Tidbits
I have the sea green top done. It looks too small to me so I'll see. The 9 patch is six inches square. My digital camera sure doesn't like the color. Anxious to try another method of sandwiching. More later.

I see some of you keep to-do lists of quilting tasks. Just now I'm busy with life- to-do list. Got the vet visit, mammogram and buy underwear crossed off yesterday. They had buy six, get-one-free bras so I have 7 new ones and 9 new panties. They didn't have the socks I wanted so bought two others to try. I had partial knee replacement in March and it is not completely successful so now I have a huge brace. I had to get some pants to go over it. Not easy. But I found some and bought three pair and even a jacket to match the two blue pair. They are cords with stretch that I can pull up to adjust the brace. Everything else in the store had % off but not these. I'm just to happy so have found them.

I'm helping my friend with her life stories again today. I thought I would show you the best book I have found to help anyone who is interested in doing this. It really is fun. More fun when you have others doing it too, as their stories give you ideas and encouragement.


I had to stop in Hancock and get some machine quilting needles. Just couldn't pass this book up. www.CleoandMe.com
It is more craft than sewing but the inspirations are wonderful. Also bought some more of the background fabric for Tonya's X and Os and a piece of 108 inch backing at $5 a yard. Also got velcro to put in my new pants pockets. I like to be able to just carry small wallet there but want those pockets to stay shut.
Hancock is having half off quilting supplies this weekend.

Have a nice day and weekend!

Sea Green Again

I unsewed all the machine quilting and then redesigned this one. The green color just won't photograph right. It is brighter than this shows. That print fabric keeps unraveling. Or is it fraying? Anyway, I'm still very unhappy with it. I have been reading and thinking about machine quilting. I have an idea for sandwiching and machine quilting this so am anxious to get the top finished. I wanted it about 50 x 66 as that is about the size I need to throw over me. This one may not be quite that big.

I have to get Kipper into his doctor to get an allergy shot. We are both allergic to ragweed. The pills are helping me, although they make me so sleepy, but they don't do it for doggy. Lots of other errands and things this week. Car appointment. Got to get boobs squeezed tomorrow. :)

Real Life is Often the Funniest (true story)

In January 2002, I was in Florida avoiding the winter weather of Michigan. With me was my three-year-old dog Kipper who some people in my senior park weren't sure about because of his size.

I had a new phone number and it was common to get phone calls for the people who had it before. When the phone rang I expected another of these.

"Hello."

"Is this err..Kipper - err.. Is Mr. Kipper home?"

Wondering if a neighbor had a problem with him or was trying to be humorous, "Ahh, I'm err... his owner."

Puzzled, he continued, "This is Mike from the Tampa Tribune calling to see if Mr. Kipper would like to subscribe. His name was given to me."

"Kipper is my dog."

"Not Larry Kipper, huh?"

"No," both of us laughing.

"Well, do you think Kipper might like to read our paper?"

"No, he doesn't read them or, for that matter, use them at all. I'm not interested in subscribing either."

Neither of us were able to stop laughing. "Are you located on Moore Street?"

"No."

"Obviously, I have a wrong number but this is hilarious. What kind of dog is Kipper?"

"A border collie mix - a save from the Humane Society."

"Border collies are pretty smart. Are you sure he isn't interested in world events."

"No, but I will ask him about the sports section."

"Okay, let me know."

Both of us were still laughing as we hung up.

Follow Up
Thanks for all the help and support on my machine quilting adventure. I'm wondering if the sandwiching part isn't my biggest problem. Any suggestions there?

Recently I got my first comment from outside the quilting world. And it was necessary for me to delete it. I was puzzled but got to thinking about it and realized it was in response to the posting where I mentioned by name the place I live 53 years ago. Maybe not but makes me wonder. Anyway I'm not going to type the name of that city again.

I spent most of today helping my friend with her life stories. And I have many hours more typing to do for her yet.

I've been reading your blogs. So many and so interesting. I see where some people have been asking the advantages and disadvantages to quilt blogging. Last winter I was alone in FL and unable to walk much at all due to a bum knee. I found the maverick site and began reading. Quickly I started a blog of my own. Dear Finn responded and encouraged me, over and over. Then my DBin L became critically ill, Kipper had a growth that appeared cancerous and I had to have knee surgery. I came back to Michigan twice, DBin L improved, had Kipper's surgery (not cancerous) and mine (partial knee replacement). Finally long rehab on the knee (now wearing a brace). Advantage is quilt blogland helped get me though all this. Disadvantage - none. Some say it takes time from their quilting work but it just inspired me to do more. Thanks!!

Rest of Saga pics (I goofed. Start with next post.)

