November 2010

I had a surprise phone call from my 8 year granddaughter this morning.  She had been looking over all the tiny squares in her postage stamp quilt this morning – she does that periodically – she likes to pick out the fabric she loves best – her mom asked her if she wanted to learn how to sew as she was examining the quilt so much.  She said yes she did, Maybe make a doll quilt.  My daughter doesn’t quilt, she tried to learn a while ago but no longer even has a sewing machine as it just didn’t catch her fancy.  I guess Ciera was talking about making a quilt with a lot of squares in it and one thing led to another and Ciera said “grandma has boxes and boxes of scraps”.  Her mother told her that if she wanted to do it not to think she was going to finish it because she wouldn’t have time and didn’t feel like it.  Ciera told her that “you just have to keep on doing it” to finish a quilt.  (I should add for those that don’t know – I live in Arkansas and my granddaughter lives in Wisconsin – I can’t just bring her over to my house and teach her how to sew! it is a 14 hour drive

So a phone call to grandma was placed with Ciera asking me if I could cut some 4 inch squares for her (the size was decided on as being large enough for her to handle) from my many scraps and then I asked did she need some batting and backing fabric – yes she did.  I decided it was time to put together a sewing kit for her to include with the scraps so an early Christmas present was born – a run to Hobby Lobby a little while ago and I found a cute box to put everything in, got a pincushion, some needles bigger than I use as mine are too tiny for her.  Some thread too.  I got a small stack of 4 inch blocks cut for her, tossed in some long strips that were in the scrap boxes, plus some left over circles from the quilt on the frame – I picked out some permanent fabric glue that she can use to glue the circles on.  I found in my boxes some patchwork squares that I had never used – I think they were leftover from a border I was making with 1 1/2 inch squares so I tossed those in.  (found a present for our grandson too while we were out – he is a little older but would feel left out if he didn’t get something in the shipping box too)

Now I will print out some picture instructions on how to hand piece – she has watched enough times so she is familiar with it.  I do wonder how long her interest will last – we will see!  I will include a letter telling her what the glue is for and how to use it.  I’m sure mom will be supervising.  I thought she better get the scissors from her mom too as I didn’t want to include any – not with her only being 8 years old.

Open the box and plenty of room to put all of these.  I will put the backing and batting in a ziplock bag.

The quilt she gets her inspiration from – if you go to the link you can see the quilt clearer in the photos – this one looks a little blurry – it was taken some time ago. At the link I show how I quilted it when it was on the quilting frame.  Ciera has had the quilt for about 5 years now – yes even at 3 she claimed it for her own and fell in love with it when she saw it – at first her mom put it away for her so she wouldn’t ruin it but it has been on her bed the last couple of years and she loves it.  She is constantly picking out her favorite squares This quilt was my own design and is hand pieced and hand quilted.

http://karensquilting.com/postage_stamp_quilt.htm

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I bet all of you had a wonderful day yesterday.  We got to visit with our daughter and son in law in North Little Rock.  We brought our son in law’s mother with us as she only lives 2 miles from us and no sense bringing two cars out on the road if not needed -  it was just the 5 of us.  Way too much food, but it was good.  Here is how Melanie decorated her table – she is so into that kind of stuff.  A little table but we managed.

She said her center piece was too big for the table so she had it setting of to the side.  This is an antique ironing board that she covered with bamboo matts to protect it.

While we were there I got to visit with my Dear Jane quilt “Insanity” that I finished last year – she was going to hang it on the wall but hasn’t gotten around to that and has it here instead for now.

Melanie with a older wall hanging that I made for her quite a few years ago.  This is a 3 dimensional wall hanging that I did from a birthday card that she had given me one year.  She liked the card and I copied it somewhat to make a wall hanging for her for a birthday present one year.  I hand quilted it with gold metallic thread – never again would I use that to quilt with!

