Hourglass leader/ender units

  Like the rest of those doing the Quiltville Mystery 2017, I began pulling fabric.    I ran across this fabric in a bin that I had intended to do as a bargello.  It has a very similar color palette, maybe just a bit more red than orange.  I will put it in the coral stack and see if it works.






    I found a lot of scraps for the blue/aqua/turquoise.  My pile runs the gamut from light to darker tones......it will depend on the placement as to what will work best in the mystery quilt.




  I'm not going to photo share all my scraps as many are just strips and chunks, not good FQ size.  I can always add or pick up extra as I go along.    And I am still debating on the brown....chocolate I love but have little of in the stash.  And then I ran across this color palette on Clever Chameleon.  A very similar color set....with the addition of purple.  I am wondering if the brown could be shifted to plum and burgundy. 

This is not a race, but lessons in cutting, accuracy, and following directions.  LOL.....not the best in any of those areas now, so let the mystery happen to me.


   What I really wanted to do this weekend was get the Double 4 Patch together and pressed.  I have one more row to go and it will be ready to join the 2 sections I have created.  I mentioned that along the way I was working on another type of leader and ender.

  So here is a tip/trick I picked up when trimming HSTs---or in this case hourglass units.   Once you have sewn on the diagonal lines and cut the sections apart, trim before you press open.  I marked a ruler using painter's tape to point to the line I want to line up with the sewn seam line.   That is the sewn seam line, not the cut edge of the fabric.  You can see my cut edge is wobbly.....but the seam line is straight.  I line up the marked line on the sewn line , and the vertical arrows on this ruler are perfect for keeping the hourglass blocks straight.  Then I  trim the HST before pressing  open.....as the block in the upper left corner.



   My hourglass blocks are ending up at 3 1/2'' unfinished.  I started with 4 1/2'' square or larger.  I say that because I am clearing out a mixed up blend of extra squares, unused squares, charm squares.....any square leftover or not used that is 4 1/2'' or more.  I will just stack these up for now, either intending them for a border---I think they would look good just strung together---or turn them into block units.

Along the way, I pulled out my old iron for pressing.  It is a Light n' Easy from about 1985....lol.  And it is much lighter that my Rowenta.  My wrist and hands have been so painful and sore with the season change, I knew I could not use the larger iron.   Maybe older is better for me.
Happy stitching.

Movie and a road trip

  Nothing, I got nothing done that I had planned.  That's OK.....it was time for a bit of fun this week it seems.  On Thursday we decided to check out a movie....Let There Be Light.   It was a heavy tissue/tear jerker story.  I was emotionally drained.


  And Friday we took a drive to Seneca to Hochstetler's Country Store.  I had seen a post of FB that they carried bulk food items.   About 10 years ago, we shopped at a bulk food item store in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.  I have been ordering dried soup mix and dressing/dip mixes from them ever since.  So I figured it was worth an hour's drive to see what they carried here. 
   After an excellent sandwich for lunch,  I picked up mix for Corn Chowder,  Beef Vegetable, Creamy Broccoli soup,  and the Cucumber and Dill dip mix and a few others.    So glad to know a source is nearby.....we will return.




   Remember what time of year it is......Sir Old Man started with the Time Change conversation at dinner yesterday.  I put my hand up and said STOP!  Do not talk to me about it until 5 pm tomorrow.  If you touch those clocks before then, I will not know when to fix dinner to feed you,  and you might starve. 
    Then I smiled sweetly (ha!) and ate my dinner.  I think I shocked him and he silently agreed to abide by my plan.  He knows how out of sorts I get when the time changes.....in either direction. 

  Expect it.....I am pulling fabric for the Quiltville Mystery.  I love the color scheme and plan to play along, if only in a smaller version.  And I plan on stitching some more on the D4P and get it assembled into a top. 
Happy stitching.

October....and on and on it goes.

