Quiltin' With My Ya-Ya's

You are a very fortunate person if you have a best friend. You know who I'm talking about-that one person who you share everything with. A soul sister. A confidant. She may be related to you by blood, or she may be your "sister from another mother". But as soon as something great happens to you, she is the one you run to the phone to call and share it with. She will delight in your joy-smiling and laughing-genuinely pleased that great things have come your way. And if something goes wrong in your life, you know that you can call her then too. She will be ready with just the right words, a hand to hold, and a shoulder to cry on. 

I must be the luckiest woman ever-because I have the two best girl friends in the whole wide world! We are Ya-Ya's. And it is good.

This is Anne and Pam. They are my BFF's and they are the sweetest, kindest, most generous and loving women I have ever known. The only bad thing about our friendship is that we don't live near each other. Pam and Anne live 100 miles apart and I am about 200 miles from each of them. But we make every effort to see each other as often as possible. We also call, text and email-usually more than once a day. :)

In early January the three of us made a date to get together at my house January 28-31. It was the first time we would have been together in months. Nothing was going to keep us apart-not even mother nature! When the forecast for central Georgia said ice and snow for that week, it did not deter these two. They packed their cars and left home very early, beating the storm by about an hour.

Oh, what a fun time we had! We had pajama-sew days! We each had projects to work on and we kept the sewing machines humming. And while we sewed, we talked, we laughed, we drank (so we laughed some more), we shared, we cried. Our spirits were renewed and we were better off for having been together. That's what best friends are for.

Pam and Anne got a lot accomplished. Pam started with this red and white quilt she had been working on.  Anne jumped right in to help and in no time at all they had this top finished.

Pam had almost all the blocks made when she arrived. It was a sew along that the Temecula Quilt Company did on their blog in December and she had been working right along with them. Here is the link where they put it all together. Those little stars are 2" squares and this quilt is adorable!

Pam also sewed on these blocks that she is swapping with another friend. I have always wanted to make an Irish Chain and I love this one. I guess it's another quilt to add to my bucket list. 

Anne spent a lot of her time sewing on a tumbler quilt. Last summer we got together at Pam's and cut out about 1600 tumbler blocks to divide between the three of us. Mine are still stacked awaiting my attention, but Anne got hers all sewed together in rows. Now I'm anxious to sew mine too!!

Pam's last project was one that is near and dear to my heart. We have both been appliqueing blocks for this Love Letters quilt. She works much quicker than I do and finished her blocks before me. She squared them all up and got them sewn together while she was visiting. I love the way it looks and am excited about finishing mine too!!

My project(s) were to finish the snowman tablerunners I had been working on. And I did!

A forecast of bad weather can be a perfect opportunity for a quilt-in with friends. I can't wait until we get together again-I miss them already. 

Snowman Tablerunners

I'm finally finished! I have been working on this project since right after Christmas-and it was a LOT more time consuming than I thought it would be. But it was sooo much fun! 

On January 14 I blogged about a new project I started on December 29. I was making gifts for my two best friends and I didn't want them to know what I was doing!! I couldn't blog anymore about it until I was finished-I didn't want to spoil the surprise. Now I am finished and they have their tablerunners, so I'm free to write all about them.

The pattern I used is called Snowball Runner and is by Lisa Bongean. The fabrics I used are Lisa's Snowman Gatherings. 

First I cut and cut and cut........There were a LOT of pieces!!

Then I sewed and sewed and sewed......I chain pieced. I trimmed. I pressed.

Snowball blocks abounded!

When the tops were finally pieced, the applique began. Those little wool snowmen were so cute and so fun to make!

I machine appliqued the snowmen, but did the rest of the applique by hand. I used a primitive stab stitch for the star and heart. I auditioned button noses, but decided against them and went with orange wool. 

The snowmen really had a cute personality when their faces were stitched on.

I love the finished results!

I rolled them up and tied them with a tag I made and a pom pom made of scrap strips. 

Pam and Anne were tickled with their gifts and I was thrilled to have them finished and in their hands. 

Tomorrow is February and I will begin with my first UFO. It's going to be a busy year. And I already have two finished tablerunners under my belt. That feels good!

Happy Quilting!