Is there a mouse in the house?

My husband puts on a large Showcase tournament for high school athletes to showcase their talents to colleges. I do the Hospitality table (i.e., free food) for all the coaches and our staff of about 60. It's being held this weekend and so I started baking all the brownies yesterday (32 dozen). Well, I went to bed last night with all the pans on the counter and when I got up there was a piece of mail in the middle of one of the pans?? That was odd, so I picked it up and look what I found! What a creative mouse we have!

On a quilty note....here is my Shoo, Plaid Fly quilt done! I used my Baptist Fan template on the HQ16 and was quite pleased with how it turned out! I'm giving this to my brother and his wife.

The Story of Grandma's quilts

The quilt on the right is a quilt top supposedly made by my grandmother (there seems to be some confusion on some of the tops she owned--they could have been her sister's and now they all have passed away and no one really knows). It doesn't matter that much because my grandmother is the one who gave it to me. Okay, I had to twist her arm--HARD!! And don't laugh, it's true! I sweet talked her, played the guilty hand, everything to make her give it up to me! LOL I had learned to hand quilt (the start of my quilting career actually) and my mother gave me a quilt top that was my grandmother's so I could practice, because certainly it wasn't that nice of a quilt. Well, I got it done and it looked great. See?I brought it out to her when paying a visit (she lived in CO and I live in OH). I asked if she had any more quilt tops and she said, "Yes, but I promised them to Mona". I asked her if Mona, my cousin, quilted? No, but Mona was to get ALL the quilts and ALL the tops because she promised them to her. Well, I did the adult thing and pouted and whined and cried, trying to convince her that she should give ME the tops because "I quilt". ;) I left her house that day with only partial Sunbonnet Sue blocks and a few odds and ends. I was bummed. When I arrived to my aunts house, she said Grandma had called and if I really wanted those tops, I could have them. I turned right around and drove back and got them! They aren't valuable in the piecing of the tops (which turned out to be quite the problem to quilt--and my Amish friend ended up quilting it for me--another long story LOL) but they were hers and that's what I cared about. Whew--was that a story or what??? Cut away from 1989 or so to the present......

I meet up with my cousin Mona after 27 years. She was JUST starting to get into the quilting thing and I told her the story about Grandma. And she was shocked! Not only did she not get all the quilts--she wasn't promised them either. Too funny. She did have a few, but not all that Grandma owned. Where are they now? Well, Mona found a few more in her Mom's storage unit and so graciously gave me the Glorified Nine Patch quilt top on the left. I went ahead and had my Amish friend quilt that for me too. And I didn't have to even beg Mona for any! LOL What a great find that has been--rediscovering my cousin. :)

A few of the finished quilts

"Candy is Dandy" I made this quilt with a friend. (well, we each made our own, but together) We both had been collecting Kaffe Fassett fabrics and I tend to go for the warm colors and she goes for the cool colors. To make the block, you make a strip set that is 10 1/2" square--then cut it in half diagonally and swap the triangles with another strip set. So we each made the blocks we needed and then swapped one half of the triangles with one another. We ended up with a huge variety of fabrics.
Close up of the quilting. It took me almost a year to get up the nerve to freehand motion quilt this without doing more loopy loops or stippling. I practiced on the borders, where semi-following the flowers got me into a rhythym and I continued inside the quilt. I'm tickled with how it turned out.
Omigosh--this was an OLD quilt! "Quilt Friends Row by Row" I swapped the rows with my internet quilt group (Nancy is part of that group) in 2000!!! I had it put together and partially quilted and then never knew how to finish the rest. I don't like an allover stipple on every quilt. But couldn't think of anything else. Well, I decided this was the time to finish it...and man, have I improved on my quilting since then!! LOL Oh well, it's done and THAT is a good thing!
"Looking into the Windows of Kaffe" My first challenge to myself to use up all my FQ's--this was number one. I don't have close ups of the quilting--it's just okay. But again..it's done!!
"Coneflower" My own design. Well, actually I saw the background pattern somewhere and thought it 'needed' something. So I added the outline of a coneflower using bias binding (the fusible kind). Again, it was another quilt just waiting for me to get the nerve to do 'something different'. I took a few long arm classes last year and really liked the look of the 'onion slice' for a background. I finally did it and I love the way it looks. I created my own design for the last pieced border--a half of a daisy--flip flopped back and forth and somewhat interlocking. I took a close up of it and it doesn't really show. So you'll have to trust me. LOL

this and that...

Lots of goings on around here..so much that I'll have to break it into chunks of news/photos. First, wanted to share a picture of a plate I made several years ago when I hosted one of our quilt group's retreat. I had photo copied a picture of an antique block, shrunk the size and decoupaged it onto the reverse side of a glass plate. And then I decoupaged a doily (paper) over that....kind of fun to serve the quilt group dessert on these plates when I'm the hostess.

Today was FINALLY the day that I have been working towards ALL summer...finishing quilt tops......making samples.........painting...etc. I host a bi-annual Quilt Show that features my latest quilts, my students quilts and my quilter friends quilts. I'll share photos of the day in a later post. But I wanted to share a picture of my granddaughter who proudly had her quilt in the "Quilt Show in the Woods". She was all excited. When she arrived, she ran around the yard looking for it. We live in a wooded setting and it's perfect for hanging quilts among the trees. My hubby put eye hooks in the trees and then hung rope from tree to tree. He had to make quite a few support posts--because quilts are heavy! LOL More on the quilt show later....

Summer Garden

Nope--don't have one except one lone tomato plant. I'm referring to a quilt I designed a few years ago to teach people how to do prairie points. Most of the time the prairie points are on the outside of the quilt and applied AFTER the quilting is done--kind of hard to teach a class like that! LOL So I made a quilt that had them on the interior of the quilt. I just taught this class again last week..so thought I would share.

Speaking of tomatoes...I was searching for a good tomato/basil/mozzarella salad and I think I was on Judy's blog to start and somehow ended up on Libby's blog--and she had the MOST delicious recipe for Tomato Basil pie EVER!!! My husband can't get enough of it--I've made it 3 times in the last week and he wasn't too happy when we had company and had to SHARE it! LOL

The Fruits of Summer

Ahh--don't ya love summer and all it's sweet, fresh produce? I sure do...I'm thoroughly enjoying going down the road a few miles and picking up sweet corn and tomatoes that were picked that morning. And the watermelon this year has been the BEST! And of course, I had to share the fruits of some of my efforts..a watermelon quilt. Actually, it was done a couple of years ago...but I'm not quite ready to show what I've been working on all summer. But be prepared..I've been busy! Finishing lots of quilt tops, finishing quilts (some have been hanging around for 7 years, waiting to be quilted!),making class samples, painting my studio, cleaning, reorganizing, purging and whew! I'm tired.

Right or Left Brained?

While searching for something else today..I came across this..and found it quite fun and interesting..try it..it's a bit harder than you think..I found myself hestitating all the time! Say the words out loud!


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