Weekend Reading

I love reading about quilters.... what they think about....what makes them 'tick'.  Maybe it's about the hobby.  Maybe it's to check my own sense of normalcy.  Or maybe it because it's this thing that runs through and through me and I just want to find souls out there just like me.

When I say just like me--- I'm not talking about just the common interest of applique versus patchwork, or even primary colors versus pastel.  It's about learning about someone that has a 'connection' with fabric. It doesn't mean they have do have a solomn oath to Jo Morton  or Creme fabric  has to be the main color of the project.

It does mean they appreciate that art of sewing fabric pieces together with needle and thread.  And whether the pieces are on beds, tables, or walls... they create a warmth of heart...at least for me.

That's why the two above books are on my nightstand right now. More than pattern books - they've taught me about tints and tones.  They've taught me about color combinations and why some colors work together and some don't.

But the parts of the books that I love and truthfully have read several times are how quilting enters all avenues if of their lives. It's almost like they were quilters before they ever quilted.

Proving once again that being a quilter and quilting is more than just doing something with cloth -- it's something inside you -- like being left-handed or right-handed... It's something you just are....

Read the books -- there's even a recipe or two in them. Whether you love Modern quilts or gravitate to the traditional ones...I think you'd love these books.

Favorites...

Boots that would not be left in the Appleton Store... and scarf from Chelsey....there's something about the lace on both....

Saturday...

Well, the weatherman got it right this morning.... Raining and cold... well 52 degrees.... Just kind of makes you hug your coffee mug closer. Here's my mantle this season...

That's a real pumpkin. I found it along a road side stand.... My pumpkins didn't make this year.

It looked painted.

And the other side is a bouquet-- compliments of Mother Nature.

Plans for the weekend---knock out the chores-- quilt, a baby shower, football, get ready for Eric.

Mended Heart ---

It may look like strips of red fabric....but it's going to be an appliqued heart for Chelsey's quilt.

I kind of like the idea of the red pieces being sewn back together to make one block.

Don has always taught me that even with a wooden board that breaks, with the right glue and pressure -- can be put back together and made stronger than before.

So it is with quilting fabric and Chelsey's heart... Both are being put back together to be stronger than before.

She's a tough girl, with the brightest of futures... and a Mom that loves her....

Sunshine and Blue...

Don't you love it when the weatherman is wrong?!?!?!?!

At least for today -- we were supposed to have a rainy day and other than a 5 a.m. shower, we've had a partly cloudy 62 degree day.

My hand sewing project I'm working on right now is Sunshine and Blue by Kathy Cardiff. I started it last year and got the winter blues and decided it made me wish for weather I couldn't have....  I needed the wool piece for the water pitcher and emailed a picture to Cathi at Shakerwood Woolens and she sent me the perfect piece.  I completely trust her judgement.

I have worked on it in sections so I didn't lose the small pieces. The hand-dyed pieces made great leaves and blue berries.  There's another border I haven't added yet until I complete the handwork.

More snapshots to come....

On the Sewing Front.....

I spent the Summer on several projects-- not necessarily quilting.  My kids have this knack of bring stuff home they don't want, but aren't ready to part with.... I'm not complaining... simply stating a fact... and they get it honestly...they're just like me.

Eric basically hasn't lived at home for about 5 years.  Our home as just kind of been a pit-stop. I started cleaning out a set of drawers and a closet along with a couple of boxes of things that I decided he truly didn't want.  I started seeing a pattern of old tee shirts in every spot.  There were tees dating back to 2003.  It was a pretty safe bet that he had no intention of ever wearing them again,but I just couldn't see myself  throwing them out.

I gathered them together. Wash them.  Dried them.  Pressed them.  And started cutting them up.

I was going to make a Tee-Shirt quilt for Eric.  That way, he'd have the shirts forever.  Then I started researching all the tips I could find on making the quilt.  I read about several 'horror' stories and thought I may be in over my head.  I folded everything neatly and laid them on my sewing counter in my sewing room.

