Happy Halloween!

Well, it's a Happy Halloween for my quilting daughter Vanessa! Her top is finished! Vanessa designed and executed (good word for Halloween right?) the top all herself.

Some of the blocks are from the pattern crazy eights, the applique ones are designs she drew and gave to me to execute. ;-) I'm thinking of quilting some BIG black Spider webs with spiders in the larger orange pieces that she used for spacers.

So we are going to do the sandwiching and pinning tonight.

This would be my least favorite part of quilting. I much much prefer to send a top, a backing and some batting to my favorite cousin and have her do all the putzy lining up work.

But, I should be able to manage this quilt on my regular machine. (what


am I? nuts?) And not give her any more work right now. If we lived closer I would take it


right to her and then offer to hold the baby and cook supper so she could quilt it for me. Of course we all know who would get the better end of that deal!
As you can see Vanessa is all ready to wrap up in her new quilt, it will be perfect to cuddle under when watching scary Halloween movies~


Today was flu shot day and I'm not sure if that is a trick or a treat.

Oh anyway- HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!

No School today!

My youngest daughter and quilting partner had a school vacation today. Unfortunately I had to work, and her dad is working nights, which means sleeping during the day, which, sadly, interferes with our sewing time (Our sewing room is just across the hall from the bedroom.)
Nice run on sentence wasn't it?
Well, genius' that they both are, daddy brought Vanessa's sewing machine, the ironing board, and cutting board downstairs to the dining room so she could sew!





This is what I found when I came home from work~ She got 23 scrappy 9 patches done for her next quilt!





She is going to do the disappearing 9 patch for this one. I love that she is as into quilting as I am!!
Life is Good!

Ta Da

What fun this has been! I got the binding on the baby quilt tonight and yes there is a label on the back. It's not a prize winning label, but it'll do! ;-) Now if I could just steal away and wrap the baby in it myself I would be the happiest quilter in WI and CO!

I had so much fun collecting fabric and figuring out what to do with it for this quilt. And luckily there are left overs so I can do something else too! I just love the red and pink together in these fabrics. So cheerful! Next up is helping my daughter finish up her Halloween quilt~ Pictures soooooooooon!

Much progress!

Yesterday I got to work on the baby quilt some more and I got the little border on and the outer border on, and the quilting done! I will need to go back to the quilt shop for some more of the red to bind it with, because it just looks to me like that is what it really needs. I am loving these 30's repro fabrics, and I never used to like them at all! My cousin says the baby is just a sweet little bundle and so pink and cuddly. So I with her red hair I feel like this quilt is perfect since it's both pink and red.

Today I spent some time brushing and taking care of various pets. The bunny really needed his little toenails trimmed, and the dog had about 81 burrs in his tail. Then I spent some time sitting in the sun with all of them. The dog doesn't show up in this picture because he always has to be right next to me. You would think with three leashes they might get a bit tangled up but they don't. They DO get wound around the chair legs though. And of course, I started picturing a quilt with their leashes going all over it.

PROGRESS!!!!!!

At last I am making progress!!! AND, I have batteries in my camera so I can show it!

First I have to show off these GORGEOUS towels that my Flori-friend made JUST FOR ME! As you can see she is really having fun with her new embroidery machine, and she is GOOD at it! I love love love these towels!!! The pretty apple fabric is some that she picked up in New York City for me! How cool is that? I have imported fabric! I think it will be the highlight of the apple quilt I've been planning for years...........

Next I have the progress on the new baby quilt! I am having so much fun with this! I collected reproductions all during my cousins pregnancy, so I would have a nice assortment to play with. I kept changing my mind on the blocks, and finally decided on these chimney stone ones with snowballs in between them. First I tried using the pink print as the alternate blocks but it looked waaaaaaaaaaay too busy, then I tried just white, which looked really pretty, but not very practical as a baby quilt. I like how this looks. I'm going to do a narrow border of the red print, and then a wider border of the pink with more of the chimneystone blocks as cornerstones. The pink has red flowers in it, and it looks so neat next to the red.

As you can see from this closer shot, I seem to have enough blocks for a king size baby quilt! Fortunately I do not see this as a problem! I plan to whip together a couple more baby quilts to have on hand, and play around with whatever is left. The baking dish is full of 1 inch four patches........... I know I know WHAT was I thinking??? ;-)

It's a girl!

IT'S A GIRL

I was going to do the whole post in pink in honor of my favorite cousins new little baby girl but it's too hard to read!

She arrived on Oct 11, all healthy and red hair and dimples. Not that I get to see first hand, sigh. But mommy called to let me know. I soooo wish that Wisconsin and Colorado were next to each other~ With apologies to anyone living in the states between us, I would like to get rid of those areas so that we could be closer.

Now I need to know what is seriously wrong with me - (Flori and Leigh, you be quiet!) I did not get her baby quilt done yet! As you can see from the picture it's not even cut out yet! I have never been this slow before! I have excuses, but really that is all they are. I mean so what there were colorguard flags and band uniforms and purses for the shop- there are always things like that! And it's not like I am not excited about this little cutie pie, because I REALLY REALLY am! She is even partly named for me!

I wonder if I was afraid to cut into the fabrics. Maybe it was fear of cutting?

Well, tomorrow I am going to whip out that rotary cutter and get my buns moving!~ That is just all there is to it!

More paintings

Thank you all for the nice comments, and the lovely emails. I got some requests for more paintings so here is part of my gallery. ;-)












This one is rather large, it takes up most of one wall in our bedroom. I love painting BIG! ;-)




Also large, this is my first abstract. I would tell you what it started as, but then that is all you would see, instead of whatever it brings into your own mind..........








These are my jaunt into some portraits. I also have a couple more nudes, one that was actually commissioned (yeah me!) but I wasn't sure if that would go over too big online. Some people are funny about that, and used to make comments when they saw them at our house. I guess maybe there is no age limit on immaturity?




I haven't gotten much done on the quilting front lately. I am in the process of working on 3 quilted purses that were ordered. When they are finished there will be pictures- I promise! Fall has come to

Wisconsin! Earlier in the week it was hot and humid with record highs of 87° and today we are just breaking 40°. Long time Wisconsinites always say, "if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes".

Time flies

Oh my gosh, suddenly time has speeded up incredibly and I can't think where it's all going! I thought things would settle down with school starting. Wrong! Everything is on hyperdrive here. I can't believe it's already been two weeks since I went on retreat and blogged about it. Well, as promised, here are the art pictures. They are oil pastel and watercolors.

This one was to get my hands wet so to speak. I always have to do a mountain for my favorite cousin~

I was just sort of wandering around in my mind on this one. glad it wasn't scary!!!! ;-)

Calm, water views, I love living so close to Lake Michigan, it's like driving past a living watercolor every single day.

Feeling a little fun here, I was thinking of how my kitty curls up in a circle to nap and this is what she would look like if she was a quilt. As always I am hoping no one reading this is a psychiatrist!!!