Sister's Choice Quilts

Concept Vs. Execution

I have received some quilts back from my quilter this week and look forward to sharing them with you. This one was made with Fig Tree fabrics and features a Pattern Basket Bird Block in the center of the runner.  I love the springy feel of the fabrics and love the quilting design my quilter chose.

This will be a fun spring table runner.

Did you have a great Halloween? Our family Halloween party has been on hiatus since the Covid pandemic. At this point, I don't know if it will happen again in the future. It may be a casualty of our times. Sad, but time will tell.

We had a fabulous Halloween in our own little neighborhood. We typically gather at my son in-law's house for the occasion. He serves his wine to the adults who are interested, and of course, candy to the kids. Eva was Cruella DeVille this year, and her friend Addie was a white wolf. So here's the thing. Addie was disappointed that her concept of a white wolf was not widely recognized. "Are you a dog?". "Are you a cat?" were questions she was repeatedly asked. "No, I am a white wolf", she patiently explained. This is an example of a creative concept that did not pan out as the artist intended. Poor girl. She was annoyed, but not devastated. She will be back next year with a new idea that, with luck, will be better understood and appreciated.

Eva was Cruella DeVille, which at least was readily recognized. 

Oh my gosh, this kid is cute. 

In our area, Halloween is a big deal. Many people who are not residents of our neighborhood are bussed in to take part in our trick or treating activities. Most people set up deck chairs and sit outside their homes to disperse the trick-or-treat goodies. The man across the street from my son-in-law had an interesting gimmick. He had a table set up with a display of sacks of candy. As kids approached, he said "Here's the deal. You can pick one piece of candy from my candy bowl, or...If you have a Butterfinger candy bar, you can trade it to me for a sack that has many pieces of candy." You should have seen those kids rummaging through their trick or treat bags for a Butterfinger to trade for an entire sack of goodies. Good deal all around right? The guy got a ton of his favorite Butterfingers and the kids thought they scored with their trade for a sack full of lollipops, Tootisie rolls and Bazooka bubblegum.

Crazy times around here. Hope you had a happy Halloween@

End of an Era

Remy
Dec. 17, 2007 - Oct. 11, 2021

We lost a treasured member of the family yesterday. Technically, Remy wasn't even our dog. He belonged to my daughter Sara and her husband Ryan, but spent a great deal of time with us at our home. He was one of the best little dogs on the planet for sure. His good behavior was always a big contrast to his friend Ozzie's. We'd often ask Ozzie, "Why can't you be a good boy like Remy?", but Ozzie marches to his own drummer. Even though their personalities were very different, they were a pack.

This picture was taken on the day when Ozzie and Remy first met. Ozzie liked him on the spot, which was unusual. Remy wasn't sure what to make of Ozzie at first, but they soon became good friends. And stayed friends for over 13 years.

You might recall me posting a few months back about the possibility of Remy having canine dementia. He would have episodes of acute anxiety when nothing seemed to help to calm him down. In the photo above, my husband is trying to comfort Remy and Ozzie is sitting at his feet looking on with concern. As time passed, Remy's episodes worsened, despite being on medication.

He loved his walks, his treats, and very short car rides. Always ready to see what would happen next, his curiosity was still tempered with caution. He was the best boy ever, and it is going to be very very hard not to have him around. Goodbye, Rem, we'll miss you.

 

Easing Back Into Things

Well hello there. I am easing back into things. Rejoining the land of the living. Call it what you will, but I have been out of commission and am struggling to get back to normal.

The doctor says my eyes are healing perfectly and all is well. I had some sort of allergic reaction to something and my right eyelid swelled up pretty spectacularly. My vision was never constant. Sometimes super blurry, other times just ok. None of the "I can see the individual leaves on the trees" stuff that many cataract patients claim. The main thing I noticed besides not being able to see very well at all was that my world had suddenly gotten super bright. Too bright. Dracula at dawn bright. Wearing sunglasses indoors bright.

Day by day things are getting better. With luck and time, I will be able to see great again. I am counting on it. I'll keep you posted.

I am SO anxious to get back into my sewing room. My big summer plans and goals have gone right out the window. I even had an email this weekend from a lovely lady in North Carolina who quilts for me, asking if I was still sewing. Now that hurt.

Even while I was laid up, I managed to do a bit of shopping. Here are two new Halloween-themed bundles I picked up. No idea what I will do with them. 

Pumpkins and Blossoms by Fig Tree

Kitty Corn by Urban Chiks.

