BUSY, BUSY, BUSY...A LITTLE BACK STORY...AND A SNEAK PEEK!

 

This Saturday our development is having a garage sale.  For many, MANY years Dear Hubby and I organized and ran the development-wide garage sale.  Considering how much effort it is taking just to get ready to SELL this year, I'm VERY happy we are no longer doing the organization and running of a sale with up to 33 individual houses participating!

Since Dear Hubby and I are both having health issues that impact our physical abilities, we have decided to get rid of A LOT this year.  I'm trying to be absolutely brutal with my decision making.  The less we own, the easier it will be for us to try to keep up with it.  Thank God my dear mom and dad have been coming over almost daily to help get things set up.  I could NEVER do it all alone and between his ridiculous long work days and physical limitations....Dear Hubby can't do much to help.  

Getting ready for the garage sale has left very little time for much else, but I HAVE started work on my mom's quilt.  I have only finished two dresden plates so far.  Lots more to go before it is even anywhere NEAR being ready for sandwiching!  Before I give you a sneak peek I think you need a little "history" to fully understand the quilt's concept.  Here goes:

My mom has "sweet teeth".  Not a "sweet tooth"...she loves sweets WAY too much for a single tooth.  It would take an entire mouth full to generate her level of addiction.  Anyone who knows my mom knows that she looks forward to dessert, plans it from the second she picks up a menu and only fills in a small amount of meal beforehand because "she should".  Her favorite sweet of them all?  CHOCOLATE!...in any shape and form.

For most of my young life, my mom's breakfast consisted of a Hershey Bar and a cup of tea.  She made sure I ate a good healthy breakfast, but hers was all about the chocolate.  I often wonder how much of Hershey, Pa my mom has paid for, lol.  She was probably Milton Hershey's school's biggest benefactor!  And she is NOT limited to only Hershey products, lol.  One Valentine's Day my dad bought her a box of chocolate covered caramels.  Determined not to eat them all at once, my mom put them in the basement freezer.  Over the course of the night my mom made numerous trips to that freezer, two flights of steps down and two flights of steps back up to the bedroom.  One piece of candy at a time my mom finished the whole box!  At least she worked off the calories climbing the stairs all night long!

Maybe it is because of my mom's nickname since childhood, "Tootsie", or because growing up she had very little access to sweets...they have played a MAJOR role in her adult life, lol. 

About a month or so ago I was reading something, somewhere (don't quite remember where), and there was mention of the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's.  Laughingly I thought to myself, "It should be Breakfast at Tootsie's and we could make it all about chocolate!"  Eureka, the beginning of a quilt concept was born!!!
 
Over the past month I have purchased novelty fabric having to do with chocolate candy and her other favorite sweets.  I have also purchased some machine embroidery patterns having to do with chocolate.  Amazingly, I found a pattern that says, "Chocolate, It's Not Just for Breakfast ".  Geez, it couldn't be much more perfect!!!   I knew then that that particular embroidery pattern would feature significantly in the quilt, along with other chocolatey embroideries.  I am still in the very early stages of quilt design, though.  I tend to produce the main parts of my quilts and then build in around them.  So, I will continue making dresdens (now that I have made my sample dresden and am happy with the size) and will stitch up some single color "practice" machine embroideries.  Once I have a good idea of the finished sizes of each of the components I will adjust the layout as necessary and begin stitching the good embroidery blocks.  Oh, and the sneak peek I promised?................

They are both the same size, although the angle of the picture makes the Hershey Kisses dresden look larger than the Nonpareils. 

I've just come in from a horrendous dental appointment and need to go lie down for a little bit to lower my blood pressure and hopefully relieve some of my TMJ pain!  Once I have rested for a bit I hope to work on the next dresden...assorted chocolate candies!