tea towel challenge.....

I am calling it finished. My Iowa tea towel became a bag. A nice big bag.

It will be my quilt show bag. Lots of stuff will fit in there. I said to Karen that if i fill it, it could get to heavy to carry. She told me that we can always walk back to the car and unload.

Of course, why didn't I think of that?

I wavy stitched over everything. Nothing fancy or new there.

I was worried that doing that would obscure the towel, but it didn't. I was relieved about that. I used things I had on hand, like the little house blocks. Nothing new there.

So what thing would be new to me in putting this bag together?

Using selvage edges. 

I have never used them. I didn't even start saving them until recently. Most of mine have come from fat quarters. They were 18 inches. I needed to make them wider, so a column of the house blocks was added.

I stamped the words, Hey! Is this heaven? No it Iowa on some of the blank sections.

Then last night....

At the quilt guild meeting, a gal from New Ulm Minnesota came down to show us the buttons she makes. I bought the Minnesota themed button package and picked out the house one to use as a closure on the Iowa bag. Then I thought the house (kind of) went with the package and grabbed a flower instead.

My niece Amanda gave me her t-shirts over the weekend. I cut yesterday and have today yet to work on it. I have my doubts about it getting quilted before her graduation. But at least the top can be put on display at her party. Then sent off to be quilted.

camping over the weekend.....

We (as in 3 sisters, with various spouses, grown kids, boyfriends and girlfriends) 

were at Marble Beach State Park on Spirit Lake in Iowa. We were in a quiet area of the campground with our tents. I brought along my geocaching quilt. 

A couple weeks ago I received a surprise package.

Inside were a couple of pink flamingos.

Mrs. Browndirt sent them.

She thought I would think they were ridiculous and silly.

BUT, I loved them. 

They came camping and so did the doll mrs. browndirt. 

We went geocaching

We went painting at Creative Spirit Okoboji

They were doing owls that evening in the studio.

We made wood block signs. I have all kinds of scrap wood. We put some of it to use. It was only me and Jane doing this. Others would come over to check out our mess, but no one else wanted to do one. I gave the glamping sign to my sister Jenny.

She is always a glamour girl, even when camping.

Today seems like a good day to go work on some backing and get a quilt in to be quilted. 

Not the cow quilt. He needs to be worked on yet too.

All in good time.

happy birthday Karen.....

Karen turns 50 on July 4th. I made her a wall quilt.

(this is her blog)

We are going shopping tonight and I will give it to her then. Right about the same time this will publish.

The majority of the sheets I have came from Karen. She is busy working on her own sheet quilt too.

The words are stamped with paint. 

I am also in the middle of a doll quilt...

I am using dry sheets to make the string blocks.

& then there are the 9-patch blocks....

I'll start sewing these up just as they are. 

I think I will be done with sheet sewing for a while. I am looking forward to working with plain old cotton again!

a little sewing (very little) and more paint.....

A blogger named Brenda is collecting B's for her big birthday. When I saw she was in Manitoba, I had to try getting a maple leaf in the B. This was made with fabric that was laying around, scraps. I made the leaf first, then added more B and red around it. The leaf is about 3 inches, I don't know how big this block is over all, though.  I haven't measured it.

I made my own spray paint. There are several recipes for this on youtube. 

The recipe:

One spray bottle, I found these in Hobby Lobby for 99cents.

Fill with warm water about 2/3 full.

Add a dollop of mod podge.

Add a couple dollops of acrylic paint.

If you want it to shimmer add some Liquitex iridescent medium.

(different videos talked about adding some pearl ex stuff, I don't have any and I'm not even sure what it is)

Then...shake shake shake.

I sprayed it on a few coffee filters.

I cut pedals and leaves from the filters. They were applied to an envelope with mod podge.

It got some ink stamped on it too. The leaf and swirly are bought. The dotted circles are homemade, along with the checker board. 

They are made from foam, using my Sizzix die cutter. I used a hole punch to make all the dots and arranged them in a circle. The flowers are made from the center of the O.

