Happy Valentine's Day - Almost Geese

Hope you are having a delightful day. I looked for Valentine sewing to share at Val's... found several to share. (It's me Terri in WI)
Don't know that this picture of the geese in process is appropriate for Valentine's Day... but here goes.

I figured out this photo page from the 70s is just what I need to keep all the little pieces in order and on the sewing machine until I finish a strip.  (Before I started using it, all the pieces went in different directions. Makes life so much easier with this bit of ancient technology. Another genius idea... LOL)

The first piece (darkest) is already pinned to the paper strip on the right.

So we are going out to Chinese tonight. He's been wanting Chinese for a while now, and I really don't care for it past the egg rolls. It's his Valentine gift. (I got a card saying he thinks I'm amazing. We're married 48+ years - I guess I am amazing, and so is he... just don't tell him I said that.)

Hugs,

Terri

Design Wall Monday, and Angels

 The July color is red over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and last month's blocks for the Itty Bitty Row Along were these little hearts, so that is what is on my design ironing board. Later on in this post you can see the real work horse ironing board I invented to iron the flimsy and it's backing before sending off to the quilter.

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Lately I've been seeing Angels in the clouds... Here is the one I saw 2 days ago

And here is the ironing facility I invented... a cotton blanket covered by a cotton sheet on top of my dining room table.  You can move the whole thing in order to get to the unironed spots. (I ironed from the bottom of the flimsy so I'd get the seam allowances to go where I wanted them.) 

Today I've gotta find a box and then ship it.

 

Now I see how Bargello works - I might make another MUCH SMALLER quilt like it.

 

Hope you all are enjoying some beautiful weather. It's been unbearably hot here, but the heat only lasts for a few looooooooong hours in the afternoon. We can manage this. Our next home is in cool country and we are looking forward to that.

Hugs,

 

 

No Blogging Lately...

Sorry I haven't checked in with you all. Here's what I've been up too.

First the latest genius idea!  I cut lots of little strips of paper off of paper piecing patterns. Now I'm using them to keep the thread from unraveling off my bobbins when stored.  It's free, and I get another use out of the paper before I recycle. (Can we say "Cheap Skate"?)

 This has been taking up alot of my time. It takes more than an hour to make a block, but that's after the time choosing fabrics, ironing and cutting strips. This is just the rough set... I do like putting 2 blocks together. What do you think?

 This is my current favorite set. 

 But then there is this orange set... next to the pink.  Love this orange set, too.

I do love this yellow with orange veins.  Oh, you know I just love them all.

 

 

 And this is why there aren't more palm blocks. I've made oodles of plants for the Trick or Treaters. I haven't counted, but I'm close to 180.  There probably won't be as many of the cute little goblins this year. Halloween comes on a Wednesday!

So far there are: (L to R) Thyme, Spearmint, Geranium, Pittsuporium Varigata (i think), Vinca in the back of the box and Brown Bean (out of the box at the far R)

 

Here are some of the Morning Glory Vine (this one is a perennial - as are most of the plants I give away ) then more Geranium, in the soda bottles are avocado which were rooted in water in jelly jars in the kitchen window. I'm gonna miss those guys. In the yogurt cups at the far right there are clippings of a button fern? that sticks through the fence from my neighbors, and somewhere out of range are 6 potted Passion Flower Vines from our side of the fence. Only two Mullein plants this year. I love those for automatic bird feeders. They get a tall stalk (5-6') of  many small yellow flowers and make millions of seeds that the Goldfinches love! You gotta love that!  (Even though it is considered a weed in CA I give them as flowers... I've never been real keen on the separation of "real" flowers and weeds. - my garden looks like my sewing room. LOL)

Here is a large variety of starts from around the yard.. The tall one on the left is a nut of some kind started by a squirrel in my flower box on the front porch!  Next is a new Hoya (the mama is hanging down on the far right in this picture. Then there are some Pigs' Ears (actually I don't know what they are called. My neighbor gave me a large plant of them and I've been giving away some of it each year. Behind these are smaller plants. Some are Sweet Gum Trees that started up in our yard - all over the place. There are Oaks that we dug out and some weed trees that I can't ID, and a couple of Mimosa Trees. Also more Hoya, Christmas and Easter Cacti, Lipstick Vine, Butterfly Bushes in two colors - dark purple from the neighbors bush and a lavender color from ours,There are 6 Rosemary and 4 English Ivy I found in the yard last year and  Columbine from seed that my son gave me from his yard. I have a couple of Day Lilies that I started from seed - they are coming along nicely. They stay with me though, as well as the one Elm Tree that I started from seed. (One out of 8 that I potted, and only one remains. It's 2 years old, and only about 2" tall. Talk about slow growing. I might make a Bonsai out of it.

 

Sorry for the rambling.... Roses started below.

