February A Waiting Time - Winter into Spring

Filling time with inside fun 

waiting for Wisconsin Springtime.

Katelyn and myself quilting the top of her lap quilt she
peaced togeather and embroidered blocks

Katelyn quilting the top of her quilt  notice the nice
embroider blocks she added.  The butterfly on the
pinwheel design was added and stuffed lightly to give it
a 3 dementional look.  

A close up look of katelyns lap top quilt.  Notice the raised
butterfly found on each of the blocks designs.

February is time for winter projects 

shared here at gramma's house

Christie my grand daughter learning to sew here.

Christie stuffing an antique doll printed on material in 1899
which she cut out and sewed togeather.

Little cloth red shoes Christie sewed together on my sewing machine

February brings us rest, a waiting for the next season.

This verse is written on a plack  given to me by a friend.

I have many placks given to me or boughten by myself that hold 

beautiful verses but this one is a favorite.

A Kiss of the sun for pardon

February a happy month, filled with kisses and many a wish from family and friends.  A month of promises.

Knowing the worst of winter is behind us, and spring is fast coming now.  This winter has been so mild compared to surrounding states that have been blinded with blizzards and sleet and rain.  Our snow falls have been gentle, enough to brighten up the surroundings and bringing birds of all sorts of color to our feeders.

The Song Of The Birds For Mirth

Finches with their darker coats flittin here and there.

Female Cardinal waits its turn behind a Mourning Dove

One Is Nearer God's Heart In The Garden

Than Anywhere Else On Earth

In spite of the snow and cold tempetures greeting us each day the garden still brings us joy, peace, and memories.  When planting a garden,  remember we will be looking at it for four months with out the delightful greens and colorful reds, yellows and blues.  It will be blanketed with white and the textures, groupings, will be the extent of vision.

Evergreens give us color, the American flag waves it red,white and blue.  Snowtopped benches, statues, and birdhouses bring the eye out and onto its difference of color and shapes.  Nothing  is boring in a garden.

The February sun is often warm enough to take a walk
through the gardens down to the barn to visit the horses.





February also gives us time.  Time to spend with loved ones.  Time to teach others what we have learnt.


Love and Blessings to you all

Kate

Wisconsin Shows It's Sturdy Backboane In January

Crisp Cold Days are hear and views from my window look out on an old tree
that reminds me of Crazy Quilt Patterns.  The gentle curves and twists could
easily be worked into outlining patterns for Crazy Quilts. 

I recently ordered some quilt books from Amazon this past month.  Crazy Quilts patterns and ideas were in several of them.  the small book Floral Stitches shows you how to make flowers from pictures in your garden The book is wrote by Judith Baker Montano.  I get most of my books from Amazon. Some new and some are used at a cheaper rate.  All three of these books show you how to do the different stitches for Crazy Quilting.  My sister Pat showed me how to do a couple too.  I will include some of her pictures of the work she has done when she was teaching a craft class.

This crazy quilt is a "work in progress"made from rayon dresses and vintage lace.
Made by my sister Pat

This is an unfinished piece that needs a lot more embroider
made by Pat

This is a small crazy quilt using vintage material by my sister Pat

Pat has been sewing and embroidering for a very long and has taught numerous craft and sewing classes in her local town.  I am a beginner with some things and undertaking crazy quilting is my next big challenge.  Our weather has been bitter cold last week with below zero temperatures and yesterday it rained, snowed, drizzled all day.  I poured over the above books and studied the beautiful stitches.  I will start to experiment with some and hopefully post them on my blog.  I love Wisconsin winters because it gives me lots of in the house time.

It is a time for dreaming, planning, and gathering information for all the different quilt projects to start.  I have been embroidering a strip for a quilt I want to make for my spare bedroom.  The pattern comes from Vignette magazines from Australia and developed by Leanne Beasley of Leanne's house  www.leanneshouse.typepad.com    Love her work and my next embroider picture will be another one of hers.  

My work in progress from the pattern in Vignette magazine.

While I busy my self in the house where it is nice and warm, Dick, my husband for 49 years is outside roughing it shoveling where his new John Deer garden tractor snow blower can't reach.  Like the outside dog pen and the deck that surrounds our home..Dick can't get enough of outside works.  He gets board sitting around the house.  Yesterday he was out in the garage working on making a table for the house.

Luke our Airedale Terror helping Dick shovel out his pen.

Luke's version of trying to be a lap dog

Gilly age 10 and Luke age 1 waiting for a treat

Another fun thing Dick does is walk Luke almost every day to wear off his abundance of energy.  Both of them love to go exploring to see tracks showing deer in our woods or perhaps checking out the outer wildlife in the back of our property.

