Today I managed to get all of my freezer paper templates cut out and then ironed to the fabric and the fabric pieces cut out also. Tomorrow (maybe) I will get started glue basting the pieces on to the newest block I will be doing for the Christmas Baltimore Album quilt. I need to tape the fabric down and 3 sides of the plastic overlay so it won’t shift as I start to work on one section at a time. This won’t all be done tomorrow. Hopefully it won’t be as windy as today was and maybe I will get something done outside as well.
I worked a little bit more on “Insanity” as well and got two more blocks quilted 
today. Row C # 11 and 10 left to right. If I stick with trying to get a little done each day on this quilt I am happy with that. I should have been able to get done with more on the quilt today as I really hardly did anything today – well physically that is! 
I just didn’t do a lot! I didn’t even go exercise today – my excuse was that last week I exercised 4 days in row – took one day off and exercised 4 more days and then took today off – I guess that is a good reason, you have to take a day off now and then and today was the day to do it.
All in all just kind of a lazy day and nothing to write about – talk to y’all later!
I had to get a new mouse pad as mine was worn out and see this pretty one that I found at this link. Look under gifts and you will find the mouse pads. I thought this one was so appropriate for me as I love the mountains and I love quilts – and there are even a couple Elk in the picture which of course I love seeing (and hearing – such a unique sound they make). They have some other “quilty” like cards, notepads, coffee cups, puzzles ect. Worth checking it out.
I have been busy today running around doing some errands, exercise, ect and then when I got home I got started on the next Baltimore Album Block called “Christmas Delight”. It is still in the – getting the pattern ready stage
— I will work some more on it tomorrow I think. Tonight I have to get back to quilting some more on the “Insanity” Dear Jane quilt. I did get two more blocks finished last night. I also spent some time getting more of the patterns ready for the second Dear Jane quilt “Insanity Revisted” I copy the patterns on to freezer paper with my printer/copier and had only one pattern left ready to use. I got one more row copied today so they will be ready to work with. I am going so slow on that quilt – I am only doing one block a week most of the time and at 13 blocks in a row — at this rate I am doing about 1 row every 3 months! That will take forever – I might need to force myself to get moving on this. Julie is working steadily on hers and she started out slow but has picked up speed and she just finished her 4th row and she will be ready to sew that to her already finished 3 rows. I am working on my 6th row and almost finished with it. Regina hasn’t been putting a lot of time in on her quilt either and I think she has 3 rows about finished – she also works full time and works on other projects as well.
When I get done with the Christmas Baltimore Album I might actually try another Baltimore Album quilt – I kind of like these. Last year when we stopped at the quilt museum in Paducah, Kentucky I bought a CD of patterns from a book called “The Little Brown Bird” - a Baltimore Album quilt by Margaret Docherty. I mistakenly thought all the instructions and everything was on the CD – like a book on CD – if you know what I mean – wrong – only the patterns. I think I will look for the book – a used copy will do for me, I want to see the instructions and the step by step tips of how to make it, the color choices, the layout ect. This is a very big step up from the Christmas Baltimore Album I am working on now. This is one of those types of quilts that may take several years to make – that much applique! Do any of my readers have this book and ready to make a trade? I have been telling myself not to buy more books!!! the economy you know, have to cut back on things. I did put out a request for a used book for trade on several lists but if it doesn’t come through I did find one for under $15 and one at $10.00 I will only wait a day or two before buying one, as I don’t want to spend more than that. Knowing me though I will get the book and then decide it is too hard and I will work on some other quilt instead!! I already have a different Baltimore Album pattern that I want to make – it is much easier than the one I just mentioned. Probably best to do that next and work my way up to the hard one LOL
Way too many patterns and not enough time to make them
I finished the French Knots on the Baltimore Album block last night. Glad to get done 
with that one! Those Christmas cactus flower cluster sure had a lot of pieces to them! The next block will be the one titled “Christmas Delight“. That will be easier – back to poinsettias and mistletoe and berries. I’m not sure what applique method I will be using on this one. I have been kind of experimenting trying to see if I can find “that” perfect choice for me if there is one. So far I think I like a combination of methods. Different things seem to work best for certain pieces.
Today has been such a nicer day than yesterday was. Other than some scattered rain in the forecast it looks to be a typical early spring week coming up. Today we went to the Bona Dea Walking Trail and did the full loop all the way around the park. It is about 3.5 miles. It was a little chilly in the shade, but in the sun it was warm. Plenty of turtles out sunbathing! We saw lots of them.
