B-Day Quilt

**NOTE: This blog post has been hanging out in the virtual space where missing posts go since the 22nd of June. I'm sure glad it finally showed up!

Well, another year has passed, and the Babes are still doing our annual birthday gifts to each other...the gift of our time, and a day filled with sewing, chocolate, laughter, gossip, chocolate and sewing! Since there are several of us (me included) with birthdays in April, we decided to "choose" a Babes Birthday day throughout the year to celebrate. That way they are disbursed evenly. My real-age birthday is in April - my Babes Birthday this year was yesterday. How cool is that?

We are leaving in just a few minutes for Mayo in Rochester Minnesota. Hubby has his yearly "tune-up" for his transplants, and it just so happens that the Minnesota State Quilter's Guild has their big show there every four years. I'll be working on a baby quilt and some other small projects while I'm there, as well as entertaining myself at the quilt show. A couple of college baseball games (the Honkers) and Rochesterfest should round out our week.

I thought I would let you see the FABULOUS blocks my Babes made for me. They are 8.5" blocks, and the quilt is 11 rows wide, and 12 rows long. Unless, of course, I add more when I return. A great way to use up those strips and scraps, and charm squares. The official name for this pattern is Waste Not, Want Not, and Bonnie over at Quiltville calls it 16 patches and Pinwheels. Her version is to use smaller blocks, but my strips were already larger, so there ya go!

A little of everything!

Let's get caught up with what's been going on! It seems that life is moving really fast for me these days, and even though I think I am going to get the blog, I just don't quite make it. I think everyone must go through periods of their lives like this. Or at least I hope I'm not the only one, running to try to keep up with myself!



Here are the girls at my new house, sewing up a storm! It was Carolyn's choice for her birthday stitch day. She's in the middle of moving into a new house, too, so she chose to have us make some Hero quilts. We managed to get two of them done. Remember, I have my priorities straight...no kitchen sink or counter tops at the new house, but my sewing stewdio is almost ready. Well, it was ready enough to sew, anyway, right?

The Midwest has sure been pounded by storms. This morning I think I heard the weather radio issue the five hundred and somethingth thunderstorm watch for our area. So far, we've seen them form, lift and then move on. Just keep on rolling!



These photos were taken during the last storm. You are seeing them move from the southwest to the northeast. The first picture is from our back porch; the last one is from the front porch. AND the colors are just about right (on my monitor). There's a sort of moody glow under them.

In the meantime, we still are working at keeping this house ready for showings at a moment's notice. The lookers have slowed down, but are still coming, so it WILL sell before the end of summer, I hope. I've more or less emotionally severed with our pool due to the storms, and I've been spending more time at the new house since I am working on getting my stewdio set up there. That's helped.

Yes, we've closed on the new house, but there are still some things that need to be finished. The builder is also building his house just down the road, so he splits his time between ours, theirs and the one that he is building in the small town south of us. The new counter tops and sink were installed last week, and the additional cabinets are about 1/2 stained and lacquered before installation. The floors will be refinished while we are gone to Mayo next week. Things keep moving.

I talked Hubby into one red wall in the dining room. I love it, and so does he.


In between the storms, little boy and I have played in the pool. That's the only time I've been in the water this year. Of course, that doesn't mean I couldn't - I just haven't! He is 3.5 years old this year, and isn't afraid of anything. He's so much fun to play with now, too!





So, today, I am finally going to work on my birthday quilt - the Amazing Quilt Babes will gift their time to me next Saturday, and I have to have it all prepped. I've chosen "Waste Not, Want Not", but Bonnie from Quiltville calls it 16 patch & Pinwheels. Having moved all my scraps and fabric tubs to the new house has inspired me to really get moving on using it up! So, after next week, you can expect to see a picture of MY birthday quilt and the girls! (Remember! It's not really my birthday - it's just my official Amazing Quilt Babes birthday day that has been assigned to me.)

Let there be Socks!

My mother is the one to blame, I guess. I just can't sit and do nothing, and it never fared well to tell her that I was bored! Only boring people get bored, she would say. So I read, and I sew, and I write letters and read my mail.

And I do love to read! My eyes are tired today, though, with the overcast skies and more warnings of rain and severe weather. The grass is looking great, and the flowers are all starting to bloom nicely - so are the weeds. Tomorrow will find me doing a little weeding here and some planting at the new house, too.

The grand kids were over the last two days in the pool, and the little one is now mostly swimming instead of drinking the water, so it's pretty fun. Today was to be burgers and brats on the grill, but it rained, and they decided to stay home instead. Son and his girls will still come for their Monday night feed in a bit, and I decided to make meatloaf for them. His two girls head back East this coming weekend to visit their mother for a month, and meatloaf is one of their favorites. So meatloaf it is!

I decided that since my sewing is boxed up and most of it is sitting at the new house, I would find something else to keep my hands busy. My friend, Judy, found this book for me, and started me out with understanding what I am to do with this new project. I think I am going to like this! Ask me again after 6" of knitting and purling on these 2 circular needles!

4 + 1

So the holiday is upon us, and I have nothing to report on the sewing front. I DID complete a little RR exchange which I can't show you, and I did manage to complete 2 blocks for another group exchange that I completely forgot to take a picture of.

Since the thorny issue last reported upon, I've been on the move hither, thither and yon. Picking out paint colors, keeping the house spotless for showings, enjoying grandkids when I can, and even working (gasp!) at the LQS 13 miles south of here has made the spring just fly by.

Nothing exciting. Just letting you know that the foot is healed, the heart is happy, and I am still living in one house and prepping the new one. We'll be here in this house until it is sold or until I close the pool in Ocotober. So, in the meantime, here's my lovies of the moment.

These are 4 of my grandkids - the one on the left is an extra one (not mine) but she claims me as hers whenever she can. The next one from the left is oh-so-me it's frightening!

No, Clyde, this is not your sister, Bonnie! Clyde seems to think that this cast iron kitty is HIS to love and lay on. No matter what room I move it to, he finds it and "talks" to it, then curls up by it to take a nap.

Now, this is what I call sibling love. This is how they both take their afternoon naps - mind melding!

A Thorn in my Side (foot)

I was brought to tears last week about this time when I was out at the new house, walking the back perimeter of the property. I was truly enjoying the beautiful day, and discovering that we have a little stream that feeds the East fork of the Grand River when all of a sudden!

OUCH!!!!

I walked right into a patch of black locust trees, and couldn't remove myself without stepping on a HUGE thorn. It went right through the thick sole of my tennis shoe, and got me on the left foot, right at the big toe joint. I pulled the thorn out, and went ahead with our walk, remarking we would have to keep the grand-kids out of this area until we could get it cleaned up.

Within the hour, my toe could hardly move, and by the end of two hours, it was extremely swollen , red and hot to the touch. By the time I could take myself to the doctor's office, they told me to go to ER where I found out that Black Locust trees have toxins on their leaves, bark, thorns and fruit.

So, after a Cat Scan of my foot, and 4 hours of IV antibiotics, I was sent home with Percoset, oral antibiotics and instructions to keep my foot elevated for at least 2-3 days until the swelling went down. I also got the warning that if I got red streaks, or it kept swelling, I should return to the ER upon which I would be admitted for "further treatment".

Put the kabosh on my weekend, let me tell you! But I am happy to report that by the end of the 2nd day, my foot looked pretty normal, and it was only a bit tender. Just think, though, without the wonders of modern day medicine, I would have gone the way of Jake in Lonesome Dove after he got a mesquite thorn in his thumb...off into the sunset.

Tomorrow, the arborists are meeting us to discuss the demise of these nasty trees! In the meantime, I am walking ever so gingerly on the property.

(I just can't figure out what I've done with the font size on this entry, so if it looks like I am screaming, I'm really just confused!)

Moving, moving, moving

Wonder where I've been? Me too!

First, we bought a house, then declined the contract because of what we found in with the inspections. Then, when we least expected it, we found another one that was even better! It's on three acres of land, brand spanking new, and is being finished exactly the way we want it. The builder and his wife are just super nice people, and they will be our neighbors when their new house is finished in the next month or so. There will only be about 9 houses all together on this cul de sac and the street behind it, and it IS COUNTRY!!!! We love it! We'll close this Friday and take possession of it then, too.

Just to show you how much in the country here's a couple of pictures of the house from the front which faces west, then the north and south sides of the yard.




We have a lot of landscaping to do. At this house, we've spent the last 8 years planting over 50 trees and I can't begin to count how many perennials.

In the meantime, I've been getting this house ready for market, and it got listed this past Friday. A showing on Saturday went well, they want to come back again. Tomorrow is the realtor walk-through for five hours, so we are going to go "plant" our new mailbox at the new house during that time. I also had to get my two SAMs (storage and moving) ready with all the extra furniture (read that as sewing tables, sewing cabinets, sewing tools, fabric and a few pieces of real furniture) to make the rooms look better and bigger. They got moved this morning to the new house, so that's done.

Because we've had so much rain lately, we've had to cut the grass about every other day here at this house, and we just got finished doing some paint touch ups. I can't think of another single thing to do. I've even planted about 8 flats of petunias and have all my lawn ornaments out.

