Heavenly Angels

With so many customer quilts needing to be done for Christmas, I haven't had time to visit with you all. I have to get back to work, but I wanted to share this quilt with you.

The story goes: a customer brought me 2 1/4 yds. of the angel fabric and asked me to make a King Size (104" X 104") quilt for her son for Christmas. She also did not want the angel fabric cut up too much. She wanted it showcased. I struggled and struggled with how to create such a large quilt with so little fabric. Then I found the fabric that made me think of clouds and started designing. I finally came up with the large stained glass window you see here. I quilted it with a feather design that looked like angel wings.

Back to work now. I will try to visit again before Christmas, but if I don't make it, I want to wish everyone a Wonderul Holiday Season!

Backyard Feather Fight

What a racket. I was getting ready to start working on a quilt binding when I heard this awful cawing racket (that is the sound crows make isn't it?) in my back yard. I go to the window to see what was the matter and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a crow telling an eagle to get out of here dear.

The eagle of course did not appear to be worried about the crow after much cawing and bomb diving at the eagle soon gave up and flew away.

What a beautiful sight. I just love watching the eagles that frequently visit the small woods we own behind our house.

Gotta get back to work now. Have a great day.

The Saly Saga Continues & Courage Quilting

Another busy weekend. First, I released 17 more salamanders on saturday and another 12 on sunday. Then I finished one quilt that needed to be delivered yesterday and started the next one that I finished late last night to be picked up today.

I now have two courage quilts to get quilted and bound before we meet again friday. Below are pictures of some of my courage quilters group and quilts that are being worked on.

Have a great day and keep those sewing machines humming.

One Saly, Two Saly, Three Saly, Four

What an exciting morning. I felt like a kid again when I had to go to the basement this morning. Our basement is not finished. It is just your typical dungeon type basement. Well, we have had a few salamanders (Lizzie, Londo and Saly as I called them) living in the basement for many years. They never bothered us and we never bothered them. Everyone was happy. The cats didn't even seem to mind them around. They would sniff and walk away.

Well, this morning when I descended the stairs, I find not only Lizzie, Londo and Saly, but 23 (count them) 23 little tiny babies. Now having been roomies for some time, the next step was quite hard for me. I decided that having that many living in the basement they would probably not find enough food to survive. So, I scooped them up, said a fond farewell and sent them on their journey to find a new home.

Of course I had to take pics for the family album before they could leave. I thought I would share them with you. Now I need to come up with 23 more names for the picture album (just kidding)!

Now I have to get ready to go. The VFW contacted our courage quilters group and let us know they could use 30 or 40 more soldier quilts. We get together the first thursday of the month to work on them, but decided to get together again this week to finish putting binding on a bunch that are almost ready. That way we can get them delivered to be dispursed.

If you have scraps or orphan blocks you would like to go to a good home, we can always use them for our solider quilts.

Well, have a great day and we'll chat again soon!

Great QB Day & Great Causes

Well, QB Day was quite small today only three of us for most of the day with a fourth stopping by for the last hour or so.

It's always nice to spend time with friends no matter how many show up. It was such a beautiful day here, I imagine the others didn't want to waste it. Maybe next month will have a bigger turnout but today was still fun and productive.

On a more somber note, my SIL recently lost his mother. She lived the biggest part of her life battling a mental illness. Tomorrow he and his sister are participating in a walk to raise money for researh. If anyone is interesting in helping, you can learn more about the walk and donate at http://www.nami.org/walkTemplate.cfm?section=namiwalks&template=/customsource/namiwalks/walkerpage.cfm&walkerID=68229&lstid=274

I need to go now and finish binding on a customer quilt. I will return to chat another time.

I just saw a portion of a program called the Dr's. Some of you might have seen it. The story about Addie & Cassie really tugged at my heart. I am considering some future fundraising for this.

I must admit, that this is the first I have heard of this disease and it broke my heart. I just wanted to share this with you. Click the picture to visit their website and please watch the video. It is so touching.


Thanks for dropping by.

