Sister's Choice Quilts

My Best Ever Machine Quilting Effort

 
If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you know that it has been my desire to improve my machine quilting skills.  I have been practicing my squiggles and loop d' loops and stippling and my results have been well, pretty much just ok.  Make no mistake, I am improving, but it is obvious that more practice will serve me well.

Recently I discovered the Pretty By Hand blog, where Kristyne has been teaching herself to be a Free Motion Quilter.  She recently posted that she has officially given up doing cross hatch quilting, as she feels her skills have improved enough that she is proud of her free motion skills to make that her preferred method.

I figured that if I wanted to teach myself to machine quilt, I was going to follow Kristyne's example and start out with doing cross hatching by machine.  The free motion stuff can come after I master that technique.  After searching for a half an hour for my painter's tape, I got started.  I placed the tape diagonally across the quilt, right through the middle and sewed my first line of stitching right along side the right hand edge of the tape.

Then I repositioned the tape to the right after each subsequent line of stitching, working my way from the middle to the right hand corner.  Once I got to the corner, I flipped the quilt top around and stitched the other half.

 
My stitching lines were just as straight as could be!

 
When the top was completely stitched with lines running in one direction, I repeated the process so that my stitching lines went the opposite direction, creating a cross hatch design across the entire top of the quilt.

I know this isn't the most creative process, but I was so pleased with my perfectly even one inch grid of quilting!  The quilting is dense and the top will wash up beautifully and be all quilty and puckery.  It is my plan to do a few more small quilts with this cross hatch technique, then branch out with more free motion patterns.  I just need to get my skill level and my confidence level up.  In the meantime, I am 100% happy with this method.

 
This little Bennington Schnibble (from the book Schnibbles Times Two by Carrie Nelson) will go on my round kitchen table, but for now I have it over the back of one of our leather chairs.  Have you noticed that in the summer when you are wearing sleeveless or low backed clothes, sitting against the back of a leather chair is sticky uncomfortable?  What a perfect use for a small quilt!  It looks adorable and no more leaning up against hot old leather with your bare skin.

 

Shop the Outer Aisle

Have you ever heard the advice that if you wish to eat in the healthiest manner possible, you would do well to shop the "outer aisles" of the grocery store?  Well, in the nearby town of Douglas Flats, there is a produce stand cleverly called The Outer Aisle.  This place is loaded with wonderful fruits and vegetables from local farms.  Aren't those purple and green peppers in the photo beautiful? 

Sara and Baby E and I ventured over there today in search of fresh produce and we were certainly not disappointed.  I came home with beautiful peppers, an heirloom tomato, some fresh white corn, basil, and a loaf of sourdough bread from a local baker.  They had so much that I wanted to buy, but I had to limit myself so as not to waste anything.  The man in line ahead of us bought $212 worth of produce, can you imagine?  I hope he had hordes of people back at home to enjoy it!  I passed up peaches and black ripe figs and eggplant and a staggering variety of heirloom tomatoes.  But, you know what?  I can always go back tomorrow!

Since my husband is away most of the week, I am on my own for dinner, which has its upsides and downsides.  The downside obviously is that I am on my own, but the upside is that I can eat exactly what I like.  No, not hot fudge sundaes.

Tonight, I am feasting on fresh corn and bruschetta.  I may be dining alone, but I am dining in STYLE!!!

To make bruschetta, toast some sour dough bread slices and rub them with a cut garlic clove, then brush with olive oil.  Cut up a good tomato, some fresh basil, and a bit of  red or green pepper (if you like).  Add some grated parmesan, and toss with some good olive oil and balsamic vinegar, some salt and pepper.  If you LOVE garlic, chop some into the tomato mixture for a stronger flavor. Top the toast rounds with the tomato mixture.  It doesn't get much better than this.

And the corn?  omg  It's August, and I hope wherever you are, you can get fresh local corn.  Incomparable flavor.  I remember one August when my husband and I were in Michigan, his cousin sent one of her kids out to the corn field to pick some fresh corn for dinner.  She tossed it in a pot of boiling water, right out of the field, and my husband ate eight ears of corn.  Seriously, it was that good.

