The Fifth were Firsts!!

It was the very first time that a vehicle like this ever turned into my driveway. At least not for the past 10 years. Ray brought 23 young fifth graders from Weston School District to my door. The same district I use to be a teacher's aid at. And some of the very same students I use to have in kindergarten class. Oh, I can't tell how good it was to see them all again. There were a few new faces sprinkled amongst the smiles. And thank goodness some adult volunteers came with them!! I cannot thank THEM enough.

We had 10 sewing machines set up at the retreat and the machines were only vacant long enough for an adult to change a needle, rethread the needle, or untangle the knotted mess in the bobbin case. They kept them humming.

Never have I seen so much determination to complete a quilt in a day. Eleanor Burns would have been proud. (She is a quilt author who touts Quilt-in-a-Day patterns). Mrs. M. the teacher, not being a quilter herself, was awful brave to take on this project. A teacher with alot of faith!!

A little Unsewing

Let me back up a bit. About a month ago I received this wonderful letter from Ramsey asking if I could help their class. He wanted to raise money for "Walk with Grace" a local chapter for Cancer research. After many emails back and forth with the teacher, we settled on a date. Mrs. L helped design a do-able quilt pattern for the kids. All the quilt squares were cut ahead of time and bagged up in individual little kits. 1 block per student. Most had them sewn together by 11:00am!! They were soooooo excited to ring the bell, hold up their block as everyone stopped and cheered and proudly walk it over to the design wall.

The students ate lunch on the deck while a few adults scrambled to square up the blocks. After lunch, on to the sashing and corner stones. Take a look at the progress. And the results. To make it just a tad bigger, I am adding, with their approval, a 4" border of blue around the outside. It then will be returned to them to sandwich together and quilt. I think they are going to tie it. And then sell raffle tickets. This is a photo of the 'real' kids and all their energy.

I think they all had a great time. And a new appreciation for quilting I hope. They didn't want to stop. Some sewed little squares together to take home mini 2" pillows. You should have seen the darling pillow some of the boys made me as a thank you gift. Keep sewing kids! Never stop the creativity!!

Bye kids!! Thanks for coming! Patsy

Monkey Business

The Story Continues.........

There's a story that started back a year ago. Two sock puppets named Dick and Jane, met, fell in love, and got married. That was last year. The wedding was briefly interrupted by a disheartened sock Monkey who loved the groom too.

Well, this year their lives continued....... seems there is a few additions to the family.

A set of twins......and then a surprise event. Another 'older' monkey child was handed over to Dick and Jane to raise. It seems sock Monkey had a child too. Oh, where will this go next year? Stay tuned.

Phyllis did a demo on how to do the toothbrush rugs. She also showed us her "Carriage Wheel Rug" which was published in 'Country Handcrafts' magazine a few years back. Way to go Phyllis!!

Here is the Homestead Under the Stars kit is somewhat disarray Joan??

Here is a puzzle that a friend let me borrow. It proved to be quite 'puzzling'.

There was a Stow away trying to go back to the big city with a few girls. I have always made it known that our cats like to jump in the cars when you are loading up, but I never thought I'd have to warn you to check your vehicles for chickens! This is one of the new ones I just acquired and apparently she is very inquisitive.

Glad she didn't leave any 'footprints' in the car.

This pin cushion of the week was from Primitive Gatherings I believe. I have one like it. Too cute!

Some Show n Tell for you............

The following jackets were all made by Sharon (in the purple) modeled by her friends.

April Guild Meeting

HI FLORENCE!!

GET WELL SOON!!

Monday night was our local Quilt Guild meeting and LaVonne and Cindy shared with us, some of their dolls they have made through out the years.

WoW! just take a look.....

Some of you were lucky enough to buy the first comemorative Homestead Cabin Retreat Kit that was available a year or so ago. Well, here is the very FIRST one that I have seen done and guess what? It is done my MY FIRST grade teacher. Didn't she do a fabulous job? Thank you Mrs. F.

Some more show n tell for the evening.

THis pumpkin guy just cracks me up!

This antique quilt was got for a "veddy good price" per Rhonda.

Turkey tracks w/Jenell using her own twist on the pattern. Lovin' it!

THis Little Light of Mine.....

I'm gonna let it shine........Home Depot and WalMart and I'm sure lots of other places have these cheap solar lights for under $4.00 each.

