COUNTRY LOG CABIN

NOT GONE TO TEXAS

2012-01-22T09:42:00.000-06:00

I can't figure out how to add pictures to this post that I'm sending from my IPhone. Our transmission went out as we were leaving Pensacola FL. Our computer also quit. After the truck was fixed,we left FL. When we got to Vicksburg, MS, the transmission went out again (Friday PM). So we are stranded at an RV park. The good thing is that I have gotten a lot of sewing done. I finished the Gone To Texas top. Hand quilted a small quilt. Pieced 53 log cabin blocks. I don't know when we will be able to go home. Thank goodness I have my sewing machine with me!!

SOME GOOD CUDDLE TIME

2012-01-14T07:45:00.000-06:00

My DIl wanted a couple throw pillows covered, so we went to A&E to get fabric. That's where we met Kim and Karen as I posted about before. Here is one of the pillows before.

And here it is after. Since the fabric was regular cotton, I used some interfacing to give it more stability and I think it helped a lot. The back opening is velcro. I like the way it turned out.

Abigail is definitely Grandpa's girl, but last night I got some good cuddles in. We had our DIL and Abigail over to the camper for supper. DS is working 4 days in a row - 12 hour shifts. After we ate, she climbed in my lap for some good cuddling. I was very happy and got DH to take a few pictures. It was a very nice evening.

Only 3 more days here and then we go home. It's good and bad.

PROGRESS REPORT AND A WIN!

2012-01-10T07:30:00.000-06:00

I have finished all of the union blocks for my Gone to Texas quilt and sewed them together. This will give me about 10 1/2" extra width for the quilt top. Next I need to work on the fill-in section that goes on the bottom of this section as well as the right panel which is mostly HSTs and squares. It's coming along!

I was the lucky winner of this kit from Taryn. It is a kit of the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle (from Temecula Quilt Co.) and the name of the quilt is Prairie Huswyfe. When finished, the quilt measures 27 3/4" x 27 3/4". Thank you so much Taryn! I will look forward to making this some time soon!

Right next to the RV park is a place that makes and sells yard statutes. They also have quite a few junk cars and 30 goats, a donkey and a rooster. We can hear the rooster crow and the donkey bray from our camper. My DIL wanted to go there to find out if they sell goats (she is thinking about raising goats when they get a place of their own). Here's Abigail with the billy goat (gruff?). I would have taken a picture of the rooster, but he was an ugly thing. He may have been in a fight with a fox (or other animal) that recently killed their other rooster and 4 chickens.

You can see some of the yard statutes in the background while Abigail beats on the "drum" statute. I'm not sure what that is supposed to be, but Abigail said it was a drum, so we'll go with that. Note: Don't argue with a 3 year old. Of course, it is made of cement.

My DIL and I plan to go to a thrift shop today that we had some good luck at last time we were here. I just might make my way over to the quilt shop again. I need to get some pink for the pink lemonade shoo-fly quilt. Hope you have a quilty day!

FIXED!

2012-01-07T05:42:00.000-06:00

MORE BLOCKS AND GRAPEFRUIT

2012-01-06T07:24:00.001-06:00

I have finished all the union blocks for my Gone to Texas quilt and plan to start sewing them together soon.

In the mean time, Lori at Humble Quilts has started a quilt along. Anyone who wants to can follow along to make the replica of an antique quilt. Here are the first 6 blocks. It's a small quilt, so it won't take too long. Thanks, Lori! Since I didn't bring a lot of fabric along with me, I just barely had enough pink for these 6 blocks (which measure 5"). I think I'll go back to the quilt shop and get some more pink.

Some friends of my DS/DIL called to say they could go and pick grapefruit from their tree. It was just loaded with them!

DS put a fish net on the end of his golf ball retriever and was able to reach grapefruit high up in the tree. It worked like a charm!

Here is some of what we picked. I took some to the camper and squeezed several of them for juice. I love grapefruit juice!!! Delicious!!

Abigail is sitting on her new Dora couch playing with one of her dolls. She doesn't like to pose for pictures, so these are candid shots.

Feeding her baby.

Not counting the cold night a couple nights ago, the weather has been beautiful. It was around 70 degrees yesterday and it's supposed to be 67 today!

CHANCE MEETING

2012-01-05T07:37:00.000-06:00

Over the three years that I have been blogging I have followed many blogs, left comments and even emailed the bloggers. Two of these bloggers are from the Pensacola, FL area and I believe they have even blogged about a certain quilt shop. Yesterday, I went to this shop (A & E) with my DIL to pick out some fabric for a quilt I am making for her, and I spotted someone who I thought might be Karen from Nana Girl Quilts. I had seen her picture on her blog and her hair is beautiful! When I saw the hair (from the back), I had to go and find out if it was her. (In fact, I did a walk by first so I could see her face). So I asked her, "Are you Nana Girl?" She said, "Yes, who are you?" So I told her I was Country Log Cabin. My name is Ruth - actually, I go by my middle name for my blog. She was with Kim Brackett of Magnolia Bay Quilts, who I started following first. Kim has published several quilting books. What are the odds of meeting two other bloggers by chance? Even if you know they live in this area and frequent this shop? It made my day!! Thanks for letting me take your picture on the spur of the moment! It was great meeting both of you!

Back to reality now. I have been working on my Gone to Texas quilt and I am going to make it bigger than the pattern in the book. Click here to see the original post I did about it. I have been working on it quite a while and have several posts about it. I decided to add another row of the Union block, which will make it 10 1/2" wider. I will probably also add more border to it to get it to the size I want.

Here are some blocks that I have just finished. I had 4 that I needed to finish, and then with adding 6 more, I had a total of 10 make. I'm just about finished with those 10 and I will move on to some of the border panels.

This is the table in our camper with my Featherweight set up to sew.

I'm working on HSTs and flying geese now for the last 2 Union blocks. Since I get up early every morning, I have time to sew before we do anything else.

Today we're going out to eat for an early celebration of DH's 70th birthday because we won't be here for the actual day.

I decided today to tell you why I decided to use my middle name when I started my blog. At the time I was working for a U. S. Magistrate Judge at the U. S. District Court. I really didn't want anyone that might google my name to bring up the blog and learn more about my personal information. I didn't know if anyone would google my name, but I did have someone in prison get a hold of my home phone number once and call me collect, and since I worked for a judge, some people might not be too happy about what happened in court, etc. You get the picture. I know when I reply to comments, my first name (Gladys) is sometimes on the email, so that is why.

The night before last it was 24 degrees here in NW Florida. At about 3:30 AM, our heater went off and we thought we were out of propane. We put on extra sweat pants, sweat shirts, socks, etc., cuddled under the quilts and tried to sleep a few more hours. When DH checked the tanks, one was empty and one was full!! This is the second time this has happened and it seems there is a problem with the propane line, so we need to get this fixed ASAP. At least we know now what is happening. BRRRRR!

Happy quilting! Thanks for visiting.

ABIGAIL'S TURN WITH GRANDMA & GRANDPA

2012-01-02T14:57:00.000-06:00

Last Tuesday we arrived in Florida just in time for Abigail's 3rd birthday! With her birthday so close to Christmas, it gets confusing for a little girl. She's going to have to wait a long time for another birthday and Christmas. Today she and her Daddy came to the camper for lunch so Mommy could take down their Christmas decorations without someone being upset. :-)

Here she is hiding under the table.

She's even cute with hair hanging in her face!

I am spending a little time every day doing some sewing and I have a counter top in my kitchen that is perfect for cutting fabric and ironing blocks.

Below is a picture of the two wall hanging/stitcheries that I received from other bloggers. The Texas shaped WH was received from Love recently and I blogged about it. The one on the right, I received over a year ago from Liri along with the block swap that I participated in. They are perfect for the camper and both feature the state we are from. Thanks, Love & Liri!!

Thanks, everyone for your sweet comment on my past posts. I haven't been able to respond to everyone, but want you all to know that I really appreciate your visit. I hope you all have a very Happy New Year!

Christmas Day and Cute Grandsons

2011-12-26T06:21:00.001-06:00

On Christmas Eve, DS and I made lefse, a Norwegian potato pancake, which is a Christmas tradition for us. I rolled them out and he cooked them. Yum Yum!!

The stockings are filled and presents ready under the tree.

Eli's shirt says he's been a good boy all year!

Christmas breakfast before opening presents.

Eli in the shirt I made for him. It's kind of big for him, but that's OK.

Eli and me. What a sweetie!

Jonah is passing out the gifts.

How many new toys can a boy play with???

Jonah wearing the pilot's hat from his uncle and the shirt I made for him.

We had a wonderful time and we'll be sad to go. DS will be deployed in about 2 weeks. Today we move on to Florida so we can be with Abigail for her birthday! More excitement!

JONAH APPROVES OF NEW CAMPER!

2011-12-20T20:37:00.000-06:00

Civil War Block from Saturday.

Eli playing with toys from the toy box in the new camper (5th wheel). There's a cabinet under the refrigerator where a box fits perfectly. I filled it with some books and toys for the grandkids.

Jonah was very happy with our new camper! The cabinets above the table are filled with my sewing supplies and fabric.

He wanted me to take his picture, but then he would hide his face!

I'm using my little HST quilt on my bedside table in the camper. I'm going to make one for DH's side too, but I think it will be 1" squares.

This counter top is perfect for doing my rotary cutting and ironing seams.

We have a little Christmas tree by the kitchen sink.

We can't believe there is so much storage. Even with all the Christmas presents we packed, there is still more room.

Thanks for everyone's nice comments. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

ALMOST READY

2011-12-15T06:02:00.001-06:00

Almost ready for Christmas! All shopping is done, presents are mailed or ready to take with us and most baking is finished. I still need to make spritz cookies - the favorites.

Here is Jonah's shirt. Since his Mommy and Daddy are both pilots, he needs a shirt with airplanes on it. We'll be with them for several days before and for Christmas day and then will go to DS#2/DIL's for Abigail's 3rd birthday and to spend some time with them.

I quilted the little HST quilt with clamshells. I found it very hard to stay on the lines! I think that's one big reason why I like free motion quilting best. I originally saw this little quilt here and it was made by and sent to her from Kathie at Inspired by Antique Quilts.

You can see the quilting lines better on this one.

Don't work too hard getting ready for Christmas!

ALMOST LOST IT!

2011-12-11T08:55:00.000-06:00

Thursday morning, I was checking a few blogs and when I went to leave a comment on someone's blog, all of a sudden a message came up saying that my blog had been disabled due to a perceived violation! I was shocked !! I looked at their terms of service and didn't see that I had done anything wrong. I was really upset, especially since I had not printed out any of it (and I knew someone would say, "I told you so!" - you know who you are - Hee Hee). So I sent them an email and hoped I would get a response. Well, I never did get a response, but on Friday morning I went to try to open it and ..... it opened! I was so relieved!

It's not just that I lost my blog, but all the blogs that I have saved in google reader were gone and I would miss out on a lot of them, because I wouldn't be able to remember all of the names. I thought, well, maybe I should just quit - it takes up a lot of my time, etc. But, I really didn't want to do that. I have learned so much from other bloggers and gotten so much inspiration. So, I think I will start printing out my blog (unless I decided to get a book from Blog2print).

I finished the donation string quilt for a teenage boy! Yea! I'll turn it in to my guild tomorrow night at our Christmas pot luck.

Here are the last four civil war blocks. I'm all up to date on these and only three more to go. I'm glad I stuck with it all year. The hard part will figuring out how I want to set the blocks and finishing it.

We are just about ready for Christmas and looking forward to spending it with DS/DIL and of course, Eli and Jonah! I hope you are just about ready too!

ELI'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!

2011-12-07T06:29:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend we went to Eli's first birthday party! I helped my DIL make the giraffe cupcakes (see picture below). He is such a little cutie and he enjoyed his party. He's taking a few steps at a time now and seems real pleased with himself!

These are some of the giraffe cupcakes! Quite a production to make, but they tasted very good.

DH had some quality time with Jonah. He is getting so grown up now - 3 1/2 years old!

Last week I finished a couple more outfits for Abigail's doll. Here she is in her play outfit - overalls and a shirt.

I put the ladybug buttons that I won on her overalls.

Here she is ready for bed in her new nightgown.

It was so much fun making the doll clothes. And our short trip for Eli's party was wonderful! It rained all day on Sunday, but didn't dampen our spirits. That evening we put ornaments on their Christmas tree. We'll be going back there for Christmas, but are home now for a couple weeks. I need to do a little more shopping and get some packages in the mail. Plus bake some cookies, etc. etc.

MY GRANDMA'S BUTTONHOLE SCISSORS, and Christmas Sewing

2011-11-30T09:08:00.000-06:00

A couple years ago when I was visiting one of my cousins, she showed me Grandma's sewing cabinet that she has, and in the drawers were a lot of Grandma's sewing supplies. She said I could have something from the cabinet, so I picked these buttonhole scissors, which I remember seeing my Grandma use. I blogged about them once before.

A couple days ago I was getting ready to put in some buttonholes, so it made me think of these scissors.

I made a test buttonhole first.

Then I tried the buttonhole scissors to cut it open - and it worked great! Of course, when my Grandma used them, she didn't have a sewing machine that made buttonholes with the push of a button, so she would cut the buttonhole and then by hand using the buttonhole stitch, she would sew around it.

Here I am cutting open a buttonhole on Eli's shirt.

I got this "wheel" fabric somewhere in Montana last summer and decided to make Eli a shirt out of it. Hope it fits. It will probably be too big, which is OK.

We bought Abigail an 18" doll for Christmas and we heard she wanted one with long hair, because she likes to comb hair.

This doll was cute and I think the hair is long enough. When we were looking for dolls, the Disney dolls didn't have eyes that opened or closed (and they cost more). So I was looking for a doll with eyes that could close and she had to have long hair.

I didn't really like her clothes too much, so I made her a fancy dress. Next, I will make her some play clothes - overalls and a shirt.

I'm having fun! I loved to play with dolls when I was a girl and my Mom used to make doll clothes for them, so it kind of takes me back to my childhood. Are you getting ready for Christmas?

GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS

2011-11-27T06:08:00.006-06:00

Starting to, that is. I have done some shopping. This week I finished Eli's Christmas stocking! Yea! I put out a few Christmas decorations, including some wall hangings. We won't be home for Christmas as we are going to be visiting 2 DSs and their families for Christmas and birthdays. Eli is turning one and Abigail will turn three right after Christmas. I have a little Christmas tree that I'm going to take in the camper, plus a couple other little decorations.

Not long ago I saw this little quilt on someone's blog and now I can't remember which blog it was - sorry! Correction: I saw the quilt here and Kathie from Inspired by Antique Quilts had made it. Anyway, I couldn't resist making it. The HSTs finish at 2". Yesterday I basted this, plus another small quilt and also put together and basted the teen-age boy donation quilt. I want to get it finished before we leave and I quilted about 1/3 of it.

I love to browse through antique shops and last week in Glen Rose, TX, I found a few little items.
An old wood box, a tea towel and a potholder.

The linen tea towel has a name sewn onto it - Mrs. W A. Perryman. I love the unusual design. I wonder how old it is.

I HAD to buy this potholder as it is exactly like the ones my grandma used to make, except she didn't make the scalloped edge.

In the mornings I go for a walk down to the pond that is about 3/4 mile from our house, I walk around the pond and then to home. This pictures shows some of our fall color. It's not as good as up north, but we love it anyway. There are usually ducks swimming in the pond and sometimes a heron.

Thanks for visiting!

BOOK REVIEW AND SPECIAL GIFT

2011-11-23T13:45:00.000-06:00

Valley of Dreams by Lauraine Snelling

Valley of Dreams is the first of a series. I don’t know how many books will be in the series, however. I enjoyed this book immensely, but the end kind of left me hanging. While the story did reach a conclusion, it wasn’t a very complete conclusion. Cassie grew up in the Wild West Show in which her parents were partners. After they died, the remaining partner couldn’t manage it very well and it closed down, leaving Cassie literally out in the cold. Along with two good friends from the show, she takes off looking for the valley that her father dreamed about settling in. The story takes you on their search from North to South Dakota as they camp in the wilderness and hunt for their food. Cassie discovers some interesting papers hidden in the Wild West Show’s wagon in which she is traveling. I plan to look for the next book in the series and recommend the book to you as well. If you are interested in reviewing books for Bethany House Publishers, go to their website and sign up here.

I received this amazing gift from Love recently and I plan to hang it in the new camper. Since I won't be able to take a picture of it in the camper for a while I decided I needed to post some close up pictures of it now. This is a crazy quilt of the State of Texas and is wonderfully detailed. Check out the following pictures of some of the sections.

Western Texas....

Southern Texas....

The Panhandle....

Northeastern Texas....

I can't wait to hang it in the camper and when I do, I will post a picture of it on the wall. I have an idea of where I might put it.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Thanks for visiting!

A PILLOW AND OUR NEW CAMPER

2011-11-19T14:31:00.000-06:00

Last summer when we were in Pennsylvania, I went to a small cross stitch shop looking for something for our new GS's Christmas stocking. Instead I found a small cross stitch pattern with a log cabin on it. I decided to make it for me and I finished stitching it last year. Finally I got it made into a pillow. The first picture is kind of dark but I think you can read the verse a little better - one word is light and doesn't show up very well in the second picture.

I made it into a pillow and it measures 12x12". This picture shows up the HSTs a little better. The fabric is red and green with pine branches on them.

We got a new camper and went camping in it so we could figure out how everything works and get anything adjusted before we take it on a longer trip. We just went an hour and a half away to the town of Glen Rose, TX. While we were camping I had some time to sew and I finished the cross stitching for Eli's Christmas stocking. Yea!! The stitches are tiny - 24 to an inch. I don't think I'll do that again!! Now I just have to make the stocking to put it on.

Here's our new (to us) camper! It is a 29' fifth wheel and compared to our old camper, it is huge! It is easy to unhook and hook up the truck so we can take side trips without taking the camper along.

Here is the bedroom with my new camping pillowcases and new homespun curtains that I made.

Little closer look at the curtains.

We can't believe how much storage space the camper has. Plenty or room for my sewing supplies, sewing machine and anything else we want to bring. It has a TV with a DVD player and a radio/CD player. We love it and can't wait for Jonah to see it. I hope he likes it as much as our other camper.

A FEW THINGS ACCOMPLISHED

2011-11-14T12:00:00.000-06:00

This weekend I caught up on the Civil War blocks by making the last two of them.

I finally got enough string blocks to make a teenage boy's quilt for donation to the children's hospital. Now I just need to remove the paper from the back, sew them together, quilt and bind. I wonder when I will get it finished.

You will notice there are no feminine things in these blocks. I had to dig deep to find more masculine fabric. Uh Oh, I just saw a couple little flowers in the cow's mouths. Hopefully, they will not be too noticeable.

Leaves are allowed, but not flowers (my GS let me know these things).

Here's the phone book paper on the back of one. There are 63 8" blocks and the quilt will be 7 blocks wide by 9 blocks long.

I hope these fabrics will pass as masculine enough. Hee Hee! No pink or purple will be in this quilt. Stars and golf bags are permissible. Swirls are permissible. There might be a couple tiny flowers on a block or two, but they are so miniscule as to not be noticeable, I hope.

This morning I got a pillow ready for binding and I'll show you that later. No picture yet. These pictures are taken with my iPhone, and are OK but seem darker than pictures taken with our old camera. Have a good week, everyone!

THE MERCY AND SOME SEWING

2011-11-10T07:55:00.000-06:00

The Mercy by Beverly Lewis

‘Tis a gift to be simple. The Amish people have always fascinated me and I loved this book, which is book 3 of The Rose Trilogy. Unfortunately, I hadn’t read the first two books, but that didn’t really matter as this book stands on it’s own and enough information was given about past events to be able to understand what is going on with the characters. Rose is the main character, a devout Amish young woman, who feels she might end up never marrying. The Amish usually marry in their late teens and she must be around 20 to 21. She is happy living on the family farm with her parents and grandparents and she handles a lot of the household chores as her mother is paralyzed from the waist down due to a buggy accident. Eventually, her brother and sister-in-law introduce her to a nice eligible Amish man who lives five miles from her and they start going out on buggy rides. She wants to stay true to her Amish beliefs and is unhappy when she finds out that her boyfriend is enjoying some worldly pleasures such as owning a car. Rose and her family go through many trials and tribulations during the course of this book. The simple life can become as complicated as the life of the English people. The story comes together nicely and I don’t want to give it away, so I will just recommend this book to you. I received this book from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for writing a review.

Sunday morning we discovered that someone had smashed out the driver's side window of our truck and stolen a tool box and our camera. What a bum deal! At first we didn't realize that our camera had been in the truck also, but it dawned on us the next day. So, I scanned these pictures.

We have been busy looking for a 5th wheel camper and Monday we found one! Yesterday, we picked it up. In the mean time, I decided it was about time I used this camping fabric (which I bought in California in June) and I made new pillowcases for our new (to us) 5th wheel.

I had found a piece of some other camping fabric, so I am making a table topper with the camping fabric in the center. I scanned it below so you can see what the fabric, corners and borders look like.

You can see 2/3 of this little item. It is a toilet tank topper! I made one of these for my bathroom earlier this year and now I made this one for the guest bathroom, which is decorated in a patriotic theme.

I also made several other sawtooth stars - they and the ones above measure 4" from point to point. I love these stars.

Today will be another busy day. We're going to take a bunch of stuff out to our new camper and try to figure out what other things we might need. I plan to make new curtains for the bedroom. The colors in the camper are grey and beige, so I need to look at my stash to see what I can come up with for curtains. Maybe something with a little color to it! We want to give it a test run next week for a few days. I can't wait to see Jonah's reaction when we take it to his house!

BOOK REVIEW AND A WIN

2011-11-03T06:13:00.000-05:00

This book is the second in a series about homicide detective Roland March and takes place in Houston, Texas. It begins with the murder of a young woman who was stabbed to death and then grotesquely stabbed after death. The murder scene is similar to another murder that Roland March solved and he feels that it might be a copy cat murder. He believes the murderer might have read the book written about the first murder. Roland March has problems of his own to deal with as well: getting along with his co-workers and adjusting to his wife’s conversion to Christianity. His integrity is being questioned as well as his methods in solving the first murder. This was a book that was hard to put down and I will look forward to other books in this series. I enjoy mysteries and if you read books written by John Lescroart, I’m sure you will like this one also. I received this book from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for writing a review.

