A Remote Country Mansion Night

It's been a busy week and I'm grateful for the weekend. So much for empty nest syndrome - I spent a lot of time with both of my kids this week, my son twice. They might as well be home. Both my son and daughter needed groceries and other things  - sometimes only a mom's help will suffice. The trip to visit the one living in Chicago was relatively easy. There's a Trader Joe's store near where he lives and I do love driving into the city to see him. Piece of cake. Sure, okay, I threw in a nice lunch too, what the heck. I'm so glad he's going to school and living nearby for a change.

Helping the other one took a little longer, LOL. On a whim, I drove up to Wisconsin early Saturday to vist my daughter at college. It was almost like old times -  we had lunch, shopped the mall for new shoes and a dress she needed for a special occasion and laughed a lot. I almost wasn't going to go because it's a several hour drive and with only a few weeks until Spring break I knew I'd see her soon anyway. But there was a little wistfulness in her voice when we talked earlier in the week and I knew the trip would do us both some good. I drew the line at bringing the dog along this time, however.

It was a lot of driving for me in one day and when I came home last night I flopped onto the sofa, flipped some channels and then noticed that Pride & Prejudice was on, the movie from 2005, with Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfayden as Mr Darcy.

It's not my favorite version - I much prefer the 1995 BBC mini-series with Colin Firth.

But the  movie with Keira Knightly is the one my daughter adores and we've watched it together many times. It reminded me of her and, after leaving her yesterday, I ended up feeling a little wistful myself.

I've decided that we both love watching movies that feature remote country mansions. We would like to live in one as a matter of fact, LOL. Watching Masterpiece on Sunday nights on PBS was one of our special times. You can hardly watch that show without seeing some remote country mansion every week. Tonight I'm looking forward to seeing the last episode of Season 2 of Downton Abbey. I hear a Season 3 is in the works. Yippee!

If you haven't seen any of the episodes, HURRY! They're still available on PBS online until March. Might be good idea to try to find and watch Season One first, though. It is that good. More wistfulness -  my daughter and I watched Season One together last year and loved every scintillating minute. I sure do miss her! This time I'll be watching  alone. In the imaginary drawing room of our imaginary remote country mansion.

Will Matthew and Mary finally get together?? Did Mr Bates kill his wife?  I'm tuning in right now to find out . . . . .

Happy Valentine's Day

I thought about working on finishing that little Valentine's Day quilt I started last year but you know how it goes . . . Sometimes  I work feverishly on several projects at once, make the tops and then put them away and nothing gets done, LOL. I remember that some of you actually made this quilt. Let's just say you are doing way better than I am -  See the post from last year with directions to make the blocks.

I took it out this morning. Yep - it's still cute. I really should finish it . . .

Well, at least I got it layered and ready to quilt.  Now that I look at it again I really, really want to finsh it but I have lunch plans with friends today and dinner later with my honey. I know if I put it aside it will still be unfinished this time next year.

Or maybe I should work on this one instead - Gotta finish 'em all!

My new Sewline quilt marking pen arrived.  I waited until today to show it  to you because it's  - RED, LOL. Friends in Iowa told me about this pencil with ceramic lead and I can't wait to try it. Apparently it's not new and many of you use it too. I'm always a little behind on the gadgets thing . . . I bought the one with white lead but I hear there are other colors too. Supposedly it washes out after you quilt your quilt.

So far it seems to work . . . I'll let you know if I actually finish a quilt, LOL.

My stencil collection, ready and waiting.

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On a sad note - This has always been one of my favorite songs. Last night I caught some of the movie on TV, which I hadn't seen in years. Listening to the song this time really brought tears to my eyes.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cabin Fever

What's the best way to get over those cabin fever winter blues? Why, quilt those blues away, of course. Every quilter knows that. I just got back from teaching at the Cabin Fever quilt retreat in Waterloo, Iowa. Such a fun time! Everyone I met was so wonderful and welcoming. I got to reunite with some friends I met the last time I was in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and also meet some new quilting friends. AND see the Civil War  Commemorative Quilt Exhibit, which I will talk about more later this week.

The drive from my home in Illinois to Iowa was strange - dense patches of fog almost all the way. Luckily, we left late in the morning and arrived before nighttime. Lots of fog pictures, I know, but it was all so eerie I couldn't resist showing you.

You couldn't see anything on either side of the road at times. Then the sun would come out and it would be fine.

Crossing the Great Mississippi River

I'm not fond of bridges . . .

Setting up.

 

Choosing your fabric and playing around with color is sometimes the best part of beginning a project and we left plenty of time for that.

 

Unlike a class, a retreat is good for working on other projects too. Carolyn brought along her pile of little house blocks.

Karan made this cute little pincushion and thread catcher for Shelly.

