New Quilter ~ Valentine’s Day Dinner

Yesterday, my granddaughter came to visit for the day.  She wants to learn to quilt for a 4H project next year.  I thought the best way to for her to start was to get familiar with the sewing machine.  She couldn’t reach the foot control on my Bernina so I set her up on a tv tray with my 1937 featherweight.  I had some old signature swap blocks that went back to 1999, 2000 and 2001 that I had never assembled.  I trimmed them for her and set her up to sew.

She caught on very fast and was very attentive and deliberate.  She practiced for about an hour and this is what she did.  Pinning the blocks was her biggest challenge but her Momma can help her along with that step.

I am going to set her up with her own sewing basket of supplies.  She was concerned that her Momma didn’t have pins!  I sent her home with enough blocks to put together to make a lap quilt.

So my quilting circle is expanding.  First my younger daughter and now my granddaughter.

For the last 12-14 years, my husband and a friend of his from high school that he became reacquainted with cooks dinner for the spouses on Valentines Day.  This year they served Butternut squash soup with roasted fennel and pecans; Farro Salad with Smoked Trout; Pork Tenderloin with peach glaze sauce; roasted asparagus; and Fresh Berries with Marscopone Meringue.  It was a fabulous dinner.  They served each course with a wine pairing.  I must mention here that all of the dishes were prepared with fresh ingredients and took hours of prep time for the guys.  The men really outdid themselves.  We appreciate you and love you bunches.

This is what the table setting looked like ~ complete with fresh flowers.

Flowers

 

Feathered Star

I realized that I have never posted a picture of the Feathered Star quilt top that I started and finished last year.  I used the 20″ feathered star collection from Inklingo for the stars.  The 6″ center block of each square is different and these were designed in EQ. I used Inklingo every time there was a shape available that I needed.  Also, for this quilt, I machine pieced most of the feathered stars which is a very difficult task without Inklingo.  Inklingo enables me to attempt quilts I normally would  dismiss as too cumbersome, time-consuming, or difficult.  I enjoy the fact that I can be challenged in my quilt making and at the same time know that I can be successful by using Inklingo as a tool.

Here is a picture of the entire quilt.  It was too large to photograph from my banister so I had to use floor space which makes the quilt top look wavy and cockeyed!

Here are a few of the individual blocks:

This is the sashing.

Since completing the two quilt tops in the last three weeks, I decided I better get to work on smocking the Easter dresses for my granddaughters.

Charlsey

Quilt top Finish, Happy Birthday ~ Grandson

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR GRANDSON!

I remember 10 years ago when you were born.

You have brought so much joy to our family.  Papa and Nonnie love you very much!  Hope your day is extra special ~ just like you!

After reorganizing, I got down to work and finished the quilt top I started last week.  Blocks of flying geese, QST, square and rectangles.  Very Inklingoable.  I love the secondary pattern achieved by using the QST as an alternate block.  This quilt top was designed by Paula Barnes of Bonnie Blue Quilts.  It is called Harper’s Ferry.

Okay that is the final version.  When I was taking a picture of the quilt top, through the lens of the camera, something looked very wrong.  Something I had not seen when making the block, assembling the rows, and working on the layout.  One little square was turned the wrong way and it was smack dab in the middle of the quilt.  I did what any normal person would do ~ removed the section and corrected the mistake.  It is amazing that you can see something through a small camera lens that has been staring you in the face for a week.

Head over to Bonnie Blue and see  Paula’s other designs.

And Here is the Civil War History Lesson that accompanies the pattern.

In 1858 John Brown had both the funds and manpower to follow through with a plan to start a war against slaveholders in Virginia.  His plan was a simple one.  He would rent a home in the Blue Ridge Mountains that would act as his base and from there he would assist runaway slaves by attacking the slave owners.  His antislavery war was postponed when he learned that one of his followers was planning to reveal his plan.  Instead, John Brown went into hiding.

