Success! I got it quilted and the binding is done!

I'm linking up with Katherine's "Thursday Favorites Blog Hop"!! This quilt that I just finished is one of my favorite things....you can read about some of the blocks by clicking on the Tutorials page, and then on the stitcheries links......

And just in time, too! The birthday girl turns 89 today!

I was really scrambling to find time to complete the memory quilt, but I'm happy to say it is done! Most of the quilting is "stitch in the ditch" on the blocks, and I outline quilted around the embroidered sections. I thought some of you might like to see some of it . . .

I stitched music notes in strategic places . . .

And I stitched bubbles for the fishies, too . . .

Kinda hard to see them, but they're there!!

The backing was a nice dark pink tone-on-tone that my sis gave to me (thank you sweetie!) and I think that she will like it, since pink is one of her fav colors!

I really love scrappy bindings, and I found a tutorial that I really liked, so I want to pass the word along to you. I have had troubles with bindings in the past, but this worked wonderfully for me. AmandaJean at CrazyMomQuilts, posted this tutorial and I followed it pretty closely.  I did change the width of the strips that I cut --- AmandaJean suggests 2.25 inches, but I cut mine at 2.0. I really like how that narrow binding looks on a quilt that is trying to resemble an antique!

I had a lovely picture of the roll of binding, ready to go on the quilt, but I find now that I deleted it accidentally.  :(  Just one of the perils of this digital world!

So here is my finished memory quilt, ready to go in the bag, and be presented tomorrow! Hope she is happy with it!

And I hope you enjoyed seeing this finish!

Love,

Yay! It's a Flimsy!!

Please click here to go to our Fat Quarter Shop sponsored giveaway --- a jellyroll of gorgeous Northcote Range!!

 If any of my Wantobe quilters are reading this, you might be wondering what that means . . . Padsworth was a little puzzled, too!

This is the picture he thought should go with the word "flimsy."

Nope, lil green guy, "A flimsy" is just a term we use to describe the finished quilt top, before we "sandwich" it!

No, no, Padsworth, not THAT kind of sandwich!! Sandwich refers to the three layers --- top, batting, and backing --- of the quilt! (He always wants to help with the posts . . . have you checked out Ole Frog Eyes lately? You may notice some changes that he suggested there!)

Ahem. Shall we continue?

I wanted to show you a picture of the memory quilt, since I finished adding the borders. I actually took advantage of a beautiful day and spread out the backing and batting, and then spread out the quilt. See how it turned out?

It was kinda shady where I laid it out, so I apologize for the colors not being so bright! Here is another view:

That's a "bubblegum" pink on the border, that was really popular in the thirties. (The white outside of that pink is just the batting hanging out! LOL)   I'm hoping to hand quilt it, and then make a scrappy binding from my thirties scraps, to finish it in time for Christmas!

Wow! I'd better get hoppin'!!

Love,

** The Last Block! **

Looking for the Destash for Malawi post? Click here and we'll magically take you there! 

I'd like to thank all of you that have been following along on this journey, as I have made blocks for this memory quilt. It's been a blast, and I've loved the comments, since some of you have said you recall the songs, or similar family memories.

This last block is a reminiscence of a song that I bet all of you know!

See if you can guess what this is all about:

Easy peasy, right?!  Froggy went a-courtin'!! Yay! This is another of the many songs that are good memories from my mom-in-law's childhood; her mom and dad would sing this to her. In later years it made little ones laugh as they bounced on her knee and she sang it to them.

There are various versions of the song --- in some of them, the Froggy has a decidedly martial appearance, with a "sword and pistol by his side"

While in others, he is just a very dapper fellow with amorous intentions:

He has marrying Miss Mousie on his mind, and so on my block, I appliqued a froggy, embroidered his eye and some details, and then embroidered the flowers for Miss Mousie . . . here is a closer look:

If you were to sing ALL of the verses, there is usually an extremely sad ending to the song, but I don't think many people hang in there to sing all of the verses! (I believe that Froggy meets a sudden end at the hand of a cat, or maybe a duck, depending on the song version. Sigh.)

I hope you like this block! Padsworth likes it, and says it is an excellent likeness of his cousin from the other side of the pond! Drop by and see Padsworth at Ole Frog Eyes and take a look around! You might like to sign up for the design wall membership.

Love,

One more block for the Memory Quilt!

PLEASE NOTE: If you are looking for the post about the Destash for Malawi Challenge, please click here and we'll tell you all about it!

