ferne

Free Motion Quilting Progress

2012-01-23T21:19:00.001-08:00

I have finished my first block on my FMQ Sampler quilt. The first challenge on Sew Cal Gal’s website was taught by Frances Moore. The pattern we practiced was leaves. As recommended by many free motion teachers, I spent a lot of time drawing leaves on paper trying to memorize just how to draw them with one continuous line. I have trouble with any meandering patterns. I always get myself into a corner with no way out. I suppose I just need more practice. My solution this time was to mark 2” blocks with chalk and make a design using the leaves that I could connect with each block. I like the tidy organized look of it and because it is a sampler I also added my name and the year. I was happy with my sample project and it gave me the confidence to move on to the quilt, but working on the larger quilt proved to be more difficult because of the weight pulling things away from where I wanted them to go. I was fighting the quilt a bit, so I bunched it up and adjusted the weight which helped me a lot. In the past I have set up another table behind my table to give me more quilting space. I am trying to think of a something I can do to make my table wider permanently without buying a new table…still working on that!

I signed up for this challenge because I really want to learn to quilt better and I hope that by practicing the exercises and getting more practice I will build up my confidence. Then I will be ready to finish off some tops that have been waiting a long time for me to get up the courage to quilt them.

It is such an amazing effort that this group of quilters are putting into this project that is spanning through this whole year to help people like me learn this skill. To be able to learn from so many teachers is such a privilege and all because of the internet. Another quilter that is putting great effort into teaching quilters like me is Leah Day. She has been putting together amazing short videos for quite a while now that are free for anyone to watch on her blog, The Free Motion Quilting Project . If you are wanting to learn this skill be sure to visit both of these websites and practice, practice, practice! Most of all enjoy the process and the great tool that the internet has made possible for so many great teachers to share in one place. To top it off they are giving away prizes to a few lucky participants each month and all you have to do is to pledge to give it a try and post your progress. I am not a total newbie to free motion quilting, but this is definitely going to help me get more practice as I learn new techniques.

Practicing …

Ferne

Constructing Fabric Houses and Barns

2012-01-17T07:26:00.001-08:00

I have really been enjoying putting together these houses and barns for my neighborhood quilt. Today is going to be a cold one and rain in the forecast for tomorrow so there just might be more building in my neck of the woods! The blocks above the houses are my attempt at deciding whether I would like to jump on the Farmers Wife bandwagon or the Sylvia’s Wedding Quilt group. Both are 3” finished blocks so I think I will keep doing the blocks I choose from both of them. It is very fun to make a small block or two once in a while between these bigger projects. I also have some free motion quilting to practice.

The hardest part of quilting these days is deciding which project to work on. For now though I will drink some coffee and see what my blogger friends are doing, that always helps me decide or gives me more options.

It's funny the things you see after you post a picture to the web...there is a tiny square of fabric on that barn that is the wrong background and the hayloft is so light it hardly shows...now to decide if I leave it or change it...

Enjoying my day off!

ferne

Moving on to Building Houses

2012-01-11T11:19:00.001-08:00

I have been making steady progress on my Around the Block quilt and am happy to say that the center is complete and all 3 borders have been added and now I am back to building the houses. The fun part of this is that you make 2 of each house, but they are all so different. I have 8 more buildings to build and there are barns, churches and a school house besides 6 different styles of houses. Then there are trees and fences to add to it. This quilt looked like it was wall hanging size to me, but it is much larger, right now it is about 66” X 55” and the houses that go all around are 10” each so it will be one of the largest quilts I have made to date.

Yesterday I read on a blog that you should make a list of 10 quilt projects you have in progress and using this list work on each project in 3 hour intervals. After working on a project for 3 hours stop and go to another project. The idea is that you start to get bored and probably careless after about 3 hours so you get a whole new project out and get refreshed and before you know it you will be finishing up projects. Well, it was making sense to me so I have a notebook by my cutting table that I have listed the projects I am working on (and I think I only found 8) and I have them neatly stacked in a box with all their components stored with them. I should get more art boxes to contain things better, but right now I am using zip lock bags. This little quilt has so many components and with no 2 alike that it is really keeping my interest. I was getting bored working on the borders so yesterday I played around with making up misc. blocks to practice some Free motion quilting for the quilting challenge by Sew Cal Gal. I am also following Leah Day at The Free Motion Quilting Project, who has some great videos and has started the year teaching as though you are a beginner. If you are new to free motion quilting her blog would be a great place to start, her videos are short and her approach really breaks it down into something doable by any new quilter. She is posting something new each week. Sew Cal Gal is having guest posts on a monthly basis so you get to learn from someone new each month. My goal this year is to practice my quilting and get all my tops done. I have been surprised when I do get a top quilted by how long it takes…not as long as I thought!

Given that the winter weather is feeling more like Spring I have been doing more work outside than what I usually do at this time of year so my quilting time has been cut down, but I try to fit some time in each evening. I find it relaxes me and keeps the creative juices flowing. Today I am planning to go out and wash a few windows, really unseasonable for me, but I am tired of looking out through the dirty window in the kitchen when I am doing dishes.

A clean, fresh view… a great way to start the new year!

Ferne

Building Fabric Houses

2012-01-02T18:07:00.001-08:00

I was ready and willing to jump on the house building bandwagon and sew a little (3”) house block every day for the year, but that is a little unrealistic of a goal for a me and after trying to make just one, I had to give it up. There must be an easy way to do this, but I haven’t found it yet. I love house blocks though and remembered that I had a quilt top started last year that had some really fun house blocks. I have made a few but have about 15 left to do so I pulled the project out during the holiday after all my gifts were made and dusted it of. After I figured out what I had already done and what I still needed to do I made myself a plan and got to work. First step is to finish the center section, which I am now more than half done with, then comes 3 borders and finally I can get back to building houses. The pattern is Around the Block by The Rabbit Factory. I had admired this on another blog several years ago and ordered the pattern intending to whip it out and hang it on my wall. Good intentions, but things didn’t quite work that way. I jumped ahead and started making houses and a church and some trees. A new project came along and this one got shelved, but I am thrilled with how it is coming out now. Sometimes you just need some time away to come back with fresh eyes and new ideas. I believe that having WIPs is beneficial to the finished project. When you come back to it you have new ideas and more experience, if I push myself to just finish something I don’t put my heart into it I just hurry up and get it done and don’t enjoy the process. I have a lot of ideas brewing for things I want to do, some are not even sewing projects, where I want to take my time and enjoy the process. They will get done sooner or later!

Enjoy the process!

Ferne

Advent Calendar with Let it Snow

2011-11-25T09:33:00.001-08:00

This is the view I have while working on a little Christmas gift project. The 2 colors of trim on the shed are me testing paint colors, we will be painting our house this spring and we all know that picking colors is the hardest part. I love this view especially with the colors on the leaves that are soon to drop, giving me something else to do the next nice day we have.

I am making a couple advent calendars that I thought up in my own little head which means that sometimes things don’t go as smoothly as when you can just follow someone else's directions and there are a few back to the drawing board moments, but this project is making me happy. I bought a stack of fat quarters of Me & My Sisters fabric line called Ready, Set, Snow and it is such a fun fabric to work with. I am loving the cheerful colors.

I am also working on a few more of those scarves from my last post and I just keep thinking of more people who would enjoy these so I think I need to make about 6 of them. I bought 2 yards of Minkee so I might be able to squeeze that many out of them. I can’t seem to find the directions on the scarf so that I can give credit here, but the original had a zippered pocket to keep your cell phone in and I chose to not do zippers and made a pocket on each end because I found that a 60” scarf put those pockets at just the right spot to put cold hands in. I lined the pockets in minkee so they were soft to boot. I have a few more sewing projects for the holidays that I would like to get to, but we will have to see how it goes…everyone knows how the holidays get busy and homemade gifts don’t always get done, but I have some good intentions and if the weather stays like this I will have a lot of time inside for sewing…

Let the count down begin!

Enjoy the process…

Ferne

Piecing with Minkee Tips

2011-11-20T08:21:00.001-08:00

A few months ago I bought a bag of scraps at a local quilt shop and it had several pieces of Minkee in it. I saw this cute scarf pattern that I thought would be perfect for giving it a try, but I was not prepared for how difficult it could be to sew small pieces of Minkee together. Suddenly I was having flash backs of sewing some bridesmaids dresses years ago from velvet…not fun. So I am going to share some tips that I learned as I played around with this project.

1. Look closely at the nap. You need to know which direction it is going and make sure that when you put your pieces together the nap is going the same direction in each piece. I did this by rubbing it and seeing which way was smooth and which way resisted my touch. No amount of pins will hold it in place if the nap is not going the same direction on each piece.

2. Use pins. I don’t use pins very often and when I do I tend to only pin at crucial meeting points because I find I can ease the rest of the fabric in easier this way, but on this project I was sewing a mere 8 inches across and I used 3 pins the first one right in the center and then 2 about 1/2 inch in on each end. You could do even more, but this worked for me as long as I first made sure the nap was right.

3. Cut your project larger than you will need it to be by an inch or two. It is so hard to get this precise so you will want to have room for a fudge factor. I could have made things easier on myself and just used one solid piece of Minkee, but I really wanted to use those scraps and the colors all went well with my front fabrics.

I am also working on a table topper for the holidays that I bought at the quilt show in Iowa. The project came in a metal cup with all the fabric, very cute. I somehow couldn’t wrap my mind around the directions though and it was a simple log cabin, must have been all the excitement of the trip. I made it at night in my hotel room. I am playing around with the quilting on this and having some fun. I need a lot more practice on my free motion quilting so this is adding to that. I quilted ear muffs on the snowmen and I will add some buttons for the eyes later. I have a pattern for free motion that I am practicing drawing first, it has mittens and snowflakes in the design so after I draw them a few more times and practice on my practice piece I will add them in. I am using a yellow variegated thread because I like the way it shows up on these dark colors, but that also shows mistakes. I am finding though, that after I wash my pieces the quilting always looks good like it washes out the mistakes and the long stitches. I am having fun learning this technique and it is helping me to get my quilts done. This will be the third project I have finished this month and I have 3 more sitting waiting to be quilted. It would be nice to have everything I have pieced this year finished for the new year and all done by me! I have a problem sending my tops out to be quilted by someone else, I just want to be able to say I made it all the way from beginning to end.

I ordered some Christmas fabric from the Fat Quarter shop that is coming tomorrow so I will be busy with some holiday sewing that want to share next week I hope. I have an advent calendar idea that I have been working on in my mind and paper and I can’t wait to share it.

Happily I sew along…

Ferne

Bloggers Quilt Festival Entry

2011-10-28T17:57:00.001-07:00

I am currently sewing the binding on a special little quilt that will be given to a special new addition to our family. This little girl will be making the man in my life a Great Grandfather…not sure he will want to be called “Great Grandpa”, but I am sure that all his grandchildren think that he is exactly that A Great Grandpa.
I had a lot of fun making this quilt because it gave me the opportunity to teach a young lady to sew. The sister of the mother-to-be got to help me piece the half-square triangles that went into the center and she helped me pick out the fabrics. I also got the opportunity to practice my free motion quilting a little more. I am not sure just how many hours practice I need to meet my expectations, but my quilting is looking quite a bit better with every quilt I finish. Working on this was so much fun that I immediately pulled out a quilt that I had put away last year because the quilting was getting too difficult and now I think I can tackle that and actually enjoy the process.
I am linking this post up to the Bloggers Quilt Festival over at Amy’s Creative Side. Be sure to check out all the quilts that have been entered, there are some real beauties there!

Thanks Amy for giving us a place to share!

Ferne

Kalona a Friendly Quilting Community

2011-10-23T18:13:00.001-07:00

Recently I spent a week in Iowa at the AQS Quilt show in Des Moines and visiting my relatives in Wellman and Kalona. I really enjoyed everything about this trip especially walking the streets of Kalona and seeing how this little town has really refreshed itself. I hadn’t been here in more than 15 years and there was a lot that was still the same, but yet fresh and new. You could see how the community had gotten together to work on making their town unique and draw attention to a craft that so many there are truly gifted at ‘quilting’. All up and down the main streets hang flags with quilt blocks on them and under your feet there are quilt blocks embedded in the sidewalk with plaques stating the name of the block and who sponsored it. As I read the pamphlet that I picked up with a map to where each block is and some other information about each one I realized that many had been designed by people in the community and 2 were done by my Aunt (the block at the right is one of them) who owned a quilt store there which is now being run by my cousins wife, Grace, called the Stitch N Sew Cottage. It would be so easy for me to just move back here and feel at home, then they all started talking about the impending winter and cutting wood and I knew I would be going home to California very glad to have taken the trip.

As a child I spent most of my summers here with my Grandparents, Aunt,Uncle and cousins and Great Aunt and learned a lot about life especially at the little church where I went to Sunday School and Bible School. This church has not changed much at all, even a lot of the same people still attend. The Wellman Mennonite Church has been for me, the ideal church, the one I compared every church I ever went to to and none of them ever measured up. It made me see that you don’t need a big fancy building to reach out and teach the word of God, but kind people gathered in a simple building to open their hearts and souls to each other and God, singing lots of hymns and sharing food while being there for each other in good times and difficult times. It is a wonderful place with a lot of good childhood memories for me. The same church pews are still there and the simple altar is still standing and still simple as it should be. I got to be there for communion and a feet washing ceremony which I had never participated in before and I really enjoyed being a part of it.

I arrived in Kalona on a Saturday evening after visiting with relatives. Sunday morning I was awoke by the sound of horses clopping down the street as the Amish were all heading off to church and I knew I was in Kalona and felt like I had come home in a way. The next day I saw the Amish children, not more than 19 years old driving the horse and buggies home from school with their siblings and some were walking on the dirt road barefoot. It was so nice to see kids with a little different attitude living a lifestyle I thought was forgotten.

My Uncle volunteers at the Kalona Historical Museum and gave me my own personal tour through the 2 quilt museums. One is all about Amish quilts and the other had an exhibit by Thuy Nguyen both exhibits were really nicely displayed and kept in humidity and light controlled rooms. I could take pictures as long as I didn’t use the flash and luckily they came out really nice. Thuy’s applique is amazing, she does such precise work. I enjoyed seeing this up close. There were several thread cabinets in the displays that I was wishing I could have taken just one home with me though it would have been hard to choose which one.

I think Kalona is doing a wonderful job of showing off the talents of so many of its residences. There is a big community of Amish and Mennonites and they all make some amazing quilts to share with so many in need. It was a wonderful thing to see and would make a great destination if you are interested in quilting and the history of quilting all with a small town feel.

There were so many quilt blocks set in to the sidewalks I am thinking that it would be fun to make a Kalona quilt using all the blocks in a sampler quilt…future project. Some of them are actually pretty complicated and I keep wondering how they ever got the bricks cut so precise and colored nicely too. Here are just a few more…click on them to see up close just what I mean.

Each of these is about a 3 foot square and set into the sidewalk. Quite a work of art!

Quilts, family and friends…all beautiful pieces of my life!

Ferne

A Bag to Pack

2011-09-18T08:30:00.001-07:00

I made this little bag to pack full of stuff I might need for a class and just to carry all the treasures I might find at the quilt show in Des Moines. I leave in 9 days and I am excited to say the least. Plans are all made for a little trip to Kalona and Wellman to see old friends and family. I have not been here for more than 10 years so there is a lot of catching up to do. My Aunt and Cousin own a quilt shop in Kalona so I will be surrounded by the loving arms of quilters. We joke here about every meal there seems to have some sort of Jello salad so I will have to see just how many different forms of Jello salad I eat…maybe I could collect recipes and write a book…Hmmm! It has probably been done!

I’ll be busy packing this bag between working extra hours for extra money for this trip!

Ferne

Des Moines Here I come…

2011-08-21T08:20:00.001-07:00

Is anyone else going to the AQS Quilt show in Des Moines or want to go, but can’t find a room? I have a room at the Quality Inn, my plane ticket and am signed up for a few classes. Unfortunately, the only rooms available were a master suite with a king sized bed and a living room…so sad. I am taking my machine because why be around all that inspiration and not sew right? Plus I have to practice what I learn in class. I have taken a few sewing classes and I tend to be the slow sewer who never finishes the projects in class. I do much better sewing at home with no distractions or the feeling of others watching and judging me…probably not happening, but it feels that way to me. Anyway, if there are any quilters out there that would like to share a room drop me a line and we can discuss it.