The following year Brown was ready.  He rented a farm in Maryland, across the Potomac River from Harpers Ferry to state his attack.  This time instead of slaveholders, he planned to attach the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, but a year had passed and many of the men who were willing participants when the plan first evolved were not longer available.

Determined to carry on, Brown set out for Harpers Ferry on October 16 with 21 men, two of who were Brown’s own sons.  After cutting telegraph wire, they made their assault on the arsenal then captured Hall’s Rifle Works.  Brown and his men took 60 hostages in hopes their slaves would join Brown in his cause, but no slaves came forward to help.

Within 36 hours, Brown’s raid was over.  Local farmers, militia, and the US Marines led by Robert E. Lee overtook the small army.  Brown was executed by hanging by treason against the state of Virginia.  In the north, upon hearing of his hanging, church bells rang and minute guns were fired to show support for his cause.

 

Have a great sewing day.

 

Charlsey

 

Quilting, Organizing, Entertaining, Volunteering ~ A lot of “ing”

This past week I was busy with various projects and although I felt pulled in many directions, it felt good to kick up my feet and reflect on the accomplishments.

My husband and I have a “this and that” thing going.  He likes “this”, I like “that”.  For instance, I like Home Depot ~ He likes Nordstroms!  I like Fritos; he likes salad! (We all know who the healthy one is in the family).  Some of his “this” has rubbed off on me though.  We both love the Container Store.  I think it is the one store he would never make a comment on how much I spend there.  He likes organization ~ well I am challenged in that department.  I like organization but I would rather be doing other things like stitching.  However, this week, I reorganized the garage and my sewing room closet.

First the garage.  Everything off the floor and onto shelves or baskets.

Except my tool box.  I like it on the floor so I don’t have to pull it down to use it.  I use mine much more often than hubby uses his.  Mine is larger too.  See above my tool box?  That is my very own DeWalt electric drill.  When he wants to borrow it, I hover until it is back on the shelf.  The other item is my electric sander.  It only came out of hiding recently.

Because I am short and really can’t reach the ceiling with our tallest ladder, we had the Container store installers hang the shelving in the garage.  In my design, one bicycle had to hang from the ceiling and we wanted to make sure the brackets were in studs.

Well on to my sewing room.  This is the before picture of the second closet.  I have another area for fabric.  Everything is shoved in the closet; office supplies, magazines, extra machine pieces, hoops, crafting supplies, batting, ufo’s, and much more.

I didn’t want to remove the existing built in shelves or rods, so I worked around them and put in as much shelving as I could get.  If the outcome had not been so positive, I would be embarrassed to show these pictures.

 

I wish I would have taken a picture of my fabric area before I reorganized but this is the after.

Some fat quarters

This is the fabric that I am donating.  My granddaughter is starting to work on sewing projects, so she will acquire some and my Florida daughter has started quilting so I will send her fabric as well.

I even weeded through books to pass on.

 

 

Here is a picture of the blocks I pieced this week.  The blocks are Inklingoable using squares, rectangles QST and HST, flying geese.  I have about 13 more of these to do and then I will piece the alternating blocks.

I am thinking about purchasing a portable design wall.  I like the portable idea because I would not want to leave it up all of the time.  I saw  one at the quilt show and later read reviews and they were mixed.  Anyone have a portable design wall?

We had 16 people for dinner and this is what my tables looked like.  I love the flowers.  I purchased all of them at Tom Thumb. They arranged the flowers in my own vases.

 

A week later this is what one of the arrangements looked like.  The roses I received as a gift from the florist that week only lasted 3 days.

Volunteering~ I am a CASA volunteer.  Court Appointed Special Advocate.  The byline is “Speak up for a Child”.  Our cases involve children that are in CPS custody or being monitored by CPS for parental abuse or neglect.  It is a very worthy cause to volunteer for if anyone is looking for a meaningful way to spend their extra time.

Well that was my week in a nutshell.  I am kicking back and doing some hand stitching for the rest of the weekend.  My hubby is doing the cooking tonight and tomorrow!  Yeah!

