snowflakes?!? seriously?!?

it's my own doggone fault ... i just HAD to ask...

Auntia, what do you think of this fabric for your outer border?

MORE plaid and snowflakes - what's not to like?!?

ooooo!!!! i LOVE it!!!!

'kay ... so what would you want in the corners cuz we all know i am NOT up to matching plaids in mitered corners?

do you really have to ask?!? i want SNOWFLAKES!!!

urk!!! no, seriously - do you want some more snowball blocks? or maybe some bow tie blocks? or how about dog bones* or water bowls*?!?

nope - i want snowflakes!!!

groan...

five hours and a LOT of bad words later...

MacDubh seems to approve

now i just have to make three more...

oh well, at least when they pile up i won't have to shovel them...

*dog bones and water bowls were EXCELLENT ideas, by the way!!! and bag pipes - oh my gosh - that would be awesome, huh?!? Amy, you get me into a lotta trouble!!! i have ordered the bag pipe pattern from Heleen Pinkster - but i am NOT gonna make it for anyone other than dianne!!!

what next?!?

searching the www (does that date me?!?) for just the right linen calendar tea towels for medallion quilts was fun except for the loss of dozens of hours of sleep whilst entering just one more key phrase... 

and when i found this one...

1986 - it was a VERY good year ... not really ... but i DID get to meet Auntia for the first time In This Life and that has proven to be an INTERESTING experience

i was really, really excited cuz it was not only the right year, but the right EVERYTHING for Auntia - she lurves plaid and she lurves scottie dogs and she lurves red and black and green ... i thought it was gonna be a slam dunk ... till it arrived and i realized that planning a largish (Auntia said she wanted a table runner - but i scoffed that away with a loud, "pish on that!!!") quilt around a too long (26"), too narrow (8"), little bitty center was gonna be a problem for me ... let's face it, i'm not all that inspired ... after waiting months and months and months for inspiration, i finally decided to just start making some blocks that i hoped might knew would find a place somewhere...

i knew i wanted to incorporate bigger scottie dogs with plaid bows... 

 paper-pieced scottie dogs ... not much fun to piece, lemmetellya

and that those dogs would need some balls to chase...

snowball blocks - also paper-pieced ... i was gonna use the flipped corner method and let the balls bounce where they may, but Auntia thought that i oughta make them the hard right way

and then i took a few deep breaths and trimmed away the edges of the towel, added some cream-on-cream borders and came up with this...

hmmmmm...

and found myself asking for the umpteenth time what next?!?

i said it out loud... 

and often... 

till Auntia said something about more plaid did i mention that she lurves plaid? and i added this...

 is THAT enough plaid?!?

the flimsy was getting too big for me to take a picture of all of it... 

Auntia to the rescue...

she was saying TA DA!!! 

and i was saying GET OFF OF THAT CHAIR!!! YOU ARE GONNA BREAK YOUR NECK!!!

never a dull moment around here... 

right... 

i thought i had a plan for the outer (and FINAL) border ... plaid bow tie blocks with black backgrounds ... so i made a practice block, but it looked too icky to even bother taking a picture ... and then i thought that a red ribbon/black background border with bow blocks in the corners would look kinda cool ... i found a paper-pieced bow pattern and made a practice bow with scraps...

It's not about what it is. It's about what it can become.

Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

and thought that i had a winner ... till i showed it to Auntia, explaining that it was just a practice bow and the REAL bows would be red with black...

know what she said?!?

it ... uhm ... it looks like the Lorax

 now i can't look at a bow block without seeing the Lorax...

and here i sit, waiting again for inspiration...

what next?!?

i guess i could go searching for more linen calendar tea towels...

uhm ... no!!!

“But now," says the Once-ler, "now that you're here, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear. UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” 
Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

done been given gone

an update...

three of the tea towel quilts were finished in time for christmas and have gone to live in their new homes...

Angela's Aspens was the first to go to its Forever Home...

 Angela's Aspens

here's a picture of Mrs. Moth (and LuLu) opening the box...

 hey!!! what's so doggone funny?!?

i was kinda worried when i saw the expression on her face till i remembered that i had folded it with the backing side up...

oh yeah ... hunky construction guys

i figure that if the focus of a quilt is an ooooooold tea towel, there oughta be some kinda compensation, right?!?

anywho, next to go was Liberty Bell...

