Seeds of Kindness

Here is my apple core quilt as of yesterday. Many of you know I usually hand sew or quilt in the car for about 2 hours on Fridays. Not to be yesterday. I did attach 2 more horizontal rows that had been pieced earlier.

We have adopted some of the college guys at our church. The college is directly across the street from the violin lesson house. I usually park in the lot there and the boys take turns having lessons. Well, yesterday started spring break, so there wasn't a soul except for the bookstore lady in there. Both boys were disappointed that there wasn't anyone to play pingpong with, so I did the good Mom thing and played pingpong with them instead of hand sewing. I beat boy #1 soundly (even though it's been probably 23-25 years since I've even played a game!). Boy #2 thought it was hilarious until I beat him the same score, 21-3. Not so funny now, is it big guy?

I think I'll just show my apple core quilt every week so you can see the progress. News flash***the quilt will have a new name from henceforth and forevermore. I was thinking about names for quilts the other night when I stayed up so late working on Plan B (which might be Plan B, C, oh, make that D).

I had just asked for donations of scraps for my apple core quilt. I have 9 ladies who have promised to send me pieces. The truly incredible thing is that this is the first time I've "talked" to 7 of them!! I was overwhelmed with the generosity.

Since apple core makes me think of the browning, smelly, slightly repulsive remnants of what used to be something good, I am going to give this quilt a name which will make me think of the generosity and friendship I have discovered since I started blogging. The new name is (drum roll, please)...Seeds of Kindness (apple seeds, naturally). What do you think? Isn't that better??

The quilt is NOT going to Minnie Pearl. The paper pinned to the upper right corner is very small and simply reads "upper right corner". After piddling around and getting all the colors just where I want them, how tragic it would be to sew a row on the wrong side and have two blues touching!!

These lovely pieces arrived in the mail from Eileen today. Saturday's mail is usually horrendous. A few junk mail flyers on a good day. But today, I received a lovely packet of fabrics from Eileen. I just had to sit right down and cut them out. I even unpinned and unlaid my next couple rows so I could work a few of these in. In the very front is my template. It's neat because I can mark the sewing line and cutting line at the same time. It's by Brandy's. Many thanks to Eileen for her Seeds of Kindness. Look for your fabrics in a quilt near you next week :)

~Joan

Surprise Seeds of Kindness Packet

These beautiful bundles arrived in the mail today. On the left is a bunch (it looks like 25 or more) of the Subtle Solids. On the right are 5" charms from the new Lodge line from Thimbleberries. These are from an e-friend that has purchased many an item from me on eBay. She (Diane) just recently started reading my blog and asked about my Seeds of Kindness quilt. I have greatly enjoyed getting to know her. I think our husbands would miss us if we lived close together. Blogging has opened up a whole new world of e- and b-friends to me. The e-friends are those I met through email. B-friends are ones I met through blogging. Of course, b-friends become e-friends. While shopping for some note cards today, I saw some items I will need to get before my new b-friend, Lisa, visits from Hawaii (everyone has to live somewhere). Sorry the pictures are so small. Luke took them with his PDA camera card. This is as large as I could get them.

So, just let me know when you're coming, Lisa! Maybe I can even sew some of my azalea blooms into a lei for you. Just a few months ago I never would have thought of Lisa when I saw these:


We have napkins in a variety of colors at the top and shirt plates at the bottom (shirts for very small people, I might add).

Speaking of Seeds of Kindness, I have been delinquent in mailing fabric back to MOST of my contributors. I have been so busy that I thought I drove up behind myself on interstate 74 today. I have been nearly living in the car. I have not sewn one stitch today. I have plans though. I hope to get the thank yous & fabric into the mail at the beginning of next week.

~Joan

Seeds of Kindness 4-26

Above is my Seeds of Kindness thus far. The bottom picture has a close-up of the "famous" Thimbleberries apple print. I would love to get enough of that for the back. Wouldn't that be neat?

If you're a new reader, you can click here and here for the story of my Seeds of Kindness charm quilt. The name was changed to protect the innocent!

