Christmas in Chicago - A few new things, a few old things.

Christmas quilt in the sewing room.

Happy Twistmas Wreath. I just finished this last night.

Nothing new but still love this quilt up at Christmas 

Here is the new "Contrary Wife" I just love how it turned out.

I'm going to hate having to take it down.

Nothing new here either but love this little vignette on top of the pie safe.

Here is the new little wool Santa mat that I made this year

.

Lisa Bongean Quilt Block Done!

ALERT - QUILT ROOM CHALLENGE CANCELLED!!!

I couldn't stand it anymore...I gave up on the quilt room challenge and cleaned it up. Now the challenge will be where to find everything when I actually want to make it. Some things may be lost forever...you know how that goes.

Isn't it great though. I could actually take a nap on the bed if I wanted or even sit in the chair to do some handwork.

Here is the Grandma's flower table mat I made for myself; on my "new" treadle sewing machine.

Remember the last Jo Morton quilt that had the green borders? I changed them to brown and like it much better.

These two table mats are some of Leigh's birthday presents. (Sorry, the vase and flowers are mine).

Quilt Room Challenge - October

OMG...What Happened?!?

September 1 Update

 OK, I didn't make any progress on the sewing room this month. None. Zippo. but  here is the Atlanta queen size quilt I am working on. It's a lot of little pieces - mostly half square triangles made the old way. One at a time!

This is the Jo Morten quilt from July...I don't think I showed you a picture of it before.

Here are the three challenge projects from the August Jo Morton meeting. Docia gave us a charm pack of blue and brown Jo fabric to see what we could make. I make the scrappy squares quilt first, then the basket quilt, then the Grandma's flowers pin cushion. I just added sashing, background and borders and a little narrow border respectively'

I'm thinking not too much progress will be made next month either. This is getting to be a trend. I'm going to the Madison Quilt Show next week. Then Mike and I are going to Charlotte, NC and Charleston, SC for 10 days in September. Ben and Daniel are meeting us in Charleston for a weekend, the last weekend we will be in Charlotte with Daniel. Those should be some fun photos.  I owe the boys a beer!

It Won!

"Journey to Baltimore" won Second Place in the Hand Applique Wall Quilt division at

the Milwaukee Machine Quilting Show, August, 2011. It also received a "Teacher's

Award" from Karen McTavish who developed McTavishing as a form of background

filler. Dawn Larsen, who quilted Journey to Baltimore used this technique as fill

in the applique blocks. Congratulations to Dawn and Me!

Since this is the first time I won some money for one of my quilts, I told the boys I would take them all out for a beer when we're in Charleston. It's their prize for enduring all my years of quilting! Watch for that pic coming soon.

Quilt Room Challenge - August

OK, I didn't do so good on the quilt room challenge this month...not that I wasn't busy though. I was just busy making new things.

Here is Maggie's "Grandma's Flowers" that she got for her birthday. Along with the darling antique "refrigerator jar".

I've been working on a block of the month by Edyta Sitar...Sweet 16. Here are the first 5 blocks.

Here is the Jo Morton quilt for the month of September.

I'm also working on a queen sized, pieced quilt called "Atlanta". It will be for the bed in Ben's room when completed. Might take awhile though as it is made from highly pieced 5" blocks!

Mike's Flowers

Just had to show some pictures of Mike's hydrangeas.

They are absoloutely gorgeous this year. Some of

 the blossoms measure 10" across.

This geranium snuck in as it is beautiful too.

Click on each picture and it will pop up bigger on your screen.

Quilt Room Challenge June

During June I finished Marcia's quilt (pink and brown quilt pictured on bed). When we bought those quilt kits we each got one. My quilt top is finished and is on the quilting machine. It's about half done so I'm calling it good to show for the month of June. I also made the fall version of the little alphabet sampler...very cute. I actually put my Pfaff machine away which was no small feat as it goes in the closet that's in the corner behind the chair with everything piled in front of it.

Here is the quilt I made for Jo Morton for the June meeting. Very cute and versatile. I think the colors will work for a number of different seasons and holidays. It's looking good for the 4th of July!

This is kind of cheating posting this photo as this quilt was not made during June. However, it is the quilt that I am giving to Ben's friend Stu so I thought I would show you a picture of it. It's a nice "guy" quilt.

I'm working away like crazy on several more things. I seem to have alot of hand projects in the works. Check back next month and see where I'm at with everything.

Daniel's Birthday - Charlotte, NC

Celebrating Daniel's 22 birthday at Capital Grill in Charlotte, NC

Touring the Charlotte Motorcar Speedway

Charlotte Knights Baseball game for Father's Day

Quilt Room Challenge - Month 1

I have a couple of projects in the works that you'll have to wait and

see next month. Here is what I was able to make and

 "clean" out of the sewing room this month.

I made three Little Twister table toppers, the darling

 alphabet sampler and one Jo Morton Quilt.

I quilted three charity quilts for Project Linus.

And I put away a new pair of shoes (very cute aren't they) and a box of Barbie Doll things that for some unknown reason got pulled out from under the bed.

Sewing Room Challenge or No This is not a New Episode of Hoarders

I really am not hoarding anything; I just have a lot of great projects in the works. Here is the challenge: no projects in this room can be packed away or moved to another storage spot (of which there are several). All of these projects need to be completed in order to be moved. This room has to get cleaned up so the sewing machine has to heat up. Check back on the first of each month over the summer to see the progress I'm making.

Graduation Beer

The boys from 128 Kedzie get their own beer!

Ali's Quilt

Ali's graduation quilt is all done. The picture isn't too different from the first one I posted, but I took a close up of the center medallion so that you can see the quilting on it. I'm very happy with the flower motif as it matches with the white on white fabric in the center.

Ali's MSU Graduation quilts

Here is the quilt Daniel asked me to make for Ali for her May graduation from Michigan State University.

BALTIMORE ALBUM QUILT

Here is the finished top to my Baltimore Album quilt. So glad it's done. I will post another picture as soon as it is quilted.

NEW OFFICE AT WORK

Well, here it is...my new home away from home.

NIGHT OF THE STORM

DOESN'T THIS JUST EXPLAIN IT ALL!

BG SHOVELED OUT

Out and about town there is just a lot of snow everywhere! Snow falling off the roofs of buildings is evidently a problem as grocery carts block the way from walking under it. I almost got hit by falling ice leaving the dry cleaners. Ouch!