Three Generations Sewing Together - Such A Memory

While talking to Jen last week, she mentioned that she hadn't had a chance to work on her quilts at all since Thanksgiving and neither had Bekah.  I told her to come up and spend a full day and night here and we would sew like wild women to get them done.  She said she'd think about it.

A few days later, I received a call saying that Bekah needed to be in Arlington on Saturday for a soccer clinic and so the two of them would come up Friday as soon as school was out.  Yay!  They arrive around 7 and after a quick dinner, the three of us go to the studio and soon the place is humming with the sound of sewing machines.  Jen and I set to work on the Minecraft quilts and Bekah starts in on her borders.  She is doing a solid orange one first and then randomly putting her extra squares together and  piecing an outer border.  Believe it or not -- it comes out exact for her.  Amazing.

Jen and I are busy playing with bright green and black squares.  I am hoping with each stitch that I haven't gotten anything out of order or the "creeper" won't show up.  Woot woot --- it works for me.  Here is my top.  I do one in the time that Jen does 3 -- not sure how much help I am.

Bekah takes her quilt into the house so we can cut the backing and the batting.  Soon she is back out in the studio attaching the whole thing in order to turn it and tie it.  After two sides, she is shot and needs some sleep.  One of the corners is giving her grief and at midnight it is definitely time to call it.  Off to bed she goes as she has her clinic in the morning.  Jen and I work a bit longer and soon all the tops are complete.  Time for bed for us as well.

The next morning Jen and Bekah are up and gone before I even wake up.  On the way back from dropping Bekah, Jen's wipers stop and it is raining like crazy.  She limps to the Shell station near us and drops off the van.  Drat.  Just what everyone needs at this time of year --car repairs.

Once back home, a small breakfast and it's off to the studio for the two of us.  We have borders to make and attach.

Here is my top.  I do one in the time that Jen does 3 -- not sure how much help I am.















When those are complete, we decide to go watch Bekah for awhile before picking her up.  She is at UT-Arlington and they certainly have a great facility.  Wow.  Bekah is playing in an alternate gym and we arrive just in time to watch her for one minute before she is pulled and the game ends.  Ugh -- waiting on the van to get fixed and $400 bucks later screws many things up.

On the way home, we make a stop at JoAnn's for yarn and somehow discover other goodies to do together.  This is a really bad store for me sometimes.

When we get home, Mister has dinner almost finished so while we are waiting, I take Jen down to Tuesday morning to look for a gift for Josh and Bekah heads to the showers.  We score big time at the store and soon return to a wonderful ham dinner.  I am absolutely starving.

As soon as we finish, Bekah and I start working on fixing her corner of her quilt and we are all three soon pinning it for her to sew.  Jen and I also discover that the backing fabric is not wide enough so we quickly cut it into sections to make giant 4 patch backings.  That works for 3 backs, but we run out and are left with just a few strips.  I take everything out back and start making the backs while she cuts batting.  As I complete each one, I return to the house with it and she cuts it to fit as well.

A couple of hours later, Bekah has finished making her sandwich, turned her quilt, and is ready to tie.  I tell her to take it into the house and her mom can help her.  Little did I know (and darn that I didn't get to see it in person or in pictures) but Mister sat down and helped tie it too.  What a great guy he is!

Here is her finished product:

Didn't she do an awesome job.  This is her first time doing anything like this and it is entirely her vision -- colors, fabrics, pattern, etc.  I am so very impressed and certainly hope her girlfriend will be also.

She finishes watching her episode of CSI (yep, that has been going the ENTIRE time out here) and soon heads to bed, leaving Jen and I to put the other 4 quilts together.  We each do two, close the openings, and call it another night.  Jen is staying a second night since the weather is crappy and we didn't finish until almost midnight again.  All she has to do when she gets home is tie them.

I am beat! BUT BUT BUT --- I have loved every  minute of this time with my daughter and granddaughter.  It has been the best Christmas present I could have had and wouldn't want to trade those memories for anything.  Please let it happen again.  Please.

Celtic Solstice Clue #2 - Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

Wow!  Chevrons!  This clue almost beat me.  It seemed to take forever for me to complete it, but I also keep forgetting that regular life, shopping for Christmas, shipping Christmas, doing cards, etc. all need to take place.  For some reason, I am unable to accomplish those things while sitting at my sewing machine.  Drat.

The day the clue came out, we were hit with an ice storm here in Dallas and Mister deemed it too cold and dangerous for me to be out in the studio, so we brought in the cutting implements, mat, rulers, and fabric.  I set up a temp cutting area in the office and set to work.  Here is a look at my chevron process:

After cutting, I needed to draw a diagonal line on each square and then a second line 1/4" away to use as stitching lines.  That meant 1000 squares and 2000 lines.  I set up with a lap table while watching a movie and soon Mister was looking to improve my working conditions.  My fingertips were getting sore from picking up the ruler twice with each square.  He came along with his trusty duct tape and hooked the ruler in place along the edge of my tray and then made a little handle to lift the ruler with each time.  It may not look good, but dang it worked well.  Ingenious Mister.


This took all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  I was really glad to see this stage complete.  Monday, I bit the bullet and went out to the studio, cranked up the heat and started in on these puppies.   Step one is to attach the neutral squares to the green rectangles on the diagonal and then to stitch again on the second drawn line.  This nets me a bonus triangle when I trim the seam.  Yay!

It does make the pressing process take a bit longer as well though, as I have to press the chevron seam and the bonus triangle.  Lots of little pieces everywhere.  The picture below is the last of this side of the chevron and as you can see, my container is almost overflowing with bonus HST's.  Too fun!

Same process with the yellow squares and the other chevon half.  Yes, I still need to trim all those dog ears off the bonus triangles, but that is a job for a long drive.

Finally, I am to hook the halves together and get chevrons!

Yes, I am getting nice chevrons and 3 1/2" squares.  Awesome.

The last string is off the machine.  Now all I have to do is press their seams open and then tackle my pile of unacceptables.  I have about 20 re-dos but out of 250, I figure that is not too bad at all.

Yep - 249 completed, beautiful chevrons.  On to clue 3.  (I did take time on Friday, when the clue came out to get it cut, but that is for another post.)

I love how they turned out.  They are truly scrappy and make my heart happy.

Piece count so far:   Step 1:  1,140 required (although I made extra blocks)
                                Step 2:  1,464 required (again, I made extra blocks)

Total:  2,604 at this point.

249 Chevrons and 996 bonus HST's --- What to do with them -- what to do!

Here is the link back to Bonnie for this stage.  Enjoy.  Onto to pinwheels!

Monkey King - Finally!

Looking for something to do this evening, we discovered that Monkey King is now open for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights.  Yay!  We have wanted to try this place out for weeks now, but are never in that area for lunch.  It looks like a trip to Deep Ellum is on our agenda tonight.

Our first stop is at Lulu B's antique shop to check on a hand crank sewing machine that we spotted there awhile back.  It is still there, but $125.00 is still too high for the shape it is in.  Drat.  From here we are off to Monkey King to get some wonderful soup which we will take over to Calais and enjoy with Benjamin while sipping on a superb glass of wine.  (It is wine pick up night for the club so we are multi-tasking.)


Monkey King is this great Chinese noodle kitchen where the noodles are hand pulled to order.  There is always a line, but it is rather cold  out tonight and so we are lucky that the line is short.  I am not sure how Mister caught a picture of me without anyone else around.

They have a wonderful window with stools in front of it that you can sit and watch the noodles being pulled.  You all know how much I love this kind of thing, right?

Obviously, I take a seat as soon as I can and sit back to enjoy while I wait for our order.

I am not disappointed.  The process is fun to watch and yet at the same time, very intriguing.  Could I do this?  I would love to give it a try -- now to find a recipe as this noodle dough looks a bit tougher than my own.  I will do some research though.

We forgot to take pictures of the food or our time with Benjamin -- I know, I know - I am falling down on the job.  It was a great night though and we will certainly return to Monkey King.

Mister Makes a Blanket for His Sister! -- I'll Get Him Quilting Yet

I need to go to JoAnn's to enjoy their sale while getting a Christmas gift for Bekah and a few other items.  Mister decides to go along as he needs to pick up a gift for his sister (her birthday was back in October but we haven't gotten together) and for his sister-in-law's birthday party tonight.

As we are leaving, he spots some kits for fleece blankets that are on sale.  I let him know that the fleece on the bolt is also on sale and we go back to it.  After talking and making our selections, we have the supplies for him to make a gift for his sister that is completely  homemade.  We will see her tonight and want to give it to her so he gets busy right away.

First, all the edges are trimmed and squared with the top fabric laying on top of the backing.  Then he runs a tape line for him to use for cutting to make the strips for knots.

He gets out my rotary cutter and mat and cuts his strips 1 1/2" apart and 4 1/2" deep the entire distance around the blanket.

The next step is to tie each set of strips together and this is what holds the top to the back.  No sewing required.

Mister sits and ties away with a little help from me, but I do mean a little.  I sit in a chair nearby and work on the opposite side from where he is but spend most of my time watching him.

He is way more meticulous at this than I am.  Tie the dang knot and move on Mister.  I giggle to myself.

Two hours later --- we have a lovely blanket for Michelle.  I sure hope she likes it -- Mister does.

Ice Storm

Dallas has been hit with the ice storm to beat all ice storms this week.  First we were blessed with freezing rain, then sleet, and finally snow in some areas.  Temperatures have been below freezing for three days now so Mister and I have opted to stay put at home throughout the event.  Mister did venture out on foot in the neighborhood to take some pictures of the beauty that even harsh events bring to us.

Enjoy!

Day 1

I feel so sorry for this Japanese maple --- brrrrr.

Day 2

We are hoping this is the only damage we will have.  Fingers crossed.

Neighbors tree -- not ours.

Muffin Bread - Perfect for a Cold Day

It is a cold day in Dallas.  Brrrr.  I can't help but think that some fresh bread would be wonderful and Mister has been asking for some English Muffin Bread.  This seems like the perfect time to do something sweet for him and fill the house with warmth and love at the same time.

Shall we get started?

First up -- Combine 3 cups of flour, 2 pkgs yeast, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl combine 2 cups of milk and 1/2 cup of water and heat  until very warm (120-130 degrees).

Add the fluids to the dry mixture and beat well.

Add enough flour to make a still batter -- approximately another 2 1/2 - 3 cups.

Spoon into 2 8 1/2 x 4 1/2" pans that have been greased and sprinkled with cornmeal.  Sprinkle tops with additional cornmeal.

Cover and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.  Goodness but I love the smell of yeast breads rising.

Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.  Remove from pans immediately and cool.  Don't these look wonderful?  And the smell ---- oh the house smells soooo good.

I go back out to the kitchen to check on my bread.  Hmmmm.  There are telltale signs on one of the loaves that Mister has been snitching.  Upon confronting him, he smiles and tells me that he literally picked it up and took a bite.  I think he's excited to have his bread.

The next step is to slice and toast.  Top it off with some homemade jam the world is just so wonderful.

Truly yummy and Mister is full of smiles.

Irons are Finished - Thanks Mister!

We have a storm headed our way and Mister is taking advantage of one of the last nice days we will have for awhile to finish the irons on the Memphis treadle.  They are looking so very good.  I am thrilled and cannot wait until it is all back together again.  Such fun.