Starting New

Is there any feeling better than starting a new quilt? (Okay, I'm sure there is, but that's where I am right now! LOL)

Last night I made my first block for the sampler quilt I decided to make from the "He Loves Me" line of fabrics from Maywood. I just love these fabrics, and love the block. I have no idea what other blocks will make it into this quilt...but so far I'm happy!

I'm feeling that adrenalin rush...new fabric, new quilt, new design and no idea how it will all end up. Or if it will ever be finished! But I'm optimistic...and hopefully by late summer it will be on my bed.

Any block suggestions? What is YOUR favorite block???

It's Wednesday Already?

It's amazing how having a day off can completely throw you off for the rest of the week. We enjoyed our Memorial Day. Somehow we wound up with no kids at home for the majority of the day...one was with friends, another working and the oldest is in Florida with a few of his fraternity brothers. We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves since it was so quiet! :o)

My husband fired up our big green egg and smoked two pork butts. We shredded part of one and had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner. The remaining meat was put into the freezer to be pulled out on Friday and served Saturday night to our float group. While that was smoking, I finished hand stitching down the binding on my Underground Railroad quilt. Since it's been washed, it's hard to see the quilting in this picture, but I used my Baptist Fans template on it...that design just looks great on everything! I'm so happy to have it done.


Over the weekend, JoAnn's was having a huge sale, so I ran over and picked up two more colors of yarn to make prayer shawls with. These two colors are supposed to be "painterly colors" and will have a soft, gradual striping through the shawls. I'm anxious to start, but won't until I finish the one I have started. Hopefully that will be done soon and I'll post a picture. The book is for the Bible Study I'll be participating in come June. We're studying the book of Esther, I'm looking forward to it since I've never been to a Bible Study before.

I've seen some beautiful work as I head through blogland...I'm trying to be better about commenting, but it's slow progress. But I'm visiting and reading...

Only 15 more days of school here, 13 for me and then I'm heading to Virginia with my daughter to look at the University of Mary Washington. We're looking forward to a little rest and relaxation on the trip, but since we'll only be gone two days, I'm not sure we'll get it. Are there any "must see" places in Fredericksburg we should visit once we're done our campus tour?

A message from our governor

NJ governor John Corzine has made a public service announcement for wearing seatbelts. I'm glad to see he's using his mistake for good! Have a wonderful holiday weekend, everyone!

Things are growing...

Last year I wrote about the landscaping work we had done. We knew what we wanted the yard to look like, but didn't have the equipment or expertise to set the "bones" of our garden. This year has been so much fun...now that the foundation of the garden has been laid, we've had a wonderful time playing in the garden! These pictures are the before and after of our front walkway...I love the transformation...
We've been filling in with perennials and because we have a lot of trees, I'm trying to choose plants for a "woodland garden". I've always loved bleeding hearts and finally found one for a shady area along our dry creekbed. For the front which gets a little more sun, we've planted some foxgloves.
And near the street where we get a lot of sun, we planted some marigolds to complement the black eyed susans that are there...hopefully they will spread across this whole bed eventually!

And look what's growing in our backyard? We've had an empty lot behind our house since we moved in almost 9 years ago and someone is finally building a house on it. Since our house is set almost to the very back of our lot (we have about 18 inches off of our porch!) this new house will be verrrry close to us. But...at least we'll be able to do something with our backyard at long last...because we'll know where it ends! (It also helps that the new neighbors are very nice people!)

And to make this quilty, I have my Underground Railroad quilt on the machine and plan to finish it tonight...pictures following soon!

Tulip Garden Quilt

Many years ago, when my daughter was little, I made this quilt for her. It was a Debbie Mumm pattern for a wallhanging, which I expanded many times over to make this tulip quilt. I used very pastel colors, rotary cut for the first time (I'd only used templates before!) and hand quilted it. I love this quilt, but as she grew older, she didn't want it anymore. I eventually folded it up and got her store bought comforters and put it away. The other day I pulled it out of the closet to take a picture and put it away once again. I'm hoping that some day her child will want it...although she swears she's never having children! But just in case...I'll keep it safe!

Thank you very much for the kind wishes for my youngest daughter. As it turns out, she has mononucleosis! The test showed she's in the convalescent stage, so she was spared the worst symptoms and only has a mild case. This explains her exhaustion lately! She also had an ultrasound today to look for the cause of abdominal pain she's been having, so we're awaiting the results of that test.

As for me, I had a very nice Mother's Day. My two older children had to work so I didn't expect to see my son at all and would only see my daughter in the evening. I headed over to my sister's house, where we celebrated Mother's Day with my parents, my sister and her son and my brother's family. We also celebrated my nephew's college graduation. Andrew, who sent me 2 dozen roses since he knew he was working and wouldn't be home, surprised me with a visit...but I wasn't home! I convinced him to come to my sister's...it was great to see him and spend time with him. After dinner, I headed home to spend the evening with my youngest and my DH. He stayed home with her because we didn't want her around my little nephews, just in case she was contagious!

I hope to get to some quilting this week...I did start to sew the Underground Railroad quilt together but stopped when I made a mistake! Oh well...there's some ripping in my future...

There is a new resident...

in our driveway. Last night we replaced our daughter's totalled 1998 Cavalier with a 2004 Cavalier. She's in love with the car and we liked the price! We went to a place that brings cars in off of leases, sends about 95% off to auction and sells the nicest cars to the general public at wholesale prices. I wish we'd known about this place a few years ago! The cars on the lot were in great shape, the salesman was very helpful and friendly and when I sat down to talk to him, it turned out that he was my boss's husband! Small world! If you live in the NJ area and ever need a used car, I highly recommend going to see Walt at George Yelland, Inc.

Very little quilting has been going on, although over the weekend I got about half of my Underground Railroad quilt sewn together. I hope to get it finished some time this week because every time I open the windows in my sewing room, blocks blow off the design wall!

If you care to, please say some prayers for my youngest daughter. She's been sick since Saturday night and is totally exhausted. I had her to the doctor yesterday and he couldn't find anything specific, except for pain in her side, so he is doing a battery of tests, including one for mono, and a pelvic ultrasound to try to determine the cause of her pain. She's been practicing for her school play, The Music Man, and the performances are in a week and a half...she's missed practice every day this week. Thank you!

Prayers Requested

Patty at Morning Ramble has requested prayers for her beautiful new granddaughter, Mei-Ling. You can read her story on Patty's blog. This little girl is a fighter and her family desperately wants her home from the hospital and in their loving arms. Please visit Patty's blog and say a prayer for this little angel!

Still here...

Just wanted to say thank you for all of the kind words about my daughter and her accident. She's doing well and we're going to be starting the hunt for another car for her...we'll be looking at our first car tomorrow!

I haven't had time to do any quilting at all (can you say withdrawal???) for the last 2 weeks. Today I had a day off from school and used the time to catch up a little on customer quilts. I finished a very large quilt for one customer and a smaller quilt for another. It felt good to be productive! I can't share either of these quilts now, one is for a show and the other is for a fellow blogger, so I want her to be able to share it with you!

Since I didn't have a picture to share, I thought I would share one of my daughter's favorite pets. Cheddar is no longer with us, but he WAS awfully cute!!!