Happy Halloween!!!

          Yet another UFO. The blocks are finished but need to be sewn together and quilted. This quilt will be called "Spider Art" and is my own spin on hexagon log cabin blocks, which I purposely drew off center. Finished, it will measure about 50" X 50". Fun, fun, fun!

Gorilla Chair

          This is what you get when you are not particularly fond of your cat sitting on your upholstered chairs and sofa. The stuffed gorilla was actually manufactured to be a child's chair, albeit a very small child. I am still rather mystified as to how they would be able to sit in it. The gorilla's head is huge and protrudes a good ways forward.

          When I purchased the gorilla, I didn't have any high hopes of any of my cats taking to it. Boy, was I wrong! Friendly nabbed it almost as soon as brought it through the front door and set it down.

Seriously? A "Scant Quarter Inch" is a True Measurement?

          I recently agreed to do a few blocks for a charity quilt. As I was looking over some of the sample blocks, I noticed that the seams were narrower than what I typically produce. Of course, that got my head spinning and wondering how all of those blocks were going to fit together if every one's "quarter inch" seams were a little different.

          I guess it's a good thing that the quilt will be for utility--not for show.

          The next thing I knew, my thoughts were off on a tangent. I was stewing about the many quilting books and online block instructions I'd read that called for "scant" quarter inch seams. As a math geek, that term about sent me over the edge. How "scant" was "scant"? I didn't have any markers on my machines that read "scant seam line right here". It was all up to interpretation. And as we all know, human opinions come in all shapes, forms, and sizes.

          Even my own mother did not expect me to deal with iffy measurements when I was first learning to sew garments as a pre-teen. She took a bottle of red fingernail polish and very carefully painted a dotted line on the bobbin plate of the sewing machine where my seam edges should align. That line is still there.

          My machines have seam guidelines, but they are fairly short. The increments are marked, but the numbers are very small and placed way toward the back. In my book, this is not conducive to a good time sewing. Lots of mistakes and eyestrain, to be sure.

          This is my solution: No, I do not use fingernail polish. I adhere a sticky label along the quarter inch line of the bobbin plate, turn it under, and then trim. I use it until it peels off--which is literally months--then simply replace it.

          And as far as those "scant" seams are concerned, I don't even go there. If I haven't seen a particular term of measurement in a math book, I'm not using it. I will stick to the standard quarter inch.

Working My Way Through the Rainbow

          As you can see, I have added most of the yellow strips and some of the green. I still have the remainder of the green, as well as the blue and purple to go. Lots of fun, this one!

The First Cut is the Deepest

          As most of you know, I spent a Saturday up in the Sierra Nevada foothills about one month ago learning how to hand-dye fabric. I was delighted with the results: Two complete sets of 12 rainbow-hued fat quarters. One was made with PFD (prepared for dyeing) Kona cotton and the other made with Hoffman PFD fabric that is typically used for making batiks.

          Friends have asked what I planned to make with the lovely hand-dyes. One fellow blogger in Australia confessed that she had taken such a class on three occasions and had never had the heart to cut into her very first hand-dyes. She lovingly tied them with a ribbon and has kept them intact for what sounded to be years. I can understand her thinking and feelings. The last thing I wanted to do was cut into mine.

          Then one evening when I was lying in bed, I knew just what I wanted to do with the Kona cotton fat quarters. And of course, it required that I would have to face the painful reality of CUTTING MY FABRIC! I tried not to think too much about it as I made the first cut.

 

          I cut some straight strips and some at gentle angles.

 

 

          Although there was certainly a good amount of color to be seen, I wanted a little more contrast and texture. So, I added a few strips of bright multi-colored commercial batiks.

 

 

          I stitched the strips together in random order, concentrating on the pinks and oranges.

 

          This is the result thus far. I still have the yellows, greens, and purples to stitch up and mix in with these blocks. The colors and textures make me a happy, happy quilter!

Friendly Quilter

          This is Friendly, my calico cat. She was sitting up on the quilting table this evening, keeping me company as I sewed along. I got Friendly from a rescue here in town that specializes in bottle-feeding abandoned kittens until they are old enough to adopt out. I got a jewel with this one!

The Sewful Sisters' Round Robin Reveal

          Tonight my friendship group, The Sewful Sisters, met. Six of our members have been working on Round Robin quilts. Each person made the center block for her own quilt. Every few weeks or so, the quilts were exchanged. The receiving member added a border around the original block. This continued for five rounds, all without the members seeing the progress their own quilt. This evening, everyone finally got to see all the finished works.

          This is Wynona and her apple-themed quilt. She was very pleased with the beautiful colors and the apple blossom applique on the cream-colored border. Lovely fabric choices!

 

          Andrea's Asian-themed quilt was exquisite! She was very happy with all the intricate piecing in the borders. That's Andrea on the right.

 

          Lois was thrilled with her quilt, which had a floral bouquet in the middle, then rust, creme, and green borders. Notice how well is matches Lois's sofa. For some reason, Lois didn't pose with her own quilt and had a lovely helper do that for her.

 

 

          This is Marty's quilt. The center is a scene that she purchased at the annual quilt show in Sisters, Oregon. It features a river, mountains, and all sorts of wildlife. Awesome quilt!

