Sister's Choice Quilts

Fabulous Flea Market Sew Along

I can't help myself. I started a new project. This one is called Flea Market and is hosted by Lori Holt. Her book, Flea Market was published by Fat Quarter Shop under their It's So Emma name. Check out the sew-along details on the Fat Quarter Shop blog "Jolly Jabber". Lori's books are so well done. Always spiral-bound, in color, with tons of diagrams (including pressing suggestions), and extremely clear instructions.

I made a decision last year that I wanted to make more colorful, modern, and cheerful quilts in the coming year. So, this is a good start. The fabric that I am using is a collection called (surprise) Flea Market, designed by Lori Holt for Riley Blake. You could absolutely use any fabric of your choice, but you do need the book. 

My center medallion block is complete. It is a big one, over 18" as I recall. I am going to be busy starching my remaining fabrics today and then I will get started on the next round of blocks, which are 4 1/2" Churn Dash blocks.

In other news, I am continuing to progress, sewing the rows together for my Sewcialites quilt. I am so happy with how that revision turned out. Thanks to all of you who made such nice comments on how it turned out. I will finish that quilt top this week and send it out to be quilted. There, I put it in writing...

Hope you all had a terrific weekend. I should have some time to sew this week and am very happy about that.

 

Sewcialites Quilt Re-Invented

This is the re-do of my Sewcialites quilt and I am so much happier with it. Before I tell you why, here is a photo of the previous version, which fell short for me:

So, here's what I did to change it up. I had accidently used a background fabric that was too light on the half-square triangles. Those had to be replaced. Instead of using red/tan/black fabrics in the HSTs,  I switched to using all black half-square triangles in my final version. I think the final version of black half-square triangles provide more of a frame effect than the previous arrangment of mixed colors. Finally, there were a couple of blocks that just didn't "fit" with the others, notably the silly tulip in the far right upper corner.

I think my final version is cleaner, more cohesive, and of course, has background fabric that matches. I've got the rows sewn together and will complete the top this weekend. I am so much happier with it.  The effort to take it apart and re-do it was well worth it.

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

 

A Few Re-Makes

I had to remake a few of my Sewcialites blocks. The bottom two had to be redone because I had used that too light background fabric. Thanks to Julie for pointing one of them out, and then I noticed another one. The block at the top had to be redone because my new gazillion-dollar Rowenta spit some kind of horrid liquid on it that stained it.  Grrrrrr. Oh well. The silver lining to that cloud is that the replacement block came out better than the first one.  That "Cat's Cradle" unit is a devil.

Another remake was my failed chocolate chip cookies from last week. I chose one of the recipes you all suggested that had a package of Jello Vanilla Pudding in it. And the cookies turned out just like I like them. Other changes were that I did not soften my butter in the microwave. I understand that it changes the chemistry somehow and can cause spreading. I also added chopped nuts and not so many chocolate chips.
1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips is plenty for me. Anyway, I got a delicious cakey chocolate chip cookie that did not spread out at all. Here's a link to the recipe I used.

So all in all, my Tuesday was a success, even if I did spend it trying to fix things that failed on the first attempt!

Deconstruction Complete

My poor Sewcialites quilt has been all taken apart, and the blocks with the wrong cream background removed. I had to order more print fabric for the large half-square triangle alternate blocks and am waiting on that. The correct background is on my cutting table and ready to be cut.

I won't lie, that deconstruction was not a fun project. The seams between the blocks were starting to split a bit so I had to reinforce a good number of them. I hope these blocks survive all the abuse.

Much fabric arrived at my house this weekend, much to my husband's consternation. Why do things always seem to be delivered to me on Friday or Saturday when I am not at home? He sees these packages come in and gets very alarmed.

The finishing kit for the 2011 Designer Mystery Quilt arrived from my friend Lisa.  I am so happy she was willing to part with it! This week I will get it starched and start cutting.

I do have one new project I am planning to start soon. All the fabric has arrived and it is so darn pretty. I look forward to sharing more about that with you in future posts.

Hope you all had a great weekend. My local library was having a fund raiser and was selling quarts of soup for $12 last Thursday. My father loves soup more than anything, particularly since he has lost some teeth and does better with soft foods. Last week's offering was Sausage Tortellini soup, and it was terrific! It was well worth $12. Next time I think I'll give them $20 because it's a good cause and well worth it. My dad ate every single drop and seemed to really enjoy it. Next month they are doing chili.

