MY HAPPY PLACE

Remember those 9-patches I was making a while back? Well they finally turned into something! Look, a quilt top! I have been planning to make this quilt for the longest time. I saw it in a Quilt It magazine that featured Nine-Patch Favorites. There is no date on the magazine, but I found an ad in it for a 2003 quilt show. So there you go--it takes me a while to do things! I am very pleased to finally have this UFO done to the point where it can be quilted. There are actually several other 9-patch quilts in that book that I would love to make. But not quite yet. I have patterns to create and instructions to write that I have put off for far too long. One thing at a time...at least I am seeing some progress.

I happened to see My Happy Place quilt while cruising through photos the other day, so I popped it onto my sidebar. I thought it would brighten up the place. It is a pattern I designed about a year ago that incorporated a few orphan blocks that I had. Finn has everyone all psyched on orphan block quilts, and it is so much fun to see what people are creating. You have probably seen her new blog, http://orphantrainsfromfinn.blogspot.com/ but if you haven't been there, you need to check it out. Fun stuff!

Last week I mentioned that my Dad was coming to visit, but that is not going to happen now. He became ill a week ago and went into the hospital in Minnesota and ended up with three stints going into his heart. He feels much better now. They have him on oxygen, and he decided that it was too much of a pain to try and come here and have to transfer planes, etc. I agree, especially in light of the problems that can develop while trying to catch a plane, etc. It seems like everyone is having trouble with the airlines these days. So hopefully he will be able to come here in the fall. I am just glad he is feeling better! In the meantime, my daughter, who lives in Atlanta, is coming for a week! She arrives tomorrow, and I am excited about that. I know she hopes to make a baby quilt for her friend while she is here. Lets see what we come up with! For now, I am headed to bed to read for a while. I am half way through Harvesting the Heart, by Jody Picault. She writes good stuff!

BASKET CASE

You may have noticed that I changed my blog layout and photo. It still isn't exactly what I would like, but the new format is so much easier to manipulate that I have to fight the temptation to go in and play around. I want to put a quilt background and header on it. It is too far advanced for me at this point. If you happened to stop by last night while I was messing around, you may have noticed that my dad's picture showed up in my profile shot. That was weird. I was attempting to set up another blog for him to use for drafting, since he sometimes gets behind the wheel and loses everything he has written. Google asked if I had an account and I answered "yes". So then our two blogs became intermingled. Apparently I need to answer NO and start from scratch. Yes, I am a basket case--but I keep trying! Anyway folks, it is still me! Have a great weekend!

PILLOWS AND PROJECTILES

My little group of three decided to make this cute little wool pillow. It is from the Blackbird Design's book, Birds of a Feather, and they call it Berry Hill Pillow. We all like to have something to do with our hands in the evening. When I finished that, I went looking for another project and came up with this embroidery project. It is also BB Designs, from their new book, Simply Vintage. It is a pattern for rug hooking, but I adapted it into a stitchery project. I love those hooked rugs, but haven't tried that yet. I am afraid of getting into yet another thing I will love to do and then have to spend lots of money to do. So for now, floss is cheap, and I have lots of fabric I need to use, so I will stick with quilts. Yeah, I am doing a little wool applique also, but so far I haven't gotten into the deep end with that.

I thought I might give a word of warning to anyone out there that is thinking about getting their child or grandchild a water balloon launcher. It sounds like such innocent fun, doesn't it? Well, on the 4th of July my daughter-in-law took the kids to a celebration at the church and got hit in the face with a water balloon that was launched from across the parking lot. She thought, at first, that her nose was broken. Luckily, that was not the case. However, her face puffed up and she got two big black eyes. She was hurting! We were so worried about her because she has had eye surgery a couple of times to correct other problems. Fortunately, her doctor said her eyes look fine (after a 2 hour exam). She is a good sport about it all, and recognizes that it was an accident. Really though, do water balloons need to become weapons?

AN ORPHAN FOR CHRISTMAS

Sounds like Little Orphan Annie, doesn't it? Actually, as you can see, I put a little pieced border around my Christmas orphans that I showed in an earlier post. (Enough with the Christmas orphans already).

These little blocks all paired up so cute together. Isn't it amazing what you can do with stuff that has just been kicking around for ages. Finn mentioned a couple of quilts that the ladies at Country Threads did several years ago. They were fabulous. They had lots of orphan blocks and created full size beauties. I have been looking for my book, but it is buried somewhere.

