Getting tired of "strings".

I'm getting so tired of sewing strings together! This quilt was started with no real thought. It was just, " Oh, I like that picture....that will use up allot of my scraps...start cutting and sewing". Think I ignored the little spot that said the size was 80X90 something. What happened to my vow to stick to wall or laps sized quilts and forget about bed size. It was getting too wide for the design wall (should be blue on the right also) so down to the floor it went. Got some of the rows sewn together last night and I still like it though. It's the pesky red and white rectangular blocks that are giving me fits....the squares are easy. Now it is a challenge!!The 7 foot tall lily started to bloom this week. You can see there are 2 thin stalks. A bulb divided I think. Can't imagine that I'd plant 2 bulbs right next to each other.
This was the plant in 2007. The stalk was almost 1" square and there were 68 flowers!! I had to keep adding taller support stalks of bamboo. We have bamboo in the back yard that make wonderful supports for tall plants.
Hope it hasn't been too hot where you live. It has been hot here but I'm just enjoying the cool basement and the A/C and will keep sewing!

Hope you all had a nice 4th of July week end.

I did get the new wall hanging for the front porch finished last week....with 3 days to spare!!

We had a pretty quiet week end. Friday friends from the southern part of the state were here for lunch. Haven't seen them in a year so we had allot of catching up to do. Saturday morning the AC went back on as the temperature started heading up. It was just nice to stay inside. The heat index was 97 degrees. I know, I know, those of you who live where it is really hot are just chuckling at that!

Well, it was nice and cool in the basement so I started cutting strings for a new quilt. I really don't like working with scraps. It is so much nicer starting with new large even pieces. S0

why do I save every scrap then??? What a mess I have. One of these days I want to cut the all the scraps into strings or squares. I also want to write names behind all the old photos!!!! Some of my friends think I'm really organized.......if they only knew of the mad rush to get the basement cleaned up before they come over.
The pattern for this quilt is in the April/May issue of Quilter's Home.There is supposed to be a row of blue blocks around the outside. Not sure if I'll do that since that makes an 80X96 quilt
The birds love to take a bath and then fly to one of the bamboo stakes and shake off the water.The feeder is to the right of this area so there is allot of bird traffic here....a nice view from the kitchen window.


There have been major prayers going on amongst our church family and friends. A dear friend had her 5th thyroid surgery in 11 years. Surgery went fine on Monday (14th) and she came home on Thursday. Friday she went to our local hospital with breathing problems and within hours she was on a respirator. She had a massive infection. Sunday she was airlifted back to University Hospital. Here it is 3 weeks after surgery. Sedation was stopped a few days ago so she can wake up. It is going so slow and she can't lift her arms or legs yet. Today was the first time that she was lifted out of the bed to a chair to help her lungs drain. Her husband , son and sister-in-law have been with her constantly, either one of them or all three. When she is awake all the way and can talk her friends will kick in with trips to the other side of the state to visit. We understand that when she is in rehab it usually takes 3 days of rehab for every day in the hospital. Hope she can be moved to some place more local. If anyone reading this is a praying person she still needs many prayers! Thank you.

I LOVE Lilies!!

Yes, I do. There are so many varieties and they are so easy to grow. I love the ones with a strong fragrance. They bother some people but not me! They last a long time on the stalk and a long time as cut flowers. The burgundy lilies were the first to bloom and I neglected to get photos. We had a few bad storms with wind and rain and they got pretty much beat up. These 6 are blooming today. You probably can still see the water drops from another rain this morning. We're not having to spend much on sprinkling this year!!




And here is the Hydrangea that I treated to some lime. In a couple days the flowers were turning blue. Actually the photo doesn't show how blue they really are. The little guy on the fence post oversees the flowers along the fence!
I'm working on a red/white/blue wall hanging to hang on the front porch. Better hurry or the 4th will have come and gone! I did have a r/w/b out for Memorial Day but took it down right away. It has seen too much sun from other years and looks pretty dingy.

My first "modern quilt"!

I've been reading about the modern quilt movement. I'm not real sure what it all means but I think this fits into that category. While looking for ideas for a quilt for a shower gift I ran across a picture of one of AmandaJean's quilts (crazymomquilts.blogspot.com). She called it a modern quilt and the June/July issue of Quilter's Home also talks about modern. Well, Amanda's quilt was even the colors I was going to use! Here it is washed and dried 3 whole days before the shower.The quilt was fun to make...easy to cut and piece. I've never done an overall straight line quilting before. There are some wobbles but I'm not going to take out the stitches!

This has kept me busy the last few days. Now back to weeding!

Flowers in my yard.

But first the picture I took last night just before starting to machine quilt this quilt. I'm 3/4th of the way finished. It has to be finished by the 19th so I'm feelin' good that there won't have to be a last minute rush to finish!Soren was over this morning and we got 2 hours of work in before a hard rain fell. We have a sassafras in our back yard. The poor thing has been trying for years to grow "lots" of baby sassafras trees. I pull them out every spring but got behind this year so Soren did it for me. He also edged the driveway.

