Big Iron

Purses

2011-03-09T08:30:00.000-06:00

This is a Tag Along Tote designed by Atkinson Designs. Very simple and fun to sew.

Here is a new purse I made called a Carolina Carry All. All winter I carried a weird summer purse and so now that it going to be spring maybe someday soon, I made another summery type purse. It has two neat "hidden pockets" in it, a little tedious and difficult to sew the first one but the next will be better.

Speaking of weather, its snowing majorly here. So depressing anymore. On the good news front, one of my customers has a wallhanging accepted into the Paducah quilt show in April so I am celebrating for her! I'm so proud that she decided to just take a chance and enter.

Exciting News

2011-02-06T13:40:00.000-06:00

Since my last post, I've had a couple nice things happen. I entered my quilt, Sweet Candy Dots, into the Road to California show and was accepted. Then I received a second place ribbon in my category so how neat is that! The show looks really great and someday I'd love to attend it.
Then my same quilt was used by AQS in their advertising background in the most recent issue of American Quilter on page 63. I think they did a nice job of showing off my quilt too along with their new books, makes me real proud.

In the meantime, I did put together a simple project from Amy's CreativeSide , a quilt called Hunky Bars. Simple, fast and sweet way to use prints. This goes together in a couple hours and I did linnear and geometric quilting very quickly and its done!
In my journey around blogland, I also found the BabyBoomerQuiltingBee which I also featured on our guild's blog. The projects she has are so nice, I'm really interested i making Missy's Fall Garden and Nicoles Journey. Fun places to visit.

New Quilts

2011-01-30T08:42:00.000-06:00

Before Christmas, I did some jammies for the grandkids, think they turned out cute and used up some terry fabric and some flannels.

Here is a cute little quilt I made from some panels with circus scenes. Very colorful and fun with simple quilting.

This is a scrap quilt that I made with my huge scrap collection. The border is a dessert fabric print which I really loved. On the back is some ittsy bittsy teeny weeny bikini fabric which of course would not be worn after the desserts.

This is quilt that was made with charm squares, I loved the colors of it.

My sister and I started a blog for the Pine Needle Quilters, our local guild. It promises to be an experience!

Catching up with some of my projects

2010-12-14T07:15:00.001-06:00

I have been busy, I swear. I have pictures to prove it. Here are two New Wave Quilts that I have done. One is a top yet but the other is quilted and is bound now even though at time of photo it was not. It was a pattern from Oh Fransson. This is a super fun and wonderful pattern. There are so many ways I want to make this quilt!

Here is a Kaleidoscope quilt that I did . It is from the Ricky Timms video instructions which are really well done and understandable. I would like to make another of these some day. Cutting the wedges is exciting because you just don't quite know what that quilt will look like.

This is a small wallhanging done is a very free style and whimsical way. The grandma's flower garden block were demonstrated by my Mom as she is the queen of the gardens. (She is working on the fifth one!!!) This is the only garden you will get from me. I think they are great, I just can't piece that many. This contains some hand embroidery which I love to do.

This is a table runner that I did this fall as a demo for our quilt guild. It is called Shadow applique and came from an issue of American Quilters Society. It demonstrated how to add a shadow effect to your applique by applying a background to each piece of applique.

This is a favorite recent project that I have finally finished up. It started with a lovely hand embroidered tablecloth that was old and had some small holes in it. I cut it out eliminating the holes and added some blocks that I had started from another demonstration that I did. My little granddaughter was three at the time and she sat on my lap for a long time piecing those blocks. I just love this quilt and would like to go through my linen collection and cut it up!

Happy quilting.

Holiday wish list

2010-12-10T06:40:00.001-06:00

Holiday Wish List
There is a great big giveaway if you put this meme wish list on your blog. Go check it out.

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family? good health and good jobs for our families

2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition? sleep as long as allowed, drink lots of coffee and start prepping food!

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be? a trip somewhere warm

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money? I sew a lot of gifts. I also make up "gift certificates" for family to use up favors with me, like babysitting, bake an apple pie, etc.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up? Our family does a special version of name that tune.

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood? I have some special dishes that I use for our table. Also, cookies that my Mom or friends have made through the years.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip? Hawaii

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year? Playstation Move, Call of Duty-Black Ops, and U Draw game tablet

Apple Kuchen and Stuff

2010-07-08T16:36:00.003-05:00

I'd love to have a lot of things to show on my blog but I don't. I'm trying to change it but I can't yet. My machine hums all day long but its my customer quilts and when I look at my stuff, its exhausting but I know I'll have new things sometime.
In the meantime, I do know a lot of "stuff" and stories. I had fun with my grandma's story the other day, so I thought I'd share more. My grandma Jenny raised nine kids during the Depression and in Northern Wisconsin. Most of the time its still a Depression up here so I shudder to think of what it was like back then. They had a house on a hill off of a "back street". When I was young, I was pretty sure every street in our town was a "back street". You'd go down the hill, cross the back street, cross the state highway and there was a railroad track. We lived in a logging town so that train was busy pulling carload after carload of logs to make pulp for the mills in Green Bay or the Valley. But that was when I was a kid and I have no idea if there was a lot of that happening during the Depression. I do know they had passenger cars then because my Ma said they'd ride it to go visit family.

I've stated before that my Grandma could make something out of nothing. We still do some of her recipes but of course she didn't write anything down. Our favorite recipe I've learned from my Ma as I watched her hundeds of times cutting up apples, making the dough and it was the treat of the whole day just as it probably was for my grandma's family. Its a German recipe called Apple Kuchen and I've seen variations of that recipe in cookbooks but they look pretty fancy to me. Our family version is just like a biscuit dough pushed into the bottom and sides of a pan, my Mom uses her mom's pan, and I couldn't make a good kuchen until I found the proper weight pan, its critical for kuchen. Then you have to find the right apple tree. This is also hugely important, they can't be grainy apples or too sour or too sweet and you want them juicy. Do you realize that many apple trees grown along train tracks? Thats where we'd find some good apples too. Slice the apples on the dough in the just right pan and then sprinkle on sugar. Of course how much sugar you use depends on the sweetness of the apples but this is no place to be too stingy either. A critical German seasoning is cinnamon and add just enough of this to the top along with a stick of butter or margarine or oleo as we used to call it here in Wisconsin. Some of my old recipes still say oleo and I kinda like it so I might use it again, oleo. Bake until it bubbles over in your oven, its not good until it sets off the smoke alarm or drives everyone out of the kitchen. My grandkids have not witnessed anything quite like this technique before but they are getting used to it now and don't run too far for fear of missing kuchen.

Just like my grandma and my ma, I've used kuchen to pretend that we had a really, really good meal. It doesn't matter that you served potato soup again or a fried egg again, you ended that meal with apple kuchen and thats all that matters now.

Another dish that my Ma talks about with her brother Frankie and some of her sisters is Doughed Potatoes. Now I've never seen this recipe anywhere though I'm sure it must be. My Uncle Frank was being sassy and put the recipe down like this: Make pastry dough. Put a squirrel on the dough. Make sure the squirrel is dead. Add chopped carrots, onion and celery and bake. If you can't get a squirrel, use a chicken. Now I think that version is just wrong. My Ma describes her ma's like this. You do make pastry dough. Then you peel a lot of potatoes and onions and layer them all in a huge pot, layers of potatoes and onion, then add some dough, more layers of potatoes, etc. I think you add salt and pepper and maybe oleo or bacon grease to this because without that squirrel there is no fat. Now my mom did not make this for us but it is legend. It's really high carb isn't it. But people really didn't sit around back in the day and the kids all played hard and had jobs too or the families didn't make it.

Another thing we had sometimes when I was a kid was something my Ma called Minute Pudding. We knew that it was tough in the kitchen when minute pudding came out. You take a pot of salted water and whisk in flour and cook it until it makes a pudding, this is served for breakfast along with sugar and cinnamon on top and with milk over it all. Now it really wasn't bad because we had fresh milk from our milk cow and about 1/3 of that gallon of milk would be cream. It's an unforgettable sight to see that much cream on milk. Sometimes in the late fall and on certain mornings, I get a craving for minute pudding but I'm not seven years old anymore and my brothers and sisters aren't sitting around the table with me and my Mom's not in the kitchen of that old house.

4th of July birthday

2010-07-04T19:38:00.002-05:00

My Mom stopped by and while swinging away on the porch, she's been known to tell her wonderful stories about her family and sometimes just little bits that make me wonder why I don't listen better...

Her mom's birthday was the 4th of July, I'm sure I heard that before but it didn't sink in. You'd think I could remember it on that day but no. My grandmother's name was Johanna Ehlinger and I think she had a tough childhood. She contracted rheumatic fever so severly that she was in bed for over a year and it damaged her heart. It appears her father was a pretty rigid character and her sisters became nuns, all three of them and her brother became a priest, mostly to start a new life I think. My grandma toughed it out at home and got married at the age of 32. She was not ever supposed to have children because of her bad heart but she had nine.

Most of the houses they lived in had no lights so they had lanterns, my grandma raised a huge garden and canned enough food on a wood stove so she could feed eleven people. Her mother in law moved in at some point and she didn't care for my grandma so that must have been nice, my grandma was a Catholic and great granny was a Methodist, crumps sake, thats a good reason to hold a grudge hey...in all that she had time to cook meals from practically nothing. Everyone said she could take a little bit of nothing and come up with a great meal, thats a skill thats gone now. My grandma appeared to be a great friend to all, she could do sign language and anyone who was deaf and desperate for a conversation would come visit her. She was also ambidextrous.

My grandma Johanna also known as Jenny, died in her mid-fifties from the bad heart that plagued her most of her life. She died about a year before I was born so I only get to hear about her. She did take care of her mother-in-law to the end of her life and before my great grandma died she asked my grandma Jenny why she took such good care of her when she had treated my grandma so badly. I think that speaks volumes of her and the way she lived each day. Both of my grandmothers died early in my life but the tales and stories about them are inspiring and make me realize how small some of my problems are in comparison. Perhaps thats a good reason to sit on a porch and tell stories about our grandmas and grandpas and parents and make sure our children hear them as they will have their own tough times and need their own inspirations.

Minnesota Quilt Show and the 4th of July

2010-07-04T17:32:00.003-05:00

About a week ago, I found out that I had received the Best of Show ribbon in the large category at the Minnesota Quilters Inc. show in St. Cloud. Knock me over with a feather, thats all I can say. The quilt is my Sweet Candy Dots that I entered into Paducah. Right now its the only show worthy quilt I've made for a while so thats all I can enter but I am so proud of it!
The Minnesota quilters show has been a favorite of mine for a long time. A small group of ladies and I would get together and eventually we became a dozen, we called ourself the Dirty Dozen. Almost every year we would rob from our grocery money, pack up two cars or SUVs or whatever we could squeeze in and head for the city of the moment for the Minnesota show. They have a revolving show in Duluth (which is my personal favorite as its not real far from us and quite lovely on Lake Superior), Rochester, St. Cloud and St. Paul. We cram ourselves into two or three rooms but that was after our 15 hour road trip to get to the show since we had to stop at every quilt show along the way, no matter how far out of the way it was. We're talking Amish on dirt road out of the way but they did have good prices on fabric!
The show is huge, and its fun and the people are nice and the food is good. We had an entire turkey dinner with all the fixings in Rochester for crumps sake...served at the show. Nice. Anyway, I did entered into one of their challenges one year and did get an Honorable Mention. I was so thrilled and I always wanted to enter that show with a "real" quilt and this year I did. Unfortunately, our Dirty Dozen has dwindled due to health and death. That kinda knocked the wind out of our travelling sails but I've heard rumors of rekindled interest in a road trip. I think the Moonlight Quilters will be making another run...

Fairy Festival 2010

2010-06-26T07:40:00.004-05:00

Once again we went to the fairy festival at Thistledown Greenhouse. Such a good time was had last year, that it was a given to do this again. Here are my lovely fairies.

The day was gorgeous for weather, not as hot as last year and we brought a picnic lunch and lots of water and such to be more prepared.