I got an opportunity last week to teach a young lady how to sew and it was exciting. We are making a baby blanket for her sister. Once I got her going she was making HST faster than I could iron them and square them up. We are making the quilt with the Broken Dishes pattern from the Broken Dishes Quilt Along at Ariane Quilts. I think we are a little ahead at this point, but I only had her for a week so we had to get going on this. Ariane just posted a wonderful tutorial for a Triangle in a Square block that she is going to use in the border, can’t wait to see what she does with it. We had a fun time picking out the fabrics. The Mother-to-be’s favorite colors are black and white or zebra prints, not so babyish so we picked a gray for our background and two shades of each of 4 colors. I am really liking the way it is turning out, though I think we are going to add a row to the side and the bottom. We are going to make a narrow border out of black and a wider outer border out of a darker gray. Hopefully the Mother-to-be will like our choices and now I have fulfilled a dream I have had of introducing a young lady to the world of sewing and quilting. I must say she did a great job and was pretty proud of herself and we had fun in process! Here is what we have done so far on the design wall…

Sharing my love for sewing…

sew rewarding!

Ferne

Farmers Wife or Elm Creek

2011-08-04T17:16:00.001-07:00

I am thinking of starting a sampler quilt. I have been inspired by the many bloggers doing Farmer’s Wife quilt blocks. I have had the book for at least a year and didn’t get inspired to do the blocks until I saw others doing them with such bright and cheery fabrics. Funny thing though is that every time I try to pick out some fabrics for the blocks I go to civil war fabrics or calicos. I recently bought a Baby Go! cutter and one die that cuts 2-1/2 inch squares, triangles and a larger square. I thought I would get the most use from this die and I think it was a wise choice. Well, I didn’t realize that the cutter doesn’t come with a cutting mat so I ended up waiting another week for the mat to arrive then found that I ordered the wrong size for my die. A trip to JoAnn’s is a 45 minute drive so I waited until I had a day off work and a grocery shopping list and errand list (with a trip to JoAnn’s on it), and finally I am in business.

I noticed that the Contrary Wife block was done with 2-1/2 inch blocks so I got out the Baby Go! and went to work. Every triangle matched up perfectly! Now I will have to search for more blocks I can make with this die.

Another sampler quilt that I got a book for and not done anything with until recently is the Elm Creek book for Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler quilt. There are a few blocks that are also in Farmer’s Wife, but just a few and since each book has over 100 block patterns that is pretty amazing. I made the Flight Block from the book. Both books use 6 inch blocks too so I am thinking that I will choose my favorites from both books and combine them into a sampler, but what would I call it?

The best part of doing a sampler is that you learn so many different methods in the process and you don’t get bored doing the same thing over and over. A box of chocolates are pretty great because they are all different, so different blocks should really make a quilt fun and special.

I think before I really take on either one of these projects though I had better finish up a few other projects first. Meanwhile, it will be fun playing with a block or two once in a while to keep me entertained. Right now I am spending more time in the garden than the sewing machine where I found this double daylily quite entertaining. Today, though, I went fishing for a few hours and I caught 21 fish! Now that was entertaining!!!

ferne

Generous and Talented Bloggers

2011-07-17T21:40:00.001-07:00

Generous and talented and eager to share…there are many of you out there, but one lovely lady shared a wonderful mug rug with me and included 2 generous sized mugs to go with it. Thelma of Cupcakes and Daisies was posting for a blog tour to promote the Fit to be Quarter ruler for Monique of Open Gate Quilts. The mug rug I received has the most amazing piece work in the middle with the tiniest little star. I was admiring the table topper when I visited her blog, but now seeing this mug rug up close and personal, well let’s just say I am amazed. Talent and generosity are just a small part of what you can find on Thelma’s blog there is a lot of inspiration and even cupcakes! Now that inspires me as to how to use this mug rug…

Thanks Thelma!

Ferne

Learning to See

2011-07-07T10:17:00.001-07:00

It is summer and I have not been doing as much sewing as I would like, but the activities I have been doing are definitely building some skills that I will use in future projects. Yesterday I spent a little time with my fisherman at the local pond called Grace. The fish were jumping and the people were lined up at the little bit of shore available to fish from. Fish were being caught by young and old a like, but not by me so the search was on for the bait the fish would want to eat. To find it I have found that have to look around you and boy did I see a lot. I saw reeds where fish could hide to stay cool, the different colors in the water let you know where the deep sections are and this is a place fish like to hang out. Someone thought the fish might like Cherrios and I heard another person mentioning that she had been using Velveeta Cheese and that didn’t like that either. I saw when I really looked that the fish were jumping up to catch a certain bug that must have just hatched and they were like little white mayflies. Changing my lure to something that most resembled the bug got the fish biting my line and when other fishermen see that they all want to know what you are using, this is where fisherman learn to lie because in order to keep your status as the guy catching the fish you can’t give away your secret.

As the fish weren’t biting much I got bored and started looking around me and thinking about how fishing is not really about catching but more about taking in the environment where you are fishing. Listening to the sounds of the birds, the fisher people, the buzz of bees and mosquitoes, and so much more. Butterflies don’t make any noise, but they are always there and so beautiful to observe, but hard to catch on film . Being a gardener I am always admiring the flowers and plants and how nature is such a better gardener than me, she knows just what looks good together and grows well together, it always amazes me.

I also enjoy the movement on the water. This was helping us see just where most of the active fish were which was also where the water was deep and cool and the bugs were hanging out. So casting into just the right spot with just the right lure and dragging through this spot with just the right speed to look like one of the bugs and the fish were biting on my line. I really don’t care if I catch a fish and we usually let them go anyway, but the thrill you get when one tugs on your line always gets my heart racing and wakes me up from the fishing trance. Of course, I am always thinking this is the big one I have waited my whole fishing life for, but it usually is not and that is okay. Fishing for me is not all about catching the big one though my oldest son totally disagrees with me, he claims that if he doesn’t catch fish and if they are not of a decent size he has wasted time. I tell he to rethink that and take a look around him and soak in the environment around him. That is what fishing is all about, but catching is always fun too, because the elusive fish is a beauty to behold and natures color combinations are always an inspiration to the artist side of me and could show up in a quilt or a painting project some where in the future.

Catch a little inspiration by looking around you!

Ferne

Favorite Quilting Tools

2011-07-02T07:02:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite quilting tools was introduced to me by Harriet Hargrove at a class I took at a local quilt shop last year. It is the Perfect Piecing Seam Guide by Perkins Dry Goods. My picture is a bit fuzzy, but I think you can get the idea of how this works. You place your needle in the hold on the guide and then I stuck a piece of thick sticky tape onto my bobbin case only so I can change my bobbin without loosing my place. That combined with my new quarter inch foot for my Janome and I am getting really accurate quarter inch seams. The foot I am using is not the one that came with my machine it is one I bought extra from my dealer and I love it.

Another new tool that I just recently got was a new cutting mat. I got a Gingher 36” mat from the recent JoAnn’s sale and they only had it available online. It is so thick and I am loving the larger size. I did have to get a new table though to accommodate the larger size, but got lucky when I found a nice sturdy plastic table on sale at Home Depot for only $39.99. I love my new set up. I spent all day yesterday working at it since it was rainy, foggy and cold outside.

On my new cutting board is my newest fabric purchase from Green Fairy Quilts sale. I got some Moda Cotton Sateen and the colors are looking like fall to me. I have been wanting to do a falling leaves quilt for a while now and these will be perfect for that. What you can’t see in a picture is the way this fabric feels…wow! It does feel like satin.

Having the right tools makes quilting easier and more accurate.

ferne

A Little Quilting Going On

2011-06-29T10:02:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I posted to my blogs with summer trying to show itself here there is a lot to do outside away from the computer, but the last few days are feeling a bit like winter again. I guess winter just doesn’t want to go away this year. So I got a little unexpected time to sew. I have been spending my lunches designing a border for my summer quilt and I am working on putting it together. I had to go back to the drawing board a few times, but that is to be expected when you don’t follow a pattern. I always seem to make things harder than they need to be first, but I did a little simplifying and it is getting there. I will post pictures when I get a little further since there is not much to really look at yet, but I will say that it involves a few bird houses and more flowers and lots of soft pink fabrics. I opted to keep the colors of the border muted because there is so much going on in the quilt and this is just a frame for all of that.

I did take some time a while ago to try this cute and complicated paper pieced cow I saw on a blog while blog hopping one day. ( the blog was Piecemeal Quilts and the pattern was designed by Sandy) ~~I don’t have the name of the blog on the pattern so if anyone reading this knows please feel free to let me know~~, the creator should get credit as it took a lot of thought to get this right. Now just as often happens when I first attempt something complicated, there are a few mistakes. Thinking all went pretty well I took a picture of the cow then started to wonder why he had such a pointed head. Well, it seems I put a colored fabric where there should be white and I also didn’t get the fourth color in his snoot for more dimension. I am going to try to remake this cow because it was a fun project. I had no real project in mind for it and I still don’t, but sometimes I just do things for fun then it grows from there. Today I saw a cute cowboy boot on a blog called Sew Take A Hike, she gave a link to a free pdf file with the pattern for a quilt using paper piecing. Don’t you think they would really go together nicely for some special guy? I don’t have a cowboy of my own, but if I did he would get a cow quilt for sure.

Besides gardening I also spent a day doing a little fishing with some fun guys. This one had the right idea…kick your shoes off and sit a long the river with your pole in the water and enjoy! This is my grandson, Nathan showing us the real way to fish.

Nathan and my son Andy came down and spent a week with us while my sons Andy and Rob added a shower to our tub and they did a fantastic job. Now when we have company they don’t have to use the shower in my room anymore. They actually get a kind of spa treatment in the other bathroom. It is so large and roomy in there and beautiful too! Here is the tub before and after…amazing! I am loving it! Today I will take the first shower in it.

My vegetable garden should be taking up more of my time and I should be harvesting things by now, but the weather isn’t letting that happen here. My flower beds are looking nice however! Some tomatoes are in, but they are not producing yet and are only about 2 feet tall. We’ll be lucky to have fruit by winter. I did get my melons, cucumbers and pumpkins planted and they are starting to grow by leaps and bounds. Hopefully I will get to make more Zucchini Relish this year, we sure enjoyed it last year, but our supply is gone. I am also wanting to try making Pickled Watermelon Rind like my Grandmother use to make. My Dad brought me a box of memorabilia of my Grandmothers and in it were a few journals with lots of recipes. I am hoping to put some to good use around here then put them together into a book for my sisters, but that will be a project for the winter or sooner if the weather doesn’t change.

I broke down the other day and ordered an Accuquilt Go Baby and one set of dies. It is a neat tool to help you cut pieces quickly and accurately for quilting. Now I am waiting patiently for it to come in the mail. Amazon says it shipped so maybe today will be the day. I saw it on sale and my sweet sister gave me a gift certificate for my birthday so I snatched one up. The only thing is I am not sure if it comes with a cutting mat so I ordered one, but I might have to wait to use it till the mat comes.

…the sun will come out tomorrow…I am hoping…

Ferne

Where’s Summer? A Quilt Collage

2011-05-30T21:07:00.001-07:00

I spent this holiday doing a little baking, some sewing and a little tiny bit of gardening. It was so cold and windy that they gardening part of my day was cut short so I came in and looked at a quilt that I have been putting together with misc. blocks that remind me of summer and I just had to work on it. I keep thinking how we are six months into this year and it is still feeling like winter. Hopefully summer will last a little longer so our veggies get a chance to produce.

So the summer themed quilt collage is ready for a border and I have no idea what I will do with it. I have a block I might use in the corners that is a bird house and I was thinking I could appliqué little birds in the border or maybe some flowers of some sort. But, for now working on this quilt made my day a little brighter even though it was windy and gloomy outside.

Thinkin’ Summer ~

Ferne

Blooming May

2011-05-13T18:36:00.001-07:00

What a long winter and from the sounds of the weather report there is still a cold snap on its’ way in a day or two, but hopefully it will be the last. I don’t know if it because of the cold, snowy, wet winter or because the plants were so grateful for the few warm days we have been having but, there are so many wonderful things blooming right now. We are going into our second year and some things were in such sad shape last year that they didn’t really do much. Things are really responding to our pruning, fertilizing and watering though and putting on quite a show for us this year.

My favorite surprise flower was this beautiful bi-color azalea that was under an overgrown camellia. Last year I limbed up the camellia and pruned it back then fertilized the whole bed, added some acid planting mix and low and behold this beautiful little bush sent out the most lovely blooms this year. I don’t know what it is called and have never seen anything like it, but I am calling it “Beautiful”.

This azalea is blooming in the same bed. It seems a little late for azaieas to be blooming, but hey, it has felt like winter here for far too long so they may not know what time of year it is. If they want to show me blooms like these at anytime I will totally enjoy every moment.

I have been seeing Iris’ blooming everywhere, but they just started in my yard and boy are they ever putting on a show. Deer and Gophers leave them alone so the previous owners had planted them everywhere and every color. They are sure pretty and some of them even have wonderful fragrance. I’m having trouble deciding which is my favorite, but I am leaning toward the bi-color yellow and they have the most wonderful bubble gum fragrance to them. I have a light blue one that smells like baby powder, nice!

Speaking of flowers with smells I planted some Chocolate Flowers last year from seed and they have come back and just started blooming. They smell even more like Chocolate than a Chocolate Cosmos which is a surprise because there is no brown on the flower at all except for a little tiny center so Chocolate is the last thing you would expect to smell from this flower.

The birds have been happy with the sunny days too and are really lining up at the feeders. We have 3 feeders in one little tree and the other day I noticed that every single hole had a bird feeding at it and more were waiting patiently in the tree for an opening. They are very polite and even sing while they wait, we could all learn a thing or two from the birds.

This Weigelia was another surprise for us. Last year we were about to dig it out, but decided to give it a hard pruning and fertilizer and see what came of it. It leafed out a little last year, but this year it is blooming it’s little heart out. We planted it next to a dark leafed ninebark and they make quite a charming couple. The pictures just really don’t do it justice, but in person you can’t take your eyes off them.

I could really write a short novel about what all is blooming right now and every bloom is exciting to me to watch life spring from things we almost gave up for dead after such a long cold winter, but I will have to save some for a later post. Probably though all the Ceanothus are my favorites right now. I adore the shade of blue that the flowers open up into, but the one that have right outside my door has not only the little blue flowers, but a beautifully variegated leaf.

The orchard is coming along nicely too. We planted it only a few months ago and it is already looking like an orchard. A young one though and it isn’t photographing well, but I am amazed at how each young tree is pushing out little shoots that will be branches and a few even made flowers that could potentially be fruit though we are suppose to remove them this year. We will probably leave just a few though.

Our vegetable garden has not been planted yet and that is probably a good thing with the current weather report for this weekend. I have been harvesting a lot of sugar snap peas though and eating them cooked and raw. Yum! The carrots are growing too and I finally put in potatoes that have started sprouting up, hope the frost doesn’t bother them. I will be having lots of onions and garlic in a few months and am even pulling a few little baby onions to cook with and add to salad. The greens in the front bed are Strawberries and they are loaded with flowers. I actually ate the first strawberry yesterday, I picked it a little early so it wasn’t as sweet as it should have been. I need to practice patience…

Patience is a virtue in the garden and life…

Ferne

I am posting this same post on my other blog, Growing Thymes so if you read both no need to today! I just haven’t had any time to sew lately so this is it!

Baby Eli

2011-04-21T22:10:00.001-07:00

I don’t have much in the way of sewing to post these days, because I spent some time visiting my son and my first grandchild last week. What a precious little guy he is. His name is Eli and he is such a calm, sweet child. He will probably be the topic of many more posts to this blog.

Have you ever reread a post on your blog and thought it really needed to be reworded? I usually reread my blog posts before I post them and again right after, but for some reason I was rereading my last post and just thought it needed a lot of work and if I were to ever get my blog printed into a book I would not want to keep reading that one again. I need to get started on getting the blog book made so that it will be ready when Eli starts to read and maybe it will help him to know me a little better. I am looking forward to being a Grandmother and doing all those things that Grandmothers do leaving memories of special times in this little life.

Ferne

Pieces of Summer

2011-04-02T20:59:00.001-07:00

I haven’t done much posting to this blog lately, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t done much sewing. I don’t have anything finished to show for my work (or play, depending how you look at it) so I didn’t think I had anything post worthy. I was looking back over some of my past posts because of a website I found where you can get your blog printed as a hard copy of your blog. I have had this blog since 2006, so when I went to have the whole thing printed it was over $75! I started eliminating some posts and keeping my favorites to bring the cost down and I found that I enjoyed looking at the process of each step as my quilts came together so I thought I should post the process of this fun quilt coming together.

I am taking a few favorite blocks from other patterns, a few blocks I have found on the internet, blocks I have designed myself and just throwing them all together into a sort of quilt collage of things that make me ‘think Summer’ and what fun I am having. I have laid them all out on the floor in so many arrangements, drew it up on graph paper and EQ6 and now I have some new ideas for some bird house blocks to add to the mix. I have some appliqué, some paper piecing, a Dresden plate sunflower, and some plain old quilt blocks. I really don’t know how or when it will all come together or what the final size will be, but I am really enjoying the process.

