An Experiment and a Field Trip

I've been busy around here, but alas, not much posting going on, in case you didn't notice. I've been working on my Liberated Amish, and am making some progress, but no pictures yet. And I'm currently stalling on working on the borders. I'm not sure why.

But, the latest issue of American Patchwork and Quilting had a wonderful Churn Dash quilt in it. (You can see the quilt here.) That block has been calling me for years. So, in the spirit of stalling on the LibAm, I decided to make a block. Or two . . . or three.


I followed the directions in the magazine for the first block, somehow not realizing that the block finishes at 8 3/4 inches. A little on the small side for a queen-size quilt, me thinks. That would involve large numbers of blocks, and I'm not sure I could focus long enough to make that many! As you can see, my block came out exactly the right size, which is a testament to the accuracy of the directions.

After some "playing" with the calculator, I came up with a couple of more sizes. So, I made another block. This one was actually the third block I made, and will finish at 10 inches. You can see that I was getting bored by this point and decided to reverse the color positioning. I like this, but I don't want my quilt to end up being this dark. Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm thinking I'll do this quilt in indigos and the tiny conversational reproductions. I've been collecting the fabric for years, and maybe it's time to use some of it. 'Cause I know this won't begin to use it all. *sigh*

Here's the second block I made. It will finish at 11 1/4 inches. A good size, but a little on the clunky/chunky side for such a simple block. It doesn't have quite the charm I have in mind.

After making 3 blocks. . .too big, too small and "just right", I was beginning to wonder if I should change my name to Goldilocks! Ha ha!

So, I think I will go with the block that finishes at 10 inches. It certainly will make the math easier for determining the size of the quilt, and I'm all for easy math.

The other day I had 20 minutes to kill before my hair appointment, so I went into the new Goodwill store here. I found this little silver tray for $3.99. It didn't look nearly this good in the store. It was pretty dark and dingy. But it actually says "silver" on the back, so I had hopes that it would clean up well. I immediately took the silver polish to it when I got home, and this is how it came out. Not too bad! You can't tell from the photo how big the tray is . . . . it's 5 1/2 inches by 9 1/2 inches. It's got a decent heft to it too. So, this little find made me happy!

Yesterday I went on a field trip with my local quilt guild. First we went to Country Village in Bothell, which is a collection of about 40 shops. You can't miss the 15 foot tall spotted chicken that stands by the driveway! They have chickens and ducks running around, and lots of beautiful gardens and flowers to enjoy. All kinds of shops too.

Of course they have a quilt shop! It's a great one too. Keepsake Cottage Fabrics.

As you come up to the entrance, you find the sale fabrics. $5 a yard.

Inside is a wonderland of fabrics, samples, books, patterns and doodahs. They've got the latest and greatest from all the fabric designers.

Here's one room with all the sewing tools and accessories you could want. Oops, I could have aimed the camera a little higher to get those great samples.

It's a big place, and I just kept discovering more rooms, full of more fabric. My head was spinning, let me tell you.

Here are the lovely ladies that helped us all with our purchases.

This place was so big, it was impossible to take it all in. I think I need another trip here! And I think DH would love to see The Country Village too. Lots of fun stuff to see and do. A number of restaurants, a train to ride, and enough shopping opportunities to last a while. And, of course, chickens!

There were some beautiful columbines out by the sale fabrics. I've never seen any this tall!

While we were there, we had lunch. There were so many of us that we ended up going to 2 different restaurants, which probably speeded up the whole process. Which was a good thing, because we didn't want to be late for our appointment here:

Oh my! We got to tour Martingale and Company, the home of the publisher of those wonderful quilt books that we all enjoy: That Patchwork Place. We got a guided tour around the offices, which had many, many quilts on display, all of which were from their books. Many different authors, and many different styles, but all marvelous! Sadly, no photography was allowed, so you'll just have to imagine this! We only got to sneak peeks at the wonderful quilts hanging in people's offices and cubicles.

After the guided tour, we were escorted to the Book Room. Oh boy, did my heart beat a little faster! A room lined with shelves full of books, all for $5!! These are all the books that are "old" (at least 6 months since publication, but some were much older), and some were seconds. Not that I saw anything wrong with them. We had a blast! I did not spend the most money, but I did come in second! (I will qualify that by saying I was buying for birthday and Christmas presents for friends and family.) One lady actually bought nothing. Amazing! Martingale will be moving in June, so they had a lot of gift-type things on sale for $1. I did manage to carry my purchases out to the car by myself, but it was tough!

