Another Day in the Midwest

Today's activities included but were not limited to:

Green beans from the garden, finally picked, cleaned, and prepped for canning. Said canning was completed by 10:30 PM. All I did was one canner load, which means only 9 pints. But I did have enough left to make another big pot to eat, and to share with our neighbors next door.


Because my morning was interrupted with three grandchildren (and one of their friends), other plans were put aside in lieu of playing. I had to send a note to our dear Bonnie of Quiltville to get her (famous in Kansas) zucchini bread recipe anyway. I only wish the kitchen fairy would come and make this zucchini bread. I don't think it will bake very well in this condition, do you? I'll post Bonnie's recipe tomorrow if the bread gets baked.


And a day would'nt be complete without a tad bit of sewing, would it? I've got the binding sewn on the basket quilt that will be donated to our local Cancer Action auction. This will allow me to sit with hubby and sew it down - which will take no time at all.

The braids for the "not-to-be" border have been packaged up with leftover fabrics, and I've been thinking I shall make a strippy lap quilt with them when I finish other projects. This might be a nice "masculine" quilt to have on hand, so I will pursue that thought later.

The flip-circles (crop circles) will be taken off the wall tomorrow. I'll post the explanation why at the time, along with some statistics. My brain hurts today.



Bonnie and Clyde always huddle together when the kids are around. With a 2.5 year old little boy who thinks they can't hear him unless he shouts in their faces, who can blame them? They seem to think this chair is their safe haven. If you click on the picture, you'll see "their" cat quilt on the back, because they love to sprawl on the back of the chair. Without the quilt, the top looks like it has a black edge!

Beware of what you ask for!

The painted cupboard is one of my favorite pieces of furniture we own. We bought it a long time ago, when we could ill afford a "designer" piece of furniture. I just had to have it though, and I wish all my furniture could be in this style, whatever you might call it. It holds a television on the top, which I occasionally turn on while I am sewing, and mostly use for the satellite music channels when not using my Mac's Itunes. The grandkids generally watch their videos and kids TV channels in this room, too.

The bottom part used to house a stereo, but now it holds all my computer software and my genealogy books and papers.


This is the most recent quilt my buddy and I have made for a Cancer Action auction (in October). We finished it up this afternoon, and we're pretty pleased about it. I think we work well together - I took the handles to Rochester MN with us, and worked on that part while there, and she worked on the baskets during that time here. She had more work to do, for sure, since she also did the sashings and the 9 patches, but then she had a bit more time (I think) than I did. Last Sunday we got together and worked on putting the top together, and got about 75% of the basket blocks together. Today we worked on the rest. She finished up the top, while I worked on the pre-border sewing and the backing. She'll be taking it to the Iowa quilter we use this next week, and when it returns in August, I'll put the binding on.

We actually combined two different patterns, because we liked the smaller size of these baskets with a curved handle, but liked the triple sashing of another pattern. We sure didn't have much fabric left over from the calculations - less than 1/4 yard of the blue and the red, so that's a good thing. When we purchase new fabric for a project, we always hold our breath when we are trying to make sure we have enough, and that didn't leave much room for even one cutting error!


WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!!
The following is not for the faint of heart!
In an effort to make sure I don't give the wrong impression here, I am going to post something I never thought I would share with ANYONE! All I think I've ever shown on this blog is a tidy stewdio, a tidy yard, a tidy garden and tidy quilts. Someone asked in the last post about where's my junk?

JUNQUE? Well, I have plenty of it to spare and to share, but it's carefully hidden away, of course. B e w a r e (cue the spooky music) on your journey to the dark underbelly of my stewdio!

First, you will always find a pile of it, sitting patiently by the door, waiting to be escorted downstairs. (Judy and Libby, the place you will be going to is called a basement in Kansas.)

And don't think you can ride the chair assist to go downstairs, either! The JUNQUE has priority seating! It seems there's always something waiting to go. It can't leave the station until the balcony and lower levels are both full, you know.


EEEEKKKKK!!!!! Dark Shadows abound!
It does help to turn on a light, but I gotta tell you that it's getting harder and harder to even get to the switch!

Wait a minute...is this stuff coming or going ... or going or coming? Who knows anymore. There's some of Mother's things I brought back from her apartment, there's some Christmas wrappings from last year, there's some of this year's future Christmas presents, and of course, fabric. Bags of fabric, baskets of fabric, boxes of fabric, crates of fabric, and anything that will hold fabric will have fabric inside.

