A Smorgasbord of Stuff

I'm still here....still sewing and trying to finish my projects for the quilt show.  Of course, lots of other stuff is going on as well, most of which is too boring to go into.  You know, all that day-to-day stuff we all have going on.  But that's not why you're here, is it?

Remember my Traveling Round Robin?  (If you missed the blog post about that, you can see it here and here.)  Well, my Robin has come home to roost!  This is all my blocks when I got them back.  Aren't they awesome?  Everyone did a great job on the blocks.  In fact, they were all almost the perfect size.  In about 10 days, I had them all put together into a quilt top.  It is currently being quilted.  I forgot to take a photo of the flimsy, so you'll have to settle for this photo for now.  Of course, I'll show the finished quilt when it's done!  I'm getting excited to see it!  

The first weekend of August - over a month ago now! Time flies! - my DH The Potter had one of his big art shows of the year.  Of course, it was blazing hot.  But we survived and sales were good.  This show is put on in a beautiful garden that I always enjoy visiting.  I got a  couple of photos that I want to share with you.

This garden is full of vignettes of fun yard art.  This guy enjoying the teeter-totter was right near where we were set up.  Isn't he fun?

And this is Mt. Rainier, photo taken across the neighboring farm's pastures.  The next day the smoke came in and you could barely see the mountain.  This is the least amount of snow we've seen on the mountain in the 8 years we've been here. There's snow up there now though!

Once I got "My Lucky Stars" to flimsy status (see previous post), I took a break from what I was supposed to be doing to get this little baby quilt put together to flimsy status.  I had inherited two of these columns of patchwork, and enough left-over bits to make the third column.  So I put them together and they looked pretty good.  I'm not quite sure why the ends all came out different lengths.  It should have worked out.  Oh well, the baby won't be a critic.  I found this yellow plaid and it worked pretty well.  Now all I have to do is get this quilted - someday.  It was a nice break from all the "have-to's".

Last month DS found a nest of baby bunnies in the yard.  We watched them for a week or so, and when they were big enough to venture out on their own, he caught one of them.  We petted him and talked to him and then we let him go.  He was so soft!  And very sweet.  I've never been that close to a wild bunny before, although they are in the yard a lot the last couple of years.  They're not very afraid of us.  That was fun - bunnies are some of my favorite animals.

If you've ever seen the movie "Field of Dreams", you'll recognize this take on the tag line for the movie.  This cracked me up!

Here is a harbinger of Autumn.  We've had some fairly cold weather lately (a high of 61* today) and some of the trees are already starting to show color.  It seems early to me this year.  Oh, and the wild geese are already heading south - actually, they have been for weeks now.  

a sneak peek!

"My Lucky Stars" is back from the quilter and is getting it's binding put on right now.  Photos soon!

And another one begins . . . .

. . . a New Year, that is.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  We had a great time here and we did some fun things.  I did manage to (mostly) maintain my serenity.  I didn't do much sewing this year.  I made 2 pillowcases is all, and I totally forgot to take a photo of them.

Got to see the granddaughters in their ballet school's selections of The Nutcracker.  They did so well - they're both becoming very good dancers, and they seem to really enjoy dancing.

Our youngest joined us here for Christmas Eve dinner and opening presents and then we all went over to our oldest's house for Christmas Day for dinner and fun.

This past Tuesday we went to see the very last Hobbit movie.  I'm sad that there will probably never be another one - I've really loved those movies.

Now the holidays are over, the decorations and the Christmas quilts are put away for another year, the cookies are almost all eaten, and it's back to the everyday stuff.  Which is a good thing, because it means more time for sewing!  

I have one more quilt to show you from 2014.  It was actually started a few years ago, but it finally got finished.

Harvest Home
56 x 63 inches

Another simple 4-patch, made with 2 charm packs and companion fabrics.  (This isn't  the best photo - the quilt is not so yellow in Real Life, it's a tan.)  I'm not thrilled with it, and it's not my colors anymore.  But it's DONE and that's the best part! It's even gotten its label. 

As I look back through my blog in 2014, I find that I've finished up 8 older WIPs (works in progress) this year.  Yay!  My goal for 2014 was to finish up some old  projects, and frankly, I'm surprised at how many I got done!  I'd call that a win!  

In an effort to continue finishing some of my old WIPs, I'm still plugging along on the Mystery Quilt from the year 2000.  I'm getting tired of it - it has about a million units - but I refuse to get stalled on it again.  I WILL finish this quilt this time!

more flying geese etc.

