MY CURRENT OBSESSIONS

Good bye 2010

2010-12-29T20:55:00.000-08:00

Our daughter has been scanning all of our slides. I've not yet received copies of most of them, but she did send this one a few days ago. These are my parents - it's a great picture of both of them. It was taken in 1967 at Vantage, which is on the Columbia River in eastern Washington. I love this picture.

I can hardly believe that this year is almost gone. It seems like every year goes by faster than the one before. However, the last 12 days have gone slowly. I had a bunionectomy on Friday December 17 - both the big toe and little toe on my left foot. Not the best time to do it, but I needed Fred at home to take care of me for the first two weeks. So Christmas vacation it was. He goes back to school next Monday and I'm on my own. The first week was spent on my back with my foot above my heart. The second week was spent in the recliner with my foot elevated. Both weeks included icing every hour. Being waited on hand and foot was most unusual, to say the least. Also eating frozen meals twice a day. Gets very tiring! I'm mobile in that I have a knee scooter for moving around the house, but I can't drive until the end of January - that's when I can start putting weight on the foot. The scooter is lots of fun. I need to have Fred take a picture of me! Needless to say I've not been taking any pictures myself. It's also time to set my goals for 2011. I'll do that tomorrow. I know they will include knitting lots of socks, as well as making granddaughter Emily's quilt. Guess I'd better resolve to get back to regular blogging also!

Recent Projects

2010-10-31T12:11:00.000-07:00

I don't seem to do anything except knit these days.

This green and blue shawl is my first lace project. Very simple. The fabulous yarn from Three Irish Girls is stunning.

The blue and gray shawl is wonderfully warm; I've already worn it several times. Looks great with jeans. This yarn came out of the sale bin at our local yarn shop. It's Rustic by Cascade Yarns. The pattern is the Feather and Fan shawl from the book "Folk Shawls".

This sculpture stands in the atrium at the local coffee shop where we meet on Tuesdays to knit. It's a great "dress form"

These socks are made from a yarn specially dyed for our local shop by Stitchy Jones. These simple lace socks were designed by Betsy McCarthy, who is in my Tuesday group. Her book "Knit Socks!" is great for learning how to make socks.

Knitting

2010-09-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest finished knitting project - socks for Fred completed today. The pattern is "Classic Socks" from 2-at-a-time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. The yarn is a colorway of Zitron's Trekking XXL. They have contrasting gray heels and toes because I didn't stop to think that 100 grams would not be enough to cover my husband's size 13 feet!

This was the best of my three pictures - unfortunately my toes wanted in also! Since I've not yet learned to use Photoshop Elements I'll call them the comic relief.

I will have some quilty content soon - I finally bought the fabric for Emily's quilt - which I'll start as soon as I have time to clean the sewing and knitting room.

Front yard redo - part 1

2010-09-16T20:13:00.002-07:00

Now take a look at pictures of the front yard taken last week and early this week!

Today - Thursday - we are looking at new trenches in the backyard leading through the gate to the west of the house, into and all over the front yard. Little yellow and blue flags are everywhere marking where the sprinkler heads will be.

Tomorrow, weather allowing, I will take up to date pictures. They hope to get all the pipes, sprinkles and other parts of an irrigation system installed and the trenches filled. The rush is to get the grass planted so I has time to grow and be cut a time or two before winter dormancy. I sure don't want a sea of mud in the front yard all winter long!

In this picture you can see - to the right of the dogwood - the Autumn Flame red maple that is replacing the sweet gum tree that used to be there. It's roots were invasive and heading toward the foundation so we got rid of it. I'm really looking forward to the brilliant red of leaves come next fall on the new tree.

We used old brick we got from the kids to edge all the beds in the backyard. I've not gotten a great picture of that yet, but I assure you it looks terrific. Fred can run the wheel of the lawn mower right on the bricks instead of having to trim edges after mowing. We have some bricks left, but will need to buy many more to do this in the front. I will investigate other possibilities, but I must admit I'm partial to the brick. This bare space on the east of the driveway will house the tent trailer on the left. Bushes and perennials of various sizes will be on the half by the street. I've always wanted to get rid of that little bit of grass - a huge nuisance for Fred every time he mows.

Backyard Redo - Part 3

2010-09-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

Shrubs planted in the back yard and waiting for planting in the front yard include (clicking on each name will take you to a page with picture of that plant) :

Arbutus unedo - "strawberry bush"
Abelia "Edward Goucher"
Euonymus alatus rubus
Hydrangea
Ceanethus victorius
Deutzia gracelis
Philadelphus coronares
Piers japonica
Enkianthus capanulatur
Kalmia latifolia
Weigela
Buddleia
Forsythia
Fuschia - both dwarf and bush
Blue diamond rhododendrons
Hino crimson azaleas
Kolkwitzia
Mock Orange
Beautyberry bush

Most of these meant nothing to me in the long list of possibilities that was presented by the landscaper and my gardening friends. After carefully checking out each one on the Internet - love Google Image search! - I made the final list.

Having the watering system is heaven after dragging around sprinklers and hoses for 36 years!

Backyard Redo - Part 2

2010-09-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

The backyard is nearly finished for now - and has been for a couple weeks. There is still lots of planting to do - bulbs a couple weeks from now, and then perennials and annuals next spring. I'd hoped to plant a lot of the perennials now, as this is the time people divide them in preparation for winter. Unfortunately, it's not the time that nurseries carry much of a selection at all - just fall bloomers. This gives me all winter to thumb through my gardening books and design exactly what I want to plant next spring.

Looking west at the raised bed garden. This is for vegetables every summer, or a cutting garden if I get tired of growing food. At the rear next to the fence is 20' of raspberries, three rhubarb plants, and three blueberry bushes. In front will be a 7' deep perennial garden, with climbing roses on the trellis and bulbs and annuals to accent the perennial garden. There will be color and bloom from early spring to late fall.

Looking east from the arbor is the path leading back to the house patio and branching to the patio underneath the cherry and apple trees. Shrubs are planted at the back of the beds which will provide privacy from the neighbors.

A closer look at the patio under the trees.

The patio near the French doors in the dining room.

Looking to the east side of the garage you can see the woodpile, potting bench, and the space ready for my rolling composter.

Backyard Redo - Part 1

2010-09-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

When the kids were preschoolers our front and back yards were beautiful. The backyard had wide beds around the entire perimeter, filled with edible plants - vegetables, berries and more - and fruit trees. The kids played outside happily while I worked in the garden. In spite of the very heavy clay soil we managed, digging through the rock hard soil to root out every weed as needed. It wasn't fun struggling with the soil, but the results were marvelous. I canned and froze all summer and we ate wonderful home grown food all winter.

As the kids grew up and I went back to work off and on, the back yard deteriorated little by little. I stopped canning and freezing, turned into a chauffeur and struggled to get everything done that needed doing in between work and kids activities. We worked to keep the front yard in shape - just barely - and that was it. We were so tired of struggling with the soil. Shrubs became overgrown and many years I didn't even plant annuals. I hated the way everything looked, but never found the time or energy to do anything about it.

This year we were able to do something about it. My 63 year old body can no longer do any of the heavy work, and I hated to ask Fred to do much of it as he really doesn't like yard work and he really needed the summer rest after a long, difficult school year. So I did the basic design, then hired someone to do the work. We will have a nice area for relaxing and an area for growing vegetables, roses, cutting flowers, or whatever else we want. So far we are thrilled with what has been done.

Roundup was applied everywhere, and then we waited for all the grass to die. The ancient, completely overgrown, leggy rhododendrons were removed, leaving only one compact rhodie, and apple tree, and a cherry tree. It took two weeks for the grass to die.

The ground was tilled very well, with 50 pounds of gypsum worked into the clay. Over 50 cubic yards of topsoil was then spread over the top.

The old concrete slab was demolished, and new patios and walkways of stamped concrete were installed.

It was fascinating to watch the process of turning flat, uninteresting concrete into what looks like beautiful stone - a very time consuming process that happened over the course of over a week.

Unidentified teasers

2010-09-06T15:47:00.001-07:00

Updates

2010-09-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much for the welcome back comments everyone! I've really missed each and every one of my readers. It's going to take quite awhile to catch everyone up on what's been happening. I certainly won't lack for posting material for quite awhile! I decided to change the blog name to something that covers almost all parts of my life. I do have an obsessive personality. When I get excited about something it almost takes over my life to the exclusion of almost everything else. My obsession was quilting - for over 20 years - the longest time an obsession has ever lasted for me. I've not really done any quilting for over a year, but that doesn't mean I've stopped quilting forever. It just isn't a current passion. For awhile early last year it was cooking.- That didn't last long - just a few months. Starting last September it became knitting. Now I can feel something else coming along. I've never been able to maintain more than one obsession at a time, but I've decided that MUST change. I need to add gardening - you'll see why in a post later this week - and get back to quilting so I can make Miss Emily her quilt. It also needs to be cooking again, so I can really get back on track with Weight Watchers. Right now I'm 8 lbs above goal, and new clothes are getting tight. Must keep knitting too - I've made too many new friends in my two knitting groups and I have WAY too much yarn accumulated. Therefore - a blog title to cover all of this! I'm posting some teaser pictures here from the last 8+ months. Stay tuned for more!

Pictures from top to bottom:

1. We finally got sewers late last fall. When we moved in we were told they'd be done within two years. That was 37 years ago. We hooked up in February. Good thing, as our septic system was ready to fail for the second time. We'd already fixed it once over 25 years ago to the tune of several thousands dollars even then.

2. Miss Emily - taken with my phone about 90 minutes after her birth. She is a big girl!

3. One of about a half dozen pairs of socks I've made myself. (Yes, this really is a pair!)

4. Premie baby caps for the hospital. Four of them are mine.

I'm back!

2010-09-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

And I've renamed the blog. I'm getting back into quilting, but also obsessing in other ways. I'll explain the new blog title later tonight. Now I'm headed to the Labor Day sale at a Portland quilt shop - I need to get started on the quilt for our new granddaughter! Emily Alexis was born on July 30th - 8 lb 14 oz - joining big sisters Sophie and Lily. Here she is at about two weeks in the purple sweater set that grandma knitted for her.

Weight loss journey - December report

2009-12-09T22:02:00.000-08:00

When I last posted on August 5th, I'd just reached my Weight Watcher goal the week before. And I was really worried about what I'd weigh when I got back from the cruise. It actually wasn't bad - I gained less than 5 pounds and it came off the next week easily. Must have been the exercise, because I certainly ate well! I did try tomake a lot of good choices - but never turned down dessert.

I made Lifetime 6 weeks after I reached my goal. I wasn't at goal any more, but I was within the 2 pound allowance above goal. Lifetime meant I didn't have to pay as long as I stayed within that 2 pound leeway. I did fine until last week, when I went to .6 of a pound above goal. That was my official weigh-in for December (lifetime members need weigh in on the first meeting of each month unless they go over the 2 pounds above goal). So I had to pay. Today I paid also - not only am I struggling with food now that the holidays are here, but I dressed for the weather as I refused to be cold. When I got up this morning the temperture was at 2.3 degrees. That's the coldest weather I've ever experienced, and is WAY below normal for our area. So I must have had at least an extra 5 pounds of clothes on. I just couldn't wear my summer weight weigh-in clothes - if I had I would have frozen to death!

And this is the first update on my life LOL!

Happy December!

2009-12-09T14:34:00.000-08:00

Are you ready for Christmas? It's only 16 days away according to the calendar on the wall here at the kids' house. I'm baby sitting Joseph at the moment and enjoying their tree as ours isn't up yet. The Christmas stuff is all over the living room and it makes me tired just looking at it. A conversation with a good friend last night brought me to the conclusion that it's time to pass on many of our Christmas decorations to someone else. I'm keeping what I love and what is special to us, but giving away the rest. Kids get first choice of course. Then the rest goes to Goodwill. I want to get that done this week so people shopping for this year will have a chance at them.

So how has everybody been? Not only have I been a very bad blogger - I've also been a bad reader of blogs. I've been knitting, camping, reading, playing games and probably wasting a lot of time (thanks to a close friend who got me started playing Facebook games). I've not been quilting, but the urge is coming back. Hopefully by January I'll be back in action quilty-wise.

Notice, I've changed the name of the blog. Felt a bit strange talking about knitting on a quilting blog. So now it's more a bit of everything - though it really was a bit like that before.

I do have pictures - 1400 of them! - from the August cruise. I've just not gone through them yet! I will one of these days, and then I'll post a few here. We did have a great time!

In case anyone is interested - here is a link to my notebook on Ravelry. There you will see that I'm building a yarn stash (no surprise there!). I also have pictures of projects: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/hardenbrookgirl. (I see things have changed here - I can't seem to turn a highlighted word into a link any more. I wonder why).

I'm going to try to get back to posting much for often. I really am!

My first finished sock!

2009-08-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

It has a bunch of mistakes, but it's done. Unfortunately it is too big for me. I need to go down one size in this pattern. I thought I picked the best one for my foot measurement, but I guess not. Unless my gauge was way off. I knitted a gauge swatch, but it wasn't in the round. It's late, so I'll measure tomorrow. I do have too more skeins of this yarn - it was inexpensive and also on sale, so I bought an extra just in case. So I'll make the second sock a size smaller, then make a mate the size that fits me best. It'll be great practice. (Boy, does my calf look huge! Guess it was the camera angle. I guess I'll have to have someone else take the picture after this!

I'll try to post one more time before Sunday, but I may not manage to do so. We leave for a 7-day cruise to Alaska on Sunday - a celebration for our 40th year anniversary (which was on June 21st). I still have two baby quilts to do for a customer before then - that will be tomorrow. Plus I'll continue with my packing tomorrow. Friday I'm going to the Sock Summit across the river in Portland, Oregon. What a coincidence, but how marvelous, that this huge event - the first of it's kind - is happening in my own back yard right at the time I've started this new hobby!

