Sleepover Wishes

It's so neat that my grandchildren have wants and needs that I can help with. Wishes that fall right within my talents.  Summer went to her first sleepover, along with her brother, and found that sleepovers make it necessary to have the proper luggage.  She wished for a backpack like her friends that would enable her to arrive at sleepovers in style.  A request came my way and so off I went to do my Google search, and found a wonderful free pattern at craftgossip.com

A bright, fun backpack for Summer.

The fun thing about making it is it can be made with scraps or take yourself on a shopping trip and buy new stuff. I used a few pieces from Moda's Oh Cherry Oh honey bun.  For non-quilters that's a roll of 1 and 1/2 inch strips cut from a fabric collection and rolled into a round that resembles a cinnamon bun.  I alternated the colored strips with a solid yellow and found a beautiful scrap of red for the flap; with enough left over to make another backpack flap.  Gee, I wonder if Aidan needs one too.

 The pattern is simple enough and you can add a few features to make it special and unique.  I love learning about new products.  This pattern called for using Timtex, which was new to me.  It's a heavy stiffened interfacing, in this case it can be ironed on to the fabric and bonds well.  It made the pink collar opening stiff and holds the backpack open.

The back

A few weeks ago I found nylon webbing at JoAnn's Fabric Store and made a mental note to remember it in case I found a use for it.  As soon as I started working on the backpack I knew I'd be making a trip to the store to buy some instead of making the straps from fabric.  It comes in lots of colors, I chose green to match the green in the print.

I added a pocket to the lining, a carry loop made from the strapping, used a piece of coreboard to make the bottom rigid; a piece of velcro to fasten the flap and a cute button.  

A special touch of gold.

The most special touch is Summer's initial in gold glitter.  Now what more could a girl ask.  I'm going to pack this special gift up and mail it off to Summer as soon as I can.  I hope it arrives in time for her next sleepover.

Yarn vs Fabric

I thought I'd do something different than quilting, so I gathered my supplies; a crochet hook, size H, my pattern book for making doll outfits, and a nice, fresh, bright yellow, skein of yarn.  Next I settled down in front of a good movie, found the end of the yarn and began to chain; 25 to be exact.

The yarn fed nicely from the skein just like it was supposed to until I was almost finished the second row of hdc (half double crochet).  At that point the yarn seemed to lock down tight and no amount of pulling and tugging would produce another inch.  I shifted the inside material back and forth hoping to loosen the problem, but still no release.  Next I pulled the inside of the skein out and mashed and bunched it around--still nothing.  At least it did produce the other end of the yarn.  Maybe I'd started on the wrong end, so I began rolling the skein into a ball.  I should have taken a photo to show my results because I now had a mass of tangles from hell.

Two hours later, my movie had ended and a new one had begun and I was still manipulating the ball in and out of itself.  I'd even taken a few bathroom breaks and stopped for an ice cream snack. I'd ripped out my beginning work and and started rolling a ball from that end as well.  Three hours later I'd finally completed the task of producing one, big, unsnarled ball from which I could work freely on my new project.

My neatly untangled ball of yellow.

Back to chain 25, row 1 and row 2 completed, I'd begun to think that the weight of this yarn was too heavy for doll clothes.  I thought I needed something called sport weight or baby yarn.  Still I continued on row 3 (NCIS is investigating a mysterious murder) and I'm certain that this yarn is not meant for doll clothes.  So I ripped out my three rows of work, rewound all onto the ball and set it aside to be returned to storage.  It'll be perfect for an afghan --later, yarn and I weren't on best terms at the moment.

Flip Flip quilt that will be fun for summer use.

That's what I did last night instead of quilting.  I think I should stick to what I'm most familiar with.  I could have been quilting my latest quilt.  At least I took a picture of it.  Maybe tonight!

Onion Snow

As I was checking out at the PetSmart store in Carlisle the cashier told me snow was predicted for our area.  She said she hoped it was an "onion snow."  I tucked that phrase away in my head for later when I could Google it.  I love to Google--Here's what I found!

Pussy Willows wear caps for a reason

" Apparently, the term “onion snow” isn’t as widely known as I’d thought. Here in Central Pennsylvania, it’s a common expression for an early spring snow that comes right when the onions are sprouting in the garden. The dark green tops of wild onions are also highly visible around field edges at this time (and in centuries past, were mixed with other early greens for a welcome antidote against scurvy)."

An Irish Blessing

May the best day of your past

Be the worst day of your future.

