My Threads

I'm still here

I feel like I've neglected this blog, but I've been really, really busy.  Mostly with work, but I have managed to do some creative things.  Back in August, before our trip to Seattle, I happened upon this website.  Diane Gaudynski does such beautiful machine quilting, and she had a nice little tutorial on Sashiko looking quilting.  I knew that I would be trying this soon.  Before we left Seattle, I went one of the local quilt shops to get a "driving home project".  I can't stand to just sit for hours and hours, when I can be making something.  I picked up a Pretty Posies pattern from Stitch Studios because it had some simple applique on it.  I had some charm packs to work with, so I was good to go.  The little quilt went together really fast.  I pieced it in Seattle, appliqued it on the way home, and then I started quilting.  And quilting.  I don't think I've ever crammed so many stitches onto a small surface like this - it could almost pass for a bullet proof surface.  Maybe not.  Anyhow - here it is.

This was my practice piece for the Sashiko quilting, and some feathers too.  It is, by no means perfect, but, if you stand back far enough, it looks pretty good.  Washing it after I was finished with the quilting helped alot too.  All of the spaces just puffed right up to hide my meandering stitches.  Now that I've done this small (40 x 40 inches) quilt, I'm not quite so hesitant to do more in the future. The only thing is, I now have another quilt with nowhere to go.  It doesn't go with anything in my house.  Why do I keep doing this?  Why don't I select things that work with where I live?  Well, there's always next time.

Aiden

My youngest grandson, Aiden, has been staying with me for the past week.  He has been living in Southern California with his mom for the past year or so, so it has been so nice getting to know him better during his stay.  He is such a sweetie!  He is so polite, and quite the conversationalist.  He'll talk about pretty much everything, and he wants to make sure I take part in the discussion.  Also, Ruby absolutely loves Aiden.  She has thrown me over for him!  And, Aiden loves her back. 

 
 

Heather's birthday

Just a few short years ago, I was holding this in my arms.

It's so hard to believe so many years have sped by.

In my mind, my kids are still "kids", so when we can't be with them on their birthday, it's a little bittersweet.  We were on vacation during Cori's birthday, and missed her celebration, and Heather lives many, many miles (and we've driven every one) from home.  It was good to have a little time together before Heather's birthday, but we still miss seeing her on her day.

Happy Birthday Heather!

Home again

We made it home from Seattle, via Salt Lake City last weekend, and we were thrust back into our work lives without taking a breath!  After a nearly impossible week at work, it's good to have a weekend at home to catch up with all of the little things.  We had a great time with Heather and Ben and the dogs, and we already miss them.  Ruby was in her element, having Andy nearly every minute for two weeks.  Believe me, she has been brought down to earth as well.  I think she has literally cried this week.  I see tracks of tears down her face...

One of the things I did in Seattle was to take my not so exciting blue quilt top to Krista for quilting.  Krista had done some tops for Heather, and they are lovely, so I decided that she could "pretty up" my blue scrap quilt.  One thing about the final touch of quilting.  It makes a huge difference in how I like a project.

I think it looks beautiful.  It took several tries to get a photo of this.  Ruby likes to be the center of attention.

Happy Birthday, Cori!

While we are enjoying the cool weather up in Seattle, my oldest child, Cori, is celebrating her birthday today. I'm sure she has celebrated this past weekend with her friends, but I still miss not being with her on her birthday.  She's my oldest - the one that taught us how to be parents - if a child can do that.  If any child could, it would be Cori.  We were so young when we had her, it's a miracle that she turned out as great as she has.  A testament to her survival instincts!  Happy Birthday, Cori!!!

I interrupt this vacation...

Today, my daughter Cori sent me photos of a skirt I made for my granddaughter, Lindsey.  I made this skirt for Lindsey for Christmas.  I wanted photos, but Cori's been a little busy.  So almost 9 months later, she got around to it.  To be honest, I made this skirt and it didn't quite fit, so I had to do some re-sewing, but still...

I was inspired by this skirt I saw in Belle Armoire last fall.  Not for an adult, but for a little girl.  Since I happen to have a little girl (as a grand-daughter), I decided she would love this skirt.  I did a shirred elastic treatment to the back yoke on the skirt, figuring that there was no way it wasn't going to fit.  I was wrong, she has quite a little booty!  After a quick re-work, this is the result. 

Isn't she a cutie?

Now, back to my vacation. 

Vacation - week 1

It was a long time coming - for Andy.  Getting away from the desert heat and escaping to the cool northwest to visit Heather and Ben.  We loaded up, Ruby and all, and headed out across the desert.  Our destination was Sacramento for the first night.  No all nighters for us any more!  We made excellent time, in spite of several stops for Ruby (I think it was more for us than her).  Along the way, we passed through a lot of smoke from the fires in California.  No mountains on the horizon to see - just smoke.

It was really eerie.  We arrived in Sacramento, and early on Sunday morning we were on the road again.  Next stop, my dear friend Dodie, who has been living in Oregon for the past few years.  Dodie and I have been friends forever, but, we haven't seen each other in many, many years.  It was such a great visit.  I already miss her.  The good thing is, she's moving to Arizona - about 2 hours away from where we live - so I'll get to see her more often.

We finally arrived in the Seattle area, and have made ourselves at home at Heather and Ben's house.  The dogs (they have 3) seem to have found their pecking order.  Ruby is definately not at the top, but she's getting along pretty well.  The weather is great, and Andy and Ben have been fishing, successfully.  Yesterday, Heather took us to pick blackberries.  I haven't ever done that, and we didn't have to go far.  They are everywhere.  She had already made a batch of jam, but we picked enough so I could cook up another batch.  The berries are at the end of their season, but we found plenty.

