Jody's Quilts -- Relaxing -- New books

These two luscious items belong to my friend Jody. She comes into town for our local monthly quilt group meeting. The crooked log cabin is not yet quilted, but the Irish Chain is DONE! Jody is a ranching woman (among her other talents), and machine quilts beautifully on a frame.

This little quilt (below) was mailed today. I tried to drape it artfully on the table like a Country Living photo, but it ended up looking like a quilt, spread out on a table.
DH surprised me with this gift, a windmill, a symbol of Nebraska. I've often talked about having a 'real' decorative one for the garden, but our garden never does amount to much, so this metal WELCOME version is much better. I LOVE it! This was made by a guy who makes ranch metal gates with all the cutouts of horses, cowboys, cattle, that we see over the ranch driveways. His wife designs them on a computer.
And lastly, yes I DID overdo working and am paying for my exuberant painting efforts, and need to sit down and REST my old bod! Look what came in the mail today! The perfect excuse to sit and enjoy our beautiful afternoon, and a delicious hard lemonade! I LOVE Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran's free use of color, but I also love that it is 126 (correction - 192 pages!!!) pages full of color!

An Impressive Irish Chain

Several quilters hung our quilts at the local bank during Heritage Days. Yes, you've seen those 2 quilts on the right before (mine), but that Irish Chain was amazing - not mine unfortunately. It's old, all hand stitched and quilted with tiny stitches, and that border was not pieced -- it was appliqued onto the white border. From this distance (photo) the viewer can see slight irregularities in how the little squares lined up, but up close I could barely tell it was not pieced, her applique stitches were so small - it is so well done, with the red squares in all the same place, as are the green. The label said it was made in the 30s. I'm going back for another look-see.

Home from Quilt Retreat

I just returned from a wonderful 2-day Quilt Retreat. Per requests, I will post my recipe (from Margie, originally) that was so popular at our Quilt Retreat. My goodness we had a LOT to eat - thanks to everyone's contributions! You might note that in the above photo, a LOT of the food is GONE!

Cranberry Salad
1 bag frozen cranberries - (do not thaw)
1 C. sugar
1 sm. box cherry jello (do not dilute)
1/2 C. finely chopped walnuts
2 apples
1 can drained pineapple tidbits
Whipped topping
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Whiz cranberries in food processor with sugar & dry jello, pour into bowl. Whiz apples in food processor pour into bowl. Add drained pineapple and finely chopped walnuts to the bowl. Mix it up. It will be somewhat dry/mushy. Top with topping or whipped cream.
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This is the YMCA lodge where we stayed. It's a WONDERFUL place - clean, bright, designed well, large rooms, TVs, VCR, DVDs in rooms, living area between the double rooms, LARGE common area for our quilting activities, beautiful grounds, and all handicap accessible.

This is the view out of the common area, towards the 'Bluffs'. There is a large playground, much grass, and beyond the grass is the Platte River, flowing swiftly - (note to Marlene's Mom, "she did NOT fall in!")


Below, Machelle is working on her gorgeous Irish Chain - Sue is providing technical support if needed.

Vickie's Kaleidoscope - it's just gorgeous! She and I had the same class at our State Quilt Convention in July.

Carolyn's blocks she won at Quilt Guild. She decided to set them from light to dark.

Vickie is working hard on arranging those blocks

We had a LOT of good space. That's Anita's back and Alice, and Marcia kinda blending in with background. 8-)

mmm I see Marlene and Sharon in this photo and ???. Look at all that beautiful light we had. We also had pressing stations, and cutting table stations, and several table where quilts in process could be laid out.

Sue is concentrating, Sydney is working away, with her string blocks on the floor, Karen is working as is Laurie. I have several Ohio Star "Shirt Quilt" blocks laying on the floor - I sit on that pillow to sit a bit higher.

Wilma is an accomplished sewist AND can make her embroidery machine also dance!

A t-shirt quilt in process by Nancy.
Sharon, taking our photo after all is over! She set the camera up for a time-delay photo, but her head became stuck in that chair and she couldn't extricate herself in time, so the first photo did NOT include her! There were 29-30 of us attending.
I'm pooped, but happy.