Hard to believe but I won!

I know this will be hard for people who know me to believe but I won a prize for explaining to Michelle how to link from her blog to another blog! Why is this so amazing? Because I'm the kind of person who can't remember how to get her cell phone messages even though my husband explains it over and over! My technology ineptness is so bad that my family's been threatening to get me a Jitterbug cell phone. "No complicated menus or confusing icons!"

Thank you, Michelle, for the beautiful fabric, fun pattern and the Godiva Chocolate bar! Feel free to link to my blog anytime!



I thought I would be back to working on string projects by now but instead I've been motivated to finish some of my Jo Morton projects. You saw my "finished" Country Lanes little quilt top on Monday. Yesterday and today I've been working on one of last year's Jo's Little Women projects which I participated in through Liberty Quilt Shop.

This is the Holiday Inn wallhanging which still needs 2 more borders! The next one is Flying Geese. I worked on the applique block while my son was in the hospital last year and then I put it away because it wasn't possible for me to work on it any longer. It hasn't been difficult but those half square triangles were time consuming! I really dislike trimming and squaring up which there was a little of to do! Just to give you an idea on the size of the blocks, the half square triangles are one inch finished.

When this project is done, I will need to prepare my crazy quilt for a quilt show coming up in Wichita. I've done some embroidery on the backing and definitely need to finish it up since I think the quilt judge might find it hard to overlook that!

Country Lanes

I finished a "UFO"! (maybe) And its just the top but that's still good. It would be well and truly done if it were quilted and bound but that will come, in time. Oh, and a label too!

This Jo Morton pattern, Country Lanes, from her Remembrances book has been on my wall for over a year. After I sewed all the 1 1/2 inch squares together, our son told me that when pieces would fall off the wall he'd just stick them up anywhere! (He is temporarily living in what was my sewing room.)

Yeah, I can see that now when I stand back and take a good look at it. Sigh. I was so intent on finishing this project that I didn't notice the color clusters until too late. Even though I know it will bother me every time I look at it, I decided not to pick out the seams and rearrange the blocks again.

I'd really like to hand quilt this little quilt but I don't have much time to spend doing it so I'm thinking of doing a slightly larger quilt stitch to make it go faster. I do need to totally finish a few quilts around here!

Rhubarb & Selvages

Darlene, a good quilting and history enjoying friend of mine, gave me some rhubarb yesterday. Anybody else a rhubarb fan out there? This morning, I made rhubarb pie and it was so delicious with some ice cream and a good cup of coffee!

We like the green variety of rhubarb which usually tastes a little more sour than the red. You have to get used to eating green pie but mmmm!

Did I sew today? No but I did go to two quilt shops looking for some inspiration. I'm not sure I found any because I want to buy new fabric instead of working with my "resource center" fabrics. And no, I didn't buy any new fabric, even resisted the sale fabric!

There is a selvage quilt I would really like to make but since I used most of my selvages on the "Little Red Zinger", my cupboard is bare! Would anyone consider saving selvages for me? They can be any length but I need at least 1/4 inch of fabric past the white edge of the selvage and more would be even better. I'd like some of the fabric design to show after its been sewn down. Please let me know if you have some selvages you'd be willing to send me or can save them for me!

The answer, at last, and a dilemma!

So what's so interesting about the hexagon quilt? What do you see when you look at the quilt? My eye is instantly drawn to the gold hexagon. At first I thought, what a mistake to use such a strong color without repeating it somewhere else in the quilt! It was no mistake.

By including the gold hexagon, the maker of this quilt was expressing her support for Republican President William McKinley's gold standard monetary policy. His Presidential campaign opponent, Democrat William Jennings Bryan, was a supporter of the silver standard. Read more about the gold standard here.

So now I have a dilemma. Some of you were close to getting the right answer but didn't seem to be getting the complete answer. Monday evening, I asked you to stop guessing and that on Tuesday I would choose whoever I felt was the closest and award them the prize. Then Tuesday afternoon, someone posted a comment with the correct answer. Sigh, what to do?

I've decided to give Sue-Anne the main prize because she guessed correctly that it was about President William McKinley and the gold standard. A slight error - the quilt was not a tribute to him but meant to show the quiltmaker's support for his monetary policy. Please e-mail me your mailing address. Way to go for being persistent!

Even though she missed the cutoff time, I've also decided to give Arnden a prize for giving the complete correct answer except for missing William Jennings Bryan's name. Please e-mail me your mailing address.

And now back to my sewing machine where I belong!

