Merry Christmas!

Merry  Christmas everyone! Hope that Santa showed up at your house too! 

garden flag

I wanted to try my hand at coloring embroidery with crayons.  I just used fabrics from my stash and found this embroidery pattern on line.  I must say the shading does enhance the embroidery, something I will have to try again.

Santa came a bit early

We took Max to Petco Saturday! It is always an exciting experience shopping at the pet store with him. He loves loves loves his toys even as he is growing older. The squeakers are his favorite and he prefers furry over rubber toys.
As we entered the store there were large rawhides that were shaped as candy canes. I was very surprised they really didn't interest him, then came the toy aisle. He came across a few favorites that he still has in his toy basket. The squeakers in all of them lasted about five minutes. He has a tendency to bite into them and that is all it takes to kill them. Then his poppy came across an endcap of toys called invincibles they keep sqeaking even after punctured. He first grapped a long snake, but then he eyed a spider. It fit all his criteria, it squeaks, and it has furry legs that he can sit and chew. Well, so far this is his favorite toy so far, and it has been over twenty four hours and it still is squeaking. He literally has wore himself out playing with it, but the great thing is is a great pillow too!

Red and White Miniature

I came across this paper pieced mini atThe House That Kaffe Built. I am not fond of paper piecing but really wanted to do this one in red and white. There is still a lot of room on my mini wall and I have always wanted to do a school house block.

The miniature that I made has four blocks across and four down and sashing in between. I wish I had used a water soluble paper, however, since picking out the paper pieces was quite tedious.

Feeding Dolphins

What is better than feeding the Dolphins at Sea World, but getting to do it twice, once with my Dad and once with my Mom! Xander and the whole family had a great time at Sea World in San Antonio. The weather was perfect for a lot of fun!

First Frost

A few years ago, I decided to make Max the quilt pictured on the left.  It was too darn cute, not to do it.  He is such a bright dog.  He amazes us everyday, and yes sometimes we do forget that he is a dog.




This morning, this is how I found him.In his bed all snuggled in his quilt. Such a lucky dog, just think he could  have been outside in a dog house with frost on the shingles. LOL 

 Wednesday morning Max went out for his morning duty, and I heard a bark at the door. When I opened the door there he was with the paper in his mouth and he proceeded to bring it in.  He has always been very good about going to get the paper when told, but he always falls a bit short when it comes to handing it to me. Not only did he hand it to me, he actually took the initiative to go and get it. No wonder the kids are worried their inheritance may go to him.

Over the River

I finished my "Over the River" quilt yesterday. It was machine pieced and hand embroidered and hand quilted with Baptist fans.The first photo is a closeup of the embroidery I did last winter. The second photo is a photo of the label on the back of the quilt. This is the first time I remembered to attach the label first so it could be quilted into the quilt.  I am pleased with how it turned out. The pattern is by Crabapple Hill Design.  I am so glad that I got this one completed in time to hang for the holidays. 

Pecan Season

Tom and I like to take Max on walks near the river in a wooded area that belongs to the paper mill. It is so beautiful, although sometimes the paper mill stench can ruin it, but Max just loves running free ahead of Tom and sniffing everything in his path.
We notice this summer that the little creek is lined with pecan trees. So Sunday, we went out and collected some pecans. It was a new experience for me, I have never picked nuts before. I am looking forward to a pecan pie at Thanksgiving made with these nuts and I am sure we will have enough to throw into some pumpkin bread.

Amish Waves/Baptist Fans

I started quilting my "Over the River" Quilt in hopes that it will be ready to display by Christmas. I decided to use Baptist fans. A cardboard template and some washable crayons and I am on my way.

More and More Hexis

I did make some progress this week. I have been working on finishing a applique quilt and finally got it out of the way.  I made some progress on hexs.  I keep going back and forth on how I want to put them together. I am torn between just randomly putting them together or whether to form flowers.  My goal this week is to print our some hexi graph paper and do some coloring.  In the mean time, I need to make some more hexs. I have decided that one night a week will be devoted to make more, that should help. Hopefully by next week I will have some kind of designed figured out.

Vintage Irish Rose

Singing the Halleluja Chorus this am!  Last night I finished the quilt that took me over ten years to complete. Just like me to start with something over my skill level.  What is they say, if there is a will there is a way.  It measures 96"x80" which is a large project for me.  Must say at one point this quilt had a ten percent chance of being completed (too long of a story to get into), but it is finished! Praise God Almighty!

Finally making progress

I am finally making some progress on my hexi quilt.  I made a decision not to make the hexi's into flowers but to just sew them together.  I am going to fussy cut the black fabric to take advantage of the pattern in the fabric.

GFG

I have found a lot of quilters also love gardening, and what's a garden without a few flowers. I guess that is why Grandmother's Flower Garden is a very popular quilt. It is also one of those projects that you can take with you and work on when you are away from home or something to stitch on in the evening in front of the television.

I am not sure if I am going to applique mine onto a background fabric or just sew them together with additonal hexagons, but at least the journey has begun.

Mini Wall

I started a mini wall, in my sewing room, it gives me inspiration. I love doing small projects while I have some large projects going, it is like recess and playtime.

Never Again!

