Stompin' cookies

Yesterday was baking day for Christmas cookies. My daughters are mixing a HUGE batch of 'stompin' cookies'.....thanks Mary Lou for the recipe. It is not made with a mixer so you build

muscles as you mix the dough. You drop spoonfuls onto the sheet and then STOMP them with a glass coated with color sugar......hence the name. Yummy

Christmas traditions

This big dolly lives in Hixson's Flower store in Lakewood Ohio. We come here to purchase our glass ornaments for the tree. Most are imported and handmade and all are lovely. We brought our children here each year as they were growing up and bought each a special ornament. Now they are bringing their children here....so the tradition goes on.

Blog update

I have been missing for the last few months but I am back. I had major surgery at the end of July and recovery has been slow. Feeling much better now and should be back to stitching soon.

During this time our family celebrated the adoption of two precious children. They have been with us for several years as fosters and now are officially ours. To mark this occasion I made this 'Family quilt'......for my daughter, son-in-law and the new additions. Luckily I pieced it last winter and machine quilted it over the summer. It was made to be used for years to come and not worry if it is spit, spilled or.....upon.

I took Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville pattern of Sister's Choice and enlarged it. It was fun to make.

Airing the tent

Pulled out the tent that has not been used in years and years in preparation for camping this coming weekend. The girls and I are taking the kids (ages 5, 4, and almost 2) camping at a state park, leaving the menfolk at home.

They will be in an air-conditioned RV and Grammie will be in private quarters......the tent. We are looking forward to the great outdoors with swimming, walking and playing but not the 90+ temps......Grandpa thinks I am nuts....lol.....wish me luck!

Goodbye Loyal Companion

Daisy has been our loyal companion since we rescued her from the pound ten years ago. She passed way last night after failing health for the past few years. We were so happy she lasted to enjoy this wonderful summer, her joy in life was laying in the cool grass or basking in a bit of sunshine. She spent her winters mostly in her bed next to the woodburner and only went out in the cold and snow when she had to, but summer was for outside.

Daisy was famous for her waggy tail and beagle nose. She would track a smell all around the yard and boy could she bay!

She only ate things that had walked the earth......no veggies for her! The only exception was Cookies.....boy did she love cookies!

She will join her best beagle friend Mrs. Peabody in the canine burial ground on our property. She will be missed......

Cactus blooms in Ohio

It nevers ceases to amaze me that this cacti grows, thrives and blooms in Ohio where the winters are frigid and long......mother nature is full of surprises and I love this one!

One flower Wednesday total

Three flowers this week....brings the total for the past month to 12....wow a dozen flowers!
Thanks to this group I have been moving along on this project...Thanks

Sure signs of summer

Both my daughters ride motorcycles and here is the youngest one's with pink pinstripes.....too cool and a bit girly

What fun T-ball is.....little ones have no clue what they are to do. Batter hit the ball perfectly and everyone is frozen, thinking "What do they want me to do now?"......lol.......batter runs (sometimes in the wrong direction) and everyone scrambles!

Honeysuckle blooming on the trellis........I love the smell and so do the bees

My pride and joy.....1978 Serro Scotty Sportsman....great condition and fun to camp in.

Looking forward to summer fun in the sun and some relaxing.

Spring beauties

Great year for peony bushes this year....huge blossoms and lush foilage. Usually about the time they bloom heavy spring rains beat them up. We have been having a summerlike spring here in Ohio so things are going great.....even the weeds lol.

Butterfly Quilt

This happy quilt was made for my mom's birthday years ago. I sorta made it up as I went along.

It is more 'liberated' than any of my other quilts. Fun to make and now that mom is gone I will bring it out for spring and think about her often.

Antique Hexagons

I have a collection of antique/old grandmother's flower garden blocks....I just love the old fabrics and all the different color combo's. The bottom one is one of my favorite..........she fussy cut it!

Did you notice that this group is done with a yellow center, then solid flower then floral outside.

Love the way it looks.....so happy!

The hexagons are 3/4 inch. finished and the work is all neat and handdone. The flowers come from different times I am sure.....30's, 40's and 50's. The fabric is a bit fragile on some and they are slightly different sizes since they were not made by the same person so I will not attempt to do anything with them.....except admire and LOVE them.

Wednesday .....again?

Here it is Wednesday again....boy did the week go fast! Only got two done this week due to all the work in the real garden. Had fun the other night looking at all the blogs of people doing One Flower Wednesday....gotta love hexagons.

