Mansfield's Kingwood Garden

Today's post is nothing about quilting, and all about flowers.

Last Monday DH and I had a day date to visit a hidden Ohio gem - the Kingwood Garden located in Mansfield, Ohio. We discovered this delightful garden last year, and were eager to see it again, in an earlier point of the summer season. I took tons of pictures, and I won't bore you with commentary on all of them. Instead, I will just let you look at the beautiful scenes.

 

 

Kingwood Center Gardens is the home and 47-acre garden of Charles Kelley King, an electrical engineer who made his fortune as the President and Chairman of the Board of the Ohio Brass Company. Built in 1926, and having no heirs to his fortune, he left most of his estate to a private foundation tasked with maintaining the gardens for public use.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Frankfort Girls

Terry hosted us Friday morning. What a lovely tablescape she prepared for us. The summer theme of patriotic stars and stripes along with watermelon plates really made for a bright, happy table. The food was delicious and all 7 of us were in attendance.

There were a few show and tell items to 'ooh and aah' over. I am always inspired and impressed by the productivity of this group.

This striking quilt made with blacks and cheddars was a recent finish from Sheryll. Isn't it stunning?

She also shared this little quilt which is just as charming as can be. Those simple hourglass blocks almost twinkle with a variety of pink and green sprinkled throughout; it is reminiscent of something our great grannies might have made.

Terry's quilt made with panels of covered bridges is quilted and ready for binding - which is exactly what she worked on while we visited. Terry has made a goal of quilting all of her quilt tops, an impressive accomplishment, for sure. It needs to become a goal for me, too.

When Helen announced that she had been canning, I had an entirely different expectation of what she was pulling out of her bags. Maybe a jar of strawberry jam? But this quilt is what she'd been finishing.

Helen also finished this log cabin quilt. Can you just see this on a bed? Wow. She said it is from a Primitive Gatherings kit - both pattern and fabrics. I love it!

Jan continues to make masks, and I really ought to have checked in with her to see how many she has made to date. She sells them at her golf club pro-shop, and by using sports-themed and patriotic-themed fabrics, she says they sell themselves.

Do these girls inspire you as much as they do me? Gotta' keep stitching!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Baby Girl Quilt

Hello Summer! It's official! I know lots of folks are having a hard time celebrating anything here in this strange year of 2020, but I am all in for summer!

I have been working on a little extra, unplanned quilt the last couple of days. This post from 2015 shows the purple Kaffe quilt that I made for Emma's graduation from OU. The blocks for her quilt left me with HSTs which I sewed together for a little "freebie" quilt. Scroll down in that link to see the freebie. I have had it hung in the closet all this time; basically, I'd forgotten all about it.

Until now, that is. I went to my closet of quilt tops earlier this week to see what I could find for a baby girl quilt. I liked the idea of using this top, but without a border it looked incomplete. I took the better part of a day deciding on borders, then attaching them. The picture above shows my light inner border and dark outer border. I am pleased with this little darling.

Check out the corner blocks used on the border. This design decision was necessitated because of a shortage of that dark border fabric. I was about 6 inches short of having enough to completely surround the quilt, so I made corner HSTs and -whew-made it work. I really love those corners, too, so it was a blessing that I had to think outside the box to end up with this little success.

The light inner border is used in several of the HSTs which offers a cohesiveness to the quilt, and that is the same fabric I used in the bigger corner HSTs.

I have a great polka dot backing selected, and the plan is to quilt this little darling today.

Happy Summer Solstice!

A Project for the Road

Next week we will be taking off for a long cross-country drive which necessitates my coming up with some hand stitching project for car traveling. I know I could take Lake Effect or any number of cross stitch projects, but because I always like beginning new things, I have decided to do that, instead. Yeah. Begin something new. That's always a good idea. *grin*

The Key West quilt is a relatively new item on my bucket list. Like just over a year to 'marinate.' Last spring break, DH and I spent a week in Key West, Florida, and we did visit a quilt shop on the island. I wrote about it here.

One distinct memory of the garden at our hotel was the privacy fence which had cutouts that looks like the periwinkle block. When I bought the fabrics, I had this design in mind; that vacation idea from 2019 will be the hand work I do on our 2020 vacation out west.

I pressed the fabric and cut out a few bits just to make my first block. I wanted to get a feel for how easy it would be to stitch it in a moving vehicle. 

 

It was easy enough to stitch, and actually went together rather fast. I do believe I will enjoy working on this while traveling.

So prepping has been underway. I have still to cut about half of the background pieces. I have not done the math (surprises no one!) to see how many periwinkle blocks I will end up with. As is my norm, I will stitch until I run out of fabric. Then proceed from there.

