Trying New Things Today

 I do make an effort to try new things every week.  This week I have a snack or light lunch and some new quilting.

With Sweet Teen gone off to school, lunches and snacks just do not come easily to me.  However, it is Fig Season, second favorite only to Cherry Season in my book.  I'm still thinking about this one.  Sour dough bread, swiss cheese, sliced figs, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar mixed with blue agave syrup.  In the microwave because I did not want to heat the kitchen with the broiler.

Then, with Little Miss Gardener basted and stabilized, it was time for some quilting.  I used the Necchi BU in the 1919 Singer treadle.  (I really need to use Ms. Verniece, the 1936 Singer 15-88 one of these days soon or she'll get jealous.)

 Feathers and Ribbons in the nine-patches and encroaching into corners of the snowballs.

 Alas, it seems I will be doing multiple thread color changes again.

I had more than a few conversations with myself about what I would quilt in the snowballs, but have pretty much settled on these feathered plumes that are almost-circles, which, for some reason I've never used before.

So, I'm documenting my attempt at something new by linking to Melissa's TNT Thursday where you can go to see what other new things people have tried.

And because I'm keeping track, I'm noting that yesterday and today, the most likely times for rain this week, we were missed again.  I even had to water the sunflowers!  But we did have the benefit of more very beautiful clouds.

Happy quiltmaking.....

Improvisation, Book Cover & NM Skies

 This is the backing for the Little Miss Gardener Quilt.

 To get the size this quilt needs, the backing either needed to be wide or have a pieced section. This is a great place to try a bit of improvisational piecing--fun, but not overwhelmingly challenging.

Top pieced strip: left over from the borders.
Center pieced strip: Left over 6.5 inch squares; a 6.5 inch block pieced from three 6.5 X 2.5 leftovers, and 6.5 inches of left over border.

 Third pieced strip: two leftover 2.5 inch strips--pink strip attached at each end.

 For those whose favorite part of quiltmaking is the quilting, this back would make a great quilt on it's own.  (And if I had a lot of leftover pieces, that's just what I'd do.  Unfortunately, almost all the leftovers were used to piece this back.)

Here's another book cover made by Sweet Teen.  She did make one more attempt to use the Hollister bag with the naked male torso, and I once again vetoed that idea.  Of course, she asked, "Why not?"  I replied, "Because women are infuriated when males objectify them, so you're not going to do it to some faceless guy."

Her boyfriend was standing here, grinned, and said, "Good answer!"

Her answer was, "Yes, ma'am."

I do hope that's the end of the saga of the Hollister bags.

 We are having an incredibly beautiful day here in the Estancia Basin.  Gorgeous clouds are piling higher and higher.  Although promising rain, more likely than not, they won't deliver--at least, not at my house.

 Beautiful skies and mild breezes just sing of the beauty of life.

And here's one of my neighbor's morning glories, twining through the fence and up a tree branch.

 Gorgeous colors, very different from the ones growing in my pot.  I did notice when I was outside that the sunflowers in my yard are eager to bloom.  If we don't get some rain, I'll water them this evening.
 
If your weather is not so glorious, you might want to nurture yourself with the creations of some fellow-bloggers.  I'm linking to Connie Kresin's Freemotion by the River, Esther Liu's WIPs on Wednesdays, and Freshly Pieced.

Oh, and my local pharmacy has 2012 influenza vaccinations available.  Got mine yesterday.  Please remember to get yours.

Have a glorious, joy-filled day, and..

Happy quiltmaking.....

Piecing Progress

First from the Friday Night Sew In:

 The Borders are on Little Miss Gardener:

I really do love this quilt.  It's my first Jane Sassaman fabric.  It's surprising how these solids sweeten the look.  
Sweet Teen was productive too.  She used gift bags to make covers for some of her text books:

She'd mentioned using a Hollister bag with a mostly naked guy on it.  I don't think sooooo!  I do not care how many other kids are using Hollister bags with the naked guy either!

I made  the curtain for under the counter where the dishwasher used to be.  I love the fact that I now have adequate room to hide away the wastebasket.  I do need to get something to cover the surface of the subflooring.  I need to take a closeup of the fabric too--it's a toile with hens on it. I do love walking into the kitchen and seeing and using the sink that is big enough!