 Liberty Bell ... that's right, i was FINALLY able to name SOMETHING Liberty Bell

and its new owner likes the backing best, too...

hot chicks on fast cars ... in red, white and blue

which wasn't a big surprise ... the cars don't match up, but i don't think Earth Science minds too much...

and then and Vice Versa went to live elsewhere...

 Happiness is Love ... and Vice Versa

 i hit a home run with the backing of this one, too...

remember these guys?!?

because it turns out that Mrs. Myson wanted a red, black and white quilt ... of course, if i'd known that to start with, the front wouldn't have been so very, very blue...

the Plan at the beginning of the year was to have all of the tea towel quilts done by Christmas ... sigh ... Auntia's was delayed because i had no clue of what to do with this...

hmmmm...

till inspiration FINALLY reared its ugly head a couple of months ago (more on that some other time) ... and Michael Myson's needed some extra special quilting and hasn't made it back from Liz the Quilting Wizard ... speaking of Liz, she did a phenomenal job quilting all three of these quilts - aspen branches on Angela's Aspens, eagles on Liberty Bell, and girly swirls on and Vice Versa... 

and now...

on to next year's Plan...

fruitcake revisited

i decided to listen to the advice of those of you who know FAR MORE about running fabric than i do ... three more times through the washer - with HOT water (switching the dial over to HOT was a lot more difficult than i thought it would be - my mother would have been appalled) and Synthrapol and a handful of two different brands of dye grabbers...

still pink - but not a pretty pink anymore ... sigh

live and learn, eh?

 my TALL quilt-holder-upper was no where to be found, so LuLu took over...

hey, Nona - i could use a little help here!!!

hmmmm ... try holding this one...

Twisted Fruitcake

what big brown eyes you have!!! 

here, give this one a go...

Re-Gifted Fruitcake

and her hair just kept getting messier and messier...

so Auntia took over the camera and i joined LuLu behind the scenes...

Fruitcake - the Gift That Keeps On Giving

the quilting is pretty doggone awesome ... Liz the Longarm Quilting Wizard quilted pine cones...

pretty cool, huh?!?

they are keeping us warm or covering table tops for now ... maybe i'll give them all a good soaking after christmas...

couldn't hurt, right?!?

pink snowmen

have you ever seen pink snow?

yep, there IS such a thing...

i HAVE seen pink snow - it was drifted across the front yard last year

it looked weird

and it didn't look tasty

even though some people say it tastes like watermelon

(here's a link to why you shouldn't eat it if you should ever stumble across any) 

there wasn't enough to make a snowman - not that i would have because snowmen shouldn't be pink

they should be white!!!

anywho ... i didn't think too much about it after it melted...

fast forward a year

i FINALLY finished the three Fruitcake by Basic Grey for Moda quilts that i started in 2010 ... i threw them all into the washing machine along with five dye grabbers, some laundry detergent, and the wash & rinse cycles on cold...

i am a prewasher ... i treat fabric like it's gonna be treated after it is made into whatever...
but all three of the Fruitcake quilts were made from precuts - a layer cake and two charm packs - and i didn't prewash the fabric for fear of them shredding into tiny unusable bits...

however...

if i had known that this...

 pink where it oughta be white ... sigh
was gonna happen, i would have taken my chances on tiny unusable bits

ALL of the white is now pink - and that is after washing and rewashing and rewashing and rewashing and rewashing and rewashing...

grrrrr!!!

we wants it ... we needs it....

must have the precious...

i have wanted this quilt for ... well ... for forever...

Autumn Eyes - NOT made by me

i bought the pattern when it first came out in ... er ... i dunno when ... but it's been a loooong time...

i read the instructions and started looking for the fabrics

and read the instructions again

and knew that i didn't really understand what the heck it was saying

and that i didn't have the Mad Machine Applique Skills that i would need to make it even if i DID understand

and tried to sign up for a *class at The Quilt Store

*that the owners had the good sense to cancel it before it even started

and i gave up on EVER finding all the fabric

or understanding the instructions

or gaining the Mad Machine Applique Skills

and resigned myself to another Unfulfilled Wish...

until i got up the nerve to ask if the shop sample was EVER gonna be for sale and was told

Why, yes, as a matter of fact it WILL be. Would you like me to put your name on it?

to which i replied

 YES, i would like you to put my name on it!!! How many pennies do i need to save to buy it?!?

