Rotary Botanical Gardens

We made a visit to the Rotary Botanical Gardens in Janesville, Wisconsin, a while back. It was a gorgeous day and I thought I'd share a little of our visit.

Nice wide walking paths

I love this.

There were many turtles around the gardens as a special exhibit.

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect...
                                                            -Alice Walker

The Lattice Quilt is finished

The Lattice Quilt is finished! I saw something like this once and always wanted to try it. The one I saw had a variety of solid colors with the white lattice. It might have had a facing instead of a binding; I'm not sure. I used a floral fabric so it's like looking at a flower garden through a lattice fence. 

I made this on the diagonal. A few years ago I made two Harry Potter quilts with diagonal pieces. I pieced the quilt, then cut it apart on the diagonal and added a long fabric piece and sewed it back together. After doing this for every diagonal piece one direction,  I repeated for the diagonals in the opposite direction. I had really good precision with that method. Making this on the diagonal had less precision but it's a smaller quilt so all worked fine.

I removed the last colored square on each corner so the corners are kind of neat. 

This 52" square donation quilt is the first quilt I have quilted with a pantograph. I used Flower Power and practiced quite a bit. To use a pantograph, you trace the design with a laser light that is connected to the longarm. The longarm moves and stitches as you trace. It sounds so easy. Ha ha! 

It turned out pretty good! I used Glide 40-wt #17443 Bone thread. Here are pictures of the front and back before the quilt was washed.

And after being laundered:

The back is a soft yellow Grunge with some of the leftover floral fabric.

There's been lots of activity in the sewing studio lately. My stamina is improving and I can work for 1 - 2 hours at a time. I'm slowly learning to cut without much bending and to sew without much bending. When  I bend, I hurt so I have to learn alternatives and I'm progressing.

Here is a finish that needs to be quilted.

My newest obsession is Tiny Houses. I'm enjoying digging through my scraps.

There will be more finishes soon!

Hindsight ...

The Soccer Quilt is done. 

I bought the material last August at Quality Time Quilts in Indianola, Iowa. Sometime later in the fall, when I wasn't moving around much, I decided to do something with the fabric. I had a plan and cut the soccer fabric; I even sewed some pieces to the colored fabric. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I decided it was time to clean up my studio and finish all the quilts I had started when I was laid up. This one had cut pieces for a layout that wasn't working and I really didn't know what to do with it so I cut the pieces smaller thinking it would help - it didn't! The quilt is way too busy. I wish I hadn't cut the fabric last fall - I can now think of lots of possibilities for the fabric, of course! I decided it was time to just finish it so I did and I really hope some soccer-loving child will love it (because I don't!).

The Soccer Quilt is a 56" square donation quilt. 

I quilted it with Glide 40wt thread - Bone 17443 on the top and Cardinal 70001 on the back. I used a variety of motifs as I long arm quilted it - spirals, lazy 8s, paisley, horizontal stipple, double loops, and meandering. 

The back is red.

Looking at the quilt now, I think the quilt top would have made a great backing...

Cranes and Daisies

We went to Madison, WI, and watched the USA- Canada 2022 18U Women's World Championship Ice Hockey preliminary game. It was fun but the arena is somewhat crowded which didn't bode well with Ray and his new knee so we watched the rest of the games on TV. The USA beat Canada that night and was undefeated going into the finals. Then Canada got their revenge and beat the USA in the gold medal game! We were delighted to have access to the games and enjoyed watching them. 

The day after we saw the game in Madison, we went north to The International Crane Foundation near Baraboo, WI. We walked the path around the exhibits. A few of the cranes are inside because their outside enclosures do not have netting over the top and other birds can get in and may carry the avian flu. We were able to view more than we missed and it was an enjoyable walk. I've shared a few pictures.

Sarus Crane

Blue Crane

Black Crowned Crane

Black Crowned Crane

Black-necked Crane

There were wild flowers and water lilies.

Many of the enclosures had murals. 

And there were beautiful gardens, sculptures, a fountain, prayer wheels, a Zen Garden, and hiking paths.

I loved the message by the fountain:

I will write peace on your wings

and you will fly all over the world.

                      -Sadako Sasaki

We plan to return to see the cranes we missed and hike some of the nature trails.

A number of weeks ago, I sewed with some friends and we made a quilt for one friend's granddaughter. The granddaughter has CRPS and is undergoing treatment in Arkansas this summer. She asked her grandmother for a quilt and a few of us helped make it happen. The grandmother chose the Fresh as a Daisy pattern. It turned out beautifully but I didn't get any photos.