Hey - it's looking like a sock!

2009-08-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

This is SO much fun. Just like quilting - one never knows what the finished project will look like until it's almost done. I can hardly wait to finish a pair.

Especially with the new shoes I bought this week that are open enough to show off my socks LOL!

Thanks everyone!

2009-08-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

I received lots of great links in comments and emails - thanks everybody! I have a new favorites folder called "Knitting". I drolled all over the keys when I looked at the beautiful yarn in all those online shops - but didn't buy a thing. I'm going to try not to go overboard on this hobby like I have with quilting. It's hard, because that's certainly the way my personality works LOL!

My friend Kim found a fabulous link showing how to do the Kitchener stitch - in case anyone is interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7jIzwO5Nv4&feature=player_embedded

Gwen Marston's "Liberated Stars"

2009-08-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

I've wanted to take a class from Gwen Marston for years. My Tangled Threads friend Kim has spent several days in Gwen's classes and said she was the best. So I was thrilled that Kim and I were able to take her "Liberated Stars" class in Sisters. Kim's right - what a down-to-earth, nice-as-can-be lady! She has a wonderful way of immediately making you feel like her close friend. I'd take another class from her in a minute - if you ever get the chance I highly recommend you do it. I'd love to attend her Michigan retreat sometime.

This was a very fun class - something I've wanted to try ever since I bought her "Liberated Quiltmaking" book years ago. I knew it would be a challenge as I've always been so anal about seams matching, points, etc. What I learned is one can go too far the other way. Instead of just putting down fabric and stitching, sometimes I tried too hard to liberate points. At least one is liberated way too much - notice the star point that is hardly there? That block will be relegated to the orphan drawer. When I make more I'm going to try to just let it happen instead of over thinking the process.

My friend Kim hard at work.

It was lots of fun to just sew without thinking a lot - the only thinking involved dividing by 3 to determine how to make different size blocks. Not necessarily an easy math problem when trying to figure out the size of a little star to fit into the middle of a big star!

I've pictures of Gwen's quilts in her books, but seeing them in person is always so much better. I love the one with the appliquéd border. Good news for those of you who don't have the Liberated Quilts book and can't afford the sky high price of second hand. Gwen has gotten her publisher to agree to a new edition. It'll be a new book, with much of the same info as the old book plus additions. The "Liberated Baskets" quilt I've pictured will be in that book.

Sue Spargo class

2009-08-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

I loved every minute of Sue Spargo's class in Sisters. I took a class years ago from Sue when she first started teaching. She has certainly learned a bunch of new tricks of the teaching trade! This is a new class for her - "Embellishment" - that she premiered in Australia and/or New Zealand last spring (I think that's when it was.) I learned so much, and of course had lots of fun shopping in her "classroom store".

We were sent a basic kit and pattern for a wool appliqué piece that was to be finished before class. All of them were alike. We were to bring threads, yarns, beads, buttons, appliqué fabric - anything we wanted to use to embellish our "artwork". As you can see the colors are very bright, and I just don't have those colors in my stash. So I bought a few fat quarters and little remnant "knots" of brights. I forgot my baby rickrack at home so bought a bit more. I borrowed a friend's collection of beads (which I never got around to use!) and figured I was set. The piece didn't excite me at all so far, but I was reserving final judgement until after the class.

I had no idea what this might evolve into until I saw Sue's piece "in progress". She had done much to it, but it still didn't tell her it was done. (Sometimes the piece must be declared done because her quilter has forbidden her to have more than 8 layers, including the backing, batting, and background.) Here you see hers - you can hardly tell it began with the same kit!

I didn't make much progress on mine, but I'm happy with what I've done so far. I tried braiding yarn and then couching it down for additional stems. Leaves have been pinned on, though I think I need more. A couple flowers have pieces ready to appliqué onto them. In a class like this I find it helpful to circulate around the class regularly to see what others are doing, which of course takes away from working time. It's easy to see who worked and who spent time visiting and chatting when you look at each project at the end of the class.

One of the things I really enjoyed was Sue telling us about her journals. She keeps a journal for every quilt, and each has a little bit of everything. She sketches ideas for things to put on the quilt. She adds clippings from magazines and newspapers. Poetry, photos, fabric swatches and more are included. Some journals are very different from others. She never knows what the final quilt will look like until she has it finished - she designs as she goes - and the journals help her do that. We were sent a journal to bring for our own quilt along with the pattern and fabric - wouldn't you know that I accidentally left mine at home!

Of course I had to have my picture taken with Sue, and bought a couple of her newer books for her to sign, as I'd forgotten to bring her books that I had here at home.

Here are some pictures of the class, including my friend Alana from North Star quilters, as well as pictures of other student work.

Blogs requested!

2009-08-01T14:42:00.000-07:00

If you read one or more blogs that include knitting socks can you please send me those links also?

Thanks so much, everyone!

What I'm up to these days

2009-08-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

I've not been doing personal quilting for several weeks now. I thought that taking classes at Sisters would turn me back on to quilting. It did - for a few days anyway. However, something else jumped in to take my attention away.

Some of you may remember that I posted a list of my "goals for retirement" the day after my last day of work. One of those goals was "learning to knit socks". It's taken me a little over 18 months to begin, but now I'm loving every moment. While in Sisters we went into Bend on a shopping trip, and happened to go into a yarn store as Trudy - our "driver" - needed to get some yarn. While I was standing there taking in all the luscious colors and textures of the yarn - more fiber eye candy! - I decided to ask the clerk what book she recommended for teaching myself to knit socks. I left that store with 2 books and yarn for two pair. Well, you know me - when I find something new my tendency is to go overboard. Knitting socks is no exception.

By the time I left Sisters I'd been to the yarn shop there two or three times, and been shopping twice in the "Wild Hare" part of the quilt shop as they have a great yarn selection. I came home with 8 books and yarn for 32 pairs of socks. Since I've gotten home it's just gotten worse LOL! All I want to do is knit.

Any knitters out there? If so, please send me links to great online yarn shopping sites, as well as any other great knitting sites. I have registered on http://www.ravelry.com/, though I've not done much else there except look around.

The first two pictures show my new yarn stash - all for socks. Good thing I love to wear fun socks!

These are the books I've purchased.
My "class" sock - had to go to the yarn shop to learn how to pick up stitches. Thought I could finish it last night, but alas - I've tried to do the kitchener stitch three times to end the toe - each time following the book diagrams exactly - and each time it's been a messy failure. Guess I'll need to attend "social knitting" this Thursday also so I can have another mini lesson.

My first full-size sock. After about a dozen false starts I finally progressed this far without major disasters. There are a few booboos, but I you can't see them unless you look really closely (I seem to have a problem remembering to switch the yarn from one side to the other when switching between knitting and purling - thus I have extra yarn overs on the needle to deal with.) I'm now in the process of knitting the gusset.

Sisters was great - and lots more to chat about also

2009-07-29T21:49:00.000-07:00

I need to focus on posting - I think I have material for at least half a dozen posts if not more. And lots has happened since then too!

First I must share my big news - I reached goal at Weight Watchers this morning! Goal was 164, and I weighed in at 162.8. Now I just need to hold that for 6 weeks to become a lifetime member - meaning I don't have to pay any more. I'm absolutely thrilled! One catch however - I'm not at my ultimate goal yet. That goal was set when I still thought I was 5'8". Now that I've shrunk to 5' 6" I need to get to 155 for a healthy BMI. WW knows that, but leader René said she'd stick with the first one as far as reaching lifetime. I'm not all that far from 155, so I hope to have reached that in the six weeks before reaching lifetime.

We went camping with our kids weekend before last and had a fabulous time. Here are two pictures my daughter sent. (Can't do a post without pictures, of course! It was so much fun to watch Sophie and Joseph, as they were both too young to appreciate it last summer. They sure loved the dirt - and the creek! Joseph waded in shoes, clothes and all before his parents could stop him. The water was only about 2-3 inches deep - and they were right there - but the bottoms of his pants legs were soaked, and then he sat down in it before they could stop him!

Lots more tomorrow. I need to get some sleep. I need to get up early as I'm heading down I-205 to Clackamas, OR to get my mammo at 8:30. We'll see how it goes - it's been SO hot here. 106 yesterday with 40% humidity, and 107 today. We have no air - it's still about 85 downstairs - it was up to 102 in the family room and longarm room during the day! No longarming for me as long as his heat keeps up!

Here for a minute

2009-07-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

I see once again it's been almost a month since I posted. My post will be short, as I'm heading out the door this morning on my way to Sisters Oregon for classes and quilt shows. I'll give you a full report when I get back.

If any of you are there and happen to see me please be sure to say hello!

This and that

2009-06-13T22:06:00.001-07:00

Today I got back to quilting. It felt really good to be in the sewing room. After Jo's Little Women's Club I did some quilting on the customer quilt currently stretched onto Gandalf's table. Then I finished prepping April's and May's blocks for Jan Patek's 2009 mystery quilt. The flower arrangement is for April and the bee skep for May. I finished the appliqué on the February and March triangles, so they will be sewn to the center tomorrow.

My patio garden is growing very, very well. I've already used some of the herbs in cooking - Italian parsley and cilantro. What fun to step outside to pick them fresh for immediate use! We've had four ripe strawberries, with lots more to come. The birds got the first one, but Fred and I shared the other three. The tomato plant was blown over in the short, violent storm we had about 10 days ago, but it doesn't seem to have minded. I need to pick up some stakes so I can tie it upright again - in the meantime it's leaning against the support for the patio cover.

I've started walking to Starbucks again - this time going the longer way so it's close to a 4-mile round trip. Today our neighbor tuned up my bicycle, so tomorrow I'm meeting my friend Kim about three blocks away, and we'll ride to Starbucks together. I need to add the exercise to help me get into shape while I lose weight.

Speaking of losing weight - I'm now 3 pounds from my WW goal of 164 pounds. I've lost a total of 39.2 pounds - feels great! A couple weeks ago I spent the day shopping - buying new clothes for the summer and also for our August cruise to Alaska. I'm feeling so good about the way I look. I plan to attend the WW meetings indefinitely - this time I'm determined not to put the weight back on again!

So what have I been cooking? Well, today was tilapia fillets roasted on the grill in foil packets. In addition to the fish the packets contained orange segments and tomato wedges flavored with salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper flakes, and olive oil. Tilapia is pretty flavorless, so the sauce really helped. The cold salad was orzo, shrimp and broccoli florets tossed in a sauce made from pesto, mayonnaise, salt and pepper. A glass of white wine rounded out a dinner that totalled 10 points - not bad at all! And very filling. The recipes are from two different WW cookbooks and are copyrighted, so I can't pass them along.

Yes, I've been a bad blogger

2009-06-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

Looks like the last time I posted was my birthday. Once again I've been involved elsewhere, with very little time spent on the computer these last weeks. I've been doing next to no quilting - just cooking, reading cookbooks, reading other books, gardening a bit, and running around a lot. Everything is fine. Our daughter is doing well. I'm back to watching Joseph two days a week, with more now and then when his other grandma and family need time off. I've taken Joseph to visit Sophie and Lily, spending the morning at the park. I really have no excuse for not blogging!

Thanks so much to those of you who wrote asking me whether or not everything is OK. Right now I'm headed north to Jo's Little Women's Club at my favorite quilt shop - Momma Made it in Longview, WA. I've taken some pictures, and I'll write a better post this afternoon or evening.

Birthday surprise!

2009-05-07T20:11:00.000-07:00

Beautiful red roses from my sweetheart for my birthday today. Thank you Fred - I love you!

Hooray! I'm not eligible to collect Social Security! 62 years young!

One thing leads to another

2009-05-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

We had a Weber kettle years ago. Loved that barbecue! I even did a few Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys in it. When it wore out we replaced it with a gas grill. We bought a $199 "special" that I thought would be so much better than the Weber.

It wasn't. It cooked hot dogs and hamburgers OK, but I gave up on anything else. Cooking with indirect heat was a joke - things too close to the fire burned and things too far away weren't cooked. I gave up. We didn't use it at all the last two summers.

I missed cooking outside and eating wonderful barbecue. I told Fred last fall that I wanted a new grill this spring when our income tax refund arrived. We got a HUGE surprise when we learned that a considerably bigger refund was coming than we expected (hence the new things in the kitchen too).

I did my research at the library, online and at quite a few different stores. I was determined to get a good barbecue this time. And this is the result. I especially love the color! I'm very eager to give it a

One thing leads to another I guess. I borrowed the neighbor's power washer to clean the concrete slab out back that was supposed to be a patio. What a difference! The slippery moss that loves to grow on the covered north side of the house in our wet climate is gone. Once that was done the grill moved into place.

I decided to try growing herbs in pots this summer as I've started using fresh herbs a lot in my cooking. Figured I'd add strawberries and tomatoes while I was at it. The pots look so pretty all lined up in a row - tarragon, marjoram, flat leaf parsley, thyme, dill, rosemary, sage, mint and chives. I still need to get one more pot for mint - can't forget mint for summer drinks! The bigger pot in the corner holds a grape tomato plant, and the strawberries are in a hanging basket. I can hardly wait to start harvesting!

When I stood in the door and surveyed my handiwork I figured something was missing. We've never had room for a patio set, but I figured I could fit in a bistro table and chairs. So back to the stores I went - looking and looking for something that would work that didn't cost a fortune. I'm thrilled with the result. It's going to be so nice sitting out here for brunch or a casual dinner.

I have hanging baskets of shade loving fuchsias and impatiens. Since I don't do ladders they are waiting for Fred to hang this weekend. Now we are all set for summer!

Oh dear! Long time no post!

2009-05-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

It's been WAY too long since I've written a post. Time has been flying by, and I've been as busy as one can possibly be, but I've done no quilting for almost a couple weeks. And when I'm not quilting I'm not thinking about blogging.

