Hurray for mental health days!

AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Long contented sigh!
It's like a breath of fresh air or sitting in a meadow on a pleasant day.
Or slipping into a hot spa when you have a tired and aching  body.

My schedule has been CRAZY for the last month (as evidenced by the absolute lack of posts here!) and yesterday I took a day just for me and
spent practically the whole day in my studio creating just for ME!
I can now face the world with  a much better attitude! 

So what have I been up to the last month?  Here's a peek:

Saturday was Thanksgiving at my house

and all the kids came over and we feasted.

Jenny made this enormous apple pie.

It was delicious even tho it was sorta juicy.

(Jenny, I think maybe we should have let this pie sit a little longer before we ate it.  Maybe it just needed to be a little cooler?)

Friday night Mike and I attended a special surprise

birthday party for my good friend Sharon.

She is a sweet and sassy lady and her

husband threw her a really wonderful party!

Isn't this the most precious little girl ever?!?

I can tell you that she truly is.

We spent all of last week together while her mommy and daddy

went on a cruise to celebrate their anniversay.

Mia and I had the best time!

Here are some of the things we did:

We ate.

3 or 4 times a day!

Then we cleaned up.

We cooked together.

We played in the sand and went down the slide at the park.

I made her do housework.

(Actually she found the mop and started dragging it behind her.

I think she *might* have been telling me that the floor was

dirty and I needed to clean it!  lol)

We played with bubbles while washing our little table.

We also did some fingerpainting, but

I didn't get any pictures of that.

We went to the duck park with grandpa to feed the ducks.

Side note:  my kids used to LOVE going to the park to feed the ducks.

But when we got to this park I decided to read the big sign at

the entrance and lo and behold.......there it was clear and simple:

Do NOT feed the ducks!

We follow the rules so we didn't get to feed the ducks, but we

did get to look at them.

Now I wonder if perhaps I never read the sign when my kids

were little.  We ALWAYS fed the ducks!

We also took a trip to McDonalds to get an ice cream cone!

My week with Mia was wonderful, but very tiring.

She was up by 6am and hit the ground running every day,

stopping only for naps and food.

She is a happy, but ornery little girl.

Moves constantly and is ALWAYS looking for the next

great thing to get into.

Jenny and Rafael joke that she is a shark since sharks are always moving.

I sure do love that little girl!

Betcha didn't know that!

The week prior to watching Mia I went to

the Houston International Quilt Festival

with 6 of my quilting friends.

Another very physically tiring and overwhelming week.

But oh. so. wonderful!

The quilts were fabulous and inspiring,

the company couldn't be better and

the shopping was great too!

Here is my haul:

Thread for embroidery, stencils for quilting,

a DVD for inspiration, some embellishement goodies and

of course a little batik fabric!

So here are the other things I have done this past month:

Accompanied my husband on 4 day business trip to Long Beach.

Caramba's party to celebrate a promotion.

Boojum Tree Halloween Party.

Project Linus Sew day at my house.

Mia helped with the quilting too!

Trick or Treating with our precious baby.

(I made Mike and I's ladybug costumes.

Mike insisted on being ladybugs since Mia was a ladybug!)

Pumpkin Patch party at my house.

Carving a pumpkin with my sweetie!

Before yesterday I felt very stressed,

but now looking back over my past month

I realize how very BLESSED I am.

I'm surrounded by people I love and people who love me.

Who could ask for anything more?

Guess what?

Christmas is coming!

Quilty blessing to you all,

tammy

 

Bittersweet Blessings

Thirty some years ago I was living in South Africa with alot of time on my hands while my husband worked there.  I've never been a person to let my hands be idle, so when I found an ad for a quilting class I promptly signed up and learned the basics of quilting.  By hand no less.  It was love at first stitch!

 Back in the early 80's quilting was enjoying a revival of sorts, so when I returned to the States, at the urging of my friend Lyn,  I joined a local quilt guild.  The Night Owls.  Heaven.  Loved it.  However, at the tender age of 21, I kinda stuck out like a sore thumb as the very youngest member of the group.  I learned alot from the older ladies who graciously shared thier skills with me, and even taught them a few things as well. (although looking back on it now I think they may just have been encouraging me on my quilting path)

There was one lady in particular who scooped me up and tucked me under her wing.  Helen Relfe invited Lyn and I over to her house to show us a new project.  When we got there she had set up 2 sewing machines, had a pattern and her fabric stash wide open for us to choose from.  WOW!  Helen's generosity and gentle spirit just warmed my heart and made me feel really special.  Lyn and I each made a dimensional  Christmas tree wall hanging that day.  It still hangs in our houses every Christmas.  If it were not packed away in my Christmas boxes I would take a picture of it and post it here.

