Crazy Quilt....Bebe Birds

Christmas time brings lots of swaps and coming up with something new is always fun. Lots of Dotee Dolls have been on swapping lists of late which was my first inspiration and then an antique bird ornament gave me the final idea.

This antique bird sports a spun glass tail and an alligater clip for clipping to the tree.

And...TA TA...Here she is! My creation of all 3 things I love, beading, crazying quilting and old ornaments! I purchased the spun glass tails from a German store on line and I am waiting for the clips to arrive so the Bebe Bird can be clipped to the tree just like the antique one.

I came up with the name from my past screen name...bebequilts.

Here are a dozen cut out and ready for embellishments. Some are traditional red/green Christmas colors, while others take on a more colorful attire.

Do Little Girls still Play Dress-up?

I love old photo's. I came across this one, the hours of fun we had that cost nothing but a pair of high heels a hat and handbag. I'm the tall one on the left with the ankle socks and baby doll shoes. Do little girls still play like this or are they caught up in the computer games and have lost the days of real play time?

No house insurance..What do you do?

Well this fellow who lives a few miles from me didn't let his house burning down stop him from living in it ... He roofed the foundation! This was an L shaped house at one time. The 2 front sections are peak roofed but the center section that connects the 2 sides is only flat roofed.

I guess you could call it a climate controled house. I'm sure he doesn't need air conditioning or triple paned windows!

You gotta love the fire hydrant! I'm not sure why he built the white box on top of the roof unless it's his lookout.

It's going to be "One of those Days"!

After cleaning up the fallen ceiling the Fire Department and Gas Company arrived to evacuate because of a gas leak in the house next door. Guess I didn't want to sew today anyway!

Nothing like a good rain to let you know....

You have a leak in the roof! Darn!

Things were starting to feel like home. I had started a project.

The dog, Griz, found his place in the room to keep a watch on me. He would have much preferred to be under the daybed but my stash had to go somewhere! The dolls all fell into place, cluttered, but I could look at them an enjoy them rather then having them stored in boxes. OH WELL...good thing it happened before a new floor was put down and the cutting table was in place!

Time to work on Christmas gifts again

Before the move I had started making crazy quilt jewelry boxes for my granddaughters for Christmas. I have ten started in different colors and themes. It was a long process just collecting the cereal boxes for this many but they are well on the way to being finished...if I just get started again.

I have purchased for each box a clam in water that has a real pearl grown in it. Each girl will get to pry open the clam and see what size and color her pearl is. It also comes with a necklace and a cage pendant to put the pearl in.

After embellishing you have to cut it out and glue it to cardboard, both the top and the liner. I love my plastic clothes pins for holding them in place until the glue dries.

Of course this will get a top embellished with roses and a tassle to open it. Inside the lid is a feature fabric. Don't have that part glued to the cardboard yet..but now that I have them unpacked I am in the mood to begin again.

Self Righteous - The lastest word of anger

Okay, my blog is truly about me in this case, along with my love for quilting is the bare fact that I was a single Mom and still carry around issues because of what was once suppose to be my "better half".

Once again "anonymous" posted to the Kammerdiener Blog, mended wings. The statement referred to the Mother, Leslie, as self-righteous. Merriam Webster explains the word:

: convinced of one's own righteousness especially in contrast with the actions and beliefs of others : narrow-mindedly moralistic

I cannot find a group to put this word to other then terrorists or criminals such as murderers, child molester's or rapists. Single Mom's who have had to be 2 parents & one pay check, the healer, the protector, the cheering section, the teacher, the charactor builder, the nurse, housemaid, cook, consoler, and on and on and on...fall into their own catagory for which no one has come up with a label for as yet!

The Kammerdiener blog, Mended Wings, is not about the Dad who left behind 2 kids some 10 years ago. It's about Kevin the child of Leslie Kammerdiener, her life and that of her daughter Breezy. Again we have a mere sperm donor trying to present himself as a Dad. We also have a step-mom, for whatever reason, who thinks shipping off her slightly used second hand husband to stand beside the bed of Leslie's child turns him into the perfect father..all at the expense of the military.

