Two weeks away ~ Quilting, physical therapy, and shopping

While I was away, I attended one of my Mom's Quilting days...and so did a furry friend below. Isn't she just so cute? She didn't get much quilting done, as she was too busy drinking her cup of tea and visiting everyone there. :)

Here's my Momma on Quilting Day. She is recovering from a stroke that paralyzed her entire right side 12/28/2011. She is already back to quilting, a true miracle she thought she'd never do again. Isn't she so pretty?

I took this quilt square to work on at my Mom's Sister~Friends Quilt day ~ I made it for a friend that is retiring at my work.
I'm leading our work team to complete 32 10.5x10.5 squares that will be all different for the quilt. I am thrilled with how mine turned out. I hand drew the teacup pattern. The handle was so tough to get right, so I decided to use buttons in her favorite color, purple, instead of fabric.

The pic of my mother above (standing :) is beside a quilt top she completed for my sister...all done by hand. Isn't she fabulous? I do a square, she does an ENTIRE quilt top - her 13th in 10 years. And, she's standing WITHOUT her cane! ;)

And below...it's a gal named Cathy that I met on my way home to GA at the Shoppes at Mauzy, VA. They allowed me to snap her pic, she was so kind to me. ;)

YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS What's COMING!!!

I hope to post real soon about an auction that I want to do for a blogging friends granddaughter. Kathy Black, from Mimi's Garden blog, experienced a very sad loss late last year when her daughter in law died shortly after childbirth. The money I raise from the items I auction off will all go to this little girl.

Stop by again real soon, as you won't want to miss seeing the items I'll be custom designing to auction off!

I'm going to create a button if you'd like to advertise it on your blog. The more people we get participating, the more interest there might be in bidding on the items and this little blessing of a baby girl will get 100% of the proceeds of the sale of these items.

HINT ~ One item I'll be auctioning off will be a custom designed Tea Cozey with a French theme material made by "Moi".

Happy Easter Everyone!
~CC Catherine

I'm ALIVE...and I'm so thankful I still have my FAITHFUL Blogging Buds! Look at what I've been doin...and doin...and doin...

Princess Mignon Abbie up above a bit tired from watching me run around this past two months like a lil French Chicken with her head cut off...
This is a QUICK POST to say I'm ALIVE! :)

and...what I've been doin! Nope, I've not been taken by Body Snatchers...but I kinda feel like it!

I decided to finish a 3 year old project! It's almost done. I started this quilt for my first grandchild literally three years ago. His third birthday is 10/10 and I decided since the birthday theme was FISHIES, I'd finish the Oceanic Fish Quilt that I designed for him (my first quilt) long long ago...come look with me. I'm nearly done too! This is one of the fishies...

This is a long distance pic of the quilt at an angle. I'm quilting it all now...after I finished the applique's...and then I put the border on and "voila"...it will be ready for the WRAP! Party is this Sunday!

Traveled to PA for a friends funeral...and at the Restaurant afterward there was a Historic Bridge and when I walked over it, this was sticking out of the stone bridge wall. No kidding....had to have a pic of it! Talk about a once in a lifetime moment.

Worked on this in between quilting for my girlfriends birthday gift, "Kathleen Ellis" of LifeStyle Designs... It's in the mail to her...can you tell me what it is? :) Kath...do you know what this is? It was soooooo much fun making...and the cool thing about it, I'm making more! :)

This little tiger (poodle) I babysat for a week. Is he not the coolest little guy you ever did see? Ms. Abbie was in love.......is in love! She loves French Men! ;) His name is "Baloo". He has chocolate hair, chocolate eyes, and chocolate nose...and chocolate LIPS! He's CHOCOLATE! teahehe!

Oh how I've missed you all...now that the quilt has been nearly taken care of, I think I just may be back online soon! My company of four months has left...and I'm not making as many HUGE meals! YEA.... :)

Hugs and Sugar to all of you that left me such adorable and friendly notes saying how you've missed me! I have SO missed each of you! I'll be making the rounds to your place SOON!

Ciao for now~
~CC Catherine

1st "Three or More" Tuesday & The WINNER IS Announced!

OK...I'm out of breath... Today is a big day for me... It's my first "Three or More Tuesday, hosted by Tam at "The Gypsy's Corner"...please make sure you visit her site to enjoy all other participants! Glad to be participating today Tam! ;) My post will cover both Three or More...and, Thus, enters my pile of (3 or more) pair of jeans either too small, too big..or just trashed with holes, etc... I also have thrown in old dresses from my daughter, a flannel nightie, and a scrap piece of dark navy polyester velvet. (not seen in this pic)
A friend shared what she was doing with her old jeans with a pic and how/to from the Internet. She was making a patchwork quilt...so, my Dad had passed away and my sons just missed him so, as I did. I asked my mom if I could have all his old jeans., and I took my sons old jeans...and any extra throw away outfits and made two quilt type blankets. One was a duvet with a flannel backing, the other is what you'll see in this post...a Patchwork Coverlet (king size)

All you need for this is good heavy duty scissors, cut out a cardboard pattern of the size you want your squares to be, thread, and a sewing machine. Oh, also a good back for long periods of sewing. (haha!) I used everything from the jeans, even the pockets...
And, this one even opens up to hold throat lozenges for when they're sick! Or a late night snack, (non melting of course)
A close up of how cool the different squares look with their frayed edges. What you do is sew all the patches together after you've cut out all your squares with your cardboard pattern. Make seams about 5/8" deep. You then clip all the seams about 1/4" deep and about 1/4" apart from each other once quilt is completed. Then, you launder it so the edges will fray.

