Recycled ironing station

This is a picture of my big ironing station. I just love it and my retreat ladies do too! The bottom part is an old baby bed that my folks had in their closet forever and then in my closet forever until I came up with this idea. I just covered a 2' x 8' piece of plywood with a piece of blanket (stapled on) and then added this piece of Mary Englebreit fabric that I had in my stash. The middle part of the fabric started to wear, so I added a piece of heavy cloth from my stash to the middle of the board. It works great for pressing quilt tops and a great way to recycle the old bed! I may have to make another one of these!

Dotter's Puzzle in baby size

Here's a couple pictures of Dotter's Puzzle in baby size. if you read my post a few days ago, I said I'd show you them. The last post about my trunk show also has another pink one without the border. Hope to get that border done today. Yesterday I finished piecing a different baby blue one that will be for the new grandson due November 1st. I hope to get started hand quilting on it soon. I haven't taken any pictures of it yet. Maybe my goal will be to take one when it's finished!

Chariton show

These are a couple pictures of the trunk show that I did at Chariton, IA. It was a hot-hot evening, but they still had a nice group. Thanks ladies for having me speak. It is always good to venture out into new areas. If you know anyone that wants a quilt speaker, I am available and for the next year I'm just charging mileage, just to get the word out about my retreats. Please contact me if you're interested in having me speak and/or doing a workshop.

Part of the fun of going to other parts of the state is going to quilt shops! I got to go to a couple shops that I'd not been to before. Both were just off Highway 34, at Lucas and Chariton. They were cute shops with LOTS of fabric to offer! I hit the jackpot at Chariton with a 50% off sale on 30's reproductions! Gotta love those sales!

Trunk show in Chariton, Ia.

Going to Chariton, Iowa this evening and giving a trunk show at their guild meeting this evening at 7 bells at the Lutheran Church. Come join me if you can!

New pattern called Dotter's Puzzle

I've been working on a new pattern that I'm calling Dotter's Puzzle. It has been so much fun! I just love it when a plan comes together! After deciding to name it this, I realized that making a quilt IS like putting a puzzle together, huh! The picture below is the twin/full sized quilt top that I just finished, on one of the retreat beds with red polka dot sheets. I just love the dots and try to put a few in every quilt now! A lot of old quilts had polka dots, you know. I'll show more of those in a later post. Anyway, I found this pink antique quilt (below) at an antique store out in Colorado last winter and bought it with the intentions of reproducing it and, wallah, here it is! I love to redesign old quilt patterns, using new methods. So I guess you could call me a re-designer, not a designer! I have also reduced it in size and made it into baby quilts. Will show those in a later post. I have been busy getting kits made up for both the larger and baby sized quilts. Can't wait to show you the baby ones, they are SO sweet!

Vintage, red, white and blue quilt top

Here's another of my unfinished projects, well actually someone else's. I bought this from a gal named Janet Caldwell? at Des Moines that has lots of neat vintage sewing stuff at the Brass Armadillo. I need to get it hand quilted and on one of the beds. Kind of an unusual setting for a nine-patch. Thanks Janet! I also got a few feed sack scraps from her that I used in the quilt I just made and showed in a post a couple weeks ago.

Just a little info about the new title picture. It hangs in our living room and was one of 12 blocks that were found when the family was cleaning out the estate of Lonnie & Gertrude Weed back in the late 80's. They had 12 children, so each child got a block. Wouldn't it be wonderful to see them altogether in a quilt! This one belonged to Marven, my father-in-law. When they were moving to a smaller place, they were kind and gave it to me, the quilt lover! We are having the Weed family reunion here in Bedford the weekend of July 15th. Should be fun!

I just realized it has polka dots in it!! Yeah! I just love all the old fabrics, you just can't beat 'em.

I did finish the red, white and blue feedsack top a couple of days ago, but I'm just getting around to taking a picture and posting. Now, how do I quilt it, hand or machine? Any suggestions? I'm torn between. I should hand quilt, but I don't really have the time.

Happy Summertime and 4th of July!

I am in the process of sending out my quarterly newsletter and said I would post some pictures of my feed sack table topper/baby quilt that I'm working on at the present, so here they are. It is still a work in process, so check back for the finished project. I am planning on taking this sample to the AQS Show this fall in Des Moines and will be selling kits for them, if anyone is interested...

This is another of my red, white and blue collection. I made it from am old quilt top and will have kits for it also.

If any of you would like to be on my newsletter list, just email me and I'll put you on the list. I can't believe how fast 1/4 of the year flies by and it's time to write another newsletter!

A fun quilty weekend!

Two weekends ago I went on a fun quilting adventure! I started out on Friday afternoon and went to the annual Walnut, Ia. Antique Walk. It is every Father's day weekend. There were antiques galore and lots of fun things to see. I was mainly looking for feed sacks and picked up a couple to put in the new baby grandson's quilt. This little cupboard was so cute, I had to take a picture of it. It was made out of 6 or 7 wooden boxes, cute, cute!

