Giving away quilts

I give away a lot of quilts. In fact, most of them go out the door! Tom is lucky to have one of his own, that's for sure. This quilt was recently mailed off to my cousin, Sue, who lives in Minnesota. Sue is having knee surgery soon and I thought she could use a fabric "hug" as she recovers. Sue and I are close in age, although I've never felt we've been close in other ways. Every summer when I was a kid, we'd go on vacation to visit relatives. There was great-aunt Annie and great-uncle Elmer in Alberta, Canada; Aunt Hattie and her family in Missouri; my grandfather and an uncle, aunt and cousin in California; and Sue and her family in Minnesota. I can remember one of our first trips to Minnesota. I was pretty excited because finally, there was a cousin MY age to play with! At home, all my girl cousins were my older sister Marigene's age and as such, were "her" cousins. (or so she told me) I was looking forward to having a cousin my own age to play with, but as luck would have it, it didn't turn out that way. Since there was no one else for Marigene to hang out with, she took Sue for her own and once again, I was left in the cold. Sue was dazzled, I suppose, than an older cousin would pay attention to her, but it did hurt my feelings when they told me to "go away, we don't want to play with you!" Fortunately, I had a little brother who didn't mind my company, so I wasn't totally without a playmate. The first visit after Marigene got married--and wasn't vacationing with us anymore, I was about 15 years old. We arrived at Sue's house, where her step-mother told me how excited Sue was that I was there, and told me to go over to the house where Sue was babysitting. Sue? Excited to see me? Since she never had been before, I thought this was pretty strange. But then, Marigene wasn't around, so I figured that made me acceptable company! Sue greeted me like we were long-lost buddies. Weird. I always liked trips to Missouri better because there, we had two girl cousins: Teresa, who was Marigene's age, and Ellen--who was my age. In Missouri, I actually had a cousin to play with--because Marigene (always a bully, even now) didn't want her. She had Teresa. Ellen and I had good times and she is still my favorite cousin although the miles and years have come between us. However, I do care about Sue! Knee surgery is a pretty tramatic event. I hope she gets better quickly and in the meantime, she has a quilt to cuddle with as she heals.

But back to giving away quilts. Here's another baby quilt, given away this week to my friend Jodi. Jodi's daughter, Jessica is due with a little boy--any minute now! I've known Jessica for years; watched her grow from a teen to a lovely young mother of two small girls. Actually, I would have been thrilled to make quilts for Jessica's daughters when they were born, but since Jessica doesn't live around here...and Jodi hadn't even mentioned Jessica was pregnant, well...they didn't get quilts. It's nice to get a little advanced notice! This time, however, Jodi was over visiting and her phone kept ringing. She mentioned how Jessica was at a doctor's appointment and due to have the baby soon. Jessica, pregnant? How exciting! As it happened, I just finished up this quilt a couple of days ago, putting the last stitches in the binding and wondering what cute little baby would end up cuddling with it. I don't always have a person in mind when I make a quilt, but like this, the opportunity always seems to present itself. MUST MAKE QUILTS!!! I pulled out the quilt and gave it to Jodi. She was very happy and kept hugging me! I asked her to tell Jessica there would have been quilts for her girls, but her mother is a SLACKER and didn't tell me about them! Ooh well. I hope she likes this one and with any luck, maybe I'll have a photo of the baby with the quilt to post here. Eventually. Although considering Jodi and our communication problem, maybe not! LOL

President Hinkley

On Sunday, our beloved prophet and president of the church, Gordon B. Hinkley, passed away. He was 97 years old. A goodly span of years. I've been thinking of him this week and how joyous the reunion in heaven must have been when he got there--but feeling sorry for the rest of us, I know how deeply he will be missed. He had a loving way of sharing the gospel with the world, as well as quite a sense of humor. A few years ago when his doctor told him he needed to start carrying a cane, he did just that. He carried it. He didn't USE it. He carried it! That gave me a laugh when I saw the photos.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from President Hinkley: "The time has come for us to stand a little taller, to lift our eyes and stretch our minds to greater comprehension and understanding of the grand millenial mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This is the time to be strong.
It is a time to move forward without hesitation....
It is a time to do what is right regardless of the consequences that might follow.
It is a season to reach out with kindness and love to those in distress and to those who are wandering in darkness and pain.
It is a time to be considerate and good, decent and courteous toward one another...In other words, to become more Christlike."

Do you stick things on your fridge--like photos, pictures kids have drawn...or quotes that make you feel better when you read them? I do. Here is a quote, author unknown, that I have there: "You were generals in the War in Heaven and one day, when you are in the spirit world, you will be enthralled by those you are associated with. You will ask someone in which time period they lived and you might hear, "I was with Moses when he parted the Red Sea," or "I helped build the pyramids," or "I fought with Captain Moroni." And as you are standing there in amazement, someone will turn to you and ask you which of the prophets' time did you live in. And when you say "Gordon B. Hinkley," a hush will fall over every all and corridor in Heaven, and all in attendance will bow at your presence. You were held back six thousand years because you were the most talented, most obedient, most courageous, and most righteous. Are you still? Remember who you are."

I hope that will be the legacy I'll carry from President Hinkley. To remember who I am, and to strive to be a better person.