I started writing a post, which immediately became lengthy and wordy - you know me, when I tell a story it seems like it takes me forever. I figured no one would take the time to read it all, so I erased it. I'll just let a few words and lots of pictures tell the story.

I've refound my love of cooking, thanks to being on Weight Watchers and actually reading their cookbooks. So I reorganized my kitchen. It was organized fairly well before, but now it's still way better than it used to be.

The first picture shows a car full of stuff to take to Goodwill. There are still more things in the back seat. Clearing out things I've not used in years, things that are worn out, things no longer needed, and things that I'm replacing because they are flimsy and of poor quality.

I also took two large boxes of cookbooks I cleared off my shelves to the library for the book sale.

Staples for baking in the first cupboard to the left of the refrigerator.

More baking staples, plus plastic storage boxes for various cookie cutters, tart pans, and more. A Cuisinart Griddler is on the right of the bottom turntable - replaces and electric grill and an electric griddle.

Baking pans, bowls and liquid measuring cups to the left of the staple cupboard. Gone are all the duplicate pie, bread and cake pans. New little pans - 6" cake pans, pie plates and mini bunt pans are ready for me to start "baking for two".

Now I actually have counter space in this area to work on.

The cupboards for dishes and glassware have also been reorganized. Now that I've shrunk a couple inches it's much harder for me to reach that top shelf.

I can actually reach my pitchers and iced drink glasses now without a step stool! (Gotta love that Crystal Lite in so many different flavors!) I don't show them in a picture, but suffice it to say they are no longer above the refrigerator.

The other turntable - just below the dish cupboards, now holds cereal - much better than on the other side of the room where they were.

The bottom shelf has bins for potatoes, root vegetables and more. Cleaning out the pantry allowed me to move all the pasta from here into the pantry. Much better!

I've not shown pictures of everything, but you get the idea. It's much more pleasant to work here now. I can't wait to bake something! I think the first thing will be cookies for Fred - something that I won't find too tempting to resist! Since this burst of organizing energy I've been spending a lot of time reading cookbooks, marking recipes for trial (what did we do before Post-Its?), and watching Barefoot Contessa and America's Test Kitchens/Cooks Country. And after years of being bored out of my mind when cooking I'm enjoying it again.

More pictures and plans for the rest of the week

2009-04-22T12:10:00.001-07:00

Some of these are water spotted from the rain or a bit past their time - I wanted to include them anyway.

I had a cortisone injection in each knee this morning, so I'm extremely limited in the standing and walking I can do for the next three days. Sounds like a great time to settle into a comfortable chair and appliqué while I watch the Mariners win (I hope!) or listed to my IPOD.

I've been busy

2009-04-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

Let's see - what have I been doing since Saturday's post? Still pressing fabrics. I had more than I thought because when I went to do laundry on Monday I found a big load of fabrics in the dryer - I thought I'd taken out the last load! So I ironed the rest of the afternoon and evening on Saturday.

Sunday I started my friend Kathi's quilt. I thought I could finish it in one day - wrong! I spent about 6-8 hours on it Sunday, then finished in three more hours on Monday afternoon. I'm so glad to have this done - Kathi is so glad to have it back - and I'm happy to say she liked what I did to it very much. I was very relieved - Asian just isn't my thing when it comes to quilting, so I really didn't know what to do. I was right - the quilt started talking to me as soon as I started doing the anchoring stitch-in-the-ditch.

Monday morning I watched Joseph while his dad took his mom to physical therapy and a doctor appointment. I needed to head north to Momma Made It in Longview to pick up 80 more "opportunity quilt" tickets for a guild fundraiser. I'd unexpectedly sold 140 tickets in about 10 minutes - a huge surprise! - and all I had was 60 tickets. Of course, I can never go to Momma Made It without spending money, and this was no exception. I'm making sure Joseph feels very comfortable in a quilt store LOL! I didn't take a picture of the new fabrics - rats!

We've had spectacular spring weather the last few days - it reached 80 yesterday and Monday! - and the flowers are so beautiful. I just had to take pictures to post - I'm practicing with the macro setting on my camera. Spring flowers are my favorites - I love the blues of grape hyacinths and windflowers, the yellows of daffodils, tulips, and forsythia, the reds of tulips and rhododendrons, and the purples and pinks of azaleas. And the trees are so beautiful - the crab apple in the front yard and the apple and cherry in the back yard. I ran all over taking pictures. The beauty of the macro setting is that most of the time the weeds don't creep into the pictures! I can't get down on my knees right now to weed, so we are having a neighbor boy clean out all the beds and move some plants for us. Then I'll have him put down new bark dust and plant other flowers for me. I can hardly wait for it to be finished!

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Gratitudes:

1. Rebecca's recovery is progressing well

2. Breakfast with a friend

3. Continuing discovery of new joys while cooking

4. Weight loss going in the right direction

Weight loss update

2009-04-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

Weigh in was this morning at Weight Watchers. I'd tracked very carefully this week - making sure I wrote down everything that went into my mouth even when I didn't want to, including the half dozen french fries I stole from Joseph when I took him out to lunch on Monday.

I chose to have a wild dinner last Thursday - including Baby Back Ribs, some fries and coleslaw, a Long Island Ice Tea for startes, and the bartender's signature "chocolate milk" in a martini glass for dessert. Completely yummy - but adding up to 47 points! I'm only allowed 20 per day! I had ten or twelve left of my daily allowance, so used all but about 3 of my extra 35 points I receive each week. It was worth every point, but it sure made it hard to stick to the plan the rest of the week when I had so few points. I did exercise to add some activity points, but by last night I didn't have a single point to spare.

The main thing is I tracked and paid attention - and I lost .6 of a pound. Not much, but still down some instead of gaining. I'm very pleased with that result!

Weight loss journey report

2009-04-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

After three weeks of doing badly - and seeing the scale rise pound after pound higher - I'm back on track. I did really well eating healthy and tracking everything last week, and it showed at Weight Watcher meeting Wednesday morning. 3.2 pounds down! That's half of what I gained the three weeks before. The other 3 pound loss I attribute to not eating much while I was sick, causing a false weight loss, that went away as soon as I started eating again. I did have a considerable splurge at Applebee's Thursday night - a Long Island ice tea, a half rack of baby back ribs, and the bartender's signature "chocolate milk" for dessert. That totaled a LOT of points, but I wrote every one of them down on my tracking sheet. It took almost every one of the extra 35 points I get each week, but it was worth it. And I've ridden 30 minutes a day on the stationary bike during ball games - every day this week! If I can do that every day from now until next meeting I should see another drop in weight next week. So overall I'm happy with the progress.

My current favorite cookbook is "Now and Later", the newest Weight Watchers book available only at WW meetings. If you attend WW I encourage to at least take a look at it. Every recipe makes one dish for today's meal, plus leftovers and a recipe to make something different from them the next night. I've tried a bunch of the recipes and found only one that wasn't a hit.

Total loss as of 4/15 is 32.4 pounds! It's so much fun to walk back into the credit union - I've been retired for 15 months already! - and being told I'm just fading away to nothing!

No quilting going on here

2009-04-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

I've done next to no quilting since my last post - just a bit of appliqué on Tuesday night during our weekly Tangled Threads get together. So what have I been up to?

First of all - I've been wandering regularly into the quilting room, where my friend Kathi's quilt has been pinned to Gandalf for several weeks. This is a beautiful quilt - but not my style at all. I'm having a really terrible time figuring out what to do, and for once the quilt isn't really talking to me. It must be done by Tuesday, so it better start talking soon! Tomorrow I'll stabilize it by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks and outlining the appliqué. I've got my fingers crossed that it'll start talking a blue streak once I start working on it.

Secondly - I reached the point where I had to stop long enough to prewash my fabric purchases. I tend to toss fabrics in baskets when they arrive in the mail or from the store. When there are just too many - the baskets are overflowing, the lid doesn't fit on the big one, and there are fabrics stacked on top of the lid too - I decide I need to take care of them. This happens about twice a year. Foolish, because I can't use any of them until they are prewashed, but that's just the way I operate. So Thursday morning I started washing and pressing. Seems to take forever when I wait this long. I have only two stacks left to press - fat eights and fat quarters on the ironing board and bigger pieces on the recliner. On the table is what I've finished. Doesn't look like much for two days of work, does it? I've been catching up on recorded TV shows while working, so I guess that's a plus.

Finally - now that I'm feeling back to normal I'm back to planning meals and really tracking my weight (I'll save that for the next post.) My Thread friend Kim - who is an excellent, knowledgeable cook in addition to a great quilter - is always amazing me with the things she knows about food preparation. I asked her where she learned so much - I should have known. She watches a lot of the Food Network, and told me the two best shows for learning things are The Barefoot Contessa (who's on a total of 12 times a week!) and America's Test Kitchens on OPB. So I set myself up with a "season pass" to both shows on our DVR, and started watching the recordings on Thursday. I've already learned a great deal - I hope it sticks! I tried a few new things for dinner yesterday, and was happy with the results. When I saw that our tax refund had been deposited I took a trip to Barnes and Noble to choose myself some new cookbooks. And I've started doing research in p[reparation to buying a new grill - what we have now is an old, cheap grill that doesn't do anything well except for hot dogs and hamburgers. My goal is to do at least 90% of the cooking outside this summer!

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Gratitudes:
1. A beautiful sunny weekend
2. A great start to the Mariners season!
3. New Mariners management who can actually put together a decent team
4. The return of Ken Griffey Jr.
5. Renewed energy and determination - finally!

April projects

2009-04-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

I have a bunch of monthly projects that need to stay current, and the only one I've worked on so far in April is Jan Patek's 2009 mystery quilt. So the last two days I spent making blocks for my North Star Quilters $1 BOM. (You can see the posts I've done about this quilt by clicking here.)

When I first started I pulled all the fabrics from a collection I bought several years ago - Poetry by April Cornell for Moda. I still love these pastel fabrics - and fabrics like this have almost disappeared from my stash. Wonderful pastels like this just shout "Spring!" to me, and we needed a spring quilt for our bed. So these were a natural choice to use for this BOM.

I added only a very few additional fabrics when I made the first two blocks - and immediately realized I needed more mediums as well as some darks for "punch". So I added at least another 20-25 fabrics before I made the March blocks. I wasn't that happy with the March blocks either, so before I made April's I added a bunch more fabrics (see all the real oldies I added? Hopefully I can use up some of these!) I think I have a great selection now - except I need more blues. I have lots of blues in my stash, but not that many light blues, and most of the ones I have have a greyed look to them because they are from that "mauve and greyed blue period" that occurred in the very late 70's and early 80's. Hmmm . . . maybe I still need to shop a little?

I really like this month's block - pinwheels - so I made three. I love how they turned out. The last picture shows all the blocks together. I need to work on some of these a bit more - the dark triangles in the top left block just take over - I need to switch them to a medium fabric. And a couple of the blocks are a bit too light with no contrast - I need to fix those also. Not sure if I'll remake these or just make new ones and put the others into the orphan bin.

I'm having so much fun with this quilt!

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Gratitudes:

1. Spring has arrived, along with marvelous spring flowers everywhere. I especially love the blue grape hyacinths and yellow daffodils together.

2. Our daughter continues to improve

3. More time these days for quilting

4. Fiber 1 bars!

Weekend happenings

2009-04-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

It's worth saying it again - I absolutely love this new way I learned to do appliqué. (If you didn't read my post about this method check out the third tutorial listed on my left side bar.) I'm sure I'm taking less time with each block than before, and I can see for this method much better with these aging eyes.

Today I prepped the February and March "blocks" for Jan Patek's 2009 mystery quilt. They aren't actually blocks - instead they are four triangles that will set the center block on point. Here's another appliqué hint for you. Notice I've not yet cut the square into triangles. I will do that after I finish the appliqué. That will avoid the chance of stretching that long bias edge during the appliqué. As long as you fold the square diagonally, and can visualize a 1/4" seam allowance on each side of that line, you should have no trouble placing your appliqué pieces correctly. Jan's already posted the April block on her website, so I imagine that one will come in the mail soon. I'm determined to be caught up by the end of the month.

Saturday morning was Jo's Little Women's club meeting. I enjoyed it very much, and adore the final addition to the quilt. I'm eager to get this finished also - I'd love to take a finished quilt - quilted and bound even - to club next month. The picture I'm sewing is our group leader's quilt. Isn't it simply spectacular?

Jeremy, Chelsea and the girls came yesterday afternoon for an early Easter celebration, and also so Jeremy could do some work on the computer. Lily has certainly changed a lot since the last time we saw her on March 21st. Her personality is really developing now - she's a sunny, happy little girl. It was so easy to get some good pictures of her. Sophie is another story - she doesn't respond well to a camera these days. I couldn't get her to look at the camera or smile. About the time she would cooperate, it was so fleeting that it was gone by the time the shutter was fully pushed. She is SO active - getting her to sit still for more than a minute is a near impossibility.

This afternoon we saw Rick, Rebecca and Joseph for a short time so we could wish them Happy Easter also. They have several family members to visit on a holiday, and they were all getting pretty tired. Things are quite hard for them right now.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow - an entire day for myself. Hopefully I can finish the customer quilt currently on Gandalf!

I love finishing tops!

2009-04-10T21:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the missing kit fabric for the "Love Is" top arrived in the mail. Tonight I found time to finish the top. It didn't take long at all, since all the appliqué was finished. When I allowed myself to sign up for Jan Patek's mini quilt club at the end of last year I promised myself that these projects would be finished tops shortly after they arrived, as I didn't want to add anything else to my HSY list. This is the third little quilt kit I've received, and so far I'm on track.

Of course, now my list of finished tops is growing longer and longer, and I'm not getting any of them quilted these days. Whoops!

