Feeling Moody

We have about 6" of snow on the ground. Hard to measure since so much of it was blown around and drifted so much. At any rate, it is enough to keep us out of the woods.That is fine with me cause I'd rather quilt when it is so cold outside.
I've made some progress on my Irish Chain blocks at Studio 3. I hope to finish them by the end of the week.

 I finished these1930's blocks and arranged them on the wall. I still need to cut the muslin for the sashing and setting triangles but I am kinda bored with it now so I think I will pack it away for another day. I think the Bin Bust challenge from the Stashbusters group should have included an incentive to bust the bin. I typically get tired of these fabrics before the top is done. It would be nice to find someone to take them off my hands.

 I am in the mood for quilting on the longarm but the sun is finally shining so I won't go do that till the sun goes down. I hope the mood lasts all week! I've got half a dozen quilt tops lined up ready to quilt, a few for church and a few of my own.

I have waaaaaay too much church fabric here and I find it overwhelming. I picked through it again and pulled out a big boxful to take  back to church. I'll ask the ladies there for suggestions - other than pillow cases. I'm leaving here 2 tubs of novelty prints. 1 tub with extra big backs and tops ready to quilt. 2 tubs of scraps already cut to size- including random strips for string quilts and log cabins etc. And another tub of coordinating fabrics for future kits. Somewhere in the mix is quite a pile of orphan blocks too. It seems I plan and organize and push that stuff into piles more than do any sewing with it. And we have 5 tubs of fabric at church too. They hold flannels, homespuns and pieces for quilt backs. My goal for the rest of winter is to ignore all those tubs and focus on using my own fabric. I could use a good challenge. Wish me luck.

Another Raffle Quilt

I can't believe I nearly forgot to show our next church raffle quilt. The quilting is finally done and tomorrow I take it in to the meeting for everyone to see. I am quite happy with how this turned out. It looks kinda 1980's, not surprising, considering we used so many old scraps. Someone there will volunteer to bind it and it will be on display in another month. I'm always glad to see the latest raffle quilt finished. I wonder what they will do for next year. It's never too soon to start thinking about it. Probably something with our scraps again. Yippee. Actually it doesn't bother me that the scraps are ripe. I think scrap quilts always look good. Some of us in the church group don't think we would sell many more tickets if we used new fabric so we don't. Too bad the quilt is too big for my wall.

It's starting to heat up outside so I worked in the sewing room today. Studio 1 as it's been called lately. Things are getting a bit messy since I have spent so many hours outside and/or getting ready for Quilt Festival later this week. It looks like my scrap basket is overflowing and needs attention. I will see to that after Festival.

I also got things together for church quilting tomorrow. I think now is the time to start the girls on making scrappy 9-patches. Once those are made we can use them in a bunch of quilt designs. The strips have all been cut. Hopefully everyone will sew a nice quilter's 1/4" seam and were all set.

Also after Festival I think I will clean out my closet of church fabric and haul it across the street to Studio 3. Some of the gals coming to class there are learning/making their blocks for church comfort quilts. With the fabric there they will be able to use church stash for their quilts. There is more room there to spread out and make kits, too.  I will still keep backings and church battings here for quilting downstairs in - you guessed it, Studio 2.

I am actually looking forward to it heating up outside so I will stay in and do some quilting. We have put in many hours in the woods trying to get the Prickly Ash and Garlic Mustard under control. There is still plenty to do, but I will limit my time to work in the mornings before it heats up. For the most part I plan to poison the brush threatening to take over the 3 acres of oak savannah. Since I in instructed Mark to stop cutting it down several times every summer, the wildflowers have gone bonkers. Just beautiful if the deer wouldn't eat them. The young tree and bush seedlings have always been mowed down up till last year and now they are seriously threatening. So we will poison them and then hopefully burn it all off next spring. Come to think of it, Mark didn't even go work there this afternoon cause at noon we watched mama deer walk across the road towards the woods with 3 bitty babies. That was a real shocker considering how harsh the winter was. Perhaps she adopted a fawn or two.

Oh yes, off to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Does it make you smile?

