Two posts in one month!

I promised to be back and here I am!

Here's the little hanging I made for my BFF for Christmas.  

The pattern for the appliqué and embroidery is from Jenny of ELEFANTZ.

I've also been working on these leaf blocks.

They're the leftover pieces from this: (which still hasn't been quilted)

Here they all are out together.  It went together just like I graphed out on paper.  What a surprise! I did invisible machine appliqué on them.

I'm not sure I really like this top, but it was a successful experiment and it's done, so I feel like I accomplished something.  What do you think?

I'm Back!

The last two months have not been the most fun of my life.  I've been quite ill with a colon infection that just won't seem to go away.  I'm in the middle of my 4th round of antibiotics (3 of those were 14 day regimins).  I'm so tired of taking pills around the clock.  But enough of that.....

On the days that I was not too weak to pick up a needle, I managed to finish my hand applique project.  I had made out a schedule back in December that I had to stick to in order to get it done in time to have it quilted and entered in my Green Country Quilters Guild "Quilt Tulsa" in early June.  (see:  http://www.greencountryquiltersguild.com/)   

This is what my cutting table looked like at one point:



These are the one inch (finished) squares that make up the sashing.  (note the beautiful red sciccors my bff gave me for my birthday last fall)

 And since my design wall is full of all kinds of stuff (mostly UFO's) I hung the sections of the quilt top on the closet curtain.

Before I forget it--this is a Kim McLean design.  I didn't care for the top and bottom border of her pattern so I designed my own using some of her flowers.  I also "tweeked" the side borders a bit.  So here it is in all it's "Glorious Color":



Not a great picture.  I took the top to my favorite quilter, Donna, a few days ago.  I can hardly wait to see what she does with it.  (thank you oldest daughter and son-in-law for holding it up while I took the pictures)

 I had a few (well, maybe a lot) of one inch squares left over from the sashing.  I plan to make them into something for our guild's Small Quilt Auction at the show.  So stay tuned.

Happy 2012

Well....it's been quite some time since I've posted.  Things have been very busy.  First Christmas.  Then Tim's brother came for a short visit.  Then my sister came for 8 days (we had lots of fun sewing and she showed me how to use lots of stuff on my computer that I didn't know how to use)

I've gotten the top border of my applique done and will show it soon.  In the meantime...this is about all I got done around the holidays.

This is all wool made from scraps (some given to me by my friend Carolyn).  It's machine appliqued and hand embroidered.

Bottom Border Finished...well almost

Here's the bottom border for my applique quilt.  (Flower Garden by Kim McLean).  I didn't care for the top and bottom borders in the pattern so I designed my own using the flowers and leaves that were elswhere in the pattern.  The vines will spill over into the side borders when it's all put together.

This and That

Fall is finally here (although the temperatures are still above normal) and another grandson has discovered how beautiful my mums are.

Here's a close up of the yarn my daugher spun for the Sweepstakes Prize at the Tulsa State Fair.  She told me that the "stuff" she started with was quite ugly and greasy. (I know "stuff" is not the correct word but I'm not a spinner so I don't remember the right terminology).  She used her spinning wheel to spin it into something beautiful.  She added metalic threads and tiny, shiny beads.

This is another piece she won a prize on.  It's a collar, shawl type of thing.  The next picture shows it opened up.

And here are the latest of my applique blocks.  Right now I'm working on the last two and then it's on to the border.

A few more

Even though the summer has been extremely busy, I've managed to get some more of these done:

This one is # 12, which means I'm halfway done with the blocks!

Kids, kids, kids....and a few other things.

Wow!  It's been a while since I've blogged.  I've been a little busy.  We've had a couple more birthdays, went to a funeral in Missouri, decided to buy some land, and I've been keeping my grandkids while Calista went back to her job of teaching Pilates.  And all of this in the middle of record breaking heat here in Oklahoma.  Oh how we're longing for the days of snow and cold!  Just kidding...but REALLY...we'd like for these 100 plus temperatures to break.  But alas, the weathermen are making no promises for any such thing to happen any time soon.

But life goes on, even when it's hot outside.  Kids grow...

...and kids like to play in the pool--even when it feels like bath water.

Here are all three of the young monkeys on one of the days I spent at their house taking care of them--or should I say being referee!

