Random thoughts and one completion

Today would have been my Dad's 92nd birthday. He was taken from us much too young, at the age of 58. He was a very patient, good man, and I miss him to this day. I once asked him if he regretted not having a boy (my sister and I are the only children), and his reply always has stuck with me. "Of course not," he said. "I'm very content with my two daughters."

Now on to the main thing that has had me busy, but unmotivated to do hardly any sewing or anything creative. I have posted about our daughter-in-law learning that there was a tumor in her brain stem. It had metastisized there from her breast cancer. She has undergone radiation for the tumor and had some pretty severe complications. Yesterday she underwent a final pinpoint radiation treatment, and that went well, and hopefully she will be free of complications from that. Hubby and I have helped quite a bit with keeping our grandchildren, and we are very grateful that we live so close so that we can help.

Some time ago I mentioned that I had taken a Hawaiian Quilting class from quiltuniversity.com. I had completed the applique portion of it, but the hand quilting part was one thing I just had set aside and ignored. I finally finished it a week or so ago, and then made it into a pillow yesterday. My hand quilting needs serious improvement, and while I enjoyed it, I'm glad to have it completed.

Project Linus completion

 Anyone who has looked at my blog knows that I love to do quilts for Project Linus, and though it's been a while, here is another one.  This quilt actually is a mystery quilt pattern that some in my quilt guild did.  As you can readily see, it is an extremely easy pattern, but I am real pleased with the way it turned out.  I had intended it from the start to go to Project Linus, so chose fabrics that I thought would work for that purpose.  We have been told that PL is most in need of quilts big enough for older children, and especially boys, since they get more for girls, and I think this quilt will fill that bill, as do most of mine.

 On one of the blogs I was perusing the other day, I saw a block similar to this and decided that looked like fun, so out came just a small portion of my scraps, and I started in.  It was fun, and I now have 11 more similar blocks to go with it.  Now I need to sash them and put them all together and there will be another Project Linus quilt top.

Three of our DGC are coming over today, so I think maybe we will ride bikes and have a picnic.  The summer is going much too quickly to suit me!

Last night we went to a youth football fundraiser at a restaurant here in town and saw so many people we know.  Our fireman son was one of the servers.  They had police and firefighters helping with serving, and the tips that they got, as well as 20% of the restaurant proceeds, went to the youth football program.  Our grandson plays football, so of course we wanted to participate.  It was fun to see so many we knew there.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  I think ours will be quiet and that sounds great to me.

Ready to baste

I got my breadfruit cut out and put on the background.  The next step will be basting it.  The next lesson is on Friday, but considering all the other things on my plate, there won't be any problem finding something to do.

It looks like we may get some sunshine today, so I want to get out for a while.

Hawaiian quilting

Before I talk about my latest little venture into the learning realm, I am going to gripe about our weather.  The week of May 9 spoiled us with absolutely gorgeous spring weather, and then BAM, the last few days it has rained and poured and rained some more.  All the kids' ball games have been cancelled and the fields are just a terrible muddy mess.  Okay, that's it for the rant.

I signed up for Hawaiian Quilting 101 at quiltuniversity.com.  I really love their classes and have taken several.  This is the site for my class.  http://quiltuniversity.com/classlist.htm#Hawaiian101 .  I have heard glowing reviews of Nancy Chong's teaching, and I am really looking forward to this.  I have fabric laying out all over my sewing room, and am still trying to decide which two fabrics I will use.  I am definitely not going to buy fabric.  I will eventually figure out which suits me best.

I also, a couple days ago, signed up for Connecting Threads Quilt With Us.  http://quiltwithus.connectingthreads.com/ .  They have some wonderful tutorials, and I am enjoying doing the different methods of making flying geese.  I know, I definitely did NOT need another on-line thing to follow, but someone (and I can't remember who) mentioned signing up, and I had to have a look, and I was very impressed.  BTW, Connecting Threads has very nice fabric at a reasonable price (and no, I don't have any connection with them - just a pleased customer).

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  Today doesn't look to be quite as soggy as the last few, and I plan to get some sewing done.