Confetti

Three things to be happy about:
(1) I Can't Believe it's Not Butter (I call it "I can't believe they'd try to pass it off as butter")
(2) a spinach omelet
(3) fresh cut fruit

I think somebody's hungry for breffus!

Thanks everyone for visiting my blog, and thanks Gene and Sharon for your suggestions!

While I was in quilt limbo (quimbo??) I saw several confetti quilts on the web and they looked interesting.  There are lots of confetti styles out there, I thought I'd just go for it without a set pattern.

I've been sewing squares and rectangles ranging in size from 1-1/2 x 2" up to 4" onto 1-1/2" and 2" strips, then doing what it needed to make a decent sized square.

Rearranging the pieces, adding white space where it looked good...

For some crazy reason I decided to go for a 20" square, probably so there'd be fewer to make for the whole quilt.

That size was cumbersome to work with as a whole, though...

Switched to making smaller subunits to combine into a large one.

I aimed for 12" blocks - there goes that 24" monster again!

I have some smaller pieces I can slip between blocks in strategic places.


I wasn't going for a truly balanced pattern, I wanted to white space to show.

These are all the blocks I've done so far, in no particular layout order...


This will be one of those "whenever" projects for whenever I feel like working on it... please not, a whenever is not the same as a UFO!!   :O)


Have a great day, sew forth and sew on til later!

Playing catch-up

Three things to be happy about:
(1) stacks of new magazines
(2) a leisurely pace
(3) someone with your last name winning the lottery, and realizing you're her favorite long-lost niece

Oh well, one could wish!

I decided to do the Hello Moon BOM but I never really got started, so I yesterday I played catch up and made the first three blocks.  The pretty background fabric is from Robert Kaufman:


Full Moon



Moon and star

 This is actually the first one I did, then I realized some of the grey I used is too dark.  The moon actually has a grin but you can't see it -  I need to be aware of how I place the pieces.


Moon and earth

What's up with the earth's crooked grin, looks like it has a toothache!  I'm making the faces with my sewing machine rather than hand embroidering them. 

The blocks are 6-1/2" square, they'll make a cute wall hanging when they're all done! 

I'm seeing 16-patch blocks everywhere, so I made a few using African fabrics:

I think this will be a very small piece, I've made about a dozen blocks and I'm convinced a better approach would be to limit my fabric choices.  Some of the combinations, although they contrast nicely, make a too-dark block when viewed from a distance.  Sometimes those large-patterned African fabrics can be a bit tricky to work with!

Well that's all for now, enjoy your Monday, sew forth and sew on!

Combing thru my scraps

Three things to be happy about:
(1) the end of winter
(2) the beginning of spring
(3) that curious time in between

Today's the second day of spring and we're expecting snow flurries!  The weatherman said it's snowing at the Vice President's residence; I looked outside of my residence and there's nary a flake - curious!

Recently I was gifted a humongous amount of scraps from Deb in my guild (hi Deb!!) and I'm in my element!  You know my two rules about scraps:  (1) the more you use, the more you have (2) other people's scraps are more interesting than my own!

I was going through the bags and finding a lot that will go beautifully in crumb blocks, and a lot that I put into my GO pile - look at these great Alexander Henry prints:

Beautiful elephants!

These have possibilities...

lots o' blocks for a future project!

And look at this strata, what a find!

See what I mean?

And look what I found for my little solids play - who knew!!

There's gold in them thar scraps! 

So much scrappy goodness - you know what I'll be doing today!

Sew forth and sew on til later

Getting ready for the take-down!

Hi everybody!  Thank you so much for your comments and concerns, I feel right priviliged to know you care and "right shame" to not have posted for so long! 

This morning just after I got up I received a call from a former co-worker and friend who is still gainfully employed.  I haven't actually seen Lillie in over a year but we talk every so often on the phone, and we've made plans for lunch when sometime within the next couple weeks. 

Anyway, in honor of the event I'm having my morning coffee in a cup I bought before leaving my agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  I really wish you could see it better because it's a nice cup in deep deep blue with the agency name in gold surrounding an eagle.   Ahhh, coffee ... ahhhh those good ole workaday memories - not!

Did I ever mention that I have a few scraps??

These babies are about to be taken down!  Ebony Love at Love Bug Studies is hosting the first ever Die-Cut-Scrap-(Make Later)-Along and I'm getting ready to get ready for it.  It will run for three weeks starting on April 1 (no fooling!), so I've started going through my scraps to see what I can un-earth.  BUT!  After looking at the chaos in my sewing room I decided rather than going through boxes and bins, I'll use the scraps and yardages that are hangin' out in piles and heaps - or heaps of piles - and cut those first.  Just looking at the three photos above it's obvious I have enough to make at least two quilts!

