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Diving in on a Quick Aboriginal Scrap Project

A few months ago I was gifted a good size box of Australian Aboriginal fabric by a fellow blogger, Julie at https://quiltdivajulie.blogspot.com. She emailed me and told me she had decided to destash all of her Aboriginal fabrics and thought that I might gain some inspiration from them, knowing that I had been in a bit of a dry spell.

It was a lovely collection of yardage and some really enticing scraps … strips, squares, and other pieces.

Included in that packet were two small Ziploc bags of 4.5 inch squares of many, many different fabrics. I have been thinking about those squares and made a decision a few days ago.

I had purchased a few yards of Brandon Mably’s Amaze fabric in black and white a couple years ago intending to execute this same quilt idea using Kaffe Fassett Collective scraps. But it just seemed so perfect to use that fabric for these Aboriginal squares instead. And then I wouldn’t have to trim up all those squares!

So I played out a handful of the squares on top of the black and white fabric to see if it floated my boat…

And I liked it. So decided to go ahead an do it.

I was supposed to play pickleball this morning but it was canceled because of rain. So instead I hunkered down at home and started pressing and cutting the sashing pieces.

I cut the sashing pieces at 2.5 inches in width and sat down and strip pieced the 120 squares I think I’ll need for this quilt, plus a handful of extras to be safe.

My Bernina is in the shop for servicing so I cranked away on my sweet little Featherweight.

Once that was done and pressed I cut the sashing pieces for the second side of the blocks and had another chain piecing and pressing session. I got all 120 blocks plus extras sewn and pressed.

I threw a handful of these blocks together on my cutting table just to get a feel for it.

There is a lot more color variation across all the blocks. Somehow I got stuck in a purple/blue section!

I’m enjoying this so far. It felt good to sit down at my little Featherweight again. I still don’t have much creative drive happening so it’s nice to chunk away at something that’s not asking that of me. So if I can’t be creative, I can at least be a little bit productive.

A huge thank you to Julie for thinking of me and nudging me back to my sewing room!

I had a two-week vacation earlier this month. It was not an exciting vacation. I spent my time playing pickleball (I played every day!) and preparing for retirement. I have set a date in December that will be my final day of work so I spent a good part of my vacation dealing with Medicare, health insurance, Social Security, financial and legal matters. The good news is that I got a lot done and am well on my way toward being ready when my retirement date arrives.

I did spend a little time in my sewing room during my vacation. I finished slicing up the woven stripes blocks I made a few months ago and am much happier with how this is looking now.

I completed the slicing and sewing of all 40 blocks. Now I need to get them back up on the design wall and then sew them all together.

It’s been absolutely beautiful here the last few weeks. I joined some friends in St. Paul, Oregon, last weekend to watch a sheep herding trial at a winery. It was a great way to spend an afternoon. It had rained that morning but was gorgeous by the time we got there.

I’ve been thrilled with how my new raspberry bushes have done this summer. I’m getting raspberries for my breakfast nearly every morning.

Later this fall I will rip out all my strawberry plants in preparation for planting more raspberry bushes in the spring. The raspberries have put my strawberries to shame. (I might plant some of the strawberries in smaller pots, just to see how they do.)

A few months ago my friend Linda gifted the Arboretum quilt she made to my brother and his wife.

They had wanted a bright quilt to hang in the entry way of their house and this is the perfect choice!

I love how it looks in that space!

My boys are doing well although Bender has done some serious aging since his birthday in April. He is nearly deaf, can’t see very well and is very wobbly. But he still wants to chase a toy and go for our daily walks. He’s about 12.5 years old. His wobbliness is made worse by his epilepsy meds. Poor guy. At least he’s still happy and seems to be somewhat oblivious to his predicament.

He is doing well enough to have gone on a quick trail hike when my brother and SIL visited a month or so ago.

It was a little difficult to head back to work after my vacation, but I’m getting through it by knowing I have less than three months to go until my time is all mine! I will be sad to leave the work that I love, but I feel like it’s time to step away.

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Four Months and Still Stuck

I looked back at my blog and realized that my last post was April 20. that’s just a little over four months ago. I’m a little surprised it’s been that long. The time has flown by.

It’s been a good summer, but a little crazy as well.

Congress voted to eliminate federal funding for public media so my job as a fundraiser for public TV and radio has been a little nuts the last few months. We had a lot of planning and preparing to do in anticipation of the funding cuts. Once they happened we jumped into gear and executed a vast array of fundraising campaigns. The good news is that Oregon loves its public media! the community has really stepped up! The crazy amount of work has eased off a bit but we still have a lot to do. I sure never thought my last year of my career would look like this.

On top of that, It’s been announced that I will be retiring in December. It’s so hard to believe that it’s just a few short months away. And then I’ll have so much more time to do what I want to do. But it’s a hectic time making sure all my ducks are in a row before that time comes. I’m really looking forward to it!

Since my last post I’ve done a few things in my sewing room. Mostly tasks that have needed to be done, but not much creative work so far. Still waiting for those creative juices to start flowing again.

I added borders to two quilts to get them ready to be quilted. This Jewel Frames quilt is for my bed. It’s been sitting and waiting for quite some time.

I just did a simple wide border of the Jade millefiori fabric. I wanted this quilt a little bigger because the one I have on my bed now shrunk up more than I had anticipated once it was quilted and washed. I want this one to be plenty big.

The second quilt I added borders to is the yellow and brown Japanese X and + quilt that is for my guest room. It needed significant borders to make it the size I want for that double bed. So I added three borders. the inner border is of this lovely big leaf fabric.

I think I have enough of this left over to make pillow cases for the bed.

Here’s all three borders.

I wasn’t going to add the green spot border because I didn’t want to wrestle all that fabric for another round. but it really needed it.

Here’s the quilt top on the bed. It’s generous!

And a close up.

This fabric combo is not for everyone but I love it!

I still need to make the backings for these two quilts.

The next thing I made was a set of pillow cases for my friend who I gifted my blue swirly quilt to. She loved the blue feathers fabric so it seemed like a no brainer.

A set of pillow cases make a really nice gift.

Tonight I started chopping up my woven stripes quilt blocks (from my last post in April) because I wasn’t loving them. So I’m cutting a 2.5 inch strip off each side and will sew them back together.

I managed to slice up all 40 blocks this evening. At least I think there are 40 blocks. It will be pretty fast to sew them all.

I’m sure I’ll like it better with the blocks sliced up.

We’ve had a nice summer. It’s hot right now… over 100 today. But the summer has generally been really nice. I had ripe tomatoes earlier than I have since I’ve lived in Portland. I ate my first ripe tomato the first week of July!

I’m also really happy that the raspberry bushes I planted last spring are producing fruit right now! I wasn’t expecting much in their first year, but I’ve had several breakfasts with them already and they are soooo good!

They are putting my strawberries to shame. I will tear the strawberries out and plant more raspberries.

My brother and his wife were here a month or so ago and I gifted them a quilt and let them select which one they wanted. They surprised me and selected the one I call my black quilts. Here is it hanging from the loft in their house.

I love it there. I doubt it will stay there because it will get a good deal of sun. But it’s a great place for a quilt.

I’ve been playing a LOT of pickleball. Seriously, at least six times a week this summer. I’ve also been taking a weekly lesson and am feeling really good about how I’m playing. I even played this morning before it got too hot and had some really great games. I ran into a former co-worker there who I haven’t seen for years! We got to play a few games together and had a blast!

I have one more week of work and then two weeks of vacation. My friend will not be coming since I have so much to get done to be ready for my December retirement. It will be good to have some time off I really need it.

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Time Passes and Woven Stripes

It’s been quite some time since I posted here. Life has been about the same. Work has been really stressful. Spring has come to the Pacific Northwest and I’m glad to see it.

Over the last two months since I posted here I’ve actually put my hands to some fabric, have completed one project (and almost all of another) and even had a little vacation. I’ll get around to posting what I’ve been up to but I’m going to take it easy and not do it all at once.

I read a post from someone I follow on Instagram and they said their creative life is made stressful by the feeling that they have to be constantly posting content… on social media, on blogs, etc… I totally get that! I think that’s part of what has caused the burnout that I’m trying to make my way out of. It’s been a long haul. I have to be honest… I’m sort of forcing myself to make this post tonight. So I’m going topic myself and not feel obligated to post several times a week.

Anyway, several weeks ago I took a six hour class at a local quilting store that was all about servicing and maintaining Featherweight sewing machines. I had been waiting for months for the class to be scheduled again and when I saw it was on the calendar I signed up immediately.

The instructor found my machine and the one next to me particularly interesting of all those in the class. Nice to know my machine is special.

