I finished the top I was working last week.  I like it, and decided to call it Garden City.  The name of the fabric collection in Flour Garden, but that’s not why I named it G.C.  My daughter saw the top and commented on how it contained “Beach House” colors.  My extended family used to own a beach house in the town I grew up in. My great grandparents built it in the late 1940’s (I think).  It’s a huge rambly place, lots of bedrooms, a wonderful screened in porch and huge sand yard with a paddleball court.  The extended family used to take turns using it, everyone one would have their week or two to hang out and go to the beach.  My family lived a few blocks away, so we would often walk over and visit.  Such good memories.  Once Labor Day rolled around, the house was closed up, and it would wait for summer to come again.  The house was always painted white on the outside, but inside it had a palette of aquas and blues with a touch of yellow.  The name of the street the house is on is Garden City Avenue.

I used the Accuquilt die ‘Hatties Choice’ to cut the main blocks for the center.  It is such an easy way to cut and  have exact shapes.  Easy to sew together, no dog ears to cut and once I got the “rhythm” of the piecing, I could assemble a block in about twenty minutes. The outer blocks I made from the scraps, piecing them into Kite in a Square blocks.  These I squared up with a Bloc-Loc ruler.  It was all going along swimmingly (beach theme?) until the outer border.  I carefully mapped the quilt out in EQ8, how wide to make the spacer borders so that I could use the 3″ blocks around the 8″center blocks and make it come out square and not have to cut any blocks in half.  The first two solid borders went on easy enough.  The block border was going along okay until it was an inch and a half too long.  What?!? everything measured out perfectly, I went back and checked the math and the EQ8 measurements, it should work.  Oh wait! bias edges on the kite blocks.  PINS! I must pin these borders, tame them, and coax them and sew slowly.

Lesson learned.

I made some really good sourdough bread this past week too.  Also made pita bread for Easter dinner, we had Gyros – sort of lamb.  The pitas were easy and so much better than the dry crumbly ones I get from the store.  

Yesterday I decided to sew a dress, change it up a bit.  I had bought a Washi dress pattern a few summers ago, thinking that it would be a great dress to wear when it was hot and summery out.  I had the fabric, a Cotton and Steel print, and the notions all ready to go.  I spent a few hours making it, and I’ll finish it up today.  Pictures to follow.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.

 

I got a bunch of sewing done this week.  I finished the second clue for the “Unity” quilt, I even found and used my square in a square ruler.  I have two, a big and a small one, I haven’t inventoried that drawer yet though.

My main project this week has been this quilt (nameless as of yet).  I am using the BOB (block on board) Accuquilt die, called Hatties Choice.  The fabric is a Moda Line, called – uhh – something to do with flour.  The quilt top will get a spacer strip of green and a final border of aqua and print triangle in a square blocks.

There is a story behind this fabric.  I ordered a bunch of fabric from Connecting Threads early in March.  They were having a green fabric sale, and at the time I was getting ready to go to the Empty Spools retreat to work on an ‘Emerald City’ quilt.  The fabric arrived the day after the event was canceled.  I was kinda bummed about the whole thing, but still, new fabric is exciting.  I opened the box and saw that there was a fat eighth pack in there.  Nope, not what I ordered, not on the receipt either, although I was missing one yard of green fabric.  Also there was a pretty blue fabric that wasn’t on my order.  I figure whomever was filling the order went by the SKU numbers and didn’t double check the description, and that’s how I ended up with the mix up.  I probably should have sent it back, but when I went to the website, the fat eighth pack wasn’t there, the fabric line wasn’t to be found either.  At that time C.T. had stopped taking orders and shipping, I took it as a sign to use the fabric to make a charity quilt.

I spent most of my day yesterday making sour dough bread.  It started out simply enough, I made a starter “mother” with a pack of starter I found in my cupboard.  Then I pulled out a book “Sourdough School”.  This book is written by a very well intentioned baker, who has a very intense knowledge of making sour dough bread.  Her way of teaching it through a book is, well, daunting.  There are so many references back to other pages, step by step instructions, references to other techniques, and ideas and reasons and ideas and theories.  I was dizzy.  I just wanted to make bread, flour, water and yeast. Eventually that’s what I did, I put the book away and used my remedial knowledge of bread making and the functions on my oven.  There was a proofing function, and then a specific baking function for San Francisco Sourdough Bread.  And you know what, the bread turned out okay.

I had much better luck with the soft pretzels I made earlier this week.  I didn’t have any yeast, and there was none to be had at the store.  What I do have is cider and beer yeast, as my DH makes those yeasty things.  I used the cider yeast, and you know what, they were delicious.  

One last picture from the garden today, the first Iris of the season, this one is a re-bloomer, it flowers in the fall and the spring.  I think the name is “Rock Star”, anyway its a star in my garden.

Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I get a Whoop Whoop  today.  Looking forward to the weekend, I think I’ll stay home and sew.

Yesterday was the beginning of the Hands2Help blog fest/challenge at Confessions of a Fabric Addict .  The guest blogger was Katie from Katie Mae Quilts and she shared a quick and simple to make quilt top using charms.  I wanted to play along, and after a few hours had a cute sized square laptop quilt.  I started with a stack of novelty fabrics most of which were the remains of a layer cake.  I added in a charm pack of Kona solids and voila!  There are still enough squares left from the layer cake to make another, they are more pastel colors.  Maybe next week, or tomorrow or today, my calendar is wide open.

