The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. Robert Frost

I am back ................. again

Well here we are again, I think its been a year since I updated. I wonder sometimes if life will ever get back to normal, haha. I wonder what normal is now, I will post my new grandbaby, she is almost 8 months, where does the time go. I won't entertain you with all the ups and downs of my life, I think or at least suspect most of you are going thru the same things. I just wished someone would of told us that there comes a time when you start having "little moments" it seems my mouth speaks with out my brain alot these days. lol so says my daughter and husband. I forget so much, its like an adventure everyday around here. My daughter's family is coming in a few days and after that I will try and post a few pics of the things I been working on, until then have a Great Labor day weekend!!

Here is my daughters first try at doll making, and my friends' doll she makes them to sell, my daughter isn't there yet, but she was only 14 years old so it was a great doll. My friends doll is a Primitive Ann I just love it too.

I know I posted this before

Here is some more of my girls' work Click on the pic it should make it bigger

Dolls in my life that my baby made

Isn't the little moose doll cute!! She made her own pattern and worked out the clothes and everything, now that shes all grown up, guess what, she is all computer smart and does things to keep everyone on track and shes a rather bossy assistant to the VP of finance of a College downstate, awwwwww what a waste,lol Click on the pic to make it bigger

Its August already!

Where does the time go, I thought I was doing pretty good, and I realized I hadn't posted anything for two months! Lets see, Got a little dog, Yorkie, she will be the death of me, no kidding!! She loves to chew and bite. The door around the bottom is nice and white, she did a good job of taking the first few layers off. Then there was the gate, she chewed a hole thru it, then there is the curtain cord, the ties on the rocking chair, the batting she found in the closet, and she did all this in the few hours she has out of her crate, lol

anyways here is what I have been working on, both are scrap quilts, the Lady of the lake in blue is for the same person I made the Big Blue one for, you can find the pic a few posts back, and the other is from all the scraps of flannels that were laying around, Oh I haven't posted the baby quilts I made, hmmmmmm almost 2 years ago, lol I did say I was a little behind.

of course they are all done now, I didn't get pictures of the finished product, and when asked for them to take it, well you know how that goes, lol a few years later hmmmmmmm nope not a pic yet, there is one more quilt that is in progress, I am having troubles with it, someone gifted me a new ruler, it has a straight side, and the other is peaked with mountain peaks, so of course I brought the book, and this is what came out of my fabric selection, some my vintage fabric, its very nice except for those darn birds, well not sure what to do about it,

The book is named Strip-Smart Quilts by Kathy Brown the one I was going for is called Brownies a la mode! Well lets see I will be putting up some fabric, probably in 1/2yard sets, on Ebay, when I do I will post the link here for all of you thank you so much for reading!!!

37th Anniversary today

Here is a few pics of my quilts, I was trying to figure out to do this all over again, lol I added a few pics of my grandson, Joey, and now he is going to be a big brother, we are all excited about it!

Good evening all you lovely quilters, I bet you thought I died, haha no such luck It was two years ago my husband went into surgery and took a year to recover enough to go back to work. That lasted about two months, then he started getting sick and after 3 or 4 hospitals checking him out, we found one in New Mexico that told him to go home and get his doctor to see about the lump in his neck, RIGHT AWAY, and that started our long journey thru the Cancer horrors, they didnt give him much more then 20% to live, but we had a great doctor that never gave up, and Charlie ended up doing Chemo and radiation at the same time it was the worst thing we had to ever go thru, with all the radiation burning his throat so he couldnt even swallow, we ended up at home, we me feeding him thru a tube in his stomach, I can tell you I never thought I had it in me, but with the help of great nurses and docs we made it thru and now Chuck is back to work, so maybe I will be able to get some quilting done, On the lighter side, my youngest had a baby boy, such a cutie pie, and I do have three quilts sewed up but not quilted for her, I did make bunches of recieving blankets and burp rags for her and all of them had Baby Joey on them, so cute, I will try to get a few pics up, this month, and I am going to try and buy some bolts of materials so I can start to sell them, maybe I can make a little to pay all of our bills, well till next time hugs and happy quilting

UfO # 4 is done

This table runner is done, its made up of flannels, and I quilt as you go
method, I wanted to try it once, and decided a smaller project would be
better, its worked out fine, and I will be using it on an antique dresser
so its nice and flat.
I tried to design a echo like quilting, I machine quilted it, then
I applied the stripe strips, (haha say that 10 times fast) and sewed
them with the machine, the only hand sewing I did was to do the binding
which is flannel, so I did a single strip binding, I didnt double it
I just pressed it half, then pressed one side up
so that it would be turned and pressed when I finished handing sewing it to the back

my first quilt shop fabric quilt

This quilt I used scraps from my youngest daughters dresses that I had made,
and was the first time I went to a quilt shop for fabric, I believe I brought
two blue fabrics, and a black, it was wonderful to find such a place, its not a good pic, and I hope one day I can get all my quilts on here, huggsss

UFO top is done

After a few trial and errors, and some ripping, the top is done,
I am really glad too, I will put it aside for now, since I have
two quilts ahead of it to quilt, the tables are full, it will
have to take a number lol

