Kitchen Artwork in the Inn

I wanted to have some more color in the kitchen at the Inn, so I made a table runner for the kitchen table. It took some 5 " X 5 " squares of vegetable design, just like the charm packs. In this case, it took 7 of them that I cut out from "stash", added 3 borders and vola it went together!



I found this panel a year ago at a Western Michigan Shop Hop, cut it up, and added a vegetable fabric. Then I put the wall hanging in the kitchen above the coffee maker. I thought everyone would notice them...but alas, I haven't received many comments. My last four groups have been scrapbookers.

Next week will be quilters, maybe they will!

I like it so it really doesn't make a difference.

Jelly Roll Quilting..And I'm not talking Donuts!

Had some great couples this week-end. One was on their honeymoon so they got the Honeymoon suite. The others were just having fun, enjoying the colorful Michigan colors. They went out to dinner at the Common Grill in Chelsea and loved the meal, I did tell them about a closer spot here in Jackson called Daryl’s. The current owner of Daryl's was a former chef at the Common Grill.

Joe and I had time this week-end, to start cleaning out the basement of the Cottage. I am getting ready to put a bedroom, bath and family room down there but, before I could, I had to purge. Many of the articles remaining in that basement were molds from a doll business I had, along with material, patterns and various accessories. There was a time, I loved to work on the porcelain dolls and had the kiln, paints and brushes. My favorites were the replicas of the German and French dolls. One time I duplicated my daughters wedding dress and bought a mold that looked like her. Like many of you, when you get a new hobby it can take you away. The China import market influence made making the dolls cost prohibitive.

I spent much of my remaining time working on my quilting for the Quilt Guild’s Winter Retreat ,while Joe worked hard getting the lawns ready for winter! This year the theme is Jelly Roll’s not the kind you eat but, material which consists of 2 ½ inch strips color-coordinated fabric, rolled up to create a solid disk and tied with a ribbon. I chose Jelly Roll Quilts whose authors are Pam and Nicky Lintott. They have 15 patterns in the book to choose from. I have made two twin size quilts, a lap quilt and a baby quilt.

I then decided to make from 2 ½ strips, 4 table toppers of the different seasons. I chose the tulip pattern in the book. The first has different shades of pink tulips for spring, the second was blue and yellow for summer. You can see that I am in the process of fall with different shades of leaves. I found a great tool at Wal-Mart that makes it easy to cut strips. It has the changeable rotary blade and rubber grippers. So when you get new material cut off one of these strips so that when you are making scrappy quilts, you will already have some to go. If you get the Jelly Roll Premade, the project goes very fast but, if you are trying to coordinate your own stash it will take more time! Here’s some
Pictures!