WIP Weds, #21

A little of this and that going on around here---or about to, LOL. I finished up the slightly resized May block from Nancy Halvorsen's Calendar Quilts & Stitcheries and will be cutting some borders for it later today to get it up to flimsy and maybe spray basted if I have time. A little ladybug button will be attached and some running stitch applied to quilt it. I like the natural Moda Marble for the background better than the Kona cotton I used for the April quilt-let.







Next up:
I started this top on Saturday and didn't touch it since. I was stitching, dealing with paperwork on the home front and for the quilt group. I have also been adding recipes to my Mastercook 11 software from my mail lists and such intermittently.

Oh and last night I was re-arranging the quilting stuff in the "annex" since some fabric followed me home from the meeting yesterday. It all started with my dragging out all the personal tops on the far end shelf of the closet---all pinned and ready to quilt(6), one even mostly done. Some stuff got tossed because no way, no how am I ever going to deal with re-making those wonky tops. LOL, I can make my OWN wonky tops and not rescue someone else's castoffs if they are that bad and the fabric isn't even worth saving to re-purpose. Some of my unearthed fabric finds might work for Bridge Creek Blossom. Some I would like to pass on to Aline's granddaughter, a fledgling quilter. Space is finite.

If I get the borders on that little quilt-let as planned, I will lay out another row for TV viewing time. (Mom, point out to Dad who well the table insert fits the machine, will you? THX again to Dad!)

I don't know if you can see that pattern clipped to the basket very well plus it is turned the wrong direction. Try THIS for a better view of the sewing machine cover that I want to make for the Singer---the cat version, of course! But wait! See that cat wallhanging right next to it on the Cotton Ginny site? Looks just like Skyler! I got to get that pattern!


Lastly, I have been dealing with this stuff for the last couple hours When Sarah passed away, sewing the batting cut-aways together into something usable fell to me. She was so good to take that on for the group. Others are stalwarts at the pinning table but Sarah hated to see anything go to waste. I have one large long piece to sew on and it will accommodate that top above that I am supposed to be piecing. The top will finish about 52 x 68 while the batting is 48 wide and purchased in 60 yd (?) rolls.

I suspect but do not know for sure ( yet ) that the stuff in the bag is NOT the same type or weight of batting that we normally use. Linda C dropped it off in the closet from her projects at home so I have a feeling it is a "mixed bag" I'll see what is hiding in there in a bit. (ed. note: no such luck. The lightweight stuff on top made me hopeful. Counting the custom piece above and cutting a bit off the existing roll I sewed together 4 batts WTIL sized. There was even one large piece in there! That is all I got done after dealing with the batting till after 8 p.m.)

What I don't get done goes to tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after...........Thanks for stopping by!

vacation wrapup

I have been back from my trip to visit with family in Illinois for week now and up there for one day shy of a week so it has been a bit since I posted. But, no matter---I'm doing it now, LOL. It was good to get away but we are happy to be home.

DJ put me on the plane out of Atlanta on Tuesday and I arrived at the Central Illinois Regional Airport right at the stroke of 1056 a.m. Funny thing is, the flight time is equal to the drive time to Hartsfield Airport so DJ got home about the same time I landed in Bloomington-Normal.

I arrived up at my folks with this view in the family room. The bins were piled up since they normally sit under my mom's cutting/pinning table. She had already told me she needed my help in pinning the 15 tops she had been piecing over the last couple months. BUT a local gentleman had called them to come out to get some fabric that had belonged to his wife who had been admitted to a care facility with Alzheimers. He wanted it to be used for Mom's donation quilt work. She told him she would share with me as I was also involved with the same work. The woman was quite a collector but her husband said she had never made a quilt.

We had a ball going through it and pairing things up for this quilt and that. We had at least 13 stacks that would go for this or that pattern pulling only a few pieces from her stash to go with. Warm Wishes, Naptime, Prairie Stroll, Log Cabin, some new ones we had seen on the internet recently......you name it. We printed patterns off, I worked something up in EQ and all those were labeled with what went where in the scheme of things till she could cut them out. Some of the fabric came home with me already but we will also divide up the leftovers once she cuts the kits out so more will be coming by way.


