Mis-using my quilting tools again - To Make a Pie

It's the day before our big Christmas dinner.   The turkey will be in the oven early to be ready for our mid-afternoon feast.   So that means my pie has to go in the oven 1 hour before the turkey.   To save time in the morning, today I've made Gesine's famous lattice top pie.  I will freeze the crust until tomorrow. In the morning, peeling the apples and assembling the pie will take about 10 minutes to do.   My little race will be to get it all assembled before the oven heats to 425.    We'll see about that.

You've seen me make these Gesine pies before, but what makes it easier now is using time saving tools.   The most important tool is my see-through quilters ruler.   It's actually a broken 18" quilting ruler that I couldn't bear to part with.   It snapped off years ago and is only 10 inches long now.    But turns out it's perfect for cutting strips for my Gesine pie.   I'm also using a pizza cutter like a rotary cutter to glide along the edge of the ruler.   All this makes the pie crust strip cutting so easy.   Gesine eyeballs her strips and cuts with a big knife.  I tried that with less success than she... the master of evenly cut lattice strips.

My old quilting ruler has a brand new importance and has a special place in my kitchen drawer now.    If you ever need to borrow, you know where I am.   

It's weird to see my quilting ruler
in with all my pie making dirty dishes.

A Slightly Modern Baby Quilt

Again, my friend Margie made a baby quilt just like this one over a year ago.  It's a slightly modern pink/grey/black colors with a traditional chevron design using half square triangles.  I just loved it when I saw Margie's and thought the next baby girl quilt I  make is going to be like this one. 

I finished up this baby quilt this week.  It's for a colleague of my daughter.  She's having a baby girl in early April. There will be a staff baby shower in March and since I won't be here in March, I thought I'd better make it now.  Isn't it cute.  I have a little leftover bit of flannel from the back, so I thought I'd make a tag blankie or two to go with it. 

Do you see my little label?   I have been using them lately, but in the past, I have felt kind of shy to put them on my projects.  In the last year, I seem to have gotten over my shyness and have used them a lot this year on small gifts.       I'll be ordering more labels soon.  Maybe I'll try a different color this time.   

The Start of a Trail Mix Scrap Quilt

I first saw this quilt at our very own quilt show some 4 or 5 years ago.   It's called Trail Mix and it was done by my friend Margie.    She had just retired and moved here from Ontario.   I wish I had a photo to show you because it was marvelous.       It was made from a pattern published in an American Patchwork Magazine, and is now a freebee on their website.    Click here if you'd like to download it. 

It's a large quilt and it will need lots of scraps.   There will be more than 100 six inch blocks and there are 5 block types in this quilt.   I will do one block type at a time.   I'm excited to start this quilt because the pattern has been printed and has been sitting on my worktable for a whole year.   

Yesterday I finally got at it.  With my laundry basket of scraps, I pressed, cut, stitched, and pressed again the first set of 4 patch blocks.   It was the easiest block set to start out with.   There were about 35 blocks.     This week, I hope to get another set of blocks done.   It's the the triple patch block.  It's a lot more involved.    A multi-day effort for the 42 blocks that I need.   I hope to show you the completed blocks next Wednesday.     Stay tuned..

Here's my first set of blocks...

Presenting my Kitchen Sink Quilt

This quilt has been pieced and hanging in my closet for some time.   I  did a check on my blog to see if I mentioned it anywhere and found a reference to piecing it in 2010.   So it's about time it was finished.   Andrea Rennick from Quilti.com quilted this for me.  She did a fun freehand flower motif with fun curls and leaves in the borders.   This is the third quilt she has done for me this fall.   I just love the freehand style of quilting.

Well, everyone loves this quilt.  It's from the book Scrap Basket Surprises.  My sister loves it, and my daughter loves it.    But this Kitchen Sink quilt is staying in our newly revamped spare bedroom.  The kids are loving the new quilt, the new TV, and the new headboard.   It's a very cozy (non-crafty) room. 
  

Little Finishes

I have an embroidery function on my two of my Pfaff sewing machines.  I have been holding off doing quilt labels for some time now.   What got me moving on them was a request from the quilters at St. Anthony's for a label or two.  It's good timing since I have had 3 quilt finishes lately and they should have labels too.   For me, machine embroidery not my favorite thing, so when I set up, I do all that I can.  I decided I would trudge through and get them done no matter what.    

After having troubles with my newer Pfaff, I set up my older Pfaff.  It worked like a charm.   Mind you it took me most of the day to do the embroidery because I don't like to leave the machine stitching stitching by itself.   You never know what can go wrong..  

So here they are, three for me and three for the church.  One of them is for a quilt they will finish in 2018 (I hope).     Tick - that little chore is off of my to-do list...