Jan Patek's 2009 Mystery Quilt

2009-04-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

Last night I finished the center block on Jan Patek's 2009 mystery quilt. There's just something about houses in quilts that I really love - especially this block. I love the fabrics she chose, I love that TALL chimney and the very slightly wonky windows. Which still need the panes stitched - I guess it isn't done after all!

I have February and March's installments to complete, and I imagine April's will be in my mailbox before too long. I really want to catch up with this one by the end of this month. You can see what the quilt looks like so far, as well as an outline of the rest of it, by clicking here. Once she put up this much I knew I had to make this quilt. I just love the folky, primitive appliqué on her quilts.

April Goals

2009-04-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

The less said about my March goals the better. I reached only on goal, and that was the easiest. The rest hardly got started. But then I was sick over half the month, and then tied up with family obligations for the rest of the month, so it's OK that I didn't get much done. It's not a race after all, and I do want to enjoy my quilting rather than being driven by it.

I tried to go easy on myself when I wrote my April goals. The most important thing I must do is complete customer quilts. I figured I'd get a good start on those this week - instead I've been occupied with watching Joseph and helping his mom and day. Thank goodness my customers understand, and agree that family comes first.

I have no recent pictures to post at the moment - hopefully later today.

A new project

2009-04-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

Most likely I shouldn't start a new project. I have lots of projects going now - just check my left sidebar. But since I've made such great progress on my UFO's I figure it's OK. Even if it isn't OK I'm going to do it anyway LOL!

I've been eyeing this quilt ever since I got this book. I've managed to hold off for 2-3 months now, but no longer. When I went shopping with a quilty friend on Saturday I purchased my backgrounds. I'm doing my quilt in different colors then Alma Allen did in this picture. It's a big quilt with big blocks - 28" square. The applique should be easy and fast. I might even try doing it by machine!

I've just figured out that I'm missing lots of comments left on my blog. I'm set up to receive comments by email, but for some reason only some of them are arriving that way. I don't know how long this has been going on. I'm going to have to check all the comments on recent posts. If you expected to hear back from me and haven't - now you know why.

A finished little quilt top - how cute is this?

2009-04-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

This one was so very fast to applique. At least it would have been if I'd placed the pieces correctly. When I went to trim the center to size I realized the flower pot was too far to the right, hanging almost an inch into the fabric that needed to be trimmed off. So I took it off, moved it, and restitched it. I fussy cut a daisy from a brown fabric for bunny's eye - click on the picture to see it. If I tried I could probably get it finished before Easter, but I've decided not to. I want to hand quilt this little mini - maybe with a big stitch - and I don't want to rush.

At least a couple of you asked about these last two quilts I posted. Lots and lots of patterns, books, and kits are available on Jan Patek's website. Click on the link and then click "Catalog". She also has several "Quilt Clubs" to join. Right now I belong to the Mystery Quilt and Mini Quilt clubs. (Click on "Quilt Clubs" for details.) When you sign up for a club you receive all kits for that club at 15% off, and the kits are mailed to you regularly before they become available to anyone else. You can always return a kit you don't like. I've not done that yet - I love Jan's stuff! If I didn't have so many Brazen HSY's (pronounced husses - haven't started yet's") I'd want to join every one of her clubs!

Now that I finally feel like myself again I walked to Starbucks for coffee this morning. I was really dragging the last quarter mile or so coming home. Not walking for 6 weeks wasn't good - I have to start all over again as far as speed, energy, and endurance. I'm hoping the walking will help me get back on track - the last two WW weigh-ins have not been at all pretty.

New projects

2009-04-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

Now that my last UFO's are nearing finished top stage I allowed myself to start a couple new projects. These are the latest mini quilts from Jan Patek. I signed up for her new mini quilt club late last year, promising myself that I'd keep up with the kits as they came. I got a bit behind after doing the first two kits, so am now doing a bit of catch up.

The Valentine quilt arrived at the end of January. I stuck it in a drawer at the time, bringing it out a couple days ago when I was almost finished with the Feathered Star appliqué blocks. It went together very quickly, and I'd have a finished top by now except for the fact that the kit was short one fabric. Glad I started it now while they still have the fabric!

I decided to start the Easter quilt that arrived a couple days ago while waiting for the little fabric package to arrive. This one will be VERY fast - simple appliqué with big pieces. It will be so much fun to have all these little quilts to decorate with next year!

Finished!

2009-04-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

The center of the Girl Gang feathered star is finished, and I'm very pleased with it. The next step is to trim up the edges as I used oversized triangles, and then add the top and bottom border. That step should go very quickly. Then all that remains is four large, heavily appliquéd borders. Those will take awhile!

I received the next Jan Patek mini quilt in the mail yesterday. It's a bunny and a flower - perfect for this season. I didn't start the Valentines quilt when it arrived, so I need to catch up. I've cut out the Valentines quilt and prepped the hearts for appliqué. That's my next project - that and getting back to the last two Heirloom Stitches borders.

I'm sending hugs and huge thank you's to all of you who prayed and/or kept positive thoughts these last few weeks for our family. The surgery went fine - I was in the waiting room for 11 hours that day - the patient is home and doing well. All cancer was removed with next to no expectations of any recurrence. We won't know if chemo is required until next Wednesday. Everything is as good as it could be - and I know all your thoughts and prayers made a huge difference. I love all of you and send my thanks.

Jan Patek's Girl Gang Feathered Star quilt

2009-03-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

I have what I think is really good news - at least for a few of you. I was talking to Barbara at Jan Patek Quilts - I confess, I've succumbed to this year's mystery - and I told her that there was interest in the Star Quilt since I started posting pictures of my version on my blog. I told her I was sorry that they'd never put it out in a book or pattern form because I thought many people would be interested in having it.

Barbara checked with Jan, and has just sent me an email. For $15 you can get the packet of instructions for the 2003-2004 Girl Gang Feathered Star. None of the extra projects will be included, and there is no colored picture of the quilt. It does include all the instructions and patterns for making the large quilt.

If you are interested either call them at (816) 632-7632 or email them at info@janpatekquilts.com. If you click on the link in the first paragraph you will be taken to her website.

You can see my version of the quilt here. No connection to Jan at all - just a quilter who loves her fabrics and designs.

Another block is ready

2009-03-25T11:19:00.001-07:00

Update - both eagle blocks are now ready for appliqueing.

I had next to no time yesterday for quilting as it turned out. I wanted to make sure that didn't happen today. So . . . when I got home from the Weight Watchers meeting (we won't talk about my weigh-in this week as it wasn't good) I got back to prepping eagle blocks. The first one is ready for stitching. I wasn't at all sure if this was the right fabric choice for the eagle, but now that the block is together I've decided I like the visual texture of the fabric. Of course I had to pin it up on the wall to see how it's going to look in the quilt - I like it!

2009-03-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

I wanted to see how one of the new blocks looked when pinned into place on the quilt. I like it!

Off to the wholesale house today as I need batting for customer quilts. This afternoon I'll prep the eagle blocks.

I think I gave the wrong impression in my tutorial. Much of the prep work involved is the same as what I've already been doing - tracing pattern onto freezer paper, cutting it out, ironing it onto the fabric and then cutting out the fabric pieces. The difference is this - I used to iron the freezer paper onto the right side of the fabric and then traced around it with a permanent pen. Now I iron it to the backside and use the brush, iron, water and stiletto to turn under the seam allowance. So the reality is that the prep time is only a bit longer than before. And it's more than made up for by the speed with which I can do the actual applique when the seams are already turned under.

Next two blocks prepped

2009-03-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

Today I prepped the next two blocks for the Feathered Star Girl Gang quilt. All I need to do is baste the pieces down and it will be ready to go. Tomorrow I plan to prep the two eagle blocks. I'm going to be needing lots of handwork at the end of this week as I'll be doing a lot of sitting in waiting rooms. Between these four blocks and the last two borders of Heirloom Stitches I'll be all set. I love fussy cutting large floral prints for "painted" vases!

Applique Tutorial

2009-03-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

Important - this isn't my method. I learned to do this from Margaret, who leads our Little Women's Club at Momma Made It in Longview, WA. Thanks Margaret!

This isn't really a new method for hand applique - rather a new method for preparing the applique. Usually I don't like fussy preparation methods, as I'd rather just get to the sewing. I've decided I to like this, however, for several different reasons.

There is no marking on the fabric at all, so no worrying about getting the black line completely turned under while stitching.
All edges are nicely turned already, especially the curves, which makes the stitching go SO much faster!
Because the edges are already turned, it makes placing all the pieces correctly in a complex applique piece much easier.
Because of #3, it's easy to thread baste all pieces in place so I don't have little pins in the project that fall out or catch my thread as I sew.
Because the edges are already turned, I can fold the back fabric as I stitch, making it much easier to catch only a couple threads on the fold of the applique, and thus my stitches are hidden much better.
Unlike the starch method - similar to this except starch is used instead of water - I don't have any messy residue.

Click on any picture for a better view of the details

Tools you need - a small iron that gets HOT. I have the little wand iron, but it doesn't get hot enough. I love my Rowenta Craft (used to be called Travel) iron. A seam ripper or a stiletto. I love using the stiletto. A paint brush. I like mine because of the slanted cut to the bristles and the plastic cushion where I hold it. Margaret had one like this, which she got at Joanne's. A small container for water. I like the small ironing pad also so I can sit down while I do this instead of standing at the ironing board. Freezer paper, scissors and a fine tip permanent marker.

1. Trace each applique piece onto freezer paper. If your design isn't symmetrical you will need to reverse the image. I do this by tracing on the shiny side of the freezer paper rather than the smooth, paper side. I like to cut a shape for each piece instead of using the same piece several times, as then I can do all the cutting and ironing at the same time. Cut our all the pieces.

2. Iron the freezer paper shapes to the wrong side of your fabric, leaving seam allowance space between the shapes. Put the curved parts of each piece on the bias whenever possible. Cut out each piece, leaving 3/16" seam allowance all around the piece (think a very fat 1/8", but less than 1/4").

3. Using the paint brush, wet just the seam allowance. If it's a big piece I do this in sections, pressing each one before painting the water onto the next one.

4. Using the stylus or seam ripper, fold the seam allowance over right at the edge of the freezer paper, using your fingertips of your other hand to hold it down as you turn. Press the edge well with your DRY iron. You shouldn't burn your fingers as long as you don't try to use steam. Because the fabric is wet it will crease nicely. Do just a little bit at a time - if you try to do too much your fingers won't be able to hold it down. (You don't see my fingers holding down the edge as I'm turning here because my other hand had to hold the camera!)

5. Curves turn under easily if they are on the bias. You will need a clip or two at inner curves - just make sure every thread turns under. For outer curves just fold a tiny bit at a time to keep the edge smooth. Try to have no large folds, as they will make a point instead of a smooth curve. Use your stylus and turn only a tiny bit at a time, holding the SA under with the tip of your finger as you turn.

6. Work your way around the entire piece. Give it a final good press on all the edges - both back and front. Fix any points that you see by opening up that spot, wetting it again, ironing it flat and then turning it again. When done, just pull out the freezer paper. Fabric has wonderful memory, and the edges will turn back very nicely even if they flatten a bit while waiting to be stitched down.

It will go a bit slowly to start with as you get used to turning the edge and pressing. At first I pressed under part of the freezer paper too, resulting in an edge that wasn't smooth. It took me a couple sessions of practice before I could do this easily and quickly. Don't give up right away if at first you find it a bit tricky and time consuming. You will soon get the right feel of the process.

If you've tried needle turn and given up, try this method. The stitching is so easy when the edges are already turned in place. I first tried this method on the little gold "vases" on the outside borders of Heirloom Stitches. It seemed to take forever to prep those 20 little pieces. I wondered if it was worth the effort - until I started to applique them. That's when I fell in love, because the stitching went so very fast. The second time for this method was the center block in the "Holiday Inn" medallion. The prep went very quickly on that one - just part of one evening. That's when I became totally sold on the method.

One more hint - the circles are still done with the Mylar washers. Check my other applique tutorials to see how to do them.

Happy Day!

2009-03-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

Did you know that today is National Quilting Day? I was reminded earlier this week, but forgot about it this morning. A quilty greeting reminding us to celebrate just arrived from one of my Tangled Threads friends - I was glad to get that memory jog.

So . . . . here's wishing all of you a very happy National Quilting Day. I hope you all have a little time to spend quilting today - or doing something else that you want to do.

I spent much of yesterday and this morning finishing the March addition to Holiday Inn. I just love this little quilt! In case you hadn't noticed - I fussy cut all the "stopper" borders to give it a more "together" feeling. It doesn't really jump out at you, but I think it would be quite noticeable if I hadn't. If you click on the picture you can see the details much better.

One of you left a comment asking whether I used Thangles for the sawtooth border. I've tried Triangles on a Roll and wasn't impressed, and so I've never tried Thangles. I find that clever "shortcuts" usually work no better for me that just cutting triangles and sewing them together. What works best for me is to make many "parts" larger and then trim them down. I do this with half and quarter square triangle squares (hour glass blocks), square in a square blocks, and flying geese. The trimming down does take extra time, and can get tedious when there are hundreds of pieces to trim, but I love the way everything goes together so easily and perfectly after it's trimmed. I also use the "bias square" method of making triangle squares, using my Creative Grid rulers for the trimming instead of a "bias square" ruler. I have a tutorial on making triangle squares this way - check the list of tutorials near the top of my left sidebar.

Kona cottons

2009-03-19T15:34:00.001-07:00

Some of you may be interested in more information about the Kona cottons. Here is the full list of the colors Eileen identified as historical. The numbers refer to the numbers on the color card from Robert Kaufmann fabrics. I ordered the color card from Hancocks of Paducah. The numbers on their website are different from the numbers below, so you'll need to look at the color name. Right now these fabrics are on sale for $2.25 per half yard. Here is a link directly to the fabrics.

