One Raffle Quilt Done!!!!!

OK - I get to start off the New Year on a good foot! Whenever I have an 8th grader at our grade school I get asked to make a raffle quilt for the 8th grade to raffle off at the school's March Madness auction. Thank goodness this is my last 8th grader! Oh wait - she is the one who doesn't care about school - lets hope it is my last year with an 8th grader!!!!! :) (Actually she hates going but does fine).

Our grade school got too large and they had to build another school for this year. So much to the 8th grades dismay, 1/2 of the 8th grade is at the old school and 1/2 is at the new school. So my dilema - do I make 2 quilts or somehow make one for both schools to do together. I usually do something special with the signatures of the kids on the backing and something school related on the front - like the one I showed the other day.

This year I had wanted to do a signature quilt and put the signatures on the front. Well once I realized how many kids that was - I kind of had to do 2 quilts. It would have been so hard to get them all on one quilt without it getting HUGE.

I got the blocks done awhile ago and sent them to the 2 schools for the signatures. I"ve been plugging away at working on the first top the last few weeks, but with the holidays it just didn't go to fast. Well the good news is, is that quilt #1 is done! This is for the new school that my daughter goes to - Millburn West "Cougars". Their colors are blue and white. And I"ve been working on the Millburn "Mustangs" (red and white) blocks all day - I bet I get that one done in a day or so!

So if nothing else I get to start the new year with "have to" quilt tops under control! Woooo Hooooo!!!!

Free Hand Fans

OK, I warned you last night - they are awful! I think this may not be my thing! They are no way a pleasing maverick mess - they are just a plain uneven mess!

Remember - I told you so......

Free Form Fans

YUCK! Wait till you see mine! They are AWFUL! I love the fan pattern, and I love Tonya's and Bonnie's free hand fans - but mine are way bad. Finn it will make you happy - yours are great compared to mine! YIKES!

A great Christmas Present

Finally got a chance to share with you a great Christmas present I got from my good quilting buddy! This summer we went to our annual quilt retreat in Rockford and they always have a garage sale. Usually the teachers from the Quilters General Store have for sale class samples and quilts they have done. This year was no exception. Well there was one for sale of indigo's and repro fabrics of these tiny baskets that I just loved! I no way wanted to make it myself, and didn't want to spend the money to buy it.

Well my friend saw me drooling over it - or maybe into it - and snuck around and bought it for me for my Christmas present! I was so shocked when I opened the package!

I have it hanging over my rocking chair in my living room right now! It looks so perfect there! The HSTs are probably 1-inch finished size!

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year! I feel better now that I got my formatting in my blog fixed! Bonnie noticed it didn't work well in other browsers other than ie - so I had to start over and figure out what went wrong! I've never used netscape or firefox, so that was a whole new experience for me!

Another book for Lucy!

Here are some sample pages for another book I thought Lucy might like. I found this book from Finn's posting of that scrappy medallion quilt awhile back. I had to check into this book and found that I could still get it used from a 3rd party via Borders! I got it for $5! And it was worth every penny!


The name of the book is Women and Their Quilts: A Washington State Centinnial Tribute. This book has about a page about the quilt and the woman who made it, and then a full page picture of the quilt. There are some great quilts in here. So for $5 (plus shipping) it is worth it.

The top picture is a wonderful Pointsettia Quilt which is gorgeous. I would love to have this quilt, but not sure my patience would hold out to make it! And of course the hand quilting is to die for. The second page is about the quilt and maker.


My absolute favorite quilt that I think I will try and make is the Feathered star above! Isn't the border awesome with this quilt! I think I can actually make this one! Course then I'll want quilting like it too! On the very next page is also another really fun blue and pink quilt I could make and will put on my list - another feathered star variation, but much simpler.


Hope you enjoy the sample pages!

Henry Ford Quilt Book

Lucy and I were discussing quilt books the other day when she posted about some. Finn got us on the topic with her picture of the quilt from the Women in Washington book a few days back - later this weekend more on that book.

Anyway, I had recently purchased (yes I couldn't wait until after Christmas) Fons & Porter Presents Quilts from the Henry Ford: 24 Vintage Quilts Celebrating American Quiltmaking. This is a new book and well worth the money. It has some great history in it, and some pictures of gorgeous antique quilts. My first love is antique quilts. So I told Lucy I would show her a taste of what is in the book!

The top 2 pictures are of the pages where it talks about life, home and textiles of the time. Don't you just love those irons!

The 3rd picture shows one of the pages of a timeline about quilts and the styles made. It is only a few pages, but a very fun quick glance!

Then I scanned my most favorite quilt out of the book. I LOVE this quilt! Oh to be brave and make one like it. Isn't it lovely! This book is certainly a keeper!

Hope you all have a great Holiday weekend. I'm sure we will all be busy - so I wish you all a very happy Holiday!

