Sister's Choice Quilts

Fabric Search & S'Mores Cake

Just throwing this out here:

Does anyone have 2.5 -3 yards of this fabric they might want to sell me? It is Nantucket Summer by Camille Roskelley 55260 11.

I've searched everywhere online,  but there is none to be found.

It would make a great border for the Designer Mystery 2023 project I am wrapping up. The quilt top as designed finishes at 80 x 80, and I'd like to make it a bit bigger. 

*Added later:  A dear reader came through for me and allowed me to purchase the piece of fabric she had bought for her project!  Thanks everyone!

Yesterday was the last day of summer vacation, so, Eva and I made a S'Mores Cake! We used a boxed mix:


Nothing to it, just a Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge cake mix. You could probably use any chocolate cake mix you have on hand. It is the special topping that turns it into a S'More.


To make the topping, mix a container of whipped cream cheese frosting with about half a jar of marshmallow cream. Crumble up some graham crackers and chop up a milk chocolate Hershey bar and sprinkle over the frosted cake. 

Eva and Grandpa Denny say it is so good!

 

 

 

A Peaceful Day of Sewing

I spent a peaceful day sewing yesterday and completed the eight star centers for my Log Cabin alternate blocks for the Designer Mystery 2023 sew-along.

It was so lovely to get all your supportive email messages in sympathy for my "quiet firing" as Cynthia called it. Have you heard of "ghosting"? It's an expression used in dating when a guy asks you out and things seem great, but he stops calling you and doesn't return your calls or texts. I sort of feel like that. Would anyone have contacted me if I hadn't asked what the heck happened to all my future work assignments? It is a very weird way to run a company and to treat someone who you had told previously was doing great work and was a valued member of "the team". 

Oh well, water under the bridge. I need to move on.

I am so pleased with how pretty this Log Cabin alternate block is. I made one up to see what it would look like and love it. For the next seven, I will make them all at one time, going one round and pressing, etc.

It looks so good with the sampler blocks and brings out all the colors beautifully. The other alternate block is in contrast, very low volume. I like how they work together. Maybe I'll finish them today!

Thanks again for all your kind comments. They made me feel a lot better.

 

The Good News Is, I'll Have More Time On My Hands

If you read my blog regularly, you may recall me mentioning that the company I work for has been using AI more and giving their freelance writers less work. Whelp, they pretty much pulled the plug on me last week. All my work assignments just disappeared from the company spreadsheet we use to see what our upcoming projects are. No phone call, no email. They just removed my work assignments. 

When I emailed my boss in a panic, she ominously replied "I'll call you in a moment". Which she did. It turns out the company won't be using us freelancers much in the future because they are "cutting back". And she said the cutbacks included her. Her last day is August 30. She's worked for and supported this company for 10 years, and made all of us who reported to her feel like we were a team.

She was great to work with. The company itself clearly has some issues regarding the way they treat their employees. They didn't even exactly "fire" me. They just took away my work and said there wouldn't be more. I feel very disrespected and unvalued. At least the new AI robots won't get hurt feelings like the real people they used to employ.

So, I will be broke but will have more time to sew, train my new puppy, read books, and blog regularly.

Speaking of said puppy, here are a couple of pictures. In the first photo, he was sleeping in his crate with his head on his own little stuffed puppy. He uses it as a pillow.

In the next shot, you can see the setup we have rigged in our foyer. It is a really large space, with room for a crate and puppy playpen. Archie is great about using it. He can keep an eye on us from that central spot, which he likes. We get him out about every two hours for a walk or a play session.

Besides feeling extremely sorry for myself this weekend, I did some sewing-related puttering. I brought out my Designer Mystery 2023 project to see where I was with it. I had finished the 12 monthly blocks and five of the alternate blocks. I have eight more alternate blocks to make in a log cabin design which is going to take some time. Here is my layout minus the missing blocks I have yet to make. 

I'll keep you posted on those log cabin blocks!

Hope you all had a better weekend than I did.

 

 

Archie at Almost Five Months and New Fabric

Time for an Archie update, and other updates as well. Archie will be five months old on August 13, and he has definitely become more civilized in the month he has been with us. But. He has a way to go. He is a cheerful, upbeat, clumsy, and super-friendly little guy. His main bad habit I'd like to change is the puppy biting. OMG, it is something else. Our arms look like we have been through a war. He's getting better. His biting is more gentle and he does stop when shouted at and threatened with "KENNEL!!". 

We've bought him every puppy toy on the market and what does he prefer? A stick. Any stick. He is overjoyed to find one on a walk or in the yard. It doesn't even need to be a natural stick. A random piece of lumber is just fine.

He's friendly and curious and wants to please. We adore him. So far, he is nowhere near as destructive as Ozzie was, but that is mainly because we have gotten a clue and are not allowing him free access to the whole house. He has a crate and a large pen, and lots of outings during the day. Gradually we will allow him more free time with us around the house.

