May LaPetité

For this month’s LaPetité project, we were to use a free pattern (Yeah!!!) from the Moda Bake Shop website, Candy Bar Pinwheels.   I really liked this pattern and it went together easily.

In lieu of buying a “candy bar” set that I didn’t need, I used leftover fabrics from the February project.   Whew!  I *just* had enough!!  I had to buy some fabric for a border and considered not adding one but like the orange/bright fabric I found.   (Love the “south of the bypass” shop that has brights!  🙂  )

This one is all done!  Quilted, bound, and washed!  🙂   Hoping to take to K personally soon.  It is 26″ x 34″ and I put the hanging sleeve on a short side so it actually hangs the other way, not how I photographed it.

I barely had enough for the binding so cut 1 1/2″ strips and just used a single-fold binding.  Actually quite  nice to sew down without the extra bulk.  I like how the blue/aqua/green/pink binding fabric cools down the orange border.  The raspberry inner border is one of my hand dyes.

The LaPetité parades are posted at THIS website for 1/2 of us and THIS website for the others.

And in other quilting corners, I finished the April LaPetité binding while away for our anniversary.  I washed it Monday and now it hangs over the aquarium.  Whew!  Fresh & bright instead of the fall one that was there.  I SO don’t decorate well!

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Announcing….

My new business!

Mrs. So & So is open for quilting business!  I offer long-arm quilting as well as start-to-finish quilts.   In other words, I do the quilting for those who like to make quilt tops AND I make quilts for those who don’t quilt at all.

I’ve been busy with my beginning quilts and getting all the business needs lined up.  Now I am thrilled to introduce you to my business website:

Mrs. So & So

Click the link above to see my new site.  New posts will go up all weekend so keep checking in!

I hope you’ll be able to visit and include my new website in your blog reading.   Please send me an email or comment if I can help you with any of your quilting projects.

This blog will still remain and keep up with my family, our farm, and my personal quilting.   The new site will provide an avenue for my client’s quilts and for exposure and information for my business.

Phil & I have been thrilled to see God’s Hand in our preparations for this new business for me.  I am loving the work and look forward to a lot  more quilting!

As with any  new website, it is a work in progress.  I’ll be updating the gallery and adding more pages with information on having a quilt completed or made for you in the future.   For now, feel free to send me emails or call to discuss your next project.

If you are on Facebook, I hope you’ll find Mrs. So & So and like my page!

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Round Robins Wrap Up!

I never got an email out with the before & after for the quilt I had for the April Round Robin.   I can post now so this was what I got in March…

And this is how I returned it in April… The colors are a bit washed out… creams, tans, beige — those families with black.  Very striking!  This month’s rule was triangles.  I added large pieced triangles with triangles in the triangles.  🙂    I’m not sure it was a good idea to put the whole quilt on point at this juncture but I did it anyway.

In April I brought home this….

Well, I brought it home w/o the gray/blue border but I forgot to take a photo before adding what I thought was a filler border. I pieced a border to add and in the end didn’t need this filler border so removed it anyway!!  *sigh*