2 1/2 days later we decided that maybe we better start pinning at least a few of those tops! 11 of the 15 were tended to over the next few days--I was going to DJ's son's house by Saturday afternoon so we had to make good use of the time we had.

I want to share a few of her tops with you. Not sure where the labels will land though. (Obviously I don't have anything of my own to share) Click on the pictures to see them bigger, as usual.

This 1st one is BQ 2 from Maple Island Quilts--cute with novelty prints.



Warm Wishes--free pattern online at the quiltmaker/quilter's newsletter sites. This used the same print I had used in my 9 Patch Pizzazz recently and was a challenge piece between the two of us. Pat showed a bit of it on her blog post a few days ago. She was kind enough to quilt this one for me and will mail it on to M2M.

This was one of two Orange Crush Mystery quilts from Bonnie Hunters recent mystery quilt. Mom had quilted both of them so I could bring them back and mail them off with the others we had teamed up on.

We do love those scrappy quilts especially the ones that use up the strings and crumbs! Here is Mom's version of one that she saw on Jeanne's blog recently. Very striking, isn't it?

Okay, back to the narrative. I got to see my niece/god"child" Allison and my sister who lives in the area mid week so it was not all quilting, all the time. Next time up if I have time, I will definitely try to see my brother in the Kankakee-Bourbonnais area. It just didn't work out this trip.

DJ drove up in the car and stayed a night in southern IL so arrived at my folks late morning on Friday. We went down to B-N for lunch (Schooner's for onion rings and a big fat juicy cheeseburger---yummmy!) Then we drove past some of our old haunts and residences. His golfing buddy came by the restaurant and they got their tee time for Sunday before we headed back to my parents as we had an appointment with someone on the cemetary board.

This might sound a little morbid but one thing we needed to do this trip was arrange for our burial site. Originally we thought we were going to look in Bloomington and DJ had called the three sites so knew how much they were asking for them. For grins and giggles, I asked my dad what the going rate was in their small town---let's just say we got both plots for about 1/3 of the cost of one in Bloomington at the cheapest of the three cemetaries. The spot we have is about 10 feet away from my parents too.

DJ was staying at his son's on Friday and they were off to a basketball tournament near Kankakee on Saturday---see, I should have gone with them and had my brother come get me but it's too late now!! Mom knew I was selling some of my books on Amazon and took the opportunity to go through some of hers. Dad helped bundle the ones she up that she didn't want anymore and loaded them up in the car along with two boxes of fabric. See why I needed the car more than DJ did??



I had made plans to see my brother and his family Saturday evening. They had been at baseball games much of the day while the oldest nephew had a scouting event in town. My sister-in-law invited me to stay for supper and one of my niece's set up the appetizers and entertained us as we dined outside. They have a new puppy to love up on. No pictures though as I left the camera at Tracy's with my luggage on the way over to my brother's house. The kids are growing up, that's for sure!



Sunday the golfers went off to play so I read and caught up with my email, ran into town on an errand. Our grandson Joshua had a double header at his high school so we went in to watch that after lunch. Then back to their house to watch more baseball---this time the professional kind. Go Cards! Josh had plans that evening with friends and we ate in B-N at Buffalo Wild Wings that evening.



By Monday morning the whole household was up and at it early--back to work for Tracy & LuAnn and Joshua is on a summer workout program with all the sports he is involved in. No need for us to wait to get on the road. DJ got the IL and TN driving while I did the KY and AL legs of the trip and we hit the place where Skyler was being boarded a little after 5. I had forgotten to enter their number in the cell phone and we took a chance that they would still be open. Hurray, he got to go home with us too. What a sweet baby he was being last week!



