Busy with Offspring

It's been busy around here the last four days, but a good kind of busy, involving all three offspring and some sewing.  Erica, youngest DD, drove out from Arizona on Thursday to attend a wedding.  Older DD Elaine was in said wedding, and Grant and I were invited to it.  This was the wedding of Elaine's husband's brother, for which I made the 17 lace and blue velvet ribbon tabletoppers I showed before (and I did end up steaming them all before delivery).  I had made a long satin sash for Elaine to wear with her bridesmaid's dress, and she called me in a panic on Thursday concerned that the dress was too short and too sheer when she cinched the sash.  Brainstorming, I told her I could make an underskirt/slip out of the leftover satin.  So that was Thursday night's project that lasted until after midnight since she had to come over after the wedding rehearsal dinner.  But she looked wonderful Friday evening, as did the bride, groom, and best man, our son in law Chris--there on the left (despite my camera's inability to focus properly in low light).

 The beautiful bride even wore the veil I made for Elaine's wedding, which was a sweet surprise.  It was a lovely, classic wedding and we enjoyed all the special touches the couple planned and the nice reception with lots of music and dancing.  Son Nick was at a different wedding at the exact same time, as his girlfriend's brother got married to his longtime love.  But Nick didn't stay out too late, since Saturday's big event was focused on him and required a moving van.

Mini checked out the tires on the moving van.

Doesn't that label on the left pretty much describe the contents of most moving boxes?  (on a side note, I'm proud my son knows plural from possessive in his labeling!)

And here are Nick's new digs, a small guest house tucked into the hill of our longtime friend's property.  I showed his spectacular view a few weeks ago, here.  With Erica's help on spider/web destruction patrol, and about a hundred trips up and down the steep stairs, the four of us had Nick mostly set up in just a few hours.  This is the first time he has lived completely alone and he's looking forward to the experience.

Today I turned a shower curtain into two window coverings for Nick's new place.  Then I worked on the last of the Jewel Box blocks so I can finally get this off my floor:

My boss, for whom this quilt is intended, liked the off center layout, so I'm keeping that.  However, I may take the last two rows on the right and move them to the opposite side, since I want that purple center to be the "heart" of the quilt.  I'll get these rows all stacked and pinned and move on to the final project of the weekend, putting the binding on my brother's coffee themed quilt.  I'll be heading back with Erica to Arizona in a few days and delivering the quilt in person. Busy busy busy!  

Revisiting the Past

I've got nothing new to show except a few more jewel box blocks and that is just too boring to share.  So I'm digging into the past today.  But not my past--this came from Barbara, a very dear family friend who knows I sew and quilt and has been very kind in her words about my craft. She had emailed that she had some fabrics she was not going to use and would I like to see them?  Of course I did!  She dropped off the bags while I was at work.  I had no idea what to expect, and was blown away by what I found:

Piles of vintage scrap pieces in every color!

Green, purple, pink, red, blue, yellow, orange fabrics.

With each turn of the pile, more wonderful prints surfaced...

Even an apron in this wonderful green.

I kept saying to myself, "Look at this one!"

"And this one!"

"Ooh, I love this one!"

I would have had a hard time throwing away this Chinaman scrap too.  Very 40's, I think.  To my excited email thanking her, Barbara shared that these scraps were from her mother and aunt, mostly 40's to 60's, and contained many fabrics from which they had made clothes for her. I think some fabrics might be earlier as they look like feedsack prints to me.  Won't they make a glorious scrap quilt?

Tuesday's Orts--May 1, 2012

Tuesday's Orts--bits and scraps of thoughts and happenings that land here.

• Son-in-law Chris stopped by on Sunday to pick up some items being borrowed for his brother's upcoming wedding rehearsal dinner.  He mentioned one of his friends is in five weddings this summer--which is costly.  I said there should be an official outfit for groomsmen and he replied, "There is, it's called a tuxedo, but nobody wants to have those, everybody's got to be different!", which made me laugh.
• Son Nick is preparing to move out next weekend and daughter Erica is already petitioning to have her old (larger) room back, and I want to keep the room empty until we replace the carpeting upstairs.  I win!
• Traffic Rant:  This one is about airports and passengers waiting to be picked up.  You'd think that after sitting for an hour or two (or three or four or five, etc) that it would be nice to walk a bit, yet passengers persist in exiting the terminal building and standing at the curb mere feet from its doors, which results in a long line of cars clogging the front of the terminal.  People: Just walk 30-40 steps further up the sidewalk to a clear area!  Sheesh.
• At work we are having a very hard time with Medicare.  They held our enrollment paperwork for electronic billing for six full weeks before persistent, near daily polite calls on the part of our billing clerk resulted in finally getting linked to our clearinghouse so we could submit claims for billing for the first time in four full months!  Then yesterday the claims were rejected with the reason that the clearinghouse was not approved, resulting in another round of polite but firm calls.  Sigh.
• I'm a little concerned about my frontyard tree.  Despite some rain and plenty of spring sunshine, it looks like this:

Only ONE branch has leaves.  I don't think there will be any Golden Rain tree blooms happening this June at this rate!

Design Wall Monday--Apr 30, 2012

On my design floor today is the work in progress, the UFO Challenge pick of the month. Cut, sew, repeat. Cut sew repeat...for Jewel Box blocks

Pieces and parts awaiting assembly.

