This is my mother-in-law's quilt. I am very lucky in my in laws. Mac and Marie will be celebrating their 26th wedding anniversary this November. Marie is celebrating her 70th birthday the same day. She is a very spunky lady. They came and stayed with Tommy and I for Mardi Gras this year. Marie was just like a little kid catching all the beads and screaming "Hey Mister, throw me something!" It was hers and my first carnival and we had a really good time.

It has been several days since I last posted. I am still working on finishing the previously mentioned projects. Now my digital camera has died. The latch that closes the battery compartment broke off somehow. So, that being said, I don't know when I will be able to take pics of my bags. May try to use Tommy's webcam. Anyway, I thought I would post some pics of my first quilts and my current UFO's. Of course with the way blogger works for me, I will have to upload them individually as separate posts.
I guess before you see my quilts, I should warn you that I am a self taught quilter. I know of no one in my family who quilts or quilted. My mom taught me to sew when I around 10. I remember my grandmother making clothes for my doll's when I was small. But no one quilted. I have always wanted to because I love the patterns and the art of creating pictures with fabric and thread.
I first started quilting in July of 2005. I was living in a two bedroom cottage behind Mountain View Grand Resort and Spa in Whitefield, New Hampshire with my husband Tommy, Rafal, and Tommy's nephew Jeremy. Tommy was working within days of us getting there. Raf and Bug (as Jeremy is affectionately known) weren't. So I was stuck for hours upon hours with these two. The only vehicle we had was my Ford Ranger and it was having issues. Someone always had to be in it so we didn't turn it off or you couldn't get it restarted. Anyway, Raf and Bug had the very bad tendency to monopolize the only television set. I got very tired of watching the History, History International, Military, and the Discovery Channels nonstop for days. So when Tommy got a day off, finally, I made him take me to WalMart in Littleton. I picked out some fabric, a 6" square ruler, a rotary cutter and mat and haven't looked back since. I still have not put those blocks into a quilt yet.
When we moved here to New Orleans, we lived in the hotel for the first 2 and a half months so space was very limited. I decided to make quilts for my mom, brother and mother in law for Christmas. How hard could it be right? I mean it was the end of October and I had til the middle of December. Of course I had to find time to look for a place to live, travel 5 to 6 hours every other weekend to visit either my family or Tommy's and do laundry. All that on top of trying to cope with a severe sinus infection from the mold and such pervading the city. But life in New Orleans in the weeks after Katrina is a whole other topic. Anyway, I spent my days cutting out blocks. I figured that since time was kinda limited I would do easy ones this time and then better ones later. I cut over 800 squares and then sewed them together by hand to make 3 quilts. I ended up having to add to them because the people I was making the quilts for were not children. Well, my mother in law is less than 5 ft tall, but my brother is 6 ft. Then night before we were to leave to go to Bossier City for Christmas at my in laws house, I was still sitting at the sewing machine saying every dirty word in my vocabulary trying to finish those quilts. My dearest husband was right there with me, helping me work the wads of fabric through the narrow opening in my machine. He was very patient with me, although there were a couple of times he did add to my vocabulary :p
My mother in law's quilt has lines of vertical rectangles with blue sashing (pic posted); my mom's has a green cross; and my brother's has his name appliqued on moleskin down the middle of it. As soon as I find pics of my mom's and brother's quilts I will post them.
My ufo's include quilts for my best friend Allison, my sister in law Shelly, and my nephew Thomas.

The previous picture is Rafal Szymanski. Yes he is Polish. This is Tommy's best friend. He and Tommy met working at a resort in Williamsburg, VA. When Tommy moved to the chief engineer position at Mountain View Grand Resort and Spa in Whitefield, NH, Rafal went with us and became the evening shift supervisor. When management changed in early 2006, Rafal left Whitefield. He came to visit us here in NO. Tommy had him working at the hotel within two days of arriving. He lives in what would normally be our living room.

Rafal and Zoe

Blogger is giving me no end of trouble in uploading pictures, so I am having to do them separately. The first picture is PJ. She is sitting in the window of the bathroom in the cabin we briefly lived in when we first moved to Whitefield, New Hampshire. She loved sitting there in the mornings and watching the horses in the pasture just down the hill. PJ is a very friendly animal. She likes everyone. Everyone that is with the exception of my brother Jeremy and my nephew Thomas. All Jeremy has to do is to walk into the room and her fur stands on end and she starts hissing. It is so funny. They both deserve it though because they used to love to torment her by literally rubbing her furr the wrong way. She hates that.
The second picture is of Mitten. She and PJ are sisters. I have had them for 11 years and don't know what I would do without them. They are definitely my babies. Mitten has always been very skittish around strangers. When I first brought Tommy home with me, she claimed him like he was a gold mine in the Klondike. That was HER man!!! It is so funny to watch because she will actually come up and touch her nose to his, as though giving him a kiss. He acts like he doesn't like it but he always looks for her if she doesn't come find him first.
In case I forgot to mention it....the gorgeous man with Zoe is my husband Tommy. He is the Asst. Chief Engineer at the Le Pavillon Hotel in the CBD here in New Orleans. I actually met him online in a chatroom. April 19th of next year will be our 4 yr. wedding anniversary. He totally spoils me. Of course he says I'm not spoiled, just loved alot. Don't know what I would do without him. My one wish is that my maternal grandparents were still alive so they could have met him. They would have loved him.

Mitten

PJ

Tommy and Zoe

Today I thought I'd post some pictures of my family. The first one is of my husband Tommy and our alien canine with an attitude, Zoe. Zoe entered our family in January of 2006 at the age of 5 weeks. The gentleman we got her from said she was full chihuahua. Dad was registered, but mom was not, so she came paperless; which was fine with us. As she began to get older, we realized Dad didn't know the difference between a chihuahua and a jack russel terrier. We tell everyone she is a "jackie rotchi". Mom was a jack russel terrier (jackie), dad was a chihuahua (chi) and her attitude is all rotweiller. You can tell by the picture who her favorite human is. That is her daddy and no one had better come between them for any reason....hehehe.

It took me all day to figure out how to get my picture to show up on my blog. Oh well, it's there now, so what can I say.
I finally finished piecing and embellishing the oriental bag I am doing for a swap in the Yahoo group CQForNewbies. All I have to do is put in the lining and the strap and then I will send it to Peggy in Florida. It is my first cq piece and I like it. I sure hope Peggy does. Her bag to me is beautiful. I will post pics of both bags in a couple of days. Right now I am working on a bauble bag for a swap in the same group. I am definitely happier with it now than I was when I first started because I know so much more now. I'll post a picture of it when I get it done.
I am also hoping to complete a suede vest for my husband. It has been cut out for a while and he has been so patient while I worked on the oriental bag. It won't take much to put together but he has to be here for me to fit it as we are making modifications to the pattern. After I finish the vest, I have to make my Victorian Christmas Stocking for a swap I am hosting. In between I have to finish a quilt for a friend of my mom's, my nephew's quilt, as well as ones for my best friend and sister in law. Somewhere in there I want to find the time to take Sharon B.'s stitching class through joggles.com.
God willing, I will remember to post every now and then...haha.

First embroidery piece for hand_embroidery group on Yahoo

Since everyone else is doing this, I thought I would give it a try. Maybe it will help me keep up with my stitching and cqing, and my extended family. I think I will start this off with a picture of the first item I embroidered. It is a heart that is for a swap in the Yahoo group hand embroidery.