A treasured box

Something I didn't think about until I was taking off my contacts last night is a box my aunt made for me, more than 4 years ago.

I was just beginning to quilt in 2002, I think I had only two finishes for that actual year!

But she knew of my interest and used it for the theme for this wooden box.

It's lined with black velvet inside, and I use it to hold a couple pieces of earrings and my too-small ring from my husband.

I get to see this box twice every day when I get my contact case out of the bathroom cabinet and when I put my contacts away.

She also made a box for both of my sisters - I can't exactly recall the designs, but it was similar to my box, just not quilty. :)

It's pretty small - 4"x2.5"x2.5". I love the fine detail of it! Who needs a jewelry box when they have this? :)

The other news is that I'm finally on the road to recovery from my cold! I slept last night, real live deep sleep. Ahhhh. :D I think I'll take half the dosage of medicine tonight, just to ensure some zzzzzzzzzz's.

Tomorrow is also the last day of school before our Spring Break starts. We're just going to take the week easy, and I'll be going to Tucson for a little shopping. We're down to our last case of bottled water, I was drinking double the amount I usually do, to help fight the cold. Bottled water is one thing I'm really willing to pay for here, in the desert. I do NOT want to be playing games with the Arizonian heat. Plus... I think we're supposed to get a bit of a heat wave this weekend. Gonna see 90* or so. :( I hate hot weather... hard to be it was snowing about 6 weeks ago! :P

Leah

Ups and downs of the day

I got some really neat news today! My aunt has started up a blog. :) This aunt has been very active in my life - I was one of her 4 flower girls in her wedding when I was 4 years old. She also spent many hours watching my siblings and I in our younger years. She lived by her parent's house at the time and we'd ride horses, collect eggs from the chicken, work in the garden and basically have a grand ol' time!

She was the one who worked very hard on the flowers for my wedding - a present I really appreciate! As a little "thank you" I made this wall hanging for her and her husband.

(I blocked off the names).

We also have a lot in common now - we both love dogs, gardening and quilting. She was the one who gave me this beautiful picture of Missy. (Scroll to the end of the post). My aunt is also a very talented painter and I love how she adds her dog in the paintings. :) So go on an give her a visit!

I was feeling sorry for my husband - he's been getting a little neglected as I fight this cold. So I figured I'd make him some chocolate chip cookies! :) I think this is the first batch of homemade cookies I've made since we were married. :o

Of course, as soon I was done with the last batch, I promptly fell asleep on the couch. :P But you're welcomed to come over and help yourself to the cookies. We also have a gallon of milk too. :)

The down part of today is that my cold is waaaaaaaaaay worse. When I tried to go to bed last night, the sinus pressure made me want to pull my eyeballs out. Finally at 1am I resorted to a semi-upright position on the couch. Didn't get much sleep that way, but I was happy to breathe! :P 4am found me back in my bed and I tossed and turned until 9:30am - yup, missed out the guild meeting. Oh well, I'd hate to pass this on to the lovely quilting ladies.

When I was at the store today, I grabbed some nighttime sinus/cold medicine, so I'm really hoping I'll sleep better tonight!

Leah

Speed cutting

I was thinking today how we often times hear about "speed piecing" or "chain piecing" or other time saving tricks at the sewing machine... but what about speed cutting? No, I don't mean to see how fast you can run your rotary cutter across the mat, after all, we do like our fingers. ;) But ways we can cut out some of the tedious work from cutting. So here's my tutorial!

I layered 5 red FQs carefully on top of each other. I trimmed off the scraggly ends and made a 6" strip cut.


I moved the uncut fabric out of the way and moved my ruler by 2" and made a cut on the 4" line.


One last cut at 2"


Now the sub-cutting. (Yes, I turned my mat around). I placed the ruler on the farthest even number I had, which was 8. Make a cut.


Move it over to 6", make another cut.

Continue to cut at 4" and 2". Move those squares out of the way and cut the rest of the fabric.

