April Showers..........May Flowers???

Unfortunately, I think the April Showers are going to extend into May this week!  At least the Hubs finished planting corn yesterday.

I was fortunate enough to get to attend the Spring Quilt Show in Paducah, KY this past weekend.  

Mary, a friend in my guild, quilted this quilt that made it into the show.  Eight of us made the trip to see the quilt.  

We saw many other amazing quilts at the show.

Look at the quilting up close..........

This was one of my favorites.......obviously I am more of a traditionalist!

Look at the front of this amazing quilt............

And  then the back............

This one made me think of the Big Bang Theory........ 

And this is the gentleman who made it! 

While I was traveling to Paducah, my nephew, Carter, was high jumping at the Drake Relays in Des Moines.  He placed 6th and got a medal!

He went back on Saturday to run in a relay, so I sent him pictures of this quilt..........

And this one reminded me of Kinze.............

And I loved this one..............

 Especially the golden retriever hiding behind the couch.........

Yes, these are still quilts.............

There was also this amazing strawberry shortcake available from the boy scout food booth!

There were also miniature quilts..............

Note the size of the ribbon hanging on the right hand side............sorry for the glare, but it was under glass.


We also visited the National Quilt Museum and saw more amazing quilts.

 

I took a photo of this one for the guys at work!  

Yes, these last two are quilts, not pictures.

Can you tell this is a wooden quilt?  Yes, it's made of wood, carved and painted to look like a quilt!

Lots of shopping took place as well.  I came home with 3 new patterns, 18 yards of fabric, 8 spools of thread, and a new rotary cutter!  It was a fun trip, but was nice to get back home and rest after putting all my purchases away.  I even did a little sewing.  

I think Cici was glad to see me back.  I don't usually catch her napping, so wanted to share this photo.  She's usually always alert and aware of what is going on around her, unlike Muffin.

Looking forward to some great sewing time in May!

Christi

April is HALF Gone!

We started the month out with a family reunion for the Pointer Family - David's Dad's family.  He was one of 13 (3 Bentleys and 10 Pointers).  It was quite a group. 

 Here are the remaining 3 with some spouses and their kids who were present.  There were about 100 there and the food table went on forever!

Here are the original generation of siblings/spouses.  Uncle Jim Pointer, Uncle Bill and Aunt Frances (Pointer) Davis, Aunt Gladys Pointer, Rosamae and Lloyd Bentley.

There were group photos of each of the 13 families of those in attendance.  It was quite something to see.  Then, the grandkids wanted to try to recreate this photo from the last reunion (14 years ago).

Sarah is in the front in the red shirt.  

Here they are today........minus Sarah and one other one!

The quilt guild program this month was about English paper piecing.  Some fabulous quilts were shown.

 Isn't this one amazing!.........Up close...........

And here is one of my mom's quilts that I picked up from the quilter.  I laid it out on the bed in the spare room.  It still needs to be trimmed and bound.

I spent some time working on a Thanksgiving wall hanging that was on my UFO list.  I have it all pieced.

 The ladies showing the English Paper Piecing also had some quilts with really tiny pieces, so I was motivated to see if I could do really small (not tiny!) leaves.  I think they turned out pretty well.

And the kitten update............

We still have 4!  Sarah can't wait to come home and play with them.

And Muffin............

Doing what she does best!

Christi

Getting a blog post done....NO FOOLIN!

April is here!  Spring break is over and we survived the week with this monster home.  

It wasn't the best of spring breaks as both the hubs and DD were sick.  And DD was working on a big project for one of her classes which I somehow failed to get a picture of.  It took over the crafting space in the basement for several days and then she took over my cutting table in the sewing room, using it as a nice big desk surface to work on a paper.  It's looking like she will be spending part of the summer at home doing an online class and working on a class/project online with NASA.  I think she's going to Utah for a week or so in August to help present her team's microsatellite project at a conference.

Cici's reaction to the thought of Jason 2.0 being here all summer!

In other cat/kitten news, our momma cat decided to have her kittens on Saturday before the big temperature drops we experienced Saturday night.  Even though we put a heat lamp on them, most didn't make it as the mom didn't take care of them.  The lone survivor has now been transferred to our momma cat across the road and joins a big sister..........

See how she's grown!  Eyes are open and she loves to lick your hand.  She is obviously a good feeder as every time the mom steps out of the box, the kitten is still attached.  It will probably do her good to have a little sister now.

In other animal news.............

Chicken Scrap is now a flimsy!  I have backing fabric, just have to get it cut to size, and have figured out how I want to quilt it...........the hubs even made me a template to use.  I still need to order some grey quilting thread though.

And, my main UFO is also pieced!  This project was previously started by someone else, then passed off to a different quilter before being passed off to me!  I'm glad it's going to see completion.  No, this is not something I would normally make, but I did learn some different techniques, some I would do again, and some, not so much.  

My guild is finally going to have our "winter" quilt retreat this weekend.  I'm looking forward to some sewing time with friends.  I need to get some more things cut to work on.  I think I finally have enough pieces cut for my leader/ender project, and am working on cutting as much as I can for my Summertime Sample BOM project, and have some fabric I ordered to cut for a bear quilt that I want to work on.  Can't wait!
Christi

Where did March go?