The day this single Mom got the call about her son being blown up in Afghan her life changed forever. This is about HER and her daughter. The life she had on May 29th is gone forever. Her future is not that of a Mom who did her best to raise her kids alone and now will have her middle years and older years to enjoy. NO, it's about a Mother who will most likely always have to raise her son and a sister who will be there if something happens to Mom. We pray that he will totally recover but the fact is when this happens to you, even if no one else thinks ahead, you have too.

This father did not follow through with his committment to his wife and children before, he won't do it now, especially if it might cost him something..and I'm not talking about just money, I'm talking about time. He's already made the worm statements.."I have to worm out of here because I have a family and job". Hey buddy...family?? Isn't Kevin your second born child?

I was trying to think of what a "real" father would do if he could not be there and had to continue to work. Lets see, he could take over thinking for the future. Maybe look into a one story home for Kevin to return too and find resourses for making it into a handicapped haven. But, that would take a real man and in this case we have a part time man who allows his wife to do his talking & thinking for him.

It doesn't matter if "anonymous" is the step-mom or her supporters. She needs to get a life, take her wayward husband with her and gather her friends who have lost touch with the real situation and drag them along too. They ALL need to stay off of Leslie's blog.

And not to foget Breezy. Here is a young girl who has given up her life for her brother. She sits in a strange state with no friends to support her, takes over for her mother, cheers her brother on to make huge improvements. She posted, "This is my father"...in reply to anonymous. Can you see the torment this girl has had to live? She still shows him respect by calling him father all the while her insides are torn apart from the lack of him ever being that.

To conclude: It's wrong to put Kevin in the position where he is not able to respond as yet. It's wrong to put yourself in the face of a daughter who has 10 years of bad memories about you. It's wrong to take a free ride on the back of the military while pretending to be a father. It's wrong to not be a Man and step up to the plate and put your wife on notice to not post or allow her friends to post to the blog. You haven't done anything right in the past 14 years so now is the time to at last do the right thing...maybe GET LOST would help!

Crazy Quilting Friends are the Best!

I never would have believed that I could have friends, some so close they feel like sister's, that I've never met and who live thousands of miles away. When my son made me get on the computer back in 1997 I did it only to please him. Now of course my computer is my main link to people, my friends and my sewing and quilting pals.

Recently I was in a pin cushion swap and then all the gals on HGTV started to make Dottee Dolls to swap. I have a "needling" friend in Calif. who has not been so well lately. I started to make a box up to share with her.

Sharing is something we all do and enjoy getting those boxes in the mail! I put in some pin cushions and a sewing Dottee Doll I made. I cut into some of my treasured crazy quilting fabrics to share with her and a pile of trims and pearls.




Today I got a box from South Carolina from another HGTV gal who offered to share her stash with me, including the treasured special beads she had! She also sent along strings to make a string quilt. As you can see, this was just not a box, it was a huge box! So many wonderful fabrics but the beads...oh my, they are just so much fun! Everything from hearts to lady bugs and some very fancy one too!

I was able to cut all the fabric's in half and sat for the last hour measuring the beads into bags of equal amounts. Thanks to Kathy her gifted items will be enjoyed by 2 crazy quilters!

Everything on the left side will be sent off to Norma in California! I want her to be surprised so I didn't spread out the beads for ya all to see, but I can tell you they are magic to the eye! This will certainly push me to finish my special gift for Norma so it can be added to the box!

Thanks Kathy for being such a wonderful crazy quilting friend! If your gift doesn't lift Norma's spirits, nothing will. It's just SUPER!

A Childhood Toy Memory

I should never go outside on trash day! From a neighbor's trash pile I saw what looked like a toy from my past childhood of 1940's/1950's and that is just too much for me to turn my back on!

Yep, I was right, laying in a heap of garbage was a glorious real slate blackboard from years past. It even had signs of crayon scribbled on the slate, something I was sent to my room for once upon a time.

With a little polish, arm & hammer to remove the crayon and a print out on photo paper of a Dick & Jane theme I now have a wonderful toy. Do I need anymore clutter? NO, but who could resist a piece of the past!

Kevin's Quilt Project coming to an end!

