I’ve never met a challenge or round robin that I didn’t like.  A round robin is a quilt that is made by a group of quilters,  There are usually four to six people that will work on the quilt.  Each person makes the center of the quilt.  It is placed in a bag with fabric for the other quilters to use.  The other quilters may also add their own fabric. The bag is passed to the other quilters in order.  There is a time deadline for making the next border, usually one month.   Some round robins have themes such as holidays, seasons or fabric types.  Other round robins have criteria such as shapes, colors size, etc. When all the borders are made, the quilt goes back to the original quilter to quilt and it is theirs.

Several years ago, I belonged to a group known as the Tuesday night quilters.  We made a round robin using the following criteria,  Triangles, applique, squares or rectangles, curves, and anything goes for the last border.  I wondered how it would be if I made two centers, passed one on to the other quilters and pieced the other with my ideas.

 

The quilt that was made by others turned out to be a very light quilt.  It is about one inch smaller that the other.  I liked the added buttons,.  The light blue fabric must have been what I included in the bag as it showed up again in both outer borders.

 

The quilt that I made, is much darker and the applique is not in the right sequence.

 

It’s amazing how different a quilt will be with different designers starting at the same place.

Have a great day and happy quilting

 

A quick breakfast for one usually is an English muffin or a bowl of cereal.  Here is a recipe for a different breakfast.  It does take a little longer to make, but is worth it.

French Toast Casserole – Butter a small casserole dish.  Add 1  Tbsp.. butter and 2 Tbsp. brown sugar,  Microwave for 20 seconds or until butter is melted and sugar is dissolver.  Cut two slices of bread into one inch cubes and place on top of melted butter and sugar.  In a bowl, mix 1/4 cup milk, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 2 Tbsp. sugar, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Pour mixture over bread crumbs, pressing pieces to help absorb liquid.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  Drizzle maple syrup over casserole.   Cover and refrigerate over night.  In the morning, preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Bake for 30 minutes.   Drizzle a small amount of maple syrup over casserole before eating.

While casserole is baking,  brew coffee and cook bacon.  Do you want crispy bacon?  After placing in pan and turning heat on, pour a little less than 1/4″ of water into pan.  Cover for a few minutes.  After taking cover off, fry bacon, turning occasionally,  until it is lightly brown and the water is gone.  It will be crispy and delicious. I usually cook double the amount of bacon and use half in another recipe.

If you use bacon only on occasion, divide the remaining bacon in package into single servings.  Place in snack baggies and place snack baggies in a freezer bag.  Label it with the date and place in the freezer.  If you want bacon at a later date, take out one small package and thaw.  If you have company, take out two packages.

 

 

Remember to use your best dishes, silver and glassware.  What are you saving them for?  Have a great day and keep quilting

I wonder why I have so many UFOs.  There has to be a reason.  This week, I made a table runner from a stripped piece that I had spiraled.  I learned this technique in a pocket book class in Vermont.  I’m not sure why we did this.  I never did make a pocket book from that class.

 

This is how to spiral.  Fold a piece of fabric down at a 45 degree angle.  Place the machine needle 1/4″ from all sides at the point of the top fabric.

 

 

turn fabric so sides meet and sew to the end.

Press the tube flat.

 

 

 

cut up one side and the fabric will now be on a diagonal.

 

 

 

Now I know why I did not finish the UFO.  Stripes do not line up when doing this.  Some UFOs should be “left of the back seat of a bus” or at least tossed into the mile a minute bin,  I will be more careful in choosing UFOs in the future.  Some are not worth finishing.

Happy quilting.

At this time of year, there are only thoughts about gardening.  Spring is not far away when we can put our thoughts in action.

One of my favorite spring flowers is the poppy.  The colors are so beautiful.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t last too long.  But, there are other beauties that follow.

The bud of the poppy is exceptionally beautiful.  It looks like a quilted picture.  On the theme of choosing flower colors for quilts, these are some of the fabrics that I pulled from my stash to make a block.  Maybe, by next week, I can show the block made with these colors.

When the poppy bud opens, it is a brilliant orange with a very deep purple center. I would never think to put these two colors into a block.   These colors, along with a multitude of greens makes a very different block than the bud block.  

 

 

If I make flower blocks each week, I would eventually have a very pretty sampler quilt.  Do I really need another long term quilt?   Now that I have this thought is in my head, I probably will.  I could put it together with making all the blocks in Kimberly Einmo’s book.  I need to stop thinking and get to quilting.

Have a happy quilting day.

Kimberly Einmo is my favorite teacher.  I use her flying geese and jelly roll ruler in a lot of my quilts.  She also writes an article for the AQS magazine.  Someday, I intend to make all of the blocks in Kimberly’s book.  The blocks are different sizes and use her rulers to make them.  I wonder how many quilts I can make when I make all the blocks.  It would use up a lot of scraps.  This would probably be my next long term quilt.

This quilt was made in a class at the Vermont Quilt Festival.  Dave LaValley from the Bittersweet Fabric Shop provides Janome machine for the class.  It is much easier to sew in a class with a machine that you are familiar with.  There is a lot of twisting and turning of the blocks in this quilt.  A design wall was definitely needed to arrange it.

