The Fireman’s Breakfast

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I’m so sad I won’t be going to the Fireman’s Breakfast.  It’s a long-time tradition for me.  I’ve been going and working at it since Kramer first started on the Fire Department.  I think that was in 1997 or so.  I missed 2019 when Kramer was fighting cancer but came back in 2020 after he had passed away.

There was a debate on what they would do for a benefit this year…dine-in, take out…It was a hard decision.  They finally decided on both.  Either way, I decided that I better not go.

In the past, I’ve been a dishwasher, worked the dining room, made eggs, poured drinks but in the last 15 years or so, I’ve moved on to be at the cash register at the door.  Kramer was the treasurer of the Fire Department and at the time, it was decided that the treasurer needed to sit at the door.  He asked me if I’d work the door with him and that became our job.  Here we are from 2018.


Of the volunteer jobs I’ve ever done, helping the Fire Department with the fundraiser is likely my favorite job ever.  The group of guys is awesome.  They are just happy to have help and not supercritical.  They’ve been doing the breakfast for so many years, everyone works their job and it’s great.  No whining which is awesome.

In 2020, Kramer wasn’t there to work the door with me so Craig, Kalissa’s husband, who is also on the fire department, worked the door with me.  I missed Kramer as we had a great system doing it together for so many years, but Craig was an awesome replacement.  It was nice as he helped it not be so awkward my first time working without Kramer.  No doubt, Craig is a great guy.

I make a quilt every year and donate it for the raffle.  This year I’m donating my Quilted Twins Mystery quilt…This is Old World Fantasy.  A free mystery quilt put together by Becky at Quilted Twins.  You can find the free pattern  HERE.

I’m hoping this will drive up raffle ticket sales.

My friend Connie is so sweet.   For those of you who don’t know, I met Connie through the blog.  I met her in Oelwein Iowa in 2015.  Kelli and I were hosting a retreat there and Connie walked up to me and said, “I’m your best friend but you don’t even know it”.  That cinched it.  We’ve hung out ever since…well as much as we can.  We live about 2 1/2 hours apart.

Connie is one of those sweet people who just pull up a chair, plop down, and helps those introverted people like me open up.  She’s been really good for me in many ways.

Connie came down for Kramer’s memorial service.  She jumped right in the Fire Department guys, buzzed around, and helped make sure things were running smoothly.  I couldn’t be more grateful.  Through it all, Connie could see what a good bunch of guys they are and has since decided to jump on the bandwagon to help our family support the department.

So a week or two ago, Connie sent this wonderful kids quilt she made for the raffle.  Isn’t it so cute? Continue reading →

Quilts of 2016

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In 2016, I had two surgeries…one to remove my thyroid because of my thyroid cancer, and two I had foot surgery.  Surprisingly, that really didn’t limit the number of quilts I finished.

This is my Four Patch X quilt.  This is a Bonnie Hunter quilt and can be found in her book More Adventures with Leaders and Enders.  Read more about it HERE.

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I love this quilt…It’s one of my favorite kinds of quilts…not fancy but classic scrappy.

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I made Emery’s Stars.  It’s just a baby quilt but it is 51″ x 51″.   I made this one for one of my childcare kids when she was born.  She’s five as I write this and has become a real treasure to me.  I love her like my own!!

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If you’re looking for the free pattern check out this link.  Read more about it HERE.

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Allietare the mystery quilt got finished!!  I think I still have this one but I’m not sure.  I could have gifted this one.  Read more about it HERE.
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Here’s another picture of it.

allietare-1I’m so glad I take pictures outside now on the clothes line.   You can see the quilts so much better.

In my march to get the quilt tops under control at my house, I  finish….Narragansett Blues.

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Read more about it HERE.  This is in Bonnie Hunter’s book More Adventures with Leaders and Enders.  Find the book HERE.

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You might remember our block that was featured in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks magazine.  This quilt was made with our block.

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I wrote a blog post (find it here) about how I constructed the block.  If you follow my instructions and wanted to make this quilt, the inside sashing and the outside border are made with the bonus pieces.  For the quilt, I did change it up and used different background fabrics.  This was submitted and later published in Quiltmaker Magazine.

Rausch-baby-Quilt-10I made a second one for publication. I love the straight line quilting on this.

I finished my Lozenges quilt.  Read more about it HERE.  I did this as a Bonnie Hunter Leader and Ender challenge.

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I gifted this to my niece Carly.

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This is Garden Party.  It’s a Bonnie Hunter Quilt that was published in Quiltmaker Magazine.  You can read more about it HERE.  This was later published in Addicted to Scraps.

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I finished Fair and Square.  Read more about it HERE.

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The pattern can be found in Bonnie Hunter’s book Scraps and Shirttails II.  This is one of my very favorite quilts…
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I finished a quilt for a wedding gift.  Read more about it HERE.

