blues

I haven't gotten the binding on this yet, but it is time I update this blog.
This quilt has many influences. Of course, the Gee's Bend exhibit that was in Milwaukee a few years ago. Then, my friend Rebecca made a wonderful blue quilt from her stash. But what got this one going was the great Japanese fabric with the blue and grey and red carp. I had just a bit of it, and used it in the interior and the borders.
I took a stack of blue fabrics from my shelf, tore out a 9 inch strip from each, and free hand cut them into pieces with the rotary cutter. I sewed them into columns about 12-16 inches long, squared them up, then joined them to make the rows.

a magic carpet trip around the world

I used Bonnie's trip directions to make this great quilt. I cut my strips 2" by 19", used 9 strips in each set, and found if I squared off the sewn strips before I made it into a tube, it laid flatter for me.

I used a wild assortment of scraps of fabrics--often very ugly ones. I used a bright yellow or dark red in each strip set.

Thanks, Bonnie, for another fun project. My son Seth has claimed this one. I will take it along on vacation to do the handwork on the binding.

hand dyed chevron quilt

My small group has wonderful dyeing days, where we each chip in a number of procion dyes that we share. We gather in a member's yard and wow each other in our direct application dying. At the next meeting we show off our washed and ironed fabric and are inspired to cut into them.
This chevron log cabin was inspired by my friend Erica's quilt. I can't even remember what hers looks like anymore, but I love how this turned out. Cissie brought along some silk salts that I used on the fuchia that became the border. It was quilted by Suzette in a wonderful circle pattern. I gave it to my daugher for her eighth grade graduation. I used one of Jane Sassaman's fabrics for the back.

sewing in church

Catherine gave a great list of places she has done handwork and wondered about sewing in church.
While traveling in Germany, I saw many women knit in church.

I have had several deadlines, often with church related sewing that had me sitting in the balcony and sewing during the sermon. The last time was a stole for an ordination that was taking place after the service--I had two friends sewing with me!
There are several women who crochet during the service, and quite a few of us who knit in the sanctuary while the choir and organist rehearse before the service--or in the quiet before anything starts.
So, if you want to do handwork in church, you are welcome to join me in the balcony at St Pauls!

4th of July

We had two invitations for parties today, both which were cancelled at the last minute, so we invited about 30 neighbors to eat together in front of our house. Now the Kenji Arsenal is being set off, to the delight of the human neighbors, and the terror of the canine variety.

father's day

(A late father's day post--I had to hunt down the photo and figure out the scanner.)

I love this picture of my father with his daughters. It is about 1962; Janna is the adoring daughter, Beth with the rattle, and I'm the pensive one. Dad looks like he is enjoying life, and smiling at my mother with the camera.

framed nine-patch

I organized the raffle quilt for my guild and finished the quilt this week. Sue DiVarco did a beautiful job of quilting it.
I used the same pattern for a quilt for my mother 1 1/2 years ago. This one is 90" by 104".
As always when making a group quilt there is a pile of "I don't think so" blocks, but it was remarkably small with this one. People followed my instructions very well.

Jane Sassaman

I love Jane Sassaman's fabrics and have been using them on the backs of quilts for teenaged girls lately.
On this one, (I showed the top unquilted before) the wonderful quilter, Suzette Fisher, quilted from the back and used the flowers as a guide. They appear as embroidery in the stained glass.

http://www.janesassaman.com/

princess and the pea

We have been preparing for a bridal shower Saturday for my nephew's fiance. I had a goal of knitting 7 dishcloths--6 are done and #7 is one baseball practice away from being finished.
I love how colorful they are. Together they remind me of the many layers in my favorite childhood story "the Princess and the Pea", probably not the most progressive story out there for little girls, but it had great illustrations of quilts and mattresses.

So, I have been knitting at baseball, fencing, tennis, while blinded at an eye exam, and two, count them two mamogram sessions in 5 days. The report was good, but I was knitting furiously between takes at the call back.
An odd look comes over people's faces when they ask what I am making, and I reply "dishcloth". A bit of pity that this is a waste of time. But, in the time they have been watching a practice, I have watched a practice, PLUS come out with 1/3 of a dishcloth!

county lines

The pattern County Lines by Mountainpeek Creations
http://www.mountainpeekcreations.com/274.htm
has become a new favorite of mine after my friend Donna introduced me to it.
I love that it can be made from what is on my shelves. I've made it with thirties repro reds with aqua sashing--the colors of my grandmother's kitchen! This one I made with fushia and orange batiks.

dragon teeth

Karla Alexander's second book, Stack a New Deck, is excellent for giving me ideas.

