We have a little touch of spring coming our way even though it feels very chilly outside and will get down in the twenty’s on Tuesday to Thursday I think from what the news said. Here is a photo of our first daffodil blooms.
the first ones to open
I also found a leave bud on one of the clematis! Could it be that spring really is around the corner although it doesn’t feel like it 
a little blurry but here is a leave bud.
Thank you to all that have left me names of authors to look up at the library. I have made a list and will start to look for them soon. I will go through my shelves and make up a list to post on here too so maybe some of you will find someone new to read also.
I have spent the last couple of days quilting on my “Devil’s Puzzle” little top and it is coming along nicely. I don’t know if you can see the quilting very well on this photo though but the center is done and I am almost finished with the first border around the center. If you click on the photo it will go to a larger size to see the quilting on it. Just simple quilting and I am not putting a whole lot of quilting in on this one. Around the first border I used a simple braid stencil. Around the outer border I will use a different stencil. I’m not sure which one I will use but I have several to choose from. This one will be done quickly. I think when I am done with it instead of starting another applique block for one of my other quilts that I am making I might get another quilt ready to quilt. I really need to get caught up on the quilting. Of course I have noticed in this top that I am working on that I have some of the red that bled in the applique block that I did last month it!! I will have baste some of the color catchers on those areas to make sure it doesn’t happen on this one – love to use scraps but you never remember what has been washed and what hasn’t when you use scraps that are close to ten years old or whatever!
Today is a cold, dreary day. We have had snow flakes spitting off and on all day. It is the type of day where you really don’t go outside unless you are really and truly an outdoors person or if you need to run and errand – like go exercise (which I did). Now though it is time to just sit back and enjoy the inside and hope tomorrow will be warmer. I will tune in to the Olympics sometime today or this evening to see how it is going, I haven’t watched it today yet.
Yesterday we ran to Little Rock to meet up with daughter and her hubby to go to the Arts Center – the exhibit was nice but much smaller than I thought it would be and no gold and glitter among these Egyptian pieces. All pieces were more of the ceramic and bead jewelry type of items and a couple of mummies. Everything was great to look at although my husband and I both thought that the cards all of the information was written on could have been larger – is age creeping in here I hope not!
When we got done with the exhibit we left the kids (kids to me – not to them they are in their late mid-30’s) and headed over to Sam’s Wholesale and Barnes and Nobles for a quick look before we left for home – wouldn’t believe the weather – snow flying everywhere – and it had been in the 50’s the day before – it was melting as fast as it was hitting the ground so no worries about travel.
At Barnes and Noble I always look through the quilt magazines to see what is new. Now and then they will have an overseas magazine and I always look through them to see what is going on in the quilting world away from the states. I found a great one from New Zealand — and the best – it had a quilt border in it that I love and I think I will use that one for the Little Brown Bird quilt instead of the one that comes with it as it is one of the main parts of the quilt that I thought was just a bit too fussy for my taste. (saying that I should actually mention although I love the quilt I find a lot of it a bit too fussy for my taste and I intend to change it a lot – when I get done it most likely won’t even look that much the same as the original as I am planning on substituting some blocks for others that I have found and making some of my own design also). The magazine I found is simply “New Zealand Quilter”.
this issue has such a simple quilt on the front of it I was surprised - most magazines tend to put something a bit flashier on the cover. I'm glad I opened it up to look at it and found the border inside.
The is the border I liked. It is from an award winning quilt by Margaret Matthews (2007) called "Roses for Me" and in the magazine it was the final of a 10 part series. I'm so glad I happened to pick this issue up, it has the pattern pull out included.
So that is news on the quilting part of my day (yes I have been busy with my applique border and I have 1 1/2 borders left to do). Today was a baking day also.
