Quilts

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

OMG Achieved!!

I can't believe how good it feels to accomplish my goal.  OMG stands for One Monthly Goal.  At the beginning of the month, I set a goal to finish quilting a gift quilt for my friend.  You can read about it here.  I started to work on it right away and little by little, I got it done.  I sure learned a lot from this project.  It's a lot of sewing and resewing but it's only in a certain area of the quilt.  I used 50wt. Aurifil thread #2311 for both piecing and quilting.  

Here are the pictures; front and back.




 Here are some detail pictures.




The rectangle area above is about 5 1/2" x 6 1/2" big but it took me almost 2 days to quilt it as seen in the picture.  Of course I took several long breaks in between to recompose myself.  Some days, it seems, I can't sew straight lines.  Sigh.....

Now what remains is binding/facing; I'm not sure yet which way I want to finish it.

The vanilla extract is coming along nicely and it smells so good..... If you don't know I made vanilla extract, you can read about it here




Have a great time sewing everyone!!




Saturday, January 18, 2020

It's sunny outside

I’m making progress on my one monthly goal.


The quilting progresses slowly because I don’t want to distort the shape of the block designs. The white rectangle in the picture above is only 5 1/2” x 10 1/2” big but it took me two days to quilt that area just right.  Miss Ripley, my seam ripper, and I are good friends.

Taking a break today to make another bottle of homemade vanilla extract.  I love to bake and share my goodies.  I go through vanilla extract really fast and have you checked the price for a small bottle of vanilla extract lately?  It's shocking to me.  I had some left over vanilla beans sitting in my pantry for sometime now, so I thought it was time to use them.  My brother in law who supervises the wine department in a big chain supermarket gave me a big bottle of vodka.  Thanks, dear brother in law!  My husband and I don't drink alcohol, so the vodka will be used to make my vanilla extract.  Perfecto!!

Here is a picture of my products with the quilt on the design wall in the back ground.   Currently, I'm sewing in my dining room right outside my kitchen.   :-)


I made the first bottle 2 weeks ago.  See how good it looks!!  It will be 4-5 more weeks before it's ready.  Can't wait!  The 2nd bottle is made this morning.  These new beans are a lot smaller, hence there are 10 beans in this one instead of 7 in the 1st one.  I used the ratio of 7 beans per 3 cup of vodka.  After reading a lot of recipes on the web, I came up with that ratio for me.

Will keep you all posted how the final outcome is.  

Now, I should get back to sewing, but it's so so beautiful and sunny outside........




Saturday, January 11, 2020

It's here: Make Modern 32

Today is the day that Make Modern Magazine issue 32 is out.   



I am very excited to tell you all that I have my Curved Triangles pattern in this issue.  





If you haven't heard of this magazine before, it's an online magazine based in Australia.  The magazine always has a lot of interesting patterns and articles.  In this issue, there is information about the block swap and how to keep your stash under control.  I for one can use the help even though I don't have a big stash, but it's getting out of control.  Check out #smashthatstash on instagram for more pictures.


Happy Quilting!!




 

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Welcome 2020

Hi Everyone.......

Hope you all had great holiday celebrations.   Now that all the fun parties are behind us, let's plan what to do in this new year.

Plan for 2020:

For me, this year will be about Actions and Motivations.  I want to sew more and create more.  For years, I've told myself that my quilting was my hobby.  This year, it's a hobby with a bang!

I've been thinking about how to be more productive.  I decided that I'll make something every week.  My husband said back; 'Every week?'.   Well, he got me thinking, 'Every week might be a bit much, let's do every month then'.  With that mind set, I decided to join in 'One Monthly Goal' at Elm Street Quilts, when I read about Patty Dudek of the Elm Street Quilts on the Make Modern 27.  I need an extra push and motivation.

I just found out about 30 day Sketchbook challenge on Instagram  or you can go to here.  I think this can be fun to do.  I need all the help I can get to boost my creativity.  

Ok, my first 'One monthly goal' is to finish quilting this gift for a dear friend of mine.




 Yes, it's a real goal and I'll get it done!!

Again, Happy New Year everyone.