Quilt Confessions

The Power of Red Socks

2012-02-11T22:09:00.000-05:00

Slipper Socks from North Fulton Hospital

I have two sisters, The Funny Sister and The Beautiful Sister. (I'm The Talented Sister, in case you were wondering.) Now, the truth is that The Funny Sister wishes I would call her The Smart Sister, but The Beautiful Sister is pretty smart, and so am I, so she's going to have to live with being called The Funny Sister until the rest of us lose our minds. I'm working on it, but I haven't quite gotten there yet.

A gift from Maven Jan

The Funny Sister has a theory that she first shared with me when I was in my 20's, she was very insistent about it and at the time she held much more sway over me than she does now. She is still a power player in my life and I love it, I just don't let her tell me how to do everything any more. (Sometimes I wonder just who the older sister is.) Her theory was that red socks had healing power. Now, if she comes and reads this she may well correct me, but the fact is that I came away from that conversation believing that when one is sick, she should immediately don red socks. It's not a superstitious thing, or some kind of weird new age thing, she just believes one should put on red socks when sick. Almost my entire adulthood when I have gotten sick I have put on red socks if for no other reason than to think of The Funny Sister and laugh. Also, if I talk to her on the phone and tell her I'm sick, I know she's going to ask if I'm wearing red socks.

Betty Boop always makes me smile

You know when you're in the hospital they give you slipper socks to wear, they have little rubber bits on them to keep you from sliding. Guess what color my slipper socks were when I was hospitalized last time? Yep, they were red, you can see them at the top of this page. Guess North Fulton Hospital also believes in the red socks thing. LOL

How could you not love ruby slipper socks?

Recently, The Beautiful Sister (who lives in Hong Kong) told me she was very sick with some kind of flu bug. She couldn't even sit up to Skype. I asked her if she was wearing red socks.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that The Funny Sister had never told her about the red socks thing. Now, The Funny Sister says that's okay because surely she has told The Beautiful Sister other valuable information that I don't know. (Now I'm wondering what I'm missing out on!)

So many people have offered to help me since my hospital stay and in truth my needs are well met. So I began telling my friends last week that if anyone asks them what I need, to please tell them I need red socks to help me through my next surgery and recovery. I have a great love of novelty socks, and this being February, I thought cute red socks would be easy to come up with. Turns out I was right! So far I have received four pairs of socks, two of them from The Funny Sister. We have agreed that I will wear them into the hospital on surgery day and even though they will make me take them off for the operation, we will ask the nurse to put them back on me as soon as I am awake and allowed to wear them. I give you the most awesome red socks for getting better ever:

The most awesome red socks ever

Being Loved by Melinda

2012-02-08T19:53:00.001-05:00

Melinda takes care of me in so many ways it would be silly to try and list them. But recently one of the most amazing ways is that she brought this quilt to me while I was in the hospital. I love it, and decided immediately that I would take it with me whenever I had to go back to the hospital again. I kept meaning to post a picture of it in the past month, but today I got the news about when I can expect to have surgery. I'm so grateful to be bringing this quilt with me when I go!

If you don't know Melinda, btw, you should check out her blog at http://melinful.blogspot.com/ she is a much more faithful writer than I am!

From Under the Magnolia to Little Rock...

2012-02-07T13:59:00.002-05:00

What looked like a long shot, and certainly not a thing to be hoped for in the near future is going to happen, at least, at this point it looks like it will.

One of the most, possibly the most prominent neurosurgeon in the world reviewed my files last week and as I was told by his wife he said "this tumor is absolutely operable". Dr. Weaver, my local neurosurgeon had thought it would be thus. What is impossible even for very talented surgeons is what Dr. Yasargil specializes in accomplishing. I am invited to visit him in Arkansas, be examined, have special MRI cuts performed and assuming that nothing new is found that changes his mind, to be operated on by him in the same visit. If all goes well I would be discharged from the hospital at most five days later and on my way back home to Atlanta within seven days of the surgery.

The logistics are beyond my ability to comprehend. My husband has taken on the insurance piece, thank goodness there is something practical he can do. My friends have offered every kind of support including traveling along with us to Arkansas and taking care of my 11 year old while we're gone. While I can't quite sort every detail out in my mind at the moment, I trust that the pieces will fall into place. By the end of the week I should know the most important part, which is when Dr. Yasargil expects to see me in Little Rock. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks to all of you who have posted and sent email messages. I am grateful for your support and prayers.

The Lost Weekend

2012-02-02T11:49:00.001-05:00

The neurosurgeon, in his wisdom, said "Sure you can go to Amicalola Falls with the group from Tiny Stitches the weekend after you have brain surgery, if you feel like going." Now, let me just say this. In a week when I heard a lot of no, including "no, you cannot take a shower" and "no, you cannot leave your room" hearing yes meant everything to me. What he knew but I didn't, was that there was no way I was going to be able to go. He wasn't worried I'd get to the mountains and be far away from medical professionals because I wasn't going. No. Way. Have I mentioned how much I love my neurosurgeon? The things I like best about him include his sense of humor and his ability to empathize with my desire to live as normal a life as possible. (That and the whole "I can cut into your brain and not cause major damage" thing is pretty cool, too.)

So... Melinda and Stella and all the other Tiny Stitches ladies went off to the retreat while I lay mostly unconscious and certainly too drugged and weak to care. I was looking forward to making the mystery quilt, which I have enjoyed every year that TS has been doing this event, but Maetha, who owns the shop always comes up with all kinds of fun side projects and goodies to give away and I was missing that too. Or so I thought. After the retreat was over Melinda came by and brought me a great stockpile of goodies. Stella had, in addition to everything else she worked on in the weekend made me an apron, I got a pattern and fabric for making some pretty napkins, too. A little bucket with my name on it that I know I will use for toting tools around in the future. Somebody made me a beautiful black and yellow thread catcher, plus Robin's pattern for that project. Quilting girl socks, a name tag made out of "Georgia" fabric printed by Hoffman for the Quilt Shop Hop last year. Melinda even brought me candy, which Maetha sprinkles around the tables a few times a day during the retreat.

I feel so loved!

When You've Finished Dessert....

2012-01-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

...sometimes you get a bellyache!

One of the big finishes in 2011 was Chocolate Covered Cherries. My plan for a background grid of diagonal lines was perfect for this quilt, but it turned out to be a much more challenging finish than I had intended. It is one of my favorite finishes ever, which is good because I don't know if I would have finished it otherwise. I learned a lesson about thinking things through. Melinda's blue tape method saved me a ton of marking, without it this quilt probably wouldn't have a stitch in it, even now.

In the end a traditional quilt with a lot of white was a great place to try it. I'm cured. I won't need to do this again any time soon. :)

I Got Word Today

2012-01-25T12:08:00.000-05:00

Dr. Yasargil, the very special specialist who is the best in his field, has expressed an interest in my case and asked to have my records sent to his office. This is a long road, there may be challenges and difficulties but as I see it, the first gate has been opened and I am grateful to not be kept waiting at this point.

Thank you to those of you who have posted here and to those who have not but who are keeping me in your prayers.

The Awakening... Can I Go Back to Sleep?

2012-01-22T09:52:00.000-05:00

These past two weeks have been nothing short of surreal. Over the Christmas break I began to get ready to sew again. I have obviously not been sewing much but I was looking forward to getting back to it. I cleaned my house, I was planning on going the Tiny Stitches retreat at Amicalola Falls and I had an idea for how to deal with a UFO that bugged me all last year. Pretty cool stuff.

Kay went back to school on a Tuesday. On Wednesday I began to clean up my sewing supplies. On Thursday I began to cut the fabric I needed for the retreat only to find I didn't think I had what I needed, so before I cut anything I decided to drop by Tiny Stitches on Friday morning (among other errands) and make sure I wasn't making a mistake. I went to bed that night and when I woke up, I was in my driveway. True story. It gets better. I was being loaded into an ambulance by a guy who looked like he belonged on a soap opera. Trust me, if you have to be loaded into an ambulance and wake up in the middle of the job it's a very nice bonus if the guy doing the work is not only nice to look at, but nice. He talked to me the whole way to the hospital explaining to me what had happened. I had no memory at all. It was not quite 5:00 AM. The only things I knew for sure was that Lyman and Kay were in the driveway with me. Lyman had woken Kay up to come kiss me goodbye, I honestly think he thought I might not make it and he didn't want her to not have a chance to say goodbye. They were staying behind so she could get on the school bus and then he would be along to the hospital to check on me. The EMT told me I had a seizure that woke Lyman in the bed. All I can imagine is that it must have been some seizure because there have been times when I have been unable to wake him when I am actually trying to do so. He called 911 when he realized he couldn't rouse me and they came right over (they are just 10 minutes down the street) I'll be honest, I'm glad I remained unconscious for all of that.

We got to the hospital and I was put in a trauma bay. I remember wondering to myself "Really? I feel fine, do I really need a trauma bay? I could go to a regular ER bed, I'm sure." Within what seemed like minutes they were telling me I had suffered a stroke. I did not believe them. I felt fine. I hadn't even wet my pants, aren't you supposed to wet your pants when you have a seizure? I wasn't trying to be difficult but the only part of this that indicated any of it was real is that I am a light sleeper and somehow I was removed from my bedroom, down the stairs and out of the house without being woken up. Apparently they were worried that this might not be the end of the trauma. They were admitting me for testing and observation. I really didn't care what they chose to do which was another indication that perhaps something was really wrong. You'd have to know how much I don't care for westernized medicine, hospitals or doctors to appreciate this. Just take my word for it now. Then someone came in, a neurologist I think, he told me I didn't have a stroke, I had a brain tumor. I'd like to go back to the idea of a stroke that hadn't done any damage, thank you. Nope. Brain tumor. Hmmmm. I was sleepy. Whether it was the drugs they were giving me or the results of the trauma or the shock of the news for most of the day I was in and out of consciousness as I was being driven around the hospital on a stretcher for this test or that and finally being moved into a room on the Cardiac Care Unit.

A neurosurgeon, Dr. Weaver, came to visit me. He explained the tumor was small but in a bad place. He wanted to do surgery to get a sample of it for testing. For the first time in twenty years I agreed to a serious medical procedure without question or hesitancy. It was still Friday, he would operate on Monday, no, I couldn't go home in the interim. When I woke up on Saturday morning I felt fine. Seriously, fine. I couldn't believe they were going to keep me in the hospital for two days when I needed no medical care except some tests that wouldn't happen until Monday morning and medicine that could be taken orally at home. Stay I did. They wouldn't even let me get out of bed unattended. I finally convinced a night nurse to let me walk the halls of the unit with my IV pole at 4 AM on Monday. I was going stir crazy and not having any sense of the place I was in was driving me nuts. Such a funny thing how getting out of my room and gaining an understanding of my surroundings helped to ground me.

Unless you have been on this kind of journey there is no reason why you would have any kind of understanding about it, except compassion. We can all imagine this is not something we would want to go through. We can all appreciate that someone who has routinely sought to avoid medicine of all kinds would struggle with needing drugs on an around the clock basis. Nobody wants a tumor. And I promise you nobody wants a tumor in this particular part of her brain. The surgery went well. They let me come home on Wednesday of that week and I slept almost non-stop for three days.

Did you know that the effects of anesthesia stay in the body for 4-6 weeks and for someone with some the pre-existing issues I have that it could be 6-8 weeks? I have had some memory issues in the past week, unable to make the house alarm work properly, getting locked out of my bank account, forgetting my daughter's school i.d. number. They were all situational problems. As I sit here typing I can recall all this data now, but can't recall the name of an actor who was in a movie I have been thinking about this morning. The doctor assures me this is not due to the tumor which is not in a part of my mind that affects memory. It's not even because of the narcotics they gave me for pain (which I stopped taking as soon as I could bear to do so) but instead it is the combination of having my brain touched (which it does not like) and having the anesthesia. He assures me I'll be back to normal in about two months, total. The results came back nearly two weeks later. There are some good things. I am relatively young and in the best physical shape of my life. The tumor is small and only a grade 2. I am asymptomatic except that I could have another seizure so I am on medication for that.

The bad news is that the tumor is in a very very bad place. No surgeon in Georgia is willing to consider operating on it. If it were somewhere else in my brain they would take it out rather easily and this would be something to watch for the future but no real risk. I wouldn't even need radiation or chemo. But it's not. Have you seen Dr. Shepherd do an awake craniotomy on Gray's Anatomy? I can remember him doing it twice so far. Turns out that's what I need and there are, in real life, only a few neurosurgeons in the world who can get the job done. That's really the bad part. They can't attack it with radiation and they want to save chemo for when the tumor gets aggressive because there are only two drug choices and tumors learn from whatever attacks them and improve their defenses accordingly. So, we wait. I will go for MRIs every 90 days, it could take years before the tumor changes, or it could have already changed and we won't know about it until we take new pictures in which case it might be too late. The biggest concern it seems is if it engulfs an artery in which case I could have a stroke. That's not a big enough concern at this point to make them want to operate.

Here's the amazing part of this (I'll bet you didn't know how special I am) my neurosurgeon has only seen a handful of cases like this. I'm the only case he's seen with such a low grade tumor. That's pretty cool. Of the handful of guys who can do this surgery, one of them, Dr Yasargil is the guy who invented the surgery I need. He invented the tools required for the job. He runs the most respected tumor program in America. In 1999 he was named Neurosurgeon of the Century. My doctor was placing a call to his office as I was leaving his practice on Friday afternoon. He hopes that Dr. Yasargil is interested enough in a young patient with a low grade tumor to want to operate. There are three programs in America that he recommends, but Yasargil's is the best and oddly the closest at the University of Arkansas. I am blessed that Dr. Weaver is committed to at least getting my case considered by this extraordinary specialist.

