Sewing Room - Mom

My Sewing Room is a work in progress. Formerly the Master Bed Room, it's located just off the Living Room downstairs. After DH died I moved to one of the upstairs bedrooms, and I'm very happy there. So I recently decided to make better use of the MBR by turning it into a sewing room. I kept the soft sage green paint on the walls. The flooring is laminate tiles, ideal for sweeping up stray threads or finding dropped pins. We had added cabinets along one wall years ago, and they're perfect for storing quilting and sewing stuff.

The blocks hanging on the cabinet doors are part of an on-going series of sampler squares, where I try out new techniques or different features on my machine. Some day they may be a quilt. Right now I just love looking at them. Behind the doors on the left are my large pieces of fabric, some quilt books, and odds and ends that don't fit elsewhere. The drawers hold fabrics for particular quilts I haven't started yet, notions, hand sewing and embroidery needs, etc. The painting was done by my Grandmother, Vera Grutter, and is me as a child. The antique clock on the shelf was also hers, and the quilts piled below it were made by her and my other Grandmother, Louise Quiggle. So they are always with me when I sew, and that makes me very happy. The jars hold small scraps sorted by color. I love just looking at them and thinking about how I could use the colors. The storage on the right is ready to be rearranged to accommodate the yarns I've recently acquired for knitting and weaving.

Swinging left from the above picture you would see a tall, narrow window that isn't in the photo, and the new daybed. The door in the photo goes to the back deck, and the area in front of it is kind of my dumping ground for things I need to keep handy but haven't found a good place for yet.

The plastic bins store most of my fabric stash, lots of fat quarters. I cut on top of them. It's really too low, so I don't cut for long at one time, but I haven't decided how to arrange this part of the room better. I do like being able to move around three sides of my cutting table.

The daybed is new. One of my goals is to make a quilt and pillows for it this spring. Right now one end holds fabric and pieces for Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, while Christmas presents are collecting on the other. I plan on mounting rods on the walls for quilts and weavings in the near future.

Opposite the daybed I have my design area -- wall-mounted flannel that I can stick fabrics and squares to. Hanging there now is my "Little House on the Prairie" Triangle quilt. It's waiting to for me to make the back, then sandwich, tie and finish it with prairie points. Or do I put the prairie points on next? I'm not sure, I'll have to think about this...

I made the chair cover out of fabric from my stash. I love the sky blue color with the green walls, it makes me feel like I'm sewing in my garden! Betsy made the sewing machine cover some years ago. When she loaned me her machine, it came along for the ride. I love having three generations of family in my room. The sewing machine table backs up to the ironing board, so as I sew I look toward my pretty shelves, Grandmothers' quilts and jars of fabric scraps.

Some people have their spaces arranged so they never have to leave their chairs. It works very well for them, but I really like being forced to walk around the room as my sewing progresses. It keeps me from getting too stiff. I also find good lighting is more important as I get older, and I have a floor lamp with a goose neck attachment behind my sewing chair.

So that's my Sewing Room so far. It's lovely to have the space, and I plan to continue to enjoy it. But I'll be honest -- if I could chose I'd rather have the house full of people and be sewing on the tiny folding table I used for years. Still, we don't always get to chose the path our lives take, we can only do the best with what we have, and my sewing room is one way I'm trying to do that.

It's Fruitcake Time

This year I decided to make fruitcake. I blame Alton Brown for giving me the idea, as I recently picked up his first Good Eats cookbook, and it includes his Free Range fruitcake -- all dried fruits, doused in liberal quantities of rum. But the roots of my fruitcake experiment go further back. As a child I loved the TV special A Christmas Memory. We would go to Grandma's house, since she had a color TV, to watch Truman Capote's "evocative narrative focuse(d) on country life, friendship, and the joy of giving during the Christmas season." * Fruitcake figures largely in the sweet story of the happy holidays young Truman spent with an elderly, slightly batty cousin.

