Surprise, Surprise!

A couple of months ago, my parents' home was broken into while they were sleeping. My dad's iPad, wallet and all his keys were stolen, as were my mom's phone and car. They've got their car back now, and my sister and nephew have re-keyed the car and installed an alarm in the home. Nevertheless, life for my parents isn't going to completely go back to normal anytime soon. They're both still extremely jumpy, and they are frightened by every noise they hear at night.

This year my parents celebrate their 50th anniversary, and I want to send them something that will bring warm fuzzies and pleasant thoughts. Lap quilts would be a tad late for Christmas, quite early for the anniversary, but hopefully the most joy I can send by mail until we get to go visit again... twice this year!!! (Another niece got engaged, and I get to shoot the wedding in a few months!)


I bought the panel for my mom's quilt (because she loves carousel horses) so many years ago, I couldn't even begin to guess the age of the fabric. One thing I do remember is the original plan was to make it into a quillow, so the carousel panel is at least 17 years old.


I bought the panel for my dad's quilt (because he's a train fanatic) more recently, and both panels got stuffed away when I organized my stash a while back. I hadn't planned to work on these quilts in 2017. I'd totally forgotten about them. Until the break-in.

I began working on my dad's quilt on Christmas Eve while my Lizard was working. I entertained thoughts of finishing both quilts by the end of Christmas Day, then mailing them on the 26th. I didn't get as much sewing machine time as I hoped, anticipated and planned, and that's actually a good thing. I loved getting to spend all of Christmas Day with Lizard, and I took full advantage of it, making the quilts even more tardy.

I finally finished everything but the binding on New Year's Day, and last week, I finally got off work early enough to finish both. I didn't mail them until Monday because, well, I had to take pictures of my dad's quilt at the Colorado Railroad Museum...


... and I had to take pictures of my mom's quilt at the Colorado Mills carousel! (I could have taken pictures of my mom's quilt at the Denver Pavilions Christmas carousel downtown if I'd finished it one day earlier, darn it.)


There's a special place in my heart for red cabooses, not only because my dad lives, breathes, eats and dreams of trains, but because I gave birthday parties in a red caboose decades ago while working at McDonald's.


Ironically, we found carousels at the Colorado Railroad Museum.


And we found a train at Colorado Mills!


Hopefully the quilts have arrived so I won't be spoiling the surprise when my dad reads my blog today.
















I also managed to finish a pair of Perkiomen Valley blocks from scraps for Carole's drive and got them in the mail. These blocks hopefully will be incorporated into quilts to be presented to victims of the Thomas fire in California.


Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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