A Christmas Quilt

We sincerely hope you had an enjoyable Christmas.  We had a little party on Christmas eve day.  Jane brought a Christmas quilt to show us all.  She just made it recently, and it is really more of a winter quilt.  It has lots of holly and snowmen.

Then we posed for some photos, made cookies and candy, and played Uno.

L to R:  Jane, Kirsten, Marsha, Astrid, and Willa

So, get out your needle and thread (or a sewing machine) and make something fabulous; like a placemat, apron, or zippy bag.  Our friend, Mary, learns how to make so many cool things by watching YouTube tutorials.  The nice thing about those is you can rewind them and watch them over and over.   Meanwhile, in January, Jane will be doing her annual tutorial, that you can refer to over and over, also!  If you have any ideas of what you would like Jane to teach, in January, please leave a comment.  Soon!  As she has to have time to prepare. 

Granny Squares Quilt Completed!

This is a great lap quilt!  While I was quilting it, it occurred to me that the huge fuzzy dot fabric actually resembles balls of yarn.  How appropriate!  What took me so long to notice that?

The knit look of the granny squares fabric and the yarn-ball fabric make this quilt even cozier looking!  Jane reminded me this quilt is a medallion quilt.  Thank you, Jane.

Growing A Quilt!

Kirsten here!  I am growing another medallion quilt.  It is just turning out that way.  I found this really cute granny squares type fabric and am making it the center piece of this quilt.  It has four big patches and sashing with blue cornerstones.  I found this other fabric with big dots that look like chalk, which carries the tone of the granny square blocks on through.

This is shaping up to be a happy quilt!  I will get back soon and post an update.  Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Dutch Treat!

Astrid and Marsha went on a road trip in the RV with C and P, to Oregon and Washington!  Astrid finished up her Dutch quilt, before she left, but did not have time to come over and share it with us.  Jane cleared off our design wall, so that we could put Astrid's latest creation up for us to see.  This one is a quilt in the Dutch tradition, not just a design to reflect the image of a country.  She even made the back of red fabric, as the Dutch do.

We had tea and a nice visit.  She told us all the amazing things her and Marsha got to see in Oregon and Washington.  They traveled on Highway 26 most of the way there.  They stayed in a small town called Cascade Locks.  They crossed the Bridge of the Gods to get to the Washington side of the Columbia River, where they visited the Bonneville Dam Interpretive Site.  They got to see fish going up the fish ladder, in their upstream migration.  They visited Multnomah Falls and got to see Mount Hood.  They watched trains and visited the "Train Appreciation Park."  They also stayed in a campground, in the Ochoco National Forest, just east of Prineville on the way to and from the Columbia River area.  

Astrid at Multnomah Falls, in Oregon

Astrid said they were looking forward to stopping at the quilt shop in Prineville, on the way back, but it is closed on Mondays.  It was poor planning on their part!  C was disappointed, too.

Astrid Works on a Traditional Dutch Quilt

Good morning!  I went to have tea with Astrid this morning, and she was busy pinning and sewing broken dishes blocks for her Dutch quilt.  Broken dishes blocks are also called hourglass or bow tie blocks.  Most quilt blocks have more than one name, as different localities name them separately.  That was back in the old days.

We have a friend who gave us some old quilting magazines, and Astrid found the article and pattern, for the Dutch quilt, in one of them.  It was from December of 2004.  If you have followed our blog much, you should know that Astrid likes making quilts that reflect the heritages of different countries.  She has done quilts for Japan, Scotland, and Ireland.  I may have missed one, but you can look at older posts and see for yourself.  

Once she gets all those blocks pieced, pressed, and squared up, her quilt should go pretty fast!

2022 Winners at the Fair(s)

We friends who quilt, decided to each put something in the fair this year.  There are five of us in our little group: Kirsten, Marsha, Jane, Astrid, and Edna.  Edna lives out-of-state, so she entered her liberated medallion quilt at her location.  The rest of us entered ours in Idaho.

Edna said she had a wonderful time at the fair.  She was so excited when she found out she got a blue ribbon on her quilt!

Astrid entered a quilt and an outfit that she sewed.  She won blue ribbons on both!  She is major awesome.

Marsha did a fine job on her paisley log cabin quilt; another first-place ribbon here.

Jane said she had a wonderful time at the fair, too!  She was quite surprised at her first-place ribbon, in the contemporary pieced class.  It is a stunner!

Here am I, Kirsten, with my winning nine-patch sampler.  It was a treat to stand up here and get my photo taken, when I came to pick up my quilt.

I may be posting photos of Marsha and her "Fair" adventures, if I can figure out how to 'add a page' to our blog.  Stay tuned and start making your own project for next year's fair.

