Needlework Tuesday - Fan Blades Recut

Needlework Tuesday is a regular weekly post where I share the progress of my various needlework projects over the past week. I enjoy the encouragement that I receive from my readers and in return visit their blogs and cheer them on with theirs. You are welcome to grab the cute little mouse and create your own Needlework Tuesday post. Leave a comment with a link and I'll be sure to visit with you.

At the beginning of April, I shared with you the kit that I was making these fan blades from.  They were poorly designed and I found that I had to recut all 264 fan blades.  They are now all recut and mostly sewn together. Yippee.  Shown at the right of the photo are all the trimmings.  I never did hear back from QuiltKing even though I sent them two emails of inquiry.  I will never recommend them to anyone, so if you go to Kentucky for a quilting event, don't waste your money on a kit from them.  There won't be any further updates on these fans until I get some tops made.  I have 44 fans, so that should make several baby quilts.

I do have other projects to share with you in the mean time.

At my local quilt shop, I am doing the Saturday morning sampler.   WE are using a pattern called Building Blocks designed by Sharyn Craig.  I wrote more about the project in this post. This is the block for month 3.  I was really bad and didn't do my homework until the night before class.  This month i was really good and did it the next day.

For month 4 I decided to piece 2 blocks.  They look very different.  I have decided on a setting for them and am using a pattern by Judy Martin, from her book Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts, the pattern is called "All in the Family Sampler".

These blocks are all 9 inches finished.   I'll need 21 in this size.

I also need 68 smaller setting blocks.  These will measure 4 1/2 inches finished.  Two down.  Fortunately they all have the same size corner piecs and outer triangles.  These I can cut in bulk.  The inner pieces seem to all be similar sizes, so i can pre-cut some of those and share them around.  I'll keep working on these little onesand slowly I'll get them finished about the same time I finish the class.


The entire quilt should measure about 78 inches square.


This week I am hoping to spend some time machine quilt.  I have some single blocks that will work for mug matts.  They should be the perfect practice pieces.  I don't have a problem with quilting my quilts, but i don't like marking.  I need practice with non-marked patterns.  This is one of my goals for the year, and my other is set in or y-seams.  My first attempt at those has been the borders on my mystery quilt.  Only once before have I used mitred corners on a border.  This one calls for two rows of them.  I'll have pics of that quilt later in June.  Since it's a mystery, there are several guilds working on it and I don't want to spoil the surprise.

I am wondering whether you set yourself  learning goals with regard to your needlework?  I know that we all set goals to finish projects, but how about for learning new skills or for polishing existing one?

Not all weeks result in miles of stitching. Some weeks we each need to attend to those other matters that make up our families and lives.
Tami, as Just One More Thing was working on her sewing area as well as a banner holder. On Sunday, she also wrote a nice post on how her family ended up where they are. 

We seem to be on a theme here.  Rikki at Rikki's Teleidoscope has been working on her room as well, though this is an outdoor one.  It's going to be most inviting when done.


Needlework Tuesday - A Small Mystery Revealed

Needlework Tuesday is a regular weekly post where I share the progress of my various needlework projects over the past week. I enjoy the encouragement that I receive from my readers and in return visit their blogs and cheer them on with theirs. You are welcome to grab the cute little mouse and create your own Needlework Tuesday post. Leave a comment with a link and I'll be sure to visit with you.

 

Somehow I managed to stitch very little last week.  Might have had something to do with driving son all over the place. hmm.  He's starting his photography business and  is specializing in photographing body builders. That requires him to attend body building shows, and of course, they can't all be in his back yard.  He has posted some wonderful photos, visit his blog Pearson Photo.  This morning I delayed my post and caught up on  a wee bit of quilting. 

 

 

The past few weeks I have been sharing a small mystery I have been doing with The Canadian Quilt Swappers.  You are invited to join this group is you have a link with Canada (born here, lived here, still live here).  Judith, the owner, will be hosting another mystery starting mid June.  The finished piece, shown to the left, measures 24 1/2 inches square.  I love orange and thought this would be the perfect chance to play with it.  Works for me.  Now to figure out how I want to quilt it.

