Bountiful Heirlooms

My Exciting News!

2012-01-30T10:28:00.002-07:00

I've been waiting to do this post for more than three months -- but now I can let you all know that I heard from Martingale Company / That Patchwork Place last week.

They ARE going to publish my book of quilt designs!

We are still in the early stages so I don't know yet what the schedule will be for release. I do know that there will be 30 quilts in the book -- which means I need to design (and make) 3 more for the book.

So far I've completed 18 of the tops -- which means I've got 12 to go. I just snapped a photo of most of the tops that are done. Martingale has 3 of them, plus I was too lazy to go down stairs to get the other couple.

They all still need to be quilted and bound. Not to mention writing the instructions. So I've got a lot to do over the next few months.

Needless to say, I'm excited -- and I'll post updates as I am able.

This past weekend I went to the Heritage Quilters Winterfest quilting retreat at a great lodge up in the mountains. (Yes, it snowed and got VERRRRY cold while we were there. But my room had a gas fireplace that I used every evening to cozy things up.) Joanna Figueroa from Fig Tree Designs was the featured teacher, and I took two classes from her. She was delightful -- and did a fabulous trunk show of about 30 or so of her quilts.

I also had to post this photo of some visitors I had in my backyard a few weeks ago. It's not unusual to see a deer or two now and then. But to have 6 at one time was quite the sight!

Bye for now.

2011-11-26T19:51:00.001-07:00

Wow! It's almost December. It's been a busy last few months. Here's a wrap-up of what I've been up to.

First, I finished my quilt book proposal about a month ago and sent it off to the publisher along with a few sample quilts. I hope that by the end of January I'll hear whether they are going to publish it (or not). In the meantime, I'm still working on sewing up the quilts that I designed for the book.

Second, I recently returned from long trip to Asia (nearly four weeks). We started in Singapore and then flew to Cambodia to see the Angkor Wat temples.

Transportation was primarily via tuk tuk. Imagine our shock when the drivers who met us at the airport were there with tuk tuks!

We flew back to Singapore and boarded a cruise ship. What a wonderful surprise when we found our cabin. We had been upgraded from a mini-suite to a full suite. It made the 16-day cruise (7 port days, 7 sea days, plus embarkation and disembarkation days) an even better experience to have the extra space, a huge balcony, as well as the extra perks that they provide to passengers in suites (free laundry, fresh fruit in the cabin, free Internet, a separate dining room for breakfast so we didn't have to fight the buffet lines, and more!)

Our first stop was Thailand. The flooding had pretty much receded in Bangkok (except during high tide) so we were able to see the highlights of the city.

The next port was Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. Great shopping. Great food. Crazy traffic. We even went to a quilt shop (not for selling fabric, but for selling handmade quilts). One of my travel companions knew about this shop because a friend of hers had been to Saigon to teach local women to make quilts to sell.

We visited another port in Vietnam -- Nha Trang. This is a resort area, but we went into the countryside to see how people live in the more rural areas. This included a visit to a kindergarten. It was fun to see the exuberance of the children -- they are same all over the world. We visited a village market and saw how people work in the rice fields.

Next stop: Hong Kong. I LOVED Hong Kong. Beautiful city. Great shopping. (We shopped mostly at the Ladies Market -- buying leather knock-off purses, iPad covers, iPhone cases, and more.)

Went to the top of Victoria Peak on the tram to see the city from above. Also saw the LDS temple.

And spent the evening watching the lights come on the skyscrapers and then the laser show before returning to our ship and departing for our next port (which was Shanghai).

What can I say about Shanghai? Huge city. Our guide said there are 23 million people, although online lists show it with 17 to 19 million (depending on the list). But regardless of who you believe, it is a huge city. We went to the top of the tallest building in the city and got a good view of all of the skyscrapers, but spent most of our time in the old city shopping (and eating).

Our next port was Nagasaki, Japan. Getting around the city was a snap because of its great streetcar system. We went to the Peace Park which was done to commemorate those who died as a result of the atomic bombing that took place to end World War II in the Pacific. Didn't do much shopping because the shopping areas we were at had pretty much the same stuff as we can get at home.

Our next port was Busan, Korea. We only had a half day in Busan, but we were able to go to the city center and saw the amazing (and huge) Jagalchi fish market. We really wanted to find someplace to eat Korean BBQ while in port, but although we found several restaurants, none of them served Korean BBQ beef. So, we ended up eating a late lunch on the ship.

We disembarked in Beijing, China. After checking into our hotel, we headed to the Pearl Market (which has a lot more than pearls -- although I did buy pearl earrings). We had lunch at a hot pot restaurant which was a fun experience.
And we shopped 'til we dropped. The next two days were spent touring the sights of Beijing -- Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Ming Tombs, and -- the highlight of it all, the Great Wall of China.

After nearly four weeks of travel, I was ready to go home. I had cashed in all of my frequent flyer miles to do my air travel via Business and First Class -- so even the hours spent at 35K feet weren't too bad.

I've done a lot of international travel in my life, and recovering from jet lag from this trip took more than a week. It was brutal. I'm finally sleeping normal hours again.

It was a great trip, although I'm not sure how many of the places I'm dying to go to again (except perhaps Hong Kong). But it was nice to experience Asia since I'd never been there.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, are getting ready for Christmas, and finding time to stitch, sew, bake, shop, or whatever you enjoy doing!
Bye for now.

Fabric Stash

2011-08-27T06:00:00.028-06:00

When I started working on quilts for a possible quilting book, I gave up on keeping track of my fabric stash in and out. I have a feeling that in spite of making 13 quilts in the past couple months, that the "in" stash still outnumbers the "out" stash.

Here are my latest stash acquisitions. I'm eager to turn them into quilts!

Fuschia and Lime:

Pink and Gray:

Red and Aqua:

Yellow and Black (whatever quilt I make just might be called "Big Yellow Taxi"):

And this darling fabric called "Early Bird" by Cosmo Cricket:

And guess what I happily discovered this week? Collecting fabrics and sewing quilts are two separate hobbies! Who knew?

Fabric Basting Glue Tips

2011-08-25T16:23:00.000-06:00

I just have to share my latest discoveries about fabric basting glue.

When I began appliqueing about 12 or so years ago, I discovered Roxanne's Glue-Baste-It. And I absolutely fell in love with the fast-drying glue for adhering applique pieces to my projects. They stuck no matter how rough I was on the project. However, I wasn't so in love with the glue tip that always seemed to be clogged.

Then when I took some classes from Kim Diehl, she shared the basting glue she was using -- Quilter's Choice. No problems with dispensing the glue -- but I found that if I didn't use the glue for a few months, it got really thick and started to dry out. Ugh!

This past January I learned that Jill Finley of Jillily Studio Quilting had repackaged the Glue-Baste-It as Appli-Glue and it had a much improved tip. In fact, when I first bought it it was in a very small little bottle (which I couldn't find in order to photograph). It worked great -- although a little on the expensive side. My only complaint was that the bottle didn't have a removeable tip -- so I couldn't re-fill it with my two bottles of Glue-Baste-It with clogged tips. Jillily Studios now has Appli-Glue with what appears to be a much better tip (and a bigger bottle than what I bought in January). But I haven't used it because I'm now using something different.

Here's the great news! First, I've found the perfect tip and re-fillable bottle. The bottle is identical to the original Glue-Baste-It bottle. Plus, the metal tips screw on to the top of the plastic nozzle for precise, thin drops or lines of glue. The lid fits perfectly on my Glue-Baste-It bottles that have perfectly good glue in them. Eureka! No more clogged tips.

But guess what else I just learned? You can use Elmer's Washable No-Run School Glue for fabric basting.

Note that the other Elmer's glues won't work. The School Glue is non-toxic and washes out, although it's not clear whether it is pH neutral. I did a fabric basting test comparing the Elmer's School Glue to Roxanne's Glue-Baste-It and the results were identical. Considering it is less than $3 for 4 ounces, compared to nearly $10 for 2 ounces of the quilt-branded glue, I'll probably use the School Glue once my Glue-Baste-It runs out.

But even if you stick with the proven Glue-Baste-It, I highly recommend getting the metal tips. You'll need to get the plastic bottle too in order to have the lid that the tips fit on. Here's where I got mine online. (Unfortunately the shipping was outrageous -- but I figured it was worth it since I had about $20 worth of basting glue that was going to waste.)

The Most Useless Sewing Tool?

2011-08-06T16:54:00.000-06:00

I’m a gadget junkie. I tend to buy cool tools that are supposed to help with quilting / sewing projects. Some of them actually live up to the hype.

But this is one gizmo that makes no sense – especially for $59.99! It is the Pintastic™ Automatic Pin Dispenser from June Tailor.

You can watch a video of how the Pintastic works here.

Now I absolutely love some of the other June Tailor tools (such as my pressing board and Shape Cut ruler). What I’m wondering is whether this is something you would ever invest in? Or, if you have it, please share why it is a “must have” sewing tool!

I picked up the first retirement quilt from the quilter a few weeks ago.

I haven’t yet sent it to my boss who retired in January since I had received e-mail from him saying he was visiting Barcelona, Spain. But I’m going to assume he’s now home and I’ll be sending it to him this week.

Lastly, a quick update on how my efforts towards a quilting book are proceeding. I’ve completed eleven quilt tops since I began this project. I want to do a few more before finalizing my book proposal – although I’ve designed about 30 overall for the book.

Some of the blocks are traditional – but I’ve done them in a unique way, say with a different setting or pieced sashing or borders. Some of the blocks are a twist on a traditional block – where I switched up the values, making the block look very different. And even some of the blocks are original.

I’d love to show you what I’ve been working on, but alas, I think it’s best to keep them a secret for now.

Some of my quilts have been totally scrappy. Some have used fabrics from popular fabric lines. I’ve been challenging myself to go outside my comfort zone and use fabrics in colors and values that I love, but that aren’t what I naturally gravitate to.

For example, one of my favorite original quilt designs was a combination of piecing and simple applique using Amy Butler’s Soul Blossoms fabric mixed with some of her solids and Full Moon polka dot fabrics from the Lotus line.

I’ve also done a quilt using Sandy Gervais’ Lollipop (Moda)

one using American Jane’s Breath of Avignon (Moda)

and one using French General’s Maison de Garance (Moda).

It has been great fun doing my own quilt designs rather than taking advantage of the creativity of others.

Bye for now – and thanks for stopping by.

What have I been working on?

2011-06-22T09:29:00.001-06:00

Wow the past couple weeks have flown by. But they have been productive.

I decided that since I'm not working (and not looking for a job yet), maybe I should see if I could figure out a way to make money from this crazy quilting obsession. Could I design quilts that other equally obsessed fabric-aholics might want to make?

So I decided to begin designing and sewing quilt tops in order to put together a book proposal for one of the quilting book publishers. They have a preferred format for the proposal and like to have samples/drawings, etc. that show what the intended book would include.

So I've designed 5 quilts so far, finished two tops and have two more tops nearly finished.

Of course this could all be an exercise in futility. But even so, there will be finished quilts at the end of the process and the designing efforts have been a fun challenge.

I'll be keeping the quilts a surprise -- as well as the overall premise of the book -- until I know whether my book idea is accepted (or not).

Wish me luck!

No Fat Quarters Were Harmed In the Making of This Quilt

2011-06-08T09:38:00.001-06:00

This was a total scrap quilt. All 930 pieces!

Every fabric came from miscellaneous strips, squares, triangles and scraps from recent quilts I’ve worked on.

The brown inner border was left over from an old Thimbleberries quilt, and most of the blacks in the outer border were left over from the Gathering Baskets quilt (Primitive Pieces by Lynda) that I finished a few weeks ago.

This is my 9th quilt top finish this year – adding to my list of tops ready to quilt.

Using Up My Scraps

2011-06-03T13:43:00.001-06:00

I'm working a fun quilt. It is Lori Smith’s “Pinwheels for Caroline”.

I have finished all of the blocks for the center and am in the process of sewing the blocks into rows.

It hasn’t been a “stash reduction” quilt, but definitely a “scrap reduction” quilt. The pinwheel blocks finish 3 inches, so each of the half-square triangles (HST) are 2 inches before sewing into the pinwheel. The HST alternate blocks also finish 3 inches.

I began by pouring through my scraps looking for strips – 2-1/2 inches to 3-1/2 inches for the pinwheel HSTs and 3-1/2 inches and wider for the alternate HSTs, 3 to 4 inch squares, and miscellaneous triangles.

Then, depending on the size of the strip I used one of three methods to make the HSTs:

Squares with line drawn corner to corner, then stitched scant ¼ inch on each side of the line:

Triangles cut using an Easy Angle ruler:

Or Thangles papers (for the 2-inch HSTs

If you haven’t used Thangles, they are a fast, very accurate way to make HSTs. I typically don’t use them on HSTs that are larger than 3 inches, but if you need a lot of HSTs and don’t want to have to square them up, Thangles are a great tool.

Here’s a link to the Thangles website with detailed instructions.

I ended up using three different sewing machine feet while sewing all these HSTs, and then assembling them into pinwheel blocks. When sewing the Thangles, I used an open-toe zig-zag foot so I could more easily see the lines to sew on.

When sewing the triangles cut with the Easy Angle ruler, I used my ¼-inch quilting foot with the fabric guide.

And when I was sewing the HSTs using the “squares” method, I used my regular ¼-inch quilting foot.

I also had to keep switching my stitch length. When stitching on Thangles paper, I used a smaller stitch – 1.6 on my machine to make sure the HST didn't loosen while removing the paper.

I also found it useful to use a 3.5 basting stitch to make sure all of the points on my pinwheels were aligned, however, after the first several blocks I found that everything was aligned well and I didn’t need to take this extra step.

Once this quilt is quilted and bound, I’m going to overdye it with a tan Rit dye to tone down the lighter cream backgrounds. I want the quilt to have an overall darker look to it without the little pops of “light” from the lighter and brighter colors. (At least, that’s the plan right now. We’ll see what I end up doing when the time comes.)

All in all, I’m loving this scrappy quilt -- and enjoying using up a bunch of scraps..

Thanks for visiting, and have a great weekend!

So How Long Did That Quilt Take to Make?

2011-06-01T09:17:00.000-06:00

I'm always fascinated when someone asks me how long a quilt or stitching project took to complete. I don't keep track of how long something takes -- although sometimes I have a pretty good idea if I made the quilt without switching to other projects or letting it become a UFO for a time. And, for the most part, I don't want to know how much time I spent on a quilt!

On Monday I started to gather up the fabrics and scraps for the pink, green and black "Round the Twist" Alex Anderson design (that I'm going to call "Twist and Shout"). (I showed it in an earlier post, but am including it here so you don't have to look for it.)

I realized that I had a lot of 2-inch strips and squares, plus plenty of partial fat quarters left over. Why not use them in a smaller quilt that could either accompany "Twist and Shout" when I give it to some lucky recipient, or save the smaller quilt for the next baby-girl quilt I need.

I decided one of Carrie Nelson's Schnibbles would be a good option -- and eventually settled on "Plan C", which uses 2-inch squares and strips. It is in her book called "Schnibbles Times Two". Although Carrie's pattern was designed for charm squares, I could just use what I had already pre-cut, plus cut some additional pieces as needed.

Here is the result -- which is about 32 inches square.

The funny thing is that it took LONGER to make the small quilt than it took to make the larger twin-sized quilt. Not a lot longer, but still I expected it to work up more quickly than it did. (It took about "a day" -- or rather one late night sewing and the better part of yesterday.)

Then there's my mom's flannel log cabin. What started out as a 20-block quilt (4 X 5) is now a 49-block quilt. Yep, it is now a king-sized quilt that is 98 inches by 98 inches. We laid it out on her bed and it’s going to look great. (This photo was taken before one more row was added at the right, which will be at the bottom of the bed. The stars will be centered on the bed.)

Now the problem is that we bought enough backing for a quilt that is 84 inches by 98 inches – and it just won’t “stretch” for the extra 7 14-inch blocks we added to the bottom. I thought I’d found an extra 3 yards (which is what it would take), but just got e-mail from the shop I ordered it from that indicated they really didn’t have the fabric in stock. I’m going to keep looking, but will probably end up having to piece something else into the backing.

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday already – not to mention the first day of June! This year is nearly half over! Have a great rest of the week.

The Last Full Measure of Devotion

2011-05-30T12:17:00.000-06:00

I have much to be thankful for on this Memorial Day.

