Maggies quilt and JB’s kid

Although I still have some hand quilting to do on Maggie’s quilt I started machine quilting yesterday.  I’d been quilting fabric for totes and needed something different to do.  Maggies quilt is queen sized!  Amazing for someone who’s six!  I’m so excited to get to this part of the project.  I’ll get back to the hand quilting soon enough and plan for the rest of the machine quilting.

The quilting in the middle of the leaf is free-hand.  I drew the leaf in to fill the diamond as much as I needed and then went wacky with the rest.  It’s fun that way as I get to just play with the quilting!

The fabric for the center hexagon is just gorgeous!  A white background with lovely full pink roses.  As I pieced the quilt the white really began sticking out like a sore thumb.  As I started quilting I thought I can knock this back a bit.  I chose gold thread and have quilted kind of densely so that the white is still visible and the flowers get some attention.  I’m also outlining some of the flowers in maroon for a bit of detail.

Here’s a close up of the quilting on the white and around the flowers.  The more I quilt this fabric the happier I am with the decision to knock back that white a bit.  And I get to quilt and quilt and quilt.

This is one of the six feathered hearts that surround the main body of the quilt.  I used a stencil to do make the heart this size as it made sense with the quilt.  I’m not sure if I’m going to do the grid work in the center or not.  We’ll see once I get them all quilted and figure out what I’m going to do with the rest of the quilting.

And now for JB’s kid.  JB called the other night needing a good scream.  And I made her scream twice.  The twice is because the first one didn’t quite make the cut.  See JB has four kids…and overall they’re good kids and are really pleasant to be with.  She’s had her share of mom stories that are just funny.  MJ and I were encouraging her to write a book of short stories as she’s really good at telling tales of her kids antics.

Back to the other night.  JB had been working really hard all day getting ready to put wall paper up on her walls.  In an old farm house this takes a lot of work cleaning and prepping the walls for the paper.  JB and her sweet dh do this themselves.  Being farmers he’s out in the fields right now probably haying, if I remember it’s that time of year.  So JB is on the phone needing to talk to someone. . . and not just anyone will do she called me.  So, youngest kid Z is in the tub and JB is working on the walls.  Z decides that tonight is the night for a very special kind of bath…a bubble bath!  I remember as a kid how much fun bubble baths are, all the different types of hair and creatures that can be made with said bubbles.

Z takes a newly purchased bottle of kid shampoo and proceeds to dump it into the tub.  Not too many bubbles so he dumps about half the bottle in.  JB goes to check on him and finding him in some bubbles begins the mom inquiry regarding said bubbles that she didn’t put into the tub with him at the beginning.  Frustration level rises as he explains about the need for bubbles in the tub, the newly opened bottle of shampoo and not enough bubbles.  JB drains the water and begins filling tub again to clean said kid up and lo! and behold! much to JB’s consternation and Z’s delight bubbles.  When she called me he was sitting in a tub half full of just bubbles!  Happy kid.

JB calls me, we chat, she begins getting the frustration out and here we are several days later and JB is one happy lady.

Happy Quilting!

Teri