Quilts, Books, and Dogs

New blog address

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Mon, 6 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0500

I am moving Quilts, Books, and Dogs to a new web address. To view my new Quilts, Books, and Dogs 2, please go to:

http://ruthdukelow.blogspot.com

Please change in your RSS feeds, blogrolls, and bookmarks! Thanks, Ruth

Life changes

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Sat, 4 Feb 2012 14:12:00 -0500

In one month, I will be moving to Minnesota. My house in Michigan is on the market, and I have closed on my new house in Bloomington, MN. I feel like I'm starting a new adventure!

Until I move in March, the dogs and I are staying at Tish's in her lovely downstairs apartment. Here are a couple photos of my new digs.

Sadie and Dora settled into their new living room.

Yes, that is Jasper sleeping on my pillow - eek!

Minnesota home!

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:49:00 -0500

Here are some photos of the house I hope to buy in Bloomington. Inspection is Saturday and then I wait for financing to be approved.

Here's the exterior:

Here's the kitchen - newly remodeled with a walkout to the deck:

Here's the family room, which will be my new quilt studio. Nice light and room for a design wall!

Here's the back deck and porch, with fenced in yard for the dogs. The best part is that it is close to Debbie, Mom and Catherine's house and to cousins too!

Carol Schon's Scrap Quilts Lecture 8/14/11

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 15:56:00 -0400

Carol Schon did a lecture on scrap quilts at the Great Lakes Folk Festival in East Lansing this weekend.

In the first two photos, note the "backyard chickens" being taken away in the background. They were part of an earlier lecture in the Re-Skilling tent. While Carol lectured on quilting in our half of the tent, another group was shearing Fiona, a long-haired sheep in the back half of the tent.

Carol telling about starting her quilting career during the bicentennial quilt revival of 1976.

The rain got heavy, so we squished in and Carol moved behind the table. Here she is telling about recycling and quilting.

Carol showing how she cuts up the sleeve of an old shirt to use in scrap quilts (cut on the length of the fabric, not the width!).

Carol showing Georgia Hayden's Bear's Paw quilt made from Georgia's husband's shirts. The squares made from the shirt fabrics are string-pieced. The other fabrics in this quilt are store-bought yardage.

Carol showing a string-pieced quilt made entirely (light and dark fabrics) from old shirts.

This dog's owners were attending the sheep-shearing program next door, but the dog was much more interested in Carol's lecture and kept inching his way into our side of the tent (I think, to see the quilts better).

Carol showing her scrap quilt - the squares are dark/light four-patches made from old shirts.

Group of people at the Folk Festival listening to Carol's lecture.

Photos are also on Facebook.

My latest quilt project

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:44:00 -0400

This weekend, I finished the last of the Exchange Blocks. After the last few months of sewing quilt blocks in other people's colors and fabrics, I decided to start a new quilt in blues and jewel tones - my favorite quilt colors.

Here is the first block (made of four blocks set together) for my new quilt. I used this pattern several years ago for a quilt for Catherine in turquoise, teal, purple, and orange. In Block Exchange this year, Georgia had us sew a variation of this block in repros, so I thought I'd revisit the pattern in a new colorway.

The pattern goes by a number of names: All Hands Around, Snow Crystals, Captive Beauty, Heavenly Stars, Stars and Cubes, and Victory Stars. When I sewed this pattern for Catherine's quilt, I used diamond pieces (like a LeMoyne Star), but this time I opted for the half-square triangle method that Georgia used in her block.

Catching up on Block Exchange

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Mon, 4 Jul 2011 17:36:00 -0400

I took advantage of the Fourth of July weekend to get caught up on sewing blocks for Block Exchange. I'm still not done (one to go!) but I'm no longer months behind! In between sewing, I walked with the dogs (and their dog friends SoLa and Jasper) at the dog park. Lovely weather - lovely weekend.

Phyllis's block. She's making a quilt for her grandson.

Terry's block. She's making a "musicals" quilt for Erin.

Louise's block. She's making youth quilts to donate. I used the some of the same fabrics as in Phyllis's block.