I returned this in May which was our last month of this project….

~~~

During refreshments at the May meeting, it was announced that the Round Robin quilts were on display in 2 classrooms at the end of the hall.  I was SO excited to go see them! And very glad they were laid out so we could see all of them and not just see a quick parade across the room.

Finally in the second room, I found my quilt! I barely recognized it but I LOVE IT!!

…

Hopefully, this will help you understand the Round Robin a bit better.  I submitted my choice of a center block, required to be 8″ finished size, in October.  Each month my quilt went home with someone else who followed a simple guideline for what to add for the next border.   For this round robin, each was asked to add a border to all 4 sides each month. We kept them hidden from the owners until the big reveal on Monday night.

I really like my quilt!  Right now I have it hanging in my long-arm studio and I’m trying to decide if I want to make it bigger or keep it this wallhanging size.  The jumbo green squares are dynamic around the center!   I like how Donna brought in brown fabrics.   I think it really added a new dimension to the whole quilt!  Mary L’s triangles are perfectly pieced and pressed – I wonder what method she uses.   And I love the pink scalloped border.  ♥

Here are some other completed tops that I worked on —

The first photo shows what I did as the last border and the photo on the right is the finished top from Monday night.

The first month - I added the red triangles and the checkerboard

I added the diamond border - this was quilter's choice month (anything BUT the before & after months).

This was appliqué month. I added the cream border and did the appliqué. (machine buttonhole stitch, pattern from Pat Sloan's site) I see I didn't get the whole finished top in my photo. The last border has fussy-cut blocks (like her center 4 - peacock feathers) in the corner squares.

I added the large pieced triangles to set the quilt on point.

I added the pieced Irish Chain in the last border.

Here are some of the other finished tops that I didn't work on.

This is the first time I’ve participated in a Round Robin.  I think that most of us loved what we got back.   It made all the sweating bullets moments while working on someone else’s quilt all worthwhile!   I hope I get to do this again.  It was fun and really taught me a lot and took me out of my box.

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May Quilt Guild

On Monday, I was part of the guild workshop.  It was just a 3 hour workshop and we ended up with so many wanting to attend that Diane offered to teach another class in the morning.  I was part of the morning workshop.  It was great fun as usual!

Details by Diane

Diane is very funny, a bit cutting at times, but we all had a blast.  Everyone needs a bit of time to play with fabric and laugh with girls!!  🙂

I made the iris wallhanging in the top center.  The other choice for the workshop was the sunflower.   Diane wore the queen’s crown, her husband had on a jester hat, and she had princess crowns for us.  Then I got in big trouble for not wearing mine as it gave me a headache!  In 3 minutes!  😦

They set up a wonderful display of her patterns that we could see during the workshop and for the program.

I just put these together in a page, not stitched photos but you get the idea.  My favorites are the Flower Boxes (top photo, 3rd from the right) and the Christmas horns (bottom photo 1st on the lower left) so I bought those patterns.  I also got the Welcome sign in a kit.

I had my project done by noon when class was to end so headed home.  I was NOT done with my round robin project for the month yet and it was due that night!  :gasp!!:   After lunch and unstitching much, I finished it at 2. Ha!

I returned at 6 to help distribute the raffle quilt kits, exchange charm squares, and return my round robin.  Diane gave the 7:00 program.

This is a beautiful Christmas hanging!

We showed our workshop projects (above).  Very hard to get a photo with a large group! This is only 1/2 of us!

Show & Tell included:

Kathy's Farmer's Wife quilt

Donna's quilt given to Pat (in peach) who quilted it.

Barb's Mittens (with glow-in-the-dark backing fabric!! 🙂 )

Next blog posts…. the Round Robin reveals!!  🙂

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Acquisitions

During and after the quilt show, we visited the vendors.   As I said it is a small show and a limited number of vendors.  Now that I got out my purchases,  I really didn’t get that much.

I should have gotten the other batik packs I liked, too!!   😉

The gold flower in the pot pattern is a brand-new company out of WI.  The lady invented this RagSpun idea and is now marketing it.  Her store is due to open this fall.  I love the look and thought this would be a quick little project to try.

I have several projects I’d love to make out of the books.   The cover quilts to start!  haha!!   The Friendships Strips & Stars book has a cute house wallhanging that I thought was cute.  Also there is a scrappy spool quilt!  🙂

The center bright fabrics make up to a wallhanging of the modern flower idea shown.   Since I bought the kit, I asked to take a photo of the sample in the booth as I loved the quilting they did.

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Sunday Quilt Show

I was thrilled to get to a quilt show on Sunday!  Even more fun to go with a quilting friend.  I’ll show you some of my favorites —