The dog Patty – she got plenty of attention yesterday – it rained all day – sometimes poured – so no going outside for a walk – instead seeing as there are no grandchildren in this house we played with the grand dog instead –

Two more Dear Jane Triangles finished one from the day before Thanksgiving and one last night.

the one last night

Looking at this triangle now I see the bottom is so crooked but maybe some will think it is supposed to be this way LOL this quilt is so weird to begin with – all the weird shapes and stuff that you can mess up and it doesn’t really matter unless you want it to be exactly like the one in the book – but the thing about the book is that when the author did the book she redrafted all of the blocks from the quilt in the museum – which means the quilt in the book isn’t exactly like the original quilt – if you look closely at the quilt in the museum and compare it to the quilt patterns in the book you can find differences here and there.

I don’t shop the day after Thanksgiving.  I don’t really like to shop all that much anyhow and prefer the comfort of sitting in front of the computer with a credit card and calculator handy!  Let the UPS and Post Office do all the work!

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First of all I need to announce that I won part of the giveaway at SewCalGirls Christmas Festival!!  I won 22 fat quarters from Fabric Worm, here is a link to what I won.  A link to the blog.   A link to their store.  I am looking so forward to seeing and feeling these fabrics and then coming up with an idea for a quilt top to make with them!  I am thinking this fabric might be calling for something modern but I’m not sure what as of yet – it might take a little while to decide.

I love pumpkin pie.  I think after apple it is my very favorite.  As I mentioned we are going to our daughters house tomorrow for Thanksgiving.  It will work out better to do so.  She asked me to bring pumpkin pie so I have been busy baking today.

The results, there will only be five of us so two of these pies are staying home and two are going to her house – she likes leftover pumpkin pie as well!  I’m sure we well love eating these over the next couple of days – I won’t even say that one will go in the freezer because I know we will eat them up fast.  And really pumpkin pie is healthy – think of all that nice healthy fiber – we won’t talk about the sugar!

I only had 4 crust – yes I buy the crust – mine just don’t turn out as flaky and I admit it, I had some of the pumpkin mixture left over so I baked it in a casserole dish.  This I will be putting in some small containers and freezing it.  It can be heated after it thaws for a nice little snack – pop it in the microwave to warm up and it will be a healthier version of pumpkin pie.

I have not gotten my house decorated for the holidays yet but I have two things out to start with – my Christmas quilt is folded over the ottoman until I get a hanger this weekend for it and get it up on the wall.

And I got this cute little set at Hobby Lobby several weeks ago on a half price sale – it is so cute I just had to get it:

Another view:

The cups are small – only 6 to 8 oz., about half the size of a cup of coffee that I normally pour myself but they are cute and I am sure I will use them – the saucer is nice and deep and will serve for cookies instead of as a saucer if desired.

(I already had to try them out )

Everyone have a very good Thanksgiving and if you are traveling please be safe – the weather report doesn’t sound good for a lot of the states tomorrow.  I know we will be starting in the 50’s to 60’s and rain and dropping in the daytime to about 30 by 6PM and maybe sleet!! what a difference a day makes – the windows are open after the baking I did and it is near 70 degrees today – you can just tell a front is coming through it is so humid right now.

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EDIT:  another Give Away is going on at Strandz-Allison Anderson Obsessive Creative Disorder she is giving away some yummy fabric squares.

I love all the little circles that are in my quilt “Going in Circles”  I’m so glad that I had ordered the box of Moda Sampler Squares (2 1/2”) at the end of the year –or was it the beginning of this year? I don’t know but I am glad I got it.  As I am sitting here quilting on this quilt I am glancing at all the different color of circles. In a way I wish I would have gotten bigger pieces of some of them, but if I had they would still be sitting on the shelves waiting for me to use them anyhow.  I wish they had another sampler box like that but they don’t have one listed.  I decided I will get the twin box of candy bars instead for something this year that will have a lot of different pieces in it.  They don’t come out until the beginning of the year.  Sometimes I do think that the Moda brand is one of my very favorites.

Here is some of the quilting and some of the circles that I have found to be pretty and/or cute.  A long way to go on the quilting of this quilt – it will be months before I am finished with it.

