Shell Lake, WI

We were in Shell Lake, WI for a number of days recently. There was a Celebration of Life for my oldest brother while we were there. I wanted to spend time with Tom's widow and also my brother Jim who was widowed about 16 years ago. We had a chance to visit and enjoy time together before family and friends arrived. 

 With my brothers: Jim and John in age order, oldest to youngest

LOTS of family came and that was fun. Both our sons came - the one from North Carolina flew in with his wife while the one from Illinois came with his wife and three sons. 

oldest son, me, Ray, youngest son

Our niece, Tracy, has a print shop. She used a picture of this wood carving on the red and blue shirts she made for all of us. (Notice we are all wearing the same shirt in the photo above.)

My brother Tom's nickname was Fuzzy.

One night as we were cruising the lake, we saw this two loons going through a mating routine - bill dipping, synchronized swimming and diving together,

We stayed in a house across the lake from our family cabins and this gorgeous eagle spent a lot of time in one of our trees.

We didn't have a lot of flowers but this one was growing in the sand.

I found prints the first morning right at the shore line. We had lots of rain but we found more tracks another morning and I took pictures. The print is slightly smaller than my hand. We are quite sure it was a gray wolf with the help of an app and the knowledge that there are gray wolves in the area.

We had a couple pretty sunsets.

Before leaving home, I made a list of quilt shops I wanted to visit. I found out the Wisconsin Shop Hop was going on during part of our trip so I collected a few freebees along the way.

At Quilt Corner in Sparta, WI, I found two backs - the blue one will be used for a quilt top I have finished. I also received a pattern for a Reversible Fabric Basket. I think this is my second visit to this shop. The owner and her daughter, a longarmer, are so nice and I enjoyed their selection of fabric.

I found a cute truck panel and some needed green fabric at Busy Bobbin in Rice Lake, WI. I want to do something with quilt blocks around the outside of the panel. The freebee in this section of the hop was a free spool of thread - I received YLI 250 yds. I've been going to this shop for years and they have a good selection of fabric.

In Spooner, WI, at Seams Like Quilting, I bought a pattern, Petal Palette. This section gave out a free block pattern with the option of buying a kit to make the pattern. If you visited each shop in the section, you would have the blocks for a cute sampler quilt. The owner of this shop is always so pleasant to visit.

The Little Gift Shop is Solon Springs, WI, in the same section as Spooner, gave a different pattern for a block of the sampler. I bought a colorful backing. I always enjoy going to this shop - it's amazing the amount of fabric they have nicely displayed in a small space. It was raining hard the day we were there and we had hoped to eat at the tiny restaurant in the back of the shop. Probably due to the weather, there was quite a line of people waiting so we passed.

On our way home, we went to the Nancy Zieman Sewing Studio in Beaver Dam, WI. It's not like going to Nancy's Notion years ago, but it is a very nice shop and the clerk was fun to talk with. We also spent some time upstairs looking at all things Nancy Zieman - it was interesting and brought back many memories. The shop hop was over but we did get a great tip to eat just a couple doors down at the bakery. I found purple backing that I needed, some jumbo clips, a wrist ruler, 

and my big splurge - two fat quarter bundles. I think this will be enough fabric to make Petal Palette (above) and the Luminary Quilt Pattern (which involves some improv). I'm sure I can add a little fabric from my stash if needed.

Now we just need to stay home so I can sew!

McNabb, IL

In mid-June we spent a few days in McNabb, Illinois. Ray recently became aware of the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge and thought we should visit the area. The area historically was a wetlands but for most of the 20th century has been drained and farmed. The Wetlands Initiative gained control of the area and in 2001, turned off the drainage pumps and began restoration. In 2012, the Refuge was designated a Wetlands of International Importance.

We hiked with backpacks. It was hot and buggy so long pants and mosquito repellent were necessary.

We were hoping to see a variety of waterfowl. The surrounding fields were full of wildflowers.

We found lots of black raspberries that were just getting ripe. We might have tasted a few - so sweet and good!

I loved this cone flower.

We climbed the Arthur J. Nolan, Jr observation tower - this is the picture at the parking area -

and looked south,

north,

and ahead.

Do you see the swans. They were far enough away that I couldn't get a good picture. They were the only waterfowl we saw.

One day we had a picnic lunch in Hennepin right by the main dock. We saw some cool boats.

We were close to both Starved Rock State Park and Matthiessen State Park. Since it was a weekend, we went to the less popular Matthiessen State Park. We hiked very defined trails there

and found MANY steps.

We found Lake Falls but the signs told us not to climb any further down.

There were three quilt shops we planned to visit on this trip. We could not find the first one although we really tried! The second was closed down with a for sale sign. And the third was closed the day we were there. I did find some shops on the next short trip coming soon...

Saving money

There hasn't been a lot of quilting going on but I've been busy...saving money!

Savings #1 

We decided to recover the cushions on our screened porch couch. After talking to a reupholstery lady, I decided I could save a lot of money by doing the work myself. I ordered the fabric from her and she offered me advice and gave me her large spool of off-white thread so I could use what I needed! (Yes, I'll go back to her when I have another upholstery need.)