Dorothy's block. Her blocks will be set with rose blocks we made for her last year.

Carol's block. Her blocks will be set with "piano key" sashing and borders.

Eileen's block.

Didn't get Georgia's finished, but the pieces-and-parts are together!

Sad farewell to my sugar maple

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:32:00 -0400

The huge sugar maple in my front yard was dying and had to be taken down today. Here is all that is left of where the stump was. I'm so sad to lose it, as it was my favorite tree. My yard looks bare without it!

There were sparrows living in the birdhouse that Tom Mellentine made for me. It had been hanging in the sugar maple, and after the tree came down, the sparrows returned to look for their house. I put it up on my Norway maple a few yards away from where it had been. I was so happy when the sparrows rediscovered their house in the new tree and moved back in! The tree removal people trimmed dead branches off of this tree too.

They also trimmed the low-hanging branches from this silver maple in front of my house and dead branches from the locust tree on the circle by my house. It will take me awhile to get used to the big open spaces.

Christmas quilt in progress

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Sun, 15 May 2011 20:16:00 -0400

Setting blocks for the Christmas quilt I'm making in Block Exchange this year.

The yellow fabric on the outer edges of the setting blocks has little stars in it. I bought it to make a Christmas quilt years ago but didn't like the original pattern I tried out. The inner fabric is a "cardinals in snowy pines" Christmas print that Linda gave me. I think this setting block will work with the block exchange blocks I'm receiving.

Block exchange sewing

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Sun, 15 May 2011 15:52:00 -0400

It's a cold and rainy day today, so I stayed indoors and sewed these block exchange blocks. I'm still not caught up but getting closer.

Jan's blocks - fun to get to use my "Mad Men" cocktail fabric.

Bonnie's scrappy block.

Daisy's leaf block.
Daisy's block gave me an idea for setting blocks for the Christmas quilt I'm making in this year's block exchange. Think I'll spend the rest of this rainy day playing around sewing setting blocks. Stay tuned. :)

Block Exchange April 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 21:19:00 -0400

Linda is putting the block photos on her blog, so I'll just post photos of the people.

The surprise quilt is done. Many people made nine-patch blocks, and Eileen cut the nine-patches into "disappearing nine-patch" quarters, sewed the top together, and quilted it. I sewed on the binding, and we handed it over to the recipient's mother.

Ruth F., Linda with pink hair and a shirt to match, Beth and Dorothy.
Louise, Carol and Daisy.
Beth, Dorothy and Eileen.
Dorothy, Eileen, Jan, and Lisa (and the back of Louise's head).
Lisa and Cindy.

National Quilting Day weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 18:38:00 -0400

It was National Quilting Day on Saturday. While I watched March Madness basketball games this weekend, I sewed some Block Exchange quilt blocks.

A batik block for Linda.

Two blocks for Lisa.

Two blocks for Roxie.

Four blocks for Cindy.

And a "bonus" penguin block for me! :)

Paint Chip Quilt Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:19:00 -0400

We have a fun new quilt challenge for Daisy's Charm group. This challenge is based on a challenge we saw in Marshall last year at the annual Calco Quilt Show. Click here to see the quilts that the Calco quilters made.

The challenge is simple. Daisy had picked up several dozen paint chips for us. We each picked a four-color paint chip swatch and will make a quilt using the four colors plus one other color of our choice. We'll show our challenge quilts at Daisy's charm group in December.

See my two paint swatches below. Not sure yet which one I'll use. I tried to pick colors that I don't usually use. It was hard to steer away from my favorite blues, greens, fuchsias and purples! This really will be a challenge for those of us who picked colors outside of our comfort zones. :)

Dad's watercolors

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:38:00 -0500

Back in the late 70s/early 80s, my Dad went through a watercolor-painting phase. After painting dozens of small watercolors (mostly poplar trees), he abandoned the hobby. I really liked two of his watercolors, and I saved them for several years. About a month ago, I rediscovered them when I was sorting out a drawer of photographs and decided to have them framed.

