Kind Hearted Lady Lives Here

I love folklore and train folklore is right up there for me. My Grandfather, whom I don't really remember, worked for the B&O in the Toledo yards. (Toledo currently has the 5th largest train yard in the country, down from the third largest in pre-interstate days. Just thought you'd want to know.) And oddly, the annual hobo convention is still held in Britt, Iowa~~and Britt is my maiden name. (Do-dee-do-do, do-de-do-do~~that's me singing the Twilight Zone theme music.)

Anywho, my Dad had HO model trains, and now our son DD has O scale trains. We thought FTD would be the train guy, but it turns out to be DD. I'm making him a quilt based on hobo signs that were left as messages in the jungles all across the country. I found a book in the Greybull, Wyoming Big Horn Quilt Shop by Debra G. Henninger for inspiration. On a quilt shop hop last fall, I found fabric that reminds me of old man shirts, so I bought several fat quarters, raided my stash, and viola, quilt makins'. (By the by, to use this book, you need a pretty good knowledge of quilty stuff. I changed several blocks, so as to not have to make itty, bitty triangles, or to make some of the blocks more closely resemble the actual signs. A couple of the blocks are repeated, which makes me think the editorial staff nodded off at some point. Must not hae been quilters.)

Nearly everyone's favorite sign is a kitty cat. If this was scrawled near your house it meant, "Kind hearted lady lives here." That Kind Lady would be likely to give you a sandwich and water or milk, maybe an old, worn out shirt, and always a kind word. Did those Kind Ladies have sons and brothers who were riding the rails? Boyfriends looking for a new life and job? Classmates searching for adventure? Goofballs just hangin' with their peeps? Who knows.

But I do know lots of Kind Hearted Ladies. Those of you who live nearby, turn your computer off now. I don't want you to peek at your valentine gift from me.



















The rest of you, send me your favorite colors and your address...... or your Kind Hearted Lady's favorite colors. . . .

The Non-Storm

After a week of hype, the storm was only scary stormy here for about an hour. We got 4 nice fluffy inches of snow on Tuesday, and then Tuesday night when the 'dry slot' got here around 1 a.m. the winds came with it. It roared so oddly that I opened a window to listen. I thought there was truck stuck out front or something. The wind blew straight out of the north, pelting sleet on our bedroom windows, where there in normally no moisture. But after that, we ended up with a couple more inches of nice snow and that was it. Just to the north of us, they got more ice--schools are still closed up there today, and there was fatal car accident this morning. But here, all is well. No major loss of power, and the roads are in pretty good shape. It's cold though~~we aren't used to those 7 degree mornings. I can't begin to imagine how my friends in ND, WY, and MT deal with the minus 30s that they've been experiencing.

We did have a classic DD moment during all this. When the low pressure front moved in on Tuesday night, DD went freaky on us~~really, really weirdly cranky and just plain mean. After he finally crashed, I looked at the tv and there was the meteorologist saying that the low pressure front had just arrived. DD and FTD both have sixth-sense type reactions to various weather fronts. This one was a doozy.

And on the upside, I started DD's hobo signs quilt. The blocks are only 6 inches (5.5 finished size) so it will take 110 plus the sashing to make a double size quilt. There are 55 blocks in the book. So I'm making doubles of each. Yesterday, I made exact doubles, but as time goes on I might mix them up some.

The blocks are designed three different ways: paper piecing for some, regular piecing for others, and applique for the rest. The artist took the hobo signs and put a more 'quilty' spin on them. Since DD has autism and is a boy, he's more interested in the signs looking like signs. So I changed a couple so far to look more 'realistic.' Actually, it was easier--the ones I changed had lots of nasty little triangles. I try really hard not to do nasty little triangles. They hate me. I hate them. (Yeah, I hear ya~~practice practice practice.) And did I mention that I don't know how to paper-piece stuff yet? So I'm actually enjoying looking at new ways to do the blocks.

Here's the first batch. One of these days, I'll label them, but until blogspot stops messing with the hyperlinking dealie, I'll just add the blocks. You figure them out. :)

Snow Days~~edited with new pics

After a week of hype, it's finally snowing here. Three or four inches last night, no biggie, and more tonight. We're right on the border of snow/freezing rain. Everyone prefers snow over freezing rain, so we'll see how the night goes.

I did get to back to the sewing machine. I'm cranking out a smaller quilt for a special young lady, using fussy cut Debbie Mumm fabric and one of my favorite things, chunks of stuff. For the chunk part I made strips 3 inches wide, then chunked 'em up in various widths. Then I randomly sew them back into strips. I used five fabrics for the chunks. It went together quickly, and since I'd like to give it to her next Saturday, I decided to machine quilt it myself. After surfing the web for a long time, I decided to use masking tape to make stripes. Originally, I was just going to put one line down one side of each piece of tape. But instead, I put a line down each side, using a 1/4 inch space between tape and stitches. Since the quilt is busy and 'horizontal' I put the strips on diagonally, creating diamonds. I also went high and outside on the thread--it's blue for the rivers and streams around here. Weird choice, but there it is. I also made binding last night, but didn't get to it today~~too busy breaking up fights since the boys were both home today. And of course, there was snow to shovel. And here's the finished quilt, complete with binding and the whole works.
This is a sneak peak about who gets this quilt. If anybody spills the beans before Saturday. . . .

Here are the updated photos: (I'd label them but blogspot has something weird going on with hyperlinking anything I type in between the pics.)

The top pic is the quilt with the tape for quilting lines.
The next one is the finished binding and the whole works!
And the bottom one is a sneak peak at who the quilt will be going to---don't tell her!

FTD's Quilt, Almost Done!

Woot! I got all the blocks on FTD's quilt put together. It took me longer to straighten them all out than to sew them together, which probably means I didn't spend enough time cutting neatly the first time,* then watching my seams more carefully as I sewed. Oh well, it's not like these are going to quilt shows or anything.

It's a little more Christmas-y than I envisioned, but using the traditional red center, for the hearth of the log cabin, and green logs, welllll..... what did I expect?

I've got pine bough and pine cone fabrics to add sashings around it. That should go fairly quickly~~at least as quickly as I can shoving that much material around. I did see a video of a quilt/sewing table a gal made using stryofoam and heavy duty vinyl sheets. . . hmmmmm. . .

The hues of the darkest of the three darks actually has a lot of black in it, so those are much more pronounced than the others, but that just adds another dimension to it.

All in all, so far I'm really pleased. And FTD said, "Cool." High praise indeed!

* I need that Vagabond Sizzix--it will probably be the first thing I order after I go back to work and get the traveling expenses paid off. I'll order mine from ihaveanotion.blogspot.com!

One Block, Soon to Join Its Friends

This is a single block from FTD's Log Cabin Quilt. I went traditional on this one and used the red center, symbolizing the hearth of the home. I used two different centers and when I was sewing the blocks together I took no heed of where they ended up. Most Log Cabin quilts are square, but this one will be rectangular, so I broke out my colored pencils (oh, I so love colored pencils) to figure out what to do with the top and bottom rows. I'll be done with it pretty soon--today if the good Lord's willin' and the creek don't rise.

This just in (about an hour later). FTD and I spread the 'finished so far' quilt on his bed and both decided it needs another row of blocks on each side. Oh, well, what's another 16 blocks anywho. They sew up in a jif, and I have plenty of material~~I think. . . :)

Quilting! Yea!

I try really, really hard not to have too many crafty things going at one time. So I told myself I couldn't start FTD's quilt until the Christmas stuff is put away. Well, most of it is put away.... so I started his log cabin quilt today. It took me several tries to find the colors and sizes I like. I've no idea how long this will take. It's a little tedious doing the same block over and over. I might have to do some pillows or something to break up the monotony.

I've got several projects for my peeps lined up, too. Table decorations for DH's Rotary Club's auction/dinner/dance in February; Green Hat roster and teaching a couple of other girls to use excel; and helping to type up the Green Hat Pocket Songbook should keep me out of trouble while I wait to hear about when I'll start back to work. And next week is "Take the Boys to Doctors Week." That will be a tough one.

And I'm going to camp this week! Woo hoo! The Green Hats are renting one of the Lodges at Libbey for a couple of days this week. Scrabble, Scattergories, snow, singing, and not much else. Sweet. (Oh, yeah, and no laundry or squabbling boys!)

Ho, Ho, Ho,More Quilting Time~~ I wish!

After getting 11 pairs of jammie bottoms made and delivered for some of my grand-nieces and nephews, and 6 little felt ho-ho-ho oh-oh-oh banners for the grown-up girls done, I can now think about the next project.

Hmmmmm, the Badlands quilt needs a backing, quilting, and binding. IOW, the hard part. I'll shelve that for a while. Then there's FTD's Log Cabin quilt. I can't think of my self as a quilter yet, since I haven't done some of the basics--like a log cabin quilt. That is a repetitive process, and I think I could multi-task that one with other stuff. DD will get a quilt with hobo signs on it. I found a wonderful book at the Greybull WY quilt shop last fall which I'll use for his. Lesee, also on the list, the YNP postcard quilt, which will take a bit more creativity than I can muster at the moment, and several "quilt-by-number" things (as my cutie SIL calls them) that are easy, but take a chunk of time with no interruptions. So which will it be? Or I could win a give-away and add to the stash! Ya-hoo--now there's an idea with merit!

So here's my plan. Enter a quilt stash give-away contest. Lots of bloggers do this somehow--you know, the bloggers that actually make some dough off their blogs. That sounds like work to me. I guess I need to post a pic here from another blog. (Now I'll probably get tagged or something weird.) Then I write a "Queen for a Day" story about why I need more stash.
Well duh. Doesn't everybody need more stash? (Actually, I don't. I'm trying to live leaner--for our space considerations, financial considerations, and well, just for living leaner. But a girl's gotta quilt! Need more material--need stuff for the quilt-by-numbers projects, for the postcard project, and DD's hobo quilt. So, okay, here's a shout out for freebies!)

Oh wait, what a ditz! I'm supposed to write about what happened on our Christmas Eve. Wait, I did that--remember the 11 pairs of jammies and 6 felt banners? Now I remember what I did on Christmas Eve. I had promised myself 2.5 months ago that I wouldn't be at the machine on Christmas Ever--or worse, Christmas Day. Well, my bad. At least I was done on Christmas Eve. And wrapping is a snap around here, since I've been using cloth bags for like um, 20 years or so. Soooooo much beautiful Christmas material, and so few walls for any more quilts. So I make bags of all sizes for wrapping. Sew the bottom and sides, fold down a hem on the top, done. No lining, no finishing seams, no even bothering to change thread color. Cripes, the kids just yank the bags off anyways, so why worry about the details. The family thinks I should make them and sell them, but even with on-sale material, the cost/price/hassle ratio just isn't there. Then it would be work, not fun. See a theme here? So anywho, a nice big, new chunk o' fat quarters would just about round out my stash. Just about. . . . . :)

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts

Now that I'm home from my first (of many, I hope) quilt retreat, I continue to be humbled by the remarkably talented women I met this weekend. They make it look so easy. (That line was the joke of the night, by the by!) The quilts they make and then give away just boggled my mind. Women from all, and I do mean all, walks of life, sharing a common love (or obsession), coming together to share a few tips with a complete stranger~~what a nice way to spend the weekend. I have several new ideas for my crafty corner, as well as many tips for my sewing work. My hat is off to the women of the Gathering of Quilters of NW Ohio. They only meet 5 times a year, so I hope to join them more often. And they don't meet in the summer, which suits my schedule perfectly.

The Crafty Corner Evolves

Over the last year, DH and I have made a concerted effort to finish the basement. We had hoped to do it many years ago, but the way our lives run, we're happy to be this far along now. (DH is working on his Man Cave, and hopes to have it pretty well along before he comes out West, and the ceiling will be next fall's Big Project.)

My crafty corner is almost complete. After talking to and working with so many talented quilters this weekend, I'm psyched to get my area finished. I need for DH to make a couple of table tops for me, and to pick up a few more necessities (good iron, good task lights, for example) and I'm ready to rock and roll. I rearranged tables, added a wire shelving unit, and fussed with how to store big pieces of material and the bitty bits that are left over. It still lacks the home-y-ness of my old sewing/office/laundry room, but once we get the mechanicals hidden it will come together.

Office/Sewing/Laundry Room Old Ironing Center

New crafty closet

I hope to pick up several of the final goodies tomorrow, including backing and batting for my Badlands Quilt (yes! Finished!) and the Three Bears Quilt. The Three Bears is going to be my YNP quilt. After I get these done, I'm going to make a quilt for FTD's new bed. More on that in a couple of days--the new carpeting should be here Tuesday so I'll get pics posted when we get his room put back together. I'd like to paint the Dining room and the "girls' bathroom" (ha!) but I really need to start concentrating on pre-packing for out west. I need to run through the kitchen boxes to be sure all the stuff is still intact, and the bedding needs to be re-packed, since we're going to try something a bit different this year.

Since I was up sewing until 3 a.m. the past two nights, I'm ready to hit the hay!