I won these lady bug buttons from Barb. The buttons are made in South Africa and you can learn more about them at Button Mad. The making of the buttons helps to employ women in that country. Thanks, to the people at Button Mad and Barb!

This is the latest Civil War Block, number 44, Union. We're getting near the end! Then what will I do with these 52 blocks! I'll have to figure out a setting, which isn't my favorite job, but I will want it to be at least queen size. Barbara Brackman suggests making 4 extra blocks for a total of 56 and lay them out 8 by 7. With sashing and border that might come out to large enough.

Happy quilting!

A DAY AT LOVE'S

2011-10-30T06:06:00.000-05:00

Jennifer and I arrived at Love's promptly around 9:00 AM yesterday morning. We wanted to be sure we had plenty of time for sewing. Of course, first we had to have a morning snack. Love had extra tables set up for us in her sun room. It's a lovely room with large windows to her back yard which has lots of roses, birds and squirrels to watch. We ate at the table in the sun room (behind Jennifer).

Jennifer worked on her son's halloween costume first and then proceeded to start a nine-patch baby quilt. Actually, it was a disappearing nine patch. A neat pattern! She finished that top and also put together 2 halloween quilt tops for her kids.

I worked on my "Gone to Texas" quilt. Of course, I brought my Featherweight machine to sew on. It is so easy to carry around and sews like a dream. Love continued to work on lap quilts for the nursing home that her church plans to give for Christmas. She is a little camera shy, so I don't have a picture of her.

For lunch, Love had homemade soup, salad, cornbread and brownies for dessert. We also had cookies that Jennifer brought. I was stuffed! Oh, and BTW, Love keeps a stock of chocolate at her house too! I was pretty good about keeping that to a minimum.

It amazes me that 3 women meeting by blogging, different ages and situations, get along so well. We talked the whole day. Quilting is a wonderful hobby! Thanks, Love! BTW, I didn't see one dust bunny or spider web while we were there, so I think she went to too much work cleaning for us.

Below is the assignment from my Jo Morton Class. I put it up on my design wall to see if I liked the fabrics and I do. Only the nine little (3") blocks are sewn together. It will also get a border.

Thanks for visiting! Hope you are having a great weekend. The weather here is wonderful! 40's at night and 70's during the day.

FINISHED FALL QUILT JUST IN TIME!!

2011-10-27T15:46:00.000-05:00

First, last Saturday's civil war block #43 is finished. It is named the Right Hand of Friendship.

I'm a much happier camper now that I replaced the batting in the fall flannel quilt with Mountain Mist Cream Rose batting. Also, while trying to decide how to quilt it, I went to Sally Terry's site and found my solution! Her book "Hooked on Feathers" has been recommended and while I didn't want to do feathers on this quilt, I wanted to see if she had any tutorials on her web site. I clicked around for a while and came to a downloadable PDF file on "Terry Twist Squares" which proved to be my answer! It's perfect for 9-patches! If anyone wants to see the PDF file, when you open her web site, scroll down and click on the hyperlink that says, "Take up extra fabric with stencils video" and when you get to that page, scroll down to where it says, "Click here for downloadable PDF file." You can see what it looks like in the close up picture of some of the blocks. It went quite fast and easy!

Saturday, Jennifer and I will be meeting at Love's home for a day of sewing! We are really looking forward to it and I will post some pictures of our day (if I remember the camera)! Hope you have a productive sewing weekend also!

A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

2011-10-23T16:15:00.000-05:00

It was a lovely day in North Texas yesterday and I spent part of it at a state park with my quilting guild. We were demonstrating the art of quilting at the Harvest Fest taking place at Penn Farm, which was the home of some of the first settlers in this area. The historical museum people were there also with their covered wagon.

Our guild and the LQS are helping the historical society by making this quilt, which is a replica of one made around 1857. The names of the first settlers of Cedar Hill are embroidered around the edge of the quilt. We had it set up at the farm to demonstrate hand quilting. It's actually the first time I have every quilted on a frame like that. It was kind of fun!

Here's a picture of our booth. We were also selling tickets to a raffle quilt - hanging on the right side.

I also did some hand quilting on a doll quilt I'm making for Abigail. It's made with leftover fabric from a quilt I made my DS & DIL I love the delicate polka dot with flowers fabric.

Last June I won a giveaway from Kathleen and I showed you the fabric. Finally, this week, I decided I better do something with it as it is fall fabric. I wasn't sure what to do, so I looked through some magazines. Nothing that would work, except I did see one with large 9-patches, so I decided to do that. I wasn't sure how big it would turn out, but I just started cutting and making 12" 9-patches. I had 7 FQs and one yard of fabric to work with. I was saving the yard for the border, so when I used up all the FQs (except for some leftover strips), I had 8 blocks and I needed one more to make a square lap quilt. What to do??? Then I got some inspiration and decided to make 4 six inch strip blocks and put them in the middle for the 9th block. One FQ went for the inner border and the yardage is for the outer border and hopefully enough for the binding.

Then I went to JoAnn's and got some flannel for the backing. I had it all sandwiched together and started quilting, but just wasn't happy with the batting at all (it was too thick), so I ripped out the quilting I had done (only about 12" square) and today I will put in some lighter batting that I think will work much better.

Thanks for visiting! Have a good week!

BUSY, BUT CAN'T SHARE MUCH

2011-10-19T16:48:00.000-05:00

I have been very busy, but can't share many pictures. Last year I made this pumpkin pin cushion and have it sitting on a little shelf in the hall outside my sewing "studio."

I finished the last two Civil War blocks. This was a nice easy one. It's an H for Hospital. During the civil war the Hospital flag was yellow and green.

I decided to hand piece this star and it went together pretty easily.

First thing in the morning, I have been stitching strip blocks for donation quilts. The pile on the left is for girls and the pile on the right is for boys. I decided to concentrate on the boys blocks now, because there are never enough quilts for teen aged boys (for the hospital that we donate to). So, I'm squeezing some of these in and will try to get one finished next month.

Happy quilting, everyone!

MANSFIELD PARK FINISHED

2011-10-12T05:38:00.000-05:00

I never had any desire to make a basket quilt until I saw this one displayed at a booth and I bought the pattern right away. I don't remember how long ago it was, but it took me a while to start making it. I am very happy with it. Monday night I took it to my guild meeting for show and tell and had very positive comments!

Sunday morning we were home and our next door neighbor came over to tell us that the tranformer behind our two houses was on fire! We had a storm during the night and our electricity had been off for several hours, but came on about 8:30. Then it went off again about 10:30 and that's when the neighbor came over. If you look closely, you can see the yellow/orange flame on the top part.

The fire department came out, but they didn't do anything

You can see a little yellow on this picture.

The fire department leaving. You might be able to see that it had been raining. We got quite a bit, which was wonderful! It's raining again this morning.

Thanks for all your sweet comments on my last post! It means a lot to me.

Mansfield Park Almost Finished

2011-10-08T20:10:00.000-05:00

I started the Mansfield Park quilt over a year ago and it is almost finished! Woo Hoo!

I'm finishing up the free motion quilting. I'm not entering it in any show. This is my first quilt larger than a twin size where I have done the quilting myself. Luckily, the actual quilting doesn't show up a lot because it sure isn't perfect!

I quilted it in two pieces because it would have been too big to quilt in one piece. It measures 82" x 96".
Here it is laid out on a larger bed with the two halves lined up.

I sewed the two sections together and then placed it on a table with the top side down so I could prepare to join the back sections.

I trimmed the batting so each side would butt up against each other.

Then I folded the backing in preparation for hand stitching it together. I finished that and then quilted the section in the middle where the quilt was joined. Tomorrow I'm going to bind it and I will post a picture of the whole quilt when I'm finished. Monday night is my guild meeting, so it will be finished for that.

In my September 4 post, I told about a giveaway of a wool applique pumpkin that I won from JoAnn . Well, Here it is finished and hanging on my china cabinet. He's kind of prim!

His wonky smile is funny! I don't have many fall decorations, so he can join what I do have.

Thanks for visiting! Enjoy your weekend.

Civil War Blocks and New Idea

2011-10-02T18:52:00.000-05:00

This week's and last week's Civil War Blocks. I'm all up to date!

Civil War Block #40, Order Number Eleven

Civil War Block #39, Hovering Hawks

I saw this pincushion on someone's blog, but unfortunately, it got closed before I was able to save it. I love ticking and have a button collection, was wondering how I could use this triangular button, so this was perfect! I stuffed it with crushed walnut shells (I bought a bag several months ago and still have a bucket full).

I made a quilt from a panel and quilted it with cinnamon bun swirls.

This is going to be a table runner

While I was reading blogs, I saw part of a quilt that the blogger was working on (again, I can't remember which blog - my bad) and found out it was in this book, Country Paths, by Jan Patek (which was on sale during September). I have been looking for quite a while for a quilt with large applique and piecing in the more rustic style.

This is the quilt that I fell in love with - Oak Leaves and Turkey Feathers. The only draw back is the size of 78" x 78", which isn't large enough for a double bed. I would probably want to make it at least queen size.

Oak Leaves and Turkey Feathers

Before I can start on this, I have at least three quilts (or more) to finish - or at least to the flimsy stage! In the mean time, I can start looking through my stash to see if I have any fabric that I can use and what I might need to buy.

It was 52 degrees this morning! Yea!!!

A WITCH, DOLL QUILT and 2 BAGS

2011-09-28T15:00:00.022-05:00

While digging around in my fabric closed, I came across a panel for making a witch that I had gotten at a garage sale in the past. Since it is almost Halloween, I decided to make it. Here she is sitting on our TV cabinet in the living room.

I'm also making some things to sell at a craft show and I had a bunch of fabric left over from a quilt I had made with lots of HSTs already done, so I made this pinwheel doll quilt.

I quilted feathers in the border which can barely be seen, but this morning when I placed it on my ironing board in the sun, they showed up pretty good.

Today I'm going to a retirement party for two of my very good friends from work. I decided to make them each a bag as a retirement gift.

The buttons are sewn on in the shape of Texas. I hope they like their bags! The pattern is named "The Texas Tote" and is from Serendipity Gifts.

MY GRANDMA'S WEDDING DRESS

2011-09-22T05:13:00.000-05:00

When I was at my sister's in Illinois, I decided to bring my grandmother's wedding dress home with me (with my sister's and cousin's approval). Previously, they had taken the dress to the historic village (Farming of Yesteryear) near Kiester, Minnesota for them to display at the church (Lime Creek Church) where my grandparents got married. However, they had so many dresses, that it really wasn't going to be displayed and they didn't really want it. It was then decided to bring it back to the family so we could keep it. I plan to keep it for a while and will probably give it to my GD when she is able to take it. She is 20 now and I think she will treasure it as I have.

It's a two piece dress made of satin and the fabric is in really good shape for it's age. The neckline is somewhat frayed, but that is all. My grandma was from a family of 13 children. She was the second child and the oldest daughter. My great-grandfather owned over 1,000 acres in Freeborn County, MN and also served as a member of the MN House of Representatives.

