A Bird's Eye View

I was up early this morning and saw something strange on the roof of the house across the street from mine. What is that thing???? Yep, that's right....it is the Blue Heron that goes fishing in the pond by my house. I guess he was trying to get a real "bird's eye view" of things from his perch up there. I snapped a picture. Hope you can see him. He is in the center of the photo. It should enlarge if you click on the photo.


I did spend some time in my sewing room yesterday working on a few things that have been laying around for a while. Remember the sample I showed from the hand quilting class I took back in May. Well this is what I decided to do with it. I'll put it on the bed in the room that was once DS's. And yes, there is a fold bag in the bottom portion of the photo.


I also have some canvas that I had bought a couple years ago with the plans of making a bag. I decided yesterday was the day to do it. I didn't use a pattern and I didn't line it as this is going to become a bag to take the grocery store to cut down on the number of plastic bags that come home with me. I think it turned out pretty nice....don't you. It should work well for groceries and produce. I still have one more to make, but I need to buy more webbing for the handles.

I didn't get around to posting yesterday. The sore throat I mentioned in my last post has developed to a upper respiratory infection. I just didn't feel like doing much yesterday, but I'm feel better this morning.

Here's the rest of the pics I took at the quilt show in Independence.
I really liked this little kite quilt. The piecing was simple....a square in a square. The lady who made it used embellishments to turn it into kites.
This quilt had some wonderful piecing and some lovely applique.

These stitchery baskets looked like some that my great grandmother use to embroider.
This quilt used pieced blocks with blocks made from cheater cloth. You really had to look to know it was cheater cloth.
I never thought of using light pink....but I love how it looks in this quilt and will definitely put it in my idea file for a future project.

This quilt was made from patterns that appeared a few years ago in the Kansas City Star newspaper as a block of the month. They were then compiled into a book. I think they were by Barb Adams and Alma Allen.

I just like the butterflies in this quilt!

And in this one!

The cutwork patterns on this quilt were designed by the lady I take applique classes from.

And I also liked this little stitchery quilt.

There were many more beautiful quilts. These were just a few that caught my eye.

It's been a few days since I last posted. I've had a sore throat and being a slug in general. Today I did get out for a little while. This is where I went.
Just the front of this building won't mean much to most people. It is the Sermon Center in downtown Independence, Missouri. They are having SantaCaliGon Days this weekend in Independence. Independence, Missouri was one of the last settlements pioneers heading out on the Santa Fe Trail, the California Trail, or the Oregon Trail would pass through as they journeyed west. So, the folks there have a festival and in the building pictured above....there is a quilt show. I went and snapped a few pics.
This was my favorite! I love applique and the colors in this just appealed to me.

This was an old quilt. I loved the colors and fabrics, but I also loved the quilting. The following photo is a closeup of the quilting.


This stack and whack also caught my eye. Blue is my favorite color, but I really like pink too.

I also thought this little quilt made from the stitchery blocks was cute. I really liked her idea for using the Grandmother's Flower Garden motifs for the cornerstones.

I also did a little shopping at the vendors. I found some cute garden stitchery patterns that I really had to have! They were designed by Crabapple Hill. I had not seen their patterns before. I really liked what they have to offer. Use the link above if you have not seen their designs and would like to take a look.

I have come to the conclusion that I am a person who loves the soft pastels. Those do seem to be what I'm drawn to first. I like all colors....but there is just something about pastels that speak to me.

I snapped a few more pictures, but will save them and post them in my next entry.

I Was So Bad!!!!

Yesterday was my Wednesday sewing group. I stitched some green stems on the center medallion block for DD's quilt. Nothing exciting there so I didn't take a picture. I should have taken my camera to group because one of the ladies showed some little bags she had made to carry her rotary cutter and other larger sewing implements in. It was made of window screen mesh and was trimmed with bits of fabric and other little notions. They were so cute.

On the way home.....I was so bad!!!!!!! But I was really doing something good. I stopped at JoAnn Fabrics. They had flannel on sale. Hmmm! Christmas will be here before you know it, so I better look at this flannel and see what pops into my head! Sure enough....and idea...more than one idea! DS could use a lap quilt made of flannel for those cold nights to come in Maryland. And, wouldn't you know it, I found the perfect flannel to make one for him. This is what I bought.
The fabric on the left is what really caught my eye. DS can really say he is a rocket scientist, so I thought that was perfect. Even though this is a kid type print.....DS is the kind that will love it anyway. This project is one meant to receive hard wear and be loved to rags. I already have flannel bought and squares cut to make one of these for DD. This project is done totally on the machine....no quilting required after piecing. I will share pictures when I get started sewing on these.