My father is a Korea War veteran. I have a 5th great grandfather (my mother's ancestry) who was at the Battle of Bunker Hill which took place early in the Revolutionary War and a 5th great grandfather (my father's ancestry) who fought in the southern theater of the Revolutionary War.

And I have two nephews and a nephew-in-law who are part of the US Military, not to mention several uncles and cousins who served.

Thank you!

If you haven't seen this tremendous performance, it's worth a look!

Quilt in a Day -- Almost!

2011-05-28T09:39:00.000-06:00

On Thursday a good friend and I did our own "shop hop" to visit the many quilt shops from the south end of the Salt Lake Valley down to Springville, UT (about an hour south). We started at a darling shop called "Corn Wagon Quilts". It was a shop featured in Quilt Sampler about 6 or 7 years ago.

We then hit a couple shops in Orem, Utah -- including one I had heard about but never been to: American Quilting. They had some great quilt samples around the shop, with many from Edyta Sitar's book "Friendship Strips and Scraps". (Yes, I ended up buying the book because the shop's samples were so inspiring.)

We went to an old country store in Lehi, UT that also has a fabric store. I didn't buy much there, but my shop-hopping friend bought all of the fabrics she needed to make Bunny Hill Design's fabulous Yoyoville quilt.

After a stop for lunch at Thanksgiving Point, we went to four more shops in Salt Lake City. I had shown my friend the flannel log cabin I am making for my mom, and she decided that she also wanted to make that quilt. So we ended the day at Quilts, Etc. so she could buy the Woolies Flannel fabrics.

I had decided to buy fabrics for a quilt to "commemorate" our do-it-yourself shop hop. I bought coordinating fabrics at each of the shops we visited to assemble into a quilt that would become a memory of the great day we had.

I knew that I wanted to buy fabrics a bit outside my comfort zone. (I'm definitely a "Jo Morton -- Kansas Troubles -- Civil War reproductions" fabrics kind of gal.) I had originally thought I'd buy some Amy Butler fabrics, but I'm not quite there yet. I love her fabrics, but I haven't figured out how to make them work together in a quilt. Some day I will! Anyway, these are the fabrics I bought during our shop-hop adventure (plus the bolt of white that I have in my stash):

And after a busy day sewing yesterday (and about 90 minutes this morning to add the borders), here's my finished shop-hop quilt top:

The design is called "Round the Twist", by Alex Anderson. It appeared in the June 2003 American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. (Yes, I keep my old magazines for quilt inspiration!) This morning as I was adding the borders, I was kind of wishing I had used black rather than white as the centers of the blocks. But I do like the way it turned out. I will probably end up giving it away at some point in the future because although I love it, it doesn't fit with my style of decorating at all!

The quilt would be a great beginner project because it is just snowball blocks and the square "twist" block.

The only tricky part was laying out the blocks, because there isn't a method for setting them. You basically have to play with the blocks in order to create the interlocking color rings.

I have finished sewing all of the blocks for my mom's flannel log cabin. I'll start sewing them into rows today. She thinks it still needs to be bigger, and wants me to add a border. The thing is, I don't think I've every seen borders on log cabin quilts. I'll have to do some investigating.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend and take advantage of every opportunity to honor those who have died in the service of our nation's freedom!

Go! Baby and the Flannel Log Cabin and Stars Quilt

2011-05-23T08:35:00.000-06:00

In January, my mom and I stopped at one of the quilt shops in SLC. She found a kit for a quilt that she really liked – a flannel log cabin with secondary star pattern where the blocks meet. I finally began working on it for her over the weekend.

It turns out the kit uses the same flannel fabrics that were in the flannel lap quilt that I finished for her a couple months ago.Not only that, my mom had forgotten that she had purchased the kit – so when I told her I was finally working on her quilt, she couldn’t remember what the quilt even looked like.

Since the “logs” in the quilt are 2-1/2 inches wide, I decided to try out my new Accuquilt Go! Baby fabric cutter.

The fabrics were each 10-1/2 inches by width of fabric. So I began by trimming the selvages and pressing the fabrics and then folding to be 5-1/4 X 21 inches.

This fit perfectly on the 2-1/2 inch strip die.

In less than 30 minutes I had 8 perfect 2-1/2 inch strips of 20 fabrics.

And with no more fabric waste than if I had cut the strips with a rotary cutter.

For the block centers and star points, I used my June Tailor “ruler” to quickly subcut 2-1/2 inch squares.

Then I used traditional ruler and rotary cutting to cut the logs to the various lengths.

Here are the first 12 of 20 14-inch blocks in the quilt. The next 8 blocks are sewn except for the last round of logs. Because of the star points, it takes as long to do the last 4 logs on a block as it does to do the first 8 logs. But I’ll probably finish those sometime today.

My mom came over to look at the progress (and to remember what she had purchased). Unfortunately she didn’t pay attention to the size of quilt kit she had purchased – and she really wanted a quilt for her king-size bed. Oops. So, she’s calling the quilt shop today to find out if they have another kit. If so, I’ll be adding another 22 blocks to the quilt to increase it from 56X70 to 84X98.

Have a creative week!

Progress on Gathering Baskets Quilt

2011-05-20T11:54:00.002-06:00

This is turning out to be a big quilt -- bigger than I thought. But I'm really liking it!

Without the last 3 borders (top, bottom and left), it is about 72 inches square right now. It will end up about 80 X 86 when I get the rest of the borders on.

I would love to replace the quilt that hangs over my stairwell with this one once it's quilted, but if I add the other borders, it will be about 8 inches too wide for the quilt hanger. This photo shows what is there now.

So the big question is -- do you think I can get by without the borders?

Thanks for visiting.

Eighth Quilt Finish for 2011

2011-05-19T07:53:00.000-06:00

A quick post today to show my latest quilting adventures -- one finish and significant progress on another.

I'm so glad to have this quilt finished -- since this one's for me! I knew I had to make it when I saw the pattern name ("Nancy's Nine Patch").

But it was the colors, use of black (which I love in quilts) and the simple, yet gorgeous borders that won me over. And not only do I love 9-patch blocks, I love to sew square-in-square blocks -- and this design was the best of both worlds.

And here's what I've been working on over the past week. I received the pattern and fabrics as a block of the month last year -- but had only worked on one block.

I've now finished the main blocks -- but now need to do the borders and applique. Here's a link to the original design from Primitive Pieces by Lynda.

It continues to rain in Utah -- and I thought I lived in the desert! I hope everyone has a great day. Thanks for stopping by.

Cowboy Christmas

2011-05-15T19:34:00.001-06:00

Cowboy Christmas is how ranchers often refer to branding day. Not only does it represent the end of a long, hard winter -- but a time to brand, inoculate and (in the case of bull calves), castrate. Often neighboring ranchers get together to help each other take care of these tasks -- but my brother recruits family and friends to pitch in. He only had about 50 calves to take care of (plus give their mommas a shot), so they were able to get it all done in a few hours. My brother wrote -- and at lunch recited -- his first original cowboy poem all about "Cowboy Christmas". I'm hoping to get a copy of it because it summarizes so well what goes on during this annual event.

The day started with a round-up. But, it wasn't a round-up on horseback as in years past. Instead, he loaded a tractor with a bail of hay and the cows and calves followed him down from an upper pasture to the corral area. There were a few people on 4-wheelers to help bring up the rear. My brother referred to this as a "Japanese round-up", I guess because the 4-wheelers were made in Japan.

Next up was to separate the mommas from their babies. And, believe me, they were bellering for each other -- even though they were only a few yards apart. When reunited, the cows start sniffing each calf until she finds her offspring. Then everyone is happy again.

Mid-morning it was time to get the sheep sheared -- about 5 ewes and 3 rams. Two brothers made quick work of it.

Lunch was a "milk can dinner". At the bottom of the milk can was a layer of red potatoes. Then there were layers of carrots, onions, kielbasa sausage, ham, and cabbage. After adding 4 cups of water, the milk can was sealed up and cooked for about 90 minutes on a camp stove. Here were the yummy results.

During the day I baked bread in my solar oven. It was doing great -- but then clouds set in and the temperature dropped to 150 degrees in the solar oven. I ended up finishing the bread in the oven in my cabin. Oh well, next time.

After lunch I planted our garden, with some welcome help from my mom. Since the ranch is at a higher elevation than Salt Lake City, and because I'm only at the ranch every few weeks, I decided that this year we would only plant veggies that don't have to be picked immediately and that do well into the cooler months of September and October.

The furthest grow box has all cabbage, except for one spaghetti squash. In the center box we did two varieties of carrots and two varieties of beets. After they start coming up, I'll go back and fill in with more carrots and beets in order to stagger the crop. And the last box is all winter squash. We've grown beans, peppers, and tomatoes in the past, but the growing season at the ranch isn't long enough for tomatoes, and beans and peppers need to be picked regularly so the plants continue to produce. I'll leave those things for my backyard garden.

There was a new litter of piglets. Luckily they are weaned from their momma sow because the momma has been ailing. These wiener pigs grow so fast it's shocking. But I love saving my veggie scraps and bring them to feed the pigs. They love these little extras to their grain.

Lastly, I presented baby Tysen with his quilt. Hopefully it will match his denim and cowboy themed nursery at Ft. Stewart, GA.

I hope you all have a great week!

Antietam Quilt Top Finished

2011-05-12T08:13:00.000-06:00

I don’t know why I waited so long to finish this quilt top, but I’m so glad I didn’t wait any longer. It was surprisingly quick to finish. Of course I already had sewn all of the half-square triangles back in November 2009 before I got my new sewing machine. So it was only appropriate that I finish it with my 10-year-old Pfaff machine while the Baby Lock Espire is being serviced.

I love the fabrics – “Traditions”, Collections for a Cause by Howard Marcus for Moda. It was a block of the month, and since I didn’t make the quilt as big as planned, I have plenty of leftover fabric.

I think I will use the extra fabric to make this Lori Smith pattern that I’ve wanted to do for a while. Since there were leftover half-square triangles from Antietam, I already have enough to make about 15 of the 77 pinwheel blocks (after trimming them to size). This will most likely not be a quick quilt to make – but it will be a good project to work on as a “leader and ender” project while working on other quilts.

I’m heading to my cabin at my brother’s ranch tomorrow. It is cattle branding and sheep shearing on Saturday. Plus, time to plant the vegetable garden.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Two Retirement Quilt Tops Ready to Quilt

2011-05-10T14:13:00.001-06:00

My long-time boss (for 21 years) retired in January. I had always intended to make a quilt for his retirement gift, but he retired without any notice and I didn't have his quilt done. I had decided on which quilt to make for him more than a year ago, so I had everything ready to go.

Since he was born and raised in Philadelphia, I decided this quilt with reproduction fabrics by Nancy Gere for Windham Fabrics would be perfect. The quilt's center panel commemorates the centennial of the US in 1876 which included a huge exposition in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park that highlighted the industrial revolution. I didn't realize how big the quilt would turn out until I started working on it (the half-square triangles finish 4 inches). I ended up leaving off the last border to keep it a bit smaller than the original. When my machine quilter calls to let me know that the current quilt is done, I'll drop this one off.

I also have a quilt ready for the retirement (sometime in the next year) of the other founder of the company I worked for. (This company was sold to a huge software company about 2-1/2 years ago). Although he was only my boss for a few months, I have known him and worked very closely with him for more than 21 years. He attended his first year of college in Gettysburg PA, which is also where he met his wife. This quilt features Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address, so it seems an appropriate retirement quilt for him when he retires. I know his wife as well, and am confident that she will like this quilt.

I didn't originally intend to do Americana quilts for both of them, but that's how it turned out. But they are still fairly different from each other that it will be fine.

In keeping with this historical quilt theme, I pulled out one of my UFOs and began working on it again -- thus turning it into a WIP. This quilt is called "Antietam", to commemorate the tragic loss of life at the Civil War battle of Antietam Creek, Maryland in 1862. First the original quilt:

It looked like it would be fairly straightforward to make -- but when I got into making the quilt, it wasn't as simple as I'd hoped. Here is one of the blocks:

Then blocks are sewn together in a zig-zag pattern:

Then the "peaks" of the squares are trimmed to create a row. First row done, about a dozen more to go.

I had to take my Baby Lock sewing machine in to be serviced this morning. The automatic thread cutter wasn't cutting the bobbin thread -- only the top thread, and the tension was all goofed up. Nothing I did would fix the tension on the bottom. So, for the next several days I'm back working on my Pfaff machine. It's funny how quickly I got accustomed to the snazzy convenience features on the Baby Lock -- things like the pressure foot automatically going up when the stitching stops. But since I started the Antietam quilt using my Pfaff, it's probably good that I finish it with the Pfaff. I had sewn all of the half-square triangles, so now just have to assemble the blocks and rows, and then sew the rows together. My goal is to finish it up before I pick up my other machine from being serviced.

I hope you all have a great week of quilting, stitching, or whatever fulfills you!

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-08T12:10:00.002-06:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

My mom was born on Mother's day. Many of her birthdays over the years fell on Mother's day. Although her birthday isn't until Tuesday, we had a surprise 80th birthday party for her last night. How we were able to keep the party a surprise is a miracle.

My mom as a teenager

My mom, dad and me

At the party I also presented wedding quilts to two nephews and their wives.

Ben and Nicole with their quilt

Mike, Emily, and 2-week old Tysen with their quilt

Thursday night was Ben's commissioning ceremony into the US Army, Corps of Engineers. He asked his wife and me to be the ones to pin his 2nd Lieutenant bars on during the ceremony, and his first salute was with his brother Mike (unfortunately that photo didn't turn out).

As one of the top cadets in Utah, he was selected a couple years ago to receive the pass of a football from Univ of Utah quarterback before ROTC cadets ran the football from Salt Lake City to Provo before the rivalry football game with BYU. The football was later signed by all of the team players and Ben presented the football to his ROTC commanding officer. At the commissioning ceremony, it was presented back to Ben.

My mom and I also went to the Home Machine Quilting Show in SLC. I'll post some photos of the quilts on display in my next post. All in all, it was an eventful week.

It's About Time I Cleaned My Sewing Room

2011-04-29T14:05:00.000-06:00

At some point the messiness gets in the way of being creative. I think it's time to straighten up my sewing room.

But not today -- leaving to meet friends for dinner and then see the movie "Water for Elephants". Tomorrow I'm heading to Idaho with my parents for clean-up day at my grandparents' homestead/farm. Tomorrow night I'm taking my mom to a Yanni concert. On Sunday I teach the adult Sunday School class. So, my sewing room won't get cleaned until Monday (hopefully).

(See my new toy -- an Accuquilt Go! Baby cutter. Haven't done much with it yet, but will be cutting charm squares with it for a pinwheel baby quilt I need to make.)

BTW, did you see any of the royal wedding? I loved this picture of the "royal kiss" -- but not the kiss itself. Check out the little flower girl who looks totally perturbed with everything. Too funny.

Bye for now.

Double the Stress-busting Benefits of Tube Time

2011-04-27T15:17:00.000-06:00

Turns out that the combination of busy hands (fine-motor activity and handiwork) with TV watching triggers a light meditative state that soothes anxiety (according to a supposed reknowned psychiatrist Norman E. Rosenthal). I don't know how much his study cost, but I could have told him that myself! I rarely watch TV without multi-tasking -- but I'm able to totally de-stress when watching TV while sewing or cross-stitching. (Of course, adding chocolate helps even more!) So, you can justify whatever guilty pleasure you watch on TV (royal wedding? Dancing with the stars? shopping or cooking channels?)

Here's progress on a couple of my de-stressing projects (yes, they were all done with the TV on):

This quilt is totally scrappy. I didn't make any effort to match setting blocks with the chunky churn dash blocks. I kind of matched the appliqued arcs within a single setting block -- but that was it. I love randomy, scrappy quilts like this.

Chunky Churn Dash swap blocks + appliqued setting blocks

Close-up showing machine applique (the Kim Diehl way)

I'm loving this Carriage House Crossing project -- all with one color floss (albeit hand-dyed for the value variation).

Bye for now.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-23T20:48:00.000-06:00

Photos from my visit to Jerusalem last November -- appropriate for Easter:

Sign marking the path that tradition says Jesus walked while carrying the cross.

Golgotha ("the skull") -- the hill where Christ was cruicified.

The Garden Tomb

Sign on the door when you walk out of the tomb: the true message of Easter.

I hope you have a wonderful Easter Sunday.

Today's Non-stitchy/Non-quilty Projects

2011-04-22T15:55:00.000-06:00

Spent a lot of time in the kitchen today.

