Cha-Cha-Cha and Winter Ice on the 4th of July

I found this on Facebook a few days ago. It fits me perfectly! I've definitely been cha-cha-cha-ing for quite a while now.

The back and forth dance stepping began two weeks ago when I was trying to decide on a theme for the next pattern.  Cha-cha-cha.

  

Pumpkins ... ice skates ... pumpkins ... musical notes ... pumpkins ... sunflowers ...  There were stacks of fabric everywhere!! Stacks and stacks. I had several piles for every single one of those ideas lined up across my cutting table, and I was running into a brick wall with ideas. It was back and forth for days! Then, suddenly ice skates scooted to the front of the line, and everything fell into place.

I've stitched a wall hanging (or table topper) and a mug rug to be included in the pattern, and here I am today - writing a pattern for ice skates on the 4th of July. I'll publish the pattern later in the week.

There's a story to go with this.

If you happen to be walking across the grass or standing by my front door, my sewing room is clearly seen through a large window just above my cutting table. My neighbor and I share a flower bed under that window. She was working on weeds when she happened to glance into the room and see the ice skate projects I was ready

If you look closely, you can see fabrics on my cutting table. 

She rang my doorbell. "Anna would love these!" she said. "Could I bring her over to look?"

Anna is eight-years-old. I knew she was taking ice skating lessons, but I didn't know that she was rapidly progressing from one level to the next and had already collected three badges. The child is obsessed with skating and I definitely understood. Ice skating was my favorite winter activity ever.

I learned to skate when I was exactly Anna's age. I didn't have lessons, but I became an avid skater. In Sioux Falls, where I grew up, the baseball diamond a couple of blocks from my school was flooded for skating every winter. It was kept smooth and clear of snow for skating until the weather became too warm. There was no charge for use of the rink, so we could skate to our hears content. All winter long our skates went with to us school and from school straight to the skating rink. There was a warming house with a wood burning stove where we could buy hot chocolate and candy bars, but who had time for that when the days were short and we had to get on home before dark? We wanted to skate!

Back to Anna. It turns out she needs a place to display her badges as she acquires them, so I'll soon be working on another project for the ice-skate appliques. What should it be? A bulletin board? A skating tote? A pillow? Anna has chosen her fabrics, but she has more decisions to make.

The skates HAVE to be pink! With blue blades!

Oops, the timer on my stove is binging and I hear potatoes calling. They seem to think that the 4th of July is a potato salad kind of a day. 

Happy Independence Day!!

Traffic Jams and Roundabouts

This week my brain has been functioning like summer traffic moving through road construction. The traffic is barely crawling and I keep running into unexpected detours. I'm getting nowhere.

The first plan was to do something with the pumpkins that designed last year - maybe a table topper or a table runner. I had a couple of ideas, but when I pulled out my autumn fabrics and sat down to sketch I found myself drawing ice skates. When I was young, ice skating was my very most favorite winter sport ever, so I've wanted to do something with that for a very long time. Skates, however, were not at all what I had planned for this week.

I tried to forget about them and get back to pumpkins, but still, the skates wouldn't go away. I previewed fabric options, but none of them make me go, "Ahh, yes!"

 These are the best of my choices so far.

Our quartet of quilting buddies is heading off on our summer fabric shop hop around southern Nebraska this Monday (hooray!!), so I'm hoping to find the perfect skate fabrics then. I know they're out there. We'll have a lovely giggle-fest, too, and that is so good for the soul.

In the meanwhile, skates have been forced to the side, and I'm back to pumpkins. This detour is taking me around and around in circles!

My fabrics with last year's pumpkins

Square table topper, rectangular table runner or something else? Help! 

One thought.

Maybe I should start all over with a completely different something for this weekend. Something like a quick mug rug, maybe, or that sewing machine cover I need to make.

Then, again, I may just stay away from my sewing room altogether for a few days to give my creative brain a bit of a rest. Maybe it's time to pull a weed or two from my flower bed and wait for the road blocks to come down. 

Wishing you a wonderful week with smooth traveling all the way!

On Vacation ... If Wishes Were Fishes

"If wishes were fishes, we all have a fry." I could really use a vacation about now, but I'm afraid a real vacation will have to wait awhile. At this moment, though, we are completely finished with workers coming and going along with those headaches of dealing with the house. That's enough to make the days feel as relaxing as a vacation.

Oops. Shouldn't have written that! I'd better knock on wood quickly now! Hope I'm not too late!

Our neighbor girls are unbelievably excited about the new tenants. They've been the only girls in the neighborhood, but the new family has an eight-year-old girl. That makes for two eight-year-old girls and one 6 year-old girl right next door to each other.  The three girls can't seem to get enough of each other,  so we live in a very happy building. There's a whole lot of giggling going on!

"On Vacation" has another meaning this week. After seemingly endless interruptions, the pattern for my vacation themed table runner/wall hanging is finished! Talk about happy dance time!

Making the pattern didn't seem as difficult as getting the photographs for this one. I must have taken twenty or more photos over the past few days, and I'm not entirely thrilled with any of them. Because of that I had a horrible time deciding which photos to use on the Craftsy pattern page. Please pop over there and take a look. Should I choose one of the others for the main photo? I've been switching back and forth half the day, but I'm still not sure.

These are the current first and second choice photos - in no particular order. Both were taken in the same location, but one was in bright sunshine and the other taken later in the day when the area was shaded.

The sunny photo feels more artistic, but the shaded one shows the details of the quilt better. I really would like to hear your opinion on this. There are other photos on the pattern page, too, so several to choose from. It's very easy for me to switch it up. 

I made another trip to the fabric store this afternoon, and this time I came home with some autumn fabrics. These are totally different than my usual color and design choices. Instead of bright whites and softer colors, I'm staring at black and bright, bright orange! I'm also wondering if I've lost my mind. How on earth am I going to make this work?

Have a super week.

And, keep cool!!

We've suddenly jumped straight into summer heat and humidity. Even though I moaned and groaned, I'm going to miss the cool, rainy first part of June. 

I'm ending with a pair of blocks made by Hannah Ford for the Quilt Along 2015. Adorable, aren't they?

Roadblocks!

The Good Part

Let's begin with the sewing progress, because that became the highlight of my week. I wasn't able to even enter my sewing room until Thursday!

I was so excited to finish designing the appliques for the summer table runner!  All are now fused to the background and ready to be stitched in place. If the stars align, the runner may be completed next week. If not next week, then I'll definitely I'll have the pattern out the following week.  Knock on wood! Fingers crossed!

Indoor photos taken on a cloudy day are never the best.
Oh, no! A hubcap has been snitched! 

The trees filled up those empty spaces quite nicely, didn't they?  I may or may not throw in a few little embroidered bits just for fun, but I don't think they're actually necessary.


On to the madness! 

This week's craziness was all my fault. I had told everyone that was we were finished with tradesmen for awhile. I really ought to know better than to say such things out loud. Even thinking them can cause it all to backfire.  Murphy's Law, you know. Self-jinxed again.

Our tenant moved out on Sunday, and when I walked through the empty home the wear and tear of five years occupancy by a man living alone really showed. He'd kept it clean on the surface and was tidy as a pin, but - well, you know.  The work on getting that unit ready began in earnest. We were really fortunate that we were able to coordinate everyone and have it completed in only three days.

Monday
Painters: We'd thought that the kitchen alone would need painting, but it turned out that the entire main floor was in need. Why would a person scrub a painted wall with a scouring pad?

Tuesday
Cleaning crew: So many people simply don't have a clue how to keep bathrooms and kitchens from becoming disgusting, and I swear the baseboards hadn't been dusted since he moved in.
Locksmith: The front door couldn't be opened from outside. A latch wouldn't pull completely open. We had to go in through the garage.
Carpenter/handyman: A bifold door was in the closet and missing a part, there was some damage to the front door that needed to be repaired and sanded, and black, moldy bathtub caulking came out.
Plummer: Replaced a broken kitchen faucet.

Wednesday
Carpet cleaners: Good golly, I thought those carpets would never come clean, but a bit of scrubbing and magic steam pulled out those nasty stains and accumulated dust.
Handyman again: Replaced the old bathroom caulk and the bathrooms looks fantastic.

It positively gleams! Come live next door, and we can be sewing buddies! :)

Tomorrow I'll paint the front door and it will be totally ready for new renters. Fingers crossed that we find the right family soon. We're looking for good neighbors, so we don't rent to just anyone.

Here's hoping that all of us have time to lean back this summer, put our feet up, and put our cares away for awhile.

Sun Down, Feet Up
 Pattern by Two Strings found on Craftsy

July Table Topper Tutorial. Variation of Disappearing Nine-Patch

Fabric requirements, templates, and layouts for various sizes of quilts from this pattern can be found in this free patttern on my Craftsy pattern page. 
http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/july-table-topper/148120

I'm all ready for July with this super quick 26" x 26" table topper. It was so much fun to whip up, and I absolutely love that bright red, white, and blue palette.

