my last start of 2010

I am seeing "how many finishes do I have this year?" 

(as I check out things in blogland)

I have no idea for me....

I do know I have lots of stuff started.

So....I shall end the year with my last started quilt all in pieces yet.

Wonky letters. 

They are mixed up to keep it somewhat of a secret. I am not even sure that the future owner reads this blog....but just in case this will slow down the identification.

...and no, I do not have a prize for who ever might guess what it will say.

Wonky stars.

They are not blocks yet...that is what I am working on right now. I don't know how many I need yet, since I don't know how big this quilt will be. 

I am not sure what to call this block. It is just scraps of fabric strips sewn together.

It will make the border. Once again I don't know if I have enough or not.

Okay....I am off to work on the stars!

quilts and more quilts...

I don't think I have ever shown this quilt on the blog before. It is my tractor quilt with the names of the tractors  made in their colors. 

The letters and making them are because of Lazy Gal Quilting

Tonya (lazy gal quilting) has a new book out, Word Play Quilts (the link takes you to Amazon)

I don't have a copy yet, but I intend to. Karen has one already. I was part of the quilt on the cover. Tonya had asked for happy 4 letter words, I made one and sent it to her.  My word is "grin" .....you can't see it on the cover. 

I absolutely love these letters....they are so much fun to make.

Now for some postcards.....

I plan on sending one of these to Tonya. I want to congratulate her on the book and tell her how much I LOVE making the letters! She is such an inspiration!

Next 2 older things from last month......

For my birthday Karen gave me a table runner.

It started life here on the table, in the kitchen, then I moved it to the couch. It matches so nicely. I love it!

.... it says "Karen" to me, 

it is her style of scrappiness.

She is wondering if she should make a whole big quilt using this same block pattern. It is 2 1/2 inch strips. Some are cut to squares, others are rectangles measuring 3 1/2 inches....the finished block is 6 inches square.

Since I love scrappy, I thought it sounded like a cool idea.

And one more thing......this came back from the quilter some time ago. It even had the binding sewn on rather quickly, at least by my standards.

i

It is tractor joe's now. It is always in the recliner laying over him or sitting there waiting for him to get home.

I have a stack of quilts that are ready for the quilter....I just need the backing fabric. With Christmas over, maybe I can shop for fabric now.

Christmas stuff....

Another colored picture from Eden at Draw Doodle and Decorate...
this santa-bird is telling the elves they did great work this year and he will be meeting them in Tahiti tomorrow.

I made some tags using crayons and watercolor.....

...the drinking snowman with the olive mouth was on a napkin. I redrew it on paper as best I could.
I made a couple of them for tractor joe to put on his adult beverage gifts that will go to his deer hunting buddies.

And.....

these went out last week. Including the one that looks more like ho-el than noel. I think they looked better in person than in this picture.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

the aftermath of the storm.....

One of the preschoolers finished his project, so he wanted to draw a "winter" picture. It seems fitting after the blizzard we had on Saturday.

The town plow came by this morning. A drift always forms right at the end of the driveway. He opened it up, but it was up to tractor joe to move the rest of it.

It took him several hours to clear it all out of the way.

We tried something new too. We parked cars on the driveway, right up against the garage doors....

their job......

collect the blowing snow. It seemed to work. The car was backed up and brushed off. Not as much snow right in front of the doors then.

 This was over at the neighbors in the backyard. I thought it looked pretty.

I made a bunch of letters for postcards. I put one together to see what I thought. hmmm.....

The "n" doesn't seem right. But it is wonky so it will have to do....and,
do I want the letters all even on the bottom?
This is ready to glue to card stock. At least I will have one done before Christmas.

block lotto

Recently I joined BLOCK LOTTO ....you make blocks for the pot and at the end of the month there is a drawing for winners. If you don't win you send your blocks to the person who did win. If you aren't up to making any blocks one month, you don't. Pretty simple and no real pressure.
This month is wonky trees. I made 3 sets for the lotto. Those are the "good ones" (above)

Then....
I have more that didn't pass inspection.
Below you will see the ones I will keep.......

The blue-ish ones aren't wide enough.

I have two sets of purple, one for the drawing and one for me now because....

The pairs you enter must be all different colors. But when I was cutting the purple, one of the  fabrics was upside down. (they need to both be facing up or down when cutting)....and rather than cut more black, I cut more purple. Crap, that won't work for the lotto....but so what~ I now had another pair for me.

Then I just cut some pinky/red ones with fabric that was laying there. These are fun to make, so someday I will add to my collection...OR....if I win, figure out how to use them with the winning blocks!!

Plus I am thinking that making some of these wonky asterisks would be fun to throw in the mix. They look like stars or snow.

Now I am off to sew something else. We are in a Blizzard Warning for today....only so far we are on the warm side of the front coming through and all we have is rain. Either way it is a good day to stay inside and sew.

happy dance to my sewing machine

santa postcards sent.....

 All the Santas are waving bye-bye. They went out last Saturday and it sounds like they got to their destinations quite quickly.

The background is muslin, I used thinned down yellow acrylic paint. The lime corners and red JOY are acrylic paint right out of the bottle using foam stamps. I brushed some sparkly paint over them too.
Simple quilting with no backing fabric.
I used Mod Pog to attach them to card stock. Trimmed, then zig-zagged around the edge. That is really working well for me.
I would love to make more. I may have to start thinking Valentines.
The Santa is from the "I Believe" book by Nancy Halvorsen

they say this is REALLY fun....

The first weekend in November is plow weekend. All these guys get together with their old tractors and old two bottom plows.
All they do, all weekend, is plow.
Putt putt ....back and forth....up and down...
across the field until it is all plowed.
Just for the fun of it.

They do this every year.
Except the last two years. The weather didn't cooperate and it had to be cancelled.
Rain or frozen ground just doesn't plow well.

My fearless pheasant hunting brother-in-law stopped to take pictures on his way home.
I didn't go up there this year...so thank you Jon for taking pictures!!! Tractor joe is on his tractor and his two brothers are on the front one. They are Oliver guys.

This is Rod. He is also the one who got us involved with tractor rides like day one & day two of the North Iowa Tractor Ride.

They normally aren't quite this close, but at the end of it, before all the ground is plowed they take a picture of all the tractors lined up. So they all move in close.

I think there is usually between 30 and 40 tractors out there. Red ones, orange ones and green ones. All different kinds. These guys have a blast doing this. I am pretty sure they are already talking about next year.

pheasant hunting....

 My brother-in-law was down from Duluth to do some pheasant hunting. He took several photos and sent them to me. First up is tractor joe's nephews. They were hunting out by the farm and these guys love to hunt too.
This is the second time he has sent the photos. The first group was wiped out of the computer when it was getting "fixed"....that is the way my middle son cleans a slow computer that is acting up. He just wipes it clean and TA-DA it is like a new computer.....and I have to start all over...grrrrrrr......anyway......

 This is Cliff and Daisy. They came down from Duluth too! The love to run around the fields and help the guys hunt. They get so pooped out.
Hunting wasn't very good this year. They never did bring home a bird.

 I am not sure where they were when these photos were taken.

I was surprised to see this old log cabin. I might have to go with them next time they hunt so I can see this in person. It looks so cool.

The weather was gorgeous, for the most part, this fall. Dry and warm for weeks and weeks. That has changed now.
It is feeling like winter now.
Cold and snowy.