Teacher's Quilt

I had such fun viewing Judy's teacher quilts yesterday I thought I would share my favorite teacher quilt I made. I don't make quilts for all the teachers like Judy - but this one was made for my youngest daughter's 1st and then 2nd grade teacher the year she got married. She had invited all the children to the wedding, and the class threw her a shower. This was the shower gift from the class. It is my favorite quilt I've made school related! I took most of the blocks from the book Block Magic. The hands were each students traced hand and they wrote their name on it. I had arranged to do this one day with the art teacher so Miss Keefe didn't know about it! It was a lot of fun!
My second favorite quilt was a quilt I did 3 years ago for my 3rd daughter's 8th grade class raffle quilt. Nothing special about the pattern but it does look nice. But in the center I put photo's of the school over the years from 1887 thru 2003. That was kind of a fun piece of history.
Of course I've done tons of raffle quilts for my kids classes for the March Madness auctions, but these were my 2 favorite school related quilts!

One Step Closer!

OK, One step closer to having my mini repro quilt on the wall! I got the binding done this weekend and in the frame! It is now sitting on the floor of my living room waiting for my husband to hang it up.

I even offered to pound the holes in the wall and do it myself (thinking that would scare him into doing it faster) but it is still sitting on the floor. I'm keeping the hammer on my bathroom counter to remind him every morning and night also!

Quilt Store Field Trip

Well I got to go to one of my favorite quilt stores when I went to get Holly on Friday! I would have spent way too much money and time there if I had gone alone, but Mark came with and sat in the car - his motive - to make me hurry and not spend money!

But I did snap some pics for you. I forgot to get a picture of the outside though. Darn it. The shop - Quilters Harvest - is in an old church. It is so adorable. Still has a little white picket fence in front and stained glass windows. It has a great feeling to it.

And they had a quilt made up like my small basket quilt I just showed Lucy all made up in bigger size! This is the shop that I got the pattern from in the first place years and years ago. Can you believe the shop is in the same town as Purdue! Talk about lucky! Anyway, one of the professors from Purdue has this most wonderful line of small reproduction quilts that she publishes and sells through this store. I had got the little basket one at Paducah from this store about 5 years ago! This was the first year that Carol took her patterns to market and one of the ladies who took one of Carol's classes decided to enlarge this quilt. Well it turned out so cute that Carol decided to enlarge it for a pattern also - so now I may just have to make a bigger version of it!

Anyway - I'm wandering in my thoughts here. So I snapped some pictures of the inside of the shop to share. Isn't visiting new quilt shops fun! OK - so online isn't quite as fun as in real life but this was the best I could do for you all!

The Stockings were Hung

Finally - the stockings are hung and the tree is decorated! Wheh! So here you can see my 20+ year old tree skirt I made! And my sister-in-law had the little stocking tree made for the stockings she knitted since we had no where to hang them in our house! I love that stocking tree!
I'll have some more pics to share this week - just wanted to hop on and say hi quick! Things have been busy since my oldest came home from college late (we got home very late - as in almost Saturday morning!) Friday night. So I"ve been cooking and spending time with her.

She is off with a HS friend today to go down to Chicago to ChristKindleMart. I would have love to gone but it is freezing out - so I didn't want to spend hours outside in the wind and cold! Yup - I'm getting old!

Not only for Lucy!

Lucy wanted to see a better picture of the basket doll quilt in my sewing room mess. She noticed it peeking out from behind the mess! So here it is! Isn't it great! I've never finished it because I just can't decide how to quilt it! So maybe you all have some ideas for me????

In searching for a picture I also came across this fun Christmas basket I made for my front hallway. The basket is like a pocket so you can slip things in it! It was a lot of fun to make. One morning I woke up and found Pooh Bear squished in it!

Sure - You can laugh at me!

OK, sure fine - I'll let you all laugh at my expense! My sewing room is an unfinished dark basement! And right next to our computer. So here are some pictures of my sewing area from about 2 years ago. My stash on the table has grown and changed colors - very much more dark fabrics and plaids. And I needed more room so the 2nd machine is taken down and put away - replacing it with another table of "stuff". I'll have to take new pics for you to see!
Anyway - hope you all enjoy the mess. I'm sure it will make you all feel better about your areas!

Always on the Go!

Well this feels like me - always on the go - and always trying to escape something! Especially with work lately. I'm just loving everything that is going on at work - but trying to balance that along with 4 teens and the holidays has me running ragged!

So for today I thought I would share another Christmas quilt that really isn't a Christmas quilt. And this is an older picture before I had my good digital camera which is a bummer because I did the quilting on this one myself and I must say is awesome! But this is a fun quilt don't you think? I used the Lazy Girl ruler and pattern for this and loved it. In fact I loved it so much I made a sampler out of scraps with the ruler and her Lazy and Lovin' It book for my friend in France - Oh I quilted that one also and was way cool! (Oh and the Flying Geese X 4 method is one of my favorites also - although you don't really need the ruler to do it!)


So nothing "new" I'm working on, but some really fun old stuff I've done!

The snow fooled me!

