Happy Valentine's Day

I have my suspicions, but nobody has really claimed responsibility for this little project, hearts just started arriving in my home.  Sometimes carried in by a friend, sometimes delivered by the US Mail.  It has been great fun.  I have amassed quite a collection and I am so very grateful. It has been sweet to receive each and every heart, some of them took quite a bit of work, I imagine and they all carry with them the kind thoughts and healing prayers of the quilters in my life.

Melinda went out and bought me some ribbon (those of you who read her blog will NOT be surprised to hear that it is red with white polka dots) and teeny tiny clothespins with which to attach the hearts to the "clothesline".  I am planning to take this with me to UAMS for my surgery.  They may not let me hang it up in the ICU but Lynda will make sure it is hung up as soon as possible.

Not all the hearts were signed, but I want to give thanks to the following ladies who have gone out of their way to encourage me since my last surgery:

Stella (one she made herself and one that is from both Stella and her wonderful husband Charlie)
Barb
Michelle
Karen
Wendy
Jan
Pat
Jo Ann
Carol
Barbara
Carolyn
Marty

 I am blessed, indeed.  Thank you, all.

The Ties That Bind, Day One

This quilt just happened. Almost against my will. Like a woman who didn't know she was pregnant and finds her self pushing in the seat of her car, this quilt demanded to be born where I had no plans to make it at all. Nineteen 6" blocks don't make much of a quilt, do they? Since this challenge was announced back in December I've wondered what the heck I was going to make with these blocks. I almost did nothing at all. I got them at the exchange meeting and put them in their plastic baggie and didn't even look at them until Lynda and Melinda came for a visit a week later. We started talking about them and I got them out again. Looking at them, I thought I had some OTHER 6" blocks that I had made YEARS ago, while I was pregnant. I thought I knew where they were stored and dug them out. Turns out the hearts are 5" not 6". But in the same bag were some 9" friendship stars made for me by the Monday Morning Quilters in Boston. They sent me those blocks when I first moved to Georgia. I always meant to do something with them, but didn't know what. I started playing with the three different blocks wondering if I could somehow make a quilt with blocks of such disparate measurements.



Before Lynda and Melinda left that day, I had sewn together the nine hearts in the center, and was already thinking about backgrounds and sashing. After a run to the LQS I had enough yellow to get through the project (or so I thought) and build my stash which was sadly short on sunny yellow. I also picked up a black and white checkered fabric that I thought might work as sashing, but I wasn't sure.

My first thought was to use black to expand the churn dash blocks, but I felt it stopped the design and looked too choppy.


Yellow worked better:


Then I realized I didn't like the stars in the middle of the border. Hearts worked better:


I tried again with black coping strips:


Once again, I chose yellow:

Getting these borders pieced and attached was the end of that first day.

I'm BACK!

I haven't been sewing much since spring began. I could tell you that it's because I was gardening so much more, or because I was too busy with Kay's school and ballet, and I wouldn't be lying. The truth is, I just lost my muse. I couldn't make myself work on any of the projects I have going, and I didn't want to start anything else. Oh, also, I discovered Facebook. Let me just say, don't go there. I take full responsibility for my decisions, but I swear, that website sucked whole days, not hours, out of my schedule!

The garden is doing beautifully, Kay is done with second grade, and tomorrow she will finished the two week intensive program for ballet. What am I going to do with the rest of my summer? I'm going to sew, of course. How do I know? When I haven't been sewing for the past few months? I got a kickstart. The Piecemaker's block exchange was due last week. 6" churn dash blocks, 20 of 'em due on last Monday. On Saturday night I sat down to a nice dinner with Lynda and confessed I hadn't even started. I estimated it would take six hours to make the blocks, and it turned out I was darn close. I turned my blocks in and spent a lovely time with some of the Piecemakers. I looked through the blocks I had received and considered some setting options, but really I wasn't too inspired. I thought the blocks were too small, and I didn't need a wallhanging in these colors. Leaving that day, I thought I might not make anything at all.

This Monday, that all changed. Stay tuned and I'll tell you all about it. Thanks to all of you who have contacted me in the past few months to make sure I was okay. I'm doing fine. Buried up to my neck in yellow squash and zucchini at the moment, but otherwise I'm just fine.