This Is My World...

I do think Quilting wins as I look out the window into snow blowing!!  It was sunny this morning and seemed "warm" for January.  Now the winter winds are blowing along with the snow in NW Indiana farm fields and towns!.....is that common?....yep!

Our Cabin That Gary Built pic from Summer 2010 :)

Square in A Square Technique

When we visited the NE a few years ago, for a whole fall......yes, we are blessed!...(my Hub did some travel ER nursing contracts)....and I totally found my fabric haunts in a short bit of time, along with hearing folks there talking so much about their new Walmart that was being built, was NOT going to continue to carry fabric and yarns.  They were dumbfounded as the winters are very long (Vermont and NH) and they certainly depended on the local store to carry their supplies.

It was nice to know they still loved to knit, crochet and quilt....
I think it is important to keep these talents alive and I would love to teach anyone anything I know....and if I don't know; I will find out!....that was my answer in nursing when a patient or family had a question...and I do that now in Quilting,etc.

My fabrics in Walkout Basement Shop

I Quilt on a longarm by Gammill.  I do not have a computer guided system and do not plan to get one.  For some pure quilters that do everything by hand, the idea that I use a large sewing "head" to quilt with is not even in their book.  That is ok with me.  I respect their talent and patience and I hope to do some hand quilting soon.  But I can quilt for others or myself on my longarm.
  I  also have a couple hundred bolts of fabric of 1800 reproduction and other bolts of 1930 Vintage and then just a variety of 100% cotton, of course. 

I love to follow Jodi Barrows and use her Square in a Square technique for perfect points....and I have learned paper piecing now and can teach it.  I do love the  Dear Jane quilt and would love to share any time and knowledge that I have gained working on it.

Circles Quilted on Swoon Quilt

My Gammill Classic: Suziebell

Why I am reintroducing myself to you?.....well, I really want to get started longarming for others and "share" the fabric at a good price also.....and of course, get together to help others to learn to cut their first quilt out and understand there are NO police at my cabin/shop...in other words, the only rule I have is to have fun and share in lives.

I can do Barn Quilt Also

So, there you have it........email me if I can get that top done up for you.  My prices are reasonable.....we do not smoke and we have 2 sweet Golden Retrievers that love to be outside scouting the pond; along with Stonewall Jackson our very sweet but dignified family kitty.
Yes, I can paint Barn Quilts also in any design or colors; this one is 4x4....a very nice size....we are going to put 4 of them on the West upper side of Cabin this Spring...ran out of warm dry weather this last fall to get them up..
SOON!!! we will.
Quilted Blessings!.....Karen

What Are Your Finds today?

One of the Greatest Finds this year for me,  are these Advent Barns at....Lilys Quilts  she has the downloads on her blog...all 24....just wonderful!  Check this FIND out, if you can.
The sun is shining and that does help living in NW Indiana in December...being thankful, even for the grey.....because it is the neutral color scheme...the naturals....and isn't there a blue jay or a cardinal that may be occupying your space this winter?....maybe to cheer you up on the grey-tone days?.....I think so!!!!

Another great FIND are  these great pictures of a homestead built in the 1890's. It is close to the time my Grandfather was born in 1894... Oh, how I still miss him. This FIND was at the  Star Stitch Blog; a blog for cross stitch associated with the Kansas City Star Quilts  it has been  a great source of patterns for decades now.

 I do Hope you enjoy my musings and FINDS as much as I do and did..........

So, sew, get busy girlfriend!!.....keep those hands and hearts busy!....Quilted Blessings!  Karen

The Greatest Gift

Open

Ann Voskamp, a "gifted" writer, has penned the most splendid book that I could ever imagine for the Christmas Advent Season.....will it be used as the Pilgrim Progress of our Day?....we think so.
Ann  has traveled the road to Bethlehem through her own pain and then rejoicing..
 She gave us our first Advent Journey and we will never be the same; thanks to her and God. I wanted to share her book...you can find it on Amazon...give it to yourself or someone you love as a belated Christmas Gift, but then God is never late; He is always on Time....He is Time.....He is the Birth on the rags in the Manger....the blood on the "filthy rags" that we cannot atone ourselves....as Ann so well puts it.....
My parents use to read Readers' Digest.....may I suggest that we Digest by Reading Gods' Word and find people like Ann to also read.....
"Grace is weightless".....just ask the Angels that Day in Bethlehem.....
We can live in that weightless place....His Sovereign Will...Oh,....Amazing Grace!!.....

