Today my precious daughter-in-law graduated from Boyce College. We are all so proud of her. I was blessed to drive up yesterday, attend the ceremony and drive home today. Dr. Mohler's and Dr. DeWhitt's charges to the graduates were moving and inspiring. So glad I was able to attend.
When I visit the campus I usually stay at the Legacy Hotel. I love it there. Here is one of the reasons...
I ran my second 5k this morning. I was dreading it, but I am very glad I did it. I beat my last time by about four minutes, yay! I think I finished at 33:11 but I'll have to wait until they post the results to know for sure.
I did walk up a hill at the water station, and even walked a couple more short times later. Yet, one of my best times. I do think the adrenaline kicks in on race day.
It's that time of year again....
Four runs of freezer jam, three quart bags for the freezer, one pie, and one big bowl cut up with sugar sitting in the fridge.....a good strawberry day!
(In case you wondered about the white tile taped to the wall in the last photo.....I am auditioning some white subway tile for the backsplash :) love me some house projects....)
We had our first class last night on making the small quilt. My brain would not turn off when got home and I started documenting tips I've learned over the years. I thought it would be a good post for the blog. Beware it is a long post and is strictly my opinions from what I've learned over the last six years.
- a pink lead quilting marker is great. It will show up on lights and darks
- a wooden iron is a great little tool for manually pressing short seams
- always have a sharp seam ripper
- a 1/4 inch sewing foot is a must
- invest in good quilting rulers. Creative Grids is the best brand I've seen. They have something on the back to help it not to slide on the fabrics, have down to 1/8th inch marks, and most have angle lines which can be very useful
- a handy tool for pressing and cutting when you take classes is the quilters cut & press. It has a padded side for ironing and a cutting mat on the other side
- Olfa brand is the best self healing cutting mats I've used. Seem to last lots longer than other brands
- my Omnigrid rotary cutter (45mm) has lasted through over 100 quits. Blades can be purchased at Walmart, Joanns, and other places
- a good retractable metal tape measure (about 8-12 feet) will serve you well if you move on to making bigger quilts. You'll use it for cutting backing fabric and measuring across the center of your quilt for adding borders. I never use a regular tape measure
- I recommend hand quilting thread for hand stitching down bindings. It is stronger than regular thread so there is no need to double it
- Printed Treasures makes a paper backed fabric that can be used for labels made on a computer. You create your label in a word processor (Word, WordPerfect, Pages, etc.) using the fonts, sizes, and colors you like, add photos, and then run the paper backed fabric through your inkjet printer. Cut it down to size, peel the paper off, rinse it in cold water, iron it dry, turn down the raw edges, and hand sew it on the back of your quilt
- when in doubt on how to do something quilt related, search YouTube. Most likely someone has made a how to video about it. An Eleanor Burns YouTube video taught me to sew on a binding with mitered corners.
- high quality fabric brands/lines are Moda, Robert Kaufman, Riley Blake, Wilmington,
- "squaring" up blocks makes them go together much easier
- when learning how to machine quilt, it is often a good idea to use monofilament thread. It will not show on your quilt. However, if you practice first, and are comfortable with your skill level, use regular cotton thread that blends with your fabrics. Often a tan or medium grey is a good color because it will not show up too dark on the light fabrics and not too light on the darker fabrics.
- when putting pieces together to sew, pin the corners, and if one piece seems a bit longer than the other, place it on the bottom when you sew. The feed dogs on the machine will ease the extra fullness in.
- a walking foot will make the quilt sandwich feed easier when machine quilting. A free motion foot allows you to move and turn the quilt sandwich in any direction when machine quilting. A stitch in the ditch foot is good for machine quilting directly in the seams.
- Lots of quilting patterns are designed to be used with precuts; it saves having to pick lots of different coordinating fabrics.
Terminology:
Pre-cuts - various sets of color coordinating sets such as charms, layer cake, jelly roll, etc.
Charm pack - color coordinated set of (typically) 5" squares
Jello roll - set of 2 1/2" inch width of fabric (~42") color coordinating strips
Layer cake - set of about 42 color coordinating 10" squares
Fat quarter - 18" x 21" inch cut of fabric; a regular fourth yard cut is 9"x 42"
Fat eighth - 9 "x 21" cut of fabric; a regular eighth yard cut is 4.5" by 42"
Quilt shop quality fabric - has higher thread count than cheaper fabric; is softer and made from long staple cotton thread; cheaper fabric will seem thin, and often stiff
Places to buy quilt shop quality 100% cotton fabrics: My experience has been most all quilt shops sell high quality fabric. Etsy- search "quilting fabric"; order name brands, and I only use sellers with a 100% positive rating. You can pay with PayPal or a credit card. I've have very good experiences with Etsy. Normally a bit cheaper than regular high end quilt shops.
I am sure I will be adding to this list of tips. My plan is to have copies of it for our class members at our next meeting.
I think I've made around 20 of these little quilts. I am teaching a class at our church beginning this Thursday night on how to make this pattern. We decided in order to have a quilting ministry, those interested needed to be taught some piecing and quilting skills.
I thought it might be good to make up one top, so they can see the size of it. I had some really cute Riley Blake fabric leftovers that worked pretty well. When completed this one will be a gift or a donation.
