Kay's First Quilts

Lorri posted a picture of her first quilt so I thought I would post some of my first quilts.  This is not my first quilt but it is my first quilt not from a kit.   My first quilt was a quilt from a kit where you embroidered flowers with simple X's.  It has orange and yellow flowers with yellow borders.  I made it when I was in high school so it would have been made probably in 1975.  This one was made in the late 80's.  The  stars  are called Ohio Stars.  It is not made very well and I thought the quilt top had disappeared.  I was hoping that it was lost forever.   Well my Mother found it in the bottom of a  closet recently and decided to have it quilted.  It is very big (85 x 85) and the stars don't line up and the navy blues don't match.  Notice it does not have any binding.  That is because it is so big and made so bad that I don't want to finish it.  I should finish  it  though because even though it looks bad it could still keep someone warm. 

This quilt is also made in the late 80's.  I made it to cover a leaky window to try to keep some of the drafts out.  I made it from scraps of fabrics from clothes  I made and some fabric I had bought on the sale table.  Notice how the sun degraded the fabrics.  It is tied and the binding is turned over from the back.  I would like to recreate this someone day because I have always liked it.  Here is another of it with some of my flowers.  First quilts are always fun because you can see how much you have improved over the years.  I hope you like this bit of my quilt history!

Squirrels and Sunflowers

Since I am ready for winter to be over and spring to be here, I thought I would post this.  We have several squirrels that live in our yard and run in and out of our old hollow maple trees.  Last summer I decided that would plant some sunflowers next to my glider.  So I planted some sunflower seeds and waited for them to come up.  A few came up so I thought I  planted some more .  I went in the house and looked outside and the squirrel in this picture was digging up my sunflower seeds and eating them.  I couldn't believe it!  In the fall we noticed that the sunflowers  that made it were broken over.  Jeff thought the birds were sitting on the sunflowers and breaking them off.  Nope.  Squirrels again.  I watched the squirrel get up on my planter, reach up and bend the head of sunflower over and breaking them so that he could get to the sunflower seeds.   After that I just cut off the dead sunflower heads and put them next to bench so he could get them.  He would pack off the sunflower heads even one that was three or four inches across.  I don't how he did that but he did.  Besides sunflower seeds he also likes tomatoes.  Jeff and a friend watched him steal some of the neighbors tomatoes out of his garden.  They saw him pick a tomato, carry it over our fence, through a flower bed,  across the driveway, past the bench and then take it up into the tree. I was wondering why the neighbor was throwing his rotten tomatoes in my flower bed.  Wasn't the neighbor.  It was the squirrel. And I was blaming my  neighbor!  So there you have it -  a sunflower loving, tomato stealing squirrel.  Isn't that something!

Name Quilts

Here are some name quilts that I made as baby quilts.  The names were put on the back.  On the Norah quilt I forgot to get a picture of the front.  Sorry about that.  It was a very colorful butterfly quilt I made from a pattern by Fig Tree quilts.  It is called Painted Ladies.  The other two quilts I made from leftover blocks from some other quilts I made.  I quilted them myself on my home sewing machine.  They are not that big - This is as big as I can make them and still quilt them myself.     Sorry about the pictures all being bunched up together - I'm not very good at this technology stuff. 

My first quilt and other odds and ends

My first quilt

I made this quilt in l979.  I was moving to Pittsburg at the beginning of my junior year of college.  I did not have a pattern for this.  Blue is favorite color, as you might have guessed.  Many of the fabrics in this quilt were leftover from my 4-H sewing projects.  The photo above was taken this summer when I was washing my quilts. 

I remember using these fabrics for a 4H project.

As you can see, some of the fabric is starting to disintegrate.  Looks like I used some type of polyester batting.  I quilted this myself on our home sewing machine. 

I used a sheet for the backing.

I still use this quilt, mainly when we sit on the back patio in the evening.  I still find it very comforting (and warm).

2 x 2 barn quilt I painted for the Little Balkans Quilt show

2 x 2 barn quilt - Little Balkans quilt block

Norah Mae and her baby quilt I made for her.  I used a bunny rabbit print. She is a real sweetie.

