BUNDLE OF JOY

Last week I drove north across the James River to Newport News and went to Nancy's Calico Patch. They have the new Windham line of fabric in by Nancy Gere. It is called COLONIES: CHEDDAR AND POISON GREEN. 1830-1860. I may have bought a little of one bolt or another, but when they pointed out the Fat Quarter bundles I was hooked. What is it about those beautiful little rolls of coordinated fabric that speak to me? I have a few bundles waiting patiently on the shelf in my sewing room nestled in with a dozen charm packs. I haven't opened them because I have so many "scraps" that I should use first. I really don't want to turn them loose in my cluttered sewing room. They are so tidy and perfect. More like a decoration, really. Or maybe a very well behaved pet! I do caress them and even play with them. I may even talk to them on occasion and say, "you are so pretty"! Yes, a very well behaved pet! You can see why I don't want to turn them loose in my sewing room. The other inhabitants are so untamed and wild. I don't think my lovely fat quarter bundles are quite ready to fend for themselves yet. I'll just coddle them a while longer.

SEWING IN TONGUES

I am making progress on my latest quilt. I love the simplicity and the soothing colors. I love antique quilts and this one has the softened feeling that often takes years of wear and washings to achieve. I am a cut some sew some kind of gal, so I am still cutting and still sewing! I try to be careful not to sew too many rows together because if I introduce a new fabric I want to scatter a few pieces throughout the quilt. But I just couldn't wait to see what these blocks look like sewn together. I need seams to get the whole effect!

Meanwhile, I have been stitching on a couple little wool projects. I even finished one! It sure is easier to sew those little tongues in instead of out! I am pretty sure this little pillow is a Whimsicals project. I love stitching on wool. I made a binding on this, just like on a quilt, but it is a strip of an old blanket, so it is pretty thick. Piping without the extra effort!

Sewing in Tongues: You no doubt know the Speaking in Tongues reference, but since I like to play with words, I am Sewing in Tongues - on the pillow, of course. I am sure I don't have to explain that with my quilts I am Speaking in Scraps.

SHOP TALK

A word of warning: If you always read blog comments in your e-mail box you may not be seeing them all. My last post had two comments that I only saw because I looked in the comment section. None of us like to miss what people have to say!

Some of you asked to see more of Sue's quilt made with the Coverlet Collection II from Windham Fabrics. Here is her completed top. It is really great looking! It is on display at the shop (What's Your Stitch 'N Stuff) along with kits! I also noticed when I was there today that they have Pioneer Trail on display along with kits! They have lots of other kits as well, but I am only promoting my own stuff here!(My patterns are available at the shop or my website, if you are interested!)

The second picture shows the Stars and Garters quilt on the bottom and Indian Paintbrush on the top, hanging from rungs of a ladder. Isn't that a cute display? The shop looks great! They have a ton of cute Christmas things out already, and darling wool projects with kits.

I am thinking you have noticed that jacket, so here is a close-up. Prairie Paisley! Can you believe it! For those of you who love that fabric, here is another use for it!

Karen Dianne over at LeeHaven has been working hard to complete her version of Indian Paintbrush. She renamed it Dancing Ladies. It is turning our really nice! Go take a look!

That's all for now!

SPLENDOR IN THE SCRAPS

Well here are the two little quilts for my two nephew's baby boys. They are all quilted and ready to get mailed. I am very pleased with the end result and hope they will be also. I just found out the baby's names. Can you believe this? One named his son Owen, and the the other named his son Ian. I can only think of my friend, their grandmother, calling to these little ones: "IanOwenIanOwen". It kind of has an "einymeanyminymoe" thing going on. Pretty funny, I think!

I have been playing with a new design. I play with ideas on EQ and sometimes it is months later when I go back and play some more, and finally get to where I want to give it the "textile test". Of course that means I actually cut and sew to see if it works.

My plan was to make this quilt in blues and browns. I have been collecting these color families and they are so pretty. I wanted to make a fairly big quilt, so I made large blocks. After making several, enough to get a feel for it, I decided that I really wanted to make smaller blocks. So I cut everything down, sewed it back up and took another look. I then decided that the blue and brown looked really blah. (Sew Primitive Karen says I am color starved.) So now it is open season on any fabric within reach, or even out of reach. You have heard me complain that my sewing room is such a mess. This is why. And I know I don't have to explain to anyone who makes quilts. There is just no easy way to deal with choosing fabric for a scrap quilt. I was just mentioning to Julie Q. (she is also playing with scraps) today that my favorite method of cleaning my sewing room is to pick up scraps and sew them together. It is a slow process, but gratifying! I mentioned to my husband that I could have a sign in my sewing room that says, "Please excuse the mess, things are under construction". Well, it's true. I am constructing things. He's not falling for it.

