turkey feathers

Quilted Forest

On Saturday we had an opportunity to visit Greenbaum's Quilted Forest, which is just an awesome place in old-town historic Salem, the oldest family-run business in the same location since the 1900's, and recently voted one of the best quilt shops in the U.S. and Canada.  It was my first visit there.  I know, where have I been?  I can tell you, it certainly won't be my last.  I truly could've spent eons in there.  Sorry, no indoor pix, I was too busy gawking.  Had a nice conversation with Sylvia, the third generation owner though, and was happily surprised to find out they [also] have a website with *free shipping* (in the Continental U.S.) on just about everything in the store.  So if you are a PJ shopper like me, or when venturing out isn't so convenient, you can shop from the comfort of your easy-chair, save gas and a few bucks on shipping at the same time.  Love being able to shop "locally" like that.  Still, I must say, it's nice to actually be there in person too, to handle the fabrics, flip through the books, soak in the beautiful displays of handwork hanging from the rafters.  Speaking of which, and as luck would have it, the 2007 Hoffman Quilt Challenge traveling exhibit was on display there and the entries couldn't have been more inspiring, especially since the theme was "Spring".  If you're not familiar with this particular quilt contest (which is quickly approaching its 20th birthday) take note.  Every year a team from Hoffman Fabrics chooses an upcoming fabric design and then issues a challenge to create original designs for dolls, quilts, and clothing.  Entries are juried and a team of judges award winners.  The entries become part of a trunk show that travels around the U.S. and Canada to various guilds, museums, textile shows, and quilt shops.  There's a lot more information about it on their website; see 2008 challenge info here if this interests you.  Just passing it on.

And... on an entirely unrelated but timely topic: the facts are in and I'm not surprised.  Enough of this charade already.  I think this pretty much sums it up in one word. 

Kitty Quilt

Miss Lily got a new blankie. 

And she likes it just fine.  Although I think she'd prefer I wasn't in her face with the camera.  Oh, the price of beauty and the endurance one must have with the paparazzi around here. 

Maybe if she ignores me I'll go away and let her be.

I was on a cleaning tear last week, vacuuming and steaming carpets and upholstery and decided the ratty-tatty blanket that was covering this chair had to go.  Yes, it made a comfy little nest for Miss Lily but eegads the hair and dander that collected on it made me wheeze just looking at it.  I was thinking something smaller and easier to whisk into the washing machine was in order.  And, something a bit more pleasant to look at.   So with that in mind, I whipped up a kitty quilt. Just used fabric scraps and batting remnants so the cost was minimal.  I'll probably make a few more for her other favorite napping places.  The days are getting cold and she's always searching for a warm spot.  Lay a quilt down and a cat will find it.  Even though this was all about keeping things neat and tidy around here, as far as she knows, it's just a wonderful (warm) gift! 

Maple Leaf Quilt :: Done!

At last, I finally got this finished and it's been added to the FWYH photo pool.  I meant to have it ready to share first thing this morning but I've had no time to sit down, let alone try and doctor dozens of bad photos.  The light in the entry-hall is just marginally adequate and only at a certain time of the day.  A time, apparently, that came and went before I got around to picking up my camera.  I did my best given the circumstances.  Here's the scope of it anyway.  I still can't believe it.  It's done!  And all's well.  No one will ever be the wiser about that teensy binding snafu of mine either.  It's just "our little secret" now.  {wink}

More bad pictures here. 

FAQ Friday

Gee guys, thanks for all the cozy pillow talk.  And all the PB orders!  I'm so up to my eyeballs with stuff to do around here but will get them out as quickly as possible cuz I know you're all eager to get stitching on your projects.  I'm still really excited about the patchwork pillow too for some reason.  Maybe it's because I'm finally doing something with all these charms and strips instead of just admiring them.  Or maybe it's because it's just so super quick and easy; here's proof of that . . . just look what momma pajama did yesterday!  (Great tip Paula about omitting the side-strips to fit a smaller pillow form too.)

OK, I have lots of new patchwork pillow ideas to ponder over now, in fact I'm in a tizzy (a supremely good one) but it will all have to wait a tad longer while I finish up the patiently waiting Maple Leaf Quilt.  The much anticipated b&w plaid binding arrived yesterday (hurray!) so now I'm ready to race to the finish line with it.  Just need to fill in that goofy little gap and I'm done.  Will try and get some good pictures this weekend and post them on Monday. 

Before I forget, Teresa wanted to know what I used for the sashing between the leaf blocks.  It's actually a printed fabric that I cut in narrow strips.  The fabric is older, like from the 80's I think, and is long gone except what I have in this quilt.  I used another stripe print for the outer border as well, just in case you were wonderin'. 