Good to see our families take a break from our routine but good to be back home too.

box upon box upon box

Yesterday was a big mail delivery day around my house! I still had not found a home for the 30 some yards I had gotten at the quilt retreat and my sewing room was getting a little smaller around the periphery. (And it is only 10 x 10 to begin with).

The fabric you see in the foreground is some that a friend and fellow Wrap 'Em list mate had sent so I could make a choice for a challenge fabric for the Bama Belles this year. These are 8 yard cuts so I have enough for a couple years worth. A quilt shop in KY had donated yardage to her and she had some to share. This was the


one I picked for us to work with this year. Michael Miller "Merkitties" Actually it is a little brighter green but I was more concerned with getting the royal blue background adjusted in editing. Soft pinks and ivory colorations with that brights.

As if that were not enough, Kitty also sent that big Barnes and Noble box full of backing fabrics. Our postal person honks to let us know that there is a package peither on top of the mailbox across our lane or she is delivering it to the door. DJ headed out though I know I had packages coming. He hauled the box in along with a stuffed to the gills priority box. Apparently someone had donated100 yard rolls and bulk yardage so she passed some along to us. I already have put that piecing of shirting type stuff to use and laundered up another 10 yard section. You will see where further down in the post.

The priority box that DJ brought in was full of challenge fabrics came from Ellen. It was bulging with scraps, strips, yardage! The idea is that she would pack whatever she could get crammed in there and we make one or more WTIL quilts for $10 to cover mailing etc. Now that is a "win-win" situation since things are cleared out of the shop and we get some new fabrics to play with for our quilts. There were a couple of 2 yard sections that I will probably use for a two color Puss in the Corner--positive/negative probably--of another Michael Miller cat fabric. But a big pile of 2 1/2 inch strips already cut, sandwich bags stuffed with 2 inch and 2 1/2 inch squares along some half square triangles. Stray blocks or block componenets as well as stuff I can cut up/trim down of my chosing. Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. Grandmother's Scrap Bag pattern is calling me for some of those bits and pieces.

I set this all aside to work on that last Joann's BOM---things were not going well. Either not cut correctly or the seamtress error with the flying geese etc so I may well junk this one out. I already know that I am making an 8 block top so I'll see what background fabric is leftover if I need to make a replacement for another use.

Then as I was preparing supper, the doorbell rang again---this time, it was the UPS driver and a package I expected from my mom arrived. DJ had to haul THAT one in too amidst groans that he never gets anything in the mail or words to that effect. 10 quilt tops that she made and I will back and quilt---these will be going to Pam for the Mexico project in spring '08. I got busy pairing the tops with backings last evening and took this picture after I finished. Either I used some fabric that mom sent adding some stuff from my stash to make it wider, some of what Kitty had just mailed or I pieced it from things I had on hand. Stashbusting my stash and their too, LOL. Actually I did have to make a run to Walmart for 2 yards of a pink to finish the last one but 2 yards plus a tad for the wider ones for 10 quilts found a use.

Pippi of course, is supervising the whole deal. She still has that "poodle paws" thing going on if you look at her front legs. Mom has all her binding pressed and wrapped on the large cardboard piece propped next to the quilt stack with labels as to which one goes with what quilt and how long it is. Me? Still need to press 4 quilts worth--right next to it and the iron. The box also had a nice pile of abandoned blocks for me to play with. More quilts inspired by Finn on the horizon. The other thing in the montage up there---I just emptied off the last bit of thread on a 6000 yard spool in 5 months time. Some of it is wound up on the bobbin rack but that is a lot of thread---must have been a busy girl! (The gray one is what it looks like to start)


Lastly, here is my fabric from the retreat. The two on the end on the left were in a grab bag but we didn't count those in the tally. Last I heard the total for the group was up to 250 some yards and that was without two people "fessing up". The fats I got mainly since I thought they might work in the orphan block quilt I was working on at the retreat though I found more yardage for two of them at the fabric sale. A few purple, yellows, teals--my fav colors after all. A couple of backgrounds in creamy tone on tones and two rusty browns that may end up on my medallion round robin for that last border. (Once they are displayed at the quilt show that last round will be re-worked as I hate that polycotton brown and that mess in the corner has got to go.) The wild tropical floral on the right end was purchased so I can try the 4 patch stacked posie pattern that I picked out for my birthday. Norma is responsible for that "itch" since she pointed the pattern out in IM and I was intrigued by the whole thing. Maybe if she and I ever get caught up, we can give it a whirl.

