What Ever Will Be, Will Be

I’m knitting again. This is just the beginning of something that will become clear in time.

New ART In The “Parlor”

Like all the rest of my house the “parlor” is very eclectic. You can see a sampling of the variety of styles and ages of furniture. I felt it needed more green so Greg and Nicholas hung Imagine, one of my Ice Tapestries for me.
I added more green last year with two dark green Scandinavian chairs and ottomans.
Although this is the most formal living area in our house the grandchildren have always gravitated to this room since they were very young. Now that they are older they use it to study, play with their game devices and make music.

This is the quilt that previously hung in that spot. The photo was taken before I moved some furniture into this room from another room.
My home is a gallery and all the pieces I hang are for sale.

Departure Picture

The family is ready to head north to go home. It was a great visit.
They got home at a reasonable time and didn’t have to fight heavy traffic.
They’ll be back again before too long.

We Remember Those Who Gave All So We Could Be Free

The Rest Of The Visiting Family

Julie, Oliver and Greg posed for this picture this morning.
So glad to have them spending time here.

Grandsons Are Visiting

I was surprised that Nick let me take his picture as he usually makes a silly face or hides his face!


Jared didn’t even seem to realize I was taking his picture.
They arrived from Minnesota at 12:30 am this morning.
Greg and Julie are here too but I didn’t get their pictures.
Oliver is here but he’s sleeping under the chair right now.

One Of My Patriotic Quilts

This is one of a series of quilts I call my June series as they all were designed and pieced in June several years ago.
The quilting of the series spanned the following year as I got them ready for a solo show.

More Studio Photos-The Good, The Bad And The Ugly!

Today’s blog is about the Bad, Badder and Baddest!

A relatively recent photo when I was working on many things.


My grandsons turned it into a golf course!


Ken and Barbie are visiting!


One of the Baddest! Have to get this way to figure out how to reorganize and neaten.

That is enough for you to see in one post. I have some that are even BADDER but I’m not going to share them!

Studio View, Outside And Inside

I have shown photos of my studio before, but I don’t think I’ve shown one from outside.
The second floor in this photo is my studio.

This was an addition to our home almost 25 years ago.


I often refer to it as my studio in the tree tops and this is the view as I sit at the machine and sew. Granny is right there keeping me company.


Granny loves to invite her girlfriends over to visit.


This view shares my thread cabinet and the bed area where I store both finished quilts and works in progress.


Remember the second largest quilt I ever made,  Jubilation? I shared it with you recently? Here it is displayed on the bed.
You can also see In Living Color displayed on my quilting hoop.
Yes, this is my happy place and I spend many wonderful hours creating here.

Another Corel Designed Quilt

I designed Rolling Logs with Corel Draw. 
I printed it on fabric in sections and sewed them together. 
It is 22 inches wide and 18 inches high
I fused fabrics onto the corner squares that were as close to the fills I used to design it.
It is in a private collection inherited by the niece of the original owner.

I can’t find a picture of the actual quilt at this time but it looks just like this!

$1 That's What I've Paid For A Lot Of These

What can you buy for $1?
If you look around this house you will see so many things that have I have paid $1 or less for.
My first love when decorating is colored glass.

Almost all the bottles on the shelves were $1. Some of my favorites were FREE as you bought a bottle full of Lestoil and got the beautiful bottle.


My favorite color of glass is RED!


Then  there is the red souvenir glass.


Even opaque glass is something I love….especially these sherbets in robins egg blue.


These black amethyst vases remind me of one that was a family piece that I broke…so I found several more. They look black but when you hold them up to the light they are purple. They are the perfect vases for pansies or Lily of the Valley.

I am only showing you some of my glass. Nothing is of great value but to me it is all priceless.
I hope my family treasures the pieces I’ve passed on to them at Christmas gift givings as much as I do.
Yes, I love it all….old, new….transparent or opaque.

Another Grandchild Graduated From College- Number 7!

My granddaughter Kierstin graduated from University Of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Saturday. When she chose Whitewater as her college she had no idea her Grandpa Jerry got his Masters there.