If you are a praying person and are wiling to add me to your prayer list I would be grateful. I am praying four specific things. These came to me in exactly this order and yesterday I realized they deal with the body, spirit, heart and desire, in that order. The last one only occurred to me yesterday and it is my crazy, only a miracle could make it happen hope. Fortunately the guy I'm praying to doesn't find the impossible difficult.

1. The tumor will not grow or change at all before it is possible to attack it.
2. My faith will hold.
3. That I will live long enough to see my 11 year old grow up and get married.
4. That Dr. Yasargil will already have it on his mind to come to Atlanta to demonstrate his technique for the neurosurgeons here who have only seen this kind of procedure on video so far. That when he sees my case he will be eager to put his desire into action.

I think God is pleased when we have the gall to ask for the impossible. I don't know that I'm going to get the pony I'm asking for, but if I do, I will know and every one around me will know how amazing it is. It's an opportunity to make an impact on people who don't always recognize the hand of God when it is moving in front of them.

A New Year, without resolutions

2012-01-03T10:19:00.002-05:00

Y'all know how I am about resolutions... I don't make them because they only become a tool I use to hurt myself with later on if I fail to keep them. I am perfectly willing to make a few goals for January, however.

The Tiny Stitches retreat in Amicalola Falls is coming up in a couple of weeks. I will be making the mystery quilt again. In complete keeping with my nature, I got right on the shopping and got my fabrics chosen back when they first published the requirements. All of those fabrics have been sitting in a neat pile in a bag while the cutting instructions got wadded up in my handbag for a month. I cleaned out that bag this weekend (because while I won't make resolutions, I am superstitious about not carrying old trash into the new year) and decided I would get serious and cut the fabric this week. Pictures of the fabric selection are forthcoming, I promise.

I also need to decide about what ELSE to work on during the retreat because the mystery by itself isn't really enough to keep me busy. It's not like I don't have a hundred UFO's to choose from. Two projects are speaking louder than the others at this point. I should make more blocks for my hunter's star quilt. Yes, I still have not finished that quilt, even though I sewed the blocks together into a quilt top! After getting it sewed together I decided it was not really large enough to be practical for use and I love it too much to not be able to use it. I hate it too much to make more blocks, apparently. I really SHOULD bring more browns and tans and get those blocks made. It would be a nice thing if I could get them all made. The other thing I'm thinking about working on is a sampler quilt I want to make after taking a class with Mary Kay Mouton earlier this year. I made several blocks from her "Flip Flop Paper Piece" book and would like to make a whole quilt out of batiks. It was a fun class and her technique is also fun. Stay posted to find out what I actually do. :)

The Mavens will be having a sew-in on Monday next week, so if I were smart, I'd get serious about my projects and have something ready to work on that will make my time at the retreat productive.

The good news items are these: Christmas in my house has been packed up and put away (got it all down on the 1st, thank you), the Gators won their bowl game, my husband has joined the gym, my daughter has decided to try out for the swim team and I am finding my footing after feeling as if I was simply moving from event to event without a moment of planning for where I want to be in the future.

Happy 2012 !!!

Green Beans Delicious

2011-04-14T08:00:00.002-04:00

This is one of my favorite side dishes, and it's so very easy to prepare! I hope you try it and enjoy it in your house.

Green Beans Delicious
2 strips bacon
1/2 red onion thinly sliced
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 pckg Trader Joe's Thin Green Beans (frozen)
2 T. dijon mustard
3 T. cider vinegar
tarragon, salt and pepper

Cook the bacon strips over medium heat until crispy. Remove and drain on a paper towel. Sautee the onion in the bacon drippings until wilted. While you wait crumble the bacon. Add the tomatoes and cook just until they begin to soften. Move the food aside and add the mustard to the pan, whisk in the cider vinegar, stir to combine all. Add the green beans, a good pinch of salt, some pepper and tarragon to taste. Cover and continue to cook until the beans are heated through, just a few minutes. Return the bacon to the pan, toss and serve.

North Carolina Quilt Symposium

2011-04-09T13:16:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I got my confirmation for the North Carolina Quilt Symposium. (Insert silly girl squeak here.)

I invited three friends to join me and two of them took me up on it. So Hillary and my sister-in-law Leslie plus a friend of of Leslie's will be coming along. The thought of getting Leslie and Hillary in the same room for some giggles really appeals to me. I can't tell you how glad I am to be doing this with them, although I was alone last year and got placed with some lovely ladies who graciously included me in all their fun. I hope I see them again this year.

Last year I registered very late for this event and I was lucky to get anything at all, this year I registered on the first day, so I hoped I would get my first picks, and I did!

Friday Morning: Pushing Creativity
Friday Afternoon: My Stars, My Stars, Sally Collins
Friday Evening: Looking Ahead with Margaret Miller

Saturday Morning: My Stars, My Stars, part two
Saturday Afternoon: Surface Design Madness, Susan Brubaker Knapp
Saturday Evening: Making Time for Quilts

Sunday Morning: Surface Design Madness, part two

Now I just have to hope I am strong enough and healthy enough to enjoy them!

June won't get here too soon!

Pasta with Leeks, Peas and Lemon Cream

2011-04-07T07:00:00.005-04:00

I don't know if you've seen the March cover of Woman's Day magazine, and even if you did you might not have seen what I saw because they did multiple covers apparently. I'm glad I saw this pasta dish staring at me while I was in the check-out at Publix. It looked beautiful and it tastes great. I've changed the ingredient proportions a bit and got six servings, along with salad. If I had served some grilled fish or chicken along side we might have been eating this for half a week. (Nobody in my house would have complained about that!)

I think, in fact, if you're looking for something with more protein, some flaked salmon or chicken might be a perfect addition to this dish, just add it in with the pasta and peas to finish together and come up to heat.

I love this combination of lemon, nutmeg and tarragon. I'm going to be experimenting a lot with this combination this is amazing food for the spring weather. YUM!

Creamy Pasta with Leeks, Peas and Parmesan
With a salad this will make enough for two meals.

1 lb orchiette pasta (I used croxetti but I think tortellini or mini-raviolis might work well, too)
1 lb bag frozen peas
1 lemon zest removed in wide strips and then sliced fine on the diagonal
2 Tbsp. olive oil
8 leeks or 4 large leeks, cut in quarters lengthwise, rinsed out and then sliced in 1/2” pieces
1.25 c. heavy cream
1/4 t. nutmeg (freshly ground is best)
2 Tbsp. fresh tarragon, chopped fine, plus more for garnish
1/4 c. grated parmesan

Bring large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, prepare vegetables and set up a collander.

Sautee leeks in olive oil over medium heat, season with salt & pepper for 6-8 minutes.

Drop pasta in the water, check the packaging for suggested cooking time. You’ll want to remove the pasta about a minute before it’s finished and let it finish cooking in the sauce.

Add cream, lemon zest and nutmeg to the leeks. Bring to a boil and then simmer until thickened. Dip a measuring cup into the pasta water and transfer one cup’s worth into the pasta sauce (hang on I promise this works). Drain the pasta when it has about a minute left to go and then add it to the sauce along with the peas. Cook it all until the pasta is cooked and the sauce is the proper consistency. Give the dish one last toss with the grated cheese.

The Round Barn Quilt

2011-04-02T08:53:00.011-04:00

A couple of years ago I became aware of Susan Brubaker Knapp, and while reading her blog I became a fan. I admire the way she works equally well in traditional and art quilting. I was thrilled when I was able to arrange for her to be invited to the ECQG for some workshops. To say that she is a great teacher is an understatement. She really understands the processes that she teaches about and has a great way of enabling students to leave their fears at the door and just go for it. In addition to her teaching skills and artistic gifts, she's a lovely person. I've had the pleasure of meeting quite a few teachers over the years, many of them are "heroes" in the blog world. It was wonderful to meet Susan and find that she is just as wonderful to have lunch with as she is to read on her blog. I've enjoyed our internet friendship very much and I'm hoping to hear this week that I've been accepted into one of her workshops at the NCQS this June.

When she was at the ECQG last year she taught her "Round Barn" quilt which involved taking a photograph through the pattern making process and into thread painting. It was a fun project and the image is perfect because it was easy to work with not a ton of details and yet so much possibility for the confident quilter. I worked with solid red, white, and gray fabric, and a black on black for the window glass, mottled gray for the stonework and a patterned green for the grass.

I really enjoyed this class a lot. I'm confident with free motion quilting but had not ever worked quite as indepth as this class called for. Taking that red fabric from plain to the side of a barn wall was addictive. I actually had to convince myself to stop, kind of like knowing when to take a drawing away from a 5 year old and tell her it's finished just before she takes the purple crayon and scribbles all over it.

The stone wall was fun, too. All the stones were threadsketched in without guidance. It was like meditation to me, just moving it under the needle deciding where the stones would lie and how much thread was needed for each one. The only part I didn't love doing on this was the grass, I loved working the edges into the stone, but over the expanse of the green fabric it was a lot of work without a lot of "pay-off" as it couldn't really be seen well. If I did it again, I'd cut a few inches off the bottom of the quilt and have less grass.
I recently took it out of my unfinished work pile and got it finished. Susan has kindly given me permission to submit this piece to the ECQG Small Treasures Auction in September. It's the first time I've submitted something to the auction, thanks so much Susan for your encouragement and inspiration!

Monthly Accounting

2011-04-01T08:11:00.007-04:00

It's been a good month from a quilting perspective. I haven't done everything I had hoped but I have made some significant progress. Looking at last month's "to be done" list, I'm pleased. Chocolate Covered Cherries is going to be fully quilted soon. I cut more fabric for my Hunters' Star quilt and I finished thread painting, quilting and facing the Round Barn quilt for the ECQG Small Treasures Auction.

Quilts that need quilting and binding:

Chocolate Covered Cherries

Quilts that need basting, quilting and finishing:

Sherwood Forest Romance

Briners' Picnic (Yes, I still haven't found the backing I had been planning to use for this quilt, I have found another that would work.)

WIPS that need piecing:

Hunter's Star (I now know how many more blocks I need to make and I've begun cutting fabric for them.)

Green and white chain quilt (I've done no work on this. I haven't pieced except for one day this month, it's been all about the quilting with me.)

I'd like to start another small project, possibly something to enter in the ECQG show, but I'm committed to finishing Chocolate Covered Cherries first. I'm loving the work I'm seeing at LuAnn's blog. I'd like to see what I could do in that same style.

All Wound Up

2011-03-28T10:17:00.003-04:00

I hate sitting down to do hours of work to find I have to replace the bobbin 20 minutes in. When I sit down to the machine, before I start quilting the first thing I do is check the bobbin. If I'm going to sewing for hours, I put in a fully wound bobbin. But if, like today, I only have a time to sew a few lines I replace the bobbin with a barely filled one. If it runs out, I can always put in a another one full or not, and then I've got an empty one I can refill.

Am I Blue?

2011-03-16T17:11:00.005-04:00

I have a new favorite quilting tool, and thank goodness Melinda shared this tip with me, I really don't know how I would have gotten this far if I had marked this quilt's grid in a traditional way. So what's my great tool? Blue painter's tape. It comes in all kinds of widths, leaves no residue and can be picked up and moved several times before it is no longer tacky enough to be useful. I have not drawn a single line to quilt this piece. I used a ruler to find the place I wanted to lay the tape for one line of quilting, sewed on each side of the tape and then moved it to the next side of the stitching.

I can't say this is not a lot of work I'm doing. I think it will be about seven more afternoons of sewing before I'm done and ready for binding, but I'm really pleased with how it's coming along. I got nearly one whole corner's worth of gridlines done today, plus some of the anchor lines all the way around the outer part of the quilt. It's great to be sewing again though, after nearly a week off.

Confession and Cool Binding Tip

2011-03-13T09:02:00.007-04:00

Confession: I have not sewn since Tuesday. We've had family in town and while there has been time to sew, I have been reluctant to pull everything out and make a mess since I don't have a dedicated sewing room. (Something I'm working on fixing... more to come on this.) I have, however, done a lot of reading about quilting this week.

Tomorrow the Piecemakers are making the annual visit to the Bulloch Hall Quilt Show, so between the reading and the show I'm sure I"ll be bursting with more ideas (like I need to make the to-do list longer?).

In other news, I have finished quilting the interior parts of Chocolate Covered Cherries, so now I'm back to grid quilting in the outer white areas. The end is in sight. Also, I finished thread painting and quilting the Round Barn quilt, so I have to apply the facing and get that passed in for the ECQG Small Treasures Auction, hopefully on Friday.

In the mean time, Trisha over at TLC Stitches shared a tutorial about a cool (and easy looking) faux piped binding technique. I can't wait to try it!

Don't Forget!!

2011-03-12T17:39:00.002-05:00

We lose an hour tonight, don't forget to set your clocks forward!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

2011-03-10T08:13:00.003-05:00

Okay, before you decide you don't need to consider this recipe because nobody in your house will eat brussels sprouts, let me encourage you to try them this way. First of all, it's easy, second of all, it's tasty and finally, it's really good for you.

This is not so much a recipe as it is a technique.

Take a package of frozen brussels sprouts out of the freezer and let it defrost. It will take a while. You might have success using a microwave or warm water, but honestly, I usually take it out in the morning, throw it in the sink and forget about it until later in the afternoon. At some point in the afternoon I will open the package (and here is the only part of the recipe that is "work") and cut each sprout in half. You don't have to do this, but I like the way the cut surfaces cook up, personally.

Put the sprout halves in a large mixing bowl and toss with some salad dressing. I usually like a balsamic vinaigrette but last night I used a honey mustard vinaigrette and it came out delicious. Cider vinegar would be good with it too, especially if you make a dressing with bacon drippings and cider vinegar. (How could I be out of balsamic vinegar and not know it?) How much dressing should you use? Good question. Enough. Enough to coat the sprouts but not drown them. You can proceed immediately to cooking or let them marinate for an hour or two first.

