Diamonds and Cards

I said earlier today that I needed to take some pictures! Here are some of my blocks using scraps made into diamonds. I am making "baby blocks" out of them. Don't know how big this quilt may be. Have a lot of strips I can use.

Here are a few of the cards I made on Monday. Used some of my ribbons and buttons as accents on some of them. I usually don't print up a verse for the inside until I am ready to use the card. I try to make them universal until I need them. Then I can fit them for the occasion. Some I use rubber stamps and color the pictures in. It is like playing with coloring books and crayons. There are so many fun things to play with!

Klosjes and one more down

This is a miniature quilt I purchased at Quilt Festival last year from Prairie Stitches Quilt Shop in Oswego. I had it sewed together for a while, but not quilted. Last Thursday at an open sew, I decided to take the plunge and machine quilt it. It quilted in the ditch and took my time. The border has two lines of straight edge quilting. I did not get fancy, at least not yet. I am pleased with how sit turned out. One more done off my list. Yea for me!!!

Got 13 more klosjes done last week. If I have done my math right, I have 84 done and more one the way. Should be able to reach 100 this week???? At least 5 are done already this week.

I did work in my little garden yesterday before it got too hot. I had a flat of flowers that needed to get in the ground. I had to check to see if any seeds had sprouted. The doves have been loving the seeds I planted!! Some did manage to grow. Between the doves and baby bunny it is a wonder anything is growing.

When we moved to Oswego I dug up a lot of plants from my old house and planted them here. It is amazing how well they are doing. My husband does not like it that I just plant. He thinks everything should be orderly and grouped, and I just put them in the ground and hope for the best. I like the riot of colors that emerge.

I found a bunch of small basket blocks that were going to be made into something else, and never made it, and decided to put them together. I ended up getting 3 miniature quilts out of them. Now 2 of the quilts are quilted and ready for the binding. One still needs more quilting, ( I forgot to bring more thread for the stitching). I am pleased with how they turned out. I was being teased because of how slow I was stitching on my machine.

Yesturday I was working on a diamond strip quilt. I have been piecing the diamonds, but thought I should put a few together to see how they are looking. Next post I will have some pictures.

Monday I made some greeting cards. Two of my friends are having surgery on knees, and one will be having surgery on a kidney to remove a tumor, so I wanted to get cards in the mail. Looks like I need to take some pictures.

I have been busy!! Still feel like I should be getting more done though. My son was laughing at me on Monday when he got home from work. I was up at 6:00 am when he got up and had my sleep getup on, I was still in it when he come home from work!!! It is nice to be retired!

Enough for today, I will get those pictures taken and uploaded for my next post. Have a great quilting day!!

Look what I made Monday and Tuesday

I decided I needed to make some new cute new "purses". When on the shop hop to Minnesota I picked up a couple new patterns. The 2 oilcloth tote bags are from Eagle Creek Quilt Shop, Inc. in Shakopee, MN. They gave us the pattern and had the oilcloth kits were ready for purchase. They are reversible. There is a corresponding oilcloth on the inside too. I could not resist. The pink is mine, and cherries is going to be a present for a friend I will be visiting later this summer.
There are 3 "Cash and Carry" purses by Atkinson Designs. The 2 purple ones were from a kit I purchased. About time I started using some of the flamingo fabric I have been collecting.The 2 little pink flamingo and turquoise bags with handles is a pattern from the Moda Bake Shop "Charmed Gift Bag" by Kim Walus.
It was fun to work on something new, and have it finished now!!

Quilts, Klosjes

Here is theprogress on "Farmer's Wife "quilt. Still have one more row on the down side. I am doing it in 30's fabrics, and pleased with how it is looking. Have 2 blocks left to make for this months assignment. We get assignments of 9 or 10 blocks each month. This has been a great quilt to work on. We get the last set of instructions for "Farmer's Wife" in September. I just may have to get "Dear Jane" out after this quilt is done!!

Only got 11 Klosjes done last week. Just slow in posting a picture. Already have 12 done for this week. I keep finding more and more fabrics I want to put in this quilt.

Done!!! This is my variation on an Alex Anderson's pattern. The pattern shows the quilt done in black and white and has a string of lights around the edge. This one is all made from the "stash". It will be nice to pull out at Christmas time and cuddle up with. Well, it may not wait until Christmas, there have been a few pretty cool nights lately.

This is finally done! It is a "Schnibbles" pattern that I enlarged. Did have to purchase the blue for the borders and backing fabric. The blocks are from the "stash". Yea for me. Feels good to have 2 more projects off the back burner.

More Mother's Day

A view from above!!

That is our shadow.

Special Shaped Balloon

This Balloon?? I am in it!!!

I am getting ready to go up!!!

Signing the release papers!