I've made all the rest of the flying geese (in different colors from the F.G. on my previous post) and the strips I showed in the previous post have all been sewn.  This is not how they'll go together, but I like this arrangement of the strips.  I need to remember this for later!  This could be fun in another quilt.

final arrangement of the strips

Now all the strips are sewn into their two final configurations, and it's time to sew all the flying geese into their final configuration too.  It's hard to tell from this photo, but the same strips are sewn together two different ways.  I'm not sure how they'll go into the final layout of the quilt.  I'm on step 5 of 6 steps - getting close now!

I ended up making an even dozen of the Block Lotto blocks for December.

Here are 12 Big-O blocks that finish at 7 inches.  And I was one of the winners of the Block Lotto for December, so I'll end up with 48 of these blocks.  Enough for a quilt.  Yay!

I've gotten 2 blocks made, so far, for the Block Lotto for January.

A Double 9-Patch block in black and white. Such a classic block, but there's a minor twist in the choice of fabrics.  Either a black with white print or a white with black print, but the same layout of where the black and white go.  Interesting, no?  I hope to get another couple done this month.

That's all for now.  I hope to be back soon, and I'll show you some of the exciting presents I got for Christmas.  I've got a new project, and it's not a quilt!

I hope you have a creative week!

p.s. Don't miss Audrey's (of Quilty Folk blog) posts on Scrap Quilts here and here.  She has some great things to say and she illustrates what she's saying very well!

A Finish and An Award

At long last, my Liberated Amish Challenge quilt is totally done!

You can read more about this challenge by scrolling waaaay down to the list of labels on the left-side of my blog and clicking on the tag "Liberated Amish Challenge".  There's a few posts - apparently I've been pretty wordy about this project!

"Snuggle"
53 inches by 65 inches

It took me some months to get around to getting the binding done.  I couldn't find any of the fabrics I used on the front, so ended up using the batik backing fabric I trimmed off the quilt.

Here is the back, with the pieced label I did.  I will be adding another label with more information on it.

A close up of the piecing, with the free-pieced Unruly letters from Lazy Gal Tonya.

Here's a photo of my free-pieced word on the front, all quilted.

And here's a shot of the quilting on one of the blocks.  This photo has the truest colors.

And a photo of the quilting that Shari did in the alternate blocks.  She knows I love Celtic knotwork.  I left this picture high contrast so the quilting would show up well.

I'm so happy that this quilt is finished and ready for use!  

The talented Kelly over at Pinkadot Quilts has nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award.  Thank you so much, Kelly!  I'm honored.  Go check out her blog.  She is making a small quilt every week for her personal journal quilt, and she's making some beauties!

The Liebster Blog Award rules:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

2. Link back to their blog.

3. Copy and paste the Liebster award to your profile.

4. Pick 5 blogs that you feel deserve to be in the spotlight (they must have @200 followers or under).

5. Blog about it and leave a comment for your nominations to let them know that you have chosen their blog.

Here are my blog nominations for Liebster Awards:

1.  Joe Tulips at Joe Tulips Quilts blog.  She has made the BEST zombie quilt ever, she makes funny, fabulous cards (both paper and fabric), she geocaches, and she makes great quilts too!  She always has something fun to see on her blog.  Oh, and she's pretty obsessed with the Scrappy Trips pattern, and it's my fault.

2.  Michelle at Nostalgic Cafe.  Michelle is a funny lady - she'll make you smile.  Right now she's having some snake-y issues.  She also has some intriguing recipes on her blog.  Oh yeah, she makes bright, happy, fun quilts too!

3.  Kate at Kate Kwiltz blog.  Kate is another ADD quilter like I am, but you wouldn't know it.  She's in the process of making 5 baby quilts and 2 wedding quilts that are due this spring.  She's making great progress.  She makes great modern quilts with a real grounding in tradition.  

4.  Maureen at Pursuit of Quilts.  Maureen does more traditional quilts with great style.  Right now she has two posts up that are full of eye candy from two big quilt shows that she has visited.

5. Sharon at Grass Roots Quilting.  Sharon is making the Beyond The Cherry Tree quilt and is making great progress as well as other quilting projects.  She does long-arm quilting with the most wonderful feathers.  She is a funny, generous quilter.  I took the Gwen Marston class last year with her, and it was great fun.  I'm happy to call her "friend".

Go take a look at their blogs.  I think you'll enjoy them as much as I do.

One last thing:  Michelle at Nostalgic Cafe blogged today about the new Dark Shadows movie starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton.  I deeply loved D.S. when it was on TV.  I think my sister and I watched every episode!  I went to IMDb (Internet Movie Database) here and watched the trailer for this movie.  It looks like it will be hilarious and great fun.  I mean, how could you go wrong with Johnny Depp??  I can't wait until May 11th when the movie is released!

