Part Two as Promised

After the summer whooping crane sightings, we visited the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin to learn more about these fascinating birds and ongoing conservation work on their behalf. 

It was really a neat place where you can stroll the grounds and see cranes of all kinds up close and learn as you go along. 

(Black-Crowned Crane)

(Siberian Crane)

(Wattled Crane)

I highly recommend it if you are ever in the south central Wisconsin area.

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In the sewing room, there were a couple more small quilts in process.  I made this blue and green Piccadilly Circus quilt, following the YouTube tutorial by Jo's Country Junction.

As soon as I had posted pictures of the finished quilt on my Facebook page, a friend inquired about it for his new grandson.  So I didn't have it in my hands for long, but that was fun.  I may have to make another one sometime.

Another impromptu quilt came about when I decided to make a bunch of half-square triangles from a couple of brightly colored charm packs a friend gave me a year or so ago.

On the design wall, I initially put them up all going in one direction.  That was okay, but I kept playing.  I liked this better, so I sewed it up like that.

Now it's waiting to be quilted.

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My friend Gwen, whom I've known from school days, is an accomplished artist now based in Minnesota.  She mainly does landscapes, but since 2020 has done a series featuring grazing cattle called "Another Point of Moo" with whimsical and often humorous titles.

One day I saw a funny picture online of a cow grazing under a wash line, where the clothes on the line looked like another cow suspended in midair.  I forwarded her the picture and, just for the fun of it, offered a "Point of Moo" type caption.  She got a kick out of it.

Fast forward a few months when she told me she would be sending me something.  This is what came in the mail!

She even put my caption on the back.  How cool is that!  I love it so much!

In return, I made her a piece of quilted art and sent it off.  She has painted crows as well as cows in her work, so I thought she might like this.

If it looks familiar, it's because I made something similar several years ago, which you can see in my blog header.  I recreated one like it for Gwen, which she loved.

* * * * *

More pictures from the summer:  My sister and her granddaughter Cali and I went to see the Rodin exhibit at The Paine in Oshkosh.  

It was amazing to be among some of the famous Rodin sculptures on the grounds of the beautiful Paine mansion and gardens.

And speaking of beautiful gardens, friends and I toured the labyrinth garden in West Bend on an equally gorgeous summer day.  

So many lovely flowers to see as you make your way along the 90-foot wide labyrinth path.  

It was peak season for the many lily varieties when we went.

Thanks for coming along on a short recap of some of the highlights of the past several months while I wasn't "here" on the blog.  It was fun to revisit them with you!

~Paulette

Four-Patch on the Diagonal Top Done

I finished the Four-Patch on the Diagonal quilt top last week, and I really like how it turned out!  The pattern is by MaryQuilts.com and can be found HERE.

There is something very cozy feeling about it.  Maybe all those pinky-browns and earth tones.

It measures around 59 x 71 inches, which is a nice throw size.  

I'm not sure whether I will donate or gift it, but, ultimately, it may be a bit harder to part with than I thought it would be.  I guess that's a good thing!

Lost and Found!

We had a look around the garage a couple weeks ago to see if there was anything we needed to get rid of during our city's bulk waste pickup that happens annually in the spring.

One thing we unearthed that I had totally forgotten about was a 29-inch floor standing quilting hoop that had belonged to my late mother.  It was packed away in its original box and stored on a shelf in the garage.

I am not much of a hand quilter and don't foresee using this hoop, so I brought it in the house to take photos of it and post it for sale on Craigslist.

There was a large envelope inside the box with assembly instructions and other information for the quilting hoop—AND, surprisingly, a recipe booklet from my Aunt Inez that she must have given my mom in the mid-1990s!

How that ended up in the envelope inside the quilting hoop box is anyone's guess.  But my parents did move from Wisconsin to Arkansas in 1995, so I can imagine that in the chaos of packing, my mother stashed the recipe booklet in a "safe place" at the last minute.

I don't think my mom ever used the quilting hoop after their move.  She made a few quilt tops during the next couple years, but then she had a stroke that paralyzed her left arm.  She had all of her quilt tops longarm quilted a few years later and gave them to her granddaughters.

It was such a pleasant surprise to find my aunt's recipes some 28 years later!  Here are a couple pages from the booklet.  Having grown up and lived most of her life in Louisiana, it was fun to see a recipe for Crawfish Etoufee.

And recipes for some of my grandmother's cakes and pies.

