MORE JANE & A Little Sizzix. . .

Yesterday I took the plunge and played with my new Sizzix machine! WOWZER... does it cut fabric great!! Love it. I took it to my sewing circle group and we cut scads of circles for one of the gals who is making a bazillion grapes for an applique quilt. We cut ALL her grapes in just a few minutes! But, we got so carried away playing with the Sizzix that we forgot to take any pictures until the meeting was over! lol. Next time.

DJ Triangle: LS-3

Another DJ tri was finished yesterday. The left side is almost ready to put together. Exciting stuff. Just for fun, I took the little tri's picture in a different place [see above]. Because the bottom melon is muslin and lays over a dark red, I cut a slightly smaller melon and used it for a lining so the red wouldn't shadow through. Of course, I could have simply cut the red away from the back, but decided to line it instead.

That's all for this morning. Sew. . . until next time. . . what are YOU playing with today?

Quilty Hugs,

HAPPY MAIL! Embroidery!

The postie brought some lovely Happy Mail: a wonderful embroidery from Frummie. I think her Charlie helped... or maybe it was the other way around! lol. Thank you so much Frummie. Your lovely embroidery will become part of a special label for my Civil War Quilt. The picture below does not do justice to this gorgeous stitchery... all the stitching is PERFECT and so delicate!

Embroidery by Frummie

Until next time. . . I am off to my sewing circle meeting to sit-n-chat-n-sew. What are YOU up to today?

Linking to: Freemotion by the River.

Quilty Hugs,

DJ TRIANGLE & BIG SCORE at Michael's!

Saturday night I scored big-time at Michael's! Bought a Shelving Cube unit and some Sizzix dies. The big score? They were all 50 percent off, PLUS I had another coupon that gave an additional 20% discount off my TOTAL purchase! WOWZER! How great is that?! I'm happy.

Shelf Cube by Recollections, from Michael's

Today me and a phillips screwdriver put the little shelving cubby  together. Everything fit together really well and all the screw holes lined up! Excellent. *big grin*.

 
The new cubby now sits to the left of my laptop, on the desk and under the printer. Eventually all my printer related stuff will be in it instead of stacked in a bookcase somewhere across the room.

I'm thinking of making a "tray" for one of the shelves so storing odd bits of paper won't look so messy. Still thinking about it.

Only managed to sew up one DJ block this week: triangle RS-4. This was a fun one to make. It was super easy to PP in just two sections.
I chose a fabric that reads like a stripe and had fun turning it every-which-way-but-loose. I like how it turned out. It was fun to play for a change, and not be so serious.

RS-4 [back]

RS-4

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Until next time. . . I'm not doing anything else tonight but holding and pampering my kitty. Right now Missy is in my lap just purring up a storm.

What are YOU up to?

Quilty Hugs,

OH DEAR! IT'S ALL GONE!!!

Swedish No-Crust Applie Pie - recipe info below

It's hard to belive this is the very last piece of the yummy Swedish Crustless Apple Pie. So quick and easy to make from fresh green apples and so tasty! I used the recipe link from Jo's Country Junction. Thank you, Jo! Next time - and there will be a next time! - I think I'll add some cranberries just for fun.

Oh, btw, I made a few changes to Jo's recipe: cut the butter from 10 tablespoons down to 8; used less sugar [my sugar was a mix of sugar + Splenda], walnuts instead of pecans.

I hope everyone in the USA had a lovely Thanksgiving Day yesterday. My day was filled with gratitude for Family, Friends, Health, and oh yes... some great food.  A special Thank You and blessings to all of YOU - my blogging friends and community - as we are all in this life together.

Until next time. . . I'm going to prep some DJ blocks and assemble more Snow-Person parts tonight - what are YOU up to?

Quilty Hugs,

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

This is a great time of year and I have a lot to be grateful and thankful for.  I am hoping that things are good where you are also.

Because my 'turkey' picture has gone MIA, please enjoy this little ditty:

 

Missy - who is not happy to pose for pictures during naptime!

With the warmth that friendship brings, and from my home to yours, I wish you a very

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Quilty Hugs,

Florida SNOW In California

Now is this a feisty little SnowPerson or what?! He is so cute! This block is from Frummie. And now there are two: Melty [by PatH] and Feisty [by Frummie].  He is all beautifully embroidered and appliqued. Love him. Thank you, Frummie!

Snow Person Block by: Frummie S.

Until next time. . . I am working on SnowPeople parts - wow, that sounds gory! ... what are YOU working on?

