When will it end?

Sheesh!!

Just when just about everything was melted.....

We wake up this morning to a blizzard with huge flakes coming down.

There's an inch already

Sigh!!

It's March for Pete's sake...come ON Spring...you know i love you best.

Nursery Rhymes II

Finished the second quilt top with the nursery rhyme blocks. but let's ramp it up a notch...shall we?  i had this rockin' stripe/chevron that begged to be in this quilt. want a quilt to keep your child up at night?  LOL  i got one for you. it is much brighter in person.

The blue border fabric is cotton...but the rest is flannel. and i used up just about every inch of those flannels. i was piecing strips for the sashings and first border.

Three blind mice
see how they run
they all ran after the farner's wife
she cut off their tails with a carving knife
have you ever seen such a sight in your life
three blind mice

psycho farmer's wife. LOL

Four and twenty blackbirds backed in a pie
when the pie was opened, the birds began to sing
now wasn't that a tasty dish to set before the king

yuck!

This little piggy went to market
this little piggy stayed home
this little piggy had roast beef
this little piggy had none
this little piggy cried wee, wee, wee all the way home

crybaby piggy

Humpty dumpty sat on a wall
humpty dumpty had a great fall
all the kings horses and all the kings men
couldn't put humpty dumpty back together again.

his mother probably told him to stay off that wall

Little boy blue come blow your horn
the sheeps in the meadow
the cows in the corn
where is the boy who looks after the sheep
he's under the haystack fast asleep

i bet they dock his pay

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner
eating his Christmas pie
he stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plum
and said what a good boy am I

and his mother probably said...quit playing with your food and use your fork

Little Miss Muffet
sat on her tuffet
eating her curds and whey
along came a spider
and sat down beside her
and frightened Miss Muffet away

those curds and whey would have frightened me....i would just have stepped on the spider

Mary had a little lamb
its fleece was white as snow
and everywhere that Mary went
the lamb was sure to go

It followed her to school one day
which was against the rules
it made the children laugh and play
to see a lamb at school

teacher had a rough day

There was an old woman
who lived in a shoe
she had so many children
she didn't know what to do

so she fed them some milk
without any bread
and whipped them all soundly
and sent them to bed

then she sat down with a cold one and watched Housewives of Atlanta

Rock a bye baby in the treetops
when the wind blows the cradle will rock
when the bough breaks the cradle will fall
and down will come baby cradle and all

social services would be getting involved here

Twinkle, twinkle little star
how i wonder what you are
up above the world so high
like a diamond in the sky

I belive this is the first time i have done this in sashings before. i need to remember this....i like it.

Ok..i am all out of nursery rhyme embroidered blocks. on to something else...

tomorrow

Birds in the Field

These are some Aunt Sophie bird blocks from years ago. i tried to find out who did the embroidery...but cousin Bob didn't know. there were only 7 blocks so i had to get creative in setting them.

Someone did an awfully fine job of embroidering these birds.

I just happed to have some fabric with birds on it that worked for the sashing, too.

A St. Louis Cardinal   LOL

I know at least 2 people worked on these. this hummer is stitched 'rougher' than the other one. it seems they used a thicker kind of thread.

This hummer was stitched by the person who did all the other birds. great work

I'm thinking this bird didn't get finished. looks like he needs some toes or something

A pretty yellow bird

The alternate blocks remind me of farmers fields...so i named this quilt Birds in the Field

Glad i had enough fabrics to make it work.

I'll hang this one in the studio when it is quilted.... some day.  or perhaps at the house. I sure miss Aunt Sophie.

Talk to you...

tomorrow

A good start for March

I don't know about you, but i feel that if i make a good start on my projects on the first day of the month...then the rest of the month will go well also. So, since yesterday was the first, i got busy and this is what i accomplished yesterday.

1.  Birds in the Field...got 4 blocks pieced and sashings cut. this is a small wallhanging....about 40" or less. there are 7 hand embroidered birds. i am putting them on point and adding blocks between them. 

2.  Got the borders on the Jesus quilt. it is now ready for quilting. this is for a lady in the neighborhood.

3.  Back to Square One mystery quilt from Judy at www.patchworktimes.com   we got clue 3...and i got it done. this is the middle of the quilt. we get a clue every month.

4.  I made eight 10" strip blocks from my vat of strips. i plan on doing 100 of them this month. i figure 3 a day will get me there.