Are you cleaning out your studio too??? I'm asking because it seems the quilters around here are. Last night I saw a friend and with a third friend help her start to organize her fabric. The daughter moved out and left an empty bedroom. It was fun to see in Joy's collection lots of fabric I've used in the past. She also had quite a collection of vintage fabric maybe 1950's and 60's. There was lots there that wouldn't make me smile, but she was sure happy with it. I had to keep telling myself  'that's what counts'. We did agree on three pieces being about the ugliest we ever saw.  Too much fun. And so glad I came home empty handed. Well, except for a quilt she wants me to deliver to someone here in town.
Then this morning I nearly missed the meeting at church. 3 of the ladies in our group cleaned out and sent their rejects to church. One had nice pieces (Thanks, Nancy),but  two had a grocery sack of itty bitty scraps. I wonder if they think I actually want them cause of the scraps books I wrote and I like to organize that stuff. Actually not that itty bitty, but small enough that I can use them to demo how to do crumb quilts. They've asked to see that.

Also at quilting this morning we discovered some small boxes of precut fabric squares. Looks to be 40's, 50's and a few 60's.  The ladies weren't too interested in using it for our comfort quilts, but I know Sue likes that stuff, some of it anyways. I will see if she is interested before I decide what to do with it next. The lady that cut these wasn't fussy about the fabric she used. Lots of bottomweight fabrics. Not that the stuff was ugly, but pretty heavy to be mixing in with a finer cotton. Then again there were a few uglies in there too.  I hear it's those uglies in  a quilt that makes it so interesting and the others look so beautiful. I guess I oughta look at them twice and see if any of them make me smile.

The Seed Collector

While I was preparing for quilting at church last week, I came across two bags of quilt seeds.  I'd rather work on these  log cabin blocks with our random widths and lenghts of scraps. Most of the other gals would rather work on string quilts. Quilting has resumed here on "Friday nights so I decided to work on the odd-width log cabin blocks then.  I got a good start on 50 blocks. I'll work on the string blocks with the others at church. I don't have to be different all the time.

 I don't remember ever using these pieces in a quilt. I think I used them for a demo of the technique years ago. I'll leave these out and think about what I will want to make with them.

I brought  3 quilts to church that I did on the longarm and are ready for binding. I have another one on the frame now and I am ready to load yet another. I guess I forgot to take pictures. I AM a bit rusty at this.

I really am a seed collector. If you think that those quilt seeds don't qualify me how's this sound. This year I planted wild flowers from wild seed I collected last year and saved in pill bottles.  I also collected a bit already this year. It's what I do. And possibly on Tuesday I will go to the Kettle Moraine State Forest and help some volunteers collect there. Or around there with somebody.  I'll have to ask my friend, Sue. She has the details.

Back at it

Almost three weeks ago I brought this top home from church with just the borders to add. It has taken two weeks to do that much. I had the backing and batting already. I'm actually glad I didn't have to stop to go shopping for it.

I like deadlines and I have about 4 weeks to do the quilting on this Dresden Plate quilt for this year's church raffle. Four weeks is plenty of time and it is supposed to be hot, muggy and stormy for the next week so it's the perfect time to get 'r done.

I have been busy in either the garden or the woods across the street. I've been helping Mark cut a trail through the thick brush. Was I delighted to find so many wildflowers there.

Mark and I are still adjusting to his retirement. He is very helpful for sure, but it would be nice to see him relax. I keep looking for his off button and can't find it. It doesn't help that our house guest is still here - maybe just another week of that.

Mile A Minute Quilt

Rummaging through boxes of Christmas decorations, I came upon this quilt top stuffed in a bag. What a hoot! I have no idea how, when or why it was in with the Christmas decorations.  I made it 5 or 6 years ago and never finished it. You can call it a Crazy Quilt, but to me that would indicate there would be some fancy embroidery and there is none. Some call it a Crumb Quilt. That name works for me, but I had this labeled on my computer as Mile-a-Minute Quilt. Whatever you call it, they are fun and fast to make and I am ready to make another.

Tuesday was our regular meeting day at church, and because not everyone showed up the week before, I thought I could go again this week to see if anyone shows up cause they missed the message that we changed to last week. Lois did show up, dropped off her finished quilts and left. I stuck around and sorted through the fabrics again, pulling out all the small pieces that need to be cut for scrap quilts. I brought a bundle home to work on.  A big part of me always wants to have ALL the scraps cut and sorted before I do any kitting and yet I know that isn't going to happen. I need to constantly remind myself  that the scraps are never ending and that I should  kit up some scrap quilts with what is already cut And make another Mile-A-Minute Quilt. I don't know if it is cause it's the holiday season or what, but I'm having trouble focusing on a project that would require more thinking. A fast project like  this would be ideal. First I need to clear some room of wrapping paper and gifts.