The Featherweight sewing machines were designed to be easy to service and maintain. But I had always been a little intimidated to dig in and work on my own.

Well, I loved the class! There were around 10 people in the class, all with their gorgeous little machines, and we took them apart, oiled and greased all the parts, learned about how the machine and all it’s parts work, and then put it all back together again.

They had us bring a pie plate to keep all of our spare parts contained. You can see the blue paper towels I used to clean out grease and dirt from inside my machine.

I bought a really cool little magnetic thread cutter at the class!

I’m so glad I took this class! Now I feel confident taking care of this sweet little machine and keeping it humming for many more years.

After being in that room with all those machines and hearing them hum, I got the urge to get mine set up and start a project. So I decided to dig out my Kaffe Fassett woven stripes and shot cottons that I started cutting into 2.5 inch strips back in November of 2022.

I had already cut all the shot cotton pieces I needed. So ironed the 20 woven stripes that had been waiting for me and got one 2.5 inch strip cut from each one.

OMG! Look at all that gorgeousness! These really are amazing fabrics and the colors are so incredible. I could stand there all day and just look at all of this!

Now that I had 40 strips cut from 40 different woven stripes I paired each strip with a shot cotton and sewed them into strip sets, then cut, sewed again, etc… I got 20 blocks made and up on my design wall.

The close up photos are much more representative of the fabrics.

That was all a couple weeks ago. Then tonight I dug in and started sewing the final 20 strip sets together.

I got all 20 sewn, then finger pressed and ironed each one using my metal ruler method. Here’s a video I made a couple years ago showing how I do this.

I love the way my strip sets come out perfectly straight!

These stripes and shots are quite delicate and it would be really easy to press some wonkiness into these sets if I wasn’t careful.

I cut each strip set in half then sewed those twenty sets together.

Then pressed and sliced again. All 20 sets are ready for one more seam before they are sliced the final time.

The final seam, press and slice will go pretty quickly. Then I’ll carefully pin every seam so they nest perfectly. It will probably take a couple nights to get these done. Then they will spend some time on the design wall. It will be fun to see all 40 blocks up on the wall.

We celebrated Bender’s 12th birthday on April 9.

This kid is really showing his age the last few months. All the sudden he seems like an old dog. I’m pretty sure he’s got some doggie dementia going on. He is developing some odd behaviors. He’s always been a quirky dog, but he’s being creative with new quirks.

I’ve been enjoying spring. We’ve had lovely sunny spells paired with rainy and cloudy spells. So everything is growing like crazy! My lilacs are currently in bloom and the yard smells glorious in the evenings.

My boys love the weather this time of year. They are content to spend the entire day outside as I work from home.

It’s also a great time of year for pickleball! I joined some friends yesterday morning for one of our first outdoor games in months.

We had such a great morning! And look at that sun!!!

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Thinking and Changing My Mind About Black Fabrics

I haven’t done much sewing this week. Work has been busy and our winter membership radio drive started Thursday. So the next week will be hectic. I’ve played pickleball five of the last seven days, which has been my winter so far. I’m really happy I have access to an indoor facility and am having fun getting to know a lot of people who play there.

So I’m feeling good and relatively content but no much sewing has taken place.

I have been playing with my selection of Australian Aboriginal fabrics over the last week. I’ve removed and added fabrics and am still not sure what colors I’ll use. I had thought I would use various “black” fabrics to play with the saturated colors.

The more I’ve looked at these fabrics the more I think I will go another direction. So much so that I checked online with my local quilt store earlier today and after pickleball I drove over there and bought three yards of this black and white fabric to use in place of the various fabrics.

I bought all they had. It’s more than I’ll need for this quilt but I love black and white fabric and I’m sure I’ll eventually use it. This is the fabric that I used on the back of the quilt I use on my sofa. I’m snuggled up under it right how.

I spread out all the colored fabrics to get a feeling for how it will work.

And as I look at that photo I’m pretty sure this is not the final group of fabrics I’ll use for this quilt. I’m not in a hurry to start this so I’ll give it some time to play around a little. I may even use fewer of the colored fabrics. I’ll decide later.

I actually did a tiny bit of sewing today. I pulled out my Australian Aboriginal trip quilt blocks. I’ve been wanting to finish that quilt. I was pretty sure I had 19 blocks done with all the pieces ready to assemble for more. I was right that I had 19 completed blocks. So I grabbed a set of the cut strips and put together one more block to make an even 20.