Kimberly designed this row of the month wall hanging for AQS magazine.  I didn’t use her colors and it is a much different quilt than hers.  It was necessary to have an accurate 1/4″ seam as the block sizes were different.   If the measurement was off, the rows would not be the same length.

I do have another wall hanging from a class with Kimberly.  It is in my stash of UFOs and will be finished someday.

Happy quilting

Good afternoon

Gaa-Barge #2

I first make fabric with tiny bits of scrap fabric.  After laying the scraps on a base,  I overlaid it with tulle.  I auditioned several colors of tulle until I found the right one.  Then I free motioned black leaves over the made fabric.  I cut the new fabric into circles and cut the circles in quarters.  Laying the quarter circles on a square of blue, I stitched it down.  After sewing the squares in a sixteen patch, I sewed around the made fabric with a close, black zig zag.  The whole piece was then stippled quilted with silver thread.  It looks like a church window.  It’s amazing what can be done with very tiny scraps that should be thrown away.

Happy quilting

A long Term Quilt is one that I work on a little bit at a time and will take a long time to finish.  I might work on one a few minutes a day or just pick it up to work on when I feel like it.  They will eventually get finished.

I have finished the Canadian Women 150 quilt.  It was started in December 2016 and finished in February 2018.  I made three blocks a week for 50 weeks.  The quilt was hand quilted in two rows of twelve blocks and then the panels were sewn together.  The interesting part of this project was the stories of 150 different Canadian women,  The quilt has been inspected by Miss Molly, my quality control inspector, and she has deemed it fit to sleep under.

I am working on a Grandmother’s Garden quilt which I inherited from my mother.  She had pieced twelve blocks and basted paper on several hexagons.  There were no instructions on how to put these blocks together, but after a time, I figured it out.  I also bought some fabric that look like the era of the fabric that she had used.  The quilt is hand pieced. It is the quilt that I piece when I go to meetings or friends houses.   I keep the pieces in a bag with the thread, etc. so that I can pick it up anytime I’m ready to go.  My friends are asking me how many more blocks, when will it be done.  I think that I should make it a priority and finish it.

Even Miss Molly says “Get it done!!”

 

 

Happy quilting

Good morning.

What is a single serving?  It would be different for a young, active person than for a person who spends the day at the computer or sewing machine.  Everyone should judge what their personal single serving is and find what is just right for them.

When I started single cooking, I also downsized my pots and pans. It make it much easier to cook smaller when the pots and pans are small.

 

Some of my favorites are  a set of covered glass dishes that can go in the oven, to the table and then to the freezer if there are any leftovers.

A  7″ pie plate will make a small pie that is just right. You could make many different kinds of pies with the very tiny pie plate. Little doughnut bakers can be used for doughnuts, molded jello or little cakes.  The metal pans are just right for a meat loaf for one.  With several of these pans, I can make a regular size meatloaf and freeze several for a later date.

There will be less leftover when cooking in the small crock pot.   The large crock pot isn’t used very much, but I do use it when I take something to a pot luck dinner.  I made the most delicious small pot roast in the small crock pot.  The gravy was yummy. Some of the left over pot roast and gravy were placed in the freezer to warm up some night when I didn’t feel like cooking.

By the way, the most important appliance in the kitchenfor single cooking is a freezer.  Leftovers can be frozen, labled with content and date.  If you cook for two for a month, you can eat free for the next month by freezing half of the meal.  Not all meals can be frozen.  Some dishes are better heated up in the regular oven than in the microwave.  Experiment to find out which is best.  If you use only part of a can of tomato sauce or paste or anything else, freeze what you don’t use in ice cube trays.  Then pop them out and place in a freezer baggie.  Then you will have just the right amount for your recipies.

Here are some examples of my other small dishes.

 

 

 

Portion control is very hard when cooking for one.  We were taught to clean our plate so we tend to eat more than we should.  I have even downsized my dinner plate.  If I’m still hungry or it is really good, I can go back for a second helping.

Enjoy your day.  Keep quilting and cooking.

Good morning

This week’s finished UFO is an easy one.  One of my favorite little quilts to make has an embroidery in the center with two borders.  The center is stippled quilted and the borders have a feather stitch.  I practice different fillers on the center   background.  They are great littl pieces to practice different stippling patterns.

I don’t know why I made this embroidery.  Just a practice piece or trying out new threads?  It will go in my gift box to await a new owner.

Hsve a great day.  Keep quilting.

Good morning.  A few years ago,  I made a mission statement.  I would take cut off scraps, any fabric from the waste basket or floor and make a litle quilt.  I would make one each week for a year and add them to the series even if they were bad. I woud call the project “Garbage to Gaa-Barge.” It was so much fun, I became know as the lady that robbed waste baskets at classes.  Fellow class members started putting their scraps on my table and wondering what I was going to do with them,  This worked well for 32 weeks and then gardening took over my time.  This year, I will finish the project and have all 52 quilts.  The first one is 18″ x 22″  It is made with triangles cut off when sewing and flipping corners.  Each little red square has eight pieces.

This little quilt is just right for a doll quilt.

Have a great day.