All Decked Out

Pimp My Sewing Machine

2012-05-30T19:53:00.000-04:00

Geez, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Several months ago --could have been 6-7 months ago -- someone blogged about vinyl decal sheets you could use to decorate your sewing machine. I'm not talking about the sets of decals used for Featherweight restoration, I'm talking about flames, and art deco swirls and hot-colored flowers. As I recall, there were even ones suitable for long-arms.

Do you think I can remember who it was that blogged, or what the web site was for the decals? Nuh-uh. Gone from my brain like faster than you can spend a $20 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop.

I googled until my fingers were numb, but all I could find was a link to a DIY site where someone used Modge Podge to glue fabric hexies to their bland Singer. Interesting and colorful, but not what I want. I respect my Berni too much to deface her permanently. I'm thinking more along the lines of some removable flames to help ignite my mojo. Who can help a struggling sister quilter? Does anyone remember that blog or that site?

Fancy Fleas

2012-05-28T21:05:00.000-04:00

Let me get the apology out of the way: I'm sorry not to have blogged in months. No real excuse other than a lack of time and a lack of motivation. A friend of mine once described it as losing her mojo -- not sure if it was my mojo that was lost or if my ADQD (Atttention Deficit Quilting Disorder) just stole my focus. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things and be a more faithful blogger.

This weekend was spent doing laundry, cooking and sewing. There are tons of projects in the works that really need to get done (there's that ADQD again), but I had some charm packs of Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy that were calling my name, so that's what I worked with.

This is the first time I've gone out of the box and let the quilt design itself. I've never had the guts to wing it before. I made a ton of HST's, then started arranging them on the design wall. The result was this asymetrical top. I like it -- just not sure if I LOVE it. Wish I'd made it a couple of rows longer. And I'm not even sure where it will end up. Could be a baby quilt, or it might be a gift for someone special. What do you think?

Pins and Needles

2012-03-24T09:53:00.001-04:00

Happy Cottage Quilter posted a link to the Riley Blake website, where a tutorial for a new (and very nifty) pincushion is posted every Friday. I checked it out, and those pincusions are way cute -- you ought to check it out too! All of the tutorials have scads of pictures, and can be downloaded as PDFs.

And there's a tute for the CHICKEN PINCUSHION I love (cackle cackle)!

Riley Blake Pincushion Tutorials

Triangle Magic

2012-03-23T12:08:00.001-04:00

I do not advertise products, and heaven knows I'm not on the Blogger with Sponsored Producst list. I am, however, somewhat shameless about passing on information about products that I think are worthwhile and have made a positive inpact on my quilting. Triangle Magic, by Quilt Pro, is one of those products.

This little software program allows you to print out triangle paper on your own printer for HSTs in finished sizes from 1" to 7", in eighth inch increments. They are having a sale now; the program normally costing $19.95 is now $14.95. If you like using triangle paper to make perfect HSTs, this represents a significant savings over buying individual packs of papers. In addition, you can print out one sheet, for making just a few HSTs, or scads of them.

If you have not used triangle papers before, you might want to give it a try. Yes, you will have the extra step of ripping the paper off the back of the sewn triangles, but the resulting HSTs are perfect -- no wonkiness and no stretching from having sewn on a bias edge. I would not recommend them if you need to sew just one or two HSTs, but if you need to sew multiples, they are a great way to go. And with this program, you don't need to hunt through your collection of assorted triangle papers only to find that you have 20 different sizes EXCEPT the size you need right then; you just go to your printer and print out exactly what you need.

The triangle grids can be printed on standard computer paper, using a shortened stitch length (makes tearing the papers much easier) but I prefer newsprint, which is available from a variety of souces, including this one. The newsprint is thinner, and makes the tearing-off process even easier. Quilt Pro also has a similar program for quarter square triangles, which I have not tried. Some of their other products include foundation piecing software and add-ons for Carol Doak's foundation pieced blocks.

Here is that link again: Quilt Pro Triangle Magic. Click on the menu items at the bottom of the web page to see full explanations of what the program is and how it works. If you end up purchasing the program, let me know how you like it!