And wouldn’t you know with all this thinking of Spring and Summer I started seeing signs that Spring really is trying to show itself. When I looked out the window this morning and saw the view of the two crabapple trees in bloom I knew that soon the snowy, windy days of the last few months would be nothing more than a memory of the worst winter in years.

Keep thinking Spring thoughts!

Ferne

A Dainty Butterfly Block

2011-03-01T09:49:00.001-08:00

I first saw this cute butterfly block tutorial on Four Wise Monkey’s blog and had to give it a try. She is quite creative and has lots of fun projects to check out on her blog. I liked it this butterfly block, but it had a lot of bulk in the center so I worked up a way to eliminate some of that and thought I would share my method here. I am new to writing tutorial so I hope this all makes sense, but following my own directions I was able to make these in about 20 minutes and it would be faster if you had them precut and chain pieced them together. Let me know what you would do with these cute blocks. I have a few ideas for mixing them with some other blocks for wall hangings or place mats or mug rugs…and on and on as the mind turns.

This will make a 6 ½” block.

Top wings

Cut: 1 – 4” Square of print fabric

1 – 4” square of background fabric

1. Mark a diagonal line on the background fabric and sew ¼” from each line then cut apart on the drawn line.

2. Iron the seam on one square toward the background and one toward the print.

3. Square up to 3 ½”

Bottom wings

Cut: 2 – 3 ½” squares of print fabric

6 - 2” squares of background fabric

1. Mark a diagonal line on the 6 background squares.

2. Place the first square on the top left corner of the wing square and sew on the drawn line. Cut ¼” from the seam.

3. Repeat for the bottom right corner on each block. Press seams toward the background on one block and toward the wing on the other block.

4. Place the last 2” squares on the bottom left of each wing and sew on line. Trim to ¼” and press toward background.

5. Square all blocks up to 3 ½”.

Put it all together

Lay the 4 blocks out as shown and sew together matching center seams. I pressed the last seam down for the least bulk. Draw butterfly antennae and embroider.

Now start dreaming up ideas to use these in projects!

Here is a link to a PDF file I made for this.

Keep Sewin’!

Ferne

A Quilting Break?

2011-02-22T08:35:00.001-08:00

Last week the wind blew and it rained, hailed and snowed…not really gardening weather, but great for staying indoors. Well I was indoors for 6 days and cabin fever never set in except for the little cabins I was piecing for a really cute quilt by The Rabbit Factory called Around the Block. I am starting this pattern backwards, I should be making the middle, but I wanted to get right to those cute house blocks. I am making 2 identical blocks at a time because I think I could use them in so many other projects like table runners, mug rugs, pillow toppers and who knows what else I will think up. They are sure fun to make! If you look close at the fabric in the tree you will see that it is a print of cabbage leaves and I thought it added a lot of texture to the little trees. I am pulling all these fabrics out of my newly organized stash. Having just organized it was a great idea because I found fabrics I forgot I had and now it is all fresh on my mind.

Well after a couple days of sewing and playing with fabrics and a little cooking and baking thrown in I got an urge to tackle an idea I’ve had in my head for a while. Ever since I moved in to this house I have wanted to paint a tree on a wall so I got out a pencil and started drawing then collected all my paints together and just got started. I figured that if I didn’t like it I could always just paint over it. We just applied for a fictitious name for our new little orchard we are about to plant so this helped inspire my project. We are growing lots of varieties of fruit trees so my painted fruit tree is sort of a fruit cocktail tree. I am painting plums, apples and pears in it. What a fun project to do on a freezing couple of days while you are dreaming of warmer weather to come. Oh, our little home has become “Humminbird Farmz”…and maybe someday we will be able to sell some of the fruits of our labor, for now though we are enjoying the process of getting it all together.

Cabin Fever can be a good thing!

Ferne

Me and My Janome on a Windy Day

2011-02-09T09:20:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was one of those days when you just want to stay inside and so I did! I have been finishing up a lot of quilting projects lately, but today I just wanted to start something fresh and simple. I was inspired by a little mug rug picture I saw at Shape Moth (a new to me blog that you must check out). There was no tutorial just a picture and for me that is where the fun begins. I love figuring things out and doing the math, but the one thing I didn’t quite get was how she did those tiny bees on her mug rug so I just have one big bee on mine.

I also had to spend some time playing with stitches on my machine. I haven’t had my Janome 6600 very long so I haven’t figured out all the stitches. On my old Janome I found that I like to use a blind hem stitch with the bite made as small as possible and it makes the appliqué look like I had done it by hand, but I couldn’t quite get the same stitch on the new Janome so I used a button hole stitch and I rather like the result. I dialed the width down to a 1, but I think it will go even smaller.

I finished my Charming Butterflies quilt. Lots of free motion quilting practice here. Some of it looks like a kindergartener did it, but somehow it is so fitting on this quilt. I have a Fig Tree Jelly Roll Stars quilt top that has been finished for almost 2 years just waiting for me to feel confident enough to quilt it, hopefully I will hit the 5th grade level of quilting soon and tackle it. I have been following Wendy’s blog at Ivory Spring and she is sharing her wonderful quilting tips there weekly. Today she shared a tip on how she uses freezer paper to get perfect circles…great idea!

Well, it looks like the wind is giving us a break today so I will probably be heading outside and doing a little yard work. We are hoping to get a quote today on some deer fencing for our new orchard. Once that is up Hummingbird Farmz will be on its’ way! We already have some of our fruit trees ready for planting, lots of fertilizers to add and hundreds of fun ideas to try out in our little orchard. I am hoping that in the future we can use this little corner of our property as a place for neighbors to gather to share ideas, talents great food and create friendships. I haven’t met many of my neighbors in the year and half we have lived here, but the ones I have met have many talents and I think it would be nice to be able to broaden our horizons and branch out by meeting and sharing and our location is so central to everyone and it is flat and bare at the moment…so we are going to see what we can do to bring people together here. I foresee a quilt show, BBQ and pie eating going on here in the future.

Share the good times!

Ferne

Gardening Apron Tutorial

2011-01-13T20:36:00.001-08:00

With thoughts of Spring on my mind and a job in a nursery where we are getting ready for Spring, I thought it would be a good time to make myself a few new gardening aprons. I made a few before and have found them very useful both at work and at home so I thought I would share how I put them together here and then I will know where to look back for directions when I am ready to make more for myself.

I found I can make one with 3 fat quarters or 2 half yards of fabric plus about a half yard of flannel. I like to use 2 contrasting fabrics so that the pockets stand out a bit and then I use the same fabric for the ties and waistband. The flannel is used between all layers so the color doesn’t matter, it does give the apron a nice weight and makes it a little more absorbent for those gardening mishaps. This apron would also work well as a cooking or sewing apron and the pockets are handy for many tasks.

Step 1 -

Cut 1 – 16” X 20” of each fabric and the flannel

Cut 1 –3” X 21” of fabric you want for waistband

Cut 2 – 3” X 36” of fabric for ties (these can be pieced if needed)

Cut 1 – 1 1/2” X 21” of flannel for waistband

Step 2 – Layer the 16” X20” pieces in this order

Flannel
Pocket fabric front side up
Background fabric front side down (facing pocket fabric)

Step 3 - Sew around 3 sides leaving the top where the waistband will be attached open. Trim corners then turn and iron.

Step 4 – Fold pocket up, I usually turn it up about 5 1/2”. Then top stitch on sides making sure to back stitch tops so it won’t pull apart when there is weight in the pocket. I measure in about 6” from each side and top stitch these down creating 3 pockets on my apron. You could adjust this to fit your needs.

Step 5 – Attach a 3” X 21” waistband piece and the 1 1/2” flannel on top of that to the open end of apron. Fold up and iron.

Step 6 – Sew the ties to each end of waistband piece. Fold over the top and bottom edge of each tie and the top of the waistband and iron a hem, don’t forget to fold down the end of the tie first. I use about a 1/2”, then fold ties in half matching folded edges and fold down waistband and pin in place. Top stitch ties on folded sides (no turning!) and top stitch waist band in place. You could hand sew waist band if you prefer, I have done it both ways and am happy with both.

Now put it on and start planting and look good doing it! Be sure to check out my previous post for ideas on planting pots of salad greens…

Ferne

P.S. I don’t know how to create a pdf file so to copy this tutorial just highlight the parts you want and copy them to a word file. Anyone who wants to teach me how to make a pdf file please feel free to leave me some tips!

Grow a Salad Bowl

2011-01-13T19:44:00.001-08:00

This is a little different than most of my posts on this blog, but is still about creating and with Spring on my mind what better time to think of planting a few vegetables. Here you can grow a pot of lettuce somewhere semi protected and with Spring right around the corner what better time to get started!

Supplies:

· Container

· Potting Soil

· Fertilizer

· Plants and/or seeds

Containers – You can get creative here as long as it is at least 6” deep and has a drainage hole. The wider the better so that you can fit more plants or use several smaller containers and make a salad bowl grouping.

Soil and Fertilizer – Use a good potting soil with organic ingredients. You have several choices for fertilizer, I like to use Osmocote or EB Stone Starter fertilizer to mix with the soil when I plant. Then I water plants in with Root Stimulator to get them off to a good start right away while you are waiting for the other fertilizer to kick in. If you feel that your plants need a little pick me up later in the season you could fertilize with a liquid fertilizer like Dr. Earth 3-3-3, it is organic and mild, perfect for container feeding.

Seeds – Lettuce grows pretty quickly from seed and there are a lot of varieties available. The downside is having to wait and see if it all came up where you want it to be. Lettuce seed is small so it is hard to place in just the right spot. Lettuce prefers cool weather, but can freeze if it is too cold for too long. Radishes can be added to your pot, but remember that they have to be pulled so leave space for them to be pulled where they won’t take any other plants with them. A fun herb to add from seed is Chervil. You could intermingle Chervil with the lettuce and they won’t disturb each other. It has a small lacey leaf with a flower similar to a parsley flower, both are edible. Chervil doesn’t transplant very well so it is a good choice to plant from seed. It also prefers cool weather, in warm weather Chervil flowers quickly and then doesn’t produce any more leaves. Chervil doesn’t hold its flavor well when dried so is best used fresh, can be put in salads or used in vegetable and fish dishes. Chervil and loose lettuces are Cut and Come again vegetables which means they will keep growing and producing more leaves after being cut back.

Plants – You can get many types of lettuces in 6 packs and some mixed lettuces include mustards which are very good raw in salads or cooked in other dishes. Spinach and/or chard are also great choices for growing in a salad bowl. Always keep in mind the size of the mature plant and give them room to grow. To add color and keep things fun you can also add flowers like pansies, violas, and calendulas which are also edible and provide a lot of interest in a salad. Herbs also make a wonderful addition to a salad bowl and some great ones for containers are thymes, parsley and of course, chervil. In the warmer months nasturtiums make a wonderful addition and both the leaf and flower add a peppery flavor to a salad.

Give your salad bowl a few weeks to get rooted in and it will be ready for picking for a beautiful homegrown salad or graze off your bowl for a healthy snack…

Enjoy!

Recommended Plants

6 packs or 4” pots:	Seeds:
· Lettuces	· Chervil
· Spinach	· Nasturtium
· Chard	· Radish
· Mizuna	· Chives
· Thyme
· Parsley
· Sage
· Viola
· Pansies
· Calendula

More Butterflies

2011-01-02T10:37:00.001-08:00

Yesterday it snowed, but I was inside working on more butterfly blocks and dreaming of Spring. We are also planning our fruit tree orchard, more Spring dreaming. Where we live it only snows once or twice a year so it was a real surprise to wake up to about 4-6 inches of snow yesterday. We took a long walk and really enjoyed the white stuff and being able to see all the foot prints of different birds and critters. We made sure the bird feeders were full and enjoyed watching all the bird activity through out the day.

My butterfly block that I made a few months ago has acquired a few more friends and I paired it with a block that I had been admiring from a book by Barbara Brandeburg called Tried & True Cabbage Rose Favorites. She used it with a butterfly block also made using appliqué so mine is a little different interpretation. This is what I came up with. I haven’t put the outer borders on yet and will have to piece a lot of browns together to finish it, but this whole quilt was made from scraps so it will all tie together nicely. The only problem I am having is deciding where to go from here…do I stop and quilt it?…then what do I bind it with? I have a soft yellow fabric for the backing that has little peach colored flowers on it and I think it will be perfect though I might be a little short and will have to piece in something for that, a true scrap quilt. I am really liking this and will use it for a wall hanging I think.

Spring is only about 77 days away!

Ferne

Waiting for Charlevoix

2010-12-25T09:07:00.001-08:00

I am waiting patiently for this fabric to come out in yardage. I bought a charm pack of it and loved it so much I couldn’t wait to make something from it so I got out a pattern I have had for a while by Heather Mulder Peterson called Little Charmers III. It went together so quickly and I even had an extra block, which explains why I ran out of charm squares for the border. I used some pin dot fat quarters I had for the borders, but now I need more fabric for the back so I can finish this up. It will be hard to choose which of these fabrics I want to buy in full yards…I really like all of it.

I made a hot pad with my extra block and I think it is my favorite hot pad I have made so far! So simple and sweet, I’m sure it will get a lot of use with all the bread baking I have been doing. My kids are coming tomorrow so I am spending my Christmas Day baking Pumpkin Cinnamon rolls, that should get the house smelling quite homey!

Looking forward to all the New Year has to offer! New grandchild to sew for and enjoy, a new orchard to be planted and tended to, new recipes to try and a new garden to plant and harvest!

Happy New Year to all my friends and

family everywhere!

Ferne

Finished in the Nic of Time

2010-12-22T08:09:00.001-08:00

I finally finished my Christmas project and just in the nic of time! I got the idea from a post at Moda Bakeshop. It was designed by Cara Wilson and was fairly quick to put together. I made mine all from scraps. I had fun pulling out all my red and green scraps and going through them for just the right shades. I embellished my tree with some cute buttons, I even found some little gingerbread boy buttons and candy canes. Then my cat came and stepped on the top left corner with his dirty little paw so it even has the cat seal of approval, I couldn’t bear to wash it off just yet. It was a fun project and the best part is I finished it in time to display this year!

One of my favorite decorating ideas I had this year was to decorated my plate holder and It came out looking like a Christmas heart. I love it!

Happy Holidays!

Ferne

A Little Mug Rug Creation

2010-11-19T07:49:00.001-08:00

There are a lot of people in the quilting and blogging about it community that are creating these fun little mug rugs so I just had to give it a try. I have been working on some bigger quilts and need a break to work on something small and simple. I had a lot of fun with this little guy that I paper pieced from a pattern that I got a few years ago from Artisiana’s blog. I also used the idea of putting on a pocket to hold a spoon, maybe a napkin or a tea bag. I can’t stop thinking of ideas for these and have several in my mind now. So many blocks could be adapted to this fun idea. I am thinking Christmas gifts with a mug and the mug could be a receptacle for lots of different things depending on who the gift is for. There are so many fun ideas from creative people on blogs and it nice that we can share. Now I just wish the hackers would quit leaving comments on my blog. My blog got removed a while back because of their comments and I had to put a comment moderator on which I hate that I have to do, but since more than half of the comments I receive are some sort of spam it is necessary.

My question to anyone reading this post would be, is there a certain size that is standard for a mug rug? Mine are measuring about 8” x 10”, which seems to be a good size for a mug and a small dessert plate.

I am having a lot of fun seeing all the wonderful Christmas ideas coming out and can’t wait to work on a few of my own. Hopefully I will get a lot done this year. Looks like we will have some snow this weekend and that always gives me sewing time!

Enjoy this creative season, thinking and doing for friends and family is always time well spent!

Ferne

Winner of Gigi’s Thimbles Prize

2010-10-08T18:58:00.001-07:00

Oh boy the mail person was nice to me today! I had won a little prize from Amber Johnson of A Little Bit Biased who is starting her new pattern company called Gigi’s Thimbles and today it arrived. It was more than I thought. She sent not one but, 4 patterns and a Bliss Layer cake! I am so excited and can’t wait to break into them all, but first I must eat then take a shower…then the evening is mine to explore my treasures. I love all this patterns but I think the bird house is probably my favorite at the moment and would look great done in Bliss!

I also ordered the cutest pattern from Cath’s Pennies Design. It is a Christmas cookie pattern and hers looked so great that I ordered the whole kit. It’ll be fun to start on something for the holidays. These are all made from felt. I haven’t done much with felt before so it will be fun to try something new. Too bad I have to work the next few days at my paying job or I would just be sewing away the hours.

You must go to Cath’s blog post about this pattern to really get the true effect. She has a plate of cookies on the mat that look so much like the real thing but are actually ornaments. I am thinking they will be fun to put on packages.

