TOTALS July 2013

July was a busy month... but, aren't they all!

I spent 3 weeks working on a customer quilt... custom work, twenty 15inch blocks, with each block uniquely quilted... and some simple feathers in the sashing and cornerstones.  It seems each summer I have one big free-motion job, and this was it!  I stressed over getting everything perfect, but it was worth it in the end, as the customer was very happy!  My biggest disappointment is that I have been unable to take a picture that shows all the quilting that went into it.

Once that was done, I was free to get Easy Street quilted, bound and entered into the FCE Cultural Arts Competition... winning a blue ribbon!  I will be entering it into the County Fair this coming weekend and it will progress to the Regional FCE competition in September.

I also completed the quilting on Matthew's Puppy Quilt... it will also be entered into the Fair competition.  Then he will decide if he wants to sell it, or not, and how much to ask.

And, as if I didn't have enough UFOs to work on, I started another new project... POTC.. (I forget what the letters stand for.. will have to go back to yahoo groups and check)  It is a hand-pieced elongated-hexie block swap!  The swap doesn't officially begin until September, but I am working on my first one as a practice!  So far, I am enjoying it!

                       I think I like the right side setting better... I need to make more pieces and decide which way to stitch it together

I made a bit more progress on my Spring Wall Hanging.... fusing the daffodils and some hyacinths onto the background.  The tulips and narcissus and more hyacinths are still in progress.

WORK COMPLETED IN July
 .....03.....customer tops quilted (YTD 39)
.....01.....customer quilts bound (YTD  11)
.....00.....flimsy completed waiting for quilting (YTD 13)
.....02.....quilted flimsy (YTD 11 )
.....20.....hand-work hours (76 YTD )

MY PROJECTS COMPLETED THIS YEAR:
Lucky Charms wall hanging (1/21/13)
Basket Sampler Welcome wall hanging (2/15/13)
Knitted afghan  (3/20/13)
Scrap Mania quilt (3/19/13)
Orange/Blue Jelly Roll quilt (3/18/13)
Hope Academy Banner (3/27/13)
Jaxson's quilt (3/22/13)
Baltimore Album (4/5/13)
Civil War Snowball (4/5/13)
Big Brother Quilt (5/7/13)
Easy Street (7/22/13)
Matthew's Puppies (7/25/13)

Projects Waiting to be Quilted
 Sloanie Christmas Star Swap
 Floribunda


Projects in Progress 
  Spring Wall Hanging....backing prepared.  preparing flowers for applique, some fused to backing
  Disappearing 4 patch...blocks are completed, ready for assembly
  Sweet & Sassy.....9 blocks completed, sashed and quilt corner assembled
  Becky's Barn basket wall hanging...4 blocks completed, assembly to be decided
  Novelty Quilt... blocks cut, need assembly
  Happiness Key...background complete, needs applique/embroidery
  Floral & Pinwheels.... made 4 pinwheels then renamed.... Florals&9patch
  POTC... a hand-pieced hexie swap project.
 
Bonnie Projects in Progress
.....01.....cheddar bowties blocks hand-pieced (YTD  1  of  81)   ...  (81 of 162 in 2012)
.....00.....cheddar bowtie rows stitched (YTD  0 .... 9 of 18 in 2012)
...done....Orca Bay Step 1 hourglass blocks made (YTD 49  plus 21 in 2012) total  70 of 112 
....done...Orca Bay Step 2  3.5in string blocks made (completed in 2012 )
....done...Orca Bay Step 3 2in HSTs (YTD 55 plus120 in 2012)  total 175
.....done..Orca Bay Step 4 5.5in string blocks (YTD 08 plus 24 of 32 in 2012) total 32
.....done..Orca Bay Step 5 cut 350 triangles and stitch to part 3 to make winged triangles (175 of 175)
.....00.....Orca Bay Step 6 cut 2.5in squares and assemble Ohio Stars (0)
.....00.....Orca Bay Step 7 make flying geese (0)
..done.....Floribunda Blocks assembled into flimsy and ready to quilt!
..............Talkin Turkey..... 2 blocks complete plus parts
..............Midnight Flight....1 block complete plus parts
..............Winston Ways... 2 blocks complete plus parts
..done....Easy Street is now assembled into flimsy and ready to quilt

Easy Street

Easy Street is now completed.  It was a big rush to get the binding finished Monday night... just in time for the FCE competition Tuesday morning. (I'm waiting for a dry day to take it outside for a final picture)

Good thing too, because I won a BLUE RIBBON!!

