no quilting or sewing.....

A new mess has been created on the kitchen table.

I have pulled out scrapbooking stuff.... Unless some fabric starts calling and I answer that call...I will be doing this for awhile.

star blocks

These blocks are from Judy Martins book,
Piece 'n Play Quilts

While they are simple star blocks with a shadow and one dark side, one light side....
they had me really thinking and concentrating on what to sew and when....
if you do it right, there is no Y seam.
I only had to get the seam ripper out once....and when these four were done, I really thought I would NEVER do another. But never say never. These are 10 inch blocks. Slowly I will add to them and some day have a bed sized quilt. They are kind of cool. My pile of left 0ver triangles grew a bit too. I also managed to cut wrong....at least these four have given me practice. When I was tossing the triangles into the collection, I thought about wonky stars. Those don't take much thought. In no time at all I had enough made to make 6 blocks......

I recently bought a bunch of whites. They were perfect for this. Each block finishes at 6 inches...and I didn't have to think, just sew.

coordinated shower gifts...

These pictures didn't turn out very nice. But there is no re-do....
they were given to the bride-to-be at the shower the other night>
We think she liked them.

down on the farm completed and

.....ready to hang up somewhere. Right now it looks like the family room downstairs. The tractor quilt is down there and this fits that theme.





Here is a picture of the pattern from the book, Leftovers from Country Threads.
Mine is a tad brighter.


It looks cute hanging on this fence...even though I am not 100% happy with the quilting......... I won't leave it there exposed to the weather.

I used teeny tiny buttons for all the eyes and on the farmers suspenders.

I still want to do one that is all flowers. But that will have to wait. I just laid out a bunch of blocks on my design wall....okay so it is really my bed and not a wall at all....but it works just the same.

I am off to sew.....

the mystery flowers....

...this spring, tractor joe picked out some perennials....

including these black-eyed susans. This was the first time he had done something like that. He even built a whole new raised-bed garden just for his stuff.....(I have been saying for years that we needed another garden out front to match the one that was there. I had turned the sandbox into flowers and it seemed rather lonely out there. If I knew he would build something that fast, I would have hauled him around garden centers a lot sooner)


anyway.....

the mystery...

A row of green started growing this spring, along one of the sheds.

I hadn't planted anything, so what was it????

I watched it and questioned different people.

Was it a weed? maybe...probably

Was it a flower? maybe....I don't think it is a weed.

I just let it grow.

I walked over to see if any of the flowers had opened yet...

Shock. That looks like the black-eyed susan.

How weird.

How did it get there?

I know they weren't there last year.

I guess I will just enjoy them.

tornado damage...

Last week when the tornadoes came rolling through southern Minnesota....
my cousin was right in the path.
A machine shed they rent for storage, was hit. She said the only thing holding it up was the combine sitting in it...
So many of their friends lost their homes. She sent me over 200 pictures.

Life was turned upside down for so many.

So all prayers are welcome for those that lost so much.

think love-live joy...

This little wall hanging reminds me a lot of Karen.
...probably because it's her fabric.

A while back she made a scrappy trip around the world table runner. It is for a bridal shower this Wednesday. I hadn't planned on going.
When she brought it over to show me, I said, "that would be fun to make a wall hanging out of the same fabrics."

By the time she left, the new plan was for me to go to the shower and make a wall hanging with some of the same fabrics.
This is how far I got this afternoon.....
It is actually very fitting....
Something old, some of that fabric is from Karen's neighbor who was cleaning out her closet...
Something new, some of that fabric is new....
Something borrowed, I borrowed the fabric from Karen....
Something blue, there is blue in it.

We will have to take a picture of both things before we give them away.

the handbag is done...

*
*
It only took four days...and it is finished....



One fancy handbag.



Her mom said the supplies cost $45.00



The squeal of delight as she put in each grommet....

the pride she felt when it was completed....

and the smile on her face....



That stuff is all priceless.

Yesterday we had some very nasty storms come through. There were countless tornadoes up in Minnesota. Before she left, Amanda made me promise that the handbag would go down in the basement if we needed to go down there...and we did spend some time down there.

Today it was cloudy and the sky was deep dark blue to south all day. We were right on the edge of more rain and storms.

As Amanda was leaving the sun was starting to come out.

I quick took a picture of the last of the clouds and some of my favorite flowers.

my project, her project

Summer time....county fairs and 4H projects.

Last year my niece, Amanda (full circle skirt Amanda)

came over to work on binding for a quilt that would be in the fair.

This year it is a hand bag.

Yesterday she sewed these strips together and started quilting them.

Then it was time for her to go home.

We knew then, this would take several days worth of working. In the meantime....

I had gone looking for Halloween stuff to sew on and found forgotten stuff.

A panel I have because it was in a $5.00 scrap bag at the quilt shop....

and a forgotten charm pack I bought a couple years ago.

Merry and Bright.
There was even some striped fabric...already on the diagonal.

The binding!!!!

The block I used for Frolic worked so well I used it again.

Amanda came back this afternoon.

She had to wait while I finished quilting the wall hanging.

Then it was her turn to finish the quilting on her bag.
The most exciting part was creating the "box" that would be the handbag.

while she sewed, I took a quick picture on my wall hanging so far.
It only needs the binding.






The next step for Amanda was to cut the lining and get it ready, and set it aside.
Then add the band where grommets will go at the top....
they will have the strap/handle woven in and out to close the bag.




It is taking shape and looking so cool.
Next up...adding the lining to it.
That will be the next sewing session.

the winner and a postcard....

