Family, friends, baby showers, haircuts, banking, more friends and more hugs – that’s what this past weekend was all about! We were back in the old neighborhood for three days, and we managed to cram those days full to overflowing! I wish I could say I whipped my camera out at every opportunity, but I confess I was too busy catching up with friends to get too involved with documenting the activities! But here are a couple -
First of all – my dear Birthday Buddies -

The three of us have gathered during our birthday month (November) for the last umpteen years (we really couldn’t figure out how long it’s been!). Now that I’m on the road, any time I’m in town is a Birthday month for us – so, (not that I really want to hurry it) Happy Birthday to Connie and Bonnie and me – it was such a precious time of sharing and praying with you, dear friends!
And then there was the Baby Shower for my DIL, Abigail.

Again, being on the road has pretty much eliminated my ability to attend any showers for my grandbabies (except for Ellie who was born before we set out). Imagine my delight to be able to share in the celebration of a shower for my newest grandbaby (a boy!) due in early July. And as a bonus, Gary got to spend the afternoon with Josiah. A good afternoon for everyone!
Quick Quilt aside – here’s a close-up of this fun black and white quilt I made for Baby C.

My buddy Lynne made a couple of these for her grandsons, and I loved the idea! I found a little bit of color for the front -

and then lots of color for the back!

I sure hope the little guy likes it!
But along with the blessing of going to the baby shower and getting to see our kids, we also got to spend time with our good friends, Joe and Janet. They housed us and fed us and didn’t mind when we kept taking off to see folks and go places. They are the best! No picture, of course. But here’s one of their backyard –

They have some really beautiful gardens (not to mention a killer veggie garden that is behind that fence!), filled with all kinds of flowers -



But one thing I was reminded of especially this visit was that beautiful yards and gardens like this take a ton of work.
And a ton of mulch!

(That’s Lily heading to the patio, but the pile of mulch in the background is what was still waiting to be spread.)
I sure do love looking at that yard, but I sure am glad I have none of my own!
It really was a Five Star weekend. Besides the shower and the Birthday Buddy Bash, I got to play cards with dear friends, enjoy a Starbucks with a buddy, stop by my old job and enjoy a great lunch (and company) in downtown D-town, have my hair cut by the girl who cut my hair for twenty years before we left town (instead of a random person at Cuts-R-Us), worship at our old church and generally collect hugs. Lots and lots of hugs. Loved, loved, loved it. (Gary had fun too, but let’s face it, the weekend was more fun for me than him. He cheerfully played chauffeur and even managed to get the tires rotated. See, he had fun too!)

We’re back in Egg Harbor City for couple of days. Two more days of work and then Thursday we head to New Hampshire. We’ll be dropping the rig off at our June project – Pilgrim Pines Camp - and then heading to The Cabin for the week between projects.

I can almost smell the wood smoke now…….

Did you have a good Christmas? For the first time in several years, we actually woke up Christmas morning in the home of one of our children. Last year, as I recall, we spent the day in a Walmart parking lot. The year before we were hanging out with SOWER friends while we bided our time waiting for our New Years trip to Columbus (and our official Family Christmas ). So this year, though quiet, was still very special. Cinnamon buns, coffee, a couple of presents, family. All the good stuff!

Oh, and let’s not forget the other members of the Waco Family!
Later in the day friends of Lara’s brought us dinner, and we actually managed to clear off the dining room table. And along with dinner, they also brought their precious almost 3 year old, Henry.

While it wasn’t quite the same as having my own grandchildren clustered around, it did my heart good. (And in the spirit of this new technology age – we’re totally engrossed in an iPad.)

It was a quiet year also in the Christmas Craft department. I was still determined to “use what I had” in the fabric department, so I decided to see if I could make my sisters each a nap size quilt made from my stash.


Except for the fleece backing, I was able to make them both from leftovers. It’s a good thing I have sisters that are willing to help out with reducing the fabric weight in Lizzie!
And while I was pretty focused on getting the grandkids practical things for Christmas (like winter boots and gift cards for diapers), before we left for Waco, I came across some leftover squares from a quilt I made for Hayley several years ago that I thought might work for some cute little girl purses.
And they did!


I’ve been told they were quite a hit!

OK, the natives are getting restless here so I guess I’d better join the “party” in the kitchen!
More up-dates on that front soon!

