Very little quilting is being done by me. The “B” Block for the Alphabet BOM is about it. But my stash was raided for a bit of framing and backing for my young quilting friend’s wall hanging. There should be a picture tomorrow. It just needs binding.
Fabric Added Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 53.944 yards
Fabric Used Since Last Report: 1.083 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 1.746 yards
Net Used for the year -52.198 yards
Other stash reports can be seen over at Patchwork Times.
It’s time to set my goal for February’s finish. Since this is a short month I need something which will be quick to finish. I’ve decided on the Tetris wall hanging. It’s small, I have the batting and backing ready to go and I have an idea of how I want to quilt it.
To see what others are planning on finishing this month, check out the links at
B is for Basketweave is the second block of Dorothy Young’s alphabet block-of-the-month. If you wish to quilt along, join the group by clicking on the “Join Now!” button.
Click to join apocketfullofmysteries.
This is also one of the items on my Getting It Done list for February.
It’s time for the next block in our quilt-a-long – Twas the Night Before Christmas by Kaaren Johnston of The Painted Quilt. Did you get your Gingerbread Men stitched out in January?
This month I’ve picked the pinwheels. We are making two 4″ (finished) pinwheels.
There are tons of ways to make Half Square Triangle (HST) squares, and you are welcome to make yours anyway you like. This is how I made mine.
I started with 8 – 3″ squares. Sure there is a bit of waste, but I’d rather trim to the correct size than fight to get a perfect 2 7/8″ square. Two light and two dark for each pinwheel. Since I’m not doing my sampler in all red, I found some Christmas prints in my stash – two with white backgrounds, a red and a green.
Next, I drew a line, corner-to-corner on the back of the light squares.
Stitched w/a scant 1/4″ on either side of the line. — That “scant 1/4” is because with the advent of rotary cutters, mats and rulers we can get more precise.
Cut the along the drawn line. Now there are 8 pieces.
My favorite tool when making HST Squares with this method is the Quilt in a Day 6 1/2″ Triangle Square Up Ruler. (no affiliation)
I line the 2 1/2″ line on the ruler along the stitching line.
Then I trim along the edges of the ruler.
Repeat it for the rest of the triangles.
I pressed my seams toward the dark fabric.
Then trimmed the dog ears.
Then I laid the HST squares to form two pinwheels.
I flipped the squares on the right over onto the square on the left. I’ll stitch along the seam where the pencil is pointing.
Stitch with a scant 1/4″ seam.
Press the seam allowance to the dark fabric.
Lay the two sections together to prepare for stitching. Here I’m checking to make sure I’ve got the two sections orientated correctly.
Stitch with a scant 1/4″ seam. I didn’t pin because I could feel that the seams were nested together.
I like to pinwheel my seams. It makes the block lay flatter and when setting blocks together it allows the seams to lock together. The first step is to remove the stitching from the edge of the block to the seam. Since my pieces where chain stitched, I was able to easily “pop” the seam.
Press the seams toward the dark fabric.
Flip the block over and admire your new pinwheels.
This is all that has to be done for February. Naturally if you want to work faster you are welcome to. If you are participating in this quilt-a-long, leave a comment and tell us where we can see your progress.
At the beginning of the month I listed 4 things I wanted to accomplish in my quilting:
I didn’t get them all done, but I think I’ve figured out why.
There were the 11 books I read. Outlander , Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager and A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows by Diana Gabaldon; The Union Quilter and The Wedding Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini; The Enchanted Land by Jude Deveraux; A Highlander in Her Past by Maeve Greyson; Victorian Dream by Gini Rifkin; A Matter of Class by Mary Balogh and Crystal Gardens by Amanda Quick. The ones not pictured were read on my Kindle. They were either free from Amazon.com at the time I downloaded them or I borrowed them from my library through Overdrive.
I was in the kitchen trying new recipes using spinach, cream corn, and tofu.
A couple of new projects were started and I finished the first section of Just Takes 2.
I processed the pile of shirts I bought from the thrift shop (I haven’t done a thing yet with the box of shirts I was sent.)
My husband and I joined a gym and I’ve managed to get there 8 times so far. At the moment we are primarily using the walking track to get us out of the elements. Baby steps toward fitness.
Later I’ll figure out my 4 goals for Judy’s Getting It Done. Who knows, there’s still a few more hours left in the day.
In the meantime, I’m linking up to a Lovely Year of Finishes.
Edited to add February’s Getting It Done list.
I’ve linked up to Judy’s Getting it Done over at Patchwork Times.
When Judy said the ingredient for the week was tofu, I thought no way I was going to participate. I suppose her challenge about not wanting to be the only one who posted a tofu recipe goaded me into looking for something that might work.
I started with Tasty Kitchen. I typed in tofu and tons of recipes were returned. I didn’t even look at them if they didn’t have a rating of 5 mitts. I found Tofu Meatballs, which lead me to La Casa de Sweets, which in turn led me to Amuse Your Bouche which I sort of followed.
