Dear Jane C-5 Eye of the Cyclone - My Way!

I just love this block; there is only one problem - I made it all wrong!  The outer edges of the block are supposed to be all white.  For some reason, I got it into my head that the ground was a pinwheel and started from there.  I even marked my pattern incorrectly.  And you know what?  I like my block better than the original.  Sorry Jane, but this is a neat variation and I am glad I did it this way, though I do think the batiks looks more like a celestial vortex than the eye of a cyclone.

C-5  Eye of the Cyclone

This block is almost completely hand-pieced.  The only seams that are done by machine are the ones between the brown and white on the applique.  I made this block on the road, and even though the sewing machine was in the trunk, it did not make it into the hotel in Memphis where I made the pinwheel.  I am a very novice hand-piecer, so I was very impressed by how well the points came together on the pinwheel.  Maybe there is something to this hand-piecing after all!

The applique on this block looks like harlequin smiley faces to me. They were a little tricky to do.  The points were sharp, and I had never done curves quite like this before.  They came out only OK, not great.  It did turn out to be a good idea to baste the center of the pattern onto the center of the pinwheel as a guide.  I do not think I could have gotten the appliqued bits to form a circle without it.

Happy quilting!
Susan in Texas

Six on Sunday - Week 10

This week Susan culled a laundry basket full of stuff from the shelves in her closet.

Items pulled from Susan's closet

From this bounteous haul, she consolidated a box of little items, and a bag of medium sized things.  Plus a basket and bath scrubber, some fancy soap, and an exercise monitor.

Small and Medium Toiletries, Basket and Scrubber, Soap, Body Bugg - 5.5 pounds

Not finding much in my closet to eliminate at this time, I moved on to my drawers in the dresser, where I found a clothesbrush, a collection of orphan pocket squares (I no longer have the matching ties), some brown socks (which I rarely wear anymore), and three organizers (of which I have more useful ones).

Clothesbursh, Orphan Pocket Squares, Socks, Organizers - 1.5 pounds

Not a lot of weight this week, but Susan's closet shelves have gained a lot of tidiness.  

Larry

Singer Restoration Saturday - Dollie Complete

After all the excitement of the trip to Green Bay, I finally finished the restoration of my great-grandmother's Model 99K and case (nicknamed "Dollie" after her), and a little table to display it on.

Dollie ready to go

The crocheted runner that Dollie is resting on was made by my grandmother (Dollie's daughter). It makes a nice touch, in addition to protecting the finish on the table.

Closed up for storage

Everything packs up neatly for storage or transport. The wires for power and the foot control coil up nicely and stow in the space below the arm.

Top removed

Power Cord and Foot Control unpacked

The two wires run from the motor (on the back of the throat, just peeking out from behind) to the right and down to plug into the wall and set up where the user's foot would be.

Plugged in and Foot Control in place 

On to the next project!

Larry

Dear Jane C-4, Tic Tac Toe, Complete and a quick trip to the Green Bay Botanical Garden

The "Tic Tac Toe" block got completed in Green Bay.  I took my traveling Bernina along, and finished piecing the block at Mom's house.  I traced the octagon onto freezer paper and used my craft iron to apply it to the back.  I do not think I have ever used such a large piece of freezer paper, but it adhered to the back of the block just fine.

After the freezer paper was attached, it was very easy to press the seams under and baste the unit to the muslin ground.  It was nice to have such oblique angles to applique for a change.  I am going to be sure to place the darkest "window" at the top when I orient the block in the final quilt.  That way, I am hoping it will look like a darkened attic window.  :)

We went to the Green Bay Botanical Garden on the 4th of July and had the whole place almost entirely to ourselves.  The weather was perfect and it was really lovely.  The tall, spiky flowers in the background caught our attention.  They are called foxtail lilies and look very dramatic. 

I was captivated by the Hobbit House; it was such an enchanting little structure.  And so practical too.  It is very deep in the garden, well away from the main entrance, and houses restroom facilities. Brilliant!

Green Bay is hosta central; they are by far the most popular foundation plantings around residential homes.  They were everywhere, but I had never seen hostas with such large flowers as these.  They were the size of snapdragons!

I wish we could have stayed longer, but this was the day after the wedding, and the bride and groom showed up at her mom's house to open some of the wedding gifts, and we wanted to be present for that.  We got the call, and off we went.  We had a really fun hour or so at the gardens, which were in top form, with ample rain and sunshine this year.  If you get the chance to visit, you should definitely go there.  It makes a nice change from Lambeau Field.

Happy quilting,
Susan in Texas

Dear Jane H-2 Jacob Anthony Complete

I did quite a bit of hand work on vacation.  There is nothing like sitting next to someone who is coming out of anesthesia for getting hand work done.  First they're awake and talking, then they're asleep, lather, rinse, repeat.  Larry and I sat quietly by Kathi's bedside after her ankle surgery, tatting  and sewing respectively.  It was actually very relaxing after the long drive to Chicago.  The first thing I did was to sew the tatting onto Grandma's hankie.  Sewing on tatting takes forever, even though there was not nearly enough tatting to circumnavigate the hankie.

The first night we spent at Kathi's there was a power outage. There is nothing like being in a strange home in pitch dark, trying to find flashlights, candles and matches.  One of Kathi's kind neighbors helped us out, but we ended up going to bed very early.  I did manage to get the triangles prepped for the Jacob Anthony block the second night we spent in Chicago.

H-2  Jacob Anthony

I like how Jacob Anthony turned out; a nice, serene brown block. It certainly spent lots of time half finished; I had already completed the center of the block by June first.  It was nice to finally trim it down, as the muslin ground had gotten very wonky and raggedy.

I found out yesterday that Kathi gets out of rehab on the twenty-first.  I'm sure she is ready to go home!  After that, she has another three weeks with no weight on her left foot; then she'll have a walking cast for a few weeks.  I hope she finds the quilting area we put together useable, and does not have to send her friends to the basement too many times on "treasure" hunts - that could get old very fast.  

A Terrific Stash Enhancement Experience ;)

I mentioned on Monday that I did a little shopping at my favorite quilt stores in Chicago and Wisconsin.  There are five stores that I always try to get to and really enjoy.  The amount of stuff purchased surprised me when it was all neatly laid out.

Quilt Store Bounty

The three stores in Wisconsin were all participating in the "Row by Row" experience.  I picked up all three free patterns - they were really cute; I just love the little fishies!

"Row By Row" - Free Patterns

There were no batiks at all in the scrap bin at My Favorite Quilt Shop in Green Bay this trip; however, I was able to stock up on lots and lots of wonderful neutrals at $4 per pound.  My stash had very few neutrals before, now it abounds with them.

Scrap Bin Bounty

I saw these attachments at the Sewing Basket in Plymouth, Wisconsin.  For $20 they convert an ordinary vacuum cleaner into a sewing machine cleaning powerhouse.  I plan to use these attachments instead of the canned air I have used in the past. Apparently canned air pushes dust ever more deeply into the crevices of your machine.  Who knew?

Handy Vacuum Attachments

The main thing I was searching for this trip was mid-range yellow batiks, which, let me tell you, are difficult commodity to come by. The only store that had a nice selection of medium range yellows was QuiltFabric.com in the western suburb of Willowbrook, IL.  I bought quarter yards of each of these yummy yellows.

I also found these three cute black fat quarters for my leaders and enders project in the bargain bin at My Favorite Quilt Shop in Green Bay; - there are always black fat quarters in the bargain bin.

Stash Additions #1

I bought some clear vinyl for some projects that currently exist only in my head.  I have not seen much clear vinyl at the local quilt shops here in Fort Worth, so I thought I had better stock up at Fabrics Etc. in Bensenville, IL.

Clear Vinyl

This was the first time I ever saw one of Jacqueline de Jonge's drool-worthy "Be Colourful" patterns in real life, and I was unable to resist its siren song.  This wonder is currently queued up behind my Dear Jane in the rotation.  (Apparently it is true, I am definitely planning to live forever. lol)  See, I have designed things in Electric Quilt that I have no idea how to begin constructing.  If I can learn how to put this puzzle together, then I figure the sky is the limit.  

Challenging Quilt Pattern from quiltfabric.com

Quilting Divas, which is very close to my Mother's home on the west side of Green Bay, had this cute panel.  When you sew the parts together it forms a tree.  I thought it was a cool idea, and would force me to keep it simple by design.  Divas also had a terrific selection of batiks, though very few yellows.  I had to satisfy myself with these lovelies instead.

Stash Additions #2

I got this cool cupcake fabric panel from Fabrics Etc. too.  One of these days I'm going to keep a panel quilt in the rotation until they're all done... maybe.

Fun Panels

I am such a sucker for batiks.  I do not even remember which stash addition came from which store.  They are all so beautiful!

Stash Additions #3

I have enough batiks for about four Dear Janes, but I just adore working with them.  I can see myself making multiple (hopefully simpler) batik quilts after Jane is completed, just so I get to keep playing with them.

Stash Additions #4

And finally, the last stash addition, from one of the five stores.  I really love them all, but the red below (and the red and blue just above) are really spectacular.
  

Stash Additions #5

By keeping to quarter yard cuts of each batik I was able to acquire lots of lovely new fabrics for Jane without breaking the bank.  It wasn't until the last shop, where I became bewitched by the five part "Be Colorful" pattern, that the bank got a bit bent.  lol  I'll have to be very frugal for the rest of the year.  :)

Tatting Tuesday - Multicolored Bookmark Progress and Next Project

This is a pretty simple bookmark pattern (it's even called "Beginner's Choice") from the book Tatted Bookmarks - Needle & Shuttle.  I thought it would be fun to do in a multicolored thread, instead of boring old white :).

Multicolored Bookmark

I made a couple of changes to the design, mostly because I didn't have the pattern handy when I came to the end of the row.  There are fewer picots in the arcs on the ends, and I joined all three picots on the end rings to the ones next to them.  But, it doesn't look like an issue to me.  Now I just need to work in the ends for my start and finish (at the upper left) and from fixing my mistakes (on the right end).

For my next project, I will be helping Grandma finish a tatted edging for a handkerchief. She said she was finished, but it looks like the handkerchief was a bit bigger than she expected.

Grandma's Tatting for Handkerchief - a little short

The pattern is not very complex, but I will be trying to imitate Grandma's stitching that is already sewn onto the handkerchief, so I will have to be careful.

Larry

We took a little trip, a.k.a. Maggie's wedding and Kathi's broken ankle

You probably noticed a lapse here in blogland.  Well, it was for a really good cause.  My niece, Maggie, got married on July 3rd in Green Bay, Wisconsin, - a very long road trip from Fort Worth. Maggie was radiant!  She looked like Audrey Hepburn in the vintage dress her sister, Kate, found for her in Minneapolis.  Kate designed the headdress out of fabric leftover when the dress was re-styled.  In fact, this is the third headdress.  The dress shop did the first one, and it didn't suit her, so Kate created one for her sister; the dog ate that one!  Third time is the charm.

Here is Maggie with two of her four beautiful bridesmaids, Brooke and Natalia.  Natalia sure loves her ink, and the strapless dress provided a terrific canvas for it.  Of course, for the Catholic ceremony, the girls all wore matching shawls for a more demure look (and I'm certain Natalia wore shoes lol).

The matron of honor, Kate, joins the trio.  The attendants wore matching necklaces, and the blue dresses were like $30 at Target. Just shows you can have an absolutely gorgeous wedding party without breaking the bank.  Maggie's shoes were an awesome bright red.  She was so happy she was practically bouncing in them.

After the ceremony, Maggie and Kate's Uncle Rick drove the new Mr. and Mrs. Pickering to the reception in his shiny red Mustang convertible.

Instead of wedding cake, there was pie... really good pie too!  The bride and groom fed each other a slice at their sweetheart's table.  It was a terrific wedding, held at the very interesting National Train Museum in Green Bay.  That black thing behind the bride and groom is a giant locomotive on permanent exhibit in the museum field house.

It was a wonderful wedding, perfect in every detail save one.  The bride's Godmother, Kathi, who made it to all three wedding showers, broke her ankle in Chicago playing golf six days before the wedding, and was unable to attend.  In an odd turn of events, I was in a bathroom in a rest area in southern Illinois when Kathi called me from the ambulance.  (I had to put down the phone so I could zip.)  We were supposed to spend the night at Kathi's house, only she was on her way to the hospital!

 on ice before surgery

We raced to her bedside (Illinois has never seemed so long) and we got there in the late afternoon.  All of her local friends were out of town for the holidays, so we were really glad we could be there for her.  The ankle needed surgery, which didn't happen until the next day.  The surgery was delayed over an hour, so I distracted her with the 20 or so Dear Jane blocks I've made since we saw her last at Christmas.  Kathi is an enthusiastic new quilter so that (and the morphine) did seem to help.

after surgery

The surgery was a big success, thank God, and I was able to keep my Mom and sister (the bride's Mom) posted on every new ankle development (and I got lots of hand work done - more on that later).  We ended up spending an extra night in Chicago in Kathi's two story townhouse.  With her permission, we pulled her sewing machine, ironing board, and supplies up from the basement, and set up a nice little sewing nook in her dining room.  I tried to think of everything she might need, since her townhouse has only spiral staircases that are crutch-unfriendly to say the least.

Kathi went straight to rehab, but when she gets home she'll be living on her first floor for the next month, until she gets a walking cast.  Until then she cannot put any weight at all on her ankle.  She will probably have become an expert quilter by then.

So anyway, the good, the bad, and the rearranged are behind us. Anyway, I'm back.  Oh yeah, and I may have purchased a few more batiks  ***blushes*** More on that later.

Six on Sunday - Week 9

This week Susan continued to clean out her closet, finding another six items that no longer "spark joy" in her life.

6 Shirts and Sweaters - 3.75 Pounds

And I have found another old belt that I don't need, and some old painting clothes, in my closet.  Finishing out my six are some old VHS tapes which I got secondhand years ago and watched once.  I think we could still play them, but they just weren't that good.

Shorts and Tee Shirt, 3 VHS Tapes, Old Belt - 3.5 Pounds

Susan wins the weight contest this week, but only just.  Maybe next time I will have eliminated all I want to let go from my closet, and will have to seek items elsewhere.

Larry

More Dear Jane progress on H-2, Jacob Anthony and C-4, Tic Tac Toe

I decided to go with applique on the Dear Jane, Tic Tac Toe block to avoid any inset seams.  I created an octagonal pattern out of freezer paper, then pressed it to the back of the block.  The points where all the seams come together were a bit tricky to work with, but it is all basted now.  There was not very much of the dark green fabric left, so the one dark window looks odd to me.  We'll just say it adds interest and move on.  Now I just have to find the time to do the actual applique. 

I had already forgotten the name of the "Jacob Anthony" Dear Jane block, but I did not forget that it still needed triangles appliqued.   The triangles have been made for over a week; they finally got basted down yesterday.

I am looking forward to trimming both blocks to size, then moving on to a different block.  Tic tac toe was lots of work!  In the meantime, we have a wedding to attend, and our friend broke her ankle, so we have been very very busy.  More later.