Do any of you quilters out there know what fabric line this is?
I bought a charm pack several years ago and started making some colorful placemats. Never finished them. When I saw this cute baby boy quilt in Heather Mulder Peterson's newest book, Little Quilts 4 Little Kids, I thought this line would be great. I'd like to purchase some yardage for the border and backing but I don't know the manufacturer or name of this line.
There is something wonderful about a cool, rainy, spring day. At home today taking it easy. No quilts on the agenda for today, maybe some cooking, piddling around in the quilting room, a little internetting......
The hubby and I did go pick up a couple more herbs for my little garden, thyme and peppermint, and some tomato plants and hanging baskets. I put the herbs out and put one tomato plant in a bucket. Yes, in the rain.
Now I need to figure out what to use for weed control in the herb bed. I can see there are already some little weeds trying to come up.
Thank you Lord for this nice, rainy day.
Jim had torn a big hole in one pair of his jeans. He was going to throw them out but I had a better idea. I had saved some Levi's pockets from old jeans when I cut them up for a quilt. My problem was having a machine that could get inside the leg to sew the pocket on over the big hole.....hmmm...what to do?
Anyone ever use their long arm machine to try to sew inside a jeans leg??? It doesn't work too well. I thought of a better idea. They were headed for the trash anyway, so I cut up the inside of the leg, sewed the pocket on and then resewed the leg. Lookie here!
Good thing he has skinny legs.....the right pant leg is about a half inch slimmer than the left....now he has an extra pocket for his cell phone, reading glasses, etc. We laughed about us being frugal in preparation for retirement and fixed income. He may not wear them out anywhere but he said they would be fine for fishing.
Leftovers for the backing. I really like a pieced backing. The hubby's twin sister's two oldest children are both having boys this summer. This will go to one of them.
An unusual combination of prints maybe, but I was trying to match the Alligator Green/Red Lobster/Madras Plaid of the Pottery Barn baby bedding the hubby's niece picked out.
Quilted with Happy Times pantograph.
...and used the leftover pieces for the backing and binding.
Some of these are from a Going Coastal fabric line.
A few months ago I purchased some designer jeans. They were a bit long so the store hemmed them for me. They did it in a way that preserved the white stitching and the worn edges (you know the style). I had a couple more pairs of jeans that were fine for the winter with heeled boots, but too long for summer flats. I decided to hem them like the boutique did.
If they are an inch too long, you fold over the edge above the hem, one half inch and pin.
Then you sew the fold down on the top side. I used monofilament thread, which was perfect because it disappeared against the jean fabric.
When finished, you have a little fold on the inside of your jeans but the outside looks great and the fold is not visible. The white stitching and worn edges are preserved.
This is exciting. A permanent herb garden. I love to use fresh herbs in my cooking. I've been doing herbs in pots for a few years now and have wanted to make a permanent herb garden. I know I've got a lot to learn but I am excited about having them close to the house in the ground.
I've got rosemary, lemon basil, oregano, sweet basil, and parsley. I'd like to also get some thyme, chives, cilantro and lavender. Maybe I'll have room for a tomato vine or two, or maybe a sweet pepper plant.
I hired a guy to build this for me. I think if I had the time I could have done it myself. I've already decided that when I retire, I plan to make another one all the way across the back deck to grow other garden vegetables. I'll just have to figure out a way to keep the deer out of it. I'm hoping with the herbs so close to the house, they won't venture up to eat them. We'll see.
Today I decided to hang around here after my morning run. Power washed all the wicker (7 chairs and a table), all the outside cushions, and both porches. Got it all done before it rained. The cushions still aren't totally dry yet, but I did get them under roof.
My morning run was pretty slow. It was so hot and humid, I allowed myself to take longer walk breaks so my total time was back up to 35:51. I just have to keep telling my "goal oriented" self that is ok. Don't want to hurt anything. I just hope come race day on May 4th, I have a good, fast run.
The hubby and I were going to go fishing this evening, but I don't know now, with the clouds and rain. I'm not big on fishing in the rain.
Maybe I'll do some sewing......don't have to cook tonight, cause we have yummy leftovers from last night.....ravioli with mushroom basil cream sauce. One of my favourites.
Later......
Thought I'd add a little to this post. The hubby did decide to go on fishing, but I am not really into night fishing, at least when there is quilting to do. Got both of the baby quilts ready for the machine.
The quilt on the left is called The Road Trip Quilt and I found the free pattern on Cluck, Cluck, Sew blog. Very fast and easy. I added another block for each row to make it a bit bigger than the original 36x40. Mine measures 40x40. I only spent a few hours this evening on it. The one on the right was a free pattern from the Moda website called, Building Blocks Baby Quilt. It was easy too. Both of these hopefully will blend with the Pottery Barn bedding the mothers have picked out.
This is a cute fabric line. I found a simple baby quilt pattern that uses a layer cake pre-cut. Here is my progress so far....
The hubby and I are taking a few days off from work this week. This may turn out to be one of our most expensive vacations......lol.....I am planning several update projects around the house and he is eyeing a new boat. Guess we can't retire yet, although I could definitely get used to being home everyday.
