Quilt envy

We got back from vacation on Saturday. A week at the beach, with a private pool and hot tub - it doesn't get much better than that. I am relaxed and refreshed and TAN! More on that later.

Look what I picked up today!

My mom saw this quilt at our quilt show this year and wanted it. I told her to name her price and ask the quilter if she would sell it. Turns out, she would! Isn't it adorable? It measures about 17.5" x 22.5". She's going to hang it in her guest room which she is preparing to paint a very pale lavender. Look at the detail on this - I really need to learn to embroider.

Anyway, I met the quilter today to pick it up, and I was going to mail it, but I didn't want to let go of it just yet - I'll mail it tomorrow!

I didn't get much quilting done on vacation. I worked a bit on my Grandmother's Flower Garden. I also worked on a puzzle with a quilt in it - does that count?

Other than that, it was walking to and playing on the beach,

Reading on the deck in the ocean breeze, playing with the kids in the pool

and losing to my mother at Cribbage.

I love vacation! Only 1 more mini vacation left this summer - this weekend we are headed to Maine for my 20th high school reunion. Fun, fun, fun!

At home yesterday, I tackled the weeds that tried to reclaim my property while I was gone, then caught up on a couple of blogs, including Green Fairy Quilts. They are looking for some quilts to take to an orphanage in Romania, and I thought, hey, what about all those flannel tops I have to quilt. So, yesterday I sandwiched this one and started quilting it.

(hmmm, where's the photo, you ask? I can't find it! I'll take another and post it later. That way you can let me know if the quilting is working or not.)

I have a really high loft batting in there (because that is what I had in the house and I refused to get back into the car yesterday). It is challenging to hand quilt something so high, but I like the look. I am doing a bigger, more primitive stitch around the center squares for now, not sure what else I will do. I'm not even sure I'll have it done to send to them before they go to the orphanage, but reading about her trip was enough to motivate me to get started quilting something.

This is another flannel top that I pieced using a crumb piecing technique.

I sent the top to a woman in my guild to practice FMQ on and the plan is to donate it to the Guild as a comfort quilt. It was waiting for me when I arrived home from vacation, so yesterday I also stitched the binding on and just have to sew the back down. However, I mangled the corners somehow. It is no longer anywhere close to square. If I were conscientious like Lane, I would take the binding off and re-do it, but I just can't bring myself to do that. I hate sewing on binding so much that I would probably just not put it back on. Oh well, it is to provide comfort, not win a prize.

By the way, it came back with blood on it. Is it my blood? I can't remember. If so, I would have blogged about it way back when, but my other blog crashed so I can't check. How do I get blood out? Any tips?

And how could I forget, Jason and I are now Orange Belts in American Freestyle Karate. Ki-ya!