Happy quilting!

Some Random Things

Well, Christmas is over.  The presents are all unwrapped, and now life is starting to get back to normal.  The cookies aren't all eaten, but we're working on that.  (oink!)  Our holiday was a good one, with lots of family and food, and I hope yours was good too. 

We got around 3 inches of snow the night before last.  It melted off the streets long enough for me to make a quick run to the grocery store yesterday to stock up again, then we got a little more snow last night and the temps dropped to below freezing.  The lake froze last night, and everything looks like it's pretty icy out there.  Our high temp today was 32*F.  In other words, winter is here!  Not like so many places around the country that got blasted with the Christmas storm, but still fairly unusual for this area.  So, it must be time to sew again!  Yay!  DH is back out in the pottery studio (with his space heater!), and when I'm done with this post, it's off to the quilt studio for me.

Since there has been so little sewing/quilting happening here, I thought I would share some of what my sister has been doing.  She's been working on some wool applique.  Above is her funky "Trees".  She started this a year ago, and it's been traveling with her wherever she's gone all year as she adds to them.  She told me she had a lot of fun doing these.  I think they're great fun.

Here's a wool applique bunny she did.  It will probably become a pillow at some point.  I think this one is my favorite, because I love bunnies.

This might look like floating bubbles, but they are actually flowers.  The last time I saw this, my sister was in the process of adding the stems.  She tried one thing, didn't like it and took that off and is now working on the next attempt.  I think these are fun!  I don't know what her plan is for this piece.  She doesn't use any patterns, by the way.

My multi-talented sister is also an assemblage artist.  This is what she gave me for my birthday this year.  The round disks are hand-made coasters, she thinks.  I'll probably hang this in a vertical position, not horizontal like it is in the photo.  This will look fabulous on the indigo wall in my bedroom!

If you're interested in seeing some more of her work, check out her website.

Here is the free-pieced house that is currently on it's way to Beth of Live Laugh Quilt blog.  I made this for her "Friendly Neighborhood" project.  She'll be drawing winners on the 1st of the year, and I sure hope this gets there in time!  As you can see, I made an indigo house (appropriate, eh?) and it's surrounded by fir trees, just like in Real Life.   I'm not sure you can tell I free-pieced this, as it came out pretty tame.  But it was fun to make.

And in the window you can see Dunkel and Shade.  They think they own the place, so I had to include them!  hee hee!

We finally joined the 21st century the other day.  T*rget had an LED TV on sale for a price that was crazy low.  DH had been saving his pennies for a while, and it was finally the right time.  Wow, can I just say Wow!?  This looks fantastic.  And the best part?  We can hook up the laptop to the TV and watch Netflix streaming right on the TV!  Love it!  No more huddling over the desktop up in the office.  We don't have Hi Def on Comcast yet, but it sure looks High Def compared to the old (and I do mean old) TV.  So, happy day!  We're still doing the happy dance!

We watched the movie "Julie and Julia" last night.  I loved it!  And Meryl Streep sure "was" Julia Child.  She nailed it.  I remember watching Julia when I was in high school.  I thought she was a little odd then, and now I realize how brilliant and funny she was!  And I loved the whole blog thing - wonder why??  Oh, and am I the only one that backs up the movie to see the quilts in the background?  hee hee!  During that whole hysterical scene with the lobsters, I kept trying to see that quilt in the background.  DH is a good sport about backing up to see the quilt!

Well, here we are at the end of another year.  The years seem to be zooming by so fast anymore.  But it was a good year around here.  Our blessings are many.  And I want all my readers to know that I truly appreciate you stopping by to read my poor scribblings.  I'm still amazed and grateful that you do.   I hope the new year will be kind to all who're reading this, and that there will be blessings upon you and yours. 

Happy New Year!  See you on the other side!

Some Results

I've actually been "laboring" in the quilt studio the last few days.  However, I'm not exactly doing what I'm supposed to be doing!  I think I've gotten all my "secret" sewing done, but of course, I can't show anything until the gifts are received.  I'm supposed to be cutting for the block exchange, and quilting some small quilts.  And I haven't even touched the Halloween fabrics or the I Spy that I showed in the last post.

But I've been OUT of the quilt studio as well.  I was sewing at one friend's house on Friday, and then at another friend's house on Saturday.  That was a lot of fun.  Today, I'm at home in my own studio, and I got inspired this morning (more on that later).

