January To December, We Had Moments To Remember!

In January I finished this miniature quilt that I had started about 20 years earlier. The quilt is about the size of a piece of notebook paper. Each log is 1/4 inch wide. It was a great way to use color to create a show stopper.

FEBRUARY was a time to dye fabric, design and create quilts while I enjoyed the Winter Olympics. It also was a time to enjoy seeing my Florida friends and family.

MARCH marked the opening of FLORIDA ICE, my solo show at the Ocala City Hall. The opening reception brought guests from Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina and other parts of the country. What a high for me to be able to share my work in this beautiful setting with those who appreciate fine art.

APRIL brought my son Greg and daughter in law Julie to Florida for a visit and to see my show.

MAY
On May 10th, 2018 at 2:30 pm the 1,000,000 visitor visited my blog. No, I do not know who it was.


JUNE
My entire Minnesota family was able to visit at the same time. This rarely happens anymore as jobs and school and activities prevent it.


JULY
In July I hung a variety of fabrics on my design wall so that they could tell me what they wanted to be and some of them did.

AUGUST
In August I had some home updates done. I gathered various things I had collected and this is one of the cabinets that new life was breathed into.


SEPTEMBER
A major studio purge and reorganization was finished in September.


OCTOBER
My Florida family celebrated Halloween in style and costume. Of course food also was an important part of it as it is of all our celebrations.




NOVEMBER
Thanksgiving with the Florida is always delicious. These are the youngest members of the family and they are all so special.


DECEMBER 
I had always thought this was a high school student in Edon, Ohio dressed up as Santa Claus. I have spent the last 10 or more years trying to find out who it was. With no one knowing who it was we have come to the conclusion it must have been the REAL SANTA!.

I finished 28 quilts this year. 3 of them had been started a LONG time ago and the others were new. My goal is to finish more than that each year, but I have learned in a year I have a solo show I am lucky to get anything finished unless I need to finish if for the show.

Christmas Quilt

This is one of my favorite Christmas quilts I have made. It is in a private collection.
I designed a vest that used these blocks and made enough extras to make this quilt.
If really made a striking quilt with a lot of sparkle in the fabrics and the threads.
It was a lot of fun to make.

I AM A Collector

Not all my collections are out at the same time.
Some of them are too meaningful to get rid of
I put them away to be resurrected in a new way at a later time.

I have had these houses under my tree for 33 -34 years. They were gifts from my son Greg and daughter in law Julie. Greg found a lady who painted them when they lived in Oregon. The only signature on the bottoms is Amber 1985 or 1986. They had been stored away for years.
This year I decided they would be prefect under this tree. AND THEY ARE!
Front and center is a Quilt Shop.
It is so much fun to come up with new ways of using the things I have and remembering how I acquired them.

Sibling Dinner 2010

Everyone wore the scarves that were their gifts from the previous year.
They all agreed I did a great job of choosing their best colors.

Kay, Karen, Bill and Connie, the 4 siblings

Sibling’s Evening Christmas Dinner 2009

I thought I came up with a very clever way to wrap these gifts.



This year I  gifted Connie, Mary and Karen beautiful scarves made by Florida artist Jane Steinberg.

Our family loves good food. I did the main course and everyone else brought something special to complement it.  Better than any restaurant.
Relaxing after dinner: Clay, Connie, Bill, Mary and Karen
A very enjoyable evening with my siblings.

It’s The Winner

It has been a few years since the house was decorated.

This year’s decorations out did all the previous years by miles!

Good job.

And in case you don’t know who this belongs to it’s one of my “relatives”!

Sibling Dinner And Gifts

Gifts to be opened.

Although our family loves big family get togethers with all the generations,
I decided to host a sibling only evening dinner and gave each one a special gift in 2008.
Karen, Connie, Bill and SIL Mary. Clay was there too.
I had these Santas made for each one of them.
I asked them to figure out what was unique about them and they made a lot of guesses that weren’t correct.
The fur on the Santas was from our Mother’s mink stole which she loved. It was my way of sharing it with each of them
They were all very touched.

Friday Family Foto

This photo shares my sister Karen, cousin Dorothe Wolff, sister Connie and myself. I don’t know when it was taken. None of us look too happy about having our picture taken!

