Building a Neighborhood

Hello Everyone,

A couple of years ago, I taught a session on paper-piecing these cute, adorable little houses at my Sew'n Wild Oaks retreat.

My friend Karen was making my Country Courthouse quilt at the time.  We put her blocks up on the design wall and the inspiration came to Karen to incorporate the little houses into Country Courthouse.

Her quilt and neighborhood are finished and fabulous!

Feast your eyes on this beauty. Karen's quilt was magnificently quilted by Dianne Schweickert from Livermore, CA.  Dianne is a true machine quilting artist.

The finished size is 72" x 82".  This quilt is heirloom quality.

Karen just kept working on this quilt while making other quilts at the same time.  Her dedication to this quilt never wavered, and now look at what she has to show for her efforts.  So well done and gorgeous!

I'm looking forward to seeing this incredible quilt in person.  This also shows you how to make a pattern your own by incorporating your personal touches into a quilt.  I LOVE IT!

Soon,

Lynn

Eye Candy Day

 Hello Everyone,

I love, love, LOVE to see variations of my quilt designs.  This is my Heritage pattern made by my friend Kate.  Her color combination of red, white and blue is spectacular.  The machine quilting just puts this one over the top on the gorgeous scale.

The quilt started like this at a class I taught at Friends Around the Block in Colusa, CA.  Every quilt has a beginning and a beautiful ending.  Kate created an heirloom to enjoy for years and years to come.  Well done YOU!

Then I received this image of my Country Charmer design made by Patricia.  This is a fabulous finish too!  This is what Patricia said about it.

I want to thank you for the Country Charmer pattern. I found a Christmas quilt made with this pattern on Pinterest and fell in love. The pattern was easy to follow, and I am thrilled with the results.

I am thrilled with your result too!  Please send me a picture after it's quilted so I can enjoy looking at it all over again.

Fran, from Village Dry Goods in Brigham City, UT sent me a picture of my A Ribbon Runs Through It on display behind their counter in the shop.  This actually is the quilt I made, and I haven't seen it in months since it's been traveling the country to different shops.  To my understanding, the quilt is back in California and should now be at Cloth and Quilts in Hilmar, CA.  I should take the 2-hour drive down and visit her.

On a personal note, I have now completed my jury duty for the rest of my life!  I was officially excused yesterday from the pool of jurors as the final jury and alternates were selected.  I swear some of the jurors in the "pool" where swimming at the shallow end of the gene pool.  If I hadn't been on camera the entire time, I would have been banging my head on the nearest piece of wood.  I spent four days, 6 hours each day, wading through jury selection, and listened to every personal problem and issue known to man.  I'm done!  I'm so done DONE!  Can you feel my frustration?  

Today I get to return to my normal life and schedule.  Oh, it feels so good!  You have no idea how good it feels to tackle my to-do list that grew while I was doing my civic duty.  

Soon,

Lynn

Doing My Civic Duty

 Hello Everyone,

I'm doing my civic duty via a Zoom call.  This has been the most irritating two days of my life, and I have to join in the Zoom call again today for hopefully the final day of jury selection.  The trial could go for 4 weeks.  4 WEEKS!!!

I don't have to worry about what I'm going to wear to jury duty.  I could show up in my pj's and no one would know the difference.......well unless the buffalo check red and black flannel is a dead giveaway.

Just the roll call yesterday took 45 minutes!  I've been drumming my fingers so much it's a wonder I have any nails left.

You have to stay in front of your computer's camera at all times.  We have two 15-minute breaks during the 5-1/2-hour timeframe.  YIKES that not much of a break from the tedium of the day.

I'm all set up in my sewing room which is quiet and doesn't give Mr. Joe the chance to inadvertently walk behind my camera in his tidy whiteys. 

I'm getting up earlier than ever trying to fill orders, answer your questions about the block of the month, and work on tutorials. My plan is to make a tab of FAQ's - frequently asked questions about the BOM.  This will save me time and will also be helpful to you. 

If you email me, I will get back to you, just give me a bit more time to respond.  

I hope tomorrow at this time I don't have a new name of........Juror #12.

Soon,

Lynn

  

Playing with Scraps

 Hello Everyone,

I've been playing with the scraps that were left over from A Ribbon Runs Through It block of the month program.  As soon as I get a bit farther along, I will post the directions so everyone can make this quilt whether or not you are in the program.  The directions will be free to all.

I had a pile of cute little blocks when I decided to put a 9-patch in a few of them for added interest.  You know me, I just can't help myself when it comes to adding little special touches to my quilts. Yes, it takes more time, but I think it is worth it when it comes to the "cute" factor.

They are darling!

I'm going to "sprinkle" a few of the blocks into the final mix of the quilt so your eyes can dance around the quilt and do a 9-patch dance.  Maybe that's a good name for the quilt!  So, 9-Patch Dance it is then!

Those of you enrolled in the BOM program will not have a lot of light fabric left each month.  So that is why I'm making just a few of the 9-patch sections.  Feel free to pull from you stash of lights if you want to add more 9-patches.

For the sashing I'm using the R3311 fabric from the Return to Elegance fabric collection by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Fabrics.  You could also use a cream fabric as the sashing, or a light pink or lavender. 

On another note, a couple of weeks ago we ordered Chinese takeout.  Usually, the fortunes in the cookies are pretty generic.  I saved my fortune from the other night as it really struck a chord in my heartstrings. 

