Pies and Tarts have entered the building!!

Ta-Da!!!  My Pies and Tarts UFO is finished!! 

It was one of those patterns that is 'OUT of your BOX' ... but you have to have it anyway!! Pies & Tarts was offered as an English paper-piecing BOM at The Calico House in Lincoln NE just about the time I was moving to Oregon.  I passed - not my favorite method, I don't need another BOM making me feel guilty because it's not done and who has the time now?? [Listing excuses - a hobby in itself!!]

I didn't 'see' some results until a year later when I was back in NE visiting, and my friend showed me her blocks in progress. Loved, loved, loved them - but, seriously ... EPP?? I would never get it done!!

But, I had taken a paper-less PP class and the light dawned!! I think I can make this work!! I bought the template kit, and I set up 1/2 pies and 1/2 tarts templates on freezer paper and started piecing them. It worked!!

By now, of course,  the store's BOM is done, no fabric kits to be had!! So I had to scour my stash looking for just the right fabrics! Quite a few were found. But you know I didn't stop there!! Some shopping was involved! And a good selection of civil war fabrics was 'liberated from the tyranny of the retail outlet' and moved to my stash!! Doesn't that sound better than a multi-state shopping spree was under way??? Any excuse to buy Jo Morton fabrics works for me!  LOL!

BUT since this was years ago ... I can confess my evil ways and it still counts as an UFO!!! After that many years - I think it even counts as stash!!

I cut the triangle-ish pieces; paired them up, pinned them together and put them all in a gallon zip-lock bag. Then I decided on the background squares - shirtings mainly. And I was ready to roll.

Did I mention I'm NOT an applique person?!?! As one friend told me ... "well, you are NOW!!!" But I still don't feel like one ... yet! Does just one pattern count??

While I was back in Nebraska this spring, my friend offered her hand-quilting group to quilt this ... wowzer - talk about a plan coming together!! It was mailed back to me finished, in July. Some binding, some sleeves ... and it's ready to hang on my wall! At 53" x 62" it fits my 'quilt wall' perfectly.  Hip, hip hooray!!

Here's the quilt in process.  After they were done, I sent the mailing cost and a bonus.  They celebrated with a pie party!!  Clever gals!

Some things I learned working on this project:

1.  Don't tell a store that specialize in EPP that you didn't use that method!  They look at you like you just kidnapped their puppy!!  LOL!

2.  When you use a freezer paper template, they stop sticking after 4-5 times.  [At least at the cool, damp Oregon coast they only last that long.]  It also depends on how hot your iron is.  The point is - don't keep using it!!  It's not worth it - break out a new template, so much easier!!  Remember how wonderful it feels when you finally change the blade in your rotary cutter???  It's like that!

If you have an ink-jet printer [no heat involved] and you cut your freezer paper into paper-sized sheets, hand feed them thru your printer, you can copy a sheet of the templates as needed.  You don't actually have to hand-draw each and every one.  I didn't discover this until the last round, yep, I'm a slow learner!  But no need for you to be one!!

3.  If you leave the freezer paper on until the pie or tart is sewn together, you can iron the curved edge against the freezer paper and get a good line to guide your curved applique onto the background square.  IF you do it the same day.  That line doesn't last forever.

Tarts are not appliqued until the blocks are together.  So after 'rounding' them,  I basted the edges of my tarts down and set them aside until I was ready to sew them.  Put your beginning knot on top so you can take out the basting easily.

If I was to make another one of these gorgeous quilts ... I would cut a template for each size [pie or tart]; put a pin hole in the center and use that to iron my rounded edge.  I would pin thru the center of the pie or tart and start pressing. The edge would probably be less 'choppy' and easier to iron down.  [less 'owie' iron touches on your fingers.] You could even gather that edge before ironing to make it even smoother. 

I tend to be "Type A" [ya think???] and have to remind myself that it's folk art!!  Relax!!  Even now I don't  notice all those little bumps and dips that drove me crazy while I was working on it!

4. I starched my background squares within an inch of their lives!  I then pressed a center line on the edge of all sides, but not in the middle.  I used those marks to center my applique pies before sewing them down. 

Since I was a beginning applique gal, I tended to bunch up the background piece in my hand too much and unevenly at that!  The starch helped me fight that tendency.  I always wash my quilts - even my wall quilts - at the end so I don't worry about the starch.

5. I'd sew my pie appliques in groups, [don't you love to chain stitch?]  When it came time to applique them, I varied the backgrounds, light, medium, dark, each work session. 

I'd also deliberately line up the pies and tarts so sometimes the light was on the left and sometimes the dark was on the left.  It makes them dance alittle and not be static across the quilt. IMHO!

I appliqued at meetings, in front of the tv at nights. I was surprised how fast they piled up!


Finishing this quilt has made me a little more enthusiastic about finishing others!  I've even been hand quilting on my poor neglected "Birds of a Feather".  Hoping to report another finish in the fall!

We had two gorgeous days this week, but then it's back to grey, grey, grey.  Bummer!!  More time to quilt??  Let's hope I can look at it that way.  On the brighter side [pun intended!] it's not 103 degrees out there!

AUGUST????

Happy August everyone!!  It's hard to imagine!  Our summer has been, well, foggy and cool, so cool that it's hard to imagine it's summer at all, let alone August!  I haven't accomplished ANYTHING that I thought I would over the summer.  Of course, my list was pretty much 'pie in the sky' to begin with!  Does anyone else do that??  Of course, you do!!

And, my birthday is this week ... I usually don't have any problems with birthdays ... beats the alternative!?!  But this is a really BIG number and I have little twinges of feelings about it.  But, if this is as bad as they get ... no problem!  I'll survive!

We'll be up in Portland for the big day.  What fun to spend it with 2 of our grandkids.  We haven't seen them for 6 weeks, so we've got lots to get caught up on.  Miss P (almost 6) taught Mr M (almost 4) to write his name and he thought that Beach Papa and Nana would be so-o proud of him.  Of course, always!!  We may need a special dessert to celebrate!  And Miss P thought that maybe Beach Papa could help her learn to ride her bike.  The last time she fell on it - clear to the ground, she got up and kicked it saying she'd never to ride it again unless 'Teacher L' told her she should!!!!  And Miss P and I may go see "Brave" if it's still around.  The bears are pretty scary in it so she said she might wait and go with me!!  We both do love movies and since I've seen it(!) I can warn her when the scary bits are coming up!

For Christmas last year DH gave me tickets to Cirque [last April] and Jersey Boys [next Wednesday], I love musicals. He's babysitting the grandkids while DD and I go - what a guy!  It will so much fun! -girls' night out!

We had a fun-filled and ice cream filled two weeks when our friends were here. C&L were neighbors in Lincoln.  When they come out, they rent the condo next door - it's like being neighbors again!!  We're not admitting how many cartons of Tillamook Ice Cream we went thru ... but I may need a 'methadone' program to break the addiction!!  Sure was fun though!!

We all went to "Trees of Mystery" when L&K were here too.  It wasn't as 'hokie' as we feared and we really enjoyed riding the tram to the top of the mountain over the trees and ferns.  The young kids decided to walk down so us 'old folks' rode the tram again!!  There was no line when we came down and we wanted to sit the opposite way of our first trip!  We got the full experience, laughing all the way.

Between eating ice cream, watching the Olympics and laughing ... well the time went fast.  We filled it with a little of this - finding rock sculptures on the beach and

A LOT of this - finding the perfect 'perch' while walking the beach and

And even some of this - traveling the viewpoints, just to be sure they are still g-r-e-a-t!!



C liked Miss P's quilt pattern so well, that she made a smaller one for her granddaughter. I finished Miss P's quilt top while we sewed away the foggy parts of our days - and wouldn't you know it.  Held it up when it was totally done and right there - smack-dab in the center - two blocks were in the wrong place!!!  Arrrrgh!  10 hours of Olympics on DVR and a picky little quilt pattern do not work together!!  I put it in 'time-out' over night and decided I couldn't live with it ...

Years and years [and years] of experience ripping came to the rescue!  I ripped out the offending 3 blocks - doughnut style.  Carefully repinned, triple checked it was right and resewed it in a morning.  We were surprised how quickly it went.  And now that mistake won't hound me for years every time I see it on Miss P's bed!!!  The back is almost pieced - 2 more seams and then I just have to decide if I'm machine quilting it on my DSM or Longarm it at the shop.  Still mulling over that question.  Hope to have it done for the big birthday in September - Miss P will be SIX!