I had been thinking I would stop at 20 blocks and assemble them 4 wide by 5 high and add a broad border to make the quilt a good throw size. So I tossed the blocks up on the design wall and tried the border fabric to see how it looks.

I think I’ll make the borders 7 or 8 inches wide. that will make the quilt around 62 x 74 or so.

Here’s a closer look at the blocks and border. There is a lot of color in there that doesn’t show in the full picture.

I also have a couple yards of that red fabric in the block at the upper right in that photo, now that I think of it. I might also work as a border. It’s definitely a different feel.

I’m not sure I love it. Here’s a closer look.

I feel like that would need a smaller inner border of a different color, but that would be easy enough to do.

We have some cooler weather the last week but it hasn’t been too wet. We actually got some snow on Wednesday but it didn’t stick. It was nice to see some flakes fall. That was our only snow so far this winter. It’s not unusual for us to not get much in the way of snow. I’ll be happy if we get by without a major storm this winter. That storm that left me without power for four days last year was enough to last me a few winters.

I’m happy to take the colder weather if I get to see the sun and we’ve had a good deal of sun the last week. We’re supposed to have cold but sunny weather through Wednesday, then it gets a little wild with rain, snow, and maybe some wind as far out as the forecast goes.

I’m loving that I’m seeing more light in the evening. And in a month we’ll change our clocks. That’s my favorite day of the year!

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Brown, Not So Brown

I decided this weekend that the one thing I wanted to accomplish was this brown, not so brown, quilt that’s been on my design wall for a couple weeks. The blocks are big so it all went together pretty quickly and I had it completed Sunday afternoon .

It’s not really very brown. It’ has purple, deep reds, oranges, and greens in thee too. It’s a lot prettier than I thought it would be.

I’m glad it’s done and pressed and folded into a small package. I’m thinking I will likely donate this quilt. Will have to see how attached I feel to it.

I have a nice stack of scraps left over from this quilt. Not sure why I’ll do with all of this. Maybe a bag or two. Probably not another quilt.

The fabric I’ve been waiting for to make the borders on my B2Q purple and green quilt arrived a few days ago. I haven’t yet dug in to get that done. That will be my next project.

I wasn’t quite in the right frame of mind to dig in and wrangle al that fabric for borders tonight so I decided to look at some of my batiks to see what I could make out o them. I have a good number. Thinking I might do more quick quilts with large blocks to slam a few quilt tops out. Will give it a little thought.

I also did a little organizing on my Australian Aboriginal fabrics in anticipation of making a new quilt form them. I managed to get them all into bins under my cutting table.

I’m thinking I’ll make another one of the economy block, or square in a square/ quilt tops and I want to make one from my beautiful Aboriginal prints. So I dug out a selection that I like. I’ll ruminate over this over he next few days. I

They are rich and saturated colors. I think I will likely ad some black in with these in the mix to make them really sing.

I arranged them a little differently go get an idea of how they’ll work together.

I’ll think on this selection for a few days until I feel that it’s all right.

After three weeks without any precipitation the rains have returned. We have a chance of snow a few times over the next week. It doesn’t sound like it’s going to be too serious.

Our radio fundraising drive starts this Thursday so I have a couple of hectic weeks coming up. My friend Linda is planning another visit. Looks like she will be for 10 days around the first of March. I’m looking forward to her visit.

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BQ2 Blocks Sewn and a Special Gift

I played pickleball early this morning and got my dogs out for a walk this afternoon while the sun was out. It was beautiful, but chilly. It finally feels like winter has arrived. But no snow yet. I’m fine with that since it was a year ago now that I went four days without power in frigid temps. I’m happy to have relatively nice weather a year later.

I had the evening free so decided to dig in and sew my BQ2 blocks together. There are only 20 blocks so It didn’t take long. I think I had it done in about 90 minutes.

I’m still going to add borders to this but my calculations tonight presented some bad news…

I need 7 width of fabric strips 4 inches wide which translates to 28 inches of fabric. I only have 25 inches of the sunflower fabric. So I went ahead and ordered another yard. I’ll be happy to have some left in my stash since I love this fabric so much.

While I was at it I bought a few other pieces because my sewing room is not quite filled to the top with fabric.

There is something very satisfying about pressing a quilt top when it’s all sewn together.