Turn the oven on high heat 500F is not out of the question here. You will need to drive off a lot of moisture and the high heat is good for that. I have a convection oven now and use that for this dish, but I used to do it in a regular oven all the time. Spread the sprouts out on a baking sheet, sprinkle with course salt and put in the lower third of a hot oven. The first 15-20 minutes or so you won't see a lot of change as the sprouts are giving up their moisture. Give them a stir at this point and watch them every few minutes or so. You want to let them go until they show some real browning but you don't want them dried out and burnt! If you used a commercial salad dressing (I do sometimes) it probably had sugar in it and it will aid with the browning. All in all, if the sprouts were completely defrosted when you started it will take about 30 minutes in the oven.

Check the seasoning before serving, you may find you need salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Making Progress

2011-03-06T06:30:00.001-05:00

I have begun quilting Chocolate Covered Cherries and I can't resist showing you how it's going. I love when I've done enough work to really get a sense of how a piece is going to look when it's finished. The background grid is beautiful. I hope the rest of the quilting goes as well. Back to the machine!

Dear Hannah - ECQG Raffle

2011-03-05T18:05:00.000-05:00

The East Cobb Quilters' Guild has created a wonderful quilt to raffle off at our show in September. It is "Dear Hannah" which designer Brenda Papadakis was kind enough to give us permission to use in this fashion. I can't tell you how much I love this quilt. It was pieced and appliqued by the members of the guild. Carol York did a lovely job of managing the project from start to finish. Bella Bamert did the quilting.

Tickets are available for $1 a chance. Leave me a message or email me for purchase.

Kahlua Burgers

2011-03-03T07:00:00.001-05:00

Hubby loves the hamburgers I've been making since before we got married. Truth be told, I'd love to branch out and make some other kinds of burgers, but he wants these. Every time. Any time I talk about making something else he says, I really like them the way you always make them. (Sigh) Sometimes it's a good thing to have a man who knows what he likes. LOL

Making the burgers isn't hard, but I do take some care that might seem like overkill to you. I always make a big batch because it's no harder to mix 4 lbs of meat than it is to mix 2 lbs and you can freeze what you don't eat for the first dinner. It's nice to have a bunch of burger patties in the freezer for those nights when you can't or don't want to cook.

Pixie's Kahlua Burgers

2 lb. ground chuck (very cold)
2 lb. ground sirloin (very cold)
2/3 package Lipton onion soup mix
1/3 c. Kahlua
a few shots of Worcestershire sauce

Put all the ingredients into the biggest bowl you own. I pre-chill the bowl because the burgers seem to come out better if everything stays cold. In fact, when I have the time I mix the meat and put the bowl into the fridge, the burgers are better if the flavors have time to meld together for a couple of hours before forming and cooking the burgers. The key to mixing the meat is to break through the meats to allow the seasoning and kahlua to coat as much as possible without squishing it all to death. You aren't making meatloaf so don't mush the heck out of it. Combine all the ingredients as thoroughly as possible without overworking the meat. (Okay, so I've said it three times in three different ways, did you get the message?) Rest it in the fridge if you have the time.

I weigh the meat before forming the burgers. My burgers are 7-8 ounce patties. Hint: I wrap my scale in plastic wrap to make the clean up super easy. I compact them making fairly flat hockey puck shaped burgers. They get laid out on a half sheet pan (which is easy to carry out to the grill) with plastic wrap between layers if I'm making a bunch of them. I have learned from experience to make my burgers wider and flatter than I think necessary, they will draw up as they cook.

I cook over high heat on the grill. I don't squish the burgers flat as they cook, and I don't poke them. I lay them down and leave them alone. Close the lid and walk away, usually to take the dirty sheet pan back into the kitchen, prep a clean tray for removing the burgers and other little chores. About ten minutes. When I come back to the grill I'm looking for little pools of pink juices to gather on top of the patties, also the sides of the burgers are showing "cooked" more than half way up. A quick swish of a spatula and they are all flipped. If I'm going to add cheese I do it now. Close the lid again and walk away again, but just about five minutes. I test my burgers by touching the middle, if it feels bouncy it's done. If it feels soft I leave it for another minute. If someone likes them well done (bless their hearts) I might flip it back over when it's "done" and give it a couple more minutes until it no longer bounces when it's touched (such a shame, in my opinion).

The kahlua causes great carmelization on the burger and gives a little "what is that flavor" yum to the finished product without killing the great taste of beef. Sometimes if I can find a good pineapple I'll grill slices of fresh pineapple go with the burgers, but canned pineapple never works for me, I don't know why. We also grill onion along with the burgers.

Cherry Covered Chocolate

2011-03-02T07:00:00.001-05:00

It dawned on me the other day that I never showed you my favorite gifty from the Tiny Stitches retreat. Melinda and Maetha always work hard to make the retreat special and the goody bags are very generous but this sweet treat was outstanding. Mary Sullivan deserves a lot of credit for all the hand sewing she did to make 50+ of these donuts.

Monthly Accounting

2011-03-01T07:06:00.004-05:00

So this has been an unusual month for me. I started out with much vigor and determination, and promptly sewed through my finger. My heavy duty machine spent most of the the last four weeks in shop, I just got it back yesterday. I've done some piecing but not on the two tops that were listed as needing piecing in my report last month. I also managed to sandwich Chocolate Covered Cherries and tried to do Briners' Picnic, too but I can't find the backing I had set aside for it. That prompted an effort to get my act together and clean up the mess that used to be my storage area. It's coming along. I still having found the backing for that quilt.

So as we head into March things are much as they were on February 1st. I have added one thing to my list. I selected a thread painted piece I started in a class with Susan Brubaker Knapp (she's a wonderful teacher) I'm never going to use it as wall hanging for myself, but I'd like to get it finished for the ECQG Small Treasures Auction. It's mostly finished, just an hour or so of thread painting left and then some light quilting and facing and it's done. I want to hand it in at the next show meeting. Special thanks to Susan for giving me permission to donate one of her designs.

Quilts tops that need basting, quilting and finishing:

Chocolate Covered Cherries (pin basted and ready to go under the needle)

Sherwood Forest Romance

Briners' Picnic (yes, still)

WIPS that need piecing:

Hunter's Star (I've started sketching border possibilities, we'll see where this one goes in March)

Green and white chain quilt (I did get the white blocks cut and the rows pieced, I just need to get it all together)

Other:

Round Barn (needs thread painting, quilting, facing)

Home Sweet Home

2011-02-27T10:00:00.002-05:00

Seven years ago today we moved into this home. It was not supposed to be our forever home and I didn't really love it a whole lot, but it was a great bargain in the right place and it would be a great place to live for five years while we figured out where we wanted to build.

I had already had my heart (and spirit) broken by our first house and I was exhausted from the search for a new home. I felt like we had looked at every house for sale in a 10 square mile area. Earlier in the morning we had seen a house that I was sure I was going to love in a neighborhood I really wanted to live in, but when we walked through it was clear it was not the right house. I was disappointed, worn out and questioning our decision to move altogether. On the drive across town I said "You know what?" and when my husband asked what I was thinking I thought better of saying "If this next one isn't the one I'm done looking, at least for a while." But that's what I was thinking.

From the minute he crossed over the threshold my husband was sure this was the house and every new room he walked through made him more confident this was "the one". I was ambivalent but willing to trust his judgement (go ahead, ask me who picked the first house) so we put in a bid that same afternoon. It was accepted and the ball was rolling for expedited escrow and we moved in a couple of weeks later.

We weren't in this house for three days before I called his office and said "You know that whole five year plan thing? Forget about it, I'm never moving again." I love my home, my neighbors and neighborhood and I feel blessed to have been here for these seven years.

Chocolate Covered Cherries

2011-02-25T16:11:00.004-05:00

This week has just been as crazy as all get out. I've accomplished very little of what I was aiming for and obviously I haven't been writing, but I do have something to share today. I got Chocolate Covered Cherries sandwiched in preparation for when my Bernina returns home. I can't wait to start quilting on it, although I confess when I started laying it out I wasn't at all clear about what I was going to do. That changed as the day went along.

I have a friend who wondered what it was like to sandwich a quilt, so I took pics along the way.

I have been loving Hobbs Wool batting but this time I decided to try Dream Wool. It seems like it might be heavier than the Hobbs, I plan to quilt this piece quite densely, I'm looking forward to seeing how it quilts up.

I tend to get carried away with the pinning. There are worse bad habits in quilting, I suppose.

I have always admired quilts with grid pattern quilting in the backgrounds and I've never done one. As I laid this quilt down I realized it would be perfect for it. I'm a little intimidated about the amount of work it will require but it will be worth it. I really love this quilt, it was the mystery quilt from last year's Tiny Stitches retreat (it's about time to get it quilted, eh?) and the colors and the pattern really appeal to me a lot. It's worth the extra work.

Who are the Mavens?

2011-02-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

The Monday Morning Mavens: Jan, Melinda, Danielle and Lynda

As I mentioned before, the Mavens went on a field trip on Monday and we stood together long enough for a picture at Intown Quilters.

Easy "Mexican" Chicken Soup

2011-02-17T06:00:00.001-05:00

I don't have a picture to offer you, but I promise you this easy soup is both satisfying and good enough for company:

1 chicken breast cooked and shredded

1 can sweet corn, drained

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 jar salsa (I use Newman's Own "medium heat")

1 box of low sodium chicken broth

Garnish:

Shredded 4 cheese Mexican Blend

Sour Cream

Dump the first five ingredients into a pan and heat them up gently. Ladle into bowls and garnish with shredded cheese and sour cream. Serve with corn bread or tortilla chips.

If you can open a can, you can make this soup. I think I made it up in response to a five ingredient recipe challenge, but I really don't remember, it's been so long. I made it a lot when I was pregnant and it has been a staple in our house ever since.

You NEVER Know What You'll See at Tiny Stitches

2011-02-16T16:09:00.005-05:00

On Monday the Mavens did a mini quilt shop hop. We went to Intown Quilters, Little quilts and Tiny Stitches. While we were there, four men in tuxedos walked in, delivered flowers to Connie (one of the employees) and sang to her. I felt lucky I got to be there to see it!

Bernina-less and Still Trying to Be Productive

2011-02-13T09:59:00.004-05:00

Today I have read through a huge number of blogs and I am shocked at how many quilters mentioned having their machine in the shop! Of course most of them are just getting cleaned and tuned-up. I'm kind of hoping that's all mine needed too, but we won't know for sure until the repairman is back to work. I took my beloved Bernina in the day after my unfortunate sewing accident and found out that the only man with access to Bernina parts is down with pneumonia and it might be a month before I get my machine back!!!

What's a girl to do? Well, I still have piecing work that can be done on one of my Featherweights. (BTW, I got the call that my new Featherweight is cleaned, oiled and ready to roll so I could give her a spin as soon as I pick her up.) And I could sandwich my finished quilt tops, I even bought more safety pins last weekend at Tiny Stitches thinking that it might be the first time I can remember having so many tops layered and ready to go under the needle at one time.

I have spent a lot more time reading this week than I can remember in a long time. I finished re-reading Shelters of Stone by Jean Auel (I'm getting ready for the release of The Land of Painted Caves) and zipped through a light read called Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen which was a little like Practical Magic set in the south. My next read will probably be Ken Follett's Fall of Giants. I listened to the second book in the series while I was on the retreat last month and loved it, but I'm ready for another big read on the page. Of course, when I say "on the page" I mean on my Nook which hubby gave me for Christmas. It will never take the place of paper for some things like cook books and quilting magazines, but it's much nicer than holding around a 1000 page novel, especially when I'm reading in bed, plus, it's easier to carry around.

Chain, Chain, Chain

2011-02-11T08:06:00.000-05:00

When I started making these blocks I thought I would set them as they are shown on the right. I love chains. I love all quilts with a strong diagonal design, really. I'm making this one for a friend going through a difficult divorce. I hope to have it finished by the time he has found a new place to live.

When I had finished a few of the blocks I laid them down and took a picture of them side by each and I really like how they look this way, too. You lose the diagonal appeal but you see so much more of the green. Of course I lose a lot of the blank space for quilting. I had hoped to use this as an opportunity to practice some serious motifs. On the other hand, if I don't have as much quilting, I can be sure to have it done in time.

Decisions, decisions.

Pork with White Beans and Cranberries

2011-02-10T06:00:00.005-05:00

Clearly I could take some lessons on food styling and photography from my friend Lisa at The Cutting Edge of Ordinary.

I first found this recipe in a magazine several years ago. I had modified it somewhat since then. What drew me to it (besides the headlined pork) is the ample use of fresh sage. I love it's heady perfume and find it perfect for something bland like beans. The original recipe did not call for cinnamon, but I find it works nicely with the sage and shallots that are the stars here. Try it and see if you agree. The nice thing is that it takes about 30 minutes to do the prep work and 2.5 hours in the oven. It's the perfect "quilting day" dish since you don't have to do much once you get it started and it reheats like a dream. It feeds my family of three for several days, lunch and dinner. The left over pork makes lovely sandwiches, too.

Pork with White Beans and Cranberries

1 lb dried navy beans
1 5 lb pork shoulder roast
1 1/2 T. kosher salt
1 t. ground pepper
1/2 t. cinnamon
2 T. fresh sage chopped fine
1 T. canola oil
8 large shallots, sliced thin
5 c. low sodium chicken broth
3 sprigs of fresh sage
1/2 c. dried cranberries

The night before making this dish, place the beans in a large bowl and cover with water to 2" above beans. The beans must soak at least 8 hours.

In a small bowl mix together the salt, pepper and cinnamon.

