Five Things to Be Happy About #2

Here we are in the second half of 2016 already! Where has the time gone? If one more person tells me that the summer is more than half over, I will scream!

I love summer and all that goes with it, including the items listed below.

1. Slow, hand stitching. It doesn't always make me happy, but when it goes so smoothly and looks pretty good when it's done, it sure makes me happy! This will be the object of my next post.

It turned out pretty cool. I think so anyway.

If I don't get back here within a week to post, somebody get on my case.

2. Reading a good book. I've always loved to read, but summer reading is the best...sitting on the porch; laying in the hammock; staying up late in bed; in the passenger seat on a road trip...it's all good! I finally got my hands on this book at the local library. Good read!

 

3. Long walks. Summer in Iowa doesn't always supply the best walking weather. Can we say humidity so thick it can be chewed? This is the trail we often walk and it's so pretty in every season.

4. Summer birthdays. Mine was just last week and it was a beautiful day to celebrate. The photo above was a friend's brother who turned 60 about the same time. We have a tradition here to hang underwear in the yard of those who celebrate a decade birthday. Always fun, always a bit embarrassing for the birthday gal/guy, but always memorable!

5. Hugs! Friends, family members, neighbors, pets, anyone you like enough to hug...go do it!

I especially need to thank my friends who posted on my Firecracker Table Runner and talked me into loving it instead of focusing on the mistakes.

Blogging friends are wonderful and I'd hug each one of you if I could!

(I'd also hang underwear in your yard on your decade-birthday if I could! Ha!)

I am linking up with Gypsy Moon Quilt Co. Five Things Friday

Firecracker Table Runner

I know you all have been sitting on the edge of your sewing chair waiting to see the final product of my 4th of July table runner, right?

It's only been 3 weeks since I first posted about it.

OK, refresher here. I had in mind to make a patriotic piece with fabrics I had on hand and had always wanted to try the Disappearing Nine Patch block. I played with various layouts, chose one, didn't like it, then tore it apart and started cutting the blocks in half. Sewn together, I ended up with 4 blocks similar to this below.

I was liking that little pinwheel in the center!

 

I also teased you about some new-fangled (to me) way of making a traditional block.

 

 

This is a shortcut to making Flying Geese! You can find the youtube tutorial here:

No-Waste Flying Geese

 

OK, on with the show now that your memory is coming back!
I'm not particularly happy with the outcome of this project, but it was fun and I learned a few things along the way. I thought about not even showing the whole thing.

I bruise easily.

 

I love the striped binding, but it is a bit too wide.

 The corners turned out perfectly, tho!

 

 

The Flying Geese blocks made a great border,

but the points got covered with the binding. Ugh.

 

One of the blocks I had to cut down to make it fit with the Flying Geese...

bad math on my part. Another ugh.

 

 

 

 

 

So, there you have it.

My Firecracker Table Runner.

My MIL would be proud.

Or would she?

Probably not.

 

Happy 4th of July, my friends!

Let's go eat ice cream!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five Things to Be Happy About

With so much negativity in the world and so much sad news and tragedies surrounding us, I am joining in a link up with Gypsy Moon Quilt Co. to dwell on some happy sightings in my life this past week! We all need a little more happy.

In no particular order, here are my top 5:

 

1. Southern Style Loaded Potato Skins
Doesn't the name of these just make your mouth water? Look at that picture! Michele at The Scrap Shop Blog posted this recipe on Monday and I served them that evening. All I needed to buy was the potatoes. I put the pork in the crock pot with some BBQ rub and slow cooked them for a few hours. I had enough to warm-up for dinner on Tuesday too! Good thing my sweetie doesn't mind left-overs. If he did, he'd be real skinny. And he's not. :)

 

2. My husband took Monday off work and we decided to trim several trees in our woodsy backyard. I bought him a chipper for Christmas, so we were finally able to use it. It was hot, sweaty work, but I got free mulch for my garden and the yard looks much better! Definite smiles with a beer in hand that evening. (click on the arrow to watch short video of this limb-eating monster)

 

 

 

3. Surprise mail! On Wednesday, our mail lady brought me a lovely gift! I have no idea how I won this or who to thank, but I'll surely enjoy it. It is a $100 gift card from Walmart and has some connection with Better Homes and Garden. I've done every Google search I can think of to find a source for this, but have come up empty-handed. Take it and run, they say!

 

 

 

 

4. Moss Rose or Rose Moss? These little pretties re-seed themselves every year in my front garden... to the point that I have to pluck some out so I have room for other annuals. They are so bright and cheery and THICK. Each blossom lasts just a day and new ones are always ready to take their place.