We actually managed to get 15 jars of jam from our few minutes of collecting berries.  And it's delicious!

Heather took us for a drive up north on the Muckilteo scenic drive.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  We stopped and bought oysters at Taylors Shellfish company, then continued on to have lunch in the Fairhaven neighborhood of Bellingham.  After lunch we walked by Katie's Cupcake Co.

Mmmm.

These little cupcakes were so cute!  They were good, too. 

Upcoming plans for week 2?  Andy wants to tour underground Seattle, I want to get to a couple of quilt shops I discovered last summer, and I think there is some fresh salmon on the menu.  Oh, and I actually wore a sweater yesterday.  It felt so good!  

My little French memory

 

The photo above is a look at the tote bag that was given to each of us during our stay in France at Chateau Dumas.  Inside the bag were lots of wonderful goodies that we were going to be using on various crafts while there.  There were little jewelry kits, felting supplies, a hat flower kit, but best of all (for me) was a charm pack of Kaari's new fabric by Moda Fabrics.  This was a preview of her line, as it isn't due to be released until October.

I knew as soon as I saw it that it would be something to commerorate my week in France.  I just wasn't sure at the time what that would be.  Well, it turned out to be this:

I wanted to use each and every piece of fabric in this little quilt, which I did.  And, I didn't want to add any other "foreign" fabric to it (other than the backing and binding), which I also accomplished. A charm pack consists of several 5" squares of fabric, so the challenge is real.  I only ended up using a portion of a 2-1/2" strip of another red to finish the binding.  When all is said and done, I ended up with a tiny little pile of leftover fabric.  I'm sure if I had planned a little better, I could have used it up too! 

 

I love this little quilt.  It feels so "frenchy" to me.  I'll think of my trip every time I look at it.

Not a typical morning

It was so exciting to wake up to rain, sprinkles, a few drops of moisture this morning.  In Arizona, we typically get afternoon, or evening dust storms, followed by thunderstorms, followed by rain, but it's very fast and doesn't last more than an hour or so.  This summer, we've had very little of the normal "monsoon" season.  But, last night, a terrific storm blew in, rained all night, and was still a little active this morning.  I have been waiting for months for this to happen on a weekend, so I could go out a take a few wet desert pictures.  Andy was sweet enough to drive us (Ruby and I) over to the White Tanks Mountains, which is about 15 miles west of where we live.  It's a little elevated from the rest of the "Valley of the Sun", which should be a perfect opportunity to get some good photos. 

Downtown Phoenix is on the horizon, almost directly above the curved arrow sign.  Wow, rain clouds in the sky.  Ruby was just itching to get out and run around, but, it was not to be. 

This is not your friend.  It is also not Ruby's friend.  This is a cholla cactus.  Growing up, we always called them "jumping cactus".  Why?  It seems as if it jumps on you if you get within a foot of it.  I have vivid memories of spending hours following a family picnic, pulling hundreds of cactus needles out of my foot.  Not fun.  And these things are everywhere out in our deserts.  So where was Ruby?

Riding shotgun.

(We did stop and let her run when we got away from the desert. She was happy.) 

Something else most people don't expect to find in Arizona...

Rose fields.  They've been growing them here for many decades.  I think they grow them for the rose oil for fragrances for various companies.  They are not like the ones you find in flower shops, but it's fun to see the fields of them, right next to the desert. 

So all in all, it was a nice morning drive.  Just a prelude to our road trip that starts next Saturday.  Our first long road trip (to Seattle) with Ruby.  Possibly, our last.

Really old blues

A few months ago, my quilting friend Marsha was working on a scrap quilt from this book.

 

I purchased this book, along with a few others in the series by Pat Speth, and realized I had finally found a project for some of my very old fabric stash.  Pat's designs are all made up of 5" squares of fabric, so they are the perfect resource for those smaller pieces, that for some reason, I could never get rid of.  When I first had my quilt shop, I would cut a 6" or so piece off the end of each bolt (I'm not even sure why anymore), so I accumulated many, many skinny pieces of fabric.  Over the years, I've used some, but I have also learned that if you aren't excited about a piece of fabric when it's new, the likelihood of being excited about it twenty years later are next to none!  At the end of the 80's and into the early 90's, blue was probably the most popular color I sold in the shop.  I have rarely cared for blue (just regular blue, not exciting blue, like teal, or aqua, or midnight blue) in anything.  It's always been boring for me.  I don't think I ever made a strictly "blue" quilt, without throwing some red or orange or fuchsia in with it. So, for some reason, I've decided to use up some of those boring blues in one of these "nickel quilts"

I began cutting 5" squares.  And cutting, and cutting, and - well, you see where this is going.

I also decided that this was going to be a queen size quilt.  Why?  I have no clue.  I just kept cutting.

I then began sewing, and cross cutting, and sewing some more, and here's what I have...

Some boring blue pieced squares with old blue fabric in them.  After cutting for what seemed like days, I have enough to do a lap size quilt.  Lap size.  So I'm not doing a queen size quilt any longer, but I am going to make it a full size (double).  Why?  I still don't have a clue - other than it feels so good to see that pile of blues dwindle down.  You can see that I have many, many more to use.  It won't stay boring blue - I've started putting in some bright, current fabric in the mix.  Something has to bring this thing to life!  So out of my big cabinet of fabric in the garage, filling numerous plastic tubs and bins, not to mention the boxes up on shelves all over the place, how much did I decrease my stash?  About 1 shoebox size bin worth of scraps. One.

To make matters worse, when I stopped over at the quilt shop the other day, I picked up about 10 yards of fabric that was on sale for $2.50 per yard.  I'm sure I'll use the new stuff up right away.  Right.

Really, I'm already planning my next project - but not until I'm over and finished with this one.