Oh, well. I think that $85 is the lowest we can go.

i gasped ... and she said

Really. $85 is a fair price.

and i gasped some more ... i KNEW that the kit was more than $60 and the thread kit was another $20 ... i was about to hyperventilate at the thought of owning this awesome bear and not having to beat myself up over not having the skill to make it myself!!!

so i just nodded my head and squeaked out

When?!? When may i take him home?!?

and the poor woman climbed the shop's ladder, unpinned him from the wall, and stood back as i stood there clutching my treasure ... he's MINE!!!

It came to me, my own, my love ... my precioussssssss.

Smeagol

autumn lights

in october of 2011

 Auntia and i started working on a BOM that was sponsored by The Quilter's Studio of Northern Lights by Marti Michell using autumn batiks ... Auntia was a LOT more excited about the whole idea than i was - she finished her setting blocks before the second meeting... 

and then her interest wavered, too... 

both of us kept up with the blocks each month and went to the meetings, but neither one of us was really in love with the fabrics OR the pattern after the first three or four months... 

that's what happens when Reality sets in, huh?!?

anywho, we finished up the blocks and put them together into rows...

and the rows into flimsies... 

and then i added the borders to mine and started to look for enough flannel backing in the stash ... i didn't much care for the front, so i picked up the first large piece of yardage that was beigeish shudder that i found in the flannel pile ... and after piecing it together into one big piece of backing, i sent it off to Liz the Longarm Quilting Wizard so she could work her magic... 

and now...

 Autumn Lights

i LURVE it!!! 

it is BIG - so big that i had to stand on a step stool to get most of it off the floor for picture-taking (my quilt-holder-upper wasn't here to help me) and my arms were aching before the camera had time to focus, lemmetellya...

dinosaurs?!? seriously?!? maybe i should have been a bit more particular about the backing

it has now taken up residence on the OldManLeatherChair and is doing a great job of keeping my backside warm, whilst Auntia uses Samhein for her red leather chair...

Auntia's Northern Lights in autumn batiks is ready for the outer borders ... i hope she finishes hers before next autumn cuz i am gonna be wanting Samhein back...

makin' bacon

i make lists ... lots of lists

lists of things to do

 and lists of things to buy 

and lists of things to sigh about

or cry about

or worry about... 

a few weeks ago i made a NEW list for the things that absolutely HAD to be done before tomorrow...

it was a long, loooooong list...

have the furnace serviced

and the swamp cooler serviced

and the dryer vent cleaned
and renew my passport (no, i'm not going anywhere ... sigh)

and the garage door repaired

and the gardens bedded down for the winter

and winterize the outside faucets

and take flowers to the cemetery for my mom's birthday

and hang the shade in my bedroom (the one that has been waiting for me to get to it for at LEAST eight years)

and get the wreaths ready for the cemetery

and have the leaky toilet fixed

and the broken bathroom fan replaced

and the back porch light, too

and bring in the patio furniture

and paint the front door
and renew my driver's license

and have the house power-washed (this isn't gonna get done till next year)

and paint the garage door (this isn't gonna get done till next year, either)

and rake leaves

and rake leaves again

and again
and again

and remember to be GRATEFUL for those leaves

and have the lawn aerated

and fertilize it

and over-seed it

and mow it

and mow it a few more times

and put away the lawn mower

well ... you get the idea

the list was getting shorter and shorter 

and i was almost at the end...

so what do you think i did?!?

i ADDED things to it...

things like this...

a crocheted bacon scarf .. i kid you not

which is for Michael Myson

because he LOVES bacon
 and because he ASKED for one
 and because i love him enough to work with gawdawful chunky yarn that looks like bacon fat...

samhain

this year i actually finished a halloween quilt in time to USE it ... his name is Samhain and he has lived on the OldManLeatherChair all month...

