More stash usage: another mug rug pair

Hello, everyone.

As it says in the title, this is another mug rug pair, and it used up some more of the pink stash. (Plus greens.)

As y'all can see, this is another rendition of the same pattern as the last pair. It happened that the blocks on the pieced wall worked out to be a pink and green checkerboard.

I'm not entirely sure I like how the quilting stitches came out. Possibly another shade of purple on the heart edges and a repeat of the light green in the quilted vines?

Stash usage

Hello, everyone.

Our local sewing club meets almost every month (even in summer!) and we usually work on a little project that familiarizes us with a new product--new to me anyway!--or technique.

This month, our project is mug rugs. These cute little gizmos have been around for a while and people are always trying out new ideas for this format. (It uses up stash, after all.) This month the ones we're working on are from Ms. Jacqueline Steves's blog a few years back. The project includes both piecing and applique for the top, plus quilting the little rectangle to keep it steady while in use and laundering.

I pulled a bunch of pinks, auditioned them, and settled on an assortment.

This is the audition of the background fabric. I liked the contrast of the hot pink better than a white or off-white.

The heart shape was cut from the wonky pieced bit after the final color selections were made. A bit of interfacing/stabilizer was put in back of the piecing.

There was going to be quilting on the background fabric, so I tried out some of the more decorative stitches that came with my old Kenmore. Making a little sampler on similar fabric is always useful! Some of the cute decorative stitches just looked to hard to maneuver around the shape of the heart. The meandering bird-track at the left seemed like it was the thing for this project--at least for the quilting at the end. I went with the tried-and-true star pattern for the applique stitches.

By this time, even though it was still some weeks before our meeting, I was all pumped up and ready to go. I thought I'd try it out without the help of my sewing sisters, just to see how it went.

The heart was sewn down with a basting stitch on the background, then lavender fancy stitches were added to the edge to really secure it. The pieced rectangle on the left was sewn as a block of strips, then cut into 1.5-inch slices and the middle slice was flipped. (It probably wasn't what Ms. Steves did, but it seemed like a lot less trouble than sewing tons of 1.5-inch squares together in pairs, then joining pairs over and over. That many seams can get a little "off" on the squareness and result in a wonky block. There is enough wonky in the heart.) After the two parts of the top were joined, and of course pressed, the quilt sandwich was constructed. I quilted inside the heart in-the-ditch for stability. Then I switched to the green thread And did lines in the block "wall" and shorter lines around the heart, simulated vines on the pink.

It was fun. There is already another pair started and that one I'll wait to finish at our meeting. It's entirely possible there are tricks that my sisters know and I don't yet!

Christmas season was busy, so...

Hello, everyone.

As the title says, Christmas season was busy. It's still busy, so crafty things were photographed then and are being posted now.

These were an idea from Pinterest.

I made a triangle template from an old file folder.

The stripey fabric was pieced from stash on hand, various greens and Christmas-y bits, some not rectangular, various widths for interest. Used spray glue to adhere the thin batting to the backing piece, then to adhere the pieced top to the batting. I think I quilted in the ditch at this point. Traced the template and sewed the outlines. Then cut apart. (Used the wavy blade on my rotary cutter.) Added ribbon loop at top, in white, and ribbon loop at bottom for trunk, in brown. Or black.

They're a good size for package tie-ons, or favors.

I kind of think if you could solve the cutting into an inside corner problem you could make really cute hearts on the same principle.

Maybe one could do it in reds and make diamond shape or lozenge shaped ornaments, too.

Walking training has begun

Hello, everyone.

As the headline says, we're now training for our next Camino walk. We've gone to Bentsen-RGV State Park twice now, and the Hike and Bike, and to Estero Llano Grande in Weslaco as well.

We saw some interesting birds at Estero this time. (One of them was completely uncooperative about posing for pictures. He was small, blue-gray, and very active. One of the other visitors guessed he might be a Blue Gnat-catcher. He was certainly eating bugs too small for us to see!)

This ibis was hunting. He wasn't having much luck, as the wind was coming up in advance of a cool front coming through.

The kite was surveying the world, and incidentally keeping most of the smaller birds in cover.

Great Blue Heron? He was hanging out with some more white ibises, and some other swimming birds, and what looked like a juvenile ibis.

Estero really has a lot of waterfowl to look at. Even when the alligators aren't holding court, there is a lot to see.

Beading bits n bobs

Hello, everyone.

There was a lot going on in December. Who has time to shop?

A gift for a young lady, made of beads:

The bracelet is child-sized. The necklace is about 16" long. I think the colors will work for: Christmas season, Valentines season, Fourth of July season...and also if the child lives in a school district where the local school colors are some form of red and white. Also with that length she can wear the necklace for a while.

The beads are red glass rounds, white perle rounds, and crackle glass clear rounds. All from, stash on hand!

Walking at Bentsen in November

Hello, everyone.

As you all realize, life went on while the series on Israel was being posted. I propose to pick up some of those bits in the next several posts.

We went walking in Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park after we returned. It was a glorious day for wildlife viewing!

One of the flock of turkeys that were attending the bird feeder next to the road through the park. This is the first time we had ever seen turkeys there. The flock must have been around 8 in number.

