Making a come-back

I know I have been way off these past few months but I am going to try to make a comeback. I have had a lot of things going on but I have been sewing and quilting just not blogging about it. So lets start with NO I did not do the Friday night sew in like I had planned. I had lots of items lined up to work on, first  one was to find my mystery top. I know you say why is it so hard to find? I have lots of tops lying around in all sorts of stages. I try to keep the finished ones over on the shelf for quilting but since I don't seem to quilting my own, that shelf became to small so now they go wherever I can find a spot. Mixed in with those still awaiting borders or in the tote of fabric. I had so wanted to spend the evening sorting. Somehow my addiction has gotten a hold of my sewing room and took over. But with one text (Oh read that text) my Friday night went into overdrive. I hadn't planned on my grand kids but my son text me asking me if I could pick them up for he had to work. Well I hadn't seen them in ages so yes it would give me some grandma time. After agreeing to that and making the arrangements with their mother, he then asked if I could keep them over night, he had to work on SAT. So the Fri night sew in was a bust. Played with the kiddos instead.

Here they are, two of the grand kids. Didn't get the oldest one. If you can't tell they had played with those temporary tattoos. No not with me! Kyler has one on the throat center and Savanah on her cheek. And Kyler had his hair cut into a zig zag Mohawk. Crazy little ones But still love em to death, even though they wore me out. The spent alot of time out riding bikes and scooter. Only had two or three spills and very little blood. All in all good time. Their Daddy came and picked them up on Sat evening after he got off work. Hubby and I then took his father out for supper for an early Fathers Day meal. We did tell him that if no one offered to take him out on Sunday we would be game to do it again. Yes I love the days I don't have to cook!
So I guess it is now time to show what you really come to see QUILTS.

This is Monica's for her niece. She has that computer program that kaleidoscopes pics, so she used pics and items in the baby's room to do the kaleidoscopes. The she appliqued cute, fun bugs and flowers in the border. This is such a bright cheery quilt. She really didn't care what I did to it just something other than a meander or panto. I had fun debating on what to do. I hope she loves what I did on it.

 This is Rita's. This is an antique top made by an old friend of hers. Of course the quilt maker is no longer with us, so that makes this top so special to Rita. She gave me the reins on this one but I chose a simple older looking panto. I didn't want anything to busy for quilting to take away from all those vintage fabrics.  This top was hand pieced and Rita had machine washed it before giving it to me. So the shrinkage on it was weird! I am sure that is due to the different variety of fabrics it has. It sure turned out to be a stunner of a quilt!

This is one of my quilts. Yes I have one done. This was a row by row that I did with my local club. I wanted scrappy scrappy scrappy. I had the border blocks already made for another project, but seeing that that project wouldn't get done for awhile I chose to use the blocks here to get something done. 1 UFO off the list. Of course the borders would have looked better if I would have done some planning instead of just grabbing and sewing.  I mean the top and bottom corner units are opposite of each other. I don't know why I couldn't have seen that before I put it together. But done is done and nothing I can do about it now. I did the binding with left over bindings that I had hanging around. That too I should have planned better for I just grabbed and sewed. Some of the bindings were narrower than the others so the overall binding experience was a tough one. but I love the scrappy look of the binding too. Nice job ladies that made rows for me on this one, it will always be treasured. Thanks!

This is Ginny's quilt. It was pieced by her friend Brenda Sue. I mean what can I say about this quilt is is gorgeous! I quilted this with a rose in the smaller squares and a large leaf motif in the large squares. The outer border was done in all roses. I  had such a fun time working on this one. Thanks for the pleasure. I know Ginny has to be happy with her new quilt it is such a beauty!






Well that is all I have for you right now, but I do have so many more to show you but will have to wait for another time.

May was a bad month

Please forgive me for not being on here. May was a bad bad month for me. First my Mother-In-Law passed away. she was a wonderful woman and no matter how much we had tried to prepare for this, it threw us for a loop. She passed just days before Mothers Day so you know my Hubby had a hard time on that day. Barb suffered from Dementia and Alzheimer. Not a pretty thing.

Here is a quilt I made to represent my opinion of Alzheimer. As you can see it is threads over threads and what you may or may not see is items behind the threads. At the top the items are hidden well and towards the bottom you can make a few out. The white bottom half is words or phrases that my MIL repeated over and over again during the time I made this quilt. The lines of lettering are shaky like she was and the whole quilt is not square or straight and it has fuzzy yarn around it. I had stated that it was like a brain with Alzheimer's nothing black n white, nothing straight and always frayed around the edges. I had wanted to send it to Ami Simms but it went into an art gallery around here for a little while then I brought it home and it hangs by my door. Maybe it is time to do something constructive with it.

After getting through the rough time with the hubby over the death of his mother things seemed to be settling back into their normal routine, until I get frantic text messages from my oldest son. 'and they haven't been seen since'. Ok that got my attention. Well it seems it was part two of the text and part one was telling me about a tornado in Joplin MO and my niece,his cousin hadn't been heard from. Now for those that don't know me I was born just south of Joplin in Neosho, MO. I was raised just over the state line in Erie, KS. My parents moved back to MO and Joplin has always been a part of my growing up. I have Aunts,Uncles,nieces and a  nephew that call Joplin home. I also have a sister that just lives South of the city limits. So yes this stopped me dead in my tracks. After calling him I turned the TV on and was glued to the coverage for days. Needless to say with the help of Facebook and cell phones we managed to get word that all family members were accounted for and in wonderful shape that first night.  One niece has lost her home but not a scratch on any of them. I had planned a trip home for Memorial weekend, with aging parents I have to make as many trips as I can as often as I can. My two sons went with me and we did drive thru Joplin and any pictures I have seen still can  not really portray the devastation that you see and feel being there.
I am adding this link just in case you would like to give.  All in all my family was blessed to have scrapped by within blocks. I do know that the local quilt store. Sew Neat was demolished in the storm. I had talked about this shop a couple months back from a FNSI. I was doing a quilt and I had bought the ruler and pattern there. Well I have managed to get the borders on this top so I will show it now

I buy so many patterns but rarely make any of them,so this is a monumental occasion that I bought and made with in the same year. I loved Brenda's shop and will truly miss it. I guess she has decided it is time to retire. Sew Neat had the best sale room of any shop I had been too.  I have another quilt that I got the fabric from there but have yet to start it. It has the 'A' word in it. Savin it for a rainy day.






I did manage to get the mystery posted but I sure don't recall ever telling anyone that I did. Here are final sewing instructions. but I still can't find my pic of the finished top. I really need to look for it. Or better yet the the top back out and retake the pic. I have decided that if I ever want to share a pattern I will just post it. You just never know what comes up and being on the net is not high priority when family crisis are calling. I know that I left this mystery hanging at times and had thought that next time I would have everything wrote out and just have to hit post, but have since decided that just putting it all out there would be for the best. So sorry for those that were trying to work along.
I have come to the conclusion that I never finish my quilts for the sole reason I hate to bind. I have a friend that loves to bind so we now are bartering. I long arm for her and she will bind my quilts. Now what will my excuse be now for not getting any thing done.
Well I am sure that I have bored you to death now so I better be off