Miss Kate's Turnover

Well, you know me...I can't work on only one project at a time. It's the same with reading - I have to have multiple books and sewing projects going at once!

This was a Craftsy mystery quilt back sometime in 2014 - fall maybe? I purchased the kit, and it's been sitting under my sewing table ever since. It uses the Bonnie and Camille fabric line called "Miss Kate". Like all Bonnie and Camille fabrics, it's completely adorable, and after working with only blue and grey neckties for the past week or so, I couldn't take it any longer and busted open the kit.

My least favorite part of starting a quilt is the cutting. I just find it tedious and putzy. Plus, accuracy is extremely important, and you know that is not so easy for me.

You know one thing I discovered helps quite a lot with cutting? A good rotary blade. You might think this would be a no-brainer, but I realized it had been over 6 months since I'd changed my blade. There are a lot of quilters who change their blade after every project, so you can imagine the state mine was in. After I switched it out, suddenly cutting this lovely stuff became a lot more fun.

Cathedral Windows: Start Points and Four Patches

I've had company staying with me most of the week, so haven't had much time for any sewing or blogging. Today is Friday, and my weekend plans pretty much involve flannel PJ pants and SEWING!

I've been able to grab a few minutes here and there to work on the star point blocks for the Cathedral Windows quilt. I purchased the Tri-Recs ruler for these units, and it makes piecing  and cutting them accurately much easier. So far, sewing with the tie material has gone really well, and I think my biggest challenge will just be keeping all the bias edges from getting too wonky. You can already see that things are starting to distort in the pictures, so very careful pressing and lots of starch will be my plan moving forward.

 

I'm about half way done with the star points. Next I have to make over 350 four-patch blocks. I'm going to use strips of the wedding dress material, whatever leftovers I have from the ties, and we'll see what else.

Quilt Commission...pattern reveal!

After much mulling and internet-surfing, I finally decided on a pattern for the quilt commission. I'm going with Bonnie Hunter's Cathedral Stars. The color scheme will be different of course, but I think this two block design will be great with the ties and shirts I have to work with.

Bonnie Hunter is a traditional quilter, but I love her focus on good technique and using what you have to create. She's also extremely generous with information and sharing her knowledge. 

Stay tuned...I'm going to start cutting up ties tonight!

Recipe Time: Kielbasa Casserole

Kielbasa has been a lifesaver for us busy career women on North Street. Get home from a hard days work in the salt mines, all starved and cranky? You can throw one of these babies in a frying pan, steam some veggies, heat up a generous amount of sauerkraut, and bam! Dinner's ready in 20 minutes. 

Sometimes though, it's fun to fancy sausage up a a little bit, and that's why I was excited to try this recipe, from Cooks Country magazine. If you like sausage, potatoes, and sauerkraut all mixed together with a creamy mustardy sauce, topped with breadcrumbs and baked until it's all bubbly and crispy, then this is the right dish for you.

Recipe tips and tricks:

• I used dried dill instead of fresh
• My potatoes took more like 25 minutes to cook vs. 15
• It says this serves 8-10, but I'm sorry to say that us three little piggies polished most of it off in one sitting. I think 4-6 non-gluttonous eaters is a more realistic view of serving size for this recipe. 

Quilt Commission

I previously wrote about the quilt I was asked to make for my mothers friend whose husband passed away. I'm not sure what to call the quilt yet, since I still haven't decided on a design. I decided to work on taking apart the shirts and ties the other night, figuring it would be good to figure out exactly how much fabric I'd have to work with. Turns out, shirts and ties yield a surprising mount of material.

It's weird to cut apart clothes - I mean, we usually try and keep the stuff we wear free from tears and stains and in reasonably good condition. To take a scissors and just hack them all apart feels wrong somehow, but kinda fun at the same time.

Farmers Wife, First Few Blocks

The Farmers Wife quilt is on my to-do list for 2015. This is a sampler quilt, with 111 blocks. In 1922, the Farmers Wife magazine posed this question: "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, have her marry a farmer?" The magazine received over 7000 responses, and the best answers to this question are included in the book, along with the traditional quilt blocks they inspired.

