Longarm quilting and haircuts, too

Dear Emily,

The week at home is flying by as usual! It has taken me until Thursday to finally start the actual quilting. 

One of the harder things in quilting, I think, is making the quilt sandwich. [the layers of the quilt make up the "sandwich" - the quilt top, the batting in the middle, and then the backing fabric] The backing has to be perfectly smooth and kind of taut when pinning the layers together prior to the quilting [For those of you who are new to all this quilting stuff, "piecing" is what you call sewing the individual parts together to make the squares and sewing all the squares together to make the quilt top. "Quilting" is the sewing that holds the "sandwich" together and is visible.] If the fabric isn't smooth, there will be puckers on the back of the quilt when all quilting is finished. Not pretty. If a quilt is small enough, I can tape the backing to the kitchen table to keep it taut while pinning it together. If the quilt is bigger than my table, I have to mop my kitchen floor super well and tape the backing there. Putting all the parts together on a longarm quilting is a bit easier, though you have to be careful to roll it up straight and free of wrinkles. The backing fabric is on one roller, the quilt top on another, and the batting on another and they all roll together as the quilting progresses. 

I discovered a fabulous way to mark the quilt, too. I'll send you pictures of that later.

And what are the kids doing while all this is going on? Playing in this:

Don't you wish we had this when we were kids?

Besides getting the quilting starting this week, the second major accomplishment was cutting this boy's hair. 

Before

After. Who is this kid?

(Thanks to the fabulous Mary at Glow.)

And not to be left out, Caroline got her second hair cut ever.

Before. She was sitting on her hair and it was everywhere.

Second time in a beauty parlor chair. Ever.

Still mermaid hair for the pool but slightly more manageable.

  

She looks a little less than thrilled. She'll get used to it. Thanks Mary!

I hope your house has recovered from the yucky summer crud!

xoxo

Monica

Longarm quilting and U.F.O.s

Dear Emily,

I can say with an almost certainy that all people who quilt, and people who sew for that matter, have U.F.O.s. Unfinished quilts. Did you know that there is even a website for people who have U.F.O.s? And P.I.G.s? Projects in grocery bags. I have lots of those. That is a new one and I think my favorite. At our parents' house I've had a P.I.D. Project in drawer. (yeah, I made that one up but I am sure I am not the only one out there with a P.I.D.) Mine is a very large queen quilt top. I've been waiting for an extended visit to quilt it on our mom's fabulous long arm quilting machine.

Remember when they finished the basement a few years ago, our parents framed off a room by the outside basement door for a plant room, a place for our mom to store her plants in the winter? She had those gorgeous brugmansia trees that she brought inside every year. 

Then she decided to get a longarm quilting machine, something she's wanted for quite awhile. The plant room was the best, and I think only, place to put it.

Yesterday Mom and I went to Joann's so I could buy fabric for the quilt back. The quilt is too wide for regular quilt backing fabric so I had to get muslin. Fabric generally comes 45 or 60 inches wide. Quilt backing is 108 inches. I had to get the widest muslin at Joann's. 120 inches. It is just barely going to fit on the quilt frame.(I can machine quilt on my fabulous Janome but not something this big.) Can't wait to get started!

A sneak peak at the quilt top:

I haven't used the longarm quilter yet. The quilts on Anthony's and Caroline's beds were quilted on it but Mom had to do it because I was too pregnant with Gabe to stretch across the frame to reach the machine. Have you used it yet?

We still need to lift it onto the frame. Unless our brother stops by we will have to do it ourselves.

It looks a little intimidating, don't you think?

xoxo

Monica

Attic Window Quilt

Dear Emily,

I finished the quilt last night by 11:00! I took some pictures this morning before wrapping it up. There was one with all the kids in it but Gabe's pjs were so mismatched it was embarrassing! For some reason, he has more short bottoms than tops so he had on two very different stripes. When I put him to bed, I prayed nothing would happen in the middle of the night that would make us have to leave the house in a hurry.

(You should see everyone's hair, too! I will take a picture of all three before and after their hair appointments next week.)

Anthony's teacher has had a picture quilt made each year for the last 11  years or so. Early in the school year, Anthony came home and said, "Mrs. Price asked if anyone's mom sewed and I raised my hand." He was so pleased with himself for volunteering me. It is like our cousin Anne somewhat reluctantly volunteering to be den mother of her son's cub scout den. When he got home from the meeting where she had volunteered, he ran into the house saying, "Dad, Mom won!" Not exactly how she was feeling! Honestly, though, I was honored to be able to make the quilt. Anthony has had such a terrific year and learned so much. And he loves school. 

The class has a pet of sorts, a squirrel who visits through the window and I think has come into the class on occasion. His name is Skippy. Since the quilt had 30 squares but 28 students, I put Skippy in one.

I found the image on the Silhouette site. I used fleece for the tail and grey felt for the body. I added white felt for the belly because Anthony said he had a white fur there. I machine appliqued it with a blanket stitch, one of my favorite stitches for applique

  This went in the other leftover block:

.

Ignore the crooked seam on the left and the stitches showing. I ironed on the quote before noticing that I forgot to reverse it. I had to pick the stitches out to remove the white square and sew it back together. And reprint the quote. Not fun since the whole top was already pieced. 

Mrs. Price loved it.

I quilted it in the ditch with white thread around the blocks and the outside of the brown border. On the yellow border, I free motion quilted all the kids' names with orange thread on the top and Bottom Line in the bobbin. I like using Bottom Line for free motion and specialty stitches when appliqueing. (that word looks funny but spell check didn't catch it)

I wish I had taken a picture up close of the names. I linked the names with hearts and even had room for Skippy the squirrel's name.

All in all, it was definitely worth the time to see how excited the kids were and how appreciative Mrs. Price was.

Hope you have a great weekend with your company! 

xoxo 

Monica

Half square triangles

The idea for this blog came about from all the emails, phone calls, and texted images between Emily and me about the things were were making. We are constantly sharing ideas, blog posts we have read, techniques and patterns. We originally wanted the posts to be more of an interaction between us rather than a post from Emily one day and one from me the next but were not sure how to do that, at least in a clever kind of way. A reader commented one day that she wished there was a way to tell at the beginning of the post who the author was, Emily or me. We had a brainstorm. The format of our posts will change slightly; they will be in the form of letters to each other. We are new to this blogging thing and still learning how it all works and we suppose it will always be a work in progress, ever evolving. 

Dear Emily, 

I am almost finished with the photo quilt for Anthony's teacher. Thank goodness because it is being presented to her at 8:30 tomorrow morning! I just have to hand sew the binding down one more side and tack the hanging sleeve down. (never made one of those before, have you? It was easy peasy - I'll post photos tomorrow). The blocks are "attic windows," similar to this:

 Quilt Patterns By Janet Wickell

The problem with the attic window quilt block, though, are the set-in seams, as demonstrated here. I had 30 blocks to make and did not want to make it more complicated than it needed to be but wanted to use the attic window block. I found an easy way to make the blocks using this technique. Instead of having to sew partial seams, I made half-square triangles for the corners.

After marking two stitching lines a quarter of an inch on either side of the diagonal, I string pieced the squares:

String piecing is simply stitching several pieces together without cutting the thread between squares. Saves time and keeps your machine from "eating" the thread at the beginning of a block or sucking the corners down below the feed dogs. 

I cut them apart.

And pressed them open.

Ta da! Perfect half square triangles. The advantage to doing this, besides not having to cut triangles, is that you are not sewing on a bias edge which can stretch the fabric. 

Before piecing the block, I squared them up. I don't often do this. Should I? 

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the finished quilt!

xoxo Monica

Antique dress

My Aunt Judi loves to antique.  She bought Monica and me each a set of adorable, antique baby booties when we were expecting our first babes.  She has a great eye for treasures.

A while back, she found a beautiful white dress and just had to buy it, especially because she thought it might fit Caroline.  But it didn't, it was too tight in the bodice.  Yay for me!  It fits Natalie and it is just beautiful.  I had to take the straps up about an inch and the bodice just fits her but she will be able to wear it this summer.

I love the little details on this dress.  The cross over front, the deep hem, the hand stitched button holes, but especially the little sea shell pieces of lace hand sewn onto the top of the bodice.

Thank you Aunt Judi for such a lovely dress!  We will treasure it and wear it often and pass it on to the next little girl!

Emily

Teacher Thank You Gifts

It is hard to believe that the school year is coming to an end. Looking back, the time has just flown by! Caroline's first year of preschool was rough the first few weeks. She began most school days with some tears and a nervous stomach. Often when she hugged me goodbye at the classroom door, her eyes would tear up and I could tell she was really trying to hold back the tears. 

It was bittersweet the day, several months ago, that she forgot to hug me goodbye when I dropped her at her classroom. Since the beginning of the school year, when I tucked her in at night, she would ask if the next day would be a school day (she just goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings) and she was happy when it wasn't. Several months ago that changed and she was sad if it wasn't going to be a school day. Several weeks ago on a Wednesday evening I said, in an excited tone, "you don't have school tomorrow, you get to stay home with me all day!" She replied, with a little too much teenage drama for a four year old, "and it is going to be boring!" I think she even rolled her eyes.

I wanted to put together a little thank you gift for her teachers with Caroline. We found cute striped pots at Michaels and planted lantana plants in them I made a tag for them on my Silhouette. I tied the tag to the pot with white twine and Caroline made a card for each teacher.

 Caroline was not ready for the year to be over and asked me if I could made it "not stop." When I told her that the tag would say "Thank You for helping Caroline bloom" she said, "no, I think it should say, "today is a sad day because it is the last day of school."

And bloom she did! What a terrific year with two wonderful teachers!

-Monica

Corn on the cob

A few weeks ago my mother-in-law sent me this video about how to shuck corn with clean ears every time.  So tonight we decided to try it and it worked!

I followed the instructions in the video.  I cooked the corn in the husk in the microwave for 4 minutes an ear.  Be careful when you take them out...they are HOT!!

Then I cut the ends off with a serrated knife.

Then Liam grasped the top of the husk (again use a glove or potholder) and shook.

WOW! It worked!!  (He was so excited.)

(I know...another non-sewing post.  I have a bunch of projects I am trying to get around to but just can't seem to find the time to sit down and do them.  Maybe if I let my house get REALLY dirty and my family starve I could get something done.)