Category Archive: quilts
I did find time to make half of the trees before we went out insurance shopping. It seems insurance companies change
they were so good in our salad today.A Very SAD day
The beehives are empty! There are many dead bees and something has taken all the honey as well. 2 weeks ago, there were so many bees, I added another box. Now all is gone. There is lots of nectar as the flowers have been blooming, especially the blackberry. There should be a hive full of honey. Just dead bees.
Remember I purchased this book two weeks ago. And because I promised you that I would make something out of it as soon as the bear could be put aside, I started on a quilt from it today.
The name of this is “Jelly Forest” and I’m using a jelly roll that I found in my supplies. (imagine that) It is cut out and lying on the cutting table which means until it is put together, I won’t be cutting anything else out. My hope is that will happen by week’s end.
We don’t have television, so just for fun last night we watched a free Amazon Prime movie – well actually 5 parts of it. It is called Pioneer Quest. This was set up so people could get a feel of how life was back than and films these two couples as they try to navigate their way as the settlers would in 1870. It is well worth watching and you will certainly count your blessings.
The Bear
This bear may be destined to become another ufo. He is layered and ready to quilt and the machine will not cooperate. Maybe I’m not supposed to be sewing. I got this machine back from the repair shop yesterday and took my other one in as it seized up. I will play with this machine again next week. Maybe it just needs a good Sabbath rest.
Enjoy your weekend. We are planning on some rain to keep our area nice and green. This is just a very normal Pacific Northwest summer. Our real summer starts the last week in July.
Purple hats finished plus
149 little purple hats – 146 from one bolt of fleece and 3 were from left over purple fleece. They are done and waiting for me to find a box to put them up until Sept. It feels so good to have things done with time to spare.
Then I finished a fun little wall hanging I was testing and sent in the report. I’ll have to show you that one in November.
The afternoon was spent playing with this. It takes 75 minutes to process a load of pints with beans after pressure is reached, about 45 minutes for it to cool down and then one must bring it back up to pressure and keep it there for another 75 minutes. Therefore 2 loads of beans takes about 4 hours. And I have to be there since the pressure changes “for no reason”. The stove is electric and doesn’t want to be constant. This time I soaked the beans for 24 hours, packed them in the jars without any cooking. It was so much easier, but next time I will put fewer beans in the jars and still fill them with water. I wonder if I could put salt in them or if that would keep them from getting soft. The top beans do seem a bit dry which is why I will try more liquid and a smidge fewer beans.
20 pints of red beans
Burning a hole in the pocket
With a gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket, I went to the Sew Fun infomercial that Quality Sewing sponsors.
These quilts were from two different books, one used embroidery designs and the other used jelly rolls.
Isn’t this a cute teapot cozy? It is simply a circle for the bottom with two rectangles and some elastic.
These baby bands are folded over elastic. Aren’t they sweet?
These are cute purses that stand open all the way. I did order this pattern as they were out of them.
And there was a pattern for this nice little clutch purse.
Are you wondering how I spent my gift?
There are three patterns in this book that I will be making. Then I also purchased this smock pattern which I think will make a cool summer top. I purchased a paper type ruler to bend my hems over and press so that I don’t burn my fingers. Remember the metal ones, we all had/have. This replaces that. To round that off, I “needed” some double eye needles for knitting projects as well as to thread through my serger ends. . As soon as I finish the bear quilt, I will be starting on one of these quilts.
Good Procrastination
These came in the mail today from my cousin. I’m guessing my aunt had started a quilt before she had her stroke and these are the result.
Remember the left over blocks with the sunbonnets my sister had made. These blocks are 1/2″ larger and the sunbonnet is definitely larger. I have 15 blocks left from my sister and there are 6 of these. The background is nearly the same. I’m thinking of sending these over to my sister to have her do the same applique she did on the other blocks and then there would be 21 blocks. I can do a quilt with 20 and have one left for a pillow. If I interspersed these with the other blocks, perhaps it won’t look like an accident. Now isn’t it good that I procrastinated?
The bear block that was so supposed to be so quick and easy, isn’t. First I had to make separate pattern pieces, then there was the “leading”. These are plastic strips that were made to go into the bias strip to press them. They come in different widths, so I used them to keep my seams all on the back side of the leading.
I changed how I’m going to make this quilt. So I placed the pattern under my light blue background, then sprayed each cutout piece with an adhesive, using the box to catch the overspray. They I laid the pieces in the proper place on the background.
This is what he looks like now. I’m still deciding if I want to applique before or after adding the batting and backing. The pattern maker suggests, I applique all three pieces together.
Garden report: The broccoli came out today. I think the cauliflower is a disaster as the weather was too hot at the wrong time. I need to decide on a winter crop that I want to put in that space and get it planted this week. I brought in a red and a green cabbage, some basil, and lettuce as well as the broccoli that still needed to be picked. There were also more raspberries and blueberries.
Grabbing the little minutes
There wasn’t much sewing time today, but this pattern calls for bias tubes to make it look like stained glass.
I cut the bias 1.25″ wide, sewed the sides together with a 1/4″ seam and turned it with this “Fasturn” tube. I don’t use them often, but when I need one of them, they are very handy.
I have the tubes all turned now and am ready to press them. These are one of these “little” things that seem to take a long time.
Super fresh food
This morning before the sun made our part of the world warm, I was able to get out to the garden and pick some food for breakfast and lunch. I wish photos could show how good these berries are.
For lunch I dug potatoes (the blue round items are blue potatoes) and onions, then picked some cabbage which turned into an excellent coleslaw. I had a red pepper which I added and dressed it with avocado/rice vinegar. We had the rest of it for dinner tonight.
No photo tonight because I uploaded the photos before I picked the beets, but tomorrow we will enjoy beets and greens for lunch. We are so enjoying the fresh foods.
Gardening seems to take much of the day, as it takes time to water and weed, and pick, but, I wanted to start something new and uncovered this pattern purchased more than 12 years ago. I have now made the pattern pieces and next session can cut out the parts to make the baby quilt.
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I know I said I wasn’t going to test any more quilts for a bit, but this is a Christmas wall hanging and just too cute to pass up. The border for this quilt is these small log cabin blocks – just 28 of them. I quit for the day
This is what we found when we went into the hay building. Isn’t she a beautiful bird? Sadly for her, we took the eggs. We no longer have a rooster, nor do we want more chickens right now, and we do have someone who wants the eggs.