Where did March go?  I can't believe the month is almost over and I haven't blogged even once!  So, what did I do this month?  

1. I baked pies for the church ham and bean supper at the beginning of the month.............

2.  I participated in an adult spelling bee as a fundraiser.  My group couldn't spell cosmetologist!  

3.  Princess Leia wanted to spend some time inside, so had to have a bath!  Cici and Jason also got baths this month, but I was too wet for pictures after those baths.

4.  I worked on some more blocks for my Stars and Stripes Sampler quilt which is my main UFO this year.  I have now cut everything I need to finish the blocks, but still have some to make.

5.  My parents visited (so that my mom could go to the big fabric sale in Sedalia) and delivered 2 quilt ladders my dad had made.  Here is the one in the dining room.

6.  I attended quilt guild meeting...........Here are a couple of Gina's quilts from our Show and Tell.

This was her Seeing Stars quilt.........totally different than mine.  I love her version.

7.  We celebrated a 60th birthday on St. Pat's Day!

8.  I quilted my Good Fortune mystery quilt wall hanging and got it hung in the dining room.

9.   Jason (and Sarah) came home for St. Pat's and spring break!

He likes to play hard with Muffin.  She tries to ignore him, eats his food and plays with him until she is just exhausted.

Cici hides from him.  She has figured out his sleep habits and will come out when she knows he's down for the count.  

Here she is focusing on trying to get the stapler to shoot staples at him.

10. The first kittens were born.  This is one of the mother's who moved across the road with my in-laws when Magic passed away.  She has this one kitten in their garage.

She seems very happy there and the kitten is very fat.

11.  I finished piecing this quilt top.............

Remember the bunny blocks?  And the charm pack and mini charm pack I won last fall in colors I would never pick?  This is my own design.  I had a pattern for the bunny block, but came up with the rest of the quilt.  I made sure to use every piece of those free packs.  The binding will be purple and the backing is a wild green and purple print.  Since there is a lot of solid negative space, I am going to put this one away for awhile until my quilting gets a little better.  I think it will make a nice baby quilt.  Sarah agreed because she said you wouldn't see all the baby spit up stains on the brown fabric.

So, even though I don't know where the month went, I have gotten a few things done.  Maybe some April showers (let's hope there aren't many actual showers) will see more productivity.

Christi

Goodbye to February

I will be so happy to see February go and March come in with hopefully SPRING!!  Although they are predicting extremely cold temps for the next week......and more snow .......YUCK!  I confess that I have spent more time thumbing through the seed catalog I got than through my latest quilt magazine..............SPRING FEVER!

I did get one more project completed in February.

This is a baby quilt made with some vintage pinwheel blocks that I purchased at my guild's silent auction last year.  Since we are having another auction in March, I made myself get them out to work on so that I could give myself permission to purchase things at the upcoming auction.  This was not the original idea I had planned for them, but I finally decided that I didn't like the original idea and that was why I probably hadn't worked on them.  I trimmed all the blocks and then set them on point with the gray flowered fabric as setting triangles and binding.   

I used an old pink check on the back and quilted it with a meandering loop.  I have to say that I love this little quilt!  All the pink and blue plaids, stripes, and checks reminded me of Sarah's cute little Osh Kosh overalls she used to wear.

Isn't she cute!  She had overalls in blue and pink stripes.  I couldn't find a picture of the pink ones, but I'm sure I saved them.  She used to wear the overalls with the blue suede work boots the Hubs bought for her.

Of course, while I was looking through old photos, I found some other cute ones.  Here she is putting a jingle bell on the Christmas tree.

And here is our first indoor kitten.......who discovered playing with the jingle bells on the Christmas tree and therefore became know as Jingle Bell Bentley.  

She was well-loved!

And, I sent this photo to my nephews who just finished their basketball season.  I wanted to prove to them that DD was exposed to basketball.  Here she is playing Defense!

We're all looking forward to spring and track season!
Christi

Sewing weather.

I think everyone is tired of winter.  The best thing I can say is that I have gotten some sewing done.  The rainbow scrap chickens are now a complete flock!  I have even gotten them sewn into rows since this photo was taken.  "Chicken Scrap" as I'm calling this one is starting to turn my thoughts to spring and Easter peeps!  They do come in an assortment of colors.  Hopefully, we will see spring soon.

And if my colorful peeps didn't give you thoughts of spring, look what else hopped into the sewing room this weekend.  I wasn't sure which way I wanted to go with this, so I made two versions.  

I think the purple bunny will be the one that hops into this quilt...........

I know it's a little difficult to tell how this will work (really difficult, since I'm just working with a photo on pinterest that doesn't include a bunny)?  Time will tell..........

Magical Reflection

In September 2005, Sarah became the owner of a darling golden retriever puppy that she named Magic.

Magic passed away last Monday, Jan. 28, 2019, living to the ripe old age of 14 1/2.  This is pretty old for golden retrievers.  He had been with us so long, that we had to do some digging to remember just when we got him.  He was a rescue puppy and loved Sarah, but was afraid of strangers, especially men.