Vacationing and Loving It

Ah, summer vacation. I am enjoying 2 weeks off from my corporate job to spend time with my hubby, daughter and my family in New York!

My dad just turned 80 years young this week, and I flew to NY for a few days to surprise my parents (they didn't know I was coming) and to hand-deliver their birthday cards (my mom's birthday was on July 25). I have 6 siblings, and we were all there to enjoy a BBQ except for my brother Eric.

My family is very artistic - my dad is an award-winning woodcarver and instructor who retired from NY state as an Environmental Conservation Officer. He also participates in the Senior Olympics in Archery - he's won several gold and silver medals. My brother Eric paints with oils; my mom paints and quilts; my sister is an interior decorator and makes draperies and she does upholstery; I could go on and on. When we get together, we laugh and joke and have a wonderful time.

While I was at my parents, I took some time to take a couple photos of my mom's quilts that she took out to keep us warm at night. The temperature dropped to 48 degrees F on Saturday - a record breaker for the lows in their area.

The first photo is that of a kaliedoscope scrap quilt my mom did in blues. I remember seeing these blocks on her design wall a couple of years ago when she was planning how to sew them together. I just love it, and I'm thinking I want to make a similar one when I can get to it.

The second photo of the brown and tan quilt is one I quilted for her. It's a throw size and I'm not sure what the block pattern is. They are freeform, curvy half-square triangles. I had fun "practicing" the feathers on this one. Bless my mom, she lets me play with her quilt tops.

The last photo shows only a block of a twin size quilt - the original photo of the whole quilt was taken in way too much light and doesn't do the quilt justice so I didn't post it here. She made the quilt with all flannel prints and the quilt is so soft and warm! (I used this one! :o))


My mom couldn't remember where she got the pattern from. The block is stitched to a muslin foundation and is similar to a log cabin block. All the middle triangles were black and the "logs" were all different widths. The sashing was only about an inch wide and was black. This could be a good block design for the men's shirts.

I'm home for a short interim, and then off to the Pacific ocean to enjoy another weekend before heading back to work. When we got back this morning I had two nice packages waiting for me when we got home - one is the disappearing 9-patch blocks from Aunt Pitty Pat's block swap (they are totally wonderful!) and the other was a strippy, scrappy pillow cover my mom sent to me that uses the button placket from a men's shirt to make the flap in the back. I'll post a separate entry for those. Sometimes I'm blown away by all the talent out there.

Happy sewing, all!