Hope you all had a good weekend! My father's furnace is on the blink so it was a chilly one at his house. We huddled by a space heater and slept with tons of covers.

 

Well, This Isn't Good

Remember this quilt? It is called Sewcialites, and was a sponsored sew-along hosted by Fat Quarter Shop last year. Each week, we made a new block, either in the 3", 6" or 9" size. I started out making 9" blocks and abandoned both the size and my chosen fabric collection after a couple of weeks. I switched over to making 6" blocks and a different color way. 

I kept up with the sew-along, even though I didn't have much time to sew from March onward since I was traveling to another city to care for my father on the weekends. And the weekend was when I mainly found time to sew. 

So that is my finished quilt top (minus the border) above. You may notice little blobs of blue painter's tape on some of the blocks. Why ever for?, you may ask. Well. Somehow I managed to pick up the wrong cream solid for those large half square triangle alternate blocks and sew them into the quilt. And as you can clearly see, they stand out, and not in a good way.

Of course, this bothers me tremendously. I thought briefly of donating the top to the charity organization I recently discovered, but decided not to. I spent a lot of time making those blocks, some of which were quite challenging. I was happy with my technical achievement with the blocks and was reluctant to throw them away. Also, it was practically the only quilt top I almost finished in 2021.

So, what to do? I got my hands on the proper background cream and have decided to take the quilt apart, remake those large half square triangle alternate blocks and put it all back together again. 

So, I've made a start.

Tell me, what would you have done? Take it apart as I am doing, give it to someone who would never notice or care, donate it, or leave it in permanent UFO status?

Have a great weekend everyone!  Wish I could give you each a seam ripper and a quilt row, but I guess I am in this pickle on my own.

Among the Stars Again Month Four-All Caught Up!

I'm happy to say I am all caught up with the Among the Stars Again sew-along. This is Month Four. Pretty subtle block for sure. Each month you make two blocks with the same pattern and same fabrics, just reversing the color placement. These blocks may look kind of blah, but the overall effect in the quilt is very elegant.

I had fun playing around with my ancient Singer Featherweight the other day. Do you have one of these classic old machines? I used to use mine when I attended quilt retreats or get together with quilting friends. I only sew at home anymore, so I wasn't even sure if this old Featherweight still worked.

The good news is, it works pretty well! The lacy looking plastic gizmo on the right of the needle is a seam guide I bought ages ago. It is so pretty, isn't it? You line it up with your quarter inch foot, then screw it in place for accurate sewing. I don't always use it, but I tried it out again. I was thinking I might be able to take this Featherweight with me to my dad's on the weekends and get in some sewing. I may or may not do that.

Here is something super cute I just bought and thought to share with you all. You know how on these old machines the spool of thread sits on a little felt pad? There is a lady on Etsy who crochets these little spool pin daisies that work great in place of the boring felt circle. Here is a link to her site. I contacted her and she says she isn't making them anymore, but she has a pdf pattern on how to make them. Evidently, I bought the last one!

Well, I sure did get a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes after my plea for help. I don't know what the issue was with my recent attempt that spread out all over the pan. I think leaving out the nuts could have had an effect on the dough holding together. Also, since i prefer a chewier cookie, more flour might have helped. I am really intrigued with the chocolate chip cookie recipes that called for a package of vanilla pudding! I am going to try that next up. I also noticed so many of you recommended half butter and half Crisco. I will give that a shot soon as well. One more thing is that I will let the butter soften to room temperature on the counter before using it. Giving it a nudge in the microwave may have affected my outcome. 

At any rate, thanks so much for all the suggestions and links to chewy chocolate chip recipes!

 

Help! I Need a Good Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Well, this was an epic fail. Eva and I bake on Tuesdays, as one of her extracurricular activities. Yesterday we made chocolate chip cookies and they were a disaster. I used the recipe on the back of the Nestles chocolate chip bag and it sure didn't work for me. These cookies spread out all over the pan, making one gigantic, thin, nasty cookie. Horrible. They didn't look right, didn't taste right, and were not the chewy, cakey, delicious cookies I remember.

The second tray turned out better because I doctored up the batter by adding another half cup of flour.

This was more like it, but still not right. I don't know what the problem was, but here are some thoughts:

1) Too much butter (2 sticks)
2) Not enough flour (only 2 1/4 Cups)
3) Too many chocolate chips (2 cups)
4) I did not add nuts (Eva's preference), which would have thickened up the batter
5) Did not chill the dough- but the recipe didn't say to do that

So what do you think? 