If you want to contribute fabrics, I am using only non-cream Thimbleberries. New or vintage--either is fine. A 4" x 5" rectangle will be just right for one charm. I will send you back cream Thimbleberries (one large piece of several smaller ones) equal to what you send me. Be a part of history!

~Joan

Seeds of Kindness Progress Report

Here is my Seeds of Kindness progress picture. It doesn't look like much, but it is growing. I added on the left and bottom rows. It now measures 21" x 23" now. With the addition of my new pieces...

It will be five times this large. Here are the 205 pieces cut out and ready to add on. The adding on will take lots of time. I hope none of you are bored to tears hearing about this for the foreseeable future. I will only post a picture of the quilt once a week as an update.

If you just started reading my blog and wonder what in the world is going on, several ladies have donated 4" x 5" pieces to further my Thimbleberries charm quilt. It is an apple core quilt that I'm calling Seeds of Kindness.

Have a great day!

~Joan

More Seeds of Kindness

Another new b-friend, Karen, graciously sent me 42 pieces of Thimbleberries (with only ONE repeat from my previous collection--isn't that amazing?) for my Seeds of Kindness quilt and some extras. She included a recipe for chocolate chip apple cake, the travel-sized Kleenex cover (front right--made from TB, how thoughtful!), and six flower-topped spool/bobbin organizers (and daisies are my favorite flower!). She sells on eBay as "sewmanyways". Back to more commercial-free reading.

I have been overwhelmed with the first 4 contributions towards my Seeds of Kindness quilt. I have cut every single piece from the template. So now all I lack is lots of time. I am slowly making progress on it. Keep in mind that it's all hand-cut and hand-pieced.

Have a great quilty day, and cheer someone up!

~Joan

{Post #806} Vegan and Seeds of Kindness

Our menu for today:

Breakfast:  same as yesterday...oatmeal with apples, raisins, and cinnamon.  This is truly delicious.  Wes peeled the apples today, which was a major improvement to ME.

Lunch:  left overs from yesterday (pasta with marinara sauce, new steamed veggies or veggie stew over rice) with the addition of trying a new fruit...mango.  We all liked it but would never crave it.  We (with the exception of my husband) are not new-food tryers, so this was impressive. 

Supper:  Speedy International Stew.  This was a matter of opening 4 cans and dumping them in a saucepan and heating them 5 minutes.  But it.  was.  so.  good...2 cans of Italian-flavored stewed tomatoes, 1 can of whole kernel corn, rinsed, and 1 can of black beans, rinsed.  We also had sweet potato fries which were just raw sweet potatoes scrubbed and cut for fries and baked in a 450 oven for 30 minutes on parchment paper, covered with foil for the first 15 minutes.  They were decadent.  Soooo good.  Will make more next time.

I bought 4 full grocery bags of fruits and veggies at Aldi today and only spent $26.  Then I did some more shopping at Wal-mart.  I was impressed with the small amount I paid for things (even buying some things out of season).  Not buying meat, butter, milk, and cheese might be less expensive after all.

Of course I'm already thinking about tilling up the whole back yard for a garden next spring.  Just kidding...I think!

The thing about eating this way is that because one is not ingesting tons of salt, sugar, and fat, everything has much more potent flavors.  Oh, yeah...delicious.

The kids still have sterling attitudes about all we're doing, and that makes it so much more pleasant.  I am striving to have some variety so we don't keep eating the same old things.

I had to take Rachel to her piano lesson today, so I got some hand quilting time in.  The Seeds of Kindness quilt has only 11 more rows of hand quilting, plus the 7/8 of the border.  Yippee!!

~Joan

{Post #798} Seeds of Kindness 3/4 Hand Quilted

I read something really funny on someone else's blog today.  Made me feel all organized and together.  Ha ha ha...

It had to do with hand quilting, in case you're wondering about the relevance...

"This week I had a delightful addition to my morning ritual. After my typical activities (pawing through the basket of clean laundry for my clothes and running to the bus stop with wet hair), I tried a little hand quilting on my way to work."

