Christmas Presents

Finally done!   It seemed like I was never going to finish this one.  It is a Judy Laquidara pattern from her book Weekend Quilts.  It ended up being 84" square.  Absolutely nothing against Judy's pattern but I obviously do not sew as fast as her.  My quilt is larger than the pattern in the book and I changed the border and made the background scrappy.  That may be some of the reasons it took me several weeks to get this done.  But done it is.  Yippee!  I used a large meander to quilt it which worked out well for the quilt and me.  This was a gift and needed to be done by the 24th and it just barely made it under the tree. I love the finished quilt and kept it at my house so I can take it to quilt guild in Burlingame and Holton in January.  I wonder if my son and his wife will notice if I don't give it back to them?

I also got this tree skirt done for my daughter Jennifer and her husband Zach. You may notice that the center of the skirt hasn't been cut yet and the binding is not on here.  Silly me, I do not YET have a picture of the finished tree skirt.  I forgot to take one.  I did the binding in strips of the different reds that are in the skirt.  These block patterns were from a block of the month we did at Quilting on the Square in Holton last year.  I thought the log cabin worked well in the reds and greens and stands out nicely under the tree.  And hopefully someday I will put together the blocks that I did last year.  They are in browns.

And these lovely fabrics are a gift from my daughter Jennifer.  A girl that takes after her mother.  Wow, I just couldn't believe it when I opened my Christmas present and these fabrics were in there.  She bought all of these on one of our Kansas shop hops this last summer.  I drooled over all of it then and can't wait to get something done with them now.  Might have to work with those moths and bumble bees first?  I know she is secretly hoping to end up with the results of my labor and who knows she just might.  Only time will tell.

This  pillow is a gift from Mother to me.  My sisters also got one. (Hope I didn't spoil Cathy's surprise.)  Each a different pattern.  Behind mom is a lap quilt she gave me last year.  So as you can see I get my quilting genes directly from her.  Thanks mom the pillows turned out great!

To top off this wonderful list of gifts son Jesse and family gave me a 19" monitor for my computer.  It is wonderful to be able to clearly see all the posts at Patchwork Times.

What a great Christmas.  Jesus is the reason for the season.  God Bless.

Design Wall Monday November 29, 2010

It was a great weekend to wrap up the piecing on a couple of projects.  The tree quilt is my version of a Judy Laquidara pattern from her book Weekend Quilts.  I changed it up by making my backgrounds scrappy which changed the way it had to be pieced together.  Much more work to lay it out.  I also added two more rows of blocks and a different border.  I wanted to end up with a queen size quilt.  Needless to say, this did not get done in a weekend.  But now it is ready to be quilted.  My least favorite part.  I just can't decide how.  Any ideas?  I do all of my own quilting on my sewing machine so I don't do anything fancy.

Last week I also started Bonnie Hunters Roll Roll Cotton Bowl mystery quilt.  I chose to use purples instead of pinks to go with my greens and browns.  I'm not sure the purples and browns will work out quite as well but I have one unfinished pink and brown project so didn't want to start another one.  I haven't decided on the other fabric yet.  When she gives us the directions for it I will go to my stash and pick something out.  Maybe a burgandy paisley that I have.  You can find Bonnie's mystery quilt on her blog at Quiltville's Quips & Snips.

Wow, that was a great holiday weekend.  I am so sad that it is over.  It was so nice not to have to go to work I was able to get a lot of sewing done.  Which was exactly how I wanted to spend the Thankgiving holiday.  Dinner was great with all the family here.  But no one ate enough.  There were too many leftovers. 

Check out everyone else's holiday sewing at Patchwork Times.

First Quilt Show

After hemming and hawing forever about it, I decided to put a quilt in the Maple Leaf Festival Quilt Show in Baldwin City, KS.  It was not a show that handed out prizes to the best or worst so just the place for my fragile quilting ego to start out. 

The drama was finding a parking place so Mom, Jennifer and I could go view my quilt and the other quilts of course.  Ended up that Jennifer and I ran into the the show.  Looked at all 122 quilts (I was told that amount by Sharon at Quilter's Paradise).  And left to go back to Mom who was sitting in the car three blocks away.  It was a let down that Mom couldn't see the show and that we couldn't take our time.  Baldwin City definitely needs a larger venue and more parking for their quilt show.  But I do thank them for the opportunity to let me show one of my quilts for the first time.

Busy Week

Thursday October 7, 2010

               Jennifer at the quilt show.

