This & That

Hi Folks - time for my weekly post and here I am with little to say. Wonder how that happens! Lovely fall weather - leaves are starting to turn beautiful colors and some are falling to the ground! We "motored" to Rushville to pick up a quilt on Friday morning and saw quite a few corn pickers in the fields and on the highway, too.

The ABATE bike ride last weekend was successful. There were 57 bikes and 86 riders and they managed to raise just over $2,000 to be donated to the Bread of Life. Their next big ride/fundraiser will be in October - Santa's Cause. They donate to families who don't qualify for assistance through other organizations. Nate gave me the website and I've not checked it out yet - but try this, if interested. http://dcsantascause.com

Yesterday I got a call from my friend Pat, she had panic in her voice! She remembered the quilt show in Columbus and wondered if I remembered it. . . well, I forgot about it . . . I do keep a calendar in my purse and write these important dates in it. I guess the trick is to look at that calendar from time to time! So today we went to see the quilts on display and there were quite a few quilts, all lovely, of course. The picture is one that was on display - it is the only picture I could take. My camera seems to have decided not to cooperate with me. It's a smaller one that I can carry in my purse - but if it's not going to work, I'll just have to carry the bigger one with me on important trips like this.

My sewing world has kept me busy this week. I made 48 string quilt blocks and will send them off to be put into a top and quilted and donated to a charity. (Pictures next week.) I'm putting binding on a quilt I picked up on Friday and quilting the Boxed Squares - have just a bit more to do and then will add the binding. 8 gals from the Fabric Stash Chat Room decided to do a red fabrics strip swap. Each of us send five strips of a different print to each other. I sent my strips off on Friday, the 19th. Gals are in No. Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arkansas, and 3 in Texas. We were surprised at the amount of time these envelopes were en route. One of the gals in Texas didn't get my strips till the 27th! Another surprise was the cost - ranged from $1.17 to $1.68. I realize there are different weights of fabric but there just isn't that much difference. I have to say I was very disappointed in the mail service. But we will each have a lovely quilt in the end!

Chet has the football game on so loud I can't stand it in here. Have a good week and keep in touch. . . . . bye now

The Week with the Weckops

The week began quietly - no more wind and rain storms. The neighbors kindly finished picking up the branches and limbs that blew down from the remnants of Ike over the weekend. We were without electricity for 19 hours but did just fine. Chet and I played 500 and Racko - I don't like to brag, but I did win all the games we played. Poor guy, guess I could have left him win a game or two. We learned that tall candles give off better light than those shorter, stubby scented candles! The only thing I missed was being able to sew - but I got over that in a hurry by hand piecing two small quilt blocks, while remembering Mom's White treadle sewing machine.

Nate biked up to Columbus to pick up J.D. - his first weekend home since August. He got a ride that far with a friend who also goes to IU. It was a busy weekend for Nate - the local chapter had a fund raising ride for the Bread of Life - aka: Soup Kitchen here in town. About 85 riders registered and I believe they rode about 120 miles. They ended up out in the country where they'd set up campers, RV's and Port-a-Potty's. Three bands agreed to come out and play for the evening festivities. Chet rode in the "chase car" - they follow in case of a break down or accident. The fire truck led them out of town and Greensburg's Finest brought up the tail end. Sign up table - notice Chet and Nate in rear of photo.

Mark and Gail - a friend of his, rode along with him.


Pictures are taken from the parking lot of the Greensburg Daily News -

The final line up and the police car! I patted the driver on the arm and said "be gentle" - he didn't really appreciate that! Oh well!

J.D. and I spent the afternoon together, we had a sandwich, chips & dip and chatted away. He's loving classes. His friend picked him up and they headed back to campus. He said he had three tests this week and had to do three pages on his website. We also took a ride out into the country to see if we could find the church that was heavily damaged in the storm last weekend. And we found it - the tree that fell onto and into the church was 150 years old - planted at same time the church was built. People were there working to clear out the tree and other debris. It is so sad to see the damage done to that building. The church was to celebrate their 150th anniversary today with a picnic following the service. Picnic was cancelled and services were held on the lawn.