Here are two more quilts I did that were in the show. Both were finished with a pantograph design.

I have to finish up the one I started yesterday which won't take too long. Then I will enjoy my Sunday and put another on the frame later this evening to start tomorrow.

BTW, I don't think I've mentioned, that I have my own private auction site. I have several items listed and will be gradually posting more as I clean out two store rooms and my very cluttered home. If you'd like to take a look, click here. Use the links Hand Dyed Fabric Bundles and Porcelain Doll Kits to view pictures of the items. Use the Aucton button on the left to view auction rules and guidelines.

Have a Wonderful Sunday!

What an interesting morning. If you've noticed the upper left corner of the blog, I have titled it Tea Party. I have been a heavy duty coffee drinker for many, many years. We're talking 3-4 or more pots of coffee per day. My cup was never empty. I have to add that I make weak coffee, but it is still coffee. Finally realizing that it probably isn't good to drink that much, I have been trying to cut back by drinking more tea in place of the coffee.

My cupboard holds about 25 different flavors of tea including Lipton regular that I drink very seldom, Green Tea which I try to drink at least a couple times a week and should drink more, and Earl Grey (that was given to me as a gift) which is my favorite at the moment. I also have flavored teas like orange, raspberry, vanilla (I really like the Madagascar Vanilla Red), peppermint and more. I also have Esiak tea on hand (this is an Ojibwe healing tea).

Mind you, except for the Esiak and Earl Grey, these are mostly the cheaper teas that you find in grochery stores. I live in a small town that does not have a tea house so getting more exotic teas will have to be done online when I get around to it.

The surprise this morning was when I logged on, MSN has a story about tea. Click here to read more.

They also had some related articles linked if you want to check them out. The Tea Association of the United States , "The Great Tearooms of America" , The Tea Room , QueenMary Tea Room , Looking for True Loaves , The Best Brunches Near You , The Art of Chocolate , Coffee Counter-Culture , Teany , Arium , Remedy Tea Bar , Remedy Teas , Imperial Tea Room , Japanese Tea Garden , Teavana , Cha-An , Seattle Newcomer .

I would be interested in recipes for tea cookies and cakes if you have any and care to share them.

Anyway, enough about tea. Time to move on to quilting. Here are some pictures of one of the quilts from the show. The owner said it is a pattern by Cotton Tales. I quilted each block slightly different and stippled the light background area of the blocks and around the applique.

I'm heading to the longarm now to get another quilt done. When I worked other jobs, I always said when I retired I would do a lot more quilting. Well, I am not retired, but I am doing a lot more quilting. It is just for others right now and not myself.

Many of my customers and friends ask me if I miss piecing my own quilts. My answer is not that much. I still piece on rare occasions, but my passion is the actual quilting process. Starting with deciding how to quilt it, design(s) and threads to use to taking it off the frame. It doesn't matter to me who it is for. In fact, I couldn't piece enough quilts to keep myself busy with the quilting part. So, the best thing for me is to keep quilting for others.

I also have samples on my website. If you'd like to take a look click here.

Have a Great Day!

Well, here are the purses that actually got finished last night. Two did not make one because they were teaching, one did not finish because she got an idea and is doing something slightly different. and my helper and I still need to finish ours as well. I didn't get permission to show their faces, so I cropped the purse from the picture to show you.

Now I have a year to figure out what to do when it is my time to host again. We have 13 members right now so each one takes a month and sometimes we have to cancel months because of too much going on. That way no one has to take more than one time per year or so.

We usually just bring some kind of handwork to work on after dinner, but last year when it was my time to host, it was actually on my birthday so I had a surprise birthday party for all of them. We had so much fun that I decided to do it every year now and try to work up a special surprise for them to do. This year we made the purses. Who knows what next year will bring.

I guess I better get busy since I have too many bills to retire. With so many purse pictures today, I thought I would wait til tomorrow to post more of the quilts I quilted for the show.

Take care and Happy Quilting!