I made the costumes this year, my first venture into this. Couldn't find purple wings so my son bent some aluminum wire for me and I covered them and painted the purple wings. I think you can kinda see whats going on in this photo of their backs.

They did some belly dancing with some wiggly ladies from the Shimmy Shoppe, did a treasure hunt and followed the peacock, King Arthur, around for a bit.

We were all tired when we got home so I guess thats good~

Our Trip to Paducah

2010-04-30T05:53:00.010-05:00

Its been darn near a week since we got home from the AQS show in Paducah and I'm still having a hard time submitting to my routine here at home. Large quilts are overwhelming me with their vastness and miles of quilting to do and my brain is still on overload from all the beautiful color of the show and all the ideas. I'm just a little depressed in the normal world.

We did have a great time! It was four years since my last visit to the Paducah show and took me that long to work up the courage to enter a quilt in that show. I was thrilled to get juried in and even more thrilled to have won a ribbon!

This was a truly unexpected honor and I have the picture to prove it, the unattractive one with my mouth hanging open, but wow, it was a cherry on top of the ice cream sundae! My entry, Sweet Candy Dots, was in the 1st Time Entry into the show division and there were many lovely quilts in that division. You can see the first and second online at AQS website.

Our trip involved a 12 hour bus ride before we got there but a dozen of us from our area went together so it was a lot of fun and especially having my sister and friends with me. We always have a great time together no matter what. We'd shop and look at the show, take classes and lectures every day and then meet back at the hotel for show and tell and glasses of wine or apple martinis! Nice way to end the day too. We had a couple of "rookies" to the show with us and on the first day Maggie said, We got to come back to this again!

My dear friend, Deanna, has tried for years to get a picture of herself with Eleanor Burns and succeeded this time. Deanna is her greatest fan I think and this year Eleanor even made it to one of our parties...she didn't know about it of course but it was pretty crazy. Thats my sisters jeans and shirt with a paddle face of Eleanor drinking some of our wine of course. She was propped in a wheeled desk chair and rode the elevator to our room which startled a man in the elevator I guess. He said, I won't even ask...I'm pretty sure we were the noisiest guests and had the best time but we shut her down at 10:00.

It was much more difficult to pack up our purchases though and lift them onto the bus. Lou Ann who owns the bus company and drove us to Paducah is a patient woman and I think she likes us quilters.

Funds were running low so it was time to head back to Wisconsin but I'm sure a return trip is being planned. As usual, all the people of Paducah went out of their way to make us welcome and did everything possible to make our trip memorable. Some told us they were grateful for the extra hours of work that week and in this economy, thats a great thing too. We did hear some critical remarks about the show or buses or their own fabric choices for crumps sake, but there are always sour grapes in the bunch, aren't there? Not in our bunch though!

All I can say is, even without a ribbon on my quilt, we'd have all been smiling while we were at the show! This is my sister Laurie and myself and we hope to get my other sister down there and my Mom too. Thank you friends for the great companionship, to Paducah for hospitality and AQS for a great show.

Giveaway Winner and Paducah

2010-04-18T17:23:00.003-05:00

Just a quick note to say that I did win a giveaway by Jessie who has a lovely blog about her illustrations and also an etsy shop. I received my lovely card already, most wonderful! It had a cute balloon sticker on it and my granddaughter found that sticker and took it off right away! The little beast but she put it on a birthday card she made for my niece so that was very sweet of her. She is a sweetheart and thinks of creative things very quickly. We are like peas and carrots...
Tuesday I am off for Paducah! I can hardly believe it, I can't tell you the last time I went on a trip so dispite all the work to get out of my house and leave without guilt, it will be worth it. I am travelling on a bus with twelve of the best people in the world so in addition to wonderful quilts and good friends and some good food and fabric, it just don't get any better. I hope the dogwood are still in bloom.
I hope to have some nice pictures when I get back and some good tales.

The Color Purple Means Birthday Gifts

2010-03-28T16:17:00.008-05:00

One of the granddaughters has a purple "crush" and a birthday, so I try to feed it with an much of that color as possible. I made her a purple stuffed Scotty, didn't turn out perfect but she loved it. I certainly had enough small scraps of purple around, the patchwork was easy, the gusset was more difficult for me anyway. When asked her what she was going to name it she whispered to me, "Bleu" which is the name of our lab. So we now have a black Bleu and a purple Bleu. Makes sense to me. This was a free pattern by Denyse Schmidt and I thank her for the really nice idea, I love Scotty dogs.

I made an art portfolio for her also. Saw this somewhere on the internet somewhere, wish I could remember(if I do find it again, I will post it)and adapted it to my needs and her needs. Its stiffened with Peltex, made pockets for markers and pens, etc. I'd like one myself.

Her name is Veronica, hence the big V which is a nice letter to play with by the way. Its such a good shape.

Geta's Giveaway

2010-03-27T06:03:00.003-05:00

If you don't ever go to Geta's you should! She does some of the loveliest quilt and makes a lot of great purses. Right now, she is having a giveaway on her patterns so go and check it out.

Esther's Blog: Red Delicious takes it's first prize

2010-03-22T06:37:00.000-05:00

Esther's Blog: Red Delicious takes it's first prize

I'm so proud, this is my sister's quilt. It won a prize at Sun Prairie. This was the first larger quilt that she quilted on her domestic machine and she did mighty fine.

Quilt Shows

2010-03-11T04:48:00.003-06:00

My sister and I are driving down to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin this Friday to drop off quilts for their show, a long drive but we are taking down more than one quilt so feel it is worth it to hand deliver instead of mailing.
The Prairie Heritage Quilters put on a wonderful show each year and a group of us make the trip like a pilgrimage. You will see some mighty fine quilts there. I decided to enter one this year(its been quite a while since I entered there), my sister did a Beautiful quilt and my Mom has a lovely quilt too. In addition, we decided to enter the guild quilt in the group category. What the heck! As long as we're entering. Check out the Show here. And if you're in the area, go see the quilts.
There are also a lot of challenge quilts being exhibited by members of our guild. The theme this year was a nursery rhyme and from what I hear, the ladies did a wonderful job meeting the challenge. This display of quilts then goes to Paducah in April and we will visit them again!

Pine Needle Quilters Quilt Show

2010-03-10T06:58:00.005-06:00

Our guild is having a show this fall. As usual, we get together and make a lovely raffle quilt and sell the tickets. I know this is early, as it is an October show, but just wanted to preview our raffle quilt. It is lovely.

Pine Needle Quilters has a website so go check out our guild and if your interested in purchasing tickets, contact me via email and I'll get your the info you need. Thanks for looking!

New Show

2010-03-03T09:45:00.002-06:00

There is a new show about to start, its free and with video about sewing, quilting ,etc. Its called The DIY Dish. At this time they have a contest to win two sewing machines so go check it out.

Friday Night Sew In Results

2010-02-20T11:18:00.007-06:00

Here is my newest quilter, my granddaughter again. She loves my featherweight and she has been doing a fine job. She also loves to dig through my fabrics, glad someone else appreciates them besides me.

Here is my project for the "Sew In" night. I had a couple of packets of charms which I had forgotten about and just did my simple "X" pattern that I like to do. This is what they start out looking like.

This is the top before quilting, that probably won't be accomplished for a while but I do like the colors of this quilt. I had enough for a pillow too.

Friday Night Sew In

2010-02-17T18:09:00.001-06:00

Here's a nice idea, take off Friday night and sew something for yourself, finish up a project, start a project or even knit! This Friday a Sew In will be hosted by Heidi so go sign up and give it a try.

The Joy of Quilting

2010-02-15T06:21:00.009-06:00

My oldest granddaughter made her first little quilt with me yesterday. I have this collection of old toy sewing machines and she cranks Barbie dolls clothes through them just pretending thats she sewing. After doing this for a long time time, the voice of childhood reason says, "Grandma, when can I sew on the real sewing machines?" Yikes, I've got a taker! Right after breakfast we head upstairs to the sewing cave. For some reason the kids love this room. I guess its filled to bursting with stuff and at their eye level too.

Anyway, she sewed her first quilt on my Featherweight which is named Black Beauty and that machine really is nice for kids just starting out. She told me she wanted a machine for Christmas and she'd name it "Blackberry". Is that just a more modern technologically updated version of my machine or what. This quilt was made for her monkey, little Georgie. Big Georgie is worn out and has no longer brains or a butt and an amputation was done at our house last month and he's missing a leg or a tail, not sure which.

This is the quilter, she is into embellishment immediately, buttons or something so we did rickrack. My kind of girl. This is the newbie quilters brother with a wallhanging that was a panel that I just quilted for him.

I did draw lines on fabric and have her sew all over it but had to keep an eye on her as she loves to talk and look at who shes speaking too and not at the needle area! Yikes.

Here is a block that I recently quilted on a quilt, thought it turned out pretty.

The next photo is of a corner on another recent quilt. I thought it turned out very nicely.

Madonnas

2010-01-21T12:42:00.006-06:00

Each year our guild has a challenge at Christmas time, we hang the challenge entries at our Christmas party and its always been very nice! This was my entry from this year, I went a little religious and I had fun finally using up the red fabric that is behind the Madonna. Just one of those pieces that sit around and you wonder when you will find a place for it.

I painted the faces of the characters, its machine quilted and appliqued.

Heres a couple other "madonnas"sleeping with my labrador, Bleu. He does keep your feet warm.

A bit cooler here today then the past couple days but it is sunny and that really is nice. My mom is recovering from a surgery so I am going back and forth from my house to her's, taking turns with my sister to keep an eye on the Mom. Its good when the roads are clear as you never know around this part of the country.

More Sweet Candy Dots

2010-01-20T20:01:00.006-06:00

I'll try and post a couple more photos of the quilt I'm calling Sweet Candy Dots. My sister named it, she said it was a really sweet quilt and didn't the dotty fabric remind me of those candies that were all glued to paper, the ones we loved as kids. And why did we love them? But it was a sweet project for me as I used some kinda strange fabrics and went back to some techniques that I love such as hand applique and embroidery embellishments.

This is one of the corners, did some reverse applique to expose that blue, hope the green isn't too much but I liked it.

There are French knots in all the grey vines, they add a lot of texture that I like in a quilt.

Quilt labors

2010-01-18T06:26:00.005-06:00

Last year found me working very hard on customer quilts and my posts became less and less. More working less posting, not good. I also tried to fit a quilt in between all the other stuff of life and it took a lot longer than anticipated. I finally have it done!

It is hand appliqued, embellished with embroidery and rick rack and machine quilted. It is also an original design.

I will have to upload more another time as blogger is very slow this morning.

Long Time Away

2009-09-15T06:37:00.003-05:00

Its been ages since a post. I've been busy, just too busy and not taking any pictures of anything that got finished.
There a really nice idea being launched soon called Gum Tree Designers, which is a group of nine designers who will put free designs on their blog every week. For those who love to check out new stuff try this blogspot.
Some of our quilting group headed out for the Quilt Expo in Madison WI last week, what a ball these gals are! I was fortunate enough to have a quilt accepted into that show, as we drove down I became concerned that it might look like a real "dog" next to the "big girls" but I think it looked great hanging and did me proud. The show appeared to be bigger this year, more quilt entries and more vendors. I did find a few things I needed and was inspired by the beautiful creations of all the quilters. Guess it don't get better than that.

Fairie Festival and Hot Summer Days!

2009-06-25T16:27:00.010-05:00

I truly have been steadily working on customer quilts and sewing a project of my own but don't want to show it yet so I haven't had a lot to post. One thing that I did this summer was have "Camp Grandma" and I invited my two older granddaughters over for some fun. Some crafts were in order, went swimming and picnicking, some walks with the lab, some wiffle ball and our main event was the Fairie Festival at Thistledown Greenhouse.

This is a wonderful greenhouse/farm and every year they sponsor a Fairie Festival that allows the kids and adults to celebrate everything fairy. The green house is kinda famous for their fairy gardens so this was a natural thing to come about I guess. The grounds are just beautiful and the kids were more than pumped about it. The first thing of the day was talking rides with the beautiful draft horses and wagon. We got on the first ride of the day and I think the girls loved the horses and ride the best.

