Sister's Choice Quilts

Halloween House

My sweet husband ordered this amazing Halloween house for Eva and I. It's made of metal and is from a place called Grandin Road. We put twinkly lights inside it and arranged some of our Halloween figurines here and there. It is pretty spectacular, and as you can see, Eva is quite pleased with her set up. The lighting is weird in the photo. Maybe you can enlarge it to see the details better. 

I am having some major computer issues and am having a heck of a time posting. Hopefully I will sort everything out in the next day or so.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

New Fall Table Decoration

I was inspired this weekend to create a new table decoration for fall. My inspiration came from a YouTube video by Jennifer Decorates. Jennifer Davenport is a professional designer from Tennessee who creates the most beautiful decor. Her channel has loads of DIY ideas. She made her table decoration from items she recently purchased at Hobby Lobby. I couldn't get to Hobby Lobby, so I went to a Michaels store near my dad's house. I found just about everything at Michaels, including the cornucopia basket. Her things from Hobby Lobby were cuter than what I got at Michaels, but it isn't that noticeable. Honestly, I think Hobby Lobby would have been cheaper too. 

The main idea I copied from her is that I wanted a neutral fall color palette, with no strong oranges in sight. I think my cornucopia works on the batik leaves table runner I finished last fall. The runner does have stronger colors than the table arrangement, but I like the overall paler look.

I encourage you to take a look at Jennifer's YouTube channel for some great ideas. I promise you will pick up a tip or two you didn't know. 

The runner is from the Maple Leaf pattern by the Pattern Basket. I made it just a year ago, and of course I changed things up. Here is a link to my post where I shared about making it. Interestingly enough, California was on fire then too. This is becoming the new normal. The situation in Lake Tahoe sounds dire right now. Lines of cars are trying to evacuate and get to Nevada and away from the Caldor Fire, which has gotten away from the firefighters. Prayers for everyone affected.

Quickie Update

Just the quickest update today. I spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday with my dad. One of my sisters is on a family vacation and my other sister and I had to cover her days with our dad this past week. I am always trying to come up with things to tempt him as far as meals go. He has such a light appetite and is overwhelmed when given a big plate of food. He doesn't care for a lot of carbs and prefers his food to be pretty simple. I can't tell you how often I serve him something and he says "I just can't eat all of this".

This past weekend I kind of gave up. I decided not to fuss at all, but just to serve the simplest plain, cold food. The photo above was our lunch on Saturday. We had raw carrots, radishes, organic cherry tomatoes, cut-up fresh pineapple, and half a sliced peach. And for dessert, we split a peanut butter cookie.

After our cookie discussion last week, I was reminded of how much I loved peanut butter cookies and how I never get one anymore.

We both loved this lunch, which was pretty perfect.  The peach was kind of mushy, but everything else was great. Why is it so hard to get a good peach?

And I have to say, the pineapple was amazing, but for me, that peanut butter cookie really hit the spot. And Dad ate everything on his plate!

Oh,  and I reminded him of Grandma Tillie, and he remembered her vividly. I mentioned her gentleman friend "Mac" and said that no one ever made his relationship to her clear to me. All he said was, "Oh, no, they wouldn't have". And that was the end of that discussion, except for him saying "Goodness, I had forgotten about him. Haven't thought of him in years". Right, like about 70? They say you aren't really dead until the last person who remembers you is gone.

A Few More Things I've Been Enjoying Lately

I kind of dropped the ball on listing some of my recent favorites for you all. I promised to share a few more items I have been enjoying this summer so here we go. These clothing items are not bargain-priced, but I have always believed that finding something well-made is worth purchasing because you will have it for years. With the exception of the bra mentioned below, I have worn all these items for several years.

These are Chico's "Girlfriend Jeans", which have been around for countless seasons. I have them in a couple of denim washes, black, and white. Chico's sizing is different from other stores. It is a psychological thing they do. Their sizing runs 0, .5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 and higher. 0 is equivalent to a regular size 4, .5 equals a size 6, etc. I wear a size 1.5 which is equivalent to a regular size 10. Anyway, once you wrap your head around their sizing system you are good. They go up to a size 20 and come in petite and tall as well as regular.

