breakfast at Sally's, Paula's second quilt loaded

Michael was up at 6 AM on Monday (10/30) for golf, and even though I tried to go back to sleep, it wasn’t working so I got up as well.  That was a good thing because I finally got out the Scrap Happy minutes…I really like to do that on Thursday when I come home, or even Friday morning because once those days pass and I haven’t done it…it kind of goes out of my head!!!  After that I only had time to get my blog out and run through all of my emails before leaving just before 9 AM for Sally’s for our breakfast get together.  It was the usual gang: 

Sally & Ginny

Ann Mary & Gale

and yummy food….

and we talked until almost 1 PM!!!!!  Although I hadn’t really done anything in the morning, I just didn’t have any energy when I got home (this congestion is still affecting my sleep and keeping me tired during the day, but hasn't developed into a full blown cold for which I am very grateful.  I'm hoping my body is fighting hard to get rid of it :~)…so I made a cup of hot chocolate and sat and read my book for a couple of hours.  By then my honey was home (with a 77!!!!  He shot even par on the front 9) and while he was showering and changing, I finally roused myself and headed downstairs to get Paula’s second quilt basted:  

I got that done and sewed a few more Vortex blocks into rows before heading upstairs to re-claim long arm fabric and watch TV with my honey.

Cookie & Elsie, new pillow cover, Paula's first quilt done

My honey was up early Sunday morning (10/29) hoping to play golf.  There was a tournament on the course yesterday, so they didn’t get in their normal Saturday round.  It was raining when he first got up, but quit by 9 AM, so off he went.  I’m still fighting whatever is going on in my head/throat, but I headed to my studio to continue to quilt on Paula’s log cabin anyway.  When I came upstairs to make my tea about an hour later…this adorableness was going on:

So, a decade or so ago when I made Michael his first quilt, I also made him a matching pillow.  While the quilt still looks like I made it last week, the pillow has taken quite a bit more wear and desperately needed a new covering:  

That was my project early Sunday morning while I was stitching out a few more rows on Paula’s quilt.  I went into my orphan blocks box (you know, where you put blocks leftover from making a quilt.  I seem to have a lot of those because I’m either making something up and have no idea how many blocks I will need…or I’m altering a pattern somehow and again, have no idea how many blocks I need) to see what I had and I found 2 beautiful broken arrow blocks in this truly gorgeous flannel:  

I totally remember buying this flannel in Tennessee with Ginny on one of our many fabric finding (and eating fried green tomato sandwiches) trips when I was visiting.  I bought it in red, blue and a cream/tan….it has a pattern of leaves on it and it truly looks absolutely luscious.  

Here's the blue, which I put on the back of the pillow, with a zipper for easy removal for cleaning:

At that time of fabric buying….3 yards was my minimum cut….but I remember this fabric as they were rolling it out and it looked more and more beautiful and I bought 5 yards of each.  I wish I could remember what quilt I made with it so far and where it went, but oh well….I’m sure it was beautiful because the fabric looks so rich!  Anyway, I worked on it all morning and Michael now has a beautiful, new flannel pillow cover:  

I headed upstairs at 10 AM to get Italian Wedding Soup in the crockpot and between that and eating breakfast and reading the paper for just a bit, I wasn’t back downstairs until 11:30.  I fired up Paula’s quilting again, and finally…finally got back to sewing together rows on Vortex!!!  This is an example of a quilt I would love to display at SCCL….I think it would make people crazy because it does look totally wild!  I guess my quilts look different because most of the quilts I am making, I make for kids so I try to make them very bright (some people might say LOUD!!), while the quilts Paula and I saw Saturday morning were beautiful.  I headed upstairs again at 3 PM to put together herb rolls for dinner: 

and by the time I went up for good at 5 PM, Paula’s first quilt was totally done:  

She picked the same star pattern I used on 2 of my recent quilts and I think it looks very nice:

By then, Michael was home from golf (with an 85 with one birdie) and got the table ready for Bob & Marsha who came at 6 PM.  We had a small appetizer:

before having soup and rolls for dinner.  We spent the next several hours playing SCREWED and GOLF and SEVENS and laughing our heads off  :~).  We had such a good time with them and hated to see them go…and we read for just a little bit afterwards before heading for bed.

last flowers from garden, Paula's first quilt loaded

I didn’t have a very good night of sleep Friday night.  I woke up at 3 AM and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I finally moved to the couch in the media room.  Cookie was ready to go out at 5 AM…probably because she could hear me still tossing and turning…but when we came back in, she snuggled with me under the blanket and I did finally fall back to sleep for a bit.  Needless to say, I was moving rather slowly Saturday morning (10/28), but I got a bit of clean up done in my studio before Paula and I headed up to the Lake House to view the quilting display from the SCCL quilters.  We certainly have some talented people living here!!  I did feel though that I didn't see any quilts that looked like mine.  Everyone has a style and I think my quilts would look different than what was displayed there.  I am toying with the idea of joining the quilting club here ONLY so that I might display some of my quilts when they have a show.  I don't want to go to the meetings because they are on Wednesdays....which I look forward to as a day when I can generally stay home all day and sew!

When Michael got home from his errands, he picked what will probably be the last bouquet from our garden……

it’s been great having fresh flowers in the house most of the summer.  I absolutely love the Gerber daisies I had this year....I hope I am able to grow them next year from the seeds I collected this year.  

