Where Did January Go?

During the dark, short, windy, days of January I did very little quiltmaking. The obsessive, compulsive Granny finally got around to sorting and organizing my bedroom/sewing studio, and office. There was so much stuff piled everywhere that it made me tired just living with it, and I sure don't want my kids to have to do something with this mess when I'm no longer able, so I have sorted, boxed, thrown away, and hauled trunk loads to Goodwill.

Some of the business files in storage boxes were old enough to be thrown in the dumpster(they took up a lot of space) and previous year files have been put into plastic tubs that can be stored in the backyard storage shed, until they can be disposed of in future years; multitudes of books have gone to Goodwill for someone else to enjoy [it is so hard for me to give away books but too much is too much], and many trashbags of clothing, that I no longer wear, have gone to the thrift shop. I even sorted out a lot of old fabrics, from my Mom's sewing days, that I probably won't use for quilts [hopefully some lady out there will be overjoyed to discover them].

A very large portion of boxes that were taking up needed space consisted of memorabilia from Joe's family. I actually found more photos, more than 100 years old, that I don't remember ever seeing before. Some of these were scanned for use in family history books and most of the photos and small pieces like funeral cards, wedding and baby announcements [individual, not in the same envelopes], and graduation invitations will be placed in more albums. Joe's mom, fraternal grandmother and great-grandmother were all savers of these family momentos and I am fortunate in finding tons [I've always exaggerated] of material for the family histories, after sorting thru tons [doesn't seem like exaggeration, it has taken me 20 years] of junk to find the treasures.

And then, of course, as I find more old family photos I am drawn to Adam Dell (my computer) to do more genealogical research, and when I get started making finds I am drawn to spend more and more time researching. It must be similar to the way those old prospectors with their burros felt, but instead of a burro I have Adam to accompany my travels. Joe and I are planning to take a trip to Harlen County, Nebraska this spring to search out distant cousins, old homes, and headstones in tiny cemetaries in small farming towns. If any Vansyocs, Perkins, Ransdells, Burkes, or Clausens from that area read this, please e-mail me.

I've also finished tops for crib quilts for the two new great-grandsons which I now will send to a machine quilter, since I've determined that I enjoy making the quiltops, but not quilting them. In addition I have made a resolution to get my WIPs (UFOs?) quilted because I am not able to rest easily with them calling and sobbing from their storage places (in my bedroom). I also have some ideas rolling around in my mind for new pieces, but I feel guilty to start them with so many WIPS (um UFOs).

Quilt tops from top to bottom:

GGS Brendan's "Water Creatures"

GGS Adam's "Noah's Ark"

GS Alex's "Nine Patch Animals"

GS Shaun's "Mythical Horses"

Daughter Michal Ann's "Waterlilies Bargello"

Mom Evy's "Family Album"

TQS Legend of the Year 2008

I just saw The Quilt Show webcast of their Legend of the Year Jinny Beyer and am overwhelmed!

Her gorgeous home, her gardens, her shop, her quilting history, and most of all her color theory are something that every quilter should see for both the visual impact and the educational impact! Her short demonstration on the use of color in quilts is invaluable. This is a show that I will watch over and over to let it soak in deeply.

I have been a member of Alex Anderson and Ricky Timms' webcast from day one and it has been very helpful to me; especially since I haven't felt like going out to quiltshows or workshops much in the past year. Here in my home I've been able to learn from some of the top quilters when it is convenient for me.

If you are a member, you need to watch this webcast. If you are not, it is worth your time and subscription price, just to see this one show.*

[*I really am not receiving any compensation for this endorsement; and no animals were endangered in the creating of this blog post.]

Prayer for our Country

(My Mom and daughter, Michal Ann with the flag quilts I made for them after 9/11.

Given the grave concerns of those of us who are citizens of the USA, I decided to share this e-mail message from my cousin, Liz, in Albuquerque. Let us join together on what we can agree on, and not fight over what we do not agree on. The greatness of this country is that we are allowed to disagree and dialogue. Dialogue works only when we don't go for the jugular.

