They say "plastic lasts forever "

Hello, everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. 

I was organizing things and opened a drawer that doesn't get much attention. 

These fragments are plastic. (Probably a bag from a forgotten store.) They were in a climate controlled place in the dark. I guess "forever" isn't very long, is it?

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year, going to go dump out the plastic bits. 😀 

Christmas good wishes to all

Hello, everyone.

Adoration of the Shepherds

 Merry Christmas to all, and a happy and prosperous New Year!

It's been quite a while since I made this

Hello, everyone. Today, for (late) breakfast I made tortilla de rabano, with berenjena. (Radish with eggplant) 

Little bits of red bell pepper and cut up radish leaves for pretty, too.

Yum!

A quick little project

Hello, everyone.  This is a gift bag, sized to fit the gift, I hope, as there was no box that was just right in the house.

A materials from stash: quilting cotton for the navy paisley and the lining, plus satin ribbon left over from DD1's wedding several years back. 

I cut 2 16" squares in the paisley and the (not visible) mint-green dots, sewed the lining together around three sides, marked the openings on the outer fabric and sewed them. Remembered that the bag would need to be turned and opened a turning opening in the lining side seam. Used the sleeve board for pressing seams open--worked great! Sewed the top edge, turned and pressed, edge stitched the turning opening closed, then used my Chaco liner to mark the upper and lower seams of the casing. Sewed the casing seams and inserted the ribbons. 

I really enjoy making gift bags like this, and when they get re-used over and over I enjoy the project all over again. 

A new finish! (edited)

Hello, everyone. It's been busy around the place,  but things are starting to get more predictable. 

Some while back, I started working on a new kind of bag. (It's a gift but I hope the recipient doesn't look here, because I really want to put up the picture.)

This is a pattern from Moda, for a French pocket. Ladies who like to dress up in medieval, Renaissance, or fantasy costumes like to have one for their small sundries. The Victoria and Albert museum in Great Britain also has a pattern,  which in its essentials is the same. Moda's contribution was incorporating pieced hexies with English style paper piecing. I discarded the hand piecing method and did Y seams on my sewing machine. This technique is useful and making the fabric for the front  was a good practice session.

The front, after piecing, interfacing (Shapeflex), lining, and a zipper being added

I made an interior slip pocket. This was taken before it was attached to the back.

As it's a waist tied pocket, I did the binding on the bag first, then added an apron style waist tie. Binding was cut (2.5" nope) 2.25", waist tie was cut 3".

The hexies were cut from charm squares with my hexagon template. If I make it again (and I might) I will just use a single piece for the front, skipping all the drama of choosing a pretty layout. 

I did end up with some bonus hexies that might decorate a tea towel some time. Or another bag!

The fourth dolly quilt is finished

Hello, everyone.  The fourth dolly quilt is finished and probably that will be all of them for this year.

This one, as y'all can see, is a doggy themed quilt. There are also leftover squares from a spring-themed charm pack apron made last spring. All of the fabrics are from stash.  The binding is pieced from 2.5" strips.

These are fun to do, but there is a lot in the to-do pile just now that needs to be caught up on.

(Edited for spelling)

Reconditioning Old Balls

Hello,  everyone. It's a cool day out around here, but there is plenty of indoor work to do.

Shiny, glass ball ornaments, as we all know, eventually start losing the even shine they came home with. The ornaments are still fine, they just begin to tarnish or otherwise look shopworn.

Here are some that were found to be getting grubby when the tree went up. In this picture they have received a coat of matte Mod Podge (glue) and a coat of glitter. They spent the night drying and this morning they got an overcoat of glossy Mod Podge.

It's my hope that the gloss coat will stop the glitter from shedding all over the place, and make the blown glass balls more durable as well. Not that one should attempt to juggle them! But ordinary existence in the being on a Christmas tree should be easier now. Nothing like 2 coats of glue to reinforce things!

After they dry, the cap will be glued in place and the little wire loop reinsert. Then they will be ready for use.

Working on Christmas decorations

Hello, everyone.  The Christmas season is compressed this year: the Fourth Sunday of Advent is also Christmas Eve.

We're trying to get the decorations up in a bit of a rush as a result.

The living room tree, with the Christmas quilt on the wall.

The library tree, mostly decorated with eggshell ornaments, with the quilted tree skirt. Bowl full of pincushions in background is just incidentally there. 

