SAL progress, and gift exchanges

Earlier this year I mentioned a SAL Lori, at Humble Quilts blog,  was hosting. She is making red and neutral Tree of Life blocks--2 per month for the year (intro to SAL HERE, instructions for block HERE). I wanted motivation to work on a two-color quilt I have in the works, so though I am using a different block and a different color, I decided to join in on her schedule. (The house placement didn't look so tipsy until I looked at them in this post.)

I started out making house blocks from a magazine pattern about 4 years ago, and only had 5 made when I bought the AccuQuilt Schoolhouse die. They are 1 1/2 inches smaller than the first 5 blocks, but I get them made much quicker. You can see how I am toying with ways to fit the mismatched sized blocks together in a type of center "medallion". The rest of the quilt will have sashing and cornerstone blocks, like the original magazine pattern I started making.

The quilt shop over the mountain (Village Dry Goods) has added a large classroom area, and once a month they host something there that they call "Chitchat, Finish That." Ruth, a good friend from my guild, and I tried it for the first time this month.

It can accommodate about 20 people, but there were only around 15 there this time. I took the photo when a few were still at lunch. It is a great space, with ironing stations, and a large cutting table--and the table in the center was for shared snacks. I like that there is a shelf above each table. A nice place for your phone, and drink, without losing them in the clutter, or spilling on your project.

My earlier efforts on this house quilt had yielded 16 blocks, but I haven't made any in the last couple of years. So last week I got my six house blocks for the SAL from January through March completed during the 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. "Chitchat" timeframe. I made my first April block at home the next day, and I have my other April block, plus my first May block, cut and waiting. I will be caught up very soon.

Ruth and I agreed that it was well worth the $10 fee to have a dedicated day to be able to really focus and make good progress without the distractions that surround you at home. I will be out of town on the next  Chitchat day in May, but we have already secured our spots for June.

I don't often post gifts from other bloggers, but I just have to share the amazing things that came home with me from Australia and New Zealand. Seeing it all together took my breath away.

   L to R: Chooky, Lou, Janice

    L to R: Julie, Raewyn, Betty

Thanks to everyone--can't say that enough! I love it all, and I have to mention some things that are missing from the photos. Raewyn and I have the same auto-immune disease, and when I was diagnosed, she gave me a lot of good advise. So along with the tea towel (I love getting tea towels from the places we visit) and the cute kiwi bag she made, she had also baked a banana cake and a batch of ginger cookies for me. I love home baked goods, but usually only eat what I bake, due to the precautions you must take with celiac disease. But I knew I could trust Raewyn's baking, and I was excited to have baked goods again after two weeks without. I tore into the banana cake with my bare hands on the spot (Raewyn and Julie can attest to that). I also nibbled on ginger cookies all evening and had them for breakfast the next morning. I should have taken photos before I started consuming. Right above Raewyn's gift is Lou's, and you may be able to tell that the jar of homemade jam is not full. That was hubby's doing. He had dipped into it before I could get a photo. Lovely jam. (And that Tim Tam package is empty, but I saved it for the photo. I can't get the gluten free ones here, so it was a treat to eat them while I could.) It is all so thoughtful, from the teeny Japanese house pincushion Julie made, to the local-themed fabrics, bag, and everything in between. Thank you, my friends!

This is the only sewing I did through January and February. Two of then stayed here in the states as gifts for friends, but the rest of them came with me on the cruise. They were in little gift packages that I forgot to photograph, so I lifted the photo below from Julie's blog. If you read her post about our visit, you will know that she lifted a photo from my blog for her post, so this makes me chuckle. :) Thanks, Julie, for sharing this photo. (Her backdrops are always so much prettier than mine.)

If you follow Julie's blog you will know right away why I made her mug rug in the soft floral prints, rather than the bold polka dots. 

One more thing to mention about gifts. My friend, Kris, at Lavender Quilts blog, is a generous gifter. Recently I received a box that contained a Block-of-the-month type kit. Monthly patterns came with the fabrics you needed. Kris figured I wouldn't make the quilt (the blocks are 12" and that is a little large for me) but she knew the fabrics were right up my alley. So I have her okay to offer the pattern to anyone who thinks they might like to make the quilt, or just use the block patterns in some other setting, making them with their own fabrics. The back of each monthly pattern has information about a General's wife from the Civil War. All of the fabric requirements, cutting and assembly instructions are included. And though I couldn't find a finished quilt size anywhere, based on the cutting of the final borders, it should finish just under 90" square. You could make the last border a little wider to go over the 90" mark. Remember, this giveaway is for the patterns only--no fabrics.

Mention in a comment if you are interested. If there is more than one interested party, I will draw a name in a week or so.

Until next time,

Be creative, and be kind.

Janet O.

A couple of days after we returned from our trip, I caught this sunrise.

Come Saturday Morning

(With apologies to writers Dory Previn and Fred Karlin, and recording artists "The Sandpipers" for all the times I made the word "friend" plural in their song.)

Come Saturday morning (Saturday, March 1st, Sydney Australia), 

L to R: Betty, Janice, Chooky, Leah (Chooky's friend--no blog), Stephanie, Loi and Kevin (my friends and traveling companions), Hubby Gregg, Me, Julie (Chooky's friend and "neighbor" that sometimes joins her in the Chookshed during our Zoom sessions--aka Jules). We all enjoyed lunch and visiting at City Extra at Circular Quay.

I'm going away with my friends.

A Harbor cruise past the Sydney Opera House, and Jules and I dipped our toes in the ocean at Manly Beach, while Janice cheered us on. (How did my pants get so wet if I just dipped my toes?)

We'll Saturday spend till the end of the day.

Leah, Jules, Janice, Betty, Steph, Chooky on the Harbor Cruise to Manly Wharf.

Just I and my friends,

Steph, Betty, Janice, Jules, and Chooky among the flowers outside the Customs House, and Janice, Steph and Chooky listen to the piano player in the QVB.

We'll travel for miles in our Saturday smiles.

Traveling in Sydney, and then dining and visiting back at my hotel.

And then we'll move on,

But we will remember,

Long after Saturday's gone.

The last remaining gals say goodbyes outside my hotel before their Uber picked them up. We had so much fun together. It was an amazing day.

Come Saturday morning (poetic license here--this was Tuesday, March 11, Timaru, New Zealand)

Lou took us to a fun town, Geraldine, and The Geraldine Cheese Company has great ice cream! She knew all the right people and places, and we felt well cared for. She was a delightful guide and fun companion, and felt like an old friend.

I'm going away with my friend.

At the Timaru Botanical Garden--beautiful birds and plants. 

We'll Saturday laugh more than half of the day,

After two fabric stores, ice cream, a couple of other shops and a walk about in the Timaru Botanical Garden, we wet our whistle at a local pub near our shuttle bus pickup. Lou had a hot chocolate, while hubby and I got cold sodas. We know how to party!

 
Just I and my friend, Dressed up in our rings and our Saturday things,

Final farewells at the shuttle pickup.

And then we'll move on, but we will remember long after Saturday's gone.



Come Saturday morning (Saturday, March 15, Tauranga, New Zealand), Come Saturday morning,

Me, Raewyn, and Julie on a walk around The Mount in Tauranga.

Come Saturday morning, just I and my friends.

Liquid refreshment and a good chat. So easy to visit, like we had known each other forever.

We'll travel for miles in our Saturday smiles.

A view from our walk, and the Mount in the background when we finished.

And then we'll move on,

Wading at the beach.

But we will remember

Raewyn found a live starfish, and we each had a fully intact sand dollar by the time we finished our shoreline walk in the water.

Long after Saturday's gone.

Come Saturday morning.

Saying goodbyes as we go our separate ways.

                                                                   

Hubby and I spent an epic two weeks in Australia and New Zealand with a couple of our friends. During that time I had the rare opportunity and privilege of meeting up with nine lovely women, most of whom I had already met online via Chooky's Zoom sessions, some of whom I had already "known" for many years through their blogs. What a treat it was, and my deepest thanks go out to all who made the effort and took the time from busy schedules to spend a few hours with me. I will hold these memories dear!

Until next time,

Be creative and be kind.

Janet O.

Sunset over the Rocky Mountains from the airplane window as we approach home.

 

Still kickin'!

For some time now I have been telling myself that I need to write a post, but then I did't feel like I had much to share. The bulk of the sewing I have done this year is stuff I cannot yet reveal. But when I looked back at my last post, I was not pleased to see I hadn't posted since December!?! Yikes! Well this post will be brief, because hubby and I are about to take off on another adventure, and I need to get some sleep before morning comes.

I am happy to report that the basket blocks from Grace (citymousequilter blog) have been sewn into a top. I had to change the setting triangles from what I had shown before, due to a cutting error on my part. But I like the new fabric choice.

I debated border vs. no border, and I think I have settled on no border. As is, it will hang nicely in my sewing room. Any larger, and I don't have a place to hang it. Thank you for the lovely baskets, Grace!

The next thing up on the design wall is the house blocks I started in 2021, I believe. You may notice that there are two sizes of blocks on the wall. 

I started out using a magazine pattern, and then ended up buying the AccuQuilt die. It cuts smaller blocks, but I have a plan to incorporate both sizes in the same quilt, loosely following the same layout in the pattern I used when I started out.

Lori, of Humble Quilts blog, is hosting a SAL of an entirely different 2 color quilt, making 2 blocks per month. When I return from my adventure, I plan to join the SAL, using this block instead. It will get me close to the number of blocks I need if I can stay with it through the year.

