Sister's Choice Quilts

Retail Therapy

I ordered a couple of things from the Fatquartershop and when I took them out of the box I was so excited I took a couple of pictures to share with you.  

First up are refills for the Sewline glue pen I was telling you all about.  Great for appliqué.  Next is the Farmer's Wife 1930's style book that came out recently.  Remember a few years ago everyone was making a Farmer's Wife quilt?  A gazillion six inch blocks?  Well, here is a new edition of that book, with more block patterns.  I love the 1930's fabric twist and can't wait to browse through the book and see how it compares to the original version.  I can just see this in Denyse Schmidt fabrics.  If only I hadn't used up all my stash!

Best of all, check out this presentation for a quilt kit I purchased.  It is the latest Howard Marcus Mill Brook Collection for a Cause kit.  Love those stars and baskets!  Instead of just packing the fabric into a clear plastic pouch, it all comes boxed up in this gorgeous box depicting the finished quilt on the top.  

And this is what you find inside!  For this pattern  9 1/2 inch strips of the 44" width of fabric is required, so they cut the strips and rolled them up in such a pretty way.

I know I said my next project would be a four patch, but it may just have to be this one instead!  I am on a roll with my machine appliqué, so why not?

The Garden

One of my favorite things is to take my beverage of choice and wander out into the back yard and check out the garden.  This is one of the planter beds, and my word, things have really taken off since I last posted on it.

See that? Tiny little tomatoes!

The veggies are exciting, but I do love my flowers.

This is a pomegranate blossom!  How cool is that?

Lavender.

Mostly herbs, but some peppers too.  Something happened to my oregano, not sure what.  I may have to replace it.

This is definitely my favorite time of year.  Not too hot yet, lovely weather and the garden is so beautiful.

Crop Circles Blocks Sewn Together

Crop Circles blocks are now sewn into rows.  I probably should have spent more time stewing over how to arrange the blocks, as I see I have some same color center circles next to each other.  I just kept it random and that is how it ended up.

Next up are the borders, the side two of which are pieced wedges.  I just need a bit of a break from Crop Circles, so I will not be sewing today.  I will get back to it on Thursday and Friday and may have a finish by the weekend.

My mind is brewing with ideas for what to do next.  Someone asked me what I might tackle and I answered "maybe a simple four patch".  This one was pretty difficult and I am thinking that something easy might be just the thing!

Check out Sinta at Pink Pincushion and see how she is coming along with this sew along.

Crop Circles Blocks Are Done!

Woo Hoo!  Happy dance going on here.  I finished 31 Crop Circles blocks.  Love every single one of them, and only need 30, so one will have to go on the back I guess.  Aren't they cute?  Love that Gardenvale fabric by Jen Kingwell.  I think it worked out so well for this pattern.

Next up is sewing the rows together and then making a border of wedges.

Check out Sinta at Pinkpincushion and see how she is faring.  A little bird told me she is making wonderful progression her blocks.

Did you all have a marvelous Memorial Weekend?  I sure did.  Some sewing time, some family time, some shopping time--it doesn't get much better than that!  

Busy week.  Will try to post tomorrow, but if I don't--see you Thursday!

Crop Circles: Step 783

Wedges done, edges pressed under, circles made:  Start your engines and let the appliquéing  begin!

The first order of business is to cut those perfect circles into quarters.  For some reason that was hard for me.  But I did it.

There are a couple of ways to proceed with the wedges and quarter circles.  You can appliqué the quarter circle to the wedge, then appliqué the whole wedge/circle unit onto the background.  Or, do as I preferred, which was to use the background square as a guide and position first the wedge, then the quarter circle.

I am using a new to me tool by Sewline.  That pink pen like thing in the photo above is a glue stick especially designed for appliqué.  It is blue, but dries clear.  I am applying it to the edge of the underside of the wedge and circle shapes to position them in place on my background square for appliquéing.  I really do like it.  I got mine on Amazon.com and it comes with one refill.

I am trying not to get the glue right at the very edge of the appliqué piece because I don't want to sew on it and get my needle all gunky.

