Christmas Days of 2018

We were so thankful in a change with some family jobs this past year so that we could have several days with both kids home.  Mostly it was God’s placements in giving us more family time and to Him we are thankful!!

JP arrived about 2 on Saturday after leaving his apt at 4:30 a.m.   K arrived about 6, being able to get home a bit earlier with a boss that values family time.  (so thankful!)

We had Sunday church together and then Christmas Eve service together.   Can’t say I didn’t shed a tear (or 2…) to have them both with us.

Sunday afternoon we had a few hours with the in-laws as that was Gpa’s 87th birthday.

Gma had collected drawings and writings from Miss K over a large piece of her childhood and glued it into a spiral notebook. (Part of K’s birthday gift earlier in December.)  They had such fun looking at it!  The next day we scanned everything and Miss K is going to make it into a printed book that will last vs the glue stick and notebook paper.  It is precious!  Gma M is very good at these savings in her own unique way.

We had Christmas Day at home.  ♥ Throughout the weekend, K & I had started the sewing project and it was fun to do that together.  Everyone helped cook meals and with dishes.  We enjoyed movies and an online game JP has that we play on the TV but with each of our phones.  It is fun and hilarious.  I have no idea the name or link for that.  You’ll have to ask him.

 

Good food and fun new recipes!

Hot-Buttered Apples and we served them over ice cream!  Yum! (gluten-free!)  This was dessert for Christmas dinner at noon with the in-laws.   I took this photo which was my supper that evening while under my electric throw on the couch!

Also a great new recipe is Tex-Mex Queso!  We had this Christmas Eve after church!  We added a pound of browned ground pork/sausage to make it more of a meal.  Yummy and easy to get ready quickly.

 

 

Sunset on December 23.  Wonderful color!

I offered to make my farmer a gift wish list with email links in early November but he said, “I thought we don’t do gifts.”  Hmpf!  So I shopped for myself on Thanksgiving weekend with the great sales online and the kids had gone back to their own homes.

Then 2 weeks before Christmas he asked for ideas!!!  #smackmyforehead  I sent a link to The Featherweight Shop and I think I included a few suggestions but he chose other things as well to make it to $100 and get his free shipping!  🙂  This is what I got!!  He excitedly told me they had things on sale and he got free shipping!

The needle threader/inserter is great!  As well as the thread cutter that sticks to the face plate.  So tiny but works super and just like my Bernina that I’m used to using!  The earrings are darling and don’t bother my ears at all.  Socks are calf-length (just above ankle a few inches for me) and a medium weight. Great quality shirt!!  Usual sizing.

I got him a new wallet as his in in shreds… but as usual, he didn’t like it and I sent it back.  He isn’t into gifts so that is fine.  At some point, he’ll decide he NEEDS a wallet and will find something!  LOL!

We had a wonderful time all together!  Saying good-bye is hard….

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Just Today – applique work

Thought I’d just write simple with today.  We had freezing rain and rain most of the day.  Off and on; mist and steady times.  This evening it has changed to snow pellets.  Not much total accumulation is expected.

I worked this morning on what will probably be a multi-year project for me.  Mostly hand applique with my hand-dyed fabric so far but eclectic mix of fabrics for leaves, etc later.  The last few days I turned under edges and prepped the trees.

The color of the sky and the trees was weird on this photo so I just made it black & white.  But you see the pressing under the edges of the trunk and branches.

Today I redid some pieces and arranged on the background of the whole tree oval and the sky.  The trees are arranged and basted down but not stitched.  Reverse applique of some leaves is next on the project.

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Remainderings in Chicago

I was really glad I could get to the IQF – Chicago quilt  show this spring for all 3 days.

On the first day, I had a few hours and saw some of the quilts as well as some of the vendors.

I had a class in the afternoon and I was first to sign up and ask to be teacher’s pet so I was the helper for the class. I had the ribbon to add to my nametag and afterwards I got a pin.  (So much un-Wow factor there!)   I checked with the Education​ office 45 mins before class was to start. Soon after one student was able to buy the class from someone else but came without even a pair of scissors! She got a quick class list and went shopping. On top of it, she had never taken a quilt class!

This was very interesting sort of class. Nothing I’ve ever done in my 30 years of quilt making!  It looks like wonky piecing but technically is applique.

At these classes, the machines are provided by a mainline dealer and there is a rep for every 3 classrooms. The rep gave an overview of the machine AND…. we found out the our carefully chosen specialty threads (on class list) wouldn’t fit in the machine.  It wasn’t a brand I’d suggest in the first place but that put a damper on things a bit.  I happened to have 1 spool that could fit in the machine so used that.  A few others had the rep wind their thread onto a bobbin to use as the top thread.  I think most in the class just had to use the regular sewing thread.  Oh … Brother, not for me!  Had I or we all known, at least I would  have brought a piece of tape, paperclip, and paper cup from SBx and made my thread work!  LOL!

Karen Stone was the instructor and had a long wait in the SBx line so was late for class.

Then the Education coordinator came to talk about other classes and the evening activities (ie trying to sell tickets) and the sewing machine rep came and talked too long.  (I guess maybe I should fill in the email survey…)  Finally it was class time but about 2:20, instead of 2 as we had all been waiting for.

The class was titled, “Remainderings” and as she taught we finally figured it out.  Very fun!

Karen gave a bit of an intro but mostly we just needed to watch her get going.  I like how she taught us 3 steps and then let us work on that.  She was right at our table or we’d congregate in a group of 5 or 6 around a machine while she’d demonstrate the next step again.  We needed the beginning steps learned before we moved on and she taught that well in class.  Once we all had a few pieces of the first half accomplished, she taught the final 2 steps.  I think all of us had one block completed through all the steps by the end of class.  Not that having “just one” block was a negative!  We had many blocks in various stages to jump right back into when we got home.

My first finished block.

Some of my pieces in progress when it was time to be done.

One of Karen’s blocks

 

Other students’ blocks.  The reason I needed to carry the 2 rolls of blue tape to the classroom — to hang our blocks on the wall!  Ha!

The blocks Karen had made to show us how they all go wild and play fun together!

I jumped right back into real life when I got home.  Maybe this weekend, I can sew some more on my class blocks.  I think it will make a very fun quilt!

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Mystery Quilt – Third post

The last clue added the last row on the outside of the quilt.  The soloist continued a pattern to the centers and the corners.

She also suggested piecing the backing from stash and I continued in my neutral pile.  And you know …. there are still more fabrics in the bin!  Her instructions included a bit of “sashing” on the back and corner posts.  I did all of this in neutrals but many in the group did another design of colors with this piecing.

I wrote the label on one of the backing cornerstones before quilting.

Planning the quilting….  I took a photo of the complete top, printed it in black & white, and then used tracing paper over that master to draw some ideas on paper.  In this photo, some is marked and I’m looking at thread ideas.

Next up… quilting!

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Her Pencil Quilt

It is rare that I get a chance to piece a quilt.  But there are gifts for special ones that go out ‘in haste’ here & there.

This is for a friend’s first granddaughter that is due soon. A family friend found me via FB and asked if I and any of our group’s quilters would like to make a baby quilt.   Sadly, our friend died 7 yrs ago and we thought it would be sweet to bless the daughter with quilts from her quilting friends as her mother would have been doing.  I was the only one that sent a quilt. The baby’s room is painted a golden yellow with accents in navy, purple, and fuchsia.

I chose the accent colors from my stash but just could not find the right background fabric for this.  I could drive 1 – 1 1/2 hrs each way to a modern quilt shop to try to find something which adds up to “take a day trip” with 3 hrs on the road, lunch out, etc.  I could have looked online for awhile and ordered but then I wouldn’t have it in time.  Or… I could dye my own!  My SIL was here and I was asking her help with choosing dyes off my color chart. Nothing was quite right and I was also looking for yellow dyes in the storage drawers.  There NOT on the chart but in my inventory, was pencil yellow.  Yes!  That was the color we wanted and I had bought that on a special – no longer made deal.  Of course, now I love it and hope to get some more pencil yellow fabric from my amount of dye.

The next day I dyed an extra amount of fabric than my plan needed just to be sure I had enough.  I was also making my own pattern so was just using my guesstimated amount of fabric needed.  I used about a 1/2 strength of dye.  I stirred the dye about every 15 mins for an  hour to have it more of a ‘solid but not quite’ coloring.  I was so excited as I think it came out perfect to what I wanted!
I cut the half-square triangles (HSTs) with my accuquilt Go! cutter.  LOVE IT!  I line up the fabrics that will be sewn together, right sides together, and they come out of the cutter ready to zip under the sewing machine.

Once I had all the HSTs sewn and pressed, I laid out part of the center design.

Sewed the top together…

And this also shows some of the quilting marks I made before I loaded it in my machine for quilting.  I had guidelines for the circles and divisions of 8 or 4 per ring.

First the detail quilting in a variegated thread that stands out on the lighter fabrics.

The finished quilt – quilted, labeled, bound, & washed.

Close-up of a corner and you can see the circular designs.  The background fill thread was a matching yellow and a finer size thread.

The back of the quilt. Once again, without going to buy the fabrics, I pieced the back from other fabrics in my stash.  🙂

I appliquéd the baby’s first initial and a heart, then pieced in the diagonal piece of fabric for an accent.

