Happy Easter

Happy Easter Sunday. Hope your holiday was spent enjoying your family get togethers. Mine was spent working on these goofy stars and trails.
I finally rigged up a temporary design wall. Setting these blocks diagonally is way beyond my comfort zone. I'm used to straight up and down sets. Diagonal has taxed my brain each time I lay them down. Trying to figure a CA king from a twin size has been one big fat challenge. Should I make it 6 down, 6 across or ????? My cheat book says to do 5 and 5 with a 12" border to make 110 x 110. I don't need a border. What to do? What to do? How big is a CA King anyway?

I've been pulling the fabrics willy nilly out of the bin and am coming up with some pretty strange looking combinations. The over all effect isn't bad but it sure is scrappy. I hope my Grandson and his Fiance like it as much as his sister does. It's been so satisfying to get back at the machine and stitch away while listening to Toby Keith. It's been awhile.

John was to come home for a three day weekend. He hasn't been home in two weeks and now I don't know when I'll see him. He might be gone a week or three. He called saying the ship had to get underway. The under ocean telephone cable had a break somewhere down off the coast of Oregon. His ship had to go fish it out, repair or replace it, I don't know which but I'm alone this holiday weekend. A good time to stitch and catch up on the blogs. While I don't comment too often, I do read them daily.

Many thanks for all the suggestions of what to do with the Windmill Quilt. While I would love to pull it apart and redo that center, fabric paint the sky or even embelish it some, I'm afraid I would hurt my sister's feelings beyond thinking as she is very sensitive, doesn't like confrontations and cries easily. I'm sure my cousin ran right over her with her suggestions.

Grumble, Grumble

The other day since I had to drive right by my cousins to go to FedEx, I stopped by to see the progress on the family raffle quilt. The center had been finished and passed on to the cousins to add the applique border.



WHEW, what did they do to create this awful monstrosity. What started out as a pretty neat center medallion of a windmill against a field of green has now become a space capsule sitting on a field of stained glass. The Windmill fades into the sky, that sickening stained glass effect....my 5 yo GGD could have done better. What was my cousin who took it upon herself to decide a pale cheezy blue sky would look better with that horrible stained glass effect thinking? The green background was too dark, it wouldn't look good is what I heard. What I saw was a contestant for the Ugly Quilt Contest not a traditional quilt the family would cherish. I guess my cousin was coloring outside her lines. Maverick, I doubt it, ugly for sure. I'm a snob, I admit it, but would you as a traditional type want this one on your bed or hanging on your wall? I don't think so. For a family who's tastes run to GFG's, Log Cabins and co-ordinated fabrics, this one won't be getting any blue ribbons. I rue the day I said I would handquilt it...what's a person to do at this stage of the game? Mom offered to help with the applique, my cousin doesn't want her to touch it. She's old, her stitches aren't satisfactory. I agree, she's 91, she's almost blind, but that's not the point, it's a family project. The nieces, nephews, grandkids want a piece of something she's put her hand to and stitched. She's Mom, Gramma, Auntie and Great Auntie. She's the only one left and when she goes, there goes that generation of family. This yearly quilt isn't about my cousin. It's all about family, a generation at the end of her life. It's about my MOM and how loved she is. It's about passing on a heirloom, a time to look back on and take pause for reflection as we remember those family picnics and realize that we are now MOM. I doubt anyone will want to save and cherish this one as a family heirloom to be passed on to the generations to come.

Quilts, Turkeys and Tulips

Friday my good friend and I spent the day on our annual trip to the Tulip Fields of Skagit Valley, the La Conner Quilt Museum and ended the day meeting an internet friend at a quilt show.

La Conner Quilt Museum

In 1891 the Gaches family built the mansion as a family residence. Over the years it's been sold several times becoming a hospital and apartments. In 1973 a fire broke out and gutted the mansion. Wanting to preserve the mansion local citizens formed a non-profit org, purchasing the mansion in 1974 restoring it in 1978. In 1997 the La Conner Quilt museum opened in the mansion, has since acquired ownership, is the only quilt museum in the PNW and 1 of 12 in the US. The 1st floor retains it's turn of the century decor. The 2nd floor contains the museum exhibit and sales gallery. The 3rd floor includes additional display space for contemporary art quilts. The current exhibit of Hawaiian Quilts are quite stunning and the folded log Cabins interesting.

For the Cat lovers... while this looks very celtic it's actually reverse applique.

A Fireman by day, a Quilter by night. This gentleman's handquilting is so even with very small stitches. This one grabbed my attention as I love a red and black quilt.

The quilt on the bottom half of the page was inspired by the drawing made by her granddaughter.

We all ought to weigh in like this. LOL

Folded Log Cabin...I'm not much on log cabins. Each blocks center was a garment label and each block had a label as well.

From the quilt show.

I thought these were Maverics.

I laughed when I heard a lady refer to the one on the left as looking like uterus's. The name on the quilt was bikini .... , however to me I thought g-string. Concentric Triangles?????

There were the usual number of traditional, Baltimore album and wedding rings at the show. I used to take mega pictures, now they need to catch my attention.

Tom Turkey, what a handsome fella this was, guarding his band of ladies. As we walked down the street to the Quilt Musuem he favored us with puffing up and spreading his tail feathers. Not wild turkeys, just turkeys roaming free down the streets of town.

And I came home with 27 batik FQ's to go with the 12 in my stash for granddaughters wedding quilt.

Closer Look for Jane

Jane, it's a wall hanging from "Quilted Ledgends of the West" by Judy Zehner & Kim Mosher.