Quilty Hugs,

CORNER TIME... DJ TLC & A Great Notion

Yesterday and today was very productive. I worked on the Top Left Corner kite for my Dear Jane quilt. Here she is all completed:

DJ Kite: TLC Sadie Rose - completed Fri, 11/16/2012

There are several ways to complete this block, but I decided to mostly just piece it. I made FP templates by printing the block from the DJ software onto a sheet of FP; cut apart. Press the FP templates onto b/g fabric. Cut 10 squares of focus fabric for the octogons. Lay octogons out into their grid shape 3x3 and piece the edges that touch.

Applique-piecing using LadderStitch - not EPP. No whip stitches!

Press under the remaining edges of octogons and lay on center b/g square.

Piecing the center area of DJ-TLC

 Sew b/g pieces together [catching all the outside edges of the octogons in this seam allowance]. I left the FP on while machine stitching... worked great.

Stitching next to edge of FP template - adding the 'side-wings' to TLC

Applique the pressed-under edges of the octogons to the b/g; and, applique the top octogon onto the topmost point piece. Done. I really enjoyed making this block. It is not hard to do, but is a bit time consuming.

Back of TLC showing construction - FP templates left on to stabilize edges during sewing.

A great notion: My wonderful friend Jill encouraged me to try the "Prep-Tool."  What a fabulous tool it is! Now that I've tried it, I love it! If it hadn't been for Jill, I never would have. Aren't friends great? Thank you, Jill!

PrepTool - perfect scant 1/4" s.a. & corner "nipper"

Notice: Spammers have been working overtime lately. Bummer. It is no longer possible to leave an annonymous comment on this blog. I am so sorry - hopefully this will only be temporary. All "registered and OpenID" commenters will publish. It is so easy to get a FREE Google ID... I hope people will, as comment-love is wonderful to receive. It's one of the ways we interact and share with each other.  The only other choice is to put the "word thingy" back on... I don't want to do that, as I find it difficult and I hear many of you do too. Thank you for understanding.

Until next time. . . I will be spending the day playing with SnowPeople parts. What are YOU going to do?

Quilty Hugs,

How it turned out. . .

Remember the afghan/bedspread fiasco that I shared? The original post is here. Well, after it dried I layed it on the bed. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. It is no longer a king-size. It shrank to a Queen, but it is useable. Relief.

Hand crocheted bedspread with embroidered florals

Above is just a quick picture. The bed doesn't have the matching bedskirt or proper shams sitting on it, because it takes two people to lift the mattress and put the bedskirt on. It's fine the way it is for now.

Until next time. . . I am making some DJ blocks and triangles. What are YOU working on?

Quilty Hugs,

NO, I didn't fall off the edge of the planet!

Sew, I've been MIA for almost a whole week! Sorry. But, nope, sure didn't fall off the edge of our Planet, just pulled a couple of muscles in my back and legs, so have been in bed. Would have much rather been sewing! But, let's talk about fun stuff:

"Melty" by Pat H. of FL - SnowPeople Swap

Today is an extra happy day! A sweet friend - Pat from FL - sent me one of her darling SnowPeople blocks. His name is "Melty". Too cute.  We are both in a swap with 11 other quilters. Can't wait to see how others interpret the theme of SnowPeople.  Thank you, Pat! Just love your block!  Look close at the edges... Pat has excellent machine applique skills.

This is a 'quickie'... I'm just checking in. Sew, until next time, I will try to behave myself and NOT move large pieces of furniture by myself, or leap tall buildings in a single bound. lol. What are YOU up to?

Linking to Connie at: Freemotion By The River... hop on over and see what others are up to!

Quilty Hugs,

SUPER RULER... Precise Trimming & DJ Triangle LS-9

Yesterday at Friendship Group I had the opportunity to try a BlocLoc Ruler. I LOVE this ruler! I used it to trim up a stack of tiny 1.25" waste HST blocks. Wow, no slipping, sliding, or "ruler-rocking" over the seam allowance. The square ruler size I used is 6 inches, which could have been a problem with another ruler, but this larger one still worked very well. A huge thanks to my friend Jill, who taught me how to use this nifty ruler.  I have no affiliation with BlocLoc, I am just a very happy camper and plan to purchase a few of these rulers.

BlocLoc ruler and 1.25" trimmed HST blocks

Please look closely at the bottom of the pic above and you will see a 1/4" area running horizontally that is not clear like the rest of the ruler. This narrow "trough" is where the seam allowance sits which is what keeps the ruler flat against the block to be trimmed. Nothing moves! It's great.