This art quilt had Miss K written all over it! This would be her style of quilting I think. Fabric flowers, wire work, beads!

I enjoy admiring wool appliqué but am not interested in doing it. This quilt won Viewer's Choice from the voters on Saturday.

Both Sue & I loved this quilt! I don't have a collection of black & whites but I think my hand-dyed fabric would make great accent pieces.

An art quilt following the show theme, "Memories of Mom". Stunning work and I loved the book with printed photos.

The colors, piecing, and quilting in the top quilt had me in love. The bottom 2 quilts are made from neckties! I want to do the black & white one. The other one is a great layout and use of the ties. I had no idea they were ties until I read the cards.

This was a great show – not too far away, great quilts, doable in a few hours, just enough vendors.   And speaking of vendors… shopping acquisitions are up next!  🙂

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Associate Degree

Saturday was JP’s graduation from our community college.   But the celebrating started on Thursday with his Honors Convocation.   Because of our late start with planting, Phil stayed home and continued with planting soybeans.   We took Grandma M along with us.

Just before we left, JP took this for me.  🙂

Heading in from the car….

I love this… tall & handsome… heading for honors… proud momma moment!

Not much of a crowd of supporters which surprised us.   JP was given (loaned) a gold stole for his membership in Phi Theta Kappa, an honor society for community college students.   Then he also received cords for his GPA.  I was a tad bummed it didn’t include this semester which seems to be better grades than previous ones.  However, we STILL don’t know.

Our hot, sunny weather ended Friday afternoon so at least the men didn’t feel guilty going to the graduation on Saturday.  It was moved inside which in this case was a good thing!  Saturday gave us cool & windy with drizzle on and off.   I was surprised the gym for graduation wasn’t that hot.  JP was in line of an open door so stayed cool.

Grandpa preferred chairs over the bleachers so we were near the graduates in row 3.   We could see everything pretty well on the stage.  However, the graduates walked across in front of the stage.  I had gone up to take photos but I’m not sure the others could see much.

JP stood with the Phi Theta Kappa group and his Honors group.

After graduation and surviving our exits through the mosh-pit, we got air and photos outside.

We celebrated with lunch at Culver’s!  We were home about an hour before he headed to church and played bass on the worship team all weekend.  Busy!

Next up for him —  he is taking off next year from school and working at a private electronics business nearby.   He will complete 2 classes this summer as well as his week at Worldview Academy if the instructor for the class then is flexible with the assignments.   He will also be back on Phil’s chore detail and continues to help with the planting.   He is available for computer installations, building, and repairs if you need help there!

We’ll work on college visits to find a place for him to complete his Bachelor degree later.

Not too bad for an 18 year old!  We are proud of his work so far!

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Nap

I’m going to take one, too!

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Outside My Window

A variety of visitors outside my kitchen window ~~

While Phil sat on the deck steps putting on his boots, we counted 7 blue jays in the trees around the yard!

I love the gold finches!  This was the end of this bag of feed. When I bought new bird food, I also bought a thistle seed sock.  That has been covered at times with gold finches.

And then the Grosbeaks arrived!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen these but JP has known the names of all our birds.  (He used to POUR over bird books when he was in grade school!)

Four grosbeaks at one time!!   They finished this feeder load and when I refilled it, the grosbeaks haven’t returned.  Not sure about that; I only touched the top screw & cover and the other birds are back.  ???

We get lots of purple finches…. so common, that I didn’t get their photo.

This has been my best year for birds at the feeder.  I usually hang a pot of flowers here in the summer.  I bought a hanging pot yesterday.  Now where do I put it?

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Sewing Classes 5 & 6

For the last 2 classes with my young girls, they made skirts.  This is Butterick pattern 4722.  We used view E for an elastic waist skirt with ruffle.   It dawned on me to make my example skirts for Miss E that came to visit the farm last fall while her “Poppa” was helping Phil.  I hope she is DEE-lighted with her skirts.   Her grandma said her favorite colors are red & blue.

My students were much more creative in their shopping endeavors!  And they said they had fun.  😉

A few students were challenged with gathering the ruffle and inserting the elastic so the last class took a bit longer.    I continue to wonder if the pattern was too much for them or we just needed more time.  I don’t know.  The girls were so excited to have made their skirts and had plans to wear them either to “show Grandma tonight” or wear them to church on Sunday.

I had such super students!  Great fun…. but tiring for all of us.  🙂

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