First up -- pressure-canned some kidney beans. A quick and easy (and inexpensive) alternative to buying canned beans. I usually just add water and salt, but this time I added bacon and onion for more flavor. Chopped up about 1/2 pound of bacon and slowly crisped it up while rendering the fat. Then sauteed a couple chopped onions in the bacon grease and pureed the bacon and onions in the food processor. Added a couple tablespoons of the mixture to each pint. To each pint I added 1/2 cup dried beans, 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, and enough boiling water to fill the jar. Then just pressure-canned for 75 minutes at 15 pounds pressure. Voila! Canned beans for about 1/4 the price of cans from the grocery store.

Next, I decided to start some alfalfa sprouts in a new sprouter that I've had for several months. They should be ready in a few days.

And, lastly, I made cookies for our next family get-together -- "Soft Oreos".

2 Devil's Food cake mixes
4 Eggs
3/4 cup oil
-- Frosting --
1 8-ounce cream cheese, room temperature
2 2/3 cups Powdered sugar

Instructions: Mix cake mix, eggs and oil. Roll into quarter-size balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 350 for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cookies cool completely.

Meanwhile, make frosting by combining cream cheese and powdered sugar. (Although it didn't call for it, I added about 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.) Put between two cookies. Recipe made 3 dozen sandwich cookies.

Oh yeah, also did laundry (no photos necessary)!

My Schedule Has Suddenly Opened Up

2011-04-21T12:01:00.000-06:00

I spent most of last week in Florida for work. Lots of meetings. Got home Thursday. Attended the West Ridge Academy spring gala / fund raiser on Friday night. Met a new great-nephew (not sure why he isn't my "grand" nephew, but oh well.)

Benson Lee Allen was born on April 7th and was a big little guy -- one more ounce and he would have been a 9-pounder! He was 8 days old in this picture -- and I think he looks older than that! (Ignore the hairy leg in the background -- I couldn't get a good angle to snap his picture!)

Taught the adult Sunday School class on Sunday. Worked on Monday and Tuesday as usual. And then everything came to a screeching halt! My boss called me yesterday (Wednesday a.m.) to let me know that our business unit was being re-organized and that I no longer had a job. And that Wednesday would be my last day. Within a couple hours FedEx had delivered my final paycheck, vacation payout, and all of the paperwork I had to sign. Three of my direct reports also were let go. It all happened so fast that I'm still digesting what happened.

So amid bidding co-workers farewell via e-mail and phone, I had to switch my cell phone from the corporate plan to one in my name; cash out all of my vested stock options; and then pack up all of the company's computer equipment, etc. and get it ready to take to FedEx today.

I'll always remember the day I was laid off (after more than 21 years!) because another great nephew was born. Please meet Tysen Mitch Hansen when he was only a few hours old.

So, I'm very quickly behind by 2 baby quilts (not that I didn't have plenty of notice to work on them!)

Today I applied for unemployment -- could do it all online which made it a snap. I updated my resume. And will begin sending out my resume probably tomorrow or Monday. (I think I do deserve some chill time to mentally prepare for what's ahead.) One of the competitors to the product line I was responsible for product and industry marketing is based about 50 miles from where I live. I checked their website and they have 3 openings that I am qualified for. I kind of wanted to have a couple months to decide what my future would be, but I doubt I would find anything so perfectly aligned with my background, that I feel I need to apply for them immediately. Of course, I'm not counting my chickens....

I received 6 months severance which I can probably stretch to up to a year (provided I don't spend it on fabric and quilting services). Add to that whatever unemployment I qualify for, and I'm not worried about day-to-day living. (Thank goodness my house and car are both paid for!) The biggest bite will be paying for COBRA insurance in the meantime.

I'm in house-cleaning/organizing mode. My home office has been transformed after removing all of the work-related stuff. I also decided to make bread since I needed bread and didn't want to risk a trip to the grocery store where I might buy unnecessary stuff.

I have wheat in a food storage supply, so I ground the wheat into flour using my trusty wheat grinder.

I used this tried-and-true whole wheat bread recipe from Deals to Meals. It really is the best whole wheat bread recipe. I make mine from winter white wheat which is lighter in flavor and color than red wheat. I always get compliments on this recipe when I make it.

And this is the result. (My house is smelling so wonderful right now as the bread cools enough for me to dig in!)

I haven't been in my sewing room for a couple weeks -- but I plan to remedy that this afternoon! I have made more progress stitching my family history sampler. I don't think I'll have it done by our next family reunion in July, but I hope to have about half of the blocks completed.

Have a great day!

Catching Up

2011-04-09T13:29:00.001-06:00

A quick catch-up post before I head to Orlando for the better part of the week.

This is the Carriage House Samplings project I've been stitching. I'll work on it to/from Florida (and during a long layover in Atlanta when returning home). I've been upgraded to first class both directions and will be by the window, so should have good light to stitch by! I'm using Belle Soie hand-dyed silk, color is called "Mudpies". I am loving the way this looks. And, of course, I think Belle Soie is my favorite silk to stitch with. It is so luscious to the touch.

I did make some progress on my family history sampler. It's been about a year since I finished designing it -- but I have been very slow to stitch. I must have perfect conditions to stitch on that darker 40-count fabric -- good light, mageyes, etc.

I picked up Jenny and Chad's wedding quilt from the quilter yesterday. I was hoping to get the binding sewn on before I head to the airport, so my mom could finish the hand-stitching of the binding. But alas, it's not going to happen. I haven't packed yet and have a family event this evening.

I gave in to quilt-blogger peer pressure and bought a Twister template to make a twister quilt. Or rather, I made a large block that will become a pillow. It's a fun technique. Basically sew together a bunch of squares and then use the tool to cut 4-patch blocks that, when sewn back together, form the twisted pinwheel design.

For the twisted pinwheel, I used scraps from this quilt. The top is finished, but I haven't had it quilted since I haven't decided who will be the lucky recipient.

I put my mom to work basting hexagons. She did a great job. I think she has finished about 300 -- but since I haven't figured out how I'm going to set them, I haven't given her any more to work on. The fabric is "Bliss" by Bonnie and Camille. These were all done from a strip set, but I have a fat quarter bundle of all the fabrics -- so there's the potential of a lot more hexies!

Lastly, I've been remiss with my stash accountability. Luckily I haven't been buying a boatload of fabric -- and I did drop off another quilt to be quilted which helped, but not enough to put in a stash deficit position.

Since February 9th (yes, 2 months ago):
In: 22 yards
Out: 11-1/4 yards
Net: 10-3/4 increase to my stash

Year to date:
In: 54-1/2 yards
Out: 47 yards
Net: 7-1/2 yards increase to my stash

But I have made good progress towards getting quilts DONE! 4 totally done; 1 ready to bind; and 1 at the quilter. So, that will make 6 in 2011. I'm planning to drop off a quilt top each time I pick one up for the rest of the year -- about one per month. And with a new baby born this week awaiting his quilt, and one due in a couple weeks, I've got to get busy!

I hope you all have a great week. It snowed (again!) in Utah. I'm looking forward to better weather in Orlando.

Back From the PX Ranch

2011-04-03T20:40:00.000-06:00

We had a great weekend at my brother’s ranch.

One new calf and momma:

Two of three lambs:

Some of the 12 piglets from one sow:

A quilt my sister-in-law made for a grandson who will most likely be born this week. The baby’s father is a huge University of Michigan fan. The quilt will be a great surprise for him too:

Pheasant hunting on Saturday (after my brother let a dozen or so pheasant loose on his property):

Three generations of wanna-be ranchers:

Also I was able to do some good stitching, but will photograph the project later this week.

I hope everyone has a great week!

A Couple Stitching Projects

2011-03-29T17:39:00.001-06:00

I have a triple batch of Bolognese sauce simmering on the stove – 3 more hours to go before I can let it cool and put in the fridge. The sauce works well on spaghetti, but I’ll be assembling lasagna Bolognese al forno on Thursday for a family get-together at my brother’s ranch this weekend. All of the baby animals are being born. He’s got about 25 new calves, 3 lambs, 5 kittens and 12 piglets.

My tried-and-true, authentic lasagna recipe doesn’t use ricotta, but instead uses béchamel cream sauce, along with parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, ham dices, lasagna noodles and the Bolognese sauce. I use the Barilla no-boil noodles – which are easier to use than the typical thick, wavy lasagna noodles; they are much thinner like fresh pasta so I can make a lasagna with many more layers. It will need to feed 13 people on Friday night. So yummy!

Sorry, I didn’t think about taking photos while I was making the sauce. But, here’s a photo of the cross stitching project I worked on while travelling to Philadelphia last week. I mixed “Wisper” floss with the off-white floss for the sheep – so it is thicker and a bit fuzzy from the mohair in the Wisper.

This next project will probably only be of interest to any LDS stitchers who visit my blog.

I designed it to commemorate the 200th birthday of Joseph Smith, but after I started stitching it, I wasn’t liking all of my floss color choices. But, I bit the bullet and decided to finish it – even though I’ll most likely re-stitch it with some color switches. I don’t like the light blue alphabet or the pink used in the little blossoms and some of the numbers. I will also use a softer gold for the beehives and house roof.

Plus, after I started the outline lettering with black, I decided it was too harsh – and so switched to dark brown. But I never frogged the black stitching – so although it’s done, I’m only moderately happy with the result.

I designed the Joseph Smith sampler to fit in the top of the Old Colonial burl wood box used for Jeannette Douglas’ Stitching Treasures. Before I invest in the fairly expensive box, I definitely need to re-stitch my project. Actually, I should get the box and make sure my floss selections match the box!

I also noticed that I forgot the letter “W” when I did the alphabet – so I need to do some minor redesign to fit it in (although I don’t think anyone would notice unless they were stitching it themself.)

Thanks for stopping by.

Back From a Week of Travel

2011-03-28T13:50:00.000-06:00

I was in Philadelphia Monday through Thursday last week, and then on Friday my mom, sister and I headed to Las Vegas for the weekend. We stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton, which was very convenient since we just used the Monorail to get around (except for one taxi ride back from the late lunch / early dinner we had at the buffet at the Wynn). It was just too long of a walk back to the monorail station after having shopped at the M&M Store, the Coca-Cola store, and the shops at Caesar’s Forum before heading to the Wynn for what promised to be “the best buffet in Las Vegas”. (As FYI, it was good, but I didn’t think it was any better than the Sunday brunch buffet we had at the Hilton before leaving for home.)

The main reason for going to Vegas was to see the Donny & Marie show at the Flamingo. It was terrific – and even though we had the cheapest tickets possible, we were “upgraded” to better seats in the showroom theater.

I didn’t have a chance to post my next two 2011 quilt finishes, so here is #4. (#5 is done and I did post it before it was bound, but don’t yet have a photo since it’s already found a new home in my parents’ family room.)

I posted a photo before this basket quilt was quilted and bound, but the custom quilting Catherine Timmons did was truly fabulous.

I’m home for a couple weeks before heading off to Orlando for work, so will hopefully have time to post some new projects I’ve been working on over the next several days.

Have a great week!

2011 Quilt Finishes #2 and #3

2011-03-17T14:45:00.000-06:00

Quilt finish #2:

This is one of my first attempts at a blended quilt – where many of the fabrics tend to “blend into” other fabrics such that you can’t always see where one piece ends and the other piece ends. The pattern was from one of the blended quilt books by Marsha McCloskey (I can’t find the book right now to give more details on the pattern name, etc.)

This project was an impulse one weekend to use a pile of fabrics, some of which were from the same line, a couple of which were purchased at a huge discount at a fabric store, and a few to fill in from my stash. I think it has a little bit of a French country look and looks great with the upholstered chairs that used to be in my living room – one’s now in my office and one in the downstairs family room.

While I was experimenting with the blended look, I made some orphan blocks. I love them individually, but don’t think they would work together in a quilt. I might pick one and try to do more in the same color scheme someday. Not that I’m at a loss for projects to start or finish.

Quilt finish #3 is the wedding quilt for Mike and Emily.

Mike is in the army, stationed at Ft. Stewart, GA. I made this quilt top last year, not knowing at the time who would receive it. I’ve had the fabrics for about 10 years or so. It was one of those times when I bought cuts from the entire line of fabrics designed by Kathy Spear/Calico Mountain for Clothworks – and this was before pre-cuts were so readily available. (I bought so much that I have enough to make another quilt. Those were the days – when fabric was $7 a yard or so.) I just needed to figure out the right pattern to show off the variety of fabrics in the collection. It turned out well, but is perhaps lacking some fabrics that pop a bit. But it looks kind of “army-ish”, don’t you think?

The backing was an accompanying border print that is cute enough that it could have been the front of the quilt.

Now I need to think about a baby quilt for Mike and Emily since son #1 is on his way.

I'll hopefully be able to do one more blog post showing the remaining 2 quilts before I have to go to Philadelphia again next week. I'll be home for about 24 hours and then my mom, sister and I are heading to Las Vegas for an early 80th birthday celebration for my mom. No, we're not going to hit the casinos, but rather to see Donny and Marie at the Flamingo (oh, and do some shopping and eating while we're at it).

Hope you all had a nice St. Patrick's Day. My parents celebrate their 59th wedding anniversary today. I guess it isn't too soon to start thinking about what we will do to help them celebrate #60!

Wedding Quilt for Ben and Nicole

2011-03-15T06:49:00.000-06:00

I finally decided what I am giving Ben and Nicole for their wedding quilt.

Ben graduates from the University of Utah in two months in civil engineering and has been the top Utah cadet in the ROTC. He and Nicole head to a US Army fort right after he graduates and she finishes her first year of teaching kindergarten. After a few months at that army fort, he will be assigned to who-knows-where?? I didn’t think I would have time to make them a quilt from start to finish before they leave at the end of May, so was looking at some of my finished quilts to decide if one of them would work.

I think I found one that they will like – and when a baby comes along, it would look great in a nursery. This quilt really represents the two of them – Ben in the military and Nicole as a school teacher.

Notice the cute Americana fabric that is in each of the blocks, the flag print in the borders, and the backing which combines both fabrics. I think those fabrics represent Ben and his military service. Then notice the a-b-c print that is in the corners of each block; it represents Nicole and her school teaching.

Am I trying to hard to make this one work?

First Official Quilt Finish for 2011

2011-03-14T08:44:00.001-06:00

I’ve actually completed five quilts -- with the help of my mom doing the binding, and will post them individually over the next few days. Here's the first one.

Emrie celebrated her first birthday on Sunday, and I (finally) presented her with her quilt. It matches her nursery and will drape the back of the rocker when not in use.

I also had time to do some stitching while traveling to and from Philadelphia last week. Although I had a couple WIPs I could have taken, I started a new project for the trip. I wanted something on light 28-, 30- or 32-count fabric so that it would be easier to see on the plane and in the typical hotel room with bad lighting. Both of the WIPs were on 36- and 40-count darker fabric. I also wanted something that only had a few flosses to minimize what I had to pack with me. And, lastly, I wanted a pattern that easily fit in my small, vinyl travel-stitching pouch which began life as packaging for pillow cases. (This photo shows how I pack up my stitching for travel.)

I chose a Little House Needleworks design and finished the stitching last night. Quick and easy and fun.

Have a great Monday everyone!

Late, But Productive Night – and Other Miscellany

2011-03-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post as I prepare for a business trip this week.

I picked up three quilts from my long-arm quilter yesterday. So I stayed up late last night to get the binding machine-stitched on these three, plus the two my SIL quilted. Now my mom can hand-stitch the binding down while I’m traveling this week. I’ll post photos after I get back.

Also had my last meeting with my IRS agent yesterday. And guess what? I’m actually getting a refund. I’m always very conservative in my deductions, but I figured – as long as it’s the IRS doing the audit, I’d let them decide if certain other things could be added in. And they were. Of course, he said it will take them 2 or 3 months to send my new return through “the system” before I’ll ever see that refund. (He said this was only the 2nd refund he’s ever given following an audit.))

Everyone have a great week. I’ll be preoccupied with my full-time job this week, although hoping to get some stitching or appliqueing time in during a couple evenings in the hotel.

Bye for now.

Two Quilts Ready to Bind

2011-03-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law graciously volunteered to machine quilt these two quilts for me, using her sister's Gammil long-arm machine. They turned out great. (Thanks Lisea!)

Emrie's quilt will definitely be ready for her first birthday. The photo above shows the quilting from the front, and the one below shows what the backing fabric looks like.

And this is darling Emrie being held by her Uncle Ben's new bride, Nicole!

This darling flannel throw is for my mom. The colors are perfect for her family room, and there are still enough cold days and nights this winter that it will get good use. I love the green / black polka-dot backing fabric.