Now on to my sewing world - a little corner in my bedroom! Seven gals from the Chat Room and I are have a red strips swap. We began with the idea of making the same quilt we did in all blues several years ago. I decided I didn't want to do another like it and found another pattern. So I've been cutting, stitching and pressing away. This morning one of the gals asked if she could have the pattern - well, there is no pattern. I saw a picture in a fabric catalog and drew/drafted it up on graph paper. So I spent about two hours taking pictures of the finished quilt (I've done it in all scrappy look before), pictures of the different steps involved with the piecing. (Now I know why patterns are expensive!) I asked a gal from my local guild to read my instructions and see if it makes sense to her. . . if so, I'll pass it on . . . if not, I'll rewrite at her suggestions. Bless her for taking time to do this for me.

I did finish piecing my Row Quilt and took it and the scrappy Maple leaves tops to the longarm quilter last week. That poor gal is swamped with quilts to do now - I don't know why there are so many other women tying up her time so she can't get right to mine! Ha Ha Ha My Boxed Squares is ready to quilt, too. . . need to pin baste it and I'll quilt that one myself.

Someone is muttering and opening and closing cupboards and drawers in the kitchen - guess that means I need to find some lunch for him. Till next week - - stay well and be happy.

Hope everyone had a good week. We were busy with dental visits, grocery store and various errands. All the rain and wind we've had lately has caused a leak and there is a "bubble" in our living room ceiling. I called the roofer fella and he came over this morning and did some checking in the attic area and up on the roof, did some caulking and said to keep an eye on it and let him know if we have problems. He did find a couple of areas that hadn't been sealed when they put the roof on last summer. More rain is predicted today so we'll see if he took care of the problem.

Last week I posted a picture of our Granddaughter Amanda which was taken two or three years ago. Since then she has had her senior picture taken and I've posted it. Isn't she just the prettiest thing? I think she looks like her Aunt Mary!

Then I dug up this picture, also taken a few years ago of Paul, Mitch and Amanda at a Packer Game. Brrr - they look cold, don't they? And while I was going through pictures I found this one of Mitch in front of one of the Schneider trucks. No - he's not a driver - I think he tells them where to go! (Just a bit of levity there!) Hmmm - I wonder if Mitch would like my Orange Crush quilt! It sure is perky - and I call orange a happy color! The Orange Crush was a mystery quilt on http://quiltville.com Carolyn at the Rushville Quilt shop quilted it for me. (She does such great work and doesn't get upset with my color combos - or at least she doesn't tell me about them!)

In my stitching world - - still on my mission to use up fabrics in my stash. I dug out my 10 gallon Rubbermaid tub of solid fabrics last week and made a backing for a quilt. While surfing quilt sites and blogs I ran across a lovely pattern on http://MaryQuilts.com called Boxed Squares. The tub of solids was still sitting in my sewing area so I dug into it and took out all the strips already cut to size and then cut more strips. Yesterday I pieced 22 blocks and this morning I cut for about 40 more blocks and sewed up a few. I think I will make 80 blocks and end up with a nice throw size. The tub was so full the cover didn't go down snugly - but as you see from the picture, the pile is going down - down - and down. The blocks I've made are shown, too.

Back to the sewing room - take care all and be well.

Lovely day here - even if it's quite dreary outside. Sweatsuit weather is coming and I must dig out my favorite outfits! Oh, I've become such a fashion queen since retirement. Really bad thing is I'm loving it more every day.

Little Josh from next door is an avid dirt biker - he was standing at the edge of the yard, looking out at the soy bean field and muttering. When he walked back towards the houses I greeted him and he said "I can't wait till the crop is gone so I can get my bike out there!" See - I'm not the only one ready for fall and cooler temps!

Today is a special day for Amanda, granddaughter who lives in Wisconsin. The picture was taken two years ago, at a tennis meet when we were up there visiting. Amandy is on the left. I will call her this evening and hope her card and check has arrived!


I've been working on my Fungly Quilt (fun-ugly) and have it finished and ready to go to the long-arm quilter gal.

I also pieced the backing for this quilt - 81 ten inch squares. The lid now fits on the container holding all my solid fabrics.














A gal in the chatroom gave a neat hint - embroidery your name on the binding instead of making a separate label and having to stitch it on - saves quite a bit of time. So I had to give it a try and spent a morning making binding for two quilts - over 500" of binding. Am waiting on an email from my longarm gal to tell me the quilt there now is ready to be picked up and then I'll take the Fungly Maple Leaves top to her. She is so brave to do my quilting! Bless her heart!

