A New Quilt...

Last evening, I was able to load my "Sherbet" quilt top into the hand-quilting frame.  This quilt started out as a Craftsy Block of the Month, but quickly morphed into a sampler quilt of my own design, partly because I didn't like all of the blocks that they were doing on the Craftsy BOM and partly because I needed 25 blocks to make it the size I wanted and the Craftsy quilt only had 20.  About 12 or so of the blocks are original to the Craftsy quilt, the rest are 12" blocks that I found online and put in the quilt.

Pre-quilting, the top is about 96" X 96".  The backing is pieced from my stash...all florals!

I'm using YLI 100% glazed cotton hand-quilting thread in light pink!  I'm almost thinking that I should have gotten the dark pink because this one isn't showing up in the printed fabric, but I'm hoping it will show up better in the neutral spaces.  It took too long to get this spool in, so I don't want to have to wait to get in a spool of darker thread.  I wanted to get quilting as soon as possible, so I went ahead and started putting in the first stitches last night!

I love YLI hand quilting thread because it doesn't knot or twist making hand-quilting so much more enjoyable!!

Usually, I mark the whole quilt before putting it into the frame, but I decided to try something different with this one.  I only marked the design in the outer borders and then will use blue painters tape to add in straight lines leading from the swag design out to the edge of the quilt.  Then I'm going to mark the sashings and cornerstones as I go.  We'll see how this works out...

Loretta

Just Keepin' It Real...

Quote for the Day:

"In real life endings aren't always neat, whether they're happy endings,

 or whether they're sad endings."

~Stephen King 

If there was an award for "Butt-Ugliest Pie", I would have won it today.  

I TRY to cook.  Really, I do.  But I just seem to end up messing it up, somehow.  :(   With this pie, I forgot the "pats" of butter in the filling, the crust was too dry, and I obviously had the oven temperature up too high.  But in my defense, our oven is crazy and tends to run about 50 degrees hotter than what you set it at.

BUT...the pie STILL tastes DELICIOUS!  :)   Even the crust doesn't taste burnt.  Just dry.  But that is easily taken care of with a dollop of whipped topping!  :D

The pie is an apple pie made from apples given to us by our neighbor!  (They gave us pears, too!)  Andy went over to get the fruit and he said they only have a couple of semi-dwarf trees but they are LOADED with so much fruit that the branches are almost touching the ground!

This year we have been blessed with all kinds of produce from friends and neighbors...zucchini, tomatoes, corn, green beans, apples and pears!  :)  What a blessing we consider these gifts of garden abundance!


This past weekend I started adding the sashing and cornerstones to the "Sherbet" quilt.  I think that's what I'm going to name it.  I know the colors look darker in the pictures, but they are really quite pastel-ish.  

I'm continuing to add the sashing and cornerstones to it today...

And now, I have an EMPTY CONTAINER that used to hold the blocks while I was making them!

(I buy pizza boxes from a local pizzeria to store my projects in while I'm working on them.  It allows the blocks to be stored flat.)

Loretta 

Can I Get a Hallelujah???

Yesterday, I posted a picture on Facebook of some quilt blocks that I've made over the last 1-2 years.  I only needed 3 more to make the 25 blocks that I need for the quilt, but for some reason, I had just developed an aversion to this particular quilt.   Well, not really to the quilt, but to all the mental work that this quilt was demanding of me.

Do you ever get that way with your quilts or projects?  This particular quilt is a "sampler" quilt, which means that each block is different, so it is difficult to do much chain piecing on it.  Each block has to be done individually and there has to be a lot of thought that goes into the fabrics as there is no pattern telling me WHAT fabrics to use where, etc.  PLUS, most of these blocks are ones that I had to find on the internet to do.  It started out as a Craftsy Block of the Month, but after the first several months, I found I didn't like some of the chosen blocks.  Thus, I had to find my own to do instead.

*sigh*

Anyway...back to Saturday.  I posted this picture on Facebook and declared that it was time I made the last 3 blocks for this quilt...

Now...just in case you are a little OCD like my daughter (and I)...this is NOT the layout for the quilt.  I just threw the quilt blocks up on the design wall to see what all I had and to assess the colors, etc., so I would know what I needed to still add.

Then I went to work making the last 3 blocks and I am happy to announce that as of now, all 25 blocks are D-O-N-E for this quilt!!!  

NOW can I get a HALLELUJAH???  ;)

Here are the last 3 blocks...

