Design Wall - Some Finished quilts

It's Monday, time for my Design Wall again. See Judy L's Blog for more design walls. I finished four quilts last week so all I have on my walls is my SBS quilt. I thought I would show my Quilt Buddy's SBS wall this week. Next is my DGD #2 Olivia's Birthday quilt with D9P's. I stitched the Binding down on our way to deliver it to EE Schenks in Portland for a competition there. I found that the Fairfield 80/20 batting (from JoAnn's) 'pilled' really bad on the Kona Black fabrics. note to self: don't use it with dark fabrics unless you have lots of sticky paper on your lint roller. We did find a little fun tool at the warehouse called a "Cotton Picker" that we wished we had when we were trying to get all the lint off before turning Olivia's quilt in. This is the block I used to check what size I wanted to cut the black and white and red fabrics to make Olivia's Quilt. It will be donated to Humanitarian Services. I tied this one with buttons to enter in the WW FAIR. The flowers are English Paper Pieced and the sashing is scrappy. This was made from the 'Chunky strips' I got at Guild and changed my mind about donating to Charity because it was too cute. This is Jackson's quilt made of my collected Flannel 'firefighter" fabrics. The Reunion Quilt is entered as well as Lydia's Happy flowers and the Christmas Quilt I made for Joe and Kori.

Gift Overload

Jackson had a Great Birthday Party at his Grandma and Grandpa Goodson's house. His daddy decorated a fun JEEP cake with a mud hill and Jeeps on it. Here is Jackson checking out his Jeep cake. We missed seeing 5 of our grandchildren that live in the Tri-cities. The five (correction: SIX) who were there had fun running around and eating chips, hot dogs, salads and drinking lemonade. I spent the day finishing yet another quilt. Janessa asked me to find some Jeep fabric for a quilt for his b-day. I told her I didn't find what I wanted. After he opened the gift with the quilt she called me a liar. The fabric really wasn't what I wanted, I didn't lie! I've collected "firefighter" flannel since Jackson was born so I had plenty of flannel to make the front of the quilt with my favorite D9P pattern. I had to tie it and I even sewed the binding on my machine to speed up the process. Janessa came to see if Jackson would take a nap just as I'd finished. She almost caught me making it. Jackson didn't take a nap but we played with Duplos and watched some of DUMBO. Grandpa came home and tried to help him take a nap too. I'm glad Jackson didn't fall asleep into his cake. Samuel came to our house afterward and showed off how he can sit up now. He's playing with the toy that I have seen 13 of the 14 grandchildren play with.

Jackson Is TWO!!

Two short years ago my baby had a baby! Here she is with her sweet bundle, straight from heaven! He's the first and only grandchild that I've witnessed the arrival. Born right here in Walla Walla in the same hospital where his daddy was born. Here's the proud daddy with his Grandma Sharon. Jackson was named after his Grandpa Jack, Sharon's Husband. We get to celebrate with Jackson on Saturday. Happy Birthday, Sweet Boy!

Delivering a Quilt to "Trends"

My Quilt Buddy and I made a mad dash on Tuesday to Portland to deliver her "Walk in the Snow" quilt to be in the competition at Trend's at E.E Schenks in two weeks. I finished Olivia's Quilt, bound it on the way down and attached the label and hanging sleeve. It was an all day trip and Lynn took a little scenic route on the way home on old Hwy 30. We stopped to look out from Crown Point and saw a few pretty waterfalls, Latterall and Horsetail Falls. Everyone has seen Multnomah so we didn't stop there. Here are a few pictures I took. I hope to put one in the Fair, but can't decide which one to enlarge for that.

Design Walls August 24th

I have multiple pictures to show for the week on Design wall Monday with Judy L. The Blocks above are the SBS Block of the week that ended Sunday. I also made several Red, Tan and Green swap Blocks for the Christmas Swap with my SBS online group. I will post pictures of them later. I added 18 to the Scrappy SBS quilt and 6 to my 30's version. TOTAL- Scrappy - 59 blocks 30's - 26 I made several blocks for my SBS quilts this week and made the top of the birthday quilt for Olivia. I had purchased the "Olivia the pig" panel when I was on a road trip a few years ago. I'm happy with how it turned out so far. Quilt Buddy wants it done to put in the competition at "Trends" so I'm quilting all day. I'll be binding Olivia's and the Superman quilt on the road.

