Monday, July 30, 2018

Wedding Quilt!

I mailed the wedding quilt last Thursday and it was received in Kentucky Saturday!  I mailed it from a small post office in a town of 300 people and they don't have a postage printer and the postmaster put on a massive amount of stamps! 

The bride called me Saturday to thank me and say how wonderful it was and all that fun stuff!  So now is the big reveal!  This is an original design.  I used a world map, traced it and traced it again in sharpie on the reverse to get a transferrable design.  I hand cut and zigzagged around each piece!  I loved adding the stripe fabric for some interest and of course stars.  I drafted the design in EQ7.  I wanted a filler border and deccided on a swag. I threw together two Trip Around the World throw pillows from leftover pieces.

This is a king size quilt and I custom machine quilted it on my little Pfaff Grand Quilter.  I had extra tables around to support the weight!

Original Design - Stars Around the World - Huffman wheat almost ready for harvest in the background
 and it is laying on a round hay bale!

on the sewing room floor

center

swag border with stars and loops quilting

throw pillows
My birthday party went great over the weekend.  One daughter and her two kids are still here, but everyone else left and it was so fun to have so many people here!  The food was amazing.  When you say potluck in this community, everyone goes all out!  I can't believe I am really 60!  Neither can my mom, since I am her oldest!

Even though this quilt is no longer on  my design wall or floor I am posting to Design Wall Monday on Small Quilts and Doll Quilts. 



Thursday, July 26, 2018

Vacations!

I haven't posted in quite a while.  There are lots of good reasons.  First off I was working on a wedding quilt, and hopefully get to finally post pics next week as I mailed it today.  To make this a quilting post, yesterday I actually sewed!  I used up some leftover strip sets from a msytery quilt and made this little 15" square wallhaning.  I happened to have some silk flowers I took apart and stitched on and added some beads and fun machine quilting.  A quickie little project for my stairwell.


Now, the rest of the post is about my trips and family!

In June my sister received an unexpected surprise and won a trip for two to Washington D.C.  I was her guest as her husband couldn't take off on short notice, since we already had another trip scheduled, more on that in a bit!  I drove to Boise June 21 and at least got to see my grandkids.  The twins were 7 months old at the time.  I will post a pic of the other two later in the post.
Remy (left) and Finn

We took off on June 22nd and did some touring of  D.C. before her awards conference for the Presidential Award for Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST).  She is a 6th grade math teacher.  We have a high school friend who works at the Pentagon and he gave us a private tour on the weekend.  We walked miles!  

Beautiful display in the Pentagon.  There were many quilts on the walls that they rotate given in memory of 9-11
 My sister and I went to all the monuments, Arlington Cemetary, Smithsonians (I went to one more than my sister when she was busy, as well as the Capitol and gardens) saw friends of my sisters for lunches from her time of her husband's two tours at West Point, and we went to the awards banquet at the National Portrait gallery.  It was lovely!
awards dinner with my name card!  We had assigned seating.

I flew home from Boise and flew back down three days later to take off on a long planned trip to Maine to a wedding.  I flew with my other sister to Niagara Falls first and then we drove across to Maine, stopping to look at many covered bridges in Vermont.  It's so hard to pick just a few pictures!  We had a great road trip!  We also crossed over to the Canadian side and got lots of great pics from there and we loved the Maid of the Mist boat tour.
American Falls, Bridal Veil and Horseshoe Falls from front to back.

One of many covered bridges we saw

 When we arrived in Bethel, Maine on the day of the wedding rehearsal we met up with my daughter, her husband and their two kids.  They had been on a different schedule, but had also flown into Niagara a day earlier than I had!  My sister and I took the kids for the morning of the wedding and went to a couple more covered bridges in Maine.  



Then on July 6th was the wedding!  Nicole was the flower girl and Jared walked with her as a sign bearer.  The groom is their mom's first cousin.

 The happy couple Kristine and Mike! 
 After the wedding both sisters, my BIL, nephew (best man for his brother), my daughter, SIL and grandkids and I went to the coast.  It was my first time seeing the Atlantic ocean and the grandkids loved it!  We went to Acadia National Park.  The next day we drove on down the coast stopping at lighthouses.  We left my daughter's family in Portland, ME to fly home and the rest of us went on to Boston.  My nephew flew home (he is also an Army officer stationed in Texas) from there and the other 4 of us went to Cape Cod and toured around Boston walking a lot of the Freedom Trail.  We flew home from there and I finally drove home on July 11th!
me at Acadia

one of several lighthouses
Since arriving home I machine quilted the king size wedding quilt (the couple lives in Kentucky, so it needed to be mailed), and I have done a deep clean and some painting in my house in anticipation of having a big birthday this weekend!  I am throwing my own party!