summer days

Hi!  I have some summertime pictures to share with you--

Last weekend I got to spend some time with my mom.  July 3rd was my dad's birthday, so it was good to be there for one of those "firsts" after his death last January.  We did some fun stuff and some work stuff.  There were some overgrown plants and weeds that we mostly worked on, so the yard is looking fine.

And we took a little excursion north into Minnesota to the little town of Round Lake.  It's maybe 10 miles (I'm guessing) and we found the Round Lake Vineyards and Winery.  I never knew this place existed before, but we think we would go back again.  We tasted some of their products, and enjoyed the beautifully landscaped area just off the lake shore.  And we brought a few souvenir bottles home, too!

We also went to see Barefoot in the Park at the Okoboji Summer Theater, and enjoyed a Sunday morning pancake breakfast Mini-Wakan State Park on Spirit Lake.

We needed to do some watering at my brother and sister-in-law's place while they were away, so we puttered around out there awhile, checking on the dog and cats, too.  The original old barn still stands, but is being overtaken by vegetation!

My mom's house looks westward over the lake, and this picture was taken in the evening before sunset.  It was much redder in person, due to the smoke from the large wildfires burning up in Alberta and a few in Manitoba.  Iowa is a long ways from either area, so this smoke really travels.

Back on the home front, check out these cute bicycle cookies!  

We went to a fundraiser for some friends who are doing the Red Ribbon Ride next week, and these cookies were part of the treats.  We wish them luck as they work to complete their fundraising and training.  If you have any inclination to make a donation, you can find Terry and Sue Robinson on the website and show your support.

And the upstairs renovation project is nearing completion, with some electrical work done to install some new lights and change some plug-ins.  These fixtures are from IKEA, and I like the sorta industrial look with all of the wood in the house.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time working on finishing woodwork.  I filled in nooks and crannies of the wood floor butting up to the logs with some wood filler, and that turned out well.  Then, I chipped out a lot of old nail hole filler that was originally done with a filler that was the wrong color, but has been ignored for years and years.  I decided this was as good a time as any to correct that problem, since we have sawdust and crap all over everything anyway!  So I chipped out the old stuff from 100 or more holes (seems like 1,000!) and sanded each to remove any traces of the old stuff.  Now I will dab on a little stain to cover the sanded area, and then polyurethane, and then refill the holes with a better color.

But aside from the woodwork stuff, I did put together this cute little pincushion.  It stands up on little legs, and looks like a tiny ottoman or Miss Muffet's Tuffet!  Read more about it on the Bear Blog.

little bits

Hello once again!  I am so excited!  I've opened windows this week!  Not very far, but officially open and left open for hours.  This says winter is over, now we are in limbo during the period of weather instability until we get consecutive days of window opening.  Then it is summer!

I have been scratching around in the dirt of the flower beds to see if anything is brave enough to start sprouting up new leaves.  Not much happening, which is just as well because it would get nipped with frost at night.  There's still some time to pass until the real growing starts.

And while passing the time, it's good to keep up on some sewing and quilting.  I have an update for you from a post from 2/12.  I have had some re-work to do on this little candle mat.  For such a little thing, it has really consumed more of my time than it should.  I took the photograph and then wrote that blog post on 2/12.  The time it takes me to write the information, format it as well as possible, edit the photos and place them on the page is not brief.  It can take me quite awhile, depending on how many corrections, how many links to insert, size and order of pictures, etc.  While I wrote that blog post, I completely forgot that the candle was burning.  Eventually, I realized it needed to be blown out, but it was too late.  The melted wax had pooled in the bottom of the little basket for awhile, but found its way through the cracks and out onto the fabric.  I was so not happy!  At least the damage was confined to only part of the star, so I could remove 3 of the diamonds and still make it come out OK.  The wax had soaked into some of the layers, but didn't show on the back.  Then it took me awhile to find the fabrics I needed to match, sometimes my fabric filing system fails.  Eventually, I made the 3 diamonds and very carefully sewed them into place so it hardly looked like anything had happened.  And then, for the finishing touch, I pressed it all very nicely.  And instantly realized that was a very dumb idea, because the wax warmed up and showed up again on one of those diamonds!  Aaargh!  (or something like that)  Once again, I had to rip out my little stitches and replace just one of those diamonds.  And the fabric was much easier to pull out of the stash this time!  And now I finally have a completed candle mat for our English Paper Piecing class next week, and it will always have a lovely scent embedded in it!  And battery candles from here on out!

I had an impulse sew this week, too.  At the store, we have an upcoming shop hop event and there will be demonstrations of a little ruler called the Mini Hex 'n More.  I volunteered to make one of the sample patterns.  My thought process was that it wouldn't take much time because it's mini, right?  Wrong!  The seams might be shorter, but there are just as many points and intersections to match as when making an actual reasonable-human-size!  Lots of pinning and matching later, I got all the blocks together!  It does look nice, I have to admit.  I got it all quilted (simple straight lines) on Tuesday and attached the binding on Wednesday and hand sewed most of the binding last night.  Those little zig zag edges also take some extra attention to get them looking right.  I refreshed my memory on that process by referring back to another blog with good instructions.

One of the things that I did on the retreat in March was assembling some new pincushions.  Yesterday I decided it was high time to finish those up, and here's how they turned out.

The directions for the long skinny one can be found on the Green Bee website.  The square ones are a free pattern from Poorhouse Quilt Designs.  I put some of my prettiest pins in them for their Kodak moment.

And now, just because we all need more happiness in our lives, I will share the latest Happy Jack picture!  I can hear his giggles!  Hope you all have a good day just like little Jack!

what I've been working on

There has been precious little time for working on any big projects lately, but a few little things have been accomplished.  Not complaining, just explaining.  With my parents and son visiting and making sure I see little Ian every couple of days, my machines have been kind of quiet. 

