My Superhero

Saturday is usually laundry day at our house. This is a quilt I made for my husband last year. It is a replica of a quilt his Granny made, but hers was so badly deteriorated that I actually encased her old quilt in this quilt!

Anyway, it needed to be washed so I decided now was a good time to finally take a picture of it - especially before it went into the washing machine, because I really didn't know if the red sashing was going to bleed or not. It didn't and as soon as it was out of the dryer, Bill had it back on and headed downstairs to settle in for a movie.

"Here, Jennifer, hold it while I get into position."

"Okay, but I don't want to be in the picture!"

"SHAZAM!"

Enjoy the rest of your weekend

^..^~
Jenn

Regena's Giveaway

I've just discovered a great blog and want to help announce that she's doing a fabulous giveaway! Skip over to her blog, Quilt n Quilt Things, and enter for a chance to win her HUGE prize!

This is just phenomenal! She's giving away a quilt, too!

>^..^<~

Jenn

The View from the Top

See this wall...

This wall needs to have the siding installed up to the gable - way up high at the tippy-topmost point...

that was my job today.

Here's what it looks like from the top of a 30 foot ladder...

This was my view as I helped my husband install the vinyl siding on the house we're building (to sell, that is).

There is an identical side on the opposite end of this house and it, too, needed the siding installed up to the gable....sigh

My feet got real sore and tired from standing on 2 inches of ribbed aluminum, waiting for the next piece of siding (usually around 10' long and sometimes up to 12' long) to be cut properly and then hoisted up with a rope where I juggled it, the nails and my hammer as I attempted to fasten it to the wall while clinging to it with every cell of my body.

Bill took this picture with his phone while he stood on level ground.

I think he was trying to look up my shorts.

We've been working on the siding for almost 4 weeks now and there's still lots to do, even though the average person can't tell if they saw the house from a distance....and it's the real yucky parts, too....soffit and metal around all the eaves (more really high stuff).

Hopefully, we can wrap up the exterior work by next week and move on to happier things like painting and interior trim!

Luckily, I get to spend the day home tomorrow...sewing!

We're preparing for a craft show up in York and I've got plenty to do to get ready. Hopefully we won't get rained out, though there's a chance for some thunderstorms on Saturday.

I've been dreaming up a Christmas version of this mystery quilt that I did earlier this year.

It's called Rose Trellis, but I can just imagine it with reds and greens arranged just so to look like poinsettias in bloom, can't you?

>^..^<~

Jenn

1 Quilt = 3 Quillows

What do I do for a living?Well, if I'm not helping my husband build houses....

Then, I'm stashed away in my sewing room making quillows to sell at craft shows across the state and on my website.

In case you didn't know, a quillow is a personal quilt that folds up into a pillow...also called "magic pillow" and "pillow quilt". I strive to create a unique product and not just an ordinary quillow - fronts and backs made from one fabric each. I love to make quilts, but they don't sell as well as the quillows do, so I try to turn my quilts into quillows - what I deem as an "affordable quilt". So, when Dana with Old Red Barn Co. started her quilt along a couple of months ago, naturally I wanted to join in and make the quilt. So, I started with something I already had in my fabric closet - a "Riviera" fat eighth sampler from Connecting Threads.

I ended up with three different block combinations and didn't really like them all put together in the quilt, so that's when I decided to turn it all into 3 separate quillows.

I LOVE this blue and orange one!

Then there's red and yellow...

...and I'm just finishing up the hand quilting on this brown and blue one.

Here it is in pillow form:

...and quilt form:

I just love the ingenuity of the quilt slipping into the pillow, but I truly wonder how many of my customers actually fold the quilt up back into pillow form! I know I'm too lazy for that! During the summer, ours stay in pillow form because they don't get used too much in the hot weather, but during the winter months, they NEVER get folded up!

Have a great Monday!

>^..^<~ Jenn

Quilt Along Progress

I finally caught up with Crazy Mom Quilts scrappy nine patch quilt along....actually I think I'm ahead of the game...I have about 38 blocks finished.

It's been fun listening to "revenge of the 80s" on the radio and just sewing away, letting the chain of blocks stack up on the other side of my sewing machine.

It's supposed to be a one-a-day thing, but I know I'll be back working on vinyl siding on my husband's construction project this coming week so I won't be able to do any daily sewing; thus, I decided to just keep trucking. I have run out of scraps readily available in my scrap basket so I'm just going to have to dig thru the closet for some "packaged" scraps - those are the ones that I think are too big for the scrap basket, but I've got them packaged up with the other quilt scraps they are associated with just in case I get an order for a set of matching pillow shams or something.

I always have a couple of favorites when I'm working on a scrap quilt. Sometimes it's because I just like those fabrics and sometimes it's that the combination of two totally separate scraps makes such a beautiful picture together...

