Design Wall Monday–December 28, 2015

Still under my needle and and now waiting until next year.  As I suspected this wall hanging will hopefully get finsihed by next year.  You can’t see it but I’ve done quite a bit of quilting on the tree using a gold metalic thread from Superior.  I’m sure the quilting will look great once it’s finished and the LED lights added. 

Now it’s time to set it aside and start working on some other projects that have due dates right around the corner. 

To see what others are working on, head on over to Judy’s Patchwork Times blog.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas - 2015

Ceramic Christmas tree, carolers and painting all made by my dear mother, Alois Robertson.  She loved the holidays and always decorated her home beautifully.

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas.

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday - December 21, 2015

This is what is under my needle today.  I doubt that I get it finished before Friday but it’s a fun little project to quilt.

 
You can’t really see it in this picture but I’m using a gold metalic thread to quilt some of the gold motifs.

In other news.  My daughter (who is not a quilter/sewer) made these cute little zipper bags yesterday for some of her co-workers.

She did a great job and I’m sure her friends will like them. 

To see what others are working on, check out Judy’s blog.

Enjoy,

Wacko Christmas Gifts

Wednesday night was my annual Wednesday Wacko Christmas party.  We typically exchange gifts and eat like there’s no tomorrow.  This year I made a couple of little things but their main gift was made by a friends husband.

I made little triange bags (tutorial link can be found over there ---> in the right sidebar), a lip balm key fob and a beautiful seam ripper necklace. 

I’ll sare pictures of the goodies I received for another post. 

Until then………………………………

Enjoy

Design Wall Monday - December 14, 2015

I’ve actually been working on a few things that I can’t show you until next week but in the mean time I thought I’d share the gifts I received as part of a gift exchange last week. 
I know I shouldn’t have a favorite and of course I don’t but if I did…………

Christi made this absolutely wonderful garment bag.  What she didn’t know is that I use a garment bag all the time when I go on driving trips.  I wore out one bag by using it so much and replaced it with a plain old black one.  Now I’ll be traveling in style.  I can’t begin to tell you how much I love this.

 

This is a gorgeous wall hanging made by Ellen.  She does such magnificent work.  It will be a perfect front door quilt, don’t you think?  Great job Ellen, thank you.

 Is this not the cutest bunny rabbit?  It was made by Justine.  It’s tall and skinny and just perfect.  Love it Justine!!! It will have a special place in my home.

Nancy made the cutest Christmas pillow.  The ribbons and bows are all 3-D.  I love it and it’s has a place of honor on my living room sofa.  Great job Nancy.  Thank you , thank you.

Carol made little zipper bags for her 5 gifts.  They were all a little different.  Mine has a sewing theme.  Great fabric choice for a sewer/quilter.

This was my second year to participate in this gift exchange.  I’m already on the lookout for what to do next year.  It’s a challenge to try to keep up.  These women are very talented.

To see what others have on their design wall, check out Judy’s blog.

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday–December 7, 2015

Last Friday I met with a group of friends for lunch and a Christmas gift exchange.  This was my second year participating and it once again a delightful day.  Although there are 12 women that participate, you only make 5 gifts and in exchange you receive 5 gifts.  They are all hand made but may or may not be Christmas related.   

Here’s what I made for my 5 gifts.

TV tray ironing boards.  I have one and I love it so I’m hoping the 5 friends that got these will love theirs too.  It’s perfect for sitting next to your sewing machine or taking along with you to a retreat, plus did I mention, they are really cute. 

First I painted them bright candy apple red.  Next I added 3 layers or cotton batting, 1 layer of Insulbrite, followed by this really cute cotton sewing fabric. 

On a later post I’ll share what I received as my 5 gifts.  They’re wonderful.

To see what others are working on, check out Judy’s blog.

Enjoy,

I Bet You Won’t Be Surprised

Since it’s December and we all know how much I love my skirts, you won’t be surprised by this.

It’s really, really cute. 

Enjoy,

A Little Food News with Recipe and A Special Visitor - NQR

Saturday I was busy sewing and working on some Christmas gifts when I received a phone call from my great friend Rob and her family.  Rob moved from Southern California to Missouri quite a while ago but she was back for the holiday and to visit her family.  I’m not family but I could/should be.  They were in the neighborhood and wanted to stop by.  It was great seeing her, husband Keith, son Jackson and daughter Charlotte. 

We talked and talked and ended up talking about making homemade bread.  I make pizza dough and bread but I typically use my Kitchen Aide mixer.  Rob was telling me that she uses her bread machine to make her dough for her famous yeast rolls and cinnamon rolls.  In fact, her mother asked her to make some while she was here in California so Rob had her go to the local Goodwill and buy a bread machine.  I was planning on having pot roast for Sunday dinner so the rolls sounded like a perfect accompaniment.   Like many of you I used to have a bread machine but not anymore so off to Goodwill I went and found this.

It was $14 and works perfectly.  It didn’t have the manual but that is easily found on the internet as a PDF.  So it came home with me and using Rob’s recipe.  I made enough dough for 18 rolls.  Here they are before they were baked. 

And hot out of the oven.

Oh my, they are so, so good.  The family loved them and some of the leftovers went home with my daughter. 

Next I’ll try making her cinnamon rolls. 

I’ll add the recipe to my recipe tab over on my website later today but in the mean time here is what she gave me with her instructions. 

