I tracked down my WORM !

Praise the LORD for access to all types of information ..... we would never have room in our homes for the research books we would have to keep to find these things when we are searching.......and how about updating all of those research manuals?  Thank the LORD for the internet !

Having said that, I googled "brown caterpillar with eyespots", and found him (after several other wrong searches)..........here he is. 

It turns out that he is the caterpillar that becomes the yellow butterflies that we've been seeing so many of around here recently.......the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

I had never seen one of these little worms, but I'll probably be seeing them everywhere, now that I'm aware of them.......you know how THAT goes !

I had THE best day......

.......and yet, it was the simplest of days !  Isn't that wonderful?

I'm not rich in material things, but I'm oh so rich in God's love ! 

I live in an old, rented house trailer.........so happy to have a home..........and today we put up plastic to keep the rain off of the back porch.  Hung the bicycles where they'll stay dry, since I patched the roof this week with roofing tar.  Replaced the broken board in the porch, enjoyed laughs with family, talked for an hour on the phone with my daughter ........HOORAY.......SHE'S THROUGH WORKING .........and then visited another hour with galfriend, Wanda, over the phone. 

I am blessed and highly favored..........and so are YOU !

And, by the way.........did you ever see a caterpillar that looked like this?

He appeared on my porch today, and was so peculiar looking, AND SMELLING, I wish that I could have gotten a better photo. 

His eyes looked painted on.......in fact, he looks like something from the mind of Jim Henson and the muppets.  He's in Heaven now, right.......maybe he's helping in the design department.

Keeping up with things so far......

I cleaned the lint out of my bobbin area, as

 suggested in the quiltalong....it needed it!

......I got my back pieced,

and I got my quilt basted. 

After my fiasco with the polkadot quilt, I have trust issues, when it comes to basting.  More is never enough !

So I ran out of pins just pinning the quilt, and now I am supposed to baste a practice piece, too.  I may just thread-baste it.

Remember, if you follow me during this quiltalong, do as SHE says, not as I DO ! 
I'm a terrible student.

**************************************************
Also, I rewashed the Feathered Star/procrastination quilt, and am satisfied with it.  I'm it's mama, and know it's history, and I can live with it's imperfections.  What I WOULD like to point out though is the PERFECTION of the quilting design in the four corners of the quilt's center.   My best gal-pal, Wanda, designed these feathers to perfectly fit this area, way back in probably 1988 or 89.  They're just a perfect complement to the quilt, don't you think.

Thanks, Wanda Gayle !
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EDIT:  I also got my practice piece basted, AND a small wall-hanging top that's been hanging around for atleast 15 years if not 20.

Hiatus over !

Guess I've been gone quite awhile !

But I've been busy, don'tcha know?

I finished my Hexagon Bible cover and I'm just as pleased as punch with it. I especially love all the red that it is finished  with.........a good reminder of the precious blood of Jesus, that was shed for our salvation. 

The inside of the cover incorporates Poinsettia blooms to remind me of Christmas.

The pencil pocket on the front, inside, is so handy, and doesn't cause the cover to stand open at all.....a nice little surprise.  I used to keep the pencil inside the jacket flap itself, against the Bible, but it rolled around all over the place.

And today, I discovered that the instructions for piecing the quilt top needed for the quiltalong,

 over at A Few Scraps blog, had already been posted for days and I didn't even know it.

Photos of people's tops started showing up in the Flickr group and I thought, "huh?"

So, today I got busy and made my top.........

recognize any of these fabrics, Jodie? 

I've had the children fabric and rocking horse fabric, along with some red coordinates, put away forever, never finding just the right project for them.  They go really well with these cheater's cloth scraps, I think.

I plan on using the Christmas panel that you just sent me, as the back, and Kelley will have a reversible little holiday quilt.

First day of first grade and pre-K

Slow down, time..........they're getting away from me !

Today was Zoe's first day of first grade, and she tells me that it was the most awesome day of her life !  Not bad .

T.J. went to his first ever ANYTHING except for Church , entering pre-kindergarten classes, where he only has to stay for around 3 hours or so.   He liked it too, but his new friend wasn't there and he says that he missed him.  Still good.

Mommy on the other hand, called me immediately after dropping the two of them off at school, to wail that HER BABIES were in school !   She was on the way to the sitter with one-year-old, Seth, almost late for work herself.

I added new photos of the older two to my sidebar over there, but I just love this one........after several shots posed sweetly together, T.J. had had enough !.

Quilting news, next...................here's the email I got to send out to my bestest quilting buds back in Oklahoma............but I couldn't leave out you girlfriends I talk to every day !

