Sister's Choice Quilts

Sewcialites Progress Week 16, Snow, and the COVID Vaccine

We find ourselves coming up on week 17 of the Sewcialites Sew Along hosted by Fatquarter Shop and Kimberly Jolly. These are the two most recent blocks I have made, week 15 "Genuine", designed by Lori Holt, and week 16 "Friendship", designed by Carrie Nelson.

I tell you, that block 16 had me reaching for my seam ripper quite a few times. I went into it full of confidence because after all, it is flying geese, my favorite block unit. But I had some issues getting the seam intersections to line up properly.

Look what greeted me when I looked out my window on Monday morning! We only get snow rarely, but here we are. Brrrrrr.  It is way colder than this girl likes it. And yes, those are our Christmas lights. Someone hasn't gotten around to taking them down yet. We are supposed to get more snow this week, which I am hoping I won't have to drive in.

Look who got a COVID-19 vaccine! My sister took our dad in for his on Sunday afternoon.  They are giving the injections in the underground parking structure of our medical clinic. Dad, being 95, is one of the first people I know to get one. He was extremely excited to get it. He says they had to wait in a line for about 45 minutes, but he had his wheelchair so he was good. The injection did not hurt and he has had no after-effects of any kind. So that is all excellent. I tried to schedule an appointment for myself, but it turns out I am not old enough. lol

Hope you are all having a great week!

Sewcialites Progress

I have made 15 Sewcialites blocks since I switched fabrics/colors a month or two ago. I do like this combination of reds, blacks, and tans. I have to say that I am really enjoying the sew along and also the Friday YouTube videos Kimberly of The Fat Quarter Shop puts out each week. They are nice and long and I can stitch along while she demos the week's block and shows sewing tips and new items in her shop. Next Friday she said she will show some upcoming Moda Collections plus some new books. One of the books is a collaboration by Joanna Figueroa and Carrie Nelson, which I cannot wait for.

It has been so nice to be at home. The weather is absolutely gorgeous and we have all our sliding glass doors open. I got an itch to reorganize my bathroom cabinets and drawers. Can somebody please remind me that I do not need to buy any more cosmetics for the rest of my life? I tossed out so many lipsticks and old foundations and dried out mascaras, it was ridiculous. It's a great feeling to be able to see what I have and have room in the drawers and on the cabinet shelves. 

I made a nice crockpot dinner, and as I am writing this, my house smells so good. I combined onions and red, yellow, and orange bell peppers in the slow cooker with some mild Italian sausages. We will have them on hoagie rolls. I also did laundry, ironed a few things, and played in my sewing room for a couple of hours. I feel as if I had a day off!

Hope your week got off to a good start.

Apricot and Ash, Corey Yoder

Isn't this stack of fabrics luscious? It is Apricot and Ash by Corey Yoder, a Moda designer. There is a sew-along coming up called Serendipity that I want to do.  Click here for fabric requirements. It is a row quilt, you know, the kind where you make multiples of some blocks and arrange them in rows.  

Here is a better picture of the range of fabrics.  Aren't they lovely? My bedroom has green walls, and I was thinking a quilt with these colors would be so pretty in spring and summer.

This is the quilt I plan to make.  I love Corey Yoder's website Coriander Quilts.  Her fabrics are scrumptious and her patterns are pretty good too. She lives in Amish county somewhere in Ohio and often posts Instagram photos of neighbors driving their horse-drawn buggies down the roads in her area. Her photography is excellent. She is very faithful about telling you which Moda Solids match her colorways. When you are looking for a perfect background match that is so helpful. She seems like a lovely young woman.

So, that's all I have for today. I hope to sew this weekend and be a good companion to my husband. Happy January everyone.

Sewcialites Re-Set

I had a talk with myself over the weekend and had to admit that I was not loving my Sewcialites Sew-Along quilt blocks.  I was using fabric that just wasn't floating my boat. I think I'd like the Betsy Chutchian fabrics I had chosen in smaller bits, but not in the big 9" blocks I was making. I had made around a dozen blocks and decided not to invest any more of that fabric or my time making a queen-sized quilt top.

So I pushed my fabric re-set button, had a rummage through my stash, and came up with a new game plan. I pulled red, black, and gold/tan fabric from several designers (Jo Morton, Renee Nannemann, and Pam Buda) and remade 13 blocks in the 6" block size. It will be a smaller quilt, but I think the fabric colors are more cohesive and will make a nice statement together.

For reference, these are some of the blocks I had made with the other fabrics:

Pink, purple, black, green, and (inexplicably) blue. Hmm.  I am usually pretty good at this, but what the heck was I thinking? Just because a designer puts numerous colors in a fabric collection does not mean you have to use them all together. 

On another note, I have come to think that when making a sampler quilt comprised of 36 or more different block patterns, it might pull things together more to use just one background fabric instead of a dozen varied ones. That cohesive thing again.

I had an absolutely delightful Saturday and Sunday starching, cutting, and re-doing my 13 Sewcialites blocks and am much happier.