I mounted them on some stiff plastic stuff.

and last but not least....the "you are" card that will go into the envelope. It is for my aunt who will be having surgery on Monday. I think it is all dry enough now. Maybe I will add some stamping stuff to finish it. I want it in the mail tomorrow.

my package to Idaho.....

I put together a box to send to Idaho (God's country), a rather big box.
I thought about flowers for the memorial service...

and then I thought.....
there will be lots of relatives going to my aunts house....





So instead she will get a box full of.....

toilet paper, soap, paper plates (big & small), cups.....

coffee and kool-aid,

marshmallows (maybe there will be a campfire), cookies (Gwen's favorite kind) and an old LOGIC puzzle book

(I was tired of solving them wrong)

And......

one mini-quilt, "Explore Idaho"

I had one bears paw block and it was just staring at me.

In a drawer I found a mini flag, I have no idea why I had made it.

One small blue heart that needed a home and a small pinwheel block....

It is a good thing I still have Gwen's quilt book, Spirit of the Northwoods, the bear, tree and eagle came out there.
They all came together in this little quilt.
Everything was mailed today. I hope it gets there okay....

that turkey...

In the Sept/Oct 2009 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors there was an article on prompts.
add this shape, add that color, do this or that.....tons of them

I wrote them all down on little sheets, including....couch something on and I didn't even know what that was.

I wanted to add something to "that turkey quilt" but had no idea what.
So I drew out a little sheet from the container of prompts.

Wouldn't you know...I drew out couch something....
good grief
Well I needed to find out what it is.
Couching is a way of attaching something to your work, like wool, ribbon, thread, or even wire. You can make a picture or word or pattern.

I added light purple floss and stitched it in place with a rusty color around his hat.

That was cool, I just couched something on..... but enough of that, what else? Draw another sheet......

Add stripes.

So I had to think some more. How could I do that??

I added narrow strips of green fabric....the turkey looks like he is peaking out of the grass.

There is probably all kinds of things I could have done yet....but I wasn't feeling to adventurous.

And besides I wanted to send it off to my Aunt Barb sooner rather than later.

She got her first turkey hunting this year. She is an excellent hunter. Thanks to her (and my Uncle Hop) we have dined on different delicacies when visiting them in Idaho...

things like bear ham, elk roast and cougar sausage....and it is all so GOOD!!!!

things I worked on this past week.....

The poster sized Canyon De Chelly picture is getting closer to being finished. The frame is done....the border around the picture is done....
I ripped pictures from one of those free tourist magazines and a road map. Every thing was glued down randomly, then I smeared gesso all over it and wiped it back off some. It has a lighter look. It all sorta blends together.
Just need my sister to apply the words:
Happiness is a journey and it will be done!



I have one baby quilt done, except for the binding isn't on yet. The quilting took me forEVER.
It hard to see, but the lines go up and down too. I can't wait to wash it and really get it
all crinkly.

The sweet corn....the real deal from tractor joe's cousin.

I froze this stuff using my "super bad for you, but oh so good" recipe....

It will get used this winter when I make scalloped corn....

it is so good, I can't wait!!

I painted more papers. Lots more paper. Then I stamped and embossed things on them.

No real rhyme or reason, just did it. My tractor ride book is coming along....

I am hoping to get "finished" pictures this week of things.
I mowed TWICE last week too....lots of rain make lots of grass.
sigh...

think love-live joy...

This little wall hanging reminds me a lot of Karen.
...probably because it's her fabric.

A while back she made a scrappy trip around the world table runner. It is for a bridal shower this Wednesday. I hadn't planned on going.
When she brought it over to show me, I said, "that would be fun to make a wall hanging out of the same fabrics."

By the time she left, the new plan was for me to go to the shower and make a wall hanging with some of the same fabrics.
This is how far I got this afternoon.....
It is actually very fitting....
Something old, some of that fabric is from Karen's neighbor who was cleaning out her closet...
Something new, some of that fabric is new....
Something borrowed, I borrowed the fabric from Karen....
Something blue, there is blue in it.