Ebony will be using her Accuquilt Thousand Pyramid die, which is a very pretty design but I don't have that particular die.  So, rather than purchase another one (how many thousand pyramid quilts will I make??) I'll use one of the half-square triangle dies that came with my start-up kit.

This is the 3" finished HST die, I think it will work wonderfully for this project!  And the other advantage is I'll be able to use smaller size scraps, the instructions suggest using a 4-1/2" wide piece.

I marked the lines as suggested by several expert (seasoned?) users to make the cutting lines easier to see. 

At the same time I'll pull yardage and scraps from my African fabrics stash and cut those into submission.  Most African fabrics have very large designs and it's almost a shame to cut them up, because then you lose that fabulous motif.  There are some pieces I had set aside to use in large chunks but frankly - that hasn't happened yet.  I may have to just shut my eyes and cut em up!  Get to steppin!

Well that's all for now, I hope all are enjoying this up-and-down weather, spring is next week!

Have a great Friday, sew forth and sew on...

Instant grats

Grats, as in "gratification!"

Not much time for sewing yesterday what with laundry, the plumber, checking to see who the EMS people picked up down the street, watching the man deliver my neighbor's rain barrel, Verizon....  I've been having problems with hearing voices on my phone line --  nope, they really ARE on the line, not in my head!  Anyway I do have a wire maintenance plan, but before they scheduled someone to come out (after I went through about 10 minutes of voice prompts - hate those things!) a tech had walk me through all kind of changes unplugging my phones and plugging them back in.  Sheesh!

I wanted to continue the little log-cabin-like blocks I was making from scraps gifted to me by Charlene, just to get them off my cutting table.  I have four done so far, I think I'll make two more and call it done. 

I squared up the two on the right-hand side first at 9-1/2", no problem.  But when I finished up the red one (bottom left) I discovered the yellow border was a tat too large... so I used a 12-1/2" ruler.  I'll do something really clever to make them fit together.

On this block I wanted to show you the rust and green fabric that I bought from G Street Fabrics probably about 10 years ago.  They used to have a $1.99 bargain table that they often put "seconds" or overstock fabrics on and sometimes you got really really great stuff ... Patrick Loos, Kaufman, Free Spirit, Jan Mullen, Marcus Brothers - that rust and green is a piece of Alexander Henry fabric called "Keepers of the Tribe" - so gorgeous!  

About a ton of African fabrics went on the table on a Thursday... I found out about it on Saturday, woe is me!  There were very few cuts left, I took the entire piece of this one and had a jacket made.  The jacket is too large now but I won't be donating it, no way - I'll be "repurposing" the fabric in a quilt!

I have almost a yard of the fabric left, I'm still getting over the "it's way too pretty to cut up and if I use it, it'll be gone" syndrome.  I'll have to find something really special to use it on.  The color isn't as drab as it looks on the picture!

This past Monday we had another girls' day out to celebrate Felicia's and Carolyn's birthdays at Golden Corral - it was fun getting together with the ladies!  Here are a few pictures...


From the left seated at the table Linda (me), Sandy (quilts in color), Felicia (the Slow Quilter), Carolyn, Pat, Charlene.

Felicia and Pat playing games...

Carolyn, me, Felicia, Pat outside the restaurant - I didn't realize I look so dooflus in that red hat!  Sandy took the photo, Charlene was already in the car.

We really had a great time laughing, talking, eating, and people watching.  We're thinking of making it a regular movie and lunch outing - sounds like a winner!

That's it for now, have a great Thursday, sew forth and sew on...

Looking good

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a magazine worth reading
(2) cold-weather cooking
(3) lightweight down comforters

This is certainly the weather for lightweight down comforters!  Yesterday was downright chilly, and rainy to boot.

Once again, yesterday I had the lead role in  June Cleaver Does Quilting ... I finished piecing the blocks for my new Three-Six-Twelve quilt with African fabrics, and put the top together.  I even put the borders on two sides... take a look!

I arranged the blocks the way I wanted them, but when I used Bonnie's tip for webbing the top, part of the first two rows got twisted around; some of the layout is off, but who can tell?

Miki, I wish I'd seen your comment sooner about using solids, it's a great idea!  All the African fabrics sorta moosh together but it's still pretty.

Thanks everyone for your comments, have a great Monday!

Sew forth and sew on

Starting a bigger quilt

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a movie worth seeing again
(2) Andy Griffith Show reruns
(3) glossy photos

I like the Three Six Twelve pattern so much that I started another one, this time it will be throw size and made using African fabrics. 

