Christmas 1959

Christmas in the Little House, Henny, Lynn, Janna, Leroy.
Farm north of Hull, Iowa, 1959.
Note the most wonderful curtains ever, this time in color!
We still have the tin barn.

Janna, Lynn, and Beth, 1962

Mom made the hounds tooth skirts and vests--they were reversible to solid grey wool.
Note the most wonderful curtains ever.

neighbor gifts

One delight of living on LeClaire are the neighbor gifts--little somethings special we treat each other to for Christmas. This year we are giving these cute jars of Inglehoffer mustard.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Attempt 3 for a holiday photo. This is the best of 4. Why do I even try?
Happy Thanksgiving.

spools and bowties--detail

Bowties and Spools at the Chicago Botanic Garden

I submitted two quilts to the Fine Art of Fiber exhibit at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
They were hung together at my request, because they are both made with scraps from my own and my mother's fabric collections.
There are fabrics of well over 80 years of sewing for 6 generations of our family.

Each quilt has 672 three inch blocks. Spools uses Kona Rich Red for the constant. Bowties uses Moda Bella Gold.
They were quilted by Sue DiVarco using wool batts.

There is planning in each quilt. Units for each were pieced into blocks of 4; the Spools had a pink spool in each block and the Bowties had a red bowtie in each block.

Both quilts were made in response to scrap challenges on Bonnie Hunter's blog.

Henrietta was a hipster

That is my mother on the left. She rocked red lipstick.
About 1947.

from the archives--Great Aunt Hattie and her daughter Jennie

Hendrika Scholten and Jennie about 1920.

I'm in Iowa with my mother. Watch for more from the archives.

the soybeans are harvested

a sixteen year old learns to drive

 

When I learned how to drive car (I had been driving tractor since age 7) the confusion of that additional third pedal lead to driving practice in the alfalfa field with only gopher holes to beware of.

In the city, parents take their kids to the cemeteries. My favorite is the beautiful and peaceful Bohemian National.  Nothing to dodge but obelisks and other cars with parents and 16 year olds. And the occasional soldier monument.
 

a fifteen year old does his homework

an evening at home on the farm, 1961

Leroy with his daughters. Janna at the piano, Beth with the toy basket, Lynn with the sewing cards, Leroy reading the Sioux City Journal. Photographed by Henrietta. Scraps of the dress Janna is wearing are in the quilts I've been making from my mother's fabrics.

a selfie from Beth

I told her she was blocking the quilt.

having fun with split 9-patches

plaid cats

The cats were sample blocks for a class and the pinwheels were just playing with plaids. I kept adding parts till the top came together.
For my niece, Emilee.

60" by 82" Quilted by Suzette Fisher

tea

This was made for my dear friend, neighbor, and quilting partner Sharon Sliter Johnson.
We try to have tea together weekly. And, since we both have July birthdays, we celebrate the whole month.
The teapot block was in a McCalls magazine several years ago.
I found this cute tea party print for the backing.
Beautifully quilted by Suzette Fisher.

up on the roof--222 East Superior Street, looking east

storms. central Iowa

I drove in sunshine with the sky nearly perfectly bifurcated between fluffy white clouded skies and, to the north, intense storms.

Happy Birthday

Lynn at age 1

urban planning--completed

A useful part of having this blog is I can look back to see when I worked on projects.
The top of this quilt was made in February 2009, was quilted at some point, and I finally finished the binding an hour ago.
Made with shirt plaids, alternating lights and darks rectangles cut 2 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches.
Sashing random lengths of lights cut 2 1/2 inches.
Borders random lengths of lights cut 6 1/2 inches.
It is bound with three different greens--leftover from earlier projects.
I love this humble quilt.
My design--use at your  pleasure.

I used up two different ladybug prints for the back!

Quilted by Suzette Fisher.