Trim on Sleeve

Collar

Trim on Shoulder

Albert and Ingeborg Monson, married July 1, 1899 at Lime Creek Church, Freeborn County, MN

Civil War Block #38, Ohio Star

Ten Minute Table Runner

I think the table runner took more than 10 minutes because of adding buttons and decorative stitching along the line under the buttons. I made this with Moda's Countdown to Christmas fabric that I bought at the quilt shop Beth works at in Arlington Heights, IL. She helped me pick it out. I think I'll make some other ones with my stash!

OUT OF BUSINESS?!?

2011-09-15T06:34:00.000-05:00

I needed some buttons and rick rack for a few projects, so I decided to go to my favorite button store. It's an outlet store that has been in my town forever (well, at least 29 years, which is how long we've lived here). It has buttons, zipper, rick rack, fabric, lace, etc. on one side and clothing on the other side.

When I got there, it looked strange. Not as much stuff was there. Then I asked another customer what was going on and she told me the bad news - they are going out of business! All buttons were 2 cents and everything else was 80% off! 9" zippers are normally 35 cents, which means they were only 7 cents! Rick rack is normally 10-15 cents per yard. You do the math. Unfortunately, the sale had been going on for a couple months already and we weren't here, so I had no idea, and the selection wasn't that good, but I managed to get 55 yards of rick rack for $1.15!!!! 32 zippers for $1.92!!! And 214 buttons for $4.28. Do you think I did good? I think I'll go back and see if there are any other things I can use...

You never know when you might need a purple zipper, or some buttons, do you?

On my trip I bought a pattern that I showed you here. The skirt on this little dress is a towel and the top part hangs on your oven door.

Then I remembered some other blocks that I made while in Oregon. These Ohio Stars are made out of men's shirts that I bought at garage sales. I have made 12 of them so far and plan to make them into a quilt for teen aged boys that are in the Children's Hospital. I've got plenty of shirts to work with - don't know when I will get it made.

Texas has now broken the all time heat record and we were "lucky" enough to experience it! 107 on September 13! Plus the most 100 degree days in a year (we weren't lucky enough to get in on all those days). Hee Hee!

A PRINCESS AND 2 FINISHES

2011-09-12T11:31:00.000-05:00

Is this a cute princess or what? She is starting to play dress up already at 2 1/2!

Here's the latest civil war block finished!

While on our trip I was piecing as much as I could. I made this little doll quilt and finished it this weekend. I love the border fabric!

I rarely buy kits, but this one was on sale and I liked the fabric. It will be gifted to my SIL/BIL.

Thanks for visiting!

CATCHING UP WITH MY CIVIL WAR BLOCKS

2011-09-10T15:45:00.000-05:00

Except for today's, that is. I wasn't able to keep up with the blocks because I didn't have enough reproduction fabrics with me. Now that I've had some time to get organized, I decided to work on them today. The current block's PDF file didn't come out at the right size, so I'm going to check Lillian's Cupboard blog to see what recommendations she has on cutting the pieces.

Some of these were finished already, but I hadn't posted them before. Others, like the one with the appliqued star, was done except for the star, which I applied today.

I'm very happy with the last one, named the Indiana Puzzle. I haven't done much curved piecing up till now.

I'll have some small finishes to show soon.

CATCHING UP

2011-09-08T10:40:00.001-05:00

I'm still working on getting all the "stuff" from our trip put away. Here are a few patterns that I bought at various quilt shops along the way. This "June Bugs" pattern is so cute and the dragonfly caught my eye because my GD in OR loves them.

I got this little "Cash and Carry" purse pattern at Quilters Destination in Arlington Heights, IL where Beth works. I made one of them for my sister while at her house, but didn't take a picture of it.

This pattern caught my eye at a quilt shop we visited in South Dakota (I think). The larger dress is a kitchen towel that you can hang on the oven handle and the smaller dress is a vintage style clothespin bag.

While on the trip I blogged about making blocks for the "Gone to Texas" quilt and I managed to get some of them put together. I haven't ironed them after unpacking, but you can get some idea of what it will look like. Lots of different fabrics in this!

This fabric was a garage sale purchase - 4 yards of this fabric from Africa cost me $1.00! I thought maybe I could use it for a backing someday. We'll see. It's kind of wild!

I was anxious to finish quilting my basket quilt, but when I started working on it yesterday I was having problems with my sewing machine. The stitches kept skipping when I went over a seam. I cleaned it, changed the needle twice and it still skipped. I was fit to be tied.

I went to Leah Day's blog to see if I could find out what kind of sewing machine she uses. She has a video of her explaining about her new Janome. It looks wonderful and I think I would like to get one some day, however, what do I do right now? As she was explaining, she said that she never lowers the feed dogs because the tension is better when they are not lowered. So, this morning I set up my machine to quilt and left my feed dogs up. I also used one of those Sew Slip sheets that is supposed to make it easier to move your quilt around (I usually don't use it because I didn't think it made much difference), and what do you know, it worked. No more skipped stitches!!! I am so relieved! So, now I know what I will be doing for the next few days.

Thanks for visiting! Happy September! I love fall.

FINALLY HOME!!

2011-09-04T15:58:00.000-05:00

We finally arrived at home on 9/1/11 after being gone for 109 days! We had a wonderful trip, saw lots of wonderful sites, visited family and attended my 50 year high school reunion. We packed a lot into those days and travelled thousands of miles. But, it is so good to be home and sleeping in our king size bed!! I had to show you some more pictures of Jonah and Eli.

Jonah and Eli heading for the first day of Mother's Day Out

Mommy, Eli and Jonah at the church

Eli with his new teacher!

DS#3, Jonah, Grandpa & Eli

While visiting my SIL in eastern Oregon a couple years ago, she was showing me some of the fabric & quilts that she inherited from her mother. She also showed me some of the things from our MIL who lived near them before she died. One item was a crocheted tablecloth that was never finished. At the time, I was not sure, but the more I thought about it, I became convinced that it was the tablecloth that my MIL started for me. She actually gave it to me as a wedding shower gift and then said she needed to finish it, so she took it back. I never remembered getting it back, while she was sure she had finished it and given it to me.

This is the tablecloth now. It's about 4' x 6' and there are some squares finished but not attached.

I'm not sure what I will do with it. I doubt if I will ever finish it. Any ideas? It is lovely and I do love crocheted things.

I acquired a few things while on the trip at antique shops and/or garage sales. If you have ever seen Blackbird Designs blog, this is my attempt to copy their design. Now I need an old key.

I couldn't resist this cup - it's so delicate. I'm amazed it arrived here intact after being jostled over the road all the way from Oregon.

I got 2 hens on nests at an antique mall. I have a little collection of them.

I also won a giveaway! It is a wool applique pumpkin from Jampatterns.com . She had the giveaway on her blog here. Thanks, JoAnn! I love wool applique and this one looks like fun!

My sewing room is a jumble of fabric, blocks I pieced on the trip and half unpacked boxes. I hope to get some organization done in the next week. In the mean time, I'm enjoying having a comfortable couch to sit in and a super comfortable bed to sleep in! The added bonus is that it looks like the 100 degree temps for Texas have ended. Hey, it's only 94 right now!!

TWO DARLING GRANDSONS

2011-08-29T15:07:00.001-05:00

EDIT ANNOUNCEMENT:

4:00 PM DS#3 just called to say that he is coming home instead of going to Iraq now!!!! We are so happy. Apparently, the ones in charge decided that no more personnel needed to go for the position he was to do for one year. If he goes later, it will be for 4 months and would probably be in January - not as bad as a whole year. Our DIL is very happy!

The last leg of our trip we detoured to DS#3's home so we could see him before he deployed to Iraq. Also to spend some time with our DIL & 2 GSs for the adjustment period after Daddy left. The adjustment is hardest on Mommy and we hope we have been helping in some small way. Tomorrow, both boys will start a Mother's Day Out program for 2 mornings per week. At least this will give her time to shop and take care of some errands. She is also looking for someone to come in to help in the evenings.

DS is actually in New Jersey for 3 weeks before he leaves for Iraq in order to get some training.

Saturday my DIL & I took the boys to the park for a little while - time needed for Jonah to run off some of his energy. Of course, the only picture that turned out of him is while he is sitting down. I can't believe the energy he has after supper! We always go for a walk, but that's not enough. We then have to hit the T-ball or throw the frisby. Luckily, he chases it most of the time. This Grandma is too tired by then!

Eli swinging at Park

Jonah digging at the Park

Big brother helping feed Eli

Grandma & Grandpa (us) are getting ready to go home next Monday. We are looking forward to sleeping in our king size bed again! The trip has been wonderful, but in the future, I would prefer shorter trips - maybe 5-6 weeks at the most. We'll see, because I don't see any long trips in our future for a while (except to visit little grandchildren).

Thanks for all the sweet comments.

THE HOUSE I GREW UP IN

2011-08-18T05:00:00.001-05:00

Since we are here I decided to do a short post about the house I grew up in. My Dad, Grandpa and uncles built this house in 1948. Some of the electrical and plumbing was done by contractors. When I was five years old we moved in and I lived here until I got married. It was a great house to grow up in and a great town - Villa Park, Illinois - just 20 miles west of downtown Chicago.

My sister bought the house from my parents and she has been working hard at fixing it up. She has a real green thumb (taking after our Dad), loves to work in the yard to grow flowers and loves to have fresh flowers on the table when they are available.

I'm in town to attend my 50 year high school reunion! Very hard to believe - Hee Hee! I got in touch with one of my good high school friends and we went out to eat on Friday night. What fun! I has been about 47 years or so since we saw each other, so we had a lot to catch up on. Her DH is very nice too - we double dated before we got married (and they got married one week after we did)! BTW, today is our 49th anniversary!

I set up a sewing area in the room that was my Mom's. Hanging on the wall is this cross-stitched Lord's Prayer. It has been hanging there as long as I can remember. I took it off the wall and on the back it says it was stitched by my Grandma's sister. She died in 1941, so that makes the stitchery at least 70 years old! I asked my sis what she will do with it and she didn't know. She didn't know if anyone would want it.

I think I'll have to talk my sis and let her know that I want to keep this - she usually reads my blog, so I guess she'll find out.

SHOP HOP WITH BETH

2011-08-17T13:44:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I got together with Beth of My Creations. She is one of the members of the APQ blogging buddies! What a fun day! I drove to her house yesterday morning and we left right away in her car to visit some shops. The first one was Material Girls in Crystal Lake, IL. Below is a picture of us standing in front of the Civil War department with a scrappy civil war quilt hanging to my left. Please notice that I am wearing my T-shirt from the Sisters quilt show.

This is a large shop with a huge selection of fabric. I didn't want to spend all my pennies in the first store, so I just bought a couple small things.

I saw the 2 table runners on the table next to the sewing machine and decided that I might make a couple of them. They don't have any batting in them and go together in about 30 minutes.

Our next stop was at Pieceful Gathering Quilt Shop in this old house. This shop specializes in reproduction fabrics!

I think Beth has been to this shop a lot, because she knew everyone that worked and shopped there! This quilt is going to be a BOM and I love it!

This is a wool applique BOM that Beth is making. It's gorgeous!

More civil war quilts and fabrics. Why do we have to live on a budget?

