And Now it is New Year's Eve Already

I realize I have not responded to the comments on the last post-and I will-working is just interfering with my free time:)  Also, I had been feeling so tired I couldn't put one foot in front of the other.  I spent the day on Monday in PJs and back and forth in and out of bed.  In between I packed up the 3 plastic bins of Christmas things and brought out the one bin of winter reds and redid the shelf over our slider in the dining room.  I have been wanting to use the antique corbels we bought in Maine at least 10 years ago but didn't know where they dissappeared-but, my husband did and hauled them in for me.  The red tray I bought at a Paris flea (puce) market several years ago.

We are having 16 people in addition to ourselves in tonight to play Skipbo, eat dinner and pray in the New Year when the NY ball drops-at 9pm for us-Thankfully!  We have a tiny home but if we set up 3 card tables and use our dining table scattered through our living room, kitchen and dining room it works.  However, on Monday every part of my body hurt and I couldn't imagine NY eve happening.  I read the side effects of my 3 meds and one of them listed how I was feeling under the side effects so I notified my doc and took myself off of it.  Went to work on Tuesday at 6am and didn't get home till 5:30 and felt great.  HMMM . . . . . ..

I met with the owner of Paradise Quilting and we clarified timelines and the quilt we will do for the block of the month.  It is from the fabshophop website:

 

I will make one of the blocks in several colorways and then choose 1 and make the top for the shop sample.  I am pretty excited about this venture. Neither of us have done a block of the month before-I usually don't like them because they look to me like grandma's sampler quilts-but I like this one! The class will start in April and run for 6 months.

Please have an amazing last day of 2014.  Even with a few health issues, this has been a blessed year.  I am so thankful for so many things this year and they include you :). 

Christmas Eve

A quiet day here.  Had friends over for breakfast, took Lizzy to Petco to pick out her present (a Frisbee of course) and am cooking the turkey we will have tomorrow.  We are trying something different this year.  My friend, Julie is a great cook and for Thanksgiving she cooked her turkey, dressing, potatoes and gravy the day before then layered a bit of gravy, turkey slices, dressing and potatoes in a 9x13 pan. Popped it in the fridge, cleaned up the mess, reheated it the next day, and had a nice, quiet unmessy Thanksgiving.  I think that is a great idea-so I am going to try it.  We are having a couple over who don't have family here either and I am hoping it will not be an unpleasant surprise for them.  For sides I have fruit, cranberry sauce, rolls and a roasted butternut squash salad with warm cider vinaigrette which I have made before and it is really good.

I have made progress on the shop sample for the Crazy 9 Patch.  I have chosen my fabrics and have cut the darks and am doing a tutorial of the process so the students who take the class can have a reference after the class is over.

A couple of last Christmas pictures:

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas!

It is time to get back to quilting!  I am still working but we have had our Christmas with the grands in Seattle and I have a few days to sew.  I am teaching a block of the month class at Paradise Sewing in Poway and a regular pieced quilt at Crazy 9 Patch in Ramona in 2015.  I have pulled fabric for the C9P sample and made an appt. to talk to the owner, Jinny, about the block of the month.

Some Christmas Pictures:

I think we were supposed to be watching the kids-Jack the cat is an opportunist!

A Trip to the nursery that turned into a reindeer farm.

Christmas jammies from their aunt.

Too much Christmas?

Love this picture and these girls!

Merry Christmas 2014!

Raspberry Sherbet

The only quilting I have done since starting work is the prayer quilt for my friend, Jackie's daughter, Robin, who has a life threatening condition and whose favorite color is yellow.  This has been a labor of love and I am so thankful for the quilter, Dawnell Muelk and Marilyn Hersey the binder who helped me get this done in a timely manner.  When I heard about Robin from my friend I took her to my studio and we pulled fabric.  I had a sample of a quilt made by Julia Zgliniec that was square so I measured the pieces and drafted a larger size.  The block is an old one call "Children of Israel". It is a two block quilt and fun to make using a Kaffe Fasset large print for the center squares and the border.  I will give it to her tomorrow.

Still working full time  so will check back in when time permits.  Happy Thanksgiving!

A Little Break

I have hit a wall.  My responsibilities as programs chair for our guild, the opportunity to teach a couple of classes, my involvement in a couple of classes and the starting prep for a tea for 160 ladies was a full plate but then I added an emergency prayer quilt and a special assignment from the district that is requiring that I go back to work for 2 months.  I am drowning and throwing things off the boat as fast as I can,  I am taking a 1 month sabbatical from blogging.  Will see you in December:)

3rd Quarter Finish Along Completions

i am having some computer issues so can not upload pictures.  Thankfully I had prepared these a month ago to have ready to post. I will just roll my others into next month😥
My original post is
Here

1st completion is Lizzy who was entered into the San Diego Quilt Show 2014

2nd completion is Makenna the pillow.

All others will be rolled over to the last quarter!

Little Quilts

Just need to add the binding to this piece I did in Helene Knott's class.  I am doing more small quilts lately and am liking them a lot-instant gratification.

Using some of Vicki W's hand dyed for the binding

I started an art quilt class that meets 2x a month.  Our first project was a 12x12 using the theme, "chair".  It scares me a little that this 64 yr old picture came to mind although I do like the end result.

Inktense pencils on inkjet printed cotton-Day 24 of potty training.  My mom was not a fan of the diaper change.  She was a great mom with a delicate stomach:)

Leaving for Seattle on Saturday.  I am taking PFD fabric, fabric paints and a brayer. I am hoping to get some handprints of the girls for a Mother's day quilt for my beloved DIL.

Helene Knott

My husband left for a 2 week motorcycle trip with friends from high school and I was busy with our first guild meeting of the year featuring our guest speaker, Helene Knott.  I was nervous until after the trunk show which was preceded by a lecture about color and how it works in a quilt.  Helene was excellent and I received several emails telling me so.   The workshop the next day was a small landscape.  Helene had put together many options to choose from and some ladies bought more than one kit.  All in all a great start to the guild year.

First September Finish! Yay!

I had to pull out my trusty featherweight to make the cording for the pillow.  My fancy dance machine didn't come with a zipper foot that would do it.

1947 Singer Featherweight

I love it and think my DIL will too.  According to my schedule, it should have been finished a couple of days ago and I should be half way through making two pig dolls for the grands-maybe they will be Christmas presents.

The flying geese are supposed to be flying in opposite directions

The back works beautifully!

So much better than a gap and it appears that I spent a long time on it:)

Makena Progress

Greg left on his 2 week trip tonight at 6 so I was able to put together the top and back of the pillow.  I need to sandwich the top and lightly quilt then I will make cording out of the green.

front

back made out of a 40.00 blouse marked down to 6.00 and cut up for the back

Makenna and Cookies

I have finished the drawing/painting part of the pillow for my DIL.  The picture is of their beautiful dog, Makenna, who passed away just before Christmas.

picture I was working from on the bottom

On Friday I sewed with The Paradise Girls and Carrie brought the best cookies I have ever had.  They were called Devil Drops so I renamed them, "Heaven Help Us" because they are deadly.

Heaven help Us!

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 ¼ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup dark brown sugar

2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk

2 teas. Pure vanilla extract

1 teas. Fine sea salt

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teas. Baking soda

3 cups coarsely crushed potato chips (use really crisp old-fashioned potato chips like Hawaiian potato

  chips or kettle cooked-they stay crunchier in the batter)

2 cups milk chocolate chips

4 (1.4 ounces each) Heath Bars (you can get them in the bakery section of the grocery store already

 chopped

1 ½ cups butter-roasted pecans, coarsely chopped (recipe follows)

1-2 teas. Maldon sea salt (optional) for garnish

In large bowl stir together the melted butter, granulated and brown sugar.  Stir in eggs, vanilla and salt.  Sift together baking soda and flour and stir into batter until just combined.  Fold in crucshed potato chips, milk chocolate chips, chopped toffee bars and pecans.

Scoop cookie dough by rounded ¼ cups and roll into a ball.  Line the cookie balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet and cover tightly with double thickness of plastic wrap.  Refrigerate 12-24 hours.

Remove cookie dough from refrigerator and allow it to come to room temp before baking.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment and preheat oven to 350.

Arrange cookies on the baking sheet at least 2 inches apart.  Bake on the center rack of the oven until the cookies are crisp and golden brown around the edges yet slightly soft in the center, 15-17 minutes.  Allow cookies to cool slightly on the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely-sprinkle a tiny bit of Maldon salt over each to season.

Butter-Roasted Pecans

1 ½ cups pecan halves

1 Tblsp. Melted butter

1 Tblsp. Granulated sugar

¼ teas. Fine sea salt

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Toss pecans with melted butter, sugar and salt.  Spread nuts in single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and toast for 9-10 min, until nuts are warm and fragrant.  Remove nuts from oven and cool completely before using.

This is hands down the BEST cookie I have eaten!

A Win!

I was fortunate enough to win the grand prize for the HSTeria quilt along sponsored by Vicki Welsh a few weeks ago.  It was a package of her hand dyed scraps and a package of Mistyfuse (I have loaned that to my friend as she has never used the wonderful stuff).  I was pretty excited as I am more and more enamored of hand dyed fabric as I have used bits and pieces in my quilts recently.  I thanked her immediately but hadn't gotten around to getting the picture and posting-until today.  Thanks again, Vicki!!!

Aren't they beautiful?

I also won a bag of scraps at the Crazy 9 Patch on the second Friday of this month during scrappy hour where Martha demonstrates a new scrappy pattern and runs a sale on a fabric line or theme-one hour of happiness with door prizes, snacks and special drinks provided.

I had a couple of leftover Insulite hearts so made these the next day out of the scraps and some leftover binding.  Going to tuck these into my Spring box for next spring.  I don't hang mine so don't need a loop.

