Very sad family news.....

......Yesterday evening, hubby's sister, Leta, who is 82 years old, was home alone when a kitchen fire started.   A passing motorist, who noticed smoke coming from the home, stopped, and, finding Leta inside, carried her from the burning house.   She was life-flighted to Vanderbilt Burn Center with burns on 40% of her body.  Having never really rallied after reaching the hospital, Leta passed away this afternoon.  Naturally our family is heartbroken over such a shocking accident.

Leta was a very tender-hearted and sweet woman, who knew our Lord Jesus.  Although still a very active woman, she has been plagued by health issues for a few years, and was widowed many years ago.  I know that she is finally at peace.  Knowing how wonderful all of you are as friends to me and mine, I thank you ahead of time for your prayers of comfort for our family.  Her children were devoted to her in a way that is rare to see these days, so I especially appreciate prayers for them right now. 

Poignant is the realization that today is the day that we celebrate what Jesus did for us, dying on the cross.  Yes, in sadness and even anger, we think of the circumstances and brutality of His death; but in celebration we realize that he GAVE His life, it wasn't taken from Him !
Because of that gift, we can know that we need not mourn the 'loss' of loved ones who go on ahead of us in the death of our mortal bodies. Jesus was the FIRST of the resurrected.  Praise God !

I love Mondays !

Mondays always feel like a fresh start to me.  Granted, I don't work outside of the home, so I don't have to drag myself out of here, and drive, and face cranky people who hate Mondays.  So, I guess that's all part of it.   But Mondays are laundry day around here, which currently reminds me to be thankful for a working washer, and a recently repaired dryer.  Mopping floors reminds me to be thankful that there aren't more than I feel up to doing, and washing dishes reminds me to be thankful for the food that messed them up !   That last part is really important, because hubby and I have had recently expanding waistlines, and cutting back a bit, we are very thankful everytime mealtime comes around.......(oh, how we miss the candy bars, and chips and big ol' milkshakes, cookies, snack cakes..........Yikes !)

After work was done, I got to play........I cut out more pieces for the x and + blocks.   Wow, what with my using a 10 inch finished block, there are a LOT of pieces needed to make enough for a bed-sized quilt.   I may just play the size of this one by ear and see where it takes me !   But, oh how I'm liking the looks of it so far.  Pressing of seams is putting me into a bit of a quandry.   I don't want to wind up having to flip some halfway through a square, like I did with the Scrappy Trip-along top, but it may come to that.

I got notification of Connecting Threads' batting sale this week and took advantage of it yesterday.  The batting winds up costing about the same as it does when I buy it at Hobby Lobby with a coupon, but that always limits me to being able to buy just one with a coupon, unless hubby buys me one, too.  Plus, it costs me about $15.00, round trip, for the drive over to Columbia and back (I only go for doctor's appointments, mainly, so timing is aggravating, too).  So, I ordered two Hobbs cotton/poly, 80/20, and one polyester batt, a set of black, white, and grey thread, and two other single threads, plus a yard of their lawn fabric, which I have been very curious about. ( I've read of people making quilts from lawn; anyone reading this had any experience with it?)  Anyway, that ran up a total over $50.00, so shipping was free.

Then, I decided that I'd better go ahead and order my walking foot before the money I earned from JodieAnn was gone, so I did some more research, and wound up purchasing it from Amazon.com.   Agreeing to wait 5 to 8 days for shipping, there was no shipping fee there either !

Now, I just need to find a great deal on a fabric that would be just right for the back of the Scrappy Trip-along.......after I do something about borders, that is !

We had spitting sleet balls, and sparse snowflakes most of the day today........cold, but no accumulation of any sort.  It was a good day for staying inside, blessed, healthy and warm !

You know I had to try it !

Cutting scraps all week, and checking on blogs in-between-time, you know I just had to give the Japanese x and + block a try (aka the Setsuko Inagawa quilt)    And one block tells you nothing; so, in the tradition of Lay's potato chips, I couldn't make just one !

So, here's my start.   The blocks should measure 10 inches when finished.   I wanted to try a bigger block, but I had all these 2 1/2 inch pieces that would be perfect for triangle-squares, and for the middle + and squares !

The middle of the + uses a 6 1/2 inch piece, but I tried piecing it when I didn't have a piece that long, and it turned out just fine.  That fact will give me a lot more leeway with the scraps that I have.

But this will all wait until Monday.  I hope you all visit the church of your choice tomorrow,  and find a way to bless someone this Sunday, as you, yourselves are blessed !

Today was fun !

Started out the day with a worthwhile project.........taking this tote bag that was full of fabric scraps, and cutting them down into 2 1/2 " squares, 2 1/2 X 4 1/2 inch rectangles, and odd strips.  I'm terrible about remembering where I saw stuff, but I recently came across a post on a blog where the girl spent the day cutting down her scraps.

I'm excited to do this with all the scraps I can get my hands on.   They're so much more user friendly this way.   If they're not what I need, I can cut from yardage and pieces in the drawers, and this way the scraps won't always be in need of ironing !

Stopping mid-morning, hubby and I joined our two nieces and nephew for lunch.  I stuffed myself with catfish, and he ate the largest serving of meatloaf I have ever seen on one plate !  Then, having recently discovered Pandora, he spent the afternoon listening to Mother Maybelle and the Carters, while I continued cutting fabrics.

My mind kept going to Wanda's comment about my borders, so I took another look at the brown diamond quiltie.  Being tempted by those neat stacksof pieces, I did a little playing, made myself some modern flowers, and basted them onto this quiltie to add a little pizazz.  Doesn't really do anything about the borders, although I did 'bleed' into two of them, but I'm liking it a lot better already.