We drew the name this afternoon....
I will email her and tell her........ she is the winner of the little wall hanging.
yippie, cheers....


Now I just need to go finish the binding with the stripe and it is done, ready for the mail!!!


I was talking to the grandma of one of the preschoolers. She misses me. That is just so sweet. I decided to make her a postcard. Her grandma said she would "be over the moon" if she got something in the mail from me so this will go out tomorrow....

I used fabric to bind it. Sewed it on the front, then glued it down in the back. Seems like it should hold. It looks more finished this way.
I may keep finishing postcards this way...which is really odd....I am so SLOW about getting the binding done on things. It is my least favorite thing to do.

name change possible.....

This is not my finest hour. This quilt is coming out so-so.
After I had this much sewn together...
I noticed it....
the cow is crooked.
That hasn't stopped me. I am still working on it. I could always start calling it Down on the Farm with a Crooked Cow.

It is in my newer machine. The one that I do any quilting on. I save the simple piecing for my old Montgomery Ward, and I mean old. It is about 28 years old now. I wonder if any one would want to see that one?

Not many have entered my giveaway. Let's see traffic on the blog could be slow. Really slow. Or most people do a "jackie" and just look at the pictures.
There is still about 48 hours to enter!!

paint and an extra block......

I got out the paint this morning and printed out some words to make a border for one lonely block I had. It is finished now, right up to the binding. I don't enjoy binding. This is a stall tactic.

First......... an up close look...it seems to capture the colors best. Now there are three choices for the binding.
A safe tone on tone reddish color. I picked this out on Saturday. I plan on using it for the border on my Down on the Farm quilt. It would look nice here too....

Then there is the bright green. It is not as light as looks on the left, but not as dark as it looks on the right. I would say it is in the family of lime greens.

The last choice is that stripe I never would have bought if Karen hadn't said something when we were at the quilt shop.

The whole thing measures just under 12 x12 inches square. Now here is the deal. I am going to give this away. To be in my drawing, all you need to do is pick out the binding you like best. Then comment or email me your pick. When I pick the name (or tractor joe actually will do the picking)...I will bind it with the winners choice and send it to them. You do not need to advertise this on your blog (if you have one)....in fact it is better not to. The less people who enter, the better your chance. It is kind of a secret giveaway. Let's see....how much time should I allow for picking out binding?

You have till Sunday, June 13...of this year. What time? hmmm.....Let's say 3:00 pm in the afternoon, my local time. You do not need to be living in North America to win.

frolic and what I learned.....

This was my first charm pack. I bought it a couple months back.
I really wasn't sure what to do with it.
I knew I wanted to use as much of the fabric as possible.
I learned there is block that would do this, it is called Electric Fan.
I took the 5 inch squares in stacks of 4. Cut them in an X and arranged them into the block.
I learned that I should have read the directions in the book for this block. (Around the Block with Judy Hopkins) It took me a couple blocks to see that every quarter was exactly the same, just turned 90 degrees each time.

Things went so much faster when I figured that out.

I learned that I can use prints all together. I have watched Karen do it all the time....and her things look so cool..... I finally tried it myself.
It looks like summer to me....like it is happy.

It takes 36 squares from the charm pack to make this quilt.

Then there is the binding.

I learned that is wise to take Karen shopping...
As I stood there in the fabric shop looking at the Frolic fabrics...not having a clue as to which ones to buy for the corner stones and binding..... Karen came over and said,

"I like striped binding."
"You mean like this ugly stripe?"

"Yah"
Oh boy. What to do, what to do??

I love her striped bindings. They really add something to her quilts. So I took a deep breath and grabbed the stripe for binding, along with some SAFE solids.

I learned that I have a new love for striped fabric.

setting triangles....

The pattern for Down on the Farm, calls for plain setting triangles.
But the other day during that magical second cup of coffee,

I started thinking....

Do I need to have plain pieces of tan?
What else could I put in there?
Flying geese?
What about a checker board pattern?
My first thought was black and white, but I don't have enough black around here.

What do I have?
I looked and found some blue. So far I am loving this, even if it is rather bold.
I also added black fabric to my shopping list.

what next....

School finished yesterday.
I came home, watched some soaps,
then got busy.
I changed the needle in my machine and started cutting up a Frolic charm pack.
This is what I ended up with................

I don't love these blocks. They are busy and brighter in person. So I am just not sure what to do next. They need to sit and rest....then my brain will calm down too.
The very last idea I had was to put summer wonky words around it for the border and light sashing between all the blocks.

breezeway and the quilt so far....

I keep forgetting to show these before and after of the breezeway.
For several years this is what it looked like in there...
the ugly blandex was gone,
but now it was....
pink styrofoam insulation
and exposed 2 x 4's.... The new paneling went up and it looks SO MUCH better!
I posted about the Oliver light going in there, but never the walls.
Now the back door REALLY looks bad with its peeling paint.
That will be a summer project, repaint the door.

I took a picture of the page with Cutting Garden.
This may or may not be my next project.

But first, I need to work on finishing down on the farm.

The flowers are all ready to go....

this is going to be big for a small quilt, 35 x 51.

The pattern calls for a 1/2 yard of fabric to make setting triangles. As luck would have it,

our quilt shop in Forest City is having a 12 year anniversary sale this weekend!

Karen and I have made plans to head over there!!

more flowers...

I can't get a decent picture of the calendar quilt....
so this will have to do.

It is actually done and on the wall in the basement.
Then I did some more flowers for Down on the farm.
Slow but sure, I am getting them done.

I have enjoyed making these flowers.

There is another quilt in the book that is all flowers, I might do that one too.