Row Quilt: Row 2, Block 1

I am counting the HST row as row 1, so this is row 2.

This block is very near completion. I just need to do a little more in the top left triangle (the gold one). Don't worry...I won't be giving you my progress in block by block blog posts! All the Monkey Wrench blocks in this row (there are 5 of them) are made of the same red, blue, and cream. The triangles around each block are scrappy.

One of the things I like so much about hand quilting my extremely scrappy quilts is that you get up close and personal with each fabric. So many of my quilts have the last of a favorite fabric in them.

Since I pieced this with 2 other ladies, I get to see a sample of their Thimbleberries collections. Some must have been designed right after Lynette Jensen got off the ark. I'm talkin' old.

Soon I'll post about my quilty bathroom. Curious??

~Joan

Maiden Stitches Made in New Quilt

Our family's schedule has gone to pot. Everyone is staying up way late and then subsequently sleeping in nearly daily. Except for my oldest son and one child per day who has to get up for work. I have somehow miraculously been getting up early most of those days. I have used the quiet, alone time to finish basting and then hand quilting my mystery quilt. Anyone think they know the pattern?

I am quilting across the HST and in the ditch going the other way, to form an "X" in each of those blocks. I am always interested in what designs others use for their hand quilting, so I'll be giving lots of details with each picture. I like to quilt as far as possible w/o starting in a new place. I also like to mark as little as possible. Just yesterday I ordered another Hera marker. The one I have has a sharp point on the non-marking end that (to me) makes it uncomfortable.

In the above picture, the dark green at the bottom is actually the top outer border. There is a 2" finished cream strip between each of the rows. At the top and bottom of the quilt are a row of HST flipped every other one so that the black (which pulls those rows together) is as shown. I have a perfect stencil for the cream. I used Mark-B-Gone to mark it and have quilted across halfway. I am going to remove those markings today. Then I decided to leave the cream rows for last so the Mark-B-Gone won't be on the quilt as long. My intention was to quilt it from top to bottom. Now that's been changed a smidge. I will skip the cream divider strips until the end.

This was a commercial pattern. I'm not sure if it's still available. I know I sold mine with a kit on eBay. One of the two ladies I made it with emailed me. She doesn't remember the date (other than a really long time ago). She hasn't yet completed the first quilt the 3 of us made together (the original Thimbleberries BOM kit, which I call the calendar quilt). Unfortunately, although I love the quilt, I did not make a label for it or even date it on my Web Shots page. If you want to see it, click on the Web Shots album link to the left. It's in the first album, which consists of my personal quilts.

I also quilted most of the first block of the row quilt last night. Pictures coming later. Hopefully taken with my camera which has spent the last 6-7 weeks vacationing in GA. I hope it comes in the mail today. This new camera is not only taking mostly-fuzzy pictures, but there are white spots on most of the shots. They look like semi-transparent perfectly round circles floating around that don't add to the pictures at all.

~Joan

New Kitchen Toy

Come on in and take a sniff. Here is a loaf of fresh-from-the-bread-machine cinnamon raisin bread. Or at least what's left of it. We had a couple over two nights ago for dinner. I served some dinner rolls that got lots of compliments. The guests assumed I made them from scratch (because we usually do). The ones I served were Sister Shubert's. They are so good, but they are expensive when feeding 10 regularly as we do. I knew I was going to be preparing the meal myself since my 3 oldest girls were all gone or out of commission. Translated: I needed all the help I could get.

But that meal got me thinking back to when home made dinner rolls were a staple on our dinner table. I went to a local thrift store looking for a small attractive table to use for an end table. We recently switched our living room furniture around, and a little table would be nice to have for beside our sofa. If you're wondering why the last 3 sentences are in the same paragraph, hold on!! While I was looking for a table, I saw a like-new bread machine. It was in pristine condition. Made me wonder if it ever had been used. It was just $10, so I got it. We've had bread machines in the past (4 if memory serves me correctly, which it rarely does). We had been given them all and gave them all away again (except for one I bought for a song on eBay--remember the memory thing...I suffer from short-term memory whatever-it-is).

So last night we made 2 consecutive loaves of cinnamon raisin bread to test drive the machine. Well, in reality, we made the first loaf to test-drive it. Since that loaf all but evaporated off our counter, I had Susanna make a second one. That's before that weird thing happened to her eyes. Her loaf also turned out perfect...and she's hooked on using the bread machine. There is an English muffin loaf in there right now, very near the end.

Must go do some really important stuff.

