Merry Christmas!

I'm spending a few days with family taking a break from quilting and other routines. My goal when I get home is to clean up and organize my sewing room and prep for all my future projects. Until then, enjoy the holidays!

Bowl Cozies

A friend at work was recently bemoaning the fact the she didn't buy some quilted bowl cozies at a local craft fair. "I can make some for you!" I told her, knowing they couldn't be that hard. I've seen these around before, and sure enough, directions for how to sew them are plentiful on the internet. 

In case you don't know what these are all about, the premise is that sometimes you microwave something and then the bowl is too hot to pick up or hold. With these handy things, you plop your bowl in them, microwave the whole business and then you don't have to burn your fingers!

I made one, and it took me all of 10 minutes and was fun and easy, so then I made about 8 more and brought a whole stack into work. Now I have commissions to make some more manly ones for husbands. Plus I want to make a few for myself!

En Provence Mystery Week 2 & 3

I continue to run behind on my mystery quilt steps! I finally finished all my neutral four-patches and moved unto Week 2, which was 100 of these pink triangles. I was about 1/2 way through making them all when I realized I'd mistakenly reversed my colors! I had the pink part on the inside instead of a neutral. GARRRR!!!

Luckily, remaking them didn't take too long, but Week 3 came out before I was finished, and guess what Week 3 was? More four-patches! This time they were in purples, but still - I need almost 170 of them and for some reason I'm just slow with these.

It is gratifying to see all my pieces so far though - they are sitting in neat piles on my ironing board. I'm so curious to see how this will all turn out - we haven't even touched the yellow or green yet!

En Provence Mystery Quilt: Week 1

Bonnie Hunter released the first mystery quilt clue on the day after Thanksgiving - right when I was SO SICK! I couldn't do any sewing for days, so that put me behind on it before I even got started! At least the first clue was easy - four-patch blocks made out of scrappy neutral fabrics. The only bad thing was that I have to make 221 of them, and I'm only up to about 100. Yikes!

I had high hopes of finishing them this week in time for the next clue release on Friday, but it just didn't happen, so now I'm in catch-up mode. Bonnie suggests for those of us who fall behind, so stay with the clues and at least make a few of whatever each new one is so we can get a handle of what's going on and any what techniques it requires. I'm worried if I move on from the four-patches, I'll never go back! So I'm going to persevere and get these done before the week is over.

They're made out of neutrals, and I'm going a little out of my comfort zone and using things that will read as neutral from a distance but maybe not up close. I'm also using scraps for most of the quilt, so I'm hoping the overall look is one I like. It's hard to tell with mystery quilts. I'm just going by faith in Bonnie!

Bonnie is a stickler for accuracy. She talks about making sure our quarter-inch seams are accurate of course, but she also talks a lot about accurate cutting and giving ourselves the full width of the strip. She stresses having the line of the ruler right up on the fabric, not the mat...low and behold I've been doing it wrong all these years. It's just a thread or two, but those add up when you consider all the pieces in quilts - if each one is short a thread or two, you're talking about being inches short overall.

One other new thing I knew about but had never done, and that is spinning seams. This is when you open up a seam intersection so that you can press (or spin) the seams so that the center is nice and flat and you eliminate some bulk. Bonnie told us to give it a try, and I'm loving the results so far - nice flat four-patches that are accurately sized. It's a miracle!

November Mini Quilt

I'm a little behind on my mini quilts due to being sick and christmas sewing and whatnot. The pattern for November is autumn leaves, and it seems a little weird to be sewing them now since the leaves are long gone here in MN and it's all barren and gray.

Nonetheless, it's been fun to sew these  - the quilt has five larger leaves, and then 20 teeny-tiny ones. I'm working on the bigger ones now, and will tackle the tiny ones tonight. It's mostly lots of half-square triangles, and so far so good.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas Quilt

My holiday spirit ebbs and flows. Some years I'm all about the christmas trees and music and baking and family times, and then some years I just want to skip the whole thing and fast-forward to January 2nd. No matter what though, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" has been a solid mainstay. My mother would bring out our well-worn copy of it after thanksgiving, and read it to us constantly over the next month. I still know it all by heart:

"Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot.
But the Grinch who lived just north of Whoville did not.
The Grinch hated Christmas, the whole christmas season.
Now please don't ask why, no one quite knows the reason."

