Green Bay/Orca Bay Quilt

Andee's Green Bay quilt is off the LA. It's her version of the mystery from Bonnie Hunter originally called Orca Bay, and Andee made hers in greens and golds. She is from Wisconsin hence the Green Bay name!

I knew that whatever thread or design was quilted, it would not show, but it's a Pattern Man design of helmets and footballs.

Just for fun, on the bottom edge I quilted "Green Bay Packers Go Pack Go" a couple of times then there will never be any doubt as to the quilt's name.

It turned out beautifully, though you never get the effect of Bonnie's designs on the LA, too close-with all those thousands of tiny pieces you need more distance to get perspective on the design.

The little boy is here all day and I hope to get to the gym while GF watches over Matthew's sleep time. There are some HOB quilts I need to mail out to families so hopefully I can also get to the Post Office.

Then there is one more of Andee's quilts to go on the LA, and it is my plan to begin on that today also.

Marmalade And An HOB Quilt!

Having been gifted with a plethora of citrus, it seemed necessary to do something other than eat them fresh and what do we do when life gives us citrus? We make marmalade. I think for most Americans it seems sort of a British thing, but we Antipodeans love it!

A batch was cooked up before our Colorado spring break jaunt, then yesterday another lot, but there are still more of these fruits in the fridge!

Several jars have already been gifted and this is what is left, way more than we can consume I think. It does make nice hostess gifts so perhaps some will make it's way to Boston next month.

I use whatever citrus is on hand, in this case mostly oranges a couple of lemons and a couple of limes. In this first batch the fruit seemed to sink a little in spite of all my stirring. Someone has already been into the jar on the right, [DH likes it too] it is yummy-if you are a marmalade aficionado!

The lot from yesterday appears to have better fruit distribution - after removing the pan from the heat the same suggested seven minute stirring was used with both.

They all set up nicely overnight, it's a soft gel set. That could be because I am usually more heavy-handed with the fruit than the recipe directs- all of my cooking is pretty much like that, I do what I want and the recipe is simply a suggestion, LOL.

The HOB quilt above stays in AZ., it was constructed by staff at ASU here in Phx. Loretta, the AZ HOB Coordinator, asked me to quilt it and it has been folded up awaiting the opportunity to hand off to her. We always have good intentions of getting together but the distance between Phx and Tucson seems to be more than we can overcome with our busy schedules.

This is the typical way I quilt most of the HOB's tops that come to me, having found after 10 years that it is the fastest way to get a nice result, I can stitch from one block all the way across without stopping. There are probably 25 tops here for CO. that require quilting and binding, just have not had time to do them but I will need to begin on them again because tomorrow the last two completed quilts will be sent off to bereaved families. These are the last of some half dozen from CO. guilds provided to me all finished, something that is so very helpful. The pics and details of the quilts and the recipients are on the CO.HOB blog.

I don't have Matthew tomorrow so after the gym and a haircut I must get back to the longarm machine.

Matthew really enjoys the swing GF attached to the big Ficus tree and will happily swing for a good half hour. It's lovely and shady out there, a peaceful safe place for him until the temperatures become unbearable.

And he loves Angry Birds game, I have a couple of old Droids with the game on them, his GF is now addicted to this game also and as soon as Matthew hears the music he comes running! It is a sure way to distract him from something else!

The little chap started preschool yesterday and it's going to take him a while to adjust to being part of an 8 child group instead of the adored only little grandson, the other two are 15 and 17-

their birthday party Sunday, note the ubiquitous teenage appendage attached to the ear!

At preschool Matthew has to learn to do things on the class schedule not just whenever he wishes it, a hard lesson to realize at the age of three that the entire world does not revolve around him!

Vintage Wedding

I am linking up with Vintage Thingies Thursday.

It's been waaay too long since I joined VTT but I was checking it out at Coloradolady's blog and noticed that Missy Shay has posted vintage wedding gowns, much older than my Mum's but it brought hers to mind.

I wish I had it now, Mum made it all herself on a treadle machine from wartime - available materials in Australia. The picture makes me very nostalgic, almost to the point of tears!

Isn't she beautiful?

Mum and Dad were married 70 years ago, on February 9th.1942.

Dad was in uniform, Royal Australian Airforce, a dashing chap isn't he?

