spring has (finally!) sprung!

I've had just enough time in the sewing room this week...

the spring farm work has hit in earnest, and although we're farming and growing a bit differently this year (scaling down a bit) there is still a lot to be done. all spring it's: " nope, too wet to till. nope, too wet to seed. nope, frost coming- too cold to plant." then: BOOM! it's ready, and all needs to be done at once!

I had way more black/multi blocks and fabric than I thought. (isn't that always the case, though?)

I still have a few 16 patches to sew up in my "spare time", but I've been really busy sewing garments for my 2 youngest daughters.

A and B each chose a piece of yardage for a new Easter dress. B is wearing the blue, A the red. next week I should have a couple more dresses and such to share...

quilting... yes, lots! blogging? not so much...

Judy of Patchwork Times is doing a mystery medallion quilt for this year. (instead of the UFOs) i have SO MUCH fabric, that even though i don't "need" another quilt, i decided to join along in the fun, adding the extra challenge to myself to only use stash fabric.

considering that fabric #2 is 4+ yards, i think that i did pretty well. i only purchased the yellow polka dot and a bit of that purple. (and the yellow was at the advice of my pastor's wife, so how could i say no?)

here is January's completed blocks. I'm excited to see what the quilt will look like when it's done. Judy's quilting style is much different than mine, so i know that I'll have a quilt that doesn't look like all my others... ( I'm hoping that I'm not the only one who ends up making quilts that all look similar...)

come back later this month to see clue #2.

and who knows- i might even do another post or two before then... there is so much to catch up on!

just like mama!

even if everyone does just a little bit...

our church's sewing circle, Scraps to Wraps continues to be a regular and favorite part of our monthly routine.

all 3 of my daughters participate with me, and it's such a blessing to be part of this close knit multi-generational group.

here you can see M working on the scrappy plaid stars quilt. M, Joanne and i each pieced about 25 of these fun and quick blocks.


some months when we meet we can really churn out an astounding number of quilts- once we tied 7 comforters (quilts)! we all take turns, according to our schedules, to take the completed quilts home to bind, returning them to the church as soon as we're done.


A loves to go and help. she asks for her own needle and thread, and will sit diligently and "tie" the quilts right alongside her grandmotherly friends.

some of our quilts stay in our community and given to folks who have experienced a fire or some other tragedy.

some of our "uglies" are sleeping bags that we've made specifically for the homeless. you can read more about that (and even make an "uglie" of your own) here.

others are taken to the MCC, (Mennonite Central Committee) to be distributed to disaster victims all over the world.

with the recent earthquake in Haiti, MCC is asking for even more quilts. 10,000 quilts (comforters) and flat sheets, to be exact! they are also asking for relief kits, to provide basic hygiene supplies to a Haitian family.

the little girls and i have been working on some extra scrap quilts that we can take to the church to be knotted at our next Scraps to Wraps meeting. I'd like the quilts to be able to go to Haiti and offer some measure of comfort to those in such dire need right now.

the relief kits are also something that our church is doing. Dave is excited about that particular project, since Haiti is near and dear to his heart after serving on 3 mission trips with CSI. we have several missionary friends who are in Haiti right now, serving God despite the very difficult circumstances. our family plans on doing several of these buckets for our Haitian friends.

below is the information on both the comforters and relief kits, if you'd like to get involved. if you're a local reader, and would like to participate, I'll be glad to take the stuff to church and see that it gets to the MCC. (this would be a good opportunity to get rid of one of those unfinished quilting projects that's nagging at you from your sewing closet!)

Comforter and Blankets:

Comforter specifications:

Use new or nearly new material
Single/twin-size preferred ( 60in x 80in) Double/full-size accepted ( 82in x 90in)
Winter weight are requested for the Haiti earthquake response (please use quilt batting)
Knotted with crochet cotton (not more than 4-8in apart)
Get children involved: use fabric markers or fabric crayons to draw pictures on blank muslin or solid fabric comforter tops

Relief Kit:

Contents: (NEW items only)

4 large bars bath soap (leave in wrapping)
1 plastic bottle shampoo (13-24oz; place bottle in a re-sealable plastic bag)
4 large bars of laundry soap (Some stores carry Fels Naptha, Sunlight or Zote brands)
1 squeeze-tube toothpaste ( 6oz; leave in box)
4 adult-size toothbrushes (leave in packaging)
4 new bath towels (medium weight, dark or bright colors)
2 wide-tooth combs(6 to 8in)
1 fingernail clipper
1 box adhesive bandages (minimum 40, assorted)
1 package sanitary pads (18-24 thin maxi)

it's so easy, i know you can do it!

a little while ago i promised a free quilt tutorial from my quilting class that i taught at the Ben Franklin in September. here, (at long last) it is! (and i guess it's been even longer than i thought since i posted last. after trying unsuccessfully to log into blogger, i found that i had forgotten my password! imagine that!)

anyway- this quilt, Trip Around the Scrap Basket, (and tutorial) is taken from the book "Slice 'Em and Dice 'Em Quilts"

while this quilt may look overwhelming with all the triangles, it's actually very easy once you break it down into manageable (and understandable) parts. this quilt is made entirely of squares ~ 9 patch blocks and also larger squares.

before we really get started, remember that it's always important with quilting to have an accurate 1/4" seam allowance. a sixteenth here and a sixteenth there can quickly add up, causing your quilt to not go together properly. that's really frustrating when you've spent money and time on piecing the top. so take the time to check for accuracy- you'll be glad you did later! also, i almost always use grey thread in the top and bobbin when quilting. it's a universal match, and if you wind several bobbins ahead, you can really make good time.

this quilt, as I've already said, is made up of 9 patch blocks. (it's actually very similar to the Tossed 9 i pieced last winter.) the center square of the 9 patch is always the same- in my case, the yellow. the inner 4 blocks are your lightest fabric (tan) and the outer 4 are the colors that you've chosen to make predominant in your quilt. (blue and brown). look at my square below to help make that a bit clearer.

the selection of your fabrics is actually the most difficult part of this quilt. it is very important that the center square is different in color and/or value from all the other fabrics that you choose. and the lights need to be LIGHT ~ not just sortakinda light. (and don't use muslin either, that's too 1980's!)

i chose a multitude of blues and browns for my quilt. I've laid out all the fabrics that i used in my quilt, just to give you an idea. my quilt is significantly bigger than the one in the book, so i needed lots of different fabrics. (this is where we all do a happy dance for the invention of fat quarters~ a great way to build your stash without alot of money)



since the center square is the "dark" and the inner 4 are the "light", that leaves us with "medium" for the outer 4. it's important that all your fabrics be of the same value. an easy and quick way to determine if all your fabric choices are "keepers" is to take a digital picture of them and then change it to black and white. you can see above that all my fabrics "read" with the same "value". there are no fabrics that jump out at you. again, this is very important to the design of this quilt- you want the eye to travel around the quilt, and not get stuck on any particular fabric.




if you're still with me at this point, you're home free! the rest is easy-peasy! these squares are all 3 ½". (including seam allowance) you can either strip piece them, or do it the traditional way. (which is square by square) the orientation of the outer 4 blocks (my blue and brown) makes absolutely no difference. trust me on this one. just make sure that you've used an equal amount of each color.

once you've pieced all your 9 patch units cut them up into 4 equal sized blocks.

now, here's where the really interesting and intriguing part comes. from all your blues and browns, cut squares that are 4 3/4". draw a line from corner to corner diagonally. then match this plain square to one of your quartered 9 patches. with a 1/8 seam, sew down either side of your drawn line.


make sure you orient your quarter 9 patch unit like is in the picture. trust me on this, too.

next, cut the new unit apart on the drawn line. press, with the SA towards the square.

after you've done this to each of the quarter units of the original 9 patch, you'll have 8 new blocks.

here's what happens if you're not paying attention and orient the square units the wrong way on the quarter 9 patch. since these are the only 2 that i did wrong in my whole quilt, I'm not feeling too bad about it! (and besides, i needed this example to show to all my students, right?)

for each 9 patch that you sew, you'll get 8 of the new blocks, so plan accordingly. my quilt is 14X18 units square. that means i only had to make 32 9 patch blocks. with quick and easy strip piecing, surely that's not an unmanageable number! with an inner border of 2" and the outer border at 4" my quilt finished at 67" X 83"

if you click on the picture of my completed quilt, you'll be able to see how to arrange all your squares. if you have a design wall, more power to ya! otherwise, wait until the kids are in bed and lay it out on the living room floor. you'll want to do this to make sure that you don't have 2 like fabrics next to each other.

i quilted this quilt (in a evening) using invisible thread (and a walking foot, of course), and stitch-in-the-ditch. (the backing is brown)

if you really love this quilt, but don't want to make your own, it's for sale. contact me if you're interested in buying it. soon my quilt gallery will be up and running, so you'll be able to see some of the other quilts that i've made.

this quilt was fun (and easy) to make, and since the old-fashioned 9 patch is one of my favorite blocks i really enjoyed the new challenge and look that resulted from this old standby. already I've had one of my children drop a not-so-subtle hint that this quilt would make a wonderful graduation-from-college gift.

I'll have to ponder that one for a spell.

8 women signed up for this class, and i remembered to take pictures of 3 of the quilts. you can see the great variety that is accomplished just in the different fabrics chosen.

Sondra made this quilt for her dog (!)

Carla's grand daughter will be the happy recipient of this quilt.

and (???) made this quilt for her bed. notice that she did hers differently, and it turned out just fine. all her 9 patch squares used only blue (in the outer 4), and her other square units were brown exclusively. i was worried that it would not work, but obviously this is a beautiful quilt!

if you decide to make a quilt of your own using this pattern, please feel free to ask any questions about some of the important information I'm sure I've inadvertently omitted.

and by all means, e-mail me a picture of your competed (or not) quilt! I'd love to see what you've made.

so would my 8 other faithful readers!

whatever happened to that sporadic blogger, anyway?

i figured since I'm starting to get e-mails, phone calls and other frantic inquiries from people that i know in real life, i better at least post something up here, so my hundreds of faithful readers MIL won't wonder if I'm sick or dead.

ever since M and N went to college and G started school again, I've lost a bunch of people to boss around help out, it seems as if I'm too busy to post about my exciting life.

but- i haven't forgotten about all of you, my dear and faithful readers, and i have a few posts up my sleeve that I'd like to share with you.

soon.

but until then- here's a sneak preview of coming attractions:

* the final Livestock and Garden Report for 2009

* chores and the getting of them done (happily)

* my first ever giveaway!

* a quilting tutorial

* another quilting tutorial

* more pictures from our trip to SC

* general profound ramblings about evangelical Anabaptists

* another giveaway that i'll be participating in at weareTHATfamily

* a new feature of my blog: QUILT gallery

so- since nap time is officially over, and can not be stretched out any longer (and believe me, I've tried!) i need to get off the computer.

but I'll try to be back soon.

promise!

late winter creativity- a relaxing pastime

I've been working at finishing a few quilts that i had started, hoping to get them done before i needed to break away from my "winter rest" and concentrate fully on gardening and other outside chores.

Dave and i both have ordered our seeds, and last week Dave brought home a mini indoor greenhouse. we are both eager to start our seedlings, and it's getting harder and harder each day to wait! it's still too early to start most of our plants, as living in zone 5 we can expect frost until late may. but we will be having some hoop houses in the garden, and we hope to put out tomatoes, lettuce and radishes as soon as early April.

in the meantime, I'm done with the split 9 patch quilts. i made one twin size (approximately) and two wall hangings. the twin quilt, and one wall hanging are to sell at the library auction, and the other wall hanging i will keep for myself. that one is not done yet, because i didn't have enough batting, but it wont' take long at all to get it done.

I've been drawn to these colors- the teals, royal blues and purples, for several years, so was really glad to have the chance to create these quilts. it was a simple pattern, and really allowed the colors to be the focus, not the pattern.

here's a detail of the quilting that i did. i used metallic silver thread, and did a stippling pattern. instead of the regular meandering, i did a stippling in squares and rectangles. i thought that would go nicely with the linear design of the blocks. i 'm pleased with how these quilts turned out, and since i still have a wall hanging to keep for myself, i won't be too sad to see them go.

i've been just a tad bit busy lately...

it's been busier than usual around here, but we have been getting lots of things done. (that is, if you don't count the fact that meals and laundry have been a bit spotty... or that the house is a HUGE mess. other than that...)

I've been working feverishly in the mud room, trying to get that "done", and we have pretty well accomplished that, with everyone working together. i finished all the painting, spackling and trim work that was hanging over my head, and now Dave just has a small amount of trim to do.

i had a rare opportunity last week to spend some time sewing. M was watching the girls, and i was able to finally piece together the split 9 patch that i cut out ages ago. i really like the way it turned out. i still need to put on the borders, and of course quilt and bind it. hopefully i can get to that before too long.

Dave was out checking on the chickens, and found our first egg! A was thrilled, and thought that it was an "Easter egg". we are now getting 2 eggs a day, and while the hens seem to be steady layers, we need to work on their "delivery". it is rather like an egg hunt to gather the eggs. we've found them in buckets, in the bird feeder and in other random places.