As a “sewing SOWER” I have often been asked to make curtains. Sometime the host gives me a credit card and tells me to go to the store and get something really nice. Cost is no object.
OK, so that NEVER happens! Occasionally we do get to go to the store (usually a Wal-Mart) and shop like you and I shop – trying to get the nicest fabric we can for the least amount of money.
Sometimes they say, “We got this bolt of fabric on sale. Do you think you could make it into curtains?” Or sometimes it’s, “We just found this box of curtains. Do you think you could make them into curtains that fit the windows in the cabins?”
This time it was – “We’ve been given a couple of boxes of fabric. Do you think you could make curtains for our dormitories from it?”
Well, let’s see what we’ve got!
Turns out the fabric was from a local (closed) bedding factory, and it consisted of pieces measuring 108” x 96”, with one finished edge. And I mean lots of pieces!

In their previous lifetime I think they were going to be king-size bedspreads, but my job was to make them into 26 pairs of curtains for Palmer Hall.

Better get to work!
There was lots of ironing,

measuring and cutting,


(Never underestimate the value of notes when you’re doing production line cutting/sewing!)

And after three days it was all cut, pressed, and ready to sew…..

And sew I did!
I found I could crank out a pair of curtains in about an hour, so my goal was 4 pair per morning. That would leave me with time to get them hung with a little wiggle room for the inevitable “man, I didn’t count THAT window!”
(Yeah, that happened.)
But when all was said and done, what had looked like this –

Now looks like this –

OK, so it’s not Martha Stewart, but I think it’s a start. It might not keep the morning sun out too well, but at least the boys won’t be peeking in at the girls (or vice versa!).:)
Since we are here on this SOWER project by ourselves, my best friend while making these curtains was this –

Thank you Chris, Bebo, Andrew, Tim and all the rest for keeping me company and not minding as I sang along!
Gary’s jobs here at Bethlehem Family Camp have been a little more diversified. He’s cleaned and serviced A/C units,

did a fair bit of work in the bathrooms , including boxing in sewer pipes and making partition walls for the showers –


And installing handrails in all the toilet stalls on campus (about 24) but the photojournalist failed to take pictures of those!
He also built a fire door/wall in one of the dorm’s stairwells -

It needs a little bit of work before it actually IS a firewall, but it’s a pretty good start for a guy working alone.
And when he ran out of hammer and nail (or should I say saw and screw) stuff to do, he picked up a paint brush and got to work on the Tabernacle –

He was one productive boy this month!
We’ve worked extra days this month since we wanted to get an early start on our December Project. In fact, we’re already in Waco, TX (leaving Lizzie there in Bonifay) where we’ll be helping DD Lara with her kitchen remodel. We plan to be here through Christmas, so it was pretty interesting trying to figure out how to pack for our extended stay. We got it all in the truck – now we just have to make sure we remember to get it all back.

Even the dashboard plant came along for the holidays!

And Gary has already started making a mess in the kitchen!

So, what has over 3000 pieces and has taken well over 5 years to complete?
The Memory Quilt!

It’s been almost two years since I first mentioned this project, making memory stars from fabric I would pick up along the way to remind me of the different places we’ve seen, SOWER projects we’ve worked, family and friends we’ve seen, and other things that I, well, just wanted to remember! I’d collect fabric, work on the stars about a dozen at a time, recalculate how many I still needed, and then keep on collecting! I had the main part sewn together (all 179 stars, in no apparent order!) by the time we left for Alaska, picked up the border fabric while we were in Alaska, and after the Christmas sewing rush, got back on track with sewing that baby together. And last month I finally got it to a local machine quilter. We picked it up on our way here (Palmdale, CA), and I got busy on the binding.

(Meals? Who needs meals!)
Yesterday, March 5, 2010 it was finally completed!
Here are some of my memories, up close and personal!

Some of the stars are pre-trip – quilting friends that contributed squares, or the base fabric from the wedding quilt for our son Toby and his bride, Tammy.

This one reminds me of our February 2009 project where it rained and rained and rained.

Ah, the sweet memories of a weekend with my nephew, his lovely wife and beautiful new daughter!

New Hampshire, Georgia
Arizona, Nashville

Gary’s flannel “lounging” pants (that finally wore out!), Cabin Curtains

I did have to add a couple of stars to cover our Alaska Adventure, but they worked well as corner blocks.

