Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Under the Needle

What is under my needle?  

Monday I layered and basted  a section of the Scrappy Quilt. 
It is under the needle being quilted.
Because I have a tendency to quilt densely, 
this will take a while to finish the entire quilt.

For size reference, those circles in the diagonal curved blue strip
are about the size of a penny. 


As you can see, I am changing designs as I go.  Nothing is "perfect" as that
is not my goal. Rather this will be great practice for me.
AND
It will have fantastic texture when the quilt is washed.

So what is under your needle?


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.

Thursday, December 23, 2021

A Little Seasonal Fun

Last year I recorded a video of myself.  I was singing and being silly.  I thought it was perfect to share here while I am being less productive. 


And just because,  here is a painting I did several years ago to use as my Christmas card, that year.  



Merry Christmas Y'all


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.

Monday, December 20, 2021

Three

Three scrappy panels on top of a queen-sized bed, they look colorful and chaotic, but still an organized chaos.  
Creative types, Artists, Poets, Composers, Quilters - we all face chaos and try to tame it, organize it, make it fit. 
Here are quotes from a few creative souls:
-We live in a rainbow of chaos. (Paul Cezanne, painter/artist)
-Art is the opposite of chaos. Art is organized chaos. (Igor Stravinsky, composer/music)
-My goal is to communicate the organization and beauty that exists in our universe underneath the appearance of random chaos. (Aleta Pippin  Santa Fe contemporary artist )
-Human life itself may be almost pure chaos, but the work of the artist is to take these handfuls of confusion and disparate things, things that seem to be irreconcilable, and put them together in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning. (Katherine Anne Porter Journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist)

My hope is that I have taken a chaotic mess of scraps and orphan blocks and tamed them into a functional work of art.  

The colors are vivid and varied.  The cotton fabrics range from shirtings to batiks,  prints to solids, commercial to hand dyed.  I love them all - and I love them all together in this wild meleĆ© of piecing that will become a quilt.   

Next up in the process is to layer and back each panel and then quilt them. After that I will make the strips and join the  panels into one delightfully fun quilt. (At least that is my opinion.)  This will most likely go right into the new year before it reaches a finish.   I hope the rest of your year is joyous and safe.  
I have no idea if I will be posting again before the end of the year, so let me remind you to be kind to all and to say "I LOVE YOU" to those that are dear to your hearts.  I wish you peace and joy. 


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.

Monday, December 13, 2021

Panel #2

Finally there is a picture of the second panel for  "The Very Scrappy Quilt" that I am slowly working on.  Today there was some sun and the temperature and wind were reasonably agreeable.  So I got a photo of that panel.  Here it is. 
There are some curved lines, a pineapple block, randomly pieced blocks and strips. And it all adds up to a very fun quilt panel to add to the other panel.  

Meanwhile, I have a lot of pieced sections that I need to get joined and create the third panel.  Of course, I may decide to layer and quilt one of these panels first.   I am waiting for a sign or a word from my muse. 


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.

Saturday, December 11, 2021

A bit of Piecing

There are many things that keep me busy.  Some of them would not be interesting or fun to write about. So days go by and I realize I haven't posted in a week!  For those who have asked/wondered, I am fine. 

I have two nice sized panels ready for the quilt I am slowly making.  I am considering adding a third panel to make the quilt bigger.   I will quilt these in sections and then join them.  I find that if the piece is too big, it is harder to quilt on my domestic machine.  

For the potential third panel,  I have made the following pieces.  Of course I will need a lot more to make the panel.  I find that sewing these random scrappy pieces is fun and relaxing for me. I try not to think about it much when I am doing it. Rather, I let the available fabric help make the choices.  FYI-the  "available fabric" is whatever is close enough to reach at that moment. 

First up is the largest piece, which is really two pieces that I joined with a strip of black. The left-hand side was made with two strips that had been sewn together.  I chopped and rearranged pieces to get this  look.  Subdividing a long pair of strips can make for quick piecing. 

The next piece looks a bit like a small house.


Apparently I was enjoying the "house-top" shape because this next piece has two of them. 


So there you go,  that is what I have sewn recently.  
I have been doing a lot of reading for pleasure.  
I enjoy mysteries and was allowed to read some that are pre-release.
The last three I have read have been "a book a day" because
I get started and can't put it down. 



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.

Friday, December 03, 2021

Creating in the Kitchen

Someone asked "How do you make your own yogurt?"  Someone else asked "What is full-fat yogurt?"

Full-fat yogurt is made with whole milk -not 2% or skim.  All of the milk fat is in it - and it tastes so much better!  Here is how I make it.  The only "specialty" equipment is an instant read thermometer, a 4-Cup measuring cup, and a six pack cooler with a towel to insulate the yogurt while it ferments. 

Here is how I make my own yogurt.  
 
Ingredients:
 
4 cups whole milk (I buy a  gallon and make four batches )
 
2 tablespoons plain yogurt with active cultures. (sit in small bowl on counter to come to room temp while heating and cooling the milk.) 
 
I put 4 c. milk in my quart pyrex measuring cup.    Heat in microwave until temp is at least 180 F but no higher than 190.  (I stir then use an instant read thermometer to check temps)  In my microwave this takes approx. 7 minutes at full power. 
 
Note - I remove the "skin" off the top at this point.

Stir again, let sit on counter until temp is between 110F and 120F.  118F is optimal but as long as it is in the range it will work.(timing depends on  temp of work area)   
 
Note - I remove the "skin" off the top again.

Take a Tbs of the warm milk and add to yogurt, stir.  Add another Tbs.  of warm milk to it and stir again (this is like tempering eggs)  I usually add at least 3 Tbs of milk to the yogurt...the idea is to slowly warm it so that the cultures aren’t “shocked” and made inactive when you do the next step.
 Pour the small bowl of yogurt/milk mixture into the pyrex cup.  Cover with plastic wrap. (Glad Press’n’Seal or a heavy duty standard plastic wrap.) This keeps anything from getting in it - and also keeps it from spilling.
 
Then I put this in a ‘Playmate’ six-pack sized cooler with a warmed towel to fill in the airspace. (towel in microwave for 20-30 seconds) 
 
Leave it in a warm place (room temp) for 8 to 16 hours.  I usually leave it overnight and pour it up the next morning. OR I make it in the morning and leave it all day.  I prefer at least 10 hours to fully develop the culture. Up to sixteen hours will not cause problems if the room is 70 degrees or higher.
 
You can then sweeten (or not) as desired. I usually sweeten mine when I am ready to eat it.  Stevia, monkfruit, or erythritol work well if you don't eat sugar. 
 
It is easier than you think and you should make more before you run out . You will need those two TBS of yogurt to make the next batch.   I haven’t bought yogurt since I started doing this.  The culture multiplies so it is as good (or better) than what you started with. 

And just so you have something pretty to see with this post - here are some photos of my various works.
Quilted Notebook Cover

Art Quilt

Watercolor painting

The quilt that is currently on my bed.

UPDATE:  I first made yogurt in the late 1980s.  I did that in a microwave that maintained the temperature using a probe.  (Honestly I am surprised that it worked!)   I didn't make it for a long time.  Then approx 20 years later  I found some full fat yogurt (it was much more expensive) but I got one and loved it. So I decided to look for an easy way to make it.  I found the "cooler insulation method" online. I bought a gallon of whole milk and a small cup of plain yogurt and tried it.  The gallon of milk was (and still is) cheaper than the quart of whole milk yogurt.  It is honestly so easy that I can't imagine buying the pre-made yogurt now. 

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.

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

More Fun with Scraps and Orphans

We all have scraps and orphan blocks in our stash - unless you give/throw them away.  I have given away scraps, but I can't find it in my heart to throw them away.  So I use them for fun and therapeutic sewing. 

Today I started for a "15 minute" play time. That quickly expanded into an hour - and later another 30 to 60 minutes of play.  

I took two pieces that were just kind of square and boring.  I laid them one on top of the other (both right sides up.)  Taking the rotary cutter in hand, they were sliced with a curvy line.  Then, the piece from the top was sewn to the piece from the bottom, and vice-versa.  Then I sewed them together into one piece. 


    That was FUN! 

Next I took some off-cut corners and added them to opposite sides of an existing block 
That block was randomly pieced too. 
Then I found a larger scrap that got cut into two more triangles for the 
other sides.  

It doesn't look square but it is. 
Finally I took a large orphan block and cut it wonky.  
Then I used it, the off cuts and some other fabric and created
This long strip of "pieced fabric."

It is far more interesting now than it was when I started with it. 
I will keep on playing until the muse says "make these into a _____!" 

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.

Sunday, November 28, 2021

A bit more on the Scrappy Piecing

Yesterday I added just a bit to make two larger pieces fit together. Then I joined them. 

The top section got a diagonal slice added to it. But then it was a bit too long, 
so I added the strip on the right side of the bottom to sort it out. 
Yes, this is moving slowly, but that is because I am doing
 other things also that are not quilt related. 

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.

Thursday, November 25, 2021

Happy Thanksgiving - Holiday Sewing

First may I wish all of you in the USA  a very Happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful/grateful for in our lives.  If you are reading this, you have internet and so electricity. You are alive and able to read.  I am grateful that the sun rose again. We truly have a lot to be grateful for if we look honestly.  Sure there are things that aren't as good as we would like, but we need to see the good things and rejoice in them. 

I am rejoicing in finishing the holiday sewing for the great-nephews.  These were really last minute projects.  The boys are here for Thanksgiving but will probably not be here at Christmas, so I have decided to gift these early. 

For the older boys, I have made quilted notebooks with "the Creeper" from their favorite game, "Minecraft."   
Yes, I had to look it up, but I remembered seeing another blogger making a Minecraft quilt for her son.  I used the block pattern that I found and made it smaller to fit the notebooks. 
Under the strips of fabric they are personalized.  I covered the names for the photos.  

For the youngest one,  I decided to make a pillow since he doesn't write yet.  One of his favorite things is the Garbage Truck. (I discovered that it is a common fascination with small children.)  Okay, I confess,  I enjoy watching the arm reach out, grab the receptacle and dump it into the truck.  What can I say, I am a child at heart.  I bought this design from "Linnie Pinnie."  Unfortunately, my embroidery machine went kaput right after I finished this design, so I had to use fusible applique and free motion stitching to do the name on this one. 

When the embroidery machine gave the error, I saw the code was "TG-PM." I looked it up and it is "thread guide-pulse monitor."   I hope it won't be too expensive to repair.  I am really enjoying working with machine embroidery and digitizing.  So, I will get it fixed or replaced, eventually. 

I am maintaining my weight loss and normal blood glucose. So for Thanksgiving day, I have made sugar free cranberry sauce and a sugar free chocolate cake.  The cake is made with zucchini and almond flour rather than wheat.  Those of us whose blood glucose is sensitive to grains have to learn to cook differently.  But it is totally do-able!  I will be "eating on plan" today and NOT overeating.  



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.

Sunday, November 21, 2021

Holiday Sewing

I am sure a lot of you sew or create for the holidays.  I love to give presents that I have made or at least partially made.  This year I am embroidering some flour sack towels to give as gifts to some of my family and extended family.   This is relatively inexpensive but will hopefully give them something that is decorative and useful.   
The first towels I ordered seemed a bit thin to me. Some of those were embroidered while I awaited the second order.  When the 2nd order arrived, I was surprised at the large size of the towels. (Yes, I know it was in the description - but I apparently didn't think it through.)   They are 33" by 38" towels.  You could use them as aprons!  There as a review that mentioned cutting them into quarters and hemming the two cut edges.  I did that with one and realized that it makes them too small. Those four are the size of cloth napkins.   So, I decided to cut them in half - making them 33" by 18" roughly, after hemming the cut edge.  I still have a few to cut and embroider. 

Here are some of the results. 
I love the Sunbonnet Sue ones.  I did a couple of Holiday tree designs at first. 
Then I decided, if it were me, I would prefer some I could use all year. 

And, as I had created the design below - and never did a test sew, 
I decided to change the outer petals to a thicker stitch (a bean stitch)
and use it also.  This one may be for me. 

The design is one I created to be a single run quilting design. 
That means it starts and ends at the same point and only sews a single 
thread for each stitch - just as if you were doing FMQ. 

The top set of towels have been washed and they came out of the wash just fine. 
I was using cut-away stabilizer, but on one I tried a tear-away/wash-away stabilizer. 
I was pleased to see that it did not distort in the wash. 

The star-flower that is on the bottom towel has not been washed. 
The tear-away/wash-away stabilizer is still behind most it.  
I did tear away the outer edges. 

Are you sewing for holidays?

By the way,  any of my family  that may be reading this:
Sorry if I spoiled your surprise. 



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.

Friday, November 19, 2021

Scrappy Joy

The scrappy quilt is moving along.  I have one big panel joined together now.  I realize that I haven't posted in over a week, so while I had an assistant to hold the panel, I took a photo of the one big piece. 

In searching for something, I discovered a lot more pieced sections and a few pineapple blocks that will be incorporated later. On this one, I have already added some pieces.


I am thinking that I will make a panel with this one to go next to the panel below.  


I may add a panel of some large piece of fabric between the two panels and only have the two panels on this quilt. The other option I am considering is using three panels with sashing between them. 

Meanwhile, I have also been making some holiday presents that I can't show right now. 
I hope to post more in a few days (or maybe sooner!)


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.

Tuesday, November 09, 2021

Another SideStep -and a Finish

The fun scrappy piecing has been placed aside for a few days.   Another project called my name loudly and I had to pick it up and start working on it.  

For quite a while, I have been saving my "practice/classwork" free-motion quilting blocks. There was a nice stack of them. Sometime back, I had started  joining them into rows. I don't know if I ever shared it, but I got back to it this week.  I added two more rows to it.  Today I took it outside for a few photos. 

This is the "front" of the quilt.  It has lots of interesting free motion quilting. 
And there is also some raw edge applique and some machine embroidery on it. 


