Birthday Quilts Are BACK!

Birthday quilts are back on the calendar! And aren't we happy? You betcha! This is our group, the Amazing Quilt Babes (less one). Each year we have chosen a day for our own very stitch day, and the others give their time instead of presents. Even though that day isn't our official birthday, it becomes an Amazing birthday because our friends are helping us make a special quilt. The "birthday" girl this time, is Carol, on the right of the picture. She has fallen in love with Kaffe Fassett fabrics, and this is the result of our morning sewing!

Last year, Carol had us help her with a French Roses quilt for a friend who had liver cancer. We all fell in love with the fabrics she used, so she "kitted" up enough for us all to make one, too. This is Shirlee's (left) quilt with Carol (right). When I have my French Roses completed, you'll see some of the same fabrics, but mine will be king size for my bed! Shirlee chose to back hers with flannel, and it will be a yummy reminder of the happy summer come this winter as she curls up to sew!

At the end of the day, stormy weather has us outside taking pictures instead of inside taking cover!

This is what is known as the leading edge of the storm. See the anvil shaped cloud?
And it is sure a good thing that I've finally gotten my big board set up (on a sofa table rather than an ironing board). Clyde has declared this his favorite spot to sleep while I sew! Isn't his smile sweet?
If he grows any longer, I'll have to order a wider board for sure!

A HOT summer day

First, before I forget (again!) - several of you have asked about the bottles in the vegetable garden. They are there for no other reason than they are "pretty" and I think they are sort of quirky. One of my quilting buddies started this idea with a Wine Garten of bottles near her gardening shed, and I've adapted it to my garden. Silly, but I like it.

I also wanted to thank everyone for sharing the name/s of the 1930's quilt from an earlier post. I'm still not sure if any of them are exactly correct because the quilt I have has the points squared rather than star points as in the quilts named: Pontiac Star, Arkansas Snowflake, Danish Star, Czech Star. I can't seem to find a picture of Hummingbird, so I don't know about that one. BUT, even though, this quilt might not be any of those, you DID help me identify one of my Grandmother's quilt patterns that I have stored away in the closet.

I usually sleep in, but this morning my neighbor down the road called and told me to run outside and look to the south. She wouldn't elaborate further, so dutifully I ran outside in my nightgown, hair standing on end, and looked to the south. What to my wondering eyes did appear (oops wrong story) but a hot air balloon landing. At our other house almost 13 miles due west and a little to the north, we saw hot air balloons every day when it got so terribly hot as it is this week. They would float across our property, both launching and downing. It's nice to know we will have the pleasure here at this house too! I just don't think I want to get up at 7 AM to see them, though, today was nice.

What's on my design wall today? ONE LAST CLIENT QUILT!!!!! Yay! Then my sewing time will be mine! Don't get me wrong - I LOVE doing these for my clients but it's even better when I have my time for my OWN quilts!

These are an assortment of blocks that were done in 2008 for her wedding memory quilt. Some are painted on with Tulip paints, some are cross stitched, some are machine embroidered, some are hand embroidered, and some are photo transfer. This is the cousin of a client of mine from last year who had the same organizer of the blocks.

Here's the first quilt from this family. She chose batiks for the setting, and the backing.

Cowboy is a neighbor's dog who has adopted us as his own. He sleeps on our front porch when it's raining or extremely hot. He brings us his deflated basketball to play with anytime we are outside. He follows us around, no matter what we are doing. Even though I don't usually like big dogs, this guy has won my heart. When he comes over, he leans his head on my leg as if he is saying "I love you". He has such a gentle spirit that you can't send him away!

Every ball we've ever gotten for him is soon deflated, which makes it great for tug of war, but not so great to have laying around in your yard. When we moved some of my shard work to the new house, there were several bowling balls waiting to be made into gazing balls. I just left them outside the garden shed, and Cowboy found one that apparently he loves. The best thing? He can't deflate it! He will play for hours rolling this around our three acres, growling under his breath and pawing it around. When he's tired, he lays down with it between his front legs as if to say "It's mine!"



Those of you who have followed my blog for the last few years know that I have a quirky sense of humor in the garden. I had a Crazy Dog garden at the last house, complete with Mr. Crazy Dog. Until this past week, he's been at the "spa" getting rejuvenated while I prepared his quarters for him here. Doesn't he look grand guarding his new digs with his new dentures, and stain? I glued back all his broken parts with Gorilla glue, repainted his features and stained his body with floor stain. This little garden is right outside my stewdio window where I can hear the fountain and watch the birds. You might have to double click the photo to see him a bit more clearly.


I'm sure the next post will have a lot more quilts in it. I hope to have the client quilt off the wall today, and start on the next one for me! This weekend is also a stitch day with the Amazing Quilt Babes here at the house, so you KNOW there will be quilts from that shindig!

See you later!

