Sister's Choice Quilts

Contest Winner

The winner of my little contest this week to see if anybody was reading my posts is Claire! I swear I did the random number generator thing, but I have to admit she left me the kindest message:

"I am a relatively new subscriber and was so thrilled to discover your blog a couple of months ago. I actually went back and read years worth of your posts! It’s fun to keep up with your quilting adventures (and slices of life). I so appreciate your use of stash fabrics and digging into older patterns. It is so refreshing to follow along with someone who isn’t constantly pushing their newest patterns or product lines. The effort you put into each post is obvious and I relish each one. Thank you!"

Thanks to all of you who left me kind words. I read all your comments and they made me SO happy. It does take some effort to write regular blog posts and it feels great to be acknowledged. So my heart is full of gratitude to have such lovely readers!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. I'll be working on my Summer in the Country blocks. The next one up, Hay Baler, doesn't look like it's for sissies. It's going to be another scorcher temperature-wise, so I'll be happy to stay in and sew.

Quilters Are the Best People

I am one happy quilter today. Look what came in the mail! A week or so ago I posted that I was sorry I hadn't signed up for the Designer Mystery Block of the Month program back in 2015 because it was the best one Fatquarter Shop ever did. Linda E. contacted me and said she had the kit, unused, and was willing to sell it to me. You bet I jumped on that offer.

She sent a box out that very day and I am pretty sure I got the patterns and fabric before she even received my check! I am so excited to start working on this project. I have to work out a plan for the finishing and layout of the blocks, and have a few things in mind. Luckily, Primitive Gatherings has recently come out with a collection that has navy and lighter blue fabrics that I think will coordinate great with these blocks.

Quilters really are the best sort of people. 

April Mug Rugs in Progress

I will be slipping just under the wire with my April mug rugs. I gifted my daughter and three friends with the "Mug Rug of the Month" at Christmas. I have actually given them October through March so far. I thought these little baskets would be cute for Easter month. They could also work for May baskets too, but I guess it would be cheating to double up.

These are taking a fair amount of time to piece as you can imagine. They are turning out super adorable though. Hope to get them quilted and bound over the next couple of days.

The pattern is Pretty Little Baskets from The Pattern Basket Co. The fabric is a real throwback. Years ago Carrie Nelson (Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.) designed a couple of lines of fabric for the Henry Glass Company, and this is one of them. I am pretty sure it is called Nine Dots and is from around 2010. It has perfect Eastery colors and I am so glad I have a project that suits it at last. 

I like it so much, as a matter of fact, that I am going to make four more blocks and make a mini table topper for my counter for Easter. Fingers crossed for Wednesday for that project.

I spent a nice couple of days this weekend with my father, who was in fine fettle. He is always so appreciative of any attention from his daughters. We had a lovely salmon salad for dinner on Friday night, and Potato Ham Soup on Saturday. I avoid any big cooking projects when I am at his house because his appetite is so light and he doesn't much care for leftovers. During the week I try to make a hearty soup, stew, or casserole for my husband and I. It is easy to take out a couple of portions and take them to my dad's for one of our meals. 

Hope you all had a great weekend. The weather has been great here, and what a pleasure it has been not to have to bundle up in sweaters to keep warm. Finally I can wear some of those cute new lightweight spring tops I recently purchased. I really want to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather, but my husband is having the worst allergy attacks this spring than ever before in his life. He's willing to try, but he is so miserable with sneezing and itchy eyes afterward I can't put him through it.

It seems crazy that we are at the end of March already. January seemed to have 104 days, but February and March have just flown by! Does it seem that way to you too?

 

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!

One Step At a Time

Thank you all so so much for all your encouragement and kind words yesterday regarding my father's vision issues.  We saw the specialist, who was a total rock star (evidently he is extremely well regarded in his area of specialization).  The procedure was a bit of an ordeal, particularly as my dad is 94 and has some mobility issues.  He was a trooper however and wanted to forge ahead and get both eyes treated in one go, rather than just doing one and returning another time to do the second.

