Design Wall Monday - September 20, 2021

Good Morning Quilters!  I decided to veer off into another subject related to doll quilts:  A spool doll bed.  I have regular doll beds and have some wooden thread spools saved to make doll furniture.  Have you ever made a doll bed with old wooden thread spools?  I would love to hear about your experience if you have, and also send me a picture.  Here are two pictures I have saved from the internet:

Source:  Baker Street Antiques

If I make a rocking chair instead of a bed, I will make a cushion for it.  The spools don't look very comfortable for a doll to sit upon.  

Source:  Etsy

This bed looks fairly straightforward.  I would stain it instead of painting it white though, and I would add a ticking striped mattress.  (And of course, sheets, pillows, and a doll quilt).   And a doll!

My progress so far:  I have a shoebox full of wooden spools, and a sketch of a possible doll bed.  I have just purchased stain and a small brush.  I was looking for more pictures of spool doll beds yesterday, when I found the rocking chair made of spools.  So maybe I will change my mind and make a chair.

Stitching news today is that I am finishing one more dish towel with an iron on embroidery transfer of a squirrel!  I thought I was finished with the squirrel towels, but I found another one.  This is definitely the last one, and there are only two more tree leaves to embroider before it is finished.

The squirrels are so cute outside this time of year.  Our driveway is being pelted with acorns, and they are busy squirreling them away.  It must be a harsh winter coming, as the oak trees are producing a bumper crop of acorns to prepare the animals for it.

The boat is out of the lake and into storage, and the dock is being removed later this month.  The hammock came down Saturday.  These are the sad moments of fall starting, but the good moments are the trees are starting to turn into their beautiful colors, and I'm looking forward to their spectacular annual show.

What are you working on this week?  I visited all of your blogs this past week, and you are an amazing bunch.  I am blessed to see what you are working on every  week.  Thanks so much for continuing to link to the Design Wall Mondays linky party.  And thank you to those who provide a link back here and also mention Design Wall Mondays - you are appreciated.

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Design Wall Monday - September 13, 2021

 August, 2012, nine years ago, I took a class on curved pieces at the AQS Quilt Show in Grand Rapids.  This was before I even moved to Grand Rapids, as I remember staying with my friend Joan during the quilt show.  My sample from the class:

And a vintage Drunkard’s Path block that Joan had at her house.

Joan Brink’s vintage DP

 March, 2021  On the Design Wall progress:

September, 2021,  the finished quilt:  

The binding was completed this week.  I would have used more of the block fabric for the binding, but it was all gone.  I used all I had in the quilt.  I bought a half yard of solid dark brown and used that.  It feels really good to finish it.

Close-up pictures:

Can’t wait to see what you are showing us this week.  I am going to post a comment on your blog today.  Last week, I looked at everyone’s post and didn’t take time to say anything.  Today I’m looking forward to some conversation with you.  You are the best at lifting my spirits, and I look forward to each Monday.  

Please join in the Monday Design Wall Linky Party below and show us your projects.  Thanks to you who provide a link back to this page, and thanks to those who mention Design Wall Mondays in your post.  You are my kind of people!

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Design Wall Monday - September 6, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!  It’s Labor Day and I am celebrating all the workers who keep our country going.  When this holiday was created, in the late 1800s, working conditions were dire.  In the United States, the average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks in order to eke out a basic living.  Despite restrictions in some states, children toiled in mills, factories and mines across the country, earning a fraction of their adult counterparts’ wages. Thankfully those days are gone, and we celebrate our labor force today and appreciate all they do.  

My “labor” for this week has been to sew binding on a UFO.  i have four quilts just back from the long arm quilter that need binding.   I started this quilt way back in 2015  (Here) and am happy to report that it is now quilted and bound.  Yeah! Another UFO kicked to the curb.  

The quilt is 81 x 94 inches and is made of LeMoyne Star blocks and snowball blocks.  It is part of the Collection for a Cause series by Marcus Bros. and is called "Warmth", and was a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity.