Blueberry, Banana, Walnut Muffins
1 cup of quick oats
1/3 cup oil (I use canola)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 small carton of vanilla yogurt (6 oz)
1/2 cup milk
1 mashed banana
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 cup blueberries
Mix all ingredients together except the blueberries. Stir them in after all is mixed. Bake for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes about 21 small muffins (this depends on the size of your containers).
some of the muffins - as you can see I use a variety of containers, the ones in the back are the aluminum foil toss away and the red ones are microwave/oven proof silicon rubbery things I found these awhile back and wanted to give them a try and they work great. You kind of just pop the muffins out. I had six more baking when I took this picture and they are in a muffin tin. I have very large blueberries frozen from my little brother's berry farm as you can see in the photo - a couple berries and you have enough in each muffin! I have only about a cup of frozen berries left from the crop in June.
my afternoon snack - my very nutritious blueberry muffin and a cappuccino - of course I went and spoiled the nutritious part by having some chocolate afterward can't be perfect LOL after all I was hungry I had gotten in an hour of exercise after lunch!
Ok I haven’t made any snowmen even though we have enough snow to do so. It would have made a good one a couple days ago but now it is starting to get kind of crunchy. On my way home though I snapped this photo from the car – I was only a mile or so from the house but I had several cars coming up behind me and no safe place to pull out because of the snow so this one isn’t as great as it could be. This photo of snowmen though will show you that we had plenty of snow available to make them! I wish I had thought quicker to zoom in.
so unique - so tall and skinny, I don't think any children live at this house - maybe visiting grandchildren? or maybe the older couple that live there got out and had some fun?
We still have plenty of snow, it has been cold and although it melted off of the roads it is still on the trees and grass. Luckily we did not have to even think of shoveling out our driveway. It is not all that long of a drive and we kind of just crunch it down with the vehicles and wait for it to melt. I do shovel off a little path in the middle of the day though off of the decking so it won’t get slippery. I say “I” because Mike is working long hours right now and we are only talking of a little bit of snow and a small area.
This afternoon I hope to start cutting out pieces for the Star Crazy February blocks. I have everything printed out and ready to go. Late start though as I had an eye doctor appointment earlier and then the fitness center so just got home a short while ago. Did you all know that as you age it is not uncommon for your distance vision to improve but of course your close up vision gets worse! I have been wearing glasses for almost 40 years and this is the first time he has ever seen any improvement in my distance vision and said that occasionally happens as we age. Of course he needs to make the bifocal part stronger – can’t have it perfect! I will pick up new glasses in about 10 days. A little bit of a new style but not drastic. Maybe I will be able to see my applique stitches better!
Oh well I am getting ready to go through fabric for the star crazy blocks I hope to have photos tomorrow.
What a winter we are having. The weather forecast said we would get some snow last night but it sounded like it would be just rain mixed with some snow and then turning to snow by late today. Instead we woke up to 3 1/2 inches of very wet heavy snow. It stopped but the news says it will start again in the afternoon and through the night. I wonder how much we will get? We briefly lost our power this morning so I hope it won’t be a lot more to make trees and power lines heavy. What we have now is the heavy wet stuff. I thought I would do a blog post this morning in case we loose power later. We do have the generator but hubby is working today and I don’t know if I would be able to get it started – it has a pull cord on it and I am not good at those!
The last time I measured the snow I used one of my sewing rulers that is a little confusing and not clear and concise. I pulled out a different one (wavy edge) and it has the numbers marked really well. Just a tad over 3 1/2 inches right now.
Our winter wonderland
and another view
Of course this isn’t anything like what everyone out on the east coast got on Saturday. One of my sisters and one brother live in Northern Maryland about 15 miles apart. They had a whopping 30 to 36 inches. Saturday was my sister Vicki’s birthday – here she is in the snow in front of their house.
Luckily a neighbor has a snowplow and cleared their driveway and here it is all piled up in the front yard! A birthday to remember! (Vicki in front of her house)
Thank you all for your comments on the border of my quilt that I posted yesterday. I have gotten started on the applique and though it will take awhile to complete I am having fun doing it. I will need to make time this month to get busy on this months assignment for the Star Crazy quilt. I have my instructions printed out and now to figure out what colors from my scraps to use and get busy making what they say needs to be done this month.
