Monthly Door Prize

While I was browsing through blogs one day (and I am sorry I can't remember which one this was on), I came across this pattern for making cards and gluing on buttons for the flowerheads. Thought it was so cute - and it was something that was there for anyone to download. If I run across the blog again, I will give it credit. So I printed these out on some nice cover stock I have and glued the buttons on the stems. Too cute! People come up with some darling ideas. I volunteered to furnish our monthly door prize in March, so these will be a part of it.

The Five of Hearts

My playing card is now all done. She is appliquing a little quilt even though her needle is the size of a sword! Seems to be getting the job done, though. This exhibit at our show should be lots of fun - I will take lots of pictures. (Click to enlarge)

How About a Little Piece of My Past

I went to a one room school in Rome, Illinois - just north of Peoria and along the Illinois River. This picture was taken when I was a fourth grader and my sister, Jo, was in the first grade. I am in row three from the bottom the third little kid over. My little sis is the first little girl in the second row. Our teacher was Evelean Placher who was an absolutely wonderful lady - I can still see her standing before the school reading a story and sometimes crying if it touched her. Miss Placher married about this time to Duffy Gerstner - I can remember how excited all the kids were.

The next year, this picture, the school had been made into two rooms by extending the stage and putting up a partition. I am the 8th from the left in the 3rd row from the bottom. My sis, Jo, is 3rd from the left in the 2nd row and my little brother, Bud (Chuck), is the 9th little boy from the left in the first row. Opal Claypool came to teach - another grand lady who just passed away just a few years ago. Grades 1 - 4 were in the smaller main room with Evelean and grades 5 - 8 were on the stage with Opal. So Opal was my teacher for the 5th and 6th grades. They then added two big new rooms in front of the old school and Evalean taught 1st, 2nd, 7th and 8th so I was back with Evelean. A new teacher was hired to replace Opal - can't remember where she went but she taught in the area for years and years. There were 10 in my class in the 5th grade which was the largest and when I graduated from 8th grade in 1942 there were only 3 of us. We actually had 5 but one boy didn't show up and my friend Sally who had polio earlier was in the Shriner's Hospital in Chicago having surgery on her affected arm. In the picture above, I am standing in the crook of Sally's arm which is up on the brace she had to wear all the time. After her surgery, she still did not have the use of that arm but she no longer had to wear the brace. Back to graduation, 3 or 4 of the other little country schools came and graduated with us at Rome so there were 12. I can't remember diddlysquat a lot of times, but I can still remember the poem I recited at graduation - may I bore you? (Click to enlarge)

Somebody said it couldn't be done

But he, with a chuckle, replied

That maybe it couldn't

But he would one

Who wouldn't say so til he tried.

So he started right in with trace of a grin

on his face. If he worried, he hid it,

And he started to sing

As he tackled the thing,

That couldn't be done and he did it.

Edgar Guest

Hope you enjoy this little tidbit of nostalgia.

Pictures from Leslie

Today I had e-mails from one of my favorite quilters, Leslie, the president of our guild, with pictures of two of her beautiful quilts. This one is from December '07 Quiltmaker and she uses the lovely Christmas toile that Joann's had this year. I love the pretty applique on the corners. What a great quilt.

This is another beauty. If I recall correctly, I think this is the one that was done completely in the car and at places of destination - all by hand. She did all the cutting then put it in the car and it stayed there until it was completed. I think she did sew the borders on by machine. Leslie does beautiful work. She will be our featured quilter this year at our quilt show which is March 13-15 at the Carriage House here in Midland. We have great shows! (Click to enlarge)

And watching over each of the quilts is her 14 year old little doggie, Gina.

Two Kaleidoscopes for Today

What a pretty day today - sun is shining after yet another round of snow this weekend. Probably 6 or 7 inches at least - - well, enough anyway. I did not leave the house over the weekend but that is never a problem for me as long as I have my projects and food. Today, however, I will go get groceries as the cupboard is getting bare and the snack drawer is empty! Can't have that!

Has been a long time since I made any kaleidoscopes - these are from a picture of the blue and green batik circle quilt that is waiting in the basement to be made into a quilt sandwich. This program is so fascinating to play with since you just move it a little bit and you have an entirely different pattern. And the shapes you use make such a difference, too. So here are two pretty ones. (Click to enlarge)

It's Together and the Borders are Added

Here's the gridgame round robin all together and bordered ready to be sandwiched for quilting. This really is super - the girls who worked on it did a wonderful job. Just noticed that the little gingerbread men grow in the row they are in. Cute.

Also working from time to time on embroidering some blocks for a wallhanging made with the beautiful toile fabric (not sure about the spelling!!) I bought before Christmas. Plan to do at least 6 blocks and maybe 8. Takes a while so will keep them out and embroider in the evenings. I have enough of that fabric to maybe make a Christmasy applique wallhanging all in red like the Red Delicious blocks. That would be very pretty. (Click to enlarge)

A Peek at my Playing Card

I'm in the process of quilting my challenge playing card - just about through with the outline
quilting and ready to do the background. Haven't decided how I will do that - probably some allover pattern but I will try to not stipple this time.

I drew the 5 of hearts. Methinks we are going to have a really fun display of cards at our show. I have seen a few and those have been stellar. Looking forward to seeing them all together.

(Click to enlarge)

Two Little Baskets

Here is the Tisket a Tasket January block all done. Cute little blocks.

I know this is in the preceding post, but I have it all done with the birdies' eyes, beaks and the heartstrings so I am putting it in again. Have also worked on my round robin piece today and my playing card. A cloudy day with some snow (although don't think we're going to get all the bad stuff they were talking about) and a good day to sew. But then, what isn't a good day to sew?

I put some oven stew in to bake and it is smelling mighty good - easy to do, my kind of cooking anymore. Something like that is good for about three meals which pleases me no end. Then later on I will watch American Idol - got hooked on that last year. At my age, I am contented with simple things and one of the best things in life is to feel good.

I do have some exciting things to look forward to - one is a trip to Portland, Oregon, for a family gathering to celebrate my son-in-law's 60th birthday the first part of April. Have I mentioned that? The whole family will be there and that will be fun. Then I have been asked to go to with three of the girls to the big quilt show in Chicago in the middle of April - that also will be a lot of fun. I have been to Paducah several times but never to another major show. I am really excited about that!

Think I Found Out What Was Wrong

Here is February of the Tisket a Tasket BOM - still have to embroider the heart strings on the three little hearts and the birdies' beaks. January is ready to applique and will do that later. Want to get a project started to take to the Sit and Sew tomorrow. I have that lovely Christmas toile and plan to do some redwork blocks for a wallhanging. That way I don't have to take my machine and will still get something accomplished. If you haven't gone to a Sit and Sew and are able to get away, they are a great way to spend a day with some great company!

And I think I have found out what was wrong with my pictures not coming up on the blog. Think it was just a matter of pushing a wrong tab. Probably 99% of what I do know about the computer I learned by trial and error or just stumbled onto the way to do something. (Click to enlarge)

Just Tickety-boo

This cute little girl grew up to be Julie, a member of our Quilters Squared. Julie now has a blog up. Her blog can be reached by clicking http://justtickety-boo.blogspot.com/. You can also find out what the name of her blog means.

Problems Posting

I am having a problem uploading my pictures so for now I am just playing around seeing what is wrong. On the form that I work on there is a paragraph of gobbledygook instead of the picture but I think it uploads as a picture. DAH!! what to do.

Now I will see if I have something under each one. Weird.

Am back editing my post - it looks the same as always on the blog but no picture shows up here. Will try to figure out what is wrong but at least I can work with it the way it is. To explain the pictures, I did the piece quite a few years ago at one of Janna's retreats - it was a little kit she gave each of us. I made the blocks later and put them together a different way, machine quilted it (all with my walking foot) and eventually gave it to Ann. She had it framed - doesn't it look lovely?

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is a little Valentine Day Puzzle I found on the internet for you to work - hope it really does work! Just click on the arrow. Enjoy!

Hmmm, Planning my 5 of Hearts

Pretty much decided on this fabric - pretty stuff. Have made up my mind several times as I considered four different options. This is it.

Wonder where this will go in the big picture? Hope I can make this do what I am hoping it does!

Here is the lovely little lady who will be the star of my 5 of hearts. I actually have let her out of her "file" where she has been for 21 years. See, it's good never to throw anything away - well, almost anything. (Click to enlarge)

Fun-Filled February Q2 Meeting

On a very springlike evening (what a nice break after all the cold snowy weather here in Michigan) we had our guild meeting. First up was a guest speaker, Ron, demonstrating the routine cleaning you can do on your machine. Four people brought along a machine so there would be a mix that would represent what most of the members were using. The above picture with all the smiling faces shows Ron demonstrating on Melissa's Janome - Melissa was the recipient of some good natured teasing for the lint Ron found. One of the girls brought in a Singer Featherweight that she bought at a garage sale for $2.oo! It was in wonderful condition but needed to be gone over. I think they figured it was made in about 1967. She didn't realize what she had when she bought it - just thought it was a cute little machine. Jewels can still be found!! The four of us who exchange ATC's did "Shoes" for February. Deb wasn't there, but Claire was back and brought along her January card also. Above are the cards made by Carol and Claire.

