Quilting Stuff

Customer quilt finished yesterday morning:

Today I went on a shop hop with some of my good good friends:

OK so all the pictures aren't of fabric, but that doesn't mean I didn't find the "extras" along the shop hop way

Life Ups and Downs

How to explain:

I'm still dealing with my wonderful husband passing November 2, 2014.  Now I received news my oldest brother Don Kallner passed away yesterday.

My heart is breaking again.

I know I could be screaming why why why to all of this, but I'm not.

Knowing Don and his beliefs I'm sure he is with God and he and Wayne are together, watching over us.

I'm sure they are sharing many stories of past days.

We are left here to miss them terribly but we know we will be with them some day and in the meantime, we remember them in all of the fondest ways.

I'm sharing this photo of Don his beautiful wife Cheryl, and I'm not sure which granddaughter as I copied this picture from their daughter in law Kelly.

This is the way I want to remember him, with that big smile.

Before During And After

Easter has come and gone for another year.  Turned out to be a really really nice day.

Before Easter I had finished another one of my customer (2 of 3) quilts:

Quilted with free motion echo feathers throughout.

Beautiful sunny day let us bring our Easter celebration outside, where everyone got to enjoy a good meal, and fun in the sun.

That darned old Easter Bunny hid 32 eggs in the yard, which took some time for them to all be found.

Belle, on the other hand found a few before the kids did and managed to crack them open and eat the candy inside.  Which meant Stacy and I had to relocate and re hide eggs before the kids went looking for them.

As long as that was the biggest mishap of the day, I was happy.

Gus has not realized his eyes are bigger than his mouth.

His beautiful sister Kylee helped him find his share of eggs.

And my handsome great grandson Tavyn, even though he looks like he is chilling, found 16 or more of the eggs all by himself.  (truth be told, he went and scoped out the yard before Ky and Gus got here) but he kept his secret.

Yes that is a mohawk he is sporting.  Although this grandma is not a fan, his dad is.  The good thing about hair at that age, it does grow out.  Let the growing begin.  Even so he is pretty darn cute, but then I could be just a little prejudice, naaa  he is just plain cute no denying that.

Back to everyday stuff, working on customer quilts, babysitting Gus.

Quilting and Yard Work My Favorites

Finished a customer quilt that I had started yesterday.

This patchwork just called for large flowers, don't you agree?

Oh and by the way this gal has a new toy:   A new Ipad and I'm using it to take pictures, can I just say one word LOVE.  The pictures are so much truer in color and very seldom do I get a blurry out of focus.  If I do its only because I moved.

I have a 2nd new toy that I bought yesterday as well:

Now this might not seem exciting to some of you, but to me, this baby is one of my favorite new toys to play with in the yard.  Talk about sharp, man I cleared out some underbrush, dead limbs, even cut down a few saplings this afternoon.

I cleared 4 loads just like this one this afternoon.  It was more work picking up the brush than doing the trimming.

Where are my little helpers?????????

Because it was such a warm afternoon, I thought to myself, self what better day than today to do some brush clearing.  So self got busy and did just that.

I have 2 more quilts to do for the same customer as the quilt in this post, so tomorrow morning the routine will be the same, quilt a quilt and then if weather permits, more yard work.

Sometime between now and Sunday I have to consider cleaning my house, having my family over for Easter dinner, and I warned them to wear comfortable clothing as I plan on using them to do more yard stuff.

That is if the weather cooperates with us.

Now I'm rewarding myself with a slice of lasagna, and no I didn't make it - frozen but still very good.

VROOM VROOM

That's what Gus says when he sees a truck or car.  He loves watching them go by the house and now he has a quilt of vroom vroom.

I while back I quilted this type of quilt for Karla, and Gus fell in love with the quilt, he cried if he couldn't touch it.

Karla was generous enough to give me her left overs, and I purchased the sashing borders and backing.

Gus is napping now, (he is suppose to be anyway). When he gets up I will give him his quilt.

I'm thinking I have to make a second one, he can have this one at his house, and I will need one for here.

I quilted with wavy lines so he can use them as roads when he plays with his matchbox cars.  LOL not like he will follow the lines right now but someday when he is older he might.

Its A 2fer Day

By that I mean I completed quilting of 2 quilts today.

Customer quilts:

Liz and her friends should be very proud of their handy work.  This quilt is going to the Veterans Home in Janesville.

Optical illusion, looks like there are curves, but actually the look comes from the use of rulers that are straight cut angles.  The pattern is called Chain of Events.  The color is off - it is really a  butter yellow.

I should have spent time outside, as the temps were in the 60's, however, because Gus was home with his daddy I took the time to finish some of my quilting.

The little guys is going to be with me for the next few days even over the weekend.  Hopefully, we can get outside for some of that time.

He loves being outside.  Yesterday he got his shoes, grabbing his coat and telling me "bye bye".  Who could say no to that.

A Good Use Of Worn Blue Jean

Customer brought this top to be quilted.

She used blue jeans and MY pattern Floating Stars.

To avoid hitting the joined seams which would have been almost impossible to go through without throwing off the stitching or even breaking a needle, I used free motion meandering;  This way I could guide the needle around the extra thick seams.

I think meandering was a good choice for this one anyway.

Love that she used my pattern to make this quilt.

A Couple Of Little Things

Gus and I went to breakfast with "aunt DeeDee" and "cousin Kathie".

By the time we came home it was nap time for Gus and I really got quite a lot done while he took a 2 hr nap.

Before he came this morning I managed to sew on the binding to aunt Mary's quilt.

Last night I finished the paper piecing star block and this morning added a border around the block:

During nap time I made 2 labels for quilts - sewed the borders on "Wanda's Dream Catcher" sample quilt and quilted it - simple rick rack - or some people call it EKG.

This will be donated to long term care here in Edgerton for a wheel chair lap quilt.

I managed to get all of this done before Gus got up from his nap.

Now he is up and ready for the afternoon, so no more sewing/playing for me.

A Quilt For Mary

My  BFF Nettie has an aunt Mary, which over the years I think of her as my aunt.

Her birthday is coming soon, so I made her a cute quilt she can cuddle with.

I quilted it free motion with very large flowers and swirls

A Class In Clinton

Took my friend Diane with me to a Foundation Paper Piecing class yesterday.

I have wanted to learn this for years and finally had the opportunity to take a class.

We enjoyed it tremendously and treated ourselves to a great pizza at "Boxcars" in Clinton.

Here is what I managed to finish in class:

The house was our first project and when we finished we started the star flower - don't know if that is what you call it but that is the way I described it.

PP is difficult and yet not.  It does take concentration, so this will not be a mindless sewing project that is for sure.

I have checked 2 of my to learn lists:  Hand turn applique and now Paper Piecing.

The trick now is to do more projects so I don't forget everything I learned.

I'm feeling better, at least I don't have the symptoms I did have and hopefully with meds I will be able to stay feeling well.

Gus is here today and he is already making me laugh.  He is playing vroom vroom with his matchbox cars and the path he wanted was under the kitchen chair (on purpose) he then tried to squeeze under the chair rungs - but got stuck.  Once I lifted the chair off of him he continued pushing his car around vroom vroom, but taking a clearer path.

Its going to be a good day.