Blueberries!

There is no beating the taste of home-grown fresh-picked made-from-scratch blueberry muffins!

Except, of course, unless they are fresh blueberry pancakes!

They were so good, I almost forgot to take a picture!

Back to School

It's that time of year again... summer is over and the new school year begins.

Or, as in the case of my grandson... his first day of school...pre-K

Today was just a short day... a few minutes to register, meet the teacher and discover that your best friend from daycare is in your class!

Summer Time Recipe

It's that time of year when the garden is beginning to put out lots of fresh vegetables.  One of our favorites is yellow squash.... and below are two family favorite recipes.

Battletown Squash Casserole

 from the chef at the 1776 Battletown Inn, Berryville, VA.

6 small yellow squash

1 small onion, diced

1 cup heavy cream

12 saltines, crushed

2 Tbs butter

salt & pepper to taste

Peel, slice, boil till tender, and mash squash.  Drain excess liquid and set aside.

Lightly grease individual ramekins or a casserole dish, (I like to use a 9x12 baking dish and top with extra saltines for the topping).

Finely dice onion and sauté in butter.  Add cream.  Heat until not quite ready to boil.  Add  half of the crushed saltines.  Stir… it will become thick pudding like consistency.

Fold into mashed squash.  Spoon into ramekins or casserole dish. (It will be a thin layer in the 9x12 pan)  Sprinkle with remaining crushed saltines and dot with extra butter for a slightly crunchy topping.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Bake in a 400deg. Oven for approx 20 min or until golden.

Yellow Squash Muffins

2 C mashed yellow squash. 

2 eggs, beaten

1 C melted butter (2 sticks)*

1 C sugar*

3 C flour          

1 Tbs + 1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Peel, slice, boil until soft, drain, then mash several small yellow squash for a total of 2 cups mashed squash.  You can puree the squash if you prefer no chunks in your muffin.  Set aside to cool to room temp.  Drain excess liquid.  When cool, mix in eggs and butter and set aside.

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center and fold in squash mixture until moist.  Spoon into muffin tins ¾ full

Bake at 375deg until golden …. 15-20 min.

These are a nice breakfast muffin and freeze well if you want to make large batches.

 Options:

I have added blueberries or strawberry pieces to the muffins,  but it is best to use foil papers in the muffin tin so that they don’t stick.

*These can be made lower fat/less rich by using only 1 stick of butter.

* 1 Cup of Splenda can be used in place of sugar

You can also add some cinnamon to the sugar/splenda before mixing for a different taste.

 

Wednesday Sewing Sisters

This morning I met with my girlfriends at the library to chat, sew and have a bit of fun!

I think it was back in March the group agreed to work on a Spring Wall Hanging together.  I really didn't need to start another new project, but this one appealed to me and since several others wanted to try it too, well, why not!?!

I purchased the pattern book, raided the stash, and organized fabrics (my only purchase was that blue butterfly background fabric... but it was just a rementant ... on sale!)  

Here is the book we are using... the pattern is on page 96

Applique The basics & beyond by Janet Pittman  
ISBN 13: 978-1-890621-06-3

At our April meeting I cut and pieced the background and cut and pinned some of the fencing.  I was disappointed that none of the others were starting yet... they had other projects they were finishing up first, but planned on starting soon.  I have other projects too, but decide I would work on this one only at our meetings and find time at home for the other projects.

In May, I needleturned the fence rails.

In June I began with tracing and fusing the flowers together.

When fusing multiple-part or layered applique (like the grouping of daffodils) I learned that once the fusible  is ironed onto the back of the fabric and the shapes are cut, you can peel off the paper and place them on a piece of parchment paper fussing with them until the are set just right.  Then you lightly press with the iron to fuse them all together.  (I use Heat&Bond Light.) When cooled, the entire grouping easily peels away from the parchment.  If it isn't quite right, you can still carefully peel it apart and easily correct the placement before finally fusing the entire grouping on the background.  In this case, the hyacinths are added after the daffodil grouping to cover and hide the mess of stems at the bottom.
  
Now it's July, and today my daffodils and some hyacinths are complete and fused to the background ... and I am started on the tulips.  (I forgot to take step by step pictures, but here is a picture of how far along I am today).   

The tulips are fused together, but just laying on the background for now.  I still need to cut out the stems and leaves before layering and fusing everything in place.  There are narcissus and a bunch more hyacinths to be added before I start the process of blanket-stitching all the pieces.  There will be some embellishment stitching, also, to hopefully bring out the finer details of the flowers.  I plan to add a pieced border, and a final border that should, hopefully, make it big enough to fit my wall.  If I keep plugging away at this each month, I may have it quilted in time to hang next Spring!

Rain

This has been an extremely wet summer.  We had almost 8 inches of rain in the last 5 days alone!  The run-off ditches at the side and back of our property have been flowing like a river.... the ground is completely waterlogged!

Back in the end of May/early June we had arranged to have some large trees near the house removed because we noticed some of the large branches were splitting and there is a risk of them breaking off and damaging the house! Because of the proximity to the house and fenced yard, they need to bring in some heavy trucks with buckets and cranes... and that is just not possible with the ground so saturated... unless we want the lawn totally destroyed!  The almost constant rains are preventing any work being done.

We also wanted to have our driveway repaired and repaved.  The city did their part and fixed the top, but again, the paving must wait until the rains stop. 

So far, the rains have not damaged or washed out the new gravel base.  Once the paving is complete, we will have to bring in some dirt to "support" the sides of the driveway and hopefully direct the water away to prevent damage again.

The rain has kept me inside and I have been working on a challenging (for me) customer quilt.  The majority of the quilting I do is with pantograms and occasionally, some echo stitching.  This quilt has twenty 15inch blocks and she requested a different quilting design for each block.  There is lots of ruler work and some free-hand quilting that I am not accustomed to doing, so progress has been slow.  But, I am nearing the end and hope to get some pictures soon.

Pat Sloan issued a challenge to sew at least 15 minutes every day for the month of July as a means to bust some UFOs!  My Orca Bay quilt has been my leader/ender project for quite some time as I completed other small projects and worked to complete my Easy Street.   Orca Bay is now my daily sewing project and I am making steady progress.... I'm about half-way done with the Step 5 Winged Triangles.  Only 3 more steps to go!

I've been following Esther's blog and the excitement over her newest pattern, Love Entwined.  I've gathered some fabrics and just found and ordered a fabric that I believe will work well for the background.  I still haven't decided if I will do this or not as it involves lots of very challenging applique over the next 18 months.  I could possibly make just the center block... which may be enough of a challenge and time commitment for me.  I'm waiting on starting until her next updated post... and the release of a simpler pattern (Lilly, Rose & Cherry??) that I hope will be more realistic for me to accomplish.

2013 Totals June

June was a slow customer month with only 3 quilts completed.  Toward month end a large custom quilt came in and I began working on that after vacation.  It is a 20 block sampler and she wants each block quilted differently...my challenge for this summer!

We took a week-long vacation and I brought along my sewing to work on while hubby was off fishing.  The cabin porch overlooked the lake and it was a very peaceful and relaxing way to sew.

Matthew's Puppies quilt is now assembled and waiting it's turn to be quilted.  Easy Street is now a flimsy also!  
I moved Orca Bay a bit further along by doing some cutting for step 5, but forgot to bring parts with me on vacation so sewing had to wait. 
Disappearing 4-Patch blocks are now completed.  Now I have to decide how to assemble them into a quilt... with or without sashing?!?

Because I forgot to bring my OB parts on vacation, I ran out of sewing to do.  YIKES!  So a trip into town looking for a fabric store (none existed) but I did find some nice fabrics in WalMart ... a floral and two coordinating solids.  I planned to make pinwheels with the solids and alternate with a square of the floral. A new quilt is born, Florals&Pinwheels. But, once a few pinwheels were made and laid out next to the floral, I realized their bold color was too overwhelming for the floral square.  The new plan is to get some WOW and mix with the pale green I bought for a backing to make 9patches using the coordinating solids for the center square.  I think that will tone it down and play together better. The new name is now Florals&9patches!  (I'm so clever when it comes to names! LOL!!!)   to see pictures of the above projects go back to this post from a few days ago:  http://madakamom.blogspot.com/2013/06/lakeside-get-away.html

My handwork this month was mostly tracing to flowers for my spring wall hanging.  I did finish up knitting one more dishcloth.  A lot of my "free" time was spent helping care for the grandsons and helping my daughter move the rest of her stuff into her new home.

