Birthdays Past and Future, Those Little "Houses"

Bear with me; this is going to be a long post. That's what happens when I don't post for days weeks on end! I celebrated yet another birthday this past week. It was a perfectly wonderful day; Mr. Goodneedle took me out to breakfast and then on to an athletic shoe store that generates a 3-D model of your feet for superior fitting. I tried on three different pairs of walking shoes from there and settled on these new ones. They're probably the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn right out of the box!


We had dinner out for the next two nights, too; the celebration lasted for a full forty-eight hours. Our son and his family had a special birthday dinner in my honor on the second night, complete with a beautiful handmade birthday banner and a very special strawberry cupcake!

Yesterday we made a quick trip to the Capital City to celebrate Lucy Ann's upcoming birthday this week. She'll be nine years old. We brought a furry beanbag chair for her room, I believe it was a hit! Our daughter called to tell us that long after we had left and returned back home she was still in the chair!

We had a fun birthday lunch with her (and her family who were sitting on the other side of the table).

She was delighted with a piece of birthday cake that easily fed our entire table (with some to spare)!

So, those "Little Houses" that I teased earlier weren't actually houses under construction at all. But, rather, square-in-a-square blocks. I made fifty-four of these 2" block units. Why?

To border "Frank"! Isn't he handsome? He is a door banner measuring 17" X 44". "

Frank is a Country Threads pattern that can be ordered through the hyper link here until 10/31. 

I got carried away  consumed with details on this small quilt. The name tag was created from a downloaded name tag photo which I printed out onto Printed Treasures* and fused onto his jacket. The pieced border was my own idea too. I was auditioning solid color outer borders and couldn't quite come up with anything that got me excited until I decided to piece a border using colors from the shirt and jacket, I felt it pulled the whole thing together. Yes, I can turn even the simplest thing into a career move! All in all, it was so worth it; I absolutely love the final result! As you can tell, these are LOUD colors, perfect for Halloween and October decorating; almost time to bid September good-bye. And sew it goes. 

Life is Good!

* Printed Treasures are printable, paper-backed fabric sheets. This is the product that I use to make all of my quilt labels; I buy the sew-in sheets. I heat-set mine, face down, with the iron after printing and have never had trouble with them not being permanent after washing. They may fade a bit, over time, depending on how many times they're laundered with the quilt. 

Up next: the perfect, quiet, antitdote to all that garish color overload; a low volume remedy.