Peace caresses the land as it also caresses our souls
Quieting the sounds of yesterdays
letting today rest and listen to the silence
Hearing our God's splendid whisper
tell us He loves us as he loves
this world, this huge ball he created,
for mankind to enjoy not destroy.
Peace My Friends and Sending Love Your Way......

Kate


Hope to hear from you all, letting me know what are you doing during the long winter days

Horses, Quilts, Gardens, Memories Brighten The Long Dull Winter Days

QUILTING GIVES US LOTS OF COLOR IN WINTER

Wedding Ring Quilt all done by hand quilting.  It is King size and took me 10 years to finish.  My son and his wife Carol were married 10 years when they received it.  Good thing they stuck together that long.  it was my first attempt at
making a quilt this large.  

Quilting becomes the mainstream of activities 

as fall recede to winter months ahead.

Below is a baby quilt I made my grandson.

My daughter wanted something fun and colorful.

Pattern came from Colorful Quilts for Kids by Kari Peakson and Friends

Bunny wall hanging I made for my daughter-in-law 

Close up below of one of the blocks 

Bunny baby quilt for the same daughter-in-law.  She loves bunnys.

Lots of machine embroidery and also hand stitching on this quilt

A new season brings change, but this December,  Fall seems to be hanging on.  The winter white makes Wisconsin seem a wonderland especially when the sun is shining. It's as if their a thousands of diamonds twinkling out from the crust of snow.  One's outlook is even brighter.  But........  Central Wisconsin is still brown and dull.  You have to look for color in the crabapple trees red berries, a blue jay sitting at the feeder, in order to brighten your mind.   

 

In November we had the hunters going through our woods and wetland area and the orange shouted out with color.  Now in December the world is at peace again  except for a few spats the Blue Jays have with each other.

     One week away from the most important celebration of the year, Christmas, and still no snow. I am dreaming of a white Christmas   SooooooI will add winter scenes from years ago. 

Huge drifts pile up in a Northeastern blizzard years ago

Grandchildren coming for a day to enjoy the
snow and Ginger the pony

Living on a hill has its advantages for sledding
When you go down you must walk back up.
Kids do not mind.  All they think of when they
are trudging up the hill is the next flying trip down
hoping they do not fall off.

Snow angles seem to appear all over the place as the
grand kids leave their marks. Days after they go  home
again, I will discover them here and there as I walk
up to the house from the horse barn.

 Winter quiets our lives.  What held  our few minutes of rest between weeding in the hot months of summer, now holds the serene setting white marshmallow look with shadows and lite drawing our eyes to its winter wonderland. Walking in the fresh fallen snow with my camera I smile in joy for the beauty of it all.

This statue of our Good Shepherd  in my gardens
reminds me each and every day
who is the Gift Giver.
God's delight in giving us His Kingdom on earth
through His birth and redemption
Christmas is celebrated next Sunday and we all await the great Joy of family and friends.
Lets keep our greatest gift
in mind as we celebrate Christmas Day.

                                                 Blessings and love to you all.......................

                                                                      Kate

MERRY CHRISTMAS

   

November 2011----- Letting Go -- Letting God----- Decadence - A Falling Off, Decline; Decay Harvest Is Done



"I believe in the sun when it's not shinning,

love when I am alone,

and God when he is silent."  author unknown

                                                                                    

Sumac on Hill Behind Our House

Wisconsin was in its full glory starting in September and now almost at its end today.  The trees have shed most of their leaves and the brilliant colors have faded to the dull browns and faded greens.  The Box Elder a good seed tree for the birds but humans frown on  because it brings with its fall look a bug called Box Elder bug.  A nuisance but does not bite or hurt us in any way except for the fact it tries to winter in our homes so comes in abundance between windows, doors with us trying to vacuum it up and caulking it out. The Box Elder hangs on to its leaves somewhat longer than the other trees but has only the faded brown leaves dropping.  It is a good shade tree and so far is hardy compared to the great Elm we lost years ago and now our woods are being stripped of the Ash tree with the Ash borer killing them off.  It is so sad to see the dead branches starting to show up on the Ash which shares our woods with the Beautiful Oak, Hickory, and Maple trees. 


Another picture of the Sumac in September.  Now in November all the leaves of these trees are just about gone.  The evergreens will give us color as the Autumn slips away into winter months ahead. 
The sky is often gray and giving us lots of rainy days.  It is a quieting time of letting go of the fast moving months of summer and the brilliant goodbye in fall with nature closing up shop for the season and going dormant as the winter numbs it with colder days ahead.  Decadence in full swing.....





