Little Brown Church in the Vale - not quite

Here's the church that is going into the tree quilt. I especially like the way the stained glass windows turned out.

This is one of the filler blocks. There are three of these. There are also some four-patches and "fence" blocks yet to come.

Here's a rooster from a quilt at Sauder. I've been saving black and white and yellow fabrics for my someday "Chicken Quilt".  This big fellow is giving me inspiration. I caught the end of the movie 'The Bucket List' on TV last night. Now what kind of a list would you make for those "someday" quilts?

Puppy Power

Most of this week has been adjusting and getting to know our new puppy, Chloe. She's a wonderful dog. She's so mild mannered that sometimes we sit and watch her and wonder when she's going to DO SOMETHING!  Other times, you can't find her and when you check, she's hiding somewhere, totally puppy-like, with a shoe or other no-no. 

Jacob really loves her and she is so good at letting him rough-house with her. Yesterday, we took her to the dog  park in East Lansing and Chloe played well with the other dogs. She had a ball being able to run free.

Last week was the quilt show at Sauder Village. This is MacArthur's Attic, which was too large for the wall quilt category and too small for the bed quilt category. Luckily, they showed it anyway.  I have more quilt pictures to upload. This morning, however, I found out that my new card reader doesn't fit in my OLD!! computer.  The trip to the Apple Store is going to have to happen sooner than later. 

Can't Sit Down

Cubby and Claire went off early Saturday morning to Vet-a-Visit at MSU.  They had fun seeing the animals. Cubby said his favorite was seeing a horse on a treadmill. He wasn't interested in sticking his hand inside the see-thru cow though.  He got a little stuffed cow and had a personal consultation with the vet. Most kids said their animals had broken legs or sore tummies. Cubby told the vet that his cow had "boiling water on his head". They wrapped it in a big bandage. I can tell it's going to take years to live down that trauma... can you say therapy?

Cubby looks quite natural with a stethoscope don't 'cha think? Claire said other kids sat on the chair with the animal in their lap. Cubby insisted on standing because he was the animal doctor and that's what they do. He's got a mind of his own! 

Trees Plus...

Played a bit more with the trees this week. I'm caught up now for this installment. I need to get busy on my Sauder entry so I guess that's what I'll focus on this week. 

Here's a couple of the trees added to the barn. I really like the way the hand-dyed fabric makes the barn look weathered.  Couldn't get my sewing machine to blanket stitch so I had to zig zag the star. I used rayon Sulky and a piece of paper toweling underneath as a stabilizer. It's easy to rip off when you are done.

"Purple mountains majesty" and all that...

Here are the pieces pinned on top of another quilt on my design wall. I wanted to try using a light background since I don't do that very often and it's SO popular right now but I kind of like the way it looks with the more intense colors peeking out from between the blocks. Stick with the plan! Still have about 17 more trees to use. 

Forest For The Trees

I certainly don't need to start a new quilt project but I HAVE recently finished two quilts so a new quilt seems in order. I'll work on the other UFO's later...

I've been making trees this weekend. I didn't realize how many batiks I had until I started digging out the greens.  

A couple of weeks ago I got a great deal on Ebay. It was advertised as "20 batik fat quarters with some cuts". (Maybe she finished her project? Maybe she decided she didn't like batiks? Maybe she was getting rid of her mom's stuff?) Anyway, there were 29 good sized pieces, some with only small pieces cut from them and in addition to the batiks, there were several hand dyes.  I got the whole shebang for under $20!

The trees are part of a larger project I found in a magazine.  More to come.  

ALQS5 - Elephant Parade

Here is the the little quilt that I received in the Quilt Swap.  It's a wonderful little elephant that came from Sarah in the UK! I pinned it up on my wall across from my sewing machine so I can see it when I look up. It makes me smile! The next challenge comes out in April. This was so much fun that I'll have to try it again.  My quilt went to someone in Columbus, Ohio. I hope she likes hers as much as I like this one.

Quilt Swap

I decided to join an online quilt swap.  This is my 8.5" x 11" entry and it's even done on time!

I used fusing, buttons, beads and even some baby rickrack I found in my stash. There was no date on the rickrack wrapping insert but I think it's probably left over from the 40's. It was given to me from a friend's mother's estate.  I wonder what our estate sales will look like or will my kids just send everything to the landfill? Fiber recycling? Grind it up for insulation?