Scrappy Stitching, Sisters, and Weather

Scrappy is the current  mode in the sewing room.  I'm piecing the long rows of  Easy Breezy blocks (Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville leader-ender) in my chosen setting with a 3.5 x 6.5" spacer.  I ran out of 2" squares I was making into 4-patches, so went to my precut drawers to find something else.

I found a bunch of 1.5x2.5 rectangles and decided to make rectangular blocks.  I had lots of green pieces so played around and came up with this setting.  

These were fun to sew up--they were just finger-pressed so look a bit wonky.  Not sure what they will become yet! In case you are wondering--no, that is not the smallest scrap I save...

This scrapbooking drawer is loaded with color-sorted 1.5" and 2" strips and squares...

...with 1.5" squares as the smallest scraps.  I am not really a string quilt lover, so cut my scraps down pretty much as I go.  I was just thinking it might be fun to make a mini Jelly Roll Race quilt from all the 2" strips.  

We somehow survived all the horrible scorching hot weather that lasted for so many days last week in SoCal.  Temps were up to the high 90s at our house and there was damage to the landscape. Here's our poor avocado tree. 

It only got burnt in this one spot, luckily. 

The avocados themselves survived just fine.  

 

My daylily doesn't look too happy here!  Thankfully we have two room air conditioners to use, but due to the immense humidity up to 90% for multiple days due to the unusual west coast hurricane off Mexico, it was not pleasant to move around much at all.  Power flex alerts lasted for the whole week. I didn't mind the air-conditioning at work, for once!  I felt bad for all the kids out practicing sports, including our grandsons who are starting soccer again. 

Next on my list is figuring out what I want to take to Sewtopia, coming up in November.  My sister Kathy and sister-in-law Laura were here over  the hot hot weekend and we cut out all the pieces for Laura's project, Everbloom by Paper and Pen patterns, in a sweatshop manner we called Amish Day.  Kathy ironed the fabric and Laura and I got all the cutting done. This will be Laura's first Sewtopia and we wanted her to be able to start right in to sewing!  Luckly this year we will be able to drive to the event in Palm Springs and bring our own machines.  The travel to Florida last year was tiring!

Mid September Report

This month is racing by even faster than last month, at least for me--tell me I'm not alone in feeling that way!  First, my sister in law Laura received her quilt in the mail and called me right away to thank me.  She had seen it person in flimsy stage, and only in pictures after, since I entered in the County Fair.   I love to have the new owners of my quilts smiling with their gift!  So pleased she loves it.

I'm still working on the 40 bags in 40 days idea and have gotten a few areas straightened away.  At least 12 bags went out the door to the charity shop one day, I've sorted a lot of mail, recycled magazines, folded and reorganized linens, and made lists of areas to tackle next with specific plans.  I've bought bins and slide out shelves and cleaned out the fridge.  If you like organizing, or need ideas, a fave blog of mine is IHeart Organizing.  Lots of DIY and simple wish-I'd-thought-of-that budget-easy ideas.  One of her ideas I lifted was bins for the fridge to hold like items.  I found some very inexpensive plastic bins with handles at Big Lots and have now corralled the yogurt/cottage cheese snacks into one, and put small leftovers in another--you know, those orts in plastic sandwich bags that get lost behind the eggs and go bad.  Isn't it great the ideas you can get from others? I'll share an idea my sister found novel, and one my mother introduced.

My sister said she had never thought of doing this, which I have done for years.  I cut through the packaged ground beef in the tray before browning for tacos, etc, just to help break it up more easily in the pan.

I often forget to, but my mom always does this to chip bags when the contents are low--cut the top the bag down.  A simple thing but one my brain had not thought of.  Another kitchen hint: I buy a stack or two of plain white, very cheap washcloths every year and keep them in my dishtowel drawer. When cleaning messes that are truly grimy and/or disgusting (cat gack, anyone?), I simply throw out the washcloth with the mess.  Having on hand a box of cheap disposable gloves for such messes is handy too.  And now, back to sewing.

This morning I finished up this set of placemats for my daughter's friend who is moving away for her senior year of college.  Simple wavy line quilting and machine binding.  I've had this poppy fabric for about 10 years but the green mottled fabric is from JoAnn's.

They are two-sided.  I used a green bottom thread when sewing down the binding.  Meanwhile, the Winding Ways project is continuing.  Some quilt MATH blew up in my face and I underestimated how much fabric I needed.  But it isn't a hardship for me to pick out more at the quilt shop :)

Lucy the cat has been keeping me company while I sew.  Her favorite spot is next to my floor lamp.  The addition of a plastic bag has made her heart go pitter pat.

She's been either in or on the sack for the past week!

August Leftovers

I haven't quite adjusted to the fact that it is now September, thereby the title of this post.   The sewing time has been slim around here, but there has been some fabric passing through my hands.  Sarah and I met at the fabric store last Saturday to pick out fabrics for a quilt she's commissioned for a 50th wedding anniversary gift for her sister.  My favorite part is always picking out the fabrics!  It will be a three color quilt, but it is against my scrappy nature to have it be three fabrics.  Thus, the hunt was on for coppery prints and a turquoise accent.

 

The color is a bit off in this photo, but the general idea is cream and copper with one contrasting turquoise circle.  I've got the fabrics washed and hope to get some cutting done this weekend with the GO! die cutter.

Meanwhile, I finally got the label on the ombre quilt for my sister in law Laura's birthday, who has been patiently waiting for a month for me to get it in gear.  

With my daughter Erica and Google's help, I gave the quilt a fancy French name (I blurred out part of this photo).  I hope Laura enjoys it for years to come.

There were a lot of leftover squares and strips of batiks in the bin when I hunted for a remnant of the cream batik to make the label for Laura's quilt.  I remembered an inspiration photo I'd pinned a few months back and started laying out my version of the tablerunner. 

 

 It will finish about 16x54".  My dad is already asking about buying it from me!

I'll have to wait and see if I can part with it once it is quilted. I love these batiks.  Also in the works are a set of placemats for a friend of my daughter's who is about to start her senior year at university.  Coming up right after the Winding Ways quilt is a baby quilt for a friend of my other daughter's.  Seems my machine time is scheduled for the next couple of months!  But tomorrow it is Mimi and Papa time again.  We get to babysit Cove all day while his mama is at work.  Here's a recent photo of our barely 6 month old grandson, who is crawling everywhere and has sprouted two teeth: 

Sporting some skinny jeans--note the perfectly cuffed pant legs, courtesy of his dada :)

Catching Up--Fair Entries

There seems to be a large lag once again between posts--ah, well.  Can I blame it on the heat and humidity?  Well, there has been a lot going on.  Let's see, I finished the quilt for my sister in law in time for entering it in the County Fair.  All together I have four quilted items entered.  Here's Laura's quilt--it needs a label when I get it back.

The loop quilting was simple to do despite multiple thread changes to match the ombre colors,and filling bobbins repeatedly mid row when I underestimated how much was needed.  I did have a bunch of thread tails to fix at the end.
 

The back of the quilt is this length of hand-painted batik from my sister Kathy's stash. She says I always pick her most expensive fabrics, lol.   I used the same neutral batik as in the squares on the front for the frame. 

Closeup of the quilting, binding and the batiks.  My sister in law was thrilled with the quilt in photos, as they went home to AZ before I got it quilted and she only saw the flimsy.  When I told the lady handling my entries that I quilted it in one day she said, "You did not!"  I assured her that I did :)   My other entries were a tablerunner, a mini quilt, and my Picnic quilt, all of which I've shown before, but here's a recap:

Sandy Gervais prints and some triple step zig zag quilting on the tablerunner. 

Snowman mini---12".  Adapted from a pillow pattern in the December 2013 Quilts and More mag.

Picnic quilt--Kim Brackett design, Scrap Basket Sensations.  This one was professionally and beautifully quilted by Mary Flynn of Quilt Hollow.  One quilted item didn't get finished which I wanted to enter, but I'm still working on it. That's the Pink Lemonade quilt from Humble Quilts' doll quiltalong. 

The colors are a bit bright in this photo but I'm using a hand-dyed Valdani Perle cotton to big stitch an echo of the churn dashes in the plain squares.

I'm taking it with me to work and getting some stitches in during lunch break.  I could enter it in the fair next year, ha ha, but will soon find out how I did this year--the Fair opens on Wednesday.

Of course there has to be a grandson Cove picture too.  He's just turned five months old and is spending a lot of time jumping in his jumperoo---and also anytime he's on a lap--as well as getting on his hands and knees and rocking.  That boy is on the move always.  His parents need to lower his mattress in the crib, he'll be pulling himself up before they know it.

Cove is here trying out some shoes. Cutest.Baby.Ever.  This pic makes him look a lot older than he really is, I think!  Mimi is filling in for the day care provider on Wednesday and is looking forward to it :)  More catching up, soon...

