gentlemen hunters

I actually had pictures developed before DNA jones could send me any of his digital shots from our weekend in Duluth.. This is what you look like when you go to the club for target practice......... tractor joe did a phenomenal job, he got a high score his first time out there.







DNA jones was having computer problems while we were there. Maybe he still is...


its only been 2 weeks.





Another hobby of Mr. DNA is feeding the birds, he has all kinds of feeders. I was looking at them and wondered


Does that greenish/blue thing really keep the squirrels out????....or just keep the rain out??










He wasn't around to ask. He and tractor joe had gone down into Wisconsin, into the wilderness of bugs and bears....your only protection---a rusty, musty old camper. At least when the bear shows up in Duluth, the house is a nice solid place to hide in....and its only happened a couple times.



So I continued to watch the feeders. The burning question was answered...


Yes the greenish/blue thing is a fancy umbrella to keep the rain out. It is hard to see but there is a pesky squirrel sitting in the feeder munching away.

A gentleman hunter is one who doesn't get out to hunt until VERY late morning or even noonish, thus giving the birds or deer a chance.

random squares

When I am not sure what to work on....I will work on these. It is a good way to clean up random strips, and small pieces that are laying around gathering dust. They go fast, I'm always amazed at the stack when I am done.

I straighten up the side I will be adding fabric to, and when they get so big.....I get out the handy dandy 6 1/2 inch ruler and square them up. The strips are somewhere between 1 and 2 inches wide. I don't pay much attention to value, or color or contrast....if it looks about right I sew it.

I wasn't even sure what I would do with these when I started.... so my stack grew and sat in the drawer.

Recently I made a baby quilt. I put his name on it and some other stuff.......it's at the quilter getting quilted right now. I found these to be the perfect border! I think I use about 32 of the blocks.

Last week my niece was here putting on binding. She made a quilt for that same baby. We took all kinds of pictures, but she hasn't sent them to me yet. The sound you hear are my fingers drumming on the desk.

Maybe I'll remind her again.....

baby gift

This was a shower gift for a teacher at the school where I work. I put the baby's name on it. The corners and date are stamped with acrylic paint, it is probably about 14x14 inches.
One thing I would do differently.... is make the heart in 'love' a different color. A darker pink or light purple....
OR....
make the letters L,V and E different from the green hearts. Oh well, I am still learning with each 'experiment' I do and happy with the with the way it turned out regardless of all my second guessing.

BOM stitchin'

I am trying to get caught up on this BOM. I have 4 done, one almost done and 'believe' only has the stitching lines drawn on it.

It will be a Christmas wall hanging with Christmas words stitched on it.

I may set it aside and wait for the next block and do them together in July (or whenever)

I'm not crazy about my fabric choice. In my mind it looked fantastic, but as the blocks get finished, I am not so sure. I even debated stopping and starting all over with lighter fabric. In the end I decided to just leave it as it is.

I also changed some of the floss colors, there is orange & pink in some of the blocks.

I showed it to my Mom while we were in Duluth. I don't remember her gasping in horror at my color choices. She doesn't like orange and pink if they are anywhere near each other. I think it's a rather fun combo, just not two colors that come to mind when you think of Christmas.........it will be interesting to see it all together next fall.

http://gailpandesigns.typepad.com/my_weblog/a-.html

Check Gail out...she has some cute stuff!!!!

Karen's quilt

Many years ago Karen bought some fabric to make a baby quilt for the little girl holding up this quilt....this little girl had made Karen a 'great aunt' for the first time.

But the quilt took a long time to make,
ya know how things get set aside "for now" and then other things come along......
and before you know it about 8 years have passed.......
and "the baby" is no longer a "baby" as you can see in the picture........



As luck would have it, our 2 models have a new baby sister at home and she will get this quilt....

and Karen has started another quilt which is about half done.....
I've seen it and it is so cute!!!!
eventually ALL the girls will get a quilt...

handmade with love by their great aunt Karen.

