sisters

My nieces Faith, Emilee, Hannah

sisters

Happy Birthday, Janna!

School year 1966-1967
Beth, Kindergarten
Lynn, grade 3
Janna, grade 6

sisters

My mother Henrietta and her sister Betty.
Mothers Day 2013

Happy Mother's Day!

Mom making root beer, about 1973.

Mom would make several batches root beer every summer.
We first would let it ferment in the attic, until several batches exploded and it took too much to clean up the syrupy mess in such a small space.
After that, and realizing in our non-air conditioned Iowa farm house it was 90 degrees throughout, we would let it ferment in the living room under a blanket--the blanket to contain the bottles that still would explode.

In this picture, Mom is giving a demonstration on the process at our town's centennial.

(We really liked the idea of drinking root beer out of beer bottles. We were not the best behaved of children.)

Dr. Beth Dykstra VanMeeteren

B is for Beth

My sister, Beth, is awarded her doctorate this spring from the University of Northern Iowa. Her dissertation is Designing Engineering Education from the Perspective of the Child.
This quilt is made for her. I followed along on the Quilts by Cheri tutorials last summer.
The letters and sashing squares are made from shirt parts.
I used at least 7 different red solids in the quilt which give a dappled look to the piece.
The children represent my brother and sisters and me. They are made from scraps of clothing our mother made for us.
Wonderfully quilted by Suzette Fisher.

16 patch, finished

Inspired by the quilt pictured in the frontispiece of Elise Schebler Roberts' The Quilt: A History and Celebration of an American Art Form, 2007.

Andy and Lynn

At Cafe Brauer for the Lincoln Park Community Shelter benefit.
The house quilt brought $900!

eventually, part two

A good reason to keep a blog is I can search back to just when I made something.
This top was put together in 2008 from blocks made long before that.
I finished the binding this morning.