More Goodies!

A quilting friend told me about a quilter she knew who was going to radically downsize her quilting supplies. Sam and I got up this morning and headed that way. It was mind boggling! I need to go back again. I bought the buttons for crazy quilting. $2.50 for all of these. A few close up... Then, of course, a bit of fabric. Those two pieces in the top left...I am so surprised at myself for purchasing those. Each piece is 3-4 yards. I picked it up...put it down. And as you can see, finally came home with it. There's also some Orientals, a few Christmas pieces, a couple of batiks, the handkerchief piece and a couple of panels. Here's the McKenna Ryan patterns I won on I Have a Notion blog. See the autograph at the top left?! ;o) And, I won ANOTHER giveaway! I am amazed. I need to run out and purchase a lottery ticket! LOL Karen at Quilts, Etc. hosted a giveaway. I won! Be back later. The lottery ticket is calling my name...

Not Even ONE Stitch!

I haven't quilted a single stitch yet! I subbed at high school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Watched American Idol, then the Olympics while I did a bit of knitting on that knit along that I've flunked out on. I finally got all the stitches for the front and back cast on the circular needle but am still working on the lower ribbing. I told y'all. I'm slow!

I didn't work today, but Sam did...and yesterday too...helping his brother Elton with texturing and priming in the apartment Elton and Carol are working on. (They've lived in an Avion travel trailer since August 2008. The apartment is the next step on their journey to building a farm house.)

So. After Sam left, I walked into my sewing room to start quilting. Looked at my big desk chair and thought...SHOPPING! I went to Longview and bought a smaller "task" chair. I'm not sure I'm going to put the arms on it...I might and if they get in my way, I can always take them off.

Here's my desk chair in it's usual location. LOL I can reach around behind me and touch the other chair. At least I have a second chair for when Sam comes in and visits me. And I'm sure you noticed the clutter...things are just about back to normal.

I made a stop at Hancock Fabrics. All sewing notions, buttons, etc. were 50% off. Couldn't resist these. I need to get back to my crazy quilt blocks and finish them.

After Olive Garden...;o)...I made a stop at Sears and purchased a new canister vacuum. Got so tired of pushing that upright. I didn't realize how much work it was until I ran the canister this evening. I might vacuum more than once every other month now. AND sooo much more QUIET! I get lazy and instead of running the dustmop over the tile, I vacuum it. The old Hoover was LOUD!

Back at school tomorrow...ta-ta!

Resting Tonight

Because tomorrow I get to start putting my sewing room back together! Which includes hooking up my printer, router, all that good stuff. I'll take a photo of the floor then and download it to my computer so that I can show y'all. Sam did some work on my sewing table too. It's a corner computer desk. He cut off the left L and moved it to the right. Well...I'll show it to you some time this weekend.

In the meantime, I made these before I tore the room apart. I was confused about something, but still... Pat handed me three tablecloths back in November. Two to cut around the stains for napkins for the catering we do as library friends. I thought she said that the white cloth I cut up was her grandmother's. So, I made the pillows. I e-mailed her Monday to tell her that I needed to talk to her and to come to the library. She called and asked, "What have I done?" LOL She brought her daughter for backup. Which turned out good for Mary, because Pat handed one of the little pillows to her. Even though the white fabric in the center of the CQ block and the back of the pillow (with some stains) was NOT her grandmother's tablecloth, she does have something in honor of her grandmother.

CQ Anyone?

Crazy Quilt - that is. I started several blocks sometime last summer I think. A few wonderfully talented women over on the HGTV quilting forum started sharing their knowledge. I haven't done anything in a while. BUT...while shopping with Carol today (Sam and Elton were once again out of town - hope they don't "learn better" and stop going off together) I ran across a couple of Leisure Art books at Hancock's Fabrics. And they were half price. How could I pass up a deal like that?

Then. We went to the mall and I found several things at Dillards that I had to have. All were on sale and I think I did very well indeed.

Of course, before all that, we ate Chicken and Gnocchi at Olive Garden. Yummy!

Evening Clutch Completed!

I am so excited! I completed the crazy quilt evening bag I intend to use on our cruise. Can you feel the excitement from my fingertips? This is what I started with: And this is the finished project! Front closed: Back: Opened: Inside with pockets and label:
Betcha no one else will have one like it!

Gone Again

Sigh. Sam has gone back today (Sunday) to complete the bulldozing job for his son. He plans on returning home on Wednesday. I will be able to stay busy - subbing at the public library tomorrow. Tuesday my mother has a doctor's appointment out of town, so that will keep me busy then.

