CHRISTMAS SEWING EARLY

Last year in April I made two table runners with the Crazy Christmas Trees pattern.  This first one was given just last month as a gift and the second one I kept for myself.   

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication on the January 20th blog showed a scrappy version of this pattern and I thought what fun that would be to make again. I ended up at the last minute making some Christmas gifts this past year.  This pattern is so fun, I decided to get busy early this year. 

60 degree cuts went well with my Creative Grids Spider Web ruler.

Block A looks good, there is a Block B as well.  Basically cut in opposite angles and sizes.  

The pattern calls for 8 blocks, I only made 7 as I only plan on putting 3 trees, not 4 in my runner.  

The three trees are done, but I am very unhappy with the center tree top.  I also took some creative adjustments to the top of the trees on the two outside blocks.  I think I will be making one more tree block and changing out the bottom and the top of the center tree.  Not sure what went wrong, but fixable.  

It seems the peacock teenagers are trying to get flirting advice from Orby the rooster.  My daughter's pea hen Marilyn isn't paying any attention to them, she is not impressed.  Orby has a whole flock of lady hens, that seem to adore him, so maybe he will give them a little advice on how to romance Marilyn.  Doesn't look he is very impressed either.  

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COZY STRIPES

 I took some time out this week to pull out a pattern to work on a charity quilt for my guild.  I find them a great project to work on in between more complicated or challenging projects.  Sort of mindless stress free sewing.

I have a rather large stash of Tilda fabrics, some fairly large pieces and lots of small scraps left overs from previous projects.

I cut 5, 2.5 by 4.5 inch strips from multiple prints.  Like lots of them.!  It didn't even make a dent in my Tilda stash.  I found Cozy Stripes a free Tilda World pattern on line.  However, I didn't really follow the pattern very closely, just a general direction of the instructions.

I had a nice white floral print and just started making ten inch rows and sewing them together.

An afternoon here and there and I now I have 4 rows.  The width is 62.5 inches and with an addition 3 more rows the length will be 70 inches. 

My daughter's peacocks,  but not sure why the pool is so interesting.  Maybe interviewing as life guards.  The three teenagers in the middle and the pea hen on the far right, plus Fred the old man on the far left.

Easy to see they are in full courting dress with their beautiful tail feathers.  The little pea hen  doesn't seem to prefers any of them as her companion.  Those flirty boys are a lot of bother.  

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BIRDS OF A FEATHER

 I regularly start things, set them aside, then pick them up again.  Often it can be months later and a few times years later.  Not sure how long ago I started these blocks, but they all got set aside.

This past week I stumbled on them and thought it was time to do something with them.  

I quickly realized I needed some sort of a border to go between the birds.  I wanted black with white dots, plus I preferred a Batik fabric, as the birds were done in Batiks.  So a trip to the quilt store found this.  No not dots, but I did think this was a really nice alternative.  

Oh yes, perfect.  The outside border was a Batik I had in my stash and shared many of the colors of the birds.  Off to the quilter now!

It is Morewood Mystery quilt instructions for January.  I selected this very white background and wonder if it is going to be too much having gotten the first true complete block together.  Too late now, and with two addition colored prints that go into this quilt hopefully that will tone down the bright white. 

Isn't she a beauty!  My daughter's only female peacock, the other 4 are males.  She likes having her photo taken.  Actually what she really was interested in was getting her morning treat.  This is what you get first thing in the morning looking at you through the kitchen window.  

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THE ROSE QUILT PART TWO

 We are out of 2020 and 2021 is just beginning.  Hopefully this new year will be a nice beginning to a more normal year for all of us.  I have spent some time after a bit of a creative slump in the studio.  I did take a bit of time doing some rearranging of a couple of closet shelves to have fabric at a more visible level and easier to get too.  A bit of clean up was in order as well.  

I managed to get the two lower roses on with their vines and realized I would have to at least pin on the center rose as the vines all tuck into it.  I had the entire center appliqué fused together but not fused down to the background.  

Finally I got the third lower rose added and two of the stems appliquéd down too.  I have a couple of the pedals on the center appliquéd around the vine ends.  I don't like working with so much material and loose appliqués and pins, but slowly it is coming along.  Only 5 more small roses and stems to do.  It is going to be a LONG WEEK!

Nothing like a nice dip in your spa at sunset.  One of my daughter's ducks somehow escaped getting into his coop for the night.  She was back on her way into the house when she saw him enjoying a final dip for the day.  Life is good!

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THE ROSE QUILT AND ROTARY CUTTERS

 The past couple of weeks between Christmas baking and a creative slump in the sewing room left me with little time time spent on doing anything that really was accomplished.  I pulled several projects out, vetoed them and kicked stacks of fabric aside into messy piles in corners.  Finally I took some time to find something interesting to make and happened on to C & T Publishing that offers all sorts of free patterns.  And I found something that finally caught my interest.  