And at the blind there were a mother and a baby and two adult male javelina. (One may have been the father. He ran the other one off with much loud clacking of teeth.) They socialized, drank water from the pond, and generally hung around for a while.

Israel pilgrimge: sixteenth in series

Hello, everyone.

This post will cover the last day of visiting in the Holy Land.

We rolled out early as usual. The visits of the day were all in Bethlehem, near our hotel. The first visit was the Church of the Nativity of Our Lord, also known as the Church of St. Catherine Martyr.

As y'all can see, our group had matching ID lanyards in pale blue. These had our names, and on the back of the little name insert was the name of the tour company. In case it should be needed.

St. Catherine. Note the broken wheel which, being a way the Roman
 government tried to kill her, is an identifying item in her images.

The image of St. Catherine was in the Latin part of the church. (Remember, all the major shrines are shared.)

The Church of the Nativity was never fully destroyed during
 the centuries of conquest and ruin. A few of the original mosaics
 are conserved on the walls.

We passed through from the Latin part of the shrine to the Orthodox (Greek) part of the shrine. The line of pilgrims was beginning to build.

The Orthodox are very into ostrich eggs
 on their lamps.

One of the pilgrims from another group was talking to me. We discussed the significance of the ostrich eggs. I mentioned the eggs being a symbol of the Resurrection of Our Lord. He mentioned another beautiful image: the mother ostrich, he told me, is said to stay near her eggs while she is setting. Even when she gets up from the eggs to eat or drink, she keeps her eyes on the nest. Thus, the ostrich eggs remind us that God, like the ostrich hen, is always watching over us.

(We had time to talk, since our group was at the head of the line for the Latin access to the grotto of the Nativity, and we were a little bit early. The Armenians were still praying inside the grotto. And no, you can't just scooch in on another group's time!)

When we went down the steps into the actual place of the Nativity, we discovered that there were filmmakers there, and also a man was setting up for Mass. (Not Mass for our group. We wouldn't have all fit into this tiny space anyway.) I settled for respectfully looking in from the edge and taking a photo to remember with.

After this, we went to the Milk Grotto. Or possibly it's the Milky Grotto. The significance of this shrine is that traditionally it is the place where Joseph took Mary and Jesus to hide on their way out of town after the angel appeared to him in a dream and told him to get the Child and His mother out of their PDQ.

An altar inside the Milk Grotto. The images are the betrothal of Mary and Joseph,
the Annunciation, the birth of Jesus, the adoration of the shepherds, the
adoration of the magi, and possibly the Holy Family hiding out
in the Milk Grotto as they fled Bethlehem towards Egypt.

The stone of the Milk Grotto, another cave shrine, is white instead of dirty gray-black. Possibly it was never used for cooking. (Thus explaining why it was a safe place to hide for a day or so?)

An icon of Mary feeding the baby Jesus. 

There are a number of interesting images of various saints, and also an altar with reliquaries.

The Flight into Egypt. Someone had placed a bouquet
among the rocks at one side. Possibly this is a thing for
Christian brides?

The shrine is administrated by Franciscan nuns. They have, at the very deepest part of the cave, an adoration chapel. It is separated from the area the pilgrims visit by a glass window. (Franciscan nuns tend to be cloistered.) They have made the neighborly gesture to place a kneeler by the window for any pilgrims who wish to join them in adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Taken from outside of the chapel. This is a very modern, yet very respectful, monstrance. I see the shape of His Sacred Heart in the metal at the center. But that could be just me.

We also visited the Church of the Shepherds' Field.

We had Mass in the Cave of the Shepherds.
Above the door there was a bee nest.

Above the cave was this angel. (?)

While walking the paths back toward the entrance, we saw a group of Korean (?) nuns, also on pilgrimage. There are people from all over the world who visit the holy sites.

View of the entrance to the Shepherds' Field from the shop across the street. The lines were beginning to build up. By the time we left this place there were crowds going in.

A view of the place we later ate lunch on this,
our last day in the Holy Land. It has nice views
of Bethlehem from those big windows. 

This picture was taken because it was an interesting building. Little did we know that later that day we would be in there!

The offices of the tour company, next to the door leading to the
restaurant where we ate lunch this last day,

When we stopped for lunch, we were in front of the offices of the tour company who were organizing our visit to the Holy Land. We didn't go in and bother them, though. We went into the door at the right and rode the elevator up to the Skyline cafe.












We returned to our hotel for dinner and a very short night.

I finally remembered to take a food picture at the hotel.

The salad bar at the Hotel St. Gabriel

We met in the lobby at 1 a.m. the next morning. We had to hitch a ride on another group's bus for part of the way to the Tel Aviv airport--something about our bus's engine belt coming off--but about half of the way there our bus caught up with us and we switched back over.

After waiting in the airport intake line--these folks are serious about security, for good reason--we had a few minutes before we had to be in the gate area. We took the moments to visit shops in the airport and also the facilities. Because airplane facilities are guaranteed to be more miserable to use than airport ones!

In the airport, departing, this nifty wireless device to summon aid for restroom problems. Cool!

And that was the final day of our visit to the Holy Land.

The next few posts will be catch up posts for various things on the home front.