Years later my brother married a Southern girl, and her first Christmas brought our family portions of several types of fruitcake her family made every year. There were white ones, dark ones, densely alcoholic cakes and gently fruity types. I think I loved them all! Unfortunately, my SIL's relations with her family went downhill after she married my brother, and we never got to sample those lovely wares again.

So here it is, Christmas 2012 approaching. My loving husband, who hated even the thought of fruitcake, has been gone for several years. (Hopefully St. Peter didn't meet him at the gates with a sample of Heavenly Manna stuffed with artificially green candied cherries and lemon peel. LOL) I felt I needed some fun new holiday traditions. Fruitcake seemed perfect, especially when I found out both my kids inherited my enjoyment of it.

That's how I found myself over Thanksgiving having a Fruitcake Bake-a-Thon. I made two loaves of a white one with no alcohol, only orange juice. It holds the most typical mix of candied fruits. I made what turned out to be three loaves of Alton Brown's lovely offering. After soaking the dried fruit overnight in rum, (I chose Sailor Jerry's Spiced variety), you then simmer it on the stove while melting in the butter and brown sugar. AMAZING! I wish I could have a pot on the stove everyday, it smelled so spicy and rich. 

My third recipe is called Stephen's Dark, and is a take-off on the old Joy of Cooking recipe. Since my Joy fell apart years ago and somehow never got replaced, I'm using Stephen's version for what should have been two loaves but ended up more one and a half. It has a mix of dried and candied fruit. You put alcohol inside, (I used Marsala, since I had it on hand), and then as it bakes you pour more whiskey over it every 15 minutes. I don't drink, so I had to seek help from others before shopping for the alcohol, and for this step I bought Jim Beam Black. They man at my local liquor store had clearly fielded Christmas baking questions before, and made me feel right at home. 

As soon as the fruitcakes come from the oven you douse them with the chosen liquid, and let them cool in the pan. Then you douse them again, remove from the pan, and wrap them in cheesecloth which has also been soaked in the alcohol or juice. I'll admit I wrapped them first, then poured the liquid over until they were soaked. It seemed easier and a lot less messy. The cakes now reside in sealed plastic bags, and get re-doused every few days. (I'm may run out of rum before Christmas.) I think the alcohol keeps them from molding, but I also read you can refrigerate them after a week or two, so I may do that just to be sure.

I can already tell you these lovelies are good, as one of the Free Range cakes was smaller than the rest, and I decided to try a bite before wrapping it up...     Did you know a tiny wedge of fruitcake is great with a cup of hot tea in the morning? Or in the afternoon? Or just before bed? And it got better everyday, even without the extra rum. Yum.

I think part of what makes them so good is quality ingredients. I used lovely dried Turkish apricots, flavorful dried tart cherries, and some organic figs, among many other fruits. I purchased almost everything fresh, mostly from Whole Foods. The cake part is pretty much a pound cake, and I used real, fresh butter. Shortly before Christmas, sections of these cakes are going out to the kids, and we will be enjoying and making notes for changes or improvements for next year. Should be, as the man on TV says,  "Good Eats".


*Wikipedia "A Christmas Memory"
**You can watch a newer version of  A Christmas Memory on Netflix. You-Tube has portions (in b&w) of the version I grew up with, starring Geraldine Page, and narrated by Capote himself. The short story is also available on the web.