These are more of her family.
I’m not sure where she is headed next.


With her 2 youngest brothers who love her very much!

Preparing Patriotic Decorations

This is my new idea for a holiday decoration for the upcoming patriotic holidays.
I consider using wine bottles to decorate recycling. I do have admit I bought the wine in the red bottle for the bottle!
Although I can turn it on during the daylight hours, it is more effective in a dimly lit room.

Aprons….I Made A Facebook Post About Them

And now it’s time to share some family apron photos!

Merry Christmas Nick!


Nick’s pizza party. I made aprons 1,2,3 and 5.


I made several of these.


Mary wears hers while they host the family July 4th party on the lake.
I made many other aprons for gifts for family and friends but I don’t have pictures.
And my favorite apron is one my son Greg made for me when he was 13. I still wear it and it still looks like new.

Quilt Design Created With Corel Draw

                                                                                                                © 2018 Kay Sorensen

For the most part I just use Corel to play and possibly come up with ideas for quilts.
I have never made a quilt with this design I created quite some time ago.
As I look at it now I can see it has great possibilities to become a quilt with a strong graphic design.
The size could be varied from a wall quilt up to a king size quilt.
I think I did this with Pantone colors but I can't access that anymore.

My Favorite Rubik’s Cubes

I enjoy creating fun things from my quilts.
The first two are miniatures and the last one is a wall quilt.

Speaking Of Works In Progress!

When I retrieved the clothes that I had saved from the attic I found this dress.
I realized it was never worn because I never finished it. The hem still had the pins in it. I found them after I washed it. There was not even a speck of rust on the pins. I do believe I have a box of pins from that era somewhere in my pharmacy cabinet.

I was able to date the time I constructed this dress from the buttons. Ship and Shore blouses had identical buttons to what I used on this dress. I always tried to copy good ready to wear and searched all over to find just the right buttons and notions so my clothing would not have that "made at home with loving hands" look.

Another tell tale clue are the double box pleats I made to pleat up 3 widths of fabric to fit my 24 inch waist.
I loved making pleated skirts and tried every style I could imagine.
It's amazing this is in such good condition because it was stored in various hot attics, in cold garages and various other locations over the years. I took no special care of it and it was stored in both open and closed cardboard boxes.
It is at least 63 years old!

Want To See My Dye Studio?

It’s not fancy but it works. This is the counter on the workshop wall in the garage.
Not shown is the wash tub on an adjacent wall, storage for various containers and mixing bottles, and more on shelves on a wall adjacent to that wall.
Open the door to the tiny utility room and the washer and dryer are right there.
It took me a while to figure this all out but it works well.
My motto: If you really want to do something you’ll find a place and figure out a way to do it.

I Collect Tasteful Flamingos

I was in Florida for quite a while before I found my first tasteful flamingo.

With the help of eBay I acquired several others. Check out the real flamingo eggs in this display! I’m still waiting for them to hatch!

I have met other flamingo collectors including one lady who said she only collected tacky flamingos. They are much easier to find!

You may have already seen my flamingo Christmas tree on my blog with tasteful flamingo ornaments.

I also have a collection of flamingo fabrics and have used some of them.

I also have some signed original flamingo yard ornaments by Don Featherstone in several colors.

How lucky can one flamingo collector be?

Another Studio View

This is a view of the design wall area in my studio.
When I took this picture I had a variety of my quilts on the design wall. The 4 sections of the design wall open and there are 12 inch deep shelves to store my fabric and supplies behind it.
You can see many parts of the studio on this one photo.
You can see the track lighting that can wash the entire design wall with LED lighting,
The two sky lights are also visible.
The comfortable sitting area is partially visible.
On a chair at the left side you can see the crocheted afghan I made some 55 years ago with as many colors of wool yarn as I could collect.
The chair with all the circles is a puffy chair which I reupholstered and originally lived in the sunroom.
You can see one of the Scandinavian chairs I purchased on eBay from Belgium. That in itself is an amusing story.
Looking at the far right you see “In Living Color” which is being supported by my quilting hoop for display purposes.
It you look carefully at the same area you see the bed I store quilts on,
Yes, it definitely is a dream studio – something I waited and worked years for and I LOVE it as much today (or possible more) than when I first moved into it.
It is hard to believe I have had this space for almost 25 years now.
In that period of time things have been moved around and changed as my needs have changed.