This is a minature quilt that I just finished today. It measures twenty inches by twenty inches. I got the pattern out of a book called Minature to Masterpiece by Nancy Johnson-Srebro. The blocks name is "Never Again" after making it I fully understand why. It took me about a month to make it. I had to build up courage to continue, so there were days I just put it on the bottom of my things to do list.
I learned a lot making it and with the amount of seams I didn't hand quilt it, but instead did a spiral circle out of the center using a decorative stitch on my machine. I'm not much of a machine quilter, just not very good at it, but on this piece I can say it was the easiest part of the project.
Hats off to Nancy, she seemed to have mastered this block. It is featured on the cover of the book as a completed full size quilt with nine different versions of this block, plus a pieced diamond border. As for me, love challenges but once is enough, too many other quilt patterns on my list, but I will enjoy looking at this piece as I add it to the collection on my sewing studio wall.

Fluttering Butterflies!

This is a miniature that I just finished last night. It measures 10x12 inches and was pieced conventionally.  The butterfly blocks measure two inches. It was fun to make!

Organization complete

Well, I have finally completed the final phase of organizing my sewing studio.  It is amazing what you can get done when you are organized. I found myself, always looking for my little nippers and seam ripper while sewing. My other pet peeve is having to vacuum up the threads that fall all over the place. This little pin cushion organizer has solved all my problems, and the great thing about it is an also be moved to the arm of the sofa when I stitch in the evening.
The pattern and pdf pattern was a freebie on line from Elizabeth Hartman and Sew Moma Sew!

Jacob's Ladder

I recently started following Bonnie Hunter on Quiltville.com. She is the quilting expert on scrap quilts which are my favorite. I have been saving scraps since I started quilting and this June, I spent two weeks sorting thru my Rubbermaid tote. I started cutting up everything into 2 inch blocks so I could make a scrappy double irish chain.
The fun a part of scrap quilting is not worrying about colors matching and or having enough fabric to finish a quilt, because as with Mother Nature everything goes.  It is basically more about value than color, that is a dark next to a light and of course there are medium values that sometimes act as darks and sometimes as lights, depending on what they are next to.  They are the very thing if you ask me that gives a scrap quilt its personality.

I made a split nine patch last year, but it didn't even put a dent into my scraps. This made me decide I needed to tackle this rubbermaid tote with some vigor. At the end of the two weeks I had over 1600 2 inch blocks. Then I refolded my stash of fabric and came across some florals that I have had for years and I never knew what to do with them. In fact, they were added to an internet order by the seller. Well back to bonnie she found a Jacob's Ladder quilt in Florida antique store that was done in a bright yellow and floral fabrics. Of course, that was a perfect solution for my florals, since I don't have any yellow solid I used some green that I had.

Zinnas

It is amazing how mother nature just throws colors together. I am really enjoying these simple to grow flowers this year. It gets very hot here in the summer and it is really refreshing to enjoy them.

Noah's Ark

A year or so ago, I found this BOM online from designer Lynette Anderson of Australia. I finally got it put together in this mini wall hanging. Overall, it measures 22x14.5 inches. I throughly enjoyed embroidering the animals. Her drawings are wonderful and whimsical.

Strawberry Shortcake

Well, we have picked the last batch of berries, so I found it fitting to make a strawberry shortcake. I am including my recipe, which includes almond extract, one of my favorite flavorings.

Fruit Flan Shorcake

1 -1/4 cup flour
1-1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/3 c shortening ( I use butter)
1/2 t almond extract
2 eggs
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c milk

Heat oven to 350 F. Beat all ingredients together for 3 minutes. Pour into a greased and floured flan pan. Bake 25-30 minutes. After it cools top with fresh berries (you can also use canned peaches and others berries.) Make a glaze with some sugar and water (or fruit juice) and some cornstarch to thicken. After you let your glaze cool for a minute ladel it over the fruit. Top with whipped topping and enjoy.

From Scraps to Quilts

I have spent most of this month cleaning my sewing room! For years I have worked on projects and then tossed the scraps into a large Rubbermaid container. I was hoping that someday, I would have enough to make a scrap quilt.
Well, over the last year, I made a wall hanging, two minature quilts, and a snuggle size quilt. Still my Rubbermaid container remained full.
So, I decided to attack it!

I first pressed and cut the scraps into strips 2 1/2 inches wide. Then those strips got cut into 2 1/2 in squares. Then those squares get matched one light and one dark and sewn together. So far I have 500 squares sewn together with another square, that is one thousand squares. I have 300 squares pinned and ready to be sewn and I have more squares that need to be cut and paired up with another square.

Anyway, my goal is sixteen hundred squares which will be sewn together to make ten in blocks and then paired with a larger squares and  they will become a quilt. Love getting to the point that I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Mini Log Cabin

Finished another mini this morning. This pattern is called a log cabin as you strips of fabric to build each block, half the block gets light and half of the block gets dark fabrics. Most quilter's start out learning to make a log cabin, but I never did, so it was fun to do this one now. The logs are just 3/4 of an inch wide. This was also my first scrappy binding where I took bits of scraps sewed them together and then cut them on the bias to form a piece long enough to go around the quilt. This minature is 20 inches square and I am using it as a table topper.

It's better than good!

I have been very disappointed this last year when buying strawberry jam at the grocery store.
It just doesn't taste as good as I remember, and yes I have tried that wonderful brand that totes "It's gotta be good"
So last year, I bought some strawberry plants, so I can try and obtain that wonderful strawberry jam that I remembered as a child.
Spring arrived and it was dreary and our rainy season and my strawberries produced a big enough batch to have pancakes with strawberries.  The rain managed to rot the rest.
But a few weeks ago they started blooming again! This time I was able to pick enough to make a batch of homemade strawberry jam.
I got eight cups of jam, six cups canned and the last jar goes straight to the refrigerator.  I think biscuits for breakfast tomorrow is in order.
I am sure I will be hearing from Tom "It's better than good!"