Life has a way of getting in the way!  We have been hosting two exchange students this year.  They are both high school students and have kept us pretty busy.  Ming is a senior from China and Veera is a junior from Finland.  The year has had some challenges as we have had an empty nest for quite a while.  Having teens in the home has been fun! 

Our girls ready for prom.  They will be going home the first part of June and we will miss them.


I have not had a chance to quilt so I don't have any photos to share.  I will start again after we get back from California where one of our grandsons is graduating high school.

May God Bless you and keep you safe
Arlene

Cutting Scraps = 2.5 Inch Squares

 

I spent several hours cutting scraps today.  I used my Accuquilt Go and got a whole shoe box full of squares.  I still have a bunch of scraps to cut but I needed a break.  































  I also finished a small quilt that I can display my pins from the quilt shows that I have attended.  Each of the nine squares has twenty-five 1 inch squares that I hand stitched together.  I used the 1.5 inch swatches that I got from Keepsake Quilting.  I plan on making another one to display the pins that Bruce and I have collected from all of the places that we have traveled. 

May God Bless you and keep you safe
Arlene

View from my Window

I love Autumn.  I love everything about it.  The trees are putting on there coats of many colors, the daylight is getting shorter and the days are getting colder.  I feel blessed that I live in Wisconsin where the seasons are well defined.  This is what I see when I look out of my studio window.  The photo doesn't do justice to the trees across the street and the window screen is in the way, but I wanted to share it anyway.

I hope to have my quilt frame finished this weekend.

May God Bless you and keep you safe
Arlene

Lots of Little Circles

Several years ago Fons and Porter featured a child's quilt that looked like fun.  The best part of this quilt is when you are done with the sewing you are also done with the quilting!  I also get to use all of those fancy stitches that are built into my sewing machine. 

The front of the quilt.  I have a long way to go.

Close-up of completed circles before adding to the quilt.

A close-up of the back

Close-up of the front before the fancy stitches

Close-up of one finished block.

The quilt back so far.

This has been a great way to use all of those novelty fat quarters that have been growing and expanding in my fabric closet.














My God bless you and keep you safe
Arlene

Design Wall

This is what is on my design wall today.  It looks like I really need to figure out how to set the date and time on my camera, I really did take this photo this morning even though the date is last month.  I guess I need to read the manual that came with my camera.
The colors are a bit washed out in the picture but they are much brighter than they look.  I only have part of the boarder completed and only the center is sewn right now .  I plan on creating several more boarders before I am done.

May God bless you and keep you safe
Arlene

Many Pieces

My husband is putting my Hinterburg Quilt Frame together.  I didn't realize how many pieces there were to this frame, but he doesn't seem to mind.


 

I am looking forward to seeing it completed and learning to use my Juki with it to quilt.  I have a bunch of quilt tops just waiting to quilt.

My God bless you and keep you safe
Arlene

My Daughter and Her New Husband

First let me apologize for being gone so long.

My daughter, Jennifer, became Mrs. Neil Gordon on Saturday, Oct. 6th.  Bruce, Amanda and I flew out to California for the wedding.

The service was held it the bride and grooms back yard. 

I haven't done much quilting the past few months.  Now that we are not traveling very much I hope to get much more quilting done.  I hope to have some pictures of new quilts soon.

Oh some exciting news.... Bruce is putting my Hinterberg Quilt frame together so I hope to get some of my tops quilted soon.  Photos to follow.

God's blessings until we meet again
Arlene