A surprise, flimsies, a challenge, and a winner!

This lovely little quilt arrived in the mail this week as a birthday gift from my sweet friend, Doniene. This woman knows me. Purple reproduction fabric churn dash blocks--love it!! It doesn't get any better than this! If you look closely you can see a bit of the beautiful hand quilting. I tried, but couldn't get a shot that showed the quilting better than this. Thanks you so much for this treasure!

All of the tops for my grandsons' Christmas quilts are sewn up. The baseball quilt got scrapped. I think little brother will want a Star Wars quilt when he sees big brother get one, no matter how much he loves baseball. These two are twin size.

And the youngest of my grandsons LOVES trains, so this quilt will be his. This is a crib quilt.

I need to get my November SewCalGal FMQ Challenge posted, so this seems like as good a time as any. I love to quilt swirls in random patterns, but found it a major challenge to swirl within the lines. First I practiced tracing over the printed design this month's expert, Sarah Vedeler, provided. Then I pounced grid lines on some swirl fabric left from the Star Wars quilts (seemed appropriate). I used a Design With Lines stencil from Pam Clarke.

The quilting did not go well. I tried going very slowly, but it didn't improve the swirls. On the black piece to the left I did the swirls all going the same direction. On the blue piece to the left I tried reversing the direction of the swirl each time. It felt very awkward trying to keep the swirl within the square. I had to finish up with some free swirling on the right, just for fun. I quilted one of my Halloween minis with the random swirls and really liked it.

There isn't more quilting to show because I have been doing too much of this...

...making all of the soap I need to get us through the holiday gift-giving (and supply our family's needs until I find time to make it again in the new year). For a few days after a soap making session the essential oils sure make the house smell nice.

Before I announce the giveaway winner, I want to let 5 bloggers know they are "no reply" bloggers, which means no one can respond to your comments because there is no email address attached to your account. So Dstitcher, Linda, Marcia, Carole in Nebraska and Anne Simonot, your accounts are either on "no reply" by default (that is the setting when you set up your account and it stays that way unless you change it), or you prefer not to be contacted, but that also means you lose out on giveaways where there is no way to contact you if you win. Many people don't know they are a "no reply" blogger, so I thought I would let you know.

Okay, that said, the winner of my "little" birthday giveaway is Mrs. Goodneedle! Since I already have your address, Mrs. G., I will get this in the mail to you tomorrow. Congratulations, my friend!

I will leave you with this photo I took yesterday of the moon rising over the mountains. Interestingly enough, Robin, of Solstice Studio blog (who lives a couple of hours away along the same mountain range) took a similar photo that evening and posted it here. Hers is a much closer, prettier view. Check it out.

Hopefully next post will have more quilty content. I need to get crackin' on my Barrister Sow-along blocks before Randy posts the next batch!

Until then,

Janet O.

Good, Clean Fun!

There has been a lot going on, but not much to show of a quilty nature. I attended another session of my FMQ class and have two assignments to complete before our last session is held next week--I'm hoping to get to them this weekend.
I also got my secret quilt back from the LAQ. Now I need to find the time to get the binding on.

I've spent every available minute for several days making soap and this isn't all of it. Still have a large batch in molds and a couple batches left to make.


Had a wonderful time Thursday evening, thanks to blogging friend Mary C., from Walla Walla, Washington. She was coming to Bountiful, Utah for Jennifer Chiaverini's last stop on her book signing tour for her latest release "The Wedding Quilt".  We met up, with our husbands, for dinner where we enjoyed a good visit and found we had an awful lot in common.

Our large, happy group.

We then went to the Davis South Branch library. Our husbands sat upstairs and visited while we went downstairs for the book signing. This was the 13th and last city of this tour and Jennifer told us that aside from her hometown, this was the largest and happiest group she had seen.
She told us a little bit about the book--reading a couple of sections. She told us of two books coming out next year--one for sure, the other one possibly.
She answered questions and then signed our books. Jennifer is very gracious, witty and real. I had only learned of her books earlier this year and have just read one so far, but I am interested in reading more (and now I am well stocked). Hearing about how she chooses her subjects, how thoroughly she researches historical settings and how much she doesn't care for cookie cutter book series' gives me  greater respect for her work. Now I just need to find more time for reading. It was so fun to meet up with a blog friend. This was my first experience with this. Thanks, Mary, I had a great time. Hope you did, too!

