Cottonwood Quilter

Little Halloween Project

2012-09-29T22:55:00.000-05:00

Here is a Halloween Project I have been working with. This is just a basic, 36 pieces from a layer cake, sewn together, then cut apart using the Twister.Quilt Pattern. The fabric is the "Pumpkins Gone Wild" collection from Moda. Now what to do for borders???

I know it is hard to see, but there are lots of good pumpkin fabric there.

Time to spend Time Posting

2012-09-25T05:32:00.003-05:00

Fall has Fallen here on the plains, and I am not liking it too much. Still warm during the day which is nice, but nippy in the mornings. I will have to light the furnace if this keeps up, which I am sure it will. I did yesterday get out all my winter cloths, they are in bins, now to get them aired out and in the closet to replace shorts and short sleeved shirts. I also took the goose down comforter to the clothsline to spend the afternoon in the breeze, and it was oh so nice snuggling under it.

The Summer was a hot one here, but it is history now. It would be nice if a person could bottle up the warmth from summer and use it all winter long. I am working on a table topper made using Moda's Pumpkin Layer Cake and the Twister. This should look nice on may round oak dining room table. I have an idea for a baby quilt so wanted to test out my cutting the twister out first on something that I would be keeping.

Stressed Fabtic

2011-11-30T08:17:00.001-06:00

This is a day I want to spend in my shop doing just what I have to do personally, Here the first of December is upon me and I am not finished with my Christmas Swap. Shame on me! But today is the day for that, and for working on my Paint Chip Challenge for Quilt Group. The colors I drew were two yellows and a pretty blue. Since I organized the challenge I guess I had better do something special and different, which I have started.

I just finished a quilt for a customer, which for me was somewhat of a challenge. She had taken a Jelly Roll Class from the County Extension Office. This was her first quilt, and so it is special to her. She finished the base of the quilt, put on one border, but needed someone to finish it, so she called on me. Well when I got the bag I though "No Big Deal". But and I have never seen this before, all the fabric had been purchased in lenghts of 2-3 yards. Then the Extension Lady had had them rip, yes tear it the lenght of fabric. Wow what a waste of good fabric. I honestly did not realize people did sashings and borders like that. Needless to say, the fabric suffered from the stress. anyway it is done and I will deliver it this morning, but I was surprised to say the least. Has anyone else done a quilt like that??

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

2011-11-24T08:40:00.001-06:00

We are headed to my sisters for dinner today, which will be fun. My nephew, his wife and three children should be there and we have not seen them for several years. Time does seem to be getting away from us.
Life has been good, Bud worked for a guy during harvest, enjoying his time just driving a tractor.
I have been taking a class from Marilyn Belford on Quilt University, Realistic Fabric Portrait Quilts. I have done art quilts before, but this class has been quite a challenge, but it is coming together quite nicely now. I had to learn that I do things a bit different from others, so no big deal. Here is a photo of my model, will post the finished quilt when it is finally done!

This is a painting a friend of mine did from a photo she was allowed to use that had been taken by her college professor. Long story short, the photo was taken in the early 80's, she painted "Rosita" in 83-84. I was able to find the photographer/professor, what a delightful man to visit with. He gave his okay, so "Rosita" will be a quilt soon, I pray.

Fun Times

2011-09-17T06:24:00.000-05:00

The group in Connecting Threads - Love of Art Quilts is having a challenge. Our hostess too a photo, broke it into 12 pieces and each of us made a block out of what we saw from the bit of the photo. Mine is off in the mail, to Becky Ray, and boy was it fun. Here is what my portion of the block looked like, first the photo then the piece I did.

We are off to an Exotic animal auction today, which in hick terms just means, lots of Chickens, Pea Fowl, Ducks, and Geese, maybe a few pigeons, thrown in for good measure. I have my camera packed, as this is a new experience for DH and I. We will drive up to the Sandhills, about a hundred miles for the auction. We would have liked to take the RV and stayed for the exotic hooved animals (goats and such) tomorrow, but DH is on vacation from Church, so we want to visit some friends churches. He is really looking forward to sitting in the pew for a couple of weeks. The ole RV will, we hope be heading to the lake Sunday afternoon, that is if this weather straightens up, it has been way too cold for my blood.

2011-04-22T06:59:00.002-05:00

I have signed up to follow a blog, http://sewfunquilts-sewmeow.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-never-promised-you-rose-gardenjust.html, she has a contest going now with the prize being 200 - 2" blocks for a watercolor quilt. Now I have made two already, but with 200 blocks, I could make yet another beauty.

Here is a photo of my very first watercolor quilt, called Watercolor Crosses. Then if you look down just a bit you can see her brother, Dear John.

Crashing down.

2011-03-07T08:05:00.002-06:00

Have you every had times when things just seem to come crashing down?

