Bekah's (Spring) Breakaway - Day 1

Bekah has arrived in town and our first item on the agenda was to introduce her to a few favorite people. Since she came in at 12:30 and none of us had eaten lunch, we went straight way to Henry's Puffy Tacos to initiate her in the way of Mexican "cuisine."

She can now say she ran as fast as she could to catch the "Puffy addiction!"

Meredith was waiting at home for us to get in and both boys were awake and ready to meet another cousin. Here is Andrew, absolutely taken with Bekah and pouring out smiles (and little drool) of appreciation. He is in a happy stage of life right now and so delightful to hold and enjoy.

Adrian is quite a bit older than when he first met Bekah in Pennsylvania. Having forgotten the whole Santa incident, he warmed up to her instantly and proceeded to show her all of his puzzles. She is quite impressed and each completed puzzle deserves a "high five" or two. After a while, Bekah retired to her room for a little nap, whereupon Adrian went to the bottom of the stairs and asked, "Where's Bekah?"

I'd say she has received the seal of approval from the Moza boys! We're keeping today pretty quiet - after all, she's been up since 3 a.m. - and will eat some Italian food tonight and get our plans underway for the rest of the week. North Star Mall boots, here we come!

Just Wanted You to Know...

..that I'm still alive! A few weeks ago my niece Barbaranne - yes, the owner of a lovely Double Irish Chain quilt! - asked us if her graduating-from-high-school-daughter, Rebekah, could come to San Antonio for her spring break and spend it with us. We were delighted! Older sister Kate stayed with us for ten days last Fall and fell in love with south Texas. So I think it was partly from her ravings that Bekah wanted to come too.

I've been scouring my resources for interesting places to take her. Number one on her list is the River Walk/El Mercado. She is a cook - has been accepted to the Culinary Institute of America in New York - so I want to take her to Pearl Market and one of their cooking demonstrations. The Hill Country is beckoning, luring us with bluebonnets and masses of wildflowers. Bekah arrives tomorrow, so my week will be full and busy.

Just two weeks after Bekah's visit, we leave for the annual Grace Evangelical Society conference in Ft. Worth. Graham has been asked to speak again, and we will have a table to display our ministry. Our Board selected a committee to help steer me into the 21st century with our website and updates to our promotional materials. I've been glued to my computer and printer and various other machinery for a couple weeks. I'm due a good rest! But it will be back to the grind and working toward deadlines. That just gets my creative juices flowing! I love deadlines!

So, to my regular readers, I'm sorry to have stayed away so long. I'm sure Bekah and I will be posting lots of pictures over the next few days. So come back often (yes, you, Papaw!) and enjoy her spring break with her! Let's see, she'll be here in just sixteen hours! Yippee!

And the Winner Is....

My precious niece, Barbaranne!

There were many reasons that I chose to make this quilt for Barbaranne. So, in no particular order, here are the ones I remember.

Her last name is Kelly, which is Irish, which is the "nationality" of the Double Irish Chain quilt.

She endured fifty to sixty inches of snow last winter and some of the coldest temps on record. And I remember how cold I was when we went to Philly. Brrr! So she definitely needs a warm quilt for next year.

She was the only person who volunteered some assistance in picking the fabric and color scheme. As I recall, she said, "My favorite color is red!"

She's my favorite niece on my Mother's side and mother to my all time favorite grand-nieces, also on my Mother's side. And I can envision each of them curling up in that quilt, by the fire, with Milo (the gold kitty) cuddled underneath.

And she's the first-born child of my brother, which makes her very special indeed.

She called when the postman brought her mail, and by her exuberance, I think she'll make the perfect home for that Double Irish Chain!

So, "Cead mile failte", little quilt, to the Kelly household!

All Done and on Its Way

It's done!!!

This is one quilt that has been a lot of fun to make. One reason is that is has a "secret recipient" who has stayed in my mind throughout the whole process, and that has helped to keep my focus.

Another thing I have enjoyed about this quilt is the choice of fabrics. For the quilt that I made for Bill, I pretty much followed the layout and color choices that were in the book I used. I think that method is more traditional, fairly reminiscent of the quilts of our grandmothers. The "chain" part of the quilt is featured more clearly and the back is pretty nondescript. Not so with this latest quilt. I think the pattern and vivid colors give it a much richer look. Bottom line is, I like it!

Here is Bill's quilt, with the very challenging and quite fancy Seminole border.

So the quilt has been laundered, tagged, inspected, wrapped and boxed. And now it is on its way to the Secret Recipient. I hope to hear in a couple days that my surprise has been well received. It's been fun to share each step as it happened, and then see the finished product.

Now I'll just wait for the postman to "do his thing!"

