The Monomaniacal Quilter

Quilting!

2012-02-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

There is actual quilting going on here, finally! This was a $5 block of the month quilt a few years ago at a local quilt shop, I love the Amish look of it. I have so many unfinished projects around here & really need to make an effort to get some things done. I have a terrible habit of wanting to start something new all the time, and Pinterest isn't helping a bit!

Speaking of Pinterest, here's one of the cute ideas I found on there. Such a simple idea & so perfect for a person who sews. I've also been playing around with wool & making some wrist cuffs, they really look a lot better in person, but here's a picture anyway.
I got something pretty awesome today. I was going to buy a kid's easel for my granddaughters & came across this today. Hobby Lobby had it on clearance so it was actually less than most of the kid's easels I've seen. We got a piece of masonite & some clips to put the paper on & I just need to figure out some 'kid friendly' paint cups that will fit on the little shelf. It adjusts so I may even try it out myself.
I found something else that's pretty cool at Goodwill last week. For some reason I'm just fascinated with it. I'm not sure if I made a mistake by cleaning it, but the finish on it was very mottled & dirty looking. The photos emphasize the bad spots, but it actually looks much better than the pics.

I think it may be part silver, it has the numbers 40 stamped on it, but no maker's mark. I'd love to know who made it, what materials they used & why they made it. And how it ended up at Goodwill!

January

2012-01-15T08:10:00.000-08:00

We finally have snow~ I wasn't really looking forward to it, but now that it's here I'm enjoying the beauty of it. It's really cold now, it was 14 degrees last night when I went out to do the fire. It was actually hard to breathe out there, I don't know how people handle it that live in places where it gets below zero. I'm definitely not cut out for that kind of cold! The snow is actually a lot deeper than this photo shows, we've got about a foot of snow out there now.

Now that Christmas is over I wanted to share a couple of the projects I made for the grandkids. I had considered making them from scratch, but I really like the look of these kits, they're very bright & busy with lots of little details (and TONS of sequins and tiny beads!).

I also made this little angel for my daughter. I was going to make more to sell on etsy, but they take so much time that I'm not sure if people would want to pay the price. Just making the wings took a lot of time. That seems to be my problem with making items to sell, I love the little details & spend way too much time making them. I don't want to price things too high, but if I figured out how much I'm making per the time I spend on them, it wouldn't be good. I do enjoy making them, though, and heaven knows I need to use up more of the fabric/lace/beads & etc. that I have around here!
Hope you're all keeping warm & having a good new year~

December

2011-12-29T15:05:00.000-08:00

I guess the name of this blog really needs changing, but eventually I will have some quilts to show you. I've been thinking about quilts, and have a couple that I really need to get started on (and MANY that I need to finish), but it seems that when I'm feeling melancholy I have a problem being in my sewing room. I have no idea why, but I'm working on spending more time in there.
I have been working on some dolls to put in my etsy shop since I've had a few requests for more. They're a bit time consuming to make, but I enjoy making them, and they don't require that I sit at the sewing machine for a long time. I like the idea of making something that will bring a smile to someone, and it's pretty cool to have dolls that I made traveling to different parts of the world.
I'm not real thrilled with the photos, but if I wait for the sun I'll never get any taken. We haven't had much snow at all, it's really been pretty nice, close to 50 degrees in recent days. I was trying to pretend that it was early May and spring would be here soon, but my winter denial is coming to an end, we're going to have snow very soon.
Hope you all have a safe and happy new year!

Christmas

2011-12-24T20:28:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas! This photo was taken at Lolly's Quilt store in Shipshewana, Indiana. We were there last week enjoying the holiday spirit & all the Christmas decorations. It's a great place to see during the holidays, but I enjoy it any time of the year.

I wanted to show you what I got for Christmas. I try to get a new santa every year and really love it if I can get one from Peggy Gaines, a local artist whose work I love. I was fortunate to get this santa painted on a chair seat when she was in a craft show near here. She also had a large santa painted on an old door that was awesome but cost a bit more than I felt comfortable spending.
As it turns out she marked it down at the end of the show, probably not really wanting to haul an item that big back home & store it, and my sweet husband surprised me & got it for me for Christmas (yay!). We were planning on putting it on the front porch, but I really don't want to put it outside in the Michigan weather. So for now it will remain in the house.

To be honest I've been having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. We had a few deaths in the family around Christmas last year, including my Dad, & it's been weighing on me. I have a tendency to get depressed at times & am definitely struggling with it this year. We've really been having a lot of gloomy, dark & rainy days so I'm going to get (or make) a light box, hopefully that will help. I haven't been creating too much, but I'm trying to get back into it. I made this small plaque from a piece of barnwood from a barn that my daughter's husband tore down recently on their property. Every time I walk past the pile of wood I pilfer a few little pieces that look interesting.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas & many blessings in the new year!

Sweet end of year giveaway~

2011-12-23T15:33:00.000-08:00

Be sure to pop over & check out this giveaway on the Bearbits blog, who wouldn't love to win this sweet little bear!

Teresa Kogut giveaway!

2011-09-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

Don't miss a chance to win Teresa's latest giveaway! And check out the rest of her art while you're there, she does beautiful work-

August

2011-08-21T15:38:00.001-07:00

We're having an amazingly beautiful day here, finally! Even though our van broke down when we went to lunch (fortunately my DH is great at fixing all sorts of things) it was so nice out that it barely put a dent in my great mood. We went to the blueberry farm & got some fresh berries as well as some blueberry turnovers, some blueberry mustard & some local honey.

I've been making some dolls to put on etsy, this is my first Halloween girl. They're fun to work on, and it's a good way to use some of the lace, old buttons & etc. that I've collected over the years.

Isn't this a great basket? It's hard to tell from the photo, but it's big enough to hold a large watermelon. It was hand woven in Ghana, West Africa of elephant grass & the leather on it is made from goat hides. They sell them at the blueberry farm that we visited today. They have a website.

I saw one of those magazines the other day that have artist's studios & one of the women had a bunch of these baskets under a table, full of fabric pieces. Probably a good idea, actually, better than keeping them in plastic bins where the fabric can't breathe.

Hope you're having a good weekend, too!

New doll for Christmas

2011-08-08T16:16:00.000-07:00

I just finished this little girl today, already thinking of Christmas! I'm going to do a Halloween doll soon, I guess I'm a little backwards but I thought of these fabrics (Follow Your Heart by Kathy Schmitz for Moda) and I knew they'd be perfect for a little Raggedy Ann style doll.

I tried putting my etsy shop on the sidebar, but I apparently just erased the other things I had on there, hopefully I'll be able to tinker with it and figure it out. I really need a computer tech in the house.

This summer is really making me look forward to fall & winter (I know, when winter is here I'll be longing for spring!). Summer just isn't my favorite season & this one has been yucky. At least it's cooled off a slight bit, but we have such a problem with biting flies and mosquitoes this year that it's hard to spend much time outside. I'm trying different things on the poor dog's ears, they're getting chewed up. Skin So Soft seems to work pretty well, but whatever we use doesn't last too long & they like to be outside a lot. If anyone has suggestions as to what to use for dogs, I'd appreciate any advice.

2011-08-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

I wanted to show you the beautiful wall hanging that I won in a giveaway that Teresa Kogut had recently. As soon as I saw it, it made me think of my daughter, and it just happened to be near her birthday, so that worked out great!
Teresa does all kinds of awesome artwork, so if you haven't seen her stuff you should check out her blog & follow the links to see some of her art. She also happens to be having another giveaway until the end of August~

August

2011-08-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

Not a lot going on around here, I've been hiding in the house to keep out of the heat mostly. It's an unusual summer, so many more hot days than usual and a lot of strong storms at night. It's rough out there tonight, I'm hoping my power stays on.
At least I finally got started posting a few things on etsy, I've been wanting to do that for a while. Next I need to figure out how to put a link to my shop in my sidebar, a job for another day. I'm making some more dolls & will be adding some other items, so check back if you get a chance.

2011-07-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

Everything is so beautiful here right now, it's just a matter of evading the mosquitoes & biting deer flies to get a photo or two. We were lucky, the recent bad storms hit hard around here in all directions, but our power didn't go out. The storm took down a lot of trees and there are still thousands without power.

My little Bodhi isn't so little any more. He's lucky that he's made it this far since he loves to destroy my flower beds and dig big holes in the yard. Fortunately the flowers will come back next spring, and I find it hard to get too mad at him because he's such a sweet boy.

His ears are standing up so nice now, but I kind of miss his wonky ear look. It seems like I just took the photo below. Just like kids, they grow up too fast!

More Shipshewana quilt show pics

2011-07-06T09:36:00.001-07:00

This lovely quilt is called Album Legacy, made by Maribeth Schmit of Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

I only have a photo of one block of the next quilt, the photo of the full quilt didn't turn out. It's called Dresden Star by Edyta Sitar, made by Julie Weller of Wyoming, Michigan. Really striking, the colors and fabrics she used are wonderful. Next is Around the Garden in Miniature, made by Rebecca Yoder of Bristol, Indiana. It's an original design. My daughter's hand is there to give you an idea of the size of this beauty, the applique work and quilting on this are just amazing.
Here's a little closer view. This incredible miniature quilt is also made by Rebecca Yoder, it's called Shortcut Around the Garden, and is also an original design. I wish I'd had a tape measure with me so I could tell you what the size was.
The quilt below is called Roses for Teresita, by Cathy Safiran of Shipshewana, Indiana.
The mexican rose center honors the real Teresita in The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea. She gifted the Urreas with a duplicate quilt.
Okay, I know that I gush over every quilt, but this one is really awesome. It's called Touches of the Orient and was made by Jaynette Huff of Conway, Arkansas. The description says, "A guild challenge, an original design and setting with paper foundation, pieced, hand applique, proderie perse, wool and ultra suede leaves, machine quilted on my home machine." Hopefully you'll get to see this one in person someday because photos don't do it justice.
Below is The Church in the Wilderness- A River Runs Through It, made by Martha Snyder of Topeka, Indiana. It's a Piecemakers calendar quilt of churches and covered bridges, with ribbon embroidery and beads. It was up a bit high for me so I couldn't get close up photos too easily, do you think they'd object if I dragged in a stepping stool next year?

It has such wonderful detail work, really a work of art.
This last quilt is called Left-over Passion by Ruth Wilson of Madison, Alabama. She made it from leftover fabrics from another quilt and plans to give it to a grandchild when they marry. It's a treasure.

Look at the quilting on this, wow!
Hope you enjoyed the quilt show. Hopefully next year my daughter will take the pictures, ha!

The beach

2011-07-04T22:52:00.001-07:00

One of the great things about living here is Lake Michigan. Here are some photos I took a few days ago when we went over for a walk on the pier at South Haven.

This 'pirate ship' takes people on tours of the lake. I've never been on it, I love walking along the lake but I'm not too keen on going out on a boat in a lake that big. It's fun sitting & watching the boats go past, there are yachts and little inflatable boats and everything inbetween. They used to have big ships that took people on day trips, and one of my great-grandmothers played the bass horn in one of the bands that used to play on one of the ships. I love this photo of all the girls in their fancy dresses and caps. This was probably about 1890. Hope you all had a great holiday weekend!

2011 Quilt Show, Shipshewana, Indiana

2011-07-01T15:18:00.001-07:00

I really have to apologize for the crummy photos, I was just having a bad camera day. Too many of them turned out blurry, and sometimes I only got part of the quilt because I was trying to shoot around people. I hope you can enjoy the quilts anyway!

This is named Austin's Quilt, made by Ruth Wilson of Madison, AL. She made it for her oldest grandson, he'll receive it when he marries or turns 35. Look at that quilting! I know some of you quilters are out there thinking, "I wonder if her grandson would like my granddaughter? Hmmmm..."

This quilt is absolutely delightful, I wish I'd taken shots of every block. Each of these little vignettes is so wonderfully done, it must have taken a lot of time to make, as you can imagine considering how many mini quilts this contains.

I wanted to include the picture above, as blurry as it is, to show these tiny little yo-yos!

The quilt is called American Quilters and their Quilts, made by Rosemary Youngs of Walker, Michigan.

This is the only shot that turned out of this beautiful fan quilt, and I missed getting the label. I believe it's Grandmother's Little Fans by Ruth Wilson. Such great quilting.

This is called Seaside Log Cabin, it was made by Muriel Olenik of Rockford, Illinois and quilted by Marlene Williams. The quilt has 2,047 strips of 1" and 1.5", and there are 140 seven inch blocks. This quilt is so striking & the machine quilting really makes it pop.

My photo of the label on this last quilt wasn't legible. I think it might be Antique Floral Bouquet by Jolene White, but I'm not sure. If anyone knows, please let me know.

I'll share more photos from the quilt show soon~

Baby Go giveaways~

2011-06-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some bloggers who are having Baby Go giveaways. Vicky B. Quilts is here , Samelia's Mum is here, Piece and Press is here, Mary on Lake Pulaski is here, and Our Busy Little Bunch is here. Some of these are ending today, so hurry!

2011-05-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

I picked up this lovely vase at Goodwill yesterday, it's perfect for lilacs & looks very 50-ish, I love it! It's nice to finally have some flowers blooming, though the weather is still a bit iffy. At least we're having a bit more sun, I really needed some of that.

My little Bodhi has grown a tiny bit, he's got that goofy one ear up thing going, it's adorable! He's got a sweet personality and he seems to be pretty smart for a puppy. He's got spunk for sure, I think obedience training will be a challenge with this little guy.

I've been doing some hand sewing on kid's clothes, making a pile of stuff to hopefully put on Etsy eventually. I've sold things on eBay before, but not my crafts. I'm not sure what will sell on there (that will sell for enough to make it worth the work, at least) so I'm probably going to try some different things and see how it goes. I always having trouble trying to figure out what to charge, I put so much time into the things I make that I want to get a decent price for the work, but I don't want to overprice it either.
I've also been trying to get caught up on my Barbara Brackman Civil War blocks. I'm getting there, but I'm still a couple blocks behind. Hopefully I'll get caught up this weekend! Hope you have a good weekend~

Bodhi

2011-05-01T17:14:00.000-07:00

This is our new puppy, Bodhi, we just picked him up this weekend. He's such a cutie and very sweet natured. He's long haired, like our other shepherd, but he's not as fluffy as she was at the same age.

They look pretty comfortable together, don't they? Kira's been really lonely and seems happy to have a new friend, she's being very gentle with him. She's so big that I was worried that she might try to play too rough with him or accidently step on him, but she's doing great with him. She'll be glad when he gets bigger and can run and play with her like Panzer used to.

I finally finished this quilt, yay! We've been having such yucky weather that I didn't get to take a photo of it, but I hope to have a photo of the completed quilt soon. It was a king size quilt and it took me a while to hand quilt it, my fingers were getting pretty sore! So glad to have it done so I can get working on some other projects.

