Memory Quilt

Here is a picture of my "whole Quilt" actually it's  memory quilt. I started it a while ago,but now have time to work on it. I wanted my girls to help with it so I made some blocks and had them embroider on them. So I add a square and fill in patches around it. So, I'm hopeing this Intuitive patching class will help with adding in the patches.

Stitching Cards

I've been enjoying doing these cards. They are very simple to do, fun and quick.
I'm using DMC floss and some silk floss. I lke the way these threads cover the card.
I hope you enjoy them.

Hurrah!!

Hurrah!! I finaly got the patio cleared off. (Check the post for Jan 13th and you will see my progress). The things under the tarp on the table will go Amvets tomorrow. I know the pitures and text will come out all over the blog, but I don't know how to fix that. I hope you will be able to follow along. The first two pictures show my fountain working and the patio all cleared off. I have alot to do here yet. This week I want to get some flowers and fix the patio up nice. Ingrid and Marlene will come on Thursday for a day of stitching, so I want it to look somewhat nice.
Next week someone will come to move the pool filter and pump and my son Randy will seal the leak in the garage and then I can arrange things in an orderly fashion in the garage.
Randy is on his way to Montreal, Canada for his work. He's going to freeze his tookis off. He talked to one of the ladies in Montreal and she asked if he had boots and gloves, he said"No, but I have shorts and sandals. " She just laughed.

The third picture is of a book I picked up at Tall Mouse yesterday. It has some wonderful motifs for CQ and very good instructions. It's put out by Leisure Arts and was written by Donna Kooler.
And it was only $10. Now that's a bargin. I also purchased Pam Kellogg's ( http://kittyandmedesigns.blogspot.com/ ) book on using Waste Canvas. She has some really
nice seam treatment patterns, so Ihave to stop browsing in the books and stitch something. Maybe I'll do a waste canvas treatment on my needlebook for the Piecemakers class or stitch a motif for the Memorial quilt. You'll have to check back in a few days. Now that will make me get busy and do something. Hope you have a wonderful day and that the weather isn't too bad where you are.

Something different

We are having a new baby in our family in a few weeks. So this is what I have been working on. The large blanket is Swedish Weave. It's 45" square. The receiving blankets are also 45" square.

I could never figure out how to wrap a baby in one of those rectangular things. I found the bib in some things while I was cleaning out the garage. It's one of those pre-stamped CS ones.

Tomorrow I take my Lilli for tooth surgery. She's 13 now. Getting up in years for a Cocker. I'm really concerned about her and me. I've never had a sick puppy before.

I'm not sure what to work on next. I do need to get back to my memorial quilt.

Ruching

The class at Piecemakers this week was on Ruching. Not my favorite thing. Sitting there taking tiny running stitches on silk ribbon. But here is the result so far. The white flowers in the center of the ruching are French Knot roses. These were fun to do. I wanted to get a motif worked up before posting this picture, but since it's been awhile since I posted I thought I would show what I have so far.

I'm finding that the colors of this block are very hard to work with. I think I like the darker color backgrounds better.

Well, enough for now, I have get Lilli to the groomers and Hopefully the guys will come with the garage door and I have to clean up this mess I have in my kitchen. It's raining here and some of my STUFF is getting wet on the patio, We managed to get almost all of it into the garge last weekend, but this sorting through stuff. Not looking forward to that. Have a good day and where ever you are stay warm, except those of you might be from down under, I suppose you are warm this time of year.

What did I get myself into???

Our garage was 3/4 office for Karl and 1/4 storage for me. So I decided to make the office back into a garage. So here I am. This looks worse in person than it does in the picture. In the first picture you can see in the background some gray file cabinets. There are 5 of them. Each has 7 drawers that are about 11" x 28" deep. Karl used them to store his philatelic stamps and supplies. I have coveted this drawers for awhile and now they are mine. So now, after they get done remodeling the garage (it's 2 car by the way) all I need to do is put all this stuff back. Anyone want to come and help? I might not be doing very much stitching as this will keep me busy for awhile. And on the day that Ingrid and I spend together, we will be going to the "Road to California" quilt show in Ontario.

In this mess I found a tray that I have been looking for for some time. It's one of those wooden ones that has a place to put some stitching. So I've ordered a CS pattern to go in there. I also found a picture of my girls from 1970 something. They were in their Camp Fire Girl outfits and stitching on a quilt. I think this was taken for some newspaper. Guess that's all for now. I do want to post some more pictures of the "Garden D'Lights", but that will have to wait for another time.

