Stitching My Gratitude

I spent Memorial Day stitching my gratitude into this quilt that is for a WWII veteran. 

It was a pleasure and an honor.

Have you ever noticed (I'll bet you have) that when you thank a veteran, they usually get embarrassed and don't get why you are making a fuss.  They write a blank check that includes giving their life if necessary and then think it's not worthy of thanks. 

Thank you doesn't begin to cover it.

Happily Quilting Away

Three quilts finished . . . .

 and lots more on paper . . . .

The Graduations Begin!

Zak graduated today from preschool.  Seems like it wasn't that long ago that we learned we would be grandparents for the first time.  Now there are five grandkids and this is the first of a long string of graduations.  With four more (for now) grandkids yet to attend preschool and graduate, I figure by the time Cooper's and Dexter's little sister* graduates from Kindergarten, Zak will follow soon after with a grammar school graduation.

It wasn't a good day for us to travel so we couldn't be there, but Dayna took lots of pictures and I "borrowed" a few.

 "Ready! Let's get this show on the road!"

 "I'm so stinking proud of me!"

 Class of 2011

Lynzee, Zak & Caycee

 Zak and the proud mommy.

It would appear the proud daddy is camera shy.

* There is no happy news.... little sis has yet to make it out of the twinkle in the eye stage.  I'm just being positive and hopeful.

New Friends Mini Quilt

This is my quilt for the first round of the Flickr Mini Quilt Exchange.  The theme was New Friends.

I used neutral fabrics and Friendship blocks for the background.  And then two appliqued flowers that are the same but different.... kind of like friends who have interests in common but each brings something new to the friendship.

It needed a little more so I used floss to add bits of grass and added glass beads around the edges.

My new friends and I have at least two things in common.  We like quilts and I have a feeling we all have a tendency to procrastinate!

Recycling Drain Tiles

WOW challenge #17:  "With Earth Day this week, let's create something in honor of our home. You can focus on recycling, nature, etc. Maybe try your hand at gardening or find a great new use for your soda cans."

These tiles (I think they are leftover drainage tiles that the farmers use in the fields) were laying under the bushes when we moved into our home here about three years ago. I've been trying to think of a use for them. I finally figured it out!
I stacked four small ones on one side of the garden shed door and three larges ones on the other side. I filled all of them about half way (or more) with dirt, finished filling them with potting soil, then added flowers.  I had wanted to plant flowers in front of the shed but wasn't looking forward to digging up the ground there and it hadn't ever had anything but grass and weeds... it was really hard.  This worked out great.
 
Flowers in front of the shed.
Check.
Very little work. 
Check.
Tiles no longer looking messy and abandoned under the bushes. 
Check. 
 
Hmmm. 
All this "Check-ing" . . . .
can you tell I've been watching American Idol.

Next I have to figure out what to do with this odd piece.  It's square and clay-like.  It looks like the square things at the top of our fireplaces' chimneys.  I'll probably fill this with flowers too but it's HEAVY.  And I have to find a place for it.

Family At Easter

All the kids came done for Easter this year.  It was great to see them all together and listen to them talk.  Old stories had to come out again and be retold for the benefit of Adam's girlfriend as it was the first time she was at a family gathering. (Poor Nancy)  And we had our first official kid's table.... and they wanted to sit at it!  We'll see how long that lasts. 

But before dinner we had an Easter egg hunt . . .

 All the kids managed to find enough eggs to fill their baskets.  Except Dexter.  He got sidetracked when he realized there was candy inside. 

Then it was time to move on to our arts and crafts project. 

A large piece of MDF was left over from making a shelf for the living room.  I primered it before the kids got here.  An old bag of Scott's uniform shirts that I had never gotten around to throwing out made great smocks.

 All dressed and ready to paint!

 We had crayons and markers and colored pencils but everyone chose to use paint.

 I plan to cover it with polyurethane and add legs.  It'll make a great kids table for next time they are here.

The two youngest weren't quite as entertained by painting as the older ones.  They moved on.

 "Hop on Dexter! I'm going that way!"

"Fun!"

 "You're a little slow.  I think I'll walk."

 After Lynzee and Caycee got some scrapes and some bandaids, Caycee and Cooper decided the stone deer needed some first aid and bandaids.

Gramma wanted a group picture with all her grandkids.

It was a whole lot easier sitting down in this thing than it was to get out of it.... a tight squeeze!

 Dexter showing off... he can walk on the wall and drink at the same time.

I'm Glad You're Here

Iron Craft Challenge #14:  "Wish You Were Here" . . . .  make a postcard.

Mine is "Spring"

Strips of Spring-like fabric,

embroided leaves and flowers,

pink and green ric-rac, yellow beads

and, embroidered in hot pink, the word "Spring!"