The next photo is a start on a Row Quilt. It was a project in progress and ended up on the shelf. The two rows of Bowties were already finished. So once again I did my favorite - Maple Leaves and that row is finished. Another favorite block is the Broken Dishes or Hour Glass and yesterday I did a row of them. The close up leave is one of my favorite fabrics - sad to say there is only about an 8" square of it left. Most of the Bowtie blocks are a plaid. I plan to use a strip of solid color fabric between the different rows. The Broken Dishes/Hour Glass blocks use just one big swirly design and the background - I don't know when or where I bought that fabric but like it as much now as I did then. (Good thing cuz there's quite a bit of that left!)






Till next time - - take care - - and keep in touch.

Oh My Goodness

Here we are at the end of another month. I must have napped too much because I don't know where the time went. But my waking hours were enjoyable! The picture today is a challenge piece for the Small Quilts Talk group. Name of the block is "anvil" and when I first saw it I didn't really care for it - but after a couple of blocks I enjoyed making it.

Between loads of laundry this morning, I sewed labels onto some of my quilts and others were labeled by writing my name and the year they were made on them. I wish I'd have done this to all the quilts I've made and given away. The labels I sewed on were made by embroidering my name and year with my sewing machine! Pictures below - click on them to enlarge to see the labels better.

We will have a quiet long weekend. Mark is off to party on a houseboat on the Ohio River. I'm not sure what Nate & Deanie are doing - probably a long bike ride. J.D.'s classes begin on Monday and he's in Bloomington - ready to study Tracy called last night and said she's evacuating to Hattiesburg for the long weekend. The storm is going to be just too close to them. Haven't heard anything from the Wisconsin delegates in a while - school starts there next Tuesday, too.

Tia & Tori, Darcy's daughters will be visiting in the area this weekend. Hope they manage a visit with us. Will take pictures if they do.

Wishing everyone a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend. . . . till next time.

Lovely "fallish" weather today - we had soup for lunch and I'm sitting here with a light weight sweater thrown over my shoulders! Can you tell I'm not a hot weather person?

It's been a quiet and uneventful week for us - not hard to handle at all. So of course I "holed up" in the sewing room and stitched away. I love leaves and after paging through magazines and books found a truly scrappy, anything goes picture of a quilt. I dug in my shopping bag which has baggies of different blocks in different sizes, and found some 6" leaf blocks. So I made about 75 more and am ready to set them together. The picture is one of the "unusual" fabrics I found and put into blocks.

This will really be a quilt of many colors!

The rest of the pictures are of the two antique quilts a friend of mine bought while she traveled the New England States. The four patch is quite unusual, tied with green yarn on one side and the other side has pinky-yellow yarn. It is quite lumpy in some areas and I'm thinking it was two separate quilts sewn together at some point.

This is the other side of the four patch quilt. This quilt measures about 15" square.

This 9 patch block is another one from the friend. I'm guessing the fabrics are from the 40's. It is quite thin and has been hand quilted. The back is solid blue, the same as the sashing strips. This one measures about 15 x 19"

Court House Steps quilt I made several years ago, really don't remember when I made it. The strips are 1/2" finish size and it was pieced on a paper foundation. and is hand quilted. We've been using it as a wall hanging and now a table topper and it is quite faded - but still pretty.

Till next time - - take care & stay well.

Autumn Leaves

Oh - I'm so ready for the leaves to fall, cooler temperatures and everything else that goes with the changing of the seasons. I sewed for three days to finish up this Maple Leaves Mantle cover and am pleased with the results. I used batik fabrics for all but one of the leaves. Think I'll go shopping for an orange candle!




THEN & NOW: Last week was Chet & my 52nd wedding anniversary. I never did figure out how to use my scanner, so just took a picture of our wedding picture - as you can see, it isn't the best - but you get the idea! Can you tell it's been a challenge the past 52 years? Anyway, I made a steak, mashed potatoes, asparagus and even had a dessert - later, of course!



Short post this time - we're well and keep plugging along. Good to hear from family - keep those emails coming.

Till next time - - -