After this bonanza of quilts and books, we had one last stop. We went to Bellevue to Quiltworks Northwest. This is not only a top-of-the-line quilt shop, but also a world-famous bead shop. Sorry, by this time, I was starting to drag, and I totally forgot to get out the camera. I just shopped. I actually concentrated on some beads. But I did get a little fabric. Again, it was so overwhelming, that I didn't buy much. Nothing really jumped out at me. I think this one needs a repeat visit too. (I'm sure my sister would enjoy this place!)

While I was editing the photos for this post, I noticed the Pileated Woodpeckers that visit us once in a while. We have a pair of them that stop by every couple of weeks. This is a picture of one, but I didn't take the photo. So I went to the What Bird website to learn a little something about them. While I was on the computer, Dunkel came and got up on the top of the monitor and went to sleep (he was actually snoring, but don't tell him!). At What Bird, you can listen to the bird's call to help identify it. So, I clicked on that, and when the bird started singing, Dunkel woke right up. He was quite interested, and got down and started looking behind the speaker to find the bird! So, if you have a bored cat, go check out the bird calls and amuse your cat for a bit!

Here's Shade, being a silly cat.

So, next post, I will show you some of the treasures I found on the field trip. I haven't taken any photos yet, as I'm still petting them!

Mom's Day and Liberated Progress

Isn't this a beautiful table? This was our table for the Mother-Daughter Tea we went to on Saturday. I had a wonderful time with my DIL, 2 granddaughters and my friend/DIL's mom. (yes, I'm friends with my co-grandmother! I think it's great!) The girls looked so pretty in their pink dresses, and were so well-behaved and careful. They had fun too, I hope! We all thought the tea was a pretty special event.

While we were at the tea, DH and DS went to the Open House at the private airstrip near us. DS is currently working toward getting his private pilot's license, and loved seeing all the planes on display. Then they went to the U-Fish place and caught some trout for dinner.

After the fishing and the tea, everyone came to our house and we had a BBQ. Instead of "Surf and Turf", we had "Lake and Steak"! (DH's funny take on it!) Everyone had a chance to visit, but it went by all too quickly.

On Sunday, DH made a wonderful breakfast for us, after he let me sleep in. Then I spent the rest of the day in the Quilt Studio! And DH had all day to spend in the Pottery Studio. We had leftovers for dinner, so it was easy. A wonderful Mother's Day weekend.


So, here's the progress I've made on my Liberated Amish challenge. I have the center of the quilt all put together. I've started working on my wonky letters/word. I only have two more letters to make, and then I can start putting the border togther. I'll have another opportunity for creativity with the borders, as I don't have enough of any one fabric to do the entire border.

As I was looking at the Lib Amish quilt hanging on the design wall yesterday, I thought perhaps the quilt was billowing out in the breeze from the window. But then I realized that it's the wonky 9-patches themselves that are creating an "Op Art" effect . . . . they look like they're curving. That was a fun surprise!

Retail Therapy

Spring is trying to happen around here, but Winter isn't letting go easily. This rhododendron at my sister's house is just beautiful, but the weather is still cold and blustery and rainy.

I've been doing a little retail therapy lately. Not too much at one time and not too often, but enough to keep me happy, I guess.


These fabrics were purchased at various times over the last 2 months. The fabric on the right I found on sale at one of the quilt shows I attended. I got the last on the bolt . . . around 2 yards. I'll probably use it as an inspiration fabric. The batik on the left I found on sale the other day, and it'll be the back for my first Liberated Amish quilt "Shine". And there'll be plenty leftover for other uses! The blue batik is for the back of my second Liberated Amish quilt, which isn't quite ready for a back yet. The others were "just because".

Here is a pack of indigo batik fat quarters that I found the other day. Eight fat quarters for $15. I thought that was a pretty good deal, since most batik seems to be about $10 a yard.

Here's the pack opened. I like these! These will be fun to work with.

Now all the fabric is washed and in the quilt studio, waiting to play!