This was as much fun as an inchie.... I just didn't have to squint!

Get Your Binding Ready Karen

.... it's heading your way!

Funky Froggy Flowers

The final challenge for this season's Project Quilting was "Large".  We had to use at least a quarter yard of a large scale print.  We also had to use at least one stripe or plaid. 

I had some large scale colorful frog print squares that equalled somewhere between a quarter yard and a half yard.   I chose one subtle stripe fabric and one stipe fabric that was just a little bolder.

Though I like the frog fabric, I didn't want my piece to be all about frogs.  I really wanted to  play with textures and that helped to disguise the frogs a bit but still let the colors shine.  I made three different kinds of flowers. 

One had petals that became very textured and bumpy through the use of Texture Magic and batting.  

Another flower had petals with batting and straight line quilting.  All of these petals were appliqued to the background with a zig-zag stitch. 

The three smaller flowers are circles of fabric each gathered around a circle of very stiff stabilizer that's just a little too big.  Gathering tightly caused the stabilizer circle to bow and bend a little, adding an extra element of texture to the gathers and keeping the flowers from laying flat on the background.  Yellow buttons are in the middle of the flowers.  
Several shades of green embroidery floss were braided together for the stems of the larger flowers.

Using the subtle stiped fabric I sewed a few dozen pleats very close together.  I cut a vase shape and sewed the pleats down along the edge of the vase.  Down the center of the vase I pushed the pleats in the opposite direction and again sewed them down.  This gave another element of texture and also formed a new look to the stripes.  Sewing the pleats was much harder than I anticipated but I love the look.

The piece was quilted with slightly curvy diagonal lines and bound with the brighter stripe fabric.  I thought I'd cut the binding on the bias but after the diagonal quilting decided to go with straight stripes.

The judges have a few good suggestions on how this could have been better... I might not be finished with it.

You can see the rest of the entries at Kim's Crafty Apple and at the Project Quilting with KimsCraftyApple flickr group.

The season had ended.  It was fun to see all the different interpretations of the challenges.  I loved having the challenge to make new projects and the judge's critiques were so helpful.  They gave great tips for improving and I seldom disagreed with anything they said.  I would find myself looking at my works-in-progress in different ways.  We all help out each other on our blogs but I think we tend to only make supportive comments.  The Project Quilting judges were anonymous - that may have made it a little easier to offer constructive critism.  Thank you to all the judges for your time and advice!

And thanks, Kim, for another great season!

Sashiko Pillow

WOW Challenge #12 theme: Japan

I made a Sashiko pillow.  The hardest part was chalking the first lines.  After those were stitched I used a pencil to mark the wrong side of the fabric for the rest of the lines.  That was easier to do and it was also easier to follow with the stitching.  Next time I try this I'll do all the marking on the back as it's more precise and the pencil isn't as messy as the chalk.  My stitches aren't uniform in length but they got better as I went. This was relaxing and it really turns out pretty.

Deep In The Middle

No finishes yet - just in the middle of lots of projects.

I did most of the work on this quilt, Ramblin' Rose in February.  This weekend the ric-rac stems have been sewn down.  I'm working on the flowers, then it needs to be bound.

I have a good start on my version of Sashiko for this week's WOW challenge - the theme is Japan.

Sharon from Kentucky made this Quilt of Valor.  I always audition several thread colors before starting to quilt.  White / off-white is seldom my first choice but with the red, white and blue quilts it usually seems to be the best.

The final Project Quilting challenge of Season 2 is large scale prints.  This looks large, doesn't it?  A striped or plaid fabric still needs to be added. 

These are pieces for a Quilt of Valor that is going to a wounded hero that I know.  108 rectangles that have one bit of blue and 54 rectangles of white/blue/white will yield sets of little triangle that will make 216 HST that are 1 3/4" square.  I'm still working on what to do with them.  Several red and white blocks are already finished... no pic.

This is probably the reason I have so many middles and no finishes ;)   It's almost finished.  Tonight?  Tomorrow?  Then I plan to have a week full of finishes.  

Feeling Lucky?!

Enter the giveaway for FOUR tickets to Legoland Discovery Center.  But hurry, tomorrow is the last day.  If you've never heard of the Legoland Discovery Center you can learn all about it at the giveaway. 
It's in Schaumburg Illinois, so I guess if you live in another part of the country it won't do you much good.  Unless you want to plan a vacation.  Legos are enough to plan a vacation around, aren't they?

That's all Legos... isn't it cool?!

Legos were a favorite at our house when the kids were little...

I loved playing with them! 

(I let the boys play, too)