Next was A Touch of Amish in Barrington, IL. I saw this quilt store in the Quilt Sampler magazine and have wanted to visit it since then.

Again, Beth seemed to know everyone! Hmmm, she must shop a lot, don't you think? I love the log cabin quilt on the right (and the quilt on the left)!

Here's another log cabin with 1/2" finished logs! A good way to use up those skinny strips.

Last was Quilters Destination in Arlington Heights, IL, where Beth works. Must be tough to work one day a week in a quilt store, huh? Very tempting. This shop has lots of samples and a large variety of fabrics, but not many reproductions. However, I ended up purchasing more from this shop than any other. Of course, I hadn't planned to, but they had some fabrics that I really needed. Here's Beth in front of the store.

I love the Flag medallion quilt in the middle.

This store really packs in the fabric and notions.

They have a large selection of batiks. The employees were very friendly. What a fun place to work!

Thanks so much for a wonderful day, Beth! After the shopping we went back to her house and she showed me her sewing room, her projects, finished tops, etc. This lady is a prolific quilter aka "quilting machine"!!!!! I didn't take pictures of her quilts, but you can see lots of them on her blog. She does beautiful work and has great taste. I am very inspired to get busy. I can't wait to get home so I can really hunker down and quilt, quilt, quilt!

SOME SEWING ON OUR TRIP

2011-07-30T16:45:00.000-05:00

I have been doing some sewing in the camper while traveling from Oregon to Michigan, where we are now. While in Sturgis, SD, I went to a quilt shop and bought 2 table runner kits that were on sale for 40% off. This is one of them. The main fabric depicts tea pots and cups, while the brown fabric has tea bags on it. The flying geese fabric has flowers on it.

I got the urge to make a couple doll quilts with 30s fabric, so I made 4-patches and alternated with white. I love the striped border fabric.

While in Dayton, OR, I went to the Boersma's Quilt Shop in McMinnville and bought some fabric from their scrap chest. There were some pieces of batiks (and others) that I liked. The green & coral blocks are a 18" square panel for the front and back of a bag. The batiks on the right side are some fat 8ths that I got at another quilt shop. That strip is for the sides and bottom of the bag.

This is the pattern I used for the bag. My SIL gave it to me (she won it last year in a basket and thought she would get around to starting to do some quilting, but decided she had enough other stuff to do, so gave me some of the items). The rest she gave to my GD.

This hot pad made out of fabric covered bottle caps is an easy project to work on in the truck.

This a cross-stitching project that I am working on for our newest GS, Eli's Christmas stocking. The fabric is 32 stitches per inch (I think), so I can't work on it riding in the truck going down the road. I have to have really good light and be sitting very still. I'm glad that I have gotten this far.

Another easier project is this embroidered dish towel. BTW, I just finished it while at the laundromat.

This has been a fun trip, but is very long. By the time we get home, we will have been gone over 3 months! I hope our house is still standing. Friday, our truck was making a noise, so we decided we better get it checked out. We found out that the transmission was going out and needs to be replaced. The parts should arrive on Monday, so in the mean time we have a loaner car from the shop (with no air-conditioning and my window doesn't roll down). When we came home from the laundromat, I couldn't get my door open. DH had to come around to unlock it from the outside. We are very thankful that the truck didn't break down when we were out in the middle of nowhere!!

If it wasn't for my 50 year high school reunion on August 20, we would go home sooner. On our way home, we will stop in Arkansas to hug our son, who is being deployed for a year to the middle east.

SOUTH DAKOTA, NORTH DAKOTA, ETC.

2011-07-28T17:41:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday we stopped in Deadwood, SD per the recommendation of Connie (no blog). We decided to take the Boot Hill tour which was very informative (it was also only one hour long and cost $8 per person (seniors)). Some very interesting history went on there back in the 1870-1880s. I'm glad we went.

Next, we drove to North Dakota and spent the night at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The park is amazing and we were excited to see a lot of buffalo. The main drawback for camping there is that I got eaten alive by some bugs - I don't know what they were, it wasn't mosquitoes - and I spent a couple miserable nights because of the itching.

Here are some of the buffalo.

This one actually rolled in the dust and I got a video of that.

There were several prairie dog "towns." They are so cute and will bark at you if you get to close to their home! They also sit right by the side of the road and don't budge when you drive by!

The old west has a certain fascination, doesn't it?

Thanks for all your comments. I haven't been able to answer all of them as we don't always have wi-fi access. We just arrived in Iron River, MI. This is the town that DH's mom grew up in and we are here to do some family tree research.

JOURNEY THROUGH SOUTH DAKOTA

2011-07-22T20:02:00.000-05:00

Since the heat has reached to South Dakota, we decided to try to do our sightseeing in the morning before it gets too hot. We went to the Crazy Horse Memorial first and were able to see their informational movie and museum, which were very interesting. The Lakota Indians wanted a memorial of their own and Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski accepted the Indians' invitation. The sculpture was started in 1948. Now his family is continuing the job.

Mount Rushmore is only a short drive away from Crazy horse, so we got to both memorials in before lunch! The first time I saw Mount Rushmore was back in the 50s! It is the same, but now they have several buildings with different shops, an auditorium for their film, a cafe and special parking that costs $11.

A picture to prove that I was really there.

While driving through Rapid City, my wonderful DH spotted a quilt shop and pulled in the parking lot before I knew what he was doing! The Thimble Cottage is an amazing shop! Designer Pearl Louise owns the shop and has her own line of fabric and patterns. I had never heard of her before.

The shop has some of the best displays I have ever seen. I love this doll bed and the doll clothes.

This is a section with lots of embroidery patterns.

Upstairs there are several rooms decorated for Christmas.

Of course, I love this patriotic display.

All in all, it was a good day and we are now camped in Sturgis, SD. Tomorrow we head north.

Surprise at Little Bighorn Battlefield

2011-07-20T21:46:00.000-05:00

Last night we camped at the Old West RV Park in Reedpoint, MT. As you can see from the sign posted, it is the sheep drive capital of the world! Wow!

This is the main street going through town...

After three blocks you reach the other end of town where the railroad tracks are.

Our main destination for the day was the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument where Custer's last stand took place. The informational movie was very interesting as was the museum. While looking at books in the book store, I saw someone I knew! Could that be possible to run into someone and meet at just the right time by chance? Someone from where I used to work was there and we were both dumbfounded. If anyone from work is wondering who it was, just email me and I will let you know. It truly is a small world.

These 2 pictures show where Custer and his soldiers fell.

My interest was piqued to learn more about Custer's wife, who lived a long life and apparently spent time telling the story of her husband's life and death.

Tomorrow we head for South Dakota.

QUILT SHOPS IN MONTANA

2011-07-20T09:31:00.000-05:00

Now that we had a little extra time, it seemed like a good idea to visit a couple quilt shops! I looked up American Patchwork & Quilting's website to search for a few shops. I came up with a list and also got some suggestions from Jennifer, who commented on my last post. Thanks, Jennifer! I did stop at Quilters' Corner in Deer Lodge, MT. The owner has the shop packed with all kinds of tempting things and said that she does a big on-line business.

The next day we were in Bozeman, MT and we were too early for one of the shops, so continued on to Reproduction Fabrics.Com. I didn't know if they had a store front or if they would be open. It was located in an office building. The sign on the door said the hours were 12 to 3 PM. But there was a phone number to call Margo for an appointment. I decided I might as well call. She told me she was on her way over and would be there in a couple minutes. Yea! Margo Krager is a font of information and even provided me with hand-outs containing information on reproduction fabrics, quilt styles, etc. This is what I bought.

I also got these fabric reproduced labels. I'm going to put these on some bags.

Yesterday we found a camping site rather early in the day, so I was able to do some sewing. I made the latest Civil War block and did some other piecing.

Today we plan to go to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

ACROSS IDAHO

2011-07-18T08:43:00.000-05:00

After visiting my 2nd cousin's wife in Lewiston, Idaho, we traveled across the state on Route 12, which follows the Lochsa River. This is a very windy road right along side the river with beautiful mountains and trees all around. This is the area that Lewis and Clark traveled on their exploration of the west. Also, the movie "The River Runs Through It" was filmed somewhere near this area.

The drive was rather nerve wracking. However, the beauty of God's creation was amazing! The trip has been very good so far.

We stayed at this National Forest on Saturday night.

This is a stop at Lolo Summit where Lewis and Clark crossed the pass.

Inside the museum was this quilt commemorating the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness.

This is a view of Lochsa River early on Sunday morning in the campground. It's almost hard to believe how much wilderness there is in our country.

When we got to Montana yesterday, the weather turned hot. We didn't want that! We will be meandering across Montana and the next major destination is Mount Rushmore! I hope to hit a couple quilt shops this week! It's been a while since I've been to one, so it's time.

CAMPING IN OREGON

2011-07-12T11:25:00.000-05:00

Last week we went camping in a remote camp site in a national forest in central Oregon with DH's brother and our SIL. This is the first time we have camped with them. They have had a truck camper for years and we just got ours last year (partly due to his influence). Our camper is on the left and their's is on the right.

This is a picture of us following them down the road. The weather has been beautiful! Usually it's in the 40s at night and 70s or lower 80s during the day.

My SIL asked me if I wanted to pick some fabrics out of the chest full of fabrics that used to be her mother's. What a question! Below is my loot! I have quite a few large pieces that I will be able to use for backings and a lot of variety. My SIL's mother made lots and lots of quilts - all by hand piecing and hand quilting. They were all scrap quilts. What a heritage!

The fabric is safely stored in the storage pod on top of our camper (there wasn't room inside). I already cut some pieces for a quilt that I am piecing on our trips. Thanks!

We're thinking about our friends in Texas and definitely feeling sorry for you having to suffer in that heat, but glad we're not there!

SISTERS QUILT SHOW

2011-07-11T13:07:00.000-05:00

This year I decided that I NEEDED to stay in Oregon long enough to go to the Sisters Quilt Show, which I did on Saturday. I was fortunate enough to have my SIL, my DIL and my GD go with me! We had a wonderful time! It was a beautiful day as you can see in the picture below. This is the display of quilts on the side of The Stitchin' Post. The owner of The Stitchin' Post started the quilt show in 1975, I believe. It is a free show and anyone can send a quilt to be displayed. They can also put up quilts for sale.

Below are some of my favorite quilts from the show, but I'm not showing you all of the ones I took pictures of. I think there were over 1,300 quilts hanging around the town. We didn't see all of them.

I love this eagle quilt! I want to make an eagle quilt some day. (Add that to my list).

I didn't expect to see a Texas flag quilt there, so I had to take a picture of it. The description of it said, "You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take Texas out of the girl."

Another quilt on my list.....

These are some antique quilts that were for sale.

Some young entrepreneurs were selling lemonade.

I can't tell you what it meant to me to be able to go to the quilt show with family members! That is something that just doesn't happen in Texas. I do have good friends to go with and I'm not minimizing that.

This is the sum total of the sewing that I accomplished over the weekend! The current civil war block - I'm right on schedule.

In a couple days, we'll be on our way to Idaho to visit some family that I haven't seen for too many years to mention.

CIVIL WAR BLOCK & VINTAGE SPOOLS

2011-07-04T16:52:00.001-05:00

Saturday's civil war block (#27, Irish Chain) is finished!

