Well I had a response all ready to sent this morning and then something happened, then I had other things to do so I will write now instead. :)

Pretty MBs received...Jan good job choosing light colors for QE. Ggal lots of pieces in that block, great fabrics too.

QE--I like your GFG. Not something on my "to do" list at this point in time.

QNS--sorry you and DH haven't been getting along the best....maybe tomorrow will be better. You asked what kind of dogs I have: they are rottweilers, 3yr old females.

Anael--thanks for the picture of your FMQing table set up. Looks nice! Sorry to hear about the twins. Still praying....

Janie--your raised flower beds in your backyard look good...nice way not to have to mow!

I got rows together for the airplane and LC quilts....still working on propeller borders.

We get along almost like we have for 47 years, Carrie, except now he has been on some meds for diabetics that has apparently affected his mind, so he has good days and bad days. Like leaving the burning propane torch on the garage workbench all day...with it still burning...his mind just left it and he went on to other things. I found it at 3pm, still burning. He leaves the stove burners on, after he is done cooking, but at least he moves his pans off most of the time.

And we are together 24/7; he wants me to entertain him the whole time, tell him where his latest lost item is, and fix my whole attention on him. That's why I like to retreat to the sewing room by myself on occasions. He feels he needs to 'entertain' my friends with his stories that are of interest to him and in the car on a journey too even though he is hard of hearing, so his voice gets a little loud. Bf couple understand that....others avoid us and I cannot blame them. Bad days are hard, so please bear with me and I will try not to complain as much as I have lately. Thanks for listening to me.

Lots going on here.....I don't envy you QNS...it's not easy getting to where we are in the picture of life...

Love all the flower/garden photos..so nice to see them all...

DD..what's with the pink ducks??? Pictures please???? What is in a Fairie Garden besides gold dust??

A couple of photos of my Rhododendrons...

MiraB ... yes, keep him working! :D

QNSue ... Try to get some sewing in tomorrow and then have a good day away on Thursday. Re your comments about how the meds have been affecting your husband. Have you mentioned it to the Dr? Is there any option that may not have those effects? I know how hard it is to live with those types of effects (but from a different cause) so I really do feel for you.

Honchey ... oh so beautiful!!

CarrieM ... Could you grow those rhododendrons? It looks like Honchey's have a fair amount of shade. You're really on a roll with your quilts! Honestly, I never thought I'd like doing the GFG, but surprisingly I have !


We had quite a storm last night, with high winds and 3/4" rain. Another round of it late this afternoon. Haven't checked the rain gauge yet. A community not far from me had a small tornado touch down today. Thankfully nothing like Oklahoma!

Tonight ... I finished Out to Pasture top and backing. Also, a table topper that's similar. Getting a few things ready and then soon will be in quilting mode! :D

QNS whenever you need a break you can always come and hang out here with your friends, we don't mind you venting some steam, sometimes that is a good thing. Gets it off your chest then you can move on...

Beautiful flowers Honchey, reminds me of where I grew up, the city was dubbed the Garden City and every year we had the Carnival of Flowers, still going today, they have a street parade of floral floats and there is a judged garden section, very highly coveted prize being the winning garden for the city.

Have been busy today, had to take Sammy to the vet, not good news, he has arthritis in his back and hips and we have 14 steps to get into our house and he is not allowed to walk up or down them so guess who has the job of carrying all 13.6 kilos or 29 lbs of him downstairs and then back upstairs. We have to make a decision in the next few months..:(

I also managed to get the borders on my lap quilt and took another photo of the Not Marjen quilt. Will start quilting one of them next week

Very productive, Mirabelle. In reading back through the threads, there are pictures proving how productive you are in the quilting room and its wonderful. May I do half as well when I get the sewing room 'set up' with the new machines.

Thanks for listening to me; its another stage in life where we do not have control of things but trust in the Man above can get us through the journey of Life. Did not want you to think, Carrie, that we were having trouble with one another...its just the things we face in Live that throws the curve ball.

