"Recent Developments"

When I was having the browser issues, I was unable to post my little finish of "Recent Developments."  This is my version of Bonnie K. Hunter's Happy Scrappy Houses which is a free pattern  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/happy-scrappy-houses.html over on Quiltville.com. Thank you so much Bonnie!!!

I had great fun making the little scrappy houses. It was like playing with paper dolls when I was a kid. I made a big mess of scraps as I worked and had a ball just going with the flow of the creative process.

This quilt is going to a dear friend who has suffered a great deal of adversity in her life through no fault of her own. Husband crippled permanently in a near-fatal motorcycle accident, son killed by a drunk driver, major medical issues involving ovarian cancer and surgery, well, she's seen Trouble and knows its middle name.

This quilt also taught me not to be too much of a fabric snob. Many of these fabrics were very expensive Civil War reproductions, but I also used very old 1980's pink calicos from my stash and some Wally World (Walmart) sale scores, too. Can you see the little moon in the window of the house?
Don't forget that this is still the Blue Moon Giveaway that lasts until September 3rd. Just be sure you are a follower and leave me a comment. Please do not choose to be a "No Reply" commenter or I will not be able to reach you to tell you that you have won.
Linda Monasky of The Bear Paw Gallery in Alton, New Hampshire did the wonderful Clamshell Clouds quilting pattern on this and it looks great! If you want to use her services, click here.
As for the backing of the quilt, I was still humming, "Life is just a Bowl of Cherries" when I  picked out this happy-looking print.

You also missed out on the Red Haven Peach pie direct from Husband Wonderful's hobby orchard here at Park Hill Farm. It's sweetened with a bit of Splenda, so no guilt here!

Want some coffee with that?

And, for those of you who happen to still be smoking cigarettes, go ahead and light up and enjoy! I was able to give them up almost 4 years ago, but the beauty of this technology is that your smoke can't bother me or anybody else on the blogosphere. Be at ease!

New Browser

I hate change! But this morning, I realized that I can't fight blogger so I'vetaken on a new-to-me browser that doesn't have any of my bookmarks yet. If Mozilla Firefox 15.0 will allow me to upload pictures again, then I'll be happy. Here goes!

Hooray! The picture of me uploaded! Yeay! I'm back in business now!

Thank You, Everybody!

Somehow, I managed to sign out of my blogger account and goof up my pop-up blocker status at the same time. Moan and groan! I have not been able to access the blog to update it until now, where I am writing from an alternative browser.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU ALL!

The response to the blog hop party is wonderful, and I did bother to fish a few comments out of my spam folder and rescue them to the folder that holds all the entrants. Soall you folks are included and the fun does not end until Sepember 3rd.

In the meantime, I have decided on a novel approach of how to select the 4 winners. I will print out a paper copy listing of all the names and have my Husband Wonderful, Felix, set it up on the target range. He will shoot at it four times with a .22 caliber rifle and the four names that he hits will be my winners. We will do that on the 4th of September and I'll announce it on the same day.

Good luck to everybody, but I am the biggest winner to have all of your participation!

I have been sewing together the 48 purple string blocks that have been patiently waiting for me toget around to joining them into rows and then joining the rows. It felt good to get'r done! LOL!

Quilting Gallery Blog Hop Giveaway

When we experience two full moons within one calendar month, the second one is the technically correct definition of a "Blue Moon." And, as this August 1st and August 31st both are full moons, so then, the "Blue Moon" is coming up quickly.

Being a lunatic myself, I've decided to hostess a give-away for the blue moon, but as it is part of the Quilting Gallery's Blog Hop Giveaway, the promotion will be open until September 3rd. My gift will be internationally available, so please do join in the fun even if you are outside of the good ole' U.S.A.

All you need to do is to be a follower of my blog and leave a comment for me on the Blue Moon. All comments left on the 31st who are followers will be entered into a random drawing. I will announce the winners on September 4th.

Please be sure that you are not a "no reply" commenter because I won't be able to reach you to let you know you've won. Watch your spam folder, too, in case my winner announcement gets trapped there.

And the prize? Well it MUST be fabric to be any good, right? So here it is;

http://quiltinggallery.com/quilters-fun/quilters-blog-hop-party/






FOUR FAT QUARTER FLORALS!!!!

And, this giveaway is a four-by-four! That means that there are four identical prizes going out to four different winners, so it is more chances for you to win!

Good luck everybody!

Mental Hiccups

When I was a little kid, I was a dreamy, forgetful, out-of-touch little soul. Things haven't changed much.

I have spent the last two days believing that today, a Wednesday, was the third Wednesday of the month, and was, therefore, a Sew & Sews group day. Alas! There are five Wednesdays to this August, and this is the FOURTH one, not the third one.

The car was all happily loaded with my stuff for my sewing group. I made a "traveler" cup of tea for the ride up to Laconia, New Hampshire. Heck, I even remembered to make Matthew two honeyed ham and smoked gouda sandwiches to be the lunch that he hadn't time to make this morning. I dropped them off at the dump, oops, Recycling Center, where he works. I got all the way into the building at Woodside and wondered why no one was there and the lights were off. There was a calendar on the wall staring at me accusingly and screaming how stupid I was! Sigh.

There was nothing to do but to go buy gasoline for the car ($3.64 per gallon) and stop at The Quilted Frog for retail therapy.
Here is what I bought:

These are 5 half yard pieces in earthy olivey blues, burgundy and a creamy neutral with precious little owls. They really go nicely with the buck-a-pop Fat Quarters that I bought earlier this year at The Quilt PatchNH.com in Bedford, New Hampshire. I'm kind of a sissy when it comes to using blues, but these appealed to me.
When I got home, had some lunch and a rest, Felix and I decided to take our trusty old loppers and hand clippers to the dreaded web-worms that have been attacking some of our prized trees. Here is our little pear tree in the "BEFORE" photo.

Those hazy grayish areas are webs filled with horrid worms, well, really caterpillars, that eat so much that they will quickly denude and kill the baby tree. We had waited until the day's light was waning as that is when the worms go back into the web for the nighttime. Then we pruned the diseased wood carefully, placing each piece into a contractor's trash bag to go immediately to the dump transfer where it will be taken to Concord and burned. Ugh!
Here is the tree after pruning:

You can see that all the right side branches are now gone and there are not any gauzey webs on the little tree. This tree survived a very sudden and violent windstorm the year after we planted it. A gust snapped the tree off right above its graft and we did not think that it would survive. But, grow it did! Felix has trained a new leader from the offshoot which you can see is rather curved by necessity. So we now hope to save it from the webworms. I told Felix that we should name this tree, "The Calamity Jane Pear Tree." LOL!

Finally, I sewed a few calico catnip mice just for fun!

Many Friends; Many Thanks!

Thank you, thank you, to all the forty folks who voted for my Humble Pie in the Quilter's Gallery contest yesterday!!!! Although I only placed 8th, I was honored to be that high in the standings of 67 entries of truly beautiful scrappy quilts. I'm glad to have people see my quilts cause it takes so dang long for me to produce one!

If the photo was too tiny for you to really see what you were voting for, here are a couple of closer up shots.

I just love Linda Monasky's Ivy and Loops design in light green thread for the quilting!

I had fully intended to give this quilt away, but Felix complained loudly and bitterly that he likes it too much to see it leave. I'm thrilled that he cares for it, so at home it shall STAY!!!

After all, he's my Personal Chef! Here he is wrangling last night's supper:

My beloved unofficially adopted son, Matthew bought these for us all to enjoy because they are still selling at only $3.99 per pound. Yippee! We frugal Yankees love the bargain.
Here's mine:

It was DELICIOUS!!! And so big that I had no room for the semi-homemade coleslaw with the Marie's brand dressing that I love so much.
If you would like to know how to sex a lobster, just look at the area where the body is joined to the tail at the last of the legs. There you will find a pair of specialized flippers that that, when joined together, create a little tube for the seminal fluid to be ejaculated into the female's body, if it is a male. If it is a female lobster, she will have only soft insignificantly developed little swimming fins in the same location on her body. So now you know!

Once In A Blue Moon Giveaway!

When we experience two full moons within one calendar month, the second one is the technically correct definition of a "Blue Moon." And, as this August 1st and August 31st both are full moons, so then the Blue Moon is coming up quickly.