This past weekend we took off again. We went down to see my sister, and to see the Oregon Potters Association's big show in Portland. My sister has been trying to get us to see this show for a few years, and things worked out that we could make it this year. It was everything she had promised us, and more! We had a blast and saw so much wonderful pottery. Very inspiring!

We managed to get out of there without buying any pottery. Frankly, it was overwhelming and I couldn't make up my mind, so I guess that meant there was nothing that HAD to come home with me. This piece came home with my sister. This is a small tray made by Ellen Currans. She impressed it with wallpaper to get that design.

However, that doesn't mean I came home empty-handed! This pottery show isn't the only show at the Oregon Convention Center. There was also the Glass makers, with gorgeous hand-made glass. There was the art metal workers, with awesome jewelry. There was also a bead show, the woodworker's show (we were too late to see that one), and then there was the weaver's guild. Yummm! There was plenty of beautiful fiber to be found there. And some of that made it's way home with me.

First, I found a little ball of yarn that I had to have. I'm not sure why, since I don't knit or crochet or anything. But I couldn't pass it up for 50 cents! And I fell in love with these rainbow coasters. They feel so good and are so bright and cheery. A good deal at 2 for $6, I think. One for the quilt studio and one for the office, maybe.

And then I found the gallon ziplock stuffed with remnants of hand-woven fabrics for $10. Oh, I had to have them! I'll never weave and I love hand-woven fabrics. The pieces are big enough for a little something, like a small coin purse or an accent on an art quilt. The pieces on the right don't really have those white areas. . . that's actual sunlight on them! (It's so strange around here to have direct light on what I'm photographing!) These feel so good to the touch. Right now I'm just enjoying looking at and touching them.

I've made more progress with my Liberated Amish quilt. I have 9 of 12 blocks constructed, so soon I can start putting it together. I'm hoping I can get to most of that this week, but we'll see.

First I have to clean house, as I'm hostessing the Mother's Day barbeque. All the girls are going to a Mother/Daughter tea, while DH and DS go fishing at the U-Fish place. Then we're having "Steak and Lake" (as oppposed to Surf and Turf) for our barbeque! I'm hoping we'll have nice weather to barbeque in.

I've been staying up waaaay too late the last few nights. My sister and I talked into the wee hours, and since I got home, I've been engrossed in a book. I read for 6 hours last night! I'm reading The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series by Greg Keyes, which is high fantasy. I had a hard time getting into it, but now I'm totally mesmerized! I finished the first book, The Briar King, and am halfway through the second book (of four), The Charnel Prince. If you like high fantasy, I think you'll like this. And thanks for the recommendation, Tonya!

If you'll excuse me now, I have some reading to do.

Busy but Stalled

I've been missing in action around these parts lately. I accompanied DH on a business trip last week to Skamania Lodge in the Columbia River Gorge. (we were there last September too - see this post) I had a wonderful vacation. . . while DH worked! All the wives that were there did some sightseeing together, and had a good time. However, I hardly touched a computer the whole week. I was just too busy. On the way home we stopped for a short overnight visit with my sister. That was fun, but way too short.

Since getting home, I've been trying to catch up on things, including sleep. We both got over-tired last week. "Too much fun", as DH says. Ha! Is there such a thing? And the kitties are very needy right now. . .they're always traumatized after a week in the kennel, especially Shade. (The lady at the kennel said she never saw him outside of his carry-crate.) So I have to spend a lot of time with them right now. And the allergies this year are really getting to me.

But I do have some things to show. I managed to get some sewing done before I left.

First is a charity quilt that I made. My guild is making quilts for seniors in wheelchairs, so the quilts don't have to be real big. My friend in CA sent me some patterns that she had gotten as free handouts from a speaker at her guild (Pat Fryer of Villa Rosa Designs), and this one was just exactly the right size. I tried to use only stash for this one (it calls for fat quarters), and did pretty good. But, I forgot to make sure I had enough for the border and the binding. I managed to use one of the fat quarters (that was really a regular quarter yard) for the border (without piecing it!), and I found something at the LQS that works great for the binding. So, this one cost me $4 and change! Woo hoo! I'll be making the back and binding, and then passing this on to someone else to quilt, as lots of the ladies in the guild have long- or mid-arms.

