Sister's Choice Quilts

Two Quilts Back from the Quilter

I recently got a couple of quilts back from my quilter and thought you might like to see the pretty all over quilt patterns they used.  Here is my Retro Halloween Quilt (the back of it).  Isn't that fabric adorable?  My quilt was quilted at Prairiequeens, my favorite quilt shop.  I just love that place, and everyone who works there.  They always make me feel loved and appreciated whenever I pop in.  It is an instant ego hug!    Debbie, the owner usually has fabulous ideas for quilting designs, so I typically just put myself in her hands.  The design she recommended for this was an all over design of pumpkins and pumpkin vines.  Perfect!  Here is a picture of the entire quilt.

The binding is *almost* finished.  Think I'll get it done by Halloween?  To tell the truth, I don't remember whose fabrics these are.  They had kind of a retro look which I loved.  I bought them last year and added in quite a few additional fabrics.  Does anyone remember this group?  Was it Thimbleberries?  The pattern is from a book called Seasons by Debbie Mumm.  In her book, she calls the quilt "Bountiful Harvest", and I copied her colors and mood shamelessly.  I did make my quilt bigger than hers.  Simple hourglass blocks combined so no two fabrics are in the same block.  Super easy construction and a beginner would enjoy this project I think.  Just pick a pretty fabric collection and you would be good to go.

My other quilt is one that you have all seen, Return to Sender by Miss Rosie Quilt Co.  Prairiequeens quilted this one for me as well, in an all over design of holly leaves and berries.  Hope you can see the quilt design on the back--it is really attractive.  I used April Cornell's Christmas Presence line from last year (by Moda).

Here is a corner of the finished quilt.  I posted on the finished quilt top back in July.

Here is that unquilted top, if you forgot what it looks like.  I plan to put a simple solid black binding on this one.  You just can't have too many holiday themed quilts, don't you agree?

While I was sitting here at my little desk writing this post, my puppy Ozzie was chewing on a new flavored bone I gave him.  Or so I thought.  I could have sworn my closet door was closed.

Guess I need a new pair of flip flops.  Can you hear him barking in outrage from the kitchen where I put him back in his crate?  I suppose he thinks I should give him the rest of the bone he didn't finish.  Or something.

Quilts from Sunday's UFO Group

My UFO (Unfinished Objects) group meets three times each month.  We have been meeting for years and have gotten to be such good friends.  We just work on whatever projects we choose to bring to the meeting and spend as much time (or more) chit chatting than we do sewing.  It is relaxing and fun and extremely supportive.  I thought you might like to see a couple of the projects my friends are working on.

This is Barbara's project, pictured above.  Isn't that block pattern striking?  Just a three color combination, but it sure does "pop", doesn't it?

Mary had her blocks all laid out on a design wall.  She is making this quilt for her niece, who told her that she didn't care what block Mary used, as long as the colors were blue and purple!  Aren't these blocks cool? Here is a shot of just one block:

Mary told me that the block construction, which looks fairly tricky, is quite easy after all.  She lays two strips of fabric together and cuts the length of it in a gentle curve.  She then pieces it together along the curved line, and presses.  She cuts sections to construct the block in a simple log cabin formation. 

I worked on my quarter square triangles for my Cupcake quilt, and finished all 112 of them!  With a bit of luck, I hope to start sewing the rows together tomorrow.

Here is a gratuitous cute puppy picture of Ozzie sitting on my new Halloween quilt. We are making progress every day.  Look how he can actually sit still for a split second.  He was lying down hugging his toy squirrel, so I went to get the camera for a picture, and of course he sat up to better see what I was up to.  I will post a better picture of the quilt in another post.

Jelly Bellies Quilt Top Finished!

I am doing my Happy Dance because I finally finished the quilt top I call Jelly Bellies, after the pattern of the same name by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company.  The pattern is an old one, but is still available.  The fabrics I used were various prints from several Kansas Troubles groups (by Moda).

I am so glad I am finished with this project.  I think I worked on this one on and off over the past two years or maybe more.  I like the finished results, with its cute piano key border, but I have to say, the piecing was super tedious.  I hate to complain about any Miss Rosie pattern, because Carrie is my all time favorite designer.  But there were an awful lot of snow ball blocks involved here.  Light ones with dark corners, dark ones with light corners.  Over and over and over.  Hundreds of them.  Super easy piecing, but kind of dull.  Shhhh, don't tell her I said so. 

My piecing karma wasn't working for me either, because I managed to get one of the outside blocks positioned wrong.  My humility block.  I must have nodded off for a minute while sewing these boring blocks.  If you enlarge the photo, you will have no trouble spotting it.  Serves me right for grumbling about one of my idol's patterns. 

Progress on Cupcake

Thanks for indulging me in my reminiscing about my family's annual Halloween party.  It has been fun sharing pictures with you, and I will have more over the next week or so, but thought I should get a few more quilty posts out here.