WORK COMPLETED INJUNE
 .....03.....customer tops quilted (YTD 36)
.....01.....customer quilts bound (YTD  10)
.....02.....flimsy completed waiting for quilting(Easy Street, Matthew's Puppies)
.....00.....quilted flimsy (YTD 9 )
.....04.....hand-work hours (66 YTD )

MY PROJECTS COMPLETED THIS YEAR:
Lucky Charms wall hanging (1/21/13)
Basket Sampler Welcome wall hanging (2/15/13)
Knitted afghan  (3/20/13)
Scrap Mania quilt (3/19/13)
Orange/Blue Jelly Roll quilt (3/18/13)
Hope Academy Banner (3/27/13)
Jaxson's quilt (3/22/13)
Baltimore Album (4/5/13)
Civil War Snowball (4/5/13)
Big Brother Quilt (5/7/13)

Projects Waiting to be Quilted
 Sloanie Christmas Star Swap
 Floribunda
 Easy Street
 Matthew's Puppies

Projects in Progress 
  Spring Wall Hanging....backing prepared.  preparing flowers for applique
  Disappearing 4 patch...blocks are completed, ready for assembly
  Sweet & Sassy.....9 blocks completed, sashed and quilt corner assembled
  Becky's Barn basket wall hanging...4 blocks completed, assembly to be decided
  Novelty Quilt... blocks cut, need assembly
  Happiness Key...background complete, needs applique/embroidery
  Floral & Pinwheels.... made 4 pinwheels then renamed.... Florals&9patch
 
Bonnie Projects in Progress
.....01.....cheddar bowties blocks hand-pieced (YTD  1  of  81)   ...  (81 of 162 in 2012)
.....00.....cheddar bowtie rows stitched (YTD  0 .... 9 of 18 in 2012)
...done....Orca Bay Step 1 hourglass blocks made (YTD 49  plus 21 in 2012) total  70 of 112 
....done...Orca Bay Step 2  3.5in string blocks made (completed in 2012 )
....done...Orca Bay Step 3 2in HSTs (YTD 55 plus120 in 2012)  total 175
.....done..Orca Bay Step 4 5.5in string blocks (YTD 08 plus 24 of 32 in 2012) total 32
.....00.....Orca Bay Step 5 cut 350 triangles and stitch to part 3 (0 of 175)
.....00.....Orca Bay Step 6 cut 2.5in squares and assemble Ohio Stars (0)
.....00.....Orca Bay Step 7 make flying geese (0)
..done.....Floribunda Blocks assembled into flimsy and ready to quilt!
..............Talkin Turkey..... 2 blocks complete plus parts
..............Midnight Flight....1 block complete plus parts
..............Winston Ways... 2 blocks complete plus parts
..done....Easy Street is now assembled into flimsy and ready to quilt

driveway

Some years before we moved here 10 years ago, the city came through, cut off the top of all the driveways in the neighborhood and installed sewer lines.  All has been well until the last couple years when we noticed the ground sinking across the front of the property. I've called several times and they just keep telling me that the ground is settling... nothing to worry about.  Last year it got so bad that the driveway started breaking on the right side.  We called to have the city come check out what is going on underneath and make the repair.  All they did was pave over the broken area and level things out.   

In the picture below you can see the patch line where they repaired and leveled it out last year. That worked fine for a while, but this spring, it is sinking even more,and the corner is now totally breaking apart. So we began getting estimates on repaving the entire driveway and arranged to have the city repair the top part.  Today they arrived bright and early!

 First Dustin used a saw to make a cut between the edge of the driveway and the road.

Next, Justin came in with the back hoe and lifted up all the pieces of the old blacktop...I was amazed watching him move small pieces into position then scooping them up and dropping them into the dump truck.

 Nate came next with a load of gravel to fill in the hole.

Then back to Justin with the backhoe.  He just smoothed out the pile of gravel then rolled over it to pack it down some.    

Justin added a couple more scoops to fill in the edges nicely. 


 And Nate finished it all off with the wacker...yes.. that's what that thing is called.. says so right on front! ... packing it all together and smoothing it level.

A few finishing touches with rake and we are done!

Now we have to wait for the pavers to come in with the blacktop and finish the driveway.