Some Sunday Sunshine, in the form of the daffodil..*VBS* I had lunch and stitching with Betsy on Friday. It was her baking day, so we had fresh homemade bread and butter, and it was as good as a feast. She machine quilted in the afternoon, and I hand quilted on a wallhanging that is nearly done. When it was time to go, she sent me off with some portable sunshine..*VBS* I highly recommend it !! I tossed the recently finished quilt top over the tv for the picture..can't have that flash glare now, can we??? 

I've had this top together for awhile now, but today it got borders. It's heading off to become a Wrap Them in Love quilt. As you probably can tell, I don't plan my scrap quilts, especially not this kind. I make up 4.5" pairs of HST and then decide what I will do with them. This Broken Dishes pattern is a personal favorite. Unplanned, you never know what you'll get til it's together. It's 40" X 60" and any stars you might be seeing are accidental...*S* 

The close up. Quite often when I'm sewing, especially when I'm joining up the rows and it's straight long seams, I think about things. Maverick is one of the things I think about. It has a lot of meaning, and I've never been really sure how it applies to me. I'm not sure if it's something that you do that is conscious, or maybe a way of looking at things. Or both. Or maybe it is that you just "do your thing" and don't worry or really care too much about all the people that don't like it. I think I realized today that my use of "lights" probably is enough to qualify me...LOL. Be honest now, could you put together these weird combinations of "lights" and be happy with your quilt? I keep doing it, so it must be that it works for me...*G* 

A piece from my scrapbag..



As I was sizing up things on my Blogger template this evening, I noticed that yesterday was an milestone, of sorts..*S* The post regarding the history of quilts was number 500 for me..*VBS* I began this blog on or about the 13th of July, 2005. One wonders if that is a TOTAL count, or merely a count of the existing enteries? I have been known to delete a few...LOL. Anyway, my gift to you today is a view of these lovely young quilters doing something that is relative foreign to most of us, quilting at a common frame. Peace to all who read and wander onward....Finn

I was just doing some noon hour wandering as I ate my sandwich, and came across this website. You know how that happens, you click on something, and then link to somewhere else,LOL, well, this was about the 3rd or 4th "somewhere else link"....but it's SUCH a great site with much information about quilt patterns and where they fit into the history of our country. I didn't get the impression that their intent was to sell anything, altho there are Google ads on the site. I highly recommend a visit, with or without the sandwich..*VBS*

http://www.womenfolk.com/historyofquilts/

FABRIC FUN....GO AWAY...FINN HAS GOT TO CLEAN TODAY ! ! ! This is what I see to the left of my computer desk this morning. It's just amazing what happens if you keep playing and pulling things out and don't put them away. And you thought my sewing room and stash was as neat as I showed you back in late summer...oh no..it isn't!! Do I know where things are in this mess..? Well.....for the most part, if not I just keep looking. But today is the day...I gotta clean this up so I can go forward again.....how are things in your sewing room???? P.S. For forest jane...the block from yesterday is a 12.5" block.

Looking right from my computer desk(the phone is sitting on the corner of the computer desk because there isn't room for it on that dresser..LOL. As you can see, the piles of "stuff" are nearly as high as the desk top...*G* 

This doesn't look too bad, just one "quilt ingredients" scattered about here.....but I GOTTA clean!!! 

Thanks for all the nice compliments you gals left for me regarding this block. Some of you said you were planning on using this idea for a kids quilt(which is what I'm doing). I wanted to suggest that if you are going to make it, that you pop over to Linda J's at http://catsnqlts2.blogspot.com and see her EQ picture, and maybe by now some of her blocks. She gets ALL the credit for this one...LOL..I just happen to see it late Sunday evening and got excited to make some. It's totally NOT my idea.....and it's possible that Linda has a different cutting and layout method than I used...so. please give her great blog a look-see, she really does make incredible scrap quilts. She's also a whiz at quilt block names and coming up with new ideas...*VBS* What I found with this block is that the pointy parts are a bit more fussy than the four patches, so I am running up all the 4 patches at one marathon sew, and then picking something to be the background of the pointy parts and adding them to 2 of the sides, again as a "one" sew. Actually when I look at the block, you really wouldn't need to use lights in the center..could be 16 scrappy squares that look well together. 