I should get a bit of quilting done too. I am working harder on the crazy quilt block that I intend to turn into a clutch for an Alaskan cruise we are taking in August. (Sam's son gave us the cruise this past Christmas.) I need to purchase more green floss and put some leaves on the pink spiderweb roses in the lower left corner. Then that leaves the large blue area. When the clutch is folded, the fold will run through that piece. A friend suggested hearts...I forgot to point out the new addition. I added ribbon around the bullion roses at the top - that will be the flap. I beaded a larkspur which doesn't show up very well at all. It is to the left overlapping a blue and purple section. In the center, I added a lace fan surrounded with seed beads. Then I did some whatever it is called - but looks like netting and added beads.

I embroidered hollyhocks just under the spider web on the quilt block. Oh, I also did some embroidery and beadwork on a couple of seams.
On the food forum on the HGTV site, there's been a discussion about cast iron skillets/griddles/Dutch ovens, etc. I have a divided cast iron cornbread skillet that comes in handy for scones. The first time I shared with my mother, her comment was that her mother used to make scones. I make certain to share with her everytime I make them.

Here are my two favorite scone recipes:
This one is a crunchy heavy scone:
Oat Raisin Scones
2 cups flour
1 cup uncooked old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup butter, chilled
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Oven 425 degrees. Stir together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cream of tartar. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In another bowl, stir together the ceam, eggs, and vanilla. Add the ceamed mixture to the flour mixutre and stir to combine. Stir in the raisins and walnuts.With floured hands, pat the dough into an 8-inch diameter circle in the center of an ungreased cookie sheet. With a serrated knife or pastry knife, cut into 8 equal wedges (like cutting a pie). OR Before stirring everything together, spray your divided cast iron skillet with cooking spray and put in the oven to preheat while the oven is heating. Pat the dough on your work surface. Cut into 8 wedges. Put a wedge in each section of the skillet.Bake for 15 - 17 minutes, or until the top is lightly brown.
We love these buttered (yeah, I know it already has a stick of butter in it!) and with orange marmalade or pear preserves.

This is a lighter scone. My mother said that these (which are cake-like) are more like what her mother made.

Buttermilk Scones
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, chilled
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cups raisins
Oven 400 degrees. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In another bowl, stir together the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Stir in raisins. Either pat out on a cookie sheet and cut into wedges or use your divided cast iron skillet like the above recipe. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes.
These are also good buttered with orange marmalade or pear preserves. I have recipes for marmalade and pear preserves that I'll post another day.
(I don't know why this started double spacing with 'enter.')

Silk Ribbon

I have had time to work on my CQ blocks with silk ribbon. I have used all my green ribbon (I purchased precious little of it in the beginning) but have yellow and red left. I love the red and yellow roses.



The rosebud trellis is on the block destined to become an evening clutch. I added two more bullion roses so that the single one would not be so alone.




I also did some machine embroidery on some other blocks and totally messed one of them up. A thread or something evidently hung up on the back and threw the design off. Leaves that were supposed to be stitching in the center are off to the left. Hmmm. Thank goodness I had not put too much work into that specific block!

Slip sliding away

That is exactly what is happening to my time! Slip sliding away! Where has it gone? With UIL competitions at the high school, I have been working nearly every day as a substitute. With so few willing to sub, I very rarely turn the secretary down when she calls me. But it is definitely cutting into my ME time!



I did get some more work done on my crazy quilt blocks. I made spider webs using metallic thread complete with beaded spiders! This first one is one of the two original blocks I've been working on.






This is going to be the evening clutch. I've had fun with it! I love the dark colors and hope it will be "elegant."

I just realized that I never posted my blocks after the beading! Here are the beaded blocks before the spiders and webs. I added a bit of lace and buttons topped with large beads. I also added beads to the green a orange near the center.

Using metallic thread, I did a chain stitch on the fan. That stuff is hard to work with! I found out that if I used a shorter piece of metallic embroidery thread it would not fray as bad. Then I added beads within the curves.

Crazy Quilt Stitches

I'd rather be doing this on my sewing machine! However, the Crazy Quilt Challenge includes hand stitching. Lesson 3 entailed combining stitches. So, here are my attempts:

CQ Supply Storage

It's been a long two weeks. I've subbed at the high school nearly every school day. I haven't done any sewing, quilting, or crazy quilting to amount to anything. I did buy this yesterday at Fred's (a dollar store). It took all evening to assemble it. Oh, sitting on top is some recycled Australian wool. I purchased the sweater at a thrift store for $3. This is my first try and it worked pretty good. I want to go back for more!

Starting the Stitching

I asked if points were going to be counted off for using the fancy stitches on my sewing machine. ;0) On the two "class" blocks, I will try very hard to use a few more hand stitches than machine stitches, and perhaps the evening bag will be all hand stitched. I make no such promises on the other seven blocks! When a person has invested good hard-earned money in an expensive computerized sewing machine, it just makes good sense to utilize the machine.