Here is Julie's pretty little girl and Claire's "Time" ATC for January. Next month we will be doing "Bling" - gotta think about that one.

And, our grid game round robins are all back with their original makers. They all turned out to be really great. Here is my very pretty Colorful Christmas! We certainly have talented ladies in our guild. This really turned out super! I am having a problem figuring out who the fourth person other than me worked on my piece. The label is signed by and notes left by Emily, Julie and Lori (thank you, thank you!!) Actually Lori forgot to sign the label but I will get her to do that later. I can't make out who the fifth one is. Have to do some detective work on this one. Loved Julie's account of her adventures in adding her part to my piece, and Lori left me a cute note about deciding what to add for her share. Am wondering if she has a sketch of that reindeer she mentioned! Plan to have this together and quilted for our show. (Click to enlarge)

Red Delicious Blocks 2 and 3 Added

The last couple of days I have done blocks two and three of this block of the month from Esther's Blog http://estheraliu.blogspot.com/. Really loving the reds together. The bottom block is to have circles at each of the points on the flowers and I probably will use little red buttons. On the sketch of the layout for the quilt, this block does hang down. On the fifteenth of each month a new block will be posted - they are a delight. The blocks are stuck on a really old piece of mounting board that I covered with flannel many years ago to use as kind of a portable "design wall" long before I had even heard of design walls. I have used this for countless projects and it is getting pretty shabby!

By the way, this is my post #200. I really enjoy doing this and hope you enjoy it, too.

Now I really have to get my playing card wallhanging for Quilters Squared Quilt Show in the works!! We have to have them all done for the March meeting which is right before the show.
I think I know what it will be - had better be sure pretty soon! (Click to enlarge)

Have a Heart

I found the pattern for this little wool heart in a magazine a couple of years ago. It needs a pretty little ribbon on it for hanging. I so love the "cottage look" that is featured in so many of the blogs - this would go well with that. (Click to enlarge)

A Potpourri of Posts

Blogging is truly lots of fun. I had no plans to do any blogging this afternoon - I had an appointment for a haircut and it's time for a trip to Kroger. The snack drawer is empty and I can't have that! But---when I went to start the car, it just growled at me and I knew it was not going to take me anyplace today. Poor old thing, it's about 10 and a half years old with give or take 31,000 miles - probably rusting to death or dying of boredom. It is the battery, though, and it's also in need of sparkplugs and a "flushing" of the coolant system - plus an overdue oil change and new wiper blades. I am hoping they also wash the dirty little thing for me. Someone will come get me and take me out to pick it up and we will be back together again. It has been a good little car and gets me where I want to go. Will make a new appointment with Rose and go to Kroger tomorrow so today I will blog a little bit.

Yesterday afternoon, I took this picture of the side of my carport. The warmer weather on Sunday made the snow on the roof slide down and it left this arch of snow resting on the snow below it. This is next to my neighbor's porch. The tracks in the snow I am sure are turkey tracks. We have three of them scrounging around looking for food. They always visit all the folks who have bird feeders in their yards. A couple of years ago there were fourteen or fifteen turkeys visiting all the time. They can really mess up the street and sidewalks - have to watch where you step.

This is the blue circle quilt that I started last summer or fall - it's ready for quilting. I have several in need of quilting now so will have to get to that, also. After I looked at the picture, I saw something I would like to undo but will not, of course - I have two light blocks right next to each other. I have really been spending a lot of time quilting but figure this is the perfect time of year for that. As I get older, I feel that it's so much more important to enjoy doing what you enjoy while you can. Therefore, there is not much cleaning or cooking going on at my house! (Click to enlarge)

Red Delicious Block of the Month

Some time ago, probably in November, I found a free block of the month designed by Esther Aliu, a designer from Australia, on Esther's Blog and I have been downloading each one as they are made available each month. So far there have been three. As a new one is put up, the old one is taken down. Number 3 is up there and the fourth will be posted on the 15th of the month. The idea is to make the blocks from your stash without buying any new fabric. The original is done in red but any color or colors can be used. Since red is one of my favorites, the other day I gathered my reds and today did the first block - machine buttonhole, of course, instead of hand applique. There is a link to her blog on my sidebar if you are interested. The blocks are cute and the arrangement she shows for them is really nice. (Click to enlarge)