Thanks, Finn...

Finn is a troublemaker, plain and simple. But I'll get to that in a minute. First I want to show you the new prayer shawl I just finished. I've discovered I can crochet much faster than I knit, so I'll be crocheting them from now on! I love how this one turned out. My next one will be a rectangular crocheted shawl. I do like having a finished edge instead of making fringe!
On to Finn...I've been reading the posts and seeing the pictures of the Orphan Train quilts that people are making since Finn challenged them. Oh Finn, I saw your challenge and I thought I'd pull out my orphans. I smugly went into my scrap box, where I throw the extra blocks and thought, "I may come out of this with a half dozen blocks. I used some awhile ago to make a charity quilt top, put a few others on the backs of quilts, so there's NO WAY I'll have enough for a quilt top. It's just not going to happen..."
Apparently I was wrong! I have enough blocks to make TWO quilt tops! And I still have a huge stack of nine patches that can go into another quilt. Finn, you're such a troublemaker! Now I have at least 3 more quilts to make! But, they will go to good homes, so I guess it's not all bad. :o) So, thanks Finn, you've inspired a lot of people!

Tuesday Afternoon...

and it's hot and humid here in southern NJ. A good day to stay indoors. I've been working on a customer quilt, but took a nice, long break to sit outside with a glass of water and read. I love the longer days of summer...



Last Friday was my birthday, so yesterday I took a ride to Pennington Quilt Works to use my 20% off birthday coupon which expires at the end of June. I had a collection of FQ's and had nothing to go with them. Using my coupon I picked up 2 one yard pieces...the polka dots and one of the florals, and 3 yards of a cream background fabric to go with them. The whole collection is now washed (not ironed as you can see in the photo!) and waiting for inspiration to strike.

I also made a few more blocks for my sampler quilt. I guess this wouldn't fit into Finn's orphan train challenge since I'm making all these blocks new for the quilt. I do have some orphans laying around, I'm hoping to collect them and make something of them this summer.

Back to the machine or I'll never get anything done this summer! :o)

School's Out for Summer...

We're back from Virginia and now I'm done all my traveling for the summer! We had a wonderful time visiting the University of Mary Washington. It's a beautiful school and Fredericksburg is a delightful little town! Thanks Jen for the advice...we did have lunch at Sammy T's and it was delicious. However we opted for gelato instead of ice cream...we'll try Carl's next time we're down.
We're planning to head back down in the fall so she can get a feel for the campus when there are students around. UMW is definitely at the top of her list right now!
As for what summer will bring, I'm not sure! I have a lot of customer quilts to finish, a few of my own that I'd like to have done and I found a cute pattern for a cable knit scarf that I'd like to make for the winter. Add in the prayer shawls that I'm making (I started a crocheted, triangular scarf last night...it's going fast!), doctor's appointments and all of the normal, day to day stuff and I can see summer will go much too quickly for my liking! :o) But it's filled with opportunities....

Prayer Shawl

Last night I finished my first prayer shawl. I totally enjoyed knitting it and can't wait to get another one on my needles. It was so relaxing to make this and I know that it will be greatly appreciated by the lady here in town who will receive it. The pattern was simple and I only messed it up in one spot. Of course I didn't find it until it was completely finished, fringe and all! If quilters make humility blocks for their quilts, do knitters make humility rows? :o)

Quilt Show Pictures

Saturday was the NJ State Quilt Guild Show in Edison, NJ. Thought I'd share a little eye candy with you. My apologies to the talented quilters who made these quilts...I didn't write down the information as I went through the show. If you see something you have made, let me know and I'll give you credit!
This quilt was a miniature...the little triangles in the feathered star were so small! It was lovely...


This quilt I can credit to Jane Lange, quilted by yours truly. It was striking!

I loved the strippy set of this quilt...so simple yet so beautiful. Love the cheddar!

This one was made to commemorate a visit to Notre Dame in Paris. Stunning!

I just really liked this one!

The show was very nice, the quilts were beautiful, especially the display of antique quilts. I enjoyed the show, it was a much needed, relaxing break! As I was walking around the vendor section, I saw a quilt hanging at the back of the booth and fell in love with it. I went into the booth for a closer look, found the pattern and kits for the quilt and realized...I bought this quilt kit a few years ago! The kit is now out on my sewing table, I guess it's time to make it!