This 1-2-3-4 cake sounds like something that would be good served with fresh strawberries and ice cream.  Strawberry season here is right around the corner.

There are so many other great family recipes in this little booklet, flavored throughout with my aunt's helpful tips, remarks, and admonishments.  It makes me smile!

I'm going to put this in its own three-ring binder and then on my recipe book shelf so I know where to find it from now on.

~Paulette

Positivity Quilt Top and Summer Highlights

I missed the link-up for the Positivity QAL finishes, but rather than listing my excuses, none of which are good, let's focus on the positive.  I have a top done!

This is pretty much the sum total of the summer sewing around here, so woo-hoo! :)

I thought I might have a fully finished quilt to show you, but no dice.  I did piece a backing and Franken-sewed a batting together for it this past weekend, but then realized this baby is kind of big to baste in the usual spot on my kitchen floor.  I think it's doable, but I'm going to have to make a plan, move some things, mop, etc., so it's going to have to wait a little bit longer.

Tomorrow I'm checking into a nice hotel in preparation for a colonoscopy the following day.  Flushing a couple hundred bucks down the toilet for the privilege, but at least I won't have to drive an hour to the hospital in morning traffic the day of the procedure, which seemed a bit too risky, if you know what I mean.  The procedure is a routine thing (mostly), since it's been over 10 years since the last one.  Suffice it to say, I'll be glad when it's, uh, behind me.

The summer has really flown by, but I've enjoyed it.  Reading, walking, putzing, biking, spending time with friends, crafting, etc.  

A friend and I got together a couple weeks ago to make cork fabric wreaths.  We missed the class at Sallie Tomato last fall due to unforeseen circumstances, so we held our own on one "craft-ernoon" and put them together.  They turned out very cute!

On a little day trip this summer, hubby and I stopped at an antique shop where I admired this vintage quilt.  

The price was reasonable, but I didn't take it home, just took pictures.  Love all the sweet fabrics and hand quilting.

Another recent highlight was spending a day with my great-niece and my sister (her grandmother).  We took a long walk, toward the end of which I offered a little horsey-back ride.  

Eight years old is a magical age of enthusiasm, spark, humor, and curiosity—and it's contagious in the best way!

~Paulette

Crocheted Cuties

My daughter Michelle has taught herself to crochet this summer.  Today I'm sharing some things she's made right out of the gate as a "beginner." 

They look pretty advanced to me—and cute as cute can be!  

Crocheting is something I just never got the hang of.  I did learn to knit when I was a teenager and made some basic things like scarves and even attempted to make myself a sweater.  Crocheting, though?  Not my thing.

Michelle has taken to it like a duck—or whale—to water.  Look at this fun blue guy!  Amazing!

Here's the book it came from.

Next she made a little turtle from the same book.  So adorable.

She gave both of these to a sweet little boy, her boyfriend's nephew, who loved them.  Another nephew got this cute little Baby Yoda.  Awwww...

Some more progress pictures:

I loved seeing each of these creations take shape.  Well done, Michelle!  I hope you'll have more to share sometime.  Oh, and we kids-at-heart like crocheted cuties, too...just sayin'.  ;)

Do you crochet?  Is there a craft you never quite got the hang of?

Sunday Sundry 6-23-19

It's been awhile since I've done a post in the "Sunday Sundry" category, where I gather various odds and ends into a smorgasbord of sundry themes.  So let's do this thing.

Old Business

First, in the interest of closure, I did get the last Hands2Help flimsy quilted and sent off to Quilty Hugs earlier this month.  Norm took a couple minutes out of his yard work to hold the quilt up on the porch for a couple pictures of the front and back.  

Some close-ups. 

This was a great way to utilize 2.5-inch strips and went together fast.  Go back one post for the link to the tutorial, if you're interested in more details.  I'd definitely make one of these again.

Who Likes Leftovers?

I do, when it comes to both food and fabric.  Food-wise, it usually means I don't have to cook, which is a welcome change of pace.  Fabric-wise, it's a fun and creative challenge to make something on a smaller scale within the confines of the scraps from a bigger project.  I like the low pressure, who-cares-if-it-doesn't-work, but-it-might-be-awesome-if-it-does feeling of working with leftovers.

I had a couple orphan blocks left over from the Blooming String Baskets quilt, as well as some leftover triangle units in solid colors.  So I played around with positioning those this way and that, and came up with this table runner.

