Moving right along!

I've been running along side myself as I wind up the year's projects and wanna-dos! Today was a good day, I think!

Here's my soon to be 9 year old grand daughter's little quilt 50" X 60" kitty quilt. She really, really, really wanted to Crazy Dogz quilt, and since I didn't have time to do another one of those, this one will be her surprise on December 13th. The label has her picture on it with her birthday cake from last year, and I added "Kaitlyn's Kitties" on the cake in Photoshop. It really is straight, just crooked photography!

You can double click for a larger, closer picture of it to see the purple chenille squares and binding. If anyone ever hears me talking or even thinking about working with chenille again, please remind me how much I diskliked working with it. It took two vacuum cleaner containers to get the fuzz and shreds up. And my fingers are almost bleeding from using it on the binding. Yuck!

But all in all, I really like it, and I know she will, too!

Here's my little round robin 4" block that was sent to TX for it's first round of 15. My theme is Garden Thyme, and I've asked for batiks to be used. I also included a picture of my garden with the wind sculpture in it that looks like this (sort of!).

Now, I am going to work on a sweatshirt jacket for my friend, Linda. She makes the most beautiful socks, so we decided to barter a jacket for socks. She chose the fabric, and I chose the yarn, so I am certain we will both be pleased with the outcome.

Serendipity

Look what came in my email yesterday? Our very own Judy has this beautiful book out. And then in the mail, came my AQS flyer with the same advertisement for her new book. How lucky we are that Judy is in our webring, and that she shares so freely with us!

I am finally letting myself start to be excited about my upcoming trip to Nashville, TN on August 21. My buddy, Carolyn and I plan on attending the AQS show there. If anybody is going to be there, let me know, and maybe we could meet up? We are returning home late Friday night, so it's a short trip.

What I am most excited about though, is not quilting (for a change). I've been researching our family genealogy for quite a few years now, and this is the area where two and maybe three branches of the family converge. There are quite a few locations where they lived and died within 100 miles of Nashville, so I thought I would do a little genealogy traveling, too.

It turns out that I have "kin" buried in two different family cemeteries in Dickson County, TN, just west of Nashville. THEN, I have 4 others buried in Civil War National Cemeteries south of Nashville, near Franklin and Murfreesboro. This morning, I reviewed the Civil War Day by Day Almanac, and looked at some of the battle maps to get my bearings. This should really be a great trip, and put some perspective on my heritage as well as one of the bloodiest battles near the end of the Civil War. One of my most favorite books of the year is set in this area. If you haven't read it yet, you should read Widow of the South by Robert Hicks. I plan on visiting Carnton Plantation, which is the Widow of the South's home, since some of the ancestors are buried there, too.

Most of yesterday, I spent working on a driving map of the area, along with cemeteries and places to go. Here's my genealogy route, if you are interested.

Have you ever wondered how many degrees of separation there are in our quilting community? Check Bonnie's blog entry on July 28 and see what she was posting about that day. Then come back and read on here.



Look at what came in the mail for me today. Yep! I was the winning bidder on the quilt that Bonnie was talking about then! What a hoot since I was already watching that entry well before she blogged about it! The quilt is ever so soft, made from scraps of 1930's feedsacks, fabrics from the 40's and even a small piece of flannel made it in. The white is all flour sack material. There's only a couple of small spots on the back, and the quilting stitches are nice and tight. I am going to hang this one in my upstairs hall where you can see it when you come in the front door. It really makes me smile!

And of course, Mr. Clyde has laid claim to his part of the quilt, too!


Ahh, serendipitous events!