block lotto sewing.....

split stars!! at block lotto this month. I have my 9 made! 

These blocks will make an awesome quilt, 

so,

of course,

I hope I win.

Because of the way I made these....

I have a pile of bonus HST's that will be cute little pinwheels when I get to them,

but no picture right now.

And some pumpkins.....

made by kids at the school. They make me smile.

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!

zig-zags....

I started some zig zag blocks. They seem to be popping up all over. 

I used the directions from (here at therootconnection blog)

Seemed simple enough,

A blocks and B blocks.

It wasn't simple for me though. 

I was always confused. Way to much thinking going on. 

I wasn't loving them, wasn't even sure I liked them.

I was easily distracted. 

Wondering off to find other things to occupy my mind. 

New shoes! Now these I love.

Karen's dog Charlie was here. We were babysitting him.

The sky sure is pretty.

The roofing material arrived. The new roof is going on!

So as I am wondering around and thinking.

It occurred to me. 

What was supposed to be a baby quilt, could be downsized to a doll size quilt.

I counted blocks and made what I needed to finish this zig-zag quilt.

My trusty notes, right there to look at and make sure the block was going together correctly.

A finished top!! I made the blocks 6 inches. So this is 30 x30 inches.

I still don't think I love it, but I do like it enough that I can't wait to start quilting it.

It will be a Christmas present. 

I want to make a couple little pillows to go with it!

my aunt.....

My aunt passed away nearly two weeks ago. She had Alzheimer's.  My cousin wrote the following, and it was read at her funeral. I copied and pasted it here. I decided to share what he wrote.....

Dad,

 

Like everyone, I had a lot of things going through my head during Mom's passing.  I took the time to write most of them down, mostly to benefit myself, but also to share with you.

 

I love you and want you to know I'm OK.

 

Friends, Family, and Empty Chairs

 

Recently much was made of Clint Eastwood strangely talking to an empty chair.  The scenario struck home with me as I once found myself having a conversation with an empty chair (more on that later).  A lot of things come into your mind when you’re taking the 45 minute drive west in response to the call that I knew would someday come.  My mind was drawn to dwell on the empty chairs in my life.  For a while now, there’s been an empty glider rocker in Dad’s family room, and an empty chair in the same house at the west end of the dining table.  There’s even a high boy chair next to the pull tab machine at the Legion which is empty more often than it used to be.  I kept thinking about the increasing number of empty chairs that we all experience and deal with as our lives extend here on earth.  My mind wandered to Doug’s empty lawn chair at bear camp up north and the recliner that I’m sure was a part of Charlotte’s house.  I thought about the chairs at Kay and Roland’s dining table in which you were always welcome to stop in for a visit and some hospitality even if as in my case, you were 30 years their junior.  I thought about my Grandma Irene, and it took a while as thinking back, it seemed she was always up as the hostess for so many wonderful family gatherings.  Then it struck me, Grandma’s empty chair was at the card table in which we played huckley buck so many years ago as the highlight of so many of those family gatherings.  Then I went on to my Grandpa Tim, I quickly thought of a saddle on one of Barb and Harland’s horses that went empty a long time ago.  Not to mention the driver’s seat of the car in which Grandpa and Grandma drove me and my sister west on a trip we’ll never forget.  I got overwhelmed thinking about how many empty chairs are out there for all of us.

 

Now about that conversation I had with the Glider late one night at Mom and Dad’s house: 

 

I’ve heard some of mom’s friends express how difficult it was to visit Mom since she went to New Richland, as she just wasn’t Betty anymore. I want you to know, I too dealt with the same issues.  This is my experience and it might help her friends as well.  Mom most certainly wasn’t the same person as Alzheimer’s advanced and took over her life.  I started talking to that Glider one night and was telling it how much I missed my mom and eventually how sorry I was that I didn’t have the courage to visit more often than I had.  I thanked that chair for the wonderful job her and dad had done in passing on their values to me.  I told the chair that I was genuinely happy in my life, and that I owed a debt to Mom and Dad that I would never be able to repay.  That weekend I did stop to see Mom in New Richland on my way home to Mantorville.  She greeted me with a smile as she always did (including my visit this past Saturday when she was barely responsive, she smiled when I began to speak to her and I will never forget it).  Anyway, later during our conversation that day, of which were mostly one sided by then, the strangest thing happened.  Mom got all serious and out of the blue took a moment to tell me how proud she was of me.  I thanked her and had to cut my visit short.  I cried all the way home…  In the end I was at peace with myself.  Thanks to Mom as it was as if for the brief moment she knew what I was going through like mothers always do, and let me know it was OK?