Sumac up close with seed pods which will stay on until spring
feeding Blue birds and Robins and other wildlife

 
Just the other day our neighbor farmer came down our driveway that leads to the barn and back field with his big harvester combine.  It was time to release the earth of the corn that grew all summer and now was dried and ready. 



No time at all and the field was left with just stubby edges of the
once high reaching corn.  It is so exciting to see this huge
machine. Made by man to gather the corn made by
our great creator who nourished the seed
throughout the hot summer to
become the fruit of the earth. 



The hot summer sun is no longer present but gray days will fill our days more often. 

I use to hate the days that brought less sunshine, but now relish the time as a rest period in my year of life.  The rush of Christmas is not quite near yet with November to get through, and there still are crisp sunny days fitted in between the rain and drizzle.  Time to sew up those Christmas projects, finish things that could not be done in the merry merry sunshine of summer fun.  Now time to reflect, dream a little, pull things together like fall cleaning, baking, taking a slow walk kicking the crisp leaves hiding paths, and covering what use to be our trimmed lawns.  Dick put out the bird feeder for our future winter.  Too early to fill it, the raccoons are still not bedded down for winter so could rip it apart yet looking for those sunflowers.  Squirrels are scurrying past our windows with large walnuts in their mouths, burying them into the ground.  Some they will find, others will turn into our spring seedlings for future trees in the woods. A time of letting go, letting God work through our nature.

      Quilting will take a more prominent place as November pokes it head up on my calendar.  Finishing projects will be done faster.  Summer rainy days seem to be the only days I can squeeze in my stitching.  I hand quilted this table runner pictured below for my daughter Katie.  Many, many days passed as I worked on it and during that time I contemplate what all took place this past year, as I stitch away the minutes, hours, days until the quilting is done. 


 



The table runner pattern is one I bought through e-PatternsCentral.com

and is called Lilies of the Field.  I use to get most of my patterns

by mail but found this great web sight where I can download

and buy through the computer.  Wow!  It is cheaper and I

get my pattern right away.

Gilly and Luke



Up date on Gilly (front and Luke in back of picture)  Gilly who was

terribly ill is now well and back to her old self (10 years).

Luke is now 1 year and just full of the dickens but

learning fast.  He got his winter hair cut by Stephanie

Sanderfoot who does a marvelous job on Airedales.

She is from Kaukauna Wisconsin, and can be reached by

swankefoot@gmail.com.  Gilly is scheduled for next week,

so will look just as pretty as our Luke who got his hair cut last week. 

Dick and I go shopping or I go to a sewing lesson at Sew and Sew out of Appleton which is a neat quilting and sewing shop.  We usually catch a lunch somewhere in Appleton before we go back and pick up our Airedale.  It is a fun day for all of us.  Luke will stay home this trip and spend it in his kennel.  Our daughter will come over and let him out for a runaround in his outside pen and then back in the kennel he will go until we are home.  He is still learning his manners so cannot be trusted running free in the house while we are gone like our older dog Gilly.  Gilly is so well behaved and such a dear sweet dog.  As we cope with Luke's shenanigans we keep in mind this is only temporary and he too will be as nice as our Gilly when he is about two.  A terrier is so full of zip, they need lots of tender love and firm training before they get all that robust energy under control.  Stephanie the Airedale Stylist's,  parents are the ones who bred our Airedales, always trying to bring out a gentle and loving trait.  They can be reached at http://www.joannesinc.com/ They only breed the best Airedales, our Luke has champion blood in him from both the mother and father's pedigree.  We do not do the shows just keep our Airedales as pets. 

Our old cat seems to know it is time to find a nice warm spot with the tempatures in the low 40-50's
It is also a secure place by me while I work on my sewing or computer.





Allen our old cat snuggles into quilt material hoping I do not see him.



"Heart Gifts"  by Helen Steiner Rice found in a little book called "Just for You"

It's not the things that can be bought

that are life's richest treasure,

It's just the little "heart gifts"

that money cannot measure...

A cheerful smile, a friendly word,

a sympathetic nod

Are priceless little treasures

from the storehouse of our God...

They are the things that can't be bought

with silver or with gold,

For thoughtfulness and kindness

and love are never sold...

They are the priceless things in life

for which no one can pay,

And the giver finds rich recompense

in giving them away.

Picture below was sent to me,  unknown author of the print

BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL AND MAY YOUR DAYS BE

FILLED WITH JOYFUL MOMENTS AS

YOU WALK YOUR PATH TODAY.

Kate

CHALENGES OF CHANGE August 12, 2011

Mid August brings us cool mornings and mist swirling out of the wetlands
out in the back of our propriety. 

