Aqua Flowers

Finished! I've been trying to post this entry for a week, but we've had nothing but rain for a week.



I really wanted to get pictures of this one outside in natural light. I ended up running outside during the evening, so the pictures and colors are a bit warmer than in reality, but at least they weren't taken inside.



This was made using the templates from Kellie over at Don't Look Now. She has several wonderful tutorials including the one for the pillow that this wall hanging is based on.





I didn't use Kellie's technique of raw-edge fusible applique. Instead I just did some needle turn applique. I had never tried it before, but I figured what the heck. I was watching a ton of basketball (yay for the NCAA tournament!) and needed some handwork.



I loved the splash of red from the little birdie and incorporated a piece of the red into the pieced border as well.



I used 2 layers of batting to try to get the puffy look on the flowers and leaves. I did a random meandering quilting that was much smaller than anything I had tried before. It worked beautifully.

Liberated Pie

This was an experiment in no-pattern, liberated piecing. I just started with some fabric that reminded me of strawberry pie filling and went from there. It turned out remarkably well for just an evening of experimenting.



I'm thinking of pairing it with Tonya's teacup and teapot
tutorials and making a small kitchen wallhanging. What more could you want than tea and pie?

Sneak Peek

This is a sneak peek at a project I've been working on all weekend. I needed some handwork to do while I was watching waaaaay too much basketball. So this is my first attempt at needleturn applique. I'm quilting it now, so hopefully it will be finished this week.

Asian UFO

I finished a top to another UFO. This one had been sitting around with the blocks mostly done for about 4 years (or more). For some reason, I was thinking I had a lot more work to do on it. But when I dragged it out of the closet, I realized that it was a lot closer to completion than I thought. So I finished about 20 blocks and then put the top together.



It's done in an Asian theme, so there are lots of black, red, and gold fabrics. It's a large project at 84" x 84". I'm trying to decide how to finish it. I could put a border on it, but I think it's going to be difficult enough to quilt without adding anything more. It's going to be a real challenge to quilt, so I'm going to set it aside for awhile. (Plus, I'm out of batting and waiting for a good sale to buy more.)

My Town BOM (February)

I'm a bit late posting this, but I swear I did it during February. This is the February block from Forever Green Quilt's free BOM.



This was a series of 4 apartment buildings, but I thought they looked more like row houses. So I made them brightly colored like the row houses I remember from San Fransisco. I reversed some of them to give it a bit more variety. This quilt is going to be another scrappy quilt since the blocks are small and well suited for using up scraps. I've almost got the March block finished, so I'll post that soon.

Row Robin - Row 1

I finished up my row for the Row Robin swap that Tab is hosting over at Enjoying Life's Journey. I've decided on a theme of "Green Christmas" for this one. Hopefully, you can see the green Christmas candies in this block. I did a poor job of choosing the background fabric and the candy wrappers blend in a bit more than I'd like. I think I can correct this with some careful quilting, but I wish I was better at choosing colors and visualizing how all the colors would work together.



It's a 12" finished block with a 6" finished "candy" in the center. I started out with a much larger center, but realized that was a mistake. I was making up the pattern as I went. I had seen the idea somewhere else (done in red and white) but couldn't find it to recreate it. I'm pretty pleased with how it all turned out, but would choose a different background fabric next time.




Now I just have to get it packaged up and sent out. I can't wait to see what comes back. Hopefully, I'll have a gorgeous, green Christmas quilt to display for Christmas next year.

High School T-Shirt Quilt

Finally! One of my UFOs can be marked off my list. I've been working on this one for at least a year or more. This is a collection of t-shirt from high school.



I've been carting them around every time I move and I'm very tired of that. So about a year ago, I dragged out the box under the bed, washed all the shirts, and cut them up. I read a bit about making t-shirt quilts first, but really, I kinda winged it. I wanted an irregular quilt without uniform block, so I just cut up the blocks to match the designs on the shirts.



The borders around the block are all flannel scraps leftover from numerous rag quilts. This quilt was completely stash. Even the binding, border, and backing. I had some sheeting size flannel in cream that is on the back. Between the t-shirts, batting, and flannel borders and backing, this is a very heavy quilt. But the upside is that it is wonderfully soft and cuddly.

I quilted it in a large, 2-inch grid pattern.



If I had my good machine while I was quilting this one, I might have been more ambitious and tried echo quilting or free motion quilting it. But the grid worked pretty well for this quilt. Now I just have that box of college t-shirts under my bed...

Happy Houses

I finally finished a baby quilt for a cousin-in-law. And I'm done early!! The baby isn't due until May (I think...)





It's from a pattern found at a Project Linus blog. It finishes at a 12" block, so it goes quickly. It's great for using up scraps.

Here are closeups of some of my favorite blocks.



I found this purple in my local quilt store's scrap bin and couldn't resist. For some reason, I really like it.



I love the yellow fabric and blue stripes of this one.

Here's a closeup of some of my free motion quilting. I'm slowly getting better at it. I got my new (to me) machine back from servicing recently and it does a magnificent job. I found a vintage Viking 6430 at a thrift store. It needed an overhaul, but it's a tank. I had it serviced by Glenn out at Hillsboro Sew & Vac and he did a phenomenal job. Very professional. I love the machine and have put my Kenmore away for a while. It was driving me nuts and the tension was a mess constantly. But I'm back to happily sewing now.

Candied Tangerine Peel

When I made tangerine marmalade, I ended up with far more peels than what I needed for the marmalade. Last Christmas I had seen a recipe for candied orange peel, so I decided to try it out.

Since the tangerine skins are pretty thin, it only took about 20 minutes of cooking in the simply syrup (3 c. sugar dissolved in 1 c. water).

After I drained them, I dumped them into a small tray (from my toaster oven) loaded with about 1.5 c. of granulated sugar.



I mixed them around just enough to coat them in the sugar, not so much that the extra sugar dissolved.



Then I spread them out on a dehydrator tray and let them dehydrate at 135 F for about 2.5 hours.



You can do a bunch of things with them. They make great edible garnishes for desserts. They can be eaten straight as a sweet snack. Or you can drizzle chocolate on them! Yum! Gotta try that. This is a great thing to package up and put in a gift basket.

Also, the simple syrup can be used multiple times, as long as you refrigerate it between uses. It becomes very infused with the oil from the orange peels. I think this would be great for making sweet tea! I should brew a pot of tea and try it out.