The Wrath of Irene

Hurricane Irene paid us a visit Saturday.  DH and I are fine but a couple of pine trees from the back of our lot fell and clipped our house.  One of the branches went into an upstairs bedroom and damaged the roof.  We had rain pouring in most of the afternoon!


This tree fell first and hit the other one breaking it off.  They both clipped the house.

This is the tangle of trees next to our sun room.

This is the ceiling of the room upstairs.  The hole in the wall is where the branch came through!

The trees blew out the window in the room we were sitting in.  My husband was sitting right by the window.  We have thousands of pieces of glass in the carpet and on the furniture in that room.  We were lucky.  All over town there are trees down and houses damaged.  Ours is not nearly as bad as many others.  Around the corner from us a huge tree fell on the house and half the house is crushed.

This is a car that was parked in our neighbors driveway.  They moved their other cars to the street!!



The strength of Mother Nature is amazing!  I hope everyone else all along the east coast survived.

Good Bye Irene!

Bad news for the east coast!  Hurricane Irene is on the way.  We have tied down,  bungeed down,  put up and are on the way to the grocery store to buy bread,  milk and wine (the essentials).  She is a nasty looking lady. 

We are trying to be prepared.  Lets hope it won't be as bad as it looks like it might.  Yesterday we thought it was going to the east of Cape Hatteras but this morning it looks like she will go between Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout.  Right now it is a wait and see.   I wish I had a battery operated sewing machine.

We had an earthquake earlier this week!  Crazy weather week. 

Check out the challenge quilts

Lori at Cottonfields has hung the challenge quilts.  Her rules were use the two pieces of fabric and birds.  Look at the different ideas.  They are posted on her blog Talk is Cheap Quilts.  Mine is the one with the Freddy Moran chickens.

My cousins daughter is raising money for a adoption for a friend of hers.  I told her I would make a quilt and she could auction it.  My aunt gave me these squares several years ago and I never did anything with them.  I can't decide what background to use. 




I don't have any more of the orange print but I have some of the stars print. What do you think of this idea?  Here the star squares blend into the background.

The other problem I have is that even with a 4" border the quilt is only 30" wide.  Any ideas about how to make it wider.

The other day I found a site with a  tutorial about quilting as you go QAYG.  I am fascinated by the idea of making a big quilt and only quilting each square.  Have you ever tried it?  I did this square early in the summer but got distracted.  I would love for this to be the beginning of a big quilt.  Any ideas or suggestions?

Four finishes

Almost four!  I finished the twin quilts.  They are bound and ready for my daughter in law.  I am almost finished with this one.

I posted a picture of this one some time ago.  I was not happy with it at all.  I visited with my aunt a couple of weeks ago and she suggested adding the yellow dots in between the squares in a wonky way.  I used the same yellow for the border and then bound it with a bright red!  I love the way it looks.

The best is the back!  This cute cute circus print.  I added a square of the coordinating print on the front.  This almost makes two quilts in one. 

And this is my challenge piece.  Cottonfields, our local quilt shop sponsored this challenge.  You had to buy two pieces of ugly fabric and then create something that involved birds.  I used Freddy Moran's chickens for inspiration.  My piece is called Chicken House.  The quilts are due August 1 so I am a bit early so don't show it to anyone!!

 

I hope everyone is having a great summer.  Try and stay cool.  Can you believe this heat?  Here in NC we had 5,  yes 5 days of 3 digit temps last week. 

Hot Summer Afternoon

So so hot here in the South.  So what to do,  how about machine quilt the twin quilts.  Fix a big tall glass of ice water,  turn the radio on,  make sure the AC is cranked up and sew.  The two quilts are similar but different.  Sort of like triangles we studied in Geometry!

This is the second one.  Do you see the difference?
The mother and maybe the father,  I am not sure about that,  went to Virginia Tech with my daughter in law,  so you see the Tech square?

This is a close up of the quilting.  I used a varigated thread in oranges and yellows. 



They both have the same back.  The couple these are for live on a farm in Virginia and my daughter in law asked me to do something in a farm theme.   Now to bind them.
 

I went to my quilt group yesterday.  There was only one other person there so Lori at Cottonfields helped me pick out a back for the other quilt I am doing for my daughter in law.  This picture is either not very good or I really don't like how this started.  I am going to work with these squares and add something. 

Sometimes an idea just does not work out like I think it will.  Does that ever happen to anyone but me?  Maybe I will add some strips of color to make this wonky.  I want to use these square in some way. 

This is the back that Lori helped my pick out.  I LOVE it!  

I just had to include this picture from early in the summer.  My grandson wanted to be buried in the sand.  As you can imagine it didn't last long.  That boy does not like to be still! 

Ok now what not to do on a hot summer afternoon,  mow grass,  walk around the block,  work in the garden,  in other words,  nothing outside!!

Family minus one

We had a wonderful weekend with the whole family minus our daughter!!  We have several birthdays in May and June so our older son did  a Low Country Boil for us Saturday night.  What great fun! You put everything in a big pot.  When it is done you dump it out on the table and dig in.  It was really good. We had crabs, shrimp,  sausage,  potatoes, and corn. 



I have been working on the twin quilts this week.  I wanted to work at the beach but my little toe and the end of the bed had a run in!  How can something that seems so minor hurt so bad!

I finished the yellow twin quilt this week and put borders on both of them.  This is the blue one.

This is the one with the yellow print.   I have a cute coordinating print for the back.  The back of both of them will be the same.  The stars are the same in both of them too.

One question:  Is it twin quilts or quilts for twins!! 

A couple of weeks ago I had a high school class reunion.  If you want to get in touch with your place in the world,  go to your high school reunion!  It was wonderful.  How can folks that grew up in a small southern town following WW2 turn out so different.  It is amazing and a tribute to our parents and our community.  We were all fairly sheltered but so many of us have branched out and are doing fantastic things with their lives.  I don't regret still being here.  I regularly see folks I started school with.  I am very comfortable with where I am. 

Happy Summer to all!!

Summertime is calling me!

To me summer is Beach,  Baseball and Being with family!  We had the greatest time at the beach with my cousin and her family.  I can't wait for them to come back next summer. 

So enjoyed seeing our oldest grandson at his tee ball game yesterday.  If you want to laugh go to a tee ball game.

A great time with all the family.  My husband cooked hamburger and hot dogs.  Why is a hot dog so good at the beach?




I have been doing some quilting.  I showed this one before.  I guess you would call this a commission piece.  I am doing two quilts for my daughter in laws friend who is having twin boys.  This is the first one.  I need a border.  I am thinking a rich royal blue.  What do you think?

My daughter in law and her friend are both Virginia Tech grads so I had to include their logo.  

















I also attended my high school reunion this past weekend.  What an experience!  I have stayed here but so many of my classmates have been lots of places and done lots of things.  It makes me feel a little boring.   It was so interesting to hear what everyone had done.  I reconnected with several classmates and hope to stay in contact with them.  We are all so different than we were in high school-Amazing!!

So what is everyone doing to beat this heat?  Sewing,  relaxing,  reading, watching TV?