This is nothing new, but it is new that I am actually using this quilt on my bed. I made the top many years ago when Randy (Barrister's Block blog) hosted a SAL.

This is made entirely from men's thrift store shirts. I enjoy looking closely at the fabrics in each block. I should have known better and turned the baskets the other way. I always like the longest measurement of a quilt across the width of the bed. So I have two baskets on their side. Can you find them both?

We have had some snow lately, and with the moisture in the air, and then the very cold temperatures at night, we had some lovely hoarfrost one recent morning. It turns everything into an enchanting fairyland, IMHO.

That is not snow on the branches. It is all hoarfrost on the trees, but it is snow on the ground. :)

And when you get really close, you can see the crystals that have formed and are sticking out in every direction. The following photos are of the miniature lights that were still wrapped around our deck railing, until yesterday.

Everything gets a fuzzy white coating.

It is magical to me.

That had better be it for now. Sorry I don't have time to link up to the blogs I have mentioned. It is late and I still have much to do.

If all goes as planned, I will be meeting up with 6 other quilt bloggers on this grand adventure! Can't wait!!

Until next time, be creative and be kind!

Janet O.

National Parks revisited, etc.

I was thrilled to finish up the National Parks quilt for Youngest Son last week. This will go under the tree for him, since he will be spending Christmas with us. It was a little large for hubby to stretch it out all by himself, but you get the idea. I took the shot off-center because I wanted a bit of the mountain backdrop to be visible, to emphasize the nature theme. 

I did the flange binding, or it wouldn't have been under the tree until next year. And as usual, my quilter did an excellent job. Maybe enlarging the photo above will give you an idea of her quilting in the panels, but I highlighted the panel of Yellowstone Park below. This park is about 3 hours away from us. Aside from being the first National Park, it was the first National Park we went to on a family vacation, and the one we have returned to the most often.

Lori at Humble Quilts blog had a doll quilt SAL that started the last week of September--while I was in Norway. When I got home it took me a little while to get back into my routine, which included reading blogs. So I didn't learn about the SAL until she was having her linky party for the finished quilts.  I usually try to do Lori's doll quilt SALs, and since I happened to have some time that day, I decided to give it a try.

This didn't make it into the linky party, but I can share it here. A few things to tell you about this little flimsy (not a finished product yet).  In order to speed the process, I told myself that I could only use what was in my scrap baskets. I was surprised to find that tan check, but it took the place of the stripes. Also, I had enough of the green used in most of the blocks to do all of the blocks, but I wanted it to look more "make do". So I found another green to use in a couple of the blocks, and I made sure the stripes in that green did NOT end up all going in the same direction. And lest you think I have really big pieces of fabrics in my scrap basket--I cut my blocks half the size of the instructions. so this finishes at just over 13 inches, instead of the 25" the pattern indicated. That's how I roll. ;)

Also back in September, Grace (at citymouse quilter blog) offered a stack of basket blocks for the cost of postage. We quibbled a bit about them being worth more, but I ended up getting 26 hand appliqued 6" basket blocks for the $10 postage cost. I feel like a thief, but I love these blocks.

You can see that I was auditioning setting square fabric and setting triangle fabric. You can get a better look below. These are the ones I think I will use. They are each from a "Collection for a Cause" line of fabrics.

Thank you, Grace. I am so happy to own these appliqued baskets, that I would never have made if I lived to be a hundred (because I don't applique). I think they will make a lovely wall hanging. And it will be very special because you made the baskets!

Just a closing note about an experience hubby and I had Friday night. I don't know how many of you have ever heard of the Giving Machines. They have been around for a few years, but we finally got them this year in the nearby town.

It is a unique vending machine that represents needs of local and worldwide charities. They are up for a limited time during the Christmas season. You can choose from many options as to where your donation will be used, and 100% of your donation goes to the charity. We read through all the options and hubby and I each chose something different. 

I took the picture above after the crowd had thinned out a bit, and the sun was setting (which means it was getting cold--I don't know about the kid in the t-shirt and shorts).

There are 100 Giving Machine locations in North America, and 18 more in places around the world. You can find a map at this link that can give you exact locations, and more information about the program.  

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you are able to find quiet time to ponder on the Savior, who is the Light of the World.

Until next time,

Be creative, and be kind--and Merry Christmas!

Janet O.

Just thought I would share this photo of the live nativity at our neighbor's barn--complete with a camel for the wise men.

Retreat and Other Adventures

It felt so good to attend a retreat again, and it felt great to make progress on a few projects.

First up, I completed the center blocks for our Mini Club with Lynn. Each block will finish at 4".

