Entwined

Let me just say that a double wedding ring quilt is NOT a quick one to sew. Even with Accuquilt, it took several hours to cut all those pieces, and many days to stitch them all together. Thank goodness my Janome machine has an accurate quilting foot and automatic lock stitch function. I decided right away to make it a lap quilt instead of queen size!

It was good for me to take my time, and practice patience. Going through my scrap boxes to choose fabrics and laying them out on my design board was relaxing. I love the old fashioned vintage look of Entwined. The pastels and white on cream go together nicely.

Quilting was done with cream thread ¼” away from the inner and outer seams of every circle. I used Creative Grids ruler Elvira by Angela Walters to create a curvy design in the center sections. Finally, I sewed light gray bias binding to the edges.

I love the look of the double wedding ring quilt, but I don't think I'll plan another one any time soon. Early quilters who hand stitched and hand quilted this design have my respect and admiration.

Entwined

Accuquilt dies used:
55076 and 55077 Double Wedding Ring

“If you see me

with a seam ripper,

now is NOT a good time.”

Counting The Hours

I teased last week about a triangle project. I really hate to waste fabric so I always keep boxes and bags of scraps. Only the tiniest slivers get tossed.

Today's quilt, Counting The Hours, came from little aqua, green, white and cream remnants. I used 2½” half square triangles turned to make quarter square hourglass blocks. 

It took a while (and a bit of patience) to sew the 952 pieces together, press them, and arrange them on my design wall. I didn't keep track of the exact hours, but I spent almost a week from idea to finished product. 

I love the peaceful color scheme of this lap sized 39” x 47” throw. It matches other quilts in my collection. I quilted in serpentine stitch with a neutral green thread both horizontally and vertically.

The best part is that I used material left over from other projects. These days I use Accuquilt dies to cut them into useful pieces when the boxes overflow. Every now and then I schedule a cutting session to manage and organize my stash. I store them in plastic shoe boxes and square containers labeled with the size and die name.

"I believe the desire to make something out of nearly nothing is bred into my soul."  ~anonymous

Cool Lagoon

This week's quilt is a big one...queen size for our bedroom. I chose fabrics in cool aqua textures, crisp white tone on tone, and a taupe and white print. I experimented with a couple of layouts in EQ8 software before finalizing the design.

Accuquilt's flowering snowball die made cutting and sewing the curves nearly effortless, but it still took a day to cut all the pieces for 64 twelve inch blocks. Large quilts aren't done overnight, so I set aside time each day to stitch a few blocks. 

Though patience is not usually one of my virtues, I enjoyed the process of working on this one. I used wide flannel for batting so it wouldn't be so heavy, then backed it with a white on cream circle print. White thread for quilting in a straight stitch made nice 2” squares in the aqua center sections. An uncomplicated quilting design made it easier to handle this big quilt on my Janome MC9400 home sewing machine. Cool Lagoon is 97” square.

I added a pillow made from my test block, and still need to finish reversible shams, one side in aqua and the other in the cream/white circles. 

A restful summery beach theme was my goal and I love the result. Taupe walls and sandy colored carpet in our bedroom give me the ability to change the look easily by using different colored bedding. 

Decorating with quilts is versatile because their designs can either be the focal point or just compliment other décor. To me, they make a house feel like home.

The ultimate luxury

is being able to

relax and enjoy

your home.

~Jeff Lincoln

National Cat Day & More

Here's a shot of our sweet Callie taken this morning. She's stretched out in the sunshine, relaxed and happy. It's National Cat Day so she'll get a few extra treats to celebrate.

Wednesday is Halloween; we're going to dress up as old retired folks. OK, not really dressing up, just wearing our normal clothes. It's been a while, but I recall wonderful costumes for many Halloween celebrations at work.

I'm already stitching for Christmas! A charity project is in the works that will bring smiles to the faces of strangers during the holidays. What better way to celebrate?

Refrigerator Update: Still nothing. We have received two of the parts but the other is still pending, possibly on back order or sailing in on a slow boat from Korea. No one knows.

Patience 

is the ability 

to count down 

before you blast off

Cheatin' At Cards

Cheatin' At Cards

My latest creation features an easy version of the vintage card trick block. The center is a four patch square, bordered by four squares and four rectangles. I used 3” squares and 3” x 6” rectangles in black and white prints, with white squares for the corners. Each block is set on point and joined with white sashing, then bordered with black gingham and white triangles.

The fun part was outline stitching each set of cards with a mock hand stitch and using a cross stitch pattern in black thread to accent the corners. White thread quilting finished off this striking 44” square wall hanging. Who said black and white is boring? Not me! 

 

♥ ♣ ♦ ♠

Life is like a game of cards.

We don't choose what we are dealt,

we choose how we play.

~Unknown

♥ ♣ ♦ ♠

Waiting...

It seems like we wait a lot in this life, which can be very frustrating. We can’t rush waiting and we can’t wait any faster. We can only wait.

We wait for phone calls, wait on hold, wait for decisions, and wait for information.

We wait in traffic, in checkout lines, and in waiting rooms.

We wait for people to come or to go. We wait for them to be responsible and we wait for them to fail. We wait for them to DO something.

We wait for things to happen, for the weather to change, for an opportunity, for time to pass, and for that big moment.

Buddhists believe that waiting and doing are equal and essential parts of living. Maybe the key is how you manage the two to create balance.

"...but if we wait until we're ready we'll be waiting for the rest of our lives.  Let's go.”  ~Lemony Snicket

Sometimes, no matter how much you want for things to happen, all you can do is wait. And usually, waiting is the hardest part.

Winter Leftovers

Another winter project complete! I've used more leftover black and white print fabric plus a modern teal and black print that I've been saving for a while. The result is a high contrast nine block quilt called Center Crossroads. Even with the little pieces, I finished this one in a day and a half.

My secret? A disappearing four patch technique. It starts as a large four patch block of two contrasting fabrics, which is then sliced up and rearranged. As long as you keep your rotary cutter sharp and your ruler steady, the seams match up nicely. I experimented with a diagonally sliced block for the back, so this lap quilt is reversible.

Whoever thought of this method is a genius. I imagine it's a rotary cutter invention. I don't remember seeing the technique in older quilting magazines or patterns. And I just can't imagine Granny Rose or Granny Hill cutting up a completed quilt block with scissors to rearrange it, but maybe they did. Those women were pretty resourceful and could have used short cuts that they kept to themselves.

Useful Notion: Cutting fabric into little squares and sewing it back together may sound like insanity, but it actually keeps me from going to pieces.

Any day spent sewing is a good day.

Practicing Patience

patience [pey-shuh ns]

• the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like
• an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay
• calmness, stability, and persistent courage in trying circumstances

After sixty-one years, you'd think I'd be pretty good at being patient, but apparently I need more practice. I want to focus on the without complaint, loss of temper part. 

Maybe yoga, meditation, or some kind of diversion would help. 

There's always a big glass of wine or a margarita.  Yeah, I'll take that. 

“Sometimes the fastest way

isn't always the best way.

Sometimes the best things in life

take a while.”

--Emily Beth

Patience is a virtue,

except when I'm the one

who has to put up with 

unnecessary crap.

--Unknown

Running Like A Sewing Machine

I had just begun to sew when my Singer XL1000 started making a horrible noise. I called my resident handyman, who dropped everything to take her downstairs to his workbench for troubleshooting. Fortunately, I have a backup machine, my trusty old Singer Athena that I haven't used in several years. I pull her out of the closet, dust her off and, well, she's making an awful noise too!

OK, fine. My mama's basic Singer Simplicity is sitting under my sewing table. She will do for what I want to sew today. I set her up, threaded bobbins, and you guessed it...more growling noises! What in the world?

I check downstairs, where Jerold had my good machine apart on his bench. This will take a while, he says. So, I head back to the sewing room and start my own mission to fix the Simplicity. I found a maintenance manual online, got my tool kit and went to work. Next thing you know, I have this machine apart on my craft table. I had the back, sides, and top off; I oiled, dusted, changed needles, made some adjustments and put her back together. VOILA! She's humming right along now.

Me upstairs and him downstairs, both of us doing sewing machine repairs. Maybe we should have taped this for submission as a new reality show. The XL had a lot of lint jammed way down inside, which threw something out of alignment. After lots of tricky and fiddly adjustments, my man saved the day and fixed her. Athena had a loose wire on her circuit board, and unfortunately a cracked gear, which may eventually cause her demise.

Thankfully for now all are up and running like sewing machines should. I'll need to blow lint out of the XL after every project, and use my backup machines more often to keep their mechanisms lubricated. Any solution that requires more sewing is just fine with me.

The experience was challenging but extremely fulfilling. I'm lucky to have a husband who's willing and more than able to work on nearly anything. I'm thankful that I'm mechanically inclined and capable enough to fix a few items on my own. The down side to fixing them is that I missed a chance to buy a fancy new machine...

“If we all did the things we are capable of doing,

we would literally astound ourselves.” 

--Thomas Edison

“Never underestimate the power

of a woman with a sewing machine.” 

--Unknown

A Big Ole Dose Of Crazy

There are some people who just ooze crazy.  You know them...they're co-workers, neighbors, even family. They don't live normal lives. It's difficult to be around them. They don't make good decisions; weird things happen to them. They don't conform to accepted social behavior or contribute anything positive to life. They can drag you down if you let their drama get to you.

Sometimes you have to deal with a big ole dose of crazy. Can't avoid it, have to step right in the middle of it.  You can't fix or figure out crazy, therefore you should ignore it or wait for it to pass you by.  And when crazy joins up with stupid, well, it's best to get out of the way of the impending train wreck. 

 

Some people aren't just missing the odd screw, 

their whole dang toolbox is gone. 

 

Patience

pa•tience

• the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain without complaint, loss of temper, or anger
  
  
• an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay
  
  
• quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence

I am willing to be patient. Really I am. Somehow it doesn't always turn out that way. I have the ability to tolerate petty annoyances, pain, delays and bumps in the road. I've always been able to calmly take what comes and move forward. I've got perseverance and diligence covered.  It's just that occasionally I get hung up on the without complaint and loss of temper part. That must be genetic...my red-headed German-Irish roots are showing. 

 

Patience is a wonderful quality to have, but it isn't always easy. I guess that's why it must be practiced.  

“My patience comes in limited allowance, and you used it all.” Anonymous

“Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!” Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Simplify!

That's my theme for January. 

Sim-pli-fy:  
to make easier to do or understand
   a: to reduce to basic essentials

   b: to streamline

   c: to clarify

There are a lot of areas to work on, and I've already started. Home, shopping, food, clothing, hobbies, habits and goals are all under review. I'm hoping that simplifying life will lead to harmony, joy, peacefulness, fun, and a beautiful 2014.

Useful Notion: There is beauty in simplicity. 

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. --Confucius

Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify. --Henry David Thoreau

** BRRRR!  it's COLD here on the ridge this morning!  Three degrees at 6 am.