An attempt to find my "Words With Friends" friend, Terry

Terry--I don't know if you will see this, but it is the only way left to try and reach you. A few days ago my Words With Friends app froze, and when it was finally restored everything was wiped out. I had no stats, badges, levels, or friends. Any of the games we had in progress are no longer available to me. I've tried through the app to locate you again, with no success. I know you have seen my blog, but I don't know if you are still visiting.

If you see this, please click on the "View My Complete Profile" link on the left column of my blog and use the link you will find there to email me. That way one of us can send an invitation to the other to start new games. We have played for years, and I'd hate to lose you now!

Janet O.

Monthly Mini, etc., etc.

It was getting down to the wire and I needed a monthly mini made quickly! I rummaged through the sewing room and came up with 4 mini basket blocks that hadn't made the cut in a mini quilt a few years back. The baskets were from Kansas Troubles fabric, so I went to some bags of scraps given me by my retreat buddy and found the one of Kansas Troubles fabric. That was my beginning. I told myself I had to make my mini from the 4 basket blocks and scraps from the bag. This is what came of it.

It finishes at 10 1/2" square, and is all machine quilted, stitch-in-the-ditch. I did the binding on it while Zooming with Chookyblue and friends for her Chookshed's 9th birthday. It is lovely to sit and stitch and laugh with gals from across the globe. When I came out of my sewing room after two hours of visiting hubby said, "it was so good to hear you laughing" (have been under the weather lately and not laughing much). Linking here with Wendy (Constant Quilter Blog), our motivator and mentor on the monthly minis. 

I am surprising myself a little that I am keeping up relatively well on the BOM and BOW I am doing. The BOM is totally caught up and I have 2 blocks to catch up on with the BOW. That is doable. Here is the progress to date.

You may notice in the lower set of blocks that a few weeks ago I did begin throwing a bit of cheddar into the blocks. The lighting on the bottom isn't great but that is cheddar. I am going to toss a piece in here and there. At the moment I think I will use it only in the center of a block, but that rule could change if I decide I don't like it.

 

I received a surprise bundle in the mail yesterday. I didn't think to get photo of everything, but there was fabric, and Aurifil thread, and then there was this.This sweet little patriotic cross-stitch piece was made by my dear friend Kris, of Lavender Quilts blog. She mounted it to a lovely piece of weathered cedar fence for a great rustic look that I love! Thank you so much, Kris! It will be loved and enjoyed!

 

 

Things have been blooming around here, and I love things that bloom! Fourteen of my sixteen lilac bushes have been laden with blossoms and the air has been laden with their fragrance. It is delightful. I went out last week and cut three stems from each bush. It made two full and fragrant bouquets.

 

Even my Hoya houseplant has been blooming, and this is the first time in the 20 years or so that I've had this plant that I have actually had 2 bloom clusters at the same time. And speaking of blooms, I have decided that due to the extreme drought conditions in our area, this year I am going to lay weed barrier over my annual flowerbeds, and just not plant. It takes so much water to keep them going in the raised concrete beds around our home. I will keep my roses and raspberries going, but let the other beds have a rest this year. I will have more time to tend to my houseplants, more time to quilt, and I will be saving water. Wins all around! I do have a couple of pots on my deck filled with plants that have been gifted to me, and those flowers will be enjoyed during our many dinners on the deck this summer.

The sunset over the farmyard was glorious this evening. I was in my sewing room and whenever I glanced out the window the colors had deepened and spread farther across the sky. I finally had to jump up and get photos. The camera never does justice to the depth of color, but here is a washed out version of what I saw.

I was trying to get this posted before midnight Saturday, but I didn't quite make it. I got tangled up trying to choose the winners of the drawing for the little quilts, but it is all sorted out now.

Barbara will receive Mud Pies and Sharon S. will receive Labor of Love. Congrats to the two of you, and I wish you all a beautiful weekend, and my friends in the states a wonderful Memorial holiday! Be kind and be creative. :)

Until next time, 

Janet O.

Overdue

My post is what is overdue, not the quilt. I received my quilt from Cecile (Patchwork Inspirations blog) in the first week of the month, but haven't seemed to be able to get a post written in order to share it. So here it is! We were participants in the Humble Quilts Doll Quilt Swap, and Cecile had my name. Lucky me!!

This little treasure came all the way from France, along with that clever card in the corner with wildflower seeds embedded in the paper. The wonderfully scrappy Ocean Waves pattern is one I have long admired, and the beautifully hand quilted feathered wreath in the center is an added bonus.  Thank you so much, Cecile. It is an honor to have a quilt made by you!

Another thing that was overdue was getting my little miniature quilt rack stained. You can read about this rack here.  I hired one of the many woodworkers in our community to make this for me. He had it finished in October, but I had told him to leave the staining for me. I love staining wood and it only took me 7 months to get to it. :)

This is where the rack was sitting before it was stained, and I liked it here. But now that it is pretty much the same color as the floor, the baseboard, and the hutch, it is a little way too much brown. So I moved it over by my full-size quilt rack (made by another woodworking neighbor).  I think it fits in better here visually, but physically it is a bit awkward. Still, it will remain here for now.

I know many of you would have painted this piece a pretty color, and it would have been lovely. I also know I have far too much wood in my home, but I love the look of natural wood grain, and I can't bring myself to paint over it. The red oak in this is gorgeous. Here is a view of the side.

Another thing that was even longer overdue was the clearcoat finish on the quilt ladder I bought from a sweet elderly woman at a craft show over 7 years ago (I'm probably getting very close now to the age of that "sweet elderly woman"). It had already been stained, but it really needed a light sanding with fine grit, and then a couple of coats of clearcoat. It is smooth as silk now, with just a hint of a shine.

 

Of all the quilts in this photo of the ladder, I only made one--the top one on the ladder. The next one down was by Jill Reid (this link takes you to her patterns at Windham Fabrics website), and the lower one is by Barbara Black. The one over the chest is by Barb Vedder. Love them all! This is kind of a red/green/cheddar corner.

 

Nothing overdue about this. Is anyone else as excited about this pattern as I am? My copy just arrived and I wish I wasn't buried under so many projects. I'd love to work on this now, but I will try to exercise restraint. Those little baskets finish around 3", you know. So fun! You can find the pattern here.

 

The final overdue item is my blogiversary. On May 16th, three days ago, it was the 10th anniversary of my blog. I never dreamed I would still be at it, and that I would have made so many amazing friends from around this country and the world. I have learned many lessons from you, my friends--some about quilting, but equally as many, if not more, about life. Several dear friends have departed, and I miss their wisdom and insight, along with the shared humor. Whether via Zoom, texts, emails, or phone, the laughter has been good for my soul. As time consuming as blogging can be, I have to say that it has enriched my life by expanding my circle.

You know there is always a drawing for thank-you gifts around this time. I am giving away a couple of little quilts from SALs. To me these SALs are a symbol of the community we create with our blogs. 

 

This first one is from the most recent Humble Quilts doll quilt SAL. I have given away a few of the quilts I have made from her SALs and I am always a little torn to let one go. I call this one "Mud Pies". You can read about it here.

 

Some of you may remember Cheri Payne. This second quilt was from a post of hers on Labor Day  in 2012, where she shared the instructions for this little quilt. She called it Labor of Love. I made mine a bit larger than the original (highly out of character for me). 

I will draw two names and send each one a little quilt with a few other goodies. Please don't publicize this drawing. It is just for those who are regulars here. Thank you for your friendship, and for all you have shared with me. And don't forget--if you never receive a reply to comments you make here, or if you don't usually comment, so you have no idea if you would receive a reply or not, PLEASE leave your email address IN your comment. If I can't contact you, I draw another name. I reply to everyone who comments and has their email linked to their comment.

Enough of that. I hope COVID numbers are decreasing in your area and that you are able to look forward to a greater degree of normalcy going forward. Let's make this a great day by making it better for someone else!

Until next time, 

Janet O.

Drawing is now closed

You may have noticed I have no header photo. I removed the old one to replace it and now it is doing crazy things and will only load my header photo into a small corner of the header space. The photo file is large enough, but no matter what I do it shows up very small on the screen. I've even tried a few other photos. So this would have been my header photo, and may be one day if this ever gets fixed. Click to enlarge it and soak in the serenity.

Anyone else have this problem changing headers, or am I just lucky? It's not like I've never changed my header photo before!

Doing Dual Duty

My monthly mini (with Wendy at The Constant Quilter blog) is also my swap quilt for Lori's Humble Quilts Doll Quilt Swap. You don't see the others cheating like this,  but I have never claimed to be of sterling character. ;)

This was the quilt I sent to Jane S. in Ohio.

I hand quilted it and washed it up and it really crinkled. I thought I'd killed it!

I had shown you the inspiration quilt in my last post. It is made from diamonds. I didn't have a diamond template (I do now), and I was too lazy to figure out cutting the diamonds with the lines on the rulers, so I used Panama Pyramids triangles templates to just give a similar impression. As in the inspiration "Sugar Loaf" quilt, I was going to leave the larger triangles between the pieced triangles as one plain triangle of background fabric. But for some reason, on my creation it didn't look good to me, like it did in the original. So I chopped up those plain triangles and inserted colored ones in the middle. First I tried multiple colors, but they seemed to create a distraction, so I opted to go with all browns. When I noticed, after final assembly, that in the second row all of the brown center triangles were a floral, rather than having them spread throughout the quilt, I shook my head and let it go. That was a big step for me.

 

Jane has no blog, but she sent some photos she said I could share here. They are better glamor shots than anything I have. So here is the quilt in its new home. She says a dolly has already spent the night under this quilt, and that warms my heart!

 

I understand that my quilt has been sent to me, but is coming from very far away. I am excited to receive it!!

You may recall that I was going to a tulip festival. It was sprinkling on us most of the time we were there, but I'd rather have that than temps in the 80s (as they had been experiencing) any day! Tell me if you see a strippy quilt in any of these photos. And if while viewing these you are tempted to pull out your uke and start singing "Tiptoe through the tulips", you may be as old as I am. Are you ready for a tulip overload?

 

In case you are wondering, yes, this is just a fraction of the photos I took. :)

Until next time, when I hope my doll quilt has arrived!!

Janet O.

p.s. A reminder that if you get notifications of new blog posts via the Feedburner email list, you need to be choosing another option. It will be ending those notifications this summer. If you use a blogger dashboard, the Friend Connect "Follower" list is a good way to go, or there is the Bloglovin' option--each are in my sidebar on the right hand side. If anyone is aware of another option I should check on, please let me know.

 

Staying On Top Of Things (sort of)

This is my first year participating in the Humble Quilts Doll Quilt Swap. I am so pleased that I actually got it sent off before the end of the month deadline. I am not going to share my quilt until it has been received, but this was the inspiration.

 

 

This quilt is from the book "Childhood Treasures" by Merikay Waldvogel. It measures 16" x 21".

It is from an unknown maker and is estimated to be from the 1890s. The pattern name is Sugar Loaf. 

My version is not exactly this design, but was definitely based upon it.

 

 

 

                                                                    This is the label on my quilt.   

            

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am caught up with the Hands All Around sew-along with Barbara Brackman. One block a month, and I am making two of each pattern. The color on this photo is very poor.

Had been doing pretty well with Gay Bomers' Heartfelt BOW, until last week. Haven't done that one yet. And a new pattern being released just after I post this will put me two weeks behind. But this is what I have so far. You can still join up through the link. She has extended the registration.

 

We won't talk about how I am doing with the Little Blocks 365. But in case you are interested, Gay has extended the registration again--the requests just keep coming. So click the link, if you dare, and play along. They are very fun.

Now for the results of the drawing. I split the wool patterns in half and drew 2 names, since there was so much interest.  Joyful Quilter and Denise Panter will each get 7 patterns. Julie Q was drawn for the apple cores, and Darlene was selected for the Lori Smith kit. All have been notified.

Very soon I will be attending a tulip festival in the Northwest, on a day with an 80% chance of rain. But I am thrilled because my youngest granddaughter (oh, and her parents) will be there. :) Really looking forward to it!    

Until next time,

Janet O.

                                              
P.S. Just in case you get notifications of these posts via email, you should know that Feedburner will discontinue those notifications after July of this year. I understand that signing up through the bloglovin' widget will still give you email notifications, and I have that option on my right sidebar, as well.

Monthly Mini and More

The 9-patches leftover from my December mini have been waiting to be used. I planned on making my March mini with them, and I had intended it to be a 2 color quilt, but a third color just slipped in.

I thought it made a very nice March companion quilt to the tinier one made by Barb. Linking up with Wendy, The Constant Quilter, for the Monthly Mini parade. Check it out!                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                

 

 

Most of the quilting was simply done with my walking foot, but I did do a little hand stitching in the gold blocks.

