News from Texas

I am just home from another retirement trip to Texas. I got to deliver Olivia's bunny pillow gift to Aunt E. I think she likes it.

While I was there, Bradley turned 8, was baptised and confirmed AND dominated in a Little League game of baseball.

And then this was announced! Gabe is a coach at Lewisville High School (The Lew). Everything is big in Texas, including this 6A school.  

He has been coaching for 20 years and now has young coaches on the staff that he coached when they were in high school.  

 

Ready for sunshine!

 

My baby bed conversion.

This was a major undertaking for a girl with almost no woodworking or power tool experience but, I got it done!

This baby bed has been in my family since about 1945, serving 2 generations of babies (including my older cousins, me and my siblings and all of my children) before it was determined unsafe.

The last 20 years, it was in the quilt shop as a display for baby quilts. 

With these stencils and the slobbery finger patina, I could not throw it out and no one in the next generation had a place for it.

SO - - I took the baby bed apart and I purchased a large sturdy used coffee table from FB Marketplace. I primed and painted it. That was the easy part.

Then, after several trips to the hardware store, conferring with a couple of carpenter friends and watching multiply YouTube videos and googling questions ("Why do screws break?" - "What is an impact driver?" - "What is the difference between steel wood screws and brass wood screws?"), I attached the baby bed back rail and two ends to the painted coffee table.

I could go on  for a while about all of the things that went wrong but, as my favorite carpenter said, "Sometimes you just have to figure it out as you go." 

I would never want this craftsmanship to be judged but, I can say it is sturdy and level and I love it!

I purchased the two back pillows but, back in my comfort zone now, I covered a piece of foam for the cushion seat.

Olive thought it looked like the perfect place to take a break with her book. I agree.

Visit Adel this week!

 

February Temperature Block

 In case you didn't catch this on the FB Page, here is the most recent Temperature Quilt Block. The average high temp in central Iowa for February was 36 degrees.

I am now considering setting these blocks together in vertical rows by year. If I make the rows 12 blocks long x 10 years wide, that will make a really cool decade temperature chart.  But, then it again, that will take 10 years!

I think I will head that direction and see where it ends. Three years would be the right size for a bed runner, right?

The next generation - -

 8 year old Olivia recently came for a day of sewing. She wanted to make 6 little Easter pillows to give as gifts - - -  2 for grandmas, 2 for aunts, 1 for her mom and 1 for her to keep.

We started by stitching on the lines of a recipe card and she caught right on. She kept saying, "slow and steady -- focus".

Then she picked out fabric and I cut 4 1/2" squares which she stitched together on three sides. 

I used fusible web and cut out 2 bunnies for each little pillow, one for the back and one for the front. 

Olivia drew on the faces and stuffed each. I stitched the 4th seam to close our opening and hand stitched on a little tuft of fiberfil.

That best part was seeing how proud she was when finished. She wants to come 1 day a month now for more sewing classes.  I think I can fit that in.💕

Words of hope - - -

- - - - - after another snowy Iowa weekend- - - 

 

Sunday Funday

I didn't do much sewing today but did have fun watching the grandkids and their friends at church make and put together snack bags to distribute to local first responders including fireman, policeman, bus drivers and school cooks.

They dipped mint chocolate Oreos in white chocolate and garnished with green sprinkles - - - so many sprinkles.

They also made rice krispie bars and popcorn mix plus they had a variety of other donated cookies.

Then they bagged their treats and put a personal label on each.

It was impressive to watch them work together on a charitable project for their community with not one cookie snitched!

New backings just in!

 Shop for all of our backings online at shopadelquilting.com or call for an appointment to come see in person.  515-993-4115

String Piecing Class

This was my Sunday Sewday project this week. I'll be teaching this class in Adel, probably in early April. Let me know if you are interested.  

Class fee is $35 which includes the kit for the quilt center (no border or binding).

I'll also be teaching this class a little later on up in the Sac City area.

 

Catching up - - -

My January Temperature Block, based on the average high temp in central Iowa in January. 

And Flo shares this valentine sample runner in blues. Lovely!

 

Sunday Sewday!

Today, I finished up all my projects for the grandkids annual school gala and fundraiser.

---- a T-shirt quilt and accessories.

                                            Two tote bags - - - 

This bag has a bottle holder that can be used outside the bag or flipped to the inside.

