Holiday WIPs Be Gone

This is a bit late for several reasons:  It's a holiday weekend.  Lot of eating done; not much sewing. Away from the machines; no time for hand sewing. Once home too full to play in the studio - lol.

Today, I finished another column of the green, scrappy baby quilt.  The treadle is humming along.  I oiled it the other day.  Boy, there are a lot of spots to add oil.  I'm thinking of doing Bonnie Hunter's mystery that started today on the treadle next.  How about you?  Are you attempting it?  I'm just going to do a portion of it.

I also have a commissioned quilt to finish by December 9th.  This is another panel so no blocks to make.  Added two borders. 

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.  No shopping for me. Enjoying the quiet and restful time.  We will be visiting friends this evening - another get together for this holiday.

Blessings,

Some of This; Some of That

I used a yard to make a grocery bag. Not totally happy with it, so making another.  I'm holding this one so that's why it looks so big. It's only 13 x 8 x 14.

I've started another baby quilt.  This time I just took fabric from a scrap bag. It was mostly green fabric, so I decided to make a green quilt from these larger scraps.  The squares are 3.5".

I've finished one column and it's on my design wall: 

It is slow going because first I had to learn how to use my new-to-me treadle machine.  DS#2 brought it from Colorado back in June, 2016.  He had a renter who left it behind.  When I was there in 2015 I saw it in the garage and couldn't believe my eyes. I've always wanted one because that's what I first learned to sew on in my home economics class in Junior High School.   Discovered it was made in 1902.  It is a Singer 27.

I had it serviced.  Brought it home and began the process of trying to make it work for me.  Happily, the manual is available online.  The machine was hard to get going; found it needed to be higher so the peddle would clear the carpet.  DH got some boards and that was taken care of.   Then the belt had to be tightened.  At the shop it worked okay, but for me the thread kept breaking, skipping stitches, and the bottom part of the stitch looked awful - too loose. 

Finally by reading the manual, and many hours of adjusting and checking,  I got the tension right [You have to adjust the tension with the presser foot down], yet still kept breaking thread.  Then found the needle was in reverse.  I did what the manual said about how to put a in new needle. Turns out the photo for the needle is backwards.  Once I put it in like my other machines, everything fell into place.  It has a beautiful stitch. BTW: it has a cylindrical bobbin - another learning curve.

De-stashing grew with the one yard mentioned above and the 1 1/4 yds for the baby quilt.  New YTD total for de-stashing is 50.97 yds  used.

Did you get to sew this past weekend?  Leave me a note and I'll come by to see your work.  Blessings as we start a new week.  I'll be linking to some parties listed under my tab for those.

Wips Be Gone Finishes

Were you able to work on a WIP?  I did and surprisingly, I finished three:

Here's my little mistletoe quilt - measures 8 3/4"x10 1/2"  - that I said I'd tell you more about in my previous post.  It was for our Steal Game at our November Guild meeting.

The guild board gave us these plastic stands for our little quilts.  The quilts shared were so varied and beautiful.  It was a great showing of creativeness.  The top photo shows the quilt on the stand.

I also finished quilting that baby quilt:

 The back reminds me of a modern quilt with the two colors of thread and the shapes of the motifs.

 I was happy to find a pink fabric so close to the front fabric for the binding

Lastly, I made another SS block.  It called for paper piecing in the center part, but I just used a stripy fabric instead.

Are you WIPPing?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by and check your progress.  Winter is edging into our part of the country. Guess it's time.

Blessings!

Off the Wall for Applique Tuesday

Off my design wall is my mistletoe square now a rectangle. It's become a block.  I'm so tickled pink with this Crafty Applique method. Used two fabrics that aren't batiks and no fraying in sight.

More later. Off to bed.  I'm linking up - see linky party tab above.

Some of This, Some of That

Today is the anniversary of my falling and breaking my right hip in two places. I'm thrilled to report (just as the Doctor said) that after a full year I am back to normal.  I still have to be careful - that will be for the rest of my life - however I can now go up and down steps like we normally do. I can walk a full mile without needing to use my cane. Praise God!

