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!!

Where Did May Go?

May has always been notoriously busy in our home. When the kids were growing up it was all of the end of the school year activities, Spring sports coming to a close, and church activities winding down for the summer vacation. With four kids in the house, it was BUSY! 

May doesn't seem to have changed, even though I am so much older. It is still the busiest month at our house-but now it's the grandkids that are keeping us busy. 

Katelyn's our oldest granddaughter. She's 10 and just finished fifth grade-and what a year it was! She made awesome honor roll grades, was on the Odyssey of the Mind team at her school, played trumpet in the school band, and played soccer. She's a busy girl!

Emily, who is 9 1/2 and will be in 4th grade in August, is Katelyn's middle sister. She had a busy month too. She made the A and AB honor roll all year and won a regional poster contest for EMS awareness week. 

Madison is Katelyn and Emily's youngest sister. May was a huge month for her-she finished 2nd grade, celebrated her 8th birthday, and had her First Communion. It doesn't get any bigger than that. 

Sofia was in kindergarten this year. Now that she is finished, we get to have "Grammy Day" together. (A tradition I started with Katelyn when she finished Kindergarten-we spend a whole fun day together, going somewhere of their choice.) Sofia's dance recital is this Thursday night-so May will continue to be busy until the last day.

Sofia's sister, Chloe, turned 4 last month and was in preschool and dance this year. Her recital was last week and she was precious!!

Even though Ella wasn't old enough for preschool or dance, she did a lot of growing up this year. Sofia and Chloe love their youngest sister and have so much fun with her now that she is 2 1/2 and "so big". She's growing up so fast.

Oliver is our youngest, at 15 months, and as our only boy, he is quite spoiled by his three older sisters and three cousins. Apparently he is working on his driving skills so he can get his license soon :-)

Tomorrow we are hoping to find out if our eighth grandchild, who is due mid-October is going to be a girl or a boy. The excitement of May continues.

We also celebrated our son Matthew's birthday and Mother's Day this month. To add to the fun, I was so lucky to have my mom here with me for a two week visit this month. We were busy going from band concert to dance recital, and from honor roll award ceremonies to last day of school picnic. It was a fun and fast two weeks! 

I hope that everyone else had a fabulous May too.....and I hope that the long days of summer are just a bit slower. 

Happy Quilting.

Grammy

Quilting Stencils

I have had "quilter's block". It's kind of like writer's block, but since I'm a quilter and not a writer, it's my quilts, and not my books, that aren't getting finished. I have been unable to move forward from this point. It has everything to do with inspiration and nothing to do with skill. I am perfectly capable of quilting but, I have hit a wall. And I have been standing in front of that wall too long. It's time to climb over it or blast through it. 

I have LOTS of quilt tops that need quilting. Nothing special-just a nice all over pattern to get them finished will be fine. But you can't meander every single quilt in your stash~that's just plain boring! I needed inspiration. Like a lot of my solutions, this one started with my friends. And they don't even know it. :-)  Anne has been finishing one UFO after another this year. She sends her quilts out to be quilted, and sends me pictures of them when she gets them back. Her quilter has been doing beautiful overall patterns with swirls or flowers or whatever suits the quilt. I love them and thought to myself that maybe I should have bought a long arm with a frame so that I could do pantographs. (I'm not confident enough yet to attempt this free style!)

Fast forward to two weeks ago. My friend, Judy and I were shopping together at our favorite quilt shop, A Scarlet Thread, and I spied a rack with some quilting stencils on it. I was hit with inspiration, like I had been hit with a lightning bolt! One of the stencils was a continuous line design with dragonflies. Judy was so encouraging. She said that she has used stencils and "pounce" with great results and that I could do it too. So, I bought it. 

When I got home I decided that I needed more stencils like this.....so I went online to The Stencil Company and found five more stencils that I could use for an overall quilting pattern. They arrived in just a few days and now I am ready to start quilting! Wish me luck! I'll let you know how it goes :)

Happy Quilting!

Grammy 

New Summer Pajamas

I love pajamas! They are the snuggliest clothes I know. There are some days that I just don't bother getting dressed and I spend my entire day in my pj's. If I have no where to go and I am not expecting any company, then it's a perfect day for a "pajama day". Pajamas are my favorite clothes to sew in too. Nothing binding or restricting my movements if I am quilting, cutting or piecing. 

