Still several more days to sign up for the give away http://karensquilting.com/blog/2010/03/give-away-2/ sign up on that post so you are counted – we have 100 comments so far!
I thought for several days about what to make with the charm squares that Teri sent me the other day. I found a book that had something like what I want in it and I am in the process of changing it a bit. I have discovered that I like my dining area so much better for a design area than the sewing room table (more room) that I have moved by big cutting mat to the table in there and go back and forth between the dining area and the sewing room. I get some added exercise to and don’t get stiff. Here is what I have come up with so far:
the charms - I do not work with pastel colors a lot but there was something about these Moda Aviary squares that I loved when I saw them. The fabric is so soft also - love it.
pulling the design together - laying things out, deciding on size - I have some books out for reference to the design that I like, paper to draw ect. I end up like always though and just start cutting and placing and measuring until I get what I want when I am not going by a particular pattern exactly.
there is a piece of creamy butter fabric in each strip. On that strip will be an applique flower or design, there might be a little embroidery on it also.
I will make four "blocks" this size to make one large block. I am going to do the applique first though before I join 4 blocks together. This one measures 23x25. So when the four are joined they will be about 46 x 50 and then there will be a border of some type around it. I am pretty sure I have enough charm squares to do this. If not and I am a couple short I will be searching through the stash to find a couple pieces which I should be able to do with no trouble.
So I will leave all of this stuff out on the dining room table and work on it for the next 3 days – I hope to do one of these units a day and then start on the applique – but if we do any running around this weekend it might end up on the table for a week 
This took 2 1/2 hours to do – in other words I spent the whole morning on it – which I normally do not do. Normally I am only sewing for an hour here or there in the day and evening.
I did take a break and went outside for some photos:
spring - don't you just love it - but darn all those little bugs are coming back already!
pretty yellow
hydrangea - I planted these last year from rootings off of my big plant - I rooted 7 plants and they all came back.
clematis
the cool weather plants are planted - peas, carrots, beets, two kinds of lettuce, spinach and radishes - we will be gone half the summer so I am not doing other veggies right now. I am going to spread plastic over the fencing to keep it warm as we are to get some cool nights coming up still. When I cut the grass the first time I will have Mike put the mulcher on and I will put mulch over the weed mat to hold it down and take the rocks up then.
Yesterday seeing as I am still waiting patiently (almost) for my batting to arrive I worked up another little Dear Jane block for “Insanity Revisited”. I will get another one prepped today. After running in to the problem of two separate companies out of the batting I use and having to wait for them to send it I decided when I go to Paducah in April to make sure to stock up on several sizes of batting and bring them home and store them under the quilting frame. The packages will be out of my way and there when I need them. I love Quilters Dream 100% cotton batting – it is the only kind I use – I have experimented with numerous brands and just find I like that one the most.
The beginning of Row K (#11) this is block number 1.
Yesterday brought a visit from our daughter Melanie and her husband Ric. This was a visit that had not been planned far in advance but a delight. Melanie and I took a nice walk at the trails while her husband was visiting his mother – who luckily lives only 2 miles away from us which makes visiting easy for them – then we made supper and Ric came over to visit for awhile and eat then they went back to his mom’s house to visit there too. With Melanie’s hours at work not being very flexible we appreciate a visit when they can squeeze us in 
I don’t know how it works for most people but we have found it is easy for them to make a visit to both sides of the family easily because of how close we live to his mom.
It rained last night – we had not had much rain lately so seeing as it was not sever storms and it was at night it was welcome. My little garden plot is ready for planting.