If I quilt in my spare time this next couple of weeks instead of starting new projects, this might really happen!!

If you have just recently started reading my blog, let me introduce you to my baby, my pride and joy, my hand-cut, hand-pieced, and 3/4 hand-quilted labor of love...

My Seeds of Kindness quilt.  You can read all about its history here.  This picture shows it lying on top of my queen-sized bed.  See the spool of gold thread and the little piece of white ribbon near the bottom in the center? 

There is it...I have quilted on both sides of the core going horizontally as it lies, and from the left side all the way over to the spool.  So you can see I have about half of the quilt (the right half) to quilt one direction.  I also have about 1/8 of the border quilted.  I plan to devote my hand quilting time to this project until it is finished.  Stop laughing!  I mean it.

I use the safety-pinned ribbon to mark my place when I get to the end of a thread.  It used to take me 10 minutes or more to find where I left off quilting.  Now I just hunt for the ribbon.  Much faster!

Elisabeth has started taking piano from Rachel's piano/violin teacher.  The interpretation of that is I don't need to be there since E can drive herself and R there.  That means I have at least 2 more free hours on Mondays.  I think I'll just hand quilt while I wait for my laundry to need processing! 

My machine (Janome) is still at the shop.  Just got off the phone with the repairman.  Sounds like he hasn't even looked at it yet.  Yikes!!

~Joan

It Is Finished...at Least The Piecing

Now the real fun begins. My Seeds of Kindness quilt has finally been finished...the piecing anyway. Five hundred twenty-five apple core pieces with just a few repeats. I have also turned the edge under 1/4" and hand basted it down. The next step is to see what would be the best way to use the fabric for borders for appliqueing the wavy edge down, backing, and binding. I have a six-yard piece of apple print fabric, so I want to use it the best way possible. Susanna has already said she'd hand baste it for me so I can hand quilt it. It measures 58.5" x 70" right now. I want to put a 4" border all around to make the edges straight rather than wavy. Like I did with this Grandmother's Flower Garden runner.

Speaking of gardens, I weeded and raked for a couple hours today. I'm feeling it tonight, too! I usually get sick because of seasonal allergies after being outside for more than an hour or so. My delight in the task was hindered by the allergy mask I wore. It made it very hot, and my glasses kept getting steamed up. I'm about halfway finished with the chore. I had three 5-quart buckets FULL of onion grass. At least that was nipped in the bud. Tomorrow I hope to tackle the half-circle bed around our mailbox. We've had so much rain the past few days that the weeds come out with very little encouragement.

I was so encouraged and excited to see baby shoots on my hydrangea bush. A dear elderly lady in my church gave it to me last year. It had the most fantastic blooms. Bright PINK! When I cleared the leaves away from its base, I saw that the old dead wood was GREEN under the outer flaky bark and there are new shoots coming up in the center. Aahhhh...green!!

My lovely assistant, Rachel, with a new short haircut...



I hope to get my figuring finished for the borders and have the hand applique well started on this by tomorrow night. My enthusiasm for this quilt has not wavered. It was just dormant for a while. Like my hydrangea bush!

Someone made a comment lately (a non-quilter, as if that isn't obvious). I was working on my Seeds of Kindness and she asked, "Didn't you just make a quilt?" My family members who overheard just kind of rolled their eyes a little as if to say, "Does that matter?" It made me think of one of my favorite quilt quotes. It's by Alice Berg, one of the owners of Little Quilts..."..."Making a quilt is like giving birth...You're excited when you buy the stuff, then halfway through you think, 'What have I done?' but by the last stitch, you're already thinking about the next one." If that doesn't describe ME in babies and quilts, I don't know what does.

Good night!

~Joan

Seed Success

My Seeds of Kindness quilt (hand-cut and hand-pieced) as of 10 minutes ago. It is now 18 rows by 18 rows (that's 324 cores so far). While it was laid out on the floor of the porch, I planned 2 more rows. The cores I have cut out that are as-of-yet unused are all greens, reds, and golds. If you could donate some blacks, blues, purples, and oranges, I'd be so grateful. This is the screened-in porch where I stitched this AM. Since everyone (except for me) has been staying up w-a-a-a-a-y late, I am usually the first and only one up for a while. In a few hours it will be too hot for me to be out there. Now it's only 70 degrees.

