Lynn, Thanks for that great picture. I love it. Lois

Lynn - Your sister's place is idyllic! Thanks for sharing!

Lynn that's a beautiful photo! Now that would make a great quilt!

Lois, I'm thankful for Big Pharma (sometimes) that has already kept me alive 12 years longer than my Mom who died of heart disease at age 55!

And yes, the "hurriedier I go the behinder I get" was in my culture, too!

And retirement only expanded my ability to be engaged in 'seeing' more that I want to do! Yes, loving it, but finally had to put the 'cabosh' (?) on NEW projects for awhile! ha

Lynn visiting children in NC, but living in Texas. This is the view from my sister's deck this morning! How wonderful is that?

Note the blooming azalea in the foreground, the blooming dogwood layerd in the trees, and the lake in the background. This morning several mallard ducks were quacking away down in the lake eddy and KenShin and I watched them take flight.

loise98 wrote: Join the club! Even with my expanded time to work in my studio since retiring I am finding there just simply are so many things I want to do and don't have time. :shock: I was thinking I'd have a cleaner house and do all my quilts I wanted to do and get my exercise and ..... But I am loving it. I doubt I'll make one of these wonderful quilts, but I can enjoy the work of those of you who do.

Rita, The PA Dutch (German, actually) folks (that includes me) have a saying that we often joke about. "The hurrier I go the behinder I get". That is me through and through. The list just keeps growing and I just get further and further behind. Lois

[quote="loise98"My to do list is getting so long that I am just going to have to live much longer than anticipated in order to get things done. LOL. Lois ---- PS. Norma, that quilt is a treasure. I love the patina the picnics have given it.[/quote]

I know exactly what you mean Lois - I am exactly the same. And every two weeks there is a new TQS show to distract me even further. Isn't life wonderful.

We have woolen mills right here in Central PA. Any of you heard of Woolrich? That stands for Woolrich, PA. It's a company town (very small village) and all that is there is the woolen mills. More and more of the work is done elsewhere. Every time I go to the outlet there I find less and less fabric and more and more clothing. Women use to go there and buy woolen goods by the lb for making braided rugs. I need to check that place out. I also need to check out the Thrift Stores, Lynn. Good idea! I have friends who volunteer weekly at our local Thrift Shop. I'll ask them to keep their eyes open for woolen suits. My to do list is getting so long that I am just going to have to live much longer than anticipated in order to get things done. LOL. Lois ---- PS. Norma, that quilt is a treasure. I love the patina the picnics have given it.

Norma I love your quilt - such pretty floral fabrics. I had never heard of these quilts from the Isle of Man before and I just live a short hop across the water from it!

Lois, I don't know if you have checked out Bonnie Hunter's blog on Quiltville but she has loads of quilts made from mens shirts - in fact I think it became a bit of an obsession with her. I have lately been gathering my sons shirts that don't fit him anymore so that I can use them when I have enough to make something interesting. I really love the idea of recycling material - it probably comes from living through the hard times here in the 70s!

I saw this show last night and enjoyed it very much. Many years ago (and that is before I kept track of what I'm doing) I read an article about the Isle of Man technique and had to try it. I especially loved the possibility to make some kind of design on the back too. I made a big quilt and I put a very thin batting in it. I was surprised of how much fabric went into it and how heavy it went, but it has served as a picnic quilt for all these years. It is faded and nearly worn out.. Will try to figure out when it was made . A search in Quilter's Newsletter's index gives this: Isle of Man, issue 301 (1998):pages 22-23 and I'm pretty sure that is the article, so my quilt is made in 1998-1999, which again fits with it being exhibited in 1999, which was the 5 years birthday of the little guild I was in at that time.
Thank you to TQS for bringing this up, so I can remember things
Now, when I took some photos to show you, I realized, that I didn't follow the instructions on all the measurements . I wanted bigger blocks and so I did. Block size is 27 cm/approx. 10.5".

Loise98, I'm headed for the thrift shops to pick up some men's suiting. I've heard of others getting shirts, wool suits, scarves, etc. and using them. I loved the roof tile log cabin b/c it's so quaint and not perfect and handwork! I love handwork!! Right, Alex?
Lynn

I loved that show too even though I do not do much by hand these days. I have been known to. Sashiko is so beautiful. In addition to the fishermen's and farmer's jackets, the Japanese women would use it to create firemen's coats and they would soak the thickly padded sashiko jackets in water when fighting fires.

I just learned to know a woman who lives in a nearby town who operates a business called Quilter's Express to Japan. She had a gift shop with some Japanese fabrics and quilt stuff, but it closed because of lack of business. She now sells from the website and from her home. I have an appointment with her tomorrow to buy a few pieces of fabric to incorporate some things my Japanese student gave me. Susan teaches Sashiko and takes quilters on tours of Japan.
Rita, I loved the Roof Tile quilt too. I wish I had a bunch of men's suiting to make one of those. I'd love handstitching wool. I don't think my finger joints would complain too much about sewing through wool. I am imagining the needle almost sliding through the fabric. I need to figure out how to put more hours in the day. I want to do it all. Lois