I was in my happy zone, binge-listening to a new reading podcast discovery.  A Strong Sense of Place is the name of it.  It is a blog and a podcast done by an absolutely charming husband and wife duo. They put out two extremely well-researched podcasts per month where they discuss and recommend books that have a strong sense of place.  For each episode, they pick a country or a city or a place, such as Paris, Germany, the Circus, etc. They also discuss books that are specific to a holiday or a setting.  They have a show on Halloween books, and my favorite so far: books that are set on Trains.  Their recommendations are not all new books by any means.  They often recommend older books that are dirt cheap on Kindle or readily available through your library. I highly recommend both their blog and podcast. Besides, they seem like super nice people you would like to know better. 

Hope you all had a great weekend.  Ready for Christmas this week? It will be different from the norm, I am sure, but I plan to try to find the wonder in it regardless.

My intention is to post Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week, then I will be taking a break between Christmas and New Year's. I'll be back to my usual posting schedule on Monday, Jan. 4. 

Christmas Candles and Sew Along Blocks Catch Up

I am really enjoying my house and my holiday decorations this year. Next week there won't be any homeschooling and I plan to spend every day just soaking it up and loving every minute of the lights, music, and holiday cheer.

The lack of time spent in the sewing room is catching up with me.  It's time to make up for lost time and get some of my various sew along blocks done.  The two blocks above are from the Moda Blockheads 3 sew along.  47 and 49 I believe. I wasn't sure I really liked either one of them, but went ahead and made them anyway. It turns out I do like them. 

I wanted to share three different holiday candles that I am especially loving. This one is Tree Farm by Bath and Body Works. It really smells like fresh-cut trees and other Christmassy smells. I love Bath and Body Works candles, but get impatient with their gimmicky sales.  You would never want to pay full price ($25) for their candles because they reliably go on sale for half price every few weeks. There is so much hype around their various releases, which is annoying too.  They play on the "buy it NOW or you will lose out" mentality. Obviously, I fell for it, but am enjoying this one anyway. I did get it for half off!

This one is by HomeWorx, and I got it on QVC last summer and have been saving it for Christmas.  It has all the good smells of holiday baking and is very warm and cozy. I have enjoyed many HomeWorx candles from QVC, but do find they burn fast.  Maybe those four wicks have something to do with that.

Talk about candles that last forever, I have such good luck with Yankee Candles.  They honestly burn for hours and hours and hours. I can use them for a couple of years if I just take them out around Christmas time. This one is Snow Dusted Bayberry Leaf. When I was younger, bayberry candles were about the only scented candle you could find during the holiday season.  That is what my mother used to buy anyway. Smelling bayberry really takes me back to my childhood.

Hope you are enjoying the sights and smells of the holidays wherever you are!  Have a great weekend.

Early Decorating

Plugging away at the Fatquartershop's Sewcialites Sew Along. This is my interpretation of the latest block, "Gracious" by Vanessa Christenson. I like more symmetry in my blocks, so I sewed the units together a bit differently to get the look I like. My version is above, and the sample we were supposed to replicate is below.

NOTE:  This is not my block. This is how the block is supposed to look.  My green block is sewn together in a more symmetrical way, which I preferred.

We had a quiet weekend, for the most part, although I did get some sewing done. And then this happened.

I have heard so much lately about people putting up their holiday decorations earlier than usual this year due to the gloom of COVID-19 hanging over us with all its restrictions. My husband is always super keen to get the holiday decor up, and I didn't have the heart to argue with him this year.  He set the tree up and strung the lights outside earlier than we ever have before. We still have the ornaments to get out to festoon the tree, and I suppose that will happen this week.

How about you?  Are you decorating early this year and injecting some holiday cheer into things?

That's Better!

I tossed and turned last night, fretting about my botched block from yesterday. Honestly, I was going to throw it out, but instead just left it on the table in the sewing room and walked away. I got up at 6 in the morning and went right upstairs to the sewing room to have a look at it. Do you see how those half-square triangle units actually form flying geese? Ah ha. I took the block apart, but left the flying geese units, which were easily trimmed down to 1 1/2 x 2 1/2". Trimming 10 flying geese is better than trimming 20 hsts.

I had to toss the red triangle inserts because they were kind of stretched out. I think I like the block done in all blues better anyway. So, all was not lost, and I managed to salvage my work from the previous day.

I had some time to make another block, so I decided to add to my 6-inch blocks and make this one. It is a pattern from the Moda Bakeshop. I don't recommend the pattern because I found it to be hard to follow and poorly written. With some patience and perseverance, I did complete it and I really do like the way it turned out in spite of the inferior instructions.

Here is an update on my pie crust fiasco from yesterday. It turns out if you accidentally put cornstarch into your dough instead of baking powder, it turns the dough into cement and it is not even possible to roll it out. So, I ended up making THREE batches of pie dough. The third one was my tried and true regular pie crust recipe that turns out every time without fail. Should have started with that one in the first place.

What was I attempting to make? My son in Ireland has been making Cornish Pasties and my husband and I decided we wanted to do it too and send him photos of our effort. The Cornish are pretty rigid about their pasties and if you vary even a bit from how they say it should be done, then you aren't authentic. One of the ingredients is supposed to be rutabaga, so I was doomed from the get-go.