I had help from my family & friends on the label verse but I found it fitting since the mom has never met me. It was just a gift from God, with love from one of her mom’s quilting friends.  Sent from Illinois to Mississippi.

The one who contacted me and the new mother were surprised at how well it matched the baby’s room.  Yeah!  I loved this quilt and had a hard time putting it in the box to ship away.  It was a gift of love so I knew I needed to send it.  It sounds like it was well received.

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This is Some Vacation! 3

I had the first week of MOPS for the school year while Mom was here so she went along with me.  My helper mom this year is my MIL and both our moms are friends so they enjoyed the morning together.

I had 3 kids in the room that day and reminded them that my “name” at MOPS is Mrs. M— and that “this one” will be our helper in the room each time and she is also Mrs. M–.   The kids were surprised!!  My MIL isn’t thrilled to be called that so we call her Grandma M as that is what I’m used to calling her.  To add more intrigue, I introduced my mom and they were so surprised that MY mom was there from so far away and that the other one was my husband’s mom.  It was fun!

One evening we went to the PC Quilt Guild meeting.  It was an extra-special speaker that night and whereas most months we may only have 1 or 2 guests, this time my mom was one of 18 visitors to our guild!  Many, many of my guild friends (members at this one and members at the other one I’m in) were thrilled to meet her and introduced themselves.

Mom & I even had show & tell to share!  I prepared this embroidery for her to work on and she brought it back all done!  I still need to do piecing of trees for the border and quilt it for a table runner.

She does beautiful work!  I couldn’t see a pencil line of the pattern left!  I’m not sure how she did all this of white & gray floss on white fabric!

And I got her to initial it!  🙂

~~
The second Sunday she was here was an open day for Miss K and we all met in the middle for a wonderful dinner!

Once again, mom was the charmer and attracted the attention of the owner of the restaurant!  He came to our table and welcomed us, shaking mom’s hand and then giving her a light kiss on her head when he left.  After we had finished our meals (well, as much as we could eat and had packed up our leftovers!), Mom & I visited with the owner again.  Soon our waitress came to our table with a full serving of their dessert beignets compliments of Mr. Vitalie!  Beignets with marshmallow cream and a chocolate swirl for dipping!  We were sure our stomachs had not one more inch of space but warm beignets fit in there just right!

We brought home some leftovers and mom would heat a few each day for her mid-morning snack.  🙂  Of course, she made me have one too!  Maybe my next “meal” there will be just an order of beignets!  ♥

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This is Some Vacation! 2

During vacation, the Sisters group at church had a paint party and I signed up for myself, my mom, and a friend to come.  My friend claimed she wasn’t a painter and I said that it would all be fine and that my mom has probably never held a paintbrush in her hands.

For not fun reasons, my friend was not able to come.  I then sent a text to another friend, one of my MOPS moms, asking if she’d like to come.  It was my treat, she just needed to come.  She was thrilled and all the child care worked out easily for her.  So one friend was sad and one was blessed to tears by the opportunity to come to a Sisters event.

I had hoped it was a paint party of copying the design the teacher had for us as I’ve seen many friends participate in doing.  However, it was a plaque/wall board and phrase paint class.  We used chalk paint and learned the benefits and the properties of it and it was fun.

This was shocking…. my mom doing a craft project!!

About 40 were there, we had snacks but once we started with the project we were too busy to think much about more snacks!

We had a good table of friends.  Fun evening and we were happy with our projects!

Mom was sort of a celebrity when I had her out for events.  She was thrilled to have “come the farthest” and everyone was thrilled she was out traveling and her age.

I’m taking bets if she has this hidden in her room or hung in the main living area.  What do you think?
Mine is ready to be hung…. I need to choose what will hang on the wall area and do a layout.

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This is Some Vacation! 1

September ~
I think that is what she said afterwards!  My mom got her 2 weeks of vacation with us!  (Well, this time with us… she gets a lot of vacations and loves it!)  You’ll see I had her working and busy and out & about a lot.  I’m sure she needed to rest after vacation!

Some highlights —
Day 2 – after church — and I love that she is great with selfies even tho she doesn’t have a phone to take photos

She got to see her youngest (and tallest) grandson for a 1/2 day before he headed back for his last semester. He was drummer at church that morning.  I think it was 11 yrs ago she saw him drumming last!   😀

She hung out in the studio with me.  One day, while I quilted, she ironed 3 yards of fabric “we” had dyed the day before.

~Often when I said “we” did this or that, she said it was more like “Betsy & I killed the bear.  Betsy sat on the fence and I killed the bear.”    Have you heard that phrase?