I need your expert advice...

2012-03-18T15:34:00.000-04:00

I am working on a king-sized quilt. It need it to be generously sized, not skimpy. So how big should it be? What is a good proportion for an inner and outer border?

Catching Up

2012-03-17T16:56:00.000-04:00

Well, now that I have my new computer, I realize why I was so frustrated editing pictures for posting on my old one. My old CPU, easily 10 years old, had a whopping 8 meg of RAM, and a 500 meg hard drive -- it was virtually top-of-the-line when I bought it, but could no longer handle the demands I made of it. The new machine is more middle-of-the-road, but has 8 GIG of RAM, and a 1 TB hard drive. Yowzer.

So now I will begin catching up.

First in line is the 3rd Jelly Roll 1600 quilt that I did for Christmas. I gave my neice and my nephew's fiance batik jelly roll quilts for Christmas. By the time I realized that my step-nephew's fiance would be joining us for Christmas as well; I was only able to get the top done for hers. I finally pieced the back & sent it off to my FLLQ (Friendly Local Longarm Quilter).

And here it is! It's made with a Bali Pop, plus some random batik scaps from my scrap bin, and is named Chablis and Merlot in honor of the Rebecca's love of wine.

I gave it to her today at the end of her bridal shower, and she loved it. Now I need to get cracking on their wedding quilt. I'm trying something different this time -- a kaliedescope quilt. Thanks to Sue, at SuBee Sews for giving me the idea. You need to check out some of the kaliedescope quilts she has made.

Leprechauns and Potatoes

2012-03-16T15:17:00.000-04:00

My daughter-in-law, Jamie, makes sure her children remember the Irish heritage from her side of the family. Aren't these Deck-rechauns the cutest? Baby Owen isn't quite sure what to make of it all.

I would not be surprised if some leprechauns make a visit to their house tonight to create a little mischief. Last year they opened the kitchen cabinets, put the cooking pots in the floor, turned the breakfast room chairs upside down, and even left a few "gold coins". Those leprechauns are really tricky!

My family, on the other hand, is Pennsylvania German. I'm going to make some Am-rish Potatoes tomorrow to eat for dessert after our corned beef dinner. What are Am-rish Potatoes, you ask? They are candy Irish Potatoes, but made the way our Pennsylvania Amish make potato candy. Try it with your kids or grandkids -- it's tons of fun, and it's neat to see them turn left-over mashed potatoes into a yummy, sweet treat.

Patti's Am-rish Potatoes

1/4 cup mashed potatoes (made without milk, butter or seasonings)

3 1/2 cups sifted confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup shredded coconut

1 tablespoon butter

Cinnamon

Put potatoes in large bowl. Add sugar, vanilla extract, coconut and butter. Mix well. Knead several minutes, adding more sugar, if necessary, to make a stiff dough. Tear off a teaspoon of dough and form into a small log/potato shapes. Roll in cinnamon. Lay on wax paper for 1 hour to dry. Store in an airtight container.

So........

2012-03-05T19:49:00.000-05:00

How do you know it's time to put down that glass of wine , turn off the sewing machine, fold your tent for the night and go to bed?

Fiesta!

2012-02-19T17:14:00.001-05:00

My daughter's father-in-law, Aurelio, was born in Mexico. Most of his family lives there, although Aurelio has lived here in Pennsylvania since college. My son-in-law, Paul, and his 2 brothers spent many summers in Guadalajra with Aurelio's brother Antonio; Antonio's 3 children each spent a year with Tio Aurelio and Tia Lori here in the United States going to school. Paul's oldest cousin, Julio, was Best Man in Kate and Paul's wedding 5 years ago.

That's Julio, with his two sisters Carolina and Daniela, at Kate and Paul's rehersal dinner in Puerto Vallarta, June, 2006.

