A Sophisticate on Easy Street - Part 5

'Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the house, I was happily cutting and stitching and chatting with friends and family on the phone. I woke to find the electricity had gone out in the night. What was light rain and falling temps when I drove home last night had turned to snow, so I pulled on my robe and stepped out to take some pictures of the first one of the season. I let the dog in and then sneaked back to bed while the house warmed up.

Snow on Magnolia and Holly in backyard.

I'd cleared out part of the kitchen for Christmas Eve by piling things in my sewing room. First thing this morning I sorted and put that stuff away, instead of just moving the piles someplace else, which can be tempting when you have an entire house to yourself. Then I rewarded myself by cutting fabrics for week 5. Bonnie's purple is also my purple, but I have only one fabric, and I cut some 3 1/2" squares from that plum print to begin. Her blue is my green; I cut a pile of 2" squares with some scraps I had left over from an earlier week. Initial sewing and trimming showed me that my final pieces were just a few threads short of 3 1/2", so I cut the next set of plum fabric with the edge on the outside of my ruler line instead of hidden by the line. That worked perfectly, giving me the little extra width I needed. There's no real name for this shape, but it looks like a house to me. Given the time of year, I'm calling them "Up on the Rooftop" blocks. With only three greens it didn't seem worth trying to mix colors up within blocks so I stitched my Rooftop blocks with matching greens in the corners.

"Up on the Rooftop" blocks.

 My quilt won't be the scrap-happy one Bonnie's is, but I'm fine with that. I love my fabrics and colors, and look forward to seeing it all come together. One of the best things about quilting is watching something emerge from fabric, threads, and ideas. You can plan all you want, but the finished project is always at least a little surprising. I like that!

Playing with the pieces we've made so far.

An after-Christmas chat with DS on the phone got me to thinking about why I like quilting. A lot of the pleasure I get comes from remembering my Grandmothers' quilts. One of them enjoyed piecing simple patterns with a large variety of fabrics saved from sewing for her family. She pieced at home on her treadle machine or by hand, but quilted weekly with a group of women at church. The other Grandmother created applique quilts with realistic birds and flowers, reflecting her interests in art, garden design and bird-watching. She pieced and quilted them at home, controlling the results completely. Their quilts were different, like the women, but all of them are beautiful and special to their family.

Front yard snow.

Wasn't it the perfect day to be inside sewing and fortifying myself with hot tea and yummy Christmas leftovers?

This post is part of Bonnie Hunter's Week 5 Link-Up.

Cinnamon Roasted Pecans

I started making these nuts for Christmas several years ago.  We host a kind of open house on Christmas Day for our extended family, and I like to have lots of different finger foods available.  I don't remember where I found this recipe, but it is easy to make, foolproof, and addictive - what more could you want?!  They are great for a party or for gift-giving.  While pecans are expensive here, the rest of the ingredients are things that you'll likely have on hand, making it a pretty economical - and unique - gift.  I start buying the nuts before Thanksgiving, a bag or two each time I get groceries, so its not insanely expensive all at once.

I've modified the original recipe, and also tripled it.  If you don't want to make lots at once, feel free to cut the recipe by a third, but be aware that you may need to decrease the cooking time by 15 minutes or so.

Cinnamon Roasted Pecans

3 egg whites
1 T cold water
1 T vanilla
3 lbs pecan halves
1 1/2 c white sugar
1 1/2 c brown sugar
3/4 t salt
3 T cinnamon

1. Thoroughly grease two 9" x 13" glass pans.  Preheat the oven to 250* F.

2. In a very extremely large mixing bowl, combine egg whites, water and vanilla.  Whisk well, until foamy/frothy but not stiff.  Add nuts and toss until well coated.

3. In a separate bowl, combine sugars, salt and cinnamon.  Mix well.

4. Add 1/2 of the sugar mixture to the pecans.  Toss well to coat.  Add remaining sugar mixture.  Stir and toss well.

5. Divide the pecans between the two prepared pans.  Spread them out so that they are evenly distributed in the pans.

6. Bake at 250* for 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes.  Pour nuts on to parchment paper lined cooling racks, and cool completely. 

Springtime on Easy Street - Part 3

Yes, I'm running behind at the moment.  This happens every year... Despite my best intentions, I just don't manage to keep up with the steps.  Finals were a priority, as I needed to get the best grades possible for admission to the RN program next year.  Plus, I had an admission exam for said RN program...  I'm so glad the studying is over for a few weeks! 

The other thing that slows my sewing progress is the fact that I "lose" my sewing area every Christmas.  You see, our living room is very long and narrow.  If the furniture is along the walls, it feels like a bowling alley!  We have  the furniture arranged so that it's comfortable and welcoming, but that left an area about five feet deep behind everything.  I claimed that as my sewing area!  I have a table and desk back there, a power outlet, and a light - so it's just about perfect!  During the holidays, though, we put the Christmas tree (a small live one in a pot) on my table.  That means my sewing machine has to move somewhere else...  Then I'm not as motivated, or I don't have a good place for it...  It's okay, though - I know I'm not the only one a little behind!  So here are some of my step 3 blocks, the shaded 4-patches.