I went into Milwaukee with Mark yesterday to turn in his ID badge - not quilte 40 miles. On our way we noted all the changes in the 45 years since he started working there. For starters, the freeway was built about 39 years ago. I remember that, cause the exit to his house was opened when we were still dating.
Then we noted several cell towers, water towers, business/industrial  parks, shopping centers, homes and subdivisions. In Milwaukee, we passed where I once worked as a teenager and where I hung out with my friends and the parking lot at the airport where the kids made out and families watched the planes take off and land. I wonder what will take me there in the future and what will change. We did finish our shopping and never contemplated getting the Accuquilt cutter.

Today is Mark's first day of retirement. So far, so good. We haven't gotten any of the snow forecasted yet. It should start this afternoon. 4" to 10" depending on the way the storm blows. Here is hoping that everyone gets there gifts finished in time to give. And I hope you all find a little time to take a few stitches this next week too. I am sure I will.

Bound to get 'em done

I'm not sure that my cutting marathon is over, but while I was at it, I thought I might as well cut the binding for these 6 quilts. I bet you never guessed that I was putting that job off. Actually, it might not be a bad idea if I go up in the quilt warehouse and see if there are any more quilts waiting to be bound. I really don't mind doing it and I do it all by machine so as long as my shoulders hold out it shouldn't take long.

Also thought you should know that my books are 50% off at http://www.shopMartingale.com. Actually they have everything on sale all holiday weekend long. What a deal. I suppose that means all the e-books and my e-patterns too.

We had quilting at church today.  One thing we took care of was sorting through our quilts to choose which ones were going to be delivered to which charities.. Guess who will make the delivery to Love, Inc. next week. I also brought another top home to quilt - someday. There was lots of show and tell this morning and when I checked the tub of kits I saw that it was starting to go down. So after Christmas I will plan to put more kits together. Maybe I will get a picture or two before they go.

My quilting is on hold now as I get ready for the holiday. Have a good one.

Cooking up a Crumb Quilt

Things were kind of hectic with my people last week and it put me  in the mood for some mindless sewing. The bag of crumbs was getting full, so I thought I'd play with those to relax me. This is just a few of the 30 or so crumb blocks that are almost done. For this quilt I chose not to use any pieces with angles other than a square corner.

Normally I wouldn't keep individual pieces as small as those shown below.  I've asked the girls to keep the extra pieces left over from their comfort quilts or the ends of the strip sets that are too narrow for the pattern  as long as they are over 1 1/2" wide. Sometimes I can make an entirely different block with the leftover pieces and it goes in the orphan block pile. Otherwise, I save them for Crumb Quilts. They sure are fun and fast to make. I started the 30 blocks yesterday morning.

Other quilters call these Mile a Minute Quilts. A true Crazy Quilt would be similar, except they would have fancy embroidery. That is so NOT me. 

The ladies surprised me at church last week. We got the raffle quilt top together but not without a few glitches. I brought it home to put on the border and quilt. I will get a picture of it before it goes on the frame. I still have to prep the backing.

Meet Shirley

I've had a busy week working in the garden between rain drops. I didn't get much quilting done as I suspected. My people had  few dr. appointments. I did a lecture for the Oconomowoc quilt guild. It was a small group but very supportive of another Thirtysomething book. In fact supportive of all my books. Thanks again ladies.

I brought this top home from church last week and hope to get it quilted soon. The blocks are from  Judy Martin's book, Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts. Sue donated the blocks and I found the sashing fabric in our stash and another gal put them together.

My convergence quilt is coming together. Tonight the girls should be over for quilting, so I hope to get it done then. I don't think I will border this one.

Shirley would be happy to meet you. It is the name of this tulip. I first saw the Shirley tulip when I went on a garden walk with my mom whose name is also Shirley. We both liked it. When we saw it the petals were white with lavender brushed  edges. Very pretty and I was glad I found some for my own garden.  I was very disappointed when they came up the first year because they were this creamy yellow color (below). I was ready to rip them out. But gradually they changed color to the lavender in the  picture above. So I guess I will keep them. They make for a nice reminder of mom.

