Hmmmmm, NOW WHAT ?

Oh, goodness, I hate to throw anything away--including scraps of fabric. But I have all these bits and pieces that really don't seem to go together. (I've already gleaned the best go-togethers from my stash scraps.)

So what to do with all these:

Well, a quilting friend shared a blog web site that included a pattern for a "disappearing 9 patch" block. So I thought I would try that. The scraps I had, though, were not such that I could make 9 equal size patches in my blocks, so mine is--needless to say--a bit of a modification from the original pattern.

This is what my block looked like right after I cut it into the quarters. You'll notice that right side "patches" are narrower that the others and I opted to cut it a little off center.

And this is how I arranged them to make the block.

In the meantime, my daughter showed me a really neat way to make a strip block.

So the resulting scrappy quilt will be a combination of 4 strip blocks and 12 modified disappearing 9 patches.

But, drats, I still have some of that pile of fabric left. Now I wonder just what will be next!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NANI

Ah, what can be better for a birthday (my 65th) than to have your daughters (200 and 300 miles away respectively ) come home to help with dinner.

And to have 8 of our 12 grandchildren here to celebrate with us. (The eldest is not in this photo.)

And to have one of the granddaughters like the sweater (her Nani knit last year) enough to wear it to church.

And to know that the youngest granddaughter in New York is celebrating her 2nd birthday on the same day! (God willing, we will be visiting with them for Easter.)

Wonderful weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY

This photograph of my father is part of a quilt (one of my first) that I made for my mother after Daddy passed away in 1998.

He was born on February 18, 1910, so yesterday would have been his 100th birthday. Even though I didn't get the quilt out yesterday, I thought of him all through the day.

I think one of the the most important things I learned from him (through example) was not to feel sorry for myself, to be positive, and deal with life as it comes. There could be no better example.

I know that whenever and whatever challenges I may face, he is up there cheering me on as I go headlong on through life. Thanks, Daddy and Happy Birthday.

Panning a little farther out on the quilt, there are photos of him with my mother in their younger and senior years; photos of my sister and myself with our husbands, with Mother and Daddy; and one of my favorites of my sister and me. (That's me looking up at her so adoringly.) Some of the patches are fabric from Daddy's ties. Farther out on the quilt are blocks that each of my children, nieces and nephew added to the collection, as well as their photos.

Ah, a wonderful loving family. Life just doesn't get any better!

A HA . . .

. . . I knew there was a good reason that I was keeping all those little snippets from the cuttings of my blocks from my Block of the Month quilt. I had already sewn them together into little squares, so it was just a matter of pressing, squaring them up, sewing them together . . .

putting them around this fabric for a sashing . . .

to come up with a fantastic pillow to go with the quilt!

As for another A HA: so this is why my Christmas cactus didn't bloom for Christmas. It was waiting for Valentine's Day.

Hope you all have a sweet one . . . Valentine's Day, that is.