Trip to Marshfield

Hello!  Today I took Carol to Marshfield for more appointments.  The way things are going it does not look like she will be going back to work in 4 more weeks (8 weeks after the surgery) like they originally told her.  She saw some physical therapists today and they gave her stretching exercises to do.  She also had two other appointments about her neck.  Please continue to keep her in your prayers as she is still having a lot of pain.  We had breakfast when we first got to Marshfield and then I dropped her off at the clinic.  I went to St. Vinnies, Good Will, and Hancock Fabrics and then went to pick her up at 2:30.  They recommended that she use a back cushion so we went hunting for that store and she got one of those and we also stopped at Target.  A trip through Culver's drive thru for ice cream and we were headed back home.  We have to go back in three weeks again.  Today's photo is of a doll quilt that I finished last week.  I have plastic shoe boxes that I have all one size block in.  So these blocks were already cut for me and I just pulled them out and started sewing the center panel.  I wish that I had all of my scrap bags cut into blocks but I don't.  That is a project I need to work on.  But I have cut a lot of scraps up into pony tails and tissue holders.  It is kind of like paper scraps.  You can keep working on using them up but they still multiply as you are always making more of them.  I was watching Fons and Porter Quilting program last night and Liz said she had so many scraps she just started throwing them away!  It is hard for me to comprehend that some people do that, as scrap quilts are my favorite if they are done nicely and a solid is used some where to tie things together.  I use many scrap pieces for crafting.  If nothing else, a yo-yo can always be made out of it.  I think I found an old fabric feed sack today at Good Will.  They used to sell flour and sugar in fabric feed sack's years ago and then the women would make quilts with them.  I need to do a little research as I haven't seen one in a long time but I am pretty sure that this chunk of fabric that I got for 99 cents was one of them.  It looks like a print from that era.  Maybe I will take a picture of it tomorrow and show it to you.  Right now, I need to head to La la land as I have had a long day!  Have a good night!

Doll Quilt

Last night I finished machine quilting this little doll quilt and putting the binding on.  It could be used as a table topper or hanging it out of a picnic basket would be cute too!

I (Heart) Quilts !!!!

Today was a fun day....Lady Di and I did our annual "let's go shopping for Elaine's birthday day".  We started out the day with some errands Di needed to do, and then we were off to Plover.  Our very first stop was St. Vinnie's and I am beyond thrilled at what I found there today!  Look at this!!!!

 

Isn't this a beauty!?!?!  It is all hand quilted.  It isn't very thick, a thin quilt but I love it!

 And guess what the best part of all is....!?!?!?  I only had to pay $6.00 !!!  What a steal.  It does have some rough spot's on the edges, small holes, but all in all it is in very good shape.  I collect quilts when I can find deals on them and have them scattered around the house over chairs, etc. and even have a few packed away that I need to get out.  I really love quilts, they give such a warmth, a well loved feeling to a home.  Here is where I decided to display this one.  I also fell in love with a couch they had there.  It was red leather and oh so 50/60ish and would look so cute with my table and chair set, even though the couch was a deep red.  It had those metal legs underneath that go at an angle that are so cool.  But, I had to leave it there.  It was a very good deal at $185.00 as it is mint condition.  Any one want to buy me some lottery tickets for my birthday!?!?  Maybe I will get lucky and win a couple hundred bucks and can go back and get it!  LOL

We had a great day.  We hit Michaels, Hancock Fabrics, and Good Will.  Charcoal Grill was my choice for lunch today, and we had yummy food.  Before we headed home we had to hit Cold Stone Ice Cream and by that time we were bursting at the seams!  Di surprised me with her birthday gift to me.  She paid for my ticket to a stamping event in Milwaukee in April called Year of Cards.  I have not been to that before and I am real excited about going to it!  It should be a great time.  Thanks for the great day Di!!!  Love ya...Boo 

Cozy Modern Quilts

I picked this book up yesterday from the library and it is a really cool one.  A great book for people who are just learning how to quilt, with some very simple patterns to do, yet the quilts have a very contemporary modern look to them.  I could very well see these quilts in both of my daughter's homes.  I subscribe to several quilting blogs and these are the type of quilts that these young mother's are sewing.  I just added this book to my book wish list on Amazon and I hope to add it to my collection some day.  Yes, for those of you who don't know, I collect quilting books and patterns, along with colbalt/blue & white items, Hershey chocolate items, fabric, stamps, and sewing decorations for my sewing room,  I also try to collect bags of Hershey's kisses, but they don't seem to stay around here very long.  The cat's must eat them while I am sleeping....ha ha!  Speaking of sleep...I should try to get some zzz's in before I have to pick up Share in the morning.  Have a good one!  Me

I Spy Quilt Square Swap!