149 Papaya is Chrome Orange (which 21st century quilters now call Cheddar)
1482 School Bus is 1890’s orange
1551 Rich Red is Turkey Red
1480 Chinese Red is 1840-1860 Turkey Red
1390 Wine is 1920’s Turkey Red as well as 1860’s and 70’s Turkey Red
25 Ocean is the closest thing to 19th Century Prussian blue
1192 Lime, 1703 Grass Green, 317 Peridot, and 1451 Avocado are all overdyed greens from the 1850’s through 1900
1865 Celadon, 29 Spring, 1259 Old Green, 1328 Seafoam, 1256 O.D. Green are all 1920’s through 30’s greens
198 Parsley is 1820’s through 30’s green
1185 Kelly, 1166 Hunter Green, 137 Pine are all oil boiled greens of the 1850’s through 1870’s
1361 Spruce, 1217 Mallard are 1870’s through 1880’s greens
1002 Alpine is an 1890's green
1373 Teal Blue is 1850’s green
1151 Garnet is an 1890’s red
1082 Cocoa is Oxblood from 1870’s
1191 Lilac is 1840’s-1900’s

A rough road ahead

2009-03-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

I want to let my readers know that our family is facing some very difficult times in the next few months. I would appreciate you keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you to all my blogger friends for being there when I need you.

Weight loss journey - update

2009-03-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

It's been some time since I've remembered to report on my weight loss journey. I'm progressing nicely - helped significantly by the fact that this virus - or viruses - that I've been battling for over a month took away most of my appetite. I'm now down over 35 pounds, and am about 8 pounds from goal! I'd actually like to lose an additional 5+ pounds after I reach my Weight Watchers goal, but my next focus is on hitting that 164 pounds suggested by my leader. It feels so good to be minus that weight. Now when I see people I've not seen for some time the first words out of there mouth are always "You look great!" What a nice thing to hear!

Fabric and more fabric

2009-03-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I ordered a swatch card of Kona Cottons by Robert Kaufman fabrics. (I think these are the best quality solid fabrics available for quilters.) I took the card to my last "Turn of the Century Random Sampler" class with Eileen Trestain last month, and asked her to label various swatches as to which ones were suitable for reproduction quilts. I was surprised to find her labeling almost 25 of the different colors - I never thought there would be that many. My friend Franny - also in the class - and I decided to order bolts of many of these over the course of the next couple years, as we both want to replicate some of the antique quilts we saw in class - particularly applique quilts done with solid fabrics.

Yesterday the order arrived, and I spent much of today separating each bolt into two even halves. Gazing on such riches just makes me smile! That's about 10 yards apiece of each of the colors - enough for the very large four-block quilts we saw in class. We can hardly wait to get started!

From left to right, these are the fabrics we chose - overdyed greens 1850-1900 (Kona Grass Green), turkey red 1840-1860 (Kona Chinese red), 1870's-1880's green (Kona Spruce), chrome orange, which we call cheddar these days (Kona Papaya, which looks much too yellow in the picture), 1850-1870's oil boiled green (Kona Kelly).

I also ordered a couple of new-to-me books. I'd seen Flora Botanica by Barbara Brackman at Momma Made It and knew I had to have it. It's the catalog of a display of floral quilts at the Spencer Museum of Art in Kansas. It's a marvelous books - as are all Kansas City Star quilt books IMHO.

The second book, Small Blocks, Stunning Quilts, was recommended by my friend Kathie Holland. It's full of pictures of full size antique quilts made with small blocks - 4" to 5" or less - with instructions for reproducing them. Some have blocks as small as 1 1/2"! There are several quilts in this book that I'd love to make. If you love little blocks and antique quilts then you definitely need this book!

I've put my sewing room back in order after all the cutting - now to get back to the medallion quilt.

February installment completed

2009-03-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

Today I finished the second month addition to "Holiday Inn". It's been quite awhile since I worked with pieces this small - I love it! The half-square triangle squares finish at 1". The piece now measures 19 1/2" square. Not sure why the one edge looks crooked - I assure you it is straight.

I'm eager to work on March's segment - two plain borders separated by an hour glass border - so I can be caught up by the next meeting on April 11th. I have a couple other things to do first - I'll talk about them tomorrow.

Medallion Center

2009-03-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

Here is the center block for my Jo's Little Women's Club quilt. Jo calls this medallion "Holiday Inn" after the old movie by that name. She calls this her "Christmas Quilt". I love the colors, though they don't say "Christmas" to me. Now I'm working on the second installment - February's. I'll post a picture of that when I finish it - hopefully tomorrow.

What I've been up to

2009-03-15T21:29:00.000-07:00

I took a couple days at the end of last week to prewash some fabric, iron it, and put it away. I didn't do it all, but I needed to do what I wanted to use. I went on a buying spree in February to stock up on light colored plaids. I needed larger pieces than I had for background blocks for a few different applique projects. Joseph went along as it was a Joseph day, and he was very happy to help pick my fabrics. First he chose a couple fat quarters, which I put back after explaining that I needed bigger pieces. I pulled a few bolts and took them to the counter - whereupon he pulled a bolt or two also. It was so much fun watching him ooh and aah over the pretty fabrics LOL!

Yesterday I pulled a bunch more fabrics to use in our North Star Quilters BOM. As I made my first block last month I realized I needed a bunch more mediums and darks in order to make the best fabric choices for the blocks. Once I was satisfied with my selection I made another February block and two of the March blocks. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

Today I was back to prepping applique - this time the center of Jo Morton's Little Women's medallion quilt. I'm determined to have the first three parts finished by the time we have the next club meeting next month. Tomorrow I should finish the center block and will post a picture. I'm using a new applique method that I learned in the first meeting - I like it! I'll try to get a tutorial up about that also.

The fabric makes all the difference

2009-03-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

It took a little while for me to realize that it wasn't the red outside triangles that I didn't like in the picture I posted a little over a week ago. I liked the red - I just didn't like the fabrics that I dug out of my stash to use. So Tuesday I went shopping- I mentioned that yesterday. Today I cut red triangles from the new fabrics and pinned them onto the design wall. What a difference! This quilt now sings to me just as I imagined it would. It took the correct red fabrics to make the difference.

Now I'm so eager to prep the last four applique blocks, get them stitched, and sew part of this top together.

Back once again

2009-03-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

I was so glad to be back blogging, and now I disappeared again for a few days. I either had a bad relapse of the bug I was fighting or I caught a new virus, as I've been pretty sick since Thursday. The past week has been rough for most of our family - most everyone seemed to have some sort of relapse. All the adults that is - Joseph has been just fine.

I really didn't feel like sewing for several days. I had such hopes of finishing the applique on the second Heirloom Stitches border, but it didn't happen. I finally felt like sewing again a couple days ago, and that's when things started to happen.

Today I finished that second border, so I sewed the first two onto the Heirloom Stitches center. I took the feathered star off the design wall so I could get a good picture. I'm so happy with how this has turned out! The applique is simple, except for all those big jagged leaves. The other two borders are basically the same. I sure hope they can be done by the end of this month.

I headed back to Primitive Thimble in Battle Ground to find some new reds for the feathered star. Even though things are really picked over - not much left due to the moving sale - I found some nice things. So I washed and pressed them today, so they are ready and waiting to be cut into outside setting triangles. While the quilt was off the design wall I sewed the first part of it all together. Amazing how doing that little makes the goal of a finished top so much closer. I wanted a primarily red and brown quilt when I first started this one, so I'm thrilled you all encouraged me to stick with that decision. It's now pinned back onto the wall, with other four finished blocks pinned into position. Tomorrow I hope to start prepping those last four center blocks. You may notice that the lilies are now growing rightside up instead of sideways. Jan's original design has them sideways, but I decided I wanted mine growing the way God intended them to grow!

This is the first time I've rolled the new pressing station into the hall so I could use the full design wall. It worked just as well as I hoped it would - except for the fact that I can't roll the cabinet myself. No matter - that's what sweet, understanding and caring husbands are for!

My Webshots page

2009-03-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

I've started updating my Webshots albums - adding lots of new photos. Getting my renewal notice reminded me it's been a couple years at least since I added any photos.

If you are interested in taking a look then click here.

As far as the feathered star quilt goes - thanks so much to everyone who left their opinions. I've decided to go back to the red and the original brown plaid because I love it's richness. What you can't see in that photo is that the red fabrics I had in my stash - a very few with enough yardage to use - are dull, old, and uninspiring. So I'm headed to the quilt shop tomorrow to find new, rich-looking fabrics. Hopefully that will include some red plaids!

I'll post photos tomorrow, presuming I have success.

Seeking your opinion

2009-03-04T12:20:00.000-08:00

I guess I need help with this Feathered Star quilt. I thought I knew just the changes I wanted to make, but when I made them all I still wasn't satisfied.

In the first picture I've changed all the triangles - darker around the center block and blue instead of red around the edges. I think I like the blue much better than the red - it brightens up the entire quilt. However - since the blue is so much lighter than the red I'm now thinking that maybe the dark center triangles are too dark.
So - I tried changing the center triangles to my first choice. I think I like this better - but I'm just not sure.

I'd like your opinion. Do you like the picture I posted yesterday the best? Or do you prefer the blue with the dark? Or the blue with the original brown plaid? I didn't take a picture of the darker with the red because I didn't like that at all - way too dark.

I'm not going to decide for sure until I make the other four applique blocks. In the meantime I'm leaving this up on my design wall to see if time will help me make a decision.

Please let me know which of these three choices you prefer, or whether you think I should head to the quilt shop for something else entirely. Thanks for your input!

More info about the feathered star

2009-03-03T18:17:00.000-08:00

I love this quilt, and I can't blame anyone for asking about it. I've been a big fan of Jan Patek's for years and years, and have managed to acquire - often through Ebay - almost all of her books and many of her patterns. I know this pattern was never published in a book or as a stand alone pattern. Many of the previous Girl Gang's have been a separate book, but not this one. The feathered star by itself was published in 2003 in a book called Piece and Plenty that she co-authored with Cherie Ralston. It was actually Cherie who drafted the feathered star for this quilt.

All I can suggest is that you keep an eye out on Ebay for anything by Jan Patek. It's possible that someone will want to sell their Girl Gang collection.

In case you are curious, I've posted a drawing of the complete quilt. All design rights - of course! - belong to Jan Patek and/or Cherie Ralston.

2003-2004 Girl Gang Feathered Star

2009-03-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

This quilt is one of my two oldest UFO's. It was the new Girl Gang project when I first joined the Girl Gang group is fall 2003. The group met at Cottons in Battle Ground, WA - a wonderful shop that was featured as one of the top 10 shops in Quilt Sampler magazine early on. As long as I attended meetings I kept up nicely - finishing the blocks for each month. I even put the year I expected to finish in the center block, figuring that would give me a year to quilt it after the last block was done.

Shortly after I started the Carolina Lily blocks Cottons suddenly announced they were closing in a couple weeks. Once the shop was gone the Girl Gang group that met there disintegrated, and I was no longer motivated to proceed. We did receive the rest of the patterns, but without the incentive of showing the finished blocks every month I moved on to something else.

Skip forward to November of last year. With only three long-term projects (formerly UFO's) remaining in the unfinished top stage - all applique projects - I decided to work on them all BOM style this year, as I explained in this post. I spent some of December prepping the blocks (all of which I finished during the "plague".) After I finished the two Carolina Lily blocks I figured I'd prep the other four blocks soon, so would need to put the quilt onto my design wall to help in choosing fabrics.

A couple days ago I spent some time putting everything up on the wall. I cut a bunch of setting triangles so I could arrange everything in the final set up. Sure looks different this way - much farther along than it looked with just the blocks hanging on a skirt hanger in the closet. When I stood back and looked I knew I'd have to get the rest of the blocks finished quickly - I was eager to turn it into a finished top. (Of course, I didn't discover that the lily block on the right is turned around the wrong way until AFTER I took the picture!)

I looked at it again yesterday afternoon as I was sitting appliqueing. I've decided I don't like the fabrics I chose for the setting triangles. So I have a new batch picked out - quite different from these - and tomorrow I'll cut new triangles to see if I like it better. I'll probably start prepping the remaining blocks - two eagles and two flower bouquets.

The quilt has a zigzag border on top and bottom outside the setting triangles to turn it into a rectangle, then four large appliqued borders to finish it off. Hopefully I'll be able to show you steady progress on this top the next few months. I'd love to have the top finished end of summer if not the beginning.

Appliqueing I will go

2009-03-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

It's truly amazing how much applique one can finish when one does nothing else all day for several days. Just so you have an idea how much time I'm talking about - during the week when the virus was the worst I listened to unabridged versions of Pillars of the Earth and Shadow of the Wind, plus a Nevada Barr mystery thrown in between the two epics, appliqueing the entire time - almost 70 hours total.

First I tackled the third block of Times Remembered, which I prepped at the end of last December. The pieces were large, so it didn't take that long to finish it. Now three blocks are done, with six more to prep and finish.

Next I got out the two Carolina Lily blocks for Jan Patek's Feathered Star - Girl Gang 2003-2004. Those took a little longer since there were two of them.

My fourth applique block was the last block I had prepped from my Mid-Century Album class. I really loved how it turned out. This is another that I prepped at the end of last year. It was so much fun choosing the fabrics for this one. Now I need to prep a bunch more blocks so progress on this quilt can continue.

Lastly I pulled out the borders for Heirloom Stitches and started working on them again. I finished one border and now have the second border almost completed. When I finish it I'll sew those two onto the quilt top and take a picture to post. I'm sure most all of you have forgotten what this quilt looks like. I'm determined to finish the last two borders this month also so I'll have a finished quilt top by the end of the month.

Before I started the applique marathon I did finish the piecing I'd been doing before I got sick. I finished nine more blocks for the Hourglass Quilt - for a total of 13 blocks. Then I tucked that project away again, as I didn't have the energy to piece.

