Finally, I can tell!

Back in April, I had a crew here from Quilts and More magazine, doing a photo shoot in my studio!  It was incredibly fun.

The crew included Adam and Joe….

…and Elizabeth.

Sometimes Joe was my stand-in.  Imagine having a stand-in!

Sometimes I had to do the work.

It was fun to peek over their shoulders and see how fantastic their photos are.

Now the magazine is finally out.  It’s on newsstands now, or you can order it from me.

It has the Getting to Know Karen Snyder feature written by Linzee  McCray….

…and a table runner that I’ve designed, called Center Piece.  They even asked me to provide kits for it!

There’s more to this story, but I can’t tell yet!

Way back in 1974, when I was 20 and my Grandma Ikey was 90, I was getting married.  Grandma Ikey had two Nine-Patch quilt tops that she had made several years before and tucked away.  One was supposed to be for my brother when he got married, and the other for my cousin Jim when he got married–her two grandsons.  However, I was the first to get married, so Grandma gave one to me as a wedding gift.

This quilt became very special to me, because my other grandma, my Grandma Kennedy, and the members of her Ladies Aid Society, did the quilting on it.  I slept under this quilt for years, had it dry cleaned a few time–I didn’t know any better–and have always treasured it.  My brother did get the other one, also finished by the Ladies Aid, and his is in pristine condition.

I always said that someday I’d be a quilter.  About 1993, I got a free quilt pattern in the mail.  It was from Oxmoor House and was for a Grandmother’s Flower Garden.  I thought, “I should make this.  And I should make it king sized so it will fit my bed!”  Ah, ignorance was bliss!  I also remembered that my mom had given me some old fabric and blocks from my Grandma Ikey after she passed away, and that among them were some Flower Garden blocks.  Amazingly, I opened a drawer in my storage room, and there they were–16 Flower Garden blocks, or at least the components to make them.  I knew I wanted to use them in my first quilt!  It took me 2-1/2 years, but I finished that king sized top.

As I was working with the blocks that Grandma Ikey had made (I had to take them apart and re-cut them as they were a different size than my pattern) I began to think that some of the fabrics looked familiar.  I was pretty sure they were the same as some in my Nine-Patch.  So, I got it out and started to compare.  Sure enough, there were some duplicates!  Like this yellow and green flower print.

There was also this cute little blue flower.

You can see it’s more faded in the Nine-Patch.

Sometimes there were only enough hexagons for a half block, but that worked great for the edges of the Flower Garden.

Well yesterday, Bob and I and my parents visited our cousin Betty, whom we rarely see.

She had two quilts that our Grandma Ikey had made!  This star quilt.

And this fan quilt!

I was thrilled to see them, but even more excited when I started recognizing some old friends among the prints!  The white daisies on this pink background really speaks to me–I’ve always loved daisies.  Here it is in Betty’s star quilt….

…and in my Nine-Patch quilt…..

…and in my Flower Garden quilt!

This very abstract blue print was in one of the stars…

…and in my Nine-Patch.

The other print in this star was also familiar.

It’s not only in my Nine-Patch….

…Grandma Ikey made my baby doll a dress from this print!

And here it appears with a blue paisley…

…which is also in my Nine-Patch.

This fan blade had lots of matches to my quilts.  The center blade with the little Lemoyne Stars print….

…made its way into my Nine-Patch, although it’s much more faded here.

And the dark brown with the aqua flowers….

…is REALLY faded in my quilt.

Did you notice the little tulip print in the above block?  It turns out Dolly has a dress made from that print, too!  I love her rick rack!

INSERTED 8/3  My sister emailed me last night.  She had gotten her dolls out to check out their dresses, and here’s what she found–and said.

Here are Chatty Baby and Chatty Cathy all decked out in their tulip dresses.  Please note that my dolls can stand up by themselves, because they are not missing any legs.  Chatty Baby is upset, because she can’t find her scarf.  (I suspect the reason Chatty Cathy is looking away from Baby is because Cathy lost her own scarf and stole Baby’s.)

Then this morning Sally emailed me this….Chatty Cathy has a headache this morning from wearing the scarf too tight. Serves her right, I think.

How do you like the blue gingham sundresses?

I love the pink gingham — wide rick-rack for Cathy and narrow rick-rack for Baby.

Does the white fabric with yellow roses look familiar, SW?

As a matter of fact, it does.  It’s in my Flower Garden quilt!  Thanks, Sally, for sharing!