Quilted Blessings!!  Have a Blessed Day....  Karen

Are you doing any hand work today?....quilting?.....knitting..... I am working on a paper pieced Star of Bethlehem today.....  Ham to enter the over soon.....eating a simple ham and salad supper later with my best friend...Gary.........

Christmas Quilts

I had every intention of making a Christmas Quilt this year but time got away from me.  We decided to paint the stairway to the loft and finish putting up pictures on that...I decided to order Vintage posters of the WW1 era on the American Red Cross and the need for women to knit Sox for the war effort. These will look pretty cool, I think; plus add Norman Rockwell pictures and family picture collages....well, hub got sick in the middle of that and started working nights.....SO!!..... we have the ladders up and really, we are almost done but just not alot of get up and go left after his severe cold and now it is time to go back to work after a few days off. He needed rest to "get over it".....ha, funny how that remark is used in others areas of our lives so often....or atleast in our thoughts....
Rabbit trail....sorry!
So, here are some Christmas Quilts from Pinterest.....I looked at the web sites with each one but was not that excited to share them too....so just enjoy the quilts....and I hope that Jesus is warming your hearts this Christmas Eve and tomorrow Christmas Day.....Christmas is really all about forgiveness.....Forgiveness that will be coming as our King grows up to be Gods' man that will take our sins to the Cross....but for now,we can rejoice in the baby...God from the Womb that came to be our Sovereign Messiah and King......God Bless You.....Quilted Blessings too.......I will be doing some quilting tomorrow.....families are all home in their own warm abodes  spending time with the kids they are raising and have raised......we rejoice in our warm cabin and a nursing job for my dedicated and faithful, loving husband and best friend.....Karen

Helping Hands

As life goes on, we can help another person up...we can do that through just listening and praying to our Creator for their needs known and unknown.I had a sweet call from my older sister tonight, we had so much fun and lots of work together those years on Cherry Street. A large family to work and care for...she quilts with arthritis now, it hurts?....yes, but she keeps going on...Love her.
  God holds us in the hallow of His hand.  Time does age us all...one day at a time; as a 100 year old,  handsome man once told me from his hospital bed...bright and cheerful....he was content with his Century of living and ready to meet his Lord.  That is sweet and I am SURE he had struggles along the way...many, as we all do.  Learning to live in His presence may be the whole purpose of belonging in His family....just lean down and help that person....you will find them if you look for them....of course, one of my answers to a need is to give them a quilt too....
God bless you in the way that you need this Christmas....43 years ago I had just given birth to our first baby....a girl....and her Daddy was in a far off land in a war that no one wanted but over 50,000 gave their young lives for.....we had our first anniversary with him on his bunk and me on his parents farm...making cassettes of baby noises to send to him and pictures galore...my family reached into my life then....loved me and loved my baby and loved my husband....Love Is The Greatest Gift....given to us in Bethlehem...with a tiny human heart that would grow into a man that would be pierced on the Cross and shed once and for all....for us all......He reached down and "helped" us all..........  Praise Be!!.....maybe Mary was a quilter?....I bet she was!!.....Blessings! and have a blessed blessed Christmas Eve and Day......Karen

Cabin Fever.......Quilt Displays

Love the Alternating White Clams!!

I had alot of fun being part of Doll Monthly  for most of 2013, but due to quilting at home and also our sons' soon, we hope, coming kidney transplant I dropped out for a few months...but during that time I have received more a blessing with the small quilts that were made for me than I am sure I sent to them!!...so, I decided to use the new yellow (happy color) stairway walls to display these small quilts along with our family pictures...it is going to be hard to decide what pictures too. I don't know about you but once they are in a frame it is so hard to change them out!!....so I do want to add this Clam Shell Quilt idea I found on pinterest...don't you love it?....the quilt and Pinterest? heehee.....I think I will make a small 4 Sunbonnet Sue in vintage fabrics also to add to the  other small quilts....put up the Quilt sign and I am good to go!!...Quilting that is....Always and Forever!!.....
I also think a ladder at some point and where will also be used.......yikes!!....don't run away from me Honey-do hubby!!!......Blessings!! Karen

Quilt Pins and Charms

Love Normans' Paintings!!

