Sister's Choice Quilts

A Quilt For Her Sister

Several years ago I mentored a young friend for a year.  She was working on her senior project for high school and wanted to learn how to quilt.  She was an apt and eager student, and during the course of year, she completed several baby quilts which were donated to women in need who had infants.  

Once the senior project was finished, my young friend wanted to make a quilt for her older sister.  I gave her a bundle of fabric by Zen Chic called "Juggling Summer" and she chose a pattern she liked.  My friend finished the quilt top and it was greatly admired by everyone, and then tucked away.  Her family moved house, she started college and a job, but the quilt wasn't forgotten.  Five years passed.  The older sister has since married and moved to Georgia and had a baby of her own.  The girls talk often and more often than not, the older sister reminds my friend of the quilt she was supposed to complete and give to her.  It has become a source of sisterly teasing and frequent conversation.  "So, where's my quilt?"

At long last, with some assistance, my young friend was connected with a long arm quilter who was able to machine quilt the quilt top both speedily and brilliantly.  You see, the older sister is coming to California to visit and show off the baby in just a couple of weeks.  Just under the wire, the quilt has been quilted, but still needs to have the binding hand sewn down.   I gave my friend a lesson in hand sewing bindings and all the supplies she needs to complete the task.  She says she is up to it, but if for any reason it looks like she needs help, I am at the ready.  Big sister is going to get her quilt at last!

I Am a Slacker

I think one of the reasons I have been avoiding my sewing room is due to all the nearly finished projects that have been piling up over the past year.  I don't know what finally got me up there, but I bit the bullet this weekend and attached the binding to 9 quilts.  Yes 9.  How did that happen?

Above you see my Flag quilt and my Square in a Square quilt.  I love both of them and it is high time they went into rotation around  here.

Next up is my Pinwheel Quilt in Betsy Chutchian fabrics and my Courthouse Steps Quilt in so many of my treasured Jo Morton scraps.

Then we come to the table runners and table toppers.  The Fig Tree "Clover" runner, the  "Fat Quarter Flourish" quilt with Sherri and Chelsi fabrics, and the tiny little candle mat that looks kind of like a game board.

Lastly my green pineapple runner and my scrappy Christmas tree runner.

I can't believe I have been sitting on these for so long, but it's a great feeling to get those bindings attached at last.  Now to do the hand sewing and stitch them down.

I have some other UFOs that are making me feel guilty and those are going to be what I tackle next.  Those are a couple of large projects that I have got to complete.  It is hard to justify buying anything new when I have such a long list of things to finish.

Hope you all had a great weekend.  It was Memorial Day weekend here in the US, and we celebrated by having my sister and her husband overnight, and by visiting my daughter and son in law's restaurant.  My other son in law cooked ribs Monday night, and I was so happy to join in for those.  I never cook them for just us, so it was a real treat.  Now if it would just stop raining and the sun would come out...

Quilts Out For Quilting & Podcasts

I finally got myself in gear and sent these two little table toppers out for quilting.  I shouldn't procrastinate-the sooner they are quilted, the sooner I can use them in my spring/summer decorating.  I love the soft muted colors of the runner at the top of the picture.  It is a Fig Tree pattern called Sweet Clover, and the fabrics were older Fig Tree scraps I had in my stash.  A free quilt, right?

The smaller topper is a pattern called Fat Quarter Flourish by Carried Away Quilting.  The fabrics are from various Sherri and Chelsi collections for Moda.  Love the cheerful colors and also how the center star is in proportion to the floral motifs in the four corners.

My flying geese units are all finished and trimmed for the Corn and Beans table topper I am working on this week.  Hope to finish that up by the weekend.

While I have been stitching, I have been listening to some bookish podcasts.  Do any of you listen to podcasts?  For those of you who may be unfamiliar, a podcast is kind of a radio show you can down load to your iTunes account or to a podcast app on your phone or other device.  There are a gazillion of them out there, something for everyone's taste:  true crime, book reviews, celebrity gossip, current events, financial planning, weight loss, even quilting.  The bookish podcasts I really enjoy and follow most are "What Should I Read Next", "Currently Reading", "Book Cougars", and "One Great Book".  If you enjoy reading, you will get tons of ideas from these podcasts.

On other subjects, I have enjoyed "Pat Sloan's Quilting Podcast" for American Patchwork and Quilting, "Serial" which is an investigative journalism podcast, "Criminal" which is a totally addicting true crime podcast, and "Sorta Awesome" which deals with lifestyle and women's issues.

Do you have any favorite podcasts?  On what topics?  We'd love it if you would share in the comments!

