It Started Out Very Simply

Our niece's boyfriend asked me to make a quilt for him back in December when they visited from Arizona. I knew that he would be overseas until this month so I was not in a big hurry.

As is frequently the case, time flew and it was October and no quilt! He wanted one in his university's colors - red, black and yellow. I thought about it off and on all this time and never quite decided what I wanted to do. 

Then suddenly it came to me - a half square triangle design, one that I've made lots of times and loved every single time. After that, I put my trusty Accuquilt Go! Cutter to work and cut those triangles out of lots of different mostly batik fabrics. Then up on the design wall it went. 

And before you knew it, it was on the quilt frame ready to quilt.

And here it is a finished quilt. 

Always my favorite shot - all cuddly and crinkly after a trip through the washer and dryer. I hope he likes it a lot. It will be headed to him tomorrow.

Now, I've started work on something that I am NOT enjoying at all. A friend asked me to quilt SEVEN quilt tops that belong to another friend of ours which were made by her mother and grandmother. They are not in the best of condition. This one is the best of the lot. 

It has taken me all week to get it to this stage. It is fully as long as all that batting hanging down there. I've decided this is not something I ever want to do again. Not fun. Possibly because I am once again having to use my walker. You can see part of its wheel there in the lower right. I'm seeing a surgeon on Tuesday. Knee replacements for both knees seems to be in my future. I've fought it long and hard, but. Enough is enough. We'll see what the doctor says.

Mr. Muddling and I went today for early voting. We found a new place to go where the lines were not quite so long. Seems there are a lot of motivated voters out there!

It is a beautiful day here, has been all day. I am so thankful to see sunshine again and to have a forecast of several days to dry out! We've had an abundance of rain.

I hope things are going well in your corner of the world. With all its challenges, life is still good and I am forever grateful for this life I live. Especially thankful for Mr. Muddling, the love of my life!

Hugs and kisses,

A New Joint Effort

Here it is fresh off the quilting frame. I had issues with my Tin Lizzie, and when I finally reached the people I had bought it from five years ago I found they had retired! I left a message and she called me back and gave me some suggestions for what the issue might be. Thank God, she was right and I was able to finish the quilting on this and the issue seems to be resolved. What a relief! I really appreciate their help. They did not have to help me. But they did..

My friend Sandy sewed the main part of this quilt and I did the borders, the quilting and the binding. It is such a blessing to have a good friend who enjoys being involved in these quilting adventures!

This is the final quilt we promised for the new boys camp our friends are starting. These three queen sized quilts will go into the retreat center planned for pastors and their families. They had asked for quilts that would be fitting for a ranch setting and I think all of these will. The backing on this one has a look of vintage denim. Very fitting!

You know I love that crinkly after washing and drying look!

I even like it in black and white.

I finished this little table runner last week. I had some leftover disappearing nine patches blocks from a long ago project, and backing fabric and batting still on the machine after my recent wall hanging, so it seemed fitting to use them all! I do hate waste!

I think I will work on some smaller projects for a while. There are always so many quilts in my head trying to get out! But that's a good thing. I'm never bored!

Hope you're having a wonderful week and that you're not bored either!

Hugs and kisses,

This One Is Purely for Me

As I said in my last post, I had made a quilt based on the cover of Kaffe Fassett's book, Glorious Patchwork. I gave it to someone I still love dearly, but I really wanted to keep it. Anyway, this one is for me. It's not the same, and it's still not according to any pattern. I just sort of made it up as I went along.

It is going to live here over my quilt frame. I love it there already. You may notice that I moved the one that was in that spot. It is now covering my quilt machine, so I still get to see it every day, too.

Here are some looks at progress as we went along.

And this is fresh from the washer and dryer after quilting. I like the way the aqua blocks seem to glow.

When I took Buddy out late the other night I saw this little tree frog between the screening and the hardware cloth. I thought he was trapped, so I woke up Mr. Muddling to come and free him. He just tapped on the screen and the little frog went right back out though that tiny little square in the hardware cloth. I was shocked. And sorry to have ruined Mr. Muddling's sleep. Fortunately he still loves me!

This is not a great picture. I was using a flashlight, but here is the frog, safe and sound.

Adventures and muddling, that's what we have here, as usual!

Hope you're having a wonderful week.

Hugs and kisses,