Meanwhile, I am finding scraps to use that have been around for a long time. They are pieces left from other scrap quilts. I almost think that if you looked at all my quilts you could find a DNA strand that connects them. I love throwing new pieces of fabric into the mix as well. So I am very happy on several levels! I even had a stash of flying geese that were just the right size to add. I LOVE when that happens!

I hope you are finding splendor in the scraps at your abode. ( If you get that, it really dates you!)

Have a happy scrappy day!

STAND TALL AMERICA

Stand tall America. Stand tall and never forget. Never forget what our country suffered on September 11, 2001. Stand tall as our flag still waves over our land declaring our freedom, our pride in our country and our gratitude to our Heavenly Father who still watches over us.

I always get a thrill when I see our flag waving in the breeze! When I was a child we pledged our allegiance to the flag each day in school. We sang songs about our flag and our country and we were taught that we lived in a land that valued freedom and fought to keep it. Everyone deserves to live in freedom, and everyone deserves to have a flag that waves over their land declaring their freedom and representing what they believe. Freedom isn't just an American value, it is a human right!

Here is what I see when I look at our flag: I see the white stripes that declare honor and virtue; I see the red that stands for blood spilled to preserve us against those who wish to destroy us; and I see a field of stars on blue that represent our dreams and aspirations, our yearnings to live up to the dreams of patriots past, and to hold fast to our convictions that peace will prevail.

September 11 will never be just another day. It should make us think.

STARS AND GARTERS part II

In my last post I asked if any of you had heard the expression, "Oh my stars and garters". Well I had quite a mixed response, and I loved hearing that at least a few of you knew the expression. Here is what Di had to say on the subject:

"Absolutely! I've heard it all my life and I googled it and here is probably where it came from: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/55/messages/588.html ". I hadn't thought to google the expression, but Di did. Thanks Di! Good to know!
(Di doesn't have a blog, or I would link to it. Are you planning to join us soon Di?)


The photo here is one I swiped from the blog of our LQS, What's Your Stitch N Stuff. It shows my pattern, Stars and Garters, being assembled by Sue at the shop. I hope you can enlarge the photo and see how she placed that cool Coverlet print in the center of the stars. I haven't got a picture of the whole quilt, but she did complete it. Awesome! So often simple quilts are the best!

Now how many of you have heard the expletive, "Great Caesar's ghost"? Where has our imagination of expression gone? These days all I hear is "holy crap". What fun is that?

Have a happy scrappy day!

OH MY STARS AND GARTERS!

Several years ago I designed this really easy star pattern that creates an alternate Shoofly block when you set it with sashing. I was creating designs to use in class with new quilters. Not my most creative work, but still, it gives a great effect in its simplicity. I came up with the name "Stars and Garters". That was an expression my grandmother used: "Oh my stars and garters"! Having heard that expression all my life I naturally assumed that everyone knew it. Boy was I wrong!


Yesterday (amid strong winds and rain as a weakened hurricane swept through) there was an open house at our LQS, What's Your Stitch N Stuff. Sue G., who works at the shop, made up this pattern in the Coverlet fabric, by Windham. It turned out great! They made it up into kits and held up the quilt to show it to everyone. One of the gals asked about the garters. I explained that it was just a fun name that came from the expression my grandmother used, "Oh my stars and garters". Everyone in the shop was mystified. No one had ever heard that expression.


So here I named a quilt pattern after an expression I thought everyone would recognize and get a kick out of, and NO ONE ever heard the expression before!


Have you ever heard that expression before?

Oh my stars and garters!

Please let me know.

WHAT IS OLD IS NEW AGAIN!

Most of you know the Beckster by now--my 19 year old granddaughter who is now beginning her sophomore year at BYU. Her parents just moved to Missoula, MT, so Becky went to see them in their new home. While there she asked her mom if she could take the quilt on little sister's bed back to college with her. Her mom said, "NO, but you can take your own quilt". Becky didn't even remember what it looked like!