With all the rain we've had the slugs and sow bugs have demolished the petunias in the ground. They are working on the basil too. I've sprayed so hope that will help. The lilacs opened to really hot weather so picking time was very short. The various kinds of iris opened just before I went to WI and a rain storm beat them down. But all the lilies are looking good....these are the first to open.
The hydrangia bushes are loaded. This was a blue plant when I got it and I want blue again so better get some proper fertilizer!
Drawf dalhia.

Begonia hanging thing. I know there is a certain name!

Drawf marigold. I wanted big marigolds and giant zinnias but haven't found any.

Tuberous begonia. Don't you just love that color?

The foxglove has been blooming for 2 weeks.
Back to sewing!!

I've given up trying Sashiko quilting!

Almost 2 years ago I pieced a top like this for a friend. Since most of the fabric was a Japanese style I thought I'd quilt the black with Sashiko quilting. Bad idea. I didn't do any research...just jumped in. What a struggle! I used too heavy floss and it was so hard to pull through the fabric. My hand would cramp up after a few minutes. Finally last month I really looked at it and thought,"I don't like this at all". Thank goodness there was still plenty of fabric in my stash so this is the second one. There is just a simple machine quilting. Hope Deb will like it.The backing is pieced with various Japanese style fabrics.

This is the Sashiko. See how it overwhelms the beautiful delicate fabric

This is what I'm working on this week.
Anja was in a dance recital yesterday. We went thinking it was just a couple dozen little girls in their tutu's. When we drove into the parking lot at the high school the lot was full. The auditorium was packed. Wow. It was a "big" recital, little ones aged 2 up to adults!! The program was 1 1/2 hours and was very nice. This is Anja and her daddy.
I had trouble with "blogger" last night. This was finally posted and then part was left out. Never had blogger problems before. Whenever there have been problems it has always been of my making!!!

Back to sewing...1/5 sewed!

I LOVE Milwaukee...part 2

Until this past weekend Milwaukee was just a city to get through on our way to Minnesota. We'd take the Lake Express ferry from Muskegon to Milwaukee, drive off the ferry and head to MN. We always got out of the city fine but had a hard time finding the ferry on our way home. Seem like there was always construction. If instructions said to go "up over", "turn", or "under the highway" there was a barricade. The first time we stopped 7 times to ask for directions. The people kind of knew that the ferry docked just a couple miles away but had no idea how to get there. So...that is what I knew about Milwaukee...just some place to get out of. My opinion has changed!!

This is Janet, Anne and Mary Jane at Molly Cool's on Friday. Anne was a wonderful tour guide and it was so much fun to do the touristy stuff with her. Thanks so much Anne for all the driving.
Anne picked us up before 10 Saturday morning and we went to the marvelous Milwaukee Art Museum. Those wings open and close a couple times a day.
This is the view from the inside looking up.
Looking out the windows onto Lake MI.
Looking down the looong corridor to what I suppose is the older part. That is where we saw the Winterthur Collection of American quilts from the 1700 to 1800's. I'm always amazed at the beautiful work accomplished without the benefit of trifocals and Ott lights! My favorites were the whole cloth quilts and some smaller ones with heavy embroidery. Many pieced quilts were made of silk. Sorry-no photos allowed.
Then a stroll through several galleries on our way to view the "Woman with Veil" by Raphael. Beautiful. There were many people viewing the painting so it was hard to get too close.

A stop at the gift shop is always a must but not even a post card did I buy. I keep reminding myself that we're downsizing here. The gift shop by the quilt display had many beautiful quilting books but I kept the "downsizing" thought in my brain. I did see some "imported quilts at a very low price. It reminded me of the controversy some years ago about the Metropolitan Art Museum selling cheaply made quilts from China.

A quick stop for tea before we drove a short distance to the Children's Discovery center. A 3 masted schooner arrived at noon. The sails were down by time we saw it.

Anne's husband met us for a late lunch-early dinner at Mader's, a German restaurant. The dinner salad was huge and delicious with hot bacon dressing.
This was my sauerbraten. Again, delicious, but such a large portion that I couldn't eat it all
A huge chair everyone is supposed to try out. Felt like Lily Tomlin!!
The Mader.
After eating we went next door to a spice shop. Here I opened my purse. Downsizing doesn't affect eatables does it? Then on to the sausage shop. Think we were all too full of German food to even consider buying sausage. Then to the cheese shop where we weakened. Anne offered to keep any purchases in her refrigerator over night. Of course we needed to buy squeaky cheese, caraway cheese and garlic dill cheese. Then on to other shops. Mary Jane saw a large beautiful bowl that she was seriously considering buying. I thought she was just kidding...well no she wasn't. I spoiled her fun by pointing out some extra zero's she hadn't noticed!!!

The hotel had a nice area out side for sitting. We spent time there visiting with Anne, had pizza Saturday evening and breakfast Sunday morning. Anne picked us up and brought us back to the ferry. She had all the cheese we bought. She had been so worried that she'd forget it.

The wind was too strong on the trip home to spend time up on top of the ferry but inside the ride was smooth.

Almost to shore!!
What a wonderful trip we had. MJ has taken her mom and I out for a Mother's Day lunch for quite a few years. She certainly outdid herself this year!! Thanks so much.