Blocks of the Day

This is what I did Friday night and most of Saturday... about 52 crumb blocks. There is a noticeable change in my scrap box. However, it's just a small box, and I have more scraps in other boxes. I could do these blocks for the next month... in fact, some time, if it wouldn't drive me insane, I should try that -- a whole month, or perhaps my entire summer when I have lots of time off, do nothing but crumb blocks and scrap sewing. I wonder if even that would make a dent?

Thanks for the comments that say you like my red, white & blue top with the light blues. I do, too, I think. I'll know for sure when it's a complete quilt. This week I hope to get it to the machine quilter. I think (I hope) I'll love the quilt when it is done.

We're getting an all-weekend snow storm. It started out slowly, but finally tonight (Saturday night) we have some good accumulation. It will continue to snow for the next 24 hours, they say. I love a fresh, deep snowfall, especially when it comes on a weekend.

Long Weekend

Hooray, I have today off! I have been so naughty this weekend. I stay up sooo late into the wee hours. I'm embarssed even to admit how late I stayed up on Saturday and Sunday nights. I have never been up so late, even when I was a young night owl. Anyway, I have spent most of the weekend sewing on this quilt for my brother-in-law. I promised him a red, white & blue quilt. He doesn't remember asking for one in those colors, but he did. I'm a little disappointed that I used so many light blues and that I'm not as fond of how they look. A mixture is nice, but I think I have too many lights in there.

As you can see, my design wall doesn't accommodate a very big quilt. This is 40 x 60 and takes up every inch. I actually have two design areas about the same size, but they are not side by side. And one is currently my make-do "bulletin board." I keep hanging reminder items on there "temporarily." I just never seem to get around to removing them so I can use it for its intended purpose.

This quilt is now on the living room floor so I can add to it. I think I'm nearing completion. Good thing, too, because I am running out of the background fabric.

I made another fabric postcard this weekend, similar to the last one I posted. Can you see my tiny initials on there? Look for CE. This one is going to a LQS that is sponsoring a postcard challenge. Next month all the postcards they receive will be on display. And everyone who sent one in will get one back from the shop. It'll be fun to see what I get from them. The shop owner is in the artist category whereas I'm in the putzy category, so I look forward to seeing what she sends.

Oh, I just remembered another postcard I made, just for fun. Here's that one:

I'm trying to convince myself to do some housework instead of sewing, but I'm so close to getting this top all assembled.... I hate to interrupt the flow. Have a great, sunshiney day, everyone!

Postcard Connection

I found out about a fun place where people can exchange postcards with others around the world. It is here: www.postcrossing.com

I made this postcard for a person in Finland. She said she likes homemade cards. I hope she likes this one.

Valentine

I made this valentine for my husband. It's about 6" x 12". Clothes pin is there to show you scale. I'm still looking for the perfect little dowel and string for hanging. It's fat-free, carb-free, sugar-free. Think he'll like it?

Quilt Show Photos

Thought I'd share some photos from the quilt show. Enjoy!

These are my dolls, displayed in a glass cube. The standing doll is my "bride doll" (remember those?) from probably 1960 or so. My mom made her that coat and a little muff and a whole bunch of other clothes. The only thing I have left is this coat. The baby doll is modern. I made both dolls' quilts.

I made this one (below) from a pattern called "You Just Can't Cut It," designed for large print fabrics that you don't want to cut up.

Set-Up Complete

We set up our quilt show today. Wow! It gets better every year. Here is a picture of the set up process, almost done.

Here is a picture of the quilt that I plan to vote for (Viewer's Choice). The ribbon is from one of the show committee members. We decided to let the show committee vote for their faves. I put my ribbon on a different quilt but plan to vote for this one as viewer's choice. It's just beautifully done in felted wool.

Quilters in Denmark?

First a question: I know a quilter from the USA who will travel to Denmark this spring. She would love to make a connection with a quilter in Denmark or at least find some information about quilting there, visit some shops, whatever she can find. Does anyone have some info I could share with her? Just FYI, she is a very talented long-arm quilter.



Second: this is my challenge quilt that I only showed the back of last month. It's nothing to brag about, but I had fun making it. It is made in honor of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith. We are setting up the quilt show tomorrow! I will share photos with you soon.

