New Quilt

I've had this bolt of green fabric for several years. I love the fabric but a bolt is a lot! The other day I was looking at it and realized it was the same color that I painted my new studio. An idea for a quilt for the wall started to take shape. A two color quilt would be a challenge. An even greater challenge would be to use only two fabrics and make it still look stunning. I decided to use another bolt of fabric from my personal store of white fabric. So now I had white and green. They looked beautiful together. My idea was a few blocks of high contrast, a wide white border for some extra special quilting, and the center also of white to applique a block design somewhere. I found a block pattern I liked and so I began to cut. The block is a square in a square design in the center and then a triangle border. I got all the fabric cut and started to sew. Right away I could see that the block was missing something. It needed another color to make it pop. A yummy soft yellow was pulled from my stash and it seemed perfect. So now to add those. Hmm -- so far so good. The trick will be to make the applique block compliment and stand out in the center. But today it's just getting the blocks sewn. Stay tuned for more progress.

Machine Quilting With My Sister

This last week both my sisters came to visit. I had been so looking forward to this that when they left it felt totally depressing. But we had a great time -- just not long enough. They came to meet my new little granddaughter, Leah Grace, and I know that meant a lot to them to see her while she is still living and get to hold her. They also came to have fun, and fun we had! We shopped, ate out, went to coffee at the starbucks where my daughter works, got lost trying to find a quilt shop but ended up finding a cool produce farm and garden center. We watched a chick flick, visited the Garden Corner and oohed and aahed over their beautiful garden. We talked family, our lives and our interests. We laughed hilariously over a book we found in a bookstore called, 'Housewives Gone Wild' and decided that would be a fitting description for our few days together!!

My younger sister also is a machine quilter with a longarm, so we put on some plain fabric and played around one morning. We tried out lots of ideas. It was inspiring and fun. My sister informed me that I need new wheels on my Gammill. She got new wheels a couple years ago and said there was quite a difference between her machine and mine. That will set me back a fistfull of money but I know she's right.

I'm posting pictures of our machine quilting play and other events. I can't imagine life without my sisters!

Kitchen Garden

Those of you who have been to my home know that I have a very large garden way in the back (on the back acreage as we fondly say around here). Our lot is very large for Tualatin and the very back of my yard is perfect for a garden. Lots of raised beds, fruit trees (that might produce if my husband would stop 'pruning' them), a great shed, and just lots of great soil. I love growing vegies. This year it's onions, potatoes, beets, lettuce, carrots, tons of tomatoes, peppers, spinach, peas, beans and corn. Taking care of my garden is a joy, even keeping the weeds down. The problem for years, though, is that often when I'm in the kitchen and want some herb for cooking, it never makes it to the cooking pot, because my garden is too far away. I didn't want to take the time to run out and get a few leaves of this or that to flavor what I'm cooking. So this year I finally did something about it. I made a kitchen garden right outside my front door. The place is perfect. It faces west so gets lots of sun. I used two large galvanized tubs filled with dirt. Best of all it's only 3 steps from my kitchen. Right now there is only herbs in one. I hope to grow, even through the winter, some things that will make it to my kitchen table.