A while back I told Eric my plan-- He thought it was a great idea.  When I saw him over Labor Day, he even brought a box of tees to me and said - "  These are really sacred -- I want them in the quilt.  But be careful with them and if you don't use them -- I want them back..."

Great - I'm going to cut these babies up and be the story of scarring the kid's childhood memories....
I emailed a friend.  They said, Use light fusible interfacing-- that's the trick.  My Mom even said -- 'You can do it.'

So I tackled my first tee-shirt quilt:

 Chelsey told me she had always thought they were ugly, but the  black sashing strips set it off.

And while it may not be the most beautiful quilt in the world--- it IS full of memories... that High School Job, 

a Varsity Wrestling Team, The College Fraternity, the first 5K run, a Rock Concert.....Close to ten years worth of memories for Eric...

I have to get backing material and get it quilted for Christmas.....

Summer's End....

A Pinterest project from this summer -- And my Apple Harvest.

Not just a sample of the harvest-- the entire harvest. We had tons of blossoms on our apple trees but a Spring freeze  killed the chances of fruit -- Except of the two above in the picture.  Somehow they managed to stay tucked away and protected from the ice by other leaves and branches.  I don't mind .  there's enough fresh apples growing everywhere else in the U.P. and Wisconsin that we'll get some.  

I picked these two -- and told Don,

" Enough-- one for each of us...."

Summer walks, Garden weeding, and flower picking are all over and the season now changes to Fall.

Though the seasons change the players in our house are still the same...

There's Bruno

and Ripley

Playing Pinterest...

Chelsey and I found this project for Don to help us make.  Don handled the power tools and I did the sanding and painting.

It's a four-cubby box.

Daisies from the roadside.

Black-eyed Susans on the other side of the road.....

and Queen Anne's lace sprinkled in between.... It was forty one degrees this morning... But Summer is coming back--- 80 degree temps expected for the weekend.....

She Did It.....

Chelsey finished college.  She finished with her Bachelor's Degree In Business Communications with a minor in English.  She's started working in the advertising department for the CBS affiliate station in Marquette today.

Her school did not have the cap and gown ceremony for summer students. That didn't stop our family.  We drove up on Sunday and she  wore my 1984 Cap and Gown for photo ops and we took a few friends out to dinner.

There were some  several bumps and bruises along the way, but beginnings are very over-rated--- what matters is she didn't quit.... An education is something no one can ever take away from you..an awesome finish...

Hey Chels -- if you read this....you have no idea how proud I am of you......

Views from the Porch....

It's been a cool Summer.  Great weather for flowers and grass. The garden has not produced as well.  I'm scared I may not have pumpkins or gourds this year.  We' keep you posted.

Daisies frame my garden gate.

I love this variety of petunia... the pink and red are stunning.

The Bee Balm is just starting to come out.  Being on the north side of a hill everything blooms later than other areas.

This is my first year with Butterfly Weed.  It's a perennial that I hope will come back.  Winters are so hard on them.

The Echinea plant has a steady crowd of friends hanging around....

The lavender boughs are tiny this year . The heat hasn't burned or bleached them at all.  You can see that while the Black-eyed Susans have not bloomed in the picture, Along our roadsides they have almost finished.

At the center of my perennial bed out back is this old chair. The ladle keeps bird seeds for the birds.  The ferns grow wild.  Thanks to Don's labor, it's framed with rocks that also 'grow wild' around our place.....

On the quilt front, the Baby Quilt is finished and delivered.  I love the disappearing nine patch.

  I did not want to find a distinct pattern, just wanted blocks to appear.

Sunday Morning Early sunlight.....

Sunday Morning on My Porch...

Put it down... get ready for church... 

It would be easy to never leave this spot on sunny mornings.  Hopefully by this evening this will be on my breakfast table.  This is a Primitive Gatherings pattern -- doubled in size -wool onto cotton backgrounds.

The thermometer hasn't seen 80 degrees in over a week.  But I sleep with the windows open every night and a quilt on my bed.  The other night I awoke at about 1 am to rain and the sound of raindrops on metal gutters just singing away.  I smiled. Rolled over. And went back to sleep.  Better than lullabies.