My Uncle Albert far left was in Royal Australian Army uniform.

My Dad had been in training on a base in Queensland and did not know for sure if he could get away to Sydney [over 700 miles] for the wedding because things were so unsettled.

At the last minute he got leave and thumbed a ride to Sydney on the night before the wedding!

When my Mum came to meet him at the altar of St.John's church in Sutherland, as he took her hand from my Grandfather he leaned in winked and said "G'day Toots"!

When I asked him why, he said he thought my Mum might be nervous and he wanted to make her more relaxed!

They were a sweet couple.

What Is It?

Any guesses what this abandoned project might be? This would be better known as PIGS, or Project In Grocery Sack, and it was really in a grocery sack!

If you thought it was a fabric covered clothesline basket/bag in the making you would be correct, good guessing!

I began to sew this at retreat at PieceMakers in Ouray a couple of years ago, grew weary of sewing the strips to the clothesline [it was very boring] and tossed it under the work table behind other stuff, probably so I could ignore it,LOL.

I was needing strips of batik for the Craftsy BOM's and recalled all the strips I had cut for this project so I dragged the bag out to see what could be done to get it out of my UFO [Un Finished Object] collection.

During an online search for directions to complete the bag I was fortunate to came across this $8 downloadable pattern from My Point Of Hue. Most of the directions I found online are for the method of simply wrapping about 1" wide strips of fabric around the cord, whereas mine is actually sewn onto the cord making it extremely labor/time intensive and for me very tedious......

because after first cutting yards and yards of strips and sewing them all together...............

I had to then press them like so.........

before I could actually stitch them onto the cording!

The next step is to sew the covered cording together with a zig zag stitch on the machine and when I actually get to that I will show my steps in another post-but don't hold your breath because it might not be this week!

There is approximately 25 yds. here and I have no idea what size bag it will make but however large or probably small it is will be "it" because I am not sewing any more of these strips!

I was very pleased to find this one pattern that uses the same method I had begun, and what's more it was instantly downloadable and at $8 worth the price.

Quilting- And Back Country Snowshoeing!

Oh no, the snowshoe expedition did not include me, I was in Montrose busy sewing and visiting with with the CO. Huggy Bunch. First, my sewing progress for the day, then onto the guys activity!

I am using these 2" HST papers from "Laundry Basket", and yesterday I sewed up 19 papers .......

using CW replica fabrics, that will produce a total of 532 of these little 2" HST's. This is a sampling of the color/fabric combinations I made yesterday. I already had 84 so now I am well on the way to a quilt top. I am going to combine them with 4" hour glass blocks,

also made with triangle papers, though right now I have no idea of the final configuration, that will fall into place once I think I have enough blocks and/or get tired of making them!

Today the plan is to make more of any of the above!

Now for the CO. back country adventure!

DH, DGS#2 on right and his friend, plus our neighbor and his son, started out from Red Mountain area to head out to the back country.

It was new, pristine snow and a lovely sunny day, Colorado at it's best!

All that is left above ground of the old National Belle Mine - not sure of the elevation but something over 12,000 ft.

The young fellows stopped for lunch, you know how teenage boys have to eat!

Today they are off to Telluride for more skiing, should be a fabulous day.

Stolen Quilts

Karen Combs, quilt teacher, author and fabric designer, and a member of my Machine Quilting Professional group, has suffered a theft, all her teaching materials and demo quilts.

Click here for a link to her blog with the details and pictures of quilts included in the loss.

I think this is a quilter's worst nightmare so especially if you live in New Braunfels Texas area, please keep an eye out for these items. There is a website devoted soley to lost and missing quilts here.

Once I mailed a quilt to HI. Federal Express, insuring the quilt for the appraisal value, nearly $2000, specifically requesting "signature required" at delivery. The recipient was in the shower at the time of delivery and FedEx left the box outside the door of a multi story apartment building in Waikiki! When I found out I almost had a heart attack, LOL, thank God it was not "lost"!

Quilt theft is not unusual, quilts often disappear from classes and most of us are very cautious about shipping quilts, always have some kind of insurance and a professional appraisal if it is a very valuable quilt. Never use the word "quilt" or anything close to it in the description, describe the contents as "textiles" "blanket" "fabrics" or something similar and you most likely will never have a problem.

