Saying Goodbye to Winter - we hope

People have asked if I 

decorate with my quilts.

The answer is always 

a definite YES.

Since it's 63 outside it about time

for the house quilts to change from winter to

spring so I thought I would

show you what things look

like at the end of winter.

My couch has 

"Trip Around the Cabin"full of

warm, soft homespuns and lots of 

stars around a center block with a cabin.

And of course you need a couple of 

angel pillows - one homespun, one print.

My chair - where I appliqué each

morning and evening, not only

sports a winter quilt but sits in

front of the desk sporting the Winter

Tablestand Quilt.

Snowmen abound on the mantel

from after Thanksgiving until March.

The rifle is my husbands and is a replica of

a Baker Rifle - a muzzleloader and the first 

rifle adopted by the British, used to defeat Napoleon.

No quilts here but

around the corner in the foyer I always 

hang a large quilt.

This is one of my winter favorites

"Winter Solstice".  It is 73" x 80"  

and was a Mystery Quilt one year.

The Mystery Quilts are some of my

favorite quilts because one block or

set of blocks goes out each month.  

That means I get to appliqué most of

the quilt myself.

At the end of the hall going to the back

bedroom there a space for a small

quilt to hang over my mother's bell

cabinet.  It holds small quilts now and

a few of mom's bells.

This is my sister Nancy's room.

She mainly takes care of the chickens

now since my arthritis is so bad.  She loves 

"Homestead" a Mill Creek Garden

quilt with a chicken house and 3 

Lavender Orpington chickens. 

Orpingtons are an English breed, are

great egg layers and you really can get lavender ones.

So these are "Little Lavender Chicken Birds"

:)

On my bed is "Jan and Pep's Marvelous 

Adventure" - our 50th Wedding Aniversary quilt.

And this is "Little Lavender Chicken Bird" mini

quilt that will hang in the hall starting next weekend.

It will be a busy weekend and a fun one.

Have a good one, ladies.

 

Happy Blockheads Wednesday

I'll always think of Wednesday

as Blockheads Wednesday so

that's what I'll say from now on.

Now, however I'm working on 

the 2021 Mystery Quilt and 

"Starting the Day with Appliqué".

This is Block 3 of "Bees, Birds and Baskets".  

Come join us by emailing Tammy at

janpatekquiltsinc@gmail.com.

The temperatures are coming back

up - it was 60 degrees here yesterday

afternoon after days registering a high 

of -3.  While it was so cold we filled the

bird feeders twice a day.  This is the small birds

feeder up close to the house,

and these are the two on further out.

(My poor big house I got at Country Threads

one year has a battered roof from getting

knocked over so much by raccoons. We finally

started going out at dusk and setting it on the ground

so they wouldn't ruin it.). 

We scatter feed on both the large bench and 

around the birdhouse.

This is Midnight, my sister Nancy's cat.  

He follows her around like a dog and we all

love him.  And unfortunately he is a great hunter.

That is just fine with me if its mice - but not birds.

The middle feeder sits on concrete

blocks on both sides.  

From where Pep sits to read he could see

Midnight go in-between the blocks, be very still,

and grab a bird that came too close.  

Then he brought it to the house

to give to us.  It was still alive so we got it 

and put it in a box to warm up. When 

we let it out later   - it flew away.

We couldn't count of that kind 

of good luck again so I had to come

up with something else to do.  The birds

really needed that much food 

and that many feeders

First I stopped leaving food there 

but needed another feeder.

Here's the new feeder we cobbled up

in the front.  And the great thing is

that I can see it from the chair where I appliqué.

So now I can watch birds in the kitchen and 

the living room.  :). Thanks Midnight.  

This is "Living the Good Life"

the Mystery Quilt from 2019.

I'm not sure what happened but

somehow we never got the pattern or 

kits in the store.  

Well they are both in there now and 

you can go to the store to get one 

by clicking here.

           I thought each week I would start showing 

                                                       you a few quilts people have made using 

                                                         my patterns or elements of my designs.  

I just love seeing what people have

done with them and thought you

            might like to see them too.                     

This is an awesome log cabin by Janet Hedberg. 

