Not A Fun Start to 2011!

I've been sick with a nasty cold for the last 4 days.....was in bed the whole time!  I did manage to do a little hand piecing.....freaking out the whole time that I might lose a needle or pin in the bedding.....kindof sucked the fun right out of it!

I was feeling a bit better today, so I finished up the Spider Web top!  Yippee!  I love love love it!

I'll be putting the quilting of it on hold for a bit.  I need to start working on my MIL's quilt.  She turns 80 in March, and there is going to be a huge family reunion in San Diego for the event!  Folks are coming from all over the country.....can't wait to see everyone!

So, as a gift to her, I am finishing one (or maybe two!) of the quilt tops that my late FIL's mother had made back in the 30's/40's.  There are 5 of the tops, and my MIL had them since about the 60's, when the lady passed away.  Since then, they had been in a big lump in the corner of the garage!  I remember seeing them (before I was a quilter) and thinking what a mess!  Of course, my MIL at some point thought it was a good idea to wash them.....in the washing machine and dryer!  Well, on our last visit out to CA, my MIL handed them all to me and said, "You quilt now.....you can finish these!".......Ok.....sure!

Since I knew she had washed and dried them, I put them in a closet and never really looked at them, cuz I knew they were probably just a big wad of thread now!  Well, a few months ago, I pulled them out, and really looked at them.  And they are not so bad!  Most of them were not pieced very well, and don't lay flat at all!  But there is a LaMoyne Star that only needs a bit of fixing here and there, and that will quilt up fine, I think.

Then there were a bunch of Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam blocks....in all phases of completion.  I managed to find 15 decent (not too much staining) and completed ones, and pieced them into a top.  Now I just need to quilt it up.  This is the 'for sure' one that I'm doing.....mainly because my MIL has always LOVED the Sunbonnet Sue block......every time we'd go to a quilt show......that's the ONE quilt she would oooh and aaah over!  It's never been my thing.....but this quilt is for her.....so I'm doing it!

When it's finished, I'll post a pic.  I'm not sure how I'm going to quilt it......there are really large open alternate blocks to fill with something, and they are solids, not prints.  So, like the one I did at xmas, I'm going to have to do something special in the blank spot!

Maybe it will come to me in my dreams!

Ok, I'm taking my Nyquil and box of tissues back to bed now!

regan