Note to Self . . .

Wow. That was a terrific design idea you had at midnight. But it is going to take all the next morning to pick out all that stitching.

Next time: draw it on paper, or chalk it in, or sleep on it, or forget it . . . but don't quilt it all the way across a queen sized quilt!

Sheesh . . . how many times to I have to tell you this . . .

Some People Have Watchdogs

This Great Horned Owl has been in our yard all winter.  He has 3 favorite perches.  Tree #1, Tree #2 and his most favorite place is the top of the power pole.  We have shoveled snow and walked back and forth all winter and he has faithfully watched us as we came and went.  I wonder what he is thinking?

It is snowing--we have about 3.5 inches of new snow today.  Just enough to freshen up all the old crusty, starting-to-get-dirty snow.

Here he sits between the house and the studio.  I look for him everyday.  Everyday he is in one of his 3 perches.  Watching and waiting for spring.

I hope he is getting plenty of mice!  According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Great Horned Owl is the only animal that regularly eats skunks.  Who knew?  We have a skunk around here that comes out every week to 10 days.  I hope my watch-owl is watching.

Earlier Quilts

Since I am new to blogging, I thought I would back up once again and post a few of my more recent custom made quilts: for family, for friends, and for customers.

I made 2 of these flannel quilts....almost identical, but the red and blue are reversed and the binding is cut differently: one straight the other diagonal.

~~~~~~~~~~

More Flannel

Front

When I got all the blocks up on my design wall, I found that I had transposed the two colors on 3 of the "snail trail" blocks during construction.  After making 3 more blocks for the front, the mistake blocks were sitting there . . . glaring at me from the end of the table.  "I'll show you," I thought.  I used them on the back along with all the other scraps from the front. 

Back  

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Flannel and Minky

What a great combination for soft, huggy blankies!

Front

Back

~~~~~~~~~~ 

This is the 3rd Memory quilt I have made.  The other two were photographed with my old polaroid if you can believe it!  That was before I started journaling with my digital camera . . . umm . . . it was before my digital camera.

  

~~~~~~~~~~

                     

 ~~~~~~~~~~

  

Queen sized quilts

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

 

 ~~~~~~~~~~

Lap sized quilts

Front

Back

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

Front

Back

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

 ~~~~~~~~~~ 

Fleece Blankets

No batting, just 2 layers of fleece quilted together.

~~~~~~~~~~

Denim Quilts

Back in the Day . . .

Up until 2007, my sewing projects were done where ever there was room.  When our youngest son went off to college, I set up shop in one end of his bedroom.  Of course, I would fold it all up and hide it when he came home!

BunkHouse Quilts circa 2005.

In 2005, two cozy flannel quilts were born in this room.

I took them to my best friend, Helen Parke Ruby, and she quilted them for me.  During that process, she taught me how to use a long arm.  I made a few wobbly snowflakes, learned how to stencil a pattern and found out that stitch in the ditch was really hard.  I was hooked!  I came home and knew I had to find a way to have my own longarm!

In 2005, our son brought a special girl home from Ohio to meet us at Christmas. I was her first trip to Idaho and we had never met her, but he told us she was the right one--and proved it by giving her a ring during the holidays.  This "Winter Memories" quilt was a gift for her.

I thought the pattern was fitting since it contains "Ohio Stars" quilt blocks.

 . . . a little freehand embroidery with my Bernina.

This is the second quilt that came out of that room in 2005.  It is also flannel.  Our daughter was in college in Las Vegas, NV for 3 years and often expressed the fact that she missed the seasonal weather and especially our Idaho winters.  Most folks don't need flannel quilts in Las Vegas, but I made this so she would have some "Winter."  It worked.  After college, she and her husband packed up her quilt and moved to Minnesota! 

I salvaged an old knit winter headband of her's and made the snow-woman's 3-D hat and the snowman's hat band.  The buttons were from my grandmother's button box. 

~Follow up to all this flannel~

I had enough scraps to make this scrap quilt for our daughter's husband in 2009!  He was in college in Minnesota and I thought he needed a study blanket.

I still had enough scraps to make this quilt and it's my husbands favorite TV/napping blanket.