Yeah, yeah. Not talking about alcohol, but the two quilts I made for Susan. Over the years she kept all her sons’ soccer and basketball jerseys. I’ve assembled them into quilts for them for Christmas. I finished sewing borders on the quilts today.
You can barely see it, but in the corners of the quilt are pieces of a baby blanket. The green outer border will have all basketball and soccer patches on it once the top is quilted.
Quilt number 2.
I loved making each of these. Such fun!
Fall.
The perfect season.
Cool, crisp mornings. Breezy afternoons.
You can smell it in the air.
Leaves are starting to change.
And I cannot wait to wear my new fall goodies!
I love fall afternoons. The weather is perfect to take Sean outside to play. And, the mommies on the block turn it into cocktail hour. Vodka tonic, anyone?
Just in time to ring in the new season, I finished Karen’s quilt. The colors scream October wedding.
I hope she likes it!
Gotta run. The baby is up!
A few weeks ago Karen surprised Rick for his 60th birthday with a weekend at the fabulous Ritz Carlton Reynolds Plantation.
Good food
great drinks
dancing
singing
fun with the family
(don’t we look like we are having fun?)
and much debauchery!
Okay, not that much debauchery.
In honor of the blessed event, I made Rick an autograph quilt.
This is my favorite block. Efrosini, aka Max, is Greek, and she so appropriately signed the quilt.
Cool, huh?
Sean is a like Visa card. He’s EVERYWHERE I want to be…
on a chair, the cabinet under the sink, the refrigerator, you get the idea…
wherever I want to be!
He certainly keeps me busy. I am surprised that I somehow find time to do anything.
Today I made Rice Krispie treats AND cleaned the house. Okay, well only the downstairs, but nonetheless, it’s still clean. Except for the desk. And that’s Mike’s space, even though you wouldn’t quite know it. I have managed to take over a corner or two.
A friend of mine had a little girl a few weeks ago. I haven’t met Ashley yet, but get to next week. I made her what I consider the easiest quilt in the world. A lot of bang for something so easy.
I have a few other projects that I am eager to start. Don’t I always?
For the past three years I have made a quilt for LifeLink of Georgia,
http://www.lifelinkfound.org/georgia.cfm
LifeLink is an independent, non-profit organ and tissue recovery organization dedicated to serving patients in need of transplant therapy and their families. I think that organ donation is such an important cause, and though I often find myself in tears while making the quilt, I am glad I do.
LifeLink has a ceremony each year and the quilt is presented to families that lost a loved one. Each family, or a family member, makes a block, then I assemble the quilt. I couldn’t find a photo of any of the last few I’ve made. It’s entirely possible that I didn’t snap a picture. Silly me! I’ll be sure to do that this year. Quilt will hopefully be finished in a few weeks.
I am currently putting the binding on another quilt, too. Will tell you more about that one later.
Kids grow like weeds.
Or peppers.
A group of us started a community garden a few months ago and we have our first bell pepper. I’m very proud of this little pepper. The whole garden really. And, it’s been great for the kids in the neighborhood too! Nolan, my neighbor Amy’s youngest son, found our first pepper! He was quick to point it out and I think the first pepper should go to him once it’s ready.
It’s really a glorious thing to watch something you love grow right before your eyes. Pepper or person.
A year ago Sean was a spikey-haried blob, and now he’s walking, talking, and letting his will be known.
He has a friend down the street, Izzy and they like to play together. Well, as much as children their age play together. More like, play in the same space. She’s five months younger than Sean. Izzy’s dad keeps telling Sean he can be her prom date, but I worry about what dad really thinks about letting his daughter go out with anyone. Even a “safe” date! Lucky for all of us that’s still a few years away!
Izzy and Sean were introduced to sidewalk chalk the other day. Sean thought it was tremendous fun to write on the sidewalk, the mailboxes. ME!! I was covered in chalk! And little Iz had blue teeth! We tried to keep her from eating it, but she found chalk to be tasty. Or just different. Or both. At least she could wash it down with a swig of Sean’s water!
I’m almost finished with my latest quilt. I am quilting the borders right now. I have one side finished. Three to go! Once that’s finished I can start quilting my Sea Urchins quilt. I know what I want to do, now I need to find the time to quilt it. Hmmm. Maybe at the October retreat. Maybe in my spare time. Maybe never.