Have a wonderful weekend.

 

Moving Quilts and Cleaning

While I was cleaning the sewing room, I decided to move some quilts around.  Here is what I have hanging on the ladder today.  I moved the ladder out of the sewing room and put it in the hallway just outside the door.  

Last June or July, I mentioned my eldest daughter had ordered chicks (layers).  We have been patiently waiting for them to start laying; expecting the date to be around October.  By December, we were thinking that the mail order chicks were defective.  Well, they have started laying.  There are brown, white, and blue/green eggs.  They are delicious too.  Here is the first dozen she gave to us.

The children love gathering them.  They have a layer that likes to hide her egg, so the children have to be alert and on the look out.

Hope your day includes a little time for stitching.  Do a stitch or two for me!

Charlsey

Quilt Top Finish

Part of the preparation in having 16 people for dinner tomorrow night is the cleaning and straightening of my sewing room.  I usually do this when I complete a project.  I needed to finish my current project because I didn’t want to have to put away everything and pull it out again in the chance of confusing my piecing sequence.  I now have a finished top and clean sewing room.  The hard part is staying out of there for a day or two and not starting something new.

Here is the finished top.  The pieces are flying geese, “rooftops”, rectangles, and squares.  The pattern is Inklingo friendly. I used Inklingo for most of the quilt.

It is called “Sherman’s March” and was designed by Paula Barnes at Bonnie Blue Quilts. The Civil War blurb that accompanies the naming of the quilt reads:

“‘Sherman’s March to the Sea” began in Atlanta and ended in Savannah Georgia where General Sherman presented the city of Savannah as a Christmas present to President Lincoln.  During the march Sherman applied the scorched earth policy of war and ordered his troops to burn fields, kill livestock, destroy train depots, mills and warehouses that lay in his path.  The broken railroad rails that the troops wrapped around tree trunks became known as “Sherman’s neckties”.

The red path in our quilt represents the fiery path his soldiers took.  The black represents the charred remains of the cities and farms he left behind.”

What a sad time in our nation’s history.

While I had my camera out, I took a picture of the quilts I currently have hanging on the banister.  Some you have seen before.

Above:  Red and white feathered star; Blue and white Burgoyne Surround; Grandmother’s Flower Garden; and Sherman’s March

Below: Seven Sisters; Laura’s Wedding Quilt

Back Again

Hello Friends,

Back Again!  Where have I been?  Here and there but mostly there.

New Year’s weekend my hubby and I went to a friend’s ranch outside of Houston.  Weimer to be exact.  We had a wonderfully relaxing time.  The guys did ranch stuff and the girls gabbed.  We had much to catch up on and didn’t waste a minute.  The visits are always too short when you are with good friends.  (My husband has known them since his college days but now they say they keep him around because of “moi”!  Must be true……

I was home from the ranch for only three days when I left for Florida to visit my daughter for 10 days.  Hubby was at a conference and I stayed with my daughter.  I took my extra Bernina sewing machine to her and the goal this trip was to teach her how to use it and to find a shop where she would feel comfortable taking lessons.  After a couple of stores, we found one for her and she is very enthused about working on projects.  My other goal was to make curtains for her.  I reworked her dining room curtain into a table runner and placemats and redid  that window with a sheer that would let in more light.  I also made 5 panels for her living room.  We hung them on Sunday before I left and they look really nice.  No pictures yet.

During the trip we took a morning to visit Lynda Hall of Primitives by Lynda.  http://primitivepiecesbylynda.com She lives about 20 minutes from my daughter and we arranged to meet at her home which includes her working studio.  What a treat.  Lynda shared some new designs that will be coming out around September in her new book and other projects that she was working on.  My daughter told our husbands that I had not told her she was meeting someone famous.  Lynda was very sweet and shared her expertise on color theory with my daughter and was very encouraging.  I am also excited to get out the tub of wool that I have been stashing and incorporating it into some of my projects.

