Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all.  I hope everyone had a wonderful day.  DH and I spent the day being just kind of lazy.  Grocery store run, a couple of movies, a nap, some cooking.

DH made breakfast, he doesn't like my eggs.  He made lunch, 1904 hot dogs, and dinner.  What did I do?  I made sweet cheese filling for pierogis.  Sweet cheese is made of farmer's cheese.  I found farmer's cheese at a local market, but they only sell it in 3 lb packages.  Which means I have a lot of sweet cheese.  It will hold for a few days luckily.  So I hunted for a recipe for pierogi dough.  I read that the best dough does not use eggs, but does use hot milk and water.  I finally found a recipe so I made it for a test run. 

My result:

DH says they are good so I can now be an honorary Pollock.  Not bad for a little Native American, Italian, Hispanic girl from the west coast.  :D

First Attempts

I got my room put back together.  Added another page to my blog with all of my UFO's and pictures to boot!

The black bin is what holds my cross stitch, some craft stuff and sewing patterns.  The others were what DH brought home.  Each big drawer will hold a BOM which has not been started.  The smaller drawers were great to put acrylic templates in.  One drawer is for my wool.  I still have room to spare.

The black rack was moved and reconfigured and extra stash was put in.  The serger that I was given place on the bottom shelf.  Someday I will pull it out and figure out how to use it.

DH question why didn't you put the rack in the closet?  Um because there are sewing machine cases, a roll of batting, and some other bins of fabric in there. 

I did finish my father's day gift for DH.

I got one corner of my binding kind of wonky but it turned out cute overall.   Loved using up the old yellow gingham that has been hanging out in my scrap bin for years as the binding. 

I played with the dresden plate ruler, and the timeless treasures printable fabric.  I think DH will love it.  Most definitely going to make another Dresden soon.  Just with bigger fan blades these were teeny tiny 2 1/2 inch ones. 

Off to work on a UFO.  Hmmm so many to choose from. 

Curved templates and a New Tool

I don't know about you, but I love quilts with curves.  Wheel of Mystery, Drunkard's Path, apple core just to name a few.  I really wanted to do a drunkard's path in red and white, and I even bought this cute acrylic set years ago.

Amazing what you will find when you clean up your space.  This is supposed to make a 3" block section.  When pieced together should make a 12 inch block.  Anyway the set in seams were not really thrilling my soul.  Then I saw this little gem and watched the demonstration one day.

It is called the Curve Master Presser foot.  It comes with extra shanks depending on the type of machine you have.  As you can kind of see I am using it on my Singer 301 which is a slant needle.  When I put it on at first it looked a bit weird, kind of leaning.  But I thought what the hay.

I took my template and cut out my blocks.  4 red, 4 white and read the instructions with the curve master.

Start with the presser foot, and needle down, slip in your fabrics right sides together with the top edges matching.

Take a couple of stitches, then hold the top part up and make sure that your bottom piece is on the 1/4 inch mark and start sewing.  The foot will actually make the pieces fit together without pinning.  When you get close to the end use a pair of tweezers to help guide the top piece on through.

Here are two completed pieces.  Easy peasy now I can make a drunkard's path quilt.

Finds, Rearranging, and UFO's!

Did I mention that my DH works for a municipality?  Anyway there is a "garbage pit" where residents bring things to dump into a huge dumpster.  These could be things found in houses during clean outs after repossessions, discards from yard and estate sales, and business discards.

What has he brought home?

Several wooden ladders.

The bottom ladder is my favorite.  It actually folds into 4 pieces.  I want to finish them, but am unsure what to do exactly to finish, but keep the weathered look.  I want to use these to hang my quilts.

 A pair of wire ice cream parlor chairs.  I want to use them in the sun room but am looking for the perfect table to put out there too.

This nifty rack which I use to stage strips on blocks I am working on.

The latest find was this set of plastic drawer/bins.

One has a crack but I think that I can manage and maybe get control of my UFO's and kits.

So I tackled my sewing room which now looks like a whirlwind went through it.  So I could make room to put the bins in the room, and rearrange. 

I have a Stars over Bali BOM which I have never worked on.  I love Bali batiks so I will most definitely work on this one. 

I have all the blocks made from this BOM from a store called Ben Franklin Crafts which later became Craft Warehouse.  I have all the sashing, and corner stone pattern and fabrics too.  Most definitely a UFO which needs to be completed.

Sorry for the terrible picture.  Another BOM from Craft Warehouse I have 4 of the blocks completed.  I love them.

So country and so me.  I definitely need to finish this one.

I have a McKenna Ryan pattern and kit with Chickadees that I have never touched.

And this yummy pumpkin applique row quilt which I had as a BOM.   I hadn't done applique before so I was very reticent to start it. 

I also found this 3 inch square drunkards path acrylic template set. I want to make a drunkards path in red and white.

An Apple core template and fabric

And this super cute embroidery pattern from bare roots which I have had for years.

I also found a huge bag of bali batiks that I have set aside for a wheel of mystery quilt, and 3 different sizes of acrylic templates, and a big stack of fabric that I had dug out to start a Hexie quilt. 

At this point in time I need to clean my bins, figure out how to contain the projects.  What was I thinking.  Doing all of this in the middle of making a Father's Day gift for my super cute, sweet DH?  One set of bins cleaned, and 3 more to go. 

Have You Ever??????

Good Thursday morning!  Can you believe this week is almost over, and it is almost the 15th.  On the 15th "The Finn" gets to eat some solid food, well rice cereal. 

Also it is Father's Day weekend.  I don't know if you have this conundrum or not around your home, but what do you do on Father's Day when all the kids are grown up?  Technically they are still dads, and  grandfather's but then the daughters marry or have significant others and maybe those dad's want to do something else so it is not always easy to get everyone together on the same page to do something.

Anyway I wanted to make something for my DH for Father's Day which was quilty.  I decided I wanted to make a mug rug for him to replace the mesh canvas ones that his momma made him.

While they are extremely cute they are a hot mess as my boys call them.  DH nurses coffee all evening long, and the coasters are kind of the worse for wear so I thought I would make a mug rug, something bigger, that can get thrown into the washer when I can no longer stand it.  (Wow don't misunderstand me I love the canvas needlepoint ones) .

OK so I need to pull my foot out of my mouth and move on.  Anyway I stopped at Joann's yesterday on my way home from work, and bought some goodies.

Some fabric which I think will go well with what I have pulled out of my stash, some sulky thread for quilting, more safety pins for pin basting....do you think you have too many UFO's if you need to buy more pins to pin baste another quilt?  Printed treasures printer fabric.  I read a lot of reviews and it seems that this is the one that holds up the best and at 50% off it wasn't too expensive for 5 sheets. 

So my question is have you ever used this to add into a quilt?  Any tips or hints? 

DH is a John Deere tractor fan.  In fact I indulge his passion by going to the tractor shows with him, there was one just this past weekend. (He indulges mine by going to quilt shows with me.) He actually likes to find the antique tractors and restore them back to original.  He has finished 3, and has two more in the works in the barn, and a donor tractor carcass.  Hence the barn!  This is a picture of one of the tractors he restored.  I think it is a John Deere 1936 B Unstyled.

DH with his daddy many years ago after he finished his tractor.  DH no longer owns this tractor, I am not too sure if this is the one he donated to a church or the one he sold for his oldest daughter's wedding, and his daddy passed away years ago long before I ever came along.  The picture is fading, the frame was cheap and the glass has been broken on it.....which gives me a wonderful idea!  Anyway I was thinking of taking this picture and touching it up and printing it for my mug rug.  Hmmm I want this to be a surprise and technically I have only 2 days so I need to get stitching. 

What are your plans for Father's Day? 

The Waiting Game

Happy Tuesday and welcome to the world Pablo!  Finally you made an appearance.  I am waiting to see pictures of you and hear more details than that you tipped the scales at 10 lbs 4 oz.

Living far away from your family is very difficult at times.  My baby brother and his gorgeous wife had a baby boy today.  Finally!  We have been waiting for baby Pablo to make an appearance.  I received a call from my mother at 11:00 am my time that he was here and how much he weighed, but they did not have a any further information.  So while I was waiting. 

I finished a project for the "Put a Stamp On It" blog hop which runs from June 26 thru July 3.  July 3rd is my day!  I am so excited.  I jumped into the deep end of the pool and decided to join.  






I then wandered out to my garden and I had these.

My little strawberry patchling? patchette? which is made up of 3 plants grew these.  Aren't they yummy looking.  I had ordered plants last year, but the weather was so yucky that I could not get them into the ground fast enough, and so they died.  The three plants that I had were from my MIL.  She has a bunch of them growing along her garage and she wanted them cleaned back to within a bricked in planting bed.  It needs to be done again this year so I will do it again and add to my strawberry patch. 

I needed to work on machine quilting, and another project I have planned and I got distracted.  Does that ever happen to you?  I got distracted watching a TV show called Copper.  I found it on Netflix it is aired on BBC America.  Why is it that BBC America seems to have some of the best shows lately? 

