Grandmothers Flower Garden

I've been making progress on my Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt.

Every day I try to stitch a little bit on this quilt. Either I'm making 

the flowers or stitching them to the quilt.

I'm going to make this a twin size quilt, or a large 

lap quilt, depending on how long this takes me.

Sunday Morning!

This morning I went out and checked the robin's nest in the back.

Yeah! There is one egg that I can see.

But I didn't see Mama or Papa.

Joe went out later this afternoon and he said 

that Mama is sitting on her nest.

............

Joe and I drove over to Anthony and Liz's house and then we went over to

the West Side Market in Cleveland. I read that the 

current building was built in 1912.

 It is a very pretty building.

Some of the pastries were very delicious looking, 

but I resisted.

Joe was buying some strawberries for dessert tonight.

............

Before we went to the market we had brunch at Town Hall restaurant,

which is just down the street from the market.

We sat at a table in their patio area, in the back.

It was a little cool, but nice.

Our table was low to the ground but had a pretty 

floral arrangement built into the table.

I enjoyed a pineapple mimosa, as a treat to me!

It was pretty good!

Squares, squares and more squares!

I love vacation!

Even though I'm not going anywhere I love it!

Don't want to wish my life away but I wish I could be on vacation always!

.............

I took 3 quilts over to the quilt store to have them quilted.

It's going to cost an arm and a leg to get them done but

I can't do hand quilting anymore and besides 2 of them are

queen size, huge!!

............

I stopped at JoAnn's to get some more fabric for the postage stamp

quilt and I get more and more disappointed every time I go there.

In 10 years I bet they won't even carry fabric anymore.

............

I added several rows to the postage stamp quilt and it is growing fast!

I started to add rows to both the top and the bottom

of this section trying to mix up the fabrics a little.

I cut some extra squares because I am also thinking of 

doing another Idaho Square quilt. I like that pattern a lot.

This is my Idaho Square Dance quilt (one of Bonnie Hunters design).

I'm still thinking about what to use for the binding. The gold is the 

backing but I really don't think it goes with the top as a binding.

Theresa says to use a black or a dark blue, I wish I had enough of 

the black I used in the cornerstones, but I don't.

This is a picture of Bonnie's Hopscotch, Butterscotch quilt that

I found on Facebook. I don't know who posted it but I love it. It

is very similar to the Idaho quilt. I may do this next

I think this has a more structured color formula than what I like to use.

I am a true scrappy quilter, whatever fabric I have pulled out of the box

is one I use. 

It will be fun to experiment with the colors.

Nice weather for my vacation

Went for a walk with Joe today. I wanted to go and walk around the

pond at the North Chagrin Reservation, I love it there.

I didn't get too far, my feet hurt along with my hips. So

out of shape! :(

Anyway saw this today!

Mama duck on her nest.

And the waterfall, which never changes.

.............................

Joe's got his garden growing in his hot box, and has

a friend building a nest nearby. A robin loves the back porch.

Also took a picture of Joe's garden as it is today with his

winter crop in.

and here is some of the flowers on the side of the garage.

They've taken a beating this year with the warm, then cold, then warm weather.

Green is my favorite color!

Today I grabbed a bunch of greens from 

my wire baskets where I store my fabrics.

I keep most of my fabric upstairs since the flood 

in 2012(?), how soon we forget.

Anyway, I grabbed a handful and went downstairs and

decided to cut the pieces into 

5", 3 1/2 ", 3", 2 1/2", and 2" strips.

The 5" I cut into 5" squares.

The 3 1/2" are to be tumblers.

The 3" are to be for the hexagon quilt.

The  2 1/2" strips will stay as strips to be cut as I need them.

And the 2" strips I cut for the postage stamp quilt I'm 

working on now. The remainder of those 2" strips will go

into the box of 2" strips.

What a day! Ironing and cutting and sorting!

You can see some of the greens in the background here 

and the baskets where I keep the 2" squares. The other basket holds

2" squares I've sewn into pairs. 

Right now I'm making a panel of six squares by about 51(?) squares long.

I am probably going to do 8 squares from now on, maybe it'll move along

a little faster!!!!

These are some of the tumblers I've cut today,

like I've said, mostly greens. 

I eventually want to make a charm tumbler.

That is one where no fabric is in the quilt twice.

I would love to go back to the shop in Lancaster, Pa.

 that had all the fat quarters for sale! Then I'd have a lot to

choose from! The quilt shops around here don't do fat quarters

anymore, only half-yards! :(

I did find some fabric from my Grandma Cox, all wrapped up in rolls,

like she used to do with her leftover fabrics. She made shift type dresses

to wear a lot. I think she used the same pattern over and over again, as

I seem to remember her wearing only these shifts.