Preheat oven to 350 F

Dry the pork roast well with paper towels and then rub well with the cinnamon mixture. Pat on the chopped sage all over the roast. (I sometimes do this step the night before, when I'm preparing the beans and put the roast back in the fridge overnight but it's not necessary, you can do it right before you brown the roast and it's still going to be wonderful.) In a large dutch oven warm the oil over medium high heat and brown the roast on all sides. Depending on the size and temperature of the roast this should take about 5 minutes per side. Go for the brown, light golden isn't as flavorful, just don't burn it. Remove the roast. Add the shallots and saute them for a few minutes until they are translucent. Return the roast to the pot. Drain the beans and add them as well, on either side of the roast. If there is any left over rub you can add this to the pot as well (but only if you're using low-sodium chicken broth). Add the chicken broth and sage springs. Cover and bake for 2 hours, remove from oven, add cranberries and bake for another 30 minutes or until the pork is fork tender. Slice or shred the pork if you prefer.

Mavens

2011-02-09T10:10:00.005-05:00

The Mavens went to Jan's house on Monday to work on a project for the quilt show. I'll tell you more about it later, I don't know if it's supposed to be a surprise and I don't want to publish pictures until I know for sure.

Instead I thought I'd show you the quilt Jan is working on. Isn't it beautiful? She's a great fan of Sue Spargo and does some lovely work in wool.

Speaking of Sue Spargo, she is coming to speak at the ECQG. You can find all our upcoming speakers and workshops at our website.

Pressed On All Sides

2011-02-07T13:00:00.002-05:00

My iron is dying. I really have nothing to complain about. She's been a great workhorse for many years. I bought her back when I first got married 14 years ago. A few years back she sprung a leak, but I could still put water in her as long as I didn't fill it past 3/4 cup full. But now she's just not getting as hot as she used to. I've been slow accepting this truth but it was time to shop for a new iron.

Melinda and I have talked about it and she recommended buying the least expensive heaviest iron I could find. I do have to admit though I was rather seduced by the fancy colored lights on this model and stopped my search for something heavier or cheaper once I'd found it. (Perhaps I was part cat in another life? I am easily distracted by sparkly things.)

I am honorably discharging my old iron, and commissioning the new one today.

The Super Bolt Sale

2011-02-06T13:09:00.006-05:00

Every year on Super Bowl Sunday Maetha and the ladies at Tiny Stitches suit up and prepare their best defense against throngs of sale crazed shoppers. In the end it's a win-win situation.

Preferred shoppers at Tiny Stitches are called "Bag Ladies" and they are invited to start shopping two hours before anyone else is allowed in the store on Super Bolt Sunday. These dedicated Bag Ladies are waiting patiently for the doors to open.

Everything in the main store is 25% off. I was there when the doors opened and by the time I got to the notions area there were no more multi-packs of rotary cutter blades left because others were also stocking up on consumables, but I really can't complain. There wasn't a lot I needed to buy and I got most of it at a great discount.

If that were all I had to talk about it would already be a great sale, but there's the classroom sale, too. In the classroom Maetha piles up tables with bolts she's ready to be rid of. Tables are arranged according to price. You buy whatever is on the bolt for a fixed price, from $5 to $30. I've bought plenty of fabrics for quilt backs in that room over the years.

My haul for the day.

So what did I get? Well, I picked up more green for the borders and back of my chain quilt. Also some blue for a charity quilt Jan and I are making together. I also picked up two jelly rolls from Moda's Lily & Will (green) which I felt fortunate to find still sitting there after passing them up a few days ago when I was in the shop, a travel size bottle of gloves in a bottle, a new Clover marking pen, some safety pins (because I have so many quilts ready to sandwich I might use up all the pins I owned already), some needles and an oversized applique pressing sheet.

The best part? This sale happens at Tiny Stitches, my favorite quilt shop with my favorite people. Even with all the crazy shoppers the lovely ladies at Tiny Stitches are friendly and helpful.

Quilts I Dream of Making

2011-02-05T10:21:00.006-05:00

There is, somewhere in the neural pathways of my brain, a collection of quilts yet to be born. Some of them are thoughts, well conceived and just waiting for the breath of inspiration to get underway. Others are just "tho.....". Ideas or beginnings of ideas that have yet to come together fully. Here are some of the quilts I want to make someday, some of these have been on my wishlist for many, many years. The last one is a obviously a very recent add.

Bear Paw quilt, preferably in greens and purples
Amish Diamond quilt (My quilting is going to have to improve dramatically) for me to want to do this)
Feathered Star Medallion quilt
a portrait quilt (I have a picture of Melinda and myself that really speaks to me, but there are others, too)
French Braid
Pickle Dish (I've included a picture of a beautiful one from Show & Tell at the ECQG meeting last week.)
Double Wedding Ring
Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll (Have you seen these yet? Bonnie Hunter's mystery project that began last year is starting to bear beautiful fruit all over the blog world.)

I'm sure there are more wishful thinking items buried deep in the cortex of my mind and they'll come to surface as soon as I hit the "publish" button.

Baby, Baby

2011-02-04T10:34:00.006-05:00

I have been wanting a Featherweight off and on for years and years. A black one. With a scroll plate face. That's what I wanted and nothing else would do. How do I know nothing else would do? Because I already owned a Featherweight, a tan one. It's a bit complicated, but here it is. When my father died my sisters and I cleaned out the attic and found my mother's old sewing machine which had been mouldering for years, she had to have stored it there when she got a new machine back when I was 9 or 10 years old.

By the time this machine was found the storage box had rotted through on the bottom and was no good at all. The machine itself needed cleaning, oiling, and a new belt, it had some rust on the bottom plate and a chip in the chrome knob of the wheel, but it's a great little machine. In the time after my dad's death it was a comfort to me to own it, but it wasn't the Featherweight I had always dreamed of owning. I named her Alice after my mother. During the ECQG quilt show in 2009 one of our vendors was selling replica Featherweight boxes and I bought one (I think it cost me $20). It was black, but it was good to have a box for Alice, much better than the alternative!

So for years I would sometimes look on eBay at the glossy black beauties for sale. I'd bid occasionally but I never won. It's hard to be competitive about buying a machine when you have a perfectly good machine sitting in the closet. I'm far too pragmatic for that. But at the Tiny Stitches retreat there were several ladies using Featherweight machines and it made me wonder why I didn't bring mine. It certainly would have been more convenient than hauling my Bernina to the mountains.

I found myself looking at eBay again. Try very hard to imagine my surprise when I found a black scroll face plate machine up for auction that came with a brown and tan box. Hmmm. The man selling it knows nothing about these machines except that they are "valuable" and after finding one he was trying to flip it for a profit. He didn't have a lot of pictures posted, but from what he had there it was clear it was showing some wear. He had no idea if it would stitch but the motor ran and the light worked. What we had here, ladies and gentlemen was a bargain, maybe. Nobody had bid on it and there were only six hours left before the sale was done. I put in a lowball bid and walked away. I realized the machine might need a fair bit of work before it was good for sewing but I thought it was a sign that it came with the box I needed for Alice. Fifteen minutes before the auction ended I checked in to see I had been outbid but it was still well below my upper limit, I began to think I really had a chance. Sure enough, I won it! Well, then the stress began. What if it was awful? A bargain that costs hundreds of dollars to set right is no bargain, right?

The transaction went very smoothly. She arrived yesterday, the man who sold it to me packed it wonderfully and didn't gouge me on shipping charges. Could it really be that easy? Yes, in fact, it was. I took it out of the box, inserted a needle and threaded her up. She sews a fine stitch. This morning I took her to Ashby's for cleaning and oiling before I really take her for a spin, but I am very excited about my new baby, I've named her Betsy. The bonus, she came with half a dozen feet, the original manuals and the brown and tan box which needs some tender attention but is a perfect home for Alice.

Pixie's Carrot Ginger Soup

2011-02-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

This delicious and easy to make soup has become a staple for me since I first made it in December. I hope you enjoy it!

Pixie's Carrot Ginger Soup

2 T. butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 lbs. carrots peeled and cut into quarters
2 T. grated fresh ginger
6 c. low sodium chicken broth
1 c. heavy cream
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
salt and pepper

Sautee the onion in the melted butter until it becomes translucent. Add the carrots, ginger, thyme and chicken broth. Cover and simmer for one hour, the carrots should be thoroughly cooked and quite soft. Use tongs to transfer the carrots to a blender or food processor, or use an immersion blender (my personal choice) and process until very smooth. Add remaining chicken broth and heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper as desired. Serve with a loaf of crusty bread.

Dagnabbit!!!!

2011-02-02T14:05:00.008-05:00

I sewed through my middle finger. It hurts like a son of a gun. I guess I'm lucky it didn't go through my fingernail, instead piercing the cuticle and coming straight through and emerging through the pad of my finger. There was a lot of blood initially. I think I got the whole needle out of my finger (it was in two pieces, three if you count the part that was still attached to the machine) washed it with hydrogen peroxide, got the bleeding stopped, (managed to not get any blood on my quilt blocks, that's a ray of sunshine in this mess), used neosporin and a band-aid and now I hope I'm going to be fine. Ice and elevation to keep down the swelling, blah, blah, blah.

I thought you might prefer to see a picture of the weapon, rather than the flesh wound.

Finally I got back to the machine, inserted a new needle, rethreaded and tried it out. No stitch. It's not catching the bobbin thread. Remove the bobbin assembly, no stray threads, reassemble it and try again, now it works. Test and get a fine stitch. Start sewing and now I'm skipping stitches. Grrrr.

I was due for a cleaning anyway but I'd hate to think I ruined something. On the other hand, I have a surprise coming, hopefully this week. If it works out I won't miss this machine quite as much as I would otherwise.

Monthly Accounting and a Word About Batting

2011-02-01T12:00:00.004-05:00

So, it's been a long time since I've made a list like this. I'm glad to say that most of the items from my last monthly accounting are truly finished, although one still sits waiting to be quilted.

Quilts tops that need basting, quilting and finishing:

Chocolate Covered Cherries (shown with its red backing fabric)

Sherwood Forest Romance

Briners' Picnic (yes, still)

WIPS that need piecing:

Hunter's Star (I pieced together the blocks I'd made and I love it but it needs to be bigger.

Green and white chain quilt (chain blocks are made, I need to cut the white blocks and piece them together)

It's not as big a list as usual. Maybe I've gotten better at narrowing my focus? I have other unfinished things that have been in a holding pattern for a while. But since I have no plan for them they don't make the list. Obviously there's a lot of quilting in my future.

I have the batting and backing for Chocolate Covered Cherries and Briners' Picnic so there's no reason I couldn't get serious about layering them this month. When I get the chain quilt pieced its going to make it to the top of the list since I"m making it as a gift for a friend. I don't know yet how big it's going to finish. Once I know for sure I'll be ordering the battings I need. I used a wool batting in Flying Rose and I love it! It's more expensive than the Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 which is what I have been using for the past several years but wool is LOVELY to work with and the finished quilt feels wonderful. As hubby says, $20 more per batting is a really a small fraction of the cost of the quilt. Sometimes I really love how he thinks

Quilts at the Capitol

2011-01-31T15:15:00.008-05:00

Quilt guilds in Georgia were invited by the Georgia Quilt Council to make quilts to benefit the quilt museum. Today those quilts were displayed at the state capitol so of course the Mavens planned a field trip. Eventually they will be the opening collection for the museum and then they will be auctioned off. It was wonderful to see the quilts, so many of them were truly creative expressions of the guilds that made them. Here are some of my favorites:

Various officials and Mrs. Deal (our governor's wife) were on hand to meet their constituents and so I got to have my picture taken with State Senator Chip Rogers in front of the ECQG quilt.

Mystery Solved: Sherwood Forest Romance

2011-01-30T13:31:00.005-05:00

I finished applying the borders for my mystery quilt. This quilt is BIG (83 x 110) so big in fact that I had trouble finding a floor space large enough to lay it down on, you can see the borders are bunched up a bit in the picture. I think I might cut it down some in the end. I think there is too much green dwarfing the center of the quilt. If it were a light border as the original mystery called for and it could be quilted with a design to compliment the center design it would be wonderful to have a 10" border to work with but as things stand I think 8" might be sufficient. I'm going to put it aside in my pile of things to be quilted and make that call when I come to it again.

Putting this Debbie Caffrey mystery together was great fun. Thanks to Melinda and Maetha at Tiny Stitches for planning the mystery tour.

It's a Mystery

2011-01-29T14:04:00.004-05:00

Last weekend I participated in the Tiny Stitches mystery project at Amicalola Falls. It was great, even though it's taken me all week to recover from it! Once again Maetha and Melinda chose a wonderful pattern from Debbie Caffrey. The green fabric really grabbed me when I was browsing the quilt shop. It dawned on me that although green is one of my favorite colors I've never done a quilt for myself that was predominantly green. The mystery clues called for a light background but I decided to make this fabric my background choice and I worked backwards from there. As I kept looking around the shop I was taken with a collection of florals featuring violets. I've always liked the way green and purple play together but I had an "aha" moment and remembered that I had yards and yards of a pretty floral at home that might work with the green. So, I bought a half yard of the green to come home and check against my stash. Sure enough the floral I had bought and hoarded worked beautifully.

Back to the quilt store to buy more green plus the red and cream fabrics. There was also plenty of homework, cutting the fabric and placing each "clue" into its own ziplock baggie. I have to say this kind of work really appeals to my sense of crazy.

I'm almost done with the quilt top, one more border to go. I'll show you the whole thing when it's finished.

She is finally finished! I'll be entering her in the ECQG show scheduled for this September.

I have gotten quite a few UFOs off my conscience in the past year and a half. I've also started a handful of other projects, of course. I've missed blogging and often thought of returning to it. I hope you enjoy seeing some of what I've been up to.

Autumn Apples

2009-10-15T10:24:00.002-04:00

I have always wanted to make an applecore quilt. I saw templates similar to these years ago and have lamented many times not buying them when I first saw them. At the quilt show in September one of the vendors had this acrylic set and so of course I bought it.

I'm hoping to make a scrappy red, green and tan quilt. I have no deadline, it'll just be handwork for me to carry about and if it stays a UFO I'm okay with that.

