Little quilting, lots of touring Oregon

Not much quilting going on this past week.  Here is what is currently on the design wall...another quick baby quilt for a neighbors first grandchild!  Seems like we are having a mini-population explosion on our street as babies are born and kids move back home!  This was all from scraps...hoping to find a good border for it later this week.  I am on a shopping freeze...only allowed to buy something to finish projects...no new projects and no new stash fabrics!!  Let's see how long that lasts!

These next three pictures are from King Estates Winery near us.  It is one of my favorite places to take out of town guests and to buy wine!  We are so blessed to have so many choices in Oregon.  We had dinner on this patio, after a tour and lovely wine tastings...

Check out the web site at http://www.kingestate.com/

View from the patio of the vineyard.

We spent one afternoon visiting many covered bridges.

A beautiful day at the Oregon Coast!

With all the visiting family moving on to other parts of the country, I was back to working on binding the sunflower and pumpkin quilt from last year's Fonz and Porter Magazine last weekend.  My wonderful wife (sister from N. Carolina) started the binding while she was here as I recovered.  I finished it on Friday evening.  I will post a picture once I get it hanging!

Since we are in the middle of a heat wave...all of 98 degrees for 4 or 5 days, I won't be spending time reading on the deck in the evening...I am hoping to work on binding the blue Asian quilt I posted on awhile back (see April 28, 2010).

Catching up with LIFE!!

I'm a grandma!!

My first grand child!!! Levi just a few hour sold, born on July 13, 2010.  Everyone says being a grandma is great...but it is even better than expected!

Levi's first quilt before it was quilted!

The back of Levi's quilt.

A minkie and flannel scrap quilt from odds and ends of leftovers for a friends grand daughter.  Every time I work with Minkie, I tell myself never again, due to the mess it makes and how it slips on the machine...but I seem to keep coming back to it!

Yes, this is usually a quilt blog...but a few things have happened since my last post that have kept me from quilting or blogging much this summer.  Most important is the addition of Levi Craig to our family in July.  He currently is living here with his parents, so I am thankful for lots of opportunities to hold him, then pass him back to mom and dad!

My surprise for June was my second open heart surgery in 2010.  Definitely not part of my low key summer plans that had no traveling, but lots of rest, gardening and quilting planned.  I even had planted extra flower boxes and planters to enjoy on the decks this summer!! 

In March I had an aortic valve replacement and double by-pass.  For some unknown reason one of the new grafts closed off and after some significant chest pain and several days of tests, there was a second surgery,  I now have two additional new grafts.  I'm glad that is all over and am progressing well, returning to work part time this week, along with continuing in Cardiac Rehab.

A special thanks to my wife (sister from N. Carolina) who was out here for 5 weeks to drive, cook, do laundry and most importantly shop for quilt fabric and help sew on binding!!

 I'm just playing around with the new tools on blogger...So, what do you think of the new design of this blog?  

Hoping to have lots of quilting progress to report very soon...heading to my sewing room NOW!

Purple 9 Patch Pizzazz -- Two versions

My Purple 9 patch version.

My sister Jayne's version.

Details of quilting on Jayne's quilt.

It is always fun to work on the same quilt, starting with the same center panel and basic pattern concept. I decided to focus on the purple and fuchsia, while my sister added more light pinks and greens, along with a Japanese red inner border. Yes, there was some stash raiding, so you do see some fabrics in both quilts. We have been known to raid each other's stash via email requests and then boxes arrive on our door steps. So much fun when we both live on opposite sides of the country!

Not a lot of quilting going on as I still recover from surgery and am back to work. Working and cardiac rehab takes most of my energy during the week, then it is recovery time on the weekend. I am currently working on three baby quilts. The first and most important one is for my first grandchild who is due to arrive in late July. The other two are for grandchildren of a dear friend. I have two of the three ready to go to a local long arm quilter by the end of the weekend. So, I need to get busy and finish the third one!

And now the question of this posting...do you ever wonder what happened to the authors of blogs that no longer have current postings. I have several on my side bar that I will removing soon, but I continue to wonder...

3 Quilts from the same pattern in Asian Fabric Magazine

All three of these quilts are from the pattern "Picturesque Wall Quilt", page 56 of Asian Fabric Magazine, Volume 10 from 2007. I made the first one and my sister made the other two. While she was here in Oregon, as I recovered from surgery, they were long arm quilted by Jean from Santiam Quilts. Check out Jean's beautiful work at www.santiamriverquilts.com.