There aren't many designs as versatile as a disappearing nine-patch, but with just a bit of careful fabric placement this one begs for applique. I can see it in so many color schemes and absolutely any applique template can be used: autumn leaves, cat silhouettes, flowers, hearts, Christmas stocking ... anything at all that suits you.

Instructions:

Use 1/4" seam allowances throughout. 

Make four blocks.

1. For each block, arrange three 5" x 5" red squares, four 5" x 5" white squares, and one 5" x 5" blue square as shown here. Sew into three rows of three. 

2. Measure 2 1/4" in from the seams of the center rows. Cut straight down the middle. Then straight across the middle horizontally, again measuring 2 1/4" from the seams of the center rows.

3.  Rearrange the four segments of the block as shown, and sew together. 

4. Arrange the blocks as shown below. Sew together.

In this photo the quilt shows a quarter turn clockwise. 

 Appliqued Stars

Make four large stars and five small stars.

Large stars are approximately 5" tall and the small stars are 3".

1. Trace the star templates onto the paper side of the fusible web. Cut around the template leaving about 1/4" margin. 

2. Place the fusible web onto the wrong side of the blue star fabric and iron onto the fabric according to the instructions for your fusible web.

3. Cut the applique out, remove the paper from the fusible web and arrange onto the quilt top. Press to fuse onto the fabric.

4. Stitch the applique to the quilt top by hand or with a machine zig-zag stitch. I used a machine blanket stitch.

Finish

Make a quilt sandwich of the quilt top, batting, and backing. Quilt as desired. Bind, and it's done.

Happy Stitching!

Distractions Galore

I had so much sewing planned for this week. I meant to finish the vacation table runner at least.

Ha! It's been a great week, just not so great for sewing.

Sunday was the best day with my granddaughter's high school graduation. She's eighteen, her brother is sixteen and has grown a beard just because he can. How on earth did those babies grow up so fast?

After all, weren't these photos taken just yesterday?

In addition to that, I got to attend a retirement party for one of my dearest friends and long time teaching buddy. Then, Anne from my quilt group came by for an afternoon of show and tell. We solved a little problem with a quilt top. Yesterday, I went out to lunch with Midge. She's just returned from a trip to Disney World with her youngest grandchildren. They had so much fun.

Something else came up, too. My world has been so topsy-turvy all month. We live in a triplex of three townhouses. One of our tenants will be moving out next weekend and I'll be showing it today and tomorrow. The place looks beautiful, but even so, the painter has been called and is scheduled to give the kitchen a coat of fresh paint the first day it's vacant. If you'd like to move to Lincoln, we have a great place for rent. Just let me know. 

I did make some progress on the table runner. I think I'll need two more vehicles for it. This is where it stands now. I'm wondering what I should do to fill in the large white background area a bit more. Trees? Flowers? Birds?

Nothing is attached yet because I haven't designed the other appliques. I need those before deciding where things will fit. What else do I need? A sports car? A boat trailer? A fifth wheel? A VW bug? Decisions, decisions... 

I may have more time to consider those choices if I take another break for a few days. I think I'd like to do something  quick for the Fourth of July. 

How time flies. 

My babies are grown and tomorrow is already the last day of May!

Hello, June!

A Bit of Time to Sew - Finally!

Sewing is my therapy, my escape from everyday worries and woes, my sanity saver, and one of my greatest pleasures. I've had so little time to work in my sewing room the past couple of weeks that today was pure bliss.

The painters have gone, the sprinkler system is fixed, the carpenter has repaired the last little piece that needed doing, and the whole day was mine. I hurried through breakfast and morning chores, then raced downstairs to my play in my sewing room. (That last bit may be slightly exaggerated. My days of actually racing down the stairs are long gone, but I moved as fast as I could without tripping and taking a stumble.)  Bliss! I played and I played.  In fact, I had a frolicking good time with my new design in progress.

I'm making another table runner that could also hang on a wall. This one is all about summer and heading out on vacation. There will definitely be a car pulling a camper. Then I'll likely add such things as a fifth wheel with a truck, a hippie van, a jeep, and a sports car, plus odd and sundry other items pulled or piled on top of the vehicles. A canoe, a boat, boxes and tarps would be logical.  I don't know what else, but these are the ideas playing in my head right now. I'll stop when I run out of space on the runner, and I don't know how many traveling vehicles will fit. Would trees in the background be too much?

The car and camper were the easiest, so that's where I've begun . Here they are, laid out on a paper background.

Nothing can be fused to the fabric until I can see how they would look best. 

I have two background fabrics in mind, but I haven't been able to choose one over the other. What do you think? White on white or little gray circles on white? 

