More potential quilts!

Here are a few of the hand embroidered blocks I got from Liz. They were done by her mom. Each block is 18" and there are 12 of each design. So here are my setting ideas. For the moose I thought of a double nine patch or the block called Rosebud. The double nine patch is a nine patch and 5 of the patches are also 9 patch's. It kind of looks like the border in the block and looks a lot like cross stitch. The Rosebud pattern has ALWAYS looked like moose feet to me!

For this one I found a block called Bear Tracks at Quilter's Cache. It is the bear paw with the claws pointing out. If I use both the moose and the bear one I may do the "feet" of each animal on the diagonal marching across the quilt. What do you think of that?
These fun little guys are not hand embroidered. Liz did them on her embroidery machine and asked me to design a quilt around them. The colors are so bright and fun! I am thinking of setting them with "crazy quilt" blocks around them or building a wonky, crazy quilt-esq type of thing around each of them. I think either could be fun. Give me your suggestions.
This beauty was hand stitched by Liz's mom. There are 12 of them and they are 18" each so BIG. So delicate! I am thinking to set these on point and alternate with large half square triangles that are surrounded by hst, or not, I haven't decided yet. They would be a pastel and white (or white enough to match the flower's background. Any other suggestions?
I trimmed the 32 green strings I have for the St. Pat's quilt. I took and did a color diagram of the clover quilt but I am having a bugger of a time uploading it here for some reason. I will post this and try again so you may see it and you may not!

Have a happy and productive weekend!!

Well, I wish I could take credit for getting the picture here but Liz the whiz saved me again. She had scanned this in and sent it to me as a pdf which I could not post (is there a way, I will have to investigate) and sent it to me as a jpg which is what you are seeing here. Hurrah for Liz! The string blocks are either all greens with a clover print in the center or all green with a wow print in the center (which will be turned to form the 4 leaf clover.) Let me know what you think.

Strings of My Heart

The LC's have been "bisy" and so have I.  I wanted a group project for the CL's to work on and have been visiting Mary's blog.  She is actively involved with the Heartstrings project.  This quilt was designed by Jane of Forest Jane Designs and Heartstrings uses it for their logo.  I wanted to teach the ladies to string piece so it was all good!  Here is our first attempt at a string quilt.

If you notice, the center strings are not all the same width, we have since corrected this by having *me* cut all the center strings!
We are currently working on a 4 leaf clover design.  I think the all green blocks are turning out so well.  I plan on trimming some tonight, so will take a  picture to post tomorrow.

If Ever Oh Ever A Whiz There Was...

The Liz of Ann Arbor is one because...

Because, because because....because of the wonderful things she does...

Just look at this gorgeous quilting!!  One of the CL's (DIAN) pieced this top and it just screamed for custom block work and Liz did not disappoint!  Pay particular attention to the top where you can see the pieced outer border.

Just look at the center square.  It has rosebuds in a swirl.
This is the quilting in the pieced part of the top (and bottom) border. (from the back)
This is the center and around the center from the back.  Check out those free hand feathers.
Another close up of the center, from the back.
This shows the quilting of the cornerstone area, obviously from the back too.


I am continually amazed by her talent!  She marked some and drew it all in freehand.  Her skill is growing in leaps and bounds!  Speaking of Liz, she gave me some blocks that her mother hand embroidered/cross-stitched to design a quilt for her.  I have been giving it a lot of thought and have a few ideas.  I will take some pictures of the blocks and see what you all suggest  too.  i may just have to learn how to use my EQ program so I can show them here.  Maybe I can still use the old graph paper.  I really *need* to learn the EQ software though.  

Just a quick thank you to everyone that volunteered to send me some greens and blues for my "S" quilt.  I am overwhelmingly appreciative!  If you guys ever need something I might have all you have to do is ask.  I sent the little blue orphan in the mail and it said 2-3 day delivery but we will see if my friend gets it in that short amount of time!  I am so excited!  I have quilting with the CL's tonight so will be bringing this to Dian to see how she likes it.  I will try to get a picture of the heart string quilt the CL's did as it is beautiful.  Maybe I will take some pictures of the green string blocks we have done too although none of them are trimmed yet.  Lost of snow here in the last 2 days so I am just trying to stay warm.  

Assistance needed please!