“In the upcoming days before the election, we are bombarded by all sorts of messages. The Prayer Committee of First Presbyterian Church , Longview, has printed an excellent way for all of us to get through this time. Prayer.”

[This was originally set up to start on October 19, but we can prayer these prayers between now and the election.]

Monday _ “Pray that the Lord will empower and enable the man of His choice in any area of weakness_II Corinthians 12:9”

Tuesday_ “Pray that the Lord will search the heart of our future president and purge him from all self-seeking motives_Psalm 139:23-24”

Wednesday_”Pray that God’s choice for our president will listen with discernment, seek knowledge, and receive wise counsel_Provers 1:5-6”

Thursday_”Pray that the man of God’s choice will be given wisdom and ability from the Lord to overcome any obstacle or difficulty_John 16:33”

Friday_”Pray for repentance for yourself and for our nation, and that God will hear our prayers_James 1:5”

Saturday_”Pray that the Lord’s choice for president will have special strength and unusual ability from God_Philippians 4:13”

Sunday_”Pray that the Lord will do something that will utterly amaze us and give His servant victory_Habakkuk 1:5, 3:2”

“Remember II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.””

My Quilt/Our History AAQ Contest Quilts Website

Be sure and check out the new website for the Alliance for American Quilts (AAQ) that has a show of all the small quilts from the "My Quilt/Our History" contest that are going to be auctioned off on eBay soon. I fell in love with some of the quilts and especially with the stories of the quilters.



It is especially exciting to see a quilt that we all know well from watching our sister blogger, Allie Aller, create it earlier this year, "The Home in the Garden" , on the front page as the 1st prize winner!

Fall Activities

Fall has gotten serious this weekend, in 40s and rain yesterday (brrr), and warmer (70) today with strong winds and it gets almost to freezing at night. I went out yesterday afternoon and picked all the ripe and ready tomatoes, squash, peppers, and tomatillas and then covered the plants with old blankets and afghans because I was afraid it would frost; but it didn't. It probably will tonight, so I left the covers on (forecast says 40s again the next two days). It will warm up again in a few days and I can still have veggies for a while until a killing freeze occurs.

Since I have so much zucchini, I picked up several aluminum foil loaf pans and tonight I made 2 loaves of zucchini bread. I planned to make a lot at one time, but found I didn't have enough eggs, so I'll do the big batch later. I can give some away and freeze some for later. I have enough Tomatillas to try making a big batch of Green Salsa, if there is enough I will can some. Can Salsa be frozen, does anyone know?

I also picked up a batch of this year's Jonathon Apples (my favorite) and will make a pie for us and one for Amber's family. The only time I make pie is during the short Jonathon season each fall. I love being able to buy apples that were grown by one of my distant neighbors. I see that the Corn Maze and Punkin Field is open again this year, but the girl that is earning her college tuition, so I hope we can go and enjoy again before Halloween.

Amber and her 13 year old sister, Makayla, spent Thursday night with us, while their parents attended parent/teacher conferences and had dinner out by themselves. Makayla was excited to tell me that she helped tie a quilt at school that day. She watched me sewing on baby Brendan's crib quilt and asked if she could learn to do that. So she picked out some pretty 5 inch squares of rose designs and coordinated fabrics and learned to sew a nine-patch, which we stuffed and made into a pillow for her. She did quite well sewing on the machine for the first time. The white shawl on the back of the chair is one I crocheted several years ago. She was talking longingly about Amber's black shawl, so I pulled this one out of the closet and gave it to her. I think she liked it because she wore it the rest of the evening and the next day until I returned her to her mom.

Last Saturday night was the Homecoming Dance at Florence High School. Amber and her friends didn't want to pair up, so they decided to go as a group and dance and visit with each other. She bought a new dress with her Burger King paycheck and Joe and I took her and her friends, Bre and Brendan out for dinner and then dropped them off at the school to meet the rest of the gang. Luckily, we were not the ones that had to pick them up and take them home after the dance. Amber is on the right, she won't smile because she doesn't want her braces shown on a photo. She really is having a good time and they are laughing all the time when the camera is not aimed at her.