My little plot next to the wood pile. There is a reason for this. I figured because I wanted to plant early - salad type of veggies that grow good at this time of year - but anyway because it is early I want to be able to protect from cold weather. So the plastic over the wood will be pulled over the garden instead and held down and the heat can stay in the area by the plants! Instant green house I still need to get some chicken wire to put a small fence around it too keep out the rabbits. Right now I plan on planted two kinds of lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, green peas and beets (not a salad veggies but I like them) all of these should be ready within one to two and half months which works out well seeing as we will be gone for a good chunk of summer. By putting plastic over it part of the time it should encourage them to grow faster (I hope). I would have liked to have tomato plants too but I don't feel I would have enough time to use them all and I hate to waste them.
a little wild area of plants. The little green that doesn't have flowers on it yet are lily's
The big tree in the center of the yard always gets these reddish buds all over it before the leaves come. They look pretty but sure do make a mess in another two weeks or so when they fall off the tree and the leaves grow. I have to blow them all off of the porch and the deck then, but they are pretty. The picture is not as clear as I hoped. In fact a lot of the photos I took this morning did not turn out and were out of focus. I'm still working on that.
I finished sewing the 10th row onto the body of the quilt and it is looking good I think! There are over 2,000 pieces in it at this point and around 250 hours of hand piecing I think – I have it written down. This second Dear Jane is actually being done faster than the first one was – I checked in my journal to see how long it had taken me on the first one at the end of 10 rows and it was about 50 hours longer — guess I am used to dealing with this bitty pieces.
Me with 10 rows of Dear Jane, "Insanity Revisited"
I think I mentioned to you all that I am a scrap quilter, well even though I have plenty of fabric for this quilt I can’t stop myself from saving my scraps. You see from the photo that some of the pieces are smaller than a quarter! I tend to save scraps and use them up for the tiny pieces as you will see from these photos.
Some of the pieces in this quilt are more the size of a dime than a quarter - but a quarter was what was handy.
a pile of scraps leftover that I couldn't use for this 1st block on row 11 - they were not needed or too small 
the scraps I did use plus a larger piece that was already cut and left over from previous blocks.
So as you can see if you save small pieces from your leftovers when you are making Dear Jane it is very likely that you can use them up, especially if you are doing a two color Dear Jane like this one is.
It was a wonderful day outside today – it got up to a big 68 degrees!!! I hadn’t planned on doing a garden this summer because we will be gone for part of it but then I thought well maybe a little bit that could be ready by the end of June? Mike tilled up a small piece of land for me down by the wood pile that is in the sun all the time. I need to rake it out a little this week and get it ready. Right now I have some seeds for carrots, beets, and sweet peas. I might get some leaf lettuce and radishes too. Maybe a tomato plant if it is really big and has blossoms on it already – not sure on that. We might be getting some rain this week, so my gardening plans might have to wait until next week if it gets muddy.
It got up to 54 today the sun is shining and it looks like early spring is in the air. That doesn’t mean we won’t have cold days ahead but at the rate things are growing I know it won’t be far off. I spent the last hour outside cleaning out a flower bed of all the dried up leaves and pine needles that had collected up over winter. I found things growing!
This pink hydrangea that I planted last spring is coming back nicely, see all those leave buds!
I do believe these are hyacinths. I know I have some planted in that general area but I was disappointed in them last year as they didn't have good flowers on them. I will see what they do this year and if not many flowers again I will pull them out and re-plant
Tulip greenery - the problem with tulips is that around here you plant them in December and they are usually pretty the first year and then you get nothing but green after that and rarely flowers. If I remember right I have been told that our summers are too hot and the winters not cold enough for a long enough period - this winter was colder and longer than normal so I wonder if I will have flowers this year?
A little fern, these ferns are natural around here and grow every where it seems. I dug some up from down in the woods over the years and have stuck them in flower beds. They normally stay green all winter. This ground cover stays pretty green also and has purple flowers on it mainly in the early spring and I think again in the fall? I might be mistaken on that and only flowers once - either in the spring or the fall?
And the daffodils are all opening up now - this early variety that is. I have seen them around town and the line of them that we have scattered along the front of our property are all starting to bloom now. I will start to find others around the yard more and more as the warm weather stays with us.
Last night and this morning I worked on drawing the stencil design on the quilt top. I use a blue wash out marking pen that I did a blog post on a couple weeks or more about - "Mark-be-Gone". The top is now ready to quilt and I am just waiting on the batting to arrive. I sewed the backing together yesterday. I did not have a wide enough piece and had to sew several lenghts together. It was almost wide enough but missed by about 8 inches.