Late Sunday, Linda, over at http://catsnqlts2.blogspot.com posted this block that she had come up with for her Bama Belles group. And for me, a new block pattern is like you baking cookies...do you REALLY think I'm going be happy with just the smell??? *VBG* SO here is what you need for one block...following my "take" on the directions. You need four 4 patches made from 2.5" squares. You also need 4 strips(for top and bottom)that are 2.5" X 4.5". To those you sew and flip a 2.5" square to get a triangle point. And you then need four 6.5" strips, with the same sew and flip squares to form the right and left sides of the block. So...24 2.5" squares, and 8 strips, 4 of each length. And then sew, sew sew. Please hop over to Linda's blog and check out the drawing she posted...maybe by now she's got blocks posted also...*VBS* She does such great work and lots of it is for the Wrap Them In Love quilts campaign.

The four 4 patches sewn together. Now for the outside pieces. 

And this is one finished 12.5" block. I really, really like the pattern you came up with Linda!! And having done a couple of kids bargellos(from Bonnie's site) I have lots of odds and ends of 2.5" squares to use for this. 

Monday...sunshine but cool and windy. This is a block that I am playing with at the moment. Since you know this is what I do, instead of finishing a previous playtime, you aren't surprised at all, are you? *G* I had thought this was the Hovering Hawks block, but upon checking my Jinny Beyer book of Blocks, it isn't. And I don't think it's Contrary Wife either, but similar. In the Beyer book, it says this block is called "Three and Six". I suppose the 3 squares and the 6 HST's. I'm using 2.5" parts, so each block will finish at 6". Scrap Happy time in WI..*VBS* 

I haven't seen these blocks laid out in an actual quilt, and so I'm not sure how they are suppose to go together. This is one possibility....block to block, no lattice. 

Another possible layout, and the one I'm favoring right now..what do you think? 

Saturday...I was tagged a couple of days ago by Sandy of Abandoned in Pasadena, with a "meme" of weird things about myself...LOL. And while I'll happily admit I'm "weird" or a bit "kookie", it's been hard to come up with 6, (I think it was 6) weird things to share...but I worked on it...LOL. So here goes....
1. I like sugar on my pancakes, don't like syrup as I find it too sweet.

2. My eyes aren't round(like marbles) which most peoples are, mine are egg shaped. And one eye is smaller than the other.

3. You absolutely, positively COULD NOT get me to put anything resembling gravy (i.e. sausage in gravy,creamed chicken,etc) over a biscuit. Nope, never, nada..just isn't going to happen. I will put butter and jam, or butter and honey on one....that's my limit on biscuit dressing.

4. I can only sleep on my stomach. Which is fine. But that means I don't sleep in cars, on airplanes, in hospitals, or in my recliner. If I'm to sleep, it's going to be in a bed, covered up, and on my stomach.

5. I have no problem with spiders, mice or bats. I detest snakes and worms...not sure if that is weird or not, but that's how it is.

6. I'm what I call a "perimeter" person. I prefer observing to participating. I don't want to be seated in the middle of a resturant, or in the center of much of anything I can think of. I prefer to stand on the edge or the rim...makes for a quick get away...*VBG*

OK..and now I'm going to tag 6 of you...(evil grin)... and I think it should be Jeanne, Dawn, Melzie, Judy of Ragdolls, Carolyn and Tracey..*VBS* But only if you want to play along.

A cool and about to be rainy Saturday in my part of Wi. This is an older workshop project, and one I actually finished. The block is called Prairie Queen, a shoo fly type with 4 patches filled in. What you can't tell from the picture is that it is framed. You piece the block. Then using a border fabric(ala Jinny Beyer) you cut something for a narrow border strip. The block is only quilted out to the edge of the block. The narrow border and wider navy border just lay against the batting. A appropiate size stretcher boards frame is used, and padded with quilt batt.That extra batt makes the outer border puff up higher than the quilted center. It's pulled quite tight and stapled or thumb tacked down. It makes a nice wall hanging. The block is 6", so finished up like this I'd say it's about 11" square. If you look close you can see that I cross hatch quilted the part that needed it, about a 1" grid. I probably should have snapped a pic of the back...LOL

And sometimes I hang it like this.....LOL...who says I can't make up my mind???? 