We will have to take a picture of both things before we give them away.

paint and an extra block......

I got out the paint this morning and printed out some words to make a border for one lonely block I had. It is finished now, right up to the binding. I don't enjoy binding. This is a stall tactic.

First......... an up close look...it seems to capture the colors best. Now there are three choices for the binding.
A safe tone on tone reddish color. I picked this out on Saturday. I plan on using it for the border on my Down on the Farm quilt. It would look nice here too....

Then there is the bright green. It is not as light as looks on the left, but not as dark as it looks on the right. I would say it is in the family of lime greens.

The last choice is that stripe I never would have bought if Karen hadn't said something when we were at the quilt shop.

The whole thing measures just under 12 x12 inches square. Now here is the deal. I am going to give this away. To be in my drawing, all you need to do is pick out the binding you like best. Then comment or email me your pick. When I pick the name (or tractor joe actually will do the picking)...I will bind it with the winners choice and send it to them. You do not need to advertise this on your blog (if you have one)....in fact it is better not to. The less people who enter, the better your chance. It is kind of a secret giveaway. Let's see....how much time should I allow for picking out binding?

You have till Sunday, June 13...of this year. What time? hmmm.....Let's say 3:00 pm in the afternoon, my local time. You do not need to be living in North America to win.

that turkey quilt and postcard....

That turkey quilt is ready for some embellishment.
I am still working on what that will be exactly,
because I don't know for sure yet.
I pulled out some letter beads to make words. I could sew on some words like "love to hunt" "deep in the woods" "excellent marksmanship"....except most of the good letters have been used.
So that turkey is on hold for now.
I took the strips from trimming that turkey and sewed them together with a variety of stitches. Seemed like a good base for a postcard.
Right around my second cup of coffee, the ideas floating around in my head started to gel...I got out the paint and started painting this morning.

One of the teachers at school has breast cancer. She has gone through months of chemo to get ready for her surgery.

She will get this postcard. The post office is only open for about 45 minutes on Saturdays, and I missed that little window of opportunity to mail this...hopefully on Tuesday I will get there.

Next time I am out to the big city, I will be looking for word beads...

and...

some of that stuff that is recommended for using in fabric postcards. The ugly stitching around the edge is not by design. Some heavier duty needles would help too.

geocaching

We did some quick geocaching yesterday.
There a ton of them in Albert Lea, Mn. We went to 10 and found 8. I could only log 7 of them though... we had been to one of them 3 years ago....geesh.
While at one of them I crawled under an evergreen tree with broken off branches. First I stabbed myself in the back, then I ended up poking myself in the head on one of the branches.
THAT HURT.
My eyes watered the pain was so great....
Tractor joe says he heard me say (bleep) (bleep) (delete)....I only remember saying "that's it, this will be a DNF (did not find)...lets get out of here"

Today is a new day...while my head is still tender, it doesn't affect my ability to think. So I have started a new little project. My turkey hunting aunt Barb is the inspiration....

I am in the middle of it now. It will be a tulle quilt, not much sewing on these kinds.
All the background fabrics are fused down to some batting,
the letters are ready to stamp some words,
and the turkey is ready too.


I don't remember the name of the pattern right now. I'll include that when I blog the finished product.
Right now I need to find out what turkey tracks look like, I may put some of those on this too.

the last of the beer quilts...

I had one more set of "beer" letters that were finally put to use.

This one will go to Karen's oldest son.

He is a brew master too.

I finished it yesterday...right down to the binding.....believe it or not!

I did have to look up Ben to see if I spelled his name correctly.

Relief.

I got it right!

I know I should have looked it up before I stamped and quilted...

but it didn't look funny until I was done with it.....

Then I was looking at the heart. (can you see the American flag sort-of)

I am thinking a bunch of these hearts put together with a scrappy frames would be cute.

I made 3, when I made this one.

Seeds for another project.