Then I also found something for DH. This is going to be a joke type gift for him and I need to give you a little background info on this one. When we married, we couldn't afford a honeymoon, so we worked a year and saved our money. Instead of going on a cruise or to a resort....we went camping in the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado. It became a tradition with us to go camping every year on vacation. When I say camping, I mean in a tent and usually in a national forest ...primitive style. It was fun with the kids and they loved it. Now that I'm older,my idea of roughing it on vacation is at the Holiday Inn. No more tent camping for me. He keeps saying he wants a Teardrop camper so I can have some conveniences and we can go camping again. Here's a link so you can see what a Teardrop camper looks like. Anyway, when I was in the fabric store, I saw this piece of flannel.

Notice the little campers on it. I decided to make a pair of flannel boxer shorts for DH and give those to him. My note will tell him he has finally gotten his one and only Teardrop Camper! I think he will love it because he is such a joker anyway. I'll share pics when I get these sewn too.

Next week I need to drive right past the fabric store on my way home. Seems that every time I stop, I find something that has to go home with me....as if my stash isn't large enough already.

Nothing Quilty....Baking and Ironing

Yesterday was not a quilty day at my house. It was hot at my house again, 99. I decided it wasn't hot enough, so I thought I would do some baking to warm things up a little more and make the house smell nice. I made banana bread.....mostly because I had 4 bananas that I needed to use. I make banana bread in mini loaves and put them in the freezer for DH or for when we have company drop by and we want to serve a little something with coffee. I love banana bread, but don't eat it anymore because this recipe has a lot of sugar. Then I also had enough blueberries to make a batch of muffins. I do eat these because they only have 2 tablespoons of brown sugar for 12 muffins...and no oil. They are made with good things like oatmeal, yogurt, and apple juice. I had a muffin and coffee this morning for breakfast!

Today I have to iron. I have to be in the mood to iron, but DH is running out of slacks and shirts for work and I have got to get busy or I just might lose my job as " Head Household Engineer". Yeah!...Right!...Like anyone else would want my job. Once I get going on ironing, I usually do a lot....it's just the getting started on it that is a problem for me. I had a friend ask me why I don't send his things to the laundry and let them do it. If I did that....there would be less $$ to spend on quilty fabric and I certainly wouldn't want that! I wish someone would invent a miracle home ironing machine. I would be the first in line to purchase one.

Tag!!

I've been tagged by Pam to tell 8 things about myself. The rules are... I'm suppose to link to her and then tag some others I would like to learn about.

OK....here it goes. Boy is this going to be uninteresting!!!
1. I am the oldest child of 5....4 girls and 1 boy....all with names that begin with "B".

2. As I was having children, I was terrified of having twins because my mother is a twin, my maternal grandmother had 3 sets of twins, my maternal great grandmother had twins, my paternal grandmother had twins, my paternal great grandmother was a twin. Boy, do I feel lucky! 2 kids....no twins!

3. In my BC (before children) life, I was a bookkeeper. I retired when the oldest was born and never returned to that type of work. When my youngest started school, so did I. I enrolled in college classes and thought about becoming a math teacher. While taking math classes and being a wife and mother, I also started substitute teaching on the days I didn't have class. I substituted for 5 years. What an eye opening experience! I formed a new respect for teachers and decided that wasn't really what I wanted out of life. Oh well, I have 63 hrs. of credit....a lot of it in math...and I can say that at 38, I survived and passed Calculus. I decided I like being a wife and mother... and having plenty of time for quilting!

4. I wear glasses and have since I was 3 years old. I tried contacts and hated them.

5. I have lived in Texas, Virginia, and Missouri. I really liked living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. It's beautiful there. I love the colors of fall and the crisp, cool mornings.

6. I met my husband at age 16 in the parking lot of the county courthouse where we were waiting to take our test to get our driver's license. I really got to know him at age 18 when we were trying to pair up our best friends who were interested in each other. Our friends never got together, but we ended up dating and marrying at age 21...and we've been married 31+yrs. now. He supports and encourages my quilting habit, so I'm planning to keep him. :-)

7. I have been told numerous times that I have a pretty handwriting. When I was in elementary school, I always looked forward to penmanship practice. I still enjoy writing on paper with a nice writing instrument. I do keep a journal. There is just something soothing to me about sitting with pen in hand and putting my thoughts on paper.

8. I love birds and flowers. My favorite birds are hummingbirds and my favorite flower is the bluebonnet.

See, I told you I was boring!


Since I don't know who all has participated in telling about themselves, I'm not going to tag anyone....but please feel free to tell us about yourself if you haven't already. We would really like to know more about you.

A UFO out of the way!

I didn't do much quilty yesterday, but I did do a little something. As I was waiting for DH to get home from work....so he could take his lovely wife out to dinner.......I came upstairs and decided to practice machine quilting on a block I made long ago. It was actually fun! However, I realize I still have a LOT of practicing to do on my machined quilting skills. This morning I put a back on it and made it into this.
I accomplished 2 things with this...getting an old block actually made into something and getting a little machine quilting practice.