Family and the Good Wishes quilt

 We all gathered at my sister Sharon's house on Saturday night. Nancy is still here from Canada and Kathy and her husband came from Missouri, so my brother and sisters were all there. We see both of them when they are back, but they don't always get to see much of each other as their visits don't always coincide. My other 2 sisters and brother live in my hometown, and I live about 50 miles away. It was a good chance to give Mom her Good Wishes quilt.

 She loved it. I filled the pockets with the wishes I had, and the rest of the family will add them as they get them.

 It was a great night and I took lots of pictures. Here I am with my 4 sisters, brother and parents.  My sister has a great deck and gardens out in back of her house, and the weather was perfect to sit outside and visit.

Kathy went back yesterday and Nancy is leaving tomorrow to go back home. We have all enjoyed her visit a lot and I know it has helped Mom and Dad to have her here.

I worked on some more  Funky Rock Stars yesterday. I finished 8 more and have another 7 partially finished. They are so much fun to make! I will post some pix tomorrow.

I'm going to sew with the ladies today, then I have a class tonight. Should be a great day! I love sewing with others! Usually I am teaching and so am watching the sewing, not participating!

Good Wishes quilt finished.

I finished Mom's Good Wishes quilt yesterday by adding the binding. These pictures are a little better than the previous ones and show the buttons I added to hold the pockets down and add detail.

 Family members have been sending me messages to put in the pockets. I plan on going to see them this weekend, so we will give it to her then.

 I also finished my round robin quilt and washed them both last night. 

These pictures are before the washing.

I am teaching 2 classes today....the first session of More Peas in a Pod, that I am teaching as a kid's camp this week and session 5 of Sampler 12 tonight. A very quilty day!

Tuesday snips

 I did some simple free motion quilting on the Good Wishes quilt. My APQS quilting machine is older and doesn't have front controls, so I don't do much free motion. I have to sort of lean over and sideways to see what I'm doing. I can manage simple stuff like this though.

 I didn't want to go through the pockets, but wanted to quilt down as much as I could. So I did a simple zigzaggy down the sashings and sort of swirled across the top of each pocket. I used a leafy panto for the borders. I got all the loose threads tied, buttons attached and binding made yesterday, so I plan on putting the binding on today. Then I will take some better pix of it.

I have an appt. with the dentist this morning and then I will go quilt with some friends. Should be fun (once I get that dentist part over with)!

Mom's Good Wishes quilt....shhhhh.....it's a secret!

 I am making a Good Wishes quilt for my mom since she has to go through chemo now. The thought behind it is that you make a quilt with pockets and people fill them with good wishes, small presents, poems, jokes...basically anything that will help them through any days they aren't feeling so good, or to use for warmth during their chemo treatments. I made one for a friend of mine several years ago. I used batiks and lots of trims on hers, as she loves crazy quilts. It turned out very heavy, so I wanted to do this one a bit differently.

 I played around with some fabrics I had, and pinned the pockets together, then tried to come up with a good layout.  It is sort of a random design I came up with that doesn't really have a pattern, but makes arrows where some come together. I started it Tuesday during my sew-in with friends, then worked on it yesterday as well.

 The top is finished, now to quilt it. I got a gorgeous gold and rusty red colored floral for the back. I plan on doing some squiggly lines through the sashings. Not sure about the borders yet, but will probably use a panto. I am going to add some buttons to the pockets for stability after it's quilted. She doesn't know about this, so if you are reading this and you know her, please....mums the word until I finish it and give it to her!

I then got out the Potato Chip quilt and got to work sewing the squared up sections together. I love the colors on this one and think it will be pretty when finished. I have 4 more blocks to finish, then I will be ready to sew it together.

Today I need to get ready for a camping trip I am going on this weekend with my daughter. I hope the weather cooperates!