The nativity scene, with a new strand of lights. (The old string was dead.) 
These are the progress thus far.

Dolly quilts

Hello,  everyone. 

Things were busy lately,  and time slipped away, sorry it's been so long with no posts!

Recently I have been making gifts, as it's That Time of the Year. These are some little quilts for baby dolls.

The dollies are next to the quilts. 

These are simple 9 patch settings, with a bit of sashing to make the size a little more than 12 inches across, and a header strip and footer strip for a little extra length.  The quilts started with the bag of 4.5 inch squares and grew from there. I did cut a Layer Cake batik square into quarters for the contrast squares on the left one. The four pieced squares were left over from a spring-themed charm pack apron project. 

The red, white, and blue doll quilt a little while back is part of this grouping, and there's one more to go, pieced except for the header and footer, and needing a bit of quilting and binding. 

All of the fabrics for these quilts were in the stash, along with the batting. 

Trying out the OESD embroidery press cloth

Hello, everyone. 

Today I tried out my embroidery press cloth. This had been part of the wonderful, amazing loot from last year's Houston Quilt Festival. Its purpose is to pad the embroidery while it is pressed.

See how well the letters stand out on the linen! And at this end, a perfect pressed in image of the embroidery. I'm in love!

(updated to fix spelling)

A new bag (stash usage)

Hello, everyone. 

I had gotten a pattern for "Hip" zipper pouches a little while back.

 I got it for the cute little travel trailer, but it happened that the first bag made from it was more of a textural kind of bag. 

I substituted the tassel fringe for a ball fringe, because the fat balls type of fringe was the wrong color. Buttons were added for little people to fidget with, too. And a hang tab was added. 

And the only part that wasn't from stash was the fringe.

Baby Dolly quilt

Hello,  everyone.  There are various projects in the hopper, but some have to be kept secret until later.

A late birthday gift (the birthday girl was supposed to come over and learn to make a bag but never has time) is one of them. Also various Christmas things.

A Christmas thing that can be published:

This is a baby-doll quilt. At least, it's the top. I used various pieced blocks from stash, print blocks the same size (also stadh--there is a whole Zip lock bag of this size!) and added 2 inch top and bottom borders. These will finish at 1.5 inches. All the dolly quilt needs now is quilting and binding. And a dolly to cover!

The quilt is small enough that I might try doing the embroidery machine quilting on it. Since there is at least one of those patterns in the house. We'll see.

The Quilt is Finished

Hello,  everyone.  

The Lap/baby sized Building Blocks quilt is finished. 

Draped over the sofa. 

I used a decorative stitch for the final row on the binding. It's a lot like the little "railroad tracks" lines on maps, isn't it?

The top side of the mitered corner. I took the "railroad line" stitch wings at a 45 degree angle at the corners.

The reverse side. The extra fabric on the back with machine applied binding is the reason I went with the "railroad line" built-in stitch. 

I used 8x7=56 charm squares, plus the thin and thicker sashings, borders, and binding. The backing fabric is part of a chunk from the (now-gone) A Block Away shop. 

This was a fun little project. Next time around--there are LOTS of charm squares in the stash!--I think I will square up the charms before slicing them into parts. Maybe try light charms and medium or dark sashings? Or cut up the Christmas layer cake (10") squares into charms and do a Christmas quilt.

Update on the quilt

Hello, everyone. 

This is a progress report on the Building Blocks quilt.The rows have been assembled and sewn together to form the center of the quilt. A border in a coordinating gray print has been added. It will finish at 1.5 inches after the binding is added.

The quilt is ready for basting, quilting,  and then finally binding.

I think a simple geometric quilting design will allow the colors to come into their own.

The pinned on bit of paper marks the top left block.

Starting sweet potatoes

Hello, everyone. 

Unlike many areas, in South Texas the autumn is a time to plant vegetables. This year we're going to try growing sweet potatoes. 

We went to the oriental grocery because the internet told me that there are varieties of sweet potatoes grown in the Far East that are different from the ones grown here. We got 2 of their red-colored sweet potatoes.  We also hot a standard orange one from our regular grocery store.

I put them all in a cardboard box with potting soil, kept them moist, and waited.