I wish the sun were shining so I could see the fabrics under sunlight. The way a fabric photographs is so important when making patterns. The photograph can make all the difference in whether people like the patten or not.  Cameras change colors in subtle ways, and sometimes a piece that looks beautiful in real life won't photograph well at all.  

I won't be sewing tomorrow, but other exciting things are in the works. My daughter's fundraiser for the NSEA children's fun takes place. I'll be over there with my raffle quilt and we'll draw for a winner.

The raffle quilt.

My granddaughter's high school graduation ceremony takes place later in the day. So much excitement in the air this weekend!

There will be more sewing when life calms down once again. 

Have a lovely weekend! 

"Windows on My Garden": Slice, Splice, Done.

Has it been forever since I posted a new pattern, or does it just seem that way to me? Spring and all that comes with that has interfered with my sewing and pattern making. After tomorrow's visit by the lawn sprinkler man, though, things may calm down a bit. It's high time, too, because I need to begin seriously thinking about fall and winter patterns.

This pattern is finally finished, though, and it was so worth the effort! I am absolutely crazy about this one.  I've titled it "Windows on My Garden".

Slice, splice, done really does describe the quilt! Perhaps I should have named it that. No, I really do see windows when I look at it. The pattern makes two different size quilts with nine duplicates of one block. The larger one has a border, the smaller one has none.

When each block is identical, the stage is set for assembly line sewing. With precise cutting and accurate 1/4" seams it all comes together easily.

I've made these two entirely different quilts, each with nine of the blocks, but I know I will soon be stitching up more items made with different numbers of the same block.

Three in a row would make a table runner 15" x 45'.
Four set in a square become a 30" x 30" table topper. Add a narrow border and you'd have a baby quilt.
Twenty blocks set in a 4 x 5 grid with an added border are needed for a twin bed quilt, and 42 blocks in a 6 x 7 rectangle are perfect for a queen size bed.

The block is made with slicing, splicing, and trimming. The pink and green quilt was the experiment that helped me figure out how to splice two strips going down the side of block and only one going across. If I'd used splices half an inch wide everything would have been fine. But, I didn't like the half inch strips. I wanted larger ones - three fourths of an inch wide. And that threw everything off. Each time I added a spliced strip into a row of patches, the row grew 1/4" wider. If I'd left it that way, seams wouldn't have lined up at all. Some rows of patches would have finished 5" wide, and others 5 1/4" wide. That last little trimming slice fixed the problem altogether.

When it's finished, each block is 15" x 15" - and the patches line up!

The first quilt, 49" x 49".

I made the second quilt to work up the pattern. I thought I might use photographs in the pattern, but I honestly didn't need them at all because I've finally figured out how to make a simple pattern like this on the computer.

Confession: I do love this pattern, and I had this lovely stack of low volume fat quarters begging to be made into a quilt.  That's the real reason I made the second quilt. And I am so happy I did!

Low volume quilt with a border, 56" x 56". 

I am so in love with this quiet quilt! Someday I may find another set of gorgeous fabrics like this and make a bed size quilt in this same pattern.  The fabrics are so subtle that nothing really pops out, so lots of quilting was needed to add texture and make it sparkle.

I like cotton batting for table toppers and wall hangings because it gives them stability and they keep their shape so well. This quilt, however, needed to be as soft and cuddly as possible, so I used Legacy 80/20 poly-cotton blend batting. No matter how densely you quilt it, the quilt remains soft and pliable. I was able to truly let myself go on the quilting without turning it into something stiff and unyielding. 

Oh gosh, I had so much fun!

Done is done, and now I need to focus on something new. There are at least 50 choices on my idea list. I'll go over them tomorrow and try to decide where to begin.

Have a lovely week!

And happy stitching!

When it Rains, it Pours

Looking out onto my backyard. Raining once again.

Everything happens at once some weeks. Not only have we had rain almost every day, but my normally quiet life has turned into nonstop go-go-go! Thank goodness I haven't yet reached the stage of "elderly" that I can do no more than doze in my rocking chair all day. This is a roundup of the week.

Sunday: Mother's Day. I sewed like crazy to beat the clock before my daughter came over. A while back she asked for a smaller case for her crochet hooks, something she could carry when she worked on a single project. I found a great pattern on Craftsy by Tulip Square. I made a few changes of course, adding a zipper compartment, and altering the binding. I barely got finished on time!! The afternoon shadow were getting long when I took these photos.

This is the link to the pattern:  http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/other/quilted-crochet-caddy-set-521/68741

Monday: It rained again, so our house painters were delayed. Again. Sigh. I focused on writing the Slice and Dice pattern during the day, working on the hand stitching on the binding, and preparing for book talks. More on that later.

