Spinning Pinwheels

This little quilt I started at retreat is now finished.

I used the traditional bishop's fan for the quilting pattern. My great grandmother often used this pattern on her utility quilts. My grandmother explained the no marking process to me. They would put the quilt in the frame, and sitting on both sides they would start on the right of their side and quilt an arc as big as the swing of their arm. Then they would quilt parallel arcs inside the first large arc. They would move to the left and repeat the process.  The arc designs would meet in the middle of the quilt. Being left handed I would have had to always work on my own side of the quilt because my arc would go in the opposite direction.

The quilt is for a baby so it is machine quilted to stand up to repeated washings. I also continued the pattern  from  one side to the other while leaving the inner border free of quilting.

I like the mix of new and old, traditional and modern in this quilt.

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Food Preservation

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Harvest time. Yes. It is good to have lots of food from the garden but this is when it gets a little tiring.  Some foods like the grapes need to be dealt with in a timely manner. We waited a little longer than we should have this year and ended up with sweet juice. Usually we make the juice before all of the grapes are ripe and the under ripe fruit adds a little tartness to the juice. The sweet juice is good though, and we didn't have to add sugar.

It was cold this weekend so we had a pile of basil from our neighbor to deal with Friday evening before the the predicted frost. B made and froze a huge batch of pesto.

We also made another batch of tomato sauce and two batches of ofapple sauce. All of this cooking helped heat the house a little. We didhave a fire in the wood stove last night so we put the BIG canner ontop of that and canned nine jars at once!

P and I have also cooked and frozen about 20 cups of pumpkin. She likes to turn the crank on the ricer.

She also likes to eat pumpkin muffins so it is good she likes to help.

All this work now will make things easier in the winter.  When we are snowed in, we can go to the basement and be able to make a meal from what we have stored. potatoes, onions, garlic, tomato sauce, pesto, applesauce, grape juice, green beans, green peas, strawberry rhubarb pie fillings, peach pie fillings, peach blueberry pie fillings, jam, raspberry jam, pumpkin, blueberries.

We still have a lot more applesauce to make to last the year.

Fall Changes

Fall is bringing lots of changes here.  We are getting clouds and cold winds. Yesterday I started our first fire in the wood stove.

Our spring chickens are all grown up. A couple of them turned out to be roosters and now strut their stuff around the yard. They try to crow but  haven't gotten the manly sound worked out yet.  Soon we will be getting eggs from the new hens.

It is also time to start cooking up pumpkins for the freezer.

We will make pumpkin muffins today. I shall call them cup cakes and take them for snack at preschool tomorrow for "C" day.

Liberated Purple Pinwheel

I have been trying something different with the liberated quilt blocks- a pinwheel. I thought that since the base block was even simpler than the exquisite block that the quilt would be easier. Not the case. The base block has only one triangle on it so that part went quickly but the laying out of the quilt was tricky. Since the triangles are all different sizes and angles I really had to be careful as to how they were arranged so that the pinwheels would all spin in the same direction.

I had to think about how much of the pinwheels would end up in the seam allowance and make sure that the point of the triangle would always stick out past the base of the triangle next to it.

I like the way the pinwheels looked before they were sewn together better than the finished look.  I am glad I was only trying this on a doll size quilt.

Early Fall Walk

Yesterday was another beautiful day. Knowing that it will soon be cold we went for a walk near some local lakes.

We saw lots of signs of fall.

And enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

P liked that it was PINK. And she even got to go wading before we left

.Everyone has such busy schedules now that school has started. It was nice to take some time for the whole family to do something together.

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Change of Seasons - Change of Light

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Now that fall is here, the days are shorter but the temperature is still very warm. We have had some beautiful sunny days this week.

It is time to start the mental shift into the dark time of year. We are losing daylight each day. This is not something I noticed much when I was growing up.  In Virginia, the difference is not so great. Maybe I am just more aware of my surroundings as an adult.

It seems that the earth is sending up a burst of color in an effort to fight back the coming dark.

We are soaking it all in. Trying to make the light and color last, at least in our minds.

We know that in the winter months things are more subtle. We will have to notice textures, and shades of brown and white. We will find the beauty in the "non colors." Yes, there will be bits of color here and there, but not like the show of color we are getting now with the fall leaves and garden harvest against a brilliant blue sky.