The other big effort early this morning was more weeding therapy.  In Central Illinois where I grew up, someone was always remarking, "You can take the boy off the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy."  As an adolescent, I couldn't wait to leave the farm.  Imagine my shock to discover this late in my life that you can't take the farm out of the girl either!  And weeds are just like potato chips--I keep thinking, just a couple more.

Those weeds back there just grow like crazy on the city right of way.  I am fairly sure that there has to be a leak in the water main along there.  I've suggested that to the city several times, but they don't want to believe me, and keep suggesting there may be a leak on my property, but they won't come out and look at it.  When I stand in the alley, I can see a thick path of weeds following the water main.  I need to think of something to plant there to take advantage of the extra moisture and to squeeze out the weeds.
That mobile home back there had most of us really upset when it was moved in.  This area is for site-built homes only.  We were assured it was for a temporary construction office and would move on.  It's now been there for years--and, obviously, no one takes care of that property. 

Oh, I forgot that I'm linking to the Friday Night Sew In.  It's your chance to meet some more sewing bloggers.

P. S.:  Sweet Teen is on her way to the county fair dance--that's okay.  Except, we had the portico light on, and the moths are back!  Yuck!  Guess the moths are migrating again--signaling summer is drawing to an end...just in case I hadn't noticed how short the days are getting!

Happy Quiltmaking.....

Time to Try Something New

Sweet Teen and I went back to the county fair after school today--because I had wanted to see the quilts, and the exhibit was closed when I got there last night.
Here are the ribbon winners:

 Great piecing.

 Quilted with a pantograph.

 1930's era fabrics in a Lone Star.

 Interesting star treatment in the corners.    Star was pieced and lined with muslin. Star was tacked down in some places and held in the rest with the lines of quilting.

 I thought I had a photo of the quilting in the triangle, but I guess I didn't get one.  Looked like the design had been traced on and then quilted.

 This red and black Lone Star had one of the other first place ribbons.  Looked long arm quilted but with some hand-guided quilting.

 The following quilt did not earn a ribbon, if I recall correctly.  Has an all over hand-guided wiggle.

 It's being raffled for $1 per ticket to benefit an area civic organization.

 There were a few wallhangings...all but this one just quilted in the ditch or following the lines in the piecing.  This one was made by the same lady who made the 1930's looking quilt.

 This last one was in the 4-H exhibit, made by one of Sweet Teen's fellow FFA officers. It too was quilted with a panto, so I'm guessing it was quilted by someone else.  There were machine embroidered crosses in a couple of places in the big center panel.

 Okay, I need to check out the county fair booklet and start planning to enter next year. I think it would be interesting to try to do something outstanding that will be seen by others.  (That's my new thing for this week--even if it is just a new plan and not a new finish.)

We were able to vote for one favorite thing in the exhibit, and I voted for a delicate embroidered and appliqued table cloth of white lawn.  It looked like it could have been made by my paternal grandmother 100 years ago, but the guy manning the exhibits said everything had to have been made within the last year.

I did sew the first set of borders on the Little Miss Gardener quilt today....

 and I quilted borders on a prayer quilt for Victory Quilts.    But other than that, the important thing that happened here today was:

 I purchased this sink and hardware some time ago.  The husband of one of my friends is a plumber and was going to install it, but it never happened, so I asked one of the retired guys at church if I could hire him to do it.  We've talked only casually before, and I so enjoyed having the chance to get to know him better.  He and his wife have been at our church only a couple of years.
We have frighteningly hard water in our town--so I'm hoping it won't be too difficult to keep this sink shiny.  I'm so glad to have it.  It's the same outer dimensions as the two basin sinks, but I intensely dislike little sinks into which I can't fit a large casserole or roasting pan. We also pulled out the dishwasher that I haven't used in ages because it just doesn't do its job--which means I finally get to make a pretty curtain for that area with some wonderful toile type fabric that I purchased last year.  It's a great place to keep the waste basket out of the way--and you know how much I'll love seeing that yellow and blue fabric there.