I love having the young people around, whether birth or adopted grandchildren. Without them I would be completely out of touch with what is going on in the culture these days; they teach me about cell phone usage, music, and current slang. I try to pass on a little knowledge about the history I've seen or read, and the music, movies and books that I think they need to know about. I try to give them a foundation and they try to keep me young.

New Great Grandson

Our grandson, Brian and his wife, Tabi, have blessed up with our fourth great grandchild.

Meet Brendan Raymond Thomas ... all 8 pounds and 2 ounces of him, shown here with his proud father. Sorry, this photo e-mailed to us by his grandmother, our daughter Lori, is not very clear. But we know he is adorable and brilliant, and all the things our grandchildren are.

I am working on a crib quilt for him in cute, bright fabrics with fish, frogs, turtles, bugs, and ducks on them. It will be large 9 patches to show off the fabrics. I hope I can find more of the yellow for lattice, borders and backing. These were all fat quarters that I had in my stash. Mandy has offered to help me with the machine sewing so it will be a joint effort.

I can't wait to see and hold little Brendan.

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Miraculous! We have had rain and cool temps for three, count them, three days in a row. It has drizzled, thundered, lightninged, and/or downpoured on top of the monsoon rains that we received last week. After the hot, miserably dry spring and summer we've had, this is fantastic! No more dust, shriveled and burned vegetation, not to mention dehydrated skin and hair. The world looks washed, and sparkley. No more red flag fire warning days with smoke hazing the sky. And even though the prairie never greened up in the spring, we now see a shade of green spreading over the hills and gullies; and when the 90 degree temps return later in the week, I am sure the green prairie grass will leap out of the moist earth.


The prairie grasses and flowers have adapted to our hot, dry climate by going into "hibernation"
(actually, animals hibernate and plants do something else, but I can't come up with the proper word at this particular time) during our periodic droughts, ready to spring back into life when the moisture finally returns. The average moisture received here is 12 inches a year, so you can imagine how dry it gets during a drought year. Prairie species have to be tough!


My garden is refreshed and so am I. I even went out during one of the brief dry spells in the early afternoon, fed the birds, and pulled some gigantic weeds that were trying to take over the herb garden, until Joe shooed me back indoors before I could wear myself out. Noone can pull just one! Those deep roots pull out of the moist soil so easily and satisfactorilly (I'm not sure that's really a word, but I tend to like speaking colloquially, even if I have to invent the colloquialisms.)

We are enjoying the vegetables from our garden, they taste good as well as looking good. I chopped up zuchinni, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, garlic from the garden with purchased onion, and made my version of Ratatouille; grated cucumbers into herb flavored yoghurt; and sprinkled celery salt onto juicy sliced tomatoes for meals this weak. Home grown tomatoes actually taste like tomatoes and, as Joe puts it, they don't crunch when you bite them, like what they sell as tomatoes at the grocery stores.



I actually started sewing the new retro curtains for our vintage camper/trailer this evening and found some light and dark turquoise towel sets, while shopping this afternoon, that go with the curtain fabric perfectly. When I sat down at the sewing machine, I was even able to remember how to use the poor neglected thing.


I'm also contemplating making a quilt for my bed using the bundle of Moda's Prairie Paisley fabrics that I purchased from Grandma's Attic Quilting. Since I love both paisley (Persian Pickles) and the prairie, I was intrigued from the time I read that they were coming out with the Prairie Paisley patterns and was overjoyed, when I saw the photos of the fabrics, to find that they were in the shades of blue that I adore. I am very fond of the blue English country floral comforter I've had for ages, but it is beginning to show signs of use by me and my cats. I'm afraid that one more trip to the laundry will shred it.

The Wisdom of Mary Englebreit

I have to share some great sayings that have graced my Mary Englebreit calendar (without which I cannot live) recently.

“In order to have a real relationship
With our creativity,
We must take the time
And care to cultivate it.”
-Julia Cameron

“The cure for boredom
Is curiosity.
There is no cure
For curiosity.”
- Ellen Parr

The photo I chose to illustrate these great sentiments is one sent to me by my virtual quilt buddy from Woodland Park, Colorado. This is such a cute picture of her machine quilting (up to her neck) her Moda University quilt. The blocks on the design wall behind her are for a Happy Trails quilt for her husband. I am so proud of her wonderful quilts and I love this photo of Karla which shows her beautiful face and spirit.