Coneflowers

2009-10-09T05:00:00.000-04:00

This is my completed quilt top "Coneflowers". It has some issues, places where the color selection might have been better. When I look at this picture as a thumbnail, it all works perfectly, but when you look at it full size (and when you look at the quilt) the transitions are not as nice and you don't see plainly where the petals join the center on the flower in the front. I am debating whether to change the fabrics, or live with it.

Next month ECQG is bringing Linda Fiedler in and she'll be teaching thread painting for one of her workshops. I might use this piece as an experiment for that technique. Perhaps I can shade some of those weaker transitions to help them along? For right now, I'm claiming a victory. I've taken a workshop and completed the top from that class in record time. Woohoo!

Picture Piecing with Ruth Powers

2009-10-05T05:00:00.001-04:00

I felt really blessed to take Ruth Powers' Picture Piecing workshop last month. I'm trying to remember if I've ever been so eager to finish a workshop piece before, but I don't think I have. I showed you a fraction of the quilt yesterday.

The pattern is called "Coneflowers" and is really easy to put together. The challenge for me has been in the fabric selection. I love the way peach and brown work together, and I'm glad to be playing with it in this piece.

What Is It?

2009-10-04T05:00:00.000-04:00

Can you guess what this is?

Hint: I took a workshop with the ECQG in September and this is a piece of the project from that class.

A Vanilla Quilt?

2009-10-02T04:00:00.002-04:00

As I was writing my last entry, I pondered all the words I used to describe the colors that range between white and brown. I hate beige. Taupe, too. Five letter words ending in "e" are not pretty words for color. Of course I don't hate these colors. In fact, I LOVE them. I just hate words that sound like they might be found on pantyhose packaging.

At the ECQG meeting on Friday a lady showed a quilt that was all white and beige (that's my story and I'm sticking to it, although thinking back, I realize it might have had other colors, LOL). I turned to my friend Pam and said, "I love vanilla quilts." She laughed at me, but it's what came to my mind when I reached for a descriptive term for the soft off whites in the quilt. It seems to me there was a fairly popular pattern in the mid 90s called "Vanilla Rose" that was all creams and soft pinks. So perhaps that informed my selection.

I've been cutting up the scraps from my hunter's star quilt into 2.5" blocks and I'm going to make 9 patch blocks from the lighter browns and white fabric. I'll use them as the leaders and enders of my sewing while I work on other things, and at some point I'll have enough 9-patch blocks to make a quilt. This is the first time I've ever tried Bonnie Hunter's technique for making a scrap quilt along with other work I'm doing. So far I have four 9-patch blocks. We'll see how well it goes. By the way, Bonnie has a new book coming out about using leaders and enders for making quilts. Drop by at Quiltville and see all her wonderful quilt ideas.

Monthly Accounting: October

2009-10-01T05:00:00.003-04:00

Alright so I've already confessed that I wasn't sewing much over the summer. (As in, if it it didn't need binding or a hanging sleeve for the show, I didn't even think about doing it.) So I have a few projects that are still in UFO status and a few more that I've started since the show ended:

Quilt tops that need basting, quilting and finishing:

Ramblin' Rose
Briners' Picnic
Ties That Bind

Quilt tops that need piecing:

Hunter's Star (A few blocks made, end size unknown)
Vanilla Quilt (Three blocks made, end size unknown)
Flowers (Piecing nearly finished, just three more sections to go)

Other projects:

Apron (pieces cut, but I need to transfer marks from pattern to fabric and do the sewing.)

Surrender:
I have given up on the applique center that I was making for last year's Piecemakers exchange quilt. I was really unhappy with how it was turning out, and every time I picked it up I told everyone who was within earshot, "I hate this piece". It was time to let it go. So I'd like to work out some other arrangment of the blocks and move on, but it's not high on my list of priorities.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

2009-09-29T20:30:00.012-04:00

I am finally sewing again. After seeing "Georgia Celebrates Quilts" just over a week ago, I was highly motivated to play with fabric. While I was there, I saw Mary Ellen from Little Quilts do a demonstration on a tool for making hunter's star blocks. Now, before you even think it, let me say it: I hate single purpose tools. Unitaskers as my guru Alton Brown likes to refer to them.

I fight hard against the impulse to buy such tools. Really. But this ruler is very cool. It only makes hunter's star blocks, so if you're not interested in that pattern then you're not in danger of falling in love. But if you've ever wanted to make a quilt from this pattern and have been intimidated about it, let me encourage you to at least LOOK at Deb Tucker's Rapid Fire Hunter's Star Ruler

I have been collecting fabrics ranging from cream to biscuit, to caramel, to chocolate, to coffee and even deeper almost but not quite black for some time. (No snarky comments about the descriptive words, I can't help it if they all describe colors so well and HAPPEN to be tasty, too.) I have known that I would someday make a quilt from them, I thought maybe a log cabin, or maybe a bear paw. In truth there is enough fabric to make a few quilts. But no quilts HAD been made. So I decided to drag them out and start cutting. In just a few hours I had made several hunter's star blocks. It will be a scrappy 2 color quilt. I'm already loving it.

The Next Thing

2009-08-06T09:47:00.003-04:00

My next project is not a quilt, but I am going to use these fabrics, aren't they wonderful?

Summer Vacation

2009-07-02T09:14:00.003-04:00

We are at the beach this week, and as you can see from the picture, we're having a wonderful time. I'm glad I got "The Ties That Bind" pieced completely before leaving town. I'd have been thinking (in a guilt ridden way) about it this week if I hadn't.

The ECQG quilt show is coming up in a few months. Deadline for entry was this week. I entered "Blush and Bashful" and "Tropical Storm" which still needs a binding. Guess what I'll be working on when I get home?

The Ties That Bind, Day Three

2009-06-23T10:48:00.007-04:00

So... I went to Tiny Stitches on Sunday afternoon, while hubby and Kay were having Daddy/Daughter time.

The store was nearly empty, which worked out well for me, because I wound up trying out about 20 different bolts to find the right fabric for my quilt. Here are some of the things that DIDN'T work. I was looking for an alternative to the royal blue I went in thinking I might need.

Ultimately, this purply blue batik gave me the best results. I thought it might be TOO strong. Perhaps I needed to just do another yellow border and save the blue for binding? I decided to store it all for a couple of days and then lay it out again. I cut strips 3.5" wide and laid it out again yesterday morning. I laid it out in the front entry hall, so that I would see it as I went through my day. (Thank goodness that Smudge has trained himself to not walk on quilt layouts.)

I like it. So I've sewn all the strips to the triangles. Four more seams to go and I'm done.

The Ties That Bind, Day Two

2009-06-22T16:00:00.004-04:00

I had to re-adjust the design for ease of assembly. My first design was more interesting, but I thought if I chose something TOO challenging to puzzle together, I was going to end up with a bunch of half finished piecing and another UFO. I wanted to get the top together while I was excited about it. At first I couldn't decide how to piece the outer triangles, but ultimately I figured out that if I nestled the smaller blocks right next to the larger one, the math would be simple.

I found I could use black as a sashing, if it were not stark. I used the black and white check I bought.

The outer border was a much bigger challenge than I was expecting. Not more checks. I tried every black, white and black and white on black that I have. Nothing worked. Either it was too busy, too similar to the checks, or too stark a contrast. Then I started looking at royal blue. There's enough of it in the quilt and I've always liked the way it plays with yellow and the drama of royal and black together. Pulled my blue stash box, and found I didn't have anything I liked in the amounts I needed. Off to the LQS, again!

The Ties That Bind, Day One

2009-06-21T16:00:00.000-04:00

This quilt just happened. Almost against my will. Like a woman who didn't know she was pregnant and finds her self pushing in the seat of her car, this quilt demanded to be born where I had no plans to make it at all. Nineteen 6" blocks don't make much of a quilt, do they? Since this challenge was announced back in December I've wondered what the heck I was going to make with these blocks. I almost did nothing at all. I got them at the exchange meeting and put them in their plastic baggie and didn't even look at them until Lynda and Melinda came for a visit a week later. We started talking about them and I got them out again. Looking at them, I thought I had some OTHER 6" blocks that I had made YEARS ago, while I was pregnant. I thought I knew where they were stored and dug them out. Turns out the hearts are 5" not 6". But in the same bag were some 9" friendship stars made for me by the Monday Morning Quilters in Boston. They sent me those blocks when I first moved to Georgia. I always meant to do something with them, but didn't know what. I started playing with the three different blocks wondering if I could somehow make a quilt with blocks of such disparate measurements.

Before Lynda and Melinda left that day, I had sewn together the nine hearts in the center, and was already thinking about backgrounds and sashing. After a run to the LQS I had enough yellow to get through the project (or so I thought) and build my stash which was sadly short on sunny yellow. I also picked up a black and white checkered fabric that I thought might work as sashing, but I wasn't sure.

My first thought was to use black to expand the churn dash blocks, but I felt it stopped the design and looked too choppy.

Yellow worked better:

Then I realized I didn't like the stars in the middle of the border. Hearts worked better:

I tried again with black coping strips:

Once again, I chose yellow:

Getting these borders pieced and attached was the end of that first day.

Piecemakers' Exchange 2009

2009-06-20T11:41:00.003-04:00

Here is a picture of the blocks I received in the 2009 Piecemakers' Exchange. They are cute, and I love the colors. We were told to use black on white, white on black and a bright color. We were all surprised to see how many had used yellow. And the three reds were all a pinkish red (you couldn't MAKE that happen if you wanted to, surely someone would throw in a scarlet or maroon if you tried to restrict them to pinkish reds!). I like the churn dash blocks quite a lot, and I've never made a quilt using them so this is potential fun.

I'm BACK!

2009-06-18T14:51:00.004-04:00

I haven't been sewing much since spring began. I could tell you that it's because I was gardening so much more, or because I was too busy with Kay's school and ballet, and I wouldn't be lying. The truth is, I just lost my muse. I couldn't make myself work on any of the projects I have going, and I didn't want to start anything else. Oh, also, I discovered Facebook. Let me just say, don't go there. I take full responsibility for my decisions, but I swear, that website sucked whole days, not hours, out of my schedule!

The garden is doing beautifully, Kay is done with second grade, and tomorrow she will finished the two week intensive program for ballet. What am I going to do with the rest of my summer? I'm going to sew, of course. How do I know? When I haven't been sewing for the past few months? I got a kickstart. The Piecemaker's block exchange was due last week. 6" churn dash blocks, 20 of 'em due on last Monday. On Saturday night I sat down to a nice dinner with Lynda and confessed I hadn't even started. I estimated it would take six hours to make the blocks, and it turned out I was darn close. I turned my blocks in and spent a lovely time with some of the Piecemakers. I looked through the blocks I had received and considered some setting options, but really I wasn't too inspired. I thought the blocks were too small, and I didn't need a wallhanging in these colors. Leaving that day, I thought I might not make anything at all.

This Monday, that all changed. Stay tuned and I'll tell you all about it. Thanks to all of you who have contacted me in the past few months to make sure I was okay. I'm doing fine. Buried up to my neck in yellow squash and zucchini at the moment, but otherwise I'm just fine.

The Promise of Things Hoped For

2009-02-11T09:43:00.003-05:00

We began cleaning out some of our flower beds this weekend and look what is about to bloom:

Rose Takes Flight

2009-02-05T06:21:00.002-05:00

An interesting series of events informed my decisions about the border designs for "Ramblin' Rose". I had gotten the blocks put together last week, and as I looked at the piece, lying on the floor, I thought the next border could be flying geese or it could be a swag applique border. On Monday I decided to go visit Melinda at Tiny Stitches where she was teaching a "beyond beginners" class. I walk into the classroom and isn't she teaching the students about making strips of flying geese?

I showed her the quilt top and we talked about Pat Sloan's method for making flying geese blocks. I went home and made a slew of blocks, and spent most of the week making the strips of borders (including using downtime in a class I took on Thursday).

By Saturday afternoon the borders were all made and ready to go on the quilt. As I worked, I began thinking about the next border. I had just taken a class with Kathy Kansier about edge treatments, and decided I would make a scalloped border for this quilt. So, I set to work cutting the fabric. It's ten inches now, but I think ultimately it will be between 6-8". I'm happy to put this project up for a few days while I work on that last table runner, getting "Briner's Picnic" sandwiched, and finish turning the binding on "Princeton Plainsboro"

I'm thinking about quilting designs, and what I want my scallops to look like, so that when I get serious about finishing this piece I'm ready to go. I think I have enough of the black floral in the final border to use it for the backing.

Someday I'll do a swag border. Honest.

The Monster in the Closet

2009-02-03T05:35:00.009-05:00

So, the big four: "Princeton-Plainsboro", "Briner's Picnic", "Ramblin' Rose" and my old stack and whack top that got pulled apart to be a pile of blocks again, are starting to look like the monster in the closet did by the time I was 14.

You know that feeling? When you were a teenager, and you could remember that you USED to think there was a monster in the closet, but you no longer feared opening the door? That's how I feel about the big four, and the big six before that. Honestly, looking back, I think having so many UFOs kept me from being able to make any progress ANYWHERE in my quilting life. I have seldom worked this hard on a goal, but it's been totally worth it. I knocked off "Blush and Bashful" and hired out "Tropical Storm" to get it finished. "Princeton-Plainsboro" has binding, and "Rambling Rose" blocks are pieced, and I'm working on the final border this week. "Briner's Picnic" will be easily quilted and bound, in fact, I might get it sandwiched next week.

Of course, I now have "Mystery in the Mountains" to finish, as well as the Piecemaker's 2008 exchange quilt, but I really am starting to see that the monster was not something to be feared. It is entirely possible that by March I will be HUNTING to the bottom of that closet for other UFOs that need to be attacked.