In 15 minutes (could have been less than 10, if I didn't have to take pictures. ;) I had 150 2" squares. Now that's speed cutting! :)


We can add sneezing and runny nose to my cold now. Seems like I spent most of the day trying to figure out how to breathe. :P At least I have a sympathetic husband, as he's still trying to recover from his cold. :)

Tomorrow is the guild meeting! I really hope I feel better, cuz they're going to give a report on the quilt show. But I'll survive if I can't make it. ;)

Leah

Grumpy shirt day

Yup! Today was definitely a day for the Grumpy t-shirt. :)

Within 5 minutes of waking up, three things had gone wrong.
-I woke up to a sore throat. (Hubby's cold from his students)
-I moved my neck around and discovered a neck crick.
-I rolled out of bed and found out that my lower back felt like somebody stepped on it.

Yeah... and the day didn't exactly go uphill from there. Lots of liquids were sipped, I did lay down for 30 minutes this evening and it took away the majority of my back pain and I'm not doing anything wild with my neck, so I don't really notice the crick.

I also have a bit of clumsiness - I whacked the very full trash can over and spilled popcorn kernels all over the kitchen floor. That's when I decided that I wasn't going to operate any machinery, including my sewing machine. ;) Oh, and no rotary cutter either!

At least seeing the shirt on me made my husband laugh when he walked in - he knows I only wear it when it's been a tough day. But the good news is that he told me the James Bond movie is being released next week, so we will have "date night" to see it! :)

Leah

The end of another day

Today's been a fairly nice day, but I might "need" to wear my "Kiss Me, I'm Grumpy" shirt tomorrow. ;) Gotta love being a gal!

When I posted about changing the rotary blade the August link reminded me of my 4-patch squares quilt and seeing it gave me a kick to start it up again.

It's not for the faint of heart! Those squares measure at 1.5", unfinished and I have to be extra careful to make sure I'm having a proper quarter-inch seam allowance. I've already sewn up over 200 squares together... and it just makes a little pile behind my machine! :P I doubt the quilt will get much bigger than lap size.

The pot roast was a hit! It's very flavorful and I'm going to run to the store tomorrow to buy another roast or two - they're $1.99/pound, down from $5.99. Good deal!

To Die For Pot Roast (ok, I don't think I'll die for it, but it's good. :)
(1) 3-5 pound beef roast
(1) package dry Ranch dressing mix
(1) package dry Italian dressing mix
(1) package dry Brown gravy mix
1/2 cup water (I used closer to 3/4 cup)

Put roast in the crockpot. Mix water with the 3 dry packages and pour over the roast. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

It was very tender and flavorful. We had it with noodles, but it would have probably been better with potatoes. I have no knowledge of gravy making, but there was a bit of juice in the bottom that might have made a nice gravy for the potatoes.

I think I'm gonna get myself a bowl of the sugar free ice cream I got a few days ago. I was slaving over the iron for 45 minutes before posting and cold stuff sounds good. :)

Leah

A step closer

I'm a (very small) step closer to being organized! I hung up the quilt tops from the ironing board's landslide.

Funny, I thought I'd have more quilt tops, but apparently they're still in blocks or rows or ideas still drifting in my head. Oops. :P

Norma wrote a very touching tribute in the passing of her dog King, and it had me in sniffles. I still miss my dog Missy a ton and her 13th birthday would have been March 11th. As much as I love dogs, I don't think I want another one yet, I'd much rather have Missy back.

Tomorrow is looking busy! I'm going to be trying a recipe for pot roast in the crockpot that 2 people have claimed that it's sooooooooooooo good. I'll let you know and share the recipe if it's that good. :) Also have 2 weeks worth of laundry to do and church to go to. At least I'll get to wash up some fabric and start cutting them soon. :)

Leah

Resupplying

Have you put in a new blade in your rotary cutter this year? I started to notice a little dreading of cutting, but thankfully I remembered what happened last time. I put in a new blade before I could even start arguing with myself! ;)

I thought I'd have 4 blades left after I put in my new one, but I found a case with 2 fresh blades left. Whoo! So now I have 6 blades left. Should last me 2 years. :)

And in other news, I'm starting to run low on my variety of aurifil thread.