Prior to the actual procedure, there was over two hours of testing and waiting for various medications to take effect.  The actual injections of medication into his eyes took mere seconds.  And isn't that a good thing?  Just imagine.  I found my sandals exceptionally engrossing while my father was getting the injections.  He will have to have these injections on a monthly basis for the foreseeable future.  Dad was pretty wiped out after we got back home, but was fortified by some leftover cake and ice cream.  I gave him some soothing eye drops and left him settled in his favorite chair.

The doctor was very informative about the disease "wet" macular degeneration.  Ten years ago it was considered a pretty dire sentence for vision loss.  However, treatments have been developed and now that condition can be slowed and even improved upon.  I am so grateful.

While we waited, I showed my dad the wonders of e-readers and the iPad.  It turned out that with enlarging the font he was able to read fairly easily on the e-reader!  He wanted to go buy an iPad immediately, but I think we may start him out with one of the larger Kindles.  He will even be able to read his favorite magazine (The Economist) and his favorite newspapers.

Now let me tell you about the photo at the top of this blog post!  Carolyn, an extremely generous reader of this blog sent it to me!  Can you believe anyone would do such a lovely thing??  Quilters can just be the best people on earth. I am beyond thrilled.  It is "Blue Barn", Frivols 12, which is extremely hard to come by. The fabric is a collection by Laundry Basket Quilts and the pattern is a simple stars design that I love.  I think I may have to make it up in the very near future.  Thank you Carolyn, from the bottom of my heart, for your kindness.

Giveaway Winner of Lori Holt's Book "Farm Girl Vintage"

I am excited to share that Gail S. is the winner of the Lori Holt book "Farm Girl Vintage".  The random number generator thing was used, and her comment was the number that came up.  I hope she will enjoy the book, as I highly recommend it for the variety of patterns and remarkably clear instructions.

I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday afternoons making more blocks for the Piecing the Past project, and most of the ones shown above were from Lori's book.  All of them came together precisely and accurately with little fuss and bother.

As a matter of fact, her book was so good that I went ahead and ordered her "It's So Emma Vintage Christmas Quilt Book".  If you follow on Instagram or on Lori's blog, there has been a  Bee Patriotic sew along this summer that Lori has done featuring the patterns in that book that would be appropriate for a quilt with that theme.

I highly recommend that you check out her blog "A Bee in My Bonnet".  She has just featured instructions (you do need the Christmas book for the pattern) to make one of the nicest Patriotic table runners I have seen.  Go check it out.  I'll wait...

RIght?  Raid your stash of red, blue and cream fabrics.  There is still time before the 4th to make it!!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  

A Quarantine Story

I hope you all had a nice weekend.  Our weather turned cold and rainy, so I spent a lot of time inside reading my books.  I zoomed through a couple of them, so at the end of the month, I should have a decent number to review for you.  

My husband had a hankering for Potato Leek Soup, so we indulged ourselves in some of that along with our home-baked bread.  From the comments I received last week, it sounds as if a lot of you are bread bakers too!  I also had bought some fresh cherries and made a delicious bar cookie called Cherry Garcia Brownies.  I will definitely share that recipe with you this week.

Speaking of sharing, I meant to share this with you all last week but got sidetracked.  A reader of this blog named Dianne and I have been corresponding recently, and I think a lot of you will be so interested in her quarantine experience.  Dianne and her husband live half the year in California, and half the year in Australia.  Her husband's mom is still with them and they like to spend time with her.  This is their typical time to return to their home in Australia, and have they ever got a travel/quarantine story.  Australia requires all persons who enter the country to shelter in place for two weeks in a hotel when they arrive.  Fourteen days and they cannot stick as much as one toe outside their hotel room!  She and her husband have been put up at the government's expense at a five-star hotel in Sydney. Dianne has shared her adventure on her blog Calfornia GIrl in Oz, and I invite you to hop over and read her adventure.  To my knowledge, she and her husband are on day 10 of their lockdown at this point in time.  After 37 hours of travel and fourteen days stuck in a hotel room, I'll bet she'd be real glad to get some comments.  Be sure to start on Day One and read through all her posts.  They're so good!

Let's Do This

I hope my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We all have many things for which to be grateful, and as I sat with my family over the long weekend, I did some reflecting.  Yes, we are very blessed: in our families, our quilting activities, the roofs over our heads.  However, we have some quilting sisters who have not had the greatest past couple of weeks.  