I have one more block to make for Row 10 on “Insanity Revisited” and then it will be time to sew that row on to the others. Then I will take a break from it once again and work on the March assignment for the “Star Crazy” quilt. I got all that printed out yesterday. I think I have pretty much decided that the “Little Brown Bird” quilt and the “Traditional Red and Green Applique” – each of which have only one block made will stay put aside for awhile while I get these smaller quilts quilted. Plenty of time to work on them later. It is more important to me to get caught up on quilt tops that need quilting. I don’t like having so many things waiting in line not finished. This time will give me time to put more thought into the “Little Brown Bird” I have decided there are many blocks in this quilt that I would rather not make and I am looking for blocks to substitute with. I have found several “lacy” type of blocks to reverse applique and entwine with flowers like the one block I already completed. I will most likely come up with a new name for the quilt because at this rate I don’t even know if there will be a bird in it!!
EDITED: at 9:17PM Odette from Chile left me a comment. I follow her blog although she hasn’t been an active blogger we exchange e mail now and then. The google translator doesn’t always do a good job but for any of you who occasionally go to her blog from mine I am happy to report that she and her family came through the earthquake well. I think she is a bit north of where the damage was and close to the border of Peru. I had e mailed her after the quake and was happy to hear from her, I had wondered of course if she was ok.
First I will explain the “spring is coming” comment on the top. I know a lot of you are under snow and getting more as I write – I’m talking about all of you out east – I know you are in the midst of a strong winter storm I imagine others of you in the northern areas are too. But here – in north central Arkansas look what I discovered today when I went to get the mail out of the mailbox! I think the groundhog of the south (located in Georgia) is right – spring is in the air (even if it feels like winter at times )
the earliest variety of our daffodil bulbs are budding out. This always happens in February it seems, sometimes we have them popping open with snow around them. You always know that spring is really on its way when we see these.
And another clump - we still have a little bit of last weeks snow on the ground in places in the shade. I would not be surprised though to see a little more snow come our way before spring is actually here though.
I told you all I was going to be working on the border of my circles and four patch quilt which I am now naming “Going in Circles” I think it is appropriate. I have been taking some photos as I go along with it to show how I do it. I do not follow any particular rules this is just design as I go.
The first most important step in my opinion is protect your work surface especially if this is your new dining table! I have a large cutting mat 30 x 36 and I use that for the protection. The table is being protected from any glue leaking through.
I start in a corner so that is what I lay in place first.
The supplies - the circles, the nine patches, vines, glue, scissors, and a photo of the border that I am using for inspiration.
I forgot to take a photo of my first corner as I was doing it so this is a photo of the second corner - put your corner segments in place first - one corner at a time is best but you can do all corner first then go to the sides, up to you. These are glue basted in place.
put glue dots on circles as you are ready for them. I put about 2 feet of the vine down first with glue dots on the back, press them in place with your fingers, curve them as you desire. Then I put a circle on each side of the vine, I wasn't going to measure but then I decided I needed to as some were to far apart (they peel up well if the glue is still damp), I am putting the circles about 3 1/2 inches apart on each side of the vine.
getting ready to lay out more of the vine - the vine is all in one piece on each side of the quilt border.
When I got about 2 to 3 feet from the end of the border I laid the next corner pieces in place and glue basted them down. This is so I know where I want my vine to meander and end. Then I cut the vine to the right length ( I will trim a little more off when I get it all basted in place. I glue baste this portion of the vine in place and tuck the end under the 9 patch. The 9 patches also will be needle turned appliqued in place. Using the glue is an easy way to baste also if you need to make adjustments you can gently tug a piece up and reposition as you are working.
One side of the border is done and the second is almost done. Enough done so I can take this photo so you can see what it will look like. Now back to making more circles - I thought I had plenty! LOL I ran out before I finished the second side - talk about not judging correctly!! I had at first done some circles in two different sizes but the larger size was too big I felt so I am going to cut those smaller to begin with and use them to make more of the smaller size circles. That will let me finish the second side of the border but then I will be back to making more circles. Maybe I will get this done late tomorrow or Monday instead of today!