This year, I'm all about christmas. I'm making home-made christmas ornaments, I signed up for three holiday baking classes (I just took the Truffles one....YUM), and it only seemed right that I make a christmas quilt. The best thing is that I found a Grinch Christmas Quilt pattern and material!

This is an easy quilt to make - it's just 6 inch squares, bordered by the striped fabric and polka dot cornerstones. I had it sewn together in about 3 hours, added the two big borders, and done! I'm going to try and get this quilted and bound so it'll be ready to cuddle up with in front of the tree. Yes...there will be a tree this year!

Friday Finish: Monkey Wrench

Well Hellooooo! I'm alive, but phew - it's been a rough couple of weeks. I was struck down by some hellish virus...first it was a cold, then it was a flu, then it was a sinus infection, then it was a migraine. It was the kind of sickness where you lose hope of ever feeling good again, but at long last I'm on the mend.

So sewing hasn't been happening much. Every now and then I'd hobble into my sewing room, plop down and stare at my machine for awhile and then hobble back to the sofa. That was about it.

Finally, when I started feeling better on Tuesday I figured I could at least finish up the binding on the Monkey Wrench quilt. I was excited to take a picture, but it's MN, so this happened:

When the sleet let up, I quickly dashed outside with the quilt, determined to get a photo for Friday Finish - first one in FOREVER!

This was made using Anita Grossman-Solomon's Sew-on-the-Lines technique that I wrote about here. It's a fun way to put blocks together, but I don't know that it saves time in in the long run. For me, the pluses were great accuracy with little effort, and not having to cut all the fabric pieces - you just take two squares of fabric and slap them together to make the block, and it gets cut apart after you sew the lines.

I quilted it in a figure 8 pattern, which is quick and easy. The backing is an orange floral from Connecting Threads, and I inserted a strip of leftover scraps of fabric from the front into it just for fun.

This is a large lap quilt/baby quilt size, and so far isn't earmarked for anyone in particular. It'll go on the stack in my linen closet until it finds a good home.

Not exactly a Friday Finish

So, the last couple weeks have been weird. The election happened, and I've been feeling a little disoriented and depressed ever since. Lots of people have written about the importance of creativity and self-expression during trying times, and I agree with them in theory. But I've just wanted to curl up in jammies and self-medicate with chocolate, trashy novels, and netflix.

One thing that has been therapeutic in probably a healthier way has been embroidery. Something about slow stitching and simply following the lines has been very helpful in allowing me to gradually process the fact that we elected a KKK-endorsed, misogynistic, criminally incompetent, internet troll of a man to lead the country.

The quote above by Arthur Ashe is helpful, as is the hanukkah menorah, reminding me that there is still dazzling light in this world and replenishment for the depleted. In the meantime, I'm putting one foot in front of the other - or in this case, one stitch after the other...slowly and carefully.

Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt: Challenge Accepted

Every year, Bonnie Hunter publishes a mystery quilt on her blog. It's a big deal. She releases the first clue on Black Friday, and one every week up through the holidays, and at the end of it all you have a beautiful quilt. I've watched these mysteries unfold over the past few years, but have never got my act together in time to participate. I'm still mad about the Celtic Solstice one she did a few years ago that I missed out on.

So this year I was bound and determined to pull it together and join in on all the mystery fun. And then Bonnie released some details around what colors she'd be using and where she got her inspiration for this quilt - Provence! France! Purples and Yellows and Greens, oh my!

Well, you can imagine how excited everyone is to start this thing. Facebook groups are buzzing, and Sherwin Williams has run out of paint chips in those colors and can't figure out why, and quilters all over are excited for Black Friday for reasons that don't have anything to do with shopping.

I'm going to go through my stash of fabrics this weekend and get everything picked out, pressed, and ready to go.

