Lake Winnebago

Took a drive over to Lake Winnebago today.  Sort of in a funk creative wise and needed to just clear my head and get inspired.  There was little wildlife out but oh such a beautiful shot of where the water meets the sky.

Lace Dress

Well surprise surprise.....the lace dress I won in a drawing that I mentioned a few days ago arrived.  

I tried it on and it fits perfectly!  Now how did that happen.  Cameron is so sweet to have given one of these dresses away.  Thank you Cameron.  Now I am in the same dilemna she is in.  Do I save this to possibly wear or cut it up for a quilt?

Egrets, Packing & Borders

It has been a hectic couple of days. There just was no time for blogging unfortunately. However, I think things are calming down now and hopefully I will get back to some normalcy.
Here is the photo my brother Jeff shot from his car when traveling through the Horicon Marsh area of Wisconsin. It is my copy of it not the original photo so excuse that.
I am just picturing it as a gorgeous quilt and will find the perfect background blue for this one.

Then I had to pack up my two quilts (Turtle Soup and The Intruder) for the "Quilt Expo" in Madison Wisconsin. My sister, Bonnie, came over and brought her New York Beauty Quilt that she entered and we shipped them all together. We each looked over the others quilts making sure there was nothing overlooked.

The only thing I had time to do on my Lily quilt is audition a border and binding. I am pretty sure I am going with this choice.

Our weather has gone from hot and humid back to sunny and wonderful with temperatures in the high 70's and low 80's. I got about 1/3 of my flower beds weeded and hope to get out there after dinner tonight to finish up.

Bob is working on our second story porch and putting up all new railings made out of that stuff that never needs painting. Hoorah! I painted it the last time and it was a huge job. This will be nice to never have to do that again. So...things are looking up!

Writers Block?

I am back to quilting "Mulberry Bush" but wanted to begin another quilt while working on it again. I started the blue quilt background, but just was not inspired, so I put that on hold for a bit. Then I pulled these greens and auditioned them hoping for inspiration to come. Nothing.

I thought maybe if I threw in something bold....like purple.....nothing. The fabric was not speaking to me at all.

So I went to my Ideas folder where I stick things that I think I might use for a future quilt.
I found this:

This is a photo taken by Eva-Maria Nerling
http://colourful-research.blogspot.com
When I first saw it I thought quilt. So I asked her permission to use it and she was
happy to give it to me. So this is where I am now heading.

Funny how somethings just wait for you to find them again.

Mill Street Festival

Today is our downtown's "Mill Street Festival". We close the street and vendors and crafters come and sell their wares along with food and drink. Music will start soon in several tents and of course there are pony rides and a petting zoo for the little ones.
You can see in the background of this photo that an old "ghost" sign is being repainted on the side of one of our buildings down here. Love that because I am all for keeping our downtown historical. The weather is sunny and about 80 degrees....just perfect.

Worried about the Quilting

Took a walk in my back yard because I am worried about the quilting I decided to do on "My Pods". I am not showing it since it is not finished and I am crossing my fingers that the next steps will save it, but ...maybe not.
So...I took a breather to rid myself of my anxiety and filled my bird baths.

Spotted "Jack" in the foliage.

Pulled a few weeds in the vegetable garden and harvested a kohlrabi

and some lettuce for dinner tonight.
Now I feel better.

A Look At The Back & My Garden

Thought I would show the back of "The Canadian".
As some of you know, I tried a new technique for me of quilting the entire goose on
black stabilizer and then fused it to the already quilted top. I then machine stitched around the entire edge of the goose, insuring it would not detach over time.
So here you can see that outline stitch as well as how the wing looks from the back. I have also embellished a bit with some feathers and have one more on the sleeve which I have to still attach.

It is very dry here. Has been cloudy and looking like rain for the entire week but all we have gotten is sprinkles. So early this morning I went out to water and took some pictures of my exploding vegetable garden....

and the nude boy garden. Remember this used to be full of poppies. Now it is hostas, huecheras, delphiniums, astilbe, roses, grasses etc.