Here is a picture taken last night of the completed quilt, and it's held up by the newly weds, Mr. and Mrs. Angel Morales:

Mica and Angel are the couple who just got married at the wedding we went to in Delaware last week.  They flew to Michigan and spent a week at our cabin for a honeymoon.  We are taking them to the airport today in Grand Rapids so they can fly back to Delaware and start married life together.  Can you tell that they had a super time on their honeymoon?  The quilt isn't gifted to them (they were just handy to hold it up for the picture), as we gave them several of our smaller wall quilts as a wedding gift.

The Jane Stickle quilt is still on my design wall, staring at me.  It will stay there until I sew the blocks together.  It may be this week!  September is a month for completing old UFOs.  Anyway, I'm telling myself it is.  

What are you working on now that it is September?  Please join the linky party and show us your project of the week.  Or projects of the week for some of you.  I appreciate those of you who provide a link back to this post, and also mention Design Wall Mondays in your blog.  Thanks!

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Design Wall Monday - August 30, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!  if you recall, two weeks ago I blogged that I had started a baby blanket for a future, unknown Great Grandchild. Picture of the start of it:   Blog post here  I found the matching yarn skein, “Soft White”  to finish the project and took it with us on the drive to the wedding last week.  I worked on it all the way to Delaware and all the way back to Michigan!  Here is the results:

It measures 28 inches square, and I think I will add a little border all around, as I have a little bit of yarn left over.  I think it will finish it off nicely.   It will be stored away for a future blessed event.

The dress alteration that I talked about last week worked out just fine, (making the dress belt into a tie around the neckline) and here is a picture of us taken at the wedding:

Now that I am back in my sewing room, I am going to tackle finishing my Jane Stickle replica quilt.  I tried to make each block in the same way that the original quilt was done, and here are my quilt squares pinned up on my design wall.  The comparison picture on the left is Jane’s original quilt which is in a museum in Vermont.  My design wall is on the right.  The next step is sewing all the blocks together.

What is on your agenda this week?  I hope no hurricane rains are headed your way. We came through a thunderstorm with lots of lightening while driving home from the wedding.  It was pretty intense, but thankfully short.

I’m looking forward to seeing what you are working on.  Join the Design Wall Mondays linky party below and we can go to your blog to read about your quilty journey.  Thanks for participating!

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Design Wall Monday - August 23, 2021

Good Morning Quilters!  I am back in Grand Rapids where my sewing machines are.....where my stash is.....where my collection of UFO's reside. 

From last week:  The cotton yarn stash is turning into dish clothes and it is a great "car trip" project.  So far, I've knitted four and am started to crochet the fifth one.

But now that I'm with my sewing room, which UFO is calling me?  The Jane Stickle quilt has all the blocks made, and needs assembly, so I should work on that next.  It is hard to explain, but for some reason, I keep putting off finishing this one.  We shall see what this week's play plan is.  I like all of my UFO's and dream of finishing all of them.  Just not this week.  lol

First this week, I am altering a new dress I just bought.  We are going to a couple of weddings soon, and I felt the need to buy a new frock.  I seldom wear dresses, but I do like them.  This new dress is perfect in almost every way.  Not perfect?  The neckline is too low in front.  (Hubby says "What's wrong with that?")  I gave him an eye roll.  I decided I could fix it by taking the belt (a chiffon long tie) and repurposing it around the neckline and it would then have a soft bow in the front, covering the low neckline.  That's the plan, so I will see if it will work.  Otherwise, I may go with plan B...wear an old dress or plan C...buy another new dress.  I will let you know next week what happens.  The dress:

It doesn't look too low on her, but she's a model....and probably never leans forward or turns her body.  But everything fits perfectly when you are a model, right?  But I'm an ordinary modest lady, who will be wearing a dress with a bow in the front.  :)

What are you working on this week?  I read your blogs and you make me want to start new quilts all the time.  You are so creative!  The new fabric lines coming out this fall are tempting too.   My "finish my UFOs" commitment and the "use my stash" commitment must be renewed weekly.  Sigh.  

