Super Summer Snippy Challenge - Part NINE

Rolling right along!  Sometimes I scare myself at the pace I am going!   I did get another quilt top put together and it is not a small one like I was planning.  This one even has a planned placement and planned colour lines.   I still used squares that I had cut previously but somewhat coordinated how the squares were set in each block.  As you can see, similar squares run at a diagonal across the quilt.  I had started to set them together in a "trip around the world" setting but it didn't work out very well, so the diagonal placement it became.

My hubby really liked this one and said I should finish it and keep it -- then I reminded him we already had quilts in the closet...

So, the Statistics for this quilt are:

The whole quilt top measures 62 x 76 inches - a generous twin size.

I has 320 - 3 1/2 inch squares pieced together in 16 patch blocks and there are 4 sets of 5 blocks arranged in a diagonal pattern across the quilt.

There is 7 - 2 1/2 x width of fabric strips to make up the sashing between the blocks .

The border fabric has been in my stash FOREVER! and was only 36 inch wide with selvedges that reduced the fabric width to 33 inches.  There were 8 strips of  4 1/2 inch by 33 inches to make the outside border.

I was actually surprised at how quickly this quilt top came together.  The blocks took me about 3 hours to put together 20 blocks and then to arrange and study and admire my work was at least another hour or more!  Adding the sashing and borders took about 4 hours to do, so If I was a working person this would have made a full 8 hour day and $200 bucks in wages....  Yeah, right!

Whew!  this now means I have only one more quilt to succeed at my self imposed challenge and actually 5 weeks still to go -- I haven't yet decided whether the fullfillment of the number of quilt tops will end my challenge or if I will continue until my self imposed time is up, which is the second tuesday of September...   I STILL have alot of 3 1/2 inch squares and other ODD BITS that could be put together into as many tops as I have already done!  Where did I get all this stuff!

Hope everyone is enjoying the fine summer weather!  Are you watching the Olympic Games?

Crochet and my Container Garden

I have started a new crochet project, I saw a pattern on the Lion Brand web site (you have to sign up, but the patterns are FREE) that I really like the styling of.  I want to make myself a easy wear, comfortable type tunic top for the cooler days coming this fall and winter.  The Lion Brand pattern is called Dinner at Eight.  Now the first problem is it's measurements are not quite right for me.  The second problem is the only yarn that I have enough of to use for the project is Red Heart Comfort, which is considerably chunkier than the Lion Brand Glamour called for in the pattern.

I often adjust patterns for things like scarfs and simple things, so creating a similar tunic as shown on the Lion Brand site with such a different yarn is proving to be a challenge.  Now, so far, I have completely changed from using single crochet in every stitch to doing a single crochet chain 1 combination, which makes the yarn a bit more drapy -- all single crochet made it feel like cardboard!  The sizing for the pattern goes from small, to 2xl, and achieving a test swatch with the Comfort yarn was pretty much impossible, but when I follow the instructions for the pattern using the medium sizing, the actual measurements are very close, so that is what I am going with, except the number of rows to crochet must also be reduced by about 20%.   So as I progress, I am sort of rewriting the pattern and if this works well for me.  I will post it when I am done.   Now tho the question is?  With the substantial changes I am making does this mean the pattern is my own, but inspired by the lion brand pattern?

So while I was outside, because the morning sun is slightly overcast and the colours are as close to TRUE as I am likely to get, I thought I would take some photos of my garden this year.

We have had a very cool spring and early summer with many cloudy overcast days and my garden is feeling it.

My geraniums, a staple for me every year because they remind me of my Mother, are thick and green with blooms being few and far between.  Right now this is the only bloom cluster on 6 plants!

Spearmint, which is usually at least a foot or more tall and hanging over the side of the container, are barely six inches and I have not cut any for drying for spearmint tea this winter.