Trip to Washington

I'm waiting for Ingrid to come today so I may have to cut this short. But I wanted to show you the pictures of the Garden lights in Bellvue, WA. We went to this botanical Garden Where they made all these vignettes of flowers from the tiny christmas lights. It was the most amazing thing. If you can imagine taking a string of lights and turning it into a flower, or a peacock or a swan!

The Seccond picture is of the part of my family that was with me. The guy in the red jacket is my son Randy and with him is his wife Virginia. They live close to me here in Victorville (about and hour away). Above Virginia is my oldest Wendy, they live in Tacoma. I won't go into all the rest right now because I want to concentrate on the lights. The third picture was an open area and there was a lot more to it than in this picture. Now the last picture. IF you can inagine this was on a lawn. Again, all I could say was AMAZING. I have a few more pictures I would like to share, but I will save them for another time.

I wanted to get a picture of Mt. Baldy ( a ski resort near here) covered with snow, but it's hiding today. I'll keep watching and maybe I'll be able to get a good picture later. The snow should be up there until sometime in Feb. I have some pictures of the snow on our way up to WA. But, I'm sure all of you in the east would rather not see more snow. I have a few more from the garden, one is of a spider and a fly. Just a teaser. More later.

I'm back

It's a new year and a new life for me. First I must apologize to all those on the
'Around the Block" for not changing my posts. Susan was kind enough to put me on vacation, but now that all the rigamarole from Karl's passing is over I will try to post at least once a week.

The picture is from a class I'm taking at Piecemakers with Ingrid. She can get me in more trouble. I can't take credit for the block. I purchased it from Pam Kellogg's Etsy shop awhile back.

I love the beaded leaf design. That's a beaded berry in the center. You could also use a button there. The fly stitch leaves on the spider web roses are done with one strand of floss and one of Madera Metallic Col # 424. It's a thread with black and gold wound together. Very effective.

We've had a lot of rain here in So. Cal. over the weekend. We had six inches here at my house since Friday. The sun is out now and the mountains are gorgeous. My car is in for service and I don't have any other transportation, but I will try to take a picture tomorrow. I'm sure the snow will still be there.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I hope you all will be ok with the strong storms across the U.S. I have lots more to share with you so maybe tomorrow. Sorry for the yellow. I used spell check and it won;t go away.

For those who still check by

It's been very stressful here. I had a bunch of stuff go wrong. I just felt like taking a minute to post how things are.
Karl is very weak now and is in the last stages of his life here with us. It is a difficult time for me as I have kept him home and had to deal with a very bad hospice situation. But, I'm being selfish in keeping him home as I don't think I could cope with having him in a convalescent home and the way they treat patients there.
I've learned a lot and feel i could give a bed bath right along with the best of them. When this is over, I hope I will have the strength and ability to pay forward all the help that has been given to me.
On one of the CQ groups they are asking to you make comfort dolls for the women who are in homes for the abused. I think this is a wonderful idea and Pat winter of Gatherings has even started a blog for this. If anyone is reading this I would encourage you, if you can, to make one for someone in my situation also. It would be wonderful to receive such a gift from someone you know is thinking and caring about you.
The dolls are no bigger than 6 inches are meant to carry around with you in your pocket and purse. Anyway I have asked Pam Kellog to make me one and can't to receive it as I know it will help me through this rough time.
Thank you for stopping by and hopefully I'll feel like doing some stitching soon as the Memory quilt is in need of a lot of work. Right now I'm working on a Swedish Weave blank for a new Great Grand child. It's a simple pattern just 3 up and 3 down in a zigzag pattern. Well, I better get going and get myself ready for the day. My love to all of you. June

Just a Note

I would like to say hello to all who check my blog every once in awhile. I'm sorry I haven't had anything new to post. My daughter called and said she had checked and I didn't have anything new. WEll, things are bad for Karl right now and therefore I haven't had time or even the energy to think about doing crazy quilting. I guess the memory quilt will have to be on hold for a while.
I did find a very simple knitting project to keep my hands busy when I can find the time to sit and not try to think about things.
So, I will say thank you all for checking my blog and for all your comments. If and when I do find some time to stitch or post something, I will send a post to the CQ4Newbies board.

