October what?? 17th. Already??

Back in September Mary Fons was at the the Quilted Steeple in Lone Rock Iowa.

She did some classes and lectures during their open house.

There was an outdoor quilt show too.

A nice strong breeze made picture taking hard.

It is located out in the country. A new purpose for an old church.

She went up and down the aisle warming up the crowd before she started. We didn't do any of the classes, just the lecture. There is a picture of the crowd on the home page if you click on the link.

This was a dresser up on the second floor of one of the sheds. It was there when we bought the place.

The drawers were missing and it was falling apart. We added two shelves using scrap wood.

Then stained it...

It turned out a little better than anticipated. But we are still using it the way I had planned. As a grilling station. Our tiny table top gas grill sits on top and other grilling supplies are on the shelves. It is protected from the weather and will be brought inside for the winter. So it should last a nice long time. 

This was last years block exchange quilt. We had a meeting for this years. We will make a 12 inch star block and a 6 inch block of our choice (times 12). They will be in reds and whites. I think I have a plan already...but I haven't sewn one block yet.

That is probably where I should start...getting my blocks sewn.

Went to Des Moines for the AQS quilt show a couple weeks ago. 

Lynne had a quilt entered again this year. I love being able to see her stuff in person! We stopped to stare and soak it all in and take a photo. I bought her a pin too, but that is still in my bag. 

This car cover was made by one of the members of the Blue Earth Valley Quilters. Jan asked friends for orphan blocks to create this car cover. She made it several years ago. She had even sold the car. The new owner loaned it back just for the quilt show last August. I had heard about it, but this was the first time I saw it in person. It is pretty awesome. 

I still need to work on some binding. I can drag my feet with the best of them when it comes to binding. But today is the day. Pressure is on, I want it done before Monday and the next BEVQ meeting. 

One more thing.

The fabric pack challenge this year is Pumpkin Spice. I dug out an old pattern I made about 20 years ago. No Ordinary Cats by Country Threads. While making all the small flying geese and tiny stars that also go in this quilt, I discovered something.

My skills for sewing small stuff has not improved in 20 years. They are as wonky and off as ever.

When I pull this out again to work on it....I may be simplifying the pattern and using 2 inch squares for some of the filler. Or maybe not, but, that is just how I feel today.

I better get busy!

quilt show and tula.....

First a link to Smilebox that will show all the quilts.

Challenge Quilts

This is old stuff now! Last month was the BEVQ

(Blue Earth Valley Quilters)

And the woodcarvers too.

The challenge quilts were made from the same fabric packets bought the year before. You can do as you please. Any size, any style and add fabric if you want. But you must use all the fabrics.

I don't remember how I found this, but I thought it was pretty cool.

lorrie.cranor.org/blog/2014/01/19/how-to-make-an-interleave-quilt/

I did this in an afternoon. I didn't mark my batting. I used the straight edge of the next strip as my guide and that worked for me. I also pressed each strip as I sewed them on. I failed to curve both sides, so I have some straight edges in there too. I wasn't happy about this, but I had used all ten fabrics and called it done.

I was very surprised with a ribbon. 2nd place. Wow.

It shows that you shouldn't judge your own work.

While you may not be that impressed with what you did....someone else might be.

There was the jelly roll derby race on Friday night. 

Here is mine. I think it will make a wonderful throw on the floor baby quilt. I had high hopes of quilting it myself right away. But it it still just a top in the closet.

This is Karen's finished top.

We were the ONLY TWO contestants! 

She won by about 15 inches.

The event has been cancelled for next year due to lack of participation.

Dang. How can I try and beat her? She won last year too.

The Tula Pink 100 quilt blocks continues.

We are over half way now. 

We are in a new school year. Sewing is pretty sporadic. I did pick up a finished quilt last week,

or was it two weeks ago....

Anyway, I still want to get the binding on that soon. 

It is the gift for the wedding that was last May. 

test link

A smilebox link for all the quilts made from the same set of blocks.

Block Swap Quilts

test complete, it works
Way better pictures compared to mine!

my own little dear photograph.....

Link >>> Dear Photograph

This is a photo of tractor joe's grandparents. Back in the 1960's, they retired from farming. They built a house in town. As the family grew, grandpa built a huge table for the basement. That is where people ate for large family gatherings. 