After making more circles last night and earlier today the top is ready for the applique stitches. I will be working for the next several week on this border to get it done. I couldn’t lay it all out for you to see as I don’t have enough floor room so I had to fold it a little.
better than nothing but I wish I had room to lay it out totally flat.
Here it is folded in half
To work on it neatly and have it not end up a wrinkled up mess I fold it so that the border is on top.
then I fold it in half again and again. This is an easy size to work with. As I get the applique finished I keep refolding it so that the border is always on top. I have found from past experience that it works out best folding it like this - other wise you tend to start tripping over it when you get up to move and also it gets very wrinkled this way it stays nice and neat.
I periodically will bring it back to the sewing room to match up threads as closely as I can. Now you can see why I say this thread cabinet was one of my best quilting investments. I can't always find a thread to match but most of the time I can. When I do not have a thread that matches closely I use a beige color silk thread that usually doesn't show up with the tiny stitches that I use. I will probably match up thread for about 6 to 10 circles at a time and then I put the threads back in the cabinet and match up more. It will be time to refold it about then anyhow.
I tend to do more of my applique work in the living room while watching tv and I have a lamp that extends out over my work so I am comfortable and have a well lite area.
I might have a new photo to take of the daffodils tomorrow – they might be in the snow! Yes they say winter is back tonight and we might be getting a little snow during the night and all day tomorrow. I don’t think they expect we will get a lot though, most of that will be north of us. I guess it will be a good day to make progress on the applique.
Our snow fall will not be anything like what one of my sisters and one of my brothers had – they both live in northern Maryland and they had about 30 to 36 inches of the white stuff the other day!!
First I will explain the “spring is coming” comment on the top. I know a lot of you are under snow and getting more as I write – I’m talking about all of you out east – I know you are in the midst of a strong winter storm I imagine others of you in the northern areas are too. But here – in north central Arkansas look what I discovered today when I went to get the mail out of the mailbox! I think the groundhog of the south (located in Georgia) is right – spring is in the air (even if it feels like winter at times )
the earliest variety of our daffodil bulbs are budding out. This always happens in February it seems, sometimes we have them popping open with snow around them. You always know that spring is really on its way when we see these.
And another clump - we still have a little bit of last weeks snow on the ground in places in the shade. I would not be surprised though to see a little more snow come our way before spring is actually here though.
I told you all I was going to be working on the border of my circles and four patch quilt which I am now naming “Going in Circles” I think it is appropriate. I have been taking some photos as I go along with it to show how I do it. I do not follow any particular rules this is just design as I go.
The first most important step in my opinion is protect your work surface especially if this is your new dining table! I have a large cutting mat 30 x 36 and I use that for the protection. The table is being protected from any glue leaking through.
I start in a corner so that is what I lay in place first.
The supplies - the circles, the nine patches, vines, glue, scissors, and a photo of the border that I am using for inspiration.
I forgot to take a photo of my first corner as I was doing it so this is a photo of the second corner - put your corner segments in place first - one corner at a time is best but you can do all corner first then go to the sides, up to you. These are glue basted in place.
put glue dots on circles as you are ready for them. I put about 2 feet of the vine down first with glue dots on the back, press them in place with your fingers, curve them as you desire. Then I put a circle on each side of the vine, I wasn't going to measure but then I decided I needed to as some were to far apart (they peel up well if the glue is still damp), I am putting the circles about 3 1/2 inches apart on each side of the vine.
getting ready to lay out more of the vine - the vine is all in one piece on each side of the quilt border.
When I got about 2 to 3 feet from the end of the border I laid the next corner pieces in place and glue basted them down. This is so I know where I want my vine to meander and end. Then I cut the vine to the right length ( I will trim a little more off when I get it all basted in place. I glue baste this portion of the vine in place and tuck the end under the 9 patch. The 9 patches also will be needle turned appliqued in place. Using the glue is an easy way to baste also if you need to make adjustments you can gently tug a piece up and reposition as you are working.