This is the barn raising layout, off center because I'm still sewing blocks, but will be 8x8. Lookit Jo's pretty one she made for Moda's Bake Shop:  http://www.modabakeshop.com/2011/08/jewels-in-curio.html#more, which was the inspiration for the setting.  Oops, there is one at the bottom turned the wrong way!

That's better.  I believe I will have all the blocks sewn by deadline tonight, but don't think I can get all the rows sewn.  If only a sewing fairy could do magic for me while I'm at work!  See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

Weekend Work

I'll be spending a lot of time at my sewing machine this weekend--after procrastinating most evenings this week I still have 10 more table toppers to finish for the wedding next Friday.  They each take about 20-30 minutes to sew, but thankfully are all turning out pretty well.  I also hope to finish up my Jewel Box blocks for the UFO pick of the month and get the top together by Tuesday.  No photos worth taking of that, but I snapped Mini in a new spot.

She took my search and removal of a specific project box as an invitation to rest in the Hoosier cabinet.

Cleaning up my sewing area last week led to stuffing the drawers of my stash dresser with all the leftover fabric piled up everywhere.  I told my husband that I might have to revise my statement that I didn't have THAT much fabric.  Fortunately, that isn't a fatal thing to say to him, but I sure need to get most of this fabric into a quilt!  Ideas are being turned over in my head...

Midwest Travels--Part V, Finale

My sister left for home on Monday after the International Quilt Festival and Cousin Florence took a last photo of our trio.  We had a wonderful time together and look forward to repeating it next year.

Afterwards, Mom, Florence and I headed out for some lunch and shopping nearby and made our plans for my final day. My flight was out of Louisville late the next afternoon and Florence wanted to take us to a Gothic cathedral across the river in Covington, Kentucky, so we were up and out the door by mid morning.

This is St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica, designed after Notre Dame and of course is infinitely smaller, but look how big next to that school bus!

As we walked from the parking lot, this group of kids in costume was exiting the school.  Florence first said "Peter Pan", but then noticed Friar Tuck, so this must be Robin Hood.  Aren't they cute in their garb?

There is no way my small camera could properly reveal the extreme size and beauty of this church.  It was breathtaking.  The ceiling is over 80 feet high and the 80+ stained glass windows fill the space with light and color.  Notice the bus load full of children at the base of the columns in the lower left, getting their tour.   

Beautiful Rose windows appear on two sides--each over 25 feet wide.  Two huge organs are also part of the structure and must sound amazing when played.

The stations of the Cross were made in Italy and created out of tens of thousands of mosaic tiles.

See the incredible shading and detail in their beauty.

The stained glass was made in Munich and each was sponsored by a different family, who have loved ones' names incorporated into the bottom of the image.

Carvings on every wooden column and incredible light everywhere make this an inspiring place.

Outside, the massive stone is capped by gargoyles.

Here on the front of the Basilica you can see the resemblance to Notre Dame.  I had never been to a Gothic cathedral and despite its surprising address, was really glad to know such a church exists in this country.  We got back on the road for Louisville, Kentucky and a planned lunch at The Brown Hotel.

Very impressive restoration was done over the past 20 years on this hotel built in the Roaring 20s.  Look at the size of this urn!

This is the second floor lounge with the bar at the far end.  Florence and some family members had dined there on a previous visit and greatly enjoyed themselves, but we headed downstairs to the cafe, where Florence tried the hotel specialty, a Hot Brown.  She deemed it very tasty but said she would not be making one--it is thoroughly calorie laden!  Finally, I was let off at the airport to wait for my flight and the long trip back.  Luckily the plane was not full and there was an empty seat between me and my seat mate.  On the nearly five hour ride to Las Vegas, I think the gentleman was awake for about 1/2 an hour of it, and didn't say a word when he was, except to the attendant.  At least he did not snore!  I worked on my hand quilting and as I reported, put the final stitches in during that flight.  It was good to get back to my honey and home.

I waited to unpack until the next day, and here is my swag:  Some fat quarters, repro charms, Aurifil thread, new pins, more fat quarters of Chez Moi Boutique (so excited to find those!), and the Crazy Quilted Memories book that was the start to the IQF adventure story.

I have wanted one of these weighted pincushion scrap bags for ages, even had a printout from an online tutorial, but when I saw the price of only $10, I snapped it up.  I also found that my baggage had been searched and I wonder if it was this item that caused the need to inspect?  LOL 

Design Wall Monday--April 23, 2012

On my design table today are four projects--oy vey!

Here is a mock up of one of the 17 table toppers I'm making for DD Elaine's husband's brother's wedding on May 4th.  That is a lot of nouns for one sentence, don't you think?

Pieces and parts for Jewel Box blocks--the April UFO--ready to be fed under the needle.

Layout for a table runner for the soon-to-be-wedded mentioned above.  Since this photo the blocks have been sewn together, and borders and backing selected.  This needs to get done in a hurry!

Finally, I get to share a FINISH!  I put in the last of the hand quilting stitches on the plane from Louisville to Las Vegas.  This is my version of Lori's (Humble Quilts) Strawberry Fields quiltalong from a couple of years ago. 

My stitches are not small but I tried to at least make them uniform.  Someday I will have to learn to use a hoop and a thimble.  But I am very happy to have this little project, which I call Patriotic Fields, ready to decorate my table or wall for the appropriate holidays.  See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.