Between last night and a little today I managed to finish one more block on the “Insanity Revisited” Dear Jane quilt. Here is number “F-11 On Target”. Isn’t perfect by any means but I really am not aiming for perfection – I just want to complete it and I know it will probably be one to two more years in the making. I took a few stitches on “Insanity” on the quilting frame but I really didn’t do much so photo’s will wait. I’m heading over to the quilting frame when I get done on the computer and when I take a break from that I will start tracing out the Christmas block on the overlay sheet to get it ready to start getting the pieces cut this week.
I hope everyone had a great weekend, I know so many of you in the midwest had to deal with the early spring blizzard and those up in Eastern North Dakota and Western Minnesota have the flooding to deal with. We are lucky right here in my neck of the woods I guess.
I’m not ready to share a photo of the Christmas Cactus Wreath today – it will be done tomorrow. I finished the applique but I still need to do some embroidered French Knots. I will work on that tomorrow.
Today was a chilly, wet, end of March day – going out like a lion even though we still have 3 days to go. We started at 44 this morning, went down to 36 then back up to 39, back down again. Snow flurries, and rain. No sun to speak of. It was a day to be in the kitchen baking I thought I knew we would be cold today so in preparation yesterday I made a fresh batch of sourdough to be ready for some baking today. I found a recipe on line for a sourdough coffeecake which I changed up a bit and added some chopped apples and walnuts. Also I changed a recipe that Karen from the Dakota Country Kitchen posted on her site (thank you for getting me addicted to sourdough recipes Karen) for sourdough biscuits. I added some mashed sweet potatoes and deleted the milk, added some whole grains and call it mine now I am sharing my recipes and maybe you might 
want to change them up a bit also!
Sourdough Sweet Potato Biscuits
2 cups sour dough starter
2 cups white flour
3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup oil
1 large sweet potato = cooked and mashed to equal about 1 cup
I pretty much just dump all the ingredients in my Kitchen Aide mixer and beat it up until well blended. The sweet potatoes add enough moisture that there was no need for milk as the original recipe called for. I beat it for a couple minutes. I let the dough rest for about 10 minutes while I was doing other things in the kitchen. Then I put a little flour on the countertop and roll the dough to about 1 inch or so thickness. Using a jar lid as a biscuit cutter (from a regular size Mason Jar cut out your biscuits and place on a greased baking sheet. Depending on the thickness of your dough you will get somewhere between 12 and 16 biscuits.
Let the biscuits rise for about 30 minutes in a warm spot. Heat oven to 400 º and bake for 15 minutes. If you wish brush melted butter over the tops – I forgot to and so in the picture mine have a little flour on them from when they were rolled out. We loved these. I make the whole batch and put the left overs in a zip lock bag and toss in the freezer and heat them in the microwave as we want them. (did you know that sweet potatoes are a natural anti-inflammatory, I didn’t until I read something about that recently)
Sourdough Apple Walnut Coffee Cake
1 cup sourdough
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups chopped apples ( I used two large ones)
Combine the sourdough and the eggs and oil, stir well. Add the dry ingredients stirring well and then stir in the apples and walnuts. Pour into a greased square pan.
Topping:
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon flour
Mix these ingredients together, cutting the margarine into pea sized pieces.
Sprinkle the mixture over the top of the batter spreading to cover the whole top of cake. Preheat oven to 350º and bake for 35 minutes.
We are getting early spring weather here in that it is unpredictable! One day rain and warm – tomorrow – who knows maybe it will be rain and snow flurries from what the weather forecast is. I hope it doesn’t get too cold I just checked today and I have a couple of tiny rose buds (not open) and my azalea’s are starting to open as well. It looks like March is going out like a lion as the saying goes.
I have been so busy with applique the last couple of days. I have the Baltimore Album block Christmas Cactus Wreath almost finished! I have one more flower cluster to put down and then I am adding just a little embroidery. I will have to the package of patterns back out and see which one will be next. I haven’t looked at the patterns for a month and don’t even remember what they look like! I will post a photo of the block when it is finished.
I have just gotten a little quilting on “Insanity” done this week. I told you all I am like this – I start out with a new quilt on the frame and work a lot on it for the first month or couple weeks then I slow down – this is normal for me, but I will be working more on it off and on. I am still on row C this is numbers 6 & 7 from right to left.
Last week on a blog that I was reading the person wanted opinions on her style of blog.
The first 5 comments she received were going to receive a gift — I got one! It arrived in the mail today. A pattern for a easy zippered wallet. Here is a link to Jamie’s blog and to her web site of patterns. There are patterns for bags here and other things as well. You might want to check her out. You see that label right down there underneath the pattern that says “Scrap-bags”? That is a label that is included in the package with the pattern – all ready for you to add your custom label to the wallet, a nice little extra I thought.