I have avoided orange since I retired (my school colors were orange and white) but it is sneaking into my fabrics again

Bella

Last Thursday we had to have Bella put to sleep.  Her cancer was making her life unpleasant.  We adopted her 10 years ago and she was 1 or 2 at that time.  She had a great life and we  appreciated her sweet nature-except when she stared Lizzy down and drove her to distraction.  Goodby quilting buddy I will see you on the other side.

Thursday, August 21

Last Blooms of Summer

Been really busy lately.  I am painting the whole inside of our house.  Right now I am so glad I live in 1500 sq ft.  It seems that over the years I have painted rooms and have ignored the trim and doors as they were neutral.  So, since I really hate, yes, hate, painting doors and chair rails and molding, I thought I would trick myself and paint them first before I even buy the wall paint.  I can only do this for 2 hours a day.  I have given myself until Thanksgiving to totally finish painting everything.  It already looks better-got the hall molding, chair rails, and door jambs on 2 1/2 out of 5 doors and 1/2 of a door done over the last two days.  Did I say I hate prepping and putting down painter's tape.

Anyway, "Last Blooms of Summer" from Material Obsession's Making Quilts called "Garden Party" is done and hanging in The Crazy 9 Patch waiting for ladies to sign up and take the class.  I so hope they do-I see new fabric in the store that I need to have.

Original Quilt-  "Garden Party"

Last Blooms of Summer-My interpretation

There is one pimple on this quilt.  When I started the strata I put 3 pieces of white at the top thinking they might look cloud like.  Two got covered up by flowers leaving that gleaming white blob at the top.  I am going to use my Inktense chalk sticks to blend it in.  Blob and all-I love this quilt. Wish the photo showed the intensity of the color. 

Buggy Barn Bird Brain

If you haven't done a Buggy Barn quilt-it is a trip.  Seams don't match and you need to be OK with that.
The first one I did was for my sister-in-law who is a cat lover and rescuer.  The original had wool and rick rack for the whiskers.  I did cotton fabric freezer paper applique and stitched the whiskers-just don't like rick rack!

Cattitudes 2012

 This was not a planned class-I saw the quilt at the local shop and several of my friends were taking it so I just jumped in.  I probably need to stop doing that as it keeps me from the quilts I really want to do. 

I will not be using rick rack as stems-don't know what I will be using but it won't be rick rack

I chose red-orange, grays/blacks, yellow, yellow green, and turquoise and about 1/2 are batiks so it will hopefully more whimsical than primitive-we'll see:)

Pat asked me in the Bird Brain class if the pieces could be production line pieced and my response was "no" but today as I was looking at the large box of pieces I thought I would try it.

Traditionally Buggy Barn patterns are put together block by block, piecing together all the pieces in the top layer of the 20 layer stack.  That means you have to store a 24x20 inch stack of fabrics somewhere safe until they are all sewn together.  I pinned each paper pattern piece to each stack of fabrics so I can work with an alpha group at a time.

I took one section at a time and sewed it together in number order

Adding a leader before the first piece helped identify the ends of the pieces

The leaders and enders end up as blocks on their own and a lot of thread is saved

Iron and stack pieces from last piece stitched to first (that is where the leader comes in handy)

just have the bottom to sew on

Last two to iron and stack

I finished two sections  in a relatively short period of time.  This way I can just pull one section at a time to sew-less thinking will make it go faster.   I will be preparing for the Exploring Color Class on Tuesday at Paradise Sewing.  Ten students.  It is a lot of work but I truly love teaching and am getting better at it:)  Adults are really a little harder than 10th graders-they aren't afraid to voice their opinions so you really need to have your ducks in a row.

My First Quilting Retreat

What a great four days.  I went to my first retreat last Sunday and returned Wednesday afternoon.  We were located in the wine country of Temecula at a Catholic Convent and retreat center.  It was lovely-had my own room, great food and got to know 11 other ladies much better than I did before.

Sylvia trimming her finished quilt top

Gloria, mary, Susan and daughter, Ann working

Lou is the organizer and such a sweet lady

Several of the ladies have mascots and they are moved or hidden during the retreat by the participants.  Kimmie's, Ugly Man, was just found.

Cecelia is imitating, Cousin It as she works on her 1.5 in squares

Mary's, Woodland Creatures

Mary working on the Possums of Woodland Creatures

Fran working on a lovely spool quilt

Ann made several beautiful bags

Her mom, Susan working on a gardening quilt

Linda drove down from LA

Roberta catching up on lost sleep

Linda's Tree quilt-still needs applique on the border

Lou's Bag (she is making a quilt that will go in it for a retiring friend

Elinor catching a nap

Baby quilt for my niece's baby boy soon to be born

Cecelia's Red and White

Closeup- look at those points!

Roberta adding borders

Kimmie's baby quilt

I bound 1 quilt, finished the baby quilt top and made good progress on Nickle Lavender Sky