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.

Antique Crazy Quilt

Susan had asked to see a picture of this Crazy Quilt. I don't know who did it. I am guessing from the fabrics and the deterioration that is was done somewhere in the late 1800's. AS you can see from the second picture how the fabrics are just shredding. In the first picture, if you look on the lefthand edge towards the bottom ,you can see a patch that is almost completely gone.

The story: I saw this quilt when my MIL's adopted mother past. That was somewhere in the 60's.

Oh boy! Did it get my heart going. they took it to Montana with them and I never saw it until my MIL past. As things got cleared out I asked my FIL if I could have it. I didn't hear anything for some time and then this battered cardboard box arrived at my door. The quilt was inside, wrapped in NEWSPAPER. I almost died. But anyway it is now in my procession and I need to do something to keep it from getting worse. If anyone can give me some direction for this, I would be grateful.

Wool Felt Needle and Scissors Cases

I went to the crafters show the other day (Where I met Ing, Hi Ing) and picked up the pattern to do these needle and scissor cases from Attic Heirloom. I love doing these. They are quick and easy. You really don't have to think, just sit and stitch. I have to decide how to close the needle cases. The instructions say to use a snap, but I really don't like snaps.

The Button Fairy

I think the button fairy stopped by my house. I had pickedup this block to do the heart wreath and just thought that that flower needed a button in the middle. I went to my button drawer and there was this button, which I don't remember seeing. After auditioning several other buttons this one just kept coming back. It fit perfectly in the center and just seemed to snuggle into the center hole. I thin it might be better in gold, but I sure wish I had more of these.

Isaw this wreath on Lori K's sight and fell in love with it. I'm really not a heart person, but really liked this one. I used 3 shades of perle #8 to do the Lazy Daisy (detached chain). I think I will probably use this one again. Thank you Lori for the inspiration.

3 more UBs

Here are three more blocks. The first is done by Norma Harris from Salem, VA, the second by Susan Nixon, from everywhere (for those who don't know Susan, they travel around in their fifth wheel) and the third is done by Wilma van Wagensveld from The Netherlands.

I must apologize to these ladies as I said I would get these posted yesterday, but I got involved in trying to figure out our taxes. Karl used to do this every year, but this year he is unable to so it's another thing I'v e had to take over. I think I have them figured correctly, if not I hope some of you will come and bail me out of IRS jail.

2 more UBs

Here are two more of the Unique Blocks. The first is done by Lauri Burgessen from Grand Jct., Co. and the second Is from her stitching buddy Janet Popish also from Grand Jct.

It's great to see how differently everyone interpreted their blocks.

First Three UBs

On

On our CQ for Newbies group we have this challenge to take these blocks and beautify them.These are the first three I've gotten back.

The first one was done by Lori Kinney from Enfield, Ct., the second by Renea Aldrich from East Orting, WA and the third is mine. When we are done they will be put together and made into a quilt to be donated to a charity.

There are 12 all together. So it should make for a very interesting Quilt or wall hanging.

SRE buttons and Lilli

Here is our little puppy Lilli, Actually she's 11 years old and needs a bath here in this picture.
She uses the bottom of the tables as a pillow. I can't imagine how that can be comfortable, but when she's asleep the house could blow up and she'd never know it.











I never know how these pictures will arrange themselves so I hope this post will be ok.
I've decided to do some SRE buttons. I would like to get some done for Easter, so I will be working on these for a while. I also want to try Pam Kellog's idea of using waste canvas to do the feather stitch. I might work on that later.
Anyway here is my first attempt at the buttons.

Unique block and TAST

I've finished with this block. It was fun and interesting to work on. I never thought I would put sequins on a block, but this just seemed to need the glitz. And I couldn't resist, there seemed to be every color put purple so I just had to add some.








This next picture is of a hand painted doily from Kitty and Me. It took me a long time to decide what to do with it. And then I thought a unique block needed a unique button, so I found this in my stash. This may actually be an UGLY button.



This picture shows the Chevron stitch from Sharon's Tast of last week. It's kind of hard to see because of the wonderful red,white and blue apples. This week Sharon did the Algerian eye which I have used many times in needlepoint and hardanger projects. Needless to say I'm a week behind on the TAST

Here is a picture of the finished block. AS I said this was really interesting and a challenge. I really liked the way it turned out. This block made me think in other directions. I decided to put some sequins on and in Sharon's Encrusted class she gave us directions to use them in different ways as in the horizontal strip above the red white and blue apples. I'mnot sure how the pictures will line up when I post this, but here goes.

UB Progress

I've been working on my "unique Block" mostly these past few days. We had a discussion on CQ4N , these started out being called ugly blocks and we decided that these probably were

done by a lady who had intended to make a quilt and for some reason or other didn't finish it. Don't we all relate to that? Anyway, she probably has passed and her kids found these in a box somewhere and dumped them at a bargin shop.Judyth came up with the name unique and I kind of like that better.

I decided on this part rather then trying to cover it up I would enhance the design by stitching over it. I've used DMC#5 perle and used the detached chain,long and short stitches and some couching to hold the thread in place. I need to find some flower beads to add to this. There is a place near here called "The San Gabriel Bead Co." It's huge and I'm hoping they will some there.I'll have to wait until I can get Karl settled into his chair in the afternoon. I've got him watching Judging Amy and Law and Order. They are on the TV for about 4 hours every afternoon. For those of you who know Karl, he is an avid reader, but now is having trouble with his eyes and can't seem to do too much of it. So he's turned to TV and movies, but if I asked him what the story is about, he can't remember. I think his concentration is not so good anymore.

Anyway back to stitching, sorry got carried away there. If you notice on the right there is a box with a webring site. Susan (desertsky) has invited me to join this ring so if your interested take a peek at it. Well, I better get going. It is a beautiful day here today. I'm sorry for all those who are still snowed in and having such awful weather. Although if we don't see some rain soon, we will probably be in a drought. Have a good day.

TAST - Detached Chain

Here is a picture of one of the "Ugly Blocks" that we are doing. Crazy Judyth purveyor of fabrics and threads found these blocks and some of us decided to see if we could change these ugly ducklings into swans. So here is my start. As I was looking for embellishments I came upon this baggie of "Dress it Up" buttons. Oddly enough it had all the colors that were in my block, and they looked pretty good together. So I put them to use in the white circles.

The TAST stitch for this week was the detached chain and I have been doing that since Iwas 11, so I attempted a variation-the oyster stitch, put couldn't quite get the hang of it. Needs more practice. So I just did one of my favorite ways to tack down rick rack with the detached chain.

I didn't have any perle cotton in the right color so I used 3plys of DMC floss, but I don't like the look and will have to go do some shopping. Pam had mentioned a few days ago about not using yellows very much. I think they are hard to find in the perle. And I don't have any bright greens, just yellow greens. So, anyway that's my blogging for this week.

Rico Tablecloth

This is another project I'm working on. Would really like to get this finished by spring as it is for ME!! The fabric is a Rico tablecloth with 3 1/2 x 3 1/2" cross stitch squares in it. the pattern is also a Rico design. There are 16 squares that need stitching. So far I have 7 done. Of course 3 of my girls want one, so I need to get busy.

You can find the cloth and patterns at www.123stitch.com Under fabrics-Table Toppers.