All this applique has really gotten me into the mood for hand stitching again - the virus effectively ended my desire to piece for the time being. Since my oldest WISP's are applique projects I guess that's a good thing!

More of what I've been up to

2009-03-03T12:54:00.000-08:00

Soon after writing my February goals I decided they just didn't appeal to me any more. And I needed something new to do during Joseph's naps. I decided to do one EQ lesson per nap. Well, in no time at all was I totally addicted, and spent almost every waking moment at the beginning of February playing with EQ and working through the lessons in both the User Manual and EQ6 Simplified.

I loaded the second of three postage stamp quilts onto the longarm near the end of the second week of February. I did about four rows of a simple pantograph before going to bed that night. I didn't get back to it the next day - Valentine's Day - because I drove up to Longview in the morning to my favorite shop - Momma Made It - for the start of their Jo's Little Women's Club. I've been collecting the Little Women's Club patterns since the beginning, and was thrilled that a local shop finally decided to offer the club. Then in the afternoon we all loaded into the CRV and headed south for Sophie's second birthday celebration .

The next day - Sunday - I got sick with a bad virus. I talked to Rebecca and she was sick also. I'm pretty sure we got it from Joseph - who was sick only 3 days. That was over 2 weeks ago now, and neither of us are completely well. Rick got sick about 3 days later, and Fred managed to fight it off until last week. This was a bad virus - absenteeism was over 40% for over a week in several of the local school districts. Some grade schools in Vancouver had absenteeism reaching almost 60%. I know we got our flu shots in the fall - as did many others - but this obviously was something not covered by the vaccine.

So . . . for two weeks I didn't do much other than sit in a chair and do handwork. Funny - most of what I finished had been January goals that I'd not finished that I decided not to list for February. Last weekend I managed to finish quilting and bind the postage stamp quilt so I had one finish to list for February. I've also included a picture of the back, so you can see how my "self-constructed backing fabric" turned out. I'm quite pleased with the results. This will go to guild on Thursday for Hotel Hope.

In the next post I will talk about the applique I finished.

I'm back!

2009-03-03T06:49:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all of you who left such nice comments on my last post. I want to assure everyone that nothing was wrong - I just needed a short break. I'd gotten the urge to learn EQ6 during Joseph's naps instead of blogging, and I got so enthralled with the process that almost all my computer time was spent playing with the program. I didn't want to be on the computer all my waking hours - I still wanted time to sew - so I decided to take a break.

Now I'm back, having completed one of my yearly goals - that of learning EQ6. I've also been doing a lot of quilting. I will post pictures later today showing what else I've been up to. I finished only one of my February goals because my sewing urges took a different direction. It's now time to set my March goals, which I will also do later today.

I'm eager to start reading blogs again too, and catching up with what everyone is doing.

************

Gratitudes:

1. A very secure job for Fred

2. Continuing weight loss

3. One year now with Joseph home - he delights all of us daily

4. White snowdrops and purple crocus blooming in our front yard

5. Spectacular weather this past month

Blogging Break

2009-02-09T19:40:00.000-08:00

I find myself in need of a short blogging break. I'm incredibly behind on my blog reading, and my posts have been few since my blog-anniversary. There are some other things in my life that I need to bring under control, and then I'll be back.

I hope you all miss me, and that you'll still be there when I start blogging again .

Loser Monday

2009-02-09T19:35:00.000-08:00

Somehow I missed last week entirely. At least I've got the right day this week. I worked so hard the last two weeks, and though I did lose I didn't lose nearly what I hoped to lose. I seem to be stuck at .6 of a pound down each week. I guess that's better than none. When I weigh in this week I hope to have lost a total of nine pounds since I lost the 20 and reached my WW 10%. If I manage to do that then I will have lost an additional 5%, which is my next goal.

As far as weight loss hints go - I have a couple. First of all - be sure to journal what you eat and write down EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth. Doing this may make you think twice about eating something. Studies show that people who do this lose more weight more quickly and keep it off better than people who don't. My second hint is to start planning meals. When I plan five or 6 days at a time I'm more likely to cook, I enjoy the cooking more, and we are much less likely to head out for hamburgers because I don't want to cook.

I hope everyone else is doing well with their weight loss journey!

Stash Report - Week 5

2009-02-01T19:06:00.001-08:00

I'm beginning to think this isn't the right time for me to be stashbusting. Not because my buying is out of control, but because the quilting I'm doing in the next few months won't do anything for stashbusting. All the quilts that need quilting already have backs. I will be cutting some fabric for applique, but not enough that it will pay to count it. If I start anything new it will be from either my scrap drawers or from a kit I already have. I know I won't cut buying out entirely - I've cut WAY down with that - but there is no point to report "no stash busted" every week. At the end of this year, if I've quilted as many flimsies as I want to quilt, and I've busted a bunch of my scraps, it will be time to start thinking of stashbusting. As Judy says, everyone will know when it's the right time to stash bust - and for me it isn't now.

So - I'll still stick with my goal of using more fabric this year than I buy, but I won't be doing weekly stash reports. Today's will be the last report.

Fabric in - one kit with about a yard of fabric from my Jan Patek Mini-Quilt club - auto shipped

Fabric out - nada

The good news is I visited Momma Made It - my favorite shop - on Thursday, and Friday I went to two quilt shops - one of which was new to me and positively wonderful! - and a quilt show and I didn't buy any fabric! It was certainly hard to resist.

(Shhh. . . don't tell Judy . . . I did ask Sharon at Momma Made It to put together a kit for the Kennesaw Mountain Quilt using the new Pink Chocolate line by Windham that she just got in as well as other fabrics. It'll be awhile before I pick up that fabric so it doesn't count until I do!)

February Goals

2009-01-31T19:07:00.000-08:00

I've listed my February goals on my sidebar. As you can see they are - at least I think they are - much more realistic than my January goals. I really do hope to accomplish all of these during the month. I moved a few of the January goals back into the future for now as there are other things I feel I must accomplish this month.

The Circle Lord goal is of prime importance as I have a customer quilt that must be started by the end of the month on which the customer has requested Baptist Fans. It's a huge quilt that will completely fill my 12' table as it measures 120" wide. She told me she was in no hurry, but as I've already had the quilt a couple months and she insisted on giving me a down payment I feel it's time I got busy. I've not quilted anything for at least a couple months, so I'm doing a few of my own to help me "reacquire" skills that have gone stale. So I guess much of the month will be spent upstairs with Gandalf.

There are a few other things I hope to accomplish also that I'm not going to list. If I do get to them then that will be just "icing on the cake". (I'm not anything if I'm not full of trite sayings!)

January Goals - review

2009-01-31T18:40:00.001-08:00

How did it get to be January 31st already? Time sure flies faster and faster as one gets older. I feel like I accomplished next to nothing today yet the day is almost gone. I did get in my walking to Starbucks and back and continued going through clothes and other things, tossing what I don't need any more. I took another big load to Goodwill, as went by the credit union to get some cash. Had coffee with Rebecca and Joseph. Other than that I'm just not sure where the day went!

OK - on to my January goals and what I accomplished. It's obvious to me that I was a tad bit unrealistic when I set these goals. How did I think I could actually complete all that applique? Especially now, when my eyesight is getting poorer and poorer. That was really overly optimistic. So - what did I get actually accomplish?

Completed round 2 of the sewing room redo - which wasn't on my original
January list
Finished the Peace on Earth top
Finished the Angel Dance top
Bound and labeled two quilts
Started applique on a Times Remembered
block

I also completed four pillowcases and almost completed my last UFO top - both of which I forgot to put on my January list even though I intended to do them in January. Getting all this done gave me a great feeling of accomplishment even though I didn't make it all the way through the list. I will try to be more realistic when I set my February goals.

750 posts - wow!

2009-01-27T07:26:00.000-08:00

Today is my third blog-anniversary. When I started writing three years ago today I never would have guessed how chatty I would be, nor how many people would be willing to visit. I'm so very thankful for all of you - my loyal readers. Blogging has been a tremendous blessing for me.

Thank you so much eveyone!

2009-01-26T19:48:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful time reading and rereading all the comments you left answering my question as to what type of quilter you are. The answers were fascinating. As I expected, many of you consider yourselves to be a bit of both, though leaning in one direction or the other.

I'm still amazed at the number of people who are "afraid" of triangles. Triangles aren't hard - they just take practice. Check out my several tutorials on piecing and pressing - you will find lots of hits about piecing triangles. And pressing too - pressing is as important as piecing. Many quilters piece triangles just fine and then stretch them out of shape when they press them.

I've also loved reading your ideas for my fall wall hanging. Some really struck a chord with me - and were things I'd never have thought of myself. Thanks for responding!

I did my best to answer everyone who left me a comment. If you didn't receive an answer from me then you are one of the people who are set up as "no reply" because you said you didn't want your email address available. I'm always really sad when I can't answer someones question for this reason. So . . . if you don't hear from me, check out whether or not your email address is available.

What comes next?

2009-01-26T09:59:00.000-08:00

I've reached a VERY strange place in my quilting life. For the first time in over 15 years I have no UFO's that aren't at the finished (more or less) top stage. (I don't count the top I finished this weekend as I'm just waiting for it to tell me what the finishing touches should be.) I have no more sets of blocks with problems to solve. No more exchanges waiting to be put into a top. I must admit - this feels VERY odd!

So what comes next - other than heading upstairs to visit Gandalf and load the first of many tops needing to be quilted. I'm been thinking about this all morning. I have two things nagging at me - a huge bin of strings that I would so love to empty, and several drawers of scraps I've started working with. Both are pretty mindless, which is - I think! - what I need at the moment. I've put the completed hour glass blocks on the design wall and moved the rest of the hourglasses to a bin right by the machine. I've also put the current finished string blocks plus the telephone book pages cut to size and more into the drawer I've emptied in the island. The string bin is waiting for me to pull it closer to the machine and get to work. Right now I'm leaning toward the strings, as they are the most mindless of the two projects. I know I've emptied that bin a couple times - where do all these come from? They must be doing secret things in here in the dark when everyone is sleeping!

For today, anyway, I know it's time to head upstairs to load the first of the three charity tops. And then I'd better get hustling on the three waiting customer tops!

************

Gratitudes:

1. Gnarly bare branches against a clear blue sky

2. The first snowdrop of the year ready to burst into bloom

3. Daffodils beginning to poke through the soil

Loser Monday

2009-01-26T08:33:00.000-08:00

Hmmm . . . let's see what I should talk about today. You got my weight loss report last week, and I've not weighed myself since then. Sharon has suggested we post a great low calorie dessert recipe. Since all the recipes I have are either from Cooking Light or Weight Watcher magazines and cookbooks I don't feel I can do that as I won't break copyright law. I can give you some suggestions however.

Jello sugar free single serve pudding packages - they have fewer calories than the fat free puddings
Healthy Choice fudge ice cream bars - rich tasting and yummy!
Any Weight Watcher frozen dessert or ice cream treat - I depend on these a lot

My other suggestion is to get yourself a pedometer - a good one that you can program to your weight, stride, etc. Then make it a point to walk when you can - take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator, park farther away from the store or wherever else you go, move your ironing board out of your sewing room (if you are pressing seams as you sew - which you should be doing - this can really add steps to your daily total.) Shoot for 10,000 steps a day.

Good luck to all you losers this week! May your clothes be looser and your meals healthier and more filling.

The angels are dancing

2009-01-26T08:19:00.000-08:00

As Joseph would say - "Wheeee!" I finished the appliqué on Angel Dance last night, and sewed on the borders this morning. I love how this turned out! And I love being able to cross another January goal off my list. I should have no problem finishing this in time to hang it over the piano for the coming Christmas season. This one is also destined to be big stitched - right now I'm thinking of doing an all over diamond grid. (This is a Linda Brannock design.)

I look at my January goals, and realize that I probably set my sights a little high. No matter - whatever isn't completed will move to the February list. Besides, I had a couple January goals that I forgot to list which were finished (more or less anyway) this weekend.

So - what's on tap for this week? Let's see . . . .

Today - walking to Starbucks, doing my business sales tax report, sewing whatever comes next
Tuesday - a Joseph day
Wednesday - Weight Watchers, turn of the century random sampler class
Thursday - another Joseph day
Friday - drive to the quilt show in Silverton, Oregon and visiting a few quilt shops on the way!

Guess it's going to be a busy week!

Stash report - Week 4

2009-01-25T18:28:00.001-08:00

I lost a bit of ground this week, but not enough that I can't make it up with one weekend of sewing madly.

In - late 1800's large print (4 yards) and some new Jo Morton fat quarters (3 1/2 yards).

Rick and Rebecca gave me a gift certificate to Z&S Fabrics for Christmas. I've been checking to see whether they've received any new fabric that I liked. Found some last Friday, spent the gift certificate, and received the fabric on Tuesday. Even though it was a gift I'm still counting it as it went into my stash.

Out - 4 1/4 yards for pillowcases and approximately 1 yard used in the PINS round robin, for a total of 5 1/4 yards used.

YTD - 38.5 yards in 13 yards out

The last of my UFO's still at the block stage

2009-01-25T18:21:00.000-08:00

After dinner last night I decided to sew together the PINS round robin blocks from 2004. I found a great fall background print of tiny leaves in my stash that I used to fill all the empty spaces. I also found this wonderful Jan Patek apple print that was perfect for the border. I was hoping I could call the top finished once I got this much together. Unfortunately, it doesn't say "done" to me. There are two large blank spaces to the left and right of the pumpkin and crow block. So I've pinned it back onto the wall in hopes that it will tell me what else I need to do.

So . . . here's another question for you. What would you do to complete this top? What would you put in those blank spaces that wouldn't take a great deal of time to do? Several ideas have occurred to me since I pinned it up there, but I'm not completely happy with any of them. I would love your help!

A weekend to sew!