My mom and I have a good thing going. I do the machine-sewing part of the binding, and she does the hand-sewing part. I don't know that I'll get it back from her to take a final photo -- so this might be the only one I get.

Scrappy Quilts

2011-03-01T17:31:00.000-07:00

Last year I participated in a Quiltville Yahoo group block swap. It was for Bonnie’s Chunky Churndash block.

I loved the blocks I made for the swap. (There's a little preview of what I'm doing for the setting blocks.)

But unfortunately I wasn’t happy with many of the blocks I received in return. Some will work in my quilt. Some were well made, but in fabrics that I'm not sure will fit into the quilt I have in mind.

And some that I can't make work because they were so distorted during sewing and/or pressing that they are misshapen. Plus, they didn't follow the swap rules (i.e. dark fabrics in the corners and lights in the outside of the pieced squares). These were the worst of the bunch.

Sadly this swap kind of turned me off swapping blocks in the future. In the time it took to make the blocks I swapped, I could have done more blocks that would have fit into my quilt.

So now I do need to make a few more chunky churndash blocks to have enough for my intended quilt. But I also knew that I didn’t want to do hourglass setting blocks like Bonnie’s original quilt. Then I remembered one of Kim Diehl’s quilts and the darling appliqued blocks she used in her Peas in a Pod quilt (from “Simple Comforts”).

So I cut freezer paper templates for the dozens of arcs that I would need for the setting blocks. I went through my scrap basket to find scraps that would work for the arcs.

Yup, I only used scrappy bits of fabrics – from leftover 2-1/2 inch strips, trimmings from backings and borders, and miscellaneous pieces of fabric – none of which was bigger than about a 6-inch square. Every arc is a unique fabric – and with only a couple exceptions, they aren’t used in any of the chunky churndash blocks in the quilt. I was somewhat indiscriminate in selecting fabrics for the arcs. I used pretty much any scrap except for 30s repros, batiks and brights.

I figured that I would take the fabric scraps and templates with me to Philadelphia next week and finish the prepping by pressing the fabrics around the templates in my hotel room. But I got started and couldn’t stop! I got them all prepped in about 90 minutes.

Then I started mixing and matching them onto the background fabric – and about 30 minutes later I had all of my blocks glued to the backgrounds and ready to machine applique.

I laid out a few of the blocks on the floor to see how the quilt might look when assembled – and I’m loving it.

I do love scrap quilts – but I like to do some things that unify the blocks. Here are my “rules” for scrap quilts:

1) Each block must look great by itself. The 3 fabrics I used in each block were carefully selected from my fat quarter stash to go together. Even though I used a variety of fabrics in all of the blocks (some of which wouldn’t go with each other), those in each block are definitely coordinated. I think this makes the quilt easier on the eyes because each block, in and of itself, is very pleasing to the eye.

2) Depending on the quilt pattern, there is at least one fabric that unifies the quilt. This might be a sashing fabric, as in this 9-patch square-in-square quilt top (needing to be quilted).

The black sashing creates that unity, and also gives the eyes a place to rest as you look at the quilt with many different fabrics and colors. For the chunky churndash quilt, the unifying fabric will be the background of the appliqued setting blocks. (I have enough to use it for the border as well, but may opt for the srappy border that Kim did in her original quilt.)

3) Lastly, I try to use fabrics that are a similar style. For example, I’m not including any 30s reproductions in my chunky churndash quilt because they are just too “cute” for the look I’m going for. Similarly, some of the fabulous “modern” or “pop” fabric collections that are so popular today probably wouldn’t fit in this quilt (although together they would make a wonderful quilt in their own right.) I'm also avoiding florals for the most part because they are too "realistic" and not folk-arty enough. Civil war repros, on the other hand, would work in my quilt, as well as the fabrics from Kansas Troubles, for example.

I guess I’m just not enough of a risk-taker or rule-breaker to go totally scrappy and mix different styles of fabrics.

Time to get these blocks appliqued so I can get the top finished and deduct some fabric from my stash account!

Bye for now. (PS: yes, my computer is back in business. They claim I had a virus and several malware programs on the system. It's working now -- but I'm surprised that I had a virus, etc. I run virus protection and malware software. Oh well.)

First 2011 Stitching Finish

2011-02-28T17:57:00.001-07:00

I’m dealing with computer problems, so this will be a quick post. My main PC is being worked on at Office Depot. They say it’s only software issues – malware that got installed without me knowing about it that is causing the problem. The problem happened while I was trying out the FindMyFabric website I mentioned in the previous post – but I don’t know if that’s what caused it. Hopefully they can get it fixed and it won’t cost an arm and a leg.

I finished this one-color project. It was a simple project to get me back into a stitching frame of mind.

Bye for now – or until my PC is back in business.

Stash Accountability

2011-02-23T15:30:00.029-07:00

I was doing pretty well as far as creating a stash deficit for the year – until I went to the “Thousands of Bolts (only one nut)” website.

It is a great site for stash building – not that I need to do any stash building. With the price of fabric today, who doesn’t want to get great fabrics for an average of about $5 per yard! (I noticed that today all Hoffman batiks and bali prints are $5.95 a yard. Hmm, do I need some additional batiks in my stash?)

Since my favorite quilts are scrappy, I buy a lot of fat quarters. But I naturally gravitate towards medium and dark value fabrics – which leaves a definite gap in my stash as far as lights. Also, since I think some scrappy quilts benefit from using the same background fabric (usually a light value), I often buy yardage of a light fabric that I especially like in order to mix it with a variety of medium and dark scraps for a quilt. So, I bought 18 yards (yikes!) of lights from Thousands of Bolts.

Oh, and Thousands of Bolts is a great source for 108-inch wide fabrics if you want something simple for backing – with no piecing. I found a great wide-width flannel that I’ll use for backing the flannel heart wedding quilt for Jenny. Easy peasy!

So year to date here’s my stash accountability report:

Added YTD: 68-3/4 yards
Stash used YTD: 71-1/4 yards
Net stash reduction: 2-1/2 yards

It’s hard to imagine I’ve added more than 68 yards of fabrics to my stash in less than two months. (Can hardly wait to get my AMEX bill!)

I succumbed to another fat quarter bundle over the past couple weeks: Civil War Reunion by Barbara Brackman (about 10 yards).

Plus I bought 5 yards of one of the Bliss fabrics to use as backing for whatever quilt I make using the Bliss fat quarter bundle I bought in early February.

I learned about another great source for finding specific fabrics you might need to finish a quilt: QuiltShops.com.

While at Winterfest Carrie Nelson (Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co.) saw me using my iPad. She came over and chatted about how much she loves her iPad and recommended this website. It is basically a search engine that searches more than 200 quilt shops for what you are looking for.

So when I was looking for some additional fabrics from Basic Grey’s Blush collection that was released more than a year ago, it was easy to find many quilt shops that still had some Blush fabric in their inventory.

What’s more, it’s easy to price compare and find the shops that have it on sale. You do have to be careful if buying multiple fabrics. You’ll want to get them from the same shop if possible to save on shipping charges – otherwise you’ve defeated the purpose of shopping online. But when you are looking for something very specific, QuiltShops.com is a great option.

I also checked out a new website called FindMyFabric.com. It promises to find a fabric based on an uploaded photo of the fabric. I tried three different fabrics -- two of which were older lines and one is in stores now. I also used fabric swatches from the manufacturer for two and a photograph for one. Unfortunately it couldn't find any of the three fabrics. In their defense, the website does say that it is still a "beta" version, meaning that it's being tested and isn't fully ready for prime time. However, after my three searches, my computer did a memory dump, crashed and it took more than an hour of monkeying around to get it to fully boot correctly and run my typical applications. I don't know if that was tied to trying out the FineMyFabric search capability, or not, but I won't be trying it again any time soon.

On the to-do list for tonight:
• Set the blocks into the quilt top for Route 44
• Begin cutting and sewing two-patches for the Route 44 border
• Continue stitching A Sheltering Tree while watching either American Idol or Survivor (true confession: I do like reality shows.)

Bye for now.

When Does a Project Go From Being a WIP to a UFO?

2011-02-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

So just when does a project go from being a “work in progress” (WIP) to an “unfinished object” (UFO)? Or worse, when does it become a PIG (project in grocery bag)?

I was pondering this question while sewing and squaring up the first 103 of 192 half-square triangles for a retirement quilt I’m making for the person who was been my boss for the better part of the past 21 years. (More on that in another post.)

Here’s how I would distinguish a WIP from a UFO.

First, how long it’s been since I started it. If it’s been more than about six months since I started it, it’s likely a UFO.

Second, how long it’s been since I made any progress on the project. If I haven’t worked on it for a couple months, it’s a UFO.

And, third, whether it’s still out on my sewing counter or at the top of my stitching basket to be picked up and worked on at a moment’s notice. If it’s out on my sewing room counter because I intend to work on it (but other things seem to get in the way), then I would classify as a WIP rather than UFO. But once it goes into the cupboard, it’s definitely a UFO – or even a PIG because it’s clear I have no plan to finish it any time soon.

Note that a project can go from being a UFO or PIG to a WIP because I pulled it out, did some pressing and cutting, and even some sewing. This is the case for the Kim Diehl spool quilt. I finished machine appliquéing the border vines one evening this past week and picked out the fabrics for the leaves and buds.

Based on my definitions above, the retirement quilt qualifies as a WIP. I’ve had the fabric for about 18 months or so, but I only started it two weeks ago when I cut the fabrics into triangles for the half-square triangles.

My version of Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co. “Route 44” quilt also qualifies as a WIP. I started the quilt at Winterfest at the end of January and have worked on it a couple times so far in February, including Saturday when I pretty much finished all of the blocks.

However, these projects qualify as UFOs:

I’ve had these “Hot Buttered Rum” square-in-square blocks done for probably 15 years! I love the fabrics, colors and pattern. This is about 30 of the 42 13-inch blocks. (Yes, this has the potential to be one BIG quilt, especially once border(s) are added.)

I kind of want to keep this quilt for me (it was the second quilt I made after starting quilting again in the late 90s), but I haven’t wanted it bad enough to get it finished and quilted. I was thinking about finishing it for a wedding quilt for my most recently married nephew – but his bride mentioned she really likes black, white and red. Oh well, back to the drawing board for them!

This quilt, Jan Patek and Alma Allen’s Baskets and Berries quilt, also qualifies as a UFO – even though one of the three final blocks is out on my sewing room counter and begging me to finish it.

The first nine blocks were hand appliquéd, starting in about 2001. In fact, it was my first hand appliqué project. I really want to finish the last three blocks by hand as well. I decided a long time ago that I didn’t have it in me to do the appliquéd border like the original.

I saw this design finished at the 2005 HQMS (Home Quilting Machine Show) and liked the pieced border the quilter had used and think it will be a good way to finish this up (when the last three blocks are done, of course.)

Unfortunately I didn’t note the name of the person who made this version (isn’t it lovely?), so can’t give her credit.

I am even the proud owner of one of my grandmother’s UFO quilts. (I have a feeling this may be her only UFO as she usually finished what she started!) I don’t even know where I have the blocks hidden in my sewing room in order to take a photograph of them.

I think that’s enough UFO “true confessions” for one post. I could easily do the same with cross stitching projects – but will spare myself the humiliation!

Taste of Greece

2011-02-20T13:26:00.001-07:00

Last November I took a 2-1/2 week vacation – a cruise in the eastern Mediterranean. We started in Venice and ended in Athens – with stops in Ravenna (Italy), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Isle of Patmos (Greece), Port Said and Alexandria (Egypt), Haifa/Galilee (Israel), Asdod/Jerusalem (Israel), and Kusadasi/Ephesus (Turkey). We spent a couple extra days in Athens – shopping, eating, and seeing the sights.

One day we had lunch at the foot of the Acropolis at the edge of the Plaka, near the Agora. I ate the most fabulous stuffed cabbage rolls. These cabbage rolls aren’t like the ones from eastern Europe – usually cooked in a tomato sauce. But rather, these are topped with traditional Greek lemon sauce: avgolemono.

I knew that I would have to find a recipe so I could eat them again. Well, turns out this dish is a very well known Greek recipe, called “Lahanodolmathes” and I made the recipe yesterday. It’s not hard, but a little time consuming. There are lots of variations of the recipe online and many food bloggers have detailed instructions for making them.

So I assembled the ingredients – most importantly hamburger with rice (seasoned with salt, pepper, onion, dill) and cabbage (you remove the core and then put the whole head in a large pot of boiling water, removing the cabbage leaves one by one).

Then you roll up the meat mixture in the cabbage leaves and layer in a dutch oven.

Add chicken stock to cover and simmer for about an hour – enough time to fully cook the beef, rice and cabbage.

Make avgolemono sauce to top the stuffed cabbage rolls. The recipe I used made the sauce a bit too acidic – so next time I will probably just make hollandaise and add some extra lemon juice to it.

Here is the finished product. I took this dish of lahanodolmathes to my parents since the recipe makes about 8 to 10 servings -- and as good as they are, I didn't want to eat them all week. (Several are frozen for a quick meal in the future.)

Now -- time to enjoy this Sunday afternoon before having to think about a new work week! (I don't get President's Day off -- which is kind of a drag.)

Electric Quilt Color Challenge

2011-02-19T06:00:00.026-07:00

I love the Electric Quilt challenge for this month. Basically, you import a colorful photo that you love into EQ and use it as the color inspiration for a quilt. What a great way to come up with new color combinations for a quilt.

Here’s one of their examples:

Inspiration:

Quilt:

So I decided to try my hand at it. My inspiration photo was some Tuscan ceramics that I purchased in San Gimignano, Italy. I took this photo just before the store packed up my purchases to ship to me in Utah. I identified the 9 main colors / values from the photo that I wanted to use in a quilt.

And here’s my first pass at a quilt using the colors. I don’t know whether I’ll eventually tweak this and send it to Electric Quilt for their challenge. I just know that I wanted to design a quilt that at first glance looked a lot harder to make than it actually was. So, here’s the first image WITHOUT lines outlining the blocks and patches.

And here’s the one with the outlines. It wouldn’t be hard to piece – but the end result would look very complicated!

I’m considering modifying the orange and rust pieces such that they would be pieced and have value gradations from light to dark / dark to light (or vice versa) to simulate a Tuscan sunset. Who knows?

Regardless, I love the technique of using a photo as inspiration for the color palette of a quilt. It certainly would keep me from getting into a color rut!

First Orts of the Year

2011-02-18T06:00:00.008-07:00

It felt good to put some crossed stitches into a lovely piece of 30-count linen.

The project is “A Sheltering Tree” by All Through the Night. It is stitched on Weeks Dye Works #1201 Putty linen using Valdani hand overdyed Olive Green thread. I love the variation in color and value that comes from using only one overdyed thread!

I should have been working on my family history sampler, but my eyes weren’t up to 40-count fabric last night.

So instead, I started something that will hopefully work up fairly quickly – especially since I have two business trips in March that will provide a little airplane stitching time.

I’ve never used Valdani floss before. I need to use a bigger needle than I prefer to use, but it is stitching up nicely nonetheless.

I was a DMC girl for so many years. I have nearly every color in the DMC line. Who knew that I would ever need anything else? Then I became enamored with the hand dyed/ overdyed Gentle Arts, Weeks Dye Works, and Crescent flosses. More recently, over the past couple years I’ve added dozens of silk flosses to my collection. Love the silk!! I love the way it glides through those little holes. But I do love them all.

Thank goodness for "MagEyes". I just don't have the courage to wear them on the plane!

Basket Crazy

2011-02-17T06:00:00.050-07:00

I found another UFO that should be so easy to finish up. It is “Basket Crazies” by Buggy Barn. Here’s a pic of their original quilt:

And here are my twelve blocks already set into rows like the original (but rows haven't been sewn together -- and the rows may end up in a different order when finished).

But here’s the dilemma. I’ve had them ready for sashing (between the rows only) and borders for several years (four or five, maybe?). But I can’t decide what fabric to use for the borders and row sashing. Every time I audition a fabric, it doesn’t seem to work. I’ve even taken the quilt blocks to my local quilt shops and nothing has seemed to work. So what to do?

Plan A: Re-set the blocks, so that rather be a quilt that is 4 blocks wide and 3 blocks high, it will be 3 blocks wide and 4 blocks high. That way I only need to figure out what to do with borders and don’t need to build in the extra height that comes from the row sashing to make the quilt square. It will be a vertical rectangular quilt.