Samhain

fabric is the original Hallowgraphix by Jason Yenter for In the Beginning

pattern is Fireworks! by Kim of Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

quilting by Liz Bowman of Milan, Michigan

pieced and bound by me, myself and i

batouttahell

my dad didn't get to cuss much around my mom, but she did cut him some slack every once in a while ... when another driver would whiz past us and he said 

like a bat out of hell!!! 

she didn't raise her eyebrows very high or admonish him with Guido!!!

so that's what i came up with when i was trying to think of a name for this wreath...

Bat out of Hell

it has been living on the back of Auntia's red leather chair... 

she says it doesn't keep her very warm... 

maybe that bat isn't outta Hell after all...

pattern and fabric by Jason Yenter of In The Beginning

quilted with BATS!!! by Liz Bowman of Milan, Michigan

pieced and bound by me, myself and i

the morning after the night before

does anyone remember Girls Night Out (formerly known as HPV not the virus) ? i didn't finish it till waaaaay too late for halloween last year and that is okay cuz it is not a feel-good-keep-warm kinda quilt and i would probably have to put a hurt on anyone who actually tried to use it... 

anywho...

 there were a LOT of leftover pinwheels ... 

i put some of them together...

the morning after the night before

and made a table runner for the long, skinny table that used to live in the Gotebo Oklahoma library...

speaking of long and skinny - did you check out my quilt holder upper?!?

NoJo is 12 and wears a men's size 12 shoe... 

he is officially taller than me even before i shrunk 3/4 of an inch at 5'5"...

the table runner is 16 inches wide... 

if not for his big man hands and black socks, you'd never know he was there!!!

the morning after the night before was

quilted by Liz Bowman of Milan, Michigan

and was pieced and bound by me, myself and i

to epitome...

 pack me on!!!

LuLu quoting Buzz Lightyear

busy bees

and mosquitoes and granddaddy long legs and earwigs and rolypolys and ants and aphids and centipedes and other creepy crawlers...

Thelma at Cupcakes 'n' Daisies had an excellent idea...

 gather sunflower seeds and share them with Quilting Friends Around the World...

i really SHOULD do that!!!

but ...
yeah - you KNEW that was coming

there are three reasons why that prolly won't happen...

1) i am lazy

 i did not plant this garden ... i just get to eat the veggies from it ... Auntia does all the work

 secondly) bees and every other bug/spider/insect freak me out...

that's a close up of the biggest flower to the right ... and that bee chased me around the yard

and c) skwerls and herds of birds lurve sunflower and any other kind of seeds, berries, veggies, herbs and all the other plants that are not weeds but refuse to eat the creepy crawlers and flying pests in Auntia's garden ... ugh!!!

my kinda flower (zebra stripes for LuLu and sunflower petals for Auntia) no bees or bugs and no weeds to pull

Auntia planted these zinnias for me cuz i so admired Thimbleanna's zinnias last year...

 aaaawwww!!! how sweet!!!

she's learned a LOT of lessons whilst gardening this year... 

gardening is a lot of work...

and expense...

potatoes don't like a lot of water... 

neither does garlic and it lets you know by dying off - all $45 worth... 

green beans are pretty plants, but she prefers canned over fresh... 

peas are pretty, too, but you gotta pick them before they get huge cuz huge peas don't taste good... 

zucchini plants are itchy and scratchy and earwigs shudder lurve the undersides of their leaves... 

onions don't like being crowded... 

the meaning of "bolt" as it relates to spinach and lettuce... 

even "boltless" spinach bolts when the air around it is in the 100's...
give a zucchini plant an inch and it will Take Over the World...
there IS such a thing as too much zucchini...

and there is something quite remarkable about going out to the garden and harvesting strawberries for breakfast ... or tomatoes, squash and basil for supper...

shazam!

look who has made a surprise appearance at the front porch...

 surprise, surprise, surprise!

and in front of the garage...

golly!!!

i didn't plant sunflowers seeds there or there... 

so i asked Auntia...

and she says she didn't plant sunflower seeds there or there, either... 

neither of us chomps on sunflower seeds... 

and even if we did being the ladies that we are we would never just spit them out...

next year i'm gonna plant sunflowers seeds there and there 

on purpose!!!