I made this quilt with humble materials, lots of thrift store shirts, with a few fabulous florals added.
Very primative looking. Kind of in the ugly quilt category, but I love it.

egg hunt

Today is the day of the big LeClaire Avenue Egg Hunt, and it looks like there will be no snow, wind, or rain!
I hung out over the porch railings some of my Easter Egg colored quilts. I hope it distracts the neighbors from our less than adequate lawn and garden care...

fabric

This week is the big expo here in the suburb of Rosemont. If you go, take the el as the River Road stop is just as close as the parking ramp, and the ramp cost $11.00 last year.
Last year I restricted myself after indulging the previous two years. This year I plan to take it easy too. I can do alot with the fabric already in my house. I re-read Bonnie's shopping the stash piece, and find that adding just a few new fat quarters can make my old fabrics look good again in new combinations.
This is a detail of a quilt I made in 2000. All from stash.

chocolate pudding

My oldest son has developed a craving for chocolate pudding since track practice restarted. I was making the Jello box stuff, and decided I could do better, so I went back to the cornstarch pudding my mother had us make. I have tweaked the recipe to make, what I think is a pretty good one.
I like to cook on the stovetop, but after many trials, find it scorches less in the microwave.

1/3 cup Droste Cocoa (I am a good Dutch girl)
1/4 cup corn starch
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt



Wisk together in a 2 quart bowl so you have lots of room for stiring without it sloshing over the edge.

Slowly wisk in 2 cups of milk. (I've been using 2%)


Microwave on high for 3-4 minutes. Wisk. Microwave in one minute intervals, wisking between, until pretty thick--it will stick to the edges a bit at the done part. It takes about 3 1/2-5 more minutes in my microwave.
Wisk in 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.



Let cool, wisking about every 3-5 minutes for the first 15, unless you, like my son, like pudding skins!
Pour into cups you have rinsed with cold water. (then the pudding won't stick)
Enjoy warm or cold!

Smocking

My mother makes these amazing smocked blankets for grandchildren. This one was for Seth. She starts with velvet, velveteen, or velour, draws a 1 inch grid on the back with marker or chalk, and then uses embroidery floss to smock from the back side. She has several different patterns that look like braids or basket weaves. I don't know this step--I plan to have a grid drawn on a light green velveteen the next time we are together so she can show me the smocking.
After the smocking is completed, she pins a cotton lining to the back and folds under the velvet and backing. She also tacks the top to back with floss, tied to the back and hidden in the smocking.


Aside: I have a problem in using alt-webring.com from both my Mac and my Dell. It happens in both Safari and Mozilla. Could it be the SBC DSL that is blocking it? Could it be a firewall? I was able to use it for months, and now it times out when I try to use it.
Any ideas would be welcome!
Lynn

flowers

My mother and I did handwork while we sat with my father in the hospital last week (knee surgery). I bound three quilts and she worked on a smocked blanket.
This quilt is for my sister Janna's birthday (and is 10 months late). My friend Erica had made a quilt with her florals--I really liked it and went to my pile of large scale florals. I took ideas from Stack a New Deck, but used my own methods.
I like how it turned out--I used a bit of fabric from my grandmother who died in 1948. She had just one grandchild at the time. Eventually there were 26 of us. I used some of that fabric in a quilt for my mother 5 years ago and plan to use the rest in one for my younger sister.

the lions' den

This year's Bible Story Theater at our church was the story of Daniel. I was in charge of the lions' costumes--the 4 and 5 year olds. We had a great sweat shop that did most of the work.




I also helped design the costumes for the angels (high schoolers) and the fiery furnace flames (1st and 2nd graders)--but other people did all the work.

scot's plaid

I love this quilt--I made it about 8 years ago from my 1 1/2 inch and 2 1/2 inch strips drawers. Who knew I had this many reds?

new stuff

I am getting used to a new computer and a new camera. I have a wonderful memory of my grandmother, sitting at the new telephone when we moved from operator phones to dials in about 1963. She just sat there, overwhelmed by this new technology.
She did master it, though. And I can too!
This quilt is for my father's 75th birthday which was last March. I gave it to him quilted for Christmas. And, I hope, bound on his 76th birthday! My family accepts the same quilt at different stages for different occasions. I'm lucky they like me.

neutrals

I love collecting neutrals and have an extensive selection that I pulled from for this quilt. Lots of them are conversationals. I also like to push neutrals to include lavender, green, and pink.