I guess I'll hand-applique it at this point........still not sure how I'll quilt it.

A new day and a new look on the blog

I made a few changes in the look of my blog........guess I was bored with the same ol'-same ol'.
I think that this new look is kind of kicky and fresh, and goes with the newest quiltie picture, so that's a good thing !

Other changes........I signed up for new car insurance today.  Had a little oopsy occur back in November of last year, when I accidentally backed into a parked vehicle on the parking lot of my church.   Insurance paid $519., no big deal, seems to me,.........but when I got my insurance renewal invoice, they had nearly doubled my premiums !    That may be understandable to THEM, but it is not AFFORDABLE to ME !  

So Geico is out, and Nationwide is in.  Let's pray that there are no more incidents OR accidents !   Plus, now, I have roadside assistance, although, again, I hope I never need it !

My middle grandchild turned 7 yesterday...........Happy Birthday to Timothy Daniel, Jr. !  Wish they wouldn't grow up so fast, so far away !

I have forgotten to mention it, but I found the c.d. I had, to download Image Zone 4.0, so I'm back to using the great photo editing program that I loved !  Turns out it came with my photo printer, I think.  Praise God in all things, great and small !

This is one of three beauties that bloomed together in my backyard.  I forgot that I moved some bulbs, so they were a beautiful surprise to me.......and so big !   I trimmed back all of my monkey grass today as I noticed new growth in the middle.   My Violets are regrowing, and already blooming, my Rhododendron bushes survived the winter and are bursting open, and my Tiger Lily is coming up.  There are lots of things that I don't even recognize, but it all just gets me so excited to watch every year !   God's handiwork is just so very awesome.

My daughter and I talked gardening long-distance for an hour or more the other day, and it just makes me wish that we lived close enough to share yardwork !

Diamonds in the Rough

These brown fabrics kept calling out to me everytime I came across them in my 'sewing room'.  They're mostly fatquarters that Jodie Ann has shared with me over the  past few years, and somehow, they got placed with some bright fabrics, which got my head to spinnin'.    I just kept having a crazy desire to put them together into SOMETHING, not knowing what pattern I'd use, and realizing that I didn't have enough of any of the fabrics to make something big.

I really love this layout and wish that I had gone with it !

Well, I got the fabrics out one day last week and just started playing.   I went through several ideas before I started cutting out diamond shapes.

A star was an obvious consideration, but when laid out, it was just TOO traditional for me, even though the fabric combination was fresh.

Lottie is 3/4 grown, and gives you some idea how small the quitie was.

I finally settled on this layout, and spent a day assembling it.  It came out so very small that I first thought of turning it into a pillow sham for a full size bed pillow.   But it was a bit too big for that, and it wouldn't have gone with any quilt that I have anyway.

Today, I just cut and added 4 different fabrics for wide 6 inch borders.   I left all of the points of the diamonds on the outside edges until I had sewn on the borders, hopefully avoiding stretching .  I don't think that it is square, since I didn't square it up before adding the borders, and knowing that diagonal seams tend to make things go a bit wonky.  But it is big enough now for a lap quilt for someone who is wheelchair-bound, or for a baby quilt.   Hopefully, I'll baste it and machine-quilt it soon, though I'll need to buy some brown thread first !

In the closeup view of this, it sortof looks like it is pieced from squares rather than diamonds......it's NOT !

The finished measurements are are about 42 x 47 inches.

Edited with measurements--Been doin' a little bit of sewing.........

........I finished the borders that I crazy-pieced the other day, and they came out just like I had hoped !

  The idea for the project actually began in a Wednesday night Bible study a few weeks ago.   My brother, John, was teaching, and he asked how many of us had the ten commandments displayed in our home.   I initially responded that I did, but then realized that it is the Lord's Prayer that I have on the wall.

It turned out such a nice size for the quilt rack.

  He poignantly pointed out that, since the commandments are being removed from most public places, our kids and grandkids just don't see them if they don't see them in our homes.  So, from that moment on, I kept thinking that I could make a little wall quilt with the commandments.  It took me a while to be brave enough to attempt fitting them all onto a piece of white background fabric, fearing that I would run out of room, or not balance it all well.

It turns out that spacing wasn't a problem, but I did go a little wacko.   I wound up mixing new and old language together, using the word 'you' some places, and then 'thy' in the same commandment.  I may make another attempt at this some time correcting that, plus the 'You shall not covet' command........since it should be elaborated on to say 'your neighbor's wife, goods, etc.'.   After all, we ARE told to covet the greater gifts !

Oh, well,..........this one will do for now, I think, and it is a very good daily reminder.   I know that Jesus said that all the commandments are summed up in two........Love the Lord thy God, and Love thy neighbor as thyself; but I feel that it doesn't hurt to see just WHAT other things that covers !

I've hesitated sharing the photo, because this has felt like a very personal project to me, but I think that it would be wonderful if others felt led to display the commandments in their homes too, in whatever format they desired, so I'm sharing this with you friends.

I've had a request for measurements, so although I've given them in the reply, I'll add them here for those who don't read the comments.........

 The overall size of this quilty is about 22 x 29 1/2 inches.
  I measured the finished white area, and it is now about 15 1/2 x 23 inches. I spaced the lettering in lines 1 inch apart, drawing the lines lightly with pencil. I also drew a line down the center to divide the two halves, and lines 1 inch in from left and right sides to keep from lettering too close to the borders. I started with an oversized piece of background and then trimmed it down when finished writing.  I used a permanent fine-line Sharpie pen, going over each letter an extra time.

For the borders I cut thin fabric at 3 1/2 inches wide x more than the length needed, did my crazy-piecing on them oversized a bit, and then trimmed them to 3 1/2 inches when finished piecing.