I'M GONNA BE A GRANDMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi All,

I AM DOING THE HAPPY, HAPPY DANCE!!!!!! When I arrived in New York on Thursday night and I walked into the room that Ally and Alex had set up for me, propped up on the pillows of the bed was a Grandma's Brag Book. So of course I screamed and then turned and hugged Ally very hard and didn't let her go for quite a while. She and Alex and his whole family and all their friends have known for quite some time, but she wanted to tell me in person and as I was scheduled to be in New York, she waited for me to come up. So, this time next year, I'll be a Grandma. Ally is due at the end of January, 2009. Inside the brag book was a sonogram of the baby. First sonogram of a baby that I could actually tell it was a baby, without arrows pointing at things. When Ally has her sonogram in September, we will know what we are having, boy or girl. So we will know if Dylan or Ursula Georgina is coming into the world. So, can you all guess what I'm doing? Making baby quilts, of course. I have so many, Ally is going to kill me. I guess I'll just have to make them and then just send them once a month, hehehe. If I could afford it and stand the cold, I would move back to NY in a NY minute. Okay, that's it for now. I'm off to the sewing machine. Keep the piece. Renée

Very Sad News

I received a call from my very good friend who informed me that she has uterine cancer. I'm very upset. She's up in NY and I'm down here in Florida and I can't help her. I'll be up in NY on the 24th, but I think she will have had the operation by then. She told me that if she could she would have it today. Ugh, yuck, ick. F...

It is thundering here, so I guess that's why I have a headache. I'm going to lie down. Keep the piece.

It's Been So Long

Block #9
Block #10
Block #11

Hi Everyone, I'm back. Sort of. I realized it's been a while since I posted anything. I have not been in a quilty mood. Today I finally put together blocks number 9, 10 and 11 for the Star Quilt Along on Amandajean's web page. As you can see, for #11 I did it the way they gave directions on the Quilters Cache page. And what is it about that scant 1/4"? Why can't they just give directions using the regular 1/4"? Most, if not all, of the Quilter's Cache block patterns use that scant quarter. I don't listen. I use a regular quarter. Tomorrow I will cut up fabric for the sashing and see about putting the borders together for Amandajean's first quilt along. I did that one too. The purple star blocks are the second quilt along, the pink blocks are the first.

I just finished my first block swap. That was fun. I was finally picked this month, so I am receiving blocks. I sent out all my blocks to all the lovely ladies in the swap. I was on a roll and just did them all at once. They were Friendship Blocks, also from Quilter's Cache. And of course, the Snowball Swap. The second batch is finished and I go off to the Post Office tomorrow to get them out. I put "fabric" on the envelope in hopes that they don't think there is anything valuable inside. The last batch I sent, I sent fabric pinned to the block, you know, "keep the piece", and maybe someone thought there was something valuable attached. Anyway, nothing attached this time. I also put my name labels all over the plastic bag so if the envelope does get ripped open, at least I might get my blocks back. Time to get back to cutting more fabric. Keep the piece. Renée

Blocks Lost In The Mail

Just another thought. I am a member of Eons.com. For all you youngsters, it is a group for all us people over 50. Anyway, within that group is a quilters group and I joined that. They decided to do a Friendship Block swap using snowball blocks with 30's fabric in the corners. I think I would have rather done the Friendship Star block, but that was what they decided on so off I went to find some 30's fabric and some unbleached muslin. No muslin, so off to the LQS I went and spent a weekend making the blocks and signing them. I even bought some fabric pens just for this undertaking. Well, after finishing them, I got my Priority Mail envelops together. We had to send a SASE with our blocks so the coordinator can send blocks back to us. Anyway, I spent almost an hour at the Post Office last week and sent everything out. Last Thursday I got an e mail from the coordinator telling me that the envelop was ripped in the back and the only thing in the envelop was my return envelop to her. All my blocks were lost. Now I need to do 30 more blocks. Yucky. I've got half of them done. I'll spend Sunday doing the other 15 and then I'll spend Monday back at the post office. Thank goodness there are some other ladies who haven't sent in their blocks yet, so no one is really waiting on me. We were supposed to have 30 blocks done and sent by the end of May and here it is almost the end of June and some of the ladies haven't even started. At least they know that I sent mine, even tho they were lost. Okay, just want to get that off my chest. We pay so much for stamps and services from the Post Office and they can't even take care of our envelops. I guess they don't care how they treat our packages, they just care about the paycheck at the end of the week. And to think that every time we buy stamps, it might be going into someones paycheck. You would think they would care about that more. Now I'm really going to bed. Take care. Renée

Number 80

Hi,

Camera is broke. It dropped on the wood floor and the tab that covers the batteries cracked in half and now I have to tape it shut in order for it to work. Pain in the tush. I'm hoping to talk some relatives into buying me a new one for my birthday (in September). We shall see.

