Christmas tie

This is the most appropriate Christmas tie there is.
On our way to church Christmas morning.

The last roll of the first side

I am so excited to see the batting and back at this end of the quilt. It has been a long time coming. Although, I must admit I have not spent as much time working on it as I such on a consistent basis. I hope is that I can do the half of all the squares across the edge before the Christmas company arrives.This year Southern California is the destination of most of the Hart - Webb family. curtis and Christine come in on Thursday December 22. Marjorie and James will drive if the weather allows. They will get here on the 22nd also. Grandma and Martin are coming Christmas Eve for the week between Christmas and New Years. This room will become someone's bedroom for that time. The quilt will have to go up against the wall like last October when Grandma came.

Now I must get off the computer and get busy shopping for Kourtney's birthday, other Christmas shopping and getting the house ready. Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we avoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the Nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of Peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

I thought this was interesting. It was written October 3 1863, 3 months after the Battle of Gettysburg. It establishes Thanksgiving as a day of gratitude. There is no mention of food.

A really good day!

I got up this morning and got organized. I got gas and groceries, letters in the mail, meds and the potatoes I have to cook very early Monday morning. When I got home Jeff was playing spider on the computer. I tried to check my sugar but the machine acted like it needed a new battery. I went and got one while Jeff got ready to go exploring in the back country. This book has all sorts of trails from easy to difficult. We went on one that said moderate. The GPS on Jeff's new phone was incredible! It showed us right where we were and where we were going. It is crazy how fast it tells you that you are going the wrong way.

Jeff put in Santiago Peak. It took us through the whole trail. It was very steep in places and very bumpy the whole time. I got my inards jiggled real good.

When we got down out of the mountain, we went to Ruby's in San Juan. We also found the Golden Spoon down there too. They have an interesting topping, floor sweep. It is a collection of little chocolate things. I had to try a taste.

All in all a very good day. Now to enjoy just sitting still.

Quilt progress

When I was making lunch a week ago Saturday I cut my thumb. I didn't want to get blood on teh quilt so I wore this glove. It is one like the ones e wore to change diapers in daycare. It protected the quilt well adn made it easier to pull the needle through without having to pick up the needle puller.
It was an exciting day when I rolled and saw the edge of the border at the end.
This morning when I started I planned out with pins where I was going. I got it all done by about 5 this afternoon and rolled the quilt.

This is what it looks like after the roll. There is only about 3 inches turned under and I am done with the first half. Cool.

Progress across the Quilt

This is the progress on the quilt from the left-hand side.This is from the left side toward the center.

This is the other side of center.
This is the most right hand side to the quilt.This was exciting to see the patterns come together so well on the bottom. It totally makes sense. The hardest part of this was laying flat on my back on the floor to take the pictures. I set other fabric on top of the quilt to block out the lights so I could see the stitching on the under side. It is going better now that I am putting time on it every day even if it is only a few minutes. It is a good use of my time.

Grandma's visit

Thought I would post some pictures of Grandma Hart's visit. There was a heavy marine layer the day we went to the beach. It never did get sunny that day while we were there.

One of the evenings we did a video call with Curtis and Christine for training an Grandma's ipad. It was very helpful for both of us. Good thing we talked so I didn't try and charge her ipad on my computer. She was bummed that hers didn't have a camera on it for chats. Thank you Curtis and Christine for the training.

Wednesday we went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We wanted to go on the tram ride around to see the animals. We started walking and saw a zip line that was 2/3's of a mile. The whole walk to the tram was a mile. We asked Grandma several times if she wanted a wheelchair or motorized cart. She said no and just kept walking. We did stop and rest several times though.Thursday Grandma wanted to go get some souvenirs. We went to Laguna Beach. I didn't know where to go. We walked around for a while. We stopped in a flower shop, Flowers,Too, and asked if they had some sea shells. They lady said she did and went to find them. When she came back, she brought this cute vase of shells with small roses in it. It was the greatest souvenir ever.
So glad that Grandma Hart came to visit. It was fun to show her where we live.

P. S. Tuesday afternoon there was a doorbell ring. Grandma had called the shop and had this beautiful flower arrangement sent. It was a wonderful surprise and so beautiful. Thanks Grandma!

Grandma Hart and I are making a quilt

Grandma sent fabric home with me when we went to see her for her birthday last April. Now that she is here, we are sewing strips together like these to cut them on the diagonal and alternate them with plain navy blocks sashed with black polka dot strips. There are the strips sew together. We tried to rip them but not all the fabrics were straight. so most of them ate cut.
There are a couple of pictures to kinda show the lay out. It is so fun to work with a master quilter!
This is what we had put together when Grandma left. There are probably 15 or so more diagonal squares ready to go. I wanted to get the other quilts I was working on done, so this one is put away with notes on it to work and finish another day.

There will be more to come. Happy Sewing!

My Quilt Progress

While Grandma Hart is here she wanted to work on making a quilt top. We have rolled up the quilt frames and put them at one end of the room so we can work on the top. You will have to look closely. It is behind the ironing board.
Here are some pictures of the progress from the under side of my quilt. If I took the pictures on the top you wouldn't be able to see it. These pictures are in no particular order.