I have tons of scraps in several wire bins and I love appliqué.  This pattern checked all the boxes for a perfect project to make.  No need to shop either, so I felt it was a great solution to getting me back into the sewing/quilting mood.

For me there is great satisfaction in pulling out piles and piles of scraps and blending something together.  This background really ended up being a wonderful several hours of fun.  Cutting, choosing, and getting them all together was just a great adventure.  

Before I knew it I had the center done along with the first border and had laid out the second pieced border.  Now I am off to the appliqué preparations. 

Recently I discovered that when doing a lot of fabric cutting my thumb would ache and throb.  The Fiskars rotary cutter has been my tool of chose for many years.  I have been watching Alex Anderson on her weekly Utube programs and she mentioned the Quilters Select rotary cutter.  It is a good deal heavier than a normal cutter so not as much pressure required to cut through several layers of fabric. I figured I would give it a try.  It has been a real cure for my thumb issue.  I spent several hours over the last day or so cutting fabric and normally would have been headed to the Tylenol bottle for relief.  It really has worked for me.  It has greatly reduced the amount of pressure I have to apply when cutting through four layers of fabric.  A real plus for me.  

Over the week before Christmas I did a good deal of baking with my granddaughter.  These are two samples of baking goodies she gifted us with along with helping me make two large trays of Baklava.  The girl is gifted.  No she is not a professional baker, she teaches Advance Placement English at a local high school.  Just a hobby for her.  

For those of you that have asked about Snowball's recovery after her encounter with a coyote.  Yes, she has been returned to her rooster and sister hens' family.  My daughter spent a good three weeks with her in a cardboard box in the house treating her wounds.  Obviously, as you can see she was not a very appreciative patient.  Never the less she has recovered fully!

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GARDEN CATS AND HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES

This week has been filled with construction of a fence in our yard and having our wood deck torn out and to be replaced.  Not the best time of year to be doing something like this.  But when the contractor says he is ready to do the job, there you are.  So not much sewing done this week, busy making decisions on what materials to use, and do some holiday baking instead.  

A month or so ago I purchased a couple more of the Garden Patch Cat patterns to do some wall/table toppers for one of my daughter's cat rescue group.  They were half price so I decided to buy these two and one more.  The first Pumpkin Cat I did was so much fun I decided to try a couple more for her.

 Of the three this one I decided to work on first.  They are just too cute.  

I have all the appliqué done.  Now just to spray baste it to the batting and back then quilt and bind.  I did try something different for the eyes this time.  My original Pumpkin Cat had the black part of the eyes appliquéd down with black fabric and for the white accent I used beads.  This time I decided on black two hole buttons and tiny white two hole buttons.  I just set the white ones on top of the black sewed through both with white thread.  I liked the results much better and easier than appliqué on such tiny pieces.

Saturday my granddaughter and I tackled the Baklava.  It is a two person job and takes two days.  We ended up with two large trays.  Sunday morning they had set overnight in their honey/sugar/lemon baths and got their whole clove decoration.  We finished cutting them and boxed them up for family and friends.  We tackled 3 dozen decorated sugar cookies most of which I sent home with my granddaughter Suren.  I still have another chilled sugar cookie dough in the refrigerator to get baked later this week.  

My daughter's cats have a fascination for the Hanukkah candles.  Now the worry is that they don't set their tails on fire or knocks them over.   

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COLLAGE, MOREWOOD, AND CHRISTMAS BAKING

Not sure why but the sewing room has not been all that interesting this past week.  I have wandered in there now and again but really not produced much of anything.

I did catch a tutorial done by Emily Taylor on collage that sort of caught my interest.  I have a book Scrappy Bits Applique by Shannon Brinkley that also has some collage information in it and this pattern so thought I would see if that idea sparked some creative interest for me.  

I got it this far on parchment paper and realized that the fusible was sticking to the paper pretty good, in fact too good.  So I did some more reading in Shannon's book and pulled the pieces off and stuck them on non-woven stabilizer.  I did put a teflon sheet under the stabilizer, I didn't want the fusible to pass through the stabilizer and then have it stuck to my ironing board cover.  Some times quilting is full of all sorts of interesting lessons.  

I cut out the leaf.  I think it looks pretty nice.  Not sure what I plan to do with it.  It will need to be quilted heavily to hold down all the edges.  A nice heavy weight thread to add vines to the leaf would be nice too.  

The Morewood Mystery instruction were released on the 3rd.  This block requires 60 of these 4 1/2 inch blocks and will keep me busy for a bit.  They aren't hard to make, but trimming them is tedious.  