Searching For Santa

Santa visited our house when our son Jeff was 3 years old in 1962.
Jeff was in awe of Santa and all he could say was “Oh Santa, Oh Santa!”
I have been trying for years to find out Santa's identity. What I did know is he was a high school student at Edon Northwest High School where my husband Gerald taught math. We lived right across from the high school. I believe this was on Christmas Eve.
I may be closing in on this mystery with the help from some of my friends from Edon, Ohio.

Fan Sampler Quilt Top

This is a finished top. It is my original design for a fan sampler quilt.

It is being quilted now. It is going to be fabulous.

Do you see a color story playing out in the recent quilts I am sharing?

It’s Back And It Is Better!

After looking at this piece I realized the width of the original border was too narrow. At the time I added the previous border I intended to add more sections. It told me it was done and didn’t want anymore rows.
After studying it I realized if it was done it needed a wider final border so I replaced the narrower one with this one.
I still may trim about 1/2 inch all around after I quilt it.

I hope you can see the improvement the wider border made.

What Changed With This Quilt?

I took this picture today.

I took this picture yesterday.
I asked on Facebook if anyone could see anything wrong with this. No one did. Seeing both of them who can find it?

Medallion Wall Quilt

I loved this orphan block so I decided to use it for this wall quilt.
There is some fullness in the piece but it WILL quilt out!
You may recognize that the block is similar to those in the vertical quilt top I just finished.
They all were class demonstration samples from at least 20 years ago.

Vertical Sampler Quilt Top

I took a break from working on this but it was never far from my mind. I am very pleased with this top.
It used a great variety of fabrics, both in the blocks and in the composition.
There are traditional quilting fabrics, batiks, sophisticated prints, prints with gold embellishment, woven stripes and hand dyed fabrics.
If you look closely you will see some of the fabrics are fussy cut, particularly in the blocks.
You probably will have to scroll up and down to see the entire top.
I do have an idea of how I will quilt this. It will be a fun one to quilt creatively.

I Finished This And It Is Gorgeous

This is a picture of part of the mobius shawl I just finished knitting as a present for a friend. I can post it as she is not on Facebook.
I love creating this type of knitting with all the different textures and a color scheme to suit the recipient.
Now I have to decide what will be the next project as I need a knitting project to keep stress at bay!

Spectacular Sunset

This photo can not do justice to the spectacular sunset last night.
I happened to glance out the window and this is what I saw. I grabbed by phone so I could share it with you.
Paradise for sure!

Favorite Florida Christmas Trees

These are not typical Christmas tree colors. Yet they are perfect colors for the great room decor.

I enjoyed acquiring the glass ornaments for my flamingo tree and also enjoy seeing it decorated. You DO know I collect tasteful flamingos!


These three magenta trees that added the holiday spirit to the master bedroom now reside in my middle son’s pool house.
Over the years I have decorated so many trees. I have not documented each and everyone with photos.

As November Winds Down, Christmas Is On My Mind

I gave the majority of my Christmas decorations to my middle child recently. He had already started using them to decorate when the family was there for Thanksgiving.
But I still have the minority of them and even that is a lot.
I found some things I love and have done a little decorating.
I don’t do the amount of decorating I once did as I am not in just one place for the holidays.

My Santas come out every year, but never in the same place twice.

He’s sitting on my copper wash boiler this year.

I enjoy seeing the chandeliers decorated.

My newly redecorated breakfast area looks like Christmas all year round!
Putting things up is fun….taking them down after the holidays is what I don’t enjoy!
I have a few other things I’ve put out. It’s possible there could be more.

Thanksgiving 2018 Out Takes

Some of the members of my Florida family really enjoy having their picture taken. I'm not so sure Madeline enjoyed the ride as much as her big brother did at the same age.

Not every grandparent has a Merry Go Round on their dining room table for their grandbabies!

Tucker is the only GUY I know who LOVES to have his picture taken and his beautiful sister is enjoying the photo shoot!


Drew arrived late but there was still food for him.




 Greatlookingfamily….and there’s that guy who loves to have his picture taken again! He’ll never see these as he hardly uses the internet!


He’s photobombing another picture.

Ryder is learning a few tricks from that uncle.

Andrew was having fun peeking at me through the doorway and then hiding and reappearing.

Lauren admitted Tucker is her favorite son and Ali is her favorite daughter…shhh, it’s a secret!

Tina didn’t want Andy to wear this shirt AGAIN! So he did!!!!

But he did change after dinner.
AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
THE END