Thursday, May 5, 2011

A long car ride or two

For the last 2 weekends my DH and I spent 
many hours in the car.  What do you do in the car to avert many hours of boredom?  
I stitch, or knit or crochet, or make hexagons.  

On Good Friday, we headed to Indiana to pack most of our DD3's 'stuff' and bring it home.  {Round trip...8 hours.}  She had finals the week following Easter and we needed to get her 'stuff' before then because...

on April 29th {exactly one week later} we headed to South Dakota to bring DD2 home.  She moved there right after college graduation.  One year later, she is moving back for the final preparations before her wedding in July! 
 Future SIL will be moving back next month.  
We started out early on Friday morning and settled in for the long 14 hour drive.  Saturday we packed up her house and loaded our van and a trailer with an unbelievable amount of 'stuff'.   
{They hope to settle somewhere in the midwest but need jobs...anyone know of a photography and/or writing/publishing job?} 
Early Sunday morning, we were on the road again, heading home.  
{Round trip...28+hours}. 



So you ask what did I accomplish during all these car hours?  
First, I was determined to finish the hand quilting on my little vintage quilt.   


Only a few months after starting my blog, I found Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Days and visited many blogs.  One blog was Sleepytimesewing and I won this  lovely little stack of vintage 2.5" fabric squares.  The stack sat on my shelf until about a month ago when I was inspired to make this little vintage quilt.  I laid out and arranged all the squares and sewed them into a little grid. I used Bella white for the sashing strips.  After searching through my stash, I found this sweet vintage print in gray.  


I loved the neutral look it added to the vintage sampler. For the backing I used a solid gray to match and one pieced 4 square block from the left over squares. The binding is in a vintage pink.


Again to add to the vintage feel, I tried my best at big stitch hand quilting.  I quilted around each 2 1/2" square and in the border added 2 rows of big stitches.  I didn't want it perfect and it certainly isn't...
{note to self...still need to work on stitch size consistency!}


Anyone recognize any of these fabrics?  
I love looking at all the different ones and picking out favorites. 
Some just make me laugh...like the cowboys around a campfire {orange} or the Asian boy carrying bundles {green.}


It's like an I Spy quilt for grown ups!

I also worked on some stitchery for my Give Thanks BOM {sorry no picture} and stitched away at some more hexagons!



My Hexagon kit! 
Slowly, I'm getting a stack.  I guess I need more hours in a car...NOT!

3 comments:

  1. What a terrific use of 'useless' car time. Lucky you don't get motion sick. I'm very limited by that and it is very frustrating. Your quilt and hexies must make you feel very satisfied with time well spent.

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  2. Your trips bring back memories of traveling to Wisconsin almost weekly on a 5 hour trip. I always had a project that I could do to spend the boring time of travel. It sounds as if you are going to have a very busy summer. Your quilt looks great and what a great way to spend your time.

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  3. Oh I'm so excited to see what you did with those squares- that's absolutely beautiful!!! Thank you for posting the link!

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Sweet sentiments