Please join the Design Wall Monday linky party below and show us what you are doing.  Remember, you don't have to have a design wall, but a design wall really helps you if you can find a place for one.   Big thanks to those of you who mention Design Wall Mondays on your blog, and provide a link back to this page.   You are my kind of people.  So, let's get this party going!

  

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Design Wall Monday - August 16, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!  This past week I’ve finished a couple of projects that I was working on.  The crocheted afghan that my daughter and I worked on is finished.  It will be donated soon to a Grand Rapids non-profit organization.  

I found out that JoAnn’s Fabrics has the “Warm White” Red Heart yarn that I need to finish the baby afghan that I started for a future great-grandchild.  I will wait until I’m in Grand Rapids where there is a JoAnn’s store nearby.  So that project is on hold temporarily.

The little brown squirrel on the dish towel is complete.  I am so happy to complete some of these projects I’ve started previously.  

Since I looked at my yarn stash last week, I decided to get all my crocheting and knitting patterns out and look at them….and I got enthused about using some of my yarn.  I’ve started with my cotton yarn stash, and am having fun making new dishcloths.  Here is the one I made that used up three different leftover pink yarns:

The cotton yarn stash isn’t very big, and I like to knit and crochet, so right now I  have a dishcloth project in a carry bag with me to work on whenever I get a chance.  My plan is to use all the cotton yarn up.    The next one I have started is a knitted red dishcloth.  

What are you working on this week?  Please join the Design Wall Monday Linky Party and show us.  

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Design Wall Monday - August 9, 2021

Good Morning Quilters! This past week was small progress on several fronts, so I thought I’d post today an inventory of where I am on the current UFOs.

When our daughter came to visit, she brought a baby blanket project to finish while here, and donate to a charity.  We discovered it needed tweaking.  She followed the pattern on how many chain stitches to start with, and it made the blanket 36” long.  When it was time for her to go home, the project measured 20” x 36”.  I said I would add some lavender to each side, and I’ve done that, and it now measures 24”x 36”.  I plan to add more creamy white to each side to make it finish at 30” x 36”.

When we took her to the airport, we also stopped at the Grand Rapids house, and I got two skeins of white from my yarn stash there.  Yes, there is a yarn stash.  I was thinking “white” and not that there are many shades of white.  Well, back at the cabin, I saw that our project had a creamy more yellow kind of white, and the white I brought from home wasn’t the same.  So I bought a skein of  creamy white that will work to finish our project up.  Progress picture:

Then, I reasoned in my little mind, I have two skeins of white here, I could make a white baby blanket for a future great-grand baby, and have it ready for when that time comes.  I wanted to test the pattern we had with the crochet hook I had, to get a lesser measurement than 36” on the start, and note it on the pattern.   The pattern says it should finish 25” x 25”.  I know I could crochet a swatch to check the gauge, but this guessing is more fun.   I worked up the first skein and was about a third into the second skein when I took the white blanket in the car with me to work on while riding.  In the bright sunlight in the car, I discovered the two white skeins were different whites!  Enough to bother me forever, so I ripped out what I had done with the second skein.

Now I will search my stash to see if I have enough of the first white to use to complete the blanket.   It is about 30” long and I hope to make it square. Progress pictures:

One was ‘white’ and the other one ‘soft white’.  I hadn’t even noticed that.

(Just because it doesn’t have a dye lot, doesn’t mean I can’t muck it up.  haha). I just had a thought - what do you want to bet that I have more of the ‘white’ but none of the ‘soft white’ that I’ve already started with?

Embroidery projects that are here to work on this week:

Redwork quilt borders, working on 4th one:

May Day basket quilt, working on basket #27 of 30 baskets:

Cheddar quilt embroidered baskets, working on #5 of 13 baskets:

Squirrel kitchen towels, working on last one:

I should have lots of time to look at your blog posts this week, as our guests coming tonight are three Virginia golfing buddies of hubby, and they require very little of me as hostess.  They are here to golf, golf, golf, all day for three days.  I plan to match them with embroidery, embroidery, embroidery.  

