My class made quilts

We made the newspaper, too! We made charity quilts and hand tied them. Believe me, it was a labor of love, and not easy, but the kids were so proud of themselves. Read about it and check out the photos, too. It's amazing what quilters can do when we work together. :o)

Marylhurst University

Yesterday, I went to research and tour Marylhurst University, and made my mind up to apply. I even turned in the first part of the application.
The vast majority of the students are both part-time and non-traditional, so I think I'll fit right in.

some sewing machines are home again :o)

I've had a tough time getting all the way through our class' quilting unit. The very last lesson was showing them how to add french fold binding onto our quilted hot pads.

Last week, when I was teaching my students how to quilt, I has just terrible luck. First, my Pfaff stopped working. OK, not a big deal...I grabbed my Janome Jem. Well, that stopped working. Different issues, but still, it wouldn't sew. OK, it's much heavier, but we're doing the last of the class and we wanted to get finished, so I brought the Bernina to class. It worked for about 15 minutes and then it, too died. 3 sewing machines, 3 different issues. I bundled them all into the car to go to the sewing machine "hospital" and drug out my very first, original, New Home machine. That baby, probably made in the 1950s, finished the last of our quilts up and ran as smoothly as you could imagine. Yay! for good old mechanical machines!
The New Home is almost ready to go back into it's case. The Pfaff and the Janome are home safely and the Bernina is still waiting for a hook. Not that I *need* it, but it should be home within a week or so. At least I didn't have to even think about using the treadle machine. There's no way that I could've drug it to school to show the kids how to attach binding. :o)

No pics today

It's been awhile, so I figured I'd just put some words here to let you all know what I'm doing.
Everybody is healthy, Rick is out hunting, this college term is about half over, so I'm thinking that Paddy and Jack are sighing a bit in relief. I know I am. My math class is kicking my butt, but I think I'm winning. I really hope that this is my last math class in college. No guarantees, but a girl can hope, can't she? :o)
Today, I did no math homework nor any quilting. :o( Instead, I defrosted the regular fridge, the little fridge and the freezer. Then I cleaned out the fridge, roasted a leg of lamb that I found in the freezer and am in the process of making a double batch of pear butter.
My roof was leaking into my sewing room, but I got up on the ladder and raked all the maple leaves out of the valley and yay! No more leak. I would've asked Rick, but he's gone elk hunting this week.
At work (a special education high school class), we are having a unit on quilting. We are making quilts for charity and also hot pads for the kids. "Little quilts". 2 of my sewing machines are now in need of some TLC. They won't work at school. Maybe they'll do better at home. If not, I have 3 machines ready to go to the sewing machine doctor... and one of them is my favorite "use it for everything" machine. I love to quilt, but I am so ready for our quilting class to be done. Have you ever tried to teach a pre-schooler or grade-schooler how to quilt? Well, that's us, times 12. We do have 7 quilts ready to go to the school police officer, so that will be exciting.
OK, that's enough for tonight. I've got homework to do tomorrow, so I need to get some rest so that my brain will work tomorrow.
Hugs to everyone and I hope your roof doesn't leak in this beautiful fall weather.

My new Pincushions

I was in a pincushion swap recently and here are my newest ones. In the front row are my little goodies from Jo in Texas, Liz in California and Angela in Indiana. The 2 little anime' cats in the top row are what I made to swap. Aren't they all so cute?!

The last of my salsa garden

We got way too many tomatoes, these 4 tiny peppers and zero onions. Aren't they pretty?
It was a fun first attempt at gardening.

American Doll patterns

Since I have granddaughters, I'm thinking ahead...maybe too far ahead, but someday, they may like American Girl dolls...or at least the knock-offs. Do any of you have these dolls? Do you make clothes for them? If you're interested, there are free doll clothes patterns at A G Playthings and they are nice. They are by American Girl, but the patterns are retired now. And did I mention that they are FREE? :o) I like the idea of American Girl much more than Barbie and the clothes are easier for me to make. Go check it out.

Is it really the end of summer?