I have a dark shady corner at the back fence in my yard where only ferns or hostas grow and this year the hosta has been very slow to come up out of the ground, so I keep a home made bird bath in the corner.  I have a container pot filled mostly with cedar needles debis, with a few dinosaurs and rocks with crochet covering the base.  The stand is a very old - from the 1970's I think plant stand that I used in my house but now is the main holder for the drain tray that holds the water for the chick-a-dees, jays, sparrows and occasional squirrel if Pearl doesn't happen to notice.

I got some dahlia tubers at a church plant sale but they have a major problem.  I suspect that there was some kind of insect that rode on the tubers and they come up and eat the foliage faster than the plant can grow.  No other plants in my yard are affected like this.  I have got to the point where I am thinking of cutting these down and pour dish washing soap into the container til next spring, which is what my Mom used to do to what she called "bad spots" in her garden.... It almost always worked!

And now, to turn around my computer chair and pay attention to some of today's olympic events!  I am an Olympic Games fiend!  For the two weeks of Olympic Games where ever they may be, I am glued to my tv and prefer to watch the live feed, rather than the primetime bits.  This morning from 4am to almost 8am, I was watching the Woman's Bike Road Race, pulling for our Canadians, but glad for Marianne Vos who ultimately won the Gold.

SIDE BAR

Just a quick note, so that you will notice...

I have added a new link on my side bar.  I don't usually make note of those kinds of changes but this one is particularly useful.  I have added a "button" for SewSet, this is a website where you can find sewing patterns for a wide variety of items from skirts and shirts to home decor and quilts and toys, some are free and some require you to purchase the pattern.  This site simply provides a link to the pattern and you either follow the free tutorial by going to the link provided or if you are purchasing a pattern you follow the instructions to make the purchase. 

I am planning to list some of my tutorials on this site and they will all be FREE, so if you are looking for the bath mat tutorial or how to make the hot cross nine patch block, I will soon have those on the SewSet web page.  Go take a look!  Just clik on the link on my side bar or right here.  http://www.sewset.com/

Super Summer Snippy Challenge - Part Seven (that should be Part 8)

Our Summer on the West Coast of Canada has taken a break from hot and sun and dry...

So, the weather is perfect to sew up in my second storey sewing room, especially because I did a bit of clean up yesterday. The clean room made it even easier to put together another quilt top for my summer sewing project!

This morning I put together this lap size quilt top -- great size for a childs bed or as a throw to cover up the feets on a cool evening while watching tv.  This quilt took me about 4 hours to sew all together from start to finish,

The Statistics of this quilt are:

96 - 3.5 inch squares
sewn into  8 strips of 12 squares that measure 36.5 inches in length

Yardage needed for the strips between the pieced square strips is 1.25 yards or about 1.2 meters of fabric that is 43 or 44 inches wide.  Cut 10 strips from the yardage that is 3.5 inches wide and the width of the fabric  --  Make sure before cutting that the yardage is squared up and that your cut is perfectly straight.  If your strips are not straight, it will cause puckering and uneven 'waves' and make piecing difficult.

 Attention to detail is necessary on this little quilt.  It looks simple but you also need to make sure that when you are piecing the strips together that you do not stretch or bunch up the pieced or the straight strip.

 A tip to help keep all those pieced strips in line is to mark the plain strip every 6 inches so that every second seam of the pieced squares will line up to your 6 inch mark.

Also, if your yardage is limited it may be to your advantage to piece together in one long length all 10 strips, especially if the fabric you are using is a small print or a print where it does not easily show the joins, then cut the strips each to 36.5 inches so the perfectly match the pieced sections.  You will actually need 9 strips that are 36.5 inches and there will be enough to cut the two side strips with about 10 inches left over...  That is cutting it pretty fine, eh?

So, all told this little quilt measures 42.5 inches wide and 51.5 inches long.

I am thinking of doing a second quilt just like this one, except the yardage strip fabric I have is a lime green...   Not definate on that, though.