 

 

 
My piece for Cecile's (Patchwork Inspirations) "Curves" SAL is complete. Covid Curves was very fun to make. I learned to do curved seams many years ago, but just made a few practice blocks and never applied the technique in an actual quilt. Now I have.                                                                                                                                                                             

T

This finishes at 24" square--and it appears that I forgot to rub out the chalk lines I used for the quilting through the dark areas. Oops.

 

 You can see the quilting better in this pre-binding shot. I kept the quilting simple, and I learned that I need a good set of circle quilting rulers.                       

I signed up for Gay Bomers' Little Blocks 365, as I mentioned in my last post. I had intended to just save the patterns for another time. But I had to try them--just a few. 

They are like potato chips. I kept telling myself, "This is my last one." Before I knew it I was making another. I finally pulled away from them, but they are so fun. Finishing at 3", they are pretty stinkin' cute. I am (obviously) using batiks for all of the blocks. It will be saturated in color. I still don't plan to focus on this quilt this year, but I will sneak in a block every now and then.

I signed up for something else! What is wrong with me this year?!? For the first time ever I have joined in on Lori's doll quilt swap. I am out of my mind, for sure. Do you remember that I was making a house quilt and that scrappy churn dash by Pam Buda, "Every Little Bit"? They have been sitting idle as I jump on every bandwagon that comes along (practically).

If you will indulge me a minute more, I would like to do a little housecleaning. I know I was going to try and show before and after photos of my sewing room clean-up, but I forgot to take the "befores", and we have some family staying with us this week, and my sewing room becomes a dumping ground. So "afters" wouldn't look great at the moment. But I did come across a few things to pass along to someone else who would like to use them.

 

There are 233 homespun apple cores. Ten of them are already machine stitched together in a row. They were given to me by another quilter, but I realize I probably won't get them stitched. I think it is enough to make a lap quilt, and if you like hand stitching, it would be a great project for stitching with some evening TV or movie watching. 
There is a full kit for the Lori Smith Patchwork Sampler, and finally, a whole bunch of wool applique patterns (mostly from Buttermilk Basin). If you are interested in any of this, let me know in a comment--please specify which you are interested in, and if you never receive a reply to your comments here, you are a "no reply blogger". I need you to include your email in your comment or I cannot include you in the drawing. When I have closed the drawing I will post that here.

Got my first vaccine dose last week. Looking forward to my first grandchild hugs in over a year in a few more weeks! WooHoo!!

Until next time,

Janet O.

Drawing Now Closed

Catching up

Since I have been hopping on so many SALs lately, I thought I'd give an update.

These two are Barbara Brackman's "Hands All Around". It is just one block a month, but I always make two, using the same fabrics in both, but switching up the placement.

This is the Gay Bomers' "Heartfelt" block. It is a Block a Week program, but you may be instructed to make more than one of the block pattern any given week. This week only called for one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazingly, I have kept up with both so far. It hasn't escaped my notice that they are both using 8" blocks, so if I fall too far behind, I could combine them all into one quilt and call it "Heart and Hands". I've never made a pink/purple/brown quilt before. Hopefully I won't be doing it this year, either.  :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found a backing fabric I love for my "Curves" Challenge piece with Cecile at Patchwork Inspirations.

It is now basted and ready to quilt, but I keep changing my mind as to how to quilt it. Haven't struggled this much with a quilting design in a long time!
 

A week ago I caught a brief visit with Chookyblue and some of the other bloggers that enjoy Zoom sew-ins with her. Almost feels like the retreat I didn't get this year. This is my third time joining in and it is always a delight. As we chat it is interesting to see how different things are from one country to another--and also how alike.

 

 

Major rearranging going on in my sewing room in the coming week. Maybe I will even remember to take before/after photos.

And before I finish I should confess--I signed up for another Gay Bomers project! Her Little Blocks 365 was just too tempting!! I talked myself out of joining when sign-ups were about to close, and was proud that I had been so strong. Well, she had so many people beg requests for sign-ups to open back up, that she obliged. And I succumbed! Don't expect to see me making seven 3" foundation pieced blocks each week, but I couldn't pass up those patterns! And if you want to succumb too, sign-ups are open at that link until March 17!

Until next time,

Janet O.

 

Earlier this week we woke up to 5" of snow, but it melted by the next day. In scenes like this I think the mountains and sky look like a fake backdrop in a low-budget movie.