Nick's Quilt

Getting my grading finished for the end of the school year is seriously cutting into my blogging time.  Soon summer will be here and I'll have more time to quilt and blog, or get more into the famous dilly-dally lifestyle. I'm looking forward to that.  I finally sewed the label on Nick's Walk in the Woods quilt.  It's the first picture/picture label I ever did for a quilt and I'm very pleased with the results.  The picture is of Nick and me at Grandparent's Day in Nick's school.  He has been on the honor roll all year and earned straight A's on his last grade card.  The quilt is going to be his present for all his hard work in fourth grade.  

So pleased with the polka dot binding.   This was a fun quilt to make.

True story - I wrote Nick's name onto the quilt when I quilted it on the long arm machine, but now I can't find it.  I found it once, lost it and can't find it again.  I'll keep looking.

"A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world."

~ Leo Buscaglia

Peace!

Design Wall and Baseball

Barbie made me a 20-minute table runner for my birthday.  I love the spring colors.  They brighten up my little kitchen and make me happy!  

As the days get sunnier, I get more anxious for summer break.  As you know, I work as an online teacher and am really ready for June to arrive so I can get off the computer and on to the sewing machine - or the front porch.  My office is in the basement and recently I moved some furniture around and created space for a cutting table and my first design wall - Woo Hoo!  Now half the room is for quilting and half for work.  I can sit at my computer and view the latest quilt.  In this case it is the prayer quilt that  I'm hoping to get finished soon!  I used the heat and bond for the hearts and then did a machine zigzag around them.  I'm not fond of hand applique, so this worked well for me.

The basement does not have good overhead lighting, so I depend on directional lamps for now.  In the future, I hope to get that fixed.  There are a couple of small windows, but they do not provide enough light for quilting.

Don't mind the mess - it's a work in progress!

Looking ahead, my summer quilt projects will be an I-Spy quilt for my granddaughter Zoe, a quilt for my other granddaughter, Toria and a Zippy Zippy ZigZag class with Miss Carol of Sweet Peas and Possum in June.

Speaking of Zoe, here she is ready for a baseball game.  Usually she is all girl, but last Sunday at her cousin Jordan's birthday party, she dressed for sport - in pink of course . . . Hey, batter, batter . . .

The weather was warm, so the boys were doing the water thing.  Zoe was the only girl that day, but she still had fun playing baseball with her dad and grandma, until grandma fell in a hole and twisted her ankle, ouch!!  Don't run in sandals! (no picture needed for that incident!)

As you see, Zoe was out numbered eight to one - six of the boys are my grandsons.  Water balloons were flying everywhere.

Double T Quilt Club

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending a lovely, little quilt show that was at the Cuyahoga Falls Library put on by the Double T Quilt Club.  The ladies in charge of show were so friendly and helpful that I was ready to join the club before I left.

Arrye Rosser                         Patricia Cook

The quilts were displayed so nicely!

Their flyer gave information about the club:
The Double T Quilt Club was founded in 1979 by a small group of friends who wanted to meet for a social evening to quilt and talk.  Since then the club has grown in size but the goal has remained the same: sharing needlework and fellowship in a relaxed atmosphere 
Our name, Double T, is represented by a quilt block with four T's.  They stand for Thread, Thimble, and Third Thursday.  We have planned programs each month at our meeting, challenges each year, and several workshops taught by local instructors.  We also participate in service projects to help those in need.  Every other year, we hold a quilt show at Taylor Memorial Library, where our members display items they have completed in the past two years.


(Doesn't this sound like a great club to join?!!)  If anyone in the Cuyahoga Falls area is interested in contact information, please let me know.

Click on any picture to enlarge and see quilt detail!

The ladies from the Double T have been busy sewing.  Enjoy the Quilt Show! 

 


What a great way to spend a Saturday, meeting new quilting friends and looking at gorgeous quilts.  

Liebster Award - Heartfelt Thanks!

Thank you so much, Mrs. Dilly Dally!  I am very honored that you chose my little blog for this Liebster award.  As you well know, blogging is new to me, so I had to take some time to explore new blogs to pass on this honor.  I found so many wonderful blogs that it was difficult to pick, but the five below were my favorites.  I think others will enjoy exploring them too!

 

This award is an avenue by which small bloggers (under 200 followers) can recognize and show appreciation for one another.  I understand that it began in Germany and that "liebster" means favorite or dearest. 

There are rules that come with this award ... 

1. Thank the blogger that presented you with this award!  Mrs. Dilly Dally has my heart-felt thanks for choosing my blog
2. Link back to the blogger that awarded you!  Be sure to visit Mrs. Dilly Dally, check on her latest adventures and meet Flicka, the sewing room supervisor.
3. Copy and paste the blog award to your blog.  
4. Reveal your five blog nominees, each with fewer than 200 followers.  This is the most difficult rule.  I agree, but I too love the idea of passing kindness on to others ... just tough to choose five.
5. Let them know you've chosen them!  Easy squeezy ... love to bring others good news!

Here are the five blogs that I feel are worthy of this Liebster Award:

1 More Stitch 

Live, Love, Laugh, Sew 

My Quilt Corner  

Klein Meisje Quilts

Park Hill Farm

Please take the time to visit the blogs above and you will see why I chose them!!

