Christmas Quilts

This has been a busy last few weeks.  I had started Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Mystery, but an a step behind now.  But I'm off until after New Years and hope to get a good piece of sewing time in.  This will be a busy Christmas.  I know I have never gifted so many quilts at one time before.

My maternal grandmother tried to make quilts for each of her grand children when we graduated from high school.  And being there were 40+ she really had her work cut out for her.  Since I am single and have no children, I decided to carry on this tradition with my nephew and 3 nieces.

Darryl being the oldest got the first graduation quilt.  Being a boy I wasn't sure he would have an appreciation for a quilt, so I made him a long twin, where as the girls got full size quilts.  This weekend Darryl was home for the holidays from Chicago.  He had been hinting that his quilt needed a little help.  So I told him to bring it along and we would have a look at it.  For being 14 years old, it has been well loved.  Mostly the binding needs replacing and the back and a few fabrics on the front will need a little patching but that is all doable.

Darryl has been married over a year now and I felt he was due a proper quilt.  My mother made he and Anna an embroidered quilt for the wedding.  I had been working on one as well but didn't want to over shadow grandma's quilt so I mainly work on it at retreats.  I decided this year to get it done and off my list.  My wonderful friend and machine quilter, Wendy Paskus quilted it for me.  Between my mom and I, we got it bound so that I could give it to them Sunday before they returned to Chicago.

In addition to Darryl's quilt I had decided to make quilts for my great niece and nephew, Molly and Jack.  I have had Jack's quilt done for a couple of months, but decided I should make one for Molly as well so that they would each get a quilt.  After quilting Darryl's quilt, Wendy went to work on Molly's.  I got Molly's quilt on Thursday and worked all day Saturday to get the binding on.  So these were both delivered on Christmas eve at great Grandma's home.

 

 

 

 

 

Now back to Easy Street mystery.

 

Easy Street Step 3

Well, this is where I start falling behind.  I still have 50+ of step too to still done.  But just remembered that Bonnie suggested doing what you can of each step  and catch up later.  I have time off between Christmas and New Years and hope to get a good deal of sewing done.  But may also have 2 quilts to bind before Christmas if I get them back.

The other hiccup is that Saturday night while I was relaxing and web surfing someone kicked in my front storm door.  By the time I got over the shock and checked things out they were long gone. But that puts me in a position where I really don't like to go down in the basement to sew.  I found yesterday I didn't mind being down there during daylight, but in the evening I want to be in a defendable position if need me.  Some times I get sooo mad about this kind of s**t.

Well, tonight is Charm Christmas and tomorrow night is Variable Star Christmas. 

Will worry about the new door when I'm off between Christmas and New Years.  At least this is the end of the year and not the beginning.

Easy Street Part 2

The 2nd set on instructions came out for Easy Street on Friday.  Today after the Pline family Christmas I started on it.  Making flying geese is one of my least favorite units to make.  But I decided to try Bonnie's technique and see if they turned out any better.

I bought both rulers that she recommended and went at it.  But still have troubles with them not turning out well.  I know part of the problem is hanging on to them too tightly when I put them through the sewing machine  After the first 10 they seemed to turn out better.  But my saving grace was the "Mini Fit to be Geese" ruler I got for my previous small group mystery.  The ruler is  from Open Gate at www.opengatequilts.com.  It really helps me true these up. 

So for now I have gotten started on them and will see how it goes until next Friday's instructions come out.

Pline Christmas

Today was the Pline Christmas party.  My mother is the second oldest of the twelve children of Martin and Bertha (Felpausch) Pline.  Of the twelve we lucky to still have 9 of them still with us. However, Aunt Pat lives in South Carolina and doesn't always make it up.  This was this years shot of the brothers and sisters.

And this is the rest of the pandamonion that is the Pline Christmas....

 

 

 

It was good to see the cousins.  I don't even try anymore with the great and great-great grands.

Easy Street and More

Have started on Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt.  I think her mysterys all turn out to be large quilts.  Don't know if I will keep this one or use as a donation quilt but I have the first set of construction instructions done.  Sewing 4 patches from our grey and black and white fabrics.

 

 

I would like to make more quilts for our guilds "Heart Warmers" quilts which we donate to the local hospitals for chronically and critically ill people.  As I get closer to retirement I wanted to find an easy quilt that I could whip out quickly.  I think I found it.  The other day on a blog someone was showing quilts that a friend was making for charity.  I liked that it was just strips sewing together, very quick.

 

So I thought I would try it.  I had some santa, houndstooth and poke-a-dot fabric so thought I would give it a try.  Here was the outcome.

 

I think I may be able to put my stash to good work.



Play Date fun

Last Sunday and Monday I took classes from Bonnie Hunter.  I have been following her blog not for months and just love the ideas she comes up for using scraps.

The Thursday before she did a lecture at guild on the quilts you can make using scraps.  It was a great lecture.  The second best thing at the guild meeting was getting a look at the beautiful quilt made my members of the guild and Dorothy Jones who pulled it together.  Don't think we will have trouble selling these tickets.

The Sunday class with Bonnie was "Star Struck".  We used 2.5" strips and 2.5" squares.  These are the blocks I got made during class.

 

 



Bonnie enjoyed seeing my truck as well as mentioned on her blog quiltville.blogspot.com and I got a lot a great comments on the truck.

The class on Monday was "Oklahoma Backroads".  She switched the lights and darks in a normal "Road to Oklahoma" block to get this quilt design.  Another one using 2.5" strips and 2.5" squares.

Right now I'm planning on using these block to make 2 lap sized quilts. 

I have been surprised at the wildlife I have seen lately.  At the quilt retreats these cranes were directly behind the house we were staying in which backed up to a golf course.

And this young fello has been playing in traffic at Aurelius and Mt. Hope many a morning lately.  Wednesday I  got this picture of him about 3:30 pm.

Maybe over this long holiday weekend I will get pictures of some of my recent estate sale finds

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Play Date

Yippee!  I have a play date with Bonnie Hunter today.  Today is her Star Struck class through Capitol City Quilt Guild.  Enjoyed her program at guild Thursday night.  She has been in Ann Arbor the last 2 days and now will be in Lansing today and tomorrow.  Will also play tomorrow as well.

Hit an estate sale yesterday and picked up a few items.  I am planning on being a vendor at our quilt show in may and hope to have a booth full of vintage sewing related items.

Hope to have photos tonight.

Happy Stitching

Story of a sad little quilt...

About a year ago my brother was doing an estate sale in Grand Rapids.  This house was in terrible shape, but needed to be emptied.  In a pile of sheets and blankets I saw an edge that I recognized as a quilt.

 It was in terrible shape.   It had large rough stitches holding the back together.

 It was a full size quilt that had been folded in half and the edges sewn together with large running stitches with the thread that was heavy like crochet cotton.  It had lots of hand quilting, triangle shapes with 4 rows of quilting and it was well done with small stitches.

 

So I was hooked. I had to know what was inside.  So I bought it for $5 and brought it home.  I decided I couldn't hurt it any worse than it had been and it was filthy.  So in the washing machine it went for 3 washes.  Then I hung it over a couple of lines in the basement to dry.  It has hung there for about a month.  Got busy with other things.  But I finally I decided to take it with me to quilt appraisals.  I figured I would have time between morning and afternoon appointments and could have a look.  It had a very worn indigo polka dot binding, good clue.  Once I pulled the stitching out, this is what I found.

A circa 1880's strippy quilt.  Little 3.5 inch nine patch blocks set with polka dot indigo fabrics with muslin strips between.  Although the indigo held up wonderfully all but about 2 nine patches are complete gone.  But even in this state it is pretty graphic.  Here are a couple of closeups.

I think it has a little more to tell me with closer inspection, and I think I would like to reproduce this quilt.  Once reproduced I will probably cut it up and just save one section of it after all there is only so much I can keep.