I did manage to get a couple more Annie dolls done, this one is for my cousin. She had asked if I could get some fabric that belonged to my Aunt Dee who died a few months ago and use it for the doll's clothes. The family didn't have any fabric from my aunt (she was a crocheter), but did have some nice old hankies, so I made the apron from one. I'm so glad my cousin had that idea.

We haven't had much spring weather yet, it's been a very gloomy, rainy spring so far with very little sunshine. Today was pretty nice, windy with a little sun here & there. We have a few things blooming, my hyacinth and tulips are out, but it's still too chilly for a lot of the plants & flowers to take off. Can't wait for the warmer weather to arrive!

April & still waiting on the sunshine

2011-04-04T16:26:00.000-07:00

Yikes, I'd better get some clothes on these Annies, it might snow tonight! What a spring, this sort of thing is what makes us really appreciate spring in Michigan when it finally gets here. This evening is actually looking nicer than the whole rest of the day did, it's just been super gloomy all day. I hear a snow storm is on the way from Denver, hope it goes somewhere else.

Here are a couple more Annie dolls I've gotten done (look at the last post if you'd like information on the pattern). I'm still working away on the big quilt, but no sense in showing photos as it wouldn't look all that different than the last post. I'm making good progress, though.

I also got a few more of the Barbara Brackman Civil War blocks done. I skipped over the basket block somehow, definitely have to do that one!

I put the last of my Miniature Quilts magazines on eBay this week (there are three lots of 6 each), as well as some fabric and a couple of quilt books, so check out my auctions if you're interested. I'm trying out putting some pre-cut fabric pieces up to see how they do, and working on some crafts to try out on Etsy eventually.

Hope you're having a productive (and sunny!) week~

C'mon spring!

2011-03-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

I've seen beautiful pictures of spring flowers and sunny days on a few different blogs, but we're sure behind here! We've had a little sun here and there, but it's still cold and mostly gloomy days for us here. To add insult to injury, now I'm coming down with a cold. Argh! Ah well, I guess that will keep me home working on this quilt that I need to get done. I'm making good progress. I was kind of freaked out at the thought of hand quilting a king sized quilt, but it's not so bad. I try to not pay too much attention to how much I've done each day, so when I spread it out on the floor once a week or so I can really see some progress. I'm about 3/4 done with the blocks, and then have the border to do. I've also been making some of these little cuties. The pattern is from Raggedy Old Annies, I think she's the cutest Annie I've ever seen! I have to warn you, though, that I think you'd need some experience in making dolls to use the pattern. The patterns are just adorable, though, and she's got a variety of different Annies. My 3 year old granddaughter came over and saw one of the doll bodies that I had started, picked it up and announced, "That's mine!", so I guess I'd better make her one, ha! My mom wants one, too, so I guess Raggedy Ann appeals to all ages. Guess I'd better get quilting, but later I'm going to be looking at some blogs for more signs of spring!

March!

2011-03-06T10:08:00.000-08:00

Keep those months coming, we're getting closer to the ones I like! I'm so winter weary, at least today the sun is shining, which has been a rare thing around here lately.

This is the latest block I've finished from Barbara Brackman's Civil War Quilts blog. I'm still a couple of blocks behind, but I'll get caught up soon. I love these fabrics, can't wait to see the quilts that end up getting made from this project.

I've been spending a lot of time lately working on this batik quilt. It's a king size quilt, it was machine pieced and I'm hand quilting it now. Gone are the days when I could quilt as long as I'd like, now if I work too long I pay for it with a lot of arm and shoulder pain, stupid arthritis! Still, I'm making pretty good progress on it. Still haven't had a chance to hang it up and get a good picture, but with a little more sunshine peeking through, maybe I'll get around to that soon.

This sweet little block is something I found at an antique store in Shipshewana recently. We finally were able to make a trip down there, I was having withdrawls! This block and the next one were $1, my big purchases of the day.

Unfortunately it looks like someone washed this block, the outside edges are frayed and the fabrics are all wonky and won't iron down. Still, it's interesting. It was apparently meant to be a single block, judging from the yellow center block, but I've never seen a hexagon quilt made with such a large block. Here's a close up of the fabrics, aren't they great?

Time to head outside and help with firewood, hope you're all having a great day!

Just waiting for spring

2011-02-17T10:38:00.000-08:00

This has been such a long winter, I'm trying to 'spring' up the house a little. Also doing some much needed clearing out, taking things to Goodwill. I've been going to garage sales and collecting things for so many years, and my folks gave a lot of things when they moved to Florida, and this house is just filled up. I used to sell things on eBay from time to time, I need to start that again, and I'd like to try selling some things on etsy. That would help me use up a lot of these craft supplies and bring in some cash to help pay for the bills we're getting for my husband's recent knee replacement surgery.

I finished up this bag yesterday, it's going to be a gift for a friend. The pattern was in the new issue of Quilts and More (Spring 2011 issue). It's a really simple design, no pockets or anything, but a great basic bag, and it's reversible. I made up the small bag with the button, I like to have something like that for my phone so it's easy to get to, or it could also be used for an iPod, keys, or whatever. The fabric is Robert Kaufman Fushions, I absolutely love it. It was tough cutting into that fabric, but I need to use up more of these fabrics and not just having them piling up in my sewing room.

Here's what the magazine looks like. I also want to make that clutch in the upper right hand corner, very cute.

I got caught up on my Civil War blocks that Barbara Brackman is offering here. I'm having fun playing with the reproduction fabrics & figuring out what combinations to use. Not always so thrilled with the result, like on the Kansas Troubles block, and that was my second try! But I really like the star block, and I think when the quilt comes together it will look really good.

I'm waiting for the backing to arrive in the mail for the batik quilt I'm working on. Maybe I'll get outside today to try to get a picture of the full quilt. Things have warmed up a bit and the snow is melting, but there's a lot of mushy mud out there now. The joys of country living!
Hope you're all having a great day~

Happy birthday to Elaine!

2011-02-14T19:54:00.000-08:00

Elaine is having a giveaway for her birthday, so hop on over to her Artful-Spirit blog and see if you can win it before I do! (there's no pic yet, but check out her other stuff, it's great!)

Just ignore it.

2011-02-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

The new snow that's falling outside, that is. This is a photo looking out onto our deck about a week ago. I'm really all snowed out, at this point just dreaming of some warm sunshine, hope the groundhog was right about an early spring!

Being stuck at home actually has helped me get a lot of sewing done lately. I've almost completed this king sized quilt top, all it needs is the outer border, which I need to go shopping for. I'll get a better picture of the full quilt top when we get some sunshine and when I'm in the mood to slog out through the knee deep snow to find a place to hang it up. I'm really loving this quilt, but hope it isn't too wild for the lady it's intended for.

I got three more blocks of Barbara Brackman's Civil War quilt completed. I"m only showing two here because I'm not happy with the Kansas Troubles block. I hate to do it over as it took me quite a while to get done, but I probably will anyway. The background fabric that I used is too light colored, and just doesn't look right with the rest of the blocks.
I bought this book by Salley Mavor recently, supposedly for my granddaughter, but in reality it was more for me. Delightful is the best word I can think of to describe her work. You should definitely check out her blog to see more pictures of her art.

Great giveaway!

2011-01-21T21:21:00.000-08:00

Johanna Parker is having another giveaway~ don't miss out on the chance to win these adorable Valentine's Day figures. She makes such amazing creations!
Hopefully I'll have some more projects to share soon. My husband had a knee replacement in mid-December and then some complications, so I've been busy. Things are looking up, so hopefully I'll be back in my sewing room more regularly soon. Hope you're all keeping warm and being creative!

New Project

2011-01-12T18:04:00.000-08:00

I know I should be finishing one of my UFOs instead of starting something new, but Barbara Brackman is posting a block a week to make a Civil War quilt and I've really been wanting to play with my reproduction prints, so I'm joining along. Even if you don't want to make the quilt you might want to take a look just for all the interesting things you can learn from her.

Here are my first two blocks.

Sorry my pictures aren't great, it's so dark in our house that I really like to take photos outdoors but if I wait for a sunny day I might not be posting for a LONG time. Thanksfully we didn't get hit with the big storm that just walloped the east coast, but we've had a lot of snow lately and hardly any sun at all.

I finished my Tisket a Tasket Quilt (a free BOM last year from Bunny Hill Designs)! It was a Christmas present for my daughter but I wasn't able to get the hand quilting done on time. She didn't mind waiting, besides her dad is going to make a hanger for it after he's healed up from his knee replacement surgery so she won't be able to hang it up for a while yet. It looks all wonky because it's laying on the floor, but that's the best I could do for now, I don't think my husband is steady enough to be my quilt holder yet! I hope you're all staying warm, I hear that just about every state has had snow this week. You're welcome to it, I've had enough!

2011-01-03T09:45:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, everyone!

My buddy Pan

2010-12-22T17:08:00.000-08:00

It has really been a sad fall/winter season for our family. Four family members have died since September. Then the night before last my dog died.

We got him last summer from a family who lived in the city and felt they couldn't take care of him as he needed and liked the idea of him living in the country. He was really skinny when we got him, but we got him to fatten up to a normal weight for his size, he was looking great. He and our other shepherd got along great and would spend hours outside running and playing together (and unfortunately chasing the cats at times).
He was so sweet natured, he would chew up anything he could find, but it was hard to get mad at him. He loved to play, every time I'd put a water dish in the back room he'd pick it up and start playing with it and throw water everywhere, he just didn't ever catch on to the idea of what it was actually for. When my husband was in the hospital getting knee surgery recently instead of running off to play with the other dogs he would walk right next to me when I went outside to do my chores.
I let the dogs out the other night and after a while I heard Pan barking excitedly for a few seconds, so I thought he was after the cats and I whistled for him & got right up to bring them in. When I got to the back door he was laying outside on the ground and was dead. It was hard for me to even understand it, it had only been less than a minute since I heard him bark. Of course I freaked out, fortunately I have some great neighbors who came down and helped me out.
We had a necropsy done, and it turns out he had liver disease. His liver was about 75% gone, so the vet was surprised that he was still eating. He was actually eating very well and showing no signs of being ill at all. The vet found that he had eaten some poisonous berries off a plant in our yard, that along with the liver disease is what killed him according to the vet. I don't know why he would have eaten those berries because the plant is really prickly and I've never seen the animals near it. The vet said he would have lived less than a year and probably suffered a lot so all in all it's a blessing that it happened the way it did.
Even though he had such a short life, I'm glad that we got him. He loved living here, and he and Kira had so much fun together. RIP, Pan.

Merry Christmas to me!

2010-12-13T13:44:00.001-08:00

I had a nice surprise recently, I was the winner of this beautiful stack of fat quarters from Sis Boom's raffle! It was a bright spot in an otherwise depressing time, we've had four deaths in the family in the last four months.
When I got the package my 2 year old granddaughter was here, when I opened the package up she picked up the stack, said "Pretty!" and gave it a big hug. Then she wanted to open up the pieces of fabric and look at them. It was so cute! I was definitely encouraging her to enjoy the pretties, I really hope she's a quilter someday. Someone's going to have to use up my fabric stash!
Hopefully once the Christmas rush is over I'll be able to show you some projects made from these fabrics, I'm really looking forward to working with them.
In case I don't post before then, I hope you all have a merry Christmas!

All sorts of fun~

2010-11-20T12:53:00.000-08:00

This little bit of cuteness is my birthday present from my son, Alex. Isn't she a sweetie? I just bought The Wizard of Oz dvd, so I was really pleased to get Dorothy! This is a Lori Mitchell design. Can't wait to get the rest of the gang. Thanks Alex!

I didn't get many quilts finished this year, so I'm really glad to have this done. One more UFO down, and I don't even want to know how many are left to go! This was from Gail Pan Designs, and she's doing another free block of the month right now if you're interested.

AND, I want to show off some of the other items I've actually got done in time for Christmas! These are for my granddaughter, I'd seen some pics of painted and decorated shoes on-line lately, so I've been itching to make some. I've painted shoes before, but these are the first ones I've made with permanent marker.

I'm thinkin' Grandma needs a pair of shoes like these, too.....

I also did some fussy cutting and appliqued flowers all over some jeans for her, and embellished with small beads and embroidery. I think these fabrics are all from the Charisma Line by Chez Moi for Moda. I so love these fabrics, I made her a quilt from them but I have a LOT left over, I just couldn't stop picking up a fat quarter here, a half yard there. I have no regrets, I'll be happy if my grandkids are using the leftovers 20 years from now, ha!

And yet another present for little Missy. This apron is from a McCall's pattern, M6409. There's another really frilly apron on this same pattern that's also adorable, but I wanted the fabric to be the focal point with this one, so I skipped the frills. The floral fabric is Lotus by Amy Butler, I think it's perfect for this project.
It's nice to be in the mood to create again, I was just plodding along there for a long while. It hasn't been a good year in some ways, some sad things going on with the family. Fortunately my grandkids get me inspired to make pretty things, and making things usually helps pull me out of a funk.
Hope you're all having fun and getting into the mood for Christmas, hard to believe how close it is already!

A Johanna Parker giveaway

2010-11-17T18:30:00.000-08:00

I almost hate to spread the word, since I'd so love to win this, but I can't be greedy with such a wonderful giveaway. So go here & good luck!

Fun project

2010-11-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

I got started on this project because of my mom, she had seen a frame that someone made for their necklaces and called to get my input on how to make one. I liked what I found once I started looking around on the net and decided to make one for my earrings.

I love how it turned out! Luckily I found a frame that I really liked at the first Goodwill store I visited. I bought a piece of hardware cloth at a local hardware store (at Home Depot and probably most big box stores you have to buy a whole roll) & it was really easy to put together. It might have been better to get the 1/4 inch hardware cloth so the earrings would be easier to remove, but this will work fine for me.
I'm considering making one for my necklaces, too. The ones I liked used either lace or some pretty paper for the backing, then hung hooks along the top of the frame.

Anybody know why they call screen 'hardware cloth'?

Michelle's pumpkins

2010-11-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

I recently won a prize on Michelle Palmer's blog, it's a cute bit of pumpkin art, and I really love it! I'm not sure yet, but I think I'm going to have to hunt down a small (old and a little ornate) frame for it, paint it black and rough it up a bit. You should take a minute and pop over to her blog and check out her art, I'll bet you'll really love her work.

Time to think about Christmas!

2010-11-01T15:06:00.001-07:00

It's been a while, so I thought I'd do a post about what I've been working on. I've almost finished my 'A Christmas Wish' quilt that was a free BOM from Gail Pan designs. I love these designs she did, simple yet beautiful and they could be used for so many great projects. I plan to do a lot of hand quilting on this, but I don't think it will take me too much longer to have it done. Hopefully it will be done in time to be a Christmas present for someone this year.