Julio has been the perrenial batchelor, but he finally found a woman who could tame his wild ways. Eleanora is an artist, very independent, and has captured his heart. Their wedding will be held in the historic town of Tlaquepaque, outside of Guadalajara; Kate and Paul will be going to the wedding in March, along with the rest of Paul's family. We are not able to attend, however I wanted to send something very special for Julio and his bride.

Somehow Kaffe Fasset's fabric remind me of a Mexican fiesta, so that Kaffe quilt I've been working on will travel to Mexico along with Kate and Paul as a gift for Julio and his artist bride. I finished the top today, and am thrilled at how it turned out. I'll put the back together tonight so it can go off to the long-armer tomorrow. Believe me, it's going to be very very hard to part with this one!

Fiesta de la Boda Kaffe Fassett fabrics. 82" x 92"

Double Trouble

2012-02-17T10:17:00.004-05:00

I'm having an angry C.O.W.* moment.

Google has decided that we need to add an extra layer of security to the commenting process on our blogs. No more single word verification, with funky words that invite funkier definitions. Now we have this:

Can you read that first word? I can't. Talk about a PIA! My eyes are old, my brain is feeble, and I'll thing twice about leaving a comment if it means having to decipher that hot mess. Bah, humbug and phooey.

Given a choice between putting up with the spam, or making people do that -- especially those of you who do your bloggy reading first thing in the morning or last thing at night -- I choose the former. Sometimes you just need to let your inner C.O.W. out & take a stand.

* C.O.W. Cranky Old Woman (with props to Nancy, for having brought the Cult of the C.O.W. to blogland).

Addendum: Lori, at Humble Quilts suggested just turning off the word verification requirement by doing this:

Go to Dashboard, settings, comments, scroll down this page until you find word verification- fill in the NO bubble. Click "save settings" at the bottom of the page.

Of course this leaves you open to potential spam. You can avoid having spam show up automatically on your blog by turning on comment moderation (same page as shown above). This won't protect you from receiving spam, but it will allow you to dump it before it shows up on your blog page.

Guilty Pleasures

2012-01-22T13:13:00.000-05:00

There are certain "reality" shows I'm addicted to. Don't get me wrong, I like Downton Abbey, American Masters, and all of those shows that improve my mind. They allow me to pretend that TV really isn't a vast wasteland, and converse intellectually with my friends. There is a special appeal, however, to shows like Swamp Loggers and Hillbilly Handfishing.

I find many of these shows perfect to watch while I sew. Some shows, however, make me really uncomfortable, and are such a train wreck that I can't watch them. Those would be Toddlers and Tiaras, Dance Moms, Bridezilla, and any of the Housewives. Sorry, but the women on those shows should be put in padded rooms somewhere and made to watch reruns of those shows over and over.

The shows I really like involve some sort of contest: Top Chef (and Top Chef Masters), Chopped, HGTV Design Stars, All American Handyman, and Project Runway. LOVE Project Runway, especially the current spin-off Project Runway All Stars (I want to take Mondo home). On a lesser tier are the ones that try to determine America's Best anything: Hairdresser, Dog Groomer, or Accessorizer. Then there are the ones with happy endings, like House Hunters, Say Yes to the Dress, and Holmes on Holmes. I like those too. And the all-time train wreck that I could not stop watching, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.

Come on, fess up. What are YOUR guilty TV pleasures.

Snow and Soup

2012-01-21T19:38:00.001-05:00

We had our first real snow here in the northwestern suburbs of Philadelphia. It wasn't much of a snow, but it still made all of the snow reflexes kick in: fill the car's gas tank and park it in the driveway facing out towards the street; get enough food and supplies for an army; bring in firewood to keep it dry; make soup. And after some shoveling, hubby was sure ready for that soup.

I have a couple of go-to soup recipes that are ideal for days like today. Both are based recipes that the lovely owners of our quilting retreat bed and breakfast were kind enough to share. White Oak, the bed and breakfast, is in Lancaster County, PA, in the heart of Amish country; these soups are made for guests by the proprietors' Amish neighbor, Annie.