This picture is of two of my fairies on the wagon. One fairie is wearing a lot of sun screen on her nose as she was viciously attacked by a dog about a month ago and has had plastic surgery. This has been a tough summer so far so this fairy thing was a long awaited treat! She is dealing pretty good with it all, wish we all were doing the same.

As you can see, the wings were the order of the day! This is our littlest fairy with her Mom taking our long ride through the woods. Next a picture of our lovely steads, they worked very hard in temps over 80 degrees.

We saw a large and striking peacock named King Arthur and also the girls got to visit the Fairy Queen in the woodland bower. They were so impressed that they were silent and most reverent as you should be of such a queen!

A proud little belly puffer with face paint. After a good day and picnic lunch and a tired group back home, we decided that we would love to come back next year. I think that grandma will have to dress up like a huge fairy, that should be fun.

Quilts for Fort Hood, Texas

2009-06-02T06:48:00.004-05:00

In the last few years, our quilt group has made and sent quilts to Fort Hood Texas for the wounded soldiers coming into that medical center. This year was a very good year for participation for our quilters and they outdid themselves. We ended up sending 66 quilts after Memorial Day.

As part of the celebration, we "marched" our quilts in the local Memorial Day parade in our small town. It turned out to be a wonderful idea and the day was beautiful too.

This picture is our group leaving the school yard where we assembled and coming into town with the quilts.

The next day was a memorial ceremony in the cemetary put on by our local veterans. It is always inspiring and does put the real meaning of Memorial Day out front. Afterward, the local church, Tabor Lutheran, who is also my neighbor, does a wonderful thing in allowing us to display the quilts on the church pews. The vets put out coffee and donuts and the crowd comes in to look at the quilts and just talk; its a nice thing. This picture is of the church pews full of quilts and I'm proud to say that we filled the pews this year!

This is just one of those things that is a lot of work but there is a huge reward at the end; not too many things in life can give you that feeling. In addition, our group sent over fifty quilts to a pediatric oncology unit in Green Bay and is currently working on quilts to go to Russia for teenage girls in an orphanage. We are a busy group with a big heart; just have to brag a little.

Scrappy wristlets

2009-05-20T06:27:00.005-05:00

Made some wristlet type purses out of extra blocks. Basically I just ignore the block itself and add applique, threads, yarn and then fold over into a purse. They turned out very handy I think.

Kit giveaway

2009-05-12T06:11:00.005-05:00

There is a nice new blog Piece by Piece Quilts which is giving away a quilt kit. Check it out,very nice place.

Eyeglass cases and another month passes

2009-05-08T17:45:00.015-05:00

Somehow a month has slipped by me and I haven't posted. Been busy just a little too busy. The ice is off the lakes, the weather is warmer some of the time and the trees are budding, it must be springtime in Wisconsin.

I did manage to make a nice project from Two Creative Studios . They have a great selection of free patterns which I love to look at and sometimes get to make.

This are so much fun to make and you can use up some small scraps and goofy yarns, or make them as elegant as you want.

One of my other scrappy projects is my quilt I'm naming Scrappy Gala. It is probably one of my ultimate scrap projects as many of the strips finish at 1/4". After making the rows of scraps, I had to chose a fabric to compete with them and luckily I had a fabric in my stash that does. I found it on a clearance table for .50 a yard and it was a delightful Michael Miller apple stripe.

It is only a top at this point and forgive the strings that are left untrimmed but that will have to wait until quilting time. I took these photos outside under my apple trees which are actually not even close to flowering yet. This truly was a fun project and I'm just tickled to use that apple fabric. I have a few strips of it left which might make exciting baby quilts.

Easter Totes and Ironing Boards

2009-04-11T09:38:00.007-05:00

I don't like to buy too much candy for the grandkids at Easter time so I try to buy other stuff like books, or jewelry, or a puppet for Max. Those plastic baskets are kind of a nuisance so this year I took some scraps and rick rack and made some quicky tote bags for the kids.

Some of the fabric leftovers were from my new ironing board cover that was just finished. How nice is it to have a new cover? Its not until you have the new one that your realize how groady the old one was. Kinda like painting one wall in your house. Which always reminds me that I need a new iron and a big one too. I'm hesitant to commit myself to a new one as I always read such mixed reviews of the brands. I am currently using the one that I take on the road, its not the best but still does heat up anyway.

Its been sunny here and we've been out taking walks. Had two grandkids and we were taking a walk and unintentionally found one of those Geocaching scavenger hunt items. I really didn't know what I had found and the way it was hidden, I thought oh boy what is this and was looking for the police to move in on granny and the two little grandkids and a large labrador. But it was just a game that you can check out here. Seems like fun but I don't have a GPS device and I did find it without one anyway. I will have to slip it back into its secret hidey hole, kinda like To Kill A Mockingbird and the tree with the hidey hole. These are my fellow "Geocachers". Their middle names are Danger and maybe Hungry.

Everyone have a Happy Easter.

Working on Using the Stash

2009-04-07T16:24:00.006-05:00

Using up some of the stash has become a priority. I've been pulling out scraps and yardage and trying to organize some fabrics for tops.

I'm working on one called the Rancher's Daughter, a wonderfully easy pattern that looks more complicated than it is. Still working away on the inside blocks, I sew away when I sit down and take a break. Its how I get most of my quilts done, 10 minute breaks. I believe this quilt is designed by Debbie Caffrey. I used a floral background instead of something that reads more solid, actually didn't have enough of anything that read solid but wanted to use stash. It will just read as a softer quilt thats all. I'm about ready to work on the borders.

Here's a quilt top that I was working on and finally took off. The picture is in the quilting process. I really liked the colors of it.

Progress on BOM

2009-04-05T05:34:00.009-05:00

I've been doing some BOM this year and hope to sorta keep up the work. I love the Red Delicious BOM and haven't done March's block of the fan yet. I am working on the others. I also have the bird done but think I've posted it before. The vase is a lovely, large block, kinda big to photograph. I did use one piece of fabric for the vase instead of the many pieces and then I used the lines to stitch on to emphasize the shape.

I'm also participating in the Bunny Hill BOM called A Tisket, A Tasket. Cute stuff. I'm working on the third one but just got the fourth this morning, gotta keep working.

Do you like Moda? How about Jelly Rolls?

2009-04-03T06:05:00.002-05:00

Then you should probably check out the giveaway at Green Fairy Quilts. She has some lovely patterns and fabrics at her website, very sweet stuff.

Simple quilt top

2009-04-01T06:00:00.005-05:00

I finished piecing a very simple quilt top but it was a good pattern to use very large showy focal fabrics.

This makes a 90 x 108 quilt and you can sew it in a day. Really. Its called BQ2 and designed by Maple Island Quilts. Nice and fast and enjoyable sew. I've just finished quilting two of them for customers so I've got some nice ideas for the quilting now.

Inspired by Others

2009-03-28T06:23:00.005-05:00

Theres nothing like looking at someone elses stash of quilts to make you think and just do something new. Our guild, the Pineneedlequilters, has done a great job in bringing in teachers and lecturers. This past month we had Terry Albers of Hedgehog Quilts come and do a great show and tell and lecture about her experiences in designing and marketing quilt patterns. I love to see how someone comes up with ideas and what inspires them. I think people are really inspired with the simple things around them in everyday life, grandchildren inspire a new jacket pattern, being thrifty inspires another way to look at that old sweatshirt and nature is a huge inspiration.

Anyway, I was inspired by one of her books, I think it was one of the first that she did with friend and fellow designer, Pam Puyleart of Cottage Creek Quilts. They have worked together on several pattern books and it was hard to choose just one. I got the Timeless Inspirations book and then got hooked on the quilt on the back.

Then I used part of a gift certificate I had and purchased some nice fabric to start the quilt though I still have to get a lighter muslin or some sort of lighter fabric for this pattern. I like that it has a nice space for feather quilting at some point, must always think of the quilting too! Another sweet pattern was the lily quilt in red and green on the cover.

Seeing the quilts in person is good, the pictures are great but the quilts are better. Terry also has a pattern featured in the Spring 2009 Keepsake Quilting catalog, its on page 34, and you must take a look at Terry's Flower Bed. This truly is spectacular, especially when you see or make the real deal! The colors are very rich, what a beauty.

Two grandkids were over last night. Much popcorn was ate and little sleep but a good time was had. They are still in bed, I got up early for some alone time. I will try and work on an Oriental style quilt I'm currently quilting for a customer and maybe get it done yet this weekend. At some point today we are expecting snow, yuck. We were just getting rid of most of it finally.

Giveaway

2009-03-21T07:29:00.003-05:00

Here is a lovely giveaway at this site . Go check out M&M Studio's blog and etsy. Some great fabrics and then sign up for her giveaway. It's always fun to see what people are doing, I have never won a giveaway yet but I try.
It snowed again last night, how crazy is that with it having been the first day of spring and all. Huge sigh...

Miranda purse

2009-03-13T14:55:00.007-05:00

Finally put the finishing touches on my Miranda purse. I haven't made many purses but I do like it. Time, just need time.

Even made a little change purse or makeup bag out of scraps left from a quilt. Must use up those scraps! Think I could make two thousand mini purses and not touch the scraps.

Cold here last night, down to zero but it is supposed to warm up this weekend and hopefully melt the snow and the ice that is really bad.

New blog Place

2009-03-07T19:35:00.004-06:00

Just had to post about a new bloggers site Quilterblogs.com . Go check them out.

Just delivered a quilt to a happy customer today and that feels good. I also found some green fabric that I needed to start a quilt, plus a couple nice yellows. There are hardly any yellows in my stash. Also picked up some cute stuff for the grandkids for Easter. Accomplished a little.

Here is a picture from summer in front yard. I'm really tired of winter, really tired. We still have a lot of snow but the driveway is muddy and so is the path up to the house. Where our sidewalk ends, the mud begins.

Quilt Marathon Recovery Plan

2009-03-05T06:12:00.011-06:00

We got a lot done last weekend. My mom, two sisters, two friends, and myself got together at my house for a quilting frenzy to quilt community service quilts. We all love to get our tops made but the quilting is one of the final steps and sometimes its hard to quilt all those on domestic machines or tie them. I'm not into leaning over a table to tie quilts, the back doesn't like it one bit.

When we started, we had 26 quilt tops and we have 24 quilted and some are bound too. The little fingers were busy, I'm so glad that some of my quilts got bound as I hate to do that. Anyway, we did simple quilting, loops, loops and starts, ribbons, swirls, just some nice techniques to get them done and off the machine. My sister is a great apprentice quilt loader and she likes to use my longarm so she did a couple quilts and I finally talked my sister Jen into using it. They are so afraid that they can break the great metal beast. So she finally used it and did a great job, dispite a death grip on the handles and profuse blushing. She looks good when she blushes anyway.

We did take food breaks and since it was kinda pot luck, the eats were wonderful. Not my normal lunch break thats for sure. There are some advantages in hosting a quilting party. We did quilt for 16 hours the first day, a lot of giddiness towards the end. My sister and I were the last ones left and we had old-fashions and hit the sack. Dispite the long day and liquor, I was still charged up and couldn't fall asleep until really late. Amazing stuff adrenolin is.

During all the work at our quilting marathon, my friend Deanna's house has smoke damage from a faulty pellet stove. She was very lucky not to have her house burn down, it was a really close call but it sure put a damper on our mood. She is finally getting her home back to normal after much professional cleaning going on. What a way to get your spring cleaning done!

Simple ribbon quilting over a simple quilt.

The back of the strip twist quilt, just simple quilting like we did on all the quilts. I wish I had taken photos of all the quilts as they were more lovely than mine but I didn't really have time to stop and do that. I will try to get them at our show and tell.

My Dresden plate quilt that I did last year, not sure if I ever posted pictures of it. These are not that great of photos but I love this quilt. I have more work to do on it though, some changes to make.