....and that little wiener-dog down there in the corner with the spooky, glowing eyes....she likes the quilt too.

the quilt show

One of the things Mom and I did in Duluth was go to the quilt show. Neither of us had ever been to one. I wanted to go to the vendors, she wanted to look at quilts. We were both happy to see the vendors all around the outside of the arena and the display quilts up and down the center. I was looking for this place

http://treasuredthreads.typepad.com/

I wanted to buy some Australian patterns. I really like the way they combine stitching and patchwork. I bought a few of my favorites including this one................






It came with fabric already stamped with the stitching lines and this one was on sale! The others weren't but

I LOVE them!!! As I make something I'll show you. This will put pressure on me to actually get them done.......maybe........This one is from "the birdhouse"




My impulse buy was the quilt label making kit...........
It is made by Kim Churbuck. She has some REALLY cute drawings in the books!



I had to think about it though........went through the quilt show, looked and looked....and thought about it...

There were some very nice,
funny,
quirky,
colorful,
beautiful quilts.
I can't remember if my mother and I ever agreed on any of the quilts....there were a lot that only one of us liked.

In the end I went back and bought my kit!!!!

Early the next morning....I could not stand it any longer....

I had to try the pens out with one of the book designs.....

even though I had not washed the fabric yet .......

and the directions clearly state "wash the fabric".......to bad.......

....I traced and colored and.......

I had so much fun with my little experiment.

I have no idea what I will do with this.....it's about 2x3 inches.....probably put in my scrapbook someday. It something I need to practice doing.........she made it look so easy at the show.

tourists

Canal Park............. Duluth, Minnesota
We called our geocaching cousin, Cachehappy-cashpoor to capture our image on the web cam in Canal Park. It was raining on us. Well, sprinkling is more like it......enough to clear out the area, so we are easy to pick out. I wore the bright yellow to help us be more visible. This wasn't really a problem, doesn't appear to me that many people thought standing in the rain....in front of the camera was a good idea.
I think we were studying the shipping scheduel here.

Cornelius wanted to be down there when a ship came in. It is incredible to stand there on the wall and watch them come in or go out. Some of them are HUGE. The little white dot out in the water is a tourist boat that comes in and out all day.
As I get more pictures I'll post them from our trip up north.

In Duluth

I am up here in Duluth. Things are quiet right now.

I am alone.

The temperature is in the 60's, it is gorgeous!

Tractor joe went to the hunting/shooting club.

Cornelius went to the casino with his aunt and Grandma.

And me...I am making some Manhattan Clam Chowder...

I am cooking the bacon very slow, cleaning as I go and using the least amount of dishes and pans...

if I don't keep things clean, I may be banished from my sister's kitchen, forever, with no second chances!

I better go concentrate on the cooking.

and cleaning....

it was BIG

Crispy was invited to a friends cabin....the lucky duck.




They do all the normal stuff at a cabin...



They row around in the water....









they relax......it helps if your friend is doing the rowing










and they FISH...sometimes they don't catch anything,
but sometimes they do!



Crispy caught a HUGE one!



23 inches long!..........
it was BIG..........

Okay, it's just a carp.......but it is a BIG fish!!!

Orange Crush

I have taken my time about getting this post up for a few reasons......

I was hoping to have orange crush in a box ready to mail, but that is not the case, it still sits there waiting while the box is on the other side of the room, also waiting.

I have been busy with a preschool class...it was about an hour away and took up two full days. But that is done now. The next class is in August.

I wanted to make sure I could spell "marguerita" correctly.

The first quilt up is Orange Crush. It needs to be mailed to Maddie's older sister. She likes orange....

After finishing this quilt, I decided I like orange too....it is now one of my favorite colors. The pattern comes from Bonnie Hunter........ http://quiltville.com/orangecrush1.shtml/

It was a mystery, I had no idea what I would end up with. I did change the blue areas to purple. I didn't have that much extra blue at the time and I like purple. I did wimp out on the border. It could have been bigger but I was using what I had.

I fell in love with this pattern. While it is many small pieces, it still goes fairly fast to sew it all together. My middle son (who would like to be called Cornelious) is the recipient of the second quilt. He likes lime green and that is how the next quilt came to be....

I called it Marguerita 'cause of the green and I see my little dog Ozzy is in this picture (that is his real name, he didn't care if used it).....now I need to go check on the correct spelling of Cornelious, it doesn't look quite right.