I asked for pictures of the quilts being taught on the cruise and Connie really pulled through with some great photos.
Here are progress photos of Connie’s first class – they’ve had 3 days to work on their blocks and they like looking at each other’s because there are no two alike! I would have to agree – and the more I look at these blocks, the more ideas I get for different colors.
There are two guys in the class with their wives.
This gal had a plan and came with her own fabric and not the precut kit.
Here is Paula’s class project.
And here is Pam’s quilt.
And this gal brought a very helpful flannel board to keep her pieces in the correct position,
I love seeing here pictures from the class, don’t you? I even recognized the gal on the left as Monica Walters who came to our camp in the barn several times.
I personally would like to see Pam and Paula ‘s quilts as scrap projects. Hmmmm…..just what I need – another idea!
And now news from our Readers. This Reader who is ordering Louise and Friends sent a picture of her 16 year old granddaughter who made the Goat Sampler for a fair project. She raises Boer meat goats. This is Hayley’s quilt and a picture of Hayley with Beauty.
Isn’t this the sweetest picture of a girl with her goat? I think so.
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And now please make a note of April 19, 2019. Many of you had quilts machine quilted at Country Threads by Ina. She is going to be 90 years old on April 19 and just in case you’d like to remember her with a card, here is her mailing address:
Ina Lofy
1317 – 3rd Ave. N.
Clear Lake, IA. 50428
I’m so hoping many of you will send a card and maybe refresh her memory on the quilts she quilted for you. A HUGE thank you from Connie and me!
I LOVE Paula’s quilt! I think I already have that pattern, so will def add to my list.
I love goats! City girl through and through, but would love to have goats now on our little acreage. Hubby says no, so will have to enjoy through photos. Beauty is a doll, so photogenic!
Mary,
Thanks for the note about Ina’s birthday! Seems like she just turned 80. What a sweet lady.
Love the pictures. I get so excited when there is a new post. I know there will be interesting news and great animal and quilt pictures.
It is a grey and gloomy day here in Connecticut it feels so much colder than it actually is because of the dampness. I wanted to spray baste little Harvey, oh well maybe tomorrow.
I planted pansies in pots all around the front of the house so it would look like spring. I went outside to treat them with animal repellent, but I was not as quick as the deer 🦌 were. I now have empty pots of dirt.
I had an Osprey fly over the property on Monday that was a nice surprise.
That’s about all from my neck of the woods.
Rita M – those deer must have radar out for tender little plants! Now what? Do you replace them or give up? Does it go on all summer? Is there any deterrent? It would be like letting my goats out into my yard. They only get to do that in the fall after a killing frost!
I will wait for the warmer weather and plant. There is nothing that is 100% deer proof and the repellents only work until they don’t and the deer become tolerant then you need to switch products. Hopefully your timing is such that you have switched before they become tolerant.
Rita, I lived in Sandy Hook years ago and thought nothing was more gloomy than looking out my kitchen window across the horizon at the stark leafless trees’ branches way in the distance! Spring wasn’t getting there fast enough!
My Quaking Aspen trees are starting to open their leaf buds, but there are still a few sparse snowflakes coming down amongst the various pine trees here in Idaho this morning.
No deer nor elk here yet this morning!
Launa I live in Southbury the town next to Sandy Hook.
Love all the quilt pictures. Do you know if the kit for Paula’s quilt is available to anyone or, is it a kit that she made up only for the students on the cruise?
I know Paul Barns has a web page and her kits are available there. I’ve purchased kits after the cruise. Connie may have more info.
Cathy Platzer – thanks, Cathy – there may be some readers who would want to order a kit.
Thanks for the tip Cathy, I will look up her web page and check it out.
No ads today at all. Love seeing all the cruise photos. Have you considered being a cruise teacher? While cleaning and organizing my sewing room ( ok, it was an attempt not a completed project) came across the goat pattern. One day I will make, didn’t use to make one goat that went into a quilt. Oh all the pregnant heifers have given birth, and only one male, haven’t decided if will keep any or not, wanting to build size of herd but still undecided about how this is going to work out.
Nikki M in TX – is it hard to sell those babies? I still have no answer about the lack of ads – those in the know think there’s no problem. I’m going to hang in there for awhile. I really should be going on the cruises with Connie but I just don’t want to travel. I like being home and taking care of my animals.
And no one takes care of the animals like you do! I find it hard to travel for the same reasons. With a herd of 50 nannies and 18 donkeys plus chickens and dogs and cats there is always a lot to do plus garden and Patchwork…
Right now we have 5 hummingbird feeders out and they are going through 2-3 quarts of sugar water a day!