That day began a life-long friendship between Helen and I.  I so enjoyed visiting with Helen and her husband Walter.  Loved hearing about her journey to the valley from her home in Northwest.  Loved hearing about what Phoenix was like in the early 30's.  Helen and Walter showed me all the best places to get bargains on fabric and quilting supplies.  Helen and I were friends thru thick and thin......the birth of my children, the death of her husband. We shared the love of quilting, exchanged recipes, stories and hollyhock seeds.  One year for Christmas I made gingerbread cookie people and wrote "Helen" and "Walter" on the cookies and put them into bags.  The last time I visited Helen's home those cookie bags were still hanging on the wall.   

My family always say that my stories are too long and I tell too many details, and take too long to get to the point.  (gee, I'm becoming my mother after all! lol)  (love you mom!)

So here is the point to my ramblings......

Helen passed away earlier this month.  She would have been 93 this August.

I went to visit her this week and was told that she had passed.

No one called me.
I missed her funeral.
Sad. 

My heart hurts to have lost her,

but rejoices that she is no longer in pain and
is with her beloved Walter
sitting at the right hand of Jesus.

Bittersweet blessings.

I found this after an online search:

 Helen Strohmaier Relfe


92, of Phoenix, AZ passed away on June 10, 2011. A first generation American, Helen was born in Vida, Montana, August 18, 1918, and married Walter Relfe in Salem, Oregon, on September 11, 1938. Helen's life was characterized by hard work, including employment with the City of Phoenix and the Arizona State House of Representatives. She also gave much time, energy, and resources to serve others throughout her life. She is survived by daughters Carole Lowery and Dorothy Colvin, six grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchild ren. Graveside services will be held on Wednesday, June 15, 2011, at 9:30 AM at Greenwood Memory Lawn, 2300 W. Van Buren.

This is the last picture I took of Helen. 

She was always a lady and always had her lipstick on. 

Rest In Peace

Helen Relfe

August 1918 - June 2011

I miss you Helen, but I will always hold you in my heart.

A glimpse into the life of a longarm quilter

See? 

Look right up there under the Blog title

HeartString Quilts

A Glimpse into the life of a longarm quilter.

I'll bet you've been wondering if I do any quilting anymore!

My writing has been sorta on the side of my life and

not so much my quilting.

But HEY!  Lookee here......

QUILTS!

I HAVE been Quilting!

Here is another t-shirt quilt made by Barbara.

This one was made out of her grandaughter's clothes,

and not JUST t-shirts.

It was a little tricky to quilt especially the blue jean overalls

that are right in the center of the quilt.

She included the very first little outfit that she gave Hannah,

and there are several little outfits that still have the ruffles on them.

I quilted this quilt for Katrina's new grandaughter.

Katrina asked me to make this quilt more "baby",

so I quilted the nursery rhyme

"Hey Diddle Diddle

The cat and the fiddle

The cow jumped over the moon.

The little dog laughed to see such sport

and the dish ran away with the spoon."

I actually quilted a cat with a fiddle

and the cow jumping over the moon,

a dog laughing and a dish running away with a spoon!!!!

In this picture you can not see the quilting stitches

but let me tell you...........it is pretty cool!

I used Anne Bright's Nursery Rhymes book.

This quilt was made by Kathy and was

made to celebrate her neice's 21st birthday.

Linda made this quilt while at quilt camp and

I quilted it this past week.

I believe that it is going to be a gift for her

mother-in-law for Mother's Day.

Kinda makes me wish I had made a quilt for MY MOM

for Mother's day.

SEE!!!!

I HAVE BEEN QUILTING!

This past friday night marked the

10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

of the Friday Night Quilters.

We had a scrumptious dinner at Sharon's house

and afterwards Ray brought in this cake

all light up with candles.

Mary brought this sweet purse for show n tell.

Really cute!

Well, I could go on and on, but I think

that I'll save some for tomorrow.

It all began in a Garden

Phew! Finally a full day to just quilt!

Things have been so busy that I have not been able to block out enough time to QUILT! (ie....WORK)

I've just about finished the large king-sized quilt that I have been wanting to work on for weeks now.

There always seemed to be a reason that I couldn't start on it................my batting was not wide enough, the store in California where I get my batting did not have any in stock when I was there, not a big enough block of time to actually work on the quilt and finish it, (I don't like to leave my quilts on the frame for long periods of time) and the last reason, I guess, is that I was just procrastinating doing this quilt because of it's size. I was worried that I'd flare up my elbows again and that scared me.

Well............GREAT NEWS! I was worried for nothing.......I've been quilting most of the morning and I feel pretty good! Maybe the long absence from quilting helped the ole elbows heal abit. Hallalujuh!

