Aaack! It’s Friday and, as the rabbit says, I’m late! So, first things first…”Cross Fit” is trademarked so my UFO campaign is officially changing to Quilter’s Cross Training. Same concept minus the trademark infringement.
My first week was pretty productive. I finished a few scrub caps over the break but I’m not certain which ones were the first week of January. 🙂 I think it was 4.
I also finished my first post-it wall project! This string project went from top to quilt!
I tried out my favorite free- hand swirly quilting on the longarm. I’m getting more comfortable with each quilt.
Every bit of this quilt was leftovers… scrap strings and leftover triangles in the blocks, leftover strips from other backings for the back and four different leftover pieces of binding. I even Frankenbatted the batting. (That is what I call it because I use a big wide zig zag to stitch the pieces together. )
So how was your week? Make any fun progress?
Tomorrow’s a big sew day for me because I need to finish my project quilting challenge quilt. Will it surprise anyone if I say I may have bit off a touch more than I can chew? Stay tuned!
I’d already decided on my 2021 working resolution and then Carla at Creatin’ in the Sticks announced this hop and, well, it was a match made… on the internet?
2020 saw a BIG addition to my sewing room when the Qu’nique 21 Pro landed there (check them out on the Just Wanna Quilt page.) And space was already at a premium. Actually, I have abundant space, I just have too much stuff in it. And there is no way I’m kon-whatevering my space because I love my abundant fabric collection! And UFO’s, I have a WHOLE LOT OF THEM and I want to finish them!
The new toy!
So I decided that this year I will be doing what I call Quilter’s Cross Fit….I will be crossing projects off my list to fit better in my space. A perfect example, the four memory quilts I just finished took up an entire large tote box (moving box size.) Do that four more times and there’s some serious space made.
I like visuals so I have my post-it wall of UFOs and my DONE, DONE, DONE wall where I celebrate finishes. Don’t expect the UFO wall to show any holes very quickly as those are probably only 1/2 of the UFOs. These were just the ones off the top of my head. I came across a bit of info that said our brains don’t like holding on to unfinished things. So, I did a “brain dump” onto post-its. I’m pretty sure that made some space!
Now that being said, obviously, I like new projects and buying fabric so how will I make progress? Here’s my plan:
1. Try to start fewer projects than I finish, right? Except, of course for Project Quilting and a few already planned projects that haven’t been started. Also, I have permission to make as many projects as I want as I work through the scrap bins…I’m planning on running those lovely little jewels through my accuquilt as soon as it’s working again and putting a box of scraps by the sewing machine so I can leader/ender my way through those lovely bits! A while back I challenged myself to work through an entire bag of scraps to see what was in it…vortex blocks, string blocks, etc. all came out of that bag. Now I’ll be working with 11″ storage cubes of fabric…I wonder if there is an entire quilt in each one? Two quilts? It will be fun to find out!
2. Buy less new fabric (gasp! I know, did I really just type that?) Seriously, though, I have probably THOUSANDS of yards of fabric! The exception, of course, is Tula Pink’s new collection (did I mention that I got LINEWORKS in 1 yard cuts for Christmas?!) And, of course, anything I really NEED to get a project finished. If all goes as planned there will be a new roll of batting in the purchase queue for next year but there is a lot of Frankenbatting to do before it comes to that.
Just a few of many well-stocked shelves…
3. Try to work my way through one UFO at a time. I tend to flit to whatever shiny thing catches my eye at the moment. Right now, I have a bunch of tops that are ready for quilting and I am thinking that I can probably get a top quilted each week. I’m teaching myself the longarm in the same way I learned to quilt on a domestic machine, one motif at a time. Right now, I’m good with stippling and loops and stars…expect to see a lot of those! I also want to spend a little time each week on hand work. I have some bindings that I want to hand stitch down, some EPP I’m working on and a hand-quilting project come to mind first.
So that’s my Quilter’s Cross Fit plan for 2021. Want to join me? I hope to end 2021 with a slightly slimmer stash, a healthier list of finishes than UFOs and a whole lot of stitches on that new long arm!
There’s a lot more inspiration to be found with my fellow bloggers…hop on over and see what you think! I’ll be doing “Wednesday Weigh-Ins” to keep you up-to-date on my progress! I do have some non-quilty goals, too, but I’m going to share those in a separate post.
I’m working very hard on a quartet of memory quilts right now and am very excited that all 100 blocks are made
(More about these in a separate post)
1 top is complete
Top #1
One top only needs two borders and the other two need lattice and borders. All have backings waiting and I’m excited to play with the new machine again!
I’ve had a lot of help with these. The kitty crew have been active participants!
This is Gizmo holding down the top in progress.