I stopped drinking caffeine for a long time. Decaf coffee, no soft drinks. Then I had a baby and I find that the afternoon boost is absolutely necessary. Instead of napping in the afternoon, I get a boost with my new favorite drug. It’s affordable. Legal. Tastes good as a latte or a diet coke. And, it keeps me going. By the time Sean is up from his nap, I’m ready to go again! Off to the park. Playing with Gabe and Nolan or just running around the yard. Once dinner is cooked and cleaned Sean is off to bed (well, shortly thereafter) and I can sew.
It’s my creative time, and while I wish I had more of it, I take what I can get. I am finally learning to prioritize. And drink more caffeine. It’s tough to stick to one project, but I’m getting things finished. I promised myself I’d be a “closer” this year – I cannot start on a new project unless it was already slated to happen. I haven’t finished quite as much as I’d have liked, but this has kept me from having too many projects going on at one time (thank you Michelle Hiskey for the great idea!). I do have a lot of quilt ideas and not enough time to execute. I have drawings everywhere so I can remember what I planned to do with scraps, or a particular fabric. Or, just because. Or something looked cool. Or I found inspiration from the dove nesting on my deck.
I did just finish this pillow for Sean’s room.
Cute, huh?
This was an extra block from a project I was working on. I decided a slightly different color scheme was more appealing to me, but what to do with the lone block? Oh, yeah! Make a pillow! There are two black and white striped covered buttons keeping the back closed.
Now off to work on the next project. Or to clean. hmmm.
Thanksgiving was great. Michael and I have a lot to be thankful for this year. Nana had a good time with her grand and great-grand kids. Averie didn’t want to stop moving. She had lots to see and do before leaving Aunt Sherry’s. No time for a photo she says!
Katie came into town. It was so nice to see her, and I think she had a good time playing with Sean. Her boss Marc, and his assistant, Camille, gave Sean the green sweatshirt. It’s a 2t, but all the cool kids in LA have one. I am certain that Sean will love his green sweatshirt once he grows into it.
We spent the entire weekend with Michael’s family. It was lovely. We even managed to all watch the Georgia/Georgia Tech game without too much heckling. Of course, my team was winning, and I was outnumbered by Georgia Tech fans so I kept it to a minimum.
I took Sean to meet Santa on Monday. He was fascinated with Santa’s beard. I did have to tell Santa to watch Mr. Grabby-Grabby. I’d hate for Sean to start off on the wrong foot and pull Santa’s beard. Ouch! Sean was very happy to sit on Santa’s lap. Of course, he had no idea what was going on, but I did. And I had a good time with it!
I managed to get him to smile! Not bad for his first visit to see Santa. Oh, and his shirt says “Who needs Santa when I have Grandma”
So, to digress for a bit, the show I was in last month wasn’t so great. I am glad I did it, but I don’t think I’ll participate in that particular show again. It was rather disappointing, but other vendors mentioned that they were less than thrilled with the turnout too. I was glad it wasn’t just me. I did sell a few barrette holders and there were several people interested in my quilts. If just one person has me make a quilt for them then the show will have been a success for me. Thus far no one has called. bummer. I did enjoy having Mom in town for a day. She, Sean and my Aunt Addie got to hang out. Mom even gave Sean a bath in the sink. He didn’t like it.
Mary Alma has her quilt now. It’s all finished and lovely. I think it turned out rather well myself.
I have the body of Brooke’s two quilts assembled. Here’s a close up of one. I am hoping to get borders on this week. Yeah! Oh, what a relief that will be for me!
T-shirt quilts are so much fun to make, and I was on a tear after putting Brooke’s quilts together that I started on my Pi Phi t-shirt quilt. Finally. I have had the shirts prepped for a year but hadn’t made time to assemble the squares. Go figure. I have most of the squares finished. I had originally planned to have each square finish at 15 inches, but the larger shirts that don’t have any borders look funny, so now they are all going to finish a bit larger. I think. I have to look at everything again. I put one row together the other night and decided that I didn’t like it, so I’m in brainstorming mode again. I’d love to go with what I have and plan to tweek the larger squares, if possible, thus making the top go together a bit faster. I know what I want for the inner and outer borders. Hopefully the planned fabric will work once the body is assembled.
Autumn is coming to an end. I just loved the golden leaves. They are so beautiful. Really they are. When I was a little girl, my sister and I used to collect brightly colored fallen leaves and iron them between two sheets of waxed paper. Well, Mom would iron. But then my sister and I would cut out the leaves to send to my grandmother in Florida so she could decorate her Thanksgiving table with real leaves. Laura and I thought we were the deal doing that. To this day I think about sending leaves to my grandmother. I’m sure she’d get a kick out of it.
This isn’t my house, but a house in my neighborhood. Look at the leaves?! Aren’t they amazing?!