Being a lunatic myself, I've decided to hostess a give-away for the blue moon, but as it is part of the Quilting Gallery's Blog Hop Giveaway, the promotion will be open until September 3rd. My gift will be internationally available, so please do join in the fun even if you are outside of the good ole' U.S.A.

All you need to do is to be a follower of my blog and leave a comment for me on the Blue Moon. All comments left on the 31st who are followers will be entered into a random drawing.

Please be sure that you are not a "no reply" commenter because I won't be able to reach you to let you know you've won. Watch your spam folder, too, in case my announcement gets trapped there.

And the prize? Well it MUST be fabric to be any good, right? So here it is;

FOUR FAT QUARTER FLORALS!!!!

And, this giveaway is a four-by-four! That means that there are four identical prizes going out to four different winners, so it is more chances for you to win!

Good luck everybody!

Wanda's Gift and Humble Pie Votes Please!

My dear friend Wanda, who still machine pieces after two major stokes left her paralyzed on one side of her body, is an absolute inspiration to me! I keep sending her precut strips because rotary cutting is very difficult for her. Now look at the sweet little log cabin quilt that she has sent me as a thank-you gift.

THANK YOU WANDA!!!!! You make me so proud of your indomitable quilting spirit! The example you set for all of us is to never give up on what we love.

I love it!

As I posed for Felix to take this picture, guess who decided to join me? Why, Raven, of course!

And yesterday, two of the Sew & Sews group and I made the trek up to Meredith, New Hampshire to visit a lady who must downsize and was selling fabric. It was a complete bust. The eight huge tubs of fabric were 100% upholstery fabrics! Beautiful silk duponi but not for quilting. Then there was a sudden and violent downpour!

I had fun on the adventure but I wasn't gonna drive all the way up to Meredith without popping in on The Mothership, a.k.a. Keepsake Quilting, which is just next door in Center Harbor.

Budget money is tighter now that gasoline prices are back up to almost $3.75 per gallon, so I only shopped the Outlet Store.

There was tons of great stuff to pick from and I looked for Civil War shirtings or neutrals. So much to love here!

I found two Jo Morton's and bought one yard each at $6 and $7 respectively and got a couple of nice yard and a half remnants for $11 each also.

 This lady was shopping for 25 cent-a-piece scraps from the bin and I joined her for $5 worth of Christmasy reds.
The brown generic 5" charm packs had been $5 each, but were on sale for 25% off, so I bought four of them. That's $1.25 off each one, yippee!

I also "scored" this week on an Ebay auction for some Civil War fat quarters. Thirteen FQ's for $17.74 plus $5.75 shipping. Wow, that's a bargain!

Aren't they just elegant? And all this stuff is just perfect for that Snowball & Nine-Patch that I started a few days ago! Yeay!

Lastly, I 'd like to invite you, no, implore you, no, BEG you, to please vote for me in the Quilter's Gallery contest this weekend! It is a virtual quilt show and I entered my Humble Pie quilt:

You get to vote for 5 different quilts and here is the link:


http://quiltinggallery.com/2012/08/17/vote-now-scrappy-quilts-3/k

THANK YOU!!!

"Alas, Poor Yorick..."

Alas, my camera can never capture the subtle beauty of a clothesline filled with Civil War selections!!! They all look so pale and drab and washed out.

In person, those white looking things are lovely authentic shirtings on creams and ivories, each with its own delicate pattern.

The one on the left is an indigo print, and on the right is a two-toned figure of deep red and green.

These above, that look black and white, are really red on cream.

This is a warm colonial blue in two shades beside another red shirting mini dot.

This last one, the colors are truer, a cranberry stripe and a tan with green, red, and blue dots, both fabrics courtesey of Marcus Brothers Cocheco Mills line.
Now, what to do with them?

Well, I decided to try staying clear of modern-type patterns when using authentic hysterical cloth, so I chose to start something NEW but very traditional.

What could be better than an olde fashioned Snowball & 9-Patch?

What fun! No pattern, no idea how big it will grow, clueless as to if I'll be bored with it by Tuesday.

The photo above is too dark, too. That is a lovely vine print on chocolate brown and above it in the picture is a turkey red that is photographing as black. You can see that I'm still obsessed with making those sweet little bonus HST's, too. Someday, Ocean Waves, she muttered.