The soup I made today is Turkey Barley, a rich tomato based soup that uses ground turkey and lots of veggies. As with any good soup, it's nice the first day, but ever so much better the second. One of the great things about this soup is that you can have it ready to serve in just over an hour.

I had a ball of bread dough left in the fridge, along with the caramelized onions I made earlier in the week, so I added some shredded cheese and made a cheese and onion stromboli-like concoction. It was the perfect to a big bowl of soup on a snowy night.

I never make just a single batch of soup; today I quadrupled the recipe. I'll take a big container to daughter Kate and her family tomorrow, pack some up in lunch-sized containers to take to work, make another container for hubby to eat for dinner through the week, and freeze the rest. I do the same thing when I make chili or pasta sauce. To me, having those containers of in the freezer is like having money in the bank.

Here is the recipe for Pat's version of White Oak Turkey Barley Soup.

Getting My Chop On Without the Tears

2012-01-16T08:51:00.002-05:00

My quilting friends have me pegged as a gadget lady. Guilty as charged! Anything to make a process easier or faster, has my name written all over it. This gadgeticy extends to the kitchen s well.

DD Kate had these on her Christmas list. Both of us adore onions. Along with garlic, they are one of our major food groups. Unfortunately, we also suffer from an extreme sensitivity to onion fumes. making it difficult to cut onions, in even the smallest amount, without having to keep wet rags at hand to wipe and sooth our eyes after every slice.

I found the goggles on Amazon at a great price (free shipping with Amazon Prime, heh heh), and ordered 3 pair -- one for Kate, one for my sister Sue, and one por moi. Seriously folks, these have changed my life. I made caramelized onions yesterday, cutting up roughly 8 lbs of onions, and shed nary a tear. Sis used them yesterday as well, even sending me a phone picture of her looking really really silly wearing them, but attesting to their life altering qualities.

If you get a pair, you can look silly too, and then make this recipe for caramelized onions. I LOVE caramelized onions. So good on top of any meat, on burgers or on pizza (my fave)! This recipe would well for cooking the onions to make a dynomite onion soup, too.

Slow Cooker Caremelized Onions

Lots and lots of onions. I use Texas Sweet or Vidalia, but yellow would work just fine.
1 stick of butter (1/4 lb), cut into 8 pieces

Put on your goggles! Slice your onions whichever way you like & dump them in the slow cooker. You can fill it to the top, and pack it tight -- the onions will cook down to less than a third of the original volume. Scatter the butter pieces on the top. Cook on low for about 16 hours. I have a cooker that can be set for 8 or 10 hours on low, so I started it in the early afternoon on 8 hours, then reset it before I went to bed.

How easy is that? We are having pizza tonight, so I'll just make one little pie for me with a schmear of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), a load of the caramelized onions, some mozzarella & parmesan cheese, and a sprinkling of italian spices. And that little pie will be mine, all mine.

Posse Presents (and some Kaffe)

2012-01-13T18:53:00.001-05:00

I saw some pictures of very small pin cushions on Etsy, and decided they would make good gifts for my quilting friends, those wonderful ladies that form our local Quilting Posse.

Many of those friends meet once a month for an evening of hand stitching. These little pin cushions are designed to be worn like a brooch, and to provide a place for a needle and a few pins; they are about 2.25" - 2.5" across, with those buttons less than the size of a dime. Each one has a pinback sewn on the bottom.

If one is afraid of unwittingly stabbing "the girls" with that needle and/or pins, the pinback can be removed so that the pin cushion sits flat, just looking cute as the dickens. Yep, I kept one for myself too.

I am making progress on the Kaffe wedding quilt. Here are 16 of the 32 square-in-a-square 9 patches that form the center of the quilt.

They will be sashed with a solid yellowish lime green and random colored cornerstones. I'll probably finish the rest the blocks this weekend, along with the sashing, then move on to the courthouse steps border. What a joy to work with all of these lush, saturated colors! It will be a wild quilt when it is done, and very much out of my usual comfort zone. Hopefully my SIL's cousin and his bride will like it.

Impediments to sewing

2012-01-09T06:00:00.001-05:00

Have you seen my foot pedal?

I know it was under my machine just a minute ago.

It's a Mystery

2012-01-08T09:56:00.001-05:00

A few months ago, I got a subscription offer from McCall's Quilting. If I renewed my subscription, I could gift another to a friend for free. I thought of my buddy Marsha, sent off the subscription, and then forgot about it. When the first magazine arrived, Marsha promtly noticed that it contained the first part of a 3-part mystery quilt -- "new & easy", it said, and "only 4 fabrics". Little did I know that doing a mystery quilt was on Marsha's bucket list of quilting things to do. Would I do it with her? Please?

The quilters addiction enablement alarm bell went off in my head; too many project coming up, not sure about the commitment. yada yada yada. But this was Marsha asking. I love Marsha, and I am weak. So very weak.

I also happen to enjoy doing mystery quilts. Although they are not everyone's cup of tea, an occasional mystery is a challenge for me -- an entertaining break, and a chance to do something out of my comfort zone, and now a chance to share the experience with a friend.

The folks at McCalls set everything up quite nicely, especially for a beginner. The hardest part of doing a mystery is choosing the fabrics. How the heck to you pick fabrics when you have no idea where they will be going? This mystery uses only 4 fabrics and there are very clear directions about what values to pick:

Fabric A is a multi-color fabric that will be the focus fabric;
Fabric B is a non-directional tone-on-tone, and is the opposite value of Fabric C (for instance, if you choose light for B, the C will be dark, and vice-versa);
Fabric C is a non-directional small-to-medium scale print that is the opposite value of B;
Fabric D is another fabric that plays well with the others, it can be light or dark, directional or not.

Not only did they give these clues for choosing fabrics, they provided 4 sets of exacmples that their editors had chosen -- this extra step, which I have not seen in other mysteries, made choosing the fabrics ever so much easier.

Here are the fabrics I chose, and my start on the first part of the mystery. I need to do 40 of those hour glass blocks, and 20 of the other block. They are 6" unfinished, and will finish at 5.5".

I think Marsha has hers done already, but I'm not racing -- I'm just enjoying the ride!

By the way, don't let any of my granddaughters see this post. I have a feeling the finished quilt is destined for one of them.

I Need This Like I Need a Hole In The Head

2011-12-23T08:10:00.003-05:00

Random Craft Tutorial. Talk about a time suck -- bet you can't stop at just one, though! Don't say I didn't warn you (evil chuckle).

Geez, thanks Vicki!

A flurry of activity

2011-12-13T23:14:00.001-05:00

I saw a small-ish quilt on the cover of a magazine & decided I really wanted to make it. It was a Christmas quilt without screaming CHRISTMAS -- more of a refreshing winter number. It used Kate Spain's Flurry line of fabric.

The flimsy is off to the long-armer tomorrow in the hopes that I will be able to get it back and bound in time for December 25th. Not sure at this point who will be getting it, but I'm leaning toward my lovely daughter-in-law.

I had a ton of scraps left over, so inspired by Mrs. Goodneedle's post, I got myself some Insul-Bright and hunkered down in the sewing room for a potholder fest. Here are the first two. They were gifted to a dear friend this weekend. Another pair was given to someone at work today, and I've got seven more sets in the works.

Nancy's addicted to making them too! Who knows where all of this potting will lead? Thanks, Mrs. G.!!

A BIG Helping of Cuteness

2011-12-08T20:06:00.003-05:00

I guess some people might think that grandmoms can be annoying, what with all the bragging and picture sharing and such. I don't care. I'm gonna brag and I'm gonna share.

My daughter-in-law's wonderful friends gave her a gift certificate for a professional photo session for baby Owen. The photographer, who is located in Lancaster, PA, is incredibly gifted, even making all of her own props -- the teeny tiny hats, wraps, and such. You can check out the results by going to her web site, then clicking on "client proofs" as the bottom of the page and entering Owen as the password. Talk about tough choices!

I checked out her blog too. Holy talent, Batman!