Sew many new projects to work on…I’m a happy girl!

Ferne

Harriet Hargrave Class

2010-10-06T10:30:00.001-07:00

Last week I took a class at my local quilt shop with Harriet Hargrave as the teacher. Harriet has teamed up with her daughter Carrie and written a few books with more on the way. The books are written to be use in order to teach you everything you need to know to quilt like a pro. She starts with the very basics and teaches you to expect perfection from yourself. Harriet believes that your seam ripper is your friend and she is right. She had us all ripping our fabric to find the straight of grain and ironing it with lots of Faultless Spray Starch till that fabric felt almost like paper, but this lets you cut perfectly straight pieces.

Harriet had lots of products that she highly recommends such as Faultless Spray starch (she converted a lot of us who loved Best Press), Presencia Thread - a thinner, but stronger thread than most on the market, and Perkins Dry Goods Perfect Piecing Seam Guide – to find your perfect 1/4 inch then mark it on your machine. She also had her favorite rulers and irons to recommend and they were all available for us to use. I can see why she recommends the products she does because they work and I will be changing over to some of them as I need to replace things I already have.

This class was tough and maybe not as much fun as some classes, but I did get my money’s worth in knowledge. I own 2 of Harriet and Carrie’s Quilters Academy books and Harriet’s Heirloom Quilting book and look forward to the release of her future books. Thanks to JJ’s Log Cabin for making this class available – it seems that JJ and Harriet are personal friends. JJ’s new partner got together with her neighbor and provided the most amazing lunches and snacks for us all complete with tabl es covered with table clothes and even recipes of our favorite snacks! It was a great 2 day class! Here is the resulting small quilt that I am finishing piecing.

One thing I learned about myself taking this class is that I am a slower quilter than most in the class, but I do enjoy the process of piecing and probably do better at home without all the commotion of a classroom and waiting for irons and rulers. I also learned that just when you thought you knew a lot you find you know not so much, but quilters love to share their tips and techniques, all you have to do is ask.

Keep learning and sharing your knowledge in all that you do!

Ferne

Dancing Dragonflies

2010-09-02T08:53:00.001-07:00

I have been studying the dragonfly blocks in the the book Dancing Dragonflies by Sue Beevers. In this book Sue uses one block in many ways and gives you lots of ideas of just how many different ways you can put together this block to get different effects. Sue talks about how this block could be put together using paper piecing or templates. She does not give you the exact measurements or directions on exactly how to put the blocks together so I spent a lot of time with graph paper and thinking through ways to simplify the piecing using half square triangles and strip piecing and came up with a few ideas of my own which is what I think her book is for, to get you thinking and creating your own dragonfly block methods.

The blocks I came up with measured 6 1/2 inches on my first one and 12 inches on my second one. After doing the first one I knew I would need it to be bigger and simpler if I were going to make more. Sewing together 1” squares is a little difficult, but sure looks great. I was able to get a lot more blending going on with the colors though to create a very pretty dragonfly. It also kind of looks like a flower. This block is made up of 3 different blocks and the wing is repeated for the 4th block. There is the head, wing and body. As I studied the wing block I could see that a wing is actually similar to the head but cut in half and then a half square triangle is added in the background fabric. When I tried to make the block this way though it didn’t work. Looks simple, but it took a lot of thinking and math to make it all work. So it was a fun challenge and looking through my notes I am not sure I could tell anyone how I did it or even come with it again.

The 12 inch block was much simpler and I used a lot of strip piecing. If I were going to make several blocks I would do it this way. I have to go through my notes though and fine tune them and make some adjustments in measurements so I can do it all again. I also think that I have the body too thick. I used a 1 1/2 in wide strip and I think I would stick to a 1 inch strip, dragonflies do have skinny bodies.

Maybe I can work this in with some butterfly blocks and make a fun throw or pillow tops.

Challenge yourself, it’s good brain exercise!

~Ferne

My Machine is Smokin’

2010-08-25T20:19:00.001-07:00

It was 110 degrees today outside and just as hot inside. No really, the air conditioner was on and it was very comfortable so I was cutting and piecing a very special project for my Son and his future wife and my machine was on fire.

I have been collecting fabrics for months in fall colors since the wedding is on Halloween I even have some fun Halloween prints. I have played with so many possibilities on EQ6 that my head was spinning, but last week I went on a trip to spend some time with my sister and her baby boys and we took a trip to a quilt store that was making a change in ownership so they were clearing out a lot of merchandise. One of their sales was 50% off all books, so I loaded up! What fun I had! The boys were very patient with me and well behaved and we all had a great time. They are precious and my sister is an amazing Mom. I only wish we could have had our babies together because I could have learned a lot from her. I don’t know if you can read the tee shirt on Brody, the top picture, but it says “SAVE Energy Take a Nap”, words to live by for sure!

I love when you are working on a project and all the pieces just come together beautifully and fit so perfectly like it was meant to be. Well, that is how this project is going so far. Once I decided on a pattern I found in one of the books I bought and it all made sense. I have been seeing this on a lot of blogs lately also. It is a double hour glass, and I was able to use the fabrics I had been collecting in such fun and interesting combinations and I think it will all look great with a 2 inch black border. Next to decide on the outer border and the backing, but for now I am really liking my progress.

When it gets hot, get quilting!

Ferne

Charming Butterfly Blocks

2010-07-29T18:35:00.001-07:00

I have been seeing a lot of butterfly blocks popping up on the internet. They are simple to make and don’t require much accuracy to get great results. I kept thinking though that they would be a great way to use some charm packs. Charm packs are 5 inch square samples of fabrics. I had to refigure the measurements though to make it work and this is what I came up with:

Wings: Cut the charm square in half

Background: Cut 1 1/2” Strips from a charm square or 1 1/2” X 5” from a background fabric

Body: Cut 1” X 5” strips I used a brown fabric all the same for each butterfly.

Mark the wings at 3/4” from the top for the section near the body and 1/4” from the top. This is where you will put the background strip to sew. Lay the background strip on the wing and sew 1/4” from edge. Be sure you have extra fabric hanging over each end for full coverage.
Fold background fabric back and iron in place.
Square up the wings to 2 1/2” X 5” . I turned the piece upside down to square it up and I didn’t cut the extra backing off because it was so small and it helped with the squaring up.
Sew wings to body and iron towards the body.

Voila! a 5” Butterfly block ~ Charming! I sewed 4 together and it made a 9 1/2” block. Not sure what I will do with this but, I have lots more charm squares to play with and see what happens…

Be sure to check out what some other bloggers are saying about this fun block:

Pam Kitty Morning - She made it even smaller than mine

Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts – She posted a tutorial on this that might be easier to understand than what I just did.

Choccybangles - summer project

and I’m sure there are some I missed and more to come!

Let’s see some more beautiful butterflies flitting around out there in blogland of all sizes.

Ferne

Janome, I love you!

2010-07-21T10:09:00.001-07:00

I did it! I went to test drive the Janome 6600 yesterday and of course it had to come home with me. I even got a deal on the table special made to fit it. The table is really nicely made and solid. There is no vibration when it is sewing at all and the height is very comfortable to work at. I played on this machine for about an hour and already felt comfortable enough to start a project. I read that the manual was terribly written, but I found it easy to understand and I went through it for each step of setting up and changing feet to changing settings and had no problems at all. My Mom would be so proud of me using the manual, she always says “Did you read the manual?” and usually I don’t I just figure that I will figure it out sooner or later. Well, the manual was read and reread and I followed the directions and I figured it out faster. So it pays to follow Mom’s advice once in a while.

I’m trying to decide what is my favorite feature so far…I thought it would be the Accufeed foot, but it is not yet, maybe after I quilt something it will be. It will be nice not to have to put on the bulky walking foot. You just put on your quilting foot, pull down the feed foot holder and that is it. It is not noisy, that is the best part. The store owner gave me an Accufeed 1/4 inch foot, but I found that I had to move my needle so far over for it to be a true 1/4 inch, the regular 1/4 inch foot that comes standard with the machine is so much more accurate. You don’t really need the Accufeed to piece, but it will be good for putting on binding. So my favorite feature is a tie between two little buttons, the thread cutter and the Start/Stop button.

I sounds like the thread cutter is causing some people problems, but it was explained to me that you have to cut the thread before you lift the foot and there will not be bobbin thread coming out which bothers some people because they are use to holding the top and bottom threads before they start sewing. The thread cutter is holding the bottom thread and it will come out when you start sewing. No more lifting projects to cut threads from the bottom, very handy for me!

The Start/Stop button lets you sew without using a foot petal. I keep forgetting this and wanting to step on the gas. You do have the option to use the foot petal if you want and it is a really nice petal, but I am really liking this button a lot and finding it easy to get use to.

We had our first real harvest from the garden yesterday. We have gotten a few zucchini and few strawberries here and there, but last night I filled my basket to overflowing. I have a feeling this is just the beginning. I may be making some strawberry jam soon!

Eat healthy and use your time wisely!

Ferne

Something About Summer

2010-07-20T07:11:00.001-07:00

There is just something about summer that draws me away from sewing and blogging for long periods of time. I am still reading other people’s blogs, but posting to mine…not so much. It is so hot where I am working – 112 the other day and over 105 most days, so when I get home I am just exhausted.

On my days off I have been working in my garden most of the time, but last week I actually spent one day fishing on Lake Shasta with my sons and Michael. It was my older son’s 26th birthday and this was something he really enjoyed. Just look at that smile on his face! We had a great time, saw some great sites and even caught quite a few fish.

Things are growing in my garden with all this heat and we have been harvesting strawberries, but the tomatoes are just getting big and not coloring up yet. They will probably be ready all at once in a few weeks or less. The zucchini’s on the other hand are all ready and hard to use up. We grew Magda, White Lebonese and an eight ball squash. They are delicious, but I am running out of ideas to do with them. I’ve made several stir frys and a Zucchini Pie (this recipe was from a Pillsbury Bake off winner, follow the link~it’s great!). I have lots of basil ready and waiting for the tomatoes to be ready…can’t wait for that!

The only sewing I have been working on is to make some cushions for some out door chairs and now I am piecing a simple table cloth to match them. I am going to a near by Sewing Center to test drive the Janome 6600P today. It has an Accufeed foot that would be great for quilting and it has lots more stitches than my machine and an automatic thread cutter . If I get it I will probably keep my Janome DC3050 for taking to classes since it is a nice lightweight size for that. I have been reading all kinds of things about the 6600 and it sounds like it might have a few problems, but I think the pros out weigh the cons. I’ll decide after a test drive. Anyone reading this that has input on this machine please share, I would love to hear reports!

Summer ~ Gotta love it!

Ferne

My Secret Ingredients Shared

2010-06-30T09:26:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I got a package sent with FREE shipping from King Arthur Flour. In it were some secret ingredients I used in this delicious cake made with their recipe for Lemon Custard Cake which I of course tweaked a bit with great results. To be fair though I should make it again following their directions to a tee then compare, but I am completely satisfied with my results. I used the new Mary Ann cake pan that came in this order and the Queen Guinevere Cake Flour and Cake Enhancer. My secret ingredient though that they didn’t use in the cake was the fiori di sicilia which is an orange/vanilla flavoring that smells divine. I could wear this as a perfume. I also added some grated lemon rind and used a lemon pudding mix with some cream cheese added instead of the pastry cream they called for. We had some fresh blueberries and raspberries on hand to add to the very top, the only thing missing was whipped cream which I some how forgot on my trip to the grocery store. This was worth turning on the air conditioning so we could turn on the oven for a while…very much worth it!

Check out King Arthurs recipes for some really great ideas then find your secret ingredient that makes it yours!

Shhh!!! It’s a secret after all…

Ferne

What’s Growing in our Garden

2010-06-12T22:05:00.001-07:00

I have another blog where I usually blog about garden related stuff, but Candace at Squash House has started doing garden updates weekly on her blog and I thought it might be fun to play along. So…this week in my garden after a very long and cold spring things are finally starting to show signs of future harvests.

This little squash is an heirloom ‘White Lebanese’ that should be ready to harvest any day now. It looks a bit like one of my favorites called ‘Magda’. This is the first time I have grown this so I will have to update you all later to let you know if you should search it out next year. The plant itself only gets about 3 feet around instead of taking over the garden like some zucchinis. My herb garden is finally taking off too and I harvest a bunch of Italian Parsley that I dried in the food dehydrator and bottled. I like dehydrating my herbs because they come out so colorful and fresh looking and that way I know they are not dusty. We got a big dehydrator called an ‘Excalibor’ and hope to put it to good use this summer. They parsley took about 24 hours to dry. There is a temperature control which is nice since herbs need less heat than drying tomatoes or other fruit so this is a handy feature. It also has a lot of removable drying shelves so depending on what you are drying you can add or remove shelves. The motor is really quite also not at all annoying. I think I will be making lots of Basil mixes later. I am growing about 5 different types of basil and love to mix them together. I have a little leaved one called ‘Pistou’ and a bigger leaved one called ‘Marseille’ and of course there is ‘Genovese’ and ‘Opal’ and my favorite ‘Cinnamon’. Can’t wait for those tomatoes to serve up with basil and balsamic vinegar…oh, and don’t forget the mozzerella!

Looking forward to many harvests!

Besides the vegetables I have a lot of flowers in bloom. I have tried for years to grow lupines and this year I had great success. These are Russel hybrids and they stand about 2 feet high. I love them! There is also some scabiosa growing there next to them. I planted them a little close together because they are in a 1 foot by 3 foot gopher cage. I took a lot of precautions here and love the results!

Another plant I have not had much success growing until now is hosta. I have put out the snail bait, but not seen one snail here. I’m hoping that they don’t like the cold winters. I think I planted about 6 different ones in this bed and they all came up and are just about ready to bloom. I love this place where I can grow almost anything, let’s hope the gophers and deer don’t discover my treasures. We have lots of deer fencing and gopher cages in place and our fingers are crossed.

In this bed are some Russian Mammoth Sunflowers and they are budding up, can’t wait to see these huge sunflowers and feed them to the birds.

I’ll close with a picture of my favorite rose ‘Country Dancer’, I wish I could share its sweet fragrance with you all, but you will have to trust me on this one, it smells like a sweet apple.

Let the growing and harvesting begin!

Ferne

Catching the Wave

2010-05-31T08:59:00.001-07:00

I saw this on Oh, Fransson’s! blog and Monica at Happy Zombie did it here, so I had to give it a try. I printed out the tutorial and studied it for a few days then she came up with a new idea using my dresden ruler so I was on board. I started just playing and when I laid it out on my table and it fit for an idea I had a while back. I had thought of running 2 table runners across the table to double as 4 placemats and protection for the center of the table. Funny thing is the fabric I chose also went perfect with some dishes I have. Now I need to make another one and get them both quilted. She squared hers up, but I am thinking I will leave them wavy on the sides and bind with the white fabric.

I also completed a little wall hanging for my laundry room. These little washday bunnies were inspired from a Tilda book called Crafting Springtime Gifts. I changed their dresses and had some fun with the quilting. I don’t know if it shows, but I quilted a shirt, pants, sock and a towel on the clothesline and grass and flowers on the ground. I guess if I were braver I would have used colored thread. This was a really fun project now I have to finish some things in the laundry room so that I can hang it up.

Guess all this rain is good for giving me some sewing time!

Ferne

Growing Going on

2010-05-24T07:38:00.001-07:00

I don’t have much sewing, but a lot of growing going on here at the moment. My sons and Michael just removed some juniper bushes for me creating a very large space that I get to garden in. I used to call it the ‘Secret Garden’ because it was completely encircled with huge junipers. Now it has gone public so it will need a new name and a lot of new plants. The area is much larger than it looks in the picture measuring in at 37’ X 40’ and there are a lot of iris that I plan to move to other locations. It is very sunny there with a little afternoon shade, but not much. I am dreaming of all sorts of colorful perennials like salvias, rudbeckia, arctotis, and much much more. So I guess I am making a flower quilt in my mind right now, but not for long. I have a wedding quilt to start working on soon and the fabric that I ordered for it just arrived last week. It is for my son and his soon to be wife. I asked for color ideas and she picked beautiful dark jewel tones and lots of black. I have been playing with some ideas in EQ6 and have come up with several great ideas. Now if I could just plan my garden plot in EQ6…hmmm…now that’s a thought!

After a very long cold winter we finally planted our vegetable garden. I had a lot of fun designing the layout for that. It is sort of formal looking and quite different. We used the old satelite dish in the center as a gopher cage. It is 10’ across and is now my herb garden. Then we made 8 boxes lined with gopher wire and dug them in to border the herb garden. We have 31 tomatoes planted in them and some peppers and basil. There are 2 more beds to plant and the seeds are growing in the green house for much more.

Keep the growin’ goin’ on!

ferne

Piece Therapy

2010-04-21T18:18:00.001-07:00

Sometimes there are times in your life when you have to try to figure out how best to put the pieces together to make something orderly of it. I am working on a part of my life right now where I am trying to make an important decision. I have looked at all the angles and tried to put them together just right so that all the points and corners meet up (or at least come close). I am finding that working on a quilt block helps. Oh, I don’t know what that block may become or if it will join others in a basket in the closet of misc. blocks with no particular purpose, but for today it served a purpose in my life. It makes me wonder how many other people find that kind of therapy in crafting or gardening or baking or other hobbies that require concentration and mindfulness. I think that is what hobbies are all about, sort of a therapy or a focus exercise. I spent a few hours yesterday baking 2 loaves of bread and thinking about how mixing ingredients and watching yeast work to create something that is tasty and good for my body is also good for my mind, and I shared that with someone special to me which also made me feel good. These were both great things to do on a rainy day deep in thought. The only decision that I have made about the situation I am thinking about is that it won’t hurt to try and decisions can be changed and adjustments made, in the end I must take care of myself and be content with the life I create for myself.

My block that I created comes from a new book out by Eleanor Burns that I preordered called “Quilt Blocks on American Barns”. I got a signed copy and I love it. It reminds me so much of my Grandmother and summers spent in Iowa. The block I chose is called Quatrefoil and it represents a 4 leaf clover. She says that a common saying is “to be in clover” which means to be living a carefree life of ease, comfort or prosperity. I’m not sure that I am living that life yet, but I am getting closer and maybe a few more blocks put together will help to get me there!

Enjoy your craft therapy whatever it may be!

Ferne

Some Quilting Getting Done

2010-04-11T20:34:00.001-07:00

Due to the bad weather I have actually been able to have some unexpected sewing time and have finished a few projects and started some new ones. One that was so exciting to have finished was the runner that Karen from Sew Many Ways so generously shared with me last year. It took me a year to get the nerve to quilt this beautifully pieced quilt. I took a free motion class last month and practiced on a few pieces before I gave this one a try. I am pretty happy with the results. I do need some tips though on how to get the ceramic pencil marks from my Sew Line pencil out. I think they will come out after a few washings, but does anyone have any tips to share on this?

After quilting this my confidence level was up so I quilted my Schnibbles Picnic quilt. I had seen this quilt popping up all over on other quilters blogs and just had to have one for myself. I posted on the progress earlier and now I am proud to say it is finished and hanging on my wall. I hung it with a quilt hanging frame that was handmade by a local craftsman and sold at my favorite quilt shop, JJ’s Log Cabin. JJ supports local crafters by displaying and selling their products in her shop on consignment and she does have quite a crafty group that supplies her with their handiwork.

We have been enjoying visiting the thrift shops and antique stores in our area and finding lots of treasures. Recently we found this cute little dresser that only needed to have it’s mirror replaced. We didn’t get a beveled mirror, just left it plain, but it looks cute and is functional in our guest room. So far after 2 weeks in place the drawers are still empty, but I’m sure it will get put to good use in the very near future. Empty drawers are hidden treasures for me! I pieced a runner that just happened to fit and look great with this dresser so now I have to get it quilted…always a project in progress (or two or more:).

Next I am going to attempt to make myself a summer dress and skirt before the weather finally warms up. I have everything I need except the time, so I will just have to squeeze it in. I got the Juliet tunic by Serendipity Studio and I am planning to making it in dress version, more on that as I make some progress.

Sewing in the rain!

Ferne

Pieces of My Life

2010-03-12T21:13:00.001-08:00

I have not been able to do much sewing with fabric in the past few weeks, but I am working on different pieces of my life. I have a long list of blogs on the left side of this blog that I love to keep up with. These are all blogs that have inspired me once, twice or more and keep inspiring in one way or another almost daily. I admire people that find the time and material to blog about almost daily. My life keeps me away from the computer sometimes for long blocks of time so I will probably not ever be able to be that inspiring, but I still have tidbits to share from time to time. And it looks like I will probably be going back to work in a few weeks full time so that will also be cutting into my sewing and blogging time, but I will still be dropping by from time to time to share the pieces of my life.

When the weather is nice you can most always find me out gardening or fishing with my best friend. Recently I have even been spotted driving a tractor and plowing the field beside our house, yes that is me in this picture and that was a lot of fun! But, if it is rainy like today you would probably find me inside sewing or baking sometimes with my best friend. Today we had thunder, lightening and lots of hail so we baked bread together…yum… and watched the rain come down. We did manage to take a walk in the garden and pick a few really fancy daffodils. They are a double variety with no fragrance, but very pretty. They remind me that Spring is on its way even though it is still acting like Winter.

One reason that I have not done much sewing this week is that I spent a few days visiting my baby sister who just gave birth to 2 of the sweetest little boys, well running a close race with my 2 boys who are now in their 20’s. Today is her birthday and I think she probably received the best gift of her life last week as an early birthday present. Her husband has his birthday on Sunday, so from now on March is the Abbott family birthday month! What a blessed little family! I enjoyed spending a few days just watching these little bundles sleep and eat and I even changed a few diapers. I am looking forward to many more visits with all of them.

Keep piecing with all the materials of Life ~

Ferne

Free Motion Quilting Progress

2010-02-06T20:52:00.001-08:00

I have been wanting to learn to do free motion quilting for a while now and attempted to teach myself a few times only to end up frustrated. I don’t quit easily when I really want to learn something so I kept analyzing my problems and tried to remedy the situation. Here are some tools that I have learned I must have to be successful:

1. A sewing machine extension table. I don’t have a sewing table and the arm of my machine did not give me enough flat area to work with. I just received my Sew Adjustable from Greer, a husband wife team in Oregon that has crafted a fully adjustable table that will fit any machine. So if I decide to get a new machine or loan this table to a friend I just loosen a few screws and move the plates around and voila! I got the 16” table and it is so portable I can take it to my sewing classes easily. I love the little details they put into this table to make it easy to use and also a little cute, like the scroll in the metal work to make it a little more feminine. Nice touch! If you don’t already own a table and are looking for one be sure to check out the link above. They have several sizes and get it sent to you in a jiffy. I got mine within a week.

2. A straight stitch single needle plate for my machine. It keeps the fabric from being pushed into the machine and bunching up. It also helps the tension to work better with free motion stitching. I marked mine with a permanent marker to remind myself that I can not do any wide stitches when this is on. Not only would it break a needle, but could send my machine to the hospital. It is hard to see in the picture, but the plate has only one small hole instead of a wide hole for the needle to go in and pick up the bobbin thread. I also use the darning foot and mine is clear plastic which helps to see where you are going. I have almost mastered going forward and sideways, but still have difficulty going backwards so I just avoid it.

3. Fons and Porter gloves. Fons and Porter have some really nice quilting products and they are quite often on sale at Joann’s. I picked up the quilting gloves the other day and they are so soft and comfortable with the stickiest fingers, just exactly what I was needing.

4. Good lighting. My machine has a light, but more is better when it comes to sewing and lights. I have an Ott lamp that I keep near the back of the sewing machine to provide just a little bit better lighting and it works great.

I’m sure there are other great products that I will find to help me master this skill, like the class I am signed up for in a month, but until then I will practice, practice, practice and then see what new tips I get from the highly recommended teacher at JJ’s in March. I have done okay on this quilt, but need to improve my stitch length and stop making V’s when I want to go straight. I hope to work all that out in the near future quilting the stack of tops I have waiting for me to conquer free motion quilting.

Any tips for a beginner?

ferne

No Sew Rainy Day Projects

2010-01-23T17:13:00.001-08:00

There was actually snow on the ground when I got up at 8:00 this morning, but by 10 the rain had pretty much washed it away. I have had a bit of a longing for Spring and wanting to grow something so I dove into some fun plant related projects today. I have been known to watch Martha Stewart and am sometimes inspired by her creations. Yesterday I watched her turn the jar I used at Christmas for a cookie scene into a terrarium and I really wanted to make one, but going to the nursery in the snow was not on my agenda so I went searching my yard for mosses to put in my terrarium. I had so much fun walking around my own yard in the rain! I mean really, I should do this a lot more often. Then I wandered off to the mailbox which is a little more than 1/4 mile away. I found more moss and lots of little mushrooms. What fun! I am really amazed by how much moss is growing everywhere and how many different kinds and colors there are.

I also found treasures in the mailbox that were quilting related. I had joined ‘Inner Circle - Online Quilters Club’ through American Patchwork & Quilting and the subscription included a really great book, magazine, a pin and Jo-Ann’s 10% off VIP card. There are lots of videos and patterns that you can access on their site too. Well worth the $39.99 for a one year membership, the book alone is $34.99 and the online videos are great to watch at your convenience. You can find out about it at the All People Quilt website if you are interested.

To make my terrarium I started by adding about an inch of small rock mixed with sand in the bottom of the jar then about 2 inches of soil. I found some nice pieces of moss on the ground with soil attached and mossy branches that I added also. I put my little black frog in there too, though he doesn’t really show in the picture, along with some rocks that I have collected on fishing trips.

I have been starting seeds and have them growing on heating mats in our greenhouse. I transplanted a little Basil called ‘Pistou’ into a pot for my kitchen window and also an Italian parsley and a chervil. I cut some branches from different plants in the yard for forcing. Just bringing the outdoors in until it warm enough for me to go out.

So much fun without even sewing…who knew?

Ferne

Rainy Day Quilting

2010-01-19T21:53:00.001-08:00

The weather in Northern California has been windy, foggy, rainy and just plain blustery. It is so cold right now it will probably snow. We have had electricity so what do you think I’ve been up to? Quilting, of course.

I taught myself some new things using some information from the internet and some from books I have. I need some quilty things to hang on the walls here so I used one block from the quilt on the cover of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting July/August 2009 issue. Then I added a little appliqué from Barbara Brandeburg’s book Tried & True Cabbage Rose favorites (I would love to make every quilt in this book). The technique I used to applique was from Edyta Sitar’s book Hop to It, she has some really clear instructions on machine applique with invisible thread. Well, I have had a spool for years and never used it so I gave it a try and love how it works. She uses a zig zag stitch set on 1 for width, 1 for length with the tension on 1 so that most of the clear thread goes to the back and you don’t see any bobbin thread on the front. I used bobbin thread to match my background and the invisible thread is only on the front.

There are a lot of string projects going on in quilty blogland and some great tutorials so I had to test out the idea. I needed to make a new table runner to replace my Christmas one so I got to work and made some string blocks. I have also been wanting to make a house block with a quilt block in it. So I got to work playing and this is what I came up with. I am also trying something I saw somewhere else in quilty blogland and can’t remember where…I cut the batting and backing 1/4th inch wider than the front then attached the binding sewing 1/2 inch from the edge of the batting. I made my binding 2 1/2 inches wide. The end result is that when you fold the binding to the back there is more material in the binding making it feel fuller. Really nice and it is not too much, so sewing it down is not hard at all. The only other thing I did was to cut the batting corners off so the corners would fold nice and smooth.

I am really enjoying my rainy day quilting, but I do hope it doesn’t continue for a whole lot longer because my new heating mats came in and I really want to get out and work on my new garden. All this rain is making some really pretty little mushrooms pop up every where though and the manzanitas are blooming, too.

Learn something new!

Ferne

Eleanor Burns Free Videos

2010-01-16T20:24:00.001-08:00

I am an Eleanor Burns fan so when I found free videos available on her website yesterday I was so excited. There is absolutely nothing on TV and with several winter storms making their way to our neck of the woods I was glad to find something to watch during my sewing breaks. Now I just hope the power doesn’t go out. So if you are a fan of Eleanor I just want to share my find go to the Quilt in a Day home page and on the right side toward the bottom you will find the link to the videos. She has some really recent videos that go a long with a new book that she is having published with a really fun block of the month quilt that has a barn theme. These barns remind me of my summers spent on my Grandmothers farm in Iowa as a young girl so I know I will have to have this book and attempt to make this quilt. She has also started a blog and I think I left the first comment, that’s how new it is so check that out also here, at www.stripquilter.com.

I did finish the baby quilts for my sisters twins. Two quilts in one month during the holidays was quite an accomplishment for me. I am very happy with the way they turned out. the patterns I used for these are from a Moda Bakeshop pattern called the Pinwheel Baby Quilt designed by Jodie at Pleasant Home and Monica at Happy Zombie’s Two Happy pattern. Both patterns were offered free and were a breeze to follow. It is so nice for these ladies to share their talents over the internet. Today is her shower and I was hoping to be there, but with storms on their way I decided that I should stay home and not drive the mountain roads in them. I can’t wait to see the pictures and hear about all the wonderful things she received. She has some really special friends and they are arranging a lot of special things for this shower.

If you love Eleanor and quilting and barns, be sure to check out the free videos!

Enjoy the show!

Ferne

A New Year = New Projects

2010-01-05T08:06:00.001-08:00

I am welcoming the new decade with open arms and an open mind. So much has changed in my life the last 6 months that will surely effect my life in the new decade, but as I know I must take each day one day at a time and savor all that it has to offer me.

We have been spending a lot of time inside fixing up our new home, but this week the weather turned from wintery to almost spring like which brought us outside to work on refreshing our yard. What fun we had digging and pruning and planting. Most of what we planted is dormant so the pictures don’t look like much unless like us you are a gardener then you see what will be. This bed will have some ceanothus, sage and even a pretty little rose bush, kind of hard to imagine so more pictures will come later and this will just be a before picture. It feels like you are planting hope and faith when you plant a twiggy little plant and because we know what they will be we felt we had found some gems. If you are at all interested in gardening you might want to check out our gardening blog Growing Thymes. I have been having fun posting about the plants we are planting though the pictures are lifted from the internet because mine look like sticks at the moment. We got roses planted in gopher cages and a double flowering pomegranate tree and many more fun things. Next we will be building up our vegetable garden. We are dealing with deer and gophers here so will be writing about our solutions (hopefully) on dealing with them. We need ideas on grass alternatives, I never knew Bermuda grass would grow in the mountains, but it does very well here…yuck!

I haven’t just been gardening though I have been very busy quilting and planning for some future projects, but the most important even coming up in the near future had me making 2 little quilts and they are almost finished. I will show them in full in the next couple of weeks, but for now it is just a sneak peak because I know my sister reads my blog. She is due to give birth to her twin boys in March. I made the quilts using the same fabrics with different patterns and I love them both, guess that is just a sign of things to come!

Make great things happen in your life, one day at a time!

ferne

Tiny Cookie Treasures

2009-12-20T19:51:00.001-08:00

I had so much fun making the tiny Gingerbread Houses that Julie at Tattered Threads and Willing Hands linked to on Not Martha’s Blog. They are suppose to fit over a mug, but I must have used the wrong measurement because they don’t fit on mine. They are sure cute though and I had a blast decorating them. I used to like to do big gingerbread houses, but the cost of all the candy and then we through most of it away after the holiday stopped me from doing it years ago. These were fairly easy and I already had the frosting made to frost sugar cookies so I whipped up a batch of gingerbread and went to town creating a little town. I didn’t have the candies I would have liked to have, but no matter I made do with what I did have and had a blast doing it. Thanks Julie for the link and thanks Not Martha for the great idea!

I didn’t stop there…I took another idea I saw on Martha Stewart the other day and put some of my cookies into a big glass jar I found at Target for all of $7. The fun just keeps on happening and I could keep going, but really it is time to stop myself and get ready to feed the masses that are coming to visit Friday thru Sunday!

Have some fun this holiday season!

Ferne

A Finished Christmas Project

2009-12-13T10:08:00.001-08:00

I managed to finish a project yesterday, love when that happens! I actually had made 2 cookie plate crumb catchers for potential gifts then as I looked at my gate table and thought, “It needs a table runner.” I came up with this idea and am quite please with the results. I got the cookie plate crumb catcher pattern from Rosebud’s Cottage blog during the 2009 Cross County Quilt Designer's Blog Hop, and luckily I had made them both exactly the same. It is so much easier to cut two projects out and sew them together at the same time than to do them one at a time. The star pattern in the center I had printed out ions ago from the McCalls quilt pattern collection. I have printed lots of these patterns and used them in my Dear Ferne quilt. I think I actually have 2 of these started in my UFO closet. If it keeps raining like it has been I should have lots of time to finish some of the projects in that closet, that is if I don’t start new ones.

* Why is it that after you post a picture on the internet you see something that should have been visible right in front of you. Can you see the mistake in my my runner? It is not big and really kind of looks intentional so I guess I should just call it that…an intentional mistake.

Today though I will tackle the last room of this house that needs to have wallpaper stripped and get textured and painted. We already have bought all the light fixtures and towel racks so there is no excuse to wait any longer. Besides the rainy weather is keeping us stuck inside. Why is it that the last thing is the hardest to actually get done?