2011 heat wave

I'm thrilled I have the AC to turn on in the heat wave much of the US has been dealing with. I hope you found someplace to keep cool.  I usually go to the basement studio to work a bit where it is even cooler.  I have been working on 2 customer quilts that I don't want to share till she sees them.

The church ladies decided they wanted to do a block exchange like some guilds have.  I was the second to pass out my directions.  Each participant is to make two blocks and we're taking turns every other month. These are the first blocks turned in to me. I think I already know how I am going to put them together. I guess it wasn't too brilliant not having a plan to begin with. I guess it's the way I work.

If it gets below 80 degrees I'll go for a walk.  There is a gorgeous prairie in fullllll bloom now with paved roads just a mile down the road and my route takes 45 minutes. I should think to take the camera. It is a new kind of subdivision for Wisconsin. It has about 52 one acre home sites on almost two hundred acres with restored prairie, woods and a lake for residents to enjoy. Only 7 houses built since the roads went in maybe 4 years ago. No wonder why. I can't get over what good medicine that walk is. Dealing with the people I help has been challenging these last two weeks.

 The Milwaukee Machine Quilting Show is coming up soon.  I'm getting excited about that.  I think I want to start planning my spending.  Any tips on how to do that???? Again this year between the classes I am taking, teaching and volunteering, I'm planning on spending most of the week there. I wonder how much I'll sleep.
Hope to see you there.

Busy with my stitching

It's been a great spring here, but I haven 't been outside working too much yet. I haven't been quilting much either. After I realized I had a few shirts in my closet that were more than 12 years old, I cleaned out my clothes closet for summer, went shopping and made a new shirt and new shorts. Making a little dent in the stash of fabric for clothes felt good.

Pam's challenge has to wait till I find the fabric to go with the design I have planned. I intend to find it in my stash. I tend to jump around from project to project so I finally got back to the red and purple strip tease quilt that I started at retreat. I finished the purple units.





Now I need to decide on the background. I already decided I don't want boring beige, and I don't want to go scrappy. So I tried these out cause I really don't want to have to buy anymore. Can you tell I tend to like fairly plain fabric? Maybe a shopping trip is in my near future. And maybe you can tell, I have not totally decided on the setting yet either.

I had an uneven width log cabin class. It's always kinda fun watching the lightbulb go on in everyone's head. The idea is to use up all the little scraps that you don't want to toss, nor do you want to cut specific sizes or shapes from them. These go fastest if all the scraps are sorted lights from darks and then organized by length and of course chain piece. To see a few of these, click on log cabins in my list of posts at the left. Okay, my other left.

Also, I took in 15 more kits to church. Lucrecia had helped me with 10 of them and I did another 5. Nine attended last Tuesday, so many of the kits went home right away. And we had 1 new gal and I am expecting another new gal next month. Should be fun.

Master Textile Coordinator

There is still time to enter my Giveaway!

Textile Management Specialist or Master Textile Coordinator? Call me what you want, but Shelly did have a cute idea over at her blog post on Monday. What job title would you give your quilting occupation?

I liked Master Textile Coordinator for me. Just a half hour after I got back from retreat a few weeks ago, I got a call from one of my church basement quilting ladies. Lois said she had 7 trash bags full of fabric from Donna's house. Her family wanted it to go to charity after she died. Mind you we only got about a fourth of it. The photo here is from before Donna's contribution. If we get anymore soon, church will have more than I do!


As the official kit coordinator (or Master Textile Coordinator) for our group, Lois wanted to know where I wanted it. Before the contribution I would have said half our stash is here and half at church. Now I clearly have two thirds. I was thinking we could use a few more volunteers when Lucrecia called. She'd been back less than a week from her winter home in Panama (yes, the country) and offered to help me assemble kits. She was here Friday afternoon and we put together about 10 kits. I was pleased with what we got done. There is another 6 or 7 kits that I hope to finish coordinating before we meet on the 20th. It was kind of nice thinking I didn't have to do it all myself. Lucrecia is a fairly new quilter and did a fine job. I was glad for the help.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend and enjoying their friends and family and has great weather. I don't expect I will be quilting much this week; I am having company from out of town AND spring is here. Sew long.

Quilting - What's that?

