Fish Quilt!  In September, I attended a class at Room to Learn in Kuna. I finished it up at home and it turned out "darned cute".  The pattern is called "Up A Lazy River" by Far Flung Quilts, and I used the Lazy Angle by Creative Grids.  I have since used that Lazy Angle to make other cool blocks for my "grow it" quilt I am doing.  I purchased some shell fish fabric a couple years back, at The Quilter's Market when I was visiting Tucson, and used a little to make one of the fish. Then I decided to make it a bit longer by adding some to the bottom of the quilt. Hand sewn button eyes. Please, post me a message if you have any questions. Curiosity is a good thing. 



details & chosing buttons for eyes



Rolla, Missouri enjoying myself to the max.  My husband and I got to spend time with out daughter. She took us sight seeing and we had a fun time on the swings at the park in Rolla. 



Daughter and Mom swinging on a sunny afternoon in Rolla.

They had a static train display and a pond. But swings! What fun! We also went and visited the Univ. of Rolla Stonehenge, a half-scale partial reconstruction of the Final Stage of Stonehenge.  It was very interesting and there was also wind and solar power projects. The half-scale Stonehenge was particularly interesting.  It made me wish I could be at Rolla for the winter solstice, but I will be back in Idaho.    My daughter actually lives in Plato, MO.  We visited her for the week of Thanksgiving.  We had wonderful time! We drove up to Crocker, MO, and strolled around their little town and took photos of each other and their static train display. Mary and I drove down to Houston, MO, to get some eggs at the store and explored around there as well. The weather was marvelous until Friday (aka Black Friday).  Then we drove to St. Louis to get ready to depart at oh-dark-thirty Saturday.  On Friday we went to Target in some suburb and there was no crowd. We visited the Union Station and the Arch. Then we walked to the Speghetti Factory on 1st St. at Laclede's Landing. I enjoyed a very nice gluten free lunch. There it is . . . the gluten free portion of this web posting.

November not very productive where quilting is concerned. Made a mess on my day off; Veteran's Day. Big blue failed to function and I came home without my big zebra quilt quilted. It is still in a pile in my office where I don't look at it.  It has to be ripped out, and another appointment made . . . blah!   Meanwhile, went to Missouri again . . .

Route 66 wall hanging: I finished it this last week. I will also post a photo of it on my Adventures In Quilting list: Hen House Quilting Retreat. I started it on the retreat and got alot of it done at that time. I quilted it along the edge of the wavy parts and around the post cards on the bottom parts. I kept it as simple as possible.

Baby quilt with space ships. I got the quilt top completed. I just need to find some backing fabric and get it quilted. I found another use for my summer bunting that I brought into the house for the winter: hang your small quilt tops from it with clothes pins, so you can take good photos of them.  I copied the odd border layout from a quilt I saw on someone else's blog. I can't remember who's. Tut tut, it looks like rain. That little glow is the pellet stove firing up in the corner of my room.

Have you noticed all the quilt bloggers who show little bits of this and little bits of that and never show their quilt room unless they cleaned it all first? Come on! You cannot quilt and be a perfect neat freak at the same time.  Here is photo of my quilt room with my sweet little round table stacked high with quilt books, baskets of doo-dads, and other crap.  One thing you can do with your festive summer bunting, is bring it in from the patio and hang it in your quilt room.  The blue baby quilt top laying on the buffet on the right, is covering my violin case.  Violin? What violin?  Yes. I have neglected my violin in the name of quilting, like some maniac.  I love the pellet stove; it keeps my sweet room of bliss nice and toasty all winter long!



Zebra Quilt layout for Zebra II Quilt

Zebra Dreams quilt: First quilt I made in 2012, has plenty of unused yardage left over.  My adult daughter has wanted me to quilt her zebra wall hanging or quilt for sometime.  She picked out a couple fabrics two years ago, and I found some other fabrics last summer to go with it.  I started it in November 2011 and completed in February 2012.  I did some zebra research and decided on Zebra Dreams as the name. I actually began sewing the sun part first and grew it from there.  I really am satisfied with how it came out and Mary really likes it. She has moved to a cooler climate since I made it, and I am now progressing on a quilt to go with it.  I used my curved piecing skills to piece the landscape and the night sky to the edge of the sun.  The center of the sun and the moon are appliqued, as are the vulture, trees, dreamy fish, and zebra.       The quilt I am working on now is not curvy and does not have applique.  It is going to go on her bed and I have decided on a block pattern.  See preliminary layout above.



Zebra Dreams quilt