It's getting cold enough that I'm thinking of kickin' on the furnace, the leaves are starting to turn colors and fall off the trees and I'm wearing a sweatshirt. Then, why do I want an ice cream cone so badly?!? LOL In just a little bit, I'm going to take my nephew with me to the store so that we can choose out our favorite ice cream, and maybe even splurge on a box of waffle cones. Can you say "Yum!!!"? Yeah, I thought so. :o)

Frugality strikes again.

I am making a bag. So far, this is what I've got done. I took a bunch of leftover flannel scraps from my quilt backings and cut them into 3/4" strips and have used them liked yarn to knit this. It should be done in another week or so. I totally love being able to make stuff from "nothing". That's what lured me to quilting in the first place...making something out of "nothing".

First day of school and a wedding

Ben & Wren all dressed up for their first day of school. They started Head Start, but there will be a change soon. Next week, they get to go to the daycare/preschool at the university that Paddy attends. They are looking pretty grown up.

Here is a photo of the wedding procession. If you want to see more wedding pictures, they are on my webshots page:
http://community.webshots.com/user/quiltinggirl
It was a fun and interesting wedding, but the bride and groom are very happy.

Some of my summer activities

No matter what I'm doing, I always bring a hat and sunglasses.

This summer we went camping, to the coast and the Oregon State Fair and for drives in the mountains. We also went to a baby shower, a couple of weddings, for walks in the park and to the High Desert Museum. Here are some pictures so you can share in our summer of discovery.

Rose hips growing in the park. They are full of Vitamin C and are very popular to use in making tea. Rick loves them, I'd prefer more sugar. They might be healthy, but they don't taste yummy.

This next picture is poison oak. Rick knows what it looks like even if there's one scraggly little twig.

Since I am not allergic, I don't even notice it. I'm learning to so that I don't get any oils on Rick.

Just a plain ole' teasel, but I think they look cool. Fortunately, I've never had to use one for a hairbrush, but at least they are out there, if we're ever in that type of survival situation.

Here is part of the Willamette River, a slough in the back of the park.

Filberts, aka Wild Hazelnuts. Yum! I think they are even better before they are roasted.

An old fire truck from the High Desert museum. Jamie took all the photos there. He loves using the digital camera.

Here is a river otter. They sure are able to swim fast.

The inside of a covered wagon, or maybe a camp/chuck wagon.

This little chipmunk was stalking Jamie. He finally got it to hold still enough for a photo op.

Niece Megan, is holding her cousin Harley Rae. Oh, and the parents *loved* the Harley pillow.

Jeremiah and Vanessa holding their wedding quilts.

Jamie, at the beach wedding of his brother. He'll be 13 next month.

Bag #1 that I made from a polyester-y sheet, with some fancy machine stitching. This one is filled with 2 wedding quilts.

Bag #2. I needed a huge bag and by making it, it was free. This one is holding a baby quilt, baby donkey, outfit and one full-size pillow (with fancy pillowcase).

We always like to see some sort of animals at the fair. Baby cows are cute, aren't they?

Of course, I had to look at the quilts.

This is one seriously cool quilt!

Check it out! A Harley made of Legos. Sweet!

And Oregon is celebrating its sesquecentennial...150 years of statehood. Happy Birthday, Oregon.

I still have to post more, but it's time to get dinner ready. This is enough for now, to give you a wee taste of Oregon, for the last month.

Deadlines area good thing...Really. :o)

If I didn't have deadlines, I'm not sure these quilts would be done and ready to go for the Saturday celebrations. But first.....

Grandpa was playing with the camera and the little ones wanted him to take their pictures.

Here is a gorgeous one of Ben. Such a ham and so happy.

And here's one of Wren, just four and a half, but looking so much older and so pretty. Beautiful and loveable grandkids. Right?

Well, here's the real picture of them. LOL Yep, this is the "real" Wren & Ben, and now you know why they have the little nickname of the Dynamic Duo.

This is for my nephew's baby girl, Harley. I already showed you the pillow, and now, this quilt is done. "Bunnies and Butterflies" seems just right for a baby girl. These blocks are from a swap I did with one of my on-line groups Back Porch Friends. They're all in 30's fabrics and WOW. I love it that I had enough butterfly blocks for 2 rows and I think thecolors set off the bright butterflies nicely.

