Purple Prose

Having skipped blogging last week, I am overjoyed to have two finishes this week.  Finish #1 is the quilt above, a baby quilt made with the Split Square pattern from Country Threads.

The quilt is actually finished, including binding, but my full-quilt photo turned out very blurry, and the quilt itself is still in the washer. 

The Country Threads Chicken Scratch blog, written by Mary Etherington, is using this pattern as a Christmas quilt-along.  You can find out about it in several posts, starting here.  I changed the pattern slightly, partly because I didn't have the book with the instructions.  My squares finish at 4.5 in. instead of 4 in., and I made 56 squares to make it big enough for a good-sized baby.

It was lots of fun to use a few charm squares leftover from another project plus my bright scraps to make this quilt for charity.  I am really starting to love purple prints.

Purple finish #2:  wool socks!  They are shown here on the closed top of my Minnesota treadle.  I make mine with worsted weight yarn, which makes them thick and warm for the Wisconsin winter.  These are for me.  The yarn came from a flea market, and has the look of Brown Sheep yarn.

I am also happy to report that my leaf quilt is no longer languishing, waiting for me to figure out what to do for a border.

I finally decided on a 6 in. finished piano keys style border, with a 6 in. leaf block in each corner.

It is shown here on my queen sized bed, which is where I want it to go when it's done.  It can be a warm celebration of fall every year.

The top is in two pieces, since I plan to quilt it on my domestic machine.  Now the real languishing will begin, waiting for me to get the quilting done.

Isn't this a cute lamp?  It was made from a mason jar.  I bought it (for $2!) at our quilt group's silent auction last month.  The previous owner put tiny fabric strings and scraps inside it.

Here's what it looks like under the shade.  The wires don't go inside the jar.

I changed out the scraps for vintage spools of thread, which I was storing in a drawer in the basement.

Now I've got a cute lamp, and more light.  (Does this count as a finish?  Well, of course not.  But it's still fun.)

I want to share this wonderful book I got at the library this week.  It is filled with amazing photographs of life through the seasons at Old World Wisconsin, the largest outdoor history museum in the United States.  The text includes snippets from letters and diaries of settlers and their descendants, and is very well written.  The photos are so good you feel transported to the 1850s.  There are a few quilts and quilts in progress scattered through, but it is mostly a clear depiction of pioneer life.  It was named to the Library of Congress 2015 list of 52 Great Reads, and would make a nice gift for someone who loves history.
To read about the author, go here.

I wonder how many of us did this last Friday morning.  This was my breakfast the day after Thanksgiving--cold pumpkin pie and a mug of tea.  Truly another small thing to be thankful for.

I wish you thankfulness this week, and calm and peace in this busy season.
Cheers,
Sylvia

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts today.  I think I'll just barely make the deadline.

Work for My Hands

There's a song I learned in church camp many years ago, that goes "Give me work for my hands, keep me busy, busy, busy, give me work for my hands I pray".  Well, hallelujah, I have work for my hands.  There's plenty to do around here.  My favorite "work" is of course sewing, which really doesn't seem like work at all.

In the photo above, you can see what I've been working on lately.  These are Scrappy Reader Pillows, made for two of my grandchildren for Christmas.  The kids don't read the blog, so I'm not worried about them finding out.  The coolest part of these pillows is the pocket, which can hold a book (or two).

Both kids are major Star Wars fans, so I used Star Wars fabrics for the front and backs of the pillow.  The pockets are patchwork, made from 2.5 in. squares from my stash.

I got the pattern from this book, Growing Up Modern, by Allison Harris (cluckclucksew.com).  It's easy and fast to make, and the directions are good.

I changed the pattern a tiny bit for this pillow.  The Star Wars fabric is so busy, I wanted a stronger separation from the patchwork, so I bound the edge of the pocket with a strip of solid red.  My granddaughter gets this one.  She absolutely loves Chewbacca.

It has been nearly a month since my last blog post, mainly because I've been so busy on the weekends when I usually had time to post.  I went on a quilt retreat, had a family birthday party, went to a baptism, my mom was here on a visit, and we had another big family party.  This fall has been filled with joyful events.

When I last posted, I was making leaf blocks, inspired by the beautiful trees this season.  Here's how I made the stems--I top-stitched them using my Willcox and Gibbs hand crank.  This way I didn't have to change thread colors while piecing or wind bobbins.  The Willcox and Gibbs is a chain stitch machine, so there is no bobbin.  Very handy.

By the time I went on the quilt retreat, I had all the leaf blocks pieced.  Here's how I'm setting them.  Each block has a strip of sashing on two adjacent sides only.  Then the blocks are laid out like this.  I got this idea from Bonnie Hunter.  One of her free quilt patterns is Dancing Nine Patch, which is set this way.

In this corner, you can see at least one example of each of the 5 different leaf blocks I made for this quilt.  I made the traditional maple leaf with a stem (there are 4 of them here), the same block without a stem (the brown one in the lower corner), the same block with a triangle square instead of a stem (the orange block on the far right), a similar block with a dark square in the corner and the triangles turned differently (the middle block in the bottom row in this photo), and a Sweet Gum Leaf block which is made like an Ohio Star (the red one on the right and the yellow one in the bottom row).  I got the pattern for Sweet Gum Leaf from Marcia Hohn's Quilters Cache.  It was in a 12 in. size, so I just adjusted it for the 9 in. size I'm using.