Snowy Day and Books on Tape

2009-02-21T14:50:00.003-06:00

It started to snow again this morning. I got up early, 4:00, to work on a customer quilt and my husband gets up at 5:00. The snow had just started and the lab went out and slid across the deck then went off to do his duty. The lab still finds the snow amusing, by now he's the only one but I think the snowmobilers will be back up North again.

My husband drives a gas tanker truck and is going to Houghton Michigan today which is close to the end of the highway. If you go a little further north to Copper Harbor the road does end and does a u-turn, you must go back the other way. Lovely country, about one of my most favorite places in the world but not the greatest in snow. I think they get snow up there almost everyday. Still I am fascinated by the place, even in snow as I check into George's website here. This fella writes some very interesting stuff about living in isolation and I love the pictures of the Superior one. If I didn't have to worry about too much else, I'd take my sewing machines, my stash and my dog and spend the winter in that area and see how much I could accomplish. And also it would be interesting to see how living so quietly and in such grand surroundings would affect what I created.

Of course, I had to head to the library today to return my book tapes and get more. I think most longarmers are addicted to book tapes. I can not sew without them or I have to listen to some really good music but I always come back to my tapes. I am a very "well listened" person. Today I am into a Janet Evanovich book as a funny or goofy book is what is needed.

I see that many people are into online retreats this weekend. What fun! I hope to get my schedule cleared up a bit and participate in one sometime. Stay warm and keep sewing.

Wool Journal Cover

2009-02-19T13:18:00.008-06:00

We had a great quilt designer and teacher come to our guild this month and she taught this lovely wool journal cover. Phyllis Paul designs beautiful quilts and wool items so we were fortunate enough to make this in an afternoon. Nice to get something done all the way too!

The place for this pattern and more is Designs by Cozy Quarters . I know she has her patterns in many shops also. After our class and a luscious potluck meal, Phyllis did a trunk show. Now her patterns are great looking but the quilts she made really show them off. It was well worth seeing her lovely combination of homespuns and wools.

Here is the scene we woke to the other day.

Shoot me! This would have been enchanting in December but now its just covering up the old dog doo-doo on the ground. At least its not a tornado.

Valentines and Pennie Pockets

2009-02-14T11:17:00.010-06:00

Happy Valentines Day to all my friends and family. I am fortunate enough to have two little "sweeties" over today to help celebrate.

They are enjoying there Pennie Pockets filled with chocolates.

The Happy Zombie gave me permission to demonstrate her Pennie Pockets pattern for our guild sewing session. The pockets are great; fun to make and as we were making them, a lot of ideas for gifts and decor came up. I know there are some being sent off to sisters for gifts.

These are the ones I made for my grandkids for Valentines Day, there are some really cute puppies on the pink fabric hence all the little paws and bones buttons.

I also made some out of Christmas fabrics for next years gifts.

My sister made hers to decorate the door of her new quilting studio. Good inspirational colors don't you think?

The quilt is a preview for one of my customers so she can see part of one of her quilts. I think its lovely.

Scrap Quilts and Fast Quilting

2009-02-01T16:30:00.010-06:00

As this dismal winter progresses into the longest on record, I am making progress on finishing scrap quilt projects. The Strip Twist quilt from the Quiltville site is made into a top. The red, white and blue scraps are appropriate for its purpose which is to go to Fort Hood for soldiers. I had many pieces of 2 1/2" strips but most were not that long as they truly were scraps so my solution was to piece like colors and values together to achieve enough strips to make my top. I think that worked well and I will certainly use it again.

Digging into my tops has been an eye opening experience, so I've been loading small ones on for simple, fast quilting. Finally dawning on me that everyone of my quilts doesn't have to be quilted like a masterpiece. This is just a lot more fun. So I put on my cute little bear quilt with the pieced hearts. I love this little quilt. These are photos before quilting, I will try and get some nice ones after.

These fabrics are just dear, I am putting this quilt away for future great grandkids.

My sister has a nice little stash of tops too. I dashed over to her place the other night and picked up two tops and said I was doing some fast quilting and "Get er done!" jobs. She calls this raw edge quilt, Circle Gets the Square.

I think she'll like my fast job on it and I'll get it back to her tomorrow.

Shadow Trapunto

2009-01-31T07:50:00.003-06:00

If you're even remotely interested in quilting, you'd like to see this woman's beautiful shadow trapunto creations here. I'm very inspired. Check out the collection of her work on the sidebar and there is also a nice tutorial on a great quilt.

Simple Community Service Quilt Tops

2009-01-27T10:03:00.007-06:00

The photos of the community service quilts are not the best but I'm making progress towards getting them done. I did find some more panels though, some really nice cowboys on them so I'll probably try and get more of those done. Plus last night I started to assemble my Strip Twist quilt which I do not have pictures of yet.

This is the Wickedly Easy Quilt.

The Scrappy Rabbit 4-Patch. I used up a bunch of squares, made into 4-patches, add some rabbit fabric thats just been sitting around.

A Mousey Panel called Brambly Hedge, this is an old one for sure. I have two of these done, they turned out quite cute.

Another 4-Patch with red and bandana border. I'll have an update with the Strip Twist soon. My sisters , my Mom and I plan a quilting party where we will put all our community service quilts on my longarm in a day and just get them done. Will have to throw in a pot luck and some wine too.

Been Keeping Busy

2009-01-26T06:55:00.002-06:00

It has been a very busy January and I can't believe its almost over. The weather has been unbelieveably cold, very much Wisconsin I guess. This has been one of the colder winters that I remember in a while and its not over yet as it was -14 here when I got up and it usually gets even colder as the morning progresses. My dog is even depressed and prefers to just run out and do his duties (usually too close to the sidewalk) and then bark to get back in his warm little sofa.
In addition to my customer quilts, I've been working on some community service quilts that our guild is promoting this year. We are sending quilts to a pediatric oncology clinic, wounded soldiers in the spring and another group of vests and quilts to a Russian orphanage for teenage girls. The times are so bad in Russia that parents are forced to send children to orphanges as they can't afford heat, etc. So far I have tops only done, some almost completed and some in scrappy block form. I'm hoping to get rid of many scraps and make someone happy. Our guild also celebrates National Quilting Day in March by sending baby quilts to the local hospitals for the baby born closest to the day and I volunteered for that. Those are always enjoyable to make and think about where they are going too, we get some very sweet feedback from the parents. Who knows, maybe a future quilter will be wrapped up in one of those quilts.
There was a very interesting site posted on one of the quilting lists that I belong to. It's about embroidery stitches, it also has a Huge list of stitches and pictures of how to make them; also very nicely done. So if you're considering making a crazy quilt or adding some nice stitches to a project, check it out here . Her blog is nice too, she has numerous tutorials about using these stitches and in combinations. I'm inspired to drag out my crazy quilt project that I started several years ago and finish it up.
I will post pictures of the community service quilts as they progress, they really are turning out nice. Stay warm.

Another Finished

2009-01-11T21:51:00.009-06:00

This is the top that I pulled out and finished up. The blocks were made in 1997 when I belonged to an online quilting group called Quilt Bees. They had a block exchange based by first names of the members so many Marys exchanged and then Sues and then Janes, etc and no Dianas came forward. Finally a few Dianas came out and then Dianes and we exchanged blocks. They have been sitting in a little box since then, last year some time I put them into a top and then the other day I quilted. Just a simple daisy overall as I didn't have time for anything else. It's done except for binding.

I sure hope the other Dianas didn't wait so long to finish. It was fun to read the names and where they were from but I did have a hard time just quilting over the applique blocks. There is a Sun Bonnet Sue in the middle so a good friend of mine would say its a perfect quilt...done is perfect too.

Pretty Little Purple Quilt

2009-01-07T21:49:00.008-06:00

I found two drawers full of quilt tops that remain unquilted. I know I'm not the only one who does this but I did start to pull things out and have resolved to quilt them up in between other stuff.

This little purple quilt is so cute, it was a shame to have it sit for several years. The bad thing is that it didn't take me long to quilt it once I really got after it. I love the soft colors and the border contains one of my favorite fabrics ever.

I wish I had a better place to lay out quilts to photograph but I don't still the sunlight was ok for a while this morning and shows off the quilting nicely too. I was going to give it away but I may put it aside as one of my quilts to pass on for greatgrands. Just thinking ahead.

I hope to have another project done tomorrow, its a little weird but nice. The blocks are dated 1997 so I certainly know how long I've put the project off.

Making fabric

2009-01-03T18:45:00.009-06:00

The end of last year and the beginning of this year have left me disorganized and uninspired. I think I'm just a little burned out and tired. I have too much clutter in my sewing room and it appears my brain is the same way. Slowly I will work myself out of these blues.

I've been finishing up some of my crazy scrap projects including some "fabric" that I've been making out of small scraps. Its not a new technique by any means but kinda fun. You fuse your scrap piece onto a thin interfacing, pin on longarm and drizzle with saved threads from many projects, throw on some pretty yarns or fibers, cover with tulle and quilt away until you run out of thread or get tired of the process.

When done you can use as regular fabric but I like to make very unique journal covers with it, I think that applique would be a nice idea and I've also made some small purses.

The last little purse was made from truly tiny snippets that some sassy quilting buddies gave me as a joke. They know I have a hard time throwing out scraps so they gave me a baggy of snippets from a guild project. I made them into this small purse with some rick rack thrown in for good measure.

I did a few things but I'm not satisfied with my day I guess. The fat quarter slide did get pieced together and I need to decide about borders, its 85" without borders so it will be a large quilt. I'm jealous that everyone else has so many goals and their duck all in a row so to speak, I'm just going to flounder for a couple days and get over it!

Last Projects of the Year

2008-12-30T17:43:00.006-06:00

Christmas preparations were very hectic and tiring and then the day was over! I managed to get a cold on Christmas Eve but I did finish the four grandkids quilts even though I was binding on the night before. They turned out really sweet and seemed appreciated. We had 25 people at our house so every crook and cranny had a chair and a relative. Much talk and laughter so it was a good time.

We are in yet another blizzard but dispite that our little art quilters met for a quick lunch between snow flakes. I guess if we don't get used to the storms and just go places anyway, we will be snow bound all winter. A lot of great Mexican food was eaten and we decided to try to meet in February and try an applique technique from a book called Mosaic Applique by Lorraine Carthew.

I've been trying to finish up some scrap projects that are cluttering my sewing room but first I want to show you a piece of black wool that I quilted for a customer who will use it for maybe a jacket.

I think it turned out so pretty.

Then here is a scrap quilt that I at least put into a top. Nothing fancy by any means, just really really scraps, maybe the pattern is from Bonnie from Quiltville, I'm not sure.

The next one is the current project to get out of the way, a Fat Quarter Slide quilt. It's in the assembly phase right now and I am working on the final section.

These end up as nice and flashy quilts and are a lot of fun to make and use up many fat quarters. In fact, I don't have that many fat quarters left any more.

Tomorrow two of the grand daughters are coming for a stay over so that should be fun. Nothing like popcorn and cocoa to welcome in the New Year. Maybe grandma can sneak in a glass of wine too...

Tombstone

2008-12-28T07:23:00.003-06:00

I just had to generate my tombstone. I think it sums up my life pretty much.

Crafty Kids

2008-12-11T21:44:00.008-06:00

I had two of the granddaughters today while their Mom shopped. They are good kids, never really a problem with them and we always have a good time. I planned on a small craft project today, making some Christmas ornaments. Lots of glue (lots) and many small pieces of fabric scraps later, we have an ornament.

Then they had to go outside in the snow. Veronica asked if I had any snowpants for her, no dear, just a giant size pair for me but it wasn't too cold outside and they had good boots. We threw a lot of snowballs which the lab had to chase and eat of course. He was a white lab by the time he was done and the girls thought that was pretty funny. Of course, I couldn't figure out how to get rid of flash so the picture I took of my house is not right but I wanted to capture the moon coming up over my house. I will try tomorrow evening as its full moon then. Anyway, we had a good day.

