May is moving right along...

Finished quilt pictures!

I didn’t count the blocks correctly when I laid these out on the floor. I thought I had enough for 8 by 8 house blocks. But when I started sewing the rows I discovered only 7 rows. To make the quilt longer I used progressively wider sashing between the rows. That worked and quilt has been delivered. 

Bonus triangles put together for table topper. 

Moonstruck. My nephew who grew up raising cattle will be getting married in August. They haven’t changed any plans yet. Wait and see.

This is a free Bonnie Hunter pattern. Bricks and Stepping Stones. It is this size because that is how many black and white checks I could make with my left over Moonstruck fabric. 

New project...

I have two quilting cousins. Gwen in New Mexico and Max in Minnesota. We are making a cousins quilt. We picked a barn from Farm Girl Vintage. 

We picked colors for the barn several weeks ago. Each of us will make three blocks using  our colors and any 6 inch block to fill it. My barn colors are brown, green, and pink. 

I picked the flower block for my cone flowers, the John Deere for our mowers, and the birds for the crows I need to chase away from the garbage bag when we put it out. Today is garbage day so I will be on crow patrol. My blocks came from the Farm Girl Vintage 2 book.

The bowl and spoon are Gwen’s. She makes a lot of bread. Max hasn’t had a chance to start any blocks yet. 

This will be the third summer working on Long Time Gone. It’s time to get it done. After breakfast I will look at the book and put some more pieces together. 

Or go pick rhubarb and make something. 

girls weekend......

Last summer Jane (my sister) and Max (my cousin) thought it would be a really fun to go to Winterset, Iowa. So much to see there!

Karen and I said we would go too.

Last weekend we made the road trip.

Planners in the front seat, tag alongs in the back seat.

We saw all the bridges, John Waynes birthplace, Fon's & Porter quilt shop, a local winery, and ate at the Northside Cafe and other stuff!

Along the road to Roseman Bridge. Characters from the movie, 

The Bridges of Madison County.

The quilt shop. It is small, but we all found one thing to buy.

Window decor for a yarn shop. Maybe it should have been Robert still waiting for Fancesca to get herself out of her truck and join him as he headed out of town in the movie.

Every bridge had a geocache (or two) nearby. I did not always find it, but was sure to look.

This is my kind of cache. Nice and big.

 It is hidden at the History Museum in Adel, Iowa.

I love my geocaching app. When we stopped, 

I would open it and hit...

"find nearby caches"

Now, this weekend I will stay home and sew!

AQS des moines quilt show last week...

Last week at this time I was in the shower getting ready to head down to Des Moines for the quilt show with Karen. We were trying to figure out how many years we have been doing this.

We still don't know, but several for sure.

This year we were in search of two special quilts.

One made by Lynne http://patcherymenagerie.blogspot.com/

And this one by Julie http://quiltdivajulie.blogspot.com/

The chains keep you from getting too close, but that doesn't mean I didn't lean over a bit and take a closer look at things. It was really cool to see both of these in person.

You see them on their blogs and all, but it really is true...that pictures don't do a quilt justice.

In person is so much better!

I was so happy when I learned that both of these would be in Des Moines!

It was fun watching people stand there and stare

and smile

and put there heads together to talk

 and point out this or that on the quilt.

I used my tea towel challenge bag as planned. I decided to join the AQS this year.

So my bag was heavy right from the start. I got a free (out of print) book, one of last years magazines, a catalog and show book. My bag got heavy right at the door.

As I meandered through one of the booths and out of it I could 'feel' this body moving with me. If I turned, it turned. 

Who is following me? It turned out to be the shop owner. The bag caught her eye and she needed to get a closer look at it! So as best I could I filled her in on the why and how this bag came to be.

It was made during the tea towel challenge last winter.

Now today I am off to meet my cousin Max at The Quilted Forest in Forest City.

I will also stop and mail my block lotto blocks from September.

Three were worthy of entering, the first one ended up being a disaster.

Not sure what went wrong with that one! 

I have Octobers done, just not pressed or pictured yet.

I love my bag.....

The buffalo was put out. There was a Titonka sign on it too, but never took a picture....

Signs advertising the food ahead in Titonka....Ragbrai would be coming through

And then the thousands & thousands of riders arrived. I don't know who this is. As I was taking a picture he entered the shot. I told him he would be on the blog. I was garbage patrol. Emptying the garbage cans as they filled. 

There are always stragglers. When it was "over" and I was walking home,

I went by Dave's shop. He had a whole little party going with this group.

I did not ask or look at what was under the skirts.

I finished this bag! I had started it Monday and there it sat till I could get back to it.

It is made from old decorator fabric samples.

The pattern has a side pocket that I left off. There is a zippered pocket on the end. 

I went simple and just added two slip in pockets on each end. 

They will be good for adding all that last minute stuff I forgot to pack!

Over all the bag is 20 inches wide, and 12 x 12 inches on the ends.

Nice and roomy.

what is new around here.....

Last weekend, Karen and I went down to Des Moines for the quilt show. 

Captain A-moo-ica was there with the Cow Stampede. It was a herd of cows all made from the cow pattern in

[Out of the Box with easy blocks]

They are a joy to look at. As we looked at other exhibits of quilts, we could hear laughter. You knew it was the cows tickling someone's funny bone.

There are pictures of them here....

[marylou.blogspot.com/2013/10/cows-grazing-in-iowa]

We bought books and fabric. We walked around until my feet and Karen's knees could take it no longer. Our shoulders and necks were getting tired from the weight of our bags. We knew it was time to leave. Besides the show was closing in 15 minutes.

I could use a new sewing machine.

My 30 year old Montgomery Ward is not sewing well at all.

The cheap Brother doesn't feed feed straight. It works well for small quilting jobs,

but that is about it.

A while back tractor joe bought an old dirty VIKING. We cleaned and played with it.

Then he went and tinkered with it some more.

It sews beautifully....except the only direction it sews now is BACKWARDS.

I told him to stop messing with it, but NO, he thought with a little more adjustment he would have it sewing just right. Heavy sigh.

It isn't a total loss of $6.00. The cabinet is now being used for a drill press. Dave needed a stand and this seemed like a good place for it. He doctored it up and painted it black. 

There was also a pair of really nice Gingher scissors in one of the drawers.

So, right now the best machine I have is the 60 year old Singer. I started sewing small squares together. Everything seems to be in working order. I plan on sewing this weekend and this is where I will be.

Only first I need to go to the county jail and get fingerprinted for work. What a pain.

Another "Dave find"....

The bank in town, the one that burned down over a year ago is finally moving into it's new building. They had been housed in a temporary trailer house type building. A front porch was attached to it. When Dave found out they were going to just trash it, he asked for it and was told he could have it. 

He had major plans for it. Only when he went to do some measuring, he found out it would not work where he wanted it. He wanted to know if we wanted it.

Yes!

This is how it looked when I arrived home from work the day it came here. The railing now goes all the way across where tractor joe is sitting, and there is a finished step where Dave is sitting. 

I thought it was pretty darn cute.

recent happenings around here....

It has been awhile. There aren't any pictures of recent sewing...but there were some pictures in the phone that seemed blog worthy.

I said I wouldn't be painting my auction chairs. I was wrong.

I bought some paint! They are taking a little longer than I thought.

Washing, painting on the primer...then finally starting with the green.

I will be back at it this morning.

This is the neighbor boy, when he was over a couple weeks ago. He found this old truck and wanted to play with it, then chased down the cat to see if she wanted a ride.

He likes to come over and see what we are up to.

He is not bothered by tractor joe's grumpiness.

He is like a Dennis the Menace,

and tractor joe is now Mr. Wilson.

Painting the chairs also took longer because...

I remembered that I needed to put out recycle stuff,

While getting that ready, I found some old jars that could be stored out in a shed.

So, I took them out there and got sidetracked weeding.

That is when I decided to transplant some ferns.

I was watering them and there sat my tomato plants.

So those went in the garden.

As long as I was out there, I transplanted some marigolds.

But wait, where are the flower seeds I bought?

Found them and they went into the ground too.

I also stood around a lot watching the county guys dig deep holes. They needed to unplug some tile.

There are huge ponds north and south of us in the farm ground. They don't go away.

They thought they had it figured out yesterday and left saying that "by morning the ponds to the north would be shrinking." 

I looked this morning. The north ones look the same, but the south ones are gone.

On one of the last days of school we went bowling and then to the second highest point in Iowa.

There is a tower there and the view is awesome. We all climbed up to have a look.

I now have a frequent painter card! 