Good Morning,

It is going to be a busy, busy day. I am hosting dinner tonight for my quilt group. There are 13 of us and eleven have confirmed they will be there. I am hoping the other two will show up as well.

Two of the members have agreed to teach us how to make a neat little purse that they recently discovered. They aren't supposed to take very long, so if we get them done, I will post some pictures tomorrow for you all to see.

In the meantime, here are pictures of three other fall watercolor wall hangings I quilted for the show. The biggest challenge was quilting the trees to look like trees which you can't really see in the pictures. I tried to make them look like they had cracks and knots just like real trees. Don't know how well I did, but they didn't look horrible so I guess they were ok.

Also, if I didn't mention it before, I would like to invite you all to join the Mystery Quilt Treasure Hunt that is in full swing. Be sure to invite all your quilt friends and quilt lists to join us and have fun hunting for clues.

Well, I'm still a little bushed, but the quilt show was a huge success. Many of my quilting friends stopped in to say hello and see the show. Over the next few days, I will post pictures of some of the quilts I quilted. There are too many to post here all at once.

These are the second and third place raffle drawing prizes. The smallest was hand quilted by guild member Nancy. The largest one is the second place prize that I was given the honor of quilting. My picture of the first place prize is too blurry to post.

I don't know how well you can see it, but the next ones are close ups of the quilting. If you click on these photos, you should get a larger picture to view and might see the quilting better. I used a rose/leaf panto for the center section.

The top and bottom borders had applique that I added some quilting to the petals and leaves and then did free hand echo/leaves around the enire applique section.

Now I have to organize and get back to quilting. Have several quilts to get done in the next couple weeks. I will post some more pics tomorrow if you care to drop in.

Til tomorrow, have a great day and Happy Quilting!

Here are pictures of the wall hanging I said I would post. It will be hanging at the show this weekend in Amery, WI if you want to visit and view it up close. I did not take a picture of the other one yet. I will get pictures of some of the quilts I quilted that are in the show and post them later.

Right now I have to get some quilt sandwhiches ready for free-motion demos at the show. If you're in the area, stop in and say hello.

Thank you Victoria for your wonderful comment about Helen. I think quilters are a rare breed and our "quilting family" stretches farther than we realize until something like this happens. We get to know and learn from these quilting giants through books, magazines, tv, video and now the internet. We begin to accept them as part of our family and when we lose them, we grieve their loss just like any other family member. As one of our founding quilters, she leaves a huge legacy.

Well, I have been quilting frantically for an upcoming local quilt show. I am putting the binding on a small wall hanging today and then I will be done with all the customer quilts I had to do for the show.

If anyone lives close to Amery, WI, stop in and join us. I am told there is more than 135 quilts that will be displayed this year. If you'd like to stop and chat, I won't be hard to find. I will be the one lurking near the treadle and hand crank sewing machines.

I have been asked to do free motion treadle demos and hand crank sewing. I will be floating around the show both days. I believe it is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m (or maybe 5, not sure) on saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on sunday. It is being held at St. Josephs Catholic Church (right on Hwy. 46). There will be a few vendors as well as a quilts for sale section. Also being featured this year for the first time are free one hour class demos being hosted throughout the day. I think the cost is only $3.00 to get in. Raffle tickes are $1 ea./six for $5. I also had the honor of quilting the second place raffle quilt. So, please, if you're in the area, stop in and say hello.

I still do a lot of pantograph quilting, but am gradually learning free hand feather work. Below are some close ups of a quilt I did recently. Sorry, it won't be in the show. This quilt was presented to a couple as a wedding gift. The overall design was similiar to a log cabin barn raising and the customer wanted feathers. Being a diagonal design, it would have been difficult to use a pantograph. So, I bit the bullet and away I went. I don't think it turned out to bad for my first attempt at overall free hand feathers, but I still need lots of practice.

Well, I better get to work and get that binding done and back to the customer so she can deliver it for the show. I will take a picture of it when I'm done and post it tomorrow.

Have a great day and Happy Quilting!