Despite my preoccupation with my new puppy, I actually have been doing some sewing lately.  My projects of choice are Jelly Bellies (almost have all the rows sewn together) and Cupcake (above).  Cupcake is what I am calling the Carrie Nelson class project I took at Buggy Barn in Washington State this past August.  The shop gave us a kit full of beautifully scrappy reds, greens, light blues, pinks, reds and tans.  I started adding more and more fabrics when I got home, and decided to eliminate the blues entirely and add in some chocolate browns instead.  The resulting blocks barely resemble the kit we were given at all!  But that's OK, I am really loving these color combinations.

The pattern is alternating nine patch and quarter square triangle blocks.  It is an extremely simple set, but there are lots of blocks involved, and so there is a lot of piecing.  I have to make 122 brown and tan quarter square triangles, and as you see from the photo, have made a start.

I have completed way more nine patch blocks than I need, since I kept adding in more reds and greens.  I was really drawn to fabrics that had a Civil War Reproduction feel.  There are so many gorgeous ones out there right now, that I had no trouble satisfying my taste for them!

There you can see my project box with all the nine patches, and a little glimpse in the background of the colors Carrie used in her quilt, which she is calling Drumbeat (not yet published).  My friend Lisa is making the quilt in the same colors as Carrie, so you will get to see it as it was intended to be made when Lisa gets her blocks done.

I have set Cupcake aside until I get my Jelly Bellies rows sewn together.  I will post a picture of that as soon as I get it together (only 5 more rows!).  It will be such a good feeling to get something done and sent to the quilter.

I would like to introduce you to a new blogger.  Lisa discovered Perry's site this week, and was so excited about it.  I have had a couple of email exchanges with Perry and think she is a kindred spirit.  Please stop by her blog http://www.okperisplace.blogspot.com/ and say hello!

Blogging Friends

My mailbox had a fun little treat for me last week.  I have to walk a block down my street to get to my mailbox, so sometimes, especially if I am out and about or otherwise occupied, I don't check it every day.  Imagine my delight when I finally went to unload its bulging contents and discovered that my friend Sharon from Red Geranium Cottage had sent me a present!  Sharon made the little red Kleenex holder (how did she know I blow my nose a hundred times a day?) and included the adorable little note pad in the package.  Notice the little American flag striped pencil?  How cute is that?

I love how blogging has introduced me to so many wonderful and generous new friends!  Thank you Sharon for your thoughtful gift!

My new puppy Ozzie has settled into a routine of sorts, and that routine includes nice long naps.  While he is snoozing, I have been able to get quite a lot of sewing done!  It has been fabulous to get back into my sewing room.  I will have some photos of my projects to share in a few days.  I have almost all the rows done for my Jelly Bellies quilt top, and have made hundreds of nine patches and quarter square triangles for my new Miss Rosie pattern "Cupcake".  Cupcake is the name I have assigned to the class project I took with Carrie Nelson in August.  The pattern is not yet available for sale, and when it is released, she plans to call the pattern "Drumbeat".  Cupcake was the working title for her quilt, and her agent didn't like the name.  I did, and so it stuck for me!

One Binding Done

There you see the last stitch in my binding for my Fall Sunflowers quilt.  I challenged Lisa to get one quilt bound by Sunday night, not so much to push her into finishing one, but to push myself!  It is such a good feeling to put that last stitch in.  I find any kind of hand work to be a peaceful activity, so I can't say why I procrastinate with bindings. 

So Lisa, how did you do?  We both had busy weekends, with house guests, lots of cooking, decorating and errands, so I can understand it if hand work wasn't the highest priority!

Both my daughter and son were home for the weekend, and we had lots of catching up to do.  My son just started graduate school at Cal Poly, and has already been asked by one of his professors to be a teaching assistant.  He is getting settled into his new apartment and is referring to new acquaintances as "my friends", so I gather things are going splendidly.  My daughter Sara is trying to find things to fill her time, as her wine maker husband is deep into Harvest, as they call this time of year in the wine industry.  She phoned her dh at 8:00 Sunday morning to say, "Good morning, sweetie, are you up and about yet?"  After a ten second silence he replied "Um, I've been at work for two hours already..."  She calls this season the "Wine maker's Widow Time".

We ate lots of lovely fall foods over the weekend.  I made a butternut squash soup, a pork roast with lime/chipotle/honey glaze, roasted vegetables with fennel and a moist apple cake that was out of this world.  We ate it all up before I got a picture, but here is the recipe anyway!

Moist Apple Cake

4 cups thinly sliced apples

2 cups sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350, grease a 13 x 9 inch pan.

Combine the apples and 2 cups of sugar in a large bowl.  Add the flour, cinnamon, and salt, stir well.  Beat the eggs, oil and vanilla in a medium bowl.  Combine with apple mixture, mix well.  Stir in the nuts.  Spoon into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Bindings

I've been working on bindings this week.  So many quilts with just the bindings to do.  I have no idea why I procrastinate completing this last step in my quiltmaking.  I have just a bit left to do on the quilt pictured above, then I plan to start on getting the binding on my Halloween quilt.  Wait til you see that one, it is so cute! 