Now Comes the Fun Part (and various other thoughts)

I'm finally getting to the best part of the project - the quilting. I wish that I had the time, the expertise and the equipment to do hand quilting. I think I mentioned the quilts in Lancaster County. They are all totally hand-made, from the piecing to the actual quilting, and they are really a work of art.

Nowadays, machine quilting is pretty much the norm. When I took my quilting class, the instructor tried to get us to do "stippling", which is a method of free-style machine quilting. For starters, my 40 year old Touch N Sew wouldn't do that. And, even if it would, I had no idea how to do it! Nor did I have any confidence in my ability to keep a continuous pattern going. So I fell back on the tried and true method of "stitch-in-the-ditch." It has its own challenges, but is certainly easier and presents an acceptable product. As long as these are being made and given in love, I can't presume perfection.


Here you can see a bit of the challenge - getting the bulk of the quilt rolled up under the arm of the sewing machine! Most of the newer machines take that into consideration and do afford ample room for the size quilts that I make. I can't imagine trying to do this with a king sized quilt! Anyway, you can also see how pretty the backing fabric is. This will be nice enough to be "reversible". I will need to decide on the binding pretty soon. My choices are to use the floral background fabric or the backing. I'm open to either one. Anybody have a preference?

Among my other thoughts, one is a praise for a good report from Graham's doctor yesterday. He has been having trouble with reflux for several years and finally broke down and had the "scope" exam of his esophagus and stomach last week. His doctor found that he has a mild case of duodenitis that can be controlled medically. He also stretched an area at the base of the esophagus that makes eating a much more pleasant experience.

We are getting closer to our trip to France and it seems the travel shows know that! Rick Steves had a program on Paris tonight and spent some time in the Louvre. I think I'm going to purchase a book on the Louvre from amazon.com so we can decide before we get there just what we want to see. We will have two free days in Paris before our river tour begins. I have a couple travel books with some good suggestions, but again, I'm open to all options.

Finally, another grand-niece is coming to visit! We are looking forward to having Bekah come all the way from Pennsylvania to see the "real" San Antonio over the Easter holiday. Her sister Kate spent several days with us last Fall. With two more siblings in the wings, I think we might get into the hospitality business! Graham and I are sure seeing a lot of our city we've never seen before - and we've lived here over forty years! So here's a third opportunity for the suggestion box. Where's the best place to show off San Antonio?

I'll leave the door open for all your suggestions!

Gettin' Closer!

After a week of intensely working on a Theology curriculum, and slipping in a few minutes each day to add another border, the quilt top is finally ready for the layering stage. This is the part that just kills my back and legs because I do the laying out and pinning on the floor. I can't see any way around this step other than sending it out and paying someone else to do this part.

So this morning I armed myself with aspirin and took the plunge! With the larger quilts I can clear out a section in the bedroom upstairs and pin the back layer directly onto the berber carpet. From there the batting and top can be smoothed down and pinned with less discomfort than is experienced on the tile floor downstairs! It's just a matter of degree of pain.


Once I got the layers smoothed and straightened to my satisfaction, I closed the door behind me and took a satisfying break to play with Adrian and Andrew. We watched Adrian put all six of his puzzles together and then brought in Chick Fil-A for lunch. Once they left and I had a power nap I figured it was time to start pinning the quilt.

And look who got to the quilt first! Treasure has been my quilt-tester since the very first quilt. Which is why every finished quilt gets to go through the washing cycle before it leaves my house! That happens to be a good test to make sure every seam has been secured as well. But she must first make sure it passes the comfort test. That's our idea of "quality control".

I'll get back to pinning as soon as she wakes up from her nap. Or moves into the room with me first! More to come...

Just a Quick Look

I'm beginning to realize now, after three years, that February and March bring to me some "crunch time." Our ministry board meets in February to prepare for the Grace Conference, which is in late April this year. So I have about six weeks to get together the papers and website projects they suggest for our display. Thankfully, this year we formed a committee who will do most of the work on the display board itself.

Silly me! I just didn't think about this extra work when I planned to make this quilt. So I am sacrificing my nap times in order to spend time with the quilt. This is where I have progressed as of today.

It will have one more border band that will extend about four more inches on all sides. Then I just need to wash and prepare the fabric for the backing, cut and stitch it to size, and put the layers of front, back and batting together. That's the hardest (on my back and legs) part, and then I'll be able to do the actual quilting. I'm so excited to get this far. I really love having the floral fabric as the background in this quilt. It makes it look so rich.

As a side note, for friends who are keeping up with Treasure, she has finished a two week round of a new antibiotic and that seems to have helped with her bladder infection. I'll give her three days off and then start her on another two weeks of meds before we see Dr. Earl for a follow-up. She continues to amaze us all with her tenacity and will to live (and live well.)