Here is a "peek" at 3 of the Quilts, ready to deliver to the Kammerdiener Family. (mended wings blog)

The Quilt at the top left with the red back and yellow detail is for the sister, Breezy. The quilt in front of that is a lap or wheelchair size Quilt for Kevin and to the right is the largest Quilt, with the dark blue backing, the main Quilt for Kevin. The Mom's Quilt, Leslie, is still being finished in the State of Montana but will join the other's shortly! When I have all the Quilts, I will open them and take photo's for everyone to see these wonderful Quilts!

Again, Thanks to the ladies at the HGTV message board for making this happen!

Yard Sale finds this week

Saturday morning I was first at the yard sale of my neighbor. First thing that caught my eye was this set of braiding tools. Not sure how they work but it will be fun to try. It looks like I have a braided rug in the future!

This chair will be perfect in front of my serger after I recover the seat. I fell in love with the carved rose in the wood. Someone said it might be tiffiny but it's not. It's a Tell City chair. I did find a set of 6 on line for $850.00 so I do think it's worth a lot more then the $5.00 I paid.

This little maple box caught my eye and I filled it with necklaces of pearls and crystals for Crazy Quilting. Someone said it looks like tiger maple and if so it's worth some money. It does appear that the top is tiger maple wood. The design goes right through from front to back.

Yard Sale Finds

This weekend my neighbor had a yard sale to get rid of his mother's things..what a shame...this son had no idea what he had! I tried to tell him his prices were too low but he said he didn't care, he only wanted the "junk" out of the house.

My first find was this little cedar box for a quarter. When I opened it up, it was filled with wonderful new hankies...a quilters dream. I can see my next quilt coming together already!

The next box I opened, also a quarter, was from the 1940's I think. It was peach and quilted. This is just the kind of box I've been looking for to hold my appliques for crazy quilting!




The next thing that got my attention was the photo of the lady on this box, another quarter item. When I opened it, it was a never used thread keeper. I could use 20 of these to hold all the wooden spooled thread I've collected, but I was happy with the one I did find. Each spool sits on a plastic peg and there is a slit for the thread to pass through. When you put the lid on, above each spool is a little metal cutter...now how cute is that!

He told me he has a huge storage shed filled with these kind of treasure's that he'll be unloading each weekend until it's all gone. You know where I'll be at 8: am on Saturday mornings!

A Fabric Surprise

A long time ago I saw a quilt in the Martha Stewart Magazine. I think it belonged to her editor and was made by the grandmother. They were demonstrating how to repair an old quilt.

I fell in love with the quilt of course and set out to find out how many postage stamp blocks and fabric I would need to made this quilt. I drew up the pattern and gathered fabric from old aprons and I was off to a good start. It wasn't long before I realized I would need many, many more different colors and designs to get what I really wanted.


The project soon came to a halt and was put aside. Ali, a friend on the HGTV message board offered and sent me a pile of wonder fabrics today. This has renewed my interest in the quilt and I'm off again on the hunt for more designs. I was able to pick some fabric up at a yard sale this past weekend and will be going to another one on Saturday.

I think what I like most about this quilt is the many colors and fabric's, when put together with white, tone the brights down make everything blend so well.

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Quilt

This past Spring a young man named Mark came to the HGTV quilting site asking for help to make a quilt with the children in Fairfax Virginia Hospital because he was running for Man of the Year 2008 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.


I offered to help him with the project. I made up muslin squares, ironed them to freezer paper and sent them to him in Washington, DC. He purchased Crayola Fabric Markers and started working with the kids to made the blocks with the Theme , Quilt of Hope.


When the blocks were finished he sent them back to me to be sashed together. A quilter from the message board made the quilt label in Texas and sent it on to the Longarm quilter. When I was finished, I sent the top off to another member of the HGTV board for longarm quilting in the state of Indiana. She did a beautiful job and even quilted the word hope throughout the quilt. There were blocks left over and we didn't want to exclude any so she added them to the back.


When she was finished with it she sent it onto yet another board member in Maryland who added the binding and delivered the quilt to Mark for the LL auction.


I think we all shed a few tears when we saw the blocks made by the children. They are just wonderful!