Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Melon Patch Rows is a Completion!

Third finish for the year! It was supposed to be finished up by the end of April if all my planning would have worked out. Unexpected company arrived for a long weekend and that was that. Apparently this is the year for the 'Oh well! What will be will be' happenings! 

It's a finish!
I am so very happy to see this Melon Patch Rows {Jubilee} quilt brought to a true-blue finish! It's an odd quilt probably to some, but it gives me all the feels.

Such a feel good quilt
It makes good use of some abandoned parts from a previous quilt attempt and joins them up with a declaration that just so happens to deeply resonate with me.

Always love the look of words on quilts
The colors in this quilt didn't want to be true in the photographs, but hopefully you can get the overall look and feel from all the of the pictures together.

Really pretty quilt in the right lighting
I found the perfect binding in the totes. I'm sure it's been there for well over 15 years! Really helps lift the quilt with a lighter, happier vibe than a solid would have. And bonus--it's not something that I ever really cared to use in a more commanding spot in a quilt.

Who says old fabrics can't be beautiful!
I'm always interested in how the hand stitching comes through when viewing the backside of a quilt. Does it have a good look throughout or does it just look choppy and disconnected? This one passes muster for sure! Every time I wonder why keep hand quilting? Something like this convinces me to keep on making the effort.

Loving the stitching texture
Next up in the hoop is 'Ode to Joy'. I've been diligently applying myself to the hand quilting ever since returning from our sons wedding. Closing in on the centerpiece here pretty soon! It has been a bit of a pain trying to decide on what pattern to quilt, but this looks okay so far.

Next up in the hoop!
Next up will be quilting the pear blocks and in-between fabrics. Still trying to decide if I want the thread color to pop or if it needs to blend in. So far I'm blending the thread more than I expected to, but that's what the quilt seems to want.

Ready for the pins
We took off for Oklahoma for our sons wedding and were gone about ten days. First we drove to Portland, Oregon to our eldest sons home where we spent the night. Early, early the next morning I flew out of the Portland airport with our DIL, the three granddaughters and her mom. Our granddaughters have never met a stranger {plus have boundless energy}, and so are a LOT of work in the airports. It took both of us moms to help corral them for the two flights to Oklahoma and back a week later. 
The happy couple with me and my husband!
Then, later in the day, our guys jumped in a truck and drove straight through to Oklahoma. They decided to drive out so they could rent a U-Haul trailer and bring back our new DIL's stuff. Us girls hung out at my daughters in Tulsa for a couple days and then met our guys in our DIL's hometown nearer to the wedding. 

Our youngest son is married!!!
Lots and lots of fun visiting, helping to decorate, and of course celebrating with all the family and friends the day of the wedding! The bride and groom were very happy and looked quite handsome and or beautiful! We are feeling very blessed to have a new addition to our family. Both of our older granddaughters got to be flower girls and while they both did an awesome job, this little gal stole the show! Reagan never took it too far, but let me tell you, it was hard to concentrate on the bride and groom when she was busy blowing flower petals off of her fingers etc.

Reagan looking super cute
Lucy has been a flower girl a couple of times before, so she wasn't quite as excited as her younger sister. On the first flight home though, she got her moment. One of the stewardess's asked Lucy and me if she'd like to meet the pilot? And next thing I knew, there she was, sitting in the pilots seat and pretending she could fly a plane! So thrilling for her! The pilot was very sweet and generous about it all.

Lucy having the best of times!
Mom and the other grandmother had went on ahead to their seats and didn't realize what was happening behind them. They had an anxious moment wondering what had happened to us, but all was well. No one was kicking us off the plane! 

That last flight home was rough though. All of the I-pads had ran out of battery charge due to a long layover and the littlest granddaughter was absolutely done with the entire adventure. Thankfully we sitting in the very back of the plane so hopefully not annoying too many people. Except for one flight attendant. She was having a really crabby day and kept taking it out on us. Probably didn't like fussy kids, but hey, she did things like make us wait a long time after serving everyone else their snacks before giving ours to us. Or serving the little girls drinks without the lids and straws on like all the other planes had done previously. Who does that on a plane? Not giving us napkins. Plus, she wouldn't let us sit in the very back row, we had to sit one row up because she said the seat was 'messy' when all it had was a box of gloves in it. Later we figured out that she must have been saving the seat for a friend and then got irritated when it didn't work out because the plane was full? and her friend was late? That's what we managed to piece together. But we survived and nobody got into a brawl.*wink

So happy to be home safe and sound and back to the regular. Took eons to catch up on all the laundry of course. And it's been hard to get back into the sewing/quilting routine. My husband has been constantly wanting me to go with him when he has to make a building material run to Home Depot etc. He says he enjoys my company, but I'm thinking he just wants a nap while I do the driving. haha  

Also, I've been trying to get back into my yoga routine, something that I started up after being so sick this winter. Was a little bit hard after taking almost 2 weeks off to travel, but I really like being in better shape than I've been in decades. Still have a longs ways to go before I'm very good at it, but it makes me happy even when I'm wobbly and/or pathetic at poses. Yoga is a low-impact exercise {Ugghh to the high cardio plans!} and actually very relaxing/soothing to me. Plus I've dropped another couple pounds. Yay me! Our life gets very stressful at times and it's well worth the time it takes to fit this into our busy schedule. I never thought this would be me, but I'll go do Yoga instead of quilting if that's the choice I have to take. Crazy. What is happening to me? But really, I just hated being so sick and feeling like an overcooked noodle afterward. Being so wimpy. Some people get into shape to run a marathon when they turn 50. Evidently, I'm doing Yoga. Who'd of thunk it?


11 comments:

  1. Audrey Felicidades!! Tuviste unos días muy divertidos y movidos, disfrutando de tus nietas y familia ¡¡los novios muy guapos!! me siento agotado solo de pensar tanta actividad, disfruta de todos los momentos vividos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful quilts, I love these pears! Congratulations to the newly married ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. pretty wedding picture and love the stories of the travel - the little ones look so cute and looks like they had fun even if the flight back wasn't perfect you hear so many horror stories now on travel. I used to do yoga all the time and now I am not flexible at all - I wish I could slowly get back into it but just never start. Love the pear quilt

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love your word quilts, and the way you mix in the parts and pieces from a previous start. Those pears have always been a favorite too. Hard to believe your youngest son is married, seems not that long ago he was in junior high when I began following your blog. Time waits for no one i guess. Great wedding photos, precious times.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a super post! I adore seeing your sweet granddaughters and wish your son and DIL many, many happy years together. Your quilts turned out very nicely. Thank you for sharing them. You always inspire me.
    Keep up the yoga! We have a friend who, on his 70th birthday, decided to lose weight and start walking. Then did a 5 km marathon. Then a 15 km marathon, then one the same length of the Boston marathon. As one who is NOT in any shape (but makes awesome quilts, lol) if I had a do-over, I-d opt for yoga & walking. Forge On!

    ReplyDelete
  6. The words on your quilt really resonate with me too. The quilt came out great and hand quilting is almost always worth it! Your next quilt looks good too. Good thing to do your yoga! I don’t do yoga, but I do a number of stretching and strengthening exercises most days and walk most days. It’s critically important that we stay active as we grow older.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congratulations on the addition to your family and the happy couple! And congrats to you on the finish of a fabulous quilt! I love words on quilts too and this one is a real treasure!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jubilee speaks volumes and is such a positive reminder to us. I may not do everything right, but my heart is in right place. You looked fantastic at the wedding and I can see how your granddaughter could steal the show!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yes I can see why you keep hand quilting... so worth it for the texture! Delightful photos too, little Reagan looking very sweet!

    ReplyDelete
  10. There is so much lovely and exciting stuff going on with your family, I am amazed you find the time to quilt at all. Jubilee is definitely a winner for me, both the sentiment and the overall look. As for yoga - why run a marathon when instead you could stick your foot behind your ear?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Belated congratulations on what appears to have been a lovely wedding! That flower girl (sigh). And I love, love, love your finished quilt (I've loved it all along, but even more now). Younger son does yoga and I'm contemplating his chair yoga book . . . Quiltdivajulie

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting! I love getting comments and always try to respond via email. Please leave an email in the comment to ensure a return reply! {Many of you are popping up as Anonymous for some reason, so I have no idea who it is.} Regardless, I appreciate all the comments and read every single one.