Hectic end of the week...

You all have been reading about the Birthday quilts... well the birthday party was a surprise in a lot of ways. My mother was having a dinner party (which my brother did know about) and had invited people that my brother knew about. What he didn't know was that my siblings all traveled home to be here to share in his birthday. When he walked into the Living Room, this was his reaction to seeing everyone.

Siblings, spouse, and some of our kids...

Then we got down to the opening of his gifts... one sister had done a bag for each decade of his life...

His reaction to part of the decade gift bags was fun to watch...

He received some amazing gifts from everyone.
Now I can post the pictures of the gifts I made for him. 1st he had to read the card...

Then the opening...

the surprise...

and showing...

 This was my 1st attempt at this type of quilting... I think it came out very well...
A quilter's best return on a gift... the smile :)

I am very pleased.

So for the other birthday quilt... when two of my other siblings reached their milestone birthday, I made a photo quilt for them, now was P's turn...

I did not get a picture of him and his family looking over all of the different pictures... the best part is that there are pictures from his birth (middle pic) to as recently as within the past two weeks included in this quilt. Each family member is in at least one picture. This was hung up in the room that we sat down to have dinner.

It was a lovely birthday party and he was very surprised and pleased to have all of his siblings here to celebrate. A lot of work, but it resulted in a lot of fun! Thank you to my siblings for traveling in to make it a wonderful weekend of fun!

Now I have a few other projects with deadlines of their own coming up. Yes, that would be the jacket samples for the class I will be teaching in less than two weeks.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Thank you for stopping by, Ciao for now!

J :)

Amazing story from Texas

On Facebook today I saw this amazing story from another quilter, who shared this story The Blind Quilter. Really inspiring story.


On another note, I am trying to finish up the B-day quilts. As I went to pin the binding onto the photo quilt, I noticed that I am shy by about 3/4 of an inch of fabric in one corner and I have over 2 inches of the same block on the opposite corner... yep, it has been 'cut & pasted' and doesn't show (that much...). It is after all the bottom back of the quilt... maybe nobody will notice... yea, right, my sister (who reads this blog on a regular basis) will be checking to see if she can spot it...

So, I need to get finished on this quilt. And the WIP's are piling up and I need to have the American Girl jackets cut and sorted for the class in less than two weeks, I need to have at the very least 3 jackets. I think I'll make it into a tutorial... and share... I'll have to check that out...


In the meantime... today has been one of those gloomy winter days, typical New England weather in February... so I was thinking about sun, and sun catchers... and I cam across this idea for some sun catchers... 

You can purchase a sun jar here, but you can make your own for much cheaper! i am not good with technical things, like putting together a solar power cell, so i found the easy way :)what you need:a mason jar with a clear glass lid like this one from ikea, a solar garden light like the ones pictured above, which i found here, adhesive and glass frosting spray.start by spraying the inside of the jar with the frosting spray – this will help diffuse the light and give it a warm glow. don’t spray the lid though! it needs to be clear in order to work. next you’ll need to take apart the solar lamp – apparently this can be a lot easier than it sounds, depending on what kind of lamp you purchase.  certain kinds can simply be unscrewed and the solar/battery pack remains intact, whereas others will require some reassembly with adhesive. see here and here for examples.glue the solar cell, or the parts you’ve harvested from the garden lamp, to the underside of the jar’s lid, and you’re done! close the lid, put your jar in direct sunlight, and it’ll glow all night long!

More from Free People: http://blog.freepeople.com/2011/03/wednes-diy-63/#ixzz1mU3o5AAS

I think I might just need to make one or two of theses... 


Thanks for stopping by, Ciao for now!


J :)

Super Bowl Sunday

Well I have caught a bug of some kind and been home, sick... I have gone thru a few boxes of tissues already, downed enough medicine to try to at least try to function, and failed miserably... I have not been good company...

But today, we where to go to my mom's to watch the game, my being sick curtailed that idea. We watched our team try hard to win... But alase they did not pull it off... The best thing I heard about Elie Manning is that he now has more Super Bowl rings than his brother. Interesting perspective. Still, I would have loved to have seen the Patriots win. Ah well, we wll hope and pray for another chance next year.

I am working on the picture quilt for my brother's 50th birthday, which is this Friday, so I may be among the missing for a few days...

Thanks for stopping by, I'll post pictures soon! Ciao for now!

J :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!!

It's raining, windy, and cold... Good day for soup... The kind of day you crawl back under the covers and bundle up. I think I'll sew instead...

I'm trying to work on a birthday quilt (that I really can't post pictures until after I have given it away)... Yesterday I realized that most of my pins are bent and I really needed to go pick some more up. Before leaving I called Hubby and told him I would be in his neck of the woods.

So I picked Hubby up, off we went to the Quilt Shop, when we got there he went off to the Pepperidge Farm shop and I to the Quilt Shop...

Of course one does not walk into the quilt shop and leave with just the item you walked in for... I got to thinking that I need to make a new baby wall hanging quilt. Grandbaby #3 is arriving on April 3rd. Mr M & Ms E both have baby wall hanging quilts. Most of the stuff for Grandbaby #3 are in the Brown/Blue combo that was very popular a few years ago... No, I did not purchase any of that fabric... so there is none in my stash.

While looking around Hubby came into the Shop. Well he was checking out the iPad and I was checking out the Bali Pops... I'm thinking I am making a Postage Stamp wall hanging with some Pop of color from the Blueberry Bali Pop. Need to work it out on EQ7.

My gently used machine arrived! I am so excited! Thank you very much to my Aunt R and her good friend M! It arrived, from Texas, very nicely packed. So much so that I had to open the box outside, on the porch, so the little shredded paper would not be all over the place.

It is a Janome Memory Craft. I am going to bring it in to be checked over and then get to play on it in about a week or two. There is a part that needs to be ordered, that's ok :) It is a new machine (to me!) and I am very excited!!! I can't wait for it to come back so that I can play on it! Too Cool! Thank you R & M!!! I am a very happy camper :)

Off to work on the B-day quilt.

Thanks for joining me :) Ciao for now!

J :)