This will be finished off with three rounds of borders, one of which is pieced. I probably won't get back to those steps until next year. There are priorities for Christmas gifts that need my attention now.

I also finished the blocks for the Barbara Brackman "Hands All Around" BOM that I joined during 2021. It was a set of 12 patterns, and I made two blocks from each pattern, using the same fabrics for both blocks, but switching the fabric placement on the second one.

I had been saving brown and pink Civil War fabrics for years, and decided this was the time to use them. I kept up while making the first 9 sets of blocks--I only had the last 3 patterns (6 blocks) to finish at retreat. The border stripes on either side of the blocks had been acquired along the way, and I hope to incorporate one or both of them into the layout. It has been such a long time since I actually completed a BOM. This felt good--even though it isn't truly finished.

The last real progress made was on the "National Parks" quilt I have promised my youngest son. I had cut out a slew of flying geese with my AccuQuilt cutter, and spent time sewing up a bunch of them in order to make progress on this. This is one of those "make-it-up-as-you-go-along" quilts. It won't win any beauty pageants, but it will make a nice throw for my very tall youngest son who LOVES spending time in the parks.

The center strips of FG are the only ones sewn into strips. I need to get going on the others, after I figure out exactly how many I will need down each side. I think the brown in the upper right corner will form the final border around the quilt. It is the same brown bordering the center map.

Do you visit, or have you visited many National Parks? There are a lot of them in the west and we visited several on family vacations over the years. Most recently hubby and I saw Acadia in Maine last year, and the year before that we visited Glacier Bay in Alaska, but all of the other ones we have seen are in the western states. I'd like to branch out a bit.

I also worked a "little bit" on my Every Little Bit quilt by Pam Buda, but I didn't get much done, so I will share that another time when I've made visible progress.

Our retreat venue was the same as it has been for the last few years before COVID shut us down, the beautiful Academy Conference Center in Brigham City, Utah. The above photo was taken at a time when most everyone was attending one of the optional classes.

The retreat is sponsored by the shop over the mountain, Village Dry Goods.

This is owner Fran on the left, her girl Friday (Liz) on the right--and me squished in the middle. You couldn't ask for better people. And if you want to get to know them, go to the Village Dry Goods Facebook page on Tuesday mornings at 9:30 MST for Village Vibes, where these two fun ladies teach, chat, inform, and bring in guests. If you miss it live, you can catch it on their YouTube channel.

I shared my table at the retreat with two good friends from my guild, Ruth, and Andrea.

We had a grand time together. This was the first time either of them have attended the retreat, and I hope they will come back. I did miss Kim, my usual retreat buddy, but she was unable to attend this year.

That is the end of the quilty content. Just wanted to share a handful of favorite shots from our trip to Amsterdam and Norway in September. Loved seeing another part of the world. In Amsterdam we did a canal cruise (of course), and I got a kick out of the Dancing Houses. Can you see how off kilter they are?

I also thoroughly enjoyed the Van Gogh Museum, and seeing some of his amazing works in person. There were a few pieces by Claude Monet,  Paul Gauguin, and several other artists, but it was mostly Van Gogh. Can't put my finger on why, exactly, but his Almond Blossom painting has long been a favorite of mine, and I was excited to find it there.

He explored such a wide range of styles in his art, and this is just a smidgen of it. Definitely the highlight for me in Amsterdam.

In Norway, this was probably the highlight.

Kayaking in a couple of Fjords was amazing. The first time was sunny and calm and magical. This was a 5 mile trip--loved every minute of it.

Hubby accompanied me on this excursion, but two days later I went again without him. It was a completely different experience, but still made for incredible memories.

It poured on us the whole time, but we were a hardy crew, and the scenery was amazing! This journey was just over 4 miles, and other than my hands being extremely cold, I enjoyed it, too.

On other days we wandered through quaint villages, and strolled along city streets, even hiked up over 400 stairs to get to an observatory for a sunset view of Alesund. Well worth it.

Hubby always promised me we would travel after he retired, and I am holding him to it. We have our trip for next year booked, and think we may have picked out our destination for the following year.  I don't take for granted the privilege it is to get to experience these places. My parents were simple, humble people, but my father traveled the world for his work the last 10 years of his employment. Mom didn't love traveling, but accompanied him a few places--Hawaii, Israel, New Zealand. In their waning years they both told me that travel broadens your perspective, and gives you a greater appreciation for the fact that we are all God's children, and that He created a beautiful world for us. They encouraged me to travel if I got the opportunity. So I am trying to help keep hubby an honest man, honor my parents' counsel, and fulfill some dreams I've had for over half a century. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

But it is always good to be home, and our sunsets are pretty incredible, too.

I just remembered some other quilty content I forgot to include, so I may actually get another post up this month...but don't hold your breath. :)

Until next time,

Be creative and be kind.

Janet O.