I like several things about these jeans. One, they fit great. Two, the fabric is quite substantial (even the white jeans are completely non-see-through). Three, they are not super skinny in the fit. I love my skinny jeans, but these have a perfect fit through the hips and legs without being skin tight or unflatteringly baggy. Goldilocks "just right".  Extremely comfortable. Don't know if you keep up with fashion trends, but things are trending away from super skinny jeans. These are usually $99, on sale now: buy 2 and they are $79 each.

Soma is a lingerie company that is owned by Chico's. In malls, the two stores are frequently adjacent. They have marvelous sleepwear and all styles of bras and underwear for every size and shape we women come in. I know I have done favorite bra posts before, but this Enbliss Bralette by Soma is probably my all-time most comfortable bra ever. No wires, no hooks. You pull it on over your head. The lack of hooks and high sides means there is no back fat or bulges at all. Whatsoever. You will look smooth as a teenager from the back in this thing. The lack of wires means you can wear it all day in total comfort. You can even sleep in it and not think about it. 

Is it feminine and sexy? Nope. The lack of underwire means you don't have the uplift and support of a bra with wires. It may not be the bra for really large bosomed gals. However, for me, there is enough support so I still look good under my clothes and the supreme comfort makes up for the lack of frills. It does come in a gazillion different colors.

You want a snug fit in this bra so it doesn't move around and holds the girls in place nicely. Sizing is XS-XXXL. This bra fits very snuggly, so you will need to size up. It's a good idea to try it on to get the right fit. Once you figure out your size (which will be a lot bigger than you think you need), you will not go back. The cups have thin removable pads that make this the perfect bra for under tee shirts. It comes in a racerback style also. It is a good deal right now at Buy One, Get One for Half Price.

These Brittany sandals are from an Israeli company called NAOT. I have several styles by this company and love the comfort and fit of them. I wear them April through October in my climate. I bought several of mine at Nordstrom, but other shoe stores carry the line as well. I think they are considered "comfort" or walking sandals but in my opinion, they have more style than most in that category.

I like this style so much I have it in three colors. The pair I wear, I have had for four years and they still look great. I liked them so much I bought them in navy suede and tan suede as well.

This is the coziest sweater you will ever own. It is the Barefoot Dreams Cozy Lite Circle Cardigan. I got mine at Nordstrom, but I have also purchased them on QVC. They come in all sorts of styles, and the sizing is very inclusive. I usually get size Large. You feel as if you are wrapped in the warmest, softest cocoon of a sweater when you put this on. Perfect for airplane travel, wearing around the house, or out to do errands. There is a good color selection.

I got this Zip Up Jacket style on QVC in dark grey and in cream. I wear it all the time with jeans and like the shorter style. You can get it on QVCs easy pay plan, which spreads out the payments. Obviously I haven't been wearing my Barefoot Dreams sweaters in our 100-degree weather, but come cooler days, they will be on regular rotation again.

Hope you enjoyed these clothing favorites. If you have tried any of them, let me know how you liked them!

Around the House

I've trotted out some of my late summer decorations, which I have been enjoying. The temperature has been in low 100s, so that's a thing. I tell you when it is that hot, it is hard to drum up enthusiasm for anything. My husband had a significant birthday this past weekend so we had some family over for a little celebration, so that was fun. 103 on Sunday, expected 105 on Monday. Enough already. It is so hot that gearing up an appetite to eat anything is an effort, much less putting out the effort to feed and entertain people. And don't get me started on the bad air quality. I can barely breathe.

Eva started school this past week, but nothing much seems to be underway just yet. It will probably be another week or so before we really get settled in. So far, we are organizing our supplies and materials. Today we may make some pom pom creatures. She has a pig in mind that she is dying to put together. Not too academic, but we will ease ourselves into things, right?

I have made a recent order to FatQuarterShop and bought myself a gigantic spool of Aurifil thread. One of those cones. I had the presence of mind to write the date I started using my last cone of thread and it turns out, it has lasted me an entire year. $35 worth of thread used up in a year. I can live with that.

I have been trying to organize myself and plan out some table runners and small projects I would like to make during the fall and holiday seasons. I will share more about that soon.

Hope you all had a great weekend. Thanks for sticking with me while I figure out things lately!