The dainty blue flowers, next to the bottom blade…

…make an appearance in the Flower Garden quilt.

And the last blade, with it’s wild pink, red and black combination…

…shows up in the Flower Garden quilt.  I think Dolly had a dress from this, too, but I don’t seem to have it.  Maybe my sister does.

And one of my favorite prints, which I remember is in my brother’s quilt too, is the gray and red one.

It’s in both of my quilts….

…and Betty’s fan quilt.

It’s amazing the connections among these four quilts–five if you count my brother’s.

Yesterday my mom told me that Grandma Ikey once said that when she and her niece, Elsie (who was two years older, but that’s another story) would buy fabric for a project, before they even cut into it, they were planning what they’d make from the scraps!  Spoken like a true quilter.

And I have one more quilt to show you that’s from Grandma Ikey.  This is the crib quilt she made when my brother was born, and that Mom used on all three of us kids.

I live in a charming beach town called Long Beach, Washington. Long Beach is on a Peninsula that is 28 miles long and 2 miles wide–just a little finger of land.  But, it’s a beautiful and diverse place.  Of course, I see it everyday.  Actually, lots of times I don’t see it, if you know what I mean.  But last weekend, an acquaintance was here with her husband.  They were celebrating their anniversary.  Virginia sent me photos that she took of the area, and it’s incredible to see “my hometown” through someone else’s eyes!

This is our photographer, Virginia, inside the trunk of a very large tree!

The three bodies of water surrounding the Long Beach Peninsula are the Pacific Ocean, the Columbia River and Willapa Bay. The southern most end of the Peninsula is attached to the mainland.

The bar, where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific Ocean is very treacherous.  North Head Light House guards the entrance from the north.

‘Cause you sure don’t want to run aground on these rocks!

Cape Disappointment Light House guards the river side.

Great name, Cape Disappointment.  Named by English Sea Captain John Meares.  He was looking for the Columbia River, decided this wasn’t it (even though it was), named the headlands and sailed off!

On the hike up to Cape D, you pass Dean Man’s Cove.

Baker Bay is a sheltered harbor.

It’s home to the Ilwaco fishing fleet.  This is salmon country.  Notice the fog just burning off.

Where there’s salmon fishing, there are also canneries.  I can’t believe how charming Virginia’s pictures make it all look!

This statue is of a California Condor.  It’s based on a description in the Lewis and Clark journals describing the “large buzzard” they saw feeding on a whale carcass.

Jim and Virginia had dinner at one of the port restaurants and snapped this nighttime picture.

The only high areas of the Peninsula are in Ilwaco–and they provide some great views.

This is looking south.

We have lots of conifer trees.

And lots of trees covered with lichen.

The English ivy may be pretty, but it’s a non-native, invasive weed!

Ah, the beach.

I really should go down there!

As you can see, we’re not in a very crowded area!

Sandpipers.

Some gulls.  I’ve been seeing these lately, and they’re not the usual California seagulls.

Some chainsaw art along the dune trail.

Here’s our common California gull.

Eeew!  I haven’t seen a jelly fish for a long time!

Low tide.

Early sunset.  While the rest of the nation has been sweltering this summer, we’ve pretty much been under a permanent fog bank with temps in the 50′s and 60′s.

Beach cottages.  We have a lot of grass covered dunes between the houses and the ocean here.

Weathered cedar shingles are the norm around here.

It’s such a great beach look.

It’s peak bloom time right now for the wild roses.

I love how something so ordinary can be so beautiful.

Sea captain?

Daisies are also at their peak right now.

And don’t you love the saturated color of these hydrangeas?

The wild foxgloves are almost finished blooming.

At the north end of the Peninsula is the village of Oysterville, the first settlement here.

At the local cemetery.

The historic Oysterville church.

Oystering is still big business on Willapa Bay.

Good advice!

Thanks, Virginia.  It’s so nice to see all the wonderful things in my own backyard through someone else’s lens.

I had a super fun day on Wednesday.  Nan stopped by the studio, we visited, we “did” lunch and then we went to the Klipsan Antique Mall!

Look what I found!

I had forgotten my glasses, and at first I thought this was machine quilted.

But no!  Just incredibly tiny hand quilting.

It was too great a treasure to pass up.

And the ice cream cone variation on the border just makes it that much more special.

Added July 25…….

Thanks to my friend, Melinda.  She recognized this as a Ruby McKim pattern, right down to the border!  Thanks, Melinda.