Of all the blocks so far, for this memory quilt (see here, here, and here and here for previous blocks), I think this one has the funniest story. But first, take a peek at it:

I know, I know, I am probably the worst, and the wonkiest photographer that there is! This piece is L-L-L-O-O-O-N-N-N-G-G, almost 48 inches, so that it can be placed along the side of the memory quilt. But hopefully you can see, the patchwork blocks on the sides are pinwheels of thirties fabrics, and the stitchery in the middle has tulips on the left, and the words: "Amster, Amster, dam, dam, dam!" and some music notes.

There is an old novelty song that goes this way:

There were three merry fishermen
 Fisher, fisher, men, men, men

The first one's name was Abraham
Abra, abra, ham, ham, ham

The second one's name was Isaac
I, I, sic, sic, sic

The third one's name was Jacob
Jay, ay, cub, cub, cub

They all went down to Amster-DAM
Amster, Amster, DAM, DAM, DAM

Now, I've related to you that my mom-in-law had four siblings, right? The youngest one was her little brother, and she was a pretty mischievous little girl!

Just to get him in an uproar, she would make sure he was in ear-shot and sing the final verse of that song! Then he would threaten her, "I'm going to tell mama that you said that word!"  She, of course, would continue singing it, and emphasize each and every syllable of that last verse . . . next thing you know, he's running top speed into the kitchen like a plow-horse that's been turned toward the barn at the end of the day!  She still grins when she relates this story! (None of you special peeps EVER did anything like that to purposely antagonize your siblings, correct? Yeah, right!)

I thought some of you might like to see the stitchery a little better, so here it is:

If you would like to use the tulip stitchery for one of your own projects, feel free. You can find it here on our blog, and when you click on the link, you'll end up at our very own filing cabinet at Google docs and be able to print it out.

One last block, and then it's time to put borders on and quilt it! I hope you have enjoyed seeing this memory quilt take shape! If the blocks were more consistently sized, I'd put it on Ole Frog Eyes for you to see, but these have all been wildly different sizes.

If some of you have been with me all along, I'd love to know what colors you think would look good as borders.

Love,

When skates were not quite so fancy . . .

Have you ever talked to someone older than you, and heard the "we didn't have all the things you have today" speech? Giggle! Hey, I've even given that speech to my kids --- they've rolled their eyes and remarked about how I was living alongside the dinosaurs! I think that when they were younger, they half expected to look in the photo album and see a much younger Dad, brandishing a club, and dragging a young Mom by her hair!

Well, in between the "we didn't have a car, or ride the bus to school --- we walked five miles uphill both ways . . .and in the snow!" routine, and the "we didn't have Nintendos and things like that" one, too, are some elements of truth. Our block today is a nod to that simpler era of the early thirties.

My mom-in-law has told us how her friend and she would walk to school together. They had a certain place to meet, and if one girl wasn't at the meeting place, the other would wait if she could.  If the first friend was in a hurry, she would leave a pair of crossed sticks by the path, so the other would know that she'd gone on her  way. My mother-in-law would often share a pair of skates with Jinks (her best friend); not inline skates, mind you, but a very simple metal pair with a leather strap for fastening each one on. They would each take one skate, balance a Geography book on the skate, and then sit down on it. Then they would whiz down the hills, racing each other and their friends.

I couldn't find what I wanted in the line drawings that I saw, so I drew this skate and key, and turned it into a stitchery for this block. Here it is:

The photo was taken before I squared up the block, so please excuse the wonky edges, there! Oh, and by the way, if you like any of these stitcheries and want to use them, you can find links here on the blog . . . just click here.

This past weekend I put some sashing or lattice strips between the blocks, and now I'll be working on two long blocks of patchwork and stitching. I'll post those as soon as I can!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love,

Another Thirties Block!

Whoo hooo! I got another block done, and just have to show it off! This is for the memory quilt for my mom-in-law, and if any of you are dropping by for the first time, click here and here to see the blocks we've already showed, and to read the stories behind them.

Here is the block that I designed:

Elby suggested that I use the traditional Sunbonnet Sue block, but put two of the girls, for this block --- and here is the reason why: can you see the words stitched below the two little "sues"? It says, "the Gold Dust Twins" right below them.

(And yes, I know I got them a little bit "off" on the block! I'm going to add a few more stitched "sparkles" and try to balance it a little.)

Ahem.
Back to our story . . . one of her sisters was born less than two years before her, and they played together constantly, and even looked a lot alike --- her daddy called them "his gold dust twins." At the time, there was a popular brand of soap that carried that name. She has told us of that nickname many times, so Elby and I thought we should make a memory block for that. I'm sure that many of us can identify with having a special nickname used by our family; hers was even more special since she had so little time with her daddy before he died.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing another block in this special quilt. It may be a few days before I have another to show you; the last two are fairly involved!