This sure adds a colorful finish to the borders doesn’t it!
Continue reading about Going in Circles and Spring is coming!!
Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe is having a give away of quilt fabric. I’m not sure where I heard about it but I have put that site on my google reader to see what all they have for awhile. Go on over and see what they have to give away – you will be pleased.
I finished the Baltimore Bliss 4th block. I need to look at the patterns and see which one I’m doing next. I don’t actually have them in order any more from when I printed them out. I think there are 2 or 3 more patterns to come out still. I intend to make all 12 blocks but right now I’m not sure if they will all go in one quilt top or two. I’m thinking of maybe using 6 and put on point with sashing between for 2 different quilts.
Baltimore Bliss block #4 out of the 12 that with the quilt pattern.
Would anyone happen to have this plaid fabric I have been using in these blocks or know where I can purchase it on line? I have a little left and wanted to use it in most of the 12 blocks but might not be able to at this rate. I only have a little left. If anyone has some they are willing to part with we can make a trade of some sort? I believe I got it when I purchased some “Timeless Treasure” fabric by 3 Sisters several years ago, I don’t know if it was the same designer that did this one. I looked on line and can’t find it anywhere.
I will leave the next block though for a day or two and get back to work on “Insanity” my Dear Jane quilt tonight. Only a little more than half a row left to quilt! I should have a photo tomorrow of the progress.
I have taken the day off from painting like I said I was going to. I will continue that tomorrow or the next I’m taking a wait and see approach! I was outside today off and on – it was so nice outside. I dug up more bulbs that needed separating. There was of course more than I thought there was and now need to figure out where to put them! I will probably try to do that this weekend.
The knitting on the scarf is coming along nicely – I have had to unravel a couple rows now and then and then reload onto the knitting needles as I will occasionally find I have dropped a stitch. Over all though it is is growing!!
The blue wool scarf
Thanks to all about your nice comments on my health. Overall I do great most of the time, I tend to overdo at times with physical activity and then pay for it!! I think a lot of us with health issues (and increasing age ) do that – we like to think we are superwoman and then we get a reminder from aches and pains that we aren’t LOL
I have had a lot of response for my give away and would like to thank all of you who have entered and have also posted on your blogs about it. I will announce the winner on Wednesday after I tally it all up on Wednesday morning.
Yesterday was a nice day to work outside and boy did I work outside! First I cleaned the outside of all the downstairs windows – we have had such a wet spring and summer that a lot of my windows (vinyl frames? I think that is what they are) had developed mildew on them – some worse than others. So while Mike was working on other things I got the ladder set up and a bucket of bleach/water solution. I can easily reach the lower windows with the ladder and got them all clean. The back of the house which is always in shade had a bigger problem but it all came off without having to scrub hard. The upper windows aren’t as bad, some do not have any mildew on them at all others have a little. Fortunately the windows are new and if you take the screens off you can open the windows to the inside and reach outside and clean off the outside of the frames. I will do this next week when the weather improves – it looks like we are in for rain all week. It was easier to do the lower windows with the ladder than taking out all of the screens.
After I took a break from the windows I got out my shovel and dug up all of the spider lily bulbs that I could find. This photo is not mine – by time I thought about a photo the blooms had died, this is a photo from the link above on the plant.
Spider lily
I got my original spider lily bulbs from a friend years ago – maybe as long as 15 years ago. The first time they grew I only had a few and I left them alone for years and they multiplied as bulbs do. About 3 years ago we decided to build a workshop in the area where a lot of bulbs were planted. As we cleared the area for the shop I kept digging up more and more bulbs without knowing what they were – spider lily bulbs look a lot like other lily bulbs and it got so I didn’t know one from the other. Anyhow long story short, I ended up planting bulbs in about 5 different places without knowing what I was planting. This year when we got home from our trip was right at the right time to see the spider lilies blooming and I had them in about 5 different places – some with only one flower some with about 10. But they weren’t displayed as I would like. I want them to all be in one place for a massive display of red. Yesterday I got the shovel out while I could see where they are. Spider lily’s do not have leaves on them when the flower is blooming but with the buds dying some were now developing leaves and I was finding them all over the place.
