Visit to Austin area.

Our trip there was two fold. First to welcome our youngest son home from a year in Afghanistan. We are so proud of him and so glad to have him home safe. Also very proud of our daughter-in-law for holding down the fort while he was away. She is a terrific Mom and Grandma! Our son has planned a plane trip for them - him, her and their youngest son (who, by the way, is now taller than his Dad) to spend some well deserved time together after his 'Welcome Home' ceremony. I expect after that they will be visiting their three grandchildren - our greats - still hard to believe they are grandparents and us great grandparents. 

 So Glad to Have Him Home Safe!

 

(Such a good looking family!)

We are also helping prepare for the arrival of our oldest son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter moving from Sofia, Bulgaria to their house in the Austin area We made arrangements for someone to come clean the carpet, upholstery and the house. The house had a couple of renters during the four years our son was in Bulgaria but had been empty a lot and needed a good cleaning, especially with bringing a year old toddler into it. I know that our daughter-in-law is probably pretty nervous about leaving her homeland, her Mom and Grandma and moving to this country but I pray that she will be welcomed by all she meets here and will settle in nicely. We are really looking forward to meeting our Granddaughter in person instead of only on Skype.  TWO MORE DAYS !

Both sons will live within a few miles of each other and our daughter and family closer to us in the metroplex. So nice to have them all in this country AND in TEXAS!

Texas Pride - our best yet -

 

The Texas is appliquéd and has a purchased embroidered white star on it. The Dresden Plates are also appliquéd and have yoyo's in the center.

It has been heavily quilted using a long arm machine by my HD and myself. 

The quilt top is my own design and the Texas has alternate light and dark blue colors. The quilt measures 84 inches by 96 inches and is the largest one we have done thus far on the long arm. We both love the way it turned out!

 

Can you make out the BW - bearswatchin'?

Garage sale number two:

This lady just wanted to get rid of things, I think. . . 

We got all this.

 Included was:

Pillow panels:

Fish 2

Trees 2

Pinwheel 4 - several varieties

2 quilt block kits - some blocks complete

I did not get pictures of everything yet.  Total cost of EVERYTHING was $1.65 ! !

 

Red Hearts 2

Floral Hearts 8 plus smaller ones

Bears 4

Teal & Black 10 enough to make a quilt!

Pretty pink floral 2 yds and white on white wide quilt backing.

Large piece of this fabric.

Temptations and garage sales . . .

We went to garage sales yesterday. One of them listed QUILT TOPS and of course, I had to go look! I had to look, touch, feel, front and back and BUY! 

 

I checked them all over, HD looked too and said we should get some. I exercised some restraint and ONLY BOUGHT FOUR! ! I am not too good at describing different patterns but will try - feel free to jump in and tell me the correct names for the blocks. :o)

I obtained the name of the lady who did these tops for my records. She pieced them in the late 70's and passed away in 1980. She did a terrific job on these quilts. I greatly admire those who can hand piece with those straight seams and tiny little stitches.

Number one: Large six pointed star surrounded by diamonds in orange and white and within green star points. Mostly hand pieced with a little machine stitching. This beautiful quilt top is 75 by 91 1/2 inches.

Number two: Pinwheels in gold and black floral and block finished out with squares of blue and pink with lime green triangles in the corners. Sashings are brown with yellow squares joining them. I love all the bright colors. Mostly hand pieced with a little machine stitching. This is a large top measuring 89 by 101 inches.

Number three: (My favorite) Spiderweb pattern with orange stars joining the webs together. All the bright colors really make this a stunning quilt. It also has hand stitching but mostly machine stitching. This one measures 72 by 90 inches.

Number four: Called a "baby quilt". Rail Fence pattern done in pastel blue, pink and yellow. Totally hand pieced using 2 inch strips! !( Beautiful quilt measures 72 by 96 inches.

Oh, and the cost . . . $12.50 each !  :0)

OK, SO WE WERE NOT REALLY BAD ON MY LAST POST . . .

The bad part came in after returning the laptop that would not work properly for my HD and going to a computer store for another one!

This one works WELL and got it at a good price! "You get what you pay for".

The Package is Ready. . .

 

I made this quilt and my HD quilted it for our son-in-law's new baby. Hope they both like it.

 

Of course we had to put our initials for Bears Watchin' on it.

Thrift Store Bargains again!

My DD chauffered us around to her favorite thrift stores and we found all kinds of goodies. Right at 26 yards of fabric worked out to less than $1.22 a yard and it is really nice fabric. Also got batting for two baby quilts and eight cones of thread at great prices.
 

 

 There was 3 3/4 yards of this one.

This piece was also 3 3/4 yards.

There were 2 yards of the red.

This one had 6 yards.

And this one with the larger flowers has 10 1/4 yards.

I think some of it will make really nice quilt backing fabric too. They had a lot more but that was plenty for this trip. It is about an hours drive over there and I bet they will have some the next time we go. 

I really like this store since the fabric is out where you can see/touch it. My other favorite store over there has big plastic bags with fabric inside but you don't really know for sure what type it is just by looking - but do have good prices on it as well. One time I got about 5 yards of Coca Cola fabric in one bag along with other fabrics.