At least I knew to use a busy fabric on the back to hide my stitches.

Saga of Machine Quilting
I have been trying to learn to machine quilt. These are my scrappy blocks I've shown before. I put them together into three parts. Each was 18 1/2 inches wide and 74 inches long. I sandwiched each section. I sure don't have that down yet. I pulled, ironed, pinned, and did it over and over. I thought I heard 100% cotton Warm & Natural was suppose to be easy to work with. sigh. Then I used my walking foot and made big curves down and back. It didn't work well and I got too much puckering. I cut some of the stitches and redid. I learned I needed to hold the fabric tight even with a million pins and a walking foot. I'm wondering about using those gloves I've seen. Do any of you use them? When I had all three sections done -avoiding the edges, I sewed the top to the top using 1/4 inch. Next time I would allow a half inch. Then I cut the batting to butt together and zig zagged it. Then I hand sewed the backing together. To my great surprise, it was a nice rectangle. Then I sewed the red to the blue border and cut batting and backing this size. This time I laid the top border over the top of the quilt and the back border over the back and sewed it all on at once. Then I zig zagged the batting together. I hand sewed the corners together. I decided to try meandering using my darning foot. Oh, me. Not only were the sitches various lengths but sometimes the tension wasn't right. Yes, I had practiced and it was okay then. I decided I wanted this quilt done and Kipper has been wanting a quilt so this would be his. After doing about half of the border, I decided to try the walking foot and played with some things. Then I unsewed the meandering and did this stitch with the walking foot all the way around. I sewed forward and then pressed the reverse for a while and then forward again. It did a good job of keeping the sandwich from bunching up. I can see where I might be able to make stars or some actual design in the future. I sewed the binding on before taking the pics but haven't hand sewn it down yet. See the next posting for more pics. Well now I have a utility quilt. It is a finished size of 86 x 69.

Please...
I'm not ususally on the computer this time of day so Kipper came to tell me it was supper time. I ignored him - well not for long. He really does know how to use those eyes to say please, doesn't he? 

Getting to Know Us
What fun reading the comments. Note that Shelina wrote about her chocolate goof on her blog. I'll eat your chocolate desert any time. :) This reminded me of the time I left the sugar out of the pumpkin pie filling. Not good. And one time I was in a nice restaurant and and my friend and I ordered a fancy desert. It looked delicious. I tried a bite, looked at my friend and she made a terrible face after her first bite. Would you believe the baker had used salt instead of sugar? Yup! And Finn, I had never cooked an easy-over egg when I married either. But I just gave my husband the hard cooked egg with the broken yolk. DH had to show me how to splash some of the oil over the top before turning the egg over. Sure worked.

Where is a place you lived or visited that you think was unusual?

The friend that I am helping write her life stories lived with her mother in a granary on their farm during the summer of 1934. It had no windows or ventilation but did have some bags of grain and lots rodents.

Another friend of mine was in a prisoner of war camp in Germany during WWII. She was 18 years old and a member of the Polish underground. When they saw the Russians on the other side of the river in Warsaw, they came out to fight openly. The Russians delayed coming to help and my friend was captured and taken to Germany. There she was given the choice of freedom and working in a factory making war parts for the Germans or going to a prisoner of war camp. Refusing to help the enemy, she went to the prisoner of war camp and nearly died there.

In 1937, my husband was born in a log cabin on the family farm in Arkansas. No electricity and his mother swept the dirt floor daily. The well water was carried to the house. When it went dry in the summer, they took water from the creek. No screens on the windows and only his parents had a mosquito net over their bed. He lived there until he was a teenager and moved to MI.

In 1953-4 when I was 11-12 years old, I lived in Baghdad, Iraq. My dad went there as part of the Point IV Program which was part of the Marshall Plan. The only Arabic I now remember is how to say Peace be with you. Now I only know English and I say Peace be with the world.

Getting to Know Us
What fun. I'd considered asking for foods we would never eat together but I think we covered that too. Some of my DH's family would never drink milk when eating fish because it would kill you. Seems that a relative did this one time and then had a heart attack. This just made me think of another cause and effect story my neighbor told me. The newly married daughter decided to cook ham and beans. She wanted to make it just like her mother did so she cut the big ham shank bone in half. She was curious why her moth did this and asked her. Mother said she did it because Grandmother did it. Grandmother said they would have to go ask Great-grandmother who said it was because the bone was too big to fit into the pot. *VBS*

What was your big cooking or eating goof?

When I was in high school, I decided to do a good deed and make my neighbor a chocolate cake. I produced a pretty good looking round layer cake with chocolate frosting and was feeling very proud. When I presented it, they insisted I have a piece with them. She got out a knife and cut, then tried again with another knife. I had lined the cake tins with wax paper and forgotten to remove it from the cake. I was so embarrassed but they were nice and said the cake was good anyway. Just had to peel off paper from each bite.