   I had 2 projects to work on this month........ The scrappy floral mountains is under the needle....only not finished.   I am about half way thru the quilting, and easy meandering loop.  I debated on trying something more complicated or with detail.   But common sense prevailed and I knew the florals were so busy nothing much would show, so why invest that much time.









   The other got finished...... the rail fence in florals.













   I worked on the leader and ender ---Double 4 Patch---as I assembled both of these quilts.   Talk about a bonus.....I will probably work on hourglass blocks as leader and ender as I assemble this one.  Never ending, just one after another.









   Bonnie Hunter released her colors for the Mystery Quilt......I sent Sir Old Man to Lowe's for color cards.  LOL, he was wanting to get nails for the nail gun anyway.    He needs them to make a couple more pumpkins for the front porch:)   The sun was quite bright so the photo is washed out.
   This is his first prototype.  Made from wood pallets, unstained raw wood.  He sculpted a stem  of sorts too.   He plans on a couple more that are taller.  I will get better photos too.

   We had a great visit with Chad while he was in town over the weekend.  He and Amber are now in Missouri and expecting a second child.  He noted the featherweight was out, and said he was so relieved that I was back to quilting.    So I am now perusing thru patterns for the next baby quilt.  I have an couple of ideas which I will nail down soon. 

I will figure out next month when it gets here......tomorrow.  Happy stitching, and eating chocolate.

Double 4 Patch

    I began writing this post yesterday, got sidetracked with the weather, and completely forgot to finish it.   The weather front moved through and we got 3 1/2'' of rain, which we needed, just not all at once.  Tornadoes did drop down in the next county, and we got hooked on watching the news. 

  I worked up more blocks for the Double 4 Patch.    Now the chain effect is more obvious.  I will put together the parts that I have on the work tray and see how big it is.  Since I will use this as a donation quilt, a large throw will be fine.  It's about 40'' by 48'' now.

  So I moved on to sewing up some floral strips between joining the units for the D4P.   These blocks are done using the strip pieced method I detail on this page.   

  I made up 4 different sets using 16 different fabrics.  I had intended to use 25 fabrics, and play around with the value layout......but that won't happen.

   To be honest, this is not my favorite technique now.  I love the finished block, and how neat it looks.  But this week has been one of dealing with "brain fog" which just throws me for a loop.  Things that should be easy, make no sense.  Spacial thinking goes out the window. 
    Luckily, some things are so ingrained that it is like a muscle memory.  Example....pressing the seams  in the watercolor so that they will nest together.  I  use the method of alternating direction for pressing by pressing odd number rows toward the lightest strip, and the even number rows toward the darkest strip.  
   The result is I ended up with enough blocks for a small table runner or wall hanging.....I will get things pressed and onto the design wall to decide.    But I  am pretty sure, I won't be working this way again.  It is much easier on the brain using the  "no-thinking"  interfacing method. 
Happy stitching:)

Floral rail fence

   I had to hunt a bit for the earlier post for when I started this one.  Here is one with the rail fence blocks on the design wall.     Blocks were begun in May as a leader and ender project. 

  It has been pinned and waiting for quilting for a couple of weeks. 

  I used my 2'' floral strips to cut 6 1/2'' pieces.  I planned out the blocks according to value....dark, medium, and light.  Please note, I used 4 strips per block and not the usual 3. 
  So you might find 2 dark, 1 medium, and 1 light strips per blocks.  Or a dark, 2 medium and a light......I decided to be random and not be strict about how many of what value per block. 
 With more attention to value, this could be turned into one of those 3-D designs.  Not for me.....they make my head hurt :0

   Label on the back....per usual.
Quilting can be seen on this photo of the back too......lots of overall swirls.   With this much busy on the front, little quilting can be seen.












   And I used up more strips of floral  fabrics for the mixed binding.

  Finished size is 48'' by 60 ''.

Freshly washed, it is soft and cuddly.   Just right for tonight as the weather finally shifts to almost fall.  Today was a beauty with temps about 70 and tonight in the 40s. 


Happy stitching.