Now to usual stuff - last week's winner of a mystery quilting book is Meloney of Mel's Quiling Blog .  I've sent her an email.  My new YTD total for de-stashing is 48.72 yds  used.  This 1.34 yards increase was due to a practice technique that produced 4 hour glass blocks, one SS block, the backing to my mistletoe block and 5 leader and ender blocks. Most of my time I spent machine quilting.

Today, I'm continuing with that wavy line of hand quilting.  It's beginning to look like quilted:

It would be so nice to go into the new year with this almost 30 year old WIP quilt finally on my bed!

Lastly, DH has a new friend:

We think this is a domesticate bunny (he's not afraid of us) that someone dumped in our neighborhood. We're right next to a river and this happens.  He's plump - twice the size of the wild rabbits we see outside of our yard, and a different color - they are a pale tan.  Any of you rabbit afficionados know?

We just call him Bunny.  He's been around a couple of weeks.  This is the first time I was able to take a photo.  Bunny is coming closer and closer to the patio.  Don't know where he sleeps. Hope the coyotes, raccoons or skunks leave him alone.  Last week he had a tangle with one of those in the middle of the night. We thought he was a goner when DH found a tuff of fur in the lawn the next morning, but he survived.

I'm linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching and Judy's Patchwork Times.  You'll find their linky party buttons on the tab under the header.  Are you quilting today?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by.  Blessings on this beautiful autumn day.

WIPs Be Gone Friday

Working on my SS WIP.  Made #48 - Whim

Not happy with it.  It's those which look easy that aren't!

Still not happy with it.  Maybe it's those pebbles in the lower right - too big in scale.

Don't know if this is any better - maybe a little, but I am done.  It is what it is.  Do you ever have any blocks like that?  I probably should have gone back to the photos of this block and seen what others had done.

What are you up to?  Leave me a comment and I'll come visit and see your lovely work. No linky this week.  I'll announce last week's winner tomorrow.

One last thing - I finished quilting one of the baby quilts - one with really puffy batting. I quilted it simply along the seams.  That batting is not going anywhere.  I go by what the bag for the batting says - a very helpful resource. Here's what I mean for this fusible batting I bought:

Tells you loft, shrinkage, max distance between stitches, what method, what fabrics - even instructions. Save those bags, but then you probably already do so. They didn't save the bag used in the quilt below. Here is the quilt:

Sorry for the blurry photo and too much contrast - I don't have the quilt any more - sent to the clinic. Another St Anne's member made the top. I quilted  and bound it.

Design Wall Monday

Little bits of progress:

 My upside down mistletoe block has joined my string x blocks on the north design wall.

 As you can see I trimmed the sides of the block. Now searching through my stash for the next border.

On my West design wall - the few leaders and enders made so far this month.  What with all the quilting I'm concentrating on - the piecing is slow.

What's on your design wall?  I'm linking to Judy's Patchwork Times to see what others are doing. Leave a comment and I'll come visit you. Blessings,

Some of this, Some of That

First, de-stashing.  Used .33 yd to make a scrap block, an SS block, and some leader and ender blocks. And that's it for pulling from my stash because I've been mainly messing with scraps and FMQing that baby quilt. So new YTD total is 47.38 yds  used.

Second, I'm going to be hand quilting as I watch Father Brown in a few minutes.  It's interesting where we can find ideas for quilting motifs.

This Wave Edge ruler was leaning against the wall behind my quilt chair. I stared at it for a bit and realized that the smaller edge would be great for adding a wavy line of stitching to the quilt between the outside border and the seam between the two borders on my ancient WIP.  So I grabbed a Clover white chalk pencil and off I go.  I'm on the third side already. 
Are you hand stitching?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by and see. Kathy has a linky party where quilters show their work also.  I'll be linking up. 

Giveaway is open for a quilt book. See top right on sidebar. Blessings as you start your new week.

Progress on WIPs Be Gone

This block was so cute I had to make it right away. #76 of the Splendid Sampler blocks - not that I'm that far along. I think I'm missing about 20. As for scraps, let me show you what I think
 is scraps:


I am rethinking what to do with scraps.  The above will be for any collage and mosaic quilts I may want to make.  Anything else will be leftovers and I hope to deal with them as I create them instead of stuffing another bag with fabric.  

Now here's a recent WIP.  I finally decided how I was going to handle the on point block to form a rectangle.  First step:

I made this by using the exploding block in Jenny Doan's method.  Next I have to cut it (scary part) to make it into a thinner shape.

