Busy times and little stitching

Oh, it has been almost a month since I have put up a blog post. Busy times! My big sister, Cathi, came to visit for a few days! We had some fun visiting with the youngest grandchild and her mother during her time here.  Right after she departed, I hopped a plane (or 3) for a trip to Texas.

I spent two wonderful weeks in Texas with the grandchildren and their parents and have had SO much fun!  My 8 year old grandson was watching me as I was basting hexi’s , and wanted to do a “little sewing too”.

He did all the basting stitches,

and then joined all the hexi’s together.

check out his “whip stitches.  I’d say he is doing a pretty good job for his first time out!  He sure does have the concept down pat!

He worked on that hexi flower for 2 solid hours and got it done!  I asked him what he thought he wanted to do with it once it was all stitched together. He was uncertain, so I helped my self to a slightly worn kitchen towel from the drawer.  It had a few worn spots that we “covered” with the flower.  I helped with the “stitching down” to the hand towel , because his mom was due home “any minute” and he wanted to surprise her!  He told his mom that he made “something old new again“.  She appreciates re-purposing things!  I think he did a great job!  Surprising what you can do with a few bits of fabric that some people might just throw away.

The youngest of the grands in Texas  is 4, and she wanted to “sew” also.  She picked out some hexi’s that I had already basted, and artfully arranged them into a flower.

Then she decided that Grandma should make her a bag.  Luckily, my daughter had a partial “fat quarter” in her sewing box, and I managed to put together this little bag – completed in an hour or so, under the constant supervision of said 4 year old!  (After it was done, she told me she wants me to teach her how to make a pair of shoes…….curious child)/

I did get a few more than this done in between working on the children’s sewing — I think I managed to get 4 double diamonds assembled.  Only managed 1 photo, but sometime soon I will put them all back up on the design wall again!  (Right after MITTENS is finished…….still a WIP on the wall!)

While visiting in San Antonio, I visited Las Colchas Quilt Shop.  Worthy of a visit if you find yourself in downtown San Antonio.  Small shop, but packed full of lovely items.  I brought home a few fat quarters as a reminder of my trip.  Of course, we did lots of eating of wonderful regional foods!  Time spent in San Antonio is fun; and one place we visited downtown was called The Pearl.  It is the best “urban renewal” effort I have seen in a long time.  I put up a bunch of photo’s in an album on FLICKR – The Pearl .(https://www.flickr.com/photos/92296158@N02/albums/72157672440816744 ) It is an old brewery location and there must be 6 or 8 city blocks that have been redeveloped along the San Antonio River. Free parking and pecan trees were a bonus.  We stopped in at La Gloria for chips, salsa and guacamole; and at Bakery Lorraine for a cookie. The pecan trees were all over the place and the grands loaded up a bag full of the wonderful nuts. They were quite the Urban scavengers!   We enjoyed doing a little shopping and a nice walk along the river too.  We poked into the lobby and bar of the Hotel Emma!  What a great  building.  The remnants of the brewery were embraced in the wonderful lobby and bar area. If I had a million dollars and an opportunity, I would move into one of the new condo’s at The Pearl.

I spent 2 solid days on my return home, working on the never ending stack of donated fabric for the Ocean Waves Quilt Guild Second Time Around table. Thank goodness for the 4 ladies that came on Monday and Tuesday to help me dig through and sort, measure, iron, fold and price some of the items.

The rest of this week is dedicated to my time at Sit & Sew Camp, being held in a nearby church facility.  The members of several quilt bees, associated with Ocean Waves Quilt Guild are gathering to “sew together” on their own projects. We meet from 8:30 – 3:30 and visit, and sew, and laugh and catch up. So nice to spend the time with lovely women who  are so talented.

Today I worked on “pumpkin blocks” and some more “leaf blocks”.  I am hoping to have enough ready to make 3 Autumn Jubilee Table Runners.  Thanks Carole – From My Carolina Home for the great patterns and layouts.  I missed the last 3 weeks of Autumn Jubilee on Carole’s blog, so I am making up for lost time.  Today I made a batch of pumpkins

They will go along nicely with those Autumn leaves I have been working on!

I spent my last 2 evenings gathering fabric and getting ready to go.  I made a kit of the fabrics for the pumpkins, plus I cut more squares for Autumn leaves.  I am going to add a few greens, reds and a little more brown to the collection of leaves.  So, more 2.5″ and 3″ squares. At the Sit & Sew this morning I stitched and trimmed up a stack of half square triangles, so I am ready for “leaf assembly ” tomorrow morning!  Hope to have some “assembly” that looks like a table runner by the end of the fun on Thursday!  I’m sure I would be more productive at home, but it is great fun to gather together to sew.

Happy stitching!