Dave is still working in the kitchen, and the mess is slowly spreading all over the house, despite my earnest attempts to contain it. (but remember, I'm not complaining!) he has properly insulated the kitchen, even going the extra step with the fan fold insulation, and now has hung plywood on 2 of the walls. he's done this just for some extra stability to mount the cabinets. the next step is to fix the ceiling- there is a 24" gap between the old kitchen ceiling, and the new kitchen wall. he'll hang that drywall tomorrow, and we're hoping that we can blend the 2 nearly seamlessly... but of course there is our new family motto: "a fresh coat of paint can cover a multitude of sins."

our original plans for the mud room floor were just to leave it ugly unfinished for now, with the plan of tiling it sometime down the road. (sometime very far and very long down the road.) however, my good friend Susan came to visit us last week, and she inspired us to paint it. we had been thinking of that possibility, but quite frankly, were overwhelmed by the whole decision making process. in my Internet wanderings, i discovered that the wide board colonial flooring, with the hand-cut, square nails was rather much in demand, and it seemed a shame to cover it over when there were some who would pay $mucho mucho a square foot. when Susan suggested painting it the same tealish color that is inside the butler's pantry, we looked at each other and thought- "why not? sounds good to me" so, a project that had been near the bottom of the list got catapulted right to the top.

and of course, no project around here is ever easy, simple or quick. but we worked hard, and it's done now- and looks very nice, if i do say so myself!




first was the prep work- we scraped and vacuumed all the dirt out of the cracks. you don't want to know about the 100+ years of dirt in those cracks. 'nuf said. G and i worked all day doing that. and were glad that the mud room is actually one of the smallest rooms in the house!

then Dave and i worked the rest of the evening scraping off most of the paint splotches, and sanding the greasy spots- leftover from where someone had stored their extra FORD engine. becasue we all know, the best place to store your extra, greasy FORD engine is in your house.






i primed it with 2 coats of Kilz, and then finally got to roll on the soothing tealish color. it does look really nice, and we like it. (if we could only find the baseboard cover that goes on the last heater along the wall, that would really help, too.)

the mud room is now bright, clean and has lots of room and storage. one room down, only eleven more to go...

moving right along, one day at a time

it's been a very difficult several weeks at our house, and while things have calmed down for now, there is the emotional fallout and many relationship issues that are still here for us to deal with. even though D has angrily rejected us, we are still family, and what he does affects all of us still here at home. we have to deal with the negative impacts of his foolish choices, in ways that he, nor i, could ever have imagined. but enough of that already- I've spent so much time talking, thinking and crying about D, that i want to talk about something different- something that brings me happiness:

QUILTING!

not that i get to do much sewing, mind you, but i do like to buy fabric, and arrange the colors, and think about what i could make with it, if i had the time! well, here is my latest project (sort-of) and my next wanna be project: split 9 patch. i can't take credit for the quilt block design. it's what we did at our last friendship quilter's exchange, and i had so much fun that i made 4 of the blocks, not just one, and bought fabric to make another quilt.

this is so easy, and even if you're not a sewer, you can do this! promise! if you can cut a straight line, and sew relatively straight and even, you're gonna love this, too!

i chose 9 fall colors, with brown being the middle square. that will keep the blocks consistent with each other, and create the pattern in each of the blocks. you'll see.

i cut 4 1/2 inch squares from all 9 fabrics, but you can cut any size square that you want. it will just make your finished block a little bigger. sew the 9 squares of fabric together in any way you want, making sure that the center square is always the same. (brown in this block.) then press, alternating seams so they will all lay flat.

here comes the really cool part- cut the 9 patch square into 4 equal pieces (units)- just like you see here. it's been a while since i did this, so i don't remember the exact measurements. but i know you can figure it out!

now, rotate the top left unit counter clockwise, and the bottom right unit clockwise.

then sew them back together. this particular block turned out a little too much color blocked for me, meaning that all the colors kind of migrated together. it's ok for one block, but i wouldn't want all my blocks to turn out like that.

i had so much fun with the first block, that i decided to make 3 more, even though the exchange only required one.

here they are in progress.

and now the completed 4 split 9 patch blocks. you can see how in some of the blocks the colors are more evenly dispersed, and i like that much better.

now, here's the really exciting part- see all those really COOL fabrics above? the teal, purple, lime green and aqua? I've always wanted to make a quilt out of those colors, and never got around to it. after i made those autumn colored split 9's, i had the epiphany that this would be a perfect application for those bright fabrics that have been calling to me for years. so off i went to joann's, and bought a bunch of their flat quarters. they had a really nice selection, and i chose several different blacks for the centers. the big piece of fabric at the top was an impulse buy- see how the colors PERFECTLY co-ordinate with all the other pieces of fabric? i thought that it would make a nice border, or maybe as the backing.

so, maybe when my life slows down a bit, or I'm not so busy, or they have occupational therapy day at the nursing home that M chose for me, I'll get around to making this REALLY AWESOME quilt. until then, they are sitting on my schoolroom table, and I'll just satisfy myself with drooling on the pile, and fondly caressing the fabric as i walk by.