Small Steps

In the last few days I have tried sewing at the machine for just a few minutes, which isn't easy with your arm in a sling, and I've been surprised at what I've been able to accomplish! A whole row of charm squares with sashing and corner squares! Maybe doesn't look like much, but I feel like I've done a whole bunch in just a few minutes a day! I don't want to push it so have MADE myself go slowly! Feels so good to be at the machine again! There are really 6 blocks in the row, but one skipped out of the picture! These are packs of charm squares--I have 4 of them--2 each for each quilt I will make and these will go to Project Linus when finished someday.

Besides the flowers yesterday, I had a lovely pick-me-up phone call from the girls at retreat--they were having a wonderful time--I didn't get to go because of my surgery, but next time. According to what a little birdie told me, some serious work got done on the Forever Flowers quilts that were being worked on!!!! Your phone call really lifted my spirits, girls, and I thank you so much!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Beautiful Spring Bouquet

What a lovely surprise to find the floral delivery guy at the door with a beautiful spring bouquet of flowers from Debi. And what a good day to receive them--she knew I was having a rough day and having to take pain meds and not feeling 100%. The flowers helped so much!!! Thanks to my "sister" Debi, I'm feeling much better. These brought a big grin to my face! Some friends are so special and Debi is one of those!! Thanks Debi for being a special friend!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Guest Writer

Today we have another guest writer on the blog, just like yesterday was daughter one, today is daughter two, Amy and her family! Here is what she wrote and the pictures to go with it it: (I have the bestest daughters and family in the world!!! Who else would write blogs and give ideas for blogs when their Mother has surgery!?)

"Quilter Jan always makes her quilts with use in mind. Every quilt she has given us gets used. Here are some pictures of her granddaughters getting good use out of the many beautiful quilts we have been given. Quilts – they’re not just for keeping you warm, although we use them for warmth during our cold Ohio winters!!!

Quilt use 1 – Hiding birthday party supplies from curious eyes.
Quilt use 2 – Isabel uses quilts to wrap presents. Our Christmas tree had many unexpected, quilt-wrapped gifts this year.
Quilt use 3 – Our quilts are used for indoor picnics. And outdoor, weather permitting. Why do chicken nuggets taste so much better at a picnic?
Quilt use 4 – The Daddy Quilt Ride – All Aboard.
These pictures really show the durability of the quilts produced by Quilter Jan. Amazing – as always!"

Thanks to my two great girls for helping me out these days!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

The Letter Q--Show and Tell

My oldest daughter, Anne wrote today to tell about Show and Tell at Evan's (age 4) Pre-School which was the letter "Q"! What better representative of that letter than "Quilt?" So they took "Evan's Memory Quilt" that Grandpa and I had designed and made for him a year ago. It's based on the game of Memory and has flaps that lift up to reveal matching pictures underneath!

Evan is in plaid shirt with back to camera!!! Thanks Anne and Evan for picture and idea!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

On The Mend!

Thanks everyone for your cards, e-mails, kind thoughts, and other good things you have done for me during this surgery time! It's so nice to have such wonderful friends! Saw the doctor yesterday and he says I'm doing great! Still have sling and will for 5 more weeks! I should be able to do some hand sewing soon though!

The picture is another heart that I hung on the seasonal wall even though Valentine's Day is gone! This was a long ago kit from Fons and Porter magazine and is done with machine button hole applique.

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Another Fun Shopping Day!

Yesterday we decided to go on an "adventure" and started off for the Grapevine Mall which is about an hour and a half to two hour drive from us. We had a lot of fun walking the mall and shopping in the JC Penny outlet store--we even found some bargains! The best place for me was stopping at Quilt Country Quilt Shop in Lewisville, Texas. There I picked up more FQs to go along with the ones that Debi gave me yesterday--they are in the Flirtations line and are so cute! I'm going to make a Yellow Brick Road from those. Then I picked out the fabrics for a Granny's Garden, another pattern that Debi gave me (she is so generous!!!) It is a black background and then all the bright colors that you see in the picture. I think it will be a fun quilt. Of course with my surgery being tomorrow I won't be able to work on it for awhile, but I know it will be there waiting for me along with all the other projects that need finishing--gives me something to look forward, too!!

This morning I finished another purse block in the Heirloom Romance quilt. This is Purse #4. These are coming along quite quickly and are quite enjoyable to do.