So here is another quilt rescues from the trash.  I'm glad to have has a close look at it and find myself thinking of the woman who made it.  It would be great to find a name quilted in or written on although if it was on any of the white, almost all of that is gone.

Your in stitches,
 Jackie

Tailgate treasurers

This was another good week for sales in Lansing.  One was a quilter and her husband who were downsizing.  For that one I even took 2 hours off work Friday morning to be in the first 10 in the door.  Bought and still got to work on time.  Of course then I had to go back on Saturday to see what else was left.  These are just a few of the finds.

 

The little sewing basket went into my flea market merchandise. The white vase is identical to one I got in the same neighborhood 6 months ago, so now I have a pair.  Will keep them for now. And the little couple is a wedding cake topper, bisque, from abotu 1900.  It also will navigate between my collection and flea market merchandise.

 

All of these items I got at the quilter's downsizing sale.  The little dishes, sewing kit and pear make do pincushion will go in the flea market merchandise.  The rabbit thimble holder, down front and the elephant pincushion will stay in my collection of sewing items.  The glass dome with the spools may go or stay, not sure yet.  I'm trying to accumulate enough sewing items to maybe vend at a quilt show.

This is a large set of old dominos I got Sunday.

These were some salts I bought.  The white one is like a little crock and I love the wooden pair with the spoons.  They are amazing in the workmanship.

Mom found all of these "french Ivory" pieces in a box.  Evidently they got emptied out of a dressing table that someone bought.  There were also button hooks and manicure items, but these 3 caught my eye.  The box was full of rubber bands which got thrown away immediately.  The little piece it like a tooth pick holder, metal base with a ivory slide top.  And I love the little wind up alarm clock.  I may hang onto these items for a while.

Lastly here a a couple of the blocks made out of Betty Smith's scraps.

Only about 30 more to make to make a lap quilt.

Coming up the story of a sad little blue and white quilt.

 

Getting Organized

I have been following Bonnie Hunter's blog http://quiltville.blogspot.com a lot lately.  She does a lot of great things with scraps and lately she has been having "quilt cam" in the evenings, where she sews on her different antique machines.  At an estate sale, actually a downsizing sale, I bought 2 large bins of scraps.  Many were precut into 1" and 2" strips.  But there were also a lot of other sized scraps.  She suggests precutting your scraps so that they are ready to go when you want to sew.  So I have been precutting the scraps I bought and my own into strips of 1.5", 2", 2.5" and 3.5".  Squares in 1.5", 2", 2.5" and 3.5" and bricks in 2 x 3.5, 2.5 x 4.5, and 3.5 x 6.5.

I am going to be taking a class from Bonnie at our guild in November, in fact 2 classes.  So I have been precutting the scaps that I will need for those 2 patterns, Start Struck and Oklahoma Backroads. I'm also saving reds for her Talking Turkey blocks and leaders and ender Bow Tie blocks.

As I have been cutting I still end up with scraps that are too small to save.  I had been throwing then in the wastebasket.  But when I look in there I was surprised just how much there was.  Some of the members of our guild and small groups save their scraps to fill pillow cases which get donated to the local animal shelter for dog and cats.  So I tried to figure out an easy way to save the scraps.  What I hit upon was this.  At lots of sales I have always bought pillow cases to store my quilts in, so I have quite a supply.  So I came up with this.  Take a bucket. . .

and a pillow case . . .

Once it's full of scraps I can just sew the top shut and it's ready to go.  I may even add a cup hook to the bottom of the table I cut at and hang it there.  But for now setting at my right side is good enough.

My niece, Denise is home for a visit.  We all had dinner at my mother's house yesterday so we would all get a chance to see Denise and Jason.  Jennifer and Leif and Darryl and Anna couldn't make it from the Chicago area.  But hopefully we'll see them at the holidays.

Have the quilters again Tuesday night, maybe after that I will post some pictures of recent sale finds.