Plan B: Keep looking for fabric in order to finish the quilt in the same manner as the original.

Plan C: Put it back into the cupboard for another year and worry about it then.

I'm leaning towards Plan A for now.

I started looking at quilts in the to-make queue, and I think I am a little bit basket crazy. Here's the evidence.

First, as you may recall from this post, I want to make Blackbird Designs basket quilt using the Antique Fair fabric I won from Carrie Nelson at Winterfest.

Second and third: While I was at Winterfest, I took two basket quilt classes. One was Trick or Treat from Blackbird Designs “When the Cold Wind Blows” book. It is made up of about 200 five-inch basket blocks.

It is the perfect hand appliqué project to take along with you because it is only two fabrics – basket and background. I finished only one block in class – not just because I was taking my sweet time, but because the two teachers were so fun to visit with and they did a mini-trunk show during class. Proof I made one basket block in class:

The other basket class was Jan Patek’s Blessings Baskets.This is her original.

I have sewn several of the rail fence blocks, but am only partly done with the basket on one of the appliquéd panels. I’m already thinking that I will not make my quilt as wide – two appliquéd panels, separated by rail fence blocks, and with inner border and rail-fence border. But we’ll see. I expect to do this one via machine appliqué, even though I began the first basket by hand in class.

So with these three plus the Buggy Barn quilt that is my current dilemma, that makes four basket quilts in the works.

But wait, there’s more! But at least this one is done! I can't find my pattern to remember who the designer was. It was a total stash quilt – except for backing. I would have pieced the backing, but I stumbled across this fabric that was just too perfect to pass up.

And how about this cute French Country Kitchen basket quilt. The top is done. I’ve got the backing. And the binding is even ready to put on – once this has been quilted. I know, it’s small enough that I have no excuse but to quilt it myself on the sewing machine. Maybe one of these days.

Oh and don’t forget A Tisket A Tasket that is currently being quilted.

And I just remembered, I started a basket block of the month a year or so ago with Homestead Hearth. It’s another Primitive Pieces by Lynda called “Gathering Baskets”. All I’ve done is sew a few half-square triangles for it.

So that makes seven basket quilts in various stages of completion. Good grief! If I only worked on basket quilts for the rest of 2011 I probably wouldn’t get them all done. But hopefully at least a couple will get finished!

And the Winners Are...

2011-02-15T20:00:00.037-07:00

Congratulations to the two winners of my first 2011 giveaway!

Jolene: You win the Schnibbles Tuffett pattern and Mary Engelbreit charm pack.

Loraine: You win the Homespun Hearth pattern and fabric.

Jolene and Loraine: Please send me your mailing addresses so I can get your “winnings” in the mail asap! (My e-mail address is available via my blog profile page.) The odds were pretty good since you both commented and are followers!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and commented. It's been good to be back among all of your creative people! I hope life and work don’t get in the way of my keeping up with my own creative projects and staying in touch via the blog. I haven't had to travel at all in February, but already have two work trips scheduled for March and one for early April – so I know I won’t be quite as productive once my travel picks up again.

But I am getting some portable projects ready to take with me! Just need to figure out which to start with. That just have to be a topic for another blog post.

Two Baby Quilts

2011-02-15T06:32:00.001-07:00

Two nieces-in-law (is that what you call the wife of a nephew?) are pregnant with baby boys, both due in April.

I dug out a partially finished top for a baby quilt for baby #1. The fabric is a novelty print called Busy Bees, by Tammy DeYoung. I added the border, and TA-DA – ready to be quilted. I have matching fabric for the back – so that this one will soon be checked off the list.

The other quilt will most likely be this Schnibble, one of the projects I took at the Heritage Quilters Winterfest retreat last month. This uses Spring Fling by Terry Atkinson and Liz Lois (from 2002!). I had already made a baby quilt with in a couple years ago, but had enough left to make this Schnibble.

But, now I’m auditioning fabric for the borders. Both candidate fabrics are from the same Spring Fling fabric line, but neither is used in the quilt itself. I have enough of both fabrics for borders (along with a narrower white inner border), but not enough of either to use for backing (unless pieced with other fabrics).

Option 1: Blue Spring Fling print

Option 2: Yellow Spring Fling tone-on-tone

Please feel free to share your opinions. I need some more “eyes” on this before I make the final decision. Whichever one I don't use will most likely become the binding fabric.

PS: I haven’t forgotten to do the drawings for the giveaway. I’ll be doing that right after my workday on Feb. 15th. (I had this post queued up to automatically post before the deadline for the giveaway came and went.)

Valentine WIPs, UFOs, or PHDs

2011-02-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

Reminder to sign up for the giveaway by 10:00 pm mountain time on Valentines day! Click HERE.

Whatever you want to call them – “works in progress”, “unfinished objects”, or “projects half done”, I wrapped up two this weekend.

The first, Lauri Bird’s (Rose Cottage Quilts) Heart to Heart quilt. I’ve had the blocks done for about a year – using a variety of Mary Engelbreit fabrics, but didn’t have the right fabric for the sashing. I really wanted a black and white pin-dot fabric – which I finally found online. So last Thursday night I finally got the quilt set and the borders done.

The next is another quilt that has been waiting for its border for ages. I had been putting off completing the border on this darling flannel heart quilt because I didn’t want to sew those equilateral triangles together for the border. The quilt designer didn’t give very precise instructions for the borders – just sew the triangles together, attach to quilt and hack off the extra! So that’s what I did. I guess that’s why she decided to appliqué flowers at the corners – to cover up the many converging seams. So, yes, I ended up adding appliqués as well. However, I haven’t done any centers for the flowers. After the quilt has been quilted, I’m going to sew some cute buttons on as flower centers.

I’m not sure who will receive the appliquéd heart quilt, but the flannel heart quilt will go to my niece Jenny who got married last June. Yes, I’m way behind on wedding gift quilts! With this one ready to be quilted, I’m only behind by one wedding quilt in celebration of a wedding that took place just over a month ago. Just need to decide what to make for this darling couple, my nephew and his bride.

Since these are both heart quilts, it’s only appropriate that I finished them up just in time for Valentine’s day! Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

My First 2011 Giveaway

2011-02-11T07:30:00.001-07:00

Note: Edited to bump this post to the top. Be sure to enter by Monday night!

Well, two actually. Something for the quilter and something for the cross-stitcher.

First, for the quilter: a new Tuffets Schnibble pattern and a darling 37-fabric charm pack of Mary Engelbreit fabrics (Baskets of Flowers for Moda).

For the stitcher: a gently used Homespun Elegance pattern Home is Where You Hang Your Needlework with a gorgeous 14X17 inch piece of 28-count Kansas City Blend by R&R Reproductions that will work perfectly for the design.

The rules of the road—up to 4 chances to win!

One entry if you leave a comment on this post. You will automatically be entered in both drawings unless you indicate you are interested in only the quilter or stitcher giveaway.
One additional entry for becoming a follower (or if you are already a follower). Just add another comment indicating you are a follower.
Two additional entries when you link to the contest from your blog.
Deadline for making a comment (and becoming a follower if you aren’t already): Valentine’s Day, Monday Feb. 14th, at 10 pm mountain time
If you don’t have a blog, please leave your e-mail address so I may contact you directly if you’re the lucky winner

Good luck everyone! It feels good to be a part of the quilting and stitching blogging community again.

P.S. And as far as giveaways go, I’m just about to mail in my Publishers Clearinghouse entry. It says I “may already be a winner”. Who knows? Someone’s going to win. It might as well be me!

(I did add the final sticker to the front of the envelope after I snapped the photo -- so they'd better not disqualify me!)

A Moda Fabric Designer in the Family

2011-02-10T09:00:00.036-07:00

Reminder:

4 more days for the giveaway.

Be sure to join in on the fun!

I just learned that one of my cousin’s daughters, Rachel, is a fabric designer for Moda. Her business is “Basic Grey”. (Technically Rachel would be my “first cousin once removed”.)

How could I not know this? After all, I talk with her mom, aunts and grandma -- all quilters! -- every summer at our family reunion. In my defense, I did know that Rachel designed wonderful scrapbooking papers and supplies. I just didn’t know that she is just about to release her eighth fabric collection with Moda.

Being the fabric “collector” that I am, I realized that I have two charm packs fabric from a Basic Grey collection called “Blush” that was released about a year ago. I had also purchased some chocolatey-brown fabric with aqua, pink, yellow and red dots from the “Blush” collection to be the backing for Emrie’s baby quilt (being quilted at last) and have about a half yard left over.

I did a quick online search and picked up a little bit of yardage (on sale) of two more fabrics from the line, the pink one below to use as a background and the brown stylized flowers to use as backing.

So, between the charm packs, leftover backing fabric, and the two new purchases, I will have a great “kit” for a future quilt. I just need to figure out just the right pattern to make good use of these beautiful fabrics. I have loved this collection since I first saw it – just didn’t know that the designer is part of my extended family.

I just checked out Basic Grey’s new fabric collection, called “Max and Whiskers”, being released this month. It’s equally wonderful.

Any suggestions as to the best quilt pattern to use with these luscious "Blush" fabrics?

Stash Reduction Report

2011-02-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

I’ve noticed several quilting bloggers keeping track of “stash in, stash out” – that is how much new fabric they acquire vs. how much of existing stash that they use.

So I decided to do the same thing for my fabric stash. Based on January numbers, I’m not doing too well as far as using up stash:

Added to stash in January: 22-1/2 yards
Stash used in January: 5 yards
Net: -17-1/2 yards

Yep, I added a lot of new fabric to the stash in January. But when you consider that I hadn’t purchased any fabric for probably 10 months (other than the two block-of-the-month programs I was part of that have now completed), that really only averaged about 2 yards per month.

I will be updating my “STASH IN/STASH OUT” report every week or so moving forward, so here is February through today, as well as year-to-date numbers.

Added to stash Feb. 1 through Feb. 8: 10 yards (40 fat quarters of Bonnie and Camille’s fabulous new “Bliss” fabrics.

If you haven’t seen this wonderful fabric, here are a few photos. I’m loving the aqua and red, which has become a quilting standard hearkening back to the 30s.

Because I have 5 quilts being quilted, that definitely bumped up the “stash out” numbers. I’m counting quilts that may have been completed in the past, but that I finally got around to getting quilted (as well as their binding and backing fabric). So far I haven’t had to purchase new fabric for the backing – I had either already purchased backing fabric or was able to make do with something I had on hand (or even pieced the backing from leftover fabrics from the quilt).

Stash used Feb. 1 through Feb. 8: 30-3/4 yards (yes, those 5 quilts that are being quilted helped here!)

Year to date:
Stash added: 32-1/2 yards
Stash used: 35-3/4 yards
Net: 3-1/4 yards

Yippee! I’ve used 3-1/4 more yards this year than I’ve purchased. We’ll see how well this trend continues.

PS: don't miss out on the giveaway in the previous post!

Antique Fair: I Was the Winner

2011-02-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

At the Heritage Quilters retreat at the end of January, I was lucky to win a door prize in one of Carrie Nelson’s classes. And I couldn’t have been more pleased with the prize: a layer cake of Moda’s Antique Fair fabrics by Blackbird Designs. I love the soft colors of the fabrics. Once they are incorporated into a quilt, it will truly look like a beloved antique from years past.

Photo credit: Blackbird Designs: One Stitch at a Time

As I was blog-hopping over the weekend, I discovered that Barb Adams has published a free pattern using the layer cake pre-cuts. And it’s a basket quilt – so what’s not to love?

Photo credit: Blackbird Designs: One Stitch at a Time

All I need to add are 3 more light prints and 3 more dark prints, plus 1-1/4 yard of the red print for the alternating blocks. So, add this project to the to-do list. I even have yardage of their Rhubarb and Ginger sampler fabric that will be perfect for the backing.

You can find the Blackbird Designs free pattern here.

Enjoy!

Seeing Double

2011-02-06T11:30:00.029-07:00

A couple years ago I subscribed to a block-of-the-month from Homestead Hearth of Lori Smith’s Golden Memories Sampler Quilt

Homestead Hearth was doing the BOM in two colorways, and since I couldn’t decide which I preferred and bought both. The first uses Kansas Troubles fabrics; the second uses shirtings and 19th-century reproductions.


Kansas Troubles Fabrics

Reproduction Fabrics

Since the blocks are fairly involved, it has been easier to work on both combinations at the same time. I’m making slow progress, but I’m loving the outcome. There are 32 sampler blocks (or 64 considering the two colorways) – plus 31 pieced alternating blocks and 18 setting blocks per quilt.

So should I keep going at this pace -- working on both quilts at the same time, or aim to finish one before working on the other? Which one do you like the best? I still can't decide which I like better.

Time to finish the munchies I'm taking to my brother's Super Bowl party.

IRS Tax Audit and More

2011-02-05T10:29:00.001-07:00

What a week! I was audited by the IRS. My meeting with the auditor and my accountant was on Thursday afternoon, but the auditor spent all day on Friday going through my paperwork etc. Late yesterday my accountant called to say they needed a couple more pieces of documentation, and that after I drop them off on Monday, I most likely will get an additional refund. So the joke’s on the IRS!

Believe it or not, this was my second time being audited – the first time was when I was about 24 years old. The previous year I had worked as a graduate teaching assistant on a study-abroad program to Spain. I taught European humanities to BYU students for six months, received full room and board, plus a small monthly salary. Since I travelled throughout Spain and Europe with the students – teaching about art history and humanities wherever we went, I had deducted all of my travel expenses. I was sure that the IRS was going to disallow those expenses and I would be stuck paying additional taxes. It turned out that I had paid off my car that same year and they were questioning the interest expense deduction I had itemized. I had legitimately made a mistake, ended up paying about $35 in taxes, and that was it. But it probably cost the IRS much, much more in time to do the audit.

On the quilty side of life, I finished sewing up the top of one of the quilts I did at last week’s quilting retreat. This was the “Mystery Schnibble” that Carrie Nelson taught last Saturday morning. I only sewed one row during the class and was surprised at how quickly it sewed up. It may become one of my go-to designs for a quick baby quilt. And like most of the Schnibbles, it is perfect for charm packs – although I used some 10-year-old Debbie Mumm fabric from my stash that I cut into my own charm squares. The quilt uses 80 squares plus several 2-1/2 inch strips of background (plain old white in my case). This may be a baby quilt for one of the babies to be born this spring to two of my nephews.

Some of you may have seen the story about the girls' basketball team that lost a basketball game by more than 100 points (the actual score was 108 to 3). As it turns out, the losing team is from West Ridge Academy, the boarding-school for at-risk kids where my brother is the executive director. There are only 33 girls at the school, and about a third of them are on the team. Not only have they never played as a team before this school year, most have never even played basketball before. But the girls took the loss in stride -- and now are famous for their great attitudes. Here are links to some articles and videos if you're interested in "the rest of the story".

Fox News story about the game.

Former NBA star Shawn Bradley is on the West Ridge Academy board of directors. He took time out of his busy schedule to do some coaching with the team.

Link to newspaper article following the rematch (which they also lost).

Enjoy!

Quilting Update

2011-02-02T18:31:00.002-07:00

It feels so good to be sewing quilts again. I took five classes at the Heritage Quilters and Needlework Association (HQNA) retreat. I've nearly completed two of the Miss Rosie's quilts -- both were Schnibbles taught by Carrie herself. She was a hoot to take classes from. The projects were simple -- and just what I needed to jumpstart my quilting after a 6+ month hiatus. I'll post photos when I get the borders on them.

After I returned home, even before I began working to finish the class projects, I stitched up the backing for several quilt tops that were already completed. My sister-in-law took two of them to machine quilt on her sister's Gammill, and I dropped off the other three at Cat's Attic Quilting, the long-arm quilter I typically use.

The first quilt is for a nephew and wife's darling daughter Emrie. She turns one in about 6 weeks -- and in fact, I noticed that it was exactly one year ago yesterday that I finished the quilt top. I feel horrible that I never got it quilted, but at least I'll have it ready for her first birthday. This is the link to the original post showing the photo of her quilt.

The next quilt is for my mom -- and like Emrie's quilt, it too was a gift (for Christmas 2009!) I wrapped it up, she opened it, and then I took it home after the Christmas festivities -- only for it to sit in my sewing room gathering dust. When I showed the quilt to my mom on Sunday before I gave it to my SIL to take to quilt, my mom couldn't even remember that I'd given it to her because she only had it in her possession for such a short time. It's a cozy throw for her (or my dad) to use in their family room during the cold winter months.The colors are perfect for her decor.