One side of the border is done and the second is almost done. Enough done so I can take this photo so you can see what it will look like. Now back to making more circles - I thought I had plenty! LOL I ran out before I finished the second side - talk about not judging correctly!! I had at first done some circles in two different sizes but the larger size was too big I felt so I am going to cut those smaller to begin with and use them to make more of the smaller size circles. That will let me finish the second side of the border but then I will be back to making more circles. Maybe I will get this done late tomorrow or Monday instead of today!
This sure adds a colorful finish to the borders doesn’t it!
Continue reading about Going in Circles and Spring is coming!!
Today it rained all day – so what do most quilters do on a rainy day? They tend to stay in and sew like me if they are able to. I did run out to the fitness center and then it was back home to fabric and a book
I made my vines today for the border of the quilt. I cut the bias strips yesterday and today I prepared that long, long piece of bias that I had sewed together yesterday – all 420 inches of it!! I don’t know what method most of you use but here are the steps I use once it is sewn together. I forgot to take photos yesterday of me cutting the strips and sewing them. To make my bias strips into vines or stems I use the product from Clover – it comes in various sizes. ( I have not ordered from this link given but I linked it to the Clover site) There is a fusible tape that you can use with this tool also and iron your stems and vines down. Sometimes I use it other times I don’t. There has been a time or two when I could see the fusible through the fabric and it didn’t look good. Other times it doesn’t seem to stay ironed on. Most of the time in the last couple years that I have used it I just press it and then when I put it on my quilt top I use the Roxanne Glue Bast It to hold it in place until I stitch it down. In this case I will continue to do my hand stitching as so much of this top already has hand stitching in it (the circles) and also because for me it will be neater!!
this is my bias stem/vine maker. It is by Clover and this one is 1/4 inch wide.
I lightly spray with starch (in BACK of the maker - don't spray the area that has already been pressed or it will open back up), give it a second or two to dry slightly and then start pressing the seams down with the iron as you pull/push the maker the opposite direction. I constantly move the iron to keep up with it to press the seams under. I don't even lift the iron up but a kind of push the maker with the iron as I press.
I cut a piece of cardboard off of things in the kitchen cupboard for winding the vines to keep them neat - in this case a large box of microwave popcorn came into use.
400 inches of bias piled up on the floor
420 inches of vines neatly waiting for me to glue baste in place on the border - maybe tomorrow?
Tonight I have gotten some little 9 patch blocks ready and have some more to make. After that it is more circles – I’m making 2 different sizes from scraps and they will go on the sides of the quilt border most likely on both sides intermittent along the vines.
Yesterday I just about completed 2 Dear Jane blocks for the “Insanity Revisited” quilt, I finished one up this morning. The two done:
Block number 8 from row 10
Block number 9 from Row 10. It seems that at times on this quilt the original maker Jane Stickle must have enjoyed making certain kinds of pieces in this case oval shapes, these two and the next two have them. They are a pain to make in my opinion!
Now I am back to making the patchwork blocks for the border until CSI comes on at 8 – how do you all like CSI lately – I haven’t enjoyed it as much the last two seasons now that they replaced the Grissom character with Lawrence Fishburns character – he just doesn’t seem to go with the other cast members as well I think and also not the same since they killed off Warrick last year, or was that two years ago? Too many changes aren’t good for a show at times!! In my opinion
Our snow is starting to melt already – we got up to 35 degrees today and the rest of the week should be in the 40’s – this snow will not last long!! Because I spent just about 3 whole days in the house and barely got outside I did get some sewing done, and a bit of tv watched! Too much, I don’t like to sit still for so long and can only wander back and forth in the house so much. I spent a lot of time on my applique square for the Red & Green Traditional quilt. Even though I washed my reds and greens 3 times I can now see I will have to pre-treat as well. I finished the block and washed it this evening as I had glue basted and I like to wash the glue out. I had a little bit of bleeding!!! Not a lot and it isn’t real noticeable. I have some Retayne and I will try treating it tomorrow and see if that little bit will come out. I am also going to order a new bottle as I am almost out – I might just order two while I am at it as I can see that even though I washed all of these reds and greens numerous times I might just as well pre-treat them all as well.