I know how to quilt now!

My mom always said that you didn't know how to sew until you knew how to unpick. Well last night for the first time I had to unpick one of the borders. I was so excited to start the borders on the opposite side of the quilt. I was also excited about finding the BYU football game being rebroadcast on BYU TV. We went to the empty nesters party and missed most for the game. As I was getting started, there was a lot of excitement, a touchdown by central Florida and a 92 kick-off return by BYU for a touchdown. I guess I was not watching the quilt very closely and started the quilting on border 2 and 3 instead of 1 and 2. I pulled the stitches out. If you look very closely in the strip of pink flower fabric at the seam line you will see where the stitches were that I had to take out. I don't know that you will see all of them. They go onto the green and it might be too light to see. The pins you can see are set in the right place to start the row over again in the right place.

I have now pulled out quilting, so I know how to quilt now.

Progress Update 9-19-2011

I made this template so that the quilting on all the squares would be the same. It fits in the center blocks and the outside triangles shown in the next 3 pictures


This is the stencil for the outer most borders. It fits perfectly and even has a corner pattern.This is the stencil I thought would do for the triple border. Turns out that it works better doing one pass with 2 stripes and one offset pass with a stripe and part of the quit center.

Work in progress. I had to change to a lighter weight thread. It was almost impossible to pull the needle thru the quilt. They didn't have it in the darker color so the color is lighter too. It goes so much faster with the thinner thread.
This is the top side that I worked on for 3 hours tonight.
This is the underside of the same picture. You can see the work better from the bottom.

Realization Moment

Last night as I was quilting next to the large triangle along the edge, I decided I needed to figure out what I was going to do in that space. Then I looked to the triple borders on the other side of it and the same thought came to mind. I bought a stencil at the last quilt show I went to in July so I know what I am doing with the outside border. The AAAAHHHH!!! moment came when I thought I have to do it NOW!!! I am not going to do the center of this quilt and then put it up like this again to do the other borders..

When I roll this quilt, it will be done. The only other thing I will have to do is bind the edges of the whole quilt after ALL the sections are done.

So this morning I went to Joann's and got a 3 inch stencil for the triple border, a plastic template grid to made for the large triangles, stripe, and plain squares along with a soapstone marking pencil. I should be set now for a good long time.

Center squares

Here is a picture of a 9 patch and a stripe block with the center square quilted. I have a needle that is just exactly as long as the width of the stripe. I can run it through the batting so it doesn't show on the outside. This is how I am going to do all the center squares. Then all I have to figure out is the side triangles and the 3 stripe border. I already have a stencil for the last 5 inch border around the edge. I need to plan it all so I can quilt it all in the row before I turn it and be done with it. I don't want to have to get the quilt to this position again.This is what the stripe block looks like alone. I still have the left side to go down on the block. I used a ruler to figure out where the corners went.

Update on the quilt progress

I stapled fabric on the 8 foot pine boards. I love using a staple gun!
Setting the quilt up on the frames in the garage was easier with fabric boards. I could pin the fabric to the boards instead of using thumb tacks that I can't push in the boards straight or otherwise. Jeff and I are sharing the garage. He agreed to park the Jeep outside while I had the quilt up long enough to pin the layers together. There are pins about 3 inches the length and width of the quilt. Living as close to the school as we do and with school starting, I could not leave it put all the while I quilted it. I was going to buy a small 2 person pvc pipe frames to use after it was pinned.
close up on the pins.
The back of the quilt was bigger than the frame so I just let it hang.
The batting was also too short so I had to sew on extra batting.
My visiting teacher, Linda Gale, came and helped me start pinning. We got about 1/3 of the quilt done and I started to notice wrinkles.
I was frustrated so I googled putting quilts on a frame. There were several videos. The one that helped me the most showed laying the quilt out on the floor, stapling the ends to the boards and rolling them equally toward the middle so you could start there. It made total sense to me so that is what I did. I didn't staple the quilt to the boards though. I just pinned it to the fabric. I took out all the pins we had already done and started over in the middle. I am so glad it was just pins and not quilting.
It even looked good on the bottom.
Barcelona Hills is now part Capo district school and part charter school, Oxford Prepartory Academy. Last Thursday, a week before school was to start, there were a ton of cars parked all along the street. There were desks and tables and chairs outside the school. There was a lot of parents and children working around too. I knew it was time to get the quilt out of the garage. Jeff also thought if I had 4 foot boards that it would fit in my sewing room. I went and got a board and had it cut in half, came home and put the fabric on it. While he was gone to the movie, Monday night, I straightened and rearranged the sewing room. When he got home, Jeff helped me get the quilt upstairs still on the long boards. This is what it looks like.I found that I am not skilled enough to quilt forward and backward. I need a chair on both sides of the quilt. That works too. I do have to go under the quilt though to change chairs. Oh well.

This is the squares I finished the first night. It was late but I was curious to see how it would look. I wanted to see if I could do it with the things I had here. It worked and I think it looks pretty cute. The thimble and the needle puller are essential when doing this quilt.
The under side even looks good too. I am glad to have such a good start. Now I will just have to work on it often. I will also blog about it more often too. Happy Quilting!