More Lost Weeks and a Little Green and Purple

Four weeks ago, my husband's only brother had a seizure.  The next few weeks have seen us bring him home from the hospital, hire sitters, get in home health nurses, call in hospice and plan a funeral. He fought a 6 year battle with prostate cancer.  Both the kids and their families were able to come for the service and spend a few days.  My DH is now the only one left in his immediate family.  Here we are after the service showing the kids where their great grandparents are buried.

The day started with a haircut by dad out on the front porch. :)

Kids have a way of making you smile even on a sad day.

And of course they wanted to climb the monument (hope nobody minded).

A trip for frozen yogurt on Father's Day was fun.

My beautiful girls - they wanted to be matching :).

I did manage to find some spare moments to try and work on this a little.  On one of the days when I didn't have to work, and the whole crew headed to Pensacola Beach, in a quiet house, I was able to finish all the stitch in the ditch and the vine and leaves.

I finally got my nerve and quilted the open spaces in the border.  In the end, I went with a meandering vine/feather free hand design. It's slowly coming together as I finish each section.  I've had to rip out a few times.  I think it's what I want until I do some and look at it and then I know for sure it's not what I wanted at all!!  I hope to finish this in the next few days.  Gotta work tomorrow so maybe Tues.  The grands are gone, my house is empty and quiet and I'm trying to find some sort of normal.  The last few weeks have been exhausting emotionally and physically and it feels so good to sit and sew for a few hours.

Thanks for reading and sharing in our family's loss.

Karen

This is the Hardest Part for Me

I know I am not alone.  The pattern is chosen, the fabric is pulled, the blocks are made, the applique is done, the top is completed and then it's time to MACHINE QUILT!!!

After 10 years of getting comfortable with machine quilting on my domestic, I realize that this part of quiltmaking kind of still scares me!!  I just don't want to ruin all my hard work and it's so hard to rip out those stitches if I haven't chosen the right design. I've already auditioned lots of designs with an overlay and while I think I know what will look good, actually doing it is something else.

I am very confident of doing an all-over free hand design and I'm pretty sure that I can do a simple custom design on a simple patchwork block quilt.  But this vine and leaves applique and all this open space absolutely stalls me.  If I was hand quilting it would be no problem.  But I already know my starts and stops skills leave so much to be desired.

So the basting is done and I've been staring at it for 5 days!  I'm just waiting for the nerve to actually just start.

I've made a practice sandwich with some of the fabric to check my thread choices and then I'm going to just start.

Maybe tomorrow.....  I do kind of have a deadline on this so it can't stay like this forever.  

I'm off to work, have a great day,

Karen

41 Years and Green/Purple Part 4

Today is our 41st Anniversary.  We are going out to dinner tonight, but here we are at the reception at the church hall.  Funny how I still remember these people :).

It's always a little wierd when our anniversary falls on Memorial Day.  It's such a special holiday for us to remember.

Here is the latest (and last) step in this little quilt.  Picking a fabric for the outside border.  I added a small green flange.  It's getting close.

Happy Memorial Day to all,

Karen

Green and Purple - Part 3

I've found time to work a little on this fun piece - it's been another crazy week.  After thinking that the 4 corners were too empty, I'm auditioning some applique for the center block.  I think I like it, still considering...

And I've added another 1/2" green border and a 2" purple border.  Decided to add the paper pieced blocks in the corner.  It's getting close.  Last night as I was "studying" the quilt on my portable design wall in the living my DH (who hardly says anything about my quilts) said he liked the colors.  :)  So do I, it's a happy quilt.

We are having a quiet Memorial Day weekend.  It's our anniversary weekend -  41 years ago I married my college sweetheart.  How do the years go so fast?

Happy stitching,

Karen

Green and Purple - Part 2

Still having fun playing.  I've added a 1 1/2" purple border with a 1/2" green sashing.  So cute!!

And then of course, my favorite - mixing pieced blocks with applique.  And so now I'm enjoying some slow sewing as I applique the vine and leaves.

So far it's looking really good :).

Happy stitching,

Karen

Almost Back

I am happy to say that I am almost back to feeling like me!  I've worked this week and it's gone well.  And I've felt good enough to play in my studio - big yay!!  I'm working on a new project using my collection of green and purple. 

I've been wanting to do a green and purple quilt, I think this will be the first of several.  It's an original design and it's another medallion.  Who would have guessed that I would be so smitten with medallion quilts!  Guess I can blame all that on Phebe and Vintage Blooms!

Anyway, I'm having fun playing again.  Plus, I've felt good enough to finish working on a t-shirt quilt.  And I've almost finished the machine quilting!!  I'll share pics as soon as the binding is on.

Thanks for all the well wishes, it feels so good to feel good.  I'm still having tests run, so I don't know anything yet.

Happy stitching,

Karen

Good News - Times Two

First off, let me say thank you for the kind thoughts about our medical troubles.  My DH is doing wonderful, and yesterday I stopped running fever and I'm slowly beginning to feel like "me".  As I was straightening things in the bedroom yesterday, I found something,  And I realized, that in the midst of all that's been going on, I had forgotten to share my wonderful news.  Organic Pink Pickles has been published!!!

I got a copy of the magazine last month.

This was what the article said about the quilt.  Quite a nice compliment from Victoria about my use of color.

I must say, that seeing my name on the same page as Victoria's was quite thrilling.

I love how the whole theme of the title page was grey, from the title to the chair to the background.

I'm not sure if I mentioned that I was asked if Organic Pink Pickles could go to Houston this fall and hang in the Interweave booth.  So my baby is going west!

This truly has been probably the most exciting thing to happen to me as a quilter, except for winning my first ribbon and the lifetime award from our guild for meticulous workmanship back in 2004.  Life as a quilter is such a great adventure.  Thanks for sharing in my joy.

Happy stitching,

Karen