no sewing but that's okay

I put my Patience Corner tree skirt plan into action and have the materials all cut out for the 49-8 inch blocks for the plan.  All 196 pieces for each block component.  Sewing did not ensue once I got that done, however.

What I did do was the grocery errands, planning out the menu or meal ideas though that is often subject to change.  I also switched out the Christmas wall hangings for the snow themed items and put the ceramic Christmas tree and nativity set up for the year.  So far Ms. Mousie is staying out for Skyler as every time he sees me pick her up to stash her in the closet, he wants to play.  DJ said to leave it out a few more days, LOL.

Today apparently ended up being my day to spend time in the kitchen.  I wanted to make some carrot raisin salad with a cooked dressing (though I used craisins instead) for our holiday meal and cream of coconut cake, just to make the New Year's meal a little special.  Since I was also using leftovers from the freezer I pulled the rest of the pumpkin from the Christmas pumpkin pie to make a loaf of the Copycat Starbuck's Pumpkin Bread and made that too though the end product was flash frozen for DJ and I to have for coffee break time.  Well, we sampled a piece for uh, quality control purposes though.  I told DJ that the freezer looked a little bare without all those containers in there.  A few items are thawing out for use this week and a couple other were used today.  Who felt like cooking a meal after all the baking etc?  Hooray for leftovers!

I did do a little embroidery on the Witches Hooray runner that I will use as a row in my Halloween project but mostly I have been knitting.  This latest skein almost glows in the dark----Red Heart Super Saver "Mexicana".  I have two more rolled brim hats done with that grape fizz color I liked but I hope that this one is more unisex especially since it is the basic watch cap style too.  I'll probably do two alike though I think the second one I'll do on one size smaller needles 7 and 9's instead of 8's and 10's.

Tomorrow I will definitely sew and on a pro bono project.  I have been making quilts for Wrap Them In Love since the fall of 1999 or about 9 months after I got my first computer.  It has long been a standing tradition for us to sew for Wrap 'Em on New Year's Day for as the saying goes "what you do on NYD, you will do all year long."  Some years I did a little personal stuff and a little pro bono for a little more balance in my life.

So I pulled out Criss Cross that I had last worked on back in November to get it moved along a bit more.  It was supposed to be a Fun and Done! from Prairie Sky Quilting but I decided to do it conventionally after trying a few blocks.  I'll be happier with the piecing if I foundation piece it.  I have 3 blocks done at this point, meaning 12 quarter blocks.  The whole quilt will take 48 quarters or 6 sections by 8 sections.   Or I think that is where I left off anyway.  Find out soon enough!


Happy New Year to you all----may 2013 bring you health and happiness.

change of plans

I hate it!  And I think I know why.  I do not fly by the seat of pants very well.   I can tweak a pattern but have a much harder time starting off from scratch.  Sewing on this tree skirt, making it scrappy, doing crazy patches is going too far against my grain.

I am proudly a traditional quilter who likes to try new patterns and techniques.  I can produce a good facsimile, I feel, with my own fabrics but reinvent the wheel?  Not so much.  It is making me nuts.

I woke up at 2:30 this morning and this tree skirt thing was on my mind---among other topics, to be honest.  In spite of my best efforts to shut it all down I was awake till 6:30 and then blessedly, back to sleep till about 8:30.  SIGH.  Some nights are like that but I am not going to waste any more time worrying about it now.

My niece/god child likes the idea of lots of different fabrics for this so it will go with anything decor-wise down the line.  It does NOT have to be crazy patches----it can be planned ones, just a mix of them.  Of the ones I pointed her to, it was the colors, not the style or pattern.  The only thing she requested really was a white or cream backing, I guess so it could be used on either side.