Log Cabin Quilt

I went to visit Marsha, Willa, and Astrid yesterday.  Marsha had some amazing fabrics she bought in Biloxi and Ft. Walton Beach.  She bought paisley fabrics in Biloxi, that she used in her log cabin quilt.  We went down the road and hung her quilt on the side of her neighbor's barn.  It is smashing!

Marsha is going to put her latest quilted creation in The Fair.

Quilt-as-you-go Quilt in Red, White, and Blue

It has been a busy summer, and at least one of us has done some quilting. I, Jane, completed a "Quilt-as-You-Go" quilt.  It was so much fun to make, and I needed to use up some of my red, white, and blue fabric stash.  Of course, we quilters know that one quilt hardly makes a dent in our stashes.  I think the newest fabric in this quilt is probably 2015.

I know Marsha had the time of her life on her RV trip across the country and back, but I have been relaxing and planning a couple of quilts.  Astrid has been sewing clothes and taking care of Willa.  I think they have had some adventures of their own.  Kirsten has been working hard and is also planning a couple of quilts.  We had a fun 4th of July!  I always like making something red, white, and blue for every July.  This year, a quilt. 

I have to admit Marsha has been letting me know she is working on a log cabin quilt from some of the fabric she bought in Biloxi.  I have to get over there and see all her new fabrics!

Travels With Marsha: A Lengthy Trip Comes To An End

We left Colby, Kansas, on Monday morning, heading west.  We gassed up at Goodman and headed north into the SW corner of Nebraska.  We drove through that corner and into Colorado, then we headed NW through the NE corner of Colorado and back into Nebraska.

We have been in some windy places lately.  

We continued on I-80 to Pine Bluff, Wyoming, where we had some windy fun before turn-in time.  There were trains going past our camp site and we could see them right out the front window of the RV!  It was like having a big screen to watch trains on.  C and I went out to see if I could get my photo with a train in the background, and the wind started to pick up, and the air cooled off delightfully. 

Here is my train photo with wild hair.  The thing is, this was not even as bad as it would get.  We walked up to the end of the road passed the RV park and the wind just keep blowing harder and harder.  By the time we got back, after avoiding a barking dog, the wind was dusty and grainy, and we could hardly run against it.  Opening the RV door, I felt like Dorothy trying to maneuver the door on the farmhouse during the tornado.  The wind blew all night long and rocked our RV.  

In the morning the wind had died down somewhat.  We got ready to go, then went to visit the 30-foot statue of Our Lady of Peace which was right next door to the RV park.  She was amazing.

It was windy on the interstate.  There were signs that said wind gusts 40+ MPH.  Then there was a sign that said 50+ MPH.  Then, there was a sign that said, 'wind gusts over 60 MPH, vehicle blow over risk, next 38 miles.'  C white-knuckled it all the way to Rawlins, WY.  We stopped there and gassed up, then found a place to park and have lunch in the RV.  C took a 45-minute nap/rest before we headed on to our final destination for the day:  Lyman, WY.  To our relief the next sign said wind gusts 40+ MPH, which was no longer a tough thing for C.  The RV park in Lyman was cool and green and a lot less wind.

Wednesday morning we were up and out of Lyman by 8:00, so we drove a few miles to Fort Jim Bridger and kicked around just a little before proceeding into Utah.

We stopped for gas and lunch in Snowville, UT, then drove on home to Meridian, Idaho.  It was great to see Willa and just relax.  It is good to be home.

We Are In Colby, Kansas

Yes, we finally got out of Louisiana. We traveled to Texarkana, TX, and spent the night at a KOA that had a swing that matched my outfit! Then we continued on through Reno and ended up in Wichita Falls, for the night.  In Wichita Falls I met an amazing elephant and Smokey the Bear.  We continued, on Friday to Dumas, TX, where we spent the night, and what a night!  I woke up at 12:30 in the morning and the wind was shaking our RV.  K slept through the worst part. Finally, the wind died down and there was just lightening and bit of light rain. 

 

On Saturday, we drove on across the Oklahoma border and through the panhandle, to Scott City, Kansas, where we made a 'jerky stop'.

  

We made it to Colby, Kansas in time to make it to the quilt shop before closing time!  

Yeah! Check out all these fabrics!  They had seasonal stuff at a discount and K bought the jewel-tone fabrics C picked out to make a new quilt for Leilani.  It is going to be awesome!

We stayed over on Sunday, so C could show K the ancestral stomping ground of the high plains and Gem, Kansas.  She also took K to the Prairie Museum, where the biggest barn in Kansas is located.  They took the tour.

Oh, yeah.  Saturday night we had a wind storm in Colby that was rocking the RV from 2:30 to 3:15 AM, and it was accompanied by amazingly bright lightening and loud thunder.  We all three got into the same bed until it was over.  We are rather expecting more wind tonight.  The wind really messed up my hair today.  We are heading out tomorrow for Pine Bluff, Wyoming.  I think we will eventually make it back to Idaho.