From the oven

    I love  to experiment and make recipes  into my own version.  It must be my  background  in biology and chemistry.   I was a Medical Technologist in my earlier life......think laboratory tests and blood  and that was me.

   I found a recipe a few weeks ago for Pumpkin  Cream Cheese Muffins .....here for the original link from Pinterest.    I had a partial can of pumpkin in the freezer, and some left over sweet potatoes, and cream cheese is always around.   It was time for seeing how it would come together.


Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Loaf

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin (pure pumpkin puree)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg 
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375°F.   Spray loaf pan with non-stick spray.  I used  2  loaf pans  9'' x 5'' pan.   Original recipe uses muffin tin...see link for those details. 

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda and salt until well combined. Set aside.

In large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, sugar and brown sugar.

Beat in eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Slowly whisk in the flour mixture, until there are no lumps.   Spoon about 1/2  of the mixture into the 2  loaf pans.  

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in sugar, egg and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.

Spoon the cream cheese mixture over the batter.  Spoon the remaining batter over the cream cheese mixture.  Use a knife to swirl thru the layers to blend into a swirl.   

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  My original batch was a mix of pumpkin puree and mashed sweet potatoes.   That minor adaptation  turned out great.  The extra loaf went into the freezer for later.   And wouldn't you know the photo did not turn out and now the pumpkin loaf is gone.....lol.   You will have to trust me, it was good.  

  Now I want to try homemade pizza dough....I'll share that one too.  

A very scrappy Double 4 Patch

    Several years ago, I saved the instructions for the Double Four Patch quilt that  I found  here at Mary Quilts.    Matter of fact, I have saved lots of her instructions as they are clear, and concise, and easy to print.

  A good variety of layouts for the Double 4 Patch can be found on Pinterest.  Here is the link to my board for some I found.   And there are some very beautiful ones based on color and not scraps.

  Last week I had a question about how to select the fabrics when putting the block units together....randomly select a dark and a light?.......was the actual context.   Answer......Ummmm, yes and no.  I don't really delight in being confusing, but sometimes things are not so cut and dried.

  This is the photo I shared for  my scrappy version.  On the left are 2 patch pieces, obviously dark and light, that are ready to become 4 patch units (paired sets in the center above the clothes pin).

Then on the right some 4 patch units sewn with large squares above.   Look again at the 4 patch unit that is sewn.  The print squares are  not true dark values, but rather relatively dark because they are placed next to very real/true light squares.






  Searching thru the stack I found a few more blocks/examples to talk about.    First note the variety of the "light" squares......tan, cream, beige background or neutral prints.   There is even one  that has some obvious dark  there on the right.......the major part of it can be called light. 
  I usually think about Bonnie Hunter's standard.......anything lighter than a brown paper bag goes for the neutral.....even with peeks and pops of other colors.   So a couple of the darks in the upper right hand unit are a bit too brown to fit the light spot.   I decided to put them in as a dark fabric value.

     Then look at the lower left corner......I put that print in the dark spot of the arrangement.   Two reasons:

•  1. Light background but enough of the dark print is showing....over 50%.  That pushed it to the dark slot for me.   
•  2.  The  use of lower contrast--in this case, the background blends a lot---can give the element of surprise that pleases the eye.    In vintage quilts you often find fabrics arrangement like that.  It could have been luck, but I prefer to think they had a delightful sense of value and design :)

   Dark selection.....easy.  Dark to light, and again note that I throw some neutrals in that have some color to them, although the color is quite faint.   So for strong darks.....yes, use the random selection for a very scrappy look.  

   A very scrappy look, I say.  Guess you need to see what I mean.   

   This is what is on the design wall of the few blocks I put together already.   For my set/layout, I want the darks, big and small parts, moving up and to the right.  All the lights will be set to move to the left.  

  It doesn't look like much yet, but I love the look in real life!  You can get the idea of the unexpected  effect in some of the blocks.  

 
    And now that I have brought more confusion probably to this, I will just go sew a few 4 patches.   Happy stitching.