Honoring GG

In his later years, my Grandpa was fondly referred to as GG (Great Grandpa).  He even signed most of his emails as GG.  This past weekend we traveled to Los Angeles to bury and honor his life.  During his funeral services I was again reminded of what a hard working, inspiring man he was.  He had a way of driving straight to the point and definitely wasn't afraid to tell you like it was, but he was also really funny and incredibly proud of his family.  My fondest memories of my Grandpa are fishing with him up in the Adirondacks even though I know we drove him crazy, because we didn't have a clue what we were doing.  I  also loved his foodie nature.  Having spent his career in the grocery industry, he had quite the sophisticated palate.  We always loved going out to eat with him, because we knew it was going to be really good food.  He loved to watch you try new things.  I always enjoyed watching him order the food and his deliberate instructions to every waiter he ever came across.  You didn't mess with Don and his food.

This was his obituary in the LA Times:

My dad and his sister Sherry

It's fitting that the bushes along the wall are gardenias.  They were Grammy's favorite and it's the smell that reminds me the most of her.

Cousin Brian and his son

Grandpa's parents are buried right next to them

 I don't think there is a more beautiful setting for a cemetery being nestled up in the Hollywood Hills. 

 My Grandpa was a war veteran and extremely patriotic, so it seems fitting that he be buried right above the Washington monument and just below the American freedoms mural.

It seems odd to think Don (also lovingly known as Captain Elwood) isn't around anymore.  He's the last of my grandparents to pass away, so I've lost an entire generation for the time being.  Even though I was sad to see him go, I also know it was for the best.  He was 92, in a lot of pain, and extremely lonely.  Grammy passed away 20 years ago, so he's been on his own for a while now.  In this case it was more of a celebration of his life rather than a mourning for his passing.  He's in a much better place now without his physical ailments.  It was also wonderful to be together with family.  We love you, GG!

Dusting Off the Sewing Machine

I don't think I touched my sewing machine the entire month of May.  I've never gone that long without sewing, but I've been so busy and tired that sewing got put to the side.  Oddly enough it was the request for help from two friends that got me to dust off my machine.

1- A friend was making a quilt for her friend's wedding, but had never quilted and bound a quilt before and wanted some help.  Her friend is a huge OSU fan, so she pieced a large Ohio with OSU print borders.  I showed her some straight lines around the O using a walking foot and then some simple Free Motion loopy lines in the borders.  It turned out really cute.  Here's the quilt during the beginning of hand binding:

It'll be her first complete quilt and it looks great!  I'm excited for her.

2- A good friend of mine is the cook at Girl's Camp this week.  The theme of camp this week is "O Ye that embark in the service of  God."  She found some curtains that had boats on them and wanted to make an apron out of them for her time at camp.  She asked me if I would be willing to make an apron for her.  I hadn't the faintest idea how to do it, but I love her, so I couldn't say no.

I started scouring Pinterest for apron tutorials for some ideas of how to combine these into something functional.  I obviously had to make up some of it as I went along, but this tutorial helped me with the sashing.  This is what I came up with:

 Now she can cook in style.  ;)

Floral Bow Ties

Happy May Day!  Where has the time gone?!  This month it's my turn to be in charge of the blocks of our Wish Circle for do.Good Stitches.  I've been trying to be better about using fabric I already have.  Someone gave me a ton of this fabric and it's been sitting in a stack for several years now.  I decided to use it as the backing for the quilt and base the colors of the front on this fabric.

The block is fairly simple, but very versatile since you can use any of the colors as the background.  It's a Bow-Tie Block (tutorial here).  Here are my two example blocks: