I am still organizing the attic.  I found several boxes of fabric that I use for pocketbooks, tote bags and pillows.  The fabric has been combined into one bin.  I hope that I don’t find any more as the bin is full.  If I do, I’ll just have to make more pocketbooks.

Today, I’ll show you the fancy pocketbooks.  It is so much fun to make them, but I only have them for decoration, not to use.

The first is a two sided bag  It is 8 1/2″ x 10″  The dragon side is stipple quilted.  The Flower side is heavily quilted with gold thread before the flowers were added.

 

 

 

 

The underwater pocketbook is 4″ x 7″.  Embroideries were sewn on made fabric.  It was then stipple quilted.  Gold and fancy cording was couched on the scene.  The coral was made on wash away stabilizer.  Beads and seashells were added.  Each of the four sides is a different underwater scene.

     

The little purse is 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″.  It is also made with made fabric.  It is stippled quilted and then gold and silver cords are couched on the piece.  A small embroidery is on the flap.

 

 

 

The last purse is 6″ x 6″.  Green fabric was sewn into made fabric.  It was quilted using the built in embroidery stitches in the machine.  The decorations were couched on.  They ae a rosy pink, which is a nice contrast to the green purse.

 

 

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I am still up to date on my challenge of finishing one UFO a week.  The UFO bin is not getting any smaller as I am cleaning the attic and finding many more UFOs.

UFO  –   I bought the dragon fly fabric just because I liked it and the blue dragon flies was a companion fabric.  I didn’t know how I would use it when I bought it.  The table runner was pieced, but not quilted. The border is quilted with a walking foot and the center is free motion quilted around the dragon flies.    I will keep this table mat and not put it in the give away bin.

 

 

 

 

Two of my Granddaughters are  expecting babies.  This is the first one finished.  It will go into the mail today on it’s way to a baby shower.  I originally bought the cat fabric and intended to use it on the front of the quilt.  I couldn’t cut it up so decided to use it on the back.  The front is made with nine patches, using all the cat colors.  I made two different color nine patches.  One was blue and purple and the other orange,  green and yellow.  When sewn together, It almost looks like an Irish Chain.

I am quilting the second baby quilt and will show it next week.

Have a great day and happy quilting

Garden catalogues are still arriving in my mail box.  The snow is leaving slowly and it’s almost time to start working in the garden.  Last fall I planted garlic that I bought at a farmers market.  I bought three different kinds of garlic.  I’m waiting to see if they survived the winter.

I love day lilies.  Every time they start blooming, I say that that one is my favorite.  They are so beautiful, even if a blossom lasts only one day.    The yellow ones are so bright and the orange and magenta ones so striking.

For those new to my blog, I match fabric to the colors in a picture of flowers and then make a block from Kimberly Einmo’s Block book.  I am making 10″ blocks.  The blocks today are the 7th and 8th in this series.

         

    

I’m still not sure how many blocks I will need or how I will sew them together into a quilt.  Until I do,  I will have another UFO.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

Several years ago, I bought a book called Miss Rosie’s Spice of Life by Carrie L Nelson.  There are 13 quilt designs in the book. When I showed it to my daughter, I remarked that I liked every quilt in the book and I would make them all.  She challenged me to make all the quilts from my stash and I counter challenged her to make them all, also.    All the quilts were made from our fabric stashes.  Even though we thought that our stashes would diminish, they did not.   It took over one year for each of us to make all thirteen quilts. I machine quilted mine and she sent hers to a long arm quilter as she still worked full time.  We were so happy to sew the last stitch on this project.

This is the first quilt in the book.  It is called Whirligig.

 

 

I made mine using solid fabrics with a black background.

Hers was done in browns, reds yellow and beige.

 

It was fun to see how different colors made the quits look very different.

Look for Miss Rosie #2 next week.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

This week’s Gaa – Barge is a very small piece.  It is only 9 1/2″ x 10″.  The pattern is called Chinese Coins and is so very easy to make.  It is made from very small scraps.

 

It uses an adding machine tape for the stabilizer.  The tape is easy to remove when sewing is finished.

Flip and sew scraps onto the adding machine tape.  Make sure that they fill the whole tape plus a little.

 

 

This is the back side of the tape.

 

 

Place a rotary cutting ruler on the edge and trim sides away.

 

When both sides are trimmed, the strip is straight and even.  Remove tape and insert strip between sashing.  Add a border.

 

 

Quilt  as desired or, using built in embroidery stitches on the machine, cover each seam,  It is a quick and easy quilt.

Now that I look at this little quilt, I may make a full size quilt from my basket of mile a minute scraps.  If I sew on the tape for just a few minutes a day, I can have another quilt top without much effort for my UFO pile.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

My husband’s Grandmother made Grandmother Flower Quilts in her spare time.  She worked hard, sometimes taking in laundry.  She was a midwife, going with a doctor to the new mother’s  home when a baby was delivered and then staying for a while to take care of the new mother and the baby.  When I met her, she was a companion and aide for an elderly woman. 

 

I inherited one of her quilts from my mother in law.  Nana’s quilts were perfect. She used scraps from her sewing .  Anyone interesting in dating fabrics, would find a goldmine in her quilts.  This one looks as if it was made in the thirties or forties. She tied all her quilts.

When I was a young mother, Nana taught me how to make the quilt.  I placed green where she had green and the centers were yellow.  My fabrics are from the fifties.  I used scraps from the skirts that I made for my girls and some from Nana’s sewing.  My quilt is hand quilted.  

