Lone Star

"The Lone Star quilt pattern ...

symbolizes honor, generosity, and protection. 

It's often given as a valued gift at milestones

like ... graduations"

Grandson M's quilt is done! I started it late but finished it in time for his graduation this past weekend. Whew! I found a Lone Star pattern that I liked from Missouri Star Quilt Company.

I had to resize the star from 62" to about 39" for a XL twin mattress (standard dorm mattress) and design the rest of quilt. When I resized the star, there was a lot of space at both ends of the quilt that I needed to fill.

I have only attempted a Lone Star quilt once before and it did not go well. This time I was more prepared - I starched my fabric and cut very precise angles (big success factors). I used Grunge and Dry Brush fabrics and learned to choose the background fabric AFTER making the star. 

Ray was holding the quilt and fighting the wind but I think we got a decent photo. The quilt is 64" by 90".

I used rulers to straight line quilt the stars, the diamonds, and the inside and outside of the terracotta border. The background is quilted with meandering. Glide Battleship #10430 was used on the front and #32965 Navy was used on the back and the navy border.

The navy border has ruler quilted diamonds with scribbling in the centers. The corners are filled with double loops.

The navy border in the above photo is color-correct. Below the color is off - It's the same navy border as above and the same color navy backing with bits of denim in it.

In other news, the mystery quilt top is finished,

as is my brother's t-shirt memory quilt top.

I need to finish the memory quilt soon and then I don't think I have anything else with a due date so I'll soon be back to quilting whatever I feel like at the time.

The third part of our Virginia Trip 2023

We vacationed for a week with our oldest  and his family in the Shenandoah Valley (Appalachian Mountains) in Virginia. The terrain where we stay, near Basye, VA, is mountainous. Our son and family live in North Carolina and often invite us to join them on this vacation. We spent the week eating, doing jigsaw puzzles, eating, playing games, eating, reading, eating, baking, eating, and just enjoying our time. Did I mention we ate a lot?  Here are a few pictures:

Our oldest son, his wife, and their 5 children

Unpacking groceries

Ray and oldest son fixing dinner

A game of Apples to Apples

Ray shredding beef with grand dog Rosie being quite interested

A bright red tree on one of our morning walks in the Shenandoah Valley

The roads were very narrow in our area.

The houses in the area were built to adjust to the terrain -
many had balconies hanging over valleys.

Not sure if you can tell, but this house has two stories for the basement.

Sometimes, well, most of the time they preferred that I not take pictures.

Only one of these 5 grandchildren is still shorter than me.

A beautiful sky 

A rainbow one afternoon through the high windows in the living room.

One evening we had flights and floats. The flight was 6 tiny Solo cups of different root beers. Then each person was able to have a root beer float with their choice of root beer.

These three did the ropes course in Luray, VA, again.
Last year all 5 did it. 

S'mores one night

The fire felt good that night.

We saw deer on some of our morning walks.

Our youngest granddaughter baked all week.
Her zucchini bread is always a favorite.

Ice cream at Smiley's is a tradition

By the time I took this photo, these guys were done eating.

Our oldest granddaughter spent time during the week
crocheting this afghan. The recipient will love it.

The kids grow so fast - this year a 7th grader, an 8th grader, a high school sophomore, a college freshman, and a college sophomore. It was so nice to spend time and visit with our son, his wife, and each of the kids. One of these days, we probably won't be able to have all of them together for a vacation so we greatly appreciate these special times.

Our North Carolina grandchildren

We all left on the same day. They headed home - I think it took them about 5 hours. We headed to Fayetteville, WV. It took us about 8 hours with stops. Once again, we drove backroads and stayed off of the interstates. 

“Vacations with family are 

the perfect opportunity 

to reconnect and rediscover 

the things that truly matter in life.” 

– Steve Maraboli

Time goes on ...

I'm not sure where the time goes and most days fly by.