(a quick google gave me this:
“Betsy and I Killed the Bear” is an expression whose meaning has been lost. Like many of the things I work with, it is an evocative archaeological find whose significance is not immediately discernible. Its meaning – as nearly as I am able to reconstruct it – has to do with taking credit for something one has not done. But this meaning has become so obscure that it remains more or less a private one to the individuals in the photographs, in particular to my Aunt Dorothy, who mentioned it to me in conversation a few years ago; now 91…. (which fits the age range for “Betsy” in this case).  )

 

Another day, she had her knitting and I was quilting and with my barely long enough arm, I was able to get both of us and our projects in a selfie!  (not to be confused with my long arm machine for quilting! pardon the pun…)

My Instant Pot was still new and she got to be a tester for some new recipes.  How about hot fudge brownie with chocolate raspberry swirl ice cream for a bedtime snack?  Yum!!

Lunch outside on a busy day (for me) when we couldn’t take time to eat at the table AND catch some rays at separate times!

Another day we had a quick run to the drugstore and she was given a $5 cash back coupon.  She said she didn’t use them.  Gasp!!  I asked if she’d like a snack for the trip home but she declined.  I said  I would use it and headed for the chocolate aisle.  I showed her one of my favorite treats, Dove Dark Chocolate covered cranberries, and asked if she’d like this.

Immediately, since she was also scanning this aisle that she’s probably never been in, she said, “What about trail mix?”  I asked what she likes in her trail mix and before she answered she asked about this can of snack mix.  Oh yummy!!   Great!  She chose her own use of the coupon that was hers to use anyway.  It was $4.99, we checked out and with the .01 something tax, I gave the coupon and we were free & clear!

I put this in the bag she already was given and as we walked out, she agreed that was fun!  I didn’t even get my seat-belt on in the car and she was opening her can of snack/ala candy!  After almost 2 weeks, I still forgot to make sure she had her ‘2nd breakfast’ and she was hungry!  However, hungry with you & me is different than hungry and my mom.  She had 2 bits and was done!  I don’t have such willpower once chocolate starts in!  It was packed in her car bag for the trip home.

A few more parts to her visit to come….

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Mystery Quilt – Quilting

Once I had my detail guidelines marked and the ideas mostly in my head and a bit on paper, I was able to load and quilt.  I only got the detail quilting done and then the customer work was flowing in fast so I took it off my frame.  A hard choice to make but I knew I had enough quilting done, plus added a few pins for basting, that I could put it aside.

I used a turquoise and purple variegated thread; Superior Rainbows 802 Brasilia Blue.

This was on & off my quilt hanging rack 20 or more times while other quilts were photographed!

Some of the detail quilting —

So then it waited from early March until August.

I took a week to quilt a baby quilt and finish this mystery quilt.  The Olympics were on TV so I had that as my background noise a lot while I did the small fill-in quilting.  This took a bit over 10 hours of quilting time.  I quilted  during the day a few hours at a time and 2 nights until 10 p.m. or after to finally get it done.

I knew my current bobbin was nearing the end as I was nearing the end of my quilting and prayed I’d make it without having to wind one more bobbin.  I made it with this much left!  Yeah!  10:20 p.m.  #yawn

I had it just draped on a chair until a weekend when I could trim it and sew on the binding.  I walked into my studio one day and it was like this and I just had to have  a photo.  I was so glad to finally have the quilting done on one of my own quilts.

I added the soloist turquoise for binding and once that was on, it had really completed it!

I really like this and I’m not sure I want to give it away now!
Pattern is available at Colourful Stitches — Symmetry Square  it is an e-pattern.  I suggest it!!  No special tools needed.

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Mystery Quilt – Second Post

I corrected the previous post that we get clues for this every WEEK.  So the first few weeks slid past me quite fast!  One quiet weekend in January, I did the cutting. Then I worked in the long evenings that week in getting caught up on the clues.

Clue 2 had us making a pile of 9-patches and Clue 3 added in some long rectangles.  Also for clue 3, these sets were combined and added to the center like this.  I’m just pulling random neutrals for my scraps, though making the rectangle parts go together per piece.  She tells us where the soloist fabric goes.

Clue 4 was another pile of 9-patches.  They get monotonous so it was OK to break those times up!  I was working about 1 clue a day still so it was good for me to have a change of pace.

Clue 5 is below and added the outer row, where I marked off the center already completed with the dashed line.  By now, some of the other quilts posted on the group are showing very fun color arrangements!  I’m trying hard to not be swayed.  The writer is encouraging my randomness.  Good to get out of a planned box!

 

Below, Clue 6 has been added as an outer row again.

More to follow….

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