Gardening Question

Last spring I found a sweet potato in the pantry that had gone to seed.  Rather than throw it out, we planted it in the garden - whole.  Just stuck it in the ground.  Today, I found this.....

There's got to be close to 20 pounds!!

They are HUGE!! And they're very odd shaped.  My question is this...

will they be any good?  I'm going to boil a couple up tonight and see what happens.  I was so excited to find them, but afraid they've been in there too long.  I will be very sad to have to throw them all away.  Any gardeners out there???

-Karen

Catching Up - Part 1

It seems like ages since I've done a post..... and it has been.  I have been very busy these last few weeks, and now that I'm almost finished, I thought I'd start catching you up.

I have two opportunities in the near future to have a venue to sell some of my quilts.  The 3 I'm showing today will all be for sale.  This is a child's quilt from Kim's book "Scrap Basket Surprises".

The little owls are a Michael Miller fabric and the strips are from my stash.  With very few exceptions (a few backings and bindings), I have been able to make these quilts from my stash - yea!!!

This is my "One of a Kind" quilt that I started several years ago. I made the two big pineapple blocks  the wrong size.  Instead of ripping them out, I made an original.  This is a beautiful, bright happy quilt.

There are a lot of Kaffe fabrics in here (including the border), but there are lots of brights from wherever.

There are two tiny 4" paper pieced pineapple blocks - I will probably never do any more.

 

It's hard to see the quilting, but it's one of my favorites, an all over meandering feather vine with swirls every so often.

It's a happy bright yellow polka dot.

This is from Kim's 2nd book "Scrap Basket Sensations". It's actually the quilt on the cover - but looks so different. I used a small jelly roll of children's Christmas fabrics.

It turned out really cute.

The back was a small scrap of Christmas lights fabrics - not enough for the whole back, so it got a center.

Some exciting news I have to share is about this new calendar.  Twelve authors were selected to have a quilt featured each month along with the instructions.

Kim was one of the authors selected and look who is Miss April?!!  "Flowers for Nana Girl" from her second book.  I am so honored and thrilled!!!  It's kind of a wierd feeling knowing that come next April people all over the country will be looking at my quilt all month!!

It's actually home with me for awhile, it's been travelling quite a bit.  I tried to capture the colors out on my porch this afternoon, but my camera doesn't do it justice - it's really so pretty.

Kim surprised me by naming this quilt after me and telling the story of how I came to be called Nana Girl.  It's a very special quilt to me.

Stay tuned, there are lots more quilts to share.

-Karen

Saturday Projects

We had a beautiful day to work on separate projects.  DH is coming along on his workshop project.  He has now decided to fix up the little shed for his lawn mower, etc.

I think it's going to look so cute :)! He's elevated it some (to prevent termites) and is replacing siding.  He may need to do a new floor and then shingles. So we will have two :).

I sometimes don't know how this happens! I pin so carefully and then when I put it up..... I had 4 blocks going in the wrong direction!!! But it's fixed now and I'm ready to add borders.   We had a dinner party for 13 last night, so I spent the day cleaning, shopping and cooking and didn't get a whole lot done.   Hope you all are having a wonderful day.

Karen

Mini Trail Mix and another sneak peek

I don't really need another project, but came across these orphan blocks and only needed to make 4 to have enough for this little mini Trail Mix. I'm not 100% sure this is the final set, I'll live with it for a little while.  The big one is still waiting for borders.  I really should get back to that, it is so gorgeous!!  But this little one  will get a border and then be ready to quilt - yea!!!

I worked yesterday on some of the block elements for In Full Bloom to get ready for our guild sewing party next week.  This will be a vine border that is somewhere in the middle part of the quilt.  It won't have a lot of flowers, but some (of course).

There will be log cabin blocks and double 4 patches.

There will be square in a square and 16 patch set on point.

It's overwhelming to think that these will ultimately create a quilt - but I can see the promise of the quilt that is in my head.  The fabrics are so beautiful, I sure wish I could go looking around in Edyta's scrap basket though!! :)  Can you even imagine!?!

Hope you all have a great day,

-Karen

The First Sneak Peek

Our guild's opportunity quilt is officially under way.  It's name is "In Full Bloom" which is also the name of our show.  The center panel is done and today we had a cutting party with 9 members cutting their little hearts out!

Here are my plates full of little pieces!!

Most were 1 5/8" squares - hundreds of them.

There were also 1 1/4" logs cut for log cabin blocks.  Each size got stacked on their own plate, dark plates for the dark logs, light for the light.  It seemed to work great. Plus all the other blocks got their own plate.  I was worried they would fall in the parking lot on my way to the car... can you imagine how horrible that would be?  But they made it home fine :).

We used a lot of Edyta Sitar's fabric line Love Letters with stash added for variety.

We started here......

and here.  And while our quilt will look nothing like this one, it will our very own!  I'm very excited with the progress so far, and how the quilt looks just like the vision I had in the beginning.  Our sewing party will be next week.  I hope to have all the blocks done.  Then we will finish the applique row and put the top together.  It's a good thing I have LOTS of help! The quilt will finish at 100x100.  I know, I might be losing it.......

It's been a fun and long day.

-Karen

A Fun Little Something

I got a package yesterday of this cute fat quarter bundle.  I won a giveaway from Crazy Mom Quilts - Amanda Jean.

It's a line by Connecting Threads called Hello Sunshine. They are very cheery and sunny.  I've got a lot on the sewing table at the moment, but it sure is fun to look at :).  It doesn't happen often, but it feels great to win.

Back to the studio :)

-Karen

P.S.  I started organizing the batting - so far I have made 4 useable batts out of the 80/20.  At least that's a start :)!!

This is what happens.......

when you've been quilting since 1969 and you hate to throw anything away!!

I have  been busy, busy, busy and have 4 flimsies ready to quilt along with almost finishing 4 wallhangings.  My goal this morning was to tackle this pile of batting which has been stuffed into a closet in my studio.  I'm slightly overwhelmed but will try to tame this mess.  Personally, I'd rather be sewing!  But after the sewing comes this :).  I'll have some work to show soon.

Have a great day -

Karen

P.S.  I still don't have pictures of the retreat and I left my good camera in Charlotte last month. Not sure what my problem with cameras is lately - it should be here soon I hope :).