Privy Bags

Last weekend I found this book at a local printshop/bookstore.  I was intrigued by the title and without spending any more time looking through it I made my purchase and brought it home to enjoy.

Later that evening I sat down to enjoy my new find… What it is is a Catalog to accompany a showing of Lancaster County Privy Quilts by the Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley.  Hey, wait a minute - that’s where I live… that’s the local historical society!  And you know what… this showing is still happening – at least until May 15th! 

So if you’ve got an inclination to travel to Lancaster County, PA this show is open on Thursdays and Saturdays, 10 AM – 4 PM.  The Historical Society’s Museum is located at 249 West Main Street, Ephrata, PA. 

This catalog of Privy Quilts would be a delightful addition to any quilters book collection and I am looking forward to seeing them in person very soon.

Loves Taters…

Another picture of this little man from their visit this past winter… 

I was making some Sheppard's Pie and handed him that potato masher - he sat there for the longest time sucking on it…

Good thing he likes taters… his Mom just found out he’s allergic to milk and eggs.

I am ashamed…

I’m not usually a critical person…

I do try to not see the obvious physical flaws that some have…

But bless her heart… she’s really got a face only God would love… which is good because she really is an angle.

And I feel terrible for wishing her face was different.

But it wasn’t her face that first caught my attention… it was her skirt.  It was made up of lovely pieced homespun stars.

But her face… I’m having a hard time getting past her face.

Yikes… what’s up with that face?

I think she’s gonna need a face lift… or lip tuck… or something…

Five Dollar Cutter Quilt…

Poor sad quilt indeed…

The Engineer and I were walking through a local outdoor antique area the other week and as I passed by a vendor I stopped and backed up.  He was sitting on a cut up very dirty old quilt laid out on the tail gate of his pick-up. 

Let me say – I’m being very kind when I say dirty… it was truly grossly dirty.

I could tell it was cut up and the binding was frayed in two and that the fabric in the blocks was fraying… but I loved the colors – green and orange.  And I loved the Winding Ways pattern…

So I asked the guy if he would sell the piece of quilt he was sitting on.  He laughed as he stood up… said it was really dirty and asked how much?  I offered him $5 and he accepted.  He stuffed it into a plastic bag – which I securely tied shut… did I mention it was dirty? and smelly?

It was so dirty that after spending 2 hours on the soak cycle in my front loading washer with the ‘Quilt Wash’ stuff… the cleaning towels I threw in with it were brown… they had absorbed some of the grime.  Ick!!  So I figured I couldn’t hurt anything at that point – I added detergent and ran it on the hot cycle with a double rinse.  The end result of that cycle was much better – I think I was more concerned at that point about loosing the old towels I use to dry off the dogs.  LOL

The individual winding ways blocks were hand pieced and finish at about 6”.  At first I thought that the quilt was all hand constructed – but in looking it appears some of the blocks were joined together by hand and others were joined by machine.  I’ll have to get my magnifying glass out and see if I can tell if there is any kind of pattern to how it was assembled.  

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There is some staining still – mildew, oil ??? – on the back and as you can see there is a lot of fraying across most of what is left here.  What I have left is approx. 24” x 66”.

Must have been really lovely at one point…

Design Wall 4-19

It does feel good to have these blocks done… which means about half of this project is complete – the easy half… LOL

I’m now working on the applique pieces… just 4 little curves on the edges – very easy stitching – there’s just a lot of them – or so it seems. 

In this picture of my design wall – please ignore all the boxes in the background… the short story is that all the boxes that were in the attic storage room are in my studio now.  Uuuuugh!  As we drug them all out yesterday – we both decided that we were not going to put ‘junk’ back in there – so there’s going to be more sorting going on than sewing for a while.

Check out what’s on others design walls over at Judy L’s Patchwork Times.

Bunny Update…

I have a new video… boy these little guys have sure grown a lot since last weeks video.

As best I could tell on Sunday – there only looked to be 4 still in the nest… and even then they were really crowed – so the most mature of them must have bailed out already.

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Then on Monday when I went out…

Everyone’s gone… It’s hard to believe they all fit in this little nest.

I need to put my fence up…

Last Pumpkin…

I know it’s Spring and not the usual time to be talking about pumpkins.

But I had a couple Fairy Tale pumpkins at the end of last summer that were doing all they could to finish growing… they were big in early November… but they were still very GREEN!

So this fella spent the winter sunning himself on the window ledge in my bedroom – at least on the days I remembered to open the shades… LOL.  Our bedroom stays in the mid 50’s… so it was an ideal keeping place for a winter squash.  What?  You think that is kinda cold… hey remember I’m a quilter so we are very toasty.  (Side note… those windows with the awful plastic – they are all but outta here – new windows will be installed early MAY… Yahooo!)  Anyway… this guy slowly but surly turned orange.

Here he is waiting on the kitchen window for me to cook and puree him – which I finally did this Saturday.

I cut and baked this one in the oven and got 15 cups of puree to put in the freezer.

