What's on the line?

Apples are on the line today!!! It's harvest time for apples so I just had to share this little quilt..........

It's one of the quilts that I made in 2000 to celebrate the Millennium and it's called "Family Reunion". That name may not make much sense but I was thinking of our family tree when I made this and that old saying "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree". That saying never made much sense to me but it was usually said when somebody looked like, or did something like, another family member. Hense, the name for this little quilt. It measures about 18 x 22". I like the apples on this quilt so much that I think it would be fun to make a quilt with lots of appliqued apples on it and use all sorts of red, green and yellow fabrics for the apples. And so, there's another project to add to the "longer than I have years left to sew" list. :-)  Of course, I could speed up the process of applique if I would just do it by machine, but I dearly love to hand-stitch. Maybe what I really need is a magic wand so I can "poof" my house clean and have all my time to sew. Riiighhht.........!
Okay, so a magic wand is not going to happen but here's something that did happen...........I won a quilt yesterday!  When I was home to see my mom a couple weeks ago, I bought some tickets for the raffle quilt for the Lehigh Historical Society. I knew it was a store-bought quilt and haven't seen what it looks like, but I bought the tickets to support the historical society. I really wanted to win and so about 4:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon, I looked over at the clock and thought.........."hmmm, I bet they are drawing the lucky winner for that quilt. Sure would be nice if it was me."  And then about 20 minutes later, the phone rings and I see by caller I.D. that it's my brother, so when I answer, I say........"are you calling to tell me I won that quilt?"  And he laughs, and says......"well, yes, I am" and I say.........."you're kidding" and he says "no, you won it". Still I'm not sure he's not joking, so I ask again and yes, I really did win the quilt. And the guy who drew my name was a visitor to the museum who used to enjoy meeting my dad for coffee. Now isn't that cool?!!  I'll get the quilt in a couple weeks when I'm home to see my mom again and then you'll see it here on the line after that.
I have been doing a lot of hand-quilting on a variety of small projects. I'm also trying to make drapes for our bedroom but having trouble staying focused on that project. They are pleater tape drapes and I hate working with that stuff. Luckily, our bedroom is the only room in the house that has a traverse rod and requires drapes with pleats. They will be done by the end of the week as I have a project I want to do and I've told myself I can't do it til the drapes are done. You see, I want to paint my little chair that I sit on the front porch and put my fall pumpkins on. I have a polka dot theme in mind and so as you read this today, I will be sewing those drapes so I can paint that chair this weekend.  :-)
We had really nice weather here in Minnesota this past weekend but I was caught up watching all the coverage of Hurricane Irene. So many people are now being affected by the flooding. Thoughts and prayers go out to all who are affected by Irene and thanks that she lost strength!
Have a good Monday on this last Monday in August. Soon fall will be here and I can hardly wait. I may have mentioned a few times that fall is my favorite season. As summer ends, I expect to get back to more regular blogging and some of those things that I did this summer but never found time to blog about...........well, they will be shared in posts titled......"what I did during summer vacation!" Back soon..........
Sandi