Since it's Friday, time for another FAQ update before I dash off to clean the floors.  (Can you tell I'm procrastinating here?)

{This is where you will find answers to questions concerning my projects, patterns, and other things you may wonder about. I regret that I'm not always able to answer each of your questions individually, after all, there's only so much a busy mama can do, and besides many times I'm asked the same questions, so this forum just seems to make the most sense.  Feel free to ask questions in the comment box or email them to me and I will address a few here when I have time. Before asking a question though check here first to see if it's already been answered. T.Y.}

Q.  About those charm packs and jelly rolls, do you wash them first? ~Natalie

A.   Normally, I wash fabrics I'm going to handle a lot, but these are small and ready-to-use so I don't pre-wash them.  But if I ever need to...I 'd probably do a quick swish-and-soak in the sink with a little dish liquid and let them air-dry on a folded towel to prevent any fraying edges and shrinkage.

Q.  What is an FWYH?  I am in the dark on this one!  ~Anne

A.   Sorry Anne, I sometimes forget how many new folks drop in here and wonder what in the world I'm talking about.  Anyway, I started a "Finish What You Have" (FWYH) "campaign" last year (in June 2006) that involves digging out your old quilts, knitting, sewing, and other projects that have sat too long.  I invited others to join me in the quest to tackle UFO's (Un-Finished Objects) and started a Flickr group, that I just noticed has grown to 125 members--yay!---where we can share our finished projects and stories to inspire each other to reach the "finish line"; hence the cute flag-waving banner courtesy of  Justine's talented "other half ".   You can read some of my original posts about it over here, and another here.  Anyone is free to join and share their progress, and, I just extended the invitation to include seven additional languages, which I think will be interesting and also fun to see what others are making (and hopefully finishing) elsewhere.

Q.  Please, would you share how you do your refried beans [from this post]...I prefer to make them from scratch, but they never seem to taste as good as the canned ones.  Thanks!!  ~Mariah

A.  I always cook my beans in a crockpot:  Rinse 2 cups dry pinto beans to remove any rocks and dirt.  Beans will double in quantity once they are cooked, so don't overfill your pot.  Cover with boiling water until there's about 3 inches of water above the beans.  Set the crockpot on high and cook for several hours.  Stir them occasionally.  (I sometimes start the beans before I go to bed at night, and cook them on low.)  When they are soft and tender, you can eat them as is, or mash them with a potato masher.  Add a little butter and sea salt, which improves the texture and flavor quite a bit, and a dash of Tabasco sauce (more or less to taste).

Q.  My daughter is interested in making a dollhouse bakery & we were wondering what kit you used to make yours.  ~Diane

A.  We ordered our dollhouse kit from this online source.  I shared more information about how we converted the house to a bakery in this post here.  (There are additional posts and pictures under the Dollhouse Bakery category in the left sidebar too.)

~That's it for now...time to get back to work!~

Cozy Up

Still stalking the mailbox, waiting for the black & white plaid bias binding to arrive so I can finish my MLQ (ahem!) properly.  I really appreciated all the funny and commiserating comments that were left here and don't feel quite so silly now!  Thanks you guys.  It helps to laugh at yourself sometimes.   I may just have a finished quilt to show you (that I can be proud of ) in a future post after all. 

Skipping ahead now...I'm always looking for ways to bring embroidery into my projects.   So with that in mind, I designed this patchwork pillow cover using charm-squares, jolly-packs, and jelly-roll strips from moda; some I found here.  I love having these entire sets of colorful fabrics at my fingertips to play around with.   I don't even mind the cost, which really isn't all that much, considering the convenience and time saved.  Doing the embroidery takes long enough, so saving any extra steps really streamlines the process.  I was as happy as a lark too when everything went together so perfectly, even my corners matched up all neat and tidy.  Note to self:  Must make more pillow-covers for other seasons and holidays, maybe even a gift or two.  Or a quilt!  All that sounds pretty ambitious doesn't it?  Indeed it does.  But as I was making this pillow, I jotted down the measurements and made a few notes to refer back to for future reference so the next one should go together even faster.   I'm adding a page for it here too, so anyone who wants to can give it a whirl.  (if you make one please let me know how it turns out OK?) 

Ahhh...all finished.  And just in time for the arrival yesterday of my new love-seat for the library nook. I couldn't be happier about that little bit of happenstance either.   

