It's that time of the year again

For the Blogger's Quilter Festival!  It's always amazing to me to peruse everyone's entries, read their stories and their blogs...there is so much talent and creativity amongst us all!After pondering a bit about this year's entry, I decided on my youngest son Tanner's quilt, partly because it relates back to this quilt, which was my first entry in the quilter's blogfest.

I recently finished this quilt up for my son after he patiently waited (a few years) for it's completion.  You see before I undertook the huge project of the raffle quilt, I had made a quilt similar to this one for a coworker who was undergoing dialysis. It's color scheme was predominately yellow, pink, purple and lavendar. I wanted to do something to help her, I felt awful for her situation, but she is a very private person and didn't want a big fuss made. So, I found myself with a finished quilt, unsure of how to approach her with this gift that I had made, time went by, she was off on medical leave and in the meantime, I just sort of wrote it all off as a good idea whose time had passed, a little embarrassed at myself for not having stepped up and given her the gift.  Little did I know, but during all of this Tanner had sort of adopted this quilt as his own! 

Then, word came that Tracie was to have a kidney transplant and a group of us at work wanted to find a way to raise some money to help with medical expenses. Thus came about the raffle quilt!  So now here I am, engaged in the large undertaking of organizing the making of  the raffle quilt and I mention that I had this other quilt to give to Tracie, but didn't know if it was still a good idea to give it to her...one thing leads to another...and I sit down with Tanner to explain to him that this nice lady (for whom the quilt was made for originally) really needs (his) quilt to feel better and did he mind if I gave it to her after all? 

He readily agreed and handed it over, I left his room and went about my evening only to realize sometime later, that he hadn't come out and that was a bit unusual, since it was nowhere near bedtime!  I ventured back in to see what was up, only to find him quietly crying on his bed! After giving him a hug, asking what was the matter and explaining that I was a bit suprised that since the quilt was in "girl colors" he was so upset, he put a little tear in my heart by saying, "yeah but Mom, I love it because you made it"...Well, that cemented it...at 8pm on a school night, we hopped in the car, headed to JoAnn's and he picked out all the fabric for his very own "boy version" of the same quilt!

I think he was 8 or 9 at the time, but I still remember the look on his face as he explained his tears to me and how horrible I felt for having hurt his feelings...after all, he was a "big boy" by then, all rough and tumble with holes in his jeans and skinned knees from climbing whatever would hold still long enough for him to scale it...but deep down, he was still my little boy who might not let me give him kisses at night, but needed a blankie now and then and a Mom to understand that he can't always tell her when he needed some tenderness once in awhile. I cringe to say that it has been about 4 years since we bought the fabric for his quilt. My youngest son Tanner is now 13, he's six foot tall, wears size 13 tennis shoes, his hair is longer than would be my choice, his pants don't always cover everything I would like them to cover and his quilt is a bit too short for him, but he takes it everywhere he plans to sleep at night!

What did I learn from all of this? Well hmmmm...always get things done in a timely manner, buck up and do the right thing (again, in a timely manner), boys (no matter how old) still need their Moms once in awhile and never, never, never underestimate the comfort that is shared when the gifts we give are handmade and given with love!

Is It Really Done?

I have long admired this quilt from the tutorial on Make It a Wonderful Life's blog and have wanted to give it a go for at least a year now.  Well, I made my first purchase off of Etsy one evening of a bunch of 6" squares, but when they came in the mail, well, they just weren't what I was expecting...but determined not to file them away for a later date and having purchased a new circle template ruler...what the heck, it was worth a try to see how they looked. Along came a Saturday when my DH and YS were putting a new motor in the OS's pickup...and voila! I managed in an 8 hr day to get all the circles done and the rows assembled, which only left the border to complete.  That was finished last night at 12:30am...much to my DH's chagrin.  I had (in the back of my mind) intended to add a white border with rickrack vines meandering with a few raw-edge appliqueed flowers and leaves to make it a little larger (at the moment the dimensions stand at 57 x 64 which is a little small-ish) I don't know...I'm thinking that I like it without the extra border...as always, I am in a quandry!

Just so you know

That I have been at least a bit productive...I really have! These quarter blocks are for the second round of the Modern Bento Block Swap and are ready for mailing. In the original swap, I made enough to make a small-ish lap quilt, so when someone suggested a second round, I was definitely in. I love a quilt large enough to snuggle under, so with the 24 quarter blocks I'll receive in return, it should produce something snuggle-worthy...if the right person in my oldest son's life really likes it, perhaps this might become a graduation gift! Not only have I worked on these lovelies, I have also done some hand sewing on my Grandmother's Flower Garden while gadding about Central Washington on camping trips and such!  There are perhaps 4 more hexies to go on one flower and then the 3 main rows will be connected.  Then comes the task of making the connecting diamonds and the borders, still a bit more work to do, but it's getting there and I'm excited! I will post pictures when all the flowers are stitched together, until then, well...school started for the youngest son today, so it is time to herd him off to bed so I can start a new book! TTFN...