Monthly Accounting: February

2009-02-01T04:30:00.006-05:00

Aren't you proud of me? For several months running I have managed to report to you about my progress for the month. Well. I'm proud of me, at any rate. I was thinking a monthly feature might REALLY stretch my ability to commit to blogging, but it's actually been a great motivator, both for sewing and for blogging.

Finished:
- 2 tables runners which were actually Christmas gifts, I didn't get to finish them, so I pieced them and presented them as gifts. (My dear friends opened their boxes, laughed with me and graciously handed them back so I could finish them!)

Made Progress:
-Quilted "Princeton Plainsboro" (2007 Piecemaker's house quilt project)
-1 table runner
-Continued to stitch on blackwork blocks, but won't be done anytime soon!
-Went on retreat and pieced center of "Mystery in the Mountains", it needs two borders
-Frogged non-working sashing on "Ramblin' Rose" and started over, blocks now pieced together in a happy arrangement. One border finished this weekend. Final border to go.

Left Untouched:
-Sandwich, quilt and bind "Briner's Picnic"
-Applique center for 2008 Piecemakers' exchange quilt

In February:
-Finish that remaining table runner
-Finish piecing the top for "Ramblin' Rose"
-Bind and make a few little adjustments to "Tropical Storm".
-Bind "Princeton Plainsboro"
-Get started on Piecemaker's 2009 exchange blocks

Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

2009-01-29T05:00:00.001-05:00

I realized this week I never showed you the pin cushion I received in the ECQG Christmas exchange. This kitty cushion was made by Barb C. who I have enjoyed working with for years. I decided that I would use some embroidery floss and stitch it to my ironing board. Now I always have a pin cushion handy when I'm there, and when it's in the way, I just let it hang off the side.

Pretty cute, huh?

A Revelation, A Confession, and a Commitment

2009-01-27T04:40:00.002-05:00

I was at a LQS this week and saw this block of month pattern (The Queen and Her Court) and had the fabrics been even slightly interesting to me, I would have signed up for it. And then it dawned on me, I don't have time for these things if I want ANY time at all to create my own work.

In looking at the quilts I've worked on in the past year or so, there have been three block of the month projects, three blocks exchanges (with a fourth coming up), some old UFOs mostly started in classes, some baby quilts and table runners. In all honesty, the table runners were where I expressed my creativity the most.

It's true that I never put blocks together in the way that the block of the month designer intended, but really, I'm not growing and doing the kind of work I want to do because I'm too busy putting together blocks someone else planned for me. So here it is. Yes, I did sign up for "My True Love" block of the month at Tiny Stitches, but that's it. I'm not doing this anymore. I'm going to seek do projects that will stretch my creativity and skill. I've still got a few of the big UFOs I'm trying to finish, but that will be done this year. I'm not going to start any more UFOs designed by someone else, period.

Another Mystery

2009-01-25T11:00:00.000-05:00

My friend Pam, from ECQG and Piecemakers, made this quilt top in a mystery class with Billie Lauder. Isn't it pretty? I've been collecting fabrics that range from cream through caramel, to coffee, and chocolate. (Sounds yummy, no?) I know someday I'm going to make a quilt (although in truth, I now have enough fabrics to make a few quilts) that works in this color range. It might even be scrappy, although I don't do scrappy as a rule.

I've come a long way to love this color selection. Years ago I made a scrappy beige and taupe (and some browns) quilt to match my someone's interior design plan for his home. I named it "Five letter words ending in 'E' are not colors". I'm starting to see the end of the tunnel of UFO's I've been climbing out of. Perhaps then I can start looking at what I will do with these beautiful fabrics.

My New Cutting Board

2009-01-22T05:00:00.004-05:00

I don't think I mentioned this to you before, but hubby gave me a mega cutting mat for Christmas. Someday I will have a dedicated cutting table and this will cover it nicely, in the meantime, it is the perfect size for covering either my dining room or kitchen tables. I LOVE it. He gave it to me rolled up pretty tight in a long box. Getting it unrolled in the first place was interesting. It's been lying out with coffee table books on it for about a week now, and it's finally relaxed enough to use, although it might be a bit of time before it's truly flat.

I'm a patient woman. Good things come to those who wait.

More From the Mountains

2009-01-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

I showed you my quilt top and Joyce's, but here are some pictures of tops made by other folks at the quilt retreat. I know the blue and white one belongs to Melinda, but beyond that I am lost. I was really surprised to see that whether people used soft colors or bold, modern or vintage replica prints, this quilt was successful as long as there was good contrast.

Doesn't She Look Guilty?

2009-01-15T20:03:00.006-05:00

Joyce was the murderer!

The retreat was great fun. I wish I had taken a picture of the sun setting over the mountains that first night, because the weather was awful the next few days. Melinda has a lovely picture on her blog, check it out!

There was a murder mystery, along with a mystery quilt project. We had many chances to figure out who the murderer was as we sewed our clues together, but I am no good at catching the subtle clues. I rallied hard, trying to raise an election to make me the murderer, and I think we all had great fun with it, but Melinda stood firm that the murderer had already been chosen and there was no way to know if I had been selected without solving the mystery. Obviously, it wasn't me.

On Saturday afternoon I had finished my mystery blocks and went off into the hall and tried to imagine what the final solution might be. (We wouldn't be getting the final clues until Sunday morning.) I was close, but not correct. Here's the layout that was planned. I like it better, there was too much emphasis on purple in my solution!

I still think there might be too much purple. I've got the top sewn together, there are two more borders called for, but I've put it on hold for a couple of weeks. I want to look at it with a fresh eye and see what I think at that point. (And goodness knows I have enough other irons in the fire to deal with!)

Honestly, I think my favorite part was getting to spend three uninterrupted days with my friend. (I dunno if she feels the same way. She might be sick of me!) But it was all great. I got the Ramblin' Rose blocks undone from their failed sashing, and got some good thinking time to consider how to move forward. I also traced the pattern for another of my blackwork blocks, and I got to spend some time being good to myself. I finished the book "Water for Elephants" which was wonderful. So it was an enormously productive weekend. I wish all my quilting friends had been there. Maetha told us on Sunday that Tiny Stitches had already reserved the same weekend for next year. I'm looking forward to going again!

Tropical Storm

2009-01-15T19:49:00.006-05:00

Many years ago, when we were still newyweds hubby fell in love with stack and whack quilts. They were not (and still aren't) my favorite pattern, and I told him that if he wanted one, he'd better sign up for a class and make one because it was WAAAAYYYYY the heck at the bottom of my list. (Before you get on me about this, please understand that at that time, I was working on a queen size mainer's compass medallion quilt for him.)

So you know what he did? He took himself down to the LQS and signed us both up for a stack and whack quilt, and then we went shopping. He chose a wild tropical print, and I chose a soft colored large floral print. His background was kona cotton black, mine was a white printed with pale green. He made a HUGE number of blocks, I made a moderate number of blocks. His got sewn into a quilt top that is king size, mine got sewn into a queen size top.

Last year, in the big UFO cleanout, I came across these two tops again. We sat down together with my friend Melinda who agreed to custom quilt his top. They talked at length about what kind of motifs were desirable and what we would need to buy in way of backing and batting. It took me a long time to get around to placing the required orders and getting the pieces to Melinda, but she did take them off my hands and on Christmas eve, she delivered the quilt to me in a secret meeting, because hubby did not know that the deed had been done. Of course it was not bound, but he was pleased, nonetheless to see the beautiful work that Melidna had done, and to realize that his quilt was all but finished.

And what has happened with my quilt top? Well. I hated the setting. So I took it apart. I removed all the borders and sashing, and squared up the blocks again. They are sitting in a neat stack in the fabric room waiting for their turn on my design wall. Now that I've taken "Ramblin' Rose" down, I will get them up soon. And so begins the process, again, of choosing a setting. I can't wait.

A Confession: I'm Enjoying a Lazy Week

2009-01-15T19:40:00.005-05:00

As I told you I went on retreat with a group from Tiny Stitches, and it was wonderful, but it exhausted me. So I've taken a lazy few days to recover. I've managed to get some quilting done and stay on top of my other responsibilities, but blogging fell by the wayside.

I have a bunch of pictures to download and lots of things to write about, and I will, maybe even tomorrow. I just wanted to let you know that I didn't get lost in the mountains.

A Confession: I'm Starting a New UFO

2009-01-09T04:30:00.002-05:00

I've been pretty determined to finish up old UFO's and not start new ones. When looking through quilting magazines I've had to fight the inner voice in me that says "I want to make that". There are certain things, "Princeton-Plainsboro", "Briner's Picnic", "Ramblin' Rose" and my old stack and whack top that got pulled apart to be a pile of blocks again, that I REALLY want to finish before starting another UFO. (By the way, I think of these projects as the "Big Four". It used to be the "Big Six" but I finished the two largest of them in time to give for Christmas gifts. Hooray!)

So why, if I'm so eager to finish these projects, so determined to not start new UFOs are you looking a pretty stack of fabric waiting to become a UFO? Because I'm going on a retreat hosted by my favorite LQS Tiny Stitches. I have known that I was going on this retreat for months. AND I knew that the retreat was featuring a mystery quilt project that I might enjoy. Even still, I was sure I wasn't going to take on a new project. I was going to take UFOs with me and finish some things while I was there. I was NOT going to do the mystery quilt during this weekend. NO. I was going to collect the clues and wait and make the quilt after I finished the Big Four.

All my cutting homework is finished:

I confess, I had a moment of weakness. Not an ordinary moment of weakness. The kind of moment of weakness, that when God gives you the opportunity to walk away from your temptation... you don't do it. Then he gives you another chance, and you still press forward. That kind of moment of weakness. So here I am. Loving the fact that I have such beautiful fabric to work with, and excited as all get out about going on retreat in beautiful Amicalola Falls, and not the least bit sorry that I have fallen for the seductive power of the UFO.

Melinda tells me that it won't have to be a UFO for long, because we'll actually finish the quilt top while we're there, and that I'll even have time to work on other projects. Hmmm. Yep. That's just enough justification for me.

The Big Day

2009-01-08T04:30:00.001-05:00

Today is the big day. Not the REALLY big day, that will be at the end of the month. But it's big enough. In a few hours I will chair the first meeting of the 2009 ECQG Executive Committee Chairs. These are some impressive women. Some of them have quilted longer than I have been an adult. Many of them have belonged to this guild longer than I have been a mother. In fact, for years I have said I would not stand for president in this group because I lack the gravitas that comes from being older and/or more established in the community. But the truth is, I love this guild. I love these women, and I really wanted to serve in whatever way the outgoing board required, so I was happy to be a vice president for Melinda and now president this year. (I PROMISE! After this year is over I am duct taping my hands to my belt so I can't raise them to volunteer, again.)

So I'm a little nervous, a little proud, and very eager to learn what the coming year will be. I have a great Executive Committee to work with, many of these women volunteered to work alongside me in spite of very busy schedules of their own, and I am honored. I'm VERY pleased that someone I have liked and admired for several years is going to be my vice president. You'll be hearing more about Pat in the months to come, I feel certain. We have mucked through some trenches together, and now we are hoping to ride smoothy down the road toward our quilt show in September.

So... if you think of me today, say a prayer for me that the grace I have been given will be abundant and evident to all.

I Love My Gators

2009-01-07T05:00:00.003-05:00

GO GATORS!!!

Tomorrow night my beloved Florida will take the field (and hopefully the championship) against Oklahoma. Maybe you're not a football fan, but if you are let me know, how did your team fare this year? And if, by chance, you are also a Gator fan, well then, join me in a rousing chorus of "Orange and Blue"

Two Bits!

Four Bits!

Six Bits!

A Dollar!

All For Gators, Stand Up and HOLLER!!!!

Ramblin' Rose is Crying

2009-01-05T05:09:00.002-05:00

Grrr. I started to put Ramblin' Rose together yesterday, and although I was sure I had measured and trimmed up my blocks way back when I finished them (Hello.... January of 2008?) the sashing doesn't line up properly. I've got a ton of frogging to do. (RIp-it, rip-it.) and then I need to take another look at the blocks and figure out what to do with them. Perhaps I'll abandon my first idea and do some kind of irish chain blocks in between Marti's blocks.

Monthly Accounting

2009-01-03T09:07:00.006-05:00

Kay opening "Blush and Bashful" on Christmas morning:

December accounting:

Completions:
-Four Owl Pincushions
-Seven "Tote Along" Grocery Bags
-Binding for "Blush and Bashful"
-Quilted and bound victorian sampler quilt (and shipped to New England, on time)

Made Progress:
-Sandwiched "Princeton Plainsboro" (2007 Piecemaker's house quilt project)
-Continued to applique center for 2008 Piecemakers' exchange quilt
-Made the tops of 3 table runners for Christmas gifts. (My dear friends opened their boxes, laughed with me and graciously handed them back so I could finish them!)
-Continued to stitch on blackwork blocks, but won't be done anytime soon!

Left Untouched:
-Sandwich, quilt and bind "Briner's Picnic"
-Finish piecing the top for "Ramblin' Rose"

In January:
-This weekend I want to get "Ramblin' Rose" pieced together so i can start work designing the border.
-I need to finish quilting the 3 table runners I made as Christmas gifts.
-Bind and make a few little adjustments to "Tropical Storm".
-Quilt and Bind "Princeton Plainsboro" (finally)
-Get started on Piecemaker's 2009 exchange blocks
-My first UFO project has already been selected... more details to come!

ECQG 2009 Programs

2009-01-02T10:05:00.003-05:00

We have a number of interesting speakers coming to guild this year:

Jan - Kathy Kansier
Feb - Norah McMeeking
April - Jane Balshaw
May - Cindy Blackberg
Sept - Ruth Powers
Oct - Linda Fiedler

You can check out our website at www.ecqg.com to learn more details about the workshops being offered and see what's going on at the guild.

