Sister's Choice Quilts

Are You Stringing Along?

The Moda String Along is officially under way.  It's a New Year, so a fresh project is called for, don't you agree? I had a project in mind and made a few test blocks last week when I had a bit of down time.  The idea is, you use scraps (or not) and make some sort of string quilt project.  You can use paper or fabric as a foundation for your blocks, or perhaps use nothing at all.  The point is to do your own thing.  There are plenty of tutorials out there to Google if this method is new to you or you would like to explore alternate methods of construction.  If you use Instagram, check out #modastringalong for lots of ideas for projects.

Here's what I am doing.  Grab a cup of tea and settle in, this is a photo heavy post.

Of course I didn't use scraps.  Why would I ever do anything so practical?  I saw the perfect string quilt pattern (also called "String Along") and bought it as well as all the supplies needed for the project.  I am using a couple of fat eighth bundles by Linzee McCray as well as some additional fabrics.  It takes a lot of fabric to make a string quilt, and there is a lot of waste, in my opinion.  That's why so many people use leftover scraps for their string quilts.

I am using foundation paper by Carol Doak.  I cut squares to 5" for my pattern.  Then I glued a rectangular solid color wedge to the paper.   Just a dab on two corners of the paper with a regular glue stick works fine.

You want to make sure the corners of the paper are completely covered with fabric.

Next up for my project, is to make lots of strip sets.  Mine are between 4 1/2" and 5 1/2".  The width isn't real important, the sets just need to be at least 4 1/2" for what I am doing.

My pattern instructions call for cutting the strip sets down into 90 degree triangle wedges.  The ruler I am using is called The Companion Angle by Diane Zimmerman.  It is a great ruler with clear markings which are easy to see and line up.  I get four wedges out of a strip set.

Sew a strip set triangle to one side of the center wedge, flip and press. Sew the second strip set triangle to the other side of the wedge, flip and press.

Now what?, you say.  This does not look like anything useable.  Well, here's where the foundation paper comes in.  Flip that unit over.

Oooohhhh.  Right.  Don't even think of tearing off that paper yet.  (Ask me how I know this...)

With the block unit upside down, trim the excess fabric from around the paper, using the paper as your pattern guide.  Now you have a perfectly square block unit.

NOW tear off the paper.  This came off very easily.

Four of these units make a block for my project. 

Before sewing them together, I attached a fold and flip square to the pointy corner of the wedge.  It forms a center square in the block when the four units are sewn together.

And there you go.  I have to  make 17 of these red blocks, then some blue blocks, green blocks and yellow blocks!  They are addicting once you get the first few done and are familiar with the method.

Looking forward to lots of sewing in the next week.  Happy New Year everyone!

 

Easy Gift for Kids to Give

Eva wanted to give her parents something for Christmas, but as with most 7 year olds, she needed some adult assistance.  We decided to make home made Ranch Salad Dressing mix and package it in small mason jars. Isn't that a sweet little present?  And who doesn't love Ranch Salad Dressing?

The recipe was super simple-the most difficult thing was finding dried buttermilk powder at my local grocery store.  They had it though, on the bottom shelf with the other dried milk products in the baking section.  It will be a handy ingredient to have on hand.  How many times have you wanted to make a cake or muffins on the spur of the moment, but the recipe you wanted to use involved buttermilk, which no one has in their fridge ever?

Here is the recipe:

Homemade Ranch Dressing  Mix

1/2 cup dried buttermilk powder
1 T. dried parsley
2 tsp dried dill
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper

This makes enough salad dressing mix to fill one small mason jar (8 oz size). Since we were making more than one jar, we used separate little bowls to mix each batch.

Eva did all the measuring, mixing and jar filling herself.  She also cleaned up and put everything away when we were finished!

We cut fabric circles to fit over the top of the jar (secured with a wide rubber band) and tied a pretty ribbon around.  Eva spent quite some time making her gift tags.  At the time I am writing this post, she had not quite finished her embellishments.

She was kind of worn out after all the tag decorating, so I helped out with the instructions for the reverse side of each tag.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful Christmas holiday with your families.  I am so excited to have my family around me this year and look forward to sharing our celebration with you.

Merry Christmas, and thanks for visiting my blog!

 

String Quilts

Have you ever made a string quilt?  Moda is sponsoring a "String Along" project If you are interested.  The recent post on Moda's blog The Cutting Table got me thinking about the fact that I have never really made a string quilt.  Oh, I made a little string quilted heart one time, but that was 20 years ago.  I didn't really know what I was doing.  I have a feeling that string quilts are making a come back, so when I saw this pattern called "String Along", I gave it a second look.

