Double First Communion

 Brynn and Molly were receiving their First Communion, and I really wanted to make a keepsake for them!  I get these bright ideas and sometimes they simply don't pan out.  This time I was determined!  We bought extra hankie blanks - but I only mess one up....the other two turned out fair, considering I'd not done anything like this before.

I figured out a way to mount the hankies on card with ribbon and was pleased with my effort. 

Funny thing - I'd been advised by sales person to stabilize the back with a product that you dampen and press the hankie onto and then to apply a clear, water soluble top stabilizer.  I tried that.  Ummm, guess she didn't realize she was talking to less than a genius.  If you do those two things at the same time....uh, yeah, the top stabilizer "melts" and you have a gooey hankie!

On to the next hankie.  Thankfully I bought extra.

How About Some Cheese With That Whine?

One good thing about this blog....there is no audio....you can't hear me whining.
I've been sick for over two weeks - and there are times I feel that I have made no progress at all in the getting-better process.  Does it help to know that so many others have the same thing?  No, not really....I am too self-involved at the moment for that to matter.  I simply want it to depart from ME!
However, since just before falling victim to the unseen forces that beleaguer human kind with colds and malaise, we bought me my dream sewing/embroidery machine, I have had something with which to occupy my mind.
Enter the amazing Viking Designer Ruby Deluxe.
Star of the show!
Answer to my deepest yearnings.
And, in part, cause of some of my frustration at being ill.  I haven't actually been able to get at it and start creating.
I finally did get in my first class on Wednesday, and learned enough to boggle the mind!
I have blindly stabbed away at getting on  line and getting some free St. Patrick's Day patterns, and today made up exactly ONE dinner napkin.
Cool, eh?

 
Earlier this week - from 3 AM to 6 AM - thank you meds, for the wondrous hours of non-sleep during the night, and deadly slumber during the day.... I made up this St. Patrick's Day mantle cloth.  I quilted it with some of the fancy stitches on the sewing machine.  Imagine when I get comfortable with the embroidery!

 And remember that Quilter's Star I was so mad at?  Well, he's chugging along doing piecing and things for which he was designed, and doing them quite well...now that he knows the high tech stuff will be handled by his "brother."  They are sharing the load...and I am a really happy camper.
Except that I am sick.  Whine Whine Whine.

Disaster Averted!

(See the end for some additional pictures if you've already read this posting!) We recently kind of "fell" over a tub of Orvus offered to me for much less than regular price - and of course, hugely less than the little bottles I used to buy at quilt shops.  I grabbed it.  
Had in mind finishing up the quilt I've been hand quilting since February and then washing it and the rose one I completed last year.
Well, I've been busy!

Finished these little silhouettes of George and Martha - truth is, I only left his signature - about 15 or so years ago - so it didn't take long.  And got them framed the next day.

Have begun (not complete yet, about 1/2 done) this linen tablecloth from the big box of things handed down from Aunt Mar.  We settled on the color floss we decided would look best, went shopping for it and there was none of that color.  So I settled for this color and we love it!
I have also been working on several other projects that are complete...but more on that later.
I was ready to wash the quilts.
In the back of my mind I realized that I was hearing a lot about "color catchers" lately and something told me to hold up until I'd bought some.  A couple of stores I tried didn't have them - but I found Shout Color Catcher Sheets at Shop Rite.
Today I washed the quilts.
The first one left absolutely nothing on the sheet, so I figured wow, maybe the cold water and Orvus were doing the trick.
But the second quilt was the one with the really strong pink roses.
I tossed in TWO sheets just in case.
Pulled the quilt out and found not a tint of running.
And then I pulled out the two previously WHITE color catcher sheets!

Whew!

 Here are the quilts laying in the yard between two sheets each, drying.

 The first quilt, the one I just completed.  Heavily quiilted.

 And the quilt that might have been ruined if not for the color catchers.