If you haven't been to Finn's Orphan Train Blog, you must check it out. She was kind enough to feature a couple of my quilts in her recent post. Go see what other bloggers, including Finn, have come up with. As for me, I gonna keep digging---I know I have more orphan blocks that need a home.

PATRIOTIC MONTH

July is really Patriotic Month, isn't it? So I just thought I would post this funny photo of my dad. It is an old and damaged photo, but still worth keeping. This was in about 1944 and my dad was a Navy pilot, and goofing around as usual. He may not have been instrumental in winning the war, but you could count on him for keeping up the morale of the troops. My dad really hasn't changed a bit. Oh he is older, but he still behaves the same way. Where ever my dad is, there is a party going on, and he is the entertainment! Everyone loves my dad, including me!

Aside from his sense of humor and his ability to entertain, he also is the man to turn to if you are looking for advice and need someone to talk to that has a common sense outlook. You wouldn't think the two qualities would go hand in hand, but in my dad they do.

My dad is full of stories and jokes. He likes to make people laugh, and he is the biggest softy in the world. He tears up over sweet stories, and fond farewells. In fact, if he is reading this now he has probably got tears running down his face.

Dad moved to Arizona last fall and at 84 he has adjusted amazingly well. This summer he is visiting in Minnesota for a few weeks, then he will be coming to stay here for a couple weeks. While he is here I will not be at the computer as much as I am now. I know he will be using it to e-mail old friends and write on his blog. He loves to write about the experiences he has had in his lifetime and so I convinced him that a blog was the perfect place to share those things with his family and friends. He writes his story and then I try to find a picture to post with it.
This second photo was taken last Christmas. I am sure you recognize my granddaughter by now, also in the picture. That was her Christmas morning outfit. Kids are nuts. Oh well, enough jabbering. I just wanted to share that cute picture of my dear dad!



***Addendum: If you want to visit my dad's blog he is at http://theazpenguin.blogspot.com

COWBOY QUILT

Finally I can say I have taken charge of a project and completed it! Well, I still need to get it quilted, but my work is done! I keep saying I should learn how to machine quilt, but my hands are full with the piecing, and frankly, I would rather pay someone to do it. Only problem is that my quilter friend has taken the summer off! Hopefully I can get in line for when she gets going again.
This is a baby quilt for my niece's new baby boy that she, in fact, named after my husband! I'd say that deserves a quilt, wouldn't you? The funny thing is, he even looks kind of like my husband. That Swedish blood runs strong, judging from the looks of many family members.
The baby room is being decorated in a cowboy theme, so I went on line looking for cowboy fabric. Oh my goodness! There is a shop in Montana that has all the cowboy fabric one could ever desire! I has so many choices. I ended up buying a yard and a half of two different fabrics. Both darling! The rest of the fabrics I could pull from my stash-which is what it is for, after all! The blocks are 5" finished, and the quilt measures about 37" x 43".



Take a look at how cute this fabric is!
I decided to create a back for the quilt where I could use up every little piece of the fabric that was left.
Well, I feel good having completed that, and now I can move onto some of my other projects that lie incompleted or in progress around the house.

FAMILY 4TH AND FUN QUILTS

My husband asked me yesterday, "Wouldn't you like to adopt a little girl?" He misses having children around. He forgets how crazy they make him sometimes. He only remembers the good times and the joy and happiness that children bring. That's nice, isn't it? We live so far from our grandchildren. But no, I don't want to adopt. Now I just like to visit!

When we lived in Minnesota we lived on a lake and everyone has wonderful memories of the lake and all the fun they had. The 4th of July was always a big event, with all our family coming. Lots of food, and fun. Just being together and relaxing and watching the kids play. When the kids were little I always dressed them up in red white and blue outfits for the 4th. We always had Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Bars, the kind with chocolate on top. One year my sister-in-law formed the mixture into a huge map of the U.S. and stuck little American flags into the places where family lived all over the country. It was really neat! (I have a pictures somewhere!) What I really need is a hologram of kids splashing and jumping off the dock. Somebody needs to invent that!

These pictures are both of my oldest granddaughter and fun quilts we did together a couple years ago. She is the one who just graduated and is going off to college next fall. The first picture shows a long quilt that she wanted for a certain location in her room. If you can believe it, these were all 5 inch orphan blocks, including the chain blocks from a discontinued project.

The second quilt is also orphan blocks. I never actually finished this one. Maybe this one needs to resurface and get quilted. Kind of fun, don't you think?