Weekend Wanderings in Milwaukee

For my birthday this year, Jim and I decided to take a weekend trip to Milwaukee.  We’ve lived in Wisconsin for almost 19 years and have made dozens of trips there for soccer games, visiting Bryan and Laura, flying out of General Mitchell Airport and just driving through on our way to Chicago.  We’ve never gone down just as tourists--until this past weekend.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we had a fun weekend. We drove down the east side of Lake Winnebago and stopped in Cedarburg and had a nice lunch at Anvil Grille and Pub.

After lunch we drove on down to Milwaukee, checked into our hotel and went outside to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and evening.  We walked along the Riverwalk to the Old Third Ward and stopped for happy hour at the Ale House.  They have a nice happy hour and seating outside on the river. I had my first mojito of the season.  It didn’t last long!

We walked back to the hotel and relaxed for a little while.  Our room at the Hyatt looked out over the city and the river.

Dinner was at Cempazuchi, a Mexican restaurant on Brady Street that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, but I wouldn’t consider it any of those.  The food was really good.  Jim had a Cubano sandwich and I had tostadas.  Very fresh and tasty!

Saturday morning we got up and walked down to the Public Market for coffee and a scone.  After that we spent a few hours at the Art Museum. We easily could have spent the day there but it was so nice outside we cut our visit a little short. This is a beautiful building.  The “sail” on top is hinged and opens out like wings. 

This piece in the museum reminded me of a quilt.  It’s just line drawings in squares. 

After the museum we walked along Lake Michigan and had a late lunch at the Swingin’ Door.  The food there was soooo good.  The grilled chicken sandwich was probably the best one I’ve ever had.  It came with grilled beets that were delicious.  I’m going to have to buy some beets and try to grill them like that. 

After lunch we drove up to the Basilica of St. Josephat.  I didn’t know there was anything like this church in Milwaukee. It was just beautiful and reminded me of the cathedrals in Europe. It was almost time for mass so we didn’t spend much time there but will definitely return for a tour another time. 

We returned to the lakeshore and walked along the ravine trail near Bradford Beach. 

Dinner was with Bryan and Laura at Maxie’s Southern Comfort.  This might be our new favorite place for dinner.  Jim and Bryan both had the brisket, Laura had shrimp and grits and I had pecan-crusted trout and all were delicious.  In Appleton we have lots of chain restaurants but not too many independent ones with unique menus.  When we travel we really try to check out some different places than we can get at home.  We can’t wait to go back to Maxie’s. 

On Sunday we went back to Brady Street for pastries, bread and cheese at Sciortino’s Bakery and Glorioso’s Italian Market and then headed for the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center.  Back in the day this is where the Schlitz brewery kept the horses that pulled their beer wagons.  Now it is a beautiful nature preserve with several miles of hiking trails.  We walked the trails inland and then walked down to Lake Michigan.  It looked like you could walk for miles along the lake.  It was such a pretty day and we really enjoyed hiking. 

 

We stopped in at the Nature Center before we left and they had a presentation on snowy owls.  This is a young male owl that lives at the center.

It was a really fun weekend and we managed to take in quite a few tourist-y attractions.  I’m sure we’ll go back and do it again.  Bryan and Laura will be there at least two more years so there will be opportunities to see even more of the city. 

Design Wall Monday: All In A Row

Today’s DWM project is another UFO that has been sitting far too long.  This is a simple little Churn Dash variation with nine patch centers.  It is a Kim Diehl design from the book All-Time Favorite Scrap Quilts.  My small quilting group is meeting next Thursday and I would REALLY like to have this finished for show and tell.  The blocks are sewn and I have sashing, cornerstone and border fabric all selected so it’s only a matter of sitting down and finishing—always easier said than done with new projects constantly calling my name!!

Check out what other beautiful projects are on design walls today at Patchwork Times.



Old business:  the winner of the Marmalade Charm squares from last Monday’s giveaway is Lea. Lea, I don’t have an email address for you so please contact me with your mailing address and I’ll drop your charms in the mail right away.