Now I need to get my seeds packed up, and I'll be ready to decorate.

See you soon!

 

Hugs,

Terri

Sign, Genius Mister, Pumpkin Makin, Binkie Minders

I took alot of pictures....

Taken a couple of days ago... I'm so excited. I love Halloween!

 

One of my genius ideas... In preface, let me tell you how hot and dry our summer is, and even though the temperatures are milder now, (in the 80s) we are still bone dry. (Don't worry. It is normal for here.) So this mist not only waters my roses - or where ever I put it - it attracts butterflies, birds, including the little hummer, and the bees love it, too.  Know what it is?

It's just my hose with the sprayer attached and hooked to my rain gutter. It sprays a fine mist, and it comes with it's very own rainbow!

Below is the only sewing I've done all week. I wanted to make something to put on a t-shirt for Halloween.  This will be it. Pattern is free from Artisania - the blog. The artist is Sonja Callaghan. You can find the pattern at Sewhooked / free patterns. (Only free to use for personal use - It is a jack -o-lantern, but I didn't do the eyes, etc.) 2 more seams to finish.

Okay, Guess! What is the crazy old granny making now?


These!

Binkie Minders - saw them a while ago on "One Pretty Thing" and since my new Grandboy is having troubles keeping his away from his Doggie Sister and Doggie Brother. (Well, you know the rules... if it's on the floor it belongs to the dog.)  It's alot of work for a 1 month old to keep track of the thing...

so Grammy to the rescue! (Sending these tomorrow, Sarah :-)

 

This is the first block of the next project - already in progress - before the last project is finished, of course. I work better when I've got 2 or 6 in the works. So keep watching to see what it is.

 

Thanks for stopping by. I love comments, but I haven't been answering them lately. Sorry! I spend alot of time on this computer, and am not getting much time sewing.  If you have a question I'll get back to you...

 

Hugs,

 

Terri

Commissioned Quilt done and shipped - along with a few gifts

My first commissioned quilt - done and shipped

 

Below is the label - I used Fray Check on the raw edges. It should keep it from fraying. I've had a shirt that has raw edged flowers on it, and wear it at least once a week, (so it gets laundered at least once a week for 5 years or so) and the flowers are still in tact!

Below is a close up of the quilting, and the prints. The fabrics - all from my stash - that she chose are sooooo pretty.

She wanted it for the livingroom - to cuddle up in... so I made.....

 a present with the leftover squares... I used some of the waterproof fabric - the orange color - and made 6 coasters, tied with some of the backing material.

 Here are the six. The orange on the back goes pretty well with all the colors. (You can see a bit on the green one, top left, and on the brown one below it.

This is my latest "genius" idea.  It's one of those elastic bands to hold your hair back. The way I made this one, you can adjust it. I thought the grand (teen) girls might like them. This is the prototype.  Below it is extended.

I didn't want to model it myself - and I surely didn't want the hobby to model it... (I think I could have talked him into it, but nobody wants to see a man wearing this.  So (shout out to Sarah -) it is clean and never been worn.

The depression seems to have passed again.... thanks to all you well wishers! I am a bit bummed though. My favorite rubber stamp store is going out of business. Linda has been in business in Placerville for 13 years!!! as  long as we have lived here.  She feels like a close friend. They will be moving to Oregon soon. I will miss her sooooo much.Today is supposed to be National "Make A Card" Day. I should make a Bon Voyage card for her.

Now I'm off to see what this Wicked thing is over at Cheryl's blog. Somehow I missed the directions or description....

You all be good while I"m gone, and if you can't manage that, at least have fun!

Hugs,

Terri

Slipper Experiment & a Quilt Show

Hi Friends,
Today for your amusement I will show off the slippers I made. (Please, no laughing until I'm out of range.)  I even used a pattern. It's the first bit of clothing I have made in a loooong while. ( I used my afore blogged about  "genius idea", and covered the sticky material for the nonskid bottoms with paper while I sewed, and that made it possible to sew at all.  You really should try that idea.)

Nonslip Slippers:

I stuffed them with paper so they would stand on their own. I'm sending them off to my DD for her to try them out. Giraffe are her favorite animal.  Below is a different view.

Looks like I swiped some giraffe parts from the zoo... Hope you like them, DD.

And now for the River City Quilters Guild Quilt Show from Sacramento, CA some of my favorite quilts... then the camera got a bee in its bonnet, and threw a fit, so no more pictures. (Found out today - new batteries fixed the problem.)  Here are the very excellent quilts I did get pictures of. (Let me just say they look better on the pictures.  I know that seems backwards, but the lighting just wasn't that good at the Scottish Right Temple, and we were amazed what the camera picked up with the flash that we couldn't actually see standing right in front of the quilt!)

Doncha love the little baskets... so colorful.

 Love this one, so much variety of shape and color.

