Sunbonnet Sue

Julie Q the other day pictured some Sun blocks she found and is putting into a quilt. It is so much fun to find these old blocks. I did a number of years ago and made my granddaughters quilts.

But she wanted us to show OUR Sunbonnet Sue quilts. I have the one that my Mother made for me. I presume before I was born which was July 1930. So the little girl was all the rage at that time.

You must remember that back then the quilting instruction they had was their Mothers or the other ladies in the church. I don't think my Grandmother quilted.

Here is my quilt,rather worn. It is sort of machine stitched down but tied with yellow yarn.

There are some very neat old prints. Many are very faded.

Here's a closeup of one of them and below another.

Tomorrow I shall show you the one that my Mother made for my daughter at my suggestion. She did a lot of quilting in the 40' through the 70's. Never made me one because she said I could make my own.

I have pieces off one of hers.

Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway. Tues, is my first anniversary.

Time for a Giveaway

Next Tuesday, Sept. 2 is my first anniversary of this blog called "My Quilting Porch" with that beautiful Maryland sunset for a header.

Many of you have been faithful in following my quilting, weather disasters, gardening such as it is in these woods, and visitors. So I now want to give you a chance to get a little piece of some of my work.

I love scrappy and using up all those bits and pieces we make doing big quilts. So this is a little bit of scraps. Mostly Thimbleberries.

So from now to Tuesday if you make a comment for the giveaway your name shall go down for the drawing which I shall do sometime in the late afternoon of Sept. 2. EDT. Please if you are an anonymous be sure to leave your email Addy so i can find you.

Now to show you the newest guest in our home.

Doctor decided it was time to give me a little relief from pushing the wheelchair around and ordered a Scooter for hubby. He's having a hard time learning to drive but is improving every day. Isn't it Jazzy? That's his name.

Funny the other morning after hubby had taken a Vicodin for pain the night before, he said he woke and thought I was sitting in the living room with him. LOL! Just Jazzy sitting there.

Then Tuesday when I went to the basement to finish quilting my paper pieced quilt, I looked out the window and saw this

He is growing fast and eating the weeds. That's better than the leaves off the azaleas. I went back upstairs to get my camera and shot this out the downstairs porch window. He was just as far away as the width of the driveway. All by himself. Yesterday while I was gone, hubby said that the home care nurse and Bill, our friend that is coming and sitting while I have a day out, was fascinated watching both of the fawns and the Mother eating away in the back. These city people don't know what they are missing. Our neighbor said there is also a young buck around. I haven't seen him but their antlers are just growing now and unless you are a hunter they are hard to see.

So the comment list is open. Good luck to one of you. Thanks for visiting.

Seafood Chowder

This is a recipe that our friend Roben has in her new cookbook, "You Won't Believe it's Gluten Free" by Roben Ryberg. She had made it for her New Years Eve party and I had brought some home for hubby and he liked it. So have made it several times and everyone has loved it.

This book can be found on Amazon and most large book stores.

It is simple: This is a picture I took yesterday after warming up some leftovers. Look Good?

Sea Food Chowder

4 small new or red potatoes
1 small fish fillet - I use Tilapia 6 oz.
1 small onion
2 Tablespoons butter
1 - 12oz can of evaporated milk
3/4 cup of milk
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
1 Tablespoon cornstarch or potato starch
1 cup fresh or frozen corn
1/4 pound of scallops
6-8 large shrimp and clams
fresh basil for garnish

One medium saucepan

Wash, stick potatoes and cook in microwave for 3 min. Cool dice and throw in pan.

Cut fish into bite size pieces. Add to pan. Chop onion add to pan and then remaining ingredients except shrimp, scallops and clams. (I do not use the clams.) Over medium heat bring to almost boil and simmer for about 10 min. or until fish is no longer opaque and flavors are blended. I find this takes about half an hour. Stir often.