New Find.....I just have to share...as it is Christmas and you might be looking for just a small gift for someone special...or another Quilting Friend....or in memory of that Quilter?....anyways here is a link to a terrific site....Pin Peddler....and today it is free shipping on a 10$ order....there are quilting lapel pins and also charms....I made a set of earings with quilting charms on them by purchasing the "make your own earings" with 2 charms.....I sent a thimble to my daughter in honor of Grandma Abby, my mom, who quilted up a storm while she was a living earthly soul....now she is living in Heaven....and I also sent her a school house lapel pin seeing that she is now teaching school and it was also my first favorite Quilt Block!!....So, have fun at little expense today.....and you can not beat free shipping this time of year!!....It is just today....

Fabric Pine Cones?......Wonderful

Wonderful!!

I am so thankful right now for  Aunt Reens' Place, and her tutorial on making Fabric Pinecone Decorations....I think you could use the bright new vintages that are so popular too, or the Reproduction 1800....either would float my boat...how about you?
This is something to do today.....
Tomorrow?....
I hope to audition my hanging quilt by our fireplace soon!....my handy hub just started working a new shift at the hospital and has a cold...so, yes, patience is a virtue....
I remember my Mom standing over my shoulder, as I was learning to sew....saying, Karen you must learn patience.....then she would sit down and undo what I had done wrong with me watching...I did learn and I think she was learning patience too....haha.!!.....

I am on her lap here....Easter I bet!.....oldest Brother is taking the picture....notice our new TV behind us....he told me that the clown on  Happy Doody Hour was INSIDE the TV!.....Oh, how I believed him!!
Quilted Blessings...we are blessed so we can be THAT blessing!....Karen

Its' So good!!

Hibernation Is NOT just for Bears!

Naughty or Nice?

I think I am hibernating...winter has hit fast with its' wind and cold weather....when I run out to the garage the poor Goldens' think I am heading for my "walk"....I wish....sweet Sunny Boy just gets into a fast pace and looks back at me and says...."Come on, girlfriend, get your walk on!".....
Christmas is soon approaching....I have been enjoying Ann Voskamps' The Greatest Gift on the Advent... she is amazing....

Just cute!!

And, of course, I am a Santa Gram.....totally.....I do enjoy the little ones....and since they all love their dolls yet, we have some larger gifts this year for the 18 inch dolls they love to play with...last year was my sewing extravaganza for them......this year, not so much.....actually I am painting a blue wall up our stairs to loft and down to basement from blue to yellow.....
  I love the nail picture I found on Pintrest...what a great source of ideas from everything from Quilting to Gardening to "nails".....
I even have looked over some old photos of the family....my husbands' father died when he was 2 years old....his Dad had rheumatic fever as a kid but did not rest and stop his chores on the farm......later, after my hub was born his father found his heart and body were weakening...and he died suddenly just after he had sent for my hub to return home to be with him.....he must have known.....anyways.....they had a Christmas with a toddler and a 9yr old daughter that year before he passed 2 months later.....
Life is a journey.....God so loved the world that He gave Us His only Begotten Son that those that believe on Him would not perish but have everlasting life....I have loved that verse since I was a child
.....that baby in the manger we see this time of year.....his little heart to grow into an adults' heart....Gods' beating heart for us.......

A Christmas in Plymouth Michigan

Have a safe December!.....sit down and count your blessings as you enjoy your friends and family this season, is my wish....Quilted, of course!   Karen

Husbands' Parents in the late 30's

Thankfulness

Get your Feast On, Little Pilgrim!!

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 says all!

oh! the 1950's!

