Life's a Happening

So it has been months since I have been on here. I stay really busy with day to day workings. Nine hours a day on the day job makes me tired. Then I try to get some quilting done. Posting on here has taken a back back seat for a couple, one is we lost our Internet service. We have our land line phone thru the Internet too and the modem for this went kaapluwie. It was so nice not hearing any ringing, not having any tele charity calls. Since we don't give out the cell phone numbers (I don't know why, I have unlimited everything) it was quiet. It probably took us near a week just to figure out we different have service then we had a bad storm come thru and knocked out cell service. Right before Internet went out I find out that all my USB ports are bad. Why I don't know. But I can't plug anything in and be recognized, I guess maybe that is why it took so long to figure it out that I had no service,just wasn't interested in being on knowing that computer was getting ready to take a dump, and this laptop! I have this laptop and it has a mind of it's own. The cursor is crazy. I can  be typing away and then the next thing I know my typing will just start somewhere else in the middle of a sentence way off from where I was. Very frustrating! So it has forced me to use the laptop so I can download pics.
For weeks now Hubby and I have been traveling back n forth to hospital to see his dad. It's been one thing after another and I can see the wear on the hubby. Then thoughts are how much can an 88 yr old take. So emotional draining.
But lets face it you don't come here to read about my crazy problems you really want to see some eye candy.

 This is Karen O.'s. While doing this I called it "Taking Flight" Of course I have no clue as to the real name but that is just what I called it. Such a pretty quilt and it was made for her Grand daughter. Lucky little girl!

This is a close up of Marilyn's quilt. This little baby quilt was hand embroidered 37 yrs ago. It was made for Marilyn's daughter by Marilyn's mother. But was never finished. Marilyn came to me and said she like to get this quilted like her mother wanted it done. Uh OH she was going to hand quilt it. She also stated that she had it marked out to hand quilt and she had individual blocks marked out. OK I can do that, if it's marked out I can do it. So sure!!!NOT she had washed the marking out, so I was on my own. Now I had to try to figure out what a woman would have done by hand 37 yrs ago and the what her daughter thought she would have done.  

 So here it is. I stressed over this little thing for weeks. I was so worried I wouldn't do what it deserved. I knew I had to please the owner or she would have felt I ruined her Moms quilt and that would irreplaceable. This top a one of a kind had to be done just right. Oh How I worried. But when she picked it up she gave me a hug. I think she liked and I did ok. Whewwwwwwww

This is a close up of a baby blanket by Rejena. She made two of these for twin baby girls. The panto used on this one is her favorite called "Bottoms Up"a Nicole Webb design.

And here is the full quilt. Isn't it so cute. And two of them. Such pretty quilts. Great job!

And here is another by Rejena. This is all out of Fairy Frost but the white background. This is the first quilt she started but hated it so it has taken her years to get back to it. Hey anyone else know this feeling. I still haven't finished the first one I started. When she gave this one to me to do she said 'make me love it.' Make me love it well that is no pressure. So each block has it's own individual quilting. I loved it when it was done and I think she did too, she still talks to me so she didn't hate it. lol

This is a close up of another of Rejena's quilts. She made this one for a friend out of his ties. He was a coach and most all of his ties had a sports theme to them. I used a panto from Meadowlyon. The panto has football soccer baseball basketball and volleyball represented.

 And here is the front of the quilt. Strings that's a lot of cutting of ties. OH MY. It turned out to be a beautiful quilt. I know how much time she put in on this and it was worth every minute she did.









It would be nice if I would post some pics of the ones of mine I finished, guess I need to get some pics of them. I have completed a couple of them. But it's time to get off here for now.

Another month gone

Well Well, another month has passed me by and I can't for the life of me figure it out. I started out the month at a retreat.My cousin came in from 300 and some ott miles away for this event. She has never quilted before but her mother (my moms sister) is the one that started the quilting craze in our family. Her mother showed my Mom and the craze was on. So I spent most of my time showing her how to 'do' things. I taught one class Shuffled 9-patch.

