Shopping, Baking and stitching

Today I worked and of course I had to buy some fabrics... Came home with this bundle of solids and a yellow dot, plus some Dr. Seuss.

I'm working on a Dr. Seuss hexagon quilt and decided I needed a little bit of a dot in it... that's the yellow...PLUS, the back is going to be split into two and then I'll strip piece all my scraps to make a vertical row down the center. I'll add these big squares of Dr. Seuss in with the strips.

Here's the cookies I was baking. These are Oatmeal Peanut Butter...mmmmm. They're crispy and buttery with lots of peanut butter flavor.  Want the recipe? Here ya go:

Peanut Butter Oatsies

1/2 cup salted butter (1 stick)

1/2 cup shortening 

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 cup peanut butter (I use part Jif smooth with part almond butter)

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla (or 1/4 teaspoon almond extract)

2 cups old-fashioned oats

1-1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Preheat oven to 350F.

Beat butter and shortening till light. Beat in sugars then peanut butter. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla, mix.

In a separate bowl, mix oats, flour, soda and salt. Add to mixer, beat till combined.

On baking sheet, drop by heaping teaspoonful, 2" apart. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes till lightly browned. Cool on sheet before transferring to wire rack to cool.

Makes 4 to 5 dozen.

Getting ahead of thing- Christmas Table Runner

Today I fooled around with my Creative Grids Trapezoid Ruler again. This time I tried a braid that I had spotted on Pinterest. You add a little square as you're piecing it. Worked really well and now I have something for my winter Fiesta colors.

After I made the braid I found this snowman fabric in my stash. It had the perfect colors so I bordered it with it.

Well, that was fun but now it's time to get back to some serious work... lots of UFOs that need finishing up.

Fall Braid Table Runner using one of my favorite rulers

 Shop Hop is coming up at Hearts to Holly (starting Saturday) and one of the demos will be using the trapezoid ruler. I wanted to make a quick sample to show how the braid can be cut and used so I stitched up this table runner in an evening... THAT'S HOW QUICK IT IS!

I had a jelly roll with these beautiful black and brown and tan batiks. It uses about 7 lights and 7 dark strips. You get 8 trapezoid pieces out of a WOF strip so 56 light, 56 dark... 112 pieces works about perfectly for this runner.

They go together super fast... I work on all 3 braids at once so that I can chain stitch.

 I cut a bunch of extra pieces that I'll end up putting into pillow fronts. This ruler also cuts a nice 45 degree angle for the ends of my binding plus it cuts 2-1/2" strips... a really useful ruler.

UPDATE: I had a few people comment that they loved this ruler but had a hard time starting... what goes to what.
Here's what you do... take one dark and one light... Put the shortest side of one to the longest side of the other and stitch (doesn't matter which is dark and which is light).
Then start adding darks to the dark side and lights to the light side. Keep the angle of the trapezoid pointing downward as you go. The piece you are adding is always on top of your last stitched seam.... longest side to the seam. Refer to the pic above as you go and you should do fine.

Halloween Pillow

Finished up one little project... This will be mailed to mom tomorrow. For a teeny tiny pillow, there sure was a lot of work on this... BUT I'm happy with it and I know mom will enjoy it. This pattern is from Bareroots Little Stitchies.

Meet Harrison...

 Meet my new Granddoggie, Harrison.... Harry for short... he's a Cavapoo (part cavalier spaniel and part poodle). Daughter Jenn just picked him up from the breeder today. She had to drive 5 hours to get him. He's home at her house now. Al and I are heading over to visit tomorrow. He needed a quilt, of course. Stitched up a little today with the only doggie fabric I had. Can't wait to hold him.

Here's the update... just got back from our visit with the new pup. Harrison loves his quilt :)

Getting lots of sewing done

I've been working on getting caught up with all my LITTLE projects. The block below is for the BLOCK FRENZY at Hearts to Holly Quilt Shop. I won the last ones... the Halloween group... and so I got to pick the next fabric group for the frenzy. I picked the ones below... nice warm colors... called "Pin Money".

 And this is just part of a row robin I'm doing for someone. I named this block "Nettie's Crocuses". I'm pretty sure she doesn't read my blog so I think it's safe to post a pic... and it's only a peek.. not the whole row.

And this is the Halloween quilt top so far. I'm adding the final border right now... a gray one with spiders. Then I'll quilt it and bind it with black.

