High Fiber—Doing Dishes and Other Chores

My life is in pieces:

The Kaleidoscope Quilt is coming along. Here are four blocks on the design wall:

All of the centers are done, and half of the blocks are completely finished.

I started some dishcloths using Knit Picks Dishie. This project is easier to work on when I'm riding in the car for quick trips. The colors are, from left, Pomegranate, Azure, Mulberry. (Azure is also the one I'm currently knitting.) The pattern is Grandmother's Favorite, free on Ravelry.

For Joanie's birthday, I promised to finish piecing her Pine Tree Quilt top. I spent an afternoon at her house. Here's a photo of the layout she chose. The sashing is the fabric under the blocks, and the fabric to the right will be a 3" border. (For scale, the blocks will be 7" finished and the sashing 1" finished.) The fabric at the bottom is the backing.

I had to leave about 4:00 PM, so I'll have to have another session, but I have the top two rows of blocks sewn together and the rows sewn. The bottom two rows of blocks are sewn together, and the other two sashing rows are sew. The cornerstones will be the same fabric as the sashing, and Joanie plans to embroider wild grasses over the cornerstones.

Vintage Stitchers met on Thursday at Rebecca's. Brenda has been busy since we saw her last. She has finished several quilt tops. This is her machine-embroidered Halloween Quilt.

She pieced this top at a quilt retreat recently.

Brenda has had these fabrics for some time.

Here is another machine-embroidery project, this one using patterns from Bird Brain Designs.

Rebecca had finished this cross-stitch for her daughter.

Remember her Christmas quilt? She inherited most of the blocks from a friend who passed away a few years ago. She finished the quilt, adding her own special touches. Now it's done, and what a great tribute to her friend.

She has several quilts to piece for gifts, so she's making 1600 quilts. Here's the first one, ready to have quilted.

Janet had finished piecing this quilt top, which was part of a "Route 66" BOM. She will probably add borders.

As for life at home, the first real snow of the season has arrived. This was just the beginning.

Stay warm, everyone, and watch out for ice.

What's on my needles:  Hand-quilting the Delectable Pathways, knitting the Trickle Brick Socks and dishcloths.

What's on my Featherweight: Kaleidoscope Quilt. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Darken the Stars. Now listening to Georgette Heyer's Beauvallet. (I love her books. They're so full of humor, adventure and romance.) Still reading Three Silver Doves by Deborah Garn on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Glen Ellen's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 vintage. Nice and fruity.

What's my tip of the week: For hand-quilting, thread your needle before cutting it from the spool. Let that end be the short one, and your thread won't tangle. No thread treatment (such as beeswax) needed.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Keeping in Stitches

The Busy Bee Throw is done.

I blocked it after it was sewn together, which was a challenge. I didn't have enough blocking mats, so I used what I had to make a frame and put plastic lawn bags in the middle, so it wouldn't get the rug wet.

The throw is going to come in handy this winter, and it was dry just in time for our first snow of the year. I used City Tweed DK in most of the colors, using "Obsidian" for edging the hexagons, sewing up and a final sc border around the whole thing. The designer is Shaina Scott.

The Kaleidoscope quilt is coming along. I have all the fabric cut and completed two more blocks this past week.

Most of the fabrics are from Connecting Threads' Kaleidoscope line. The pattern was inspired by "Fresh" from Simply Retro with Camille Roskelley: Fresh Quilts from Classic Blocks. I removed a lot of the seams. It takes a little more effort to assemble the blocks, but as my background is in hand-quilting, I'm always looking for ways to eliminate extra seams. I'm having to take some care with bias edges, and some of my fabrics have a direction (one way is right-side up, like having a nap), so I'm having to pay attention to how I put those fabrics together if I don't want the seam to be obvious.

I needed a small project to take with me when we went to the theater during the week, so I CO the Trickle Socks by Katie Douglass. There's not much to show yet, but it will be easy to keep in my purse. I'm using KP's Stroll Tweed in "Firecracker Heather."

Finally (and I mean finally), here's the third (and final) quilt shop in St. George visited with Vintage Stitchers a few weeks ago: Scrap Apple Quilts.

144 W. Brigham Rd. #23

St. George, UT 84790

(435) 628-8226

(800) 994-0097

Hours: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday thru Saturday

https://www.scrapapplequilts.com

Thanks for giving me a reason to revisit these great quilt shops.

Oh, and one more thing: I'm still out a car. DGD went to pick up her new car on Monday, and over the weekend, someone decided she needed to come up with $1,000 as a down payment. We were trying to work it out, but later in the week they wanted $2,000 down with no change in interest rate, which was exorbitant. She scrapped the whole thing for now. Fortunately the two jobs she works are very close to each other and not far from our home, so we can take her and pick her up when DH and I both need cars. But still. [Sigh!]

What's on my needles:  Hand-quilting the Delectable Pathways and Trickle Brick Socks.

What's on my Featherweight: Kaleidoscope Quilt, four blocks finished.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Just Deserts by Jinx Schwartz, then listened to Sea of Stars by Amy A. Bartol, the second in the Kricket series. This book was left up on the air, so I immediately downloaded the third book, Darken the Stars. (All of these were from Audible.) Still reading Three Silver Doves by Deborah Garn on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Rex Goliath Free-range Shiraz. Yum.

What's my tip of the week: When making socks, if you find yourself with "ladders" where you switch needles, try switching one or two sts at the end of one needle to beginning of the next needle (whether dpns, two circs)  every so often. It's easier to avoid ladders if the new needle starts with a K st. Just be sure you put in a marker for the beginning of rnd, so you don't get your pattern off.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Life Gets in the Way

It has been a crazy week, but the Busy Bee Throw is coming along.

The arrow points to the top row of the three that still need sewing together. Coming down the home stretch. I think I have enough of the "Obsidian" to sc around the outside once, which should help it stay together.

Dr. Griffith (from Carnegie Hall) coached Park City Singers' Tuesday evening practice and ended the evening by inviting all of us to Carnegie Hall next year, at our own expense, of course, but it's nice to be invited.

There was no stitching group meeting this week, because it was the fifth Thursday, but I made a trip to the big city to pick up my winter shoes that were being repaired and my engagement ring, which had to be enlarged slightly to fit over the knuckle on my right hand (something I've been planning to do for several years). While I was in the city, I stopped in at the Apple Store to get help making my photos accessible on my new iPhone. I saw my first snowflakes of the season coming home from choir practice Thursday evening. It won't be long now.

Then there was the odd pain that came and went all day Friday, and finally was so severe I sought medical help. The tentative diagnosis was that I might have had a kidney stone, as they found one had taken up residence in my right kidney, and it may have had friends. The doctor didn't think the stone they found was obstructing anything and might just stay there forever. Or not. The pain went away, but I'm having it checked out further. Anything life-threatening has already been ruled out.

This week I'm giving you a look at Superior Threads quilt shop, St. George. They carry threads as well as fabric. (Call ahead for thread, as that department isn't always open.) Batiks are there specialty. I don't think I've ever seen so many in one place.

Here's the address, in case you want to visit:

87 East 2580 South

St. George, UT 84790

(435) 652-1867

For cuteness this week, here are the grandchildren in their Halloween Costumes. First, the pirate crew:

Then The Boxtrolls:

And finally, Velma from Scooby Doo:

Speaking of Velma...er, DGD1...I should be getting my car back today. She'll be picking up her own car (paid for with her own money) at the dealer. Wait for it....Yaaaaaay!

What's on my needles: The hexagons for the Busy Bee Throw and hand-quilting the Delectable Pathways.

What's on my Featherweight: Kaleidoscope Quilt. No progress this week.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Banished Love by Ramona Flightner, another WhisperSync deal from Audible (a free book from Book Bub and low-priced audio if you had the Kindle book) and then went on to the sequel, Love Reclaimed. I wasn't very impressed with the narrator, but the story was good and a good picture of what life was like in 1900 and why the suffragettes were so determined. Also finished Auld Acquaintance by Ruth Hay. It was a good story, sort of like a vacation spent in a rustic farmhouse in Scotland. Now I'm listening to Just Deserts (which the narrator pronounces "Just Desserts," as in the saying, which I'm sure the title is a play on, but it's set in the desert, so I wonder if she knows the difference). It's written by Jinx Schwartz. The narrator seems good otherwise, and I'm enjoying it. Also just started reading Three Silver Doves by Deborah Garn on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Apothic Dark. Wonderful, dry and slightly fruity. I don't know if it's as good as the Apothic Red. Guess I need a tasting.

