Happy Quilting! Change is in the air...

I had a most wonderful quilting weekend at Shipshewana, Indiana a couple weeks ago. The drive was peaceful and I enjoyed the fall leaves. Aussie Quilt teacher Di Ford-Hall taught classes for Gay Boomers (of Sentimental Stitches) at the 4 day Quilt Retreat. It was lovely!... and I met and shared a room with the friendly, kind, and talented quilter Penny Prichard! She was with me all weekend while I reeled from the news that the university I was working for was abruptly closing at the end of the semester, in less that 30 days. Quite the weekend!

The inspiring quilting classes were a welcome diversion and fun time of creativity and peacefulness. Here is a glimpse into the weekend...

Di brought a suitcase full of some of her beautiful quilts as seen in her books AND new design Bally Hall, a class that I attended (photos to come in another posting).                Happy Quilting All!

Non-Quilting Adventure (with photos)

Notre Dame floor tile mosaic

When our daughter graduated from college in May we promised travel for her grad. gift. Since age six years old - when she began studying German in summer language immersion camp, she has wanted to go to Germany. With sports commitments, school, and internships, timing has never worked for her to go....until 3 weeks ago when the start date for her job was delayed two more weeks.

The schedule delay just happened to coincide with some very cheap flights to Germany from LAX (near her). For under $450 each, round trip, I booked flights for both of us on Thurs. night and we were in Germany by Monday night! (Ironically, it costs more to and from Oklahoma--California than to Germany!) Happily, I was able to go along for week one of this two-week adventure to Germany, France, Belgium & Netherlands. Here are some highlights from my camera. (There is more on phone but not yet downloaded). Not to bore everyone, I have posted only a few photos (eleven to be exact).

View of the Rhine from Marksburg Castle, Braubach Germany

This was a true whirlwind travel adventure in that we stayed at Airbnbs, planning where to stay 1-2 days in advance. We also used Rick Steve's travel guidebook to give us some tips and guides. But, for the most part we did it on our own! We had a general idea of a circle route around the area, but really we made final decisions about where and what we wanted to do based on weather, opportunities, and tips from the locals. We hopped on buses, trains and a boat to go everywhere!

Climbing up inside Arc de Triomphe, Paris

Germany was the main target as dd enjoyed speaking and reading German to guide our way. But she realized that we were so close to Paris (3 hrs by train) that we must go...and so we did! We found two great places to stay right within walking distance of everything in a second floor and a 4th floor apt. with lovely hosts. We saw people atop the "Arch of Triumph" and decided we wanted to check it out. Turns out is was free to walk up the many flights of narrow circular stairs (with our backpacks on) to get on top for excellent view all around Paris! We had walked near the Eiffel tower the night before for spectacular view of night lights.

We also visited other Paris highlights. The Louvre was simply incredible inside and out! We also enjoyed paintings by Monet, Degas, Manet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cezanne, and even James Whistler's mother (AKA Victorian, USA Mona Lisa) with up close an personal viewing at Musée d'Orsay. We also walked our legs off all around the city enjoying the views. I have a special souvenir from the Paris subway because I was not fast and pushy enough to clear the metro doors before they slammed shut on my upper right arm causing a lovely double row of door width bruises (2" x 5"). Reminded me of subway in NYC!

St. Goar, Germany - cruising on the Rhine

View from Arc de Triomphe, Paris

Notre Dame, Paris, France

Relaxing after visiting the Louvre, Paris, France

No caption needed!

Ja

Cathedral - Kölner Dom, Cologne, Germany

Did I mention the food???
In addition to wonderful fresh bread and pastries, in Germany I ate Jägerschnitzel mit Champignonrahmsauce (breaded pork-loin with mushroom sauce) in Dusseldorf, Käsespätzle (German cheesy noodles) in Bracbach. In France we had what my dd said was "the best meal of her life!" Next, there was Belgian chocolate, mussels (moules marinière: cooked with shallots, parsley and butter), and frites (Belgian fries) - which our host assures us originated in Belgium and are NOT French fries. Delicious!

Grand Palais, Bruxelles, (Brussels), Belgium

In Brussels, it was "Journée sans voiture à Bruxelles" dimanche 22 septembre 2017 - a day without cars while we were there! Streets were closed for the entire city, people walked and biked in the streets. Trains and electric buses/trams ran free for everyone. There was also a big flea market, lots of music, and all types of street vendors and individuals selling antiques and used items right outside the front door of  their apartments. It was fun just to be able to walk all around and look at everything. There was a big festival at the square of the Grand Palais too with a parade and larger-than-life puppet figures and people dressed in costumes.

German /French countryside from the train.

After my 7-day journey, it was time for me to return to the USA - back to work.

DD however, continued traveling solo another week to Netherlands, Berlin & Dortmund, Germany.

Wonderful memories!!

Thanks for sharing them with me ~ Wanda.

Livin' Large! - but little quilting

I have not stopped long enough to blog - or quilt much in awhile. Much has happened...Summarized here (or skip below to a tiny bit of quilting). First is B-day Carrot Cake for me from my great Aunt Mimi's recipe (plus extra carrots, lots of pecans, golden raisins, and strawberries for topping, & a few more spices) already included pineapple, coconut, and lots of shredded carrots! YUM!!

DD graduated college in May and is now on West coast working for the year. Flyboy left for Iowa (of all places - who would have thought!) to UD to finish his degree. I had fun this spring traveling with him for college visits. He picked a great place. It will be fun to go visit there! Sweet niece got married in San Diego - beautiful bride!

Hubby has new job and so do I - well really mine is just an "interim" title added to all the other hats I already wear! We'll see what happens. Lots of hours for sure!