I bet this fabric is from the late 60's or the early 70's.

Orange and purple! :)

But I like it and can see it as one of her dresses.

You can see it here, first in the bottom row.

The green check next to it is from the 80's.

The gray was used in one of the first quilts I made, and I

gave it to my sister. It was really ugly!!! Still have yards of this gray!

The daisy print in the upper corner I think was a fabric my mom

used to make golf skirts for herself in the late 60's to the late 70's.

I love having history with the fabrics I use in my quilts.

This is Spring in Northeast Ohio!

What a difference 24 hours makes!!!

Lazy Day

The weeping cherry is back to blooming! It's had

a rough spring this year. First a bird was enjoying the blooms by

tossing them on the ground. We weren't sure what kind of bird it was, but it

would grab a bloom then throw it on the ground. Maybe it was after some pollen

or something. Then we had some intense cold after a long warm spell, as you can see that

damaged the daffodils. Not sure if they will come back.

Tonight we are supposed to get 1-2" of snow!

Day off of work and being lazy.

Today I didn't do too much sewing.

Watched a little tv and then

went down to do the laundry, the story of my 

life! :)

While the washing machine was doing its magic, I decided

to stitch a few 2 " squares together. It's amazing how fast they come together

to form rows. 

Experimenting!

April has come and so has the cold weather! March was so 

beautiful that we forgot that winter wasn't over according to Mother Nature!

But it could be worse, we've only had temps in the 30's and a few snowflakes, where in the past we've had major winter storms! I won't be complaining, this winter was great, I hardly had to shovel the snow!

I finished one of the tops for the boys, and have plans for the next one. 

It is so large it's hard to handle. I've had to buy extra backing fabric.

I've put 4 x 5  blocks with a 10.5 in black border, a nice queen size.

I am putting off ironing the top and the backing, it's so large it's hard to 

manhandle on my ironing board. If I had room I'd get one of those large ironing 

boards like this one I found on Pinterest

or this one.

I would love to have either one. 

I'll have to keep my eye out for a cabinet to fix up.

Sometimes I just like to sew without thinking about it and then I pull out 

some 2 or 2 1/2 inch squares and sew,sew, sew. 

I've done this once before and loved the result and I want to make a larger one.

It is so relaxing to just stitch away while watching tv.

I've got it 53 rows long, which is about 75 or 80 inches long. Great for a lap quilt 

to cover up under while watching tv on the couch. I figure I need about 6 or 7 of these panels

to finish it up. This is a long term project, not one to be finished right away. Not going to be

a charm quilt either, don't have enough fabrics to do that! LOL! Though some would 

say I have that much in my stash! :)

Experimenting with some economy blocks.

When I'm not downstairs working on my sewing I'm working on

the hexagon quilt. Making lots of these:

As always stitching away. Something I love to do.

Catching up on my quilting

March is here!

It came in like a lamb and 

here's hoping it goes out like a lamb too!

The temperatures have been in the upper 40's to high 50's.

not bad for March in Cleveland, Ohio!

Joe is doing very well with his recovery from surgery,

couldn't ask for any better.

.....

I have been doing some sewing, of course! :)

I ordered and received the blue backing for Maria's quilt.

I just have to iron everything and get it to the shop to get it 

quilted.

.....

I have made 20 of the blocks for the boys quilts,

this is what it will look like when done,

I don't know where I saved this photo, so I can't give 

credit to who ever made this quilt. It is really pretty!

I think the boys will like this design. (hope they don't read my blog!!)

I have some special fabric for the backings, a pattern to fit each boy.

More on that later.

.....

I have also been working on the hexagon quilt whenever I get a chance.

It is coming along pretty well. I am aiming for it to be a twin size quilt.

This is just a part of what I have done, I just don't have a photo of it yet.

Will get that taken soon.

I have made lots of hexagons and I store them in used

Crystal Light container. We have lots of them and I store so many

things in them! I have 100 hexagons in each container.

This one is full of my white hexagons, they stay nice and flat and clean, so they

are ready to go.

I also store extra needles in one and I put the trimmings and cut threads in one

 for my kit that I carry all over the house. 

.....

One thing I need to do is to finish up the space rocket quilt I started

last year. 

I fell in love with this when I saw it in

Quiltmaker. I had to collect lots of blues for it, then when

I was done I found a great print for a border

and backing.

I haven't been too happy with the appliqué I did for the flame and 

that's what is holding me up on this quilt. I'm not sure if I will do it

over again or not. I want it perfect! :)

Well, enough for now, I guess I'm trying to catch you up on

what I've been doing for the last year!