Alright, I admit it...I need some help. Here are some of the green 6" squares I have cut for DD2's quilt. I am in desperate need of more! I think I need like 45 and I really would like to do it without repeating a color. You can see it is MSU green but I would take greens like in the photos above too.
If it is not too much to ask I need the same blues as in the orphan block quilt I posted about a few posts ago too. If anyone can spare a few 6" squares in either color I would be most appreciative. In fact I would be happy to send you some of my blues and greens in return to replace yours! If you would like to help me out please email me at
mamaspark@gmail.com and I will send you my snail mail address. I think this is going to turn out so well, and Thanks in advance for any squares you can spare.

BTW...the blue orphan will be going to it's new home tomorrow. Well, I am mailing it tomorrow anyway. I hope the recipient will let us all know when it arrives. I sent a letter documenting the story of the quilt too. I can't wait for it to make it's way *home*.

Thanks again for any assistance, you guys are the BEST!!

Woot, Woot!!

So...now you know that I have one of the most beautiful daughters on the planet. Hmmm...we went out shopping for a dress for her honors sorority dance (it's tonight) and this is the one we chose. Isn't it beautiful? (Natalie, you will never have to purchase a dress, Maria can use all of Kelsey's!) She got her hair cut and highlighted today too. I think she is wonderful! And on top of it all, she is a brilliant student, loves to do volunteer work and a fantastic and warm young woman. (I know...brag much??) But it is true. She just accepted a position doing plant biology research for the semester and everyone loves her. We got her dress on sale (not a great sale) and it is by Jessica McClintock (I can hear Saska laughing) but we loved it.

The sheepskin came from my friend Leslie in Australia (they own a 3000 acre sheep farm)

OMG!! I can't believe she even wanted a photo with her "old" mom!! I look hideous after a day of Quilt Till You Wilt with the CLs!!
Now for the gratuitous photo of Aiden sleeping in my linen closet! Isn't she sweet??
Let me know what you think of the dress. It reminded me of old times. I really miss her = (

Seriously YUMMY

I know I don't usually post about someone else's post but you really *need* to check out Saska's seriously yummy cinnamon rolls!!  I mean it, really, go right now.  Why are you even finishing reading this?  Come back and finish this later = )

So I still can't show you the blue quilt but Liz the whiz got it back to me today and it is just stunning!!  Again, I can't say a lot but she did exactly what I asked, including putting some words on the top and bottom border along with embroidering the year on it.  In addition, she totally freehanded the entire thing!  The center is all freehand feathers and swirls.  I will try to get a photo of that when I get home as that will not give anything away. (Wait, I have my camera and the cord here with me at work...hmmmm). This is part of the center (all free-handed, remember?)  Liz is truly amazing!!
This was her first time free-handing the entire middle of a quilt!  She has done little inside border free-hand work like this before.

This is the back.  The thread kind of blends in with the water doesn't it?  It looks really cool in person!!

 Can't show you the borders or tell the story...yet.  I finished the binding last night so will sew it on with the machine tonight and hopefully turn it tomorrow.  Then all I need to do is label it and send it to my friend.  She is going to be so surprised!!  I just love surprising people, don't you??  I am rarely surprised so maybe that explains why I love to do it to others?  Who knows, I just know that I love doing it.

Let me know what you think.

Also, my dear friend, Karen, who is from Brazil, is getting married to one of my bosses!!  They are planning a June wedding.  I was reading Mrs. Goodneedle's blog (Feb 12th) and she is doing a thing where she is leaving squares on the tables in place of a guest book for people to sign and then making them into a quilt.  She will make them into a quilt.  I borrowed her idea to use for Karen.  Karen loves flowers (her nickname if Flor, meaning flower in Portugese).  So I chose some suitable blocks and she chose the one she wanted.  You can see it at the Quilter's cache.  It is called "Morning Star 2"  I think it will make a beautiful quilt.  We will just leave the center squares out for signing or writing well wishes.  Have any of you done this before??

Surprise!!

Ohhh, I can't wait to reveal the story behind the blue orphan quilt!!  It has another name now that it is with Liz the whiz but I can't even tell you that or the person it is intended for will know it is for her!!  This is so hard!!  Just know and BELIEVE that the hand of the Holy Spirit is at work in your life.  Once you know the story it will just confirm it for you.  

Stay Tuned!!