The one in front is the orange one. It has sprouted several slips, but the little stems aren't showing much root at all. The other two sweet potatoes are just sitting there. We will see what comes to pass. I have heard that it can take a while.

The season is finally turning for us, and we have hope that we're through with the 100-plus days now. (38+ in Celsius degrees.)

Another new finish

Hello,  everyone. 

Today there was a need for a little, lined basket. Fortunately there was a suitable basket around the place. 

This is for a drop-off basket.

All of the fabrics are from stash. Poly woven, lace from the bin, ribbon leftover from wedding years ago.

A bowl filler

Hello, everyone. The fabric scraps called to me again. This time it was a set of gray and white strips--fairly narrow strips--that had already been joined into a block.

I used my Creative Grids circle cutting template, the smallest one, to make ends for the tube. The green dotted fabric was left over from the Road to Round Top themed table runner, where it had been used to make sashing between the blocks. The beads on the ends of the little cylinder are just for fun.

The Creative Grids templates are part of the loot from the Houston Quilt Festival trip last fall. 

A new project in process

Hello, everyone.  There is a new project underway around here.  I think it's going to be a lap quilt. The pattern is Building Blocks, from Fat Quarter Shop. It's a charm square pattern.

Blocks have been made, and some were "un-sewn" and then sewn again. (Backwards blocks don't work with some patterns.) They were first laid out on the floor, but the automated vacuum was patrolling the house, so they got moved to the guest room. This is when it became apparent that some blocks had been assembled backwards. After that was straightened out, and various changes were finished, they got their placement codes pinned in place.

The placement codes are the standard matrix space labels I learned in business math classes in college.

A1 is at the top left. The bottom right is H7.

I did one extra row of blocks, the pattern only called for a 7x7 square and I thought it should be more of a rectangle. 

The table runner is done

Hello, everyone.  The table runner is done. This is my first modern-quilting style project and I'm not sure how I feel about the concept.

This morning,  ready to have the binding sewn on.

And it's done. 

I'm not feeling the love for extra-skinny binding. Next time I will cut it wider and let a little more binding color  show.

The binding does punch up the accent squares, but at this size the little reddish dots don't do much to echo the flower colors.

I did free motion quilting in the larger squares in the blocks, and simple geometric lines for the rest of the quilting. 

Color Play: binding

Hello, everyone. This is the table runner in-process. I did use the extremely modern pattern involving squares, several of the Road to Round Top fat quarters,  and a revolvers-on-stone accent fabric. 

The quilting is done, but the final wash will, of course, wait until the binding is sewn in place. Today's post shows auditions of binding fabrics.

various views of the runners and candidates for binding. 

The choice comes down to whether the binding should be as low-volume as most of the fabrics, or contrast with them.

I'm leaning toward the darker gray with little reddish dots all through it. The orange floral from the fabric line come off as either too brightly orange or too pale, and the lighter grays have the same lack of contrast. The crackled-wood look of that one across from the grunge print stands out too much, wanting to make itself the star of the show. The darker gray floral is nice, but I think the little reddish dots will play up the flowers in the middle block. The dark gray "Grunge" at one corner of the top photo is just too much sharp contrast for me here.

A New Pinny

Hello, everyone. Today's post introduces a new pinny for my bowl of pinnies. 

The top side: pieced from leftover half square triangle and strips. I added a grab loop just for fun, but it could also be used to keep the pincushion from going astray while being used away from home. The grab loop, already sewn into a bit of strap, was another strip in the stash. I quilted along seam lines for the top side of the pincushion. 

The bottom side. I quilted along the pattern lines of this charm square. The navy is a little darker than the blue bits on the top, but it's still compatible. 

As y'all can clearly see, the overall pincushion is about 4 inches square after stuffing.

This little thing is a rest for me, after last week's finish on the Old-and-new quilt. I especially liked finding a use for the leftover corners from the flag wall hanging.

Old-and-new and DONE!

Hello, everyone. The Old-and-new Quilt is done.

The Old side.

The New side

Details of the angels and Log Cabins, and the block made from the My Favorite Color Is Moda book. (Link to that book is in the last post.)

Angel blocks and all but one of the Log Cabin blocks from stash. 

Sashing and binding from a mini jelly roll in gray.

Purple solid stripe from stash, left over from making the sewing machine covers a while back.

Final size, 62 inches wide by 82 inches long. Small double or big twin, basically.