Liberated Quiltmaking

Isn't Gwen Marston's "Liberated Quiltmaking" the book that so inspired Tonya and others? It is at Amazon in paperback for $24.95 ... isn't this a lot less than the hardcover cost? I hope it's the same book. I just ordered one for myself, and they said it is expected to be available for shipping in late Feb... so I assume that it being available in paperback is a new thing.

Just thought I'd share this tidbit, and I hope I'm talking about the right book and have my facts right (e.g., that is wasn't available in paperback before).

This is my friend, Jeanne, and the quilt I gave her. It only took me about five years to finish this easy little quilt. It was a total happy accident that it perfectly matches that chair to the right.

Sampler's Finished!

I just finished the binding and hanging sleeve. This one doesn't even need a label. It's ready for the show set-up on Saturday! The top hanger thing really doesn't bow like it looks like here.

Quilt Show Coming Up

Greetings, readers! It's a cold but pretty day here in Minnesota... we started out the day at about -3 degrees F (about -18 C). You can see why I chose to stay inside today. It's pretty outside, but I didn't feel like bundling up. Today I am working on bindings and finishing hanging sleeves for the quilt show that is about to start (my guild's annual show). I also made another small quilt for the silent auction. The show opens on Feb. 7th. If anyone is in the Twin Cities area and wants to see the quilt show, check the info at this blog:
it's called dcsq (dot) blogspot
When I tried to make it into a link it went to a really weird site, so I unlinked it. Trust me, it is a normal blog.

I have made three small quilts for the auction. This year I just kept going! Usually it's a struggle to get one made. If I want to be brutally honest, I should admit I made four small quilts this year. One I'm turning in as made by "anonymous". It was rather ugly, and I didn't want my name on it. It was a quick, thrown together thing made of pre-quilted small blocks that I won as a door prize a while back. They started out ugly, and it didn't get much better when I made them into a top. The other three are at least worthy of having my name on them.


Here is the one I made today. It is nothing like I had in mind when I started. I hope someone likes it. It is totally made of scraps. The beads are leftovers from some I bought in Port Townsend, WA last July. Wish I'd bought lots more. They are fun to add to small quilts, and I haven't seen anything as nice here in MN. The dowel is from a very cheap, ugly wall hanging I bought last year in the after-Christmas sales. I paid 50 cents for the whole thing and mainly it was to use the dowel. And all the fabrics are from my scrap bin. So it was a very inexpensive little quilt.

I haven't been through the blog rings to catch up on everyone's news. I'll go do that now and hope that I hear about an upcoming arrival in Paris of Tonya and her cats. Have a happy week, everyone!

A Sewing Weekend

Wow, this week went so fast! My work week was crazy and busy. I was so happy when the weekend came. I spent almost the entire weekend sewing. My sweet husband did a bunch of housework and laundry to keep us going on that mundane stuff, and so I could sew to my heart's content. Isn't he a gem?

These are the string blocks I made to send to Nancy of the Stashbusters ring (her birthday request). I assumed more people would make them with red center lines, so I made mine blue. Then I found out on the Heartstrings project that they are getting more blue centers than red.

The next photo shows the 8 blocks I made for Heartstrings. These are a great way to use up strips of various widths, and they make such cute quilts! After I catch up on UFOs I am sure I will be interested in making more of these and making the tops myself. For now I'm going to send these in to be used in the communal pot for making charity quilts.

Another thing I did this weekend was make 50 four patch blocks for Sunshine, another Yahoo group of which I am a member. We make quilts for kids who undergo cleft palate surgery, and quilts for kids in orphanages worldwide. Here is a sample of some of the blocks I made, and the pile of 50 that I am sending to the person who issued this challenge.

These are some bags that will be filled with school supplies. This is a project we do at church. They are given to a church relief organization that distributes these to areas in need. I like making these bags. Today I had to be creative as some of my fabric pieces weren't big enough. I like these funky bags! The last one, made entirely of upholstery fabric sample pieces, got pretty thick on the sewing of the handles, and I broke my needle. I think that's a sign to stop sewing for the weekend and start to plan my work week.

front and back

I have a whole box full of upholstery samples that we got from a neighborhood furniture store. A woman at my church works there. The samples are so helpful in making these bags!

Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of my father's death. I can hardly believe it was five years ago! But when I think of my son who is now 20, back when he was 15 seems like a lifetime ago. It's all relative. I hope my mom has an OK day on Monday, remembering her husband, my dad who was such a loving man. I still miss him and dream about him. But I know he is doing fine, and so are we. Give your family a hug today!

Just Looked Outside

It has been snowing, and I didn't realize how beautiful it was getting to be. About two minutes ago I took this picture out my front door. Finally - snow! We look like Minnesota again!

U R Cool

This is a miniature quilt that I made today. It measures about 11" x 14". It was very spur of the moment. I actually sat down to make a fabric postcard. Now that this is done, I wish I had used an upper case R, because this kinda looks like "Up Cool." I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with this little quilt.

On the news I saw the horrible ice storms going through the southern plains states.. quite a widespread storm! We got some very beautiful snow here in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. It looks like about two inches. It finally looks like Christmas! I turned on my outdoor Christmas lights again, just for fun, because they never looked "right" when we had our brown Christmas.

I hope you are all doing well, especially Tonya while you work through this medical exploration thing. And I hope none of those horrible car accidents in the ice (that I saw on TV) involved anyone I know from Blogland. Stay home and be safe! Tomorrow is another day off, so I plan to do more sewing! Wheeeee!

Getting Lost in Blogland

Does anyone else do this... start traveling through the mavericks ring and then accidentally find yourself in the midst of the stash busting ring or some other? I could wander through rings forever and not know what happened.




I'm posting a picture of my mom. Doesn't she look great? Guess how old she is! I bet you won't guess that she will be 86 in two months. It's true! I think she looks much younger than 86. This was taken on Christmas Day. She looks happy and youthful. I want to go visit her and play a game of Scrabble with her. I never win, because she's a Scrabble professional.


Nothing new in the quilty front. I'm back at work after my nice break and haven't had time to sew this week. What does one do with all the ideas and sewing motivation in one's head when there is no time to produce?! Maybe I'll take my sewing machine to work. Wonder what the boss would say.........

Another Quilt Done!

Wow, I'm on a roll! I finished another quilt today. It's for the challenge at the Feb. show, so I can't show it to you until later. Here's a sneak peek... what do you think?? Does it look like a winner to you??? LOL.



This is the back, and when I took the picture, I wasn't quite done sewing down the hanging sleeve.

Next I'll show you a random, crazy shot. I took this just to see if my camera battery was still working. (It was.) I look out my sewing room door to the front hall. There's a little table there full of junk. I try to keep it cleaned off, but it piles up again. There is a big box I will put in the mail tomorrow, a piece of clothing and an old goldfish bowl/terrarium that I will give to Goodwill, a set of sheets that we got for Christmas (those are now in the dryer), some quilting books that were in my way, some quilty stuff that I am going to give away, some stuff to take to church, and the big dark object on the bottom shelf is my FW that is in a cooler. (I didn't want it to get too hot in this unseasonably warm winter weather.)



Want to show me what you see when you look out your sewing room door? I dare ya! And no fair cleaning up first, either.

A Busy and Fun Break

I haven’t written for a while, and I’m behind on reading everyone’s blogs again! I have been on break from my job, but busy with family and things to do. I have been sewing a lot, getting some things done, but not the things I should be working on. Here is an example. It is a wall hanging I made quite a while ago; just this week I finally quilted and bound it. I do not plan to hang this in the February quilt show for which I should be preparing. This one is just not that well produced. Even though it is paper pieced, I had several mis-matched points. It’s good enough to hang in my house, but not in a quilt show. Not that I usually have a strict criterion for myself. If it gets done, I usually put it in the show!



We finally got a little snow. Just a little. It looks pretty to have our landscape white instead of gray and brown that I was getting sick of seeing. But it’s still unseasonably warm, and the snow probably won’t last long. What strange weather we are having! Where did Minnesota go??

My break is flying past all too quickly. I go back to work next Monday, January 8. Not that I’m complaining. I know I’m very lucky to get a break over the holidays! It is so refreshing; I really think more businesses should give their employees breaks like school employees get. It really helps refresh one’s soul. (I just wish I had gotten more quilting done during the break. With the number of days left, I know I won’t get done all that I had hoped. So it goes.)