It’s a great opportunity to relish the colors in these gorgeous fabrics.

So now onto the special gesture…

A few days ago I received a package from Wendy at www.sewcolorful.com. She wanted to send me a package to help spur my creative juices.

She sent me a fat quarter bundle of some of the new William Morris fabrics that were colorized by Kaffe Fassett. It’s really fun to see the fabrics because it’s unlikely I will see them in person in any of my local fabric stores. Of course the colors are amazing!

She also sent some chocolate truffles, which did NOT last very long, and a packet of wonder clips with some adorable doggie paper clips.

Huge thank you to Wendy for this kind and caring gesture. I’m already well into planning what I’ll do with these fabrics. . .

I’ve been wanting to make a quilt called Kavala for several years. I first saw it on Instagram posted by Mrsmagillaquilts in Australia. The account owner, Tanya, has a really cool style to the quilts and other stuff she makes. You should definitely take a look at her Instagram page.

Anyway, she made the Kavala quilt several years ago and I fell in love with it. Here’s her version.

The pattern is from an old magazine and has been unavailable for years. I was incredibly lucky to get a copy of the pattern. But even without the pattern it would be pretty easy to figure out.

When I looked at the Kaffe/William Morris fabrics from Sew Colorful, I thought it would be fun to use them for this quilt. So I dug into my KFC stash and started pulling some smaller scale fabrics to pair with the fat quarters.

I selected one KFC fabric for each of the fat quarters. I went with small scale prints so the new fabrics will be the star.

I like all the combos but am having a bit of a challenge with the one in the lower right. I ordered a couple fabrics that might work better with that print. There is the tiniest turquoise vein running through the blue leaves. That’s the color I’d like to use with this print. But I’m going to try a few options to see what works best.

I’m pretty happy with all the other combos. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to make two blocks out of each combo but I have no idea if the fat quarter will be enough since the blocks are so big. The blocks are 15 inches so it won’t take very many. I’m going to wait a few days before I dig in on this new project.

I think I’ll finish up the brown batik quilt top while I’m ruminating on my version of the Kavala quilt. It will go together quickly.

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Twenty Big Blocks and Some Brown

I was waiting for more of the lovely green guinea flower fabric to arrive so I could finish making the final strip sets for my green and purple B2Q quilt and it arrived a couple days ago. So I dig in after work tonight and started cutting and sewing.

I needed three of these strip sets to finish the remaining 12 blocks. I had them done in no time and cut into sections.

You may wonder why I have that metal ruler on my ironing board. I use it to make sure that my strip sets are straight before I press them. I made a video a couple years ago on how I use it. This trick has revolutionized making strip sets for me.

I used to make terribly wonky strip sets which made my blocks a bit of a mess. This method helps me make strip sets that are straight and true.

After getting the three strip sets sewn and pressed I cut them into sections.

And in no time I had the remaining 12 blocks sewn, pressed and up on my design wall.

I might move a few blocks around but this won’t take much time on the design wall before I’m able to sew it together.

This has been a ridiculously quick project. And I’m glad because I’m not a huge fan of making the exact same block over and over.

Once I sew the blocks together I will add a couple borders to make it a better size for a throw quilt.

While I was waiting for my fabric to arrive I decided to dig through my batiks and pulled out a bin of brown batiks. I don’t know what possessed me to purchase these brown batiks in my quilting past. Brown is just not my thing. I decided to use these brown batiks to whip up a quick quilt top that I will donate.

I selected a pile of the browns and pressed them all. then I cut them into eight inch squares.

I actually like all these browns together. It might not be quite right to call them brown, but they are all in the brown family.

I’ll make them into the same pattern as this quilt top that I made last spring.

I’ll combine the browns with this yellowish batik that a friend of mine brought me back from her vacation a number of years ago.

Here’s a look at how these fabrics will look together.

The pattern is called All Inked Up. You can find a video tutorial on making it here. I’m making mine with 8 inch squares rather than 10 inch squares.

It’s likely that I will dig deeper into my stash of batiks and make more of these quick quilts to donate. I might find some inspiration as I see all these fabrics that inspired me to purchase them.

I recently saw a quilt that someone else made off of my Brandon Leftover Quilt and they added two borders. I really like the look of it so I pulled some fabric out of my stash to see how it would work.

