Letters
This is my first try at Tonya's letters. They came out really big. I wanted them to fit on a regular size pillow to go with my GD's quilt but they were so big I had to push to get them on. The "K"is 11 inches high. I really like this background as the many seams blend right in. This is the same fabric that I used to widen the quilt. I bought it in Manitowoc, WI last summer and really love it. I had no idea what I would do with it but I'm so glad it ended up in myDGD's quilt. The back is also this fabric. I was very short of the blue fabric and had to make a lower case letter "I" but I like the way it looks.

Before I made the big pillow, I made the small one seen in this picture. I plan to make at least one more but I'm not sure what it will be.

Tonya's Letters
I'm making Tonya's whole alphabet every day. Only problem is the letters are gone and have to be remade the next day. VBS

Okay they are ankle exercises done in the air.

I'm now seven weeks out from partial knee replacement and went to my doctor for recheck yesterday. I'm doing well with good extension and flexion and walking without any assistance. But my lower leg is not straight which is something that happens with a partial that doesn't with a whole replacement. Always some disadvantage. Will see what another month of exercises brings.

No Quilting Today
Today I did what was necessary. A chore I felt was not mine. But I did it and it turned out to be a very nice day. I wrote about it on my writing blog called Bits and Pieces by Katie. I need to figure out how to list a URL.

Pillows
I made a pillow to go with my DGD quilt. I must stuff it and then will take a pic for you to see. I want to make more pillows for her. I am trying to make one using Tonya's lettters. I'm having a hard time with the R. More later.

Oriental Quilt Finished
I finished binding this quilt. See the bottom entries under February for earlier pictures.
When I picked it up from the long-arm quilter, she said several people saw it and one lady wanted to know what the pattern was so she could make one. I made up the pattern which is strictly random. I like the quilting which is done in gray and can barely be seen. She went under the pinwheels so they stand up slightly. I'm very pleased with it. The finished quilt is 82 x 95 inches, the Oriential blocks are 6 inches square and the pinwheels are various sizes. The first picture is from the foot of the bed showing the wide binding (1.5 inch) I put on.





The bottom one shows the orange piece I added, when I found out I needed a double bed size.


Things I Am Grateful For Today
* Sunshine, even if the cold north wind chilled me.
* Vine ripened tomatoes from Florida that I bought at the Farmers' Market yesterday.
* A wonderful granddaughter who is graduating from high school.
* Being able to use my thumbs to do hand sewing after having two successful CMC surgeries. These surgeries replaced the wrist bones under my thumbs. The basilar joint arthritis meant that I couldn't pinch a needle enough to push it through fabric.
* My reading/sewing glasses which have a little extra humph.
* My comfortable chair with a foot rest.
* The extra bright light shining on my lap.
* My thimble that fits so great, a special needle and thread conditioner.
* Being able to make this quilt, with my love, for my granddaughter.

Kipper With Long Hair
Here's what he looks like with his fur grown out. 

Kipper's Cold
Finn, are you sending this cold rainy weather over to Michigan? BS Enough already.

This is my good companion who likes cold weather and water but he wants to know why he got his hair cut short. I wanted to take a pic of him
from the front but every time I tried He picked his head up. So I had to sneak one from the side. He just opened his eyes for this shot.

Kipper is eight years old, a Border Collie mix that I got from the Human Society when he was four months old. He has beautiful long fur when grown out but gets hot easily. I'll try to find a pic of him with his long fur.

I'm working on the binding of my oriental quilt. Should have pic by tomorrow. 

Patience
My internet connection stopped working yesterday and I just got it fixed. They had to come and swap out a box. I am working on too many projects now. Several appliques and the quilt-as-you-go one. Each day I do a little but I don't get far with my sewing room clean-out project. I think I need to haul things out of the room so I have places to return them. But knowing me, I hate to take them out of the room and then have two rooms of sewing clutter. Actually I have that now so guess it would mean three rooms of sewing clutter. Oh, dear. Now I must go to PT but just got a phone call that my oriental quilt is all done at the long arm quilter. So excited to see it. I'll pick it up after PT and abandon all else to get the binding on.