On an older WIP - am quilting the baby quilt with the same thread front and back and it stands out in the back!  I tried a lot of threads and nothing looked right on both sides. So yes, it's going to look different.  What color would you have used? 

Now here's the front.  You can see why there are circles on the back. Yes, the starts and stops show (but their aren't too many) as do the wobbles and bumps, but the stitching looks nice. Three more sections to do and I can start binding it.

So what are you up to these days?  Anything quilty?  I'd like to know about other stuff too. It will qualify for the giveaway.  This week I'm back to offering a quilting book of your choice of three.  I'll send you an email asking for your preference as to quilty subject. Usual guidelines apply: Leave me a comment for one chance.  Link your eye candy for another (link button below). Follow me and let me know for a third. Remember if you don't have a blog, you can always post a photo from a photo hosting service.  Please be sure there is some way for me to contact you. Ends next Thursday, midnight. I'll be linking to several parties.  See tab above. I'll post this week's winner Sunday. Blessings!

The 31st

Our one and only Trick-or-Treater:

DGS#4 as Luke Skywalker

I did send home treats for DGS#1.  We live on a hill in town with around 25-35 homes and almost no kids.  Oh, well.  More candy for me --hehe. I always buy what I like to eat.

Getting back to that bag of scraps.  I guess I'll just have to give in and sort the monster.  I'm going to take Ozzypip's suggestion and try a Bonnie Hunter String X quilt.  Here are four I made  and put on my design wall today after some trimming and sorting.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why they are coming out 7 1/2 x 7 1/4.  ??? I don't think I'll put them together just yet to be able to spread out the various pieces used that have multiples like the green that stands out so much. This scrap thing is a lot harder and complicated that I thought - it will have to be my brave quilting for this month -lol.  Go on over to Julie's and see what others are bravely trying to get  a handle on.

Blessings,

Some of This, Some of That

Hey!  I got three quilts sandwiched for quilting and have started on one.

I'm doing the stitch in the ditch first. Then moving on to some FMQ in those big blocks.  All three smallish quilts (between 30-36" square), so they should go pretty fast.

I have a large white garbage bag of scraps, and I"m trying to find a super fast pattern to use them up with.  So far - not happening.  I made this block hoping it would work as such:

Not an easy pattern to do by chain stitching with all those ends of strips in the way and ironing after each one. Also, to me a thread waster. If you could give me some ideas, I'd truly appreciate it.  Not crumb blocks, though - I'm too fussy for those.  I know some of you will say to sort that bag first - I just don't have time!  Maybe I'll just give that bag away.  Tell me what to try, please.

On the de-stashing front - used 3 yards for the backs of those baby quilts and 1/2 yard for leaders and enders and the block above.  I"m happy with the amount I used this week. My new YTD total is 47.05 yds  gone.

What are you up to?  Giveaway still one - see top sidebar.  Hope you have some time to quilt today. I'll be linking to some linky parties as seen in the tab above.  Blessings.

WIPs Be Gone

The two baby quilt WIPs are in the final stages before quilting.  I had to piece together batting and find/iron the backs.  More on those later.

I did some applique:

Tell me what you think this is, and I'll see if I got it right color-wise.  This is for a Christmas gift, and it has to be a rectangle so I'll have to figure out what to do to make it the right size.  This is as far as I've gotten.

Are you going to Road to California, January 19th-22nd in Ontario, CA?  They are having an outreach event.  You can read about it here.  For that event I've made two blocks so far to contribute. Really like the pattern they have chosen - it's made in a neat way and was developed by Anita Grossman Solomon.  This will be a very worthy event.

These are really the light pink you can see in the blocks.

What are you up to?  Would love to see.  Link up for a chance to win some hexagon papers. Usual guidelines apply:   Leave me a comment for one chance.  Link your eye candy for another (link button below). Follow me and let me know for a third chance. Remember if you don't have a blog, you can always post a photo from a photo hosting service.  Please be sure there is some way for me to contact you. Ends next Thursday, midnight.


I'll be linking to some linky parties, including Creations...Quilts, Art...Whatever. See the tab under the header.  Oh, and I'll pick this week's winner tomorrow. Blessings!

