Sister's Choice Quilts

Aurora Coming Together

I was running out of room on my design wall, so I decided to start sewing my Aurora stars together so I could fit more on the wall.

I cannot tell you how much I am in love with this quilt.  The stars are precious, and exactly the right size.  It is completely worth the effort to make a gazillion of these little 4 inch square stars.  Also, and it doesn't show up so well in the photo, the outer setting triangles in the blowsy taupe rose print are just perfect.  The background squares have the same taupe figure in them, just a bit more subtle.

This one is going to be a real favorite I think!

In other news, Eva is back from theater camp.  She was in a youth theater production of Esther.  I am not totally up on my Bible stories, and had to Google Esther.  It's complicated, but basically, she saved her people, the Jews, from slaughter.   Eva managed to learn her lines and the dance numbers, but was in it for the fun of being with the other kids.  She came home at the end of the week totally exhausted, and honestly still hasn't quite recovered.  We have been taking it real easy around here.  We did some reading and school activities to keep things fresh in her mind over the summer, went to the pool, did a fun watercolor and salt art project.  We had the nicest lunch outside Monday afternoon.  She is at the age where she can help make her lunch and loves taking part in whatever I am doing.  We cut up fruit and made sandwiches and carried them out to the back porch and enjoyed a nice conversation while we ate.  I am really enjoying my time with her.  That is Eva, fourth on the right, next to Esther.

Birthday Getaway

I had a birthday last week, and have been celebrating it ever since.  Check out the cake my nephew and his wife provided for my birthday dinner!  It was layers of carroty goodness with yummy cream cheese in between the layers, and was just dreamy to eat.

Then my husband whisked me out of town for a little getaway down to the Monterey area where we used to live.  One of the highlights of the visit was going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  If you haven't been, and ever get the opportunity, you really must visit.  The first thing I saw when I walked in was this huge school of anchovies, which was my favorite thing in the entire exhibit!  Little rays of liquid mercury, they sparkled and shimmered in a way that my photograph doesn't begin to capture.  

I do not even know what the heck this is, but isn't it gorgeous?  Some type of sea plants I think, as well as a few tiny sea creatures.  Does it give you any ideas of a great color scheme for your next quilt?  It's mind blowing how many different plants and creatures live under the sea.

How about these jelly fish?  They are mesmerizing to watch, but you sure wouldn't want to be touched by one.  They sting something fierce.

We had a terrific time, and learned a thing or two as well.  There was some artwork on display by a local artist, who creates her pieces completely from plastic and other litter that has been fished out of the ocean.  These plastic containers, wrappings, bottles and other miscellaneous items do untold and irreparable damage to the ocean's inhabitants and environment. Whatever we can do to reduce our use of plastic is critical.

Here is a close up:

Hope you are all having a great week!  I have to say mine has been terrific.  Woo Hoo, it is the first day of summer!  I am home now, and couldn't wait to get up to the sewing room.  Some happy mail (also birthday related) arrived while I was away, and I can't wait to share that with you tomorrow.

That's Just Swell

I had to do it.  This is the Swell Christmas kit by Urban Chiks.  Do you know Moda is sold out of these already?  Fatquartershop is as well and won't be getting anymore.  I found one on Etsy for a great price and snapped it up.  Whew.  I would have been so disappointed to miss out on this little kit.  I think it will be so sweet on Eva's bed during the Christmas season.  

When you open up the box, the presentation is so darling.  You have your instructions, the glorious fabrics and the Retro Santa appliqué.  I have not read the instructions yet, but to look at it, that must be what it is.

At the rate my summer sewing is plodding along, I had better crank up the pace a bit to get this done and quilted by November.

There are still some kits available if you search Etsy and quiltshops.com.  If you think you want one, don't wait too long.

