Azaleas and Company

After a nice rain yesterday, it looks like it has brought out the azaleas in my yard. I love them so, I wish they bloomed a second or third time in the year.
My week has been busy in that I have had a 7 year old here along with my MIL. She and her DH are raising this girl. Rachel can be nice but also a real handful and I am not use to little kids day in and day out. Now, MY grand-daughters were much easier to deal with at that age! HA! Spoken like a true grandma, right? I did have Rachel make a cute cupcake pincushion, like I had my grand-daughters make when I was visiting them a month ago. Rachel loves my sewing studio and always has a million questions. "Aunt Marilyn, how does this machine go? Can we cut fabric? Can I have some of that fabric?" Well, you get the idea! I have been giving her scraps of fabric for a year or so. This way she thinks she has a stash too! I did make my MIL a cute big water cooler bottle cover. I made a plain one for our water cooler bottle which sits in our kitchen. We find that if we fill our own bottles with good water that it cuts down on plastic. I just wash the 12 or 16 oz bottles out and refill them from the water cooler. It really encourages us to drink more water.
My quilt gals came yesterday to work some more on the charity quilt to get it ready for the auction in May. It is coming along nicely. I really didn't get much quilting done for myself with the company here, but did get a Serendipity Singers newsletter published a passed out at practice Thursday. Serendipity Singers is a group of gals who love to sing. We are giving a free performance in April. It should be really good. We have practiced since January. We give 2 performances a year and keep trying to make them free although it does take over a $1000. per performance. Yes, we try to raise that much ourselves, with sponsors and donations.
My quilter friend, Cathy got my one Kaffe Fasset quilt quilted, but I haven't finished the edges yet. Hope to do that this weekend. The quilting looks so good.

Spring is here! I think?

Well, it is really a pretty day here in SC. The spring flowers are blooming, the pear trees are blooming too. I have even seen quite a few azaleas. Let's hope it sticks around and the cold fronts have gone somewhere else.

I am presenting an antique quilt top that I wet cleaned, conserved, and completed for a friend who is giving it to her daughter as a shower/wedding gift. I hope she will like what I have done with the top. I have a picture of the label on it. I made a custom pillow case/storage bag that you can see by the label. The front of the quilt was in my previous blog, basically a 9 patch made of all different kinds of fabrics, typical of the 30s era.

My guild gals are returning here tomorrow to finish up the quilt that we are giving to be auctioned off this spring. You can get an idea of it as it is in my previous blog too. Hopefully, I will sent a picture of it completely done tomorrow!

I think I take the prize (if there is such a thing) for not only the most UFOs but some of the oldest! I pulled out a half completed I Spy quilt that I started 10 years ago! Most of you have probably made 5 of these quilts by now! I will have to reveal some of my other "old timers" to you when I gather the courage!

You all will think I am totally daft for putting a picture of shoes on my blog. But this picture is for my sister, Carole, who lives in CA. She and I are always trying to find wonderfully comfortable shoes. Well, my daughter, Carolyn, who works in the fashion industry, has learned from her own experience that good shoes at any age are the way to go. I can't tell you how I abused my feet when I was younger with stiletto heels and dumb things like wearing flip flogs when I was pregnant out to huge. Consequently I have had lots of problems. When I was with my daughter recently in Ohio, we went to the Walking Store. I got a pair of Dansko shoes just like hers which were so cute! She got black patent and I got navy patent. Then we spotted quilted shoes!!WoW those must be good! She she and I got matching quilted shoes by (I think) Mephisto. Yes, both of these shoes are a bit pricey but they are heavenly and will get much wear. The Danskos are worn by lots of doctors and nurses as they are so comfy and have the closed back so they are permitted in the hospitals. So Sis, check out our new shoes!

Keeping Busy

After a long time, I am getting back to my blog. I took a little tumble down a flight of stairs and fortunately didn't break a thing. But I hurt my back where I bounced on the stair treads. My black eye is about gone and the rug burns are healing. I have learned my lesson to never walk anywhere in the dark!

On Tues. I hosted my little guild group here to work on a darling quilt for a charity auction being held in May. We will have it done well before that. I might send a picture of it on the design wall but it is just a rough layout of it. At least you will get a general idea of it. I will post when it is completed which should be next week.
My dear friend Karen and I worked on a quilt which we started several years ago. We often do the same thing as our tastes are so similar. She got one of her blocks completed and posted it on her blog. The reaction of some who saw it was that our color choices were too close in value, and the alternating large blocks weren't right. So who knows what we will do next.

I have finished wet cleaning, conserving, bordering and binding a quilt for a friend who is presenting it to her engaged daughter. The top is circa 1930 and is an example of how women then used whatever they had to create quilts for their families to use. So there are lots of different weights and types of fabrics in the top. A friend, Cathy has a long arm and I asked her to quilt it in Baptist fan pattern as that is the faith of the family! Another friend Velma, made a wonderful embroidered label for the back with the history of the quilt etc. I really love to see old quilts preserved for continued love and admiration.

This is a picture of a new acquisition of an older quilt from the circa 1920-30s. I really love it on my wall so I can view it often during the day. It is on an interior wall which never gets any direct light.