More wood-working and other things too!

Larry's been busy too, he's been making lots of things for the house.  He is almost finished with a shelving unit for my sewing room, can't wait for that!

Larry made this coat rack for the interior hallway just off
the garage coming into the house.  It looks great and gets
used quite often.

This is the coat rack that Larry made for the garage.  We will
be hanging our heavier coats and snow-wear on this one.
It's full already, but should be empty soon when I can pack
away the winter coats.  The lettering is Latin, it means
 "For God and Family"

This is my "storage wall" in my sewing room.  This is the
before picture.  Larry is almost done with the shelves to
replace this mess.  I'll post that when it's done... soon!

The picture on the left was sent to us from Larry's sister, Brenda.
She painted it for us.  It started out as the view from our
front porch in Tucson, but we're not quite sure where the
river came into play, but it is beautiful!  We hung it close
to Larry's father's medals and such.

Snow plow for the Ranger.  It works sooo good.  Larry would
plow the driveway and the road behind the house with the
 tractor before we got this.  He cut his time from 2 hours to
only 1/2 hour to do the same thing.  Lots of less time in the
cold.  Plus, this has some protection from the wind, where
 the tractor is totally open.  It was definitely a good investment!

This is from my mom.  I love it!  It will be
hung in my sewing room as soon as it gets
a little more organized and I can find the
 perfect spot for it.

Nancy (on left) made a "Take-5" quilt.  Jan is on the right side.
Nancy had her daughter from down state and a friend (Val) over;
and in one day, they all three made a Take-5.  It was the first
quilt for both her daughter and Val.  They enjoyed it a lot. 
Nancy placed her blocks very different from the pattern. 
She took all four #1 blocks and made a block, the same
with #2 thru #5.  She did have to make an additional #1 block,
 but that was very original, she did a great job! 

 

 

 

My quilts that I've done

I've been getting requests to post the quilts that I've worked on since I've moved from Tucson, sooo, here we go...

I made this for our neighbors just up the street.  They collect
black bear motif and when I found this panel I just knew
I had to make it for them.  Started with the panel and just
"winged" it from there out to the border.  Quilted by
Penny in Troy PA, she did a great job.

This is a "Wonky" pattern.  Used a base fabric, muslin, and
scraps sewn on at angles.  No real pattern, easy to do and it
put quite a dent in in scrap bin.  Nancy helped and we gave
it to a friend of hers that had recently been a fire victim and
lost most everything in their home.  She was delighted.

Christmas Stockings for the grandkids here in PA.  Thanks to
Barb and the quilt group at Grace in Tucson for teaching me
how to make these easily.  They were done quickly and
enjoyed immediately.

A Steam Engine, Freight Train and a Passenger Train.  This
was pieced while I was in Tucson, but quilted by Penny here
in PA.  This was given to Bryce, grandson here in PA.

I love this pattern!  I've made three of these.  The kids really
enjoy this one.  It was given to our youngest grandson, Evan.

Hunter's Star.  Thanks to Charlotte for teaching this pattern
 to me.  It was challenging but very rewarding.  It's not been
quilted yet, can't decide how I want it done.

A close-up of the Hunter's Star.  Love this pattern!

A simple Attic Windows pattern.  Found a panel of school room
theme and just had to make it for Cheryl.  Cheryl has been the
best friend ever, since Junior High days!  Oh my!!

A close-up of one of Cheryl's windows. 

Lazy Susan pattern.  I used this as an experiment with my
first attempt at a "quilt-as-you-go" project.  It works GREAT!
It is my new favorite technique.



A close-up of the quilting.  I tried to do feathers on the petals
of the flower and did an overall stippling on the background.
 I did free-hand vines and leafs in the sashing.

I used scraps for everything and ran short when it came to
the back, so I improvised.  It seems to have worked well.

Table runner.  I taught a class to my friends here in PA with
the "Sound Waves" paper-piecing pattern and this is what
I made for that class.  They did a great job on theirs!

This one is all scraps again, stripes and plaids.  It's made like
the "Gods-eye" that I learned to make in girl scouts years
ago.  It turned out well too.  It put a dent in my scrap bin, but
it seems to never get empty, will just have to keep making
more scrappy quilts!

A close-up of the stripes and such quilt.

Twisted squares.  I like this template and pattern.  It is a bit
of a challenge, but it comes out great.  I did one that was all
twisted blocks and it seemed like I wasted a lot of fabric, but
putting it into blocks like this, it's not much waste at all.

Close-up of the twisted squares quilt.  I used a charm pack
in batiks and some batiks I had in my stash.

 I'm sure there are more quilts that I have done, but I don't have pictures yet.  As I do them, I will post and share them with you. 

Our BOM quilts

I have pictures of all the girls' BOM quilts now, so I'm going to put them all on this post even though some of them were posted earlier.  They all did a GREAT job!  The quilt pattern is called "Globetrotter" by Pat Sloan.

Nancy's Globetrotter Quilt.  She wanted it larger, so she made
flying geese and bordered it.  It's all tied and ready to bind.
Great job!

Jan's first quilt ever!  She is going to put borders on it, I believe
she is planning on using flying geese and piano keys with the
leftover fabrics.  She's been sewing forever, things for the house
and the grandkids, but it's her first quilt.  A little bit of a challenge
 for a first quilt, but she tackled it with a smile.  Another great job!!

Florence was the first to finish her quilt.  It looks great
with the border.  Her granddaughter takes a nap on it
every day.  She's a big fan of the color purple.  Florence
quilted hers on her home machine.  Fantastic work!!

Sharon made two at the same time, different color themes.  She is
adding borders and will be totally done soon.  She really was ambitious
 by making two before we even knew what they were going to
look like.  Awesome!!

Sharon's second quilt.  She already has the border on this one
and only needs to quilt or tie it to finish.  Another awesome
 job.  She's now making two queen-size quilts of another pattern
 for her granddaughters.  Very ambitious!

This last one is mine.  I used leftover civil war fabrics.  Just a small border
 on it.  It fits perfectly folded up on the back of our rocking chair from
 the mid 1800's.
 

We had a great time doing this mystery quilt BOM!  We've already started another one, it's a BOM also, but we already have all the patterns.  They are all celtic designs; some are easy, some are more difficult.  We decided on this one so that we can learn new techniques with almost every new block.  We're on the third block now, I'll post pictures of these when we get more done.

Snow Angels and Snowman

The kids came for the weekend a couple of weeks ago.  They helped grandma make snow angels for my first time and we made an attempt at my first snowman.  I did not know that there were different kinds of snowfall.  I know it looks different at times, but evidently there is snow that is good for skiing and snow that is good for snowball fights and making snowmen.  Well, it would have been great if we wanted to ski, but the snowman is a little short... you'll see in the pictures below.  The kids did do sledding on the hill with the neighbor kids, had a blast!



We played dominoes, just a few games, then the kids started
stacking them.  They had fun being pretty creative.



Raegan was very pleased when she got them as high as
she wanted and they actually didn't fall.

Ryland and Raegan in the foreground, Eli and Emma are uphill.  They had
a blast sledding down and we had fun watching them.  They
really get going fast sometimes!



The first snow angel I've ever made!!!  Well, the first one wasn't
exactly clear enough to see by the time I stood up from it.  There
is evidently an art to standing up and leaving the angel on
the snow behind you.



We gave it a valiant try, but the snow was just way too powdery.
  We used coals from the fireplace for his face.  He looks more
like "Slimer" from Ghostbusters.  If I had thought he'd turn
out like this, I would have gotten green food coloring and sprayed
him green.  Had a blast tho, a couple of powdery snowballs
were thrown in the process.