Finishing the Rambler and Family Memories

I finished up the Rambler Block this week in At Piece with Time.

I fussy cut the petals with the swirls in them.  I liked the way it indicated motion and change.  And since that's what this block is all about, it seemed appropriate.  I also made the center a little bigger than the pattern indicated - both on this square and the forget-me-nots in the center triangles.

I used the Perfect Circles to make the centers and I've found that after a certain tiny size, my circles get all kinds of wonky.  So I made all of the centers about one size up than the pattern indicated.  I believe I like them better a little larger anyway.

We don't have that many blocks left in this quilt.  I really hope you're working on your setting triangles as we're moving near completion of the individual blocks.

I also wanted to remind you that there will not be a blog next week.  Next Thursday my family will be heading out to Oak Island, NC to celebrate my son's wedding. 

Jon Matthew is my youngest.  And although he hasn't lived at home in several years, he has always lived nearby.  I love the young woman he is marrying.  She is smart, a hard worker, and she loves him. 

So in so many, many ways, I thought I was ready for my baby to completely fly the nest.  Then Wednesday, which is always my errand running day, I passed a group of teenagers walking down Mackey Road.  In this group was a kid about 17, shoulder length brown hair, baseball cap, dark jeans and a black t-shirt.

Instantly I was carried back to another young man at another place and another time.  This kid looked so much like my son I nearly had a nostalgia overload.  I was misty-eyed all the way home.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm glad he's all grown-up, through with school, has a good job, and is a responsible adult.  I'm glad he's marrying a wonderful gal.  I am looking forward to watching the next phases of his life.

All is well in that part of my world.  I guess what pulls me up short is how quickly this all happened.

And you must understand that this ties into my quilting world because Matt is the reason I quilt.  With my daughter, I learned how to smock and do all that beautiful heirloom French sewing.  When the hubs found out that our second child was a boy, he firmly declared "There will be no lace on this child."

I did get away with smocking for him for awhile, but not long.

So...I learned to quilt for the kids.  While my great-grandmother's quilt was my inspiration, the birth of my son pushed me to find my wings as a quilter.  The first quilt I made was a baby quilt for Matt.

It is backed with cotton flannel.

There is so much wrong with this quilt, it's easier to make a list of the few things that are right with it.  But it was much loved and much used.  The batting is poking through in quite a few places.  He took it with him everywhere and it's a wonder it survived.

So the quilting addiction in my life?  Yeah, it's all my son's fault.

Thank goodness for sons and daughters that push us to try new things!

Goodies and Snowflakes

So, I'm doing this block of the month at Dragonfly Quilt Shop in High Point.  The quilt is Peppermint Place and it's about as cute of a Christmas quilt as I have ever seen.  The group has been working on it for awhile and we're now at the point where we're putting all the blocks together for the center of the quilt and appliqueing the setting blocks.  I've gotten my snowflakes done.

All those little curves and dips with the machine applique are challenging, but I found if I go slowly and use a good stabilizer on the back, it's really pretty easy.  There are four of these and I learned that if I do the first one very slowly so I can get a good feel for it, I can speed things up on the next ones and they zip by much quicker that the first one.

There have been lots of little accomplishments this week that I hope will lead up to some more bigger reveals as weeks go on.  My quilt life is being shelved as the wedding gets closer.  I am so excited for my son and future daughter-in-love.  This is going to be a fun wedding!  I ordered my shoes today -- flip-flops for the beach wedding in a lovely turquoise blue! 

I told you I went to the AQS Show in Charlotte a couple of weeks ago.  Here are the goodies I came home with.

The glare on this is horrible and I do apologize.  This is triangle paper for 2-inch half-square triangles.  The smaller the half-square triangle, the wonkier mine can get at times and I prefer paper piecing the really small ones since it's just so easy to stretch those bias edges.  Primitive Gatherings (my very favorite wool shop) had these.

Wool.  Yes. I have given into the "wave" and am now doing wool applique.  I absolutely love it!  It's different, but it's quick and fun.  Well...sometimes it's quick.  I'm also doing a block of the month called Bertie's Year (also at Dragonfly).  Those blocks are wood on flannel and I am admittedly not a flannel fan.  It could have something to do with being in the throes of menopause and because of this I am perpetually in my own private heat wave.  Flannel does nothing to alleviate my own personal summers. 

But I highly suspect the reason I dislike flannel is that it works up so differently from cotton. 

It ravels.

It's stretchy.

It's just not cotton and by golly I'm used to cotton fabric.

So hopefully as time goes by and I get more accustomed to working with flannel, I will form a friendship with it.

I bought some focus fabric and two patterns, too...

 The snowmen table runner is from Primitive Gatherings.  It can be done in all cottons or cottons and wools.  The three gossiping ladies in  "Stitch a Little Talk a Lot" is by Amy Bradley and that will be my next new project.  I think that pattern is just precious. 

Here's a better shot at the focus fabric....