I'd love it if you could steer me in the direction of a perfect cakey chewy chocolate chip cookie. I have every cookbook known to man, so if you just reference "Ina Garten's recipe from her (Fill in the Blank) cookbook", I can find it. Or send me a website link, or send me your Grandma's recipe. I just know I need to get a decent chocolate chip recipe pronto. And Eva tells me if I MUST add nuts, she will cope.

Holding my breath here, praying you all will come through for me.

Red Sampler Sew Along Week Nine

I feel as if I've been on vacation for two weeks. Today is the day I get back on a schedule though. I plan to make the most of any free time I have during the week and not lose momentum with my projects.

The red and white blocks above are week nine of Lori Holt's Red Sampler sew-along. Those cheerful red fabrics put a smile on my face. The little framed four patch is so cute.

I wanted to share a tool I have been enjoying a lot. It is called "Cute Cuts" and is a block square up trim tool by Lori Holt. You can buy the tools individually or in sets of various sizes.

If you love crisp, accurate blocks you might like this trim tool too. It is great for squaring up small 3 1/2 inch blocks, but I found it indispensable for trimming 3 1/2 inch block units in the 12-inch blocks I was working on recently. Looking at the photo above, you may think "Wow, Nicole was pretty spot on with her 3 1/2 inch unit".  Ahem, thanks, but check this out:

I was pretty close, and maybe it would have been just fine as is without trimming. However, if you love accuracy, you can see that there was a fair amount trimmed away to achieve the exact 3 1/2 inch measurement. My 2011 Designer Mystery blocks came out great, and I credit this trim tool and a lot of fabric starching for my good results.

Quilting Friends Are the Best

I am actually completely thrilled with this photo. I have finished all 12 blocks for the Fat Quarter Shop 2011 Designer Mystery Quilt! Can you imagine? These blocks were just scraps of fabric that languished in a tub for 11 years. Well, no more languishing. They are going to become a quilt.

But there was just one problem. Back in 2011 when I wasn't working on these blocks, the finishing kit was offered for sale by Fat Quarter Shop. And I did not buy it. The finishing kit had all the fabrics for a fabulous setting, alternate stem blocks, borders, and binding. 9 extra yards of fabric to make a quilt that finishes at
76 x 94.

I reasoned to myself that I didn't have to complete the quilt as intended. I would have 12 great blocks and quite a bit of background fabric, which would be enough for a lattice and inner border. For the outer border, I would need a print that coordinated with the blocks. The fabric is by Fig Tree & Co., and their reds are very consistent. So, no problem. I wouldn't end up with such a large quilt, but it would be pretty and it would be finished.

Then the quilting gods smiled upon me. My quilting friend Lisa D. reads my blog. She emailed me to say she had the kit also and had never made it. Sadly, she had lost the love for this quilt and doubted that she would ever make it and therefore planned to sell or donate it. And she had the finishing kit. I offered to buy it from her and she agreed. Can you hear the sound of angels singing? She has mailed the finishing kit to me and as soon as I receive it, you can bet I'll start work on it.

Oh, and here is something else that makes me happy:

Yesterday I used up a big spool of Aurifil thread! I started using it in April 2020. I was thinking it would last me a year, but I did not sew much in 2021, so it has lasted me 20 months!!! Now, that seems like a good deal for $48. $2.40 per month. I wrote 1/22 on the inside of the cone and will be interested to see how long this new spool lasts.

Hope your weekend was great. If you have today off, make the most of it!

My Garden is in Blossom

Another productive sewing day for me yesterday. This has been quite the week for getting my mojo back. I finished the fourth and fifth blocks in my 2011 Designer Mystery BOM. The setting is going to be so cute. I will be making little stem units so it appears that each block is a flower. Hope I have enough green....

That fifth block (the middle right one) was a bear to sew, I can tell you that. It was a bit fussy. But it used all the colors, woo hoo. Of course, I got one tiny unit switched around (not just once but four times) and had to do some unsewing. Ah, those thread-picking interludes are restful for the mind, right?

I am really enjoying these bright fresh colors.

I also can report that I got my Serendipity quilt top all put together, except for the borders.  Maybe I can wrap that up on Sunday afternoon.

Have a great weekend everyone!