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.

S is for Seth

Blocks finish 7 1/2 inches. Was originally a Kaffe Fassett design.
The block is made from 2 inch cut strips.
After making the H quilt for my mother, Henrietta, from Wanda Hanson's idea, Seth asked for a S quilt for himself.

Are there P and E quilts in my future for Paul and Eve?
Quilted by Suzette Fisher.

unit blocks--planned randomness

In making a scrap quilt, there is planning done at the beginning, then messing with that plan and adding other rules as I go along.
When cutting down of scraps, one size I cut is 1 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches and finish 1 by 2 inches. This is the proportion of the unit blocks used in preschools.

Tonya Ricucci has a wonderful quilt "Ellis Island" using lots of odd prints. I loved the look of her quilt and used that as inspiration for this one. I stayed with her 1 1/2 inch width, but kept my length at 2 1/2 inches to use up some of the many, many pieces in my bins.

This quilt took 1920 of those patches-- 240 are red solids.
Each 4 inch block uses 8 of the unit patches.
I wanted the block to be not quite symmetrical visually, so I chose a setting (top) that had the red center off center.

After making a few blocks, I realized that in a layout the reds would spin in a predictable way (which I did not want) so I made a second block (bottom) where the center is in a different configuration. The red solid was always kept to the interior of the block.
Then, I made the 240 blocks.
I pieced the blocks into pairs first, with every other block set at a quarter turn.
This made for fewer seams to match.

I put them together in various configurations of the two blocks, making the red rectangles very random in their orientation.

Then, the pairs were pieced into quads, 8s, 16s, and 32s.

I added the piano key border (1 1 /2 by 4 1/2. also out of bins) when the top was still at the 32 block stage. I find this makes less distortion with piano keys. Also, I did not press the piano keys until they were sewed to the blocks--this way I could stay stitch the edges of the keys in the directions that made them nest into the blocks.

 After the keys were attached to the blocks and stay stitched, I pressed them and put them back on the board.

By working in sections, I had just one long seam at the end.

The fabric choices--I kept out most reds from the scraps--there are a few--because I wanted the solid reds to shine. The scraps are prints and plaids (lots of shirt parts), lights and mediums and darks.  I made sure each block had some of each.

This is my design. Let me know if you use this idea and where it takes you!

56" by 88"
Top completed July 4, 2013

brownies

My family loved brownies and I like to use the One-Bowl Brownies on the Bakers unsweetened chocolate package.
Because I cannot leave well enough alone and because I like a thicker brownie, I make the recipe with 1 1/2 times the ingredients, add a bit of salt, and add walnuts.

Put into a pyrex two quart bowl and microwave for 2 1/2 minutes:
6 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter
Take out and stir until chocolate is melted.

Stir in:
3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

One at a time stir in:
5 large or 4 extra large eggs

Stir in:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup walnuts

 Grease 9 by 13 inch pyrex pan. Spread in batter. Bake 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

soybeans June 2013

tip #27 consider using larger prints in bindings

The binding is the last place you get to do something wonderful for your quilt. Usually I select smaller prints so that the binding is strictly a statement of color. But, at times, a larger print adds to the quilt and makes a beautiful edge. This large print pine cones and boughs made a great binding edge for this quilt.

 

 Here are a few other larger print bindings I've used. 

Father's Day

Christmas 1966

little quilts

 

Temecula Quilt Co. had a delightful series for Christmas 2011.
I have wanted to make this quilt since, and finally did.
Times four.
Because I couldn't help myself.

  The blocks finish at 3 inches.

Finnish Pancake

In a blender, mix:
4 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cardamom
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a 9 by 13 inch pan.  I do this by putting the pan with the butter in it into the oven as it preheats.
Pour in the batter (will be very thin).
Bake for 20 minutes.
It will puff up  but will collapse as it cools.
Great with fresh fruit or jam or syrup.