Happy At Last

The Frankensteined tree from yesterday turned out pretty cute and close enough to what I originally wanted. (Did you see the owl and foxes?)

I thought about using the 3 trees together, but that green just didn’t work. 

This took a ridiculous amount of time to make - I mentioned this is for the back of the quilt, right??? - but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out (and had a lot of fun playing with sizing* and colors). 

I’ll size it to fit once I’ve finished the front and know what I need to do. 

*Note to self: green tree enlarged 150%, small white tree enlarged 175%, tallest tree enlarged 175% plus one added section (second from bottom). Pattern is “Forest” by Easy Piece Patterns.

Not Quite There Yet

Since Mr. A’s green tree wasn’t quite right (here), I thought I’d try a white-ish one. 

Better, but still not quite there.

Cobbled together a new pattern-piece today, making it taller and adding an additional branch section. Tomorrow we’ll see if I’ve finally got it right. Or at least closer to what I’m picturing in my head. 

Rainy Day Cookfest

I meant to quilt today, but thought I’d first make the angel food cake I’d promised Pop…

and since I was there, I should cook some chicken to make bbq sandwiches for this week’s lunches,

We’ll eat half, then freeze the rest to enjoy later

and hey, wouldn’t that chicken taste good in the Medieval Times tomato bisque soup (here) that I have almost all the ingredients for (hubby trudges off to Von’s…)

anddddd as long as the oven is hot, I should make that quiche recipe my sister sent me. (Here)

Sweetie Pie deep dish pie plate

Without the girls here everyday to keep me busy entertained, I’ve really gotten back into cooking (not just baking.) Hubby’s loving it, so much so that he agreed to buy me a fancy schmancy deep pie dish (here) so I can try my hand at pies (and more quiches…) Win, win! The fact it was 50% off didn’t hurt either…. 😂

Speaking of rainy days - our super scientific giant orange bucket rain gauge shows we’ve had 8”!!! of rain in the last 4 days. Since our yearly average is about 15”, that’s a lot! Forecast says no rain tomorrow but there are two more storms headed our way before the weekend. 

Didn’t Listen

Hubby, looking at my scrap fabric pull for the tree: “Maybe those are a little too dark with the blue background…”

Did I listen? Noooooooo. Was he right? Yesssss Maybeeeeeee

Enlarged this pattern by 150% to make it 18” like Mr. A.

I was planning to make a couple of trees to go with Mr. A. I guess the next one will be lighter… 

Done Times Two

It took most of the afternoon and evening, sewing slow so things lined up correctly, but I got Mr. A (for Aloysius Abominable) done and pinned to the design wall…

Dang it! 

Carefully took it apart, fixed both problems - one piece was turned the wrong way, an easy fix, but the other had to be recut - pinned it up again and… success! Tomorrow we make trees!

Never Say Never

I love Elizabeth Hartman’s quilt designs but after the last one (here) - 

Fancy Forest with tiny Jaclyn, 2017

I swore never again. So.Many.Pieces! And so complicated to put together. (The patterns are really well written, with lots of photos, but… complicated.)

Pieces A thru Q…

So why did I spend hours tonight cutting out pieces…

… and S thru KK

for one, solitary, single block?

Because I think someone will get a big laugh out of it. Makes it all worthwhile.

My New Helper

Now that my trained staff has moved away (😂 - I miss the grandgirls!), Donovan has taken over some of their tasks. 

He’s learned to peel zucchini so I can make his favorite zucchini bread,

has gotten really good at picking the daily dessert for me to bake (cinnamon rolls, lava cake and apple bread so far),

Cute daisy quilting on both Tangled quilts

and today he officially became my Quilt Holder. 

He took it very seriously, and did a good job, then peeked over the top of each one to make sure I got him in a photo too. 

 Each Tangled has a different backing and binding color

Hubby and I drove an hour, in the rain, to Goleta so I could drop off the placemats, the pink star quilt and both Tangled quilts at tonight’s Guild meeting. 

 The wind kept wrapping this one around him 🙃

We almost kept one Tangled - Pop really liked it - but we have. so. many. quilts. already. I’m sure it will go to a good home. 

And the Christmas cactus is blooming! It’s a raggedy, spindly little thing but it’s got at least 3 flowers and several more buds. I guess it likes being outside. 😍

All Caught Up

Glad I went to bed the other night and didn’t try to finish this when I was tired.

 21¾" x 33"

Coming to it fresh today, it still took over 2 hours to get the 6 big sections stitched together into the final bird. 