I will make a separate post with the quilts/wrap up from the quilt meeting on Tuesday since that is a shift of gears, so to speak. Stay tuned..........

vacation wrap up

It was good to get away to visit with my family in IL and good to get home. Normally if my husband goes with me, we have spend roughly two and half days traveling and two and half days actually there. If I fly in, then a week's stay. This time, I had the luxury of 10 days, thanks to my friend Marilyn and her husband Roger letting me share a ride as they were visiting family in NE Minnesota.

We got to our pickup destination about 9 p.m. on Wednesday 6/6. They stayed overnight at the hotel in LeRoy and my parents drove down from their Lexington home to get me. (My youngest brother and his family live in that small town right off I-74. ) Pictured is my youngest nephew Ted who was playing ball with his team Thursday evening. The winds were quite gusty but Ted made his pitching debut. Struck all three batters out in one inning--normally he catches. I have a couple of pictures of him pitching but had to take them through the fencing---almost got hit by a pop fly doing it, LOL.

Friday I took a sewing machine lesson at the Sewing Center where my mom had purchased my Brother NX-450 on Thursday morning. Played around a bit and got some questions answered. Worth the price of admission was finding out that bobbin plate with the cutter DOES pull off--here I had been using the seam ripper and a pair of tweezers to pick thread off an errant attempt to fill a bobbin and scolded DJ NOT to be tugging on it in his attempt to help me, LOL. Mom and I met my niece for lunch at a nearby restaurant before we went home.

Mom and I spent several days organizing her stash a bit. Cutting is hard on her back and the scraps bags were mounting. I didn't take a picture of all that but we cut off and on for 5 days. She pressed and I trimmed them down to size. Mom estimated that we probably made our way through a 56-58 qt tub to cut cut squares, strips, bricks and sections for a scrappy Bonnie Scotsman top. She loves to do Indian Hatchet or Railroad Crossing string blocks so we had quite a bunch of those too. She did some cutting but it was for two specific projects---"And All That Jazz" and "Checkboard Plaids" from Evelyn Sloppy's 40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts

We had set aside that box you see full of fabric for me and some fabrics for the Belles---homespuns, plaids so I can do a checkboard in more countryish colors rather than the brights she was using---oh, I got some of the brights as well but those are for a "Kaleidoscope" quilt I started 10 plus years ago, LOL. Patriotics prints were also pulled as I have a row quilt that will call for them and I didn't have many on hand. Mom also shared a nice bundle of 30's repros with me as a "just because" and some fabrics for future WTIL quilts. The day before I left we started digging through her bins to find yardage for backing that she wanted to share with my quilt group. They are separated out by color or type of fabric but you know how that goes---it gets mixed up over time. And we kept finding more stuff that needed to be cut up as well. The white 13 gal kitchen bags seen above was the stuff we culled for backings and so forth. We were able to empty three of her large bins with the reorganization efforts but filled up two of them with scraps and chunks and another with fabric that had never really had a "home". My dad might not have been able to tell a difference but we could! He was teasing me that I had probably walked another mile back and forth from the family room to the utility room hauling fabric.

Back tracking a bit, Sunday the 10th we had our family gathering at the town were my dad was born and raised. I have not gotten to go since DJ and I moved south 10 years ago. We were all happy to see one of my cousins and her husband who live in Michigan as we had more or less, lost contact with that brother's family when he died some time ago. My first cousins are grandparents now so there are little ones around again. 2nd cousins once removed?? Third cousins??? How does that work exactly. Good food, good company and a chance to reconnect while the kids played.