Heading down to quilt soon on a "Finley" quilt top I made...reminds me of my Mom!!....anyways!!....I just wanted to share pictures from a post from FB today and also a little family pic when I was around 4....I remember the Brownie camera my older brother was using to take it....there were 5 kids then.....on to the finish line with 8 :)......My Mom was a saint who later made Reproduction 1800's Porcelain Dolls and then after Dad died in '93 she quilted until she passed away in 2004.....Heritage!! Thanking God for my littlest Pilgrim of 8 granddaughters and 1 grandson.....Ok, so I am getting gabby now!!  Oh, our son that is on hemodialysis 3 times a week now had gout over the weekend in his foot but he is much better now, this is also due to his treatments and his protein balance n diet...
 Hugs on this Quilting Day, every day is a new day to Quilt!!  Blessings!! Karen

Aspen Frost Quilt Block with Quilty

I think this is pretty cool......very cool!! She will have this in her magazine soon also. !!  Chevrons in the corners?..... interesting!!..Two blog entries below you can find a tool to make perfect half-square triangles also. unless you use Square in a square technique with Jodi Barrows and make them her way....the tool is pretty cool though! so, go below and watch that video too, you won't be sorry....trust me!!......Heading down to longarm today, what are you up to girlfriend?!! Have fun....the only rule I have in Quilting......Quilty type blessings today!!  Karen

The Season to be Jolly

Can it really be here!! the Jolly Season!!....so much to be Thankful for!!!.....planning to make a wall hanging for each family this Christmas; from  Craftsy.....I think it is really sweet, don't you....take a peak at it !!.....  Our kids got together this Saturday to spend the day with Kev at the dialysis center for his 3.5 hour treatment.  One drove from DC to Ohio and then they came together to Indiana; all safe and sound back at their homes today; ahead of the impossible storms that hit Illinois and Indiana.....Thanks Kids!!
As always, Quilted Dreams and Blessings!!!  Karen

Christmas !!  

Our Kids

After The Storms Today

McTavishing Or Doodling

Have you McTavished yet? or Doodled with Jenny? .....You really should try!!.....Quilted Blessings!!  Karen

Half Square Triangles Conquered

 Hello!!!
Goldilocks and the Three Bears are done and ready to ship to the UK....along with two Christmas Mug Rugs with Children in Black Silouhettes....love them!! Want to do more!!  Goldilocks was fun to do and her face is just so sweet too!!  I can't attach pictures as my I Phone Camera lens got scratched and my photos show the affect of that....that explains my poor photos in the recent past that I have posted.....I apologize!!....so when I get the money to purchase new insurance (argh!)....you will have to wait on that!!.....I did find this great video though on something I think You NEED for your accurate quilting pieces...I can not wait to send for it myself!.....
Our son did well with his hemodialysis on Tuesday....he goes again for 5 hours today (that includes travel time and waiting his turn)..he is tired afterwards and takes a good nap then he is ready to go for a day or so until the next treatment....his abdomen finally feels better; we all figured out he had a bug that day...as I came home and have been sick for a couple of days now....he was just so afraid somehow he still had affects of peritonitis.....now his concern is keeping his tunnelled catheter on his right chest sterile and covered!!....it goes to his heart....it is the fastest way to start hemodialysis but it has its precautions for sure!!

Have a blest Quilting Day!! I am cleaning and then starting "something" on my longarm......I will give you a peak.....well, when I get my Iphone fixed!  It is all in a "day" as my Mom use to say!!
Blessings!!  Karen