Since the weather is getting warmer, it's time for some new pajamas. But instead of going to the store to buy new pajamas, I decided to make them. My favorite thing to sleep in is a tee shirt and shorts, so that is what I decided to make. I bought 4 new tee shirts and then headed to the fabric store with them to find coordinating fabrics. In one afternoon, with a lot of help from my trusty serger, I had 4 new pairs of pajamas for summer. 

Now that the weather is finally warming up, I am wearing them to bed-and some times all day the next day too!

Happy sewing!

Grammy

A Trip to Texas

Facebook has been a fun way for me to reconnect with friends from the past and keep up with friends and family who are so far away. 

In the last few years I have been fortunate enough to re-establish friendships with three women I first met over 30 years ago. Our husbands were all in the Army and we were stationed at Ft. Stewart, GA together. Through the years and many moves we had lost contact with each other. Thanks to Facebook, we are now all friends again. In the Spring of 2013 two of the three girls came to my house for a visit and last month I went to Texas for another reunion. 

This is Hope, Sandy and me at my house last year.

This year we had a wonderful time! Hope was a terrific hostess and showed us the town. We were busy every minute we were there. 

We were so happy to get together! This is me, Hope and Karen.

We went to the George Bush Presidential Library, the Stockyards in Ft. Worth and the beautiful Ft Worth Water Gardens.

Hope and Karen at the Stockyards

Karen and I at the Water Garden

I even sat on a bull! Yes, he's real!

Hope is an extremely accomplished quilter. She designed, hand pieced and hand quilted this beautiful quilt that adorned my bed! I felt like a queen sleeping under it. 

We have decided to make these reunions an annual event and hope that all four of us will be together next year. 

Stella Maude

I am so happy for my friend Anne. She is such a talented lady. She and a friend of hers, Kelly, are the program co-chairpersons for their quilt guild and they have been a huge success. 

They designed a monthly program for their guild based on the color wheel and using twelve log cabin quilt blocks. Each month they made a block using a different color from the color wheel. It got everyone to use colors that weren't in their stash or were outside their comfort zone. The program was a huge hit and so Anne and her friend made that quilt into a pattern. They have sold it to several quilt shops and lots of their friends. 

With that adventure under their belt, Anne and Kelly decided to tackle another idea that had been simmering on the back burner. The result of that idea is their first book! I would like to introduce you to Stella Maude. She was a real woman---and such a character! Each block in this quilt tells a story about Stella Maude's life. They are adorable and make Stella Maude come to life.  

This picture of Stella Maude was taken by the quilter when she was finished working on it. 

Here is Stella Maude at a quilt show-the vendor sent this picture to Anne. 

Just take a look at this adorable book. It's already spiral bound for you so it lays flat while you are tracing pieces or reading the instructions.

Stella Maude was unique and folksy. So is this quilt book!

Congratulations, Anne and Kelly on a job well done. Those of us who know you are so proud!

Grammy

2014 Block Swap

For the last few years I have done block swaps with several quilting friends far away. We love staying in touch with each other this way and always enjoy the resulting quilts. This year we are doing a simple nine patch. 

Last Fall some of us attended a quilt show and all really liked this quilt. It's our inspiration for this year's swap.

The black line across the quilt near the bottom is the "barrier" to keep us from getting too close to the quilt-it's not part of the design of the quilt. :)

There are five of us swapping this year. We are making five 9-patch blocks for each person in the swap each month. It really goes quickly because we are not cutting up 225 individual squares-but rather cutting strips, sewing them together and then cutting them into sections. It makes the piecing go really quickly and who wants to spend all day cutting 225  2 1/2" squares when they could be sewing, right?

We started our swap in January and I was tickled to get my first five blocks finished and in the mail.

Now we have been swapping for three months and I have 60 blocks, so far. One friend lives overseas and only mails to us a couple times during the swaps to save on postage, so I haven't received any from her yet. 

I am loving this quilt so far! I think it's going to be another success story.

Happy Quilting!       

Grammy