Away from home.

I am visiting my sister in Indianapolis. The great part,  besides seeing her and Mom, is that spring has arrived here. Beautiful daffodils, magnolia trees in blossom , yellow Forsythia peeking from corners and some red bud trees:  all make my heart sing with joy. Oh, to smell rain and green grass and flowers again. I needed to borrow a light coat as it is too warm for mine when I left at 32 degrees. 

My sister had her stitches out this week on her elbow where she broke many bones and had 2 replaced. She is having therapy with homework as well.. And we have been out and about some. I do enjoy new restaurants and got to see her family for her birthday.

 And I have brought hand work for the evenings.

The first is a sweatshirt project which I saw on Instagram from Flynn and Mabel. Here is the link I saw:  Video of how to    I had it all prepped at home: I used puffy paint to "draw" the lettering, followed by embroidering over the paint in a satin stitch.

The sweatshirt (for me) is a light blue and the colors are lilac and purple, light and dark teal, and light and dark blue. 

The second is a wool applique for spring also prepped at home as soon as I had been asked to come. 

This is wool applique on a plaid flannel. I shortened it from the original pattern. It is for my dining room table. 

Happy 40th Anniversary!

I'll start with my projects and progress:

First, here is the challenge ornament from my wool group. 

We received the circle shape and a tiny bell and were told to make it into an ornament.

As I missed our initial meeting (pre COVID era), this is what I came up with.

I will have to add the ribbon and bell and back it still. It is a  2 3/4 inch circle.

But I do love the challenge and creativity of this group. We always learn so much from each other.

Second, I made these 2 stitcheries into mini pillows with patriotic fabrics.

I really like how they turned out and have one more to complete.

Then, I thought I would show my purchases. My husband allowed me to stop at Going to Pieces in Appleton, WI. They are a shop that had been featured in Quilt Sampler about 2 years or so ago.

I love their fabric assortment and kits. Each time I go, I find more and more things.

So these are the Kim Diehl fabrics I acquired to add to my collection.

I like her new October something line and the teals, limes and autumn colors are a great add to my assortment.

 

Here is my spouse and I at an inside restaurant celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary.

We have been very careful to either eat outside or take out food.

But this was a special occasion at our favorite restaurant. 

It was handled well with masks on serving staff and tables very sparsely spaced.

We thoroughly enjoyed our meal.

And a special cake had been arranged by my spouse as a surprise.

He even tried to match the original cake. What a sweetie.

We had gone up to Door County the thumb of Wisconsin into Lake Michigan.

It was "pre season" and limited openings.

Our favorite bed and breakfast has totally increased their cleaning regimens without losing their quality breakfasts and ambiance. They only have 6 rooms.

This is one county that has had very very small numbers for COVID.  ( only 40 with 3 deaths total)

We were glad there were limited amounts of people as we walked about outside enjoying the gorgeous lake. Masks were essential to any indoor location as was social distancing.

We had perfect weather in the 70 s and for meals we ate outside or had take out.

No outdoor music venues or events are planned for the summer. 

Many of the marinas were not full, which was surprising.

We went across on a ferry with our car to Washington Island.

Here is Schoolhouse beach, one of 5 limestone beaches anywhere.

The rocks are all very smooth and you are not permitted to remove any ($ 250 fine)

The picture distorts the distance. All the families were sparsely spaced. 

But lots of big and little boys throwing rocks in the water

We also visited a lavender farm. 

The plants do not bloom until late July.

But it was very pretty.

Truly a gorgeous getaway! Certainly not the celebration we had hoped to have, but still very special.

Binding

 I actually have some handwork for today:

I made a single fold binding for my edges to this wool mat and backed it with the same homespun.

This was me waiting at the doctor to look at a facial rash: eczema. 

So I am on steroids and no make up.  Ugh, I look awful.

But this is done and ready to enter our quilt show next month.

I started it with a theme of spring and passed it around each month to a new person who made one hexie for 6 months. So cute.  Just love the talented ladies. 

Wool applique

 School is out for SUMMER!

Which means time to do lots of fun things like:

Go to the zoo with my grandsons: We had a fabulous day at the FREE  Henry Vilas Zoo and park with the boys. A picnic lunch, a beach, and playground were highlights as well. We treasure each day with them. Of course, they were out cold sleeping on the way home.

Sew, sew sew. Here is the last blocks of week 4 for Kim Diehl's QAL mystery.  These blocks are 4 inches. Now to put it together

Stitching galore:   But I thought I would share the wool applique I have been doing.  I joined a small subgroup of my guild devoted to wool. And I am enjoying it a great deal.  So here are 2 blocks from a Bunny Hill BOM way back to 2012. You can still buy the patterns called Henrietta Whiskers. It has some nice patchwork between the blocks.  I have 2 more of the 9 to prepare. And these couple to put the finishing touches to. 

 We are doing a sharing hexie project which passes to each member in the group:

This one is based off of a Sue Spargo pattern. I learned several stitches for this. My bullions need more practice. There are tiny beads around the edge where the blanket stitch is.

 Here is it added to the starters.

 And the month before, I had a grand time with beads I had.  Funny how most of us chose spring themes. We were just so frustrated with the long continuation of winter weather.

Mini country quilt

Love this little quilt.  Literally 24 inches squared.  A few days ago I showed some progress on the quilting.  And it needs a few touches to the quilting, but I am not going to sweat over it. 

I am glad to get another on the done list. Country flowers minimized!

So here is a close up of the border details.

And here is a close up of the wool applique and quilting.  Applique done by hand.  Quilting on my home sewing machine: some free motion and some with rulers.