Since May we have hosted almost innumerable lovely guests in our home (word of mouth & Airbnb). Currently, hosting three semi-long-termers all private contacts, 2 university students for the year, & 1 professional (until Nov. 10th). Plus we have our first Workaway.info guest....So interesting!! - Definitely a travel approach that I will be trying out sometime in the future. I continue taking art therapy and palliative care courses as my "carrot" each week. Will do 12 hours for fall, including finishing practicum hours I began this summer - more FUN!

And... this is still on my sewing table. How could it have possibly been there for 2 years - come October!

 

Another small applique project was completed last month.

Forest Critters

This is such a cute pattern! While I had seen it before, I was not inspired to buy and make these critters until I saw it made up in a quilt shop in Skagway, Alaska. It was so adorable!! So, I began this baby quilt using Fancy Forest pattern by Elizabeth Hartman in fall 2016 but have not worked on it at all during this spring semester. However, it seemed a good time to share it and inspire me to finish up for the baby boy who will be it's owner soon. Goal before his 1st birthday. I have 6 months - I think I can do it!

MOKA Fun!

MOKA - Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas Quilt History Study Group meeting last weekend was WONDERFUL! This is my second time to attend a meeting and I have not been disappointed!

A colleague from work came along and shared a quilt and story with the group. Find out about this quilt and the utility patch quilt on the MOKA fb page. This a lovely red and white pattern with interesting concentric circle quilted inside the white blocks.

Program was held at the Bushwacker Museum, Nevada, MO Friday evening and the local county fairgrounds on Saturday with slide presentation and quilt viewing, a silent auction and great food! The program focused on Depression Era history and quilts and afternoon program was on Redwork and Embroidery quilts. What a treat to see many quilts from private collections shared with the group. I learned a lot including about the "Penny Squares" - stamped patterns on muslin blocks for red work embroidery from the Depression Era. (More on Penny Squares here). See the pictures below.

I am looking forward to the next meeting this fall!

Princess Feather

Wagon Wheel Signature quilt

Scrappy fans & more "make-do"

Star - love that yellow & scraps!

Bushwacker Museum exhibit: Items from Dr. Hornback's home

Pharmacy dispensary from Dr. Hornback's home, Bushwacker Museum

Amish Ocean Waves & more

This is DD's project that began in the summer when she was home (for ACL surgery). It is being made for one of her mentor's who is such an encouragement to her as a woman in family medical practice.

After browsing through many books, DD selected design and colors based on a quilt from a historic Amish collection  in one of Rachel Pellman's books. We cut and sewed together off and on when we could in between DD's summer internship and while DD's leg was propped up and being iced. We ran out of time for finishing before DD had to return to school in the fall. We stopped before the last decision of choosing the correct background color. It was left to me to do and I stalled out! The sky blue matches the design that she colored in but navy blue was auditioned too, just in case the sky blue was too obnoxious. I think the sky it the best!

Next the dilemma of size. It seems a bit small to me although borders will enlarge to couch (or wall) size. That is probably just fine and I should get a move on for finishing! But there has been NO quilting this spring except a rare few minutes with the Bible Quilt applique. I do not expect my time to be freed up soon :( This semester is way overloaded with teaching classes, guest lecturing for a special request, taking classes (fabulous art therapy among others) and covering other classes for a friend with a family emergency who will be out for the rest of the semester.

There has been fun in Feb - something different and unexpected but wonderful ...that is DS is planning to go back to school in fall and has invited me to do road trips for college visits with him. FUN TIMES!

A personal non-quilting accomplishment recently was refinishing and trimming out three floors in our old home (Oct/Nov 2016 - although we still have not moved all items back in rooms and don't have furniture of the other room. We let DS take the huge garage sale acquired sofa previously when he moved out and there was nothing else of substance in that room; it was more a storage area). So this re-do has been a long time coming - since moving into this old house 17 years ago. First there was all the work on the other parts of the house we lived in daily, then repairs and upgrades that had to bee done (Did I ever report on the major sewer line, siding, and window replacements?) well, in the end... it looks lovely!

And last but not least I made it out to NYC to visit DD when she was studying there in fall. We walked over to Central Park on Sunday afternoon and spent the entire afternoon at the Met! Loved this Tiffany! It was brilliant and huge!
  

I hope to have more quilting news next time - Although it may just be a re-cap of more fall activities. At least I plan to post SOMETHING once a month. I have some baby quilts in the works (one partly made and one in the dreaming stage) for two family friends. This work is inspiring but keeps going to bottom of the list (with work on top).

Other quilt activities and plans are in the works... to be brought to fruition soon I hope! 
Happy Quilting to All!

Elephant Parade

Welcome 2017!
WOW! I see I only made only two posts in 2016 - both in July. How can that be - 2016 passed and quilting has definitely not been my focus. I have done some quilting in the second half of 2016.

Here is the completed Elephant Parade quilt! (began and finished summer 2016). Daughter hand embroidered the label and I tried my hand at machine quilting and binding again - it's been awhile and I've only tried 2-3 times before.

 

This quilt was lovingly sewn by daughter dear - with me as assistant/consultant but daughter's idea and actual sewing! The quilt was given to the very appreciative "mum" of a little boy who was the director of a research program at City of Hope that dd participated in for two summers. DD developed a mutual fondness and respect and is also appreciate e of the mentoring. The happy recipient proudly displayed the quilt on FB.  She also noted the DNA-like quilting in the borders - not surprising from a scientist (it was really a free-hand flowing cable design).

 See Elephant Parade original pattern at Sew Fresh Quilts Quilt blog. Layout, number of blocks and borders were modified a bit by my daughter. We used mostly scraps from the stash and had so much fun sewing together!

Let's go quilting 2017!