A Sophisticate on Easy Street - Part 1

A couple of phone calls with Betsy the morning the first step was released established that we needed to cut twenty Width-of-Fabric strips in our mutual gray. Then, since most of our background fabrics are in fat quarters, we could cut the longer gray strips in half and match them with the lighter fabrics to piece. Clear as mud, right? My background fabrics are all white on white, Betsy's are cream. Both look great with the gray. I had two white-on-white fabrics that were 1/2 yard cuts. So I used them full length and for half of the strips. One is the stripe you can clearly see in the above picture upper right, the other is a more mottled and seen center square, lower left end. The rest of my strips came from my assorted fat quarters.
I'm not the world's most accurate quilter, so I took my time and carefully cut my fabrics strips. After sewing them together I pressed the seams flat, as I've read that helps to set them. I then proceeded to cut the strips into 2" pieces. After cutting 200, I suddenly realized I'd forgotten to go back and press the seams to one side. So I spent almost an hour ironing those little pieces open, seams pressed toward the gray end. :(
Despite that setback, I finished all my squares on Sunday. The corners meet nicely in the center, and on the back they swirl very prettily. 400 four-patches now reside, labelled, in a large baggie, waiting for the next big reveal. In the meantime, I think I'll go knit some socks...

This post is linked to Easy Street Monday Link-Up #1!

Springtime On Easy Street - Part 1

Even though this week's Easy Street step was pretty simple - 4 patches  - I actually learned a new technique!  I've heard about spinning seams, but had never attempted it before.  If I have a lot of bulk at intersecting seams, I usually just iron them open.  On Friday, though, I decided that this would be as good a time as any to see if I could manage to figure how to get the seams to spin.  To my surprise, it really wasn't that difficult, and it didn't take any more time than pressing all of the seams open would have.  All of my centers match up beautifully, and the backs of my units look great, too!

The "spun seams":

My 200 4 patches:

Now I'm off to work on Christmas presents!

This post has been linked to the Easy Street Monday Link-Up #1!

A Sophisticate on Easy Street -- Fabric Selections

This is my first time making one of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts, so the entire process is a bit of a mystery to me. My daughter has been urging me to join her for several years, but I never felt organized enough, or de-stressed enough, to tackle it. Earlier this year she practically FORCED me to start sewing again, and it felt good. So I agreed to join the challenge, and here I am.
After brainstorming possible color combinations, we finally went fabric shopping. My only clear plan was to use fabrics from my stash. First we chose our fabric-in-common, a lovely gray that we both agreed we wouldn't normally pick. Then my stash busting plan took a left turn when I fell in love with a deep plum, teal and cream print. Dramatic and sophisticated, it required colors I couldn't be sure I had at home. So I bought fabric -- the all over inspiration print and a coordinating plum to start. The hunt began for suitable teals, which proved elusive. (Turns out I did have a few at home to mix in.)
Those of you making the quilt will realize that I needed a fourth color. Olive green seemed a good choice, and it was hard to find, too. I bought a large amount of one batik print, and added a couple of others from my stash. For the background we decided white-on-white prints were necessary to provide the proper pop of color.
In the end I had one gray for the constant, one plum, four teal and three olive fabrics. Not exactly the scrappy explosion I'd expected, but I'm quite happy with my colors and it will be fun to see how they interact as the quilt unfolds. Just to make things more confusing, I'm using my blues for Bonnie's greens and my greens for her blues -- got that? (I labelled them all and am counting on Betsy to keep me straight.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mom is busy making three kinds of fruitcakes.

I'm making sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and praline pumpkin cheesecake.

Have a wonderful day full of friends, family, and food - and don't forget to take a moment to count your blessings.  No matter how bad things are (and we've been there over the past several years), there is still something to be thankful for. 

Psalm 107:1 "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." 

And, if that doesn't work for you, at least you can be thankful that I'm not making the turkey this year!

Springtime on Easy Street - Fabric Selections

If you haven't already checked out Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt Easy Street, you really should!  I was undecided about my color choices for quite awhile.  While I love the purples and grey that Bonnie's using, I wasn't as convinced about the lime greens and aqua/turquoises, nor the black on white prints.  For awhile, I planned on using a slight variation on her colors - apple greens and sky blues, with my neutrals to be determined later.  But I really felt that it needed some rose, too.  I debated switching out the purples for a deep rose, but purple is one of my favorite colors, and I've never used it in a quilt!  It wasn't until the morning that Mom and I were going to the fabric stores (an hour away!) that I finally settled on colors, and a theme.