The third quilt is my first attempt at a blended quilt. It too is a throw that I'll use in my office (walls are painted red, so it will be a nice match):

The fourth quilt is a folk art applique design by Primitive Pieces by Lynda called "A Tisket, A Tasket". It's one of my all-time favorite quilts. It's been finished for several years -- don't know why it's taken so long for me to have it quilted. I can't wait to see how Catherine quilts it. She does a great job, and does the quilting on Barbara Jones' quilts (Quilt Soup). The backing is a golden plaid flannel.

The final quilt that I dropped off is for my nephew who got married last November. (I'm only behind 3 wedding quilts -- so with this one, it's one down and two to go.) I hadn't been able to figure out what to do for him, but while I was sorting through the piles in my sewing room, I ran across this quilt top (complete with matching backing). The colors reminded me of khaki fatigues the Army soldiers wear (except perhaps for the pink!) It clicked. This would be Mike and Emily's quilt.

It feels good to be back quilting. I've been on CPAP therapy for two months and I'm starting to feel like my old self with the energy to be creative. Now I just need to dig out my cross stitch projects!

Back From Oblivion

2010-11-29T15:02:00.001-07:00

When I started this blog, I wasn’t going to be one of those bloggers who started off with a boom, but then fizzled out. But, unfortunately, I haven’t done a stitch either by hand or by machine for about 6 months. So I haven’t had anything worth blogging about – not to mention that real life got in the way of writing (and reading your wonderful blogs). Thanks to those of you who sent e-mail to make sure everything was okay. I didn’t even have time or energy to properly respond to your e-mails.

I could blame it on my work schedule. More travel than usual. I surpassed the 75,000 mile mark for 2010 and will be Platinum Medallion for 2011 – meaning, hopefully, more upgrades when I travel next year. We also had a major product launch at work that involved using my creative energy on marketing deliverables rather than samplers and quilts.

Perhaps I could blame it on health issues. My energy level had been gradually dropping over the past year or so, and I have now been diagnosed with sleep apnea, on top of low thyroid. The sleep doctor promises that once I get used to sleeping with a CPAP machine at night (tonight will be the first time), that I will feel like a new person. Let’s hope so – because I am tired of being tired all the time.

I have registered for a quilting retreat in January 2011 to kickstart my creative juices. Carrie Nelson, of Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co. and Schnibbles fame, will be the headlining teacher. I have signed up for three classes by her, one of which is a “mystery schnibble”. These are two of the three projects from Carrie I have signed up for:

Here’s hoping my creative energy comes back – because I definitely miss my stitching, quilting, and blogging friends.

Stitching Progress

2010-05-10T14:38:00.000-06:00

I’ve made some stitching progress on my family history sampler.

I also have nearly finished the final block in honor of John Billington, my notorious Mayflower ancestor. I want to do a bit more tweaking, but the design inspiration has been somewhat lacking. It's the 3rd block in bottom row.

I don’t think I’ll have time to completely finish the first two blocks this week because so many other things are going on – a boatload of work for my full-time job that pushes into my personal time, a baby shower, getting ready for a business trip next week, and a couple days at my brother’s ranch on Friday and Saturday. I’ll hopefully have time to post some photos from the time at the ranch to show the cattle branding and sheep shearing that is planned – not to mention some dutch oven cooking, lots of gardening, and trying out my solar oven.

A note to Linda (aka Dreamquilter): Linda, if you have sent me your snail mail address for the magazine subscription, I haven’t received it yet. Please re-send asap! My e-mail is on my profile page.

I hope everyone is enjoying spring weather. Our weather has been erratic at best – snow in the mountains is predicted for later this week!

Bye for now.

We have a winner!

2010-05-01T09:21:00.002-06:00

The odds were pretty good -- a 1 in 3 chance of winning. Congratulations to Linda -- aka Dreamquilter! Linda, please e-mail me your mailing address and I'll get the subscription underway.

It's been a hugely busy few weeks, which is why I've been away from blog-land. Our fiscal year begins June 1st, which means all of the planning for the next year is underway (my team works on go-to-market strategies, plus I'm part of our overall strategic planning team ultimately responsible for putting the plan into a format for presenting to the rest of the organization). Plus it seems like I've had commitments nearly every afternoon or evening, which takes away from stitching, quilting and blogging. Not to mention trips to Las Vegas and Philadelphia for work. Oh, and I'm doing a final copy edit on the family histories my mom has assembled of her ancestors -- about 80 pages of 10-point type! (My weary eyes!)

I was able to finish one stitching project amid the chaos that has become my life. The pics below are the first ones taken with the new camera I received in recognition of my 25 years working in this hectic, computer software business! It'll take a while to figure out all of the bells and whistles.

It's hard to believe that it is May 1st, especially since it has been getting into the 30s at night and we even had new snow in the valleys over the past couple days.

Once again, congratulations to Linda.

I hope you all have a great weekend, a fabulous May, and can find some creative stitching and quilting time.

Time for A May-Day Giveaway

2010-04-21T16:09:00.001-06:00

Just in case you think I’m not very creative having another magazine subscription give-away, I’ve got to confess that it’s because McCall’s Quilting is letting me give a free gift subscription when I renew my personal subscription. (OK, I’m a magazine junkie and now the word is out. But I learned a long time ago that it's cheaper to subscribe to 3 magazines than to regularly buy just one at the store.)

So, here’s the deal.

Join in the fun by becoming a follower, that is if you aren’t already.

Prize: free one-year gift subscription to McCall’s Quilting magazine. Please note that this is available to US followers only because of the limits of the free subscription I have been offered. Sorry to those of you who happen to live elsewhere.

New and existing followers need only make a comment to this post AND complete the sentence:

If money were no object, I would….

The Small Print:

One entry per person if you leave a comment
Two additional entries when you link to the contest from your blog
You must have a US mailing address
Deadline for making a comment (and becoming a follower if you aren’t already): Friday, April 30th at 10 pm mountain time
If you don’t have a blog, please leave your e-mail address so I may contact you directly if you’re the lucky winner
I’ll select someone at random and post the name of the winner by 10 am mountain time on Saturday, May 1st, and will mail in the gift subscription within a day of getting your mailing address from you.

McCall's Quilting Magazine is one of the three that I subscribe to (along with Fons & Porters Love of Quilting and BH&G Quilting). It's a great magazine and I have made quilts that have been featured in it.

Good luck everyone.

Another Business Trip

2010-04-18T17:08:00.003-06:00

While most people would be excited to go to Las Vegas, I’m heading there in a couple hours for 2 days of meetings at a conference. At least I don’t have any presentations this time – only meeting with other people who will be there. I’ve only been able to sleep 2 nights in my own bed, and now the next two will once again be in a hotel. I will get about an hour’s worth of stitching in on the plane tonight (made easier by my upgrade to first class), but I will probably go to bed as soon as I get in my hotel because I have an 8 a.m. breakfast meeting Monday morning.

I did make good progress on Silver Creek’s Do Not Worry. Only the bird and fill-in around the letters at the top let to complete. Hopefully I will finish this week.

Friday night was a wonderful experience at the West Ridge Academy gala and fundraiser. Here’s the link to the newspaper article about the gala.

My brother is the executive director at West Ridge, which is a boarding school program for troubled youth. They have both a girls’ and boys’ program, with separate campuses. They take no federal or state funding, so the fundraiser is essential to providing scholarships for those families who can’t afford to cover all of the costs for their child’s tuition, housing and therapy.

This year the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (or at least about 2/3 of the choir) volunteered their time to come perform for the 850 guests attending the dinner and gala. It was an amazing night – not only the music, but to meet many of the families and children who have been helped by the program.

This photo is from the rehearsal; the men had their jackets on during the actual performance. It was easier for me to get closer to the choir for the photo during rehearsal.

Well, gotta finish packing so I can leave for the airport in a little more than an hour. I’ve been slowly getting caught up on blogs I didn’t have a chance to read last week while in Philadelphia. I miss the regular update from blog friends when I’m away.

Have a great week.

One Finish and A Couple WIPs

2010-04-10T09:01:00.002-06:00

Thanks for all of your kind comments to recent posts.

I finished “Return the Kindnesses” this week, and yes, there was a lot of fill-in stitching on this project.

This was the first project I started (a couple years ago!) using 40-count fabric, so the fill-in work was good practice using 1 strand of silk floss. The “learning process” is certainly apparent in the bunny’s body, but once again I have to say “finished is better than perfect”.

I’m getting ready for another business trip. It’s gonna be an intense week, with 3 all-day meetings Monday through Wednesday, and training for our newest sales people on Tuesday and Wednesday. I haven’t yet figured out how I’m going to be in two meetings at the same time. I’ll be giving the kick-off presentation at the sales training, while also being responsible for the agenda and meeting facilitation for the other meeting. Plus I have a new employee starting on Monday, so the fun never ends.

Each evening I’ll be cramming for the next day’s meetings, but I’m optimistic I’ll be able to do some stitching – at least on the airplane. I haven’t yet been upgraded to first class, so may be stuck in coach, but at least I have a window seat in the exit row in case the worst happens and I can’t move to the front of the plane.

Since it’s easiest to stitch on the plane (and in dark hotel rooms) on light 28-count fabric, I’ve prepared two projects to take with me on the trip. By “prepared” I mean I’ve threaded a bunch of needles with the threads I’ll need so I don’t need to worry about threading needles at 35,000 feet in cramped condition.

The first project I’ll be working on is the darling “Do Not Worry” by Silver Creek Samplers. I did a little stitching on it last night to get it started. Rather than use the DMC colors recommended, I’m using over-dyed Gentle Arts. My fabric is also a bit lighter than the original.

The other project is one I brought home from the ranch last weekend. I’d left it there to work on in the event that I ever arrived without a WIP. But I decided to bring it home with me and work on it while traveling. It is Birds of a Feather’s “Bitter Flower Sampler”.

Not a ton of work left – the most time-consuming will be the vase, but the border alphabet should go pretty quickly. Here's the original design in case you aren't familiar with it. (It's several years old -- so you can imagine how long I've been working on it.)

It’s going to be a pretty nice day in Utah today. I’m hoping I can convince my mom to go with me to a charming shopping area called “Gardiner’s Village”. I’m hoping to find a new couch at the Country Furniture store. I have been dreaming of a black and cream toile print couch for several years – and am finally ready to replace my 20+ year-old couch in my family room. The shopping area also has a quilt/stitching shop called Pine Needles, so will definitely also stop in there as well.

Have a wonderful week. Work and travel will keep me away from blogland until probably next Saturday. Will hopefully have good progress on projects to report.

Unexpected Recognition

2010-04-06T20:27:00.002-06:00

About 3 weeks ago I passed 20 years working for the same software company -- well, almost for the same company. Our company was acquired by Oracle about a year and a half ago. I assumed that my 20-year anniversary would come and go and no one would remember it other than myself (and perhaps my boss, whom I've worked for that entire 20-year period).

Imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from Oracle's HR recognizing my 20 years, and the opportunity to choose a gift. There was jewelry, crystal, watches, and electronics. But then I saw one of the options was a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS camera -- 12 megapixel, tremendous zoom capabilities, a good mix of manual and automatic exposure options, and more.

Well, that's what I picked. It will be great for my Mediterranean cruise this fall, plus I should be able to take better photos of my projects for the blog. You'd never know from my recent photos that I actually have a minor in photography. But when cameras went digital, I got lazy and went with point-and-shoot (and inexpensive). My single-lens-reflex cameras are gathering dust because digital is so much more convenient than film.

It probably won't arrive for a few weeks, but it will be fun to re-learn what I used to know about photography.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pin Pillow Exchange and Stitching Progress

2010-04-05T15:39:00.000-06:00

I received this darling pin pillow from Kathy as part of BeckyBee’s pin pillow exchange. Every day since the April 1st deadline (and even before) I was eagerly watching for the mailman each day in hopes that my exchange would be in the mail. And today it was!

We had a great weekend at the PX ranch – even with some fresh snow both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Lots of great food – from roasted turkey with sausage, cashew, and dried cranberry dressing and roasted asparagus, to freshly gathered eggs scrambled and served with grits and PX ranch bacon. I made Ina Garten’s Easy Sticky Buns. Yummy, and yes, they are extremely easy because they are made with frozen puff pastry dough. We even had enough to warm up the leftovers for breakfast on Sunday, and they were just as good.

Mom and I got one vegetable garden box planted with cool-weather veggies – radishes, both red and white; spinach; leaf lettuce; and cabbage. Tomorrow I’ll head over to my parent’s house and we’ll get the seeds started under grow lights for tomatoes, peppers, and a variety of squash. They should be ready to plant on branding day, planned for May 15th.

I got some stitching in – thanks to taking a floor lamp with a 150 watt bulb to make it easy to see what I was doing. I made good progress on both my Family in Stitches design, as well as another WIP that I’m hoping to finish this week.

Opening My Cabin This Weekend

2010-04-02T08:12:00.000-06:00

I’m taking Friday off from work to get a little jump start on the weekend – and to open up my little cabin for the summer. The cabin is at my brother’s ranch, near their ranch house and the “hideout” – a large building with bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, laundry and a large family room with lots of comfy seating and projection TV.

Besides cleaning out the cobwebs and dust that accumulated in my cabin during the winter, we’ll also be planting some of the cool-weather veggies in the “lower” garden. There’s another garden plot on his ranch, about 1/2 mile away at his other ranch house – but we won’t be worrying about that one this weekend.

It will be a family affair this weekend – and lots of fun. Besides my parents, my brother, his wife, their daughter, son and daughter-in-law, my sister will be there with her husband, their daughter and grand-daughter.

I’m hoping to get some stitching in while we’re visiting and gabbing.

We are also going to have a mini-spa for the women and do foot baths with salts from the Dead Sea and calming essential oils.

Have a wonderful Easter everyone!

My Latest Obsession – Essential Oils

2010-03-26T13:35:00.000-06:00

Over the past couple years I’ve been learning about essential oils and herbal remedies. In fact, on Saturday my sister and I are going to attend an all-day class where we learn about ancient Egyptian oil blends. We’ll also be studying eight essential oils in depth, including frankincense and myrrh (yes, the very gifts the magi brought to baby Jesus). We’ll learn about their physical, emotional, and spiritual healing properties, as well as their history. We’ll also have a 30-minute aromatic foot soak using salts from the Dead Sea – just like Cleopatra might have done. It will be a fun and interesting day!

If you aren’t familiar with the use of essential oils, I must say that I’m a believer. I diffuse them in my home for their aromatic properties, but I also use them directly on my body (extended with some grape seed, almond or coconut oil) for their healing and emotional properties.

When I get a headache, I place either peppermint or wintergreen oil on my temples, below my nostrils, on my forehead, and at the back of my neck. Instant relief! I also keep peppermint oil in an old-fashioned plastic inhaler and can breathe it whenever I need to wake myself up a bit.

Every night before bed I put lavender oil on a cotton ball and place inside my pillow case, and rub a soothing blend of relaxing oils on my feet. I’ve been doing this since Christmas and have slept better for the past 3 months than I have the past 3 years! I’m even able to sleep well in hotel rooms while travelling for work. My niece does this with her one-year-old and it definitely calms her down so she can relax and go to sleep.

Image from http://www.happyvalleylavender.com/

I add a drop of one of my oil blends designed for building up immunity to my toothbrush (with the toothpaste) morning and night. Helps with gingivitis as well as overall health. I haven’t had a cold for several years, although I can’t attribute it specifically to this since I’ve only begun doing this.

In fact, I just realized that my diffuser needs some replenishing. For a Friday afternoon, I wonder which would be better – something to stimulate my brain so I get busy and productive for the next few hours, or something relaxing to get me in the mood for stitching this evening. Such a dilemma!

Creative Energy

2010-03-25T15:19:00.000-06:00

Physical energy and creative energy are very different animals. Perhaps you’ve noticed this as well.

I often wondered why some days, weeks, even months I am totally driven to make quilts, stitch, paint or even try out new recipes – but there are other times when it’s all I can do to even read a book. I’m not talking physical energy here, but rather creative energy. There are even times when I’m physically spent, but I keep on sewing or stitching because the creative urge and energy is so present.

I believe that we can exhaust our creative energy just like we run out of physical energy. This realization finally dawned on me after one period of time when I really wanted to be in my sewing room doing something creative, but all efforts were futile even though I had plenty of physical energy. Why couldn’t I get into one of the many projects I wanted to work on?