I made blueberry bread yesterday.  So keyed up about having muffins earlier in the week and yet having another cupful ripe to bake with I forgot to photograph..  Who cares about diets... the blueberries make it 'good for you'.  I can just about justify anything if I try hard enough.

Days getting shorter.... I intend to make the most of this last month of summer.....

On the Line....

It 's Saturday.  We've had a cool front come through -- a high of 73 degrees scheduled for today. 

It was a day at home...playing with the pups, vacuuming, dusting... all those things we would like to pretend happen magically.  If I'm going to do them I definitely want credit. 

The fun thing I did was cut out quilt blocks from the fabric above.  I usually talk to my mom and my mother-in-law on the drive into work.  I told my MIL that I planned on cutting these blocks out for a baby quilt this weekend.  

Her response:
"Man, you  folks have a lot of babies..."

Truth be told... these are the same blocks I have been planning on cutting out for a couple of months.  Things get in the way.  Summers being short -- quilting takes 'the back seat'.  I just couldn't spit out the words that I just haven't gotten around to it and this is the same project I keep dreaming out in office meetings, those church bulletins when I should be paying attention, and there's even that walmart receipt with  a doodle while I was waiting for a train one day.  

Life is busy.  Summers short.  But I think this is going to be a great Baby Quilt.

Sunday Afternoon...

The Machine quilting is complete.  I need to wash out the old marker lines.  But I'm tickled it's done.

One for the books--- a collage of fat quarters..Not my favorite quilt but a great one for keeping someone warm at night.

It reminds me not to quit and give up on pieces-- no matter how old they are.  I'm going to work on a brand new piece next...then back to finding another UFO. 

Summer is flying fast.  We're losing 2 minutes of sunshine a day...yuck...

I find myself looking for any excuse to be outside.  I live on my porch-- where I'm typing right now. Weeding the garden, watering flowers, running my pups... reading a book.  Just to listen to the woods.  Lawnmowers are completely insulting - unless they are push mowers...somehow they fit the picture.

Independence Day 2013

Summer is in full swing... Today is a great day to catch up---

May 31st - Mr. Ripley turn One year old....

While some may think this a face only a  mother could love-- he warms my heart.  When Ransom died, I thought my world ended-- enter stage left - Ripley... Good Natured.... eager to please.. the Gentle Giant. He's beautiful.

And He loves Bruno....

And truth be told-- sometimes Bruno is not easy to love....;)

Today is a holiday.. We spent half the day at the lake with friends.  Good food and company.  Don and I both have to work tomorrow so we're home cooking ribs on the grill as I type.

Summertime is filled with porch time for us.  We had a rug under our grouping...but Ripley sometimes"redecorates" and gets a little destructive. So I did not put the rug down this summer.

Don built me a coffee table in its place.  I love it.

We went on a weekend trip a couple of weeks ago to Prairie Du Chein Wisconsin.  I found a set of used wheels for my buggy out front.  So We spent the night at the northern end of the Mississippi River.  We could see it from our hotel room.  I did not even 'google' quilt shops.  I didn't want or need anything. I was grateful for the wheels-- enough.

But.... On the way home--- out of know where--- I didn't even see the shop on the way down---

This shop appeared.  It's only been opened about three months the owner said.  It had the biggest selection of vintage machines I had ever seen.  I saw this book and noticed I had almost every quilt pinned in my Pinterest account.  It's a great book and to support the shop--- I purchased it.  

The shop is so big. I said, "You must have a really impressive guild in the area." 

The Shopkeeper said, " No-the owner just has a real  love of  quilting."

The shop is in the middle of a really small area surrounded by corn fields, but twice while I was there two quilters came running in frantic, " I was just a quarter of a yard short--- can you cut me a yard of this " and laid a bolt on the counter.  This shop is a gift to those quilters... If you ever hit the area -- it's completely worth the stop.

What I'm Working on.....