These first blocks are the "class" blocks. See the nice hand stitches?! NO? I can't either! On the first block, squint at the pink and you'll see a long and short blanket stitch. Then check out apricot and green blades on the fan.

I did a close up of the second block so you can see the stitches better.

The first embroidery work I did was as a teenager. Mama taught me a few stitches so I could make dresser scarves and pillowcases. It's just not my "thing." I did counted cross stitch back in the early 1980s. I did several pieces for my son's nursery. After that...that's all I wanted.

When I have a threaded needle in my hand, I want to spend time at my quilt frame.

Just a few of the machine embroidery stitches...

I sewed the corner of a cutwork napkin on this block. I also decided to "audition" my mother-in-law's cameo brooch.

Crazy Quilt Base Blocks

For the Crazy Quilt Challenge, we needed two blocks. Then, the - ahem - "powers that be" decided to throw in an extra challenge piece - I call it "extra credit" because I'm going to need it when part of my fancy stitching is done on my high priced sewing machine and not by hand.


The first block is just your standard CQ block beginning with a whompy cut hexagon in the center and building upon it log cabin style. I pulled fabrics from the pile as they came and just tried not to put two identical pieces side-by-side. The lace is over a piece of blue tissue lame'. Don't you love the sequins?!






For the second block, the teachers suggested a fan. Mine didn't come out exactly like the directions (because - ahem - I read them... thought I remembered what they said... then did not refer to them again.) BUT it still looks like a fan. I clipped the stitching along the edge and turned the lace back the way it should go. ;o) As you can see in both blocks, I did add a bit of lace and trim as I sewed the blocks. All of this was done before I got the goodies from the shopping trip. I made another seven blocks and intend to make a CQ throw 3 blocks x 3 blocks. We'll see.



My extra credit piece is going to be an evening bag. My husband and I are planning an Alaskan cruise for later this year. It will be our first, but we have decided to "do it up properly" with the two formal nights. I thought a CQ evening bag would be a neat idea. For this, I decided to use all dark fabrics and left the pastels out. Hopefully the red hexagon will be in the center of the back of the bag. Both my sister-in-law, Carol, and my husband, Sam, don't want me to embellish this. But it will happen. What is CQ without embellishment? I feel that I need to get a few pieces of dark lace for this...black, red, navy, etc.



More to come later! Ta-ta! (That's fancy talk for "Bye Ya'll!")

Going Crazy

For Crazy Quilts that is! I joined the HGTV Quilting & Needlework forum's Crazy Quilt Challenge. We are learning how to make...NO, Fair! You peaked! Crazy quilts!

I did not have a single silky, slinky, velvety, slimy piece of fabric anywhere. As I was lamenting to my mother about it and supposing I'd just use quilter's cotton, she said, "Wait a minute." I followed her and watched as she dug into the recesses of the closet in her guest room. She emerged with her hair a bit wilder than before she ducked under the hanging clothes with two "Piggly Wiggly" paper grocery bags of silky, slinky, slimy fabrics! I was amazed. A friend gave them to her years ago. I don't know what Mama was going to do with them, but as I sorted through, I found where the bodice of a Barbie doll dress had been cut out of one piece. Ah-ha! I remember! I rifled through the same sacks years ago to make Barbie doll dresses for nieces who are now 25 years old and older. One piece is evidently from a dance costumer. It is hot pink solidly covered with sequins. I hit the mother-lode! Literally!


I brought the grocery bags home and dumped the fabrics in my sewing room floor. After sorting, I discovered that about half of the stash were lining fabrics. I folded them and put them back into one of the bags and filed it away in the corner of my room - under my quilt frame. When I pressed the "keepers," I found satins, tissue lame', lace, netting, and even a piece of suede cloth.




I rummaged through my stash closet for my sack of lace. Even though I had a mean ole son I had several nieces. I made soft-sculpture dolls which needed doll clothes when they were little. I don't know where the silver, red, and gold rickrack (left in the photo) came from, but probably something Mama picked up when she was buying and selling antiques. She gave me several sewing related items that she came across in boxes.




Then, went digging around for linens, doilies, hankies, etc. I found some soiled or extremely worn dresser scarves Mama made years ago along with some small crocheted doilies. I even found a long length of crocheted trim that is not in very good shape. The ecru colored trim in the lower right hand corner is tatting that Mama found in a box during her antiquing days. I think I'll divide it and leave part of it as is but try to oxy-clean the other half.


Before it was all said and done, one of the wonderful ladies on the HGTV forum announced that she and another lady would be going on a buying trip for fabrics and laces and we could sign up to share in the booty. After the trip, she cut the fabrics into blocks and the laces into sections or motifs. Once she received each participant's check, she dropped the loot in the mail along with a bonus Victorian print on fabric. It was like Christmas all over again!

I'll have to play with all of these after I "get good" at CQing!