Flowers from a friend...back in the mid 1990's. This wall hanging is about 22" square and was made for me by a guild friend. It's beautifully hand quilted, and she does such beautiful applique. She is a fair bit older than I am, but still can see to do this type of work. I truly love it!! 

If I could do applique, this is what I would love to have done. The little inner border matching the ribbon on the basket, the flowers, I just love everything about this piece. 

What I love the best about this wallhanging is that the friend who made it, used some "real" 30's fabrics and some repro's. I also LOVE the button detail in the flowers. 

Love comes in many sizes.Luckily for most of us, we find something, in just our size, to love and be loved by. Having ended a 37 years marriage, I didn't expect to fall in love again...ever. In reality it took 4 days..*VBS*. I went to a 4th of July picnic with a long time quilter friend. It was at her sister's house on the lake. I had been there before, but what was new is that Abby, the golden retriever had puppies that were just 2 months old that July. And there was one puppy left. A reject. Second largest in the litter, he had been rejected. A litter mate(who had been pre-purchased and named) died. Betty thought this puppy would "work" for the new to be owners. Wrong. If they couldn't have the puppy they picked, they wanted their money back. And so Dakota was still with his mom that 4th of July. Born on May 4rd, he was exactly 2 months old, and already a big, big puppy! I didn't intent to get a puppy 4 days after my DH left the marriage, the job, the family and the community. But I went home with Dakota riding shotgun in the front seat of my van. And filling the ENTIRE seat, I might add. The picture was taken several years ago, but it is the best picture I have of him, my Daks, at age 6 with grandson Nick, also age 6. The difference is that Daks weighed in at 120# and Nick at about 55#. As you can see, his size didn't not keep Nick from walking him(always with a grownup). Daks would walk so carefully, never tugging on the leash. He knew he was much bigger than the small boys who loved him. Grandson Brady, at 4 yrs, would feed Daks slices of salami from the snack tray. Crawling under the table to do so, and Daks always took them so carefully and never in a hurry. Scared us grown ups, but Daks knew...tiny hands and tiny fingers. He was such a people dog, I could say to him "show me what you've got" and he would drop it and let me look at it. In his life time he managed to catch 2 of the mice he was always seeking in the tall grass along the riveer. The first one he played with til it died of exhausion, and then he'd look at me, like I could fix it. The second one, he found and really wanted to take back to the car. I wasn't having any of that, so I sat down by the side of the road and waited while he had his catch and release game for awhile. Eventually he just laid there and watched the mouse run into taller grass. Then he got up and looked at me as if to say, "let's go home, I'm done now". I lost him in March of 2004, to cancer. But I know he's waiting for me at the rainbow bridge, this guy I loved the second time around...*S*

Logging in WI. Way back when, before WI was even named Wisconsin, it was a desirable place to come.. There was an abundance of hardwood, old growth timber here and ample rivers to float it. Millions of trees fell, and were floated down stream to lumber mills. They turned trees into lumber to build homes for the wealthy and stores to supply goods. Of course not every one who came into WI from the East could afford houses built of "lumber", and many log cabins were built as quickly as possible, since winter is never far away in our northern climate. As quilters we think of something else when someone says "log cabin". This log city was featured in a 1988 issue of QNM. I'd like to make one similar someday. Has anyone done this one and would show it to us? I think you would have to do it row by row, and what size logs??? I only have the picture and the magazine's name and date....no clue how big it is in this picture. 