One of the bright sides to cooler summer weather --- You can dismantle quilting sitting outside in a chair.  I was wandering around Pinterest and started seeing a couple of quilts from this pattern popping up.   I remembered how I had pulled scraps and pieced together my own.  It had to of been ten years ago....When it came time to quilt it on my machine.... A can of basting spray and a jar of safety pins still couldn't keep me from making a mess of it. It was a big piece and my attempt at quilting it in straight lines ---like a hopscotch pattern-- Was a complete disaster.  Broken threads, wrinkles, wobbly lines---13 long lines into it I literally rolled it into a ball and threw it in one of the kids toy-boxes they had long out grown.

Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago-- I saw those photos on Pinterest and remember the failure.  I have been ripping apart each stitch, one at time,  and I'm going to give it another shot, this time  with fresh  batting----stretching it on my Grace frame.  It has some great fabrics that will look wonderful on a summer rocking chair....

Taking out the stitches is pretty painful....I'm not giving up this time...

Holding onto Summer....

Purple fills the woods and my garden as the Allium blooms from the bulbs I planted last October.  Summer never seems warm enough or long enough in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but we're grateful for what we do have.

My Bleeding Hearts frame the Screened Porch.  I have a friend that shared some of her plants as well. I do think of her every time I see them.  They were her Grandmother's.  She has moved three times and carried them with her each time.  

Note to self:  I have to remember to share my plants with my kids....

Prayers for the tomatoes, beans,peppers, pumpkins, peas, carrots and cucumbers as the Garden Angels watch over them.

I made it.....to Country Sampler

Definitely one of those 'Bucket List items' ... I visited Country Sampler in Spring Green WI a couple of weeks ago. I spent two hours wishing and visiting with the Shop keeper in this wonderful quilt shop. It's a shop that honestly stays very true to their style of quilting.  When you walk in -- it's like coming to what every quilter calls 'home'....

I knew I may never get back to Country Sampler again -- I wanted  my purchases to count. Hardwood floors full of shelves holding bolt after bolt of fabric made the choices tough. They had  beautiful samples -- no photos allowed--.  The photos would not have done them justice anyhow.  

Then I wandered down the basement stairs to  dark, Dingy room filled with clearance items.  There she sat --- all alone--- markdown down several times.... with her tiny feet, wooden wings and rumpled dress She just sat there.  I don't go for the really primitive hand made stuff. ... But she was different.  I don't know if she's a Christmas Angel, or A Harvest Angel, or maybe a Garden Angel....but I did know  she was definitely being taken out of that basement And coming Home with me. I had several other things picked out ... but back to the displays they went because  she was more important-- something I would always have to remember the visit.

Also in the basement were candlesticks marked to five bucks a set.  I purchased the small kit from the door's entryway.  I haven't decided whether it was the pattern or the reproduction fabrics--but I'm certain that purple ribbon that had something to do with the purchase.

Hungry for gardening, some sort of spring, and definitely anything green outside--- this was my last item.

This photo book finds beauty in the small things...

If you ever get the opportunity to visit this quilt shop-- do it... it's worth the drive, the flight, and the miles it takes to get there.....

Tulip Basket...

It started with this...

A Pattern(that has since been chewed up by Ripley). I made it for my Mom a couple of Christmas's ago.  I loved it-- Bought it as a kit.  But it was small by my standards.

 I got this great Idea about blowing it up to 125% size and making one for myself.  That's what I did.  But when it came time to up a 16 x 24 pieces of wool for the background-- I just couldn't do it.  Call me cheap...but I couldn't.  Plus I was afraid my version may fail... So I took another approach:

I really like it.  It gives me hand stitching at night when I'm too tired too work on the machine.  I haven't decided whether I am going to cut, curve or scallop the ends-- but I really like the difference.

Sunny Morning...

Do you ever have days you just feel like this????  Sometimes a make lists and run on autopilot because I'm  afraid to be caught doing this.... But some days you just need do....

 I don't want to go through life and not realize how great it is....

before, during, and after the snow....