Elliot Ann's baby quilt

 Elliot Ann - She is as cuddly as she looks.

I made this table runner for my secretary, who is retiring.  She changed her mind and decided to not retire.  She said she is hoping for another table runner when she really does retire.  And she is so worth it.

There is a small field next to our neighborhood.  Every couple of years sunflowers make it into the rotation.  I love the sunflower year.  I took this photo this morning.  Notice the bee flying above the flower. 

I like this one also.

I think sunflowers are happy flowers.

Washington, DC trip; July 4, 2014 (post by Lorri)

To celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary, we decided to take to trip to Washington, DC.  This was the hubs first trip to DC.  I'd been once before, as an almost 17 year old 4-Her (along with two busloads of Kansas 4-Hers).  That trip took place in 1976, in late July, just after the big bicentennial celebration. 

Boy, did things change.

We picked a hotel in downtown DC, so we could walk or ride the Metro.  We got the hang of riding the Metro pretty quickly, we only took the wrong train once. (Actually, we were on the right train line, it was just headed the opposite way we wanted to go.)

Our hotel was about five blocks from the White House.

Yup, we did a White House selfie.  

Of course, there was some kind of protest in front of the White House each day.  They were pretty small, and everyone seemed to be well behaved.

We strolled on to the Washington Monument next.  Photos just don't do justice to how magnificent it is.

There was a storm rolling through that evening, so the clouds were a nice backdrop for the monument.

The next morning, we took the Metro to the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery.
 I do not take a photo of the Pentagon.  There were many, many signs saying "Do not take any photos".  As I did not want to spend anytime in the Pentagon pokey, I happily complied.  There is a nice memorial on one side of the building, for the folks that died on Sept 11 when the airplane crashed into the Pentagon.

Arlington cemetery was amazing.  And extensive.

The changing of the guard was very touching.  They placed a wreath provided by a high school.  I'm guessing different organizations can provide wreaths for this.  When the soldier played taps on his bugle/trumpet, it just sent chills through me.  The word "respect" went through my mind the whole time we were at Arlington.

The next morning, we got tickets to go through the Holocaust Museum.  Oh my.  I would highly recommend spending some time here, if you have the opportunity.   Hitler was so very evil.  It was so disturbing seeing all of the exhibits.

Selfie at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. 

The hubs really liked this museum.  He's worked in the aircraft industry for a number of years, so he felt right at home.  It was so cool.  I lost track of how many aircraft they have hanging in the building.  I especially like the old planes.  There was a military band playing that day, so we were treated to some good music while we enjoyed the exhibits.

Here is Mark sitting at the base of the Washington Memorial.  This was where we sat on July 4th, while watching the fireworks.  On our anniversary.  I read that they were expecting 700,000 people that day.  Sure was nice of all those folks to help us celebrate.

And yup, the fireworks were pretty darn incredible.

More about our trip in an upcoming post.

Happy Birthday America!

A wedding in our backyard!

We recently hosted a wedding for our nephew Justin.  So, I decided to share some pictures.  No spoiler alert here; there are no photos of the bride and groom.  I'm sure those will appear after they get home from their honeymoon.

This is how we greeted our guests.

You can see the arch in the distance. The husband (aka the grass whisperer) had the yard looking wonderful. 

The tent and the chairs are delivered.

Unpacking the tent out of the bag.

The tent is going up.  It was really hot; you can see the mother of the groom under the umbrella.

Progress!

Working on the wedding arch.

The arch is done!  The silver and purple looked so pretty.

These flowers were at the ends of the rows.

The trolley delivers guests to our house.

Done with the set up!

Guests waiting for the wedding to begin.

We were fortunate to have dry weather for the wedding.  We wish the bride and groom many years of happiness together. 

K's Cat Quilts

                                                                                

Someone is trying to tell me something!

My cat , Peppermint Patty, sometimes gets neglected when I'm sewing.  She can't spell but if she could wouldn't that be awesome!  If she could spell I'm sure this is what she would do.  These are some letters I made for another project and just thought I would have some fun !