What Was Once Old Is Now New

“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...' “ Isaac Asimov

A few years before my grandmother passed away she began making quilt tops—lots of quilt tops.  At the time I was just learning to machine quilt so I practiced my quilting techniques on her tops.  That was over 15 years ago and I still have a few of her tops that haven’t been quilted.  This one was in my April UFO Parade and I’m happy to say that it is now finished.  This is the second finish on my list—only nine more to go!  Of course that’s just one stack of UFO’s.  There are many, many more stacks!!

As I was editing the photograph, I thought, “that’s funny” this quilt almost looks like a “modern quilt”.  It has a simple, clean design, lots of white background and includes a taupe-y gray fabric.  When my grandmother made it dark, country colors were popular and this looked very dated.  Now I think it’s current again.  I still have some dusty pink and blue UFO as well as a peach and green one.  They may need to age a bit more before they look “modern.”  Haha!!

Charm Square Winner Update:  This morning the random generator picked #14 as the winner in Marmalade Charm Square giveaway.  The #14 comment from Monday’s post was Lea.  There isn’t an email address in her profile, so Lea, please email your address to me and I’ll get your charm squares in the mail right away.

Tools of the Trade-Hand Sewing Needles

Earlier today I started hand sewing the binding on one of my quilts from April’s UFO Parade.  I picked up a spool of thread that already had a needle in it and used that needles.  It was like trying to sew with a spike!  After sewing just one length of thread my hand hurt so I went to my sewing room and got a pack of my favorite needles:  Hemming Size 10 Crewel. 

These needles have a large eye for easy threading, have a sharp point and just glide through the fabric.  This is a comparison between the needle I was using (the one with thread) and the Hemming.  There is a big difference in diameter. 

Over the years I’ve heard many quilters remark that they don’t like hand stitching the binding.  Maybe they just need to find the right needle.  I encourage to try a few different needles and find one that you like.  The easier it goes through fabric, the less hand fatigue you’ll have as you finish up your quilts!

Design Wall Monday-Charm School and Giveaway!

Charm is the ability to make someone else think that both of you are pretty wonderful.  Kathleen Winsor

When I was a kid my sent one of my sisters and me to charm school.  I don’t know if she thought we were uncouth or if she was just trying to turn us into ladies.  It was held at Adler’s, a nice girls’ and women’s clothing store at Antioch mall and we learned social etiquette, manners, wardrobe tips and posture.  At the end of the class we had a fashion show and tea.  It’s been years  since I’ve heard of charm schools so I  just did a quick google search and there are still some around if you need some lessons in social graces.  I’m pretty sure my daughter would have just laughed at me if I’d suggested something like that to her.

What conjured up that old memory was that I spent a good part of the week working with charm squares—packs and packs of charm squares.  There were several of them in the box of stuff I’m trying to use up and I finally figured out quilts I could make from each of them. 

On Thursday’s post I showed the blocks made from Christmas charms made from a Nancy Halvorson line of fabric called Tidings.  I found a great border fabric, finished the top, layered it up and it’s now on the frame being quilted.  I’m using a pantograph on it so it’s a little slow going.

The second charm quilt is made from Marmalade fabric by Bonnie and Camille.  I used a pattern from the book Quilts from Sweet Jane.  I quilted this with vertical lines.  It’s the first time I’ve done that and I’m not sure I’ll do it again very soon.  It was hard to keep the lines straight and the fabric wanted to shift.  I stitched them random widths apart so it wouldn’t look funny if the lines weren’t the same width apart.

Next I pieced a top from a pack of charms called Baby Geniuses Grow Up. This is a pattern from Villa Rosa called La France.  I like this pattern because you can make a baby quilt with just one charm pack and 1-1/2 yards of fabric for borders and binding. And you can piece the top in under two hours!

Now I’m working on another quilt made from the pattern in the Sweet Jane book.  I don’t usually make the same quilt twice in one week but this is another one using Benartex charms.  Unlike Moda charm packs, which always have 42 charms, the number in these varies.  As it turned out, I had just enough squares to make this quilt.  Hopefully I can get them finished this week, then move on to something else—like jelly rolls!  Just kidding—I need to work on UFO’s.