I am appliquéing the four squares for each block in sets of five.  I managed to complete 10 blocks (40 segments) on Thursday afternoon.  The appliqué process is going great.  In a nutshell, here are my machine settings etc:

70/10 needle in machine (it is smaller and the holes aren't as big)
clear poly invisible thread on top, regular thread in bobbin
foot #20 for the Bernina (open appliqué foot)
stitch #7, the blind hem stitch
stitch length "1"
stitch width "1"
tension "1"

And I am here to tell you, that machine appliqué stitch is really invisible.  The blind hemstitch takes three or four tiny stitches in the ditch between the appliqué piece and the background, then takes a "bite" out of the appliqué piece to secure it.  Every one of them is coming out fantastic.  Go ahead, enlarge that photo.  See what I mean?  And that isn't my best effort, I just picked that example up randomly.  I think this method is better than hand appliqué because it doesn't show and it is fast.   

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend all of you!  I guess you know what I will be doing!

 

Activity Boxes

I thought I would share something non-sewing related with you all.  We live in an area where there are not a lot of educational or cultural resources.  Besides running around outside that is.  My grand daughter does go to preschool, but I often wonder about the quality of the activities that are offered.  Their strength is more in the area of socialization with other kids.   I have decided it is up to us to provide more exposure to learning, literature and art activities here in our home.

I browse a number of blogs and online sites that are aimed at families who home school their young children.  One of them that I have gotten so many wonderful ideas from is Teaching 2 and 3 year Olds.  They have scads of ideas for activities and projects age appropriate for the young child.  They also have links to other sites for even more ideas.

One brilliant idea that I gravitated to is pictured above.  These are daily Activity Boxes full of art, number, pre-reading, and just plain fun activities for the young child to do on their own quietly, or with a grown up sitting with them.  You do have to switch out the activities weekly to avoid boredom, so there is some effort required beyond the basic set up.

Here is one of the daily boxes pulled at random.  This is the bottom layer of choices for the child:  a couple of books, some number flash cards, a lacing game, a small puzzle, some matching cards, a couple of finger puppets (lady bug and turtle).

Next layer:  a stamp set.

Top layer:  Unifix math cubes.

We had a lot of these items stashed away in the closet of Eva's bedroom, and did pull them out now and then.  These activity boxes cause us to pull things out in a regular rotation and really make good use of them. When I decided to create the daily boxes, I did purchase quite a few additional materials (mostly through Amazon).  I now feel that our selection of art, number and pre-literacy materials rivals what is found in most pre-schools.  That being said, a big monetary investment really isn't necessary.  I have found loads of activity ideas that call for things commonly found at home.  With a bit of imagination, you can create wonderful activities on your own.

Eva is enthralled to see what each daily box contains.  She prefers that I sit with her while she goes through the box and plays with each activity, which I don't mind at all.  I can oversee the way she uses the materials and make suggestions on ways to use them more effectively.  Besides, it is just more fun to do it together!

The other day, as she was blearily waking up from her nap, she cracked one eye open and mumbled "Nana, can we do 'tivities now?"  I think she likes it.

 

Wedges Pressed, Circles Done

The lady who cleans my house was here yesterday morning and I always try to stay out of her way.  My project while she was cleaning upstairs was to press the rest of my wedge segments for the Crop Circles blocks.  I made myself a little ironing station on the kitchen counter.  I used my Steady Betty and the pressing mat that someone recommended I get to go with it, and made short work of the pressing job.  It took awhile, but I did finish before my manicure appointment at 11:00.  I highly recommend the Steady Betty pressing board for any sort of appliqué pressing work.  It is nice and firm and is just what you need to get a good pressed edge.

Next up was to finish basting my circles for the centers of the blocks.  Isn't that little tin just perfect for a small hand sewing project?  My son gave it to me--originally it was full of butter cookies.  They have those things in England and Ireland to hold the sweets that go with all the tea they drink.  He brings me one every year when he comes home to visit.

 

Only five more circles to go!  I just had to stop.  I was so done with teensy little pressing jobs by 5:00 PM yesterday.  Done.  I will finish up today, and then....

Time to appliqué at last!  You may see a couple of finished blocks in my next post!