I still have many many of those 3.5 inch squares, so I may have to make one or two that is completely 3.5 inch squares...  Perhaps some sorting of the fabric squares to do a bit of a study of Value. -- Placing light, medium, and dark fabrics in an orderly fashion to perhaps create a pattern or shapes.

Well, now, looks like we have some more rain coming -- means more working time, I think!

I cleaned my Sewing Room...

Well, not completely.  Close enough though so that I can work in it without loosing blocks and scissors and especially my rotary cutter!  I actually have three rotary cutters in case I "lose" one in a pile and just CAN'T stop what I am doing to look for stuff!

Then of course because I had made some space to work in, and a scrappy bits project has been preying on my mind for a few days, I had to do a bit of BIT sewing.

Do you remember when I got THREE bags of scraps? Check back to this post if you want to read or re-read about it.   Well with that bunch of scrappy bits, I did share out a large portion of it to some of my other quilting buddies, so that there was only a small bag of it left and yesterday I came upon this web page Daisy Janie (click on the name and it will open a window to that blog and you will see what I mean) where she has a Lancaster Diamond Quiltalong.  I have not joined the quiltalong because I don't actually plan to make a whole quilt of small bits diamonds - but I did want to play around with the idea.

So I took some chunks and bits and strips from the gifted scraps and my own scraps and made about a 1/2 meter piece of sewn together randomly as they fit and then I laid down the diamond template that has been sitting in my ruler drawer for at least 5 years! and drew around it with a pen.  I managed to fit 12 diamonds on this piece.  I then cut them out with scissors.  

 Why would I cut them with scissors?  I cut the first one with the rotary cutter, and cut into the side of the next diamond, so wasted that second diamond -- there would have been twelve.  So I figured because the 2nd one got ruined, I would have more control with the scissors and I did!

So, there they are almost a dozen diamonds, to eventually become something.  I am not promising a quilt or a table runner or even a placemat, but it is possible that they become something someday.  Would this be a "work in progress"?  I am not going to count it as one because it carries no promises of future finishes...

I did enjoy doing these and it is fun putting those scrappy bits together -- who knows, it is possible that they may become Mug Rugs, but only maybe...

Now, I think I will head back up to the sewing room and do a bit of work on the next donation quilt for my Super Summer Snippy Challenge...

WIP - new kick!

A few days back while I was exploring ETSY, I came across a listing for this pattern.

You know how, sometimes you come across something and memory comes flooding back?  Well this pattern brought back a long lost memory -- as soon as I saw it, it was familiar!

When I was in my teens, I was always looking for ways to earn a few extra dollars.  I did babysitting, which did not happen often because we lived in the "country" on a farm and potential customers were often miles away.  

One of my Mother's suggestion was that I could sew boxer shorts for my Dad!  I had been learning sewing since I was about 8 years old and was confident I could sew these.  This pattern became SO VERY familiar to me because I made it dozens of times  for my Father.  My Dad was a quiet gentle man  but he had a secret! He loved outrageous fabrics for his undershorts (and later he became more open about the choice and began to wear outrageous ties which my sister took great pride in providing him with).

So for a few years, I made flowery shorts, and dinosaur shorts, and very popular 1960's prints for my Dad.  My mother bought the fabric and for each pair I made, she gave me 50 cents!  Yes, that's right, 50 cents (but then in those days I got paid 25 cents an hour for babysitting and 5 cents a pint for picking berries in the summer) for each pair.

So, now I am wondering, if I go into some sort of production and start making these if they might sell in my ETSY shop?   I will have to think on it as the fabric nowadays is a bit more of an investment.

Now, as luck would have it and coincidence must enter into it.  I was gifted with some 1960's sewing patterns and have now developed a fair collection of them but these will be going into my ETSY shop too, as soon as I can get to the job of putting them up.

Can you image wearing this outfit in this kind of printed fabric?

