A signature quilt

Five weeks before my niece Callie's wedding I received a call from her, asking if I would make a signature quilt for her wedding.  She was wanting to do a quilt for the guests to sign (since signing a book is so old fashioned).

I pulled out my books and patterns and found a block called just that, Signature!

Sept 19, we met at the quilt store. I had in mind that she was wanting old fashioned fabric, such as these 30's & 40's reproductions. 

However she was wanting more muted colors that would match her wedding theme. 
She picked these 6 fabrics by Moda. She is such a good shopper (being a Textile and Apparel Management graduate helps). All of these fabrics were in the sale bin. Several were all remaining on the bolt and so we got got an additional discount.

As I started cutting the selvages off (I collect them), I noticed something very interesting. There was a theme going on, "Best Wishes", "Together", and Women of Courage".  Could she had gotten anything more appropriate?  She didn't even realize it.

This is the pattern that I first laid out and emailed the photo to her. It's 140 blocks or approximately 50 inches by 70 inches.

I got this reply from Callie, "Aunt Patti, can you add some birds to it? " I said sure, I think I can do that.

"Ok", she said, "How about our names?" Sure I can do that.

"And how about the date too?"  Sure, anything else?  

"No, I think that is all", she replied.

So I found a paper piece pattern for two birds, reversing one so they would look like love birds. 

Here is the finished piece.

If you enlarge the picture you can see I took some of the selvage and sewed it in the birds mouth to represent straw. 

Here is a picture of the finished quilt after I sewed on the binding. 

And here is a picture of the beautiful bride!!!

Here I am with the quilt as it hung at the reception. It worked great for signing. Two ladies attended and supervised the signatures. I had sewn in a pocket to hang it from PVC pipes. It had cardboard against the back for stability.

Soon she will return it and I will hand quilt it. I've also asked Callie's Grandma who is 87 years young to help. 

Best Wishes, Callie and Aaron!

4 weeks out!?!

I've been down.  For 4 weeks I was not well.

I was tested for Mono, tested for strep, had a cat scan on my neck, had a scope put down my nose and throat. . . 4 doctor visits to 3 different doctors, 4 different prescriptions, and in the end I was diagnosed with a virus. The last doctor said he would not rule out internal shingles, which I had suspected for the last two weeks of treatments. (Thank you very much family Dr Larraine). I even put it out on facebook asking my peeps if any of them had ever had internal shingles. Stitchin by the Lake from Arkansas told me her sister, who lives in my town had them. I went straight to the phone and dialed Sherry up. Yep my symptoms and hers matched. Oh to have blogging friends!!

Internal shingles are hard to diagnose and there is really no treatment if not caught early. Symptoms are swollen lymph glands, ear pain, fever, swollen throat, lack of energy, and lost of appetite, all of which I had. I lost 12 pounds the first two weeks. When you can't swallow, the weight drops off quickly. It can last 3-5 weeks.

Today is the 4 week mark and I am on the road to recovery. So today for the first time in 30 days, I thought I'd try a cup of Mocha cappuccino.

Well, my daughter was afraid I'd be climbing the walls with a caffeine buzz!

Don't worry, I got not even half of it down and decided it just wasn't what I wanted. I tell you I had been addicted to them.  I'd drink one every day and some times two. Maybe that craving is now long gone. It's a good thing.

I have so much blogging to catch up on. Today is the first time I have been on my big computer for more than 10 minutes at a time.

I have to tell you about the quilt I made for the wedding that I talked about in my last post, about more sewing machines, about Deer camp 2014, and then there's Thanksgiving tomorrow. I will get back to blogging ASAP.

Today, I have child labor helping . . .

Here's hoping to a happy healthy Thanksgiving to all my blogging friends!

A BUSY weekend!!

I'm a little late in posting the excitement we had a week and a half ago. A sinus infection with an ear ache has me laying low. I'm tired of being under the weather for 5 days and counting.

On Friday morning the blacksmith and I picked up our Florida family at the St Louis airport. They were coming in for a 4 day visit. 

They were also going to surprise the blacksmith's big family at his niece's wedding the following day. 

The first thing we did on Friday afternoon was start baking pies for the wedding. I had 7 to make.

Then I sneaked in a surprise visit for both Jessica and Sarah. They grew up together, rode the bus together, and spent many days playing at each other's house. They also got married a week apart and shared wedding decorations.

Jess wanted me to do some sewing for her, so I told her to bring the fabric over Friday afternoon. We were all outside enjoying the beautiful Florida like weather in Missouri when Jess drove up. It was fun seeing the two them together with their boys. They hadn't seen each other in several years.

Connor and Lizzie were enjoying the nice big ball for a long time. That is until someone dropped it on the metal pinwheel you can just barely see in the back ground. So much for that ball.

However, uncle Jeremy stopped and got Connor a new one later in the day.

Alex got tired of standing I guess?

Connor a.k.a. "muscle man" loved playing outside. You have to love those red checks!

On Saturday night, he had to show Grandma how he can feed himself Greek yogurt.

 

On Saturday morning he had to watch Micky in his Micky pajamas.

Soon it was wedding time.

Here is the blacksmith's niece, Callie. She was beautiful!  She graduates in December with a textile and apparel management degree. She has already landed a job in Florida with Chicos!

Notice the beautiful flowers behind them and around them!  There were so many mason jars and the big tin planter. They were just beautiful. I am going to have to ask Father Medina what was so funny.

The wedding had a rustic theme. The bride's family made most of the decorations. Notice the cupcake holder?  It was made from planks of old wood. The wedding cake was just for the bride and groom.  It was small. Along with my 7 apples pies, there were also 7 pumpkin and 7 peach pies.

This was the wedding party table. Notice the handmade votive candle lights. It was decorated with grapevines and pearls. The back drop is many yards of ribbons and fabrics cut into strips, and shirred on one long rod.

Here is Rusty, Sarah, Connor, and Grandma Wieberg. Oh I almost forgot baby bump!!! Yes they are expecting #2 in April!!!

Another view of the head table.

There were even decorations on the bathroom doors. This was a picture of Callie when she was in her sister's wedding.

It was a great day!  So much fun seeing the look on everyone's faces when they saw Rusty and Sarah there!

On Sunday we did a big family dinner.

 Jeremy contributed way too many beautiful beef steaks to the dinner!

There was some of our fresh garden lettuce.

But before dinner it was time to take some family pictures. It's nice to have a daughter in law who is a professional. But then it made it a little hard to get her in the pictures, so we called my BFF (Jessica's mother) to fill in as photographer for the group shot.

I leave you with this one of the grands. This time next year there will be F-I-V-E

Life is good!