Tomorrow, tomorrow

A couple of you are so close to the right answer that tomorrow, I'm going to choose who is the closest and pronounce that person the winner! No more clues, no more guessing or you'll really muddle up my decision making process.

Marie sent me an e-mail saying she couldn't comment on my blog today. Did anyone else have that problem? If so, please let me know so I can try to figure out what is wrong.

Prize and Clue #4

Today I received this e-mail about the hexagon quilt from Ingrid in the Netherlands, "Just a guess, ... its special because the quiltster didn't use normal hexagon papers to make the hexies? Maybe she used political pamflets ... "

Now that's a new use for those political flyers we get in election years! Not the correct answer but don't give up, keep on guessing!

One person today came close but I couldn't tell her that so I'm telling all of you at once. Part of her answer is on the right track but I'm not telling which person it was!

I purchased the Midnight Silhouette pattern by Blackbird Designs several years ago and I just haven't had time to make it. I'm not sure I ever will. Since there's a little gold in it, I've decided to add it to the prize package!

This picture is Clue #4:

#25

This picture was Clue #3:

Clue #2: Women were not allowed to verbally express their political viewpoints.

Clue #1: The hexagon quilt was made at the turn of the century.

Prize and Clue #3

Time for another clue about why this quilt top is "special", maybe a better way to say it is "historically interesting"! Remember this is a quilt shown at a MOKA meeting by our speaker, Terry Clothier Thompson.

But first, a friend of mine who does not have a blog has e-mailed her guess to me. It was incorrect but I wanted to let everyone know who doesn't have a blog and also can't figure out how to post a comment, you may e-mail your guess to me and I will publish it in the next post afterwards. I'll keep track of the time your e-mail reaches me. Just click on "View my complete profile" to get to the e-mail option.

Everyone may guess as often as they like until someone comments with a correct answer. In the past few posts, I've asked you to comment to my original post. From now on, just comment on my most recent post.

Also, how about another part of the prize?!? I've added a "Pin Picker Upper".

These are neat because it expands to help you reach pins which have fallen on the floor or into hard to reach spots! Its silver too.

A recap of the clues so far:

Clue #1 - The hexagon quilt was made at the turn of the century.

Clue #2 - Women were not allowed to verbally express their political viewpoints.

Clue #3 is this picture:

Disclaimer - This isn't real money, just play money I found in Wal-Mart's party section. Pretend its real money, OK? If I had this much money, I wouldn't be blogging. I'd be at my LQS!

Prize & Clue #2 & Cookies too!

And now for something totally unrelated to quilting - here's what I have been doing this week. My latest sewing project was a white eyelet skirt for my daughter. Its been years since I've sewn clothing but I think it turned out well. In addition to that, how about baking 4 different batches of cookies, at least 16 dozen cookies! This post is about one of my favorite cookie recipes given to me by a friend who does the very same thing with the M&Ms. If you read far enough down, you'll eventually come to the next part of the prize and clue #2!

Several blog posts ago, I told you I even eat my M&Ms in Roy G Biv order. Actually, for M&Ms its Roy G BB order since there aren't any indigo or violet M&Ms! Why should making these cookies be any different and if you make them this way, no one will be able to say, "His cookie has more M&Ms than mine!"

First, make a batch of cookie dough. My recipe is a very basic sugar/brown sugar cookie dough.

Then sort the M&Ms by color. As you can see, there aren't equal amounts of each color in a bag of M&Ms. Someone has been working overtime in the orange department and blue and green are usually very well represented too.

Then scoop out the cookie dough onto a prepared cookie sheet. I use parchment paper because I think the cookies are less likely to burn and will bake more evenly. I like to scoop the dough because it results in cookies that are more or less the same size. You all probably knew all of this right?

Now you can see my method of decorating the cookies with the M&Ms. I think a yellow center looks best so I put those on first, followed by the other colors just working my way around the cookie.

Here's a pan fresh out of the oven! Uh, oh. I see quality control did not do her job very well but not to worry, my cookie inspectors are close by and will take care of it.

Most people who see these cookies think I must have things under control and in order around my house. Ha, go ahead and think that if you like.

Okay finally here's what you've been waiting for. The second part of the prize for the person who guesses the answer to the Quilter's Quiz Question is (ta,da!) a silver fat quarter. Hmmm, first a gold fat quarter and then a silver fat quarter. What could this mean?

I know some of you out there are thinking hard about my Quilter's Quiz Question but still no correct answer so keep on guessing, OK? Please post your guesses to the original post at Quilter's Quiz Question.

