Grandmothers' Choice ~ week 26

Good Sunday morning :0) Barbara Brackman's BOW Grandmother's Choice: Voice for Women is just past the half way mark. Week 26 is Ladies' Wreath: Mourning the Mother. The subject is sad, birth control was considered obscene while women lost their lives giving birth.

Can't say that I am half way however I made good progress this weekend. So far I have 4 additional  blocks made and plan to make a few more today.  This is the block from this Saturday Morning's Post...

Week 26 ~ Ladies Wreath: Mourning the Mother

Also finished are blocks 23, 24 and 25...

Block 23 ~ Girls' Joy

Block 24 ~ True Blue

Block 25 ~ The Carrie Nation Quilt

My focus fabrics are from an older range from Moda called Bittersweet, ordered from Keepsake Quilters in a medley that also included two fabrics from Robert Kaufman. It's fun to fussy cut the birds into most of the blocks. Added are some cheddars I picked up while visiting Lancaster, PA two summers ago plus a few more fabrics added including some 'vintage' Thimbleberries!

After a crazy couple of weeks, it's great to take the weekend off. Mom has a flu bug. At the moment I'm watching the Morning Show with the subjects about the Oscars coming up tonight and it's history. Something to watch tonight now that Downton Abby has come to a close for the season. Didn't care for the season ending at all :0(

Update this afternoon... 2 more blocks completed... Yipee !!!

Block 18 ~ Cheyenne: Wyoming Firsts

Block 19 ~ Old Maid's Ramble: Desperate Walkers

 Not too sure with this last one, the large triangles don't have enough contrast. It was a really fun block to make so I may do it again :0) Off to watch the Oscars. Thank you for sharing my weekend. Have a great week!  Jo

Grandmother's Choice

I had a wonderful morning working on blocks for Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice BOW.

Block 22 Jack's Delight

 Michael looked after Mom so I could have some "me" time taking a few stitches

Block 20 Memory Wreath

Block 3 Union Square

Block 1. Grandmother's Choice

The first block I made when the project began in September. 

My digital camera card failed this afternoon so I ended up scanning the blocks which are not as good as a photo and took forever to download. We get so accustomed to technology, frustrated when it doesn't work and then wonder how we ever got on without it. Update: replaced the scanned images with new photos taken today with a different card.

Mom is a handful, much like having a toddler around the house except in an adult body.

Thanks for hanging in with me. I do check in often to see your wonderful projects. Aunt Reen's group is finishing their Dear Jane's, in just a year!!! following her 13 months of Jane WOW! Lori posted a wonderful quilt a long, Abundance that allot of you did and Temecula Quilt Co started a 5 week quilt project on Friday that looks like a fun and fast little quilt. Enjoy the weekend!

Ringing in the New Year

Time to say good bye to 2012 and welcome in 2013. 

Wishing everyone a peaceful celebration tonight. 

The quilt pictured was made with bright jewels set in black. I quilted the swirls in a purple variegated thread for an explosion of color to ring in the new year... Happy New Year!

Mail today!

Look what came in the mail today! 

When the mail man rang the bell I had a feeling it was something wonderful! It was, there was the return address label from Barbara Brackman! Yipee!!!! I couldn't get it open fast enough :0) It's her new book Civil War Sampler all about the Block of the Week Barbara posted on a the blog she set up for this quilt. Lots of quilters participated from all over the world. Search with Barbara's name and you will find lots of my posts about the project we did last year for the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Barbara included some of the blocks made by participants in her new book, including three of mine! Can you feel me grinning from ear to ear! Also included are blocks from Ellen of American Homestead, here is her post yesterday. More blocks made by fellow bloggers ~ Liesbeth Wessels in Holland, Donna of Quilting Bear Gal in Texas, Ann Champion, plus Becky Brown who made all the sample blocks for Barbara, and from Dustin, our wonderful friend and fellow quilter who set up the Flickr site. The civil War quilt pictured on the cover and inside is made by Becky.

Link here to Barbara's Civil War Blog. There are also pics of completed tops made by quilters that followed along. The book is wonderful and contains all the blocks that we made and more new blocks as well as how the blocks represent the history of the Civil War. 
These are my blocks in the book

Louisiana pg 28

Barbara Frietchie Star pg 12

Grapes of Wrath pg 84

Also pictured in the book is the Civil War quilt presented to Barbara at Christmas last year as a thank you from blocks made by the Circle of Friends. It's a wonderful project and allot of us are participating again for the Grandmother's Choice quilt started this year by Barbara. Lots to catch up on as I have not posted for more than a month now... just way too much on my plate these daze.

I am off to order another copy so I can keep this autographed book in good condition. It's already gone with me to see Beckie and Donna today to get new glasses for my mom :0) 

Mom is 97 today!

Today is my Mom's birthday, she is 97! Amazing. So far it's been a very good day :0) Birthday cupcakes and cookies. What's not to like!

Thursday was the last block of the month workshop at Cathy's/Honeyrun Quilters. Kathy T finished 2 quilt tops and Claudia was wrapping her's up at the end of our meeting. Kudos to 2 of our group that finished their quilt tops! This is Kathy's second top:

She was finishing that last block and I did not get a picture of it! Below is the first one we put up on the design wall last month. It is now finished and again we didn't get it up on the wall for a picture.

Claudia's quilt top is as the sample I made for this BOM.

Theresa at Honeyrun had a new book she showed me that same day that would be fun to do as the next Block of the Month program at the shop. The book/quilt is called Green Tea and Sweet Beans by Jen Kingwell, an Australian quilter/author. It was done as an online block of the month a year or so ago and just came out in book form. More on that later.

Also very excited to hear progress about Barbara Brackman's book Civil War Sampler coming out in December. It can be pre-ordered now. I found it on Amazon where you can see a few of the pages including the index and guess what... there's my name! (Three of my blocks are in her book) I can't wait to get my hands on it. Click here to see her post about the book. American Homestead (Ellen) got to see the galleys for the book at Quilt Market in Houston. She says the book looks great!

This is too funny :0) Just looked at Barbara's last post on the Civil War Blog about a new product. Microfiber cloths with an image of Becky's Civil War quilt! Check it out here!

Happy Halloween

Wishing everyone in blogland a very Happy Halloween. Thoughts and prayers for everyone on the East coast as the clean up begins. Lovely to see all the ghostly quilts made for tonights Hallows Eve.

Our Color Me Happy Block of the Month at Cathy's/HoneyRun Quilters is coming to a close. One year later, Thursday is our final meeting as we add sashing and borders to our blocks. This is Kathy Ts quilt top in progress. A few more cuts and one more row. I absolutely love her colors and fabrics!

Following are quilt tops in progress made in my Two color/Two block quilt workshop.
Here is Michelle's in blue and white:

 Judy is making her blue version for her hubby:

Gail (above) is adding blocks to her red and white quilt to make a queen size quilt. Below is my scrappy version in blue and off white:

Sue B joined us to make progress on her quilt top started in my last workshop Woven Rail Fence. She was unable to make all of the sessions. One more session coming up next week Thursday when we all add the borders!

Another year

From my Sweetie. Proof that he doesn't wait until the last minute to wish me a Happy Birthday :0)

Veggies from our garden along with the pumpkin Micheal scored my name into when the pumpkin was very small and green. This little guy was hidden in the vines and since he is doing most of the gardening these days, a fun surprise for me! Isn't he wonderful !?!

Another year plus it's been a month since my last blog post (my apologies)... time is going by way too fast. Birthdays seem to prompt a time for reflection. My life has changed dramatically in the last seven years and it's about to take a new path. We (Mr. Wonderful too) made the decision to move my Mom in with us. After a month of planning, rearranging the house and adding some safety features, we moved Mom in on Sunday. So far the transition is going well. Mom has severe dementia and that will be a challenge. She always knows us and until that changes we hope to have her here with us. With a new Memory Care facility being built here in Chico we have that as an option. 

There are lots of quilts lined up between now and Christmas. Life is good... quilting, gardening and spending time with three people I love very much. That includes Chris, my son who recently moved into a house close to us. Just got a birthday phone call from by BFF Sally. Life is good :0)