Met the Other Woman...

Yes, that's right. Last night I met the "Other Woman". My husband travels a lot for business. When he's not on the road, he often has customers come into Philadelphia and he wines and dines them, takes them to Phillies games, whatever the customer wants.

For several years, whenever customers are in town, they stay at the Comfort Inn on the Philadelphia waterfront. Over the years, he's come to know the bartender there very well. I've heard stories about her for so long, that I often joke that she's the "other woman" in his life because he talks about her so often!

Last night, after dinner, we hopped in the car and took a ride into Philly. Destination? The bar at the Comfort Inn! I finally got to meet her and she is a sweet lady. I think when he is with her, the DH is in good hands! :o) As we were leaving the hotel, which is at the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge, I snapped this picture with my phone. I love the way the lighted bridge looks at night!

I've been working diligently on the customer's quilt which is loaded on the machine. It's very large and seems to be taking forever. (It's really not, it just seems that way!) I have a second, similar quilt to do for the same customer when this one is done. So, no quilting on my sampler quilt this week!

A Quiet Friday Evening...

And I've been sewing. After returning home from the Philadelphia airport where I picked up a friend of my daughter, I grabbed something to eat and headed up to the sewing room. I wanted to quilt on the longarm, but thunderstorms were rolling through so I left it unplugged.

I wish I could get a picture of the blocks that shows the colors better...that light blue isn't nearly as bright as it looks!

I have a nice list of blocks to make for this quilt...thank you for all of your suggestions! I've decided to make almost all of the blocks that you have said were your favorites. You have all contributed to this quilt and it makes it that much more special to me. I'll need a lot of blocks, so keep sending the names of YOUR favorite blocks...there's plenty of room!

Thanks!!!

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!!!

Crazy Week...

It's been one of those weeks, that I'm glad to see coming to a close. On Monday, my 17 year old daughter was on her way to work in the remnants of the Nor'easter. An SUV in front of her stopped, she braked, the brakes locked and she slid into the SUV. Thankfully, no one was injured, the SUV was barely scratched, but her car is totalled. In a way, I'm glad because it was old, had a lot of miles on it and although we kept it very well maintained, I've never liked the car. So, it looks like we'll be car shopping again...one of my least favorite things to do! I do realize how blessed we are though. Our son and daughter, between them, have been involved in 3 accidents. No one was hurt in any of them and they were all weather related, so no tickets were issued. Cars can be easily replaced, although maybe not as fast as my daughter would hope! :o) Another set of parents here were not so fortunate. Their daughter was buried a few weeks ago after her car went off the road and into a tree. I can't fathom the pain they feel, so I'm very grateful that my children have been safe.
And as you can see, she's fine. Last night was her high school's Junior Dinner Dance. The sun came out for the first time all week and they had a beautiful night for it. She looked so pretty, her date was a very nice boy and they had a good time.

Nothing quilty this week, it's been a little hectic around here. I did shorten the straps on my daughter's dress, so I did have a needle in my hand the other day...I'm in serious need of some quilting time! Maybe this afternoon, although I should be out weeding the garden. But, the weeds will be there all summer...they can wait!

Machine Quilters Exposition - Manchester, NH

We returned this afternoon from a very nice weekend in New Hampshire. We left Friday morning and it took us about 7 hours to get to Manchester, NH. It was a pretty ride, we could see lots of areas that still had snow on the ground, especially deeper in the woods along the highway. Friday evening we took our daughter to see "Blades of Glory". It was a funny film if you like raunchy, stupid humor. It did have its moments, but in the end I felt stupider for having watched it! :o) After that we went to T-Bones restaurant for dinner. The food was reasonably priced and delicious...my daughter liked it so much that we went back on Saturday night!



