JULY 21, 2012

Hot, Dry, Summer here in Wisconsin

Lilies were doing fine until the drought hit our state for almost

a month now.  Temperatures of high 90's and up to 104 degrees.

Gee, it has been so long that I was able to write a blog and centuries of happenings since my last one.

Health issues one after the other was the main factor.

I love the quote of Max Lucado "don't let the bumps in the race keep you from the award ceremony at its end."  which I have applied day in and day out working through one thing after another.  But there is light in the tunnel.  Health is better, Life is better, and counting my blessings every and each day.

This is the second season of not being able to work steadily in my 2 1/2 acres of gardens.  This summer has found me in the house more than out.  Weeds have gotten higher than the flowers.  Time to cut back I can see that will be true for next year.    Got a lot of reading done, discovered a few new authors as I grasped at getting well.  

Luke is growing like the weeds both in character and behavior.  He went to a private trainer with Dick and I and we all learnt a lot about dealing with a beautiful male Airedale terrier.  We were use to our 10 year old Gilly an Airedale female terrier who was gentle, old, and girl all the way through.  Luke is full of young vibrant energy along with only being 1 1/2 years of age.  He is so intelligent, and use to be two steps ahead of us all the time.  We are at an even keel now, and oh I forgot how much fun the Airedale is.  Our Gilly passed away with a very lengthy illness.  Her immune system closed down and finely closed the door on her life with us.  So very sad, I still miss her.

Another tragedy was when we were notified my precious big brother died, heartbreaking for us but a blessing for him to free him of a long term illness he was suffering. He is missed by all his loved ones. 

Brother Steve and wife Karen

                                          Started to hand quilt on Katelyn's lap quilt she made all by herself.  With her summer filled with working and practicing band   (she played in the Symphonic Band in our local city 's concert. ).  So I told her I would do the long putsy stitching on all the seams to finish it off. 

Ordered some new quilt books:  Exploring embellishments more artful quilts with fast piece applique by Rose Hughes and Sew embellished artistic little quilts, personalized with easy techniques by Cheryl Lynch.  Both are real interesting and quite modern, away from my safe and sure traditional quilts I work on.  Time to take a chance and join the trend of wild and carefree quilting........

Dick put up a wall felt so I could design my own quilt.
I took apart  a fan quilt top I found in a rummage sale from the 50's.
It had a horrible purple background for the fans so now I am
playing around with the peaces trying to find out what I want
to do with it.

 I should make letters -- sew -- on it to remind me to stick to the project instead of procrastinating all the time.What I would really like to do is the Crazy quilt stitches on it once I get the design made. 

This picture was passed on to my on the net.  I do not have the author and if I can find it will include it next time.  

Until the next time sending you all my blessings that your summer is going well.

Kate

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