I made some very-belated Christmas presents for my sister. I haven't seen her since last October, so this was our first chance to exchange our presents. (We're always running a little behind) Anyway, this is the Humbug Bag. This is the largest size. I decided to use batiks, inside and out, because she loves them. I left her ribbons long so that she can add some beads to the zipper pull. These are fun. I hope you can tell from the photo that these are a fun shape and really easy to do. They're flat in one direction on one end, and flat in the other direction on the other end. Nice and roomy inside for storing things too.

This is the smaller Humbug Bag (hand included for size comparison). It fits inside the larger Humbag bag. I used some Asian-style fabric for this one, 'cuz she loves anything Asian. This one has an "antique" zipper that I found in my stash of zips. It's an "Invisible" zipper . . . can you even find these anymore?? I had a few technical problems with this (don't have the correct foot anymore), but it finally worked. I wouldn't recommend using the Invisible zipper for this again.

I made some pillowcases for my granddaughters' birthday presents. I was thrilled to find the "Brown Bear" fabric, as it had been the oldest girl's favorite book for a while. I'm not sure they were as thrilled with it as I was. I didn't use the trim piece this time, but used some rickrack instead. I think it's fun!

These pillowcases were supposed to be Christmas presents, but I couldn't make them after my accident. So, they became birthday presents instead. I had to pay attention to the fact that the designs on these fabrics ran lengthwise, so had to cut lengthwise instead of widthwise. After almost 30 years of sewing, I'm finally learning to recognize this!

When I visited my daughter in January, I discovered that she was using some potholders that were probably older than her! And they weren't very effective either. So, I had to make her some new ones. I found these garlic and mushroom fabrics on a field trip, and they were perfect as they're her favorite ingredients!

I made three potholders for her. One is the garlic with the rusty dot fabric, one is the mushrooms with the brown square-dot fabric and the last one is garlic on one side with mushrooms on the other. So, I had to show all the permutations.

Hopefully she won't be burning her fingers now!

Finally, I am slowly making progress with my Liberated Amish Challenge quilt. I've gotten all the 9-patches made. I got wonkier as I went, which was really fun.

This was a photo to help me decide which fabric to use for the alternate squares. The 9-patches are just kind of thrown up on the fabric to test the color. The final configuration will be a little different. This is a Cherrywood fabric in midnight blue. I have 2 yards of it, which would be enough if I were doing a straight set, but I think I'm going to set my blocks on point. After much painful math (never my strong suit), I've determined that 2 yards isn't enough for the center and the border. So the border will be something different. But I'm liking how this is shaping up. Now I get to play with my 9-patches and figure out my layout for them.

Hopefully this will happen soon! I've only got about a month to get this one done. Then I have a challenge quilt for my guild that needs to be done by July. Because I took a week and more off, I'm feeling behind. I went into the quilt studio last night, and couldn't even decide what to do. So all I managed to do was to trim some crumb blocks down to size. That's not even an active project. It didn't help that Studio Cat wanted to be in my face the whole time. So, I've got to get focused. Sheesh.

*The Chicken Quilts*

Due to the huge demand (tongue in cheek here), here are all the wonderful chicken quilts from the Quilter's Anonymous show in Monroe, Washington that I attended a few weeks ago. I took these pictures mainly for my daughter, who is missing her chickens (and their eggs) that she had to give up when she moved to an apartment.

My alignment in this post is all wacky. I can't get it to behave, so we'll be going back and forth from the middle to the left side apparently.

Pride Goeth Before The Fall by Elaine Colvin

I much prefer chickens on quilts or on the grill to real ones. I think the real ones are pretty, and I love eggs, but they're scary to me!

You should probably know that I'm a suburban girl, born and raised. I love cats and dogs and other pets, but have a hard time understanding livestock of any kind. I'm mostly scared of all that I've met. I love meeting them and watching them, but that's about all the interaction that I'm really comfortable with. Well, except for my daughter's milk goat. Hazel was a real sweetheart and let me pet her and feed her. I think the feeding was a big help in the "liking me" department!

At this quilt show there were fancy chickens:

A Country Journal by Linda Tellesbo

This is a pattern by Maggie Walker. After looking at her web site, I discovered she has a lot of chicken patterns, all of them beautiful. She must love chickens!