Swedish Weave and Meanderings

I haven't had time to work on the Memorial Quilt. I think that will have to take a back seat for a little. This has been a bad week for Karl and he spent some time in the hospital getting a blood transfusion. So I'm working on a Swedish Weave blanket. Swedish weave is great because it keeps your hands busy and your mind just enough so you can't think too hard. I will post a picture later showing the blanket.
As I'm working on this I'm thinking about one of my daughter's, husband's, grandmother. She had done all sorts of hand work and stashed it away in a hope chest. And when there was a wedding she would invite the bride to her house to come choose some pieces from the hope chest. I thought this was just a wonderful idea. I would love to do that, but first I would need a hope chest, or as my Mother would say "A hopeless chest."
The other meandering is: On the way home from the hospital with Karl yesterday, he asked for
a Coke, so I pulled into Mickey D's and had a sip myself. I don't usually drink Coke, I'm a Dr. Pepper person. Anyway, when I took that sip I instantly thought of a Chocolate covered Donut.
When I was in high school we took the bus home and there was a little donut shop across the street. We would go over and for 15 cents we could have a donut and a coke. So back I went to high school days. It's funny how something like a taste, smell or sound can take you back to another time.
I'm sorry I don't have any eye candy for you today. But I will try to post a picture of the blanket in a few days. Thanks for stopping by.

Fan

Here's my fan. It's a little lopsided, but then so am I. Don't quite know how I will incorporate this into the quilt, but we will see. I think maybe it's a little to much, but I guess it will be ok. It's kind of hard to keep things simple after taking Sharon B's encrusted class.

After I finished this I found a tutorial at http://www.wyldwmn.com/fanblock1/htm That explains how to do a fan, by placing your first fan blade in the center of the fan base. DUH!! Maybe then it wouldn't be so lopesided. It really does look worse in person than in the photo.

My next step will be to put this onto the block and attach that to the quilt.

My oldest daughter, Wendy, was down a couple of weekends ago and she brought the block she was working on. She's doing a wonderful job. Her stitches are so nice and even. She's not even marking her fabric. Someone must have taught better then they taught her mother.

I hope you like what I have done. Am thinking about the sashing for around the outside of the quilt. Maybe I'll work on that a little also.

End of June

Whoops!! I didn't mean the end of me, although I think that is coming pretty soon. No It's the end of the month of June. Half way through this year. Not too long ago I was wondering what this year would bring.

I have some more pictures today of my progress on the memorial quilt. I hope you won't get bored with what I'm doing, as I'll be working on this for some time. One is of a dresser scarf that my Grandmother, Mary Weiss did somewhere around the early 1930's. I never thought I would be using these precious pieces in this way. But, anyway, I made a copy of one of the motifs and put it on a patch for the Memorial Quilt. I had a heck of a time trying to find the right color of fibers to use. I wound up with Needle and Neccesities (Orange) and DMC for the green. I have not really worked with #5 perle that much, but that is what was used on the scarf, so I wanted to keep it as close to the original as I could. I think the orange is a little dark, but then I guess you have to take in consideration fading over the years.

After I do some more seam treatments I want to do a fan. that should be interesting. anyway, let's see where these pictures turn up in this blog. I hope at the end. I need to find out how to place the pictures where you want them. Another project.

Just a Note

I wanted to drop a note and thank all those who have stopped by and left a comment and those who just stopped to take a peek at what I'm doing. I'm not sure how it works when you want to answer to a comment. So I'll do it here. Someone asked if the Rico Tablecloth was cross stitch. Yes it is. That was fun to do and finally something I kept for myself.

About the Memorial quilt. I am keeping a journal of all the motifs noting the threads and colors and any comments,such as: where the motif came from and how I decided to use that particular one. I now need to do some smaller blocks to incorporate into the main piece of muslin. I think it will be easier to do the embellisments etc. on the smaller blocks.

The photo above is of the series I am reading now. Jennifer has written 10 novels so far. I have read the first three twice now and have treated myself to the rest, so I will have a nice summer reading program going on.
These stories are about a woman who inherited her family home "Elm Creek Manor" and was going to sell it, but then found a wonderful group of women who talked her into making it into a quilt camp. The stories are about the women who come the camp for a week each year and about the history of the family that lived at Elm Creek. It goes back into the civil war times and how quilts were used in the under ground railroad to aid the slaves who escaped from the plantations.

These stories of the quilts did not surface until recently so I don't know how true they are, but they make for interesting reading. She goes into the different sane quilt patterns and the meaning behind some of them. It's great to read how these woment come together a group and help each other. I would love to attend one of the stitchery retreats. Maybe one day. Something to look forward to. I did attend a Wooly retreat a couple of years ago. It was put on by "Bird Brain Designs." That was great fun.