Really low! :P Nah, it's just this one spool that's almost gone. I've used it for piecing only. But since my old source for aurifil for under $5/spool is closing out, it's time to find a new line of threads.

I'm very strongly considering Essential Threads. I'm pretty sure it's been out on the market for over a year now. Or at least 6 months for sure. I've heard of other quilters buying it... but I haven't heard any reviews! So wanna help me? If you have this thread, please tell me what you think of it. I don't expect it to be as lintless as aurifil, but how does it hold up? Does it break a lot? Can a lot fit on the bobbin? Would you buy it again?

I'm pretty sure I'd buy all the sets, and the restock up on individual spools every 6 months or once a year. It shouldn't be more than $100 to start up and I'll have a nice variety, which really helps when you do all your quilting. :)

And I really hope they don't start to close out any time soon, cuz it's a great deal!

Leah

March is here!

First off... I want to answer Blogless Rosaline's question that was made in my previous post. She asked how the colors blended so well in my rainbow quilt. It's because they're all the same line of fabric - found in WalMart or JoAnn's and the fabric print is kinda tiny, so it doesn't easily reveal a seam line, like a larger print could. Hope that helps! :)

In other news... March is here! I'm committed to blogging every day, so off we go! :D Let's start with the bad news... my sewing room is messy. :P

Really messy! Bad enough that my husband commented on it this evening and nearly lost a shoe when he stepped in. But look! I still can sorta cut. I have my priorities straight, I can see the cutting mat. :D

Kinda looks like a landslide doesn't it? Yeah, the landslide under my ironing board. But hey, all I have to do is pull off the quilt and I still have a decent amount of room to iron! Priorities, after all. :D

It's just when I get towards the end of a quilt, I tend to be... messier. I stop trying to put all the little bits in the trash or making sure I'm not wearing thread snips. Eh, it might be because I keep cutting very close to my deadlines. :P

And honest, I do want things tidy and organized. Look! I even bought some wire shelvings and you can see it says "organize it". ;)

Apparently you're supposed take it out, build the shelves and put things on it, for it to be organized. Not just drop the box on the pile that needs to be organized and wonder 9 months later why nothing's happened. :D

I think I want to move back to my parents... just for a little while. It's because my dad emailed me last week saying that my mom cleaned my old room so clean that it hadn't been that clean since the carpet was installed. Now THAT'S clean. :) She did the same to my sister's room and she's turning both of them into sewing rooms! Whooooooo! Well, I'm guessing my room will be more storage-like (for the boxes of dyeing and bolts of fabric) and my sister's room will be the actual sewing room.

My mom even made my dad take her sewing machine in for a clean up/tune up. So yeah, I wanna go back to my parents for a while. I'll even bring my sewing machine and stash with me. :D

Oh, I'm sure I'll have lots of fun the next time I'm there. Probably summertime. Think my room will be cleaner by then? ;)

Leah

Close up of the rainbow

Deputy's Wife has been wondering how I pieced the rainbow quilt.

If you look closely, you might be able to see a seam line in the middle of each color. All the pieces are the same size as the black diamonds. Correct arrangement gives them stretched rectangle look.

The piecing method is pretty similar to how I did this binding. Or at least the cutting on a 45* angle.

And here's the Simply Quilts episode that sparked this quilt. :)

Leah

I do believe I am back

4 posts in 2 days! That's probably more than the entire month of January. :P

I'm starting up a new scrappy project. I probably won't plunge into this fully until next week though, I have some red fabrics that need to be washed before I use it.


This morning I got my Quilt Guild's newsletter, and I'm in it! :D

Guess which one I am? :D I don't suppose my hearing aid gave it away. ;) Anyhow, the lady on the right made all three vests and she needed two more models. She picked me and another lady who was sitting next to me, just cuz we were the closest to the door! :)

When I was at the store today, I picked up a real estate magazine. Nope, we're not looking for a house (certainly not in this area) but I've been happily watching the downward trend in housing prices. It actually makes me feel like we'll be able to afford a house in a few years! I do insist that we have at least a 10% down payment. I'd love to do 20%, but I'd probably be 30 years old by then! :P

Leah

Local Quilt Show 2007

Here my quilt is, in fully glory, hanging out there where several hundred people saw!

I did put a price tag of $175 on it, but no bites. :P That's ok, my husband really likes it, so I don't mind that I still have it.

I think the highlight of my day was when I saw one couple looking at my quilt, pointing at it, talking about it... yeah! :D In all honesty, they were probably trying to figure out how the quilt was pieced, but I don't care, they looked! Can you tell that this is my first quilt in a show? :)

The two other quilts that I put in the show are my great-great-grandmother's quilts.

The quilt show had a whole section on antiques. I have to say, I was surprised at how white and crisp mine are, compare to some of the others. I'm just glad they're in great condition, I want to enjoy them for many more years. :)

And nope, they didn't have a price tag on them. Or if they did, it'd be something like a million dollars. I ain't giving away these quilts! :P

This quilt at the show really caught my eye - great stashbusting!

But if she's like every other quilter I know of, she probably still has enough scraps to make 10 more just like that one! ;)

And just cuz I like dogs, I had to take a picture of this one. :)

The squares were about 2" each.

And now I think I finally have caught up! February just has been too hectic. My goal for March is to post every day. Think I can do it? ;) I already have another project lined up, so there'll be plenty of quilty material ahead. Oops. Bad pun. :P

Leah

Nothing like waiting til the last minute...

Let's back up... to 2 years ago. About January 2005. I saw a Simply Quilts episode with Rita Hutchins and her Totally Tubular Quilts method. I really enjoyed it and figured, shucks, I can do that! And I did, without buying the book. :P

I created the top you see - I think it only took about 2 weeks. It was when I first got my Bernina. I was so excited to be using my "new" sewing machine! Then the top got put away. I pulled it out long enough to take a picture of it for the quilt show registration deadline in January, and then I tossed it on the back of the couch... and didn't touch it until last Tuesday.

Then the panic starts to hit me, I basically have 3.5 days to get this baby finished and quilted! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeh!

Tuesday: put on the borders, after sewing around the top to stabilize the edge. The whole thing is on a bias, so very easy to stretch.

Wednesday: pieced the backing and pinned that poor quilt to death. I used 200 safety pins. The whole bias factor made me kinda nervous.

Thursday: started to quilt it! Loopies and stars were the plan.

About half way through the quilting, I accidentally crossed two loopies on top of each other. I knew I couldn't live with myself if I left it in, so I pulled it off the machine to rip it out... and discovered a bigger problem. :P

I had done it again, I unknowingly folded the backing over and sewed it down. It's not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last. That took a little while to finish. Definitely started to feel the crunch of time.

Late Thursday night I get the binding sewed on and the excess trimmed off. I started to sew it down, but it was 11pm and my husband wanted to go to bed. I joined him because I knew if I stayed up, I'd just badly disturb his sleep whenever I did go to bed. Not everybody can sleep like the dead... like me. ;)

Friday morning the panic really starts to set it. I thought it'd take me 3 hours to sew down the binding... but it took 4!


Close up of the quilting.


Then I had to put on a sleeve. Something I have never done. *gulp* It took me one hour just to handstitch the sleeve on the rainbow quilt. I still had 2 other quilts to do, and they were bigger and I only had one hour left. I had to resist the urge to cry... then I had a lightbulb moment, I'll just safety pin the other sleeves on! It worked, they were both done in 45 minutes.

And I got all three quilts safely delivered in time. Whew! I'll tell you about the other two quilts in my next post. :)

Leah

Disney quilt finished!

I finished the Disney quilt a week ago. I was going to mail it Monday the 19th, but duh, it was a holiday. So it headed out in the mail on Tuesday. :)

Just a simple medium meander.

I did outline each princess to make them pop.


And since pink is this girl's favorite color, I dug deeply into my pink stash.

The blocks are 6" unfinished and I didn't fret too much when all the corners didn't perfectly match.