In A Bind

It was all going so well.  (Even despite the afore mentioned crazy electrical interruption.)  I've done dumb things before. . . but nothing quite like this.  The good news is, I finished all the machine quilting on the MLQ quilt, and it went smoothly.  Turned out pretty nice too, nicer than I thought it would.  I'm not a big fan of machine-quilting, but it's growing on me.  And since things were going SO well, and not wanting to lose my momentum, after all, this IS a 10+ year-old FWYH project, I foolishly decided to throw all caution to the wind with the final step:: the binding.   

Yes, I confess,  I went ahead and sewed on the black plaid bias binding I'd purchased earlier this year, knowing full-well that it was going to be 4" too short.  My thinking was,  I would leave the ends undone and just pick up another package the next time I went into town, then piece it together.   No big deal.  Long story short; four stores and a wasted afternoon later, no matching binding was to be found anywhere in my vicinity.  EEgads, where did it all go? I remember seeing it a lot this spring and summer, in other colors too.   Got home, searched online, the Wright's website didn't even have it cataloged.   Somehow though, I stumbled onto an ebay store and found it in abundance.  Whew!  Happy ending.  It's on its way now as I write.  But I'll know better next time.  Lesson learned.

Black Out

Here's my Friday WIP.   I'm still here making steady progress on the Maple Leaf quilt.  Our blustery weather turned into quite a storm yesterday, and as I was hunkered down at the sewing machine, meditatively putting down rows of quilting, we lost power.  But not completely, only like 90% or something, which caused every electronic device in the house, beloved sewing machine included,  to react.  Things were switching on and off in rapid succession.  The lights dimmed and some were flashing, the computers were beeping, alarms were screeching, lamp timer-dials were spinning like they were possessed and the girls and I were squeaking & hopping around in circles, wondering what to do, what to do.  Fortunately, the Mister (always our knight in shining armor) walked in the back door, home for lunch, amid the chaos, and keeping a calm head, simply threw the main power switch, shutting everything down before every appliance in the house, including his ladies, had a meltdown.  Oh thank goodness.  I guess when this happens, it's called a brown-out" and "it's the mother of all sorts of bad stuff" and can cause power surges that will destroy or damage your electronics, and possibly start a fire.  Read all about it here.  I'd never heard of this before, and thought I'd mention it for others who may not be aware of it either.  (My public service duty.)  Fortunately, we have surge-protectors on all our high dollar appliances (a very good idea in any event)  so no harm was done to tellies and computers, and more importantly, certain $ewing machine$.  Thankfully.   So it was a rather quiet afternoon reading and doing crafts with the kids, and after a couple of hours, power and harmony was restored and I eventually got back to work on this quilt.  Which is coming along quite nicely now, despite that rather crazy interruption.   

Making Memories of the Season

"It's not what you look at that matters,it's what you see."~Henry David Thoreau* It rained all weekend and the air has turned cool, but I'm cozy in my house and making progress on the Maple Leaf Quilt one stitch at a time.  I opened my side door this morning to let in some fresh air and the view was stunning.  October is here! The fall colors seem to have arrived overnight and the leaves are already starting to scatter. 

  It's nice to have this colorful quilt in my hands and across my lap to work on in the evenings.  I decided to use two strands of embroidery thread to quilt the leaf veins, and black quilting thread to outline them.  I think when it comes to quilting around the blocks,  I'm going to take it to the machine though, since the stitching won't show "in the ditch" and I will be able to finish this up before fall, in all its glorious glory is but a faded memory.  Autumn always seems like the shortest season doesn't it?  All it takes is one good frost, followed by a blast of wind and it's over.  My quilt will help keep those lovely leaves around awhile longer.  I was at the fabric store the other day and they were having a sale on my #1 favorite Warm and Natural cotton quilt-batting so I bought a few yards and used some of it on this.  I want to hang this quilt, and I think flatter is better for that.  I probably could have saved myself some money though and just used heavy cotton flannel, or an old flannel sheet, since it's not going to be the type of blanket that needs to keep anyone from freezing.  In fact, at some point in time, we may end up sitting on it, picnic style, rather than underneath it.

Thank you guys for the quilt love on the last post!  Here's a zoom of the leaf shape some of you asked for.  You can use it as a pattern to make your own fall quilt, or for other projects, made from wool felt for instance.  Enlarge or reduce it to suit your needs.  The leaf size I used on my quilt is 6-1/2 inches from tip to stem, and about 6-inches across, and set in a 8-inch block;  the lattice strips are 1-inch wide (add 1/4" seam allowance to blocks and strips before cutting out).  To applique, I used a tight zig-zag machine-stitch to cover the raw edges.   OK, that's it...let the fun begin!

