but here I am posting on my blog. The most important thing that has happened to us in the last couple of months is that WE CLOSED ON OUR HOUSE IN VA LAST WEDNESDAY!! We had it on the market since February 2010, and moved back to GA in late June, so this day has been a long time coming. It had just been 5 weeks before then that we got the call from our agent that a prospective buyer wanted to make an offer, but during some of that time we've been very nervous about it all working out. And we didn't say anything to anyone outside our family because we didn't want to jinx anything. I am now beginning to feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. It is really nice to own only one house!
Quilting-wise I don't feel like I've done much, but I have been working some on the handquilting on Allie's quilt.
I also now have a design wall of sorts. I am in the process of organizing the closet in my quilting room, and have managed to move the stack of plastic containers that was where I wanted the desgn wall to be. A couple of days ago I hung up a big piece of batting and now have 14 blocks of the Simple Simon quilt on it. This is the one I started in the Stashbusters class at A Scarlet Thread in March.
After seeing the Just One Star project mentioned on Vesuviusmama's blog I decided to make 4 stars for that.
They were due to Moda by May 1. Hopefully they accepted mine as I didn't get them mailed until April 29.
Our middle daughter is expecting her second daughter in early September. I made this quilt for Reilly,
who is now 21 months old. So now we have started thinking about what to do for new baby. The colors they are using in her room are purple, lime green and teal, using this nursery collection. We went to A Scarlet Thread last week and saw this pattern that she liked - then we noticed it was by the same designer as Reilly's quilt! We also liked this one and are considering a shadow box design or this Spinning Star. Yes, they are quite different, but I am going to try making a few sample blocks of each to help us decide what we like best.
Nephew Eric graduated from high school this past Friday - we went to his graduation and to his folks' house the next day for a big family party. Our 2 GA daughters were there with there families, and DH's two sisters and his brother-in-law, along with all of his brother's family and several from the brother's wife's family. Another Braves game last night - and an exciting win at the end. Our Beach Week is coming up beginning next Saturday. We'll be going back to Hatteras Village in the Outer Banks of NC for the 13th year. This year only our middle daughter and her family will be coming, but we expect to have fun as usual. I'll be taking along the hand-quilting, and perhaps some of the Grandmother's Flower Garden flowers to work on. I only have about 13 whole flowers and 10 halves to make and attach to be finished with the top of that one. When I just now looked back at my older postings to see what I had said about it last, I realized that I've only finished one new flower in the last couple of months, but I've made a lot of white hexagons and attached most of the last ones I've made to the quilt.
Hard to believe that it has been a month since I wrote a blog entry - falling back into my old ways! Last month I babysat for 3 grands while their mom and dad took a well-deserved trip to NYC. After they went to bed I was able to do some sewing on my Christmas version of Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Mountain Majesties that I started at her workshop in VA earlier in the month. I've sewn two rows of blocks together, but not the rows to each other. Here are those two rows at the top and some other blocks that I have tentatively put together.
I think I will make it at least 2 more blocks wider than I had originally planned to make it a full size. I've added in some lights that are more patterned than what I started out with, and have to look at it awhile to see if I really like it. I think when I get more blocks sewn together I'll like it better because the two blocks that are mirror images of each other can be more separated.
When I got home from the babysitting I had a packet from Erin that had 4 light background Christmas blocks in it, so I will definitely be adding them to my design. Thanks again Erin!
The day after I got home from the babysitting DH and I drove to FL for a week of Braves spring training games. We saw games in Kissimmee, Ft Myers, 2 at the Braves home ball park at Disney World, and Viera near Cocoa Beach. 
Also spent time with DH's sister and BIL, one of his cousins and her DH that he hadn't seen in years, one of my cousins and her DH, and my DH's brother and his family who live in the ATL area but just happened to be in FL the same week that we were. Besides 5 games and visiting relatives we had time to spend one day at Universal seeing the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, rode the River Adventure at Jurassic Park, ate dinner at Mel's Drive-in, saw a Mardi Gras parade and a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. You can see more pictures from that week on my Flickr page. Since that time I feel like I've just been catching up on non-quilty things here at home.
I did finally put a hanging sleeve on Celtic Sunrise, a wall hanging I made as a challenge quilt while in the guild in Lexington, so it is now hanging in my quilting room. 
This pattern is from Quilter's Cache, and is a tribute to my DH's Irish roots. While we were traveling to, from and around FL I worked some more on my Grandmother's Flower Garden hexagons. 
I still need to make 13 more whole flowers and 10 halves to fill in at the top and bottom of the 5 shorter rows, but after almost 4 years of working on it now and then I can see the end of the piecing. When I finish I will have 95 whole flowers and 10 halves. The centers are the same but the outer rings are different in each one, and all are florals.
I've signed up for the Stashbusters Club at A Scarlet Thread, my LQS, next Wednesday. The quilt for this month is called "Simple Simon" 
The idea of course is to use some of our stash to make the quilt, so I've got to decide which of my fabrics I want to use for this one - I'll be trying hard to not buy more fabric to make it. And you all know I need another project started!
Last week I finally finished my Fallen Leaves wallhanging. 
It is a tissue foundation pattern from Cindi Edgerton that was fun to do. I bought mine as a kit at Cottonwood in Charlottesville, VA - primarily because I couldn't resist the fabric that was in the kit for the border and backing. I searched online until I found more of it to save for another project. This is a project that I started last September when I bought the kit, then it languished while I worked on and completed other more pressing projects, mostlly for other people. I had even finished most of the quilting on it - just had to finish up some of the borders and bind it. Now I am looking for a special spot in our house for it to hang. I am pleased with the way the quilting turned out. I just used a regular foot and left the feed dogs up - I'm not ready to cut loose with free motion yet - and found that I was able to move the quilt around enough to to make the wavy lines thru the leaves. There was a lot of starting, stopping, and turning in the border but it is a good example of where I am now in my quilting odyssey.The Senior Center group that I quilt with has finished the top of the Turning Twenty quilt 
that we have been working on. We are planning to make the backing by using a lighthouse fabric in the center and a light taupe fabric surrounding it, since the recipient really likes lighthouses. I should have that pieced by our meeting next Wednesday, then we can begin sewing together the blocks we have for a 2nd one. These will be gifts for the director and assistant director at the Center - one of them knows who this one is for, but neither of them yet know about the other one, which is a pretty neat trick when both of them are usually there when we are meeting and working on them. Both of them are being made from fabric donated to the Senior Center, either by us or by other quilters in our area.I am also continuing to work on my Grandmother's Flower Garden. This picture shows the progress to date - 4 rows of the 9 I expect to do will be done when I finish attaching the last flower on the left in the bottom row. 
I have laid out some of the fabrics I think I will use for the next row - the pink and green one is finished and the pink and blue one is partially finished. We went to the Atlanta area again last weekend for a family wedding, a Braves game and to check in on some of the grandkids. I had time to make a quick stop at Tiny Stitches in Marietta where I met Melinda in person. I will definitely go back to that shop!
We left here Tuesday, May 6, after work and went to Johnson City, TN, for a night with my mom, then on to Atlanta on Wed. We checked into our hotel and met one DD and her husband at the Braves game - a tradition for us whenever possible when we are in ATL. Thursday morning (while DH was attending his conference) I met oldest DD to get her son, and his carseat; he and I drove to Zoo Atlanta and met DS and his son there for several hours at the zoo with the boys - 4 yr old and a 3 1/2 yr old. Fun, fun, fun, and very heartwarming to see my son's parenting in action. He is a stay-at-home dad and very good at it! Here he helps Jack and Atticus share some "fluff" - I think this was the highlight of the zoo visit for the boys! 
