Sister's Choice Quilts

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?

Mahalo Mini Quilt

I do love seasonal sewing projects, and I also love a mini quilt/table topper. When the two worlds collide, as they did this weekend, you get some great results. The quilt pattern is Mahalo Mini by Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life
You can download the PDF pattern for under $7. And how cute is that?

I used a variety of Valentine-themed fabrics for my project, but the pattern says a charm pack will work. The pattern gives directions for two piecing options: curved piecing or applique. 

I opted to do machine applique. I made a triple layer of freezer paper template (surprisingly sturdy) and applied spray starch with a little brush to the edges before turning them over the curved edge of the template. I was pretty happy with how nice each one turned out. Each template is good for about three applications of starch, then the edges start to get soft and soggy.

It's been a couple of years since I have done any machine applique, so it took me a while to get up to speed. Jeesh, what a trial that was. Once I remembered the technique and machine settings I was good to go. I used a blind stitch and invisible thread on the top.

This is not a beginner project by any means, and I sure wouldn't want to do a full-sized quilt with this block! I enjoyed the challenge though and would make this mini quilt again in a variety of colorways appropriate for other holidays or seasons. Sherri's instructions are excellent. A 30°triangle ruler helps with the cutting, but if you don't have one, she includes a template in the pattern

The 14" size is just perfect for the end of my kitchen peninsula, where I like to keep a vase of flowers and a candle. I know I will enjoy this little piece for years to come. 

Hope you all had an excellent weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed myself up in the sewing room.

A New Wool Applique Project

I have had this new little applique project prepped for a week or so and finally began the stitching.  How cute is that little blackbird sitting on the thread spool?  There will be some additional embroidery once the blanket stitching is completed around the edges of the shapes.  The bird will be holding a length of unspooling thread in his beak.  The pattern is one from Buttermilk Basin from the In Thy Hands collection.  They are just the right size for a candle or a small bowl of potpourri.  

These little projects go so quickly.  The actual applique takes very little time at all.  If you are thinking of dipping your toe into the world of wool applique they are not a bad starting point.  You will need a basic reference book for how to do the various stitches though.  Buttermilk Basin patterns are simple as far as the shapes go, but offer little in the way of instruction or technique.  I found this book to be helpful as to technique and this book great as a guide to various stitches. 

I hope your week got off to a good start!

Little Projects

I have started another one of those By Thy Hands projects by Buttermilk Basin.  The pieced block is Spools, as you can see.  I used striped fabric in the hope that it will help in the illusion of thread being on the spools.  The wool applique is of a tomato pincushion and a spool of thread with a little blackbird sitting on top of it.  My applique work is on hold until I receive some black wool from an Etsy order I placed.  I thought I had over a yard of black wool, but when I opened the package, it was black cotton flannel instead!!!  How does anyone use black flannel in applique?  I am mystified as to why I purchased it or what the heck I will ever do with it.

These little By Thy Hands projects finish at about 10 1/2" by 15 1/2".  About the size of a small placemat.  So far, I am really enjoying them.  The piecing adds a nice touch and the applique is simple for a beginner like me.  

I have had the best luck buying from Etsy sellers.  Most sellers really appreciate the business and are super quick to ship out.  I placed my order on Monday with three different sellers, and by gosh, on Tuesday morning I was notified that everything had already shipped!  I only had an issue once when I bought a fabric bundle from an Etsy seller.  The purchase information said that my order had shipped, but I never received it and there was no tracking information.  When I tried to contact the seller, they had closed up their shop and disappeared!  I contacted Etsy and they gave me an immediate refund.  I will never know if the seller tried to trick me or if it was some kind of a genuine mistake.  At any rate, Etsy made good on it.

Hope your week got off to a good start.  My walking friend and I are going "shopping" today at a town about an hour away from where we live.  I have Hobby Lobby, Target, and maybe Bath and Body Works on my list to places to go.  And lunch at Panera!  Woo hoo.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

I am having so much fun with my dabble into wool appliqué!  I think my little snowman came out great and I can't wait to embroider his little face and otherwise finish up this project.  I downloaded a slew of free rug mat patterns from Shabby Fabric this weekend and am excited to make some additional projects with wool.  

It's been a busy few days, with no let-up in sight, but I managed to fit in a few hours of sewing.  I am listening to a fantastic audiobook by Diane Chamberlain called The Dream Daughter while I sew.  It has a complicated plot, and I will share it with you in a review in the New Year.  This is such a good book!

