Just What I Needed!

A new toy!

I've made a few blocks.

Jacobean flowers

Birthday blocks

These are for a table runner that I'll keep for birthday celebrations. As you can see there is some puckering. I didn't realize that some heavily stitched designs might need more than one layer of stabilizer. Since they will be quilted I'm not going to worry.

You can also do cross stitch designs. I wouldn't have stitched this but it was included in the machine's memory and I wanted to see what it looked like. While I never say never ... I don't see this in my future!

It's so much fun, but like any new craft there's a bit of a learning curve. I'm taking an embroidered applique class at Quilt University. Here's a little demo:

So, As I Was Saying ....

"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else."

So we'll just leave it at that! The last couple posts were about Disappearing Nine Patches and my new machine. Here's the Tranquility quilt:

I quilted this using my new Elna with its IAF (Integrated Adjustable Feeding, the same as Janome's Accufeed). Diagonal lines through the blocks and a soft winding figure-eight in each of the borders.

I also finished Piper's Hushabye quilt,

but never took a picture after the binding was sewn on. I'll have to ask my nephew to shoot a picture. I guess we'll see how it held up to a year's use!

Over the winter, while completing yet another certificate (this time for online instruction), I researched the hell out of free motion quilting. Watched Patsy Thompson's series on The Quilt Show, bought two of Dawn's Pajama Quilter videos, and watched Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting tutorials. Now it's time to put all my video watching and reading to the test.

More Fun with Nine Patch

I am in love with this Hushabye collection. So is my daughter, Sarah, so keeping these blocks in the house is becoming a problem!

I made up six blocks based on Rachel's Christmas Table Topper.

Cut the nine patch in half, vertically and horizontally.

Rotated two of the blocks.

Doesn't look all that appealing, does it? I love the blocks but when I looked at it laid out on the floor it wasn't doing a thing for me.

But once I arranged them on the off white (Snow) fabric I bought for the sashing it looked so much better.

Sewn together and ready for quilting. Piper Eileen was born six weeks ago so I better get going! This is going to help.

Disappearing Nine Block

The warp is just sitting there waiting for me but I'm having fun playing with this quilt block. After dipping my toes back into the quilting world I found I've collected a nice little collection of charm squares. Searching through the quilting blogs I found this tutorial. I'm using two Moda charm packs Tranquility and Laurel.

I didn't have too much time. Workout or piece? I combined them by laying out the blocks on the living room floor and taking them downstairs, one block at a time, to sew.

Nothing little a little aerobic sewing, huh?

After I cut them apart ...

I repeated the process, taking one column downstairs at a time.

Just think, if I clean up the basement studio so that I can have my worktable back I would miss out on all that calorie burning!

The blue will be a narrow border and the binding. The orange will be used for the outer, wider border and the backing. I'm going to be machine quilting it after some small practice pieces this week. Wish me luck!

Meandering

These pictures were languishing in a draft since early October, but I actually took the machine quilting course right before Labor Day.

Since my return to quilting I've had the chance to assemble several quilt tops but a finished quilt is alluding me. Hand quilting is going to have to wait until I quit my day job and set up my big quilt frame again. I could send them out to be quilted - and for the larger ones that's what I'm going to do - but I like doing all the steps myself. Enter machine quilting! I tried it right before I packed away the quilt fabrics close to twenty years ago. Harriet Hargreaves and others were recommending a smoke colored monofilament thread that I just could not get the hang of. It was stiff, it wore against the fabric, and if you had an end work loose and stick you - jeez, that little bugger can hurt!

I used the walking foot that came with my Janome (much nicer than the optional one for my old Viking) and quilted the 20" block into quarters with plain sewing thread.

Then I switched to my darning foot and began free motion, stippling, and meandering. While you can find a variety of definitions for those two terms, the instructor/owner of my local quilt shop defined stippling as close stitching that doesn't cross over a previous line and meandering as .... just that - freeform, go with the flow!

I found the free motion fun but I would probably chalk out a general design first. I spent too much time worrying that my stippling might cross over a line so I went right on to the meandering. Very cool! Once I get a little more time (and that will be coming up soon) look for a finished quilt.

This summer, Marie showed me her very organized needle collection. She used a canvas ziplock setup that's sold for fishing accessories. This appealed to my stressed out, overworked, when I get a chance to sit down and knit I can't find the right needle (even though I own 3 or 4 of that size) self. Unfortunately time once again alluded me and before I knew it school started. While pulling out things for the start of the school year I came upon this.

At the end of the school year we have to inspect all of our homeroom students' lockers. You would not believe the things kids leave in there. Some too disgusting for words, but others could fill a clothes bank (which is where we send them). I pulled this notebook out a few years ago and stuck it in my closet. Someone's mother thought they were starting their child out on a good foot with with a nice zipped organizer/binder. Except the kid never used it! So, remembering Marie's little book of needles I set out to see if I could make heavy, zip-lock freezer bags fit the bill. I may have to spring for another one for dpns.

I think I'll run a strip of heavy packing tape along the folded area before I punch the holes to give it even more reinforcement.

Thanks to Claudia's recommendation I picked up a great new cookbook - Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook

Try this yummy soup! You won't be sorry.