Good Evening!  I thought I would show you the 4" quilt squares that I finished cutting for the internet I Spy quilt square exchange I am participating in.  Each participant searches for unusual fabric prints that a child would recognize.  You need to have 10 different fabrics.  Out of each fabric you cut 20 4" squares.  Then we mail them to the gal in charge of the swap and we will receive 200 squares back and each of them will have a different print on them.  Then in turn you can make a quilt and you do not have to purchase 200 different print fabrics.  So it is a real money saver.  After you have made and given your quilt to the child.  Then you can play I Spy with them with it.  This is a great way to keep a baby entertained at the doctor's office, or other place's.  Last night I saw pictures on Care's blog of 5 people's sets of squares that she has received so far.  There are some really cute one's and I am excited to get mine.  I plan on mailing mine out to her tomorrow.  We need to have them there by Feb 3 and are suppose to receive our's back by Valentines Day.  So sometime in the future, I will have an I Spy Quilt to show you.  I have made them for Community Quilting and they are fun to make.

Today, Diane's dog Bernie had a haircut appointment in the Rapids and she asked me to go along.  We went to Walmart and Walgreen's and I got my grocery shopping done for the next month.  I made a yummy salad for supper tonight.  I have been working on my samples for Sandy Renner's party and have 9 of them done so far and boy are they cute!!!  Have a good night!  Elaine

Yo Yo Quilt

This is the yo-yo quilt that I was telling you about that I repaired and finished for a gal in Milwaukee. Don't ask me to mend....I hate mending, but I do like to do quilt restoration. We met today at Subway and I gave her the quilt. She is very happy to have the work that her mother started, finished and she plan's on hanging it on a wall in her home. I laid this out on top of my bed so you could get a peek at it. Doesn't it look like a sea of yo yo's!?!?!?!

I just finished baking my cake for stamp camp tomorrow. I made a Halloween Funfetti cake. Too bad Zach won't be around, he loves funfetti cakes. I have been working on some boxed card sets that I will be selling at Women's night out on the 5th. If you are there...please stop in and say "hi"!! I was hoping to finish them tonight but I am just too darn tired. I need to go to bed and get some zzzz's! I got in a tiny nap this afternoon but the phone rang and woke me up. It has been a non stop phone day...especially tonight. Have a good one! Me

50's Table and Quilt

Here is picture of the new 50's table and chair set I bought yesterday and a picture of the quilt I bought a couple of weeks ago that I promised to show you. I love the set but am having trouble getting used to seeing it in here! Definitely a different look than my old oak table! I think I will grow into it. I remember the first time I had the kitchen painted in a sky blue. I couldn't get used to it at first but grew to love it and when it needed to be repainted years later, I didn't really want to change the color but I did. Funny how we get attached to certain things.

Pin cushions

Hello! As I told you yesterday, I was working on a pin cushion. I finished the pink one last night and made 3 more today. They are fun to do and I plan on making some more. The day flew by fast today with phone calls and a lot of computer work. We are working on things for the design team and if you click on the Owl on the right you can see a few cards I have made. I got a third set today that we will be releasing on the 8th so I will be busy creating some more things. You can go to http://owlwhimsy.blogspot.com and download the free image from each set if you would like to try them out and you can also purchase the sets if you are interested.
I had a pleasant surprise tonight. My friend Carol popped in out of the blue to visit and to see if I would like to go to Antler's Ridge with her. We had cheese curds, Ha wain Pizza and I discovered that I like Captain Morgan's Pina Colada's, Pineapple Coconut! I usually don't drink, just a wine cooler or Strawberry Daiquiri occasionally. But boy...that was yummy, and strong! I wanted a second one but they only had the one so was stuck with Mike's Lime. It was ok but after the Pineapple Coconut, there was no comparison! Any hoo...it all was a very nice treat and so good to spend time with Carol!

