Let's Make Baby Quilts! {2/28/14}

Making any progress on your baby quilts this week? I'm overdue to take a batch into the pregnancy  center, so I'm sorting through and figuring out which ones I'm ready to let go and checking for pins and loose threads.

Dee Dee took a pattern for a table runner from the new issue of Best Modern Quilts (Metro, page 64) and made a baby quilt for a family member --

That's one of the many, many things I love about making baby quilts. You can take a pattern for something you want to make, but don't really need (a bigger quilt, a table runner) and have all the fun of making it without figuring out what to do with it once it's done!

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

Old Pictures

I'm absolutely in love with these old photographs. I'd been wanting to get my hands on a picture the store with the signs that I remembered, but these are so much neater! They've got the spaceman, and all of those antennas, and that neon...

This is the appliance store that my family owned way back when. I thought these were from way before my time, but I hear that there's a picture of me in front of the mural. Now I really want to see that one.

 A few months ago, I saw a project on Pinterest where a woman had taken family photographs and blown them up into Engineer Prints. It looked like a really neat idea, but I couldn't think of what pictures to use. Now I know -- I want these! Not sure when I'll get around to it, or where I'll hang them. Hubby might not share my enthusiasm and we've got a small house with limited wall space. 

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style

{Yarn Along} A Taste Fur Murder & When Shadows Fall

I've been knitting, really! The pattern repeat in this sock yarn are so long that it takes forever to hit a new color -- but I think I'm finally going to get some pink. I'm tempted to pull out another project just so I can look at yarn that isn't green, but I keep plodding away on the two pairs of socks and the sweater. I've got to finish them sooner or later, right?  

Wow! I'm not sure quite how to describe A Taste Fur Murder, first in the new Whiskey, Tango & Foxtrot mystery series by Dixie Lyle. "Zany" is probably the best word for this one, or maybe "madcap"...  Deirdre "Foxtrot" Lancaster is the personal assistant to wealthy Zelda Zoransky. She spends her days running Zelda's mansion and private zoo and is used to all sorts of crazy goings on -- but when she starts seeing the ghosts of animals in the estate's vast pet cemetery, even Foxtrot isn't sure how to handle it.  Then Tango, her dead cat, appears with an ectoplasmic dog to warn her that someone on the estate is going to die.

If you like your mysteries to be plausible, this one probably isn't for you. I enjoyed it, although I'm still not sure how I feel about Topsy the electric elephant.

When Shadows Fall by J. T. Ellison begins with a letter that Dr. Samantha Owens receives from a stranger, asking her to solve his murder. Timothy Savage's death has already been ruled a suicide, his body prepared for cremation. Following his strange request and the terms of his will, Samantha performs an autopsy and discovers that his suicide was actually murder. DNA evidence shows that another murder victim, a young girl who was abducted and whose body was recovered many years earlier, was present at the time of his death.  I didn't realize that this book was part of a series until I was already partway through, so I'm missing most of Samantha's backstory. Despite that, I was able to enjoy the story.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. 



Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with electronic ARCs. 

Precision Piecing (or not)

I don't lose sleep worrying about whether my corners all match up perfectly. If I'm sewing something like a Drunkard's Path block, I'll use every pin in the house, but when I'm making most of my quilts, I match up the intersections with my fingertips and hold them in place while I'm sewing. It works fairly well. 

When I made the pink and white Full Blown Quilt Lust, I did it my usual way. A few of the intersections aren't quite right and I started to wonder how much of a difference it would make if I slowed down and used pins.

So I made another one.  In case you missed last week's version, there are 205 pieces in a 7" square, and you can find my tutorial here. 

Honestly, I'm not convinced. My corners are a little more accurate, but the difference isn't as dramatic as I would have expected for the extra time and fuss. And I wound up with a pucker. In a quilt this tiny, any little pucker is huge! I think it's that center snowball block in the bottom row. 

I absolutely love this itty bitty stippling. It's just fun -- and it flattens puckers into submission. 

I'm linking this post to Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Get Crafting Friday, Pinworthy Projects, Freedom Fridays, Inspired Friday. and Friday Favs.

Can you tell I'm having fun?

For the first time in what feels like forever, I've got a busy design wall to show off!

I've got ten new blocks for Teenage Daughter's postage stamp quilt, three new blocks for Scrappy Little Trips, a couple of Cheddar Bow Ties, and a second try at my insane itty bitty quilt from last week. Those little squares are addictive -- now that I've made this one twice, I've got plans for two different ones.

To see what other quilters are up to, click over to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Found 'em!

This is the camera charger and spare battery that vanished last spring, and the missing pieces for my Cheddar Bow Tie quilt.

As glad as I was to finally find these, the box of fabric I was looking for is still missing. Wonder what I'll be looking for when I stumble across it...

Weekly Stash Report

That little bitty quilt with all the pieces didn't use much fabric, but it sure was fun!

Fabric Used this Week: 1/4 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 2 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 7 yards
Net Added for 2013: 5 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 0 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 200 yards
Net Added for 2013: 200 yards

This post is linked to the Weekly Stash Report over at Patchwork Times.

Little Demon in the City of Light

Could a man or woman under the influence of hypnosis be commanded to commit a murder? If that was possible...would the hypnotized person be guilty of the crime, or an innocent tool no different from a gun or knife? That's the question at the center of Little Demon in the City of Light: A True Story of Murder and Mesmerism in Belle Epoque Paris. Gabrielle Bompard claims that, although she lured Toussaint-Augustin Gouffé to her rooms and placed the noose around his neck, she was not in control of her actions. According to Gabrielle, her abusive lover Michel Eyraud, who kept her in a state of almost constant hypnosis, was responsible for the man's death. 

It always amazes me how much interesting information I absorb while reading nonfiction about historical events. The French press...the early study of neurology...the early days of forensic investigation... Prior to reading this book, I didn't know much at all about the belle epoque. It was a surprise to learn that they were still using the guillotine in the late 1800s (and even more of a shock when I looked it up on Wikipedia and learned that the last  guillotining was in 1977!)

If you enjoy historical true crime, I definitely recommend this one.

Disclosure -- the publisher provided me with an electronic ARC

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {2/21/14}

Get any baby quilts finished this week? Heather from Peachy Pages took a stack of old heart blocks and turned them into FOUR adorable baby quilts! 

I had planned to get some unfinished baby quilts pin basted, but this cold has really knocked me out. Earlier in the week, I did make a scaled down version of Marilyn to keep for myself. Not a baby quilt, but it shows you what it'll look like if you change the color placement on the nine-patch blocks.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

{Yarn Along} The Innocent Sleep

I'm still knitting a pile of green things. I'm making progress, but it sure doesn't show in the photographs!  I did find another project that I want to cast on, a little challenge that I've got the right yarn for. It's going to be green. I'd change the color, but it's an animal. 

Leaving small children unattended....The odds of something catastrophic happening in just a few minutes are slim,  and who could even imagine an earthquake swallowing the entire building? That's the premise of The Innocent Sleep by Karen Perry. 

Harry is preparing a birthday dinner for his wife when he realizes that he left her present behind while running errands. Their three-year-old son is asleep and, instead of waking  the little boy and facing the task of getting him settled down again once they return home, Harry slips out alone to retrieve the gift. He's only a few blocks away when the earthquake hits, but by the time he reaches their street, the building is gone.  Five years later, Harry glimpses his son in a crowd and becomes convinced that Dillon is still alive.  I found myself disliking both Harry and his wife and, unlike other books I've read recently where I hated the characters but was anxious to see what happened to them, I couldn't work up much enthusiasm for their fate.


For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.



Disclosure -- the publisher provided me with an electronic ARC.

Full Blown Quilt Lust

Yesterday, I thought I was in love with this little quilt.  Now that I've got it quilted, it's a case of full blown quilt lust.

In case you didn't read the last post, this is a scaled down version of Marilyn with the color placement in the nine-patch blocks reversed. The blocks are 1 1/2" and the quilt itself finishes at about 7" square. I could have, by the absolute skin of my teeth, used the same fat quarter for the top and back and binding, but I decided to use a piece from a coordinating pink fat quarter. The more different pinks in my stash the better, right?

I did the teeniest stippling I could manage. The thing can stand up by itself at this point, but since it’s probably going to do time as a mug rug before it makes it up to the sewing room wall, I don’t see that as a problem.

Want to make your own?  Start with a fat quarter in a tiny, tone-on-tone print. You’re going to be cutting it into little pieces and don’t want color changes in the print to distract from the piecing.

Cutting from the 18” side of the fat quarter, cut six 1" strips and one 3" strip.  You’ll be using four of those to strip piece the nine-patch blocks and cutting two into thirty-six 1" squares for the snowball blocks.  From white background fabric, cut five 1” x 18” strips and nine 2” squares .  From the 3” strip, cut three 3” squares for side setting triangles and two 2” squares for corner setting triangles. Cut the 3” squares into four smaller triangles as shown and the 2” squares once on the diagonal.

Sew the 1” strips together lengthwise. Make two sets with white strips on the outside and one set with pink strips on the outside.  Cut into 1” sections and assemble sixteen nine patch blocks.

Place a 1” pink square in each corner of the 2” white squares and stich and flip to make the snowball blocks. It’s going to look really wrong, and the nine-patch blocks will look odd too,  but when you sew the blocks together into the top they’ll look they should. 

Lay out the blocks as shown (including the corner triangles, which didn't make it into this picture. If you need more details on the assembly of the blocks and top, you can find it in the Marilyn tutorial. I found it easiest to lay out the nine patch blocks in three rows of three and then fill in the rest of the blocks from there.

See! Once you get the rows sewn together, things start to look like they should --

I cut 2" strips for the binding. If you want to use the same fat quarter for backing, I'd suggest cutting the backing square first and then making your binding from what's left. There should be just barely enough. 

To be notified when new tutorials are added, follow my blog or like Michelle's Romantic Tangle on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.

I think I'm in love!

Those blocks I started on Thursday have become a little bitty top and I can't get over how much I adore this thing --

It's Marilyn, but instead of making it with 6" blocks I scaled them down a bit and the entire quilt finishes at just over 7" square. Those nine patch and snowball blocks finish at 1 1/2". Those charts that tell you what size to cut your setting triangles don't go down that small.

Did I mention that I'm a little giddy over the whole thing? I took pictures this time, so I can write up a tutorial once I've got it finished, but I switched the fabric placement in the nine patch blocks to see how that would look. Now I think I need to make another baby quilt size version, because this is cute!

There's just enough of my fat quarter left to bind it and do a matching backing. Since this is probably going to wind up on the sewing room wall, would you back it with the pink print, or use muslin and save the good stuff for another project?

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Weekly Stash Report

Life keeps throwing new fun my way. About the time I was starting to have my reaction to that tetanus shot, Hubby came home from work with a nasty sore throat. I've been quietly incubating my own case and now I'm starting to come down with it myself.

It's all keeping me too busy to even think about buying new yarn or fabric.  I can't quite bring myself to call that a good thing.

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 1.75 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 7 yards
Net Added for 2013: 5.25 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 0 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 200 yards
Net Added for 2013: 200 yards

I'm linking up to the Weekly Stash Report at Patchwork Times.

{Whatcha Reading?} Secrets Underground

I've taken the tour of Seattle's underground city a couple of times, once as a child and then again with my husband and kids. The whole idea fascinates me. More recently, I heard about the tours of the Shanghai tunnels in Portland -- and that there are tunnels under Salem. It's starting to seem like there are tunnels everywhere.

Secrets Underground: North America's Buried Past by Elizabeth MacLeod gives you a chance to explore a few of them.  The chapters tell the stories of abandoned ships buried beneath San Francisco, a formerly top secret government bunker built under a  bustling resort, and immigrants who were forced underground by taxes they couldn't afford to pay.

I didn't realize that this was a children's book when I accepted it for review. Honestly, I learned just as much from reading it as I do from a lot of adult nonfiction. I think my boys would love it, but I'd caution parents that it covers some aspects of history that aren't exactly pleasant to think about. I know history (not to mention the nightly news) are full of awful things, but I'm not always expecting them in a book meant for kids. You might want to read this before handing it over, if only to prepare yourself for possible questions later.

Disclosure -- I received an electronic review copy from the publisher.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {2/14/14}

Happy Valentine's Day! I'd planned to have a new pink tutorial for you, but I haven't been watching the calendar and today snuck up on me. So I'm sharing some pink heart quilts I made a couple of years ago...

This one uses the AccuQuilt hearts die: 

I made this one from a pattern in a magazine. 

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

a little time to play

This is going to be a Valentine's gift to myself. I've been playing with the idea for a while now, but the measurements for the snowball blocks kept throwing me for a loop. Two days ago, it  finally clicked, but by then we were too busy having fun to think about quilting. 

(If you're wondering what happened with the bees last night, the water had gone down a lot by the time Hubby got home and went out there with a flashlight. So at least we didn't have to deal with that!) 

These little blocks aren't anyone's idea of precision piecing, but I like them. I've got some not-quilty things to do today, but I hope I'll be able to make the rest over the weekend. 

And, just because sometimes the lines on the pressing mat aren't enough to show the size of something...

buy a new one of Merchant

This turned up on the bare carpet in the front room a while back. I’m assuming that the boys knocked it out of a drawer of the treadle sewing machine (because the alternative is something out of the movie Poltergeist – remember the scene where the bits of jewelry rained down from the ceiling?)

The image and words are stamped and almost illegible:

in Combination Jan. 18, ‘10
Worn shuttle skips and 
Breaks thread. Buy a new one of Merchant who sold this tube. 
The Boye Needle Co.
CHICAGO,

I did a quick Google search on the phrase "worn shuttle skips and breaks thread" and it looks like these little needle cases are as common as dirt. But that doesn't stop me from liking mine, especially when it just turned up like a dandelion on the lawn!  Now the question is whether I should use it to store a couple of the needles I use for weaving in yarn and binding, or tuck it away where it'll be safe from loss and children for the next hundred years...

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style

God willing and the creek don't rise...

We've got power and heat and a toilet that flushes. The snow has melted and I was able to drive to the grocery store, so we've got food. But all of that water has to go somewhere...

The water won't reach the house, but we're concerned about the hives. See the pipe in the middle of the picture? Teenage Son put on his boots and sloshed out. He tells me that the water is a foot deep at that spot and I can see that it comes up farther.

I don't know how we're going to move those hives, let alone do it in the dark after Hubby gets home. I'm really hoping we won't need to find out. I've had more than enough fun so far this week!

{Yarn Along} curled up under quilts with a pile of good books

I didn't get a whole lot of knitting done this week because mindless knitting in a cold silent house isn't that much fun and I wasn't motivated enough to dig out something more challenging. We read. And then read a lot more. 

Buried in Bargains, the latest book in the Good Buy Girls series, is probably my least favorite of the three. The mystery wasn't that interesting.  I’m a lot more excited about The Sasquatch Escape, the first book in the new Imaginary Veterinary series. My youngest two haven't been this excited about a read-aloud since we started The Day My Butt Went Psycho. Unlike the butt book, this one doesn't make me cringe. The story, about a boy who is sent to live with his grandfather and rescues a wyvern hatchling from the cat, then leaves the door to the old button factory unbolted and has to recover an escaped sasquatch, is holding their interest and mine. The vocabulary is great -- apparently the author of that article I was complaining about a while back doesn't read this author. We've already started The Lonely Lake Monster and I'm hoping the library will get the third book in the series soon.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.



 

I've had a bad few days...

I stepped on a nail. I had a reaction to the tetanus shot and wound up with a throbbing arm and low grade fever. As if that wasn't enough fun for one woman, the power (and water and heat) were out for two full days. A big chunk of tree, not to mention lots of slightly smaller chunks of other trees, fell on the roof...

On the bright side, one of the two arborvitae that I’ve been wanting to rip out since we made our first offer on the house eight and a half years ago fell over. Someone veered off the road and drove into the thing back in early December, but these stupid ugly ornamental trees are apparently the healthiest things in our yard and refuse to die. I’m taking the loss of one as a sign that I should cut down the other this spring.

Bear with me -- it may be a couple of days until I'm back to my regular schedule.

{Whatcha Reading?} Havisham

I've never liked Great Expectations. I slogged through it for a literature class my freshman year of high school, but the only thing that stuck in my memory was Miss Havisham and her decaying wedding feast.

When I saw Havisham, I was intrigued. A chance to revisit the madwoman in the ancient wedding dress without actually reading Dickens?

Here's the book's Amazon description:

Before she became the immortal and haunting Miss Havisham of Great Expectations, she was Catherine, a young woman with all of her dreams ahead of her. Spry, imperious, she is the daughter of a wealthy brewer. But she is never far from the smell of hops and the arresting letters on the brewhouse wall—HAVISHAM—a reminder of all she owes to the family name and the family business.

Sent by her father to stay with the Chadwycks, Catherine discovers elegant pastimes to remove the taint of her family's new money. But for all her growing sophistication, Catherine is anything but worldly, and when a charismatic stranger pays her attention, everything—her heart, her future, the very Havisham name—is vulnerable.

In Havisham, Ronald Frame unfurls the psychological trauma that made young Catherine into Miss Havisham and cursed her to a life alone, roaming the halls of the mansion in the tatters of the dress she wore for the wedding she was never to have.

After reading this book, I'm almost tempted to give Great Expectations another try one of these days.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {2/7/14}

Need to get a baby quilt finished in a hurry? With only two fabrics to cut and no decisions to make about color placement, two color quilts go together quickly. Or they're a handy way to use up a yard of fabric -- two, if you make the backing match! 

I made Marilyn a few months back, but didn't take pictures of the process because I didn't realize how much I'd like the results. This week, I cut and pieced a nearly identical top and took the pictures, so now there's a tutorial. 

I designed this two color quilt using vintage sheets and my AccuQuilt Go! a few years back, so it doesn't have a cute baby name. But there is a video showing how to make it. 

Or you can do the same block, change the color placement and get a completely different effect...

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button

Happy Hollisters at the Goodwill Outlet

Have you ever been to the Goodwill outlet? It's not for the faint-of-heart.  Picture the things that didn't sell at the regular store, all piled in huge blue bins on wheels. There are lines painted on the floor and people crowd around the empty space for the next bin to be wheeled out so they can be the first to dig through the stuff.

It's kind of the thrift store version of Black Friday. If you're in the right mood, it can be an adventure. Teenage Daughter is always in the right mood, and she wanted to go on her birthday. I wasn't anywhere near the right mood and wasn't even looking in the bins myself, just trying to keep track of my purse and my younger two. It was pure luck that I found the fabric.

And even better luck when Teenage Son came up to me with these...

When I was on my Nancy Drew kick, this series was mentioned over and over. I've never read any of them and I know nothing about them, but based on the recommendations of my readers, I decided to bring them home with me. Then my son kept digging and kept finding more and more...

I wound up with nine books from the series, all in very nice condition considering their age and the fact that they'd been buried in bin of torn up paperbacks and cookbooks. I never buy books at the bins, but I knew I'd never  find these cheaper, if I did find them again at all. I figure if I hate them, I can always pass them along to someone else.

Teenage Daughter found a stack of gorgeous clothes, in her size, including the most interesting vintage suede jacket on the planet. It's pink. And long. And has lots of metalgrommets for no apparent reason.

Teenage Son found an original Gameboy and a DS cartridge, both in working condition. I can't understand why those, or the books, had found their way into the bins.

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style

{Yarn Along} Pioneer Girl

I'm not sure how or when it happened, but everything I'm knitting right now is green. The Croc Socks, the Green Envy Socks, and the Weasley sweater....as soon as I finish one of these, I'm casting on with something that's a different color.

I almost hate to admit it, but I got myself a little confused reading Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen and had to go back and reread the book's description to figure out just what it was that I was reading. It's a novel, but the characters are so convincing that I started to feel like I was reading a non-fiction memoir.

Here's the book's Amazon description:

Jobless with a PhD, Lee Lien returns home to her Chicago suburb from grad school, only to find herself contending with issues she’s evaded since college. But when her brother disappears, he leaves behind an object from their mother’s Vietnam past that stirs up a forgotten childhood dream: a gold-leaf brooch, abandoned by an American reporter in Saigon back in 1965, that might be an heirloom belonging to Laura Ingalls Wilder. As Lee explores the tenuous facts of this connection, she unearths more than expected—a trail of clues and enticements that lead her from the dusty stacks of library archives to hilarious prairie life reenactments and ultimately to San Francisco, where her findings will transform strangers’ lives as well as her own.
I've reread the Little House books as an adult, but it still amazes me how many details from those books are stuck so clearly in my memory. Reading this book made me want to revisit them. (There's actually a whole homeschooling curriculum built around the books. Maybe I should look at some of the Pinterest boards and see if there's anything that would appeal to my youngest two...)

If you're not already familiar with Rose Wilder Lane and her possible role in writing the Little House books, it's an interesting story. Those facts are woven in with Lee's pursuit of the truth behind her gold pin. I highly recommend this one.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. 

If you're looking for a free mystery for your Kindle, Death By Bourbon is a free download from Amazon right now. I haven't started this series yet, but it sounds interesting and the reviews are good.








 Disclosure -- Pioneer Girl was provided by the publisher.