Mum's Table Runner

I made the quilt pictured below for my Mum's 70th birthday, however, she didn't receive it until her 73rd birthday.  I was a bit of a procrastinator at the time!  She asked about it a couple of times and then the next time she asked me "Am I going to be buried in it?"  Oh yes, Joan was the queen of some not so suble Mummy guilt.  It had the desired effect and that got my butt in gear to get it finished!  Blue and yellow was her favorite color combination, with this in mind,  I bought a majority of this fabric on a trip to Alaska.  
 

After my Mum passed away, my Dad hung this quilt on the balcony in their living room.  This is a location I used to take a lot of photos of quilts I have made.  It was a lovely tribute to her and when my Daddy passed away, I added the quilt that I had made for him.  

Fast forward 18 months and I have been doing some serious inventory of my fabric and craft space in general.  I opened up a container of fabric that I had not gone through in a l-o-n-g time.  It was a lovely surprise when I discovered that I had some extra squares that I had saved from making her quilt.

Not only did I have those squares, I still had some of the green fabric that used for each of the squares and the quilt sashing!  A great way to justify holding onto fabric for as long as I do 😊. I also pulled this periwinkle blue fabric that I bought at Liberty of London.  I was originally thinking I would use it for the binding but changed my mind once I had the squares put together.

The finished product looks great sitting on my table.  In the background you see my hutch that holds my Delft Blue china collection.  My love for these pieces came from both of my parents.

I hand quilted the piece which is what I also did with my Mum's quilt.  A piece this small doesn't take very long and I love the texture that it gives the fabric.

I'm very happy with this and I'm so glad that I had held onto those squares.  It's a lovely, yet practical reminder of my Mum.

Toodles until next time....

Happy New Year! I'm back!

I know, I disappeared last month!  I felt like I was floating in tea!  I reached my threshold when it came to trying all these new flavors of tea, along with drinking my regular ones.  I said no more on the 20th when both teas were absolutely horrible - l mean, I literally spat both of them out!

I really don't know what I was thinking doing two advent calendars at the same time - I'm too much of an overachiever at times....

However, the rest of the holiday season was much better.  Even though we live in South Carolina, we are very close to both North Carolina and Georgia.  Helen, Georgia is a little over an hour from us and made for a very fun day trip.

We got there early afternoon, so we could see it in daylight, but also be there to see all the lights once it got dark.  One of the first things I noticed were the "love locks".  These reminded me of the ones we saw on the huge bridge in Cologne, Germany.

How cute is this gnome?

Tom was a big fan of all the Sasquatch items around town.  The large tree in the center of town was beautifully decorated.

The horse had a red nose and there was the cutest little dog that rode up front with the driver.  Oh yes, we went in this store and didn't leave empty handed!

The town had quite a bit of charm once the sun went down and the lights came on.  We can check this off our list but I don't think we'll be going back anytime soon.  It was cute but a little on the tacky side of the spectrum.  Most of the gift shops sold the same items and I don't need anymore t-shirts!  I did get a very sweet ornament for our travel Christmas tree and also found a Sasquatch ornament that was Tom approved.

Now that I had had a break from all that tea tasting it was time for....

This truly lovely event is put together by the Oconee Farm Collective, which is a wonderful organization that shows all that our county has to offer.  I had bought the tickets to this event several months ago when I first saw it advertised.  I thought it would be a fun thing for us to do and also support local businesses.

The event was hosted at Misty Valley Farm which was a short drive from our house.  The venue was beautifully decorated for the season. 

The food was provided by several local bakeries and businesses.  Everything was delicious and they served Earl Grey which is one of my favorite teas.  Look at those teapot shaped sugar cubes - such attention to detail.  This farm is also home to a very talented artist and we got to see her studio and gallery.

Such a picture perfect and peaceful location.  One of the many jewels we have found where we live.  The swinging gnome just cracked me up.

Happy New Year and Toodles Until Next Time....