Yeast Rolls from Rob Kilmer

1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm milk
1/3 cup melted butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
3 3/4 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast.

This is the order I would put it in the bread machine. If you were gonna make it by hand, of course you would bloom the yeast in the warm water for 10 minutes first, then put it all together. Knead it, let it rise, form rolls. You can melt more butter and coat the 13 x 9 dish, or just use Pam. Put the rolls in, poor some melted butter over them, let them rise again. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Delicious!!!!

Thank you Rob, love you and miss you already. 

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday–November 30, 2015

My design wall is very busy but with projects I can’t show you at the moment.  I’ll share some of them next week but for now I’ll show a UFO completion.

This is a Millennium Star by Peggy Martin.  It took a while but I finally figured out that it was started in August 2008 so this really does qualify as a completed UFO.  I made this 18” block in a guild workshop but then put it aside not knowing what I would do with it.  I recently was digging (can you relate?) through a closet and found it hidden at the bottom of a stack.  I knew immediately it was exactly what I was looking for to hang on my front door in January. 

I love how the quilting turned out.  After stitching in ESS (a Cindy Needham term – Every Stinkin Seam), I decided to echo quilt around the perimeter of the star.  I wanted it to show so I used a soft green colored thread in the needle.  I love how it helps give it texture and just enough contrast in color so that you can see it.  

To see what others are working on this design wall Monday check out Judy’s blog.

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday–November 23, 2015

One of my quilt guilds has a UFO challenge each year.  For 2016 I have selected the 5 UFO’s to work on.  Trust me when I tell you I had quite a variety to choose from.  The first UFO finish is due in January so this week, after picking my 5 projects, I started working on this one.

The plan is for this to be a new “front door” quilt for the month of January.  I’m pretty sure I made this in a guild workshop many years ago.  It’s paper pieced but I really can’t remember who the teacher was or what the project was called.  Does anyone know?  I’d love to be able to include the info on my label. 

To see what’s on other quilters design walls, check out Judy’s Patchwork Times blog.

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday–November 16, 2015

On my wall this week is this block I made in a guild workshop on Saturday.

This is just the center of what I hope will turn out to look something like this.

This quilt belongs to Claudia Gomez and it is her original design.  This is my first big step into modern quilting so we’ll see how it goes.  The quilting is fairly simple but looks very complicated and time consuming but it really seems to make the quilt special. 

To see what others have on their design wall, check out Judy’s Patchwork Times blog.

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday–November 2, 2015

A few weeks ago I showed you a long skinny quilted piece that didn’t look like much.  Well I finally got back to working on the project and here it is. 

It’s amazing what you can do with a few leftovers. 

Here’s a peak inside, with lots of pockets.   

I think it makes a great market basket. 

Check out what others are working on over at Judy’s blog. 

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday–October 26, 2015

Last week my friendship group the Wednesday Wackos got together to reveal our almost year long block exchange.  In December the 10 of us that participated make our own first block.  We each picked our own theme, size, fabrics or whatever else we chose to do.  We then passed it off to the next person in rotation that was selected by drawing names out of a hat.  It was a very fun year, each month working on a block for someone different following their guidelines. 

My 2015 theme was Wonky houses, any size.  The only thing I asked was that there be something on the block that indicated the month they worked on mine.  I started it off by making a Christmas House for December.  If you were to see it up close, there is a Santa Clause poking out of the chimney. 

Here are the completed blocks that are now on my design wall.

January – Made by Pam Osorio – She loves (and I’m so thankful she does) hand embroidery.  I love the little details like the snow flakes and the smoke coming out of the chimney.

February – Terri Ayala – Don’t you just love the Valentines day theme.  Notice the little heart door knob. 

April – Pat Barton – This is my birthday month and Pat made me a birthday cup house – How cute is that! I’ll just add one thing…….WOW!

May – Marilyn Pond – Is the the “best” wonky house with all the May flowers and don’t you just love the little bird sitting on the roof. 

June – Sue Salinger – Sue knows how much I love all the camping trailer blocks.  This brings back fond memories of my childhood when my family used to camp in a little trailer.  My Mom would have love it if our trailer had been this cute.

July – Vicki Allred – I know Vicki was nervous since this was her first time participating in a Wacko project but she shouldn’t have been.  I love my patriotic house, it’s just perfect and I love the flip flops at the front door.

August – Patti Morrison – A perfect August day at the beach in my beach house.  It’s so perfect with the surfboard, palm tree, kite and of course the bright sun.  It’s so perfect.

September – Linda Castle – I know school starts early in some places but here, all the way back to when I was in school, it starts in September.  What a fabulous September block with a school house and school bus.  Love it! 

October – Susan Contreras – I love Halloween and this is the perfect block to celebrate.  I suppose it’s suppose to be a spooky house but I think it’s the cutest Halloween house ever.  Notice the cat in the window, the witches feet and the witches broom.  I love how the picket fence is wonky. 

That leaves me with March and November blocks to make before I can start playing with putting this together.  My granddaughter Emily is my quilt advisor and she has decided I need a teepee for November with a turkey sitting by the door and for March she decided I need a leprechaun house.  I’ve started the November block and hopefully I’ll get it them both done quickly so that I can start playing with pulling this all together. 

I see what others are working on, check out Judy’s blog.

Enjoy,