Beginnings of a Crabapple Quilt

YIPPEE. It's snowing! We aren't expecting much. That's okay - I'll take what I can get.

Every time I see a Crabapple quilt - a pattern in Bonnie Hunter's Adventures with Leaders and Enders book, I love it. You can see good examples at Subee Sews Quilts, Jo's Country Junction and Scraps and Threadtales and this cute one on Flickr. I know there are many others - I just can't find them. This and her Scrappy Trip (very popular among bloggers right now) have been on my to do list for a while. I usually use the project I'm working on as my leader/ender but sometimes I get confused. So I pulled out my bin of 1 1/2" squares and started sewing up pairs of lights and darks while making the Lil Twister top. I need immediate gratification so I made up a block on my mom's old Montgomery Wards sewing machine. I got it from my sister last weekend and my husband cleaned, oiled and did a little rewiring on it for me.

The quarter inch foot I bought for my featherweight seems to fit perfectly. I do need to buy it a new belt.

I talked to my mom and she says the machine must be close to 60 years old. She remembers using the machine to make green and yellow curtains for the nursery before my sister was born in 1957.

 Love this old can of sewing machine oil.

This weekend I hope to finish making the backing for Ella's quilt. Not sure if you can tell I sewed up the name "Ella". I decided not to use the IKEA fabric because I was too lazy to make the trip. I have plenty of pinks and greys to piece the back and it will go better with the grey thread I plan to use to quilt it.

My sister and I went to a Barn Sale at a horse farm near Frederick Maryland last Sunday.  That is an industrial park in the background : ( We had a fun day browsing there and at a few other vintage shops in Lucketts Virginia and had a delicious lunch at the Blue Ridge Grill in Leesburg Virginia.

We woke up to this yesterday morning. I woke up at 4:00 and could hear the snow falling or hitting the roof or something. Not sure that is even possible. I had a hard time falling back to sleep. I hate that when you feel like you've finally fallen asleep and the alarm goes off. It was a quiet day so the lack of sleep didn't affect me.

Just look at this dog-

 I never thought I'd live with a beagle.

 He's whining for his daddy (my son) to take him on a walk.

I understand Charles Schultz's Peanuts character Snoopy so much better now. He really caught the breeds personality.

An Overdue Update

Here's what's in the hoop-

I'm so slow at this hand quilting thing. I'm about half done with this. Thing is I need to have it done by the end of February. I'm not sure I can do it. I try to do some everyday, but inevitably I'll miss a day that becomes two or three days. I'd like it to go in the quilt show with the other half square triangle challenge quilts. I need a big snowstorm!

I made this little quilt top from the 'Lil Twister leftover fabric I showed in my last post.

And here is my second 'Lil Twister. It's for my nephew's baby. Ella was born last August so I'd really like to finish this up by the end of the month and get it in the mail. I want to use this IKEA fabric for the back. I hope to get over there next week. I have more than a few quilt tops in the queue. I really need some machine quilting mojo! lol

I was feeling really yucky the end of last year. I knew it was from eating too many of the wrong carbs over the past few months. I have to watch my blood sugar and have some other health issues going on. My sister told me about Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo. I was waiting for a copy from the library, but it was taking too long so I just bought my own. I'm glad I did. She turns conventional food wisdom on it's head. I'm kind of following her meal plans and I've lost 5 lbs. The other good news is my joints aren't hurting so much (no tomatoes, potatoes or peppers) and I don't have any nasal congestion (no dairy). The dairy was easy because I'd already cut most of that out a while ago. The tomatoes, potatoes and peppers will be hard to give up for the long hall. I'll just have to be real selective when I cheat. She recommends raw fermented food so here is my homemade sauerkraut-

It should be ready in two weeks. Wish me luck with this diet. It's a challenge, but I want to keep myself out of the doctor's office.

Lil Twister

My holidays have been a mix of quiet and busy - just as I like it. I found a few minutes here and there to do some hand and machine stitching. On the machine I completed my Lil Twister quilt top made of 2 charm packs and some extra yardage.

You start out piecing the 5" squares into a grid and adding a 3" border-

Every time I use these-  Tag-a-Quilt by Quilt Dance I think I should share them with you. They help me keep my blocks in the correct order.

Use the Lil Twister ruler to cut out little squares by matching the lines on the ruler to the intersections of the stitched squares. There are lots of tutorials online, but I have a few non-quilters who read my blog so I wanted to show a few steps. This is one of those tricks available to quilters where it is easier to do than it looks.

After cutting out two squares, tilt them to the right, match up, and stitch. Then go to the next two and so on.

I think I'm going to use this ruler again to make a baby quilt for my nephew's baby. It'll be pinks and greys.

I have two observations to share. When using this ruler make sure you keep the rotary cutter as perpendicular to the cutting surface as possible. The ruler has feet that grips the fabric, but they also raise the ruler just a smidge off the fabric. I found some of my cuts weren't as straight as they could have been because my blade was finding space below the ruler. Also, as with many of these specialty rulers, it wastes a lot of fabric. Here is what I have left over-

enough for a little quilt.  80 -2 1/2" squares.

The week before Christmas I helped my niece get started on a t-shirt quilt. We have a big family so it was fun spending some one on one time with her. She is a nursing student at the University of Maryland. She went to Texas to celebrate the holidays with her mother's family and hopes to finish up the quilt with another aunt who quilts.