Here is the guest bath that we finished a few weeks ago. We are very pleased with the results. We bought the paint solely based on the name, ‘Soft Fern’, and luckily we love it! I want to use it in our bathroom, but it wouldn’t quite go with the bedroom color so I am using a beige color that we have used other places in the house it is called ‘Everlasting’ and we bought it for its name also. We had good luck with our paint choices on this project. We bought them all at a Benjamin Moore store and are quite happy with the way they cover and the lack of fumes was the best part.

The pictures above are from the kitchen. We did the little area around the cupboards with a color called ‘Oregano Spice’ but the bigger wall we used the ‘Everlasting’ to avoid there being too much green. A good choice I think. The doorway in the picture above is where you walk from the kitchen to the hallway at the entry so we repeated the ‘Everlasting’ color there, too. My camera flash makes a lot of glare on that picture, but it is a print from the Royal Hawaiin Hotel by John Kelly who designed menu covers for their restaurant. It is a fisherman with his catch…the fish or the woman, maybe both!

Happy holidays! Here’s to many finished projects in the New Year!

Ferne

Our Hummingbird Place

2009-12-03T09:28:00.001-08:00

Not much time for crafting or fishing here these days though we do manage to fit in a little of both occasionally. We have now painted the whole inside of the house except for the master bath. It is suppose to rain this weekend so that will be a good time to tackle that room. Yesterday however we tackled a few huge junipers that were in a bad location. They we creating a block to the sidewalk that leads to the front door. They didn’t come out without a struggle, but I think all the struggling was worthwhile. We planted a little Korean fir tree that we bought from the nursery. It will only get about 10 ft. tall and not very wide over a long period of time so it won’t be blocking the sidewalk any time soon, if ever. The fun thing about doing projects like this at this time of year is that you just build a fire and burn the mess. This juniper was going into the fire right from the ground and the rate that it burned was a little scary. Had there been a fire that close to the house the house would have burned in a flash. So we are relieved to have it gone and to be able to see the path to the front door.

Before and After

The whole hedge burned in just about an hour or less. You can even see through the breezeway because we removed the lattice that was blocking the view. It’s been nice having it all open to the beautiful views we have here. There are still lots of projects coming, but nothing urgent at the moment.

I was able to spend the rest of the afternoon working on setting up the little green house. It is a funny looking little igloo thing, but it seems to be staying quite warm inside. I had to chase out a few black widow spiders and I can see that a gopher has discovered his way in, but I am making it a useful place again. It seems that there must be an issue with getting water into the green house because there is broken pipe going to a sink, but that will take a little more instigating. There is a working faucet really near by so for now that will do the job. Soon we will be starting little seedlings and have a real vegetable garden near by, that will be the day this house really feels like “home” to us. Michael got his beebee gun yesterday and some gopher traps so let the gopher hunting season begin! We are tackling all the obstacles one at a time and are well on our way to growing a big beautiful garden here at our Hummingbird place. Now I believe some well deserved sewing and fishing time are in order…more on that soon!

I am getting the urge to get down the Christmas decorations and have been accumulating some cookie recipes and looking forward to all our kids coming to visit. Michael wants to get out his train set and run it through the house. It’s beginning to feel like Christmas. Now all we need is snow!

Happy Holidays!

Ferne

My New Sewing Suite

2009-11-13T09:20:00.001-08:00

I am starting to feel settled into our new home and having a sewing area set up helps. I was going to turn the guest room into a sewing room, but once the bed was in there wasn’t enough room. It does have an extra large closet though so that became the space to store most of my sewing supplies. I have to share with the fisherman and it is working just fine.

He built me shelves and now thinks he needs some of his own. I am sewing in the living room by a window with a wonderful view of our yard. The added bonus is sewing in the same room with the wood stove burning and the TV is on, but behind me. Turns out the guest room gets pretty cold so to save on heating costs we are closing the door to that room. Anyone who knows me well knows that I like to change things often so who knows, maybe I will make the guest room the sewing room in the Spring. For now though I am completely happy with the current set up. The fisherman though is eyeing the little desk I am using for himself as a fly tying station and says he wants to buy me a real sewing table. I think he is thinking that the machine would be put away sometimes and it would look nicer in the living room. Hmmmm, I am not too sure how often it would be put away, but if he wants to buy me a sewing table I won’t stop him. In looking at sewing tables though I just have one question…how do you make room for ironing? I use a little folding ironing board that I can pull out and put away easily. It is large enough for most things. Now I am opening the desk on my hutch and putting the ironing board on it then I can fold it up when not in use and tuck the board along the side.

This is my current sewing area and it is working for me, but I do think there will be changes in the future. Oh and a picture of my first project made just for me. I was inspired by some hot pads I saw on Patchwork Pottery’s blog. I figured out a way to make them quilt as you go so they went together really quick and easy. I raided my scrap bins for all the fall colors. We really needed hot pads so this project was kind of a necessity and they are very useful. I layered 2 layers of batting with a layer of Insulbrite in between so they are thick, but not too thick, and will not get too hot .

Sew on…

Ferne

Settling In

2009-11-09T21:49:00.001-08:00

We are getting settled into our new home after a very busy past few weeks. We had family visit last week even though we didn’t have much in the way of furniture yet. It was actually quite comfortable and a good time was had by all. There was the cutest little pregnant girl, my little sister, (who is expecting twins!),

her husband, Craig, our Dad and Mercy helping out with cooking and cleaning. We managed quite well with what we had on hand and played a lot of Mexican Train Dominoes. Watching the deer run around the back yard and smelling the smoke from neighbors burning on burn days made it feel like camping in a house. Tonight we are enjoying sitting by the fire ourselves, which is nice since it is about 35 degrees outside. We even managed to fit in a short fishing trip today…the first of many I’m sure.

We have been tackling all the home improvement projects a little at a time and seem to be moving right a long at a steady pace. I have even tried my hand at texturing a wall with a sea sponge and I have to say it did come out pretty nice.

It took some real team work, but we have even got all the Hunter Douglas blinds hung. There were 3 sliding doors and one window. One of the sliding doors was a real challenge because it was 14 feet long so we saved that one for last and by then we were pros. We are loving the way they look and function and they really do seem to be keeping the warmth in which is very much appreciated at the moment. The nice thing about the blinds we chose is that they have a sheer fabric around them that lets a lot of light in when the blinds are in the open position, but gives you a lot of privacy in the closed position. They say that they are easy to clean with just a vacuum…I’m sure we’ll be checking that feature out in the near future.

Finally I can get to the project I have been waiting patiently for and that is organizing and setting up my sewing area. I started today and Michael even built me some shelves in the extra large closet we have. It looks like it is all going to fit with room to spare. Now to get to those sewing projects so I can have some sewing and crafting to write about on this blog! There are lots of great ideas out there for the upcoming holidays and the quilt store nearby has lots of classes and free sewing days coming up that I can’t wait to get to. I have no shortage of ideas!

Thanks to all our friends and family who stuck by our sides and helped us move and settle into our new home. Now they can all come and visit and see why we chose Shingletown for our new home, only not all at once, please.

Enjoy the special days coming up and make some wonderful memories!

Ferne

Linger Longer Lodge

2009-10-13T21:19:00.001-07:00

We visited the charming home of our new neighbor on our last visit to Shingletown. They actually live in the town of Viola in a 100 year old log cabin. Their home was so inspiring and absolutely beautiful in a simple kind of way. Irena has found a way to garden in conditions that I wouldn’t have thought possible. You can see the love and time that she has thoughtfully put into her landscape. She has many challenges to work with too…deer, gophers, giant redwood trees and snow, lots of it. For her the snow season is just about to start, yet on the day we were there she still had beautiful dinner plate dahlia’s in full bloom. She told us how she transplants dogwood trees and foxgloves from other places on the property to places in her yard where she can enjoy them.

Not only was her yard lovely, but her cooking was just as wonderful. She couldn’t let us leave without serving up a helping of borscht she had just made and boy was it delicious much to my surprise. I had never been much of a fan of beets until Michael started cooking them for me. Those Ukrainians know what to do with beets. So when I plant my next vegetable garden I will be including a row for beets!

Thanks for your wonderful hospitality and for welcoming us into your neighborhood! Neighbors like this really make you feel like you are home!

Ferne & Michael

Making a House “Your” Home

2009-09-29T07:59:00.001-07:00

Now we are painting and yes the wallpaper did come down. There is still a bit more to remove, but for one days work I’d say we did quite well. The color we chose was Behr – Oregano Spice. It goes really well with the brown wood of the cabinets. There is still one wall that I want to be a different color because it is looking into the laundry room which I have also painted the green. So I have some sample swatches painted on the wallpaper and after looking at them all weekend I keep thinking that I need something in between the 2 colors I swatched so still a little decision making to do there.

I really like how my favorite window turned out. I was going to get rid of the navy blinds, but after putting them up I am really liking the blue with the green. It’s funny how the things you were sure would have to go when you bought the place change once you actually start living with things. I am learning not to be so quick to decide that things just have to go.

One thing I did remove right away was the swinging doors from the kitchen to the hallway. I felt like the hallway was not used much because it was blocked off by these doors. The front door is not used much either because of a flow problem with the front yard, but we will work on that when we have more than a weekend. In the picture below I am trying out more paint swatches on the hall wall. There is more wallpaper to remove there and maybe I will texture it. I didn’t texture the kitchen, just painted on the flat wall and I like it but it sure does show any little imperfection in the wall that way. I am leaning toward a color in between the second color and the third color. Any tips?

Before After

I am really missing my sewing time and I still have a month to go with this crazy schedule of working and living at the apartment then going on a 4 hour drive to the new place to work on that for a few days. It is fun and exciting, but I am looking forward to setting up my sewing area and making some things for our new home and Christmas which is just around the corner.

With a little Love any house can be a “Home”.

Ferne

Making a “House” a “Home”: Step 1

2009-09-17T08:25:00.001-07:00

The first step to making a house feel like home is to add something that you love as soon as possible. For me that would be a coffee pot! The funny thing is that I was planning to remove that awful wallpaper first thing, but once the coffee pot was in place and few days spent there the wallpaper started to grow on me. I think it will still be removed, but it has moved down the list of things to do first.

We are dragging this move out over a 2 month period so we are moving things up one carload at a time for now. Last week was the first week. We picked up our keys and ordered the mailbox key and took the first load of stuff to the house. This load included a blow up air bed, toiletries, kitchen utensils, a little food and a can of paint. After the car was unloaded we took a trip to Wal-Mart and bought a microwave, a mini refrigerator and a ladder along with other essentials. We must have done good, because by the time we had to leave to return to our dreaded apartment we were calling this place “home” and the apartment is just “the apartment”. It will be a long 2 months, but it will give us time to settle in and earn a little more money to pay the rent on the dreaded apartment which still has a 2 month lease and more importantly a little more time to spend with friends and family who I am sure we will miss when the move is complete. When we get all settled we are hoping the friends and family will be able to enjoy many visits to us in our new place. I talked to a woman the other day who has spent the last 13 years living in 2 states. She says they live in each house for 2 weeks each month and have earned a lot of flying miles. I asked how she does it and she said that is has just become a way of life for her. I am such a homebody that just 2 months is going to be difficult.

We are off again today to spend a few days at “home”. On the agenda this week will be our first painting project. We are going to start with laundry/mud room which is the entry that most people seem to use to go into this house.

Last week we swept down cobwebs and cleaned cupboards. The carpet is new and it filled the vacuum bag with lint 2 times. After all this was done we did have time to relax and enjoy a few very nice sunsets. It seems the back deck is so strategically placed for enjoying the most amazing sunsets, something you don’t get to do ever at the apartment. I tried to take a picture of the view, but sunsets aren’t easy to capture on my camera so just use your imagination and think of one of the most awesome sunsets you have ever seen with very intense colors. Remember I have been living in a smog filled city so fresh country air and no city lights at night makes the sky look bluer and sunsets and stars even more intense.

I’m off to make a house a “home”.

Ferne

One Really Big Project

2009-09-05T09:03:00.001-07:00

I have not been blogging much lately because we have been busy working on one really big project…we have bought a house and will be spending the next two months working on moving in to it between working at our paying jobs. It will be a huge change for us from living in a little apartment in the city to a 1600 sq ft house on 3+ acres out in the sticks. Our neighbors are emu’s and an ostrich and we have frequent visits from a herd of deer. There are fruit trees (deer food) and other beautiful landscape (more deer food). There are lots of places to go fishing so Michael will be busy scouting those out. JJ’s Log Cabin Quilt shop is just 2 miles away, but I just found out that they will be moving. Luckily it won’t be too far and they got a bigger shop with a bigger classroom. So I will be busy visiting there and signing up for some classes.

This big project is creating lots of other projects so blogging is sort towards the bottom of the list of priorities, but I hope to find time to blog about some of the projects to that I have a record of befores and afters for myself.

Does anyone reading this know of a way to have your blog printed into a book? I have tried copying pages into Word and doing it myself into a notebook but it would be nice to have a real book with better quality pictures. So if you know of any could you leave me a comment.

Thanks for visiting! and ya’ all come back now ya’ hear!

Ferne

Thank you Candace!

2009-08-07T13:45:00.001-07:00

What sweet friends you meet in blog land! I received a package from Candace at Squash House Quilts. She was ‘Paying it Forward"’ and picked me to give this wonderful gift to. She made a really wonderful bag out of my favorite colors, green and red, and she sent me a charm pack of Figgy Pudding. I already have ideas for that. In the true fashion of the generous person that she is she also sent me a very handy bias tool from Fons & Porter that I am sure I will put to good use on a few WIP’s that I am getting close to finishing. But, she didn’t stop there…it seems that quilters and fishermen must have chocolate so she sent a bag of M & M’s for both Michael & myself to give us the energy to keep doing the things we love. What a sweet gift! Thank you Candace.

For my part in ‘Paying it Forward’ I gave a dear friend that was without a sewing machine my old machine and an apron pattern. She was really needing a machine just to be able to do some mending, but she had always loved to sew and was so grateful to be able to get back to sewing once again. It did my own heart good to help her out. I have 2 more things to do yet and am sure I will be getting to them real soon!

Enjoy all the day has to offer!

Ferne

Here’s one for Julia & Julie

2009-07-30T20:39:00.001-07:00

I have found myself inspired by this book ‘Julie & Julia’ by Julie Powell. I can’t wait for the movie to come out. I have admired Julia Child for a long time so I am really enjoying this book. I don’t think that it is inspiring me to cook all Julia’s recipes though so I made up one of my own tonight. I made Rice Krispie Treats with half Fruity Pebbles then I sliced it down the middle and filled with ice cream…a new twist on an ice cream sandwich! That’s about it for my cooking abilities these days!

Bon Appetit!

Ferne

Zippety Do Dah!

2009-07-26T18:05:00.001-07:00

I just couldn’t leave it rolled up for long. I had been studying a quilt pattern that was mesmerizing me because if you look at it one way it is squares then if you look at it another way it is diamonds. I love when designs do that. I decided that the pattern in Jelly Roll Quilts was meant to use the Zippety Do Dah roll. The only problem I have now is that no one seems to have any more of it and I need a border, backing and bias. I am thinking of going with a simple beige or tan border and a navy or red binding. That way the focus is on the center. I almost have this all sewn together. My points don’t match exactly, but I kind of like it that way. It is just plain fun!

I really didn’t need another project, but then again maybe I did because it really made me feel happy making it!

Keep it fun!

Ferne

A Package Arrives

2009-07-22T20:36:00.001-07:00

For once a package arrived for ME! These days most packages are for Michael and contain fishing stuff…lots of little fishing lures and things. But, today there was a package for me. Last week I won a Jelly Roll from In Between Stitches! I couldn’t believe it…and today it arrived. It is Zippety Doo Dah by Sandy Gervais and it looks fun! I will be looking for a new project or two to work on with this.

Thank you Lynn at In Between Stitches!

I love it!

Ferne

A Peaceful Place

2009-07-19T07:37:00.001-07:00

We took a little trip last week to revisit Shingletown. It is such a comfortable and peaceful little town. We hiked and fished and visited a couple of nurseries, both owned by the same owner. They were both very nicely set up and the staff was very friendly. One was in Red Bluff and aptly named Red Bluff Garden Center. I saw this fountain there that I really enjoyed…it has a bit of a European look. It is not really as big as it looks, but the display really shows it off and it makes such a nice quiet trickling sound. I will be keeping this in mind for future reference. The second nursery was Wyntour Gardens in Redding. It was a bit bigger then Red Bluff, but just as nice with a friendly and helpful staff. I didn’t take any pictures here, I guess I was too busy taking it in. They had an amazing pottery display and carried a lot of the same plants we carry in our nursery even from some of the same growers we order from. It is nice to see how the same items can be displayed so differently. They had a large potting area that they even allow customers to pot their own pots in so that they don’t have to make a mess at home. Now that is customer service!