But I was absolutely thrilled with how crisp my binding corners were!

It may have been due to slightly stiffer fabric, but it had me in smiles. :)

Leah

Time to panic!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh! Quilt show is tomorrow! Gotta turn in the quilts today! I have one that needs binding and a sleeve. And two others that need a sleeve. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By 4pm this afternoon. :O

Guess who procrasinated, again? :P

Leah

Surfacing for air!

I've had some loving reminders that I need to post! :P Thanks for caring ladies. :)

I've been "hiding" the last 2 days because I was moody, grumpy, clingy, dealing with heartburn and an upset stomach. All from eating out! My husband took me out for dinner on Wednesday night, which was very nice. Thursday I wasn't feeling so good. Just blah. So hungry hubby orders pizza out. Of course I eat it and feel worse.

Friday afternoon, it hit me that all the eating out was basically making me sick. I haven't eaten out in 2 or more weeks before Wednesday. So all the fat, oils, salt and preservatives was whacking me out. I never want to eat out again! :P I told my husband that if he wants to take me out, he can take me straight to the grocery store. :)

Now the fun part, pictures! ;)

I turned in two quilts for Project Linus last week. My name is now entered in twice to win the sewing machine Janome is offering. I am a very hopeful gal! :D

The pinwheels were made from "bonus" HSTs from doing my sister's quilt. If you look at Bonnie's directions you should see what I mean by bonus HSTs.

The other quilt I gave to Project Linus is this one. (Scroll towards the end of the posting, it's the yellow quilt).

Remember this star? I made 8 more, put it into a top, and tada!

This is going to a friend. I'll put it in the mail on Monday.

She also has a 6 month old boy, so I used bright kiddie blocks for the back. Now both mom and son can enjoy the quilt! :)

On top of it all, I'm making a quilt for a customer. She has a 3 year old, pink Disney loving niece. :)

Here's one block, but I'm done with all 16 now. I need to put them together, get a backing and label done, then quilt it! :)

Last Wednesday was also the quilt guild meeting. Every 3 months they do a Blotto - block lotto. They give you a fabric and a block pattern to do. I had three months to make my block... and I did it the morning it was due. :P

The fabric handed out was the dark purple. Last time I did the blotto, my block was picked last! I was saaaaaaaaaaad. So this time I tried very hard to make the most appealing block. My quilt guild's name is "Hummingbird Stitcher's Quilt Guild", so the hummingbird was the perfect way to make my block #1. :D Names are randomly drawn from a baggie... and my name was picked! And so was another lady's, but she wasn't there, so I got first pick for half of the blocks. You better believe that I picked up mine first! :) So now I have 7 blocks and some leftover fabric to make more if I wish.

I joined the local Freecycle. I wasn't taking an active part in it. Seemed like every time I saw something that might be useful, it was taken. Then on Wednesday night, a lady posted that she had "4 tubs of grain". I emailed her asking to clarify - baking grains, for animals, or what? She said that they were baking grains. Apparently a friend of hers had given it to her when the friend moved. Sounds like the lady doesn't have a grinder, so might as well get rid of the buckets. The grains are about 1 years old. With proper storage, whole grains can last up to 30 years!

And wow! 4 buckets of grains. I weighed them and it's about 95 pounds in all. Toss in my 12 pounds from Sprouts, and that's over 100 pounds!

I was able to identify the wheats with the help of the ladies from Prairie Homemaker.

Black bucket: Hard white spring wheat
Yellow bucket: White hard wheat
Blue bucket: Rye
Red Bucket: Hard red winter wheat (same stuff that I have from Sprouts)

Wheeeeeeee! :D I'm doubly thrilled that I got the grinder from my mom. And after that eating out fiasco, you better believe that I'll be baking more. :)

Somebody also pointed out that they have Gamma lids, which sell for about $8 each. Wow! Another lady said that her son used one of those lids on a bucket when he went canoing and his stuff didn't get wet at all.

Now if I win the Project Linus' Janome sewing machine... I'll be on cloud 9 with my blessings! :)

Leah