You are now looking at the west side of what I call the Mezzanine level as you go down to the bottom of the stairs. Some of this stuff has been brought in and out of here several times over the last year, too. Oh, and of course, while you are there, you can always do a couple of sets of crunches on the exercise ball, too:)


The other side of the Mezzanine will show you just a bit of the custom cupboards that were made to hold....what else...fabric when we moved here about 8 years ago. And they do. But, you know, the floor just holds more and it's easier to see, right? The Inspira quilt frame was a good idea at the time (another long story). It's been been used exactly one time. Know anyone who might want or need a nice 5' frame that expands to 10? It holds ANY sewing machine sideways to let you quilt (on three rolls) easily. Let's talk. It would certainly make my hubby happy to have more room. But who are we kidding here? You know it would make me sad not to have a place to hang fabric to audition it for the next project!

So there you have it, Elaine! Be careful of what you ask for, be VERY careful! HA! (And for those of you will ask - and I know you will - the lamp on the floor is NOT plugged in for me to see the fabrics better, it's just on it's way in...or is that out?)

Almost Back to Normal

We made a quick trip out to Las Vegas last weekend. John Hurley is great in Spamalot, and if you are a fan of Monty Python, you would really enjoy the show! I played the slots on "free" money from Bellagio (for my birthday) and "free" money from the Wynn from joining their players club. All in all, I didn't spend any of MY money, and won about 1800 quarters - which were promptly spent in the spa and at the boutique. We even had time to sit out in the sun, poolside before we came back home!

We had one day back home, and then drove the 8 hour trip to Rochester Minnesota for hubby's appt at Mayo Clinic. He had a liver transplant in 2004 and a kidney transplant in 2005. Now there is an incisional hernia that must be repaired...and since his annual evaluations are already scheduled in June, we are hoping that it can be repaired at that time. That saves us an entire additional trip, so in the meantime, his anti-rejection medications are being adjusted so he can have the surgery. He's feeling great, so perhaps with this last surgery, he can have a great summer for a change!


The weather here has been glorious! Birds chirping, grass growing, mosquitoes biting!

Our grandson, Stephen and Opa have a wonderful time in the yard. Stephen likes anything with motors, and Opa likes to do anything that makes Stephen happy. We have almost two acres, and these two spent the entire morning like this the other day!



I've been putting out my garden ornaments slowly. I found these "Nerdy Nerds" at the hardware store the other day - it seems that Stephen thinks they are real, and he has entire conversations with this one that is by the front patio.


Now, lest you think that I've given up quilting,I want you to think again. I dislike the process of pin basting immensely! Everything else about making the quilt is fine with me, but the pin basting is for the birds! So, this afternoon, I spent doing that dratted chore, and now I have two of the six quilts for Duschene Clinics for this summer ready to run under the machine.




Fabric Karma has been good to me this year, too. The week before we had our whirlwind trip to Las Vegas and MN, a friend from my Bunko group brought me a car trunk load of fabric from her sister-in-law to use for charity quilts. That's what the top quilt is made from, as well as this next picture. It's on my design wall, ready to stitch together tomorrow, and then....sigh.....pin baste. The middle one is the second of two baby quilts gone bad, so I revamped them and I'm using them for these lap quilts. The rest of the year, I am going to make simple single Irish chains for the charity quilts since they make up rather fast, and I can move on to my OWN things!

Another little quilt

Just a quick entry today. We've woken to the NOAH weather radio warning us of storms with quarter size hail, so I couldn't get back to sleep. Just a normal morning in KS in the springtime! For Margaret - the Welcome Spring wallhanging is 44" long by about 40" wide.

I haven't been feeling too "maverick" lately with all the finishing up projects I've been working on. Here is the 4th of the 6 charity quilts promised to Caritas Clinics by June. This quilt is 44" X 60" - a nice small lap quilt.


I also have a piece due by May for my annual Kansas Art Quilter's work, "Altered Views". (If you go to the web site, I've three pieces in the Covers Blown exhibit.) I've been toying with an idea with my mother's, my daughter's face, my grand daughter's face and mine all jumbled together. I'm leaving Saturday for Empty Spools seminars for a week with Dale Fleming of "6 minute circles". I'm thinking that some of the techniques I'll learn there will lend themselves quite nicely to my thoughts of "altered views". Empty Spools is at Asilomar State Park near Monterey CA (Pacific Grove). A wonderful retreat for me each year, too. I almost didn't go this year because of my mother's illness, but she insisted that I need to the time. Isn't that sweet of her?