Red Bird

2008-12-10T10:35:00.003-06:00

Here is a photo of my first block in the Red Delicious BOM. This BOM promises to be very nice and interesting too as I like applique and even though I chose to do it by machine, its still wonderful for me. I have not embroidered the bird eyes yet but will after I find my cream color floss. My sewing room is in an uproar as Christmas quickly approaches!

If you wish to view the BOM its here . She will post the next block on the 15th of December. I know of at least one of my family doing this BOM so we are anxiously awaiting her new post with the block. Doesn't take much to make me happy I guess!

New snow and a new giveaway

2008-12-09T13:44:00.002-06:00

Well, the 12" of snow was not that much for us though to the south of us they are getting more. I think we have maybe 6"? Its become windy though and that makes it pretty cold.
I have a link for a giveaway from Em's Scrapbag here. Its for a lovely pincushion and a kit so go and check it out.

Cold, Cold, Cold!

2008-12-07T07:34:00.009-06:00

The weather here in Wisconsin has taken a definite downward trend. It was over 7 below this morning and is dropping a bit more before it will warm up. My big fleece bathrobe is my clothing of choice today. The temperatures don't seem to bother our labrador though. He loves to sit on our deck and watch his kingdom while leaving labrador butt marks as his hind end melts through the ice. Definitely a cold weather animal.

I have one of the granddaughters quilts quilted. Just a simple twin size to sleep with, play on and jump all over. It turned out cute though.

I've been working on my aunt's quilt; she does embroidered quilts and I quilt them and bind. Here are the borders:

I've also been busy making a couple batches of my homemade soap. I did apple jack and peel with ground oatmeal and one I'm calling Captain Jack which has Jamaican allspice and a whole lot of other smells in it, its a very complex and lovely scent. I did mica swirls in it with gold mica thrown in for the pirates of course.

The one picture is of the bottom of the Captain Jack soap, those are the swirls with the gold in. These will be Christmas presents for the family.

I took a photo of our sun going down yesterday; about 4:30 is a little early for a sundown but thats a fact of winter life around here. I just looked at the temperature again and its minus 8 now.

Here are a couple of nice places to visit on the web. If you like all kinds of tips, quilting, sewing, organizing, household, etc. go here. While at this site, I found this wonderful link to a lovely free handbag pattern by Lazy Girl designs. I think I need to try this one, its really sweet. Hope you all have a warm and wonderful day but also remember its Pearl Harbor Day and the great sacrifices that followed.

Star Block

2008-11-25T06:00:00.003-06:00

I've always been partial to star blocks and this blog has a tutorial on a lovely and large star. The fact that its 14 1/2" is appealing to me, I like to get things done. She did use some lovely fabric.

I have the turkey out defrosting, my Mom is baking apple and pumpkin pies and I should do some rolls too. Not sure who will show up for Thanksgiving dinner, our life is kinda up in the air a bit as my second granddaughter is in the hospital again with pneumonia. She has asthma and this contributes to this tendency; I had a dream last night that they had a wonderful new medicine for her. Wishful thinking so in addition to dreams, I am a firm believer in prayers.

Back to cooking. Lila at Indigopears posted about a crazy pumpkin bread that you actually bake and can in jars at the same time. Have you ever heard of such a thing? It sounds wonderful to me as I have two pumpkins just sitting around getting in the way. Wouldn't it be nice to just open a jar of bread!? I will have to try this soon.

New Day

2008-11-24T06:32:00.003-06:00

We have a tiny bit of new snow on the ground. I did finish my customer quilt yesterday but ran out of steam on many of my other chores. Relaxing a bit seemed more important.

I did get an email from a new website that lists many quilting blogs here . The list might be a way to check out a few nice places.

In January our guild will have our regular sewing session which is one of my favorite parts of belonging to a guild. We meet to sew on UFO's, help others tie a quilt or baste a quilt and in general just get a lot of talking done. This month I am doing a demonstration with this block:

Four of these blocks form a whirlygig type block which are very sweet. They are also easy to do and use up scraps so I am hoping our members will participate. Maybe a few will even read my blog! These would also be nice for our guild's President challenge which is to make a whole lot of quilts for a pediatric oncology department in Green Bay.

I am also thinking a lot about the cold weather and those without quilts or blankets. There is such a need and always a place or person to give a quilt to. I am thankful today to have a warm home and much to give me comfort.

Christmas Past

2008-11-23T07:23:00.007-06:00

Christmas is sneeking up on me again. I am working on some very simple quilt tops for the grandkids, just easy strips with fabric that they might like. The one for the "horsey" girl is pieced and I think it will turn out cute.

The border and sash fabrics are bandana fabrics. I'm in the process of a kitty quilt, a Thomas the Train quilt and a princess quilt for the oldest princess.

A customer stopped by yesterday and we got to talking about Christmas and I told her how our guild does a really nice Christmas challenge each year. If you do the challenge, you end up with a really neat wallhanging for the holiday every year!

This is one of my favorites that I did. It started with a movie and the saying, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" and then I was doodling and a horse showed up and a snowman and it just continued on.

I always thought the horse would give the snowman his present and then snatch his carrot nose!

Our guild has a Christmas party each year where our challenge quilts are displayed as decoration and then voted on. It makes for a nice addition to our party. This year is different, they are each making a star block and then one winner will be randomly drawn. Just not the same really. I always looked forward to seeing what everyone came up with in their designs plus it was fun to sit amongst all the cheery quilts. I hope this is a onetime thing.

Deer season is upon us in Northern Wisconsin. The orange horde has descended and I have to make sure my dog doesn't leave the yard or even get to close to the woods which is our own but that doesn't seem to make any difference. We live in town by the way so I don't know why hunters come this close. I am not anti-hunting by any means, just too many hunters here thats all.

I have a customer quilt to finish today plus maybe get a little more Christmas presents worked upon, do laundry, scrub a floor, clean the bathroom and vacuum much labrador hair. This is Sunday isn't it?

Mystery BOM

2008-11-15T06:24:00.003-06:00

I found a very interesting mystery BOM that is starting here . Its called Red Delicious and when I saw red and then those cute birdies, I was hooked. So perhaps I'll have to dig out some nice red fabrics which I appear to have quite a pile. Go check it out if you like mysterys and red.

Blogs

2008-11-12T06:28:00.002-06:00

I love reading and looking at the blogs. Here is a link to a wonderful blog which is giving away a beautiful quilt. Check out her blog and leave a comment to enter her contest.

My Mom's third grandma flower garden

2008-11-09T20:58:00.002-06:00

This is my mother's third complete grandma flower garden quilt. These are all hand pieced by her and machine quilted by myself. This one will be mine!!!

Fairy Tree

2008-11-06T17:02:00.006-06:00

We have a few very old apple trees in our yard and when purchasing our home over twenty years ago, it looked like they would have to be taken down. I love apple pies though so I decided to prune as much as I could and cut a lot of dead branches out. The trunks were so twisted and broke, even with hollow tunnels running up through them and I felt certain that they would not last too long. Well, its been many years and those crazy apple trees put out new branches everywhere and one tree in particular will put out so much fruit that it tends to break itself.

One tree makes a really nice canopy, low to the ground and when you're under it, it feels like you're really hidden from the world. In addition to that, lovely green moss grows under this tree and its like walking on a soft, natural carpet and for years I've found it a real treat to lay under this tree. My grandchildren love to play outside so of course we ended up under the apple tree and they immediately loved the quiet seclusion of this tree and of course all the moss. So I had to play along and told them that fairies lived in this tree because it had such a wonderful tunnel to crawl up to the top of the tree and that they hung around in the branches only coming out at night. Then they'd have parties on the moss and do a lot of dancing of course. Well since then we've had many inpromptu picnics on the moss and much dancing. I found a wonderful way to use up strange thin lengths of fabric and all those selveges from your fabric (see, this is quilt related), we tie them on the tips of branches in the tree and they gently blow in the wind. Since that, wind chimes have been added to this and the tree has become even more popular. So before you throw out your selveges, see if you can't make yourself a fairy tree.

I did capture a photo of one fairy during the day no less and it appears to look a lot like a large black lab....

Scraps

2008-11-01T07:43:00.003-05:00

I did a little cleaning and organizing of quilting room and have become consumed with my vast collection of scraps. The quilting room is small, I have my domestic machines, fabrics, books, mazazines, cutting table and a Gammill quilting machine all shoved into this area. Somehow I try to make it work. Anyway, I want to use up my smaller pieces of fabrics and have been collecting ideas off the net. The first set of blocks was called Stair Steps and if you're interested in the pattern, you can get it here. It is so simple as you use only 2.5" strips cut at descending lengths and only small amounts of each fabric to use up those scraps.

Once you have your blocks assembled, you can lay it out as any log cabin block arrangement so the fun part is to experiment. I'm hoping to complete this scrappy quilt as a Christmas present. The depressing part is that after cutting many strips for this quilt, I think I would have enough bits left for fifty more quilts.

Pine Needle Quilters Show

2008-10-31T18:44:00.025-05:00

Our second quilt show was held October 11, 2008 and was very successful. I was too busy to take a lot of pictures but did get some of our bed turning and art section and some of the youth entries.

Our theme for the bed turning was baby quilts and my little antique crib was the prop for the quilts. It looked very sweet with its stack of baby quilts and all their stories.

Our art quilters had a nice display with our projects from the year.

The youth entries were very well done. The dress and jewelry was done by my niece who won a national art award for her designs. Another piece was done by my other niece who is 10 years old.

I finally quilted my leaves project.

This is my Dragonfly Fields quilt finally quilted also. I had this in our art section of the quilt show also.

Another finished item was my "Iron Range" quilt which was done as a challenge to use found objects. I found a piece of rust off of my Mazda in the driveway, some birch bark and rusty objects. I used the colors of the Upper Peninsula and northern Minnesota where all the old iron and copper mines are located as inspiration to use these found objects. A little weirder than most things I make.

Fishergirl

2008-05-07T05:41:00.004-05:00

It's been a long month and I'm tired. Doctor appointments for the son's knee and therapy three times a week, its giving him a stronger knee but I'm not making the headway against my work that I need to do. It's always a huge challenge to balance what is happening in the home and the work my customers need done. Plus I've been trying to make some soap for the summer too.

I do have fun stuff about the oldest granddaughter. She went fishing for trout this weekend, first real fishing I think. Her dad took her in his famous old fishing hole and the magic worked again. I am so proud. I used to be a trout fishing fool when I was a kid, I really should do it again.

My second granddaughter had a dance recital. She was a Snow Princess and did a wonderful job in her sweet little ballerina shoes. I am so proud again, especially of my son's for raising such wonderful girls.

Not much personal quilting going on here. I will try and get quilty pictures up asap. Its warmer now but I still have not pulled out anything summer yet, there are places with snow along side of certains roads. One warm day has not fooled me!

Challenges

2008-04-09T12:09:00.007-05:00

My son had his ACL knee surgery yesterday. Glad that part is over but the real test now begins with healing and therapy. Crutches are a nuisance but what can you do...

I did miss the Sun Prairie Quilt show because of the surgery though. They put on a really beautiful show and you can usually see a number of quilts that will end up in Paducah so if you don't make Paducah, Sun Prairie is a bit of a preview. Good quilters down in that area. My sister and friends went (a contingency from our quilt guild) though and said it was a great time with many beautiful and imspiring quilts. My two sisters and I entered the challenge that they sponsor each year and I was shocked to hear I had won Best of Challenge!!!! One sister had a 2nd. It was the first time I actually completed one of their challenges and I was really pleased with my quilt. It changed many times as I worked on it and I screwed up a couple times but I just kept going. It is based on a true story about my sister Jenny. When she was a young girl and riding her bike, a crow flew and perched on her head. She tried to push it off but it just kept coming back so eventually she peddled home with the crow on her head. I know, its pretty far out, but its the truth. The crow hung around the house and would steal all things shiny and interesting to a crow and put all his treasures up in a crotch of a tree. He was quite the character and somehow my challenge quilt evolved from this story.