Here is her small lap throw. This is an easy design to do and makes up quick. The corner stones were half square triangles from another project and just thought throwing them in the corner would give more interest. Whatcha think to much or just right!
Either way it is what it is and she took it home to try to finish it. Got the call on how and I steered her towards youtube for videos. I mean I have a long arm I have no clue how to quilt with my domestic machine and I don't want to know. I mean if the hubby knew that it could be done.........Before she left to come her her 3 year old great grandson told her to make him a quilt, so...

she picked up this center panel off of the unwanted table. I let her come to my house and shop for matching fabrics. I think a little boy should like the jungle animals. It was a basic pattern just add borders, but another chance to learn. She also took this one home to finish. The other pics were on my phone and haven't learned how to add them to this post so will have to post them separately.


After retreat I quilted my finger to a quilt! Let me tell you pinky finger and a moving Gammill do not mix. It is healed now but the fingernail is slowly chipping off. and it is still numb and hurts to touch but at least it is healed! Not something I want to do again.

This is a quilt from Margie. This woman amazes me with all the different things she does. This was just some fabric she wanted to use and it grew from there. No pattern just her head and thoughts. It was funny to hear from her during this process, she would call and tell me how she measured wrong and now the blocks were the wrong size and she had to figure out a way to make them work. I think it turned out wild and wonderful!!

This is Kathy's quilt she had started to quilt this on her domestic machine and decided that it was not something she wanted to do. She used minkie on the back of this and had spray basted it together. I did have lots of trouble with this one but only in areas that there seemed to be lots of the spray basting. Note to self don't accept quilts with spray basting already done. She had started outlining the flowers and birds but told me to just  do an all over, she just wanted it done. I couldn't let one bird and flower be outlined then do an all over on the rest so yes I did the outlining too. Such a cute panel and it will make some little girl a nice soft blankie.

This is Karen's quilt, it was done as a round robin. Now didn't these gals do a wonderful job! I had to do a custom job on this it deserved something more than an all over. Oh I just hope she liked the end result!





So this is what I have been doing lately besides working 9 hours a day and 4 on Saturdays. Staying busy that is for sure and now the Christmas shopping! Although I got most of it done on Black Friday (ok I had it done on Black Thursday). I asked the hubby today if he thought we could handle taking an angel off the tree to buy for some child. He thought that was a pretty good idea since we have our grand kids done. So tomorrow I am going back out to do that. I have never done this before so I hope I am not biting off more that I can chew. I mean how hard can this be? But it scares me to know that the fate  of some child's happiness is resting on what I get them without even knowing them. I have been leery of this in the past hearing of how some of these kids aren't that desolate and ask for the high priced items. I don't even do that for my grand kids so I know I won't do it for them. I think joy can be found in a book not a video game. but I am trying it any way. Wish me luck.
Well enough for now.
Sew on

Back to the Grind

Tomorrow I have to go back to work. UGH! I have been working on quilting this weekend so it is not like I haven't been doing anything. I Have spent alot of time right here at this computer surfing small blogs and playing games. I would have liked to been watching some TV but Direct TV put a stop to that. We changed from Dish Network to Direct 2 weeks ago and Sun morning whisssssstt nothing but white. I guess it has done this a couple other times while I was gone and the hubby called them and they talked him thru resetting it. Well reset didn't work so back on the phone. 'Oh were sorry but the soonest we can get somebody out there is Thursday'. That is unacceptable! A long weekend and no TV. You don't realize how much you depend on it till it is gone. So..... I have been listening to music, and playing on the computer. Since I still can't stand for any length of time, I would quilt awhile ,sit and play games awhile, quilt awhile, surf blogs, quilt, play games. OK you got the drift.

Ok this is what I managed to get done this weekend. This is Karen O's. This is Bonnie Hunter's RRCB pattern. I didn't do this one and wow what a stunner it is. Lots of little pieces but then what do you expect with Bonnie.

So it be fitting for me to post once again Bonnie draped over my machine.She surprised me with a visit one night while in town. Very very nice lady. Karen did a wonderful job with this one. The close up is the quilting I did on it. It is Feathered Leaf panto a Jodi Beamish design. It has become one of my favorites. I have never been much for pantos but I love this one!

So this next quilt is Diane V's. She did this for her daughter. Some of the hearts have inspiring saying to honor a daughter. The colors on this one are so gorgeous. I absolutely love the color combo!! Diane you did good!                                                                                                               

Now did I ever show you the quilts that I have gotten done for myself this year. I am sure that I have in some stage of completion but did I post totally complete. Well I wouldn't think so since I just took pics of them recently. So here they are

Pinwheels Across Indiana. A row by row done with an Internet group from Indiana. I think it turned out wonderful. Better than I had hoped. I love pinwheels and there are a lot of them in this quilt. Thanks to all that had a hand in this quilt. I love it.