Well, I did more than that.  I bought the pattern and two fat eighths bundles of Linzee McCray's new collection "Feed Sacks Red Rover".

Red Rover is a retro feeling collection that is bright and cheerful and just the fabric to work with in the gloom of January.

I love the challenge of trying something new, and I think this may be a great project for me in the new year.  The pattern involves foundation paper as well as using a 90 degree ruler, both of which are intriguing to me.

The Moda String Along  starts December 28.  It seems as if folks are welcome to do any sort of string quilting project that suits their fancy.  There are some good suggestions and lists of what you need to get started on the blog post.  There are a couple of additional tutorials on string quilting you may be interested in checking out:  Sherri McConnell has one, and so does Amanda Nyberg.

I think it might be fun to try something new and learn a different technique.  I am thinking that i may just have to jump in and give string quilting a try in the new year.  How about you?  Are you intrigued too?

Laura's Gingerbread Bundt Cake

This festive looking cake is a recipe by Laura Vitale, a popular YouTube and Food Network personality.  The cake is called Gingerbread Bundt Cake, and I know it is going to be a mainstay in my holiday baking repertoire.  It has just the right amount of rum (in the icing) to make it interesting, yet not overpowering.  And trust me, your house will smell fabulous while it bakes.

I found it helpful to watch her video (linked above) as she demonstrates in depth each step in the process.

Gingerbread Bundt Cake by Laura Vitale

For the cake:

3 Cups of All Purpose Flour
1-1/2 Tbsp of Ground Ginger
1 Tbsp of Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Allspice
1/2 tsp of Ground Cloves
1 tsp of Baking Soda
1/2 tsp of Salt
1 cup (2 sticks) of Unsalted Butter, softened at room temperature
1 Cup of Molasses
1-1/2 cups of Brown Sugar
1/2 cup of Granulated Sugar
4 Eggs
1/2 cup of Sour Cream
3/4 cup of Whole Milk
Zest of 1 Orange
2 tsp of Vanilla Extract

For the glaze:

2 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter, softened at room temperature
4 oz of Cream Cheese, softened at room temperature
1-1/2 cups of Confectioners Sugar
2 Tbsp of Rum
1 tsp of Vanilla
About 2 to 3 Tbsp of Milk

Preparation:

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, spray a bundt pan well with some non-stick baking spray and set aside.
2) In a large bowl, stir together the flour, spices, baking soda and salt, set aside.
3) In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and both kinds of sugar for about a minute, then add the eggs, molasses, orange zest and vanilla and continue to mix until well combined, add the sour cream and make sure it’s well stirred in.
4) Add the dry ingredients and the milk and allow it to mix until you have a nice smooth mixture, pour into your prepared pan and pop it in the oven to bake for about an hour and 15 minutes. At the 1 hour mark, check it and if it looks like the edges are getting too brown, turn the temperature down to 325 degrees for the remaining baking time. 
5) Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes, then invert onto a rack over top of a baking sheet and allow to cool completely.
6) To make the frosting, in a large bowl, cream together the butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, rum and vanilla until really smooth, then add a drizzle of milk at a time to get it to a nice smooth consistency. 
7) Pour over the cake then sprinkle the top with some festive holiday sprinkles.

 

Stocking Stuffers for Men

Better late than never, right?  I had forgotten that I had said I would post some Christmas stocking stuffer ideas for the men on your list.  Hopefully this won't come too late to be useful.  Most of the items are easily found and not very expensive.  Some of these things may not seem very exciting, but honestly the men I know find them practical and useful.

Your first stop for men's stocking stuffers is your local drug store or big box store.  I like to give lots of little items that every man can use, such as lip balm, a new toothbrush, hand sanitizer, an eyeglass repair kit.  You could also do deodorant, body wash, and other personal care notions.

Vitamins are another good stocking filler.  

So are any sorts of over the counter medications that the man in your life may not have the foresight to have on hand when needed.  Our son lives in Ireland, and believe it or not, products like cold medications are not available without a prescription.  He always gets boxes of cold and flu meds in his stocking!

Next, a trip to the local hardware store.  Those places are chock full of mysterious gadgets that men find fascinating.   If you can find a helpful hardware employee to give you a few suggestions you will be doing great.  If not, browse around and see what you come up with on your own.  I found these little shims for making things sit straight.  Better than a folded up piece of cardboard, right?  

Other favorites are flashlights, batteries in all sizes and these little sticky pads that go on chair legs.  I have no idea what they are called, but they are my husband's favorite thing in the entire world.  If you stick them on the bottom of chair legs they make the chair move smoothly without scratching the floor.  They also eliminate that sound of elephants trumpeting when the chair is moved.