Before The After Quilt

This is the quilt that was displaced when I hung the new one over the dresser.
I never tired of looking at it for the 13 years it hung there.
It was created from some not so big pieces of fabric I dye painted and then over painted with paint. I used almost every bit of the fabrics.
It uses a split complementary color scheme.
I designed it to have “color” weight at the bottom.
The grid was created from an even smaller piece of fabric using the color weight shifting from light in the center to darker at the edges.
The border fabric and binding had an even coloration which allowed the rest of the quilt to be the star of the show.

NUMBERS - ONE MILLION

If you follow my blog or watch my Facebook posts May 10th was a momentous date.
Shortly after 2:30 pm I received the ONE MILLIONTH view of my blog.
Unfortunately I have no way of knowing who it was.
But since so many of my friends were watching and the numbers turned over 100 at once it was probably you if you were one of my friends who were watching to see it happen.
Pageviews all time history
1,000,000
That’s pretty exciting for someone who started blogging on September 13,  2008 not knowing what she was doing. That is less than 10 years ago!
I think of my blog as my personal diary, but unlike a teenager who keeps her diary locked up, I share it with you.
It's a great way to check what I was doing when and see some of the things I’ve accomplished and places I’ve been in these years.
Stay with me, there is more to come!

Rambling Rose

This is a time lapse quilt.
I made the background planning on it being a quilt and realized it didn’t work.
It was put aside until a new idea popped up.
I did some applique with an assortment of odd fabrics and then it was put aside again.
Eventually I finished the applique and quilted it. All that was left to do was finish it with a binding and put a casing on the back to hang it.
It is not unusual for a quilt to take over 10 years to tell me what it wants to be. When I listen the results are worth it.

Jubilation–A Gargantuan Task

This is the second largest quilt I have ever made. The only larger one is the bed spread/quilt I made for our king size bed.
It started out to be 108 inches square and after quilting ended up 104 inches square.


Quilting a quilt this size on a domestic sewing machine is a major challenge.
Quilting this one was MORE than a major challenge.
I had planned free motion quilting for the curvy lines on the background.
I had machine trouble doing that so the entire quilt had to be done with the presser foot down, stopping and turning each time the lines changed direction.
I had less than two weeks to quilt and finish this quilt in my spare time.  I made it in time.
The pieced sections were made with a variety of solid commercial fabrics. They were cut with a special triangle shape ruler which was new at that time.
I sketched the design of the quilt but couldn’t complete it as I had no source for fabric that shaded from light to dark gray. When I learned more about dyeing fabric I created the grey fabric.

Creative Ideas For Your Creative Space

How many people feel they have to have the most expensive cabinets and sewing machines to create there work?
NOT I!
Coming up with ways to use vintage and old things is another form of creativity.
What do you own that you are not using right now?


This  is an old post office desk that I use to store my yarn and my knitting supplies.


These crocks have been used for various things through the years.

The bed where I store my larger quilts was a $10 auction find.


Nothing like these inexpensive drawers to store just about anything and they can be reconfigured to fit whatever space you have available. They are actually more functional that those expensive cabinets for sewing rooms.


This is a photo of my working studio. Sometimes it looks better, sometimes worse.
To me a studio is not a showroom, it is a place where you can be inspired and create.
I realize you are not going to find the same items I have, but think about what you have or find and how you could use it in your space.
One of the best pieces of advice I can give is put as much as possible on wheels so it can be moved around when you decide to change the arrangement for what you are currently doing.
I wish I had photos of all the make shift places I have sewn and created over the years but I have none. Usually it was just my sewing machine in whatever room there was a space for it and if I was lucky a place for an ironing board! Yet, I never let than stop me as where there is a will there is a way.