Adventures of the Bear Creek Quilter and Family

First and foremost an update on Jr.  my Ds#1’s friend who was in the car accident.  He was released from the hospital on the 4th of July.  He had two or three surgery’s.  He is at home recovering.  DS says that he relies on other to help him move and can’t get out of bed on his own power.  He has alot of bones to heal.  This is one luck young man I tell you, I was shown a picture of his truck, it looked like one of those mangled vehicles that no one should have survived from.  Also I believe that had he had his seatbelt on his injuries would have been less.  The question here is “How do we get our children to understand that!?”.

I have been busy healing.  I am down to two small sores still open.

The inside of my leg is healed

My flowers are part of what is keeping me away from the computer.

And a sneak peak at some quilty stuff.  I quilted our guilds raffle quilt.  Look for a finished quilt posted next week.  But enjoy these for now.

I would like to Thank you all for checking back and for sticking with me during this long bogging absence.  Life just is so busy during the summer, you know run here and run there.

I would like to introduce you to a friend of my DS#1.  I will just call him Junior as that is the nickname my husband gave him.  Last Saturday evening JR. fell asleep while driving home from the family cabin and crossed the center line and hit another truck head on.  He is currently in the hospital in the twin cities with many broken bones.  I don’t know the full story as my DS didn’t ask all the questions that I would have.  I just ask that you say a prayer today for a speedy recovery for this young man.

Maybe i will feel like a quilt related blog after I return from the Minnesota Quilt show in Rochester.  I will be going Thursday and Friday.  I hope this gets the quilting bug back in my system.  Funny isn’t it when life throws you a little curve ball you just don’t feel like doing the stuff that you usually enjoy.

Two years ago our town had it’s Sesquicentennial celebration.  We had a one day celebration here which included a quilt show.  I was the organizer of the quilt show.  In anticipation of the day and to create excitement, I published a pattern each week in our local paper.  The challenge was to make a quilt from one, any or all of the patterns.  When I did this I had talked about it on another blog that I had at the time.  I had some requests to share the patterns.  So I had thought about doing a block of the week here on this blog.  Being that this year, marks the 150th anniversary of the State of Minnesota.  This is where I grew up.  I thought if enough of you were interested, I would share this quilt with you.

This is a picture of the a quilt that contains the twelve blocks that were published plus some additional blocks to make the quilt queen size.  I have wanted to make another one out of civil war fabrics with just the twelve blocks.  If I have enough people interested, I would start it after Crazy Mom Quilts gets done with her block of the week.  Let me know if you want to play!

Finally, Finally, Finally the race day end result that I have been waiting for all year long, well at least since the Daytona 500 in February.

DALE EARNHARDT JR won the lifelock 400 in Michigan.  Congrats to him and his whole team!

After my morning smoothie I steped up to the longarm to start quilting this one.  I love it when consistant in consitancy is a good thing on a quilt.  This quilt belongs to a customer who will be giving it to her DS and new DIL for their wedding next weekend.  The quilt pattern is called “Raindrops” by Judy Niemeyer .  I have always wanted to piece one of her quilts, but that will have to stay on the to do list for awhile.

Enjoy!

It is hard to believe that it has almost been a week since I blogged last.  This was the first full week of summer vacation here.  When school begins next year I will have a senior and a freshman.  How time flies!  So yesterday we took the senior in for his first setting of senior pictures.  He took several changes of clothes and 3 of my quilts, my idea not his. The photographer chose this one. It was a mystery that I did in River City Quilters quilt club from Wabasha MN, these pics are from last years show.  The photographer complemented me on my great ability to choose colors that work together well.  (That is my favorite part of quilting is picking out the fabrics)

DS also had pictures done with his sports uniforms and just some other cool shots.  We have one more session at a waterfall location about 45 minutes from here, we were suppose to do that last night but with all the rain we have had as of late the photograher thought it would be to dangerous so we rescheduled that part.

Since I am on the subject of DS#1 I will mention that last Friday night, my DM and I, along with anyone else who cared to attend,  were treated to the final show chior concert of the year.  My DS is one of those members,  Lord knows he didn’t get his singing ability from me!  They had an exceptional year, going to the state solo and ensemble competition and scoring a 1, which I understand is the top ranking.  Here they are at the local park in the band shell.  DS is the one in the center as there were a couple of girls missing on the night of the performance.  They did a spectacular job of singing!