My mom recently told me that she found a pattern for a tumbler quilt that she wanted to make.  I recalled that Marti Michell had a template and I asked my local shop to order me one.  It uses strips of fabric from 2 1/2 inches to 6 1/2 inches, and then you flip and cut along the length.  Of course i had to try it out before I passed it along to mom.  It wasn't her mother's day gift, so a test run was totally acceptable.  I had a strip of left over floral pieces that i had already sewn together.  Trimmed it to 3 1/2 inches and started cutting.  Paired those with some light tumblers.  Because you trim the wide corners ever so slightly, when you pair the pieces for sewing, the edges align perfectly.  No guess work.  Press to the dark, and then when you lay one strip on top of the other, the seams nestle perfectly and match up like magic.  This strip is 20 1/2 inches and I'll use it in  placemat.

 

I am working on my big mystery quilt.  The central portion is sewn together and am cutting the borders strips.  The big reveal won't be till later in June, after my guild meeting.  Should have about 20 pictures as the other members will be sewing like crazy on their tops as well.

 

Did you manage to get some stitching in this past week or has your weather been too nice to stay inside?  Our weather has been all over the place, high 20's (Celsius) down to snow and ice on the weekend.  First i want to get out side to walk and the next day I am glad I still had my snow tires on.  Well, I am optimistic and the snow tires are being changed today.  No more snow in May.

 

Tami at Just one More Thing has posted a pic of the lovely black, white and red prayer quilt that she is working on.

 

Over at Lit and Laundry, great progress has been made on the Santa's Village Cross stitch. I love the tiny patriotic cross stitch pillow.

Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear

Once again, Jacqueline Winspear has left my spell bound by the every day activities of Psychologist/Investigator Maisie Dobbs.  Working in post WW1 England, Maisie not only solves her clients dilemmas, but also seeks to sooth their souls.  She doesn't consider a case closed until she is satisfied that the persons involved comfortable with her results.

In Pardonable Lies, Maisie is asked by a friend of her patron, the Comptons, to prove that his son did die, as reported, during the war.  On her death bed, Agnes Lawton  implored her husband to find the truth.  As much as it seems this is an open and shut case, Maisie is determined to undertake a thorough investigation.

While she is starting the Lawton case, she meets with her dear friend Priscilla, who lost three brothers during the war.  She asks a favour of Maisie, to find the resting place of her  brother Peter.  As much as she doesn't want to do this, she can't refuse her friend.

Once again, we are reunited with some of my favourite characters.  Her mentor, Maurice Blanche, spends several days with her and reveals things which he had not planned to.   I feel there is still much mystery to Maurice.  Billy Beale continues to assist with the investigations and even take a lead hand when she is not available.  Way to go Billy.   Several times, Maisie calls on her friends for background in her cases.  James Compton, the son of her patron, finally finds his way into the story.  I have been looking forward to more involvement from him as so far he has rather been a mystery.

Ms. Winspear kept this story very close to her chest, she carefully shared bits and pieces, never revealing too much at one time.  I was practically on the edge of my seat listening, waiting for the next development.

I listened to the unabridged audio book version from Macmillan Audio, 10 hours 22 minutes.  It was read by Orlagh Cassidy, not the same reader as the previous book.  She was such a convincing reader, that each time she mentioned Maisie taking a breath, or touching her forehead, I found myself doing the same thing.  The only thing I disliked, was how she pronounced Maurice, it sounded more like Morris.  Small thing that did not diminish my enjoyment in any way. 



Thanks to Macmillan Audio for use of the cover image.

Maisie Dobbs series:

 

 

1. Maisie Dobbs
2. Birds of a Feather
3. Pardonable Lies
4. Messenger of Truth
5. An Incomplete Revenge
6. Among the Mad
7. The Mapping of Love and Death
8. A Lesson in Secrets
9. Elegy for Eddie
10. Leaving Every Thing Most Loved

From the Kitchen of Half Truth by Maria Goodin

I've heard it said from many people, that the kitchen is the centre of their home.  It's where the food is cooked, the meals eaten,  the kids do their homework, socializing takes place and so much more.  Author Maria Goodin tells the story of Meg May and her mother Valerie.  All Meg can recall of her childhood are the fantastic stories her mother told her.  In fact, she heard these repeated so often, that she lost track of the truth. 

Now that her mother is seriously ill, Meg has returned home to take care of Valerie and hopefully to convince her mother to tell her the truth behind the stories.  Instead, her mother spends hours each day teaching her to cook the many dishes that have fed them and their neighbours over the years.  Every time Meg presses her mother for the truth, she shys away and diverts to some other story or to talk of her garden.