Hope you all had a great weekend, and that the father's in your lives did as well.  On special occasions, my dad often asks me to make him tomato aspic, a dish he enjoys, but no one else in the family will touch.  I have come to like it actually.  Talk about something retro.  It is made with V8 juice, Knox gelatin, diced celery, red pepper, avocado, and tiny cocktail shrimp.  Lots of tangy flavor from vinegar and Worchestershire sauce.  My mom used to make it for him when she was with us, and it always brings back happy memories.

 

Time To Be Quilted

My little Patriotic quilts are stacking up.  I think it's time for them to go off and be quilted!  I was considering quilting the smaller ones myself, but I am so much happier with the results when I send them out to be done professionally.  

This one, "Faithful", may be my favorite.  It turned out nice and narrow (18"), and will fit perfectly on my front hall table.  I sure had to wait for that border fabric, but got it eventually.  I have to say that I sure do appreciate it when shops cut and send you your order within a couple of days.  I keep a mental list of those who drag their heels and take forever, and think twice about reordering from them unless I am desperate.

Another red, cream and blue table topper. "Recess".  I used lots of scraps for this one, so I feel like it was a "free" quilt.  That's what I am telling myself anyway.

Thanks for all the moral support yesterday.  The vast majority of comments I get are friendly and positive.  Every now and then though, I get one that makes me scratch my head and think "Some people...."  Truthfully, I think the issue is miscommunication.  A few individuals just do not read carefully or completely and jump to all sorts of wrong conclusions.  I enjoy my interactions with all of you way too much to stop blogging!

Barn Blocks

Hi there, hope you all had a lovely weekend. The photo above is a block I made on Saturday, which is "Recipe 1" in the Fatquartershop's Sew Sampler box Barn Block Sew Along.  You get a pattern, or "recipe" for one block each month in your Sew Sampler box.  If you don't want to participate in the Sew Sampler box ($25 per month), you can opt to purchase the blocks individually from FQS for around $5 as I recall.  In each block, the basic "barn" is the same, but the "barn block" on the side is more complex and differs each month.

I got recipe 2 in my June box, but purchased recipe 1 separately.  FQS offers a kit in the fabrics they chose for their version of the quilt.  Black, grey and white.  No offense if you love it, but I just have to have some color, and barns are traditionally red, right?  And I love red, so I added it in to my version.  I am using Primitive Gatherings "Needle and Thread Gatherings" for my project.

Block #1 was pretty painless, and I was thinking how gigantic the finished block was, at 12 1/2".  However, the thing one is supposed to focus on, is the "barn block" on the side of the barn, which is much more elaborate and involves trickier and smaller scale piecing.  Block #2 was a fine challenge, with the tiny little half square triangles being 1" finished.   I managed to sew one of the segments wrong and ended up redoing one of the quadrants.

In the end, my points were pretty much right on, and everything lined up to my satisfaction.  It was a little fiddly to make, but I was quite happy with my results.  So get this,  I posted a photo on Instagram and some woman commented.  "Better done than perfect".  Excuse me?   What minor flaw in my work is troubling you so, that you would leave such a comment?

Honestly, some people think with the anonymity that social media allows, they can say anything they like.

People are so funny.  Awhile back, some woman sent me a scathing email, complaining about a pattern she wanted to purchase (that I had mentioned on my blog) and she was getting no response from the pattern designer.  Would I please do something about it and get back to her as soon as possible?  Whaaat?

When you have a blog, you are somewhat of a public figure, as what you put out into cyber space is, well, out there.  Some people attribute far more power and influence than is deserved to a simple blogger who is sharing her projects and opinions with whomever out there choses to read her posts.

I don't do this for money.  I have never been sponsored by any person or any product.  I have chosen not to have ads on my site because I find them annoying and assume my readers might as well.  My blog is my own work and my personal opinions.  I receive no compensation from my posts other than the joy I receive from my regular (and some not so regular) commenters.  I love the friendships I have developed through blogging, whether they lasted, or didn't.  Every positive connection I make with you is reward enough for me.  It's a shame not everyone gets that.

