Ongoing June Update

Well, it has been quite busy around here for the last couple of weeks.

I finally got this little lap quilt quilted.  It took much longer than I would have liked.  Only because, I chose to quilt each little piece of the quilt.  Starting and stopping, cutting the thread and starting again takes a lot of time.  But, it is now done, and it went on a trip with my mom.  Her favorite color is blue.  More can be seen about this quilt here.

I have jumped on the vintage sewing machine bandwagon, and decided to get this one out of my garage storage to see what I could do with it.  It is a Bernina Model 1130, and is still selling for around $800 - $1200.  It was made in the '70's, so it is holding it's value nicely.  It has 10 feet, including a walking foot, a retractable plug in cord, and a leg lift attachment that will lift the pressure foot while you are sewing.  Never used one before, but can see where they would come in handy.  But after all that, it is missing the correct pressure foot.  I looked for one online, but a new one, genuine or not,  runs around $140.  WOW!  A lot to spend just to see if the machine works well,  I can turn the flywheel, the light comes on, and the bobbin winder works, so now I have to ponder if I want to spend that kind of money to get a pressure foot.  I wrote about this with my own Viking Designer II machine's pressure foot that cracked and is not working properly, and its replacement cost is around $250!  It all boils down to the machines that are electronic, and have electronic connections to the foot pedals causes the high prices.

I think everyone knows by now that my favorite color is pink.  My sewing room oozes pink, and it has all kinds of pink sewing decor.  So, when I was out garage sale(ing) with a friend, and I came across this pink iron, I knew I had to have it for my sewing room.  When I saw that it was only $8, I knew I really had to get it, and the little sticker swore it still works!  So I bought it, brought it home, tested it and sure enough it works.  The retractable cord does not work, so I just put a little clip on the cord to hold it out so it stays plugged in.  

The garden work continues, I have pulled the pea plants and then planted beans in the spot.  Below is the picture of the pepper plants that I started from seed in my green house.  I planted over 35 plants, hoping to get enough with the tomato plants to make salsa this year.

I made a resolution the last two years, to work on getting UFO's done in my stash.  This few months I have pulled out tops that I had completed.  I have had 5 done at my long arm quilter to date, she currently has 4 more to quilt, and the picture below is 8 more ready to go.  When I say ready to go, I have to stitch the backing together and cut batting off a big roll.  Then I have to fill out paperwork for each quilt before I can drop them off.  But, I will have to wait until she is done with the 4 she has before I send over any more.  I am still waiting for a nice day here in the Pacific Northwest (and when I don't have any gardening work to do) to get pictures of the completed quilts.  Most of these completed quilts are BOM's from 2004 - 2008.  I didn't get pictures of the progress work of any of these quilts, so it will be limited posts about them when I do get pictures of the final quilt.

While I was digging through my old UFO's, I came across this next project.  Back in 2013, I was spending late nights trolling through all kinds of quilting blogs, and came across this "Mystery Quilt" by Heather Spence.  I felt that it was a good cause (for cancer), and I was intrigued by doing a mystery quilt.

This mystery quilt called for a jelly roll in the fabric requirements, and I had just picked up this jelly roll at the quilt shop I worked at back in 2013.  It is a fabric line called Whimsy, by Fig Tree for Moda.  See the red line through the price?  It meant that it was half off, and I then got my employee discount, so I was invested in this mystery quilt for about $15.00.  

What I didn't do well in considering this jelly roll for this quilt, is the fact that there were not distinct darks and lights.  This is what I would call a "muted" color line of fabric.  So after I tried to sort out the darkest colors and made up the top, it is really hard to see the the pattern of the block and the way it should look in the quilt top.

This is an isolated block, and it is hard to see how it should be for the quilt.  

Oh well, I am going to go ahead and quilt it up and use it for a travel lap quilt or a donation quilt.

Thanks for stopping in and catching up with all my ongoing projects.  As always, there will be more to come.

Warmest...

Vintage Sampler Month 1

Remember in this post when I said I signed up for this new BOM?   Well the package came the other day, and I was able to get it cut out and sewn up.

The first month involves three different blocks, scattered out all over the quilt.  There are a couple of things that are different about this BOM.

First, it give you three ways of doing the cutting out of the pieces.  Rotary, templates, or die cuts.  I chose the templates, because they are Marti Michell acrylic templates, and I already have them.  Using the templates takes longer to get them cut out, but when you go to sew them together, the pieces fit like a dream and the block comes out perfect.