Today I am going to work on the Unity quilt clue.  There are flying geese and a square in a square blocks.  I am hoping that I can use my Accuquilt to cut some of the pieces.  I think I have a square in a square ruler around here somewhere.  I really need to make a list of all the specialty rulers and templates I have.  I did that with my Accuquilt dyes and it has proven to be quite helpful.  Right now all my specialty rulers are in a drawer, stacked in no particular order or category.  The ones I use the most, like the easy angles and the bloc-locks are in a rack near my cutting area.  I also hang most of my straight rulers on the wall with command hooks.

I made a bunch of face masks Friday, for friends and family.  I keep saying that I’m done making them, but someone always seems to need one or two.  I have made 40 so far, most have been with ties, but the first ones were with a small amount of corded elastic I had on hand.  I wore one last week when I went grocery shopping, it started to chafe the backs of my ears.  Can’t imagine wearing it all day, no wonder people are coming up with extenders and such to keep the straps from their ears.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.

I finished the quilting on the Bee hive quilt.  It is just a simple end to end pantograph  called Vintage tufts.  Boring, but effective .  I started quilting the Heart quilt, also an end to end pattern, but a bit more interesting, with circles/orange peels and hearts.  The thread broke six times while quilting out the first row.  Extremely frustrating, I tried a bunch of things, tension, needles, lowering speed.  I struggled to finish that first row, saved and shut it down.  I oiled the machine, just for good measure.  After some rumination I think that the sandwich was a bit too tight on the frame.  I couldn’t loosen it during that row, as it would mess up the spacing on the pantograph.  Today I’ll start with it a bit looser.

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Got the borders put on the Glorianna’s Dream quilt, and I thought of a new name, Turkish Delight.  I have this yellow check fabric in my stash that I think I may use for a backing.  There is 5 ½ yards, maybe enough, math is involved, so it can wait a bit.  The ‘To Be Quilted’ pile is large, so there is time.

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I’m happy with how the center block for the Unity quilt came out.  I would like to use up the pile of left overs from Estrella too.  They all play nicely together, and I kinda like medallion quilts.  I made a Sue Garman quilt, called, uh, Coxcomb Medallion.  I blogged about finishing the top back in January 2016, but I don’t remember when I quilted it in April 2018.  It was on my bed this past January.  I still have to appliqué four blue circles in the corners, does that make it a UFO?

Started a new sweater, “Nieve” by Coco Knits, I’m using a cotton silk blend yarn with a loose twist.  It’s turning out okay, I just hope that it doesn’t get too saggy, as cotton sweaters can.

I spent some time gardening, pulled a can full of weeds, and cut the grass.  Hardly made a dent, but I found some pretty flowers to look at and saw a monarch butterfly go by.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese for Put Your Foot Down #45 today.

Another week is gone by in the current SIP situation.  I have one complete finish and one top almost done, but for the borders.  And I am going to start Bonnie Hunters “Unity” quilt.  I picked out a bunch of fabric that just happened to be near my sewing table.  The scraps from the Estella quilt seem to be a good amount from which to work.  Bonnies colors are blue, red and aqua.  Mine are going to be red, tan and pink.

I kinda wanted to do the Laundry Basket Quilt’s QAL, but it’s almost half way done and I don’t want to rush to catch up.  I’m saving the pattern for next week when I’ll have nothing to do.  Ha Ha, like that’ll ever happen.  I haven’t been over to the long-arm in a few days.  I might go in today, and spray everything down with lysol.  We had a guest stay over in there, and I doubt he was infected, but better safe than sorry.

In the almost finished category is the Gloriana’s Dream quilt, which still needs a better name.  It kinda looks Spanish/Moorish to me, like tiles or wood carving, not very dreamy.  I got the center together, on point placement, so I didn’t web it.  I have to cut off all the squares that are protruding from the edges, then add borders.  They are just the red print, I may miter them, just for fun.

 

My finish this weekend was the binding on my Frolic quilt.  I changed the sheets on my bed and also changed out the current quilt for extra credit.  It’s bright and cheery, doesn’t really match my bedroom, but I don’t mind.  I used Warm and Plush batting, it is a bit heavier than the regular Warm and Natural cotton I use.  My newest roll is Hobbs 80/20, we’ll have to see how I like it.

Finally, I was reading FB the other day and someone was applying binding to a quilt and had their miter join come up exactly on the edge point of the quilt.  I can relate to this, as it used to happen to me frequently.  It’s very difficult to make a nice looking corner if all that joining seam is inside it.  What I do now is, before I start sewing the binding on, I find the first seam join, then I place it with a clip six or eight inches after the first corner. This way the first corner is sure not to have a join on it, then I place the rest of the binding on the edge until I have a six inch tail, (for joining later) and start stitching.  About 90% of the time this ensures that the rest of the corners will be seam free.  I does happen though if I use strips that are of various lengths, but it’s pretty reliable when I use 40 inch (WoF) strips.

The orange clip is where the first join is and the red is at the first corner.  Hope this is some help.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.