rearranging....

so... I started to mix things up. Put the letters in the center, mix in some house blocks. 

And then the cat came along and ruined all my fun

I had to go do something else anyway. 

I’ll get back to this later. 

I just might have a plan....

These are all the flying geese blocks from the leftover triangles.

I gave it a try...sewing with Luke here. He couldn’t quite reach the chain if I kept pulling it towards me. He went back and forth between watching me and sitting down to watch Disney junior. I would just see the top of his head. He’s fast though. Once he stood up and I had let my guard down. He grabbed the chain and pulled. Yikes! Gentle! Gentle! I was able to pry it out of his fingers, and finish sewing them.

This morning I woke up thinking about this baby quilt. It took a bit of looking to find the letters I made last year at the quilt show. I had different ideas for them, none of them happening. Maybe they could be on the border of the mini house quilt. 

I don’t know. Maybe they are too chunky. I’m going to think on it. 

summer catch up.....

My temperature quilt from 2016 and finished this year for the quilt show. I was picked for the featured quilter! Wow! What to bring? Mike Ellingsen makes a smile box slide show of all the quilts in the special exhibits. There are always a ton more quilts to see at the show!
I'll share the links.

smilebox of Wonderful watermelon fabric challenge

smilebox of my quilts

smilebox of Block Exchange and Navajo Code Talkers

During the show, I sat and made letters. I just about finished the whole alphabet. W is missing yet. I'm thinking an alphabet baby quilt right now.

I met my first blogging friend, in person, at the show! Carol came down from the cities to see the show.

Do we look nervous! We were! While we have communicated for years....we always had the computers between us!

Here is the link to her post about it.... giraffedreams.blogspotl

A HUGE part of the summer was taken up with babysitting Luke and once in awhile Zander came too. 

Luke

Zander

School starts this week. Back to work. What a drag.

my cousin's scout quilt......

My cousin Gwen started a quilt this past summer. Actually TWO quilts. One for her son and one for his friend. Her idea was to use all these boy scout words.

She went out and bought Tonya's Word Play book and studied that.

She quizzed me about making letters. 

And then she started cutting and sewing.

She didn't stop until she had all these words!

She flew in from New Mexico for the weekend and brought all the words for one of the quilts.

We laid it out on the motel room floor. So the lighting isn't very good. It is actually brighter in real life. The background is whiter and the words are red, blue, brown and black.

Gwen is at the filler stage. 

Her husband wants her to make some fluer-de-lis emblems.

She thought pine trees in the gaps.

I thought stars, so she has a few of those from me.

We thought maybe a few American flags here and there.

She would like to add gold/yellow but isn't sure how. My mom says yellow stars mean a fallen soldier. So she threw that idea out. 

I just had a thought....what if the background of the stars were the gold and not the stars themselves. 

What else? What are we not thinking of?

consumed by Captain A-moo-ica....

I have been working away on a cow quilt. It will go to my sister for her 50th birthday. She wasn't to concerned about what kind of quilt she would get. But her husband had a request....

he wanted me to use the Federal Shield design in it. 

I wasn't really crazy about the idea of working with curves.

So, I thought about it.

For months.

Then this spring I was looking through the book,

OUT OF THE BOX 

with easy blocks 

by Mary Lou Weidman and Melanie Bautista McFarland

I love the cow in that book and thought I might make one for a baby quilt.

I never got any further than thinking about it.

But one day it occurs to me, why not make my sister a cow with the federal shield on it?? I would only need to make one shield! That made me happy.

While driving to the dentist with Crispy, I was talking about this cow.

How it would have the shield on it's body.

Then he says, "Ya, and you can call him Captain A-moo-ica!"

When he said that, there was no stopping me.

It was perfect. My brother-in-law loves super heroes too.

The background is made by sewing strips of different widths together,

cut apart in more different widths and sewn back together.

I ended up with patchwork fat quarters.

He needed a cape, so I added that too.

The blue flying geese are there to transition from the yellow background to a green background.

The words have a green background. They will be along the bottom of the quilt.

It is all coming together.

These stars are from the Buggy Barn book, Certifiably Crazy.

I didn't make them as scrappy as the book directions.

I want the blue background ones for my border and the white ones even have a home!

Crispy had a cavity that day at the dentist. I was so excited, 

"I can come back here with you!"

"But mom, you don't have to come with."

Yes, I know, moms generally don't need to go with their 19 year old to the dentist.

BUT 

It is right across the street from the quilt shop! Of course I am going with if it means I can run into The Quilted Forest! I want a few more medium greens to add to the cow quilt!

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. 

no more jurassic park area rug...

I can finally bring this temporary area rug to the quilter. 

I'll get a better picture when it comes back. 

sewing and mowing....