Second, each block has instructions to add the sashing pieces as you make the blocks, so when you go to put the sampler together, it is just putting together all the big pieces.

This block was very amusing to me, it is a BOWTIE, just like the hundreds of cheddar bowties that I have been making for the last few months.  I made these without even looking at the pattern. Ha!

And, I am a sucker for basket blocks.  One of the better blocks I have made only because of the templates.

I am really liking the fabric, the prints, and the blocks so far, I am going to be looking forward to each months package.

Warmest...

Gardening and Sewing - Hand and Hand

This time of year is picking up in the garden, my mom and I shelled peas this week, ended putting up about 9 quarts.  Doesn't sound like much, but when you are shelling them, it is a lot to get done.

The rest of the garden is planted, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and soon lots of peppers.  I have fenced off the chickens, so they can do some free ranging in the back yard.  They are happy campers.

This is under my needle for the last few days.  I finally got it back out to do the quilting myself.  

I am so close to being done, I have two corners and the border left to get done, but as always, something seems to pop up that take the front burner.

We went to a city in our fair State of Oregon, called Bend (supposedly it is in the top 10 best places to live in the whole United States).  It is a fairly small town, and they have three quilt shops.  So we stopped at one and they were holding a parking lot sale, where customers can rent a parking space and set up to sell their extra quilting stuff and fabric.  It is just awesome to attend.

This is the first thing I came across, a vintage toy Singer sewing machine.  It was made in the 50's and is so cool.  It has an on/off switch (no foot pedal) and no bobbin.  Simple and a nice addition to my vintage collection.

Then I moved on to another parking space and this quilter had a extra large bin of scraps with a free sign taped to it.  I asked if I could have all the scraps, because you know, I am still needing about 400 different fabrics to finish my cheddar bow ties.  To my surprise, she said take them all.  I bagged them up, two grocery bags full, and brought them home and sorted them out.  This is a pile that is being cut for the cheddar squares.

This is just the start of the pile I am going to be cutting out over the next couple of days.

And alas, the progress of my cheddars to date.  The bag in the back of the picture has 600 completed squares.  The bowl has about 250 so far.

Then yesterday, that new BOM I posted about here came in the mail yesterday.  It is block one and the initial flyer of the BOM.   

I better get going and get busy!

Warmest...

2016 Crossroads Quilt Along

Back in February, I started a Quilt Along through the Fat Quarter Shop.  So far I have kept caught up with the blocks that are to be done each month.

February Blocks:

March Blocks:

April Blocks:

May Blocks:

I had the May blocks cut out when the pattern came out on the 15th, but did not get to working on them until the last few days.  Tonight I can say I am caught up until June 15th.  Sigh.

Just a note, I have completed 7 quilts in the last two months, but have not figured a good way to get them photographed for the blog.  This is something I am working on, as I want to get them documented as well as getting them shared with all who follow my blog.  I am feeling accomplished in betting old UFO's done, but now the quandary of getting pics and then a final blog post about each one.  Stay tuned...

Warmest...

New BOM

I really need my head examined.  Really!  Sign up for a new BOM??  Aw, what the heck, it's just one this year.  I used to do several (that's why I have so many UFO's, but that's been a whole 'nother story)

This BOM is called "Vintage Sampler".  I took this picture at one of my favorite quilt shops, Something to Crow About in Springfield, Oregon.  We stopped there on our way to a trade show this weekend, and when I saw it in person, I swooned.  First of all I really like shirtings, and that is the basis of this fabric line.  Not to mention it is in Red, white, and blue colors.  And, I like doing samplers.

Vintage Sampler Block of the Month Quilt

Filled with American appeal and a rustic feel, this 82" x 89" full-sized sampler quilt is pieced and fusible appliqued over the period of 12 months. Each month you'll receive Barbara Eikmeier's pattern with directions and fabrics for a section of the quilt top from her Vintage Shirting & Dress Prints 1880-1910 line for Paintbrush Studio. 

So there you have it, another BOM on the list that never ends.  Sigh!!

Warmest...

Log Cabin UFO

I have done several posts about UFO's and past BOM's that I am working on getting completed, and this post will be about such BOM.

I also have talked extensively about the designer, Lynette Jensen of Thimbleberries.  I have mentioned that I cut my quilting teeth on her patterns, as they are user and newbie friendly.  I have never had to make an adjustment or have pieces not fit perfectly together in any pattern of hers.  

