Happy Valentine's Day

Make a postcard design

Gallery

Ok, time for some pictures.  I realized that I haven't been showing you what I've been doing.

Friend's quilt - small wallhanging

This is the finished log cabin inspired quilt I talked about here.  My friend loved it and by the way, I wrapped it in zebra tissue paper with a big wired silver bow.



Pre-printed Valentine Postcards

  These are actually pre-printed fabric Valentine postcards that I embellished with stamping, pigma pens, stitches and buttons.  I hope they make it through the mail.  The only bad part about them is that the size is 5"X7" and I think that is just too large. 
I am still having some trouble on my row quilt which has been in my UFO pile way too long.  I have worked slowly on it and posted some of that work which is here .   The houses didn't look right so they're out.  I tried a teacup and don't like it so it's out.  Now what?   I will keep looking for some applique blocks or paper pieced blocks.  I've been trying to keep them all about the same size which is  + or -  51/2 " to nearly 61/2" square.  Please give me some ideas, links or whatever advise you can offer me.  I only wanted 2 more rows and then 2 outer borders.  I already know what I will do for those.  

Hugs and Hearts work in progress

Remember this one?  It was suppose to be a hugs and kisses, but if you notice I only have one X on this top.
I omitted the others because I thought they were just too dark and off.  The blocks are sewn into rows but the rest is just laying on my floor, I'm deciding on borders and/or applique in the borders. 

Love paper - pieced block

I found this cute little paper pieced block online.   Was thinking of a postcard, but it is a little large at nearly 6" square.  So, I will save this and use it in a future project. 
Yesterday I was working on my portion of the round robin my group is doing.  I am making flying geese blocks, so I have 1" half square triangles all over my workspace.   Maybe I just have too many things in progress?    But, at least it's forward progress.

Present-ing a Quilt

My studio is always so cluttered and messy.  Yesterday, I spent a lot of time cleaning up and putting away so that today I can get in there and sew the day away.   I have to finish the friend's log cabin feel quilt and get it wrapped up.  How do you wrap your quilts for transport?  Whether it's going to the long-arm quilter or your
best friend across the street, how do you present it?   When my mother got her birthday quilt in the mail 4 years ago, she was surprized by a beautifully wrapped red foil box with red tissue covering her red and white wall quilt.  Of course, red is her favorite color, so I just had to go overboard with it.  She loved it. 

The poppy quilt in a previous post was presented to a friend who has since moved to Texas.  She was surprized with a mail tube covered in rose flowered gift wrap.  Inside I had rolled the wall size quilt to fit.   She loved it, and could easily mail it if she needed to. 

This will be my dilemma today...how to present this quilt to my friend....any suggestions?  ;o)

New in the New Year

My last post was all about finishing what I've started.  Here we are, a week into the new year and I can't keep that resolution.  However, I did sew up a wall hanging top yesterday.  This is a gift for someone, so I will not post a picture here or tell you much about it.  But it is not a cheater quilt.  It has a log cabin feel to it.


The quilt group I belong to make "quilted" postcards every other month and sent to other members who have made one.  I am starting on this as well.  They have to be completed by the first week in February, so if I
don't move on it now, they just won't get done.

Sigh.....

Today I am making a list of all my UFOs as my ongoing New Years resolution.  Only this time around I really want to finish these and not just work on them and shove them back in the UFO basket.
1. 9 patch squares - fall leaves
2. Green and Blue strip pieced top
3. Love and Kisses top
4. 30's row top
5. Pretty floral (Cath Kidston prints) top
All these are tops in progress and I have nothing to quilt or sandwich together.   I also have a couple crafty projects in the making.
1. beaded ornaments
2. felt and beaded ornaments
3. embroidered eyeglass case
4. cross-stitch Santa ornaments
5. strip jean rug
I have finished the square for the round robin I'm involved in with my quilt group.  It has been fairly easy so far with making 3 squares to go with the original owners square.  The next steps will be a little more challenging.  These will be passed around for about 5 more months and will get back to the original owner in June.  Then, they are suppose to be entered into our local quilt show in August.  We'll see if that really happens.   I am optimistic so far. 

White frosty day

We got hit with snow this afternoon which added to the covering we already had on the ground from 2 days before.  Children were out with their sleds, dogs had their little jackets on, and we headed to the Knitting and Stitching show here in Harrogate.  It was just wonderful.  I love this show more so than the Great British Quilting show.  The work presented was just amazing.  I have nothing to prove this to you as they do not allow pictures.   My DH and I had a great time and we didn't break the bank buying any unnecessary items.  I found 2 books on crocheting and a spool of invisible thread. 
When I was a teen, I learned how to crochet on my own and made several useful items like afghans, slippers, scarves and such.  My sister was in college and I wanted to make her something for her graduation, so I made a ripple crocheted afghan in her school's colors.  I believe she still has the afghan.  Now, I would like to learn more beautiful stitches for hats, scarves and even try making gloves. 
With the winter months ahead, I will have plenty of time indoors to try my skills and with the new books to help me it should be a breeze, at least I hope.