Best Mother's Day Gift
In 1961 I got the greatest Mother's Day gift ever. My daughter was born. Okay, actually she was not born until 6:00 the next morning (May 15th)but I went to the hospital on Mother's Day and I always consider her my Mother's Day baby.

All of my children do special things for me and the greatest of these is just knowing that I can call on them for help any time. This year my Mother's Day baby sent me the neatest e-card which was written my Amy Miller. I just must share.

Mom you are so special,
Unique in every way.
I just love you to pieces
Each and every single day.

Since I was a little girl
You've showed me how to care.
For the love you give,
I could not find anywhere!

You've taught me important lessons
Which I carry through my life
Helping me along life's byways
With not a lot of strife.

You've made me into a strong lady.
We're able to survive
Facing life's tribulations
With a lot of overdrive!

You are truly one of a kind
With much love and admiraton.
Here's to you, Mom
A master of womankind.

Happy Mother's Day to You!

Big Block
This picture doesn't show the correct color at all. It is a neat sea green and the stone pattern that shows better in the close up. The two colors really compliment each other.

I was cleaning/sorting my sewing room and found a picture of a quilt
from an advertisement I had cut out years ago. I just had to stop and make it. I can stop cleaning for any reason but this seemed like a really good one. I have been watching for a pattern to use to make a quilt that I promised I'd bring back to Florida next winter to be used for a raffle.
The picture I have shows contrasting sashing and I'm wondering about the dark red leaf strip. I'm also considering keeping just the two colors. They really compliment each other, which sure doesn't show in the picture. My digital camera does some funny things sometimes. The block is 30" and the picture shows six of them with the sashing and a border. I laid the block on point and it has great possibilities that way too. Any ideas as to how to design it, if I do it on point?

Since this is a donation, I really don't want to pay to have it long arm quilted and am thinking about doing "quilt as you go" with my sewing machine. I've never done this before but I think I understand it. Any suggestions? Maybe the on-point idea won't work for that. 

More on Sewing Room Quilt
This is a picture of my finished quilt. Actually it is a bedspread. I wish I knew how to make inverted pleats.
My DDL reads my blog and sent me an e-mail saying "How did you get that corner so clean for the picture? tee hee :)" So I took some pics of where some of the stuff that was on the bed went. Actually, I'm in the process of sorting out the room. True, I'm always in this process but... Actually I've made some progress.
This is my big board on my ironing board. It is one of my favorite sewing aids. I have a swival desk chair behind the sewing machine which I also use to iron. Those plastic boxes are suppose to help me organize. Well....

Yesterday I just had to sew. 30" block. Picture later. 

First Puzzle
(Sorry about the layout of this post. I am tired of trying to rearrange it and loosing the pictures.)

This is the first bed size quilt I ever started. It is 67 x 77 inches. I began it in 1998 and finished it only a couple years ago. I got the pattern from a teacher where I was taking a class. I have no idea the name of it but it sure looks like it should be called a puzzle. I'm not sure but I think the teacher made up the pattern and now I can't even remember her name and the shop is closed. It looks like each color (four pieces) makes a block but actually each block is make of four different colors. The pattern I had was paper and from it I made patterns of cardboard so I had to keep making new ones as I trimmed off bits. The right and left are identical but transposed. The top and bottom look like they are the same pattern but aren't. Must be they are transposed too. Anyway, it was not the smartest pattern for my first quilt. I also didn't use a short enough stitch and good fabric. But I do like my color choices. I also figured out how to make the edge blocks out of the dark blue. And I found some dark blue mix fabric for the back. I had it long arm quilted with my old standard of loops. I like the dark thread it is quilted with. Anyway I like the quilt and although often frustrating, I also enjoyed the process of making it. (Keep looking for more pics.)

Around The World
This is a small (44 x31") quilt I made a couple years ago. I took a class and most of the ladies made bed-size quilts. My original plan was to make this throw for this couch but I never would have been able to finish a big one. It was interesting how you substracted and added to make the design, but not creative. The creative
part was choosing the fabrics. I started with some from my stash and purchased more. I had recently redecorated my den and the backing matched the ivy theme.