The pattern I'm using is in the book Perfectly Pretty Patchwork; you can see a portion of the periwinkles on the cover. And, again as my norm, I am not following the pattern directions, which call for small and large periwinkle blocks. I am opting to make just large ones. I will figure out my setting later.

I traced out the two pieces needed and then traced them onto the fabric which I cut in widths to fit them.

I am set for a long, long car ride. I sure hope I make a lot of blocks. We shall see how diligent I will be. I know there will be lots to look at, so balance is required. I don't want to miss the sights!

Sharon is here today. She is working on using the Larkspur remnants in a quilt she is calling Larks Meadow. Stay tuned for pictures.

I am working on some items from the goals list: a baby quilt and a wedding quilt. There might be a quilt on the long arm before the day is done!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Lady of the Lake Flimsy

Much, much more quickly than I ever imagined, I finished up the flimsy of my Lady of the Lake quilt. Piecing does go pretty fast when one makes quilts that measure just 52" square.

To recap the basics on this quilt, I took a picture of a quilt in 1996, bought the 4 center fabrics soon after, and then waited decades to recreate the quilt in the aforementioned picture.

Much more recently, I bought a pad of Cake Mix foundation papers - #11, to be precise - one of the blocks this featured with #11 was a Lady of the Lake block.

Those two events merged earlier this month (click here for that), and I began stitching these blocks. Here's a link for additional catching up.

When I bought the 4 central fabrics, I had no idea of how big I'd want my quilt to be, so I only bought a yard of each. That obviously limited me to a smaller quilt. I had to cut my own squares to use with the foundation papers, and when I ran out of fabric I knew I had to work with the 24 blocks that the fabric yielded. I still have papers remaining, but those will have to go for another project.

I toyed with various settings for this quilt. I did not have the blocks on point as I began, but once I did set them this way, I knew it was perfect. I'd have loved having more blocks to work with, but this will be fine as a throw or accent, maybe even a table covering.

I am proud to say that my setting triangles and border fabrics came from my existing stash. I am trying so hard to use the fabric on hand.

I have plans to try to get a quilt on the long arm by week's end. The weatherman tells us that we are in for a stretch of hot, sultry days, so holing up with Tin Lizzie sounds like a good indoor activity.

I have also begun a new hand-stitching project, which I will share soon.

Hope you are enjoying some beautiful summer days! It's been gloriously beautiful here lately, and I can't get enough of being outdoors.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sprucing Up

It's not all stitching and quilting around here. Over the past several weeks, we've done a fair amount of sprucing up - both big jobs and little ones. Let's have a look at some of the activity.

A couple of months ago, my sister gave me this old milk can found in her barns. As I finished off the potting of all my flowers, I knew this needed to come out so that I could place a pot on top. Bring on the spray paint!

A shiny coat of black paint brings new life to the old can. I should have hosed it down before taking this picture; already it shows signs of dirt. The pot that the petunias are in was also spray painted with the same glossy black, and makes a nice cohesive look for showing off the flowers. Here's a picture of some of the other painted pots.

Not everything has been spray painted black. I had an old bar stool that I once used in my classroom. It was still sturdy, but needed a refresh. How I didn't think to take a true before picture, I don't know, but here is one just as I was painting it.

This stool had been stained wood with a padded seat. The seat base was particle board covered with padding and faux leather which had split. It had gotten wet at some point and the particle board had expanded, too.

DH cut a new seat of plywood which I covered and attached. Voila! A new bar stool to match the big blue check already in our decor.

Now, for the really big sprucing up job, we have had cement poured for a new sidewalk, garage apron, and porch steps. This has been weeks in the making and it's still not completely finished. It is quite an involved effort, so I will pull that all together for another post.

Our day yesterday was a trip to Mansfield to visit Kingwood Center Gardens. We went last summer and enjoyed it so much that we knew we wanted to go back. I took tons of pictures, so that can be the subject of an upcoming post, as well.

I also did get to stitch a bit later in the day after we got home. I am close to having my Lady of the Lakes flimsy finished. Stay tuned!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Another Larkspur Reveal

The fun we have had using our Larkspur stashes! Sharon finished up her strippy 9-patch quilt on Thursday with incredible success. It is a gorgeous quilt!

Sharon is calling this quilt Larkspur Lane, based on a book of one of her favorite childhood book characters, Nancy Drew. I was never a Nancy Drew reader, but Sharon says she read them all, and collected many of them. She remembers one book in particular with Larkspur in the title.

What a great name for this quilt, wouldn't you agree? And a special connection makes it perfect. Now, let's see more pictures.

The goal was to make Larkspur quilts in June, and we are both done by mid-month. We are thrilled with our flimsies! And guess what?  We both  have remnants calling to be used. What will we do with those?! Stay tuned; we are likely to come up with something.

 Click here if you missed seeing my flimsy.

I am off on a day date with DH. No sewing for me today!

Happy Quilting, Friends!