Surviving the Last Weeks of Winter

A typical Northwest winter pretty much looks like this.

And this:

In spite of that, my tulips are just peeking up, promising some bright color for spring.  We had lots of snow and ice a couple of weeks ago and I was surprised to see some little tulip leaves when it melted.  I should've known.  Dutch winters are generally more intense than winter here.

Went skiing in Utah last week.  Getting out of Dodge for a few days in mid-winter seems to be good for my attitude.  Sometimes winter seems endless.

Could this be a quilt?  I would have to live about 6 lives to follow up on all the good quilt ideas I have. It seems that every picture or fruit or flower could be a great quilt.

I do't think I've ever seen such massive icicles.

And here's an idea for a fence that would never have occurred to me.

This is a picture of the coordinating block I made for Mother Goes Mod.  Both blocks will be in one pattern.

Here's one way to put them together.

Same basic block as the original, but just different enough to change the look, even with the same fabrics.

Work on the wedding quilt continues.  This week I'm making 84 of these:

Then I'll make 84 of these:

I might have some extra time to work on it as I'm trying not to expose the world to the neat chest cold that's going around and found me.  Oddly, people don't like it when the person next to them in line coughs up a lung.  So I shall attempt to keep my cooties to myself.  The biggest issue (besides my personal whining) with a cold is keeping the dogs out of the kleenex.  Ella likes to pull a box off of a table or desk, pull a couple hundred out and then shred them to atomic particles.  She has a basket full of toys and a bunch of tennis balls in the back yard.  What could be so fascinating about kleenex?  And do I really want to know?

Steer clear of the coughing people and
Quilt On!

Candy

Time Flies When You're Quilting

Would someone like to tell me how it got to be February already?  One minute I was putting away Christmas decorations, and all of a sudden, January is history.  I'm pretty sure that one reason is that everything takes about twice as long to accomplish as I think it should.  Take, for instance, just a couple of errands. Let's get gas, pick up a couple of things at Target (across the street from the gas station with "reasonably" priced diesel) and a half dozen things at Safeway (on the way home).  Forty-five minutes should do it, but let's get real and schedule an hour.  Two hours later, I'm home.  I didn't do anything I wasn't planning to do with the possible exception of checking out some new sweaters at Target and thinking of a couple of grocery items I hadn't put on the list.  This, my friends, is real life.

And in that same vein, it's currently 20 degrees and snowing here.  Now this would be about SOP if I were writing from Chicago, Boston or Portland, Maine.  However, in Portland, Oregon, this is big news.  It's breezy, so the snow is doing more blowing around than piling up, and with a quarter of an INCH on the ground, the local schools are letting the kids out early.

  For those of you falling on the floor with laughter, I have to say that it's pretty hilly around here and the thought of a school bus sliding around would make any mother's blood run cold.  Also, while we have some snow-clearing equipment,  snow is rare enough here to make having enough plows, etc. for a serious storm unrealistic.  So we'll make a pot of tea and hunker down with the sewing machine for a few days and dream of leaves and bright colored flowers.

Ella and Toby like to go out about every five minutes when it's snowing.  They stay out about 30 seconds and then want back in.

We like to call this "snow face."  As soon as it melts, she wants to go do it again.

I've decided to add a second block option to my "Mother Goes Mod" pattern.  I was inspired when I was cleaning out a drawer with patterns in it and found a couple of old garment patterns.  They always had multiple views of the same basic dress (or pants, or skirt) so that the seamstress could make it hers.

Seems to me that quilters should have the same opportunity.  So I'm giving it a shot and this quilt seemed like the perfect place to start.

Also putting in some time everyday on "The Wedding Quilt."  I do NOT want to be in a hurry at the end.  Making 194 of these.

And then a couple  million of some other pieces.


The cool thing about quilters is they're never bored.  If they can't decide what to do next, they can always look at patterns or quilt magazines or rearrange the stash.  And sometimes even clean up the studio.  Okay, the cleaning up part isn't always that fun.  The good part is that I always find a UFO or a piece of fabric that I've forgotten about that inspires me again.

Candy

Why Do We Quilt?

Why do we quilt?  Believe it or not, there are people on this planet ho have no clue why we do what we do.  We take perfectly innocent hunks of lovely fabric, cut them up into little (or not so little) pieces and sew them together to look different from the original fabrics and then attach them to batting and more fabric.  We decorate with them, sleep under them and give them away as symbols of love.  We can decorate, stay warm and express feelings in many other ways that are faster, cheaper and more efficient and yet millions of us make quilts.

And we don't just make quilts.  We go to shows, join guilds, make other quilters our friends, shop, compete, help each other, inspire each other and generally create a quilting life. We take classes, collect fabric, push out of our comfort zones, offer comfort, express ourselves and perhaps obsess a little bit, all around an activity originally developed to keep our ancestors warm.

It's something to think about.  The why is a little different for each of us.  I love the colors, the challenges and the possibilities.  I love the feeling of seeing a vision come to fruition and sharing the fun with others.

What's your "why?"


To those of you surviving another blast of winter weather, there is hope for spring.

These little babies are coming up in  my yard.  We're having very nice weather; please think of us next summer when the drought talk starts.

I've started a Wedding Quilt for my son and his fiancé.  Since the wedding is in July, I'm working hard at it so I won't be putting on the binding the day before the wedding.  The plan is to put some time in on it every day.  So far, so good.

Candy

Welcome 2014

It's January once again and time to get back to what passes for routine at our house.  I hope your holidays were as fun as ours.  Son Dan got engaged and we welcomed the lovely Catherine to the family.  This was Catherine's carry-on from Southern California to Portland.

Not only was this cake beautiful, but tasted fabulous.

Toby and Ella are pretty bummed that their fans had to go home.  Ten days of constant adoration is hard to get over.

 

"Oh Nana," Toby says, "I just love you so much."

Toby and Nana watched some football together.

We were thrilled to have some truly decent weather mixed in with the fog and thankful we didn't have to travel to the Northeast or Midwest.  I don't even ski in weather that cold!  

Here, the sun is setting behind the camera casting a beautiful pink glow on Mt. Hood.

Now we're back to real life - rain outside and quilting inside.

With a wintery print and some bright colors to liven it up, the "Snowman Sampler" pattern will be ready next week.

It's a great way to use some scraps and chase away those winter blahs.  It'll be available on the website as soon as I can do it, but for first dibs, email us at motheronabroomstick@gmail.com and we'll get it out to you with no shipping charge.

The same goes for "Mother Goes Mod", shown below. 

This one is also great for scraps or using a layer cake.  We're working on some other ways to use layer cakes as this quilt didn't begin to use up all the squares.  I like being able to try out some coordinated prints without committing myself to a lot of yardage.  (As if I have commitment issues when it comes to fabric.)  

I have lots of ideas for new quilts to share and hope you will check in from time to time to see what we're up to.

Happy New Year!

Candy & Barb

Sunny and Cold

It's currently freezing up in here.  Literally.  As I write, it's 22 degrees.  We're lucky enough to be in a little snow-free zone so the pavement is dry and going to the grocery store is not threatening to life and limb - at least no more than usual.

Here's what happens to celery in a hard freeze.

Some years we can keep using it until Christmas if we don't get a hard freeze.  This cold snap ended that dream.  Instead of salad, it'll be compost.  It was pretty while it lasted and made the garden smell nice.


I'm kind of into poinsettias this year.  I ordered one from the local high school dance team and it was delivered the week before Thanksgiving.  It's really lovely.  The big challenge will be to keep it alive until Christmas.

I'm not used to having a plant in the house that requires regular watering.  The cold, sunny weather also means that it's unusually dry, which isn't helping much.

I'm also finding myself charmed by wool projects and found this cute pillow pattern a couple of weeks ago.  (Because I don't have enough projects - yeah that's what it is.)  The top is finished and I'm aiming for it to be a completed pillow by the end of the weekend.  I'm particularly pleased that my box of leftover beads, some dating back to a project in the cretaceous period (mid '70's) that have been hauled around for decades actually worked perfectly for this.

I've never been a real beading fanatic.  When I have used them, it's been sparingly.  The thing is, one can rarely buy 6 seed beads.  They come in a little tube of about 5000 and I'm pretty sure there will be some left over for my descendants three generations hence.  

I'm really liking doing handwork with wool.  It goes faster than I would've thought and it has a calming effect.  Who knew?  Okay, I'm sure a lot of people did, but some of us catch on a little more slowly.  

If you've got snow and ice this weekend, I'm thinking of you.  Been there, done that and it's a giant pain.  Stay safe and warm.

Candy

Happy Thanksgiving

Last Tuesday it was dark and rainy all day.  I'd had a head cold for  a week and basically felt like the last poppy of the year:

I was about to embark on a major whine when I saw a picture of Washington, Illinois.  Then I thought about the typhoon damage in the Philippines.  People, I've got nothing to complain about.  And we're having some bright sunshine, which always helps me look on the bright side.

I have these three little Christmas Cacti.  I love them because they don't take much upkeep.  And every year at about Thanksgiving, they bloom.  By Christmas, they're finished, but better early than never.  When the days are short and the nights long, that little bit of cheer is special.

I've often said that I learn something on every quilt I make.  I showed the top of my new quilt a couple of weeks ago (tentatively named "Mother Goes Mod") and last week I got ready to quilt it.  To sandwich the quilt, I lightly spray adhesive on the wrong side of the back (outside, of course) and then  masking tape it to the wood floor in the dining room.  Then I spray one side of the batting, spread it over the back and then add the top.  It's fairly quick (patience is not my best) and works well for me.
Only last week, the tape wouldn't stick to the backing.  I thought maybe the tape was old and got a different roll.  Same problem.  It got really frustrating really fast.  It took me a while, but I think I have it figured out.

I usually wash all my fabric as soon as it comes in the door.  Because I was using a layer cake for this project and I needed all ten inches of the squares, I didn't wash them and I didn't wash any of the other fabrics that went into it, including the backing.  (Imagine a tiny light going on here.)  Whatever finish is added to the fabric by the manufacturer is usually washed out.  But since I didn't wash these fabrics . . .

I finally just layered fabrics and batting, turned them over, smoothed out the back, turned it over and smoothed the front.  Checked the back one more time and started quilting.  So far, so good.  Live and learn.

On most of it I'm quilting from the back, using the flowered fabric as a guide.  Where that fabric appears on the front, I quilt from the front.  I'm using the same Aurifil thread on the top and in the bobbin.  It should be finished by the end of the week and next week I'll work on directions so the pattern will be ready by the first of the year.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Candy

It's Not Cheating To Do It the Easy Way

The run -up to the holidays has started and I formally announce that it's not cheating to do it the easy way.

The end-of-year holidays are supposed to be fun.  Sometimes being the Mom, Dad, Host or Hostess kind of sucks the fun out of it.  I'm pretty sure that too much to do, too many projects, too much stress and feeling crabby while waiting for it to be over is not the point.  Just keep saying to yourself, "I have nothing to prove." And let 'em make their own sandwiches.

While cleaning some stuff out, I came across a very simple runner pattern in the October, 2000 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.  I had saved the pattern many years ago and filed it away.  The border fabric I used is actually what's pictured in the magazine.  I really loved it and bought a bunch as I knew it would eventually go away. The project was quick and easy and I did only the most basic of quilting in about an hour.  I trimmed the batting and backing separately so I could just fold the backing over the front to finish instead of cutting separate binding.

It will live on my kitchen table for a few weeks.
Is it original?  No
Is every point perfect? No
Is every quilting stitch where it should be?  No
Will something probably get spilled on it?  Hey, it's me.  Of course.
Will I worry about any of the above?  NO

It was quick.  It was fun.  It's cute.  End of story.