Sinta over at Pink Pincushion is making great progress as well.  Go see how she is doing.  Hildy in Germany is working on a Jen Kingwell project too, and I am hoping she will share some pictures with us.  Hildy, what do you say?

The Quilt of a Thousand Steps

I am going to have to rename this quilt.  It is called Crop Circles by the pattern designer, Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company, but I call it The Quilt of a Thousand Steps.  If you have been following along with this sew along Sinta of Pink Pincushion and I are doing, you may have noticed that there is a very systematic approach to making these blocks.  Go check out Sinta's progress, we are pretty much at the same state of the union.

I have reached the stage where my wedges (4 per block) are completed and top stitched.  Today, Tuesday,  my plan is to press under all those curved edges to prep them for the appliqué step.  I really need to finish that step before my 11:00 AM manicure appointment.  I tell you, that hot iron creates h*%l  with my pink and whites.  

Once the edges are all turned under, I must get all my center circles prepped and ready to appliqué.  Once the appliqué step is complete, the block sections will be ready to combine into proper whole blocks.

In case you were wondering, this is not a quilt you will finish in a weekend.  By all means, if one of you does finish this in a weekend, please let us know.  You will be entitled to some kind of major prize.  We will come up with something.  But seriously, it won't happen.

Say, wasn't that an interesting discussion on ripping fabric?  Did you read all the comments?  My goodness, there were some interesting remarks.

Hope you all had a glorious May weekend.  I didn't get a lick of sewing in.  My daughter and son and law are in the wine business and it was the county fair where we live.   He won a gold medal and she had to set up an entire building for the public to do wine tasting of the county's best wines.  My husband and I took little Eva to the fair on Friday and Saturday and had a glorious time doing small town hokey things.  Making memories every day.

International Quilt Market

I know.  It's going on right now.  Don't you wish you could go?  I have never been, and probably never will get to go, but I feel the excitement!

Do you do Instagram?  If so, check out the posts by Fatquartershop and by Modafabrics.  They are sending a barrage of photos through Instagram showing some of the booths, the new fabric lines, new tools, Moda School House (where designers give talks on projects and their new collections).  Anyway, it is clear those folks who are attending are having a complete blast.  The level of excitement and friendship comes through so clearly. In fact, Fat Quarter Shop usually shares some very interesting videos on You Tube once the excitement dies down a bit.  You can see interviews with the designers and they usually have a long video showing all of the Moda School House.  So, if that is something you would like to see, check out You Tube "Fat Quarter Shop" and enjoy!  You will feel like you are there too.  Almost.

As soon as this weekend is over and they break down the convention hall set ups, all these new products and designs will be revealed properly.  I can't wait.  I love to see the upcoming fabric lines and am always so interested to learn about new gadgets and tools.

I plan to drown my sorrows at missing it all by doing some serious sewing this weekend!  I hope you all get to spend your days just the way you most desire.

 

Ahhhhhh! Ripping Fabric?

Are you a fabric tearer?  As in, ripping your fabric instead of cutting it?

In the past I have visited a terrific quilt shop when I traveled to Wisconsin.  The women who work at that shop never cut your length of fabric, they rip it!  The first time I experienced that I just gasped in horror.  Whaaaat?  Ripping fabric?  I was pretty shocked.  My stars, the sound alone was heart stopping.

Well, it turns out there is a good reason to rip rather than cut.  It is fast, that is for certain.  But when ripping long lengths of fabric, the theory is that the rip is along the grain and you will get a truer straight  line.  At first the edge where the fabric is ripped may seem slightly distorted, but I found that it pressed right out.

Some pattern instructions call for ripping long lengths of fabric that will be used for a border.  In my recent project, Crop Circles, the pattern does call for 85 inch long sections of fabric to be ripped.  I figured I was in this for the complete experience, so I ripped away.  In for a penny, in for a pound and all that.  It was like ripping off a bandaid.  Quick and painless.  The section that was ripped was nice and straight, and the world did not end.

So what is your opinion?  Would you walk out of a shop that wanted to rip your length of fabric?  Have you tried it?   Any bad results?