Doing The Happy Dance

I'm doing the Happy Dance!!

Tomorrow I am going to North Carolina to visit Jennifer Kay with Quilting Solutions to test drive several longarm quilting machines!! I am sooooo excited. My husband has almost finished my new quilting studio and now to pick out my machine.

My plan is to decide tomorrow between the model's I've been considering and get the order placed.

I'll let you know Sunday what the verdict is.

Shelia

Win A Quilt

I found a great site today and you have an opportunity to win a beautiful quilt. Visit her website at www.oldredbarnco.blogspot.com



Don't miss out on this awesome opportunity.
Shelia

Pay It Forward Challenge

I'm participating in my first PIF (Pay It Forward) so here are the rules...It’s the Pay It Forward Exchange. It’s based of the concept of the movie “Pay it Forward” where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return, just passing it on, with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness are passed on. So here’s how it works. I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on the blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, and it won’t be sent this month, probably not next month, but it will be sent (within 6 months) and that’s a promise! What YOU have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. So is anybody up for some fun...??

Make a comment and say you want to play along and I will add you to my PIF!!

A Small Piece Of Metal

At first glance you see a small piece of metal shaped into a cup. To most eyes it doesn’t represent anything of importance. Not an expensive item. Not a worldly good to be traded at a market. But to me it was priceless.

I have always said that making memories is the best thing that you can do with anyone you love. I try to make sure that those I love know it and have memories to show them they are loved.

Today is a sad day in my life as I carefully wash my grandmother’s face and fluff her beautiful white hair. A quilt covers her that my mother and I made and gave to her just this past Christmas. Mom and I had a great time picking out the fabrics from my stash, cutting and sewing the quilt. I quilted the quilt while mom and I talked and pressed fabric for another project. Today it caresses my grandmother, Rosa Lee Godfrey Donaldson, as children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren come to say goodbye. Today she went to be with the Lord and is seeing loved ones again who have been gone for a long time. We were blessed to have her for 88 years.

As my mother and her sister were getting things together and looking for the earrings and necklace my grandmother wanted to wear for the service on Sunday they came across a small zippered bag. Inside was some floss, scissors, needles and a thimble. It was my grandmother’s sewing kit. Nothing fancy but well used. As a child I can remember watching my grandmother as she mended shirts and pants. Some needed a patch sewn over a torn area and some had lost buttons. She carefully mended each one as she watched over grandchildren playing in the yard. As a young child I spent many days with my grandmother along with other cousins we played on the swing set in the back yard. We watched as trains passed on the tracks behind the house. We ran and played hard all day.

As my mom and aunt Sylvia looked at the bag they removed this small piece of metal and turned to me. They smiled as they handed the item to me as they knew this small piece of metal represented a piece of me.
It was my grandmother’s thimble and it is priceless to me. Isn’t it amazing how something with no worldly value can envoke a feeling of immense wealth to the recipient. My grandmother will always live in my heart and now she is always with me each time I place a stitch in a piece of fabric, she will be there guilding my finger as her thimble sits snuggly in place.

Shelia
July 11, 2008

It's Finally Saturday!!

This has been a very hectic two weeks. Our hospital has installed a new computer system and my ER was the ginny pig!! WHAT A NIGHTMARE. I've worked 70 hours a week for the past few weeks and I am exhausted.

My dear husband has been diligently working on my new quilting studio.....which I hope to be able to have time to use again soon.... he's already torn down the outside wall and re-built, he's primed the walls and is today going to be putting the color on the walls, I've chosen a light sand color. Maybe next weekend we will have the hard wood floors in. I can't wait to get into the new studio.

I go on July 19th to try and pick out my longarm machine....I'm soooooo excited. I'll post some pictures of the progress when I
get them downloaded into the computer.

Visit my webshots and see some of my quilts. http://community.webshots.com/user/QuilterShelia?vhost=community

I'll post more later.
Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Construction On My New Quilting Studio

My dear husband is busy today on the construction of my new quilting studio. I will be getting a longarm machine in July or August and he is converting our gameroom into my new quilting studio. YIPPIE!!
I am soooo excited. I'll post pictures of the progress as we go along. The wall is coming out now that leads to our carport. Seems so strange with all that space.
It's been a crazy week here in South Carolina.....HOT HOT HOT!
They say that we have some cooler weather coming our way.....but guess that we can't ask for much since it is JUNE!
More later,
Shelia