Barbara’s Eight
I’ve had a run on the aqua, teals lately! Here is another Judy Niemeyer pattern called “Eight” pieced by Barbara. This is constructed differently from the Fire Island Hosta and similar quilts in that the leaves are constructed f…
Author: Valerie Wagner
Our Christmas and New Year 2017
We had a whirlwind driving trip over the Christmas break, driving up from Houston to NE Dallas area to pick up our Aunt Doris (sister to Bob’s mom). That’s a 5 hour drive for us, then on to NJ from there – 1500 miles over 2 days. Each way, then our trip back to Houston area. I’m getting too old to handle these get there as fast as you can trips… but then again it would have been 8 travel days instead of 6 if we added one day on each end. That’s exhausting too. Aunt Doris had not seen Mom since 2011, travel is difficult for her now. Happy she agreed to go with us driving, flying was not an option.
The town my husband grew up in is so quaint. I love it there and would have always considered moving there. I understand his reasons on why he did not want to work there, 2 hour commutes/traffic added to your work day is not fun. But when you can stay in the community, oh my gosh I love it! It was a community built to raise your family, the train stops there, walking distance from our house. 2 houses down and the shops start. You can walk just a few quick blocks to restaurants, convenience stores, bakeries, delis, banks, doctors, parks. Another community starts minutes away and the next town and on and on it goes. No chain stores allowed in that town (10 minutes away yes…) The yards are small but over the past 100 years, they are all beautifully landscaped. Houses are EXPENSIVE there. I can’t imagine how jobs pay that much more to allow all these people to live there! But somehow they do.
Ho-Ho-Kus Inn, established 1790. George Washing stayed there, I think he may even be buried here or nearby but I don’t remember for sure. 1 small block from home.
Doris Franson Friedel, Anita Franson Wagner, Bill Franson
Bill Franson, Bill Wagner, Valerie Wagner, Doris Friedel, Anita Wagner, Bob and Mickey Wagner. Mom is 86 and Dad is 89. Will be 90 in March. Still walking everyday, still using the stairs.
Dave and Jack came to visit from Connecticut. Bob and Dave met their freshman year @ Slippery Rock. I met Dave in the 80’s at TAMU but our friendship really started after Bob and I changed from friends to dating which was 27 years ago. Dave and Jack are among those few people that we have always been in contact with over the years since college days or even grade school. You know, you probable have a few of those awesome friends too!
Jack, Dave, Bob, Doris, Anita, Bill
Gizzy went with us, too long to be at kennel and too much work for our 21 year old that stayed home. He has days that he works 12 hours plus commute time and that does not work well for a small dog that likes to go out every 2-3 hours or a tired boy that gets home and does not want to deal with a needy dog after all that.
Our elf on a shelf! He’s not too happy about being there. What a good dog.
The beginning of our trip, sunset coming in through the window at Aunt Doris’ cabin at the lake.
It was very cold, wind chill of 5 and in Texas that is cold…. view taken from inside, one of the ponds – not the main lake is visible from her house.
Her A-frame cabin during the summer when we were there. For you quilters…. guess what awesome store in only 20 minutes away and we DRIVE right by on our way there? Stitchin Heaven!
5 o’clock traffic somewhere – and the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile! The plates said “Big Buns”
Finally we get there, they had snow several days before but none fell while we were there, warmed up to rain even! It was all gone by our 6th day. Giz was afraid of the banks of snow but within 24 hours he was a pro.
I took a few pictures of the neighborhood on the last day. Most of the snow is gone. Giz loved walking around the block, Sidewalks! No getting feet wet in the grass. We walked 4-5 times a day.
Homes have the prettiest yards, tall trees for privacy.
Giz in Roanoke, VA La Quinta. Happy to be out of that car.
We stayed at La Quinta’s coming and going. A “suite” with 2 beds and a pull out sofa for Mickey. No pet deposits – yeah!
And finally – Happy New Year!
Mom and Dad are doing much better than this summer, both seem more accepting of Mom’s memory losses and mobility issues. Household arrangements, meals have all been taken care of. Dad has been eating and sleeping, plans are in place. Everyone is maintaining well.
New website is live!
I am so happy to report that we finally have a separate website set up for my business. My blog will continue at blogger as I don’t want to learn a new system but my blog will post at my .com so you can access the blog from th…
Merry Christmas!
“Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!” – Dr. Suess. Merry Christmas from our home to yours. I thought this was cute…
Bed Quilt by Robin
Another lovely quilt by Robin, this is a large bed quilt. Computer guided design “Abigail” by Sarah Ann Myers
Bed Quilt by Robin
Another lovely quilt by Robin, this is a large bed quilt. Computer guided design “Abigail” by Sarah Ann Myers
Needle Turn Applique
Alice does amazing handwork. She also loves paper piecing . We first met a few years back at a Denise Green (CI for Judy Niemeyer) retreat. Alice always has a beautiful project in the works, she does not do simple. Alice made a variety of blocks that she loved, set with a half pineapple paper pieced border.
Photo skills lacking, I don’t have my sewing studio photo area set up perfected yet. Thanks Alice for allowing me to custom quilt your beautiful creation! Alice requested no feathers in the outer border and to maybe use a free flowing vine design similar to the blue fabric used in the sashing and borders. We also were going to do a scroll in the sashing but as soon as I made my first stitches in the border, I realized it was not going to show well and I couldn’t even really see where I had stitched. I decided to use a tried and true simple sashing treatment. In a few photos, the dimension really shows but for the most part looking straight on this quilt, the stitching totally blends in that gorgeous fabric. Lots of ditching and some echo fills mostly make up the quilting on this quilt.
Brown and Blue Stars
Another lovely bed quilt for Sally. This was large! If you count the blocks, there are 50…. FIFTY large blocks used counting the star blocks, alternate blocks, setting triangles and corner setting triangle units.
unquilted
back
I was seeking fast alternatives for this quilt, if you average 1 hour per block that’s 50 hours – plus borders. Sally does not like feathers so that eliminated most time saving one stop/start designs from my standard bag of tricks. Continuous curves would be great in the star blocks but the more open blocks screamed ruler work to me but that gets costly too. I have a hard time keeping things on the light side of custom! I am not proficient at custom on my computerized system yet, in fact no formal training for custom at all was given. I am working through screens now but not still working on scrap projects. This would have been a perfect quilt for computerized quilting, to drop in a gorgeous block over each unit. So… that left … Stencils! I had a few that worked well with the design, however as usual not quiet as large as I would have liked, they did hit some key elements nicely within the blocks.
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I finally settled on a stencil and freehand viney design for the border that I tried to incorporate the leaf in the print. What I had forgotten was how bouncy that chalk is! Not my favorite technique at all…. but it is a nice look on this quilt.
Cute Laurel Burch fabric quilt
Robin’s big bed sized quilt with a pretty framed backing. Computer guided quilting using Espresso pantograph by Patricia Ritter.
Wedding Ring Quilt with Embroidery
Our Love Story was made by a client showcasing important dates and events in their family up to current day. I love the blue and white color theme. This is a challenging piece to create for beginners or experienced quilters and t…