Janesville Quilt Show

Today I had the pleasure of going to a small quilt show at Janesville. Doris Kolberg was our chauffeur today, with Mary Raschke, Lady Di, and I riding along. I should have been at the flea market today, but both Mom and Di said it was suppose to be cold and windy today and that I probably wouldn't be able to stand it. It didn't take much to convince me of that when the alternative would be a road trip to a quilt show and I would be nice and warm! When we arrived at the show, we looked at the quilts first. I saw a couple of embroidered quilts that I have the patterns for and when I had my store, I had embroidered the individual squares and made into pillow's and had sold lots of them. So it was fun to see them made up. One was of snowman's all through the year and the other was of different flower baskets. Jenna has one of them with the baskets. I decided today that I would just pick a few quilts to show you. The one with all the little square's is a postage stamp quilt and it has 3000 different fabric square's in it. Di and I joked that we would have to show the picture of this one to Arlene at Community Quilting as she saves ALL of the scrap's and they get made into scrappy quilts. Those are my favorite to work on....to take all the scraps and make them into something cool looking. My favorite quilt at this show was the Northwoods quilt. It was very pretty and I really liked and appreciated all the applique in it to create the scenes. Lots of work in this quilt and I love needlework myself so this one ranked number one in my book today. Then I had to show you the large quilt that the kids from the Janesville school made. I have seen projects done like this on Simply Quilts TV show but I haven't seen one in person. AND...you all know how I like kids so this one was quite fascinating to look at and to see how kids view the world. After we viewed the quilts we looked at what the vendor's had to offer. Then we drove to Milton to see where Doris lived with Harlan, ate at the restaurant, now turned into a coffee shop where she was a waitress, made a quick stop at her daughter Connie's house, saw the farm where she milked cows on with her first husband, and then we went to a quilt shop in Milton. We stopped at Dairy Queen in the Dell's and by this time we were all pretty silly (over tired probably) but we had a lot of fun and a lot of laugh's. There was a car show in the Dell's today and there were TONS of cool cars parked and driving around in the Dell's and that was fun to see, although it was bumper to bumper traffic in the Dells, and that was not fun. I hit the hay as soon as I walked in the door and had a little snooze before the phone rang with Jenna calling around 7. I decided that I would get up and post this but I am headed back to bed. I have a headache and that is always a sign that I have done too much and am over tired but it was a very fun day.

Snowman Star Towels

Good Evening. I am sitting here eating left over pizza and listening to John Denver play on my stereo. Some of you may know that I have an extensive music collection. I have 2 - 300 CD disc changers. One is full and the other one is over half full. In the first one that I bought I put them in there in random order, mixed them up with all sorts of different kinds of music. The second one has a big section of just Christmas, and another section of 50, 60, and 70's and then a section with my latest music. I added the latest Rascal Flatt's CD today so Lady Di could listen to it while she was here. We are big Rascal Flatt's fans. Right now I have the 1st one on and it is always a surprise when the next CD comes up and I like that. Otherwise I would probably only play certain one's a lot and I really enjoy the mix. Annie's song is playing and when I got married, I had Kris Schaetzka play it on the guitar and sing it. She was set up on my folks front lawn under the Pines and I can still see her singing it. Do I remember anything else she sang. NO! LOL.. John Denver was always a favorite of my sister's and I. We spent a zillion hours singing and listening to him on 8 track on our family vacations to Montana and back. I remember Mom and Dad throwing us in the back of the truck one time under a topper, on the interstate. We always had to take a 4 wheel drive out there so we could go up in the mountains mining, and we would be crammed in the truck like sardines and it would be hot going across the Dakota's. I imagine you would get arrested if your kids were in the back of the truck now. And we sang on top of our lungs....good times. Now Di and I do it in my van singing Rascal Flatt's on road trips. Ask her sometime to do the "Rain" song....LOL. I am going to be in the dog house again! :D

