Bed Rugs

I threw frugality to the wind and pulled out my debit card and ordered 3 books this morning. They have been on my list and my desire for them out did my good conscience to save money. Oh, Dear Dave Ramsey, please forgive me! So now I will anxiously await the mail each day for some fabulous inspiration. I ordered Gwen’s second Collaboration book with Freddy Moran, her new Liberated Quiltmaking 2 and Material Obsession. I really haven’t purchased anything quiltmaking related that was not a necessity forever so I think I can be given a free pass this time around.
And talking about inspiration; I was digging through old pictures I have saved and found this awesome bed rug. I went to try to find some information on what exactly a bed rug consisted of and I found that they were actual rugs made for the bed that were hooked with hand spun, natural yarns onto wool. I can’t imagine the work involved in this as the design is gorgeous. I don’t think I will be trying this anytime soon. I love to rug hook but I have been working on the same project for over two years and it is a smaller rug and I am not anywhere done with that.
Wherever you are have a great weekend, we are supposed to get more snow here.

Every time I close the door on reality, it comes in through the windows.
-Jennifer Unlimited-

Stuff

I am still around, I have just been busy. Last week I had to travel out of state with my middle boy. He had surgery last fall in Ohio and we had a follow up with his surgeon so we made a mom and son trip out of it. It was a good time. Other than that I have been really busy at work.
A follow up on Maggie; she still is not very good. She is now blind and extremely thin. But she keeps moving around which is a good thing. We are seriously talking about how long we are going to let this go on. They tell us she is not suffering but watching her it is hard to believe that she isn’t. It is just so hard to part with a much loved pet.
Bullvye and I have been walking every night and I pulled the ab-lounge back out. Yes, I have an ab lounge and it really does work if you put some effort in it. Spring break will be here in about 7 weeks and I need to fit in that swimsuit again. The roads are all slush so it isn’t much fun doing the walking.
And then to end on a happy note, my parents just celebrated 57 years together. That is so amazing to me. I wish them many more healthy years together! The picture above I have shown before but I will share it again as it is the quilt I made them for their 50th wedding anniversary.

“We never know the love of our parents for us till we have become parents.” -- Henry Ward Beecher

NICU Quilts

The quilter’s weekend away was wonderful. It is always so much fun to spend time with good friends. Eat good food, drink good wine and have good talk with each other. I did the driving back and forth thing but I was still able to get my little quilt top appliquéd for a special exhibit at our upcoming show.
My dear friend Roseanna that passed away last fall had a heart of gold. She did so much for others. One of her special projects was quilts for premature babies that were born at our local hospital. We have a bi-yearly quilt show. It will be held this year in April. At this show we always have a featured quilter and this year we will feature Roseanna’s quilts. As a tribute to her the guild has asked members to make a 30” quilt to be displayed at our quilt show this year and then donated to our local NICU. So that is what I worked on this past weekend and I have my top ready to quilt. I appliquéd my giraffe in soft wool and will back it in flannel. I plan on putting a larger satin binding on it and handquilting it.
It is always fun to spend time with my friends and always hard to part with the. How thankful I am to have them in my life and to know that they are always there for me!

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” - Helen Keller

It's that Time of Year Again

That time of the year that I get to spend with my bestest of friends. Each January we rent the Quilting Cottage; a house next door to our local quilt store and spend 4 days sewing and visiting. This year I will be a day camper. I plan on working both Thursday and Friday and going over in the evenings and then I can spend all day Saturday with them. Instead of hauling my sewing machine like I usually do I have packed a couple of small handwork projects. I have found in the past if I don’t stay all day and just do the evenings I end up spending more time talking then sewing anyway. I will get to see my friend Linda who became a Grandma this month for the first time. She has a precious Grandson Henry. Linda has been a kindred spirit to me, always there through the good times and bad. I wanted to be able to share this special time in her life with her. So as she awaited the birth of her first grandchild I got to work on a special “grandma” quilt for her and Henry to share. I will gift it to her tonight.
Miss Maggie is still hanging in there. No signs of getting better but we are still drinking water and are still able to stand up.

“We love those who know the worst of us and don’t turn their faces away.” - Walker Percy

Pot of Flowers

A few years ago I was really fortunate to be able to take a class from Gwen Marston on designing your own quilt. It was an excellent class and I have been running with her ideas ever since. This little quilt is another in a series taken from all I learned that day. Back in the 90’s and possibly late 80’s Gwen wrote an article for Lady’s Patchwork Quilts magazine. In one of those articles she showed a Pokeberry quilt. It has always stuck in my mind and I wanted to re-create it my own way. I believe hers just had a pokeberry stem. I decided to put mine in a vase with other flowers as Gwen has designed numerous pots of flowers quilts also. So, this past weekend I basted it and I am now hand quilting it. I needed something to work on as I finished up my other projects.
Miss Maggie is still very sick but hanging on. The vet says she is not suffering so I keep holding out hope that she will miraculously get better. Thanks for all the good thoughts.

“Just as much as we see in others we have in ourselves.” - William Hazlitt

maggie

Our sweet kitty Maggie has been really sick. She spent last night at the vets and they called this morning to let us know that things are not looking any better. We have spent the past 13 years of our lives living with Maggie. She was an unexpected gift to us. Her mom Zoe came to us by accident, literally. Zoe’s mother was our neighbor’s barn cat and she was killed by a car. Our neighbor brought Zoe over to us and asked if my kids might want to try to keep her alive by bottle feeding her as she had yet to be weaned. They succeeded. That following year before we had Zoe spayed she snuck out the door and obviously met up with Basil our yellow Tom cat. We being new indoor cat owners had no idea that she was with kitten. We went on vacation and came home to one little yellow kitty. Maggie. Maggie has a personality all her own. She definitely isn’t a lover and she isn’t a fighter. She is more a recluse; she likes the safety of my daughter’s room and doesn’t interact much with people. She has been my alarm clock for the past 12 years as she expects to be fed at the same time each morning. So we are keeping our fingers crossed that she pulls out of this and if she doesn’t we are thankful for the 13 years we were blessed to share our home with her.

So often we dwell on the things that seem impossible rather than on the things that are possible. So often we are depressed by what remains to be done and forget to be thankful for all that has been done.” -Marian Wright Edelman

Another Monday

I got that snow day and did exactly what I said I would do and I enjoyed every minute of it! I put the last stitches in my handquilting project so now to get the binding fabric picked out and the binding made. Since I was on a roll with the handquilting I picked up another project to work on. This is a really small quilt that was the proto type for the bigger project I was working on. I came up with an idea and cut it out in fabric. This gave me a visual of what I needed to add and what I needed to subtract from my original idea. I thought I would hand quilt this one up and give to a friend of mine. I like working on the bright colors on these gloomy days.
I finished up the book I was reading and so I picked another one up at the library. It is the final installment of the Twilight series. I know I will probably have a hard time putting it down. I have been spending my morning hours reading. Since my kids are all still home for the holidays I have had a houseful. Add there friends to the mix and just about every night I have an extra child over sleeping on the couch. With a small house there is no where else to go but to retreat to a quiet spot and do some reading. Well time to go start my work week.

“Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life.” - Sophocles