Quilt made by Kay



front of quilt






Back of quilt with Steph and Clinton

Kay made this quilt for Steph and Clinton.  She pieced the back of the quilt with the newlyweds' wedding year.  Pretty cool, don't you think?



I am a collector (Sherry)

Colander wind Chime

I am a collector, have seen since my 4-H days.  I am not a hoarder!  I have been accused of being a hoarder, but I am not, I am a collector.  It started with spoons. I would buy one when I traveled on 4-H trips to Louisville, KY, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, etc.  When my mom and dad traveled to conferences they would bring me a spoon from that city. Soon other people began bringing me spoons too.   I still collect spoons, I have several spoon racks full of spoons. And one fork.  My nieces thought it was funny that I collect spoons, so being onery, they brought me a fork from a restaurant in Texas.  It has a place of honor on a rack with the spoons.  Then my collecting grew to  stamps, depression glass, antiques of any kind, buttons, favric, quilts, postcards, old books, etc. Well as the years have gone by, my collections have expanded and grown.  Now i end up collecting things that i didn't even mean too.  If there is ever a shortage of bias tape, buttons, or metal colanders, I'm good. (Once my youngest son made a wind chime from an old metal colander with old silverware, beads, and keys in 4-H. So I started picking up  colanders at auctions, garage sales, etc, and soon i ended up with a collection of them.  Never have made another wind chime, but some day i will)   I like to collect things that i can reuse.  I was a recycler before it was "in".  I have always made crafts out of cast off things, its a challenge to me to reuse something in another way.  But my friends and family don't understand me.  They think I have a problem. I don't, I'm just misunderstood.   Part of the problem is my line of work.  In preschool, we make things, lots of things, out of things that other people would throw away.  I keep them and get my friends to save them for me  too.  This week we are making binoculars out of empty toilet paper rolls.  And yes, i had 42 toilet paper rolls in my "stash" so each child could make a set of binoculars.  I use all the things i collect, eventually.( or at least I plan on it) In February, during our health unit, we make tissue box faces, reinforcing the need to cover your sneeze, for our bulletin board. Yes, that is 24 tissue boxes on there. Last winter, we went through a lot of tissues in preschool.  

Tissue box faces

Heather and the Giant Wisk

Heather is our niece.  She is an artist who makes fabulous cakes and has a bakery in Pittburg.  She can even make an armadillo cake, a la Steel Magnolias.  Go to thecrislers.blogspot.com and see the photos on Dec 7, 2010.

Anyway, recently Heather wanted a giant wisk.  Doesn't every  baker need a giant wisk?  So, of course, she asked her dad to make it for her.  He promptly went to his shop, and created a life-sized wisk.  I think it's pretty cool.

 

And, Jeff made her a giant wisk, because that what dads do.  They make stuff that their daughters ask them to make.  I'm pretty sure this isn't that last fun thing that Heather will ask her dad to make for her.

This is Jeff, Heather's dad.

 Ask our dad.  He makes stuff all the time that we ask him to make.  What Jeff and our dad don't know yet is that I found a really cool picture of a table that I will need help from them both to make.  It includes angle iron (which requires Jeff's expertise) and barn wood (this project has daddy's name all over it).

So many projects, so little time.

Ok, back to Heather's story.  The wisk was part of a display for Pitt State's recent Paint the Town Red.



If you are ever in Pittsburg, you should stop in and see Heather.  She has the coolest shop ever.

Sweet Designs Cakery  311 North Broadway

Kansas State Fair 2011 (by Sherry)

Selvedge apron and oven mitt

My snowman quilt

Spencer, Caroline and Kendall

Don't they look like they're having fun? 

Phil and I just got home from a fun filled couple of days with the grandkids and our son and his wife at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson , Kansas.  It was a perfect day for the fair, not too hot, not too cold, just right.  The kids are just old enough to really appreciate all the fun there is at the State Fair.  They climbed in tractors, big and small, trying them all out.  They watched a cow milking demonstration, saw native Kansas fish,  petted a few goats and a zebra, rode on the skyline, the ferris wheel and  an elephant ride.  We saw the pig races and went to Llama Land. Spencer was very impressed with the biggest pumpkin and Caroline loved the big slide.  Kendall, not so much.
I had entered 5 items in the clothing and textile department so we did manage to get a peek at them. I would have liked to spend more time in that building, but I was out voted.  Caroline said it was the least favorite part of the fair, looking at the quilts.  But it was my favorite part of the Fair, because i won some more ribbons. NOt just ribbons, blue ribbons! I made an apron and oven mitt out of the selvedges from fabric for the Creative selvedge contest and won 1st place! My snowman quilt that took third at the Little Balkans Quilt Guild won first place in the holiday quilt class and my wool purse and wool pillow also took first.  I was so excited!!! I have entered things off and on for several years, but have never done this well.  But my very favorite part of the State Fair was sharing the whole experience with the grandkids.  It was so much fun seeing them having fun.  Hopefully we can make it an annual affair.  There is so much to do and see there, we didn't get it all done before they wore out, but there's always next year. 

Quilters from the past (posted by Lorri)

We come from a long line of quilters.  The photo above is one of my favorites. Our Grandma Von Soosten is on the left.  We estimate this photo to be from the early 1900's. I don't know who the other women are in the photo, but I hope Grandma had as much fun quilting with her friends as I have quilting with my friends.  Looks like a log cabin pattern, a popular quilt pattern to this day.  Sure glad we wear jeans when we quilt, their dresses don't look very comfortable.
Would love to know the story of this quilt.  Was it for someone's wedding?  Someone's anniversary?  Guess we'll never know.

The weekend.

There was also a petting zoo outside.  Kendall loves the goats.

This weekend was the Little Balkans quilt Show in Pittsburg.  It was a great show!  Lots and lots of beautiful quilts made by some very talented people.  I even won a few ribbons.  Kendall was excited to see her quilt with a Judge's choice ribbon on it.  She loves to pose in front of the quilts.  She also learned about wearing a glove when you touched the quilts.  Then she had to touch all the quilts.  It turned into a game of quilt tag.  Only none of them tagged her back.  Her favorite one was the small wallhanging with three sunbonnet Sues dressed in black and white striped dresses with balls and chains on their legs.  It was entitled "They touched the quilts"  . It was quite hilarious.  She took it very seriously.  I also took the quilt Phil's grandma, mother and aunt made in 1938 to have it appraised.  HIs mom wrote in her diary the day about putting it together, putting on the border and working on it.  They made two identical quilts , one for phil's mom, Esther and one for MIldred, her sister.  We inherited Mildred's quilt.  It has never been washed and is in excellent condition. I am very excited to find out what it might be worth. Got to spend the weekend with my good quilting buddies and my sisters.  Today, Kay and i took a road trip to Hutchinson to enter a few things in the State Fair.  Did I mention how much I love the Fair?

What should I do with this quilt top? (posted by Kay)

I finally decided to make a quilt top with leftover scraps and leftover quilt blocks.  Although I usually make stars and pinwheels, I wanted to do something different this time.  Now that it's done, I'm not sure what to do with it. Sherry has dropped some major hints about her upcoming birthday and how this would be a lovely gift.  I'm pretty sure Phil might think they already have a quilt or two at their house.
I would be grateful for any  suggestions.

Step 1 - Start with leftover scraps. Peppermint Patty likes to help.

Step 2 - Make into assorted styles of quilt blocks

Step 3 - Assemble blocks into quilt top.  Sneak into Jeff's garage to borrow clamps to hang from fence.