I love my Patience Corner!  I love how the fabrics just glow against the light sashing.   Why not just make a piece large enough that I could cut the segments out of it?  Create my own yardage, in effect from the quilt top.  I threw it all on the bed to get an idea of just how big I would need to go, blockwise.  Of course, you know who had to get in there to see what was going on.  Sniff it out.  I could make a quilt and then cut a hole it in for the trunk??  Or I could do the Dresden Plate wedges since I already have the backing and batting cut??   I need to quit dragging my feet and just get going with this already!  After all, sewing is supposed to be fun, not have the prospect of doing so keep you awake at night for hours on end!!  EQ to help with the idea.

The more I mull this over, I think that this idea is scrappy enough for her but controlled enough for me.  Just make a 7 x 7 block square of 8 inch blocks, scaling the cut squares down to 3 inch finished instead of 4 1/2.    I can do that!   Any holiday fabric works in it so the stuff I bought will still work in it plus anything left from my own version of the quilt and stash.   I bet I can use the twister blade I made up as a Christmas stocking if I want.  The tree I was working on last night can be taken apart for the fabric.   If I don't use the batting and backing as is, I can find another use for it.

I'm off to cut 196 pieces for these blocks-------decision made.  Going for it!

some cutting etc

 After spending some time this morning on the photo editing project, I decided that this afternoon I could try some cutting and sewing.  Playing with setting up the Kenmore electronic machine now and trying to determine where my quarter inch is on this thing.  I do not think I can change the center needle position on the machine to compensate for the distance of the foot but for what I am doing at the moment, it is NOT critical.

I am going with a shortened Christmas tree for one of the Dresden Plate blades for the tree skirt, using the "Charley Brown Tree"  Button Up like the one I already made in Nov. 2011, as a start.  I am using a couple of the fabrics that were in the Sweet Saint Nick line at Connecting Threads and use stash for the star and flower pot I plan on appliquing.  The original pattern had you piece in the tree holder----no way!  This blade will be less "busy" than the twister blade was.

I just found out that my lefthanded blogging friend and her friend the "other Linda" are going to do another "Leisurely Turtle Race to Christmas with Squirrels Allowed"  (or LTRTCWSA) for 2013.  These two were trying to get me to join in but I had other stuff going on----when don't I?  BUT this starts immediately after this just past Christmas so I may have a leg up with these two tree skirts and my plans to finally complete my version of the Oxmoor House.  Now I have to tell you that my lefthanded blogging friend has done some swaps with me and some of her previous projects have and will be coming to my house.  The girl loves scraps and I can accommodate that!   Want to join in----you got till November 30, 2013.  No rules either!  This year they called it a draw---you are done when you say you are done, LOL.

Mail call today brought the fabrics that I was able to purchase from the Fat Quarter Shop, thanks to the gift certificate I won in the blog hop from Starwood Quilter and part of my Christmas gift money from the Bama Belles.  Isn't it pretty?   Better than the thumbnails I posted the other day.  THX y'all!

The next thing I know it will be time to start supper! I already had to make one meal already today (spinach pie)  plus threw some chicken in the crockpot to make some chicken noodle soup earlier today.  I may go with the soup and save the Seafood Creole idea for tomorrow instead.  Some of the fish needs to thaw slightly anyway.   Ambivalent.

And sew it goes------

After Christmas check-in

I trust that you had a wonderful holidays whether spending it quietly like DJ and I or with a houseful of family or friends that are like family.

DJ and I are in the habit of watching a holiday movie on Christmas Eve and then exchanging gifts or whatever we had stuck in our stockings. Here is how I spent my time during the movie----mouths on the snowmen row.  I drew them on free hand so they are all a little different.  I also put a little embellishment on the noses to make it look more carrot-like.  The eyes will be buttons but I think they need a little something on the hat bands----like holly leaves or snowflakes?  I should look for some findings or buttons that will work.

I realize too that I should have gotten that Halloween piece button hole applique by now but yet it is still hanging, waiting for me, like I don't know what time of year it is! 

DJ had handed me the credit card a week or two ago so I could order my own gifts online, sort of a spend down plan.  I have been knitting so much lately and am currently looking to get my existing knitting materials better organized.  To that end, I had found out that Denise Interchangeable needles sells empty cases so you can store your extra needles and some sizes of the cable lengths you have gotten over the years.   I ordered that along with the extra long cables that would be needed for using the Magic Loop method of circular knitting.  To help with the knitting technique improvement plan, I order a book on the subject Circular Knitting Workshop by Margaret Ratcliffe.  The existing reference book in my library barely even mentions circular knitting or knitting in the round---one page maybe so I thought it might give a bit more detail.  And it does, LOL.  When I have more time to study it I will work through the suggestions.  I am also looking for a free pattern to organize the double point needle set in a needle roll up thing---know if any good sites?

Because I know what is in the packages, DJ tries to get a little something just so I can unwrap a gift.  This years selection was two cans of whole cashews (he knows I'll share and he likes cashews better than peanuts, any day)  and a magnifying glass.  I had asked if he had one recently as I had lost the one I had.  Actually I had his dad's old one that had a battery operated light in it.  These old eyes--and well, those cataracts that I have to get fixed in the New Year too.  Well, I have one now!  It is the little things that trip the trigger.

I had gotten him a big bag of peanut M & Ms (my favorite, LOL) and a bag of Hershey's Kisses with a note to give them back to the cook when he was ready for me to make him some Peanut Butter Blossom cookies, LOL.    I was happy though that he had finally found himself a cordless drill at a great price and bought it for himself.   The one I had and he used a good bit of the time was no longer working----a long ago birthday gift he had given me.  I kept insisting that he needed to find something HE wanted and I could use his.  Between that and the cookies I baked him the other day, he is a happy boy.

Then the weirdest thing happened last night as we were eating supper.  A knock on the door and our crazy neighbor girl (probably in her 30's???) was standing there asking to talk to me.  She said her sister's boyfriend was in trouble and they needed to raise some money (for bail?).  She had a brand new set of pans she would sell me for 25 bucks that had cost her sister $100.   She knew I cook quite a bit so maybe I would have use for them.   I wondered if it was her Christmas present.  I am not saying that I believe her story, nor does DJ.  I also know that she tried to sell her TV that actually belonged to her mother.  Mom had a fit and made the people bring it back.  The reason we know this is the parents asked us if we had seen who had carried it out of the house. 

Well, I asked to see them first so she hauled the unopened box over to our house.  My pans are not in great
shape, they are Club Aluminum's I have had for 25 years, maybe?.  One has a handle that will not stay on, one saucepan was tossed when I ruined it and a couple t-fal frying pans don't looks so hot either.  Can't argue with the price--a whole set with lids for 25 bucks? . I had some Christmas cash and paid for them.   I looked online today and Amazon said list price was 200 bucks and this even has an extra frying pan--they were selling them for $135. 

So for now they are mine---unless her mom comes looking for them too, LOL.   DJ said to hang on to my old ones for about a month before I discard,  take to a donation box or take to a thrift store.  I've not used them yet, not with leftover Christmas dinner to consume.   We ran them what we could fit in the dishwasher  last night and finished the job this morning with room in the cupboards with the old stuff out of there.

Just a strange story, I know.

We had thunderstorms yesterday and even an EF 2 tornado down in Mobile.  I had told DJ that we probably better plan on having our holiday meal at mid-day as we know the storm risk was coming in the afternoon and evening and we could lose power.    We did too around 4 for about an hour to hour and half.  By the time I had drug out all the candles to light up the decreasing daylight it came back on---in time to heat up supper leftovers.  All in all here it was t-storms, no hail that I know of, some gusty winds--about 1 1/2 inches or rain. Skyler was more than nervous about that spending a big chunk of time under the bed yesterday.

I started another hat and am about 2 inches away from the top shaping.  Also get a load of that other skein of yarn.  This one is bright primaries called "Mexicana"---should be good for a boy even if the Grape Fizz screams girl to me.

