Check this out!

My mom is selling treasures from my grandparents' house on ebay for my grandfather. My grandfather worked for an auction house for over 30 years and before that he owned his own antique store. Anything they saw that they thought might someday be collectible, they bought and stored it away. My grandfather has finally decided to let us help him clean out some of these treasures. On my trip to Tennessee, I brought home several popcorn tins and boxes full of vintage buttons. I will be listing these on ebay later this fall.

Right now my mom has a quilter's diary listed. It is from 1877. I looked through it and it was so cool! You can check it out here!

Do you believe in UFOs?

I am just knocking them out around here! This afternoon I pulled out another zip-lock bag with a in-progress project in it and went to work. I had a huge pile of left-over 2 inch blue squares left over from various projects and thought I would make another quilt like this. I had the four patches already made so I put it together with the solid blocks and got six rows put together. I guess it will have to go back into the bag for a while to age some more I gather some more blue scraps for more four-patches. I may have to raid my mom's box of nickel squares while I am at her house next week.
Before we went to the beach last week, I had dug another well-aged project out to work on. These nine-patches are made from fabrics that Maddie had dresses made from when she was little. I made most of the dresses (with lots of help from Nina) - my mom made her a few - and Nina even made her several (with matching ones for Eva!). I am going to use them in a pattern from "The Joy of Quilting". The alternate blocks are a rail fence block (navy and white) and a solid white block. The problem is that I no longer have that book and can't remember the layout! Nina is going to get her mom to send me a picture of the quilt from her copy of the book.
Hhhmmmm.....what else can I find to work on around here? I am running out of UFOs but the pile of "To Be Quilted" tops is growing!

Finishing up some UFO's

I have been in the mood to finish up some unfinished projects. Tonight I dragged out the box that had all my orphan blocks in it. Not as many as I had thought. Surprisingly (haha) most of the blocks contained blue and yellow! Right now this piece is about 50 inches square. I am going to put a wide border around it to make it into a lap size throw. I have got plenty more of the blue and white floral fabric that I used in the large vertical block in the center.

This is another UFO I finished this week. I had pieced nine patches out of the leftovers from the quilt I made for my sister for Christmas. I was bored with the nine patches so I cut them in half in both directions and came up with this. A little bit busy, no? But I still like it. It is about 35 inches square.


We are headed to Tennessee on Monday for another quick visit with my family before school starts back on August 9th. Where did the summer go?

Staying up waaaaayyyyyyy to late!

Sunday afternoon a couple of friends had their new house burn down...to the ground. They were supposed to move in today. They had crews out there refinishing the floor and most of the workers were smokers. They are thinking that maybe one of the workers threw a cigarette butt into the grass and the dry brush caught fire. As dry as it has been here it quickly spread. When it hit the house, it burned quickly because of all the fresh polyurethane on the floors. The fire department was supposed to come out to investigate yesterday. Thankfully no one was hurt and their personal belongings were not yet at the house. But it is still a huge loss for them.

So I was laying in bed at around midnight on Sunday night thinking about all of this and how horrible I felt for Sheryl. What to do, what to do. In my head, I went through all of the quilts I have sitting around here and of course couldn't part with any of them. So then I started thinking about what quilt tops I had sitting here waiting to be quilted. I remembered this green yellow brick road quilt - made with the leftovers from this quilt. I got up and went to the sewing room. Found some backing fabric. Got everything pinned on and started quilting. It is amazing how few interruptions there are from midnight to 3:30 in the morning! I got the quilt quilted and got the binding made before collapsing. The next morning I got up and put the binding and the label on. I think it turned out really cute. I quilted it doing big loopy-loops and leaves. Most of the fabrics had leaves on them so I thought it was appropriate.

I delivered it to Sheryl yesterday morning. She was so surprised and loved it. Her 3 year old immediately climbed up on the chair where we had it spread out and wanted to be wrapped up in it!

I am so glad that I was able to give a friend lots of quilty hugs!

I'm in love.....again!

I knew when I bought these fabrics that I would love the resulting quilt - and I do. And so does Maddie. She has already asked if she can have this quilt. I was hoping that there would be enough leftovers to make me a wall hanging but there isn't. I used up almost all of the brown fabrics. Oh, well! I think the mommy-to-be is going to love this. She has very classy taste. We teased her because when they built their new house, she had a crystal chandelier installed in their guest powder room! Only Holly would do this!

Now to get it quilted and bound - but I've got a whole month before the baby shower. Can't believe I am this far ahead of the game.