Here's tonight's clue:
Clue #2 - Women were not allowed to verbally express their political viewpoints.

Clue #1 - The hexagon quilt was made at the turn of the century.

Prize and Clue #1

Everyone must be outside enjoying the weather! Or maybe they have no idea what makes the hexagon quilt in my last blog post special! To help you out, I'm going to post a clue every day until someone guesses correctly or until my deadline, Thursday morning. Look for Clue #1 at the end of this post!


The first person who comments with the correct answer on this post will get a prize but what kind of prize? Every day I'll show you a new part of the prize and today's part is a gold fat quarter. Now maybe that will point you in the right direction but then again, maybe not!

Clue #1 - The hexagon quilt was made at the turn of the century.

Hey, did I say this was going to be easy?!? Think about it, look at the hexagon quilt again, think about it some more and come back again tomorrow for another clue if you need one.

Quilter's Quiz Question!

This is another of Terry Clothier Thompson's quilt tops from MOKA's mini FabriCamp which I attended this past weekend. There's something special about this hexagon quilt top. Do you know what it is? Its obvious if you look at the quilt top but what did it stand for?

I found this so interesting that I'm going to give a prize to the first person who knows the correct answer and makes a comment on this post. I'll announce the winner on Thursday morning, April 22. If no one wins, I get to keep the prize!

I do need to make one rule - If you were at MOKA, please do not make a comment to win the prize. Thanks!

MOKA

MOKA (Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas) is a quilt study group which meets three times a year. On Saturday, I went to the MOKA meeting near Kansas City to hear Terry Clothier Thompson give a mini FabriCamp presentation. She brought some of her collection of quilts, tops and vintage clothing for us to study. It was a wonderful experience and someday soon I hope to go to one of her three day FabriCamps! These are some photos of my favorite quilts. Here's Terri talking about the c. 1864 quilt she calls "The Battle of Blue Mills Landing". The colors are still very vibrant and at first I thought it was a reproduction quilt. The fabric in this quilt turned out to be delaine which has a cotton warp and a wool weft. (I learned that this weekend but please don't ask me which way is warp and which way is weft!) I purchased Terri's pattern for this quilt.

I don't know that I will ever attempt this much applique or hand quilting but isn't this quilt beautiful?

Terry's coming out with a pattern for this strawberry quilt very soon! This is another quilt that I'd make if I were better at applique. I know - practice, practice, practice. I think its the colors and the checkerboard design on the strawberries I like about this one.

This weekend was also the greater Kansas City area ShopHop and so I stopped in at a few shops to purchase some Jo Morton fabrics. I'm still not sure what my next quilting project will be but I'm very tempted to use that new fabric. Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho!

Heigh-ho,

Heigh-ho,

Its off to the machine quilter it goes!

(finally)

Life's just a little busy right now! I'm involved in too many projects but will be back in a day or two. Still haven't gotten the backing pieced for my "30 Years on the Fence" quilt and am pondering my next project. Still trying to use up my "resource center fabrics" but I'm ready for a new challenge. Any suggestions?

30 Years on the Fence

I finished piecing my Picket Fence quilt yesterday! I'm calling it "30 Years on the Fence" because it has fabrics in it from the past thirty years. Some are from dresses I made my daughter so they hold special meaning to us.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a photo of the whole quilt. When its machine quilted and bound, I'll be able to hang it and stand back to take a photo but this time it had to lay on the floor. It turned out larger than the queen size I was expecting and pretty much filled up the living room floor space. Today I plan to piece the backing and hope to get the quilt to the machine quilter next week!

This is an angle view of it that makes me think of steps! I discovered when going through my fabric that I am in a fabric buying rut. Most of the fabric I buy is floral and a lot of it is sunflower fabric probably from my crafting days. Maybe since my gardening skills are limited, I'm living out my flower fantasy with fabric!

I'm sad to say that I could probably make several more of these quilts before I even put a dent into my fabric stash. I would be low on lighter values but I have plenty of medium value fabric so I see more scrap projects in my future.

My husband says looking at the quilt for too long hurts his eyes. Here's what Charlie, our cat, thought of it all. This will clearly not be one of his favorite quilts.

Besides piecing the backing today, I plan to cook and clean in preparation for Easter dinner tomorrow. While I still appreciate the Easter candy and finery, all of the best chocolate and new clothing in the world are not even a drop in the bucket compared to what Christ did for us all those years ago.

My Easter wish for you - Have a very blessed and meaningful Easter!