Since I'm taking a little break before I finish off the quilt I decided to write about my garden.

Last year for Mother's Day I asked my husband for a tree.

We have this beautiful mulberry tree in our side yard that has a wonderful large and shady canopy.

That tree is one of the reasons we bought this house.

This tree shades over 1/2 of the side yard.

But I wanted another tree at the other end. Sorta as a back-up in case anything ever happened to the mulberry.

So this is the way the yard looked on Mother's Day 2008:


Mike is out digging the holes to plant TWO trees

This is what it looks like today! May 2009

Mother's Day 2008

May 2009

My Pot sculpture has really grown in a years time.

I received some hollyhock seeds from a good friend and just

yesterday I finally got my first blooms!

It's time to sew!

I've been sewing alot the last couple of days.....

....mainly making covers for my outdoor furniture.

A few years ago Mike bought this huge roll of light blue fabric at a Honeywell garage sale for $5!

(you can see the roll in one of the pictures below)

Actually he bought several of them.

The fabric is very durable AND washable without shrinking!

So it is perfect fabric for making covers and tableclothes for outside.

My ultimate plan is to make pillows and throw quilts in co-ordinating/contrasting fabric to add some sparkle. As you can see from some of these pictures I've already kinda started this.

I've been working on piecing a quilt from the co-ordinating fabric. The pattern is called a Love Ring and it is from an old quilting book that still had you make cardboard templates. AND do pieced curves. It's been a long time since I've made templates, but it was kinda fun to do since when I started quilting that was ALL the was available. It's amazing to see how far quilting has evolved in the last 20 years!

The last customer quilt I finished is this one:

This pieced top was the very first one this quiltmaker has ever sewn. She made simple squares out of bright fabric and this quilt looks fabulous!

I think she did a great job!

I've got a king-sized quilt on the frames at the moment. It's a BIG one!

I've been having so much fun in my garden this year. I've actually got one big, red tomato that is almost ready to be picked. It's the first one!

However I have been enjoying my cherry tomatoes for a week or so now.

This is Betsy.........she just wanted to say hello.........

and tell you that anytime is NAP time.

Round Robin

Hola! Way back in February some of my quilting buddies and I started a Round Robin wallhanging. I've never participated in this type of round robin so I was very excited to be in this group. Below you will see a picture of the center blocks that each one of us started with. Mine is the one on the bottom left.

The way the round robin works is that each person makes their center block and then the block is passed to the next person on the list. That person has to create a border following a set of guidelines. (We happen to be using the guidelines set out in the "Quilter's Home" magazine)

The first round we had to create a 3" border using triangles. The next border was to set the whole thing on point and add an applique design. The third border was a 4" one with rectangles. I am just putting the finishing touches on the 3 border of the top right hand block. How I wish I could post a picture, but alas............we have one more pass before each quilt is revealed to its owner. That is one of the rules...........you can't see your own quilt and how it is turning out until the end, which will be in 2 more months. I am getting really excited to see my quilt and see what the others have added! I know that it will be fabulous, because I have some really talented friends!

This is a picture of a quilt that I finished quilting this week. The quilt had a really strong graphic look to it and the maker told me that it MIGHT be a gift for a man, so I decided to quilt it with randomly sized and placed circles.

Here is a close-up shot:

Our dear son Brian got married and moved out about a year and almost a half ago. I called him several months ago to ask him how that marriage was going and if he was thinking of coming home. (Okay, I KNEW the answer.....they are just as happy as can be) The REAL purpose of my call was to kind of let him know that we were turning his old room into a den complete with a couch, bookshelves and of course the computer desk!

About a week ago I wrote about how I am touching up the paint around all of the windows in my house since my husband replaced them. Well, here is a funny story to go with that. We bought a couch with a pull-out bed to go in the "new" den. It was going to be arriving in the afternoon, so I took the opportunity to do some really detailed touch-up painting around this window. When the couch arrives the delivery men kinda shrugged thier shoulders and told us that the couch was NOT going to fit up the stairs. To give them credit, they did try a couple of times, but basically we were on our own. My husband took the railings off the stairs, he took out the light and the smoke detector at the top of the stairs. He even went as far to take the door off the closet at the top of the stairs...............Dang couch still would not fit. He took the couch apart as much as he could........still to no avail.

The couch is in the den now and it looks really lovely, but do know how we got it in there? No, it was NOT up the stairs...........Mike took out the second story WINDOW ( you know, the one I had just puttied and painted) and I mean the WHOLE window frame and all. Then they stood on the back of a pick-up truck on TOP of one of those foldy-type ladders and LIFTED that couch up and thru the window! Now WHY didn't I get a picture of that? Here's the new couch: (and the window it came thru....reputtied and repainted! AGAIN!)