Since this is charm week and I have an abundance of them, I’m giving away two Moda Marmalade charm packs to one lucky reader.  If you’d like to win these just leave a comment in the remarks.  I’ll use a random generator to pick a name on Friday and email the winner to get an address so I can send them on their way!

If you need a little inspiration this week, be sure to check out the other Design Wall Monday links at Patchwork Times.

Week 16, 2013 Recap and Stash Report

This week I finished the fat quarter baby quilt and pieced some charm square tops (more about that tomorrow when I’m a little further along).  The best finish, though, is this little four patch quilt that has been waiting about two years for a binding.  Now it is finally finished and ready to be shipped to Quilts for Kids!



It’s kind of hard to see but the black fabric is a nice skateboard print.  This will make a nice boy’s quilt.



The weekly stash report:
Used this week:  10 yards
Used year to date:  125 yards
Purchased this week:  0
Purchased year to date: 21 yards
Net year to date:  104 yards used

I’m really happy to see the net yardage go down over 100 yards this year so far.  I’m trying to sew one mile of fabric (1,760 yards) from stash so that puts a dent in it! 

Be sure to check out other stash reports using the links at Patchwork Times.

Come back tomorrow--I'll have a fun giveaway!!

April Book Club and Book Festival

A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.
                                                                         Mark Twain

My book club met this week and we discussed Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Over the past few months several of my friends have recommended this book and I was looking forward to reading it.  Overall I thought it was a good book and was well written.  My only complaint is that it  manipulates the reader a little too much.  It takes you down one path, then turns around and steers you in a different direction.  There’s really no opportunity for the reader to try to figure out what happened.  Anyway, I enjoyed it and was happy that it was my turn to host and lead the discussion because my research led me to an interview with the author where she justified the book ending.  In reading other reviews, it seems that hardly anyone likes the ending. I felt physically sick when I got to the end, but after reading the interview I realized it was the only logical conclusion.

 

For snacks I made a couple of pretzel dips.  One was Snickers Dip and it was so-o-o-o good.  I have to spoon it into a very tiny dish and quickly put the lid back on so I don’t eat the whole bowl.  It’s a really easy dip and is good with pretzels (sweet and salty), graham crackers and apples.

There are dozens of recipes for this dip on the internet and Pinterest that are basically the same but here’s how I made mine.  Most recipes use more brown sugar and omit the caramel sauce but I think it adds a little more caramel flavor and makes it easier to dip.

Snickers Dip
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 (8 oz.). container Cool Whip
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons caramel ice cream topping
8 Fun Size Snickers bars, chopped finely

Beat the cream cheese then stir in the remaining ingredients.  Chill in the refrigerator overnight to allow the flavors Snickers bars to melt and the flavors to blend.

This is just a literary week around here because it’s also the Fox Cities Book Festival.  The festival hosts over 60 events over the course of about 8 days.  Many local and national authors speak on subjects like writing techniques, inspiration, and how to get published.  Many also give readings from their own works.

Last night my husband and I went to hear Lisa Genova speak.  She is the author of one of my very favorite books, Still Alice. 

Lisa is an excellent speaker and it was wonderful to hear her tell about transitioning from being a Harvard trained neuro scientist to writing novels in Starbucks.  It was informative to hear how she uses her scientific background to open doors and authenticate the subjects she writes about, Alzheimer’s disease, left neglect syndrome and autism.

Today I listened to Holly Harden speak about writing for Garrison Keillor and the Prairie Home Companion show.  She is an amazing storyteller and you could just picture Lake Wobegon as she was talking.  Holly writes the column A View from Mrs. Sundberg's Window for the Prairie Home Companion.  It is just so interesting to see how authors can turn simple observations into an interesting story.

Over the next couple of days I look forward to attending a few more sessions, including a talk by Lisa Scottoline.  If you have a book festival in your town I highly recommend attending some of the events. 

