Disappointing Day - Time to Frog Stitch

I THOUGHT I almost had the top finished. This is it laid out on my living room floor! All that was left was to iron the Sunbonnet Sue down and stitch around it! Not really pleased with the borders, but I figured a six year old wouldn't notice.

Hubby walked by and asked who the quilt was for. I told him and he replied, "You mispelled her name! It is Baylee, I made the same mistake and she corrected me!" So I guess, the ripper and I have a date for next weekend. Might as well fix the borders while I am at it. Thought I would be quilting next weekend, but maybe the next one.

Hubby's passing comment ALMOST made me head to the trash with the whole thing: my entire day of sewing, down the tubes! Almost rage at yet another mother who has to make up the spelling of a child's name (the home health agency I run cares for about 60-80 premature infants at any given time, and the spellings of some names make your head spin). Then I did an internet search and find that on the first 3 of 4 sites I visited, the Baylee is an accepted alternate spelling for Bailey - nto that I have ever seen that spelling in almost 51 years. I could feel a MAJOR blue funk coming on. I went and sat outside for a few minutes and realized, I only have to figure out how to make one E. I have all the rest of the letters. Fortunately, Nancy sent me the scraps from the letters, so that should be easy, and I can try to copy her E. And the borders are really not right, and while a six year old might not realize it, I do, and that is not my standard. Mama would never have allowed me to get away with mistakes so obvious.

I think I will do something quick after this. I believe the next thing to do is a set of placemats that have caught my eye. That should appease my need to finish something easily.

Busy Weekend

I opened my package from Nancy Saturday morning and fell in love. Too bad it was the day for the youngest grandson's birthday and I have to go shopping for the party. I thought I'd get to play after the party, but the oldest grandson and his best friend butted heads on the slip and slide at the beginning of the party. Grandson only ended up scared and with a great big goose egg on his forehead. Unfortunately, the other one ended up with 9 stitches in his forehead. We had brought him with us, so off to the Emergency Room we head. I broke more traffic laws yesterday than I have in my whole life. My son and grandson were hysterical. The parents were on their way to a wedding and we had to turn them around to meet us at the emergency room. Both boys are fine, so we are lucky. By the time we got done at the ER, went back to the party to sing Happy Birthday and eat cake, I was exhausted when we got in and went to bed early.

Hubby was out of town visiting with his mom for Mother's Day, so I was only me, my son, Scott and the oldest grandson, Dayton home today. DD Ashley came home for a bit this afternoon to visit, but went back to her boyfriend's for a Mother's Day Luau.. So I got to play today. Here is my progress....



















What do you think? What color should I use for the outside border? I moved the border with the name from the bottom of the original design to the top. Thought it kinda looked like clouds in the sky and belonged there more that the bottom. There will be a 1" pink border and the side panel is a mottled pinky/purple with blue and pink stars. Opinions please before I start cutting into more fabric.

My best Mother's Day gift came from my sister. This was one of our mother's most prized possessions.... Her cookbook. It is full of her favorite recipes and still has all the clippings stuffed in it she had in there for years.


















Nancy, did you ever see the last page in the book? I either had not, or it was so long ago I had forgotten. It made me cry and lifted my spirits at the same time. Thank you for this precious gift.
Happy Mother's Day, Mama. I love you and miss you.

A Senior A Last

Last night was Ring Night at the Princess' school. The seniors left yesterday morning after picking up their caps and gowns and the Juniors/now reigning Seniors got their class rings. The program was nice, the kids looked great and were SOOOOO excited. Hubby and I went out to eat afterwards with the boyfriend and his parents. All in all a great night, even though I missed American Idol last night. I really think the school should have done better planning.

I have worked on some quilty things, just no pictures yet. I'll be home alone this weekend, so should be able to get some sewing done and pictures posted. I worked Saturday cleaning my sewing/spare bedroom. I can actually get to the desk I sew on. I cleaned up about 50 quilt magazines, keeping the patterns that interested me, and trashing the rest. I have 4 binders with the patterns in sheet protectors. One has Children's/Baby quilt patterns, one Lap sized and wall hanging, one has bed sized quilts (of course, separated by twin, double, queen and king!) and one for miscellaneous instructional materials including quilting motifs.

I got the last of the HST sewn into squares for the borders on the last quilt posted and have 1/2 of the trimmed and ready to construct the last 40 blocks. I was going to just put on the black paisley border, but think I am going to add a narrow solid black to transition to it.

I am now a proud member of the Quilting 4 Pleasure ring. I thought long and hard about reestablishing my membership in the Stash Quilts ring, but to be honest, I really don't have a stash. I rarely make scrap quilts. I am too anal for that. I really like order in my life so "matchy" quilts please me. And I quilt for my pleasure, and mostly in colors that please me, so the Quilting 4 Pleasure ring seemed to fit me better. I'll still be visiting with many of those special ladies as many of them are on my bloglines.

I received my package from my sister today. I have not allowed myself to open it yet. That will be my joy on Saturday morning when I get ready to begin Bailey's quilt. Only one more day to wait.

Dinner time. Gonna try to finish a run around the ring after dinner.

Progress Report

Okay, this it the long promised picture of the redwork wall hanging Nancy and I purchased and began the last time Dad was in the hospital last year. We took over the reception desk in the ICU waiting room and traced the pattern. Then we sat in the waiting room and stitched. Mine in red, and Nancy's in coral. Don't know if she has finished hers yet, but decided to go ahead and post mine. The wording in the background is difficult to see and read in the picture, but it says, "Some things have to be believed to be seen." It seemed fitting at that difficult time in our lives and gave each of us comfort and companionship as we worked on them. They of course have our individual stamps, not only in coloring, but mine is done in a stem stitch, where, Nancy chose to use a back stitch, so they look similar, but very different, just as we are.

This is the progress I made on this project last week. I got the right side second border on. In addition to that I got all but 20 of the pairs of squares stitched and cut apart for the HST to complete the last 40 blocks for the top and bottom. I hope to get some work done on this one over the weekend, but as Nancy spoke in her blog this weekend I have a special project I am going to be working on, at least the planning...

One of the guys my husband works with has a new 6 year old daughter. She is his niece and both parents are in prison. She has been placed in their care, the the probability of adoption in a year. I decided she needed a quilt of her own in her new home. So Nancy is doing her name in wonky letters for me in girly colors so her name will be on her quilt. I am piecing 12 - 5 1/2 in framed 4 patches in girly colors. It will have a 1 inch border surrounding it, then there will be a wide border down the left side with balloons appliqued (OH NO, THE "A" WORD!) with narrow rickrack "strings". Then the bottom border will be Nancy's wonky letters spelling her name. Finally, an outer border. I can see the completed project in my mind's eye, or maybe it is in my heart, and it is a little girl's dream. I cannot wait to complete it and send it to her. Gotta' get to work pulling fabrics, so I can see my vision brought to life..... Will check back in soon.