Some cook, I sew and write: creativity brings joy

I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas!  We did!  Two of my kids were here at home and we got to chat for a good long time with my son who is serving a mission in California.  That made Christmas real! Our Christmas tree decorations have been years in the making.  We add ornaments every year that have something to do with events of that year.  This year we purchased an ornament from the Cincinnati Museum Center in the shape of a train in remembrance of the many times I took our kids to the museum when they were kids.  The train ornament reminded me of a train set they played with for YEARS!  Now that our kids are beginning to leave home, it makes those memories precious.   I also bought another ornament in honor of my son in California, but it hasn't arrived yet.  Onward to my Christmas quilt, which I've been afraid wasn't going to keep progressing now that Christmas is over.  It got stalled when I was sick, the...

In the last few days, I've finished enough blocks to bring the total to 36.  I think I'm going to settle with that and make a square quilt.  So my next challenge is how to put up a design board to lay up the blocks. Additionally, I've been resting.  Sunday my family and I went to choir practice to prepare for an ecumenical service, and I came home with a bad case of laryngitis.  Monday I wasn't better; it turned into a full-fledged cold.  <grumble, grumble> The weather turned cold too so I've been staying home with this: I love honey vanilla chamomile tea!  Recently I discovered Integral Collagen from Trim Healthy Mama so I've been adding a teaspoon of the collagen into my tea.  It doesn't do much to the taste, but it's good for hair, skin, and nails.  As a wife and mother, chief cook and bottle washer, sewist, accountant, and whatever else is needed, I am in need of extra help in that department!  Believe me when I say I've d...

Has anyone else felt a little bit of rebellion when you hear something like "Easy Peasy Fat Quarter Quilt"?  Would it be safe to say that anyone who has ever pieced together a quilt top might feel that way?  Then again, I have seen quilters do exactly that, but they have been quilting for a l-o-n-g time and are pretty fast. Personally, I think we need a Quilter's Dictionary.  I nominate a couple of definitions. Easy :   Relative easy with repetitive cuts and sewing.  1) Often is used in conjunction with buying precuts and using them as they are and then sewing them together.  2) Sometimes it means that you will be joining like pieces of fabric cut in the same shape (usually square) into a block, then sewing the blocks together.  3) Frequently used to suggest that the designer found a way to make a very complicated quilt in a more simple manner for the same end result. Quick :   This has nothing to do with the phrase "in a minute" unless y...

Today started early because . . . well, because I woke up early! First, I got another square done before remembering that my daughter had asked if I would cut out fabric for a new bag for her.  Her high school doesn't allow them to carry backpacks or even large bags so she has created themed bags for each month.  September was fall leaves, October for Halloween, November a Snoopy themed Thanksgiving, and her Christmas bag is just now created.  She has made reversible bags so the inside has one theme and the outside another.  This one has a blue interior for January snow and a Christmas exterior.   It isn't your imagination:  that's a really long strap so she can wear it as a cross-body bag.  The bag measures 12 1/2" across and 12" high with a 42" strap.  We used Kristen Link's reversible bag on the Craftsy platform as the model for it.  Hers is different but we modified this because it is a fairly small bag.  It holds my...

In a former life, I wrote, edited, and published technical documentation and user manuals as well as policies and procedures. Now, ask me how well I read them now. Or don't.  Because I'd hate to have to confess to not doing what I used to get slightly peeved that others didn't do. Ahem. Yesterday I called the sewing machine dealer to see if I could get the quilting foot because my fabric was pushing the fabric ahead of the presser foot.  I remembered that the walking foot (or even feed foot) helped but I'd also heard of the free motion quilting foot.  The lady who answered very kindly told me I already had it; it came  with  the machine.  Hmm.  I scheduled a private sewing lesson for January, but then decided I really ought to open the book.  The instruction book. Walla! The free motion quilting foot: And while I was at it, foot O (for 1/4" seams): The instructions to use the quilting foot were there along with darning inst...