Fat Quarter Baby Quilts

Today I finished the second fat quarter baby quilt.  I had six fat quarters for each quilt and my original plan was to add some white background fabric and make a Disappearing 4 Patch from one set and a Disappearing 9 Patch from the other.  Today is really windy with snow flurries so I finally gave up on taking pictures outside and just snapped a couple in the house.  The color isn’t that great but it will do!

Here’s the finished D4P (the green is really more lime than kelly).



I quilted it in an overall design.



This quilt started out as a Disappearing Nine Patch.  I’ve made a couple of these already where I just randomly placed the fabric when making the nine patch.  For this quilt I wanted the blues to chain in one direction and the green/yellow to chain opposite with the red in each corner.  I make one Disappearing Nine Patch block then decided it was easier to just cut the pieces and piece it block by block.  It was much faster and probably more accurate.  I only used five of the six fat quarters for this quilt and it turned out 51” x 63”. 



This one was quilted in overall swirls.



These were fun and easy quilts to make.  Both are donation quilts.

Be sure to come back on Monday.  I’ll have a fun giveaway!

Christmas Charms

I know I should be working on UFO’s but today I just needed some mindless sewing.  I finished quilting the baby quilt that started as a disappearing nine patch but I decided it was faster, easier and more to just cut out the units and piece blocks than cut nine patches apart.  I’ll post a picture of it tomorrow when I finish the binding. 

After that I pieced these charm blocks.  A friend of mine sent me a link to this youtube tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Co. for this easy quilt.  I had a couple of packs of Christmas charms from Benartex so I whipped these up.  This is a REALLY easy quilt.  After taking this picture I pieced the blocks together and now I need to search through my stash to find border fabric.  It’s kind of boring now but I think it will be nice once it has a border and is quilted.

UFO Parade

What a coincidence that Judy at Patchwork Times has just started a UFO challenge.  Boy do I need some incentive to finish some things as I have a ton of UFOs and I just found more!

I am really inept when it comes to decorating my house.  I knew I’d have guests on several occasions this spring so I wanted to update my mantle.  I found a beautifully decorated mantle on Pinterest  by Dining Delights here—everything on her blog is incredibly beautiful--and wanted to use some of those elements in my house.  So I went downstairs to see what kind of spring decorations I could use and found this on top of the box of spring décor.

It’s another huge stack of UFO’s.  I really don’t understand how (or why) I spend who knows how many hours selecting fabric, cutting, piecing, layering, then quilting only to stop and abandon the project with only the binding remaining.  Some of these quilts even have the binding machine sewn so only the hand stitching is left to do.  Am I the only one who does this?

Here’s a list of these UFO’s.  I’d like to get them finished because most of them could be donated to Quilts for Kids, Quilts Beyond Borders or our local emergency center and that would be a large stack out of my house.  Double bonus!

Technorati Tags: UFO,piecing,decorating

1. Mirrored Boxes
2. Blue and Yellow log cabin variation
3. Scrappy log cabin
4. Buzzsaw variation
5. Christmas block of the month
6. Grandma’s brown and red quilt
7. Brown and green crazy curves
8. Children’s black skateboard quilt
9. Children’s primary star quilt
10. Red/white/blue Ohio Star
11. Unterrageri
12. Peach and green Ohio Star

I just cringe when I think about how old some of these are.  I’m sure the peach and green one hasn’t been touched in over 20 years!  Here’s to getting them finished and gifted!

And my mantle?  I’m really happy with it!

Design Wall Monday-Scrappy Rails

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”  Jack London

For quilters this quote needs to be changed from “club” to “rotary cutter.”  I try to come up with a stashbusting quilt each month for my sewing group.  My inspiration kind of hit a road block this month and the original design needs more work so I pieced this simple block.  



If every other block is turned 90 degrees diagonal chains form.  This kind of quilt doesn’t really require borders so I think I’ll just make blocks, set them together and call it a day.  I’ll probably end up making 63 blocks and set them 7 x 9.  They are 10” blocks so it will be end up large twin or regular full-size—a good size for the emergency shelter.  For some reason, I just can’t get the color right on the photos.  Then chain fabric is not nearly as pink as it looks here.  Oh well, you get the idea. 
Be sure to check out all the other great projects at Patchwork Times.

