Good News!

Our baby boy is back from Afghanistan!

Just had to pop in and shout the good news! He's not home yet, but we're counting the days! Today hubby and I went to Texas to pick up a trailer and we stopped to grab a bite to eat. We had just taken our seats and pointed out that we were sitting right under a Marine flag, when he called! :) At least he's back on American soil. Praise God! Oh, I can hardly contain myself! Thank you all so very much for your thoughts and prayers. I am truly, truly grateful! Think I'll have all the happy tears cried before he gets here? Nah - me neither.

A Conversation with Great- Grandma Kate

Last week my in-law's gave me this quilt:

 It belonged to DH's great grandma Kate:

My FIL said he wanted to pass it on to us because he knew that I would treasure it. Excuse me while I wipe away a tear. Treasure it? Ummm...YES!

I love the odd square thrown in here and there to fill an empty space when there was no more of a particular fabric.

Today we go out and buy more. Maybe I need to stop doing that.

No one in my family ever sewed or quilted. How sad is that? And then why do I have this burning desire to do so? Have we been married so long that DH's family has truly become a part of me through some form of Osmosis? I mean. I had no desire what so ever to even become acquainted with fabric until we had our first child. And even then, my MIL showered us with her quilts. Me? Quilt? I was overwhelmed by the thought.

So now I am over the moon that I have  this quilt and as I sat with it in my lap, running my fingers tenderly over the patches of fabric, I wished like crazy that she was sitting beside me. I have so many things I would like to say,

"Where did this....and this....and this piece come from?"
"What did you make for supper the day you stitched this block?"
"Did your mother quilt?"
"Here, let me cut some more squares for you."
"Do you want me to bring in some more wood so that you can continue stitching?"
"Did your children sit under this quilt as you stitched?"
"Where did you live when you were making this?"
"Who claimed this quilt once it was finished?"

Then she would look at me as if I had grown a second head when I tell her about the tools we have for quilters today and the never-ending selection of fabrics we have at our fingertips and she would shake her head.

I imagine she would tell me, "Hush child. You are quite the chatter-box", but then she would smile.

And I would sneak in another, "When did you find the time?" She would glance at me with wise eyes and I would simply say,

"Thank you. I will treasure it forever."

Eenie Meenie Miney Moe-ing

Now that the Gypsy Quilt is pieced and has been handed off to Jackie, I am chomping at the bit to start something new. Something small. I am plumb tuckered out from making big ol' quilts and I'm ready for something that will not have me making 100's of blocks. And therein lies my problem. It's an internal conversation.

"That's a great quilt!"
"No! You will want to enlarge it"
"How about this one?"
"No! Look at all those seams. You will be a slave to the ironing board again and you will make twice as many blocks."

Maybe being a dirt road hermit is becoming a problem. :)

EENIE:
So, do I make a table runner? I want one to lay across my washer and dryer. My laundry room/mud room/entry way are the first thing you walk into and a pretty runner will dress it up a bit. I also have  a long- 11ft - shelf in there that would benefit from a bit of stitching attention.

MEENIE:
But perhaps I need to make more potholders. I need more for Christmas.

MINEY:
Or I have this wall hanging I really want to make for a gift that I didn't get made last year.

MOE:
Pillowcases. I need to make some pillowcases for the kids who live at North Camp for Christmas. Those are quick, but it always takes me a coon's age to choose fabric.

REPEAT:
And then there is this table mat:

I snapped up this issue as soon as I saw it. Must make that table mat.

An apron? DD wants an apron to go with the potholders I gave her for her birthday.

So I have fretted these last few days as I cooked for a cowboy crew and entertained company. Carol pretty much tipped the scales. She whipped out that table mat here. Isn't it great?

Project chosen. And guess what? I have never embroidered. Not a thing. I was an avid cross stitcher   for years, but never embroidered. I was a bit intimidated by it, but this looked like a great way to kick things off since it was just a small bit. And I loved it! I'm not very good at it, but I was so tickled with this little pumpkin that I just didn't even let it faze me.

Now I want to embroider a whole bunch of things!

I used one strand each of a red, yellow, and orange in order to embroider the leaf and I was tickled with how it turned out:

These are monster hexagons! It felt strange making them, but I really like the way they are coming together.

And I am loving the fact that I do not need to make this bigger...or do I?

Winners and Flimsy Complete

Wow! I think it's safe to say that y'all like giveaways and you like to read! I want to thank each and every one of you for chiming in and thanks to Quilting Gallery for hosting a week of fun! Lots of great gifts were offered up and hopefully fun, new bloggy friends were discovered! As for me, I now have a LOOOONG list of books to keep me busy for a really long time. I appreciate y'all sharing your insights to what you were reading as well. Y'all are a well read bunch!

So I imagine y'all just want me to hush up and spill the beans about who won.  I used Mr. random number generator and he said 220 is the winner and that just happens to be:

 ytsmom said...

Either one would be great, but if I won, I would pick the clips. I have been wanting some of those for quite a while.

So the second number that was drawn was 86 and that happens to be:

Amy DeCesare said...

Right now I'm reading Killing Lincoln. It sounds upsetting or depressing, but it's really fascinating, and I'm learning so much about history.

Amy wins the fabric!

So if y'all will drop me a note and let me know where these little packages need to be sent, I will get them out to you! Congratulations and I hope y'all enjoy them!

This weekend a little birdie told me that September is National Sewing Month and a few people like Darlene, whom I always listen too, said that we had to sew every day this month. I'll try, but I'm not making any promises. We'll be shipping this month and that tends to remove me from my stitching schedule. Ppfftt. Schedule! What schedule? I'm sure shipping or not, Darlene expects me to sew. :)

However, I did manage to finish up a flimsy. I finished piecing the Gypsy quilt!

The border is on,  I pieced the back, and made the binding. Now I am in a quandry about what to chose for the quilting. This is another big quilt...surprise! It measures 100x100. For some reason I have a pretty good sized stack of blocks left over. Don't know what I was thinking when I did the math, but there will be a Gypsy sidekick one of these days.