Owls, Gifts, Donations and a Finish. Whew!

You know that when I write a mid-week post, I have a lot going on to write about. Otherwise, if it’s daytime I would be sewing and if it’s nighttime I would be reading or watching Netflix. That’s my life in a nutshell. Not really, of course, but let’s pretend.

First, let’s get the business out of the way. I finally finished the details on the patriotic quilt pieces. This is goal/item #9 on my Quarter 4 Finish-Along list for this year. To recap, this was once a patriotic quilt made by my ex-husband’s grandmother, Georgianna Ryan Muir (“Annie”). She was my children’s great-grandmother.

The quilt came into my life in 1982 when my mother-in-law, Mary Muir Flox was widowed and my brother-in-law packed up her household in North Carolina and drove a full U-Haul truck of her belongings to our Idaho home. He used the quilts as dunnage to wrap the furniture with. When unpacking, he just threw the quilts in our trashcans. I rescued them; there were three.

One of them, in pink and white, I donated to the Sandy City (Utah) Museum in 1998 with the full provenance provided. The second one I still own. It’s mostly white with peach tulips and light blue leaves that have faded a lot. I added a wide eyelet ruffle around three sides and used it in our guest bedroom for a decade or more in the 1990’s. Some day I would like to reproduce it in fresh fabrics. The third quilt was holey and beyond salvation. These three stars were the only viable pieces I could salvage. So, I trimmed and bound them in varying blue Kona solids and  added hanging corners and a pocket to the back of each. They’re about 14” square. In the pocket is a printed copy of the story of the quilt from its maker to the present day. They will be little gifties (stocking stuffers at Christmas) for my three adult children, Ryan, Shane and Megan.

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A couple weeks ago I donated three quilts and 9 pillowcases to a local quilt shop, Thimbles and Threads, for the Hurricane Relief Effort (Harvey, Irma and Katia). They snapped my picture when I dropped them off, and I was surprised to see it turn up in their next newsletter and IG post.

So that’s what my hair looks like in real life. Miss Clairol and I parted ways last year....

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Owls. I love them, always have. I used to collect them back in the sixties and seventies (not real ones - just owl things). A few years ago I used to make and sell owl softies (among other things) at boutiques. I would take magazine pictures, online pix (not sure if Pinterest existed then) and combine bits from here and there to come up with my owls. I learned quickly that owl feet were problematic to attach to softies and could be skipped altogether.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago I rediscovered some of my leftover owl parts in a plastic case. Most of the stuff went to Cousin Kim, but I kept one or two. And then I decided one would be cute appliquéd to a 12” block to include in my Autumn quilt. Here he is:

That just reminded me of something.... appropos to nothing..... when I was a kid we had a cat (one of many) that I got to name. I named him Oliver Wendell Livingston (initials O.W.L.). Ollie was a great cat........   but I digress....

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And I saved the best for last.  Today I got a great package in the mail from my friend Diann of Little Penguin Quilts.  We had planned to meet up (with other friends) on our Colorado trip last month, but plans fell through at the last moment. Anyway, I sent Diann a zippered pouch and some fabric and a couple little things. Well guess what? She sent me a zippered pouch and fabric AND a cute pincushion that she made! The pincushion is already in use, and I am here to tell you that one can never have enough zippered pouches. (Forget shoes - zippered pouches are where it’s at).

I loved Diann's little pink penguin fabric when she showed it on her blog, and can’t believe she was willing to part with some of it to send me! The spool fabric will go with some other sewing-themed fabric I have to make a sewing machine cover - a project for this winter sometimes. I hope. Anyway, thank you, Diann!! You rock!

That’s it for now. I’ll be back on Saturday with my Pink Scrappy Progress Report.

Forever in Blue, Jean!

Even though my birthstone is an aquamarine, blue has never been one of my favorite colors..... until a year or two ago. Nowadays, almost half my clothes are blue, I find it easier finding (and collecting) cute blue fabrics, and I sure as heck am enjoying sewing with blue this month!

This week, I started with two Geese Migration blocks, a pattern by Cynthia Brunz. I’m a big fan of hers. The Geese Migration quilt takes 25 blocks, and with these 2 I only have 12 completed. Looks like this will be an ongoing project - just workin’ it until I have enough...

Next, I threw together 16 bowtie blocks. Each one is only 4.5” (unfinished). At this small size, it is definitely a multi-year project; I am about halfway on these, too.

And then I did 16 Plus blocks, each one will finish at 6”.  Now, depending on how I want to finish these - and I have some ideas finally - this project WILL finish this year. Yay!  I already have 85 of the approximate 104 blocks I need, with orange and pink and darks (black, brown, gray) still to go.

So I thought I’d play with them on the design board. Seeing them like this, I can tell there are several that will not make the cut. I don’t like some of those purple ones for sure, and a red or two are iffy. So, I will just sew along on my merry way through the remaining colors and pick my favorites for the quilt. The rest can go on the back or into kennel quilts.

This week was our wedding anniversary - #14 for Bruce and me. We always forget it (how’s THAT for an old married couple?). This time, I did remember about noonish, when a friend of mine texted a Happy Anniversary message. LOL, thanks Terri! And then I reminded Bruce when he got home from work, and we laughed and laughed. On our first anniversary, we were lying in bed talking before falling asleep and realized our anniversary was getting close. Neither one of us could remember the exact day, so I had to run downstairs and check out a copy of our marriage license! I jumped back into bed and yelled “Happy Anniversary!”. You can see what romantics we are. Truly, every day is such happiness for us both after previous marriage experiences. And that’s all we need to say about that.

I did work on one of my Finish-Along projects. These three blocks are remnants of an old quilt from my ex-hub’s side of the family. They’re probably about 70-80 years old. I squared them up and bound them, adding little hanging corners on the backsides. They are about 14” square. I am not considering them done until I write up and print off (on a fabric label that I can sew to the back) the information and story about the original quilt. When that part is done, I will call them finished and will then do a full blog post.

I’ve been working on sewing yellow pineapple blocks and also my Friendship Star Variation blocks. I have more than a dozen of those done, but plenty to go. I`ll save them for next week.

Today (Friday) I went to the zoo with Cousin Kim and her two granddaughters, so I didn’t get any sewing in. We had a lot of fun, even though it was hot. And certainly all the walking is a good thing. Next Friday they are coming to hang out here, and my granddaughter London will also be here. The girls will have fun playing together. We plan to take them to Wheeler Farm (where I used to work) in the morning. We’ll also set up the large kiddie pool and let them “swim” and play outdoors or wherever. Kim and I will read, sew, (napping is probably out of the question), and Kim’s giving me a haircut. Hot fun in the summertime.....

Linking up to Rainbow Scrap Challenge Scrappy Saturday at Angela’s Blog.