What's my tip of the week: Keeping your sewing machine plugged in to a power strip saves wear and tear on the plug.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Preparing for Winter

We have cranked up the furnace, and I'm working on hand quilting my "Peggy's Sistine Chapel."

It should make us feel warmer just looking it. It's the "Delectable Pathways" pattern by Mary Sorensen. I gave it the Sistine Chapel name, not because I've done all the work on it on my back, but because it's probably the most intricate quilt I've ever done if you count all the needleturn appliqué and hand quilting. 

If you look closely, you can see where I took out the stitches I made 1/4" inside the seams of the triangles. I decided I didn't like the look, so I'm quilting in the ditch. The straight lines are made using a strip of masking tape as a guide (see tip, below). The dark thread is basting. I had my friend Julie, who has a long arm quilting machine, do the basting for me. It sure beats crawling around on the floor. 

The Busy Bee Throw is coming along. Here's the layout.

The row at the top of the photo is a single layer and will be in the middle of the throw. The other rows are stacks of two identical rows. Each of the hexagons has a twin of the of the same color underneath, so I can sew them together as a mirror image. (The table isn't wide enough to hold the entire layout.) Since taking this photo, I have sewn four rows of hexagons together. I think sewing the rows to each other will go faster, because I won't have to keep starting and stopping. I've discovered that using stitch markers to hold the corners together helps keep the piecing more accurate. If you missed previous posts, I'm using Knit Picks City Tweed DK.

Vintage Stitchers met at Diane's on Thursday. There wasn't much to show, but Barbara had finished this flannel quilt based on "Turning Twenty."

The back shows the quilting better, as usual.

I didn't get much time to play this week. I dedicated most of my play time to solving my phone problem. My phone (iPhone 4s) has dropped calls as long as I've had it, but only in my house, where I had 1-2 bars of cell service. When I go out places (even out in my street) it has worked fine. In the house I've been using the Internet through Google Voice or Talkatone to make phone calls. You only get so many free minutes each month, and if I ran out, I would lose the call anyway. The 4s is only 3G and has a slower processor than the newer phones. Some research led me to believe a new phone would perform better. 

Losing calls in my home was the first problem. The second problem was our internet service. It goes out frequently and can stay out up to 24 hours or more. If we have urgent Internet business we have to go to a restaurant or other business that has a different provider. We looked into changing providers, but didn't want to pay more or have to change our TV service. (Our Internet and TV providers are linked together, although they are different companies.) Newer phones may be set up as a personal hotspot or can be connected to your computer using the charging cord (tethering) for emergency Internet service. Some cell providers just count the data you use, regardless of whether you use your phone to provide Internet for other devices or not; others charge extra every time you do this. 

I was happy with my cell service but was unable to get the new phone I wanted (iPhone 6s) from them. I ended up ordering the phone from Apple and switched to a provider that charges $10/month more than I was paying. (It's really only $5 more, if you have one incident a month of having to use the personal hotspot, as my old cell provider charges extra for it.) So far I've made a number of calls from inside my house without dropping them. [Fingers crossed!] I was able to set up a personal hotspot with no difficulty all on my own, and it worked. I'm keeping my 4s as an extra handset and iPod. If my phone is in the house and both are connected to the Internet, they both ring if I get a call, and I can answer whichever one is closest. (That's my excuse for not much progress on projects.)

Saturday I attended a workshop with Maestro Jonathan Griffith, who has trained and directed the chorus at the Carnegie Hall. He came to Utah to work with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and our little group, Park City Singers.

We will see him again on Tuesday, when he directs our practice for the Christmas program. I'm not a great singer, but it's fun, and I'm already better, thanks to this workshop. I have lots of things to practice.

We don't do a lot of decorating for fall, but we put out this guy, and he's outstanding in his field, small though his field may be.