One of the fastest projects that I have done in a long time is this little wallhanging with the three bears!! Quilting and binding finished. Granted I did not put in near the amount of quilting that I normally do (and it is only 15 x 21). The trees are all fused down so I did not bother to try to quilt through them. I finished the quilting last night and the binding today.
I’m on a roll here, I finished the guild challenge project last week and this wall hanging this week. I have not touched my “Insanity Revisited” blocks in some time. I made one block last week but I am contemplating taking the last one apart as one side got crooked somehow or another. I never even noticed it while I was making it and didn’t see how off one side got until I was pressing it. I would not have to take too much apart to try to get it a little more acceptable. I think I will work on that this evening.
My Dear Jane group meets tomorrow so I would like to be ready to start a new block tomorrow. I need to get my bag packed with all my stuff. One day I thought I had all of my stuff in the bag – got to Julie’s house and ready to start my block and had forgotten my fabric! Oh well I made use of all her quilting books to look at ones I did not have and spent the 2 or 3 hours talking.
We have been busy lately going through a lot of cupboards and storage things. Trying to downsize some of the excess. I find I have no room in my cupboards for dishes that I use all the time, or have a problem trying to restack pots and pans ect. Closets get packed full of clothes and same with dresser drawers. Today I finished clearing out a little more and had Mike help me load the honda with boxes and bags and numerous odds and ends from a small tv to a floor standing lamp I tossed in storage years ago. I drove over to the local second hand shop – MARVA – I’m not sure what that stands for but they unload your car for you and everything you give them gets sold in their store locally – not shipped to China or India or wherever – it stays in the community (not like Goodwill and Salvation Army). I like that. So they didn’t take the tv – they did last time I brought them an old one. I guess they just don’t want them anymore. I still have more to go through and I wouldn’t be surprised if I don’t have enough to fill the honda one more time. It will be nice though to have gotten rid of a little of this excess. How in heavens name do we collect up so much stuff!!
My friend Nanci in Canada saw that I like wrist warmers and sent me a pair as a gift in a very pretty yellow. Too warm
of course to wear them now but they along with the pair that Mary Ann from Denmark sent me will come along with us on our trip to the mountains this summer. I bet I will get some use out of both pair in the mornings and evenings. I took the photo myself so only one hand in the picture.
I have been quilting on the bear wallhanging for the motorhome and it is coming along nicely. I am mainly doing the sky and the border but I will put a little quilting here and there in the trees too – I will just have to use my thimble and do one stitch at a time to get through the fusible.
I took a picture this morning before the rain storms came in of the flower bed that I finally finished last fall. I last posted a photo of it in October last year at this post Most of the plants have come back and the hostas are even popping out of the ground. I will dig up more of the daffodil bulbs and lilies from other parts of the yard to plant in this bed when they get done with their blossoms this spring. All 7 of the blue hydrangea that I rooted and planted came back up – I’m so glad about that, I wondered if they would all come back. I hope the garden will fill in this summer a bit more. I will post a photo again later in the summer. You can see the Redbud tree in the corner of the photo. This small redbud popped up about 4 years ago from seed that washed in I guess – for I did not plant it, it just grew! I’m so glad I noticed what kind it was as I marked it so we would not cut it down.
I was busy quilting on “Insanity” last night and part of the day today during the rainstorm. 
Tonight I might do some more or I will be in the living room working on the 3 bears. Not sure how the night will progress, maybe more storms? I hope we don’t loose our power if that is the case, so far today we have been lucky and only lost our signal on the internet and tv once. The photo on the left is of row C block 3 & 4 from right to left. The photo on the right is of row C block 5 & y from right to left. So that means 10 1/2 rows left to go and one full border. The side borders are of course getting quilted as I move along with the rows. And already have 38 hours of quilting done!
by Karen on March 23, 2009
in quilts
I had been kind of lazy with the guild challenge project. I only had a couple embellishments to put on it and I just hadn’t gotten around to it. I finally got around to it today and it is done! one down and how many left to go? I will post a photo of it in May after the contest is over and it won’t be a secret anymore.
I started to quilt the three bears wall hanging today. I am not going to put in a lot of quilting, just enough to say it is quilted. I tried to clear things up in the sewing room a little earlier today. The sewing table was starting to get too many things sitting on it, to the point of not seeing the table.
