Friday, December 30, 2011

 Hi, I am not sure if I have already posted a picture of my Basket Sampler. This is done in Fig Tree fabrics and most of the blocks are from the Farmer's Wife Sampler book. I am now thread basting it and I am going to try to hand quilt it.  It is small as the blocks are all 6", so hopefully it will be managable.




This is the Yellow Brick Road twin top I made for a raffle for breast cancer survivors.. I am going to try to machine quilt it tomorrow, Sat. before we leave Sun. for our 3 day car trip to AZ. If I get all my gathering, packing and shipping done today, maybe tomorrow will be a quilting day!!!



Here are the hat and mittens I made for my little friend, Anna, who lives next door. The yarn kit is from Morehouse Farms, which has the BEST stuff for knitting.

Sunday we leave for AZ and should arrive on Tues afternoon. I hope you all have a happy New Year and please keep in touch.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas House

Hi I've been working on the Little Garden House in Winter for a while and finally finished it. Now I need to find a home for it. This is from a kit from ShaggyFabrics.com. The runner is from them too.
 




Merry Christmas to all!


Sunday, December 18, 2011

Dorothy and Chris (from England) came to visit Dorothy's son David and his family (they live in Libertyville) in Oct. Patty and I were fortunate to have Dorothy for a whole day and the three of us took a day trip to Wisconsin to visit 2 of my favorite quilt shops. The first was Mill House Quilts in Wanakee, WI and Dorothy admired the Tree Wallhanging Kit which was made up in the store. So I bought it and made it for Alyssa and Megan. Then finding the runner kit of the trees and star I bought that one too, for Sarah. I had fun making them, they were both rather challenging. Thanks once again, D, for inspiration. Then Patty, Dorothy and I also each bought a wool applique table thing of Santas and trees. How are you doing on yours?  I have mine cut and it remains to be seen if it will be done this year or next!!   



 Here are the pictures of the runner and wallhanging. I am working on trying to put them in better places on the post.
We went on from Wanakee, to JJ Stitches in Sun Prarie, WI and Dorothy and I both bought rather large kits of two beautiful quilts, different ones. This shop has kits and samples of mostly antique quilts made with reproduction fabrics. It is just a wonderful shop. I am taking mine, which is a tree quilt to AZ and will work on it this winter. We also stopped near Janesville, WI at Life's a Stitch shop, very nice in an old farmhouse. I found a custom machine quilter whose sample was beautiful, Marge West. After communicating with her, I sent her my Carrie Hall Sampler and she is going to work on it in the new year. She was very sweet and said she loved the quilt and was excited to quilt it.

Saturday, December 17, 2011


 Hi, these are the five quilts that I had finished the tops  last May but had not done the machine quilting. This was a daunting task and I already had a number of other projects I wanted to work on.

 My first thought was to unpin the three I had already pinned and send all 5 of them to Joni Baumli. Joni is a wonderful long arm quilter, dedicated to all over designs (no custom quilting). After much deliberation I decided to send one to Joni and do the rest myself.

Now this is where it gets more complicated. How to quilt them? All over meandering --my default method or more elaborate designs. Well 2 were meandered and one has many different quilting designs (my best yet, if once again I can shine my own star) and one still needs to be quilted.

1. The top one - is called Fiesta, I was a kit, I love it and want to do something special and this will have to be done in the spring.
2. A Bright Log Cabin- it is from my scraps from bright projects and probably the 10th or 15th log cabin I have done from scraps. I think I am done with them, at least for a while. This one is going to Caroline.


  3. My (UGH) Spider Web Quilt. If you've read my blog you know this was not my favorite quilt. This one was meandered all over and will go to Alyssa and Megan eventually.
 
 4. This is a Nuts and Bolts quilt. I just love the fabrics. And because Dorothy Thompson, my English friend, made the same quilt and she is a wonderful machine quilter and will rarely do the "boring" meandering I was inspired (by D) to put some work into this one and it turned out really nice. Thanks D. If you click or double click on the pictures maybe you can see a close up of some of the quilting.

5. A Cracked Pot quilt. This is the second Cracked Pot quilt I did. It is just such a great pattern. I sent this one to Joni and she did a great job. This one is going to AZ with us. Should look wonderful anywhere in the house.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Lutheran World Relief Quilts for 2012

This is a picture of my 9th Lutheran World Relief quilt for 2012. I started in Sept. after the Quest for Quilts day I posted about previously. My goal is to personally make 24 LWR quilts this year. I have already cut all the kits.I have shipped 6 kits and backs to AZ for Jan, Feb and March. I am currently tying April #2. I decided to do April's quilts ahead of time since we will be returning to IL in mid-April and Alyssa and Megan are going to have their civil union on May 12 with a celebration dinner at Ivanhoe so I will be busy helping them get ready for that.


 I am always looking for cotton fabrics for these quilts. Would love to get fabric for $2 on sale but sometimes go to $3 a yard. Most of the fabrics I use have been donated. If you have any fabric you are never going to use, please pass it on. Thanks. C

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

I started this blog for a couple of reasons, one to keep track of my sewing/quilting projects on a fairly regular basis and to keep friends and family up to date on the whereabouts and "what abouts"of Tom and I. Knowing myself fairly well after 60+ years I am not surprised that I am having problems keeping current. But once again I WILL TRY HARDER.  This time I am not even going to let anyone know (via an email) that I am back with my blogs and pictures. So if you happen to check in please let me know by commenting or sending me an email. Thanks.
Okay a quick overview of my sewing projects since Sept and then tomorrow (??) I will post pictures and maybe an explanation of the project, who it was for etc.
I have made 9 1/2 Lutheran World Relief (LWR) quilts, 1 Yellow Brick Road twin, many, many Farmer's Wife blocks and Blocks from the past blocks for a sampler quilt, a basket quilt (from Farmers Wife blocks), 1 Christmas Runner, 1 Christmas Wall hanging (Tree), 1 Christmas wall hanging (Little Winter House), second Yellow Brick Road for the Sisterhood.  I had 5 quilt tops finished but not quilted in Sept and I sent one to Joni (Cracked Pots), machine quilted 3 myself (Bright log cabin, Spider Web (UGH) and a Nuts and Bolts), and still have one to do (Fiesta).  I have knitted 2 hats and a pair of mittens and finished a scarf. Whew! that's where the time went!!


Hi all, Dorothy emailed me today with pictures of a quilt she made for her grandson, Zak. It is so cute and here are the photos.


I have been incommunicative probably since our loss of Zelda. It sure put me in a funk. I have been doing A LOT  of sewing though and will come back to the blog later, today, hopefully, with an update and pictures. Now I am off for blood work, routine.