First I had to prepare for a retreat, that stretched me in a new and different direction. I love people and I love the Lord, but it is hard for me to delegate, so God put me in that position and I had to literly let go and let God handle the rest. Lesson learned!!

For months I had been praying, as I had been asked in October if I would work the next Emmaus weekend in the conference room, and give a talk. Now my talk the "Priesthood of All Believers", an easy one, but boy did God put his foot down. We had a formation (day of preparation) so I gave my talk, boy that was an understatement. It was MY talk, not guided by Christ. I felt and knew that I had not shown Him respect, not had I followed His direction. So the day before the second and final formation, I rewrote the entire talk. Much different when I let God lead and I follow.

In between all of this, I broke my kneecap, right in two. Now it happened on city owned property, so of course that is an issue. I am still not to bear weight on that leg and have to wear a brace 24/7 which is hard and painful, not to mention slows me down way too much.

Many lessons to learn, when we feel like life is crashing down.

I am happy to report that my "Dear John" quilt sold to a good home, I have no idea what they paid and do not care, I am just happy that it went to a good Christian family.

I am off to quilt today, that is always good for my soul. I have been able to sit on my three legged roller stool and quilt from there, which is wonderful, since I am way behind.

Finally, the last ones didn't load

2011-01-27T09:13:00.001-06:00

It has been too long

2011-01-27T08:56:00.002-06:00

Well you can tell it has been a long time since I have written a post. I write up the title "Dear John 3:16", hit enter and what happens, it post. But, I wasn't ready, so now I will finish what I started. Modern equipmemt! Things just disappear.

A 12 year old girl in my home town, had surgery yesterday. She probably weights 60 pounds, as she has been sick for a long time. Come to find out she had a tumor on her kidney, and it is cancerous. The town has had several benefits for her family to help defray the horrible expenses. Back to the surgery, they removed a 2 pound tumor from her kidney, when you are as small as she is, 2 pounds is huge! Now back to the benefits, they have had several, and so Sunday night the ministarial association will have a hamburger/hotdog feed, along with a silent auction. I decided to make a quilt to give to the cause. I picked out the fabric, not thinking of what I was doing. I started a Saturday morning, cut out the fabric and by afternoon I had a wallhanging. I had done the pattern before and it was super easy. Well I hung the quilt on the design wall, stepped back and all I could think was, "Oh no, John Deere". So after some thought I decided to name the quilt "Dear John 3:16", and it does seem to fit. You see, I used tractor fabric for the backing so that everyone who sees the quilt will understand. Here are two photos of the quilt.

"Dear John 3:16"

2011-01-27T08:54:00.001-06:00

Great time at Church's Fall Festival

2010-11-01T14:42:00.000-05:00

Make a free digital slideshow

A quilting retreat with friends

2010-10-18T15:30:00.000-05:00

Personalize a digital slideshow

Several quilts I have finished for customers

2010-09-27T11:26:00.007-05:00

This is a Gameboard quilt I have done for a Quilting Retreat I am Co-Hosting. We will be going to a camping area rent a cabin, and work on a Retreat bag. One of the things we will be doing is playing a few games, should be fun. Now I am looking for 24 buttons to use as game pieces.

Here are some customer quilts I have been doing, they are always fun to do. This first one is a customer who this is her first structured quilt, she has done such a great job, as you can see the blocks are all the same one "Brasstown", just fabric is negative/positive:

We have been busy, DH's church requires we drive a bunch, which we do not mind. My son in Omaha had an accident with a ladder, falling 10 feet, but broke his elbow in several places, so surgery was a week ago Thursday, we were there, three plates, 21 screws, and 26 staples later, he spent the night in the hospital, mainly due to high blood pressure and elevated blood sugar. He had his cast taken off this past Friday, so he is on the mend, but it will be slow and easy going like it or not!

More work to do and some play!

2010-08-24T07:04:00.001-05:00

I have been working on several customer quilts one of which is this one from a customer in California. I have watched her go from very basic with 1/2" seams to this beauty perfectly stitched. She tells me she is now working on a quilt with triangles which is giving her a little compitition, but I know she will get it done and it will be fine.

When I agreed to help with VBS, we had one specific project we were going to do, and that was make parachutes for The Voice of the Martyrs, project. That whole story is too long, drawn out, and has not happy ending, so I will just say, I now have the parachutes finished! Today they will be mailed off to the Missionary in Columbia, and I can wipe my hands so to speak of the project!

When it doesn't feel right, it is time to call it quits!