Quilt World Loses Hellen Kelly

I started this morning on a sad note, learning that quilters around the world have lost a quilting friend. Even though most of us did not know her personally, many of us have crossed paths with her by books, patterns, classes etc. She was recently inducted into the quilters Hall of Fame. I know she will be greatly missed. Below is the obituary that was posted.

*****
I want to let you know about the death of one of our authors and a NE Minneapolis resident, Helen Kelley, who passed away on Sunday evening. In August, Helen was inducted into the Quilting Hall of Fame as the 38th Honoree to receive this prestigious award. Helen was known throughout the national quilting community through the column she wrote since 1983 for Quilters Newsletter Magazine, the oldest continuously published magazine dedicated to quilt-making and quilt history. In addition, she wrote seven books including three compilations of her columns, Every Quilt Tells a Story, Joy of Quilting and Loose Threads, all published by Voyageur Press, an imprint of the Quayside Publishing Group.

Helen started using a sewing machine when she was a child and taught herself to quilt as an about-to-be bride. In 1972, the Minneapolis Tribune featured a story about a family quilt she had made from quilt blocks garnered from friends around the world for her daughter’s wedding. The unexpected news coverage brought Helen local interest and opportunities to teach quilting in the Minneapolis community. In 1978 Helen was a founding member of the Minnesota Quilters and served as its founding president. Today, the Minnesota Quilters have over 1500 members. Helen taught quilting all over the world and was known not only for her skills as a teacher, artist and quilter, but as much for her warmth and humor and the joy she brought to the quilting community.

The list of honors that Helen has received throughout her career in quilting and service to her community are long and impressive: 1995 – Artist of Distinction, Fiber/Metal Arts of Minnesota; 1998 – Minnesota Quilter of the Year; 1999 – Renaissance Quilt was selected by a prestigious national committee of quilt-makers and quilt historians organized by the International Quilt Association as one of the 100 best quilts of the 20th century; 2000 – Minnesota Textile Center’s Spun Gold Award.

Until her death, Helen continued to lecture, teach, and exhibit. A 30-year retrospective of her work was on exhibit in Marion, Indiana, at The Quilters Hall of Fame during her induction and her work was also on display at the Minnesota Quilters show in Rochester in June.

More information about Helen can be found on her website at: http://www.helenkelley-patchworks.com/.

The Day After QB

Had a great day yesterday. I try to hold a QB Day (quilt bee day) the last friday of the month. Quilting friends who can make it bring a project to work on and we quilt, visit and enjoy a potluck lunch together.

Yesterday there were seven of us that got together to quilt. So many wonderful projects were worked on including two who finished a new purse pattern in less than two hours. I'm sorry I forgot to take pictures. I will try to remember to do that next time.

Today I have to get back to work. I still have a couple of quilts and several wall hangings to finish for a local quilt show the second weekend in September and they still need time to bind them.

I'm also working very hard to get the September Treasure Hunt ready to go. Be sure to join us for it September 1 at Anilee's Treasure Hunt.

Rainbows are my favorite color!

I've been so busy trying to get customer quilts done for a local quilt show next month that I haven't had time to sit down at the computer to post.

Today, I had to share what I woke up to this morning. I started to turn on the computer when I heard thunder. Deciding it was best to leave the computer off, I went to the window to look out on the day. Needless to say, I was in awe.

This beauty was so big it took three pictures to get it all. The first shows the right side, the second shows the middle and the third shows the left side. I tried to catch the double rainbow in the fourth, fifth, and sixth shots. As you can tell, the first five are caught as the sun is coming up. What a beautiful orange glow. The last three show the blue skies as the sun comes out more and the storm starts to subside.

I deicided it was a message to slow down, take a deep breath and enjoy the beauty around me. So, I have been spending the last few hours doing just that and sharing this with you. Now, I am going to get back to work and finish a small project that is almost ready for the owner to pick up on friday when we get together for quilting bee (surprise Georgette).

I hope you enjoy the pics. Have a great day and look up from time to time. You just might see your rainbow.
click pictures for a bigger view