Wrap You In Love

Blankets wrap you in warmth; quilts wrap you in love.

I must preface this post with a little bit of background.  I grew up in a very crafty house, with a mother who always had a project or two (or three or four) going at any one time.  I never wore a store bought prom dress, never had a plastic Halloween costume, and never wanted for either one.  Even back in those days I appreciated the time and love that went into making these one-of-a-kind masterpieces.

The craft gene did pass on to my sister and I.  Between us, we scrapbook, cross-stitch, knit, sew, and quilt.  Quilting has just recently come into my life.  About a year and a half ago I found myself in Sisters, Oregon with about an hour to kill.  I innocently thought I would browse the local quilt shop.  What harm could come from some innocent browsing?  By the end of the hour, I had forked out about $100 and left with the following:

Did you know that you could purchase a “kit” to make a quilt?  They make it so easy.  See, I figured that an hour would never be enough time to pick out thirty different, yet matching, fabrics.  Well, you don’t have to anymore.  You can simply purchase what is called a Jelly Roll and all that work is done for you.

It took a while for me to get this project back out of the closet.  Summer is always a hard time for me to craft.  I feel like if the weather is nice I should be outside working in the yard.  We should be out enjoying the sunshine for the few months of the year that it is warm enough to enjoy it.  I finally reached a point where I needed a project.  Following the simple instructions, I unrolled the two Jelly Rolls:

Sewed the strips together:

And then completed the inside squares (all in one day!):

Now here’s where it got tricky.  I did have to pick two pieces of fabric on my own.  One was the white border that would separate the inside and the outside set of squares.  The other was the fabric that would separate the outside squares.

After sewing the outside strips, I was pretty pleased with this decision:

So here is the final quilt top (finished in day two):

At this point in the process I needed to find an outside place to do the actual quilting.  We are lucky to have an amazing quilting shop, next door to an even more amazing fabric shop, just one town away.  I took my quilt top to Heart to Heart Quilting in Merrill, Oregon.  Merrill is a little town about 20 miles southeast of our house.  The population of 944 is mostly farmers.  These farmer’s wives carry on the tradition of our grandmothers, by making beautiful, handmade quilts.  I completely trusted them to work their magic.

The best part of taking my quilt to Heart to Heart Quilters was that they weren’t afraid to give me honest advice when I went back to pick it up.  In addition, they are excited to see a new quilter, and told me that next time they will personally teach me to do the finish binding work.  Next time????  First, here is the final finished quilt:

Here you can see more of the actual quilting, and the binding finish work:

But the true measure of success with any homemade project is knowing that it is appreciated:

Yeah, there will definitely be a next time.

10 Random Things

I know, I know, it’s been a while.  Sorry about that.  Things have been crazy around here.  And after blogging everyday for two weeks, I needed a short break.  That short break somehow got away from me.

Today I want to share 10 random things that are going on in our lives.

10. Two months from tomorrow is the Honolulu Marathon.  That means that the training schedule around here has officially been kicked into high gear.  It also means that, no matter how fast the weather changes around here, and how cold it gets, there is a sunny warm beach in our near future.

9. Speaking of weather, it’s time to winterize the yard.  I am holding out doing this because it means that the warm weather is over.  This weekend is supposed to be the last of the nice ones, meaning that it is supposed to be 55 and raining.  Scott and I have committed to getting this over with.

8. A couple of weekends ago we traveled north to Albany.  I can’t even begin to list everything that we did in the 48 hours we were there. Scott and Austin ran in the first ever Race for Literacy in Lebanon.

We won’t get into the race results, but we can say that Austin finished 2nd (should have been first) and Scott finished fourth.  Don’t worry, Scott got his first place ribbon for placing first in his age division.

My dad also came out to show his support for both the boys and the Lebanon Rotary who was sponsoring the event.

7. I have been watching a new 10-part series on PBS.  It’s a British show called Lark Rise to Candleford.  I DVR’d the first three episodes and watched them yesterday while I worked on a knitting project.  I watched the first episode and then wondered if I actually missed the first episode.  I was so confused.  I got the feeling I was supposed to know a lot more than I did.  I then watched the second episode and the characters and the plot had dramatically changed from the first episode.  After watching the third episode I had come to the conclusion that I just don’t get British TV. 

I couldn’t handle it anymore and Googled it today at work.  Well, come to find out, Lark Rise to Candleford is actually a four season show on the BBC, but when it came to America, PBS decided to only air the 10 best episodes.  So what I thought was episode one, was episode one in America, but actually episode nine in Britain.  Who the heck does this????  Yes, they then skipped a few episodes and showed episode 12 as episode two.  Are you confused now?  Good, now I am not the only one.  I don’t know why I felt the need to share this with you, other than it was three hours of my life that I will never get back.

6. We sold Zippy the other day.  You may not know Zippy, but we spent over 110,000 miles with her.  She was a member of our family, and I will admit that I shed a tear the last time I saw her drive off.

5. A couple of numbers back I told you that we went north.  In one day, we watch a race, a softball game, and a soccer game.  It’s a rare event when I get to see my niece or nephew play sports.  Time is moving too fast and they will be grown and gone before we know it.

Yes, this is my 12-year old niece, and no, she is not standing on anything.  Ugh, I think I am back to being the shortest person in my family again.

4. I must report that I have absolutely the coolest job in the world!  October is Fire Prevention month, which means we have been busy at work with safety fairs and open houses.  One of the demonstrations at the open house this past weekend included a fireman climbing a ladder.  From the shot at the top, it doesn’t look like much.

But from the bottom, it’s a whole different perspective.

You can spot him almost at the top.

Standing around with the other people watching this demonstration, and listening to their excitement, really makes me proud that I get to see this every day, and that I get to work with these people!

3. While were on the subject of work, I am heading to Silverton tomorrow for the annual Oregon Fire Service Office Administrators conference.  This promises to be another exciting conference.  Plus, this year is being held at The Oregon Gardens, which is a place I have always wanted to visit, but never have.  You know, it’s one of those things where it’s right in your backyard and you always assume it’s going to be there, so you never go there.  It is also home to the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in Oregon, and the only one in the Pacific Northwest that you can actually tour through.  I am hoping to get a chance to go through it.

2. I have a new hobby.  I know what you are thinking, another hobby?  I have taken up quilting.  I have sewn one quilt and am in the process of getting it professionally quilted.  I will share pictures as soon as I get it back.  (Actually, the pictures are on my computer, which is in the shop getting a check up so I can’t show them to you now.)

1. So a while ago I told you that we traveled up to Albany.  While I busy getting my sports fix, Scott went over to Independence to take his niece Emma’s senior pictures.  We have worked with her to narrow down the literally 1,000 pictures down to a few manageable dozen.  I am now using a new photo editing program I found online to spruce up the photos.  Not that Emma needs any sprucing up, but it is fun to see what you can do with the right tools.  Here are some examples:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I am still learning how to use the program, but I am definitely having fun playing around.

And now you know, we haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, we just haven’t had a lot of time to sit down and check in.  Now it’s off to pack for our next trip.  Stay tuned.