This will be my last post for awhile--don't know when I will be up to another one. Tomorrow is my surgery and I really don't know how soon I will feel up to typing one-handed. They have all ready warned me that this is a painful surgery and that I will be in an arm sling for 6 weeks. So I am expecting the worst and then maybe it won't be as bad as I think!!! So see you on the other side of the hospital stay!!! LOL!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Fun Shopping Day!

Yesterday my good friend Debi and I spent a fun morning. We had breakfast at IHOP and then went to the $2.99 fabric store, Golden D'or in Dallas. What a fun time we had. I picked out all kinds of panel type fabrics for Maynard to practice his free motion quilting on, got some 60" wide backings for PL quilts and enough fabric for 2 Yellow Brick Roads. They have a huge selection and a lot of them are name brands of fabric--they may be from last season but they are nice never the less.

The second picture shows 2 Fat Quarters that Debi picked out for me--aren't they beautiful, I'll have to find a special place for them--chocolate and red--what a great combo!!!

After I got home and took a nap (LOL!!!), I decided to clean out the fabric bins and cut some more 2.5 strips and smaller for the scrap bin, so that's what I did in the afternoon until my sore shoulder shouted "no more of this, please." Tuesday is my surgery date (torn rotator cuff and bone spur in left shoulder) and I will be glad to get it all behind me. So after I post tomorrow I will be off line for awhile--don't know how many days until I feel well enough to sit at the computer again.

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged by Debi!

THE RULES:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.


7 Random Facts About Me:

1. I have been driving 40+ years and have never gotten a ticket!
2. I went to a one room country school for all 8 grades of elementary school and was the only one in my class.
3. I have been married for 40 years in June.
4. I have been the same height I am now since I was 10 years old (5 foot even).
5. In 2006, Maynard and I made 100 quilts and gave them to Project Linus.
6. I belong to a quilting group called 'The Frayed Edges"
7. I know how to milk a cow.

7 People I'm tagging: I only came up with 6 (Debi and I read the same blogs!!! LOL!!!)

1. Kimberly
2. Jeanne
3. Amanda Jean
4. Bren
5. Sandy
6. Wilma

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Busy Day!

It felt good to accomplish several quilty things today, plus getting my teeth cleaned and checked at the dentist!!! (Big Smile!!)

First I finished my Row 2 for the RRRR on Debi's blog. I like the variable star very much and was pleased with the way the block and row came out! Thanks Debi for a good choice of block this time, too!!

That finished, I moved on to the Rosebud Lane BOM--this one was harder to do and I found myself doing more frog "rip-it, rip-it" stitches on this one than I like to do (Does anyone like to rip??!!), but I finally won out and only have a couple of spots that don't look too good, but they are doable--I couldn't rip anymore on the one spot because the fabric started looking pretty bad, so I just left it as it was!

Last but not least I finished the binding on another Project Linus quilt called Four Kitties. These happen to be black kitties, but are not scary kitties at all!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Heart Time

It's time for the Hearts to go up on the seasonal wall--I have 2 heart wall hangings, so this one will be up for awhile and then I will put up the other one after Valentine's Day! This was a Fons and Porter pattern from long ago and I just loved it--still do!!!

Been working on Debi's RRRR for as long a time as my arm/shoulder will allow me--it's coming together nicely and I hope to have pictures to show you soon!

The weather has been so gloomy lately that I think it has us all in a blue/gray mood--all I want to do is sleep and maybe do just a little quilting, but not a lot--how I wish the sun would shine again and stay shining like it did yesterday because I was able to sew more then!!!!

I worked on Bonnie's quilt-a-long bargello and got one panel of "uphill" squares done and will try to work on that one later, too.

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Quilt As You Go Class

Yesterday I took a great Quilt As You Go class--there were only 4 of us in the class so we each had a table to ourselves and got lots of special attention from the teacher which I needed because I ended up making up my own pattern instead of following the one she had!!! (I got off on the seam allowance at the top of the "kite" and once I made one wrong, she advised making them all the same wrong way so they would be alike!) But she was very kind and said she like the way mine turned out. Basically this is a string quilt that you sew down the strings to the back, batting and top as you go, so all you have to do is cover up the seams in the back where you join the blocks together in the end. That's what my polka dot ribbon is for in the second picture. All in all, it was a very fun day.

I also splurged and bought myself a treat--a red, white and blue jelly roll to make another small star wall hanging--like my friend Debi says those jelly rolls are addictive!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan