Binding is the sum total of my quilty pursuits this past week. I can’t even claim to have made these.

A couple of years ago I read online about a local group, the James Stitching Sisters, that has a sewing center near my home as well as sit-n-stitch groups at several LQS. The Sisters group makes quilts for local breast cancer patients going through chemo and has a really neat setup in donated space with everything needed to make quilts. It’s seriously like a mini quilt shop… bolts and bolts of fabric, thread, patterns, sewing machines, cutting areas, and two HQ16s for quilting. I’m really shy and hate to walk into groups where I don’t know anyone, but I couldn’t be more glad I took the plunge and finally met this group a few months back. I’ve met different women each time, and they are all uniquely skilled and a lot of fun to be around.

As with most donation quilting, there are quilts in various stages of completion. The cute TATW variation made with rectangles was already quilted so I brought it home to bind. The pattern for the quilt below is, I believe, in Evelyn Sloppy’s 40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts. I quilted it there and brought it home for binding also; one side left to go.

Of course, I needed something to get me through all that binding, so I rented a few movies. Each was good in its own way. Gran Torino was my favorite of the three. Stepbrothers was funny, but not for the prudish faint-of-heart! Revolutionary Road left me wondering.

*****

In other news last week, someone turned 30!!! My gosh, I am definitely not old enough to have a child that age. This 5-generation picture was taken 30 years ago at my cousin’s wedding shower when Chris was just three months old. (ETA: not sure what's happening with this picture; I guess I'll try to post it later.)

Have a quilty week!

Sheila

Worst blogger award

Yeah, well. I'm the worst blogger in the world. It is what it is. But I have been busy.

Last weekend the kids went out of town for a little R&R before school starts up and to celebrate the sale of a portion of their company. GMan stayed with me and O.P. went down the road to the other grandparents. We are really fortunate to all live within a few miles of each other and I have never once regretted moving back from Texas to be near this one. In addition to a little fun at the big scary mouse house, we played badminton inside and had endless hours of trains, watching movies, and peeling tons of apples to make applesauce. G was thrilled that the owner beneath me was out of town too, which meant he could run and jump without me trying to keep the rambunctiousness of a 3 y/o in check.

This was a little gift/blog win from Joanne, who moved this past week from Indiana to New Hampshire. Really cute stuff, but I'll have to let those fabrics age a bit while I decide on a pattern. Thank you, Joanne, and let me know when your machine is up and running again!

Yesterday was a PIGS day at the LQS... lots of fun, people, and food. What more could ya ask for? I knew no one but the owner, so I didn't spend as much time gabbing as others, but still felt like I didn't accomplish much. Then the power went out with an hour left to our day, so we all had to pack it in.

One of the things I worked on was this County Lines project that I bought a couple of years ago. This will most likely be a charity quilt.

Friday was the 2nd class of our Mystery and we are now making these 5-inch blocks -- twelve with the accent as the background and another 24 with the usual background. Slooooow going; here are eight done with the black/accent background shown with the 12 blocks we made from the first class. Friday's class was short and I only got one made then, and another seven yesterday. Thankfully the next class is a month away, with 28 blocks to go. I did come to appreciate the Tucker Trimmer though. It will be interesting to see how this all comes together. That stuff on the right in the picture below is the S&W I had to pull out of the way.

Here are two UFOs I took that I didn't get around to working on. The blocks in the top are pair sets for disappearing 9-patch which, when it all came together, I lost interest in when I didn't care for my choice of background. The fabric on the bottom is a Lasagna quilt that just needs the rows sewn together and decide on a border. These will both be Project Linus quilts.

More stuff I took and didn't work on!

I'm still enjoying my fruit every week, although it's starting to pile up! Yellow Shiro plums and apricots and apples out the wazoo right now, and no time to do anything with them. This fresh-from-the-oven pic was a Plum Torte I made for a birthday celebration at work last week. I figured something that (urban?) legend says gets printed in the New York Times for 20 straight years might be tasty. I threw in the blueberries so it would have a little color, and they provided a little more sweetness thankfully, as the Shiro plums were amazingly tart when cooked (tart skin, sweet flesh).