Every time I look out my kitchen window, I think I'm seeing a person standing in our yard.

As promised a couple of weeks ago, here's a look the first of the quilt shops Vintage Stitchers visited during our time in St. George, Quilted Works Quilt Shop.

They carry the Bloc Loc ruler I'm so fond of and even had a stack of HSTs to use for demos for customers. Three of our group bought one each. I bought some fat quarters at each store.

What's on my needles: Still sewing the hexagons for the Busy Bee Throw together. Hand-quilting the Delectable Pathways.

What's on my Featherweight: Kaleidoscope Quilt. No progress this week.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listening to Banished Love by Ramona Flightner, another WhisperSync deal from Audible (a free book from Book Bub and low-priced audio if you had the Kindle book). I'm not very impressed with the narrator, but the book is interesting so far. Still reading Auld Acquaintance by Ruth Hay. (I'm enjoying it, but you know I don't do a lot of reading in print.)

What's in my wine glass: Fish Eye 2013 Shiraz. The big bottle, much needed this week!

What's my tip of the week: Masking tape makes a great quilting guide for straight lines or cross-hatching. You can make straight lines of quilting any distance apart by quilting along one side and then moving the tape the right distance from the line you just finished. Just remember to take the tape off if you're putting it aside for some time. Painters' tape will work as well, and you don't have to be as careful about leaving it on, but it loses its stickiness faster, so it will take more tape.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Fall Weather and Cozy Crafts

The hexagons for the Busy Bee Throw are done and I'm sewing them together:

The Pine Burr quilt is finished. We decided to hang it on the wall in the dining room.

The pattern is from "Pine Burr Made Modern," McCall's Quilting, May/June 2012. 

Common Threads met this week at Margareth's. Margareth finished up her Aspen sweater during the meeting.

A Canadian weaver who was visiting the area. She was working on this knitted wrap. The yarn is a cotton-nylon boucle.

We got to see lots of weaving. Margareth showed us this runner.

Karan had finished a set of placemats using scraps of quilting fabric cut into 1/2" strips with the rotary cutter.

Margareth was working on some bath towels. This one is still unfinished:

This one is finished. Margareth, who is Norwegian, sewed a little Norwegian flag in the corner.

She's also working on this cross-stitch project she started years ago. 

Ginny made this brush holder for a friend who paints:

Here it is open:

The Park City Quilt Guild had their meeting that night. We had a demo of disappearing quilts (disappearing pinwheel, four-patch and hourglass). Jill and Linda had some great visual aids. Here Jill demonstrates how to make a disappearing hourglass quilt block.

She brought a quilt top she made from this fun block.

Linda brought her disappearing hourglass quilt top:

Linda showed us how to make the disappearing pinwheel quilt. There was a great handout with all the different things you can do with the pinwheel.

Jill brought this disappearing pinwheel quilt.

We talked about all the things you could do with the disappearing four patch, like this:

...and this:

Then we had show-and-tell. I had brought my Pine Burr quilt to show off. We also got to see these great quilts. Deanna showed us this quilt she has had for 30 years. Her mother bought the top for $10, along with some others in different colors. Friends of hers hand-quilted it.

 

She also showed us this great sampler with complicated sashing. I think the sashing helps blend the different blocks together.

Another member of the guild produced this great October quilt.

If this isn't enough quilting for you, you can find photos of the quilt shops in St. George, Utah, here. I plan to feature them in a later blog post, but go ahead and peek if you like. The shops are Quilted Works, Superior Threads and Scrap Apple Quilts.  

That's all folks! I'm off to sew my hexagons together and I have my new Kaleidoscope quilt on the design wall. Stay tuned.

What's on my needles: Sewing the hexagons for the Busy Bee Throw together. Hand-quilting the Delectable Pathways.

What's on my Featherweight: Kaleidoscope Quilt.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron, another Audible Deal of the Day. Reading Auld Acquaintance by Ruth Hay.

What's in my wine glass: Amberhill Secret Blend Red 2012. Yum!

What's my tip of the week: If you prick your finger while quilting, sewing on binding or doing appliqué and a few drops of blood end up on your quilt, try using a little saliva to remove it. 

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.