What do you have planned for this week, and what is on your design wall? Remember, it’s not necessarily a design wall, physically, but just what you are working on right now.  Thanks for your participation!  Just click below to join the linky party, and remember to mention Design Wall Mondays somewhere within your post, and also provide a link back to my post.

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Design Wall Monday - August 2, 2021

August 2nd!  Happy Design Wall Monday ladies!!  Boy, July whizzed by in a hurry, didn’t it?  The doll quilt name I asked for your help with last week shall be named “Little Red”.  Thanks for all your suggestions.  Gretchen pointed out that it should have a little name because it is such a little quilt, and I agree.  I’ll quilt it this week when I am back home with my sewing machine.

When bringing only embroidery quilt UFOs with me to the cabin,  I included four dish towels, a UFOs that I started years ago.  It is a set of four towels, that had been stamped with an iron on transfer of squirrels.  For some reason that I don’t know, I had started on three of them, doing only part of each squirrel.  Well, now all three are finished, and I am working on the fourth.  They will all be completed soon:

Our daughter, Christa, and her family have been visiting from Texas.  Today Christa worked on a crocheted baby afghan that she brought with her.  She has a goal of using all of her extra yarn to make baby blankets and other baby things to give away.  Like my fabric stash, her yarn stash is bountiful.

She didn’t want her picture taken, so this is just a peek at her over the baby afghan.  This baby afghan will have a border of the light lavender all around the outside when it is complete.  She says she will be finished with it before she goes home, and will leave it here for a charity gift for someone.  She’s so nice.

Penny is dog tired.  Our granddog, Tucker, has been visiting for four days and they play hard.  They spent a lot of time carrying around a toy together - each holding on to a part of the toy with their mouth.   Tucker has gone home now, and Penny Lane is tuckered out!

But it was not all just playing games with Tucker for Penny.   Here she is out in the lake with me, enjoying the water.  This picture shows why July went by so fast for me.  hehehe    

What are you starting, working on, or finishing this August?  Thanks for participating in the Design Wall Monday linky party each week.  I appreciate you.   Just click on the button below to enter, and please mention in your blog post that you are joining in with Design Wall Monday.  Thanks.

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Design Wall Monday - July 26, 2021

Well, another Monday is here……and I played all week.  Had a great family party yesterday and loved seeing some of our Hansen relatives again.  Between party prep, overnight company, and actual party, I did very little quilting.  I did finish this doll quilt top:

It’s a doll quilt I’ve been working on along with the larger one I just finished.  The 11 inch square little Apple Core quilt is all red print fabrics, 100 pieces, none the same.  I started it quite a while ago, and as I was finishing it this week, I was thinking…….who would start making a little quilt this small?  I am getting older, and now had a little trouble with the small pieces, but finished it is.   And finished is better than perfect!  The matching big quilt is named “Red Delicious”.  What would be a good name for this little one?   Maybe just “Small Red Delicious”, or “Little Red Delicious” unless you come up with something very clever.  

I posted a bouquet this past week on Facebook, and had lots of opinions about the “weed” classification it has.  What do you think?  

It has such a pretty name here, “Queen Anne’s Lace” and is so delicate and lacy.  I think of it as a “flower”,  but not for my garden.  A flower I can cut for free any day of the summer, along any country road around Ludington, Michigan.

Here are a few pictures from our family party yesterday.  Hubby in his boat, a shot of the cabin from the lake, and a picture of hubby, his two sisters, our brother-in-law, and me.  The “old folks” at the party.  Penny Lane is in the picture too. All the other guests were children, grands, and one great-grand.

What has your week been like?  I am looking forward to seeing your pictures and reading your blogs.  Please link up to this Design Wall Monday Linky Party!  I hope to do the link correctly this week, as I had done something wrong last week.  Thanks to those of you who let me know the link wasn’t working.  It should be good today.

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Design Wall Monday - July 19, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!  About a year ago this little boy’s Mom put this short video of her son out on the internet. 