After making pretty pastel daisies all day with friends, I wondered what the quilt would look like with just one color daisies. So...I decided to use my stash and make a donation quilt. Of course, I was and still am in the middle of trying to finish all the quilts I began over the last year. But, hey, it's always fun to begin another quilt! I decided I didn't need to buy the pattern, I knew the measurements for the daisies and I'd just wing it from there. 

I made a couple daisies. All was well. I was thinking mostly white and maybe a few yellow flowers. Do you like the centers? They are fussy cut from some leftover fabric from a recent project. 

I went ahead and cut out all of the daisy pieces. And then OOPS! The petals were to be cut at 2 1/2" by 4 1/2" as I did with my prototypes (above) but I cut the pieces 2 1/2 by 4". At first I thought I'd just set the pieces aside for some other day but there were a LOT of pieces so I made one daisy. It was smaller but still cute so I adjusted and went forward.

The left block is 1" smaller in height and width than the right block.

I finally decided on one yellow daisy - thus the name One of a Kind. Then I just assembled the quilt the way I thought would look nice. It ended up being 50" by 56".

I quilted this with Glide thread. Not considering that the thread was 40-weight (heavier), I decided the bone thread would not show too much on the quilt. It shows more than I like but will be fine. I used an overall meander design.

The backing is one of my new favorites. I do love bright colors!

I have a few more quilts started that I'd like to finish. Tomorrow I might be going on a shop hop so who knows what new inspiration I'll find.

Another finish!

Things are going pretty well here and I'm spending a little more time in the studio most days. That means I'm making progress on some UFOs. 

Supernova is finished. I saw a quilt made with the this pattern a number of years ago and decided that I'd like to make one. I don't have the pattern but decided I'd just make my version. I used 'solid' reds and a white with a swirl tone on tone pattern from my stash. I used HSTs for the whole quilt.

This donation quilt is 60" square. For the quilting, I used Aurifil 50-wt Dove Gray thread #2600 on the top and Aurifil 50-wt Deep Red thread #1103 on the back. I decide to free-motion quilt this with a loop-de-loop motif which has given it a nice texture. 

The backing was a wide back piece in my stash. It contains all the reds from the front and more.

Quilting is so much faster with the long arm and I really enjoy using it. 

Life is getting better around here. Ray still has a ways to go but is progressing. I am gaining more and more stamina. Every day is a blessing.

We are watching the 2022 18U Women's World Championship Ice Hockey games on TV tonight. We watched the USA beat Sweden night and will be able to attend a couple games later in the week. We know a young woman on the USA team - she is the daughter of one of our son's best friends in K-12 school. So we know her parents, her grandparents, her aunts and uncles and cousins ... It is very exciting - GO USA!

Everyday is a blessing!

A finish and an update

Oh my - I haven't posted in a month! Well, to begin with, I have a finish -  Paint Splash. I shared some pictures of it in progress last time.

This donation quilt is 59" by 66". 

I used Finesse #3285 Light Wool 40-weight thread for the quilting.

The motif is a free-motion horizontal stipple and I added stars, swirls, hearts, and leaves for interest.

The backing is from my stash.

Ray is doing well and has learned to not be an over-achiever; he had a little set-back from too much exercising. He is walking better and doing more each day. We've also learned that he shouldn't expect his new normal for 6-12 months.

Ray was with me when I saw my Bone Health doctor. They had quite the conversation since the doctor had his knee replaced 3 months prior to Ray! 

I'm doing well. My daily shots for bone health are done and I will have an infusion in the near future that should stabilize my bone density for a year or longer. That will be ongoing for a few years. My bone density increased more than 6% during the last year giving me some really strong, dense bones. 

I am gaining strength and walk a few thousand steps each day. It's hard to believe that last fall I averaged less than100 steps a day one week. Last week I averaged over 7,000 steps a day. Every week gets better and I'm beginning to add more exercises. My stamina is still a work in progress but getting better. One day last week I cleaned my closet - that's the first extra thing I have done and I'm working my way through a list of things I want to do. (Quilting is NOT an extra thing; it is a necessary thing!)

We've enjoyed watching some of our grandsons participating in ballgames, soccer matches, and a track meet recently. We also took a 'hike' a few days ago at Blackhawk Springs Forest Preserve. We stayed on the paved path which made it easier for Ray. We enjoyed being outside in some open spaces and also enjoyed a picnic. It was a gorgeous day although a bit windy.

Next time we'll try some of the off-pavement trails.

Another day we met Ray's brother and his special friend at Grace's Place in Cascade, Iowa. We enjoyed a good lunch, some delicious pie, and a great visit. It is wonderful to finally be getting out and doing some things.

These blocks are currently on the design board. I still need to decide the actual layout.

I'm very grateful to feel well enough to quilt and/or sew almost every day.