They passed away in the 1980's. Their youngest daughter lived with them. She continued having Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings and everyone, or mostly everyone, ate in the basement at the huge table.

Last year Aunt Amanda moved to assisted living. It was decided that the house and contents would be sold in an auction. Saturday was the day. Tractor joe went to the auction while I was up in Blue Earth at the quilt show. This table did not sell. The cousins stood around and wondered what to do with it. They talked about just throwing it away. Tractor joe couldn't see that happening and brought it home. 

When our middle son came over he fell in love with it. He could see his friends gathering around it to play cards and games.  He wondered if it could be refinished. Probably, we thought. I sanded the top yesterday while it was still sitting on our back patio. 

There was also a book of old photos that was destined to be thrown away. Not so fast, and tractor joe brought that home too. In it were pictures of the table and his grandparents.

As I sat and admired how it looked all sanded smooth again, the idea for the dear photograph popped in to my head.

I have all kinds of quilt show photos, but I will save them for another day.

odds and ends.....

My cousin Max has me sucked into the Row by Row Experience. The Winnebago is from The Quilted Forest in Forest City where they make the motorhomes. When they gave me the pattern, I was in a hurry and only half listened to what I was being told about Row by Row.

Then Max was sending me photos of kits she was finding. When I finally investigated and saw done quilts with all the rows, I fell in love with them.

Max has been on road trips collecting them and it has been one for her, one for me. We were looking for fishing/camping themes. There is one way up in northern Minnesota that had the words

Land of sky blue waters.

I ended up just making the words for the quilt.

Then I talked to my cousin Gwen, in New Mexico. she is right across the border from Durango, CO and sent me these two kits....

Now she was sucked in. She had to go up to Idaho and was happily collecting kits and patterns along the way. She has gotten her brother and son involved too. When all is said and done,

I should have two quilts. The out west one and the fishing/camping midwest one.

These are blocks from a win at Block Lotto a LONG time ago. They are finally in a top!

More lotto blocks. Most of these are duds I won at the lotto... and some leftovers from other quilts.

My goal was to get them all up to 12 inch sized blocks. They are a nice stack of blocks now.

More left over sections from last fall and the Bonnie Hunter mystery. My heart still wasn't in it.

There must be another way to use these....

Maybe as a border for baby animals. Still not sure...

Another finished top. I had plans to make more stars, but quickly became bored making them. They are made from 2 1/2 inch strips. The rest of the strips became the border. 

Another top added to the "get quilted" pile.

That is enough for now!

the sunrise quilt.....

I won some of the sunrise blocks last summer at BLOCK LOTTO. I was excited, but had no idea what to do with them. Last spring I figured it out and [started here] 

I remade my pattern as the first one was off. It was the same, just done more carefully.

I picked out some background blues and continued to sew the big sun. I did one quarter of it to make sure the rays and ring would all fit together and they did.

The easiest part was the ring of black and white so I did all of them first.

Three of the rays done. Only one more to go.

Center sun done and ready for next border. A big black and white check was added.

I was slowed down a little bit doing the math and trying to figure out how big the sun should be cut and how big the filler strips should be between the sunrise blocks so it all fit together.

After the sunrise blocks were sewn together and added,

another round of black and white striped fabric was used.

This is where I stopped....I started cutting what I had of this aqua blue, and might even have enough to finish.

But, I think I'll buy some more fat quarters and add a few more for variety.

A trip to the fabric store is planned for Saturday.

going backwards through June......

I finished hand sewing about 3/4 of the binding for this quilt. It is part of the block exchange at the Blue Earth Valley Quilters. There were 12 of us in this. Next week we all get together and show each other what became of the 24 blocks we received. I'm looking forward to seeing all the different takes on the blocks.

These are April Block Lotto blocks I won! This will be the gift for the wedding we attended last month. It needs a border yet. A blue is my first choice, then it will kind of go with the wedding colors....or I may spot a green that I like...

It is already late, so I'm taking my time.

These are MORE block lotto blocks I won last year. This one has gone through many ideas before I finally committed to setting it with the black and white sashing. It is all sewn together and can go to the quilter as soon as I figure out the backing.

Still plugging away on the Tula Pink project.

Crap this picture is sideways.

I made the HST's two at a time. So I these last two blocks are the same, only different.