 

Back to the chairs:

 

Friendships were a huge part of my mom’s life and many of her friends will be at the funeral.  It was crystal clear to me how important her friends and family were when we tried to compile a list of her interests.  Gathering with friends topped the list.  We said mom liked to travel, but I tried to think of a trip that mom and dad ever took alone.  Summer vacations when I was growing up were always with family or friends. I honestly can’t think of trip in which mom and dad didn’t travel with at least some of their friends or family.  I know for Mom that sharing the experience was as important as the destination.  On my trip to New Richland my mind wandered to all of Mom’s wonderful friends, so many of which I also consider my friends.  That is one of the gifts my parents gave to me of which I will always be in debt.  My Mom’s value of friendship and her desire to share experiences with her friends was foremost in her life, and she passed that on to me. 

 

My thoughts about empty chairs eventually took me in a direction that I didn’t expect, but no longer made me feel sad.  I started to think about the empty chairs that are out there waiting for us thanks to God and the wonderful gift of his son.  One of the chairs in Heaven got taken this past Monday, and I know Mom was greeted by my Grandpa and Grandma, Kay and Roland, Ed, Harlan, Jodi, Doug, and many others…  That’s the good news in all of this, eventually we will all get to gather again.  As each of us arrives you can bet Mom will be there to greet us with a smile, others will greet us with a handshake, a hug, a pat on the back, or even a kiss on the cheek.  Loved ones will get to greet us more intimately.  In the end, I know we will all get to join my Mom and gather together again.  The good news for all of us is that she’ll be Betty again.  And the better news is that I know she’ll be happier than ever getting to gather with us all for an eternity of good times.

 

Thank You Mom!!!

I feel like a need a picture....here is an old one from way back when. It is me with two of my youngest sisters and two of my cousins. We loved playing in this playhouse. It belonged to my aunts when they were little girls. 

It is Saturday, the only thing planned for today...... is sewing!

scrappy trip....

I was finally able to give my sister Jill her quilt. It was at the quilters all summer.

I brought it home one day and put binding on the next.

That is some kind of record for me.

I tried to put some personalized fabrics in it....

cows

math teacher

slot machines/gambling 

geocaching, signal the frog

coffee

and kitties

I love this quilt, getting this one done makes me want to go sew some more blocks and make another one like it!

The pattern for this quilt is (here) at Quiltville's Quips & Snips!!

Instead, I am working on zig zag blocks, A and B ones,

and SO confusing to me!

our LQS is in Quilt Sampler magazine......

Last winter (?) or a while ago,

I walked into The Quilted Forest.

There was a photographer taking pictures. 

"hey, are you going to be in that magazine??"

Shelly, looks at me, cool as a cucumber, and says,

"no, these are for our website."

Bummer.

"Well you should be!" I told her.

She couldn't say yes that day. 

But that is exactly what was happening.

Saturday was the big open house/celebration. The crowd gathered outside waiting for the shop to open at 10:00 am. Karen and I went.

We bought the magazine and other stuff. We had Shelly autograph her page.

People all over and there was good food to snack on too.

We sat down and ate, while paging through the magazine. 

We liked a lot of the quilts in it.

 I had to tell Shelly she was a.... liar, liar pants on fire.

We are so happy for her!

Last Monday I started putting this together.....

They are the plaid blocks I won at Block Lotto.

Not sure I like the scrappy sashing. 

But it is to late to change it now. Most of it is together now, I am hoping for a finished top by the end of the day. 

Other block lotto stuff....

September's block are flowers. I made two. Last month was Jacob's Ladder.

I will be sending these off to three of the winners. See? I don't always win.

 Wish I would have, but no, not this time.

I am off to sew some more.

mail art.....

School started, and I haven't sewn in days.

Plus we were gone all weekend.

But....

I was reading about this prison library project at Giraffe Dreams.

I took two magazine pages and made envelopes out of them.

I added just a few other things that were already cut out.

I put a postcard in each one of them. 

(like the purple bird card)

I know they made it, they are posted! ( here at Postmarked 2012 )

It is fun looking at all the different things that have arrived there.