Anyway, the Cornish use a certain crust recipe, which is super flaky and pretty impossible to work with, at least for me. Hence, I was reduced to using my regular pie crust recipe on the third try. The filling is steak, potatoes, onion, a bit of carrot, and a bit of celery. And lots of salt and pepper and a dash of cayenne. My husband may have tossed some steak seasoning in there as well when my back was turned. My ingredients were not strictly traditional either, but it's what I wanted to do. Everything is diced pretty small and mixed together. You roll out the dough in 8-inch circles and fill them as I show in the photo above. 

My double crust recipe was enough for five pasties. I had some filling leftover. You bake them for 50 minutes at 350 and this is what we got.

My first effort may not win any beauty prizes, but I can tell you, it tasted delicious!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

One Little Red House

One little red house was all I got done yesterday, but with luck, more will be coming this week! The barn block was fun to make. I do not think I have ever made a block like this before. It was pieced on the diagonal and came out pretty well. For anyone reading my blog for the first time, this block is part of a sew-along hosted by designer Jessica Dayon. Click HERE for more information.

Work is progressing nicely, and the light is at the end of the tunnel. I need to start focusing on Christmas, especially since gifts will have to be mailed this year as the family can't get together in person. Would you believe both my children have finished their shopping already? I have broached the subject of at least discussing what gifts we will give to people this year with my husband, and he went running from the room both times. Sigh.

In other news, we have mold on the cheese.

So, for those of you who have a science background, can you answer a question? Will each item on the plate create its own colony of mold, or will the mold on the cheese spread to the other items? Will there just be one kind of mold on the plate or more than one variety?

Some teacher I am. 

Up To My Eyeballs in Alligators

I got a bit of sewing in on Sunday morning, but I have been swamped with projects for the past five days or so, having to do with my part-time job. I work as a writer for a marketing firm, and usually, my workload is quite manageable. However, we have taken on a new client right now and want to submit half a dozen articles to him at once to show what we are capable of. Consequently, I have been glued to my computer researching and writing. The funny thing is, I will get it all done and turned in by Tuesday and probably won't have anything to do for the rest of the month. 

The block in the photo above is Block #8 of the Sewcialites Sew Along that the Fatquarter Shop is sponsoring. The block is called "Soulful" by Joanna Figueroa. It went together super easily.

I got caught up with my Moda BlockHeads sew along blocks as well. Block 43 is on the left. Corey Yoder designed it, and it is called "Corner Delight." I made it in the 12" size. The little guy on the right is "Community" by Sheri McConnell and is only 4".

The BlockHeads project should be winding down in the next few months. For the layout I think I will do, at this point, I need nine more 6" blocks, six more 8" blocks, and seven more 4". I am going to have to crank up my effort on this project and make a couple of blocks each week. I think I skipped a few weeks because I wasn't a fan of the block that was offered. I am also having the sinking feeling that I may be running low on my main background fabric. As a result, I am going to have to work in more of the coordinating (same dye lot, different prints) backgrounds I have on hand.

Eva and I started our mold experiment four days ago, and so far, there isn't much sign of mold that I can see. The banana is pretty disgusting, and there is a suspicious spot on one or two pieces of cheese, but that's it. I can only imagine the amount of preservatives in the bread that must be keeping the mold away.

Here are four of our five plates, sitting on the counter in my laundry room, just waiting for something to happen. The fifth plate is in a dark closet to see if that makes any difference. We have done something slightly different to the contents of each plate to see what develops. If you are wondering why the bread looks weird, it is rye bread. Those dark flecks are seeds. I will keep you posted. I know you are holding your breath.

I hope you all had a great weekend. It is definitely November here, and all of us have been bundling up because it's been so chilly. Maybe that's why my mold won't grow.

Sewcialites Block 7, Mold, and Meatloaf

Every Friday the Fatquarter Shop introduces a new block of the week in their Sewcialites Sew Along. Kimberly Jolly, the force behind FQS has a YouTube tutorial/video every Friday morning.  I enjoy watching them because she often mentions items the shop carries, projects that are coming up, new fabric lines to look forward to etc.  It is very chatty and fun and lasts over an hour, which is nice to have going on while you are sewing.

The tutorials are very in-depth and are particularly helpful to new sewers, as she shares a ton of great tips. If you can't watch on Friday mornings, don't worry, the videos are on YouTube forever for you to watch when convenient.

I am amassing a nice little pile of blocks for this sew-along.  

Eva and I are having an exciting week of school. She loves science and we are up to our eyeballs in an experiment on mold. Yes indeedy.  This is going to take a couple of weeks to see through, but we will learn how long it takes for several food items to get moldy under various conditions. Woo hoo, bet you can't wait to hear more about that.

In other news, I picked up a couple of new cookbooks called America's Most Wanted Recipes, and have been having fun with them. The premise of the books are that the recipes are the most requested ones from well known restaurant chains. PF Changs, Olive Garden, Benihana's, and tons more. We made Mrs. Field's Pumpkin Spice cookies and Boston Market's Meatloaf. The meatloaf was sensational and made delicious sandwiches the next day.  The meatloaf recipe was in the book on the left.

Hope your week is going well!