Our son Ahren arrived from Ireland and is so happy to be home.  We are enjoying every minute while we are together.  I found fresh Dungeness crab at the market, so we had a seasonal feast over the weekend.  If you have ever had Dungeness crab, you know what I am talking about.

I have a hand stitchery question for those of you who do wool appliqué.  Do you use the blanket stitch around all your little pieces?  Or do you use the whip stitch?  I am flying blind here, and wasn't sure which way to go.  My blanket stitch looks pretty good, but I was wondering if the whip stitch was the more common way to go.

Hope you are all enjoying the days up until Christmas, and Happy Hanukkah to those of you who celebrate the Festival of Lights.

Holiday Gatherings

Hope you all had a great weekend!  I got a little sewing done, and finished my piece for the snowman applique.  The snowman and his broom will go on the right in the empty space.  It will be just the right amount of wool applique to get me started.  Of course I don't have any wool yet, but the Etsy shop where I bought some has shipped it, so yippee.

We had a family gathering on Sunday night, and I was so pleased with all our decorations.  We were all decked out.

My husband, as I have said, loves holiday decorations and thinks the more we have out the better.  He recently came home from a trip down to the Monterey area with a metal tree centerpiece decoration that has holders for five candles.  I wanted to give it a bit more oomph, so I added my crazy snowmen collection around it, and I like the results.  Everyone gives me a hard time about these snowmen, but they are wonderful collectibles that I acquired in the 90's.  

I get a lot of teasing about these funny looking little guys, but they are near and dear to my heart.

I've been watching some YouTube videos on making little zippered bags, so I may attempt one this week if time allows. There is always time to make a few zippered bags before Christmas right?  We have what, nine days? Have you seen the ones that are in the shape of little triangles?  So cute.

What Was I Going To Do With All These Nine Patches?

I must have made all these 9 patch blocks for a reason, right?  Then I took a blogging/sewing break, spent hours with Eva at the pool, and went to Ireland and England to visit my son, and completely forgot what the heck the point of these blocks was.  Do you ever do that?  Well, I'm not as young as I used to be, and sometimes my memory isn't what it should be.  Thank goodness for this blog however.  I was able to go back through a couple months of posts and refresh that foggy memory.

I had purchased this book not too long ago, and there is such a pretty quilt in it, designed by Kim Diehl, called "Oak Patch".  I didn't want a quilt as large as hers was, so I made some alterations.  Basically I just made one 12 inch appliquéd block for the center and surrounded it with a lot of nine patches.  Her quilt has four appliquéd blocks, some sashing and a border of nine patch blocks.

This book is full of great patterns, some designed by Kim and other designed by Jo Morton.  If you enjoy their style of design, you cannot go wrong.  The patterns have some simple appliqué, but by no means do all of them include it.  I highly recommend the book, and think it is worth purchasing, and I don't buy many quilting books anymore.

I ended up not going to Lake Tahoe with my husband this weekend.  Last week I had some place I had to go every day, which resulted in no sewing for me.  I was desperate to just stay home and recharge in my sewing room on Saturday, so I begged off going on the day trip up to the mountains.  I was intending to get back to my Triangle Gatherings blocks, but when I opened up my closet in the sewing room and saw all those lovely fall colored nine patch blocks, I thought I might make them my project for the day.

Once I figured out what I had meant to do with them, I began making the center appliqué block.

The block finishes at 12 inches, so those center black and cream nine patch blocks are super tiny.  They are 1 1/2 inches finished! But you know what?  I used my new Block Loc Strip Set ruler and those tiny little checkerboard strips came out straight as an arrow.

The block above is of my appliqué pieces all prepped and ready to sew.  My machine appliqué technique is a combination of Kim Diehl's Invisible Machine Applique method, and Edyta Sitar's technique.  I do raw edge appliqué, with an invisible thread and blind hem stitch.  I use Heat and Bond double sided interfacing to hold my pieces in place before and during stitching.

One more tool that was super useful was this:

My Ott Light magnifying light was so great for being able to see where every stitch of the needle was going.  If you have trouble seeing close work on your machine or when hand sewing, this magnifying light was invaluable.  It has a flexible "neck" which you can bend around to just the right position to peer through while sewing.

Check back tomorrow and see my finished little quilt!

