I Spent the Day With Darlene Zimmerman

I found out a couple of days ago that one of the local quilt guilds and quilt shops were hosting a workshop with Darlene Zimmerman.

Since I LOVE 1930s reproduction prints, I jumped at the chance.


For the workshop, we worked on her Hummingbird Quilt.

It was very easy because we used a special tool, the Simpli-EZ 30 Degree Triangle Tool.  (Images obtained from Darlene Zimmerman's website.)



My favorite part of the day, though, was the trunk show in the evening.

Darlene gave a lecture on the history of quilts in America.  It was so interesting.

Here is Darlene (not the best picture, sorry) holding an original feed sack.

She had SO many beautiful quilts.  She buys old quilts, repairs them with reproduction fabric, and then hand quilts them!  And, she does beautiful work!

Here are a few of my favorite quilts that she showed that evening.

I would encourage you to go to a workshop soon if you're able.  I am planning on attending a couple this fall, and I can't WAIT.  I have the opportunity to go to a workshop with Harriet Hargrave!  I'm SO excited!

I'll post some pictures of the blocks I finished in Darlene's workshop as soon as I find where the kids put the camera card, lol.

My 100th Post and A Finish AND...A Giveaway!!!!

My 100th post sneaked up on me!  This is it.

I probably never would have thought about it, but I just happened to look at my list of posts and realized that this was number 100.

SO....

In honor of my 100th post, I've decided to have a give away.  AND....

Since I spent Friday with Darlene Zimmerman, I'll give away two bundles of 1930s reproduction fat quarters to two lucky blog readers.

In order to qualify, make sure you leave a comment and I'll draw the winner on August 28th.  If you'd like a second chance at the drawing, refer to it in your blog and I'll enter your name twice.  Just make sure and let me know that you've linked to me.

I finished the quilt for Shelly.  I hope to be able to deliver it in the next few days.  She's going to be laid up for a while with a hip problem, so this quilt will keep her warm.

You can see the front and the back here.

Repurposing Triangles

I was searching around for something mindless to do this morning and I found the left over triangles from Mariah's quilt.

So, I decided to cut them down into a half square triangle unit.

I lay the long edge on the 45° angle of my square ruler.

The triangles turned out slightly different sizes, so I measured the largest one and it was 6½" (on the short side of the triangles), so I cut 6½" white squares and then cut them in half.

These, I took to the sewing machine and folded a white and colored triangle in half and made a crease.

I then pinned the creases together.  That way, it didn't matter if the white triangle was larger than the colored triangle.  [Note:  Be very careful when sewing/handling these units.  The edges are very stretchy.  This is one of the places where I'm really glad I have a stiletto.  It keeps me from having to manipulate the edges very much.]

I sewed them together, pressed them, and trimmed them.

I took two of the half square triangle units and place them right sides together with the colored half across from the white half and vice versa.  I lined the seams up perfectly so everything lays flat.

I cut the units in half and sewed them together.

When I finished, I had two perfect hour glass units (aka quarter square triangles).

I trimmed mine to ½" increments so I could use them in scrap quilts.

A perfect way to spend a cloudy day.

Hope you're having a quilty day!

Wednesday....Humpday

How was your day?

Olivia and I went to Bismarck to see the dentist.  The other kiddos were with Daddy in the field.  Harvest is in full swing here.

Tomorrow, I have an opportunity to go to a workshop with Darlene Zimmerman.  I don't know if I'll be able to go.  It means leaving the kiddos with Daddy in the field.  Sometimes they get bored riding around in the combine.

We'll see how it goes.

What I've Been Up to Since My Mojo Came Back...

I wanted to do a quick entry about what I've been up to since I got my quilting mojo back.

First of all, I wanted to do a quilt for my hubby's cousin who has been in the hospital.  All I have left to do is the binding.  Here's the front.

As you can maybe tell, it's a Disappearing 9-Patch.  I think it turned out cute.

