As all of you know, when you make something or buy something, one things leads to another and another and another.  After finishing my block swap quilt that is on my bed in the picture, then I wanted to put it on my bed but nothing matched.  I asked my son if he would paint my bedroom and put beadboard on the…

It's hard to believe it has been a whole year since I started my quilt project.  I have been quilting one quilt from each block in my favorite quilt book, "Around the Block with Judy Hopkins". 



 I started this project so quilters would have a place to go to see what the blocks would look like when sewn together.  On many of the quilt blocks you see a different design than just the single block.  I have had a hard time visualizing what the quilt would look like just from seeing the…

Quilts at the fair…

After searching ever building…really every one…we located quilts in the agriculture building…this fabulous paper pieced X-mas wreath caught my eye…such tiny pieces! August 10^th 2012

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I love quilt making so much that I do not realize how much money and time a quilt really cost. I have been asked lately to make some baby quilts and lap quilts. When I state the cost it is not with excitement to them. I just made a quilt for my daughter in law for her brother for Christmas. I gave him the receipts which totaled $90 for supplies we still have labor to add on to it. This quilt is only lap size and took 20 hours to make.

The real reality check comes when I would really…

Just wanted to let my friends on Quilt With Us know that I have begun a new longarm custom quilting website and page on Facebook as I venture into quilting for customers on a more regular basis.  It features work I have done in the last year or two and includes baby quilts, tee shirt quilts, traditional quilts, heirloom quilting, and quilted wall hangings.

Hope you can take a moment to check it out.  I include some pages with hints on how to prepare a quilt for sending to a longarm…

I just read an article about the 160^th anniversary of the Singer sewing machines. Sewing machines had been around for a while, but in 1852 Isaac Merritt Singer adapted an existing machine with changes that made it practical for home use.

Mr. Singer’s new sewing machine design was unveiled at the 1855 World’s Fair in Paris. Singer also introduced…

Our early and mild spring weather has given us beautiful flowers this year. My back patio is a fragrant experience with roses and iris blooming right now.

When my yellow iris shows it first bloom, I think of the old cemetery that is on the top hill of one of our family’s pasture. There hasn’t been anyone buried there for decades, but years ago someone planted…

How hard can it be to find a baby shower gift?

The baby shower invitation arrived for a special friend or maybe your niece or granddaughter.

• This means no ordinary baby shower gift will do for this present has to be unique, special, and stand out at the shower.
• One that will not be tossed aside after a few statement of “Wow how nice,” or “So cute,” and then be forgotten in the pile with the other baby shower gifts.
• One that will bring has everyone at the…

Kansas made the news this last Saturday with over 100 tornadoes spotted on the ground or by radar. The approaching bad weather—thanks to modern technology—was forecasted both well in advance and during the tornado outbreaks.

We knew exactly when to go to our tornado shelter because of the radio announcer’s commentary on the paths of the three tornadoes…

Looking through old photos I used in the book Prӓrieblomman (which means prairie flowers in Swedish) I came across one of Alma…

Last week I mentioned Aunt Julia who grew up in the same house as I did, and married Joe Olson, the boy “next door”.

Joe’s parents, Peter and Hannah, lived in a dugout before building this house featured with this blog. (A larger home was built on their farm before I was born, so I was never in the original home.)

We were frequent visitors to Joe and Aunt Julia Olson’s house…

I’ve been going through old photos recently and sorting them (and my memories) by the decades they were taken. It’s interesting to see the old “Butter in the Well” house in the background. They were all snapshots of everyday life at that moment, and now so many memories…

A few blogs back was one titled "We make plans, God laughs". No truer words when you have an 18 month old rescue puppy who has had no training!! Indy has been with me 2 weeks and he has come a long way in those 2 weeks. However......God is rolling on the floor of heaven laughing out loud!! Any plans I've had to get projects done have totally gone down the tubes with my Indy around!!!

Everytime I think I'm going to sit down and sew the binding to my granddaughter's quilt and watch a…

     Love and care goes into each quilt. Each stitch, each piece of carefully chosen fabric takes time to lovingly create a baby quilt.  Why not take time to name your quilt? To keep a quilt part your family, an heirloom, the name becomes important.  Quilts stand the test of time, and so it will continue to bring warmth for years to come.  The name for the…

I’m 58 years old today and thinking about my childhood home where I celebrated birthdays for eighteen years until I started college.

We celebrated birthdays during breakfast, complete with cake and opening of our presents before we got on the school bus.

The earliest birthdays I remember was my 5^th birthday party with hats and friends, and marking off the…

(This post is currently featured on The Quilting Gallery, so be sure to read it to see more photos and enter in the contest to win an ebook copy of Butter in the Well …

One of my grade school classmates died suddenly this week from some yet-unknown health issue. Eventually, after the autopsy is finished, family and friends will know what struck down the man liked by so many, but now all we can do is just wonder—and remember.

He was the class clown, often times the start of mischief in our boisterous large class of almost thirty students (all in one room those days).

In his adult life people knew him as a family man, auctioneer, their kid’s…