Our Sons' Journey Continues

Mindy and Kev

Our Son

Reality

Sweet Elenor! She has some great ideas on making a wedding ring quilt!  I thought I would check in with you.
  I was with my sons' family all last week and then went back to see him on Sunday.  He is in hemodialysis now on Tues, Thurs and Saturdays...he gets there, so far on time, and then has to wait over an hour to get started.  He has a mid-day appointment.  Please keep him and his little family; Mindy (wife) and Coralynn and Amelia (little girls) in your thoughts and prayers.  He has live donors on a list; he is fortunate; he has a waiting list of friends and family that match and want to be a donor.  His donor from our town here in Plymouth is waiting to start the 3rd part of her journey of her matching kidney, so, since he has had to go on hemodialysis due to getting peritonitis with the Peritoneal Dialysis, he really is praying the transplant is soon.  He has to be infection free for 2 weeks before any transplant can happen; so they think it will be in December.  That also would be an answer to prayer as the healthcare is changing for everyone and especially them January 1st.  Kevs' faith continues to grow...  God is showing that HE is in control and that HE holds Kevin in His hands....He is soverign.  I am back home and working on the doll quilt to send to UK for November; then it is my plan to get my shop open and offer some longarming and the fabric that I have for those that would like to purchase it! and take Quilt lessons.  But, for now, Kev and his family is # 1 in our lives.  His sister and little Caroline are going to see them this weekend and I am sure Leah will keep him company during his 3.5 hour dialysis on Saturday...happens to be my Hubs birthday and Kevs' Dad....he is 44....opps....lets try 64....heehee.....we will be married 44.....haha......
I pray you are all well and safe....God Bless and Quilted Blessing!!! Karen

Precious!!

Sunday!!!

Dreamland!

Sunday our Son gets to go home!! Infection is gone....starts his dialysis classes with wife on Monday through Thurs and then they do it for the nurse in their home on Friday!!....I am going down for the girls for the week too.....oh, shucks!!....heehee.....I see rainbows being made for one thing and crocheted things for dollies.....  We thank our Lord for his healing...and we continue to pray as the transplant time approaches that no infection would occur before hand.  Quilted Blessings!!  Karen

Our Son..... part 2

Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Woof!

God has blessed us....our son is on the mend....his White Blood Count is down to 40 in the effluent fluid...almost nothing...his hemoglobin is 8.3....up from the low 7s....how blessed we are to see his body respond.  Now to get his appetite back....friends are bringing food to the hospital...they have such an amazing support team through their church and friends!!.....Hebrew 11:6 ..... faith....oh how blessed to have God and know Him and embrace His truth and faith....

Sweet Goldilocks

So, he comes home on Monday and starts classes at the Dialysis Center for the week...doing it themselves in their home on Friday with a nurse there to watch....they are doing so well and handling this with courage and faith....Transplant should be in December sometime and that is good due to the changes in the healthcare system.  It would be so much easier for them to have it happen before January 1st.  God has this, He does and that is not a flippant statement.  Gods depth is beyond what we can comprehend and His love is the Center of life....

What a Pair!!

Thanks for your prayers and concerns.....

Visiting Daddy as Repunzel!!

I am working on a Goldilocks Quilt from Craftys.com....so cute.....I am on the last block; the beds...she is going to the UK for my Doll Monthly Quilt partner who just had a baby this week, Hannah Elizabeth and is also blessed with a 22 month old girl....so this quilt is just what I think they need!!......It was one of my favorite stories as a kid and my kids too!!......
Have a blessed day!!  Quilted, of course!!  Karen

Our Son

Precious at the Saints of the Lord!!

Our son Kevin is needing prayers....he is going to have a kidney transplant between 6-8 weeks now if things go as planned.   But, on Monday after his suppose to be simple procedure of a dialysis access for Peritoneal (in the abdomen dwelling) his gutt got infected.  The Doctors say this has never happened so soon after placement. He went home on Monday afternoon, had it flushed at the center on Tuesday with 500 cc's solution, and then early 130 am on Wednesday he had spiked a fever.  I was there to help with the girls and I encouraged his wife to call the Dr and then that Dr sent him to the ER.  So, from there they have been putting in  three antibiotics into his abdomen once a day and then checking it with the morning exchange....He has gone up in counts of infection and then down yesterday to find the access reddening today and his count slowly raising again.  He is not carrying a fever today.  I say all this to ask for your prayers.  He kidney has only 11% filtration and his blood counts are, of course, low.  He may not be able to have dialysis now and maybe must wait on his transplant with many  careful blood checks done with outputs until that time....
He does have a match for the transplant, actually, from his old church here in Plymouth..and also has other matches and those on the waiting list. So, we trust God that He does have this taken care of.  This has never happened before showed my hub and I that God totally has this, He just needs us to have faith in Him....Kevin feels poorly and has alot of pain at the sight of cellulitus. They have to decide soon what to do with the access and future dialysis needs.
Please Pray that the Doctors can all come to a fast conclusion and understand each others and be in full communication. Also, that his two precious little girls will not have fear or unsettled feelings that they can not voice and that his wife will have the strength to endure and be all that she needs to be for her hub and her little girls and to fully rely on her Lord.  She is such a wonderful awesome woman and we love her!!.....as we love our son.....  Here, he was worn out after a short hike, but the hike included stairs in the hills of southern Indiana.

