String Quilt, my first

I admire the String Quilts ...... I've made one of my own at last. I see lots of String Quilts at Mary's blog. LOL

The blocks are pink and white, 12 inch finished size (48x60). It's hard to see but the aqua center strips are suppose to made a heart shape. I've decided to not put borders on, just quilt and bind. I probably should have used darker fabric. It's not quilted yet but soon I'll load it on Prince Charming. I plan to donate it ... not sure where yet.

I have tons of scraps so I see many string quilts in my future .........

Happy Easter Everyone

The Easter bunny stopped at our house, leaving 3 neat Easter baskets for our 3 GC.




GD#1 received a sweet basket. The bunny left here gold post earrings, movie pass, gourmet jelly beans, eggs with money and candy. Plus a special treat of dill pickles and Mountain Dew.















GS who is all boy. That Easter bunny certainly knows his stuff. He brought Bee Game for the Wii, special sports car, mini M&M, dinosaur eggs with candy. Plus more eggs with money, movie pass and the special Sunkist soda.










GD#2 will be so surprised. Easter bunny brought her a fancy alarm clock, movie pass, eggs with candy and money, sugarless gum. She also got a special cell phone charm, all sparkle and pink. Not to mention Diet Coke, too.









Now next year I'm going to plan (in advance) and make this adorable Carrot Table Runner string quilt. I've already started to collect oranges, yellow and all in between. It's quilted ... you know quilt as you go method.









Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and didn't eat too much.

National Quilt Day Sat. 3/15

I went to a little quilt show (42 quilts) on Saturday. I took a few photos and you can see them HERE The photos are somewhat on the dark side as it was dark inside the museum.

Our favorite was "Wales and Sails" by J.Bertozzi .... all machine. It was perfectly pieced, fabric colors so pleasing to the eye and beautifully quilted (machine). Just our opinion.


































This quilt, Eureka, won Best of Show - Machine by C.Edmonds.


This quilt, Hands All Around, won Best of Show - Hand by N.Ott.

Forgot to mention ...... the local TV station was there filming their 4 second clip. We were so surprised to see ourselves on the 11PM news. LOL

I plan to return to the Show on Sat. 3/22 for the demos, lectures and more.

Project Linus # 9 and #10 Quilts

I made a personal committment to donate 12 quilts to Project Linus this year ...... today I turn in #9 and #10.

I try to make my donated quilts in the range of 40 x 50 and although these 2 are "girlie" I almost always make boy quilts. Boy quilts are in great demand as are larger teen size quilts. Girlie/baby quilts outnumber boy quilts 4 to 1 across the country.

I turned in 8 quilts back on Project Linus Blanketeer Day, Feb. 16. All of these were boy quilts.

This one is 52.5 inch x 34.5 inch, quilted with hearts and loops (front and back).

This one is 50.5 inch x 36.5 inch, quilted also with hearts and loops (front and back).

My Cat ..... His Cat

Meet Sweetie. She's a stray who our GC took in 6yrs ago. Unfortunately for my GC Sweetie wasn't into petting and being chased. So for 2yrs she lived under our barn storage building then one day I coaxed her into my house and as they say "the rest is history". She's still pretty much outside person except in cold weather. She, like most cats, does her own thing and loves to leave me gifts (birds, rabbits and etc) during warm weather.

Now meet Mister (alias Misty). He is a one-man cat .... DH. They sleep together, they lay on the couch together, they even use the laptop together. Mister even scratches at the bathroom door when DH is inside, he follows him everywhere ..... I think Mister thinks he's a DOG.

Mister is also a stray. He started hanging out here last summer and promptly walked in the house and stayed. He too is more of an outside cat but doesn't bring me or DH "gifts". Mister only drinks from his paw ... he would dump out the bowl and make a mess. DH devised his 'drinking stand' now no spilled water.

Sweetie and Mister usually do the "Mexican Stand-off" when they're in the same room but so far not too many problems. Both have been spayed so don't be asking me for a kitty. LOL

We have a couple other cats who visit from time to time. See I leave a bowl of food on my back porch just in case. There's the TWIN who looks exactly like Sweetie, then there's BISCUIT and CHEDDAR, and of course MISTER KITTY from across the street who drop by. I don't want anyone to go hungry and they know food is always available at Nanny's and Pappy's house.

And yes Sweetie has her own quilt as does Mister ..... both quilted on Prince.

Stacks of Color

Maybe Spring is coming sooner than we think ... I mean Monday I got the urge to dust and vacumm in 3 rooms ..... today I decide I needed to clean, declutter, organize and wash up some fabrics in the quilt studio. I have a couple challenges coming up. They look so pretty all stacked up there freshly washed, dryed and folded.

I want to make a red/white/blue quilt, black/white plus one color quilt and some other small projects. I bought fabric when we were in Cincinnati, my road trip to Pomeroy and already have lots in my closet.



















Then I found a stack of quilts that need to be quilted hiding in my GC favorite rocking chair. Yikes .... that makes about 26 quilts I need to quilt on Prince.

A block for Mary

One blog I read everyday is Mary ..... she is so creative and productive. Recently Mary posted that she wanted to make her very own string quilt ..... I contributed this block.

I wanted my block to tell a story. Mary did request that the center string be a medium blue. The lower half of the block is all about Mary and the top half is all about me.

Center blue: Mississippi River that separates our States (MN and WV).

Butterflies: Minnesota State Insect - Monarch Butterfly
White: Minnesota State Beverage - Milk
Ducks: Minnesota State Animal - Common Loon
Yellow: Mary's cute dog, Chesty

Leaves: West Virginia has some of the most fabulous fall leaves
Blue: West Virginia State Slogan - Almost Heaven, West Virginia
Yellow - West Virginia State Insect - Honey Bee
Black - My own 2 cats, Sweetie and Mister

I hope you visit Mary's photos and free instructional site and one of her passions.