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

"Congratulate me girls...............I've done it !

Woo Hoo !

Do I look just a little bit like the cat that swallowed the canary?

I didn't know if this day would ever come, but AFTER 22 YEARS, it has !

The Feathered Star quilt is finished!  

(Except for a sleeve........aren't I terrible.....but I wanted to get all the stains out as best I could before I attach a sleeve?)

If you'll notice here, I changed my mind about binding it in the red or the green.  I thought that it looked much better with the red as the last noticeable straight border.   When I trimmed the extra-wide, one-piece backing, I decided to use the leftovers as the binding fabric.  I never thought about the fact that it wasn't the same muslin that I had used for the top of the quilt........thankfully, it matches just fine.


I washed the quilt today...........it smelled,..........after 22 years, ya think? Yes, it smelled like someone's old linen closet.........and it had stains.......spit-washed blood, pencil markings, blue chalk !

Most of the stains came out pretty well, or enough so that I can live with it, but I wouldn't advise anyone to leave a quilt in progress for this long !


The blue markings are the worst problem; they were made with a blue chalk in a wheeled-dispensor.   The ones on which I actually used an old toothbrush and Dawn dishwashing detergent are really pale, but not gone. I need to wash the quilt once more, and make sure I hit every blue mark......yes EVERY blue mark. Then, if something still shows, it's earned it's permanent home in my quilt history books. That''s okay by me.  "

EDITED: I found a great GIVEAWAY and a wonderful idea for a quilt-along ........

.......and it starts with a giveaway of alot of the supplies you'll need to participate!

Here's the post you'll want to read.  It's such a wonderful twist on quilt-alongs, actually concentrating on the quilting rather than the piecing !  I'm really thinking of joining this one if the timing turns out to be right !

I personally feel the desire to do something other than meandering, ......well, atleast once in a while.  I have trouble trying anything else because I SO love that crinkly all-over scrumptious look that you get with meandering.

Anyway, I don't have time to post more right now, but wanted to give you all a chance at this, and give myself 3 chances......hee !

EDIT:  Okay, I'm back from my running around and happy to say that I've been hand-quilting again.  Jodie's quilt-top project still needs a little fabric found for it, to extend it to fit her queen-sized sleigh bed, .........

so I dug out THE MONSTER.  I must be desperate !

 

But I'm so glad that I did.

I finally settled on a simple quilting design for the swags, deciding that 21 years is ENOUGH for one project, and I'm moving on.  Gone are dreams of winning a major prize in a huge quilt show.........in fact, the day has passed, I think, when hand-quilting can even compete with today's machine-quilting........sad, but true.
But, I just no longer have the competitiveness for that anymore.  Right now, what tweaks my cheeks is seeing 3 borders worth of swags nearly completed, and only 1 1/2 to go.  That's 6 swags, I think !

I do see that I'll probably have to add something to the red border going around the entire quilt........It's only an inch wide, but seems to stand out as poofy and unquilted, even though I've quilted in the ditch on both sides of it.  I'll wait until everything else is all finished, and then lay the quilt out on a bed to make my decision..........it looks okay in that photo on my Flickr page,........maybe even a little welcome respite from all the heavily quilted areas.  If it does need quilting, I'll probably either wiggle back and forth down it, or do the rope-quilting that I've done on the two baby quilts.

Because it was so difficult to see any markings, I've marked my quilting lines on the muslin backing of the quilt, and am quilting it from the back side.  Turns out, it looks just fine, and I can't tell any difference.  That was a major concern in my mind, and I'm glad that it's settled.  I still hoop the quilt from the front side, just to make sure that the tension is the same as it has been on the rest of the quilting.

The solids in this quilt are poly/cotton fabric.........I mean, it's 22 years old, I guess, and I didn't know any better at the time.  They're even sortof see-through.   But I WAS smart enough, Praise the LORD, to put some of each fabric away to be used for the binding.  I have over a yard of the green, so that'll probably be my choice, since I need to cut a double bias binding.

My treats.......

"Happy" charm pack, QuiltTaffy, Etsy

"Nicey Jane" charm square pack, QuiltTaffy, Etsy

"Tufted Tweets", QuiltTaffy on Etsy

I decided to reward myself for finishing those two commissions,
These are what I settled on from the favorites over there in my sidebar "wish list". 
Of course, I ordered these before I found out the "layer cake" secret to making
the square in a square quilt.  Now, I'm scouring the 'net looking
for bargain layer cakes !

But, I'm going to add to these and ENJOY them !

