Tony Baloney

My nephew, Tony, is in the Air Force, and has been in Anchorage, Alaska, for the past 3 years.  Fortunately, my sister, Joyce, lives there so he was able to have someone from his family close by.  Tony married Mercatie in June and now he is being moved to South Carolina.  So.  Long story short, they're driving a U-Haul truck there.  All the way from Alaska.  Yup...a long trip! They spent a few days in Wausau with his Mom & Dad & friends.  Ryan (Tony's best friend since kindergarten) left Wausau with them today to drive to SC.  I'm a few hours south of  Wausau...they would be going toward Chicago down the interstate that is about 6 miles down the road from me.  So, they stopped at the truckstop and I ran (drove) down to visit with them for a short while.  I hadn't seen Tony since he left for Alaska...and hadn't yet met Mercatie, so I was happy to see them.  And, though I have heard about Ryan forever (remember...best friends since kindergarten) I don't think I had ever met him.     

Yeah.  This morning at 5:00 (uh-huh, I get up early even on the weekends), I was thinking about meeting Tony, et al., and thinking that I didn't have anything to give him.  Joyce made him cookies to take along when he left Alaska, his Gram made him cookies, Jill was going to bake for him...but I didn't have stuff to bake with.  Thinking, thinking.  Course, not that Tony was expecting anything from me...just thought it would be nice.  Then, I happened to remember that I had seen a 14" pillow form in the closet yesterday.  A pillow form without a purpose.  I know!  I could make him a small pillow to match the ones I made and gave them for their wedding.  I thought that was a good idea.  Go here  & here to see the ones I made in June.

But.  I thought...with all I have on my list to do, I didn't really need (or want) to add in one more thing. 

About 4 hours later, when I was on the phone with Jill (my sister...Tony's mom), I told her about my early morning thoughts.  She, of course, thought I should do it.  I had plenty of time.  Well, she talked me into it.  An hour later, this is what I had come up with...

Wow...that pillow form is really fat!  {grin}  Tony & Mercatie love the small pillow.

Well, that's all I have for today.  Except to say that Tag has been walking around with his food bowl for the past hour or so.  It is just now time for him to eat.  I should feed him, then.  Poor thing.  ha!

By the way.  I added a few patterns & other stuff to my selling blog...The Chocolate Puppy.

Have a good Sunday evening!

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. - Ecclesiastes 9:10

Sunday's Stuff...

I talked on the phone with my BFF Janer for 3 hours this afternoon.

And, I finished my nephew's wedding gift!  Here are the photos...

pillow cover 1...

pillow cover 2...

the backs look like this...

After I redid the one pillow top this morning, I decided that I wasn't going to quilt them...that not all things need to be quilted.  Right?  

So.  To cover the raw edges of the inside seams, I lined each pillow cover with a piece of muslin.  Then, I continued on as I normally would.  Made an envelope back (each half is a piece folded in half, so a double layer), and decided to round the corners.  I sewed around each cover twice, then trimmed the corners, zigzagged the edges (my serger isn't working), ironed them and they are done!  woohoo!  Size:  18" square...I am very happy with them.  I'll get them into the mail to Joyce in Alaska...she's getting the pillow forms to insert.

I got my slacks hemmed, too.  I may get another postage stamp quilt block done tonight.  (update:  YES!  I did...10 down, 6 to go!)  

There's still tomorrow to get more stuff done!

Have a good night.

ta-da!

It's always fun (and time-consuming) to follow links from one place to another to another.  The other day, I was following links and ended up on Kathleen Tracy's blog and then her website.  

I saw a button on her sidebar - 'SmallQuiltTalk', so I followed that link, read the information on the group...and I joined!  The button is on my sidebar...go ahead and click on it to see what this group is all about.  

I jumped right into the quilt challenge that's running right now...an Irish Chain quilt.  There are specific instructions for size of blocks and overall size of the quilt.  Here's what I put together this morning...

It's about 19" square.  Each block is 3 3/4" square, and each little square you see in those blocks is 3/4".  Yes, that is less than an inch!  WOW!  I so enjoyed making it, though.  Strip pieced it, so it went really fast.  I am not sure how to quilt it...a lot of the women do hand-quilting and I really don't want to do that.  The deadline is July 8, so I have time to figure it out.  I have loved the Irish Chain quilts forever, and was so excited to have a chance to do one...even if on a very small scale.  

That was this morning's sewing.  

This afternoon, I started on the wedding gift for my nephew, Tony.  He is in the Air Force, stationed in Anchorage, Alaska (where my sister, Joyce, lives).  Tony is Jill's son (she lives in Wausau...about 2 hours from here).  Tony is getting married in June, and I had no idea what to do for a wedding gift.  Well, John of Quilt Dad and Julie of Jaybird Quilts recently put some nifty pillows together.  What a great idea for a wedding gift!  So.  I made two pillow tops...they need to be quilted and backings made, yet...but here they are.  They'll finish at 18".

I'm done sewing for a bit.  Want to watch my movie and eat supper.  I've had a roast in the crockpot all day...smells sooo yummy!

Perhaps I'll get more sewing done later tonight.

Hope you're having a good day!

HOT, HOT, HOT and HUMID!!!

UGH! I will be happy when I wake up tomorrow to much cooler weather. This heat and humidity just sucks the energy right out of me! Luckily, my basement is very cool, so working on a few orders down there tonight was a bit refreshing. Here is a bright spot in my yard...

And, my hosta plants are blooming...

I will be going to Wausau on Sunday to see my nephew, Tony. He's on leave from the Air Force...here is a photo of him when he graduated basic training.



He'll be stationed in Anchorage, Alaska! The Air Force Base is about a mile from my sister Joyce's house. How nice it'll be for Tony to have his Aunt Joyce so close!

On Monday (Labor Day), I will come home...and bring my Mom back with me to visit for a few days! YAY! I took some time off from work...though I'm not sure what we'll do. I will be sure to take photos, though!