Quilt Labels

2011-12-02T18:22:00.001-05:00

A few of you commented on my last post, asking what I used to make my quilt labels. The label on Owen's flannel quilt was printed on EQ Printables printable fabric. Packs of the printable fabric are available at many quilt stores, and on-line from the Electric Quilt website or from Amazon. I'm sure there are scads of other on-line vendors as well. It is the best printable fabric that I have found in a pre-packaged format, but it has limitations:

It can be expensive because the tendency is to print one label per sheet. You can actually fit several labels on a sheet, but that takes some planning -- something that my ADQD brain has a hard time with.
It is not as soft as it looks. In order to hold the ink well, it's a very tight weave and somewhat stiff -- although not as stiff as other printable fabrics I've used. I used to hand-sew the labels on, but the fabric is very though to get a needle through, so now I am machine stitching.

I use MS Word to create the label, adding graphics and color just as I would for something I'd be printing on paper. I do several test print-outs on paper just to make sure everything is to my liking; once I am satisfied, I print on the fabric sheet. The printable sheets are the same size as the paper you would normaly use in your printer, and feed through the same way; they have a plastic backing that allows them to keep their shape during the printing process.

The ink on your label needs to dry for 15 minutes after it's been printed. I usually let mine dry overnight. Then the fabric sheet gets soaked in cool water for 10-15 minutes and allowed to dry. Once that's done, I iron the fabric, cut the label out with a rotary cutter, turn the edges under and iron with spray starch or Best Press. All you need to do after that is position it on the back of the quilt and sew it down.

I think I will try something different for my next label. I am told that you can iron freezer paper onto the back of good quality white fabric and run it through your printer in the same manner as the EQ Printables. My white background fabric of choice, and something that I usually buy in quantity, is Southern Belle Premium Muslin, made by Springs Creative. It's used a lot by doll crafters for doll faces and is recommended for quality photo printing on fabric. I get white, but I believe it is available in natural and cream. The reason that it works so well is that it's not dyed and it is 200 thread count (higher thread count means that the ink won't bleed into the fibers). I first fell in love with Southern Belle when I started making quilts for the grandkids and wanted a white background and backing fabric that had a soft hand and crinkled up to a nice, soft antique quilt look. I like it ever so much better than Kona. You can get it by the yard from Joann's and from Nancy's Notions, or here. I'm almost out, and may have to see if I can find a bolt at a good price.

Here are a few of the labels that I've made this way. Suzie Q's Garden label was hand-colored and printed with fabric pencil & a micron pen.

Baby Things

2011-12-01T20:27:00.001-05:00

I make a special flannel quilt for each of my grandchildren. They are meant to be used, loved, put on the floor as a play surface, wrapped around strollered babies, dragged around as a favorite blanky, and washed over and over. Here is Maddie's, and here is Alma's. I'm not sure where the pictures are for Annabelle's and Ians (sorry).

Here is the lastest one, for baby Owen.

I love Valori Wells Flannel. Modern, colorful, and very high quality. If you are looking for a good source for quality flannels (and other fabrics!), try QuiltHome. I have purchased quite a bit of fabric from them and can't say enough positive things; great service, fast shipping, and just awesome communication.

I also made a dozen burp clothes, or "burpsters". They are meant for heavy use & will stand up to lots and lots of washing. The plain ones are flannel on both sides, sandwiched with a layer of thin (Joann's) flannel & lightly quilted. The super soft ones (the ones my daughter loves) are flannel on one side, and a fleecy fabric (from Joann's) on the other, sandwiched with thin flannel and lightly quilted. They are super soft and just so cozy for baby to put his face on when he's being held over your shoulder.

Owen's Burpsters

Super (fuzzy) Burpster

Plain Burpster

Kate likes the burpsters so much she asked me to make 2 sets of 4 each for up-coming baby showers. Now I need to get busy on those crib sheets: two cotton/one flannel for Owen, and two flannel for Alma. I'll post pix when they are finished.