This week has been full of events. Jennifer and I went to the AQS quilt show in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday.  We had a great day.  Long  day but a good one.  We got there at 10:00 and stayed until they closed at 5:00.  I'm sure we could have filled another day there.  We both spent too much money and yet I'm not sure that I ended up with anything but more fabric to go in my stash. 

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Friday October 8, 2010

View of one cell.  The arched area is the toilet hole. I'm sure not a comfortable place to read a magazine.

  A view from outside the cells looking up.  There are three cell levels.

On Friday before leaving from Council Bluffs we went to the Squirrel Cage County Jail.  Very interesting place.  Scarry to think people had to spend any time in there at all.  Its claim to fame is the shape.  The cells are built in the round and each of the different cells is pie shaped with the toilet area against the back section of the cell.  The three different levels rotated by being cranked with a handle.  The jailer would turn the crank until the cell door lined up with the exterior opening so the inmated could exit the cell.  I cannot give a very good description of the jail so I would highly recommend that you google more information on it.   And if ever in downtown Council Bluffs that you pay your $7.00 and see how horrible of a place it really is. 
I tried to post a link but it ended up taking you to advertising.  Just google Squirrel Cage Jail and it takes you to an information page.

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For and ending to our trip we stopped at a quilt shop in Nebraska City, Nebraska on the way home and both bought yet more stuff.  Fabric and books.  Just can't get enough of the stuff.

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Saturday October 9, 2010.

Grace getting her face painted.

A balloon kitty for Grace.

Saturday I spent a few hours with Jesse, Victoria and Grace.  We went to an open house at P.T.M.W. which is where Victoria works.  They recently purchased the old Payless Shoes distribution center and refurbished it for their manufacturing plant.  It is a huge set of buildings.  Just never would have imagined such a large operation.  P.T.M.W. provided a meal and entertainment for the kids...face painting, balloon animals, and jumping tents.  Grace never did get bored. There were too many people to watch and too much to do.

Thanks to my family for helping me enjoy my few days off.

Design Wall September 20, 2010

I made some progress on this baby quilt.  Blocks are done I just need to put a border around it  and get it quilted.  Have had a busy week so I'll use that as an excuse for not getting done with it.  On Saturday I ended up at the Topeka Quilt Guild show with my Mom, sister Cathy, nephew Jeremy and daughter Jennifer.  It was a good show with lots of quilts to enjoy.  Jeremy was very patient with us and even had a few good comments to make.  Thanks for the outing everyone. It was nice.
Be sure to check out all the other design walls at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall September 13, 2010

I started another new project on Friday.  At this time I'm thinking this will be a baby quilt for my great-neice.  She is due to arrive in November.  Her name is Iris Lee so I wanted to put a flower pattern in her quilt. I haven't yet figured out what pattern to use as a border.  Will just have to see what it looks like when all these blocks are done.

Enjoy your Monday and check out Patchwork Times.

Nothing much new today.

I now have a design wall.  I put up a 4' x 8' piece of 2" insulation and covered it with one of my mom's old flannel sheets.  The sheet doesn't fit all the way across but in time I will get it all covered.  For now I'm just happy to have a larger area IN my sewing room to look at my progress.  On the left side are some yellow and white blocks I am trying to work out.  It is an old pattern but couldn't find one the block size I wanted so I am working on getting that figured out.  And below them are the current block of the month blocks from Quilting on the Square in Holton.  Not my favorite colors choices this year but the shop is great and the people who own the shop and the ones who work there make it worth the 50 minute car ride to get the block.

I still have way too many 4" blocks to make on my flower quilt.  But I'll just keep plugging away at it.

I just noticed that there is way too much mess shown in this picture.  A messy quilting area is a busy quilting area.  Sounds good to me.

It sure has started out a productive day.  Guess since I've been up since 5:00 it has given me more time to SEW.  So far I've made 34 blocks today.  Taking into consideration they are only 4" and that I need 360 of the little buggers I need to work harder and faster. lol  I did take time out to farm and cook.  On facebook of course.  Less time on there would sure free up more time in the sewing room.  I refuse to let myself count how many blocks I've made all together until tomorrow night.  I've been working on them for about two weeks for an hour here and there.  But do plan to spend most of this weekend putting together as many as I can.  Guess I'll see how far I have to go when I count and then post on my Design Wall Monday.  It sure gives me incentive to get something done.  That and there is absolutely NOTHING on TV.

Color combos for today include these but I'm not done quite yet.  There is still alot of today left.

And here are some blocks from last night.

Design Wall Monday August 16, 2010

This week I was able to get the panels framed to the size I wanted. Ok, I don't do math so that took me more than one try. I've made about 1/3 of the blocks needed. Best guess to date is that it will take 360 blocks. Give or take a row or two. There are several more color combinations for the 4" blocks yet to be done. But it is coming together and I can see what I was hoping for.