I also had a little smaller pumpkin that had spent the winter in the kitchen window… he ripened up and went to my sister a few weeks ago to meet the same fate.

Design Wall Monday 4-12

It’s been awhile since I posted to DWM… but that’s because it’s been awhile since I’ve done enough sewing to make any kind of difference.

Although I don’t have a picture of these actually on my wall (they really are up there… on the third floor… on the design wall – honest) I do have a picture of them in a pile as I was working on them.

I now have half done… the pitiful 5 pieced blocks that had stood alone for so many months now have company and are hopeful to be completed…

I have made a little headway with the applique blocks… but not nearly enough to brag about.  I’ve got a new batch of them prepared to stitch…

Here what they are suppose to look like…

UPDATE ADDED:  Sorry… I should have thought to add the info on the source.  This pattern is called Peas in a Pod in the Kim Diehl “Simple Comforts” book from That Patchwork Place.

I’ve mixed some Civil War fabrics I had already in my stash with the new Moda Civil War Homefront line.

Again – sorry I didn’t add this originally.

Challenging Myself…

Do you do that?

Do you challenge yourself to step outside the box?

Do something out of the ordinary?

Do something you wouldn’t normally consider?

Be bold?

Do something you probably find a little uncomfortable?

I couldn’t be bothered the other morning matching up little footies by color… it’s only on the bottom… so I went for it and grabbed the first two I came across in the sock drawer.

Yeah… I know… I’m living right there on the edge. 

Look Ma - No Iron…

I’ve been taking these pieces parts… and there are lots of them!

and making them into these blocks…

…and I haven’t left my seat to go over to the iron.  I’ve been using this little gadget…

The roller I got with the Curve Master Foot the other week at the show.  It works really well at squashing those seams into place.  I’m loving me this little roller!

And… I’m not using any energy to heat the iron… and therefore I’m also not heating up my studio… which has been an issue with the 80 degree temps earlier this week. 

Don’t Do What Granny?

I forgot what you said not to do?…

Oh yeah…

Don’t stuff the whole Cheeto in my mouth… I forgot!

 

I recently ran across this still on my camera… silly boy was insistent about stuffing the whole ones in and letting them melt.  I could only give them to him one at a time because he’d stuff more than one in if he could.  Geez I miss those kids…

New Vehicle…

I didn’t tell y’all about my new vehicle…

My husband went out a couple weeks back and bought me a new vehicle! 

We had been discussing upgrading our old one...  we had bought it used.  Although it has not given us any mechanical problems in the years we’ve owned it – it was a very uncomfortable ride.  I always felt like I’d been beat up after a couple hours driving.

Let me show you my new ride…

…doesn’t the grill make it look powerful?  And the RED… well that just says FAST don’t ya think?

 

 

And the ride is sooo much smoother than the old vehicle.

 

And look… my old vehicle was a very basic model and it didn’t have one of these…

 

 

or one of these… 

 

 

Oh and it’s got accessories too… a roller, a spreader, a dethatcher, a dump cart… oooo I love the accessories!  And that seat… yeah she’s cushy!

 

Welcome Spring!… let the grass growing begin.

New Beginnings…

Look what I found Sunday as I was cleaning up in the garden boxes.  I was working my way down the box removing dead leaves and debris.  Look how nice my oregano is already – I just need to remove the debris around it…

but wait – take a closer look…

oh… what’s that – that noise?

I knew as soon as I heard them ‘popping’ that I had new bunnies.  Should have gotten my fence up sooner…

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Cute – very cute!  Nice Surprise for Easter Sunday! 

Hey – that means I found the Easter Bunnies!

Lancaster AQS 2010… part 4

OK – I know - I thought I was done too… but there are these few other little things I picked up.

Sorry for the glare…

Lickity Grip… a tacky sorta stuff to help get a handle on things.  My hands are so dry I have a hard time getting a grip on anything.  I like that this stuff is acid free, non-staining, and non-toxic.I picked up a couple little holders called ‘A Stand’ – a flexible neck with a clip on the end.  I snagged a package of the long, thin, glass headed pins. The suction cups are made to use with rulers and templates… note the little tail that sticks out – when you stick your fingers in and under the ‘Q’ you can easily pick up the ruler without having to grip it.  And then there are the threads I received from AQS for joining…

I was so busy shopping that I only took one picture of a quilt… I loved this little guy when I saw him from a distance.  When I got up closer and could see that he was in a cucumber patch and that there were ‘pickle dish’ blocks along both sides… well I just had to have a picture. 

I love armadillos.  What?  You don’t believe me?  Haven’t you seen Jake?  Jake – the armadillo that lives in my garden?  Geez he’s gotta be more than 10 years old now.  My sister in Texas found him for me when I was visiting one summer.  I had told her I wanted an armadillo to take back to MA and she found him one day driving along a country road – so she picked him up for me.  My son named him… and I figured Jake was as good a name as anything else so it stuck.  He’s easy to take care of and has lived in my garden ever since.  I was a little worried about the move to PA but he has adjusted nicely - although now he spends most of his time watching the fish in the pond.