There were starry chickens:

CHIC(ken) Quilt by Cindy Shivley

My daughter kept chickens for awhile. When I visited her, she tried to get me to pet her chickens, but I declined. They didn't seem to like me too much. The roosters even tried to peck my toes (I was wearing sandals at the time). I had to carry a stick to keep them away from my toes!

There were silly chickens:

Chicken Buffet by Carolann Palmer

I did like feeding the chickens the food scraps every day. They seemed to like me better then, for some reason. But it was short-lived. Apparently, chickens have a short memory. Did you know that? It was a surprise to me.


There were dancing chickens:

Tra-La Tra-La Dancing Chickens by Leanna Olmsted

I had a run-in with a rooster at my father-in-law's place once. Everybody else was gone fishing or something, and I went out to look at the chickens who were in a big pen. One of the roosters had gotten entangled in one of the plastic things that 6-packs of soda come in. So, I decided to help the poor rooster get free. I went into the pen. That was when I learned that roosters don't really like help from humans. Especially ones that they don't know and that know nothing of the ways of roosters. I managed to get out of the pen in one piece without letting any of the chickens out, but it was touch and go for a few minutes. I really didn't care if that rooster lived or died by the time I got out of that pen! By the way, they peck really hard with their sharp beaks.


There were chickens in the cornfield:

Nine Ol' Hens by Donna Myers

I tried collecting eggs while at my daughter's. For some reason, she thought I should stick my hand into the nesting box while the chicken was in it. It was dark and I had a flashlight, but there was no way I was getting that familiar with an unknown chicken! She called me a chicken!


There were more starry chickens:

Classy Chix by Judy Irish

This is a Buggy Barn pattern.

There were funky chickens:

This wild little chicken was on a quilt, and I didn't get the name of the quilt or the maker. I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but his/her feathers on the head and tail are just strips of fabric. The legs are 3-D as well.


There were frantic chickens:

Helter Skelter Chickens by Janet Goad

I love the "fried egg" flowers on this one!


There were even more dancing chickens:

Dancing Chickens by Elaine Colvin

There were even some other birds there:

Ole Crow by Marian L. Floyd

My daughter has also raised 6 turkeys. One the first year, and 5 the next year. The first year's turkey's sibling died early on (very common, I understand) and the remaining turkey poult (baby) became bonded to my daugher. Her name was Lady Zany Wobbledy-Gobbets. Zany was a very smart turkey, and had an impressive vocabulary. She followed my daughter everywhere on the property, knew enough to peck on the sliding glass door when she was hungry, and even bonded with a pregnant mare next door to avoid the chopping block on her first Thanksgiving! I never knew turkeys could have such a personality. Oh, and she didn't like me either. And she was really scary, because she was so big! (She weighed at least 35 pounds by her second summer.)

Which brings me to the other poultry quilt in this show:

Whidbey Island Turkey by Lisa Halter


Lisa took a picture of a turkey, and then turned it into a quilt!




I hope you've enjoyed all the chicken quilts!

Quilt Show Part 2

Here are the rest of the quilt photos from the Quilter's Anonymous quilt show in Monroe, WA.

Key Lime Pie by Wendy Stone

This was done in a class with Sandy Bonsib, using her pattern. I just love the colors in this one. . . fresh and juicy!

Paws on the Road to Innovation by Leona Broers

This was one of the guild's challenge quilts. They had to use a particular fabric, and also had to re-work a traditional block pattern. I believe the challenge fabric is the red-orange in the upper right block.

Purple Passion by Linda Ostroff

This center panel is wool applique.

Convergence Quilt by Julie Robbins



Giant Poppy by Michaelinda Kaestner

There were a lot of silks in this one. . . it just glowed.

Still Open to Discussion: Shark Teeth, Dinosaur Backs or Electric Storm by Elaine Colvin

I love the title of this quilt!

Super Nova by Kathi DeJong



Christy's Bandana Agenda by Alayne Pettyjohn

Do you ever go to a quilt show, and find that you're drawn to all the quilts by one particular person? That happens often to me, now that I'm making a point of noticing the names of the artists.

This quilt show had A LOT of chicken quilts. They even had a special section for most of them. Let me know by leaving a comment if you'd like to see the chicken quilts. . . I can do another post with them if enough people are interested. Personally,I liked the chicken quilts. They had a lot of whimsical humor in them. And I really like whimsical.