What I’ve discovered about myself is that when my full-time job (as VP product marketing for a $100+ million line of business within a multi-billion dollar technology company) has me doing lots of creative work (rather than spending a lot of time in meetings or putting out fires), I have less creative energy at the end of the day – even though I’m raring to go physically. It seems that there is a limit to creative energy just like there is a limit to physical energy.

For me, I guess the best of all possible worlds is when I am creative at work -- but still have creative energy at the end of the day for fun projects.

Update to A Family History in Stitches

2010-03-21T16:15:00.006-06:00

I've continued tweaking my Family History in Stitches design. Only one square -- for my Mayflower ancestor, John Billington -- left to design. [Edited to add: I've now designed this square, and it's in the design below.) This sampler design honors my mother's father's family line. He (Albert Lee Fisher) and his wife (and children) are represented by the center rectangle. They were humble dairy farmers in southeastern Idaho.They both lived into their 90s and have a tremendous posterity that now numbers in the hundreds. We gather at their homestead in the small Idaho town (of about 60 people) every summer for a family reunion -- and basically triple or quadruple the population while the reunion is underway.

The 2nd square in the top row shows the ship and dates when Albert Lee's grandfather, Thomas Frederick Fisher, immigrated to the US from Liverpool. The 2nd square on the bottom row honors Thomas Frederick's work on the Bountiful Tabernacle, and recognizes my grandfather's great-grandfather on his mother's line who was in the Bountiful bishopric when the tabernacle was dedicated in 1863. The last square on the bottom row represents my grandfather's two uncles who were Pony Express riders (Thomas' two sons), while the 3rd square on the top row recognizes Thomas' young daughter who died in 1854 on the trek west.

The right-hand square in the middle row honors Sarah Ann Smith, who immigrated from England in 1856 and crossed the plains in the Hunt company. She married Thomas Frederick Fisher the following year. The square in the upper left is for Sarah Ann's grandmother who planned to immigrate with Sarah, but she died leaving Sarah to immigrate by herself as a 22-year-old young woman.

The remaining squares are all ancestors through my grandfather's mother's line -- Elisha Pace, his wife Eliza and their son Edwin lived in Nauvoo, IL. Elisha died in the fall of 1844, but Eliza and Edwin crossed the plains in 1848 (I think). Eliza's grandfather was Elijah Kingsley, a minuteman who was at the battle of Bunker Hill early in the Revolutionary War. And Eliza's other notable ancestor was John Billington, of Mayflower and Plymouth Rock fame (or rather infamy -- he was the first person executed by the Pilgrims in the new world.)

Lastly, Eliza's line also goes back to King Henry the 2nd who reigned over England from Dover Castle in England (remember the move Lion in Winter), and through their son, John "Lackland" who eventually became King, "signed" the Magna Carta (and was Robin Hood's nemesis). We are descended through an illegitimate child whose descendants didn't inherit land or riches and became commoners.

This is how much stitching progress I've made so far. Slow work on 40-count fabric, especially because of my bad eyes! I look hilarious with readers in front of my glasses (and yes, my glasses do have bifocals).

Quickie Quilt

2010-03-18T06:38:00.001-06:00

Lately I've been doing more stitching that quilting, but I did recently finish an easy quilt top. Here's my finished quilt top:

The fabric is the Williamsburg American Heritage collection by Windham Fabrics. LOVE IT! I've got enough fabric to make another quilt using the same fabric. I knew I just had to find the right pattern. And wha'd'ya know? I was looking at one of my quilting magazines and found a darling quilt that uses these same fabrics. It's from the Feb. 2009 McCall's Quilting Magazine, and is called Proudly We Wave, designed by Susan McDermott.

It's unusual for me to find two quilts in the same issue of a magazine that I want to make, but over the holidays I had made the quilt that was featured on the cover of this issue of the magazine. Somehow I had totally missed this patriotic quilt -- but it's now on my list, especially since I have the fabrics already.

Here's the magazine cover quilt, called "Nana's Nine Patch", designed by Lynn Lister:

And here's my version (I used black sashing strips rather than navy blue):

I absolutely love the borders.

This quilt was so fun to make! And I love the rich colors and contrast in the blocks.

A Quilt of Quilts

2010-03-18T06:30:00.000-06:00

Yes, this really IS a quilt. Be sure to visit Laura Peterson's website to see details about the quilt -- including how she made it, the inspiration for the quilt, and more.

Truly amazing!

All Things Americana

2010-03-16T15:31:00.004-06:00

I'm thinking it's time to pack up all of the Americana.

In the late 80s I began decorating my guest room in
red, white and blue.

I was also big into decorative painting, so I painted a ton of stuff -- Uncle Sam, Lady Liberty, and more -- to match.

It moved from Utah to Pennsylvania with me -- and I continued to paint things to match. It moved back to Utah with me -- and after 7 years hereI'm thinking it is time for a change.

I remember painting each and every one of those pieces -- but I think the trend has long since ended.

Stitching Miscellania

2010-03-15T13:55:00.001-06:00

I noticed that DMC-USA became a follower when I wasn't paying attention. Then I noticed a lot of people coming to Bountiful Heirlooms from DMC. So I discovered that Emma over at DMC-USA had referenced a post I wrote a while back with some of my stitching tips and tricks. (Thanks Emma!) There are lots of great stitching hints and valuable floss information over at DMC, as you would expect -- so definitely check it out!

Over the weekend I also finished a couple long-forgotten WIPs.

The small liberty design needed only about 15 stitches in the border to finish it up, while the Shepherd's Bush Summer design needed only the backstitching completed and the buttons sewn on. So that is now done as well. Unfortunately, now both of these projects are in the pile of completed stitchery waiting to be "finished" into something else.

I continue to be amazed at how looking at a photo of one of my stitched designs seems to uncover the boo-boos! I was looking at the photo in a previous post of the Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers piece I finished -- only to realize that the lower left corner is scooted out too far to the left. How in the heck did I make that big of a mistake and not notice it while I was working on the project?

Upon closer inspection, I realized that I added an extra zig to the little green zig-zag filler to the left of the words "their songs" and that threw everything off because that was my reference point for starting the bird, followed by the flower stem, etc. Good grief! So now the dilemma. Do I pick out the bird, flower, leaves and stem stitches and restitch -- or stick with my mantra that "finished is better than perfect".

Welcome Baby Emrie Belle!

2010-03-15T07:01:00.001-06:00

Baby Emrie Belle came into the world on Saturday at 2:38 pm. She weighed in at 7 lbs 2 ounces and 20 inches long. Congratulations Jake and Whitney! Mom and baby are gorgeous -- even though Jake looks a little shell-shocked! But that's to be expected -- especially after working all night. And congratulations to proud Grandma Pam!

My Next Vacation

2010-03-14T18:38:00.001-06:00

Yippee! I finally know what my 2010 vacation will be. I thought I probably wouldn't do a vacation this year, but a few weeks ago a friend at church asked if I wanted to go on a November cruise with her that includes a couple days in Israel. So today we finalized our plans to join a bunch of others from Bountiful, UT. A professor from Brigham Young University, who has lived in Israel and travelled extensively in the eastern Mediterranean area, will be our guide and give lectures on the sea days.

I did a cruise in the Mediterranean in November 2007 -- Turkey (3 ports), Greece (2 islands), Cyprus, Egypt, Sardinia, Tunisia, Mahon (Spain) and Barcelona. This trip starts in Venice and ends in Athens. New ports for me will be Dubrovnic, Patmos, Port Said (Egypt) and Athens, with repeats in Alexandria, Kusadasai (Turkey), and Venice. Technically the two Israel port cities are new to me -- Haifa and Ashdod, but I spent a week in Israel when I was in college so have been to Nazaraeth, Galilee, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem.

I love cruises -- unpack once and not have to schlep suitcases everywhere you want to go. And even though I love eating at fun restaurants in the places I visit, it's nice to not have to worry about it. Just get back on the ship and enjoy their yummy food. Finally something to look forward to in order to get through the next few months of intense work at my full time job!

Home Again

2010-03-13T08:24:00.003-07:00

Busy work week! Back-to-back meetings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and all-day meeting on Thursday. 7:00 am flight on Friday. Sheer exhaustion by Friday night. Thankfully I was upgraded to first class both directions, and had a window seat so I had good light for stitching.

I finished Homespun Elegance's "Home is Where You Hang Your Needlework" on the flight east, and finished Blackbird Designs' Loose Feathers "Their Song" on the way home.

I loved working on this piece. I think it was the silk floss because it was fun to see how the variegated color would end up on the piece. I was deliberate in some of the color value placement, but other times I just started stitching -- and come what may! It still is amazing that only two colors were used. I've been wanting to redecorate my TV / family room in brown, red, and black so this just might become the starting point for stitchery to match that color scheme. I bought a new coffee table and end table last year, but think it's finally time to replace the sofa (still in good condition, but I bought the teal / mauve sofa in the 80s and it's definitely time to get something new). I also want to find the perfect chair for comfy stitching while watching TV in that room.

Note: Edited to insert a better picture -- one that shows the warmth in the colors.

I even had time to work on Little House Needleworks' "Needle and Thread" Sunday and Monday evenings. A couple more hours and this one will be done.

Tuesday and Wednesday evenings were spent with different co-workers at dinner. The first night was at a restaurant named El Vez -- the food was OK but the guacamole was fabulous. I guess living in a state with a large Latino population has spoiled me for eating Mexican food east of the Mississippi. Wednesday night, however, was an amazing experience at Iron Chef Jose Garces' Chifa Restaurant. The 20 or so people who would be involved in the all-day Thursday meeting all ate at a communal table with a lazy susan for every 4 to 6 people. We had a tasting menu which meant being served about 15 mini-plates of unique Latin-Asian fusion dishes. All were good -- but a few were spectacular. I almost felt like one of the judges on Iron Chef because of the unique flavors, ingredients, creativity and presentation.

It's nice to be home for a few weeks -- but my next two business trips are already planned for the first half of April.

A Quick Note...

2010-03-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Off to the airport in about an hour. I'll be traveling for work this week, so this will probably be my last post until next weekend. I hope to be able to report back that I have finished a couple WIPs during my two 5-hour flights, and hopefully from some stitching time in the evenings in my hotel room.

All that's left are one big leaf, some backstitching, and my initials and finish year.

I'm shocked at how quickly this one has gone. I guess it's because there are only two floss colors. Just a few more letters (to finish the word "needlework"), my initials, 3 or 4 motifs, and backstitching.

I picked up my taxes this week. I was fully expecting to have to pay a huge boatload of money to the IRS, but to my surprise I'm actually getting a row-boatload of money back. WHEW! So I splurged on a lot of silk floss for my Family in Stitches sampler. As soon as I finish these WIPs, I'll allow myself to begin that project.

That's all for now. Philadelphia here I come. I hope the weather stays good!

Beautiful Dinkey-Dyes Silk Floss

2010-03-03T16:18:00.002-07:00

What a treat to go to the mailbox today and be greeted by a wonderful and kind gift from Jo Mason, the owner of Dinkey-Dyes hand-dyed silk floss. Her company and line of floss was new to me and I am so excited to try them out on a project pattern I bought on Saturday.

Thanks so much Jo!

I am traveling next week for work, but hope that I can fit some stitching in. This is definitely the project I'll work on if I have time.

If you haven't stitched with silk, you MUST do it. It feels different while you're stitching -- the threads just glide so smoothly through those little evenweave holes. And the touch of the finished stitching is just luscious! Jo's silk flosses are beautiful. The two skeins shown above at the far left, called Araluen, have such a wonderful range of colors -- from moss to tan to brown to red. I can't wait to get this into my needles!

Please check out Dinkey-Dyes online to see everything that they have to offer.

New Cross Stitch Projects

2010-02-27T15:33:00.001-07:00

After dropping my brother off to pick up his car, my mom and I stopped at one of the SLC stitchery shops. I happily added to my floss stash, as well as picked up three designs that I’ve added to my to-do list.

I love this design on 32-count Vintage Autumn Gold linen by Lakeside Linens. It is stitched with only two colors -- Splendor silk in black and Needlepoint silk in Chinese Red.

And this sewing roll design will be fabulous. It is from an Australian designer, The Cat’s Whiskers, and has fabulous finishing instructions (which I definitely need). The above projects use a type of floss I'm not familiar with -- Dinky-Dyes. I'll be substituting either silk or a comparable overdyed floss.

Lastly, this Homespun Elegance design – Home Is Where You Hang Your Needlework. It too is stitched with only two floss colors – Crescent’s Belle Soie Silk colors Red Fox and Espresso. But because the floss is variegated, it looks like there are many more colors than just two. It also has finishing instructions for the pinkeep and needlecase/scissor fob. The model is stitched on 30-count Mink linen by R&R Reproductions, but I think I’ll use a linen that is a bit lighter (but still overdyed).

Oh, and we also went to a great bakery called Nothing Bundt Cakes. I bought 3 mini bundt cakes (red velvet, pecan praline, and white chocolate raspberry), as well as a dozen bundt-bite-size cakes to take to my parents for Sunday dinner tomorrow. Both of my brothers' wives are out of town (one with her sisters to a girls getaway to the jewelry show in Las Vegas and one with her daughter at a volleyball tournament in Denver). So my mom is going to do a PX Ranch pot roast (from my brother's ranch) and the rest of us will get together for dinner. I'll also roast some carrots to munch on. (I LOVE roasted veggies -- and carrots become so sweet when roasted.)

And look what came in the mail today from Amazon.com. As soon as this note is posted, I'm gonna dig into these new books!

I'm also thinking I can probably finish my Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers project "Their Song" tonight or tomorrow. Hmmm, wonder which cross stitch project will be next?

And the winner is....

2010-02-27T08:25:00.002-07:00

Drum roll please!

Congratulations Deb!

Well, the odds were pretty good – you had a one in seven chance of winning. As soon as you send me your mailing address, I’ll get the subscription in the works. Just go to my profile page and click the Email link. I would guess that the first magazine will come in a few weeks. The current issue arrived about 1 week ago, so I’m hoping they’ll start you with this one rather than wait for the next (which would be about 7 weeks from now).

I had to look up the Rolling Stone block that Deb compared herself to since I didn’t know it by name. It is definitely a great block.

Thanks everyone for joining in – and it’s nice to meet a few new followers. I realized after I posted this giveaway that it was my 50th post. Not much of a milestone, but a milestone nonetheless. I’m thinking about what would be a better giveaway for my 100th post – something that would appeal to the non-quilters as well. But I probably have a couple months to decide.

I’m taking my brother to SLC to pick up his vehicle that is being serviced – so I’ll also hit one of the needlework stitchery shops to see what they have to show from the Nashville market. Hopefully something fun that is worth buying!

Bye for now.

A Quickie Freebie Giveaway

2010-02-24T07:03:00.004-07:00

This is for my followers ONLY. Yes, you can join in the fun by becoming a follower.

Prize: free one-year gift subscription to Fons and Porters Love of Quilting magazine. Please note that this is available to US followers only. (Sorry Maggie in the UK and any that might be in Canada or elsewhere.)

New and existing followers need only make a comment to this post AND answer the question:

Which quilt block are you most like, and why?

For example, if you have Irish grandparents, perhaps it is the Triple Irish Chain block. If you live in Ohio, perhaps it’s the Ohio Star. Perhaps it’s a basket block because you’re always a “basket case”. For me, it is the Castles in Spain block – because I lived in Spain two different times and always figured I should have been born into royalty. If you need some block inspiration, check out Quilter’s Cache.

The Small Print:

One entry per person
You must have a US mailing address
Deadline for making a comment (and becoming a follower if you aren’t already): Friday, Feb. 26th at 10 pm mountain time
If you don’t have a blog, please leave your e-mail address so I may contact you directly if you’re the lucky winner
I’ll select someone at random and post the name of the winner by 10 am mountain time on Saturday, Feb. 27th, and will mail in the gift subscription within a day of getting your mailing address from you.

I think that's it. Good luck everyone!

Pin Pillow Exchange at BeckyBee's Stitching Hive

2010-02-23T15:11:00.001-07:00

I participated in the pin pillow exchange at BeckyBee's and since the person who received my pin pillow doesn't have a blog, I'm posting a picture of it here. I'm hoping Charlene likes it -- and looking forward to receiving mine some time over the next 6 weeks!

Olympic Stitching and Appliquéing

2010-02-22T09:07:00.005-07:00

In the spirit of Olympic finishes, it was a productive weekend with one finish, and progress on WIPs.

Although I stitched this darling Shepherd’s Bush design several years ago, I ran across the fabric needed to finish it while straightening up my sewing room. So I sewed it up. The design was a freebie from SB that they gave away in their shop, as well as to those who came by their booth at market that year.