Between the greens, blues, and purples the fabrics felt like spring - something that will be rather elusive here for awhile.  Everything is so brown and grey until mid-March or early April.  The bright colors made me happy, but it still didn't feel quite right.  I realized that my real hangup was the blue, and I still really wanted rose.  It's not that I don't like blue, it just wasn't inspiring me for this project.

What I finally settled on was spring greens, rosy pinks, and dark purples - along with the grey fabric that Mom and I are both utilizing.  I also chose cream-on-cream prints rather than black on white, as the creams felt calmer to me.  My fabrics feel like a spring garden now, and they make me smile just to look at them! 

I'm going to call my quilt "Springtime on Easy Street".  It's a little obvious, I know, but it just fits.  I don't have much of a fabric stash, so I did buy the majority of the fabric.  I got quarter-yard cuts and made sure that I had a nice range of tones and shades within each color - Mom was a big help there!  I did have a purple, a couple of pinks, and a few neutrals in my stash that I pulled in, too.  I am so pleased with my fabric choices.  I think that working with them this winter will be so much fun!

This Blog is Bonnie Hunter's Fault...

I have been an avid follower of Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville for several years now.  Two years ago, I participated in her annual mystery quilt - that year it was Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll, and I loved it!  The quilt is not finished yet (I was in nursing school at the time, and got bogged down with all of the monotonous string piecing!), but I love it, and it is definitely not going to stay a UFO for much longer.  Last year, I did not make Orca Bay, as the stress of a new job was just too much for me.  This year, however, I'm all in!

I was so excited when Bonnie announced this year's quilt - Easy Street!  I enjoyed the challenge of Cotton Boll, but really don't have the time for something quite that intricate, so the fact that she says it's going to be simpler is perfect for me!!

Mom has started quilting again this year, after a long hiatus, so we have decided to tackle the mystery together - sort of!  We each want our own quilt, and have different ideas for what we'd like, so we're making our own quilts, but we've added a twist.  In Bonnie's fabric requirements, she suggest one "constant" fabric (everything else is scrappy).  For our quilts, Mom and I have decided to use the same constant fabric, but pick our own colors/themes from there.  After spending quite a bit of time in several fabric shops - and Olive Garden, but I digress - on one very fun day, we also decided to go with a gray.  If my kitchen table wasn't covered up with groceries for Thanksgiving, I'd try to get a better photo, but this will have to do for now... lol!

This fabric will be the unifier between our quilts.  I'm really excited about the mystery quilt, and having a common fabric between the two of our quilts is going to be so much fun!  We ended up starting this blog so that we could post weekly updates of our progress on the mystery quilt, and also participate in Bonnie's weekly linky parties.  So thanks, Bonnie, for giving Mom and me several new things to do together! 

Oh, and the first clue is up this Friday!  Can you tell I'm excited?! 

A bit More About Us

First, thanks to Betsy for quickly getting this set up. I really like the look! The idea for this blog came up while we were riding in the car discussing our quilting "challenge" and the need to have a place to post pictures of our progress. "We could share the same blog" one of us said. "It could be called "Something - MAD" for Mother And Daughter." (I think that was her idea.) Unfortunately "Our Mad World " was taken, so we brainstormed some through e-mail and "Our MAD-e World" was born. It's our way of keeping in touch with each other - and you, too.

Welcome to our world.

Welcome to Our Made World!

At the moment, Mom and I live pretty close to each other.  We try to get together once or twice a week, and enjoy sharing our current hobbies obsessions.  So far, we cook, sew, quilt, knit/crochet, and read voraciously.  Now Mom's added weaving and dying, and I've begun spinning!  Along with all of this, we've decided to tackle a new quilt together-yet-separately (more on that to come), and realized that it would help so much to have a blog to share our progress with each other. 

Here it is, then, our Mother-and-Daughter eWorld!