I ended up with over 200 bulbs but very few had flowers on them. I figured out why as I was digging them up. Here in the northern part of the south the bulbs are supposed to be planted just so that the top of the bulb is under the soil. Some of them had been planted six inches or more in depth! I had new bulbs forming on the stems under the ground. I broke all apart separating the bulbs. I have no idea if some of these will grow but I plan on planting all of them to see what happens. I guess we will find out in late September what it looks like. I will figure out where to plant them next week, in the meantime they are sitting on the porch.
I didn’t work a lot on my quilting yesterday but between yesterday and the evening before I finished quilting 3 more blocks on Row L #11.
Row L blocks 1, 2 & 3
In between working outside and reading and normal chores around the house I have gotten almost finished with another of the Baltimore Bliss blocks I will post that one when I finish it and get another block prepped to start then. I think I have 7 more of the patterns printed out and ready to use while waiting for the final 3 blocks to come out.
I do need to get back to work also on my Second Dear Jane called “Insanity Revisited” I have been taking a bit of a break from that one. I have been having a hard time getting back to it. I plan on working on it again, just taking a break from it.
Continue reading about More on “Insanity” – Give Away continues
Before I write anything else I need to tell you that Judy over at the Green Fairy is having a give away. I signed up for her give away and said I would mention it on my blog and didn’t want to forget. You might want to check her out, she is giving quite a few fantastic prizes. She is also traveling to Romania soon on a mission trip. She will be bringing quilts to give away to people in need and is also trying to raise money to feed people while she is there. Check her site out. Besides having lovely prizes she sells fabric and things too.
I have had a productive day – although at the same time it was a lazy day if you know what I mean. First photo – I made an Italian Cream Cake today. It calls for 3 layers with a yummy, fattening frosting of course. I went ahead and made all 3 layers, but then I cut them all in half and froze 3 of the pieces – this will be cake for another day. We have half of a 3 layer cake — which for 2 people who love cake that is more than enough. I probably should have only made a quarter of a cake but that gets more difficult. I got this recipe off of the Pioneer Woman Cooks page. She sure does post good recipes. If you follow the link it will take you to the recipe. I have not made a cake in such a long time that when I saw her recipe I gave in to temptation!
I made progress on the border of the Christmas Baltimore Album and have two of the flowers done! Progress!
Click on the photo’s to enlarge as usual.
I’m wondering if others have the same problem I am having with my hummingbird feeders lately — Bees! they won’t go away, I have never had bumblebees at the feeders that I can recall and there are getting to be more of them everyday. Is there a way to make them go away – I assume I 
shouldn’t spray the area with insect spray as the hummingbirds might be harmed – they are so little. Also the bees of course are good for the flowers. Anyone else have this problem? In these photos you can even see them flying in below the feeder. So far they have not come close to us.
Two nuthatches have taken up residence on the tree next to the porch. They travel up and down the tree – at times upside down, and peck at bugs all day – I do not see the bugs, but I guess they are there!
Now that my husband has found out for sure that he is a contract worker again and 
started a six month job as of yesterday. Now I can start putting some more plants out on the deck and porch for decoration. I had held off on doing so because if we were traveling I didn’t want all the plants to have to be on automatic water system. Here are two baskets of flowers that I got the other day. I have a 3 tier plant stand off to the corner there and haven’t gotten anything for it, I might do that tomorrow after I meet two of my friends in the morning at the local bookstore/coffee shop to look at quilt magazines. We haven’t done that for awhile and thought we would do that instead of meeting to sew.