We are not always going to agree on every subject.  We all have different tastes and preferences, and a good discussion amongst folks who do not see eye to eye can be terrific.  Anyway, thanks for reading, and if you take the time to make a comment, I truly appreciate it.  Especially if it is nice.  lol

 

Nothing Too Taxing

I have been doing some sewing this week, here and there.  I have finished half of the star blocks for Aurora.  I put on an audio book and just zone out and sew.  It is kind of repetitive sewing, but I don't mind it being a bit mindless as long as I have a good book.

I am pretty sure I am going to love this quilt when it is finished.

In other news, Eva and I have been doing a lot of reading and of course have visited the pool.  I finished my Recess table runner and will share that with you Monday.  A lot of fabric prepping (starching) has also been going on for a new project that is percolating in my mind.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

Recess

I have been playing around with fabrics for another red white and blue table runner.  I dug out an old Schnibbles pattern I had never made, one called "Recess".  It looked super easy, so I figured I could just whip it out.  Cutting the rectangular shaped pieces was a cinch.  What I did not notice at first was that the layout of units was not random.  It was trickier than I first thought to get things laid out in a pleasing manner without the same colors butting up against each other.  Also, if you look, you can see that you need two of each fabric to make a sort of Z shaped arrangement.  I spent way too much time placing my fabrics the way I wanted them.

Despite the fiddly placement, the sewing is simple and the quilt is coming together pretty fast.  Of course I had to change the size up from square to rectangular.  I may use this one on the coffee table in my living room.  

Recess is a great pattern to use with charm squares.  You would nicely get two matching units out of each charm square.  I didn't have any patriotic themed charm packs, so I had to rummage in my stash for a nice mix of fabrics.  I mostly used 22" long fat quarter scraps, and cut strips 2 1/4" long.  You get five 4" units out of a 22" long strip, but only need four of them.  I have a lot of odd pieces left over, and may use them to make a small square topper and have it be totally random, without the Z pattern.   A little square table topper looks so sweet with a candle on it, or a vase of flowers.

Hope you are having a great week!

Faithful

This table runner was made from a Frivols tin (remember them?) I received in 2016.  The pattern in the tin was called "Faithful" and was for a square sized table topper.  The fabrics were Polka-Dots and Paisleys by Minick and Simpson.  I made it up, slightly smaller than the pattern called for and gave it to my daughter two years ago.  At any rate, I had lots of left over fabric from the tin and even had made five blocks, thinking I would make up a table topper for myself in the future.  Never did.

I dug out the blocks over the weekend, and decided I could add in a bit more Minick and Simpson fabrics, and have myself a nice long runner for my hall table.  And I had five blocks already made, right?  Only, they were useless.  I do not know what I was thinking when I made them, but every single one was out of whack, the wrong size, and just strange.  Turns out I must have not noticed the small print that said "trim the half square triangles to 2 1/4 inches", and "trim the block to 5 1/2"".  Good grief, what a mess.  I unmade those five blocks and was able to salvage the pieces and cut them down properly, then made a total of 14 blocks for this runner.  I really like the way it turned out.

It needs an outer border, and I was determined to find a piece of one of the red or blue prints from that line of fabric.  Not an easy task to find fabric that is over two years old.  After lots of searching Etsy and eBay, I finally found a brick and mortar store in Oklahoma that one of the dark blue prints with red flowers.  Or hopefully their website is current and really do have it.  I placed an order for some anyway and have not had a call from them saying it was long ago sold out and they hadn't updated their site.  As soon as I get it, I will get that thing quilted and on my hall table, where it will look brilliant all summer long.

Hope you all had a great weekend.  Last week was the last week of first grade for Eva.  Now she will be spending a lot more time with me, so my posting may be sporadic, as it often is in the summer.  You will hear from me two or three times a week I promise.  I have a plan to initiate Nana School, where we spend a good amount of time each day refreshing what she learned in first grade, and in particular, working on improving her reading skills.  So that's the goal.  Oh, and plenty of pool time too!