A New Year

The past year I wasn't able to accomplish the goals I had set for myself in quilting or in health and fitness. I was doing pretty well until I ended up in the hospital in July, then when I was getting going again, my Dad had a heart attack and passed away.


2007 Goals accomplished:

_Strippy Solar Quilt for a child in the Quilt Studio 40 Quilts Challenge

_8 monthly quilts done for the12 x12 x12 Challenge (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Oct)

_Pieced top for Sean's Mythical Horses Quilt (see photo)

_13 of the 39 blocks finished (26 made in 2006) for the Women of the Bible quilt

_7 blocks of the Praying the Names of Jesus quilt



We are blessed in that we are constantly being given a new chance, and with this new year I am setting goals again, both in quilting and in health and fitness. I find that without goals that have definite daily tasks to accomplish, it is too easy to drift along and not get anything significant done.

Healthwise, it is essential for me to take off weight and to strengthen my muscles with aerobic exercise and stretching. My goal is to take off 50 pounds in 2008. In order to visualize this, I bought a 4 pound package of lard; that is the amount I will need to take off each month to reach my goal. Can you imagine how big a chunk of lard I'd have with 12 of these lumped together!?

In order to accomplish this goal I will need to stick to a healthy and doable eating plan as well as exercising at Curves 3 times a week and walking on the other days.







My quilting goals are:

_Finish 4 UFOs, Mike's Bargello, Mom's Album, Alex's Depression Toys, and Sean's Mythical Horses quilts; they all need to be assembled and quilted, either by me or sent out to a professional quilter.

_Finish the December 12 x 12 Challenge block.

_I will learn to do free motion quilting with the new sewing machine foot I bought earlier this year and haven't removed from it's bag.

_I will piece the top of Carl's antique airplane quilt from the Depression Era reproduction fabrics I've collected. I need to figure out how to do the layout on EQ5.

_I will finish the 10 remaining blocks of the Women of the Bible Quilt and assemble the top.

_I will finish the 20 remaining blocks of the Praying the Names of Jesus Quilt and assemble the top.


_I will make a block a week (30 total) for the Quilting the Names of God online study group.

_I will make one small experimental landscape quilt each month, as my own Challenge for this year.


As a gesture of good faith, I actually finished the first Quilting the Names of God block this week as we were studying it. The first name is from the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis, God, Mighty Creator. The block is Light and Dark done in black, white and gold fabrics from a collection of fat quarters with gold touches (see photo) that I found at the Creative Cloth Closet in Canon City. I wanted to get an effect similar to the William Blake painting of The Ancient of Days.

What a Day

I fell in love with a piece of art made from recycled materials in the Pueblo Chieftain this morning. A
Pueblo Community College student art show was to be on display on the Pueblo campus today. Due to other commitments I couldn't see it in person but I really like the photo. I might decide to do something similar to display on the wall of the garage/shop that faces my kitchen and dining room windows.

It was such a lovely tawney, blue sky day that I decided to drive to the High Country Quilts shop in Colorado Springs to see if I could get a free motion foot for my Bernette 75. (The Bernina shop recently merged with this quilt shop, which is my favorite in the Springs.) Learning to do free motion quilting was one of my goals for this year and it's already mid November and I haven't, but the July 12 x 12 piece is demanding free motion quilting to reach it's potential, so... It turned out that they didn't have one in stock but they are ordering one for me, so it will still be a while before I can post my July quilt.

While there I discovered something I wish I had found several months ago. I have been using hexagons in the 12 x 12s this year and just finished cutting out 81 small hexagons for the November 12 x 12. I had one plastic 5 inch hexagon template from which I have extrapolated various sizes of templates from thin template plastic, but these do not work with a rotary cutter. Fabric hexagons take a lot of time to cut with scissors and are not very uniform, which makes it difficult to fit them together well.
I bought a Mercury Hexagon Template which can be used to rotary cut hexagons, from strips of fabric, up to 8 1/2 inches. How much simpler and more precise than my old method! I knew there had to be a better way. Why couldn't I think of this? I am so pleased because I was just wishing I had an 8 inch template for a series of larger quilts that I am planning for next year.

This ruler can also be used for making diamonds, 60 degree triangles, and trapezoids (half- hexagons).

I also ordered a book on making locker hooked rugs from quilt remnants, a locker hook tool, rug canvas and string. These rugs and mats have the primitive farm house look I love and I'll tell you more about it when the book gets here and I can experiment with it. I'm so happy that these hooks are large enough that I can do this with my arthritic hands and it is something I can do while watching TV in the evenings with Joe. I've been wanting some new rugs, and have lots of scraps and remnants. It is dangerous to go to a quilt shop or show!

To top off the day, I got a cell phone call from daughter Kat, with the "1812 Overture" playing loudly in the background. This is one of my favorites, and she wanted to tell me that my 18 year old grandson, Ben, had burned a CD of several pieces of classical music and was playing it. It hasn't been long since he was teasing me about the "boring" classical music station that I listen to. He thought they sounded like the guy who does the Visine ad on TV. I told him that young people like noise and excitement while old people crave peace and serenity. Of course, now that I think about it, the "1812 Overture" isn't either peaceful or serene, is it? But it is not peaceful in a different manner than hard metal music (music?).

Driving home in the twilight over the foothills of the Pikes Peak Massif, I got a fantastic view of the Arkansas River Valley backed by the Wet Mountains with the Sangre de Christo range looming in the back on the skyline. It made me think of "the Wall Around the World" from the Darkover series by Marian Zimmer Bradley that I've read many times in the past 35 years.

Mr. C's Restaurant, in Penrose 6 miles down the road from us, where we had our wedding dinner 23 years ago, is closing tomorrow after 30 years in business. It's time for Frank to retire and do some traveling in Europe with his wife. Joe has worked on nearly every piece of equipment in the place for the last 20 years, so Joe and I had dinner there tonight to give Frank our best wishes. I asked the waitress if I could buy our cute cactus margarita glasses as a souvenir and when Frank heard about it he came out and gave them to us so we could remember him when we have a drink from time to time. We will sure miss Frank and his Matadors (a fried burrito type Mexican dish smothered in green chili).

It was a good day! And I even got a yard of bright colored frog fabric.

New Starts

It seems appropriate to me that the Jewish New Year is celebrated in September; it has always seemed to me that September was the start of the new year instead of January. I suppose it was because of school starting and the relief of cooler weather after the exhausting heat of summer. Here's to new starts for all of us.

We spent the Labor Day weekend in Denver (actually Wheatridge) at my oldest daughter, Michal Ann's home. She had her new deck, overlooking the back yard and facing the Rocky Mountains, constructed but not sealed yet. It was a vast improvement over the old rickety and splintery one. It was so great to visit with family and watch the grandchildren and great grandchildren play, as well as snuggling our new great grandson, Shaun. It is a blessing that he is such a good baby, who allows Lindsay and Derek to get 5 hours of unbroken sleep at night. 5 year old sister Kaylee is very proud of him.

It was a special treat for me and my farmer father to get the grand tour of Lindsay's and Derek's veggie garden and punkin patch. This is their first garden on their nearly acre lot, that was the home place of the original homestead in this area of Wheatridge in the days when it was still an agricultural community, rather than a contiguous suburb of Denver. For beginner's their garden was impressive. I am so thrilled and excited that this love of growing things is passing on down in the family. Look at the cantaloupes in their own little pantyhose hammocks. Derek liked my heirloom Little Yellow Pear and Green Zebra Tomatoes so much that he wants me to save seeds for him to plant next summer.

I'm also amazed that my daughter, Kat (Mandy's mom), has been bitten by the quiltmaking bug. She has hand stitched all her nine-patch blocks together and is in the process of adding the borders and talking about getting fabric to start another quilt. She is hoping to take some lessons at the quilt shop in the neighboring community of Strasburg. She loves to hand stitch while watching TV with the family in the evenings. I had thought that the love of quilting had jumped a generation but am pleased that one of my daughters is now into quilting as well as my granddaughter.