Its nice, QuiltE, that you are making progress in the sewing room.

Love your setting at your home, Honchey. Beautiful woods and flowers. Love everyone's chatter. Have a good day everyone. Celebrate a new day.

Thank you QNS and thank you to everyone who listened to my mad ramblings about the Marjen quilt. I am happy with the result, now to think about how I want to quilt it. I know what I am going to do on the lap quilt and it should be quick. Have my sewing basket ready for patchwork tomorrow, am going to start cutting Smith Mountain Morning so hopefully it won't take me too long to get it all cut and start some sewing AFTER the quilting is done (I promise):D:D

Welcome Back, JeanieG! ... hope the time away helped your re-charge and be ready for the next onslaught of workers and decisions! And that your husband recuperated.

MiraB ... oh myyyyyy Marjen has become Remarkable. Guess what? I think you have made it even nicer than it would have been. The roses on the black with the green really frame it up beautifully. So sorry about poor Sammy. The lap quilt is lovely, but sorry, it kind of loses out to Marjen. I can only aspire to your productivity!

QNSue ... yes, it's good to accept and understand the reasons, though it is also hard to cope at times. Through all this be sure to keep care of yourself. While you may not be able to "escape", be sure to do something for YOU every day! Those new machines and tables should be a big help for that. :D

An apology is due to all of you--I'm so sorry I've been AWOL lately. I didn't realize how difficult it is to sell a house; was supposed to be sold "as is", simple cash sale. NOT!! The buyers had an inspection done and came back asking for over $10,000 in concessions or repairs. I said no and prepared to walk away and re-list and start this long marketing process all over. 24 hours later they said ok. Now all the running around getting the paper work in order, insurance changed, utilities changed, etc. Closing is set for 1 week from tomorrow, God willing, so pray nothing else happens. I didn't want to come here to whine so poor MrJanRn has been the recipient of my rants & whines.

I'm so jealous of all of your gorgeous flowers and trees. I'll take them as my virtual garden and enjoy them with you.

QNS, know what you mean about DH being home 24/7. For the first 35 years of our marriage, MrJanRn traveled for long periods of time. I was used to running things "my way" and raised our son, worked, had a life. 8 years ago he started working from home and wow!! Talk about husband overload. I'm still not used to having to discuss decisions, meal plans, etc. with someone. And he tried to take over LOL!! We have adjusted, slowly; he works in his basement office and I work upstairs in the Bat Cave and meet at dinner time.

Oh how our babies have grown!! Lots of prayers that the problems are worked out and they can go home soon.

All the MB's posted are fantastic. I'm humbled when I see mine up against such beautiful work. And all the other blocks and quilts yinz are doing are wonderful.

Mirab, Patches can't go up and down steps either. He's 75 lbs so no carrying him. At the pet store we did find a harness that goes around his back end to help support him. We also built a ramp (looks ugly but works for him) off the back deck. And yes, we also have to make some decisions in the coming weeks or months.

Hopefully after next week I'll be back on the Pony Ride. No more extra work days. House taken care of. And I promise no whining. I'm looking forward to our next project. Has there been any decisions made as to what that will be? I may have missed it while catching up.
Peace-Jan

Out to Pasture ....
Here's the two I finished up last night. Both are made with the cows that I had CarrieM shop and sent north to me! :) ... both are 6" squares, with the quilt finishing at 46"x58" and the table topper 34" square. (BTW the side borders will be trimmed down to the same as the top/bottom. I left extra to work with when sandwiching and will mark it so I won't quilt on it ... then will trim down)

Ladies, your suggestions please for quilting .... the traditional Irish Chain diagonal stitching would be too minimal. So this neophyte to quilting looks to your expertise and knowledge!

JanRN ... fingers crossed for next week! Real Estate dealings can be so frustrating. Interesting that they decided to close after you said no ... good that you held your ground! Soon you will not have the added worries of the extra house.

