Friday, May 29, 2009

Bushfire Quilt #35

This quilt has 4 of my 8 blocks in it. I'm pretty sure it's #35, as I recall seeing a list that said my blocks would be in quilts #34 and #35. I'm so happy to see it finished! I hope the recipients enjoy using these quilts as much as we enjoyed making them.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Mini Quilts

Here are the two Mini (aka "Doll") quilts I've made so far. The purple one is called Falling for Batiks and I made it for Deb in WNY in the fall swap in 2008. The tulip quilt (which I only now realize I never named!) was made for Judy A. She and I went to the same retreat in AZ in February, so it was neat to make something for someone I'd already met!







Below you can see the quilt I received in the fall swap from Christine. It's made with Asian/oriental fabrics and has the coolest 3D flowers!


Friday, May 1, 2009

Birthday Block Swap - blocks received!


Here are the blocks I've received so far in the About.com Quilting forum's Birthday Block Swap. My "birthday month" was April, and the blocks are still rolling in. I'll receive blocks from 11 other ladies, and I'll make extras to equal 14...enough to make a wide border around the Laurel Burch panel I bought. Here are the first 6 blocks (there is one extra that I didn't photograph this round). Clockwise from lower left: Frances (Tilly5), OHSue, Cathy Sews, Simply Suzy, Colene (Robicole2), and Barbara (zizzybob). I've heard from LaurieLT (starting soon), Rebecca (Jakenemma - in the mail, I believe), and Brandy emailed me which is what prompted me to make this post...to show what I have so far to date.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Spring Snow


March 8, 2009
Originally uploaded by Hyak.Net
My neighbor took this picture last month of his vehicle. I couldn't even tell you what kind it is, LOL. Typical spring snowstorm!

Monday, April 13, 2009

This is Bush Fire Quilt #34

Finally I get to see 4 of my blocks in one of the quilt tops, yay! There are 4 more blocks out there, I think they were slated to be in quilt #35. I'll keep watching, as I hope to see the finished quilt too :)

Click on the picture to go to the site, and then browse the notes on the photo to see which ones are mine!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

AeroGardening in the Mountains

Well, we finally set up the AeroGarden I bought Stack for Christmas. Today is Day 10 and all seven plants have sprouted. I only photographed six because the one in the front center is not doing much yet.


We're especially excited about the basil, as we love to make Caprice salads, and if I have enough I'll even try to make some pesto!



Sadly, I'm sensitive to the light coming from the uber bright compact fluorescent bulbs in the unit. I spent a few minutes looking at the plants on Monday and came away with a very red, painful burn-like reaction on both arms. It didn't show up very well in the pictures, this is more like what it looked by the 3rd day. Thank goodness for aloe! We've since moved the unit into the shop downstairs (which is heated) so I won't get exposed so much.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Quilts for My Nephews



Roman's birthday was in January, and Caleb's is this month. I wanted to make special quilts for each of them, so since Ro likes cars and trains and things I made a transportation themed quilt for him.















Caleb likes pirates (but his mom and dad aren't quite as keen on them) so I made a quilt that has a big treasure map on the back, framed with misc. piratey things, and the front is a wavy looking set of Snail's Trail blocks with some stars, on point.


My friend Ami Krenzel did the quilting (see close up) with the cool scroll pattern. She's a professional long arm quilter. If you'd like to see more of her stuff or hire her, her site is www.enchantingquilts.com. Tell her I sent you! :)

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Blocks for the Bushfire Quilt Project


I was intrigued when I read about a project Tia Curtis was doing in Australia. The terrible fires there this summer burned hundreds of homes, and she wanted to make quilts for the victims. She suggested we make 12.5" unfinished stars with light backgrounds. One popular block is the Maverick Star block. I went to a quilting retreat in AZ in late February and brought a number of white and off-white squares of fabric to start the process. Another attendee at the retreat, Pat (Pat the Cat) brought her scrap bin for us to rummage through, and I found lots and lots of colorful triangles. I used all that I could find and put them into my 8 Maverick Star blocks. I finished the blocks after I returned home from the retreat, and also included in my package to Tia a spool of thread and 8 yards of scrappy batik binding, enough for one 60" square quilt.

For more info on the project, see http://www.flickr.com/groups/bushfirequiltproject/