I have the rows of leaves pieced together now in two sections, waiting patiently for me to decide how I'm going to quilt it and what I'm going to do about a border.

I walk past the guest room as I'm putting away laundry, etc., and look in on it, hoping for some inspiration.

In the meantime, I'm working on a pieced border for another fall colors quilt.

And listening to some 1920s dance music on the radio.
Isn't this a wonderful life?
Enjoy your week!

I'm linking up with Quilting is More Fun Than Housework this week.  Take a look at all the great scrap posts linked there--so much fun.

Pumpkins and Leaves and Pet Peeves

Happy Friday!  I'm actually blogging on a Friday for a change.

It really is fall now, I guess.  Here's my grandson in his Halloween outfit.  I've decided orange is my new favorite color.  (Oh, and the shirt doesn't lie, either.)

Here's my finish for the week--I have finally finished the canning.  Last weekend I got a half bushel of apples and a half bushel of pears canned up.  A few of these jars are left from last year, like the beets (I'm the only one who likes them) and some of the pickles and jam.

The little jars here on the lower left are baby food.  Applesauce (unsweetened, of course) is next to the wall, and the pears are closer to the jam jars.  They're clearly labeled on the lids, since they look just about exactly alike.  Our little guy has started on cereal and vegetables, but no fruit yet.  When he's ready, we'll be ready.

These empty bottles are for vinegar.  I started some on Saturday, as I finished the apples.  I make it with apple peels and cores with water and a little sugar.  It will ferment in the kitchen until it's good and vinegary, and then I'll put it in these glass bottles.

My grandson and I went for a walk on Wednesday.  He rode in the stroller and chewed on a toy, and he didn't seem to mind when I kept stopping to pick up leaves.  Even though it's early, some of the trees are starting to turn, and there are all these wonderful colors just lying on the ground.

Of course that made me long to make leaf blocks.  So I did!  Hey, why would I worry about UFOs?  Sometimes the inspiration strikes, and there you go.

Before I started, I knew I wanted to make 9 in. blocks.  They're a good size, not too tiny and putzy, and not too big and clunky.  I used my scrap strips, and cut them lickety split with the Accuquilt cutter.  Then I took them up to the sewing room on a cookie sheet.

I'm varying the blocks a little, and making them very scrappy.  Lots of the squares came from my shoebox of leftover 3.5 in. squares.
So that's what I'm happy about this week.  
I guess I'm getting grouchy in my old age, but somehow today I've been thinking about stuff that makes me grind my teeth and shake my head.

Pet Peeves of Fall 

1.  Fake pumpkins for decorations.  Believe it or not, they actually make fake pumpkins TO CARVE.  Seriously.  Real pumpkins are cheap.  Buy some from a farmer.  Buy extras and make a pie or two.

2. Strong fake-cinnamon smelling pine cones.  Today I went to buy batting in a chain store, and could barely breathe for the smell of it.  I kept looking around for them, but didn't see the bin of them until I got to (of course) the batting shelves.  AT THE BACK OF THE STORE.  I think the employees stuck them back there to try to lose the smell, and who could blame them.  I might have put them on the loading dock where a truck would hit them.

3.  Christmas decorations put up before Halloween.  It gets earlier every year.  Next year it'll probably start right after Valentine's Day.  I like Christmas, I really do, but this is too much.  Holidays should take turns, like grade school kids at show and tell--one holiday at a time.

4.  This ENDLESS presidential election season.  We've had almost 2 years of this nonsense, and at this point I'm all out of outrage.  I'm going to be so excited to cast my ballot on election day, mainly because that will mean the election is finally OVER.

Sorry about the ranting this week.  Writing this down made me realize just how minor most of this stuff is, and how good I really have it.

I'm linking up with the very creative Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
and with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts
 
Enjoy the season this week, whatever it may bring.
Cheers,
Sylvia

Fall Harvest

In the fall of 2003, I participated in a Treadle On block exchange, which resulted in the quilt above.  The rules were a little unusual.  We made blocks in 3 different sizes--12 in., 9 in., and 6 in. finished.  We could use any leaf pattern we liked, with the leaves in fall colors.  The backgrounds were to be dark, like the forest floor.  And of course, all the blocks were to be sewn with treadle or hand crank sewing machines.
Waiting to get my "squishy" (technical term for the package of blocks) in the mail was like waiting for Christmas when I was six.  It was so worth it!  The variety of blocks and prints was wonderful.  It was fun laying them out on the floor and fitting them together.  I added a few blocks with light backgrounds to jazz it up a bit.   I made lots of flying geese for the border on my Minnesota A, looking out the dining room window. 
It's been 10 years now, and I can hardly believe it's passed so quickly.  My favorite time to work on this quilt was in the fall.  It was hard to make myself do the quilting any other time.  I just finally finished the quilting last year.
I'm including a few more pictures.  If you see a block you made, could you let me know?  I once had a list of all the participants, but I'm afraid it disappeared.  I know Windy Cindy made the pink batik blocks.

I'm finding that I really love the color orange!  Maybe it's just this time of year, but I'm seeing orange everywhere and really enjoying its mellow brightness.

These pumpkins are garden "volunteers".  Their seeds were in the compost, and the vines came up everywhere.  The big green one is slowly turning orange.  I bought the butternut squash at the farmers market.
I'm still working on the feedsack pinwheels, and I will post a tutorial shortly.  Even there, I'm finding bits of orange.
Here's hoping you are enjoying this season too.