Friday Finish

Well, almost...It still needs quilting but I am happy to have it pieced and ready for the frame!

This quilt will make its way to the post office soon. Some unsuspecting soul will be the new owner of my quilt as a surprise Christmas present. hmmm...Now who could that be?

Fall Inspired Mini Quilt

I joined a Fall Mini Quilt Swap over at the Quilting Gallery and received this wonderful quilt from Marijke op den camp from the Netherlands in the mail yesterday! It is an awesome show of workmanship! It will have its own special place on one of my walls so that when I have company they can enjoy it as well! I count myself very lucky to have received such a work of art!




I also received 2 extra giftees in with my quilt. This lady did her homework because she had to know I love pigs.

The Love Of Friends!

"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."

My mother passed away in September and my friends from the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Forum made me a comfort quilt. My friends Nicki and Elaine, both from Massachusetts, got in touch with the ladies in secret and had them send in a block to go in the quilt. After they put the quilt top together they sent it to my friend Carol, from Texas, and she quilted it. My good friend Carolyn, from California, hand painted a label and sent it to Carol to go on the back. After the quilt was completed it was mailed to my friend Karen, from Virginia, who brought it to me this past weekend.

Karen and I had been planning a visit for some time but I did not know she would be bringing me such a gift of friendship! Of course I cried but they were happy tears. These ladies are such awesome friends! I am so blessed to have each and every one of them in my life!

Southern Hospitality and Blog Friends

My friend Karen and I had the distinct pleasure of showing Lettie some good old southern hospitality Saturday. Lettie is from Hawaii and had come to North Carolina with her husband so he could have surgery at a nearby hospital. I found her blog while browsing blogland earlier in the week and found that she was spending her time between the hospital and her hotel. I replied and offered to come and take her for lunch and go quilt shopping and she took me up on it. My friend Karen was coming to visit me from Virginia so I asked her if she would like to do this and she readily agreed.

I told Lettie about my friend Karen and that we were both members of the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Forum. She told me that she was a member there too but did not really take part in the conversation. I told her what my and Karen's boardnames were and she recognized them right off. It really is a small world sometimes.

Lettis told us they did not have Olive Gardens in Hawaii so we took her there for lunch. We had a fabulous 2 hour luncheon! Talk came as easily as if we had been friends for years. We finished our lunch off with a fabulous Lemon Creme Cake! We all 3 split a piece but I believe if we had not been so full we all could have eaten a whole piece by ourselves.

After lunch we took off to a quilt shop on the far side of town. Wish Upon A Quilt had some fabulous fabrics and we all 3 found plenty to bring home. We headed over to our local JoAnn's from there because Lettie said they did not have a JoAnn's either. They have the Ben Franklin Stores and most likely are similar. JoAnn's has done a complete facelift of their store and it was really busy. Lettie found several fabrics to take back with her and got a number to stand in line. Her number was 82 and they were only at 54 at that time! I had never seen it so busy! But we waited it out and Lettie was happy with her purchases as we got in the truck to take her back to the hotel.

It was 6 p.m. by now and we all were really tired. I thought I knew a shorter way to get back to her hotel and we wound up getting lost. LOL We were back on the other side of town when all was said and done and I found myself in a little bit of distress as to which lane I needed to be in to exit onto the interstate. We were trying to get someone's attention in the car next to us and they were holding their hands up like, I can't hear you. I thought, duh, you can't hear me because your window is up. They finally rolled their window down and after I asked them which lane was the inner belt line they said their lane. So they allowed us in front of them but when I got closer to the exit ramp I saw what the signs said. There is an inner and outer beltline and I was afraid I was really in the wrong lane. I was sitting at a red light so I called my husband and he confirmed I was so I had to get back over where I originally was. The traffic was horrific but thank goodness there was a car lagging back so we were able to get over easily. We were all 3 laughing by now but we were just glad when we finally found the hotel again. We said our goodbyes and Karen and I proceeded to go home.

We only got a short distance from the hotel and my truck made a really high pitched shrieking noise. I pulled over to the curb and we both got out and I called 911. They sent the law who didn't really help so we got back in and headed home. It never made the sound again but Miss Silverado is headed to town today to the truck-spital.

We had to stop at Michaels for my hubby and then stop and get some supper to take home so it was 9 p.m. when we pulled in to my driveway. It was a long day but a very good day! Any day you can meet up with such wonderful people and share a day of fellowship is always a pleasure! I hope to be able to see Lettie again in the future. I don't want the same reason to bring her to NC but I do hope she gets to come back!

Lettie


Karen and Lettie

The Start Of It All!