2010-08-17T18:37:00.003-05:00

Well it's official, I gave up, gave it a real go, but couldn't get done what I wanted, so, "hasta la vitsa baby". I will take it off the frame in the morning, head to the quilt shop, and start over. No regrets, just painful when I have to declare defeat! I feel good about it though, could be worse I could have more hours into it. What am I talking about, well I had to give up on my county block, way not what I wanted, so am starting over. It's a Good Thing, as Martha would say. Funny thing is, this morning when I was trying to post the photo here, it would not go straight. As you can see, it is sideways, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what the problem was, so I just posted it the way it was. Well, I should have listened, I think God was trying to tell me something.

An old friend of my passed away yesterday, I hadn't seen her for 20+ years. But through the powers of Facebook, we reconnected for a short time. Sunday as I was looking around at friends on FB, I came across some photos of her. I have not talked to her for quite a while, but did know that she had cancer, but did not realize how bad. When I saw the photos, she was bald and on oxygen, very sad. Well yesterday morning I heard from another friend, so I emailed her and said "I see Deb is sick, do you know how she is?" Jackie wrote right back, "she passed away this morning". Yes just another way God talks to us, I should have called on Sunday when I saw the photos, but as usual I chose to get my information second hand. When will I learn? To my old friend Debbie Vreeland, "Rest In Peace, your pain is gone and you are with our Lord and Savior".

Busy time of year!

2010-08-17T05:20:00.011-05:00

Here are a few things I have been working on the past month or so.

First, in June our local Quilt Group was asked to participate in making quilt blocks for the Exhibit Hall for the Nebraska State Fair. Now keep in mind that the State Fair has for ever been held in Lincoln, NE, which is in the eastern part of the state. Now the State Fair is a mainly exhibits and compitition from the farm communities, livestock, garden items, baking, clothing, quilting, and such. In the years past folks from the western part of the state that showed goods would have to drive 2-3 hundred miles to participate in the fair. So I had been determined that the fair would move to the middle or a more convienent location. Now it will be held at Fonner Park in Grand Island, NE. I agreed to make the block to represent our county. So far it has been a nightmare, but I will get through it. Here is what I am working with:

Grandchildren

2010-07-25T22:58:00.004-05:00

These are three quilts I finished in between family visits. The first one was a favor for a young girl from nearby who was entering it into the County Fair. Her mother had called me asking if I would do it, since at the time I had nothing on the frame because of having family visiting, so I agreed to rush this quilt thru. Now, hind site, I would have done things differently.

The two baby quilts were for a customer who was unaware what the sex of the child would be, so what better, make two!!

Well, it has been a long yet short month, first having five of my grandchildren here for a week was an awesome time. I love having them here by themselves, without the benifit of parents hindering their comings and goings.\

Then last week we picked up my husbands eldest daughter and her 3 boys. Such a good time with them as well. Although they are much younger then my grandchildren, I enjoyed having them for that short time. We put water in the pool and they had a good time swimming, jumping on the tramp, then back to the pool. I think the chickens are glad that they left, not that the kids bothered the chickens, but it was just someone they did not know here.

Grandkids - Love them all

2010-07-11T18:53:00.004-05:00

Well the past week has been an awesome ride, with five of my six grandchildren here for the week. Last Sunday we met my daughter in law and brought the kids here. I call them kids, but they are young adults, 2 - 16, 1-14, 1-13, and 1 - turned 12 on Wednesday! What a great time we all had.

Each evening, we drove to town, 8 miles away and helped with Vacation Bible School. The two older girls helped me make parachutes with the kids for the Voice of the Martyr. It was not a fun project, as it was to be the childrens craft, so since we sent the parachutes off to be dropped out of an airplane, they went home with nothing, not a good thing, but wasn't my call. It was fun to teach the kids to sew.

Another thing we did was pick cherries from the neighbors tree, here is a photo of the pie we made and consumed in just a few hours.

The girls and I started a scrappy quilt with will be a long time making, but will be worth it in the end. They had a hard time understanding the process, but that is a given when it comes to learning something new. I look forward to future sewing time with them, as they are just ready to learn and truely absorb the information.

More to come later!

It's done, Yippeeeee!!

2010-06-26T09:02:00.003-05:00

Well it is finally done, and I am happy with the results. This is the first time I have used my big machine and frame to thread paint an art quilt. It was a learning experience, and will know what to expect and what to do differently next time. The main problem was that I used fusable Pellon, but put the fusing to the backing, not what I should have done. I also did not fuse it, thinking I would do it later and so I learned that it really needs to be fused first to the top, then to work from there. This peice was done for a project a couple of us did on Connecting threads Quilt with Us, Love of Art Quilts, Piece a Day. I did not do a piece a day, as we were gone some of the time and it was impossible for me to do anything one day at a time. I work fast and hard, them I play slow and softly!!

Tomorrow our group from the Urban Plunge will present our thoughts from our trip at a program at the Church. I look forward to seeing the other 15 people involved, as during that weekend we became close and have bonded in a way that is unexplainable.