So Long Summer, Hello Fall

"Come, little leaves, " said the wind one day,"Come over the meadows with me, and play;Put on your dresses of red and gold;Summer is gone and the days grow cold. "~George Cooper

The days are growing colder, I feel that little nip in the air, signaling the change of season.  I seem to have finally fallen into a cadence with the FWYH projects around here.  There's a nice give-and-take lately as I finish one UFO and start something new.  The apron was a nice and relatively quick diversion.  Thanks, you guys for sharing your enthusiasm with me.  I still need to keep moving on things, old and new around here though, so I'm already lining up my next project for October.  This one, like the last one, is also fitting for the season.  It's an autumn quilt that I began, um--let's see, "some time" ago.  Not being able to remember exactly when I started this is a sure sign that it's been put away too long don't ya think?  I do remember though, that I started it because I wanted a colorful wall quilt to hang up each year at the start of fall.   And I still do, so all the better.  No excuse why I haven't gotten back to this one sooner.  All the piecework and applique has been done, I just need to put down the quilting stitches now.  Trying to decide how best to do that.  By machine or by hand?  Decisions, decisions.  I've got it all laid out with the backing and the batting on the dining room table while I ponder this big question.  In the meantime, I'm still getting inspired by the wonderful group members who are re-visiting their old projects, finishing them, and sharing those accomplishments.  Just some of the quilts I've been admiring: from deeprundays, lostuspetals, and maryjane55.  If they can do it, so can I. 

And a belated *thank you* to Ruby Red and Miss Paula for each acknowledging me in the Nice Matters Award.  (Awarded to those that are just nice people, good blog friends and those that inspire good feelings and inspiration in the blogging community; recipients name seven others deserving of this recognition.)  It's nice to be appreciated, however, I must say, I feel unworthy here, because too often, I don't even realize I've been nominated for anything until someone sends me a note.  My apologies to anyone else who chose me for this, or any other award or meme, for that matter, and didn't get a thanks or a nod.  I have to confess too, that I find it nearly impossible to pick favorites and freely admit that I'm a wimp and a party-pooper and all chain-mail unintentionally ends with me.  So, please don't take it personally if I seem oblivious.  It's logistics.  And all this unfinished quilt-business around here keeping me occupied.  Honest.

Sweet Annie Quilt

We've been celebrating lots of birthdays these past weeks, and today it's my turn!  I've been getting the *Royal Treatment* all week.  The Mister and the girls have also been taking care of meals, taking me out to dine or cooking up their own specialties.  Not that I dislike being in the kitchen, oh no, on the contrary. What they're giving me is the gift of time.  What a lovely thing that is too. Especially now,  as I reach the other side of (ahem) middle, with time speeding by much faster than it ever used to.  Maybe I'm just moving slower.  Possibly it's both.  In any case, having been given the luxury to concentrate on the frivolous fun stuff of life for more than just a few stolen moments, has indeed been a gift.  A wonderful gift.  Resulting in an updated blog today (hurrah!) and the finished Sweet Annie Quilt here, which I'm wildly happy about.  Apparently so is Miss Lily, as you can see.  Give a cat a quilt, any quilt, and that cat's a happy napper. I love how she's tucked her paws underneath it.  So polite-like. 

The idea and overall concept for the quilt was adapted from a number of books by Kindred Spirits.  They were published during the 90's, but I think you can still find them.  I still have a soft spot for folk art and all things primitive.  A style-sense that always feels so warm and homey to me. I did my own thing here, having gotten much inspiration from my own garden when I began this.  I quilted it sparingly, and with abandon, using two threads of embroidery floss---mostly around the seams where I joined the blocks, to maintain the loft.   

Since it already had a lot of feather stitching and other embroidery, it just seemed right to quilt only where needed to hold it together.  This was fun to work on with lots of little scenes and pictures scattered throughout.  The fabrics, colors, and combinations of those still thrill me.   The colors of nature never seem to lose their appeal.  So it's done!  More pictures here.  Time to put another notch on my belt and pull out another one to finish.  Yes, there are more waiting in that pile.  I've had decades to build up a good supply of them ya know.  But first I need to add this one to the FWYH flickr pool along with the other amazing projects that are starting to show up there.  And I want to say "thank you" again to everyone who continues to stop by here and leave comments, those lovely gestures of friendship that are always so nice to read, that bring a smile to my face and make me wish we all lived closer.  *And now, I really HAVE to (covertly) go and check out that delicious chocolate smell coming from the kitchen.  I think the girls are baking me a birthday cake.  Oh joy!