Mirabelle....I too think the Marjen is better with your adaptations. Have fun at patchwork!
QNS....try using the kitchen timer to establish some time outs for each other. I did that when my kids were little. Everyone had to nap after lunch and they would usually complain. I would set the timer for 30 minutes and if they could hear it, they could get up other wise they needed the nap. There were times I set the timer for longer if I needed break but I never told them.:D An impartial referee could take some of the tension out of the air.
Honchey...what beautiful rhododendrons! Growing them are on my bucket list.
Jeanie...welcome back. I hope DH is fully recovered, the smoke has cleared from the fires, and the renovation goes smoothly.
Janie...you gave me a laugh too. Sorry about the virtago. My older brother has something similar to the point that there isn't too much that he enjoys doing anymore and he was always to active with building and gardening.
QuiltE....what restraint! A new machine and table and nothing to show for it yet! I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off of it.
JanR....just saying hi and don't work your fingers to the bone! We posted at the same time. Congratulations on the house. We don't turn friends away if they have a whinny time.
Carrie...I bet you could grow azaleas like Honchey. Shade and acid soil and they love it. Also I've found the knock out roses. Give them a chance and they will grow almost anywhere and bloom constantly. I don't trim mine much but they are pretty well mannered demanding little care.
No rain during the day yesterday so I finally got to the garden mid afternoon. Something is digging in one of my beds!! Luckily I haven't planted it yet. It looks like rain today so I think I can get SS together and clear the design wall. Have a good day everyone!

GGal ... see above! Though I will fess, that I did most of both with my old machine. I do have my new machine project finished to a flimsy. It's hanging on my design wall, as I am unsure what to do for the borders.

Most of us at one time or another, for whatever reasons, have gone on "vacation"...That's OKAY...please don't feel you need to explain..We've all been there and understand....

With myself, I find I take on too much then have a hard time getting it all done on time...one of the reasons I don't like deadlines.

Love your cows, QuiltE. I am not an imaginative one, but I wonder if you are ready to do some feathers in the borders with your new machine and the BSR?

Mirabelle, I don't know how you do all that you do. QNS , same goes!

My machine needed an adjustment as it wasn't sounding right when the needle was going in to the fabric. After a needle change, that didn't solve it, I took it to my dealer. He is the best. He kept it for a few hours, called me to tell me he had found and fixed the issue and then wouldn't let me pay for the service. Now she is singing along again.

As far as I'm concerned, I think we share all our good stuff like flowers , fabric, pictures of grandkids and wonderful things that happen to us. To me, true friendship means that we have a safe place to share our not so pleasant aspects of life.

It feels like to me we have created a group of women who genuinely care about each other. We are willing to tell it like it is when asked for advice, we are willing to lend an ear when we need to vent. I hope no one feels like they can't take a break, or come here to vent.

Janie, you said it so right! That's who we are!
QNS, if you feel like venting, just do. We're all here to listen and give hugs whenever needed.

QuiltE, what did I see? You used white ?!? Just pull out some practice pieces and start using the BSR :)

Anne, beautiful Rhododendrons! They don't grow in my garden :(

Mirabelle, gorgeous quilts! Your Marjen turned out beautiful!

Finally, I learned how to make the laughing smiley!!!!:D

All ye gather in the virtual RV....Cowboy Chocolate Cookies, Butter Scotch Banana -with peach jam centers, and Peanut Butter Cowboy cookies. Homemade Turkey salad for sandwiches . Dh says those BSB surpass chocolate chip cookies.

Vacation??? with chickens and ducks, no way. Machine poor now, so need to work to set everything up this weekend. First put together the sewing desks, fit them into the room; then add sewing machines, then add the stash back in.

Dh took a load of steel and iron into the salvage yard this morning; it was so quiet, I had to clean up the great room and bake cookies. Found my dinning room table again; it was so loaded up, that if anyone shouted "All abroad!" it would have sailed out the door. :D See, Honchey, I found the laughing face too.

