Designing Women

I got word the other day from McCall's that another one of my designs will be in the October/November issue of their Quick Quilts magazine and will be out to subscribers and on news stands between August 10 and 31. That means any day now...so I'm watching the mail for my copy. It's always fun to see what they do with my quilts. I made this one as a birthday gift for Ardis -- one of the Batty Babes -- last fall. She quilted it and we sent it to McCall's. I called it "Falling Stars" because of the fall colors I used and the way the different sized stars fall across the quilt. They call it "Patchwork Galaxy"...and I like that name, too. This will be my 8th design published by McCall's and there will be another one next spring.

I know a couple of ladies who have granddaughters about Savannah's age and they are enjoying showing the girls how to sew. I've tried with Savannah, but she's not really interested in the accuracy required or the techniques used. But she is very artistic and loves and appreciates quilts. Her eyes lit up one day when she came over and saw me sketching a quilt design on graph paper with colored pencils. So when she adopted her little Cabbage Patch girl, Ella Rose, one of the first things she talked about was me making a quilt for the little baby. We were still on vacation, so she was trying to describe to me what she wanted. Finally she told me just to wait. She said that when she got home she would draw a picture of how she wanted it to be. So here we go...the next generation of quilt designers! I couldn't be more proud. And sure enough -- next time I saw her she had drawn a picture for me.

So I went to my fabric stash and started to pull little pieces of fabric that looked as close to her design as I could come. I paid attention to the details she had about the sizes and colors of the squares. She made it clear that she wanted some blank ones that she could write words on. (She got this idea from the quilt I made for her when she was born.) And she wanted some pictures on it. I surprised her by printing pictures of her with Ella Rose on the squares she had planned to draw pictures in. She was surprised by that because she didn't know I could do that. She was very happy with the final results. It seems we make a good team. Who knows what we'll be able to collaborate on in the future? I can't wait to see!

On the Road Again

When Jerry and I went to Amicalola Falls for our anniversary trip in mid June, we were wishing we could share the beauty of it with the family. Little did we know then that an opportunity to do just that would arise soon.

Jessica's boss, and friend, Sally, has a time share at Big Canoe resort not far from the falls. She was unable to use it this year and wanted to know if our family would like to go up there for a week. Well, yes!! It was looking like all the kids would only be able to stay from Friday till Tuesday...even though we had it for a whole week. But Jess was able to get one more day and stayed till Wednesday. And once they got up there, Jodi and Jeremy decided to extend their stay, too, and did stay till Friday. We had a great time.

One of our favorite things at the resort -- in that we went there every day -- was the "swim club". This is a beautiful (everything there is beautiful) water recreation area. They have a very nice salt water pool, a white sand beach -- with a dock for jumping off of --paddle boats, and a natural-looking rock water slide that is a blast. Emery never tired of building sand castles, forts, dams, etc. on the beach.

Jeremy also enjoyed a couple of the 3 golf courses there and he, Jodi, Jerry and I went to the driving range one morning. We also ate out a lot, rented and watched several movies, and Jeremy, Jodi and I played a lot of Rummikub and Monopoly Deal...till the wee hours a couple of times. :)

Besides a side trip to Amicalola Falls one day, Jodi, Jess, Savannah and I had a girls' trip to Cleveland, Georgia, to Babyland General Hospital...birth place of the Cabbage Patch kids to get Savannah a baby doll. She was so excited, and we all had a great time. I've never been there before and the place (a new one) is gorgeous! We got to see a "live birth" and adopted a little baby girl that Savannah named Ella Rose. When we got back, Emery was disappointed that he didn't get a little brother. But he got used to his little sister right away.

So our annual family getaway -- which is usually a fall affair -- took place a little early this year. It was a great trip and we thank Sally very, very much for sharing her time share and giving us this opportunity for fun in the sweltering Georgia sun. It was fantastic!