This area full of Black Eyed Susan, Purple Coneflowers and Tiger Lilies are next to this area of the porch. I spend a bit of my day outside. I have a work basket that I place my applique work in, the telephone, a book, the camera — and I bring out an icy drink and I am set for awhile until the heat drives me in! I have a radio out there and also listen to the birds, squirrels and the bees.
I did make sure that I went and got some exercise first thing this morning!! I have been bad and have gotten out of the exercise habit lately. I always get out of my routine when we take a long trip like we did in May. Then when we got home we had clean up from that storm and then started work on enlarging the deck – through the change in routine I started to skip the fitness center a couple times a week which lead to all week – to all month!! I am making a promise to myself to get back to the healthy life style (and of course I made the cake to prove to myself that I can have my cake and exercise too )
I have the main part of the quilt top finished!! Now on to the borders. I haven’t even gotten that pattern out to look other than knowing that it has a red flower in the center and has a white flower on each side of the red with greenery extended on each side. Each border is the same design. The finished size of the quilt with the borders is to be 75 x 75 inches. I might enlarge it possibly if I have enough fabric with maybe another sashing design around the next applique border. I’m not really sure. The size it finishes to will not fit the bed of course so if I leave it the size it says it will be for draping over the couch or for hanging on the wall at Christmas time. We will see when the time comes. So far this quilt has taken me about 120 hours to make. It took about 20 to 25 hours for each block and then sewing the sashing and blocks together added more time to it. I started it back in February.
I’m glad to have gotten to this point on the quilt top. I don’t know if I will start a border right away tomorrow or wait a couple days. I have not quilted on “Insanity Revisited” for awhile and really need to put in some time on that one too. After all I have to get it off of the frame so I can quilt this one when the time comes!
I took a few pictures in the yard today. Here are some of my flowers.
I never planted these tiger lilies, I had one bulb wash in from a storm once about 5 years ago I guess and since then they have populated themselves and I now have about 25 of them blooming! The have little black seeds on the stalks and they fall off and eventually grow to full size and that is how I have gotten so many of them. I will have to dig them all up one of these days though as I do not want them growing where they are, which means the next couple weeks I need to get out there and pick all of the seed pods off of them and put the seeds where I want them to grow and then dig the bulbs out this fall and plant them too.
Also here is a photo of my bird feeder that I took this morning, if you look closely you can see a bird at it. I have had a lot of purple finches at the feeder this year, I’m not sure if this is one or not, I couldn’t get the bird clearly in the photo. I also have woodpeckers, nuthatches, cardinals, & bluejays. I’m sure there are others but I always notice these that I named.
I have all 5 of my Christmas Baltimore Album blocks squared up to the 16 1/2 inches they are supposed to be and I have started to cut out the red sashing but I have not made anymore progress than that.
I spent a good part of the day outside once again. I went over part of the deck that I had been cleaning the day before yesterday and got more of the dirt off of it on the second try. Mike went over the same area tonight and got more off of it. Mike finished building the deck this evening now to get it all cleaned up and the tools put away. Once the porch is all cleaned up we will take photo’s of the finished look. I will have to post some before and after photos. We still need to power wash the porch boards before a picture gets taken. I will need to start looking for a couple more pieces of deck furniture when we get completely done. I know there are bound to be some sales coming up – after all we all know that by July the winter stuff starts coming out to the stores – surely the lawn furniture will be on good sales then.
Also today I dug up all of my old strawberry plants and tossed them. They have not been producing for the last 3 years and I’m tired of trying to get something out of them. Right now I am using that area to plant all of the bulbs that I had taken out of the flower bed that we dismantled in order to put the new deck in. I had a lot of bulbs. I have no idea right now where I want them so I put all that I had dug out plus some that my sister-in-laws mom had given me. They will keep well there until the fall, maybe by then I will have decided where to put them permanently.
I have taken a couple photo’s of my yard and plants that I will share with you until I get the photo’s of the deck and porch posted.
Purple Coneflowers, I have a lot of these all over the place, some in beds and some on the edges of the woods.
my swing where I spend the evenings reading sometimes looking at hummingbirds coming to feed (they are not here very much this summer)