I'm a sucker for garage sales and when I saw this container of threads on wooden spools, I couldn't resist.

When you open the box, the spools tilt out so you can remove them.

Such pretty colors!

I need to stop going to garage sales, because the camper is getting too full! DH just rolls his eyes!

I may not be able to post for a while as we are leaving DS's house tomorrow and don't know when we will have access to the internet.

Happy Independence Day!

BOOK REVIEW: The Lady of Bolton Hill

2011-07-03T04:00:00.005-05:00

The Lady of Bolton Hill by Elizabeth Camden was given to me by Bethany House Publishers in exchange for me reviewing it on my blog.

The story takes place in 19^th century Maryland and opens with a tragedy at the steel mill where Daniel Tremaine’s father dies. Further tragedy leaves Daniel to raise his three younger sisters. His life is fueled by resentment. While he grew up in a poor family, he was very intelligent and talented. His love for music led him to Clara, the daughter of an influential minister and publisher of the Christian Crusade.

There are many twists and turns in this book and it was an enjoyable read. I don’t want to give the story away. Read it for yourself. I would give it 4 (out of 5) stars.

GETTING SOME SEWING DONE

2011-07-02T08:39:00.000-05:00

We are still at DS/DIL's, but will be leaving on Tuesday to go to DH's brother's in eastern Oregon. This weekend DS/DIL are at our house in Texas so they can go to DS's reunion with MK friends from the years we spent in Colombia, SA as missionaries. GD has a job now, so that limits our time to go on any outings.

That means, I have more time for sewing and I spend some time every day piecing - in between cooking, shopping, playing games with the grandkids and even helping GD alter clothes that she bought - she's so tiny, it's hard to find anything that doesn't need shortening or something done to it.

Here is my latest block for the Everyday Best quilt that I put together yesterday.

This is another block that I put together not remembering that I was supposed to sew the background on before sewing the circle together.

This week I worked on the corner pieces that go on the Union blocks for the Gone to Texas quilt. I have made what seems like tons of HSTs for this quilt, but I am enjoying these blocks. No matter what fabrics I use, I like the way it comes out. Good thing I love scrappy!!

Here's the stack. I think I counted 20 done - 12 more to go.

I just happened to stop at the LQS on Thursday and found some good size scraps in their scrap cabinet. Also, the yellow was on sale as end of bolt, so I got 1 1/2 yards for $8! I couldn't pass that up while working on the GTT (gone to TX) quilt! I'm sure it will get used up quickly. I figured I would make something for the camper with the camping fabric, but I don't know what yet. It's about 1/4 yard.

I haven't looked at the civil war block yet. I need to take GS to church so he can serve a breakfast - I think it's for homeless people. I better get ready!

BLOCKS & FROGS

2011-06-27T09:27:00.000-05:00

Sunday afternoon is a good time for me to work on the civil war block of the week. I cut the triangles on Saturday and got the sewing machine set up on Sunday, sewed the block together, feeling very good about getting it finished, and then looked at it. Uh Oh! Something is not right here. And not just one thing is wrong.

So I got out the well used seam ripper, took it apart and put it back together. Much better!

One of the activities that I have done here is go for a hike in the woods with my DIL & GS. Aside from falling in the mud, it was beautiful! There was a pond and I could hear strange sounds emanating from it. At first I thought it was a cow mooing, but it didn't quite sound like a cow. I sat by the pond a while and kept hearing the sound, kind of like a bass fiddle playing one note. I finally figured out it was bullfrogs in the pond! I took some pictures of them. They didn't even swim away when I got close.

Sometimes they would compete with each other - or so it seemed.

I love the woods.

Have a good week!

HAND CRANK SINGER

2011-06-23T08:40:00.000-05:00

My DIL bought this Singer 28 hand crank sewing machine at an antique shop a couple years ago and I have wanted to try it. Last weekend I dropped my featherweight about 6-8" and after that it was making a bad noise as well as the stitch speed kept going slower. So, Tuesday I took it to be repaired. I hope it gets done quickly.

In the mean time, I decided to try the hand crank Singer. My DIL said it works, but has some problems.

Below, you can see the bobbin shuttle. I was able to do some piecing with the machine, but then the bobbin thread would just break. The bobbin sometimes seems to get stuck, or the bobbin thread won't come out. I don't know if there is something wrong with the shuttle or what. I ordered some more bobbins on Ebay (amazing) and will see if a new bobbin makes any difference.

It's a very pretty machine!

The other problem with piecing is that you don't have your right hand to help guide the fabric through. This is not good when you have several layers of fabric to sew through and want to keep your points sharp. However, it was kind of fun to use. I hope we can get it fixed.

It would be nice to have one like this, or a treadle, if the power were to go out! Today we might go to a quilt shop and an antique shop. I'll try to remember my camera. Have a good day, everyone!

SALEM, OREGON

2011-06-20T17:16:00.000-05:00

On Friday, my DIL along with 2 grandchildren and I went to Salem to see some historic sites. First we went to the Mission Mill Museum for a short visit. While there my GD got to talking to a book binder and we visited with him for a while. He was very interesting and informative. One of the historic homes wasn't open by the time we got there (guide book didn't have the new times). We did get to see and tour the Bush House Museum. It is a lovely house built in 1877 and our tour guide was excellent. See this link.

Most of my pictures didn't turn out because I couldn't use the flash. This is a picture of the wallpaper, which is original.

A display of a dolls' tea party was in one bedroom.

In my spare time, I have been doing quite a bit of sewing. I have completed 11 of the Union Blocks from the Gone to Texas quilt. They are very scrappy and I didn't know if I would like them, but most of them look pretty good!

Saturday's civil war block. I'm glad that I have been able to keep up to date on this.

Saturday we went to a local historical museum and we have some other outings planned. We have decided to stay at DS/DIL's longer. Woo Hoo!

CAPE MEARES LIGHTHOUSE

2011-06-16T06:00:00.004-05:00

After our visit to the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center and a quilt shop, GD & I went to visit the Cape Meares Lighthouse. The scenery was awesome!

The parking lot for the lighthouse is above the lighthouse, so on the way down the path, we could see the top of the lighthouse!

Since the lighthouse is on high ground, it doesn't have to be built really tall. I found out that the elevation of the light is the approximately the same as all the other lighthouses and can be seen for about 20 miles out to sea. Lighthouses built at sea level (such as the Pensacola, FL lighthouse) are a lot taller, but the elevation of the light is the same. I never knew (or had thought about) that before.

GD picked some butter cups and took these close-up pictures.

QUILTING FUN WITH MY GRANDDAUGHTER

2011-06-15T08:35:00.001-05:00

The biggest event of the week was my GD's graduation from high school! The graduation was outside and the weather was perfect. What a happy time! On Monday was her birthday also, so we celebrated both over the weekend.

Monday I made my weekly civil war block:

I've mentioned before that my GD is very interested in sewing. Here is her stack of washed and ironed fabrics that she bought to make a quilt. She also has a quilt planned for her cousin and wants to start on that one tomorrow. We went to the LQS where they have a "scrap bin" and both of us got some fabrics from there. BTW, she has already designed and made a quilt, as well as made dresses for herself.

Yesterday my GD & I went to the Latimer Quilt & Textile Center in Tillamook, OR. Here she is in front of the building.

We had a good time there looking at quilts and other displays of textiles, as well as antique buttons, lace, etc. that they have in display drawers.

There was even some stained glass for sale, as well as quilts, fabric, knitted things and toys.

They have a weaving section and there were also ladies spinning.

Their main display was a selection of quilts by Cynthia Corbin. While we were able to take pictures of her quilts, we were told she doesn't want them posted on the internet, so I will honor those wishes. However, if anyone wants to see a few, I think it would be OK to email them out. So let me know if you want me to email you a few pictures of her quilts. The quilts on display are not on her web site, but she has lots of other quilts on it. They are not my "style" of quilt, but I enjoyed seeing them and enjoyed seeing a new form of quilting.

Next time, I'll share what else we did.

100 YEARS AGO TODAY

2011-06-08T05:41:00.003-05:00

My Mom was born 100 years ago today in Chicago, IL. Her Dad was a carpenter and Mother was from a family of 13 children. Both were born in Minnesota, the children of farmers.

Mama's confirmation picture

Mom became a registered nurse and married Daddy in 1935. They grew up in the same area of Chicago and went to the same church. In fact, they attended church together before they were born! (Dad was born one month before Mom). Back in 1911, pregnant women didn't go out very much in public in their "condition." So, both grandmothers would go to the evening service at church and they would sometimes walk together.

Mom taught me to sew and embroider. She also awakened a love of quilting in me. She made a baby quilt that all four of us used and also a quilt for our wedding gift. She loved to embroider, so she made a number of quilts that had cross stitching on them. They came in kits. I think the only one that she hand quilted was our wedding quilt. After that she sent them out to the Eastern Star ladies and they hand quilted them. Mom didn't really enjoy making clothes, although she sometimes made dresses for my sister and me. When I started sewing clothes for myself in junior high, if I would have a problem, I would ask her for help. She would always tell me to read the instructions for the answer. I realized a lot later that this advice was very good for me as it helped me to be able to follow directions.

1911 - 2004

Mom was a wonderful mother and grandma. She loved babies! She and Daddy were married 65 years and she was 92 when she died. We love you, Mama!

A WIN AND CATCHING UP

2011-06-06T15:10:00.001-05:00

While on my way to Oregon, I found out that I had won a giveaway by Kathleen at Loose Bobbins, etc. The package was waiting for me when we arrived and it is a lucious group of flannel fabrics! Thank you so much! Now, to figure out what to make with these fall fabrics. Let me know if you have any ideas!

I love the colors and the little acorns. She also made a zippered cosmetic type bag with orange daisy fabric, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

I am now caught up with all the civil war blocks. I made these three yesterday afternoon.

Have a great week!

OREGON COAST

2011-06-05T09:18:00.000-05:00

The Oregon coast must be one of the most scenic in the world. We were very lucky to have nice weather while driving along it. The first day it was cloudy but not raining.

This is the Umpqua River light house at Winchester Bay. We took a tour of it - very interesting. It was built in 1894 and was the 2nd one. The first one was built in 1857, but fell into the river.

South of Florence is where we saw the sea lions sitting on rocks below the road.

On Thursday, it was raining a lot and we went to see the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Since there were two buses of school kids there to get tours of the lighthouse, we didn't do the tour this time. It was super windy and raining at the lighthouse, but we got a couple good pictures.

This big rock was near the lighthouse and the dots on top of it are some birds that lay their eggs right on top of the rock without building any nests at all. The eggs are a certain shape that they don't roll off. When I took this picture, the rain was coming straight at me and it was cold!

We arrived at DS/DIL's home just in time to greet GS when he came home from school. He is a freshman in HS and is doing very well. It's so good to be here. GD is starting to make a quilt for her cousin, so I helped her cut some of the fabric. She is a good seamstress and sews some of her own clothes. She loves fabric too! We plan to go to the Quilt museum in Tillamook if we can work it out. GD is graduating from high school and will be starting a job soon after. Our first goal is to go to the local quilt shop. Maybe we can get there this week.