Tomorrow I go for a pedicure. Sheer heaven. After the pedi I go up to the Long Armer. I have two or three quilts to be quilted. One is a gift (first CC) and the other two could be one gift or two. It's the same quilt, I'm toying with using it as a reversible, or not. I'll wait and see what Cathy says when I get them to her. If she says no problem doing the quilting as a reversible, then a reversible it shall be. Saves on backing. Saturday is my tee shirt quilt class. Ally (my daughter) sent me the tee shirts she wanted to use in the quilt. She sent down 11. I think I'm not going to use that many. She sent one shirt that was navy, one shirt that was sort of a browny green, two that are black and the rest are white. I'm going to use just the black and white ones. I added a couple of mine, but she didn't go to those concerts, so she really doesn't want them in her quilt. I'll do my best with what I have and if I need to, I'll use the front and backs of the shirts. Jeff, the teacher, said we can do that and it will also make the quilt a bit bigger. So, it will either have nine, 12, 15 or 18 blocks. If I need to stretch it, I may be able to squeeze a few more blocks out of those shirts. The squares are 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 and the logos are so much bigger than that. So I'm going to have to cut some of them in half. If that happens, I will have double the amount of squares and I will be able to make the quilt bigger. I really don't think nine squares is big enough. We'll see. And I will take pictures. I might even take the camera, taped up and all, with me to class.

As I'm eating dinner, I've been going around the ring. When I got to mine, I realized that I haven't been here for a while. And I also got some comments on that fact. Sent off an e mail to Amanda, thanks for caring and now I'm letting you all know what's been happening.

I tried my hand in doing a really small (5" x 7") quilt project for another one of my groups. Thanks goodness only two other ladies decided to participate in this, so I only made two. First real project using appliqué and quilting. Although I didn't bind them. When I received one of the other participants quilt I realized that it wasn't bound, I decided not to bind mine either. I just can't figure out how to do it and I can't hand sew it down either. I just hope they like what I did. I'm a piecer, not an artist. These women do all sorts of fabric art stuff and they seem to have a more creative mind than I do, so I did my best at least.

I have a headache, I'm going to bed now. I'll be back either later tomorrow or not until Saturday night or Sunday morning. Have a wonderful weekend and do lots of quilty stuff. Renée

Megan's 100K Post/Binding Help, Please

Hi All,

It seems that Megan has reached her 100,000 blog posting. She has decided to give away a really cute little quilt. Go on over to http://growingnotes.blogspot.com and leave a comment and you might get picked to win that little quilt.

Okay, I have a problem. I just made a cute little, teeny, tiny quilt. It is 5" x 7". I even put on appliqué. I've even quilted it. Now comes the binding. I've read and reread and reread Bonnie's tutorial on binding and I quite liked it. The only problem, I'm really binding challenged. I don't understand. I've never quilted and then bound anything, so I am really challenged here. Does anyone know about a YouTube tutorial on binding that is out there? I need step by step instructions that I can see. Somehow or other, when it is written down, I don't seem to get it. I would greatly appreciate any help. Thanks everyone. Keep the piece. Renée

Question for all you nice Visitors

Hi All You Nice People,

My question to you is this: What is the etiquette in answering comments left on a blog? Does one have to respond to a comment? Would it be presumptuous of me to ask people to leave their e mail address when they leave a comment? If I had an e mail address and/or a blog address, I could respond to the comment. I try to spend my Sunday's reading the blogs on the Quiltville Blogring and I leave my comments every now and then. But, come to think of it, only a few have replied to my comments, but I do know that I read every one. And, I enjoy knowing that there are people out there, who I don't know, who are reading my blog. I have met some really great people through this blogging thing, from all over the world and I find it a great way to meet others. I just don't know what the "rules" are for this blogging or if there are any. Okay, that's it from me, just wanted to know so I don't hurt anyone's feelings. I am also taking this time to thank each and every person who has been by my blog and left a comment. Keep the piece, Renée