In the meantime, why not leave me a comment, and tell me what nickname your family called you?

Love,

More Blocks and Stitcheries!

The first part of this story is here. It's the story of the quilt that I'm making, with stitcheries to remind my mom-in-law of fun and funny times in her childhood (she'll be 89 in October).

I finished another block, and this one will probably need a little explanation! First of all, can any of you special peeps speak another language (other than English)? Can you "parlez vous" or can you "sprechen Sie Deutsch" or . . . can you speak Fish? Aha! I got you there!

Let's see if you can translate this old Southern nursery tune:

Down in de meddy in a itty bitty poo,
Fam fee itty fitty and a mama fitty, too.
"Fim," fed de mama fitty, "fim if oo tan,"
And dey fam and dey fam all over de dam.
Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem --- Chu!
Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem --- Chu!
Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem --- Chu!
And dey fam all over de dam.

Now before you go and tell all your friends that Snoodles has finally gone completely off her crumpet, let me translate for you!!

Here it is in everyday English:

Down in the meadow in a little bitty pool

Swam three little fishies and a mama fishy, too.

"Swim," said the mama fishy, "Swim if you can,"

And they swam and they swam all over the dam.

A popular big band leader, Kay Kyser, was introduced to this tune by a member of his band, Saxie Dowell, and some folks say it was an old nursery rhyme, while others say it was a tune made up by a college coed. Wherever it came from, it was a #1 hit for Kyser and his singer, Ish Kabibble (yes, they called him that!) in 1939, and others have covered it since.

Here's "The Smoothies" singing it for you. If you want to skip some of the instrumental part (but it's really good) you can skip over to about 35 seconds and just get the words!

Now, my mom-in-law remembers this as one of the songs that her daddy sang to her, and her four siblings. That is a fond memory for her, since her daddy passed away when she was about seven years old.

Years later, it was a song that she sang for her grandbabies, while bouncing them in her lap. They giggled and sang it with her, when they were old enough to learn the words!

Here are some blocks that I adapted from Tonya's May for Me pattern, and the stitchery is my own design:

Again, I'm using thirties repro prints from my stash, and adapting Tonya's piecework to make it just right for my mom-in-law.

Here's a peek at the "itty fittys" up close and personal:

I'll be making some more blocks and stitcheries with special meanings for her, in the coming days --- stop in and see how they turn out!

Hope you enjoy seeing the process behind the finished quilt!

Happy Labor Day weekend!!   :)

Love,

Better Late Than Never, Right?

Earlier this year, (actually MUCH earlier this year --- I am months behind!) some of my favorite bloggers celebrated "May for Me."

It was a month filled with quick projects, posts filled with happy notes of time spent playing with fabrics, or just playing in general, and doing things that brought joy to the do-er. In other words, we gave ourselves permission to just have fun!

We put this aside . . .

We enlisted our kiddos to help out . . .

And we made sure we spent time having fun . . . 

. . . with our families and with our fabrics!

One lady that is close to my heart offered a Quilt Along, with pieced blocks and stitcheries. Tonya, of Hillbilly Handiworks, did an awesome job of designing a lap quilt to go with the springtime theme. Here are some examples --- Tonya completed one, and Sharon did too!

Now, here is the better-late-than-never part . . . I'm only just now completing some of the sections! 

I'm utilizing the May for Me piecework, and a couple of the stitcheries (Thanks, Tonya!) for a quilt for my mom-in-law! 

Oops! The photographer got a little wonky there!

I'm using some of my beloved thirties repro prints and solids, and this is the windmill stitchery block.

Here is the block with the tulip stitchery . . .

And here are some of the blocks laid out together:

I'm adapting and adding to the design that Tonya graciously gave to us. Tailoring it, you might say, to my mom-in-law's personality. Well, actually to her history. I'm adding some things that reflect the stories she has told us, of her childhood.

Here's an example:

See that wee little rocking chair? When she was just a little bitty girl, she and her sister received small, red rocking chairs and baby dolls to lavish TLC on . . .

She has told us that many evenings they would sit in their rockers in front of the fire, and tend their "babies." They would rock, and rock, and then their eyes would meet, and one or the other would start to giggle. Well, you know what happened then --- a giggle fest! They would chuckle and snicker and try so hard to be quiet, but then they would look over at one another again, and whoops! There they went again!

I'll be showing you some more of the blocks as I complete them, and tell you the stories behind each one.

I hope that you like seeing my work-in-progress!

Love,