Graduation Quilt for my Girl

Over a year ago, I started a special project for my daughter. She was set to graduate high school in mid-June 2022, and I was determined to make a quilt for her to take to college.

Jewels' favorite color is red, and Lori Holt was hosting a Red Sampler Quilt a Long on her blog. The 12" and 6" blocks came straight from a collection of her books (Farm Girl Vintage, Farm Girl Vintage 2, Great Granny Squared, Vintage Christmas, all of which I had. And boy, did I have an abundance of red and white fabrics to use.

So, I worked on blocks, 50 of them, in secret. While she worked no more than 10 feet away from me on school tasks, I chose fabrics and pieced blocks. One day she caught me. When asked, I simply told her that I was making some red and white blocks and wasn't sure how I would be putting them together (seriously the truth!) I added some patterns that meant something fun for her; a camera as she's majoring in photography, an owl for education and a cow as she has a special affinity for that particular farm animal.

As I worked, Jewels expressed more and more interest. I finally told her that I was making her graduation quilt. Elated isn't a strong enough word. She was over the moon! Now she can help me pick out fabric and plan the layout. 

Once the layout was done, I quietly completed the top and sent it to the longarmer for quilting in January. I added backing and Cuddle to the back so she'd have a heavy and snuggly quilt to bring to college. I stopped talking about the quilt, and kept it hidden for a few months.

Jewels indeed graduated with awards and a perfect 4.0 average in June. That same afternoon, I surprised her with the completed quilt. Even though she knew about it, Jewels was so surprised and excited to see it finished!

This labor of love brings a smile to my face every day. Seeing it on her bed, and wrapped around her helps ease my mind that in a few short weeks she'll be nearly 80 miles away on her own in college. I am hoping this small piece of home will remind her how very much she is loved, no matter where she hangs her hat.

What's for Dinner Wednesday

Need a quick and yummy dinner to feed the fam? Especially when we are all so busy with spirts and sun and camps this summer. But it's great for spring, fall and winter too!

Get yourself some boneless chicken on sale, about 3-4 lbs, although this does work with bone-in chicken too.  I buy a large family pack, and sometimes can find it in the specials section of our local stores meat department.

You'll also need two 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes with green peppers, celery & onions and a bag of wide egg noodles. I only used half the bag for my family of 4, but adjust to fit your family.

Line your slow cooker with a Reynolds Slow Cooker Liner (super easy clean up). I recently invested in a new slow cooker and just love how easy this Hamilton Beach one is to use. Literally set it and forget it! And the warm feature is a winner - hot food when we need it is a plus in my book.

Sometimes I'll add onions if I have them. Pretend I did tonight LOL. Thinly slice an onion and add to the bottom of the slow cooker. Next, lay out your chicken and sprinkle with garlic powder and pepper to taste. Pour the tomatoes even over the chicken and cover the slow cooker. If I am able to set it in the morning before work, I'll let it go 8 hours on low. If I am putting it together at lunch time, I'll cook it 4 hours on high. I do prefer the low setting as it makes the chicken nice and juicy.

Serve over the egg noodles. No veg side needed - this is a hearty meal on it's own. If you want some leafy greens, a garden side salad would be a nice balance.

This is also wonderful over white rice if gluten is an issue...I ran out so we used egg noodles instead tonight. (I ate my chicken over gluten-free noodles and it was spectacular!)

Enjoy!

Found!

When my basement studio flooded in January, much of my quilting items (fabric, notions, etc.) were swept to the side out of harm's way only to land in a haphazard jumble of storage bins and boxes. While I am extremely grateful that these items do not appear damaged by the sudden rush a of water caused by the broken heating pipe, thinking about tackling that ominous pile has been daunting.

I decided yesterday to just open one bin and look inside. 

Did I find the missing Tips & Tricks Quilt along blocks? Nope.

Did I find that water had snuck its way into the bin and ruined my projects? Nope.

I did find some bundles wrapped up and labeled "In Progress". Hmmmm...now I was curious. I pulled what I thought was one out and brought it upstairs with me. One seemed like something I could handle.

It ended up being two projects - yay! 

And one looked like Tips & Tricks. Again, nope.

This one was a flannel log cabin project I was designing. It's was labeled as a tree skirt, but looking at it now, I'm not sure the measurements would make a large enough size. Four 18-1/2 unfinished blocks are completed with many strips cut out for more. Since there was no project start date noted, I am at a loss as to how old this is.

I was really excited for the next bundle.  Let me give you the back story first.

When my art studio was open, I was actively making quilts, but teaching decorative painting and scrapbooking classes. I was very new to quilting and didn't feel ready to teach it yet. I worked on my skills by completing JoAnn's blocks of the month. After I had completed one, I sent it out to be quilted (my first one ever sent to a long-armer!) and it came back just in time for my studio's open house. So before I bound it, I hung it over the front counter to add color and texture fully intending to bind it after the event. It stayed right there. Even after my studio closed in 2005. After my second child was born in 2008. And after I went back to work full time in 2011. Life happened and the quilt stayed and was buried under more life, and more life....you get the idea.

Fast-forward to 2022 and the great flood! The pipe burst right over where this quilt hung, and as such the quilt took the main brunt of the damage. I pulled it out, let it air-dry and then accessed. And cried. It was ruined. My ambassador friends over at Pat Sloan's Facebook group helped with ideas on how to clean it (I ended up taking it to our local dry cleaner who hand-washed it - remember it was not bound all this time.) Now came the repairs. Here are a couple of bad pictures of a little of how the edges looked:

It's hard to tell but they were very uneven and pretty ugly. And I found a hole too! Clear through the top to the backing. I was able to trim the border 1" all around the even up the edges. I then folded the quilt up, and it's been sitting in my dining room for a month while I tried to find fabric for the binding and to repair the hole.

Guess what the second bundle was?????? YES!!!! All the leftover fabric from this quilt! So now I had binding, and plenty of fabric to make any other repairs (have to figure that part out soon.) But, how old was this quilt, and what would I put on the label? Although I vaguely recall JoAnn's including a label in one of the monthly blocks, it wasn't among the fabrics that I found, and I'd never attached one before it was quilted.

So, everyone knows Google is the greatest encyclopedia LOL, so I began searching. A little over an hour later I found out that this was the JoAnn's 1998 Classic Quilt. 1998?!?!?! They're calling it "vintage" on eBay! This means that I pieced the top over the year 1998, and knowing me, sent it out for quilting as soon as I'd saved the money, sometime in mid 1999-ish. And if I received it back even by the end of 1999, that means it's been in my basement unfinished for more than 2 decades! After this heart-breaking realization came the epiphany that I am now rescuing it. Did I neglect it, yes.  But now I can repair it and shower it with love.

What did I learn? Don't let this happen ever again and share my story, so it doesn't happen to any more quilts.  Bind your quilts, or ask your guild for help. You spend so much time and your talents creating the quilts not to finish and care for them. If you cannot finish them for any reason, there are guilds and organizations you can donate them to who will finish them and give them to those who will love these beautiful works of art.

Stayed tuned for my bound quilt - it's on the sewing machine as I type! It won't be perfect, but it's on it way to being finished - finally!