I used a lot of techniques because one just didn't seem to fit all the stuff I wanted to do. There is hand applique, machine applique, hand embroidery and machine embroidery, paper piecing, beading, transfer of the words to fabric, even some water soluable pencils to change a piece of fabric a little plus machine quilting. Oh also rick rack that I love. At some point I had to tell myself to stop. The great thing about the Sun Prairie Challenge is that they send the quilts to a calendar signing in Paducah each year so they get to be seen a little more. I did have my sis pick up next years challenge fabric but so far the sky's wide open with this fabric. I'll see I guess.
I had such a good day yesterday and such a rough day with the surgery too. Than I found out that a school mate of mine was killed in a car accident last night. So I am treasuring my highs.

Clothesline Bowls, pies and Merlot

2008-04-02T20:57:00.007-05:00

Since my last post, we've had more snow and sleet. I will not whine, it's bound to get warm eventually.

Our small art quilters group met and one of our members suggested we make these spiffy clothesline bowls which I think was in the Fons & Porter magazine. We usually have a member host our group and make coffee cake or dessert (yum, we are such great cooks.) and than we work on a project or a technique. This bowl project was fun and a great idea. We actually were able to finish it in one sitting and they are so sweet.

The technique is to wind fabric strips around cotton clothesline and than zig-zag them together with a decorative thread. The first one I made was the red one, than I made the little coasters and than the purple one which is already full of my handmade soaps. It works great for that and they look so pretty in there. The fun part is that you never know what your fabric will look like when you cut and wrap the clothes line, its all so different. A good way to use up some weird fabrics too. One of the girls did a check which was really fun when done. Needless to say, there is no more cotton clothes line left in town, we have it all and are happily making bowls....

I am putting up a picture of a pretty pie I made, actually it is a meat pie made from leftovers like pork roast, potatoes and carrots. I do like to cook when I get time and I can make a pretty mean pie.

My sister, my nephew and myself are making a big batch of Merlot wine. Actually, they are doing the wine making and I'm lining up some bottles. My young neighbor has a girlfriend who has a wonderful job, she is a wine salesperson for a liquor distributor and she has to open countless bottles as tasters for her customers and has a lot of bottles with only a glass out of them. So she brings them up to her boyfriend, my neighbor, and I asked about empty bottles for our Merlot stash. He brought me lots of bottles and three are almost full of wonderful Merlots and Zinfandels and something else. I am testing one on a purely healthwise basis, the heart you know. I may have to trade more soap for wine I think. Keep warm and some day we may see a flower poking its nose through the snow.

March is gone and what have I done...

2008-03-30T16:14:00.003-05:00

This winter has turned out to be a combination of greats. Great big snow storms, great big worries, grandbabies getting great big, great big surgeries, great big heating bills and gas at the tank, great big expectations and surges of great big energy. The l ist could go on but you get the drift. This great big winter ain't over yet. I have a lot of snow in my yard and the ice on the lakes is still very thick, great for the ice fishermen, which is big in this part of the country. I'm not sure what to do in March but its almost over.

I did complete a challenge quilt for the show in Sun Prairie WI which is coming up quite soon. I will not be able to go as one of my son's snapped the acl ligament in his knee and has surgery on that day. The challenge is something I've tried to do for years but the little packet of intriquing fabrics would sit there past the deadline and that was that. This year was different. I finished a small quilt for it. I have pictures that I will post after the show as my Mom and sister have not seem it yet and surprises are nice aren't they? The little quilt is something I've done this winter that I am happy with.

I have a pile of quilts to bind for myself. To this point, I haven't even taken photos of them. How lazy is that and some are kinda interesting too. I do have a picture of one of my favorite quilts from a couple years ago. It is called Nine Mile Canyon named after a place in Utah where we used to live as young people. I hope I haven't posted this before but oh well, its back then.

Bendi Dolls Revisited

2008-02-04T06:32:00.000-06:00

A couple months ago our art group of quilters purchased some Bendi dolls and challenged ourselves to do something with them. We met at one of our houses and everyone lugged about 2 bins of paint, yarn, thread, fabrics, rick rack, lace and anything else we could find in our sewing room to make these small dolls. We had a great time giggling over the process and actually it was a lot more fun than playing with dolls when I was a kid. I guess I wasn't a doll kind of girl, I preferred paper dolls much more as I could draw my own.

The first one I did was the flower girl. I painted her with water soluble pastels and also the sheers that I used for her dress. The "hat" is a sunflower. The second doll is my gypsy woman "Esmerelda".

Today is our wool scissors holder class that I am to teach. Freezing rain is expected as usual; this happens anytime we plan a meeting. Karma.

Grandson & Lab

2008-01-21T08:34:00.000-06:00

Just a quick post of my grandson Max who finally fell asleep with his "Uncle Bleu" the labrador. Our lab is a great sitter and doesn't mind household destruction when the grandbabies are here. I think he likes their toys and the fact that they feed him a lot, discreetly of course.

New Snow and its so COLD!

2008-01-20T19:35:00.001-06:00

I think I'm the only person in Wisconsin not watching the Packer game tonight. I used to be a watcher but every week that I didn't watch a game, I gained three more quilting hours....how devoted(crazy) is that! I hear it in the background though and I do not envy the fans in the stand. Its terribly cold out tonight.

We did have a lovely storm a couple days ago and I took some photos of the snow. We are expecting about 6-7 inches tomorrow again.

Here is a picture of the quilting on my FatQuarter Slide quilt from our class with Sharon Rotz.

I did some "piano keys" type border quilting with a little flower thrown into the keys. I just squiggled a line through the blocks with one color thread and than just squiggled again with a new color. Simple but sweet and effective.

Each month our guild has a sewing session where we try to present a small demo of a block or a technique or just something to do to get members to keep interest and show up. Sometimes we do a lot of community service. This time we're going to do a "Hearty Scissor Holder". Tah-Dah! Somehow I am usually in charge of planning something for the sewing sessions, as usual, I was stumped for February. My sis stopped by and we were talking about it and I was thinking Valentines Day and hearts as there was a heart on the wall and I said a scissor holders with a heart shape. She had a good suggestion for the heart shape and off we were sketching it. So I made a couple of prototypes and we'll see if anyone wants to make these next month at our meeting.

The front has the little crocheted part. These are made of recycled wool, the back is the darker side with the button so the back is different and as interesting as the front. The ribbon holds the scissors inplace.

The second holder is made of the recyled navy and red wool. I had a lovely red wool dress that I hadn't worn since my "office girl" days and one time I did notice that the moths had made a feast out of it so I felted it and the holes are gone. The front and backs is different on this one too, I love the circle front on this holder on the navy as I did a little more embroidery. So any Pine Needle Quilters who read my blog, get your wool and embroidery floss out and join us in February.

Baked homemade bread today and made cinnamon rolls in an attempt to keep my kitchen warmer with the oven. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it...I should have been working on a quilt but I was burned out and did these woolie things instead. Oh, the little quilt in the background of the holders is one of my favorites. I will post a picture. Take care and stay warm.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

2008-01-03T06:25:00.000-06:00

The Wisconsin winter has settled over us and we are cold. January is such a difficult month. Its too cold to go out a lot and I'm not a snowmobiler so it doesn't matter to me. I used to cross country ski and wish I still did but don't own a pair of skis any longer. The only thing that would get me out is ice skating as I loved it as a kid; I can only imagine the wobbly ankles I have now. But I still think it would be a great winter exercise. There are no rinks here, outside or inside. There tried it for a year or so when my boys were small and they loved it too. They'd be down there as soon as they could and shovel off the new snow in the morning just waiting to get on the ice. I think their ice skating thrills involve a lot of hocky moves like body checking, etc but they still had a blast. Our town didn't keep it up though, seems to be the way it is around here, as our "town Fathers" bemoan the fact that not much happens around our town. They can't even keep a rink for kids to skate on, how will they ever make our children believe they can "live" in our area and keep them all from moving away. It's mostly retired folks up here now. We are getting more health care clinics in the area now because of that, physical therapy places and a pharmacy and such. Well, anyway, this doesn't have much to do with quilting I guess, just life in the frozen North.

I had a top meant for community service or perhaps when we send more quilts to Fort Hood for injured soldiers. Finally quilted it simply; its a pretty wild quilt and I like it. Made it mostly out of scraps and some goofy fabric.

I also quilted the Crazy Eights table topper. That was a fun project that our guild did. I quilted leaves in gold metallic in sections and filled in with a background meander of some undetermined style.

I really do like the colors of it, warm but not too fuzzy I guess.

I have more to take photos of. Wish I had a better arrangement for photo taking. I have to lay them on the bed of my longarm and shoot them, no wall space in my studio at all! All my quilting friends please stay warm and say a little prayer for my granddaughter who has pneumonia now.

What Happened to December and Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T06:44:00.001-06:00

I know where December went, it was hid under a huge mountain of work and here we are at a new year. The hope is that it will not be as difficult as last year, not a lot of highlights in 2007.

This photo is a bad photo of my challenge quilt for our guild We have a Christmas challenge each year and this year's theme was Angels. Under the gun and last minute, I did this. I painted a sky type background and than appliqued some angels on it and did some stamping, all this left me with the two challenge fabrics to incorporate into the quilt. I did some quick piecing and liked the effect. Here is a picture of the stamped words. I also added some crystal and curled wire that I sewed on.

The next one is a quilt top that I pieced at least 10 years ago. I don't use white-white anymore in my piecing but I do like this blue and white. I still love the traditional patterns such as this Birds In The Air. It really does remind me of birds.

This quilt laid around so long that I had to wash it before I quilted it. It had some water spots on it from a closet where it sat and the roof had leaked before our new roof. Of course, it leaked in that closet. The stains came out though but I had to give it a thorough "thread clipping " on the backside after washing it. One of the huge disadvantages of white fabric, every little string shows through to the front when you quilt, even a seam allowance that is off will show. But the quilt turned out nice dispite all that.

I have more photos to take of more of my quilts that I did during December. I will post soon. Oh, I did look back at these pictures and the details are actually not too bad when you click on them individually. I did use a lot of variegated King Tut thread on the blue quilt and some silver metallic to highlight certain areas. Not for everyone I suppose but I like the metallic.

Thanks for looking.

Let Them Eat Cake!

2007-11-08T05:57:00.000-06:00

Just as a reminder of how much fun it was to eat our first big piece of birthday cake, I will post a couple photos. The second photo is Max looking at Allison the birthday girls face with cake on it. The expression is priceless and her's was the same, "Whats that on your face?" !

Our art quilters group is getting ready to experiment on Bendi dolls at our next meeting. This should be fun but I have no idea how to get started on it. I think I'll try for a theme but I'm usually better at just "winging" it.

Shopping Day?

2007-11-02T15:52:00.001-05:00

I don't like to shop much unless its for thread or fabric or something I dream about using, dream being the word here. I am a great collector anymore. So I had to shop as tomorrow is little Allison's birthday, big Number 1, and I was looking for nice pajamas for two weeks as I promised the other kids new jammies too as its getting cold and they like to kick off those nice quilts I made for them. One store had some really odd shaped legs on their stuff, made for storks? No storks in my family yet so the next jammies are made from that fleece that is guaranteed to look nice through one wash and one wash only. Put them back and then off to Shopko. TaDah, its a huge sale and I got 19.99 jammies for 11.99! Filled up the cart with soft and brilliant fleece, pinks and pink cheetahs, green dinosaurs, snowmen for Veronica. I went a little nuts but there is great relief in thinking that their little toes and stuff will be warm this winter if I can help it!

My favorite thing I found though is two new pairs of thongs. Yes, I know this is not the season for thongs (these are the ones on the feet by the way...) but that is what I wear around the house and working. I have no clue why I find it easier to stand in them but I do and any shoe I try is awful and I quit quilting after about three hours with leg pain. So I am always on a quest for thongs which I do wear with socks in the wintertime. Anyway, I found a lovely furry cheetah pair and a silky looks like a kimono fold thong. It's very difficult to take a picture of your own feet. I do feel very glamorous though, especially that cheetah one, it does something to me.
Well, I must quilt a little more today so I will be testing the kimono thongs.

