Recap of November

I'm not sure where the month of November went! Well, I am, really, so here are a few pictures to share!

 First of all, the quilt show in North Augusta, SC, where I entered my Words to Live By quilt. It was a great show and I feel honored to have won this ribbon - there were many great appliqué quilts.

 I was thrilled with the ribbon!

 Here is my Black and White BOM I finished earlier this year . . . .

And last, my Botanical Garden. A really fun quilt to make,  inspired by Sarah Fielke's book. 

This show was on a Friday and Saturday and I left Sunday for Nicaragua for another mission trip. There were three of us ladies, carrying packages to 74 sponsored children at a Christian School there. 

 Here we are with all our bags, ready to leave.

Sylvia shares more of Jesus' love to the children as we are getting ready to distribute the care packages while the children eagerly wait! 

 I was able to see these children that my husband and I had sponsored in person! 

 What a joy. . .

 and this precious girl we have corresponded with for five years and now she is graduating from high school, wanting to become a nurse. They were all three graduating.

 We took the 15 graduating seniors on a day trip to Lake Nicaragua, lunch at a restaurant and to this gorgeous overlook at Catarina below.

One little village we visited has no running water. This is the way all the people get their water - they go down this path past where the road goes, wash their clothes in the 'river', which is really a stream, bag their clothes up and fill their five gallon bucket and walk back up the hill to their home. Truly amazing!! A well has been dug nearby and now there is an effort to raise funds to pipe the water a couple of miles down the road so the people will have water at their homes. The path was difficult to walk down for us, yet they do it frequently.

Here is the 'river' where they have carved out areas to sit on the rocks as they wash their clothes.

This little ten year old girl filled her bucket with water and waited to lead us up the path.

She would not go until we followed and she knew we would be okay, the whole time holding the bucket of water on her head. Amazing! 

Another exciting thing is that a sewing ministry was started five years ago and many are graduating from this school and are able to have home businesses to make money to help support their families. It's great to see that sewing, which I love so much, reaches around the world to help others!!!

Words to Live By - SBOW 2013

I have another quilt finish to share! This could be called my 'quilt of the year'!

 I finished the top in the spring but waited until recently to quilt it. It took a while but was worth the time! This was the SBOW from Primitive Gatherings for 2013. 

Lisa Bongean (the designer and shop owner) even had a lettering guide so we could 'write' our name. I really enjoyed stitching all this beautiful wool! Here are a few close-ups. 

 This wording was not in the pattern but I feel it to have the most important words of all so I changed one of my blocks.

 Still on the longarm!

 Between 6 and 700 half square triangles. The biggest challenge of all!

There is a quilt show in North Augusta, SC, on November 6 - 7, where I will put it to show. I'm still a member of this guild after living away for 16 years - a great group!!

Miles of Triangles & More

I always enjoy seeing these beautiful trees in the fall. There are few leaves left now but the colors were just gorgeous!

I've been working on hundreds of half square triangles for my Words to Live By quilt, the SBOW for 2013 from Primitive Gatherings. I've had them all ready to sew but just kept putting it off. However, I can't finish the quilt until they are sewn so half are done. It's hard for me to be exactly accurate so one was 1/2" too long and one 1/2" too short. Maybe this third will be just right. I just have to fudge a little and make them work.

 I've sewn a couple more Farmer's Wife Quilt Blocks - the fabrics are what makes these little blocks.

One more block in my Primitive Garden!

An 8" quilt for a friend's 70th birthday. Our group makes birthday quilts for special years and this time, like mine, it will be small quilts all attached to each other and she loves cats.

I just love this picture! We kept our grandchildren and took them to a fall festival. He won the little pirate's patch and put it on. It was so cute how he felt like he had to close his eyes to wear it. Love the sweet smile and apple painted on his cheek!

WIP

 My Words to Live by is coming along. All pieced EXCEPT the last border which has those hundreds of half square triangles to sew together plus four more pretty appliqué blocks in the corners.

 After getting this far, I just needed something quick and easy to work on. I will say the HST's ended up very accurate using the triangles on a roll paper. I am having a hard time knowing how to press them best so they will all lay flat. With those in the center, I pressed the seam allowances between the rows open. Any more suggestions? 

 Here is the FUN project for now! Under the Big Top 2. These fabrics are leftovers from a baby quilt I made last summer for a great nephew. This will be a charity quilt.

 I really love working with scraps like this. Just take the leftovers - lay them out - and see what comes to mind. I had so many cool triangles leftover that I began sewing them together. 

 What would be the best layout?

 I sewed them very similar to the original quilt but didn't have quite enough to go around the border. No problem!!!

I improvised and filled in with some other leftover fabric. I pieced a backing and now it's waiting to be quilted. . . more when that is finished!

Words to Live By and More!

 Block five of my Primitive Garden is complete! This is a slow journey but I am enjoying the stitching!

Block 2 of my Sunflower Gatherings SBOW 2014 is ready to stitch. My goal is just to get the blocks pieced and the wool fused, ready to stitch.. . . . . . .

 because I am trying to finish my SBOW 2013 which is a large quilt. I must say it is very organized and that is a good thing, because there are 762 triangles to make and stitch. Lisa even has a cool way to lay them out so the triangles are organized for each border.........I do like that!

More triangles!

 My design wall as I tried to get the large triangles placed around each block.

 Now they are sewn and I'm working on the center small HST (half square triangles).

I hope to get those center triangles sewn today.

Meanwhile, I am still posting on my other blog to keep up with my finished quilt projects. It's been a year now since I began and I am pleased with my progress. For me, seeing it 'spelled out' with pictures helps! Happy Stitching!

Quilt Retreat!

 In May, our small group went on a quilt retreat for a week - well, for some it was two days and others the full week but we had a great time and really got a lot accomplished with our quilting. Gerry and Wonda are sharing pictures on their iPads and always ready with a smile.

 Gerry is stitching now. . .

 and so is Gloria! From early morning til late at night!

 Nancy, from Tattered Garden, got a lot of stitching on her appliqué, plus some other machine projects. 

 We finally got out one day for a quilt shop visit and lunch.

Jane made great progress on a quilt for her daughter and son-in-law. She began with 20 star blocks and when I left a couple of days early, she had doubled that amount so I'm sure she's done even more now. We even took out time to walk and enjoy the beautiful surroundings in the North Georgia mountains.

 Here is one project I worked on - another construction quilt like I made for my grandson last year.

And now it is quilted!

 I've really been trying to finish up my last year's SBOW with Primitive Gatherings - Words to Live By. I should have put the date 2014 on it but I wasn't thinking when I inked it last year that it would not be finished then. Oh well, that was the summer it began.

 I do have all the wool stitched and hundreds of half square triangles in the making.

 My last two blocks in the border.

 Two more finished blocks with the Primitive Garden. . .

A close up. . .

 This is so perfect with all the crows, as they are all around us where we live.

One more close-up.

And now, it is summer again, and time for another SBOW with PG. My first package arrived today . . some pieced blocks and wool sunflowers! I think it's going to be another beautiful quilt!

And last but certainly not least, who I have been spending a lot of time with lately! They steal Nana's heart with every smile!!