A Little Table Topper

 
I had some leftover blocks from my Simple Abundance/MoJo quilt, which I called the Ridiculously Cute Basket Quilt.  Sara thought they would make an adorable little table topper, and combined them with some of my leftover scraps.  How cute is this?

No waste=a free table topper!

She let me practice my machine quilting on it, which I appreciated, since I have a topper of my own I would like to get quilted.   I need to remind myself over and over again to S.L.O.W D.O.W.N when I am machine quilting.  I feel so out of control when I rush! 

I did Stitch in the Ditch around the baskets, and a free motion loopy design for the borders.  Going too fast when stitching in the ditch results in stitching that is not in the ditch, but rather in the general vicinity of the ditch, which is not satisfactory  Going too fast when making loops results in weird shaped loops with varying stitch lengths.   I managed to hit just about every example of what not to do in this project, but I also managed to get it right some of the time.  Guess I need more practice...

My next machine quilting project will involve straight line stitching.  No ditches, no free motion.  I just need to follow diagonal lines across the quilt top.  I can do that, right?  This sort of machine quilting is supposed to be right up a beginner's alley, so wish me luck.

By the way, if you would like to see an amazing project, go over to Thelma's blog Cupcakes 'n' Daisies and have a look at her Red and White Tribute Quilt.  You will not believe how creative and imaginative she is.  Thelma managed to make a quilt that evokes the experience of being at the recent Infinite Variety Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts Show in New York City.  Truly, this quilt deserves to be in magazines.  It is one of the most stunningly innovative and inspired quilts I have ever seen.

My Little Applique Project

Well, half my apples are appliqued onto the background fabric!  The polka dot one on the far left is the most recently done one, and I can see that I am getting better.  Still have four more leaves to do on this side, then six apples, stems and leaves on teh other side.  It will be a cute little runner when I get it done.  Maybe even this fall!

I love that fabric that runs down the middle of the piece, between the two black strips.  The design looks *exactly* like apple seeds!

Omg.  I didn't tell you.  This weekend is my high school reunion.  I won't tell you how many years, because it is shocking, and my teeth will all fall out when they realize how old I am.  (They forgot.  Teeth are dumb).  Anyway, I have a way cute outfit I think I may wear, and proper over the top footwear.  On Friday, I will meet up with my BFF from that era, Ginger, who is now a drama professor at a Bay Area university.  Oh my, did we have fun back in the day.  We went to Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane concerts at the Winterland Ballroom, and pretended not to notice the definitely illegal fragrance in the air.  Those were the days.  We were cool, but pretended to be way cooler than we really were!

Then, Saturday is the big day.  Everyone who is still on the continent and kicking will be there.  Cubberley Class of 19**.  Big turnout. 

My high school beau will be there, which always makes me want to make that extra effort to have the perfect outfit and makeup.  His son just got married today, so how he is able to make it to the reunion is a story in itself.  His wife can't be thrilled about him ditching the relatives that must have turned up for the occasion.  That just shows you how big a draw these reunions are!

I always have such regrets when I go to my reunions.  I realize that there were so many wonderful individuals that for whatever reason, I did not befriend back then when I had the opportunity.  They turned out to be intelligent, interesting, multi dimensional people who would have been fabulous additions to my life.  Why didn't I recognize that when I was 15 or 16?  I had my safe little circle of friends, and stuck with it and never ventured farther afield. Something I will caution my little grand daughter Evangeline about.

So, these reunions are opportunities aren't they?  Life is never so short that we can't add friendships, no matter how late in the game.  I will let you know how I do!

 

Farmer's Wife, Week Whatever

Honestly, I cannot keep track of what week this is for Farmer's Wife block posts.  I have decided to just go ahead and post my progress whenever I have something to show for it.  Somehow I managed to finish seven blocks this week.  My sister Andrea has been to my house for a visit and we sewed together in the unfinished studio.  She put together an entire quilt top made of vintage sheets!  Check out her blog, I am sure she will post on her fabulous project.

I did have a problem with one of my Farmer's Wife blocks, Number 103  "Whirlwind".  I am using the Marti Michell templates and pdf instructions that Marti sends out through her website.  I struggled so with this block, and still am not sure if I was just being dense about following the instructions, or if there was something actually wrong with the instructions.