Orphan Blocks

I have no idea what got into me last night!  This weekend I was going through some stash bins and found these orphans.  They were not sewn together but were all cut and pinned as a group.  I had found a pattern that used these kind of blocks to make a purse so I sewed them together and will *try* to see if I can figure out how to make the purse.

This is the second one and the pattern.  I hope it will turn out well!  Do these blocks look familiar?  I made 2 quilts with the dragonfly stack and whacks, one for each DD.  One was with the turquoise and the other with a pinkish-purple sparkly as the setting.  Remember??

As you know, I have been diligently cutting blue 6" blocks for DD2's quilt.  So when I found the orphan blocks I realized that in order to make those into something usable I would need to make more, so I cut up several of those 6" blocks into these.  Now I will need to cut more 6" squares, where will it all end?? LOL
Which I will add to this to make a little table top quilt.
As I laid awake last night, tossing and turning, I had a brilliant idea for what to do with this quilt.  Unfortunately, I can't share it here as the person I will finish this for reads the blog.  I will be doing some creative border work and hopefully what I have in my brain will translate onto the fabric and look like I want it to!  Always dicey, I know but well worth the try.  I hope I can pull it off.  I am very excited to do the designing and then to get it to my friend.  I may post peeks as I go along we'll have to see.  I really do want it to be a total surprise so...

Designing

So I guess I am kind of a freak.  I write nothing and then have TONS to tell you all!  Oh well.  Two years ago when DD2 graduated from HS I set out 6" white squares of fabric and markers for people to write "Patches of Wisdom" for her and I was planning on making a quilt.  I had NO idea what kind of a quilt, but a quilt.  Her party invitations were a block "S" diagonally colored in blue/green (Her HS colors were blue and white and her college colors are green and white) so here is the design I came up with for her quilt.  The "S" (for her HS, Salem and her college State) will contain all the white signed blocks and the background will be split diagonally with the top being all done in various blues and the bottom in various shades of green.  What do you think?  I had a few people that didn't do a block at the party so I put a square of the white fabric in an envelope with a fabric pen, and the directions and I included a SASE so there was NO excuse for not sending it back to me!

While I was on a designing nut, I designed this 4 leaf clover to be done as a string quilt.  The CL's make a donation quilt for St. Patrick's church each year.  It takes me about a year to get all the blocks and then I (sometimes someone else) put all the blocks together.  The outline of the clover will be done with a white center string and the other strings will be various shades of greens.  I cut the center string for all the other blocks out of a green clover fabric so the centers will all be the same.  I still need to do this with the white so they will all match too.  The CL's can make the other strips out of any dark or bright green (no pastels).  What do you think??
Since you have all seen this quilt as Texas and U of M I thought I would show my work on this one too.  I hope you can read my writing!  Does anyone else use graph paper?  One of my friends wanted me to will her my design books!! HAHAHA, I don't think she would be able to make any sense out of them!!  I have the EQ 6 program and still resort to graph paper!!

This is the pile of blues I have put together for DD2's graduation quilt.  The CL's are also working on a blue and white quilt so some will be for that too.  In addition, I am thinking of using the "S" design to do a quilt for my son upon his HS graduation next year but adding appliqued lacrosse sticks across the "S".  (That is the lacrosse team's logo).  If I decide to do that, I may have to make 2 of those and have the boys on the team sign the "S" for the coach as a going away gift.  We will see how ambitious I end up being!!

Liz the quiltin' whiz gave me my birthday quilt back all finished so I thought I would share some pictures of it.  I did not get the binding sewn on but I did get it trimmed.  She used aqua thread and I love how it turned out!!  This is a close up of the back.
Close ups of the front.

Here is a quick pic I took this am before I left for work.  I will try to get a better one once it is bound and post that later.
Lastly, I found this adorable gingerbread hutch!!  DD2 and her college friends like to make them.  Their pictures on facebook of them making the Christmas one were priceless.  So really, I just want to see their pictures again as they make this one!!

How About a Meme?

Amy at the Calico cat posted this and asked others to join in and since I don't have any new photos I thought I would do it.  Please feel free to do the same and send me a comment so I can go and read your answers!

One word...

You

Can

Only

Type 

One 

Word

It is not as easy as it looks...