So long for now. Remember it's August - the perfect time to sit back and relax before the rest of the year zooms by us!!! [tee hee]

Quick catch-up note

Hello-o-o-o-o!!  From the unseasonably foggy Oregon coast!  The sun seems to be playing 'hard to get' this month.  At least at our house - maybe in town it's got a better record?!?!

We got back from Sisters and I was fired up to start on Miss P's kindergarten quilt.  Just so there's no mix-up ... kindergarten does not require a quilt for naps or anything.  I just make my kids [and grandkids] a baby quilt, a 'big boy or girl' quilt when they move out of their cribs, a quilt for their bed when they go into kindergarten.  Another one when they are 12 and a HS graduation quilt ... we'll see if I keep this schedule for GKs!  They're just so darn cute when they want one!!  LOL! 

A friend in Lincoln made 20 quilts for her first grandchild.  She said "DON'T DO THIS!"  There will be more grandchildren and their parents will expect the same treatment for all of them!!!  Good advice, well said!

I think Miss P's quilt is going to be adorable!!  Our friends C&L are here for their summer vacation and when C saw the pattern, she's making a smaller one for her GD too!!  But September is speeding up on me, I'm done with the blocks and am started to make the sections - 9 of them - not complicated, afterall, it's just a twin size quilt!!  It's just that the design zig-zags across the top and I don't have anyplace I can layout the entire quilt easily.  So-o-o I'm building sections of 5 or 6 blocks by 5 so I can keep the flow of colors correct.  Hopefully, picture soon!!!

We were lucky enough to stop and see Mr D on our way to Sisters - guess who's walking!!

Here's some pictures of Sisters - just for some eye candy! It was hot and breezy. And there was actually an afternoon thunderstorm that blew thru! A first, as far as I know!! A good time had by all!

We were early enough to see the firemen put up the quilts on the Stitching Post.

Met some fellow Stashbusters at the Library.  Here we are, sitting in the shade, near an indoor bathroom, comparing notes of what we "have to see"!!  Thanks gals!

Ahh, Sisters!  A little bit of hot weather and sun for us 'coasties'!!



Use it up ... make it do ... feel triumphant!!

We moved from a large house in Nebraska - 4+ years ago - to a very small condo here on the Oregon coast.  I'm a quilter - and we have stuffed the condos to the max to get in my treasures!!!  Don't tell DH I admitted this!!

I was going thru quilt storage last month ... okay, I admit it - I was looking for a certain quilt and couldn't find it.  I had to unstack; sort thru and cuss a little [a lot] before I stumbled on the right pillowcase filled with summer wall quilts!  Yes, a pillow case STUFFED!  Too much!

So when I was putting them all away, trying to come up with a better storage system I made a pile of "I don't love you any mores."  What to do with them?  These are obviously not my favorites - and boy, are they in the way. 

My daughter always said she wanted all my quilts because 'I made her sit quietly during tv shows when I was working on them' LOL!!!  ... but seriously, with a 'thrifting hobby' in a house with little storage; a sweet husband, 2 adorable preschoolers and 2 rambunctious dogs ... I don't think she's interested in the ones I don't want ... we DO have the same tastes!!

The bulkiest were some old pillow shams I made to go with my sunflower quilt.  Here is the picture of this wonderful ensemble in our bedroom in Nebraska ...

I miss that bedroom.  But those shams were the project from Hades!!  Making ruffle; adding wide eyelet, coming up with my own pattern; with my attention span and retention!!!  Well, I admitted it was the 'Keystone Cops doing shams!!'  at the time. But lovely on the bed, nevertheless!!

We now have a lovely soft blue bed.  The yellows and olive greens do not look lovely on it.  I love the quilt - but it's the quilt under the bedspread now.  Those shams were never going to be used again!

And, man, were they weird-looking things off the bed!  They were king-sized and that double ruffle was awkward.  They looked like, well - coffin covers!  Enough to give you nightmares.  Nobody was going to want them - ever!

Maybe I could put them together to make a wall quilt?  I ruthlessly cut the ruffled edges off - whack - with a rotary cutter.  But then, laying on our green kitchen table, I noticed it was a nice size for a table runner!!