An interesting thing about Archie is that he doesn't bark much. If he utters a peep, it is a "whisper bark" Just a quiet "Ruff" in a breathy undertone. That I think I can live with. Ozzie wasn't much of a barker, but when he did bark, it got our attention. Mostly his barking was directed at deer and the UPS guy.

He doesn't cry when he's in his pen, and we don't have any potty issues at all. So, all in all, the Archie saga is going pretty well.

Now for some recent fabric acquisitions and an upcoming Moda sew-along. 

Just look at this gorgeous collection. I bought "Rustic Gatherings" by Primitive Gatherings, thinking I would join a sew-along hosted by Lisa Bongean featuring the collection. Only I realized the sew-along "Triangle Gatherings" is a repeat of a sew-along she hosted a few years ago, which I did. Of course, I haven't had it quilted yet, and my flimsy is in a different fabric collection, but I decided I had no interest in doing it again. So I will save this gorgeous fat quarter bundle for some future project. It is pretty fabulous, don't you think?

Just look at this. Another Primitive Gatherings fat quarter bundle in a collection they call "Joyful Gatherings". Those reds are too beautiful. And I love the low-volume lights. What will I do with this group? Well, it turns out Moda is doing another BlockHeads sew along, starting in September. BlockHeads 5, if you can believe it. 

Here is a link to Anna Dineen, a pattern tester for Moda Blockheads 5. She has an Instagram account where she talks a bit about the upcoming MBH sew-along. There is also a FaceBook group. The sew-along starts Sept 6. The sew-along will be done in two "rounds". The first round, Sept. 6 through Nov. 15 is a smaller number of blocks that can be made into a small quilt. They are suggesting a Christmas theme. Going forward, in the second round, you can keep making blocks in those Christmas fabrics, or switch gears and do a larger quilt in the fabrics of your choice. The sew-along concludes in June 2024. And, if you aren't up for a year-long sew-along, just do the first round, make a small quilt, and have fun.

I think I will do all the blocks in the Christmas theme fabrics, Joyful Gatherings. I believe I read that the blocks will be in two sizes, 6" and 12" if I remember correctly. I have really enjoyed doing these long Moda BlockHeads projects and have learned a lot and improved my skills in the process. 

Well, that's a fabric investment right there! Whew. It's only money, right?

 

 

 

 

Fast Eddie's

My husband and I tried to grow tomatoes this year, but the results have been so disappointing. I think we put in seven plants, and while we do have a few tomatoes, the crop is very small and the tomatoes on the vines don't look that great.

However, my son-in-law knows a guy.

A former UPS driver in our area has a good-sized piece of property and a prolific garden. You need a four-wheel drive vehicle to get to his farm stand, but Fast Eddie (yes, that is his name) has such amazing heirloom tomatoes, the trip is worth the risk to your car.

No kidding, I've never seen anything like the tomatoes he had for sale. They were $5 a pound and we bought 6 pounds. We will be eating a lot of tomatoes this week. I went home and baked a tomato tart, which was amazing.

It could not have been more simple to make. A sheet of Pepperidge Farm puff pastry brushed with garlic and olive oil, lots of tomatoes, salt and pepper, chopped fresh basil, and grated mozzarella cheese. Next time I'll add pesto sauce right on top of the pastry for more flavor. I popped it in the oven at 400° for 20 minutes and it was a feast.

Is there anything better than fresh summer produce? What is your favorite thing to enjoy this time of year? Melons? Tomatoes?

 

Halloween 1904 A Blast From the Past

This is nuts, but I am really terrible about taking the final step to have my quilt tops quilted. It is expensive for one thing, and I (used to at least) make a lot of quilts. This quilt is called Halloween 1904 and was a pattern put out by Blackbird Designs in 2012 I think. Here is a link to the occasion when I was first exposed to it and fell in love. 

So, I made the quilt back then, but never sent it out to be quilted. Now that is a shame. The time has come to send this beast out and get it done. It is a huge quilt. At least 90 inches square, maybe more with the piano key border. I did have a great time making it, even after realizing that I had made hundreds (hundreds, did you get that?) of half square triangles all the wrong size. 

But here we go. My backing fabric is coming tomorrow and I will take it to the post office and send it off to my quilter, who says she will get it back to me by Halloween. 

Here are some close-ups of the big applique blocks. I did raw edge machine applique with a satin stitch as I recall. It turned out ok. I've had over ten years since making this to perfect my skills, and I think it looks all right.

How fun will this be to have on our bed in October?

I'm not disappointed in the applique work.

The applique work reminds me of Jan Patek's style. Kind of primitive and simple.

We got through the weekend, with Eva's other grandfather's memorial service, which we all attended. 

It was a very heartfelt and emotional event, and Eva handled it pretty well. Lots of tears were shed, by her, as well as the rest of us. Her other grandpa was a remarkable man and loved by many. Interestingly enough, Eva had an episode of sleepwalking Sunday night, which was very disturbing to her. She woke up and thought she was on her way to the bathroom but ended up trying to exit the front door of the house. Her family was still up, and woke her, which caused her some distress. I have heard that stressful events can trigger sleepwalking episodes. Do you think that is true?