1-Where is your cell phone?desk

2-Your significant other?awesome

3-Your hair?blonde

4-Your mother?passed

5-Your father?amazing

6-Your favorite thing?quilting

7-Your dream last night?none

8-Your favorite drink?diet-coke

9-Your dream/goal?loved

10-The room you are in?office

11-Your ex?non-exsitent

12-Your fear?spiders

13-Where do you want to be in 6 years?home

14-Where were you last night?couch

15-What you are not?mean

16-Muffin?yes!

17-One of your wish list items?thin-ness

18-Where you grew up?GR

19-The last thing you did?columns

20-What are you wearing?green

21-Your TV?old

22-Your pet?friends

23-Your computer?helper

24-Your life?Best

25-Your mood?Happy

26-Missing someone?yes

27-Your car?transportation

28-Something you are not wearing?earrings

29-Favorite store?Joanne

30-Your summer?short

31-Like someone?yes

32-Your favorite color?teal

33-Last time you laughed?today

34-Last time you cried?yesterday

35-Who will read this post?Yuki

Well, that really was more difficult than you might expect!  It is difficult to limit yourself to just one word.  Several years ago we asked each other to describe each other with just one word.  the word they used for me was self-confident.  This was particularly funny because I felt anything BUT confident at the time!  It is interesting to do that and see what people have to say.  I feel more confident now in my life but not all the time.  I have some quilty things to share but need to take pictures.  I have gotten home so late lately that there is no good light for that.  I hope to change that tonight!  

I hope everyone had a nice Valentines Day.  We have a tradition in my family that we started when the kids were little.  The boys buy something for the girls and the girls buy something for the boys.  So I bought my "boys" each a box of chocolate and a card.  I found a great one for the DH that when you open it up it says, I've loved you from the first flirt!  It is true too.  Long story maybe for another  post, = )  Since the girls are not home I just got them each a card and sent them a little mad money!  DD2 send a really sweet card letting us know that she thinks we are the BEST parents ever and is happy we are in her life.  (I really needed to hear this this week as DS has caused some real issues for us lately).  DD1 emailed and told me she has something waiting to mail, when she can get out to do it.  DH cooked me a wonderful dinner last night, salmon, wild rice and fresh green beans with Dove Bars for dessert.  He also gave me Godiva chocolates and a really sweet card.  I hope you were all able to spend time with your Valentines too (or at least got hear from them).  I know this is a made up holiday, but when is it not a good time to let those in your life know that you love them??

The Drop Off

I hope you have enjoyed the gratuitous photo of Laxy, our dog.  She loves to sleep on the bed once we get up.  She knows she is not allowed on it with us, there is just not enough room.

I had quite a busy weekend!  Liz, and her parents and some of the CL's were going to the Methodist Boys Home (MBH) to drop off 40 quilts for the boys.  I had 2 more crazy rail quilts that I chose the fabrics and that Jane and Owen (Liz's parents) put together and Liz quilted.  this one is with football players and I loved how it turned out.  I would choose to make this again, I liked it that much!
Here is another CR with that wonderful bear fabric I loved so much.  No red like the other one, I used orange.  And made the borders green.  I found some wonderful tree fabric that I used in this too.  The plaid in this is green and black and the other one was red and black.
The director, Mia, is shown here holding up the other bear CR that I made.  She was so thrilled that every boy will get a quilt.  
Here is a photo of Liz's folks Jane and Owen.  They made a LOT of the quilts that went this day.
It is amazing to see all the 43 quilts.  (Yes, we brought 43 because we didn't want any boy to not have a choice).  We didn't want someone to get "stuck" with the last one.  It is always good to have a choice!  A local quilt shop had brought 30 the week before so there will be a total of 73 there right now.  Mia will call or email me when they need additional quilts.  I left her 2 fabric markers so the boys could put their names on their quilt too.  We'll have no mix ups!

So many quilts.  Mia, me and Liz.
More photo ops.  Dolores, Liz, Owen, Me, Charlotte, and Jane.
Jane and Owen made cookies and brownies for the boys too.  YUM!!
So that was my Friday.  I took the afternoon off from my job and went to deliver the quilts!

Friday night DH and I met my good friend and her new beau for dinner at Caladah's.  The food was great and he seems like a nice guy.  Her DH passed away a few years ago so I am glad to see her so happy again.  We then met some of my other friends at an erotic art exibition.  That was quite an experience!!  Really smoky though so we didn't stay a long time.