Here is one of the pretty circles:

Another:

And one more – haven’t gotten to the row it is in for quilting yet:

I have gotten the labels made for the Christmas quilt and the Baltimore Bliss quilt and sewed them on so both of those are finished.  I am going to concentrate for the next month on finishing Dear Jane #2 Insanity Revisited and quilt on both of the Going In Circles quilt and the Crayon Box quilt.  I am doing outline stitch and it is about 1/5th done.  I have already repositioned the quilt hoop twice so it is going easy.

One more Dear Jane triangle complete:

I will get back to the Red and Green applique next year – the Star Crazy December patterns might wait until then too.  I would really like to use December to get ahead on some of this quilting and the triangles – 20 triangles left to go I believe and the 4 corners.  If I stick with the rate I have been going at I can get it done – but we all know how we get sidetracked!!

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Two more triangles done, that makes 4 finished for the 3rd border.  Moving right along, I have the 5th one prepped and started stitching tonight and hope to finish it tomorrow.  “Insanity Revisited” is moving along and hopefully will be done by the end of the year or shortly thereafter.

Number 3:

Number 4:

Today I also got all of the Irish Chains checked out and made the fix on the last one that had been rotated wrong.  So all of Novembers assignment for the Star Crazy BOM are really done now. 

I got the hanging sleeve put on the Christmas Memories quilt it is ready to hang after I put a label on it – yes I am slow with labels.  I have to make one for the Baltimore Bliss quilt also.  I need to get a new hanging rod for the Christmas quilt – the one that I have in place for hanging quilts is limp – it wasn’t heavy enough for the quilt hanging now and is drooping.  I am getting a new one and will put a stabilizer in the middle of it also.  I also made sure I made the hanging sleeve to accommodate something in the middle to hang stronger.

I was without internet almost all day.  Isn’t it something how we become so attached to our computers. I couldn’t stand not being able to check my mail and finally went to the book store with my lap top so I could get on line!  That is pathetic I am addicted and I admit it.

I bet everyone will be so busy the next couple of days with Thanksgiving baking and preparing.  We are going to our daughters house in North Little Rock.  She will be doing the major cooking this year and I will bring pumpkin pie!  Kind of lets me off the hook this year.  It was going to be too much running for her though.  As one of the sales managers at J.C.Penney’s she needs to be at the store at 3AM on Black Friday!!  She needs to go to bed early – this well work out better for her.  We can leave in the late afternoon after having our large meal at lunch time and she can try to get to bed super early.  We will pick up our son-in-laws mother who lives just down the road a short way from us and bring her along and she gets out of cooking this year too – the rest of her kids will be doing their own thing for a change.

Do you all have big plans for Thanksgiving?

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I made one mug rug last night and then I got started on the second one this morning.  I decided to try and see if I could machine quilt these little things – just because they are small and it would be something to practice on.  Not that I intend to do much machine quilting but it doesn’t hurt to learn a new skill.  I used my featherweight as I didn’t want to get the Janome out and find the walking foot and switch out the set up on the sew ezi table.  It really worked out well anyhow and I didn’t have any puckers on the back.  I think I could have had the stitch set a little larger but overall I am pleased with how they turned out.

I used variegated thread on both of them.  Here is Melanie’s mug rug.

With the mug:

Jessica’s mug rug

With the mug:

They are a little larger than I had planned but somehow they grew!  LOL, I got them wet a little while ago and tossed them in the dryer.  They will shrink up a little.  They will be ok though as I have seen a lot of them about this size being large enough to put your snack on it too.

Isn’t it amazing what we can do with our scraps. I will have to make up several more to have here at the house – one in the sewing room, one in the living room.  Might make up one for my mom too – she has a birthday coming up and I never know what to get her.

Of course my scrap boxes do not even look disturbed! Whenever I take anything out I don’t put it back as neatly I guess and I can barely shut those boxes up on the shelves.