The Farmer Boy continues to be one of my favorite old patterns to work with. I like him far better than Sunbonnet Sue. Why, I don't know, unless it is that little red hanky in his back pocket. lol

When I was 19 I began quilting for the public. It wasn't long after I started my business that I made a Farmer Boy quilt. There was a new gift shop in town that accepted consignments so I took it in and showed it to the shop owner. She accepted it and put it on display for sale. I walked out feeling quiet proud of myself that something I made was actually for sale in a gift shop. I received a phone call from the shop owner the very next day telling me that it had already sold and the lady who bought it ordered a second one in a different colorway. I was ever excited!! This was the boost I really needed to help keep me going forward.

I failed to take photos of those 2 quilts back then...heck I wasn't very good at making photos of anything I made in the beginning and how I wish I had!

The following Farmer Boy quilt was made for my husbands niece for her new baby boy. I really liked the setting of this particular quilt and was glad that I made the blocks long and skinny instead of the usual 12 1/2 inch square.

Don't Throw Out Those T-Shirts!

Do you have bins full of t-shirts from days gone by? Do your children have t-shirts from their school days that you just cannot throw away? Well, make a lasting memory quilt with those shirts and surprise them with a gift they would never expect!

I made the following quilt for a friend of mine to give to her daughter. The daughter had gone to Law School. The shirts reflect various clubs she was in during her college years as well as trips she went on. When the quilt was picked up, the mother was very well pleased with the finished product! Her daughter was delighted as well!

If you are interested in a memory quilt, please visit my website through the link on my sidebar. My contact information can be found there.

Tricia Cribbs

Tricia Cribbs owns FriendFolks.com, designs patterns, writes books, and is a fabric designer. She is the designer of the Turning Twenty patterns that have been a huge success in the quilting world!

I started my longarm quilting business in early 2006 and after practicing for a while, Tricia sent me this quilt to quilt for one of her new books that she was writing. I wish I had it back "to do over" because I would quilt it a lot differently. I have advanced in my quilting quiet a bit since this quilt. I wasn't ever going to show it but this morning while going through some of my CD's I decided why not. At least I would be giving Tricia some advertisement.

This quilt pattern can be found in her book E-Z Beez-y Quilts Book.

If you have never been to Friendfolks.com you need to head on over there. Tricia has lots of great patterns, books and fabrics for you to check out!

School Memories

Miss Mazelle Hardin was my literature teacher as well as my mom's and my dad's. She retired the year before my oldest would have been in her class. She was such a wonderful teacher! I loved her so much as so many other fellow classmates did too.

She was a petite lady, always carrying her black patent purse on the bend of her elbow. The boys in my class were always getting into trouble just to get a paddling from her. She was so petite she had to hold the paddle with both hands just to give it a good swing. The boys would always tell her they loved her when she called them out in the hall for the paddling. They were constantly putting rubber spiders in her desk drawer just to hear her squeal.

She was fluent back then in a couple of languages other than English and would try to teach us to say a few things. The phrase that stands out in my mind was one in French. How do you plant cabbage.... I can still hear her saying "Comment plantez-vous le chou ?"

She never married but elected to live with and take care of her parents. Her father passed a few years ago but she was blessed to have her mother up until last year. Her mother passed in 2008 at the sweet age of 99. Miss Hardin would not want me telling her age but she is still feeling very well and I hope to be able to visit her during the Christmas holidays this year.

This is a poem she had us memorize in 10th grade. We had to stand up in front of the class and recite it from memory. I was always so nervous when we had to do things like this. But I passed with flying colors...as always.

Here's to you Miss Hardin!


Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost
New Hampshire
1923

Crazy Quilting Round Robin

My good friends Carolyn, Nicki, Darlene and Ellen were in a round robin with me for the past 5 months and we are all starting to get our finished blocks home. This is the block that these ladies have worked their magic on for me! Isn't it a beauty!

Every Christmas I always chose one unsuspecting person to give a gift to...someone I would never give a gift to otherwise. As I am shopping, I let the gift chose the person actually. While shopping I will finally come upon something that I will know a certain person would just love and that is how they are chosen. It has to be something unique...nothing normal will do. After this person has been chosen, they can never be chosen again. Each year it is always someone new.

While deciding what fabrics, color scheme and theme my CQ RR block would be my eyes fell upon these lucious purple fabrics that I had purchased from Marj on Ebay. I knew right then who my unsuspecting person would be for this year. My friend Sue, who I go to guild with each month loves purple!! ANYTHING she sees that is purple, she thinks she has to have!

So I wrote a note to the ladies and told them who the block would be for and gave them a little note about my friend...She loves cats, flowers, anything to do with nature. I love how these ladies came together and worked their magic to create such a stunning work of art for me to present to my friend!