So. That's what I've been up to. Not sewing, but dreaming of sewing in my new 18' studio space with another 12' X 13' resource space, AND an unfinished space with a window that has a sink hook up and drain where I can paint and dye to my heart's content.

Here's Hubby on the stairs going into my space:

Kitchen nook
Living room with hubby on the hearth

Part of the kitchen

Looking into the dining room

Come on over and stitch with me! (or help me with the landscaping)

Buddies R Us Round Robins

This has been a mighty busy week. But I'll tell you all about that later.

Today I want to share our most wonderful round robins. We revealed our round robins the first night we were in Cambria (and we're home now). The person who was getting theirs back had to sit on the sofa with her eyes covered while the others all o-o-hed and a-h-hed. And there were lots of tears when we opened our eyes, and OMGs! and laughter. There was a lot of laughter all week long! What a wonderful way to start the week off!

You see, Carolyn and I stitch together in KS, and Wendy and Sherri stitch together in CA. I have known Wendy for a long time now, but I nor Carolyn had never met Sherri. Wendy had met Carolyn a couple of times in the last couple of years, but didn't really "know" her. So we decided, if we were all going to spend a week together, the best way to get to know each other was to do a round robin.

We each started our block, then passed it to the person in our own state to add a 4" border. After the requisite amount of time had passed, then those two blocks were sent (each in a sealed secret envelope) to the other state/s, where a 6" round was attached. The last time the quilt tops were passed, an 8" border was attached.

It was a lot of fun, and I loved doing this. Next year we are going to do row by rows instead of borders - which I am not entirely sold on. BUT, the year is young, and I am otherwise occupied, so I haven't thought too much about it yet. LOL! Of course, we haven't started anything yet, so who knows - we might change something, again. I think the CA girls went to a guild meeting where there were going to be other ideas of how to do round robins that aren't "just" borders.

Be sure to click on the pictures for the details in a larger format. The embroidery on the picket fences might not show up well, but I hope so - it is exquisite and so detailed!

Carolyn started with the flower center
Sharon - brick border, Wendy-wavy border, Sherri-piano keys and butterflies

Sharon started with the feathered star
Carolyn-flying geese, Sherri-broken stars, Wendy-gradated final border

Wendy started with the house and tree
Sherri-gold/brown with heart corners, Carolyn-postage stamps, Sharon-sunflowers/arches

Sherrie started with the appliqued and embroidered house
Wendy-Anka's 9 patch/log cabins, Sharon-appliqued words, Carolyn-Red points, picket fence and embroidered flowers/trees

Bye bye Cambria and Buddies R Us until next year! We've already booked for next year (through Scenic Coast properties for those of you who asked).

FABULOUS!!!!

My girlfriends Wendy and Sherri met us at San Luis Obispo airport and this is what the back of the van looked like after we got our stuff loaded. There was only about a 10" clearance to the ground!
We rented a fabulous 4 bedroom house right at the edge of the ocean. This is the view from the front of the house when we arrived. It was just gorgeous no matter whether it was sunny, foggy or raining!

Another view from the deck of the house.

And this is the 180 degree view where we sat to eat and to laugh and chat most of the time when we weren't sewing. You can only see two sides of it, but there are windows all around!

More of the view from the inside seating.

The other side of the same room looking out.

Can you believe it? An entire separate area for sewing! There were windows there, too, where we could see and hear the ocean!

BUDDIES R US!

Sherri, Wendy, Carolyn and Quiltgranny

Next entry will be pictures of our round robins, quilt shop reports (and there were many!) and pictures of all the things we got accomplished!

Off and away!

Sorry, Readers, that I have been away from the blog since before Easter! I've been running hither, thither and yon getting ready for the big Cambria, CA trip. I leave bright and early tomorrow (Sunday) morning and won't return for an entire week!

I got this charity quilt done (from a wallhanging donated to use) and it is now packed and ready for me to quilt it in CA.


I've gotten the wedding commission quilt back from the quilter and the binding stitched on it and to the owner just in time before their first wedding anniversary. I've gotten the May baby quilt to the quilter along with having the diaper bag and changing pad completed, too.

I have three kits cut and packaged, ready to sew when I get there. I've also gotten the windows all cleared so the window cleaners can come on Monday morning and Hubby can take care of them.

Today was a birthday stitch day with my sewing group The Amazing Quilt Babes, and last night I finished up four 6.5" blocks for our monthly exchange. No pictures this time around as we were in a rented room at a Marriott and we worked on multiple things for the birthday girl!

5 loads of laundry all done means I can now pack my bags.