Among other things, I've been busy quilting,

A donation quilt

doing a little shopping for a special quilt,

We are expecting a great niece and great nephew.
The adoption of the 8 year old and 5 year old should be soon.

delivering quilts to the Ronald McDonald House in Madison, WI (the Children's Hospital is not taking quilts at the time),

They would only take up to 20 due to space limitations.
I took 19.

spending a little road time with Ray, my favorite photographer,

enjoying out of town friends,

With the oldest daughter living a little over an hour away now,
we hope to see all of them more often.

relaxing at a snowy retreat with friends,

and seeing the last hockey games of the season for three of our grandsons. This 3-on-3 tournament, ended with a championship!

DS2 is the coach and GS2 is next to his dad.

The quilt retreat was this past weekend. We arrived on Thursday morning before the snow began so we were able to enjoy the snow and watching someone else deal with it while we visited, quilted, ate, and enjoyed ourselves.

I did finish The Chunky Turquoise quilt at the retreat. It is 58" by 64".

This donation quilt is quilted with 40 wt Glide #10877 Sterling (gray) thread. I free-motioned lazy eights on the first two rows, horizontal stippling on the next two rows, and continued in this way ending with two rows of lazy eights.

The backing is a tone-on-tone coral, a color seen on the front in a few blocks.

It's taking me some time to recover from the weekend; guess I overdid a little. I have more stamina than I did and it is slowly improving. I'll rest for a couple days and then all should be okay. I'm hoping to sew tomorrow.

And the adventure continues ...

 Day 8
This morning, we headed to the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. It was a beautiful day to be outside. Here are a few pictures.

After lunch and a short walk around the air-conditioned mall, it was finally time to head to Basye Bryce Mountain to meet our son and his family for our shared vacation. On the way we stopped at the grocery store in Fort Jackson. Our son and family pulled in right ahead of us! And the best part of the trip began...

Days 9 - 13

There was lots of visiting with our son, his wife, and our grandchildren. We all enjoyed 3 root beer tastings (20 kinds of root beer plus one more for floats).

We went to Luray to The Rope Adventure Park. Each of the children amazed me. Each of them were a bit nervous/anxious as they began and each overcame it and did more, much more, than they originally thought they could! It was fun but quite warm - in the 90s. 

The yellow rails are where each person's cable fits overhead. The bottom rails/ropes (brown) are to walk on. The lowest bottoms are 3' off of the ground for anyone under 48" tall. The next level is 12' off the ground and the higher level is 24'. Everyone got somewhat comfortable with the 12' section. The older boys and younger granddaughter spent lots of time 24' above ground! There are 6 rails around the outside and 6 rails going to the middle like the spokes of a wheel.

We enjoyed S'mores, games of 5 Alive, chess, swimming at Lake Laura, jigsaw puzzles, TV - shows, ball games and movies, playing with their Boston Terrier Rosie, visiting, eating, reading and relaxing. 

Ray and I walked each morning in the beautiful Shenandoah Mountains. One morning our son joined us but most of the time we walked before people were awake. 

Our home for the week

A foggy morning

More fog

We all enjoyed the deer in the area. 

Our neighbors put out food for them and we often saw four deer, two fawns, and a buck.

Our younger granddaughter (6th grader to be) likes to bake and spent time helping/baking in the kitchen. 

She now has my bucket hat!

We had a peach dessert, brownies, zucchini bread, and chocolate chip cookies. Steak and shrimp was a hit as well as the Hawaiian ham and provolone  sliders and crock pot Italian beef. We ate one lunch out, one dinner out, and also enjoyed a frozen custard break one day. We ate well! 

The younger grandson (to be 7th grader) was often around in the kitchen and very willing to help with everything. I think the ropes course was the hardest for him but he did it!

The middle grandson will be a freshman in high school. He has changed the most in appearance and personality since we last saw him 3 years ago. He was a joy to be around.

Photo in age order arranged by middle child!

Our oldest grandson will be a senior in high school. We spent time talking about his plans for the future and his views on some of the college visits he's had. 

Really doesn't like his picture taken

Our older granddaughter spent some time on school things; she leaves for her Freshman year of college on Saturday. She has lots of shopping and packing to do this week.

Still flushed from the ropes course

The children all get along so well together. Watching the two older children and the two older boys was like watching 2 best friends. We are so proud of all of them.