Paint 6 and get the 7th free!

creativespiritokoboji

was in Bancroft. We did the wine glass that night. 

I told my sister I wanted to add words to it.

Her idea.....

The good life is friends, wine and art--in Italian.

Karen had this in her car the night we painted. It is scrap vomit fresh from the quilter.

She pulled it out to show every one. When the top was finished, it made her gag. 

She didn't like it much at all.

The light must have been just right. It looked beautiful!

She fell in love with it.

(HERE) is where she blogged about it.

Okay, back to the green paint.

it was so cool....

A group painting event was held in town this week. Karen and I signed up. When I first looked at the painting, I wasn't thrilled with it. 

BUT!

It seemed like a fun thing to do. There were about 20 gals painting.

Everything was set up when we got there. They supplied the apron.

One blank canvas, three different brushes and a plate full of blobs of acrylic paint and a water cup.

First the background went on.

Our artist teacher explained every step,

How to load the brush so the stem was highlighted,

how to make the white lines of the dandelion

how to make the little white ends

and which brush to use.

It was pretty cool seeing all the paintings,

all the same and yet each one different.

These two are obviously in touch with their inner artist.

They chose different background colors and words!

I didn't change the word or color. Most of us wrote the word with chalk, then painted over that.

Some used a stencil.

I never got a shot of Karen's.

We are going to do another one at the end of the month.

These events are put on by,

creativespiritsokoboji

The link brings you to the calendar page. If you scroll down to May 29th, you will see the wine glass we want to do. 

I didn't sew....

We did go shopping though. Bought some fabric and thread. So at least it was quilt related.
I might work on postcards today. My sister sent me this picture this morning. I thought it was funny.

two finished quilts......

Jurassic Park came back from the quilters right before Thanksgiving. The timing was perfect. Crispy took this back to school with him. He didn't want to do this....

(taking a picture of him wrapped in it, but I endured all the complaining and got a picture to show how big it is)

All he wanted to do was this....

Hold it up to get a good shot of the whole thing. I thought I was being generous. He could have been hauling the ladder out of the shed and helping me pin it on to the wire on the other shed. 

But it was cold and I didn't want to be outside any longer than I had to.

For the longest time, Jacob (Crispy's friend) has been bugging me to make a Jaws quilt. I never got around to it. But, I saw him right before Thanksgiving.

The first thing he said was, "Did you get a Jaws quilt done?"

No.

The long weekend gave me time to think and dig and plan.

I found this fabric with hot babes on it. Yes! Every college boy wants hot babes.

He also wanted a sailboat and a shark.

This is what I came up with.....

He was more than willing to get a picture. I thought the shark was ugly. But he said that is what made him so awesome. So this went back to college with him.

The sailboat construction is based on this adorable quilt!

Jacob wanted the words, "we're gonna need a bigger boat!" they are stamped on with red craft paint using foam letters. 

good grief, it is October.....

On Saturday, Karen and I went to the Quilt Show in Des Moines. By the end of the day we were tired, cranky, and walking around with sore feet and knees. Neither of us bought much.

Karen was the crankiest. She kept fighting with her GPS. If it were me....I would have thrown it to the back of the van. We were only going to Ames and we know how to do that from Des Moines.

We stopped to have supper with Crispy in Ames. I haven't seen him since August! 

We went to the first restaurant, Hickory Park.

There would be a wait of at least a half hour.

Oh my, did we really need to wait....should we go somewhere else?

Crispy said he was for leaving.

That left Karen mumbling and grumbling

 as we walked back to the car, 

on our sore feet and aching knees.....

 "it doesn't matter where we go. we will have to wait a half hour!"

Luckily, we were seated right away at Old Chicago.

Then we dropped Crispy off at his dorm. He was ready to go do what ever college boys do on a Saturday night. 

We teased a lot of the machine dealers, 

stopping at every one of them to check them out.

We heard all about the "show deals that will never be seen again."

I did warn the one gal..."now don't get all excited, we really are just looking."

I bought this sweet little kit. I am normally NOT a button person. I don't like touching those white buttons that are on so many clothes. But these buttons were cute!

There is some hand stitching involved, but I think I can do it!

Oh oh, Karen read this. I forgot to add...

 that in spite of how tired we were....

we were also very very happy campers. Karen is the best driver in the world. We are looking forward to next year!