Once I decided to get going I started making some Dresden Plate fans.  I had to watch a tutorial on how to make them first.  Thank goodness for YouTube, and Missouri Star Quilts!   I weeded through my stash.

Yeah my cutting area needs to be straightened.  Paper piecing, selvedges, and life has gotten out of hand.  I work tomorrow a double shift, but then I am off until next Monday so I will make sure I take time to straighten up.  See my little Dresden Plate blades?  Well I got them all sewn and realized that I kind of did an uh oh.

See that 5th blade from the right?  Yeah it is sewn inside out.  Oh well that is what the ripper is for.  I am feeling really distracted today.  I want to make a drunkard's path quilt and I know that I have a acrylic template that I purchased years ago which I would like to use.  I also have a special sewing machine quilt which is supposed to help do curves without pinning that I am itching to use. 

Have a great evening. 

Little Bites

It's Saturday Sharing Day!  


I share a 150 year old farmhouse on 5+ acres of land with my DH.  He purchased the house 20+ years ago.  It has had some updates but they are not always logical in my mind.

Example1:

Kitchen sink which looks at a wall.  The dishwasher right beside it (good) but the only cabinets large enough to put away the drinking glasses, plates, and bowls directly over the dishwasher.  Oh did I mention the dishwasher is near the corner that wraps around to the stove?  There is a counter top directly opposite with an eating bar which doglegs so it actually makes this space really tiny.

Not a well thought out design.  We are in the process of deciding on what to do with the whole thing.  Lots of different ideas flowing and some acquisitions are taking place to get it working.
Example 2

Front porch with no roof which runs the width of the house and is 20 feet wide.  The front steps which went off the front ended about 15 feet from the road. The road is very busy, the state decided a few years ago to make it a state road, and therefore big trucks, and everyone and their dog races down the road at 50+ mph.  Oh and no one ever uses  the front porch. (insert puzzled face here)

Last year I convinced DH to at least cut it back to the first set of posts going across.  It is still about 8 feet wide, but at least it is not at the road, and we planted a hedge using some of the plants which were dispersed willy nilly about the property, and I added in a bunch of boxwoods.

Yes my hedge does not look impressive but I needed at least 10 and they are quite expensive so I purchased some on ebay-  10 for $15.  They arrived and they looked like a stick with some leaves.  They have grown quite well this past year.  Now they are officially stick bunches with lots of leaves.  LOL

Oh and meet the house or as I like to call it "The Fortress of Solitude."  Not very welcoming is it?  She needs a paint job, the porch needs to be finished and a roof added to it.  I think some shutters to break up the huge facade.

You get the picture.  Huge house, needs lots of work inside, and out, lots of land which has not been used in years.  Anyway with my crazy work schedule, and the elderly family members which seem to need a lot of attention things get started, then stop.  I decided that I would start doing things in small bites.  That way it doesn't look quite so ominous and overwhelming.

My Berry patch.  Yes there are actually 5 raspberry plants, 3 blackberry plants, and 2 blueberry plants in this patch of weeds.

Last year I put a bunch of plants in but the weather really was not helpful and I lost half of my berry plants.  The land has sat overgrown with weeds for a long time so the fact that I actually started a berry patch, and an orchard surprised everyone, and it will take a lot of work, but they actually have a lot of blooms and berries ripening.  Oh my!

I actually weeded all around them today about 1 foot around each plant.  Maybe later today I will go out and weed around them some more.  I did not take my gloves or wagon the first go around so I can get them picked up and handle the thistle which is grown all over too.  

The ugly mint green wallpaper with the floral border in the dining room.  I decided that I would do about 1 panel or devote 1 hour a day to it.  This is what I finished today.  Not too bad.  Yes I know a paper tiger and wall paper steamer would do wonders but I have a huge dining room it is 15 X 20 and the wall paper has a vinyl type coating so I wold rather do a little bit at a time than tackle the whole room at once.

Machine quilting a big quilt on a domestic machine

This is the first block I started. I worked on it for about an hour then decided that instead of getting tired or bored with it I would go an do something else.

I have some design ideas floating around in my wee head and so I am going to go work on those for a while then maybe back to the garden or something else.

I know long post, and kind of rambling, but my point is that for me all of these tasks are easier to deal with and life is a bit more enjoyable if I take small bites out of the projects at a time instead of trying to get it all completed at once.  That way I don't feel like other things are suffering, and I actually do get a lot accomplished this way.  Oh by the way--

It's Saturday Sharing day over at Pigtales & Quilts.  Go over and link up and share what you have accomplished this week. Everyone needs to give themselves a little pat on the back for their accomplishments.