A different basket quilt. Must have been a challenge.

And with this picture you get a bonus segment of the quilt next to it... which is awesome, as well.

I liked the leaded glass look of this little quilt.

Sorry, that is all for today.  There are another 10 or so to show you, but the computer is just taking forever to download them... still don't have the beat of this machine.  It's supposed to be faster - buncha liars that sold it to my hubby. It keeps falling out of the Internet connection, too. Very exasperating - new technology.  I wonder if a spanking in legal?  Anybody know? Maybe a few well placed kicks. It sure would make me feel better.

Come back to see the fabric (my hubby) I won for a door prize.  I'll catch up with you in a few...

Hugs,

Terri

WOW - 2 days in a row!

Okay, I know it's not a big deal to most of you, but I really don't post this often, as you all know.  I just remembered a project I've been working on recently that I didn't mention yesterday.

Here's the pictures:

This is the mess from my sewing room... 10 paper shopping bags full of mostly fabric snippets, although there are a few pieces of batting, and some unsuccessful blocks from me, and from my Grandma, tossed in, as well. ( I still have a box, 12" x 15", full of larger scraps that I'm going to sort into plastic zip bags and store by color, and a small basket of non quilty fabrics saved for unknown projects.)  I've had the mess out to garner any bigger pieces for the Triangles Quilt, and went through them as I filled out these faux cheetah fur pillows.  I used 2 yards of fake fur, which was on sale last week at JoAnn's, and made 2 floor pillows. See the one that is finished below.

 

This you may recognize as the coffee swilling, paper reading, massage chair inhabiting, ham-it-up husband of mine. He always wants his picture in the blog. (And where would I be without him?)

This is the artwork I wait for 10 months of the year.  It's really just my bathroom window, but you see such a gorgeous abstract "painting" and it changes every day to more and more intense colors as my 3 Sweet Gums (Liquidambar Styrclflua, I think) are changing into their fall costumes. The color casts around the small room, too, so it is a wonderful effect.

That's it for today! Thanks for stopping by and thanks for hanging in there with me as I whine about my kitchen.  Love all you followers and visitors!

Hugs!

Terri

Tutorial, and generational picture

Hi Friends,
Today a tutorial - I've discovered a way to write on your quilts... I've used this method before, to quilt words onto my quilt.  This can be used to put words onto the label that identifies your quilt. I'm using it as a Thank You Mug Rug.   Go to the pictures....

First I picked a simple cursive style and printed it in 100 sized caps and 72 sized lower case. Bold your words so there is a thick enough line to sew around. When the caps were so far away from the lowers I cut and pasted (the old fashioned way - shown here) to move the h under the top of the T and the o closer to the Y, otherwise it looks like they don't belong to the same word.  Then I made a new copy and was ready to sew.

I sewed around each of the letters with a small stitch... I used 15 stitches to the inch. That's how things are calibrated on my old Singer. I don't know what that equates to on your newer machines. You are on your own there.      Sew slowly. When you need to pivot to round the ends make a full stitch, then put the needle back into the stitch you just made, and lift the foot with the needle in the paper, turn to where the next stitch should go., and proceed.  When you are finished sewing, pull the strings to the back and tie the closest ones together. It'll make ripping the paper off much easier.

Next we rip off the paper. Take off the white before trying to get off the black parts... and pull gently holding onto the stitches as much as you can.  It really isn't that difficult.  If you've removed the paper from paper pieced patterns before, you will do fine at this. Tweezers and seam ripper helped a lot.  (I didn't bring the strings to the back here, and that's why I told you to do it above.  It'd work easier that way.)

See it is quite easy - the Y came out in one piece... It was a lot easier than I thought.

Here is how it looked when I finished the sewing and ripping and tying the strings in the back.  I used regular sewing thread in a red purple color. If you use white thread, consider using a lighter color to print on the paper. Black comes off and while you are ripping paper the thread might get dirty.

Anyway, that is my genius idea for the day.  I also wanted to show you my favorite sewing room accessory...(below)  It's a magnet with a handle.  If I drop a pin or needle, like I did today when I was barefoot... well, just wave your magic wand and it will find the derelict sharp right away.

These two are the parents of the Silk Oak  I started from a seed.  They are the taller ones behind the evergreen oak. They're all decked out in their bloomin' fineness.  You are going to want to see this close up.  (Just click on the picture.) The flowers are  most unusual - especially for a tree.  I figure they are making the next generation and need to look good while doing it. I am going to be monitoring the seed making progress.  See if I can snag a few thousand. Wish me luck!

I decided to go out again and get a picture of the flowers... they are amazing.  See for yourself.

They are like an orange comb that is dripping with nectar.  Pretty, huh!

And so ends our adventures today.   Hope you are having a fun and warm summer.

Hugs,

Terri