That project was stitched on 10-count Tula cloth with 3 strands of floss. It reminded me of the other pieces I’d stitched on 10-count Tula, as well as over 2 on a 18-count fabric. I remember this was a nice change from the tighter weave fabrics I usually stitch on.

I have also previously stitched 3 of the SB Monthly Musing designs, 2 of which are finished as doorknob hangers.

I love the small Lizzie and Kate Snippets and Bent Creep Snapperville designs. And they are darling when stitched as “smalls”. But they can be stitched on larger weave fabric for a completely different effect. For example, this Trilogy small design would have been 3.5 inches by 3.5 inches if I’d stitched it over 2 on the 32-count linen recommended by the designer. But I stitched it on a 18-count lambswool linen over 2 and it finished 7 inches square. Plus that made it the right scale to add some buttons.

Other stitching over the past week included stitching one of the squares from my Family in Stitches design. Although the final project will be on 40-count with needlepoint silk, I did this on a cool hand-dyed 28-count linen with Weeks Dye Works and GA Sampler threads. All that remains is the backstitching details.

The interesting thing is that as I was stitching this I was watching the latest episode of Lark Rise to Candleford (a BBC series being shown on PBS). It dawned on me that I was probably watching what life was like in England for my ancestor Sophia Butcher in whose memory I was stitching.

And, last but not least, I finished the appliqué embellishments to the Heart to Heart quilt. I ordered black with white pin dots fabric from Fabric.com, only to find out that it is backordered and I won’t have it until mid March. So this project won’t be finished for several weeks.

This little bird will get a button eye after it's quilted.

But, all in all, a productive and enjoyable weekend.

Cooking Adventures

2010-02-20T13:42:00.003-07:00

Thursday evening I took an Asian cooking class at the SLC Sur la Table. We learned so many great recipes, but I mostly wanted to take the class to get a great recipe for Tom Ka Gai (Thai chicken/coconut milk) soup and gyoza (Japanese version of Chinese pot stickers).

So today I headed off to the Asian market to get the ingredients for the soup -- which is my all-time favorite Thai dish. Many of the items can't be found at the grocery store, and most of the others are cheaper if you buy them at an Asian market.

Most of the ingredients in the picture are easily identified, except for the galangal (below of chicken broth) and kaffir lime leaves (below the can of coconut milk). The only ingredients I didn't include in the photo are the chicken, salt and pepper.

The soup is incredibly easy to make. If only I'd known -- I would have learned to make it years ago. It actually took longer to find the ingredients in the Asian market than to make the soup.

Here's the finished product.

It tastes just like what you get at a good Thai restaurant. The only thing I would do differently is add more chicken than the recipe called for, and probably add some other veggies besides the mushrooms to make it a bit more substantial and filling.

The recipe for Tom Ka Gai soup, serving 4:

1-1/2 cups coconut milk (stir well)
1-1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
10 slices fresh or frozen galangal (pieces are each about the size of a quarter)
2 stalks lemon grass, trimmed, roughly chopped and crushed
6 to 8 wild lime leaves (makrut), torn into pieces
3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken (breasts or thighs,or both), cut into 3/4 to 1-inch pieces
1 cup mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
zest from 1 lime
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce (Three Crabs brand)
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves
2 cups cooked jasmine rice
one thinly sliced chili pepper (thai, jalapeno or serrano), optional

Combine the coconut milk and chicken broth in a large saucepan. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Stir in the galangal, lemon grass, wild lime leaves and lime zest. Simmer for 10 minutes. NOTE: If you don't want to eat around the galangal and lemon grass, you can strain it out at this point. Or, gather loosely into a 12-inch square piece of cheese cloth, tie it closed and simmer in the broth; remove before serving.) Add the chicken and mushroom pieces. After I squeezed the juice from the lime halves, I added the lime rinds to the broth while the chicken and mushrooms cooked. Simmer gently for another 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from heat and stir in the lime juice and fish sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into serving bowls and garnish with chopped cilantro and chilies. Serve as is, or with a scoop of hot jasmine rice. Just delicious!

BTW, I've decided on the last 3 squares for my Family in Stitches sampler. One square will be dedicated to John Billington, my Mayflower ancestor. One square will pay homage to Elijah Kingsley, one of my 5th great grandfathers who was a Minuteman in the Revolutionary War. And one square will be dedicated to either King Henry II of England or his son John Lackland. (Yes, I am descended from royalty!) King Henry is my grandfather 24 generations back, making him a 22nd-great grandfather. Who would have thought that the mother of a humble Idaho dairy farmer (my mom's father) descended from a King of England.

A Family History in Stitches

2010-02-19T17:43:00.005-07:00

I have always admired the Carriage House Samplings Hawk Run Hollow designs, but as much as I like them, if I am going to spend that much time on a single project I want to spend the time on something that is more meaningful to me personally. I’ve had the idea for a while to create my own piece in a similar style as Kathy Barrick’s lovely designs.

I have begun my creation. Each square will represent one of my ancestors in my maternal grandfather’s line. Ultimately I’d like to create a piece for each of my grandparents’ ancestral lines because there are so many great stories to tell through stitching.

But I’ve got the first one started – the design, that is, not the stitching. Here’s a picture of what I’ve done so far, although there are no guarantees that the whole thing won’t change significantly before I finish it.

Top row first square: Sophia Butcher was one of my 4th great grandmothers. I don’t know a lot about her except that my great-great grandmother, Sarah Ann Smith (see 2nd row, 4th square) was very close to her and lived with her for a while.

Top row second square: This is the ship that one of my great-great grandfathers took from England to the US. He (Thomas Frederick Fisher) was also a ship’s carpenter working for Queen Victoria. He immigrated in 1854.

Top row third square: On the way to the Great Salt Lake valley, Thomas’ 8-year-old daughter, Georgina, accidentally fell from their wagon, was run over and died. This was documented by the head of the wagon company in the log of their journey across the plains as occurring at a place named La Bonte Creek.

Second row first square: Still working on this one, but the building is the Nauvoo Illinois Temple. Another of my great-great-grandfathers lived in Nauvoo with his widowed mother. Together they crossed the plains in 1848, arriving in the Salt Lake valley only one year after the original pioneers settled there.

The large center area will be about my grandfather, his farm in Oxford ID, and will probably show his barn and other things related to his dairy farm.

Second row fourth square: Twenty-two year old Sarah Ann left Liverpool England for the US in 1856. After arriving in Boston, she took the train to Iowa and there joined the John A. Hunt company for Salt Lake. She walked most of the way, although she had paid someone to take her belongings in their wagon. Because of an early snow, her possessions were left in Wyoming in order to make room for people who were weak and dying from exposure. She entered the Salt Lake valley carrying her carpetbag with a few possessions, including a small book of poetry her parents had given her in England. Sarah Ann became Thomas Frederick Fisher’s second wife the following year.

Bottom row second square: Having lived all over the US (plus Spain and Mexico), I now live in Bountiful, UT, the very town where many of my ancestors in my grandfather’s line settled only a few years after the city began. Thomas Frederick Fisher did the finish carpentry inside the Bountiful Tabernacle, a building still used today for church services. And a great-great-great-grandfather, William Atkinson, was one of the ecclesiastical leaders in Bountiful at the time the tabernacle was dedicated.

Bottom row fourth square: Two of Thomas Frederick Fisher’s sons (with his first wife) became Pony Express riders. Although they are not direct ancestors (I’m descended through Thomas’ second wife Sarah Ann), their story is too cool not to include in my design. William and John also crossed the plains with their father, being about 13 and 15 years old respectively. Georgina who died on the way was their little sister. I think it is so fascinating to think that these two young men – with proper British accents, became Pony Express riders. In one of their rides they carried the news of Lincoln’s assassination.

As you can see, I still have a few squares to fill. My mom is currently working on compiling and annotating all of the personal histories for these ancestors, so I’m sure I’ll find some other stories to document in stitchery. I will be stitching it in needlepoint silk on 40-count linen (I can't believe I am doing it on 40-count, but the Hawk Run Hollow designs are so gorgeous at this count!)

A Great Way to Memorialize a Treasured Family Recipe

2010-02-17T12:11:00.004-07:00

When I was growing up we would often visit my maternal grandparents in a tiny southeastern Idaho town (and I mean tiny – only 53 people now according to the 2000 US Census).

One of the many childhood memories was my grandmother’s applesauce cookies. She would store them in well-used tin that once held a fruit cake and we – me and my 40 first cousins – could help ourselves to a cookie whenever we wanted. I can only imagine how many dozens of applesauce cookies – made with her home-canned applesauce from apples grown on several apple trees in the yard – we ate. She always made these cake-like cookies with chocolate chips and frosted them with chocolate frosting. Yum!

Several years ago for a family reunion I shared this cross-stitch pattern featuring the treasured applesauce cookie recipe. I adapted a pattern from a Vanessa-Ann book of designs (but unfortunately I can’t find the book in order to give it proper credit). One of my cousins made a couple tweaks to the design as well, and this is the result.

I never stitched a final version for myself, but my mom did one for me and changed the original blues to greens to better match my kitchen colors. So now the stitched recipe hangs in my kitchen, making it easy for me to make grandma’s applesauce cookies without having to look up the recipe.

Click the pattern image below if you’d like to download the pattern and perhaps use it as a starting point for your own treasured recipe design.

Enjoy!

Quilting Accomplishments – And Those Yet To Come

2010-02-16T16:02:00.002-07:00

At the end of 2009 I realized that I had not kept a good list of the quilts I had made. So, I sat down and tried to remember all of the quilts I had made since I rediscovered quilting in 1998. I created an Excel spreadsheet quilt log to keep track of the quilts, note who received them, estimate the date each was finished, and saved the link to a photo of the quilt (if I had a photo).

It turns out I’ve completed 33 quilts since 1998, half of which were bed-sized and half were wall-sized. Half of the quilts have been given as gifts, a few are earmarked for gifts, and some have my name on them!

At first I was really proud of my accomplishments until I realized that was only 3 finished quilts per year.

Certainly I had made more than that! Then I inventoried the quilt tops that are ready to quilt – another 21 quilts, and completed blocks just waiting to be set and borders added – 5 more quilts. That brought the total to 59, so my average per year was closer to 6 per year.

My quilt log was looking pretty good, so I decided to inventory how many quilts are in various stages of completion – and that number is an even dozen – clearly enough projects to keep me busy much of this year, even if I don’t start any new projects.

Since I was on a roll, I inventoried how many kits and blocks-of-the-month are waiting to be made. I have kits for nearly as many quilts as I have made in the past 11 years – 32 kits or full BOMs neatly stored for me to work on. (Several are appliqué, and now that I’ve nearly mastered Kim Diehl’s machine appliqué, I’ll probably tackle more of them than I would have if I’d done hand appliqué.)

So what about the stash of fat quarters, yardage, and charm packs, layer cakes and jelly rolls? I would guess that I have enough for at least another 50 quilt tops!

I read somewhere that no one refers to a bunch of unread books as “stash” – instead, it is a “library”. Perhaps we need a better name than “stash” for unstarted quilting projects.

54 down, 115 to go

2010-02-15T09:14:00.005-07:00

And that doesn't count the triangle and corner blocks in the DJ quilt. I did 3 DJ blocks over the weekend. Let's see -- if I do 3 a week, I can finish the block in only 18 weeks. Seems achievable.

** Edited to correct my math **

Nope, that would be 38 weeks to finish the blocks if I do 3 per week.

Then, I've still got 50 triangles (have completed only 2) and the four corners. At 3 per week, that's another 18 weeks. But considering I made my first DJ block on Sept. 10, 2004 -- and haven't made one since 2/13/2005 (YES, that's 5 years ago!), spending another 36 weeks (** that would be 74 weeks **) on this quilt (not counting sewing the sashing to the blocks and assembling the quilt top itself, doesn't sound that long. This isn't a commitment to finish the blocks in 74 weeks -- but rather an acknowledgment that it is possible (just not probable!).

Anyway, here are the 3 blocks I made over the weekend.

It's funny that the process of scanning or photographing, and then viewing on the computer monitor, makes the mistakes are so obvious! On the K8 block (in purple) I noticed that one of the background pieces was attached upside down so the back is on the front. This isn't obvious when looking at it in person, but boy is it obvious in the photo. I'm NOT redoing the block however. But I might redo K1, the pieced block with the tan stripey print. The paper pieced pattern did not match the actual block and as a result, my lights and darks aren't all in the right spots. (Plus I was very rusty with my paper piecing and I could have done a better job.)

I also discovered a terrific blog, That Quilt, by Anina. She has shown her piecing, applique and paper-piecing process for about three fourths of the DJ blocks -- so far. It is a terrific resource for those working on DJ quilts.

Heart to Heart Blocks

2010-02-13T13:32:00.002-07:00

The weather is kind of grey, with snow possible, so I ran my errands early and got into my sewing room by about 10:30 a.m. Finished the heart appliques for the remaining five blocks in about two hours. Tonight while watching the Olympics I'll cut out leaves and flowers to embellish the blocks, and get them prepped for applique. I also ordered online some black fabric with white pin-dots to use as sashing.

I don't have a design wall, so had to photograph on my "design floor".

Lunch time: sandwich with leftover meatloaf. I got some grass-fed beef and pork from my brother's ranch. Totally organic, well cared for, no hormones or steroids. And because they never had any grain (which is a good thing since cattle stomachs were never intended for digesting grain), the meat is very lean. No grease to pour off after cooking the meatloaf.

Branding day at the PX ranch. I wonder which of these ended up in my freezer? (I'm probably glad I don't know.)

Olympics Opening Ceremonies Projects

2010-02-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

I appliqued two more heart blocks as the Olympics got started, but switched to cross stitching after the athletes had entered the stadium. I decided to work on a project that I began quite a while ago, but that takes a lot of concentration because the design is all worked in one color and until it's completed, you can't tell what it is.

The design is a middle-ages letter "N" by M Designs. It can be worked the way I did it -- with the letter design actually the "negative space" of the fabric, or the letter itself can be stitched as usual. Since this overdyed fabric was so interesting, I decided to have the fabric be the letter.

Here's a picture of the sample as stitched by M Designs. It was stitched with light floss on blue fabric. If I were to start over, I would have picked a fabric/floss combination with higher contrast, but too late for that.

The floss I'm using is a Thread Gatherer Silk 'n' Colors hand-dyed silk called Autumn Frost.

The floss is so luscious and the change in color as you stitch is what makes this design work.

Busy day today, but hope to get some sewing time in to keep working on the heart quilt.

ForgottenTreasures

2010-02-12T10:02:00.002-07:00

I was going through a wicker basket of craft and stitching supplies and found these forgotten treasures -- Japanese silk floss.

Based on the colors I selected, I probably bought these in the 80s since I was seriously into mauve! I don't remember whether I bought them with a particular project in mind, but in the 25 or so years since I splurged on these threads, I'm sure I wouldn't want to stitch that same project now. So, I'll have to get creative and design something that will be suitable for these intriguing threads. Or dig out a Shepherd's Bush design that uses this palette. They have a lovely sheen and the end result would be gorgeous.

I did an internet search to see whether I could find anything about them. They are known as Kanagawa 1000 Dernier silk thread and are still available in a variety of colors.

I wonder what other treasures I might find if I totally cleaned out my sewing room??

Which of these is not like the others?

2010-02-11T21:52:00.003-07:00

One of these blocks -- the upper right block -- was hand appliqued via needleturn a couple years ago. But the other three I did via machine applique this evening. I was able to do these three blocks in the time that it took to do the original one. Even though Kim Diehl recommends using the smoke monofilament thread on dark fabrics, I was too lazy to re-thread my machine and used the translucent clear on each piece. I couldn't tell any difference from using the smoke. I'm loving this technique!

I thought this would be a good project for Valentine's / President's Day / Olympics weekend. Six more blocks to do the hearts and then there is some embellishment on each one. The blocks finish about 12 inches wide by 16 inches high. The design is called "Heart to Heart" and is by Laurie Bird, Rose Cottage Design. Laurie also designs fabrics for Windham, as does her sister Michelle Blackhurst.

I so want to start a new quilt, but I told myself that I need to finish one of my WIPs (aka UFOs) for every new quilt I start. I decided that sewing several Dear Jane blocks would count as well so I will keep that quilt moving. (I just can't drop everything else to focus just on Dear Jane.) I'll get this one done, maybe a few DJ blocks, and then who knows what fun project I'll start.

Bye for now.