I’m so far behind on my posting, but I just have to share these wonderful quilt with you.

I love historical villages, and we were lucky enough to hear about Kolona Historical Village while we were in Iowa.

And even luckier that in one of their TWO quilt galleries, they were having a display of Depression Era quilts!

Like this beautifully embroidered and hand quilted basket quilt.

I thought the border was stunning!

These blocks really reminded me of the Kate Greenaway children that the original Sunbonnet Sue is based on.

I loved that she was doing all kinds of chores, including harvest!

How’s this for a Dresden Plate.  And who says they didn’t use orange in the Thirties!?!

This sweet little doll quilt was made special with a scalloped border.

Postage Stamp quilt like this one fascinate me.  Even the white background is pieced 1″ squares.

This Trip Around the World quilt was probably a kit.

This is the same star pattern as the first quilt I ever hand quilted!

I thought the applique and quilting were superb on this quilt.  I don’t think I’ve seen this pattern before.

The salmon pink in this Grandmother’s Flower Garden is a bit unusual.

Another Flower Garden.

This quilt is from a Nancy Page Quilt Club serial design.  Each week instructions for a new flower was printed in the newspaper.

I love how this maker coordinated her prints in the birds and flowers of each block.

You can see another Garden Bouquet quilt on the foot of this bed.

This beautiful design is from Marie Webster, who contributed quilts to Better Homes and Gardens Magazine for years.  She also ran her own mail order company selling patterns and kits.

I thought this bluework quilt was charming, but loved the bed skirt even more!

The traditional Sun Bonnet Sue.

What a pretty orange and blue print.  😉

Dogwoods.  I’m not sure, but I think this might also be a Marie Webster design.

A beautiful Ohio Rose.  This quilt is on my list of “to make” quilts.

I’m not sure of the name of this quilt pattern.  Anyone?

There were even some feed sack dresses and aprons on display.

Quite stylish, don’t you think?

I have a crocheted apron like this!

You might be poor, but you could still look good!

The staff here was wonderful.  If you’re anywhere close, I suggest you visit!

Of course, if I had my way, I’d have been in Sweden for midsummer.  But, not this year.  So, we had a midsummer celebration here in Long Beach.

First, the Swedish cabin in our woods needed some attention.

We’d been using a ladder to get up to the loft, but I wanted stairs that were carved out of one log like I’d seen at farm museums in Sweden.

Josh Blewett, a local chain saw artist, did these for me.

It took a lot of “oomph” to lift it up.

And then it needed some tweaking.

They had to take it down…….

….and put it back up a couple of times.

In the end, it was a perfect fit.

I took the inaugural climb, and Josh joined me in the loft.

Last summer in Sweden I bought a wind vane that’s based on an historic design.  Note: It’s always good to buy heavy items made of metal to put in your suitcase–especially early in your trip.

John Bahner made a beautiful mounting bracket for it–even duplicating the heart that’s on the vane–and got it done in time for the weekend festivities.

The setting around the cabin is so beautiful this time of year.

I love the delicate ground cover called miner’s lettuce.

It even manages to find its way into the crotch of the trees.

The log by the troll house had a nice crop of mushrooms.

I think the trolls may be cultivating them.

On the morning of the midsummer celebration, Bob had the maypole in place and ready to go.

I spent the morning making garland.  I wish I had birch leaves, but alder had to do.  Bob and my cousin Susan help me bring everything to the maypole.

Cole supervises as I wrap.

The onlookers–my mom, my brother, my uncle, my dad, my uncle and my cousin.  Quite the family affair!

The decorated maypole.

The three guys get ready to lift.

Can they do it?

Higher……

….and higher……

Yeah!  It’s finally in place.

Locked in.

By afternoon, we had sunshine and blue skies–perfect for picture taking.

Midsummer means lots of flowers for decorations.  These are on the cabin.

I especially love the wild fox gloves.

This is probably my favorite bouquet.  These flowers grow wild behind my studio.

A little something for the living room.

It’s traditional to decorate the entrance to your home with birch trees.  Since none grow around here, I bought two at the nursery.  Now I’ll plant them by the cabin.  I figure if I do this every year, I should have a whole birch forest in about 80 years!

My collection of Swedish horses came out for the occasion.

Dinner’s nearly ready and Sally is pouring water.  We had the traditional meal–meatballs, dilled new potatoes, pickled herring, rye bread, lingonberry sauce and cucumber salad.

