It's been CRAZY! Really!

It's been nearly a month since I last posted......I just can't believe it!  But it's been totally crazy around here......this is what's been happening.......

Silly me invited a couple and their daughter for dinner on Saturday, Sept. 15.  So, of course, I spent the entire previous week cleaning this crazy mess of a house up.  It was wasn't dirty......just had stuff everywhere!  So I wasn't able to blog that entire week!  But dinner went great.....we laughed so hard my cheeks hurt!  I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!  FUN!  (Thanks Racine, Tim and Julie!)

So......they leave at around 10 p.m., and at 1 a.m. we get a phone call.  My hubby is on the volunteer fire department, and it's a call-out.  The text reads Sweden Road........CRAP!.......WE live on Sweden Road!  Hubby looks out the window, down the hill, and the sky is completely RED with flames!  It's the house across the street from Racine's!  So hubby races out......and I sat on our porch for a few minutes trying to decide if I should go down there, cuz I didn't want to be in the way......then thought I might be able to help......so I went.  Racine, Tim and Julie were in their dooryard totally freaked out!  I don't blame them a bit!  I was freaked out, too!  The house across the street was totally engulfed in flames.  I'd never seen flames rise that high, right in front of me!  Unfortunately, there was no hope for the house, but the next door neighbors house was totally saved, with only the vinyl siding melted a bit.

The AMAZING AND GOOD news was that the family living in the house got everyone out.....and they were totally safe!  Thank God!  The couple has 3 children, one is a baby, and the man's sister was visiting, too.  They were all safe!

So, after seeing such a thing happen just 4 houses away is pretty unnerving.  And all I could think about was "That poor family has just lost everything!"   So I figured they needed some quilts!  So I got busy!  Really busy!  In a couple of days, I had the girl's quilt done, and sent it over to Pat's so she could hand stitch down the binding.  The next day or two, I had the boy's quilt done, and Suzanne did the binding on that one!  Suzanne also said we should make pillow cases for them!  GENIUS!  Thank you, Suzanne!  So, she got to work on a girl's pillowcase in pinks, and I had plenty of fabric from the boy's quilt, and Suzanne put that case together, as well!  Yippee!  She also was brilliant and bought 4 new pillows!  So glad she was 'thinking'!  I had no brain left!  Seriously.....it's been eat, sleep, quilt!  My brain was mush!

 The girl's quilt......she's 6.

 Quilting is all over swirls, and the backing is a solid pink.

 The boy's quilt......he's 4.

Quilting was in swirls, again.......and the backing is the tiny stars print from the border and binding.


Now, I still had several baby quilts from when I had a website to sell them, and I've been giving them out as needed.  So I simply had to put a label on one of them, and the baby's quilt was done!  Easy peasy!  I picked the one best suited for a boy.......it's done in the 30's prints, a 16-patch of 1" squares, in alternate  blocks with quarter square blocks.

All over meander quilting, with stippling in the whites sections.  The backing is white.


I figured I would use the grey stripey quilt top I had just finished for the couple.  But it needed to be a queen, and I had originally fitted it to our bed, so it would be too short for a standard queen.  Of course, I didn't have any more of that exact grey to be able to slap on a top and bottom border!  Heck NO!  So I made a trip out, bought more grey (not the same grey), took off the grey stripes, put on the NEW grey stripes and top and bottom borders, and started quilting it.

Now here's the rub!  For the girl and boy quilts, I used a brand new basting method that I had seen on a video.  It worked out great!  They went together easily and with no issue while quilting.  Not so much for the queen quilt!

Evidently, I had left some wiggle room on the backing, not as taught as I usually have it, and I ended up quilting several 1/4 inch pleats on the back!  Of course, I didn't discover this until I was HALF WAY DONE with the quilting.  What's a girl to do.......but take out all the quilting, re-baste (the old, tried and true method), and quilt it all over again!  Sheesh!

This officially became the quilt from hell!  And that made me crazy and sad, cuz I just loved this quilt!  I didn't want it to be a negative, but it was really hard not think of it that way!  PLUS.......I'm trying really hard to get it done so we can give them over to the family who NEEDS THEM!  Sheesh!  The whole time I'm quilting, and having issues, and cursing myself, and starting to spiral into a depression......I had to keep telling myself......"They've just lost everything!  Quit your griping, ya dope, and get busy!"

Reality check.......it's a good thing!  :o)

 Straight line quilting at mixed intervals.  Pieced back.

So.......Suzanne and I just delivered the quilts and pillows to the family.  She seemed truly grateful for them, and her little girl seemed quite pleased with her pink quilt!  The boy was not around at the time, but the baby is as cute as a button.  And Suzanne wrapped the baby quilt around his shoulders in his mother's arms......it was so sweet!  The mom said how the whole community has really come out for them with donations and things.  I'm so glad we could be a part of that!

And I'm so glad I remembered to take pics this morning before Suzanne came over.  I usually forget, unless I've taken some in the making process.  There was just no time for that on this project!

So.......I am back to normal now.  The craziness is over!  Whew!

Hope you are having a great week!  We are thoroughly enjoying the fall colors here.  I'll hopefully have some pics in the next few days.  Suzanne and I are doing a shop hop, and will be heading a bit north on Thursday. Should be great for picture taking, too!  Sweet!

regan