Leaving on a Jet Plane

I am flying to see my aunt on Sunday. She is my mom's oldest sister. She had a stroke about a year and a half ago and has very little use of her left side. When she and my mama would get together, they would laugh all day long. They had so much fun together. When the phone rang at my mama's house, we always knew it was Aunt Jo, because immediately after answering the phone, mama was laughing her head off! Just the sound of my aunt's voice could make her laugh. Daddy always said he needed Jo to call when he had ticked mama off to get her back to her normal self!!
Because of her condition, my cousin has arranged for us to spend all day Sunday with her and then my cousin, her sister, and I are going to go to Sea World on Monday and head to Cocoa Beach to spend a few days. Nothing like 50 and 60 year old women getting together on a beach in Florida!! The last day, we will spend with my aunt before I head back to LaGrange.
I am so looking forward to it. I need a break from sewing for a while!! But when I get back, I'm diving right in and finishing the cuddly quilt I am making for my little man!!
Sidenote: Today is my baby boy's 29th birthday!!! His brother will be 32 in 8 days. I can't believe my children are this old!!! Where does the time go???

Caleb's Quilt

My dear friend, Sheila, is having a grandson around the same time that mine is due. She is my quilting buddy. We go shopping in Atlanta and all over the place for fabric and the latest quilting gadgets. She was the one that traipsed all over Atlanta with me in search of my longarm quilting machine, and even made the special trip to Bowden, Ga. to look at the HQ16 that I actually purchased that day. Anyway, she has been with me through thick and thin in the sewing realm, as well as, personally, and so I told her that I would quilt her grandson's quilt on my new machine. Well, the backing is made of minkee fabric, which is the softest fabric you have ever felt, but very stretchy and slippery. I have heard horror stories of people who have tried to quilt it on their table top sewing machine, as well as their longarms. So, needless to say, I was a little wary of putting it on my machine. After consulting with several people on quilting blogs, as well as the lady who taught me how to use my machine, I finally put that beautiful quilt on my machine today while I was sitting with my sick granddaughter.

(A picture of the backing completely quilted. Not a pucker in sight!!!)

Pinning the backing onto the leaders was actually the hardest part of it all. It stretched so bad that I had to take off both sides and start over. I really was beginning to panic and wondered if I would even be able to complete it. But once I got the minkee on, I felt pretty good about tackling the task at hand.

A close up of the quilting. I just did an overall loops freehand pattern, because everyone I talked with said it wasn't necessary to do a lot of quilting because the fabric would tend to pucker and stretch more.

Here is the beautiful front of the quilt. Made with all pastel batiks. Didn't Sheila do a great job?

Another picture of the beautiful front of the quilt and the quilted loops. I know Sherry, Sheila's daughter will be so proud of this when she presents her with it!!

Quilting Therapy

Meesha's Quilt

After Mama died, Tammy, my sister-in-law, and Meesha, my niece, and I, were over at Mama's cleaning and packing up stuff in her basement. We came to this wardrobe that my mama's daddy had made full of old quilts. We were all picking one out that might mean something to us, or that would look good in our house. Meesha couldn't seem to find the right one, especially after she learned that her Gongi hadn't actually made them, but had bought them on one of her enfamous "junking" trips to sell in her booth in Pine Mountain, or wherever she was peddling her wares in her many years of business!! Anyway, when Meesha decided that she did not really want one of those quilts, I made a promise to her that I would make her one, since I had just recently made one for another one of my nieces. So, her request was that she would like a pink one. So, Meesha, this one's for you sweetie!! I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed making it for you. It was part of my therapy in the grieving process over the loss of my mama and my daddy!

Your quilt was the very first quilt I quilted on my new longarm sewing machine. I was so excited when I made those little hearts and loops, I had to stop and take a picture of them!!

This is the finished product! I am giving it to her tomorrow!! I so hope she likes it and will keep it to give to her granddaughter one day!! I think she's finished having babies. She has three very active boys!!! (That is probably why she wanted a pink quilt!!)