1. Combine the bean mix, water, parsley, and bouquet garni bag in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH for 1 hour.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring a few times, until just softened, about 5 minutes. Add to the cooker, cover, turn the cooker to LOW, and cook the soup 4 to 5 hours.
3. Add the kale and stir to incorporate ((if you need to let the soup cook all day while you are gone, just add the kale at the beginning or substitute spinach and add at serving time). Cover and continue to cook on LOW until the beans are tender, another 4 to 5 hours.
4. Discard the bouquet garni. Stir in the wine, vinegar, and hot pepper sauce. Season with salt and plenty of fresh black pepper.
5. My mods: The night before I rinsed a bag of Goya 16 bean soup mix and soaked them overnight, in about 8 cups of water. I also cooked the onion and got the herbs ready to go. The next morning I drained and rinsed the beans and threw it all in. It cooked for about 9 hours on low. When I got home I cut up a pound of low-fat turkey kielbasa and tossed it a bit in a skillet before adding it to the beans. About 15 minutes before serving I added a pound of thawed frozen spinach, along with the wine, vinegar, Frank's hot sauce, and ground pepper.

A Little Bit of This.....

I've been planning a couple of weaving and dyeing projects for the summer. Thanks to Marie's suggestion I visited the COLOURlovers site. What fun! I loved the Orangetip, Bintree Woods. What's really cool is that you can download the palette and you can also click to have the palette presented in a pattern. The plaid shows all of the colors of the palette, some will use two or three colors.

Speaking of Marie, take a peek at the lovely cheese that showed up at my house last week. Even before I opened the package I could smell the smokey scents of the Montasio. We had too much company last weekend (I didn't want to share!) so I held off trying it out.

I got back into quilting last fall, only to pack it away for a few months. I pulled it back out last week and got to work quilting. I'm using a hoop because it's small and I don't have the room to set up the big quilting frame.

I think my thimble has seen better days. Of course, sitting around for all these years waiting for me to start quilting again might have added to the problem. Luckily I found one of those leather ones with the braided elastic to see me through until I can get another.

I'm going to outline quilt all the white on white blocks and then crosshatch the border. I'm starting to get my quilting rhythm back. I'm picking up a little speed but I'm actually trying to get this finished for Jackson's first birthday, but who knows?

WIPS

With nothing new on the fiber front, an update on my WIPS seems to be appropriate.

Knitting

Eunny Jang's Tangled Yoke is nearing the end. Of course it would go a LOT faster if I wasn't reknitting each row 2 or 3 times! It's not the pattern, it's me - but at least I can see the beginning of the end. I also enlarged the graph and color coded it. I'd like to say that I didn't make a mistake after that - but I can't! I knit a few rows more after that picture and it's very cool watching the twisted stitches turn into the intended design.

I hope to finish the yoke before leaving for the weekend. The Minimalist Cardigan will be my traveling companion. I don't want to drag that whole sweater up there and work on the edging. That's a recipe for disaster.

Weaving

I don't have any weaving time coming up for a bit but that doesn't stop me from thinking about the next project. I was inspired by K. C. Alexander's table runner, Warp Rep Craftsman Style, in the Jan/Feb 2008 Handwoven (p. 40). I'm thinking about placemats and a runner and using 8/4 carpet warp and 10/2 for thin weft. Here's hoping that Fiberworks soon becomes available for Mac.

Quilting

I did get some time to work on my quilts before heading back to school and traveling. I can't seem to find the right fabric for the next, wider, border.

Nothing is doing it for me.

Even my much beloved green!

Can you say BLECH! It will be better as the backing. So on to the baby quilt.

It's small enough to fit on my cutting table. I used masking tape and binding clips. Thanks to Claudia for that tip!

It's all basted and ready to go.

I wasn't thrilled with the gold for the binding so I stopped on my way home Sunday and bought a brighter orange print. Looks much better.

Back to Quilting

Quilting is listed up in my banner but I don't talk much about it. Okay, I don't ever talk about it and previously didn't have a category for it. Well that ended in a big way when Claudia took us to Southampton Quilts and an armload of fabric followed me home!

In retrospect, I could see this coming. A few years ago Carolyn took us to Woodstock Quilt Supply. This was the first quilt shop I had been in since I finished my last quilt over fifteen years ago. I was flabbergasted by all of the new fangled notions and gorgeous hand dyed and batik fabrics.

I thought I'd start back with a couple of simple quilts using strip quilting. Because my quilting stash has dwindled into two plastic containers (and let's not forget it twenty years old!) I bought two bundles of precut 2.5" strips - each one a different fabric. That's not the most cost efficient way to buy fabric but most places have a 1/8 yard minimum cut.

The first bundle was mainly greens - big surprise, huh? This will give me a 16 block - 8" square. I started by sewing four strips together and then cutting them into 2.5" strips.

I cut everything out and laid it on the living room floor. I only needed to move a couple of blocks where the same fabric showed up to close together.

The colors in this shot are the closest to the actual fabrics.

I'm making two smaller crib quilts out of the second bundle of strips - all very colorful, playful prints. First I cut the strips into 4.5" blocks. I bought a very subtle white-on-white print for the smaller squares and the sashing. Then I just sat at the machine and slapped them together.

After I pressed the seams to one side I was tempted to fly them from the deck banister!

One of the quilts is laid out (above) and sewn (below).

Here's the second one laid out and ready to be sewn into strips. I have a really hard time with random. I forced myself not to change the two orange that are rather close together in the center of this one. One the first one I moved one, which forced me to move another, this went on for far to long. So random placement it is!

Note: What's really funny is that I haven't sewn this one together yet and after seeing the picture while editing this post I'm tempted to put it back down and play with it. Will I be strong enough to make a random quilt? Stay tuned.....