A Soldier that needs his arms lifted by Us in prayers.

They have a strong support through their church.  May God be praised in all things and worshiped in all our ways before Him. 
Quilted Blessings!  Karen

Is It Sew and Show or Show and Tell?

Sew We Quilt Blog to Win


What fun!!   Just a gift to us " just because" we sew and we show.....ALOT!!.....

..There will be a drawing the last day of October, where you can win 250$ of product! what a blessings...Just Because!  Just visit her blog and check it out, I hope you are successful and win Let me repeat.....it is so easy!!.....just follow her sweet instructions and you may be a winner....
.I amazingly won a WONDERFUL iron a few months ago from her
...my steaming BFF now....
Hugs and Quilted Stitches and maybe....lucky you....
I  am heading back to staining, just wanted to let you know about this great  Just Because Day.....
Happy me?...just because when I empty these paint and stain cans i can beging to hybenate into my sewing room!!    AH!!   ....which is basically my cabin!!.....just ask Hub!.......Karen

Combo!

Little Machine Quilt Stitiches

Mug Rug

It has been a combo time for us! We are building a porch over a deck off an upstairs bedroom..we think it will help this winter with some drafts....we have been staining the Koi Bridge, porches etc!! I would stain you if you came around I THINK!! :) ....and I have worked on my Swoon Barn Quilt Blocks...so we have been outside!!.....
I did finish my Doll Monthly swap projects today and will send them on the last day of September to my current quilting friend in Michigan.....my plan is to get a quilt loaded on the longarm soon and continue to get things ready to open up "the shop"....truly I am!!....we were just away from cabin for a couple years and now it demands we get it caught up outside....You know .....  LIFE!!!.....  Hope your coming October will be very positive and blessed!! Quilted ones from me....to you......Karen

Doll Monthly Quilt Swap

Upstairs Deck project

I know! it is RED!! be careful picking out stains!

Swoon Barn Quilt #1....three to go!!

Simple Jelly Rolls

Don't you just love all the help you can find to do the very best quilt top, easy and enjoyable to accomplish?...I sure do.  This video is just that!!  Please enjoy it as I work on Doll Quilt paper pieced today...show you tomorrow.  Have a sweet, safe day.  Quilted Blessings!!  Karen

Patterns....Camoflouge?

By Design
I am convinced, everywhere I look that God loves patterns too....even in Marine life....I am sure God Loves Quilts too!!.....I thought this was such an awesome video....  I am painting on a Barn Quilt today...many layers of paint on the design...and working on a Doll Monthly Quilt and maybe even Quilting on my Suziebell!!.....Oh, yeah, first Exercises!!....got a used Total Gym 1000....:).......Quilted Blessings!!  Karen

Try It!

Swoon Quilt

Quilting and Quilting some more!  Trying new wings in the longarm quilting world these days and finding it so much fun!  Trying to just relax and enjoy the process and pray it looks good when it is done!  In the last month I put together and quilted a Swoon Quilt....I do love the fabric I used from Lori Holt in it. It is a challenging quilt top to put together but please try it!! You won't be disappointed in the results....
 I also made a doll quilt with the same pattern and fabric for my Doll Monthly August swap.  I am just going to post my phone pictures and hope you enjoy them.  I love to quilt and would be happy to finish a top that you have completed!  Just email me.  Quilted Quilted Blessings and more!!  Karen

Circles and Circles!

Swoon Completed!!

Doll Monthly Quilt Swap

Close Up!

Apple Quilt For My Daughters , put magnets inside to stick on her metal desk.