This little guy had a birthday (which he enjoyed very much)

This one's growing so much I hardly recognize him from day to day.

This one can be hard to please at times, but other times he's just the sweetest thing ever.  One night when he spent the night (just him) at my house, he told me it was the best day of his life.  Here he's helping me design a little quilt....

...which will eventually be for this little guy.  His name is Lenox and he lives in Kenya.  We've "adopted" him through Compassion and are enjoying getting to know him through his letters and helping him with his daily needs.

In the meantime, I've made a few more of these hand appliqued blocks. 

I've also been working quite a bit at the Cotton Patch, but during down times, I get to applique.

We recently celebrated Tim's birthday.  I won't say how old he turned.  I'll just say that the candles on the cake don't really represent the age.

I got him a new raincoat in anticipation of the rain that will surely come soon.  We'll keep praying and looking forward to the day when it's cooler and wetter. 

I'll end with just one more picture of the cutest little guy around. He's learned how to walk in the last 2 weeks.  He went from barely being able to stand to practically running.  That could explain all the bruises. Anyway, he's captured our hearts!

More Applique Blocks

I've made a few more of these large, colorful applique blocks.

They're so much fun to make.  I think this is my favorite so far....



....or maybe this one.  I love them all!  Oops!  I love them so much, I think I already showed this one.



On to a new project

My favorite part of quilting is starting a new project.  As soon as I finished the last applique I started this one.  The pattern is Kim McLean's "Flower Garden".  I'm excited about it.  So much fun.

Happy Day!

I'm having company this weekend.  And I needed to get my house cleaned up.  It started in the guest bedroom where I had all my applique blocks neatly laid out on the bed.  One can't just stack those blocks up and put them away. 
.

I had finished this one earlier this week and it had found it's spot on the bed with the others.  So I decided to sit down and quickly put the blocks together so I could get the bed cleared off.  Several hours later, I finished the job but the house had still not been cleaned.  So tomorrow I'll have to get up extra early and get the house cleaned up before my company arrives in the afternoon.  To me, it was worth it, because this is how it turned out:



And I'm VERY, VERY HAPPY with the results.  I'm already on to the next project and have the first block of a new applique quilt done.  I think I'm addicted.

Early Summer

Since last I blogged I found out that Sew Neat in Joplin (that I visited just 3 weeks ago) was destroyed by the tornado.  I've heard that the owner is not going to try to build it back.  So sad.  My quilt guild (Green Country Quilters' Guild) has sent 40 small quilts over to help those in need in Joplin.  If you have a desire to make one, I'd be glad to get it there through our guild or other shops in the area that are helping.  Joplin is only an hour and a half from my home and is located in my home state of Missouri.

In other news:

My tennis elbow was a good excuse to get my daughter over here to do some weeding and planting for me.  (That, and the fact that I hate doing it and she doesn't mind).  She got a little help from the youngest member of the family.

He started out on the blanket....

....but that didn't last long.

There's something about dirt that attracts boys.

He likes rocks, too.  It comes from being the grandson of a geologist and a rock collector.

He'll be walking soon.

Recently we celebrated my second daughter's birthday.  Since it's so unusual to wrap a present in this family (in anything other than a Wal Mart bag) we thought we should get a picture of it.

Yes, I AM still sewing.  This is the next to the last border of my applique quilt.  The last one is almost done, too and soon I'll be putting it together.

In the meantime, I started the quilt that I'll use for my bedspread.  Nothing else matches since we painted the walls this past winter.  3 blocks done....78 to go.

The flowers are blooming...

These lilies are doing well.  The ones in the backyard are being eaten by a family of rabbits.

Somehow they managed to bloom anyway, even though they have hardly any leaves left.

This hydrangea survived the winter.  It's partner 2 feet away did not.  Sigh.

Skippy, our cat watches tv...

...for hours sometimes.  She changes positions from time to time and gets up for a snack and a bathroom break occasionally.

woops...more flowers.

My oldest grandson "graduated" from 5th grade and will go to a different school next year.  The second one finished kindergarten and tells me he'll be skipping 1st grade.  Since I don't have a picture of either, I thought I'd post a picture of my high school graduation some....years....ago.  Thanks to Jeff Neier for posting it on Facebook for all the world to see.