Then I was looking for some fabric to throw a small quilt together for the 4 year old grandson for rest time at 4K for school.  And in the search, discovered a pile of red, white and blue quilt squares. These were from 2006, and I only know that because crazy bout quilts had a sticker stating that.  It was an exchange.  The labels from the various makers were from all over the US and even New Zealand. 

Seeing as I have enough projects at the moment, I am sending these to Kat and Cat quilts for her Covered in Love project.  You can read about it at the link.  For July and August, she has asked for red white and blue stars. 

So I hope they come in handy. 

Mini 25 patch

Many years ago, I bought the first Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine and had a subscription for a year or so. In this first issue was this wall hanging designed by Lisa Bongean. I loved it, and made three different versions : one for me, one for my mother in 30s reproduction fabrics and one in blues and pinks for my mother in law. ( Her living room was in these colors and I had leftover fabrics from projects I had made in the 80s.  Here is the finished one for my mother in law which has been given back to me after her passing this spring.

But I loved the feathers that were quilted in the original and wanted to do those on mine.  I have so pined for these and even purchased an online class to learn how to quilt them.  And it has been sitting as a pinned top for all these years.

So I am working on my "box of shame" as Ramona at Doodlebugs and Rosebuds expressed a couple weeks ago. She has finished several of hers. I need to do the same. ( I also received my marching orders for back to school inservice in 2 weeks. Oh, my. I think I am complaining as badly as some of the kids to go back to school. 

Anyway I have been working on quilting it.  Here are some of the colors and outside edge. 

Each tiny square is 3/4 of an inch. 

Here is the tiny stippling of the wool applique blocks. These were buttonhole stitch by hand.

And here is my machine using the Westalee foot and Sew Steady rulers.  I have not had as much success as I would have liked. The issue is that  the layers are not flat...I should have repressed it an relayered it.   So with the tiny patches, even a straight line wobbles. 

Done will be better than perfect. 

I do have another quilt finished.  Just need to photograph it. AND get the label on it for my grandson.

Henrietta goes Over the River

My house is out of sorts as I am getting a new sliding glass door for my patio. It was 40 years old; the screen door was immovable and the seals had broken on the glass panes of the door giving it a dull look no amount of glass cleaner could help.

So that room is where my sewing machine and cutting table reside   and now the living room is a make due substitute as I needed to give the crew space. 

The doors were to be done yesterday, but now it will take a few more days. Can't wait to use them!

So I have been doing embroidery on my Over the River panel from Crabapple Hill.  I am seeing progress slowly.    Most of this section was done over the weekend watching a couple movies.

And I have prepared two more blocks for Henrietta Whiskers ( out of 5 left to do)   These are a 9 block applique by Bunny Hill.  Each of the 9 blocks has applique with pumpkins, or  crows, and Henrietta Whiskers with a little patchwork on the sides. I initially started with needle turn and abandoned them. I like the wool much better. Now I can blanket stitch these. 

Easter break in Nashville

Well, that darn cold took more out of me than I would like.  After 2 weeks , I still have a stuffy nose and sinus pressure. Last week I just tried to  heal and spent needed time resting. It was a four day week  and many of my students were leaving several days early. making for an easy week.

My family  left for  short trip to Nashville. My daughter, spouse and I headed to a warmer climate that had tulips, crab apple blossoms and green grass.  Oh, the smell of freshly mowed grass! It was significantly warmer than Wisconsin who still had more snow on our return trip today.



But we enjoyed music at many bars and loved a jazz combo one night. We toured their Ryman Theater which originally housed the Grand Old Opry and also the Belmont house on the campus of Belmont College, an antebellum home full of gorgeous old furniture, wall and  floor finishes and an amazing story of a women who lost many children and three husbands and yet had this home and a multitude of acres and animals.  Downtown and all around, we saw their  Farmer's Market, parks,  a huge replica of the Parthenon, an old train, and shopping.



Ryman Theater

Belmont Hourse


Farmer's Market




Honky Tonk bar on Broadway

No trip is complete without a quilt store. This one was in Franklin and stated 10,000 bolts of fabric.  No doubt.  They were everywhere with fat quarters in bags. I have never seen so many books and patterns spanning 30 years, which is as long as the sweet lady has owned it. It was actually overwhelming. The store was called Stitcher's Garden and was in a strip mall.  But I did find a 20 year old pattern of Victorian houses which will be perfect for the row by row I am going to sew this week.


These are but a smattering of the fat quarters she had at Stitcher's Garden




Bolts of fabric everywhere: floor, aisles, on top of racks...everywhere


The only sewing I have done is hand sewing on my  wool applique from Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill. called Henrietta Whiskers,  It is a  block of the month that she had for free way back in 2011.

Spring fever aka new purchase

So we had snow again for 2 days.  It is a wet heavy snow, but the ground is melted, but not completely underneath. So the pellets of snow bounced off the ground and didn't accumulate until later at night. Ugghh. Those poor robins.

And I saw this kit online and couldn't resist the coordinating prints for the background.  So bright and cheerful.  I actually enjoy doing paper piecing hexies as well.

Well, is a print of  hexigons for the flowers.  I want to make them anyway.  It will take a little planning, and prep work, but it shouldn't be too bad.



Next up some stitching.  Here are some wool applique blocks started years ago.  I needed something fast to pick up  for school as I was the security office person while the school shut down to go to the state basketball finals for the girls.  And I knew where this one was located.





The second one only needs the wheels, and acorns completed.  Yeah! 
 One other block is  done, only  to do.