The "Cool" Birthday Party

NaDell dressed up complete with side ponytail and 'blue' eyeshadow. Andy and his Guitar Hero were a big hit, even Vincent was dancing on the table to the music. The "air" Guitars were fun for the kids, then came the cake and ice cream and presents. So this is the picture of Olivia's Birthday quilt. Olivia was so sweet and hugged and thanked everyone for coming. She needed a little prompting to remember who it was on her quilt. I had to bring it home to finish it. Elizabeth and her cousins all wanted to help her open her gifts. Jared asked if he could have his quilt soon because he was getting cold in his room. AHHH, he knows how to make me feel good about making it for him. It has been almost 2 months since his birthday. I'm too easily distracted at my finishing quilts. It would be way easier if I had a Longarm machine. At least easier on my back. I could do it in a couple hours instead of all day hunched over the good old DSM,(Dear sewing machine). The Longarm rent cost more than I can afford with me not working anymore. I need a job to support my habit or kill my back to stay happy quilting and finishing my own quilts. I love saying, "I did it all myself"! This week my fair entries go in for the Walla Walla Fair and then I can finish Jared's 'Superman" Quilt. It can be his Back to School gift! I didn't have a recent family picture of Milton and Christen's family so I had them pose in NaDell's Living Room. We had fun going to help Olivia have a Happy Birthday. She was all dressed up in her favorite 'dress-up' clothes. Grandpa and I wore some of our stuff from HAWAII, with our sunglasses. You know - Cool in the shades??? I thought that's as cool as we could get. Thanks for playing along grandpa... I had Coy take our picture before we left.

Olivia is 4 today

Grandma has to BLOG about her grand-daughters' 4th Birthday. This picture was taken on her 'Blessing Day' with her Mother and big sister. Her beautiful dress was made by her Grandma Shirley! We will go to Richland to "Rock" with Olivia tonight. Have to find a "Cool outfit" for Grandpa and Grandma to wear. She was born in Richland to goodly parents and has been fun to watch her grow and learn new things. She's a true "princess" and "ballerina". All Girlie girl! I can hardly wait to see her reaction to her Birthday present. And the reaction of her MOM too. Makes you curious, huh??? Photos later.

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Quilt

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Quilt

I am over the 50 count of blocks. Just about 90 left to make. For the 30's there is a lot more to do. I only have 26 done in the 30's prints so far.

Design walls -Monday 8-17-09

I have added 13 blocks to my two SBS quilts in the past week. Blocks totals are 45 for the scrappy and 22 for the 30's version of this quilt. The picture of the 30's design wall is sideways. I did some hand-worked blocks while I was resting my hurt foot waiting for x-rays. My favorite is the Dresden Plate block way down near the bottom of the 30's wall. Two hours in the Dr office and needed a hand sewing project, so that is what I chose. 20 wedges handsewn and hand appliqued onto the background. I used a silicone circle template to do the center. So I could starch it after running the gather thread around the edge. It worked very nicely! Check out other design walls on Judy's Blog

33 years ago today...

Paul and I met on this date WAY BACK in 1976. These are copies of Polaroid pictures I took when we first started dating. It was a whirlwind courtship in the old Beet truck, waiting at the dump yard. There have been a lot of days and years we have spent together, many trips to the Temple, Reunions, dinners out, Movies, illnesses and happy moments to remember. We haven't been back to the Canadian Temple however...maybe someday. We'd have to get our Passports to go. Who knew back then that we'd have all of our Six Children away from home, married and 14 grandchildren to love and enjoy. Thanks for all the Memories!

8-10-09 SBS Design Wall

This is my combined blocks of my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. I put both sets of blocks on the wall so I can see at a glance which ones still need the duplicate done. My quilt buddy has added several to my TO-DO list while I've been incognito this week-end. I'll need to sew double-time today and tomorrow. My total so far is 38 Scrappy SBS and 19 30's SBS blocks I really need to move the stack of fairy frosts on the dresser. I haven't decided which quilt pattern I want to use them in yet. Any Ideas?