2009-01-25T17:50:00.000-08:00

I didn't spend the entire weekend sewing - I did take time for a trip to Starbucks with Rebecca and Joseph on Saturday and walked in the snow (!) to Starbucks this morning to have coffee with Kim. Most of the rest of the weekend was sewing, however - and it was wonderful!

Saturday I finally finished four pillowcases I've been meaning to do for some time. I bought the fabric last spring, intending these to be a birthday present for our SIL in September. When I started watching Joseph several days a week I wasn't able to finish them as planned, so Rick received wrapped fabric as part of his gift. Now, five months later, he has finished pillowcases. Bad Patti! Not any way for a MIL to behave toward a loved SIL! Rick is nutty about dalmatians, and I figured this fabric was as close as I'd ever find. The yellow case is for Rebecca, who loves cute animals of any kind. Too bad I wasn't paying attention and thus the animals are standing on their head! Thank goodness she doesn't care. The nicest think is that this gives me another finish to list for January!

A question for you

2009-01-24T08:49:00.000-08:00

In an effort to get some of you lurkers to to comment, I've decided to ask a quilty question or two. I'd love to have you give this a thought or two and then leave me an answer. Or leave me a comment telling me you've answered the question on your own blog.

Which do you enjoy more - otherwise, what type of quilter are you? Do you love the process involved in making a quilt, watching it slowly come together and rejoicing in each step as you complete it? Or do you love to do simple, quick quilts that you can finish in a short amount of time so you can move on to another project?

If you are the first type of quilter, do you usually tend to do complicated, time consuming patterns? Or are you the second type of quilter - choosing quick to do patterns like those that are strip pieced and made completely or primarily without triangles?

Though I've certainly done my share of quick quilts, I much prefer complicated blocks and patterns with lots of triangles and and sometimes lots of pieces per block. I especially love quilts that contain both piecing and applique. I look at a complicated block as a fun test of my skills as a quilter. When I'm paging through a book or magazine to find a new project I choose more time consuming designs most of the time.

So what type of quilter are you?

All ready to sew!

2009-01-23T23:12:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited - tomorrow I can finally start sewing in my "new" sewing room! This week was too packed with other things for me to have time to sew, but I have most all of tomorrow. Hooray!

This afternoon I covered the top of my new cabinet with a layer of Insulbrite, three layers of Warm and Natural, and a top layer of canvas. All set now to iron! I had to move it to get to the back - the first time I've used the casters. It is WAY too heavy to move easily - the fact that the casters have no brakes doesn't matter at all. I may need Fred's help to move it out into the hall if needed. Originally I was going to put a casing around the edge of the top layer, fit it with elastic, and make it removable. That's what several people advised me to do. When I came time to do so this afternoon I decided to follow my own instinct instead. So I just used the staple gun to tack it to the underside of the butcher block top. Yes, that will leave holes in the wood, but they won't be visible to anyone who isn't crawling around on the floor. Besides - this is what I bought it for. Years from now when I'm no longer able to sew I don't care if someone else wants to take the top of and doesn't like the tiny holes under the edges of the top.

Another thing that makes me happy is that I finally have a good place to display most of my pin cushions. I think they look great on the glass top of my two new chests. Each one makes me smile, as they either cause me to remember a special friend, or to remember a pleasant time when I made the pin cushion.

************
Gratitudes:
1. Continuing beautiful weather
2. A pleasant evening spent sewing with friends
3. Yummy recipes in a new WW cookbook

Just pretend it's Monday

2009-01-21T06:35:00.000-08:00

I got so caught up in my sewing room redo that I totally forgot about Loser Monday! I know it's so trite - but better late than never!

Last week was a nice success - down 2 pounds! Walking the 3.3 miles round trip to Starbucks several times a week has really helped - especially since I'm not allowing myself to have anything to eat. A skinny venti latte gives me my coffee and milk with few calories. I earned 20 exercise points this week!

I took the picture this morning - I'm confident that when I weigh in today I will have finally dropped below the 180 mark. I'll let you know later!

Hint for the week - another great healthy eating website is http://www.dwlz.com/. - Dotti's Weight Loss Zone. Lots of great tips and ideas, plus a very comprehensive restaurant list with points value of menu items. Check it out!

Update - lost another 1.6 pounds this week!

The updating is finished - and I love it!

2009-01-19T21:14:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd post pictures as looking at them might help someone else with their organization. At times it seemed like it would never get done. All that is left is sewing the padded top for the ironing station. I plan to do that tomorrow while watching the TV coverage of the inauguration.

Everything in the ironing station cupboard used to sit somewhere on the floor. Now it's hidden until needed.

Marking pens and pencils, plus other miscellaneous stuff.

Bindings and binding scraps

Miscellaneous stuff

Cutting tools - newly rearranged in the top right drawer of the cutting island.

Needles of all kinds, plus other stuff. No, those aren't little condoms - they are finger gloves used when quilting with the linen thread you can see at the back of the drawer.

More oddball stuff. No, that's not a bra - it's a back support to wear when sitting at the machine.

And still more stuff.

I finally had enough drawer space to organize all my wool in one place - 5 of the bottom drawers.

Some of this is purchased, but much of it I felted from clothes I wore to work for many years.

I'm hoping to dye some of it pretty soon.

Moving two drawers of wool allowed me to rearrange the closet. I now have two drawers for every width strip - light an dark. I just need to rearrange the strips now. I was able to make better use of the shelf an the space on top of the drawers by moving stuff into the ironing cabinet. Notice one of the rolling carts is now here. The other moved upstairs to the longarm room.

I moved the short rolling cart to the far end of the cutting island near my sewing machine, as it primarily contains items I use at the machine while sewing. I can move it right next to me, set up the travel iron, and press my piecing without leaving my chair.

The building is finished

2009-01-18T22:37:00.000-08:00

We have spent about 1 1/2 days of putting together IKEA furniture - having to deal with a few glitches along the way - and now the building is finished. It's been a long time since I've stooped that much! With help from my DH, and lots of help from my friend Kim, as this is definitely a two person job.

The biggest glitch concerned the casters for the feet of the ironing station. After a total of two trips to Lowe's, one trip to IKEA, and three trips to Home Depot. we finally found casters that worked. I guess one shouldn't decide to put casters on a piece of furniture that isn't meant to have them! The good news is that I finally found some that worked, and Fred was able to install them on the legs of the ironing station. All that's left now is to return the 4 I bought at IKEA, as they didn't work at all. What I thought was drilled holes for casters turned out to be holes for leveling legs, and all the casters fell out the first time we tried to move it!

Now all that's left is cleaning up, moving my stuff into the cupboard and drawers, and making a padded cover for the ironing station. I can already tell that I'm going to love this!

Stash report - Week 3

2009-01-18T22:25:00.000-08:00

This week was easy: fabric in - none
fabric out - 1 yard

I finished the Peace on Earth top, which I estimated to be a yard.

YTD: fabric in - 31 yards
fabric out - 7 3/4 yard

I need to step up the pace

2009-01-16T22:27:00.001-08:00

It's now the middle of January, and I'm not even close to being halfway through my January goals. Several things have prevented me from sewing for days at a time - not what I expected to happen. I'm not going to stress about it, however - after all, the goals were just to give me something to shoot for. Anything I don't complete will just be moved to February.

Tonight I finished the applique on the last tree of this little wall hanging and then stitched on the borders. This is one of the Jan Patek kits that I purchased earlier this month. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I will hand quilt it - possibly in big stitch - in the next month or two. Hopefully sooner. I'm so happy to cross off another of January's goals!

************
Gratitudes:
1. A three day weekend for Fred
2. Crisp cold, clear winter days
3. Several new cookbooks with tasty looking light recipes
4. Meeting a friend for coffee

Fixed

2009-01-16T11:39:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Karen I learned that some of the links to my tutorials "broke" when I combined the two blogs. They are all fixed now. Thanks Karen!

Thank you Suellen!

2009-01-15T18:42:00.000-08:00

I received an email today from Suellen Wassem who lives in Ohio. Suellen is the designer of what I call my Star in a Circle quilt. The pattern disappeared long ago in the early 90's when the quilt was on display for over a year at the quilt shop where I worked. By the time I discovered it was missing it was no longer possible to get the pattern. I knew it was Kindred Spirits pattern, but that's all I remembered. I was so happy to hear from Suellen as I always give credit to a pattern designer. Now I can give proper credit to her. I'm going to add her name to the posts in which I picture this quilt, as well as on my sidebar.

Thank you Suellen!

Sewing Room Redo - Part 2

2009-01-12T15:15:00.000-08:00

Some of you will remember that my dear husband agreed to a sewing room redo as my birthday gift in 2007 - so we were standing in line on opening day of IKEA-Portland, OR. IKEA has everything needed for changing your so-so sewing room into a dream room. Even if your room is really small like mine (8.5' x 12'). Their Billy bookcase system is perfect for fabric storage because you can get glass doors for each unit and the price is very reasonable. Some of the pieces in their free-standing kitchen line are perfect for cutting tables and more. (If you'd like to see "before" pictures of my room look here and here. After pictures can be found here.

I adore everything about the new room arrangement. It works beautifully. But lately as I've worked in the room I realized it could be even better. I could do something about all the wasted space under the ironing board. Wasted space is a really bad thing when your room is so small. I've also worried about how precarious this storage arrangement is, with the TV balanced on top of a rolling plastic cart. Though we don't live in southern California, we are still in an area prone to earthquakes, and are also supposed to get a BIG ONE one of these days. This would NOT survive such a shaking.

So . . . I've been looking at the IKEA website again. It's a great place to start - though going to the store is much better. I thought I knew just what I wanted - but changed my mind once I got there. My new ironing station will be made from this piece, which is from the same free standing kitchen line as is my center island. It gives me great storage underneath for things like baskets, quilting hoops on stands, and my jugs of water and Best Press. The iron can also go under here when not in use. My DSIL says he will make me a new big board that will fit on this piece. When not ironing I can use this as an additional cutting surface. I'm going to put casters on legs, so when I need to use my entire design wall (which is on the wall behind my ironing space) I can roll this out into the hallway. If I'm going to be sewing all day I can also roll it out there so I can accumulate more activity points on my pedometer! My current ironing board and big board will go upstairs for use in the longarm room. Right now I have to run up and down the stairs to press quilt tops and backs.

Here is what I got to replace the rolling carts. There are about 4" taller, which is a little taller than what I have now, but that's OK. I got two of them, plus a heavy glass top that will cover both of them together, plus a kitchen lazy susan (under $10) for holding the TV so I can rotate it as needed. These drawers are pretty much the same size as what I have, so I won't have to reorganize everything for switching over. I was going to buy a 4 drawer chest, but this is much better for storing what I have to store here. I thought I needed something in white to match the fabric cabinets, but this light birch matches my cutting island and my new pressing station.

If there is a gene for organization the it's one of my very strongest LOL! If you send me an airline ticket and promise to feed me and give me a place to sleep I will come redo your sewing room if you'd like!

Loser Monday

2009-01-12T07:39:00.000-08:00

I promised Sharon I'd post before and after pictures. (If these look familiar it's because they've been posted before.) The first picture was taken the second Sunday in July - right after I attended my first Weight Watchers meeting.

The second picture was taken on November 14th when I reached the mile stone of 25 pounds down. I've gone from a tight Women's 18 to a comfortable Misses 14. I still have another 20 pounds to lose - I've not really accomplished much since the November picture. Last week my holiday eating caught up with me - I weighed in with a gain of 2.2 pounds. Since then I'm firmly back on program. This Wednesday I expect to see a loss.

My suggestion for the week is to go to http://www.hungrygirl.com/, look around the website, and subscribe to the daily email newsletter. Lots of great nutritional info - and what to buy and what to avoid. She also has great recipes - remakes of your fatty favorites that are actually low in fat and high in fiber. One of her favorite products is original Fiber 1 bran cereal. She turns it into crumbs and uses it to coat things like sweet potatoes cut into fry-size pieces which are then baked in the oven. They really taste good!

Sunday Stash Report - week 2

2009-01-11T14:14:00.000-08:00

Oh my - I'm sure not doing very well with stashbusting so far this year! I didn't have much time to sew, but I sure found time to shop LOL!

Used - 3/4 yard for binding the two quilts I finished today

Bought - 18 3/4 yards plus one Fat Quarter Shop Jelly Cake

Wednesday was an unexpected Joseph day - but I followed my original plan of heading to Battle Ground to The Primitive Thimble - a marvelous shop for those of us who like homespuns and reproductions. This time I was looking for light homespuns to use as backgrounds on applique blocks. I knew they would have what I needed - and they did. Joseph helped me choose bolts of fabric to purchase. By the time we left I'd bought 25, 3/4 yard pieces. Many quilts are now calling for 20" finished applique blocks, so half yards wouldn't do.

I have always loved red and black together, so I couldn't resist when I saw this Jelly cake online at the Fat Quarter shop. A jelly cake consists of a Jelly Roll, a Charm Pack, and a Layer Cake. The collection includes other colors also, but it was the red and black that kept drawing my eye back to it. I'm really looking forward to making something with these fabrics. I don't know the total yardage here, and I'm not going to figure it out.

So - for the second week in a row I've bought way more than I've used. The good news is I think I'm done buying for some time now LOL!

Two down!

2009-01-11T14:01:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to report I have my first two finishes for 2009. Granted - these were quilted last November - but I didn't get them bound until today. I have crossed them of my list of finished tops needing to be quilted, bound and labeled, and have listed them in the sidebar for January completions for May Britt's challenge.

These blocks from a worldwide blogger block exchange had been languishing in the drawer since 2006. They were finally made into a top last fall, and finished today. I love reading the familiar names from all around the world!

These blocks have been waiting since 2003, when I participated in at monthly $5 block. I paid $5 for the first kit, and as long as I brought a finished block each month I got the next month's block for free. The blocks themselves seemed quite colorless when I finished them, so I brightened them up considerably by choosing yellows, golds, purples, greens, and reds when making the flying geese sashing. I disliked the blocks themselves, but love the resulting quilt.

