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. 

It is still April......

Why has April seemed so long? I’ve been putting off blogging because there was always something to do instead. Except today I planned on doing some binding. So blogging is better than binding, I guess. 

I made these yesterday. I had a choice, try out some new to me blocks or bind. These won out. In my defense, I was able to reorganize a pile of scraps. Things ended up in three boxes. Chunky scraps, skinny strips and fatter strips. 

I started with 1 3/4 cut squares with all these. Adding two more 1 3/4 strips and three 1 1/4 strips OR two each of the 1 3/4 and 1 1/4 strips and two 1 1/2 strips. There was a method to the madness, while achieving a variety of looks. They will finish at 6 inch blocks. 

I babysit about 3 days a week. Right after they called off the schools, the daycare closed. That keeps me busy. 

For the record.... I did not put Zander in the dog kennel. He did this himself. He thought it was great fun. 

I’ve been doing jigsaw puzzles too. I bought a bunch in January, at first I thought I might have over done it, but it turned out to be a smart buy.

It started with this....

I love all of them. There were more, but you get the idea. 

Moonstruck is quilted and ready for binding. We went up to Minnesota to pick it up. I prepaid for it. So when we got there I had to call and tell them I was there. Without getting near each other, they came out with this quilt, and grabbed two more that were ready for quilting. Then off she went back inside. We packed a lunch that day. We didn’t even do any drive-thru eating. We also stopped at my cousin so we could trade puzzles. 

The mini houses were put together and quilted. Ready for binding. 

This is ready for binding...

All of them will get the same black and white stripe binding. The fabric is sitting right there. I have no reason NOT to start. 

It’s way too cold and windy to mow, or transplant some things, or clean some old pickets for a fence.

So it’s best to stay inside and work on the dreaded binding. 

Heavy sigh.

One more thing. This is June July and August. Only four more months and 2019 temperature quilt with be done!

Well at least the months will be done. It isn’t clear to me how I will actually turn it into a top. I can think about that later. 

New year start and finish....

There’s a box with cut up flannel shirts. Sleeves, fronts, and backs. It was time to cut further. I picked 6 1/2 inches because I have a ruler that wide and it was easy to be cutting the width of it. 

The back....I’m not sure where the flannel fabric came from. It was a nice little stack and since I had no plans for them, I started cutting them up. I used a bit of the leftover monkey flannel too. I started calling it the nap quilt for little boys. 

Before I knew it, I had enough blocks. 

Ready for binding. Because I couldn’t wait to start the clipping part, I actually got the binding on right away. There were enough narrow pieces of the backing to use up. That was exciting to have them gone. 

In three days I had a start and finish in 2020! These are mostly just the sleeves. A stack of shirt backs is still in the wings, ready to go when I am. 

A week ago the forecast was calling for 1 to 3 inches of snow. We ended up with 7 1/2 inches. There wasn’t much wind, so it just piled up on everything. 

I love the way it looks sitting on the branches of trees. 

A week later we are just cold. The heaviest snow was targeting southern Iowa. 

the sheep quilt...

I started a quilt a long time ago. It used last years blocks at block lotto to create Old McDonald's Farm. I started, but fell behind and then lost interest. Those that did finish them had really cool quilts.  I recently took out the blocks I had done.

Okay, these two blocks put together will make a cute baby quilt. I needed more blocks.

Slowly I sewed more blocks.

I was thankful when I had enough snail trails. I was getting tired of them.

Next up, flower blocks.

At this point I'm thinking....more flower blocks. How boring for me.

But what if I add something?

Something I have never made before. 

Then I wouldn't be bored.

A sheep from the book Farm Girl Vintage.

And baby sheep! 

Or as tractor joe reminded me, they are called lambs.

I was way more excited about this project with sheep and was excited to sew the remaining flowers I needed. That's when I started called it the sheep quilt.

This morning I put it all together.

My cousin Gwen has a granddaughter due this month. This will be her baby quilt!

sewing and painting.....

We were at an auction a while back. Sometimes things of less desire are bundled with other things that are desired. These towels were the undesired thing. Tractor joe didn't even know he had bought them. When we were at home, 

I looked at our tickets, one said, "towels" hmmm...

What towels?

Where are the towels? He didn't know. 

So we went back to see if they were still sitting there.

They were already in the dumpster! They were pulled out to take home for rags.

Then I thought a bit more.

What if I cut them up and sewed them back together?

Some were cut across, some were cut the length.

Poor birds lost their heads. Oh well.

I ended up with 9 blocks.

Which became a tablecloth out back. The machine quilting didn't go so well.

I tell myself it just adds to the charm of it.

I started putting together the April blocks I won at Block Lotto.

This is for tractor joe's brother. It seems rather bright for a guy, but we decided to stick with the plan and give it to him. 

A couple weeks ago, Karen and I got together to make wall art.

We were cutting out of magazines and and old dictionary for the flower petals.

She had a bathroom rug to coordinate with.

Mine still aren't hung up. 

finished tops...

Last Monday Karen and I went to our first EVER quilt guild meeting. They proclaim themselves to be laid back and with no rules. We enjoyed it very much. We paid our $5.00 dollar yearly dues and became official members of the Blue Earth Valley Quilters Guild. 

During the meeting there was some discussion on.... 

Girlfriend or Boyfriend quilts. In general, no one wants to make them.

What if they break up?? Are they the kiss of death to a couple?

Crispy has a girlfriend. Of course I want to give her a quilt...but you know she is

"only a girlfriend"

After thinking about it some more, I decided I will get this star top quilted and give it to her. It has been sitting in the closet for several years. I made it during the summer of 2010.

(Quilt Along 2010)

I think I even have some pink fabric for the back!

It is better to give it away to be used, instead of gathering dust in the closet. 

Big sewing day yesterday. I finished the scrappy trip quilt (no picture)

and the mini-me....

It is for my cousin Gwen's grandson. He was born a couple weeks ago. It has left over Block Lotto blocks from hers and a few more I made. I didn't use plaid for the new blocks. 

Instead of mother/daughter quilts, they are 

grandma/grandson quilts.

Block directions here....(hot-crossed-9-patch-block-tutorial)

don't throw things into one blog post all week.....

I read the preview for this post and I have to wonder...... was I drinking or something?

No I wasn't.Baby pictures have been sent to me. Babies on their baby quilts!

So sweet.

I received an award from http://indigothreads.blogspot.com/ or Sharon

http://mexicanquilter.blogspot.com/

http://smalltownquilter.blogspot.com/

http://vesuviusmama.blogspot.com/

http://brooklynquilter.blogspot.com/

http://tttl1998.blogspot.com/

The Liebster Blog Award rules:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

2. Link back to their blog.

3. Copy and paste the Liebster award to your profile.

4. Pick 5 blogs that you feel deserve to be in the spotlight (they must have @200 followers or under).

5. Blog about it and leave a comment for your nominations to let them know that you have chosen their blog.

Rules! I would have sworn I saved the Liebster award picture, now I can't find it. (Since I have been adding things to this post all week, it is rather disjointed.)

Well, look, I made some block lotto blocks for March..

I had no white on white fabric, or at least not much.

My cousin Gwen came for a quick visit and she brought a yard of it with her!

I dug up some of Grandma's perennials for her to take home and plant.

Is that a fair trade??

Thank you Sharon.

There are so many awesome blogs out there. I put in links to some of the blogs I seem to visit a lot. See above.

My plan for today....hang this quilt up and take it's picture.

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.