A bit late to the party, but I am linking up with the Needle and Thread network (check my sidebar for the link)

Super Summer Snippy Challenge - Break

Whew! Its been hot this week.   Not so hot as some parts of the country, but my sewing room is on our top floor of a three level townhouse and faces South, which means the sun comes up and shines in the room until it goes down.  It makes the room difficult to work in on hot summer days, but a joy to be in on cool winter days...

So there has been no real progress on the Challenge this week, so instead I have spent time sorting out Vintage Buttons and not so vintage Buttons and adding some unusual items to my Etsy Store.  And working on a crochet shawl to wear when the cooler weather begins to creep in upon us.

Soon I will be back up in the sewing room putting together blocks and strips, so stay tuned, not every day is too hot to work up there!

Our Spring was SO wet that the first strawberries on my plants, sort of shriveled before they got ripe and turned moldy.  Now, though, with the heat and sunshine, it looks like there will be a few berries as they are taking a second shot at it.  I am hoping for a bowl with sugar and cream or maybe yogurt in a few days!  YUM!

I Invent Muffin Recipes

I make cake, really well.  I make muffins too.  One of the things about muffins is that with a basic proportion of ingredients you can do anything and it most often (note, I said most often) comes out quite well.

I was sitting and watching Sunday afternoon tv, which means I was watching NOTHING.  Sunday Summer afternoons on TV is when you should just unplug the TV and find something completely different to do, even if you have to resort to taking the dog for a walk.

Or.

You could invent a recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Now, generally there is a reason to invent something new and that is because what is available for some reason does not work for you.  In this case, the recipe in the book wanted ingredients that I did not have so a bit of thought created something down right nice!

Here is what I did to make these.

In a large bowl mix together

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup old fashioned oatmeal, ground up fine in the coffee grinder

Stir the dry ingredients together really well and add

1 cup mini chocolate chips

Then in a second smaller bowl

measure

 1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

1 egg

using a whisk mix together until it is smooth then add

1 cup milk - I used 1% milk

and whisk til smooth and even colour

Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and use a wooden spoon or spatula to stir together -- don't stir too much just so that there are no big dry lumps.

Drop into muffin tins that have been greased or lined with paper muffin liners -- makes 12 large muffins and bake at 350 F for 30 minutes.

YUMMM....

PS by the way the inspiration for this project comes from Gramma Coco's blog where she made cookies and explains how to decorate them.  I didn't have cookies but I had flour and peanut butter so worked with what I had!

Turn up the A/C!

Lavender - a new adventure

I don't have much of a yard, but luckily I know people who do have big yards and interesting gardens!

This year I was given the opportunity to harvest some lavender.  I took along my hubby to help with the snipping and the bending over.  He did not do well and I soon sent him off to play ball with Pearl who doesn't often get to run about like a crazy!

Following instructions from a webpage on the internet, I have tied the lavender stalks into bundles.  This shows only a small portion of the lavender I have picked.

I am stringing a line to hang the bundles up in my Living Room.  It apparently takes about a month to dry.   Then the creative part begins! Seems Lavender has many more uses than I expected.  Tea!  Drawer Sachets! Flavouring food!  Must keep on researching...

Super Summer Snippy Challenge - Part 7

"Summer, and the livin' is easy..." (Porgy and Bess version)

Finally it seems like summer has arrived here on the West Coast of Canada!  The country east of the rockies have been getting summer temperatures since early spring and we here on the coast have been blessed? with cool and rainy days.

Now, as promised a couple weeks back I discovered an unusual nine patch variation that I want to show you and make a quilt top for my Super Summer Snippy Challenge.   Beautiful sunshiny days though have conspired to keep me outdoor on my backyard deck and not working in the sewing room, so I have not put together a top this week.

As promised though I will show you how to put together the block I am working on and will eventually have as another quilt top to donate to my guilds charity quilts program.