I was really excited to get to use my pinks for this step.  I just love the way they play off the purples, and my neutrals have a calming effect on the vibrant colors.  I'm going to make sewing a priority tomorrow, and am planning on at least getting my steps 4 and 5 cut out, and a couple of each sewn up.

Did I mention I love my fabrics? :)

Knitting Projects

I learned to knit as a little girl, but didn't do much of it. Over the years I've tried a few times to make a sweater, but I don't think I ever finished one. I'd run into problems and not have anywhere to go for help. The world is very different now, with You-Tube and Ravelry, the ability to Google and use e-mail for help. So, drumroll please... Here's my first completed sweater, for my almost three-year-old Grandson, William.

From "The Big Books of  Kids' Knits" by Zoe Mellor

I made it size four, so it may be way too big, but he's tall for his age, with broad shoulders. I'm eager to see a picture of it on him so I'll know if it comes close to fitting.

My son requested a hat for mountain climbing, and I'm about half-way done with that. But I figure his head isn't growing, so it can take a bit more time. I've also almost finished a pullover for me -- just one sleeve to go. Unfortunately our weather has warmed up again here, so I may have to turn on the AC to have a chance to wear it.

A Sophisticate on Easy Street - Part 4

I'll admit that I wasn't thrilled when I saw we were doing Flying Geese again this week. I was getting a slightly later start -- Saturday morning -- as I'd worked all week knitting a sweater for my Grandson and finishing some other Christmas projects for out-of-towners, then wrapping and mailing everything Friday afternoon.  Thinking about those "geese", I decided to challenge myself to do a better job with that shape this week, and to make sure I enjoyed the process more. For me that meant not doing all the cutting and stitching assembly-line fashion. Instead I only cut out about 12 blocks at a time; then I pieced and attached them to the Week Two blocks before starting more. I enjoyed watching them come together and seeing my progress in finished units. Maybe it wasn't quite as efficient, but it was fun. I had all 64 Flying Geese units completed and joined with the others before the end of Saturday afternoon, and I think they look pretty good. I only have one plum fabric, but the large floral design gives it a lot of variety when it's pieced into blocks.

Love the way the colors look together!

The rest of that day and Sunday I finished piecing the Shaded Four Patches from Week Three that I'd left while I finished my Christmas projects. I ended up using the too-large triangles I'd cut earlier just as they were and then trimming the finished blocks down to size. It took longer, but I was happier with my results. I pieced them in smaller batches, too, and enjoyed the process so much that after I finished those I did some more sewing. First I finished the Log Cabin background of a simple winter scene I making up. It's my "For When I Can't Get the Points to Match" Wall Hanging, where I rebel against the precise piecing required in most quilts that sometimes drives me crazy. For it I deliberately made the blocks uneven and mismatched the corners. :)  Next I'm going to applique a few free-form evergreens on it, then add embroidery and maybe some beads or other fun embellishments. Finally, I cut out and pieced some blocks for a blue and white quilt I've been thinking about doing for a long time. I've decided to use the Jacob's Ladder pattern, as it's a really simple block that gives an intricate look. It has the same white-on-white background fabrics that I got for this mystery quilt -- I love the way they contrast with the strong blues. So one project leads to another, even before the first is finished. And the quilting goes on...


This post is part of Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt Week Four Link-Up.

Quilts in Shades of Gray

Whether you spell it gray or grey, it's not a color that gets used much in quilts. When Bonnie Hunter announced that she was using that particular color as a major player in her Easy Street mystery quilt, it made my daughter and I think. We realized neither of us had any gray fabrics on our stash, though I did find a small piece stuck in a box some time later. We both intended to make the mystery quilt and thought it would be fun to challenge ourselves by using the same gray fabric but choosing all the others differently. Since then I've noticed gray in quite a few quilts, and I've about decided it's sadly under appreciated.

Here are some quilts I've found that use gray. 

I love the colors against the barn! There's
gray in the quilt, too.
From: life on the selvage edge

Gray can be modern.
From: V and Co.

Gray can be young.
By Louise
From: lululollylegs

It can even be sweetly feminine.
From : oops-lah

Here gray sets off the many other colors used and
also keeps them from clashing.
From: material obsession

Nothing but gray, yet lovely!
By Yoko Saito
From: Be*mused

Finally, here's a very sophisticated use of gray.

By Tim Latimer
From: tim quilts

These quilts make me think I've been missing something by not using gray.

A Sophisticate on Easy Street - Part 3

I could call this post "A Comedy of Errors". I messed up cutting the strips (too narrow), messed up cutting the big triangles (too big), messed up sewing the little triangles to the squares (wrong edges) -- about the only thing I did right was cut the 2" squares! As I progressed, I also found the corner of the small square wasn't meeting up with the large triangle like it should. Normally I'd re-stitch them to make the pieces fit exactly, but that would have made the finished squares too small and caused problems later. So I took a break to think about my strategy.

