Looks like the Rooster quilt was a hit with the guys in Afghanistan. Big Chief wrote this morning to say that one of his soldiers is interested in having a crib, a toddler and a lap quilt made as gifts for his family here in the states. Do I have to say how I excited I was to hear this? Happy dance! :) Then, just a bit later he tells me that one of the lieutenants in his shop was drawing up a pattern for his own custom quilt that he would like me to make for him!

So now I feel a bit overwhelmed. First, I have never sold one of my quilts...ever. It's not that I don't think they would sell, it's that I don't know what price to put on them. I don't want to charge too much, but at the same time I can't see parting with something that is so much a part of me for a pittance. It's really odd because normally when I make a quilt, I just give it as a gift and the happy thank you I get in return is better than any amount of money. Maybe it's because I know that if I sell a quilt it will be critiqued more closely than one I would give as a gift and I'm afraid of having my feelings hurt. I wonder if anyone else has problems putting a pricetag on their work.

The Great White Rooster

"The Great White Rooster"

This is a two ft. by four ft. hand quilted throw rug made out of my boys old blue jeans and fabric remnants from the charm quilt I'm currently working on. My husband asked for something to place next to his cot in Afghanistan so that he wouldn't have to wake up to the feel of gritty sand on his feet when he gets up every morning. This quilt marked a couple of firsts for me as I've never made a quilt that was meant to be walked on nor have I worked with blue jean material before. Quilting with perle cotton was also a new experience and I found that I quite liked the look of the stitches when I was done. It will be interesting to see what this poor thing looks like after a year in Afghanistan.

Catching Up

It's been a little while since I've written, so here's a quick update of the past few months. This is my friend Heather's quilt, all finished up and ready for mailing.






Now, remember the scrap quilt I mentioned earlier? The one where I thought it would be a neat idea to sew a whole bunch of odds and ends together willy-nilly just to see what would happen? Well, this is what happened. :)





This is Fiesta's block. She was my Blue Heeler (Australian Cattle Dog). We had her for 14 years before she passed away from cancer on 31 December 2009.






Kadi never did come home, but she will always be a part of our family. I miss her and my Fiesta every day.








Jesse is our male Blue Heeler. Even though he is all grown up I believe he will always have the heart of a puppy. Ranger is the newest member of our clan. I found Ranger on the local Humane Society website while checking to see if maybe someone had turned in Kadi. I'll post a real picture of these guys later on.

Bumblebee is our old orphan kitty. She adopted us back in 2003 when we lived in Louisiana. Someone shot her in the head with a BB gun and dropped her alongside the road. To this day, she still has the pellet because it is too risky for the vet to remove it. Petey is our pain in the butt Yorkie dog. Jesse has always been our oldest son's dog and his little brother felt he should have a doggie of his own to make it fair. So along comes Pete in a Craigslist ad and he was just too cute to resist. For such a little dog he sure can be a handful!

While I was researching scrap quilt blocks, I happened across some pictures of old fashioned redwork embroidery. Thinking it would be fun to try something new, I found a coloring book page online of this basket of apples, traced it out on a leftover piece of cream muslin from Heather's quilt backing and started stitching. There are a few mistakes here and there (Shhh!) but overall it came out good enough to be part of the Duncan Family scrap quilt.

The boys like to spend time in the "woman cave" with me on occassion so I take the opportunity to teach them a little something if they stand still long enough. Both of them thought redwork was pretty nifty, so they gave it a try. They each picked something that they really love to embroider. As this was the summer of fishing and the first time Jake had been out on our little john boat with his Dad, it didn't surprise me a bit when he went searching for a picture of a boat.

Kennedy chose pizza as his favorite thing, but he got a little tired of sewing towards the end, so I just left the stitching "as-is" for his block because I wanted the work to be his alone.