Priceless Gifts

Today a lovely surprise arrived in my mailbox, an anonymous gift from my Secret Pal! There were two polymer zipper pouches from the quilting diva, Bonnie K. Hunter. Link.

These are just perfect for an overnight trip to the day spa when you need to have a little work done.

Water-resistant inside and out, they will hold gummy tubes of toothpaste, shaken-out-but-still-moist toothbrushes, furry hairbrushes, and one-tooth-missing hair combs.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Victoria Carroll-Parkhill with Frances Hodge Hugelmann, (born 3-8-1916, died 11-25-2015) enjoying coffee at The Belmont, New Hampshire, Senior Center. Photo taken by Beverly Murdough, 10-15-2015.

The most priceless gift of all, of course, is God's eternal Love expressed as friendship.

May you abound in your friendships!

Happy sewing!

Steamy Times!

My goodness it is muggy! Tropical air from what was Hurricane Jose has traveled up the eastern seaboard and brought hot humidity right back to us here in New Hampshire. Ewwww!

I say, "Make it snow!", then everybody groans and says, "Oh, no!"

The Sunshine Club met today and we had fun chatting, quilting, and chomping a little chocolate.

Sue was sewing away joining up her sashings to her applique Winnie ther' Pooh blocks. They look so sweet!

This is Sue's first ever applique project and her work is beautifully done!

Meb had brought in some Half Square Triangle blocks in beautiful Civil War fabrics and she was trimming them to the perfect size.

Mary came in just very briefly for us to all wish her a very Happy Birthday, and I was grateful to her for snapping my picture. Here I am, hand hemming my Sunshine & Shadows log cabin.

Meanwhile, when I got home, I was thrilled to see that Husband Wonderful had baked this fabulous sugar free peach pie! Oh boy! Thanks, Honey!

Here's hoping that you can stay cool and comfy and sew on!

Happy sewing!

Quilting at the Studio

Although the Friday quilters at The Golden Gese are not meeting today, I'm glad to share with you my Saturday quilting session at the Ellen Peters' studio.

Here's Ellen, loading up my Civil War log cabin.

This is the one that is the setting called, Sunshine & Shadows, although I've also heard it referred to as just Light & Dark.

After I had put on the piano key border, the top measured 72" square.

As you can see, I used a pretty antique tan quilting thread in both the top and the bobbin.

The quilting was my personal favorite, big loose freehand spirals. These are such fun to do, I'm just rolling along and humming a song!

It was a lovely day and not too hot and I think that I was done in about an hour, wheeeee!

Ellen had been cleaning and sorting out her vast library of quilting books and gave me this nice handful of duplicates and/or culls. Thank you, Ellen!

That is one of Ellen's cats, this one is named "Sparrow". He was looking on and enjoying my gift of a calico catnip mouse.

The backing of my quilt was made up of two short cuts of a Windham cream colored print. Looks nice, eh?

Earlier that day, I had made up and prepared my binding for this quilt. I used an older Jo Morton brown foulard called "Savannah."

When I got back home I was tired! But after a rest, I sewed the binding onto the quilt and was very pleased with myself.

Now I'm ready to work on the hand hemming of the binding for a while.

Fortunately, Husband Wonderful just replaced my bulb on my Ott light! Thank you, Honey!

Happy sewing!

How To Post A Comment

Some folks have told me that they do not know how to post a comment on my blog.

First, scroll down to the end of the post to where it says, Posted by Vic in NH

On that same line it will read however many comments there are, which might be 3 or 4 or it might be none or No Comments. Click on that with your mouse.

A pop-up screen will appear that shows any comments that have already been made to that post, if any.

Scroll to the bottom of the pop up window and there is a place for you to comment. Be sure to click on the "I'm not a robot" check box, and then click the button that says to publish your comment.

Because of spam, I do not allow anonymous comments so you must be signed in to publish a comment. The available choices are clearly listed.

Thank you for reading this and I hope it helps you to participate in more conversations!

Happy sewing!

Pretty Gifts

My blog has been a way to meet some of the dearest people in the world! Recently two of my quilty friends have showered me with gifts. First was Janet O. whom you may know from her blog, Rogue Quilter. Link.
She sent me some of her lovely Civil War scraps that are large enough for me to use to make more 2½" mini tumblers.

They are so pretty! It was fun to thumb through each one and marvel at them.

Here is my lap-desk arrangement for cutting the mini tumblers while I watch TV with Husband Wonderful. Thank you so very much, Janet!

Meanwhile, he was processing organic Red Haven peaches for the freezer for pies this winter, yum!

But wait, there was another gift that just arrived this morning! Annie M, from Washington state sent me these beautiful and beautifully made blocks for the Hopscotch quilt.

Annie also enclosed some of this delightful herbal tea that has green tea and strawberry basil. It is wonderful hot or iced! Thank you Annie!

There can be no finer blessings in the world than good friends to share things with!

Happy sewing!

September Morn

Happy September, everybody! At the Friday quilter's last week, Maureen was busy cutting out squares for her own layer cake to make this neat baby quilt pattern.

It's all HST's but arranged in a big starburst. Here she is cutting.

She got it all sewed up and over to her quilter, Tracy Szanto at Dreamland Quilting.com. Link.

Didn't Tracy do a gorgeous job on the quilting??

Good work, Maureen! This is a real winner!

My Tuesday group had lots to present to show and tell with Mary having finished her quilts for her grandchildren. These are wonderful!

Here's the one for the boy that also looks great!

Good going, Mary!

Sue was hand tying her king sized hourglass quilt and making good progress on it.

Sue also got a good deal on a nice sewing machine locally. Look at this! It was a Baby Lock for $50.

Works terrific and she's already figured out how to load a bobbin for it. Good girl!

Joyce wasn't up to sewing today, but she had such a cute tote bag that I begged her to show it.

Later on Tuesday I drove over to the Farmer's Wife sewing group. Camille was moaning at how badly curled her pretty primitive crow applique was after it had it's binding on it. Uh, oh. It looks like a platter.

She figured out that the curved edges really needed a bias binding and she'd cut straight binding.

But fortunately she has more matching fabric to make a new binding that is bias cut. Here she had carefully removed all the old binding. Presto! Now it lies flat and smooth.

Camille had a different primitive that came out beautifully!

Sue was almost finished with her pretty appliqued wall hanging. Looks great, Sue!

My work on binding my little heartstrings red quilt was soon done and I loved having it finished at last!

These quilts are so useful and they appeal to the gypsy in me!

Felix is outdoors harvesting peaches from our overloaded trees. These are some of the white peaches that we've enjoyed. They are so sweet and juicy!

Miss Emma and Mr. Tipper won't eat the peaches but they love to nibble grass shoots together.

I'm still making Hopscotch blocks and want 48 for a donation quilt to Hurricane Harvey relief.

We pray for all the flood victims.

Happy sewing!