No April showers today....

after a week of May and June, we are back to February. Snow, lots of snow, fell in northern MN and WI last evening. Up to 10 or 11" up towards Duluth. All that is here in the Valley, is a trace. But we have a NW wind that is raging outside. My very least favorite thing...strong winds.
Giving you some more broken dishes today. This time from what I am collecting from Betsy. I wanted you to have some idea of how truly varied our fabric stashes are, and what kind of challenge this quilt will be. All of the first pic are from ones Betsy has made. They are 4.25"(about). Most are just fine, but that polka dot and red strip one looks small to me, so it may get used or it may not.

In this second picture(which should enlarge with a click) these blocks from Betsy are 5.75" Much larger than we are working with, but....it's fair game to use triangles or squares that are bigger or leftover from another project. It gets them used up and adds variety. I stuck 3 of the 4.25" ones in the bottom row so you can see the difference. Those 3 are of my making...*VBS* Cher, see you leftover zebras????*G* Yup, a little bit of you in there too...*VBS*
I'm tired today, both my eyes and my body. I usually am after a trip to a specialist, combination of distance and anxiety. My accountant called and my taxes are done, so I'll get that dealt with, and then perhaps sew some. The dilating is nearly all out of my pupils now, not quite...but close. I still need the sunglasses to stop some of the brightness. I should clean a little more today because I'm having lunch with a friend tomorrow. Have to get some groceries for Easter, etc. I found dried organic catnip in a ziplock at Target yesterday, and got a nice big pouch for Ebby....she was thrilled to pieces!!! I had gotten her one of the scratch boxes, which she completely ignores except for the catnip it contained. Once that was gone, nada...so much for scratch boxes. She likes her scratch pole the best. It's one of those wrapped in rope. Her new Petramalt from Hartz is Salmon favor and she is delighted with that! She's all curled up on the sheepskin in the hallway this morning, since the EB went cool once I was out of bed. She's not liking this return to winter temps at all. Can't say I blame her. Seems to be some sort of bad weather all across the USA lately. Well, world wide for that matter. I hope all of you are safe, warm, dry and finding happiness and peace in your valley. Hugs, Finn

Back home again....

and happy to be here..*VBS* The eye appointment went fine, the specialist could find nothing physically wrong or causing the pain. That really is good news. After so many eye surgeries on my left eye, I had to make sure the pain wasn't from something I was ignoring til it was too late. I have some new drops to try, 4 X a day and see if that makes any difference.
Today I'm giving you a couple of new broken dish blocks for Betsy, and my apology for not being clearer on my March 28th post. I suggested that cutting some squares for broken dishes while cutting scraps to size, might be a good idea. And while I did say cut the squares I 1/4" bigger than your desired block size, I also said that Betsy and I were cutting 'nickle' squares(5") and getting a 4.5" finished broken dishes. That's not accurate and I thank my new friend Carol, in TX, for emailing me and asking if she was wrong. God bless you Carol, for your kindness, but it was me. I hadn't a clue anyone was likely to do the size, expecting a 4.5" finished block. Also Betsy and I are pretty casual in our exchanges. If most of our blocks finish at 4.25(4 1/4") we'll just use them that way without sizing them. If you wanted a finished 4.5" block, you'd need to cut your squares 5 1/4". To Betsy and I, that extra 1/4" mark on the ruler is just a bother....LOL. Sorry about that, to anyone who took me at my word. I promise to be more careful when giving measurements...honest I will...*VBS*

Is it diet busting......