Reunion & Handprint Quilt

After a whirlwind trip to spend some time with 4 of our six childrens' families I am happy to be home to upload and share some pictures. The cabin was nice the weather wasn't the best. Especially for a few who thought it was still summer, and forgot to bring coats and warm clothes, myself included. We got to spend most of the time in the Lodge. It was a very busy full day on Friday. After Breakfast we did the "Handprints" on the quilt I'd put together on Wednesday. It went well and everyone helped get the littlest childrens' handprints on it as best we could. How do you get a 2 month old to unclench his fingers??? We had to fit all the fun we could into that one day. Each family chose a meal to prepare and that worked well, I think. We weren't short on food, however we learned that "Colby" Butter doesn't work to make Poppycock. Paul and I had lunch on Friday. I was afraid the rain would prevent us from using the gas grill, but the big boys helped me get it started and we had our hamburgers and hot dogs, potato chips, finger Jello and baby carrots. Uncle Brant kept them wound up playing "catch me" and going up and down the stairs. The older grandkids all slept upstairs, above Grandpa and Grandma's room. Five of the 12 were in with their parents. Bed time was quite chaotic. Aunts helped with other activities to keep the children occupied, making candy necklaces and drawing themselves on butcher paper. We missed those who couldn't come. :((( Grandpa took some on a hike in the rain and later three of the families drove down to see the rapids and found a Hot springs. I hope they have some good memories. Grandpa and Grandma sure do!

Floors and Motivation

On my FB this morning I got this comment on my post- "Mop floors or make more itty 6.5" Blocks.... hummmmm" "You just revealed your motivation for quilting, Mary! Have fun!" Thanks Gwen... I don't know why I was up so early but things to do and places to go... I thought I'd put up a picture of my beautiful floor and the Pillowcase that I made before Janessa joined the family of the kids Handprints, names and ages. I should find some of hers and put them on there, hhummmmm are there any in her Photo album or baby book??? I think they only did Foot prints. I wish I'd had Paul and I do ours too. I'm excited to get the grandkids handprints, and my kids as well. It's so nice of them to want to get together and CAMP. It will be our first Paul Crowther Reunion and I'm glad that Paul/G-pa is feeling well enough now to join us. He says he might even drive some. We'll see about that. If I drive I can stop where/when I want to. He thinks I want to stop in Elgin, which would be nice but not where I was thinking...

August 3rd -Design Wall Monday

30's Design Wall Scrappy SBS blocks Not much has changed on my design wall this week except that I took my scrappy SBS (Sylvia's Bridal Sampler) blocks out to my quilt buddies where we can see them as we choose the fabrics for our next blocks. So that wall was empty a day or so. I decided after seeing the 30's fabric SBS blocks on KNITOID's blog that I need to just make blocks of both 30's and the scrappy while I was doing them and have two quilts done at the same time. 6.5" blocks are time consuming at best when they have 8-10 pieces to put together. I am finding the Paper-piecing most challenging... I wish I could draft them myself, but I don't have enough EQ experience to do that. So I worked on the ones are in the 9-patch piecing method and did 8 blocks one evening. My count is Scrappy 23 done, (5 I had to re-make) and 12 - 30's SBS blocks. I'll have to put the odd sized ones in some shams for my bed. I have a way to go to get to the magic number of 140 blocks done for each of the 2 fabric collections I have chosen. My quilt buddy is doing her SBS in Christmas colors of burgundy, green and gold. I will get my fair Entry submitted this week. Just have to print a copy for them. I can list more than I take, so my wish list is LONG. How many things I can finish by the Labor Day week-end? I think I'll sew together my 30's Stars and Crown blocks and get them pin basted or spray basted so I can quilt on them when I tire of the itty tiny blocks. Check out Judy L's Blog at Patchwork times for more Quilters Design Wall Mondays.

AHHHHHH, the taste of Summer

There is nothing and I mean nothing-like the taste of Corn on the cob, fresh picked and slathered with butter, salt and pepper to make you go AHHHHHH! We only have one small row of the sweet stuff, but every kernel is finger licking yummy! Thanks Paul for planting a few corn seeds this year... I've been mostly busy sewing this week, making blocks for the SBS quilt and trying to get my Fair entries ready to submit. Deadline is the 5th of August for Entry forms. I wish our garden stuff would last until Fair time, but that is doubtful. I have Apricot jam this year that set up so it will be a new entry. Because of all the hard work I did after the fair last year I have more quilts than there are categories for. I 'borrowed' back the quilt that Lynn quilted for me last December so I could put a quilt in the quilted by Professional category. I liked all of the quilts and got great comments on them, but I can't enter all of them. Lydia will get hers after the fair and so will Jared. Gotta put in a D9P again this year. I'm looking forward to a couple days with the family. They have banned my sewing machine, so we will just do the blocks for a "Handprint Quilt" Watch the Crazy Grandma Blog to see how ours turns out, and some play by play photos too. We'll give Grandpa the camera, he should be able to have fun with that.