Charlie who lived down the lane

Charlie, our little neighbor, crossed the rainbow bridge last Saturday. He was 14 years old. We will miss seeing him on our walks.

Fly Away

All I have left today are some preliminary notes and an Express Mail slip. I mailed my Journal Quilt to Houston yesterday. Next, I’m going to get started on my Cakewalk project and my panorama quilt. I think I’ll take today off.

If all else fails, read instructions

I've done bindings lots of times, but yesterday under deadline pressure I found myself completely stumped at a corner. Good old Quilters Complete Guide to the rescue. Duh, I knew that.
This bush seems to think it is spring, not fall. It greets me every day when I turn in the driveway after my walk.

Flashback Friday -- Frances

This damaged photo is a picture of my mother, Frances Creech Chapin, as a little girl. When I scanned the photo I realized that I still have the drawer-table in our dining room. We keep our bills in the drawers.

My mother was born in 1910 and she looks about eight years old in the photo. So circa 1918. I have many photos of her with big bows in her hair.

She told me she was a "goody two shoes" (her words) throughout her childhood. She could not understand my rebellious ways. She said she just found it so easy to do what she was told. However, she was not totally a blah person. She began Syracuse University at 16 and graduated with two degrees three years later. One was a Masters of Science in English. That was odd, but true. She was a wonderful actress and taught speech and diction at the University. She was also a "campus beauty" according to a big spread in the Syracuse newspaper. She was engaged to a doctor and then met my father. He was a penniless salesman. She broke off her engagement and married her true love Davis Romine.

Busy Quilting

This is frustrating. I am so busy getting my Journal quilt finished. It is taking more time than I thought it would (doesn’t it always?). Pictures are prohibited until the show in Houston in November. I have to mail it so it will arrive before the 28th of the month.

The little picture above is just a space filler to let you all know I’m quilting. It has nothing to do with the Journal quilt.

Kate's Friend Sophie

A friend and pattern tester, Sophie, made this little woman. She said, “When I saw the wrap top, it reminded me of the pink wrap sweater I was wearing, so I made a version of myself that reflected my graying blondish hair, my sweater, my comfy khakis and brown clogs.” Sophie also said she found exactly the right batik for her hair.

I had made a little girl Sophie named Blondberry back in June

Living for Your Blog

I heard Michael Palin on NPR the other day talking about his book Diaries 1969-1979: the Python Years. He talked about keeping diaries. He said Virginia Woolf felt that you presented yourself “as you would like to be” in a diary. Palin said Alan Bennett gave up writing a diary because he found himself “living for the diary.”

These last few days I haven’t done anything blogworthy. Just the routine walking a mile a day and working on my Journal quilt. I did do one fun thing. You can see it on Gerrie Congdon’s blog.

Framed

I’ve been busy quilting but I don’t have anything to show for it, except this.
This is Dorcas and her child made by my pattern tester Jan Howard. I framed them and sent them to New York today. They are going to the Quilt Bug store in Esperance. I think they might hang on the wall there.

It was easy to put together since I already had Dorcas and her child and a finished circle to use for a frame. I just sewed side strips and top and bottom strips on the little people blocks and put the frame over them. I used a simple running stich on the machine to put the circle on the background. Then I trimed off the extra edges. It probably took me less than two hours (that would be one hour for normal people, but I am the world’s slowest seamstress).
The other quilting projects can’t be shown because one is a surprise for someone, and the other is my Journal quilt. So I am covered with threads and scraps of fabric but cannot do much of a show and tell.