The sunflower is mine, in a way.

Vincent van Gogh

There are not too many fables about man's misuse of sunflower seeds.

Richard Brautigan

Shazam!

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Golly!

Gomer Pyle

you are NOT gonna name MY kid...

it was 1976
America's bicentennial year...

i was pregnant... 

and reasonably certain that my baby was a boy...
but ultrasound was not something that was commonly used to determine a baby's gender
and i was trying to think of a name that would work for a boy or a girl
 and had something to do with America's 200th birthday
 and would pass muster with the eXMan
and his parents
and my mom
and my brothers and sister
and his sister
and my grandparents
and our aunts and uncles
and cousins
and friends
and coworkers...

i was blissfully unaware at the time that sometimes it is impossible to get a group of people or even two people to agree that water is wet...

i came up with...

Liberty Bell...
do you hear angels singing hallelujah?
neither did anyone else...

seriously, it would have worked...
 a boy could be called Liberty or Bert or Ty
a girl could be Libby or Bell or Lady Liberty...

nope ... no one else liked that name for a boy or a girl...

even my mom who was gonna name me Guida Wallette till my dad put a stop to it wasn't on my side...

between my brothers' wives and me, there were 3 brand new little baby boys born in our family that year...
and needless to say none of them is named Liberty Bell...

but i still think it is a cool name and i am gonna give it to the latest linen calendar tea towel quilt...

the naming block - ready to be stitched onto the back
which must remain unseen for now because it is supposed to be a christmas surprise for its Intended who is NOT named Liberty Bell, lemmetellya...


The 1976 Bicentennial is not going to be invented in Washington, printed in triplicate by the Government Printing Office [and] mailed to you by the United States Postal Service.
Richard M. Nixon

and now i wonder what he meant by that?!? 

hmmm...

 here's a better one... 

Proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof.

Liberty Bell

dream boat

yikes - is it already the end of july?!?

how the heck did that happen?!?

the Old School Saturday Sampler BOM meeting for july was uneventful ... we brought our quilt tops and took them out of our tote bins ready to gloat because we were ahead of the pack and guess what?!?

 NOT ONE of us was asked to show her progress!!!

when i'm NOT prepared, i am always the one who is called upon... 

sigh

this month's assignment is the rest of the top - except for the final border... 

i embroidered a sailing ship designed by Urban Threads...

 those are supposed to be clouds, not waves, cuz it's a dream boat

and added a night sky border all the way around with two stars on the right side so there would be a second star to the right...

faerie frost and glow-in-the-dark stars - and they actually glow!!!

and now we are supposed to put our work in a paper bag and bring it to the next meeting... 

and then hand it off  to have the final border added by another BOMer... 

gulp... 

we've all known this since the beginning of the BOM... 

it was one of the reasons why i chose to work with the neutral shudder colorway...

 i figured it wouldn't matter to me who added the final border because i wouldn't like the quilt anyway... 

but...

yes, there is always a but

i seem to have become emotionally attached to the silly thing...

and now i don't want to pass it on to anyone else...

 yeah... 

um... 

no... 

that is not gonna happen...

i've decided to skip the handing-off part...

playing along

Kim at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure has been hosting Scrap Basket Sunday for several months... 

our scrap bag it isn't anything nearly as fancy as a basket - it's one of those zippered plastic bags that new bed sheets come in has such small pieces of so many different fabrics that i thought i would never be able to participate...

but then i decided to piece the backing for the Old School Saturday Sampler BOM out of leftover scrap fat quarters and bits and pieces of the neutral shudder fabrics from Dandelion Daydreams by Maywood Studios...  

i have been wanting to try a free paper-pieced Earth pattern that Auntia found here one day whilst surfing the Net...
  
i only had tiny bits of blue fabric, so i had to make my oceans green... 

a shining planet known as Earth

there isn't enough contrast between the continents and the oceans - but after i added the glow-in-the-dark moon which really DOES glow-in-the-dark - unlike the fireflies' butts it started looking more like home... 

anywho... 

this is my one and only scrap block for Scrap Basket Sunday...

it took the better part of two days to piece together the rest of the backing and i thought it would take every bit of fabric that i'd set aside for the OSSS BOM... 

however, i found myself with about three yards of MORE leftovers scraps... 

so maybe i can come out to play again...