Ron and I received an invitation to help in the launching of the 2 balloons owned by Corporate Balloons, LTD. Just happened they were going to be launched close to home. There were passengers scheduled for the "Special Shaped" balloon, and the Remax balloon was just going to have its pilot. We got to help getting the balloons ready for the launch. As the Remax balloon was about to go up, the pilot, Bill and I were talking and I said that someday I wanted to go up in a balloon. The next thing I knew he said come on aboard. I signed the papers, said bye to my son and husband and was on my way.

It was incredible!!! The view was so neat.My "pilot" showed me where the towns were all around us. I could see Sears Tower in Chicago. The refineries down by Joliet, Ferme Lab in Batavia, the airport in Sugar Grove. You could hear people yelling to you to say Hi. One man wanted to know what planet we were from. It was beautiful. A perfect beginning of the evening. Our ride was a bit over half an hour. It was so soft. I know that sounds funny, but that is the way it felt. You drifted with the breeze. It was not cold, like I thought. I had a sweatshirt on and was comfortable. I am on a high, can't get over the adventure. It was a wonderful experience. I could not thank them enough. Now to upload all the pictures to Walgreens to get them developed.

What a day!!!! I hope everyone had a day just as incredible as mine!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day from my son Andy and husband Ron.

It's been a wonderful day. I hear I am having dinner cooked on the grill later today!

Happy Mother's Day

My Mother, Mary Margaret Toth

I miss you, Daddy and Linda do too.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers.

May it be a wonderful day for everyone!

Klosjes Saturday

These are my Klosjes for last week. The bus trip helped a lot. I got 24 done. Thank heaven I can sew while in a moving vehicle. I now have 47 done! This is a lot of fun. Love the relaxing of hand sewing for a change.

Loot from Bus Trip

Here are the treasures I found at an antique store in Anoka, Minnesota. The fabric is 36 inches wide. One has a salvage that says J.Manes Co Inc. Looks like I will have to do some research. I love finding buttons and dodads as my friends call them. You just never know when you may need something for a quilt or jacket to embellish.

The 30's fabrics I found. Now this is not the way to "Manicure" the stash. Oh, but I could not resist.

Patterns to play with!!!

My new collection of purse patterns. Who knew there could be so many different ways to make purses, and totes and cute little zipper bags!!!

Looks like I better get sewing! Don't want to loose the inspiration.

Bus Shop Hop to Minnesota

What a weekend!! By 7:30 AM Friday 17 quilters were on a "coach" to Minnesota. We had a great bus and driver, Mike, and set out for an adventure to 8 quilt shops. Two were in Wisc, and 6 in Minnesota.

Minneapolis skyline

A cute 30's tablerunner using Darlene Zimmerman fabric. This was displayed at Four Seasons Quilts in Plymouth, Minnesota.

Quilted Treasures in Rogers, Minnesota.

Dickey's Barbeque. Four of us were lucky enough to have $4.00 dinners. People were lined out the doors for the barbeque. One of the owners came out and handed us coupons for a free sandwich with the purchase of a drink. Who was going to pass that up!!! They had run out of ribs. The pulled pork I had was delicious. I can wait in line for great food. The price was right, on top of it.

Eagle Creek Quilt Shop in Shakopee, Minnesota.

Sew Little Time Quilt Shop in Hudson, Wisconsin.

We stayed at Americinn Lodge and Suites in Rogers, Minnesota for both nights. We were up at the crack of dawn all days. We visited 2 shops on Friday before reaching the hotel. On Saturday we visited 5 shops. We had 4 that were on the hop, and a fifth in the town of Anoka, the Halloween Capital. By the time we reached our last stop of the day, "Fourth & Main" in Cannon Falls, we were beginning to drag. They were wonderful and had a supper waiting for us. What a lovely old building that had been renovated. Sunday there was one shop in Plymouth, Mn. "Four Seasons Quilts" and our last one the "Calico Shoppe" in Eau Clair, Wisconsin.

It was so exciting to see what other shops had in the way of fabrics and patterns. Every shop was so different and had fun things for us to see. The theme of the shop hop was purses. Each shop featured a different purse pattern. They had them made up and in some shops demonstrated how it was put together. Several shops had created their own patterns. What could be more inviting then another purse, tote bag, or small cosmetic type bag to hold our treasures. Needless to say we will all be outfited with new bags!!

The shops had fabric we have seen and lots that we had not. We helped the quilt shops by spending our cash and using the credit cards. Each shop had treats for us, fruit, cookies, or cheese and crackers, punch or lemonade and of course coffee to give us more energy. We all had a great time. We arrived back in Oswego about 7:30 Sunday night. We all agreed we would like to do it again, just not tomorrow!!! One of the husbands wanted to know where to drop off his wife for next weekends trip!!!! (There is not one planned.) We hope we can all do it again after the credit cards have time to recover.