I've also been painting the Santa I carved a while back. I still need to figure out what he should be holding in his right hand, it will probably be a small Christmas tree bulb or a candy cane.

I'm still enjoying the fall, but I really need to get working on Christmas presents! I always say I'm going to work on them all year so I'll be way ahead, but it rarely happens. Hope you're having as nice a fall as we've had here (in Michigan), it's been awesome!

Michelle Palmer giveaway!

2010-10-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

And besides the giveaway, you should just visit to see the wonderful things she makes!

It's October!

2010-10-01T19:51:00.000-07:00

It's officially October, still kind of early to carve pumpkins if I want them to last till Halloween, but painted ones will probably hold up. Guess it depends on the weather, but it's getting decidedly chillier. We have some rain coming in now, darn it, today was such a beautiful day. I got the idea for this pumpkin here. Now I need to try to paint Dora & Boots on a pumpkin for my granddaughter.

That hairy thing in the background of the picture above is one of our dogs. She really wanted her picture taken for some reason, just sat there and refused to leave, silly dog. Guess I'll be nice and let her have her blog moment.

Next up is a little Halloween candle jar, made from the directions in Martha Stewart's Halloween Handbook. Well, I'm sort of a dork and generally skip over the directions and do things my way. Sometimes it works out and sometimes I use the wrong kind of paint and it runs. I plan to make a few more of these, so next time I'll listen to Martha and get the right paint. I do like my handle better though, I wrapped the wire around a dowel instead of just leaving it straight, I think it adds a nic touch to the project. I think I'll tie a little raffia or a bit of ribbon to the sides, too.

To finish up this posting I'd like to share a new decoration that I just bought from a local folk artist, Peggy Gaines. I've shown some of her art before. I have a few Christmas items that she painted, I especially love her Santas. I can't wait to see what she has for Christmas this year. Sometime I'll have to take pics of all the items I have from her and make a post of her work.

Hard to believe it's October already. I'm glad that fall is here, but it seems like September just kind of skipped right by. The leaves are just starting to change a little bit here, not enough to make it worth showing any pictures yet.
Hope you're all having a nice fall!

Win a GO!

2010-09-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

Millie's Quilting is having an AccuQuilt GO giveaway, so get on over there and sign up if you'd like to win one! If you'd like a couple more chances you can also visit Karen at the Log Cabin Quilter and Kaaren at The Painted Quilt. Just be sure that you have your settings right so they will be able to contact you if you win (or just leave your e-mail).

In a Halloween mood- already!

2010-09-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

So glad that summer's over, all the heat and rain made it one of the worst allergy seasons in years, yuck! I'm in the mood for fall (and HALLOWEEN!). I've been reading Halloween crafty blogs, digging out my craft magazines and checking out Martha Stewart's Halloween Handbook. That woman has got it down, I have to tell you. She has some great ideas in there, and many of them are pretty simple and not very costly (which the Dutch in me really likes!).

Since our house is a bit off the road and people can't see too much, I'm going to help my daughter decorate her porch and front yard, so I've been collecting some crafty items to make some things. I got two of these wooden cats at the crafts fair at Turkeyville, Michigan last weekend. I was going to cut out my own, but for $4 for two cats, I can't beat that deal. My husband drilled out the eye holes and I bought some LED lites at Menard's today.
Spooky! Now I just need my hubby to make stakes for them, and we're all set.
I dyed a couple of Onesies orange today as well as some wool, so hopefully I'll have some more projects to show you soon. I'd like to make a couple of these cute pumpkins from Jennifer Murphy (here's her blog, she makes lots of other adorable things, too) Now are you getting in the mood for Halloween, too?

Sweet Win

2010-09-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

Check out this sweet little mousie ghost that I won from Debbie at Bittersweet Pastimes! She makes all sorts of wonderful prims, but I get really excited about the Halloween items. I've already got a lot of my Halloween decorations around the house. I guess after that very hot summer we had I'm ready for fall, my favorite time of year. The trees have just started to turn here, I hope it's going to be really colorful this year.
I haven't been working on projects too much lately, but when I have something interesting to show I'll be back!

Extremely cute mousie giveaway!

2010-08-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

Scoot on over to the Mouse Droppings blog for this sweet giveaway!

Netflix thinks I'm racist?

2010-08-03T20:08:00.001-07:00

So, I'm wondering if Netflix got hacked or what. I was asked to rate the movie I just saw, which was Dane Cook's ISolated INcident, and then this was the next page that came up. Ha! Not sure why watching Dane Cook makes a person racist......but it did make me laugh. I didn't give it a very good rating, BTW. I think some of his stuff is very funny but I really wish comics wouldn't take the easy way out by being crude to get laughs. People bring some pretty young kids to his shows and they REALLY shouldn't be hearing parts of his act. And I think he made a mistake by trying to bring the death of both his parents a few months apart into his act, it's just a downer & I don't think something like that can really be turned into any sort of humor successfully.

July

2010-07-29T15:42:00.001-07:00

I have a few leftover pictures from Shipshewana to share. The above is from a garden behind one of the shops near downtown Shipshewana, I believe the store is called De Vine now, it's changed recently so I'm not sure. If anyone knows what this plant is I'd like to know, it's beautiful (and huge)!

This is on the porch outside of Lolly's fabric store. They don't usually hang quilts outside, this is there because of the quilt show. I love that old bike, I need to find some kind of basket for mine so I can hang flowers on it.

This Broken Star quilt is in the Lolly's Quilt store. Lolly's has three (!) stores in the main building in town; one is chock full of quilts for sale (hand quilted by Amish and Mennonite ladies I believe) and is also a Lang store, one sells fabrics, patterns, books & the usual things you'd expect in a large fabric store, and downstairs they have a store where they sell the 'outdated' fabrics for $5.95 a yard. There are a lot of great fabrics down there so if you ever visit Shipshewana, don't miss the basement store.
This porch just outside the main floor Lolly's has a row of rocking chairs & is a great place to sit and rest in the shade after you're all worn out from that fabric buying spree!

Check out the hand quilting on this quilt! I love scrappy quilts. Below is another pic from the walk-through garden.

I thought the mini-horse below was cute, but didn't notice the Wells Fargo sign until I had the pics on my computer. Small town Wells Fargo delivery wagon- ha!

And, last but not least, a couple of pics to prove that I'm actually getting some work done. I finally finished the last block from the Tisket A Tasket quilt from Bunny Hill Designs. Now I need to get to work putting the top together.
And here is the top that I've put together from the free blocks of the month from Gail Pan, called A Christmas Wish. It was fun working on both of these projects, I'm enjoying doing some embroidering along with quilting. Though I really DON'T want to be thinking about Christmas, summer is rolling by too fast as it is!

One last post of quilt show pics~

2010-07-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

This very unique quilt is called Woven Wind Flowers and was made by Delores Keaton of Pacific, Missouri and quilted by Sandi Wagner. The quilt is made of recycled quilt blouses from thrift shops. Here's a close-up....

This is A Day At The Lake by Beverly Schacht of Portage, Michigan for her grandson. It was quilted by Patti Bradtke. The fabrics and colors are so perfect for this pattern & she did such a nice job on the applique.

Here's a closer look- This next quilt, called Granny's Garden was made and quilted by Jane Stamper of Francisco, Indiana. Her blog is Just Plain Jane Quilts.
Beautiful quilt, and the quilting is amazing.
This next one is another "WOW" quilt by Barbara A. Perrin of Pullman, Michigan. It's named Rich's Millennium Stars and was made for her son's graduation. It's from the pattern Legacies Of Love by Susan Garman.

I didn't have a tape measure with me, but believe me, these are little squares and there are a lot of them.

This sweet Sunbonnet Sue quilt was made and quilted by Donna Ayers of Jonesville, Michigan.
This next knock-out quilt was made by the Heritage Quilt Guild of Crown Point, Indiana and quilted by Sandy Rice. Unfortunately my picture of the entire thing didn't come out, so you'll have to get the idea from my close-ups.
It's the Heritage Guild's 2010 Charity raffle quilt and is based on an enlarged Edyta Sitar pattern. Twelve members of the guild worked on this. I'd love to be able to visit some of those guild meetings & see the guild member's quilts.

I hadn't heard of Edyta Sitar before, if you haven't seen her work you should click on her name above and check out her website. Her designs are really beautiful. I love this border design!
This wholecloth quilt won the award for best quilting & you can see why! It was made my Janet Atkins of Athens, New York, and is named Pocantico. The color isn't right, it was more yellowish, I hate when my camera does that. The quilting on this is so fine and even, I wonder how long it took to make this, it's just amazing to me. That's it for the quilt show. I have some more pics of quilts around town but I'll save them for the next post.

Yet more Shipshewana quilt show!

2010-07-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

I still haven't run out of quilt pics from the Shipshy quilt show, so here we go! This pretty little applique wall quilt is called Jessica's Flowers, made by Linda Vreeland of Kalamazoo, Michigan (my hometown). It was quilted by Bev Anderson.

Again, I apologize for my poor photographic skills. I was trying to get shots quickly while there were no people in front of the quilts, and it seems that I'm shooting a bit crooked these days. This quilt is named Home Sweet Home, by Lois Timmons of Granville, Ohio. It was quilted by Cheryl Lorence. I love house quilts, and this one is really charming.
This quilt is named Baby Baltimore Wedding & was made and quilted as a wedding gift by Lynn Cunningham of Fletcher, North Carolina. The pattern is from the book Baltimore Elegance. Here's a close-up....

Next is another quilt by Barbara A. Perrin, this one is called My Sarah Johnson Quilt. The pattern is by Frances Quinn Hoopla, published in Enduring Grace by Celia Y. Oliver.

It's another quilt that just makes you stare and say "WOW".
I do love batiks & so of course this next quilt really appeals to me. This is called Fiesta! and was made by Meredith Yoder of Goshen, Indiana & was quilted by Jill Lilly.

This last picture is of the center piece of a quilt called Nancy's Flower Patch. It was a round robin so several ladies worked on the quilt, but Nancy of Burr Oak, Michigan appliqued and embroidered the center square.

There were a few more quilts I'd like to show you, but I'll have to save them for another day. Hope you're enjoying the quilt show!

More Shipshewana quilt show....

2010-07-05T13:37:00.001-07:00

I'll start with Barbara A. Perrin since her work is amazing & she also lives in a nearby town, Pullman, MI. Hope I can meet her someday. Just look at that quilting!

The pictures can't do justice to this quilt, I'm not sure how far her quilts travel, but hopefully you'll be able to see her work in person someday. She named this quilt Jamie's Jubliee, she hand appliqued it and it's machine quilted. The pattern is by Jane Lohmar, from the Leisure Arts book, Great American Quilts 1998.

Next is Garden Scraps by Delores Keaton of Pacific, Missouri. It was quilted by Sandi Wagner.

Next up is a quilt made by Charlotte Smith of Zanesville, Ohio. She calls it Shanon's flowers. She found the pattern at the library, but didn't give any more information about it. She designed the border, machine pieced the blocks, then hand quilted and embroidered the quilt. It's really unique, her embroidery adds a nice touch.

Next up is an applique quilt by Sandra Corbett of St. Lousiville, Ohio, it's called Flowers From My Garden. It was quilted by Cheryl Lorence, the pattern was by Lori Smith.

This is so pretty and wonderfully quilted as well. As someone who always has a hard time picking sashing & border colors, I'm really impressed with how perfect everything goes together here. I'm sure this brightens up whatever room it's in. I just love quilts like this next one, colorful scrap quilts are definitely one of my favorite things. Though I had plenty to love at this quilt show, they really did such a great job finding outstanding quilts. I've never been to a really large quilt show, someday I'd really like to get to Chicago and see what a huge quilt show is like, but of the shows I've been to I think Shipshewana has by far been the best. This quilt was made by Lois Dunten of LaGrange, Indiana. It was quilted by Lorene Miller. She said it was designed following a charm quilt seminar by Jinny Beyer in 1998. There are over 1,100 triangles in this quilt.

That's all for today, but I still have more pics to share another day!

Shipshewana quilt show!

2010-06-28T08:44:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was the 2nd annual Shipshewana quilt show. My daughter & I went and even brought the new grandbaby so we could introduce her to the quilt world right off, ha! The quilt with the ships was made by Martha Snyder, and it won Best of Show. It's an amazing quilt, so beautifully made! It's called "Ladies of the Sea".

Sorry that I wasn't able to get pictures of the full quilts in most cases, there wasn't a lot of room to back up, I was fortunate to get these shots without people in them in most cases. One thing I really like about this show is that many of the quilt are hand quilted. There were more quilts overall this year, though I think there were more machine quilted than last year.

The applique on this was very well done and it had fine hand quilting, just look at those tiny stitches!

This state bird and flower quilt was really a work of art, each bird was meticulously embroidered & stuffed, very nicely done. Of course I had to get a shot of the Michigan block.
Another example of some fine hand quilting. I prefer hand quilting but am really impressed with some machine quilting, too. Some quilts just need to be hand quilted, though, in my opinion. I hate to see an antique quilt top machine quilted, and there were several quilts in this show that I think would have been so much better if they had been quilted by hand.

That's my daughter & new grandbaby in the shot, I was TRYING to include them, but she scooted over at the last minute, thinking I wouldn't want them in the pic.
This redwork quilt was really charming, she did some really nice little extra touches inbetween the blocks, little floral motifs, spiderwebs & etc. Each block was a work in itself, this must have take quite a bit of time.

My grandbabies are over for a visit so I'll have to continue this later!

New grandbaby!

2010-06-17T16:18:00.000-07:00

This little bit of sweetness was born June 5th, weighing 9 lb 12 oz! She looks a bit like her big sister, but with darker hair. Love those chubby cheeks!

When we went to the hospital to see her for the first time there was a big storm with a tornado warning so we were stuck in the tunnel below the hospital until about 1AM with a lot of other people, so I think we'll remember that night especially well.

I just finished decorating a jacket for her, it's an 18 month size so she won't be wearing it for a while, but I was just in the mood to do something like that. Her big sister saw it and really took a liking to it, so I'll have to make her one, too. I tend to pick up things like this at yard sales, so I have a pile of bibs & jackets to play with.

I did some embroidery and added some beads to snazz it up a bit. The fabrics are from Moda's Charisma line, I just love these fabrics.

Have you ever seen one of these? I was shopping in a small town near here today and found a cute little shop with teas & kitchen items. I haven't tried it yet, but I think it's such a cool idea! It will save me a lot of hassle, no more trying to wrestle aluminum foil around the edge of the pie. Guess I'm a bit of a kitchen geek.

June

2010-06-04T13:57:00.001-07:00

June already, I hate how the best parts of the year fly by. It hasn't been my best spring ever because of some health issues, but things are getting better every day so I'm not complaining. We've had some absolutely beautiful weather in the last month, yesterday was one of those picture perfect days that you wish you could just save and have every day of the year. Things are blooming everywhere so it's fun just to drive around and check out the flowers and trees.

