Sister's Choice Quilts

Good Read

Since I haven't been doing much on the sewing front, I thought I would share a book recommendation with you today.  This is one of the best books I have read in some time, and I have read some good ones this year.  This is a book that has stayed with me long after I finished it.

The book had me laughing at times, and certainly crying as well.  The subject matter is a difficult one, and not often explored in novels. 

Here is a description from an Amazon.com reviewer:

"Before Louisa met Will, her plans didn't reach beyond their tiny English town. Will, when he wasn't closing multimillion-dollar deals, blew off steam scaling mountains, leaping from planes, and enjoying exquisite women--until an accident left him paralyzed and seriously depressed. When his mother hires Lou to keep his spirits up, he meets her awkward overtures with caustic contempt, but she's tenacious and oddly endearing. Their fondness grows into something deeper, gaining urgency when she realizes his determination to end his life, and her efforts to convince him of its value throw her own bland ambitions into question. Plumbing morally complex depths with comedy and compassion, Jojo Moyes elevates the story of Lou and Will from what could have been a maudlin weepie into a tragic love story, with a catharsis that will wring out your heart and leave you feeling fearless".

Ok fine.  You think you know where this book is going but you couldn't be more wrong.  With each chapter you see the situation from different points of view, and by the end you may see that there are no right answers to this complex moral situation.

I chose this book for my book club this month and can't wait for the discussion.  There are sure to be a number of differing opinions on the subject, which should make things pretty lively.

Blogger Girls BOM

I know I am a few days early, but I have to give you a sneak peek at this month's Blogger Girls BOM. 

These are just the centers of the blocks, but I wanted you to see how really different the two resulting blocks are going to be.  Just by changing out some background fabrics for more intense ones, you get such a different feeling.  One is quite star like, and the other has a strong buzz saw or pinwheel effect.

This is such a fun project!  I am enjoying all my blocks and playing with the fabrics to get different looks for my two blocks each month.  You will get to see the two finished blocks on April 1!

Spring Fever

Just a quick note to say all is well, I've just been busy.  I was away this weekend visiting family, having a lovely time.  Hope to get back in the sewing room today and work on my Blogger Girls BOM blocks for this month!

My neighbor's lilac bush has just started to bloom, and is it ever pretty.  Last year I was so blown away by it that I purchased a little bush at my local garden center and was thrilled to see that it is leafing out.  No blossoms on my little bush, but hopefully there will be some eventually.

Pretty in Pink

Speaking of baby quilts, my student has started her third charity quilt.  We had some nice pastel fabrics donated to us, so we are using these this time, rather than going shopping and spending money.  My student is very fond of the Friendship Star block, as she made her mom four mug coasters featuring that design for Christmas.  She loved the idea of making an entire quilt using that block.  I think her first star is lovely, in that fresh feminine pink.

We made half square triangles the old fashioned way, where you draw a line diagonally on a square and sew on each side of the line.  She did not care for cutting a 7/8th measurement, but got through it without any mis-cuts.  She liked the drawing the line part, and it was a great lesson in how important an accurate 1/4 inch seam allowance is when sewing on either side of it.  She really is a careful sewer, and I certainly love how she obeys my instructions.  Wish more other folks did that for me.  (In my dreams...)

The book to the left of her quilt block is Quilts for Baby, Easy as ABC by Ursula Reikes.  Ursula has written at least three Quilts for Baby books, and all of them are great for beginning sewers.  All of my student's quilts have come from two of these books.

Her quilts need to all be done by mid April, as her final presentation of her Senior Project takes place at the end of April.  She has told me that she is going to see if I might attend her presentation, which would please me no end.

I have enjoyed sewing with this young lady so much.  Evidently she has enjoyed the experience as well, as she has asked me if she might continue to meet with me for help with future projects she wants to  make just for fun.  Another recruit to the world of quilting!

 

Baby Burp Cloths

Next time you make a baby quilt, you might want to make a few burp cloths to go with it.  When Eva was a baby, goodness, did we ever use a ton of these.

I buy the prefolded diapers that have a thicker portion down the center.  You can find them at places like Target and KMart.  In case it has been awhile since you have bought diapers, don't have a heart attack when you see how the price has gone up!