While doing all this embroidery, and in an effort to keep the thread bits down throughout my house, I finished off a little thread catcher that was a UFO.   It didn't take very long to finish.  I didn't use a pattern.   It was a made-up-as-you go project.  I did use a 3 x 6 inexpensive tile from the hardware store as an anchor.    And I used strapping from a large box for the heavy stuff used to keep the bag open.  Works like a charm...

Now I have two the same.  Both started a year or so ago, but only one was finished back then.  

 

Presenting my Winter Wonderland Quilt

And it's done just in time for this cold day a month before our official winter starts.  It's now hanging in my foyer.   Guests who drop by for a visit will be wowed by this quilt.  The pattern is by Crabapple Hill Designs.     Many thanks to Andrea Renick of quilti.com for quilting it for me....     She took on my blue WW and freehand quilted swirls, snowy hills, snow people, snowballs and of course music notes.   I'm just delighted with all this totally custom freehand work she did. 

Cobbled Streets Shawl

This Cobbled Streets Shawl is a great exercise in making different knit/purl patterns in a single project.    I'm already on the 7th pattern of 14 stitch patterns, and row 100 of 200 rows.   I bought this single skein of local wool in Estonia this summer.   I've been itching to use it.   I know it's not enough for the whole shawl, and to finish my project, I intend to use a ball of fine alpaca from my stash.  But darn, I wished I had bought two skeins of this Estonia yarn.   My big dilemma now is  ...  do I use the alpaca in the center of the shawl like it was intentional, or on the end.   Hmm... I'll have to give it some thought.

 

My New Quilt Ladder

It's taken me a whole week to make.   After shopping for wood, my hubby cut the wood to the exact sizes that I needed.   It took days to paint a couple of coats, then varnish a couple of coats, then to let dry.    Hubby put it together for me yesterday.   I'm so pleased.   For now, I've just put all the projects that were hanging on hangers, banisters etc, on the ladder to test it out.  It's perfect. 

Simply Stitched Table Runner

By the first photo, I'll bet you can tell what I'm doing this morning.   Binding.     I taught a class to the Oromocto Quilters Guild on Saturday.   The class was about free motion quilting on your home sewing machine..   Its a very satisfying class to teach.   It wasn't very long before the participants were all just stitching away at various designs.    

It was a lovely day with these girls, and while I did a bit of stitching for demonstrations, it wasn't very much.   Well, that night, mind kind of stitched all through the night, if you know what I mean.  

Yesterday morning, I woke with a plan to scratch my stitching itch, I whipped up an easy and simple table runner out of 4.5 inch batik blocks.   It wasn't long before I was doing some simple stitching.  After finishing up all the stitching, and squaring up, I prepared the binding.   The binding would wait until today.   It's one of my favorite parts of doing a project.

I'll use this runner as a sample when I teach my next free motion class.    Next Saturday!

I'm adding my binding to the back. 
Then I'll stitch down with my Pfaff Bi-level foot.
  I love binding with that foot.    . 

I love the gentle curved effect.  This is the orange peel design.
Not much marking is needed.
Just a dot to note the middle of the square.

This is the overall look of the runner.I chose medium fabrics.
 I tried to do a random placement of the squares. 
It is sort of random, but there is a non-obvious pattern.
Do you see it?

A Quilty Woodworking Project

My quilting projects have taken me to the garage.   Wood, paint, sanding, varathane.  Got a couple of coats of paint on before the rain started.  It's now raining.  Coats of paint are taking longer than usual to dry.   Check back in a couple of days to see what I've made.  

An Alligator Wallet and a Teacher Gift

I'm tidying up my sewing room.   Like many of you, I have partly made projects.    This week I finished up two small projects that have been taking up valuable space on my ironing board. 

Aurora mentioned to me that she would like to give her teacher a pencil case gift for Christmas.   I asked her to write a note and put it on my sewing machine, so that I wouldn't forget.    So I stitched the pencil case and it's all ready to bring to her next time we visit.   I love it when a kid enjoys giving a gift.

 I'm playing with different wallet fabrics again.   I couldn't resist this red alligator plastic leather... pleather.  It was quite thin so I figured why not.   Sure enough, one of my kiddos, has claimed it...   I'll give it to her in her Christmas package.   

Crossroads Table Runner

I just love this 3-block table runner.   It's called Crossroads from the book Town Square.  I made one for my sister last year and I just loved making it.   It looks like a complicated block, but it's not.    This runner was made for a friend who has a new cottage by a river in a small community not far from here.   She has a large dining room table, and I knew this would be perfect.    It's quilted simply with my walking foot.   Simple is good. Done is better!