Labor Day Weekend

Hubby and I had a really good Labor weekend together. Friday night we took off for North Carolina to spend some time with Hubby's uncle and cousins.  It's kinda cool to live close to family that we have never lived very close to before. 

A side note on traffic:

One thing I have observed about life in the southeastern part of the country is that the interstates really never have empty stretches without much traffic like one can find on interstates in the Midwest. In other words...traffic is almost always heavy out here in the east! It can make for some stressful driving.

We got into town a bit late on Friday, so we headed straight to the hotel. Saturday we did a little shopping (we are on the hunt for the perfect bedside lamps for our bedroom) and then headed over to Uncle's house after lunch. On the way there, I got a text from my daughter wanting to know if I wanted to Skype with her an Lydia. I am not one of those Grammy's who would pass up seeing my grand-baby, so of course I said yes! I even sat in the car for a few minutes talking while Hubby went in to his uncle's house. Grin. Miss Lydia even looked into the camera on the phone and smiled at me! I had fun watching her crawl around the house. Skype is the coolest thing. 

Another side note:

Remember encyclopedias? My parents had a couple of sets of encyclopedias and I remember looking through them when I was a kid. One thing I remember being fascinated by was the entry about how telephones in the future would have little TV screens where you could see the person you were talking to! It seemed so far fetched and beyond my comprehension at the time. Flash forward a few several decades and here I am, half-way across the country talking to and seeing my daughter and granddaughter on my phone while I am riding in the car! 

We enjoyed an afternoon of chatting with Uncle and catching up on the news and learning more about each other. Early evening Hubby's two cousins and their families came over to visit. Uncle treated us all to BBQ at his favorite restaurant. So good to connect with them all.

Sunday involved an epic shopping trip to IKEA.   We came out with two shopping carts full....probably the most we have ever bought at IKEA. We were buying some great things for organizing the fabric in my sewing room.(Of course we came out with a few bonuses because who can shop at IKEA and not come out with some extra stuff, I ask you?)

 Now to just do the organizing. Yikes. 

More pictures of that to follow...

When we got back onto town, we decided to head to downtown and find a place for sushi. Our daughter and son-in-law took us out for sushi a couple of years ago and now we actually like it! This was our first experience going out by ourselves and choosing everything on our own. We even ordered something that was raw.  We liked everything! Wonders never cease.

Monday afternoon we went to see the movie, War Room. If you haven't seen it yet, get your butt to the theater! It is good, people! A very powerful message on the power of prayer. Hubby and I have been talking about how to change our prayer lives as a result of seeing the movie. It is definitely worth seeing.

Hubby and I had a really good long weekend together. I'm grateful for that and was sad to see it end.

Some Quilts

I thought I would post some pictures of a few of the quilts I made over the past year. I know I have a few readers who would like to see them.

I made this quilt for a cousin and her husband. They are just absolutely great people and we love spending time with them. They love the Lord and are very encouraging people.

The pattern is called Double Slice Layer Cake. I think I found the pattern in a book, but I don't have access to the book right now, so I can't link to it. (Yay for moving!) But here's a link to a YouTube tutorial for the same pattern. (A "Layer Cake" is a pre-cut package of fabric cut into 10" squares.) I love how the borders turned out. I've tried a few times to create my own borders (not following any directions) and this is the first one that turned out even better than I thought it would! The scrappy binding is  a perfect finish.

The backing was pretty fun too! It's a print that combines all the fabrics in the line together. In the corner with a red frame around it is the label. I try to make a label for each quilt. My sewing machine has a few simple fonts to choose from.


Below is a wall hanging quilt I made for my hubby's birthday. Well, he only opened a box full of fabric, not the actual finished quilt.

The pattern is called Kaleidoscope.  I bought a ruler that included the pattern. This was easier than it looks, which is a fun thing. Looks impressive, but is pretty simple.

I put a red and black binding on it and had it quilted with red thread.

I am pleased with how it turned out. Hubby is going to hang it in his new office. I sure hope he has the wall space! I haven't asked him that yet.

I'll periodically put up pictures of the quilts I've made. Last year was a prolific quilt making year. It's fun to have a record of them.