I hope to get a few more things done this weekend, quilty ones,
we will see how the old body keeps up,

hugs and happy quilting

UFO list and other problems, Black and red friendship star quilt

Well its Monday morning, and I started on a UFO, I wanted to make a border and I thought I had put the fabrics together with the quilt top, but noooooo, so I started hunting for that 2 gal baggie that had those fabrics,
but I couldnt find anything, what I did find was two sets of Quiltswappers signature blocks, lol
I dont know how I lost these, but wow, one set is dated 2000 and the other is 2002
I think that is my oldest UFO.
It brings back alot of good memories,
the group is no longer around.(I dont think so anyways) During that time I got shirt and pin and a little
green bear that the owner had made.
We sure swapped alot of things, ;D

Well back to the story, I found 21 WIP or UFOs depending on how you see them
so I did get that much done, and I pulled little bits of fabric I had left
in my stash from the quilt, and will add a few more to make a border

AND then my hubby called, he's been home for 6 weeks nursing a bad shoulder,
hes been going Physical Therapy 3 days a week, every week, well today
they decided he had tears, so it will at least March before they will release
him, and at that time they will decide if he needs surgery, arggggggggg
hes asking now to teach him to sew quilts, cause hes so bored, and cant
do much of anything else, lol
I think I am loosing my mind, at least whats left of it lol,

Anywaysss here is the quilt I am working on, not sure what I was thinking,
maybe with the border on it will transform into something better to look at,

I am also adding a couple of blocks I made on Sunday for a donation
for a quilt for a cancer patient,
They are debbie mumm vintage little house blocks with a setting like courthouse
steps they are 12 inches and very fun to do(they really are square, but leave it
to me and pic taking skills, they look longer, and kind of lumpy geesh)

I hope you have a good day, it was 15 below freezing yesterday, no wonder
I couldnt keep the house warm, today its a balmy 5 Above freezing LOL

This is my sewing area, and all of my stash, 3 of the little grey tubs and 2 of the
purple ones are empty, yeah, and the cloth bins are half empty, so I am really
making a dent in the fabrics,

I sew in the living room, so its kind of crowded, my husband watches tv when hes
at home, (hes a trucker) so I dont get much done when hes here, lol

I like to sew in natural light, and the living room is the only one
with a large window and enough light for me

Its bitter cold up here in the UP and I cant wait till spring ;<)

Mothers Day Present

This is the quilt my daughter made for me, I will 2 photos, you will see
she even signed it for me, such a good girl, lol
This quilt is made from 4 1/2" finished blocks, so you can imagine how
small some of the pieces were. I use to watch her hand piece, I just couldnt
believe how small they were and how small the stiches she had to make.
The fabrics were small print, some were from Jenny Beyers, from way back when,
some I got at Joanns, and others from my local quilt store, to me when I was collecting
them I thought of the old timey looking quilt, not sure if that is what they
all ended up as, but she did an excellent job selecting the ones she used,
Now I know you guys are bored hearing a proud mama go on and on and on, lol
its embarrassing to say the least, but I cant help it and yes she is a mama's girl
even at 25 ;<)

Birthday gifts

I had plenty of strips of batiks, and found this pattern Batik bags, so I made two for gifts one was for my sister who crochets and is just starting to quilt,
and the other one is for my youngest daughter, who just finished her BA and is working on
her Masters, she just got a great job at a college, and is moving down state
with hers I made it a little wider and shorter, so she could use it for her
laptop, she carries it everywhere, I did buy her a nice leather carry all, but she
would rather have a quilted one, she is amazing quilter also,
She made me a quilt for mothers day, it was a wall hanging, but the amazing thing was
she had pieced it and hand quilted it, the pieces are tiny, she took the block patterns
from a dear jane book I had, so I am a proud mama, I will post it soon

more photos

here is another pic I just took, it shows the border, and the sandwich,
I do comfort quilts, that is to say, I use thicker batts, and flannel
backings, the top is cotton regular fabric, I was asked to make this one
so its not mine (sob) I love it, I used alot of stash up, I did buy the all the
dots, the nuetrals, I wanted a more control feel, after using up
all the blues, and I am ready to big stitch this quilt and get it out the door

its so large I can't really get a good photo, after its done quilted, maybe I can hang
it, we will see, I really need to get one of those larger wooden hangers
make it so much easier to take a photo in the winter

I need to take a few more pictures of this quilt, this was a blue and white churn dash with bear paws attached on the outsides, I did a piano key border, I have it sandwiched and ready to quilt, I will upload those pics tomorrow if I can get some sunlight,
ok thats it for me tonight
Happy quilting

Before pictures of other UFOs

I am posting a few of the UFOs that are on my list to finish, seems like a good idea, lol
before and then after, maybe it will help me get motivated, more strips that I made up into a smaller size quilt, I havent sewed the blocks together, so it still needs that and then batting, quilting and binding,

Here are two blocks I posted by themselves so you can see how I pieced some of
the smaller scrap strips, I sewed them together and made a piece of fabric, then
I cut them into another strip, lol, great way to use up all size of strips,
and keep it really scrappy looking

UFO finished #2 and 3

I had a few more blocks and I decided to make a few totes, I used some German fabric for the lining,
in the fancy fabric one and plain black in the other one with the pink stripes
and used regular strapping for the handles

I used a feather stitch from my machine to tack down most of the pieces, they are
made crazy quilt style

close up

Just wanted to show a block with the little pieces that I stripped and the
fancy stitches that I used