You may remember my posting from August 20, 2008 when I was trying out various versions of the blocks around the center panel. Click on date on the right hand side to see the original posting.

Since I am just returning to regular blogging, some days it feels like I am starting over...there was a comment about being set to "no reply". Anyone know how to change that?

It is going to be a very good mail week around here! This weekend I ordered five missing Asian Fabric magazines for my collection. Now, the only one I am missing is issue number 1!

Open Heart Blue Japanese Quilt

Yes, it is a strange name for a quilt...but it reflects what has happened over the past month or so here. I had surgery in mid-March, planned for an aortic valve replacement to take care of a defect that I had know about for over 30 years. I also ended up with a double bypass due to some complications. I'm doing well now, back to driving, walking daily and hard at work at Cardiac Rehab! On Friday is the graduation for my MBA program and then back to work, at least part-time on Monday. I'm thankful that I was young, healthy and in good shape to start with as it was a tough surgery and recovery.

Of course I had a huge list of quilt projects to work on as I recover. Unfortunately, I felt too lousy to do much, except help work on the design of this quilt with my wonderful sister who has been here during the whole ordeal. She has been my driver, nurse, wife and companion during this time, keeping the house running and making sure I stayed on track!

We made two quilts almost exactly alike, except for the the gold borders. Her's is the square fabric and mine is the wavy one. They are off to the long arm quilter at this point. Looking forward to lots more free time now that school is finished. So you can expect lots of pictures and projects on the blog!

Irish Green Quilt & News

This is the second quilt I finished in 1978. It often comes out for the month of March, then quickly is put away due to being a bit dated, etc. I took a class where each week we made our own cardboard templates, then traced cutting lines on the back of fabric and hand pieced most of these blocks! It is a king size monster quilt that was hand quilted by the ladies at a local senior center.

I have been working on a few projects, mainly putting binding on and finishing a fall quilt that was in Fons and Porter last year. I still have five quilts needing binding stitched down by hand and plan to work on them over the next month, as I will be having surgery on Thursday to replace my aortic valve.

Two items of great excitement! First (not in order of importance) is that I finished my last MBA class on Friday, so I am finally free to quilt away without the guilt of homework!!! Second, I have stacks of new projects lined up for the 6-8 weeks while I recover, but most important is it includes two baby quilts for my first grandbaby due in July!!!!!! I can't wait to hold him!

Sorry for not posting for a while, but life has been crazy with school and medical stuff...looking forward to getting back to regular blogging in the next month or so!

What was I thinking???

In a moment of weakness, the week before Thanksgiving I purchased 3 minkee kits thinking I would whip up a few quick Christmas gifts...We all know that is pure insanity!! Yesterday, I finished the first one for a very special young woman who is a part of my son's life. ! Let me tell the story of this "quick" project!

The first day I laid out the rows of fabric and began to sew...oh yes, I had forgotten how minkee fuzz would cover everything, including me! It actually looked like it had been snowing in my sewing room!

Of course I know to sew to every other strip in an opposite direction...but I didn't!. So soon I had a wonky top that was definitely not a rectangle.

So why not just a quick rotary trim to straighten it up....little did I realize my quick trim was too much in one section...so soon I was reattaching what I had just cut off! Then it was back to the floor with a metal measuring tape and the largest quilting rulers I could find to try and straighten the mess!

Next was the recommended spray adhesive to the back then the batting as I prepared for quilting. Having never uses it before, I quickly learned how little was needed! Days became weeks and before I knew it Christmas was here an the first quilt was not finished!

And so on Christmas eve, the package was opened, with the refrain..."I'll finish it soon and then give it back to you!"

Yesterday, I finished the quilting and attached the binding according to the instructions...to the back first, then stitched to the top...oh another mistake as Minkee fabric doesn't stay flat but rolls...I'll never do that again! The good news is it is finished!!

Life is still full of surprises at our house...only 1 1/2 classes left to go till my MBA is finished...I'm so looking forward to long days sewing with no worries of homework and papers to write. I've had a few health issues this fall with more tests to come in the new year...looking forward to the new year with lots of time for quilting and blogging! Wishing you a wonderful new year!