I have gotten a little more done on the Christmas Baltimore Album block – the Christmas Cactus Wreath – more than half of it left to go, I am fitting it in between other projects. I have not touched the quilt with the double wedding ring in the middle of it in ages. I mainly have 2 borders left to quilt on it. If it isn’t done by the end of April it will be coming with me in the motorhome when we head out east to visit family. We will be gone for about 3 or 4 weeks and I will only take two projects with me. One to piece (Insanity Revisited) and one to quilt — the double wedding ring if it is not finished. If it is finished I have at least 3 small tops waiting in line and I can get one of those pin basted to bring along if need be. We will be visiting family and sight seeing too so I know I will not be sitting around sewing a lot for that trip. That won’t be until May so time to work on some things still.
Now I need to get some quilting on Insanity – I haven’t touched it in a couple days -
by Karen on March 22, 2009
in quilts
Well the 3 bears turned out great! I’m surprised the clear monofilament thread was easier to use that I thought it would be. Although if anyone looked closely at my stitches — well lets say I would need some practice at that. Of course the pieces in this pattern were so curvy it was hard to follow the outline of the pieces very well. I got the smoke color for the bears and the clear color for the rest of it. I used black thread in the bobbin for the bears and a light gray for the rest of it. The main problem I had was threading the needle the thread is so hard to see! I am so glad that I went out to the camper to measure the wall before I put the final border on! The wall was skinnier than I thought it was and instead of the green border being 3 inches wide it is the same as the purple 1 inch. So it is all ready to be pin basted and quilted! What a fast project using the fusible. I’m not sure how I will hand quilt but it will be hand quilted. I will go around the bears and the tree and then around some of the trees where I can. I will quilt the sky kind of going with the clouds and then something simple for the border. Final measurement was something like 16 x 21 I think.
I was amazed at what I found when I opened up the purple fat quarters. They had a sticky tab over the folds so could 
not be opened at the store. The package looked like this on both sides that were available 
to view — this purple square here on the right. Now with the back and the front looking like this wouldn’t you have expected the whole fat quarter to look like this?
Wrong! this is what the fat quarter looked like opened up – photo on the left. Click on the photo’s for a larger view. I was lucky in that I was just cutting 1 1/2 inch strips and was able to get the colors that I wanted out of it, the lighter part shows a little darker in this photo – it actually looks like a light splotch of a dye mix up or something. If I had to have a larger cut of fabric this one wouldn’t have worked out for the look I was going for. Believe it or not even with batiks folded as fat quarters I have not had a fabric that surprised me like this one did.
Our motorhome has very few walls that I can use to decorate. One other area that I can make a small wall hanging to put up is in the tiny area that we use for our coffee center. I think I will get one of McKenna Ryan’s patterns that is from her coffee series – there are two small patterns that are only about 10 inch squares – one is of several coffee cups stacked together and another has a coffee pot and cup — I’m not looking at the patterns right now so I’m kind of guessing on this, but that is how I remember them. Our motorhomes wall’s are mainly windows and cabinets. The bear wall hanging will hang on the closet door facing our little sitting area as the wall I was going to put it on my husband asked to leave free of “stuff” as he says he leans on that wall at times. It is a very skinny space anyhow, so probably best to leave it bare.
Well I was lucky and Hancock’s had all but two of threads that I needed to stock up my thread cabinet. I don’t need those two colors right now so wasn’t a problem. I bought my thread cabinet several years ago after I was lucky in selling a quilt. I love my Gutermann thread cabinet – it has 100 different colors of thread, 100% natural cotton thread. I love applique and by having all my colors on hand I can almost always go to the cabinet and match up a thread for a very close match. Each color slot can hold 3 spools. Most of them only have one spool at a time in the cabinet but colors that I have found I use often I keep the 3 spools available. This is an extravagance to have all these threads, but I use it
so often that it has been worth it. There are some of the threads that I have not used yet, but maybe one day. The very top slot is always empty – that one holds the whitest of white colors and I order that one in larger spools and it doesn’t fit in the slot. (there are believe it or not 6 white shades that gradually turn into light yellow – never saw so many shades of white until I got that cabinet)
I did find some border fabric for the wall hanging – but it is a good thing the wall hanging is small because the only fabric I could find that I liked was in fat quarters only. I made sure I bought 3 fat quarters of one color and 4 of another, most likely more than I will need but I will use what is left over for the binding. The purple fabric will be a border of only a couple inches wide and the green will be wider. I did get the “clear” thread, I hope I won’t have a problem with it, it looks so thin! I will practice on a scrap fabric first to make sure the tension is right and see how it stitches. I got both the clear and the smoke. Also picked up some of “Grandma’s Secret Spot Remover“. I have heard good things about it and thought I would keep it on hand for Mike’s shirts – he tends to dribble things down the front of them
It was a cool drizzly day outside with off and on light rain. We stopped at Chili’s for some fajitas before we came home. Yummy!