Hello, My Name is Doris

2008-12-28T07:35:00.001-05:00

I love the AMC series "Mad Men". When I heard there was a "Are you a Marilyn or a Jackie" quiz, I looked it up and took it. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I'm neither! I'm Doris!

You are a Doris -- "I must help others."

Dorises are warm, concerned, nurturing, and sensitive to other people's needs.

How to Get Along with Me
* Tell me that you appreciate me. Be specific.
* Share fun times with me.
* Take an interest in my problems, though I will probably try to focus on yours.
* Let me know that I am important and special to you.
* Be gentle if you decide to criticize me.

In Intimate Relationships
* Reassure me that I am interesting to you.
* Reassure me often that you love me.
* Tell me I'm attractive and that you're glad to be seen with me.

What I Like About Being a Doris
* being able to relate easily to people and to make friends
* knowing what people need and being able to make their lives better
* being generous, caring, and warm
* being sensitive to and perceptive about others' feelings
* being enthusiastic and fun-loving, and having a good sense of humor

What's Hard About Being a Doris
* not being able to say no
* having low self-esteem
* feeling drained from overdoing for others
* not doing things I really like to do for myself for fear of being selfish
* criticizing myself for not feeling as loving as I think I should
* being upset that others don't tune in to me as much as I tume in to them
* working so hard to be tactful and considerate that I suppress my real feelings

Dorises as Children Often
* are very sensitive to disapproval and criticism
* try hard to please their parents by being helpful and understanding
* are outwardly compliant
* are popular or try to be popular with other children
* act coy, precocious, or dramatic in order to get attention
* are clowns and jokers (the more extroverted Dorises), or quiet and shy (the more introverted Dorises)

Dorises as Parents
* are good listeners, love their children unconditionally, and are warm and encouraging (or suffer guilt if they aren't)
* are often playful with their children
* wonder: "Am I doing it right?" "Am I giving enough?" "Have I caused irreparable damage?"
* can become fiercely protective

You can take the test yourself here I'd love to hear about your results!

2008-12-25T13:00:00.001-05:00

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman
He grew up in another obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty

He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never travelled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born
He did none of the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself

He was only thirty three

His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies
And went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
The only property he had on earth

When he was dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend

Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of mankind's progress
All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat
All the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life

This essay was adapted from a sermon by Dr James Allan Francis in “The Real Jesus and Other Sermons” © 1926 by the Judson Press of Philadelphia (pp 123-124 titled “Arise Sir Knight!”). If you are interested, you can read the original version .

A Confession: What I REALLY Want For Christmas...

2008-12-22T19:41:00.005-05:00

Dear Reader,

I confess, I love my hit counter. It tells me that a great many more people stop by here than I had realized without it. I'm sure if I offered a give away, I would get lots of people leaving comments, but that feels like bribing people for my own satisfaction, so I am honestly confessing my curiosity... who are you?

If you don't like publicly comment, would you send a private email, please? I'd love to know what brought you to my page, whether you're a quilter, and what you like to read in your free time.

Signed,
The Curious Confession Maker

Last Licks

2008-12-17T10:22:00.005-05:00

I stopped a few inches shy of the end, so I could share the joy of finishing the binding on Mimi's quilt with you. Coming to the end of such a long unfinished project is a great victory as well as a great joy. I had hoped to finish the binding on Friday and get it in the mail, but instead, I'll take my victory lap today. One more quilt with a binding to sew down, and three table runners to quilt and I'm done with Christmas sewing. Wahoo!

In case you forgot what the front of this quilt looks like:

Dear Santa...

2008-12-15T04:58:00.001-05:00

My quilting wishlist looks like this:

Binding Clips
Swiss Pins
Glass head Pins
Renewed subscription to BHG American Patchwork
Flexible curve
6 x 24 ruler (I can barely make out the markings on the one I have)
Magazine organizers
Rotary cutting blades
Superior monofil thread

What are you hoping to find under the tree this year?

ECQG Happenings

2008-12-12T14:30:00.008-05:00

Today was Melinda's last day as president of the guild, it is the tradition of the guild to thank the outgoing president with a quilt, a project the 1st vice president (yours truly) chairs. If you know Melinda, then you know that lime green is a neutral, as far as she is concerned. There was no way we could make a quilt for her that didn't have at least a little bit of lime green! I chose the split 9-patch block and got to work on EQ deciding how to color it and set the blocks for an interesting quilt. Many thanks to Betty Alonsious for doing the quilting, it really made the piece come alive. It's been hard not to share with you the pictures as this quilt was coming together, but since Melinda is my most faithful reader, I couldn't possibly!

Also today, I was elected president of the ECQG. It's hardly a surprise, being first vice president usually (but not always) means that you will be elected as president in the following year. It's an honor, really, we've got 250 members, many of whom I've had the pleasure of knowing personally and serving alongside in one capacity or another. I am sorry to see Melinda step aside as president, she has done a wonderful job, and leaves me with VERY big shoes to fill.

The ECQG 2009 raffle quilt.

The biggest event on the horizon is our 2009 quilt show "Georgia Celebrates Quilts". If you are able to get to the Atlanta area for this wonderful show, you will see quits that rival those in the Nashville show. In addition to my "day job" as guild president, I am also co-chair of the set-up/take-down committee. Which means I get to see a blank convention hall transform in just over 24 hours into a beautiful quilt show. (What takes 24 hours to set up comes down in about 3 hours... it's AMAZING.)

Kathy got the owl pin cushion I made, and she seems to like it!

ECQG Pin Cushions

2008-12-12T04:55:00.006-05:00

The ECQG is having a pin cushion exchange at our Christmas party. After looking at many patterns, I chose something that perhaps was not intended for a pin cushion, but was (in my opinion) adorable. I found the pattern in french, which I read passably well, but didn't really need for the completion of the project, it was so simple. I used a batik flannel for the body, a toast colored flannel for the belly, and they are filled with crushed walnut shells. I made four, one for each of the guild exchanges I was hoping to attend, one for myself and one for a briner friend who had us over for dinner recently.

Working Wednesdays

2008-12-10T05:04:00.001-05:00

Those who have known me for the past couple of years have asked how I've suddenly become more productive. Here's the secret: I have a dedicated day for quiltmaking. On Wednesdays I typically have no appointments or errands that need to be run, I have stopped accepting lunch dates and planning meetings for Wednesday. I can start sewing the minute hubby and Kay leave the house in the morning and go until Kay returns from school. I can get a lot done in that space of time. It's not always quilting. It not even always sewing. I spent one whole day reorganizing my fabric room so I could use it and find things more easily. It is always about getting things done so I can finish more projects. Of course, I work on quilts at other times during the week, I carry handwork with me virtually everywhere, and love to sit and watch a movie with the family while doing hand stitching, but having a dedicated day gives me time to sit at my machine and really pound through a project.

It takes some planning. I either make a big enough meal the night before that I don't have to cook on Wednesday, or I make an easy enough meal that I don't have to do a lot of prep during the day. I make sure that whatever I need for the project at hand is in the house. I don't want to have to run over to the LQS in the middle of the day, or stop working because I don't have enough of the right thread. I make sure that on Tuesday I have cleared counters, tables, or whatever else is necessary as a working space for the project at hand. Also I make sure I either have something entertaining, it could be something saved on the DVR, an audio book, or a DVD. Currently I'm listening to "Team of Rivals". It's very LONG and has kept me good company.

So what am I working on today? Placemats, table runners and grocery sacks that fold up like quillows, all Christmas gifts.

The Oldest UFO

2008-12-08T08:48:00.009-05:00

One of my goals for this year has been to get some UFO's off the shelf. This quilt is the oldest of all my UFOs.
A long time ago I got a crazy idea over Thanksgiving weekend to make a queen sized quilt for each of my siblings. The first two were easy, a blooming 9-patch, and a modified scrappy bargello. Both were quilted with fairly simple meandering and done in a week. This last quilt was harder. I had a stack of blocks, and decided to make a sampler quilt.

Well enough. I made the borders, planning as I went along. Got it sandwiched and did the bare bones quilting (stitching in the ditch around ever major element) and began doing some of the detail work in the blocks. I got stumped about what to do next, and as I usually have done, put it aside. My sister opened a box with a partially quilted quilt and happily gave it back to me so I could finish it. Then I got pregnant. I got distracted with other things. Our dad was dying. We were both expecting babies. This quilt languished. Then, not long after dad died, my husband and I decided to move to Georgia. It got packed in a box and all but forgotten about.

Mimi and I have been joking about this "unfinished symphony" for nearly a decade. Last month I decided to finally drag it out and finish it so I could give it to her for a Christmas gift this year. (Lesson here, folks... if you wait long enough, you can give the same gift, twice.)

Well, last month finished out without even a stitch going into this quilt. But yesterday I pulled it out and got to work. The Lord himself must have sent me strength and determination because I got most of the quilt finished in one day. All of the detail work that was needed in the blocks, and the next three borders is done. I have only the final border to finish and then the binding. Hooray!

Piecemaker's Christmas Brunch

2008-12-03T10:24:00.005-05:00

At the Piecemaker's Christmas brunch on Monday, many members revealed their finished exchange quilts. Mine is not ready to be unveiled yet, but I wanted to show you the beautiful quilts others have done. You may remember that everyone provided a focus fabric she liked, and committed to making a particular block for each member in a color way that complimented her choice of focus fabric. We each made 16 blocks. You can see those blocks in my October 28 blog entry. Now you can see how creatively our group set those blocks!

Linda's Quilt:

Jan's Quilt:

Joanne's Quilt:

Nancy's Quilt:

Gail's Quilt:

Barbara's Quilt:

Michelle's Quilt:

Monthly Accounting

2008-12-01T05:40:00.002-05:00

Hey what do you know, it's time to make the second installment of monthly accounting.

So how did I do with my goals last month?

Completions:
-Quilt and bind table runner for my sister-in-law as a hostess gift for Thanksgiving

Made Progress:
-Binding for "Blush and Bashful" (Kay's pink and pink glorified 9 patch quilt)
-Sandwich, quilt and bind "Princeton Plainsboro" (2007 Piecemaker's house quilt project)
-Make applique center for 2008 Piecemakers' exchange quilt
-Finish piecing the top for "Ramblin' Rose"
-Finish blackwork blocks by the end of 2008.

Left Untouched:
-Sandwich, quilt and bind "Briner's Picnic"
-Finish quilting Victorian sampler quilt for my sister's Christmas gift.

New items to put on my list for December:

2 pin cushions for the ECQG exchange

3 placemats/tablerunner sets for gifts

6 grocery sacks for gifts

Confession Time: Binding

2008-11-28T05:00:00.001-05:00

I don't know how to bind. Actually I don't know how to do a lot of things, and I made a decision earlier this year that I"m going to start asking questions and getting to the bottom of the missing parts of my knowledge in ALL areas of my life.

How have I been quilting all these years without learning how to bind properly? I am a self-taught quilter. The first time I made a quilt, I cut the binding on grain, folded it like commercial binding tape, with raw edges to the center of the strip, then folded it down the center and pressed. Then I fitted it over the raw edge of the quilt and machine stitched it down through the top layers of binding, quilt and lower layers, when I got back to the beginning, I lapped the end over the beginning, and tucked in the raw edge before I finished stitching it down.

Come to think of it, I might have bound my first THREE quilts that way.

Then I met someone who taught me the right way to apply the binding, cutting it, folding it and stitching it to the quilt edge before turning it over and hand stitching it onto the back of the quilt. Except, I didn't learn how to do corners. Or join the beginning with the end. So I did what some judges called "Lap Binding" or "Butt Corners" where you bind the sides separately, making neat (but not mitered) corners. This is how I've finished every quilt I've done for 10 years or more. FWIW, judges always say my bindings are good, but I KNOW they could be better.

This year I want to learn the "right way". I have several quilts which need or will need binding in the next few weeks. I am determined to use this opportunity to get it firmly ingrained in my mind so I can do better bindings. Melinda has some tricks for me, so I'm hoping to get with her after Thanksgiving and get to work on those projects that are almost complete.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T01:00:00.001-05:00

Basket Making

2008-11-23T15:42:00.012-05:00

So you've seen the blocks I received in the Piecemaker's exchange this year. The goal every year is to have the blocks sewn together for show and tell during our Christmas party. The past two years, I've at least had the quilt top put together. This year I'm hoping to have enough of the center applique block done to show people my concept. I'm working from a design in Ellie Seinkiewicz's "The Best of Baltimore Beauties". I enlarged the design to fit the space I had to fill (27") and began making freezer paper templates. I'm not sure I'm going to make all the flowers the same as the original design, but I know I want to use the roses, since the focus fabric I selected for the blocks has red roses in it.

First I selected the fabrics for the basket and ribs. I decided to use Karen Kay Buckley's method for machine applique since it was a lot of long lines, most easily (and quickly done) on machine. Also it gets me far enough ahead that I might actually be able to take this piece with me for the holiday and sew the first layer of leaves and petals down.

I started making the leaves, and the bottom pieces of the roses, auditioning fabric as I went along, placing them on the big paper pattern I had made to see how they "played together" and to keep track of what was done.

I had a selection of greens sitting on my ironing board and pulled from them as I went along.

Then I taped my pattern to a picture window, and taped my fabric piece over it. I marked in water soluble ink the bare bones of the pattern so I could place the elements as I went along.

I laid the pieces down on the fabric and realized I wasn't happy with the reds I had chosen for my roses. (See Mary Sorenson? I WAS paying attention in color selection class.)

So I cut some more. I like these better.

Next I basted down the pieces I have. I'll have to be careful to watch which pieces go over or under another as I go along, stitching, but I have a miniature copy (6") of the block to carry with me in case I need to refer to it.

I don't like to make all of my color choices and design decisions in the beginning. I find things occur to me as I go along. I'm happy with my progress so far, considering that when I woke up on Wednesday I hadn't done anything more than piecing the background for this work. I just realized the basket still needs a base. I'll be looking for that "perfect fabric" or combination of fabrics to use for that bit.