On my Design Wall

Doesn't look much different, but I did add a couple of sawtooth star blocks and those are all new hourglass blocks, so a bit of progress.  I haven't made any progress on my hexi flower blocks because they require me to set up the machine with invisible thread and I never seen to get around to it.

And listen to this (you might have to turn up the sound).  It's dark cuz I just pointed my camera out the window. The sound is what was amazing for me - hehe.  It doesn't take much to make me feel giddy.  I tried to get a photo of what was going on, but no luck.  Here's one a friend took. Thank you God for the refreshing rain.

Some of This; Some of That

Made four Splendid Sampler blocks with this one:

#70 - I'm naming My Rose Garden

Plus the binding on the BAMA quilt adds .37 yds toward de-stashing and brings me up to a  YTD total is 43.53 yds .   I either have to give away a lot of fabric or sandwich a bunch of quilts to reach my goal of 100 yards this year. Which will it be?  Have til after Christmas to decide this drastic measure.  Well, I consider it drastic when I'm thinking of ways to get rid of fabric - lol.

I now have enough SS blocks of pink and red to begin the next section of my sampler.

I realized I didn't show you the back of the BAMA quilt.  A friend and fellow member of St. Anne's gave me this very appropriate fabric to include.  I really like it. Would make a great row of a row by row quilt - I mean the leftovers of this fabric - but I gave the remainder back to her.

Going to try to sandwich those baby quilts I never got to, and do some more slow stitching on my ancient WIP.  It's the perfect weather - cloudy and cool. Do visit Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching.  She has some fabulous examples of English Paper Piecing for your viewing pleasure. If you've never given this type of hand stitching a try, go link to my WIPs Be Gonner post. I'm giving away some hexagons, so can try one form of it. You vets of EPP are welcome, too.  And speaking of giveaways, last week winner is Laurie of Laurie's Place.  I've sent her an email.  Blessings!

WIPs Be Gonner

Good thing I wasn't given a deadline - it took me 4 months.  The BAMA quilt is done!

39" square.

I hope he likes it.

And here's a WIP made by my 90 year-old Mom.  She's back in Houston visiting family and going to the International Quilt Festival, and yes, she took some embroidery,cross-stitch with her for the few moments she not on the go - lol.  I call it her novela quilt as she worked on it 3 hours a day, five days a week as she watched her evening novelas (that's soap operas in Spanish).

This wall hanging is all cross-stitch.  What will she be buying at the Festival?  Cross-stitch kits, more likely.  Measures 36" x 43".

What are you up to?  Would love to see.  Link up for a chance to win some hexagon papers. Usual guidelines apply:   Leave me a comment for one chance.  Link your eye candy for another (link button below). Follow me and let me know for a third chance. Remember if you don't have a blog, you can always post a photo from a photo hosting service.  Please be sure there is some way for me to contact you. Ends next Thursday, midnight.


I'll be linking to some linky parties - see tab under header. Blessings!

Applique Tuesday on Wednesday

Had a guild meeting so couldn't post this yesterday.  I'm using Lara Bucella's method of raw edge applique and loving it.

Off to start another.  What are you up to?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by to see your WIP.
Giveaway still one, top sidebar.

Design Wall Monday

I'm playing with a setting layout for my Splendid Sampler blocks.

 I've decided to group them by the overall color (or what color the block reads).  Way up in the air right now as to final layout, however I do know it will be a 4 part quilt as you go. It will be up on my design wall for a while.

Finished another Splendid Sampler block. This is #71.  I chose to piece it rather than paper piece it.  Getting the right sizes for the pieces was the hard part - the rest was just simple sewing.  None were smaller than a 1 1/2" strip.

I'm linking to several linky parties today. See the tab under the header if you'd like to, too.  Giveaway for hexagon papers still open see top sidebar.  Blessings!  We were blessed already. We woke up to a light rain. It's a blessing in our drought state.

Some Slow Sunday Stitching

My goal today is to get these two blocks done during this Slow Sunday Stitching.

Only have about 4 inches to do on the Dresden one and the two leaves on the flower. I had forgotten all about the flower block as it was in my traveling kit. I haven't had to go to a Dr appt in so long, it wasn't getting finished. But first I need to sandwich two baby quilt tops, so I'll have something to quilt this week.