Rosalie – OMG – where do you live? I want to come and visit all your nannies and donkeys! Can you send a few pictures to my email? marye@ncn.net
Thanks for letting us know about Ina. Will definitely get a card in the mail!
Lots of power poles down here in Emmet county. When is it ever going to end!
Love all the cruise pictures and the cute picture of the girl and her goat. Thanks for sharing.
MartyCae – we’ve heard on our local news that your area really got hit hard with pole damage. Yes, will we ever get spring or summer? And this scares me to death thinking about fall and knowing it’s all going to start again!
Love the quilts from the cruise. Must be a fun trip to be immersed in. The Goat Sampler quilt is certainly a prize winner. Girl and goat picture is so sweet.
Mary, Martha Hall Kelly has a prequel to The Lilac Girls out—-Lost Roses.
Marian Steven – oh, I have to get that book! Some in our book club thought Lilac Girls was just too dark. I say it’s history and all those things happened so how can they not read it?
WOW! how amazing all their quilts are and so much done on the cruise. The quilts are fabulous. Such great colors!! Paula’s is especially beautiful but then they all are. Haley’s quilt and the picture of her with Beauty is really special – what a talented young lady she is! What a treat to get to see what they did on the cruise!! Thanks, Connie and Mary!
Kathy Hanson – I knew you’d enjoy those pictures as much as I did! Have you got lots of snow? More today? Or just very windy?
Haley’s quilt is lovely and the picture of her with her goat is a real gem! Thanks for the lovely pictures of the quilts on the cruise
Yes we did get 8-10 inches of snow yesterday in NE Wisconsin and it is very pretty but I had forgotten about the removal of the stuff. It is slowly melting and I am snowed in until the snow plow shows up. And fortunately the electricity has been on through all this. My Iris were an inch above ground.
The backyard is flooded from the Brook.
Lovely quilts!
Thanks for posting the cruise quilts pictures from Connie’s class. Betsy Chutchian has a new line out, SUSANNA’S SCRAPS, that has wonderful Buttercup yellow prints (amongst other colors that I may need)! The cruise quilt kit looked well marked.
Congratulations to Hayley with her goat fair quilt project! I like the flannelboard idea as I have no wall place here in my sewing room to hang a design wall. A quilting friend suggested wrapping flannel or a quilt batt over sturdy cardboard so I plan to try that.
This has been a trying winter everywhere. After waiting 8 weeks we finally got our new solar batteries installed yesterday. They weigh 310-320# each! It ‘s snowing up here again! Ugh!
Check out Quilt in a Day web site. Special today is Susannah’s Scraps 40% off!
Great pictures today. The block color combos…I too see ideas.
That goat is especially precious.
We also had deer trouble, so we started planting patio type plants. The deer came up on the deck to eat the tomatoes! Now I go to the farmers market.
Jo in Wyoming – finally one has to give up and face the music! How’s Loretta?
Beauty is a beauty and so is Hayley. I love it when you post pictures of animals and quilts which I guess is every time–lol:) I opened my American Patchwork and Quilting magazine and there on page 13 is the Martingale ad with your quilt, Vanishing Circles from Beyond the Battlefield and the book is on the bottom left. I already bought the book from you and love the quilts and stories:)
I usually have one ad wayyyy up at the top of the page and one under your picture. There used to be at least 3 or 4.
I cruise looks like fun.
I’m in Amsterdam and just clicked on an add in Dutch. I have no idea what it said except that it was for fabric. I loved the picture of girl and goat. There was love on that goat’s face. The cruise must be a lot of fun. I think they sew on sea days and get off for shore excursions when in port. I’ve never gone on one because I don’t have any quilting friends who’d like such a thing. The older I get the more my friends are like you, Mary—they want to stay home with their animals. I can feel myself becoming more like that, too. Leaving Sonny with our dog sitter was really hard this time.
Pat Smith – what are you doing in Amsterdam? Does Sonny like his dog sitter? Bet he’ll be glad to see you!
We are on a biking/ukulele cruise on a three masted ship that travels on rivers and canals during the day while we bike to the next destination. Then after dinner we all play the ukulele. Yes, Sonny lives the high life at the dog sitters sleeping on the beds and playing with his other friends from the dog park. But, Sonny is a dog who loves routine and he seems to like ours at home best.
Poster board works really good to lay out the quilt pieces out and helps to sew them together right, the first time. You can cover it or just use it like it is pinning the pieces. Plus, I just like to look at them.