Well, here is the story: I made this quilt for her in 1993. Becky put on a big smile, as the photo shows, but later her mom apologetically told me that Becky didn't want to use the quilt. Really, I didn't mind. I told her to put it away and someday she might want it. When Becky went off to college I did not make her a quilt. I figured that if the day came when she wanted a quilt she would tell me. Turns out that when her mom got the quilt out that I had made years ago, Becky loved it! Well heck, it IS just like new! A happy ending for everyone!


You know I love scrappy quilts and when I first got into quiltmaking I learned this wonderful technique that Sally Schneider developed, that she calls Mary's Triangles. Becky's quilt was made using that method. I have taught it in many classes and, for me, it never grows old. It has a ton of variations. This is what the block looks like. Can you find it in the quilt?



Other family news is that my father finally decided to write on his blog again. Last time he wrote on it was in March 08! Well, since that time Google has gotten serious about having a Google account in order to have a blog. We could not get into that blog for anything. So I opened a Google account for him and a new blog! He has already written two posts. I know a few of you out there have enjoyed his stories, so if you want to read his blog, it has been updated. Also, I have created a link to it on my sidebar down below the Babes in Blogland, that will show when he updates it.
Give him a thrill and leave a comment!


Have a happy scrappy day!

NAME THAT QUILT

Lyn at Bluebird Quilts, in Australia had a contest to name the beautiful quilt, pictured above, that she made. I have been watching the progress of this quilt for a while now, and just love it. It is lovely in its simplicity and soothing blue color. I submitted a name for the quilt, Blessings Remembered, which I thought reflected the name of the original vintage quilt that she was duplicating. Lyn chose my name from a list of many nice names, and sent me a lovely package all the way from Australia!

Above is the darling little box that Lyn sent me, laying on a really pretty dish towel. The little bundle of blue fabric squares are from the Blessings Remembered quilt! What a treat! There were also pretty quilt labels, and sitting on one of them is two little soap rosettes.

I opened the box and found more tiny treasures! Two pretty pins, stickers, packages of fragrance, and a beautiful embossed quilt card. I think I will frame that! I couldn't be more pleased. Thank you Lyn, so very much! Be sure and visit Lyn's blog to see what else she is up to.

BLUE X TWO

At long last I have completed these two baby quilt tops! Last post I showed a corner of the above quilt, but, as you can see I changed the corners. I loved the Friendship Stars so much, and I happened to have several, so I took the 4-patch blocks out of the corners of this quilt and added stars. It would have been fine if I hadn't seen the stars, but I am happier with this. What do you think? Oh, and humility blocks have been discovered and will remain as they are.

The second little quilt quickly became my favorite. Those darn little stars did the trick! Now for the quilting!

A side note to my last blog post, I received a comment from Karen Dianne who reminded me that she sews in her kitchen and has her fabric stored in the pantry! Go check out her blog and see her pretty pantry! (And her progress on her Indian Paintbrush quilt, which she re-named to suit herself. Imagine!)

Have a happy scrappy day!

QUILT CLUTTER

Well, it finally happened. My sewing room is such a mess that I can't work in it any longer, and I have moved my sewing machine to the kitchen. I have actually had it in the kitchen for a couple of weeks, and I keep saying that as soon as I finish this project I will clean up the kitchen table AND my sewing room! But, like the nervous tic that has developed in my husband's right eye, this project just won't go away! (Yes, he has been patient, but has trouble with clutter. How have we lasted 40 years together? He travels a lot!)

The project? Well, you may recall the 4-patch quilt I showed a while back. I decided that I wanted to do a cute little border to make it unique among 4-patch quilts. So on to EQ6 for a little design help. After auditioning borders, I decided to add a few flying geese. Have you ever tried the paper pieced flying geese? I bought these Sew and Fold on a Roll a while back, from the makers of Triangles on a Roll. You pre-cut all the pieces and just Sew and Fold! It is pretty slick.
The above photo shows one corner of the quilt with the flying geese. The opposite corner looks like this as well, and the other two just have 4-patches in the corners. This quilt is for my nephew's new baby boy, but his broher is also having a baby boy in September. So, since I already had all the scraps out for this quilt, I decided to make another 4-patch quilt for the next baby. The top went together quickly, since I had leftover pieces from quilt #1. I was pretty pleased with myself, feeling well ahead of the game. I went back to EQ6 for another border idea and decided on one that I liked. The second quilt will have little Friendship Stars in the border.