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This is a free pattern we offer here on the blog.  Find it HERE.

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This is Jingle Bell Square, another Bonnie Hunter pattern.  It was published in Quiltmaker magazine and late in one of her books, Addicted to Scraps.

Jingle-Bell-Square-Quilt-1Read more about it HERE.

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I finished my Rick Rack Nines quilt.  Read more about it HERE.  You can find in it Bonnie Hunter’s book Adventures with Leaders and Enders-book 1.

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We had a quilt published in American Patchwork and Quilting…this is Stair Steps.  It’s an explosion of 1″ finished strips!!  You can read more about it HERE.

StairStep-1This quilt is a favorite of mine.
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We had a quilt published in a calendar.  This quilt.  I don’t remember what the publication called the quilt.  I’ve called in Crystal’s Zinnias named after my niece.

Zinnia-Garden-0Read more about it HERE.

Zinnia-Garden-1It was a fun quilt.

Our Plus Fun quilt was in McCalls Quilting.

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Read more about it HERE.
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Our Candy Cane quilt was in Quilts and More magazine.

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You can read about it HERE.  I gifted this to a couple who had a December wedding.

I finished my Winston Ways quilt.  Read more about it HERE.
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This is a Bonnie Hunter quilt.  It is featured in her book More Leaders and Enders.
Winston-Ways-13Be still my heart.  Red four patches.  What is not to LOVE!

I finished  Bonnie Hunter’s Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt.  (You can find the free pattern here)
Bricks-and-Stepping-Stones-Quilt-1-1HERE is a link to read more about the quilt…

Bricks-and-Stepping-Stones-Quilt-3Again…red four-patches!!

Next is a baby quilt I made for a gift.  The pattern is based on Bonnie Hunter’s “H is for Happy” pattern.  The pattern can be found here.   I made the “H” blocks and then set mine differently.  I ABSOLUTELY loved making this quilt.
H-quilt-0-1Read more about it HERE.

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This was a wedding quilt.  The lighting is terrible in the picture.  Sorry.

Quilt-10This was a quilt along I think with Country Threads.

Next a baby gift.  It’s a Minky quilt.  I hated making this!
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Kelli made quilt a few quilts that I machine quilted and bound for her.

This is Kelli’s Easy Street quilt.  This was a Bonnie Hunter mystery.  You can read more about it HERE.

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Kelli made this…

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We later remade it and submitted it for publication.  It ended up being featured in American Patchwork and Quilting.  You can read more about it HERE.  Can you believe it is made with one jelly roll?

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This is Kelli’s version of My Blue Heaven.  It’s in the free pattern section on Bonnie’s site.  You can find it here.  Kelli did a scrappy version.

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She started this quilt in 2011 when we saw Bonnie Hunter in Storm Lake Iowa at a retreat.  It was the first retreat Kelli and I ever went to.  We met Nell there and have had a lasting friendship with her.

Read more about Kelli’s finished quilt HERE.

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This is Kelli’s First Monday’s quilt.  It’s a Miss Rosie pattern.  Read more about it HERE.

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This is Kelli’s Pineapple Blossom quilt.  She did the top.  I finished it.  You can read more about it HERE.

PineappleBlossoms-1This is a free Bonnie Hunter pattern.  You can find the free pattern here.  I love this made all with one color.

Here is another Kelli quilt finish, Farmer’s Daughter.  Read more about it HERE.

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So pretty.
Farmers-Daughter-5I finished this quilt for Kelli.  She had made a Miss Rosie Schnibble pattern.  Sorry, I don’t know the name of it.  I had added borders and machine quilted it for her.

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That’s the quilts we completely made and finished.  I did other things though…

I twined a rug.  Mary at Country Threads was having a rug along and I joined in.  You can read more about it HERE.

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Anyone can make this type of rug.  You simply need a frame like this.

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I’ve made several and very much enjoy making them.

I did a lot of charity quilting.  A LOT.  Here they are…

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At this time in my life I was donig a lot of longarming of charity quilts.  I was doing so much that I started handing off the quilts and had a bunch of blog readers that were finishing the binding on the quilts.  I counted over 25 charity quilts that I did the longarming on.

I did some machine quilting for my cousin Donna.  These are her projects…
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Donna now had her own longarm.

In other sewing news, I found my Singer 301.  Read more about it HERE.

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That’s pretty much the highlights in the sewing room from 2016.  I’m so excited to have this post to add to the archives.

A Busy Week with the Kramers

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We’ve had a busy week around here.  You might remember that I had my grandkids over the weekend.  Monday rolled around and I was back to childcare…or so I thought.  My childcare kiddos were sick so the parents kept them home.  Gannon and Georgia were still here on Monday but no extra kids.

Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday the kiddos were still sick so I sewed my days away all the while worrying about this guy.

Kayla’s boy Jasper landed himself back in the hospital.  He was having breathing issues.

This picture makes it look like he didn’t mind the whole ordeal.  That would be incorrect.  He was pretty miserable there.  Kayla happened to catch a happy picture.

On Friday we got this picture.  He was being discharged.  YAHOO!!


He stayed over three nights.  Kayla is taking it well…Spencer too but Kayla is a teacher.  This was finals week.  It was not a good week to miss school but what’s a mom to do?  Between Jasper getting tubes, his last hospital visit, and now this visit, she’s burned through all of her time off.

Being I was off from childcare I offered to go stay but she said if she went to work, she’d just be worried anyway.  I totally understand but I wish there was more I could do.

Thursday was Georgia’s birthday.  She’s TWO now.  We all had a video call to sing her Happy Birthday on Thursday.  She was crabby and wasn’t into it.

Kelli is having trouble sleeping already.  UGH.  I know typically those last few weeks are hard but Kelli is only at 29 weeks.  It’s too soon for her to not be sleeping.

Buck’s kids ended up with colds when they got home from the weekend here.  The kids are all feeling better but now Buck and Lora are both not feeling the best.  Buck sounded terrible Thursday night.

Karl is finally pulling the last bits and pieces together to sign the final papers on his house.  This week was a lot of finishing up estimates, checking into changing electric and internet…all of the fun stuff.  We’re hoping next week will be time to sign closing paperwork.  WHEW…

I got lots done while I was off especially being Kalissa’s family was on vacation in Wisconsin Dells.  It’s easy for them to go being they’ve already had Covid.

Kalissa ended up coming home sick.  She’s had a cold for the last few weeks but hasn’t been able to completely kick it.  While they were gone, it really flared up again.  They left Tuesday morning and came home Thursday afternoon.  She had to work overnight Thursday night.  I went on a walk with her and the boys Thursday afternoon.  She was debating on calling in sick.  I told her to go early and see if she could be seen at Urgent Care.  She said no.  She went to work.

Friday morning I called her as she was driving home and asked how she was.  She said, “Terrible”.

I told her I was pretty sure she had a sinus infection and should go in.  She started in on not being able to go and she’d go to Urgent Care over the weekend if she needed to.  I said no she needed to call for an appointment.  I would drive her to it.  I worried about her driving.  She didn’t get out of work until half an hour late, then the 70-minute drive home all while not feeling good, and then drive the opposite direction to the doctor once she got home, all on top of just working a 12-hour shift.  I pushed her and she finally gave in to go to the doctor.

I ended up taking her…Guess what?? Continue reading →

In My Mailbox….

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Oh, my word…mail has been flooding in.  Just a week ago, I was about caught up except for some letters and small packages.  I have a ton to share with you now.  I’m wondering if a bunch of you are having a little case of spring fever and are doing some spring cleaning.

Starting with box #1 is a box from Minnesota.  There was no full name on the box.


There were lots of goodies inside.  There were flannels on the left and bigger cuts on the right.

There were all sorts of prints.

There were a couple of panels and some orphan blocks along with precut squares.

There were LOTS of batiks.  So fun.

The next box came from Donna.  Oh my.  Look at all of the cross stitch.  I just love looking at charts even if I don’t stitch them.  I am sadly not a Santa girl but I know these Prairie Schooler Santas are so popular.  Many stitch them and make them into Christmas Tree ornaments.  I’ll likely offer these on a postage auction and see if one of you would like to get them.

There were other goodies in Donna’s box too.

There were bigger pieces that would work for backing.  In fact, the light blue one went out in the mail the day I opened it.  I have a new person that is willing to finish a few quilt tops, Gail.  She wrote and said she used up much of her stash making over 2700 masks this past year so she needed backing fabric.  If there is someone willing to help, I’ll fight to find her backing fabric or whatever else she needs.  THANKS for the help, Donna.


There were other fun prints too.  You all know I love printed neutrals so I did save the white with red heart fabric.  I’ll be making granddaughter Lucy a quilt and this will work perfect for it.

Scraps and precut squares were next.  I ended up keeping the precut squares.  They were all batik prints.  I ended up digging and pulling out some of the batiks in the previous package and saved some of them too.  I’ll cut some more squares and then make a big charm with them.  I love to make those as my leader and ender project.  It’s simple and easy…but with good colors, they are great.


I got thank you notes from two of my great-nieces.  Some goodies that you all sent were passed on to them.  The two girls made a lot of masks and I sent fabric.  They are tweens and were interested in trying cross-stitch so I sent some goodies that were sent here on to them.  Thanks for helping me help them…I appreciate it.

Look what Jazz sent to me!!  Continue reading →