Saw Teeth

School is back in session and I have some time to myself. I am working on another project that's been banging around in the sewing room for a few years. I finally finished the hand applique center and am working on the borders.Saw teeth. I have ALWAYS wanted to do a saw tooth border on a quilt. This one is getting a DOUBLE border.

I am using two inch squares cut on the diagonal.

One border is already stitched on.

It will have a narrow white strip and then the second saw tooth border.

Today will be spent sewing tiny pieces of red and white fabric together to make  long border strips. I will be thrilled if I can get the top finished!

The Triangle Quilt

I was able to squeeze one more UFO finish in before the end of summer vacation. I started this one two years ago!

I had a hard time deciding on the quilting for this and finally settled on a thin black thread

with five rows of parallel stitching along the straight seam lines.

I am pleased that the quilting does not detract from the clear solid colors.

The quilt measures 39.5 inches by 47.5 inches.

Sporting New School Shoes

It seems like summer just flew by but here we are at the end of summer vacation. This is our last weekend before the start of school. I took Miss P shopping for some new school shoes this week.  She loves the Mary Janes. They are just what she wanted. She also got some sneakers for gym.

This week we also went to open house at school, met her teacher, found her locker, and toured the school.

She had a few play dates with friends.

This weekend the weather has turned crispy. It is sweater time and the leaves are falling. I guess we really can start to think about going back to school.

I have also been making back to school plans for myself now that all of the children will be in school. I'll be teaching some art classes at the Chelsea Center for the Arts. I'll be the visual arts teacher for the Arts go Round program and will also be teaching the Youngest Artist series.  So, if you are local and have little ones looking for some art experience please sign them up. I think we'll have a lot of fun.  In the future I hope to teach some needlework and quilting classes there as well.

Maybe I should get some cute new Mary Janes too.

Beach Ball Bonanza

Here it is.

Pieced and pressed.

I chose the circle design because it made me think of beach balls on a summer day. With fall fast approaching, this quilt is a reminder of the bright colorful days of summer. 

The Pear Experiments - Pear Ice Cream!

Last night in an effort to use up the last of the pears we remade the Italian Pear Cake. This time we added cinnamon and chocolate chips - a brilliant addition if I do say so myself.

With last week's peach ice cream fresh on our minds we thought we'd try pear ice cream with the cake. D used the same recipe but substituted pears.

Have you ever had pear ice cream? It was DELICIOUS!I don't think he measured anything but the basic recipe is something like this:

1 cup cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup fruit (I think he used more pear than this)
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar

Mix the ingredients with a blender and then pour into the frozen ice cream maker, ours is similar to this but smaller. Churn until frozen.

The ice cream was surprisingly pear flavored. Really.

It was excellent. We had to eat the ice cream quickly so I don't have a photo of that. But trust me, it was good.

I have some pears set aside in the fridge for another batch!

Baskets, Berries, and Vines

Here is the finished basket quilt.

I love how cheery it is.

It even won a blue ribbon at the fair!

It is machine pieced, machine and hand appliqued, and machine quilted.

53 inches wide by 64 inches tall - a great size for a bed topper.

Memories

August 30, 1987. Mountain Lake, Virginia.

Borrowed 1958 wedding dress.

It is amazing that we still look JUST like this!

Thoughtful Sunday

"It was the kind of laughter that caught like brairs in her chest and felt very much like pain." 

Lyddie, Katherine Paterson, 1991

Italian Pear Cake

We have a bumper crop of pears again this year. After eating, freezing, and canning three bushels of purchased peaches we now have lots of pears from our trees. Yesterday, we tried this Italian Pear Cake.

It used quite a few pears and tasted pretty yummy.

We could possibly be getting lots of raspberries too but we haven't battled the pumpkin vines to find them all yet. The pumpkins have grown from their patch up and over all of the raspberry plants.

I am busy cooking and canning tomato sauce every couple of days and this weekend will be trying my hand at canning pears. The canned peaches turned out great so we thought we would try the pears.

Ahhh. This is August.

The Best Ride EVER

It's fair week! I love our local fair. Really. I love almost everything about it.

I love that it is run by volunteers. I love the way it brings the whole community together. I love that it is right before school starts back up. I love that no matter which day you go you will see many of your friends. I love that you can go in the morning before the rides are working and just stroll around and watch the animals. I love that you can enter items for judging. I love that kids of any age can enter things. I love the friendly competition of the homemaker of the year.

We didn't enter anything from our garden this year. This is one of three tables of garden produce.

I didn't enter any canning this year either. There are more entries on the other side of this display.

I entered a bunch of quilts, knitting, and other needlework items. P entered some sewing and drawings. We did well with our entries and got a bunch of ribbons and prize money!In a way the fair is a bit like New Years. We make resolutions that next year we will enter more things. We will have flowers and enter them. We will try entering baked goods.  I will try for homemaker of the year. But usually we are scrambling the day before the entries are due and trying to remember anything that we have made and can submit.

Yesterday was opening day for the fair. The fair starts with a kid parade from downtown to the fair grounds. The kids wear costumes and decorate their bikes. P walked with M and his girlfriend this year.