Cool Giveaway

2008-11-23T09:54:00.005-05:00

Lenna at Stitching Cow is having a cool giveaway contest. Her Cottages in Common online class is worth $300 and could be yours for free! Go check out her blog for details.

Baby It's Cold Outside

2008-11-19T10:28:00.007-05:00

Brrrr. It was 24 degrees here in the north suburbs today. This might be the coldest November I've seen since moving here. Last night I made a big batch of corn chowder.

Here is the first of several table runners I am making for gifts. I'm looking for creative ideas for the next batch. I want to do table runners and placemats for three families who know each other, it would be nice if they weren't all the same. If you have any idea or can point me to a pattern, I'd be grateful. I haven't done a lot of these kinds of projects in the past, and I don't really care for fusible applique, but I'd be willing to consider it for this kind of work.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you're keeping warm!

In a Single Word

2008-11-15T07:25:00.005-05:00

I got this from Julie at High Fiber Content who said it must be done in one word answers, give it a try.

Where is your mobile phone? purse
Where is your significant other? upstairs
Your hair colour? chestnut
Your mother? tall
Your father? hero
Your favorite thing? cooking
Your dream last night? forgotten
Your dream goal? peace
The room you're in? comfortable
Your hobby? daydreaming
Your fear? violence
Where do you want to be in 6 years? further
Where were you last night? bed
What you're not? defeated
One of your wish-list items? Photoshop
Where you grew up? Waltham
The last thing you did? breakfast
What are you wearing? nightgown
Your TV? plasma
Your pets? poodle
Your computer? Apple
Your mood? hopeful
Missing someone? Meg
Your car? awesome
Something you're not wearing? watch
Favourite shop? Tiny Stitches
Your summer? delicious
Love someone? absolutely
Your favourite colour? red
When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
When is the last time you cried? Monday

Ramblin' Rose Never Made it to Jamestown

2008-11-09T06:04:00.000-05:00

This is the block of the month quilt from 2007 at Tiny Stitches, my LQS. I was really proud last year, that while I didn't actually make a block a month, I DID make all the blocks before 2008 arrived. I never intended to set the blocks as Marti Michell did in her Ramblin' Rose Goes to Jamestown quilt. This was the first time I ever worked with Marti's templates, and I'll tell you something, if you don't know what a quarter inch seam is, your blocks will NEVER come together properly using her templates. Making these blocks has improved my piecing accuracy DRAMATICALLY.

The original design for the quilt calls for setting the blocks with diagonal rows of log cabin blocks. I just didn't think it showcased the blocks as strongly as I'd like. (God help me, I'm criticizing Marti Michell for heaven's sake.) So after staring at my design wall for a QUITE SOME TIME I have decided I can't set the blocks directly together, the differences in corners and other "meeting points" are too different to look good that way. I'm going to do a simple sashing. I don't have enough of the color I wanted to use (the lighter red) so this is as far as I've gotten:

I want to do a border all around these blocks when I'm done, possible one of the blacks, and then decide about the outer borders.

The Empress of Daily Baking

2008-11-05T05:00:00.000-05:00

Wendy J is a briner friend from the Good Eats Fan Page. She bakes every day. Every. Day. Whenever I need a recipe for something baked, she's the first one I call on. It saves me not only a lot of research, but a lot of so-so recipe results. Recently I asked her for a scone recipe. Not the leaden rocks I've been finding at coffee shops all over town. She did not disappoint.

This easy recipe went together in just a few minutes and cleaned up even faster, a serious consideration for me. But the best part is that it produced scones that were everything they should be, and served warm, they are AMAZING. Wendy says you can use half and half rather than heavy cream with similar results, I've made these with a handful of golden raisins or cinnamon chips as well as plain. Today's variety were orange scented chocolate chip (at Kay's request) and they are good indeed. Enjoy!

Basic Scones Adapted from The Bread Bible

2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter cut into cubes frozen
1 cup very cold heavy whipping cream
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

Place all dry ingred in bowl of food processor. Pulse to mix. Add butter cubes, pulse 20 or so times until butter is the size of petite peas. Dump the mixture into a mixing bowl and add the cream. Toss lightly to combine (I used a rubber spatula). Gather dough into a ball (it will be a bit ragged) pat into a circle on a parchment lined cookie sheet or silpat. Cut into 8 wedges---bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Make tea, get a book and enjoy!

Color Selection for Quilters

2008-11-03T07:30:00.007-05:00

Over the weekend I took a class from the wonderful Mary Sorenson about how to choose colors for quilts. Part of our homework for the class was to choose four colors from a list of six and pull a range of values from our stash that would be used in class. It took me nearly four hours, and I learned a lot about my stash in that time. I have entirely too much blue, a lot of purple and so little yellow (and almost all of it in the medium range) I couldn't use it as one of my color choices.

In class, Mary actually gave us an inventory sheet that we could use to go back and identify not only which colors we were missing, but which VALUES in those colors, and what styles of prints were needed to fill out our stash.

One very practical lesson was this: If you aren't sure about how the values in your fabric choices relate to one another, remove the color. Take a picture, or scan the fabrics and view it as a black and white image. Here are my fabric choices in black and white:

You can see that I did pretty well in the purple and blue (that was obvious, even in color) and even the reds show a progression, but the oranges are not distinctly different values. I could have thrown out the ones on the ends and looked for a lighter light and a darker dark.

Hubby is color blind. I have often turned to him for help in this way, but now that I can see the difference for myself in black and white, Mary assures me that over time I will begin to be able to "see" it without having to photograph it.

Thanks Mary!

Monthly Accounting

2008-11-02T10:47:00.014-05:00

It might be optimistic of me to start a monthly feature, considering my erratic posting habit, and yet I want to try. I have made some great headway in the past couple of weeks and I am setting some goals for the next few weeks that I would like to share with you.

Hello, my name is Danielle, and I'm a UFO maker.

UFOs That I Have A Plan to Complete:
-Binding for "Blush and Bashful" (Kay's pink and pink glorified 9 patch quilt)
-Sandwich, quilt and bind "Princeton Plainsboro" (2007 Piecemaker's house quilt project)
-Quilt and bind table runner for my sister-in-law as a hostess gift for Thanksgiving
-Make applique center for 2008 Piecemakers' exchange quilt
-Sandwich, quilt and bind "Briner's Picnic"
-Finish piecing the top for "Ramblin' Rose"
-Finish quilting victorian sampler quilt for my sister's Christmas gift.
-FInish blackwork blocks by the end of 2008.

UFOs For Which I Have No Plan, But Desire to Finish:
-Determine setting for stack and whack blocks
-Determine if I'm going to pull out the pieces of "Crossroads" that make me crazy, or quilt it as is.
-Determine if I'm going to quilt my snowman tablerunner as is, or take it apart and do something different with it.
-Determine layout for "Hearts and Friendship" blocks.

Finally, for the first time ever, I am going to pay someone else to quilt something for me. Years ago hubby and I took a class together and his resulting quilt is king sized, and the background is Kona cotton. This poor quilt top has been languishing for years waiting for someone to quilt it, but it is too big and heavy for me to do personally. I have reserved a space in Melinda's schedule to get it done for Christmas, the backing is ready and the batting (black cotton wasn't available locally) should be in tomorrow or the next day.

Blush and Bashful

2008-10-31T07:09:00.004-04:00

Last week I finally finished quilting Kay's pink and pink quilt Earlier this year I showed you how I photocopy sections of the quilt to determine what the quilting design should be. I used that same technique to figure out the quilting in the 9-patch sections as well as the borders. I'm having a hard time loving this quilt. It was quite challenging to piece, I made mistakes in my quilting, and in the end I'm not really satisfied with the color selection (although my daughter will LOVE it, which is all that matters) but the Mavens came over on Monday morning and really seemed to like it, so that helped a lot. Sometimes we need to see our work through other people's eyes.

I hope to find time during football watching this weekend (GO GATORS!) to at least cut, if not also apply the binding. If not it will have to be a Wednesday project I think. I am determined to have this quilt bound, labeled, wrapped and ready to put under the tree the day after Thanksgiving. It's been 21 months in the making. (Which means many months of lying in varying stages of doneness waiting for me to either get motivated to do more, or figure out what comes next.) It feels good to get such a significant UFO off the list of projects waiting to be loved. Kay hasn't seen this quilt since I've started quilting it. I can't wait to watch her unwrap it on Christmas morning.

Quilting detail:

Then There Were Three

2008-10-30T17:15:00.000-04:00

My husband occasionally makes quilts, and of course, I make quilts. But I am very pleased to introduce you to my daughter who is now officially a quiltmaker. Earlier this year my dear friend Melinda gave Kay a sewing machine of her very own,

and when Tiny Stitches, our LQS, offered quilt camp for kids she proudly carried her machine off with her for several days of lessons, during which she completed her first quilt!

2008 Piecemaker's Exchange

2008-10-28T06:26:00.001-04:00

As you may remember, the Piecemakers exchange blocks each year. Here are the Piecemakers enjoying the display of each member's efforts before we did the swap:

This year we decided that instead of choosing a single theme fabric, or a block pattern to make, everyone would choose her own fabric and give every other quilter a piece of it. Each quilter also chose a block she would make. In the end, everyone made her choice of block in 16 different color ways to suit all the fabrics she was given, and then we met to swap blocks. It was a great success, and the swap itself was great fun.

I chose to make an applique wreath block, here are the 15 blocks I made (I didn't make one for myself, more on that, later)

The fabric I chose to give to everyone else was a victorian Christmas theme printed on black. I loved this fabric when I bought it 10 years ago, and I've been waiting for that "perfect project" to come along. I finally decided to bite the bullet and use it for this exchange. I'm glad I did! Here are the blocks I received from the Piecemakers:

I received a 15th block after the picture was taken. I"m sure you'll see pictures of it at some point. I did not make a block for myself, because all along I intended to make a large applique block for as a centerpiece for my quilt. Originally we had 16 other Piecemakers making blocks, so my plan was perfect. One dropped out after we began the exchange and I thought I might end up needing to make a wreath for myself after all, but in the end another solution presented itself. I'll tell you about it another time.

Here are the other Piecemakers contributions:

Confession Time

2008-10-26T06:20:00.004-04:00

I took some time off. From blogging. From quilting. From quite a few things.

It's been good. I had a great summer, and a I'm enjoying the early fall. So what HAVE I been doing?

I took some good classes, spent several days with Mary Lou Weidman, and collected projects in my head. I cleaned out my "fabric room". (Couldn't call it sewing room, because there was NO SPACE to put a sewing table in there.) Now I can at least stand in there and still think clearly. I sorted through my UFO bin. I gave away a few things I know I will never finish. I took apart a quilt top that has been languishing for 9 or more years, I love the blocks, but hated the setting, so now I have a quilt's worth of really pretty blocks to think about setting. I made an initial decision about the Marti Michelle block of the month pattern I did last year. (I never liked the way the pattern had the blocks set with log cabin blocks zig zagging through the rows, but I love the blocks.) I pulled out two finished quilt tops that I liked well enough to want to quilt pretty much as is. Finally, last week, I finished my daughter's pink and white quilt, well, I finished the quilting. I need to cut and bind it. All of which will happen in the next couple of weeks so it will be ready to be wrapped and put under the tree in time for Christmas. I completed all the blocks for the 2008 Piecemaker's exchange, and have started laying out the design for completing my quilt top from that exchange.

Finally, I got Melinda's president quilt put together with the help of a few friends from the guild, and it is being quilted as I write.

Pictures to follow, but I felt the need to plunge in and get the blog re-started.

Quilt Confessions

The Power of Red Socks

Being Loved by Melinda

From Under the Magnolia to Little Rock...

The Lost Weekend

When You've Finished Dessert....

I Got Word Today

The Awakening... Can I Go Back to Sleep?

A New Year, without resolutions

Green Beans Delicious

North Carolina Quilt Symposium

Pasta with Leeks, Peas and Lemon Cream

The Round Barn Quilt

Monthly Accounting

All Wound Up

Am I Blue?

Confession and Cool Binding Tip

Don't Forget!!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Making Progress

Dear Hannah - ECQG Raffle

Kahlua Burgers

Cherry Covered Chocolate

Monthly Accounting

Home Sweet Home

Chocolate Covered Cherries

Who are the Mavens?

Easy "Mexican" Chicken Soup

You NEVER Know What You'll See at Tiny Stitches

Bernina-less and Still Trying to Be Productive

Chain, Chain, Chain

Pork with White Beans and Cranberries

Mavens

Pressed On All Sides

The Super Bolt Sale

Quilts I Dream of Making

Baby, Baby

Pixie's Carrot Ginger Soup

Dagnabbit!!!!

Monthly Accounting and a Word About Batting

Quilts at the Capitol

Mystery Solved: Sherwood Forest Romance

It's a Mystery

Flying Rose, Finally!

Autumn Apples

Coneflowers

Picture Piecing with Ruth Powers

What Is It?

A Vanilla Quilt?

Monthly Accounting: October

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

The Next Thing

Summer Vacation

The Ties That Bind, Day Three

The Ties That Bind, Day Two

The Ties That Bind, Day One

Piecemakers' Exchange 2009

I'm BACK!

The Promise of Things Hoped For

Rose Takes Flight

The Monster in the Closet

Monthly Accounting: February

Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

A Revelation, A Confession, and a Commitment

Another Mystery

My New Cutting Board

More From the Mountains

Doesn't She Look Guilty?

Tropical Storm

A Confession: I'm Enjoying a Lazy Week

A Confession: I'm Starting a New UFO

The Big Day

I Love My Gators

Ramblin' Rose is Crying

Monthly Accounting

ECQG 2009 Programs

Hello, My Name is Doris

A Confession: What I REALLY Want For Christmas...

Last Licks

Dear Santa...