Hiking to Lake Nora and Lake Grace also brings a similar peaceful feeling and we felt right at home there, so comfortable with our surroundings. We couldn’t believe how blue the sky looked at Lake McCumber. It just seems to blend into the water. You have a view of Mt. Lassen from most anywhere in Shingletown it kind of reminds me of growing up in Colorado, we could always see Pikes Peak. I remember just staring at it and feeling totally aware of the presence of God all around me. I don’t go to a church regularly, but feel like I am in a different kind of church when I am out in such naturally beautiful places such as these.

There are little streams all over Shingletown. Some are seasonal and some are always running. I think they are fed by snow melt , but I have so much to learn about this place and hope we can spend a lot more time there in the future. I would love to take more hikes enjoying scenes like these a long the way. It is amazing the landscaping that nature does so seamlessly and we all struggle with. I think we could all learn a few lessons here.

I was also enjoying the individual flowers that just come up from seed planted by God himself. Some we sell in our nursery, but none do better than when they come up naturally in nature. The colors are so intense and every petal is so perfectly placed.

Well, I haven’t really don’t much sewing lately, but I would say that I have been gathering inspiration from nature. What a great place to be inspired. Now I am off to work to see if I can inspire a few people or put some of this to good use!

Have a lovely day!

Ferne

Giving and Receiving

2009-07-02T13:52:00.001-07:00

Okay so I had a birthday and kept it quiet and simple. My sister made the cutest little cake that was delicious as well as cute, and we went out to dinner with the whole gang. It was a very fun time had by all. Thanks Philina!

Today we spent some time in my garden harvesting squash and planting beans. The tomatoes are doing fine, but just not turning red yet. With all the heat that we are having this week though they should be turning any day now. I am most happy with the flowers in the garden. One of my favorites vignettes I accidentally made was to combine some Versailles Cosmos with a Blue Spires sage. Nice combinations seem to happen by accident in my garden. I just plant anything that is new to me to try it out and see what it does. I have a lot of different varieties of upright Phlox. I am noticing that sage really doesn’t shop in this picture, that seems to happen a lot with blue in the garden though I could really use a photography class.

I also have some flowers that seem to come from no where. I forget that I planted them then they make an appearance and bloom as if to say “Remember Me!”. One of those was this true Geranium I believe it is Rozanne. It is mostly white with the tiniest little blue streaks looking as if they were painted on by some little flower fairy.

Now to see if I can get some sewing and cooking worked into my day! We are going to make a Blueberry Pie, Cucumber salad and maybe even some tapioca pudding! Guess I should put on that new apron I made!

Speaking of aprons…I tried to give away some aprons or patterns for the Paying it Forward thing I am taking part in, but since I got no response I am going to pick a few recipients that I think are deserving of nice surprise and I will let you know who I gave to that way no one feels obligated to have to repay the favor. The apron pattern I am using for the give away was designed by Barbara Brandeburg. I made one apron so far and it was a fun and simple project so I can’t wait to whip up a few more!

May your day be full of pleasant surprises!

Ferne

Windows Live Writer Test

2009-06-28T19:12:00.001-07:00

I am trying out this program to write posts on my blog that I read about on Anne Sutton’s blog this morning. I am not quite a ‘techy’, but after some research and playing around I got this far. Now let’s see if I can figure out more. I wanted to try it because Blogger doesn’t let me see my post as it is going to post and sometimes I have a real hard time getting it too look the way I want. This program is letting me see it just as it will appear in my blog and has some other feature also…let’s try a few…

A picture of a quilt in progress.

Wow lots more fonts available here!

*WIP*	*Stage of Progress*
Jelly Stars	needs outside border
Ferne’s Sampler	piecing the blocks together
Irish Chain	get backing together

Well, I can see I could have a lot of fun just playing with the fonts and colors and tables…so much more to figure out though…like how to do the special effects with the pictures…this could be too much fun!

this has been fun and will add a lot more pizzaz to my blog in the future! Thanks for sharing Anne of Bunny Tales!

Paying It Forward

2009-06-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

I’ve seen Pay It Forward on a lot of blogs lately. Candace of Squash House Quilts decided to join in, and I was one of her first three commenter's. So now I’m going to Pay it Forward. Here are the Rules:

1. Be one of the first 3 bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade 'Sassy Little Apron' or a pattern for a 'Sassy Little Apron' from me!

2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first 3 bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your 3 friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought that Counts!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love! If you are not one of the Top 3 Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same.
REMEMBER... Pay It Forward!

I am going to give away your choice of an apron from the pattern Sassy Little Aprons by Barbara Brandeburg or I will send you a free pattern so that you can make several of these cute aprons...remember the holidays are coming up and they make really cute gifts! Check Barabara's blog to see how much fun she has been having with this pattern. I would swear she has made it with about a dozen different fabric combinations. I am just about done sewing my first one and her directions really make it easy, plus the pattern is printed on really nice paper!

Comment away and let's get Sassy!

Ferne

A Quilt Shop Visit

2009-06-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

We took a little trip last weekend to Burney Falls and visited some fishing spots and a quilt shop and a bakeryin Shingletown. You can read about the fishing at the fisherman's blog here, but I am going to blog about the visit to JJ's Log Cabin Quilt shop. I LOVE this quilt shop and the people! JJ was so friendly and eager to share anything about quilting and Shingletown that I might want to know. Her helper, whose name I have forgotten, shared fishing information with the fisherman. JJ told me the story about how she went to the Cinnamon Bear Bakery next door and then came in the quilt shop to find out it was for sale and she bought it! "That was one expensive donut!" she said, but you can tell that she is loving what she is doing and the locals are loving her.

In the classroom they were learning how to make pine needle baskets. These were so adorable I bought one for myself to hold my thimbles. Iit is amazing to me that you could turn pine needles into anything besides compost. To top it off I think she used a walnut for the bottom. They coat the whole thing with varnish so it is really durable. Talk about using what you have on hand.

I really wish I had taken more pictures of the projects in this shop because there were some amazing quilts hanging up and quite a collection of gifty items. There were several bargello quilts hanging up that I couldn't take my eyes off of...maybe someday I will attempt one. They must have had a class on these or maybe there is one coming up. There is a nursery for sale down the street...I might just have to buy it so I can sign up for classes at JJ's, only then I probably wouldn't have time for sewing...better rethink that plan. We did love the town of Shingletown though and plan to return soon.

One of my favorite quilt patterns is the Lone Star and I found one folded up in a pile in the store. I had to have a picture of it so the fisherman held it up for me...you can't see him, but he is the man behind the quilt. I love the way the applique was used in the corners. See this shop was full of inspiration for me...now I just need time to put it all to good use. I'll have to work on that part.

I actually am starting to work on a star quilt, but not a Lone Star. I am making Fig TreeQuilts Jelly Stars. I saw this hanging in Prairie Queens quilt shop and just had to give it a try. Joanna uses a method that makes it look so easy by sewing it in strips then cutting the angles. I didn't have any jelly rolls so I cut my fabric into 2 1/2" strips. It is all cut and labeled, now to tackle that time factor and get it going. The giant pincushion from a previous post has turned out to be quite handy! You can always find it when you need it that is for sure.

Find a little inspiration in every day!

Ferne

Why or 'Y' Not

2009-05-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

My curiosity got the best of me and I enjoyed every minute of it! I spent some time trying to figure out WHY you need to paper piece hexagons. All that cutting out wax paper and hand basting seemed so time consuming. Sooo...

I had tried hand piecing hexagons and found it very relaxing and enjoyable. I did it so that I could try English paper piecing and I knew that my Grandmother had done them that way so I wanted to do it too. I saw other quilters do it so I had to do it too.

Hmmm...time for something new!

I decided to see if I could piece them on the sewing machine and after thinking it through I gave it a go. I found a template that I had bought a while back and never used. I cut out lots of hexagons with a rotary cutter (not scissors...gasp!) from some Charm packs that I had of April Cornell fabric. My template had a hole at the quarter inch seam that I used to mark the corners. I laid out all of my pieces for the hexagon flower I was going to piece for a pin cushion. I started with the center block and put right sides together, marked the two corners that I was going to sew to and from, put the needle down right on the marked dot and sewed to the next dot. Next I picked up the next hexagon and continue marking the corners as I went, to save time I marked the corners that I needed to as I went. When I got to a 'Y' seam I folded the center hexagon in half to move it out of the way of the stitching. I did have to do a lot of concentrating on which way the seams needed to be folded, but soon I was on a roll.

After I got the first ring done I ironed all of the seams around the edge in one direction and then ironed the center hexagon out. This method layed out very nice and flat. I put one more ring of hexagons on to the outside of that.

The project that I was making these for turned out to be a bit larger than I was anticipating. It is a pincushion that measures 6" across. I found it on the Moda Fabrics Free Patterns page. I haven't finished it yet because I was thinking of a way to make it smaller, but decided that a large pincushion could be quite useful and I am liking the way it is turning out. I have chosen not to add the prairie points that the pattern calls for. I will stuff it with walnut hulls and lavender with a little batting in the center.

I'm not sure which is the best way to put together hexagons, but I found this to be simple enough with a little thought and I think it saved some time. Hand piecing hexagons does make for a nice small project that you can take anywhere and hand piecing 'Y' seams might make them a little less intimidating, but I did find the machine method to work out well for me and I had fun trying!

While wondering "Why?" I found a new project and an answer..."why not!?"

Thank you Moda!

2009-05-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

I have to thank Moda and Sheri Howard for the fun project I just pieced today. The last thing I needed was another project but, when I saw Sheri's version of the Irish Chain I couldn't resist. I have been cutting and piecing for the last 2 days (even in my dreams). I love what I came up with. I went through my stash and pulled out some large prints that I wasn't sure what I was planning to do with them in the first place. When you cut a large print it takes on many different looks, but I found a few colors that they all had in common and I picked an nice plain lavender for my flowers and created a lavender inner border from the scraps and voila! I like it! Now I have to figure out how to quilt it...I'm sure I'll have dreams about that too. I wonder if all quilters have quilting dreams. I also dream about gardening and my job.

I was very grateful for such a fun project to give my mind a break from work for a while. I also found a new blog to follow. Be sure to check out Sheri's blog it is full of fun and crafty ideas! I see that she has been featured on Moda Bakeshop before with a cute idea for sewing cards. Thank you Moda for all the wonderful ideas that keep coming out of your Bakeshop. I hope someone will put them together into a book someday. I have been printing the ones I like and making a notebook that is quickly filling up. Now I just need to find some time to tackle all the great projects that I would like to

Another great inspiration for me has been Joanna Figueroa. I just recieved her book Fresh Vintage Sewing and some of her Fresh Vintage magazines. They are a work of art in themselves and full of beautiful projects that she makes look so easy. I am anticipating making the Jelly Stars quilt soon. I saw it done up so beatifully in the Prairie Queens Quilt shop. They had done the most beautiful quilting on it. If I get the top pieced I might just have to take it to them to quilt. Joanna's got a very fun blog also with the sweetest french music that plays for you, I hate to turn it off!

May all your dreams be of things you love!

Ferne

2009-04-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

I have been falling behind on all my Block of the Month blocks, but I am still enjoying them and keeping all the directions up to date so that when I get to the next point I will still know what to do even if I am not on time. I worked on the February part of the Stars for a New Day quilt. This one is a real challenging project. I just added this pieced border tonight and am not sure I am up to the next border. It is made of pinwheel blocks and it is all seeming a little too busy to me, but the techniques are really good practice and the directions are very well written. The Quilt Show has even had a video to go with the directions each month which is extremely helpful. I'm not sure how much further I will go with this because of the time and difficulty. I'll take a little break from it then decide.

I have also been working on the Verandah Views blocks slowly and am just a little behind on them but I did make a pieced house block the other night for nothing in particular I just have wanted to make one ever since I got the Fig Tree Quilts Houses book. I had my embroidery laying out nearby and noticed that the colors looked so good together that I think I will have to change the layout and add the house block in the mix.

Spring has sprung and work is busy. I haven't had much time to work in my garden but, when I went to water the other day I was surprised to find that 3 of the 10 tomatoes I had planted had froze last week. Our weather has been really weird, warm one day and cool the next...today it was about 90. I guess that is normal for us though at this time of year, but still it always surprises me. I had just packed away my winter clothes and got out my shorts then we had a few really cold days when my tomatoes froze and now it is back to shorts.

Another on-going quilt project I have been working on is my color blocks. I worked on a yellow one the other day. I am using scraps that I have sorted by color then cut into 2 1/2 inch squares and alternate with a cream colored plain cotton. I am looking for an idea to tie it all together with some sort of strips or cornerstones or something. I have several ideas, but keep thinking that it would really be easier to figure out using EQ6...could that justify the purchase? I think that all the extra hours I've been putting in at work help to justify that I deserve it...that's my logic anyway.

There are some bloggers out there that have started a support group to encourage each other to finish up some of their unfinished projects from the looks of this post I should be joining their group, but I kind of like to work on whatever inspires me at the moment and figure I will get things finished in good time. The important thing to me is that I sew for enjoyment, I don't want work with a deadline. I get enough of that at work so this is something I do for pleasure, with no pressure.

One thing I have enjoyed in blogland this week is to visit Park City Girl's blog...she has done the most remarkable cyber quilt festival. She got 363 bloggers together and they all posted their favorite quilts with a little story about it on their blogs and we can all go visit and see these wonderful quilts. There are as many different styles of quilting as their are people and each project had a special meaning to the quilter that quilted it. It is very fun to go look at especially for someone like me who always seems to be working when there is a quilt show around here. I am so thankful for people like Amy who take the time to put things like this together for so many others to enjoy. It truly is remarkable!

I will be thinking Spring and freshing up things around here a bit. It's time to clean out the cobwebs, get organized, and plant some new flowers and veggies to enjoy in the warm days ahead. This is truly my favorite time of year.

Enjoy a little sunshine!

Ferne

Projects

2009-04-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

I am really not the best blogger, but I do enjoy it. Mostly I read lots of other blogs then run out of time to post on my own. I have finished my Thyme to Water quilt. It took me a whole year to do it, but I did enjoy every minute of it. I designed the quilted border with trowels and flower pots, but they didn't show up in the pictures I took. I really like the way it turned out, so whimsical and simple.

I have been slowly falling behind on the Block of the Months that I started in January. I have been best at keeping up on the embroidery blocks for Willowberry's Verandah blocks. They are so fun and pretty easy to do. I need to start picking out some fabric to go with them because I am at the step where I should be adding it in. I just printed out the April block and can't wait to get started on it, but am trying to be self disciplined and finish March first. I am showing the blocks in the order that they came out. These are the two blocks I have finished and the third one is so close. I should be working on it right now...

I am also working on Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill's Basket applique blocks, but I haven't fully completed any of them. I am using them to learn to applique and I think it is helping a lot because they are simple enough, but I have tried several different techniques and it kind of looks like it so when I get the hang of it more I will post pictures of what I did. I think I will redo the January block, but the other two will be fine after I add a few finishing touches. I have been doing this piecing of blocks for almost 2 years now and I am still feeling like I am in a learning mode and wondering when I will feel more confident with what I am doing. Most important is that I am enjoying the time spent painting with fabric and I feel like I am putting together pieces of my life everytime I piece a block. It is a very fulfilling process.

I have been able to spend a little time making blocks for the class that I am taking. We are making several blocks that we can put together any way we want later. I am making mine from some bright wash tub prints. In the picture I laid them all out on my table, not sure how I will piece them yet. I am enjoying making each block so much I haven't really given it much thought yet. I was watching a video this morning about EQ6 and using it to design sashing which might be pretty helpful to rewatch. I keep thinking I should get this program (Electric Quilt) not only because it would be fun to play with, but because it would be helpful to visualize what a quilt would look like before I put a lot of time into something that I didn't like. The price is still quite high staying right at $150 so I'm not sure I am ready to invest that much right now. I am working a lot of over time though so it might just help me to justify it in the future.

I am hoping to get some more of my other projects complete soon and have more things to post about. We did go on a trip to Goldsmith seeds last weekend and took a lot of pictures of the flowers at the show. I posted about it on my other blog: Growing Thymes. I have a lot more pictures and things to write about on that blog about the trip. There are so many beautiful new varieties of plants in process and it was really exciting to get a sneak peak at their work in progress. The displays were so beautiful too. It gave me a few good ideas. How I wish I could grow some mass plantings of these foxgloves. They really are so impressive!

Keeping the pieces together!