Wow...19 years

Has it really been that long? I remember it like it was yesterday...all the preparations, all the anticipation and a lot of stress, not to mention an all night session the night before the wedding, putting all the flowers together.  My best friend Kathy traveling from Alaska to serve as my Maid of Honor, my Mother in the midst of a gallbladder attack and Valium induced, removing half of the beading on one of my sleeves at the church because there just wasn't enough time to finish both...and now that you mention it, my dear, sweet Grandma & Grandpa Soma spending the week before the nuptuals at my parent's house the entire week before to help with everything...and the two of us (Emily and I) sewing beads and sequins on my gown in the evenings...oh, how I treasure THOSE memories.  Then the day was finally here and my Dad and I were standing at the end of the aisle at Richland Lutheran Church, at 2pm sharp and he asked me, "are you nervous?"..."Nope, says I...let's do this!" I distinctly remember anxiously wanting to begin the rest of my life with my new best friend...

DH asked me as we ceremoniously cut the cake, "what do we do now?"..."just start shoving" and so we did....1 year later, I was still picking cake and frosting out of my earrings...19 short years and two kids later, he is still my best friend, the one with whom I love spending time, the one who completes me...wow, who would have thunk it? Me, of course...it seems that I knew the moment I saw him...

Both Sons have quilts, can I have one now?

I'm feeling pretty good right now, having finished two ufo's in two weeks. It has made me realize though, that I need to pay more attention when I add  borders that I cut them on the straight of grain and measure more precisely, rather than wing it like I did this time in the name of getting something finished. That, and I need to work from the middle out in both directions. It was well pinned and stretched on my livingroom floor and I had intended to just do straightline quilting over the entire quilt, but made the mistake of first stitching in the ditch each vertical row before going back to do the other closely spaced vertical lines...major puckering  ensued the closer I got to the end, which resulted in a frustrated and unhappy quilter, but alas, it was another lesson learned and my oldest is happy with it.  My husband, bless his soul, remarked, "you are the only one who notices that anything is wrong with it." I do have to admit that most of the puckers crinkled up nicely after washing and drying. So, now comes the question...what do I make for us now? I'm considering a quilt as you go log cabin like the tutorial/quiltalong done by Sewtakeahike, that looks totally do-able in queensize...And I would only have to wrestle with the beast quilting-wise when putting the backing on (let me explain that my Brother has a relatively small throat, which makes anything larger than a twin a real challenge to mash through the opening) As I ponder my decision further, let me leave you with the pic of the whole quilt hanging on the backyard fence.

Almost...But Done Enough To Show You

My hope was to get this finished last night and washed this morning, but with all of the running around that happens on a Saturday in my house, it just didn't happen. My DH installed a new oven in the trailer (doing the happy dance here...the old oven didn't work and was just old enough that you couldn't get parts for it anymore) but for some reason, it didnt have an oven rack and he had to improvise...a replacement bbq grill and a set of bolt cutters did the trick (at least it wasn't duct tape...hehe!!). While he was working on that, I whipped up a batch of pico de gallo, some ceviche to go with last night's dinner AND a pan of enchiladas for dinner tonight.  My reward was a refreshing mango margarita and dinner in the back yard until I realized that ahem, I could be stitching on my binding if it were machine attached...off went that hat and inside I went to break out the sewing machine to get that done. The sun, however, was nowhere to be seen by the time that it was accomplished...not to worry though, I popped my posterior on the couch and listened to the Sons of Anarchy reruns that DH was watching...the end was in sight...one more corner to go...1am rolled around and this girl just couldn't keep her eyes open any longer....Oh well, there is always today, right?! I can have it finshed, washed and nicely folded for my firstborn to take with him out to the ranch this evening, with that being said, I need to get a move on if I am going to fit in a well-deserved (ok, not really deserved, more like heavily craved) chocolate chip ice cream cone  at the Country Mercantile!!!

It's a Finish!

Finally! After 3 years (or was it 4?) of sitting on the shelf, I finally finished my youngest son's quilt...he wasn't quite so tall when I started it though and when I saw him sleeping with it this morning, it didn't look nearly big enough for him (sigh), he loves it...couldn't wait for it to come out of the dryer even! Don't look too closely at all the puckers in the back...(no really, don't look!) In retrospect, I would have quilted it differently had I to do it over again, but by the time I had decided that, it was halfway quilted...and I was NOT going to pick out all those stitches!!! Now it's on to the next quilt top...I wonder if I could get it quilted by the end of this weekend? Hmmm.....