Some of my wonky blocks. The colors are not a mistake; my green in Bonnie's  blue.

Now I could just show you pictures of my perfect blocks (I do have some), and leave out the details of my problems. But I can't be the only quilter who makes mistakes, measures incorrectly, and struggles with getting my seams in exactly the right place. Frankly, I'm tired of reading books and magazines that make quilting sound easy, that imply all you have to do is connect the dots and your results will be museum-worthy. I'm NOT talking about Bonnie's blog or books, or those of fellow mystery quilters. But there seems to be an implication in the professional quilting world that new rulers and rotary cutters and templates and programmable sewing machines and  You-Tube videos make quilting goof proof. But it's not. However you cut your fabric, it's still slips, bias edges still stretch and corners still slide. And I, for one, don't intend to pretend otherwise.

Sometimes everything works beautifully. Other times it doesn't. For those days I have a "three chances" rule. I'll try and fix a less-than-perfect block three times if I catch a problem soon enough. If it isn't right after the third try I stop and use it anyway. It didn't look like fixing these wonky blocks would work, since they'd come out too small if I did. So I decided to cut the rest of the big triangles slightly larger and then trim the finished blocks down to size. It's more work that way, but with only 64 total blocks to do all week, I knew I had time and that I'd ultimately be happier with the results. But every project and person is different.

So my message to anyone out there in Quiltville is the same one I keep telling myself -- "Let go of the desire for perfection. You don't have to win an award or create a quilt worthy of a museum. Just create the quilt that is in you today. Do the same tomorrow. And enjoy the process."

Here are a few of the good ones.

This post is part of Bonnie Hunter's Week Three Linky.

Springtime on Easy Street - Part 2

I haven't been able to do much on this step - Flying Geese - this week.  Between work, finals, and more work my time and energy have been pretty much gone.  I did get everything cut out, though, and managed to piece a few units just to make sure I had cut things correctly.  They're not perfect, but they're good enough.  I work this weekend, then have two more finals on Tuesday.  Wednesday is going to be my first absolutely free day in quite awhile, and I plan to spend it at my sewing machine!

I wish I could figure out how to take pictures that are true to color - my purples are much richer and more purple-y, and a lot less blue than they look here...

A Sophisticate on Easy Street - Part 2

I'd mentioned to Betsy that I was looking forward to working with some color this week, so I could see how my fabrics would look cut apart and sewn with the others. It turns out this week's color is... Purple! My color choices are quite different from Bonnie's, but her purple is my plum, so that makes this step extra clear. I only have one fabric for this color, which I think officially makes it a "Controlled Scrap" quilt. I would have been happy to use more fabrics, but between our two fabric stores and my stash I couldn't come up with another piece that matched enough for me, so it's all plum, all the way. That's OK, I really like this one, which is a companion piece from the same line as my inspiration fabric. (I didn't necessarily plan on having an inspiration fabric. I just saw it, fell in love, and said, "I want a quilt that looks like that." Voile, an inspiration fabric is born!)

Inspiration Fabric on Left, Fabric Used in Quilt on Right

If my calculations are correct I need 11-13 plum WOF strips 2" wide, depending on the actual WOF. (Ended up needing 10.) And I need just a tad over 26 24" strips of background, since most of these pieces are fat quarters. Will check with Betsy to see if her math agrees with mine. Since I don't have a cutting surface tall enough to cut fabric really comfortably I'll be splitting that step up. Otherwise, back trouble will plague me all day.

Got the strips cut with no problem. I appreciated Bonnie's heads-up for next week so we could at least cut the background strips while we had the fabrics out. It saved time, and I find there's often a bit of waste every time I have to pull a fabric out and prepare to cut from it again. I'm a bit nervous because I'm almost out of my white-on-whites now. If we need them again I may have to go shopping for a few more. (That would be a tragedy, wouldn't it? LOL) I haven't used these rulers before, but her video tutorial was clear and straightforward so I don't anticipate problems. I may have them, but at least I don't anticipate them.

After cutting out the plum triangles I realized my first mistake -- I'd made one and a half as many of those strips as I needed, and twice as many background strips, because I forgot to allow for the overlap you get when you use the triangle rulers to cut your shapes. It's a basic visualization mistake that I'm no too happy about. I'm afraid all those background strips will be wasted, and I'll definitely need more white-on-white fabric. Can't help wishing the directions came with an estimate of how much length you need to cut of the strips -- but it's my fault for not thinking clearly. At any rate, an hour with Jessica Fletcher and "Murder She Wrote" got almost all the triangles cut out.

A call from Betsy warned me to keep track of the smaller triangles so that a pair that is cut together is stitched into the same unit. Seems that makes the sewing more precise. I'll do my best to keep the sets organized and in order as I chain stitch them. I've never had great success getting flying geese sections into a quilt with all their points exactly right. I'm being as careful as I can, but I'm also trying to embrace the idea that quilts don't have to be perfect to be worth making. And I do like the way the plum fabric looks with the white-on-white background.

This post is part of Bonnie Hunter's Week Two linky: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html.