~Joan

Eagle Eyes

Susanna had fun making Eagle Eyes tonight. They are a wonderful candy treat. My aunt first made them for my family on a long-ago visit. You lay out the square "waffle" pretzels, put one Hershey kiss on them, and place them carefully in a 375-degree oven for a minute or so. Remove them and immediately push one M & M candy in the center, then let them cool. Yummy!

We were laughing insanely at this picture. To us it looked like instead of someone propping their eyes open with the proverbial toothpicks, they used pretzels.

We made these once with Hershey hugs, which were swirled milk and white chocolate. Those we dubbed "Zebra Eyeballs". We never had a name for these, but we put our heads together tonight and came up with Eagle Eyes. Now you can enjoy them, too.

Happy new year!

~Joan

Basting...It's a Quilt, Not a Turkey

To give you an idea of how long it's been since I basted a quilt for hand quilting, when I hear basting I think of a turkey, not a quilt. I was thinking ahead to a trip my family is making to PA in January. Not being one to waste time, I was wondering what I could work on in the van on the 10-12 hours on the way up there. I haven't been able to successfully hand quilt in the van or car because they don't ride smooth enough (and space is at a premium with 10 of us in there).

I am over halfway finished ripping out the machine quilting and replacing it with hand quilting on this quilt. I am so happy that I dove in and started that process. It has gone very quickly. I know I'll be pleased with it when it's finished. The further ripping out will continue on our road trip. That meant I needed another hand quilting project for NOW.

In the meantime, I have rediscovered the love of hand quilting (at the beginning of this year I hand quilted this piece of history). So I decided to pull out my oldest quilt top and hand quilt it. I never machine quilted it because I thought the machine quilting would distract from the piecing, which is so interesting. I will only show a small piece at a time of the quilt, just to keep your interest. Some of you might recognize the pattern. I'll tell you this much--it's a row quilt. Two of my friends and I each made one. We all made triplicate of 2 rows and swapped them so we all had all 6 of them. I can't remember what year we made it. It was at least 3 years ago, maybe much longer. I'm going to email the other ladies to see if either of them remember. We picked one cream to use for background and the rows inbetween the pieced rows. We also used only Thimbleberries fabric so they would all coordinate. What a fun way to make a quilt with a zillion different pieces in it! This is the second one we made together.

So the picture of the day is my milliner's needle (which is about 8" long), my really bright yellow thread I baste all my quilts with, and a small portion of the quilt. I have picked out a stencil for the cream "stripes" between the rows, so I am all set to start.

My headache finally went away yesterday. Thank you to those who prayed on my behalf. I was so relieved that I slept for 3 hours!!

We had a great time fellowshipping with some friends tonight and got to meet their oldest son (who is here visiting for Christmas--he's 30). Their youngest son turned 18 today, so we had them over for a little birthday get-together. They taught us a new word game, and we loved it.

~Joan

Most Thoughtful Daughter Ever!!

Look what my thoughtful, sweet, forward-thinking, lovely daughter, Elisabeth, got me for Christmas. The picture is terrible, and it needs cleaning (very dusty), but this wonderful gift is the base of an antique treadle Singer sewing machine. The table top made for it is way too modern. My DH suggested cutting off the legs of the antique table that had been sitting there and putting it on instead. Great idea (I think it was my idea, but he agreed to do it...you know, my inspiration and his perspiration).

Hope you all have a great holiday. I've had an industrious-sized headache for 5 days now. Make it go away! I am off to bed early.

~Joan

PS: an update...someone read this then wrote me to ask "what was the gift?", so I edited it some to clarify (I hope). Later that same day, my DH did indeed cut the legs off my former foyer table and attach it to the top of the sewing machine base. It looks marvelous. I'll try to post a picture soon.

More good news...my BIL found our camera at his house and is sending it to me. It has been MIA for over a month!! Yippee!

It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's a...

Pizzelle.

It rhymes with gazelle.

Making pizzelles is one of our family Christmas traditions. We get the pizzelle iron out the day we put up our Christmas tree and decorations. The traditional flavor is anise (black licorice), but we always make them with vanilla.

Below is the pizzelle iron. It is similar to a waffle iron. You put a dollop of batter on each side and clamp it shut. About 45-60 seconds later, two pizzelles are ready to cool.

Our pizzelle iron has done this since we got it...the one on the right always sticks to the lid and the one on the left always stays on the bottom. Once it's "baked", you just transfer it to a cooling rack, then stack them up. They are somewhat fragile. They don't last very long around here. Emily will be making another batch today to take to a friend's house. Mmm-mmm.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas. Remember the birth of Jesus as we celebrate this special day.

~Joan