 

 

 

 

 

5. Yesterday, I was shopping and had one of my impromptu, never-appreciated, clothes-drenching, deodorant-testing hot flashes. How many years must we have these dreaded things anyway? I felt a slight breeze of air coming from the shoe department and like a bee to honey, I followed it. There I stood soaking up every moving molecule of air...with a smile on my red, dripping face. I was so thankful for this fan and its huge propeller-sized blades that I had to take a few photos. It's ginormous!

 

Last, but never least, my dear little Sophie always provides reasons to be happy.

She's just a kid in a dogsuit and always ready for loving.

 

 

   

 

Thank you to Tami from Sew Much For Free Time for encouraging me to link up!

What made you happy this week?



 



Nine Patch Teaser

I've never been much of a patriotic sort to enjoy the 4th of July. I blame that on my husband...or more specifically, his mother. Her birthday was the 4th of July and she always expected us to be on the farm in this itty-bitty town in SW Iowa to celebrate. It's hot on the 4th of July and this fly-ridden farm was no exception. Especially with no air conditioning. No ice, either, unless you brought your own. Yes, there was a fan or two, but that just confused the flies and then they'd head for your mouth.

 

Oh, I could go on and on about my MIL, but I should let her rest in peace. She never liked me. I married her only son. She'd send HIM a letter on MY birthday. Then a few days later, I'd get one of those freebie birthday cards from the Paralyzed Veterans that folks get in the mail asking for a donation. Only she never sent a donation. She kept those cards to send to her only DIL.

 

OK, I said I'd let her rest. Rest I will. Unless you want to know more. Just ask.

 

Something happened over Memorial Day that made me feel very red, white and blue...in the stars and stripes way. Maybe it's because MIL's been gone for 12 years that I can finally feel some love for the patriotic holidays. So, I decided to gather my reds, whites, and blues from my stash to make a table runner. I've always wanted to try the Nine Patch block, so why not give that a go?

 

My husband didn't like these fabrics together, but who cares?

I didn't like his mother either. :)

 

I sewed twelve of these blocks in the exact same formation.

 

 

 

                         

 

I laid them out in different ways. I didn't like any of them.

Maybe I wasn't ready to feel the patriotic love yet.

 

 

 

I was about to just ditch it all, but I chose this layout. Whyyyyy????

 

I still didn't like it after I stitched it all together, so I cut every

block apart on either side of the seam.

 I was too lazy and frustrated to use a seam ripper.

 

Out came my rotary cutter and I started slicing like a Pizza Hut chef

on those bad boys.

 

I put them together and found a sweet pinwheel in the center!

Love pinwheels. They're kinda patriotic, right?

 

 

I've now got 4 new "pinwheel" blocks made from those nine-patch blocks. If you're good at math, you're thinking, "There must be some leftovers?"

Yes, there are. A+ for you. :)

 

Then I found a youtube video that was a real game-changer for me. 

 I am going to add those blocks to my table runner.

 

 

Any idea what these will be?

Pay no attention to the scissors...they're there just to fool ya.

 

I hope to get this guy done in a week or so.

I'm in the middle of a big landscaping project right now.

When it's done, I'll be back with photos.

 

I'll end with another photo of Miss Sophie.

She was born in July too.

But she likes me.

 

 

 Linking up with:

My Quilt Infatuation
Silly Mama Quilts
Sew Fresh Quilts

Filling the Gap

Lots of "everyday crap" happening in the past 2 months since I last posted. Of course, spring time is the busiest time for substitute teachers, so that's kept me out of trouble and out of my sewing room. I also put in 3 weeks of working with 1st and 2nd graders with state-mandated tests. Spring is my favorite season, but it's never a relaxing one for teachers. Our Spring has been, for the most part, a wet and chilly one. We were still running the furnace last week!

Since I couldn't be outside in the garden or walking the dog on those wet, chilly nights, I propelled myself up to my sewing room! Yes, there is a silver lining with Mother Nature and her moods! I found a quilting improv block that I liked by Christa at Christa Quilts. I enjoyed making one so much that I continued on and made 8 more for a baby quilt. I used many of the same fabrics from the Tula Pink City Sampler blocks, but chose the "boy" colors.

Above are 2 of the 9 blocks.

These gave me very good practice with getting those corners and points just right!

 

 

A photo of them arranged together, before the stitching together and the borders.

Love my purple-polka-dotted feet?

 

Sewing them together was a breeze and I even enjoyed the quilting and binding steps!

I think I'm getting hooked on this quilting thing.

Somebody once told me that could happen.

 

Then on one of the first sunny mornings, I took my finished quilt outside for a photo shoot. Shoot, I think they turned out pretty good!