When I began making quilts, my bindings were a gigantic 2 1/2 inches.  I went through a binding width reduction phase, first trying out a binding that was 2 1/4 inches and really liked the look of it.  Now I am only doing my bindings in a 2 inch wide strip of fabric, and much prefer that look.  There is something nice and tight and tidy about a very narrow binding, in my opinion.  Another bonus, is that it takes a lot less fabric!  I  do have a guilty confession to make though.  I rarely do a true bias binding!  Oh, now and then I do, especially if I want the look of a diagonal stripe or something, but typically, a straight cross grain binding does just fine for me!  How about all of you?  What do you do in regards to your bindings?

Ozzie update:  Sigh.  See for yourself.  I still love him though.

Those were my favorite wear-everywhere-with everything shoes.  Bad dog.  I think he looks sorry, don't you?

Finding the Perfect Pumpkin

istockphoto

How do you pick the perfect pumpkin?  Last year Sara and I went to a couple of local pumpkin farms in the hope that we would find that elusive item.  Dressed in our cutest fall outfits, we trudged down row after dusty row of pumpkins searching for the right ones.  Dodging little kids on school field trips, stumbling over the odd rock or root, we looked and looked.  The pumpkins we saw were small, dirty, oddly shaped, and not the deep rich orange color we sought.  We must have gone to three different farms and it was the same at each one.  Disappointed and empty handed, we stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up the ingredients for a fall themed dinner.

What do you know, but right out in the parking lot of Nob Hill, was an assortment of the most perfect pumpkins you ever saw!  Tall ones, fat ones, long viney stemmed ones, green ones, white ones, many in the deep rich orange in color we sought---there were dozens of perfect pumpkins, each one more wonderful than the next.  It kind of took the mystique out of our pumpkin search, but after all, we'd had our outing and managed to come home with some great pumpkins! 

istockphoto

So, how about you?  Have you found your perfect pumpkin yet?  How do you like to decorate your front entrance? 

Saturday Night Dinner

   

The past week has been kind of a topsy turvy one, with me busy keeping up with my new puppy Ozzie, with Ozzie figuring out exactly what it is that I want from him, and with my husband adjusting to his new job.  We woke up this morning and discovered that TODAY was the day of our neighborhood annual garage sale.  Believe me when I tell you that the amount of "stuff" in our garage is a big issue.  I hopped up and set up a folding table right away and barked orders to my DH to pull old linens down out of the closet, dig out those old dishes, find that set of flatware we don't use any more, and go through the coat closet for any old coats we should get rid of.  He scrambled around doing my bidding, while all sorts of folks came curiously up the driveway to see what things we had that might be worth parting a dollar for.  It is just so silly how these garage sale things work.  You put out a $300 Ralph Lauren comforter and some one distainfully asks if you will take a dollar for it.  You say "Um, well, I was thinking it was worth at least $20..."  They then offer $1.50.  The idea is to get rid of the stuff right?  Let it take up space in someone elses house.  My husband said something about having to go to work for a while, and left me to my own devices.  After two hours I decided I had had enough, and closed the garage up and went in and counted my money.  $140!!!!  My gosh.  I put out two bins of large cuts of fabric (each one 1-3 yards long).  I said I would sell each cut for one dollar.  I got two takers who weren't too bargain crazy and paid my price without haggling.  They handed over the cash and then said "The plastic bins are included right?"  No.  There is a limit.  I had my gazillion dollar puppy out there with me, and am surprised someone didn't offer me a buck for him.

As I said, we have had a crazy past week, and my husband has been amazingly patient and sweet, and I want to treat him to a special Saturday night "date worthy" dinner.  I got out one of my Rachael Ray cookbooks and chose this menu:

Marinated Beef Steaks with Pan Gravy

Cheesy Orzo

Balsamic Glazed Vegetables

I am looking forward to his return, and a quiet evening spent chatting over some good food and a fine bottle of something red.  No dog training dvds for us tonight.  Here is a picture of my Ozzie.  Settling down to live with us at last.  I want to extend my sincerest thanks to all of you dear blogging friends who took the time to give me such great advice and encouragement in response to my last post.  I have taken all your advice and the past couple of days have been much much better.

Jealousy

And I thought things were going really well.  I love my puppy.  He let me sew for several hours on Tuesday.  He seemed to be letting me work on my nine patch blocks this morning.  Well, he did steal a spool of thread in an effort to get my attention, but I took it away from him and told him "No!" 

Then I went to check my email.  I was sending Lisa a quick note to say I was sewing and making some progress.  Things seemed kind of quiet in the other room, so I went to see what was going on.  This is what was going on:

Ozzie killed my iron. 

Can you even believe that he did that?  It was ON.  He must have pulled the plug out of the socket before he bit it in half.  He could have been killed.  OMG.  Excuse me while I go puppy proof my house better.  Anyone have any advice for me?