She's pulled designs from quite a few different patterns.

I love it.

 

And this is the Stinson Family Homestead by Denise French.

She said that she'd never appliquéd a pig before.

Georgie Farney and Russ Stinson were our neighbors 

and with the good old Missouri red clay, Denise,

that probably would have been how Santa got 

a sleigh full of toys out here.

If you want me to include a quilt you've made just

send a jpg to Tammy at janpatekquiltsinc@gmail.com.

I'm going to borrow a tip from Country Threads 

and ask you to attach a piece of paper with

your name on it.

That's all for today. I'm going to get off

of the computer and go to the loft after lunch

to start working on my Blockheads 3 quilt.

See you. next week and

Keep Quilting. 

:)

Snow and cold and No heater :(

We did indeed 

get the Winter Storm.

This morning I opened the door to

let the dogs out, 

Elizabeth stuck her head out and

turned around and came back in.

Dobby - our Welch Corgi - has 

quite a bit more fur than a bulldog,

so he went out.  Elizabeth finally did too,

but only after I grabbed my coat and earmuffs 

and went out first.

The first things we did was go

out back to the bird feeders and 

load them up.   When the day starts 

out at 9 degrees, we have to fill them twice.

This is what the living room looked like 

for two days - only with the door closed.   The

wood burning stove sits inside out fireplace. 

Mice had gotten into the heat pump - they

fried themselves but they fried the switches

on the heat pump too so we heated with wood for 

2 days.  And Pep and I only got to sleep for 2 hour 

stretches so we could load up the stove to keep it going.

This is a space heater that helped a little

And here's what helped a lot.

This is "Living the Good Life" our

Mystery Quilt from two years ago.

I sat in my chair and dozed and sewed

on the binding.  

Anyway.  The heat pump is fixed now and 

both the pattern and the kit for the quilt will be in the

store later today now that I finally finished it.

Its been hanging over the railing in the foyer all

of this time because I forgot to do the hand sewing on

the binding.

And this is the back of the Winter Tablestand 

that I'm working on.

Right now - I'm off the the beauty parlor.

Have a good week ladies.  

 

Blockheads 3, Block 56

Dancing Stars

by Joanna of Fig Tree

 

You can go to her blog

to download the pattern

by clicking here.

And now it's February - 

the month of Groundhogs

and love.  :)

So this is our tribute to

the second - "Hearts and Flowers Mini"

27" x 27".  You can go to our store to

get the pattern or the kit by clicking here.

As soon as you do that, let's go see

what the others have done with Joanne's block.

          Jan Patek - http://janpatek.blogspot.com/

                                                       Brigitte Heitland - https://www.brigitteheitland.de/blog

 Lisa Bongean - https://lisabongean.com/

 Lissa Alexander - http://modalissa.com/

Laurie Simpson - http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/

 Vanessa Goertzen - https://lellaboutique.blogspot.com/

 Stacy Iest Hsu - https://www.stacyiesthsu.com/blog/

 Robin Pickens - https://www.robinpickens.com/

Janet Clare - http://janetclare.co.uk/blog/

 Jen Kingwell - www.jenkingwelldesigns.com/blog

Joanna Figueroa - https://blog.figtreeandcompany.com/

That was the last of the Blocks for Blockheads 3.

I hope you have liked doing them as much as I have.

I don't know if there will be a Blockheads 4

but I certainly hope so because I really

enjoy them.

Have a good week ladies and see you 

next Wednesday.  :)

Blockheads3, Block 55

Wine Not

by Jen Kinghwell

You can go to her blog

to download the pattern

by clicking here.

And this is Mill Creek Garden, my latest fabric line.

Mill Creek is shipping to your 

local quilt shop this week.

Flower Power

So to celebrate and to help out with costs

a little we have decided to do a BOGO

this week with our new Mill Creek patterns.

Bunnies & Baskets

Homestead

Spring at Home

You can go to the store to buy one and 

get one free by clicking here.

There is one more - Mill Creek Hearts and Stars -

But it just came back from the quilters

and we'll have to wait until we get a 

better picture.  

As soon as you finish shopping

be sure to come back and see

what the others have done with Jen's block.