Blogger's Quilt Day

Glady's Gab and Sweet Peas and Possum bloggers were together today.  After a big hug, the first thing we talked about was how much fun we are having with our blogs and the honor of getting the Liebster Award from Mrs. Dilly Dally.  
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My little red car breezed, or should I say sloshed, down the freeway to visit Carol's quilting studio from Sweet Peas and Possum Blog.  It's way down in the country - 88 miles down from me.

 You could see the rain coming in like a mist across the corn field . . .  it will be a corn field as soon as it grows.

I decided to advertise my quilting addiction.
You can find assorted decals in the Keepsake Quilting catalog.  Barbie got the decal with a picture of a rotary cutter that says "This is How I Roll."

Barbie's daughter, Barb, (it gets confusing, so we will say Mama Barb and Little Barb)  Little Barb brought lunch, Tuscan Chicken Stew and "homemade" angel food cake.  It was delicious  - one of those McCormick Spice Recipes you can find by the spices that includes the little packages of pre-measured spices for the recipe.  This one had fennel seed, basil leaves, minced garlic, rosemary leaves, oregano leaves and black pepper.  A very unique taste combined with cut up chicken breast, onion wedges, cannellini white beans, tomatoes and spinach leaves.  Oh, yummy!  It was the best.  As quilters often do, we made short work of the food!  If anyone is interested in the recipe, let me know.

Little Barb cut material all day, Mama Barbie sewed a quick little quilt and Miss Carol kept us all on track, well she tried to to keep us on track.  I got the binding done for my Walk in the Woods and gabbed a lot!

Carol has been so busy this winter and she treated us to a mini-quilt show of her latest projects . . . look at those designs and colors; what a treat for the eye.    

The blue and white is so dramatic!

I thought of Easter, but look closely and you'll see snowmen.

Barb showed us her quilt she made from the kit she found on sale at Fabric Shack.  I love the Magnolia flowers in this quilt.

Because Little Barb likes flowers, I had to add this dandelion.  Just think if this was a rare flower, we would be buying the plants for our yards.  The dandelion has delighted children for years.  It deserves some recognition.    

 "Good friends are like Quilts. They age with you, yet never lose their warmth."
From Quilting Quotes - Click Here for the LINK

Driving a Long Arm

Kathy, a very trusting friend, allowed me to try out her long arm machine to quilt my "Walk in the Woods" quilt.  First, she helped me practice an over-all loopy pattern, then with her help and guidance, I squiggled and wiggled my way through the quilt and completed it in one day.  It was an adventure; a little like driving a motorcycle down a winding road without a map.  At first I kept breaking the thread, operator error, but then kind of got the rhythm.  Kathy was very patient as she helped me fix my errors and start again.

By the end of the afternoon it was complete, and honestly, it doesn't look too bad for a first attempt.  What do you think?

I arrived at the end of the quilt with a big, tired sigh - happy for this new experience, but knowing that I will probably leave this part of quilt making to the experts..
I now have a greater appreciation of the workmanship and art that goes into long-arm quilting!  

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. ~ Robert Frost

Visiting Amish Country

Sunshine, Amish buggies and quilt shops - shared with a best friend, who could ask for more!  Thursday was great, considering that there was snow on Wednesday.  The sky was a bright blue and the temperatures were well into the 60's.  I met Barbie at Dover and we drove on down to Berlin to quilt shop hop.  As usual, we were sidetracked by the flea market, but managed to get out in under an hour.  Below is the view from the parking lot; Barbie is looking over the rolling southern Ohio hills.

Right down the road we came to Gramma Fannie's Quilt Barn.  Oh, joy!  I took pictures of a quilt that Barb is working on.  She bought the material and pattern from the shop, so they let me take a picture.

Snake River Quilt

Shop, shop, shop then on through Berlin and out to the little town of Charm.  Our next favorite quilt shop is Miller's Dry Goods.  I found the Minkee fabrics there, but didn't buy any - yet.  That fabric is so soft and now I know where to find it.  I love the atmosphere in Miller's.  It has old boards on the floor that creak when you walk around the store.  They are remodeling an old house close by - where you see the white trucks - to have quilt retreats and we can't wait!  Here is the link to their shop:  http://www.millersdrygoods.com/

Now we are starving and Barb knows of a nice little restaurant just up the road from Miller's.  It is built in the fashion of a Swiss Chalet; in fact it is called the "Chalet in the Valley" - very charming.   We enjoyed a nice lunch and of course I took some pictures.  ☺

After lunch we were ready to roll again.  We didn't get too far until we found Hershberger's market and some new photo opportunities.  I am very partial to clothesline pictures because it takes me back to my childhood when my mom always hung up clothes in the back yard.  We didn't have this high-tech, pully clothesline though . . . or better known as the drier in the sky.

The market had the biggest jelly rolls in the world, but we were too full to indulge.  We did see some Amish work horses, in fact a team of four across, at the market.   Horses and buggies share the road and you always have to be aware that you might come up behind some slow moving vehicles.

As all good days do, this one had to end too.  I am truly blessed to have a friend like Barbie.  We have been best friends since we were both kids and I'm not telling how long that has been.  We have traveled many miles together.  It is so true that . . . "A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same."  ~Elbert Hubbard