 

My label!

The pieced back.

 

The front.

And another front shot.

 

I used a simple cross-hatch to quilt it together.

 

 

Leaving you with a photo of Miss Sophie.

She does NOT like her photo taken (kinda like her mama).

In fact, her facial expression rarely changes.

I snapped this one when I asked her, "Are you hungry?"

 

Yes, yes, she was hungry.

 

 

*Thank you to Lara at BuzzinBumble for encouraging me to get another post up!

Have you heard about her newly published book Crafted Applique?

Check out her blog!

My Project for Challenge 5 Project Quilting

 

 

This week's challenge theme was "Through the Eyes of a Child". Persimon Dreams has come up with some interesting themes this year. This one I didn't think I'd attempt....until Thursday afternoon when a photo I saw in an email inspired me! Yikes!

It's been a busy week with 3 rehearsals singing with the local symphony, plus working, plus getting this baby done! I finished it just this morning, just in the nick of time.

 

I'd love to give credit where credit is due as to where I found this inspiration. The blogger asked for permission before referencing her online, but she didn't reply to my request, so all I can say is I found her fabulous project online.

 

The photo immediately reminded me of when I was a little girl. We had a huge old crab apple tree in our backyard. The apples were never good for eating, but that tree held my wish for a swing. I asked many times for my dad or brothers to put one there for me, but my requests, like the one above, went unanswered.

So, to keep it simple, this project was made

through the eyes of the little girl that lives in me! <3

 

 

I started with going through my small scraps for pastel colored fabrics. I cut them into small squares and rectangles and placed them on a large piece of paper-backed fusible web. (Ya think I have enough small scraps?)

 

 

When I got the placement I wanted, I ironed them down to make it easier to sew.

Then I ironed them onto a piece of muslin to prepare for sewing. I used a free-style method of sewing around each block in white thread using free-motion quilting.

 

Using some wood-patterned fabric, I cut out a tree and added some red "apples", sewing around all of it with black thread, giving it a very creative look!

Note: when I was almost finished with the raw-edge applique of the entire project, I thought the tree looked off-balance and I added larger branches to increase its size.

 

Here is my little girl (ME!) in the swing I longed for. I often wore braids or pig tails, plus I've been a life-long purple lover, so she is wearing a purple dress!

Here you can see that the tree grew, too!

 

With a thin layer of batting and a lovely shade of pink for binding,

my little girl on her swing will joyfully hang forever on my sewing room wall.

 

 

 

My final project measures approximately 15" x 17".

It was created in my home in Dubuque, Iowa.

 

Voting will start around noon on Sunday, March 6th on the Persimon Dreams blog. Stop by and vote for your favorites! You will have one week to vote.

Thanks for stopping by!  

 

 

 

My Project for Challenge 3 Project Quilting

Challenge 3 – All about that Thread

 

I am really enjoying the challenges from Persimon Dreams' blog.

Every 2 weeks, a new challenge is announced. The week in between is for voting on the projects that have been linked up. Each visitor can vote for their favorite 6 projects! If you have linked up a project, 

 you can vote for 7!

 

I missed Challenge 2. I really had the plan, the fabric, the method all worked out. What I lacked was the time. Instead of sewing that week, I spent most of it testing 1st graders with their phonetics and reading. That was crazy. In 12 days, I tested about 250 kids.

I was lucky I could still feed myself after all of that.

 

Anyway, last Sunday, Kim announced the theme "All About That Thread" and my ideas started swirling. I had about 1/2 yard of adorable fabric with spools of thread on it. Knowing I like to make purposeful things, I looked around my sewing room for what I needed. I found this:

 

 

Is this what I want for my precious spools? Nope. So I decided I needed a decent fabric basket to hold these little friends

 together in one tidy place.

 

I found a tutorial on a blog, but changed it to fit my needs. Having some groundwork to go on always helps me. I have no fear absorbing some information and then taking off in another direction.

 

I cut my adorable spool fabric, some other "sewing machine" fabric to use as a lining and batting in the sizes I needed.

 

 

I quilted the lining fabric and batting together in simple diagonal lines.

Nothing too fancy.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures in between!

I guess I got excited.

 

 

What I ended up with is a nice little boat-shaped basket to

hold about half my thread.

 

 

I like that the sides are flexible enough that I can still move the spools around to find the right color I'm looking for.

 

 

As soon as I get another hour or so, I need to make a "twin" basket for the other half of my spools. They feel like orphans right now.

 

Beginning Sunday, Feb. 7. around noon,

head over to Persimon Dreams

 and vote for your favorites!

Voting lasts for a week.