Getting to Know Us
I thought I'd throw out some questions and see what answers we have.

What food do you like to eat/drink with another food?
My DB in L used to eat mustard and peanut butter sandwiches. Yuk.
My dad put alternating layers of applesauce and torn up fresh white bread in a glass and then filled it with milk. He ate this on Sunday evenings. It is good and I eat it too, but I add a little sugar.
I always drink coke with pizza and iced tea with fried fish.

Close Up

I was so unhappy about the pics in my post that I took some close ups. (See the post following this.) This is what the fabric really looks like. Now I'm always on the lookout for fabric design for letter background and I really love this. 

X O X O X O

Yesterday I could not face working on machine quilting one more day so got out this fabric I bought with the idea of using it to make letters. And instead of working, I played. So much fun. The pic is not the best. I'm surprised how the seams show in it when they don't in real life. It is 25 inches from the beginning of the first X to the end of the last O. I have plans for this quilt and will tell you more about that later. Kipper and I are off for a walk now.

Sign
Or am I just catching up with last week, or last month?  

Flowers

I've been looking for ideas for my 30's prints. I'm thinking of dresden plate but am afraid I'll quickly tired of doing the same thing over and over. I like the idea of flowers and found these in a quilt but can't find a
pattern. So I drew these out. Although I can made good matching seams - well much of the time - I like the looks of these centers. Now I'm thinking of making several differnt flowers. Any ideas? Patterns?

I'm also still playing with machine quilting - trying different things. I'm learning what works for me and what doesn't. More later.

I'm also spending a lot of time this week helping my friend with her life stories. My scanner is giving me trouble. Oh, me.



 

Shipshewana Grocery

I made one more stop on my visit to Shipshewana, IN - the Amish grocery store. It is basically a bulk food store but everything is bagged up and on shelves. What good food, some of it hard to find other places. The Amish apple butter is from Miller's Orchard and the no sugar added one I buy has only apples and cider resulting in 15 calories in each tablespoon. And oh so good. I also love their peanut butter with marshmallow and honey but I passed it by this time. The flavorings are marvelous. I currently have pistachio, black and red raspberry, butter pecan, black walnut and vanilla butternut. I add them to many things including the milk the put on my cereal. Of course, I had to get some sugar free candy and angel food cake mix. I bought only one bag of noodles as my local grocery carries the Amish noodles. The chicken soup base is my favorite. And I had to have some toasted corn and honey roasted soybeans. I try something new every year and this year it was roasted dried green peas. They are excellent! The other thing I buy is cheese - all kinds of it. (Did you know it freezes great?) This Amish area is known for its dairy herds and their cheese sure reflects it. Gotta go now and get something to eat. Wish you could join me.

Shipshewana Fabrics
Lolly's Fabrics is a marvelous shop. It is located in the Davis Mercantile which is a new three story building replacing the very old one that burned last year. The building has all kinds of shops. The fabric shop is the largest shop I've been in and has everything. They also make custom made quilts.
I decided to buy these reproduction prints. Please, please recommend what pattern I should use.

I've been collecting B&W fabrics and bought three more. The digital camera doesn't do them right.

I also bought 5 yards of a busy print for backing. (No pic) It was $5 per yard on the mark-down rack.

All good quality fabrics and such nice Amish sales clerks.

Leaf Quilt
Anyone have any idea what this leaf is called? The first pic was inside the Amish shop. They also had a large one with the leaves hanging outside. Somehow my pic of the whole quilt didn't work so all I have is a corner. The last pic is one block. Would you believe I have, or at least had, two, no three, of those fabrics. Oh, I want to make it.

There is one more post after this with the rest of my Amish made quilt pics. Tomorrow I'll show you the fabrics I bought.

I've been working on machine quilting. It's not easy. More on that later too.

And after all my complaining about the hot weather we had, I must tell you we are now having wonderful weather. Sunny. High in low 80's. Light breeze. Open windows. Wonderful sleeping. Hope all of you are enjoying good weather, too.

End of Amish Made Quilts
What are these called? Double card trick? Very impresssive, anyway.

Even More Amish Made Quilts
I just loved the top one. Love, Love, Love!
 

More Amish Made Quilts

The top one is made like a stack and whack but with pie shapes. Neat.

Really neat compass, huh?


And the simple is beautiful, too. Sorry I couldn't get the whole thing in the pic. 

More Eye Candy
More Amish made quilts. Every style, every color. And in about a month, they will make one just as you want it. This shop had some very nice displays. But there were quilts everywhere!