Hope you all have a great 4th of July!!!!!

The Culprit and The Goose

Here is a photo of the Culprit, aka Bella! She is just keeping me busy and has bonded to me like glue. This is much to the dismay of my two dogs who have to adjust to her demands for my attention.
Only two more days and she will be going home. I think I will miss her!

Progress continues on The Goose. I have to work with Bella leaning on my leg or lying on my feet . So moving back and forth between my cutting table and my design wall is difficult but doable. I am fusing to black stabilizer so that I can quilt the entire background first and then the goose will go ontop.

Mom's 85th Birthday Cake!

My daughter, Molly, picked up the cake for me this morning. Here it is. Do you think
it looks festive enough????!!!!!
What fun!
Just found out our cake lady, Tamara, has a blog -
http://thecakeguru.blogspot.com/

Bathing Beauties From the Past

Some of you will remember the more modest days at the beach from the past. This vintage postcard is a wee bit before me, but I do remember rarely seeing two piece suits much less bikinis. ( Until the song "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" came out!) In some ways I think it was a good thing even for the men. Left more to the imagination.

Enjoy the weekend!

Heading in Too Many Directions?

Do you ever feel like you are heading in too many dire

Publish Post

ctions at one time and you just need someone to tell you to go that-a-way?
(This guy sits on my window sill heading down to our lower level family room. He is an old old door closer used in a general store enticing people to come in. You gotta love him!)

While doing all this quilting I am auditioning fabrics for my next project. Here are some I am considering.

Quilting the Poppy Quilt now since I hope to finish it on time to enter into the Madison Wisconsin Quilt Expo. Deadline for entry to be postmarked with photos included, June 20th!

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A bud......

This weekend is my mother's 85th Birthday Party. My entire family is coming which means about 50 people. My parents had 9 children. There are 30 some grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren so far. So it will be a big crowd. I have ordered a fabulous cake and we are keeping our fingers crossed for great weather. It still is chilly here but now today it is a bit warmer. Hope it is like this on Sunday. Everyone is bringing a dish and we want it to be outside at my Mom's. We will see how that goes.

Posted a new picture of me without my reading glasses on. Thought I should do that once a year since my hair is a bit longer and my mother did not like the one I had on here. You have to listen to your mother even when you are 61!

The Real Deal and The Pretenders

There is nothing to perk up your creative juices than a trip to the quilt shop! Bob gave me a gift certificate there for my birthday. Today I finally had some spare time to get over there.
Check out this line of fabric at the top of this picture. Love the colors and the subtle textures.
It is Jinny Beyers Necessary Neutrals. Had to have some Sulky cotton thread.

Then it was over to the batiks and handdyes.
Love the blue stripe one...it has a lot of different tones in it.

Then some colors I needed in my stash.
Oh I feel so much better now!

Purple Finch Determination

I was enjoying a cup of coffee out on my front porch when I noticed these purple finches
landing in my hanging pot. This has happened before and I chase them out and dismantle whatever nest they have begun. So that is what I did. (I hate doing that since it takes them so much time, but......I have to in order to water these sufficiently.)

I got home from work yesterday and went to check the pot they choose. They had the complete nest finished and were already sitting on it! Now I could not do a thing so I will spend then next few weeks watering around the nest until the babies are hatched and gone.

A Moss pot which was a birthday gift this year from my daughter, Molly, planted with a pony tail fern. I plan on putting some miniature pieces in front of it in the blank dirt space. I Love it!

A Fun Little Diddy

While I am working on getting the backing for my girls done....decided to piece it as suggested by some fine quilt artists.....I cut out this long and narrow piece for a quick little "diddy" just for fun and some springtime pleasure. You will have to see what is added in future posts. Hope it makes you laugh.

Bob was able to put up our new bird feeding pole this past weekend. It is so much better than the old one that would lean from side to side depending on how full each feeder was. I am a person who likes things that are supposed to be straight and upright to BE straight and upright.
So he bought this beam and added the cap and finial to the top and then the hooks.
I love love love it and so do the birds!