I like it and have enough fabric to finish it. But I’m thinking it will make the quilt a bit of an awkward size. Right now it measures 64 x 80. If I add the borders it will be too big for a throw and not big enough for a double bed. I’ll think about this for a few days before I decide but I’m thinking it will be done with no borders.

We’ve got some lovely yet cool weather coming up over the next ten days. We’ll actually have a good number of days with sun, which in our winters means that it will be cooler. We’re actually going to get down below freezing for a few nights.

I’ve seen some spectacular sunsets on the way to my early morning pickleball sessions the last week.

I’m a night owl. I don’t see many sunsets. It’s sort of a treat.

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Onto My Next Project With Some Gusto

I wanted to take advantage of the spark I’m sensing so decided to dive in last night and start cutting the fabric for my next quilt top. It’s one I’ve been thinking about making for some time. I purchased the fabric for it several months ago and it’s been sitting on my cutting table.

I cut the main fabric first. I’ve seen a good number of quilts on this pattern that have employed a lot of fussy cutting for these main blocks. I’m not a fan of fussy cutting. I don’t like doing it. I don’t like all the waste. And, most of all, I don’t love the look. Too much fussy cutting can feel a bit tortured and forced to me. I much prefer a more organic feel to the cutting of the fabric. So I just cut these square where they fell.

And I love the way they look. There are plenty of full blooms in the blocks, but it feels organic and more natural to me. And I saved hours of time and lots of odd scraps.

Here’s the pattern I’m making.

I’ve seen a good number of these made from Philip Jacobs large floral prints and other Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics. Those large focal blocks are really perfect for Philip’s designs.

I decided to start cutting the rest of the fabrics for these blocks and got everything cut that I could and started making the units that make up the blocks.

So after playing pickleball with some friends from 8-10 this morning, I dug in and started sewing, pressing and cutting. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough of the green fabric so will have to wait to cut the rest. I have some on order that should be here in the next few days.

I made all the units that I could. I need to make more of the units on the bottom of this photo. Twelve more are needed.

I had enough units to make up 8 blocks. The blocks are big… 13.5 inches. So this will go quickly. I got 8 blocks made this afternoon and up on my design wall.

I’m planning on making this 4 x 5 blocks. Even with these large blocks it will be a small quilt top, so I will likely add a double border when I’m done. Here’s what I’m thinking. A thinner border of the purple fabric the same width as the strips in the blocks. Plus a 4 inch border of the focal print.

The addition of the borders will make this a better size in my mind. My friend made one and it’s in my spare bedroom right now since we took it to my long arm quilter when she was here in the fall and I just picked it up recently. It’s 20 blocks and a little small for my taste. It barely covers the top of the double bed in my guest room.

Here’s a bit of a close up of my new project.

We had another really rainy day today. My poor dogs are not happy with all the inactivity this wet weather brings. I hid some dog treats around the living room this evening and let them sniff them out. Then tossed treats around the room as they had to hunt for them. That gave them a bit of mental stimulation that goes am long way when they don’t get any physical activity.

But they are bored.

Luckily, we will have a little bit of “dry” weather tomorrow. This time of year here that means it’s “not currently raining.” It’s still damned wet out there! The park near me has standing water all over the place and the paths are like rivers.

We will likely get some time outside tomorrow. Then a friend of mine is bringing me some home made minestrone soup for dinner! That sounds so good!

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Actually Putting My Hands on Fabric

I’m enjoying a luxurious five-day weekend. Jan 1 is a holiday, and I’ve taken off Thursday and Friday. I have plans to play pickleball every one of those five days.

I played this morning from 8-10. It was a really fun session. Especially the final game. I got to play with one of my favorite pickleball friends. He’s a retired philosophy professor. He’s smart. He’s irreverent. And he’s a heck of a lot of fun to play pickleball with. I haven’t gotten to play with him for a couple of months and we really made up for it by trying some new stuff. We arranged ourselves on the court so I was in the most aggressive position. It requires a lot of movement and switching sides mid play. We totally confused our opponents and it was a fun and exciting win!

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things. I got soaked just getting from the car to the store. We had a steady rain all day. So that meant that one of my days off was spent shut in the house. So I decided that I would be productive and not just sit on my but all day watching TV.

So I hit my sewing room and decided to finish up the economy block quilt that has been clinging to my design wall for months. I think I might be feeling some interest in starting a new project, so I wanted to finish this first. I sewed the remaining three rows then sewed all the rows together. Then I pulled and picked all paper piecing template paper from the back of the blocks. I really hate that part.