Other than that I was editing labels on the guild's newest photo site to help our group's historian.  We have a Facebook page but everyone that prefers not be on FB never gets to see them.  Beth has all the photos for 2012 uploaded---all 600 of them so between the FB albums and my own secretarial notes I have access to the show and tell notes if not the sew-in materials.  I quit today at photo 235 and just before the Christmas in July sew-in.  We had been working together on this all year anyway-----I'm the secretary so take those notes and she is busy snapping the pictures and doesn't have time always remember the details I record.   I always send her a list ahead of the minutes that she can copy/paste the info to the pictures.  Seems to be working out for both of us.

No sewing of late----though I was playing with the old Singer yesterday to see if I could get any of my walking feet to work on it.  I found that the Jem walking foot would work.  Oh and that was about the time that the electricity went off too.  Once it came back on  I was trying to figure out how the cam discs worked and the machine came to a screeching halt.   I still don't know how the feather stitch looks on it!!  A belt or the clutch went out????  Yeah, right after I had wound about 20 bobbins too.   There is a guy that works on mechanical machines about 20 some miles from here but do I really need the machine to be fixed when I have others?  It does sew well though.

I ordered a walking foot that will go on the Kenmore electronic from sears parts online using the rest of my Christmas funds so that will be coming soon enough.   I had researched all that after the previous owner said she could not locate the walking foot that came with it---this is the one I won in the guild raffle table for 3 or 4 bucks several months ago.  I have not really played with it much but it has some nice embroidery stitches too, but no cams.

Maybe sew tomorrow a bit----tree skirt sections ideas to address, after all.  That's all I know for now-----

 

Christmas Eve Eve

 Today's achievements----

DJ had requested some white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.  Since it is one of my absolute favorite cookies (Pride of Iowas would be the next one, LOL) I happily obliged.  The recipe on the back of the Ghiradelli white chocolate morsels bag was the same one on the back of the chopped nuts so I went with it.

These are a little too crunchy once they cooled completely or else I should have baked them a minute less.  Actually I wonder if a half shortening, half butter deal would have been a better way to go.  Don't get me wrong, they are very tasty!  Also I was experimenting a bit as I only have one airbake sheet.  SO I put a sheet of parchment paper on the large old cookie sheet and baked on the lower rack using the airbake in the middle rack as I always do.  Those cookies baked smaller and over browned a bit but that could have been from the low rack.

I am going to track down the other recipe I normally use to see what the difference were---if any.  That last batch I made was not this firm---does that have something to do with the proportion of flour to fat???  There was plenty enough sugar in there!!  The yield was listed at 5 dozen and drop by teaspoons.  I used my cookie scoop, not completely full though and got 6 1/2 dozen.  Most of them went to the freezer!


2nd achievement---the row of snowmen is completed except for some embroidery for the mouths and button eyes.  I put some fusible on the back of some orange felt and cut them free form.  Drew the mouths on free hand too though the pattern had some shapes that could be traced off.  I don't know if I am doing anything more with this tonight.

I have some ideas about the next blades I want to work on for Allison's tree skirt and I may do some searching through my available Christmas patterns.  I am enjoying some Christmas music from a new to me group "Point of Grace" as I putter around in the sewing/computer room.  DJ is busily watching yet another Christmas movie while Skyler is sacked out in his kitty cube.   If you put his stuff away for awhile he stays interested for a little bit anyway.  The catnip underneath the bottom pad might have something to do with it, LOL.

And sew it goes-------

Saturday check-in

 This was the front of a Shoebox Christmas card that came yesterday for DJ from his friend and former co-worker Bob. I scanned it and put the inside text with the picture. Too funny but Bob is always finding great birthday cards and such.   (I didn't get cards sent this year but I don't always do that anyway)  If the cat had more black on him, who would it remind you of??

I ran the store errands today and both stores were a zoo.  Last year I remembered that I had a hard time finding a small ham for our holiday meal so felt there was no reason to postpone.  With the two of us we don't necessarily need to get a big spiral cut ham.  Dial it back!  No doubt I have forgotten something that I will be needing before week's end but for now, I'm set.