if you use a gift certificate??? I don't think so...and here's my case. I had a gift certificate for a quilt shop about 30 miles from here. I've had it since my birthday in Oct. In January 2007, the shop changed hands, and the new gal was willing to honor the punch cards and gift certificates up to a point. April 1st was that point! So Betsy and I hit the freeway to do some serious plastic damage...LOL, mostly her, since I was going to use my gift. The first pic is sale fabrics where you are obligated to buy a yard. The two with polka dots are FQs to go with a cat panel.
Second picture is all FQs. With these fabrics a FQ is plenty for my kind of piecing. Most of them are from the 'Kool Kats' line.
I'm really excited by all of them, something completely new to sew with!! Gosh! I was on the low fiber diet all of 2006, buying only a few Civil War t ype fabrics to begin that quilt, and a few novelty prints for the graduation quilt.
This is my first fabric of this year..*VBS* And it was on a gift card...yah!!!
Betsy and I began one of our 'swaps' in January. We are making broken dishes this time, in brights and blacks..but not exlcusively. Other odd balls are allowed to wander in, and often do. She cuts 2 5" squares of each fabric she's using and makes 2 broken dishes blocks. One comes to me and one is hers. I'm doing the same. We'll keep going as long as it makes sense to us, the block finishes at 4.5" so it will take quite a few to make a quilt. Our quilts will be the same, but different. I won't know what layout she is using til I see her top, and she won't know about mine...it's alot of fun..*VBS*
I still have more to do on the baby quilt since I missed several days of sewing. It might not get there til after the baby does, at this rate. *VBS* I'm off to cut a few 5" squares from these new fabrics and sew a few broken dishes in bright along with those baby colored ones.

A Duke's Mixature....

of thoughts, words and deeds today. Todays goal is to turn a pile of leftover 9 patches, left over Aunt Gracies triangles and the leftover setting triangles from my RailRoad Crossing quilt, into a baby quilt. When I make 9 patches, I always make lots. I've lost count over the years how many single Irish Chains and other variation of 9 patch I've cranked out for the little
ones. I usually do a 6 X 7 setting, add a border and back with flannel. Today's will be for a new grandson coming April 5th. Best I get busy...*VBS* The second picture(where ever it falls) is of another part of my book order from Hamilton Books. I don't have more than 1 or 2 folk art quilt books. This one looked interesting and when you can get a $28.95 book for $3 or $4, why not??? And I'm glad I did...*VBS*

This last picture is from the book. I like everything in the picture...LOL It's a great quilt..combining several kinds of blocks. And how about that dough tray on the table with fabric balls?? There are patterns and directions for all the quilts and rugs shown in the book as well as some basic 'how to' sections.

We are still enjoying the mild temps...mid 60's again today. Not typical March weather for us...but I love it. And now I'm off to the sewing machine. I already have 21 9 patches but must sew those triangles into broken dishes blocks....keep your fingers crossed that I can get this one and in the mail next week.

A Wild and Windy day...

and I have spent most of it quilting, in the front room,and watching movies on the Hallmark channel. They had a Sarah, Plain and Tall marathon this afternoon. It's a group of movies I really enjoy, with Glenn Close playing Sarah.
It's been quite a while since I've done much quilting, and it felt good to be running the lines of stitches again. If I make enough progress, I'll show you, soon. I thought I was done showing pictures from the Small Endearments book, but I came across this one. And since I've been knee deep in the broken dishes lately, this lay out really appealed to me. It's a child's quilt, from the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and is 34" X 34". I took the time

to zoom in on the center setting and enlarge it. Click on the picture for a better view(I hope). The piecing of the rest is pretty straight forward.For the center,it looks like you would cut HSTs to match the size of a 4 dishe row, and add those to the 4 outer corners. The 4 smaller triangles would be cut as setting triangles from one square. I'm not sure why they used the large red center square, probably personal preferance. I think scrappy broken dishes, set with a nice rusty red plaid would be great! I'm saving this one for future referance.
We got the blast of the storm that hit the West coast on Thursday. Not alot of snow, but super strong winds and white out conditions. It's cold enough that the snow is dry and really blows around. I've battened down the hatches, and hunkered down with a pot of homemade soup and time to quilt. Hope you are all safe, happy and content tonight. (saturday evening post(LOL), and Blogger wasn't having any of THAT!) So here it is this morning...snow total, Twin Cities, 13.5" so far. I find myself thinking of Mary, from the Heartstrings project, spending her first winter in Mpls...*S* Welcome to the midwest winters Mary!