Well, enough babeling. Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Another Patch

As I was working on this patch, I've learned several things which I will tell you about in a minute. First I want to tell you about this patch. In my Mother's house there was always a vase with silk flower red poppies, wheat and blue cornflowers. One day she told me that they reminded her of the fields where she used to live in Germany. And when we were on a trip up the Rhine river I saw such a field. I could see why they had made such and inpression on her. So in memory of my Mother I stitched this patch and decided that I would call this a Memorial quilt rather than a whole quilt. Didn't know exactly what to call it before, but memorial seems to fit it rather nicely.

Some things I've learned while working this patch.

1. This has always confused me as to what you call this little piece of fabric. So now I have it straight. The whole piece is called a block and the small pieces in it are a patch.

2. I think that when working the satin stitch as a filler, silk floss lies better than cotton floss to fill in the area.

3. Perle cotton looks better when doing the leaf stitch than cotton floss.

One thing for sure I will be learning a lot of things while doing this. I'm going to make up some 8" blocks to work on and then attach them to the foundation muslin. I think that will be easier then trying to hold on to all this fabric while stitching. So here is a picture of my latest patch. I hope you like it.

More on the whole quilt

Ok Here goes, I hope these pictures will be in the right order. I've spent the last 4 days working on this. The ideas just seem to keep coming. I was in a slump there for awhile. Anyway, This first picture with the paisley is from Martha Stewart Living latest issue. I just loved the design and it was easy to stitch. It's amazing where you can find inspiration.

The second picture has a couple of new seam embellishments. The picture that is pinned on the black patch is something I'm playing with. I'll tell more about that when I get it finished.

And the last is a motif from "Motifs for Crazy Quilting by J. Marsha Michler.

So there are my accomplishments for this week.

I hope you like them

Repairing an antique CQ

I was telling Pam Kellogg about the batting in my Antique Quilt and she asked if I would post a picture. The second picture is of a patch where the fabric has completly disintigrated.

I had mentioned that I thought it looked like fur. It was all over my navy slacks the other day and it looked like fur. It's probably just cotton though. As I was looking more closely at the quilt I found out that the stitcher had probably pieced the top together and then did the embellishing through the batting and muslin. I don't know if I mentioned this before or not, but quite of few of the patches are ribbon. You can tell by the finished edges on the ribbon. This is quite exciting to be doing this and especially following along as Pam does 2 quilts. She gave me the inspiration to really work on this.

If you'd like to see the entire quilt, scroll down to March 22.

More progress on the quilt. I'm really enjoying this. Need to get some housework done though.

The turquoise fan is from Carole Samples book. I'm going to add something streaming. Don't quite know what yet. Next I will be making some blocks for my girls to do. I will probably do more blocks as they are easier to work on. I haven't had too much trouble stitching on this because I'm still working around the edge, but I'm sure when I get to the middle it will be sort of bulky. I'm finding it fairly simple to add pieces around the block so it has more of the random look.

I've found two items that work really well for marking on dark fabrics. I got them at the stationary store. One is a silver Sakura GellyRoll pen and the other is a Dry Highlighter pencil by Staedtler. The design stays on longer than chalk and they both disappear with just a little rubbing.

It's strange how sometimes things work better when you sleep on them. The Kreepy Krawler in the pool stopped working and the filter needed changing. We had purchased a new filter last summer and I was unable to get the darn thing open. You see I'm stuck doing everything myself now. Anyway. I went to bed thinking about the filter, got up this morning and in no time had figured out how to get it open. So that's taken care of now for awhile. I think I deserve a present for that one. I'll have to think of something good!!

Progress on whole quilt

First off, would you believe it is raining here in So. Cal. Must be that liquid sunshine. It's not much just enough to mess up the car.

Here is my progress on the quilt. I spent pretty much of yesterday stitching on it. It takes me so long because all the piecing is done by hand. From the picture it looks like the fabric isn't laying very flat, but it is.I think it's the irradiance of the fabric. This isn't a very good picture of my seam embellishment, but it is pretty in person. Maybe another picture can show it better. Maybe it's just the one taking the picture?? You think? Nah!

The dragonfly is a free pattern from Bird Brain designs. I really like it and will probably use it again later on in another color. Have to find something for the black patch on the right. Well, need to get busy and do something around here, make some phone calls.

For those of you who know my DH. He's not doing very well. Not eating anything. He's lost another 6 lbs. Have to get on that. He just sleeps most of the day now and has taken to laying on the couch instead of sitting in his chair. Well, that"s all for now. As Charlie Gibson says,(He's a newscaster here in the states)" Hope you have a good day."