You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don't have a life. You are life.

~ Eckhart Tolle

ahead of the game...

 last month i thought that this month's assignment for the Old School Saturday Sampler BOM was gonna be the long, skinny border of log cabin blocks ... and  i knew that i didn't want long, skinny log cabins... 
big surprise
i wanted moons...
paper-pieced moons...

in different phases...

and i knew that was gonna take me a long, loooong time...

so i worked ahead and pieced my moons...

such a cool pattern - worth every penny!!!

and folded them up and put them away, smug and smirking because i was gonna be sooooo far ahead of everyone else...

but when we went to the meeting on the second saturday of june we were told that this month's assignment for the OSSS BOM was to add borders to the left and right of the center panel...
say what?!? you mean i am NOT ahead?!? sheesh!!!

i didn't have any plans for the center side borders...
there are flamingos and the earth and moons and fairies and dandelion puffs and a leaf and a circle of geese and pinwheels...
i was running out of ideas...

Auntia to the rescue...

you know what you oughta do?!?

noooo...

fireflies!

fireflies?!?

yeah ... you know ... lightnin' bugs!!!

hmmm ... fireflies ... fireflies ... ooooo!!! 
fireflies!!! 
and i can use glow-in-the-dark fabric so their butts glow!!! 

and the search was on for a firefly pattern that i could actually accomplish...

so i searched and searched and searched...

but all the patterns i found on the Net were either too cartoonish or shudder appliqued...

what to do? what to do? what to do?

which lead to another conversation with Auntia...

what about the bugs in that pattern that you loaned me for the frog?

what frog?

the frog on MY quilt...

oh ... the quilt that you NEVER get around to blogging about?

you ended that sentence with a proposition ... i HATE that!!!

stop trying to be Colonel O'Neill...

TWO "L's"

stop it ... what pattern?!?

that pattern in the pizza box over there...

there are over a hundred pizza boxes in this room ... WHICH pizza box?!?

the one with the frog pattern in it ... it has bugs, too!

frog pattern frog pattern frog pattern...  
oh!!! 
the FROG pattern!!! 
you mean Over by the Pond?!?

yeah...

it has bugs?!?

yeeeeeesssss ... it has BUGS!!!

eeeew!!!

whatever!!! then don't make fireflies...

i'm looking ... i'm looking .... ooooo!!! 
i COULD make those flies look like fireflies!!! and look!!! there's a BEE!!!

no bees!

oh yes ... this quilt needs at LEAST one honeybee for my sweet Melissa ... you do remember that your name...

yeah, yeah, yeah ... my name means honey bee in Greek... 
whatever... 
neither one of us is Greek and your quilt doesn't need a bee...

well ... i needed two borders, not just one...
and i made a bee or maybe two...

 yes, it DID need a bee!!!
 and after she SAW the bee, she agreed with me...

 i did learn that not all of our glow-in-the-dark fabric actually glows...
only bits of it glow...
and i learned too late that most of those bits did not make it into the little bitty pieces of firefly bottoms...
but it is still kinda cool...

 i swear by my pretty floral bonnet i will end you!!!
and i'm leaving them in...

is this begging for a night sky border, or what?!?
and NOW i am ahead of everybody else ... bwah ha ha ha!!!

a place for everything

and everything in its place...

leftover bits and pieces ... and hunky guys

the rejected blocks are on the back of the quilt - all sewn together this afternoon - woo hoo!!! that was my original plan and i am relieved to know that other people feel the same way...

i won't be posting any more pictures of the second 1978 tea towel quilt (still screaming for a better name) till it's quilted and goes to live with its Intended ... i think that the Intended might look at this blog occasionally and i don't want to spoil her surprise ... it was 42" x 48" in the picture at the end of the previous post ... the final size after two additional borders is 57" x 69" 

now ... if i could just get other things in my Life in place...