Simply Eden Progress

The Simply Eden quilt has been challenging, but in a good way. As I said in my post before, this whole quilt is made up of bias edges, so I've been proceeding very carefully: careful cutting, careful glue basting, careful starching, careful handling of all the pieces. DO NOT DISTORT!

So far, so good. I've completed all the blocks and sewn the first row together, and I have 5 more rows to go. I like the blocks that I fussy-cut around the animals. It's all pretty and nice to have a butterfly block, but then all of a sudden you're faced with a tiger staring out at you and that could be a little unsettling!

Cutting a New Project

After I finished quilting the Churn Dash and Mustang quilts, I decided to reward myself by starting a fresh new project. Yes, I have umpteen unfinished ones to work on, but sometimes you've just gotta start something new and fun!

This quilt is made from the Tula Pink collection called "Eden" and there's nothing better than getting to play around with Tula Pink fabric - the colors, the patterns, the hidden animals!

I can tell from the cutting that this quilt will require careful construction. There are tons of bias edges, so precision, careful pressing and starching will be the order of the day.

In other momentous cutting news, I put a new blade in my rotary cutter! It had been...I don't know...a YEAR since I'd done it last? I don't know why I'm so terrible about doing that, because each time I start cutting with a new blade it's a revelation and I think "It's so easy now! I must do this more often!"...and then a year goes by. But this time, I WILL do it more often, I swear.

Quilting Up a Storm

My Juki has been going a mile-a-minute for the last couple days, as I've been working quilting on two finished tops.

I've been doing Figure 8's on the Churn Dash quilt, and I have to say, I love this pattern. It's fast and easy, and fun. Three very key things for me!

I'm doing a simple diagonal grid for the mustang quilt, and it's also fast and easy, but not that fun...more boring than anything, but I'm almost done, so that's good.

Friday Finish: September Mini Quilt

My mini quilt for September took a little longer to finish, because the final touch was adding some hand stitching around the border. Isn't it cute?

I quilted this in a meandering loopy pattern which I thought was reminiscent of unspooling thread or something like that...to match the little spools of course! It might have been a bit too esoteric, because I think it's kind of hard to see, but whatever - it was fast and easy!

For some reason (I think it was the hand sewing that did it), this got a little off-kilter and I think I might block it so it will hang nice and square.

Recipe Time: Layered Asian Dip

When some friends came over last weekend for extended sit-on-the-deck time and dinner, I decided an appetizer was needed to take the edge off since our gatherings are notorious for delayed dinners. Who wants to go in the kitchen and start cooking when there's deck and wine talk going on? In fact, there have been times when 9 pm rolls around, no dinner has been made, and everyone's too soused to care, which is why pizza delivery exists. The answer to all of these problems is appetizers! Why haven't we thought of this before?

I knew just by looking at the ingrediants that this recipe was going to be awesome, and it was. We scarfed down a batch of it Saturday night, and it was so awesome I made more of it to take to a party on Sunday night, where it was also scarfed down and demands were made for more to be brought to future gatherings.

The recipe can be found here: https://www.landolakes.com/recipe/18806/layered-asian-appetizer/ and I pretty much followed the directions, except for a few things:

• I didn't add the butter to the cream cheese, because why? Cream cheese is already fatty enough
• Maybe because of that, my cream cheese was a little stiff, so I added a splash of milk when I was blending it to make it a little more spreadable
• There are tons of different asian chili sauces out there - I used one by the same company that makes Sriracha Sauce - it has a rooster on the jar
• My peanuts were salted, because I like salty stuff. Unsalted peanuts? Gross

Courthouse Steps Progress

I've sewn a total of about two hours this week, so I don't have much to report. I was able to add to my scrappy Courthouse Steps blocks, and I can now shut the lids on my pink, yellow, and green scrap bins! I think I'll put these away for now and buckle down on quilting some of my many quilt tops - I have a whole drawer-full, and it's time to finish some projects!

A little of this, a little of that

After getting back from Ireland, I've been playing the field with my quilting projects, working on a block or two for one quilt, then switching gears and trying out something else. Part of this is just me wanting to finish up some of my many half-started projects, and part of it is just not wanting to commit and settle down to any one thing right now.