Since I am working in the kitchen, I snapped a photo of all the little stars in the cabinet with a few blue items that I display there. Now I am feeling so proud of myself for getting this far! I sew the little stars into strips for the border and lay them around the quilt. That is when I realize that I meant to have white stars with blue background. As you can see from the photo with the flying geese, the geese are white and the background is blue. It just flows better with the blue squares that make up the rest of the border. So AAAKKK!
More cutting, more sewing and more pressing and here come more stars. Only this time they are white with blue background. Yes, they are still in progress. Yes, the kitchen is still Sewing Central, and yes, I now feel it is necessary to increase the Prozac doses that I have been sprinkling on my husband's cereal each morning.

Will she ever get back to the sewing room? Well, I am not going to tell you to tune in next time, I am not that optimistic! But I will return with a report of something!

Have a happy scrappy day!

WESTWARD HO

My daughter and her family just moved from Minnesota to Missoula, MT. I wonder if we will ever go back to Minnesota now? We raised our family there and really love Minnesota. But when it comes down to travel, I will always go where my kids are. So look out Montana, you just never know when Grandma Mousie will show up!

This picture is so typical of scenes I have enjoyed while driving across America. I picked it off my daughter's family blog, so am not actually sure who took the picture. (Lisa?) Anyway, I love it!

I think they are going to love Missoula. They have deer in their yard every day. Polly said there is a doe with two fauns. They are thrilled to see them so up-close and tame. Their neighbors said they will soon get sick of them. Neighbors have a big tall fence to keep them out of their yard. She said the doe actually brought the fauns to Polly's yard over the summer, when the house was vacant and used the fenced backyard as a playpen while she ran errands, or whatever momma does do. Haha. That looks funny "does do". I am easily amused. Neighbor also said that when the doe was ready to give birth she layed down in the flower bed in her front yard and produced two little fauns. In her front yard! Imagine!

My 16 year old granddaughter has her room in the finished basement. She sleeps with the window up to let the air in at night, and she has been hearing strange noises outside. She said it freaks her out. She hears moving around and heavy breathing. She thought there was a man outside her window. Turns out it was deer munching on the grass by her window. There are other funny stories as well, like the woman washing her cow with a hose as they were driving by. That was new to them!

I haven't shown a quilt for a while, so I thought I better post something to prove that this is still a blog about quilting! This quilt is a Buggy Barn pattern that was in American Patchwork and Quilting Best Quilt Shops issue several years ago. I always enjoy those issues and "visiting" various shops around the country.

Have a happy, scrappy day!

PURCHASING POWER THROUGH PAYPAL, etc

I am excited to announce that I have finally added PayPal to my website! Being fairly computer inept, I needed someone to give me encouragement and walk me through it. Once again Karen, our Sew Primitive gal, came to my rescue. I have already had a few orders, and it works like magic! Just click on a button and you can pay with a credit card and PayPal handles the details. Silly me, I thought it was going to be a big deal! NO BIG DEAL!

Also, if you click over to Karen's blog you can see a beautiful quilt that a customer at Little Quilts made with my Williamsburg Medallion pattern! By the way, Karen has designed some darling punch-needle patterns that she is selling on her website, Folkart Children And if you haven't seen her Primitive Children, you really must take a look. The girl has talent!

Last week my son came for a visit. He is living, working, and going to school in Provo, UT, and doesn't get out to the East Coast very often. It was great having him here. I know he was bored silly at least part of the time, but that is the price you have to pay when you are young and you go visit "old-timers". On Monday he and I drove to Jamestown to see the sights. We visited the museum there, which is quite wonderful. Also, there is a replica of a small Indian village. The first picture, above, shows us inside a hut with a big bear skin hanging on the wall behind us. There were many furs on the walls and sleeping cots. Very authentic!

The ship is a model of the Susan B. Constant, one of the three ships that sailed from England in 1607. They actually came ashore right down the road from where I live. When they found the James River (I am sure the Indians didn't call it that) they sailed up it and established a fort at what later became Jamestown. Both named after King James, of course.

We went on board the ship and walked around. Let me tell you it is so small! Those poor people were on board for four months!!! A year ago my friend, Joan, loaned me a really good book written by one of the descendants of a Jamestown family. The book is Dark Enough to see the Stars in a Jamestown Sky, by Connie Lapallo. I tired to order it from Amazon, but they didn't have it. I was so pleased to be able to find it in one of the gift shops up there. I had to have my own copy! The book tells the story of the women and children and how they survived (or didn't). Very interesting!

So that was my excitement for the week. Next post I promise something quilty. I have been sewing! Until then, have a happy, scrappy day!