This is the "back" - but honestly it wouldn't matter which side is up on this quilt.
Both sides will be interesting to look at. 


I had to just flip the edge over. (Ignore my running shoe in the photo.)


Some of this quilting makes me so happy. The quilting around this star is just fun. 
And you may notice that I managed some halfway decent feathers too. 

That promised finish?  Oh yes. 
Mom and I finished that puzzle. 
This is one that I wouldn't mind gluing down and putting on the wall.

This puzzle has so many images in it. There are at least four cats. There
are 8-10 people as well as a plethora of butterflies and dragons.
And the colors are vivid and interesting. 
The big surprise,  it only took nine days for us to finish 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.

Saturday, November 06, 2021

Showing The Pieces

The last post had no photos of the pieces I have been sewing in odd moments.  Some of you may be thinking that I have "fallen in a hole." But, you can relax!  It isn't true.  I have become less "productive."  Rather I am going slower and enjoying the process more. I have no deadlines and don't wish to set any for myself. 

The scrap pile doesn't seem to be dwindling at all.  Even though all of the pieces here are scraps from various other projects. If the piece is at least 2 1/2" square, I am compelled to save it.  I have bins, boxes and bags of scraps. Here are the results of using a very small portion of those scraps. 


The above is all sewn into one bigger piece. 

While the one below is several pieced sections laid out into one piece.
They are not all joined. 


I think there are twelve sections there.  This is not how it will look
when it is joined.  I am sure more pieces will be added. 

Meanwhile, back at Mom's the puzzle is still "in progress." 
There has been some serious advances in the piecing of it also. 

The part I am least looking forward to working on? 
The red/pink/orange leaves in the tree on the left. 
Of course, it may be like the bridge.  Once we buckle 
down on that section, it may fall into place fairly easily. 



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.

Tuesday, November 02, 2021

Pieces and Puzzle

The sewing has continued and I have several more pieces sewn although they are in the 6-10 inch range and I haven't taken any photos of them.  

I have been keeping up my Spanish lessons, both on Duolingo and my "in-person" lessons.  On Duolingo, I am at 1076 days without missing a single day.  However, I started Duolingo Spanish lessons on September 1, 2018.  So, I have passed the 3 Year mark. I just happened to miss one day so my "streak" is less than perfect.   My "in-person" lessons had to move to Zoom meetings as we are still in the throes of a pandemic, even if many people are ignoring that fact. 

Mom and I started a new puzzle and have made a bit of progress. 

As you can see we have managed to get some of the "easier" parts together. This puzzle was supposed
to come with a poster of the image, but that wasn't in the box when we broke the seal on it. 
I contacted the company, but we are plowing along using the box photo. 
What I have learned is that  the poster really makes it easier for both of us. 
Mom has said "I wish that picture would hurry up and get here."



I have been using my cellphone camera to zoom in on the box photo.  While that is helpful, it still isn't as good as the poster.   

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.

Saturday, October 30, 2021

One "Chunk" Joined

Sewing along on the strip sets Saturday morning, it occurred to me that I could do some cutting and adding to the sections to make them fit together easily.  Two of the sections were close in size along one edge.  Cut a strip off of the longer one and made them match.  Then I took three smaller sections and played "puzzle" with them until I had a piece that was the same length as the section I had joined. That new section was sewn on to make one good-sized chunk. 


The play of colors and visual textures from the batiks, hand-dyes, and prints - with a few solids added for a calming effect really make me love this.

I have loads of scraps left so I will start some new sections with the "seeds" that were left from "playing puzzle" (trimming to make it fit)  and other small sections I have sewn and not added yet.  This is a totally joyous process. 
Seeds

*Scrappy Pro Tip: Always save trimmings that are at least an inch wide. Those are your scrappy seeds.


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.

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Playing with Pieces -Strip Sets

The strip sets have been sitting on my cutting table patiently.  Well, not totally patient, I heard them call to me a few times. I have added a few strips.  I even sewed two sections together (lower center, right side on the photo below.)    There is still no plan.  I just wanted to do a layout and see what it looks like "so far." 


The piece of deep blue hand dyed fabric is a single piece that I used to fill the hole. If I sewed it this way, I would have to do some partial seams.  They are not as hard as you might think.  The trick is to make a plan before you start sewing it.  In fact, looking at it, I quickly realized that it would be pretty easy.  At first I thought it would require at least 2 partial seams, but I see now that I can do it with just one.  (Uh, I think....lol.) 

There are some more strip pieces left.  For now they are just two or three strips sewn together.  But I could use them to fill in that bottom left "hole."  However, this isn't that large. I may add some big pieces of whole cloth fabric to make it bigger and add a somewhat "modern" vibe to it.  Ha ha...only time will tell. I can change my mind faster than you can imagine. 

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.