Using common sense and caution, most longarmers mail quilts all over the country and sometimes around the world and never have an issue.

San Juan Mountains

We left AZ. under clear skies but with the "threat" of "weather"!

After a nine hour drive we stopped downtown Ridgway at Colorado Boy Brewery for pizza then on up to the house.

DGS #2 and his friend.

At 9,000ft. it was a balmy 34degrees at midnight last night but today this is the scene.

We "hiked" up around the road to visit neighbors in the next house you see in this pic. I had planned to take the "short cut" down the back to come home but the snow was up to our hips and Button disappeared completely so DH and I came back by the road but the boys came cross country braving the deep drifts!

Snow stuck to the windows, it was coming down horizontal!

The skiing will be fabulous this week.

Wheelchair Quilt

This was quilted and bound yesterday now only lacks a label. Quilted freehand with a flower/leaf design and brown thread. This is the second quilt from this collection of fabrics so I was really scraping the bottom of the barrel to get it finished, using almost every last bit.

The batting is Dream Angel, non flammable, super soft and light, and a freehand flower/leaf quilting design with brown thread.

The backing is an eclectic mixture, LOL, a combination of extra blocks and left over fabric plus a yard of a "ring in" fabric that sort of goes with the front! The binding is also a different fabric, it just needed to blend with everything .

Makes it "interesting", no?!

PS.There is a mistake in this quilt, can you find it!

Julie's Hugs And Kisses Quilt

Julie's gift for her sister and BIL, birthdays and anniversary. Julie adapted the pattern and I think it's adorable. Each block has special meaning for this couple and the white heart blocks are for family signatures. A lot of work went into designing this to be such a special message for her loved ones.

The panto used is called Lovenotes, just perfect for the theme of the quilt. The thread is So Fine by Superior, Bottom Line in the bobbin.

Saturday Progress

This is my Bountiful Basket produce in the box, isn't it gorgeous? The oranges in the basket are part of the haul I picked at the home of a friend who doesn't eat citrus. They are Arizona Sweets, lots of seeds but juicy and sweet. I may make some marmalade, because I also have some large pink grapefruit and lemons from another friend's tree. These are all organic.

There is some kale in the box, I guess I will cook it with bacon? I didn't grow up in the Southern USA, and I don't remember ever seeing kale in Australia, though it may well be available.

My summer quilt is fully grown! I put the final borders on and I can longarm it once I purchase a backing- I am looking at Thousandsofbolts.com.

BJ came to sew for a couple of hours today, working on her scrap blocks. I was putting the blocks together for the current lapquilt, D9P 2nd. generation. We were trying to make a design that was balanced with the smaller number of predominantly blue blocks.

Then we realized that this might be too large for a wheelchair lapquilt, about 45x60, perhaps too long? Removing the top and bottom rows I would be left with the version below, about 45 " square.

What do you think, anyone with experience in this matter of wheelchair quilts, is it too small now?

Wordless Wednesday

The Thinker........

It's Growing!

The flimsie I am enlarging for our KS bed now boasts two more borders, growing from 76" to 83.5" square! One is made up from the scraps into a 3" piano key border, the last is that peachy fabric from BJ's stash.

I think it looks ok, don't you? The peachy fabric is a new addition to this quilt but it coordinates nicely. This design was all about adding rows/borders anyway so I think a couple more aren't too odd looking. I wish now though that I had made the peach border a bit wider than 3", I have about 1/4 yard of this fabric left, but oh well, hindsight is 20/20 isn't it? I have no idea yet what to use for the binding but I will deal with that when the time comes.

The fabric for the final border came yesterday, [I found it on eBay at a store in the PNW] but so did some back ordered supplies I have been awaiting in order to longarm a client quilt and that has to be done before my personal sewing.

Then last night I began another quilt project because I need to make a small lap quilt for someone in a wheelchair and everything I have already, is too large or inappropriate fabric design!

Remember this top, using some fabrics from last year's local shop hop? With the addition of a couple of stash fabrics it was sewn up into a pretty top at the fall retreat in CO.There was fabric left over, enough as it turns out for a small lap quilt and the plan is to use the second generation D9P pattern, it will be fast!

Last night I cut 6" squares to make six of these large 9 patches.

They will become 48 second generation blocks.

I will use this brown for the HST effect of the second generation design.

But first, the client's quilt!