I do love the precision the paper piecing gives me, but I really don’t enjoy pulling all that paper off. The good thing is that these pieces are pretty big, so no really fiddly corners to deal with.

Once all the paper was picked off and the blocks were pressed, I dug in and got the double border put on.

This quilt really needed that border! The blocks are a bit muddy. The border sort of contains it, defines the top, and frames it all nicely. It was blah without the borders. And I love that border fabric! It’s a Philip Jacobs design.

Here’s a couple different views of the quilt top.

And a bit of the close up to see the border fabrics really well.

As a reminder, here’s the tutorial I riffed off of to make this quilt.

One of the pieces of fabric I bought online a couple weeks ago is a backing for this quilt. I’ve loved this fabric since it was reissued last year. It’s in the quilt top so it will work nicely for this quilt.

I have an idea for which quilt I’ll make next. It only uses three fabrics and I’ll have to make the same block over and over again. Luckily, the blocks are big so it won’t take too many for a quilt top. It would be a simple way to jump back in.

I had left over tamales for dinner. My boss brings me a lovely bunch of tamales every New Years Eve. She’s done it for years. So I get to enjoy leftovers for a few days.

I decided to make ANOTHER cranberry cake. I made one from my leftover thanksgiving cranberries, then I made another for Christmas Eve dinner, and had enough cranberries left over to make yet another one. So after dinner I whipped another one up and had a little piece as my evening snack.

It’s a really good cake and a great way to use up leftover berries. Here’s the recipe I used. I don’t follow all the fussy instructions. I just whip up the wet ingredients and then add them to the dry ingredients and the cake turns out fantastic!

I just might have cake for breakfast tomorrow.

Last week at Rico’s sheep herding our teacher just happened to see this guy in the mud.

He’s a salamander. The photo is a bit deceptive. He was around five inches long! You can see that he’s regenerating some toes on each of his front feet. He was also regenerating his tail. Looks like he got into a tussle!

We’ve had a really wet fall and winter. Luckily it’s been quite warm, with temps up in the low 50s most days. We did manage some blue sky a couple days ago.

I’m playing pickleball tomorrow afternoon. I’m hoping the weather will give us a break and I can get my boys out for a walk before then.

I just might start a new quilt tomorrow. It feels a little odd to have the desire to start a new project. I guess it’s been a good thing to take a few months off.

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Merry Christmas 2024!

Merry Christmas. I’m alive and well. Wanted to drop in a let you know I’m still moving about the earth.

It’s a gray and rainy day here in Portland. Pretty typical for Christmas Day. I’m hoping to get my boys out for a nice walk some time today but it looks unlikely. I’ll join friends for dinner this afternoon.

I’ve had a bit of a hard time getting into the holiday spirit this year. I haven’t even sent out my Christmas cards yet! I might do that today. I’ve had the cards for at least a month. this is the first year I haven’t had my cards out right after thanksgiving.

I managed to get some lights up in my living room and put together a nice dinner for friends last night. I do like having the lights in the house. It’s dark so early here that the lights help keep it feeling bright. I usually leave the tree up until the time changes in the spring.

Still not much creative juice flowing. I literally haven’t sewn for a couple months. I’m really hoping I get some inspiration to create after the first of the year. It might be a good sign that I purchased some fabric online a couple weeks ago. I’ve also been thinking about what to make next.

One piece I bought was this one for the backing for my friend’s Interweave quilt.

I didn’t actually mail it to her since her quilt top is in the drawer in my guest room. So she got the photo for her gift.

I did finally get my Blue Swirly quilt top quilted by my long armer and got it back a month or so ago.

I used the beautiful blue Philip Jacobs Feathers fabric for the backing. It’s also in the quilt top.

I had her use a simple stipple design because this quilt is busy and I like more dense quilting.

It took me awhile to decide on the binding, but I ended on this Brandon Mably fabric and I love it.

This quilt will be gifted later today.

Here’s what I’m celebrating this holiday season. My birthday was a month ago and I’m officially on the 12 month count down to retirement. Only about 11 months to go!!! I’m confident these final months will fly by!

Thank you to everyone who has checked in on me to make sure I’m ok. Rest assured I’m fine. Here’s hoping we all have an abundance of creativity in the new year!

Happy New Year!