love builds a home, a finished quilt

I have started this post so many times in my head,

but it never gets very far.

I think I need to begin

as things were before I ever started this quilt...

I keep a running list in my head,

and sometimes on Pinterest,

of what quilt I might make for which person.

Several years ago,

when my dad and Jeannie started
going to Arizona over the winter to help build houses,

I made a note to self

- 'house quilt for Dad' -

and when I'd happen upon one that I sort of liked,

I added it to my Pinterest board

so when it was their turn for a quilt,

I'd have some ideas to pull from.

And then, in Spring of 2016
 we started building our house,

and my dad sacrificed sooo much time

to help us build it,

and teach us how to build

(oh Y'all. I don't know if I can write this.)

and Jeannie sacrificed him,

so he could do that.

I knew that nothing on my Pinterest board was worthy.

There is very little in our house that Dad didn't have a hand in.

In October of 2016,

I invited Jeannie to go to the quilt show with me.

I figured it was something we could do together
 that we'd both enjoy,

but also

I wanted to be able to ascertain what sort of quilts she was drawn to

and what colors she'd like.

I'm sneaky like that :-)

I discovered that she had a preference for traditional styles,

and she liked a red and green color scheme

because at one point she said,

- and I remember where we were standing -

"I really like green and red quilts." 

and I thought,

"Well, that was easy."

As soon as I'd finished piecing Alicia's quilt,

I sat down and designed a couple of house quilts,

and texted photos to Marin,

whom I often bug with that sort of thing,

and asked her which one she thought was better for them.

She thought either would be fabulous

 - because she is so sweet 

she thinks everything I do is fabulous -

so I decided that I should make the more complicated quilt,

because that seemed only fair;

they'd helped so much!
And this was supposed to be a token of our gratitude, after all.

After settling on the design,

I drew up plans and cutting instructions for each different block,

(though my center house was an actual pattern

from a book by Lori Holt)

and even designed two different foundation paper piecing patterns

for the pine trees.

Even though Jeannie wanted green and red,

I didn't want the quilt to be Christmasy,
so I added in yellows and blues that would go in their house

and my 'reds' included a reeeeally wide range,

including pinks and corals.

I was still gathering fabrics when this was snapped

I collected scads of fabrics
(I used 170 of them)
because she'd told me once that she 'liked all the fabrics'

and made the first block July 25th, 2017.

I had hoped it would be a Christmas gift that year,

but,

as we were quite heavily involved in building an actual house

at the same time,

I knew that might not happen.

I had 2 commissioned projects that I was working on 

at the time, too,

and both of them had hard deadlines,

so they were top priority.

I diligently sewed every chance I got

but I didn't come close to finishing by Christmas.

I didn't even finish the top
by when we got together for Christmas,

which actually was in November, 

because they were going to AZ earlier than usual.

No worries.

We gave them a gift card for eating out,

and a certificate for the meal of their choice in our new kitchen

when they got back to Arkansas.

We would give them the quilt then.

I finished the top January 12th

and made the back the next day.

Then I basted it

and started the hand quilting.

I finished the hand quilting early-mid April.

and started machine quilting April 15th.

I'd stayed home from church that day,

and set up a temporary quilting station in the dining room
by laying a piece of melamine board on my portable massage table
(use what you got....)

I had to hit it fast and hard;

because they were coming for dinner in 12 days.
and we'd be camping for 4 of them.

Machine quilting was a nightmare.

You may remember my machine is not so great
with the free motion quilting....

To make matters worse

I chose 80 wt Invisifil thread.

I knew I'd be doing a good bit of traveling back and forth

 over stitched lines,

and Ronda just raves about the thread,

and she quilts beautifully,

so, of course, if I used what she used,

my quilting would be amazing too.

Or some such stupid logic.

80 wt thread is super thin,

and you can barely see it,

so I wasn't overly pleased with how the quilting looked

and my already contrary Juki hated the thread,

but I was so sure it was my best bet

for a beautiful quilt,

and I really wanted my dad's quilt to be extra beautiful.

Firstly,

because it truly was a tangible expression of our deep gratitude

for all of his help.
His help was superb; the quilt should be too.

But secondly because,

I'm still just a girl who wanted her dad
 to think she's pretty great.

And I wasn't so great with all the building stuff.

Oh sure, 

I run on about my badges,

and I did give it tremendous effort,
and even did a decent job for a middle-aged woman
who knew nothing about construction

but building a house isn't really my thing.

Quilts are my thing....

So I stupidly pressed on with the not pretty,

barely visible

(hello - INVISIfil)

giving me fits several times an hour thread.

After a few days of absolute fighting with the quilting,

the machine,

and ridiculously slow progress,

I knew there was no way I could be finished

by my second deadline.

Before they came for dinner on the 27th,
I folded the quilt 

and shoved it in a bag in my closet
and stuck it on the top shelf.

We showed them the work we'd done on the house

since they'd been here last,

and we played a few games.

And that was the last time I saw my dad

before the hospital.

 I never got to give him his quilt.

And yes - I am well aware that he couldn't care less about a quilt
now that he is heaven,
but it makes me sad all the same.

The quilt wasn't just for my dad,
it was for Jeannie, too,
so I needed to finish it.

And I did - slowly

My machine went back to the shop,
again,
and I bought a new machine
(who also does not care for 80 wt thread)

I worked on the quilt as my heart could handle it,
but there were many tears.

What began as a thank-you
turned into a tribute.

Though I'm unhappy with my thread choice,
I'm proud of the quilt.
I think it's some of my best work.