We will be heading south to our son Jon and daughter in law Becky's home. Jason will come and Molly as well. Our Indiana girls, Robin and Christy, husbands and children will not be able to come up, but we are planning to get together with them early this summer.

Happy Easter to All! Hope you enjoy the day with family and/or friends!

Coral

A while back I posted a mandarin goby fish that was unbelievable. It was part of my daughter and her boyfriend's salt water tank. Now Mark has set up a new tank and is adding different varieties of coral in it. They are all babies yet but will multiply and grow fairly fast.
View Mark's blog here to watch the progress:

http://markofmark.blogspot.com

I am amazed at the types and the fabulous colors of coral! I guess I always just thought of coral as coral in color and the typical shape. There are so many types and shapes. Some have tentacles and flower like shapes. I thought you would enjoy seeing one
I just love (above). I am seeing a quilt in the near future!

I continue to quilt "Butterflies Are Free". This morning my sister, Bonnie, came over and
I gave her her birthday present, a bundle of challenging fabric to create something spectacular with. We talked about all aspects of quilting and how we can hardly wait for the 17th when we do our annual pilgrimage to Chicago and the International Quilt Festival. It is not long to wait now. She and I have quilted together for almost 27 years.

Winter is still here!

I had just a little time to work on Urban Sprawl and to do more quilting on Red Barn. I think I will consider this a series since I am using a similar style and trees for both of these. Maybe I will do another one just to make it officially a series.

Here are a few photos of the ice we got yesterday. We are supposed to get up into the 40's today and then this is all supposed to melt. The trees are heavy with ice and there were power outages in town but luckily not by our house. We stayed in all day and watched movies. We watched Australia, which was so different from what I expected. Some of the special effects were pretty poorly done for this day and age and in the beginning you could not quite figure out if you were supposed to take it seriously. It was somewhat disappointing but not totally bad.

After that movie we watched The Changling. An amazing true story and I enjoyed that movie immensely. Very tragic but well done.

Well, have to get going because our Microwave died for the second time. We took it back yesterday morning (just when the ice storm was beginning) to Sears for our money back this time. We did not want to chance getting caught in ice so went straight home. Today the roads do not look too bad, so we are off to find a new one.

The End and The Beginning

Here is the beginning of a new quilt. I am not sure yet what I will put on this background but
loved these fabrics. The sky is a fabric I have had a small piece of for a long time and just loved it. I decided it was time to put it into a quilt so I can enjoy it.

I thought I would show you my "Leaves" quilt hanging in the World's Smallest Bathroom!
This was the only angle I could get of it.

A photo of part of my kitchen with the Worlds Smallest Bathroom!

Morning Mourning Doves

I got up this morning and was making some coffee in the kitchen and peered out to see this on the rail of my deck. They were all snuggled up trying to stay warm on the wooden rail instead of the snowy icy ground. I have always loved this bird and do not like their name. They are so peaceful and friendly that to think of them sad and "Mourning" does not suit them.

I worked on my beads last night once again. Hopefully I will keep getting a little done each night.

I am also reading "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" and loving it. I do not know the ending but heard it is very sad. I have also heard that Oprah and Tom Hanks are going to make the movie together and that there are two more books to follow this one. So I am enjoying it, but it too takes some time out of my day. I just can not find time to do all that I want to do.

The Frost Wizard

Did not have much time to quilt yesterday. Had a delightful conversation with my sister Vicki, who lives in Kalama Wa. She is 3 years younger than me and the third oldest of my 4 sisters.
I miss her a lot since she lives so very far away from me, but thank goodness for technology. Soon we will be able to skype each other and that will be better yet.

I was quilting on the floral quilt for a little while and kept looking at this frost on my window. In my mind it became a wizard. The more I looked at it the more wizardy it became, but alas, he is gone today. Too bad he could not wave his feather wand and finish the quilting for me!