That's No Turkey

 Chickens and Rooster from a friend's farm in Michigan

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  Our turkey will be eaten on Wednesday this year.  Yep, there's just too much going on this weekend to have to tackle dinner, too.  The turkey is defrosting in the fridge and is almost ready to be cooked.  Not stuffing the turkey this year, instead we will cook the stuffing seperate.
I bought a 10.4 lb. turkey on Friday and it's been defrosting ever since.  I'm doing some things the easy way, like a frozen Mrs. Callendars pie and frozen vegetables.  The potatoes are real as are the gravy and the stuffing.  These are the most important elements of the Thanksgiving dinner.  We will also have sparkling wine and sparkling apple.  I have been making the same stuffing twice every year (Thanksgiving and Christmas) for at least 15 years.   It's been tweaked ever so slightly over the years and one Thanksgiving I made it with fresh herbs.....it just wasn't the same.  The flavor wasn't as intense as the dried herbs.   

Just in case you would like to try my recipe, here it is:
Sandy's Stuffing
1 yellow onion, diced
4 ribs celery, diced
10 slices of day old white and/or brown bread, dried in oven, crumbled
1 baked cornbread recipe from the corn meal container or from a mix, dried in the oven, crumbled
1 cup craisins (I used the pomegranate flavor)
3/4 cup pecans, chopped
1 lb. cooked pork sausage, sage flavor (if you can get it)
         I have also used the reduced fat sausage
1-2 TBSP. dried sage
1 TBSP. poultry seasoning
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
2-3 cups chicken or turkey broth
Saute the onion and celery in 3 TBSP. unsalted butter until soft and translucent.  Place all the breads, craisins, nuts and seasonings in a large bowl.  Stir in the cooked onion and celery.  Stir in the sausage.  Gently pour enough broth into the bowl to make it the consistency you like it may be more or less than I've listed.  Stir and pour all the stuffing in a greased dish.  Cover with foil and place in a preheated 350 degree F oven for about 45 minutes.  You can also stuff the bird, but be sure to stuff loosely.  DO NOT pack the bird and use a little less broth.  Sew the opening closed with kitchen twine or use skewers to close.  Cooked in the bird, the stuffing temperature should reach 165 degrees.  The meat on the bird should reach 180 degrees F.  Serve the bird seperate from the stuffing on the table for up to 2 hours.  This recipe will serve 8-10 people. 
Enjoy!   ;o)

Fall all around

Here it is the middle of October and something in my UFO basket got done!  Just in case you've never heard
of the term UFO in sewing/quilting.  It means: Un Finished Object

My son's quilt needed some mending, again.  So I had to whack off a row from the top and the bottom of his quilt.  I cut off all the binding and rebound the entire thing.  Though it's about a foot shorter, it looks great and he will get a few more years out of it.  He's decided to use it as a throw on top of his bed.  I'm glad.

Months ago I decided to nix the house block for my row quilt.  So, I found this teacup in a friend's

book and gave it a go.  What do you think of this one? 

This is a black and white poppy quilt I almost have finished.  It's less than 30" square, so it won't be too hard to machine quilt.  This picture looks kinda funky because of the available light in the room.

My UFO basket still has fall leaf blocks waiting to

be put together from .....uhh.......9 years ago?....

yes, I will say 9 years ago.  Ugghh.

I guess for me, it's a slow boring process.  But, I am

confident that one day everything will be done. 

Hope you're meeting deadlines, sewing like mad, and quite possibly adding and subtracting from your UFO pile like me.  ;o)

Boars Spotted Here

 Scarecrow Boars from the 2010 fall season in the village of Ripley

Witch Boar-a-lot

Mrs. Boar-ing laundress

Mr.Fox-n-Boar watching over boars pen

Von Boar-man

Alice 'n ' Boar in Wonderland

This one is a little morbid and it was on display in the Church....sick

Franken-boar in the cemetary

Fun day out for all the family. I had to buy a homemade knitted boar.  It called my name and of course,

anything made by human hands I couldn't pass up.  Isn't she cute? 

 I need to name her, any suggestions?

Have a Boar-filled day.  ;o)

Grand Finale

There's something about fall that excites me.  Summer's winding down and the air is getting

thinner and chilly.  Mornings are filled with a foggy mist that doesn't quite clear until after mid-day.

The colors of fall are spectacular.  Landscapes of pure majesty unlike the subtleness of summer

flower beds in full bloom.  It's the grand finale in our carpet of this fleeting season.  I just love this time of year.

 

I took these pictures on a hike recently and couldn't pass up on the opportunity to capture the complex
colors and textures of real life.  I could never recreate this on a blank piece of paper from memory.  That's why even if I don't get to creating something with it now, I can look back at these later and be inspired all
over again.  Photography helps me in so many ways from the use of colors, textures, composure, forms and sometimes even the medium in which I work with it.  There's so much to see out there and I don't want to miss any part of the wonderful Mother Earth Show. 

Between the Moon and Mars

Last night my son told me to be on the lookout for Mars in the night sky.  It will be big and brighter than all the other stars but not quite as large as the moon.  So, DH and I headed outside in our PJ's and jackets (it was only 54 degrees Farenheit) and stared into the sky.  After scaring away the bats that fly around our house and hearing the two resident owls in the distance, all was quiet.  It was just gorgeous watching the twinkling stars with the occassional "falling star" which was actually a meteror shower.  We spotted Mars without the use of a telescope.  We recalled seeing the Hale-Bob comet years back with our telescope and what a fine night that was.  It's hard to see the night sky anymore.  There's just too many lights from cities and towns nearby, but I remember when..............