After the parade reaches the fairgrounds there are kid activities in the arena. There is a trike pull where the kids ride bikes loaded with milk crates filled with gallon jugs of water. There are also races. P participated in the sack race but did not want to do the three legged race. The kids all get ribbons and tickets for the rides.

When the boys were little we would all ride the Ferris wheel before heading home. P had her sights set on the carousel and could not be convinced to ride the Ferris wheel.

She rode the carousel horses twice. The second time was after dark!  On the way home she told me that the horse ride was the best ride she has EVER ridden.

It is the ONLY ride she has ridden.

Scenes from year's fair are here and here.

A Gift From the Thrift

A friend recently returned from a trip to the thrift with a big sister to my little pyrex bowl that I picked up last winter.

I love it and use it all the time now. It is much more fun than a clear glass bowl.

Thanks for thinking of me, M!

How'd That Happen?

Time sure flies. It is hard for me to believe that M will be a senior in high school this year.  We had a little senior portrait photo session this week. I think they turned out pretty good but I think I could do better. He had is wisdom teeth out yesterday so I'll have to wait a while to try again.

But really, how did this little squirt on the left

turn into this so fast?

Project Improv - The Zinnia Quilt

I've been missing the zinnias this year. P and I saved a huge bag of seeds from our flowers last year and planted a long row this spring. Not a single zinnia sprouted. It was very sad, so very sad. I think we must have had a hybrid variety last year. I'll have to look for a variety that we can save the seed from next year.

While we had all of the scraps out and in a big mess we pulled out some zinnia colored bits to make a zinnia quilt. Now we will be able to have a riot of pink, yellow, and orange, and red all year long.

Family Fun with Scraps

We've tried out a few more variations for the drunkard's path.

I love projects like this where the whole family gets involved. D and M have each tried a different layout. B suggested a completely random design that involves rolling a four sided die 120 times.

I think this design looks a little boring and flat. P says that she can't see the pattern here.

Here is a little block that P is putting together.

She pulled these pieces from my pile of cut fabrics. She has sewn them on her hand crank chain stitch machine. We have had to sew each square a couple of times. It is a good thing that chain stitch is easy to take out! She want to turn this into a tiny doll quilt but with not batting. I think I'll have her make it like a pillowcase and turn it. She hopes to have it finished to enter in the fair on Sunday.

Straightening Up

I finished sewing all the blocks for drunkard's path today. What do you think about this layout?

As I said before there are too many choices.

Today also involved a bit of cleaning up. D helped me move a big file cabinet. It was sort of right beside/in front of one of the windows in my sewing room and cast a big shadow. It is now on the far side of the room in a corner. My room seems a bit brighter and the space in the middle is bigger. Yay.

Miss Petunia and I also did a big clean out of her desk in preparation for the start of Kindergarten!

Drunkard's Path - a day at the beach

Well, it turns out that this pattern is easier to sew than the apple core. Or maybe I am more patient with it than I was with the other quilt. P helped pair the fabrics for this quilt and I have more than half of them sewn together. I do like that once the paired fabrics are sewn the finished block shape is a square. The final layout and sewing will be just like other quilts - quick sewing of squares.

We did a quick mock up on the floor of some of the blocks. Like half square triangles there are many different ways to put them together. Currently I am leaning toward the circle design shown here.

We also finished cutting up the tiny scraps and got everything neatly back into the scrap suitcase.

Scrap Management - or What Was I Thinking?!

I have had some quilt designs forming in my head for a while now. Modern, minimalist, and solid colors have been the focus. I have refrained from starting anything new until my UFO pile is tamed.

I've been feeling very productive this summer. This weekend I finished binding the basket quilt (pictures to come after it has been washed) and pin basted the half square triangle quilt.

Well.... I was in the sewing room doing a little tidy up and ran across some drunkard's path templates that I have had for more than 15 years and never used. I think something snapped right then. Before I knew it the scrap suitcase was open and there was fabric everywhere.

Soon I had two neat piles ready to sew into a new scrap quilt. Not the minimalist quilt that was in my head but something that should be fun!

Cutting from the templates had the added bonus of creating another stack of quarter circle pieces for a different project. These are smaller than the ones needed for the pattern because they were cut away from the square pieces.  I may sew them into circles to applique on another quilt.

In addition to the neat piles ready for sewing I also had a ginormous pile of very small scraps. I didn't want to throw them out but I didn't want to put the tiny scraps back in the suitcase either. SOOOOOOO, I have been cutting them into 1.5 inch squares. I'll try keeping the basket of them next to the sewing machine and sew them together as leader and ender fabrics while sewing my other projects. Who knows what that will turn into.

Back to the drunkard's path...I knew I had a moment of insanity - well much longer than a moment considering how many pieces I cut for this quilt - when I sat at the machine to start sewing.

Curved. Piecing.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

Remember this project? Back in April of 2009 I cut back on my progress and it eventually got buried and I have no idea where it is right now. Someday I am sure I will run across it again.

I actually do have some of the new pieces sewn together and I'll really try to keep with it this time. I am trying for a baby quilt so there is hope.If nothing else my scrap case is neater.

Thoughtful Sunday

" Plato said all science begins with astonishment."

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly  2009

Luckyday

I recently added to my vintage needlebook

and button collection.

Yep, sometimes it really is the little things that make me happy.

Fresh Picked

Nothing says August like fresh picked sweet corn.