Mike's Fish Quilt

This is a birthday quilt I made for my baby brother (he'll always be my baby brother no matter how old we are) in July 2013.
He's great fisherman , so the light blue squares are pieces I embroidered with various fresh water fish.
The back is a luscious expensive flannel. I did the free motion quilting myself.

Another couple quilts for kids I love.

I really wanted to make a quilt for a very dear friend who was having her second child. But there was a 4 year old sibling to think about. I had a lot of fun making both of these!

This is the one I made for the baby. It was a Russian pattern I found online and my computer translated it to English. Then I had to translate all the metric measurements. The little ears are flappy-- perfect for sucking on. I just quilted in the ditch to finish is. 

And this is the quilt for the 4 year-old. He loves cars- so cars is what he got. This is my own pattern and I'm anxious to make it again. (After leaning what I did in this first draft). I supplied the little cars and his mother says he like to sleep with the cars in their little garage pockets.

"Mixed Emotions" and "Leftover Jellyroll" January 2014

This is a quilt that I started last April at retreat and finally finished and got back from the longarmer in February 2014. The front is a "Jellyroll Race"  with some extra touches in the border. The fabric is "Essential Gradations" by Carol Bryer Fallert for Benartex. I love the color array-- the camera almost can't focus on it. The back (on top) is my own design which I call "Leftover Jellyroll". It was quilted by Tia Curtis.  It's going to hang in a non-juried quilt show being put on by the KC Modern Quilt Guild on April 4-5 at the Kansas City Star building in KC, MO. After that, it's going to need a forever home. Hmmmm....

I won! I'm so honored!

I got some exciting news this week. I had my little original quilt square chosen by the national Modern Quilt Guild. It will be included in a full sized quilt that will be made up with squares from the 19 other winners, and raffled off next February at the very first Modern Quilt Conference. (Quiltcon.com) I was inspired by the idea of how modern quilting is really "taking off" and how I'm 'taking off" with my quilting- both modern and traditional. So, of course, the name of my square is "Taking Off"! They like the movement in it and that's exactly what I was going for. When I see the finished quilt next February I'll definitely post it.

My Tula Pink Fabric Shopping Bag

I've had this wonderful yard of fabric by designer, Tula Pink, in my stash for a few months but it's been burning a hole in my.. my... feed dog. I really wanted to show off the graphic as much as possible, so I designed this bag to carry with me in the car and use when I go fabric shopping. The rule shall be that I cannot buy more than will fill up this little bag. Of course I figured out a way to expand the bag if absolutely necessary which it will surely be sometimes. Just reach in and pull out the lining, fill it to the brim and pull the drawstring. Voila! Here is the link to Tula. Cool that her studios are just an hour north of here. http://tulapink.com

Rice Pudding and Mrs Meta Berg

The other day I reached in the cupboard for some rice and accidentally grabbed the risotto rice. I couldn't figure out why the cooked rice was so gooey and not at all dry and fluffy. It didn't quite fit the meal, so into what was left, I dumped a bunch of milk and a little sugar and vanilla and let it sit on "low" for an hour. It soaked up all the milk and ended up making the MOST delicious rice pudding ever. I've been a huge fan of GOOD rice pudding since my grade school days in a tiny village in North Dakota. Mrs Meta Berg cooked all the hot lunches and believe me, EVERYTHING was from scratch. I went back there for a visit as an adult and located her. She was amazingly, still alive although probably at the far end of her 90's. I asked her if I could have that rice pudding recipe she used to serve at the school. She took a piece of paper and wrote it out in a very shaky hand... It started out with "about 3 pounds of good rice"... and other approximations. At the end she noted that she always like to add "a good amount" of butter as it cooled. No wonder I loved it! She served it in little bowls with a shake of cinnamon on top. I always do the same, but now that I've figured out that for me, the secret is using risotto rice, I'm going to add that butter at the end, and think of Mrs. Berg as I savor it

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Giving Myself Away

I'm still limping a little and dealing with my big-ole ouchy of a knee, but I can't sit still, and sewing sure keeps my mind off the discomfort. I've been pretty busy for the last couple of weeks. Took time out from quilts to make myself a very political shirt. I bought the fabric as a complete surprise, on a red-dot sale table at Hancock's a couple years ago. This was the time to make it into something if I was ever going to!

Had a Labor Day picnic to go to, and it was a big hit. Guess you can tell what kind of folks I hang with... (you might have to zoom in to see the printing on this shirt- I sent this picture to my brother who couldn't believe I made myself a red white and blue shirt...)