Little Monkey Quilt

I liked the oval headed monkey (see below) and it gave me the idea of putting it on the block. I felt it would look good on the blue-greenish color. I had oval plastic templates that I used for the head, ears, nose and mouth.  Cut them out and appliqued onto the block.  I then embroidered the words. 

I found this picture in the 2012 Spring Quilt Sampler magazine.  It was at a shop called Pendleton Quiltworks in Pendleton Oregon (UPDATE-I originally had a link to this shop and it quit working-I found they had sadly closed their doors.  Here is a link that tells that and also has some other quilt shops to view.. 

Keep checking back I am working on ideas to cover up the spots on the block.

See ya soon......

3 days of weather

 Made by the kids across the street

 Sculpted by the kids next door

Day One-January 5th-approx. 9 a.m....the snow started falling, temps were in the lower 30's producing a heavy, wet snow making many snowmen pop up.

We had a snow earlier in the week so there was already a path cut out from the previous time.

Kevin went out a couple of times to stay ahead of the snowfall so that it wouldn't be so hard when it was time to dig out.  It ended up snowing at least 15 hours straight, I am not sure when it stopped because I was sleeping.

3 out of 5 had to see what was going on out there.

Sophie is just funny.

Day 2- Monday January 6th, the snow has stopped, the winds have picked up and the temps dropped drastically.  It looks like a documentary for the North Pole and polar bears should start lumbering across the field.

Heavy snow on the neighbors pine trees.

The wind is blowing and drifting the snow.

Day 3, Tuesday January 7th, 7 a.m.  It's so cold that door handles on the outside doors are frosted over. 

Frost at the bottom of the doors.

The garage door is more frosty since the garage is not heated but well insulated. 

Outside temp from our covered porch, the weather channel on the Ipad said 12 below in our area.  It was blowing the wind chime and the trees enough to move them so wind chill was 25 to 30 below zero. 

Pretty but cold sunrise this morning.  Good picture of the waves in the snow.

There is going to be a little work in front of the garage doors.

The swath that had been cut out for the front sidewalk is all filled in.  This was the coldest air that we have seen for 20 years.  We have had enough, tomorrow it will be better.  Some people had lost electricity, we were not one, thankfully.  People I know had family and friends to go to. 

There were warming centers open in the city of Fort Wayne and hopefully the people who were homeless and without electricity went to them. 

By the weekend they are telling us the high should be 38 degrees.  We are looking forward to it. In my area we probably got 9 inches of snow, it's always hard to tell because of the wind blowing.  Other places received 14 to 16 inches.  It was quite a storm.

I hope that you have faired well in this bad weather.   

New Projects

I started two new projects over my Christmas break.  I decided for the new year I would try to work on using up my stash of fabric and unfinished pieces that were from myself and my Mom.  I would then gift them away to the family.  This is a fairly old block that my Mom had in her sewing stash that we found while cleaning out.  I don't believe that she made it because it doesn't look like her colors.  My cousin Deb goes to garage sales and flea markets, etc. and she would find these blocks and bring them to my Mom, so that may be where it came from.  After washing the block and drying it those spots appeared on it.  They are stiff like possibly a glue like substance was spilled on it.  I still wanted to use it because I already had a great idea for this block and the whole challenge of it was to make it usable and pretty.  I added the narrow red border and larger white border.  The idea I have for this, now-little quilt involves applique and embroidery. Keep checking back and I will add pictures as it evolves. 

When the new year came around I had wished I had a picture I could post to ring it in.  This idea took hold of my 5 cats with all their party hats on.  They were having a great time running around climbing the walls and sitting so nicely with their balloons.  Sophie can't quite get her hat straight and Lily feels silly with her crown on because she doesn't like to put on airs.  It is going to be painted in watercolors so please check back and I will post pictures of it also.