Mushroom Leek Tart

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine started last Thursday and lasted through Sunday. It was my birthday yesterday and I seemed to have started the celebration early. My daughter and her husband came over yesterday for a barbeque and I rounded out the meal with a mushroom leek tart. It was so easy and good I have to share how it's made. Here is the link to the recipe that inspired my version.

The original recipe calls for asparagus with the leeks, but I am not a fan, so I substituted mushrooms. This is the third time I have made this recipe and I am getting my technique down better. This time I cut the recipe in half and it was great. I have actually posted on making this tart before. Here is a link to my first effort if you would like to read that. I share more photos of the process in that post.

Here's what I did in a nutshell. I used one refrigerated pie crust, topped it with 1 cup of shredded fontina cheese. I topped the cheese with one leek and 5 or 6 mushrooms I had sauteed in 2 T. butter. I put a few dabs of ricotta cheese on top of the veggies (you could use soft mozzarella too I think). I sprinkled some thyme on top, just a little. Lastly I crimped the pie dough up and all around the filling as you would for a rustic tart. Brush the crust with egg wash. I baked it on a hot pizza stone at 450 for 18 minutes.

Refer to the recipe for detailed instructions for a tart that is double the size of mine. You could use any veggies you like and use a different cheese if you prefer. Make sure your filling isn't too "wet".  The first two times I made this my bottom crust was a bit soggy, but that hot pizza stone solved that issue.

Eva is off camping this week, so I plan to get in some sewing and reading. Summer seems to be in full swing all of a sudden!

Massive Sewing Room Tidy Up

My big sewing room declutter has been a success. My primary mission was to clear the surfaces of clutter and unorganized miscellaneous objects. Here is a little tour around the room, starting with the sewing table. I am very pleased to have cleared off a ton of stuff and put it where it belongs. My table is a former oak dining table that I had a handyman cut holes in to hold two sewing machines. It worked better in my former studio where I had enough room to access both sides of the table so two people could sew at a time. My current room is too small for that, so the table is pushed up against the wall.

Moving left we have my design wall, which I did not touch. I need to finish the lattices on my Moda Blockheads 3 quilt, and those blocks are staying up there until I do.

This is my ironing station, which I did tidy up as well. I tend to stash things on top of the small storage bins, so it was a bit cluttered. Placing an ironing surface on top of a small metal shelving unit was a brilliant way to get a larger ironing space and additional storage.

The dresser holds all sorts of notions, thread, rulers, interfacing, charm packs, etc, etc. Everything you need to access from time to time but don't want to look at. And, yes, the drawers are still a mess.  My cutting table is under the window and is a place where I spend a lot of time. On top are an additional light with a magnifier on it, and a couple of storage containers for frequently used items.

This cute little organizer box came from Home Goods.  I keep rulers in the back sections and rotary cutters, scissors, pens, and chalk markers in the front ones.

This handy little blue plastic holder is great for those small rulers you reach for all the time.  That was $10 well spent at Fatquarter Shop.

Under the lamp, I keep a magnetic pin dish, a small rotating mat, and a cute little tin with all my eensie weensie BlocLoc and Creative Grids rulers.

I'd never find any of those little guys if it weren't for that lidded tin.

Moving on, we have my storage closet, which has not yet been completely organized, and my bookcase. The storage closet holds plastic bins of unfinished projects, fabric bundles, and fabric on bolts. Extra sewing machines and some unfinished tops are in there as well. I've ordered some more storage bins that should come this week. If my hand cooperates I will tackle the closet. Then we have my bookcase which has books, patterns, works in progress, kits, some machine accessories, and toys. I plan to eventually have all the storage bins match.

Here we are full circle, back to the door and the sewing table. 

I am pretty satisfied with my efforts, particularly the cleared surfaces. I think the space over the sewing table could be put to better use than storing infrequently used rulers. I'd love to get my husband to install some shelving for me. 

So there you have it. My space is all tidy. I suffered an injury in the process, but I still have no regrets.

Quilt Home

This is my Comfort and Blessings quilt which was a sew-along last year hosted by Piecing the Past. I really enjoyed this sew-along, which was a block of the week. A very welcome distraction during the pandemic shut down. The sew-along was free at the time, but if you missed out, the patterns are available for purchase for $19.99 from Piecing the Past. They are quite nice blocks and some are very unusual.