My sister who lives about an hour from my parents had to work the weekend so she came up Monday evening after she got off and had supper with us. My niece Allison came up for lunch Tuesday afternoon and we got together again in Bloomington-Normal the next day. I like to go by the places I used to live and work if I can so took the drive passed the old haunts to see what had changed since our last trip. We met for lunch at Avanti's restaurant. Anyone who went to Illinois State University in Normal (or lives in Bloomington-Normal) or Bradley University in Peoria knows what that is!! Yummy--Italian beef sandwich with meat sauce and a loaf of that good bread to make my own gondola to share with my dad the next day. After a run to Joann's to nab a scrub top pattern, we went onto the movie theatre to see "Knocked Up" A run to one of the mega market stores to get some stuff for our evening meal and I was back in time to prepare supper.

Thursday we pinned one of Mom's completed tops as I wanted to try out her Brother Nouvelle 1500S machine. Wow, does that thing move! Because the design seemed to need some diagonal lines and the quilt was not too large I had it quilted by mid afternoon. The binding was attached in time for me to take it with me to her small quilt group meeting to work on the hand finishing. Several of the girls who would normally attend were not available but we stayed and visited with the ones that did come.

DJ was supposed to be cat sitting and tending the home fires while I was gone. Problem was, Pippi was not eating and was not acting like herself. He took her into the vet on the 11th where she stayed till the 15th. Turns out the old girl has a stage 3 (of 5) heart murmur and chronic renal insufficiency. Her lab values that measure her kidney function were about 4 times the normal parameters. If you look very closely you can see the shaved areas on her front legs---growing back fur again. IV fluids brought her labs down to a more reasonable level and her diet was changed. We have to take her in again tomorrow to see where she stands. It is possible that I will have to learn how to give her subcutaneous fluids here at home but will not know till tomorrow. She IS eating better but has seemed to prefer hiding under the bed coming out when she is darned well ready to. I am that mean old kitty mama that won't let her have any table tastings and has to stuff pills down her.

DJ survived his own cooking. He told me one evening that I had nothing to fear from his possibly taking over the chili cooking detail. I had gotten him a seasoning packet and the other ingredients as I knew he made that in his bachelor days. He said he added a package of Sweet and Low to it to make it more palatable. I laughed even harder a few nights later when he related that story to his son when he called. Tracy suggested he try some brown sugar instead. Those two exchanging recipe hints is something I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams! Good to know that he missed me. I had the opportunity to miss him since we are always around each other.

I just missed my sister from Colorado by about a day---the bed hardly had a chance to cool. She is taking a 3 day bike ride in Indiana with a friend while her girls visit with their grandparents and then will meet up with my niece and SIL from Tennessee for an arranged trip to the Chicago area and back to TN with them.

Yesterday I went through my own 3 fabric bins pulling stuff that I can share to make room for the new additions. Did the laundry and got groceries--that stuff you do after you return from a trip in other words. Today, took said fabric to the meeting place, library book return, bank stop, gas up the car, did the 110 mile round trip thing to get my Viking from the shop. I'll get back in the swing of things in a day or two---I would like to get that bowtie top finished up before the Belles meet next week and of course, I have to finish up my row quilt obligations as well especially since I have the machine back. There is one quilt in my stack to finish machine quilting too. I got one bound in the car trip there and back and part of a snowman bluework block done.

Oh, read 6 books while I was gone too---at home it seems like I don't have time. Somedays I barely even look at the newspaper and by bedtime am just too tired. Kept up my walking too as Mom is committed to an exercise program as well. My dad has already walked once around the globe and is a quarter way around again but he walks faster than either of us though I did do a couple of blocks with him one day. I was pretty proud that I am now up to 2.2 miles in 43 minutes time--8 laps at just a shade over 5 mins a lap. Hopefully that will make the little twerp doctor happier when I go mid week for a followup visit. Enough chattering--bore you all to tears!