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d4sw7wWtkO0

He is so cute, and of course the people on the internet have used his cute greetings with pictures of puppies, etc. too.  I am trying to be as cheerful as he is each morning.  It’s a good goal.

This past week I’ve been at the cabin and have no pictures to show you.  I’m making small progress on the redwork quilt’s flowered border, and also am finishing some embroidered squirrels on some dish towels.  Since embroidery can be done while I am in the car, it was all I could do.

Why am I progressing so slowly?  We have had company, and have been showing beautiful Michigan to our friends from Virginia.  We went to the Sleeping Bear Dunes, road on the dunes near Hart with Mac Woods Dune Rides, picked blueberries, and floated on inner tubes  from the Hamlin Lake Dam to Lake Michigan.  Sunday I even rode on a large blowup raft with Penny Lane while we were being pulled behind the speed boat.  Penny thought it was great fun.

I did accomplish one quilty thing though.  I washed the Red Delicious charm quilt.  I soaked it through several rinses with color catchers with it, and saw the color catchers go from dark red, to pink, and then to white. It took several soaks to get the extra dye out, but I expected that with each piece of cloth in the whole quilt being red.

What did you do this past week?  I hope you have a picture to show us.  Thank you all who participate in Design Wall Mondays.  Please join the linky party so we can see your blog.

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Design Wall Monday - July 12, 2021

Good Morning Quilters!  

I finished another block for the May Day Basket quilt:

It has been a good week for me, in that my medical issue of a few weeks ago (sudden temporarily blindness in one eye) has been checked out thoroughly. 

I told my hubby that the brain scan results found that there was nothing there!  LOL. Actually, all tests came back with great news and the doctors are not finding anything that needs surgery. The brain scan report had the word “patent” after every artery checked.  I didn’t know what that meant, and the doctor said it meant “wide open”.  So I learned the medical use of the word patent and the report was good in my tests.

What can I do to keep healthy?  Get educated.  It was a wakeup call for me to get educated about strokes.  The lifetime risk of stroke for women between the ages of 55 and 75 in the United States is 1 in 5.  Signs of a stroke:

• Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body.
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding speech.
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance, or lack of coordination.

If any of the above happens, call 911 immediately and get checked out.

What else can I do: 

• Eat healthy: Choose healthy foods most of the time, including foods with less salt, or sodium, to lower my blood pressure, and that are rich in fiber and whole grains to manage my cholesterol.external icon
• Get regular physical activity: Regular activity helps me reach and maintain a healthy weight and keeps my heart and blood vessels healthier.

Here are some glamour shots of the apple core charm quilt, “Red Delicious”.  The thrill of finishing an old UFO hasn’t worn off.  I hope you enjoy seeing it.  I called my friend Joan Edwards, who started this quilt years ago, and she was thrilled too.  I am going to wash it and get the extra red out before I add the white label with our names on it.  

On the recliner, ready for a snuggle:

Showing the back side and the curved binding:

 

Outside on the porch:

Full shot of the whole quilt.  It measures 64 inches square.  1,024 apple core pieces, none alike.  32 blocks by 32 blocks.

Please join the linky party and show us what you are working on this week.  Great pictures last week!

This Design Wall linky party has only two requirements.  Please comply with both.  Thanks!

1) Mention within your current post that you are participating in Design Wall Monday, and

2) Link back to this particular blog post from within your current post so it is easy for folks to jump back to this Design Wall Monday page to go to the next participant’s blog.

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Design Wall Monday - July 5, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!  And Happy 4th of July holiday to all in the USA!  Here is one of my patriotic quilts, which I had two Grandsons hold up for me so I could take the picture.  It’s a replica of an 1862 crib sized quilt.  I wonder if the original quilt was ever used for a baby to sleep on?

The weekend was very peaceful at the lake with family playing lots of golf, while I stayed at the cabin with Penny Lane and my Granddog, Tucker.  Penny and Tucker entertained themselves by spending the weekend carrying around one toy between them.  It didn’t matter what toy, they both wanted it and the game was to try to take it from each other.