Now that we are "connected" I can try to catch up on some of your blogs. Have a good week!

GIANT TREES

2011-06-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

We drove on the "Avenue of the Giants" route to see the giant redwood trees.

Stopped to take pictures. This is our camp site.

This tree was at our camp site!

Lovely flowers too.

This was one of the biggest that we saw in the camp ground - Smith Redwoods State Park in Northern California. A good tree to lean on!

I love these trees. It's kind of hard to hug that big of a tree!

This little guy entertained us at our camp site. He jumped up on the picnic table bench that I was sitting on, but didn't stay there long.

I even managed to get in a little sewing. Here I'm cutting my HSTs for a project. I have made a lot of them on the trip so far.

Next post is the Oregon coast! There is so much to see in this wonderful country. And we want to see it all! Every day is more amazing than the last!

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

2011-06-01T06:00:00.001-05:00

After camping at Pi Pi campgrounds in Eldorado Forest, we drove through Sutter Creek, had lunch, and we wanted to take the tour of the Sutter Creek Gold Mine, but it was all booked up with school kids for the day, so we skipped that.

The next day we went through San Francisco so we could walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.

I couldn't resist taking the picture of this building down under the bridge. I wonder what it was? It doesn't look like it is being used now.

Had to get my picture taken on the bridge to prove that I really walked across it!

DH also walked across it!

What an amazing structure! And the view from it is amazing too!

When I visited Love last month, she gave me the little flag shown in the picture below. I hung it in the camper above the Texas stitchery I received from Liri last year. Aren't bloggers great?

By the way, for you Texas friends, the temperature at night is usually in the 40s and during the day for the last several, has been a high of 60! It's a good thing we brought several quilts to keep warm at night. Hee Hee!

CAMPING IN CALIFORNIA

2011-05-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

After driving north on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California we found out that we couldn't go to Yosmite National Park because the roads were still closed. We had only one choice of roads to cross the mountains going west and there was one campground on that road that we planned to stay at. We thought we would never get out of the mountains! They just went on and on! The campground was 6 miles from the highway, but it was worth it. The pictures do not do it justice at all.

There was a board walk following the river.

It was so picturesque! Clear, cold water flowing down from the mountains as the snow melted. We saw lots of snow that hadn't melted yet!

A pathway through the woods. I love forests and streams!

You can't really tell from the picture, but it is a dogwood tree that is blooming.

We were miles from civilization! DH sitting alongside the rapids! Stay tuned for more pictures.

Trip news

2011-05-30T14:10:00.000-05:00

We are having a great time traveling with our camper! These pictures show a few of the sites we've seen. On our way to California to visit DH's cousins, we passed through Nevada.

We traveled a little on the famous Route 66!

My DH's aunt handed this 1930's signature (fund raiser) quilt to her granddaughter. The amount of funds raised depended on the number of pieces in each block, so some of the quilt block makers put lots of pieces in their blocks.

On the way north from southern CA, we stated at this campground in Independence, CA. It was really nice and had a great view of the mountains as you can see below.

The stream through the campsite was beautiful too.

I haven't had internet access in order to view my favorite blogs, so I am way behind. We are in Oregon now and will reach our son's home by Friday.

I have lots more pictures to share when I can.

VARIOUS BLOCKS

2011-05-14T11:28:00.000-05:00

Civil War block 20 that came out today, so I'm all caught up. I'll probably start getting behind now, as we're hitting the road soon.

These are some blocks for the Thread Head quilt along. I still have a bunch of setting blocks to make before I can start putting this one together. You can see the one Joanne made on her blog and I am planning to do my borders the same as hers, except increase a few inches. I decided to use mainly churn dash, Ohio star and sawtooth star blocks in mine. My setting blocks are the same as Joanne's.

I have been working on these paper pieced blocks for a while and decided to put a couple together. There will be nine blocks like this and then the border - I have 5 blocks paper pieced with 4 more to go. It was published in Quilting magazine in 2006 - Everyday Best by Becky Goldsmith. It's a good way to use small scraps!

Have a great weekend everyone! Hope you get some sewing done.

QUILT SHOW

2011-05-11T06:25:00.000-05:00

Saturday I met Love at the Arlington Quilt Show and we had a great time! We saw so many wonderful quilts and here are some of my favorites.

This quilt of little dresses was just adorable!

Love and I agreed that this would be a great pattern to use for an appliqued quilt with the blocks and pieces being very big.

This quilt was absolutely stunning!!

Look at the eagle quilted in the design.

Also, a liberty bell!

This baby quilt was just amazing!

Look at this border! Wouldn't you love to make a border like that?

Another gorgeous quilt with fabulous quilting!

Here's a close-up view. maybe if you click on the picture you can see the quilting.

Love and I both would like to make this quilt. In the blue border there are patriotic phrases quilted, such as "In God we Trust."

We both made a few purchases from the vendors (of course) and I had my scissors sharpened, then we went to lunch. It was a very good day!

BOOK REVIEW: Promises to Keep

2011-05-09T06:22:00.002-05:00

This is a story about a young girl whose most basic wish is for her daddy to return to the family. Even though her daddy was abusive and her mother felt she had no choice but to leave him, a girl's natural need to have a father who loves her makes her fantasize about the day when he will come home. When the family moves from Minnesota to Illinois with the help of her grandfather, the former owner of the house they bought keeps returning to sit on the front porch. She fills a need as a live in babysitter and housekeeper for the family when the mother has to work to support the family. The story is told by Rosalind, the eleven year old daughter. I enjoyed the book and will recommend it as about a 3 1/2 star rating. I received this book free from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for writing a review.

BTW, if any of you are interested in reviewing books for Bethany House Publishers, you can go here to
do so.

WEEK'S QUILTING

2011-05-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

The civil war block of the week - I really like it!

I have just finished 2 weeks of practicing free motion quilting with other quilters. See the blog here. My goal was to be able to quilt feathers on the border of my basket quilt. The quilt is for a full size bed and I'm quilting it on my domestic sewing machine (DSM). I layered it in two sections so it would be easier to quilt with my DSM. I laid the quilt out on a king size bed so you could see the two sections of the quilt. The section on the left is all quilted and the border of the section on the right is quilted.

In the next picture I folded the batting under so you can see how the quilt will look.

I'm not sure if you can see the quilting on the left side and the border. It's not perfect, but I am making progress and hope to get better with more experience. I'm not entering the quilt in a show or anything like that. The rest of the quilting and putting both halfs together will have to wait a while since we're going to our GD's high school graduation soon.

Thanks for visiting!

100 YEARS AGO TODAY

2011-05-07T07:10:00.000-05:00

100 years ago today my Dad was born in Chicago, the son of immigrants from Norway. As a young man he opened a small grocery store and later he liked to tell stories about that time. He was a good story teller.

He and Mom got married in 1935 and had 4 children. During the war he worked for Zenith and later as a tool and die maker. Eventually, he wanted to go into business for himself again, so my parents bought a deli and operated that for about 3 years. The long hours were hard, so they sold the deli and bought a Hallmark card and gift store in Elgin, IL. They loved the store and operated it for about 20 years.

Daddy loved flowers and he grew geraniums in the basement during the winter and set them out in the spring. He also gave a lot of them away to friends. One year he won the award for the best looking yard in town. After he retired he kept busy with the flowers and making foot stools for piano students.

He had a great sense of humor and was really good at telling jokes. He had a wonderful way with children too.

He loved the Lord and studied the Bible daily. On March 28, 2001, he went home to be with the Lord. We love you, Daddy.

1911 - 2001

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!

2011-05-06T08:23:00.000-05:00

This is the Jo Morton Little Women quilt for April. It is only 15 x 18, so it didn't take long. I will miss the next couple classes, but I wanted to get this finished right away.

Wednesday night I got surprised by a bouquet of tulips!

Then, last night I received another surprise! Chocolate covered strawberries! They are huge!

I'm very thankful that my children are so sweet. It's a blessing to have 3 grown sons, their wives and 5 wonderful grandchildren!

FUN DAY AT "LOVE'S"

2011-04-30T20:37:00.000-05:00

Today was the day that Jennifer and I went to visit Love at her home. We had such a wonderful time!! She showed us all the wonderful quilts that she has, some of which are antiques from family and some of which she made. Her patriotic quilts were awesome - in fact, all of the quilts she has made were. You wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) that we talked for hours about quilts, family, quilting, and more quilting with never a lull. Ideas and inspiration flowed back and forth between us!

Before I left home this morning, I was able to make the Civil War block of the week.

The free motion quilting challenge was my main goal for the week and I was able to get the border quilted on this half of my basket quilt. I layered the quilt in two pieces, so I have the other half left to quilt. I feel pretty comfortable with feathers, but still need a lot of practice. I have gotten so many ideas from other quilters doing the challenge and will be trying to put them into practice as I continue to quilt my own quilts.

QUILTING PROGRESS

2011-04-27T11:16:00.000-05:00

After 6 days of practicing Free Motion Quilting, you can see some of my progress on this wall hanging. The second picture of the back shows it best. I am feeling a lot more confident doing feathers.

I did feathers around the center oval of the wall hanging and stippling in the middle.

This is my latest project from the Jo Morton's Little Women class at Lone Star House of Quilts in Arlington, TX. I am almost finished binding it.

I turned the corner back so you could see what's on the back. I love that fabric!

Saturday I am going to "Love's" home for a visit. Her blog is here. Jennifer, from Purple Heart OriJennals will be there too. I'm sure it will be a fun time.

CW BLOCK AND BOOK REVIEW

2011-04-24T17:29:00.001-05:00

I love this week's Civil war block. It was very easy - just up my alley!

I saw on someone's blog that you can volunteer to review books, so I decided to sign up to do it. Right before we left on our last trip, I received 2 emails from Bethany House Publishers asking me to select a book from each list, which I did. When we returned, I received both books and just finished reading

Paradise Valley by Dale Cramer.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for reviewing it, but that hasn't affected my opinion. At first, I assumed the book had been written by a woman, and at one point, I wanted to see something about the author. That's when I looked at the back and found out that Dale was a man! I appreciated the page at the front where he lists the family members of Caleb and Martha Bender. Not many books list characters, but I love it when they do. The story grabbed me right away when Caleb Bender and other Amish fathers were arrested for not sending their children to public school. As Caleb became aware of property available in Mexico and decided to move there, I wondered if this story was based on historical fact, and was amazed to find out that it was. The trials and tribulations experienced by the family weave a story that is hard to put down. I have always been fascinated by the Amish people and enjoy reading about what their lives are like (past or present). It's a story about faith, love, family and work. There is hope for the future, too, as this is the first of a series about the daughters of Caleb Bender. I will definitely be watching for the next book to come out and also want to read the other books that Dale Cramer has written.

BTW, if any of you are interested in reviewing books for Bethany House Publishers, you can go here to
do so.

FIRST DAY OF FMQ CHALLENGE

2011-04-22T08:20:00.000-05:00

For you non-quilters, FMQ means Free Motion Quilting. In other words, quilting by machine mostly without marking a design on the quilt first. Of course, you will have a design in mind. The design that I want to learn is feathers and below are my practice pieces. The one on the left is my first one. The right one on the darker fabric is my second practice section and on the left is my third. I think the third one is definitely better than the first two, so I am already encouraged. I want to quilt feathers in the border of my Mansfield Park basket quilt.