I continue to be amazed at how flat the Seeds of Kindness quilt is staying. This is my first hand-pieced project, and I've been told that this is a difficult shape. I am stitching one set of cores together, flipping the quilt so that the "smile" side is facing me. So every other set, I have to flip the quilt around. It makes a much flatter seam. I picked up that trick from Shar somebody on www.quilterstv.com. We don't have a TV at home, so I'm not familiar with all these folks' names. I think her quilt is called Apple Cider.

My DH is taking the girls to the lake today. That means the boys will be here playing video games, swimming, eating, more swimming, watching movies, etc. I get to be chief cook and bottle washer for them today.

Hope your day is a blessed one.

~Joan

Where in the World is Joanie Appleseed?

I've had very little sewing time this week, and I'm developing a twitch in my right eye because of it. I miss sewing! What little time I had I devoted to finishing this so I can get it up on the wall.

In addition to little time, I squeezed in one Pay It Forward gift. Turned out really cute, too. I'll post about that after the recipient receives it! I need one more participant for the PIF challenge. Write today!

This apple quilt is a pattern from an old Fons & Porter book. I think the book is called Quick Quilts. It was one of the first quilt books I owned. I made 4 of the quilts in it! I made one of these years ago and gave it to our pastor's wife. She decorates with apples in her kitchen. Anyway, my daughter made a set of blocks, intending to sell the top on eBay. I decided I needed to replace my other apple quilt, so I confiscated them. But the original (with 18 blocks) was too large. I made the other 5 blocks into a smaller top to sell.

This one was machine quilted in the cream and in the outer border. For the ultra curious like myself, I used invisible thread in the outer border and a variegated cream in the cream.

At that point I set it aside because I wanted to hand quilt apples in the setting triangles like I did in my original quilt. So I am in the process of doing that. This is about 39" square.

In this quilt, the top left apple and the 2 in the second row have not been quilted with seeds. Only a few setting triangles are quilted.

Here is my template for the apples...it was the pattern from the quilt book. I traced it on the setting triangles (only a few are stitched in the picture above) and am hand quilting with dark brown thread. The pencil I use is a "General's Pastel Chalk" in a light grey. It brushes off easily with no trace, but stays put enough to do the quilting.
Below is my "seed template". The apples were too puffy, but I didn't want to heavily quilt them because of all the seams. So I used a piece of a plastic folder and drew the seeds below. The dot is where the intersection of the 9-patch seams are, and the straight line is where the template lines up with the edge of the apple. After I do the right side (designated by the R), I flip it over and mark the left side. The scratched out line is the line I drew by mistake. Very professional, huh? It works for me. I laid the template on a (clean) facial tissue so you could see it in the picture.
I'll post about the Seeds of Kindness booboo and further updates later

~Joan

Happy Mail Day

When I arrived home from piano/violin lessons (not given simultaneously--I'm not that cheap), I was pleasantly surprised to see yet another packet of charms for my Seeds of Kindness quilt. Caryn sent the above selection of beautiful Thimbleberries prints. Looks like I have more cutting to do. Yippee!

I won't be posting tomorrow, so I'm going to show my Seeds of Kindness progress for this week. The bottom row is not attached to the quilt, but it is sewn together.

It continues to grow.

Till next time,

~Joan

Seeds of Kindness 3-22

Here is an update for this week on the Seeds of Kindness. It has exactly 100 pieces and measures ONLY 28" square. I'd like to make it over 4 times this big, so I need more pieces of Thimbleberries fabrics 4" x 5". If the spirit moves you, feel free to make a donation! I'd like to make this a charm quilt and keep it for myself.