 

 

 

My mother also made a Grandmother’s Flower garden and was making another when she passed away.  I am still sewing on that quilt and will show both of them at a later date.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

My maternal grandmother made quilts, but was not known as a quilter.  She was an artist and the curator of a museum. Also, an excellent cook and seamstress.   In her later life, she traveled across the United States and kept journals of all her travels.  Fortunately, her father was a photographer and the family has pictures of her during her childhood.

My mother had inherited one of her quilts and when she downsized asked me if I wanted to keep this quilt.  I was honored to receive it.  At first glance, it looks like squares sewn together, but standing back, there is a definite pattern.

Each square was bordered with a hand sewn feather stitch.

 

 

As I photographed the quilt on the living room sofa, I noticed that the living room rug was one that she hand hooked.  I recently took out the carpet and had Pergo put down in two rooms.  This rug was in the attic, so I brought it down stairs to use until I could find a new rug.  I like it so much, it is going to stay.

 

Miss Molly, my quality control inspector,  had to check the quilt.  Yes, she can see through all that hair.  That is her winter coat.  She will look much different next month when she goes for her vacation and spa treatment.

 

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I haven’t written the Single Gourmet blog for a while.  I either haven’t make anything worth writing about or forgot to take a picture.  It is still hard to cut recipes down for just one.  I still cook for two or more and have lots of left overs.

Yesterday, I wanted to make pizza.  I do have a good recipe for two 7″ pizzas. There is no waiting for the dough to rise.

Recipe:  Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Ingredients :  1 1/2 tsp. dry yeast   1/2 tsp. sugar   1/2 c warm water   1 1/4 c flour   1 Tbsp. olive oil   1/2 tsp. salt.

Dissolve yeast and sugar in water.  Let set for 10 minutes.  Add flour, oil and salt.. Beat until smooth.  I use the dough hook in the stand mixer.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured board.  Let rest for 5 minutes.  I put a bowl over the dough.

 

 

 

Cut into two pieces. At this point, you can make two pizzas or freeze one for a later date.  You could also make one larger pizza from the whole dough.  Roll into a circle.  If you like a thin crust, roll it thin.   Transfer crust to a lightly greased pan.  I use 7″ pie tins.  Add desired toppings.  Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

I used cheese, pizza sauce, and pepperoni on one pizza.     

I didn’t want two pizzas, so wondered how it would be if I made a dessert pizza using one apple, some raisins, nuts, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  It was not very good.  It would have been better with a pie crust, not a pizza crust.  Not wanting to throw it away, I whisked one egg with 1/2 c milk and a little sugar, cut up the dessert pizza and baked it for 30 minutes at 350.  Delicious bread pudding.

Usually, I make my own red sauce, but I was lazy and bought a can at the store.  There was some left over, so I froze it in little tins.  I’ll take it out of the tins, transfer it to freezer bags and put it back in the freezer for later use.

 

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I looked up the definition of friends on the internet.  It says a person who one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection.  Then I pulled an old Funk and Wagnalls dictionary from the shelf and found these synonyms – chum, coadjutor, colleague, companion, comrade, consort. fellow, helpmate, partner, peer, an associate.  Then the dictionary went on to tell how the terms were applied to the word friend.

In our lives, we have many different friends.  Some are neighbors, some belong to a group that you belong to, some are classmates from the past, some just pass through your life, making it better for a while.  Friends come and go.  We do loose track of some, but we pick up right where we left off if we meet again.  Most of our friends do not know our other friends.

One of my group of friends is my Maine Guild.  Every year, we have  a Christmas in July pot luck supper .  What great cooks!  We have great food and lots of fun. After we eat, we  have a Yankee swap.  We swap ’til we drop.  It is so much fun.  During different years, I have had the privilege of going home with three wall hangings made by friends.

Nancy’s wall hanging was the first one that I received when the swap was over.  Her quilts were perfect.  It is 15″ x 19″  Another year, she received  a small wall hanging that I made.

 

 

 

I always wanted something from Shirley.  She is a master of the mini quilt.  This one is 17″ x 19″ I had watched her work on this quilt at another group meeting and really liked it.  Every year, at the Yankee swap when I got something from Shirley, someone took it away from me.  I thought that I would loose this little quilt, but the last person in the swap chose something else.

I went home with Claire’s quilt the last year that Claire was with us.  She moved to Florida and I have such fond memories of her.  I could have swapped for other items, but I wanted a memory of Claire.

 

Three friends, three quilts, three memories.

Have a great day and happy quilting

 

I have finished two ufos.

The first was made from two paper pieced flowers.  I don’t remember why I made them.  They have been in my stash for a long time.  My sister in law gave me a toilet paper cover for Christmas.  It was knit in Christmas colors,  As pretty as it was, when the season was gone, I put it away.  The two flowers looked about the same size so using the knit piece as a pattern,  I designed a cover.  I enjoy adding piping to quilt pieces so piped around the top.  It looks like Spring.

Last June, I had a class at the Vermont Quilt Festival with David Taylor.  He taught Invisible machine applique.  It is an quick,easy, and fun technique.  The piece, Under the Apple Tree,  was completely appliqued in the class.  Then it has sat in my ufo stash until this week.  It just needed the border added, quilting and binding.  It is 12″ x 12″ so didn’t take long.

There are still lots of ufos in the basket.  More to come later  I’m still making my goal of one finished ufo a week.

Have a great day and happy quilting.