It has been a whirlwind two weeks of the year but I am home through the end of February and will be tackling my project list.

Hope your new year has started off well too and has included some time for stitching.

Charlsey

PS  I was so glad my computer was not hospitalized for too very long.  It only took 4 trips to the Apple store = 15 total hours sitting with the genius’.  I really wish I knew half of what they know.  I guess if I did, I would be working at the Apple store and not stitching.  Forget that wish!

Computer Crash

Taking my Mac to the hospital today.  Apparently OS Lion has some issues.  Hopefully will be up and running again tomorrow.  I have had my Mac for 3 years and never had a second of problems.  I hope it is minor and easily fixable.  It feels strange to be using the old Microsoft laptop.

See you soon

Charlsey

 

Applique and Trivia

Although the weekend was busy with preparing neighbor Christmas gifts, dinner with special friends, church and Sunday School party, I managed to get a few more appliqué blocks stitched.  Prepping the blocks in advance, helps to always have something at hand to stitch.

I finished these blocks a while back.  The Oak Leaf (like) block was the first time I did reverse appliqué.  I really like that method for making circles because you get even and continuous lines that match up.

Below is the one I completed this weekend.  I chose to keep the imperfection of the original quilt block where the leaf on the  left side does not come out of the stem centered.  There are quite a few blocks like this and while they look a little off kilter I enjoy the character it gives.  If I decide it bothers me later on, I will add another leaf to balance it, but for now it is………

Christmas Trivia

Frankincense is a sweet smelling gum resin derived from certain Boswellia trees which, at the time of Christ, grew in Arabia, India, and Ethopia.  Tradition says that it was presented to the Christ Child by Balthasar, the black king from Ethiopia or Saba.  The Frankincense trade was at its height during the days of the Roman Empire.  At that time this resin was considered as valuable as gems or precious metals.  The Romans burned frankincense on their altars and at cremations.

“Hot Cockles” was a popular game at Christmas in medieval times. It was a game in which the other other players took turns striking the blindfolded player, who had to guess the name of the person delivering the blow.  ”Hot Cockles” was still a Christmas pastime until the Victorian era.

George Washington spent Christmas 1776 crossing the Delaware River in dreadful conditions.  Christmas 1777 fared little better ~ at Valley Forge, Washington and his men had a miserable Christmas dinner of fowl cooked in a broth of turnips, cabbage and potatoes.

The first charity Christmas card was produced by UNICEF in 1949.  The picture chosen for the card was painted not by a professional artist but by a seven year old girl.  The girl was Jitka Samkova of Rudolfo, a small town in the former nation of Czechoslovakia.  The town received UNICEF assistance after World War II, inspiring Jitka to paint some children dancing around a maypole.  She said her picture represented “joy going round and round.”

Charlsey

Happy Birthday, Renegade ~ Christmas Trivia

Our rescued chocolate Labrador retriever is 7 years old today.  He was 18 months old when he came home with us.

Here he is with our granddaughter 5-1/2 years ago when they first met.  He has always loved the children and been so gentle with them.

Today, he is still a fine young man. (most of the time!)

Christmas Trivia

American billionaire Ross Perot tried to airlift 28 tons of medicine and Christmas gifts to American POWs in North Vietnam in 1969.

America’s official national Christmas tree is located in King’s Canyon National Park in California.  The tree, a giant sequoia called the “General Grant Tree,” is over 300 ft. high.  It was made the official Christmas tree in 1925.

There are two Christmas islands. ~ The Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean was formerly called Kiritimati.  Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean is 52 square miles.

Frustrated at the lack of interest in his new toy invention, Charles Pajeau hired several midgets, dressed them in elf costumes, and had them play with “Tinker Toys” in a display window at a Chicago department store during the Christmas season in 1914.  This publicity stunt made the construction toy an instant hit.  A year later, over a million sets of Tinker Toys had been sold.

Charlsey