So back to the drawing board ... prepare seam ripper!!  I ripped all those strips of ruffle apart.  I saved the eyelet for Miss P's kindergarten quilt's matching pillow!  And I un-ruffled yards of the green; ironed it flat, trimmed it and used it for the binding.  TaDa!  Two table runners.  One's on the kitchen table and one's on the coffee table - for now!  I remember how much I love those sunflowers - and I feel soooo triumphant getting them out of the closet and usable again!!

On the coffee table - had to be - it's just the right size for it!!

On the kitchen table - you can see our weather is still foggy and grey out there today!
Now if I can just figure out what to do with the rest of them!!!  Anyone interested in a 'doni original'??

On a side note - is anyone watching "Boss" on Starz??  Just read about it in a magazine FIVE days before it gets wiped off "On Demand".  There's only 8 episodes in the first season - easy peasy without commercials - if you're retired!!  The second season is starting next month.  It was pretty good!  If you have the technology - watch it!!

Just saying!

Baby Quilt on it's way!! Whoo-hoo!

We have a new great-nephew and I'm glad to say his gifts are on their way to him.

When we heard the great news, I went to Amazon and ordered our kids' and grandkids'favorite books. So along with the quilt and the name banner, there are books!  Yummers! and April Rabbits - old favorites of A & L .  Pout Pout Fish and The Giant Hug - favorites of Miss P and Mr M.  Mr D, being only 14 months hasn't really picked his favorites yet!!  I love adding our favorite books to baby gifts.  And Amazon makes it so-o easy to find the older books from private sellers.  If you don't mind 5 different packages coming to your house!!

And by the way ..., thank goodness for flat rate boxes at the post office!! Everything fit in the large flat rate, I did email them and tell them to be careful opening the box because there is a quilt STUFFED in it!! No sharp blades, please!

They have a jungle theme for his room and since I just made a jungle quilt for DGS; I knew what fabrics were available locally and picked them up.  Then I wiffle-waffled about what pattern to make - for 9 months, apparently!!

When I finally figured out the problem was the large patchwork animals fabric I'd bought for the front stripes was too big and uneven.  I simply moved it to the back and moved the back to the front for the stripes and it went together like a dream.

I used Maryquilts.com 'quick strippie' quilt pattern to make it. All her patterns are listed down the right edge of the website.  There are loads of good ones - check them out!   I did add borders because I wanted it a 'skootch' bigger.  I also put the narrow stripe on the top and bottom - mostly because I didn't notice I wasn't supposed to!  Sounds like me, doesn't it!!

The back is the large print and I think you'll see why I switched it!

These animals are adorable ... but, at least on my fabric, not printed exactly straight!  There was at least an inch drop in the lion's placement.   My DH joked that the monkey was a baby picture of him.  He did have those ears when young!!  So I wrote on the label, "Uncle R says the monkey is his baby picture ... he just wanted you to know!!!"

When I measured the border, the inside measurement was 37.5" x 59.25".  Hmmm, have I mentioned how much I HATE math???  But I remembered the old method of using adding machine tape for borders.  You get a roll of it [this is the hardest part!!!], roll out the length of your border.  Then simply fold it in half again and again until you have the size you're looking for.  No measuring or math!  If you have an even number of sections your border will start and end on the same side - /\/\/\/\ if it's odd you end up with /\/\/\/\/\/

I laid the tape down the middle of my border and then marked the segments with Washable Crayola Markers on the sides.  Then using the same washable marker I drew my lines with my ruler connecting the dots.  You can 'eyeball' it but I like the safety net of having the line marked.  When you're done - throw the paper away!!!  You've got plenty in reserve with the rest of the roll!!!

I LOVE ice cream cone shape borders because they are continuous!  When I get to a corner, I sew from the inner border to the corner and back up the same line.  Cheating a little, but then I don't have to start and stop with more knots to deal with.  And it frames any quilt so well!

The last thing for our new family member was a name banner.  I've made 4? of these and just love them.  Scrappy, bright and cheerful - what's not to love!  The parents can hang it on the baby's wall, door, on a wall with lots of pictures of the baby.  Or they can tack it to a pillow.  OR-R in my daughter's case, they can be in the doll drawer, used for doll blankies!!