I also got a blogsite, complete with PayPal buttons created for some friends of mine who will be offering deeply discounted fabrics, notions and yarns. Check it out - you might find something you just gotta have! (I hope it all works right). They are the Fiberfanatics and they sure are a lot of fun to work with!

During all of this, I had to stop going to the gym - as a matter of fact, my trainer sent me home from a training session and said not to come back until a doctor said I could. Sooooo, off I went to a massage therapist, and a couple of hours later, I was seeing a chiropractor (for the first time). The long and the short of it is that I have osteo-arthritis in my L5 (the vertebrae right above the tailbone), and it has degenerated quite a bit AND a bone spur has developed too. After 5 treatments with electrical stimulus, ultrasound and some adjustments AND some ice packs. I can move around a bit easier. When I get back, I'll start traction therapy.

And last, but not least. Hubby and I bought a house!! Our taxes in this county and state have gotten ridiculous. PLUS, our house is quite large and not necessary. We close on the new house May 2, and hope to have this one on the market by June 1, but we'll see. We'll be moving into the state of Missouri, but in actuality it is only 8 miles further east than where we live.

You can see it here on live maps (and rotate the picture). We'll own the property all the way to the tree line, and through the cul de sac. 3.3 acres should give some nice vegetable gardens!

I think I have a lot of work to do when I get back, eh?

BONSAI?

What a surprising end to a busy week!

I've been puttering around, trying to get all the fabrics I need and the parts department collected for my upcoming trip to Cambria. 3 of my friends and I will be having our own personal retreat the first week of April in Cambria, California, right by the ocean! I'm am getting pretty excited now!

I've decided I am going to work on my Michigan fruit baskets, and Hubby has decided that the quilt now needs to be king sized. That means I have 52 more baskets to make. And THAT means I have a lot of parts to get ready. Remember these? I have about 20% of the half square triangles readied, but that's still about 400 more to go.

So, in the middle of this, one of my neighbors who follows what my art projects are, stopped by to see if I would be willing to make a lap quilt for her husband. I was showing her my ideas, and then I showed her this one for the size.
She gasped and asked if it was available; it was JUST what she wanted! So last night, I sewed down the binding, and sold it to her today. She thinks she got a bargain, and I am pleased with my profit - so we both win. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it after it was completely quilted, but you get the idea, right?

While she was here she asked if she could talk to me seriously about contracting for a commissioned art piece. It was my turn to gasp (inwardly), and we talked a bit about what she wanted. Her husband is an avid Bonsai horticulturist. I guess that's what you call them:) He is difficult to buy for, and what man isn't?, so she thought he would enjoy an art piece of a bonsai. She is planning it for her bedroom, and has given me complete liberty with color, size and materials. Of course, I couldn't let the idea go after she left, so here's my first sketches of where I want to go. Now, it will just have to gel in my head for a while until I get there.

The Kanji script is BONSAI-two words that mean tree in a pot. Nothing special there, eh? I did learn, however, that there are and sharis and jins in bonsai, which are bark stripped areas either on the trunk or a branch, so I can have a higher contrast in the trunk areas for texture. I also learned that all bonsai pots should have feet for proper drainage, and the shape of the pot is artistically matched with the shape of the tree. The kind of bonsai I seemed to be most attracted to in many different types of pictures was always the Moyogi, which is an informal upright. The windswept ones are just too severe, and the cascading ones, while beautiful, just don't inspire me to work on it in fiber.

Now, I have something to look for when I am out shopping on the left coast. I think I'd like to find something light and airy for behind the tree - maybe even an old piece of kimono silk? Who knows where this story will take me?

Eye Candy for the Sewl

Here's a bit of what I've been up to lately. A LOT!

The first one is the completed 30" Broken Bento Box sample for Fabric Quilt's booth at Spring Market. The new line of fabric is called Crystals. It's quilted in silver metallic threads.


Next up is another Amazing Quilt Babes birthday stitch day quilt. The birthday girl, (Shirlee-back row, second from left) chose a Kaffe Fasset pattern, but modified it to pretty pastels and brights, and used Dale Fleming's circle method. This meant the background for the center medallion was whole cloth with circles added. The group pieced pinwheels and a couple of us pieced more circles for the outside blocks.

And last is the commissioned baby quilt set that is now ready for quilting. The pattern is "Charmed" by Black Cat Creations and finishes at 48" X 64". Ahhhh, relief at last!
The bag is from an Amy Butler pattern, and uses a TON of fabric for all the inside pockets. The roll that is peeking out is a rolled-up changing pad, made from terry cloth (inside), over 2 layers of polyester fleece, quilted to the teddy bear fabric.