>^..^<~ Jenn

A God Thing

When I started this blog I mentioned that I "might share about my faith"
Well, today's one of those days when I need to do that. I've got a "God thing" just busting out of me that I have to share about because I hope it can help someone out there who needs a reminder that God does keep his promises to us and one of them is that if we are faithful to him, he will take care of us! I've been inspired and encouraged by other bloggers so, I guess, it's my turn to add a little....

I hope my son doesn't mind my telling his story to all the world, but here goes....

Jeff has been slowly running out of funds this summer and last Sunday he was down to about $48 to live off until he found a job! Yikes! He was sitting in church and the offering plate came around. Now, he knew that he hadn't tithed on the last paycheck he received from a temporary job, so, he said,

"OK...I can give $10, but I can't afford more"....well, that's not the 10% requested by God (see Holy Bible) and he knew it!

"But, all I have is $48 to live off and I don't have a steady job! What am I going to do?"

Still, he heard God pressing him to trust him and give what was the Lord's....so, with a shaky hand, he wrote the check for $20 and placed it in the offering basket - scared about shorting himself so much and taking a leap of faith.

After this, he said the message given by the pastor gave him such a peace as he spoke of trusting God and giving what is due back to the Lord as a true offering thru his own experiences and such.

It was good to hear my son tell me this story and to hear the excitement in his voice as he told of the peace he received and the anticipation of waiting on the Lord to bring about his promises. He had already been to several places looking for a job, and was on his way to more when we finished our conversation.

Well, he called me back a couple of days later saying that he didn't have a job yet, but wanted to thank me for my prayers....hmmmm....at this point I'm anxious to hear what the good news is. He had just received a check for $100 in the mail from his uncle as a belated birthday present (his birthday was in April). Now, my brother (his uncle) lives in England and doesn't have any clue as to what my son's financial woes are at this time, so, in my opinion, it was definitely a "God thing"! God knows that sometimes we need to see a "miracle" in our own lives to help us with our faith. I know this wasn't a dramatic healing of cancer or the raising of someone from the dead, but I see all "miracles" from God, no matter how small, as wonderful and amazing because it reminds me how real God is and how he wants to help us and grow our faith in him. How else can we minister to others and help them find peace and joy in Christ than to experience it ourselves - to have specific examples of God's working in our simple lives and share these with others who need to hear.

So, I'm still praying for my son to find a job and I know that God is already working on that! Perhaps I'll get a chance to share another "God thing" with you before too long!

~~~~~~

Update - Jeff just landed a job as a waiter at Ruby Tuesday and he is so excited! He's always wanted to try his hand at serving and he's got his chance now!

~~~~~~

On a different note and back in the quilting spectrum of life, I've finally gotten started on Crazy Mom Quilts "quilt along" with the scrappy nine-patch block quilt....

although all I've been able to do is go thru my scraps and scrounge about 20 blocks worth out of it....it's definitely time consuming and inspires me to be more organized as I carelessly toss another scrap into the basket!

I also turned the Old Red Barn quilt along into 3 quillows....I started with a fat eighths pack of fabric from Connecting Threads called "Riviera" and ended up separating the blocks into 3 different color schemes and turning each into a quillow - a quilt that folds up into a pillow - two of three pillow parts shown here...the third is in browns, greens and blues and is completely assembled and downstairs waiting to be hand quilted. You can visit my website for more information on this business adventure of mine.

>^..^<~

Jenn

Living Without...

You don't realize how much you use something until you have to live without it...take, for example, this microwave

this crusty, old, ancient, at least 17-year-old microwave. It decided to kick the bucket yesterday. It started making a really loud noise when you turned it on and then you could smell what must have been smoke from the beginning of a bad electric connection and your food never did get warm!

OK, so what to do? I wanted to warm up a leftover biscuit for my breakfast this morning - I can do this! I grew up in a home without a microwave, but geez, that was over 30 years ago!

So, I pulled out the trusty aluminum foil (my husband uses this stuff way too much! He wraps everything in foil before he puts it in the frig! I tell him - "good grief! Use a plastic container once in a while!")

Wrap the biscuit up in foil and after just a couple minutes in the toaster oven...VOILA!

Oh, the buttery goodness!

I remember my mother had a frying pan that actually had dividers in it - 3 sections - and we used to warm up leftovers in that pan on the stove before we got a microwave. Two spoonfuls of green beans in one compartment, leftover macaroni and cheese in another and throw in a little white rice in the last compartment - don't forget to add a little water to the rice to help it cook!

My mother taught me well and we still have leftovers at our house on Wednesday nights - this week should be interesting as I don't have that handy frying pan!

>^..^<~

Jenn