Back to school and Door County

This has been a long but good week. 

First I will show a little of my Labor Day weekend. My honey and I went to Door County which is the thumb peninsula of Wisconsin sticking into Lake Michigan.  It has several cute communities of little shops, bays with lots of boats, and unique eating places. ( no fast food chains). And we love it because of the water and will wade in it, sit by it to watch sunsets, walk the rock or sandy beaches, and listen to the waves roll and  splash. We love going on Labor Day as there is a Maritime festival with lots of music and even fireworks at night. We have gone for several years. It was cool but very restful and relaxing. 

I wish my camera phone took better pictures, because the colors were gorgeous. 

We tried a selfie.  It just shows how many laugh lines we both possess. And I earned every one of those.  But you can see the piers and some of the boats behind us.

The drive takes a couple hours from Milwaukee to get there.  I usually do some handwork as we travel the freeways. This time, I took all the beautiful pineapple blocks I have from an exchange a few years ago.  ( next UFO project). And as we drove I very carefully removed all those lovely shreds of paper in the stitching on the back. Ha ha! At least it was easy to see against the black.

Here is the wonderful tool I used. I had searched two quilt shows for something like this. A friend had one that was just a breeze to help remove those itty bitty corners and spots.  So I bought it from Amazon.  Really.

This will be my layout. I think I will use a 3/4 inch lattice of the black.  I currently have 28 of these 6 and 1/4 inch blocks.  "Why such an odd measurement on the block?" you ask.  Well, it is because the pattern which was master copied for all the exchanges was supposed to have 1/4 around all sides. But it was short 1/8 on one side. So I carefully trimmed them to a perfect square 6 and 1/8 on each side. 

Tuesday was our first day back to school. And to tell you the truth, I had not been looking forward to it. After the end of last year, I was a bit frayed.  

But...I have a new position to supervise students needing a little TLC and push to get their work done during their study hall. I have organized folders to keep track of their work and help set goals.  It has gone very well, so far. Hooray for a new year!

In the evenings, I have only felt like sitting after being active all day.  Very different from my sedentary life over the summer. And I have been slowing inching down these branches with my embroidery. This all that is left to complete on this panel.  

I leave you with another sunset picture.  Hope all is well with you and your projects.

Jude's nap quilt

Last Thursday, I got to visit my grandson's classroom with his mom. It was a get acquainted night. As a mom and teacher, I am so excited for him to go to 4K next week.

While there, I saw there were nap mats/ quilts. So I asked my daughter-in-law if she wanted me to make one for him.  Yes!   And off I go to create something wonderful.

I had the space/robot layer cake  of fabrics in cute boy colors and even the black fabric which kind of looks like space . Perfect!

Thanks to Sew Yummy's Around the Block quilt from last week for the idea:   http://sewyummy.ca/around-the-block/

Now it is quilted using a fat polyester batting and a fleece back. Spray basted and then just outlined black and zig zagged the squares.



Cute back which is a fleece.  The binding is the red with robots print of the coordinating group, but they are so small, so it is hard to see.


And his name is embroidered with pearl cotton.  Side note: when I delivered it to him.  I asked him what it said.  He had just learned his first name. So he said " Jude,  I love you!" I am o.k. with that. It did my heart proud!

I also made some trial lattice for my blockheads.  Looking good.

 Blocks 6 inch. Lattice 3/4 inch blue on each side of 1 1/2 beige.  Total 3 inches finished. Cornerstones will be that navy and the star points in navy on the end. (sorry for the fuzziness and decorative carpet underneath.

This is what it should look like completed: ( photo from Pinterest)

Over the river

This is my second panel for the Over the River pattern by Crabapple Hill.

Here is a link to see a finished quilt: Over the River and Through the Woods by Ruth McCormick who chose black prints similar to the pattern sample. 

Little by little, stitch by tiny stitch, I am slowly getting to the end.

It was started 2 years ago in July and took a full week just to trace it and baste the 2 layers together.

I pick it up here and there as I watch t v and don't have other bindings or projects to work on. It is also good for road trips.

My spouse and I saw this several years ago totally made into the quilt with beautiful fall colors.  He is the one who liked it so much.  And he has rarely made his preferences known in all the quilt stores I have gone into with him. He even suggested I abandon it when I showed him how long it was taking. What a guy!

The first panel is already finished; it was much more densely embroidered.  The last panel of the three is the words: "Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go". It should go quickly in comparison.

Here is the right side which is completed. ( part of the stone bridge is not shown. )
I am using a sepia brown Presencia size 16 pearl cotton.

And here is the left side which I need to keep plugging away .

And this is the part that I have finished in the past week. 

On a personal note, my little brother called me Friday from the hospital. He had a heart attack while in the cath lab. He works in IT at a hospital and wasn't feeling right and had gone down to the emergency ward. So they checked him in after some monitoring. We are lucky, very lucky. Had he not been in the hospital, he would have died...just like my father and grandfather. It is congenital and his blockage to the  artery had been building since the 90s. I am numb. 

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. 

Meadow mist mystery complete

Another finish! I am getting projects completed and am so glad. 