But it’s done! So happy with the fish and that my seams all seam (ha!) to match up correctly. 

And this month’s palms (ferns?) are also done for a total of 19. Next bird pattern comes out Thursday!

Sewing After Midnight

Things I learned while sewing after midnight -

Do not leave the big pattern pieces for last, thinking they will be easier than the small, fiddly ones. They. Are. Not.

 Color coding works!

Washy tape works as well as Scotch tape for holding pattern pieces together. And will not melt all over your iron. Again. 

 My favorite detail

After the third big mistake, it’s time to go to bed, no matter how close you are to being done.  

Done except for sewing everything together.

Soooooooo close.

Fixed It

The kingfisher is done - it took longer to rip out yesterday’s upside down piece than it did to resew that and finish the block. I only made one color mistake this month - the shrimp had 3 tails rather than 2 - so I’m getting better at that (or I just got lucky on this one… 😅)

The leg still looks wonky to me but it’s exactly like the design photo 🤷🏼‍♀️

Also finished three more fall palms, my monthly FPP project, for a total of 15 blocks. Which means I’m only one month behind on both Birdwatcher Project and palms! I thought the new bird pattern came out tomorrow but it happens on the second Thursday, so I have a whole week to do the giant heron from last month. I may get caught up after all!

Tomorrow is also pickup day for all the stuff we’ve cleaned out of upstairs and our closets.

I’m sad to see Jac’s makeup table go. She loved playing with it but decided she didn’t want to take it to Idaho. Hope it finds its way to another little girl who will love it.   

So nice to have all this gone. Now back to sewing.

Oopsie

I was trying to finish this guy tonight so that when the next pattern in the series comes out Thursday, I’ll only be one month behind rather than the two months I am now.  

Couldn’t figure out why the bottom piece looked wonky… it took me waaaaaay longer than it should have to figure out I sewed it on upside down. 🙃 

Giving up and going to bed. My date with the seam ripper can wait til tomorrow. 

Not Forgotten

Hubby: “Weren’t you working on a bird quilt…”

Kingfisher in-progress.

Why yes, I was, but it got pushed aside by Halloween must-makes (still using - and loving - my Ghost Party quilt, even if Halloween is over) and the remodel/rebuild/remove-more-stuff project.

Hubby finished clearing out the second bedroom/storage room, 

and I have an entire closet to hang quilts and wallhangings, with a shelf for photo albums and scrapbooking supplies. (Poor Gary. This closet was filled with his stuff - and it’s now taking up space in his garage. 😂)

All the sewing/quilting stuff that was upstairs is now in this section, along with the yarn and crochet/knitting supplies I’m still holding on to. (Cyrus is coming! And she loves to crochet and wants to learn to knit and weave.)

Foosball table is in front of this wall.

Weaving/spinning supplies are in this section with the earthquake supplies. Some shelves are still empty til I figure out if this layout works or not. 

Bobbin lace (someday I’ll get back to it, I hope!), yarn tools, odd pieces of batting and kid art supplies are on these shelves, with ice chests and two suitcases stacked and covered beside them. 

I still need to sort these art/Legos/kinetic sand supplies… some day. 

Best thing about sorting and moving was finding things I’d forgotten about or lost. This thread stand was still in its original packaging, from a quilt store that’s been gone for 10+ years. Now I don’t have to use a coffee cup and swear every time the thread flips out onto the floor. Progress!

Placemat Roundup

Last week I spent two full days cooking and baking so I could sew this entire weekend guilt free.

It worked! 

Tula Pink!

Finishing always takes longer than I expect but once I figured out a quilting plan - 

and found the new episodes of The Great British Baking Show - 

it went faster. 

 Three placemats have pretty pastel butterfly backing

Or I maybe because I was entertained distracted I didn’t care how long it took? 

 Sunflower backing is odd-man-out but I like the fabrics together.

The last four placemats are done and ready to go to guild on the 13th.

And Jennifer’s table runner is ready to go in the mail tomorrow*.

Now I just need to bind the two Tangled quilts so they can go out the door toooooooo.  Love the flower quilting!

* I *hated* the batting I picked for Jen’s table runner - too fluffy and difficult to quilt. So I ripped out the (almost finished 🤬) stitching, carefully pulled the spray-basted layers apart and redid it with thinner batting. So much nicer, but… the top got pulled out of shape during all that and I didn’t realize it until I was taking photos. Think I’ll call it the ‘leaning tower runner’ and hope she likes it anyway…