I Love Weddings

My sweet niece, Elizabeth, got married on June 28 to a wonderful young man, Jake. The wedding was beautiful, the reception was so much fun and I wish them many, many years of love, happiness and wedded bliss.  Happy one month anniversary!

Annie's Choice

My friend Anne had a birthday last month and Pam and I put our heads together for a gift for her. Pam's terrific idea was for the two of us to make blocks for her that she could make into a quilt. We turned to one of our favorite websites for quilt blocks, Quilter's Cache. 

We found a perfect block-Annie's Choice-and decided to make them in her favorite color-green. Pam had a solid light tan that we shared and we each picked 6 greens from our stash for the blocks. 

These are the six blocks I made. They are laying out on the floor in my quilt room ready to be sewn together. I had a great time making them, but I had to be very careful not to turn any of the half square triangles as I sewed them together. 

Anne had a happy birthday and she loved the blocks we sent her. Score! 

UFO Progress Update

In January I decided to challenge myself to finishing up some UFOs that I have hanging around. I blogged about it here and I proclaimed 2014 the Year of the UFO. I even added the 2014 UFO List to the right hand column of my blog. I have no idea what I was thinking when I did this! I am not into public humiliation and I believe I may have just set myself up for failure and some ridicule here! Oh well, my intentions were good. :-)

Fast forward to July (and I mean FAST foreward-the time has flown by!) and I have NO finished quilts. That is not to say that I have not been working on them though....

This Civil War Soldier Cot Quilt was my challenge finish for March. It had been hanging on my design wall for quite some time and I had no desire to finish it. I finally jumped in and sewed all the rows together and decided that the reason that I hadn't finished the top sooner was because it was not appealing to my eye. I didn't like it at all....so, I ripped all the rows apart and sewed them together differently and now my top is finally finished. 

The simplicity of this layout is much more appealing to my eye. And, it's done! It has now been moved from the "Unfinished Tops" to the "Needs to be Quilted" pile. That's progress, right?

The next quilt that had been on one of my design walls for a while is the Carson's Courtyard block swap that I did with my friends last year. Instead of sewing them all together into one queen size quilt, I decided to make my blocks into two throw size quilts. I was going to just sew on a white border and then maybe a piano key border made of 30's repros so that I could get the top finished in a hurry, but then I changed my mind. I saw another quilt recently that had two white borders with prairie points between them. It was such a clean and sweet looking border that I decided I would do my first ever prairie point project (try to say that three times fast!) 

I cut and folded and ironed more than 100 three inch squares to make the prairie points I needed. 

I have them on three sides now. One side to go, then the outer white border. Then this top will be ready to move to the quilting stack too. For the sister quilt I am thinking about a wide white border with some applique in it.  We'll have to see if that is still what I'm thinking about it when I get finished with this one. 

While digging for something else in my closet I came across these blocks that I made so long ago I can't even remember when it was. I know for sure that I made them BEFORE we moved into this house-so it was more than 8 1/2 years ago! Since it's July and they are so patriotic, I decided to lay them out and get them sewn up. It was a quick, easy project! This one is in the quilting pile now, too.

I finished another top recently too. Last July I got together with Pam and Anne and we cut out hundreds and hundreds of tumbler blocks to share between the three of us. Mine are finally sewn together and this top is in the ever-growing "to be quilted" pile! There are 756 tumbler blocks in this 64X81" quilt.

In the meantime Pam has her top done too and she added borders. I LOVE the way it looks!! Maybe I need to add borders too? 

And of course, Anne has totally finished hers-it's quilted, bound and snuggle worthy. That Anne's an overachiever! :) Showoff!

My friends and I are doing another block swap this year. It's just 9 patch blocks from Civil War fabrics. But they are beautiful and I think it's going to make a gorgeous quilt. We only have a few more months to stitch and mail and then we are finished for this year. 

Here's a little peek at all of my quilts hanging so sweetly in the closet, each awaiting their turn to be quilted. It's a little bit overwhelming. Make that a LOT overwhelming! 

Happy quilting.

Grammy

Sofia and Grammy Day

This summer is absolutely flying by and I have had very little time for quilting or blogging. Instead I have been filling my days with family summer activities. We have attended the $3 summer movies, gone swimming at the neighborhood pool and been barbecuing. 

And, then we bought a boat this week-so "going to the lake"  is going on our list of summer fun soon. 

And, we also got a dog! What was I thinking? Am I not busy enough already? She is a doll though, so I am thrilled with our decision. 

But yesterday's fun topped it all. I started a tradition five years ago with my oldest granddaughter of having a special one-on-one day during the summer after kindergarten graduation. These "Grammy and me" days have been so much fun! Katelyn and I spent the day in Charleston, SC, visiting the children's museum, taking a horse and buggy tour, and shopping the outdoor marketplace. For our second granddaughter, Emily, I took her to her first horseback riding lessons. She was in heaven! The next year, Madison and I spent a wonderful day at Zoo Atlanta together. She is my animal lover, so this was right up her alley! 

This year Sofia graduated from kindergarten, so it was her turn. She had first said she wanted to go to the zoo, but changed her mind and opted for the Georgia Aquarium (even though she had just been there in January.) A bubble bath and sleepover started the festivities on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning we headed to the aquarium, with a short stop at Dunkin Donuts for some munchkins to eat along the way. 

There is so much to see and do at the aquarium and even though I have been at least 6 times before, I enjoy each and every visit. And it's always fun to go and see it through the eyes of a child. Sofia said her favorite thing was the dolphin show, but every single thing we did was a blast for both of us. 

Our first stop was the jellyfish. They are so graceful and serene. 

Sofia loved all the colorful fish and beautiful living coral reef in the Tropical Diver section.

The penguins are adorable! And since you can pop your head up in acrylic tubes in the middle of their habitat you can get up close and personal.

A fish themed face painting is a must-do activity!

When you walk through the acrylic tunnel in the Ocean Voyager section you feel like you can just reach out and touch giant fish.

The touch pools are always favorites with the kids. Sofia got to touch a sea star and in this picture she is touching a ray. 

We had a fabulous day!!