I had no plans for this fabric when I grabbed the bolt and headed to the check out line.  I just knew that somewhere out there was a quilt that I would make that would need this.  So three yards of this made it into my bag. 

Update on the roof:  We settled the bill with the roofer, whom I think was glad to tell us good-bye.  We have a painter that's going to fix the ceilings and paint my sewing room. 

We still have a leak.

Oy-vey.

Love and Stitches,

Sherri

Welcome to My Crazy Life

I feel as if I'm in one of those periods in my life where absolutely nothing is getting accomplished.

Some of this has to do with an inch-and-a-half slash on my left index finger.  Never have two glasses of wine while you're rotary cutting,  That's all I have to say about that.

Life has just been so busy.  I'm at the point where I honestly thought my life would be a little slower, a little easier.  My children are grown and both are pretty much responsible adults most days.  But my real job never misses a beat and I have too many quilt projects going on.  I really need to simplify.

Would someone please tell my how to do that?

Anyway, I did go to the AQS show in Charlotte last weekend.  It was nice getting away with my quilting best friends, but after the Holy Grail of Quilt Shows (Paducah), it seemed really, really small.  I spent the least there I've ever spent at a show -- less than $100, but came away with some really cool focus fabric, patterns, half-square triangle paper, and some new marking pencils for dark fabric and wool.  So a good time was had by all.

I have gotten three more blocks done for Dear Jane.  There for a while, she and I weren't on speaking terms.  Not because I'm tired of her, it is just that it has been something every.   Single. Weekend.  In.  July.  I've had a family wedding, I've covered at a quilt shop, and I snuck away for a weekend at the beach.  The hubs and I haven't been anywhere this summer, so when the Son and my future Daughter-In-Law extended an invitation to go with them, we jumped at it.  Found a really nice little dive called the Fat Pelican, but what happens at the Fat Pelican stays at the Fat Pelican.  Let's just say in my future, I would like to own the Fat Pelican.  It's not just a dive bar, it's a state of mind.  Think Alice in Wonderland's Rabbit Hole at the beach and yeah...you've just about got it.

I have had a chance to work on At Piece with Time.  I'm almost ashamed to say that I'm still working on the applique on The Rambler block. The first time I appliqued the leaves behind the Forget-Me-Not, I cut them too short.  It was a complete rookie mistake.  When you're working on this, make sure the leaves extend all the way down into the petals.  If you don't, your background will show through.

But the main thing that has thrown in a monkey wrench into everything was my roof.  The first round of heavy summer rain we had told us the back story behind the sleet, hail, and ice storms we had this winter.  Our roof was pretty much a sieve.  That first heavy rain -- well, my fireplace looked like a water feature. 

Definitely needed a new roof.

So we went with a contractor who was doing some work in our area.  We upgraded to architectural shingles and decided to replace all the skylights.  Except the one in the dining room.  We were going to patch that over and put in a light.  So the hubs, working in the demo and environmental field for years and knowing the OSHA regs by heart, went up on the roof and marked the skylights.

And all was well in our world until the rains came again.  Luckily, the new skylights were in, but there was a hole in the ceiling of the dining room.  So the roof guys threw a tarp over it and it worked.

Until the next morning when the roofers forgot about the hole and one of them fell through it.

He. Is. Fine.

Got up and walked away from it because...

My dining room table broke his fall....

I'm glad he's okay.  I'm glad my hutch wasn't smashed, because while I have nothing in it monetarily valuable, I have priceless family keepsakes, my teaching awards, and items students have made or gifts they have given that can never be replaced. 

The down side to this is that the table is a Thomasville Cassandra and it's not made any more.  There is one in stock at a furniture place in New Mexico.  One.  In New Mexico....

And I live in High Point, the Furniture Capital of The World.  Something is wrong with this picture.

Any home improvement is like dominoes.  You start one something and then the next something falls.  So because there were leaks, we have to have the ceilings patched and painted.

So why not just paint some rooms, too?

Especially this room...

This room used to be the kids' rec room when they both were home.  When my daughter moved into campus housing and then her own place, it became my son's bedroom.  When he moved out, it transitioned into the Man Cave for the hubs, as did one of our out buildings.

So I finally put my size seven-and-a-half foot down and demanded equal time for a sewing studio.  I'm literally working in the smallest room in the house.  It is the former nursery.  So, I claimed the former rec-bedroom-man cave as mine.  Stuck my Quilt Flag in the floor and titled the territory as Sherri's. 

Two years ago.

There has been every excuse in the book for not making this happen.  But by-golly-gee-Pete, it's happening now. 

I will keep you updated as it happens.  I'm not expecting overnight miracles, but I want to be in it by my birthday in November.

Now, just a heads up as we're hurdling towards the middle of August (and how did that happen so fast?).  My son is getting married over Labor Day weekend and it is a destination wedding.  I probably will not have time to post that week prior.  Lots to do...and we have to get there and get things set up. 

My baby's getting married....Can't wrap my mind around it yet.