Did some Christmas baking Saturday.  A good friend has given us a loaf of her Christmas Nut Bread every year.  This year I asked for the recipe and was graciously given it.  Mine are not as pretty as hers, there is a learning curve for these, but they taste great.  I am sure after making them once my skills will improve.  I did learn a few tricks too.  My Kitchen Aid mixer has a dough hook, and it kneads the bread for you, and our Kitchen Aid oven has a Proof setting.  Both work great!  Oh, the marvels of modern kitchen equipment!

My daughter's peacocks have been standing guard out in front of her home this last week or so.  One of her chickens was attacked by a coyote.  Fortunately Snowball was rescued by my daughter, and is being treated for her wound and recovering well.  The peacocks are the ones that alerted her that something was going on outside.  She says they do have a tendency to be watch dogs for the property and obviously are taking the job more seriously now.  

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CHRISTMAS OLD, CHRISTMAS NEW, AND BREAD

 I got busy this week and decorated for Christmas.  Always such fun to hang up my very special Christmas wall hangings.  

My VBF Brooke made this wall hanging for me in 2001.  It by far is one of my very favorites.

This one I made.  I must admit I am very negligent in putting labels on my quilts.  It must be at least 10 or more years old.  It is also one one of my very first machine appliquéd pieces.

In a bit of a rush I realized I needed a Christmas runner for a gift.  I have made this pattern before and frankly it is somewhat of a piecing jumble.  

I did manage to figure out where and what fabric to use to go where and finished the quilting yesterday with just the binding to sew on and do the handwork.  

You know that Covid has had you home bound for way too long when you decide to make yeast bread from scratch, and you have never done it before.

It is also never too late to teach an old dog a new trick.  The bread came out perfect, tasted wonderful and the process was much easier than one would believe it could be.  

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FINISHED AT LAST

After weeks of starts and stops I finally fished off this past week with three completed projects.  My quilter finished the quilting on two of them and I finished up the last one myself.  

Pumpkin Cat is finished and picked up by my daughter to submit for a future fundraiser.  I had such a great time doing this one I ran out to the quilt stop and bought three more patterns in this line, their Black Friday sale at 50% off help. 

The baby/child quilt is finished.  I decided to stitch the binding down by machine rather than by hand.  I have mastered a really good technique for doing this and for quilts that get washed and dried lots it seems a sturdier way of handling that job.

I really liked the quilting Hollie my quilter did on it.  She does a wonderful job.  I never choose thread or patterns with her.  I just let her go at it and she never fails to do a great job of it.

And the basket quilt is finished as well.  I matched the binding with the basket handles.  

My daughter's chicken Snowball is in sickbay.  Poor little thing was out free roaming on their property and was snatched up by a coyote.  My daughter heard her peacocks making a terrible commotion so she ran out and after the coyote and it dropped her and took off.  She did get a few good punctures.  My daughter works in the medical field so she cleaned up the wounds, disinfected them and treated them with some antibiotic paste they use at the hospital.  Hopefully she will recover from the ordeal and possible infection.  No more free roaming on the property for the chickens.  I guess the coyotes have decided chicken tastes better than ground squirrel. 

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CAT RESCUE FUNDRAISERS & THE HERONS ARE BACK

 One of my daughters is involved in feral cat trapping, neutering, and returning them to their feral colonies.  Several vets in the area do the neutering for free or very low cost, but sometimes cats are not feral.  Usually they are kittens people dump, and often they are sick.  These babies the group fosters, seek vet treatment and neutering, and eventually are adopted out to good homes.  This takes funds to pay for these services.  Adoption fees do help, but the group often does fundraisers.  As a quilter, my daughter often asks me to do some sort of a pieces to auction off.  She says the runners and wall hangings I have made over the last several years have brought good funds for the group.  I am alway looking out for a good pattern.

On a recent trip to a local quilt store I saw this pattern.  Note this copy of the front page with my border notes.

I dug through my scrap bins and was able to pull out some fall fabrics that I thought worked well.  As you can see I had a plan for keeping myself straight.  

Things were going pretty well with the project, well minus the face.  I did end up at JoAnn's for the brown background and the two prints for the body and paws from Hobby Lobby.

I have finished off the appliqué pieces for the face.  The appliqués are held down with a small blanket stitch.  On to quilting it, which includes whiskers.  The little white highlights in the eyes were pearl beads.  Hope to have it done by next week's post.

The herons are back at my daughter's country home.  She spied them on a large tree in their back yard this week.  Earlier this year a breeding pair dropped by and enjoyed a romantic dinner at her fish pond.  They dined on every single one of the 50 or more feeder gold fish that had grown over about two years into 3 and 4 inches long.  Grandson Ben, age 12, along with older brother Noah had dug and constructed the pond and Ben became the keeper of the pond and he was not very happy about the situation.  His immediate reaction was to find his BB gun and take care of the matter for good.  Of course, mother was not going to allow that.  I imagine they have restocked the pond, but I am sure it has a net over it now.  I guess the herons will have to find a new dining establishment. 

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Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict