A real day off!!

Hi Everyone!!!

Are you doing Bonnie's new mystery quilt? www.quiltville.com. Above are my green 1/2 square triangles for the first step. It is so much fun! I used about everything but the kitchen sink!
I had pumpkins for Halloween/thanksgiving...and they were still good, and they were pie pumpkins! So I peeled them and took all the seeds out and cooked the pumpkin, and will use it in bread and pies. Yum! Makes me feel thrifty!!
Another part of the mystery...my gold/neutral selections.
This is my new faucet! Pardon the water spots...but this is a big deal. My shower broke! The little pull lever pulled out of the old faucet and was totally broken, so I could only take baths...only for a day or two. But I am so grateful for my new one! Great job, dear husband!!


Gratitude's:

Family
Electric lights.
My washer and dryer
Clean sheets, and the fresh smell...and the sense of smell, period!
You, dear friends!!!



Have a fantastic day!!

Julie

An antique...no, not me!

HI Y'all!! Hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a wonderful one. I have been cooking and cleaning, no quilting so far, but a lot of scheming and thinking about quilts! Above is an antique quilt top I bought at the Dallas Quilt show. It was in a pile of tops, being shoved around...I had to rescue it. The tag said from 1860's. Please tell me...what do you think? Do you really think it could possibly be that old?
Double pinks, just like our current day reproductions.
A maverick block!!
and another maverick
Most of the blocks are pink, like this one. Does anyone know the name of this block?
Maverick!
All hand pieced...someone took lots of time with this! Wonderful if she had electric lights...hmmm, how fortunate we are!

Hope you enjoyed seeing my little old quilt top, and if you can tell me any information, I would so appreciate you!! Or if you like it..shout out!!



Have a super day,

Julie

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Just wanted to wish you a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving day!! May you have peace and plenty.

Sincerely, Julie

Plaids stars!!

I took the majority opinion and laid out the quilt this way. This is about 1/2 of the center put together. Do you like the plaid sashing? At least it is not my dear husband's pajamas...I have been known to snatch them up and use them, as some of you know, LOL! No new fabric here, all this is from the little stash. Some of the fabric is 20 years old.

And how do you like this quilt? Hee, same one of course. I have determined to make another plaid quilt, as the book suggested, not my free form ideas...I just get sidetracked sometimes!!

*****************Nursing notes*****************************

I had a patient, may I call her Mrs B...she has had bypass surgery before, and many stents (9), and just has chronic angina now. She came in with chest pain and was to have another heart bypass surgery...but she did not have any veins left in her legs to use to bypass the clogged arteries in her heart. Sooooo...the surgeon told her she has very few options left...and that the cardiologist would have to place more stents. The poor cardiologist...she has such tiny vessels in her heart, he was worried to death, and said he could not sleep worrying about whether he could do it or not...well, he must have done great!! She is all better and went home today. She is an early widow, has three children who have not left her side, and they are such a blessing to me. She was just worried about getting home to cook Thanksgiving dinner for them all!!! What a sweetheart.

********************************************************************

Hope all is well...and that you are doing great today!!!

Julie

Christmas Stitchery

A bit off, this picture...but my stitchery is completed. I plan to frame this piece. The pattern is a free one, and a wonderful one...and you may find it at First Friday Freebees at http://www.thepaintedquilt.blogspot.com/. Please thank Kaaren, the talented designer there...I sure do!



Have a wonderful week,





Julie

Post Number Two

Second post...then I just have to rake some leaves!! Above is a layout for a plaid quilt I have had cut out for about a year and 1/2. I guess today is the day to catalog all the UFO's and decide where to head with them. I like the above! But...

The quilt is supposed to look like this, above. All the blocks are cut out.

And here is the book version of the block layout with the alternate block. Of course, I only have a few made and the colors would not be right next to each other in the final versio. May I ask, which do you like better? Or neither?

Thanks, Julie

Yesteryear? Not so long ago!

Hi Friends!

Before I was a quilter, I was a cross-stitcher...and before that, I was a garment maker. I have done tailoring....but all that is over, because I am now a quilter!! I have been cleaning out the garage, and I found the partially done cross stitch kitty face above. I think she is pretty! I unfortunately do not have the instruction/chart to finish her. I have no idea where the instructions went to, but I think I lent them to someone long ago.

Did you ever darn socks? I know I am dating myself, but my mother and I used to darn socks. Above is one of her darning "eggs", and she had real egg shapes too. I am glad I don't have to do that anymore!

A cross stitch clock I made, in my favorite colors of the tme.

And remember 1930's prints? Before I discovered 1800's reproduction fabrics, these were a favorite. I wanted to make a very traditional pattern from these very traditional prints. A few of the fabrics are real fabrics from the 1930's, from my grandmother's quilt scraps. I have all the dresden plates made, just need to applique them on the backgrounds, trim them, and sew them together. Someday I will get to this project! (I found them Karen!)

More traditional stuff...I have nine of these blocks prepped and ready to finish, with sashing all ready.

Have a super day!!!

Julie

Celebrate, Celebrate, dance to the music!!

Hi Friends!! Have you ever...well, often, had some moments of just pure happiness? Well, that is where I am right now...a rare moment of peace, tranquility and satisfaction. Why? Because I finished all the frog-stitching on the hour glass/nine patch friendship quilt! Yippee! And I finished my ACLS class this morning (a required advanced life support class for nurses), and got 100% on my test. AND...above! I got home this afternoon and put together the latest string thing! I just love it, love it. I learned that muddy and clear colors look best...not together. I picked ,as well as I could, only clear bright colors from the string bin for this quilt. It just makes me happy to see it...I feel like I have been given a gift!! By the way, I still have a huge bin of strings. Just goes to show you, the strings make wild whoopy in the string box!! and multiply!
I made a mistake in the layout...and am going to leave it. I like it.

Thanks for listening to my blather...

By the way, the Gypsy girl has gone home, fixed up just fine...and is doing well.

Julie

Frustration...brought on by no one but little 'ol me!

HI Y'all!! Above is my finished top of Gail Pan's Christmas embroidery...of course, I had to be a little different...so I added the flying geese border. Acceptable? I am pleased with how it turned out, and of course learned some things along the way. I am hand quilting this one with big stitch techniques.

Our entrance for the kiddos for Halloween.

A little smiling face to greet people in the window...we have had this decoration for a long, long time.

And last but not least is dear husband's pumpkin carving...pretty cool, huh?

And now for the FRUSTRATION!!!! You know what I did? I spent most of today, my only day off this week, trying to machine quilt my nine patch friendship quilt. And made a MAJOR mess of it! Tucks, etc, stretched, it just looks horrible. I would just throw it in the garbage, but my friends precious blocks are in that quilt, and they are important to me. So, I have hours of frog-stitching ahead of me...sigh...I really thought it would be OK, but I got just so far and really could not stand for the workmanship to be that poor...and I am NOT the quilt police by a long shot!! Have you ever done this?

Have a super day!!!

Julie