Today while Di was here I was finishing up some towels that I had started stitching. I finished 4 of them today. They are all a little bit different but decided that I would only shoot a picture of 2 of them as I didn't want to bore you to tears! "You light up my life", sang by LeAnn Rimes is on right now. Another good song. You all light up mine...have a good night! Me

Kindness Matters Wall Quilt

Good Morning! Today's post will be about the wall quilt I made for Sarah and Zach for Christmas for there house. Sarah painted the wall's in there dining room a dark chocolate and when I was there the last time I was thinking that they would be a perfect background for a wall quilt. So I decided to make this one for them for Christmas. Sarah absolutely loved it and said that she could have not picked out the colors in it better herself. That is quite the compliment coming from her as she is selective about what she likes when it comes to decorating. We are talking about getting together to scrapbook this week and if she has it put up by the time I get there, I will shoot a picture of it hanging up. I didn't have anyone around while I was shooting this picture so had to lay it on the table and it doesn't do it justice!

Quilt Expo in Madison

Hello! On Thursday, Sandy Renner, Diane Dilworth, and I went to Quilt Expo in Madison. This is the third year in a row that I have went to it and for a quilter...it is an event not to be missed! It is hosted by Nancy's Notion's from Beaver Dam and is held at the Alliant Center. We arrived about 8:30am and waited in line until it opened at 9. We made a plan to meet again at 11:30 for lunch. We shopped some together but then went our separate ways. Around 11 I was very thirsty and tired and needed to sit so I headed for the food stand. I had just got in line when Sandy appeared behind me. She was starving and had come for food! So we decided to get our sandwiches and watched a quilt trunk show while we were eating and were showing each other what we had "bought"! By now it was 11:30 so we started hunting the back area for Diane. We found her at the other end where another trunk show was going on. So she went and got some food and we sat and watched this gal. She was into making purses etc from other objects. Such as purses out of potholders etc. When this show was done, we were recharged and ready to shop again. We decided to meet at 2 and see if we needed to stay longer at that time. Diane and I both had about the same area left to do so we started wondering around...buying more stuff of course! I can only tell you that it is quilter's heaven there. There is fabric and quilts galore...ton's of patterns and books for sale (that is my downfall...tee hee!, every gadget and tool imaginable, vendor's demonstrating new techniques etc. I just love it! I just took two pictures there. I was too busy to even think about taking more. But I took a couple of pictures of a couple of items that I bought pattern's for. Sometimes the original pattern maker has a picture on the pattern that is lousy, or made up in bad colors. Well this was the case with the pumpkin/sunflower pattern. If I showed you the pattern, you would never know it was even the SAME pattern! If you tell the vendor that you are going to purchase the pattern, and then ask if you can take a picture of there sample... they are very good about letting you shoot a picture of it. The pattern of the snowman is made up real cute in the book with a blue background but I decided to shoot a picture of this one with the darker background as it looks more folk artish and that is the kind of look Rae likes at Artisan on the Square in Brodhead. It is a folk art gallery and sometimes I send stuff down there to sell. Now to find time to sew! This week should be better I hope! Make it a great day! Boo

Sandy Renner and the Puppy Quilt

Tonight I had my evening stamp camp. We had a great time. If you do not want to be picked on...let me tell you...this is not the camp to come too! They tease, and harass each other unmercifully! But it is goodhearted fun and everyone laughs all night long which is good for the soul! Sandy Renner is a quilter to and she will bring in projects she has finished to show us sometimes. She made this adorable puppy quilt and I had to take a picture to show you all. It is so darn cute! I also have some pictures here of some of my night stamp camp. We were missing some people tonight due to other obligations but here is some of the "gang"! Boo

Star Quilt

Happy Fourth of July! I finished this star wall quilt today and will be taking it to the flea market to sell tomorrow. It has been a busy week and it sure went fast. I have been home most of yesterday and today trying to rest up a bit and do some picking up around here. I am still working on Campaign Organization. I can work in my craft room again so that is a good thing but there is still a lot that needs to be done. Have a good 4th!