And I have a new grandbaby due any day. Overdue actually, I think she's very comfortable where she is. I recently finished the quilt in the picture for her. The blocks are mostly old redwork patterns, some that I found in books and some that I saw online at auctions for old redwork quilts. I tried to use appropriate repro fabrics. Kind of wish it would have been a bit more colorful, but it was hard to find reds in the colors that I wanted. I wanted deep reds, not pinkish or brownish colors, so this is what I ended up with, and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I love the old redwork quilts, with their very whimsical and sweet pictures, things that a young child can easily identify with. It's all hand quilted, hopefully it will hold up many years to come. I'm sure little Missy, who's now two, will have fun talking about the animals & balloons on there, she's very into animals lately.

Another thing I love about this time of year is garage sales. I haven't been to too many, for some reason I can't sleep like a normal person & am usually up until the wee hours, so it's about impossible to get up and hit the sales early. I have managed to hit a few, though, and found this treasure last week. Isn't he great? He's a nut cracker from around 1900, from what I've seen online these sell from $250-400, and I picked him up for $2. Woot! He needs some cleaning up, but I think he'll look great in our old house.
I'm really trying not to pick up too many things in garage sales anymore, of course I'm always on the lookout for old fabrics & things for the grandbabies, but my house is so full of 'stuff' that I need to have a big sale myself and get rid of the things we don't use or need. I can't resist old items like this though, I always wonder about the people who owned and used these items and what their everyday lives were like. I guess someday someone will look at my quilts and wonder the same things.

I hope you're all enjoying your spring, or whatever season you're in right now!

May

2010-05-04T16:17:00.001-07:00

We have been having such a great spring, and today was another perfect spring day. I went over to South Haven, just couldn't stand to stay in the house on such a nice day, especially since we have rainy days coming up.

There weren't very many people there today, maybe because of the construction going on, so it was really peaceful. It's a nice town, has lots of cute little shops and one big antique store (two floors!) that I don't get to often enough.

I haven't blogged for quite a while, I've been having some problems with my back, which are pretty much resolved after a couple of months of physical therapy. If you've had any medical issues you probably know how long it can take to get to the right doctor to deal with your problem. In my case it was the physical therapist who figured out that I had an SI upslip, thank God for her because it was really painful. For a long time I wasn't able to sit down at my sewing machine and sew for more than a few minutes, so it's great to be able to get back to the things I want to do.

As far as projects I'm working on, I can't show much because what I'm working on is a quilt for my soon-to-be-here grandbaby. She's due near the end of May so I'm quilting like crazy trying to get it done. Hopefully she won't be early !

I did manage to get another A Tisket A Tasket block done from last year's block of the month from Bunny Hill. Maybe I'll have the last couple of them finished before the end of this year. Maybe not, though, I'm going to have a new grandbaby to play with!

March

2010-03-07T12:44:00.001-08:00

One thing about Michigan, you really learn to appreciate the sun when it finally starts showing up. It's been so dreary for so long, but the last week has been great. Not really that warm, but close to 50 a couple of days, around here that's pretty great for this time of year.

I've actually been getting a little sewing done. Not too much, my back seems to be showing some improvement & I'm not going to push it too far. I finally got a new bag done, my old one was getting extremely ratty. I'm really happy with this one, as usual it's got tons of pockets and I really love the batiks I found for it. I don't usually use a pattern, it's a lot easier just to do my own thing and even if I follow a pattern I end up tweaking things to suit myself.

I got to visit a new quilt store on Friday. It's really a nice shop, if you're ever near Lake Odessa, Michigan you should check it out. It's called Friend's Quilting Basket and it's on the main drag in Lake O, so you can't miss it. I was remiss & didn't get any pictures, I was too busy getting dragged all over by a certain little 2 year old and trying to grab some fabric when I got the chance. I'm sure I'll be going back and will get some pictures then, it's a really nice shop & I loved the fabrics they had there. It's in one of those great old Michigan small town stores with the wooden floors and tall ceilings, so cool. I really HAVE to go back, because there was a great looking antique shop across the street & I didn't even have the energy to get started in there. I would also recommend Penny's Pizza a couple of doors down, very good pizza.
At least I did get a picture of the goods I bought there, just little odds & ends for some projects I have in mind & a cute little plaque by Kelly Rae Roberts.

Hello again!

2010-02-27T17:51:00.000-08:00

My computer is back again! Hopefully for longer this time. At least HP assigned me a case worker who was very helpful and if I have any problems again any time soon I'll have someone to call. Hopefully I'll be getting back to blogging more regularly. I've been wanting to try putting some things on Etsy, too, but haven't dared because I can't count on my computer holding up. I think I'll wait a bit and see how this thing holds up.

I had taken these pics a while back and wanted to share this amazing quilt. It's hanging in Lolly's Fabric store in Shipshewana, Indiana and it looks like it's made up of one inch pieces of fabric! I'd love to have more details about who made it and how long it took, I'll have to ask when I get back there again.

The only thing that disappoints me is the quilting, they machine quilted it in a meandering pattern which clashes a bit with the squares. I think I'd have either quilted some straight lines in the ditch or just stretched it on a wooden frame. Still, it's really something to see. And what have I been working on? I got a lot done actually, I finished hand quilting my granddaughter's quilt, just in time as she just got a big girl bed. She really liked it, even though she's only two. I had kept it here for a while to get pictures (we've had so many dark days it took a while), and I'd get it out when she was here so she could lay it over her when she's watching movies (Winnie the Pooh is her fave!). So one day she was over and wanted to watch a movie so she went over to the quilt rack and was looking around and saying "Pretty, pretty.", turns out she was looking for her quilt! How sweet is that?

I still didn't get very good pics of it, with the patterns and colors it's made of the pictures just don't work out well, it just looks like a big mess (actually it's really pretty, I swear!), but this pic gives the general idea. There's a cute pic of Ryla with the quilt on my daughter's blog, if you'd like to see it just go here and scroll down a few entries.

I also finished another carved Santa, I'm working on painting him now. I've been having some back problems & can't sit for long periods in a chair so I'm not getting as much done as I'd like. I've got an SI upslip, which probably doesn't explain much to you, but basically something in my back is slipping out of place and it hurts a LOT when it's out of whack. I'm in physical therapy and they say I'm 'fixable', so hopefully I'll be able to get back to a more normal life eventually.

I also got some work done on the albums of old family pics that I'm working on for my kids, I'll have to take a few pics and show you what I'm doing with that. It's a fun project but I'm doing three at once (one for each of our kids) and I work on it sporadically so it's taking a while.

I also got a few baby quilts done, I hope to donate a few again this year, but the way my daughter's friends are getting pregnant lately, so I'm going to have to keep a few on hand!

HP Pavilion laptop nightmare

2010-02-04T18:01:00.001-08:00

If you've read my blog before you might be familiar with my computer problems. I finally got a free replacement for my previous HP Pavilion laptop because it had to be sent in for repairs so many times. It's a new HP Pavilion dv7-1240us Entertainment Notebook PC. I had it two weeks and the monitor went white one afternoon while I had left it sitting for a while, so my brand new laptop was sent in for it's first repair about a week ago.
I got it back today, the only thing the enclosed paper said was that the display was repaired, so I started it up and played with it a bit. I noticed immediately that the screen was flickering, and the colors weren't right. After playing some more I'm finding some more problems with the web cam and the sound systems.
I just CANNOT believe this, after all the problems I had with the last HP Pavilion laptop you would think they'd take extra care and double check to be sure everything was working before they sent this back to me. I would love to take a sledgehammer to this thing, but instead I'll be calling them tomorrow to tell them to fix it AGAIN.
I have a one year warranty on this thing, so we'll be saving up for the next 12 months and I'll be taking my sons' advice on what to buy next time. One thing I can guarantee you is that it won't be an HP product.

2010

2010-01-13T14:13:00.000-08:00

Finally! I've been gone so long mostly because of computer troubles, and I've really missed blogging and keeping up on the blogs I like to read. I had so many problems and repairs on my HP Pavilion laptop that they finally sent me a brand new one. I would have preferred the cash-out, but that was their decision to make. Guess I shouldn't have mentioned to them that everyone I know was telling me "Get a Mac!". Anyway, I'm back for now and keeping my fingers crossed! Unfortunately the new computer has Windows Vista, so I'm waiting to find out what problems that will present.

I missed a lot of the Christmas fun, when I got back on Google Reader I had over 800 blog posts to read (!) so I glanced over quite a few posts! At least I got more time in on crafty things for the last couple of months, not having a computer too handy really freed up some time.
This is a santa that I carved for my oldest son for Christmas. I have another one carved that I haven't painted yet, I'll take pics of that one soon. I really enjoy carving, I hope to do more of it this year. Sometimes I get so involved with quilting that everything else goes by the wayside.
I finished up the hand quilting on the quilt for my grand-daughter, too. It's been so dark and gloomy here that I haven't had a chance to get pictures yet, but I will soon.
I'm going to get back to re-loading everything on my new computer (again), it takes a while. Hopefully this will be the last time I'll have to do that for a long, long time.

September

2009-09-17T12:44:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe it's here already, but so far fall is being very kind. We're still having beautiful weather, hope it keeps up.
I've actually been doing some sewing, I just completed this quilt top. I've had these blocks for a while, they were from the $5 block class at a local quilt store. I like this one. As usual I'm not thrilled with all the fabrics they chose (a couple of the blocks are much brighter than the rest) but I didn't feel like doing any of the blocks over and I'm happy with the end product. I won't be quilting this for a while, but I feel better at least having it put together.

I sort of got another block done in the Bunny Hill A Tisket A Tasket block of the month, except that I almost completely changed the block. I love Anne's designs, but I just wasn't into the cupcake design, so I decided on a big sunflower. The button is going to change, but it's pretty similar to what I want there. I was really late on this one, I already have a new on to get to work on!

I also finished last month's A Christmas Wish block by Gail Pan Designs. There's only one left and I can start putting this one together, hopefully in time so that it can be a Christmas gift for someone this year.

It looks all wonky, but it's actually just fine! I hate how photos come out that way sometimes.

We had a day in Shipshewana, Indiana this week. They get kind of busy this time of year, but we went on Monday so it wasn't busy & we got to just amble around & enjoy ourselves without all the crowds. Our daughter & grandbaby went along, too.

I don't remember if I've posted a picture of this (below) before. I love this quilt block on the side of one of the major buildings in town (the one that hosts the Lolly's Fabric store, one of my favorites). I've made something similar for our place, except a lot smaller, but we don't have it hung up yet. We haven't quite figured out how to hang ours up, wish I could get up there and see how they did it!

Things are finally slowing down a bit around here so hopefully I'll be posting more. I guess I shouldn't say that, we have several cords of firewood to get cut and stacked and the cold weather will be here soon! I'm really hoping for a nice long, mild fall. I've been told that our cooler summer weather will make for a really colorful fall, can't wait!

Where is August going so fast? -and I won!

2009-08-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

I won the coolest bag on the Blackbird Designs blog giveaway! I'm going to link you to their pic since mine didn't turn out nearly as nice as theirs. It's really awesome, and I want to thank them again since it's so nice of them to have great giveaways like this. If you haven't seen their blog you should definitely check it out.

The summer is just flying by. Honesty, it feels like it should be the end of June and it's crazy to think that it's almost fall. The bowl of peaches is to give you an idea of what's been keeping me busy. I haven't made jam or done canning in years, but my daughter wanted to and with the economy the way it is I thought I'd get some things put up, too. Plus, I can teach my daughter a few things that I've learned along the way (and unload a ton of canning jars!).

Then there is the matter of the overly huge garden that my DH planted this year(!). It's done really well and we've had way more veggies than we could eat. We've given away a ton and there's still more growing. Right now we're enjoying the green beans and sweet corn, it's so great to go out to the garden and pick dinner, I wish we could do that all year.

That jar in front is strawberry/peach, SO good, I have to say. I'm about done with the jam, I've made black raspberry, sweet cherry, tart cherry, peach, apple cinnamon, and strawberry peach. The freezer is about full. DH is so happy, he loves having all that jam sitting there waiting for him. I've also frozen beans, squash, corn & some peach pie filling. That will all help keep the grocery bill down this winter. Unfortunately everything didn't turn out, the cool & wet weather caused some weird tomato fungus that's killing off the vines, so I'm not sure what the tomatoes will do. I've tried spraying them, but the stuff you spray for the fungus is so lethal and has to be sprayed weekly, so I'm just not going to keep using it. Next year we'll have to check for more resistant types of tomatoes. I'm trying to find some kind of vegetable garden planner program on-line, but haven't had much luck. The ones I've found want you to pay $20-25 annually, and that's too much for me. Considering that I've bought some very complex games for less that $20, that seems really expensive for something as simple as a garden planner. No big deal, I kind of like planning with good old pencils and paper anyway.

I hope you're all having a happy summer, I haven't been keeping up with my blog reading so I'm in the dark about what's going on elsewhere!

August

2009-08-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

Still having great summer weather here in Michigan! We have some hot days in the forecast for this weekend, but I'm just enjoying the days as they come & today is about perfect. This picture is of the daylilies along our driveway, they're so beautiful right now.

I was really late getting my 2 blocks of the month done, just been too busy doing other things. Glad I finally got around to it, though, I don't want to get behind or I may never finish them. I wasn't sure about keeping the sashing this color, but I'm still mulling it over. It's darker than the other sashing I've used, but I may mix up that color in the quilt in other places, it's kind of growing on me. This is Gail Pan's design, A Christmas Wish, just in case you haven't seen it before.

Also completed (well, almost) my Bunny Hill, A Tisket A Tasket block. I'm still digging through my fabrics for a tiny fabric flag for the sheep to hold & am waiting to put buttons on until the quilt is completed. I'm making some changes to the blocks here & there to suit myself, such as not using words on the blocks. I noticed that my pics are all wonky, I must be having a crookedy day.

Our garden is doing really well, except for a problem with something killing a number of plants. I've sprayed, and it doesn't seem to make a difference to I'm wondering if it's moles eating the plants from the bottom or something. Fortunately we have more than we need so it's not hurting production much. We've been eating squash & beans practically every day and my daughter is still taking bag loads of veggies away every day to give away. I think we're feeding half the county, ha! Can't wait for the sweet corn & melons, yummm!

Hard to believe it's August, I wish the summer wouldn't fly by so quickly.

Before I close I have a favor to ask. I have a good friend (Pat) who has had breast cancer that was successfully treated, and now it may be back on the other side. Right now they're doing all the tests to determine what's going on. She's one of the nicest people you would ever meet, if you're a praying person please send up a prayer for her.

More of the same...

2009-07-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying the summer and not taking much time for blogging or sewing. I did get in my sewing room today for a couple of hours, but just worked on projects already started. Our garden is bursting with veggies, we've been overrun with three different kinds of squash for a couple of weeks, and now we have about a million beans that need picking. We had them for the first time tonight and they were sooooo good. I wish we could have the luxury all year of picking food from the garden for our meals.
This picture of my design wall will give you an idea of what I've been working on. I'm still not sure how I'm going to set the star blocks, but I'll probably be going with what's on the wall, on point alternating with blocks in a variety of prints, with an floral applique border of some kind. The Christmas quilt is going to take a long time, but I love how it looks. I'm behind on my blocks of the month, I'd better get to work before the month ends! Hard to believe we're already close to the end of July.
The weather is feeling a little more like summer, but still pretty mild. We're getting a good rain today, much needed. The tiger lilys have been growing outside our back door since we've lived here, I just love them.

Lastly I want to show you the basket I bought recently from folk artist Peggy Gaines. I guess I should have taken a pic from the side, too, so you could see that it's a long basket. I guess it's supposed to be put on the back of the toilet so you can keep a roll hidden in each side and it has room for kleenex in the middle. It's too cute to hide in the bath, so it's on my kitchen counter. If you want to see a couple more awesome items I have from Peggy, just type "Peggy Santa" in the blogger search box in the upper left corner. It's dangerous for me to visit her store because I want to fill my house up with her art. Almost as bad as going to the quilt store!

Berries!

2009-07-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

Not much sewing has been going on, but we've been making lots of jam! We have a bumper crop of black raspberries this year & my hubby was sweet enough to bundle up and brave the wilds (and the mosquitoes) to pick them. My daughter & I also visited a local orchard and picked lots of tart & sweet cherries, so we're getting a good start on filling up our freezers with jam. And we still have lots of fruits to go!

Since I haven't any new quilt work to show, I thought I'd show some of my vintage linens, just a couple for today. My mother-in-law was passing on some linens a while back & I ended up with one of these, and my daughter with the other. My daughter was kind enough (I think she got tired of all the weeping and begging) to give me the other.
I'm not sure how these were to be used, but I believe they would sit on top of a pillow when the bed was made up. The look like pillowcases and are the same size, but don't have a back. It seems to be a common design, I've seen it a few times before, but it does seem a bit of an odd sentiment to stitch up for decorating the home, doesn't it?

I should take some pictures of the veggie garden soon (I think we'll have enough veggies to feed the entire county) but in the meantime here's a picture from another garden. I love monarda, especially the red. I bought plants a couple of years in a row that were supposed to be red, and when they bloomed I was disappointed to find they were actually purple. Finally I have red bee balm & plenty of it!

I hope you're all enjoying your summer, or whatever season you happen to be in at the moment. I'm falling behind on my blog reading, but we're supposed to have some rainy days coming so I hope to catch up!

More Quilt Show

2009-07-02T20:49:00.001-07:00

Here are more pictures from the quilt show in Shipshewana, Indiana. I tried to be so careful about getting the information on the quilts, but I'm sorry to say I missed the boat on this one. Isn't it a beauty, though?

This is Shades by Marilyn Peters of Kendallville, Illinois. I love the colors she chose for this, lovely.

This is another Barbara Perrin quilt, Empty Nest-Two. I wish I'd measured those squares, they're pretty darn small. I did take a pic with my hand held up for comparison, but the picture looked pretty dorky, so I left that out. Another amazing quilt.

A little closer....

This is a close-up of the border. Wow.

My full sized picture of this one didn't turn out, but my daughter has a picture of it on her blog. I wanted to show you these close-ups, though. It's 9-Patch Strip Tease by Doris Goins of Kendallville, Indiana.

This is another quilt by Barbara Perrin, Sunburst Serenade. Wow again.
This is Paisley Stars by Cheryl Baker of Middlebury, Indiana. Love the colors on this one, and the paisley, of course.

This is Batik A La Zig Zag by Nancy Scott of Berne, Indiana. Batiks are so great.

My daughter showed this one on her blog, but I wanted to post my close-ups of it. It's not at all my kind of colors & I'm not too into modern art, but on closer inspection I was knocked out by this one.

Check out this hand quilting, yowsa! It was made by Michele Shepherd of South Bend, Indiana, a wedding gift for her nephew.

Another close-up of Still Water.

This is a close-up from the quilt Past-Time Ladies by Fay Mack & Debbie Van Kuiken of Villa Park, Illinois. The full quilt is on my daughter's blog. I wish I'd taken picures of every block.

One kind of strange thing that happened was when I looked through my viewfinder at the Boston Commons quilt, the purples were all blue! I've never had that happen before. Weird.

And I'll finish up with a couple of pictures of the vendor's area. Hope you enjoyed the show, I sure did!

The Whole Quilt

2009-06-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

Just a quick entry today to post the picture I promised in the previous post, the full sized picture of my favorite quilt from the Shipshewana quilt show. ---Oops! I never posted the name of the quilt artist who made this, her name is Barbara Perrin and she lives in Pullman, Michigan.

And another picture that my daughter also sent along. That is one AMAZING quilt.

Shipshewana Quilt Show

2009-06-27T11:06:00.001-07:00

I was really pleased with the first annual Shipshewana quilt show. They had a nice selection of quilts, all very well made. Fortunately they allowed photos, just no flash. I'm going to start with my favorite quilt, but (oops) I think I had my daughter take the pic of the full quilt, so I'll have to get that from her. She's also got pictures from the show, we're trying not to have too many duplicates.

This quilt artist actually lives in a nearby small town, I hope I can meet her someday, though I would not be bringing along any of my quilts. I mean, seriously people, look at this work!

I didn't compact this photo down, so hopefully you can click on it and see the detail. It is a delightful quilt, with so much intricate detail, just amazing!

This one is so incredible, look at that quilting! I'd love to sit down with the maker of this one and hear more about the story of the quilt.

I'll end for now with this lovely fairy quilt, and will post more quilt show pictures soon.

Giveaway!

2009-06-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

First things first, the giveaway is on my daughter's blog, A Cargo of Joy, here. Which reminds me that I'm wayyyy past my 100th post AND my 1 year blogiversary so I'm really overdue for a giveaway myself. I'll have to figure out something good to make up for being so late.

I mentioned Picnik in my last post, if you're interested in free sites to alter photos, there's another one I like, Photoshop Express, it's where I altered the photo below. They have some nice options.

I love the endless number of things you can find on here. Remind me again what we did before the internet. It just cracks me up when my son calls on his cell from California (lost) so that I can get on Mapquest & give him directions. Or my Mom calls me from Florida to find the instruction book for her stove on-line so she can figure out how the self-cleaning option works. I feel kind of bad for the kids that are growing up with it because to them it's just always been there, they might not realize just how amazing it all is.

Back to quilty stuff: I finished up my Bunny Hill, A Tisket, A Tasket block for June. I didn't think I was going to get it done before the end of the month, and I really don't want to get behind on the BOMs. The bird shows up better in real life, but I need to fix the eye, the bead isn't really showing up too well. Birdie needs a neck bow, too, but I didn't have the right color so he'll just have to wait until I can do some ribbon shopping.

Guess I'd better go get ready for the quilt show tomorrow (yea!). It's supposed to be 85 degrees, guess I'd better pack some extra water. Hope I can get some good quilt pics to post!

A little of this...

2009-06-24T15:04:00.001-07:00

....and a little of that. I have a feeling that's how I'll be working this summer. I'm kind of distracted and can't seem to settle on any one project. It will be a good thing if I finish up a lot of small projects anyway. I finally got my June block done from Gail Pan's A Christmas Wish. I'm just about done with my Bunny Hill block, I should have a pic of that in my next blog, just have to do the embroidery parts.

I got the first pillowcase done, dang that was a lot of embroidery for one pillowcase! I'm not real thrilled about the colors, but the colored lines on the pillowcase were permanent so I didn't think I should stray too far from what they had printed on it in case the lines showed through.
I do like it, though, I'm a sucker for a little house in the valley with smoke coming out of the chimney. Not sure what those things in front are, though. My daughter & I decided they were supposed to be wagon wheels, but why the red designs on the wheel?? No clue.

Have you discovered Picnik? It's a fun site, you can do quite a bit of playing around with your photos for free. Of course if you want to upgrade there are 'premium' options, but there are a lot of cool things there that you can do at no cost, so if you haven't seen it you should definitely check it out. I am not exactly a computer genius, so I like a web site that makes things EASY. My daughter has been making some beautiful photos on there, too. I love this picture of my grandbaby, very cool.
These pictures are deceiving, though, the tones of the altered photos make it look really cool outside, and actually it's face-of-the-sun hot. Okay, I might be exaggerating slightly. I'm still cooling down after spending a few days with no power (thus no air conditioning!).

There was a second big storm on Friday night and a tornado hit an area just a few miles from us. There was no warning, but fortunately nobody was hurt. It took out a house and a few barns and did some damage to some other homes as well. It's a shame about the barn in the photo, it looks like it was in good shape. I feel bad for those people, dealing with insurance companies and builders is a nightmare.

I'm really looking forward to Friday, there's going to be a quilt show at Shipshewana. Well, actually it's going on right now. It's the first quilt show they've had there, they even had Marianne Fons as a speaker yesterday. I hope it's not too crazy down there on Friday, I thought things might have calmed down a bit by then, I'm really not crazy about crowds. Hopefully they'll allow pictures. If so, I'll share them with you this weekend!

Sweet Pickle

2009-06-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

Isn't he cute? I took a walk through a local craft mall while my husband was getting his hair cut & found this little guy. I'll have to check back for more veggies so I can use them in the garden, though I would have picked up this little guy, garden or not. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be Larry the Cucumber of Veggie Tales.

It was a good news/bad news day. I had to go to physical therapy about pain in my hip and ankles. X-rays showed spondylosis, which they tell me basically means I have arthritis. So at least it's not something worse, but it is something that will just get worse over time and can't be cured. At least with physical therapy I can strengthen the right muscles & that should help a lot. They already told me a lot more than my regular doctor knew, it's nice to find someone who can answer your questions.

I haven't felt much like quilting lately, hard to believe, but it happens. We've been spending more time outside, enjoying the nice weather, working in the garden, grilling out when the weather allows. However, I did get started stenciling the cupboard in our bathroom last weekend. I thought I'd breeze right through it, but the smaller stencils take a lot longer, especially if you want to use 3 different colors. I really like the stencil, it's exactly what I wanted.

I've also been doing some embroidery, I like to have something to work on in the evenings. I found this pair of pillowcases last week at a yard sale, I like the picture, but it's a LOT of embroidery. I guess it wouldn't be if I made bigger stitches, but that's not how I roll (ha!). I have a pile of things like this to embroider that I've bought over the years so I really need to get more of them done. Hopefully my kids will like some of these so I can make a few as Christmas gifts & kill two birds with one stone (geez, that's an awful saying, isn't it?).

I'll finish up with more pictures of quilts from Lolly's in Shipshewana, enjoy!

Quilts!

2009-06-07T16:33:00.000-07:00

While my son & his girlfriend were visiting from California (yea!) this week we took a short trip to Shipshewana. The quilt wall at Lolly's had so many great quilts that I thought I'd share some of them with you. I'm glad they allow photos to be taken there, these quilts are so beautiful! The quilts are folded over, so I couldn't get full sized pictures of any of them.

These quilts are ALL hand quilted, I believe all by Amish and/or Mennonite ladies. It would be really hard to pick a favorite, it's a good thing that I can't afford to buy them all~

This batik star quilt is on my top ten list from the wall of quilts. I'm a sucker for batiks, and I really like star patterns. I have a quilt in mind for one of my kids that will be a star pattern & will be made of batiks, but I haven't decided on a pattern yet.

In truth, even if I could afford anything I wanted, I probably wouldn't buy a lot of quilts. I treasure the quilts passed down to me through the family, and of course the ones I've made myself. When I see one that I really love in a store, my first thought is to put it on my list of quilts to make. I would, however, buy this red and green quilt. For some reason, even though I love it, it's not a quilt I'd want to make.

I want to have a bunch of Christmas quilts to throw over the furniture to make the house cozy during the holidays, but I kind of doubt that's going to happen in this lifetime if I make them all myself. I've got one done and one started, though, so I guess it's possible!

It was a fun week, but unfortunately we had to put my son & his girl on a plane home today. Time goes by so fast when they're visiting, but at least they had good weather this time. It was about a year since their last visit, so our grandbaby didn't remember him, but she really took to him right away, kind of unusual for her. She kept holding out her arms for Uncle Alex to pick her up, it was sweet.

Well, I have completely run out of things to babble on about, so I'm going to stop and just finish up with a couple more pictures, enjoy!

My New Ride

2009-05-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool, eh? I found this at a yard sale a couple of days ago for $5, couldn't pass up that deal. I won't actually be riding it, but will find a basket for it, fill the basket with flowers, and put it in a garden maybe, or somewhere else where it can just sit there and look cute. I wish the chain guard was showing on this side though, I love the Space Racer logo.

I guess it's pretty bad when something like this is considered 'retro' or 'antique' when I could actually have been riding this bike when I was a kid. I see they're coming out with brand new bikes that look like something out of the 50s-60s. It's nice that people are appreciate the style of things from that time anyway.

I'm not doing much sewing, but did get 2 blocks done. This one is the Bunny Hill, A Tisket A Tasket free block of the month. I want to add a little more embroidery to it, but haven't figured out what to do yet. Anne used tiny buttons on her original, but they don't look right on this. I'll figure something out.

The second block is from Gail Pan's A Christmas Wish patterns. I love how both of these are turning out, it's really great of these ladies to go through all that work and offer these blocks for free. I wish I had time to do the Bunny Hill patterns in wool, too. Look over at Cottons 'n Wool & see how cute hers turned out. Maybe I'll get around to that next winter.

It's really beautiful out, and here I am hiding in the house. Something is in the air that is making my allergies crazy, and I felt so lousy yesterday that I hardly want to step outside today. I hope whatever is blooming dies down soon so I can enjoy the spring weather.

My husband, daughter & SIL have been working like crazy getting the garden in (I got to keep the grandbaby busy, how did I luck out getting that job?), and today everything is done being planted. My husband always goes a bit overboard on the garden, this year he wanted to order everything through the mail. I tried to talk him out of it, to no avail, and he ended up with a lot of half dead plants that arrived late so we had to run to the store for some replacements. Hopefully the company has a good refund policy. If everything grows as it should we'll have plenty of veggies for us and a ton of leftovers to give away. And next year DH will listen to me, right?

Loot!

2009-05-18T17:10:00.001-07:00

It's garage sale season! My daughter and I went last weekend & found some great stuff. Isn't that album the coolest thing? It cost me a whole quarter and will be a decoration in my sewing room. The prices have been really good at most sales this year so far, I hope that keeps up over the summer. Especially for my daughter as she's looking for things for her baby girl & her house. I furnished & decorated most of my house with yard sale or auction items and I'm really happy with it.

It always seemed like if I had something in mind I would find it at a sale before too long.

The day of the week towels are actually missing a couple of days, but they're so cute I don't even care! I actually use the vintage dishtowels because they seem to be softer and more absorbent than new ones. Must be Thursday was dishwashing day because she wore that one out. It's kind of funny that Wednesday, sewing day, is in perfect condition and pure white while the others are stained. I guess she must have been a quilter, no dishes were done that day at all! I actually have an older set of all the days of the week, I'll have to dig them out & show you. I won't use those, they're too precious.

I was so happy to find this book, I love old children's books, actually I love a lot of the new ones, too, but the old ones are special. Books like this could keep me busy for hours. My daughter was the same, she's still a big reader. I hope her daughter will be a reader, too.
I haven't been working on anything quilty or doing any sewing at all, it's just been too nice out most days and there's so much to do. Yesterday we went to Turkeyville, it's a place we used to take our kids. My Mom & Dad always went along, so we have a lot of good memories associated with it. They have craft shows & similar events there and a restaurant on the grounds where you can get all kinds of turkey meals. Unfortunately things aren't going as well as they used to.

We haven't been there for about 10 years, and there were probably 1/3 of the number of craft vendors and way less people than there used to be. We were also disappointed with the dinner, it used to be great, but it isn't too good anymore. I guess they thought cutting corners would help keep prices down, but I'd rather pay more and have the dinners be as good as they used to be.

They had a good variety of crafts there, but I wonder if it was worth it for the vendors to show up. The prices were good on a lot of items, but crafters usually don't make much of a profit as it is. I guess that's why there are so few vendors. We'll see if that's the case at other craft shows this year.
I bought this awesome wooden flag there. I added the raffia & metal stars, and am going to paint "God Bless America" on it. My husband likes to hang signs & decorations on his barn door, so I'm trying to get different things like this so we can change them out over the year. I also got a really cool toy for my grandbaby, I really love wooden toys and she got a big kick out of it. There are little wooden balls in the bottom, so they clunk around as you push it and make a nice sound. I felt a little guilty though, the price was $8. I don't think you could even buy the wood for that and it has a lot of work into it.

You should check out my daughter's blog and see the great clock she got last week. We went to an estate sale and the house was like a blast from the past, complete with old mural on the kitchen wall, original appliances, even clothes that HAD to be from the 60s, they were wild. My daughter loved the 'retro' look of the kitchen, to me it was just a normal kitchen from when I was a little kid.

I found something there, I believe it's an actual Nazi era swastika armband. There are similar reproductions, but it was in with old hankies and just about every item in the house was from the 40s and 50s, so I would be surprised if they would have had a reproduction swastika armband, people of that era wouldn't be likely to have an item like that unless the man of the house brought it home from the war as a souvineer. I'm going to try to get the address of the house and do some research. If I can find the name of the man who lived there I can get on Ancestry and see if he was in the service. Or I could do it the easy way and take it to an antique show & locate someone who knows about military items. I don't in any way condone the actions of the Nazi party, but items like this are a piece of history and I find it interesting for that reason.

Not sure when I'll have quilt content again, we're trying to put in a garden. Well, actually I'm in charge of the babysitting while the younger generation helps with the garden, which is fine with me! Hopefully I'll get back in the sewing room soon though, as I have a really cute dress in mind for little Missy. Hope you all had a great weekend, I'm going to read some of your blogs now....

Doll for Craft Home

2009-05-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't done as much sewing lately, the weather has been too nice & we've been working outside when we get the chance. I did get this little sweetie made though. After I read about Craft Hope I wanted to make a doll as soon as possible. They give links to some doll patterns, I used this one from 60 Piggies. I changed it just a little bit, nothing too major. If you get a chance, you should go to Vintage Chica's blog and read her entries about her trips to Nicaragua.

I really didn't intend to start any new projects, I blame Beth of Corner House Quilts. I made a Christmas quilt last year and want to make 2 more so that each of my kids will end up with one. I've been keeping my eye out for a pattern to jump out at me, and the one that Beth is making was IT! It's going to take me a long time to get this done, but I think it will be a gorgeous quilt. I have a pattern in mind for the 3rd one, but I'm not sure yet, so I guess I'll still be looking.

Want to see some of my Mother's Day loot? The hanging basket of strawflowers is really pretty, and I love sound the flowers make when the wind blows them. They're also great for drying, all you have to do is cut them & hang them up somewhere, and try not to bump them too much.

I think the cute little cabinet below is supposed to be a spice cupboard, but I'll probably be using it in my craft room to hold sewing notions. Don't you love the painting on the ceramic drawers? Some of it is quite quilty!

I'll have more pictures sometime soon, one of the presents is coming later and it's a project that I get to paint and personalize. I can't wait, it's something that I've been wanting for a long time.
The last pictures are of some blooms from around my yard. I really love spring, but it kicks my butt. My allergies are really bad this time of year, despite taking allergy meds, nose spray & using eye drops. My teeth are even hurting because my sinuses are irritated. Geez, I hate being allergic to my own planet, it just seems weird.

I love lilacs, we have some of the common variety of purple shown in this picture, and some white and one little plant of deep purple (my favorite). They smell so great, I hope having the vase full on my kitchen table isn't bugging my allergies, because I really love seeing and smelling them every time I pass through the room.

The crabapple tree is SO gorgeous right now, but it's really a big pain. It drops tons of petals and then later drops shriveled up yucky crabapples, so we really regret it if we happen to forget and park under it. We were going to cut it back this year, but it's so darn pretty that now I don't want to!

The last picture is of a blossoming apple tree in our back yard. It's an old tree, but it's hanging in there. I want to get a new tree to replace a miniature plum that fell apart & had to be removed last year. It was so amazing when it was in bloom & smelled really sweet, I miss it.

Time to go read some blogs, have a good week!

Where I was today...

2009-05-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a clue, not too tough to figure this one out. We (my daughter, granddaughter & a couple of her friends) went to the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, MI. With three little girls along, so it was lots of fun. It's not a really large zoo, so it's easy to get though it in one day. That was a good thing because we did a lot over the weekend and I was already worn out before the day started!

I hadn't been there for a few years, so there were some animals there that I hadn't seen yet. I really liked the red panda, I wish I could have gotten his pretty ringed tail in the picture, but he didn't want to cooperate. At least he was out & about, the snow leopard didn't want to show his face, and the cheetahs were too far away to get any pictures of them.

The giraffes, on the other hand, got very close, the kids bought some crackers to feed them, so they were right in their faces. They have some huge, slimy tongues! It kind of freaked the kids out, they were probably wondering if they were going to be eaten, too. My daughter has some great pics of the giraffes (and other things), she's got a really good camera, so she's got some better pictures of the day.

I really like the giraffes, their coat is so interesting visually, but I really like their goofy faces. They look so odd up close. Zebras are pretty awesome, too, how can you beat those stripes everywhere, even on their mane? And no two exactly the same.

I'm kind of torn when it comes to zoos. It's great to be able to see & learn about the animals, especially for kids. Some animals seem perfectly content to be there. The zebras & giraffes were in a huge area with many acres to roam, but the snow leopard & cheetah were in much smaller enclosures. If they can't make a habitat that the animal can actually be content in, I would much rather never see them than to think of them living their lives caged up. Especially for an animal like the cheetah, they're the fastest running land animal, but they don't have room to run.

I'm guessing that the reason for the smaller enclosures is because you'd never see certain animals otherwise, so it wouldn't do the zoo any good to have them.

I don't really know much about the workings of zoos though, I don't know how they acquire their animals or what kind of situations they're removing them from so I guess I'll give them a break until I educate myself about it.

The weather was great again today, maybe tomorrow I'll get to hang some more quilts out on the line.....

Laundry day

2009-05-03T20:15:00.001-07:00

We've been having a wet and chilly spring so far, but this weekend was a nice improvement. I was looking at my blog from last year at this time & we were having much nicer weather back then, the trees aren't blooming as much this year. Hopefully the warmer weather will kick in now. Things are definitely GREEN though. We haven't been able to mow the lawn until today because of the rain & it was getting pretty deep. The bad thing is that we'll have more mosquitoes because of all the standing water & it makes things a bit squooshy when we take walks out back to the woods.

It was a good day to air out some of my quilts. A bit sunny, so I didn't keep them out too long, but after a long winter they really need an airing. The pink lily quilt was made by my husband's grandma, Marie Glenn. We've never used it, it's sooooo white that it scares me! She also made the 4-H quilt that's on the left in back. It's really faded out, but still quite pretty. Too old and worn to use, though.

I made the little nine patch. The star quilt top on the right was also made by Grandma Glenn, I need to take a close-up picture of that one, the colors are so great. I hope to get started on quilting it before this year ends. AND she made the green quilt, too. I don't know the name of that pattern, maybe something with Crossroads in the name? The quilt behind the green one is quite old, that's real indigo blue. That one is in bad shape, too, but I love it, the colors and fabrics are so great. It belonged to my Grandpa Pete, he was born in 1891 and it had to come from his Mom & Dad, but I have no idea what the story was or if his Mom quilted. He didn't talk about family and kept his family things hidden away so unfortunately we don't know his family stories. I've been doing the family history for many years, so that sort of drives me crazy (I want to know as much detail as possible about my ancestors) but I'm sure he had his reasons.
I've been playing around with my camera, trying to see if I can get better close-up pictures with it. I'm actually reading the manual and everything! I hate reading the instructions, I just want to get started and use whatever new thing I get, but sometimes it's just necessary. If it doesn't work out then I won't feel too guilty about getting a new camera, so it's all good.

I can't tell you how great it feels to finally have some warm weather, to be able to enjoy the sunshine. Winter just goes on so long that every year about March I feel like I'd really like to live somewhere else, but when spring gets here it's all worth it. I really wouldn't want to live somewhere where it was warm all the time.......unless I could afford to live in Hawaii, I'd have to give that a shot!
I still have more quilts to air out, so hopefully we'll have more nice days this week and I'll be able to share some more clothesline pictures. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as we did!

Quilt show

2009-04-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

There was a quilt show in Allegan today. It's not a really big town, and they don't have a good place for a show that would have room to hang very many quilts, so most of them are laying over pews. Still, I'm glad they made the effort and that local ladies are able to put their quilts on display. I just have a few pictures.

I didn't see any information about these quilts, they weren't included in the voting and I don't see mention of them in the booklet they gave me, so I have no way to find out who made them or quilted them. They were machine quilted and quite beautiful.

I was trying out my new Vado HD, it's a mini cam. I wanted something small enough to carry with me, mostly to take videos of my grandbaby. We never had a video cam when my kids were little and I wish we had, I didn't want to miss the chance of catching some of those fleeting moments with my grandchildren.

I'd been looking at the mini cams, asking questions, and apparently Amazon noticed because they sent me a good offer, practically making it half price. It's pretty cool, the program allows you to do some editing and you can take photographs from the film as well, which is what I did here. It's really easy to use, so that's good for me. It's only about 2x4" so I can fit it in my purse with no trouble, and it plugs right into the computer to upload.

I tried to post a short video from the quilt show, but it's not working. I'm not sure what the problem is, but it just keeps saying it's loading but it never finishes. I've loaded videos on to another web site and it worked fine, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

This final picture is an actual page from an old book. The book was falling apart so I removed some of the more interesting pages. I've had it for years and ran across it the other day. Hopefully if you click on the picture it will enlarge enough to read it, it's really funny (unless you're the wreck!).

My favorite quilt

2009-04-21T12:47:00.001-07:00

I decided to take part in Park City Girl's Quilt Festival 2009. If you'd like to join in, you just need to pick out your favorite quilt & link to her web site. There are hundreds of quilters involved, it will take me a while to get through the list and see them all.

I guess technically she didn't specify that it has to be a quilt you made, but I think that's the general idea. So here's my favorite that I've made so far. I wish I had a better camera and a better set-up for taking pictures, but this will have to do.

First of all, I love batiks so that's part of the reason this is one of my favorites. It's machine pieced, hand appliqued, and hand quilted. My camera doesn't do close up pictures very well, but I did a lot of hand quilting on the blocks, following the lines of the fabric design on some of them, so it has a lot of texture. The applique flowers are supposed to be Evening Nightshade, though I believe it actually grows as a bush. I wanted something that sounded a bit dangerous to go along with the colors and look of the quilt.

The name of this quilt is The Deadly Jungle.

If anyone has suggestions as to what kind of camera I should be checking out that will take good close ups, but not be too terribly expensive, I'd appreciate some help. I have to get something that's pretty simple to use as my brain is getting old and doesn't like to remember complicated directions. Too busy concentrating on quilting!

Have you seen....

2009-04-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

the website Quilter Blogs? If not, you should check it out, and submit your quilting blog if you haven't already. It's great for me because I'm always checking quilting blogger's sidebars for new quilting blogs to read. Not sure why since I have a huge list of them that I read already! Maybe it's because they're such great eye candy and are so inspiring. Yeah, I think that's it.

I didn't have any pics taken for this post so I'm re-posting the one of Ryla's quilt, which I am actually quilting right now. I'm not sure why I'm hand quilting it since it's really not going to show up too much in all that fabric wildness, but I guess I'm hoping when she's bigger she'll be happy that I hand quilted it for her. The fabrics are Charisma from Moda, which I really love. Her mom bought some matching fabric to make the curtains for her room and I hope to make some pillows & possibly some other little items to help decorate the room. Her room is looking so great, it's making me want to make some new curtains for my sewing room.

Today was an amazingly beautiful day. We spent most of the day running errands, but it was great to be out and about without having to walk through snow or wear a coat. I hope tomorrow is as nice. Hope you had a good day, too!

Beautiful Morning

2009-04-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

It hasn't been as warm as the weather reports keep leading us to expect, but it's still pretty darn nice, just a bit chilly yet. The sunshine feels so great. I wanted to share a couple of pics of a jacket I made for my grandbaby out of some chenille scraps I bought at a yard sale. It looks really cute on her.
I love to make a useful item out of something most people would have thrown away. And I always love making things for a certain little miss.
Tomorrow I'll be spending part of the day at the hospital. They'll be doing some surgery on my husband's knee to see what needs to be done to fix it. He's had problems for years, but they've been really hesitant to replace it yet because he's so active & he's 'too young'. That's not something that we hear much these days, but as far as knees go they like to put off the replacement surgery as long as possible. He's in so much pain now that they really have to figure something out, so hopefully they'll be able to make some decisions after tomorrow. It's not supposed to be too bad since they're just taking a look, so they expect him to only be down a couple of days.

I finally got the April block done for the A Christmas Wish quilt. I really love these patterns, I think it's going to make a very cute quilt. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, it may become somebody's Christmas present. Hmmmmm........then again, I think it might be just the right size for that quilt hanger that my husband put up for the bunny quilt, so maybe I'll be keeping it.

Today I made some progress painting a new cupboard I got for my craft room, but I'll wait to take pics until it's standing upright. I really need to get more organized and get my messes cleaned up, so this will help. I have to get things up out of reach of little Miss. Her mom and I were trying to work in there the other day, but there are too many things close to ground level for her to get into. She loves my thread holder, it's so cute how she walks around and stops right in front of it, looks at me with a big smile and the proceeds to throw the spools all over the floor. She's pretty darn quick!

I guess that's all for now, hope you had a good day, too!

More Easter

2009-04-11T14:27:00.001-07:00

My husband kindly put up my new quilt hanger today, so I thought I should post a pic and give him credit. He's been working a lot of hours so I wasn't too worried about getting the Easter quilt up, but it is definitely nice to have it done. The colors are all funky in the pic, there's really more contrast than that, the bunnies don't blend into the background, oh well.

I've tried a few different ways of hanging quilts, and I like this the best. The hanger is from Lolly's in Shipshewana, Indiana. If you're a quilter and you're ever anywhere near Shipshewana, you will definitely not want to miss a visit to Lolly's. They have two stores now, actually, one is their fabric store and one has a big wall of hand quilted quilts, probably all Amish or Mennonite made, but I'm not positive about that. I almost forgot, they actually have three stores, there's also one on the bottom floor of the building where they sell 'outdated' fabric for $5 a yard and have a boat full of fat quarters. Lots of fun.

How cute is that? Love the high stepping bunny.

Easter Dresses

2009-04-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

I decided to join Eileen and some other bloggers in sharing pics of Easter past. Way past. Mom always went all out on dressing us up at Easter, I don't think I appreciated it a whole lot at the time, but I'd wear any frilly thing for a few hours for a basket of candy. I remember the teachers at school always getting after me to tuck in my blouse and stop rolling up my sleeves (and "sit up straight!"), but I really liked being comfortable, hated being dressed up. I'm the little one in front. Unfortunately my oldest sister, Cathy, died a few years ago of breast cancer & my other sister has had some problems & separated herself from the family. I have a lot of great memories of growing up, though, so for the most part it makes me happy to see the old pictures rather than sad.

I wish the picture was in color, I'd like to know what color Cathy's dress was, it looks really pretty. Don't you love those saddle shoes?

I love old postcards, when I find a box full of them at an antique shop whoever is with me pretty much has to drag me away after a while. The artwork is so great on this one. And the sentiment is sincere, I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

I need a new camera...

2009-04-08T16:12:00.001-07:00

.....because this block from the Bunny Hill Designs A Tisket, A Tasket patterns is way cuter than it looks but my camera doesn't like to take close-up pictures. And you can't even see the sweet little heart button that's on the band around Mr. Bunny's neck. I'm putting a new camera on my wish list. In the meantime I'll have to ask my daughter to bring her ultra-cool camera over here and take a better pic so I don't have to be ashamed of my block.
BTW- the background fabric has nothing to do with the block, I thought a little color in the picture might help, and it did help a little, before that I was getting weird wavy lines on the background. Arghhh!

The little wooden dolly bed is something I picked up at Goodwill today (for $1.99)! Complete with a mattress, quilt and pillow. I was thinking about doing a litte stencil on the headboard, but I'm not sure, it looks nice as it is, kind of primitive. Guess I'll have to think on it. I was going to make a new quilt for it, but that one is growing on me. I need to get (or make) a little doll for this so my granddaughter can play with it when she comes over. She's not really playing with dolls too much yet, but she's getting close to that age.

I wonder who made this for their daughter or granddaughter, it looks like they put a lot of care into it.

We're getting some nicer weather, still pretty cool (in the 50s), but we had some sunshine today and I finally got out to take a walk. I have to really shape up and work on losing some weight. I gained about 15 pounds over the winter and that's especially bad since I'm diabetic. I just had a visit with the doctor and my blood pressure isn't as good as she'd like, so she wants me to go on a blood pressure med which is also supposed to help protect the kidneys (diabetes can damage them). My problem is that the side effects from the drug can be so bad (including the possibility of damaging the kidneys or liver!), to me it seems like it's a toss-up;a possibility of kidney damage vs. the nasty side effects that the drug can cause. The best solution is to just to get out and work at exercising and losing the weight. I see that a lot of other bloggers are trying to lose weight, hopefully we'll all have some better luck now that spring is getting here!

Daffy-down-dilly

2009-04-01T11:42:00.001-07:00

I read this short poem many years ago in one of the old fairy tale books that I love to collect and every spring it comes to mind.

Daffy-down-dilly Has come to town With a yellow petticoat And a pretty green gown.

The daffodills out in the field are the only ones blooming, I guess they're the ones getting the most sun, not something we've had a great amount of so far. I actually prefer the cooler, slower spring weather though, I get more time to enjoy the blooming season. Sometimes we'll get a really warm couple of weeks and everything blooms like crazy and then is gone too fast.

A few crocus have popped up, too. Because of the critters digging them up, you never know where you'll see them in the spring. I'm not sure why they end up elsewhere, if the critters are digging them up shouldn't they be eating them? Do they only partly digest them & then deposit them in the fields? It's a mystery.

I haven't gotten much done this week. partly because I'm lazy and partly because my husband has been home. He had a bad tooth abcess, which was found by accident. It wasn't causing him pain, but the tooth broke so fortunately they ended up pulling the tooth and found the abcess. It even grossed out the two dentists, so it must have been pretty bad. This is nothing to mess around with, things can go bad quickly with an infection in your head, so I was glad he took the doctor's advice and took a few sick days. He's had a bad pain in the back of his head that nobody seems to be able to figure out, except that it has something to do with the infection or the tooth extraction. The doctor says the infection isn't spreading though, and he's feeling a slight bit better every day, so hopefully he'll be back to normal soon.

I've been doing some hand piecing on my Ocean Wave. This project has been around for many years and will probably be in the works for at least a few more. I was going to get rid of it because I was regretting using fabrics from the 60s and 70s in it, though I love the older fabrics. But after not touching it for a few years I took another look and found that I like it again. The mish-mash of fabrics seems charming to me now, funny how that happens.

Time to go run some errands, hope you all have a great day!

Free pattern & finish!

2009-03-26T16:40:00.000-07:00

First off, I have this cute pattern that I want to give away. (the pattern is on its way to OK!) It's so cute that I bought it twice! The size is Xsm (3-4) to Sml (5-6), girls' tops, shorts and capri pants. The first person to request it will get it, so if anyone is interested just e-mail me or leave me a message with your contact info.

Also, the blue & white $5 block quilt is done, yea! Unfortunately you can't see the quilting, and I did quite a bit of hand quilting on it. I have a few years worth of $5 blocks and I think this is the first one I've actually made into a quilt.

The problem with sampler blocks is that I don't find much room to do anything to make it unique. I know there are a variety of ways to set them, but I usually like to add a border with some applique or something to make it my own, and it seemed to me like it would have just looked to busy with blocks like this. That's just me, though, I know a lot of quilters out there would find all sorts of amazing things to do.

Another little project I got done was adding some applique to this cute little dress. It was only a few dollars, but I loved the look of it & thought it would be adorable with a bit of help.

Pretty cute, eh?

Even better with this sweet little missy in it!

We actually had a warm enough day for her to wear it, though we're not having too many of those. Mostly it's been in the 50s and cloudy or rainy, but who's complaining? I'm so glad that spring is working its way back and I don't have to wear a heavy winter coat and boots every time I got outside.
I was able to pick a handful of daffodills today, but very few are blooming yet. We have about a trillion daffodills on our land, so it's pretty great when they're all in bloom.

Fortunately some bloggers in warmer parts of the country (or world) are sharing pics of their flowers in bloom, so I'll just live vicariously through them for a while longer!

Projects

2009-03-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

Wow, how's that for an unimaginative title? I'm just drawing a blank tonight so just decided to be lame & go with that so I can get on with the blog! I've finished my March block of the A Tisket, A Tasket quilt from Bunny Hill Designs. I love the little bunny, so cute. I am almost tempted to make another set in wool as I've seen some cute ones, but I'd better use that energy to continue to finish up UFOs. I haven't worked on the blue and white quilt for at least a week and I'm getting so close to finishing it.

I also finished up the block of the month for A Christmas Wish by Gail Pan. I love these sweet little blocks, it's nice to be doing some embroidery again. I used to do a lot of embroidery and cross-stitch before I really got into quilting. Fortunately embroidery and quilting go together like peanut butter and chocolate, so it's all good.

My husband was doing some training in Chicago all week so I thought I was going to get a lot of work done on my projects. I have no idea where the week went (well, there was that trip to Shipshy), I did get some things done, but not anywhere near as much as I planned. I can account for yesterday as I babysat my grand-daughter so my daughter & her husband could go to a concert. She's walking much better now so she keeps me moving. I love watching her toddle around, but on the other hand it kind of makes me sad that's she's getting so big.

I started on a new quilt for the aforementioned grandbaby. I've been thinking about it since I made her first baby quilt. I wanted to get started on a bigger quilt for her and had a traditional pattern in pink and white in my mind, even gathered the fabrics & got one block done, but somehow it didn't seem right, so I've been waiting for inspiration, I knew it would come along eventually.

This is not at all what I was thinking I would make for her, but you have to go where the muse takes you, right? When I saw these fabrics in the Charisma line by Moda, it just clicked that this was the right thing for Ryla's quilt. This is just the blocks up on the design wall, so I have a long way to go yet. These blocks will be the center of the quilt, I haven't figured out the rest of it yet. I guess the quilting design isn't going to matter much on this one, as you won't even be able to see it. Fortunately I have a lot of time to figure this one out, she's not growing THAT fast!

Sunshine

2009-03-02T11:42:00.000-08:00

We have a little sunshine! It's still really cold, but a bit of sun helps a lot. We were lucky, the big storms went south and east of us this time. I really wouldn't want to live somewhere without winter, but this time of year is tough, I get pretty depressed when I go too long without sunshine. It would be great to be able to visit our boys in California every spring, or my folks in Florida, (or just go to Hawaii!!) but unfortunately the budget isn't covering that. When spring finally gets here it's all worth it, all the beautiful flowers start blooming and the air smells so good and I forget about how nasty the end of winter was.

I was able to get a couple of pictures of the latest top I completed. I don't have anywhere that I can hang a quilt to show the whole thing off well, but at least this shows most of it. This was last years $5 block of the month from a LQS. I'm not that into sampler quilts, but it gives me a chance to do something different from what I would usually choose to do. This is the store's suggestion for how to put the blocks together, they had a kit to buy for making the blocks wonky. The only thing I did different are the little pinwheels in the corners, I thought they would go well with the bright blocks.

This will be going on the pile of things to quilt eventually, I don't think I'll be getting to this one for a while. I'm making good progress on the blue & white quilt. I've got one side of the border done, so it shouldn't be too long!

Lastly, I want to show you a little red wagon that I found at Walgreens yesterday. I'll need to put something in it & take another pic to show the size (too small for children to sit in), it's so darn cute. It was only $5, so it was hard to resist. I think my little grand-daughter will have fun pulling her dollies around in it when she gets a little older. It will also come in handy at Christmas for decorating. Actually, at that price it would be cute to drill some holes in one and make a garden display in the spring.

2009-02-20T18:26:00.000-08:00

I was hoping to have some pics of the blue/white quilt top, which is all quilted except for the border. I'm a bit stuck on how to quilt the border since the fabric is so busy, so whatever I quilt won't really show up. I'll figure it out.

We've been having such nasty weather that I haven't had a chance to take pics outside, which is about the only place I can hang up quilts to get a good picture. I also got last year's $5 blocks put together in a top, guess I'll have to hope for some better weather so I can get a pic of that, too. Apparently it may be a while, we're supposed to get 5-7 inches of snow tomorrow, and we almost always get the lake effect snow here so it's usually worse than what's predicted. Nothing but cold weather and snow in the forecast.

I did take a few not-so-great pics of some projects I got done recently. First is the new phone baglet (I know that's not a word, but what do you call those anyway?) Now, don't laugh at my phone, I know everybody is going to smaller & smaller phones, but the older get the more I go in the other direction. I also wanted something tough and it had a better battery than most of the models. I love that Robert Kaufman fabric, wish I had a whole bolt of it.

I got my second A Christmas Wish block of the month done. I love these designs (by Gail Pan), not difficult but so very cute. Not the greatest pic of it, but you get the general idea.

I also finished the applique block of the month A Tisket A Tasket from Anne Sutton at Bunny Hill Designs. Sadly, I couldn't seem to take a straight picture of either block, it seems that I am in a crookedy mood lately. The striped fabric doesn't have anything to do with this block, it just happened to be handy.

Would you believe that my grand-daughter is already a year old? Man, time just flies these days. She's already walking and saying a few words, really growing like a weed. I'm trying to teach her to say grandma, but she's not going for it yet. Luckily my daughter is great about letting me spoil her, she even let me be the first to introduce her to french fries. Fortunately she loves veggies, too. She even likes to chew on onion, green pepper & pickles.

This last picture is of our cat, Hobbes. I bought this coat at the Salvation Army store for working outdoors, cutting firewood & such. I was unloading the car & threw this in on the floor, came back in and found this. The cat is quick! I love that "Oh, you thought it was YOURS?" look, but we did get the matter straightened out, and Hobbes now knows whose coat it really is. I think.

Monsters & babies

2009-01-31T08:28:00.000-08:00

I've been having fun playing with socks lately, this is my fourth sock creature, but my first monster. Monsters are definitely more fun. I'm thinking these little guys would be good gifts to put in the goodie bag for new babies. And speaking of new babies, my niece is having another little girl this spring (yea girls!), so I was making some new baby goodies this week for her baby shower. The burp cloths have been a big hit with new moms so far, and how can you lose with Hello Kitty fabric?

I'm still quilting on the blue & white quilt, making good progress, but it will be a while. I have to take it slow because my shoulder has problems, it's definitely not a good thing to push it too far or it aches for days.

I swear I'm really trying not to start new projects until I get some more UFOs done, but it's really tough when I keep reading blogs & they show me such great ideas! I couldn't resist the free block of the month from Gail Pan . Isn't that a cute block?

I'm hoping to get my daughter in on this one, too. It's pretty tough for her to find time though, her baby is 11 months old & really active now. She's so much fun, I love seeing her learn new things, you can almost see the wheels turning in her mind while she's trying to figure it out. She's walking a bit now, it's a funny crab legged walk, cutest thing ever.

Okay, I'll quit gushing over the grandbaby now. I'll TRY.

We've had a lot more snow. AGAIN. I'm not even taking any more pics, I'm so ready to hibernate now, just wake me in April or May.

Claims Surcharge- heard of it?