Karan made one for me when I was sick last year. 

And now a thread catcher too. Thanks, Karan!

Sheri brought her Dear-Jane-in-progress. Only a few more rows left and then she'll get to the triangles.

Karan made this quilt for her granddaughter from Jo Morton's Peppermint Twist pattern.

Beautiful, isn't it?

I gave a presentation after Show & Tell on Friday evening.

I knew you'd like to see this Schoolhouse quilt (from my Prairie Children book) that Marge made for her mother. In the center is a photo of the actual school her mother attended as a child.

The retreat was a great chance to make some headway on other projects too. Karan is also working on a lovely quilt from another Jo Morton pattern. Love that border print!

Chris brought in a few antique doll quilts to show me.

You don't see many appliqued doll quilts. This one was really special.

Robin's quilt was reproduced from an antique top she found and she tried to match the fabrics to the original. So cute and quirky.

Then, on the second day, everyone worked on the Album quilt from The Civil War Sewing Circle.

The retreat was held at the Grout Museum in Waterloo, which also housed the Civil War Commemorative Quilt exhibit everyone is talking about. Robin, the museum curator (above), allowed me to take photos so I'm working on putting together a slide show of the exhibit for you to see and I will get that up on the blog as soon as I can, maybe tomorrow or Wednesday. It was a good trip and I hope I get a chance to return to Iowa soon. And perhaps take all of you along with me! Wouldn't that be fun?

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In the meantime, are you still working on the Broken Dishes quilt for this month? Cut your pieces and prepare to sew them together this week.

February Small Quilt Challenge

If you are joining me in mid-stream, here's the small quilt scoop. Some of my followers are committed to having fun making a small quilt a month from some of my books this year. Just think, if you join us, you will have 12 little quilts made by the  end of the year.

January's project was the little Mourning Crosses quilt from Prairie Children & Their Quilts. This month, we are using the same book and making - a Broken Dishes quilt! This pattern has always been one of my favorites, ever since I saw this little antique Broken Dishes doll quilt in one of my favorite quilting history books, The American Quilt  by Roderick Kiracofe.

My version is a little different - I used lighter prints and added a red and white check border plus a blue inner border.  

So, if you decide to join in on this month's challenge, your options are to either make this little quilt on page 22 of my book or, using the same directions, skip the blue and make it in a smaller red and white for a Valentine's Day project -

If you carefully arrange your half-square triangles as you make your blocks, you will come up with a star motif in the center.

Yes, it's the same block as in the Prairie Children book. The redwork instructions for the center block can be found in the Files section of my yahoo group Small Quilt Talk. Either way you make it, it's a darling little project and No. 2 on the road to making 12 small quilts this year with me. 

This week - Week 1 - all you need to spend time doing is picking out your fabrics and cutting your pieces. Sewing them together will be next week's task. 

Skip ahead if you like, but make sure you leave time for quilting and finishing sometime this month before we begin another one for March. You don't want to end up with a bunch of unquilted tops, do you?? One down, only ELEVEN small quilts to go!

Have you seen the video Martingale & Co. created for this book when it first came out? Very sweet.

I am leaving tomorrow to teach at The Cabin Fever Quilt Retreat at the Grout Museum in Waterloo, Iowa, for a few days and so will not have time to start this quilt with you this week. Even though it's very simple, I love the little redwork design I made up and hope to get going on that after I come back. Have fun!

Clarissa's Garden Quilt

Some of you may remember this little quilt from The American Schoolgirl Club, a series of patterns I designed about a year or so ago. It's one of my favorites. One of my goals is to have another pattern series like that sometime, perhaps later this year. Good idea? The American Schoolgirl Club - The Sequel, LOL. More darling scrappy little quilts with an antique touch. Maybe a little bit of applique too because, you know, I'm doing a little more applique these days and it seems that many of you like that in your little quilts. I'm going to be travelling around to guilds doing lectures and workshops quite a bit this spring, so we'll see if I have time and energy to actually do this.

This particular pattern was very popular and sold out quickly after I ended the Club and had a few patterns left over. Some of you have asked me if I was ever going to reprint the pattern. I'm happy to say it's now going to be available again. I was going to get it printed up last week, but, well, you know how it is - things happen, I get busy. Or, I work out and then have to lie down and take a nap, LOL. Sheesh, remind me to stop getting older . . . . I promise it will be printed up shortly though. If not this week, then early next week for sure. So keep watching my website. It will be up there soon. Get your scraps ready!

Oh, and don't forget - I am also teaching a workshop to make this little quilt at the Grout Museum Cabin Fever Quilt Retreat on Feb 3 in Waterloo, Iowa. I am not organizing this, just teaching, so check with the museum, not me, to see if there are still spots available in any of the classes. I know this retreat is going to be a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to it, assuming the weather is good enough that I can actually get to Iowa in February . . . .

Week 4 - Quilting Your Little Quilt

This is the week you should be working on finishing your little Crosses Mourning quilt. I started quilting mine over the weekend and hope to finish before we begin another small quilt for Feb, sometime next week.

 

I really love the look of a little doll quilt that is quilted very simply. In this quilt I quilted in the ditch around the inside of each block, then quilted inside the black part and just a simple stitch through the center of the colored cross part of the block. The sashing will be quilted with a few straight lines and I have not decided what I will do on the border yet.

If you have not tried hand quilting, now would be a perfect time. If you do not like using straight-line quilting,  here's a great place to buy quilting stencils that are easy to use with a water soluble marking pen. They also have stencils for small quilt borders so check out the border page. This little wavy one is one of my favorites and I admit I use it often.

My favorite quilting thread is YLI quilting thread. I'm very partial to the light brown as it gives a nice antique look when stitched on both light and dark fabrics.

I'm clearly not an expert and my stitches could be a little smaller and straighter, but it sure is fun and I love the look of a little quilt that's hand quilted. If you haven't taken the time to do any hand quilting, try it out on a small quilt. It doesn't have to be heavily quilted--just try stitching a straight line or Xs in the blocks to get yourself going. Even a little bit of hand quilting gives a special look to a quilt. And, don't forget, if you make a mistake, it will only add to the charm.

If I use a simple quilting design, it usually takes a couple of evenings or a week at most to finish a small quilt and is very relaxing for me. If the stitches are less than perfect or a little quirky, oh well. Antique doll quilts were not perfect either. I'm not interested in making them perfect specimens or trying to win prizes. Just having fun. I hope you are too.

Drama in the Big Backyard, No Time to Quilt

I became very upset one day last week. I love watching the beautiful cardinals that come to my backyard feeder. I think of them as MY cardinals. Well, the dog started barking at the window and I turned around just in time to see a huge hawk swoop down from the tree, snatch a cardinal at the feeder and fly away with it. I felt so sad most of that day. Call me silly, but I hate witnessing this predator-prey aspect of nature. For goodness sake, I live in an URBAN area. We pretend things like that just don't happen.

The week before last, the dog was barking at the window and I thought it was just a squirrel - but when I ran to the window to shoo it away so she'd stop making so much noise, there, skulking between my house and my neighbor's house, was the biggest CAT-like animal I have ever seen. It was not an ordinary house cat, but something much larger and more sinister looking. The squirrels and birds started making a LOT of racket and then it ran away. I was pretty shaken and thought it may have been a bobcat or something. It was that big. I looked it up and saw that bobcats are spotted and have short tails. This cat-creature had a very lonnnng tail and was a pale tan color all over. This will make sense after you read the next paragraph. Besides, what would a bobcat be doing here, in the Chicago area?

After talking to a few neighbors who have dogs, I decided to call the village police to see if anyone else had reported seeing anything like it roaming around. I sure didn't want to run into it while I walked the dogs at night. They said no, are you sure it wasn't a fox? Sheesh, I know what a fox looks like and I was wearing my glasses. This was as big or bigger than my 48-lb dog. Apparently no one had reported anything but the police told me that there had been several COUGAR sightings in a nearby suburb, near a wooded area, and they were on alert. COUGARS??? In the Chicago area?? MY yard?? I remembered that a couple of years ago a cougar was killed by police right in the city proper so I know it's not impossible. Jeepers.

I hear there's also a coyote roaming about the neighborhood. My neighbor's dog walker said one approached him within several yards when he was walking her dog the other day, just a few blocks away. So now we have to be extra careful with our little dog. She doesn't understand why I've been keeping her on a leash and going out there with her every time she needs to pee. Brrr! Seems like 12 times a day . . . More when it's cold, of course.

Dog paw prints? No, I went out there first, before I let them out, right after it snowed, so they hadn't even run through the snow yet. Squirrel tracks? No, much bigger than a squirrel's foot.

You don't think it's BIGFOOT, do you??

So now I'm afraid to let either dog out alone and I spend a little time every day on COUGAR patrol, looking for suspicious tracks in the snow . . .  I won't rest until the neighborhood canines (and I) are safe! Wonder why I'm not getting any quilting done, LOL?

You can tell she's on alert too. Ears perked, adrenaline pumped, ready to rumble . . .  Bring it on, Cougar/Coyote!

The other dog is not quite as nervous. Tells me to relax, figures he can take a coyote any day. LOL, he's a typical male, did you guess? No drama for him. He's much more interested in the ordinary day-to-day stuff that goes on in the big backyard . . .  . What's cooking, good looking?