DJ Triangle: LS-9, completed 11Nov'12

Until next time, it's back to working on DJ Triangles for me. I finished one yesterday: LS-9, an easy one, just simple applique.  But I need at least one more DJ block to meet my personal commitment for the DJRetreatYahoo group BOW.  What are YOU working on???

Quilty Hugs,

ELECTION DAY... I Voted - did YOU?

I VOTED - did YOU?

I Voted... November 2012 Presidential Campaign

Until next time. . . I'm going to trim up some 'waste' HSTs and finish a DJ Triangle. What are YOU going to do today?

Quilty Hugs,

TUNISIAN CROCHETED BEDSPREAD: How NOT to clean it

This is the story of how NOT to wash a large hand-crocheted project in one's washer, when all the yarn type/content is not known:

partially re-blocked after 'felting'

How it came out of the machine, before blocking attemps

Trying to pull/stretch the felting out somewhat - first efforts not so good

Story:  In the Spring of 1981, I finished an almost 9 year project for a Bedspread, Dual-King size, Tunisian Crochet - aka: Afghan stitch, covered in detailed Cross Stitch using more than 200 colors of yarn. Nice. I was happy with the outcome and satisfied with my efforts. It was a gift to my DMIL. She and Dad used it on their dual-king bed as a spread for several years. After they passed, the 'afghan' went to my DD Laura who stored it in various ways for about 10 years, 5 of which were in my garage under less than perfect circumstances.  So, naturally it required cleaning. No local cleaners would guarantee the outcome. I cut some bits off of the gold fringe and did the "match test" to determine what kind of yarn it is: natural/wool, or acrylic/mix. It passed the test and told me with a hardened nub that it was indeed washable yarn -- the GOLD was! My mistake, I did not test ALL the yarn. I should have. Great Grandma bought all the yarn, all I did was make it and that was so long ago, I couldn't remember any details. Anyway, long story short. . . don't let anyone tell you that you cannot FELT wool in a front loading washer b/c I am here with the results that it is indeed possible!

"blocked" afghan drying under sheets to keep my Kitty off!

A huge thank you to a new neighbor and sweet friend Marge, who came to my house late last night  to help me - these things never seem to happen in the afternoon! And we proceeded to try and "pull it out" to some kind of shape. Only somewhat successful, but way better than what we started with. I'm going to steam the gold strips after the afghan is all dry and try to coax the extra back into itself. May work, may not. I figure if all else fails, I can remove the 8 gold strips, make new strips, crochet them back in place. This afghan will never again be what it once was, but it has been saved to a certain extent. I'm grateful my mistake didn't turn into unrepairable disaster.

Good news: somewhat successful - gold strips can always be remade/replaced

Thank you for listening to my rant and sad song. Normally I try to keep my blog happy and up-beat because that is usually how I feel, but if I "own up" to my boo-boo and share what happened when I tried to wash this afghan, it might save someone else the grief and disappointment that I am experiencing. So. . . with all this behind me for now. . . Until next time, I am going to go sew on a DJ block; I'd like to console myself with some pie, but that's not gonna happen! lol.  What are YOU going to do today?

Quilty Hugs,

MORE JANE: D4 & LS11

Two more DJ blocks completed: block D-4 and triangle LS-11 . No current totals yet. I need to lay out all the blocks and count. It's time to make a chart and hang it in the sewing room. So hopefully I can make one up sometime before Christmas... which is just around the corner! Yipes.

DJ Block: D-4 completed 28 Oct 2012

D4: I PPd this block in 3 horizontal sections, but when connecting the rows, didn't sew all the way to the ends of the background pieces.

D4: PP in 3 horizontal sections using partial seaming

With the paper still on the back, and holding block up to a light source, fold the fabric to align the diagonal seams at the outer edges. A few applique stitches and the seam was secure. Then, applique the melons on. This method gave me the alignment I was going for.

Aligning the diagonal corner seam using a light source

Triangle: PPd this one also. Next time I will plan the seam directions so things are easier to line up. Or better yet, return to using FP-PPing which allows one to flip the seams in any direction. I like that. Look closely at the pic below. Do you see the fussy-cut flower in the tiny melon at the top of the triangle? I won't try that again anytime soon. LOL

DJ Triangle: LS-11, completed 28 Oct 2012

Until next time. . . I'm going to clean house for about an hour and then finish up another DJ triangle & practice some FMQing. What are YOU going to do today?

 

Quilty Hugs,