Two (of 6) 2007 Charity Quilts DONE!

I finally got the two quilts done (pieced), done (quilted), and done (bound) for January and February. I also have the March and April ones done, and waiting now for the inspiration for the second done to happen.

This blue/red/gold one is the last of the Carpenter's Star (or whatever it is) that will be done for Caritas.

We are going to use a Single Irish chain pattern for the 2007 quilts since it is quicker to piece and far quicker to quilt, too. I don't care much for the fabrics used in this quilt, but it IS bright and cheerful.

However, with that said, the next two (not shown yet) are NOT either one of these patterns LOL! I used the Minnesota Hot Dish, and discovered that I didn't care that much for my color choices and I knew I wouldn't like them any better by making them any larger. So, they will make great lap quilts in the necessary 45" X 60" sizes we need for the Clinic's purposes. Not only will I be making the March and April goals with these quilt tops, but also decreasing my UFOS. Such a deal! Once they are done and done, I'll post them, too.

When my friend Carolyn and I went to the Caritas fundraising auction, the I Spy Quilts sadly didn't generate much interest. So Carolyn won the bid on the pink one, and I won the bid on the blue one. Now, I don't have to make my little Stephen an I Spy quilt! Here he is inspecting HIS quilt!



Such is the life, isn't it? Nothing could be better than a spot in the sun, and a stack of quilts. Clyde thinks so!

The last of the bunch!

They're done! AND delivered!







We took all 30 quilts to the clinic on Tuesday and had a nice informal lunch with the staff. Afterwards, the Director of the clinic gave the Sisters their surprise in her office, so it was low key and personal. It was wonderful to see the delight and wonder in their eyes, that the twin size quilts were for THEM! The last of the pictures I posted today are the Diabetic Education reward quilts that we will continue making over the next year.

I've had construction going on in the house for the last few weeks too. We had a closet organizer system put into the master bedroom walk-in closet, and hardwood on the stairs going upstairs as well as the long hallway and landing leading to the three bedrooms there, too. New carpeting was supposed to be installed in the bedroom and closet this past Thursday, but the installer never made it, nor did he call. Why do we always seem to end up with these guys, Huh? So now, we have to wait around on Tuesday to get it done. Of course, I am still living out of the three bedrooms full of furniture and contents from my bureau drawers in the meantime.

Because of all of this, I am not putting up a Christmas tree, and no decorations. Well, I DID put up the Christmas quilt, with three Jim Shore Santas in front of it. And my apple swags are waiting to be put up instead of the pink roses in the main living room. But that's it! My friends are having a hard time believing that this is all I will do. I usually start decorating around Thanksgiving, and it takes me until Christmas Eve to finish it all. We will just enjoy everyone else's this year!



This is a little art quilt I made a few years back that makes me smile. It was supposed to be a self-portrait, but it's a little too "tidy" to be me. But, this is exactly what I will be doing in my "stewdio" for the next few days.

It coulda been worse, and still might be...

I can't believe that on Wednesday it was 72 degrees here, and I finally found time to put away the last of the lawn ornaments and furniture from the deck. I got all my bird feeders filled, and this morning I have a great treat of finches, juncos, cardinals, and bluebirds out my window, because yesterday, it ICED! And SLAINED! And SLEETED! And thundered and lightening'ed!

How sweet to look up from my sewing machine just a few minutes ago to see this little buddy looking in at me!I took mom to the dr yesterday to get her "blood booster" shot, and got back home before it started. But today they are predicting anything from 2" to 20" of snow. Because we live where the weather bands change (look at the planting zone map of the US and we're on the edge of two zones), we never know what we get until we get it. So, today and tomorrow will be great days to hopefully finish up all these charity quilts. It's a good thing, too, since Tuesday is the delivery day!

Carolyn just finished up the 7th Sisters quilt, and I just finished the binding on the Stars of the Heartland, and a couple more lap quilts. Today I am quilting another lap quilt, and I hope to get a flannel one sandwiched and mostly quilted by the end of the day. Maybe tomorrow, there will be more to show. In the meantime, here's two more of the "same but different" lap quilts!