Quilts, Family, & fun!

What a busy weekend, and what fun! First - I am totally thrilled that the queen-sized bed quilt top I put together last summer ('07) is finally on our bed! Jennifer - who is taking my Artquilt 101 classes - has a longarm and is an excellent stitchmaven and agreed to quilt it for me. It's absolutely gorgeous and Steve is thrilled. Of course, something had to be wrong and that was that he'd preferred it to be about 6" wider, but he's still very happy with it. So - my first bed-sized quilt top - Turning Twenty! Don't you know I'd choose the very easiest pattern? But the fabrics are sumptuous and the quilting is exquisite. Thanks Jen!


Now "we've" decided to make each of the kids one for Christmas next year ('09). Just have to find out the colors they want. Peter and Jill saw it and Peter said, "I want one!" So that's good.

I had fun one afternoon last week playing with Ricky Timms' Convergence technique. He showed how to do the simple version on one of the recent shows on The Quilt Show and I had a couple of hours to play. He showed using 2 fabrics, but his were hand-dyed with lots of variation in color. I used 3 hand-dyes (dyed by Lyric Kinard) and blended them a little differently than he suggested, but it was fun. It's so unlike anything I do that no one knew what to think of it. Couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be. Well, it's not supposed to be anything - it's just supposed to "be".


I finally got to see my Cutie Patootie Saturday and Sunday. We filled her little pool and put out the Dora sprinkler and she had a blast. She loves to sing and makes up songs about anything. So here she is singing at the Metropolitan Pool Opera:





What a ham. She's only 3, so maybe she will choose a profession in the entertainment field and make her mom rich!

We had our Labor Day cookout yesterday, Sunday, so everyone could go home after lunch and still have a good bit of the weekend left (including us). Granny and Abbie came from Raleigh Sunday morning and brought Katie, the Cockapoo puppy. She's about 14 weeks old and weighs about as much as a minute. Just a little tiny bit of fluff. Sarah totally fell in love with her, as did Keri and I.

We had a black Cockapoo for 13 years and she was such a sweetheart. I'm envious, but we don't have a fenced-in yard and live on a very busy street, with an even busier one one house up the street. Our Sugar got run over chasing a car on Christmas Eve in 1993. I can't do that again. One day maybe Steve and I will have our farm and a fenced in yard for a dog.
But she certainly is a heart-stealer.


And now the end of the holiday weekend draws to an end. Steve said we needed to treat ourselves tonight, so I went out and bought a lobster. Holy Cow! This baby weighs just a hair under 4 lbs! She's a monster, but she's going to be delicious!

So - when's dinner? 8>)