Technorati Tags: piecing,scrap quilt

Here are instructions for the block.  I’m using leftover strips so it’s hard to say exactly how much yardage you’ll need.  It will also depend on how many blocks you are making.  It takes a little more than one strip to make a block.  For a quilt the size I’m making (70 x 90) you would need about 80 strips.  You also need 1-1/2 yards of chain fabric and about 3/4 yard for binding.

For each block cut the following from assorted 2-1/2” strips:
Two 2-1/2” x 8-1/2” rectangles (A)
Two 2-1/2” x 6-1/2” rectangles (B)
Two 2-1/2” x 4-1/2” rectangles (C)
Two 2-1/2” x 2-1/2” squares (D)
You will also need five 2-1/2” squares of the chain fabric for each block. €



Sewing for one block:
1.  Sew a square of chain fabric to 8-1/2” rectangles.  Press toward the chain fabric.  Make 2



2.  Sew a 2-1/2” square of print fabric to a 2-1/2” square of chain fabric.  Sew a 4-1/2 rectangle to the other end of the chain fabric. Press both seams toward chain fabric. Make 2.



3.  Sew 4-1/2” rectangles to a chain square.  Press both seams toward chain fabric. Make 1



4.  Sew the units from step 1 to the units from step 2. Make 2



5.  Rotate one of these units 180 degrees (flip it upside down).



6.  Sew the unit from step 3 in the middle of these units.  Press seams to one side.

Week 15 Recap and Stash Report

“Among famous traitors of history one might mention the weather.”  Ilka Chase

I just finished the binding on the Bundle of 12 and gathered my stuff to go outside to take pictures of it but it’s snowing AGAIN.  This is just a little ridiculous.  It doesn’t look like it’s going to stop anytime soon so I just took the photos inside.  The color is not as good as outdoor shots so the quilt doesn’t look quite as nice as it does “in person.”

This is the third thing I’ve finished from the fabric in the “Box of Stuff” I found awhile back.  I’m really trying to use up all the fabric in the box.  This quilt was made from a pattern by Amelie Scott Designs that I purchased on Craftsy.  You can find the pattern here.  It was fast and easy to make and I like how it turned out. It will be a donation to our local emergency shelter
Here is a close-up of the quilting.  I used an overall freehand feather and swirl design.

 

Recapping the week, I finished this quilt and the disappearing four patch.  I pieced another baby quilt and it’s on the frame about half quilted.  There were several charm packs in the box of stuff I’m trying to use up so I found patterns for them and cut the background fabric for three quilts.  I’d like to get those tops pieced this week but I have book club and according to my Kindle I’m only 28% through the book.  Looks like lots of reading on the schedule!

The weekly stash report:
Used this week:  16 yards
Used year to date:  115 yards
Purchased this week:  0
Purchased year to date: 21 yards
Net year to date:  94 yards used

Be sure to visit Judy's blog at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing with their stash this year.

I’ve Got Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.  Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)

Yesterday we had ice and freezing rain.  The weather has gotten so depressing around here and there’s no relief in the entire 10 day forecast.  Living in Wisconsin we expect long, hard winters but right now most of us are beginning to lose hope of seeing spring.  Today, though, was the monthly meeting for our small quilting group.  We’ve been meeting for about nine years now and have all become very good friends.  These women are are very accomplished quilters and they always motivate me to get things done for show and tell.  It is such a blessing to have this meeting on the calendar each month.  It does my heart good to laugh and connect with such good friends.

Time for a Quilt-A-Thon

It is the working man who is the happy man.  It is the idle man who is the miserable man.   Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Looking at this stack of quilting I should be a very happy (wo)man!  I loaded one quilt on the frame and these (plus a couple more) have backing sewn and batting cut.  I think there are ten altogether that are ready to load.  I’m pretty sure all of them can be quilted with an easy allover design so it shouldn’t take too long to complete them.  After that it will be a binding-a-thon.  Then I’ll have to find a few good movies on Netflix and hand stitch away!