Recently I read a post from Mabey She Made It listing some of her favorite beginning tools.  That got me thinking about my favorite tools.  Here are some of mine (some are elementary tools that are often assumed.)  Oops--we need to get our hose into the shed for the winter! My most important players when I'm sewing are: * Tape measure * Pins * Magnetic pin catcher Gingher shears (love Ginger shears!!!)  *Good shears are essential but Fiskars are good enough. Fiskars pinking shears (Didn't have the budget for more Gingher shears since I was also outfitting my daughter with her own sewing supplies!  I like these though.) Seam gauge Olga 45 mm cutting blade (I recently caved into cost pressures and bought a 50% off Fiskars 60mm cutting blade--love the size but don't love the mechanism--not smooth.  I want the automatically locking Olga blade for safety reasons.) * Seam ripper  * Janome S5 Skyline sewing machine  Husqvar...

"Finished is better than perfect," says Jenny at Missouri Star Quilt Co. I heartily agree. I grew up hating WIPs. My mother taught me that because she always had half-finished projects from Relief Society work meetings. Relief Society is the women's organization in our church. She was in the organization's leadership, organizing and overseeing the function, so she never had enough time to finish the projects. I think the only completed projects we had were those that the sweet sisters in the Relief Society made for my mother. What sweet gifts! (Eventually, my mother threw out all of her WIPs, making those gifts even sweeter!) Having said that, I've added several tutorials from other very creative (and skilled) ladies. My latest favorite blogger is from Freshly Pieced. Maybe eventually I'll advance to buying a book! In the meantime, I keep drooling over different pieces of fabric and jelly rolls. I really, really want to mak...

When I was looking through all the fabulous online tutorials, I found the name Amy Gibson teaching a class on Craftsy.  She instructed one of the BOM quilts, and I enjoyed her style and clear explanations so I went searching online for her.  Finding her blog, Stitchery Dickory Dock, I read this one and then this one and was especially intrigued by the Disappearing Nine-Patch tutorial.  She only explained how to make the block, but I started thinking that would be a good entry-level quilt. So I've started with fabric in my stash.  My mother sewed and taught me to sew and sewers generally collect fabric.  I certainly have! I cut lots of 5" squares.  Eight fabrics of 40 squares and one of 80 if I remember correctly.  I'm hoping that's enough.  Doing it my usual way, I simply plunged in without deciding how big I want the quilt to be or even how big the squares will be.  I think they are turning out to be about 14" square, but I still haven...

Last week I finished my most ambitious project yet.  A dress.  The pattern displayed a sundress with lightly gathered straps that I pictured as a different color and print with a coordinating shirt underneath.  Or even white with a bright pink or tie-dye shirt.  I don't do black or white underneath unless those colors are integral to the dress nor am I enamored with putting shrugs  over the top.  They often ruin the look and are too hot for summer anyway. Here's the pattern: When my daughter saw it, however, she wanted to wear to make a white dress to perform her soliloquy that she wrote for a character from  Way of Kings  in her English class because that's the way she pictured her character.  However, she wanted sleeves rather than a strap with shirt. How hard could it be to modify the pattern?  My mother did things like that for me all the time when I was growing up.  Umm, yeah.  Perish the thought. At first I t...

After I bought my new Janome, I let it sit for a little bit and mostly looked at different projects that I could try. I even bought a jacket course from Craftsy but have yet to purchase fabric for that jacket.  Someday I will!!! But I'm chicken and only made simple things at first.  After all, it has been a few  years  decades since my mother taught me to sew, and I've only made a few things in between.  Mother had to rescue a few of those projects like my daughter's pioneer dress, pinafore, and bonnet because the directions were so very, very confusing to me.  Mother was an amateur seamstress only because she would never sew for pay.  She always said her time was too expensive, and the price would take any item she might sell to sky-high levels.  She made things as gifts sometimes but never for pay. Then I discovered diaper clutches.  They are simple, require minimal lengths of fabric, and seem like a good idea.  I like the patte...

I love my husband.  I love him for lots of reasons, but this time it is for telling me to buy a new sewing machine.  Let me be clear.  I already had a nice Viking that I took into the store for some maintenance.  I don't sew a lot--okay, very minimally, like repairs and hems.  However, I had been playing with the idea of sewing crafty items of some sort to sell.  I could have done that with my not-so-basic Viking, but the ladies at Luke's showed me the latest and greatest Janome sewing machine.  They would have shown me the embroidery machine, but I drew the line at the cost.  So I learned what their best deal was (a really good offer), and I went home to think about it and (hopefully) forget.  I'm sure the saleslady didn't expect to see me again. But I mentioned it to my husband.  Like immediately before I left the store.  Okay, I texted him about it because he works a regular day job and it was mid-day, mid-week.  And he ...