THE APRON REVISITED

Here she is, my darling granddaughter, displaying her culinary expertise in her new apron. You have to admit that it looks cuter on her than on the hanger! Becky is a testament as to what can be accomplished in a college dormitory kitchen! We mostly call her Becky, but when she was about five years old she decided that she wanted to be called "Becksterama the Cool One", and that kind of stuck. Well, at least the "Beckster" part stuck. But you have to admit, she is a "Cool One"! You can tell she is shy, can't you? Ha!

While Mrs. Goodneedle and Cheryl at Polka Dots and Rick Rack, are enjoying the thrill of new grandbabies in their families, I have to admit that "old" grandbabies are quite awesome as well!

On another note, Lyn, at Welcome to Bluebird Quilts, is looking for a name for a lovely blue and white quilt that she made. She is asking for suggestions, and giving a prize to the winning name. Go visit her and be sure to scroll back and see this quilt as it progresses. The quilting on it is wonderful too!

My youngest son has been here visiting for the past few days, so more on that later!

Have a happy day!

SHADE YOUR EYES, I'M BRILLIANT

Who is this cute girl, you may be asking? Well, her name is Karen, from Short Story Long, and she blogs from Colorado. I don't know much about her, but I can tell you she likes RED, which gives us immediate common ground. Also, she just awarded me the Brilliante award that you now see glowing on my sidebar. So she is cute and has an apparent degree of discernment. She also has three little boys who are quite accident prone, as little boys are wont to be. I have heard that the emergency room at her local hospital has a daily appointment set for her family and once in a while she calls to say they won't be in that day. She is also a quilter, but frankly, when does a mother of three have the luxury of sitting down long enough for something like that? Go visit her and see what I mean!

So thank you Karen, for the very nice compliment of this award. I have so many brilliant blogger friends out there that I can't really chose, and I think if you read my blog you must be brilliant!

Now if I may, I feel the need to interject the fact that I have several Karens who are kind enough to leave me comments, and I am having a heck of a time determining who is who. Would it be too much to ask you to add an initial or part of your blog title to you name? Say maybe, "Primitive Karen", or "Short Karen", or "LC Karen", etc. Just a thought.

Have a happy day!

THE APRON HAS LANDED!

You may recall that my granddaughter is attending BYU in Provo, Utah. She is pictured here hard at work in the school library. Oh that girl!

Well, her long awaited apron finally arrived! She also needed silverware, pots and pans, etc. So Grandma packed a very heavy box. The post office wanted $35 bucks to mail it Priority, so I opted for the $20 road trip. She loves the apron, and I finally get to show it off on my blog. Such fun! This is apron #3 that I have made, and each one gets constructed better than the last. The first one I made according to package directions. The second one I faced the bib and shoulder strap, and top stitched the bias binding. For this one I added a little more ruffle, along with the other improvements. Also, I skipped the bias binding and added tiny rick-rack. Isn't it very 1940's?

If you missed the first two aprons, they are pictured HERE, in another post.

Have a happy day! ~Marcie

A LITTLE SPAM WITH YOUR BLOG?

Did anyone have a little SPAM problem yesterday? Yvonne, at Quilting Down the Stairs. e-mailed me first thing in the morning to alert me that my blog was not opening. Is that sweet or what? I opened my blog, and sure enough, it was frozen. I looked to Google Help, and they were already on it. Apparently it had to do with spam. It was all back in order very quickly. I thought that was pretty impressive. Kudos to the BLOGGER TEAM, wherever they are! (I know they are out there)! So on that note, Google has also presented us with a delightful assortment of SPAM recipes. Dig in, there is plenty to go around!

Coconut Beer Batter Spam with Raspberry Horse
Creamy Spam Broccoli Casserole
Cricket's Spam Quiche
Delicious and 'Good For You' SPAM Salad
Easy Spam Triangles
French Fry Spam Casserole
Gingered Spam Salad
Healthy Spam Peppers
Savory Spam Crescents
Spam A La King
Spam Ala Gary
Spam Ala Gary
Spam Breakfast Burritos
Spam Broccoli Pecan Salad
Spam Confetti Pasta
Spam Denver Biscuit Souffle
Spam Fajitas
Spam Hashbrown Bake
Spam Hashbrown Bake
Spam Hot And Spicy Stir-Fry
Spam Hot Vegetable Salad Sandwiches
Spam Imperial Tortilla Sandwiches
Spam Meal In A Bundle
Spam Primavera

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