Take the stem off - the part you usually push in the ground, and you have just a cheap plastic votive and the solar cap on top. I had some glass globes from has been light fixtures - actually I seek these out in the thrift stores. I use to use them as bubbles in my garden but that didn't work too good. I am glad I had them yet. Susan gave me the idea of hanging these up. She was putting hers in a chandelier outside in the tree, I believe. She did mention that they are so very bright that one might shut the other next to it, off, due to it thinking it is daylight.

My outside chandelier doesn't accept the base of the votive very well, so I thought of trying the glass globes. I wrapped wire around the lip of it and hung it.

Ready for Spring

This pin cushion of the week gets my vote because it it the best of two of my favorite things. ONe - It is a pin cushion and Two - it is galvanized.

This one's cute too.

Many familiar faces in this group for me. A couple first timers. This group rang the bell LOTS as you'll see from the pics. Some was Show 'n Tell. Enjoy,





Marge uses everything they gave her in ONE kit. I think this was the actual kit for this quilt. The other was made from the leftovers. AND she even made this little wall hanging bonus quilt. It is nice to get extras from kits. She says she loves buying kits from Life's a Stitch in Janesville.

Bonus 1 and Bonus 2

The hanging.

I think this quilt was made for graduating foster boys that will leave and be on their own for the first time. Their group was making many.

Lots of hangbags being made.

Here is some of Show n Tell.

and more

I love the litte farm that surrounds the body of the quilt. The body is made with farming fabric too.

This was an antique quilt top that Marge quilted. And a close up.

First adult sweater she made - can you believe it? Great Job!!

Karen made this quilt connecting circle sandwiches shown below. I bought a template at Rosemont (like i needed something round to cut around) but anyway, now to see it - I know what to do.

Trip to Rosemont International Quilt Show

Well, I finally took a partial weekend off after 5 years. My sister and I drove to the Quilt show in Chicago this past week.

We joined up with our sister-in-law and on we went. I had to get this photo for my son, Brady. He's into 'Big Foot'. I think it has a real historical connection with the beast but I'll let him research that.

When we finally arrived at our destination, there was only one way for a forgetful person, as myself, to remember where the car was. Here were are.

Thursday night was preview night and was definately the night to go - the isles were not crowded and you could get into any vender's booth you wanted. ONce in a great while, you'd have to wait to check out, but all in all - way better than the next day. We got through half the venders the first night, along with the quilt show. Among many of the artsy quilts, I managed to find some 'traditional' quilts that appealed to me.

Here are a few that I could take pics of. When we looked at the quilts, there was one other person looking at them on Thursday night. Nice! Clear sailing, less hurried stress. We spent the night in the windy city and returned to a much more crowded house the next morning. We lined up in cattle gates but were dispersed quickly once the doors opened. This morning we started at the far end of the venders and slowly made our way to where we left off the night before. After 3 hours, we were done and ready to leave. I enjoyed the show and picked up a backpack's worth of goodies. Templates, ironing board cover, a book, pincushion, couple patterns, one tiny kit, a necklace, scarf clip, scarf, and maybe some other stuff too. I had alot of fun - that's for sure.

One art quilt that was interesting with gauze on the fence, novelty yarns for snowy weeds.

Glad I went. And thanks to my stand in cooks for friday night. Without them, I couldn't have gone!!

What a difference a week makes....

The new mantel look. I robbed lots of quilts off of the beds so I had to scramble and rob some in the house to replace them with.

OK, I should be out doing this. And I DID - for about an hour is all. The wind was frustrating me. Can't we just light a match ? It's been real windy and the fire department has had lots of lazy raking calls.

What a difference a week makes.........We may have had a week 'off' according to the calendar, but we accomplished lots of little tasks that needed to be done according to Patsy.

Like painting one more room. The room fondly known as the 60's room got a coat of paint similar to the upstairs paint. A khaki tan color. The bathroom a shade darker, but done done. And then there was the decorating.

A shelf was added from The Wood Shed, filled with memorabilia from another time. I had lots of mirrors collected from auctions, thrift stores, and church sales.

Marty found another one in his shop that he's been cleaning for the past 8 weeks. (photos another time). We put up extra mirrors in some of the bathrooms. Then there was the crocheted pin cushion collection that has been waiting inside a paper bag. Finally, they made their way onto the walls. Caster wheels were attached to the log beds for ease in cleaning along with some extra sturdy brackets. I hope you all don't roll away on me now.

