Pincushion I made for Gerda

Today I can FINALLY post a picture of the pincushion that I made for my swap partner, Gerda. It took over 2 weeks to wind it's way along the postal road from my house to hers. I was just starting to sweat and wonder if it was lost but it arrived. Thank goodness!

Gerda is always saying how much she like greens and reds so I knew I would have to use those colors. The undersides of the leaves are shades of green wool that I found in Chicago a the quilt festival in April. This pattern is from Sue Spargo (Peony Bloom) but I shrunk it down and kind of did my own thing.

OOPS!

I was working on pinning my blue scrappy quilt and Al found a mistake... how did I not see it?! Well, I fixed it and am now quilting it :)

Garden scraps

The tomato plants are out and needed a bit of help standing up straight so Al cut me some stakes and I whipped out the pretty fabric strips scraps I've been saving. Nothing like a quilter's garden, you know?... Amy Butler ties, Kaffe Fasset scrappy strings, Moda bits... so pretty :) I also left a small pile of tiny pieces out in the early spring for the birds... I figure they might like a little color as they decorate their nests...

Working in the yard...

I've been trying to get a little gardening done lately but with so much going on with family and health concerns, it's been hard. I've scheduled myself to do a little gardening EVERY day so that it doesn't get out of hand... It's also wonderful exercise and I need that.

The strawberries are coming in like crazy. But then again so are the weeds. We've had quite a bit of rain, which we needed since we were on high danger for fires in our area. Seems like it's feast or famine with the weather.... no rain for weeks... then no sun for weeks... what can you do? Today is beautiful... it rained a bit this morning but now the sun is out. We're supposed to get more storms later in the day.

Al built me this strawberry bed and last year he put the chicken wire cage over it to keep the robins from getting a bite out of each of our beautiful berries. While I was collecting a quart yesterday, I had a robin on the post watching me.... I just laughed!! They're all mine this year! MMMMM

a bad few weeks....

This last week has been very busy and also very sad... one of my cousins passed away. He was only 56, a year younger than Al. It came as a shock... We last saw him at Grandma's 100th birthday party/family reunion. He was a wonderful man, intelligent, cheerful and very understanding... he listened. When we visited San Francisco for the first time in 2000, he came with his family to show us around, took us to a wonderful Hunan resturant, took the girls on a trolley car, and to Giradellis for ice cream. He was full of interesting facts about the area... what a tour that was! But the best thing was just sitting and talking to him... he would let you ramble on...without interupting and then offer his advice. He was always willing to give us a hand with arrangements for grandma... help with her paperwork (even though he's half a continent away). He was my uncle's oldest son, my oldest cousin. I'm going to miss him.....

Luck of the non Irish?

Well, I'm not Irish... I have LOTS of nationalities (7) but that's not one of them. BUT boy have I been lucky lately! First getting all those wonderful old fabrics from my daughter, then heading to the resale shop and finding a HUGE bag of silk threads in the 1/2 off bin (45 spools of silk thread on wooden spools for $3!) and then heading to the library and finding a tall stack of free quilt magazines. And they wanted me to take all I could because they needed to make some room! WELL, of course, I just had to help them out with that request! This pile above is just a SMIDGEN of what I took home. I thumbed through about 10 of them last night... think I'll fill the tub with bubble tonight and put another pile next to it.... Take of my record setting baths!

Another round robin border completed!!

Today I finished up the border I was adding to Rebecca's medallion... YEAH!! It took me a bit longer than I thought it would but I sure love it. Rebecca did the New York Beauty center, Denise did the Delectable Mountains and then I turned it on point with the applique.... Now it's off to DebbieAnn. I'm excited to see this one finished up!

Working on round robins and pincushions

I spent most of this morning finishing up the first of my "tiny" pineapple pincushions... at least tiny compared to the huge things the pattern makes. This one is VERY small... so small I decided it needed a nice little pedestal to stand on. It's all finished and ready to take to the quilt shop for the swap. I have two more little ones to go..

I've also been working on a round robin that will be Rebecca's in the end. I'm turning it on point and doing some applique so it's a little slow going. I have two sides done and I'm halfway finished with the third. It should be finished up by the end of the holiday weekend and then I can post a picture. My daughter stopped by the house when it was spread out on the design floor and she thought it was for her... she has always loved New York Beauty quilts and that's what Rebecca did for a center... plus they both have the same love of pinks. I told my girls that when they get married I would make them a quilt in what ever pattern they would like.... Jenn wants circles for sure.. and this quilt seems to be on the order of what she would like... HOPEFULLY I have a few years before she gets married! Lisa will probably want something vintage looking... oranges, yellowy greens, brown... but who knows, she might surprise me.

Pin cushion Exchange

Here is an a portion of a newsletter I received from Hearts to Holly Quilt shop. If anyone is thinking of joining a pincushion exchange this is a nice one. This is an adorable shop in downtown Charlevoix, just off the lake. Some of the pincushion are already arriving and ARE THEY CUTE!! I'm working on my next pineapple pincushion... the one that will be in this exchange... SO JOIN THE FUN!! Contact Sue at www.heartstoholly.com. She has some wonderful wool fabrics too, if you're doing that kind.

Working on a summer COVERLET

Here's a picture of the scrappy 30's coverlet that I've been working on, here and there. It's really quick and easy but I don't have much time to spend on it since I have so many other things going. When I'm in the mood for some mindless sewing I pull this one out. I just love the summery colors. Aren't 30's the cutest? I put a white (not quite pure white) strip in the center of each block and then just use any size strips I have around... there's quite a few leftover 30's pieces in my sewing room. I also added in solids cut from a FQ pack I bought at Heart to Holly.
They have the nicest FQ packs of solids I've seen.

Gwen Marston is going to be having summer classes and a retreat up here in northern MI and this year I heard it will be using solids.... I've got to get signed up for a class! And check out this book of hers... Liberated Quiltmaking II . You can see some of her wonderful quilts at www.gwenmarston.com. I sound like an advertisment for her but I think she's very talented and has a great eye for color.

One Pincushion done... THREE to go....

One down... three to go. I finished up the first pincushion for the swaps and just can't part with it. I love the colors of the wool and I love the base I found (at a resale shop). If I'm going to keep it, I have to make two more for the swaps plus I decided I'm making one as a gift for someone that has a birthday coming up in July.... so... I have a lot of work ahead of me.... Story of my life! I stopped by the LQS today to pick up more wool and she dragged a box out of the upstairs that I DOVE into... oooohhhh... nice wools! I put a special piece aside for myself for the next pincushion. It's a soft yellowy/gold plaid that would be perfect for a pineapple. BUT, at $72 a yard, I need to be VERY careful with how much I use. I also picked up a few more pieces of some of the more REASONABLE wool. They're just solid colors but very pretty.

I shrunk the pattern down from 14" to this which is about 9". I think I'll shrink the pattern a bit more for the next one. It still seems a bit big to me. The only problem I may have with shrinking it some more is being able to work with such small pieces. BUT, I'm going to give it a try. PLUS, wool is so expensive, I would like to use less of it per pincushion.