I would never have done these blocks at all. Never even bought the book. But I joined the small Tula Pink group and once I start making the blocks I find they are addicting and make a bunch at once. We make 8 a month. I am caught up to the August set of blocks.

We went camping again. One activity was going to the studio in Spirit Lake to do a painting. This one was hard. My least favorite of all the paintings I have done. I was the only one to add the people to the boat. 

They look a little scary.

A ton of coaster were made while camping. We used stickers, magazine pictures, photos, or just paint.

The last thing to show is the blocks for June at Block Lotto. These are harder than they look. As Sophie says,

"we strive for perfection, but it isn't a requirement"

or something like that.

Thank goodness.

The sneak peek was sent out earlier this week. After I finish the binding on my block exchange quilt, I will be working on the July block.

Honey, I shrunk the parents.....

We had a wedding last weekend. It was down in Davenport, Iowa. Well actually the wedding was in Illinois, but the reception was in Iowa. We crossed the Mississippi a couple times.

Anyway we stopped for photo opportunities. 

So, the wedding is over, but the gift is not done yet. I won the April blocks at Block Lotto. They are green to blue in color. I decided these would make a great wedding quilt. At the wedding all the bridesmaids were in blue dresses. It was meant to be!

I am adding a 2 1/2 inch strip to two sides of each block. The stars dance around on the quilt.

I am putting this at the top of the list of things to finish.

These are June's blocks at Block Lotto! 

a trip to New Ulm....

We went up to New Ulm, Minnesota on Saturday. We were meeting up with my mom, three sisters and a brother-in-law. My mom grew up here. It is where Grandma and Grandpa lived. 

It was time to decorate graves. 

Ernest was mom's uncle. One of my sisters asked,

"What did he die from?"

Mom said, "Old age"

Silence for a minute. Then the math was worked out.

WAIT, he was only 56! Old age? We sisters are right around that age!

Really?

My mom starts laughing and tells us she doesn't remember for sure. Then we were told more Uncle Ernest stories. We listened to more stories at each grave.

We mostly watched. Mom would take a large screw driver and pound it in the ground. Then she would stick a small bouquet of artificial flowers at each stone. Nothing permanent. But enough to make it pretty for Memorial Weekend.

For as long as I can remember we always went over to this grave. It is a little boy who drowned when he was 6, back in the 1883. We leave a penny under his shoe. 

Next stop, The Sewing Seeds Co. featured in the most recent Quilt Sampler magazine. My intent was to buy a little bit more wool to add to what I have. Maybe even make the quilt they have in the magazine.

It is darn cute in person.

I bought the wool and was happy.

But then my youngest sister spots a quilt on the wall and falls in love.

It is soft browns, greens and pinks.

I study how it is made.

I think I could handle it.

They had one kit left. It was 30% off. She keeps saying how much she loves it.

So back to the counter to buy that too. It will be her 50th birthday quilt. I have about 2 years to make it for her.

And she LOVES it.

Then we went to Schell's Brewery. I had brought a quilt along to take pictures of. This quilt was also up in Duluth last year when it was just a top. It is well traveled already.

We walked around the gardens looking for a spot to drape it. This bench might work.

There was also a wedding party getting pictures taken. The groomsmen are standing on the steps of the house. When they were finished we headed up there.

I thought this troll looked like he was saying, "all this for a quilt picture?"

This one has rounded corners. I think this is how I will be doing binding from now on.

We weren't done here yet. After all it is a brewery and the biergarten was open.

This is where I got grumpy.

It was fun sitting here with my sisters.

It was fun seeing the peacock. His blue was gorgeous.

It was really cool when he opened his feathers and strutted around.

But I was ready to go.

My mom had stayed down in the car while we took pictures and drank beer. I finally walked back to the parking lot to talk with her! I was ready to go. Everyone else was happy.

Including tractor joe. I watched him walk back up to the window to buy another beer. 

What was he doing??

Stop! We need to be going!

And I got grumpier. I could see it was a HUGE mug of beer.

I could see my sisters shaking out their cups. I told my mom that it looks like they are going to share that last big mug of beer. And they did. They giggled away at their grumpy sister down in the parking lot. They were having a fine time drinking tractor joe's beer so he could have the mug.

In the end, I had to agree that the souvenir mug was a nice idea.  I like it.

We made one more stop before heading south.

More Schell's beer and the Leinenkugel's just sounded like it might be good.

I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know.