Quilters are good people

2007-11-01T21:43:00.000-05:00

One of the best things about working with quilters is working with quilters. Today two of my customers came over with a drop off of quilts and its always a joy to visit with them in addition to discussing their quilts. One is amazed at the chaos I work in, which I am trying desperately to straighten out. They are always interested in what I'm working on, new fabrics, new patterns, challenges I'm doing, my guild and what we're up to, my dog, my homemade soaps, just plain good talk and stuff. I am fortunate to hear a little about their lives, see their newest quilts for new grandkids, hear of weddings and trips to Africa or Alaska or some wonderful place. In my prior life as bartender, woodworker, bean sorter, potato and stone picker, laundry worker in a nursing home and floral arranger, only my bartending job came close to having a close relationship with the customers like my quilting offers. My customers made my day.

Trick or Treat

2007-10-31T17:20:00.001-05:00

Well, the highlight of my day was already here. Two of the granddaughters came by in costume.

Veronica was supposed to be a farmer, she had barn boots on, overalls and a bandana "snot rag" as she called it. I personally think she looks like the "Big Kahuna" from the original Gidget movie, which is the best one by the way with Sandra Dee. My lab was trying to get into the picture no matter what; he finally had to be locked in the kitchen as he can be really pushy. The next pictures are of Allison, the runaway cow. She is hard to photograph.

These are her "cow eyes". How lovely.

I told Veronica to keep wearing her overalls as this is the only time in her life that they will look good on her. Grandma is a cynic.

Learn something new all the time

2007-10-31T05:30:00.000-05:00

I like to learn something everyday. This past week I've been piecing off and on the Old Hickory quilt. At this time, my ironing board is set up across the room on the other side of the longarm so I have to get up and walk across the room to iron each step. Good to get up and move, not so good for production of blocks so I did the lazy woman thing and sat down a small canvas bag on the table next to me just to press these little blocks. Well, what a difference it made in my pressing. Now my ironing board is not one of those soft squishy ones but this nice flat canvas allows my pressing to be so flat so easily that I don't know why I didn't try this before. I had heard that a very hard surface was good to press on, now I am a believer and don't know why I didn't try it before. Must have some stubborn Missouri relatives for sure. I am going to make a canvas sheet to take to our guild sewing sessions now, much easier than what I am currently hauling around.
Highlight of yesterday was Chocolate Cream Pie!

Fall

2007-10-29T21:36:00.000-05:00

It has been a wonderful crispy, cool day with brilliant blue skies. How many adjectives can I string together in one sentence? That was a good try. The deer have finished off almost all the apples in the yard and there are a couple tough ones still hanging on the top of the tree. I suppose they will be there until a squirrel gets hungry enough. Most of the leaves are down and it has opened up the view of the woods around here. This is almost my most favorite time of the year when you can see all the tree skeletons and the rolling hills are exposed now that all that green is gone. Northern Wisconsin can be a very beautiful place and today I was trying to appreciate it.
The highlight of the day was probably being outside in the good weather but I also have a very color luxurious quilt on my machine. It is a very simple pattern but the deep reds and black are just wonderful to quilt over. The fabric is actually poinsettias but so rich. I am quilting a throw and a regular size quilt in the same fabric and pattern so someone will be lucky enough to get these for a present this Christmas. My sewing room will is loving them. I wish I could post a photo but they are a customer's. I was going to post another picture but Blogger won't let me tonight and usually it is so good to me so will try tomorrow.

Addendum to My Mom is a Winner!

2007-10-28T21:30:00.001-05:00

My sister sent me a picture of my Mom in front of the quilt at the show so I'll post that. Also a correction on the award name, its the Mary Ann Rogers award, want to get that right, hate when I do stuff like that....

This is my Mom in shock, still speechless, than she had to call me and she was sorta squeaking by then. Love it when a day goes right!

My Mother is a Winner!

2007-10-28T19:44:00.001-05:00

Well, the highlight of today is the fact that my Mom won two ribbons at the quilt show in Marshfield WI! She got an Honorable Mention and the award given by a man in honor of his wife, I think her name was Kaye Rogers. Anyway, Mr. Rogers gave my mom that award too and a hefty check that goes with it. If she had buttons, she'd a been bustin' them. She did a beautiful Grandmothers Flower Garden which she pieces by hand. She is working on five of them and she's almost 73 years old. Quite an artist has been born after she retired from her job.

This is a picture of part of her quilt laying on my machine after quilting. I always forget how beautiful this quilt is under I get to see it again. I love the quilting but the credit must go to my Mom with all her hours and hours of hand piecing of those flowers. Truly a labor of love.

Yesterday's Highlight

2007-10-28T09:51:00.000-05:00

I didn't get to post my "Highlight of my Day" yesterday as I was in the middle of my highlight which was visiting and babysitting two of my granddaughters! They spent the night and we made rice krispie bars and ate cheesie stuff and just had a good time. I had planned to stay up a good deal of the night and quilt a customer quilt but I think this was a better plan and Veronica is always ready to "Party!" Next week is the youngest granddaughters first birthday, Happy Birthday Allison!

After they are escorted home and off to the pumpkin patch somewhere, I will get back to the quilting. In spare moments I've been piecing a very neat quilt called Old Hickory. It is designed by Cottage Creek Quilts who is Pam Puyleart. She designs some really great quilts so check them out at http://www.cottagecreekquilts.com/. Sometimes I quilt a top or two for her designs and I happened to quilt Old Hickory and loved the pattern. I went into the huge scrappy pile I call a stash and chose some fabrics that sorta compliment each other, I try not to stress over this too much. I had some lovely fabric from a quilter friend who died this past year and I wanted to incorporate it in a quilt so I could keep it near so her fabric will form the back of the quilt, probably the borders and some of the block components.

As I went through the stash I realized I have more tan and browns and golds than any other fabrics but I don't sew with them! What? So I took a neat fabric that I've horded for years as the center, it has bird eggs painted realistically and than the name of the bird next to them, in gold lettering of course. Maybe not the best choice but it gives me joy to read the eggs and its mine. I will show a photo when pieced together.

Wonderfully cold and clear here today, was about 28 degrees when I got up. A delicious fall day to enjoy.

Crazy Eights

2007-10-27T07:30:00.000-05:00

Another wonderful thing our quilt guild offered was a class by one of our members, Lynette. She had a wonderful demo and instructions on how to make a table centerpiece called Crazy Eights and our group did a wonderful collection of colors. Here is my top with no quilting yet, I'd like to get it done before Thanksgiving though as I think it would be great on the table.

I will post finished pictures as these are kinda dark and don't do it justice. Of course there were fabric leftovers and I can't throw away a scrap! I know somewhere in the world is a counselling service for this affliction but I am coping so far. Anyway, our smaller quilting group met (aka The Moonlight Quilters) and I just wanted to sew a non-serious project so I brought my scraps, lovely ribbon, Etal, thread leftovers (I haven't told you that I collect bags of leftover threads, but only the pretty ones), tulle, metallic threads and metallic floss, just all kinds of goodies. I then made a new piece of fabric suitable for a purse maybe, a bookcover? It has a lot of possibilities. Don't know what it is about such stuff but its a lot of fun.

I've decided that working at home can be very isolating and sometimes the days go by and by and bye-bye! It's hard to put a perspective on your life as it flashes by at high speed so I've decided to try and capture a good thought about a "High-Point" or two of that day. Since its kinda early in the day, I will post yesterday's High Point: A phone call to a friend that I have lost touch with and who has been sick. She wants to learn to quilt too and I'm just the one to show her!

Quilts classes are good for you!

2007-10-18T20:05:00.001-05:00

Our quilt guild has had some really good things happening for the past few months. First we had a teacher named Sharon Rotz come and teach a class called "Fat Quarter Slide" and then do a lecture with her wonderful quilts for our group. The Fat Quarter Slide method is kinda like a bargello but without all the fuss and we ended up with some really interesting quilts and I did cut into that stack of fat quarters.

Here is a photo or two or three of the quilt top, I think we used about 24 or 28 fat quarters. Sharon was a really good and patient teacher. She has her techniques down pat and shows that to her students. Her art quilts are to die for and her website is www.bysher.com.

On Monday we had another teacher come to our guild. Her name is Petwara Toyingtrakoon from Cedarburg and she does a very unique needle turned machine applique technique. She taught us how to do machine applique on a Hawaiian block. Very fun class and she is really hilarious and charming. Here is a photo of the block I did. She did a wonderful lecture that evening and you can check her out at http://www.madquilters.com/. She offers a very lovely BOM which features baskets and flowers; she showed it to us and most amazing it was done in flannel and was just luscious!

My last photos are of my A Bird in Paradise wallhanging that I did a few years ago. I love this quilt so much and it hangs in my sewing room. Hand applique and machine quilting.

2007-09-11T06:47:00.000-05:00

New Purse

2007-08-19T21:33:00.000-05:00

Here is a purse I made from left over scraps from the challenge wallhanging. I think you'll recognize the fabrics. I did a little machine applique with the leaves and butterflies too and used a little Angelina fibers on the front tab.

My husband thinks its pretty wild but that I could pull it off. I think my mom definately could!

WIP Wednesday

2007-08-14T18:14:00.000-05:00

My friends are complaining that I don't post anything but its been hard to complete anything but customer things. Here are a few things in the works and one thats done even! A few months ago (or maybe more) my sister, my Mom and a friend challenged us to do something with a pack of fatquarters that we purchased. They were strange stripes and shiny fabrics but kinda pretty and fascinating. I immediately drew a tiny vague sketch and I did use it to make my challenge which is not quilted, just to the top stage. This is a bad shot of it from a distance but I was taking a photo over the top of my longarm.

The next is a picture of the tattered hearts quilt when it has been quilted and washed. Nice and soft and ready for granddaughter.

The next is a WIP top for a small child done with baskets. I love the colors.

Dresden plate update

2007-07-02T07:39:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update on the Dresden plate quilt I am working on. All the blocks have the flowers placed and embroidered on!!! Now on to the layout and the borders and designing the quilting. No pictures of this yet.

I trying to keep inspired...

Dresden Plates

2007-06-18T07:22:00.000-05:00

I started a Dresden Plate quilt a couple years ago and chose some very vibrant fabric. Actually I call it the "All the Challenges I Didn't Met" quilt as it has many fabrics from show challenges that I didn't complete. Finally put them in a project and then found a flower for the center of the plates and I'm currently working on doing freestyle embroidery around those flowers. Here are a couple plates.

I had to throw in a photo of my lab Bleu who is trying out the local lake. I usually approach the edge of the lake expecting very cold water in June but it was like a bath tub. We've had some hot hot days lately and Bleu loves to swim.

Strange Basement Visitors

2007-06-15T20:11:00.000-05:00

I had one of the strangest things happen to me today. I went downstairs to the basement to do more laundry and as I headed for the dark corner of the basement with the washer and dryer, something started hopping and jumping around. After pulling my heart from my tonsil area, I saw that it was a duck??!!!! I yelled for my son to come down quickly which caused him to stroll over to the top of the stairs and I said theres a duck in the basement. He looked at me like I'd been drinking Black Russians all afternoon and then came down. At first he couldn't see the bird either until it jumped again and my son's eyes grew to the size of saucers. Our obvious predicament was how to get it out of the basement . There was a winter coat laying there still not washed and I grabbed that up and of course the duck hissed at me and waddled behind the water pump and tank and headed for a new corner. I told my son to throw the coat over the duck and grab it; he looked at the duck for a bit and handed me the coat and said he's open the doors for me when I got the duck.
I did get it in the coat and was holding it ok because the head was up front with its beak and head snaking back at me. We carefully went up all the stairs and got it outside on the deck. It was an interesting bird, a tufted type head with an unusual beak not like most ducks. It was long and thin with a slight hook on the end. It was also a "she" as I could tell by her duller colors. We looked at her for a bit and then I just kinda held her out and she flew away quite nicely across our field and over the tops of the trees. I was relieved to see that she wasn't hurt anyway.
The mystery than became, How did it get in the basement and what kind of duck was it? We checked all the windows in basement because we didn't really do that after the bad storms of last week and they were all fine. So I went to the chimney and the pipe that was shoved into the hole at the bottom of the chimney was pushed out and open all the way to the top of chimney. So thats how she got in. I did a search online and in my bird book and identified her as a hooded merganser. Never saw one before. They like to nest in hollow trees or stumps that are 10 to 30 feet off the ground so that explains our chimney as her choice of nesting area. She went for a long dark ride down that two story chimney though.
So thats the story of our basement visitor, haven't been so frightened since the boys were younger and their teddybear hamster got loose, went down the air intake pipe and was standing on my dryer when I reached for the detergent bottle. He was dirty and on his hind legs taking a swipe at me and he was all of about 4" tall. He had some nerve...
It was a very intoxicating feel though to hold a wild bird in your hands and then have it fly from them. I will remember that for a while and oh, I do have some duck doo-doo and feathers in the basement to prove this story!

Quilts for the wounded

2007-06-12T06:30:00.000-05:00

Our guild, the Pine Needle Quilters, had a challenge to make a certain number of quilts by Memorial Day weekend and then send them to Fort Hood in Texas where many wounded come into. A friend of my sisters is stationed there and she is handling and organizing at her end along with the chaplain. So we made 57 quilts I believe and displayed them at our Tabor Lutheran Church on Memorial Day when they have the ceremonies in the cemetary, which happens to be across the street from me. I thought I'd share some photos of those lovely quilts.

The red and the blue quilts were the Job's Tears quilts I was working on, I love the way they turned out. The other quilts are all laying on the pews in the church. Many people came by that day to look at them and they were blessed by the pastor to help in the healing of the people who would receive them.

Its a good thing we got our quilts complete and sent out as our place that we meet and sew at was destroyed in a tornado last week. A large tornado blasted across our area and destroyed quite a number of homes and damaged even more. My sister sustained damage and is still cleaning up with the help of friends and family. She called me right after the storm and we headed out to try and get to her place. Here is her road, we could not even walk in as there was so much trees down and most areas were even worse than this. The twister was about 20 feet from the house as you can see by the path of it.

There are places that it is about a mile wide of total destruction. Many horses were killed or wounded or horribly that they had to be put down. Just a terrible time around here but thank God no one was killed although a few injured.

We are looking for a new headquarters for the guild though and thats hard to find a good spot with lots of plug ins to accommodate at least 30 or 35 people with machines. We may know more today regarding that.

I have been making much soap over the past two and half months. My skills are much better and I love it. Relieves a lot of stress to pour that beautiful soap into my mold and in a months time I have a lovely soap and a nice bath. I've started to sell to my family and friends as I have way way too much soap, shea butter, calendula petal soap, blackberry and sage, lavender, goatsmilk, rosemary goddess, lemon verbena, oatmeal and lavender, gardeners soap, orange and spice, gardenia, fairies dessert, blue moon, neon moon and the list goes on. I'm addicted but I have very soft skin now......

WIP Wednesday and stuff

2007-04-18T05:53:00.000-05:00

Its been way too long since last posting, I don't know where this really crappy spring has gone! Its still not the greatest weather in northern Wisconsin but I've been walking daily with a friend of mine and it helps to get out and visit Mother Nature more.

Our little art quilters group has been busy. I have been working on a second project in the "leaf" category. I love the colorful leaves of the calladium plant but most people think these are coleus. Whatever they are, I had fun doing them so far.

I started out piecing the entire background in scraps of black and brown, just really whatever was lying around. It was a little bolder than what I liked when I started to put the leaves down so I put tulle over the background to calm it down; then I could tuck in some stems easily and lay the leaves on top. Its definitely a work in progress but I like it so far. There is also a lizard and a snake in there but they need more work. I did the leaf details with free motion embroidery which I really like to do. Not sure if I could let an embroidery machine do my work for me. Anyway, I'd like to add more to this and see what happens.

This little bookmark was an experiment with water soluable pastels. I pretty much used them like a watercolor and then did a little stitching.

I've also been stressing out on my quilting so much so I've started to make handmade cold process soaps as a new fun thing. My husband laughs at me because he says I act like an evil scientist with goggles and rubber gloves but I love the chemical process of changing oils into soap. The picture is of my first soaps, we call them "chubbies" as they are fat and square. They also smell like blackberries and sage too and the color comes from paprika, who'd a thunk? I've made coconut lime verbena, China Rain, plain beautiful unscented, Chai Tea, well anyway, its been fun.

Birthday cakes and parties

2007-04-01T21:15:00.000-05:00

We celebrated our granddaughters third birthday yesterday. A couple weeks ago, in a surge of nostalgia, I recalled how my husband used to work in a bakery when we were first married. He started out in the produce department of the grocery store; he used to sneak me green peppers as a treat because they are my favorite. After we were married, he moved to the bakery. He kneaded many loaves and fried many donuts and also learned how to decorate a cake when he had to. So I mentioned maybe he would decorate a cake for Veronica's birthday. Pretty soon Veronica was sure that her grandpa was going to make her birthday cake and I broke the news to my husband.
I got the frosting bags, the tips and pink and green food dye for the process. He was willing, quite the man I must say. I found a recipe for decorating frosting on the Internet and we set to work on Friday night. Around about 11:10 pm, I admitted that the local cake decorator earned every penny that she made! Thirty three years later, we have poorer eye sight, shakier hands, and carpel tunnel so I guess that makes the difference in the cake decorating results.

The first picture is the birthday girl and the second is Veronica with her cousin, Alyssa. As you can see, they don't care that the roses are a little melted and the piping is a little wobbly...and the almond flavor frosting was terrific!

Leaf Project for Art Quilters Group

2007-03-27T05:41:00.000-05:00

Our little art group chose a leaf theme as its next project, anything with a leaf and in any form of quilting. Mine is an experiment of course but there are things I like about it. It is meant to be leaves floating through a springtime stream, kinda like this time of year I guess.

Wicked Easy Quilt

2007-03-20T16:03:00.000-05:00

Yes this quilt is Wicked Easy. I found a very simple free pattern online, if there's interest I will find the link upstairs somewhere..., and made this quick little quilt for our guild's participation in National Quilting Day last Saturday. Our guild has started a tradition of leaving a baby quilt in our local hospitals to be given to the first baby born on National quilting day. Its worked out real nice and we always get some wonderful thankyous! This little quilt has lots of my Scottie dog collection in it, I really didn't have fabric for children that was suitable for either a boy or girl but I think the Scotties will pass ok. Did I tell you this quilt only takes a couple hours to make at the most?

Another thing we do for National Quilting Day is work with our local libraries and have a small display and demos going on. We usually bring some quilts in to hang and then do something like a bed turning whenever we have a few people standing there. Its works nice and our librarian usually gets out quilting books, etc and sets them out. We also bring some handwork to do, one of our ladies was handquilting this year and I was attempting to bind. Its amazing how the men are interested in the quilts, they want to know all about the details of them.

The snow is kinda leaving, woke up and there was snow all over again on Monday! But a lot of it has melted now and I hope we get a little warmer weather so I can feel a little more peppy! I haven't really had time to work on anything innovative and that hurts too...

Ragged Hearts quilt

2007-03-10T06:55:00.000-06:00

I'm still working way to hard to have much fun but I did sneak in this small quilt top of mine and quilt it. This littled ragged heart quilt has been laying around far too long and I did a quick but pretty quilting job on it. After I admire it for a long time, I think my granddaughter Allison will get it.

This is the blue Job's Tears as a WIP. The blocks are now sewed together and reds ones are partially sewed. I love the blue background fabric, looks like water or the sky. This is fabric that I dyed; I let it set for a couple years as I like to just look at it but once I started cutting into the handdyes, I can't stop! So I guess I better dye some more soon. This quilt will be part of the quilts that our guild is going to send to wounded soldiers. I think I'll quilt a star in the open area where seams set together.

Pincushions and such

2007-02-24T08:11:00.000-06:00

The business of doing business has been very much the biggest part of my life lately, but I thought I'd post some pictures of a quilt that I've been working on for sending to the wounded. Our guild is getting together a group of quilts to send to Texas as the wounded come into a base in that area. My sister has a friend who is a major in the reserves and she has been stationed there; she says the quilts would be greatly appreciated and coveted and mean a lot. So I had some hand dyes that I did and my oldest granddaughter and myself applied the "tears" to the Job's Tears blocks. The Job's Tears pattern is very old and I got it out of a book my MIL gave me many many years ago. This pattern has been very popular amongst my group of quilters once they saw its simplicity and beauty in the use of small scraps.

m hoping the red and blue will make a nice patriotic type quilt. Just to show you how pretty this quilt can be finished, I'll post a quilt of a one my Sister did.

These Job's Tear quilts are addictive; the tears are made from fusible on fabric so they are handy to machine applique. We have had major "tear trades" in our group as we cut up our scraps and bargain for tears in fabrics we don't have in our collections. Baggies of these tears have been given as gifts for friends recovering from surgeries, etc. and I think the tears are of great therapy and live up to their name. This patriotic tears is my third one that I've made. My first one I gave to my son and its pretty much worn out and has been through everything that can be thrown at it but its still recognizeable! I love to look at the tears and see my old fabrics from many many quilts ago.

Also, here are some pincushions I've made. Love the cushions.

Work and more Work

2007-02-14T20:23:00.000-06:00

I've only been working when I'm not doing everything else so nothing on the arty side to post. I have been doing three jackets for customers though and I will post photos of them as they are so excited about them.

To do these, you load a back for your jacket on longarm and then cut apart a black sweatshirt and lay over the back. Quilt to your hearts content.

The first jacket is done with lots of blue variegated thread and silver metallic thread. Lots of leaves, a bird and big flowers.

The second and third one have variegateds in blues and lime greens, one has fuscia with fuscia flowers and hummingbirds, dragonflies and then with gold metallic.

After done with quilting, the backing is trimmed and then they are serged back together and bind the edges. Very nice and fun to wear with anything from jeans to dress up stuff.

Hobby vs. Job

2007-02-01T06:36:00.000-06:00

I recently read on a blog about people who have taken their much beloved hobby and turned it into a job. Their job is basically wonderful but then they have lost their hobby. Kinda like a professional baker coming back to his own kitchen to bake for fun, it just might not be... Even though I do longarm quilting for a living, I still love to run over to my sewing machine and piece on a quilt or applique. Whenever I get a chance to quilt one of my own quilts, I totally enjoy the freedom of it and you never know what I may quilt on my own quilts as they are basically big science experiments so I still have the joy. But I think I need a "hobby" too which is probably why I enjoy the process of making the postcards, sewing the goofy purse, and some other projects I have planned for the future. They are just a little different from my job and that satisfies some urge I guess.
I had been beating myself up for taking time to sew something that requires a different attitude from my quilting but I will no longer chastise myself! These have been refreshing little moments away from the hassle of business as usual and all that other stuff in life which can drain a person. It is my time after all. (plus it allows me to sew up some of that collection of clutter into something!)
I have had little time for anything lately, my DIL has had a couple of epileptic seizures since the birth of my grandson and the family has been taking turns staying with her while my son is at work. Until she gets her confidence back to being alone with the babies, it will be a tough time. Pray for no more seizures.

WIP Wednesday, Some are complete

2007-01-31T07:10:00.000-06:00

It's been a tough week. I've been so busy and then just January malaise has set in with a vengence. We did have a nice time last week with the first meeting of our art quilting group which is an offshoot of the main guild I belong to. We worked on some postcards and most of the group had never made them before but just jumped right in with gusto.

Here are some postcards that I made that day for Valentines. These are some that I made with the new art group, as of now we don't have a name. A couple of us were calling ourselves the Art Wenches but that didn't go over well all around. Artfully Aimless was another good one I thought, we don't know what the hell we're doing... Art Rogues; we sound like pirates and I have visions of Johnny Depp and lots of eye makeup.

Made a purse also, will give it to my DIL to cheer her up on these long long winter days and nights.