Happenings of Easter and before Prom

I recieved new blocks for my Japan quilt. Thanks Ladies. Carmie sent me a backing fabric too. I am very happy about the response and hope I can get a few more.

Friday before Easter, my daughter and I dyed eggs. She started the process by arranging all the cups in color order. Nestle decided to take a nap.

My son recently took a trip with the band to Disney World. The band played a concert and then spent 2 days exploring. I'm so glad he had a great time. I am so thankful to have a really great kid. Here is a picture he took with Donald Duck. Funny because his name is Donald too.
Yesterday I took him, his girlfriend, and my daughter to the mall to choose a tie and shirt to wear for Prom. I don't really know if it is a real good idea to bring 3 females all with different opinions to shop for a young man. Needless to say the experience was stressful and enjoyable all at the same time. My son is going to wear a suit that was his Grandfather's. It is a dark shade of teal and his girfriend's dress was several shades of teal. His girlfriend picked out a tie that had colors of her dress and the suit. I thought it looked very nice. But it seemed that everyone had opinions about the color of the shirt. He tried on black,light teal and white. I thought he looked the best in white. Thank goodness the others did too, Whew.


There is the suit, you get a peek.I couldn't figure out how to rotate the photo. I'll need to put that on my to-do list. We did a pre-prom photo shoot and the pictures are wonderful. His girlfriend even trusted me do her hair, "Yea!" I'll post a pic when I get them from my Hubby. He did an awesome job.
With all of this craziness, I worked an extra day, Made a needlecase/sewing kit for the smalltalk group. I modeled mine after a kit I had made for my Dutch Treat block take along. I made this one a few years ago when I started the Dutch Treat quilt. This was a fun challenge. After we signed up we were partnered with someone else who was to make us a kit as well. The challenge started when Kathy had posted several of her needlecases on her blogg and got our juices flowing.

In our swap we were to use Civil War prints and wool. I tried to make the one for the swap a little more primitive and not include the clear plastic pocket or a zipper. I added a scissor pocket and a needlerest.

In the middle of all of these activities I was trying to finish my Civil War Niblets that are due this month. I think they are sweet and I am looking forward to getting these back. I had seen a quilt at an Antique store with tiny 9ptches set with a red Civil war print. I hope to use mine in the same way.

So now I need to get these in the mail and mabye do some laundry too.
Tanya

Advise

Just nod and smile was the advise a dear friend gave me for my most recent visit from my Mother. Visits from Mom have never seemed to be comfortable. There is always some underlying agenda or duty. As much as I love her and I do, I feel there is always a misunderstanding of what a Parent-Grandparent relationship should be. Needless to say the visit left me feeling as though I wanted to shave my head.
I guess what I learned the most was what I do not want to be as a parent.
I want to be involved in my kids/and future grandchildrens lives. I want to treat them as though they are special and precious. I want to make the effort to make sure they know this.
I may not always like the decisions they make but I will always love and cherish them. I will try very hard not to judge them, they will have enough of that from piers and co-workers .
I'm so glad I have 2 wonderful kids who constantly make me proud. C & D, you are a Joy and a Treasure and I love you both very much.
Mom-e

Happenings for the week

It's so nice to get little packages in the mail, I recieved blocks from Maryellen and Kathryn. Thank you ladies, your blocks are lovely. I will add them to the others I have so far. I also recieved the unwashed signature blocks from the Small talk group. Now I'm waiting on the washed blocks to arrive.

At the GCQG guild meeting last week my good friend Patsie gave me some blocks that once belonged to Gladys. There were 14 blocks and many of them were pieced with a dome in the middle. I decided to cut the blocks apart, true them up and reset them. I guess I just couldn't think of accepting another UFO. In the baggie with the blocks was more fabric to make more blocks and the border fabric. I was able to cut the sashing from the leftover background and the navy print worked just great for the cornerstones.

I wanted to finish these before the next guild meeting. I am hoping to inspire the quilters in my guild to make string pieced blocks. I just love string quilts and they are a great way to use up your scraps.

I Here is a sweet picture of my Angel playing with and her hamster. I just love how they seem to have the same cute smirk on their face.

I just completed my first block from the King George III SAL quilt from http://cartulinas.wordpress.com/ . The blocks can be done in 6" or 4". I paperpieced the block but the patterns are written so you could hand piece them. The original quilt was made with 4" blocks. I cannot wait to start the next block.

I'm not too happy with the contrast but if I make a few more I just might.

I made this Little Lone Star Qult as a challenge a while back. It's just the right size for a centerpiece. It is also the same pattern for the center of my borders quilt pattern. I thought I would share it today. I'm in a yahoo group that loves the 30's . I'm gonna share it with them too. We are doing a challenge where we make a block each month. So far everyone likes butterflies. Several of our members have designed blocks for the group it is really neat.

I'll share more blocks as they arrive or get completed.

Tanya

Yes you can make a quilt for Japan

See what Dianne did. How inspiring. I know I can find 8" squares in my stash. http://www.theinspiredhousewife.com/2011/03/my-quilt-for-japan/

What's happening now...more Japan blocks

This week I recieved 3 more blocks from local Guild members. Thanks Lisa and Tracy.

I am the new Community Service person for our guild. I started this month. In the past we have made Pillowcases and collected stuffing for heart pillows for Heart patients. I thought I could inspire members to do something for the Wounded worriors. So I asked members via e-mail to make rail fence blocks. I was hoping to recieve only enough for 1 quilt or 80 blocks and I recieved over 280 Wow. We will continue to make these blocks for the rest of the year. I'm going to put these into kits for members to sew.

I brought my string spiderweb quilt to Guild too, hopefully to inspire members to make Heartstrings quilts. I havea collection of string I am willing to part with and I would like to see members interesed in using their leftovers for Charity. I am planning a quilt as you go Workshop in May. Several members seemed interested and my frinds at my local church are helping me with the date.

Keep those red and white blocks comming ladies. I will post items as I recieve them. I also need border and backing fabric to complete these quilts. I don't mind piecing the backs. Thanks so much.

Tanya