Here's the back which I think is just as pretty as the front!

Last night I finished quilting my daughter Mariah's quilt.  That's a high as I'm sure you all know.

I'll show you a close-up of the quilting.  I quilted each colored triangle...

...and I quilted each sashing.

Last, but not least, I finished two tops for wheelchair lap quilts.

And here's one of the backings.

I have the other one to do, then I'll get these basted and quilted.

So, that's what I've been up to.

I'm so happy to be back.  I've had a blast visiting blogs again.  It's fun to see what you all have been up to.

Have a quilty day!

Design Wall, August 16, 2010

I'm really getting back into the quilting groove!  It feels good.

I need to post about the quilts that I've worked on this week, but I'll post quickly about what I'm getting ready to work on this week (besides finishing up those from last week, lol).

I have all these 2 1/2" squares that I sew together using Bonnie's Leaders and Enders idea and I sewed quite a few of them up into 16 patches yesterday.  I'm going to put brown sashing between them and sew up a charity quilt.  It should go pretty quickly.

I really want to practice my free motion quilting, so I plan to finish and baste three quilts to quilt this week.

Head on over to Judy's to see what everyone else is working on.

Stash Report, August 15, 2010

I've been gone from the blogging scene for a while, so it's good to be back.  I've missed everyone!

I haven't been keeping track of the stuff coming in while I was on my break, but I'll give you this week's stash report.  :-)

Nothing in, YEAH!

Out is several layer cakes of the line Hello Betty by Moda. I got them for a really good price (I can't remember now, lol), but I don't really like the colors, lol.  Good grief!

I can't remember how many of these I bought, but I'm using most or all of them up making a couple of wheelchair lap quilts to gift to a local nursing home.

I'm making them about 36" by 48" and I'm going to use the left over 10" squares to make the back, so I should use most of that stash up.  WOO HOO!

How did you do this week?

Make sure and stop by Judy's blog to find out how well everyone did at busting stash this week.

A Windy Day.....

This morning, a cool front moved in and we had W-I-N-D!

What better to do on a windy day than to fly a kite?  But, what if you don't have one? and you live 60 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart?

Let's fly grocery bags with Mommy's yarn!!!!!

So, mommy took pictures.  What else can you do????  :-)

Olivia (who has her own blog)

Sophia (who also has her own blog)

Joey...ALWAYS running!

And my sweet Mariah...with frosting on her face from breakfast, lol.

That was our windy day.  How was your day?

You Know You're Having a Bad Day When...

Right after dinner yesterday, the neighbor and his daughter came walking up our driveway.

"That's odd," I thought.

My hubby went out to see what happened...assuming that they had broken down on the road.

When we went to the end of the driveway, this is what we saw...

He had driven off into the slough!

Thankfully, neither he nor his daughter were hurt and the guys were able to pull it out with a tractor.

Here we go....

Through the water...

Back on dry ground!

The combine from the dark lagoon!!!!!

Never a dull moment at our house!

Believe it or not, the neighbors cleaned off the combine, greased her up, and combined with her later that day, lol.  No rest for the wicked during harvest season!

On the home front, my daughter Sophia was bitten by a cat later that evening.  I thought she might have to have rabies shots, but we found the cat, so no shots for my little Sophie, thank goodness...just antibiotics for the infection.

Hoping to post some quilt pictures tomorrow!

Hope you had a quilty day.

ADDENDUM:

My good friend Dawn asked me why they didn't just pull the combine backwards out of the slough.

Let me show you, lol.

There's water on BOTH sides of the road at this spot!  They did try and pull back, but it was necessarily at an angle, so they could tell right away that wouldn't work and they decided to pull the combine forward through the water.

I'm Still Alive

Well, ladies. I've been going through a dry spell, but I'm getting my groove back.

I've been quilting for a week or so now, so I think it's going to stick.

I'll post some pics on Monday, I think. Tomorrow, my hubby is taking us to the Peace Gardens. Should be fun.