Many of you have probably heard of the devastating fire, called the Butte County Camp Fire, which completely destroyed the town of Paradise, California.  It is wiped off the map.  Nothing left.  No homes, no stores, no churches.  Who knows if they can even rebuild at this point.  85 people killed, over 200 still missing.  It has officially been labeled the deadliest wildfire in California history.

Paradise was a community largely made up of retirees, who moved there thinking the bucolic setting was the final destination for their senior years.  Paradise is (was) located near the town of Chico in Northern California.  The Paradise Ridge Quilt Guild had around 100 members, mostly ladies over the age of 60.  Of those 100 women, 98 of them lost their homes, their sewing machines, their projects past and present, and their quilts.

How can we help?  Honey Run Quilt Shop in Chico, CA and Annie's Star Quilt Guild of Chico are organizing a drive to collect hand work projects for these displaced women in their quilt guild.  The idea is, since they have lost everything, that it could be a good idea to get them working on some hand projects.  Appliqué, embroidery, wool work, knitting, crochet, making hexagons.  Can you imagine what a comfort it would be to at least have something to do with your hands to distract you just a bit from your incomprehensible loss?

I went through my stash and was surprised at how many (largely abandoned or not even begun) hand projects I have.  In about 15 minutes of rummaging through my stash, I found wool for wool projects

yarn and knitting needles

lots of embroidery supplies

applique supplies

Will you help?  I have been in touch with Ronda Menshing at Honey Run, and they are so in hope they can do something that will make a difference, no matter how small.  These women will be so grateful for anything, as I know we would be if in their situation.  The address to send any type of materials that could work for hand projects is:

Honey Run Quilters

Attention Ronda - Camp Fire

2418 Cohasset Road

Chico, CA 95926

 

If you have any questions or want to do more, you can call the shop at:  530-342-5464.

 

Alternatively, if you would like to help the Camp Fire victims, but would prefer to direct your aid to a different organization, here is a link to other agencies that are providing assistance to the victims.

 

Really Ozzie?

Really Ozzie?  What is it with dogs wanting to lie down on anything you place on the floor to take a closer look at?  As you can see, I am well on the way to having my red and white quilt finished and off my design wall.  As I type this, I have the top all put together and just have one final outer border to put on.  Next post will be my reveal.  I cannot tell you how glad I am to get this quilt into the "finished" category.  I have been seriously stalled out with it for months.  It will be a marvelous addition to my holiday quilts line up.

Thanks to all of you who participated in my little pattern giveaway.  The three winners are Laura Valdez, Sharon Amburn and Molly Hinchcliffe.  Please let me know your addresses ladies, and the packets of patterns will be on their way to you!  I am so glad to send them on to places where they have a chance of being used and enjoyed.

Double Nine Patch is a Finish

Honestly, I was not sure how much I was loving this quilt until I took all the dark brown nine patches out.  Then it changed for me.  It suddenly coordinated better with the border fabric I had on hand, and was just more pleasing to my eye.  All the un-sewing I did on Sunday was worth it.

The finished quilt measures 76 inches square and is made up of 49 double nine patch blocks (which breaks down to 221 little nine patch blocks which measure 3 1/2").  The full size double nine patch block measured
9 1/2".  And I have an entire bag full of leftover dark brown nine patch squares that will be great in some future project. 

The inspiration for the project was a couple of things.  First, a quilt shop called The Quilted Moose in Gretna, NE was sponsoring a year long project to make the quilt.  Second, I had a tub of lovely blue and dark brown fabrics from a kit I purchased back in 2011 while on a trip with friends.  I never got around to making that kit, but the fabrics were so lovely I always felt guilty for not using them in something.  The majority of them were from a gorgeous collection by Judie Rothermel called Notingham Village.

I decided not to drag the project out for the entire year.  It was kind of a production to make all the nine patch blocks, and I did better if I spent several hours at a time working on them rather than to just make one or two at a time each week.

So now I have a quilt that I really like, and a reminder of the lovely time I spent on the trip with my friends.