5.  I am still washing my truckload of fabrics. i washed, folded and put away 21 more yards.

6.  I finished piecing Nursery Rhymes I top.....one more top to go to use up all those blocks.

7.  And, i made 2 blog entries. 

I think i did pretty good for my first day of the month. i feel good that i am on the right path to accomplish a lot this month.

So far, for the year, i have pieced 18 tops from projects i had 'in progress'..... and have 4 in the works that i am simultaneously working on now.

Today i did pretty well, too. 

1.  I made more Bird in the Field blocks..... am going to work on those some  more tonight and might even get the blocks all done.

2.  I made 3 more 10" strip blocks

3.  washed, folded and put away 26 more yards of fabric.

I only worked in the studio a few hours today. i had to go to town to do the monthly chores...bank, post office, grocery store, dollar store, thrift stores. well, the thrift store was for fun. speaking of thrift stores....i got skunked at the thrift store today. i always look at their jigsaw puzzles....a weakness of mine. i got 4 of them....at 25 cents each. one felt particularly heavy. when i got it home...i opened it...and to my surprise it wasn't even a jigsaw puzzle. it was filled with old greeting cards that someone had saved. darn!!   that was a puzzle picture that i really liked, too. well, i only paid a quarter...so no big loss. and i will send them to my cousin, Barb. she recycles cards and such and sends out homemade Christmas cards. i always look forward to her cards. so, Barb, if you are reading this....you'll be getting a package soon. LOL

Then i had to come home and take a nap for an hour. so now i'll go get started on finishing up those blocks and see what else i can get into. dinner is in the steamer....chicken, carrots and sweet potatoes. i really like my steamer. 

I might just finish another project tonight and have a picture to show you...

tomorrow

Nursery Rhymes I

On my list of things to accomplish this month, was a pile of machine embroidery applique blocks that have nursery rhymes on them. i have 24 blocks so i decided to make 2 quilts. this is the first one. the blocks are 12x14".  This is all flannel.

Let's see if i remember my nursery rhymes.

Rub a dub dub
3 men in a tub

that's all i know of that one.

Hey diddle, diddle
The cat and the fiddle

The cow jumped over the moon

The little dog laughed to see such sport
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

I think this is a counting rhyme but don't know it

Hickory dickory dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
The mouse ran down
Hickory dickory dock



Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after

Jack be nimble
Jack be quick
Jack jumped over
The candlestick

Mistress Mary
Quite contrary
How does your garden grow
With blue bells
And cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row

Old King Cole
Was a merry old soul
And a merry old soul
Was he
He called for his wife
And he called for his __?___
And he called
For his fiddlers three

Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater
Had a wife and couldn't keep her
So he put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her, very well

This could be..

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream

Or..

there is something about a man putting out to sea in a beautiful pea green boat....?  am i remembering that correctly? who knows



Sheesh, it's a wonder we all grew up 'normal' after all those strange nursery rhymes.

I have another set of 12...perhaps get those together...

tomorrow

The Jesus quilt

A lady i know from the neighborhood asked me if i could make a quilt for her with some blocks that she had. normally, i don't do this anymore...but i like her...so i said yes. while i was out of town, she gives my husband a baggy with blocks in them. they are Jesus blocks. i've never made a Jesus quilt before. LOL

After discussing sizes and colors and designs and prices and such with her, she decided on just a small throw over the back of the couch size....40x50".  so this is what i came up with.

The blocks have the picture fused onto them. i think they were run through a printer. some of the pics have lines through them that show when the printer isn't working properly.

The blocks were red, blue and predominately brown. it was a head scratcher to figure out what color fabrics to use.

I finally settled on browns. the rectangles around the pics looks kind of red...but it is a brown...i guess a reddish-brown. hahaha

I decided the sashing needed to be something to pop...otherwise it was all just boring. black and gold did it.

Pretty simple and i hope, effective. won't get quilted yet for a few weeks, but it is ready. i don't think i will quilt over the pics....they are kind of thick. have to come up with some kind of design

What quilting design would you put on a Jesus quilt? i'll be thinking on this one for a while. but, perhaps something wonderful will come to me...

tomorrow

Back to Square One, Clue 3

Clue 3 is up on www.patchworktimes.com   and it is quick and easy.

Look...the center medallion is finished.

OK, Judy....I'm ready......is it April yet?   is it...huh????

Maybe..

tomorrow