And I just finished the last of the hats by completing the green rolled brim hat that you see in the foreground.  There are two hats in each of the different colorways.  For now though I am out of business till I get another skein or two of yarn.   These are now packed up and ready for me to mail out to my pal Cindy in TN to add to the ones she needs for her project.  I still like the purple yarn about the best, but then purple is my fav color.  The green would be my next favorite.

This is what is next on my day's creative bent.  8 snowmen blocks and the sashing bits for the row quilt.   The top and bottom halves of the snowmen need to be joined.  I ran out of time and inclination last night, LOL.

 My friend at alefthanded quilter will recognize the snowflake fabric she swapped with me.  She said it was mine now so I could do what I want with the stuff.  I took her at her word!   The rest of it was from my stash though I "robbed" the moda marble hat band fabric from my old UFO Galactic Twinkle.  (The blocks have been done forever----I really should either finish that quilt or re-purpose the blocks!)

The pattern  "Seasons in a Row" designed by Sandy Brawner  (available at Quilt County ) shows embroidering the facial elements but I think I'll use buttons for the eyes. That can't go on till the quilting is done unless I am the one quilting it.  I could embroider the carrot noses and mouths though the bulk of the row will be done by the January guild meeting when they assign whatever the choice is for February.   I think we both know that is NOT happening when I have tree skirts to make.

I feel more like nap than sewing at the moment though--wait and see if that 2nd wind comes around, LOL.  DJ and Skyler are both napping so you get where I got the idea?

Christmas Shopping----for me

Thanks to Susan P at Starwood Quilter and the generous blog hop gift certificate I unexpectedly won. these fabrics from the Bonnie and Camille Marmalade line from Moda will be coming to my house soon.  I added in some of the Christmas gift money from my dear Bama Belles and got a couple more to do with it. I hope to include them in my Farmer's Wife Inspired Sampler when I get back to working on the blocks again.  THX again, y'all.

Can you tell I love orange and yellow??  And that green that goes with their Vintage Modern stuff?

DJ had asked me if I was still waiting on the part of my Christmas gift from him----I am but I had received notice that hit had shipped.  When I heard the mail lady out in the drive, I thought it might be here.  They only pull in the drive when they have a package, otherwise it is out in the mail box across the lane.  Instead it was the fabric I had ordered from thousands of bolts for Blake and Julia's tree skirt I will be making for them, a delayed wedding present.  DJ said "that just means more work for you" when I told him the present was NOT here yet.  Yeah, maybe but I enjoy sewing so that is not technically work.  Work is having to mop the kitchen floor because you spilled your extra full coffee cup all over the kitchen table and floor.  And having to do a load of towels since you soaked up a couple dish towels cleaning up the initial mess on the floor.  SIGH.

The ivy on the left is the backing.  The green is a bit brighter than I hoped but I'll probably use it anyway unless I have a better option in the fabric bin.  The red is perfect though not as orange as it looks in the picture. 

I will use the Frosted Tree Skirt pattern from Connecting Threads but sub out the kit fabric for the stuff above .  The kit fabric will combine nicely with a previous line from CT called Twilight Frost---won't go to waste.  It is no longer available on their website but the pattern is now able to be downloaded , now calling it "Star Bright Tree Skirt.   It  was gorgeous in the frosted blues!!. 

I had downloaded this from the website when it was up there.  The light cream will go where you see the white.  The creamy dotty print is the sashing.  I have to dig in the stash for the cornerstone fabric.  Where you see the medium blue will be the red  and the dark blue is the green print.  I think. Now that I see the fabric.  I may reverse the red and green but will mull that over before cutting.  I ordered enough that it can go either way but it would change the binding choice.  

I will finish up Allison's first, then do this one and get started back on my version of the Oxmoor House quilt.   But for today, I am going to get back to my snowman row that I started yesterday for the guild row of the month.  I drew it up in EQ so I could  foundation piece it but only got as far as their hats chaining 8 blocks through. 

And sew it goes------