2009-01-26T09:16:00.000-08:00

I think it's important to let people know about this. We had a house fire two years ago, it's an old house & we had builders re-doing a bathroom. They kept the fan in the room running all day & when the breaker would kick off they kept turning it on. This caused some kind of overload in some old wiring and started a fire in the attic. We had been told all the wiring had been redone by the previous owners, so we had no idea. We were fortunate that the damage wasn't too extensive, and we felt that we had a good insurance company, Frankenmuth Mutual Insurance Co. They were very good about getting our claim taken care of quickly so we could get the house repaired, our agent did an great job & made things easier for us when we were going through the aftermath of the fire.
Last Labor Day someone burnt down one of our barns, the one that held my husband's farm equipment. We believe we know who it was, but the insurance company declined to investigate, in all fairness there wasn't much to go on. They paid most of the cost to replace the equipment and paid for a new barn to be built.
We just got our new bill for home insurance, and there is an increase of $1,648, it's called a claims surcharge. Because of our claims the insurance company wants their money back, so this is how they're doing it now. I'm not sure about all of it, but from what we were told they will charge it until they recoup their money from our claims. You can google it, it's getting to be a common practice, on car insurance as well. Many are charging it if you make one claim.
Apparently they're no longer providing insurance, but just providing loans. They make a fortune off the people who never make claims and pay in their whole lives, but I think we're probably paying for the losses some of the companies have taken in the gulf areas in recent years. Or possibly it's just greed.
It's hard to understand why we're being punished when we've done nothing wrong. We've paid for our insurance all these years in good faith that we'd be covered if anything happened. We've taken every precaution; moved our woodstove outdoors, put good locks on the house & barns, added more smoke alarms than are even suggested, and we're putting up fences and gates just to be safe.
Anyway, you might want to check your policy and try to switch to a company that doesn't charge this. Once you have to place a claim (some don't charge until you have two or more) then it's probably too late to change because other companies don't want to take you. We're calling around, but so far other companies want to charge the same amount or more since we've had claims, but we're hoping to find an honest company.
If enough people cancel with companies that are starting this practice, and if enough people make complaints about it, it might be possible to put a stop to it.

Monkey Business

2009-01-20T20:39:00.001-08:00

After seeing the cute little sock critters on this blog I wanted to try making some, and eventually make one of the traditional sock monkeys for my grandbaby. I like to get some practice in on a new craft so I can get any mistakes over with. I didn't have any problems with Jinx though. He
was named while we were watching Die Another Day, I thought that was an excellent name for a monkey anyway. I need to find some more colorful socks, but I was impatient to get started & these were all I could find on short notice. I will definitely make more of these little guys for presents for new babies, I think they'll be a big hit.

I'm still working on finishing up projects, a few at a time so I don't get too bored. I'm hand quilting this blue and white quilt that was a $5 block of the month at our LQS. I didn't realize how many years I've been going to those until I checked out my pile of UFOs. I'm loving this fabric, it's so nice to quilt through.

It's getting late so I guess I'll try to add more to this entry tomorrow....

Bunny Hill cuteness & some help please?

2009-01-13T16:04:00.000-08:00

Isn't this a cute design? It's a free block of the month mystery quilt pattern from the Bunny Hill Designs blog, Bunny Tales. Just scroll down on their blog page to see some of the examples that different quilters have made and get the information and patterns on the sidebar. I really like the one made from wool, I may have to do two of these. I wonder if I'll be lucky enough to find a heart bead in my bead stash? Perfect timing on this, too. We're getting socked in with snow (and my daughter & grandbaby are in Florida *sniff*) so I have plenty of time to work on projects. It's supposed to get really cold, too. I hope the power stays on this time.

I need some advice on a project I'm working on. It's one of those UFOs I've had around for a while. My New Year's resolution is to work through the majority of them this year. I've realized that a lot of them end up in the UFO pile because I hit a snag & can't decide how I want to finish them. That was the problem with this one. I want to do some applique on this, something along the lines of what they did in the quilt below. That's from Fabric Trends for Quilters magazine, Winter 2009. Isn't that beautiful? I'd like to make one from batiks, too.

Anyway, the problem is color. I can't figure out what colors to use for the applique that will work with the blues & neutrals. I don't like loud colors, but I tend to be too timid with color sometimes. Usually if I think on it a while some inspiration comes to me, but I'm at a loss with this one. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

Close, but no cigar.

2009-01-05T10:32:00.000-08:00

It's finished! Not in time for Christmas, but I'm really glad to have it done. Now I need to make two more Christmas quilts so that I have one to pass down to each of the kids. I'm not making three alike, that would drive me crazy, so I'm looking at different patterns & trying to decide what the other two will be. This one is called Winter Wishes, it's from the book Strips & Strings by Evelyn Sloppy. My LQS had one real similar to this hanging up in their shop & I've wanted to make it ever since I first saw it. It's machine pieced and hand quilted. I really like the quilts in this book, especially since I have lots of leftover strips from previous projects that I'd like to use up. Well, I say 'use up' but it never works out that way. I had hoped this Christmas quilt would use up a lot of my Christmas stash, but as usual, my stash is not noticibly diminished, I think there are little magic elves in my craft room that restock my scrap stash at night.

It doesn't seem possible that Christmas is over already, every year it seems to fly by faster. At least I'm not having the usual post-Christmas let down this year. Maybe it's having my grandbaby around that makes the difference. Speaking of which (or whom), she walked a few steps for the first time today! I didn't see it myself, but maybe I will today since I'm babysitting this afternoon. She's just over 10 months old & is doing new things all the time, we have a lot of fun with her.

I've already started quilting on another UFO from the pile I plan to work through this year. It's a blue & white quilt from one of the $5 block classes I've taken at my LQS. I'm not usually too thrilled with the quilt blocks from those classes (I went mostly to hang out with my quilting buddy), but I think I'm going to like this quilt. I'll post a pic of it soon. I'm trying to figure out what other project to work on, I have a bunch of things I've started & I like to have two or three handy to work on, so when I get tired of quilting or my shoulder squawks too much I can work on something different. I want to try my hand at crocheting some rugs this year, too. My mom used to make them & I have several rugs she made. They're getting pretty worn out, though, so I'd like to get some made to replace them when they're completely worn out. That should use up a lot of the stash, right?

I hope the new year is going well for everyone so far!

Strange days.

2008-12-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

This picture was from a few days ago, we got a LOT of snow, then we got some freezing rain, and today it was 62 degrees! Usually I would rather enjoy a warm day in the middle of winter, but it really made a mess. Flood warnings, water across the roads, lots of mist and fog, and of course MUD. Tonight it will get cold again and then the roads will be really icy. Michigan is low on funds and claim they can't take care of the roads this year so we've been doing a lot of slipping around on the roads. With gas being as cheap as it is, it seems like they'd be doing okay, but I guess things don't work that way.

I hope you all had a great Christmas! Ours was fun, it was our first Christmas with our grandbaby. It's so fun to watch her experience new things, just about every day she's doing something new. She brings back a lot of memories of my own kids when they were growing up. I still get kind of bummed out this time of year since our two sons are in California & can never come home for Christmas, due to their jobs & school. Someday I'd like to have everybody home together again at Christmas.

If you haven't seen Quilt Qua, check it out when you get a chance. It has a huge list of quilting blogs, there's more to it than that, but I love a big list of quilting blogs!

Not quite ready....

2008-12-09T19:51:00.001-08:00

But I'm getting close. I asked my daughter not to look at my blog until after Christmas so I could post pics of some of her presents. She's getting into embroidery so I thought she'd like this redwork project. It's from American Patchwork and Quilting Dec. 1999. I changed the border, I wanted to use my Mary Engelbreit fabrics and I thought this would work out better.

The dishtowels patterns are from some old transfers I've had for years. I have a bunch of them & need to start using more of them. These are also for my daughter, she has an old house & wants her kitchen to have a vintage theme, these will work perfectly. She was smart to decide to use the color red in her kitchen, there are so many vintage kitchen items with red. I want to change my kitchen color to blue & it's a lot harder to find old things in blue. That kind of surprised me, for some reason I was thinking that blue would be a popular kitchen color. I have found a few things & of course I can make some things to match, but since I have a lot of little kitchen items that are red, green and yellow, I guess it will be kind of a mixed-up kitchen.

I made a couple of these pillows this year, I love A Christmas Carol & watch at least a couple of versions of the movie every year. It's from an Nancy Halvorsen's Art To Heart booklet called Santa's Coming. I love her patterns, but I would have been pretty bummed out if I hadn't caught the error in the spelling of Dickens (they spelled it Dickins). I'm surprised someone didn't catch that somewhere along the line. The patterns in her booklets are great, though, I hope to make more of them for presents next year.

We have really been having the weather. Last week we got about a foot of snow, it was just beautiful. Yesterday we got sleet & freezing rain, making for some dangerous driving. Today everything was melting, so it's a slushy mess around here. I really need to get out tomorrow & do some Christmas shopping so I hope the weather cooperates. C'mon Mother Nature, I need to do my part to support our fragile economy!

Christmas

2008-12-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

Isn't this great? This was actually a birthday present, my kids know how crazy I am about Christmas & how much I love Peggy Gaine's folk art. Peggy is a local artist, she does more than just Santas, but I am definitely partial to them. Next time I go to her shop I'll try to remember to take my camera & show you more of her stuff.

This is another Santa that I got from Peggy a few years ago. It's painted on an old table top, I absolutely love it. I love that she uses old & discarded things and turns them into art.
Her family had a fire at their house a couple of years ago and she lost all her art supplies. That had to be devastating, I can't even imagine how long it would take me to recover if I lost all my art supplies. I hate to even think how many of her creations she had decorating her house. I'm just so glad she's back to creating again.

The table topper is coming along. It should be farther along, but this nasty cold I've had isn't helping. It keeps hanging on & is in my sinuses now, giving me an awful headache. I was doing good, didn't catch it when my SIL & daughter had it, but how could I resist holding my grandbaby? She was sick for a couple of weeks & I wasn't going to stay away from her that long. This weather is good for staying inside anyway, we've probably had more than half a foot of snow in the last couple of days. It's really beautiful, but the ground hasn't frozen so it's kind of a mess underneath.

This is a nice little book, definitely something I can relate to. I won't be able to keep the cost that low, but I'm definitely being more frugal this year. It helps not having young kids at home, that would make it tough. Really though, even with my grandbaby I'm trying to make more things & get her useful items rather than just lots of toys and her parents are thinking that way, too. Most kids have so many toys that they don't care about much of anything. Nothing is special because they have too much.

It's kind of hard to believe that it's December 2nd already. Guess I'd better get off here and get to work on those Christmas projects!

I might possibly be back!

2008-11-28T20:15:00.000-08:00

Did you notice how my confidence is faltering a bit concerning my lap top? I got it back today & it's working pretty well except for the CD/DVD drive, which doesn't want to read some of my CDs so I'm not able to install all my programs. I'm impressed with how HP is handling it though, I guess I got through to somebody because they gave me my own personal case worker who I called right away about the faulty drive & she immediately ordered me a new CD/DVD drive. In the meantime, everything else is working great so far, but my entire family and some friends are still telling me, "Get a Mac!". I am convinced of their worth, since my DH, daughter & son each have one and there have only been a couple of minor issues, whereas I think just about every part of my computer except the start button has been replaced twice. But I'm still stuck on the bigger laptop & can't afford the Mac in the size I'd like. Maybe someday.

This sweet deer was right in our backyard last weekend, and stayed there eating apples for about a half hour. We see them on the property, but rarely this close to the house. I'm sure the hunters scared it out of the woods. I don't have anything against hunting, I understand the necessity of keeping down the deer population, but we've had problems with hunters coming on our property without permission & coming way too close to the house, so we don't allow hunting on our property anymore. We only have about 5-7 acres of woods & swamp, and there are plenty of woods to hunt around here, so we figure it gives the deer a nice place to hide for a bit.

I've actually done quite a bit of sewing & quilting since I last blogged, but most of the projects are Christmas presents so I can't show too much. This is some fabric (the line is Follow Your Heart by Kathy Schmitz) that I hope to make a project from, I just love it, so unique. I believe I'm safe showing a bit of this project, I think it will go to one of my sons & I'm pretty sure they don't know about my blog. The pattern (table topper/wall hanging) is from Quilting for Christmas 2003 by The Quilter Magazine. Hopefully I'll get this done before THIS Christmas. I'm trying to make a lot of presents this year, I always have that plan, but I never get as much done as I'd like. My sons both have their own apartments now and my daughter & her husband moved into their own house a few months ago so everyone is in need of some crafty type things to decorate up their spaces (whether they know it or not!).
Next time I'll show you the wonderful birthday present I got this year, it's too dark to get a good picture tonight.
Now that I have my favorite blogs list back I need to go catch up on what's going on with everyone. Hopefully I'll still have a working computer in the morning!

Eh.........

2008-11-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

Boy, did I ever speak too soon. My HP PAVILION LAP TOP lasted about 4 hours before the screen started flashing off & on. Also noticed that I have dead pixels on the monitor now, didn't have those when I sent it in. I called in to the repair place, and by that time I was only getting a blue screen. Good job fixing it, guys! Grrrrrrrr..........back it goes.

WooHoo!

2008-11-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

I'm back! And they didn't even wipe my hard drive clean like they did the last two times I sent this bad boy in. Yea! It was great of my daughter to let me use her Mac laptop, but my HP laptop is bigger & I need that with my old eyes. Plus I am not that familiar with how to use a Mac, they keep telling me it's real easy, but when you've always used a different kind of computer it's hard to start over with a new kind. I'm actually kind of surprised that HP didn't just give me a new computer, they've replaced just about every part in this darn thing.
So I have some things that I didn't get to show you before, starting with my autumn pincushions. I've wanted to try this pattern & it was really easy. The pure orange one is made from wool & the other one has regular cotton fabric on top & wool on the bottom. I think the wool works better than regular fabric on these.

I also have some pictures from Mennonite Relief Sale in Goshen, Indiana. They seemed to be moving along rather quickly this year, so we missed seeing some of the quilts. Last year someone told us that they're not doing as well because the young people don't want to get involved and the older people are dying out. It's too bad, they do a lot of good with the money they make from this auction. They usually have a barn full of baked goods, too, but this year there wasn't much there at all. That was really a drag, those Mennonite ladies make some killer baked goods.
That's all I have for now, I'll be back soon with pics of some of the Christmas projects I'm working on. I'm trying to make a lot of Christmas presents this year & am making good progress so far!

Crashed

2008-10-19T19:13:00.000-07:00

My computer is toast, so I'll be out of commission for maybe a month unless I can get the hang of working with pictures on my daughter's Mac. At least I can read blogs so I'll have fun keeping up on what you all are doing. Maybe I'll get more housecleaning done & get everything organized like crazy around here......

.................NAH!