YAY!!! Anne makes the smiley :D :D :D :D :D

!!!HELLO LADIES!!!

yes... when the wind blows I have NO internet... it has been WINDY! I MISS all of you and cant wait to post picks :D I just HAD to jump on and say "HI" before its gone!

Yeah QNS, sounds so yummieeeeeeeee and no calories :D :D
What are Peanut Butter Cowboy cookies? How do you make those?

Hi DD! Hope you will be back soon!

Still waiting on news about Bram. I have no idea when he has to go to Groningen. I didn't speak to my DS today as I was gone for most of the day and I didn't see him online. I hope to hear from him tomorrow.
I'm calling it a day, sleep well all (or have a great day) and CU all tomorrow!

Please, QNS, share with us the recipe for the Peanut Butter Cowboy cookies. Yum!!

Look at the beautiful block Dublb sent me. I love it. Thank you Bev!![ATTACH=CONFIG]414975[/ATTACH]

Just like the Chocolate Cowboy Cookies and the Butterscotch Cowboy Cookies. Start with basic cookie dough....1 cup of white sugar, one cup of brown sugar, one quarter stick of butter,room temperature, cut up, 2 eggs, with mixer "cream"/whip the mixture 'til it turns a light color, add no cook jello pudding the flavor you wish (Chocolate, Butterscotch, or white chocolate for Peanut Butter) 1/4 c. vegetable shortening, 3/4 c peanut butter, 1 T of vanilla flavoring. Stir completely with mixer. Dry ingredients: 3 1/2 c. flour, (1 cup of Quaker Oats, if you wish or another cup of flour) 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, peanut butter chips and 1 c. pecans...mix dry ingredients, then dump it into the 'wet' ingredients in the mixer bowl and blend together on low speed until it all combines together. Use small to middle scoop and place on parchment paper on your cookie sheet...add a taste of chocolate with a chocolate star or piece of Hersey chocolate bar in the center...Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

That is a cool block JanRN; I am getting a machine like Dublb has so hopefully I can embroidery like that before long. Dublb has began her vacation of three weeks going with friends to Louisville, Kentucky for a workshop.

Enjoy the cookies in the virtual RV. All cookies are done and ready to serve. About 200 of each kind is available. They freeze well.

PS...I added toffee bits to the butterscotch, and put a small thumb print of homemade peach jelly in the center of them.

OMG, QNS, I just gained 5 lbs reading about those cookies!!! :D

Yeah but I cut and pasted the recipe as those cookies in the Christmas goodie box were the first to go! GD Elise chastised Gpa for eating them all! A must keep recipe here!

Good to hear from you and DD.

mirabelle--I dream quilts--you get them done. So enjoy watching you create! And pretty soon Carrie's propellers will be spinning off the ground. Keep at it.

QE a "wee bit o' luck o' the Irish" in Out to Pasture I like the cream triangles extending into the border. It sends the cream chain blocks out to the pasture as well. Diagonal quilting would reinforce the diagonal direction of the design. Your border fabric is quite busy and detailed quilting may get lost in it. JMHO

Jan hoping for an end to Mom's house woes. Way to go for standing your ground on the $10K concessions. Give some people an inch and they'll take a mile. dublb your Jan block will look lovely with her other two.

Having worked almost daily with DH all our married life we never argue. NOT!! We just give each other the silent treatment! Both know each other so well that sooner or later whatever's bothering us will be laid to rest. But in the meantime it's worrisome.

We've had 3" of rain in the last 72 hours and it's raining again. DH got the lawn mower going in time for the rain to start. Should've taken a picture of 4 yo Avery dancing in the dandelions yesterday! A pretty sight except it was dandelions. Going back to getting fabric put away so I can then get play space ready for the kids to use. This switch better be worth it as it's taking along time!!!

Night all.

