Tiptoeing through the tulips!

I love tulips. They are so vivid in color and and spring just isn't spring without them. They might be at their peak right now so I thought I'd better get some photos of them while I could. I took these photos in the gardens of the Stans House which is next door to the Stans Museum, home of the Scott County Historical Society.

Notice in this photo above, that it is also the season for dandelions. LOL!

I think that next to tulips in spring, I love crapapple trees next best. :-) I remember that there were several trees on the hillside in our backyard when I was a kid and I loved to go up and pick a bouquet. I came home after seeing these and told my husband we need to plant a flowering crabapple in our yard. This one in the photo above is huge and sits near the front of the Stans House.

Just a little background on the house.....it's the boyhood home of Maurice Stans who was former President Richard Nixon's Secretary of Commerce. The Stans Foundation was instrumental in establishing the museum and preserving the home.

Back to tiptoeing through the tulips.....

Have you ever noticed that tulips often "pop up" where they aren't supposed to.....like right in the middle of this hosta plant!

A whole flock of yellow tulips!............ My favorite were these pink tulips!

And then again, I really liked these red ones....


I loved the way the sun was shining on them.....

More yellow tulips, more sun......

Let's face it......

I just plain liked them all!! I'm hoping by next spring there will finally be some tulips that will bloom in our yard and I won't have to go far at all to tiptoe through the tulips!

Time to get out of the garden and talk quilting......tonight was our Scott County Crazy Quilter's meeting at the Stans Museum. There were only five of us there but we enjoyed chatting and stitching. Darlene, a new member brought a bit of "show 'n tell". She shared this cross-stitch quilt that she began several years ago (she's thinking sometime in the 70's). It is beautiful and is completely handquilted. She shared the quilt with us so we could give her some advice on how to bind it. She is determined to get the quilt finished. :-) There are a lot of hours in this quilt. I have a "thing for pink" and so I could see this in my pink bedroom. :-)

That's all for tonight. On Friday evening, I am finally going to post about the program I did last Thursday night for the County Extension Banquet. See you then!

Sandi

Crazy Quilting Demonstration

I'm doing a little "catch-up" here so I must take you back to last Thursday...........when our Scott County Crazy Quilter's Group shared a demonstration and projects at the Shakopee Library (MN). We normally meet on the fourth Thursday of the month at the Scott County Historical Society (also in Shakopee) but this night we were asked to do a demo at the Library as part of a program series celebrating Women's History month. Grant monies provided the library the opportunity to engage quilters and needle artists to demonstrate their craft. Our group shared our love of handwork and some "hands-on" opportunities to stitch a crazy quilt block. It was a fun evening that started with a little "show and tell" exhibit that showed visitors examples of our Crazy Quilting projects.................

We have two large plastic tubs filled with fabrics, trims, threads and more that guests could rummage through and choose their own treasures to stitch into a block. I provided muslin squares for Carol, Dolly and Darlene who were joining us for the first time. With a quick demonstration of how to start a block, they were soon stitching away on their very own block. Mina is also new and happened to have her stitching in the car, so brought it in and joined us. This is the mark of a dedicated stitcher! On the far right is Lois. She rarely misses a meeting. At 95 she is still "stitching strong" although this night she was crocheting. :-)

Since our group was paid to do this demo we are looking at possibly purchasing some crazy quilting books for the reference library at the Historical Society or some other item, maybe a speaker or ........ a party! Nah, probably not, as we already sort of "party" when we are stitching together.

Laura is working on a 6 1/2" block that will be for a donation quilt project for "The*Landing" a living history site in Shakopee. Isn't that purple fabric gorgeous? We are working on blocks that will go into a quilt for the bed in the Victorian home on the site. If you are interested in crazy quilting and you live nearby and would like to join our group just e-mail me or leave a comment and I'll send you the info. Also, if you enjoy crazy quilting and would like to make a block for our project we would love to add it to our quilt project. Again, just leave a comment and an e-mail link so I can contact you.

While we started our group with crazy quilting, we sometimes do other work, too..........Delores is doing some handquilting and Carol is cross-stitching a baby blanket. The only thing you can't do at our meetings is use a sewing machine. It's all about handwork in our group. :-) That stack of crazy quilt blocks in the photo are some of the ones that will go into the quilt for The Landing project.
The thing I love about crazy quilting is that there are simply no rules at all. You stitch what you like and embellish the blocks as much or as little as you wish. We have a great time stitching together and if you want to join the fun, you are always welcome!!

There is still more quilting fun to share about the little quilt show in Belle Plaine. I'll get to that on Friday. All for now........

Sandi

Lots of quilty fun to share.....

Oh, my, now that the flu is a thing of the past, I have been out and about and busy as a bee! I can't share everything that's gone on in the last three days because if you're like me, you don't have time to read every bit of news of every blog. I do want to thank all of you that stop by my blog. Sorry that I haven't posted the past couple of days but as noted, I was busy as a bee! Here's what kept me busy.........this past Thursday I taught a crazy quilted pincushion class at the Stans Museum in Shakopee. Now usually, we are in the actual museum building which is behind the house in this photo. But because of the opening of their new 1950's exhibit, we were set up in the Stans home which is part of the reasons for the Stans Museum. This house is the boyhood home of Maurice Stans, resident of Shakopee, MN and the former Secretary of Commerce to Richard Nixon. It's a charming little house and if you are in Shakopee, it is worth a visit. I'll share more about the pincushion in a day or so.

