Sunday, March 28, 2010

Flower Garden Quilts

Have I mentioned how much I love making flower garden quilts.  I have made so many I have lost count.  Tonight I couldn't sleep, so instead of tossing and turning, I decided to get back up, and work on this flower garden top.  The flowers are made out of vintage 50's and 60's fabrics.  There are some funky combination's of fabric, which I love.

Unlike some people who cut their irregular scraps into squares and the like, I tend to cut mine into hexagons.  I love working with them, and if I was to only be able to pick one shape, and one shape only, I would definitely want hexagons.  So many patterns and quilts can be made from the lowly hexagon, and they are certainly not boring to piece together, they provide a bit of a challenge, but once you are used to sewing the hexie together, they are just as fast as any other shape. 

I certainly love to piece them by hand, I can fly through them in no time at all, and I believe I was able to piece all the flower for this quilt with in a fortnight, and tonight I started joining the flowers into rows with four white hexagons between each flower, then every odd numbered row, gets surrounded by white hexies, while the even numbered rows only get the four white hexies between the flowers.  Then the rows are sewn together, with half flowers inserted once the top is complete.  Once that is done, I generally do one row of hexies of white around, then its ready to be quilted.

Don't be afraid of the hexagon, give it a try, and make your own hexagon quilt.  And I don't use English paper piecing, I just cut my hexagons including seam allowance, and piece in a traditional manner.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Little Old Quilt Top


This little quilt top has been laying around for a really long time. And I mean a really long time. The fabric's in it are dress prints, and I think they date to before the turn of the last century.

Its just a simple, wonderful little scrappy nine patches that are set block to block. It took about an hour to quilt it this evening.

I quilted it in a simple cross hatch on my 1948 Singer 66 treadle machine. I really think that it will make a great little quilt to use on a table or a back of a chair. It is roughly 36" x 40", so it would make a good baby quilt as well, though with the fabrics, I certainly wouldn't give it as gift for a baby.

Other than this, the only sewing that I did was finish another quilt as you go, and pieced a set of 80 small nine patches into 20 larger blocks, that I just might set together with muslin, or another solid color. The blocks are mostly sacking, with the printing still visible in a few places.

I did work today, so that's not bad progress. I am off tomorrow, so might just set together those above mentioned quilt blocks, maybe finish setting together a set of string blocks, that I found this evening while looking for a small piece of batting for this quilt top. They are pieced on newspaper, most from the Louisville, KY area. I have no idea where these blocks came from, but they are from the mid to late 70's and I am sure they have at least a touch of blend fabric in them. They are hand pieced on the newspaper. I know many years ago, they used to just quilt the newspaper in, and it would eventually disappear as the quilt was washed. I don't want to waste time picking yellowing newspaper out. I just might quilt it with the newspaper in it. Whats there to loose!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Fan Quilt






These are the blocks that a friend gave me at the Nebraska Sew-in. They weren't really attractive, but I do like how they look after they are set together. The bow tie quilt, is some blocks I found while cleaning out my stash!


I really think the fan quilt needs something in the middle, don't you?

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Fun Times

I must say we had a good time at the Nebraska HeartStrings Sew-in this weekend. It was lots of fun, and I got rid of some mucho stash, thanks to Julia, Lori and Henrietta! There is not much to add differently from all the other blogs, but I am so glad to have had help assembling QAYG blocks!

And since I have had several requests for the directions on how I made the soup here they are:

Vegetable Soup:

Ingredients:
1 small head of cabbage
5 to 6 medium size carrots
3 small turnips
1 onion, diced
1 large green pepper diced
2 medium red delicious apples, peeled, cored and diced
2 medium sized potato's
4 oz of beef cut into cubes
1 tsp of thyme
1 tsp of oregano
1 tsp of basil
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1 tbsp of white sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1 bag of frozen peas
1 bag of frozen corn

For the soup stock
12 whole unpeeled tomatoes
2 bunches of celery
12 ozs of beef broth
OR
V-8 Vegetable Juice

I make the soup in two days. That's when its best!

To start I run the tomatoes and celery through the juicer, and then add the beef stock. I then add the beef cubes and I simmer on low in a dutch oven until the beef is tender is and cooked through. You must keep a lid on the pot to keep the juice from evaporating.

Next chop and dice all the vegetables and add it to the pot, stir well, and bring to a boil, once the pot is boiling add the herbs, cinnamon, and sugar, making sure you stir until the sugar is dissolved completely or it will scorch on the bottom of the pot.

Reduce the heat and simmer until the turnips are tender. Then I let the pot cool and sit to let the different flavors melt together. Reheat and serve.

This can also be made in a crockpot.

Chili

2 pounds of ground beef
1 whole onion chopped
1 large green pepper chopped
1 tbsp sugar
2 cans of kidney beans
1 6 oz can of tomato paste
15 oz of tomato sauce
1 can of chili's
1 tsp of oregano
1 tsp of thyme
1 tsp of basil
3 cups of beef stock
8 large garlic cloves
2 packages of taco seasoning
3 tbsp of butter

In a large skillet, melt the butter, and the garlic, onion and green pepper, cook until the onions have carmelized. Remove the onions and green pepper from the pan, then add the meat and cook until no pink remains, add the taco seasoning and stir until mixed. If using cast iron soup pot, don't drain the meat, if you are using a regular pan, do drain the meat. Once the taco seasoning is well mixed, add the tomato paste and mix. In your soup pot, add the rest of the the ingredients and mix well, and the meat mixture bring to a boil while stirring. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until the chili has reach your desired thickness. If it gets to thick, and a little water.