Hi Everyone! How are you all?? I'm Laurie (the author of the Pony Club) and I've returned from a long visit to my cave. :) Frankly, I had just been feeling rotten healthwise and couldn't do much else but rest, so that is what I did. Hopefully, things are looking up now. I don't have any life threatening illnesses or anything like that, just lots of problems some of which are fibromyalgia and nerve damage to my feet and legs. Figuring out the right medications has been a challenge and some of those medications have made me sleepy or just a little crazy and unable to write a clear sentence. LOL Don't mean to complain—just wanted you all to know where I disappeared to so suddenly. You are all so very kind and I do hope to be a real part of this group in the future, and I'm looking so forward to it!

Welcome back, Mercysland. Do drop in anytime in our virtual RV and have a cookie with us. Bf suffers from fibromyalgia but it has not stopped her from enjoying her quilting!! We have a guest room with her name on it.

She raised three children on her own and drove 60 miles each way daily for over 30 years and never missed a day of work. Remarried to my highschool best friend's brother and they have been together for 25 years now, with 17 dgchildren, great grands, and gggrands...and is younger than I am. We have one grandson, and raised three children, two girls and a boy.

I enjoyed making the FWSQ and PC quilts, telling my childhood stories with the blocks for their enjoyment in future years. This group encouraged me to excel and finish both quilts. We have refused to end our QB friendship...now working on designing a "town-country" quilt showing all our 'front' doors to welcome one another via a quilt.

Thanks for the encouragement QuiltingNinaSue, I really appreciate it!

Laurie great to see you here!

QNS--sounds like it was a day for baking. :) We made bran muffins this morning and then tonight DD#1 made cornflake bars (use rice crispy bar recipe, but add peanut butter to the marshmallows/margarine and use cornflakes for the cereal). It cooled off again here so having the oven on today was a good idea. Looks like we will have a few more cool days...kind of nice.

Jan that MB is very pretty...great job Bev!

QE--I like how your Out to Pasture projects turned out. Sorry no suggestions for quilting.

Karen--great job on your two shared quilts. Looking forward to seeing how you decide to quilt them.

Great to hear from so many today. Tired tonight so heading to bed early....

I see I have missed much today, while I was "on the road, again!"
On the way home I went thru one wicked rainstorm ... couldn't see a thing, and there was this car tailgating me on a narrow highway, as we were meeting other vehicles. With no where safe to pull off, I had to continue on. I knew there was a parking lot coming up ... drove out of it, before that though. Made it home, safe and sound ...... and by then, an hour later, the sun was shining!

I should have dropped by the RV ... some better food waiting, than I found in my own kitchen for supper!

JanRN and DublB ... what a block ... B+W with some fancy embroidery! You're really mastering your new machine DublB. So many different B+W fabrics.

QNSue ... 200 of each variety ... my goodness you have been busy! Re Honchey's vacation suggestion ... sometimes vacations can be had without leaving home ... or locally without sleepovers. I do a lot of that and can create a vacation, just with a few hours .... sometimes only minutes worth! :D

JanieW ... Well Said, with all those good warm and fuzzy feelings! This has become a very special group to me. THANK YOU EVERYONE for your friendships!!! Maybe I could do some fancy quilting in the Irish Cream borders. I think OKSGlad nailed it that the larger one is just too busy to do much, but that dark green might show off something ... but am I good enough, as it'd really show!

DDamsel ... good to see you drop in, between windy times! :D Ready to go on a midnight raid with me, for all of today's baking?

Anael ... yup, I used WHITE! shock!!!! :) As for getting going with the BSR, yes that's in the plan, soon ... though I need some good coaching and guidance as to what to practice, to be ready to quilt these and my new machine project 4PP that's soon ready too.