I should note that I changed up the size of the blocks, reducing them from 9 inches down to 6 inches. In retrospect, I probably should have left them at 9 inches as I would have ended up with a much larger quilt.

I am very pleased with the colors I used, which are brighter Civil War Reproduction fabrics. There are a lot of different backgrounds, mostly cream tone on tone prints by Kansas Troubles. The alternating squares are all the same fabric for continuity.

The quilt really looks nice in my bedroom. My walls are painted a soft sage green, and I have several colorful paintings in the room that have the colors of the fabrics in them. The overall effect is quite cheerful and spring-like.

This is one of my favorite paintings, and it hangs over our bed in the master bedroom. It is by Lydia and Yvgeny Baranov, a husband and wife team who paint together. we bought it at the Jones & Terwilliger Gallery when we lived down near Carmel, CA. It features a farm woman in a red dress gathering up all her little chicks in her apron at the end of the day. It never fails to soothe my soul.

The end of the week is in sight. Any plans for the weekend? Or are we not quite there yet? I will take my turn visiting my dad. Please pray for no plumbing disasters. 

Where We Got It All Put Away and Ate Chocolate Cake

I have shared with you before how my husband is an absolute nut about Christmas. He starts buying his gifts way early and always gives the best presents. He is known for his generosity. But what he loves most about the holiday season are his special decorations. Of course, he puts lights up everywhere he can hang them, and insists on more than one Christmas tree. This year we had three and they were gorgeous. He is definitely a "more is more" kind of guy.

Every year I say "Oh gosh, maybe we won't put it ALL out this year..." But the look of disappointment on his face makes me immediately retract my statement and suggest we do even more. Putting out all the decorations is a three-day process at least. Taking it down and putting it all way is a bit quicker and we each are responsible for certain items. My husband has an extensive collection of glass ornaments that he has acquired over the decades and he won't hear of anyone putting them away but himself.

First, he spreads towels out on our countertops and arranges the ornaments all by size. One by one, he wraps them in individual plastic bubble wrap bags and carefully places them in large plastic tubs. I am not sure anyone else in the family is quite as smitten with the collection as he is, but hopefully, someday they can be parcelled out to interested family members when we have no more use for them. Or maybe Sara can sell them on eBay and use the money to send Eva to college.  lol

Well, that was hard work, so we celebrated getting the project done by making the best chocolate cake. I highly recommend it, because after all the cookies, fudge, and fruitcake from the holidays, we had to keep up the momentum and keep the pantry stocked with something sweet. The recipe is called Top Secret Chocolate Cake. But it isn't a secret, because here is the recipe. You should make one for yourself.
You know you want a piece.

Sweets for the Sweet?

It is the final countdown of days before Christmas.  This month has just flown by. It feels like we only just got the place decorated. I may have to leave things up longer this year. I never do though. It gets to be New Year's Day and I want to clear away all the clutter. We shall have to see if this year is different. I sure have enjoyed my lights and candles and other decorations this year.

Yesterday I made two kinds of cookies. The ones above are called Monster Cookies and are from Sally's Baking Addiction. The recipes I try from her site always seem to turn out so well.  I think she tests everything a gazillion times before she decides the recipe is perfect. The secret to these is not to overbake them. You take them out of the oven when they have just a touch of color and are still really soft. After ten minutes or so they set up and are perfect.

Check out this gift from my nephew. Killer Brownies. Oh my. I am going to need to find more people to share these with.

And here is the last batch of cookies. These are Chocolate Crinkle Kiss Cookies with peppermint Hershey's Kisses on top. They melt in your mouth. This is another cookie you don't want to overbake.  They don't really look done when you take them out of the oven, but once they set up they are wonderful. There are a thousand recipes for these on the internet, but I use the one by Betty Crocker.

I sure do hope you all have a wonderful holiday. I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for your support and friendship. You have definitely added a big plus to a difficult year! I have so enjoyed all of your comments. And even if you read this blog, but don't comment, I thank you for checking in with me. Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year, filled with lots of love.  I'll be taking a brief break, but will be back on January 4.  Happy New Year!