Well the weather forcast fooled me. We were suppose to get about 6" of snow today, and after last week having it take me 3.5 hrs to get home from work while it was snowing our first 6" I decided to work from home today. Well can you believe it - it isn't snowing that much! So at least I saved a long trip in to work and am working from home. The downfall is things are much harder and slower working at home because I'm on dial up. But the good thing is I didn't have the 1.25 hr commute in AND on my down time I'm working on some quilting! Wooo Hooo!

Wanted to share my little repro strippy quilt I made at my retreat last month. I finally got it quilted and binding on! I'm going to get the back of the binding sewn on this weekend and then get it put in that frame. When I get it in the frame I'll take a picture for you all - I'm dying to get it hung up!

I also worked some more on my 30's sunshine quilt. So I attached a picture of that. Next month are some stars that go on the right side and bottom of what you see.
Today I"m working on quilting the baby quilt for my great niece who was born almost 2 months ago - yes the quilt I had done about 3 months ago - still isn't quilted!!! :)

Another Charity Quilt Done!

Well, I"ve been busy, busy, busy! And my oldest comes home from college on Friday! I'm so excited! The tree got put up with lights this weekend, but no ornaments yet. The girls want to decorate it with me, but our schedules are not lining up! And work continues to be busy so I've been putting in too many hours there.

But I did get a chance to finish another charity quilt this weekend! Of course it is one of Bonnie's patterns - and I love how it turned out. I used up a bunch of old FQs I had laying around. This quilt is so fun how it makes up with such "scraps" of fabric! I want to do another one "someday"!

Oh and I had to make up some bracelets for my mom to give my sister and her daughter. My niece loves to "match mommy" so my mom thought matching bracelets would be cute. Rebecca thinks if she matches mommy no one can tell them apart - and that tickles her. She is special needs and such simple joys give her such pleasure. I"m really pleased with the design and how they turned out - now I want to get more beads and make one for me!
I'm off to catch up on everyone's blogs - it has been a couple of days and I miss you all so much! Toodles!

OK, add some more help for Darcie

This pic is a suggestion for Darcie's My Cup is your Cup quilt. But it still is missing something. So maybe someone will see this idea and it will spark a different idea that will be perfect!

Orphan Charity Quilt

Here is a picture of a charity quilt I finished this weekend made from some orphan blocks. I won the blocks at our guild and made a really cute quilt out of most of them - these were the leftovers. And of course the back used up a lot of old scraps and some uglies!

I also posted a picture below of the original quilt I made from the blocks.

Xmas Wool Mat Finished!

Well I finished my Christmas wool table mat this weekend also! Just been too busy to post! So here you go - isn't it really fun!

The fun part of wool is you don't have to turn under or finish any edges - I like that part!

Now to find the perfect place to put it!

Chickens! Chickens! And more Chickens!

Sharon's chickens are too darn cute! The other day when I was looking for pictures of my old Christmas quilts I came across these old pictures of some chicken pin cushions I made for a bunch of friends! Was I crazy or what! But they were cute all lined up!

The Princess Quilt is Done and Delivered!

Well, it has been a crazy day at work, so this is short and sweet! I totally finished quilting the princess quilt this weekend, and my friend picked it up! So it is done and will soon be in the happy hands of Pat's granddaughter!

So I just had to share that much with you!!!!

I"ve been "un-Discovered" AGAIN!

Can you believe it! I went to the new Super WalMart in the next town over today with my youngest. Haven't been to WalMart in about 2 months. My husband gave me $ so I wouldn't have to charge the stuff we needed.

Emily and I go shopping, have a nice girls lunch and go home.

I walk in the door at home and the first thing my husband says is "why did you charge the stuff at WalMart after I gave you money". I said - I didn't, I paid cash. He says "well Discover just called checking if the charges at WalMart not too long ago this morning were ours". So I look in my wallet and sure enough, my card is safe and sound there. So I tell him - I paid cash.

So back on the phone he gets with Discover. Now don't forget - this is our new card we just got about 2 weeks ago from them. Turns out there were 2 purchases at WalMart this morning for over $800 each on our card! It even is showing in their system that they were made with an actual card swipe. Now isn't that weird. My husband and still both have our cards!

Needless to say our account is turned off again and are awaiting new cards - AGAIN. Geez. Bummer is this is not the time of year to be without the credit card. Good thing is at least Discover caught it before charging us and we had no problem reversing all the bad charges. But is sure stinks that we have to go through all that. Can you believe we have never had a problem ever with our cards until the last month.

Tomorrow I should have some pics. Been sewing up a storm!

Brrrr It's Cold Out

Baby its cold outside! 11 degrees here in northern IL. A wonderful day to play hooky from work and sew some more! I think I"ll just have to play around with this and that just for fun! Kids are at school and husband is working - sounds like heaven to me!
It is cold but clear out. Look at these beautiful berries on a tree next to our house. No pretty ice crystals - but check out that sky behind them! And I just love red berries on things!

Off to sew!