 

Hope you are all well. Looking forward to sharing more with you this week.

 

A Little Setback

Sorry readers. I've had a little setback from my recent eye surgery. I am not able to see well enough to sew or even type very effectively.

With luck, I will be back in business in a day or so.

Light At the End of the Tunnel (in more ways than one!)

I have been sewing! I wasn't completely sure what I was going to share with you today, because there are choices! My number one priority right now is to get the rows of Moda BlockHeads 3 together and get this monster off my design wall. 

Naturally, I had forgotten all the details of what size lattice strips I needed for the various sized blocks in this quilt. It took me a moment to get back on track. There was some ripping and some trimming, but all is lining up nicely now and I have completed almost four vertical rows! It is coming together and I could not be more thrilled. I hope to wrap this up this week. 

My summer schedule is also falling into place, and it seems I will have some large blocks of time for sewing, which is what I have been craving. Grabbing an hour or two is great for sewing blocks for a sew along, but I need hours of uninterrupted time to actually complete something.

I sure hope you all had a great weekend. It was a long one for us in America, and I understand that many of you in Europe had a "bank holiday weekend" as well. 

I haven't shared this until now, but my husband has been in the Bay Area five days a week for the past month undergoing radiation treatments for cancer. He has two more weeks to go, and he will be finished with his treatments. It has been worrisome for sure, but his spirits are great and we are both looking forward to him being home and regaining his health. My plate has been very full with his illness, caring for my dad, and homeschooling my granddaughter. I am so looking forward to a more carefree summer. I will still be spending weekends with my father, but the schedule for the rest of the week should be easier.

Happy June everyone!

Siderailed By Fabric Related Injury

As I told you all last week, I spent my free time this weekend sorting out my sewing space. That was such a great dialog we had in the comments. It seems a disorganized sewing area is something a lot of you struggle with as well.  

My organization included hauling a lot of heavy tubs of fabric around. Somehow I managed to sprain my thumb! I must have stretched or torn a ligament. It hurt right away and has gotten progressively more painful, swollen, and bruised. We went out first thing yesterday morning and bought a thumb brace, which helps matters considerably. I am immobilizing it and taking Aleve. 

It turns out there are so many things you just cannot do without a thumb. Brushing your teeth is a real challenge, as is typing. I can't seem to manage the space bar whatsoever. Using scissors is completely impossible. I can use the rotary cutter briefly for small pieces, but cutting out a project, starching fabric, and pinning things just isn't happening. 

But look! Here is something I managed to do with my left hand. I could tear the paper off Fat Quartershop's new Square in a Square foundation units without any trouble. That is indeed a testament to how great those papers are and how easy they come off.

I did make some progress on my room organization and will share it with you tomorrow. If any of you were inspired to tackle tidying up your sewing rooms, I hope you managed to do it without injury.

Hope you all had a great Mother's Day!

Clean Your Room

Not that she ever did. I remember my mother standing in the doorway of my room saying, "Your room is a mess. You need to stay in it until it is straightened up". And that was that. I had to apply myself to the task and make it happen. I was on my own then, and I'm on my own now.

Deja vu. My sewing room is such a cluttered, unorganized disaster, that I cannot even concentrate on picking up a project. Some serious re-organization must take place, pronto.

My husband is not available at the moment to build me a wall of shelving, so I am on my own to figure out what to do with all this stuff. I don't even want to share a before picture with you as I am so disheartened by the state of things. It took a while to get to this state, and it's going to take a minute to put it to rights.

I plan to tackle the issue this Sunday, so with luck, I will be in a better state of mind by Monday!

So, how are things in your sewing space?

Oh Yes I Did

It's been a couple of weeks since I worked on the Serendipity Sew Along. I had a couple of hours yesterday afternoon, so I thought I would put Kimberly on my iPad and stitch along with her on what they are calling "Release Two", which is the second row of the quilt. (Remind me to clean my iPad screen). I got my 40 flying geese units all cut out and began happily sewing away.

But for some reason, it all felt kind of familiar. Deja vu, you know?

Oh right. I already made that row of 40 flying geese a couple of weeks ago. Much head-slapping went on for a little while, but then I realized it was ok. I hadn't wasted all that fabric after all. It turns out there is a second row of flying geese just the same as the first one later on in the quilt.

Whew.

I need to keep up with these things a bit better. Maybe, just maybe, I might have a bit too much going on? Yeah, I think so too.

Then I ran out of my starched background fabric and had to make more.

It was a lovely warm afternoon. I just lay out a thick towel and spray until the fabric is soaked with my Faultless Heavy Starch. On a nice warm day, it is dry in half an hour!

Wish me a mistake-free day today, because I hope to sew!

Maybe You Should Finish Something

My husband and I were sitting in the living room visiting with each other while dinner cooked. We do that most nights. Take some time at the end of the day to sit together with a glass of wine and connect with one another. He asked me "So what project are you working on right now?"

Sound of crickets....

"Well," I said finally, "I have five or six different projects spread out all over the place at the moment".

"How is that working for you?" he inquired. 

"Honestly, not great", was my answer. "I feel very disjointed, unorganized, scattered, messy, and kind of frazzled". 

"Maybe you should finish something", he offered.

Wow. Imagine that. Finish something? Really? 

The next time I was up in my sewing room, I took an honest assessment of all the unfinished, half-started projects I have in various states of disorganization throughout my sewing room. The major project that I would like to get done is my Moda BlockHeads 3 quilt. Those blocks have been on my design boards for well over a year. A lot of excitement, fabric, time, and effort went into making those 50 some blocks.

I have been dithering over how to set them in a way that shows off the blocks rather than a busy, confusing, mess. When you make a quilt with several different sizes of blocks, finding a setting that works is extremely challenging. I wanted those blocks to be set apart from one another so the eye has a place to rest when looking at the whole quilt.

Julie Lloyd at Julesccreates on Instagram had a brilliant setting for her MBH3 blocks. I commented on her post and asked her if she would share the size of her lattice strips because I wanted to recreate her setting with my blocks. She very kindly responded with her measurements and I ordered lattice fabric in Bella Solids Porcelain (which matches my 3 Sisters fabrics). And then the fabric sat on the shelf and the blocks stayed on the wall and nothing got done.

Until yesterday. I took my husband's words to heart and got to work. This quilt is sewn together in vertical rows. Each block has a lattice around it, which is trimmed down to size when you sew the blocks into rows. You can see my first row on the far left in the photo. I am so pleased with how it is turning out.

I plan on having 7 rows. Four rows will have 12", 6", and 4" blocks. Three rows will have 8" and 4" blocks. I do not have quite as many blocks as I will need, so there will be a bit more block construction before I am done. This quilt is going to be very large and will cover my queen-sized bed with a good amount of overhang.

I am so excited to turn these blocks into a beautiful quilt. 

Cataracts

I've been blessed with pretty good eyesight during my life.  I need readers to magnify the print when I am reading, but my distance vision has always been all right. In the past few years, I have experienced a gradual worsening of my vision.  I walk three or four days a week with a friend.  I began to notice that the individual leaves I used to be able to see up in a tree were now a blur of indistinguishable green. And when I read a page of a book, there would be a blurry area in the upper left of the page.  I could always shift the page around so my eyes could read the blurry bits, so I didn't worry too much. Then threading needles became really difficult.  I kept wanting more light for whatever task I was working on. More light always seemed to be the answer to my issues. And it helped. Up to a point.

I went to the eye doctor yesterday and she confirmed I had cataracts in both eyes, worse in the left eye.  The good news is, it is fixable. No rush.  I think I'll wait a few months until the COVID issue is more clear, then schedule my procedure.  I have never met a person who has had cataract surgery who has regretted it, so I am pretty excited for good results.

My husband is having some health issues as well, of a more personal nature.  I don't think he would like me to discuss them specifically, so I will respect his wishes.  Let me just say, a general wish of good luck would be welcome on this end right now. Getting old sure is the pits. 

On a lighter note, Eva was having homeschooling with her dad Monday and Tuesday of this week while her grandpa and I were away seeing doctors.  She is such a creature of habit.  She kept texting me, "Nana, can I have my morning break now?  It's 10:30."  "Nana, can I have lunch now?  It's noon".  Good heavens. I will be home soon and we will be back in my kitchen doing homeschool and the Earth will keep spinning on its axis.  

Hope you are all well.  A random quilty thought popped into my mind: have you heard of Joanna Figueroa's (Fig Tree Quilts) new Winter Solstice quilt along? It looks very interesting.  Eight-inch blocks with a dark background.  I do miss the nice big PRINT HERE button for printing the patterns, but you can copy and paste and work around it.

Hope your week is going great. Not long until Christmas.  I just want to get back home and stay put until mid-February.