After leaving Walnut,(the boothes were closing so I had to leave), I headed to Guthrie Center. They were having all kinds of fun things going on, town-wide garage sales and a garden and quilt show/ luncheon. The picture above was a neat antique double wedding ring that was displayed at the luncheon. The salads were so good! Thanks ladies, you did a great job.

We went to 5 different houses for the tour. they were all very beautiful, but just about the time the tour was to start, it also started to rain, and just didn't seem to want to stop. Oh, well, it was still beautiful!

This was a unique display with the old tractors and quilts.

A cute little garden shed with quilts hung beside it.

After finishing the quilt tour I headed east to Adel. They were having an outdoor quilt show also at the quilt shop. Here the owner Jackie is visiting with a customer. It was a fun show too! I felt like I had been around the world in a day and a half!

How to save peonies

Bouquets from my dotter, Lindsay's wedding. About 2 weeks before the wedding we picked over a thousand buds and saved them for the arrangements. This 1st picture were the bouquets for the bridesmaids.

The next picture was all the arrangements that we used tables at the reception.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would tell you how to save peonies for later use. The peonies above and below were picked about 3 weeks before I used them and I had just got them out of the fridge. It's really not hard, they just take up a lot of room in the fridge. The trick is to pick them when the bud feels like a marsh mellow when you squeeze it. I pick them with about a foot stem and put a whole bunch in a plastic bag in the fridge. When you want to use them, take them out of the fridge and re cut the stem and put in water. They will open up to their full bloom in about 4-12 hours. SO PRETTY and FUN! They will last about 5-7 days, inside.

This is the Day!

This is the Day the Lord Has Made! I just love this song and verse. This also, is the day we found out that we're having another grandson! Let us rejoice!

We are very happy to have another grandchild on the way, this is just our second.

The feed sack scraps above will go in a special quilt for him. I've been saving them for a special project and this is it! Will show the finished project later. I may even have kits for this later.

Good for the soul retreat!

Hot fudge brownie sundaes topped with pecans. The hot fudge recipe is one of my Mom's.

One of my guests last weekend described their stay as "good for the soul". It was good for all our souls, including mine! Lots of fun and laughing! This is a return group from the Osceola area. They chose the fully pampered deal and seemed to enjoy every bit of it! Here they are finishing their meal with homemade rhubarb cobbler with ice cream. Notice the peonies in the middle of the table, I picked those about 3 weeks ago and was able to save them until this weekend. More info on how to do this later.

This salad below was one of the things we had for lunch on Friday. It was a Hawaiian chicken pineapple salad made similar to the one at 54th Street Bar and Grill. Lot of compliments on this meal and all the meals. Thanks ladies! I love serving you and using all the fun dishes!

Below: everyone took lots of pictures...if you have any good ones, send them to me by email. Thanks ladies for the wonderful weekend!

My Quilt is in the Quilters Festival ~ Take a Look!

Many of you have seen this quilt before on my blog, but I have entered it into the Quilt Festival on Amy's Creative Side blog, so I'm showing it again. I love vintage fabric and antique quilts, so this quilt is designed to look old, (as most of my quilts are). I have quite a stash of vintage fabrics and would love to have some of them reproduced someday (that's another one of my dreams). I do sell patterns and vintage kits, if anyone is interested, email me at farmersdotter@frontiernet.net.

I designed this quilt after an antique one that I had seen, only smaller. I think it is my favorite one yet. I named it after my dear Mother-in-law who had the middle name, Mae, and a few other dear friends with that middle name.

Iris Farm Open House

I thought I'd change my title picture for iris season. I have several varieties of iris here around my house, but I just want to let you know about the Rainbow Iris Farm that we have here in our community. It's a great place to visit right now and til about the end of May. If you are in the area, give me a call and maybe you can stop in and see my flowers and retreat center too!

Trunk show in Stewartsville!

Today I'm going to the Quilt Shoppe in Stewartsville, MO to do a small trunk show. Should be fun, stop in and see me if ya get a chance! They have lots and lots of selection there. Their shop was a top 10 quilt shop back in 2008 AND it's the home of Tula Pink, the famous fabric designer and her Mom! Many thanks to them for letting me do a little show for the bus tour ladies that are coming through this weekend.
I also hope to make it to the quilt show in Lawrence, KS that's going on today and tomorrow. More news about both adventures later!

(April Showers Bring) Mae Flowers!

I just finished up a couple new quilt patterns for sale. This one is called Mae flowers after my mother-in-law, Glenna Mae Weed, and a few other Mae loved ones. Just in time for May day!

Antique springtime quilt

I love to use antiques to decorate with and this is one of my favorite spring-looking quilts that I have in my living room right now. I can't remember the name of the block right now, does anyone else know?

Spring is here!

I'm back at it, got a new computer and just getting caught up now. I took this picture about a week and a half ago. The daffodils have done great this year. I love flowers just about as much, or more, than quilting, can you tell?

We are having quite the showers here today, but April showers bring May flowers! I will show you my new pattern called Mae flowers in another post.

Computer on the blitz!

My computer is not working at home right now, so may be awhile before I get to do much blogging. Hope to get it up and going soon! Talk to ya later! Enjoy the wonderful spring weather!