This can also be made in a crockpot, but you will need to cook it uncovered, otherwise it gets really soupy.

Enjoy!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Stash Report

I have come to the conclusion that I enjoy quilting much more than piecing or applique. Though if you would look at my stack of quilt tops, you would think differently. So while continuing to clean out fabric, finding block sets etc, I have decided that almost all of my stash is going out the door. It has become so cumbersome, that I would rather buy fabric to make a quilt then to actually look at what I have here at the house.

So while I have close to 100 quilt tops that are not finished, these are mine, not ones for donation. And I found almost 30 sets of quilt block sets. Right there is 130 quilts. Now mind you, I don't make doll quilts, wall hangings, table runners etc. I think its great that people do make these, and I do like looking at them, but for my own use I would rather make bed quilts. Quilts that I can use and quilts that I want people to use are the quilts that I want to make, so those 130 quilts, well, they will be eventually, are all bed size.

With this thought, and if I want to make a top, I would rather buy the fabric and make the top and have a small manageable stash that inspires me, then a stash that paralyzes me, which is what I have at the moment.

With that, I am going to be weeding out almost all of my stash. This does not mean I am not going to be quilting any longer, it just means that I am going to do the process that I like to do the best, and that is quilting, more specifically hand quilting. Fabric that I am keeping is going to be yardage that will work for backs of some quilts, and or border's, sashing, etc for the quilt tops and blocks I have. I will also be keeping some scraps for scrappy quilts, and with buying borders, and other fabrics as needed, I think I will feel more at ease with where I am in this new phase of my quilting life. I will also be keeping all charity fabric that was donated to me, and I will continue to make charity quilts for the groups that I make them for now.

With all that being said. Here is my stash report for this week.

This week alone I purged 350 yards of fabric, which made absolutely no dent in room 1 of my stash. It was divided between three church groups, and they were happy to receive it. This might not seem fair to some people, but when you have as much fabric as I have, this doesn't even make a dent in anything. And because I am not actually using my fabric, I just might not do any more stash reports until I am comfortable with the amount of fabric that I actually have.

If any one is coming to the Nebraska sew in for HeartStrings, be prepared to take lots of fabric home with you!


Purchases this week 0.0 yds
Purchases YTD: 256.5 yards

Used this week: 350.0 yards
Used YTD: 537.5 yards

Running Total 281.0 yards in the black

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Stash Report

Well, I finished four quilts this week! Granted they were just tied, but I did use lots of fabric for backing. Not only did I do that, but I got rid of 3 boxes of fabric to the Lutherans to use for LWR quilts. I have so much fabric, I just need to get rid of it. At this point in time any one that will take it and use it for charity can have the old, unloved stuff that I no longer want. As long as they come to my house and pick it up. Its amazing how much fabric one can amass. And no I didn't measure it all, I weighed one yard, then weighed the rest of the fabric in the piles. Quick and easy! Though 24 yards were used for the backs of those four quilts.

I am very happy that I am getting very close to breaking even, I might have to clean more fabric out!

So here are my totals for this week.

Purchases this week 0.0 yds
Purchases YTD: 256.5 yards

Used this week: 90.0 yards
Used YTD: 187.5 yards

Running Total 69.0 yards in the red

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Stash Report

A slow week this time around. No sewing done, nothing bought, so the same as last week.

Purchases this week 0.0 yds
Purchases YTD: 256.5 yards

Used this week: 0.0 yards
Used YTD: 97.5 yards

Running Total 159.0 yards in the red

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Stash Report

Well, wasn't to busy this week. I put together another set of blocks. Some Bear Paw blocks that I found. Other than that, not much sewing this week.


Purchases this week 0.0 yds
Purchases YTD: 256.5 yards

Used this week: 2.5 yards
Used YTD: 97.5 yards

Running Total 159.0 yards in the red

Edited to add that I made a typing mistake somewhere on my excell, and had the wrong formula on the used YTD, lol, I am almost to 100 yards used this year!!!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Vintage Quilt Pieces







I can never pass up vintage quilt block sets. They are even harder to pass up with you get EACH set of quilt blocks for $1.50 a set. There are 25 Dresden Plates, 12 18 inch cross stitch blocks, 20 basket blocks, and 12 Applique/Embroidered blocks. The patterns she gave me since I bought the quilt blocks. She said her grandmother made them, and they all date to the 30's except for the Cross Stitch blocks which are probably in the last 20 years. It was a good buy!

Sometimes I take good photo's sometimes not, in this post you can see the mixture!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Stash Report

Not much sewing has been going on. Been taking care of other things, like work, fixing the car, taking care of the house, some fun things. However, I was off for three days this weekend, and I was able to cut and complete a quilt top for donation. I have the last row of blocks to add and then it will be finished.

So with that being said, here is this weeks stash report:

Purchases this week 0.0 yds
Purchases YTD: 256.5 yards

Used this week: 6.0 yards
Used YTD: 80.5 yards

Running Total 161.5 yards in the red