A is for Apron

P has enjoyed her first week of preschool. They are starting the year with a unit on farm animals. Monday there were two baby pigs in the class. Wednesday they had chickens. Monday they will have a sheep and I will go in and demonstrate how to spin wool into yarn. They will have a cow visit after that.

Fridays, however, are letter days. Yesterday was "A" day so each child brought a show and tell item that starts with "A." P, of course, took an apron.

I, too, have been  enjoying her first week of preschool. Yesterday, I went to the beauty salon and had them fix my long neglected hair. I had let it get so long that I had enough to donate to Locks of Love.

I hope that eventually I can play in my sewing room while P is at preschool.

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Changing Gears

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After my retreat in Elk Rapids where I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and the whir and hum of 30 sewing machines,

I am readjusting to life at home.

We are a little late getting to our grapes this year.

We picked them last night and made about a gallon of juice.

I have another batch on the stove and a third waiting to be heated.

The raspberries have started producing well so they will be picked again this afternoon as will more green beans.

I think my creative sewing ideas will have to wait.

Quilt Retreat

I mentioned yesterday that I have just gotten home from my annual quilt retreat with Gwen Marston. It was great fun. I visited with friends I have gotten to know over the years. We caught up on families and sewed together.

This year's theme was solid colors. I packed all the solid color fabric I had including the fabrics I had recently ordered. I never  know what I will work on while at retreat, so, I also try to take an open mind.  I am always amazed at the variety and number of quilts Gwen makes to show each year. She is prolific! I usually try to do several small projects so that I can try working in different techiniques and fabrics.  Sometimes it is challenging to work in limited fabrics. I know that if I will continue to work much with solids I will need to have lots of colors and lots of shades even colors that are almost the same to give the quilts more richness and depth. A lot of my fabrics are old and have a gray tone to them, not clear colors.

These pictures were taken yesterday when it was very cloudy and the colors don't look just right to me but here goes.

Day 1.A baby quilt. I think I'll put another border around it to make it just a bit bigger.

Day 2 Stars in the sashing.

Day 3.I learned that I feel very comfortable working on patterns with a grid. I decided to challenge myself to do something without a block base.I think the quilting will make a big difference in how this looks.

Day 4.Kona Sample Quilt

Among the fabrics I packed was a stack of 118 five inch squares which was a sample pack of each of the Kona cotton solids I have had about eight years. Since I have the new color card I decided I could use these squares.  I simply cut each square in half on the diagonal and flipped one stack of the triangles over. I then sewed two triangles together again. It was completely random. I had to stop myself from choosing which fabrics to put together. After the blocks were sewn and pressed I laid them out in rows in the order they were on the stack. Trying not to over-think things, I did not move them around.

I like the way this one turned out.

I think it is interesting that often what I learn at a workshop or class is not what I expect to learn. I did not learn much in the way of new sewing techniques but I learned a lot about myself and how I approach my projects. I learned new ways of thinking about my design process.

Milestone

We reached a milestone this weekend. We saw our rows of cloth diapers on the line for the last time.

Although P has been day time potty trained for about a year and a half she has still been wearing diapers at night. Last week she decided that since her diaper was dry most mornings she did not need to wear a diaper at night. I washed them and hung them out for the last time. Some of them definitely have gotten a lot of wear.

It was time for her to move on. The diapers will see a second life as rags to clean up spills, scrub floors, wash cars, and whatever else rags are used for. We will see them on the line again, mixed in with other laundry after picking up dust around the house but never again all crispy white in rows on the line.

P is proud to be a "big girler!" Now, she says it is time to put away the little potty!

Instagram Photos

I finished the Dala Sweater and couldn’t be happier with it! The pattern is #dalasweater by @elenormortensen. More details on my ravelry page. #knitter #strandedknitting #operationsweaterchest #handknitsweater #makersvillage #makersgonnamake
I started this sweater on our car trip last week. I had chosen a different yarn for the horses but it was thinner and didn’t work well with the blue. I frogged the few rows I had knit and subbed in some yarn from my stash when I got home. The y
Narrow hand appliquéd bias strips. 1/16” quilting lines not going over the appliqué. I’m about a month in on the quilting and ALMOST finished. Whoop! Quilted with Invisalign on top and Decobob in the bobbin. Threads by @wo
This summer we watched my two oldest grand kids one day a week. Towards the end of the summer they started making projects on their own in the sewing room. They made lots of little projects from my scrap basket including pillow cases and tiny quilts