Peel and wash shrimp, cut into pieces Cut scallops if large and add to pot and simmer till shrimp turn pink. 5 min. at the most.

Done, Enjoy

Help Needed

But first here is what has been growing in the yard around the dead oak we had topped a couple years ago.

This is a fungus and evidently the deer thought it looked like it might be tasty as I saw the two fawn looking it over yesterday. Here's a close up:

Then this morning I see that some of it had been scattered around the ground.

Now for the HELP!!

I showed you the set of BOM I had made from Carol Doaks group and the last couple of days have been working on a setting. Decided on this.

So yesterday I got the center quarter square triangles made and figured the size I needed for the setting triangles but want to split them into two colors. Found I had enough odd WOW's to cut the white triangles needed.

So this is how it looks. Not sewn together yet but contemplating the finishing. I have put up some red strips and hung this blue floral from the Lakeside collection of TB. But in the picture you can't see the red very well. Guess the lighting was not good this morning. I find that when the flash works I get better colors.

Now I don't know if I like the floral or not. Should I look for something more like a plaid, stripe or more modernistic to go with these sharp points of blocks?

All suggestions welcome. Thanks for helping.

Some Finished Some Not

First I want to thank all you new bloggers that have been visiting me on the porch. Really surprised at some of the comments. New people all the time.

Right now I want to let you all know that next week I shall have a special announcement. I'm coming up on my first year anniversary and want to do something special.

Now for the something finished. The lost is found and now sits on my headboard along side my snowman pillow. So a sailing I will go and what an evening it would be. Just looked to the west and a long stretch of red with grey clouds all around. Another beautiful sunset. Don't think I've seen any quite like the one I caught a couple years ago and use for my header.

First the Sailboat all complete in a 14" pillow.

Next is the completed top that Kim got me into making by sending me three of the Schnibbles patterns. I really wanted to make Little Red out of the two sets of Charms she sent me for my Birthday but there wasn't enough lights in it. So the next one was this Novantique. With the gift card she also sent from the Fat Quarter Shop I bought a jelly roll of the Wildflower Serenade. They didn't have the fabrics in then. So I used 4 different reds for the inner sashing and then finished up the 2 patches for the outer border. I put up some lights to see if an outside border of lights would work, Nope. You know the camera is the best way to test that. With this on the wall it looked very dark but when projected on the TV it look great with nothing else. Very cute little wall hanging.

Now to get it quilted.

I do have the pieces cut for the Little Red out of a variety of fabrics. Had a couple different charm sets and then used some of the TB lights. This is fascinating the way they came up to do this pattern. But that's for later. Other things in the works now.

This is the 12 BOM which Carol Doaks has been giving out to her group. One of them really doesn't go to well but that is it. I thought they ought to be separated a bit so am planning to put them on point and put a quarter square triangle with a navy and white. That will have a secondary design and let each block shine. Can't believe I made all of those. This will be a work in progress for awhile.

Love that you stopped by to see what I was doing.

I found It

I knew it would show up but when and where?

I had to take my hubby in to have a tooth pulled this morning and keep trying to think where I hadn't looked.

The only place was the porch, not good anyway.

I have a Big Board for my ironing board and it sits on two large storage bins that I had bought at the Office supply store. They were the right height and on wheels to move easily. Had two large drawers and 4 little ones at the top. Great for storage of fabrics and stuff.

The middle section is open so if I sit at it and can put my legs there. But I also got another smaller plastic container with 3 drawers to put strips like Bonnie says to cut from scraps for future use.

I had laid these tops on here. I had looked back behind from the top but had not seen anything. Behind is the electric heater. This being under one of the windows of the porch.

So after I had hubby settled this afternoon I decided to investigate further. Moved the smaller drawer unit and crawled back to look good. Should have cleaned a little while I was at it but didn't.
Here was my sailboat almost clear under one of the big units. How it slipped down there is beyond me. Maybe with me moving the whole thing yesterday looking it slipped under. So I have my sailboat and now can get the back envelope made for my pillow

I was thinking about maybe quilting it a little but don't think I will. Am afraid it might make it to tight to fit the 14 inch pillow I purchased last week for it.

