more butterflies...

Even though it is small, it is "done"
These are the green background butterflies.
I haven't decided....
do I like the 4 patch look in the wings or the color going straight across...
( a happy mistake when sewing them)
do I like the lighter or darker bodies... do I want to use a bunch of pink 2 1/2 strips to make all pink butterflies...
(they would end up bigger than these and be perfect for a girl quilt)
do I like the dark background or white backgrounds.....
I don't know, I guess I like them all.



If I machine on quilt binding I will sew it down with a standard straight stitch
like this -------------
After studying my options on the sewing machine, I tried something new that looks
like this -^-^-^-^-^-^
I liked it.
For now this is on my refrigerator, it looks so cute there.

butterfly blocks...

When I made penguin blocks, I ended up with extra yellow/orangish 2 inch squares. They were the beaks and feet. They just sat there. Wasn't sure what to do with them.

Well, I found a way to use them. They would become butterflies. Why butterflies? Because a while back I was just meandering through blog land and found this post about making butterflies:
here are Belinda's butterflies. She found the butterflytutorial at this blog. They were kinda cute. At first I had no intention of making any....but I started thinking as I watched a little yellow butterfly. Why not make them yellow??

I made some with green background. I liked them and wanted to make more.....

I ended up cutting more squares of different colors.


Mine are just like the tutorial except....

I switched to a white background,

Mine are 4 squares instead of 2 rectangles for the wings,

they are smaller, the body is cut 1 x 3 1/2 inches (the widths of my bodies got a little wonky)

the body is also dark brown not light...

and mine don't turn out square. The blocks are a little bit wider than they are tall.

I liked them.

I added fabric around each one so that they sit crooked in the block.

This was EXCELLENT practice for when I set my penguins wonky in blocks. I know how to do it now.

Now what to do with them???

More thinking.

They will just have to rest and wait.

shearing Alpaca.....

Are you ready for your close-up? Tractor joe's brother raises alpaca.
(not llama, no no no, alpaca)
Way last May it was shearing time. I went over there to get some pictures and I am now getting around to posting them.

Here are a bunch of babies still waiting. They are very curious. They are asking...
"what's going on?"
"what are they going to do to us?"


Tractor joe is waiting with this one. He (or she) is next up. They get their legs tied up so they don't thrash around and kick.

Here is that brother doing his shearing.

Kyle's job was to pick up all the wool and put it into bags.

They were so fuzzy wuzzy cute. Now they look like something Dr. Suess drew.

I think that dark one below looks like he is thinking,

"why do I feel so funny now?"

Maybe they are all thinking, "why do I feel so weird?"



Each bag has the name of the alpaca on it.

It was also Kyle's job not to mess up and put the wool in the wrong bag.
He got them all correct.
A lot of alpaca were sheared that afternoon.

While sitting with this one, tractor joe kept telling him....

"you're going to thank me this summer."

alpaca and bears...experimenting

First things first....this is really a llama pattern, but I thought it looked like an alpaca too, so I used it.
I found it here...http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/Ethnic%20Flavored%20Designs.html

I drew the pattern on freezer paper and then cut it out with my exacto knife.
I painted in the llama and stenciled in the do-dads. Then the whole thing was plunged into blue dye. The kind you get off the shelves in the grocery store. Nothing fancy.
ooops, wait...
I did cover everything with blue gel glue too. It just didn't quite work out the way I wanted.


The painted stuff didn't really stand out...
I had to repaint the do-dads....then I ironed down the freezer paper with just the llama
I mean alpaca,
cut out, and sponged on some lighter metallic colored acrylic paint....all around the edges.
So now he stands out more...

I also threw a t shirt in the dye that I hadn't done anything to.
Maybe if I paint it after the dye....
I cut out more stencils, painted the bear and trees.
I ironed down the insides of my cutouts over what was already painted...
sponged some more light metallic paint around everything.

Here it is before the reveal........

...and here it is after I pulled all the freezer paper off......

The bear and trees are from the book...

Spirit of the Northwoods by Debbie Field for Granola Girls.
The book belongs to my cousin Gwen...so I have to return it.