This and That

I had my tiny little table topper quilted, and it came out so cute!  It is the perfect size for a candle or vase of flowers.  Still need to do the binding, but at least I have the fabric and know where to find it.

I needed more fabric for my Sweet Escape blocks, and good old Fabric Shack came through, as I knew they would, so I am ready to finish up those blocks.  I am seriously considering a scrappy companion piece in a log cabin design, featuring a layer cake of an older Minick and Simpson collection that has red, light blue, navy and cream.  I can see those two quilts out on my front porch on those nights during the summer when we want to sit outside and stargaze.  Red white and blue seems like such a summer color scheme, doesn't it?

In Instant Pot news, I am still completely smitten.  So smitten that I ordered the larger 6 quart size in addition to the mini 3 quart size I started out with.  This appliance is a complete game changer, I tell you.  Over the weekend, I made a Tomato Beef Curry that was perfect for entertaining.  Monday night I made Chicken Paprikash, which was so good I was talking to myself while I was eating it.  "Mmm, so good.  Wow, this is fabulous.  Mmmm.  Yum."   Seriously, this was the best $70 I have spent in, well I don't know, ever?  I love how you can saute the onions in the pot, then brown your chicken (in the same pot), then toss the noodles in the same pot, switch to Pressure Cook and in 4 minutes you have the most delicious dinner imaginable. And only one pan to wash.

I made home made mac and cheese for Eva in about 10 minutes, and she gave it her thumbs up sign of approval.  I took a bite, and even though mac and cheese is not something I typically crave, I decided then and there maybe I needed to have a small bowl of it. And it was good.   I have a cookbook called The Instant Pot Bible, which is great, but I also have gotten a ton of recipes and tips from two YouTube sites:  Pressure Luck and Six Sisters Stuff.

Hope your week got off to a good start!  Mine sure did.  I now have a fridge full of mac and cheese and chicken paprikash to eat all week long!

Stringalong Quilt Finished!

I am so happy with this finish!  Putting the blocks together was a project and a half, and I admit to getting bogged down when it came to sewing them together.  The blocks have been on my design wall for weeks and weeks.  The pattern is Signs of String by Clark Street Quilts and the fabric is from two lines by Moda Designer Linzee McCray, Red Rover and True Blue. The blocks took a ton of fabric, and seemed like an eternity to complete, but the result is pretty spectacular.  I wonder what this project would have looked like in Jo Morton or Kansas Troubles fabrics?  Just a thought.

In other news, I have been having a great time working on my Sweet Escapes Variation project, and look forward to showing you my progress on that front.  I can tell you this:  my project will look nothing like the pattern!  That is to say, when you look at the pattern, you will think, "Oh right, that's cool", but in actual fact, the way I am plotting out the placement of the colors is going to give it a completely different look.  I am excited about that.

Hope you all had a great weekend.  Ours involved a corned beef dinner courtesy of my son in law.  I have plans for a major shopping excursion today with a friend who has lost a ton of weight, who needs new jeans and new bras.  I have planned the trip with myself as sort of a shopping guide, so we will see how that goes!  I'll keep you posted.  Chicos and Soma are on our hit list.

 

Stars and Baskets All Quilted

I received my Stars and Baskets quilt back from the quilter, and I am so pleased with it.  I decided to go with a feathers quilting design, as suggested by a couple of you (thanks Sharon), and am thrilled with the choice.  I felt that quilting design was in keeping with the "era" the quilt was supposed to represent (1880s).  

I don't have the binding on yet, but you can be sure that is going to be a priority!

In other news, my background fabric arrived for my Sweet Escape log cabin sew along.  I made a test block, and I hate it.  The alternate background fabric I chose isn't right, and the block came out wonky.  I am so used to using my trim tools (the Creative Grids Log Cabin Trim Tool comes to mind), but these blocks do not lend themselves to the size options of the tool.  I am on my own, just sewing strips and wow.  Just wow.  I am not happy with the results.   

And of course I cut up two honey buns of Sweet Tea fabric so now I feel I have no options but to forge ahead.  I'll keep you posted, but right now things are a bit of a mess.  I am going to experiment and see if I can somehow make this pattern work and use my trim tool.  My blocks will be smaller, and hence the quilt as well.  I have an idea though....stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

Stars and Baskets Off to be Quilted

Remember my Stars and Baskets Quilt?  I had not gotten around to having it quilted, and when I decided that it would be next in the queue, I had second thoughts about its size.  Without borders it was coverlet size, about 76" square.  I really wanted something that would cover the entire top of the mattress, plus drape over a bit.