And two desserts–strawberry whipped cream roll and princess cake.

Later in the day we relaxed in the cabin.

The weather was perfect for being out.

Before the day was done, we had to have our picture take in the lupine.

The lupine in Sweden grows wildly and abundantly.  I’m trying to get the lupine established in this area of our yard, but I have a long way to go.

So you can see what I mean, here’s a picture taken two years ago in Sweden.  Can Cole really have grown so much in just two years!?!

Glad midsommar!

I don’t play bridge.

I don’t play whist or pinochle.

But I do collect card table cloths.

But only if somewhere on them, there is a suit of cards.

Like the mouths on these flappers.

I don’t know why I collect these table cloths.

I don’t even know what got me started.

But awhile back I mentioned them to Betsy at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum, and that led to a lovely exhibit of them.

It’s so cool to see them all out at one time.

I love the vignettes that have been set up.

The museum is host to a bridge club.

They’ve been meeting there for 25 years!

Many of those ladies loaned tally pads, pencils, cards, etc.

I covet these cards with polka-dot dressed girls.  The green lady pencil holder is mine.

There is so much neat stuff to see.

I think there are three display cases full.  The potato chip bowl in this one is a part of a set of three bowls that my mom used when she entertained in the fifties.  I rescued them from a garage sale she was having a few years ago!

I recently purchased three black cloths–with orange ties!

This one has a swastika, so you know it dates before World War II.  Prior to Hitler adopting it, the swastika was a traditional sign of good luck, like the horse shoe or four leaf clover.

This round cloth is rather unusual, and do you like the built in ashtrays on the card table?!?

The variety of designs amazes me.

Somebody had to design and market all of these.

One of my favorites is this one that says “New Deal.”  It’s a play on words–new deal, as in deal the cards, and New Deal, as in President Roosevelt’s Depression Era program for prosperity.  It even has Scottie dogs on it–a nod to the President’s dog, Fala.

I love the card shaped people.

There are quite a few with Asian motifs, like the middle one below.

Here’s another beautiful flapper.

And check out Minine Mouse!  This is a very early version of Minnie, when she still looked a lot like a rodent!

I like this one, but don’t tell my dad.  He’ll think there should be a donkey one getting equal time!

And kite flyers!  How perfect.

This is more persimmon than orange, but I couldn’t resist it!

I hope you get a chance to stop by and see the show.

Do you want to make a pile of nine-patch blocks with almost no effort?  Then do it using your squares as “leaders and enders!”  That’s how Jacque made all the nine-patches for this quilt.  Here’s what she wrote me in an email:  I made the 130 9-patches in no time at all while working on other projects.

Okay, so how did she do it?  She used her squares as “leaders and enders.”  A lot of us, when piecing quilts, use a “leader”–a little piece of fabric that we run under our needle before we start.  Like this…

That way, when we start piecing our block, we don’t worry about long threads that need to be trimmed or losing the corner of the block in the throat plate of our machine.

You might do one block or string piece a whole bunch of blocks, and when you come to the end, you use another little strip of fabric as your “ender.”

Perfect for string piecing, but it doesn’t get you any Bonus Nine-Patches.  SO, instead of using scraps for your “leaders and enders,”  have a pile of squares next to your machine.

When you’re working on other projects, and you need a “leader” or “ender,” pick up two squares and use them instead of a scrap.

Do your regular piecing as usual.

And end with two more squares–your “ender.”

Before you know it, you’ll have a pile of components ready for your Nine-Patches!

I once made all the blocks for a Jewel Box quilt using this method.

Jacque got her inspiration from the book Adventures with Leaders and Enders by Bonnie Hunter.

It wouldn’t be Iowa if it didn’t include visits (and photos) of tractors…….and a few other things, like the cool old truck and gas pump in this yard.

We stumbled into the museum in Charles City, home of Oliver tractors.

How lucky!?!

They do have kind of cool front ends.

I don’t know about the red rimmed tires, though.

Or, I guess you could have a yellow Oliver.

Here’s our new friend Leo (and Bob), showing us some of his John Deere collection.

This is a cool old Farmall.

Another Farmall, outside a restaurant called The Iowa Machine Shed.

Now you’re talking Bob’s language again–John Deere.  Think of the hay rides we could give if we had that trailer!

This old fire truck reminds me of my earlier life.

More green and yellow.  Do you know there are even paint colors called “John Deere Green” and “John Deere Yellow?”