Surprise, Happy New Year?!
I can't believe it has taken me this long to get back to blogging.

I was beginning to feel the pangs of withdrawal from quilting when I attended a meeting at church the other day. I was the first there and determined to get something done. All but one star block remains to be completed for our next raffle quilt. Everyone was pleased with how it is coming along. I will be able to show it before long.

As you can imagine, I was busy with Christmas, until New Years anyways. I also finished the manuscript and 18 quilts for book 8. I had to send it January 4th. I was relieved to be done, but all that quilting and computing and I was suffering a bit from burnout.

This quilt top was included in the proposal, but it wasn't included in the book so I didn't quilt it. I think I am going to take the edges apart and add half-blocks before the border. What do you think? Then of course it would sit on the to-do pile for years.

The Christmas tree is down, but the rest of the decorations still needs to be put away. I didn't want to do that till I did a thorough cleaning of the shelves in that corner of the basement. Then I got carried away and cleaned a few closets I haven't cleaned in YEARS. I only found 6 BIG boxes of junk I didn't want anymore. That is all finished and I am again anxious to get back to my sewing and blogging. Well, this felt good!

Fair/Show Season

I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since I have written. It's been a good 3 weeks. My sister came for a visit. We made it to the County Fair to see the chickens and the quilts. Well, that is why I went. I just love the chicken barn. Unfortunately the quilts are not on display as in a quilt show. I do not enter, but I like to support my students that do enter. Still, I had a vivid dream that I entered and forgot to pick up my entry when the fair was over. That cracks me up.

I got a bit of quilting done in the last month. Just a little bit. This four block sampler is a class sample for a new Thirtysomething class I am calling "Fancy That". Also quilted only 1 comfort quilt.
Last Friday I went to Quilt Expo in Madison. I haven't been there in a few years. I don't really care for the way the show is set up, but everything else about it is good. I managed to rest my feet and sit in on a few afternoon lectures. I won't tell you how much I spent. Not much to look at; I ordered a bunch of batting. It's a pretty big show. I went with Judy and we didn't run into each other ALL day. It was very enjoyable to attend a big show like Quilt Expo and not have to work while I was there. I won't share photos because I didn't get permission from any of the quilters. I hope I get to another show or two for fun this fall.
Also, I have been busy working on the next raffle quilt for church. The ladies will be surprised tomorrow to see all the prep I have done. We are making the Delectable Mountains quilt shown here. I did this with Electric Quilt. With quilting at church tomorrow, I will close now. Let's hope I remember my camera and have more to post later this week. Thanks for stopping. Sew long.

Hi everyone,
We had a great meeting at church the other day. They loved Judy's quilting on the raffle quilt. I think she is even getting a new customer as a result. For show and tell I had those 15 kits I put together. I took out one bag at a time and described what needed to be done and they snapped up all but two of them. I guess that is what I have to do in the future. In the past I just put them in the plastic tub and mentioned that I brought more. Not too much show and tell from the meeting. Here's a few.

Lois Clark likes flannel and this quilt took just 3 fabrics, one checked, one plaid and solid pink. Easy, pretty and cuddly.



















No one knows where this fabric came from. I know I didn't put this kit together.



This project also came to us partially assembled. Perhaps it was supposed to be the Chinese Coin design.
There was another one or two I will show next time. When I got home I started to put together some of the orphan blocks. That will be ready to show you in a day or two, also.
Till then, sew long

Seeing Stars

Well, I have been busy as always. I have been spending alot of time quilting on a Lemoyne Star quilt in 1800 Reproduction prints. I'm just loving it. It will be a little while before this one is done. Good thing I enjoy it.


This is the start of the next raffle quilt for my church the ladies are working on. We have quite a collection of Christmas prints. I think most of the blocks are done. Sashing is next. I think I will plan an extra meeting at my house with 1 or 2 other ladies to get the blocks and sash put together. I will pass it on to someone else at next months meeting to add the pieced border.
We had a full house at the meeting last week. Several of our members have returned from their winter residences and 2 new gals joined us. This is great. We have so much fabric to sew into quilts. Next month everyone will have returned and I like to get things organized so we can get lots done in those 3 hours. Probably only 3 will work on the raffle quilt.

Well, I am going to go check out a few new blogs and then quilt some more. Sew long. Thanks for visiting.