Okay, back to some sewing.

Some of this is sewn together, some isn't and is just laying there. This is pretty much what will be in the center of this quilt....plus what ever filler things I haven't made yet. It's all just a work in progress.

a little more fire stuff....

I went to the grocery store. We have round the clock protection up town.

The banks vault is still in the middle of all the rubble.

I went over to the pile for a closer look....

and there it lay.....

My time and temp sign. 

I miss this thing. I got my daily mental math when it was giving the Celsius temperature....double the number and add 30. Then I could compare it to the Fahrenheit temperature. I could compare it to my cars thermometer. I like knowing what the temperature is. My little obsessive compulsive things.

When I got home, tractor joe put me on his new mower. (new to us, it is used)  He declared it my turn to try it out. He had everything mowed again, but left a small area so I could run it.

It is way bigger than our other one and cuts a 60 inch path. I was surprised by how quiet, smooth it ran. 

I am pretty sure I can handle mowing with it.

blue baby quilt....

The blue baby quilt is finished! 

It was the backing that slowed me down.

I love pieced backing...

as long as I am not the one doing it.

I loved making the letters, but getting the rest of it sewn up just dragged me down...and it wasn't even that many pieces. oh well.

The baby's mom saw a picture of it and said,

"it is beautiful, I will never use it"

I hope she does! It is quilted heavily and should hold up to several washings.

It was starting to snow when the picture of the quilt was taken.

Then the white stuff picked up...

it was really pretty....

and the dog needs a haircut.....

We'll wait till it is warmer.

Yesterday was balmy warm...and all the snow is gone.

Now today there is a nice cold brisk NW wind and thoughts of spring are not as strong.

back in the house I sewed up some scrappy trip blocks...

I don't know my total, but it is a nice sized pile!

The "Letter Love 101" class is over. 

heavy sigh, I miss it.

One of the last things we were to do is use about 10 of our favorite things from the class and make a journal.

So far, I have one little page.

letters....

I am taking an online class.

Letter Love 101...and I LOVE it.

Joanne Sharpe is the teacher, this is a link (click here) to her blog.

I adore her stuff.

for practice, she has us use a composition notebook

Crispy had one from 8th grade science.

It has been in a cupboard for 4 years....

waiting for me to find a new use for it.

he hardly used any of the pages

so I am, for practice

Over the years I have collected pens for scrapbooking. This is a good way to go though them and find out which ones are good yet...and which ones are dry and no good.

On to sewing....

The blue baby quilt is still not done!

I had a border on it and went to cut backing and batting.

I needed to piece everything. 

I wasn't very careful and ended up making it too SMALL.

Dang.

Then I quit working on it and everything just sat here.

Sometimes things work out...

The next think I knew, it was February and baby boy was born.

And of course he got a name.

Now I am kinda glad I didn't add more fabric to the backing and get it done before he was born. 

His name will make the backing bigger. My lettering class came into play here.

I stuck blue on the inside of the letters.

Yes, it is all working out the way it should.

finished quilt....

It was cold this morning.

Very cold....below zero (Fahrenheit)

But I wanted to get a picture of the finished Zombie quilt before the sun came up...

while it was nice and bright, but no glaring sun hitting it!

I added red button eyes because Mary Lou Weidman says in her book...

(when making faces)

"avoid red or orange buttons-they make the person or animal look a little crazy."

Perfect.

Now all I need is to give this to Jacob. 

He will be so happy! The first thing he says when I see him is...

"is it done yet??"

I can finally say yes!!!!!

a place to hang quilts outside.....

The wire/cable stuff is hung between two nails.

Maybe next year this building will get painted, for now it will be a weathered wood background.

This should work out really well!

Christmas Eve was warmish and snowless. 

It's like we went on vacation to a warmer place but never left the house.

I was able to take a bunch of pictures of the latest quilts.

iheart flowers.... 

The hearts were won from block lotto in February. 

The flowers were one of the summer blocks. 

When I combined them I thought of my father-in-law, he has so many flowers in the summer. So this went to tractor joe's mom and dad.

Aubri received a baby quilt. Her mom was very excited. I had done one for Aubri's brother a couple years ago. She was hoping Aubri would get a name quilt too.

A breeze came along. The backing is a hot pink sheet, just right for a girl.

As long as I was out there hanging quilts, I went and grabbed this off my bed. Finally, a fairly decent picture of the geocaching quilt!

This isn't a very good picture, but take note of the packages behind the cat. 

They are nicely wrapped gifts for my children.

I am patting myself on the back here, 

because last year....

I didn't put much effort into wrapping. 

My poor children got grocery sacks that I just stapled shut. Each one got a different store bag. Looks like one of them needed two bags, so they got matching bomgaars bags.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!