I’m really happy with the machine quilting! I had it done at Georgia’s Quilting Obsession in Beaumont, CA, and I think she did a really nice job!
See where the binding changes from blue to green in the above photo? Here’s a close-up-

That’s to remind me to always cut an extra strip of binding before you use up all your extra fabric on other projects!

Although I had planned to use it on our bed, now that it’s finished, I realize it’s actually a little more than our little bedroom can handle!

But even though it may not have a (visible) place of honor in this little house of ours, it still is a treasure to me.
Ah, the sweet memories……

One of the really fun parts about being on the road is all the fun ideas for things that you gather along the way! There are some very clever people out there, and I’ve been fortunate enough to cross paths with many of them!
Last year, just before Christmas (that would be Christmas 2008), a SOWER friend shared with me what I can only call an “I Spy Beanbag”. The concept is to take teeny tiny things and put them (along with the “beans”) in a beanbag that has a window in it. Then the activity is to find the different items by moving around the beans to reveal the items. Got it?
No.
I’ve had a pretty hard time ‘splaining it to folks, so I’ll just move to the picture.

Clockwise, from the bottom right -
The items that went into the beanbag. (Even though I watched for things throughout the year, at the end I did rely heavily on buttons. There are some amazing buttons out there!)
The three completed bags – made from pant legs of an old pair of Gary’s jeans.
A close-up of the window itself.
The pocket side of bags. I found cute kid’s jeans at thrift shops and used some of their “fanciness” to make the pockets. And the pocket holds the list of what is actually in the bag.
Pretty fun, eh? I think the grown-ups had as much fun finding the different items as the girls did (at least on Christmas morning!).
So those were my “everyone gets one of these” items (and thank-you Joanne for the great idea!).
But it was home-made-ville for the girls individually as well!
Back in 2005, I had made Ellie a quilted sweatshirt jacket.

Imagine my delight when last summer she asked me if I could make her another one since she had finally outgrown the one she had. Yessiree Bob – Grammas really like to hear things like that! When I asked what color she would like it to be(six year olds have some strong opinions about those things, you know), she replied, “purple”. (Silly me – I really should have known!). I started collecting purple fabrics, and eventually put together this -

I think she liked it!

I had been inspired to do some knitting for Hayley. Or actually I was inspired to ask Lara (my knitter-extraordinaire daughter) to knit a sweater for Hayley and then I would a knit a matching sweater for her doll. It was a good plan, but I discovered just before our Christmas Eve that Hayley didn’t actually HAVE a doll that my sweater would fit. So, as it turned out, Maddie’s doll got a sweater that matched Hayley’s beautiful sweater, and I quickly purchased a cute dress that went with Lara’s sweater. Ah, the best laid plans…..
But anyway – here’s the little sweater -

and here’s Hayley wearing her sweater and holding baby Sarah (with special thanks to Maddie for sharing!).

And special thanks to Toni who shared her cute sweater patterns with me! (Oh, and to Lara who did all the “big knitting” and found the great yarn!)
I wasn’t sure what to make for little Maddie, until I remembered a cute reversible dress pattern that someone had shared with me last fall. She makes these dresses in a variety of sizesand then sends them overseas to various missions when she hears of a need. The dress is totally reversible and only has about 3 inches of hand sewing involved. Sounded pretty sweet to me!

The dress was a little big, and I think it took me more time to find a plain brown shirt to go with it than it took me to make it, but all in all, I think it was a success. Here she is in her dress with baby Sarah.

Thanks, Evelyn for the inspiration for the dresses.
With the girls all wrapped up, I only had one more gift to worry about – my precious daughter-in-law, Abigail. Since I was still on the homemade kick, she got a quilted purse-

(and if she stands next to Maddie, they’ll match!). I’ve made a couple of these purses (I have one and so does Lara), but I want to thank my buddy Rosie for her inspiration in making these bags. And watch out, Tammy, you might be next!

My final “fun thing” isn’t really a crafty thing, but just a fun idea if you have grandkids. I wanted to give the girls something fun for Valentine’s Day and I remember someone telling me about sending a bottle through the mail. Here is what I started with -

We cut a door on one side of the bottle and glued the top on. We even splurged on fancy bottles, but I don’t think the water tasted any different. Just so you know.
Then we filled them as full as we could.

Final step – putting the label over the “door” and taking them to the post office!

The girl at the post office hardly blinked an eye – so give it a try! It’s sure to bring a smile to whoever gets a bottle of goodies in the mail!

Fair warning, there’s still a little craftiness to come…..