With the help of Ewan, a neighbour hired to bring the rambling garden under control, Meg learns to let her imagination back into her life and to accept her mother as she is.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story.  Valerie's stories were amusing, but not so far fetched that I doubted them, rather I felt that they must have been based on some nuggets of truth.  Meg must have been a sensitive child.  When she repeated some of these stories at school, her class mates  poked fun at her for not realizing they were made up.  This led Meg to adopt a scientific approach to everything.  She shed her imagination and instead saw every thing a very sterile black and white, even when it came to romance.  How boring.

There was a lot of wonderful food described in this novel, but it was not overwhelming to the story line.  Meg and Valerie would spend all day cooking, eat very little and then the food would just seem to disappear.  It was later in the book that the destination of this food was revealed. 

I was surprised to learn that this is a debut novel.  It has all the right things, character, locations, back stories, that make me want to read more by Maria Goodin.

This book was originally published in the UK under the title Nutmeg, and in Australia and New Zealand under the title The Storyteller's Daughter.

Thanks to Sourcebooks for my review copy.

Needlework Tuesday - Learning to Tangle with Zentangles

Needlework Tuesday is a regular weekly post where I share the progress of my various needlework projects over the past week. I enjoy the encouragement that I receive from my readers and in return visit their blogs and cheer them on with theirs. You are welcome to grab the cute little mouse and create your own Needlework Tuesday post. Leave a comment with a link and I'll be sure to visit with you.

 

Before I get to this week's needlework, I wanted to share a different craft, cupcake decorating.  It didn't involve needles, but I did pull threads of frosting.  Visit this link for the hair styled cupcakes that my son, his girlfriend and I created.

Week 4 of my little mystery is now sewn.  The instructions didn't tell me to sew the units together, so I have left them as shown. It is pretty obvious the next step, but I don't want to jump the gun, so to speak.  I have heard from others who enjoy mysteries an am looking to compile a list of where to find some current ones. 

Deanna at Wedding Dress Blue has just started one called Super Stars Quilt Along.  She will be posting step 2 tomorrow.

Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville frequently has mysteries which are proving to be very popular.  I haven't sewn any of them, but my mother has and she finds them fun. Scroll down the page and way down, on the left you'll find links to some mysteries.

Now for something completely different.  Zentangles.  Let me say this first, you don't have to be an artist to do this, you do need to be able to hold a pen and to draw a line.  That's it. 

I discovered Zentangles over a year ago and was fascinated, but a bit intimidated, so I didn't try them.  When my father was in his last weeks, I needed something to do that would totally distract me.  I found a Zentangle page, got an old sketch book, and started drawing lines.  I was so absorbed, that hours would pass in the evening.  After dad passed, I showed my mom and got her started.  It was fun watching her with a thick green marker drawing her lines.  She used any scarp of paper she could find until I brought her a sketch book. 

This past week, we both took a class with Brenda Shaver at Creative Sisters quilt shop in Kitchener. I thought it was a bit expensive, but signed up any way.  I wanted to learn those things that never quite seem to be covered in an online site.  We got to work right away and I soon realized that the cost of the class was a real bargain.  I gained so much from being there.



There were 10 ladies in our class and about half of us had dabbled with tangles before.  The tiles shown measure 3 1/2 inches and are of good quality drawing paper, card stock weight.  You can use whatever paper you are happy with. You don't want your marker to bleed.  The motto of the company is "Anything is possible one stroke at a time!"  It truly is.

We finished this second tile before lunch time.  We were using Sakura Pigma Micron pens, black size 01

After lunch we started with one of the more difficult tangles, Paradox.  It is made all with straight lines.  Great effect, I love this one.  Lots of effects can be achieved depending on whether you start to the left or the right.

In the upper right, you can see a variation of paradox.  Because it is all straight lines, it is one that can be sewn on the machine.  In fact, many of the tangles can be machine stitched.  There are books about quilting and Zentangle.

Our final tangle of the afternoon was selected to show us that you can work right to the edge.  

 

 

This full page tangle is one that I have been working on for quite a while.  Each time I learn a new tangle, I add a section here.  Slowly it is filling in.  This page is about 8 x 11 inches.

