I had to move the lamp that usually sits on the table, to take this picture. This quilt took me several years to piece. I had about a third of it done when I ran into difficulty getting the piecing right at the points. One evening I sewed the row five times and STILL didn’t get it right.
A trip to the optometrist helped, and I resumed work a couple of months later. I think I played with it for a year or so before I was willing to send it off to be quilted. The quilt on the wall is a Friendship Star quilt. You can see that I love stars. The quilt thrown over the back of the chair is a star quilt, too.
Daily Archives: November 30, 2005
Quilt Room in a Bag
I was approached after Katrina hit our shores by a woman who had read my blog, and knew I am a quilter. She had developed the idea of pulling together things for quilters who had lost everything in the hurricane, including the material to make a quilt.
I got started on the project, and then asked my Friday Night Quilt Bee if they wanted to participate. We’ve pulled together a variety of items the average quilter has in her quilt room: pins, needles, a magnetic pin holder, fabric and paper scissors, thread, needle threaders, marking pens, colored pencils, a Pigma pen for signing quilts, a pin cushion, safety pins, a bag of embellishments (buttons, beads, Yo-Yos, floss), two quilting books, a quilting hoop, template material, an Olfa rotary cutter, a mat and a ruler. We also added a package of comfort items like tissues, hand cream, Advil, playing cards, stationary and stamps.
Elegante Mother and I searched our stashes of fabric to find the material for a red, white and blue quilt top that is 68 inches wide and 88 inches long. I cut the blocks, sashing and setting blocks. We supplied fabric for the outer border, and yesterday I bought a wonderful fabric in shades of blue to white in a hydrangea pattern for the quilt backing. (I wish I had purchased a bit o that for my stash!)
We added our favorite batt to the collection, and I gathered scraps for the hearts that are to be appliqu
Wednesday
I just wrapped my first Christmas gift. Well, actually, it’s Dear Husband’s gift. He has a haircut tomorrow night, and wanted to take a gift to his stylist. We all recognize that wrapping gifts is not DH’s forte, so I lend a hand where I can.
While I wallowed in misery today (due to my cold), I spent some time ordering Christmas gifts on-line. I took care of three women who help me in my capacity at the office for our masonry company. One woman is our CPA’s assistant, and the other two are employed by supply companies. Dear Husband takes care of the gift certificates for our general contractors, and I take care of the support staff.
We had to make a trip today to pick up two lap quilts Elegante Mother had machine quilted. While we were out, I stopped for gift certificates at Panera Bread for our postal carrier and UPS man.
I found two gifts for one of my nieces, three for Dear Husband, and one for one of my sisters. I was really booking, despite the cold.
We had left overs for dinner tonight. I put the disaster potatoes back into the oven to see if heating them longer would help. It didn’t. DH thinks that there must have been something wrong with one or more of the potatoes that I used. The sauce was really tasty, but the potatoes still seemed half cooked.
Tomorrow, I’ll be mailing one of the Quilt Rooms in a Bag that I talked about in an earlier blog. We found a woman who had been sent to the Chicago area when so many were evacuated after Hurricane Katrina. I’m still looking for a recipient for the second bag. They showed part of an 80 mile stretch of the Gulf coast in Mississippi and Louisiana, and it looks like they’ve hardly made a dent on what needs to be done. I can’t believe the Federal government has not stepped up to help get them back on their feet.
Christmas decorations are very slowly starting to appear here. I took down the Thanksgiving wreath and put up one of fresh greens. I bought wreaths with burgundy bows to slip over the carriage lights. I need to decide whether I want to decorate the mailbox pillar, and if so…how.
Office work, laundry, dishes…you know the drill. I’ll be glad when I feel better.
Have you ever had one of those days when everything looks fine on paper, but the reality misses the mark by a mile??
That would describe today.