Michigan- Part 2- Grandma's Quilts

Much of my trip up to Michigan this past weekend was filled with questions for my Grandma about quilitng.  I would consider her an expert.  Although she would never claim that she's pretty stinkin' awesome at what she does.  She is a former Geometry teacher and loves shapes.   She also seems to thrive on history and what that means as far as quilting goes.   I'm going to post a bunch of pictures to show her work.   She didn't have many quilts at her house because she always seem to try and find someone who needs them more than she does- Which is one of the reasons I love her so much!  She wants to see people enjoy her hard work.  Just to be clear about what it is that she does, she machine pieces these works of art and hand quilts them.  It takes an incredible amount of patience and artistry and I'm really proud of her!

This is her latest creation.  It's a star patterrn (obviously).  This is the second time I know of that she's made this one.   This one is in pinks and greens and the other one is bright primary colors with a black back.  She used gold thread for the quilting on that one and the stitching on the back is amazing!  My mom has that one so maybe I'll be able to get some pictures of it.

This is a close up of the quillitng she did by hand on this one.  It's amazing to me how even she gets each of these stitches....so patient!!

Another close up :)

Well that's all for this post.  I have tons more pictures but Jesse is going to fix the color on them for me so I'll wait to post them until he's done with that :)

Michigan- Part 1

I finally got to take some vacation!  I traveled up to Michigan to see my Grandma RuthAnn (Ashley) Thursday (4/22) through to Sunday (4/25).  It was a much needed break.  My attitude the last several weeks was aweful and I just needed to get away.  Jesse drove me out to the airport nice and early (we left at 4:30 am!) on Thursday morning.   My flights went exactly as planned and it was an overall good trip out there.  The rental car had one of those fancy GPS units that audibly alerts you to the next turn.  This was really nice since the last tieme I'd been out to my grandma's house it was in the middle of the night and I got really lost.   Grandma lives near Mason, Michigan (the closest big city is Lansing) but I flew into Detroit which is an hour or so by car.   We got to enjoy lots of time together.  I love listening to her stories and knowing about my family.  She is a wonderful story teller and it was so fun to gather some more.  I am writing this first post from work so I don't have the pictures I took available to include here.  I'm thinking that I would post a few things with pictures and write down some of the stories she told me while I was there.   I want to continue this as my digital scrap book so look for more :)

By the way, the time away from work did me good!  My attitude is better and I'm not taking things so stinkin' serious! 

This is what I'm thankful for this week (I know it's not Thankful Thursday, but so what!)

Jess

Thankful Thursday- Life is just plain good!

This week has been a good week! I'm thankful for so much and it's a little hard to get it all down so I'll shoot for the big things:

• I'm thankful for vacation days! I love my job but also having time off is an amazing gift. I'm thankful to have a job that gives me the opportunity to be off sometimes.
• I'm thankful for my husband. I've been getting ready to have a friend stay over before we head out of town this weekend. He's been amazing helping out with some of the cleaning and with puppy duty.
• I'm thankful for creativity and actually having the follow through to finish up my friend's baby shower gift.
• I'm thankful for the ability to take a road trip to Durango.
• I'm thankful for friends and catching up :)

Here's a picture of the diaper bag and other items that I made for my friend's baby shower. I can't wait to give them to her on Saturday :)