And the other news?  I hear raindrops hitting the skylight.  We're on the southeastern edge of the storms.  I heard the train tracks have been flooded between Santa Fe and Albuquerque (other side of the mountains from where we live).  In a desert, flash floods can happen so very quickly!

I am going to link to Melissa's Try New Things Thursday.

I plan to work on Little Miss Gardener some more tomorrow.

Happy quiltmaking.....

More Progress: Sew, Snip, Press, Sew

Little Miss Gardener is kind of lagging behind here--or at least lagging behind where I wanted her to be.

 Snip.  Snip.  Press.  Seam.

 Trim.  Sew.

 Seam.  Press.  Cut.

 

More length of pieced border than absolutely necessary.  Hooray.

Back to more calculations and more decisions and more cutting.

I did plan to take my hand crank Singer 99 outside to piece this morning, but I haven't managed it yet, so I may not get to that.  I can say that while I love my Featherweight, treadles are soooooooo much quieter!

In other news...Sweet Teen's first day of her last year of high school.

 Actually, it's a special day because FFA Officers will be making presentations at the district's midschools today and then working at the county fair.  Therefore, her first day of real classes may not happen until Friday.  She's somewhat disappointed because she loves the first day of school.  But then she's also excited and honored to be making presentations to younger students.

We also picked up the proofs for her senior pictures at the post office on our way over to the school.  I am sooooooo unimpressed!  In order for her to have her picture in the yearbook, we were forced to use a certain photographer.  We have 10 proofs--all of which are no better--and maybe worse--than the usual school pictures, just more poses.  The photographer used a terrible angle so that the frames of her classes cut across her eyes horizontally.  But, hey, an easy way for them to make $100 or so [times how many hundreds of families?]!  We're going to have to find another photographer to take some decent ones!

I'm not sure how much more I'll get done on the Little Miss Gardener Quilt today because tomorrow a friend from church is coming over to install my new kitchen sink.  I'm praying he doesn't run into any unpleasant surprises--and I'm certainly looking forward to a new sink despite the fact that it's a new one and not one of the vintage porcelain farm sinks I'd really prefer (but which wouldn't really look so great in this house anyway).

I'm linking up to Esther's WIPs on Wednesdays and to Freshly Pieced.

My "How to Quilt on a Treadle Sewing Machine" post is still available.


Happy Quiltmaking......

Quilt Progress: Little Miss Gardener

 Here's where I am at bedtime:

Colors are off because it's taken with living room lighting after nine.  I just draped batting across a chair and plopped on the blocks, because otherwise the breezes from the fans would have had the pieces flying! And oops!  I do see something I need to fix.  But it will wait until morning.

I've been sewing this on my Featherweight, but if it's nice and not windy in the morning, I'm planning to take my handcrank Singer 99 outside for at least part of the rest of the sewing.

And, yes, it's new name is Little Miss Gardener.  I have to admit that these solids make those Jane Sassaman prints very special.  They remind me of when my daughter was little and called everyone's yard a "garden" and could entertain herself for long stretches watching flowers and insects.  Let's hope the little girl who receives this quilt will have the same fascination with gardens.

When Sweet Teen was a toddler and we went for walks, the birds were so friendly to her that I wouldn't have been surprised if one had hopped right into her hand. Now she does not like bugs or snakes at all--and does not appreciate it when I point out that without insects her diet would be a lot more limited--not that anyone should think I'm saying she eats insects!  I refer to the jobs they do in nature!

Okay, it's been a long day!

Linking to Connie's Free Motion by the River.

Happy quiltmaking.......

Design Wall: New Baby Quilt & Ironing Board

New quilt--not baby--the baby hasn't arrived yet....

 The prints are from a set of Jane Sassaman for Free Spirit fabrics that I picked up two or three months ago--thinking about this gestating baby girl.

 This morning I picked out some solids from my stash.  Actually, the lavender solid near the top is a shot cotton that I used to make a blouse or a jumper some 20 years ago.  (Now that I've lost weight, I really need to find that box of clothing I put away so I can enjoy wearing some of it again,)

Since I stacked these on my ironing board, I also want to share about my ironing board cover.  I've seen some other bloggers making really lovely ironing board covers out of quilting cottons, but I have to admit that while I don't love ironing, my irons and ironing board covers get really heavy use.  I wanted one that would improve my ironing experience and make ironing easier.  Fifteen or twenty years ago I attended a guild show in Phoenix and met the woman who was selling Miracle Ironing Board Covers. I took the flyer home, intending to order one.  I lost the flyer.  Several years ago the covers were being demonstrated at the Fiber Arts show in Albuquerque.

The advantage of these covers is that they are woven with Owens-Corning Fiberglass yarn and guaranteed never to burn.  The fabric is used in protective clothing for astronauts, firefighters, car racers, etc. and reflects 95% of the heat, making it possible to iron on a lower setting.  It can be hand washed or sponged off right on the ironing board, whatever works best. It comes in many sizes to fit most of the ironing boards I've ever seen as well as in yardage.

My ironing board for ironing fabric is really a board!  (Actually I have two.)  My board was removed from the cabinets in my classroom at Lucie B. Tyng Elementary (opened in 1915).  I was working in my classroom during the weeks before school began when the district's carpenter came in to replace the doors on the cabinets.  I asked what they were doing with the old ones, and when I learned they were going into the trash, I asked if I could have several.  This is the only one I still have after my many moves in the intervening years.  It's about 22" X 24" and is covered with a layer of aluminum foil and several layers of towels.  The top layer is the miracle fabric with a casing sewn around the edges so I could put a drawstring in it and secure it around the board and the layers of toweling. Because I sometimes take this ironing board to sewing gatherings, I purchased yardage rather than a pre-finished cover.  I'd like the ironing experiences of my readers to be easier too, so I'm sharing this information.  (Even if I didn't quilt, I'd appreciate one of these covers to make ironing easier and cooler.)

Okay, time for me to move on to EQ7 and get this quilt layout designed.  (I expected to be back at school, but the school district is saying I will not be allowed to have a graduated return to work over the course of two weeks and will have to wait until I'm at "full capabilities".)

I'm linking to Judy Laquidara's Design Wall Monday.

If you came here looking for the "How to Quilt on a Treadle Sewing Machine" tutorial, it's here.

Happy Quiltmaking.....

Barbara Brackman's Block Base Now Available

I wanted to share with quiltmakers who may not have gotten the word, that Barbara Brackman's Blockbase is once again available.

Even better, right now Electric Quilt is shipping for free.  (Free shipping ends August 20, 2012.) You can order it here: http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/BlockBase/BlockBase.asp

Here's my original copy of her Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

 The pages came punched with three holes but loose.

 The right side page had little handmade drawings of the blocks while the left side listed names and printed sources of the blocks.  (Obviously, some blocks had even more names, but Barbara was documenting only printed sources.)

I'm excited because when it was available in the past, I was not able to place an order.   Over 25 years ago, my Tennessee quilt guild, the Cherokee Blossom Quilt Guild in Cleveland, TN was able to bring her to town.  The information she shared has served me well for over a quarter of a century--and she continues to learn more and to share more.

In the quiltmaking classes I taught for a chain of fabric stores (at a time when there were only a handful of quilt shops in the entire state), class participants learned to draft all categories of blocks in a twelve inch size.  (How often do I make 12 inch blocks now?....Not very often!)..Not that it matters, since the drafting skills they learned can be used to draft any size block.

I love this encyclopedia, but it lacks some of the functionality that eases our lives in the computer age.
Barbara shares some of the advantages of Blockbase in this post on one of her blogs.

Want to know the really cool part?...With all its increased functionality, the computer program sells for about the same price as the encyclopedia did back in the '80s!  In fact, with the offer of free shipping by Electric Quilt, you can purchase it for less than the cost with shipping over 25 years ago!  What a deal!

Happy quiltmaking....


P.S.:  If you came here looking for my tutorial about how to quilt on a treadle, you can find it here. Readers have left some lovely comments; I'm glad to know that even some people without treadles have picked up some helpful information from the tutorial!