When it came to quilting it, I had no clear idea, so I started with just ditch quilting, and that led to a bunch of other straight lines.

Here's a fun, good to know tidbit:  Anybody who thinks straight-line quilting is taking the easy way out when it comes to finishing a project, has probably never buried three thousand thread ends!  Of course, I'm exaggerating the number (somewhat), but man oh man, the thread burying on this little ole thing! 

I'm happy with the end result, after all is said and done.  Yeah, so maybe it looks like the carnival has come to town, but it sure brightens up a room!  If it's too bright, I can always flip it over for a (kinda?) more subtle effect.

The next leftover project was with more solid scraps and remaining 2.5-inch strips from the quilt shown above.  I put together a few 16-patch blocks and came up with this little doll-size quilt.

My grand-niece has a birthday in a couple weeks, and I think she and her dollies might like this.

The back is from a vintage fitted crib sheet I found at a thrift store years ago.  It's so soft and sweet, and the perfect size to finish this little quilt.

Non-Sewing Related Gigs

I've been working on a different kind of project lately, and that is transcribing the many hours of conversations I recorded with my dad a year or so before he passed away.  

He's been gone a year and a half now, but I still think of him just about every day.  Sometimes it's just a passing thought.  Other times it's like a step back into a more painful kind of missing him all over again.  

(View from Dad's memorial bench overlooking the marsh near sunset.)

I think grief is like that.  It comes and goes, sometimes dull, sometimes sharp.  I'm no expert, but I think you just have to ride those waves, up and over, as many times as they roll in.  

When I've been out for my daily walks this summer, I've been relistening to those conversations.  Dad wanted to talk about his life, his stories from a young kid on.  When we covered most of that ground, we went through his photo albums and he talked about the people in the pictures.  I'd go over there once a week or so during 2016, with my digital recorder in hand, and hit the record button.

You might think relistening to those conversations would be painful, but I find they are anything but.  To hear his voice again, his stories, his laughter and mine co-mingling, is relaxing and comforting.

(Dad in 2014 - Quote by Scribbles & Crumbs/Lexi Behrndt)

My mom wrote down her stories about growing up and compiled them into a book that she then supplemented with pictures.  She gave each of us children a copy.  When she passed away unexpectedly, 10 years ago, we were all so glad she had done that.  

I think Dad wanted to do the same, but he didn't have the skills mom had when it came to typing it all into the computer and organizing it into a narrative.  I'd helped him edit the book he wrote in 2012 from his handwritten notes, so I think he wanted me to do something similar with his life story. He never asked me explicitly, but I got the drift that that's what he was wanting to do once we got started.  When I was working with him on his book writing project, it became obvious that "the rest of the story" was often in the details I teased out when seeking clarification of his written notes.  He was a great storyteller, and it seemed he recognized that his own story was going to have to come straight from the horse's mouth, as it were, with me asking questions along the way.

(Wild columbine along the bike trail, with "sparkles" of dandelion fluff.)

So now I'm starting to transcribe those long conversations.  I'm a transcriptionist by day, so it's not difficult work for me, just time-consuming.  And after hours of transcribing for my day job, I am usually pretty much over with sitting in front of a screen and typing any more than I have to.  However, last week I had a light workload for some reason, so I got started.

I tell you what, even though you may have heard your parents' or grandparents' stories being told time and time again, there's no way you're going to remember all the details.  And you may hear a snippet of a story here and there but never the whole thing.  In relistening and transcribing Dad's own words, I'm learning many "new" things, even though, technically, I've heard them before.  The overall scope of it is coming into better focus.

It is going to be wonderful to get this down in black and white for posterity, and to share it with the rest of the family.

Thrift Finds

So far this summer, there's been more going out of the house than coming in, which feels like a very good thing.  I've sold an old road bike, a camera, and an amplifier, among other things.  I've driven a couple trunk loads to Goodwill.  The circle of stuff, and all that.

But on Saturday, we happened by a nice thrift store where I sometimes find fabric, and once again, the trip did not disappoint.

That roll of pink fabric?  Five yards!  That'll make a nice backing some day.

Love the paisley print!  And that striped fabric may make a nice binding.

This gray (and black/white/red) fabric was definitely a vintage head-scratcher.  What is with those shapes, for one thing?  And feathers?  It was just too weird to pass up.  I tried Googling the name on the selvage but nothing came up.  Hmm...gotta love a good mystery!