I got back home from viewing the quilts around 12:30 and started to load up Paula’s 2 Valor quilts.  I decided to load up just one and quilt it, so I got that done 

and got 2 rows of quilting done (along with a nap!) before Michael and I had to leave.  We headed out just before 6 PM for Fort Mill Community Playhouse.  The town of Fort Mill is giving ghost tours of historic buildings, and since we are currently in a very old building, we had to be there to let people in and tell them a little about our place.  We were home just before 9 PM and reveled in our Praline Pecan ice cream while watching TV.

pillow for FMCP, second Valor quilt

My honey made me a smurfy egg/cheese/toast breakfast on Friday (10/27) before I headed out on errands.  I was finally home after NOON and headed to my studio to continue working on Tuscan.  My part is all done now; I will take it to quilting on Thursday for Jerri, who is going to hand stitch down the binding:  

Paula came down around 3:30 to drop off her 2 Valor quilts to be quilted, and Michael and I left at 5 PM to meet Loree & Reg at MAMA’s for chicken parmesan, eggplant parmesan & stuffed shells, and everything was yummy!!!  One of the errands I ran in the morning was picking up the embroidery from Pat….just look at this:  

It is so beautiful, I wish you all could see this stitching in person….I have a teeny, tiny bit of embroidery machine envy :~).  I spent a couple of hours turning that embroidery into a pillow, 

but finally headed upstairs at 8:30 to watch TV.  

Here's the picture of the second Valor quilt I neglected to post the other day:

Show & Tell at Scrap Happy Quilting

I was up early Thursday morning (10/26) and got the binding totally finished on the second Valor quilt (pics tomorrow).  It went on the pile to go to quilting to have the label stitched down.  Then I turned to Tuscan and got all of the bobbin ends woven in, all of the basting ripped out and it got removed from the frame.  I managed to get it trimmed as well before packing the car and heading off to quilting.  We had a large and lively group today, with wonderful show and tell: 

Sandy D and her wonderful quilts, made of all tiny pieces: 

OK...you have to look very closely at this next picture.  Floy took her machine in for service.  What she is holding in her hand is the thread nest they found INSIDE the flywheel on her machine....unbelieveable!!!

It's a wonder she could finish beautiful quilts like this next one, with THAT in her machine:

Mary made 2 striking, similar quilts:

June, continuing her free motion quilting, embellished a panel:

Marge did some simply stunning pieces:

Jerri is addicted to string piecing:

And isn't this adorable from Jeanne:

I started getting a headache towards the end of quilting, so I left a bit early.  I made hot chocolate and read my book until Michael got home, at which time ALL of us:  

decided a nap on the lanair was just the thing  :~).  By the time I woke up I was getting very congested, which definitely explains the headache :~(.  I had soup for dinner and got to talk on the phone with BG for about an hour (we could never get SKYPE to work).  After that I started to put the binding on Tuscan before heading upstairs for a long and extremely hot soak in the tub before bed.

Paper Pinwheel done!, wildlife in backyard

My honey was up at 6 AM and out by 8 AM for golfing at Ballentyne on Wednesday (10/25); I followed shortly afterwards as I just couldn’t sleep and I have a lot of quilting projects exploding in my studio, so I headed down to get a jump on those.  I wrote back to Mary Jo about something and proceeded to list everything that’s currently making me crazy: 2 valor quilts that just need binding now that I have the labels done (actually one is now done except for stitching down label), and one to go: 

Tuscan just finished quilting, needs label and binding, paper pinwheel needs binding

(stitching out label right now), 

Vortex is 1/2 way through sewing into rows, 

I have a top started from retreat that needs sewing into rows and another top from retreat that I think I need 8 more strips to complete the blocks!!!!  My sewing room is a disaster....it’s making me crazy!!!  So, I got the label stitched out and added onto my binding (turns out it wasn’t long enough) and got the binding put on one side of the paper pinwheel quilt before SKYPE-ing with Janice at 9 AM.  SKYPE never worked, but we talked on the phone until almost 10:30.  After that I spent a bit of time looking for retreat places for 2018 (our current place is being sold and will be unavailable for rent in 2018) and after that I HAD to have something to eat.  I was done just before NOON and headed over to Pat’s for an embroidery project.  I volunteered to make a pillow for the current Fort Mill Community Playhouse production, but my embroidery hoops aren’t large enough for what they need, so Pat graciously stepped in and volunteered to stitch it out.  We talked for over an an hour (Pat was unexpectedly home...she was supposed to be in Myrtle Beach with 3 other ladies, golfing and shopping.  But she woke up with severe tooth pain Monday monring.  She was hoping it was just an infection that would be taken care of with antibiotics, but it turned into an ugly root canal and the side of her face is still sore!!).  I stopped at Jan’s on the way home from Pat's and spent over an hour talking to her.  She is feeling slightly better,  but they discovered her heart is not pumping as strongly as it should, so they put her on some new medication.  By the time I got home it was after 3 PM and after talking with my honey for a bit (he shot an 87 with a birdie), I finally headed back to my studio to continue working on binding for the paper pinwheel quilt.  By 7:30 PM, it was finally done (except for stitching down the label which I will do at quilting tomorrow!)  

You know the most exciting thing about this paper pinwheel quilt?  It is the 200th quilt I have stitched out on Miss Scarlett....WHOO HOO!!!

While I was stitching in the early evening, I suddenly saw a doe and a fawn coming to nibble on our pretty much defunct garden….but couldn’t really get any good pictures before they ran off:  

I started to work on the second Valor binding, but didn’t get quite finished before heading upstairs to snuggle with my honey in front of the boob tube.