A Quilt Finish: Geese on a String

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I finished one of the childcare Christmas Quilts.  Here is Geese on a String from Bonnie Hunter’s book String Frenzy.


I’m so happy to have it finished.  I started this way back when Bonnie Hunter had a tutorial on making the stringed triangles.  I immediately grabbed my scrap bin and started making them.  Then I heard nothing else about them….so the blocks sat.  I was tempted from time to time to resurrect them and make them into something but I was fairly confident that Bonnie would come out with a pattern that included them.

….and she did.  You can find the pattern for this in her book String Frenzy.


I have to tell you though…when I saw the pattern, my heart sunk.

I liked the design.  I liked it a lot but I couldn’t figure out what I should do for colors.  Cheddar and lime were not what my quilt needed.  I was “stuck”.  After taking the book to bed with me a few nights and studying and thinking, I came up with this idea.  white based neutrals to complete the corners of the geese blocks…then I made all of the four patches a mix of purple and white.  My idea was that if I placed them so that the purple square was oriented like this, then there would be a “purple” line down the quilt too.

I knew these would be gifted so I didn’t really plan on making them bigger than the twin size the pattern allowed for.  When I counted how many string triangles I had…. Continue reading →

What I’m Reading: Where Children Run

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Remember I said that Ila had linked me to some books she thought I might like?  Well in my scavenging to find them I ran across a couple other books that were just released on the online library.  I was so thrilled.  Rarely do I ever find a book there that I can immediately check out.  Most of the time I have to wait and wait and wait.

This book is called Where the Childcare Run and it’s by Karen Emilson.


Kayla and I both appreciate “Hard Scrabble” books where kids triumph over abuse.  She keeps a listing of them and sometimes uses them in her parenting curriculum.  (She’s a high school Family Consumer Sciences teacher and teaches a class on parenting).  I thought I would give this one a try to see if she might be able to use it.

Here’s what Amazon had to say: Continue reading →

Community Quilts: The Cresco Ladies

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As you know, much of the fabric that gets sent to me, I find homes for with charity quilters.  When my postage fund is big…I ship it out across the states.  When my fund is small, I bless some of the local ladies from around NE Iowa with fabric… I’m really luck as within my area there are a couple groups that I know of who do Quilts of Valor, two groups that do general charity quilting, and a project Linus group.

Anyway..the last time the Cresco ladies were here and picked up fabric they said that they have a lot of quilt tops and were wondering about someone to finish them.  I told them I was sure I could find someone to finish them and donate them onto charity so..the next time they came, they came with a load of quilt tops…I think 33 in total.


I sorted through them.  Most were baby quilt sized…a few larger.  I decided to contact Ronda and see if she was overloaded or in need of tops.

The ladies only sew with what is donated to them so they are make-do quilters.  They come up with some fun results.  I thought this one was so cheery.

This one was interesting.  Someone fabric painted all of these girls.  That made the fabric stiff.  I messaged Ronda to see if she knows if this will work for quilting machine or not.  I was nervous about it.  It’s so pretty though.

Then there were baby quilts galore.  The ladies end up making cute little baby quilts and are so creative to use what they have and make the best of it.  Here’s a sampling of the baby quilts…. Continue reading →

Off to the Movies: Downton Abbey

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The second I found out that Downton Abbey was making a movie, I knew I would go.  Some movies are like that..you KNOW you will go to them.  In my case, I figured our local theater wouldn’t get the movie.  I thought it would be more a “select” audience.  I can’t really imagine someone going to the movie that didn’t watch the series.

Kayla and I made plans to go but I felt like she was going as a “sympathy date”.  She was okay to go but really didn’t WANT to.  Well we thought we’d meet in Waterloo which is a big enough town to get the movie and between our two homes.

Well things changed when I learned the movie indeed WAS at my local theater.  I called her and said, “Did you WANT to go to the movie?”  She told me she just wanted to spend time with me….well you really don’t “spend time with someone watching a movie”.  So we made plans to hook up another day without the movie…and I decided to go to the movie myself.

So last Sunday I went…am I went by myself.  I told you yesterday that I’ve made a goal of trying to more things by myself and not getting “stuck at home”.


I’ll have to admit when I first came in and sat down, a couple people looked at me a little odd.  I’m sure it was because I was alone.  I took a deep breath and reminded myself, I wasn’t here to worry about social norms.  I was here to go to the movie and I wanted to see this movie.  So I ignored them.

Normally I would have dug into my popcorn about then by I couldn’t get popcorn because of my diet.

So about the movie…it was…
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