New Beginnings

 Steven and Micaela King

married March 16, 2013

Remember the blue jars I baked? This is what they became - part of the table centerpieces at the wedding. Our daughter wanted a rustic garden theme at the reception and I hope we were able to create that with the moss, rock, wood slice, flowering branches, etc. This is not the church activity center where the reception took place. This is my dining room (the uncluttered half). Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the wedding and am trusting the photographer got some good shots!

This is a wedding wish card that guests filled out for the new couple. Made those with the help of one of my daughter's friends. They set on the tables at the reception and guests hung their cards on two tree branches we'd painted with blue glitter. This was definitely a DIY kind of wedding.

After the wedding, my husband and I were emotionally and physically tired but are now mostly recovered and have everything returned to the rental places. I'm trying to sort and condense down wedding stuff into boxes which will go somewhere in the basement.

Speaking of new beginnings ... ! 



I didn't need a new quilting project but after spending 3 months immersed in wedding details and no quilting since early December, I WANTED a new project! Can you guess what I'm making?

Details coming soon (if I don't get too embarrassed about the quality of my work)! This is definitely going to be a stretch of my quilting abilities.

What's baking?

Want to peek in the oven to see what I'm baking?

Its a fresh dozen of jars???

These are spaghetti sauce jars we're trying to make look like old blue canning jars. Do you know how many people it takes to eat 31 jars of spaghetti sauce? I finally resorted to giving church members a jar of spaghetti sauce if they promised to bring back the empty jar. Most people were very puzzled but then they already know I think differently than they do!

The jars will be used as part of the table decorations for the wedding. Individually, they aren't as blue as in the picture.

Basically, you stain the clean jars with glass paint, allow them to dry for 48 hours and then bake for 30 minutes to set the paint. They turned out a little streaky but I'm hoping with the lights turned down a little lower, most people won't notice. So, today I'm baking jars and then will be packing them together with the other table decorations. I'll share a picture of the finished product after the wedding.

Thank you to everyone who sent me a comment welcoming me back to blogland! I promise to do better about responding after the wedding.

Hello Quilting World ...

... I sure have missed you!

Last November I would have had no idea that a stressful Christmas season would give way to a self-imposed exile from the quilting world. For nearly two months, I didn't even check out the blogs I usually read.

Life happened and it seemed to happen over and over again. Perhaps I'll share a little about the past few months in a future blog post but for now, here are a few projects I've been working on.

 My daughter is getting married in less than 2 weeks. Things are crazy around here and the wedding supplies are starting to make my house resemble a warehouse!

This is a moss covered initial "K" which is the first letter of her new name. Those are pink rhinestones, not sure what happened to the one which seems to be green?!? I think I have had my fill of working with moss. Give me good old cotton quilting fabric any day!



I also made this moss covered basket for the wedding bubbles. Notice the moss caught in the tulle. I've given up trying to keep the moss pieces from attaching themselves to anything and everything. If my daughter is smart, this basket and the "K" will go straight to the trash after the wedding. Who wants to vacuum up pieces of moss every day?

Here's something else I made for the reception - a collage of the bride's parents' and grandparents' wedding photos. I also made one of the groom's family and another of the wedding couple's engagement photos. Yes, thats my husband and I in the upper right corner. Perhaps I'll share the entire photo display later. The blue is actually leftover bridesmaid dress fabric and the frames all came from Goodwill. None of them match but a coat of cream colored and a coat of fine glitter paint ties them together. 

 This topiary is destined for the Hors d'oeuvres table.



These are the crepe paper roses which decorated the church at my parents' wedding in 1948. My mom saved them all these years and when we cleaned out her farmhouse, they came home with me. We hope to use the best ones to decorate an arbor in the reception area.

Much more going on here to tell you about, most of it wedding related.

 I'll be back soon, hopefully working on a quilting project!

Some Childhood Hanky Panky!

Long ago (a year and a half ago at least!) I mentioned my hankies on this blog and promised someone to write a blog post about them at some point. Here it finally is!

Before the days of Kleenex and disposable facial tissues, these were my childhood hankies. I'm sure they didn't mean much to me while I was growing up and when Kleenex came along, I probably tucked them away in the back of a dresser drawer. We found them again when we went through my mom's farmhouse.

Here is Minnie Mouse baking a pie with the help of Jiminy Cricket while Donald and Pluto look on.

 Donald Duck in his sailboat while Huey, Dewey and Louie try to pull it in.

I'm wondering if there was a Mickey Mouse hankie that has gone missing. Does anyone know?

 Here's the Saggy Baggy Elephant. Doesn't look like this hankie was used too much as the colors are brighter than on the others! The stains are on the fold lines on most of the hankies but they have had some wear.

 Little Bo Peep with her sheep. I wondered who hemmed it!

 Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf

This Little Pig Went to Market ...

 I don't think there are any nursery rhymes connected with the hankie above and below but if you recognize them, please let me know. I do have a few more than this.

I'm not sure what to do with my hankies. I'd like to make them into a wallhanging so I can display them occasionally but don't know what design or color scheme to use. They will all need a lightweight interfacing to keep them stable because all of them are very thin. Any ideas on what to do with them?

And one more thing ...

Thank you very much, Barb, for the box of selvages! It made my day yesterday and I'm looking forward to sorting through the selvages today!

Until next time, Mayleen

Whose Sue are You?

First of all, I want to wish all of you a belated Happy Thanksgiving! My week just got busier and less organized than I'd like and I missed posting earlier this week. Our family had a good day together and I hope you did too.

Yesterday, my husband and I were out looking for wedding supplies that we'll need for our daughter's wedding this spring. I need broken vintage "pearl" jewelry which can be repurposed and used in the table centerpieces so we stopped at several thrift stores. At the end of the day, I'd only found one necklace that would work but something happened which has never happened to me before! I seem to be saying that more often lately.

Look what I found - a vintage Sunbonnet Sue crib quilt! 

 Her bright pink sashing, hand quilting and embroidered embellishments called my name and I sure just couldn't leave her at Goodwill. I'd always be wondering what happened to her so I bought her. Sue is wearing some interesting fabrics which someone must have found ugly but are just my kind of style! So far, I have found no identifying marks and don't know how old she is but I'd guess from the 1970's. What do you think? Here are a few of my favorite blocks:

The back - looks like whoever made this Sue had to widen her backing and chose to bring it to the front to use for the binding too.

I wonder who made you Sue? Who took the time to pick out fabric for your dresses and bonnets? Who embroidered your bonnets and shoes? Whose baby did you wrap and keep warm? I hope you and the maker were loved and appreciated.

 Here's one of the reasons I've told my adult children to donate my quilts to the MCC sale to be auctioned when I'm no longer living. The price on this Sunbonnet Sue at Goodwill? $2.14 including tax.

Sue is now mine and will join my husband's Overall Bill/Sunflower Sue baby quilt. His is older (from the 50's) but I think they'll get along well! 

I didn't forget about my Hanky Panky post that I promised you - coming soon!

Yesterday at Guild

Look what someone brought to yesterday's Prairie Quilt Guild meeting for me - selvages! I guess it doesn't take much to make me happy, does it? I have "plans" for another selvage quilt but am still collecting and have to finish a few projects before starting anything new.

 And then something happened which hasn't happened in a really long time, I actually won a door prize! I'm not a "lucky" person so this was quite a shock. The prize? A pair of spring loaded cutting shears from A-1 Singer Sewing Center in Wichita, Kansas. I may have to frame that winning ticket.

Our speaker, Cathy Miller - the Singing Quilter - was a lot of fun to listen to. About half way through her presentation, she got my whole attention when she brought out her crazy quilt and then her 1/2" hexagon project and finally, her 1/4" hexagon mini quilt called "Insanity"! It has over 3000 1/4" hexagons in it. Go to her website, click on Quilting and then Cathy's Quilts to see photos of her quilts.

 If you go back far enough on this blog, you can see pictures of my finished crazy quilt and my 1/2" hexagon project in progress. What you don't know is that I have a pack of 1/4" hexagon papers from Paper Pieces in my quilting room just calling my name! So far, I'm resisting. A project made of 1/4" hexagons is not to be entered into lightly but yes, I know, resistance is futile.

Come back in a few days to see pictures of some Hanky Panky from my younger days!

Wedding in our future!

Next spring there will be a wedding in our family! Our daughter is engaged and we are in full wedding prep mode. Searching for a wedding dress, bridesmaid dress fabric, table decorations and all the other details are taking up quite a bit of my time.

Some time ago, I was "talking" to another blogger, Merilyn in Australia, about black wedding dresses. Perhaps she doesn't remember anymore but I told her I would post some photos of the black wedding dresses worn by relatives and here they are (finally).

 As I understand it, white wedding dresses came into style when Queen Victoria wore one in 1840. Mennonites from the Goessel, Kansas community continued to wear black wedding dresses until the early 1900's. I'm not sure who broke the tradition and was the first to wear a white wedding dress but it must have been shocking to this community.

 

 Sara (Voth) and Benjamin Nickel

married December 18, 1890

Sarah (Goertzen) and David H. Thiesen

married December 2, 1913

Sometime around this time, colored wedding dresses must have come into style. In 1925 when my maternal grandparents married, the bride wore a peach colored dress.

When I'm not thinking about the wedding, I'm still working on my guild's challenge quilt. Elvis has joined me! Just a little teaser there. I will show pictures when I can which, unfortunately, will not be for awhile.

Until next time, Mayleen