I shall show you when it get finished.

Oh, and Hubby seems to be doing fine. This was a cuspid that broke off and the worst part it held a small partial plate. The dentist thought ahead and took a form and had the tooth added to the partial and the surgeon had it to stick on after he had stitched the hole a bit. But Hubby took it out as he said it was to high so that means another trip to the dentist on Friday. Lets hope he can soon be able to chew something a little firmer that the last 3 weeks.

Now on to get some sewing done.

I've Finished

This Round Robin quilt which has been down on my Juki partially completed for so long. This past week by going down for a hour at a time I finally finished it.

I thought that my daughter could use it for her schools Charity Raffle quilt for this coming year but now she has gotten her own classroom of kindergarten children and moved to the elementary school next door. These will still be special Ed. students but a little better than in the other school. So she said she would wait and see if this new school has any fundraisers before commenting to the old Special School.

This was made about five years ago by a group I was in with members all over the U.S. As you can see I have the binding sewn on but my daughter said she would whip it down. So took the picture before it was completely finished.

Here's a closeup of part to see what quilting I did. I do mostly straight line but in the flowers and square in square with the design, I free motioned. Not good but it's quilted.

Another section of close up

Then this evening I've had a strange thing happen. My daugter was up ovenight and before she left I asked her about making a pocket backing for this Sailboat which I am making into a pillow.

Well. I thought I was IF I can find it.

I took it and the Yours Truly Paper pieced top into the living room to get the paper off the back while watching the news. Had taken my smaller cutting mat into use as a table to use the seam ripper to cut along the paper seam. Makes it easy to pull off.

When I finished I picked both pieces and the mat up and laid them on the dinning room table to get something for hubby. Then picked them back up and carried them out to the porch. About 6 steps. Put the mat where it belongs and laid the YTRR piece on the ironing board and looked for the sailboat. But where was it? No place to be seen. Where can a 14in. piece of fabric disappear to in such a short time?

Hubby would say the squirrles took it. !!

This was the last pattern that Carol Doaks left us with as she went off on a Cruise up the North East coast. We were to have a picture in the album by the end of the month. She then picks randomly a name for 60 FQs. She loves to give out prizes and it get us all making her patterns. I thought this was so cute and found this Lighthouse fabric in my stash and figured it would make a cute pillow. Now I'm ready to make it but no sailboat.

Stay tuned. Hopefully I will feel very foolish when it shows up.

My New Friend

The other day I went out on the carport to fill the bird feeder and water the hanging plant. Looked down and wrapped around the railing and in front of the door to go to my porch was this:

I decided to get my camera and get a couple pictures. Before I go further I shall say it is a large black snake and they are harmless. My hubby said to grab it in back of it's head and carry it across the road to the woods. Yah, sure. I think it weighs a little more than I could handle.

I then went down the steps to get this picture from below. See him wrapped around the railing.

Later I saw him going down over the porch by way of the post. I hoped he was gone.

But later that day I went out to take the garbage and he was stretched out on the carport at least 3 feet long. Headed for the generator, and where the garbage can is kept along with the bag of recyclable pop cans and other recyclables. I keep a tarp over the generator to protect it from blowing rains. I was afraid he would get under there and settle for winter.

So yesterday while my husbands friend was here I carefully took the tarp off and started the generator to scare him away. So far have not see anything of him again.

At least this wasn't as bad as the rattlesnake that JulieQ's husband almost stepped on. She had pictures of that a few days ago.

Thanks for stopping by. Seems to be a lot of new bloggers stopping lately.

How I Spent my Summer Vacation

What vacation???

This is what Kim put for a title when she put these pictures in. I know she has fun with her blog so might as well let her have some fun with mine.

