Needles and Pens

...now that this doggone grad quilt is done! And with a week to spare, too. ;o) One less thing on my mind today, and I can feel the relief. Whew! Nice to finally come up for air. I have one more quilt on my must-do list now, and it's in the planning stages -- a wedding gift for my niece's July wedding. Between now and then there's graduation, a grad party to throw, several more to attend, and a long-overdue family vacation scheduled. Better get going on that quilt... One of these days I may have time to blog again!

I've been so psyched about how quickly this quilt has come together, but when you're working so fast, I guess you're bound to make some mistakes. Bummer. I got the quilt all layered and pinned this morning -- and then I saw it. See that top row? See how those chains of yellow and orange squares go all wonky with the top row? (heavy sigh) I can't believe I got this far before I noticed I had the whole top row sewn together wrong! I'll admit, I did toy with the idea of just leaving it that way (and it's a lot more obvious in real life than it looks in the picture), but in the end, I knew it would drive me crazy. So I unpinned the top row and got busy with the seam ripper taking all the blocks apart and sewing them back together in their proper order. No easy feat, with ten pounds of backing and batting attached! But I feel much better about the whole thing now, so it was worth the effort. I'll need to re-do the pinning tomorrow morning, then it's on to the...

The graduation quilt is coming along a lot faster than expected, though I'm not entirely happy with my choices on this one. The top is completed, and now that it's all together (of course), I see what I should have done with these crazy fabrics. But there's no turning back now, so I'll chalk it up to a learning experience and hope she likes it just the way it is. Here's a partial shot, before the borders were added, showing how the blocks have come together. Grab your shades, now. This quilt is bright ! In retrospect, I wish I had used a solid white for all of the background and saved the dot print for a wide border. Oh, well... hopefully it'll grow on me in the quilting. On the bright side (no pun intended), I've come up with the perfect title for this quilt: "The future's so bright... I gotta wear shades!"

... until school's out for summer. I think we're down to 14 more days (excluding weekends), and I'm still racing to get my latest quilting projects finished up in time. Last night I put the final touches on this wallhanging for my youngest's fourth grade teacher: She is not only a wonderful teacher, but also the first to have taught all four of our kids, so I really wanted to do something special to say thank you from all of us. Hopefully, the kids will all be available on the last day of school to go and give it to her in person. Here's a photo of the label on the back, signed by each of the kids: Just about three weeks now until my daughter's graduation, and I have one more project to finish by then, her graduation quilt. She chose the fabrics for it two years ago, and I don't think she believes I'll actually get it done. lol But today I washed and ironed the fabrics and I'm all set to start cutting. I think I can, I think I can... etc., etc. Here...

May is a big birthday month in my family, and yesterday my "baby" turned 10-years-old. No more single-digits in this house, at least until September, with the onset of our "grandparenthood." Time marches on. Hard as it is, I guess I'll have to let him grow up... The "Bear Paw" quilt did get finished in time -- and it was a hit! Ten years is definitely a milestone, but just a week ago, his big brother celebrated a milestone birthday too, turning 21. That magical age where you can finally "do whatever you want to do," relatively speaking, of course. ;o) Mother and son, 2:00 a.m. (Last call, anyone?) Waaay past Mom's bedtime! All in all, it's been a happy -- if somewhat exhausting -- birthday week. Time to rest up for the next round! ;o)

The Grapes of Wrath By John Steinbeck © 1939 Published by Penguin Books Ltd. 1940 Pulitzer Prize Winner The Grapes of Wrath , by John Steinbeck, is the story of the Joad family – tenant farmers from Oklahoma – and their migration to California to escape the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Through excellent characterization and a compelling storyline, the reader becomes a part of the Joad family, feeling their excitement and apprehension, the family bonds, their grief, despair and sadness, and their undying spirit to survive and prosper. Among the Joads' personal journey, Steinbeck has woven short, descriptive chapters that portray the bigger picture of the great migration and a changing America. The family farm is becoming a thing of the past. Tractors and big business are taking over in search of bigger profits, and the families that have eked out an existence on these small farms are no longer needed or wanted. They are pushed out of their homes, one by one. Large farms i...