I better use it while it still here, in my possession.
The letters were cut out with my Sizzix machine, and I may add the word ALPACA to that shirt.

variety of things....

I love the way this old wood looks after I give it a good scrubbing. It is out of a building that was taken down here on the yard, and has been laying around waiting to be used for something else.

It will go in the shed. The "men's crisis center". Years ago, before we bought the place, pigs chewed up parts of the walls in there.

It was repaired, but doesn't look that nice.

So.......

This pretty pile of wood will be used to patch up the walls and make them all look good again.

My sewing machine bit the dust....it just won't sew anymore.

What do you think is wrong with it??

Okay, this was in one of the sheds when we moved here. I forgot it was in there. When I was cleaning a couple days ago, I saw it.

I put it out in the garden. Yard art.

A mini album is in the works. I started cutting up the tourist magazine from Lanesboro and
one of tractor joe's "tractorhouse.com" catalog/magazines. Eventually I will get my pictures developed, and put it all together.

North Iowa Tractor Ride...day two

Southeast Minnesota is hilly and full of bluffs. Excellent scenery. It was gorgeous being on top of the hills and looking out over all the farmland.

It is also Amish country. The coolest thing I saw was the laundry hanging out to dry at one home. No one got a picture of it. It was beautiful. Lots of black, deep purples, blues and reds hanging, like flags, from the house to a pole. It was just as sunny and hot on day two. Everyone had a chance to work on farmer tans....head neck and arms taking the brunt of the sun. Sunscreen is a must have for rides.

Here I am....I was holding the camera up to get a shot of what was behind me. I never knew what I would get...this seemed to be the best one. That is Rod back there.

This was my view for 2 days....

My knees didn't get so stiff...I was able to stretch out.

Not a cloud in the sky.




Breaks were scheduled....a place to stop, get down, walk around and use a bathroom....

On day two this was a break on the side of the road.

It was perfect...if you don't mind not having a toilet to use. (I didn't, and I had to go) The corn was just right to walk into and go to the bathroom.

and....no, I didn't see any baseball players in there.

(Field of Dreams....is this heaven? No, it's Iowa)






We are almost back to Cresco....

It is hard to see, but, Bill was in front of us. He was standing, one leg up, trying to air out and cool off.






The end....

Rod has this down to an art form....he and Brian can load, and chain down tractors in no time at all. They have done this before. In fact they were going home...only to regroup and then head out the next day for another tractor ride! I was happy to stay home. I need a bigger break between rides!

It is something we will do again. Maybe next time use the Farmall, that tractor isn't as noisy (according to tractor joe). I don't know...to me they all sound the same.

North Iowa Tractor Ride 2010...day one

We finished our first tractor ride!!

these are the cell phone pictures that I took.....

We were only gone 48 hours....But I feel like we were gone for days and days and went a lot further than we did. Here we have Brian, tractor joe, Rod and Bill.... We all met in Cresco, IA on Thursday. It ended up with 170-something tractors participating. They had 4 sections.....from the slowest group, which always left first... to the fastest group, which always left last. We were in the fastest group.

Hang on to your hats....I lost my hat once when a gust of wind took it. Bill stopped to pick it up.
I got it back when we stopped for a minute to check our brakes on the tractor...
they were smokin' hot!!!

I am still not sure of the problem...but it was easily fixed. We discovered that we would like one of the slower groups better. The faster you go, the louder the tractor. It was hard to talk without yelling at each other.

we said "WHAT?" a lot....and did a lot of pointing. At a slower pace it was easier to talk.

On the first day we were in front of Bill and Rod. It was hard taking pictures. There was lots of bouncing in my seat.

I had the cooler, my backpack and me all seatbelted down on the bench. There were times I was airborn back there. The first time it was OMG!!!....then you just kinda get used to it happening every once in awhile.

We left at 9:00 am and arrived in Lanesboro, Mn about 3:30 in the afternoon. It was very hot and humid...waiting in line for fuel was another chance for more sweating. Not much wind to help cool a person off.
Out on the road you didn't feel the heat as much.

I had put a quilt on the back of the bench.

Then we had to find the place we had made reservations for...



It took a bit of searching...finally we found the door sandwiched between two shops.