The cruise pictures are so nice. You know we all love show and tell. Plantation Stars is very striking, too. The mauve blocks are my favorite!
The weather report: inside for 3 1/2 days, 4 1/2′ drift blocking back door this morning and I couldn’t even wiggle out, neighbor dug me out, same drift melted to 2 1/2′ tonight, then we shoveled together, Interstates were all closed so no mail for 4 days and got 3 days of newspapers this afternoon. They say we got about 12″ of snow in town. We are very lucky.
Glad to see I am not the only one who sits on blankets. I feel funny carrying in my blankets on sewing day, but I like to sit higher above the table. When my sewing table was built, the builder wanted it 30 inches, I said no! I had him make it 27 inches. That worked great for years, but now I need my seat higher so I use blankets. Lovely pictures of the cruise blocks.
I love all the blocks shown from Connie’s cruise class.
I remember visiting the shop in August of 1999 and meeting your longarmer at that time— could it be Ina? The lady that we met was kind and welcoming, it was the first time I had seen a long arm and she patiently explained to both me and my husband everything about it! I came away wanting one— badly! 😉 Hayley and her goat are adorable.
Mrs. Goodneedle – yes, that had to be Ina. She started working for us when she was still working full time at another job and she wanted to work after hours …. and we let her! She was always a dedicated employee!
The quilts are beautiful and the goat picture is special.
Today our carpenter finished up our barn that fell down last month in the storm. We figured the whole thing will hang together after our horrible winds Wed. night.
Yes, I did read about the dairy farmer from Pine Island. Sad, sad, sad. The state legislature says MN. is losing at least (maybe more) dairy farms each week. (There are only about 3,000). We are still running on the generator. There were 30 people lined up at the local farm store to buy generators today. The farm store person drove 3 hours and the generator person drove 3 hours and they met in the middle. I don’t know where these generators came from–about $1,000 each.
The guy (Scott) who picks up our milk lives in a small town (Edgerton,MN). He has a generator in his garage. The whole town (3,000 people) has no power. The poles fell like dominos. Some person drove by Scott’s house and saw that Scott had lights. This person stopped and said, “How come you have power?” Scott said, “I paid my bill.” We need to find some humor in this mess.
Kathy Schwartz – oh, I just knew it! I knew you were in that hard hit area ! The east west poles just a few miles north of us took it bad – you’re right, one by one they snapped or just tipped over. Today is much better here but I wouldn’t call it spring. Does your generator run your house, too? You live a hard life, Kathy! Milk cows are a 24/7 job 365 days a year. We have a bachelor friend from our old neighborhood who still milks many cows all by himself. His mom died last year and we all wonder how he keeps on.
It’s Saturday and I finally got out of the house and the yard. Our shops are having the Shop Hop and of course I had to hit the quilt shops. We have 3 in town. At the Sewing Center I found the Schmetz Super Nonstick Needles at 5 for $6.99. The girls said it is about time for them and they REALLY work!! They are sort of a gun metal gray, easily identified from regular needles. I got 2 shops this morning and will get the last one on Monday. It is downtown. My Quirky Little Quilts book was in, too. Oh, happy day.
Are you using them for machine applique? What size did you buy? I appreciate any information you have about them. I’m ready to do the applique on the Edyta Sitar’s Winter Houses.
Marsh, I got the nonstick needles “in case I need to sew something sticky.” Got lots of patterns just in case.
The plastic case says the needles are Super Universal, 130/705 H-SU, 90/14.
The back says: Use Schmetz Super Nonstick Needles when sewing with embroidery stabilizer, temporary spray adhesive, or self-adheasive hook and loop tape. Anti-adhesive coating (NIT), extra large eye, distinctive scarf, and reinforced blade prevent skipped stitches and provides a residue-free needle.
The girls at Sewing Center do lots of sewing and had great praise for them.
There was a size 16 for sure…. didn’t look that close at the rest.
Betty, thank you for the information. I’ll check them out next time I go to my LQS.
Our generator runs the house–thank heavens. We bought it used a few years ago from a nursing home. They were getting a bigger, newer one. (Good for them–they would need it!!). We are just careful not to run too many things at once; and turn off the lights if not needed. We are still on the generator–its been about 3 days and 15 hours now. They said “maybe Tues.” we will be back on. Today was a sunny day, about 39 degrees, so all of the ice fell off the trees. We went 3 days without mail. I suppose they didn’t get any, so we didn’t get any either.
That Shop Hop sounds fun. I’m going to watch for those needles.