Saturday Adventure

Saturday we went to Amish country here in Ohio. Visited Country Fabric in Shiloh and found these goodies. The strips are from a 'scrap bag' that Moda sells. It is marketed in a brown paper bag with a cello window so you can see the top fabric and how much.....turns out to be 25 strips 3.5 inches wide of mostly 'fig tree' quilt line....love it love it......only eleven dollars. I also found these yummy fabrics that will go with the butterscotch/muted green, blue and yellow fig tree prints that I am collecting for a quilt for ME....lol

Anne in Columbus from the Applique_Your_way yahoo list and I have been writing privately and I had told her about this quilt shop. She traveled the hour and a half with her friends from her 'quilt bee' group to check it out, so I planned to meet her. Nice to put a face to the name and share a quilt adventure ......thanks Anne.

One Flower Wednesday

My 'One flower Wednesday' turned into four flower Tuesday and Wednesday night!

I worked on these hexagons during 'Dancing with the Stars' and 'American Idol' TV shows each evening. Love how happy they look along with my new plants.

Another baby afghan done!

Finished this baby afghan last night for a baby boy. Love the brighter colors that baby clothes/items are these days.....'in my day' everything was all pastel. Trying to get the crochet projects done before the summer heat hits, then I will be back to all quilting.

One flower Wednesday

One flower turned into three flowers. Made these with 'Quiltpatis'.....so easy. Was lucky with the placement since I didn't 'fussy cut' them....glad those little boys and pup lined up! Love these thirties fabrics for a baby quilt, so happy looking.

Hexagon....Grandmother's flower garden

I have always loved hexagons. A long time ago I bought 'quilt patis' and made these flowers, then last winter I appliqued them to the blocks and found I don't have enough to make a baby quilt which was my first intention.

Just recently I saw several blogs where people are making 'one flower each wednesday' and now I want to join in the fun and complete this project.....so I will start tomorrow.

Learning to crochet "on the double"

I tried Tunisian crochet and was disappointed in the end product....it curled and was ruglike. While researching this I found crochet 'on the double' tutorial and tried it. I love it.

You use a long double ended hook or denise interchangeable needles sells hooks that connect to either end of a cable and they are wonderful. It is an easy process and comes out looking more like knitting than crochet. The afghan comes out puffy but warm and drapes nicely.

The fun thing is it looks different on each side. One project I am doing is a varigated pink yarn mixed with a pale yellow and on one side it looks pink and on the other looks yellow....fun!

Birthday blanket

This afghan is for an adorable little gal who is turning two later this summer and getting a 'big girl' bed and newly decorated room. I am almost done and found out that it is much bigger than I planned.....guess I was so intent on getting the colors and stripes correct that it got away from me!.....don't know what to do, might make another small one and give them both to her. She is going into a toddler bed right now but that won't last long....this afghan is better sized for a twin bed.....sigh....sometimes I just get carried away....lol

April BOM for Aunt Millie's Garden

Finished the April block for Aunt Millie's Garden.....May's block is very similar with the same shape flower but many smaller ones, now to choose a color scheme and get going.

Crochet for Abby

I have been making baby afghans for gifts lately and my 'baby' wants me to make her one too!
Since she is 24 years old she gets to choose her colors and of course it is tourquoise and brown.

She is very impatient and wants it NOW.....considering I just bought the yarn last Monday I believe I have done really well in one week's time.

"Hooked" on another hobby

My daughter asked me to go with her to a 'sit and knit' group a few weeks ago....sure I love spending time with my girls. Took my quilting project and enjoyed talking with the knitters.

So when she wanted me to go again...thought I best start a small crochet project, maybe a scarf.

Wellllll....I bought a skein of yarn or two and found a hook and......now I am hooked!

I did crochet when my kids were born but haven't made anything for many years. I finished this

baby afghan after just one week and have enough yarn for two more....lol. (I do need several baby gifts for this summer)

Luckily this pattern is one I have made many many times so even after all this time I can make it from memory...now if I could just remember where I left my glasses.....lol

P.I.G.S........DONE

During the Olympics I made this P.I.G. project. It started as rail fence blocks that Anna sent me and was chopped and stitched into this colorful quilt. It will go to a patient at the chemo clinic where I received treatment last year. It certainly shows up with the snow as a backdrop...my daughter trudged thru two feet of snow to hang it.

Olympic Accomplishments

I have accomplished quite alot in the last 17 days of Olympic games. My goal was to keep busy with quilty stuff every time I sat down to watch the coverage, including the Today show in the mornings.

I managed to completely make a lap quilt from the P.I.G. I received from the Stashbuster yahoo group. I also retreived a lap quilt that I made many years ago and almost sent off to Goodwill unquilted....lol...it is finished and sent off .

I also managed to do several BOW (SBS and FWS) and my Aunt Millie's Garden BOM. I pulled out a wallhanging that was made during a Pat Sloan round robin six years ago or more, added a border, quilted and bound it so it is ready for spring.