This is the last block of Carol Doaks block of the Month she has been giving us.

This was rather an unusual one. These 4 - 6 in. sections could be turned any direction. I like to wait and see what some of the others do with them before planning how to make mine.
Now we have 12 blocks to make into a quilt. Will have to wait till I get my board cleaned off of other projects before working on it.

Now as for the vacation. I have been quilting this Feed Sack quilt for at least a year. Well, I stopped for a couple months to quilt a special quilt for our Home Care nurse.

Kim has been asking me how close I was to done. I didn't know so decided to stretch it out and take some pictures to show her what was taking me so long, besides not quilting more than maybe an hour a day if at all.

I showed this when I first started my blog close to a year ago. It is all hand pieced and hand quilted. But see those large light places between each of the flowers? I didn't know what to quilt in them so thought if I did Echo quilting it would make the flowers stand out.

I hope you can see the quilting when you click on the picture to enlarge. Each one of those Octagons are about 6 in. and takes about 4 hours to quilt and at least 4 different strands of thread. I know I was crazy to start that. My daughter told me so long ago. But sometimes you have to do what you think is what it needs.

As you can see this is what I'm working on now, or was. It is finished. and I really was surprised how little I have left to do. This is close to the edge.

Each one of these flowers are made up of the only one template. It is the placement of the colors that makes the pattern. Every flower is different feed sack. The white or off white is made of sugar sacks. You know the things your Mother or grandmother used for dish towels. At least mine did. In an over view of the quilt you can see a little variation of the color of the white.

This shows the edge pieces and yes I'm doing the echoing in them also. I will just bind this with the white sugar sack fabric. You can see I used the same green for the leaves though out and the centers are dyed sugar sacks I believe. I found the colors. This shows a good close-up

In keeping to the feed sacks this is a part of the pieced backing. All of them are in blues and greens.

Hopefully before the Olympics is over I'll have a lot more done on it. I have two corners and some of the small outer pieces to do.

Since I only do this quilting in the living room while watching TV with hubby, sometimes I don't get much done. Now IF he liked to watch the baseball games instead of some of Animal Kingdom I might get more done. I do have several more tops that are waiting to be hand quilted. Think I will get them done? I don't know.

Thanks for dropping by.

A haircut can do wonders.

On Monday my daughter came up with her oldest daughter, home for the summer from art school in Philadelphia. This is a picture I took at Christmas when my whole family was home. These are the three granddaughters doing the dishes. The first one washing is Ashley, our artist. See that long hair. Clear down to her waist.

Well this summer she decided to get it cut. I was so anxious to see how she looked so Dear daughter brought her up for overnight.

Here is what it looks like now. She is sitting Indian style in the chair facing the table and a lamp that her grandfather asked her to make a drawing off.

It isn't the best picture but will have to do. It changed her looks so much.

Now here is a picture of the lamp. Turn of the center leaded. We use it as a night light for Hubby as he sleeps in his chair in the living room and likes some light. It came from his grandmothers home.

The base is cast iron and quite a nice design. She didn't get it finished, think she got bored and went to bed. But I took two pictures for her to use to finish this up.

What he wants this for is beyond me. Maybe to see if she could do it.

Now we won't see her until Thanksgiving. She is in Illustration this semester and loves it. Has an apartment off campus in a private home with another student.

All for now, Maybe have some quilting stuff soon.

A very good read

. .I just finished this new book by Emile Richards. - Sister's Choice .If you haven't read any of her books you are really missing a good story about relationships, quilting,the Shenandoah Valley particularly around the area of Toms Brooks .This was sort of a special area for my hubby growing up as he had and aunt and uncle that lived there and he spent his summers there some.
I think this is the fourth of the series. I believe. I have at least one other one listed in my favorite reads.

While I was waiting for this to come via the library, I got another one of hers set in Georgetown, DC. called Prospect Street. This is a mystery, love story and Mother Daughter relationship.

