A little outdoors............

Yesterday morning I went for a walk through the back garden with my camera.  This is on a Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant.

Here is one on another Jack plant.  I have them coming up all over in the shadiest part of the garden.

Here are 2 little Carnation flowers with some more buds on the plant.  It has been dry for so long so I hope they can take the dry weather and not die yet.  With our really cool nights ahead this week I think a lot of plants will go into their autumn mode.

I came around to the front yard and saw there were enough nice zinnia blooms to pick a bouquet.

Say goodbye to this 22 year old carpeting with the ridges at the center as you are headed to the dining room.  Sunday 3 strong men in the family and my strong daughter-in-law came and moved all of the smaller furniture.  The guest bedroom is filled to the brim and some of it is in my sewing room.

Say goodbye to the huge rust stain created when one of the bleeders in the hot water heat system broke and flooded this part of the living room.  Notice how pink the carpeting is at the left?  It is taupe colored carpeting that turned pink under lots of the pieces of furniture and had a green cast  in other areas.  I am so happy to see it go.  New carpeting comes tomorrow.  I ordered it the Saturday before my health declined and I got the Pacemaker. 

I am restricted on the movement of my left arm and how much I can lift so I haven't tried to do anything in the studio yet.  I'm used to picking up heavy piles of fabric and I can't do that right now. The bandage comes off tonight so I'll know how it looks. I will wait until after my one week check up before I do any cutting.    

A look back 2016

This is one of my favorite colorwash wallhangings from 2016.  I like all of the ones I make but always have a few favorites.

This is my favorite large couch quilt from last year.  I quilted it on my regular sewing machine.  Here is the story on this one plus a look at the back.

This little quilt was a favorite from the time I started working on it.  I love the way the stars intermingle with each other.  It's story is on this post.

A look back........ 2015...............

I have 4 favorites from 2015.  This first one is the banner I was commissioned to make for a friend's church.  Here is a link to it installed at the church.

This is the first attempt at a colorwash with Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  I think it turned out pretty nice and I have been cutting squares to do a larger one next.

I really like this Wonky rainbow wallhanging too.  It was made mostly from strips already in the scrap bag.  I just had to special cut a few colors including the last one that sort of serves as a border.

This X and + quilt was the rage on the internet after someone posted a photo of a quilt in a show in Japan.  It does link back to a traditional block too.  I now have the die for the long diagonal corner piece in each block so I don't have to use the connector corner method if I make it again.  I really like this one and it is a nice couch quilt size.


Thanks everyone for the outpouring of love and good wishes yesterday.  It brought several of us to tears as we read all of them.  Last time I checked there were 93 messages of love from you readers of my blog.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart, the heart that almost stopped beating. 

My past few days..........

I was totally blindsided by the events of the past few days.  I ended up getting a pacemaker put in.  This is the same person who walked 55 minutes mowing grass 2 weeks ago with a push mower.  I was going downhill fast since last Saturday and this is why I couldn't get any quilt finishes in the last few days of last month.

I won't be answering any comments but do enjoy reading them.  Thanks for those who sent good wishes the last 2 days either silently, through comments or emails. 

I will do a couple more look-back posts in the next couple days.

Alert

I will not be posting for a few days.

August 2017 recap

Nothing was finished in August.  I did get a quilt basted but haven't had time to start the quilting.  I didn't even finish a quilt top.  Here are my only accomplishments. 4 little mug rug tops.

Lots of Hunter Star blocks made, more than are in this photo.

Pieces cut for another Australian fabric quilt.

I didn't take a photo of the finished preemie layette items but I finished 15 sets for our church project.

I did do some new planting in the back garden early in August but it has been so dry since then that I haven't done any more work out there.  Maybe September will be more productive.

A look back......2013

2013 was another year with lots of favorites.  I shipped quilts to NC again that spring to share a gallery show with 2 other artists.  I finished this Kaffe Fassett fabric Strips 'n Curves wallhanging and it sold during the show.

Another piece finished for that show is this second bright colorwash.  This was the first colorwash that I quilted in the ditch in both directions with a fine thread.  I liked it so well that I quilt most of them that way now.

This warm/cool contrast zig zag is another of my most pinned quilts on Pinterest.  I have never tired of making the zig zag layout as many have followed this one.

2013 was the year my 99 year old dad passed away.  I made several 16 patch quilts that summer to keep my sanity with all of the things going on.  This was my favorite and I called it "Peony Garden".  I don't intend to gift this one to anybody.  Here is Zinnia Garden and here is the African fabric 16 patch which I gifted to a nephew.  The Autumn Coneflower 16 patch was sold as a quilt top.  Here is a tutorial for making 16 patch quilts with every seam going in opposite directions at intersections as you sew the blocks together into a top.

A look back 2012........

2012 was a big year of many changes.  I did finish a lot of quilts because I had my solo show in a gallery in NC.  There is a video on my right sidebar with me talking about all of the quilts in the show.  It is hard to pick a favorite from that year so I picked the 3 top favorites.  This is Rainbow River, a quilt made with crazy pieced squares.  It was used as the mascot of the solo show on the postcards.

This piece was so under priced at the show that I was happy it didn't sell.  It hangs in the hallway to my bedrooms, visible from the living room.  This post shows some of the close quilting better.  I changed thread color many, many times in this quilt. 

I really love this colorwash made with regular quilting cottons in brighter colors.  My daughter owns this one now.  I finished 2 other colorwashes in 2012 and I love them too.

I didn't do anything in the studio after the art quilters left. Hopefully I'll get some more cutting done today on the Australian Hunter Star quilt.

Pieces for 20 blocks

After I finished the clean-up in the basement I pressed all of the quarter blocks for my Australian Hunter Star.  There are 20 sets here and I have 6 sets ready to cut and sew.  That means I need to find 4 more pairs to make 30 blocks.  That would come out to 66" x 72" which means it will be 4 1/2 stars across and 5 stars down.  I will have to see how that looks before I decide if that is the final size.

I have knit 15 dishcloths since the beginning of May.  I gave 3 to a granddaughter a week ago.  She got the ones that were parts of 2 different color skeins of yarn.  One is my kitchen already used, also a multi-color.

A look back 2011........finches are here........

It shouldn't come as any surprise that my favorite quilt from 2011 was my "H - I give it 5 Stars".  Here is a photo of it hanging in my dining room.  Here is a tutorial on making the H blocks.  I have had many people send me photos of their H quilts using my tutorial as a guide.  I also used the H blocks in this quilt.

As I walked by the kitchen window I noticed movement out by the coneflowers.  First there was a female finch there and by the time I got back with the camera it was the mail goldfinch.

He was really tearing apart the seed head.

I couldn't hold the camera still enough on the super zoom so this one is a tiny bit blurry.  All photos will enlarge if you click on them.