This is the Magnolia Mystery by Meadow Mist Designs.  I like her geometric patterns. Instead of one color, I used a different colors from a Layer Cake.  My background is a grunge dot. I ordered it as an extra wide back and ended up ordering far more than I needed. So you will see more of it.

Here is a close up of the center and a photo of the back and binding which are all the same. 

These photos don't show the beautiful blue color  but do show off the quilting pattern done by my long arm quilter. I really trust her judgement and she selected the pattern for me which so compliments the pattern in the fabric. 

And I had my grandboys for a few hours this weekend. We are counting down until school. My 4 year old starts kindergarten this year. A practice night happens already this week while the parents talk to the teacher.  But the first day of school is not until September 4 after Labor Day. I start back for inservice meetings next week. I have already been in to start planning and get ready for a different position.

 

Quilt for Jensen

Totally finished!   This is the quilt for my grandson as he is now in his "big boy bed".  It started as a Stash Bee quilt block for May, but needed far more blocks for the complete quilt . These Garden Fence blocks were easy to construct. And probably one of the quickest quilts from start to finish.

Here is a close up of the quilting which I did not do. 

And the perfect binding for the grays and all the bright color. 

The back is the same fabric used for his baby quilt 2 years ago. 

And Ta Da............. the complete finish! 

 Label coming.

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.

State Fair quilts

I love our Wisconsin State Fair and have been going for almost 40 years. 

Here is my HB with a famous cream puff smile.  

Most of these quilts are from my fellow guild members: such talented ladies.  

This is Christina Yun's. Check out that quilting. Sensational

Nancy Gruenewald's gorgeous wool applique.  

Sharon Hillman's beautiful patchwork. The subtle colors of plum and pale teal greens do not show up well for this

Oh the patchwork on the snowboard especially and quilting and tiny applique for the snow!

I remember seeing this as a pattern/ monthly installment for the Quilt Show.  Love the soft blues, yellows and green colors.

Another Nancy Gruenewald quilt.  Wow!

Quilting my feathered star

This quilt is an oldie...from a round robin several years ago. It has been on my UFO list.

I prepared the feathered star after seeing Judy Hasheider give a demonstration. I already had the Marsha McClosky book. Both were extremely helpful. I only came up with one seam to fudge when I put the last sections together.

Forward to a guild at our local Ben Franklin: we formed a random 4 person group and we passed it around for three months. I absolutely love how it turned out.  And I enjoyed the experience creating rounds for the other three members.

Then I started quilting it and had sections outlined. And it has been sitting that way for at least 3 years.

Here is the center and one corner of the 1st found.  I used Golden Threads paper.  First I had traced a pattern from a book, cut and folded the Golden Threads paper and stitched on it without any thread creating a dotted line to guide me for sewing through 4 layers.

  I have a tool for scrapbooker's  that puts a "glue" dot on the back and it sticks to the fabric. I also pin the corners. Then off I go twisting and turning the fabric.  Not the fastest way to quilt. 

Now I just need the cross hatching and last border and the binding.

Doable.

DONE! 

Last step Binding!

Foxy finish

It is DONE! The quilting shows up much better here than in the last post.

I trimmed up the batting , added the binding and hand sewed it.

 I like the stripe that complimented the back which is a colorful woods scene with lovely greens, teals and foxes.

Hooray. This will be sent off in the mail Thursday after I show it off at guild. It is for my niece who was two weeks old when I got married many moons ago.

I was also able to get a lot of embroidery done. About halfway...

Foxes and Fanta

Hooray! I have quilted the baby foxes. I used the ideas online to have the quilting resemble trees having a few knot holes throughout.

Now to bind it. I have a lovely stripe that coordinates with both sides.

This is the lovely back.  I purchased 1 yard which is normally sufficient for a baby quilt.  But the print is directional and looked better vertical. Hence the extra shot cotton above and below.

I don't like the shot cotton for piecing. It was too stretchy.  I should have starched or used Best Press prior to cutting.

.

Also completed are two blocks for my Stash Bee hive. The pattern is Wanta Fanta. The windmill looking block is paper pieced in four sections

Seeing Mom

What a week it has been!

I grew up vacationing in Ontario, Canada on a lake in the Kawarthas. My Dad had a relative from the area and Dad had grown up there on vacations and the experience was passed down to me and then also to my kids. Dad had built a cottage on an island and it was a slice of heaven for me.

Fast forward time, my father passed away and his ashes are there.  Mom ends up marrying the guy next door and moved to Canada. We were happy for her. And both my siblings and our families have continued to travel every summer from the USA to visit them having wonderful food, boat rides and memories. For me it is 700 miles away; a long trip through three major cities: Chicago, Detroit, and Toronto.

Now, 25 years later she is still there with her husband and  they have aged with increasing health issues. In recent years their health has made it too difficult to travel south and see our families or even winter in Florida. And my daughter and I just returned from a visit.



It is so difficult. My mom has Alzheimer's now and every trip reveals the increasing deterioration of what she used to be. And although I had accepted that she no longer was person I once knew, each trip is still a challenge to find new symptoms and issues for her as well as for him as he looks after her. Bless him for the wonderful care that he gives Mom.





Unfortunately, I have done no needlework or sewing since I left.