This final photo shows a typical page from my sketch book.  I draw  3 inch squares and then practice in them.Some I repeat multiple times in different sizes and variations.  all fun, no stressing about doing it right, there are no Zentangle Police.


If you would like to take a class with a CZT (certified Zentangle Teacher), check this list to see who is nearby.  It is well worth the drive if your teacher is a distance away, or get a group together and see if the teacher will come to you.


Have you tried Zentangles?  What did you think?  

Rikki at Rikki's Teleidoscope has posted some terrific photos of Guerilla Crocheting.

Weekend Cooking - Hairstyle Cupcakes and Warm Raw Chocolate Hemp Chia Porridge

dry mix, 1/4 cup

Breakfast has often been a big challenge for me.  I want something tasty, but that will stick with me till lunch time.  I don't want to be sneaking an unhealthy snack.  Recently I found the perfect recipe, "Warm Raw Chocolate Hemp Chia Porridge".  I found it on the Manitoba Harvest website, gotta love hemp hearts.  This recipe was developed by domesticdiva.ca.

For a copy of the bulk recipe, follow the Manitoba Harvest link, makes approximately 14 servings.  For a single serving recipe, follow the Domestic Diva link.  I used carob powder instead of cocoa powder , and didn't add the stevia.  Instead, I served with a teaspoon of real maple syrup and a dollop of soy yogurt.

 

Now for the fun.  My son has a very good relationship with his hairstylist, he's more like a family friend.  When son told me that it was Aaron's birthday, I thought it would be fun to bake cupcakes and decorate them in hairstyles. Aaron's salon is Precision Hair Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario.  What a blast, three of us had a wonderful creative morning.  Fortunately I remembered to take photos to share.  Each hair style has a name, which we had to explain to Aaron before he would accept them. 

Pink Liberty Spike Cupcake

Purple Mohawk Cupcake

Sausage Curl Cupcake

Rainbow Hair Dyed Cupcake

The Friar Tuck Purple Cupcake

German Woman, braid across the top of the head Cupcake (left)
 and Finger waves Cupcake (right).
 

 

For more foodie fun, be sure to visit Beth Fish Reads for her Weekend Cooking Post.  She invites you to add a link to your recent food related post.

 

Needlework Tuesday - Mysteries Abound

 Oh drat, i thought I had this schedualed for 9am this morning, but instead I set it for 9pm.  Needlework Tuesday is a regular weekly post where I share the progress of my various needlework projects over the past week. I enjoy the encouragement that I receive from my readers and in return visit their blogs and cheer them on with theirs. You are welcome to grab the cute little mouse and create your own Needlework Tuesday post. Leave a comment with a link and I'll be sure to visit with you.

This past week has been quite busy.  Son is home from college and daughter belongs to many groups, it seems I was continually out with one or the other.  I still managed to find a wee bit of time for stitching.

The mystery quilt, which I won't name, is moving toward completion.  Last week I showed you block one, this week block two.  These make up the central portion of the quilt.  I am working on border three, which is pieced and should be complete by the weekend.  The big unveiling will be at my guild meeting early in June and I'll have photos of everyones' tops.

 

One of my online guilds, The Canadian Quilt Swappers (Yahoo groups) has started a quick mystery.  It uses five fq's and will finish at 25 inches square.  The yellow is my background colour.  Step 1 involved selecting out fabrics.

Step 2 did all the cutting, though I haven't cut the binding strips as I haven't decided on how wide I want them.

Step three arrived on Friday and involved sewing a lot of half square triangles.  All of them were cut over sized and had to be trimmed. Oh how I dispise doing that.  I'd much rather cut and sew accuratly that risk a ruler slip and have to re- cut and sew.  Now I must wait till Friday for step four.


I am still stitching fan blades together and trimming them.  I sent a second email to QuiltKing to enquire about the defectiveDresden Plate  quilt kit, but they haven`t responded.  I asked either for a replacement kit or for them to sponsor a kit give away on my blog so that my readers could be reassured that they stand by the quality of their kits.  I`ll let their lack of response speak for itself.

Tomorrow, mom and I are taking a Zentangle class at Creative Sisters,  a quilt shop in the next town.  I`m really hoping that the instructor will relate it back to quilting and not just leave it on paper.  I`ll have some samples for you next week.


What are you working on this week, did you start a new project or are you finishing one

Tami at Just One More Thing, has posted a 'finish' today.