  

 

           Janice was excited to see how Andrea had appliqued the light-colored border of her quilt. She also liked the fabrics and colors that had been added.

 

 

          Dottie had to view the revealing of her quilt long distance since she was away visiting relatives in the Midwest. Her quilt featured an antique automobile and bushels of apples. The ladies had a great time adding apples, barn doors, checkerboards, and baskets as borders.

 

 

          Two of our members also brought other projects to share. Donna made this adorable baby quilt to donate to our guild's Loving Hands philanthropic group, which gives quilts to babies in our local hospitals. Donna said that the fabric number panels were originally designed to be made into a book, but she ingeniously fashioned them into a quilt.

 

 

          She put the number "10" on the back of the quilt. Sweet!

 

 

          Janice participates in an online quilt exchange. This is the beauty that she will be shipping off to its new home in Arizona. The nine-patch piecing in the background is perfect. We couldn't find one corner that didn't match up. Janice also has a quilt coming her way, too. She has no idea what it will look like. We can't wait to see!

 

Red Noodle Beans

The notion of planting Red Noodle beans can't really be taken seriously in my book. Sounds a bit like Jack and the Beanstalk. That was all I expected when I planted only half of the small packet I purchased from Johnny's Selected Seeds--just some entertainment.

The bean pods were said to be red in color and one yard long. Yeah, right.

I should have known something was up when I saw the size of the blossoms. They are about one half inch wide. This blossom was at the top of the vine, which had climbed four foot high at that point in time.

This is a close-up of a blossom that has been pollinated and was starting to lose some of its white petals. You can see the beginning of the two bean pods that are just forming. They are the green curls sticking out from the right and left sides of the blossom.

It only takes those little curls about and week and a half to grow into these long, red pods.

This one was kind of interesting. It threaded itself through the wire trellis. Then a vine wrapped itself around the bean pod. The pod is not really one yard long. Probably closer to two feet--but still pretty darn long. 

 This is my first harvest, which I picked just yesterday. There will be much more to come if the weather holds out. Not bad for a half a pack of bean seeds called Red Noodle, huh? The pods don't really look like they will taste particularly good, especially the ones that were left on the vine for more than a week. The beans inside are tasty though. Sort of the size and shape of black-eye peas, but a little sweeter. I will just shell them and use them that way. As a reference point as to how long these pods have grown----the bowl is about ten inches across. And for some reason, Blogger insists upon flipping this picture.

Framing the Satin Stitch

          Today I am finally beginning the actual quilting process on an applique wall hanging that I have been satin stitching for literally months. As I have said before, satin stitching is extremely tedious. It seems that no matter what kind of stabilizer is used or how closely I attend to the machine stitching process, there are always little bobbles in the lines of stitching.

          I have come upon a method to minimize those little imperfections, sharpen up the lines of stitching, and add more dimension to the design. As part of my quilting, I simply run a line of straight stitching along both sides of all the satin stitching. I use the walking foot to do this and go very slowly, pivoting in small increments around the curves.

       The contrast between the "framed" and "unframed" satin stitching is shown in the photo below. The unframed satin stitching in the upper left hand corner does not look nearly as polished as the framed stitching in the lower left hand corner.

          This is a slow process, but with practice, it will be worth every minute you put into it.

A Beautiful Quilt by Janice

          Tuesday evening was our regular biweekly gathering for my friendship group, the Sewful Sisters. Janice surprised us with her exquisite new quilt. The piecing was absolutely perfect. She included red and cream toile squares between the rows of piecing, which really gave her quilt a nice balance.

          Here is a view of the entire quilt. Excellent work, Janice!

Zippy Zig-Zag Piecing

          I have been looking for a lively, and preferably easy, piecing method that I could use as part of my monkey quilt.

          It's taken a number of years to collect enough funky little fabrics to make this thing jump. Now I am cutting, cutting, cutting. I always forget what a chore that can be. I am having to iron as I go because I pre-washed all of these incredibly bright fabrics. That means lots of wrinkles.

          This is just the beginning of the cutting.

          This is a mock-up of the zig-zag pattern. Look! The seams don't have to be matched.

          I found this piecing method on Exuberant Color. Wanda got it from one of her readers. The link to Wanda's example is:

http://exuberantcolor.blogspot.com/2012/09/another-method-of-zig-zag.html

 

 

Gorillas at the Post Office, Monkeys in the Bag

          While I was up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas dyeing fabric, I was concerned about these little monkeys. I even texted my neighbor and asked him if he could make sure the postman hadn't left a package on my doorstep while I was gone. The parcel had left Somewhere Sewing in Ohio about a week before and was nowhere to be found. Highly unusual, because the ladies at that store are efficient, prompt, and had shipped my order within a couple hours of my ordering online.

 

 

          When the package finally arrived, I could see there had been a slight problem. Notice the bag the Post Office had sealed around my package. It says, "We care." Anyone seeing a little red flag there? Just the beginning of a note that explains that sometimes packages get damaged in transit. Hmmmmm...wonder how that happens?

 

          When I peeled off the bag, this is what the original package looked like. Oh, my.

 

          Fortunately, the gals at Somewhere Sewing are smarter than the gorillas who work at the Post Office. They had double-bagged my fabric.

 

          And what am I going to do with all of those monkeys and bananas? Add them to my other monkeys and bananas. Only my yoga friends know where this is going.