33 inches by 47 inches

Here is the charity quilt I made this week.  I got the botannical fabric (for free!) from my guild in July, and thought I should get this done before too much longer.  The pattern was from the guild as well.  The only fabric I had to buy was the pink, as I didn't have the right color in my stash.  However, I'm not so sure that it was really the right tone, as it's kind of overwheming to me.  Of course, pink is not my favorite color, so it could just be me.  

Here is a closeup so that you can really see the fabrics.  I don't know if you can see it, but the pink exactly matches the pink color in the flower.   I should have gone with a lighter pink, or even a red instead. 

I had fun with this pattern, but it was a little challenging.  First off, I did something wrong while cutting and only got 12 strips out of the strata that I made, not 13, so the quilt is a little skinny, even for a wheelchair quilt.  And you might have noticed that there are no seams to match in this one.  Well, I had a little trouble getting started on that.  You're supposed to start with a half-block, and that was another "oops" somehow.  This was one I was sewing at Friend #1's house, and you know how it is when you're sewing with a group.  Quite a bit of talking going on, and I couldn't concentrate enough to figure this out.  So, when I got home I put it up on the design wall.  Then I could make sense of it, and got it figured out and labeled so that the next day, at Friend #2's house, I could finish sewing the rows together without confusion. 

Now I'm thinking I should piece together one more row to bring the quilt up to the right size.  That would make it 36 inches wide.  I think I have enough fabric to do that, and hopefully have enough left for the binding.  Or, it may have a scrappy binding! 

The next time I do this pattern will definitely be easier!  It seems every quilt I do, I learn more.  Do you find that you do too?

This morning as I was eating my breakfast, I was perusing this magazine that I got way back in the beginning of the year.  I suddenly was inspired, and could hardly wait to get the kitchen cleaned up.  I flew into the quilt studio and started pulling fabrics, etc.  (I was also inspired by Lesley Riley's book.)  Three hours later, I had this done:

Blanche - 5 inches by 8 inches

I'm not sure how I managed this, but it came out just like I had envisioned it! 

I used a piece of fabric I dyed for the background (it was originally a white-on-white), a pre-aged piece of lace from my stash and a photo transfer of a photo from the late 1800's that I found on the internets.  (I actually found it in the archives of the library of the town where I grew up.)  I pulled out my reproduction prints to make the little patchwork.  I even *hand-quilted* that little piece before I added it to the quiltlet.      

That's not to say there wasn't a learning curve with this.  If I had it to do over, I think I'd cut the background a little smaller (I may still trim the sides on this yet), and I definitely would have trimmed the seam allowances off the little patchwork piece.  It's too uneven.  And I think the two prints I used in the patchwork are too much the same size - not enough contrast.  The pieces are so small (1 inch finished squares) that it's hard to find a fabric that is the right scale.  But I still love it!  I hope to make some more, maybe with family photos.  That would be fun.

So, even though I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing, I'm still doing!  I'm trying to resist making a little quilt like Kathleen Tracy showed on her blog.(scroll down - it's the last quilt on the post).  I love a blue and white quilt, and I love doll quilts.  And the title of her post isn't helping!  hee hee!  So, I'm trying to resist that siren call!

When I'm not sewing, I've been watching Netflix on the computer.  I've been watching Season 1 of 'Dead Like Me', which I'm enjoying more and more.  And I watched a Biography segment on the Kellogg brothers.  (think "Corn Flakes").  Last night I watched "Royal Wedding" (with Fred Astaire).  Loved it!  A classic that I had never seen.  I don't know what I'll watch tonight - there's so many choices!  I LOVE Netflix!

  

I hope everyone is having a fun, creative weekend!

Old Friends

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We had a wonderful time. We had no drama getting to and from the airport this year (last year was tons of snow and ice and much drama). Went out to a wonderful Chinese restaurant for Christmas Eve, and discovered some new yummy dishes we'd never tried.

Christmas Day we went to DS's house for the day. Had a beautiful turkey dinner prepared by my DIL and a great 3-layer chocolate cake that she made for the first time! Got to play a little with the granddaughters and their new Wii game, and did OK. (I could play for hours with that! I want one now - it was so much fun.)

After dinner, DS, DH, FIL and I went out to see the movie Avatar in 3D. It was awesome! The 3D was the best I'd ever experienced. And the special effects were incredible - and seamless. On the way home from the movie, I had a good chat with my sister. It was a wonderful day.

I managed to get into the quilt studio for a little while the other day. I'm starting a new project, but no photos yet. It's still in too many pieces! But soon....

In the meantime, here's some "old friends" that I got to revisit on my recent trip to Oregon.