Start of Memorial Quilt

Ok! I'm off on the Memorial quilt. this is just a start,

most of this is just pinned in place. I think I can soften the square lines., as I don't want that blocky look. I'm waiting on some more fabric from Thread Art. For some reason it's stuck in Houston while they check the origin of the package?? What ever that means, since Thread Art is located in Cypress, TX. Very Annoying. Don't they know their holding up progress here. I ordered some gold dupioni, I think I will use alot of that.

Anyway, I just wanted to get a start on this to see if I could do it. I have to get busy and do the blocks to send to my girls who are helping me with this. I've done some pieces with motifs on them that I will add in as I go. So we'll see what happens. I forgot to mention the the purple heart in the middle is a free design from "Bird Brain Designs" (NAYY) but Robin and Tina do some wonderful patterns in redwork and wool felt. Some of you may have seen them at the different sewing and craft shows as they travel the US with their wares. This month Robin has a wonderful dragonfly in her free design. Their site addy is www.birdbraindesigns.net I attended their first retreat last year and had a wonderful time. Hope to get back to do that again in the future. I'll post more as I go and perhaps post pictures of some of the motifs I've done.

I have to keep looking at this as one piece at a time, or I'll never get it finished. So I hope you will keep checking back to watch and comment on my progress.

New Block

Here is my progress on this block. I wanted to keep it simple, but it's really hard. I don;t think I want to use SRE, Just simple motifs and seam embellishments.

Threading a needle

Mentioned this way of threading a needle on the CQ4 newbies group and was asked to do a tutorial. I have to apologize for the photos as I don't have anyone to help take them and It was a little difficult to hold the needle and take a picture. Anyway, here goes.
In the first photo it shows how to hold the the tread over your finger and a little snug against your finger.


The second picture is not too clear, sorry. I tried to hold the whole thing with double sided tape so I could take the picture. Anyway, put the eye of your needle over the tread and rub it up and down. The thread will slide through the eye very nicely. This will only work with a twisted thread, such as the Perle cotton.


This last picture shows the thread as it goes through the eye. Ihope this helps And I hope this published with the pictures in order.

Finished

I finished my Rico tablecloth today. So now my grandkids can't say I never finish anything.

This came out so pretty and I did get it done in the spring like I wanted, so we can enjoy it for awhile.

Karl was surprised when I told him it was for us. Mostly my things go to the family. but they do enjoy them also, so I love doing things for them.

I should start another tablecloth, but I think I will let it go and float for awhile.

I did do some more on the block for my new project. I'll post that on another day.

Squishie Mingle

I joined a "Squishie Mingle" on the CQ 4 Newbies group. We were to put together a baggie of goodies for CQ and send it to someone. My partner was Cathy and this is a picture of the goodies she sent me. Some fabric and ciggies, beads, buttons, threads and silk ribbon.

I'm working on the blocks for the new project and have a couple of my girls and one grand-daughter who have volunteered to help me. this will be a fun project. I'll post a picture later of the progress on one block.

A beautiful tree

We had this beautiful tree in our backyard. It is a ficus tree and provided a lot of shade on a hot sunny day. We had used this tree as part of the decor at my daughters wedding in 1980. So it was about 27 years old. By the way they are still married and have 4 beautiful boys. But it was beginning to lift up the cement on the patio so we had to have it taken out. Sad, it took 27 years to grow and 1 1/2 hours to cut it down. The third picture is of what my husband called his money tree. It was a schefflera. He got it when he opened his home office and always said as long it was healthy we would be making money. Well, it worked for about 25 years and now we are on Soc. Sec. and the poor tree is gone.
I do think I like the view outside alot better. I can see my roses and a few other things in the back yard.

New Project

Here is the start of a new project. One I'm hoping to get a couple of my girls involved in. This one will take some time, hopefully not the six years I've been working on the CQ wallhanging.

My grandkids are probably going " She hasn't finished the last project yet." I only have 2 squares left on the Rico tablecloth. If I sat down and applied myself, I could finish that one in about a week.

I've stopped on this one for a minute because I'm waiting for more Dupioni silk. Susan N. had a Dupioni buy, which is one of the reason I got going on this. I want to do several blocks using only the Dupioni and just embroidery, no laces, beads, or do=dads.

I've gotten a mental block on how to piece the blocks together. I think I just need to get a little more confidence in myself and just get on with it. Anyway, happy April Fools day. I hope you aren't having too many tricks played on you. Just a note about April Fools: One year when the kids and I were by ourselves ( there was me and 5 kids for about 5 years) They had great fun filling the sugar bowl with salt. Boy, try that one in your coffee on a slow and groggy morning.