I conquered the Beast!

You'd think I was showing off the beast which is done!done!done!
But really, I'm showing off my back yard which is full of forsythias! The pattern I was kinda/sorta looking at while I made this quilt left the sides of the "lover's knots" unfinished. As I put it together, they looked undone, see the top pic, at the bottom right "knot" of the quilt? now look at this side, I "applied" the forgotten corner (the purple and black 2x2 squares) to make it look finished.
This quilt is so old, I'm not sure how to date it. In the 80's, I babysat my nephew every day before and after school, he would just get the bus from here because his mom and dad were already at work. My brother is a huge outdoors man, and he befriended an old woods-woman who lived in the UP. She owned about 300 acres of forest and she let my brother hunt and fish on her land. She canned all her veg's and caught all her own meat, she was a beekeeper and sold honey in quart jars and she quilted and sold the quilts for $20 apiece! they were all different, all crazy (pun intended) and all the stitches were crooked, uneven, in different colored thread, and they were tied. My brother bought me two of them (because I would never let him pay me for babysitting) before she passed away. One is on my daughter's bed, she loves it, it weighs at least ten pounds, (all double knit polyester)and this one I keep in the RV to keep us warm on cold spring nights. This one sings to me. I should take closer photos so you could see the fabrics,
they date all the way from the fifties to the mid 70's
This is the back, oddly pieced, with one fabric of orange and yellow flowers and another fabric that I think I had bed sheets of, while I still lived at my Mom's house...(long time ago)

These quilts, to me are the epitome of "Utility Quilts" and that is exactly what I do, utilize them with all my heart!

Thanks, Bobber, for these gifts!

Hope all your Spring nights are cozy!!

lyn

How do you quilt an Elephant?

One stitch at a time!! I've been conquering the beast slowly but surely.
I'm taking all of your wonderful advise and settled for a straight stitch in the (hardest, darnedest, and most stubborn) middle section.
And winding a heart vine around the edge border. Now I"m pecking away at the binding. Then I have to finish the bed skirt and the shams, and viola! new bedding! but then, I'll have to paint the room, maybe get new carpet, redesign the headboard, maybe strip the nightstands, probably have to buy new fabric for the curtains, ahhhh, life is and endless banquet of possibilities!!
in the meantime, I whipped up a table top for my girlfriend, Brennie, her and I have been best of friends since we were in Jr High cheerleading together, (we cheered the dinosaurs it was so long ago,,,tee hee)
what could be more fitting than a friendship star? low contrast, soft colors, and sweet. Just like my Brennie!

Hope all your friendships are sweet!
lyn

The purple passion pizzled

oh, girls, it was a wonderful idea in the beginning! I drew a heart, swirled a sun in there, and thought it would be easy-peasy-punkin-pie to quilt over the paper and end up with the world's greatest quilted-by-lynie thing ever. As usual, I'm stuck. I am as coordinated as a soup sandwich, and the quilting of the thing is driving me crazy. Do you remember all the hours I spent practising on those easytohandle doll quilts? Did you hear me say how easy Tonia's was to quilt by machine? Did you hear the screams from Michigan last night when the darn thing was giving me fits?

What should I do? (A) take all the pins out of the papers and calmly throw them in the frazzle-ratsin garbage bin? (B) Sell my youngest child and pay a LAQ to do the dirty work for me? or (C) Put it away for a few days and compose my normally-easy-going self to give the thing another twirl on the dance floor? I promise, I did not crumple these papers in a rage. They crumpled all by their selves when I GENTLY rolled the thing up to put it on the golldarn machine. Please send HELP! If you have no help, Please send CHOCOLATE!

The good news is that Mr. Wonderful has come through his eye-implant surgery with flying colors. He is sleeping off the anesthesia and I went for a walkabout with my camera,
Crocus and Tulips peeking out in the sun! A sure sign of Spring in Michigan
And this baby was my mother's tulip. I replanted some out of her yard after she passed in '03. Red was her favorite color in everything, not just tulips, she raised and sold iris and poppies until the early 70's when some friendly young adults came in a Volkswagen van and bought every poppy she had. She was so proud of the sale, she called me to brag about it. I had to break the news to her that they might not plant them. She watched for the police to come for the next two months. I miss my innocent, unsuspecting, full of red poppies Mom.

She couldn't quilt, either.

Hope all your stitches don't have to be pulled out.

lyn

Hi, Honey, I'm home!

Wow, that 8 days went so fast, my head is still spinning! I zoomed on DD#1's quilt and finally got it all done,
Then she had car trouble on the way, (new transmission) so we rented her a car and got her home last Saturday. She loved her quilt and slept with it the whole time she was here,

So the whole week was running, (literally) and any slow times were shuffling cards and playing Skip-Bo (she and I played it the whole time she was growing up and now it's become a tradition) cookouts, shopping, hot-tubbing, and giggling, not to mention the put-a-yard-on-my-waste meals my DH prepared. So now my little home is quiet and the beds are stripped, the carpets vacuumed, the toys and bikes put away, and my baby girl is sleeping in her own bed tonite. (boohoo) even tho she is 37 this year, she will always be my baby. And her babies will always be my babies,

It's wonderful to see them come, and it's kinda good to see them go, I'm exhausted and ready to get back to normal. I'll bet I have a TON of blogs to catch up on. Here I come!

Hope all your babies are cuddling in a quilt tonite.

Lyn

A Blessing in a Box

Girls, can you peek in here and see a heart?
Because it was loaded with kindness and generosity, all the way to the top
Orphans and mug-rugs and blocks, oh my!
Look at all the yumminess!
and Candy, Too!!!! And to top it all off, Scraps, and Scraps Galore!...someone give me a mop, cuz my heart's in a puddle!

Little Miss Finn is one of the most open and generous persons in all of Blogdom Land. This box is proof, she sent not only pieces of her scrap bag, she sent pieces of herself. How can you thank some one for all that? Her heart is bigger than the Great Lake that lies between us!

Thank you, Finn,
Lyn