The Charm of Scraps

I didn't mean to . . .  While testing another block for Quiltmaker magazine I discovered a fascinating design  for making another scrap quilt using lots of my bright scraps.  This square will be the center of future blocks and has the potential for adding many different borders that will change the look.

Instead of cutting lots of little pieces from strips, start off with an 8" square.  Leaving the square intact carefully cut 1.5" off of each side.  These four cuts will leave you with 8 pieces plus the center 5" square.  Space them out to see the design that is forming.

Choose a contrasting piece to be used for the post at the corner of the center square.  Cut 4-1.5" squares and place them on your layout.

Select a second contrasting color, any color found within your original print will do nicely.  From that piece cut 8- 1.5" squares and 4- 1.5 X 5" pieces and pop them into position.  This is how your finished center block will look, minus your seams of course.

I've been playing with scraps making up blocks for future consideration.  I'm so happy to have found a use for some of the brights that I loved making a quilt from.  I have many however I couldn't see a way of using them altogether until now.

My collection of blocks is growing.

Next I will decide on the design of the last row.  It can be as simple as a repeat of the center block, or I can add some triangle squares that will create a new design in the quilt when all are joined together.  My third option might be placing the centers on point and adding pieced triangles to the straight side.

The Painting of the Green

When I was a kid (young and impressionable) my mom would say "we are going to City Hall to have our asses painted green for St. Patty's Day."  That always scared the bejeevers out of me, because I would imagine the humiliation of pulling down my drawers in front of a stranger who'd then hastily slap emerald green paint . . . all over. I even imagined the line up of people from all over the city waiting their turns.   Mom never loaded us into a taxi to make the trip to City Hall (in those days we traveled by taxi being a one car family) and I was so thankful.  I thought she'd forgotten, so I was oh, so careful not to bring it up before the 17th.

Eventually I asked just how much paint was applied.  Mom said "oh, it's just a dab-- like on you hip."  Sighs of relief-- you really didn't have to bare your bum to the officials.  I guess those were the days before DIY and going to  City Hall made it official.  As a kid what did I know?  Mom's don't lie--right?

Years later mom and I laughed about the "said" tradition and my interpretation of the horrifying event.  From that point on we'd call each another to remind of scheduling a trip together for the occasion.  When Mom was in a nursing home and I was living in Canada I sent her a plant of shamrocks for St. Patty's Day with a message to meet me at City Hall.  I explained to the lady taking the order why shamrocks were important which provoked laughter.  She said she'd never heard that one before.

My brother says my grandmother was responsible for that joke.  My younger sister said she thought "it was something I made up to scare my stepchildren." She doesn't ever remember hearing mom say a thing about it.  Does that mean that my mom loved me best, or I was more gullible than the rest?

And there you have the rest of the story . . .

Would you like to meet me at City Hall on Thursday?

Oh Happy Day

I've ordered my new iPad2.  The order is in and hopefully they'll deliver it before the 2 to 3 weeks they predicted for delivery.  I've been waiting since last year for the new one to be announced.  We thought for sure they'd be ready for Christmas, but Santa came and went and Apple still wasn't ready.

I've been searching around looking at the apps that interest me.  I really want to get some that help me to design quilt blocks, inventory fabrics and my organize my thimble collection.  I just love this technology.  I can play that I'm a librarian.

Once we get to the cottage we'll be able to check our email and go to the internet without having the problems we had last summer.  We've learned La Ronge has updated their service to the cell tower that we can access.  Our telephone man in town will install a SIMM card and we'll be good to go.  We can even use it while traveling in the car.

Night Shift worker

I'm on to test block number 11 and it's back to the kind that I like to do, patchwork.  I'm smiling and so happy to get started.  This one has tiny, teeny pieces with several borders using triangle squares and an interesting pieced center block.  I wish I could show the block pattern but they must be kept under wraps until the book is published.  That's the agreement.

The instructions didn't arrive until the evening.  I think my editor lives in Colorado, or at least out west, and the time zones are several hours apart.  I took the pattern to my sewing room with the intentions of choosing fabric and making a decision on the colors I would use.  It was almost bedtime so as soon as I had completed the decision task I was going to turn in.

I was wading through a pile of soft greens testing contrasting colors to use with them when I found a bright scrap of stripes left over from a baby quilt I'd made two summers ago.  Digging deeper I found another bigger scrap of turquoise material that was part of the same quilt.  There was definitely enough of those two to do the center block so I had an interesting starting combination.

Scraps from this quilt are part of the new block

As always starting something new is exciting.  I start new projects all the time, sometimes midpoint of one that I'm working on.  I might be on my way across the room when an interesting design or piece of fabric catches my attention and oops, I'm off in another direction.  Is this normal?

Getting back to the task at hand--before I knew it the clock said 2 AM and I'd finished the center of the block.  No wonder I was feeling tired.  I'd spent the last few hours with my little featherweight humming away, playing with thread and fabric scraps and never noticed the time going by.  So off to bed with thoughts of what to choose for the final part of the block.  I'll be back in my sewing room soon looking for pieces and colors that talk to me and say they'd like to be included.

Scrap happy

Just when I had all of my scraps organized and stored Quiltmaker Magazine sent me another pattern to test using the hated paper piecing method--shudder -shudder.  This one was so easy that I had no problem completing the block quickly.  Basically I sewed together many scraps and strips and then cut out the pattern once I had a piece big enough.  That's not exactly according to the instructions, but it was far easier and didn't use any paper.  Sh-h, don't tell my editor.

So much for organization

I was so in to making the block, using bright scraps from quilts I've made for kids.  I had snips and more scraps all over the table and floor.  I was buzzing along like I was related to Edward Scissorhands trimming bushes into glorious shapes.  Stitch and snip, add another bright strip, dig into the pile for the next perfect piece --STOP--then I realized that I'd been using the wrong pattern piece.  There were only two pieces to the pattern and I been piecing the background piece.

It was start over time, back to square one, so to speak.  Now that I had the hang of how this block was going together it was not a problem to switch over to the correct piece and produce four perfect patches to use for my test block.

The mistake pieces are still usable because if I were to make a quilt with this pattern I would use alternating blocks of negative and positive for the whole quilt.  The end result would be something like Joesph's Coat of Many Colors.  It would be an exciting quilt with lots of pieces to find and compare.  The perfect quilt for a person who likes to get lost in playing visual games while they snuggle.

Gosh, I hadn't planned to make this quilt, however, the more I think on the finished quilt the more excited I am to get started.  I've got a list of quilts I want to make that is growing . . . and growing.

The Dreaded Paperwork

After I finished the last dreaded foundation block I submitted my evaluation and hoped that my editor would send me a new assignment to work on over the weekend.  Perhaps she's read between the lines and gave me time to recover from my stress, or maybe she waits for the two other testers to report in so she can send us the new assignment at the same time.  Could it be they also dislike that technique?

The fabrics I used for the block are all oranges and yellows.  They are the same ones I'm using to make my flip flop quilt.  My daughter-in-law loves those colors so I know for sure she'd appreciate a quilt in those hues.  In a few weeks I'll be able to share my finished block.  However, I couldn't entice myself to make a whole quilt using that technique.  So Lola if you're reading this don't be sad I may be encouraged to part with the flip flop one.  This weekend I was able to finish making the log cabin blocks I need for the border to that quilt.  In the next few days I'll be able to put them together and then make a decision on what to do next.  That's how my quilts get created, one decision at a time.  I often begin with a plan that changes as I go.  It's the quilt that directs me.  It's like trying to dress a teenage girl, it says "Oh, no I couldn't wear that!

A sample of my colors

The weather for the past few days has been rainy, really rainy.  Our cars are parked in the middle of a lake.  The dogs would really love to be out there but each time we go out they just sit on the porch and stare off into the rain.  Occasionally they will take off after a squirrel but they give up the chase quickly and return to the porch.  They liked it better when it snowed.

Challenged is . . .

The other day I submitted my tested "challenge" foundation block and confessed to my editor that this was not my favorite technique.  I even went as far as saying if I made a quilt using this technique no one would be allowed to touch the quilt once I finished.  Most likely I'd be sitting in a corner clutching it hysterically.

So I'm guessing that the editor decided to ease up on me and sent a new foundation block to test that was much easier but still not my favorite method.  If I were to make a quilt using this block it would be OK to touch this one--maybe.

Perhaps I'll get better at it if I keep on trying.  My good friend T in Fort McMurray has offered to show me a few tips on how to make that method work for me.  Until then I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next few blocks will be to my liking.  In any event, I really am having fun sewing blocks and have found several that I like and will eventually get around to planning a quilt with some of that good stash I have.

The new iPad will be released in another week.  I've been wanting one so I can use the Quilting app to design a few quilts and also catalog my ever growing thimble and stash collection.