Yippee! Another one done.

It's quilted!

Hello, everyone. 

The new-and-old quilt has been quilted and it's ready to be squared up and bound. Woo-hoo!

Gooey Butter Cake

Hello, everyone. 

Gooey Butter Cake has always seemed like a cousin of Lemon Bars: a base that's more dry and a gooey top. 

It's a standard of Duke's Bakery in Alton, Illinois, where on Sunday morning after church the cars line up down the block as people pick up their  breakfast. The butter vanilla scent fills the kitchen while it bakes.

Update on the vintage quilt project

 Hello, everyone.

Today's update on the vintage quilt project: there is light at the end of the tunnel! Most of the quilting is done. (Perhaps 10 inches are left to go, approaching the left side from the center.) Then the binding, then it will be done!

Just to refresh, these are the vintage side

and the new side

The new side, and the batting, are a little bit larger than the almost-queen-sized vintage side. There will be a bit of trimming after the quilting is done and before the binding is added.

The large "tile" block near the top is from the My Favorite Color Is Moda book. The log cabins and the angels and other various scenic-centered blocks are from stash. Yes, there are still a lot of orphan blocks in my stash! 

The vintage side has a lot of stars that were made from crumb quilting, in a huge assortment of clothing fabrics of the 1930's. Cotton muslins, various blousings, even cotton flannel are represented. The green, red, lavender diamonds that form the hexagons around the stars also incidentally form a 3-dimensional block at the intersections of the hexagons. All of the vintage seams are hand sewn. 

So, leaving y'all to resume the rows of quilting and hoping to finish Real Soon Now....

Texas themed quilting fabric

Hello, everyone. 

I am on various quilt oriented email lists. One of them is Art Gallery Fabrics. Recently the promotional email was about a Texas themed collection called "The Road to Round Top", that being a prominent and well known geologic feature in, IIRC, central Texas. It's a big hill, basically, and I think there is a walking trail to the top.

This is the set of fat quarters in the collection.  The greens are on the gray side, and the whites are on the vanilla-custard side. I already have some other fabrics that go with it, too. 

It's so pretty.

I feel like a table runner out of this pattern would show the fabrics nicely. 

Or maybe a Friendship Braid type of table runner, like the ones in various Youtube videos. 

Memories from the Camino del Norte

Hello, everyone.

Someone we know is going to walk along the Camino del Norte ("the Northern Road") to Santiago, and it brought back to us memories of that walk in 2018. 

The morning after we slept in Tapia de Casariego--at the very scenic but very basic municipal albergue in an old school house--we walked along beaches and stopped for breakfast coffee at a small hotel. As we didn't stay there, we probably forgot to get a sello in our credencial to remember the visit. Thus, we didn't know the name of the lovely place with the gorgeous beach view! Until today, that is, when I was prompted by the memories of our walk to look into Gronze.com and study the detail maps. 

Then I found it! The giveaway was the porch fence visible in the window of the photo on Google Maps.

One of our photos of the beautiful Playa de Penarronda, lots and lots of sand with a collection of interesting rock outcrops

On the porch of the Hostal with a glass of Aquarius sports drink

Someday I want to go back to that little place and spend the night there, enjoying the serenity and the views.

The hostal is exactly along the walking path of the Camino del Norte.

Corraling sewing tools

Hello, everyone. 

As the weather here is still standard south Texas August heat, I'm inside enough to notice occasional little things that could be done.

A case in point: the long tape measure I use for taking diagonal lengths of quilts, or similar things, has a tendency to come unrolled when being handled. Or just lying in the drawer! I decided to make a small pouch to hold it.

The completed pouch. Embroidered lettering set out with my Hatch software and my Janome embroidery machine.  Fabrics from stash and also the zipper is from stash. 

I really need to do some more little organizing projects like this. Needles next? We'll see.

In this summer heat, some flowers are happy

Hello, everyone. 

As mentioned,  we're in August heat and this year it's a warm one.

Our pink crape myrtle, as long as they get a bit of water, are happy to bloom in clouds of pink froth.

Other plants that are happy: bougainvillea,  canna, jasmine, Lantana. 

The young dragon fruit has made a flower,  but it's too soon to tell whether it was pollinated.

There was a brush fire a few miles away yesterday. 

Driving around. The fire went out before night, happily.