Race Day

Well this was the day that I had been training for.  My 2nd 5K at Sparrow Hospital.  Thank goodness the temperatures were cooler.  It was nice in that Susie Merchant and the MSU Women's Basketball team were there as supporters.  There was a 5K and 8K so it was nice that I wasn't the very last one across the finish line.  I improved my first 5K time by 2 minutes, 1:0d.  Not much but at least it was better.  Has a picture taken with Sparty.  Now to shower and rest a bit.

Scraps... of all sorts

I home everyone has a great holiday weekend!  I woke up Saturday morning to find my battery had died in my truck.  But brother Mike to the rescue and by the end of the day I was up and running the roads again.

Yesterday I was at my mom's sorting through 4 boxes of fabric that a friends daughters brought over for her.  Betty Smith used to be a member of my mom's quilting circle, "What you see is what you get!".  The piecing gene seems to have passed my mother.  She will quilt and embroider but doesn't like piecing, and doesn't believe in having a stash@#!?  She has always bought just what she needed for a quilt  and then can't stand what's left over. 

So yesterday we sorted through the boxes.   We found enought pink and/or blue for at least 1 girl and 1 boy baby quilt.  Enough red and green christmas prints to make something with and also enough patriotic.  Then there were the "others", feed sacks, 60's or 70's prints, some much older that must have belong to Betty's mother or grandmother or mother-in-law.  Here are what I brought home.




Even some funky cheaters cloth.

I have been enjoying Bonnie Hunter's blog lately, http://quiltville.blogspot.com/.  A friend is using Bonnie's pattern, Scappy Trips Around the World for her block exchange.  And I had noticed it a while ago as well.  So yesterday we began cutting strips to just see what happens.  I brought them home to sew them and see what comes out.  Whatever comes out we will probably donate the items to the VFW for their holiday craft show/sale in November.  I will post as things move along.

 

Something else my friend Carol has been doing was "deboning mens shirts", which Bonnie also has a video on.  Carol has does a demo on cutting a man's plaid shirt up into usable yardage for scrap quilts.  Well, I did pretty well at the flea market with my designer fabric samples, so why not try this.  I might want some of the yardage but I really don't need it all.  So I bought 5 shirts this past weekend and took them apart.  I plan on ironing the fabric and then putting it in bags at the flea market for sewers/quilters to buy.  I will probably label it "deboned shirts" and sell them for about $3 with pieces from several shirts so they get a good selection.  These are the shirts I got this weekend.

 

Now for the final scraps.  Yesterday I took lunch with me to my mom's.  I did chicken on a skewer and separate skewers of vegetables (green peppers and cherry tomatoes off my plants, summer squash, zucchini, sweet onion and mushrooms.). Tonight I'm taking the left over veggies roasting them in the oven with sweet corn added and a little olive oil and salt and pepper.  It smells soo good right now I can hardly wait to tuck in.

 

 

 

Well, smells like it is just about ready so I have to go.  Have a good evening.







Progress toward 5K

Wednesday night I went to 5K training.  Walked 3 miles in 1:06:06.  Not too bad.  I was going to go to training again today, Saturday.  But when I went to start my truck it wouldn't start.  First time it's let me down in 7 years.  Oh, well, placed call to handy brother and he seemed to think it is just the battery.  So he has taken pity on my and may be over later today to have a look.

But that's good.  Since I would go anywhere it means I'm force to stay home and get something done. I mowed the front lawn about 8 am. Then decided if I was going to have to take the truck into the dealer I should unload my "merch" from the fleamarket into the garage.  So emptied truck, loaded the dishwasher, did laundry.  Now the big task, cleaning off the kitchen table.  Oh, so much fun on the last holiday of the summer.  But that's ok.  Hope you all have a safe holiday.

Yours in stitches
Jackie

Sad Note

Tonight was our variable star meeting.  I rode out with Carole and we got back to Lansing about 9:18 pm.  I wondered what was going on at the neighbor across the roads home.  There were lots of lights and several large trucks in the yard.  After parking I took my trash out which gave me an opportunity to figure out what was going on.  What has gone on was a house fire!  The trucks were there to board up the house.  Cover holes in the roof, windows that were knocked out.