I started cutting some pieces yesterday, this is a great time to use up some of the fabrics I've had in my stash awhile.  It's not that I don't like them, I just haven't used them yet.

This quilt will be set four blocks across and five down, with borders added to make up the size I want it to be.  Or maybe I'll put half-blocks along the sides... we'll see.

I had a half dozen sweet potatoes that I got from the "veggie truck" but they're rather large - too large to bake, I think.  I decided to slice and freeze some in a single layer so they wouldn't stick together, then I put them in a baggie.  They froze nicely, now to cut up the other ones....



Frozen sliced sweet potatoes

When I'm ready to eat some I'll fry them (what's the opposite of "deep fry"?) in a skillet with just a little olive oil and butter, just enough to keep them from sticking.  They're good if you add a sprinkle of brown sugar as they cook, but you have to watch closely so they don't scorch.

That's it for now, have a great Friday... sew forth and sew on!

Jelly roll fun!

We had a great time at guild yesterday, doing our jelly roll race!  I think there were a dozen people participating, and quite naturally someone started off by sewing without thread, it was a scream!

This is what mine looked like after I finished (sorry, I didn't win!); next time you see this it'll be a real quilt with borders!

This is one made by Jocelyn (she was quilter of the month with the trunk show this month) - good inspiration!   I think Jocelyn made this one when we had our jelly roll race at our WeeBee Quilting bee a few months ago.  She did a beautiful job finishing her's, didn't she?

Here I am working away diligently... what a tangled mess my strips were!  I don't think there's any way to keep them from tangling, unless you stretch all 800 inches across a roller. 

At this point I think I'm on my first round of five, LOL.  I had to decide early on that in a jelly roll race, the strip edges don't have to meet up EXACTLY ...

And now, in no particular order, we have a few winners!

Azalia (left) and Serita!

Natalie (left) and Chloe!

Jackie (left) and Linda (me)!

The fabrics combinations were awesome!  I saw one other person using blues, there were several batik sets, two people had black-and-white combinations...

Nadine chose African fabrics for her's...

I think it will be simply beautiful when she finishes, she does such lovely quilts!

We had a great time doing this jelly roll race, there was laughter all over the room.  My next one will definitely be black and white, they looked so good sewn together.  Of course, black and white is a classic combo anyway, you can't miss with it!

Sew forth and sew on

Goodbye ole egbdf!

That would have been the title of this blog if everything had gone as I hoped it would!

I bought this piano in 1991 when I was sure I wanted to be a top notch (or even medium notch) piano player.  I took some private lessons from a lady who had a studio in her basement, and I stopped them because unfortunately I must have been her only adult student.  What difference would that make??  I'm glad you asked!

I had my lessons after leaving work, which means she'd had at least 3 school-age students before me, and for some reason she thought she could yakkety yak to me about her day while I'm supposed to be learning piano!  How she had tea at this or that embassy, and had to make popcorn balls for her teen, and oh how glad she was to have an adult to talk to after such a difficult day!  Meanwhile, she's dashing to and from the kitchen to stir her stew, and back and forth to take clothes from the washer.  Well, that didn't last long.  My next lessons were in a church on Saturday, from a former concert pianist who played for Sunday services in that church.  I remember he got ill and had to suspend lessons for awhile, and for some reason I stopped after my paid-for lessons were done.  I tried to keep up practice by using books but without the discipline of regular lessons ... you know the drill! 

So... this nice Jesse French piano has been sitting idle for close to 15 years, and you have to know it needs tuning.  What to do?  Donate it to the Salvation Army, of course!  I was told they could only climb 3 steps; I said fine, I have 3 steps from the sidewalk, then a 3-foot flat area, then 3 more steps to the porch.  (Well, actually it was 3 steps and 4 steps).  BUT... when they came to pick it up he told me they couldn't take it because I had too many steps!  For safety sake, they could only do a maximum of 2 steps, he said - sheesh!  And so it sits while I regroup.

All this could have been theirs!

Moving right along... When we visited Capitol Quilts last week we saw this pretty quilt displayed using some gorgeous Australian fabrics... 

I made a test block to see if I'd like making the pattern:

It's okay but I don't like the bold contrast of the black and white against the colored fabric.  I think if I make this one, I'll replace the white with a sort of beige-y color, and maybe a softer color to replace the black.  But this would be a really good block to show off your large-scale prints - you know how we hate to cut those up!  The test block should be square, I'd need to make some adjustments.  

Well, that's it for today -  so forth and sew on til later!