Cut a strip of fabric slightly wider and longer than the thicker middle portion of the diaper.  I am guessing I had a strip 18 inches long by about five inches wide.  Press the sides carefully, and pin over the middle part of the diaper.  Fold the ends under and press.  Stitch on the edge of the fold, and you are done. Takes two minutes, seriously.

A couple of these that coordinate with your baby quilt would be a welcome and super cute little extra gift to give the new mom.

And if you want to skip making a baby quilt, just make burp cloths out of the whole stack of a dozen diapers!  Sure would save you a lot of time and money.

This is a stack that I made for Eva before she was born.  We used them to pieces!

How To Do the Wiggle Stitch

Every time I mention the Wiggle Stitch, someone asks me what it is and how to do it.  I have posted on the topic before, so I hope those of you who visit here regularly aren't bored with the subject.

First of all, this stitch undoubtedly has a proper name, but I don't know what it is.  It is wiggly, so I call it the Wiggle Stitch.  You can see in the photo above that I am using my walking foot, with the measuring bar attached to it.  The bar is set about two inches from the needle.  This is a little wider than I typically like it, but I had it set this way for one of the charity quilts I was quilting.  Normally, I'd do around 1 inch.

Depending on how close together your rows are, you can have a quilt that is densely quilted, or not, if that is your preference.  You can also do a cross hatch design which will result in a pattern that looks like chicken wire or jig saw pieces.  It is very forgiving, easy to do, and fast.  Pretty error proof.

My sewing machine is a Bernina 153 Quilters Edition.  The stitch setting is number 4 on my machine.  If you do not have  a Bernina, it may be some other number on your machine.  If you have a stitch that looks squiggly, try it out, it may be the same one.

See?  When I press that number 4 stitch button, it shows in the digital screen on the front of my machine.  Here is something else I want to point out:

You must increase your stitch length to about 2.5, or you will have teensy weensy wiggles, which is not what you want for this type of quilting.  Just play with it until it looks right to you.

Here I go, finishing up the charity quilt.  This went quite fast, and I was super pleased with the result.  I am no expert at machine quilting, but have been practicing a lot lately, and love this stitch for those projects I tackle myself.  It first came to my attention in a post written by Camille Roskelley on her Simplify blog on Jan. 20.  Turns out, as usual I was late to the party, and lots of quilters tell me they use this stitch. Give it a go, you may like it too!

Self Tanning

Ok.  So I haven't done a post on grooming since, I guess, my home waxing debacle.  We are not going to talk about that little incident.  But I had something so astonishing happen in regard to my self tanning product, that I just have to share.  Maybe over share.

St. Tropez is a very high quality self tanning product.  The item in the photo above is a mousse that goes on like a dream, and has a very low error margin.  The color works great for someone fair skinned, such as I am, and I have loved the results from using it.  It is VERY pricey.  $30 at Sephora for the little canister you see above.  You can get it for a bit less if you order it from QVC, but you have to pay for a weird mitt that comes with it that you don't get when you buy it at a beauty supply store.

Well, the can above is from last spring.  I barely used a third of the product, and was optimistically thinking I could keep on using it this season.

Here is what I got when I sprayed it into my palm---

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you.  It is a nice puff of green foam.  May I say "Ick"?  And maybe "Ick" again?  Can you imagine if the lights in the bathroom were dim, I wasn't wearing my glasses, and just slathered this stuff all over?

And this is my palm fifteen seconds later, with a semi permanent olive green oval--

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day folks.  Anyone want my can of St. Tropez self tanner?

Red Pineapple Update

Finally all the strips for my Red Pineapple quilt are cut out.  Just the red ones are shown above. I made an executive decision to make this quilt 49 blocks (7 x 7) rather than 56 blocks (7 x 8).  I used up every scrap of red French General fabric I own, and believe me, that was quite a lot.  Let me just say, this block takes a LOT of fabric.  It would be the best scrap buster ever, if you were to truly make it scrappy and use up every bit of whatever you have on hand. Your scrap bin would be empty.