Design Wall Monday-Scrap Basket Surprise Quilt

This has been a UFO for a long time.  Our small group worked through the book Scrap Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett a couple of years ago.  I started almost all of the quilts but couldn’t keep up with finishing one a month.  The blocks were made for this quilt so I sewed them together and now it’s ready for a border.  I wanted to use red but it didn’t look quite right so I’ll have to dig through the stash to find something I like better.  Our group meets this Thursday so I’d like to get it quilted for show and tell.  This is one of my all time favorite books.  There are so many great patterns in it that I could probably spend the rest of my life making these quilts.



To see more great works in progress check out the links at Patchwork Times.

2013 Week 14 Recap and Stash Report

Not as much sewing this week as I’d hoped.  The Bundle of 12 quilt is still on the frame but there’s only about 15 minutes left to quilt on that.  I finished piecing the blocks for Scrappy Irish Stars, pieced most of the blocks for a baby quilt, pieced a baby disappearing 4 patch (4 into 9 patch), finished piecing a shop sample (I don’t have to quilt this one!) and set the blocks together on a UFO from the book Scrapbasket Surprises.  My small group is meeting on Thursday and I’d like to have all of these quilted by then but it probably won’t happen.  So, it looks like a lot of piecing but nothing finished this week.

The Stash Report-no changes

The weekly stash report:
Used this week:  0 yards
Used year to date:  99 yards
Purchased this week:  0
Purchased year to date: 21 yards
Net year to date:  78 yards used

April Surprise

This morning we woke up to this.

I guess winter is still here.  Jim had planned to get outside today and trim the bushes in the front yard but that didn’t happen so we went with Plan B and drove down to Madison to see Jen.  We hadn’t been down there for a couple of months so it was was nice to see her.  We stopped by REI and looked at hiking and camping equipment in hopes that we might soon be able to get out and use them soon.  

Since we were gone all day there wasn’t much time for quilting but I managed to get two passes quilted on the Bundle of 12 quilt before we left this morning.  Hopefully I’ll have time to get back at it tomorrow.

Cats and quilts

Has this ever happened to you?



Shortly after I laid out these blocks and took the picture on Monday morning, my cats came tearing through the family room and wrecked the layout.  What is it about cats and fabric?  Any fabric I have out anywhere in the house is like a cat magnet.

Fortunately, I use a simple system for sewing blocks together and it was very easy to straighten this out.  These blocks were already sewn into rows so I only had to get the rows back in the correct order. 
Once I have a layout I like I put a safety pin in the upper left hand corner of the first block in the first row (upper left hand block).



In the second row I place the head of a pin in the 2 o’clock position like this:



Then continue down the rows placing pins like the face of the clock.  Here are rows 3 and 4:



It was easy to put the rows in the correct order and now the top is sewn together!



This method also works when sewing blocks into rows.  These are blocks from a shop sample that I’m piecing.  I laid them out at the shop on Monday then brought them home to sew together.  I didn’t want to turn the blocks before I had them sewn so I pinned them to keep them straight.

Row 1: pinned with a safety pin in the upper left hand corner.  Pick up all the blocks in the row in order and safety pin them together.  When you are ready to sew the rows together re-pin the safety pin in the upper left hand corner of the first block.  Make sure to keep the pin here until your entire top is sewn together.  That way you always know which way is up!



Row 2 (and subsequent rows):  Pick up the blocks in order from left to right (the first block on the left will be on top).  Place a pin with the head in the 2 o’clock position.  When you start sewing the blocks together, place the pin back in the left block so you don’t flip the row.  Keep the pin in place until you have row 2 sewn to row 1.


Continue with all the rows:



I know you can buy pins that have rows and columns marked, but you have to keep track of those pins and store them in order or search through them to find the correct one.  That’s more trouble than it’s worth for me and this method works great with any pins.  If you have to keep columns in order, use the same method, but place the pins in the center of the top of the block (instead of the left hand corner).

Hope this easy tip helps you stay organized when sewing your blocks into tops!