Family, gardens (and yes!) Quilts

Sometimes, it seems as if I will never get back to the stewdio to sew!

We've had a lot of family company over the last couple of weeks due to my FIL's 80th birthday. No two people arrived or left on the same day, so it made for interesting meals, trips to the airport and plans for who was going to use the car on which days. This is a picture of my BIL, Brett,from Oregon after a long family day!


This past week, I've finished projects for clients and I've driven back and forth between the LQS (40 minutes away) three times. The LQS is closing July 1, which is sad, but I am happy for the owners who will be able to spend more time with their new grandchildren.

So besides company in and out with all that goes with that, we've also been working in the garden between severe weather, trying to get everything done. Here's the garden, and we should soon be harvesting squash like crazy! My grand daughter Kaitlyn loves it, so we planted a lot for her. I wonder if squash is related to bamboo as it seems to grow as we stand by it... Did you know that bamboo can grow 36" in 24 hours? Wait until you see how much that zucchini has grown in the next posting! I am going to wait until Wednesday to take another picture of Kaitlyn in the same spot, so you can see!


Here they are just one week later:

Here's the garden shed (which still needs to be painted) and part of the garden. We had to re-do just about everything 3 times because the rains kept washing everything away. We finally got smart and built some raised beds to plant in. Next year, we'll have double that!


Here is one bed of tomatoes, which are also a big favorite on our summer table.



And my "drunken" green beans (because of the pretty wine bottles marking the rows).

We've done our best by going green at this house as much as we can. We purchased two recycled totes that were used to hold soap for the car wash in a previous life, then "plumbed" them together with a spigot for a hose to the garden. That's 550 gallons of free water! In one inch of rain, and our size of roof, 400 gallons of water is available for reuse! Isn't that just great?


We are making our own grass mulch this year for the garden, too. You can see part of it in the garden beds around the zucchini plants in the above picture. Of course, that required and investment of real money for a lawn sweeper. Hubby mows in one direction, then I drive along in the other with the Gator sweeping in the other. By the time we are finished with the three acres, we have a LOT of grass clippings for the garden. Want some? LOL!

We decided we would go back to making our own compost, too. Instead of purchasing a new composting bin which are really quite pricey, we are constructing a bin from a recycled large trash bin we bought at a garage sale. We drilled 3" holes in the bottom so it can make contact with the earth for the worms to crawl into it, and more holes along the side for air exchange. We can't just have a "heap" because of the rural location of our home - lots of animals would root through it, I'm afraid.

So - no quilting/sewing for me except for client's quilts. I have one more to do before I can get to my own. In the meantime, please enjoy one of my friend's quilts. I've been invited to play with the BAG Ladies (Bohemian Art Group) of which she is a member. She also is going to have a new book (YAY!) out with the Kansas City Star books next month on her landscape/trees methods. Her name is Jane Kennedy and she is from Lone Jack, MO. Isn't her work just wonderful?

Where to start?

Gosh! Has it really been since the end of May since I posted here? I guess so, since my calendar has advanced without my looking!

Now, how do I start to get caught up? I think I will post just a few topics at a time, and then I hope to STAY caught up. Getting our new yard and garden put together between the rainstorms, and then the heat has taken up a lot of my spare time. I've also taken a few client projects, so I'll share them first.

The first one is a 1930's quilt with an unknown pattern. Does anyone know the name of it? I would really appreciate knowing it, if you do!

When it came to me, it was heavily soiled from storage. Here's a picture of the worst of the discoloration. It's on the edges on the left side that appear to be brown/beige.

What fun to soak a BIG quilt top in the bathtub!

This is the water after an 8 hour soak in Restoration. It's wonderful to find a product that actually does what it is supposed to do! The brown edges are almost white again!

I am going to repair the corners on this quilt using a vintage dresser scarf I found at an antique shop that matches the background fabric closely. Then I am going to add borders, and make a backing so the client can have it hand quilted (not by me).

This is another old quilt that I made a backing for the client. It's pretty fragile in many areas, and I recommended that it be used for display purposes only. I think she is going to tie it and then bind it.

This is the center of the quilt (without the final borders) of some embroidered blocks by my client's mother. I love the green swirly fabric she chose for the sashings!

Now after all this hard work, how about dinner? My son worked for the school bus company last year, and for Christmas they gave him a 19.5 lb. turkey. Since he doesn't have a freezer big enough, nor did he want to cook a turkey, I did. He and his girls came over for dinner, and we had a gobbling good time! Thanks, First Student!

Here's my son, Bryan and his girls, Kaitlyn (left) and Victoria (right). Aren't they sweet?

I wasn't crazy afterall!

Now there are some who might doubt the title of this post, but do you remember when I was asking for some information a while back? I asked if anyone had seen a quilt or technique that had a window "pop-out"? I thought I had seen it at the Minnesota Quilt Show in 2008. Well, I was right!