 

Also the milkweed by the back door was filled with butterflies.  We have one monarch chrysalis on the porch ceiling already .  There were other butterflies on the milkweed besides Monarchs. The pups took a break from their game and rested on the porch to watch butterflies with me.  

A Monarch coming in for a landing, 

The other butterflies were these. Aphrodite Fritillary is my guess after looking online.  I need to read up more on butterflies.  These and the Monarch had little flying “fights” in the air above the milkweed flowers.  Apparently they don’t like each other.  

 I hope you have more quilty things to show us this week than I do.  I won’t have company for the next few days, so I should make some progress on my UFOs.  What are you playing/working on? Please link up to the Design Wall Monday linky party below and show us.  Thanks for joining in!  

The Design Wall linky party has only two requirements:

1) Mention within your blog that you are participating in Design Wall Monday.

2) Link back to this particular blog post within your blog so it is easy for folks to jump back to this Design Wall Monday page to go to the next participant’s blog.

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Design Wall Monday - June 28, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!  I’ve been up north at the cabin all week, and only took embroidery with me.  The next basket for the May Day Quilt is completed except for the French knots.  As usual, there are plenty of French knots.  The knots will be finished by next Monday though.  It is exciting to be near completion on these 30 baskets.

The second embroidery project I’ve worked on is finishing the borders of the redwork quilt UFO. Here are the four borders:

I realized while they were on the floor (my design wall up here) for this picture that I haven’t even measured how long each border will need to be.  As you realize by now,  I’m more into enjoying the process than doing the finishing up details part of UFOs.  But it seems like a lot of my old, old UFOs are all getting near the finish line at once.  And that’s a good thing.

The Red Delicious apple core quilt needs a label and hanging sleeve, so no completed pictures of it for you until that happens.  That is one of my goals for this week.  

And my tests I talked about last week are happening tomorrow. (Brain scan, Carotid arteries ultrasound, and heart echo test) All day spent in waiting rooms for three different tests will give me lots of French knot time won’t it?  And embroidery is very calming for me, so there is that too.

What are you working on this week?  I hope you link up your blog and show us a picture.  I apologize for not adding comments to your blogs this week.  I was in a funk - but I did read them all, and this week I’ll be sure to make comments.  You all do such amazing work.  Please add your blog to the Design Wall Mondays linky party below, and give us the pleasure of reading your blog.  Thanks!

My requests of you, if you link up, are two things:  Mention the Design Wall Monday  linky party within your blog post, and also that you provide a link back to this particular blog post (not just to the generic smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com)

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Desgn Wall Monday, June 21, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!

So much is happening that I could write about, and some of it isn't quilty.  But I guess I will get my thoughts down on paper so my head can be clearer.

In no particular order, these things have happened:

Father's Day was a wonderful day trip to Lansing for a golf outing.  Two Grandpas, one son and wife, and two Grandsons golfed, while I rode around with them in a cart, working on one of my embroidery baskets.  They included me, even though I'm not a golfer.  We had a great time.  The course wasn't super busy, and that allowed us to play all together, instead of a foursome and a twosome, so everyone had fun seeing everyone else's golf shots.   

Saturday, we volunteered to clean house and spread mulch outside for a charity near and dear to our hearts.  Lighthouse for Teen Moms is a Grand Rapids charity that provides housing, life lessons, and life skills to young teen mothers, who range in age from 14 to 18 years old.  The work day with filled with lots of volunteers and we cleaned the two homes where the charity houses the girls.  It was so good to see all the people working together, and many hands made light work.   I like this charity because it gives options for girls to choose life and not abortion at a critical time in their lives.

Tuesday, June 15th, was our 58th wedding anniversary.  We had a great day and celebrated with friends Wednesday night.  I made a pineapple upside down cake for them with 58 spelled out in pineapple.  I had to think backwards and upside down, because you flip the cake over and the bottom becomes the top.  Tuesday morning, when we ate breakfast out at our favorite restaurant, I told the waitress we were married longer than she has been alive....and she said "twice as long!" lol  It is so amazing and such a joy that we have been married for so long.

Midweek in week before, while driving back to Grand Rapids after a visit with my sister, a strange incident of temporary blindness in one eye for a very short time, led me to several appointments last week.

I've had an appointment with two eye doctors (someone in my family advised I see an Ophthalmologist instead of my Optometrist)  Both eye doctors said my eyes are fine.  My appointment with my general doctor's group was next.  While there I had an electrocardiogram and also have three more tests scheduled: a brain scan, a carotid arteries test, and a heart echocardiogram.  I have never had any of these three tests before.  

The internet (sometimes a reliable source, sometimes not) gives me the following info: A reduction of blood flow through one of the carotid arteries may cause temporary vision loss in the eye on the same side.  The loss of vision is like a curtain being drawn over the eye and usually lasts just one or two minutes. 

Also the short blindness in one eye can be a warning that a stroke is coming later.

My appointments for all three tests are on June 29th, and I shall report the results to you when I know.  

But in the quilting world, I finished machine quilting the red charm quilt in the other direction.  You were correct - it looks so much better quilted in both directions.  And I even finished binding it, and followed the curved edge of the apple core pieces with the binding.  I want to make a label for it, and add a hanging sleeve before it is totally finished.  And with all the traveling this week, I failed to take a picture of the completed quilt.  But it is so rewarding to have this quilt on the finish line!  Here is a picture of the binding:

Also a picture of my newly replanted small bed of flowers where our flagpole is.  All of the perennials were chosen because they are "deer resistant", and the Bee Balm is the star right now.  The hummingbirds love it, and of course the bees do too.   Behind the flowerbed you can see our Dogwood tree, which has been outstanding this year.   It is not a native, but is a white Kousa dogwood. 

What are all the things happening in your world?  I look forward to seeing your quilting walls, projects, blocks, and other happenings in your life this week.  Please link up to the Design Wall Monday linky party and show us.  Thanks.  Don't forget to put a link back to this particular post from somewhere within your post, and also let people know that you are linking up.  

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Design Wall Monday - June 14, 2021

Good Morning Quilters!  This week was not very productive for me because I was caring for my sister.  She is doing much better, and I came back home on Wednesday.  So Saturday, I had a dedicated quilting day and got the courage to work on another UFO that has been here for a long time.  I looked back on my blog, and the last time I talked about this quilt was Sept., 2019.  (Here)

My friend, Joan Brink, came over with her sewing machine, and we both machine quilted on our own projects.  I am not very adept at machine quilting, but had this UFO set aside to try it on for quite a while.  My red apple core charm quilt has been basted together waiting for me to try domestic sewing machine quilting.  I finally read more about it, and gave it a try.

I read and "youtubed" about settings, feet, feed dogs, and "super slider" mats.  I googled how to make your own super slider type surface, and used contact paper.  I cut a large piece of contact paper, and removed the backing from only the edge of it on the left and right edge.  Then stuck it down, and cut a hole in the middle for the sewing machine needle.  It worked just fine, and I was able to remove it to change a bobbin.

I ended up trying one of my Janome machine quilting feet, and kept the feed dogs up.  I went slowly, and used a stitch setting of 2.2.  It actually was fun.

Here is my UFO, which I plan to name "Red Delicious" because it's red and an apple core pattern.  It was started long ago by a friend, Joan Edwards, and she sent it to me to add more squares and make it larger.  I increased it to 1,000 squares (I think a little more) and then it sat as a UFO for a very long time.  Until this week - Finishing is finally happening!

I followed the curves across the quilt from one edge to another in only one direction, and am now deciding if I should/could stop, or should I quilt the curves in the other direction.  What do you think?

I think I know the answer - I should quilt it more by quilting the curves in the other direction.  But I wish I was finished.  But, on the positive side, it will be more practice on my machine quilting, won't it?

What are you working on?  I so enjoy looking at the pictures you show us and reading about what you are creating.  Keep up the good work!  Please link to the Design Wall Monday party and don't forget to mention Design Wall Mondays in your blog post.  Also, a link back to this particular blog post is required.  Thanks!

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