Quilt Shops in Fort Walton Beach

Greetings from Marsha.  We are on the road back to Idaho, but I did not get to tell you about the amazing quilt shops in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  The first one was at a mall very near where M lives, although, when we first went it seemed like it was a long and windy ways away.  Of course, Stitcher's Quest has an amazing selection of Halloween fabrics, which M could not resist.  They have batiks and a lot of those bright flashy fabrics I find so hard to resist.  It is easy to blow your allowance in here.

I needed some fabric to make me another pair of shorts, and M said there was a quilt shop nearby that she had never been in.  So, we went to Around The Block Quilting.  They had just the thing!    For a small shop they sure had a lot of selection, and I had to choose carefully, because it would have been easy to run amok.

C and I wish Annita a very happy birthday!

Stuck in Breaux Bridge Louisana

Marsha here, with a travel update.  Breaux Bridge is pronounced Bro Bridge.  We left FWB, FL on Saturday, June 4.  On Sunday morning we were having an enjoyable trip across the vast waterway and swamp between Baton Rouge and Lafayette, when we stopped for gas near the interstate, at Beaux Bridge.  C started the RV up and she drove to the exit of the gas station and was getting ready to pull out onto the highway, when the engine died.  It was an electrical problem.  We were blocking one of the entrance/exits to the Shell station.  The good news is, we were not in the middle of the highway when this happened. Whew!  C called AAA and they got there in ten minutes.  He said it was probably the alternator.  He kept his little battery jump machine on the battery and let the hood rest on top.  C started the engine and was able to drive across the highway into a vacant parking lot, where we were out of the way in a safe location.  Being Sunday, no automotive places were open.  We had “The Blazer” in tow, so C disconnected it, then we gathered our gear and went one exit back to the Holiday Inn Express, and K booked us in for the night.  C called the KOA in Texarkana and asked them to back our reservation off for a couple days until we could get back on the road and actually make it there.  Then we got to relax and swim and read books.  On Monday C and K went to the Ford garage, which was about one-third of a mile from where the RV was parked. They were swamped with business, but they said they would be able to put a new battery in, then drive it that one-third mile to the garage.  They finally got that handled around 3:30 on Monday afternoon.  C was exceedingly relived that the RV was finally off the side of the highway and in their parking lot.  K went ahead and booked us for two more nights, as we are hoping Ford will get it repaired by the end of today; which is Tuesday.  Since it is after check out time, we are staying over tonight, even though Ford called and said they have the RV all ready to go for us. Not having a full day to travel, we would not make it to Texarkana anyway.  Meanwhile, we were going to go shopping at this amazing looking art/music/bookstore that is next to our hotel, today.  C took a walk around the parking lot this morning and discovered they are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  So sad.  Right now, K is in the pool.  We are going this afternoon to get the RV back.

Hanging Out at High Springs on a Saturday Night

For the three-day Memorial Day weekend, we went to north central Florida.  We visited C's aunt in Gainesville on Saturday.  We were spending the night in Alachua, which has grown a lot, since C was last down here.  On Saturday night we went exploring around High Springs.  We were looking for a quilt shop and a BBQ joint.  The quilt shop had moved to parts unknown, and all the BBQ joints were closed, as was the burger joints, except for Hardy's. 

Here I am, hanging out on a Saturday evening.

It was so much fun! Then we got a burger at Hardy's.  On Sunday, May 29, we drove up to Andersonville, Georgia.  It was a sad and beautiful National Park.

We got back to Fort Walton Beach on Sunday evening.  We relaxed on Monday, then on Tuesday we went and got pedicures.  After that we watched some amazing murder mysteries and focused on getting ready for the trip back.

Relaxing on the Beach and Visiting Biloxi, MS

We took a couple days to recuperate, and M took us to a fancy restaurant in Destin, where we all had seafood.  On Wednesday, May 25, we went to the beach and just relaxed.  It was fun wading in the Gulf of Mexico.

The breeze made it less hot and more enjoyable.  I did fall on my backside and get my clothes wet, but that's okay.

On the way back to M's place, C took my photo in front of the Hurlbert Field sign.

On Thursday, May 26, C and M drove us to visit Biloxi and Keesler AFB, in Mississippi.  C was stationed at Keesler in the 70's.  Most of the base has been rebuilt after hurricane Katrina, so where she worked and lived on base, has new buildings.  Below is a photo of me in front of the new Cody Hall.

We, also, visited Peace by Piece Quilt Shop in Biloxi.  They actually have quilts for sale and at reasonable prices.  They have amazing fabrics, too!

And we visited the Biloxi lighthouse!

When we went back through Alabama, we stopped to get photos at the state line.