Owen Thomas Deck

2011-11-27T16:24:00.001-05:00

I finally got some good pictures of the little peanut. He looks like a clone of his big brother, Ian. My DIL Jamie says he is the most calm and most laid back baby of her entire brood. And dollars to doughnuts, Mrs. Goodneedle, and Nancy, he's going to be a redhead too.

Rainy Day

2011-11-22T13:29:00.000-05:00

Chilly, rainy, day off from work. Just the right kind of day for doing laundry and having a cup of soup and a sammie made with my special tuna salad. And binding baby Owen's flannel quilt. And watching the DVD series, Why Quilts Matter. Excellent binding-on-a-rainy-day-after-eating-a tuna-sammie entertainment!

A Racey Post

2011-11-20T09:59:00.004-05:00

Jelly Roll Races, that is! Actually, there was no racing involved, since everything was done in the quiet of my own sewing room, and the stop watch stayed in the drawer.

I'm sure you have read about the idea of a Jelly Roll Race, or Jelly Roll 1600 quilt top. I've been intrigued with the concept for a while, but wasn't juiced enough to try it until I saw this post on Jackie's blog. The race part wasn't what did it, it was the no-brainer simplicity.

Take a jelly roll, or the cut-from-your-stash strip equivalent, sew the strips together, end-to-end as you would for binding, then fold the whole darned 1600" length in half to stitch along one edge, cut along one side & repeat the fold/stitch/cut routine until you have a quilt top. You don't have any control over where the strips will land in the finished top, so there is no point in trying to plan the strip sewing order. Ridiculously easy.

Some of the finished tops in Jackie's post, just did not speak to me -- they looked a bit choppy. They were still nice tops, but not what I was looking to make. The ones I did like, however, were the batik tops, and one that was done with all black and white prints. I think the trick is to not use so much glaring color contrasts, and to use fabrics with good texture.

So how did mine turn out? The first one was great. It is intended for my nephew and his fiance. Their living room needs some color --it's your basic beige, with a brown sofa and one picture with some teal in it on the wall. I picked a Bali Pop that had blues, teals and some browns. I liked the way it turned out. When it's folded and draped on the back of the sofa, it will bring a lot of color to the room.

Flush with success, I tried another, this time featuring a Bali Pop that had purples in it, for my purple-loving niece. It did not turn out well. Similar colors were lumped together, and a number of the diagonal joins ended up in stacked in rows instead of scattered over the surface. I think that may have been because I strayed from the magic formula & stuck in one or two additional strips. Then it struck me. Why not cut it in sections and re-piece it so that the flaws were not so obvious? It worked.

OK, so those diagonal joins are still there on the bottom right, but it looks a whole lot better than it did.

Would I do another one? Less than 3 hours for a good sized top? Yep, I would. I'm wondering what cutting some of the strips in half or into differing sizes would do to the finished layout. I'm also wondering what a whole bunch of Kaffe Fassett fabrics would look like, especially if I stayed with one color family. Seriosly folks, it's questions like these that keep me up at night.

Here are some random Jelly Roll Race links: here, here, here (where they do a variation by putting a 2.5" square between each strip), and here.

Yowzer! Happiness Abounds!

2011-11-19T11:08:00.001-05:00

First, let me introduce you to Owen Thomas Deck, the newset Deckette.

He was expected somewhere around Decemeber 4th, but decided Wednesday, Novemeber 16th, was more to his liking. Weighing in at a not-to-shabby 6 lbs, 6 oz, he measured a very looong 21". Master Owen joins Mommy and Daddy Deck (Jamie and Andy), and siblings Annabelle (almost 6), Ian (not quite 5), and Maddie (19 months).

And, on another very happy note, my niece Jessie Lynne Grasso became engaged to to Jordan Grater on Thursday.

They are two absolutely wonderful people, as perfect a couple as they look in their picture. No wedding date yet for JG2, but my sister is going to have a very very busy time ahead. Step-son Jesse Michael is getting married in May, and son JJ's wedding is in October.

So, what do you think I will be doing in the upcoming months???