It felt great to cross off one of my January goals!

If only I'd been paying attention!

2009-01-09T08:10:00.000-08:00

Since I don't have a picture appropriate to this post I decided it was time for an update on my granddaughters.

I've made another big change to my blog - but I doubt anyone noticed. I also doubt whether anyone else cares. I'm blogging about the chance only because there may be other bloggers who also weren't paying attention and would like to know what I discovered.

If you blog with Blogger, have you noticed the Reading List below your blog list on your Dashboard? Have you ever clicked on the "Blogger Buzz" tab? I never have until yesterday. That's when I discovered that I could import all posts and comments from one blog to another. I supposed I could have done this some time ago - if only I'd been paying attention.

So . . . I've combined my two Quilting Is My Passion blog into one. All the posts and comments for 2006 are now part of this blog. Just in case anyone is interested enough to read past posts that old - which you probably aren't. As I said - I'm probably the only person who cares LOL! Boy, it feels good to my "always organizing" persona! Now I need to fix the labels - I see there are some duplicates.

My favorite quilt

2009-01-09T06:26:00.000-08:00

Update: I've just found out that this pattern was designed by Suellen Wassem from Ohio.

The quilt in the header is my favorite of all the quilts I've made. I guess the stars were aligned properly during the days this was being pieced - everything seemed to go perfectly. The fabric choices, the fussy cutting of the pieces, the piecing - all came together to form a beautiful whole.

I used a Kindred Spirits pattern that had just arrived at Daisy Kingdom in Portland, Oregon, where I was working and teaching quilting classes. This was in 1992, so the pattern has long been out of print. I begged the manager of the quilting department to let me make it for a store sample. It hung there for over a year - basted together and bound, as there wasn't time to quilt it before she wanted it finished. Once it was returned to me I did the quilting - which literally covers the entire quilt.

The quilt is pieced by machine and quilted by hand. I display it on the dining room table in the winter - set crosswise, and on a quilt rack in the living room the rest of the year. I wish I had a wall space to hang it permanently, but I don't.

Now that I've written this post, I've discovered I posted about this quilt once before - back in 2007. If you are interested in reading more about it see this post. The pictures in that post enlarge if you click on them - I don't know why the same pictures in this post won't do that.

Striking Out an Item on a Sidebar List - Reprise

2009-01-08T16:58:00.001-08:00

Lately several people asked me how to do this. I posted the instructions back in October, but due to the newly asked questions I think this is worth posting again.

I've received quite a few comments asking me how to "cross out" an item in a sidebar list - the way I've done in my HSY's list. I've replied to those people whose email address is available, but often I have no way to contact the person making the comment. So, without further ado, here is how it is done. At least the way I do it - there may be other ways but I have no idea what they are.

Since I created my sidebar lists when I was still using the old version of blogger, they are all written in HTML. The strike out command is also done in HTML language. It looks like this:

49. <>PINS Churn Dash Exchange < /s ><>DONE!< /strong>

In the above example there is supposed to be a letter "s" inside the first set of brackets. I've tried to correct this several times, and every time I save it the "s" disappears.

The <> is placed directly before the first word you are crossing out, and the < /s > is placed directly after the last word you are crossing out. The second command is very important - if you forget it then everything after will be crossed out.

Important note: In my examples above and below I had to put a space before and after the command in the brackets in order for the command to remain in a form that allows you to see the HTML. When you type it there are NO spaces inside the two brackets.

You may also notice these two commands above: <> and < /strong >. This is what changes the font to BOLD. I don't know very much HTML, but have fun using the small amount I do know.

Note: the word "strong" should be between the first set of brackets in the second HTML command. Like the "s", it keeps disappearing.

If your sidebar list is created using the "List Gadget" instead of the "HTML Gadget" then I have no idea how to strike through items on the list.

A New Look for my blog

2009-01-07T15:22:00.000-08:00

Update: I've adjusted the width of the three columns using these instructions provided by Three Column Blogger. This change was even easier to do that the first change. I also learned how to change the width of each column to whatever I want it to be. No more problem with "picture widgets" that are too wide for the sidebar!

I'm almost done with my new 2009 look. I love having three columns to my blog - makes it so much easier to arrange things on two sidebars instead of one. I did this with the assistance of Three Column Blogger - it was easy and fast to do. I have no idea why I waited 4 months to do this! If you'd like to do this to your Blogger/Blogspot blog I recommend you take a look at Three Column Blogger. Just click the name of your Blogger template on the sidebar and you will be taken to the page with directions for your particular style of blog.

Now I need to follow the directions for adding margins so everything isn't so squished together on my blog! Hopefully I can do that tomorrow. I'm not connected to a printer right now, and I find it easier to have both the printed directions in front of me as well as the screen directions (where I can copy a specific code if need be and not have to retype it!)

Thank you Three Column Blogger, whoever you are!

Yet another Challenge

2009-01-06T15:09:00.000-08:00

May Britt is challenging everyone to finish one project each month for 2009. Since doing this - and more - is already on my list of goals I figured I might as well join in. So still another addition has been made to my sidebar.

I think it's time I dug out those directions I printed for reprogramming my blog to include a sidebar on each side. Right now it seems to go on forever!

Sharon's Challenge

2009-01-06T14:07:00.000-08:00

Notice the new picture on the top of my sidebar? Better late than never I guess. As I'm finally having a chance to read blogs again I see I'm a bit late. I don't feel too badly, however, as I've been posting about my weight loss journey for some time now. Sharon has made Mondays the day for Loser posts, so I'll have to shift my thinking a bit - especially since Wednesday is my weigh-in day.

I'm hoping many, many of you decide to join us. Quilting is a pretty sedentary hobby - unless you set up your ironing board at the opposite end of the house from your sewing machine LOL! When I look around at guild meetings I see that at least 95% of quilters seem to be overweight, and many of those 95% are much too overweight. After all - we have to live a LONG time to finish all the quilts we want to make - so we need to do whatever we can to help us live a long, healthy life.

January Goals

2009-01-05T07:38:00.000-08:00

It's already January 5th - past time to set my goals for this month. Since I set pretty lofty goals for this year I want to set monthly goals to help me achieve them. So - without further ado - here's what I'd like to accomplish this month.

1. Appliqué both Peace on Earth and Dance of Angels and sew on the borders
2. Finish Emma's Quilt
3. Finish the two quilts that just need binding and labeling
4. Sew five Civil War Diaries blocks
5. Sew five Dear Jane blocks
6. Quilt, bind and label the postage stamp quilts and the double four patch.
7. Complete two blocks for the Girl Gang feathered star
8. Complete one block for Times Remembered

I have added both my monthly and yearly goals to my sidebar. I think I have my work cut out for me!

It's a finished top!

2009-01-04T15:34:00.001-08:00

Nothing like a quick little mini-quilt to provide a feeling of satisfied accomplishment. Kathie sent me this quilt kit a little before Christmas, and I tucked it away for my first project of 2009. I added a few 3 1/2" light squares from my own stash so to make it one row larger and thus square. It will become a little table mat for the larger end table in our living room. Tonight I will layer it for hand quilting, and will take it to Tangled Threads on Tuesday. I hope to have it done by the end of the week.

This is the only sewing I've had time to do since I finished the double four patch top. So much for my plans of quilting a few charity quilts this week! I still have to put together the backing for that four patch top also - that will be done by the end of this evening!

Stash report - Week 1

2009-01-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

This week was a wash when it comes to stashbusting. I used 6 yards of fabric constructing the double four patch top. Even though the blocks were made last year I didn't count any of the fabric until the top was finished at the beginning of this week.

I also added six yards to my stash, though I paid for less than half that amount. I really wanted to do a BOM this year but couldn't find one that appealed to me. So I signed up for Jan Patek's mini quilt club instead. By doing this instead of buying the kits individually I saved 15%. I also received a bundle of 8 fat eights for free, as well as a bag full of nice, big scraps for free. I also bought a kit on sale for an angel quilt to make for over the piano next Christmas. That gave me a

second bundle of fat eights for free. Since both quilts are small I figure the kits include about 1 yard of fabric each.

Figuring another 2 yards for all the scraps, that totals 6 yards in.

So - nothing lost but nothing gained. That's OK for me!

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Gratitudes:

1. Fragrant hot oatmeal for breakfast.

2. A refreshing walk to Starbucks

3. A happy afternoon spent with children and grandchildren

Fabric Folding Tutorial

2009-01-04T14:08:00.000-08:00

Many people have asked me how I keep my fabric looking so neat on my shelves, and how do I fold it so it fits so well. I developed my own method of folding my fabric long before someone came out with the idea of folding it around a ruler. Mine works very well for me and is very easy to do. For those of you who are interested, here is how I do it.

The first thing to do is figure out the width and depth of your shelves. Most shelves are a standard size - mine are 30" wide. The narrow shelves are just over 14" wide. The depth is 10 1/2". You will want to fold your fabric so you can get the maximum amount of fabric on one shelf with little or no room left over. A little math, or some trial and error if you prefer, will tell you how to fold your fabric. I fold large pieces - 1/2 yard and more - one way, and fat quarters and smaller pieces another way. I almost always buy fabric in increments of 1/4 yard rather than eights or thirds, as these increments fold the best using my system. You can certainly modify it if you buy fabric in other increments.

Half yard and larger pieces:

Fold the fabric as it came off the bolt. I prewash and iron first - I find that ironing each piece helps set the colors and patterns in my memory - so I iron it folded as if it just came off the bolt.

Now bring the folded edge to the selvage edge for a second fold parallel to the first. I do this for 3 yard and shorter pieces. If the piece is longer than 3 yards I fold crosswise once, twice or more first.

Now, if you have an even number of yards fold the piece in half crosswise, and then in half again। If you have 3, 6 or 9 yards fold in thirds and then in half. If you have a different number of yards you will need to adjust your crosswise folds at some point.

The object is to finish with a rectangle that measures about 10" or 11" wide - or 1/4 the width of the fabric, and a depth of 9" (1/4 yard).

Fat quarters:

There are two possible ways to fold fat quarters. Choose which works best for you by measuring the depth of your shelves. If they are 12" deep you can choose the narrower, deeper way of folding - this is how I folded them before my sewing room redo. If they are less than 12" you will need to choose the wider, less deep way of folding so they don't hang off the front of the shelves. I show both methods in the pictures.

Lay your fabric in front of you. For deeper shelves the 21"-22" side should be facing you. For narrower shelves the shorter side should be facing you. Fold the closest and the farthest edged to the middle, thus enclosing the raw edge in the fold.

Fold again in half.

Now fold in half crosswise once. Your piece will now measure approximately 5" x 9" or 4 1/2" x 11", depending on how you have folded it. The second is preferable if your shelves are deep enough as you can get more fabric on the shelf.

Now arrange your folded fabric on your shelf, with the single fold of each piece facing toward you. ( I fold my towels and wash cloths so single folds face front also - I know, I'm an incurable neat freak!) I can fit two stacks of the larger pieces and one stack of the smaller pieces on each wide shelf - or one large and four small stacks - or six small stacks. I can fit two fat quarter stacks or one larger stack on the narrower shelves, with a few inches remaining for books, patterns, or whatever.

Since I do mostly scrap piecing and appliqué, I usually cut only a small amount from each piece. As long as I can refold the piece on the fold lines so it fits neatly back on the shelf I do so. Once the piece is chopped up enough that I can no longer fold it neatly on the fold lines, I call it scrap, and cut it into strips, squares, triangles and bricks, with the smallest parts going into a basket of crumbs to give away to a friend.

I hope this helps at least one or two of you with your fabric storage! I've done it this way for so long that I can fold fabric VERY quickly for storage on the shelves.

All I can say is Wow!

2009-01-01T21:28:00.000-08:00

At Weight Watchers yesterday morning I bought one of the pedometers. I really like it because I can program it to my weight and length of stride. I eagerly clipped it on this morning as soon as I got dressed, because I was curious as to how I'd do. Most everyone I know recommends using 10,000 steps as the goal to shoot for each day. Since I'm usually pretty sedentary I figure this was a good way to get myself moving more.

My friend Kim and I really enjoyed walking to Starbucks during the snow, and I knew it was great exercise. Now that our snow has gone and rain - hard at times - and wind has returned the walk isn't nearly as enjoyable. We both need to keep at it, however, so when she called this morning I agreed to go. I find it much easier to walk outside, especially when I have the reward of a great latte waiting for me at the midpoint, and sewing waiting for me at the end of the walk. So armed with umbrella and raincoat I set out this morning. The steps really added up quickly on that walk - a good way to start the day.

Once I returned home, however, I didn't get to sew. Instead I need to pack away all the Christmas decorations. I have no idea how many times I walked from the tree to the table where the boxes were sitting - must have been hundreds of times as we have that many ornaments. Plus walking back and forth packing everything else away also. Then standing in the kitchen to fix dinner. Now back to the living room with the vacuum as there are needles everywhere. I wanted to do a good cleaning so I moved every piece of furniture I could so I could clean underneath it.

Every now and then I stretched out on the couch for a short time to give my back a rest. I even fell asleep for a few minutes - I was listening to an audio book while working and suddenly realized the story had jumped ahead a bit. By and large I was on my feet the entire day, however. Every now and then I would look at the number of steps I was accumulating, as well as the activity points I was earning. As the number grew I was more and more amazed. I can't imagine how this total could possibly be correct! But as I wore the thing yesterday after I got home, when I didn't move much the rest of the day, and accumulated less than 4000 steps I figure it must be correct.

Tomorrow I'm going shopping with Kim - wandering a high end mall in Portland (Bridgeport Mall) as I've never been there before. Our plan is to accumulate a lot of steps tomorrow also!

Wishing everyone in Blogland a very . . .

2008-12-31T22:56:00.000-08:00