My problem was that the fabric collection I used for the quilt "Collection for a Cause Mill Brook 1892" was released back in 2015.  Four years ago.  I really wanted to match one of the prints in the line in the border for some cohesiveness.  I did a Google search, and I was thrilled to see that several people were selling pieces from the line on Etsy.  In the past I have had really good luck finding older fabric lines from that source.

I ordered my border fabric and got it sewn on this week, and mailed off to my quilter yesterday.

Next question is how should this be quilted?  I can't afford custom quilting, so it has to be an all over design.  Any of you long arm quilters out there have a suggestion?  If I chose some sort of quilting design that had stars in it, do you think that would be too much?  I was thinking something swirly, with a star every now and then.

I have been obsessed with sewing this week, so expect some quilty posts coming up.  I am trying out and comparing a couple of different Pineapple Block rulers, so stay tuned.

On another subject, readers have reminded me recently of several really good recipes that I had posted over the past number of years, that I had completely forgotten about.  I am going to be adding a "Recipes" search button on the sidebar, to make finding my shared recipes a bit easier.  I don't know if I can add in past recipes, but you can count on all future recipes to be searchable.  Next week I have a couple of cake recipes to share, which I know you will love.

Twelve Years

February 12 was the anniversary of my very first blog post.  A kind reader, Pam, pointed it out to me and I thought at first that she must be wrong.  No, it could not be possible that I have been blogging for that long.  Maybe ten years, but certainly not....And then I checked, and sure enough friends, Sister's Choice Quilts was launched on February 12, 2007.

I started this blog for several reasons, mainly because I love to write, and second because I wanted a record of my quilting journey, and third, because I was in the hope of meeting more like minded people with whom I could share my love of quilting.  

The quilt pictured above was featured in my very first post.  It was made on a quilting retreat and I named it Blogging Friendship.  It was my first and last Mystery Quilt! I featured the quilt in a giveaway in 2008, and  Susan from Blackberry Creek Home Arts was the winner.  Susan is still blogging as well, so you should go say hi.  I know she'd love that.

So many things have changed since that first post twelve years ago.  Blogging was in it's heyday back then, and I had been inspired by several bloggers who unfortunately, no longer post.  I had several cyber friends with whom I would exchange long quilt/fabric related emails.  We provided mutual support and also joked that we were "enablers" who caused one another to buy way more fabric than was necessary. We even met up in person on several occasions!  That was such fun.  People do Instagram more now I guess, and blogs seem to be out of fashion.  Quilt shops and quilt shop hops were a big deal in those days as well, and there were many opportunities to shop in person and even get together at shops and sew with friends. Now quilt shops seem to be few and far between, victims of the economy and the ease of internet shopping. The shop that sponsored the retreat where I made the Mystery Quilt is no longer in business. 

When I introduced myself in that first post, I explained that I had named my blog Sister's Choice Quilts in honor of my four sisters.  Now, sadly, I only have three sisters.  I also said in my first post that I hoped to meet more quilters and make some new friends.  That goal has been met in a way that has far exceeded my expectations.  People have come and gone over the years, but I still get comments and appreciate every single one of them.  The greatest blessing in this twelve year adventure has been the interaction I have had with lovely, quilt loving women.

Whether you are a long time follower of this blog, or if you just discovered me by accident recently, I thank you with all my heart for visiting and giving me a chance to express myself.

2018- Quilting Year in Review- July through December

The second half of 2018 definitely showed a slow down in productivity.  I spend a lot of time with my grand daughter Eva in the summer, and we also had a major trip, plus there were all those holidays...

July

Aurora

August

Maple Leaves

Halloween Logs and Geese

September

Baby Quilt

October

Blackbirds and Stars

November

Christmas Pines

Three Trees

Drunken Frenchmen

Red and White Sampler

That is a good one to end with I think.  I didn't do much sewing in December, other than about two dozen microwave bowl cozies.  

2018 was an excellent year for me, without a doubt my most prolific ever.  I think I need to slow down a bit more in 2019.  I feel as if I was in a bit of a fever to get things done last year.  I want to savor the process more in 2019.

2018- Quilting Year In Review- January through June

I had a great year of quilting in 2018.  It was my first year of being completely retired since I was about 15 years old, so I had a lot of time for sewing.  I made 9 full sized quilts and 19 mini quilts.  I am working on a sidebar which lists the quilts with more details.  Here is what I accomplished in the first half of the year:

January

Triangle Gatherings

Loose Change

Barn Stars

Tiny Town

February

Raspberry Cocoa

Scarlet Stars

Run Around

Courthouse Steps

Pinwheel Puzzle

Luck o' the Irish

March

Pie Birds

State Fair

April

Double Nine Patch

Endearments

Windmills

May

Liberty Road

Leftovers

June

Faithful

Recess