Hannah Mae's T-shirt quilt

Graduation is one of the most important days for a student and one of the proudest days for a parent and the Grads family. My son’s girlfriend, Hannah Mae, graduated this year. I wanted her to know how proud I was of her so I wanted to do something extra special to make her stand out. You know what that means – off to Pinterest. Lol

I noticed she had posted a t-shirt quilt in on of her boards. Even though I have been quilting since the first of the year this was something I had never did. I had to tell her because I had to get the shirts she thought best represented her through her high school years. After that everything else was a secret.

I basically just picked a dimension that would fit all the shirts – 14 x 14. It was slightly difficult cutting the shirts because as the shirts were washed over the years they had twisted slightly. After I had all the shirts cut I ironed the “iron on interfacing” on the back of the squares. Sewed the blocked together – 4 across and 5 down. I had Hannah Mae pick out her backing. I wanted it to be her favorite color. I set it off I had a square of the backing monogrammed in the shape of a SC Palmetto tree. Below is the final product. Pretty sure she loved it.

First quilt update

Update on our first quilts that was posted way back in January. Amy M. finished her quilt and it looks amazing. I absolutely love it. This was a layer cake from Moda.

Hannah Mae's graduation party

When I see something just plain cute and creative I start snapping my camera. I attended a graduation at a barn/shed the other night and I must say these ladies did an amazing job. So I am going to post these pictures for inspiration to anyone wanting to PARTY!

Scott’s 40th Birthday party

Yesterday we had Scott’s 40^th birthday party at a South Carolina State park. We did our best to make him feel as old as possible. Despite our efforts he still believes he is as young as ever.

Austin and Amanda

Hannah and Hayden

My awesome sister made the cake. It is truly amazing. My husband rides a Harley Davidson so I wanted something that represented that and she hit the nail on the head. The miniature Harley Davidson motorcycle is a remote control I bought at Hobby Lobby after a massive search of every store in our county. Lol

Hannah painted this bike club sign on some faux leather I got from Hancock Fabrics. We hung it on the back of his wheel chair. This was by far the funniest thing ever. He had everyone put his cards and gifts in his wheel chair along with his diapers. Lol

Scott

I was extremely impressed with my banner and signs we hung up. I got the sign from ebay. Someone on there makes the signs and hand paints the name on it. It came in the mail in two days. Impressive.

We had so much food. This was a part on a budget so of course we had to make all the food, me and Hannah that is. Scott’s mom make his favorite sweet potato casserole and Hannah and I made slaw, cucumber and tomatosalad, pulled pork, brownies and Hayden grilled hamburgers and hotdogs. I put out an assortment of BBQ sauce to see what everyone liked. We had Memphis, Texas and Carolina Classic. And not to my surprise Carolina Classic won by far. I mean we are in South Carolina.

Hayden and Riah grillin

For an appetizer, I served home made salsa and chips. This held everyone off until the food was ready. I am providing the recipe below. I pretty sure this was the hit food of the party.

1 gal diced tomatoes

2 cups diced onions
2 bell peppers
2 cups of various peppers (1/2 hot and ½ sweet)
2 cups white vinegar
2 tbs of salt
2 cups of sugar

Simmer for two hours and then can. I blend mine just a little to make it like the restaurant’s salsa, just one or two pulses.   Warning: if you blend too much it will ruin it.  

Over all Scott has a wonderful evening with our wonderful friends and families.  

Isle of Palms

I recently took a trip to Isle of Palms as a quiet get away. It was amazing. That island was exactly what I was looking for. It was clean, quiet and small town feel. I stayed 4 days but was not anywhere ready to go when I left.

The Beach – its small compared to MB or FL but makes up for its size with marine life preservation and cleanliness. Jelly fish, crabs, starfish and horseshoe crabs fill the beaches and water. No real reason to even go to the aquarium. Shells are everywhere even though I had a hard time finding an unbroken sand dollar.

Shopping – I guess if you know me then you know I love to shop. It is also a big part of my vacation. At the Isle of Palms all you have to do is cross the bridge to the main land and you hit shopping heaven. Tons of great restaurants and major retail stores such as Belk and Old Navy with smaller stores such as Palmetto Moon blended in. Love that store. I am a true South Carolinian.

Eats – This small Island it not short of great places to eat but if you need to, you can go just across the bridge to Mt. Pleasant and experience some of the greatest restaurants that exist. I can only eat so much in four days but I put forth a good effort. On the Island I ate at Coconut Joes (right on the beach) twice because it was so freaking good and Ollie and Luke’s Pizzeria once. Both places rocked.  On the main land I ate at Page’s Okra Grill twice, once for supper and once for breakfast. This place rocks. I had the Pimento cheese burger and fries okra for supper, so good. For breakfast I had the Blueberry pancakes. Don’t miss this place if you take a trip here.  I also hit up PF Chang’s but was not impressed. Should have stuck with the local places.

Places to stay – I believe there are about three hotels on the Island, one resort and two mom and pop type hotels. I stayed at The Palms Hotel and was pleased. Feel free to stop by tripadvisor.com to read my review. You can also rent a vacation mansion. There are plenty to choose from because that is all that is on the island. The beaches are lined with mansions and well so are all the streets and the marina.

What to do – I wish I had the time to list every this there is to do here but it would take writing a book. So instead I will tell you about what I did. Obviously I soaked in the sun on the beach and also did my fair share of shopping. One of the most magical things I did was visited the Angel Oak Tree, truly worth the drive. It’s a really old Angel Oak tree that has white squires surrounding it. I also took a road trip to Folly Beach to see the Morris Island Lighthouse, also worth the drive and walk. I feel one day it won’t bee there to see. Morris Island is currently underwater so it’s not like you can just walk up to the lighthouse but if you are brave enough then you can walk/swim through the water to get closer. The water is very shallow. A few things I didn’t have time to do was go Crab fishing, take a charted trip to explore a secluded island, walk through the many beautiful gardens and go to the SC aquarium.  Plus Charleston is right down the road and it’s full of things to do. I really could have stayed for two weeks and never ran out of things to do.