I like to leave part of the neck band exposed, just for fun.

A couple wet bags.

The small one could hold an ice pack if using for a lunch bag.

And here are three burp clothes made from pre-folded diapers.

Show and Share time

 Lonnie has made 2 more quilt tops from her Jelly Roll quilt book! Just 2 more to go and she will have made every pattern in the book.  I love them all!

This one is mostly Kansas Troubles fabric. Lonnie says she still has KT fabric coming out her ears to which I suggested she visit with her Dr about.

This one is much more vibrant in person. Really beautiful.

My Valentine Date

 

Jackson was my date for Tootsie.  He's wearing a sling as he recovers from a snowboarding incident.

This popped up in my FB memories today from 10 years ago. One of us has gotten older and the other one has gotten taller!

Happy Valentines Day!

 

Isn't this sweet? I spied this one on the website Annie's Crafts where you can order patterns.

Texas Snow Day!

This is how you go to bed in Texas when you hear there is going to be snow overnight!

Sweet Valentine Runner

Friend Flo had been making Valentine table runners. Isn't this sweet?  I love the background fabric.

 

Sunday Sewday!

It feels SO good to be back in my sewing room - - - or in my new sewing room. 

I am making a t-shirt quilt for the Grandkids school fundraiser and it's always fun to make additional auction items from the leftover shirts.

These burp cloths will accompany a tote/diaper t-shirt bag.  Pre-folded diapers make such a nice soft base for the babies tender face to rest upon (or burp upon). 

My sewing rocker

Several years ago, I bought a little rocker with no seat. Formerly there had been a caned seat that someone had removed. 

This is not my chair but mine is very similar.

This antique rocking chair identifies as a ladies sewing rocker and is also known as a nursing rocker.  Common in the late 1800s and early1900s these chairs had two main characteristics:

• Built lower to the ground to fit a women’s stature
• Contained no armrests. 

This allowed the space for a woman to rock and nurse babies, or to sew, knit, etc…

But I digress - - At the time of purchase, my plan was to put it outside with a potted plant in the seat. By the time I got it home however, I decided it was too nice to put outside.  

SO it became a shop prop for many years with quilts hanging over it.  When needed, we put a 15" square ruler over the seat hole.

Now that I'm retired, I decided to look into a seat for this little chair. A link from Pinterest led me to step by step instructions for making a replacement seat from tooled faux leather (fiber board).

It comes unfinished in a 14" square. I stained it, made a template and trimmed it and then I applied a coat of  polyurethane.  

Again, these first few pictures are from Pinterest as I did not think to take pictures as I was working on this project.

This step was not easy but, as the instruction say, take it slow.

The last step is to use an awl to punch nail holes in the seat and then apply it to the chair with upholstery tacks. I completed this task with just one Band Aid and one bruise when I missed the tack with my rubber mallet.

This last picture is actually my finished project. Just as in quilting, I took my time, doing it one step at a time, and it worked out great - well, great if I am the judge.

Winter in Chicago

Phyl (left) shares her favorite view with visiting cousin from Texas. That's a radiator below them which adds to the ambience of the spot.

 

Temperature Quilt Blocks

I've been posting the temps and corresponding colors for the past couple months but had gotten behind on the actual stitching.  So, on this snowy January day in Iowa, I got caught up.

I plan to continue to make blocks for each month this year and then determine if it's time for a quilt or for another year of blocks. That's kinda how you define retirement, right?

Nooooopen Sew

 It saddens me to say but, we have decided to postpone Open Sew at the Adel Library indefinitely.  Maybe somewhere down the road, we will all feel comfortable gathering to stitch and chat again.  

Big sigh!!!

Let the fun begin - - -

 

Happy New Year!

A New Year’s Wish for Quilters

May your points always meet

May your thread never break

May your borders behave

And may inspiration never desert you

Lonnies Show and Share

 

Lonnie stopped in to show her recent creations. This is another from a book using just  2 1/2" strips. 

Just three more to go and she will have made each of the 25 quilt patterns in the book. Can't stop now! All of these quilts, except some background, are coming from her stash.

Lonnie also stitched along with the Primitive Gatherings weekly block patterns for American Gathering. She used the more primitive red, white and blue fabrics, again drawing from her own stash.

Beautiful.