I made matching couch for another nephew and his wife for their wedding this coming Saturday. One is lightweight and has a pink backing. The other has, for it's batting, an old fuzzy, polyester blanket, and a brown flannel backing, so it's nice and warm. On the front, though, they are almost twins. I used the Stack the Deck pattern by Karla Alexander. Teh fabrics came from a birthday club FQ swap. The theme was pink and brown. I think they look gorgeous together (that's why I kept the scraps and made the sewing machine cover and hot pads that I already blogged about).

The top one in the winter-weight, while the bottom one is the summer-weight one.

Now, I need to go and sew up a couple of gift bags. I don't want to go and spend $5+ on a disposable bag, when I can repurpose an old sheet and make the 2 that I need. OK, time to get off the computer and get back to work. If I can get everything done today, tomorrow, just my husband and I (and our cameras) will go people watch at the Oregon State Fair.

making gifts galore

Here is a photo of me (not so flattering) that my little grandson took. He's so proud that he can take pictures with my camera. For being 3, he did pretty good.

I'm working on the baby quilt for my nephew's new baby girl, Harley. It's bunnies and butterflies.

Here is the pillow I'm making for her daddy, my nephew, Michael. You always seem to need an extra pillow when you have a baby, for propping and blocking so they won't roll over, so this one is mostly for jokes at the family reunion/baby shower. Michael said that he'd like to name the baby Harley, if it was a girl, because that's probably the only Harley he'll ever get.

And here's the backing. (I ride a Harley, but I sure don't look like that. I wish!)

Here is the Double Delight quilt I made for my sister-in-law Bonnie. I love the little pieces and the tricky intersections, but I think she'll love the pink more than me. She seems to like it just fine. :o)

A leftover block makes a perfect label.

I'm making 2 pink & brown quilts right now, for 2 different weddings and I used the Stack the Deck pattern. I made the blocks and then used some of the scraps to make a border. After the quilt tops were all finished , I still had scraps, so I made a sewing machine cover for my little travel machine-a Janome Jem 720. I don't usually like pink, but I'm kinda' growing into it...a little. I was in a birthday FQ swap and the theme was pink and brown. I wasn't sure what I'd do with it, but when the 2 weddings came up, and one bride used pink for a color scheme, and the other bride used brown, I knew these colors would be a hit.

And I love having a little something for me to know that these fabrics were from my birthday.

Here's the back.

Here's the little hole I made so that the handle can be accessible, with a flap to keep the dust out.

And the beautiful fron, with 2 pockets, and 2 pockets on the ends. Kinda' cute, huh? Oh, and I had still more scraps, so I made some of them into hotpads. These will be for a sister-in-law. She's a single mom of identical 8-year-old twin boys. She used to be a serious girly-girl, so I think she can use a little pink pick-me-up.

And that's what I've been doing lately. I'm still working on Harley's baby quilt, but I'm not done sewing the binding down, so that will have to wait for another day.

new glasses

Yesterday and today was the glasses shopping

experience. Finally, we figured out how to get good glasses with insurance covering everything. Buy the frames at one store (or online), and take them to Costco and order the lenses. Super frames, great optics and reimbursement coming from the insurance company. Rick and I were so due for glasses. Now, I just gotta'

wait.

My new glasses.

charity blocks

I've been collecting charity blocks and making charity quilts for awhile now. When the blocks are all the same size, it's easy to put together a quilt, but when they are very different sizes, getting it together is a bit more challenging. With the blocks and strips that people in my on-line groups have sent, I took all my bits and pieces, and sewed them into 12" blocks. Here are the final results. We have a total of 72 blocks, divided into 4 quilts. Can you spot something that you (once upon a time) sent in? Doesn't it feel good to know that, finally, within a month, these should be real, finished quilts that will be warming a child out there, somewhere? To all of you that donated, thank you for making this possible. Onto the blocks...

This one is for either a boy or a girl.

This one is gor a girl.

This one looks like it would be good for a boy.

And this is just for a little kid, boy or girl.

Through all of this, I've decided that coping strips are an amazing thing. :o)