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.