Sat am I had a class at the LQS.  One Block Wonder.  I bought my fabric in Indiana and I LOVE how it is turning out.  I will take some pics when I get home and post them so you can see.  I was so wrapped up in the class I completely forgot to take any pictures at the class!!  I did see a woman that I took the lone star class from last summer and that was fun.  She bought a LOT of fabric but she ordered in a collection that I bought a little bit of too.  

Sat night we had to go to a going away party for my nephew in Lansing so got to see DD2, which is always great.  

Sun I had to do laundry (5 loads) and then totally nuked down both bathrooms. I also spot treated the carpet in DD@'s room.   Then and only then would I allow myself to work on anything quilty.  I worked like a fiend on the OBW but I *still* have a lot of blocks to do.  I think I have 12 more or so to still do.  Then the fun of putting them on a design wall (read floor here) to re-arange and put into order.  I may take some photos too and see what you all think.  I may use the newly cleaned floor in DD2's room.  That way I can close the door and keep the animals out.  The down side is that the BR is upstairs.  Oh well, self imposed exercise for me!!

It is -14 degrees today so I will try to stay warm.  My computer at work is near the window so it is a little cold here.  Stay warm everyone!!

Progress...At Last

OK,OK, so I haven't been very good at posting lately. I have a lot to show today. I am kind of going in reverse order so bear with me. After I made the sampler quilt for my SIL and BIL I made another quilt from those fabrics for my In Laws. I *still* had fabric so used it for my Doll Quilt Swap quilt (hi Natalie), but I *still* had fabric left over so decided I needed to use more. I had seen a pattern in a magazine where they put a cat in the center and built a log cabin around it but I didn't like the cat. So I looked on line for a cat I might like better and found the one I ended up using to make this "Cats in the Cabin" wall hanging.


Here is a close up of one of the cats. They were paper pieced and after I did 4 of them I was sooooooo frustrated that I decided that would be enough to make a 4 block wall hanging. I "built" the cabin around the cat only to realize that I should have switched up the placement of the lights and darks so back to the drawing board. I couldn't make any kind of pattern this way.

I figured out what I needed to do to make another center with a pinwheel the same size as in the cats and then made a frame and built the cabin around that. That allowed me some play in design. Not much...but some. I think it came out pretty well.

The problem was that I, once again, made too many blocks, so I made a table runner! Lemons...lemonade!!

Now, I don't know if any of you remember that I was making this quilt for my son's lacrosse coach and his wife who are expecting a baby next month. I entitled it "Spinning Crosse" (the head on the lacrosse stick is called the "crosse") Liz quilted little mice into it. I think it came out really cute! What an easy quilt!



The church ladies and I have been working on quilts for the Methodist Boys Home (MBH). I posted one that had the bears all over it in this same crazy rail pattern. Here is one of the football ones. I chose the fabric, and cut the rectangles and then I gave it to Liz's folks and they cut it up and put it together and Liz quilted it. I liked the way this finished. I gave then another bear one and one more, different football one. I think I liked the colors in the second football one better but I hope some boy will like this one too.

There are 70 high school boys at the MBH. We managed, with the help of Liz's parents to make over 40 while a LQS had another 30 donated to them.

With the additional quilts Liz's folks have we should be set for awhile. We should even have some to give as they get in new kids too! I am so proud of the CL's and of Liz's parents too. This was a huge accomplishment!! Great Job everyone!!!
We will be delivering them to the MBH next Friday. I am so excited to get them to the boys!



Last but certainly not least. Every year the CL's make a quilt for a sister parish, St. Patricks. It is in a poor area and in need of assistance. We make a quilt for their raffle. This year Liz had given me some Quiltsmart Scotty dogs so I chose do to that. The CL's appliqued them and one of the women, Kim assembled the quilt. The setting design was my idea. I realy like how all the plaids work together to make the borders.


We had 2 left over so I had Kim put them on the back and she appliqued a bone between them. I used the little brown one for the label. That particular dog was made by one of the CL's that has recently passed away.
Scotties on parade! Nice stippling and notice that every rectangle is outlined.
I love the curlique border quilting that Liz chose too.

I guess that's all I have to report on for now. I have decided to chip away on the projects that are either in some state of "done" or on some of the things that were purchased to be a quilt. This should keep me busy ALL YEAR!! LOL. I have been keeping up on the 365 day challenge quilt too. I need to sew some more rows together now though. Not sure what the next project will be but I will keep you posted.