I thought I would never finish cutting these strips.  But I did.  What you see above are 196 pieces EACH of the following sizes:  3 1/2, 5, 6, 6 1/2, and 7 1/2 inch pieces.  The lights are done and are bagged up separately.  Similar numbers, but not quite so many strip sizes.

That is going to be a fine looking quilt.

 

Focusing on the Ever Lengthening To Do List

My friend Thelma (Cupcakes 'n' Daisies) is a very focused person.  I love how organized she is, and how she mostly limits herself to working on one project at a time.  She also often gives me pause to think on things in myself I would like to improve.  Make that things in myself I would rather were more like Thelma.

Because you see, even though we are friends, we are very different in our approach to projects.  I tend to have a ton of things going on at once, and I thrive on the creativity and "buzz" I feel when I have multiple things pulling at me simultaneously.  More is more.  However, my sewing space is often a disaster, with project boxes and half started things draped all over the place.  (Witness my recent Scrappy Trips strips hanging off the arm of my rocking chair for lack of any other surface to put them on).

Thelma picks a project, organizes her space and her materials carefully, and embarks upon working on it.  She sticks to it until it is finished.  And ta da, she has beautiful finish after finish.  I want to be like that, and even picked my word of the year to be "Focus".  I am afraid that this leopard may not be able to completely change her spots though.  But you know what?  I am coming to see that there may be a sort of compromise I can come to.  As Thelma said in a recent post "Having a plan and place to execute my plan makes me feel like I am accomplishing something".

Today I spent some time organizing my sewing space and finding proper project boxes for the current things I have in process.  At the very least, the exercise gave me an overview of what all I have in the works.  At least two projects are 95% finished. Truly, maybe it isn't so bad.  If I can at least put the brakes on starting anything new.  My problem is that I get these ideas for smaller projects that I figure I can fit in between the larger ones, and I never seem to be able to say "no" to launching into them.   I believe I have made five or six table toppers recently instead of plodding along with my blinders on sticking to working on my larger projects.

So here is a recap of what I have on my sewing plate.

Long Road Home.  Get those rows sewn together and this baby is done.  Come, on.  I am almost there.

Message in a Bottle.  This quilt top is actually sewn together, I just didn't take a picture.  What I need to do is trim it up and add on some borders.  That won't take long.

Hill Country Baskets.  I just had to set this aside.  I got so weary of making all those endless baskets.  I vow I will finish up my blocks and get this one completed.  It is beginning to weigh on me.  I need to get it out and try to feel the love again.

Red Pineapple.  Scrappy Trips.  These projects are those that I will pick up from time to time and make eight or ten blocks.  In a few months I should have something to show for my work.  Blogger Girls BOM.  I am keeping up with my two blocks a month, but am thinking I should maybe start work on the lattice/alternate blocks so I won't be spending the entire month of May doing that!

Hope this wasn't too boring a post.  It sure helped me see what I have in the works and how I need to be spending my time.  And I am not even going to think of the things I started last summer that are still far from done:  Birdie Stitches, Dresden Plate, Granny Squares...

 

Erin Go Bragh

This little table runner is what I made with my green and white flying geese.  I don't know what came over me--I am so easily distracted when I am down in my sewing studio.  The fabrics were just so fresh and springy, and who doesn't love working on a seasonal project, right at the time it is in season?  The fabrics were leftover scraps from two Bonnie and Camille collections, Ruby and Bliss.  The border/lattice fabric was not from those collections, just some random fabric I had on hand.  No idea who the manufacturer or designer might be.  Pretty amazing that it matched.  I always think greens are about as hard as blues to get a good match.

All I need is to get it quilted and find a shamrock plant to put on it and it will be just the thing to decorate my sideboard for St. Patrick's Day this weekend.  Erin Go Bragh.

Here it is waiting to be quilted along with another fresh and springy green project I have in the wings.

How are you all doing with this whole Daylight Savings Time thing?  I loved that it stayed nice and light so my family could play outside longer with Eva.  She has a new little slide and all we want to do is sit outside and watch her play on it.  I also am always on board with going to bed an hour earlier, but this getting up at 6:00 AM when it is really 5:00 AM is for the birds.  About 2:00 yesterday afternoon, I just wanted to lay down on the couch and close my eyes.