Blogger's Quilt Festival

This year's entry for the Spring Quilt Blogger's Festival belongs to my Mother-in-law Linda...or at least it will eventually, the top has been finished for some time now, it was even sandwiched and pinned.  Then I tried to put it on my machine for quilting and it really was just too big and bulky to wedge in there without fighting it throughout the entire process.  Perhaps it is a candidate for hand quilting, that is when I gather my resolve and give it a whirl!  I'm just not sure if I should start on this one the first time out!
Anways, the story behind it goes something like this: Linda has had leukemia for about 14 years now and only just in the last 2 years has had to do any real chemo to treat it, I had bought Eleanor Burne's book Egg Money Quilts and saw the version that she made of this in yellows to depict sunflowers for a wedding quilt. Well, Linda happens to adore purple...and once I put it all together, the flowers reminded me of echinacea blossoms (which consequently is a supplement that is known to boost the immune system) how perfect!! I remember when we found out her diagnosis we were all full of gloom and doom and prepared for the worst, but not Linda...nope, she is a testament to will and inner strength, not to mention abiding faith in the Lord.  She told us all that she had too much to live for to succumb to her illness, she had gradchildren to see graduate and get married and great-grandbabies to love.  So now in 2 weeks, my oldest son, her second oldest grandchild, will graduate from high school and she will be here to celebrate with us, just as spunky as ever!!! And it is my prayer that she will see her goal through to the end and that I will kick myself into gear and get this quilted for her so it can infuse it's strengthening powers...Finally, thank you Amy for hosting this years festival...it's your hard work and determination that allows heartwarming stories and those things that inspire us to make the quilts that we do in the first place to be shared amongst us all

Do you ever...

Feel like voting yourself off the island? This week has been extremely emotionally draining...and I'm there, let me tell you...I never in a million years thought that something as simple as a couple of pieces of fabric missing off of a quilt could cause such discontent...well, I volunteered my time and pieced this quilt in conjunction w/some women at my workplace (none of which have ever completed a quilt themselves) and in the upper portion of the light blue, there was supposed to be appliqued two bears and 3 trees...and it just amazes me that the absence of those 5 items can ruin a couple of friendships...honestly it makes my heart sad...so vote me off the island if that's what you need to do...I give up, valuable lesson learned...

Marathon Quilting at it's finest/ Not quite a Friday Finish...

Woo Hoo!! I finally have a finished project to post!  It's been awhile since my last report, mostly because there just hasn't been anything to really show for my efforts.  I have started things and as per usual, lose my enthusiasm and move onto the next inspiration. There is nothing, however, like a deadline to inspire completion regardless of enthusiasm or lack thereof. Three weeks ago, a meeting was had to set the end date for this quilt (May 16 being the presentation of Susie's quilt day) and having plenty of time, or so I thought, I relaxed and waited for the quilting bug to hit me.  Well, I ended up in the ER last weekend, so no progress was made there, which left me a week to get the quilting and binding done.  Tuesday evening, I wound bobbins, cleaned the lint out of the bobbin case, installed a new needle and set to work with stippling...can you say yuck? The thread color was all wrong and my stippling was nothing less than uglieness...so out came the seam ripper and I tore those stitches out, a total waste of an evening.  Wednesday evening brought a new color of thread, new winding of the bobbins and loopy stippling, lots and lots of loopiness, about a third of the quilt in loopiness...being pleased with my progress, I took the quilt off the machine and laid it on the bed...and realized that the green thread that matched the backing fabric looked as if a child had scribbled  all over the light portions on the front of the quilt, again, ugliness and the arrival of the seam ripper. Thursday brought the realization that this quilt may not be presentable by Sunday. That, however, was not a scenario that could be entertained...so I caved and took 4 hours of precious vacation time on Friday to finish ripping out the offending stitches and to start anew.  By 1am Saturday morning, I could see light at the end of the tunnel and hope was renewed, so I went to bed.  Back to work by 9am, it was bound, washed, dried and photographed by 8pm that evening and delivered to a co-worker who was attending the Sunday morning party at Susie's house.  With nothing better to do now but to relax, I poured a glass of wine or three and celebrated the evening in the backyard on my newly laid sod with my DH and pups...BIG sigh of relief!!! Next on the agenda? Ummmm, well...get this house ready for graduation in 19 days...YIKES!!!