On Saturday morning we headed to the show. There were so many beautiful quilts made by talented quilters. I'm so envious of their abilities! As we were walking through the show, we finally made it to the Breast Cancer Challenge quilts. I knew going in that I was not a winner, so I was fine with it. The winning quilt was just beautiful, such creative use of the fabrics we were sent, I absolutely loved it.Now, if you look at the top picture which shows my quilt, there might be a little something you notice that is different. Each quilt in the show had a card attached that gave the name of the quilt, the piecer, the quilter and a little story about the quilt. However...mine only had a little green card with the quilt number on it. Nothing to identify me as the quilter, creator...anything. Unless you happened to look in the program just to see who it was by. As I walked through the show I saw all sorts of quilts made by people whose names I recognized or by people I knew. Unfortunately, no one would have known I made this quilt. I was so incredibly disappointed that after all the work I had put into it, no one would know I made it, unless they took the time to look it up. Who actually does that??? Going through the show there was only one other quilt that didn't have a name tag on it. I stopped in the office, mainly to make sure the quilt was going to be returned to me since it didn't have a tag on it, but the show organizers were off doing other things, so I was asked to write a note in a notebook with my information. I did that, but it didn't change disappointment or the fact that no one knows I had a quilt in the show. We stayed at the show for about 2 hours, then headed out.


From the show we drove to Portsmouth, NH. It's a wonderful little coastal town with lots of shops and restaurants. We stopped for lunch at the Portsmouth Brewery, where the food was good and the beer even better! I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area! After wandering around the shops for awhile, we decided to cross the bridge and go into Maine where there were all sorts of outlets. My daughter had fun in the Pac Sun outlet and my DH and I looked through the shoe outlets....but he and I came home empty handed. My daughter had no problems spending our money though!


We headed back to the hotel and had dinner, then turned in early so we could leave early this morning. The rain was just starting in NH as we hit the road. We went from a light rain in NH to heavier rain in Massachusetts. When we got to Connecticut there was heavy snow, sleet and rain...all at the same time! New York and New Jersey were just torrential rains. The traffic was much lighter on our trip home than on our trip there, so the trip took about 7 hours each way. It was good to get home this afternoon...nor'easters aren't for the faint of heart! I'm very glad that I wasn't driving.


So, except for my disappointment at the show, it was a fun weekend. Now I wait for the return of my quilt. I've entered it into the NJ State Guild show in June, only because a customer insisted that it needed to be there! I'm curious to see what the judges had to say about it. Maybe they didn't put my name on it because they didn't want me to be embarrassed!!!

New Quilt

I received a letter from the quilt shop I used to work at a few weeks ago. The owner was looking for people to make quilts for the shop. She's been making most of the samples for the 5 years she's owned the shop, or paying others to make them. She said she has so many samples at home that it was time to have others make them! So, the deal is that she will provide the pattern, fabrics for the top, back and binding and batting to the quiltmaker. The quiltmaker will provide the finished quilt, completely quilted and bound. After a period on display at the shop, the quilt will be returned to the quiltmaker to keep.

Well, it seemed like a great opportunity to me! I can make quilts that are out of my usual comfort zone without a huge investment in fabric. If I don't like any of the quilts that she wants made, I can pass on making one. I don't know how often she'll need quilts, but I figured I'd try it.

The first quilt is this pretty little gem called "French Rose Buds" by Heather French. It's soft edged applique, which I've never done. It also required multiple, mitered borders...another first for me. Shockingly, they turned out perfect the first time! I can't wait to get this one quilted so I can see how the flowers fray and curl up. This quilt is so soft and pretty!

I'd like to thank Screen Door for tagging me as a blog that keeps her thinking for the Thinking Blogger Awards. Now it is my duty to tag five more blogs that keep me thinking. I read over 100 blogs, so that's no easy task!

One has got to be IrishLakeQuilter. I've known Judy for a number of years and was delighted when she started blogging. She makes the most beautiful applique quilts and always sets me to thinking that I should make one...although I haven't gotten beyond my Grandma's Country Album quilt that I made so many years ago, but haven't quilted. Judy is quite an inspiration to me.

Another would be Mary at Making Scrap Quilts from Stash. She is very prolific and has embraced wholeheartedly the Heartstrings program which she created. What a wonderful thing to take on and to inspire others to quilt for charity.

My third choice would be PrairieQuilts. Nines makes beautiful quilts, bakes her own bread, has lots of kids and embraces the children of others for long visits and does it all with grace and charm. Her blog is a breath of fresh air!