During 2008 and 2009, the Main Street Cotton Shoppe did several BOM's featuring Thimbleberries new line of fabrics, her favorite past patterns, and other topics.  This UFO BOM is called Anniversary Club that began in April 2008. Yes, I make a notebook of all the information about each and every BOM that I choose to do.  Even though this might seem a bit tedious, I am glad I did this in the beginning of my quilting, because going back to older UFO's and BOM's, I have all the pertinent information and can pick up right where I left off of the projects.

This Anniversary Club BOM uses one of Lynette's books called, In Celebration of Quilting, which is a collection of her best (favorite) quilting patterns.

The patterns are separated out based on the four seasons.  There is 12 patterns in the book and the Anniversary Club did all 12 patterns with one coming each month.  

I had started one of the projects when it came in the mail, and I finished it back in November 2014, and I posted about it here.

The next project I chose was the one for October, called Log Cabin.  This project is on the front cover of the book and also I had cut out all the pieces back in 2008.  It got put away in a show box, so I pulled it out, because it was easy to pull out and just start sewing it.

The log cabin pattern has always been one of my favorite quilt block patterns.  It is one of the classic antique quilt block patterns that I seem to lean to in my collection of favorites.  You can read about the history of the log cabin quilt block here if interested.

The log cabin quilt in the book was made with country colors of red, beige, and blue, but this project used one of Lynette's newest fabric lines during that year called, Harvest Eve.

Below is a completed block with 12 of the 24 prints used from this line.  The strips are 1 1/2" in width and the finished block measures 8 1/2" square.  I chose, of course, to do this in a random, scrappy layout.

The quilt requires 80 blocks.  There will be 8 blocks across and 10 blocks down.  Here is my pile of 80 blocks a portion of the way done.  

This is the lay out that the quilt will have, as I like the way it looks on the cover of the book, so I am going to do it the same way.

I finished all the blocks this evening, so I will be assembling them in the next few days.  The book has the option of no borders or borders, and the project kit did not have enough fabric to do borders, so it will be made without borders.  This will be one of the first quilts that I have done that doesn't have a border.  I think I am going to like it.  We'll see...

Warmest...

Busy Spring

Spring, as usual, is a very busy time for me.  Mostly with the greenhouse and then gardening, both the vegetable beds and the flower beds around the house.

First off, the new fruit will be coming ripe in a few weeks, so I dug out of the freezer all the frozen fruit from last year and made jam.  I ended up canning 54 half pints of cherry, raspberry, blackberry, and triple berry.  

I also had my sister in law of New Mexico, send me some green chili.  Twenty pounds of frozen chopped chili.  So I canned about 50 half pints of chili, but didn't get a picture.

Then I got busy planting about 65 tomato plants (those are the plants with the bamboo sticks).  There are more tomatoes off to the right where you can see only one corner.

Now you can see them in the box next to the green house.  The box in the lower left corner is lettuce, spinach, beets, chard, etc.  and the box in the middle back is cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli.  Then in the back box is the peas, glorious peas.  They are so prolific this year again.  We should have a bumper crop!  in front of the peas in the same box is carrots.  There are the regular orange carrots, yellow carrots, red carrots and purple carrots.  They all taste the same, but they make for a pretty bake vegetable dish.

And of course there are the chickens.  They didn't like being cooped up in their little space, so we temporarily fenced off a portion of the yard, and they are happy campers.

Next up in the greenhouse are tender annual flowers, like foxglove, sweet william, and holly hocks.  Then some herbs like basil, purple basil, chamomile, parsley, marjoram and dill.

I haven't had time to get out all the marigolds I started back in February, so they are blooming in the perfect conditions in the greenhouse.  The egg carton flat is some moss rose, maybe I can get to them this Friday????

These plants are miscellaneous items, some house plants, some stragglers of tomatoes, peanut plants to little to be put out yet, etc.

These are my 53 pepper plants that finally have come up and needed to be transplanted into these 4 inch pots. Now that they are in the bigger pots, they will grow pretty fast.   These will go out some time in early June.  

 I also have two other vegetable beds full of watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, winter and summer squash, cucumbers, and more cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli.  And, I also have four flower beds that we spread two yards of bark dust around.

So, there you go.  Spring is all about being outside getting lots of gardening done. 

My next post will have a couple of things I have been working on in my sewing room.  Believe it or not, I do spend my evenings in the sewing room.  All about balance between work and play, right?

Warmest...