Here's a close-up of the framed watercolors.

Here's a photo of the watercolors "in situ" in my guestroom.

Quilted by Kari Smith-Ruedisale

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:02:00 -0500

Kari Smith-Ruedisale is a local quilter who does longarm-machine quilting. She does beautiful work and excels at freeform feather quilting. The quilts below are ones that she just finished for Lisa, Cindy and me.

Lisa with her wild black-and-white circles quilt with Jane Sassaman border quilted by Kari.
Dora (left) and Sadie with my "Sadie & Dora" quilt made to match their Michigan brown dog fur - also quilted by Kari. I'm planning to bind this quilt when I'm at Debra's quilt retreat.
Cindy with her Quilt-A-Long that was quilted by Kari. The block patterns in this quilt were designed by our friend Bonnie for a group project.
Cindy's house quilt for Habitat quilted by Kari. We made these blocks for Cindy in last year's Block Exchange.

Block Exchange February 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:29:00 -0500

Antique quilt belonging to a relative of Louise. Louise and Beth (aka The Quilt Doctor) are discussing if it can be restored or if it should be left as is.
Phyllis's blocks (Phyllis - there was another block for you, but a triangle was wrong so it has gone back with its piecer for corrective sewing!).
Carol's blocks showing the piano-keys sashing she'll use to set the quilt.
Terry's block for Erin's Musicals quilt - this one is Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Louise's blocks for a kid's quilt.
Daisy's blocks.
Beth's blocks.
Carol, Georgia (behind the quilt top - she appliqued the cat), and Beth. This little quilt will be in the CCQG silent auction this spring.
Georgia's blocks.
Lisa's blocks.
Dorothy's blocks.
Eileen's blocks.
Cindy's blocks.
Jan's blocks.
Bonnie's blocks.
My Christmas blocks.
Jan, Carol, Georgia and Beth.
Daisy, Ruth F. and Jan.
Dorothy and Carol.
Terry, Louise, Daisy and Ruth F.
Carol (notice her new happy smile - teeth fixed yay!), Eileen, Cindy, and Bonnie.
Lisa and Dorothy.
Bonnie and I.

Roxie's floral garden blocks.
Linda's batik blocks.
My beautiful birthday daffodils in bloom!

Quilts at Foster Branch Library

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 09:04:00 -0500

Linda with her wild and wonderful spider web quilt at the Foster Library in Lansing, MI.

One of the best things at the Foster Branch of CADL is the ongoing quilt display in the entrance. Linda Kuhlman, who works at Foster Library, brings in quilts she has made to hang in the library and swaps them out regularly. If you go to Foster this month, you'll see Linda's latest quilt, a scrap spider web with hypnotic setting corners.

Pawprints on our Hearts 1999-2011

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Wed, 2 Feb 2011 21:23:00 -0500

Lisa's yellow lab, Gennie, died last week, and I made this little quilt, "Dogs leave pawprints on our hearts," in her memory. Gennie was a sweet loving dog who was also friends with my dogs, Sadie and Dora.

See photos below for quilt details. Gennie is in the circle in the lower left corner.

Ice Cream Bread recipes

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:42:00 -0500

Here's the link to the Ice Cream Bread recipe.

Variations - if you don't have self-rising flour, add baking powder and salt (see comments to recipe).

Also, I found another version which added sugar and made a smaller batch.

Fun project to make with kids and try out different ice cream flavors (from the MSU Dairy Store, of course)!

UPDATE: Here's another variation with brown sugar added to pumpkin ice cream (with lots of photos). This is Evette's friend's blog, where Evette initially got the recipe.

2011 Block Exchange blocks

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:15:00 -0500

Tonight was the first meeting of the 21st year of Block Exchange meeting at my house. Here are this year's blocks.

Phyllis's block

Dorothy's block

Bonnie's block

Daisy's block

Louise's block

Beth's block

Carol's block

Jan's block

Lisa's block

Cindy's block

Eileen's block

Linda's block

Georgia's block

Roxie's block

My Christmas block

Setting for my quilt blocks.