Instead of suffering through the choosing and deciding that is needed to make more blocks to make this quilt queen-sized, I have decided to do 3" sashings, possibly with cornerstones to break up all that sashing. Between the 3" sashings and the borders, it will end up the size I want.

Hey...it's not "laziness", it's a "design decision".

Okay...it's laziness.  What can I say?

Now...to decide what fabric to use to make the sashing...

Loretta

I Was Attacked!!!

 

Today I took my fancy-dancy Viking Platinum 775 sewing machine into the shop/quilt store to get serviced.  As I was trying to leave the store I was ASSAULTED!  

By FABRIC!  

These two pieces of fabric decided that they needed to make a fast get-away and JUMPED into my arms!



Seriously!  It's not that I really "need" anymore fabric, but what could I say???  They were BEGGING me to take them home with me.

Actually, I really do need more pastel yellow.  It's hard to find a pastel yellow right now that isn't a 1930's repro.  Yellows are on the bright side right now, so when I saw this yellow on the 50% off shelf, I knew I had to get it.  I don't care about the border along the edges....I really just want the yellow part...but I figure maybe I can find a use for the border strips somewhere.  :O

As for the light blue plaid...plaids are hard to find in a good quality quilting weight.  There was only 5/8's of a yard, so I got it, too, from the 50% off shelf.  I figure I'll add it to my men's shirts that I've collected to "debone" and use the fabric make a quilt out of, ala Bonnie Hunter!  :)  

This past week, I've made 4 more 12" pastel blocks...

Although I've quilted 2 Dresden plate quilts, they both have been made by someone else and I was just doing the quilting.  This is the first Dresden plate block I've made (lower right-hand block).  It was fun and pretty easy!  I decided to take artistic license and, instead of using a plain color fabric for the center circle, I used the pretty green and pink floral.  It looks better in person than it does in the picture.


In the process of making these blocks, I finished 3 more Maverick Star blocks as my leaders/enders.

Since my Viking is now at the sewing machine spa getting a mani/pedi, I decided to pull out "Beyonce" to have available to do any sewing I might want to do.  

It's been a while since I've had her out for a workout, and you really need to run these old machines every so often to keep them in good working order.  Otherwise, they dry out and freeze up.

Why do I call her "Beyounce"???  


Because she is a light brown Singer!  :):):)

Okay...time to go out and do more cleaning up and burning on the new property!  Have a great weekend!

Loretta

Overview of a Great Weekend...

Quote for the Day:

"Fun is good."

Dr. Seuss 

Wow!  What a mixture of events this weekend held!  

I started out Friday and Saturday by working on some quilt blocks.  First, I made about 30 scrappy log cabin blocks to add to my collection...trying to use up some of the 1.5" strips from the box that exploded.  Here's just a sample of what I made...

I now have a total of 93--6.5" scrappy log cabin blocks.  I don't know what size quilt I'll make with them, but I tend to do queen-sized bed quilts.  So a quilt that size will take approx. 200-225 of this size block.  

Now I can get the lid on the 1.5" strip box!  LOL

Much neater now!  :)

I also made 5 blocks to add to the Craftsy BOM quilt that I'm making in pastels.  These blocks are 12.5" unfinished.  I think I figured out one time that I will need 39 blocks to finish this quilt, so I now have 18 of them done.  :(  I need to working on more of them to get this finished up.

In the process of all of this piecing, I finished 5 of my Maverick Star blocks that I am doing as a "leader/ender" project.  The points and centers of all of these Maverick Star blocks are made from leftover pieces of fabric that I have cut off of other blocks I've made...what many people would just throw in the trash.  But, oh...not me!  LOL

On Saturday, our area had a "Tire Amnesty Day" where you could bring in old tires to be discarded for free.  There was a 10 tire limit unless you got special permission.  I had called, told them the circumstances, and that we had found 28 tires dumped on the property...and got permission to bring them all in.  So Andy loaded them up and took them in.  The pile of tires is now G-O-N-E!!!

Since we are currently in "Fire Season" here in West Virginia, you can't have any fires until after 5 PM.  So Saturday evening at 5 PM SHARP, we went out and started burning brush and construction debris again!  

Our neighbor who lives on the other side of our new property has come out and helped us both Saturdays now that we've been burning.  She is very nice, probably in her late 60's, and boy, can she work!  With 3 of us feeding the fire, it doesn't take long to get the piles cleaned up!  So far, we've burned or gotten rid of between 1/3-1/2 of the crap that was discarded on the property!!  I really need to get out and take new pictures to show how great it is looking now!