Scrappy Diamond Plates. A row by row that I did with my Local Quilt Club. It was their first time doing a row by row so I wanted an easy pattern for them. I was surprised when some of them stated this pattern scared them becuz of having to match all the seams. You know I had never thought of that. So I guess I didn't make their lives easier but instead stressed a few of them. But never the less they did a wonderful job. I took the border pieces from another quilt I was making and made them work for this one. Thanks ladies I love this quilt.

This is also a row by row I did off the Internet. Just a fun fun quilt and one that will always hold a dear and special place in my heart and home. This row by row was specific in having to have red in the blocks and the hostess named the swap Ravishing Red. So that is what I asked everyone to do. Do what you think of when you hear Ravishing Red. Everyone did a wonderful and thoughtful job. I was amazed the shoes have beads sewn on them and the gloves have rings and watches,these gals really put some thought into each row. I mean look at it garters with lace for example. Thank you Thank you ladies of the 4"quilt block group.

Well I best be off for now.

And.......

I hope everyone had a wonderful and filling Thanksgiving. It was the first year that I did not cook. it is also the first year that I didn't get to see my grand kids. This was a downer for the day and week and month and well til the divorce is settled their mom is with holding them from us. could go on for days on this but lets move right along before I get depressed.

The and................. I forgot to post, so here it is. Months ago I was away back home in MO and the hubby goes to an auction and makes a couple of purchases. When I get home I was pleasantly surprised with these two beauties.

These two  wall hangings are  hand quilted machine pieced. I don't know the maker of them and neither have labels on them. but I love em just the same. I can't believe the hubby got them for me. He is the one always complaining I have to much stuff in the house and I need a scoop shovel and trash dumpster to get it cleaned out. Well now I have the man trained!!! He got each of these for $20.00 and they both came with their rods to hang on the wall.  This flying geese one had a cute wooden rod with the hearts on the end. Take the hearts off and slip the wall hanging on. The second wall hanging the flowers, was on a cream metal rod with silver tips. I had to trade the rods on the quilts to fit the spaces on my walls to hang them. But never less $20.00 !!! I believe he got a good deal. He even picked up a floor quilt rack for displaying the quilts. It now sits at the end of the bed in the downstairs bedroom. this pretty blue floral wall hanging  is a lot prettier in person. Don't let the goldie walls fool ya.

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This next quilt is Karen O's and we have dubbed it the monster. I believe she used that in her description and I have kept in suit with it. I am not a homespun collector and really have no plaids in my stash. (you know I have found by keeping this blog I am really biased in my stash. And I need to learn to branch out more) but when I opened this top to quilt it, I never wanted it to leave. She gave me a brief history of it making by calling it a monster. Now if she didn't then I am putting words in her mouth for I took that out of her words. But since reading her little excerpt I have called it the monster, maybe cuz it is so huge. We chose a panto to do on this one, it looks wonderful!   I would think that the stars where from a swap, but not sure. If so what a cleaver clever way to use them up. I think that is what is so cool about quilting for others is to see what and how each one uses their blocks and specially their orphans. Sometimes I get so many ideas in my head from the quilts that I quilt that I feel I am going to explode. OH maybe that is just from all the food I have eaten this weekend. But it is a beauty of a monster and I hope she is pleased with what I did on it. If not I volunteered to keep it for her.                                                                                               

Close up of the monster! Great job Karen O can't wait to see what you do next!












Well I have one of mine own to do today so I better get with it!

Things I have been doing

Ok this first quilt is Karens. It is her Giant Postage Stamp, she bordered it with the split 9 patch. I just did a feather meander on it. Lovely quilt Karen!

This next quilt is Janet's. She called it her Christmas quilt since it was in all reds and greens. So I quilted Santa Claus' in it for her.
Great quilt Janet

Since I haven't posted pics in awhile I am trying to get caught up on them. The cats have been done now for weeks! They belong to Angela in England, they were a Row by row from Mailblocks group

This is a row by row for my local club, it bleongs to Jean

This final row is Lisa's in CO. It is a replacement row for one that was never returned to her.