only $15. He handed me $16.00 cash. Oh, … I just couldn’t turn them down. And then in all my excitement I failed to get an address to send a thank you note, but I did write down their names, Eddie & Kathy from Knoxville, TN. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And this just makes me want to bless someone else.

 

And the second book “Baskets — New Quilts From an Old Favorite” is published each year with 18 finalists in the challenge. I like to enter this contest each year making a new innovative quilt from an old traditional quilt block. My entry this year ended up looking more like pyramids than baskets, so I named it “Pharaoh’s Tombs.” You can read about it here. I am pleased with my portion of the book and how gooood they made me look.

There was even room to tell about the ‘Farmer’s Delight’ quilts my family has made.

This book is available from AQS and Amazon.

I met Mother and a few of my sisters in Pigeon Forge for a week together.

The WonderWorks house behind us there would have been an interesting place to visit. However, we didn’t take in a single tourist attraction.

 

Instead, we enjoyed each others company and sewed when we weren’t out and about. Emily found an old Milky Way Feed Sack and added quilt blocks and flying geese to make a nice throw for her son Adam. She found the perfect table cloth at a thrift store for the back.

 

Barbara took a “Dancing Dots” class with …

 

… me and …

 

… Emily. We learned how to machine applique to make it look like hand applique.

 

Our teacher was Nancy Mahoney.

 

This bear quilt was an amazing work of art.

 

I was so “proud” of our Possum Town Quilter, Judy Stokes who won “Excellence in Hand Workmanship” in the Mountain Heritage Challenge.

 

Another quilter I met was Paul’s dad’s mother’s brother’s son’s wife’s, sister, Fannie. Somehow we found a connection! She is a professional longarm quilter and made this lovely “Blueberry Deight.”

 

I also met Cynthia England who made the amazing quilt behind us. Her technique is interesting and something I’d like to try. Everything is sewn with straight lines.

 

This man provided lovely background music for the quilters. He is with the “Smoky Mountain Aires” and has been playing for 28 years.

 

This quilt belongs to Dolly Parton. It was made by her aunt …

 

… from her stage & costume clothes.

 

Lunch with Mother, June, Barbara, and Emily (taking the picture) at The Tomato Head was wonderful on this pleasant day.

 

One evening we had BBQ at Corky’s. Delicious!

 

Emily, lovin’ the pig!

 

Inside the lobby was a nice waiting area.

 

We found and stopped at a lot of thrift stores.

 

I took this picture for my friends from church, Thelma & Louise.

 

This is a truely amazing quilt with all the colors and values changing around the quilt. It was drafted by the quilter’s husband and inspired by Judy Mathieson.

 

I like the crisp, clean look of this quilt.

 

This is one view from the upstairs balcony at Wyndham where we stayed.

 

The pansies at the front office were beautiful!

 

June working on her velvet comforter at our “home away from home.”

 

It’s going to be beautiful with the feather stitching.

 

Our hostess, Cindy showed us a “Stack a Posie” quilt she is making.

 

She is also cutting up her husbands old shirts to make a quilt.

Thank you for all the guesses at what song I am trying to depict. They were all good. I especially liked how Martha picked “We’re Marching On to Zion, … the Beautiful City of God,” and then that song kept ringing in her mind all day long!

I had a goal of getting all the fusing finished by Monday, and now I’ve even done more than that. I think it’s ready to quilt.

Stitching through Heat & Bond, Steam-a-Seam, and Wonder Under gummed up my needle, but I kept plugging away.

  

 I took care of Georgi one day at the office. She is a full time job, let alone trying to do office work.

 

Georgi’s umbrella reminds me of Sally in the Dick & Jane Readers.

 

Amy & Ashton fixing treats for the Girls Club.

 

Paul’s sister, Miriam, was surprised when we showed up for her birthday.

 

It was a chilly evening and the fire felt good.

 

Those soft brown marshmallows were free for the taking and oh, sooooo good!

 

Miriam was tickled with her bicycle that Kenneth gave her. She brought it into the house so the rain wouldn’t spoil it.

 

Recent guests in our home were Jerrel & Paula with Nic & Micah.

 

The Grabers wanted to visit with them before they left for home in Colorado.

 

Friends of Colonel Sanders at KFC.

 

After 2 games of Sequence, Gabriel (not pictured), Laura, Paul and I had 2 good games of …

 

… Blokus.

I’ve updated my blog

Life as a Quilter,

only this post is more about

mansions, Bryan & Emily, and family.

I have a clean slate this morning.

How can I make this project easy and undaunting?

Libby Lehman’s quilts have inspired me for a long time. I tried her techniques for the circles and ribbons and then cut it to pieces and made it my own. Now it’s on it’s way to Pigeon Forge for A Mountain QuiltFest.

It’s Monday morning and I’m still having problems with my quilt.

 

I started out with 2 separate tops and layered the dark one on the left on top of the lighter one on the right.

 

Then I made circles and cut out the top fabric inside of the circles to expose the lighter bottom fabric.

 

Next I added a gold satin stitch around the circles.

 

Then I started adding the stitched thread to make the ribbon. You can see how it is puckering and shrinking on the right side of the picture.

 

I decided to go ahead and finish the ribbon and went over it a second time with a slightly darker thread on the “big” edge. This caused more and more distortion.

 

So I decided to cut out the ribbon … and now I need to decide what to do!

Can it be that our oldest grandchild turned 4 already? He got to go to Sunday School this morning and came back a smiling boy!

 

I remember when his daddy turned 4 and now he’s helping his son cut the cake.

 

Great Gramma Lee helped Kirby with the Silly Putty and answered his many questions.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

~Parting Shot ~

Grampa trying to make Tina smile.

Tina’s first picture with her quilt wasn’t a happy occasion!

I started this quilt at our Sewing Retreat in Virginia and just didn’t have time to get it finished.

Sheila calms Tina for a better picture. Somehow she knows if you are sitting and bouncing or standing and bouncing!

Years ago we bought the nice L-shaped desk under the window for my sewing machine. It worked great, only I wanted a hole cut into it to drop my machine down for a flush flat table. Paul thought the desk was way too nice and new to cut a hole in it. So, we moved it across the room for office, computer, & printer work. It’s “his” desk now. Then since he didn’t want to cut a hole I thought maybe one of those old time L-shaped desk with a drop return would work for my sewing machine.

My sister Emily found a used one in Virginia for me. When Paul came to pick me up he brought the pickup truck and we hauled it home to Mississippi. It sits so perfectly in the corner right outside of my fabric closet. And I’ve ordered a “Sew Steady” table to wrap around the machine to fit up against the left part of the desk. Oh my, I just need more time to make quilts!

We were glad to have Ed & Marti join us for pizza last Saturday.