Be sure to see all the great design walls at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday August 9, 2010

Sorry, I've done it again. Not posted correctly on Judy's site. I WILL FIGURE THIS OUT! What a way to start a Monday.

Well another Monday is here and I'm exicted to share my latest project. Last Monday I had planned to sandwich and begin quilting on one of my already finished quilt tops. However, a panel I had seen at my local quilt shop turned my attention toward a new project altogether. I bought two of the four panels that were available. Trimmed up they each measure 20"x22". Nothing is set in stone yet but I plan to frame them to measure 24"x28" and then surround them with 4" broken dishes blocks. I am not following a pattern so the final quilt should be a surprise to all of us.

Be sure to see all of the other design walls at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday August 2, 2010

Some of you may have seen this as I posted early this morning. Evidently, there was a problem and it was deleted from the list. So I will try again. Happy quilting!

Well, I was able to get the bear paw top finished. Turned out the way I wanted. Very colorful. I am going to set it aside for a while to think about how I want to quilt it. You might have noticed that I used the same method to sash both quilts.
So now I am going to start quilting on another top. It has been done for over a year. This week I am working on the back and getting it pinned. Hate that job. But the only way to reach the end.

Be sure to see other the other Monday Design Wall posts at Patchwork Times. What a great way to get motivated.

If you like me enjoy talking about your quilts or just quilting in general, buy a t-shirt. Yes, it's that easy. On a shop hop this summer I bought a pale pink t-shirt that shows a harried woman frantically searching for some material in her stash. That shirt has brought me more joy than you could ever imagine.

Quilters young and old have stopped me and asked if I quilt, and of course, I am pleased to share that indeed I do. Last week I enjoyed a conversation with an older woman. We were standing in in a very long line waiting our turn to make our purchase, when she asked if I quilt as she pointed at my shirt. Turns out she has been quilting for most of her life. She appeared to be in her eighties and seemed quite frail. I asked if she uses a rotary cutter. "Heavens, no!" she said. She still uses her good old scissors. Just keeps them sharp. I cannot imagine doing all the work it takes to cut out a quilt with a pair of scissors. I don't care how sharp they are. She talked about quilting with passion and enthusiasm. Said she loves to start a new quilt to see how it will turn out.

I can only hope that when I'm in my eighties that I am still as enthused with quilting as she seemed to be.

Design Wall Monday July 26, 2010

No actual design wall (yet), just a bed, the table and the floor. This is a quilt that is bits and pieces of other quilts I have seen and liked. My favorite quilt colors are red, white and blue which worked perfectly with what I'm doing here.

The center bear paw blocks and scrappy sashing are done. I am now working on the piano key border. The fabrics are all the same as in the bear paw blocks just looks different with the lighting in the dining room. This quilt will be queen size when finished. I hope to have the top done by Wednesday so I can take it to quilt guild.

Grandma's Recipe Box

Last week mom offered to give me grandma's ugly old yellow tin recipe box. She didn't put it quite like that, but anyway. It sure isn't much to look at but I just happen to collect things just like that. Not much to look at but perfect in every way to me.

This box brought back a treasure trove of memories for me.

Breakfast at Granddad's and Grandma's. We would be sitting at the table finishing up our ALL BRAN cereal (loved that stuff) and he would lean down and give her a kiss as he headed out the door to go to work.

The cake's she would bake in her square electric skillet. Never have seen or known of anyone else doing that.

She would make Blueberry Salad for family dinners. I've never been sure if anyone really liked it or not. But I'm happy to share the memory and the recipe with you.

Blueberry Salad
1 can blueberry pie filling
1 lg pkg black cherry jello
1 sm can crushed pineapple (drained)
1/2 cup cool whip and 1/2 cup mayonnaise
refrigerate 2 hrs

After a discussion with mom I now know that you stir together the pie filling, the dry jello and the pineapple. Put it in a nice serving bowl. Stir together the cool whip and mayonnaise spread over the top and refrigerate for two hours.

I think the mayonnaise is what throws people off this recipe. So personally I would be thrilled to eat it now if the mayonnaise were left out and just use cool whip.

Tripping over myself.

I really thought I would get on here and put this blog page together without too many problems. WRONG. How can I have thought that this would just look great to begin with. Not many people can put together a quilt without auditioning the fabrics. And this page is not going to be any different. So as you follow this expect to see changes. The colors are going to change and the blocks are going to get moved up, down, right and left. So, welcome to my blog as I cut, stitch and move the pieces around.