At the end of each day, think "what has this day brought me, and what have I given it?"

I greet each day with a grateful heart in anticipation of what I can do to make my small little corner of the world a bit better.  Whether it's a nice meal shared with friends or family, a few beautiful quilt blocks, or creating a nice homey environment for Mr. Joe and Mazey.  Each day we are given 24 hours to give back to others.  It can be a smile, a phone call, or an email to someone going through a rough patch.  I feel quilters are the most giving and caring people of earth.  Let's keep the giving circle growing each and every day of our lives. Give it your all today!

Soon,

Lynn

Welcome to Sew'n Wild Oaks Blog

Update - It's a good thing I have some sharp readers in blogland!  I was notified by Sharon that you will need an additional 3-1/4 yards of the teal fabric to make this into a king-sized quilt. I appreciate the fact that she contacted me.  --Lynn

Hello Everyone,

I've been planning and waiting for an entire year for my A Ribbon Runs Through It block of the month to begin........and we are off and running!  Many of you have received you first month's fabric installment and pattern to start making this heirloom quilt. Some of you are just now reading my blog for the first time.  Welcome to the Sew'n Wild Oaks family.  

I'll be here to answer your questions and walk you through the process.  There are links in your pattern to my free classes on The Quilt Show.com which will also help you.  At the top of my blog, I have an entire section set aside for tutorials.  The first block tutorial is finished, and I will be adding more over the next few months.

I received an email from a BOM participant asking me about adding an additional border to make the quilt fit a king size bed.  I opened my project in EQ software and added an extra 1" pink border, and 6" teal border and achieved this dramatic look.  The fabrics are now available in many online shops or in your local quilt store.  Get your additional fabric now before they're gone.  To keep the orientation of the floral pattern all lined up properly, I would purchase an additional 3-1/4 yards of teal and 1/3 yard of the pink.  I cut my borders lengthwise.  Refer to your pattern for the cutting directions.  I'm very anal, and I have to have my flowers all facing the same direction.   

I think this would enhance the quilt without having to add additional blocks.  I envision beautiful feathers machine quilted in the border.

It's not too late to jump on board and join this BOM program. Many quilt shops are just now starting their programs and other shops will begin in February.

During the great power outage of 2021/2022, Mr. Joe and I finished stuffing all of the patterns, and we are still shipping them out on a weekly basis to shop around the world.  Some shops have re-ordered 3 times!  Mr. Joe is so happy to have job security. I'm happy to keep Mr. Joe occupied during these cold, snowy Winter days.

Soon,

Lynn

Back on the Grid

 Hello Everyone,

Oh, the weather outside has been frightful.  When I wasn't shoveling, I was tucked safely, and warmly inside the cabin.  The big lump in front of the window is the barbeque.

I curled up to read while the storm raged on outside.  

Our teenage grandsons loved sledding and snowboarding down the hill on our lot.  They did not enjoy the trek back up!

Our son did a lot of shoveling and brought wood down to the cabin for us.

Our granddaughter helped me in the kitchen fixing a ton of food to fill this hungry crew.

One of our grandsons cleared the stairs leading down to the generator. These stairs are so icy!  I want to take down the Christmas tree and put all of the decorations away, but I have to walk down the stairs to the storage area under the cabin.  I'm afraid the stairs are an accident waiting to happen.

When our grandson wasn't sledding, he was bundled up in the snow.

I call this picture Dr. Zhivago Sky.  I took this on our afternoon walk around the neighborhood.

The big lump on the right of the picture is our wood pile.  

To backtrack a bit, we spent a wonderful Christmas with our entire family in Livermore at our eldest son's house. We came back up to the cabin the day after Christmas with two grandsons, son, and granddaughter who stayed with us for two days.  They had never seen so much snow here. This is a picture of our son's truck after one day of the storm.  Our car was safely tucked inside the garage.

After our son and the kids left, this is what the driveway looked like.  Would you believe the big lump on the right is our other car!  We won't see it until Spring.

After all of the kids went home, our only contact with the outside world was an emergency radio.  The power, Internet, phone, and TV were out for six days.  The first day was fun, but then it gets a bit old.  Not knowing how long we were going to be without power, we only ran the generator for two hours in the morning and two hours at night.  We wanted to conserve the fuel we had.  The snowplow didn't come through the neighborhood very often, and the roads were too treacherous to venture out, even in 4-wheel drive.

In the evenings, Mr. Joe and I played gin rummy.  It was a good thing we weren't playing strip poker, because I would have been naked as a jay bird!

The only station we could get on the emergency radio was a Country/Western station. We were able to get caught up on the weather forecast and local/national news. We don't usually listen to Country/Western.

Here are some of our favorite lines from some of the songs we listened to.

"She was over me before the grass grew back."

"Bourbon don't burn the way you do."

"So tipsy we can't stop kissing."

"Leavin' town and chasin' sunsets down."

"Kissin' and the crickets is the only sound."

Here are our favorite bits of Country/Western Wisdom.

"We had it all when we didn't have much."  

"You can't buy happiness, but you can buy dirt."

"You're Mozart in the sheets."  (Now we are assuming this means sheet music!)  Silly us. 

This is what happens when you are locked up in solitary confinement for days on end with nothing but your spouse. dog, and a storm raging outside. 

Soon,

Lynn