Bag challenge

I have a quilt friend named Helen. She lives in Scotland. We have been to her house and stayed with her family, which makes her even more special to me. Helen is a member of the British Quilters List and this year they are having a bag challenge. Every month there will be a new pattern for the members and if you make that one and post a photo of it, you get the password which will get you the next's month's pattern. Here is a link to the blog about it.

http://bqlbagblog.blogspot.com/

As I am a fan of reusuable shopping bags, I think this is a wonderful idea. But..how to play too? I'm not British. I don't live in the U.K. However, I joined the group anyway, planning on lying low and "lurking," so no one would say with a gasp, "Who let that AMERICAN in here?" Sigh. My well laid plan was shot down, however, when Helen "outed" me with the group. They are all friendly and welcoming, of course! Here is a photo of the bag I've made for January.
A nice thing about this bag; see that purple pocket? The bag folds up to fit inside it's own wee pocket, rather like a Quillow. It can easily be tucked into my purse and when I need a shopping bag, there it is!

The only problem with the pattern is that it calls for a plastic grocery bag to be used as a template. I had a difficult time finding one in our house, since we've been using cloth bags for quite some time now. I finally spotted one hanging in a corner of the broomcloset, filled with the skinny plastic bags that our newspaper sometimes comes in--to keep the paper dry from the rain. (I don't know why Tom is saving those, as they are too narrow for any practical purpose other than for the newspaper) I was able to use that grocery bag as the pattern, but as I had to cut the bottom off, it is now useless for storing Tom's skinny plastic newspaper bags in. Ooh dear! Maybe I need to make another bag to put those in?

Another Baby Quilt

Today at church I gave little Trevor Rocky his quilt! Here he is with his mother, Mindy.

For another photo of Trevor (where he is in a happier mood) check out Mindy's blog. What a cute little guy he is!

http://mindynhales.blogspot.com/2008/01/amazing-quilt.html

Ingalls Redwork Website

http://www.jfingalls.com/

If you are interested in redwork, particularly antique designs, this is the place to go. Click on the J.F. Ingalls magazine link, and it will take you to, among other things, the above photo of the redwork coverlet that hangs in my diningroom. It was made for Tom's great-grandmother, Minnie Kirkland by her friend, Jessie M. Tooke and really is dated 1897.

I hope John starts posting his thoughts on his blog again as he is a pretty funny guy! I was sorry when his other website died. Since he mentions my blog on his site, I thought I'd return the favor and mention his. Besides, you can download some pretty cool redwork patterns there!

More Smith Rock Photos

Here are more Smith Rock photos for Liz to look at and drool over! While it is beautiful, it looks a lot like SNAKE country to me! Nevertheless, I want to go back for some hiking and further investigation of the area. Snakes, watch out! (it's probably too cold for snakes right now...right?) It's too cold for ME, at least.

Home again!

For the last two weeks, Tom and I have been in Bend, Oregon. While he was working on the FAA radar at the airport in Redmond, poor me--nothing to do but lounge around the Riverhouse Hotel, with it's hot tub, swimming pool and exercise room. (which I did use every day) I took along my little Janome, as well as the 50 fat quarters Tom gave me for Christmas. The pattern I used was from the Jan/Feb. 2004 issue of Love of Quilting magazine. Nothing left now but adding borders and then quilting it!


The weather was face-freezingly cold most of the time and as the sidewalks were mostly covered in ice, I didn't get out much. There were some stores across the street that I slipped and slid to a couple of times. One day I called a taxi and had him drive me to a quilt shop. But mostly, I stayed in and sewed! No phone ringing, no elaborate dinner preparations---a nice relaxing time.

Tom had Sunday off, so after we went to church, we climbed Pilot Butte--a cinder cone in the middle of Bend, that affords a good view of the surrounding town as well as the snow-capped mountain peaks in the distance.


On the way out of town, heading home and trying to beat the "coldest weather of the season" that was moving into the Bend area, we stopped briefly at Smith Rock state park. What a beautiful area that is! People come from all over for rock climbing, but it also has trails to hike around on. Next time we come, we've decided we need to make time to do just that.

Frieda Learns to Quilt

Frieda asked me if I'd show her how to quilt while they were visiting us for the holiday. She and Jeff have a friend who just had a little boy. She wants to give the baby a quilt. What a fun first project! I made up a notebook for her, with a simple baby quilt pattern and a few other helpful hints. Here are photos of her, as she made her first quilt.




Showing the quilt to Jeff, who was very impressed:

"I'm a QUILTER!!!"

Machine quilting with the Grace Frame, first a sample, then the real thing:


Putting on the binding:


What Jeff was doing while Frieda was quilting:

Taz wants to help!

A quilt is not a quilt without cat hair on it. Such is the rule at our house. Taz knows what her job is around here.

FINISHED!!!

Jeff again:


Yesterday Frieda, Jeff and I stopped at my local quilt shop. Jeff had been lured out, thinking we were just going to the grocery store. HA! (I was driving, btw) We did go to the grocery store, but the quilt shop was first on our list. Frieda found some fabric for her next quilt and when we got home, headed straight for my quilting room, where she spent the afternoon making the top. Can we say "gotcha?" Another person bitten by the quilt bug!

I'm sending her home with two trashbags full of fabric as well as other goodies (patterns, rulers, cutting mat, rotary cutter etc) to help her with her new addiction. Fabricaholic and Quilter.... :-) It makes a mother(inlaw)proud. Look what Frieda did over her Christmas vacation! She is a natural.