I did some 9-patches and then measured them at nominally 6 1/2" unfinished, since I had started with good ole' trusty 2 1/2" strips. That told me to make the snowballs 6 1/2" to match the 9-patches. Guess what?

They matched up just terrifically!!!! Yippee! The red looks a bit better here, and can you make out the pattern of little tiny hands of playing cards on that white shirting? The red cards have red pips, too.

I hope you are having lots of fun playing around today as I am!

Achy Breaky Back Muscles

I am happiest when I am piecing blocks! There is a reason that I use my wonderful Linda Monasky as my longarmer. I really suck at quilting!! But we need charity quilts and the longarmers are too busy to do it for us. Linda told me privately that her tax advisor had informed her that when she quilts charity quilts for the guild, her time spent, her labor, is NOT tax deductable! That's a crying shame.

So this is what I've done for the past three days, quilting this little "dragger" linus-type quilt for charity. I did not make the top, with it's 1960's retro psychadelic flowers and poly blend gingham. But I did FMQ quilt it, in spite of my thread breaking constantly, birdsnests on the underside, inch-long skips, and muscle aches in my back and shoulders that ibuprofin laughed at.

It measures 35"x45" and the backing is a pretty country blue that only photographs as an ugly grey. I did an allover close meander on the body of the quilt and a scroll design along the middle of the gingham borders. The binding I'm kinda proud of, because it was my first-ever machine-applied with no hand sewing binding. If you'd like to see the link that helped me to learn how to do it, it is here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93EhTJvaBM4&feature=player_detailpage

It is not perfect, but it is done. Done is better than perfect! And some kid is going to barf on it, pee on it, chew on it and his or her Mom will laugh and wash it with Tide on hot water cycle. They will love it to death! That's a good thing.
Our dew point is  tropical 70 degrees and produced fog it is so very humid. UGH! I hate summer. Make it SNOW!!

First, grow Redhaven peaches:

Then cut them up with the blueberries and some cantaloupes from the market with just a little Splenda and chill in the fridge.

Enjoy a big bowlful of fruit compote for breakfast!

This is the man who always grumbles about my fabric purchases, but very nicely pays the bills anyway!

Staying Cool

A few years ago, our arbor vitae cedar bushes at the front of the house had become so large and rangy that they were covering up our front windows and not letting in much daylight. Felix did a fine job of hooking them with chains attached to the back of his old pick up truck and ripping them out. Then he carefully conditioned the soil in the front bed and planted four nice new ornamental bushes. Can you guess what he planted to be the light airy foliage in front of our windows?

If you guessed cultivated high-bush blueberry bushes, you win your bet!

We had peaches harvested, too, you may recall.

So last night Felix made a mixed Cobbler Pie and let it cool.

Ahhhhh, pie for breakfast, an old New England tradition! Blueberry and peaches together and all sweetened only with a small bit of Splenda.

Delicious, nutritious, and guilt-free. Now, how's that for eating locally produced crops?

As for my guild meeting, it was so hot and crowded with their aneamic AC, that I was miserable and left with heat sickness as soon as I could. So I only showed "Humble Pie" for show & tell. Here it is if you missed it before:

Yesterday, I had fun opening up a package from Missouri Star Quilt Company's fabric store. It was only 2 yards of black Kona cotton but it was one of their "Daily Deals" and was only $3.33 per yard. It arrived quickly and was neatly packed, not all wrinkled like you get from Fabric.com.

It was my first purchase from them ever and I was very pleased! I love their instructional videos with that hilarious introductory music where the little duck quacks. And I've even made "Windmills of Your Mind" from a Missouri Star Quilt Company video, so I'd like to support them. Jenny Doan is so friendly and cheery that if this old world were coming to an end, I'd want her to be the person to tell me about it.

Here's a quick view of the clothesline, too.

That deep chocolate brown that looks black from here was a prairie-type blue floral from Country Threads' sale. It was the first time that I've ever ordered from them also and I was very pleased! Jo Kramer has recommended them and so has Katie Wiseman, both two quilting blog friends.
Here is a closer look at the brown Civil War-wannabe. I just love it!

I pulled out a stack of true Civil War fat eighths just to fondle them because they are so pretty. What will I do with them?

Maybe more sawtooth stars? Not sure yet, still cogitatin'