I have seen this block pattern called Hot Cross Nine Patch, but I have not seen it in many places on the internet, so I will show you how it goes together as a block and when I am able to finish up the quilt top will try to give you the statistics of materials used.

Hot Cross Nine Patch Tutorial  (few words, lotsa pictures)

For the purposes of my project this block starts out with the scrappy cut 3.5 inch squares that is the basis of this series of quilt tops.

For 1 block:

1. You need 4 similar 3.5 inch squares of fabric and 5 - 3.5 inch squares of background fabric to make a regular 9 patch block...

2. next you need to cut 2.5 inch strips of your background fabric so that you have 2 strips that are 9.5 inches x 2.5 and 2 strips that measure 13.5 inches x 2.5 inches and sew the strips onto the nine patch block as shown before, this block now measures 13.5 inches square.

3.  Then you use your ruler to guide you in making two cuts across the block so that they are centered, so because the finished center square is 3 inches you will measure from the seam line 1.5 inches and cut a line through the middle of the block vertically, next without moving the block, cut in the same way across the block horizontally, shown below.

4.  Keeping the 4 quadrants  in order sew first the top two together with contrasting strips that are 2 inches wide -- I cut a number of these narrow strips the width of the fabric and then sewed them together so that I sew, then trim the strip to match the 1/4 block size. 

5.  Sew the other two quadrants to what is now a center strip. Once you have two sections, the next step is to sew the 2" wide strip across the middle - again, shown below.

 6. Finally sew together the last seam and you can see, the "HOT CROSS"!

As shown here, the block will need a bit of a trim to square it up.  This is the block I will be putting together to make the next Super Summer Snippy Challenge.

Wanna give it a try along with me?  This is a large block and 12 blocks put together should make a nice sized lap quilt.   Next week, I hope to show you the finished quilt top for this.

I might have to take my sewing machine out into the backyard deck because really it is SO hard to stay inside when there is a nice breeze and the sun is shining!

Super Summer Snippy Challenge Part 6

Even though I have not posted anything on the blog since last Monday, I have been quietly creating behind the scenes...

This week for my challenge I have finished the nine patch that I described using the narrow black sashing strips that I received as part of the Inspirational Bags of fabric scraps from last week.

This is a twin size quilt top, that still might get a wider border put on but for now, I am calling it done, mainly because I am stuck as to what to use to border it.

The Statistics of this quilt are:

35 - nine patch blocks sewn 5 blocks across and 7 blocks down with a 2 inch sashing between the blocks and around the outside edge.
It took 20 width of fabric strips 2.5 inches wide for the sashing, with about 3/4 of the last strip unused.
The nine patch blocks are made of 3.5 inch cut squares and as you can see, the block are all two contrasting colours.  So a total of 315 scrappy 3.5 inch squares.  The finished quilt top measures 57 inches by 79 inches

.  I think this is the largest quilt top I have done so far in this series.  Next up is a nine patch variation -- not the usual one though that is called a disappearing nine patch -- but it is a bit more piecing so could take me a bit longer to put together.

The Inspirating Scrap Pile

This morning I wanted to sew something a bit different, so I made two sets of two mug rugs from some of the bits in those bags of scraps.

These started out with those coffee centre squares and both the border and bindings come from the scrap bags.  In my own stash I have nothing like these fabrics!  Even though I normally would not buy these fabrics, they sure are fun to work with for a real change of pace for me.  I will probably list these in my Etsy Shop (link is on my side bar if you happen to be curious about what else might be there)

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If you are new to my blog, go back a few posts and check out exactly what the Super Summer Snippy Challenge is by clicking on Super Summer Snippy Challenge in my LABELS section!

or start here

http://susanbeingsnippy.blogspot.ca/2012/05/super-summer-snippy-challenge.html

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Out here on The West Coast of Canada we still seem to be getting more cloud and rain than sun and heat, so spending time at the sewing machine is one of the best use of time, at least til the sun comes out -- but then I will probably be whining that it is too hot to do anything!