Age. Ages. Aging. No. Lets go back to AGES. It doesn't really even look like a word, taken with no context. As I sit here, in the afternoon of this day, April 16, 2006 I don't wonder about age....I have it. I don't wonder about aging....I understand it. What I wonder about is Ages. And what does that mean? Just what does it apply to in this 21st century? The Age of the Dinosaur, The Ice Age, The Dark Ages,The Age of Enlightenment, The Atomic Age, The Age of Reason, we don't say the Age of Industry because they decided to call that one the Industrial Age. So what the heck is the deal with placing things in Ages?? And what does that mean in 2006. I suppose you could call this The Age of the Speed of Light, because that's about how fast everything is going. Or faster.
I've often wondered if the Age of Enlightenment had a logical ending place, or if it just trailed on, into every age that came after it. I don't feel fully enlightened. And is it possible that anyone is...fully enlightened? Or are we traveling towards full enlightenment. Would we know if we got there? I suppose, since we'd be FULLY enlightened.
What I am led to ponder is a connection between clarity and confusion. And since both are states of being, there must be a connection there. Thinking about a circle...such a lovely thing. With no beginning and no ending. But it does have sides. It is dimentional. An inside to the line, and an outside. A below and an above. In my mind I can see something flat having dimentions. Alright, I am "in" confusion...seeking clarity. Confusion is strong, very strong, and not a desired state of being. Gradually as I move into clarity, I can see what the confusion was, is. I try to avoid going back to the state of confusion. But clarity isn't strong in the way that confusion is. Once I sense the lack of strength, I'm already being pulled back to the confusion.

I wonder if neither state has any substance, other than what I endow it with? And what if we really need a third "c" word here....connection. What if the place to stand with clarity and confusion is on their connection? What if the connection is the stable thing, and also the path? And when you are in doubt, you look for the connection.
And, as the connection becomes the path, is it also the line that is the circle? And the form of the circle is the connection between confusion and clarity? For a line is only a line until it connects to itself. Once connected, as in a circle, it has a within and a without. And as I move through this "ages" thing I am trying to understand, I can see that much has been resolved over the eons, by "calling the circle", as tribes meet to decide things. Kings have their Round Tables,and in a circle each is equal distance from the center. I think maybe that is a good place to be...the same distance from the center as everyone else. And if you find me to be confused about "ages", don't get me started on "time" *VBS*

The sunshine of yesterday is gone, leaving us with gusting winds, and chilly temperatures on this Easter Sunday in WI. This is one of my vintage penny postcards. The date on this one is April 2, 1912 and was sent to a Mr. Archie Cole, in St. Paul, MN. What strikes me as interesting on most of these old postcards, is that they were written in pencil. Using a pencil, except to draw, is almost a thing of the past. I can remember what it was a thrill to get a shiny new pencil to work with in school. The freshly sharpened point, the smell of the fresh wood shaving as the sharpener did it's work. That dandy red eraser, insuring that you could change your mind. And so many promotional pencils were given at political rallies and by shoe stores, etc. Buy an item, get a pencil. Like this postcard, mostly memories now. Can't remember the last time I ws given a pencil at the fairs, or anywhere else. 

Surprise! I posted the close up picture first...*VBG* A nice peek at some of the newer 30's reproductions in the red, white and blue arena. Personally, I espcially like the scotties *VBS* Happy Friday Everyone! 

Another UFO....this Aunt Gracies differs from the pastel one I showed last month only in that there are equal amounts of stars and 9 patches. In the pastel one, I worked out the placement of "random" stars. This one, I just wanted DONE! The red strips on the right will be border, and that VERY old Aunt Gracies in upper right(one of the first ones) will be the binding. This was also sewn together over the weekend...the blocks has already been made.

April showers bring the first signs of spring to my part of WI. We had one of those sudden spring showers yesterday afternoon. I was sewing, enjoying the day at my north facing window, and suddenly the sky went dark, a few drops hit the window, and then it was like a typhoon.Sheets of rain blasted the side of the house with unexpected fury. It lasted maybe 5 minutes, and then the sun came out again..*S* But it was enough to begin the greening of the lawn. This is a far cry from the pictures we are seeing on other blogs of the spring blooms and swimming pools ( Hi Sharon..how's the water?). 

I pieced this little top over the weekend. Doesn't seem to be in my nature to stay with any one project very long...so I set the sawtooth stars aside for a day. This one needs borders and and then it's off to become a WTIL quilt...*VBS*