This past year has been a good one and I'm looking forward to January. My youngest went off to college this past summer and it seems like I have much more free time now. I'm doing things around the house that needed attention long ago. It feels good. No quilting resolutions for me this year. Only a crisis would keep me from stitching for long. Happily, stitching has become an almost daily habit. What gets done, gets done! ; c ) With that, I want to wish you all time in the new year to be creative. Cheers!

Christmas Decorations

I've so enjoyed seeing your holiday decorations in blogland so I decided to do my own holiday home tour. My DH took the photos for me. He sweetly said the problems I was having with my DSLR camera were not due to my abilities. It was a hand me down from him and he said he always had problems with it too.

Click to enlarge. Enjoy!

It's a fake tree. My son is allergic to the real thing.

This ornament came from my grandmother. 

I remember this ornament on the tree when I was a kid.

This one too-

My mom gave me this one a few years ago.

Love that these old ceramic trees are making a comeback. 

Happy Christmas!

What To Do?

After finishing a quilt I typically have a period of time when I pull out a few to several projects. I might sew a little on one, put parts of another on the design board or pull some fabrics. Last week was like that and here are some possibilities of things for me to work on over the holidays.

Quilting my quilt show committee challenge has a deadline. I took my Bernina in for a cleaning so this one is will have to wait.

These are some of the half square triangles left over from my challenges with the challenge quilt. I have enough to make a small quilt. Not showing all of the hsts here. I just wanted to get an idea of what I will do and how big I can make it with what I have.

Sharon over at Indigo Threads is making a low volume quilt. I admired it and she invited me to join her in making one. I've wanted to do one of these for a long time.

So I pulled out my baggie of waste traiangles from this quilt made with the Square in a Square Ruler-

and started making half square triangles.

Not sure this qualifies as a low volume quilt. It is mostly lights and certainly is low contrast. I wonder how big of a quilt I'll get out of that pile of triangles. Maybe I will make it bigger with other additions, but that will wait for another day.

I've decided to pull out my Lil' Twister ruler and a couple of charm packs I've owned for far too long. 

If you have any tips, I'd love to hear them. The directions are very brief. I don't want to own this holiday charm pack through yet another holiday. Time to sew them up!

I made caramel corn Sunday afternoon (Hail to the Redskins!) for my DH to take to work on Monday. This stuff cannot sit around my house or I WILL EAT IT!!! It is a Southern Living recipe from 1992. I give you this recipe with a warning - it is SO GOOD.  Make it before a party or give it away quickly or you will be tempted even if you have willpower of steel.  ; c )

Nutty Caramel Corn
6 quarts freshly popped corn (about 1 cup unpopped corn)
1 cup pecans (we chop ours, but not too fine)
1 cup cashews (we use almonds, also a quick chop)
1 cup butter or margarine (we use butter)
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine first 3 ingredients in a large roasting pan; set aside.
Melt butter in a large saucepan; stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 5 minutes, without stirring (temperature will register about 250 degrees). I find the 5 minutes to be accurate and don't mess with my inaccurate candy thermometer. Remove from heat; stir in soda and vanilla. Pour over popped corn and nuts; stir well. Bake at 225 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool and break into pieces, if desired. Store in an airtight container. Yield: 5 quarts. Attributed to Marion Hall of  Knoxville, Tennessee

I love vintage ornaments-

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season!

The Winners Are-

Just taking a break from decorating the Christmas tree to announce my giveaway winners.

Congratulations-

Barb of Fun With Barb

and

Pat from Thoughts from Taylors Outback

Both ladies have already been notified. Doniene picked the quilt with stars (no surprise there, she loves star blocks), libbyQ chose the green and tan strippy, Barb chose the pumpkin pie strippy and Pat gets the black strippy.  Congrats again to all the winners. I hope you enjoy your little quilts. I really enjoyed making these little quilts and having the giveaway. I’ve been so lucky in some of these giveaways and felt it was my time to give back. I also so appreciate our online friendships.

This is a photo of my sister’s mantel. A couple of weeks ago we went to a tag sale at Elizabeth & Co. and my sister found all these decorations. I made her the quilt years ago using the pattern in the book Little Quilts All Through The House by Alice Berg, Mary Ellen Von Holt and Sylvia Johnson.

My big purchase was this Little Golden Book. Do any of you remember this book? I still have the same book from when I was a kid though it is falling apart. Of course, inside is a quilt-

Since I’ve been painting furniture I started looking at furniture painting and home blogs. I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration and information doing this, but sometimes I start feeling like my home is a little shabby and not in a good way. Do you ever feel that way? I keep reminding myself that these rooms are often more like design sets and if they are in real homes they probably don’t stay like this day to day. Same thing happens when looking at home magazines and watching HGTV – I have to bring myself back to earth and be thankful for what I have.

Since I last posted I’ve been busily sewing on this quilt. It’s a big twin – 72”x96” (folded over here on the back of the couch). I used a big bundle of brushed cottons I purchased years ago. I can now shut my flannel bin! I purchased a blue tone on tone flannel for the back from Joann's. I think the quality of their $7.99 a yard fabric is fine - just not paying the extra for a well know fabric designer. Yes, I had a coupon ; c ). I didn’t use batting. It felt very thin as I basted it, but not once I started moving it through the machine to quilt it. It’s heavy! I'm sending it to Timeless Treasures Fabrics in Roselle, New Jersey. I just need to finish up the binding, label and wash it. They are collecting quilts for victims of Super Storm Sandy.

Enjoy your week!