Going from the high 90's down now into the 70 is giving Wisconsin a feel of what is to come in a few short weeks.  Seems the long lazy hot days of summer have become a thing of the past.  School is right around the corner.  My grand kids are coming next week for their last tea party and outside games.  We started this quit a few years ago so the cousins could spend time with gramma and their other cousins. We have craft time, tea time and then outside races and games.  They dress up in costumes left over from my last two daughters growing up days that are stuffed away in plastic bins.  Boys protest  but finely consent with the promise they can enjoy the treats later.

Christie dressed like a frontier girl and Jon in a graduation costume race neck to neck with fresh eggs in a spoon. 

Brett disguised in a sailor suit originally from world war 2 made over by his great grandmother and given to my daughters for Halloween costume.  Stephanie in a dance costume from one of my daughters dance recitals when she was little.They too struggled to keep the eggs in the spoons but managed to drop a couple.  I can still remember the giggles and the eggs being stepped on at the next race of wheelbarrow. 



Gosh, I can remember doing this when I was a kid.  Summer was so full of fun!



Being young at heart, not a worry in the world.  Children are our treasures in this troublesome world.  To live like a child in innocence, and wonder!  They say laughter is the best medicine and being a grandma has kept me young at heart.  My world becomes brighter, my mind sharper and my heart warmer watching the antics of my grand kids.



Victorian Gaxing Globes from Baker's Lawn Ornament 570 Berlin Plank Road, Somerset, Pa. 15501

I bought this many years ago because I heard how exquisite the glass was and the colors are outstanding. 

In the above picture you can see my reflection in it taking the picture.  It reflects what ever is blooming around it. 

Our minds are like a reflection ball......the pictures we remember of our past reflect what we went through.  What we pull into our memory is almost like living it again.  As I experience joy, love, tender moments I tuck them away in my memory to be pulled out later like this picture of the reflection ball.  All I have to do is think about a happy thought and it is there being relived, enjoyed, enveloping me with that joy, love and tenderness.  With the world news, pouring disasters onto our somewhat quiet life our tendency is to think about it.  Trouble ourselves about what could happen, is happening but a world away.  I do what I can and then reflect back to a warmer memory that fills my world with light, not troubled waters.  Even with all the tragedy in my own life this past year, I do what I can, remind myself over and over, "This is only temporary"  Pull up memories that bring me to the present happenings,  good things that release peace in my soul, not stress in my body.  A trick of the mind.  Filling it with another thought.  Quite a while ago they showed hands surrounding that plane that landed on the river out by New York.  I do that too, think of our great Creator's hands surrounding my world.  Bringing me peace again and a stillness of my soul so I can enjoy the present.



Luke Skywalker 10 months now, spending time with me in the computer - sewing room. 
Dick put the grate in front of my files because Luke likes to rip off labels and chew on them.
Luke has put such laughter and joy into my life.  He is typically the naughty boy puppy sometimes,
but most times he he just a big lovable Airedale that fills my day with surprises and smiles. 



Just like that foggy picture in the beginning, the seasons are changing but I can still fill the decadence of the time back to the bright blue sky with simply a reflection.  (pictures help too "_" )



View of our land out back of our property

Another joy is my collection of books.  A few weeks ago I got my new quilt book called:  quilting those Flirty '30's by Cynthia Tomaszewski.   ah such fun, such color, and such an imagination beyond my own old brain.  But with this new book that gives me step by step instructions I can create what Cynthia has designed for us to buy.  I got mine through amazon.
I also got a new sewing machine a Viking Sapphire 835 which I bought at Sew and Sew a delightful quilt store.  They give me new owner lessons too so I can use all the computerized instructions.  I was there last week and the teacher was so patient with me, so talented in getting all that diffcult information into this old brain.  Now I am ready to zip out some new items and try new things in the cold rainy days ahead.  I love hand sewing and quilting but this is so much fun I just might put the hand stuff away for a while.

Picture of new birdhouse by my new camera the
Canon EOS Rebel Tdi EOS 600D

Now this is the biggest challenge on my mind.  I have spent the past two months playing with it and taking pictures.  It has so many automatic contraptions on it that I probably could spend a life time just using them but I really want to explore all the different settings and views I can.  I read on one of the blogs that the books Digital Photography by Scott Kelby and sent for that from amazon also and Scott Kelby really does make it easy to look up things and settings.

 I can see this long winter ahead is going to be a very challenging one with all these new changes in my life.  Change is very good for us, weather it is a painful one or a surprise filled one it brings fresh air into our lives and gives us a new perspective......
             ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I wish I could remember where the below picture came from on the Internet.  Maybe someone out there can give that information for me.....................

thinking of you all

blessings.....

Kate