OK last week heralded the return of insurance coverage at our house.  That saw me knocking down the doors of the doctors.  I really need to get the sores on my legs healed!  Well Jane, my doc, put me on a wrap called the Uni-boot.  I can’t tell you how much this has helped, I wish we would have done it sooner, but I have let that go, no need to stress of the past.  I hope to post pics of the improvement soon.  I seem to forget to take pics when I have the wrapping of my leg.

My other doc, has taken me off one medicine and is trying another.  It is helping me stay better focused, and better at prioritizing my time.  I still need something to lengthen my extremely short fuse, but we can discuss that at my next visit.

On the quilting front, I did some more piecing and some customer quilts.  I will show the pieced quilt when it is finished.  I had the two meetings this week for the mystery group that I run for a local LQS, which allows me to see some great friends and talk quilting.

Last but not least I wanted to mention that I am still continuing to drink the green smoothies that Susan has turned me on to.  This mornings recipe was OJ, pineapple, strawberry, spinach and because I have some fresh green been (raw) in the frig I thought I would throw a big hand full of those in too.  Well, it was great.  I haven’t had one I haven’t liked yet.  I try different fruits with the spinach all the time.  I have even gone so far as to plant my own greens as I can’t find kale or endive fresh locally. 

Some benefits I have noticed since starting this green smoothie breakfast plan,  I crave way less sweets.  I actually crave meat now, that is due to my iron still being on the low side.  Also, I noticed the other day when I did have a hankering for a snickers bar, that after 2 bites I couldn’t eat any more as it was too sweet. This last one is a combination of eating better and the drug that helps me focus, I have been binging on bad food a lot less, so I can jump up and down and tell you that in the 5-6 weeks I have been doing this I have lost 13 pounds.  I am starting a new exercise program that finally came in the mail yesterday and will blog more about that later.

Thanks for sticking with this long post.  Everyone make sure to have a great weekend and happy Father’s day to all the dad’s they may be reading my blog!

I don’t know about you, but once in awhile I am just bored with the projects I am working on and need to work on something new.  Be honest girls, we all wouldn’t have as many UFO’s as we do if we didn’t get bored.   Well this morning I had ADD bad and needed a new project to work on.  The 2 1/2″ strips of thirties fabrics from the trade on MQ resources were calling me.  I came across a picture of a buzz saw quilt on a blog and thought that would be great for those strips and the bolt of Kona Snow fabric I bought last Sunday.  So I had to figure out the math to make it work with my Noodles(what we called the 2-1/2″ strips in the trade).  Since I did the math I thought I would share it with you.  You can make one block from a strip with enough left for a scrappy, piano key type border, I will talk about that in a later blog.

Each block needs one dark fabric and one light fabric.  All strips are cut 2 1/2″ so if you are using yardage you must first cut it into the 2 1/2″ strips.

From the dark fabric strips cut

2 - 10 1/2″ pieces,  1 - 7 3/4″ piece,  1 - 5 1/4″ piece,  and 1 - 2 1/2″ square

From the light fabric strips cut

1 each at 10 1/2″,  7 3/4″, 5 1/4″ and 2 1/2″ square

pair up the pieces as shown below, the 10 1/2″ dark with the 2 1/2″ square of light, the 7 3/4″ dark with the 5 1/4″ light, the 5 1/4″ dark with the 7 3/4″ light, and the 2 1/2″ dark square with the 10 1/2″ light.

You will need to draw a diagonal line on each of the 2 1/2″ squares and place them as shown in the next three photos.  You will then stitch on the drawn line.  trim and press towards the dark.

Fo the other two pairs of strips, place the light on top as shown below.  Draw a 45 degree line as shown and stitch.  Trim and press towards the dark.

Lay out the blocks as shown below, starting with your extra dark 10 1/2″ piece.  Sew using a 1/4″ seam allowance as usual. 

You block should be 10 1/2″ when sewn together as below.