Here's part of my basket quilt. I have about half of the block quilted and I would like to finish the quilting before we leave on our next trip.

Next, below is my current Jo Morton's Little Women class project. The next class is Tuesday, so I'm going to try to get this quilted by then. Not sure how I will quilt it.

On my trip I worked on hand quilting this Cheddar Cheese & Crackers quilt. I'm about 80% finished with it and I'm trying to work on it a little every day.

I know I'm nuts, but I have wanted to at least get started on the Gone to Texas quilt. I will be making blocks in between other things. The ones in this picture were pieced in the camper because I had cut some fabric ahead of time.

Here's a picture of the Gone to Texas quilt. It seems like this is a "pioneer" quilt, so I'm trying to make it with "old" looking fabric - in other words, reproductions - so what else is new.

I have been busy this week making some play outfits for Abigail. While I was in Florida I made her a couple of these tops and a cobblers' apron. This time, I made some shorts to go with the tops, along with a couple extra shorts.

These shorts are made out of fabric from Guatemala. Do any of you remember Jackie, the missionary from Guatemala? She sent me this fabric and I thought it would make good play shorts.

This baby afghan was found at a garage sale in Florida for $2, so I'm going to donate it to children's hospital. It was new and made by a 92 year old woman. The garage sale was to raise money for a missions trip and the lady holding the garage sale goes to the same church as my DS & DIL! My DIL is hoping to go on the missions trip to India and then stay longer to spend time with her family.

Today I'm meeting some friends for lunch, so I better get going.

GETTING BACK IN GEAR

2011-04-19T07:05:00.000-05:00

Jonah ready to go to Mother's Day Out - Notice stick in hand!

One of the first things I wanted to do when we got home was to get caught up on my Civil War blocks. So I finished up the last 3 blocks.

Below are some paper piecing that I worked on in the camper while we were gone. This is a perfect "Camper project" because I just need a bag of scraps and can cut pieces as I go. I have 5 1/2 of these circular blocks all paper pieced now, so soon I need to start sewing them together. I blogged about these a while ago here. I've never pieced curves before, so that will be a new challenge for me.

I joined the Free Motion Quilting Challenge led by Thread Head. Here is my first try at feathers. Kind of wonky! The idea is to practice for 15 minutes every day for 2 weeks, because practice makes perfect. We will see. Hee Hee! I am hoping to quilt feathers on the border of my basket quilt, so that gives me good motivation.

Well, I'm going for a walk now. I need to get back to walking every morning, so see you later!

Home Again!

2011-04-18T11:03:00.001-05:00

Friday we arrived home safe and sound after being gone 4 weeks. As always, it's good to get home.

We had a wonderful time with our sons and their families! While in Pensacola, I did manage to go to one fabric shop - A & E Pharmacy. Yes, it's a pharmacy on one side and on the other side, it's a fabric store with a huge selection. Below is a picture of my purchases.

On our way home, we stopped in Natchitoches, LA to do some sightseeing. Below is a picture of the house where the movie "Steel Magnolia" was filmed.

Then we went to the Cane River Creole National Historic Park. The Prud'Homme family begain farming the land in 1785 and continued living in this house (built in 1821) until around 1990 when it was donated to the National Park Service. We received a very informative tour of the home with much interesting information about the family and the plantation.
In the girls' bedroom, there were some quilts on the beds which I took pictures of. The tour guide didn't know who made the quilts. I asked her because I always wonder about the person who made the quilts and like to know when they were made.

This is the master bedroom with it's beautiful appliqued quilt of red flowers.

If you ever go to Natchitoches, LA, I hope you will take the time to visit the plantation as well. BTW it is free!

Finally, there is a great giveaway at onemorequilt.blogspot.com, so go there to sign up if you are interested.

A LITTLE SEWING IN BETWEEN MORE IMPORTANT THINGS

2011-04-07T15:06:00.000-05:00

More time spent with our DS, DIL & Abigail. Below, Abigail is eating some strawberry shortcake. Yum! Yum!

Flying a training jet at a local park! We are real close to the Naval Air Station where the Blue Angels are based, so the local park has a training jet for kids! We also get to see the Blue angels practice right over where we are camped!

We spent some time at the beach too!

Abigail playing with dominos in the camper after eating lunch here.

Some beach pictures too.

Here are my Civil War blocks that I've completed while here. I didn't have enough fabric to complete the one on the bottom, so I'll have to finish it at home. Other than that one, I'm up to date on them. I didn't really bring very much fabric with me - a mistake I hope I don't make again.

Thanks for visiting!

ABIGAIL'S TURN

2011-04-04T07:10:00.000-05:00

We arrived in Florida on Tuesday without a camping site reservation and a couple places we checked were already full! Spring break going on! We were very lucky, however, to get a spot just around the corner from DS's apartment! I had checked with this camp ground before, but it was more than we wanted to pay. Guess what! They had lowered their rate! So now, we're just a stone's throw away - literally! If the fence wasn't up, we could take the shortcut because the apartment complex is just on the other side.

Here's a few pictures of Abigail at a park climbing on the climbing wall!

What a big girl!

Looking down from above.

Shortly after arriving in Florida, our truck starting making a noise. Uh Oh.... We took it to a mechanic that our DIL has known quite a while and he's going to look it over. We need it to be in good working order as after this trip, we have a BIG trip planned.

We will be posting more pictures of Abigail soon.

NOT MUCH SEWING GOING ON HERE!

2011-03-27T15:08:00.000-05:00

We have been having lots of fun with Jonah and Eli. Every day since we arrived, we have eaten lunch in the camper with Jonah. It is the highlight of his and our day!

Me with my two adorable grandsons! (Am I being obnoxious?)

Eli is soooo cute! He is such a good & happy baby too.

Thanks for all the comments on my last post! I haven't had much computer time, so haven't answered them.

I took my sewing machine to be serviced the day before we left town and got a call from the repair man on Friday that it was finished. He fixed the automatic needle threader! That will really be nice, because the holes in needles seem to be getting smaller nowadays. He also had to replace a part in the tension area, which should really help in my quilting. The tension hadn't seemed to be working as good as it used to. I don't remember when it was serviced last - several years ago, I guess.

Tomorrow we leave here for Florida and will visit another son and family. Come back for another visit in a few days for some pictures of Abigail.

FUN WITH GRANDSONS

2011-03-24T13:59:00.000-05:00

We are visiting our 3rd son & family for a week and having fun with our two grandsons. Eli is just 3 months old and is getting so aware of things. He is a very happy baby and content to watch and grab his toys.

Jonah is almost 3 now and is getting to be such a big boy.

He loves to play outside and seems to always have a stick in his hand.

Monday we took a trip to the zoo and got to ride on a choo choo train! He wanted to go again.

I think we looked at the elephants 4 or 5 times.

Yesterday we took Jonah for a "day camping" trip. He loves the camper. He has trouble saying the letter "c", so it comes out as "hamper." He got his first ride in our truck and while at the state park we ate lunch and he had a short rest with grandpa in the camper bed.

I couldn't resist making a special quilted wall hanging for the camper. The Team Grandpa was embroidered on Eli's jammies that we got him when he was first born and I got the idea from that. All the little ones seem to gravitate to Grandpa.

After playing on the playground at the state park, we went to the visitors' center and Jonah loved looking at the displays which included a stuffed alligator. We had to go back to see that more than once. Below he is looking at a pretty lake with paddle boats.

A tired boy fell asleep on the way home. We were all worn out! Only a few more days here, then we move on to another son & his family!

THIS AND THAT

2011-03-17T09:24:00.001-05:00

Monday night was my guild meeting, so I took the 3 quilts that I finished as well as this baby afghan that I made with mostly donated or leftover yarn. I did have to purchase some to finish it because it wasn't quite big enough.

This is the civil war block for week 11. So far I'm all caught up, but Saturday we leave on a trip, so I will probably get behind. Check back for pictures of grandchildren in the next few weeks! We decided on the way home from our Christmas/birthday trip in January, that we HAD to go again before we take our long trip to Oregon in June. Then DS#3 called to see if we could come there in March for a week and that worked out great. We will be visiting Florida also.

I'm getting projects ready to take along. Here I'm basting my second Cheddar Cheese & Crackers quilt for hand quilting. This time I'm using Mountain Mist batting for the first time - recommended for the Jo Morton quilts that I'm doing for Jo's Little Women club.

Here's some fabric for making Abigail a dress and apron. I don't know if I will do this or not, but I like to be prepared. My DIL said she is very attached to the Christmas pillow case I gave her in December. Two year olds are so sweet!

This is my hand work bin with embroidery projects.

A bigger bin with quilting projects. The "birds in the air" block is for my Jo's club quilt. I will need 48 of those blocks (4 1/4" unfinished). The HST's finish at 1 1/4". Also, my paper piecing project (which I haven't touched since the last trip.

The hand work projects will be for riding in the truck. I will have my featherweight in the camper so I can sew at night. I always take at least twice as much to do as I even touch, but I don't want to run out of things to do and get bored.

Happy St. Patrick's day! Now, I'm going to put on my shamrock earrings!

DOLL BED FIX UP

2011-03-09T08:35:00.000-06:00

As many of you know, I seem to be drawn to vintage doll beds. I told DH a while back that I wasn't going to buy doll beds any more....but when I see a good deal, I can't seem to help myself! I saw this doll bunk bed set at a garage sale a couple months ago. At first I didn't know what it was. Maybe it was a vegetable bin or other such storage. So I went closer and this is what I saw.

Look at the price tag. $4.00! Wow! So, I asked if it was doll beds and did the price include both of them? Yes! OK. That is sold!

So, the first thing to do is made mattresses and pillows.

Love the ticking fabric.

Next comes sheets and pillowcases. Must add some lace to the pillowcases.

Much better.

Now, the important part - quilts! I decided to make them pink and blue since those colors are on the lining of the beds. One is blue, one is pink. Maybe the dolls are twins - a boy and a girl.

Much better!

All ready! The blue quilt turned out much better than the pink one, but I guess they will do. Hope someone needs doll beds for their little girl.

This is the Civil War block of the week. If you go to the blog site, there is some very interesting historical information along with the directions to make the block. I found out that last Friday was the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's inauguration. Very interesting information concerning it.

Happy quilting, everyone!

QUILTING & BINDING, BINDING & QUILTING

2011-03-05T07:32:00.000-06:00

My new quilting foot solved my quilting problem, so I got busy and quilted the three donation quilts. I spent most of the week quilting and binding these three quilts shown below. The hand sewing the binding to the back was done while watching TV in the evenings.

This first quilt will be for a teenager at Children's Hospital. We (meaning people in my quilters guild, including me) don't make very many of these larger quilts because they take longer, but they are needed too.

Here's one of the baby size quilts.

And the backing, which is really cute (I got it at a garage sale).

Another baby size quilt made with the "10 minute quilt block."

This quilting design was a new one for me - I found it in Kim Diehl's book Simple Seasons. It's easy to do and looks pretty good.

I decided to make a table runner with the 10 minute block and used a charm pack of Moda's Pure fabric. I might use up a couple more of my charm packs this way.

Have a good weekend and get lots of sewing done!!