All Roads Lead to Rome

I took a little break from working on the wedding ring star. Shh. Don't tell the bride!

I wanted to test out a potential block for the 4 X 5 Modern Quilt Bee. The block is called Roads to Rome from Quilter's Cache. Pete saw a map of Rome recently and said, "Wow, all roads really do lead to Rome!"


The original pattern makes a 15" block, but I needed a 12" block, so I redrafted it and added the outside border. I wanted a block that was paper-pieced and had some flying geese. Bingo! I hope the girls in Hive 14 like it, too.

In other news...
Julia and Pete spent the past week at Jazz Camp at URI. There was an impressive concert this afternoon for the kids to show off their new skills. Julia sang beautifully and Pete totally rocks on drums! A great time was had by all!

T-Shirt Quilt

This week, I finished a t-shirt quilt that began 5 or 6 years ago.


To make a long story short, an acquaintance asked if I could make a quilt from her running t-shirts. Arrangements we made, the quilt was started, then I didn't see her again for several years.

Julia met her this spring through Josh, and the connection was re-established.

Julia surprised her with the quilt last night and she loves it!

(The garden tour was just so you'd have something pretty to look at!)



In case you need proof that there is a teenage boy living in my house,
I present Exhibit A:

Running shoes on the kitchen table.

A Busy Week!

Wow, time flies. I didn't intend to be away from the blog for so long. We have been super busy, but it's been the fun kind of busy!

Julia and Josh went to the Homecoming Dance, and she looked beautiful. We couldn't convince Pete to go without a date and he didn't want to ask someone to go with him. Maybe next time.

I was so proud to present Julia with her Girl Scout Silver Award. Next up: Gold!


I dug out this craft from the past for Thanksgiving. I made these walnut and felt turkeys with my mom, probably about 30 years ago! It's amazing how well that Sobo glue held up. Is it weird that I remember what kind of glue we used?


And a couple of new crafts:
I love my yo-yo tree from the current Quilts and More magazine. I'm obsessed with making yo-yos now. I have a Sizzix die cut machine and I'm using it to cut 4" fabric circles. It sure beats cutting all those circles by hand!

Pete has a new craft, too! He's melting vinyl albums into bowls. None of his father's vinyl was injured in the making of these bowls! We scored some decent titles at a thrift store.

We're jumping into Christmas preparations with both feet. We have an Advent wreath-making workshop at church tomorrow and then we'll start decorating. Julia and Pete want to make the most of the season this year. Lots of baking, decorating and gift making. Yay!

Happy Advent!

Happy Birthday, Janet!

It's Janet's birthday! I hope she's having a great day. It means so much to me to have a friend like her, which I can tell all of blogland, but can't tell her in person or we'd both be standing in puddles of tear. We have a lot in common- Girl Scout leaders, happily married mothers of 2, love to craft, attend the same church, etc. I gave her a birthday postcard last night at the last middle school concert of the year.

My incredibly talented son played in all three groups: Jazz Band (his favorite), Symphony Orchestra (with only one rehearsal!) and Stage Band.

And Janet's lovely and talented daughter, Lea on bass. Pete described her this way: "She's- like- awesome."

I finished 3 of the 4 Linus quilts for our guild meeting on Wednesday. The baseball one on the left is a cheaper by the dozen quilt. The small quilt in the middle used left-over twisted happy blocks. And the big one on the right was started at the guild last year with donated 6" squares.


I tried machine stitching the binding thanks to the encouragement and tips from Judy. I'm really pleased with how they came out and I was able to bind all three in one day! Thanks, Judy!


My heart was broken by a dear this week. This is what my lily plants look like now. Big, fat, juicy buds, completely gone.


I'm ready to dig out all my lilies! I don't think I can take the disappointment another year. When I spray diligently, I am greatly rewarded. I'm not usually that diligent. The last time I saw flowers on this plant was 2 years ago. Oh, well. I guess it wasn't meant to be.


I'm off to work on crafts for a Girl Scout fundraiser. Maybe a certain Girl Scout will finish them when she gets home from school. Will this school year ever end?!
Tina