I love this alphabet - it comes from an out-of-print book "Everything Quilts".  I sized it down to have the background squares be half of a nickel square.  So those background squares are 5" x 2.5"  You want your letter to pretty much fill the square.  Large letters, W and M for example can edge over into the next square too.  You just don't want the backgrounds too big or the letters are little islands and don't make a word!  Ask me how I know this!!  And by the way, did I have to learn it on lengthy names?? Yes, I did!

If one name is longer than the other; just fill in the extra space with a star or a toy shape.  Something simple and easily recognized.

I machine blanket stitch around each letter with a matching thread. Through all 3 layers so I'm quilting it at the same time.  And I love these little banners!  It's a fun and easy gift to give!

EUREKA!!!!

This morning was all grey and misty and we almost decided not to walk the beach.  But there were dozens of pelicans fishing our bay.  Some were really close so we headed down to see them close-up-and-personal!

With the phone camera delay - very frustrating to try to catch them diving!!  You have to click the camera when the bird 'looks' like it's going to dive!!!  Beyond me!  So we just enjoyed them for awhile and then headed off down the beach to see what else we could see.

There was a great sunburst star fish.

They are so much fun to watch.

There were loads of regular star fish.

And then there was this ...

An Iced Tea bottle - Japanese label and 2011 date on the lid!!  There's ocean 'things' growing on it.  Could be from the tsunami - we'll never know for sure ... but so exciting to find!!

Guess we'll be walking the beach, whether it's grey and misty or sunny!!!  What fun!

Whoooa - July, tomorrow? already???

It's hard to imagine that it's the middle of 'summer' here on the Oregon coast.  Even on days that it's sunny [not that many full days!!] it's in the 60s.  And we've really had our share of grey or fog lately too.  A friend commented it was 'cozy' in the fog ... maybe I'll use that as my mantra!!

An UFO finish!!  Start up the celebration!  Presenting "Bento Box Meets Broken Dishes"!!

I gave up trying to take a picture outside!! You can just see a corner of the livingroom chair in the lower right corner of the picture.  Proof that this quilt DOES match the couch!!  LOL!

Bento Box meets Broken Dishes was started at a Quilters Night Out, celebrating Natl Quilting Day, March 2010. It's inspiration was "Sliced Bread" a free internet pattern at Willmington Fabrics. http://www.wilmingtonprints.com/projects.aspx The projects are alphabetical down the left side of the page.

I saw the quilt at our retreat and there was homework to do before the workshop. I didn't remember correctly and started it out wrong right from the beginning!! Typical!!

I made all my HST with black fabric and the black was supposed to be the outer strips to calm the whole thing down. Oh well!! It was patch, patch, patch from the very beginning! Finally, last summer, a visiting friend and the best consultant available for a cup of coffee, and I came up with this alternate version. Of course, I needed more blocks - but luckily, it was all sitting there, still together, hoping for a finish!!

It's funny how you use all your own fabrics; right from your favorite part of your stash and it doesn't look like 'you' at the end!! This is the closest quilt I will ever make that 'matches the couch!' [High on DH's want-list!]

To keep it from being too hodge-podge, I made two block variations - one block is red/blue and the other is yellow/green and there are two of each in a larger block. It was both fun and maddeningly to work on. I do love how it turned out.

I quilted it myself on the rental LA at our local quilt shop. But 'la-machine' and I weren't getting along that day - I had TWENTY thread breaks!!! BUT worth it at the end - when it's finished and I don't have to 'fight' it any more.

It's 54 x 75 and manages to get up to DH's chin while still tucking in under his feet!! Very important at the Oregon coast!!!

Meanwhile I'm working on a kid's strippie quilt from Maryquilts.com.  Our new great-nephew baby snuck up on me!! [I don't dare mention that to the new mom!!]

I had all the fabrics and couldn't choose a quilt pattern for them. The problem was my favorite fabric was just too big and had 'patchwork' boxes of different sizes and shapes and it just didn't look like it would cut up well. So once I decided to use the smaller print backing I bought for the front and piece the cute large animal print together to make the back - all was well and fast!! It's turning out darn cute.

In fact, I have some cars fabric I'm going to use for the next one!

Isn't that always the way. You have this long and involved list of projects to make/finish and then a good idea comes to you and it butts right into your plan!!

Well, I guess I honestly have to say I LOVE that about this hobby! It's just the bottom of my list that doesn't love it!!  But that EUREKA! moment is what keeps us going and going and going ...

So off to sew - til next time.