Treasure hunting !!

Decided to clean out my huge double hall closet.  Sorted thru lots of toys and old craft projects of the kids and then I began to discover treasure!!  Two packages of batting came rolling out and a medium box of fabric I had forgotten about.  Pretty fabric .....

Next I found 3 scrappy Log Cabin quilts ... quilted and ready for binding!!  And buried beneath old sheets was the quilt top my Aunt Helen gave me AND 2 scrappy quilt tops (flimsies) !! 

I then recalled a time when I had decided to go on a "fabric diet".  No new fabric !!   My goal was to make as many quilts as I could from all my scraps. It took me a year but I made over a dozen ..... 2 tops were donated for  fund raisers, several were quilted and shipped off to friends and family.  Here at last were the remaining ones ....

A little further into the closet I found 2 quilts I had made out of my Granny's scrap bag.  After my Granny died ever so many years ago (my kids were young) my Dad gave me a bag of her scrap fabrics.  For many years, there was a shirt factory in the area she lived and she would collect scraps from them to make her quilts with. 

 

Also inside that bag of scraps were quite a few hand sewn hexagons. I made them into a quilt.   At one time I had been hand quilting it . Can you see the cross-hatch quilting?

Here it was that precious quilt again!  Those of you who have been following my blog since I started on January 31, 2010 will remember that I stopped sewing and quilting many years ago.  I gave away most of my fabric and I guess I stashed away the things I still wanted.  But I had forgotten where it all was and even what I had kept.

There were many coordinating fabrics in the bag of scraps from the shirt factory. I started a Desden Plate quilt with some of them.  My DD in AZ has ALWAYS wanted that quilt and when she saw it being pulled out of the closet she became extremely excited ..... "Mom, please can I have it now? Please".  It was sad to see my DD, now a grown woman, begging for this quilt ... so I said "yes". .... which means now I have to finish it!    (The pix makes it look like the is a pink stain on the quilt, but there is not .... must be my camera)

I was so thrilled to find these treasures!!  Such a very special encouragement to me on my journey back! 

While DD was here from AZ with her girls I finished their quilts that I posted a few weeks ago.

Everyone went home very happy !!!!

Hunky Dory, I am done !

I am done, I am done, I am done !!!

The Disappearing 9-patch is done !  Oh, I know it is just the top and I need to do the backing, add batting and the binding.  But this is so exciting.  I had trouble understanding how to put the patches back together to make the pattern.  Spent the first day taking apart as much as I put together.  By the second day, I was on a roll.

It is much bigger than I anticipated .... I just kept adding rows to sides and bottom until I had only 4 blocks left.  It is 77 inches by 59.

I love it !

Disappearing 9 Patch with Hunky Dory

I can hardly believe it has been just a week since the earthquake.  It seems like forever ago.

Once the DGDs got back from their harrowing adventure, we decided to spend an afternoon together.  They each brought their best friend and we went to the movies.  A chick flick ... what else?  The Last Song (Nicholas Sparks story)  with Miley Cyrus.  My oldest (14 yrs) DGD thinks Nicholas Sparks should find someone else to write the endings to his stories because he doesn't know how to do it right !!

From there it was off to get ice cream and after buttering them up real good .... I asked for a favor.  Would you guys please go with me to the quilt store that is on our way home?  My girls knew what that meant and were eager to go, but their friends did not know what to expect.  So we descended upon Quilt-In-A-Day, a shop near my house and had a blast!  The ladies in the shop were quite entertained as well !!

The girls helped me pick out fabrics to go with the Hunky-Dory Layer Cake (my first purchase from Soggy Bottom Flats on Etsy).  When they realized Grandma was sewing again, they began to collect and coordinate fabric for themselves.  Their friends got right into the spirit of things with us.  It was such fun!

But my weekend was not a good one.  I was hoping to finish the last of the quilting on the quilt for my DGD in AZ but found I was in too much pain to sit at the machine and move the quilt around.  I was starting to go down the road toward depression, but then I remembered all the work I have been putting into rejoining the quilting world.  After some thought, I figured out a system to employ so I could cut up the Layer-Cake, pin together the squares, sew them and still be semi-reclined in bed.  By Sunday evening I had 24, nine patch, 12 inch squares  made.  The last 6 are pinned and ready to sew.  I was pretty proud of myself ....

Here is a photo of some of them strewn across my counter top:

I guess it doesn't look like much, but I am pleased.  Now the scary part ..... to cut them up and put them back together.  For someone who has never done this design .... it is very much like a mystery quilt.

Tonight I plan to review the instructions and demo online ..... stay tuned.

Easter Earthquake

Living in San Diego, CA we are very accustom to the rumblings and shakings of the earth's tremors.  But Sunday we experienced a whole lot more than tremors.  I am used to hearing the rattle of our armoire doors when we have tremors, but then my bed began to shake... A LOT .... I knew I didn't have a vibrating bed! I jumped up to find the floor shaking and the rumbling sound of a train passing by .... only there are no train tracks near our house! I called for my husband and ran into the living room to find our large entertainment center swaying .... very much more than slightly.  It went on for what seemed a very long time .... for sure longer than a tremor.

All very scary. My husband had been outside where the ground was rolling & moving so hard he needed to grab something to keep from falling. He looked up and saw the telephone poles & trees swaying. Very freaky !!

Quickly we knew it was a significant quake and I became immediately concerned as to where the epicenter was. Usually it is in the desert or south into Mexico. My daughter and her family were vacationing in Baja with 2 other families.  After frantic search on TV and the Internet I found that the epicenter was in Baja and immediately began to worry about them .... as only a mother can do.  With my heart pounding, I notified all that I could, that they needed urgent prayer.

There was no way to contact them.  Even on a good day phone and internet reception is spotty in Mexico.  I tried to keep myself busy sewing but after sewing the wrong pieces of the quilt together, I decided I needed to do something else to occupy myself. After about 2 or 3 hours, I got a call .....

Everyone was safe!!!  They were on the water of the lake when the earthquake hit.  The water was roiling and hissing and she told me she looked up and saw the mountains move !!  Amazing !!  The home of their friends was trashed & uninhabitable, the roads impassable, and their car in a small sink hole ... but all of them were safe.  They were putting all the mattresses from the house on the boat dock and sleeping outside over the water. The aftershocks were frequent and very strong.

Getting home looked like it was going to take days but they got home late last night.  Hallelujah!!!  That is enough adventure for a while for everyone !!!

Happy Easter !!

What a full week !  The DGDR2 (Juju) has been on spring break and we spent Thursday with her ... just hanging out with our Nintendo-DSs .... yes, Poppy and Grandma play Nintendo-DS with the kids and each other. Of course, there wasn't enough time in the day to do everything we wanted, but we had fun being together.

I am on-call this weekend, so I am glued to my pager and phone for the next 3 days !!  Work has been very busy .... typical of pre-holiday activities at a hospital. Altho I have done very little sewing, I did get the quilts I made with the DGD (madison and emily) all set for the final sew. The layers sewn together and binding is pinned and ready to go.  Hopefully the weekend will have very few calls and I can do some sewing.

Wishing all a very Happy Easter !!! And very rich Blessings !!!