I was up early (yes, I really was) on Friday morning and I was............
GONE QUILTING!
......................well, almost. Actually, I went to see a couple of guys......Lenni and George that have a real quilting connection. :-) They are, of course, not really guys but that's their names. They are long-arm quilting machines. Heidi Kaisand, National Sales Director for APQS and other APQS (American Patchwork Quilting System) reps shared their enthusiasm for these machines. I decided to go because I have come to realize that there is no way I can hand-quilt all the quilt tops I have on hand and I have so many projects that I want to make! Plus, I like to do the work myself. I was impressed and when I gave the machines a try, I was surprised at how easy it was to use the them. I also knew within minutes that I preferred Lenni to George. To check out the machines just go to APQS !! And to check out Heidi's blog, go here.

The APQS presentation was hosted by Roseanne of Rosebud's Cottage in White Bear Lake, MN. She is so creative! And if you go here, you will find her blog and a post about Lenni and George. Her shop is currently located in North St. Paul but she will be moving to White Bear Lake soon. (Note to my local quilting buds........I see a road trip to her new shop in our future!)

I am not fond of driving in Minneapolis/St. Paul as, like with most cities, there are miles of convoluted highways, entrance and exit ramps that drive me nuts. However, I managed. I even figured out how to easily get over to my son's place (in MPLS) and drop off birthday gifts for him and his girlfriend, Stacia. And bonus for me........he lives just two blocks from another Twin Cities quilt shop....Glad Creations. I had a specific purpose when I went in to the shop. I was looking for black and white fabrics to go with the ones in my basket. I found a bundle and a couple of fat quarter rolls that were perfect. The fabrics are for a crazy quilt wall hanging for Devlin. I'm not cutting into this til winter but at least now, I think I have enough fabric to do what I see in my mind. :-)

We got some very welcome rain and with that came some beautiful clouds. I love clouds and thought I saw an elephant in this one. What do you think?

Speaking of clouds, tonight I watched "A Walk in the Clouds" with Keanu Reeves and that is a really good movies. Trust me. If you see that it's on, stay tuned and watch.

I may be over the flu but Kaiser is still having allergy issues. He loves to be covered up. I think his name should be Baby instead of Kaiser. LOL! I am hoping we get a freeze this next week and that will nip the goldenrod and such "in the bud" and he will be able to recover. He's on allergy meds so that helps but not enough.



I'm not looking for really cold weather, just a nip in the air that tells me it's fall. It was so lovely outside this

afternoon, though, that I took a few quilts out to the line for some pictures. This one belongs to my mother and is one a few that she has that are crazy quilted calicos. This one has severe wear and tear. I like to thing the holes were made by being tucked along a bedframe and not by mice which is the more likely scenario. The colors are very vibrant and there's a green that is especially bright. Interestingly, the back of the quilt is almost as interesting as the front. It's really an amazing piece of textile and it's just too bad that it has such obvious wear.

I took some pictures of a couple other crazy quilts and will share those in the next couple of days. Looks like I better get to bed now. I have a busy week coming up with a road trip and then a class next week. More later. Off to bed now. Sleep tight!

Sandi

Another little peek at the Crazy Quilting exhibit!

That's right, just another little peek. I will share more pictures Saturday evening after I return from the opening day of the exhibit. If you are reading this and you are in the Twin Cities area and would like to see the exhibit it's located at the Stans Museum, 235 South Fuller in Shakopee. The museum is home to the Scott County Historical Society. Admission is $4.00 for adults and $2.00 for students. The exhibit opening times - 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Saturday, March 7th. The exhibit will continue through October, 2009. For more information on SCHS, hours of operation, and the exhibit, you can check out the current newsletter here.

You'll learn all about the pieces shown above when I share pictures on Miss Martha's Crazy Quilting Circle (you'll find it here). I have to admit that my right arm, shoulder and neck are really quite tired and achy from lots of sewing on some of the pieces, rotary cutting of blocks for some projects, etc. so tomorrow I will not be sewing at all but will be doing laundry and some cleaning. And I might have to take a nap. :-)

Speaking of sleep, I am off to bed.

Sandi

Crazy for Quilting!!!

I am switching into "high gear" for an upcoming Crazy Quilt Exhibit. Have been labeling quilts and other Crazy Quilted items, writing their descriptions, etc. Lots to do. I will tell you all about it this weekend. In the meantime, here is a photo of a vintage crazy quilted pincushion that my mother gave me. It's one that she bought at auction and I will share it at our exhibit at the Scott County Historical Society.

I'm in a Pincushion group called "Crazy for Pincushions" and participated in a swap last year. I decided to do a "reproduction" of the above pincushion and the one in the photo below is what I ended up making for my partner. I made it last June and I realized that I had never posted it on my blog.

It is now at home with Chris K., who was my swap partner. I will eventually do a tutorial on this but not til later this spring. It was fun and easy to do!! If you would like to see what Chris made for me, you can go to this POST and at the end of it you'll find a picture of the lovely blue crazy quilted pincushion that she made for me!! It will also be on display in our crazy quilt exhibit. :-)

I had a good Tuesday and a lovely day of phone calls, e-mails and snail mail that made me smile!!

Here's hoping you all have a good day today!!

Sandi