And finally, the quilt that I'm doing as I do the stuff above (I get bored and have to switch projects). It's half quilted... center about done and then I'll work on the borders.
It feels good to have so many projects finishing up... BIG SMILES :)

My WINNINGS: A Halloween Quilt :)

Hearts to Holly Quilt Shop just had their drawing for Block Frenzy (make a 12" block and your name goes in the pot) and I WON! I've entered quite a few times and have never had my name pulled before. This time the theme was Halloween. I won 11 blocks.

I laid them out on my sewing room floor and decided I needed one more. I stitched up the ghost in row two, fairly quickly. I had the ghost in my stash from a shop hop (a giveaway) and hadn't found a place for him till now.

 

So now my plan is to either alternate white and yellow borders on the blocks OR use white on all of them and some other color as sashing for the whole quilt. Then one or two borders to get it up to a lap size.

I'm bordering all the blocks because, if you've ever won something like this, you know all 12" blocks are not created equal. Some are just a hair large, some a hair small and some just a bit wonky. By adding a 2-1/2" border and then trimming the blocks down to 15-1/2", I'll get them all on an even playing field.

This is one of the prettiest block swaps I've won... I'm loving the looks of these!

Hand quilting using embroidery floss

While in the car today, waiting for Al, I was able to do some hand quilting. This is a new stencil that I got from Hearts to Holly Quilt Shop and I've been dying to try it. I used a silver marking pencil to mark the quilt lines on the white Kona. the "thread" is deep blue embroidery floss as it comes, not split. Hand quilting is SO relaxing. I wish I had more time to do it. I'd love a whole quilt with this design.

The fabric is just old blue and white shirting plaids that I've been collecting plus a few prints from the 80's or 90's.

And those buttons in the center of the pillow? Vintage ones from my jar of buttons... stacked two of them together.

 Now that the pillow is finished, I'm back to peeling peaches and getting them packed into freezer jars. This peach shortcake is a little reward for all that work :)

My Just Judie Competition Quilt... and the bad news :(

 Well, I finally heard from Marcus.... Bad news is my quilt didn't make the cut. BUT now I can show it here.

It's about 70" square and uses all Judie Rothermel fabrics. I made 25 blocks (because it's her 25th anniversary and mine!.. I started quilting about 25 years ago) and I used 25 different fabrics. The design is my own and the quilt was pieced and quilted on my old Pfaff (except for the corners which were English paper pieced hexagons).

Daughter Jennifer claimed this quilt before it was finished so it'll be going to her soon. We named it Twigs and Berries... my daughter wanted it named something "foodie" since it sort of has a pickle dish look and had the deep red of  Bing cherries or raspberries. Since she's VEGAN and one of the ladies I work with thinks vegans only eat twigs and berries, THAT became the name. (Thanks, Em)

 Yesterday, Jenn came from Traverse City to visit us and help do some canning (Peach Salsa :). After a busy day (we also went to an auction), we decided to relax at the beach and watch the sunset. Took one of my favorite beach quilts, my favorite Mondo back (and she took hers) and enjoyed some quiet time.
Of course we couldn't just sit still... had to create SOMETHING.. so we made a sand turtle :) He's right near the water edge so I'm sure by this morning he's gone...
Making sand animals and people has kind of been a tradition with our family. We usually leave something behind on the shore. Sometimes a mermaid.. or a huge snake... or a person... or an octopus.

Keeping Al company in the barn...

 Today I'm working on some hexagon flowers to add to a new quilt. This is a new pattern that I came up with to use "Flip Flop" packs from Hearts to Holly Quilt shop. Flip Flops are 8 fat eighths that coordinate and are packaged together. The pack I'm using for my quilt is mostly Fig Tree fabrics... soft yellows, aqua, pinky peach and soft green.
I took a picture of another pack that was at the shop... all 30's.. They're called flip flops because you see 4 of the fabrics on the top... flip them over, you see the other 4 fabrics. Great little packs to buy if you need added fabrics in a scrappy quilt. The shop has some pretty civil war packs too.

 

 So here's where I am... working in Al's barn garage (the car side)... He has this little work table that we like to sit at. I'm here and he's in the loft, getting it studded for an upstairs room... a man cave I think (doesn't matter to me, it's his barn).

And there he is... up on a ladder, putting up the partition... won't find me up that high... Not too fond of heights!

Finishing up a Halloween Quilt

This is one of my UFOs that I was determined to finish up by Halloween. It's just 6" squares of Halloween scraps plus a header of appliqued spiders and "Boo"... then a couple of borders.

 The spiders have "glow-in-the-dark" eyes and embroidered cotton YARN legs. Ready to pin baste and machine quilt.

And this is the start of a new scrappy baby quilt. Hoping to have this finished up by the end of the week. I'll add pictures when it's done.