We're expecting a family of 9 any minute, so I need to put last second touches on the meal. Toodles

~Joan

{Post #853} Photo Shoot of Seeds of Kindness

Well, here it is.  The final pictures of my Seeds of Kindness quilt.  The sun/shadows made it difficult to get a fantastic picture, but these are acceptable.  The second one shows the quiltiness after washing and drying.  It's a keeper!!  There are 525 apple core shapes with only a few repeats.

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday.  Remember to Whom one owes gratitude.  So thankful for my heavenly Father and the many blessings He has bestowed on me.

~Joan

An Apple A Day...

Above is an up-to-the-minute picture of my Seeds of Kindness quilt. I've sewn on it in the last few days. Plus, I've finished cutting out all my donation pieces. In case you just started reading my blog...this is an apple core charm quilt. I threw all dignity aside some time ago and begged for scraps from others. Not just any scraps. I am a scrap snob for this quilt. Only Thimbleberries (new or vintage) will do.

If you click on "seeds of kindness" at the bottom of the post, Blogger will bring up all the posts on this project. It truly is growing. I remember way back when it was 4 lonely apple cores, and look at my baby now! Eighteen rows by 16 rows, and more to come! This is about 52" wide and a little shorter.

I think it's looking great. If you're afraid to make a scrap quilt, study this and others carefully. Notice that the extreme darks and lights are spread out over the quilt? That keeps you from looking at the dark (or light) blob and wondering why they are so attention-getting. I even have a few huge florals, but they don't call attention to themselves because they are far away from their friends!

Donations are still welcome. Your scrap needs to be at least 4" x 5". Email me for details!

The farthest right column is not sewn all the way down. It's a little less than halfway.

~Joan

Apple Core Quilt Update

Here is my apple core quilt, Seeds of Kindness. I've had people ask how it's coming along. It was started a couple years ago. I don't have as much time to hand cut and piece as I did when I started it. That's why the progress is languishing. This measures about 50" x 60" now. I am going to add three more rows and call it quits. Click on the label "seeds of kindness" below this post to bring up all the past posts on it. Amen.

~Joan

4-18 Seeds of Kindness

If you can't tell the difference in my Seeds of Kindness quilt top as it grows, compare the pictures closely and see that the pieces are getting smaller because there are more pieces in the picture! Voila!

~Joan

Hand Basting That Curvy Edge

I have decided to draw my Seeds of Kindness quilt to a close. I guess this type of thing could go on and on. There is one last vertical row pieced to add to the body of the quilt. I have cut out enough apple core blocks for two or three more horizontal (the shorter) rows, which I shall also add.



Since I had some significant car time Wednesday night, I took this along and started basting the outer edge under 1/4". I plan to applique it to a rectangle of fabric, then hand quilt it. This is a lot of progress. Once my car time depleted a year ago, it was difficult to make time to work on this little gem.



Speaking of little gems...





This is what I had on the design wall as of last night. Forty-eight light Bull's Eye blocks. Remember, this is a project made of left over circles from my larger 3-circle original Bull's Eye quilt. I have webbed the first three blocks together already, which puts me half way through the webbing of the units. This might get put together this weekend...and it might NOT!



My oldest daughter's spring break sort of starts today. She has a friend staying for the week, so I'm not sure how my spare time is going to play out.



Hope you enjoy today and get to put a few stitches in something that makes you happy.



~Joan

Two More Anticipated SOK Packets Arrive

When I originally humiliated myself by begging, er, I mean asking for your Thimbleberries scraps for my Seeds of Kindness charm quilt, I didn't think I'd get much of a response. Oh, me of little faith! Before today, I received over 200 different pieces.

This AM was spent at the dentist. I am getting a crown. No, I didn't win the Mrs. America contest. Those days are gone. Long gone. I took a picture of my temporary crown, but it was lifesized, and frankly disgusting. Only my dear dentist has looked that closely into my open mouth! He put the temporary crown on today. I go back in 3 weeks for the real deal. Expen$ive!!

My two oldest boys went with me for their semi-annual dental cleanings.

