Life is Fun!

Funny how I think I should "write that in the blog" and when the time comes, the day went and I stll haven't written it in the blog. Go figure!

My soon to be daughter-in-law has been finding interesting things about my ancestors that have been keeping me looking for more exciting things to come. One of the things she found out was that my 7th great grandmother was captured by the Indians and sold to the British. She was with both of them for 2 years before released.

That got me wondering, am I a 5th or a 8th generation quilter? How many of my ancestors, here in the US, quilted? History tells us that quilting was a part of life. They quilted for blankets and necessity, which goes back generations. We have seen a few quilts that were done in the 1700's but most of them where gone. All because the used them. I know I'm 5th generation, because I have seen quilts, let alone have quilt blocks from all 5 generations. I have a quilt my grandmother and great grandmother made me for my graduation gift. That quilt is wearing out, but it's still here.

Back to my projects - here is were I was on Saturday last week (not yesterday). We spend the day downstairs watching the football game. SEAHAWKS WON! Anyway, this block is another friendship block that I'm doing for Teri.

I got the hat on, and now I just need to add the strap across the hat, give the cat a collar and then embroider the whiskers, if not more.

This is where I started working on the quilt that is on the frame downstairs. BUT before I could even get started, I noticed my backing was off, so I took out the backing, batting, and put it all back together again. That took a while, but not the back and front will line up again. That explained a couple problems I had last time I did it. Plus I found the batting to be creased, so I decided not to roll the batting up with the backing. The reason it looks yellow is because of the lighting and my phone camera. (Doing a lot of photos with my phone now, but still using my good camera for better photos.)

This is the center butterfly (even though you can't see the butterfly), and I found a few things I'm not thrilled about, but that's the way it goes.

I spent a good 3 hours quilting on this quilt and I'm finding more and more "mistakes" that I'm having to quilt around or on. I shouldn't and won't complain about the quilt top because it was a gift from the Rainy Daze Quilt Guild in 2001 when I gave up my position of President. It was a beautiful thought, and I appreciate the fact that I got a quilt top out of it. I'm not quiet half way, but getting there.

I was able to roll the quilt 2 times while working on it, so that's a good improvement. I found some of my needles were so tinny I couldn't believe I quilted with such small needles at one time. Now I need a lot better needles!

As for the rest of the week, I have been working on this "other" friendship block. This is a flower (I know, doesn't look like it yet), and it's not real pretty, but she wanted specific fabrics and it's hard to find pretty purple in the that fabric.

The last couple days, I've been working on my Hawaiian again. Actually got a lot done last night.

When this "circle" is done, then I can do the side, and go to my last corner. So, the good new is, I'm really close to having it done.

This morning as I type this, the cinnamon rolls are in the oven and I'm noticing Charlie found my quilt again. Think she's been missing it for awhile, as I put it away when I wasn't working on it. She seems lost without her  quilt or mine. AND she has to be in my lap when I'm quilting anymore. Gets interesting when a "hot flash" comes on and I have a cat in my lap with a quilt! Talk about cooking!!

So, in the meantime, and until next time, I'm hoping to be Happy Quilting.....

Getting blocks done!

As I sit here writing this, I again realize I'm not good at blogging! lol

This week has been busy! It's hard to believe how one can go from having a boring week to being so busy one can't think...oh, well, that's life.

On Thursday, I went with my parents to Olympia to find out how dad's MRI turned out. The doctor wants to wait another 6 months to see if his aneurysm grows. He is at 5 cm and they are waiting till it's a little bigger. So, dad, is half Norwegian (actually 22%), and all he can think about is food. Since we were up in Olympia they wanted to stop at the grocery store and get some bread. We went into a store named "Haggens" and I was in Heaven!

The bread is fresh daily, and I loved the layout of the store!

Sent my son this photo to see what bread he wanted. Bought 3 different breads!! AND I can't eat breads!! But I love a good bread. Even my homemade breads are good.

As I was taking this photo, dad decided to walk in front of me! This is the meat counter. I loved it!

On Friday, mom and the other quilters of our group went to Portland, OR's quilt show. I decided to stay home. My day was spend cutting up the apples that we picked a week ago. Some of them were bad, but some of them I could use. So, I decided to make cinnamon apple for a starter,

then came the Apple Bread, (it fell apart as I turned it over). 