Check in was at the Amish Experience shop.



Then off to our room....

Right behind that door is a set of steps...24 of them and right at the top was our room. I kept reminding myself of all the great exercise I was getting each time I went up them.


There were 3 rooms, each with a bed and bathroom. The rooms all shared a livingroom area and one beautiful kitchen.

It was stocked with everything you would need to make breakfast. We loved it. Our roomies were Rod's in-laws and we all ate together at the table, talking about the ride so far.

Just about all the decorations were for sale...there were price tags hanging on different things, including these chairs. Amish built, they had $169.00 on them. I don't know if that was per chair or pair of them...we didn't buy anything, not even a postcard.

I will do day two next time!!

oliver ready....

We are going on a tractor ride....

It goes from Cresco, IA up to Lanesboro, MN and back

We spend the night in Lanesboro.

...there will be 150 tractors of all kinds...... putt*puttin along the road.

We have never done this before.

Rod has.

He put an old pickup bench on the back of the Oliver. That is where I will be sitting...just like Rod is in the picture.

(Tractor joe took the picture while he and Rod were working on it.

It is blurry, but he was so excited for me to see it. I told him that people will think he was drinking when he took it. He assured me it was after he took the picture that they had a beer.) The kitty's name is Cleo.

all penguins.....

...and nothing but penguins....

I have 12 blocks sewn. Now the big question is how to lay them out in a baby quilt. I took them outside to lay them out on the driveway this morning. It was cloudy and not to breezy yet.
I tried different things.



How 'bout dancing penguins?
Setting them in wonky to make a bigger square.
Or,
laid out with a mystery block between them.
I have no idea what that mystery block would be.

Or just side by side,

with some sashing separating each row....and some cute fabric for the border...

Or,

I went in to get my disappearing nine patches
This gets rather busy, and then I am down to one quilt instead of two baby quilts.

There isn't much left of the penguin background fabric...so I can't plan on using that.

I will put these in a baggy and bring them with me shopping next time I go.

A deep aqua would look good with the light aqua in each block. If Karen is with me, there is good chance there will be red in it too.

Go ahead and put your 2 cents in here. Someone might throw something out there that actually sticks....

penguins...

I am getting there....
8 done so far. There are 3 dark blue, 3 dark purple and 2 black ones.

The last 4 will be black ones. 12 all together. I haven't decided how to finish them though.

I didn't really like the setting that is in the magazine. Something else to think about.....

baby boys, blocks and blogging....

I was cleaning off my sewing desk...the one with my old machine on it

and I found a magazine....

It was a "special" issue from Quiltmakers in 2007.

So of course, I paged through it.

Wow, look..... a perfect block for a baby boy quilt.

I should have enough fabric to make a version of this.....

(there are no baby boys born yet, but it's nice to plan ahead sometimes.)

but "finish line" will go on hold for now because...

I continued to page through and came upon Penguin Party...

I had even made one block many moons ago.

I dug that out.....

This could be a boy or a girl quilt....I have several more black fabrics now and even some orange for feet and beaks. The directions call for some of the birds to be very deep dark blues and purples. I don't know if that will happen or not. It would make it a tad more colorful. I'll do a few and see if it starts singing to me or not.

Next up is a block I made using fabrics from a charm pack called "fruitcake"....

...while it is a good way to use every square inch of fabric from the 5 inch square,

it didn't sing to me when I finished it.

I find myself wanting to go back to the "electric fan" block. I piled up all the fabric and put it back on the shelf for now. It will have to rest there for a while.

One night this week, Karen called to say....no wait, I called her....anyway...

she told me she was working on finishing up some small "disappearing nine patches"

that would be hot pads.

She made them with 3 inch squares and they were so cute.....

So I had to try it...

I made one using 2 1/2 inch squares with some fabric that was just laying there.

I tried some fancy stitches on the binding and thought it looked stupid.

This little hot pad is now in my hot pad drawer.

Now here is the big news....

Karen told me she set up a blog this week, but hadn't posted anything yet.

This morning she called to say her blog is up and running with her version of

"disappearing nine patch" blocks turned into hot pads.

here is the link to....smalltownquilter