In the following photo, you can see the old cushion cover on the right - I forgot to take pictures before I tore the cushions apart.

Next is the couch with all six cushions (3 seat and 3 back) done.

And. last is the finished couch with the two throw pillows.

Some of the expert advice I received: take apart each cushion and iron the pieces flat to use as pattern pieces; line up the bottom of each main piece at the same place on the fabric; use polyester thread. I followed all of that advice and you may be able to tell that the front of the seat cushions 'match' going across. (Actually all the cushions 'match' wherever you look across the couch.) It never occurred to me that I had to match the cushions with this all over pattern (which repeated every 13"). I'm thankful for experts, especially those that offer their expertise!

Savings #2

The sewing studio has needed painting for a while especially the longarm room which had a good-sized crack in the wall. (We live in a 100+ year-old house.) Ray and I had a discussion about hiring a painter after Ray fixed the crack. After we checked prices, I decided that I would attempt the job myself. I decided on a lighter color, pale yellow, and ended up doing 3 coats (the first 2 with a cheaper paint). Ray did the final coat on the ceiling while I did the walls. Here are a few views of the finished room.

The room was blue as you can see in this picture.

The room is much lighter and brighter and I am delighted. Eventually we plan to paint the other 2 rooms in the studio.

Total savings: over $1000!!!

Both projects were well worth my time. And now it's time to quilt!

Tom's T-Shirt Memory Quilt

My oldest brother, Tom, passed away in January. One of my nieces kept some of his t-shirts for a quilt and I offered to make it. When I found out that there would be a large gathering on Memorial Day to celebrate and commemorate what would have been his 80th birthday, I put the pedal to the metal and finished the quilt with a couple of days to spare.

Tom was a Navy Seabee and served in Vietnam. He was exposed to Agent Orange which was the reason he lived his later years disabled.

The red/white/blue borders on each of the smaller t-shirt pieces, and the inside quilt border are also from one of Tom's shirts. 

My niece gave me a rather rough layout that she thought would work and suggested gray for the background. I was able to draft a pattern from the layout but couldn't imagine gray for the background after auditioning every gray in our house. I went to the Quilt Peddler in Fennimore, WI and Jen, the owner, took one look at the t-shirts and showed me the perfect gray! She only had 2.5 yards, so we decided on a navy outer border, Stars of Valor Navy Flag Texture from Wilmington Prints. I ended up buying the coordinating Stars of Valor Red Flag Texture for the backing.

I decided a simple meandering would work for the quilt and not take away from the shirts. I did add a few hidden words in the meandering - Tom, Dad, Gramps, Fuzzy (his nickname), and Santa (his other nickname). 

I used Dream Poly for the batting - a big change for me since I always use Dream Cotton. I did not want this quilt to pucker so much; I wanted the t-shirts to be readable. I used Glide #1BLK3, Shadow thread on the top and #70187, Ruby thread on the back. The quilt is 65" by 85".

I had four extra shirts and made 16" pillows with them. The pillows are lined and have an envelope closure. It really helped that the shirts were a large size so I had plenty of fabric to work with. Here are a couple:

We had a great Memorial Day - watching the parade, visiting with family and friends, eating some of Tom's favorite foods and treats, remembering and celebrating Tom. People loved the quilt and it went home with my sister-in-law. I'm really happy that I was able to get it finished. Making the quilt helped me - I've never cried so much making a quilt. Now I hope it and the pillows will bring comfort to Tom's family. 

Made with Love

Lone Star

"The Lone Star quilt pattern ...

symbolizes honor, generosity, and protection. 

It's often given as a valued gift at milestones

like ... graduations"

Grandson M's quilt is done! I started it late but finished it in time for his graduation this past weekend. Whew! I found a Lone Star pattern that I liked from Missouri Star Quilt Company.

I had to resize the star from 62" to about 39" for a XL twin mattress (standard dorm mattress) and design the rest of quilt. When I resized the star, there was a lot of space at both ends of the quilt that I needed to fill.

I have only attempted a Lone Star quilt once before and it did not go well. This time I was more prepared - I starched my fabric and cut very precise angles (big success factors). I used Grunge and Dry Brush fabrics and learned to choose the background fabric AFTER making the star. 

Ray was holding the quilt and fighting the wind but I think we got a decent photo. The quilt is 64" by 90".

I used rulers to straight line quilt the stars, the diamonds, and the inside and outside of the terracotta border. The background is quilted with meandering. Glide Battleship #10430 was used on the front and #32965 Navy was used on the back and the navy border.

The navy border has ruler quilted diamonds with scribbling in the centers. The corners are filled with double loops.

The navy border in the above photo is color-correct. Below the color is off - It's the same navy border as above and the same color navy backing with bits of denim in it.

In other news, the mystery quilt top is finished,

as is my brother's t-shirt memory quilt top.

I need to finish the memory quilt soon and then I don't think I have anything else with a due date so I'll soon be back to quilting whatever I feel like at the time.