  Sherri McConnell - https://www.aquiltinglife.com/

                                                          Jan Patek - http://janpatek.blogspot.com/

                                                       Brigitte Heitland - https://www.brigitteheitland.de/blog

 Lisa Bongean - https://lisabongean.com/

 Lissa Alexander - http://modalissa.com/

Laurie Simpson - http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/

 Vanessa Goertzen - https://lellaboutique.blogspot.com/

 Stacy Iest Hsu - https://www.stacyiesthsu.com/blog/

 Robin Pickens - https://www.robinpickens.com/

Janet Clare - http://janetclare.co.uk/blog/

 Jen Kingwell - www.jenkingwelldesigns.com/blog

Joanna Figueroa - https://blog.figtreeandcompany.com/

See you next week.

 

Blockheads 3, Block 54

Windmills by 

Janet Clare

You can go to her blog

to download the pattern

by clicking here.

Our vintage book this month is

Garden Spirit and in it is the pattern

for one of my favorite all time

quilts - Winter Spirit.

I do get tired of winter but I 

never get tired of this quilt.

My friend Cherie Ralston introduced

me to machine appliqué with Winter Spirit

and she did the top center block.  It

is truly amazing work.  Thanks again Cherie.

After looking closely at her block, 

lets go see what the others 

have done with Janet Clare's block.

Oh and if you want to make this beautiful

quilt, you can buy the book for 1/2 price

this month by clicking here.

Now off to see what the others have 

done with Janet's  block.

          Jan Patek - http://janpatek.blogspot.com/

                                                       Brigitte Heitland - https://www.brigitteheitland.de/blog

 Lisa Bongean - https://lisabongean.com/

 Lissa Alexander - http://modalissa.com/

Laurie Simpson - http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/

 Vanessa Goertzen - https://lellaboutique.blogspot.com/

 Stacy Iest Hsu - https://www.stacyiesthsu.com/blog/

 Robin Pickens - https://www.robinpickens.com/

Janet Clare - http://janetclare.co.uk/blog/

 Jen Kingwell - www.jenkingwelldesigns.com/blog

Joanna Figueroa - https://blog.figtreeandcompany.com/

Have a good week ladies.

Blockheads 3

Bear Cubs Round

by Robin Pickens

You can go to her blog    

to download the pattern by clicking here 

This is Block #43

Roses by Jan Patek :)

I posted this just before I went 

into the hospital for the surgery 

on my brain.

I had hydrocephalus or "water on the brain".

It's really not water but my body was producing

way too much spinal fluid that surrounds the

brain and spine and that fluid was causing

pressure on my brain.  My primary care 

physician diagnosed it because my "gait" was 

off when I walked.  Quite often it is caused

by a stroke but I hadn't had a stroke so

we're not sure what caused it.

Anyway, by the time I did this block I could

still needleturn the large flower, stems and 

larger leaves but the small leaves and the

buds just were't possible.  So........

deadlines being what they are, I cut the buds 

and small leaves to size and fastened them

to the block with a dot of glue.  I was pretty sure 

some of you would notice the raw edges but

you can only do what you can do.

Today I thought I would show you how the

block turned out after my brain and fingers 

were communicating again.  I got some embroidery

floss and did a buttonhole stitch around the

raw edges and I really like the added texture.

So now lets go see what the others have done 

with Robin's block.

Sherri McConnell - https://www.aquiltinglife.com/

                                                          Jan Patek - http://janpatek.blogspot.com/

                                                       Brigitte Heitland - https://www.brigitteheitland.de/blog

 Lisa Bongean - https://lisabongean.com/

 Lissa Alexander - http://modalissa.com/

Laurie Simpson - http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/

 Vanessa Goertzen - https://lellaboutique.blogspot.com/

 Stacy Iest Hsu - https://www.stacyiesthsu.com/blog/

 Robin Pickens - https://www.robinpickens.com/

Janet Clare - http://janetclare.co.uk/blog/

 Jen Kingwell - www.jenkingwelldesigns.com/blog

Joanna Figueroa - https://blog.figtreeandcompany.com/

Have a good week ladies.