I’ll be honest, last week was a sad one. We lost my brother-in-law, our friend Cathy had just passed away and our very dear friends lost a brother. I went to see Phil’s resting place on Saturday and did have to smile at the thought that those poor December birthdays never can get away from having their birthdays blended with Christmas. I brought him roses for his birthday and a wreath for Christmas.
The girls and I went and got a tree and then our other family pod member came for dinner. I made jambalaya but I need to figure out how to punch up my flavors some. I still have a ton to do for Christmas but I’m off from school starting the 19th. Thanks to the girls, the tree is up and has lights and ornaments.
I don’t know where I’d be without these three! The tree is that glow in the back.
For my friends celebrating Hanukkah, I wish you a wonderful celebration even with the groups being smaller.
I’ll set a goal to post that block tutorial on Wednesday. This Wednesday blew by in a blur! Hopefully I’ll get two more tops done tomorrow and then it’s onto the frame and quilt away!
First, how cute is this Milo picture? I love that when he cuddles he really cuddles! At twenty pounds, you really know you have a cat in your lap!
I’ve been deep in a quartet of quilts that I was trying to finish by Christmas. I’m going to add a tutorial in the new year but here’s a quick look at both the blocks and the finished quilts.
These simple blocks with lots of variety form the basis for all four quilts.
I think it was a bit of a Christmas miracle that I shipped these on Monday and they arrived on Christmas Eve! Talk about lucky timing!
This is the quartet hanging out on the long arm. These are quilts 2-5 that I’ve quilted on my new Qu’nique 21 and it is so fun! I’m still learning my way around so I just did big stipple but I’m ready for loops and swirls and stars on the next one!
The lighting wasn’t great but I was rushing for UPS so…I also took these (there are two blue ones so I only photographed one…that’s a quilter in a hurry for you!)
Every bit of the blocks is made of clothing, mostly knits. I used a blue Jenny Beyer print for the two blues and Kona for the pink and purple. I am excited for these quilted hugs to reach the grandchildren of the original wearer of those clothes. I think these memory quilts are a wonderful way to remember someone you miss.
And, of course, Christmas isn’t the same for any of us this year and I’m missing so many people but especially my husband and mom. A picture came up on my facebook feed showing Christmas of 2018 and Mom had come up for Christmas. I can believe so much has changed in two years. I’m hoping the vaccine will bring us all back together in time.
Since both my girls are working, today is a sew day for me. We had our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve between one daughter getting off work and the other going to work. It was fun and today I get to sew! I’m working on a scrub cap or two to send the ICU tonight and then I’m going to start catching up on Grassy Creek with Bonnie Hunter! I’ve got a list of movies to watch and a new bath bomb to soak in at the end of the day. No matter where you are today, I hope that the joy of the season still shines for you in tiny moments of Holiday Magic. (And fabric, I wish you much fabric!)
Who doesn’t love a good holiday baking spree? The sugar cookies, the little lemon cookies, and, of course, the gingerbread. What would the holidays be without gingerbread?
We have a long gingerbread history at our house. When Sarah was 1, our friend, John, decided that she needed a gingerbread house. Quite a lot of candy shopping and baking later, we had our first house. And a family tradition was born!
The next year, and each year after we hosted a Gingerbread Potluck. I baked a house for every family that was coming and we put them on cardboard bases. Everyone brought a potluck dish to share and two bags of candy for sharing. After dinner, all the families settled in to decorate their house together. Over the years, we made hundreds of gingerbread houses and made wonderful memories.
And then my daughter and I had to give up gluten….sigh. And, although we felt better, we missed the cookies (and the breads, and the pasta…lol.) And then I got a little more savvy with recipe conversions and gingerbread was back on the menu! We missed the last couple of years and, of course, this year is not the year for big parties. But, I still plan to make a gingerbread house (or two). I also have a very fun set of Ninja-bread Men cookie cutters that I’m looking forward to getting out and using! Unfortunately, and I hate to admit this but I still haven’t reassembled my big computer since we evacuated for the fires and so most of my gingerbread photos are on that computer. I did find one in my phone, though!
So, here’s my classic gingerbread recipe, courtesy of my friend, John.
5.5 cups of gluten-free flour. I generally use Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
Optional: 2 teaspoons ground cloves (I HATE cloves so I never add them!)
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
1 egg
Sift the spices, flour and baking soda together and make sure to measure 5.5 cups.
Beat the shorting with the sugar until fluffy. Add in the molasses and egg. Stir in the flour and chill the dough in the fridge overnight. Roll out and cut pieces on parchment and bake on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes at 300 degrees. If you are using a house template (mine is on that other computer but I’ll post it when I find it) then cut the shapes on the parchment-covered baking sheet. You may need to trim the pieces to size again after they bake. I usually lay my paper template over the hot pieces and trim with a sharp knife. Do this very carefully as the pieces will be hot!
I’ve found that a basic Royal Icing works best for both assembling the houses and adding the decorations. Some of my very favorites to decorate with
Have fun decorating your gingerbread creations! It’s never too early or too late to make a new tradition! Who knows, with any luck, you might be able to get a group together next year and have an entire gingerbread village!
Happy quilting (and baking!)
Be sure to check out all the other bloggers that the wonderful Carol at Just Let Me Quilt has brought together for this hop!
As promised, an update for Wednesday… well, it’s Wednesday for 20 more minutes.
So, first, let me wish you a safe and healthy Thanksgiving tomorrow! (If you’re in the U.S.) Our county is surging with new Covid cases and we are having dinner at home with just my brother and two daughters. My brother recently discovered the Great British Bake Off so we’re planning a marathon while cooking… truly a “cooking marathon!”
This happened today…I quilted my first quilt on the longarm! Of course, there were a few technical problems I couldn’t find addressed in any manual…
A small batting issueAnd an extensive review of the hammock properties of the machine’s frame.
But we finally got past all that and I quilted a small quilt! This was a cheery little top that I bought for $2 at a thrift store in a way before Covid world. You get a glimpse of it in this quick video.
This is a quick video of my first little bit of quilting.
I’m hoping to bind this quilt on Friday so I can get it off to the donor program.
In the meantime, I’m tackling a new dessert tomorrow…. peach cobbler. When I asked my brother if he wanted a crumb top or a more cake-y top he said, “No, it has to have a lattice like Dad made them.” I had to remind him that since I was only 6 when Dad passed, I have no memories of peach cobbler. I grew up with frozen peach pies… which I quite loved, thank you.
So, new adventure in baking tomorrow. Luckily I’m planning to cook the turkey in the grill so I have the oven to myself all day.
In the midst of all this, I’m so grateful for all my friends and family who show up in amazing ways even at a distance. And, if Thanksgiving isn’t your thing… then remember that the truly important thing on Black Friday is that Bonnie Hunter will release the first clue in this year’s mystery quilt!
And, I thought you might get a laugh out of Gizmo and the new “hammock”! I think this will be an ongoing “technical issue. “
There’s been a lot happening in my sewing life right now but it hadn’t made it to the blog yet. Instead of needle and thread, my newest project has kept me occupied with an allen wrench. There was one of those fortuitous chains of events where a check I wasn’t expecting showed up and then a sale was going on and then I remembered that the Just Wanna Quilt group also had contacts with this vendor and, before you know it…this happened…
It’s a Qu’nique 21 Pro in a 12″ frame! My very first longarm machine! Now, my guy could have put this together in an afternoon but I’m a much slower study. Thankfully, Margot and Stan (along with my girls) were able to help me lift the machine into place and my wonderful neighbor guys and Sarah got quite a workout hauling the boxes to the third floor! I took everything out of that end of the third floor and now there’s a lot of thought going into “what do I need to keep?” Fabric, of course, always makes the cut but I’ve culled probably another 40 books out of my quilting library.
I’m keeping the classics but I just don’t use quilt books the way I used to. If I’m looking for quilting motif ideas, I’m more likely to cruise Leah Day’s site or Angela Walter’s videos. Of course, that still leaves me with a solid two shelves of quilt books and some are “must keeps” like anything from Harriett Hargrave, Bonnie Hunter and Marsha McCloskey. I also have the needlework book that Rose Wilder Lane wrote the forward to in the 70’s. And, just for nostalgia because I hardly sew clothes anymore, the Vogue Sewing Book with it’s wonderful couture and tailoring information has to stay.
In other parts of my life, our school flipped back to working from home temporarily and we have most of next week off for Thanksgiving. It will look a little different at our house this year with just the two girls, my brother and I. Personally, I’ll happily forgo the big celebrations if that means that we can save lives. This picture of my daughter has been on a nurses’ site on instagram and while the mask was taped over the shield to make her co-workers laugh, this is how my daughter has to work these days.
My younger daughter is in a dental assisting program through our community college and they’re having new cases on campus almost daily. I’m hoping you and yours are staying well and healthy and really, really, really hoping that some of these treatments and vaccines will pan out.
I’ve decided that I’m going to commit to updates on each and every Wednesday going forward. (With more in between if something fun comes up!) This is part of a bigger campaign I’m on to pull myself out of a bit of a slump. People like to think that the first year of a loss is the hardest but it’s not like it gets suddenly better. The weight of loss is heavy and it’s been really pulling me down as we had all the anniversaries of the losses followed by Veterans’ Day and the holiday season approaching. So, how do I pull myself up? With a variety of steps:
Listen to Happy Radio on Pandora
Try to dance to at least 2 songs a day
Make sure I don’t miss my afternoon thyroid meds
Take my vitamins
Drink more water
Walk the dog
And play with fabric!