Milky Way Sunflower quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Sun, 9 Jan 2011 19:38:00 -0500

Here's a photo of the third little quilt I've made this year. I had decided not to sew any more raffle or silent auction quilts for awhile, but I couldn't refuse my cousin Holly's request for a donation to the annual Fishing Tournament fundraiser in memory of her daughter, Jennie. The ice fishing fundraiser will be on January 29 in Coleraine, Minnesota.

The pattern for this quilt is the traditional Milky Way. I included sunflower fabric, because the sunflower has become our family's remembrance of Jennie who had a sunflower on the antenna of her car.

Originally, I cut out the pieces for 4" finished squares, but once I had pieced the triangles and small squares into 4 1/2" unfinished squares, the size was obviously out-of-proportion for a small wall-hanging. The 4" squares would have been perfect for a bed quilt, but they were wrong for a small quilt. So, I cut down each piece to 3 1/2" for a 3" finish - I felt like Eleanor Burns! It was extra work but worth it when you see the finished piece.

Quilt projects

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 10:05:00 -0500

Photos of the two little quilts I've finished so far in 2011. The top one, "Lighthouses," is in memory of Doug Stowitts for his wife (a friend of mine from bell choir). The second one is "Robin's Lighthouses" for my cousin Robin.

I handed over my "Sadie & Dora" quilt to Kari to machine-quilt for me yesterday. She's giving it back to me by the end of February so that I can bind it and finish it to put in the Sauder show this year.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Sat, 1 Jan 2011 09:04:00 -0500

It's a new year - time for looking back and time for looking ahead. I like to take New Year's Day to remember the good times from last year and to think about what I want to do and to be in the new year.

I think that Neil Gaiman sums it up best in this new year's wish on his blog: "May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."

Happy New Year!

Christmas Flash Mob

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:21:00 -0500

I sang in this Christmas flash mob on Saturday at Schuler Books (one of 150 singers participating). Click on the link to see the video.

Attic Window Challenge at Daisy's 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 19:30:00 -0500

We met at Daisy's on Monday night for the annual Christmas party potluck. Each year Daisy gives us a challenge, and the challenge quilts are unveiled at the December potluck. Daisy decorates her house with Christmas quilts for the occasion.

This year the challenge was to make a quilt based on the traditional Attic Window block. Mary and Kate Edgar judged the quilts and awarded special prize ribbons to each quilt. Everyone was a winner!

Carol, Georgia and Beth (that's Beth's lovely cat applique quilt on the chair behind Georgia).

Jan, Jackie and Carol.

Louise.

Daisy and Gracie.

The judges Kate and Mary holding Ruth Farmer's quilt which won the Charles Doolittle Walcott award (the longest name award for the smallest quilt). Note Gracie's enthusiasm.

Louise's quilt was awarded "Phi Beta Kappa." Again, Gracie is thrilled.

Gracie perks up upon hearing her name announced for "Miss Congeniality" award.

Georgia looks on as Lisa's quilt wins the MacArthur Genius Award for the most innovative take on the Attic Window. Gracie is enthralled.

Daisy's quilt won "Best in Show" - note the milkbones in the border. Gracie is highly impressed.

Carol's quilt won the Turner Prize for Visual Arts. Gracie is delighted.

Georgia is overjoyed at winning the Walt Whitman Poetry award. Gracie shares the joy.

Jan's quilt wins the Newbery Award. Gracie celebrates.

My quilt won the John James Audubon award. Grace is barely able to contain her excitement.

Dorothy's quilt wins the "Pullet Surprise." Gracie has left the building...

Habitat dinner and silent auction

noreply@blogger.com (Ruth) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:50:00 -0400

Lisa, Cindy, Carol and I at the Habitat fundraiser dinner.

Below - photos of the silent auction quilts.

Carol Schon's quilt and Cindy's quilt.

Ruth Farmer's quilt and Linda's quilt.

Cindy's quilt and Beth's quilt.

My quilt.

Eileen's quilt.

Daisy's quilt.

Linda's quilt.

Cindy's quilt.