Next was Apple Brownies, 

with the Apple Sauce being the last thing I made. All of it was new recipes from the internet and all were awesome! I was surprised at how good they turned out. 

So, I've been working on my quilt blocks at night. With the weather getting colder, I may just pull out the Hawaiian quilt and get it done! In the meantime, I'm working on my two blocks for the Baltimore Liberty quilt and doing a friendship block in between. 

Yesterday I worked on Sunbonnet Sue for one of the gals in my Thursday group. I've got to put the hat on, and do some embroidery work. Then it will be done for Thursday. I have another block that I marked on the back for back basting. This one I used freezer paper to do the pattern and placed it where it needed to be. I tend to do freezer paper for bigger items, and back basting for the smaller stuff.

Hopefully the next posting I do will have one of my Baltimore Liberty blocks done.

I hope everyone is Happy Quilting....

Thunderstorm as I write this

I love a good thunderstorm and unplugged my computer so I could still work on the computer. We've had days of thunderstorms in the last couple weeks. A couple weeks ago, it was one storm after another, and I was almost getting tired of them. Then this morning it started up and was on top of us. Loved it! People around here think I'm nuts, but I do love a good thunderstorm. I remember the ones we had in Maryland, and those were the best!

I've been getting a lot of applique done, and still working hard for The Applique Society. We are starting to pull ourselves out of a mess, but we're doing great!

I got the bell on this block done this week. I actually finished it on Friday, but as you can see I need to get the strips and crack on it. I'm thinking about taking the flowers off, I'm really not happy with the way they came out.

If you click on the photo, you might be able to see the center leaf that I cut when I was working on fixing my stem. I put the sticks on and found I completely missed a stem. The good news was that I didn't need to remove the stick, I could just take out part of one stem that twisted under the stick, and then put the stem on. Once I did that, I appliqued the stem down, then replaced the unattached stem and sewed it down as well. All was good, till I noticed I cut right up the middle of one of my leaves.

One of my quilting friends brought me some Kale and I made chips! It was awesome! Patrick - surprisingly - loves the chips, so he ate the hole thing!

I have been doing baking more lately. My bread machine died. So, I'm doing it the old fashioned way. I made buns for hamburgers this week as well. They turned out great!

The ones on the side where just rolls. This was while I left them to rise.

My Thursday group has been bringing in my friendship blocks. They are turning out great!

I'm getting excited about what I'm going to do with them. I still need one more block done by someone, and I'm not worried about it, I know someone will be willing to do it for me.

So, now that I've filled you in on my quilting "world," I'm looking forward to a good rain storm and planning on being Happy Quilting........

What Happened to August?

August seemed to have come and gone. I'm amazed at how busy and how fast that month went by. It felt good to have September come in and to have less on the calendar of things to do.

The internet and phone have been acting up today, so who knows if this will get posted. I've been thinking of what to post and then before I know it, a week and a half goes by.

The Applique Society has been keeping me busy. I'm trying to get the website up current and running again. We had a great time at the quilt show. I'd really like to see more members come in, and I'm trying to work on getting TAS up to the point where people would love to be members. I've been collecting photos and stories of TAS members so we can have them featured in the newsletter. I'm really excited about how far we can go with TAS.

I've been working on my applique lately. I realize I have friendship blocks to do, but still need to think about those. So, I've been working on the Baltimore Liberty quilt blocks.

It took me a while to find the right grey I wanted. I've got a grey with cracks in the fabric, and think that will be awesome in this block.

This is the firecracker block and it has been taking some time to work on it. I finished the sticks on Saturday and will work on the tops of the crackers tonight. I'm happy at how it's turning out so far. As for the bell, I may change the flowers, I'm not really that impressed with what I used.

I'm getting excited about having this one done before too much longer. We started bowling again twice a week, so don't know how much that will take away from my quilting.

I'm still trying to get moving on the genealogy and my soon to be daughter in law found information on my mother's side of that family that really surprised me. We found my 4th great grandmother was captured by Indians and was released after 2 years. Mom got the book from Amazon that tells of the capture. So, now I have a book to go check out at moms!

I will work on taking more photos, and will try to get more posted. We do have a group meeting on Thursday and Friday, so hopefully I will have plenty to chat about.

In the mean time, I'm hoping to be Happy Quilting....