The veggie garden was full of goodies ready to pick when we got home from Denver. We had so many tomatoes that I took some to the gals at the doctor's office when I went in for an appointment this week. A big portion of the joy of gardening is having enough to share with others. [Tigger just jumped up onto the keyboard and typed some gibberish so I had to put him back down on the floor and do some editing.] Those round yellow things in back are the lemon cucumbers.

Now that I have completed the Women of the Bible study, I have started a Praying the Names of Jesus study and quilt group online. We are using Ann Spangler's book, "Praying the Names of Jesus" as our daily guide. The leaders of the Yahoo group are the Canadian woman who led my WOTB4 group and one of the U. S. women who was also a member of that group and they have chosen wonderful blocks to represent the names. While I've been doing the daily studies, I didn't get around to making any of the blocks until today. I had purchased a group of gorgeous, rich patterned fat quarters at the Creative Cloth Closet that I thought would be good for these blocks and last week found a couple of cream on cream fabrics to go with them. This evening I was able to cut out, fuse and stitch this weeks block, Morning Star, for the name, Bright Morning Star. I'm only 12 blocks behind, but I will get caught up, hopefully soon.

WIP Wednesday

I almost forgot that this was Wednesday; I've had doctor's appointments all week and haven't had time to do much. Luckily, I'm getting good news on my condition except that I've gained 10 pounds back of the 35 pounds I lost last year; so I'm back on my eat healthy and exercise regimen as soon as my ankle can stand using the machines at Curves. Why is it so hard to continue shedding weight and exercising when it makes me feel so much better? Too many years of managing my feelings with food rather than a more positive way.

Here is a photo of my work table as it looks this evening. I'm piecing another WOTB block and assembling my December Journal Quilt. This JQ is built around a block designed and sewn by Granddaughter, Mandy, from pieces out of the scrap basket; the quilting heritage passing on to the next generation. Mandy was pleased to allow me to use her block in my fabric book. I want to get this completed and posted soon so I can then concentrate on Christmas.

I've been corresponding with Debra and Beth about making one of the children's quilts for the 40 Quilt Service Project. Beth is sending some great striped sky designs fabric to make a Strippy Nine Patch quilt. I am delighted to be involved with this project to make quilts for many deserving people in 2007. Quilters have such big hearts!

WIP Wednesday

Here is what I am working on today. I've got all but the last two borders on this Bargello for my oldest daughter. I guess I'm going to try to machine quilt it myself. I am fairly inexperienced with machine quilting and not very good but the only way I'll improve is by doing it. Darn! I admire good quilting so much that I wish I could do it better and enjoy doing it instead of feeling like I'm going to have a root canal.

I chose these fabric colors to resemble one of Monet's waterlily paintings since Michal is very fond of them. I enjoyed sewing the strips together even though it was slow and required precision; it seems almost like magic to me the way all the seams snuggle up to each other when pinned and sewn. It's so satisfying after pressing the seams to see how all the corners match and make the design. The narrowest strips are only one quarter inch wide when sewn.

I've always enjoyed doing needlepoint bargello also. It's a pattern I like. I once considered stitching bargello upholstery for a wing back chair but luckily my sanity came back before I attempted it. A homemaker with cats should not put so much effort into her upholstery.

I'm also doing a lot of ruminating on what I want to put together for the November Journal Quilt. I'd like to figure out an attractive way to use some bits and pieces I like but wasn't able to use in previous JQs.

I'm also incubating the idea for a series of four quilts, based on the seasons, using the nature photos I've been taking printed on cotton, similar to the September JQ, Granny's Flower Garden,
only larger. This will take over a year to complete because I want to use seasonal photographs, many of which I have yet to take. I have a good size collection of Autumn photos and it is all I can do to forget everything else and jump into this, but I have promises to keep.

I'm taking a class on making a floral embellishment tomorrow at the Creative Cloth Closet in Canon City. I hope I'll have a nice creation to share when I get finished. The sample in the shop really caught my eye.