Is It Tuesday Already?

Not a lot of quilting going on here in the last few days as we had company over the weekend. 

But I did get my weekly Civil War Block done.  It's called Birds in the Air

And on Friday I did the weekly block for my 1880's Sampler

And I found the fabric I wanted to use for my alternate Alabama blocks in the Thread Head Quilt Along project and made several of those blocks on Friday too.  Here they are with some of the blocks I've made so far.  I think I'm going to like this quilt a lot.

I have a couple of siggies I need to get in the mail so I'd best get busy.  Have a great day!

Four Generations

Tried to get a good four generation picture this evening, but either I closed my eyes, Aly cried, or Mark had his hat on!  For better or worse, this is what we ended up with, at least on my camera.  Maybe one of the others turned out better. 

Grandpa Mark, Great-Grandma Mary, Mom Caitlin
Alyxandria Jayden



If only my mother wasn't 8 hours away in Iowa, we could have taken a five generation picture!

Ready to go home...

Sidetracked

One of the reasons I haven't posted any progress on my two hand piecing projects

is because I spent a week or so working on this in the evenings.

It's one of the side borders for our guild's 2012 donation quilt.  There will be print yo-yos attached at the base of most of the leaves.  Someone else is making those.  I have to admit I was tired of leaves by the time I got all of these done. 

Not doing much quilting today because we have a visitor.

Little Miss Aly, her mom, Grandpa Mark and Grandma Stephanie were here this morning.  She's 7 weeks old today.  Time flies!!  This is Aly with Grandpa Mark and me.

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And with Great-Grandpa Tom

They've gone to visit her other Great-Grandmother for awhile but will be back for supper and more pictures no doubt.



Encore Viewing

Last night I was thrilled to have the opportunity to see some of Nancy Swanwick's beautiful quilts again.  I posted about them last year when she had a private show in Fort Scott.  Nancy has an amazing gift of color and design and I wish every one of you could see her quilts in person.  On top of that, she is the kind of speaker you could listen to for hours.

I didn't take a lot of pictures last night since I took all of them last year.  But  I had to snap one of my favorite quilt

1/2" finished logs!  Unbelievable!!!!

Her "retirement" quilt (she's ending her teaching career this year).  The little blocks inside the school houses are 3".

And a couple with a Civil War feel to them which of course always appeal to me.

The quilt above is the Wild Goose Chase quilt I missed getting a picture of last year.  It's story is told in those posts (link below).

Now that I've whetted your appetite, it would be a good time for you to review the posts from last April and see more of her quilts.  You can view all there of them together here.

Thank you, Nancy for another fantastic show. 

More Troubles

Kansas Troubles that is.  A short time back the Civil War block of the week was Kansas Troubles and this was mine.

Block 9 for the Thread Head Quilt Along is also a Kansas Troubles block.  And of course I'm making two of each block.  So I had double trouble this afternoon but managed to get two done, imperfect as they may be.

First this one





 
And then to be different, a scrappy one
 
 

Here are my 18 blocks so far. 

Of course they will ultimately have the alternate Alabama blocks between them. 

Corn & Beans

You'd think a girl that lived 40 years in Iowa would get along well with corn and beans.  I like to eat them.  I've worked in the fields hoeing and destassling them.  (I prefer the former).

But I certainly have never liked sewing them.  Block 8 for the Threadhead Quilt Along is called Corn and Beans.  This has always been a block that gave me fits for some reason.  Too many points coming together I guess.  And of course I had to make two of them.  Ugh!  But they are done.

New Blocks

Waking up on Saturday morning is as much fun as Fridays now.  Saturday means a new Civil War Block from Barbara Brackman's BOW

Today it was Cotton Boll. 

I did mine this way:

Cut four 4 1/2" squares from the striped fabric.  I had to cut it on the bias to get my stripes the way I wanted them, so I starched it heavily first and was very careful handling it. 

Then I dispensed with the 1/8" measurements and cut (8) 3" squares from background fabric.  I sewed them on two corners of each big square as you would snowball corners.  After pressing the resulting triangles, you can trim the fabric from behind, or leave it as you prefer.  But be sure to check that you pieces match up correctly before doing that.  If you are careful in marking a sewing line on the background squares and in positioning them on the bigger squares, you shouldn't have any problems.

Sorry I didn't take pictures but this is such a simple and frequently used method (sew and flip corners) that I hope everyone understands what I did.

Yesterday I made two of the Block 7 Sawtooth 16 Patch from ThreadHead

I really enjoy making these. I used this block for a wedding quilt for a granddaughter a few years ago.

In this case I set the blocks on point and added pieced sashing to create friendship stars between the bigger blocks.  I need to make another of those!



Cross in a Square

Week 8 of the 1880's Sampler Quilt.  Waking up on Friday's is now a fun thing as I look forward to each new block in this project.  After working on the larger blocks for the ThreadHead Quiltalong earlier this week, it was fun working with a little one again (5"  unfinished).

Today's block is called Cross in a Square.  I took some liberties with fabric placements from the original.  After it was done I realized these are pretty much the colors I used last week.  Oh well...there are many more to come and no set arrangement.

Kate McRae

I've had a link to Kate's story on my sidebar for the last year or so.  Her grandmother is from my hometown and we worked together as nurses many years ago.  Her precious Kate is facing new challenges in her battle with an aggressive brain cancer. 


The tests over the last two weeks have confirmed that there is new cancer growth.
Please watch this beautiful video and then, if praying is something you can do, please say a prayer for Kate and her family and continue to do so until this battle is won. 

Thank you

Blind Quilter

What a wonderfully inspiring story!

For those of us who think we "can't do" something.

What is 75 - 6?

Well, if you live in S.E. Kansas, the answer is 1 week! 

   Last Thursday we woke up to -6º if you remember. And had over 20 inches of accumulated snow on the ground.





Today we had a high of 75º!


This squirrel was quite the acrobat most of the afternoon as he was determined to feast from this bird feeder. (Sorry about the blurriness, it was taken through a somewhat steamy and very dirty kitchen window)

Thread Head Quilt Along

Once again I've caved to my weakness. The proliferation of Civil War inspired or style BOM's is just more than I can resist. 

Joanne, over at Thread Head started a QuiltALong last October but I didn't find it until two or three weeks ago.  Every day since then I've looked and drooled but tried to convince myself I already had too many projects going.  Then again..is there such a thing as too many?  So last weekend I bit the bullet and started making the blocks. 

These are 9 inch finished blocks and Joanne gives great step by step instructions as well as great tips.  She has 17 blocks posted to date plus the alternating block pattern, so I have some catching up to do.  The quilt uses 40 scrappy blocks (2 of each block) and 41 alternate courthouse steps blocks.  She also offers several variations for smaller quilts and projects using fewer blocks and even adding some applique.

Since there are two of each block pattern I've decided to sometimes vary the second one a bit (actually this occured to me when I made a mistake..which I prefer to view as a design opportunity).

Here are the blocks I've made so far.

Block 1

Block 2---this was the "oops" (left)

Block 3

Block 4

Block 5

Block 6

It's not too late to join the fun. Hop on over to Thread Head. You know you want to!


 








   


Future Gorillas

Great-Grandpa Tom and Great-Grandma Mary have to make sure our newest family members become Pitt State fans.  They are both growing like the proverbial weed.

Bryce 5 weeks

Aly 5 weeks

I think Miss Aly may be coming to visit today!  I hope so.

Happy Valentine's Day

I found this link of Lyn Brown's Quilting Blog

Lynn posted: For all of you who love quilting (Like me!)… I’ve received this link from a few quilting friends. It is a short film featuring “Dancing” quilting designs. Fun to watch!




Quilt Movie



Click above to go to the web page, then click on the big arrow there to view the movie. The film was produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Enjoy!



Happy Valentine’s Day!

Melting

Wow..we are supposed to climb to nearly 50º today.  Last night our "snow frog" started getting brave.

Hope he comes out all the way today!



I made my weekly 1880's Sampler block yesterday

And today's Civil War Quilt block was an easy Log Cabin.

Finally, a 2011 finish! Yesterday I got the binding on the Christmas Cabin quilt and washed and dried it so it is now nice and cuddly.

I love using stripes and plaids for binding

We had a nice visit from the two oldest great-grands Thursday afternoon.  They are growing like the proverbial weeds!

Maison, the youngest is just about too big for Grandpa's horse

Happy Saturday!