Piece A Day Almost Done

2010-06-22T16:37:00.002-05:00

I will be posting a photo of the art quilt I have been working on the Quilt with Us/Connecting Threads Love of Art Quilts Group. I'm finally finished with the threadpainting, now all that is left is to put on a border or two, quilt it, then binding completes the whole project.
I was at my local quilt group last evening and the project for next month is for everyone to bring some of their completed projects so we can vote on some to send to the States annual quilt show. I will of course take this quilt, not that I think it is that good, but if I don't try, then it does not stand a chance, Can't win if you don't play!

Go Figure!

2010-06-21T11:19:00.002-05:00

Well I delivered the quilt I finished yesterday to the lady. She loved it, then proceeded to give me 24 more blocks that she has done to make 2 more quilts, just like this one. Well by the time I get the last one done, I will like the fabric!! I am thankful that she liked what I had done, and that she wants more. It is so hard to figure out what people want and what they like. I know that I am crafty enough that if I had made the blocks I would do the quilt. But not so with everyone. She will be giving these to her Grandchildren as Graduation presents, in the future. She wants them done so she does not have do worry about them. Since I did not put a label on the one I had finished I suggested she write done when and to whom she will be giving the quilts away, so that her grandchildren have a record of what she has done for them.

The Quilt is Finally Done

2010-06-20T21:46:00.002-05:00

Here is the quilt I worked on all last week. This is not anything I enjoy doing, but sometimes I do it because the people can't. The embroidered blocks were made by a lady near here. She contacted my sister who inturn contacted me to make the quilt. All she provided were the blocks and the fabric for the sashing and borders. No that fabric (the green) would not have been my choice,, reason being it is so busy and so it takes away (my feelings only) from the beautiful embroidery. But this is what she chose so that is what I used.

What an eventful week~

2010-06-18T13:25:00.003-05:00

This has been one of those weeks. My DS signed me up to make a quilt for an elderly lady she knows. Now I am a machine quilter, not a quilt maker, well I love making quilts, just those for myself or my family. So anyway, I started the quilt this week. The lady had embroidered 12 17" blocks, of beautiful flowers. So my task was to put on sashing and add a border, quilt the quilt then bind it. I am about ready to start the binding, but let me tell you it has been a struggle! I will post photos as soon as I get it off the quilting frame.

Yesterday we, DH, his friend, a young lady we know and another pastor from near here loaded into our vehicle and drove some 75 miles to Hastings, NE to visit a homeless shelter there. It was such an interesting place, as they have very few paid staff. So our plans are to do some work there to help out. I have decided, it wasn't hard, that I would work in the kitchen. We also discussed me giving a class to some of the homeless women who are going through treatment, to prepare them to cook on their own. Should be quite a challenge.

The Connecting Threads Quilt with Us "Love of Art Quilts" group have posted our Do Do Do Looking our My Backdoor Blocks. Here is the one I made, although I do not have the butterfly done. All the blocks were great, such attention to detail.

Mission Trip - Omaha Urban Plunge

2010-06-11T07:46:00.003-05:00

A week ago today 17 of us loaded into three Suburbans and off we drove the 4 hour drive to Omaha, NE. Now I lived in Omaha for 30 years, but it has been 15 years since I moved back to my hometown of approximately 900 people. What a change that was at the time, but now I realize how safe I have been during that time.
A lot of things have changed in Omaha in 15 years, but the inner city is still there, much cleaner I must say, but still the drugs and crime.
The weekend was a blessing to all that participated, I think of everything we learned, the love of our fellow man ranks right up there.
We first went to see a after school program for the youth, they are fed and cared for by trained educators. Next we went to a homeless shelter, and prayed for the people who frequent there. It was not only men, just as many women checked in for a nights rest on a mattress and a warm shower.
We sorted clothing and food, that is given out by the pound to those in need. We went to the Open Door Mission, then to a safe house for women or men who are abused. We went to a nursing home, and realized that not everyone has family who care about them.
On Sunday we went to two church services, one with a fairly poor congregation and one with a well to do group.
Last week was a week of resting and catching up on lost sleep and getting our muscles back in shape. One thing was decided, we are going to work in our community to better life for some that we have right here in need.
We started Wednesday night with a prayer walk down town in preparation for our communities annual celebration, Turkey Days. Then last night we set up a grill on main street and cooked hamburgers, chicken, and tenderloin, for the carnival workers. What a blessing.
I am working on getting Meals on Wheels here in Edison, we have way too many elderly who do not or can not cook for themselves.
Pray for our little towns!

Graduation Quilt Done

2010-05-19T08:15:00.005-05:00

I finally got the Graduation Quilt finished and am happy with the results. This quilt had to be quilted with one color thread, then rewound and quilted with another color. The problem with this is that if at the first passing, some of the backing is not taut, them when you go back over the quilt, puckers can happen, and it is not pretty!