I am going to take a photo of the presentation because I want my friends to see the reaction on Sue's face when she opens her gift. I will share that with you during the Christmas holidays!

Granny Ida

Granny Ida was born October 11,1900. She lived to be 94 years young....passing on to the sweet side in December of 1994. She was a quilter and crocheter. I have a few pieces of her crochet and will cherish them forever! I also have a quilt that she gave me when I first married in 1978. It is stained but still together because it is made from double knit fabrics. She loved to do applique quilts using those fabrics. They will be here when nothing else is.

Granny had 10 children, one of which died at the age of 3 months. My mother was child #7. My granddaddy died when my mother was 4 and left granny to raise all those children on her own. She never remarried. When her last child left the nest, she was afraid to stay alone so she moved into the house with our family. I grew up under a quilting frame because granny always had a quilt up working on it. She sold many of her quilts to neighbors in the community. I am sure she did not get what they were worth! She also sold many crochet items. I wish I had some of her early works back from these people.

Granny did not like chocolate and did not drink cola. She did like to have a grape or orange Nehi on occassion. But she loved her coffee! Her favorite cake was homemade coconut and her favorite pie was egg custard. From way back I cannot remember granny having any teeth. Most likely due to the fact that they rotted out of her mouth because she dipped Bruton Snuff for many years. She was very clean with it and you could never smell it on her. She never enjoyed french fries because they made her gums sore but she loved her mashed potatoes.

As hard as it might be to imagine granny never drove a car. She never got her license, never wanted to.

Her hero was John Wayne! My sister bought her the entire VHS set of his movies one year for Christmas. Granny thought she had died and gone to heaven already. :)

She loved to play rook, aggravation, and dominoes. She would sit for hours with her grandchildren and play games as long as they would. She was truly a wonderful granny!

She taught me all I know about quilting, along with my dad's mom...Granny Ella. If it weren't for these 2 remarkable ladies, I may have never learned to love quilting the way that I do.

In 4 days we will celebrate grannys birthday even though she is no longer with us. We will celebrate the beautiful memories as we do every day of the year! So, please join in with me and leave this remarkable lady a special message!

2 UFO's Finished!

I was in an Ugly Swap that a friend hosted early last year? I sent this fabric in as my ugly..


This is the quilt I received back...I just loved it.. :)...I finally got it quilted and bound..Ready to hang in my quilting studio!



This is a Choose Your Own Color String Block Swap that I was in...

I took my blocks and put fusible web behind them and put them on a big piece of muslin...I then used the folded bias tape and sewed it to each area where the blocks met...I did not quilt this one...I added buttons in the cornerstone areas...I did put batting behind the quilt top and finished the quilt using the pillowcase method. I sewed a 1/4 inch seam along the edges.

This one will hang in my sewing studio as well...I was going to put it on my website for sale but hubby said NO! :)

I may play with adding some crazy quilting stitches around the border but that will be for this winter when we are snowed in! :)

A Little Crazy Quilting

I am participating in some crazy quilting round robins and have been in a few that are completed. I wanted to share a little bit of the work that I did on some of the blocks that came my way.

This is a Mermaid RR that I am involved in at the moment. I fussy cut an image from the computer and embellished the hair with fibers and beads and gave her a pair of earrings. I thought the sun coming up over the horizon was the perfect finishing touch for this part of the block.


I purchased the pewter branch at Hobby Lobby and love using them in my CQ work. The large flower was dyed by my good friend Nicki If you love hand dyed laces and appliques, check out her blog!


My first ever beaded bird! This is one of my favorite additions to anything I have worked on so far.


I had seen a vase similar to this stitched and wanted to try my hand at stitching one. I think I nailed it. I really liked how it turned out.


A friend had previously stitched a wheelbarrow on someone elses block and I really liked it and wanted to do one myself. When this block came my way I knew it was the perfect opportunity. I stitched the wheelbarrow and filled it full of flowers that I painted with sharpie markers and 3 glass rose beads.2 of the flowers were dyed by my good friend Nicki Finishing off with Mr. Bluebird on the handle. :)


My friend had painted her own silkie upon which was a white fence so I brought the fence to the outer edge of the block. I embellished with trailing roses, birds, a rabbit, and butterfly.


My friend Carolyn, from CA, painted her own silkie and I stitched the wreath frame around the the 2 sides and embellished with tiny sequin flowers in colors to match the flowers she painted.


I have found that painting lace with sharpie markers can be quiet relaxing and fun. The lace in the lower left corner was painted with a sharpie and then embellished with tiny white beads.


This is my first spider. The quilter requested we stay mainly with blues, whites and creams so hence, she has a blue spider. I think she turned out quiet nice. :)