The instructions in the book utilize templates, but since these blocks are TINY, some clever people have put together paper-pieced patterns, which is what I've been using so far. I've been using scraps, and I don't really have much of a color scheme at this point. We'll see how it comes together. My goals is to do a few of these a week. Here are my first attempts:

Wednesday WIP: Sugar Block

I finished the December block for the 2014 Sugar Block club...only a month late! This was a fun one, because it's made of up 1/2 square triangles, (which I no longer have a problem with after purchasing Eleanor Burn's fabulous ruler), and also Flying Geese units, which I sort of had a problem with...until I made them with this method, which sort of blew my mind. You make 4 units at a time, and you don't have to trim them, so you don't waste any fabric. Loved it!

Now I just have to get all my blocks out and figure out how I want to put them together. Do I use sashing? Do I use leftover fabric to make cornerstone blocks? Do I set them on point? There are a lot of possibilities...

Unexpected Project

Sometimes, you spot a quilt on a blog or somewhere and you think, "I must drop everything and make that!". This usually happens to me right when I have some deadline to finish, or when I'm in the middle of 16 other unfinished quilts, or at 2 a.m., or some other inconvenient time. Usually, I do end up dropping everything and making it.

That happened to me last night. I spotted this little beauty on The Happy Zombie blog, and what do you know...it's a free pattern and everything! Cute little Chinese lanterns all strung together? And I happen to have some vaguely Asian inspired fabric from Amy Butler that would be perfect? Yes, I must make that.

So I started cutting my fabric last night.

A few years I went to China on a whim. It's kind of a long story, involving me selling a bunch of stuff on e-bay, a well-timed groupon, and it being January with nothing else to do. I was there during Chinese New Year, and strings of lanterns were hanging all over the place. This quilt reminds me of that.

Postage Stamps...Not just for licking

So, the postage stamp blocks are done, and I sewed them all together last night. I couldn't decide if I should arrange the different colored blocks randomly, or in an orderly rainbow fashion. I decided on the rainbow effect.

I'm sort of mesmerized by the back...all those seams...all pressed open....all those little squares!

Friday Finish: Fast Four Patch

As I've said before, my fabric stash is getting slightly out of hand, so I decided to use up some of my solid scraps and a beautiful butterfly print from Valori Wells on this project from Amy Smart's book "Fabulously Fast Quilts".

These are just 4-patch blocks, paired with a print block, so it's been easy-peasy to put together. But also, so fun. These are my favorite colors in the world, so I occasionally descend into a trance and waste time just gazing at the different shades of blues and greens.

I like the thin orange border - I think it's a good pop of color. The binding is scraps of blue and green strips I had on hand, and I quilted this in a stipple, just for something quick and basic. The backing is a Jennifer Paganelli print I got at SR Harris.

I made this in a night and sort of forgot to take pictures of the process, so ta-da! Here's a finished quilt all appearing out of nowhere!

This is crib/lap sized, so some lucky baby will get this one. Or a lucky adult with a lap.

A good recipe

For all you cooks out there, I'd highly recommend Sara Moulton's BLT and Egg Pie. One of my New Years resolutions is to cook more, so I eat out less and have more money to spend on fabric. I mean save. Yes, save, that's right, save for retirement. Or something like that.

I made Sara Moulton's BLT and Egg Pie last night for dinner, and it was loverly.

Some tips:

• I chopped the tomatoes instead of slicing them, because I don't like tomato slices. I'm weird like that. And I just drained them in a colander instead of that whole rack business she talks about
• I used store-bought pie crust. I can make my own, but I avoid anything that says "Roll dough out on lightly floured surface."
• I used 1% milk instead of whole, because that's what we had. 

Tonight, I'm making Tater-Tot Casserole. Yes, you heard that right and quit judging. I'm Minnesotan, OK? We have infinite capacity and love for anything that involves Cream of Mushroom Soup.

