A large job.....but one willingly done. This is one of the last quilts pieced by Greg. It had been quilted but Pat was not happy with the quilting so she picked it all out and asked me if I would re-quilt it for her. I approached this job with some trepidation. Greg was an expert quilt piecer...such an eye for color and design. I just used a meandering stitch through most of the quilt. Since it had already been bound it was a little tricky. I pinned it onto the frame but couldn't use the meandering stitch all the way to the outside edge of the quilt. When I finished I did a simple freehand of loops and leaves around the outer set of blocks. I never got the full effect of the quilt until I spread it out on the floor to photograph it. Just a label to attach and then it can go home to Ohio.

CATS are funny creatures. I made this lovely blue satin pillow for Brady...he slept on it a few times and now completely ignores it. I bought him the cushy red furry pillow...he never slept on it, but an old piece of Styrofoam destined for the dump and what does he do?

Anything new in his environment has to be sat on or slept on at least once...sometimes more.

Now, I have read everyone's posts, had my breakfast, drank my coffee...discovered some unclaimed property for DD's in laws, am fluffing the laundry so I can hang it up and move some to the dryer and put in the last load so I have no excuse for not going upstairs and working on the quilting frame. My order of thread came in this morning. Who knew that something that cost so much money could come in such a small box? I always order two of any color so that I have one spool to fill the bobbin while I am quilting but I messed up and only ordered one spool of the grey thread that I needed to do a quit for Pat. Now I have a choice of filling some bobbins in advance or ordering another spool of grey. Since I have three quilts waiting I may opt for ordering another spool. I got the King Tut thread....just love it even though it is pricey....but, it works well on my machine and a spool goes a long way with 1000 yards per spool. No hobby is cheap.

Springtime in Sudlersville. I helped Gary clean a bit in the yard today. I am finding that at my age, I have to do it a bit at a time. We worked on the area that is visible when I look out the window of my sewing room. There was lots of stuff there that had been moved out of the way when they were putting on my new deck and just never seemed to find a home thereafter. These stones were left over when they were removed from around some flower beds that are now covered by the new deck (picture to follow soon). I decided that we could put them around the area near the fence that was never mowed anyway...no grass and too many plants, etc in the way. I particularly like this area...the big chunks of wood in the center are pieces of the maple tree that grew in our back yard but had to be removed a few years ago. We put them to one side so that I could perhaps use them on the lathe....well, they are so heavy that I need someone to come and cut them into smaller chunks with a chain saw but in the meantime the ivy has grown over them and leaves fallen in and around them, then the daffodils came up and I just think this reminds me of a little woodland area so I just leave it as it is. Gary wants to till up the area in the flower beds and 'fluff' up the mulch...he may do that in one flower bed but not this one. I like it as it is.

Well, Nina, I am slow but I eventually get things done. These are the patchwork balls I made. I really enjoyed it while I was doing it...I made several diffrent sizes and just stuffed them with polyfill. I used a chopstick to stuff it in there and just kept pushing and pushing more and more in until it seemed tight enough.

For All the Kiddies in the family.

Like Nina, I make my applebutter in a crockpot. I only have one crockpot, but it is a big one. Last year I got lazy and bought some big jars of applesauce to make my applebutter. If the apples grew in my backyard, I might have felt guilty but they do not, so I do not (feel guilty). The applebutter still tastes better than that stuff from the supermarket.

When I was young, Mom used to borrow a copper kettle from a neighbor to use to cook the applebutter. I remember, when I was about 12 years old, standing in the yard stirring the applebutter with the long handled stirrer. The stirrer looked much like a hoe with the 'hoe' part much longer so it would reach down to the bottom of what looked to me like a huge pot. Mom would put pennies in the bottom of the pot and stirring them around kept the applebutter from scorching. I guess she must have counted the pennies that she put in the bottom and made sure that none of them went into the jars of applebutter...wouldn't want to 'can' one of those pennies. After all, in those days you could but a piece of candy for a penny. One summer she went to the neighbor's house to help her make applebutter. I am thinking that several neighbors gathered there to help peel the apples, cook them down into applesauce and then stir the applebutter until it was cooked down. That was before we built the house on the hill so I was less than 12 years old and I was left in charge of the three younger sisters. Andy was older so he took care of himself. I can remember that Mom was gone most of the day and got home just before suppertime. She was more than a little miffed that she has worked all day helping the neighbor make all that applebutter..I think more than 50 quarts and was not offered even 1 quart for helping. When she borrowed the pot to make her own applebutter not a person came to lend a hand. When we lived 'off the hill' there was a cellar dug into the hill behind the house with a smokehouse over the cellar. Three side of the cellar were underground. Daddy had built shelves on three sides and the floor was dirt with a doorway in the front. Mom would sit in there and peel apples for applesauce or applebutter. It was cool and she would tell stories to entertain us while she peeled. I was the oldest but still not old enough to help with the peeling and she had only a knife...no handy little applepeeler like we have now. To seal the applesauce or applebutter, she would use a water bath...now this was not a pot on the stove but a washtub set up on blocks in the backyard with a fire underneath to keep the water boiling. The tub would hold about 20 quart jars at a time and we would have to keep the fire going until the time was up. There were several acres of property along with the little house that we rented and several fruit trees on the property. Mom canned all summer long...either from her garden or from fruit and berries that came from that little farm. Sometimes Andy and I picked berries and sometimes I watched the munchkins so Mom and Andy would pick. She canned over 80 quarts of blackberries one year. I only picked those blackberries near the house...I wasn't allowed to pick in the big patches on the hill because of the blacksnakes that inhabited them. Your great-grandmother was an amazing person.

A tiny quilt for a tiny person. This is a quilt made in a hurry for a baby shower. I don't think I will use this process again to make tumbling blocks. I strip pieced t and it is not exactly straight. I like those squares that can be cut precisely and the end product is much more to my liking....but it is done. I made it large enough for a newborn but small enough to be used as a doll quilt later. I got up this morning and even created a gift bag because I had no box to fit and all my gift bags were for Christmas.

Now this may not look like much but you should have seen it before. I spent the entire day sorting and organizing (and labeling) the tubs of fabric scraps in my sewing room. I had this idea in the beginning to put like scraps in the same tub...2 1/2 inch strips, squares, etc. Well the tubs were not labeled and the pieces didn't always get into the correct tub so I took care of it yesterday. Now perhaps I will be more inclined to work in there.