This book has lots of twists and turns and towards the end you just can't put it down. Got to find out what is going to happen next.


Now I have some more pictures of the naked Ladies

All in a row along the lower drive. Those stems were close to 2 feet high.
You notice I say "were" last Sat. we had a fierce storm, really two of them about fifteen minuets apart. Driving rain, hail, wind and an inch of rain and it broke all those stems off to the ground, all going in one direction from the south. Strange..

At least like Kim said I had gotten these pictures. This is a closeup. I cut one off a little and brought it in the house . It's still looking good..

Just had to get a picture of this new ground cover. It's called Goldilocks, lysimachia rummularia. I brought the label up with me. I saw it this spring at a nursery and always looking for different perennials that take partial sun. This thing is really growing. Taking over that little part of the garden. Looks so neat falling over the rocks.Also called Creeping Jenny.I see in reading the back that it is drought resistant, which is good but not needed this year but also Deer resistant. That is good. The other day I got some pictures of 3 fawn and two does eating away on the weeds in the back yard. Sure are seeing them more now. Usually only see them in early morning or later evening. Guess they know that they can't be hunted now.

I've been pretty busy with hubby and my daughter and oldest granddaughter were here overnight on their way to Lancaster to a game show convention. Was nice to have them a little while. Ashley , our artist, will be going back for her Junior year at UART in Phili in Sept. and probably won't get back up here. She works at the country club that her brother works at some and has for years. I wanted to see her as she cut her long hair off and she looks so different and its curling now like her Mom's.

I got a couple things from the Fat Quarter shop yesterday. Had to use that gift certificate. Needed more of the Wildflower Serenade so bought the Jelly roll for the long strips and also got for the first time a set of Twice Charm in the TB Christmas Punch. These are 5 x 22 so enough for some small projects for Christmas.

Now to finish up the Novantique. Also been working on getting the plaid blocks finished. I have 6 more to go. This will make a 5 x 6 block quilt with a border of some kind a really neat throw. Pictures later.

Now with the sun setting in the west giving the clouds a gold lining, I will close. Hope all is well where ever you may be.

Life is good.

Christmas in July with flowers

.The Thimbleberries group I'm in always tries to get us going on gifts for Christmas early and that means a swap among us. It is secret who has our name as well as who we have.

They were to be at the persons home by the 31 of July and then we could open them. Mine went to a dear friend in Toronto, Canada and she got it a few days early. We never know about the mail between the states and Canada.

Since she was the very first one to open yesterday, I can show you what I made for her. It is hand quilted and all Thimbleberries fabrics. The pattern I got out of one of the TB books. Now I don't remember which one and I know it was a topper and I used only one of the blocks and put it on point.

Now I took the camera to the yard to get more pictures of the Naked Ladies. I'm so pleased that as many came up that did but very unhappy about something, probably squirrels thinking they looked good. But just cut two of them off. As soon as more of them come clear open I get another picture.

This was taken in the evening so a little dark. They are all along this part of the lower drive opposite the perennial garden. They are getting very tall close to 2 feet now. I would think they are getting plenty of light

This was taken from the other end. Those are small dogwood trees behind them
We have gotten so much rain this summer the weeds are growing as good as the plants.

This is a white bleeding heart. Every seen one. I hadn't but couldn't resist when I saw this little plant at the nursery at the beginning of the summer. It is growing nicely even though the varmint that keeps digging holes in under the plants. There must be something in the potted soil that they go after. I think it's the chipmunks but maybe not. Anyone have any suggestions.?
I've filled in the holes and the next thing I know it's there again.


I've finished the center of the little Schnibbles but am waiting for a jelly roll of the fabric to finish it off.

Also be working on the plaid blocks. This quilt I am really going to like, when and if.

Hubby just takes a lot of time and then feeding him also. Wish I had a cook.

Enough for today. Thanks for dropping by.