I sewed on the label on Oct 3rd.
Finally finished.

I put it in the local quilt show the first weekend of October.
For display only though - no judging.

And then
in a 'full circle' turn of events,
Jeannie texted me and said,
"I thought I'd come down and go to the quilt show"

So we went together.
And she saw their (now, her) quilt
for the first time.

This is where I'd normally say something nice to
and about the recipient,
but I am so so spent from writing this post
and I know Jeannie understands.
I love you, Jeannie. Hugs and scritches.

almost Christmas

As soon as I'd finished piecing the Razorback quilt in July,

I texted my sister,

"When is Lindsey getting married?"

and was a little surprised by the
"October 20th"

reply.

I had to get moving - fast!!

I knew my niece liked red

(though her favorite color is blue)

but the thing I wasn't positive about was 

would she and her new hubby like a quilt??

My sister thought so,

but she couldn't be positive either

without asking,

but I wanted it to be a surprise,

so told her not to ask ~ I'd just take my chances.

California Dreamin' fabric- how I love you!

I decided that their quilt should be Christmasy enough

that if they didn't love it,

they could pack it up,

and only pull it out at Christmas time,

guilt free.

But if they did love it

and would want to use it year round,

it wouldn't be too Christmasy for that option either.

Almost Christmas.

I used 125 fabrics all together

and pieced it over the course of 2+ months.

Quilting went surprisingly quickly,

 and - except for sewing through my finger -

quite uneventfully,

and only took about 2 weeks.

I bound it by machine,

and labeled it.

After a quick run through the wash

(gentle cycle, warm water)

I pulled it out of the dryer

(the texture is so delicious)

with 4 days to spare.

It turns out

that they do like quilts,

and Lindsey has been secretly hoping for one 

for a few years :-)

Lindsey ~ I love you, sweet girl!

Big congratulations.

Tyler ~ welcome to the (crazy) family.

We wish you a long and happy marriage.

I hope most of your days together 

feel

almost like Christmas.

💗

big thanks to my silly quilt holders!!

not quite camping

When we were driving home from Florida

in August,

I told Tyler I wanted to go camping for my birthday.

I didn't get in quite enough relaxing at the beach,

and I wanted to make positively certain 

that there would be no attempts at a big birthday bash.

He stopped by our favorite local campground

and selected the best spots,

then attempted to reserve one of them

for my birthday weekend.

They were all booked already.

So we booked the next dates that would work for us.

When I started looking at the weekend forecast on Monday

and it wasn't pleasant,

Tyler told me to just wait.

Forecasts change.

Well.

the forecast did change.

It got worse...

But he thought we could still manage a decent time

(I was a little less sure. 

Rain and camping aren't a good mix in my opinion)

so kids and I got  all of the gear ready

and the kids had all packed their clothes.

We went to bed on Wednesday night

planning to do the grocery shopping 

and pack our own clothes in the morning,

and head out at 3.

Thursday morning,

the first thing my man said to me was,

"I'm thinking we need to change our mind."

Friday had been supposed to be decent

(not great; but okay, at least, especially compared to rest of the weekend)

and now they were calling for rain with a high in the 50s.

So.

Instead of camping

(in our already paid for 3 nights spot)

we just went and hung out for the day.

It was a perfectly lovely day,

and it was hard to imagine 

that the nastiness they were calling for 

would really come.

But it did.

And we were so glad to be in our nice, dry, warm house.

Mom and Bill came down 

and spent Saturday afternoon and evening with us,

and Brandon spent a few hours with us today.

So it still ended up being a nice long relaxing family weekend.

It was just spent mostly inside.

two to remember

Last weekend was the Belle Point Quilt Guild's

biennial quilt show.

It was the 3rd time I've gone to the show,

and the first that I entered any quilts.

I entered two for display only,

and one to be judged.

I reasoned that it was pretty sound

technique-wise,

and the quilting wasn't too shabby,

so I was hopeful that I'd get some helpful comments from the judge(s)

regarding what I could improve

so I could

maybe someday

earn a ribbon.

Well, Y'all!

I earned a ribbon!!

A third place ribbon!

The comments weren't all that helpful, though.

There were two;

one said my stitch in the ditch needs to stay in the ditch,

and duh! of course it does.

And while I didn't SiD perfectly,

I'm not sure that I could do much better

on a good sized quilt

with a domestic machine,

especially one not built into a table.

(I happened to notice that the 2nd place quilt 

wasn't stitched in the ditch,

which made me wonder if perhaps I'd have fared better without it...)

The other said that I need to 'whipstitch my corners.'

Now,

this one ticked me off a bit,

because,

y'all know how I am about my binding corners,

and I had sewn them,

I just did it invisibly.

In addition to that ribbon

(and the $10 prize money that went along with it)

I got another surprise;

an even better one!

My friend had made a quilt for us

 as a housewarming gift,

and she presented it to me

by hanging it in the show!

There I was, just browsing the quilts,

and bam!

there was my last name - hanging on the wall

on a beautifully quilted 

(almost whole-cloth) quilt

with a blue ribbon pinned on it.

She used bamboo batting and a lawn backing

because she knew I loved both,

and quilted in a verse,

and our names.

She despises handwork, 

so couldn't bring herself to add any,

but she outlined the pieced letters in black,

to give it a similar look.

I'm so so tickled with her lovely, thoughtful gift!

And I currently have not one,

but two

award-winning quilts in my home.

(though as soon as those darn razorbacks straighten up,

I need to sell that one...)