Andy doesn't even seem to mind that it is increasing his work by increasing the area he has to mow!  :)

Sunday was Mother's Day here in the US.  Happy Belated Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there reading this!  

We had some friends over for dinner.  Since I didn't take pictures of the dishes we served (bad blogger that I am...actually, we were all so hungry that we couldn't stop ourselves from digging right in!  LOL), so I'm going to give you the links to where I got the recipes.  They were DELISH and I highly recommend that you try them!!

The main dish was "The World's Best Chicken"...and I can vouch for that title!  I've made it three times now, it is that good!  :)   To go with the chicken, I thought I'd try a recipe that I saw on Facebook.  Now...we all know that that can be risky.  Somethings just don't turn out the way that they look/sound online, but this one turned out SUPER GREAT!  You MUST go try it!  It is called "Roasted Red Potatoes".  I can't find the link so I'll just give you the recipe.  :)

It calls for 10-12 baby red potatoes.  I had about 6-7 large russets, so I used those instead, peeled and slice thin.   Spray a baking dish and spread the potatoes out in the dish.  Sprinkle with one package of powdered ranch dressing mix.  Sprinkle with 6 slices of bacon, crumbled.  (I used one package of real bacon bits.)   Dot with about 5-6 pats of butter.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream!   OMG!!!  Heavenly!

Okay...so that's the recap of what's been going on around this ol' homestead, lately.  I hope all is well in your part of the world, too.  :)

Loretta

A Quilting Update...

Quote for the Day:

"Is a nine patch part of a twelve step program?"

~author unknown

On Sunday, my friend, Pat, came by and we worked some more on the BOM (block of the month) quilt that we started back at the first of the year.  Since the original pattern only uses 20 blocks, and for the size of quilt I want I'll need 36 blocks, I looked online for some quilt block patterns that finish at 12" that will go nicely with the original 20 blocks.  

Here's what I've got completed on this quilt between the original blocks and the ones I added in so far...

 
The colors are pastels and remind me of sherbet, so I've taken to calling this "the Sherbet Quilt".  LOL   The picture definitely doesn't do the colors justice.  :(  They are so much prettier in person.  

I am going to a Bonnie Hunter quilt workshop next weekend and plan to take my "new" Featherweight that I picked up in Tennessee last month.  Today I pulled it out and used it to make a couple of these blocks.  I wanted to make sure that I was comfortable using it to piece so I don't have to take my big, heavy computerized sewing machine to the workshop with me.

This weekend I'm going to gather the items I need to take with me to the workshop.  I've already got the fabric cut out so basically I need to gather my rulers, thread, pins, scissors, etc., to take with me for a weekend of sewing.  :)

When my sister, niece, and great-niece were here last week, I had to fold up my hand-quilting frame and put it against the wall so there would be room in that bedroom for the guest bed.  Even though I wasn't able to hand quilt for a few days, with it in that position it makes it easy to see the back of the quilt!

Now that the bed has been taken down and the frame moved back into the center of the room, I've been able to work on the hand quilting on this quilt some more.  :)

In fact, I think I'll go work on it NOW!  :)

Loretta

A Busy Weekend...

Quote for the Day:

"If you think something small can't make a difference, 

try going to sleep with a mosquito in the room."
---Unknown 

I have been a busy little beaver the past several days...but I can't show you what I did over the weekend, yet, because it's not put back together, yet, and I don't want to reveal it before it's complete.  :)

However, I can tell you about yesterday.  

On Monday, my friend, Pat, (that I'm teaching to quilt) came over and we worked on "quilty" things all day.  Pat is a co-worker, and a good friend.  We've been friends for so long and have shared so much together that I can have her over even when the house is messy.  :) 

We started off by pinning her queen-sized whole cloth quilt that she purchased on a trip to Lancaster, PA, earlier this summer.  

Here is a picture of the backing fabric she chose...

In these pictures, the whole-cloth quilt looks white, but it is actually ecru.  I just LOVE this backing fabric and am torn between buying it now for my whole-cloth (I purchased the same top after seeing hers...I just love the pineapple pattern on it!), or waiting till I'm ready to do my own and seeing what cool fabrics are available at that time, since it will be probably 2 years before I can even *think* about getting to this quilt! 