Here is a challenge quilt from quite awhile ago. It lives with my friend Karen at her home in Oregon. This was a project that we collaborated on.

The challenge was posed by our quilt guild in California, probably in the late 80's or early 90's. (I'm not entirely sure anymore!) We were given a set of 5 fabrics to work with. Those are the fabrics in the top, middle and bottom trees plus the two trees that are both touching the top and middle trees, if my memory serves. They were very traditional fabrics and who would've thought that the tropical fabric in the border worked the best with them! But the colors were perfect, so that's what we went with. It sure was out of our comfort zone at that time!

We also had to figure out this pattern by ourselves. We saw a quilt done with these trees at the local quilt store, but the store was all out of that particular pattern. So we did a quick sketch, then went home and figured it out. We also discovered that even though we had the same sewing machine and the same 1/4 inch foot, we had different-sized seam allowances! Another challenge. But in the end, it came out pretty well.

Karen did all the quilting by hand, because that's her favorite part. She didn't do tons of quilting, because we had a time deadline, and we were running out of time. Of course!

Here's another "old friend" that lives with Karen in Oregon. This was a Debbie Mumm pattern that I made for Karen for her birthday one year. It's all done with fusible, and I was inspired by the veggie fabric in the border and that Karen likes to garden. It's held up pretty well - only one fabric faded enough to notice. I still like this one!

If you like antique quilts, Laura at Pine Ridge Quilter, has been showing some wonderful antique red and green quilts on her blog. They're beautiful - go check them out!

I hope to spend a little more time in the quilt studio this week, inbetween the putting away of Christmas and getting ready for my trip to Nevada this weekend. I haven't had enough sewing time this month, and I need my fix!

Crazy for Cherries

When I was young, my family used to go to the Traverse City area of northern Michigan (in the "little finger" area, for you Michiganders!) for our summer vacations. In case you don't know this, Traverse City is "The Cherry Capital". We always had a wonderful time there, and I love those memories of my family. Cherry motifs always remind me of that time and place, and so does the "Cottage" decorating look, as most of the places we stayed at were little cottages and were kind of quirky, kitschy and cottage-y. I love that look. So, this quilt is to remind me of all that.
I call this "Crazy for Cherries" and it's made out of mostly cherry fabrics. It actually started with the border fabric that I found at Daisy Kingdom in Portland a number of years ago. Then, of course, I had to collect cherry fabrics to go with it. That actually wasn't too hard to do! I think I ended up with more fabrics than what I used in the quilt!


This was a pattern in Fons & Porter's magazine called "Crazy 9-Patch". A bunch of my friends decided we'd all make quilts together, to help us all figure out how to do this. It was tons of fun, and easy to do. Of course, it helps if you can count. You're supposed to stack 9 fabrics together and then "slice and dice", shift fabrics, then sew together. I think there's lots of patterns like this out now. Anyway, I somehow got 10 fabrics stacked up. It just created more variety in those blocks, and left me with an extra block. Apparently, I did this twice, because there's 2 extra blocks on the back! Like I said, counting is a good skill in quilting!

Here's a closeup of one of the blocks, so that you can see some of those cherry fabrics. On the right is the cherry border fabric that started it all. I believe it was a Mary Engelbreit fabric.

And here's a closeup of the quilting. This is on the back of the quilt because it shows better here. My friend S~ did the long-arm quilting on this, and I'm thrilled with her work! She's an awesome, free-hand quilter!

Here's a picture of the back. I pieced together all my left-over and un-used cherry fabrics for the back. It took much longer to piece this (or at least it felt like it!) than it did to do the front! (If you look carefully, you can see the tail of the inspecting cat disappearing off to the left.)

Shade cannot resist the quilt laying on the floor. He must get under it!

Here he is, all cozy in his quilt cave.

Dunkel is intrigued with the giant lump in the quilt, and must investigate. Shade gets disgusted with him and leaves.

Dunkel is triumphant! The quilt is his!

And, here is the latest progress picture from the quilt studio. I managed to empty 3 large boxes of fabric over the long weekend! I'm getting worried. I have a lot more fat quarters than I thought I did, and I'm running out of places to put them! I have filled all the small bins and am starting on the large bins!

DH and I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie last night. I really enjoyed it! I love a rousing good adventure movie, and I love Indy Jones. I can't believe how old Harrison Ford is looking, but none of us are what we used to be! (I did miss Sean Connery though. I thought he was the best part of I.J. #3.) This movie didn't disappoint me, so I was very happy. I'd recommend this movie, if you liked the others.