I think the diagram (to the left of the block) is incorrect.  Isn't the angle of the cut (along the hypotenuse) reversed?  I followed the directions exactly, but to my way of thinking, the trapezoids were unusable, as the angle where you nipped it off with the triangle template was wrong.  I ended up ditching those pieces and making flying geese and sewing my sides together with partial seams. 

I must have just misunderstood the directions, but if anyone else had issues with this block, using Marti's instructions, let me know.  I will probably be hitting my forehead and saying "duh" when someone explains it to me.

Mini Bennington Schnibble

I took a break from the Farmer's Wife project yesterday and finished up the blocks for my mini Bennington Schnibbles quilt.  This will end up as a late summer/early fall table topper on my kitchen table.  I am going to quilt it myself (deep breath, wish me luck), and can picture it already in my kitchen.  Can't you see it?  With my green pitcher full of small sunflowers?

Still have to sew the blocks together, but I am continuing to fool around with the block placement.  There will be a piano key border added on.  The fabric is Grand Finale by Sandy Gervais for Moda, and the pattern is in Carrie Nelson's sensational book Schnibbles Times Two. 

Sure do miss my portable design wall.  I wanted it so badly today, but have no idea what box it might be in. I did find a good sized piece of batting, which I laid on the concrete floor in my studio.  It works for this small project, but will certainly not do for anything larger. That is so darn frustrating, not to know where anything is.  I don't even have a clue where my pincushion is.  This weekend, my husband and I are going to have Words.  About exactly when the work is going to commence on the studio.

Today Sara is bringing Evangeline over for her first visit to my house!  We plan to get back to work on our Farmer's Wife blocks.  I have no idea how Ozzie is going to react to the baby.  I am holding my breath that he doesn't freak out too much.  Good grief, I had a fly swatter out yesterday and was clumsily trying to whack a big old fly and he became hysterical.  He was barking and lunging at me like I was some sort of lunatic that needed to be restrained immediately.  It is the FLY that is our Enemy you bone head, not me.

Hey, I discovered a very cool new (to me) blog today.  Go check it out, say hey to Kristyne at Pretty By Hand.  She pieces, she has an amazing color aesthetic, and she is learning to machine quilt (just like me), but is way better at it.  Her style is breezy and fun and I think you might enjoy her. I sure do!

 

 

Economy

My favorite Farmer's Wife block so far!  "Economy".  Love it.  I call it Square in a Sqaure, but am not about to argue with a farmer's wife.

I continue to stitch away at these fun little blocks.  Just can't seem to stop!  I have around 18 finished now (not including the dozen or so I made before discovering Marti Michell's templates).  I like to start sewing in the morning, and finish up in the early afternoon.  My studio isn't air conditioned yet, so by about 2:00 it is beginning to get hotter than I like it.

Here are the blocks I made yesterday. From left to right:  Country Farm, Hovering Hawks, Economy, Flock, Bow Tie, Practical Orchard, and Prairie Queen.  I had to remake a couple of them (like the Bow Tie block in the middle) because my originals came out too small.  I can tell already that a fat quarter of the seed packet print fabric is not going to be enough.  Ordering more of that in the black and the yellow is on my agenda.

Sara's mother in law has come to visit her for a few days, so I am trying to not be greedy about horning in on her Evangeline time.  I can spend my afternoons doing hand applique or reading the new book I started, that everyone is talking about. 

"Unbroken", the true story of Louie Zamperini, a 1936 Olympic athlete and WW2 bombadier.  His plane crashes into the ocean, where he is adrift for 47 days, relying on catching rain water to slake his thirst, and catching a fish once in awhile so he doesn't starve.  If that wasn't bad enough, his rescuers are Japanese, who put him in a POW camp where he was tortured for years.  Sounds terrible, but the story is all about the resilience and courage and determination we all have within us to help us get through an impossible situation.  Amazing guy.  He became an inspirational speaker, who is still alive today I believe.  I read somewhere that after he finally got back home from the war, he had post traumatic stress syndrome and became an alcoholic, but Billy Graham and his Christian faith led him to a full recovery.  He went on to inspire thousands of people.  He even went back to Japan, met with some of his former tormentors from the prison camp, and *completely forgave them*.  Astounding story.  The author is the same person who wrote "Sea Biscuit", another inspirational story.