And just for perspective...this is what the quilt looked like on my "seats-eight-people-comfortably" dining room table!  :)

It's gonna be a "big-un"...finished size is 88" X 108"!!!  :)

Pat also brought a baby quilt to show me.  This is her second completed quilt and I think she did a wonderful job!  It is a "cheater" quilt where the pattern is printed on a piece of fabric and then you quilt it.  It's a quick, fun way to get straight to the quilting part and a great way to practice your quilting!  She hand quilted this and I think she did a GREAT job!  You go, Pat!  :)

Pat and I had started doing a Craftsy.com block-of-the-month (BOM) earlier this year as a way for me to help her learn how to piece, but we haven't been able to get together for the past 4 months, so have really gotten behind. 

After pinning the whole-cloth quilt, which took about 2.5 hours to do, we spent some time on the BOM.  I helped her finish some of the blocks that she hadn't gotten to finish, yet, and then we worked on a new one...a string-pieced broken spider web.  

 I didn't get a chance to complete the block so it doesn't look like much, yet...but that's a sneak-preview!  :)  We're hoping to get together again in the next several weeks, so we'll get this block finished up and then move onto the next ones.  The next four blocks are easy ones, so they should go much faster!

After Pat, Andy & I went out to eat supper...thanks for treating us, Pat!  :)  ...she had to return home and I came back to the house and turned on the Olympics and worked on a portable project that I've been hand quilting the last week or so, since I don't have anything in the frame right now.

This is a couch quilt that I put together from a kit.  I took it to demonstrate hand quilting on when I taught the hand quilting class in March.  I'm moving right along on it and should have it done fairly quickly.  What a change a small quilt is after working on the over-sized queen quilts I'm usually doing!  LOL



Loretta

Sunday Sewing...

Quote for the Day:

"A day spent with friends is always a day well-spent."

~author unknown

In January I blogged that a friend, Pat, and myself were going to do a "block-of-the-month" quilt where you make two blocks each month.  You can read my blog entry about it here.  

For a variety of reasons, we were unable to get together in February to do the February blocks.  But today, Pat came over and we made the two blocks for February and one of the two blocks for March.  When she comes over in April for our sewing date, we'll do the second of the March blocks and then move onto the April blocks.  Since the new blocks for each month aren't revealed until the first of the month, we don't know what the April blocks will be, yet.

Here's a picture of the two February blocks and the first March block that I made today:

I can't seem to get the green to come out right in the picture...it's actually a very pretty medium sage green with pink flowers...very pretty in person!  :)

You can see the green better in this picture...

 
These blocks will be added to these blocks that I made in January:

These are Pat's blocks from today:

When I posted after getting my sacro-iliac joint injection I was so excited because I was virtually pain-free.  However, later on that same evening some of my pain started coming back.  It's not quite as bad as it was before I had the injection, but I've heard such good things from people who have had injections into joints for pain, that I was kinda expecting 100% pain relief...which I had for about the first 4-5 hours after the injection.  I have a follow-up appointment on March 23, so we'll see how I'm doing by then and I'll be discussing it further with the doctor at that time.  Maybe my expectations are too high???  Or maybe it needs to be repeated?  I know that when I used to help give similar pain injections where I worked in California, the person was automatically scheduled for three injections and they didn't usually get much relief till after the second one.  

I'm hoping for more/better relief from my back pain in the future.  Is that too much to ask?

Loretta
 
 

New Quilt Project Started...

Quote for the Day:

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. 

Art is knowing which ones to keep."
---Scott Adams

Today was the day that Pat came over and we started making the quilt blocks that are being taught in the Craftsy block of the month (BOM) that I mentioned in the last post.   I had put together a lasagne in the crock pot before she arrived and she brought over some crab dip & crackers.   Crock pots dinners are great to sit down to after an afternoon/day of sewing.  


Each month of this year, Craftsy.com will post directions to 2 new quilt blocks, so today we made January's blocks.  Pat is using this opportunity to learn how to piece quilt tops.  (I had taught her previously how to hand quilt so that she could finish a quilt that her "Mamaw" started but never finished before she died.)


Block 1:  The Asterisk Block...

The one on the left is mine and the one on the right is Pat's.

Block 2:  The Wonky Pound Sign...
 

Again...the one on the left is mine and the the darker blue on the right is Pat's.

Here's a picture of my two blocks side by side...

After we made these blocks and then ate supper, we went back into the sewing room and I helped her put together a few bowtie blocks that she had cut out but hadn't sewn together, yet.   Unfortunately, I forgot to take some pictures of those.  :(  


I had fun and hopefully, Pat did, too!  Each month we are going to get together and do the new blocks for that month.  By the end of the year we will have enough blocks to make a lap-sized quilt.  :)


Loretta