Speaking of commissions, I heard from the lady in Michigan today.
She received the quilt and is very pleased..............but she didn't
OPEN it ! 
She said that it was wrapped so prettily that she didn't
dare open it, for fear that she couldn't rewrap it as nicely !
Now, she won't see it until the shower !

Do you know anybody......

....who gets a wonderful package like this when they're supposed to be receiving a commission work?

My gal, Jodie, sent me my latest project, ......... it's gonna look sumpin' like this....

1st quilt--Robyn Pandolph's Christmas Quilt (FolkArt Collection) 
2nd quilt--changes made to accommodate larger bed (red vertical sashing added)

and she just happened to throw in a few goodies and a whole separate shipment of books, just for fun !

So I'd better do somethin' about this............

Which is slowly starting to look like this........

You know, the whole idea behind these quilts is to use a layer cake of 10 inch squares, so that you don't make a big mess, or have to pull out half of your fabric stash to make a quilt.  And someday, I hope to make this quilt again in just that manner.  But for now, back I go, digging for gold !

I'm slow to catch on.......

.......to some of these internet quilt designs.

Heather's quilt from the blog referenced below.

 

I see this one all around, but didn't realize how fun the piecing was when you do it the 'modern way' !   As a quilter of over 25 years' experience, I naturally looked at it as small squares and strips.  Only when I visited the tutorial at Cluck, cluck, sew that is linked to in this post, over at Heather's blog, QUILT OR STITCH, how about both? did I learn the updated version. 

And it's so much more fun.  Just choosing two coordinating fabrics at a time, I cut them out, switch the middles, stitch them back together and, voila ! 

And as you can see from my blocks, you can change the width that you cut from each side of the block, and it changes the whole look of the block.  This layout started with 9 3/4 inch squares.  Some have been cut at 3 1/2 inches in from the sides, leaving a little square in the center, and the others were cut at 2 1/2 inches in, leaving a large center square.  I trimmed mine up to measure 8 1/2 inches (8 inch finished blocks)   I like the look of them mixed.

I don't know how many I'll make, but I'm having fun playing with them.

Winging it's way........

.......off to Michigan tomorrow morning, LORD willing !

I whipped up a quickie gift to go along with the commissioned quilt....(it always thrills me when I order something and the person throws in a little sumpin-sumpin bonus, and this lady was so sweet and quite generous).....a matching diaper-changing pad.  I even tried to replicate the quilt's design, this time in a rectangular shape.  I got to make use of the tan paisley fabric that I originally purchased for this quilt, using it on the back and adding a little fuzzy star applique.   I admit that I felt a little bad that the quilt was a tiny bit smaller than the original one that she saw at the baby shower, but I'm like a cook who doesn't use recipes, never making ANYTHING the same way TWICE......... still, I hope that this makes up for that a little bit .

These pads were a wonderfully handy thing for us when Zoe and T.J. were in diapers. So much better than the vinyl/plastic ones that let pee run all over the place in the case of an unexpected soaking during the diaper change !  Of course, they don't help alot with the trajectory of a little boy's aim, or lack thereof, but that shower is just a bonus for newbies that don't remember to put something over the offending weapon....ha !

Anyway, I wanted to wrap the quilt for a nice presentation, so I headed down to our local fabric store for some ribbon, hoping that they also carried tissue paper.  They didn't, but the clerk suggested tulle.  It turned out that the color of tulle they carried was a soft tan color, beige maybe, so it was just perfect for this application.  The ribbon was beautiful, and affordable, so I brought it home and tried my hand at wrapping.

I know that it will get a bit crushed in transport, but this wire-edged ribbon will spring right back with the right coaxing, and she can easily re-wrap it as it was, after inspecting the quilt.
Overall, I'm pleased with the finished product.

Time to share God's word

This little chart was a God-send to me once, during a trying time, and played a HUGE part in starting me on the road back to Christ.  I happened to come across the chart on the bulletin board at a doctor's office, right after my husband's first stroke.At the time, I had not read the Bible in probably 30 or more years, but this made me curious to see what kind of help I could find.  
If  you see your current situation there, ....if something in the chart gives you a nudge to do a little digging, ......follow your best instincts and look up a verse or two.......it's God's Holy Spirit beckoning to you and YOU WILL find comfort and strength in His word........and OH, so much more.

When you click on the link, it will bring up my Flickr page.  Click on "all sizes" above the photo if you'd like a better look at the chart.
If you'd like to print it yourself, just let me know......I don't know how to make a pdf, or I would.  Of course, you may just be able to right click and save the photo to your computer for printing.......I'm not sure if I have my photos protected or not.

If you don't want my copy, it can be found other places by googling "Handy Little Chart". 
I don't know where it originated, but I thank GOD for it !