I had such fun with my kids during the break. My son came home from college and actually hung around and talked with us! It was great. He and I made an apple pie together just before he went back to the dorm. He took half the pie with him, still a little warm. I meant to take a picture of my son with the pie, but I forgot. This Thursday I get to spend a little time with my daughter when she has a day off. Maybe I can visit her cat, too. He used to live here, and I miss him.

That’s all for now! Hope you are enjoying 2007 so far.

My Next Projects

This morning I am busy filling out registration forms for our guild's quilt show in February. I am registering TEN quilts! I have never shown that many before. Several of these are small wall hangings which explains why I was able to get so many done. I will also have an 11th quilt in the challenge section.

Getting these all down on paper makes me realize I need to get busy and finish all of these! One is in need of more piecing work, two need to be quilted, one still needs to be bound, and several need hanging sleeves. I better quit jabbering and get to work!

BTW, my son pondered for a while, which surprised me, but he chose the yellow stripey bag, which did not surprise me.

Happy New Year, all!

Christmas Day

Our tradition is to celebrate on Christmas Eve after the candlelight service at church. We had a nice dinner and fun family time with our two adult children home. I'm loving having them here! My daughter is helping my son knit himself a Harry Potter scarf. Here he is taking a break from the knitting. This morning I decided to make him a bag to carry his knitting in. I made the pinkish purplish one this morning (instead of making Christmas muffins) and then decided it won't be properly "man" looking for him. So I'll let him choose between these two bags. The greenish/yellow stripey one was already made for another purpose, but I can easily replace it if that's the one he wants.






Our Christmas dinner dessert - individual cheesecakes with fresh raspberries! Yum!




This is a guy I work with and his guide dog. They are both trying out a quilt I made. He had asked if I could make a quilt for his wife. He is worried about her health and thought a quilt to cuddle in would be a nice comfort. I had this one almost done, so I sold it to him for a bargain price. I'm glad it is going to his wife - she and I used to work together years ago, before she was married and even before she became blind. Small world, isn't it?!



Today we are headed over to my sister's house for another family gathering. Fun, fun fun! Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas Day. I read through all the Mavs' blogs this morning. It was so nice to see all your pictures, your trees, your food, your laundry (haha), and to hear about your traditions. You are a talented bunch!! TTFN.

A Fading Tradition

This little decoration has been a part of our family Christmas for over 20 years. Way back then, I bought this at an after-Christmas sale. I remember it was marked down from $40 to $20, a 50% off sale that I was glad to snap up. I couldn't have afforded it at $40. It was a mobile, hand-made in Denmark. It had three horizontal metal holders, each with these loops and trees hanging off the ends. So there were six spots of these pretty little loops and trees hanging at various heights. I hung the mobile every Christmas, and it followed us from our old house to our new. Each year I carefully packed it in the same box in which I purchased it. A few years ago the red loops began to droop and tear. I had to tape them together. It was starting to age.



This year it was just too tired out to help us celebrate Chirstmas. The old strings were hopelessly tangled, and the more I tried to fix it, the more the pieces began to tear. Sadly, I had to say goodbye to 5/6 of this mobile. Now all we have left is this one little loop with its pretty little trees. Even this small part is still so dainty and festive. Perhaps this will continue to cheer us during the Christmas season until we can travel to Denmark and get another new one right where it was made -- a grandchild mobile of our original.

Back to LIfe .. Cough.. I Think

Ewww, it has been a long week of coughing, blowing nose, taking naps, eating a lot of chicken noodle soup. Hubby and I both got the crud. I'm finally functioning normally again, sort of. Still coughing and blowing, but I'm upright.

I managed to put together a UFO top while I was sick. I worked at it slowly when I had energy, and just got the top done this morning. Here it is. I guess I will quilt it in time to hang in my guild's show in February, then decide what to do with it.



I am also getting borders on my Tonya-Letters Sampler so I can get that done and hang it in the show, too. This year I will have mostly wall hangings in the show as that has been my new-found love, making small, quick quilts that don't turn into UFOs for years and years.

Hope you all are healthy and that you have safe and happy holidays.