I'm working out a setting for my Splendid Sampler blocks and used .39 yds so far.  Also made three leader and ender blocks, so there went another .15 yds from my scrap stash.   I'm up to YTD total of 43.70 yds de-stashed.

Linky party and giveaway still open - see side bar.  What are you up to this fine day? Leave me a comment and I'll come by to see what you shared.

WIPs Be Gone Harvest

Fall is finally here in SoCal. It was 56 degrees this morning. And with fall comes harvest time. Here's what my husband harvested from our yard - another luscious pineapple!
We're looking forward to this one.  May be from one our
 
non-acidic plants.  See the little plantlet at the bottom of the pineapple?  That's another plant ready to start making another yummy fruit. But DH has so many of them now, he'll probably toss this one.  If you buy one at the store, you can save the top, peel off some of the bottom leaves, place the trimmed end in water, and once it has sent out roots, you can plant it and have your own pineapple plant. Mind you, takes about 2 years to fruit and if you live where it freezes, keep it inside for winter.

And a finish for my Harvest news is another Splendid Sampler block. I'm calling this my harvested bowl of flowers.  It's #69 of the released blocks.

Our winner for last weeks giveaway is Michele Timms of Canada.  I've sent her an email. 

The giveway this week is again 105 hexagons papers.  Enough to make 17 flowers.  The hexagons will have 1" sides.   Usual guidelines apply:   Leave me a comment for one chance.  Link your eye candy for another (link button below). Follow me and let me know for a third chance. Remember if you don't have a blog, you can always post a photo from a photo hosting service.  Please be sure there is some way for me to contact you. Ends next Thursday, midnight.

I'll be linking to several parties. You can, too. See tab above below header. Blessings!

It all Started with...

It all started with Felix – Felix Continental Café in Orange, CA that is.  We took the Metrolink train to the city of Orange one day while my cousins from Texas were here, and had lunch at this Cuban restaurant in the downtown area.   

And what a treat it was.  I’ve been three times,  and I always order their “Lechon Asado”.  That’s Roasted Pork, readers.

Served with white rice, black beans and fried plantains, it very much tastes like the dish I use to have occasionally at Sunday dinners with the family (yum!).  As we’re Puerto Rican, the beans were red , but the rest of menu was the same.

So when I saw this new book, ¡Cuba! , 

I knew I wanted to read it and see how the two cuisines differ or are alike.  Is there a lot that is similar? Are there more differences other than the beans?   I saw right away as I read the recipes that our kitchens have a few different spices for certain dishes (like the Mojo – theirs is green while in Puerto Rico the mojo is white with less spices, both equally tasty). The first chapter clarified that the basics are pretty much the same – rice and beans (as a dish), sofrito, plantains (both sweet and green) and yuca.

Besides the recipes, the content of the book reflected the love affair the authors – Dan Goldberg, Andrea Kuhn, and Jody Eddy, are having with Cuba. There’s a lot of information about the country. They went to true Cuban home kitchens and found the real cooking of the country.

I learned a lot about the island,  and how the people cope besides the included 100 recipes.  One could feel the amiability of the people in all their encounters and the resourcefulness such as seen on their farms (fincas) on land deemed worthless.  “The fincas are being studied by farmers around the globe for their innovative agricultural practices.  Instead of relying on expensive equipment, they emulate the traditions of past generations, who listened to the land and used what was around them to cultivate flourishing fields of abundance.” (p.178)

I showed the book to my 90 year old mother and she exclaimed and sighed as she went through the book reminiscing about this recipe and that. So to answer my questions, the foods of these two islands are more the same than different, and it’s all delicious. 

I received this book (published by Ten Speed Press) from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. And I’m so glad I did.  I look forward to trying out the recipes.

Some of This and That

Have been machine quilting most of last week, so my de-stashing didn't move very much - .10 yard for a SS block and .3 yard for the border of my Gwennie inspired.  I'm up to a YTD total is 43.16 yds .

Today, I prepped another Splendid Sampler block.  I'll be hand appliqueing it down for my Slow Sunday Stitching today, plus hopefully a couple of motifs on my ancient one.

Hope you get some time to quilt today.

PS: Hexagon papers giveaway is still open - see top, sidebar.  

Blessings,