Wednesday WIP: Postage Stamp

I became slightly enamored with the idea of a postage stamp quilt about 2 years back, after seeing one somewhere. Something about the idea of little 1 inch squares of material all sewn into a quilt...well, for whatever reason I liked that. Maybe it's because normal people throw away their 1 inch squares, but I don't like to throw away fabric. Of any size.

Thank goodness, I also had sense enough to realize that sewing all those little squares into little rows, and then sewing the little rows together, and making all the seams match was an exercise in crazy-making, so that was one project I didn't start (surprising, I know).

Until I discovered Elizabeth Hartman's blog and the method she wrote about on using grid fusible interfacing to make postage stamp blocks. Ah-ha.

The theory is that you arrange your fabric squares on the interfacing, and iron them in place.

Then you flip it over and sew on the lines in both directions. Sewing on lines is so easy a monkey could do it.

Then you cut your seams open and press them.

Voila. A perfect postage square block, with precise matching seam intersections.

I've been slowly working on my blocks for over a year now and just discovered that I have 13 of them. I'm going to sew three more and then sew it all together and be done. 

Nouveau Wedding Ring...With Pictures!

I was finally able to give the Nouveau Wedding Ring quilt to my sister, so I can post pictures online at last!

It's a bajillion degree's below zero here in MN, so I didn't take it outside for my usual photo shoot. Inside on the recliner will have to do!

I quilted this in a combination of geometric shapes, swirls, and loops. 

The backing is a combination of a Joel Dewberry lattice print, and another one I got at SR Harris awhile back. I machine bound it in the red print.

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I wasn't sure about my fabric choices about half way through making it (as usual), but I really love the vintage feel this has. My sister and her husband also seemed very pleased. 

Sugar Block Club: October and November

So, I'm still working on finishing up the 2014 Amy Gibson Sugar Block of the Month quilt. After these babies, I just have one more to go!

October was hour-glass blocks combined with some angled strips:

November was paper-pieced. I like that narrow angled star, and the square-within-a-square thing going on.

Friday Finish: Nouveau Wedding Ring

Well folks...it's finally finished!

Only, I can't post pictures of it on here until I give it to sister.

But it's for realsies finished, and it turned out beautiful. Stay tuned for the big reveal....

And sorry to be such a tease.

2015 Plans

Here's a list of what I'd like to accomplish in 2015: (as far as quilting goes!)

• Farmers Wife Quilt - I'm about five years behind the trend on this one, but I got the book the other day and would like to make a scrappy version of this in modern fabrics. Update: Didn't come close to finishing this...I stalled out after about 12 blocks!

• Elizabeth Hartman's Aviatrix Medallion quilt - I have the pattern and a fat quarter bundle of solids all set for this. Update: Still have the pattern and fabric...we'll see what 2016 brings!

• Orange Peel Quilt - just because I like these. Update: I still like these! Didn't start it though

• Tula Pink Craftsy mystery quilt - I purchased the kit, and just need to start it. Update: I finished the top - it just needs to be quilted!

• Downton Abbey Craftsy mystery quilt...again, kit is all purchased, I just need to dive in. Update: I have the fabrics ironed and ready to cut

• Bonnie Hunter's 2014 mystery quilt...before she takes it off her website! I don't have a picture of it yet, because it's all still a tantalizing mystery.   Update: The finish is now revealed, and it's lovely! 2nd Update: Bonnie took the pattern down from her website before I could get to it. 

• Swoon Quilt - I swear, every quilter on the planet has made one of these. I want one too! Update: I STILL want one, real bad

• Fat Quarter Shop's Snapshot Quilt-Along - due to start January 15. Update: Almost all the blocks are complete

• And, oh yes...I also have a few UFO's I intend to finish up too: 

1. 2014 Sugar Block Club - DONE!
2. Postage Stamp Quilt (haven't even written about this one yet!) - DONE!
3. Valori Wells Dancing Quill - Top is done, needs to be quilted
4. Hopscotch Quilt - DONE!
5. Moda Trifle Dish Quilt-Along - DONE!