Stars and Baskets Progress

My Stars and Baskets quilt is starting to take shape on the design wall.  The star blocks are all finished and trimmed, and I have nearly half the basket blocks completed.  A few more sessions of piecing the basket blocks and these blocks will be ready to be sewn together.  Breaking the components of the blocks into small manageable units really has made the project go smoothly.  

I prepped all the appliqué pieces first, then stitched all the appliqués in place.  Then I did all the block trimming in one session.  The stars were made oversized, which I have no clue why.  They were all done on an 11 inch square, which had to be trimmed down to 10 1/2 inches.  The appliqué did not distort the size of the blocks at all, so I am sure they could have been done right on the 10 1/2 inch squares and I could have saved myself the extra step of trimming.

The basket blocks are another story.  There are so many bias edges with those blocks, it is a miracle they come out square at all!  Luckily there is some leeway with the blocks being slightly oversized, so they can mostly be trimmed down to a nice square 10 1/2 inches. Except for a couple of rebels, which I hope won't fight me too much when I sew the blocks all together.

Thanks for the suggestions on how to deal with a person you know who is going through a serious health issue.  Not wanting to pry, but desiring to be supportive and caring, I have been at a loss how to interact with my cleaning lady.  Who knows, she may be bored staying home and "resting", and would welcome an invitation to meet up for coffee or be treated to lunch.  Asking her how her day is going, rather than the much more loaded question "How are you doing" was such a good idea.  She doesn't have to share any personal details of what she is going through, but she may value knowing that someone cares regardless.  Great ideas guys, thank you!

Baskets!

I had a tremendously productive weekend!  I completed the appliqué on all my star blocks, and completed all the prep and appliqué on my basket handles.  This would be for the Collection for a Cause Stars and Baskets quilt I am working on.  I have started sewing the basket blocks, and for the most part they have been successfully trimmed down to 10 1/2 inches square.  

Except for one contrary little guy, which insists on being wonky, and is in grave danger of being taken apart and re-made.  It just will not cooperate, and I can't figure out where I went wrong.  There are a lot of bias edges in these basket blocks, so the potential for wonkiness is definitely there.

Another task that had me occupied for a number of hours yesterday was cleaning my house.  I worked on it for a couple of hours and got the downstairs done except for the bathrooms.  Today I need to tackle the upstairs and the bathrooms.  I am exhausted and not even half way done.

I have a cleaning lady, or to be more accurate, until recently, I had a cleaning lady.  She is such an attractive, gracious, pizzazzy woman.  I just loved it when she came to clean.  We would visit and catch up on the doings of her kids and mine, vacation plans etc etc.  I have become very attached to her and think of her as a friend, as well as being so grateful that every two weeks she makes my house shine.  In early March, she told me she was having a mammogram. It was the same week I was having my colonoscopy, and we commiserated on the unpleasantness of both those procedures.  Well, the next I heard, the results of her mammogram were not good.  She took a week or so off to schedule medical appointments and so on, and then told me her doctor had advised her not to work for a month.  I have texted her a couple of times because I am thinking of her and hoping she is doing all right.  Not to pry, and certainly not to find out when the heck she will be coming back to clean my house.

It is such a dilemma.  I want her to know I care, but am afraid when I ask how she is doing, she is thinking I am frustrated that my house isn't getting cleaned.  She has responded to me when I have contacted her, but is full of apologies and seems stressed that she is letting me down.  How would you handle such a situation?  I want to respect her privacy, yet show her I care.  My instincts tell me to stay in contact with her, just by sending supportive good wishes.  

I sure appreciate how great she keeps my house, now that I have had to do the cleaning job myself!

Moda Blockheads #7

I have mixed feelings about the Moda BlockHeads block #7.  I love the end look of the block, but I did not care for the construction method.  I actually ended up remaking the block.  Lynn Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles is promoting a "layered piecing" technique for her blocks, and I find it to be not my cup of tea.  I re-did the block using traditional piecing rather than the layered method she advocates in the pattern instructions.

The other thing that is bothering me is that this block is clearly on the diagonal.  If you recall, the other appliqué block we did was very much a straight up design.

So how are these blocks going to work in a quilt layout?  Is the basket block going to be all tipped over on its side if the blocks are straight set?   If the blocks are set diagonally, I will have to re-make the bee hive block because I sure am not having that cute block set on its side.

If, like me, you are troubled by the diagonal/straight set question, Lisa Bongean has once again offered an alternate pieced block for this #7 ModaBlockheads selection.  It is good to have options!  

Have a great weekend everyone.