What are your favorite apricot or plum or apple recipes?

Until next time,

Sheila

Creating more WIPs

My favorite LQS was having buy two get one free special on classes this summer, so I signed myself up for a little quilting camaraderie that I miss so much from my days in Texas.

Friday was day 1 of 3 for the 'Advanced Mystery' and this is the result of this portion of the class. I would have had another block but screwed up cutting it. I'm assured my mistake will be put to use later in the quilt. I need to make nine more this size and then cut more fabric for the next session.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a total mystery to me. If it's "highly recommended" that you have two tools for a mystery class, you investigate the tools, don't you?? One of them was this Tucker Trimmer...

which is basically a half- and quarter-square triangle block trimmer. The black dot and solid lines at the top end of the ruler indicate trimming for whole-inch sizes; when flipped around to the half dot side, the dotted lines indicate trimming for half-inch sizes. Below shows a QST made from two HST, which was then trimmed to 4". Line up the crosswise center seam on the solid line marked 4, and trim two sides. Flip the block around, line it up and trim again.

At $13.50, I don't make enough QSTs to justify this, but at least I didn't buy the Magic Wand. I already have a Quick Quarter for that, even if I don't know where it is.

This pretty thing is the result of Saturday's class using Terry Atkinson's Winner's Bouquet pattern. This will be a lapsize quilt when done.

The background fabric (light blue floral) for this is my challenge fabric for a project due Labor Day weekend and the fuchsias and pinks were from the stash.

Here is all the fabric left from cutting blocks for the Winner's Bouquet. I only cut enough for 16 blocks to begin with, and I'm not sure how many blocks the other lady cut for. She was going to throw all those batik leftovers in the trash, but I convinced her I would put them to work in Heartstrings quilts. I think this is what I like least about cutting with templates.

What I've been reading: David Baldacci's First Family: an excellent page-turner featuring Sean & Michelle, the former Secret Service agents from his previous novels.

I slept from 6-11pm last night and have been up since... so I'm off to breakfast with the boys and then a nap!

Until next time,

Sheila

I missed the ferry on the "first quilt" thingy going around. Just as well, since my first ever quilt attempt is still in pieces. In a container. In storage in Texas. It was The Rambler pattern with muslin and a green floral from the big box fabric store. No directions, just something I'd seen at a show. I'd always sewn clothes since I was 10 or so, but knew nothing about quilting angles and triangles. Very humbling, and someday it will be finished.

My second quilt was an I Spy for my then-significant other's daughter, and I'll have to ask for a picture of it. Snowballs with a schoolbus border. Lots and lots of snowball blocks. At the time, I swore I would never make another snowball as long as I quilted.

So, here is the 3rd started/2nd finished quilt I made the year I began quilting (1999). Little flange and all. I need to photograph this outdoors to get the true colors.

It was for my Grandfather for Christmas in 1999, and it lives with me now. It was from the book Four Blocks Say More, which I believe is out of print.

Several years ago I started another that will eventually go to QOV:

Take care,

Sheila

I had a novel idea yesterday. Turn off the computer and work on quilts. I feel like know I spend a lot of time on the computer, and one great blog or news article often leads to another and another... Or I'll sit down to check my bank balance or the status of an order and manage to get sidetracked before I even make it to where I was headed (much like this post, eh?).

I had several quilts in mind to work on yesterday, but only worked on this one and, other than a nap, worked on it the whole day. I ran into or created all kinds of issues when putting this together . It's in rows now; a little further along than the picture. Thought about making five more blocks to make it a bit longer, but we'll see (this is actually a sideways view).

And for your enjoyment, here's me making deals with myself all weekend to get to this point:

Friday Me: I want to call in sick and stay home and quilt.

My Conscience: Another unpaid day? After an unpaid holiday and another day off watching GMan while O.P. had surgery? Not today.

Saturday Me: I want to quilt.

My Conscience: Noooooo... The house is a mess. If you clean first, then you can quilt. And while you're at it, the fridge is empty and we are out of silly little stuff like TP & body wash & shampoo.

Sunday Me: I want to cut out a new hexagon quilt.

My Conscience: Noooooooo! You already have that Stack 'n' Whack from umpteen years ago that you haven't finished; when you finish that, you can cut out a new quilt.

Sunday evening Me: I want to work on my other sock.

My Conscience: NO! You can get the binding done on all those quilts over there long before you'll finish that sock.

Food for thought

When I say FTC, do you think of bloggers? The original article:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j6DZ0gpsCSwquntzof4FR4yfqYXwD98V7B880

And some interesting thoughts in the comment section of this post:

http://everything.typepad.com/blog/2009/07/the-federal-trade-commission-is-keeping-an-eye-on-blogger-freebies.html

We all know of blogs whose pages are filled with product/site icons & advertisements. Should they be required to state whether or not they are compensated for the products they endorse (and freebies are compensation), whether or not there is a prominent advertisement on their site? If there is compensation involved, do you question the objectivity of the endorsement?

And along the same lines, are you as suspicious as me of blogs where you are forced to read a post outside of a blog reader? Do you find that more often than not those blogs have lots of advertising? I always wonder who is tracking what about my visit there.

Thursday is fruit day

Week 1 leftovers

Last summer was my first experience with shopping a farmers' market for fruits, veggies, meats, cheese, honey, and all sorts of other great organic food. I was in heaven. I bought all kinds of produce I'd never tried and had blast. Although my mother was not an adventurous cook, it very much reminded me of my childhood when we shopped at farm stands throughout the summer and bought our eggs from a farm early every Sunday morning before church. They had an egg refrigerator on the back porch and a little bowl for the money; it was a small town honor system.

One of the things I wanted to try this year was making jams/jellies and salsa. I asked for and received a canning set for Christmas, and committed to a 20-week fruit CSA for this summer. I signed up for a 4-person share so that I would have enough to preserve and some for me and the kids to enjoy through the week. For three weeks we received strawberries, and boy were they delicious.

The first week I followed one of the recipes for strawberry jam in the the Ball Blue Book "bible" and added 7 cups!! of sugar to two quarts of strawberries. The thought of eight 8-oz jars of jam with 7 cups of sugar divided among them made my pancreas squirm, but I did it anyhow. If nothing else, it was a good reference point for future sessions. I have a few jars left from the first batches (it's like your first quilt, you know?), but gave the rest away to the kids and my daughter-in-law's parents & sister.

I researched and found a different type of pectin that doesn't rely on sugar to gel. I bought it at Whole Foods Market, where it was about $2 less than the manufacturer if you can believe that. Each box makes 2-4 batches of jam or jelly, so it ends up being less expensive than the common varieties of pectin. And I'm much happier with the results (2 cups sugar v. 7 cups).

This week we received three different types of cherries, but I have no clue what types. Does anyone have good tips for distinguishing cherries? I'll make a pie for the weekend, and Susan told me I must try her Cherry Bounce recipe. I've never heard of it, but it sounds interesting.

Cherry Bounce

2 cups whole, unpitted sour cherries, gently washed

1/3 cup sugar

peel of one lemon

3 cups bourbon

Put the cherries in a quart jar. Add sugar and lemon peel, then fill with bourbon. Set in sun for at least two weeks, then store in a dark cupboard for two months or longer. Strain/filter to drink in small shot-type glasses, or repackage for great holiday gifts.

The process sounds a lot like limoncello and all I can think of is me imitating Carly Simon singing Anticipation.

Take care,

Sheila