Of course, I searched and searched my hard copy photos and my computer files to no avail. I have no idea why I couldn't find these pictures before, when I really needed them! Isn't that the way it always is?

The first picture on this blog is Sunflower Vista, by Karen Wallach, Blaine Minnesota. It is the piece I have been searching for! I always try to take a picture of the label with the quilt at the show where it is hanging so I can have the maker's name. I have the entire quilt picture with that label, but it's a bit blurry, and it took me a bit to figure out the name. I just love this Fiber Artist's work! I've sent her an inquiry as to whether she teaches so I can find out about this technique!

Here's why I haven't posted much in the last week or so. The garden is more complete now. My son put in the last half of the fence posts for me on Mother's Day, and we finally got the raised beds filled with the 5 cubic yards of composted soil. We finally have all the run-off corralled now, so the garden is done! Well - except for one last tilling on the side closest to the shed. This picture is taken from my deck.

Here's my helper, Kaitlyn. As you can see, I wear fabulous garden clothes: comfy baggy cotton Jam's shorts, a baggy white shirt to repel the sun's hot rays and an SPF 60 Sunhat. The last of the cattle panels have now been installed too, so the other side of the garden is now protected from the critters that love to come dine in our yard.

And this is what your feet look like if you wear reef runner sandals in the garden everyday! They are NOT dirty - that is suntan...yes, that is even with sunblock!

I have a customer coming on Thursday afternoon for me to set some embroidered blocks made by her mother. Another customer is coming on Sunday afternoon to have me set some painted/embroidered/photo transferred blocks from her wedding. Ah, now, maybe I can pay the balance for my September Gwen Marston retreat! Pictures to follow.

It's a Circus and a star!

It was still raining, and raining hard Friday night.

Of course, it was! We had tickets for TEN of us to the Zoppe Italian Circus. Because it's an outdoor tent, and they were in a local park, they had to cancel the last performance (ours) because of the rain soaked arena. We were all so sad!

BUT WAIT! We did get to go to the morning show Saturday. I had all my grandchildren there, along with my daughter and son (and daughter's hubby). Laugh, laugh, laugh! What fun we all had!

This is just a small, old fashioned family circus. I think they seat up to 500 people if even that.

My four grand-girls, daughter and me

Of course, Nino is everyone's favorite....

This is what it's all about! Nino, grand-son and daughter

Nino and Quiltgranny

Center ring for perspective on size of tent

My RR Bloggers group have officially started the second round of our mini round robin. Here's my 4" starting block. It will return home in 15 months - hopefully as a winter/snow theme quiltlet!

Just some little softies

I've been down with another cold, and now I've had some oral surgery so I am feeling rather cranky and old!

Since I haven't been in the stewdio for a while, I decided I could work on some more softies, and here they are. I am going to gather quite a few for our annual week at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN (July) where I think it will be a lot of fun to "plant" them!

Tomorrow is an all day stitch day at my house, so I have to make sure I get rested up for sewing, sewing, sewing! I hope to finish my French Roses for sure!

Such people!

Remember last month I shared The Toy Society with you, and I showed you the little scottie dog I made and dropped off at a local vet's office? Here are the latest two that were taken out for adoption today.

Today, I had two more to drop somewhere, and I decided I would put a puppy in the window at oour tiny little branch Post Office. I thought I should tell the Post Mistress about it, so they don't get alarmed, and she thought it was such a delightful idea, she wanted to participate, too. So the little red, one eared, puppy got left at the Post office this afternoon.

Next stop was the dentist's office. My dentist and his staff are so sweet, and their office is in a larger office building that has a central lobby on the ground floor. There's a little fountain there and some park benches, and I thought this would be a great place to put the Polka Dotty Puppy. When I went over to the receptionist window (not the dentist, but the main building receptionist), and I started explaining about The Toy Society, a fellow came up and rudely said "We don't allow solicitations here. You need to leave!" I started to explain again about the free toys, and that's when I noticed how he was looking at me - really hateful and mean.

I think HE needs a puppy don't you? Maybe no one loves him.....but you know what? He's not going to get one of MINE! No sireee!

Such people in the world that can't appreciate a little joy! Oh well, the puppy got left IN the dentist's office (not so anonymously) at the children's station. So I hope someone finds it soon and gets a little hug from Dotty.

Just little ole me

I needed to do a small self portrait for a group project. So here I am, in all my glory. You can double click the picture to see it closer. I've used letter beads to spell out all the things I am, and I changed my hair in each frame, much as I do in real life. Since I had a birthday this past week, I am feeling pretty old, and I supposed I should have found a place to put "old woman" on it too!

The shadow at the bottom is exactly that as I took it late at night, and it was laying in a blue and white striped box lid. The whole thing finished at 8" X 10". The picture is of me, photoshopped and printed on fabric.