Where I'll Be This Weekend

This weekend, I'll be spending a lot of time at my sewing machine with this:

I've pinned the quilt for my sister in law Laura and started some tentative quilting, but didn't like the design and ripped it out.  Same as last year this time, I'm pushing to get a quilt finished to enter it in the fair.  I have another project yet to complete as well--that one is a doll quilt being big-stitch hand quilted.  The deadline for entering is 5 pm Sunday...wish me luck!

I'll also be spending time with this favorite shirt:

I've agreed to let it go so it will be a fond farewell.  I love this big linen shirt and have had it for at least 10 years since I bought it at a thrift store.  The upper collar I cut off years ago and it has been a "house shirt" since then.  My sister Kathy loathes it--she calls it a dishcloth-- and she and my sister in law bought me a replacement denim shirt.  Kathy is holding the new shirt hostage until I hand over this one, as I agreed. Bossy one, isn't she? :)

Some hours will also be spent with the newest male in our lives:

Here's the little stinker up on his hands and knees at 4.5 months old.  He's looking like an early crawler for sure--he's been rolling over since before he was three months old.  A first tooth is not far off either!

Mimi got to have him for a nap last weekend at our neighborhood block party, while mommy and daddy ate their BBQ.  I didn't mind a bit!  Cove's been having very short naps and waking up a lot at night, but otherwise he's durn near irresistible!  We'll be babysitting this weekend so his parents can have a date night.
Hope you all have a busy weekend planned too.

Design Wall Monday

On my design surface is the ongoing project for my sister-in-law's birthday quilt.  This design is inspired by the Willow Weave quilt jelly-roll-sew-along that Aunt Reen did last year.  I made a wedding quilt for a nephew from that pattern, and another sister-in-law, Laura, liked it a lot.  However, I changed the size of the pieces to 3x7 finished, in order to get a bigger views of the yummy prints, and probably won't put in the extra "band" section from Aunt Reen's design.

This ombre layout really pleases me and I got a thumbs up from my daughter and sister as well. Some of these are Kaffe Faussett prints, as is the stripe.

Here's a closeup of the purple section.  That zinger print with the yellow got toned down enough to fit in nicely, but the two muddier batiks I showed yesterday were taken out.  Each row will need another background square sewn on to one end or the other to complete the pattern--I left that off until I decided the final layout. The quilt will be 60x72.

See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

A Finish for Erica

My first finish of 2011!  Stitching the binding down took a great deal of time, mostly because of the polyester suede-like material being very bulky and thick and certainly not taking a crease.  It was cut 4 inches wide per the pattern instructions, so that was a lot more fabric to deal with.  I started out with a bigger hand needle but was glad I had run back in the house at the last minute and grabbed my pincushion, as I found a smaller needle in it that worked with much more ease.  Wish I'd had a thimble too!  Stitching took place in the van, in the hotel room after dinner until I could not keep my eyes open by 10:45, and then again for a couple of hours the next morning, and continued after checkout and breakfast at my brother's.   While stitching, my SIL Laura and I talked quilting.  I love that!  Her most recent finish was this cross quilt:

Laura saw a similar cross quilt on Sew Mama Sews blog and dug in her stash to make her version.  She just made blocks until she thought she had enough and then set them together. 

Love the pieced backing.  It is a nice large throw size.

She had this professionally quilted, and it was bound with a striped fabric.  Just terrific variety of all the crosses.  Love it!

It took hours longer than expected and I put the final stitch in the binding about 2 PM. I got the two tallest quilt holders I could find (Grant and my brother Ted) and posed Erica's quilt in it's new desert environment.  After spending so many hours working close up on the quilt, it was a lovely surprise to see how good it looked held up (even if I do say so myself!).  Click on the photo for a closer view.

I like the shadow of the saguaro cactus hitting the quilt.  You can see how thick the binding is.

The quilting shows up nicely on the back over Erica's initials.

And here it is covering the top of the king sized bed in Erica's little guest house.  You can see the crosshatching in the border.  That suede really feels luxurious.

She and her friend Christy (on the right) obliged me with a first tryout of the quilt.  Erica said it made her want to put on her pajamas and go to sleep right then.  She was very happy, and so was I, to finally have it finished!

After a few tears at our goodbyes with Erica, Grant and I finally headed home many hours after our original intent.  We were treated to a lovely sunset as we crossed back into California and the worst part of the drive, the L.A. Freeways.  After 16 hours of being in the car over two days we finally made it home at 10:00 PM, exhausted and bleary eyed, especially Grant, who did all the driving.  My sore finger was nothing compared to that!  We will miss Erica bunches but she is sure to be well looked after by my brother and sister in law.  She will miss all her friends and busy social life, but it is a great opportunity for her and we know she will make the most of it--starting a new life in Arizona as a young adult!