And then there were six.

This past Saturday, as part of our Thanksgiving festivities, my family and I went to see The Blind Side. This has been on my must see list since I first heard about it months ago. Not only does it involve Ole Miss football, but it also involves a couple who were my contemporaries at UM. It’s a pretty remarkable story – one I wish we heard more often. It’s the story of a family who opened their home and their hearts to a young man whose hard life had left him with nothing. Not only did they commit to being a safe haven for him, but they went so far as to become his legal guardians. He became family. They became family.

Friends at work started a project over four years ago. It began when they fostered two little sisters – 22 months and 9 months.

At some point, I decided I would make cuddle quilts for these two girls.

Adoption had been discussed, but the arduous journey through the court system dragged on for years.

And then sister number three was added.

And then sister number four.

And a couple of weeks ago, after much delay and anticipation, their family increased officially from two to six in just one afternoon.

And I got to deliver four quilts to four little girls.

APQ Update

After a couple of sew days with my friend,
there are now nine complete blocks.

Seven to go.

Hotty Toddy

I've been away from the blog for a few weeks. Been out of pocket.

I went to the big quilt show in Houston for the first time. Pretty amazing.

My favorite great-aunt passed away after a valiant battle with cancer. Three times this woman went up against breast cancer - and while in her 80's, too! I'll have to tell you about my Aunt Kat another time.

I've hosted both my bee and my art quilt group.

And I made a trip to my alma mater to connect with friends.

A visit to the Ole Miss campus never fails to put me back at a time and place in my life when there seemed to be endless possibilities and new discoveries around every corner. The friends I made in college are still my friends today. And I can count on them. There's a freedom and an ease in our conversations that belies the shared experiences of a maturing time in our lives. A time when we were becoming independent thinkers and adults - no longer children. No pretensions. We all know better.

The campus of the University of Mississippi is exceptionally beautiful. I'm not the only one who thinks so either. And you can almost feel the ghost of William Faulkner as you walk the square in downtown Oxford. He is still there, you know.

Every home game weekend, the biggest and best house party in college football sets up in the Grove and the Circle in the heart of campus.

People pay big money these days to hire students to set up their tents and tables. Why didn't we think of that when we were there? We could have raised a bunch of money for summer mission projects.

The tops of pop-up tents as far as the eye can see in any direction. There is no way to adequately photograph it all.

The next generation has arrived ...

and others are waiting in the wings.

She was just too fast for the camera. The tape on her back lists mom and dad's cell phone numbers just in case she scooted out of familiar territory.

Something I've never, ever seen on campus, much less in the Circle. She was a bit anxious 'cause her "mama" walked away for a moment.

A cleverly named necessity.

The old man and the tree.
The largest catalpa tree in the state of Mississippi.

Good food, good friends, good times.

Jack and friends

Last night, before the rain got here, I walked around the block with the dog on leash in one hand and my camera in the other.

The guys at the end of the block have added a big spiderweb at the end of their porch complete with one huge spider.

Their flower beds are covered in orange and purple lights and have all sorts of jack-o-lanterns strewn about.

I think this pair just discovered the skeleton couple
on the settee behind them.

Next door to the guys is neighbor Peggy. I like her worried pumpkin.

This house is in the next block over. Last year I snapped a shot of their car with the tag that reads "Ghastly." The white lanterns to the right are actually plastic skulls. You should click on the picture to get a better look. I love the chandelier.

After walking the block, I headed up the hill behind me to this address. Every year this place is decked to the hilt at Christmas and Halloween. All of the remaining photos are from this one location.

This old wooden trailer sits right next to the railroad track.
I imagine engineers get a kick out of these.

I love the use of plastic trick-or-treat pumpkins and white lights for this string. It has such an old-fashioned feel about it.

This is a view down the sidewalk in front of the house. Can you imagine being a kid on Halloween (or anyone else for that matter) and walking through this magical scene?

I got spooked a little taking this shot. Had the tripod set pointing up the steps and saw a big shadow pass right over me. Turned to see a big ghoul hanging from a tree swaying in the breeze.

But my favorite thing is this sweet fellow. There are always several vintage light-up figures scattered about the property and this little bear all dressed up as a ghost tucked in amongst the bushes is the most adorable.

No ghouls here after all.

Boo Friends

About a month ago when Gwen and I had a sew day, she was putting together a fun seasonal quilt around a Halloween panel she had received in the mail. Here are a few of my favorite embroidered blocks.

Didn't she do a great job?!

And so it begins - Star of Bethlehem

This is not meant to be unkind toward the great ladies at Land’s End who put their time and effort into creating this project, but after sewing for many years and quilting for quite a few, I have to say the instructions for this pattern are a challenge to follow. Some templates are not exactly the correct sizes and that makes me a bit nervous. Therefore I have decided to start with the trickiest blocks to be sure they come out to the prescribed 15.5” unfinished measurement.

This means I have begun with the block they call Star of Bethlehem. And according to Judy Rehmel’s “The Quilt I.D. Book,” they are correct.

Now for fabric choices. I plan to make this quilt a bit scrappy. A pallette of eight fabrics is just not gonna cut it in 2009. Some will come from my stash, some from Aunt Donna scraps, and larger pieces, such as borders and setting squares will have to be purchased. In fact, I’ve already found two of the three borders and most of the setting square fabrics.

Back in the late 80’s the choice of Christmas fabrics was extremely limited. Most of them were small prints and I believe, at one time, I had just about all of them for use in my crafting ventures. Of all the fabrics used in the original cover quilt, the green plaid is the only one I had. And, yes, I still have a piece in my stash.

So as an homage to the original, I have used the printed green plaid in this first block. It is only proper to place it just as they did back in 1987.

After encountering 32 Y seams in this one block alone, maybe I have discovered why I never made this quilt.

One down, eleven to go.

The 1987 Land's End Christmas Catalog Quilt Project

Many years ago, the good women of the Land’s End company designed and made a Christmas sampler quilt. They used eight fabrics in five colors. And then they offered the pattern for sale in their catalog.

I was not quilting at the time, but I fell in love with it and just knew one day I would quilt and I would make this wonderful thing.

My mother gave me the pattern for Christmas and I spent lots of time planning and drawing quarter inch seams around copies of all the templates. I calculated costs and even bought backing. The most expensive fabric under consideration at the time was $2.75 per yard.

But time went by and I decided I was not really interested in sampler quilts. Yet the pattern remained on the shelf as inspiration. And every once in awhile I would think about it, but not enough to pull it out a make it.

Several years ago at a college homecoming weekend I happened to mention to my friend Keith that I was quilting. At this point he mentioned that he had always wanted to have a particular quilt made.

“The 1987 Land’s End Christmas Quilt,” I said.

“How did you know?” he asked.

“I just did,” I replied. Well, what other quilt would it be? Still, it was a pretty good guess. And he had the pattern, too.

Yes, but did he still have the cover from the original catalog with the accompanying article?

I didn’t think so.

If you click on the picture I believe you can actually read most of it. They were so proud of their work.

Around mid-August I got a message from Keith saying that he was still interested in having that quilt made and that he could have some ladies in Austin make it for him. But he knew it was something I wanted to do once upon a time and wondered if I might be interested in taking it on.

I was at the critical point of putting together the last of the APQ stars and said I would have to study the pattern and get back to him. Those last three stars were extra hard because I wanted to drop everything and read through the Land’s End packet.

And so I have decided to take on this project – finally. I will be chronicling the progress on the blog so Keith and anyone else who is interested can follow along. All I ask is that you let me finish the quilt before making any big movie offers.