Foster Avenue Beach

A favorite place of mine in Chicago is Foster Avenue Beach. Many years ago, our city in its wisdom, saved most of the lakefront to have public access and be free of buildings. A few politically connected buildings have been built, but for the most part, the lake is open and beautiful.
Foster Avenue Beach is a family beach--we like to get there by 10 and leave by noon, ahead of the sun.
These pictures are taken in the spring, but it is beautiful in the winter too--I plan to head there tomorrow.

mystery quilt

I wrote a mystery quilt for my guild's newsletter many years ago, and it has floated upon the web ever since. Every few months I get a photograph from a person or group who has used the pattern.
This is my favorite photo--I used it for my computer wallpaper for a long time. It is a group in Norway.
Here is one place where the mystery is posted. (It was written before uploading of pictures was possible, so it took some work to visualize the steps.)
http://www.quilt.com/UserPublishing/SummerMystery1.html

Below is one I made (expanded) from the pattern.

aunt janna and mini me

Our camera is broken, so I am mining the data base of old photographs. Here is my sister, Janna, and our niece, Faith, on Christmas 2003. As we got ready for church, we noticed they were dressed alike.
The quilt in the background is an anvil pattern I made for my sister, Beth, a while back.

cat quilt

Here is the first cat quilt I made--Catherine is working on a free form style that looks great--check out her progress.
This one is all reds. It is being held by a couple of kids attending Eve's Christmas party. I am chaperone to about fifteen 12-14 year olds who are at this moment using a kareoke machine someone brought along. My husband was able to escape with Seth and Paul was very happy to be invited to a friend's house for a movie. I would go sew but that would be in the attic where I would be too far away from the action and too cold.
The girls are very sophisticated and clueless. The boys are unsophisticated and clueless. They are a good group of kids and I am glad to see them enjoying themselves. And I will be even more glad at 10 pm when they go home.

Oh, good Christmas Story--Seth asked at about age 4 when it would be Christmas Seth, he had enough of Christmas Eve. A similar thing happened when Eve was about that age, she asked our pastor if they could change our church's name from St Pauls to St Eves. Sibling rivalry pops up in the best places.

winter in the city

Now, I grew up on a farm in Iowa, and there is no more beautiful place on earth than that place in Sioux County, but there is a magical beautiful to life in the city too, especially in winter. Here is my house and my gargoyles with tinsel collars.




And here is one of my favorite sites in Chicago in winter--the neighborhood children turn their front steps into sled runs. I had never imagined such a thing before I moved to Chicago.

St Nikolaas Day

Yesterday morning the shoes were filled with chocolates--Seth (8) asked the question we have anticipated, "How come St Nikolaas only came to our house on the block?"
I said we are the only Dutch family on our street, and the other families celebrate their own traditions. Satisfied him for now--the older kids know that whoever questions openly gets only sticks in their shoes.

Beth's Roman Stripe

My sister, Beth, loves to quilt, but her busy teaching and lecturing schedule leaves little time. She fits in quilting one hour a week during her daughter's guitar lesson.
She made this top many (17?) years ago, and for Christmas last year, my mother had it quilted and I did the machine work of the binding. This gave her another hand-work project of getting the binding done over the year.
My mom has had several of my tops quilted as presents for me--a wonderful gift.

spinning stars

(((Lost this post when I tried to make a correction!)))
I made this little (about 20" by 28") quilt back in 1996. The pattern was in Quiltmaker. They used brights. These fabrics were from a challenge at my guild.

Fine Art of Fiber

My guild has a cooperative show with the weavers and knitters guilds, the Fine Art of Fiber. I displayed a beautiful quilt that was given to me this spring from the board in appreciation for being president. It is all different tulip blocks, made with many techniques. I love it.

The Ricky Timms pretty purple quilt was made by my friend Eleonore Hauser, and the wonderful geometric one is by my friend Leslie Riley.

The tiny lantern log cabin is a great quilt by my friend Donna Cook.
Eleonore, Leslie, Donna, and I are members of a small group of 13 that meets to encourage eachother in our work. I look forward to this every month.

another one of Bonnie's wonky houses

I just finished another quilt top using Bonnie's wonky houses. This one will be a fund raiser for my church--they participate in Appalachia Service Project each year. I think about 50 will go this year, including my husband and our two oldest children.
It is interesting to see the kids reaction to rural poverty, very different from the urban poverty they see here in Chicago.