Thursday evening there was a reception for the conference where we managed to get enough food to count as dinner. Friday morning I relaxed around the hotel a bit, then DH was thru with the conference and we sat out to explore. He grew up in Chamblee, and we are back there several times a year, so the area is not all that new to us, but it keeps changing! We went up to the Perimeter Mall area, detouring by the house in Chamblee that his family used to live in. Then we decided to try to get to Marietta without going on I-285 ---- and discovered that there may be a way, but the way we went was not quick and might not be the best way! We did eventually find our way to Red Hen Fabrics, after being on Marietta Parkway much longer than was necessary. I've been to Red Hen several times, and like to go back there frequently when I am in the area. They will be moving their shop to another location about 1 mile away at the end of the month. Oldest DD and her family live in Marietta and we spent Friday night and Saturday morning with them - even got to babysit her 2 while she and DSIL did a little shopping. Here I am with Reba and Jack 
Then to McDonough to visit middle DD and her hubby. Marietta DD and her family followed us there, and DH's mom and one of his sisters came down from Flowery Branch, plus McDonough's DSIL's parents, grandparents and sister were also there. Good times, great food from the grill; we spent the night there and then it was back to Lexington on Mother's Day. We got home just in time to quickly grill some steaks for dinner. I've posted quite a few pictures from our trip on our Flickr page.Quilt-wise I worked only on my Grandmother's Flower Garden -- it is so portable when you are working on the individual flowers. Here it is now - 18 sewn together and 3 (far left ones on rows 1, 3 and 4) ready to sew on. 
I've now had a few days to get re-oriented to being at home and trying to catch up a bit on stuff.
Thursday I got off my part-time job a bit early, and spent some good time working on the OC quilt. It will soon be time for Clue #5, and I was still working on #2. Last night I finished Clue #2 
and got all the pieces cut for #3. Last week I jumped ahead to make one block of Clue #4 to see if I still like the fabric I selected for Bonnie's "red" - I do like it! 
Can't post it on the Quiltville Group yet since I don't have but one made - but I can post it here! I'm hoping to get all of Clue #3 done today.
I think I am now in the "Lagger's" Group on the OC mystery. I finished the Clue 1 blocks - 150 4-patches - before Clue 2 was given, but have slowed down since then. DH and I were in DC last Sunday-Wednesday for him to attend a library meeting, and I brought along my OC fabrics and sewing machine. Bonnie's instructions were to cut our scraps into strips prior to starting the steps, but I had not done that yet except for what I used for the 4-patches. So I had all the fabrics with me at the hotel that I wanted to use for this step. I got the strips cut for Clue 2, all of the large triangles cut, all the squares cut, and some of the little triangles. I had already sewn a few together at home and after measuring them I realized they were a bit smaller than they should have been, so I decided to make my seam allowances slightly less than 1/4" when sewing the "wings" to the squares. I was able to get about 27 of the 142 finished while at the hotel -- and still had time to eat all meals with DH, go to a reception one night, a Braves game one night, etc. However, very limited time on Internet so was pretty far behind on reading the messages in the Quiltville group. I had seen just a mention of the way you are supposed to cut and sew on the "wings." When I got home Wednesday night I read all the messages that had come thru while I was gone, and realized that I had cut the small light triangles incorrectly. I am using strips of 30-40 lights, so don't need that many from any of the fabrics, and therefore I am cutting them pretty much as I need them, and cutting them one at a time with the fabric always facing up. Now I see that that is wrong - the points on the corners don't match up, so .............. this afternoon I started over on assemblying Clue 2. I don't have enough done to photograph yet - 3 to be exact! And we are going to be out of town this week from Tuesday afternoon to Sunday night, so I will be even farther behind when I get back. I will have time to work on my Grandmother's Flower Garden - 
a great thing to work on in the car, but I won't be taking the machine with me on this trip. We are going to Atlanta area for another of DH's conferences, but will be seeing kids and grands too ~~ and another Braves game.