I finished my September mini quilt top and have it basted together, then I made a few of the Sew-on-the-lines Monkey Wrench blocks, then I dug out my Union Jack paper-pieced blocks, and made one of those, which took TWO HOURS! So I put that away again until I forget what a pain they are.

Then I figured since I can no longer close the lids of several of my scrap bins because they are so full, I'd better start making something with those, so I started sewing some random Courthouse Steps blocks.

These are a little like Log Cabin blocks, and are perfect for a random scrappy project. I like them too because they can use up little itty-bitty scraps (which of course I save), so I'm finally getting rid of some of those.

I have a feeling this will be like my Mini Spiderweb quilt - made over the course of a year or so by doing a little bit here and there with not a lot of planning. I'm gonna keep working on these at least until I can close my scrap bin lids again.

Friday Finish: Disappearing Nine Patch

Well, we made it home from Ireland...eventually. Our plane was diverted to Fargo due to bad weather in Minneapolis, and we were stuck there for 6 hours. We managed to get out on the last flight that left there at 2 IN THE MORNING! I got in my front door at four a.m. yesterday morning. Phew!

My jet lag has been pretty typical - I'm exhausted beyond belief by 7 p.m. and then wide awake around 3 a.m. So frustrating!

Nonetheless, I managed to sew the binding on this little baby quilt last night so it would be ready in time for the baby shower tomorrow. The backing is a Dear Stella arrow print I had, and I added a strip of leftover squares from the front just for fun.

I'm please with how this turned out, as it was largely improvisational and unplanned. I quilted it in an easy stipple, and the binding is some leftover Connecting Threads fabric I had in my stash.

Ireland, Day 9

Our final day in Ireland was an easy one, so this will be a short post as we didn't do a whole lot. 

View of Derry from the city wallss

Mother and I got mostly packed up the night before so it didn't take us too long to get ready. We had a final breakfast in Derry and then headed out on th bus back to Dublin. It was about a three hour trip, and we entertained ourselves by everyone telling the story of how they met their spouse. I did some reading too and a little bit of dozing.

Delicious soup and brown bread

We stopped at a nice farm shop for lunch and I had a delicious tuna melt and mother had the veggie soup. They had a nice gift shop, and I spotted some lotions that had labels from Kaffe Fassett prints! That was the first time I've been lonesome to sew and got me thinking about being back to my sewing machine and some fun projects I'm anxious to start working on.

We got to Dublin around 2 and checked into our hotel which is called the Pembroke Guesthouse and was in a quaint Edwardian era building. We dropped off our bags and then mother and I headed out for some final shopping. 

We walked about a half hour to Grafton Street, which had a fun bustling atmosphere with street musicians and lots of people. We didn't find any souvenirs we wanted though, so instead we went to the grocery store and stocked up on Cadbury chocolate and digestive biscuits to take home. Cadbury chocolate doesn't sound very exciting, but they have so many different varieties here, and it's like Guinness - it tastes better over here!

We had enough time for a little nap before heading out for our last dinner of the night at a pub called The Merry Ploughboy. We ate a delicious meal and were entertained by musicians and dancers. It was fabulous and a great way to end the trip. 

There was a group of seniors from France sitting next to us, and one of the ladies had a huge crush on Samuel Chestnutt. He made her night when he danced with her during the final song and then gave her a big hug. It was cute.

We didn't get to bed until late, what with being out carousing at the pub and then having to get organized and ready for flying home. For some reason I didn't sleep so well, so our 6:45 alarm was not a welcome sound.

We had a quick breakfast (homemade scones and jams, omlets, yogurt) and were in the bus at at the airport by 8:45. We had final pictures and hugs and goodbyes with Samuel Chestnutt and Niall.

Now we're just at the gate and boarding is about to start soon, so this will be my last post from Ireland.

I'm excited to get home and sleep in my own bed and get back to regular life. It was a wonderful trip! One of the ladies in our group gave me this nice note: