Tea Time

 

Several years ago, I bought my daughter this quilt kit as a gift. But it sat unused for the intervening years (like mother, like daughter). Earlier this year, when we were having a sew time together at my place, she did the strip cutting of the fabrics, but then got sidetracked by a garment sewing project (also not yet finished) and didn't get back to this quilt. I bought minky for the backing during our local quilt shop's close-out sale, and more recently offered to finish it for her for Christmas. After all, it was still at my place, and I have enough UFOs of my own, without having hers here as well. And so, that's what I've done. 
If you look back over my blog for the High Tea quilt, you will find that I made a nearly identical quilt previously.

The only differences are that High Tea had a teapot fabric for the focus fabric, whereas this one has teacups, and High Tea has a regular quilting cotton backing, and Tea Time has minky.

I also used a different pantograph for the quilting, Coffee Break for High Tea and High Tea for Tea Time. I didn't own the High Tea pantograph when I made the High Tea quilt, otherwise, I likely would have used it. 

I'm not going to bother repeating myself, so if you want to know my thoughts on this quilt kit, just read my post on High Tea. There you will also find that I used the same trellis setting pattern for Where the Charming Roses Bloom, only I used the square design instead of rectangular. 

The nice thing about this quilt design is that it's actually a setting design - in other words, it provides a setting for either focus fabrics or blocks. And since I like the aesthetics of blocks set on point, I decided to use this setting for a queen sized quilt, starting with the blocks I made in a sew-along back in 2021. 

Hopefully, some day, I will get it finished for my own bed. The original sew-along only made 8 - 12" blocks, and for this quilt top, I need 17, plus 14 - 6" blocks. My choice was to make the most challenging 12" blocks I could find in Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. So, it's been slow going, especially when other projects keep interrupting. And then I'll have to tackle the 6" blocks...

The Great Bread Making Adventure: Kugelhopf, Challah, and Cheese and Onion Loaf

Admittedly, it's been a long time since I've made a bread post. I don't even remember if I mentioned that I finally dumped all of my sourdough starter and discard. I hadn't touched either for months and it was just taking up space in my fridge. I figure if I want to tackle sourdough again, I will just start from scratch. And I might, but not right now, not with Christmas so close. I have too many other things to deal with. 

Back in August, I picked up this pan at a thrift store. I did a reverse image search to see what kind of pan it actually is. It's supposedly a muffin pan, but I knew better. So, I shared it on Facebook, asking if anyone knew what it was. One of my French/European/Canadian friends said that it's a gugelhopf pan. I don't think that's how she spelled it, but I don't remember. And it doesn't really matter because it can be found under various names. I decided that I wanted to try it (otherwise, why would I buy the tin?) And I found it in my World Encyclopedia of Bread, where it's "Kugelhopf". It's in the French breads section, even though it has a German name, and the book has this to say about it, "This inviting, fluted ring-shaped bread originates from Alsace, although Germany, Hungary and Austria all have their own variations of this popular recipe. Kugelhopf can be sweet or savoury; this version is richly flavoured with nuts, onion and bacon."
Because this was the first time I was making this bread, I decided to stick to the recipe (at least the veganized, whole grain version of it), and make it as a whole ring-shaped loaf, rather than as individual rolls in this tin. I used hard red whole wheat flour in place of the white bread flour and quick rise yeast (2¼ teaspoons, mixed in with the flour and salt) rather than fresh yeast, which I don't even think is commercially available in Canada. I substituted veggie bacon (store bought, not homemade) in place of the bacon and plant-based butter to replace the butter. For the eggs, I used 1¼ cups of aquafaba (garbanzo cooking water), ¼ cup for each egg, as per the instructions on the King Arthur website. I generally use ground flax seed and water, but "King Arthur" says that aquafaba was the best substitute, and better from canned chickpeas than homemade. I bought store brand chickpeas and found the aquafaba rather watery, so I added 1 tablespoon of ground flax seed to it. In addition, because I wasn't using fresh yeast, I skipped the semi-proofing step for the yeast, and went straight to mixing all of the wet ingredients in with the dry (aside from the bacon, onions and walnuts, which I added at the appropriate time, after the first rise). 
I've also been wanting to make Challah for awhile, planning to use canned pumpkin to substitute for the eggs to give the bread the slightly orange hue that the egg yolks would impart. Unfortunately, the leftover pumpkin from Thanksgiving went moldy before I had a chance to use it. However, I used part of a butternut squash in another recipe, so baked the remainder to use in place of pumpkin. I made some squash muffins to take to the sew/craft day at the local Lutheran church. And then used some in the Challah.
This bread is found in the "Breads of the Americas" section. I'm not sure why, since Wikipedia says that Challah originated in Europe, which is what I figured. Bagels, which originated in Poland, are also in this section. I think both should be in the Eastern European section, or Middle Eastern, but I didn't write the book. The World Encyclopedia of Bread and Bread Making has this to say about Challah: "Challah is an egg-rich, light-textured bread baked for the Jewish Sabbath and to celebrate religious holidays. It is usually plaited with 3 or 4 strands of dough, but 8 strands or more may be used to create especially festive loaves." Before I go on, I just want to point out that it is not the "Jewish" Sabbath. It is God's Sabbath, as given to humanity in the Garden of Eden and was "made for man" (or all humanity), according to Jesus, in Mark 2:27. As a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, I do choose to "Remember the Sabbath day", the seventh day, or Saturday, according to the 4th commandment. Anyway, many people do call Challah "Sabbath bread". 
Again, I used plant-based butter, whole wheat flour and ground flax seed and water for the glaze, in addition to the squash to replace the eggs. 

The challah made a beautiful loaf, moist and tender on the inside with a nice crunchy crust. 

The kugelhopf was quite tasty, but a little too crumbly. And I found the inside of both loaves were like store bought bread - if I squashed them up, they would likely turn back to dough. So, I think if I make these loaves again, I will bake for the longer period of time suggested in the recipes. I might also knead both a little longer. I'll give that more thought because, technically, kugelhopf is considered a yeast-raised cake, so perhaps the crumbly texture is what is desired. 

Back in July, I made the Cheese and Onion loaf, which I hadn't blogged about, until now. I used Daiya cheddar shreds in place of the dairy cheese and it was very tasty. But it was also very high in fat, so I would likely use less cheese if I were to do it again, and maybe less butter. My loaf looks like it has a lot more cheese than the picture in the book, although I did weigh the Daiya, and only used as much as the recipe called for. I also found that the loaf tended to separate between the sections and that it was very soft and a little underdone inside. I would likely choose to make it as a whole loaf, incorporating most of the cheese into the loaf, sprinkling just a little on top, and perhaps adding more flour and/or baking longer at a lower temperature. 

Now my blog is up to date with my bread adventures. I'm going to try to continue with the British Breads section of the book. I just got slightly side-tracked to try the kugelhopf and the challah. 

Happy Holidays Christmas Tree Skirt and Other Yarn Projects

 Honestly, I don't know when I actually started this Christmas tree skirt. Quite a number of years ago. And now it's finally finished! When I pulled up the draft for this post, it was dated 2015, and it already said "several years ago". So, it's a project that's well over 10 years old.

It actually started with Bernat Happy Holidays Sparkle Yarn (unfortunately no longer available). Anyone that knows me knows that I love bling, so yarn with a little bit (or a whole lot) of sparkle is just begging for me to use in a project. Needing a Christmas tree skirt to coordinate with my silver-themed tree, I decided that was just the project I needed. So I googled to find a pattern I liked. I started out with one with holly leaves and berries on it. I can no longer find the pattern online, but I still have the printout. Unfortunately, the pattern is just called "Crocheted Christmas Tree Skirt", so not exactly a specific enough name to narrow down the results in a search engine. Anyway, I never got to the holly part because I decided I really didn't like the pattern and the skirt was only going to be 32" in diameter. That size might be fine for one of my smaller trees, but was pretty tiny for a full-sized Christmas tree, in my not-so-humble opinion. But I still liked the holly. Unfortunately, I had already purchased the yarn based on this pattern, and it was no longer available wherever I bought it (Walmart???) by the time I decided I needed a bigger tree skirt. And I continued searching for a pattern. There are lots of interesting patterns on the internet, not all of which suited my taste. Yarnspirations has a pattern with some poinsettias on it. I really like the poinsettias, so I'm not sure why I decided against this particular pattern. It's been too long to recall my reasoning at the time, but perhaps it was because I wanted to include the holly. Or perhaps it was because I didn't think I really needed a 60" tree skirt any more than I needed a 32" one. Then I found the Easy Crocheted Hexagon Christmas Tree Skirt and decided that was the pattern I was going to use for the basic skirt, adding poinsettias and holly from the aforementioned patterns. And so I proceeded (after, of course, obtaining more yarn online). It didn't look like much to start with. 

Gradually, it grew, though it was slow going because numerous other projects interfered. 

It started getting closer to the size I wanted it and then I had to decide how I was going to use the "Merrier Multi" colourway. It didn't really fit into my plans for the poinsettias and holly, so I decided to use it in the border and edging. I completed one row of basic double crochet with it, added three more rows of the Twinkly White, but then decided I didn't just want another round or two of double crochet. I wanted something fancier. I tried looking for a snowflake edging without success. So I chose the Lacy Vs and Picots Edging. It's a 3 row edging and I wasn't sure I had enough of the Merrier Multi to do all three rows. So I did the second row in white with only a small amount of white left over. I'm really pleased with how it looks. And I have to say that I think it looks much better in person (in tree skirt?). The sparkle really doesn't show up in the pictures and it really adds that extra something to the appearance. 

Then I started crocheting poinsettias and holly. I had originally planned on centering the poinsettias in each section of the hexagon and putting the holly on the dividing lines between the sections. But the holly was turning out bigger than I expected. Much bigger. When I followed the pattern, one holly leaf was as long as the poinsettia was across. Not really what I was aiming for. And I really didn't like how it looked and the pattern was a little difficult to decipher. So I created my own holly leaves. Here's how I did it: 

• Chain 8
• dc, tr, dc in second chain from hook
• sc in next chain
• dc, tr, dc in next chain
• sc in next chain
• dc, tr, dc in next chain
• sc in next chain
• in final chain, dc on one side, then tr, dc in the spine on the other side
• sc in the next spine (back side of the chain)
• dc, tr, dc in the next spine
• sc in the next spine
• dc, tr, dc in the next spine
• sc in the next spine
• dc, tr, dc in the next spine
• sc in the final spine
• fasten off

I hope that makes sense. You can always message me if you want to make these leaves and need any help figuring this out.

I still had to decide how I wanted to space the poinsettias and holly, so I spread the skirt out and laid some of the pieces on and snapped a couple of photos. 

Poinsettias centred, holly on the section edges

Poinsettias alternating with holly centred in each section

After doing this, I shared the pictures to a crochet group on facebook. The comments there basically reinforced what I was already leaning towards - the first picture. So I had more holly and poinsettias to make, including figuring out how to make two half poinsettias for the opening. And I had to decide whether to try to crochet the holly berries or use beads. I opted for the beads, and purchased them, as well as the yellow beads for the poinsettias. 
Meanwhile, many years intervened, during which I managed to finish the poinsettias and get some of them stitched down. Unfortunately, I lost track of the draft of this post in the intervening years, and when it came time to finish making the leaves, I had to just figure it out, based on the ones I made previously. I had 11 finished and made one more. I had originally planned on having 3 leaves per group. But I really wanted to get this UFO finally finished as well as having it completed in time to enter in the local fair, so I opted for 2 leaves instead. Finally I stitched on the beads, red for the holly berries and yellow for the poinsettia "true" flowers (the red showy parts are actually bracts). I added some buttons and crocheted button loops and it was finished on time for the fair. And it won a first place ribbon. 
Backing up to my vacation in Ontario, one of my nieces just happened to camp in the site next to ours. While we were there, she would be celebrating her birthday. I don't recall if I have ever had the privilege of being able to celebrate this niece's birthday with her before. Sophia (my daughter) and I wanted to do something special for her. Not something big and extravagant as that wasn't in our budget, but something that let her know that she was special to us. I suggested a dishcloth bouquet as it's something from the heart, because we would be making the dishcloths ourselves, and useful as well, because everyone uses dishcloths. When we went to Len's Mill, Sophia and I both purchased a new set of ergonomic crochet hooks (it's always good to have extras, and these ones work as well as the name brand ergonomic hooks, but cost a lot less). Sophia picked out 5 different colours of yarn for the dishcloths, and we found a nice mug to display them in, and an appropriate birthday card. That afternoon, while visiting in the home of one of my sisters, together, Sophia and I made all 5 dishcloths,

and presented them to my niece the next day. 

While in Len's Mill, Sophia and I picked up some of those free little pattern leaflets from Yarnspirations. For our trip home, we both decided to crochet the Market Bag from one of the leaflets. So we each picked up a big ball of Handicrafter Cotton from the local Walmart, as well as the appropriate size crochet hook. In case the hook was considered "dangerous" and confiscated, we didn't want to loose our ergonomic hooks. Unfortunately, in my case, I accidentally chose a bigger hook, and since I tend to crochet larger than gauge, I decided not to attempt the bag at that time. Sophia found the instructions inaccurate, and they didn't make sense to me either. She ended up finding Mikey's tutorial on The Crochet Crowd, where he adapted the pattern so that it actually works. I used his instructions when I made my market bag once we were back home in Alberta. 

After finishing it, I still had a lot of my big ball of Handicrafter Cotton left, and I didn't want to add it to my stash, so I perused the Yarnspirations website for other ideas on what to make with it. I found a knitted Market Bag, and made that as well. 

This was also entered in the fair, where it won a first place ribbon. 

But I still had yarn left over, so I next crocheted a Pretty Flowers Tea Towel. 

I had just enough yarn to make the towel part, then used some leftovers from the dishcloth bouquet, plus some stash yarn, to finish the trim. 

This, too, won a first place ribbon in the fair. I couldn't enter the crocheted market bag, as it would have been in the same class as the tea towel, and only one item per class is allowed. 

As I was looking over the cotton yarn pattern on Yarnspirations, I found one for Christmas ornaments, and thought I could make those for the Christmas ornament class at the fair, especially since I do have Christmas Handicrafter Cotton in my stash, and I also have some styrofoam balls left over from a previous ornament making session with my grandson, that I figured were the correct size. But when it came time to make them, I couldn't find the pattern. I was sure it had been a Yarnspirations pattern, but I googled just in case I had found it somewhere else online. But still no luck (although I did find some other interesting patterns that I might be able to use leftovers from the tree skirt to make). Finally, I found Colorful Crochet Ornaments - Christmas isn't even in the name, and that's probably where I went wrong. 

The pattern called for a 2½" diameter ball. Unfortunately, it turned out my styrofoam balls were only 1¾". As I mentioned, I have a tendency to stitch larger than gauge, so those definitely wouldn't work. As it was the middle of summer, I wasn't sure where I could find DIY Christmas ornaments. I tried the dollar store and found some rather large styrofoam balls, probably about 5-6" in diameter. No, those definitely wouldn't work. So I decided to see what was in the toy section. 

These balls, which came in packages of two, were 2½" in diameter. So, I bought two packages, one of yellow and one of blue, because I needed a set of three to enter in the fair. I also bought a set of permanent markers because I knew the ball colour would show between the stitches. With the markers, I could at least make them Christmas colours.

I then went to Walmart to see what they had. I purchased some 3" styrofoam balls, but decided that the smiley balls were going to work better, and I coloured them red and green. 

If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't use the Christmas ombre yarn. Because of the variations in colour, the pattern doesn't stand out distinctly. But I was still happy with the results. And my grandson found it amusing to have squishy Christmas ornaments. 

They took a second place ribbon at the fair. 

As for my Tortoise Projects - well, they've all kind of joined the ranks of UFOs, as other projects took precedence. But I'm very happy that I was finally able to check off the Happy Holidays tree skirt as finished.  

Once Upon a Rhyme

 

When my former co-worker was expecting her third baby (the one for whom I made Swan Lake Surprise), she didn't know the gender. As I mentioned previously, I was hoping she would have a boy as I have a couple of boy's quilts ready. But first, I thought maybe I should just make a gender neutral quilt and I could even give it to her before the baby was born because it wouldn't matter what gender it was. So, I pulled out this panel that I had purchased a number of years previously, to see what I could do with it. It was actually a cloth book panel of nursery rhymes, but I planned to make the pages into blocks and use it for a baby quilt. However, when I pulled it out and started measuring, I discovered that not all of the pages were the same size - the front and back "cover" pages were slightly largely than the rest of the pages - and they weren't perfectly on square. So, I decided to border each page, and trim them down to make a 10" square block, and that would deal with any irregularities. And use 10" quilt blocks alternating with the books pages to give me 20 blocks, yielding a finished quilt size of 44" x 54". 
I had to decide on what block to use, so I looked through the "block library" in Beautiful Patchwork Gifts, and selected Small Baskets. I chose to use solids so that I could more easily coordinate the colours with the panel. 

I'm really happy with my fabric - and block - selection. It's so bright and cheerful. As a matter of fact, I like it so well that I actually considered putting a hanging sleeve on it and finding some wall space for it. I may still do that since I don't have a current recipient in mind. (My ex-husband's niece has a baby due next year, but once again, I'm hoping it's a boy. 😄).
I ordered the backing fabric at the same time as I ordered the solid fabrics and figured it worked well enough with the nursery rhyme theme. 

Unfortunately, it is directional, and I decided to keep it that way, so I couldn't do just one horizontal seam through the back. I had to do a little more patchwork to keep it all running in the right direction.
When it came to the quilting, for once, I wasn't indecisive. I was going to use Wee Ones, a great pantograph for baby quilts, that features pacifiers, baby bottles, teddy bears, rocking horses, sailboats, rattles and rubber duckies. Adorable, and fairly quick and easy. 

In the meantime, I found out my friend had a baby girl, so I opted for a girl's quilt instead and left this one on the back burner so that I could get Iris Medallion done. Now that it's finished and in my sister's hands (she loves it, by the way), I finally got the binding on this one and Puzzle. 

Fat Quarter Cut-Ups 2: A Book Review and the Puzzle Quilt

 

I picked up this quilt book on sale at my local quilt shop.

It was a good thing it was only a dollar. I probably bought it because it was an awesome price and there are some nice looking designs in it.
As I've mentioned before, fat quarters are probably my least favourite pre-cut. Altogether too many "fat quarter friendly" projects leave one with bits and pieces of each fat quarter left, instead of using most or all of the fat quarter. And the same is true of this book - except that it's not really bits and pieces. It's at least a more usable 3" by 18" strip. But that's not the main problem with this book. 
Normally, when we buy yardage for a project, we buy more than enough. That's not only to allow for our mistakes, but the fact that the majority (99%) of the time, we have to make an initial cut to even out the edge of the fabric before we start cutting the pieces for the project. Because, for various reasons, it is very rarely perfect and even. And I have yet to meet the perfect fat quarter. Virtually every time, at least one edge is wonky. So, I have to trim the edges to even it out. Which means that I really can't count on having 18" of width to cut. Maybe 17" or 17½" if I'm lucky. But definitely not 18, unless I'm working with metric fat quarters, in which case, they start out at a little over 19" wide. But this book is not from a country that uses the metric system. So it is dependent on an 18" x 21" fat quarter from which to cut 4 - 9" squares. And that's a virtual impossibility. There is just not a fat quarter perfect enough to give you 18 inches of usable width. Even if it was perfect when it was first cut, by the time you get it home, unfold it, starch it (and the author highly recommends starch since you will be working with a lot of bias edges), and press it, there will likely be some fraying, some distortion, some shrinkage. So getting the required 4 - 9" squares out of one fat quarter is an unrealistic expectation. Yet that is the expectation of this book. And I found it impossible to accomplish.
So my the points in this quilt are not all very pointed, my corners mostly don't line up. It's kind of an amateurish-looking project. It is still an attractive quilt, but I would have been much happier if the book had started out with a more achievable premise. Then I would have had a better chance of having more accuracy. However, it actually is kind of a fun method to create the blocks by cutting a pile of 9" squares into the right size of pieces, and then rearrange the order of some of the pieces. 
Otherwise, the instructions are relatively straightforward and easy to follow. There are a couple of oddities with this book, however. The first is the layout: it has the picture of the finished quilt on the right hand page, opposite the instructions for the previous quilt on the left hand page. I found this rather confusing and nonsensical. The other is that the instructions say to press all seams open, without explaining why. And I still haven't figured it out. How you press your seams is more of a personal preference, in my opinion, unless there is a definite reason why it needs to be done. But the author never states why. I appreciate in this particular pattern, there are several seams coming together at the corner of the block, but the author gives this instruction for all designs in this book, even when this is not the case. There is a fair amount of fabric wastage, as well, at least with the design that I used. 
I'm not sure if this book is going to remain in my library. I know I could cut my own 9" strips of fabric, from which I could cut my 9" squares, and that would likely work better for accuracy. But I've already made what is probably the most fun design in the book. And I have plenty of other quilting books and magazines from which I can draw inspiration and find ideas. 
As for the quilt itself, aside from not having the seams lined up as well as I would have liked, I'm quite happy with it. It's for one of my great nephews, and he asked specifically for green, blue and red. 
For the quilting, I was uncertain what design to use. This is a young man's quilt and I didn't want fluffly feathers or pretty flowers. When I was working on Swan Lake Surprise, I joked on Facebook about quilting a little girl's quilt with frogs (which is, of course, what I ended up going with) and then suggested spiders, and bemoaned the fact that I don't have a snake pantograph. As Puzzle was already in the works, I thought why not use the spiders on it? It's a fun and funky surprise if anyone wants to look closely enough at the quilting. 

The pantograph is Along Came a Spider, and the only problem I have with it is that it's not anatomically correct. Spiders have 8 legs, not 6. 
I've had it quilted for over a month, but then set it aside so that I could get my sister's quilt done. But the binding is now on, and it's ready to ship off to my great nephew. 

40 Country Quilting Projects: Iris Medallion Quilt

 I have a lot of older quilting books. I've picked them up at various thrift stores, clearance sales at quilt shops, library sales, etc. When I use an older book, I do expect there to be some outdated techniques, but I don't have a problem with that. I've been making quilts long enough now that I'm confident enough to choose a technique that suits me better. But what I don't expect are errors: miscalculations in yardage, incorrect cutting measurements, inadequate or missing instructions... And, in my opinion, any pattern should have pattern testers before it's published: at least one person, preferably 2 or 3 or more that is at the experience level of the target audience for the pattern and completes the whole project following the pattern exactly. That way any errors can be found and corrected prior to publication. It's not enough that the original pattern designer has made the quilt. That designer might have certain steps that are so automatic that he/she neglects to include them in the instructions. Or maybe there were distractions during the writing of the pattern and things got written incorrectly, or excluded altogether. So pattern testers are a necessity. But, from my experience, it appears that there have been a lot of patterns published with no prior testing whatsoever. Which is quite a pity. A really poorly written pattern could be enough to discourage a beginner from pursuing the hobby altogether. And that would be a shame. 
So, in all honesty, I cannot recommend this book, unless you're a relatively experienced quilter and are into brain challenges. 

There are just too many mistakes. I have done quite a number of projects from this book now, and I think that's more than sufficient to know that it is not a great quilting book. 
I originally posted about my quilting book challenge back in December of 2016: I was planning on completing every project in this book, with some possible modifications, like using fusible web for my applique, and never hand stitching unless absolutely necessary. I had no idea that many of the modifications would end up being correcting the patterns. And by the way, I'm not really sure how the author calculated the number of projects: if I made 3 Christmas ornaments, does that count as one project, or three? So, I'm not totally sure what number I'm at, so the 40 in the title is a best guestimate. 
But on to the challenges with this particular pattern:
First of all, I will say that I can't honestly speak to the yardage requirements. I switched colours, added fabric from other projects and sometimes did my own thing, but as far as I can tell, the fabric yardages listed are reasonably accurate. Not so for making Template G. It states 12½ x 12½ x 17¾-inch right triangle. Hmm, knowing what I do about HSTs (half square triangles), I think that following these measurements will end up with a square that's slightly too small. Making an HST unit that ends up 12½" square (12" finished size), I need to start with squares that are 12⅞", not 12½". So, I ended up making HST units according to my knowledge, and not cut individual triangles using a template that wasn't the correct size. 
My main concern with this pattern, however, is the cutting charts, particularly for the appliqué blocks. For the individual iris blocks, it says to cut 12 of Template L. This is the leaf template, and it neglects to state that you also need 12 of the reverse of Template L. Then for the centre medallion, it calls for 8 of Template O and 8 of Template P, also leaf templates. This time, the amount was correct, but half of those 8 each need to be reversed. Otherwise all of the leaves would be pointing in the same direction. 

When it came to actually doing the appliqué, I found that the instructions were not as clear as I would have liked. There are no specific measurements or guidelines for positioning the pieces. For example, in the centre medallion, you start by putting the 'O' leaves on. Obviously, from both the diagram and the quilt pictures, these leaves are partway up the stem, but there is no indication for how far up the stem. Furthermore, the diagram shows the 'O' leaves on the vertical and horizontal, and later instructs the quilter to put the 'P' leaves on the diagonal, but the quilt pictures show the opposite. I went with the placement in the pictures, and just guestimated for where to put the 'O' leaves. As far as the stems go, I felt that they were too short and made mine longer.

There were also no measurements for where to attach the corners on the centre medallion. 
As for the rest of the instructions, I was occasionally referring to them, but mostly doing what I knew needed to be done. I found it rather peculiar that the Quilting Basics chapter does discuss strip piecing, but never recommends using it for the 9-patches, which would have been ideal for that technique. And that's what I did. 

I did a little research into why this book would have still been using templates for so many of the pieces that were pretty basic measurements. Apparently, while rotary cutters, mats and rulers existed at this time (1990), many quilters and quilt publications were still using templates. And that would be why the cutting charts in this book indicate the number of pieces required, but not how many strips to cut first. If you're interested in a little history of quilting templates, you can find it here. 
Anyway, my personal design changes in this quilt:
Initially, I was going to do the irises all in purple, as per the pattern, but the sister for whom I was making this quilt really likes yellow, so I opted for bi-colour irises, incorporating the yellow. 
Of course, I used fusible web and machine stitching for the appliqué, rather than freezer paper and hand stitching. I would still be working on this quilt a decade from now if I was hand stitching all of those pieces down - 160 individual pieces. And I did not use bias strips for the stems - just regular fabric and fusible web, stitched down by machine. 
The original size of the quilt was to be 84 x 108 inches, but I wanted it 90", my preferred width for a queen-sized quilt. So, I added the checkerboard border on the sides. 
The "trunk" of the pine tree in the pine tree block was supposed to have been the same dark green as the solid green triangle and square in the block. But who has ever seen a dark green tree trunk? At least not on a pine tree. I used brown instead. And I opted for a more medium green as well. I felt that the dark green in the quilt pictures kind of "shouted" and was rather distracting from what should have been the focus of the quilt - the irises. 

I also chose not to use blue in the 9-patch, opting instead for an alternate purple print.
If I had to do it over again, I would probably choose to use fabrics with greater contrast for the yellow parts of the irises. And in the individual iris blocks, I likely would have also decided on greater contrast between the green leaves and the green part of the background. 
In spite of all of the challenges, it really is a beautiful quilt. And, as you can see, it looks significantly different from the one in the cover photo on the book. I told my middle sister, Nancy, that if Therese (the sister for whom this quilt was made) doesn't like it, she should give it back because I sure do. And Nancy said that she would be next in line. 
For the quilting, I had really wanted to use an iris pantograph, but I wasn't pleased with either Iris Clamshell or Siberian Iris from Urban Elementz. They were too sharp and stylized. The iris design included in the Flower Flakes collection from Meadow Lyon is very pretty, and more what I wanted, but it was just a single block, not an edge to edge design. And really, since I own so many pantographs that I have yet to use, I could hardly justify buying a new pantograph. And I certainly didn't wish to buy a whole bunch of them in order to justify the cost of shipping. So, rather reluctantly, I was planning on choosing a design from my rather extensive "library" of pantographs. But I hadn't totally given up on the idea of an iris pantograph, and I finally decided to check Anne Bright Designs. It's not a vendor I resort to often. She doesn't sell paper pantographs. Most of her designs are digital, although she does have a few self-print. I might have mentioned before that I am not a fan of self-print. I don't like having to print out multiple pieces of paper and trying to precisely line them up and tape them together. And then, if I want to keep it, how I am supposed to store this mass of paper and tape? What I choose to do instead is print out one repeat of the design in the size I want, and trace it onto a roll of paper cut to pantograph size (12'). The roll of paper is actually for a children's easel, and I bought it on Amazon. But that is quite a tedious job as well. 

Nevertheless, I found a design I liked: Iris for Donna. I enlarged it 200% to get it to the size I wanted. My hand weights came in handy to keep the paper in place whilte tracing. But it took me several days, and probably loss of brain cells due to inhaling the magic marker smell. But I was happy with it. 

In spite of enlarging it 200%, it is still a pretty delicate design, and I certainly had to take my time quilting this one. But I got it quilted within 2 or 3 days, and I got it in the mail to my sister. 

Because I'm a bit of a numbers nerd, sometimes I like to keep track of things. In the picture is bobbin number 8, that I only used part of, so over 7 bobbins to quilt this quilt. The 1100 metre spool of Aurilux thread was full when I started (cone of blue on the right for comparison). And that was just for bobbin thread. I used Glide on the top. 
 
Interestingly, I kept the invoice for when I purchased most of the fabric used in this quilt because I made notes on it for which fabric to use for what part of the quilt. The invoice is dated 2017, so it was long overdue to be completed. And that's it - my final quilt for my sisters. Now, I really should make one for my own bed!

Beachcomber

 

When our local quilt shop was selling out, my daughter, grandson and I visited there together at least a couple of times. On one of those occasions, my daughter called me over to show me this quilt kit, and asked if I would make it for her. Though she had taken a couple of quilt classes as a child, she is really not a quilter. She sews, crochets and knits, but, aside from those few projects she completed as a child, she does not make quilts. But she wanted this quilt and knew who could - and would - make it for her. I bought the kit and decided to make it for her birthday. And, because she likes "soft and snuggly", I decided to back it with minky - deep pile, textured minky. 
If you know anything about quiltmaking, you will recognize that this quilt design is far from simple. It's a Mariner's Compass, which is well known for being a complex quilt block, or in this case, the whole quilt top. It lends itself best to foundation paper piecing (fpp), as I did for the Christmas Star table topper, as well as the Sailor's Delight block I used in both the Bluenose II Pixel quilt and Audacious, which use variations of the Mariner's Compass. But for this quilt, that would have required huge pieces of paper to complete it. Instead, the pattern provided paper templates, many of which took up more than one sheet of paper and had to be taped together. 
I wasn't that impressed with the fabric choices in this kit. The pattern was designed for nautically-themed fabric, and some of this fabric was floral-themed. And some had these funky circles, which, while from the same line as the floral fabric, didn't seem to coordinate that well. And I didn't think there was enough contrast between the fabrics used for the mid-sized compass points. The pattern called for a different background fabric between the small compass points, and I actually considered switching out the black there. But this was the kit my daughter had chosen, and I decided to assemble it according to the kit. The only change I made was to add the narrow black border to tame down the checkerboard border as I felt it was competing with the main design of the quilt top. Plus I prefer to have an unpieced border to attach the binding to, so that the binding doesn't cover up any of the piecing. And I'm very happy with how it turned out.
As for assembling the quilt top, when you have so many points coming together in the middle of a circle, you have a lot of bias edges and a lot of bulk, and it's hard to keep the centre flat. In this case, not only was the centre of the quilt top not flat, I had a mini mountain. I tried pressing it out, using lots of starch, but I ended up having to take in the centre seams to make a flat quit top. And success! I was finally happy with how the quilt top turned out. 
Now for the quilting. Because the fabric was more floral-themed and not at all nautical, I considered naming the quilt "Garden Sundial" and using a floral pantograph. Yes, I've talked about my indecisiveness before... But I decided to stick with the more nautical theme and quilted it with Dave's Seashells and kept the pattern name, "Beachcomber". 

 As I mentioned, the minky backing had a deep, textured pile. 

And that meant a lot of fibres pulled through to the front with the quilting. 

It also meant lots of free floating fibre, especially when I was trimming the batting and backing.

But once the edges were encased in binding, that problem was solved.
And my daughter is very happy with her quilt. And so is one of her cats, who also really loves snuggly blankets. 

Christmas Birds Table Runner

 

As I was getting ready for the fair(s) this year, I wasn't sure how many of the local fairs I was going to enter. I can enter the same projects in two of the fairs, but the other fair overlaps with one of the other two. Thinking ahead, I wanted to be prepared to enter something in the Christmas table runner class in the third fair. Rummaging around in the studio (maybe some day, I'll get it organized so I don't have to do so much rummaging), I came across this kit that's been in my stash for numerous years. The pattern is called The Big Easy! from Pieced Tree Patterns. (I can't link to it because my anti-virus software keeps blocking their webpage). It was quick and simple and the kit included backing fabric. So, I made it up. 

I used the Chickadee Christmas Trio pantograph to quilt it, bound it, and it was done. 
As it turned out, I only entered one fair, so this one hasn't been entered anywhere. Maybe next year. But it is really pretty. I love Christmas birds. 

No Tortoise Project updates because I haven't really been working on any of them. But I did start the Maple Leaf Forever scarf. When I was at Len's Mill in Ontario, I picked up the pattern leaflet for this scarf. Once back in Alberta, I bought some Red Heart Comfort in red shimmer and started the project.

Unfortunately, I soon found that something wasn't quite right with the pattern. There was an extra column of knitting beside the maple leaf motif, which should have been part of the seed stitch border. And the finished measurements were off for the amount of repeats that there were. Instead of 60", the scarf would end up being over 8 feet long!
I went to the Yarnspirations website and found that they had corrected the pattern. So, I ripped out all of my work and started fresh. Their measurements still weren't accurate, however. According to their gauge, "24 rows = 4" in stocking stitch", or 6 rows for one inch. There are 12 rows of seed stitch (6 at the beginning and 6 at the end), 22 rows in each of 8 maple leaves (4 of Chart I and 4 of Chart II) for 176 rows, with 9 sections of 26 rows (personally, I think there should only be 24 rows, but I'm following the pattern as written, which says to "repeat last 2 rows 12 times more", and I think it should just be 11) of straight stockinette stitch in between the maple leaves for 234 rows. 12+176+234=422. A total of 422 rows divided by 6 rows per inch equals a scarf that's almost 6 feet long (70.33"), significantly longer than the 60" that the pattern states. Even if we lopped off the 2 rows of stockinette stitch in each of the 9 sections, as I think it should be, that would only be 3" shorter in total length (2x9/6), so I'm really not sure where they got the 60" measurement from. Because the pattern is "mirror image"(do the maple leaves on one half of the scarf pointing in one direction, and on the other half pointing in the other direction), I couldn't leave out one maple leaf. I would have to leave out 2 to keep it even, and that would make the scarf too short. 
Anyway, I'm going to end up with a very long scarf, but certainly not as long as the original pattern leaflet I started out with, which had 5 maple leaves on each half of the scarf. 

The maple leaves are not showing up as well as I would like either. 

They seem to stand out slightly better on the reverse side. But neither looks as good as the picture with the pattern. Maybe it's because I used a different yarn from what the pattern calls for. Nevertheless, I'm still happy with it. And I'm almost done.