In the kitchen, I have a good start on installing the 'tin' panels. They are glued down and I have two walls to go. More material is ordered. New curtains were hung and a little de-cluttering was done. Oh yeah, did you notice the card holders on each and every drawer? This will help everyone, including me, find things and return them to their proper spot. I have included some Spring decorating shots of the Retreat in case some of you don't get here this time of year.

I turned the spice cupboard to the back wall from the side. Here is a better look at all the little card label holders on the drawers.

The bunnys are staying up for one more month.

Peter's tea party. They tea set is dime and quarter size.

I've been a sucker for Beatrix Potter stuff.

We got a new phone system in the Retreat and our house. Finally, I can push calls to anywhere on the property without the leg work. **If a guest gets a call after I'm in the house, I can just push it to ring out there. Nice!

The new-to-me lawn furniture was taken out of storage and put on the deck. They are so cushy and cozy. There are two chaise loungers, 6 chairs + table with cushy footstools, a settee, coffee table. And the two new umbrellas for the picnic tables are up and ready for you to eat on the deck.

Here are more Spring corations to show you. I had fun tieing up the quilts for a splash of color for the backdrop. Remember these rubber boots back in the 60's?

More Easter / Spring photos.

I found the painted bottle and pressed flowers between glass at a thrift store. The bug sprayers / weed sprayers - well, I just like the colored bottles. And the colorful basket of thread was my 'Easter basket' tribute to sewing.

Another pair of red boots. Just love the splash of color, along with the two dolly quilts thrown over the wood ironing board. Another weed sprayer by the boots. Can we say addiction Patsy? An old gardening book with Father Rabbit.

This little gathering was so 'soft'. The basket quilt along with a pussy willow wreath, more boots - they are frog boots, stitchery pillow, bunnies, pin cushions, sewing stuff and an old hair dryer round suitcase.

Here is where the baby buggy came to rest. It looks great up by the yellow Spring gown. Who knew? I also had a collection of vintage baby blankets and found this yellow corderoy with embroidery on it. It had the turquoise embroidery that matched the buggy wonderfully.

Last two days

For the last two days I have been crunching numbers. And I am exausted! At least my eyes are. Now I can pass this paper trail on to the next guy. Our accountant. I'm sure his vision is looking a bit frazzled this time of April. Oh well - tiz the $ea$on ! I am sure I will be forgetting something so I will be back at it, but for now I am declaring.......DONE.

Before the Bunny hops

Our last group before the Easter Holiday........

There was one last snow (hope it was the final one). I think this weeks retreaters all got lots done. Half the room was from south of the border (Illinois) and the north side was from Wisconsin.
They all met in the middle for a fabulous Show 'n Tell.

Thanks to all those that tried their hand at "hand quilting" on the frame in the Gathering Room so far. I got a chance to quilt a few hours Sunday night. It is almost ready to roll up the first 6 inches! I am thrilled with the results so far. I had a request for larger needles. I will get some. When I learned to hand quilt back in 1981, my teacher taught us with 10's and 11's so I thought everyone used them.
How's this one for Pin Cushion of the week?

I would like to thank Carol G for the goodies pictured in this photo from a few weeks ago. She was cleaning house and thought of me. How nice of her! You know I will make use of these goodies. There was a whole box of old Christmas lights not pictured all here. Again, thank you Carol!

Latest project and ebay find.....

I DO get some creative things done. I just finished this little yo-yo puppy made from the left overs from the 'over the river stitchery' project. The pattern is from Indygo Junction. I bought the yo-yo makers and they do make very exact yo-yo's . Mindless Tv work. I never liked the clown yo-yo dolls (I don't like clown anything) but fell in love with this puppy. I found a $3 very large industrial size spool of heavy button thread at St Vinnie's so I could finally finish him. I still need to get some eyes for him instead of pin-eyes. But for now, he now watches me from atop the tv.

The little one-sie outfit I found on ebay. I probably would not have given it a second look except I had just got done reading about these in this book.

I just got this book and love it! If you are into 30's quilts it is a must have.

Anyway, these little "Quilt Buddys" are to hang near where you are stitching. This little poem was in the book, so I printed it off and hang it on the tag with it. The article mentions that some of these have the poem stitched onto the 'shirt'.

Here are a few more of the featured quilts in the book. All come with instructions.

I found many very unusual quilts that I had not seen before. Those done with rickrack I though unique.

Enjoy, Patsy