Cspoonquilt

 I've been having a really great time visiting with my son's family!  Despite Covid restrictions we've been able to get out and about for walks and to the park.  The weather has been pretty cooperative! I brought lots of craft projects to do with my Grandchildren.  It's so fun to watch how they approach painting and drawing and other such activities My older granddaughter, Ari (age 6) has even tried a little embroidery.   J brought a lot of Halloween fabric and my old Singer 301 along in case I had a few spare moments to sew.  The girls play so well together there were times when they entertained themselves and I whipped up a few Holiday placemats! I brought some Halloween orphan blocks along.  Randy over at Barrister's block gave me these little ghosties. they made cute centers for some of the placemats! I've had this jelly roll of Moda Halloween fabrics for ages but they were perfect for the borders!  I was going for a Candy Corn look on th...

As I mentioned in my last post one of my stops was in Winterset, Iowa.  The home of the Iowa Quilt Museum. I first learned of this museum reading a post on Barbara Brackman's Material Cultures Blog Last Summer. She helped to put together an exhibit there called "Out of Control;  Quilts that break the rules".  Read more  here  . The quilts looked like so much fun!  I really wanted to see that exhibit.  Alas it closed Oct. 5th before I could get on the Road.  But I did check out the museum Webpage and there was a virtual gallery walk which was very interesting.  I figured if I could get myself on the road I would definitely try to make a stop at the Museum. The current exhibit at the museum features Two-Color Quilts.  Not quite as exciting as "Out of Control Quilts"  but definitely worth a visit! An overview of the interior from the balcony looking back towards the entrance.  The Museum is actually in the old J.C. Pennies buildin...

I'm on a road trip to visit my Son and his family in Indiana!   I have been waffling around about the idea of a road trip in these uncertain times for awhile.  If I don't go now I probably won't be able to go 'til next Spring and that is just toooo long without seeing my g-kids.   I rented a car on Tues.  evening and loaded it up and on Weds. bright and early I was on my way.  I managed to get through the morning traffic smoothly and I made it to the rest area near Donner Pass (near Tahoe) before lunch.  I stop there to stretch my legs and enjoy the crisp clean Mountain air.   I made it to my first destination for the day by about 3:30 and had time to walk around the old downtown of Elko Nevada.   The Stockmen's Casino is a real throwback to the days of old time Casino's. I stayed in the adjacent Hotel . Lots of mid century architecture! T hurs. I was on the road by 6:00 and made it all the way to Laramie Wyoming by 3:00.  It w...

A couple of years ago I got a huge pile of Blocks from my fellow guild members as a Thank You for being the the Quilt Show Chairperson.  People went all out,  I think I received well over 200 blocks!  Some people were Extra generous and gave me Whole Stacks of blocks.  This top-in-progress was one such stack.  I think this collections was definitely from some 'Block of the Month'  drawing based on the size variation.  But that's OK with me!  Life is not perfect. My quilts are definitely not perfect.  I can cope with a little size variation! Since I've been working on quilts for people who've lost their homes in the Santa Cruz Fire I've been going through my stash of 'Thank you' blocks to find groupings that will make bed size quilts.  And with a little help these blocks fit the bill. I took this pic before I started sewing the blocks together just to check on the overall balance.   It's a good thing 'cause I caught a problem....

Every once in awhile I find a top at the Guild Flea market that has structural and/or design problems that tell a story of frustration.   That is to say, the maker just did not want to go through the pain and / or aggravation to fix the problem.  Let someone else deal with it!  I get it!  I've been there.   I generally take a pass on such projects.  Let some braver person adopt them.  But this top seemed to have  a fairly easy fix.  It was nicely designed, the blocks were well constructed, the top was square.  The only problem was the floral panels between the basket panels were stiff as a board because they were heavily glued. The flowers were carefully cut out from the border fabric and glued down with some kind of white paste kind of glue.   But I think the problem which caused the abandonment was due to the fact that once all the motifs were glued down the panels were so thick with glue and extra layers of fabric ...