A New Endeavour

  Well, I have mentioned to you the upcoming quilt I need to make, or maybe two. I have not planned and designed a quilt in several years now. I don't put my quilts in shows and I have not entered any competitions with my quilts, so I just feel like, why reinvent the wheel, every time I make a new quilt. I find a pattern I like and tweak it to fit my needs. This time I needed a pattern that would include blocks of multiple sizes. I knew it would take forever to find a quilt with the measurements I needed, so, out came the graph paper pad and my pencils. I spent an hour or so figuring out the blocks and the overall plan of blocks and borders. Then for over an hour I searched for my block book. I had several of the 100 Block magazines and of course many quilt books. However my favorite book has multiple sizes for all the blocks in it. It is" Around the Block Again" by Judy Hopkins. I have made so many quilts with the help of this book. I find the block I want to use and she has already done the math for any size I might want. Ironically I never made it to her book, to look for a block. I was given a block a day calendar for Christmas a couple of years ago and I happened to find it while looking for the block book. On a whim I started looking through it for blocks in one of the sizes I need. I found Cupids Arrow Point block with a finished size of 12 in. I love it and since I have planned a heart block for the corner stones of the border it just fits this quilt. Bonus there is a nice sized center for adding photo blocks of friends and family.
  Well, gotta go finish up lunch so until next time, yall have a very quilty day.
Tennye

As Usual I Have to Ask Where Has the Time Gone???

  I started this year with big ideas and lots of ambition. That has translated to my being kind of busy. I am spending lots of time doing some research on the money and dolls that I want to sell. You would think that since I have had them most of my life and watched my Grandmother, and parents and even my great grandmother collecting and going thru coins and putting them in books and..... that I would have acquired some knowledge. Sadly if I had any I have forgotten it or it has become obsolete over the years. I even have some paper money that is supposed to be worth so much, and I can't find any of it on the Internet for sale. As for the dolls, well I never really knew anything about them and some have lost a portion of their value because in the 70's they told my grandmother it would make them more valuable if she had new bodies and clothes put on them. It has turned out that is not so much the case, those leather bodies make the doll worth much more. One bisque doll was 80 years old in the 70's, so is well over 100 years old. Having the leather body removed and replaced with cotton makes people think she is a replica instead of the real thing.
  Okay enough of that, I have been either walking or recently dancing four or five days a week, that takes more out of my day than I thought it would. I am also cleaning out my home. Stuff is going out weekly, that has been just stored for years. Having done all we did at my parents house after daddy died, has inspired me. I don't want my family to have that to deal with, the collections make the clean out harder, but it will get done. I have been going thru my sewing room too. I have a list of projects that I need to complete and the ones my family have asked for. The new grandson that is on the way means a new baby quilt too. The oldest grand daughter is graduating so what will I make for her??? Yes her mom wants me to make the quilt for her to take to college, but there has to bee something from me too.
  As previously discussed, there is also the desire to find some amazing thing I can make that will sell like hot cakes the minute I post the first one.
  Well, I need to go for now, but I hope I won't be off line here as long this time. So until next time yall have a very quilty week.