Happy 4th of July!

I will be driving to Michigan tomorrow for a nice, long weekend with my gal pal, Sally. I'm hauling my sewing machine and 2 projects along.

On my little silhouette lady I have to finish blanket stitching about 4 more inches (bottom of her skirt and stool legs) and then I am ready to add the little curtain and border (see previous post). I will finish her at Sally's house.

I'm taking the above kit along. Jen from The Patched Works helped me pick out the material when I was in the store over a month ago. I think we did a great job. The little jars will contain blackberries, lemons, blueberries, strawberries and pears. Makes me hungry just looking at the material! I thought if the weather isn't so great Sally and I could work on it together. Sally started quilting last fall when she was still recuperating and I thought it might be fun to work on it together. Sally made a lovely hand stitched pillow.

AND, I GOT ALL OF MY HSTs COMPLETED for my Friendship Star quilt! Yipee! I'm starting to make the 72 blocks. Of course, I get over excited and had to sew one row together.

My doggie sitter, Mary Sue, will arrive tomorrow to watch over my "girls," Gracie and Lucy Lou. I am so fortunate to have her both as a friend and doggie sitter. Lucy Lou went to the vet for an ear infection yesterday. She is already much improved.

Sally doesn't have internet access at her house in the country so this is my last post until next week. Happy 4th of July everyone and God (or the deity of your choice) Bless America!

What's Up?

Not much, unfortunately.


The two mystery lap quilts each have their double borders added and are on their way to Meandering Mary to be quilted. She will now have 4 of my quilts in her stacks of quilts.

I have 192 of the 288 half square triangles completed for the Friendship Star quilt. I'm getting a little tired of the HSTs, so I might start making a few blocks to keep me motivated!




While I'm not really attracted to folk art projects, I saw this little lady at Ye Olde Schoolhouse and just had to have her. I fused on the silhouette and now am blanket stitching her into place. (no, the finished project does not include a needle coming out of her head! LOL. You need to click on the image and really look to see my needle.) I'm including the package picture of what she will look like when done. I love the little curtain; however, I'm thinking of making it in a different fabric. To see more you can go to http://www.folkartchildren.com/ She has some great primative artwork and other quilting patterns.



I am also still hand stitching binding on quilts. Luckily, I have some good books on CD to listen to as there is NOTHING on TV anymore.

I've been having problems with dizziness and nausea, especially when laying down. I'm on acid reflux medication, but it is getting worse. My doctor, whom I saw today, feels I might have an inner ear viral infection going on. Let's hope that is all it is!

Mystery Revealed!!!!!!

Ye Olde Schoolhouse Quilt Shop offered a mystery quilt for the Thursday Ladies Friendship Group and I was lucky enough to participate in it.




The ladies are so nice and friendly and it was fun to make the quit. At first I thought I would turn the lap top quilt into a queen size so I doubled the amount of fabric I purchased. I then decided to make 2 lap top quilts to give as gifts.


Every month we got clues. We had to double the clues as it was moving a bit too slow. This month we were able to "solve" the puzzle. I still need to sew the rows together on this one and sew the second one completely together, but it is done very quickly. And I need to add a double border to what you see in the picture so it will look different when completed. While each quilt will look exactly the same from the front, the backing will be different on each one.


We used the book, Mystery Quilts by Rita Fishel and receive our copies on Thursday. It is full of fun stories, recipes and mystery quilts! If you want to make fast, easy lap quilts or twins, I highly recommend this book.

Camera Shy

I swear that every time I take a picture of Lucy Lou she will look right into the camera until a split second before I snap the picture. She will then demurely look away.

Ahhh, all it takes is a treat! She is such a sweet, shy girl!

Head in the Stars

Well, I've completed the sampler quilt and the baby quilt. At the last minute I decided to put a border on the baby quilt. I had just enough material. I really didn't like how it was turning out, but once I added the border it looks great. I'm so happy with it now! Both quilts will be sent to Meandering Mary later this week for quilting.



Now I'm back to the Friendship Star quilt. It will be a large queen size quilt. I have had it all cut for months, it just kept getting pushed onto the back burner. I have 2 blocks done out of 72! Tonight I decided to get all of the "star" squares done and then it will be easy to put the blocks together. I cut 288 squares - 144 of each color (it's a 2 color/fabric quilt). It takes time to draw the sewing / cutting lines and then squaring each off after sewing, cutting and pressing is a pain in the butt. Oh, well . . .

I think it will be great when done - maybe when I'm 90!

Last Class

Ye Olde Schoolhouse offers 3 beginning quilting class, spread out over the course of 3-4 months. The very beginning class is a table runner, then a Buckeye Beauty wall hanging and finally a sampler quilt.


I think this is great, because not everything is dumped on the student at one time. Each class offers new techniques and challenges. Plus, Diane is the BEST teacher. And, owner Jeanie will stop in during the class with cookies fresh from the oven!


This week I finished my last class - the sampler class. I took it with my gal pal, Terri, who hadn't taken one quilting class in her life! Boy, after the first class she was frustrated and she probably wanted to kill me. She hung in there and as the 6 weeks moved along, she got the hang of it and enjoyed the class as much as I did (I hope)


Here are some pictures of our quilts, still not quite finished. As of this writing I have to add one more border and get the backing ready, so it should be ready to go to the quilter tomorrow night. Terri is maybe a day behind me!


As a thank you for all of her help and teaching I have Diane a Jim Shore figurine. It is of a quilting angel.





Terri's quilt

My quilt

Princess Gracie

Remember the fairy tale, "The Princess and the Pea?"

Need I say more?

Window Wells

My house is 120 years old. I have always gotten water in a certain area of my basement. Usually it is not too bad unless we have days of heavy down pour. When I bought the place almost 11 years ago the inspector to me to have window wells dug out by 2 (or 4) of the basement windows.

Hopefully, I will retire next year and will be selling my house next spring and I decided to have this done.

My youngest nephew, Patrick, generously offered to do the job with the help of his 17 year old son, Aaron. Saturday they started. They finished on Sunday.
(nothing like rotted wood!)

Four window wells, 3 yards of dirt, 20 bags of rock, 25 rolls of sod, one trip to Menards, one trip to True Value Hardware, one trip to the place to get the sod, one gas tank filled, one dinner, one lunch, a breakfast and many hours of very hard labor, it is done.

Oh, and while they worked they butts off, I got to spend time with Patrick's daughter, Shannon, age 2 1/2.

I think I came out with the better end of the deal.

(See how beautiful it looks!)

When Patrick sets his mind on doing something, he gets it done and he does it right and it looks great.

Since this side of my house faces my neighbor, Lesa, I told her what was going to happen so she could dig up her plants temporarily. So, Lesa not only dug up her plants, but some of mine that will be replaced with a small patio later this month (also needed to prevent water in the basement). Lesa worked her butt off. She loves to garden even more than I do and she really worked hard this weekend.

I got to play with Shannon.

I think this cost me around $400 everything included (gas, food, etc.). It is so well worth it. Patrick and Aaron did a great job.

Oh - a couple of weeks ago I came home and went to get the mail. When I opened the mailbox the whole post fell over. Patrick and Aaron also installed a new mailbox and post for me. It is as solid as a rock!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Patrick and Aaron. I appreciate it more than you will ever know.