What to do about Grandma's cast iron corn muffin tins....???

Stuff!!  I have Grandma's stuff, my mother's stuff, my children's stuff and our stuff.  Reducing stuff is very very hard.  So what to do with Grandma's corn muffin cast iron stuff???  Well, I do not know.  I decided to use them tonight.  They have been in the attic for at least 25 years..untouched, but loved..  So now that I have used them????  But they were Grandma's!!......

Teal Kaleidoscope process..continued

Here is the next step in this scrap quilt.  I have added flower centers, appliqueing them with a varigated black and red thread, and added misc corner blocks.  You can already see the secondary design showing. Still not a brilliant quilt, but a quilt in progress.  My daughter, Emily and I "google skyped" a few hours ago ( she is in England )and made a get going pact...one hour to see what we could get done.  That is the only reason I have accomplished this much today on this quilt.   Thank you Emily!

Totally loosing my touch...grrr

Why do I do this to myself.  I have so many WIPs...so many sitting here waiting for borders or final quilting touches or bindings and I start yet another one.  This quilt is horrific.  I know that tomorrow when I add or subtract something, that I can make it work, but it is not working now.  I hate it.  But, then, it is 10:44 pm...so I think I will just go to bed.  I am getting tired of using my "made" fabric.  So, the next quilt that I start anew I think will be just plain blocks or 4 patches...

 



Gabriel's quilt

Onion bag repurposed

We are trying to declutter our lives..Now we are in the kitchen.  In going through the kitchen drawers, I found all these plastic forks, spoons, etc that the grandchildren use.  We usually keep the plastic childrens' plates down below where the children can reach them and thus help themselves.  How to organize all these spoons, etc?  I took the bag that the onions came in, washed it and cut away the paper.  I sewed 3 inch strips of fabric, finished edges with zig-zag and made the bag as usual.  I sewed a strip of Velcro on the top so little hands can help themselves.



Done...Pink and White Nine Patch Variation

Done...I was taking this top to my now cancelled retreat...Thought it couldn't wait...so I just finished it up tonight...Just love the word  DONE!

No thinking quilt in orange...Finished

I

I just could not wait till Wednesday to have my group help me baste this...This quilt was asking to be done..begging not to be a WIP!!  So, it is now done..With this kind of bright quilt, I really like a simple quilting, thus the simple parallel lines.

But, now....my awesome orange Kona cotton is all gone(:  Two yards!  I just hated cutting into it, I loved it so...Oh, well...I need to move on!!
Now, I am taking my arthritic body and my Ibuproben to the pool!!

And this was featured on the Wednesday quilt show!! 

Old Swedish Quilts

 I got this book.  There was a lot of looking, since it was out of print, but I got it and my heart is thumping.  Grandma came over on the boat from Sweden when she was 15, leaving behind her family. Impetuous 15 year old.  As you know, she taught me to sew and to appreciate handmade things.  That was enough for me to be excited about this book.  But, then I saw this: 

This is exactly the wall hanging that hung on our wall growing up.  I just could not believe seeing it here in the facing of this book. The writer put it in to show the quilts on the bunk beds.  But, it means so much more to me.  Grandma came to America through Boston, but we eventually lived in Phoenix, Arizona and it is on that dining room wall, every Christmas, that I remember this with great love.  My sister owns it now and has it hanging year round.  Even writing this post makes me happy with good memories.

No think scraps in orange...

Well, I was going on a 4 day quilting retreat that I had signed up for a YEAR ago...car was packed...10 UFO/WIP's....one from 30 years ago..a Georgia Bonesteel quilt as- you- go disaster..all hand pieced and hand quilted still in pieces;....one from about 10 years ago, the style then was charm quilts...hand pieced stars..partially done...and you get the picture on how old the other 8 are...Car was packed by my dear husband with lamp and sewing machine and 5 quilted quilts for show and tell, etc. etc.

Yesterday it was all cancelled due to ice and snow, unmelted, in the Carolinas.  Poor me!!  And, by the way, poor husband.  He has unpacked the car and it is all now in my living room.  I need help putting it back together...oh, I need lots of organizational help...maybe even a quilting maid service!!!.  So, I was so bummed out, that I decided to do some NO THINKING scrap quilting.  That is reaching into the scrap bag and randomly sewing scraps together, then randomly sewing them together without design wall or thinking.  Done now and here they are on the design wall...now the thinking begins...but how much fun and how therapeutic...no measuring and no fitting seams and no patterns and no thinking...sigh!

And now, guess who is on her way to one more WIP/UFO.....? 

Well!!!!  This is a post note....I have finished the top and it is still tonight and it went soooo quickly with no matching needed.  Hopefully I will get it basted Wednesday night by my group and get right on it....unless of course another idea hits me:)  Maybe those Civil War charm packs by Barbara Brackman will come in the mail and I can start a Civil War quilt following her posts...hmmm  http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/  This is a great blog because Barbara gives history along with the instructions.

Mom's Meat Loaf recipe...at least 60 years old--recipe that is.:)

1 pound hamburger
2 slices or more broken bread
1/2 cup or more oatmeal
1 small onion chopped
1 egg
a few canned tomatoes
salt and pepper, flour and bacon strips

Mix hamburger with all of the above (soak bread in milk); the  more you mix the better. Season, be sure mixture is not too soft or too hard, just right for shaping into loaf.  Add dabs of tomato soup or tomato sauce, sprinkle some flour and add bacon strips.  Bake about an hour at 350 degrees.   ( Recipe is exactly copied from my mother's card)  Yummy. ( She added a bit of Accent, but I never use that.)

Also see pix of completed postcards:

Snowed bound in Charlotte!

 We live down the hill and in the woods, yet still in the city.  We are so lucky..Himself went out today to move the cars up the hill and make a path to walk up there ahead of the sleet and freeze we are expecting tonight.  We have almost five inches of snow here.  It is beautiful.  The sleet and freeze will not be however.  So, in case we loose electricity, my laundry is done, the dishes are washed, the meatloaf is in the oven with enough potatoes for potato salad with the cold meat loaf sandwiches for tomorrow:)

 The batik quilt top sits now on the design wall like a good stew, it needs time...It will stay there for awhile while my mind ponders the borders.

 So, now as  an aside...I decided to make a few postcards with some of the corner scraps from the quilt.  I used some shiny embroidery thread from Long Creek Mills on the one on the right and on the left some multicolored thread from YLI.  I usually use a metallic needle, but I just wanted to use up this one, so I didn't bother.

 I will trim them, glue another card stock backing stamped with this great stamp from Hobby Lobby (with my coupon) and then with a double blanket stitch go around the edge just like I did on the coasters.

If you are ever at Mary Jo's in Gastonia for fabric, check out Long Creek Mills thread store www.longcreekmills.com.  The thread is soooo reasonable there, that you might just start (continue) a thread collection too.

Batik update 2

 This pattern is very unusual...I just never thought of putting a white corner piece, clipping it, and then adding the dark...all this snowball stuff.  I really love the way the quilt is changing.  These blocks are not together yet. I guess I will have time tomorrow if the snow comes.

Batik update

This is what I have finished so far.  I see now that it is not a double snowball, but a snowball x 4.  I have two more corners to attach.  A very interesting pattern.  I am having fun playing with some of my favorite fabrics.  My husband thinks now that this is enough sewing for a Saturday night and we need to go play some Irish music with friends.  Such a quilting sacrifice:)

Artful home pattern by Heather Mulder Peterson

I am starting a new quilt from this free pattern online at: http://blog.fabshophop.com/blog/?p=3479  I found a panel of preprinted batik at Foam and Fabrics on Hendersonville Hwy in Asheville awhile ago.  I cut them into 5 inch squares for this project.  (I am not using the measurements of the pattern).  What I have found interesting about this pattern is that it really is a double snowball..The corner edges done twice.  Below you can see it done the first time.

Below you can see the second round of corners done.  All these corner additions make the block look like an octagon.

This is the work in progress...stay tuned...

Life has the most exciting surprises:)

Our guild just had a sale on all books older than 2000....Look at my catch for $2.  How excited am I.....oooooo.  Definately a high light of my week.  And it is signed by Gwen:)

My daughter Emily, December in Birmingham, England, 2010

I miss her so much, but she is having wonderful adventures.  You go Emily!!! I love you.

Coasters!!! finally

Today Emily got her Christmas package from me...Good Lord is the mail slow to England!  Well I had included in the package some of these coasters that I had made and I didn't want her too see them until she got hers...so she has them and here is my coaster post.

I made these from my "made fabric" and used the tutorial below.  I did not do the snowflake part, but used his  other ideas instead.  I found a roll of masking tape to draw around for the circle size I wanted.  It was important to use the directions below in using a larger square of fabric on the back or there would be nothing to hold on to while doing the free motion quilting.  I did not do the edge blanket stitch by hand, I used a wide machine double blanket stitch.  Since I had already made the scrap fabric, these went very quickly and were a lot of fun.
http://www.patricklose.net/cool-coasters.htm

I even made a few in a smaller size to fit into the cup holder of my mother's wheelchair to catch the drips and to brighten her day.

More of the finished cuddle quilt

There is nothing like the feeling of having finished a quilt that you feel is well done and will make someone happy.  To feel it and to appreciate all the colors.  Being a quilter is such a nice thing.

This quilt was quilted in 35 minutes.  I know that because I was watching a TV program while I did it.  Since it is a cuddle quilt, I did the wiggle stitch one way through the corners of each block.  So easy, so effective and so relaxing.  I hope you can see this in the close ups below.

I had a wonderful day.  This sight of the sun coming up shining through my bottle tree was delightful through my quilting room window.

A morning chat with friends, a lunch with other nice friends...sitting wrapped in a quilt and coat in the sun in the yard with a book.  My cup runneth over.

One patch cuddle top

Just sharing...second cuddle top is finished. The leftover blocks are from Evan's quilt...and he is now 5, from Jaclyn's quilt..and she is now 4, and from Jonathan's quilt...and he is now 2 and a half!!!  Glad to use up the leftovers.   As I was making this I was thinking about Stash reduction.  I almost never buy fabric for a quilt.  I usually make from what I have...almost always because I love a fabric challenge.  But I do buy fabric.  I buy it to love, to admire, to smell and to touch, to have...This New Year I will continue working toward the goal of making myself cut it!!!!

Isn't this fabric from IKEA just perfect for the backing!!