I drained the tofu and then “pressed” it to get the remaining water out of it. Once drained, I mashed up the tofu using a potato masher — I suspect running it through the food processor would be better and then mixed in the rest of the ingredients.
I rolled about 20 balls and placed them on parchment paper sprayed w/cooking spray. Baked for 15 minutes at 375 degrees and then turn them over and bake for another 15 minutes. Let them cool a few minutes.
I told my husband and young quilting friend they were cheese balls. My husband asked what was in them. He didn’t want to find spinach like the last time I asked him to eat something new. Listed out the ingredients, skipping the tofu and he ate one. He had two comments — hadn’t I made these before and they were a little dry. My young quilting friend gave them a thumbs up!
That’s when I told them they were made with tofu.
As for “making them before” we decided it must have the sausage balls I made around Christmas — the ones you make with sausage, Bisquick and cheese. They were dry as well.
I’m not going to rush out and make these again, but I won’t say I’ll never make them again.
For other tofu recipes and the next ingredient of the week check out the links over at Patchwork Times.
Sunday I mentioned that I received two boxes. The smaller box was from my cousin. It contained pictures of her step-grandfather, my great-uncle, and some of his family. This morning I pulled a couple to scan.
These are Grandpa Pete and Grandma Ruth. Grandpa Pete served in the Spanish-American war — something I didn’t know until I read a newspaper clipping which was enclosed with the pictures. I never knew my grandfather’s parents.
This was another picture found in the box. This was taken January 8, 1960. That’s my mom on her wedding day with two of her uncles. Uncle Bob on is on the left. It’s his step-granddaughter who sent me the pictures. Uncle Bob was mom’s escort down the aisle. (Mom’s dad was lost at sea July 1941.) Uncle George is on the right.
Another fun note. My mom met my dad at Uncle Bob’s. Uncle Bob rented his garage apartment to my Dad who was from Mississippi. Mom was visiting Uncle Bob in Houston from California. I think it’s only fitting that Uncle Bob walked Momma down the aisle.
Well, not much has changed this past week on my design wall. Piglet and the bass are still at the same point they were 2 weeks ago. I’ve added a few shirt string geese – which are not part of the Eeyore quilt. I’ve been reading, so no quilting is getting done. My young quilting friend came over this weekend. Even she fussed at me, so I guess I need to get doing something. I wonder if it’s because this is her quilt?
Oh, that blue on the bottom? That’s the start of a wall hanging for one of her teachers. Next week she is going to frame the squares in yellow from my stash and then sash them in red. I don’t know if she’ll get it quilted or not.
But how is this as a sign she’s a quilter. Her cousin asked for a quilt. She’s willing to make her one and when I asked what her favorite color is, she said red. I commented that I didn’t have much red in my stash and the young quilter said “she’ll get what I make her”. But I guess first we need to get this wall hanging done before she moves on to the next quilt.
Check out other design walls over at Patchwork Times.
Friday was an exiting mail day. I saw the mailman walking past my front window and thought I sure hope he doesn’t have to go far. Immediately followed by the thought of how is he going to drop my mail off carrying those two boxes. I got up and headed to the door and never heard the mail box.
Turns out the boxes were for me!
The top box is from a cousin who sent me some old family photographs. My great-uncle, my great-grandfather and if I understand the relationship correctly, my great-grandfather’s brothers. I really need to find my box of genealogy stuff and photos and try to get names to the faces.
The larger box is from a quilting friend.
Shirts — missing the backs. She said she just wanted the shirt backs and would be happy to send me the rest if I was interested. Naturally I said YES!
Reds, yellows, browns, greens, blues and neutral. A great addition to my shirts which tend to be on blue side. I can’t wait to finish processing these shirts and then make some great quilts.
In addition to these wonderful shirts, I dropped by the fabric store and picked up 2 yards of fabric for my young quilting friend. She says she wants to make 2 more quilts. This goes in her stash and doesn’t get counted in mine.
Fabric Added Since Last Report: 31.444 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 53.944 yards
Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 0.663 yards
Net Used for the year -53.281 yards
Other stash reports can be seen over at Patchwork Times.
Yes, these are wonky string geese like the ones that Bonnie are making. Her pattern can be found HERE.
It was not my intention of starting a new quilt. (Isn’t that what we all say?) But since I have this basket of shirt tails to deal with, I figured I could play with some of the resulting strings.
I keep telling myself that I don’t have yardage in my stash – but then I find exactly what I need. Admittedly I knew I had 2 or 3 yards of the yellow — I bought it to use as the background of a stack-n-whack with the Halloween Micky Mouse. Yellow skies weren’t my first choice I thought they would be too bright and in your face. My first choice was scrappy dark green — scrappy on the theory that I “don’t have yardage in my stash”. I was surprised to find 1 1/2 yards — exactly what I need for 125 – 3 x 6 geese. Except it’s not.
The yellow is the best choice. And there is plenty of it so I can make a bigger quilt if I desire. I’m thinking 150 geese.