To add insult to injury, I went shopping for shoes after bringing the boys back home. I can't think of much I like less than shopping. The shoes I'm replacing are at least 15 years old. I think I can get another year out of them! They are black dress shoes. Not only are the styles outrageous, the prices sent me into shock! After some deep breathing I was just fine.

To add a bright spot to my day, on one of my calls home, my WH informed me that two more seed packets had arrived. One was 10 pieces and 2 lovely self-published patterns from my new dear b-friend, Marcie, and another air mail pack with lots of pieces (I think 40+) from a new cohort, Cathi in Canada (hi to all Canucks reading).

Note to self: do not take picture of Thimbleberries fabrics on top of quilt made from Thimbleberries fabrics. Duly noted.

~Joan

{#759} Painting Pics

Here is my beautiful finished wall.  It probably doesn't look like much since you're not used to see it peeling off.  The box between the piano and my cutting table houses my quilts to be hand quilted.  The two of them have been there for quite a while!  Seeds of Kindness and "Highway Hearts".

My husband and three of my children are taking their turn to make a trip to Ohio.  Remember I took 3 kids last month?  It didn't work out with our crazy summer traveling schedules to all go together.  We thought it would be a better visit with two groups of 4 rather than one of 8. 

Below is the famous pull-out trash door that I mentioned yesterday.  It is one of the doors that (badly) needs painting.  The holes where the handle was originally were filled with wood putty.  You can see where the paint is chipped away from people gouging it violently with their talons when they opened the door, I guess.  That's the only logical explanation.



I have a multitude of projects to finish before Emily's wedding, August 13.  The reason for mentioning the trip to OH and the door above is to bring up my new favorite words..."Send the cabinet doors and the paint up, and I'll sand and have them painted for you."  My dad said that to me last night on the phone.  Glory, hallelujah!!  If I would have had the energy, I would have jumped up and clicked my heels together.  Emily promptly removed 10 doors and loaded them in the Pilot.  What a relief.  Suddenly, the rest of my projects look doable.

I take Susie to the airport crazy early tomorrow AM.  We are leaving here at 5:30, which means I'll be getting up at 5:29.  I hope it's not one of those nights where I keep thinking I'm sleeping in and wake up to check every 30 minutes.

I have another nearly-finished quilt over on my secret blog.  Hop on over there if you know where to find it!

~Joan

{Post #848} New Group and SOK Progress

Rachel met a woman at the craft show last week that invited her to a "sit and knit" group that meets at a local church on Tuesday nights.  Since R doesn't drive (not many 13-year-olds do), I drove her over and took my Apple Core/Seeds of Kindness quilt to hand quilt while we were there.  We enjoyed lots of conversation and got some handwork done, too.  It was a really fun time.  I am about halfway finished.  I was going to edit a picture, but it won't upload for some reason.

Rachel is knitting a scarf with a snowflake motif in it that she designed herself.  She is a knifty knitter...so fast and accurate. 

My log cabin quilt center is complete.  It is 43" square.  I am considering adding a very small border as a frame, possibly 1-1/2" finished.  I will need to measure the wall where it will be hung tomorrow and see if that will make it too large.  Here it is...I love it!

Also finished my I Spy quilt center for now.  This will make it easy to see if I already have a particular fabric in it.  I only have a limited amount of the blues (which is unusual since I'm usually not threatened with running out of a fabric because my quilts are scrappy and I'm cutting off bolts).  I had what I thought was a great idea for adding the sashing and cornerstones to the 4-1/2" blocks, but I now think that the old-fashioned way is best.  Here is one block.  I added a plain blue strip to the right of every block.  Those were ironed out.  Then I added a light blue strip with a dark blue square on the end.  Every block had strips on two sides.  It went fine, but I wouldn't do it that way again.

Here is one block...

A close-up of two of my favorite sections...



The whole thing...so far.  This is 32" x 43".  Once I get my cutting table cleaned off, I will cut up a bunch more of my I Spy fabric collection.

Hello to my new friend, Barbara, from Sit & Knit!  She said she'd look at my blog soon.  Hope she does!

~Joan