Mary and me. She was quite the
celebrity, having come the
farthest for the event.

Me and Jennifer

On a final note, suspense in blogland is palpable, don't you think? The buzz about Bonnie's first clues can't be missed. Almost makes me want to join in the fun--almost! Bonnie won't allow whining, so I'm pretty sure I'd get booted out before I got my first string block made. Good luck to all of you brave, non-whining souls.
I hope to have some actual quilting to show next time. Until then, from the little mountain valley where the sagebrush grows,
Janet O.

Conflict on the design wall and a thrift store find

The projects on my design wall are growing. They are jockeying for priority position. Floribunda started off as leader/ender to the Tree of Life quilt, but it keeps jumping in front. Now they have both grown to the point that they are threatening each other's space on the wall. I'm interested to see which one will be the winner. I feel like the whole thing is totally out of my hands. Also, I'm still trying to decide on a border to go between the tree of life and the Ocean Waves blocks.

Yes, those are more Floribunda blocks on design boards, leaning
against the wall, and waiting to be assembled. They are currently
in the "9-patch" stage, so they finish up pretty quickly.

Before I forget--looky here! This arrived in my mail Thursday from Julie at Me and My Stitches. I was so excited when I won her giveaway! Her stuff is amazing! It is as great as it looked on the website. She has posted new stuff on her blog--go check it out! Julie's stuff will not disappoint. I will wear this proudly!

This is about 7/8" by 1 1/2" in real life

I have been busy making soap and it was fun to see what the giveaway winners chose for the scents of their soaps--some choices are ones that have been my most popular over the years. Other choices are unique scents that I don't make very often. So far I have made the scents that involve cinnamon--cinnamon patchouli, orange cinnamon, and cedar cinnamon. I've also mixed up the grapefruit/lime--a very fresh blend. There are four more to make. There was very little overlap in their choices, but I don't mind. I love them all, and I love to make a variety whenever I get all of the equipment out and start into a marathon soap making session. I don't know if you click on the photo below if you will be able to read the words on the soap dish hanging over the sink. It was a gift 5 years ago from my dear friend who died a couple of months ago. She was a big fan of my soap.

My "soap kitchen." When we were finishing our home, DH graciously
agreed to building this wall into my craft area.

Special cabinet for curing soap. Slots in the
door allow for air circulation as soap cures.

I believe I have mentioned before that I love thrift store shopping. When I have a chance I like to drop in and browse the aisles. You find some wonderful treasures some days--other days you leave empty-handed. Well, on Tuesday I was lucky. For one thing, recently Kristie at Cowgirl Quilter (my giveaway winner!) showed the baskets she uses for her strips of fabric on a current project. I thought they looked great, but wasn't sure where to find them. Of course, at the thrift store! These three were waiting for me down the plasticware aisle. I'm already using them.

Then I succumbed to another plaid shirt for my shirt stash (thank you, Bonnie)--I won't take up space to show you, but it is a beautiful red plaid. And last of all, this came home with me.

 I have had a Viking for 33 years. About four years ago DH surprised me with a new Pfaff for Mother's Day, since my Viking was so old it couldn't be fitted with a walking foot (I know--technically Pfaffs have "even feed," not a walking foot), but there are some things I still do on the old Viking. This Viking isn't quite as old as my original, but almost. It runs fine and has a few stitches my other machines don't have--since I don't go for the "bells and whistles" models. I had thought about giving it to someone, but now I'm feeling selfish. We'll see. I also have my mother's 59 year-old Bernina--and it still works, too. If I set them all up in my new sewing room (my attempt to make lemonade out of the recently emptied nest) it would be pretty crowded.

I don't know how much sewing I will accomplish this weekend, with soap production taking priority right now. So the winner of the design wall war will not be decided yet. I will keep you posted.

Until next time, from the little mountain valley where the sagebrush grows,
Janet O.