We have a lot (around 100) college students that go to church with us. Every year a new batch comes in and other ones graduate. We hate to see them leave, but it is the normal cycle of life in a college town. This year several girls graduated that I was close to. One girl, Lacey, had taught bible classes with me several times. And she loves my kids and they loved her. She baby sat for me a couple of times. Anyway, after she left I felt like I wanted to send her a graduation present. This green quilt had been hanging over my sewing table but was replaced at Christmas by the quilt my mom made me. I am kind of over the lime green now. So I decided that it was time to send it on to Lacey. She called Monday night, right after she got the quilt. She loved it. She said she wanted to carry it around with her everywhere - like a three year old and her security blanket. I have got one more girl I want to do something for - but she's not leaving town until August. What to do, what to do?

More Pictures from my trip north

I took all these pictures a few days ago, but am just now sitting down to get it all together. Since Nina took time out of her busy packing schedule to show you her shopping finds from our time together, I thought I would share my finds too. I got this quilt at the same antique store that Nina got her grandmother's flower garden top. The quilt is twin size and I got it for $55. The back is pieced from several different fabrics - probably a slightly later date than the top.

I have been lusting after old library card file cabinets for several years. They are a very hot commodity. Since I haven't found any full sized ones that are available and that I can afford, I went for a smaller version. I have it sitting on top of my small book shelf in my sewing room.

This is Maddie's new bed. It is an old iron bedstead! I love it! I found it at an antique mall near my parent's house in Tennessee. Got it for $75! Yeah - that is my new "old" quilt on the bed - just so I can photograph it.

My mom has an iron bed that is very similar to this in her guest bedroom. It was my great grandmother's bed. Funny story about that bed. When I was a tiny baby, Mom and Dad took me to Mamie's house so she could meet me. Mom was changing my diaper on the bed and of course I took the opportunity to tinkle on the bed! My mom was so embarrassed. She went to Mamie and told her what had happened. She told my mom, "Don't worry - you did the same thing!"

This cute little jar came home with me from a antique mall in Muncie. I just loved the odd round shape and the handle. I filled it with buttons from my grandmother's button collection.

And saving the best for last! Here is the fabric that me and Nina dyed. We had so much fun!!! When Nina makes her millions from all her business endeavors, we are going to start our own fabric dyeing business and all the fabric colors will have food names. Like Pomegranate and Passion Fruit. Once again, I ended up with very few blues. Probably because I was trying to keep the anti-blue person happy! But we had fun anyway.

Well, it is time for bed! Today I finished up the Auburn baby quilt - just in time for the shower tomorrow! Just have to slap a label on it in the morning. I have got most of the blocks made for the brown/blue baby quilt. It is looking really good. I was hoping to have enough left over fabric to make me a wall hanging but I think it is going to take every scrap I have. More pictures to come!

The case of the missing quilt

I have made it home from the summer's big trip. I had so much fun! We ate too much, talked a lot, laughed a lot, and shopped a lot! I will share more pictures later but I wanted to show you some pictures from the mystery that happened before I even left Tennessee.

First - here is a picture of me and Nines. Notice that somehow we have the same color of hair. More on that in another post!

Here is Nina's birthday quilt. She picked out the red fabric last summer when we were together. Her rules for this year's challenge quilt were simple - only two fabrics! I put the red together with a medium tan. I really like how it turned out. Kind of calmer than last year's quilt, no?
Wednesday morning before I headed off to Indiana, I asked my dad to help me get a picture of Nina's quilt. After he held it up for me, I laid it across a chair in the living room. About half and hour later, I started packing up the car. When I went looking for Nina's quilt, it is missing. It is no where to be found. My mother had already mentioned that if Nina hated the quilt for some reason, she would be glad to take it. So I went to Mom's bedroom - just in case the quilt had walked in there by itself!

First - I came across this bear claw quilt (in reds and creams) that I made for my sister about 6 years ago. Mom is keeping it "safe" for her!


Then, laying across the foot of Mom's bed, is the anniversary quilt (in red and tans) that I made Mom and Dad three years ago for their 40th anniversary. Hmm... what is that that I spy laying across her foot board? Could it be?

Yes, my mother, in her frenzy of straightening up the living room, had accidentally put Nina's quilt in her bedroom. Amazing, isn't it? She tried to act shocked when I told her where I found the quilt, but I don't believe her!

More pictures of my Indiana fun coming soon!