More bumper things-these are for drawers I think.  A stud finder.  Nails in assorted sizes, a new nozzle for the hose.

If your guys are not as much into the hardware store scene, here are a few more ideas.

A good quality masculine soap.  I got these Dr. Squatch soaps on Amazon.  They come in various scents, such as cedar citrus, bay rum and something called pine tar that looks very odd, but men seem to like.  Nothing flowery or feminine about pine tar.

Do you have a techie?

How about a microfiber cleaner?

A cell phone stand.

A funny flash drive.

Or perhaps you have some men in your life who like to cook?  Any stop at a cooking supply shop will give you a gazillion ideas for stocking stuffers.

These wine bottle stoppers are my favorites.  A bottle opener is a good idea too- for beer or wine.

Does he like to cook?  A good set of barbeque tools is kind of a cliche, but it could be that this is the year for an update.  I chose a spatula and an herb stripping tool for one of the guys on my list.

And this is just funny.  They are little rubber sheep that you can put on the side of a boiling pot to keep the lid ajar.

Any type of spices are good.  Flavored pepper, bottles of hot sauce, etc.  So many guys like things hot and spicy when they cook.

Do you have any bachelors or students to buy for?  I thought these dried soup mixes that serve two people (or one hungry guy) made great stocking stuffers.

And to finish off, just a few miscellaneous items that may work for you.

These are really good cushiony dress socks for the guy who does a lot of walking in the city.  Both my son and husband commute into big cities and a padded sock really saves their feet.

A novelty infuser for the tea drinker.  It makes me smile.

Incense for the hippy in your life.

Nuts for the nut in the family.

Hope this post gave you some good ideas!

 

Wrapping and Ribbon

I was hoping for more interesting content for you all in my effort to post every week day before Christmas, but I swear all I did over the weekend was wrap packages, take Eva to see The Grinch, and wrap more packages.  The Grinch was adorable, and I enjoyed it as much as she did.  Benedict Cumberbatch does an incredible job as the voice of the Grinch.

I have piles of presents all over the house.  It looks like a lot, but we have a huge extended family, and everybody gets a present.  The end is in sight with the whole wrapping thing, thank goodness.  One gift is going to have to go out to the garage though, as it smells to high heaven.  I bought Sara's husband a pound of bulk garlic powder (he is starting up a restaurant), and boy oh boy, can you ever smell it.  When it was delivered to the front porch and I picked it up I wondered if one of the neighbors was doing some heavy fertilizing.  Um no, that would just be one of the gifts I am giving to a family member.

I mentioned in a previous post that I got a tip for decorating the tree with ribbon, that was super successful.  Here is a close up of my ribbon.  Next year I am going to use red for a bigger impact, now that I am so confident in my ribbon festooning abilities.  The trick is to cut the lengths of ribbon into three or four foot lengths.  Don't try to work with the entire spool.  You start at the top and secure a length of ribbon to the tree.  Pull it out a bit and tuck it in right below, making a kind of puff.  Just do this all the way straight down the tree.  Puff, tuck in, puff, tuck, puff, tuck, puff etc.  You get a great effect.  The mistake most people make with ribbon on the tree is that they try to go round and round like it's a garland.  No no no.  Take shorter lengths of ribbon straight down the tree, or maybe at a slight diagonal.  The effect is lovely.  I used five 10 yard long spools of 2 1/2" wide ribbon for a nine foot tree.

So, what I want to share with you in upcoming posts, when I get my act together. is a Gingerbread Bundt Cake with Rum Cream Cheese Icing, and Eva's Christmas gifts to her parents.  We are going to fill Mason jars with the dried ingredients to make batches of homemade Ranch dressing.  Decorating the jars will be fun. And Ahren is arriving from Ireland on Wednesday!  I won't see him until Saturday as he is visiting friends and exploring San Francisco until then.  After that I will have him to myself up here in the boonies.

Hope your week got off to a great start!

What Shall I Read Next?

I thought I would share three books that I plan to read right after the holidays.  They are atmospheric and wintery reads from what I understand, and I am excited to jump into them.  These books are a more "literary" choice, and will be in contrast to the "fluffier" books I have chosen to read over the holidays.  I have had all these books over a year, and I think it is time to take them off my TBR (to be read) list and finish them.  Do you do that?  Buy books and let them sit on your shelf forever until they are part of the scenery and you don't even see them anymore?  One of my New Year's Resolutions is to read some of these books that have been sitting for too long.

The first book I have chosen is based on a true character, Margaret Fishbox, who worked for R.H. Macys as an advertising copywriter in the 30s, at a time when women were not often found in that occupation.  The fictional character, Lillian Boxfish, is now 84 years old and it is New Year's Eve in 1984.  She is going to a New Year's Eve Party and decides to walk across the city.  On her stroll we revisit her life in New York from the 1930s to the time of the AIDS epidemic.  Her reflections reveal her as a woman who grabs life and all it has to offer, and manages to regain it when it seems to be slipping away.  I am excited to read Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney.  A book about a strong woman seems like a good way to begin the New Year.

The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain has gotten very good reviews.  The story is set in Switzerland post WW2, and is the tale of two friends, Anton and Gustav.  The boys share a close childhood friendship which is torn by both the war and by Gustav's family's anti-Semitism.  We follow the young men throughout their lives, one becoming a concert pianist, the other a hotel owner.  Their friendship is lost, transformed and then regained-according to one review I read.   Like a sonata, the book is told in three movements.  It deals with the choices we make, the paths we take in life and the consequences we live with.  If you enjoy a character based book, you may enjoy this.  Nominated for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction.

I understand that Midwinter by Fiona Melrose is a story of family, grief and bitterness.  The book is set in Suffolk, England and is the story of a father and son, who work together to "maintain their property, livelihood and heritage in the face of competition from big business".  The two men are also struggling with the blame and sadness they feel over the loss of their wife/mother which occurred over ten years previously and which they have never completely confronted.  Under the shadow of a particularly brutal winter, they come to terms with their anger, loss and guilt.  Also nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction, this book is supposed to be exceptionally well written.

 

More is More

Are you wondering what to give along with your Microwave Bowl Cozies?  You know, to round out the gift?  

Well, you could give a bowl.  Seriously, why not?   I got these nice heavy white ones at Crate and Barrel.  They are on clearance right now for $2.97!  You can find comparable bowls at lots of places, Target, Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma etc.

Or how about some gourmet dried soup or stew mixes?  These are usually between $5-7.  You can find them at gourmet food shops, and I bet places like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods would have them too.

And don't forget a label, explaining what the heck the cozy is for.  Heaven forbid they think it is a cap for the dog or something.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  Two more weekends until Christmas...

It's a Red and White Christmas

It's a red and white Christmas at my house.  My quilter sent home my red and white quilt just in time for the holidays.  It still needs its bindings, but that can happen during the next few days.  I photographed it outside my sewing room, next to my upstairs tree, where it looks very Christmassy indeed.  It will be terrific to have this heirloom to pull out during the holidays.

This quilt was made over a couple of years time.  The inspiration was Primitive Gatherings "The Magic of Christmas" sew along.  I made most of the sew along blocks, but added in other blocks that I liked as well as lots of basket blocks.  Basket blocks have always been a favorite of mine, and I thought they fit right in with the holiday theme.

This poor quilt has developed quite a lot from its original concept, which was to have the blocks set on the diagonal, and use both red and green blocks.  I changed my mind about using the green blocks and will use them in another project some day.  

I also tossed many of the original blocks because I thought my piecing could be improved upon.  The final blocks sat in a drawer for a long time, because I could not come up with a setting I loved.  Carrie Nelson came through with an imaginative setting that I shamelessly copied.  In her setting, the blocks were set in quadrants of four blocks each, which were then surrounded by flying geese.  Lots of geese.

All in all, it was worth the wait, and I am pretty satisfied.  It's a wrap!

Small Town Christmas

I live in a rural area in Northern California.  We are about two and a half hours away from just about everything:  most of my relatives, my doctor, a really good library, dry cleaners, Target, Nordstrom- you get the idea.  The plus side of living out in the boonies is that I am near our daughter and grand daughter, there are only four traffic lights in the entire county and you can park right in front of whatever business you are visiting.  

Also, during the holidays, the little towns in our area go all crazy and have home town parades and open houses encouraging residents to step away from ordering gifts on Amazon and patronize local businesses.  Since we are in the Sierra Foothills, at some elevation, sometimes there is even snow in December, as evidenced in the photo above. 

This past week, one town near us had their annual Christmas parade and Open House.  I stayed home, but my daughter took Eva and they had a blast.  Everyone with an old car takes part in the parade, as well as many local youth groups.  Santa Claus even makes an appearance.  Sara assures me I missed out by staying home, and that it wasn't nearly as chilly this year as it has been in previous years.

Part of the fun is that you meet up with half the people you know (it's a small town, don't you know?).  Eva was delighted to run into her friends from the tea party we had a couple weeks ago.

Does your town have special holiday traditions?  Do you participate?