Now, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t leave you with a furry friend photo to brighten your day. This one is of Milo hogging my side of the bed. That’s been his newest thing. He has himself snuggled into my spot and I have to crawl into bed from the other side. Gizmo, who sleeps on my pillow, does not approve AT ALL but since Milo is about twice Gizmo’s size, he doesn’t say much about it. He just snores disapprovingly.
It’s a quiet kind of a Halloween this year. I spent my morning at the car dealership getting a recall repare done.
Then I picked up some paint for a project I’ll tell you more about tomorrow.
My partner in crime at work and I decided to “dress up” on Thursday for work.
The office pumpkin patch!
I made the masks and Margot made our cute hats… aren’t they fun?
The girls and I delivered treat bags to some of our closest young neighbors. The chocolate was a hit with both parents and kiddos… the silly string, well, let’s just say that Sarah got some teasing with that one!
And this is me in all my chili-making glory complete with the volunteer pumpkin that sprouted under the bird feeder.
There’s much fun news to share soon… I’ll try to write tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy that extra hour tonight… I’m pretty sure the cats won’t let me make the most of it!
The wonderful Carol at Just Let me Quilt has pulled together a great group of bloggers to share some gift ideas. I decided it was time to do something fun with selvedges. I’ve wanted to make a dopp kit for awhile, too. Hmmmm, sounds like a quilty mash-up to me!
I used a tutorial from Melly Sews and started with sewing together selvedges. Then I added a layer of fusible interfacing and and one layer of batting and machine quilted it. Then I cut my pieces out and assembled my bag. For the handle, I used a 4″ x 10″ piece with interfacing to make the handle. Honestly, if I hadn’t been binge watching “Unorthodox” on Netflix then it would have easily been an under 2-hour project.
Selvedge Dopp BagTop view…I did work to get Spellbound centered on the handle!
Wouldn’t these make a great gift for your sewist friends? You could even fill them with little gifts! And, since they were made from scrappy bits, and leftover batting (or you could Frankenbatt your smaller pieces) they’d be free! We define free in my sewing room as a project that doesn’t require a trip to the quilt shop. (Fabric has a wildly rapid depreciation rate, by the way. Just sayin’.)
Before I go and send you off to visit this fabulous line up, I just want to thank Carol for putting this all together. She is truly a Wonder Woman!
I also need to share that it’s my oldest daughter’s birthday today! I can’t tell you how grateful I am that a dark and stormy night in October landed me with this precious gift!
Birthday cupcakes from Kyra’s!
Obviously with Covid, we’re keeping it quiet and just hanging out with gluten- free treats and the Great British Baking Show!
I hope your week is off to a good start and you find some fun projects to light your creative fire (lol autocorrect just tried to call it a caffeine fire…it knows me too well!)
One of my favourite old sayings is, “Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?” And who doesn’t love a good chapeau? When I was working on my Boo quilt, I tried out a watch’s hat as a possible border… but I didn’t like it. When it came to this year’s hop, I thought I’d revisit a little haberdashery work.
My test block had been a hand-drafted, paper-pieced block. For this block I decided to use my tri-recs ruler.
The tri recs ruler lets you cut the pairs to make those great pointy “triangle in a rectangle” units you see in lots of quilts. I started with a 6.5″ strip of both my background and focus fabric. I really, really, really planned to make something small…but… looks like we’re headed for queen size!
The basic recipe I used was 6.5″ strips of both background and focus fabric. Cut the large triangle from the hat fabric and the narrow paper from the background. I added 2″ steps to both sides then 2.5″ on the top. Add a 1.5″ strip of the hat fabric to the bottom and, voila! You have a hat!
For an added bit of fun, I made a strip set from 2.5″ strips. Once I pieced a strip set, I used it to cut the large triangles for my hat. The rest was assembled the same way.
I think this must be my favourite… candy corn makes me smile mop!
These blocks finish 9″ but maybe you’d like a smaller block. Here you can see the difference in starting with 2.5″, 3.5″ and 4.5″ inch strips.
For strips I used 1″ with the 2.5″, 1.25″ with the 3.5″ triangle and 1.5″ with the 4.5″ size.
I’m 17 blocks in on my new project. (The one I didn’t know I was making… lol.) I’ll keep you posted on my progress…I have some Tula prints that will make great hats!
A nice hat spruces up any outfit, don’t you think? I can’t wait to get this one finished and on my bed. Perfect for thos chilly October nights!
Words & Stitches 