These blocks worked very well to chain piece.  Here are the eight that I did today.  I sewed the pieces for the red one and before I trimmed the corners I used them to keep myself straight when piecing the other blocks.  I have laid them out as they would be in a quilt.

Now, I will be working on the mystery quilt that I needed a break from before I let myself come back to these.  It might just be enough motivation to get the mystery done.

Enjoy and if you make some of these blocks or a quilt make sure you let me know so I can see it.

Happy quilting everyone!

Today was quilt delivery day for DS#2.  This is Mr. Radle pictured with Dusty and the quilt we gave him.  Sometimes you have that one teacher who really helps out, he was a godsend to all of us here at our house.  He went above and beyond when I was in the hospital last fall and the later when I was home and couldn’t do much.  I personally needed to just say more than Thank-you, and how does  a quilter say more than than-you but bestow a quilt onto that special person.

The other morning I was watering some plants and thought “oh, I should really share how great these pansy’s look”  they just love this cool spring we are having here in Wisconsin. 

Next my lilacs were blooming, I caught them here towards the end of their bloom.  I would love to bring some in but they reek havoc on my allergies.

The next two flower remind me of my 98 year old grandmother.  The iris comes from my Grandmothers garden at the house where my father grew up.  This was the first one to bloom this year.  (mental note to have DH repaint the siding on the addition, use primer this time, Thursday thump) Now there are probably about 10 to 15 blooming beautifully.  The second picture is just of the violets that I allow to run willy nilly through my flower beds as my Grandmother name it Viola, every one just calls her Vi, so as  child I thought that was short for Violet.  Thus these violets are spared being contained as the remind me of Her.

Now that I have the binding done and quilt delivered I might have some time to get my next block of the week done.  If not there always is next week when Judy has another quiltathon, that I am planning on participating at least one day on.

On another note today is the last day of school for the boys, so my season of being referree will sart tomorrow.  Have a great day!

I want to tell you all how much fun I am having with this Star block of the week over on Amanda Jean’s blog.  Last night someone asked a question on how to center a triangle when you are sewing it to a square as you would for say a square in a square block.  I have taken pictures of something I do as I pieced this weeks block.  It involves no math!

Step one, you have your two pieces as shown.

Step 2, fold the square in half with wrong sides together and finger press in the middle.

Step 3 now carefully fold your triangle in half right sides together to match points.  Finger press again, but take care not to pull with the triangles as biases stretch easily.

Step 4, now your triangle will nest very nicely on the square in the correct spot.

Step 5 is to stitch 1/4″ on the side

Step 6, when I do the square in a square I sew the triangles to opposite sides, then press as shown in the next two photos.

Now I just continue in the same manor folding to find the centers and adding triangles until I am done.

And finally my finished block, while I won’t post pics of them I was able to finish 4 more of the setting squares for the quilt top this week also.

Well I thought I would just quickly get my Block of the week #4 done, well in the process of hunting for more pink and purple fabric, I found an old UFO with 12 block complete just needed to cut and sew sashing and borders.  I also knew that I had to sew the borders on a mystery quilt that I had the center done on.  So that is what I was doing so far today.

So here is the block

The next one was a QOV mystery that I modified to make larger.  It will be given to one of my DS#2’s teachers.  He has watched out for my boys over and above the call of duty these last two years and deserves a special thank-you.  It will go on the frame as soon as I finish the T-shirt quilt that is on there now.  The colors are washed out from the sun, but most are civil war reproductions.  All of the fabrics were from my stash!

And last but not least, I was thinking while working on this churn dash, wow this is just going so smoothly.  I got it sewn to the point where I had two halves left to put together, when I noticed I had really screwed up in putting the blocks together.  They are supposed to be alternated, but I was not going to rip it out. This will just fall into that done is better than perfect catagory. These colors don’t even go in my house, I am not sure why I even bought the kit?  I must have liked it when I bought it 3 or so years ago.  I may put this one up for adoption if someone can show me just the right place that this mis-sewn quilt would look just perfect!  Anyone have any suggestions show me in your blog!

Now I have to pack the camper for tomorrow, I may just take a nap while I am in there.  It is the best place to take one.  No phone to wake me up!