My fourth choice (please note these aren't in any order, I'm just typing them as I think of them!) is Pages from Me. I love reading about life in Australia and seeing the gorgeous quilts that Mereth makes. I'd love to have the creativity that she has!

And fifth, I think I would choose Quilting Twin, Mereth's sister Keryn. Another inspiring Aussie, Keryn makes beautiful quilts and more beautiful designs for machine quilting. These twins definitely came from the same gene pool and inherited scads of quilting talent!

Now, all this being said, there are so many other blogs I read and admire. I don't want to leave anyone out! I also appreciate all of the comments that everyone leaves on my blog...it's so wonderful to have this forum to show my creations and get honest feedback on them. I'm so grateful that I took the leap and started my blog. I really thought no one would care what I wrote and at the time figured I wouldn't keep up with it. I surprised myself and couldn't stop blogging now, thanks to all of you! Okay, I hear the background music playing...must be time to stop my Thinking Blogger acceptance speech! :o)

A Fun Day...

Today my husband and I took off on an adventure. After running a few errands, we headed to a small town about 40 minutes south of us, near where our son attends college. Mullica Hill is known for its antique shops and farmland...lots of farmland! The attraction for us was a new quilt shop which I had just heard about, that opened at the end of January. The Mullica Hill Quilt Company is the most charming quilt shop I've ever been in, and I've been in a lot of quilt shops! Except for a few necessities, I haven't been just shopping at a quilt shop since my little jaunt last summer for my birthday. I could have spent a fortune in this shop...and pretty near did! Once I made my purchases they were all wrapped so nicely in the bag above. When I opened the bag, the picture below is what greeted me. All of the fabric was wrapped in acid-free paper so that I didn't have to worry about putting it on my shelves and letting it sit.

I did make the one purchase that I intended to...3 yards of red fabric to use as sashing, borders and binding for a t-shirt quilt for my son. That's one of my summer projects.
Then I found this beautiful fabric line from Maywood, which I just couldn't pass up! It's called "He Loves Me" by Jackie Robinson and was just the softest, prettiest fabric I'd seen. Even my DH liked it...and liked it well enough that he held the bolts and didn't blink when I told him I wanted 4 yards of the blue floral and 2 yards of everything else! I did restrain myself, I didn't buy any of the pink colorway! :o)
I chatted with Annette, the owner, and Debbie ( I hope I got your name right!), the wonderful woman who patiently cut and folded all of this fabric. I was thoroughly impressed with the wonderful service and I think this shop will do very well! I know I'll be doing most of my shopping there.

From the shop we headed to the Heritage Vineyard where we had a wine tasting and left with bottles of their blush and peach wines. We also had to take home some apple cider donuts...they're the best!

After hopping down the road to bring our son his Easter basket, we headed home...it's been a fun day! And now I'm off to wash my fabric and find a pattern for a queen size quilt that I can use it in! Any suggestions? I'm thinking stars of some sort....

I hope everyone has a Blessed Easter...

Chinese Coins

The HeartStrings Quilt project is making Chinese Coins for the months of April and May. Mary has written a nice tutorial on the website. Last week at Caps and Laps I was asked if I'd be interested in making a quilt for the basket of goodies they are making for a parishioner who is having a little girl. It seemed like a great opportunity to make a Chinese Coin quilt! So, this is what I've put together in the past two evenings. It measures about 46 inches square, which will be a great size to lay on the floor for the baby to play on, cover her in her crib, or for her to snuggle with as she grows older. I've got enough of the pink leftover for the backing and binding, and I've used all but a few strips of the white baby print, so that is more fabric out of my stash!

It's been rainy and chilly here today. After a trip to the chocolate store to pick up a few treats for Easter, I've spent most of the afternoon doing paperwork, invoices, balancing checking and savings accounts, paying state sales tax, filing...all those fun jobs that are associated with running a small business. Now that's over, so I plan to relax tonight...either in front of my sewing machine or with my knitting. Hmmm...decisions, decisions! :o)

Thank you for all of the wonderful comments on my challenge quilt and the prayer shawl. It's so nice to have this forum and all of the support that quilters give each other so readily. You are the best!