It is really sad.  I think this woman has been in the house about a year.  It was on the south side of the street where about a year ago Ingham/McClaren tore down the five houses immediately adjacent to this to the west.  Hope I hear what caused the fire.

Tomorrow I may blog about the AQS show in Grand Rapids.  Great show, well attended.  So much for the bah humbug sponsors who backed out because they didn't think Michigan could support a national show, guess we showed them.

Sunday we went to the Antique Show at the Allegan Fair Grounds.  Beautiful day, saw some cool stuff and bought some cool stuff.  Show and tell coming up.

Jackie

More Walking

Went to the 50+ training again today.  Today I added one-half mile to make it 2.5 miles.  My time was 48 min 25 sec.  By my figures I added a half mile and cut my time by by 2 min 38 sec.  Guess carrying a water bottle was slowing me down.  I figure if I hydrate well enough before, I don't need to carry that encumberance.

Jackie

Walking

Walking with the 50+ walkers from Playmakers has been kind of hit or miss.  My sciatic problem is getting better after having a manipulation done.  But the left knee will always be a problem.  Training is on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings.  On the session I have made I try to improve my distance more each time.  Last night I was shooting for 2 miles.  And made it in 43 min. 37 seconds.  I really don't worry about the time, just as long as I keep moving and finish.

I'm having a new furnace put in today.  I forgot to take a picture of the old one before they got it all out. But did get a pic of the empty space.  It's amazing how small the new furnace is.  Will post a pic tomorrow.  Thanks for checking in.  Jackie

Tailgate treasurers

I have been reading on some blogs lately about recycling canvasses.  At the cost of new canvas people are buying used ones, and painting over them.  So last weekend I have the opportunity to pick up these 4 canvases. I may keep the ship one but the others may get sold at the flea market or painted over.  Have a look.









Need a Car cover?

Last year members of Capitol City Quilt Guild made this VW beetle car cover for our quilt show.
And it's for sale.

Staycation this week

I have another vacation coming up this coming week.  I need to prep merch (Oooo doesn't that sound professional) for the Mega Mall flea market on July 15, 10-3 and the day before on July 14 I have to work another sale at Lake Odessa and then have tickets for the Lugnuts game that evening.  I have been toying with the thought of repainting my bedroom this week.  Biggest job is getting the matress and boxsprings out of the room so there is some room to work.

After I bought my house it took me a while to decide on colors.  After living in apartments soo long where you couldn't do a think, I felt I had to get a feel for my home's personality before I painted.  My bedroom has been green for quite a number of  years.  Now I think I will go with white walls with a light sky blue ceiling.  That way I can put any color quilt on my bed.  If I get started on Saturday the two main things to do will be move out the matress/springs and the old computer desk that will go to either St. Vincent or VOA.

Well I didn't get started Saturday, the heat lately seems to have gotten the better of me and I think I slept most of the day.  Today Mom and I went shopping as she wanted to get away.  And I was happy to oblige, I am such a procrastinator.

I have been following a friend, Jan G's, journey biking (as in bicycling) home from a family reunion in southern Indiana.  And I figured if she can tackle this,I should get off my but and do something.  So I am going to tackle another 5K.  Playmakers had it's information session this evening for the next 50+ get off the couch run.  Training starts Wednesday evening (already have a session with my trainer so I won't make the first session) for a run in September.  I survived my last/first 5K so here goes nothing.  Paid my fee and got my parking/entry permit for the county park where we have our training sessions.  Let's go girls!

Garden Whimsey and the Variable Stars

Tuesday night we met again at Roxie's house, this time to try our hand at making garden whimsey's out of garage sale finds.  There was some glass breakage, but all in all I think even those who didn't make one still had fun.  Even Roxie's grandsons joined in.

Carol concentrating very hard to get it just right.

This is the red, white and blue one I have been saving bits and pieced for for the last few months.



Is Roxie wondering it it's tooooo tall?

This is my green one.  Melanie pulled some of the class that I used.