I handquilted half of the bowtie quilt that is on my frame. I made a cover for my 1530 Bernina that I received for Christmas from hubby.

AND, last but certainly not least, I finished assembling the 1200 pieces of my charm quilt that I started during the Olympics summer games 08-08-08. It was my project for those games and I marked and cut the pieces and assembled them here and there over the past year, all by hand. It is now 64 x 81 and I need to decide if I want to add to it or handquilt it as it is....probably will add to it.

So I think I am a winner and have alot to show for time spent enjoying the Olympics and the wonderful job the host Canadians did!

Bernina cover

Made this cover for my new (to me) Bernina 1530, afterall the other Bernina has a cover !

Will add yo-yo's to the center of the flowers or dig in the button jar and add buttons. Fun to make.

Finally finished

Pulled this UFO out and finally quilted it. I think it is from maybe eight years ago...maybe more

and just needed to be quilted. It will go to a lady in the hospital who has osteoporosis and broke a bone, had surgery and will require long rehab. This quilt is lap size and should keep her broken leg warm and comfort her as she heals.

Processing my P.I.G.

Well, I got up this morning and decided to process the P.I.G.S. (project in grocery sack)

that I received last week. I call this Pork Chop since they arrived as assorted six inch rail fence blocks and I stitched and chopped and stitched some more and came up with this quilt. I will machine quilt it and have it ready for donation and have lots more rail fence blocks to play with.

Handquilting the bowties

This is where I am hanging out these snowy days. I am trying to get back in the groove of handquilting by practicing on this flea market find. Love my new frame that I found on "sewitsforsale" yahoo list, fits perfectly in this space.

Aunt Millie's Garden BOM

Finished my block of the month for February. Hated all the points but I do like the way it came out. Hope March's block doesn't have too many points or circles.

Stashbuster P.I.G.

My P.I.G. (project in grocery sack) arrived yesterday from Ann on Stashbuster Yahoo group.
My mission is to take these rail fence blocks and make a nice quilt to give to a deserving person or charity group. There are over 150 of them in all colors/styles/prints and will be a challenge to make them play nice together. I have come up with what I think is a clever idea to stitch and chop them into nice blocks....calling this project 'PORK CHOP'......will post pics as I work it out.

Bright sunshining quilt

After a weekend of blizzard conditions and shoveling it is heart warming to see this bright sunny quilt that my friend Mary Lou made. She used an antique quilt that her grandmother made as inspiration for these spools. Her machine quilting is exquisite. She is teaching this quilt at a retreat in the fall. What a happy quilt!

Winter Wonderland

The snow came down like crazy last night....guess we are lucky, only ONE foot ....lol
Good weekend for quilting and stitching.....lots of Super Bowl sales I will have to miss
but that's OK I don't really need any more fabric anyway. Tomorrow for my Superbowl
project I am going to join a group doing a quilt from ALL scraps....what fun!

Cute Dress for Grandbaby

My daughter had the day off so we spent the time stitching this dress for the foster granddaughter. It is from a Portabellopixie pattern(www.sandihendersondesign.com
.....they are sorta hippy or Bohemian in style.
We used fabric that we had to try the pattern out and after fitting it on the baby we will make more dresses. She will be so cute in her new outfits!

Aunt Millie's Garden block

Finished my first Aunt Millie's Garden Block (Piece O'cake design) last night. I will admit that from time to time I mumbled that this might be a pillow instead of a quilt. It definately challenged my abilities which is good I guess. I have not done much applique and what I have done was simple, casual patterns that it didn't matter if one leaf was askew. I am doing this as a block of the month with the yahoo group Applique..Cafe so onward to Febuary's block. The gals on the list have been very encouraging so I guess this will not be a pillow....maybe a small wallhanging....lol

From long ago....

I was rooting thru my baskets of old quilt blocks that I have accumulated over the years at flea markets. My main goal was to save them...I appreciated the work that went into these old items.

I found over 50 of the dresden plates all stitched with the edges turned under and basted, all set to be appliqued onto a square and made into a charming quilt. I need to do this soon.

The lady who made the piece with the bow ties either had wild taste or just used the scraps that she had...lol. I am going to make a border out of solids on each side to make it a usable size and then quilt it. I figure it will be a nice practice piece for me to quilt as I try to get back into handquilting on my new frame.

I am sure one of my daughters will be excited to give this homely quilt a good home. Guess the lady that made it all those years ago will be happy with this end to her project.

Favorite Christmas gift

While making the two quilts on my Bernina 932, for my daughters' Christmas gifts my hubby heard me say many times....'i wish this machine had needle down'

So he searched and searched and found this 'like new' old Bernina 1530 and got a neat table for my Christmas gift. I am a bit intimadated by it right now but I will learn.