Ferne

A Perfect Day

2009-03-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

There are several things that combine to create my variation of 'a perfect day' and yesterday was full of them. I spent a few hours at my garden plot weeding and planting. The rainy weather we have been having here in Northern California gave way to warm sunshine which really makes weeds grow tall fast. This is the site I was greeted with upon arriving at the community garden. It is still there because I didn't tackle it yet and I think this mess is a community project waiting to happen, let's hope we don't wait much longer. I did however, tackle similar weeds growing in the paths around my plot. Surprisingly though my plot didn't have many weeds growing because I have been keeping them up before they could go to seed. That is the trick to weeding folks...DON'T LET THE WEEDS GO TO SEED. Sounds simple, but it's not. So I pull out my handy weeding tools, both of which I bought years ago at Smith and Hawkin back when they got tools from Japan and not China or Vietnam. They are so nicely made and have stood up to lots of use. I painted the handles with some fun colors to help me keep from loosing them.

Besides weeding I managed to do a little planting. No tomatoes yet, but I did add some flowering sweet pea starts. I am trying a new to me variety called 'Barry Dare' they are scarlet, double petals and ruffly, at least that was the description, I can't wait to see them. I planted some Sugar Snap Peas because I love to eat them while I am at the garden working and I plan to be there a whole lot more in the months to come. I had some calendulas and ranunculus blooming and I harvested some celery. I don't usually grow celery, but decided to give it a try...hmmm...don't know that I would do it again. It tasted fine, but the snails seem to love it a bit too much. I made a bouquet with the ranunculus and the celery for the greens and it was very nice!

Well, in addition to gardening I did some cleaning and reorganizing here at the homestead. I didn't take any pictures of that as I don't find it interesting, but it sure makes me feel good. Then I spent a little time on my first Dresden Plate block. My Grandmother made several quilts using this block so making this made me think of her and her quilts. I don't know how she pieced so many without all the fancy tools I am using to make it easier. This was a really fun block to make. Just picking the fabrics was fun. I have lots of them left so I am going to be making the rest of the blocks from our class with them. The fabrics actually look like some that my Grandmother used which makes it all that much more special. I tried my blind hem stitch for this and like the results except that I need to re-watch the video that Ricky Tims did explaining how to turn the corners, mine are not perfect. I also read in Eleanors book where I found some shortcuts for this pattern that they used to appliques these blocks with black thread and a button hole stitch. I might make another one because I have the fabric cut to make more and try it with the black button hole stitch. I liked the look of this block so much that I made a photocopy of it and put on my notebook that I am keeping all the information with my current projects. I think it looks kind of fun and I don't think I will loose my notebook!

Hope you have a simply perfect day!

Ferne

Bits and Pieces

2009-03-03T06:37:00.000-08:00

It has been raining a lot here lately so I have been doing quite a bit of sewing. I have so many different projects in the works that nothing is getting finished. I am taking a quilting class and am working on some blocks for that. The first one I made I wasn't thrilled with so the other day I remade it with different fabrics and made the next 2 blocks for the class. I used some older looking fabrics, but I used all I had on these 3 blocks so now I'm not sure what to use for next ones. I might just make these 3 into a runner or something. I want to start thinking up some projects for useful items. I am loving putting together blocks but, then I don't have any idea what to do with them. Piecing is like putting together a puzzle for me and I love puzzles. Some are more challenging than others. I also love putting colors together and seeing the different looks you can get.

I made these 4 squares after being inspired by something on a quilt show. Then I played around with the different looks you could get by turning them in different directions. I enjoyed playing with them so much that they are still not sewn together. I couldn't decide which way I liked them and since there are only 4 they are not big enough to be a throw or anything. I was thinking that they could be the center of a throw and I could do something around them...more thinking to be done with this, but I have had a lot of fun with it so far.

I have a few BOM that I am working on too. I am doing Bunny Hill's basket blocks with lots of applique. I am not really good at the applique, but getting better with each new block. I am also doing Willowberry's Verandah Views in embroidery. I just printed out the March block and it is really sweet. I love having all the different types of projects because I can never stay focused on one thing for too long or I get bored. I have been working on The Quilt Shows BOM also, but it is getting really difficult and I keep getting stuck on colors to use in it so it is not moving very fast.

The other day I transplanted some of my tomato plants that I am growing in the apartment. They are looking so nice and healthy. I can't wait to be able to get out and garden again! We just realized that Daylight Savings time starts on Sunday again so I guess that means that Spring is just around the corner. Yea!!!

I'll be back when I have more bits and pieces put together~

Ferne

Happy Love Day!

2009-02-13T21:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day to all who might read this. This lovely table runner was made and sent to me by Karen Way of Sew Many Ways. Wasn't that just the sweetest gesture? I love it and I have loved and used this fabric in so many ways over the last two years. Just recently I made a valance for my little kitchen window. So when I saw this on her website I just had to leave a comment and she happened to be having a give away and she picked my name from her little basket of comments. Such a kind and talented woman she is...if you happen to check out her blog now she is having yet another give away of 2 pieces of her work and she has a great tutorial with lots of helpful tips on doing hexagons for Grandmother's Flower Garden piecing. I forgot to get a picture of the cute little hexagon pin cushion she made, but it is on her blog and just as sweet on my sewing table as in her picture. Be sure to check out her blog and tell her I said "Hello". She is also asking for help with this Blogger thing. I had no answers for her and have experienced all the same problems as she has so I will be checking back to see if there any magic answers out there. For the most part I can't complain if Blogger chooses to ignore the spaces I put in after the end of a sentence or mysteriously makes my pictures disappear. I have been using this program free for a few years and it is storing all my pictures neatly in Picasso. A few people have said that they get their blog copied into a book yearly so that they will have a copy just in case...in case of what I don't know, but it would be nice to have so I should check that out.

In my last post I showed a picture of a plate I scored at the thrift store last week. Well, I got so many fun things that day that I went back the next day and found more. It was kind of a lucky streak for me because sometimes I go and find nothing. The second day I found this most precious little sugar bowl. There is absolutely no marking on it so I don't know what it is or where it came from, but I love it and it looks so sweet with my little bird in its company. I love dishes though I don't always use what I have...I just collect them!

I hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow full of love and sweetness. We made the most delicious Honey Cake and have been enjoying it and should have more left to enjoy through the day tomorrow too. The weather here has been a little bizarre...one minute the sun is shining the next there is wind and rain and even thunder and lightening. This morning there was even snow on the foothills so who knows what will happen in the next 5 minutes. It is sure cold enough to snow some more!

Take time to enjoy the company of those you love!

Ferne

Looking at Color

2009-02-07T21:39:00.000-08:00

I have been looking at my stash a little differently after reading a post in Quilt Gallery about a new book called 'Color Mastery: 10 Principles for Creating Stunning Quilts' by Maria Peagler. The concepts in this book seem to be something that many quilters are looking for. I don't know how many times in the last few weeks I have heard, "I don't know how to pick fabric that looks good together." I think I have occasionally said it myself. Maria lets you read the first chapter in her book and create a color wheel with your stash when you visit her website (click the link above for her book). I am working on my color wheel now. Last night I pulled out the big box of scraps that I have been holding onto for those times that I might need just a little piece of something. I separated them into piles by basic colors...red, blue, green, yellow, purple, brown. I know brown is not on the color wheel, but I had lots of shades of brown. I did find that I don't have very much purple. As I was doing this I had a brainstorm of an idea for a quilt of some sort. I am not sure of what size, but I have a feeling it could be big. Today I worked on my red block. I pieced together 2.5 inch squares with a natural Kona cotton between each one. it was amazing how good these pieces were looking next to each other even though I had never thought to put them together before. Everything is from some past project I have worked on so I was having a lot of fun seeing them come together and remembering what I had done with each one. Maria gives you projects in her book to do as exercises but, I don't have the book yet so I made up my own exercise. She is doing something she is calling a blog tour and hopping to several different blogs to promote her book. It really is interesting. She points out that creating with fabric is different than painting in that you can't blend your fabric colors to make a new color, but you can change the way it looks by choosing carefully what you put side by side. The interesting thing is how different one block can look depending on the fabric choices or how the same fabrics used in a different block with only one or two color changes. I feel like I could go on and on about this, but I need to end this post and don't want to bore anyone. It really had my mind working last night so much so that I was dreaming about colors and quilt patterns.

I did another experiment with some of the 9 patch blocks I was making and cut them in half in two directions then turned the pieces and sewed them back together. It was fun, but I decided that I was liking the simplicity of the 9 patches for this project and in the end I sewed 9 nine patches together to make one block I guess it is an 81 patch...hmmmm. I am going to make one using each of my sorted scrap bags so I will have one in green, blue, yellow and maybe brown since I have so much fabric to work with. Then I will decide just where to go from there. I was thinking of making strips of color for the back instead of squares...

I tore myself away from my sewing machine Thursday to go out in the rain to a local thrift store where I found a few treasures. This very colorful plate is stamped on the back "Limoges France". It is a beauty with lots of gold paint on it. It made some Lemon Poppy Seed muffins from a box mix look extra good. I usually like to make muffins from scratch, but we had the mix and it was looking tasty to me so I cheated. I used the plate to make them look more special and it really did the job.

I also found some pretty little hankies and this tiny little doily with the cutest little ribbon embroidered flowers. It looks very fragile so I am thinking I will put it in a frame with some nice fabric behind it to show off the delicate stitches. I really felt like I had won a jackpot on this trip. I also found a few tops for myself and they all fit perfectly! Lucky me!

Take some time to check out the colors in your world. It is amazing what you will see!

Ferne

Tools of the Trade

2009-02-02T19:22:00.000-08:00

Every trade (or hobby) seems to have its own tools. For gardening my favorite, must have tools are my Felco pruners and the leather holster I keep them in when not in use. Since I work at a nursery and love to garden at home I use them almost every day. Sooo, I had to add another tool which was a good quality leather belt that I could strap on in a flash and get to work with my tools near by. Next thing I have to have with me is a good pair of gloves. I keep them in my pocket so the ones I use most are thin, washable and fit like 'a glove'.

A wife of a friend was moving recently and didn't have the space for her quilting frame so she gave it to me. I really don't have room either, but hope to one day. Curiosity got the best of me the other day and I just had to set it to see how it worked. It was easier to set up than I expected, but took up too much room to leave up if anyone wanted to watch the TV. I did use it though to pin a quilt top. This required using another tool that saves my hands, it is a wooden dowel with a brass fitting on the end that helps to push the pin closed and it helped me to work faster too. It is called Kwik Klip and can be found at most quilting stores. We were able to store the frame behind the couch after we took it apart, and it really didn't take very long to set up. I should be able to put it to good use one of these days. Thanks Gail!

I also tried my hand at hand quilting which has lead me on a quest for a perfect thimble. Anyone reading this please leave me a comment if you have any to recommend. I have to go back to The Quilt Show and look up a video I saw a while back where Alex Anderson covers the subject. I have never felt like I needed a thimble before because I like to feel what I am doing, but those little quilting needles are really sharp! I also started working on some embroidery and found some really nice needles, nice because they are sharp. Not only is the point sharp, but so is the head of the needle and I actually drew blood which doesn't look so nice on your beautiful embroidery project. I use to garden without gloves too for the same reason I like feeling what I was doing, but soil really dries out your skin and I got tired of having rough hands and ugly fingernails so I searched for gloves and found that I now use different gloves for different gardening jobs. The same might apply to thimbles...hmmm...I could start a thimble collection to add to my pin cushion collection. The search could be fun!

I did finish another project the other day that I am quite happy with and will use it to take my notebook and other odds and ends to class. I love the fabric and have no idea where I got it or what line it is from... isn't that the way it goes? I think it will be quite handy. This is the 4th bag I have made with the same pattern by American Jane. It is pretty simple and really nice size.

What is your favorite thimble or thimbles and for what kind of job?
Thanks for sharing!

Ferne

Relaxing...ahhh!

2009-01-29T21:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I took my new bag to class, but didn't open it. We spent the first night deciding what projects we would do between now and June. I have to say I am very impressed with this teacher. Rita has been coming to the nursery for a few years now and we always chat a little. She seems so shy and until recently I thought her hobby was gardening. She organizes gardening classes for Adult Ed. One day we got to talking about quilting and she told me she was teaching a quilting class for Adult Ed. I signed up right away and am very glad that I did. Rita is a wealth of information and so are the other ladies in the class I think I am really going to like it there. They are a friendly bunch, I'm not sure how you get much sewing done with so many wonderful people to talk to. Guess I will be doing some homework of the fun kind!

I am about to wrap up my week of Ferne time. It has been great! I still have 2 more days and will spend them having fun with Michael. We actually spent the day together yesterday fishing, not much catching going on if you know what I mean, but the weather was beautiful and there were lots of birds to watch. They actually stocked the lake while we were there and the pelicans were there ready to feed. They are really fun to watch so big and clumsy in an elegant sort of way. One funny observation was that someone planted a tree at the edge of the lake and even ran a water spicket to it. Maybe this was someones weird sense of humor...see the lake is down quite low right now in anticipation of rain so if it does ever rain the little tree will be completely under water and it should never need to be watered being that close to the lake. I like to see our tax dollars being spent so wisely.

Today I went to have my yearly Breast exam...I actually had waited 2 years and after seeing so many blogs and magazines talking about breast awareness I called on Monday and got right in. Everything looks fine, but it is good to have it done. I rewarded myself with a trip to Prairie Queens (a local fabric store). I was good and only got one small bundle of fat quarters to use on my new class project and then one fabric that I have been using and saw it on sale for half off so I bought a whole yard! I actually used it in the feathered star block that I just showed about 2 posts ago. That is a block of the month so now when the next block comes up next week I will be able to tie it in to the first block.

I have too many complicated projects going on and was looking for something fun and easy to work on today so I pulled out this camogirl fabric that I have had for a while. I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but the camo part is made up of some very sexy girls (my boys are in their 20's). The boys were trying to think of things for me to make them out of it so I made Rob two pillow cases with a really great pattern by Bari J. It was fast and easy. There are no raw edges when you are done and no hand stitching either. She has a tricky way to get the cuff on without having to hem it later and there are all french seams on the inside so it turns out really nice and neat. I was more impressed with the inside, but Rob likes the outside. There is still more fabric and Michael wants shorts so I will have to see what I can do about that later.

Tomorrow we are planning to go to lunch and a movie. We will probably see the new vampire movie or something romantic and corney. No matter what it will be fun and I am going to hate to have to go back to work. I am still thinking of things I didn't get done, but on the bright side...there is so much I did get done and really had fun doing it!

Ferne

My new Bag -Tutto

2009-01-24T22:24:00.000-08:00

I splurged and bought a new bag today and I love it! It is a Tutto and it must be the Cadillac of bags, lots of pockets and zippered compartments, I just hope I can remember where I put things. It is all set up and ready to take me and my sewing paraphernalia to class. It was a bit pricey, but it will hold a lot and protect my most prized possession (at the moment). It rolls and steers so smoothly. It will hold another 150 lbs. on top of it so that means more of my stash can go into a duffel bag and go to class with me too! Now I am ready to travel with my sewing machine or anything else for that matter. That is kind of funny since anyone who knows me well knows that I hate to travel and am most happy right here at home, but we will see where my new Tutto Machine on Wheels will take me - probably just down the road a few miles to a sewing class.

I spent most of the day working on another old friend - Thyme to Water. It was a small quilt top that I put together a while ago. I was having trouble getting it to look just right so I put it away for a while. It was on my to do list for working on this week since I have some time off work. I pulled it out yesterday and decided to totally remove one block that was just not working for me. The block was, of course right smack in the middle. I got motivated somehow to design a new block on my own from scratch. After working on all those 12" blocks recently I felt confident that I could handle it. I got out the graph paper and went to work. I actually paper pieced parts of it right on the graph paper. I really liked it, but it needed a little something. I don't know if any of you have a man in your life who is actually semi interested in your sewing, but I have been blessed with a man who has a real eye for color and he always shows an interest in what I am doing. He gives me advice whenever I ask for it on my projects. At work we pot custom pots and the best pots are the ones we collaborate on. He has this thing he does with "color echos" and today when I asked his opinion for the bird house he said, "It needs something red that you have in all the other blocks, a color echo." That was all I needed to see that he was right and I knew just what I would add...a little red bird to sit on the step of the bird house. This quilt is not perfect and really gave me fits making things go together just right. Some of the fabric was really old and stretchy, but I have it to a point that I am happy with and I will try to get it quilted this week if I can fit it in on my long list of things to do with this little bit of time I have to myself.

Funny thing...I was thinking of how Michael gives me color advice in sewing and gardening, but when we are fishing he always asks me which color lure to use. It is sure nice to have someone to share your opinions with...hmmm...most of the time!

Watch for those color echoes...you'll be surprised how many you find in nature.

Ferne