I found a free pattern for a cathedral window pincushion from Poorhouse Quilt Designs.  I have never made a cathedral window block but decided to find out how to do it.  I did a little checking about the block itself, and it seems to be originally from around 1930-1950 from what I can tell.  It is unusual in that it is actually about 3 layers of fabric with folds that create even more bulk at intersections.  Believe me when I tell you that the button is not only decorative, but serves to hide those untidy corners!  I thought the block was only done by hand, but this is completely machine stitched, except for closing up the filling hole. 

 I made this from a bunch of blue and white random 5" squares.  It makes a pretty large pincushion.  I filled it with 3 things (because only 1 would just be too simple!):  cotton stuffing, poly stuffing and crushed walnut shells.  I made a small muslin pouch for the walnut shells, I have had some 'migration' of dust from the shells in other pincushions and thought enclosing them in another layer of fabric would cut down on that.  If you are not familiar with the walnut shells, you can locate them in some large pet stores where they are sold as bedding for among other creatures, lizards.  I like to use them because they add a certain weight or heft to the pincushion that I like.  This project was one of those things that was totally not on my list of things to do, but intrigued me so much that I had to give it a try.


Sometime in the not-so-distant past, I put together this simple small quilt that will be a shop sample.  The pattern is Painted Moon from Villa Rosa Designs.  The fabric is from the Honoka collection by Anna Griffin.  I did simple quilting and just finished putting on the binding this morning.  Check one more off the list!

I recently taught a little intro to wool applique at the shop and this is the sample I was working on for demonstrating the process.  I am nearing completion, just have 2 more little vines to stitch and then attach the backing.  For sure it will be ready for pumpkin season!  This is a pattern and kit from Bareroots, available at Bear Patch.

And because I always have to have a knitting project (or 2 or 3) underway, I have been working on a scarf for myself.  It is made from a yarn that Dan bought for me when he was in Alaska--what a good son he is!  It is made from muskox hair, merino wool and mulberry silk.  Sounds and feels luxurious!  The pattern for the scarf came from a calendar of 365 Knitting Stitches a Year published by Martingale.

It is chock full of good ideas.  This one is called Arrowhead Lace.  You can see some of my index tabs that mark other stitch patterns that caught my interest and could go to some good use in the future.

And now to get back to work----!  Not really work when you love what you do!  Dan is winging westward and his bike was packed up and shipped yesterday so they will be reunited soon out in CA.  Ian (and Brita and Ben) is coming for a sleepover tomorrow so I better get this place sterilized!  And, of course, make sure his Easter basket is ready!

and a good time was had by all

Last night was the Christmas party for my quilt group, the Ham Lake Piecemakers. By the way, who names a lake like that? Maybe there are just too many lakes to think up something more lovely than a chunk of hog. Sunset. Flower. Whisper. Rosebud. Those would all work better in my naming system. Anyway, back to the party, which was held at the home of Carol C. We have our regular meetings on the second, fourth and fifth Thursdays at Cedar United Methodist Church because it is sort of centrally located for our members and it is FREE! That made a big difference when we were informed that our previous meeting place (Ham Lake City Hall) could no longer accommodate our group. Since I was a member at Cedar UMC (and still am!) I hooked us up with the powers that govern the building. It's a small church, basically just the sanctuary, 2 offices, and one large multi-use space with a kitchen thrown in. But it has turned out to be a great place for the quilters on Thursday nights because we pretty much have the place to ourselves. And like I said, it's FREE! So to compensate for the utilities and wear-and-tear on the place, we have a tradition of collecting a Christmas donation of cash and cookies. And I got to bring the cookies home before delivering them to the church today so they can be used on Sunday. They are amazing!

Since they spent the night at myhouse, I had the chance to look at them a little more closely, and picked these out as my favorites:

What a generous group, it makes me happy to take these boxes of cookies along with an envelope stuffed with cash to the church office. Thank you Piecemakers!

We had a great potluck meal last night and Carol nearly ran out of counter space for all the goodies! I do have to say that her punch was yummy, and considering she confessed that she had never made punch before, I would say she should be our Punch Person from now on! Her home was great for our group of 25 (or so), roomy enough to enjoy our meal and then all sit together for the rest of the festivities. We play a little dice game for doorprizes, then we have an exchange of gifts. We draw names early in theyear, and then make something for each other. What a range of gifts and talents in our group! Everything from whole quilts to flannel slippers to pincushions to tablerunners, each gift a treasure.

I drew Jenny's name, and since I knew she loved Moda fabrics I wanted to do something with that. Here's what happened:

I sorted through my selvedges and used the ones that had come from Moda fabrics to make this little sewing caddy from a pattern by Graham Cracker Collection. I opted not to add the pockets on the outside of the pouch because that would have spoiled all those pretty selvedges! The pincushion on top is detachable from the tile base and the pouch is detachable to make emptying easy.

The edge of the pouch is made firm by a ring of plastic tubing sewn inside, which makes it flexible but resilient. The secret about this particular tubing is that it was scavenged from my nursing past (not used, I promise) and finally found a useful place. Pretty good re-purposing, don't you think?!

Sharon had drawn my name this year, and look at the cool spools she made for me! These will be perfect to hang on the wall by my thread rack.

Sharon found the pattern on a trip to Washington state at the Lavender Rabbit, if you look at this link you can see the neat idea for a hanger that I think I can contrive from some of my old wooden spools. What a great gift!

Today brings more sunshine and another party tonight, this time at a further distance (2 hours) so I hope the weather holds out, I don't want to miss Nancy's fest. I am cleaning, sewing, knitting, quilting and keeping the home fires burning (literally)!