Round Robin Giveaway

Barb is hosting another giveaway..a very clever one at that. You shouldn't need any incentive to become a regular reader of her wonderful blog, but a chance to get one of her great bags sweetens the pot. Get on over there and become a follower!

Dutch & German Treats

Another Dutch Treat block finished last night. This one is called "Pussy Willow" and boy those little buds were tedious to work on.

And yesterday I received my second siggie..this one from Tanya in Germany. Isn't it sweet? She told me the fabric was purchased on a trip to the south of France.

Yesterday and today I've been working with the blocks made from the fabric Barb sent me. This is what I've come up with so far. I added the cream background and green border fabric. The rest is Barb's fabric and I still haven't used it all. What a great gift, huh?

I'm looking forward to my youngest son and his wife driving down from Iowa tomorrow for a short visit. My middle son and his family from Missouri will be over on Saturday also. It will be a great weekend!

Happy quilting everybody.

Wednesday Piecing

Thank you so very much to those who left messages on my post about Claire. While I am hurting, I know it is nothing compared to the loss her family is experiencing and will continue to feel. She was a terrific wife, mother and grandmother and dealt with so many trials with such grace and dignity.

While yesterday was a sad day..there was something that made me smile..receiving a package from Barb in American Samoa. A week or so ago she had a giveaway and I won this awesome zippered bag. It's terrific and I can think of many ways I will use it. I'm always impressed by anyone who can put a zipper in! I haven't done one in about 45 years and don't plan to.

If that wasn't enough, Barb also included a large piece of this gorgeous fabric. She apologized because I had said I mostly like darker colors and she sent something bright! First of all, I'm thrilled to get any fabric..any time. Secondly how could anyone not like this fabric? Both things were like a ray of sunshine on a day I really needed some sunshine!

My first thought was that this fabric would make awesome Stack and Whack blocks. But there wasn't enough repeats, so I just started making some blocks. Here's what I have so far. Don't exactly know where I'm going with this, but I'm sure enjoying the journey and know it will end up being something wonderful.

Thank you, Barb, for your generosity and for brightening my day! You're the best!

Claire

I'm ending this day on a very sad note. I'm not even sure I can properly write about it. This evening a very good friend passed on to a new life.


I met Claire online 5 years ago on a COPD forum. She and I were both trying to get accepted into some new clinical trials for an experimental procedure that offered a better quality of life for people with our shared disease. Claire wasn't able to qualify as she was already getting too weak and deconditioned to take part in the necessary rehabilitation that was required. I was accepted but due to the luck of the draw (or lack of luck, depending on how you view it) I ended up in the control group, which means I didn't get the procedure but was monitored for a year for comparison to those who did get it.


Claire and I always hoped that we might find a way to meet in person but that never happened. She lived in Florida. I'm in Kansas. But we became fast friends and talked by email and phone pretty constantly for the last five years. Some days neither of us had anything to say. Other days we'd exchange a dozen emails. We found we had so much more in common than just our disease and so we mostly talked about other things. We reminisced about earlier days, raising our families, music we loved, politics, so many things. She was only 67..far too young to leave this world.


Last week Claire started really struggling to breathe and was taken by ambulance to the hospital and admitted to ICU. Sunday she went on a ventilator and this afternoon her family made the difficult decision to remove life support. I know, as they most certainly did, that Claire didn't want to linger. And I know that tonight she is breathing freer than she has in many years. But I will miss her more than I can say. I'm a better person for having known her and will hear her voice for a long, long time.

Breathe easy my friend. I love you.

First March Finish

I finished quilting my One Block Wonder piece yesterday but was gone last night so didn't get the binding done until this afternoon. I haven't washed it yet and Tom's not home from work to hold it for a straight on photo. Perhaps I'll get a better pic later.

I've decided to call this "Imperial Gardens". Do you see my solution to not having enough fabric to miter the corners with the border stripe?
It's hard to decide which way I like looking at it best. I may have to put hanging sleeves on more than one side.

I did a looping stipple in the center.

And a regular stipple in the outside border. I used black variegated King Tut thread for the quilting in the inner border.

Two more Dutch Treat blocks finished Sunday night..

"Garden"

"Impala"