Block one of the Red and Green Quilt. In this photo the bleeding does not show up well and my husband couldn't spot it without me pointing it out to him so it is not real noticeable - probably just to quilters that are looking for that kind of thing. All of the rosebuds are from the same fabric, it was a really great mottled red that had some black in it as well to almost shades of pink, great for buds so they are not all the same. The really dark ones in the photo though are a little darker than they actually are, they appear darker here and I couldn't lighten the photo up properly.
Block 5 from Row 10 Dear Jane, Insanity Revisited. The first time I made this quilt I pieced this block as shown in the book, this time I appliqued it for something different - I think it was actually easier to piece.
Tomorrow I am getting out of the house for sure – I can’t stand being in the house all the time I go crazy.
The storm passed during the night and although it certainly took it’s time going through Oklahoma and Arkansas we saw on the news this morning that it certainly rushed it’s way to the east coast during the night! amazing how fast it moved once it left our state. We in the south get pretty excited about our winter storms, I think it is because we don’t have very many of them and all of you in the north are tired of them by December! I remember – I’ve been there and done that!! I grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin and had long hard winters, then we lived for a time in Connecticut and Idaho when Mike was in the military so had plenty of snow then too. Here though we are lucky to get a winter storm once a year, there have been times when children in this area of Arkansas didn’t see snow for several years at a time. I’m sure there are plenty of snowmen being made today. I bundled up earlier this morning (high of 25 right now) and took photo’s before the snow lost it’s pretty untouched look.
The snow measures at four and a half inches. I thought we had more than that!! Maybe it is higher in other parts of the yard this is on the patio table. (sewing ruler so the numbers look messed up on it - can be used from either end - I thought it said 6 1/2 and had to recheck it)
a frozen pine tree
a part of the yard looking really white
a set of animal tracks down by the woods - I do not recognize what they are from - We had plenty of deer, cat and dog prints but these?
yesterday it was covered with ice now with snow - I wonder if I will be able to get the doors open when I go outside in a little bit to clear it off and get warmed out so I can get out of the house for a little while and exercise.
the road in front of our house - a slushy mess right now, tonight down to 14 or lower - it will be all ice tomorrow.
our yard from the top of the driveway
another view - we have close to 4 acres, and about a third of it is trees.
Well thank goodness so far we have not had the massive ice storm that was predicted. We have ice but it is not too bad out there right now. We probably got about a 1/4 inch of ice and now it is snowing, the weatherman says it will snow all day. So far it has gone from big pretty snowflakes to light snow. We have taken photos of course and maybe tomorrow morning it will be even prettier than it is now. I hope the snow does not add to the weight on the power lines though and that we continue to be lucky with no outages.
My bird feeder is a little way from the house – I filled it up yesterday and it is empty already. I don’t want to walk over the feeder to fill it so I threw seed out around the yard from the safety of the porch
birds feeding on the patio
more birds
my car covered in ice and now you can see the snow
pretty cardinal
looking from the porch to the workshop - admiring the pretty snow.
the squirrels are hungry too and eating the birdseed right next to the birds.
No quilting photos today. I finished a book this morning that I wanted to get done with and then sat at the quilting frame for awhile working on the Christmas Quilt. Now I have a long afternoon and evening to fill up so I will get busy on my applique and see if there is a movie on tv. Hopefully the roads will be sanded and cleared a little tomorrow and we might get out at least to exercise. I hope everyone else has been lucky with this storm system and have not lost power, right now they said there are only a limited few power losses.
