latest quilt

this is the quilt that has 532 individual motifs cut with scissors, without patterns and marking.  It has been to the Paducah, Syracuse, and Houston quilt shows and will be in Phoenix the first of February.

When Shea came to my house so I could help her make her 4-H dress, I decided to make an identical dress so I could use it as a tool to show her how to do the various skills.  I sent her upstairs to  my quilting fabric stash to choose a fabric and she chose these beautiful  Kaffe Fassett fabrics I had been
been hoarding.  I think it turned out beautifully and the color really flatters her.  Tonight is fashion revue and I will try to take a photo of her "real" dress she made.  Also tonight at the Auxvasse Youth Expo is the Kid's Tractor Pull and Horse Show.

Wanting to sew............................

Yesterday I didn't get to sew, therefore, I am going to do some on my vegetable quilt today.  Yesterday I dug up an area by my house for a flower bed.  That just about did me in for the rest of the day.  I did pay bills and wrote up the Sec/Treas. reports for Hatton Community Club.  I decided that it was no fun to do that the day of club.  I am proud of myself.  I also went to town and got some sphagnum moss and compost yesterday evening.  I need to work it into the new bed today.  I stopped at Missouri Furniture yesterday and found a love seat to put in the kids room.  I really like it.  It is a dark red leather loveseat that is tailored with stitching and wood legs.  I really like it.  I just don't like all the overstuffed............stuff.  It is hard to find the style I like.  Now I need to find a rug to go under it. The kids will be excited.  Then I have to put the tv up there and get Netflix and they will be blissful!  They have been patient with me.  I don't just go out and purchase things.  I have to think about them for awhile.  That way I am sure that is what I really want.
 I am getting behind in my mowing. I do my two yards and also mow the lane and around all the farm buildings and grain bins.  It is a lot to do, but I am determined to do it.  This evening I need to do some more.  I really don't mind doing it if the mower is working correctly.  Gotta go.  Have a great day.  Remember.........................This is the day that the Lord has made!!!!!!!

House and Quilting

Finally started moving into my house in mid April and I am so thankful to God who has blessed me beyond measure.  My house is beautiful and I can't think of anything I would change.  I have been working on quilts.  Rachel and I are collaborating on a quilt for the New Quilts for an Old Favorite Contest.  The block is 9 patch and we are in the "How do we quilt this?" stage.  Rachel is going to do the quilting.  We are also collaborating on a bed quilt and it has trapunto, raw edge applique, tiny piping.  hand applique........................just an lot of extras on it.  I need to hand applique on it and then send it on to Rachel to work on for awhile.  I am also working on a "Vegetable" quilt.  I have always wanted a vegetable quilt.  These two projects are UFO's and I have some more to finish upstairs.  My vegetable quilt is hand painted, hand dyed, commercial fabrics, raw edge applique and thread painting.  Of course it will be a wall quilt.  I am so excited to be quilting again!!!!!  Just a glimpse of my updated farmhouse..........I want to plant old fashion flowers around it!  Need to work on grass this summer and prepare beds for next year.

I just wanted you to know that I am still alive.  Believe it or not, my house is still not done, but I have hopes that it will be done by March.  They are supposed to put the countertops in my kitchen Wednesday if we don't get a major snowstorm.  It is turning out well, but not without a lot of stress.  Typical home building experience.

My mom's health has failed this year.  She has macular degeneration and has been virtually blind since last fall.  She gets very depressed, as I am sure I would do also.

Family is fine.  All of them were here yesterday and we had a wonderful time.

In October, I had an itching to make a quilt for the New Quilts from an old favorite contest, but the deadline was looming............so I asked my daughter Rachel if she would collaborate with me.  She is a wonderful free motion quilter.  We got it done and much to my surprise it was accepted into the exhibit, and in fact, won 4th place.  Exciting.  I am wanting to sew so badly, but I need to get moved first.  

Hope this brings you up to the reason for my absence.








 

I know it has been a long time since I have blogged.................sometimes I go AWOL for not particular reason.  So sorry.  Anyway....................What news do I have?

 

Sycamore Bark Baskets and 4 Birds will both be in Lancaster AQS Show this month.  Sycamore Bark Baskets will be in the New Quilts for an Old Favorite:Baskets  exhibit and 4 Birds has been juried into the show and contest.  I saw that Jean Brueggenjohnn from my quilt guild also has a quilt in the juried show and contest, but I haven't found out what she has entered there.  Wish I could go, but Lancaster is not far from Boston and Washington DC.........a little too far for me.

 

 

I made this muse doll in an art group I was recently invited to join.  She was a lot of fun to make......she hangs in my sewing room, piecing together creative ideas for me to glean.

 

 

I made a big pillow from a block I made in Allie Aller's class.  I used my machine decorative stitches to embellish it...............sort of like a crazy quilt.  I love the colors..........these are many of my Kaffe Fassett fabrics that I have had in my stash for a long time.  Can you see the wall color of my bedroom....Rachel painted that for me.

 

 

I have also been doing some photography with the snow on.  This is Shea, bringing in a newborn calf that needed some TLC.  I love this photo...............one of my all time favorites.

 

So you see, I have been doing some fun things.  I am still putting hot fix crystals on my Jacob's Ladder quilt and I need to finish that this month.  Gotta go............sorry I have been so long in getting back to the blog.

 

today is a sad, sad day.  When I heard the news I just had to call Rachel............even though I knew Garrett was fine, I just had to ask.  Twenty precious little kindergarten children, just like my sweet Garrett.  Lord help us.

It has been a long time since I last blogged.  I worked all of October on my Jacob's Ladder quilt and had it finished (almost) the day before I had to have the entry in the mail.  I ran out of hot fix crystals and they were only available to me on line, so I just photographed the quilt and sent it.  It did not make the cut at New Quilts for an old favorite.  DARN  But the competition is really stiff, and not having it completely done might have been part of it.  Oh well.  I ordered some more hot fix crystals, but by the time I got them jurying had been done and I knew I wasn't one of the finalists, so I just put it away for awhile.  I was so sick of it.  I need to put the rest of the crystals on and see if I can get it into some shows.  I really do like it.

When I was in Paducah last April I bought some turkey fabric to make a table topper for Thanksgiving.  I had also bought a book on making easy New York Beauty blocks and I wanted to try it out.  I bought two shades of brown and pieced it fairly quickly.  I wanted to add a pop of color so I put some prairie points on the inside valleys of the NYB blocks and I really like it.  What do you think?

 

almost done..........................

with the top

I haven't appliqued down the lower part of the under tunic.  I need to make some adjustment to the angle of the tunic.  I have started taking photos and downloading them on the computer to view........this gives me idea of what it would look like on a wall.............even a better view than on my design wall.

I am not going to applique the body parts onto the quilt until I have quilted it and blocked it............I am worried all those hand dyes may try to run and ruin the flesh tones..............don't want that to happen.

FINALLY coming together...................................