Preserving The Bounty

Some days we have to step back from our "routine" and do what is needed.  This year Mom's fig tree is once again producing a great bounty of figs.  I have no idea which variety of figs these are, but they make great preserves.  The figs looks something like this.

I usually pick them with just a little green left at the stem end.  Otherwise, the birds get them before I get the chance.

Today I made ten half pints of flavored fig preserves. I use the old standby "Faux Strawberry Preserves" recipe.  But I generally change it a bit. The recipe uses flavored gelatin (like Jello) instead of more traditional things like pectin.  Here are the first five I took out of the canning water bath.

Ten glorious jars of "Straw-Cherry" preserves are now sitting on my table. There is also about a third of a jar that went into the refrigerator. Those will be used to flavor my breakfast yogurt one day soon.

If you want to read about my process, I blogged it last year.   Right now, I am relaxing and listening as the jars "plink" sealed.  One just plinked - it may have been the final jar.

(You can also go to the search bar in the top left corner of my blog and type figs and enter for even more posts about my adventures in making preserves.)

I have more figs in the freezer and the tree is full of green figs as well as some in various stages of ripening.   Isn't it delightful what God provides for us?

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

August Will Be Here Soon

Yes indeed, Only a few short days and August will be here.  Why is that great?   In August, the Island Batik Ambassadors will have a blog hop showing the Spring fabric lines. These Spring lines are already showing up in stores - you see the lines debut at Spring Quilt Market and then the stores can order them.  Stores generally get them in Summer or early Fall.  I am excited to show you my quilt, but we have to wait.  My day is August 14th.

Meanwhile- I am working on my quilt for September.  That quilt challenge is called "Child's Play."  There are rules for the size.  We must use the Accuquilt Go! Block on Board die that was included in the box we received in July.  You may remember that I got the spiderweb die. I used it to make this section of a block.

Electric Desert Fabrics with black and the Doughnut blender fabric.

That is one fourth of a spiderweb block.  No one said we had to use the entire block - although in September, you will see that I did.

I have also cut some border strips that I will be sewing on today.

That yellow is called Tossed Seeds while the blue/yellow print is called Meadow.

Those names fit well with the subject of my quilt.  

But I am saving the subject as a surprise for September

For now I am going to sew the borders on. Then, hopefully, I will have plenty of time to play with the quilting before September rolls around. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

My Second Island Batik Ambassador Box

The second box of amazingness has arrived.  It weighed in at 23 glorious pounds (10.4 kg) and is full of delightful surprises.  We made an opening video to share with you.

Island Batik along with industry partners,  Aurifil Thread, Hobbs Batting, and Accuquilt sent us these lovely supplies to use in our challenges each month.

I have already started one project for September. (yes really.  I don't want to get behind.) 

These supplies are a delight to work with. 

Have a colorful and happy week.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

A Little Project

Way back in 2012,  I won a cute little wall hanging kit.  It has been floating around in my stash since then.  So I decided to pull it out and have a fun little project to play with.

This little project took about a day to complete with interruptions and not stressing or working too hard.

The fabrics were all included, except the backing and the fusible. The instructions called for "Wonder Under" but I had some Heat 'n' Bond Lite so that is what I used.   I made another small change or two in my version. But it came out well anyway.

 I just love this.  It reminds me of a friend who always signs off "Gotta Go, Gotta Sew!"   

Now I am wondering if I can count this as two quilt finishes.  You see the "little quilt" is made separately.   The instructions said to "applique it to the quilt top."  I opted to attach it, but leave it partially free.

This was a fun little project.  

And isn't that why we quilt?  For fun?

I know I wouldn't do it if I didn't find some fun and satisfaction in quilting. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Scraps - Use'em Up

As we make quilts there are always scraps. Some of you, I have been told, throw them away (gasp!)  Some of you give them away. Some of you cut them neatly and store them various ways..

My scraps go in piles, bags or drawers. Sometimes I iron them and put them away neatly. Sometimes they just get stuffed into a bag.

When I get ready to use them, I almost always iron them again anyway.  And then I get out way more than I think I need for whatever I am working on.

This is a group of scrap blocks that I have been amassing. One day they will become a wildly scrappy quilt in the tradition of using every bit possible. As I look at these blocks, I see a few that are just......well, they are boring, static, DULL to me.  Which ones?

Boring!

Dull.

Lacking movement. 

So how do I fix them? One great way is to slash them and insert strips.

That looks a little better,  but I am still not happy with it.  You may be able to see that I have already slashed it again.  You will see how it came out in the final image.

Two that I slashed and inserted still didn't make me happy.  So I layered them, both face up, then I cut a curve through both of them.  I swapped the pieces and sewed them.

I may later add a strip to the one on the left and sew them in this configuration. (but not today.)Now they are far more interesting.

This piece is far from "squared"  Before I square it, I will add to it.

I like to add pieces that are larger than needed. Then I can trim with options.

The nice chunk of red hand dyed fabric certainly helps. But if I square it now, I will lose some of the fun smaller pieces.

So I added the blue hand dyed fabric and then a pieced strip.  How I have trimming options that make me happy.   I will place my ruler over it to help decide.

This will not be cut to a square but rather a rectangle.  I plan to preserve ALL of the small pieces.

Perfectly imperfect!

Surprise!  I took the other one that still didn't satisfy me and used the two orphan HST blocks across the corners.  I also saved the leftovers for "seeds" to start another block.

Here are all the blocks laid out quite randomly.

See in the upper right how I added a yellow strip in that one block?

When I put this all together I will probably use a unifying color as sashing/spacer strips. That way it will be "contained chaos."

Now, you go grab some scraps and PLAY!!!

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

To Market, To Market With my New Bag

Here is a fun project that I can share with you.  One of my fellow Island Batik Ambassadors blogged about making a Market Bag.  She also shared that if you join the Facebook Group  "Annie's Quilting Group" that you can get the pattern free. 

Since I was looking for an easy project, and it used 5" squares, I decided to just do it.  I had a pack of Moda "Cherish Nature" - or at least enough of it to make this work.  You need 35 squares.

I started sewing squares together randomly.  

Then I thought,  "I need to make it so the same color isn't side by side."  I mostly succeeded...  

.....................except for those two green squares  on the left. 

Therefore the other side is  the front!

This is a fun bag to make and if you are adventurous you could probably change the design a bit.  You could certainly piece blocks that would come out to 5 inches square to use in it.  You could use three  5 inch strips or...... well you see that it is pretty easy to change up the design of the other shell.

If you make one, please show it.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Sharing from the Past

Right now I am working on a project that will be shown in August - sorry, I can't even give you a sneak peek.

So, perhaps you would like to see my most popular YouTube channel video. It has 238 thousand views.  I almost feel famous.

 Or perhaps you would like to see one or two of my paintings.

Transcend

Moonlit Path

Or maybe just a fun little improv quilt for inspiration.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Artsy Fartsy Bluebirds

As an Island Batik Ambassador we get a new challenge for each month. 

Products are provided by Island Batik and industry partner Aurifil for these projects.
Thanks Aurifil and Island Batik.

The July challenge is called the "Artsy Fartsy" challenge.  We were challenged to create an some type of artistic piece that uses three weights of Aurifil thread.  I had a great time gathering my threads and fabrics and deciding on my project.
I confess that there was not a lot of planning in this quilt. Rather, I put fusible onto some chosen fabrics and cut shapes.  Then I had some play time arranging and re-arranging the pieces. (then I fused and cut some more because I wanted more of some of them.)

Once I had an arrangement that I liked I fused it all into place. Then I started stitching.
I realized that I didn't have enough petals on the red flower, but I had some lovely red Aurifil thread #1103 in a 40 weight.  It went on the machine and I did some thread painting with it to create more petals. The 40 weight does nicely for free motion thread painting. I also used it to stitch down the other petals.

You can see that this was taken mid-process.
 The flower changed a bit more before it was finished. 

Meanwhile, this bluebird wing was cut from the exact same fabric as the background.  OOPS!  So let me fix that, but how?  Again, Aurifil thread to the rescue.  The wing is a rather delicate structure so a lighter weight thread seemed in order.  I had some 50 wt.  Aurifil #2730 that looked perfect for this.

The thread painting changed the look of the wing so that it doesn't blend into the background.

I did thread painting on several of the elements including this little broderie perse appliqué flower.

In a few places I got out of the lines, but I don't worry about that too much.
This is 28 wt Aurifil thread.

All of the broderie perse appliqué pieces were cut from a strip of Island Batik

 fabric that came in a Stash Builder package.  

This strip was all flowers and birds just perfect for this project

This odd little fantasy flower was embellished with some 40 wt thread.

The flower petals and blue birds were cut with a couple of Accuquilt dies that I have had for a long time.   After the green leaves were cut, I used the "waste" fabric, trimmed slightly to create the grass.

The grass was fused in place and later thread painted with both 50 wt and 28 wt Aurifil thread.  The 28 worked great in my machine with a size 90 needle and a 50 wt Aurifil thread in the bobbin.  I adjusted the tension to be sure that the bobbin thread did not come to the top.

The same red used for the flower petal was perfect to sign my quilt with free motion stitching

Finally, I fused the backing fabric over all the stitching and added a binding.   The binding was hand sewn to the back using 28 wt thread.  Surprisingly, it doesn't show at all.

 Two more broderie perse close-ups 

And that red flower....

It has more petals and embellishment on it. 

And now the final reveal

Isn't it delightful?  

Aurifil thread and Island Batik fabrics are a match made in heaven. 

(p.s.  I can hardly wait to show you my August project!  

      It is a new fabric line that I love and I think you will too.) 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.