And the final results are.....my Treasure for my son that has both his Grandpa's jeans and his...together forever, just like he will be in his heart forever too! ;)

I even used some cool "trashed" logos from other things my son had in his stash to trash to sew on here and there. I even included denim shirts in this quilt. Click on the pic to see the cool Tommy Hillfiger logo that I sewed on the bottom right hand corner of the coverlet.

That's it for my share today...but, wait...let me tell you who WON my FIRST GIVEAWAY CHALLENGE!

Last Friday & Saturday on both days posts I was offering for anyone that could guess the pair of eyes I had included in those posts that their names would go into a hat and a name would be drawn for the winner. Well, from "Somedays are Diamonds" , Karen, from CA, is my winner! Please check out her cool blog... Your gift is in the mail and should arrive in time for Sweethearts Day! Congratulations Karen, and thanks to all who had fun guessing that it was a FURBY! (See pic of it posted on my sidebar) Check out what she won:

Until tomorrow when we all share our Outdoor Wednesday & Rose Wednesday shares...

~Au Revoir

~CC Catherine

Ever See A "Qui-ofa?" A "Qui-ofa" You Say? Let Me Show You What It Is! ;)

Welcome to my Meta Monday Qui-ofa Share & My first Blue Monday Post~ Thanks Susan from "Between Naps On The Porch" for hosting one of my favorite themes of the week! And thanks goes out to Sally of Smiling Sally for hosting Blue Monday! Make sure you stop by both their places to catch everyone elses fabulous makeovers and Blue Monday shares~ Maybe it was the fact that I was a Girl Scout, and one of our pledges were, "A Girl Scout is always thrifty". Or, maybe it's because I was raised in a home where my mother made everything from anything... Whether it was made from material, Clorox bottles, readers digests, or even tin cans...my Mom and her love for crafts and sewing gave me an insight to this really cool creative and artistic world! I'm not sure if she realizes how much she taught me, and continues to teach me...but here goes; which leads me to this weeks Meta Monday share, dedicated to my Mom, Myra!

Thus, a "Qui-ofa"!

Meet my little traditional style love seat/sofa & lovely wine~green~gold pattern. These colors and pattern were great while I lived in my home in PA, but when I moved south where I wanted more of a French Country theme in my new home...it just wasn't going to work...
So, my lil brain started thinkin about what I could do to change this to the look I wanted to achieve "using what I had". (Another thing my Mother taught me~) At the time I worked for a company where I was paid in commission and 10% of free merchandise of my choice from the company's retail items. Well, there was this quilt that I just loved and had purchased with my free merchandise for my spare bedroom's queen size bed. I decided to use my "free" merchandise and order three more quilts to have my "Loving and Devoted to ~Moi~ Mother" make me a custom design slip cover to match the beds quilt. This is how the quilt looks on the bed...

I can dress this quilt up & I can dress her down...one of the things I love about her!

Here's a side view of the quilt so you can see the border that goes along the edge. It's also reversible which has a really sweet delicate blue/white tiny pattern on the other side.

Not that this has anything to do with the "Qui-ofa", but my guests always love this, so thought I'd share it with you. A missionary friend of ours wrote this prayer in her 80's before she died. When my guests come, I personalize the prayer and put it inside of one of my custom photo note cards I make. I have a little gift on the bed, the card which has the prayer, and little mints or chocolates on a bed tray. This bed tray is adorable, as it's made out of a picture frame and a piece of chenille bedspread. (very easy to make Jan, of Rose Haven, that loves Chenille) ;)

How can I show you what's inside the card without showing you what was on the cover... ahhh, isn't she a cutie? This is ~Sasha, my sister-in-law's Yorkie. This really makes a cute prayer card since she looks like she's asleep! ;)

© Photography by ~CC

Ok...now for the "Qui-ofa"... This is not considered a slip cover, because each cushion is custom covered with a zipper, just like the original cushion was covered. Notice the little piping around the edge of the cushion? This is what the reverse side of the quilt looks like. My mom is such a perfectionist that she decided that all the piping needed to be made from the material and thus, she worked her little fingers to nubbins, and made all the piping by hand as well.

Then we had the custom slip cover part begin...this was where the real "Brain Crackin" came in. My mom really had to think this through...it was not an easy task because of the patchwork design in the quilt, and the border that went around the edge of the quilts. So, she worked through it in her mind, would cut, sew, think, cut, sew...and this went on for nine days. Yes, God love her, nine days she worked on this labor of love for me. Notice how she even had the piping on the front arm of the sofa so it would mimic the original front of the arm?

Well, what about the back you say? Yes, she even thought of a unique way to finish off the back. On each side are two heavy white zippers that she sewed into it. Once the custom cover is slid over the sofa, each zipper is pulled down as if you've just slipped into the prettiest little dress you ever did see. And she's as snug as a pea in a pod. (I don't like bugs in a rug...scary in a bedroom) ;) Is this just not the coolest?

And "Voila" here she is from the front view... "Francais et Chic"... Notice how neat the side view is, as well as the front view around the bottom? All nice, neat, and coiffed~

One more view from the front with my sweet little Boyd's Bear White Teddy..with her blue velvet outfit, she just looks so cute on this sofa!

When I tell people that my Mother made this custom slip cover, they marvel at it, as it looks like it was manufactured by a professional company. It was, Myra & Co. I got the idea to use the quilts, thus the "Qui" part... ;), and she's the one who actually did the work on the Sofa, thus the "ofa" part. ;) So, it's our "Qui-ofa"!

I hope you enjoyed my Meta Monday post...you'd love my Mother Myra, I do...and so does everyone else that meets her! Look for her picture on the sidebar of my blog...she's a cutie patootie!

I love my lil French Country spare bedroom~

Love ya Mom, and thanks for my "Qui-ofa"!

~CC Catherine