So what have you all been up to this weekend?  Now that the mug rugs are finished it is back to quilting for me.  Although I still need to fix one Irish Chain Half Block.  Thank you so much both of you who let me know you saw I had the 4 patches turned wrong – it would have been so much harder to fix them once I had them in the quilt and then noticed!  I have one still to fix and it is by the sewing machine so I won’t forget – I was really off yesterday in my sewing – don’t know what was going on with my head!! 

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Faithful Quilter: Elaine’s Journey is having a give away for Thanksgiving – go on over to her blog to take part.  

Jackie at Canton Village Quilt Works is also having a give away so go over there to check out what she has also.

8 of the 11 half Irish Chain Blocks are finished – 3 more to go and one full block needed then I will be done with the November assignment of the Star Crazy BOM.  I will get done with it in the next couple days.  I’m just sitting down every now and then at the sewing machine and doing up a block or two then move to something.

Last night I went to the high school musical play – I have no children in school anymore of course (other than grandchildren but they are not local).  My youngest brother who lives in this area has a son and daughter.  They were both in the play.  His son Roger who is 15 had the lead male part in “Annie Get Your Gun”.  Such a wonderful singing voice!! and such projection – he did great in it.  My niece Lily who is not in high school was asked to play the part of Annie Oakley’s little sister Nellie.  She didn’t have a lot of lines but she did great too and the expressions she had on her face were wonderful.  I have a feeling when she gets in high school she will be part of the drama team – she just turned 12 and is in 6th grade.  I did not have my camera with me and no photos were to be taken during the production but after the play was over there was picture taking of the cast and I managed to get a couple then with my telephone – no zoom lens so they aren’t great or close up.

Roger has the white cowboy hat on and his sister Lily is right next to him – the one with the long pig tails. (I don’t know the lady standing – got her by accident) This photo has just part of the cast – there were a lot of kids taking part in it.  This is the only one that was half way decent view of Roger and Lily.

We have been just too busy the last couple weeks.  As soon as Mike gets home from work we are taking off to North West Arkansas for the evening to meet family.  My brother Bob who lives in Maryland is here for a visit we are all (or as many as can that is) are meeting to go out to eat and visit at a buffet place.  Another late night!  I haven’t even bother to get to the sewing machine since I got home from quilt group this morning.  I’ll get back to work on all projects this weekend hopefully.

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I know I said I was going to spray baste the child’s quilt that I made last week but I changed my mind and pin basted this morning instead.  What happened is that my friend Regina (no blog) made a comment to me about the fact that hand quilting might be a little stiff with basting spray and I thought I better make a sample sandwich and spray – let dry and then try to quilt it.  I did just that this morning and you know some of you might not have a problem hand quilting using spray baste but I did.  It felt stiff.  I am so glad that I made up the sample piece – thank you, thank you Regina!!

I gave the quilt a new name “Crayon Box” I was going to name it “Playtime” but after someone left me a comment about the colors in it when I had it hanging on the wall next to my thread cabinet I thought “you know if looks like a crayon box full of wonderful color” – so new name was had.

Here it is ready to start quilting – I have been lazy today though and have yet to do any sewing.  Pin basting and prepping one Dear Jane triangle is about all I have done today besides my 45 minutes of exercise this morning – I’m trying to work back up to an hour on that but haven’t quite gotten back to that level.

I woke up so early once again this morning that I have not had energy to do much of anything it seems.  I get these little spells now and then where I have trouble sleeping – it will pass – soon I hope.

The leaves on the trees are still clinging although we are getting cooler crisper evenings it is feeling a bit like winter in the air to me.  The front yard is a very yellow color:

Leaves everywhere I do not want to start clean up though until they all fall down which won’t be for another week or two unless we get a really strong wind to knock these down.  It is not a very bright day today, it is more the look of a winter day except for the leaves on the trees still – only in the high 40’s today. I love how the green ferns look with the yellow leaves in the background.  I’m sure those ferns won’t last much longer!

Anyone thinking of holiday baking?  I’m thinking about it now to do it and stick in the freezer or tins.

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