The squares are 1.5" each finished.
I quilted it myself on my sewing machine. Just used stright lines but they worked great. 

Problem of the Day
Sun is shining. It's 74 degrees outside. I'm feeling good. Should I spend the day in my sewing room, which is inside the window in the picture, with the smell of the lilics?
I wish everyone had my problem.

 

Beautiful Blue

I wrote a lengthy ranting inspired by a post on Darilyn's blog about people thinking if you lived in Hawaii you had to be happy. Then my computer lost it. Maybe it was telling me to think more positive so I found some pictures I took of Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada. Yes, it really was this blue and beautiful. Anxious to see Darilyn's blue quilt.



 

Rest of the Sewing Room Quilt
I had a hard time finding a backing fabric but finally found a yellow in the discount rack. Perfect.

I had it long arm quilted just before I went to Florida last fall. I really like the loops we chose.
The other day I cut the binding from the yellow and discovered I hated it on top. So.... in my stash, I found a piece of one of the blue fabrics in the quilt. The problem was that it wasn't big enough for the double fold binding I alway use. Yesterday I decided to just make a single fold binding. Today I sewed it on all in one step. I sure wasn't very good at it and only got the hang of it at the end of the 380 inches. The quilt is 118 inches long and 72 inches wide so it fits nicely, including covering a pillow, on the single electric bed I have in my sewing room. See the blog before this for a picture. Sorry about the confusion. I don't seem to be able to put more than three pics on one blog. 

Sewing Room Quilt
Today I bound a quilt that has been waiting to be finished for a while. I bought the fabrics in Florida during the winter of 2003-4 and brought them back to Michigan. I liked them and used a few small pieces. I thought I'd use them each separately but got an inspiration to use all of them together when I saw a quilt in the May 2005 Quilt Almanac magazine.
It was called Conzetta's Courtyard and was not about the pattern but about Welsh quilting. What I loved was the pattern.
This is what a block looks like.

More in the next blog. 

Found It
How do you find that illusive object? I've always had this problem and it does get worse with age. Usually I just buy another one and sure enough I'll find the missing object.

Lately I've been thinking about applique. I had started a project in Florida and thought I brought it back to Michigan. After hunting through my sewing room and computer work area, I found the two completed blocks and some other things relating to it, but not the patterns. Could I have left them? Having two homes so far apart doesn't make finding things any easier. Finally I thought about what else I had brought back but not used yet. That did it. I had tucked them in an unrelated notebook which I'd tucked out of the way in the den. Oh, me. These are baskets of flowers called Remember When by Alice Wilhoit Designs. It's not a book but a plastic envelop of the patterns. I like them for the basic ideas and then I modify the designs as I sew them.

A Touch of Holland
Those are a couple pictures I took last spring at Holland, Michigan. This town was founded by immigrants from Holland and they have a great farm of the most beautiful flowers. I'm not able to make it there this year but am enjoying the pictures I took last year.

I'm really thinking flowers and applique. More soon.

Tulips
The tulips in my garden, which I am viewing from my easy chair, have been with me for many days. I love tulips but they never last long enough. For some reason mine have stayed extra long this year. I think it is just to help me through my recovery from my knee surgery.

I keep thinking about sewing projects but they all seem just too overwhelming at this time. It took me a week to get enough energy to sew on a missing button to my pajamas. And I felt that was quite an accomplishment.

I'd been thinking about appliquing something and yesterday I just did it. Just one block and no idea what it is for. Now it is thrown over a chair back. Anyway, I am pleased with it and I am so glad I did it.

I like to do diminional applique where I just improvise by folding, scrunching and whatever. It's hard to show in a picture, even a close up.
Most of all, I enjoy creating with my quilting. I have made a few quilts following a pattern but usually I modify the pattern to fit my desire at the time.

I don't know when I'll get another day where I'll be inspired to create but I know there will be another day.