Tuesday: A repeat of Monday interspersed with errand running and meeting a friend for coffee, and company for dinner. Yikes!

Wednesday: The sun came out and the painters arrived only ten days later than originally scheduled! Super nice guys and they do beautiful work. They had a day and a half before the rains returned, so they'll be back as soon as the sun shines again.

While the painting went on I began a baking marathon. Muffins first, so the painters had a lovely just-from-the-oven morning snack. After lunch I baked a batch of chocolate cupcakes that I needed for Thursday, book talk day. These came from a well worn Betty Crocker book. It's been a go-to favorite for twenty years. I'm sure you have one like it - smudged pages covered in sticky notes and a tattered cover.

Thursday: Book talks today. I head back to my former school and my fifth grade teaching buddies regularly each year, with books in hand. The day is spent giving book talks to four classrooms of fifth grade students. This month I had ten brand new books to introduce to them. Since they were new I'd read every one of them over the past few weeks and taken notes. Planning and preparation is time consuming, but I love having that "kid fix" now and then. I also love the chance to sit down and have lunch with my younger friends. That's why the cupcakes. It was Shelley's birthday, so I brought a treat.

Diane took this photo of me from a distance, but I cropped out recognizable children, and that's why it's blurry.

When I got home that afternoon I had a text from a friend who teaches middle school. A young girl with a love of sewing is hoping that her sewing skills can help her to earn some much needed money. A donated sewing machine was found for her, but she needs fabrics and other sewing essentials. I quickly trotted down to the sewing room and pulled out any larger pieces of fabric that could be used for sewing clothes and bagged them up to take over to her school. I tossed in some patterns, plus odds and ends of thread, zippers, and other notions that I likely won't need. I hope this will help her to get started.

Friday: Once again we're in the middle of a thunderstorm! It must be monsoon season in Nebraska!

Today, though, life will slow down a little bit. Aside from preparing meals, I have only to make a trip to the library, deliver the package of sewing odds and ends to the school counselor, give my hubby a haircut, and try to make real progress with my pattern writing. Wish me luck!

Slice and Dice quilting competed.

Wishing you a super special weekend. 

And sunshine! Lots of sunshine!

Mother's Day, a Flood, FMQ, and a New Banana Muffin Recipe

Happy Mother's Day!!

As Mother'd Day approaches, I've been missing my mom more and more. Spring was her favorite time of year and I think of her with every flower that I plant, and several of my spring mug rug patterns were a designed as tributes to her memory.

As the years go by, I'm learning to comprehend her better. When we are young, we tend to take our mothers for granted, but with age I'm learning more about the depth of her love and the meaningfulness of her life.

I miss you, Mom. Thank you for showing me how to be a better wife and mother.

Three generations - my mother and me with my newborn granddaughter. An amazing moment.

.
Flood

"Rain, rain go away,

Come again some other day."

April showers were just a warmup for May, it seems. Every day this past week we've had rain in some form or another. Our house was scheduled for painting two weeks ago, but there's no painting possible in this weather. We're hoping for a break next week.

The night before last we received 6 inches of rain overnight. The park behind our house is a flood plain, and when morning dawned we were living on lakefront property. It happens once every few years, and we've named the short lived lake Phantom Lake. We were lucky. Our house stayed dry, but several areas in town had to be evacuated.

Yesterday and today: before and after photos. The bridge across the drainage ditch was partially submerged when I got out of bed. The deposits of leaves on the tennis court fence show how high the water reached during the night.

FMQ

There hasn't been enough sewing time to finish the new version of the slice and dice quilt, but the FMQ is almost complete with only the border remaining. Free motion quilting can quickly become tedious, but I've found that listening a good audio book helps the hours pass much more quickly.

I've used three different designs for each block. I think I'll do the border in a feather stitch. I wish I had a photograph that shows the pale colors in this quilt better, but I may need to wait for sunshine. Cloudy days aren't helping.

Another Banana Muffin Recipe

If you like banana bread that really tastes like bananas, this recipe from Food.com is a good one. It's called "Best Banana Bread" for a good reason. The recipe makes one loaf of banana bread, but divided into a dozen muffins, it can be baked in 20 minutes instead of 60.

Yum!!!

I altered the recipe to make it a bit more diabetic friendly for my hubby. I added 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts and replaced the one cup of sugar with 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup Splenda.

This is the link to take you quickly to the original recipe.
http://www.food.com/recipe/best-banana-bread-2886

Wishing you a week filled with sunshine and happiness!