OKSGlad ... ITA with the diagonals, though wonder if it'll be too skimpy on the quilting. Thinking a lot like you that fancy border quilting will be lost. Have been thinking of a stipple/meander like I used in the Baby Irish one. The smaller one was the start ... and then I wasn't totally happy with it, so abandoned it for the cows in the centre smaller square as well. I think you saw the end result, as the chains being the fence, and the snowballed outer block, like a picket fence!

Maybe I should call the smaller one Irish Cream? :D

MiraB ... did your FFC travel bag get lots of attention at patchwork today?

CarrieM ... more baking! muffins and squares!! Thanks for sending those cows north! :D

MercysLand ... Welcome Back!!! Do we make any sense to you? :D My PC is at the LAQ now, and hopefully she is now working on it. You'll see that I took some creative license with mine, adding in some blocks with meaning to me, of my rural background.


I think someone asked the purpose of these ... they'll both be used in the Story of Butter displays this summer/fall. Heaven forbid, that we should use the same ones as last year!! :D

[ATTACH=CONFIG]414994[/ATTACH]
The edge of my lane way has lilac bushes all along it. When I left this morning the branches were so heavily laden with flowers, that they were bending into the car's path. So I did some "pruning" tonight. The flower heads are bigger than I've seen for a few years, and likewise, I'm sure have more scent than they've had in a few years. Is this possible?

Hi Mercysland, Good to hear from you....Not feeling up to par is a real bummer!
We're still hanging out here on the board ....most of the girls here have completed both quilts. some are still a WIP...:) We enjoyed each other's company so much we decided to continue with an update thread...
We all look forward to seeing you here...:)

Janie you said it so eloquently, this thread has become a soft spot for us to land, with everything going on in our lives sometimes its nice to be able to vent and know you will not be judged but encouraged.

Beautiful MB, I love the embroidery

Yes QuiltE my sewing box was well received this morning, everyone wanted to know how I made it but first I had to tell them the story behind it.:thumbup:

Mercysland welcome back to our little group, I sent you a photo of my finished Pony Club Quilt, it has since been quilted. I hope you are feeling a lot better and getting back to some form of normalcy.

Now to finish cutting my DS's quilt so I can start work on it tomorrow at embroidery club, I don't take my embroidery machine as I don't like it travelling in the car.

MiraB ... so do they have you lined up to do a class tutorial another week? :thumbup: You've never mentioned it, so I am thinking none of the patchwork or embroidery ladies are on the QB. Too funny ... you go to embroidery club, but no embroidery! :D Do the others take their machines?

Jan, you've got a lovely block.

Laurie, welcome back! Sorry you felt so bad. I guess a few of us know about medication making you feel sleepy, dizzy and not thinking clear. I know I do :(

QuiltE, lovely lilac bouquet! My lilac bush is starting to bloom. It's still cold and raining here!
You can find lots of practice designs on the internet. It depends on what kind of quilting you want. You could do some fancy meander in the border if you want to quilt that separately. Or just do an all over design, maybe something like this?
[ATTACH=CONFIG]414999[/ATTACH]

I typed my message and then something happened and I lost the lot, so here goes again.

QuiltE my embroidery club meet in the Craft Room of a retirement village, it is mainly for village residents but sometimes they will invite an "outsider" to become a member, so I guess I was lucky to get an invite. Most of the ladies do take their embroidery machines but they live in the village and don't have far to travel. I don't like my machine getting jiggled in the boot of my car even though I have it in a Tutto bag. Sometimes there will be no embroidery machines at all and everyone will be working on patchwork quilts. They make some amazing quilts, will have to keep my camera in my sewing basket to get some pics for you all to enjoy.

Just thinking about your Cow quilts why don't you try making the quilt top with a design, either my stencil or just with a washout pen.
Anael you quilting is wonderful I love it:thumbup:

Thank you Jeanie and Mirabelle :)

I have a question for you all: do you name and label all your quilts, including wall hangings? I just made a wall hanging, have to sew the binding on the back but was wondering if I should label it. What do you think? I think it's going to live here and I never made a label for a wall hanging.