Bad Choices

There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

Proverbs 16:25 NIV

I actually considered a few different names for this quilt. One was Fabric Vomit because it's so busy that you can barely discern a pattern. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, kind of like the dog ate some fabric and then vomited up this quilt. Except that I don't have a dog. I also thought of Anything But Subtle, because this quilt kind of shouts. Another name I came  up with was That Wasn't a Good Idea. And it wasn't. It really wasn't, but I ended up calling it Bad Choices because I made more than one bad choice in the making of this quilt. Let me tell you its story. 
I wanted to make a quilt for someone and was trying to come up with an idea that would be relatively quick and use fabric from my stash. A lot of my 1 yard/metre collection was either boring or not quite what I wanted. So, I was rummaging around in my stash to see what else I could come up with. 

I found some leftovers from Chelsea Rose Pop, and there seemed to be enough of these two that I might be able to make a 3-yard quilt work, if I could only find more fabric from the same line for the third fabric. Or maybe an alternate fabric that would coordinate well. Unfortunately, the only other fabrics I found from this line were just small scraps - not enough to work in a 3-yard quilt. And I didn't want a really loud 3rd fabric. 
My first bad choice was not learning from Chelsea Rose Pop. I never really liked that quilt because it was too busy with these fabrics and difficult to discern the pattern of the blocks. 

My nephew Peter gave me this book for my birthday. As I flipped through the pages, I found a few projects that I wanted to try, one of which was the Shadowed Square Lap Quilt. The Shadowed Square is a quilt block consisting of a half square triangle of the focus fabric on one half and the other half is varied piecing. In this project, there are 6 variations. 
Since I couldn't find a good coordinating fabric to make a 3-yard quilt with the Chelsea Rose fabric, I opted to make the Shadowed Square quilt as a scrappy quilt. After all, I really loved Weather Alert and so I thought that the scrappy look would work great here as well. However, my second bad choice was deciding to use the Chelsea Rose fabric as the focus fabric. There's just too much going on in this quilt top to use this large and bold print, and the half square triangles really aren't big enough to feature this fabric adequately. It's a very pretty fabric, and would have been great in a not-so-busy pattern with more subtle complementary fabrics. But my third bad choice was to use fabrics that I thought would coordinate with the colours in the focus fabric, and it was just too much. 
My final foolhardy decision was to use a small fleece throw that I had as the backing.

It was just taking up space that a quilt could take up and I figured why not use it as a quilt backing. Unfortunately, since it was just a cheap little blanket, it stretched A LOT! When I first compared it to the quilt top, I knew that it would be a tight squeeze. It was maybe 2-3 inches wider than the quilt and 4-5 inches longer. But I figured I could make it work. I used pins to attach it to the leaders and wasn't planning on using the clamps on the sides. But it was droopy on the sides, so I tightened up the quilt by rolling the pole. But I still found that I had to use the side clamps, which made it very difficult to quilt because I had to keep repositioning them to keep them out of the way of the machine when I was quilting close to the edges. And as I advanced the quilt, the backing stretched lengthwise, which pulled the sides in. I had to keep pulling on the sides of the backing to make sure it covered the whole quilt top. And I ended up trimming off about 10 inches off the bottom when I was finished quilting, plus 1-2 inches off the top. As I said, it stretched a lot, and the backing is a lot thinner than it would have been had it not been so stretched out. And the quilt top ended up rather pucker-y, especially along the left side. But the puckers seemed to mostly work themselves out with the binding, and it just looks extra puffy in some areas. But I did notice that it tends to curl back on the bottom when I hung it up to take the picture, thanks again to the over-stretching. Perhaps I should wash it in hot water and the shrinkage in the cotton quilt top would make up for it... 
The quilting design I chose is Sweetpea Scramble. It's quite a pretty design and I'm hoping I won't hold a "grudge" against it because of all the challenges I had quilting this quilt. It's one of the Golden Thread designs that is now sold by Handi Quilter. 

Hmm, I do have more fleece throws, but will I use them as quilt backing? If I decide to try it, I will check out the throw first to see if there is more stretch in one direction, and put that direction horizonally on the frame. Secondly, I will likely use regular quilt batting, instead of polyester fibrefil, as the quilt top is easier to manage with regular batting. I will also have to be more careful to ensure both backing and top are aligned, as my top in this quilt seemed to be migrating to the left, which is part of the reason for more puckers on that side and I had more problems with the backing disappearing on the left. And finally, I would make sure that the size of the quilt top is more appropriate to the size of the throw. 
I had already decided that I was not going to burden anyone with this quilt when I put the blocks on the design wall. But I decided to put it together anyway because what else was I going to do with those odd blocks? So, now that it's finished, it's going to remain in my own collection. And it's kind of grown on me. Even though, it is quite loud and busy, the fabrics and colours are quite pretty.  And I actually like it better than Chelsea Rose Pop, although it will definitely never be my favourite quilt.  
Now for an object lesson. Sometimes we can make important life decisions - ones that are far more consequential than fabrics in a quilt -  that seem right at the time. Or fit our agenda. Or make us "happy". But, as the Bible verse at the beginning of this post says, those decisions can not only get us into trouble, but sometimes the results are permanent, sometimes very obvious and ultimately sometimes can result in death. Ours or someone else's. Maybe not immediately, but eventually. And that's a pretty serious consequence for a "bad choice". I want to align my decisions with the Word of God, the Bible, and avoid those serious consequences of misguided choices. 

Democracy Defended

Last year, for my birthday, I was given the Christmas 2024 edition of Quilter's World magazine, A Very Merry Quilted Christmas. As I flipped through the pages, I found the pattern for "Noel Surrounded" by Lyn Brown. The green colour appealed to me because it wasn't the traditional "Christmas green" and I thought I might make it work for one of my great nephews, whose favourite colour is green. When it came to purchasing the fabric, however, I switched out the red for a dark purple, not wanting it to appear to be a Christmas quilt. I also decided that I wanted my quilt slightly smaller, so I left off the final inch and a half of the border.

The quilt block used, Burgoyne Surrounded, is a rather large and complex block, It finishes at 22½" square and is composed of 97 pieces! Yes, that's per block. But there were only 6 blocks and the designer simplified the process by using strip piecing techniques. 

Unfortunately, that did leave me with a lot of already-stitched together leftover strips. If I were to do it over again (and I have no intention of it), I would have completed the last few units from individual pieces rather than strip pieces, which would have left me with more usable fabric leftovers, rather than already stitched-together strips. However, I do appreciate the fact that trying to write that into a pattern would have made it overly and unnecessarily complex. 
I have to admit that I really love my fabric choices. The green and the deep purple together just really "zing". 
As I was working on the quilt, I was trying to come up with a name for it. Certainly, "Noel Surrounded" was not appropriate for a quilt that wasn't a Christmas quilt. The designer included this blurb with the pattern: 

Hmm, as a Canadian, I tended to side with the British. Canada is a member of the British Commonwealth, and officially, King Charles III is still our head of state. And we were able to peacefully evolve into our own sovereign nation without bloodshed. And without severing ties with the British crown. And my feelings were further complicated by the fact that the current president of the United States is threatening our sovereignty, and has made himself - essentially - our enemy. No, I definitely did not want to celebrate the United States of America by calling this quilt "Burgoyne Surrounded". Not to mention the fact that that name would mean nothing to the recipient. Or the vast majority of anyone other than the astute student of the history of the USA. 
So, I was still looking for a name for this quilt when I started seeing photos and videos of the protests against ICE's (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) heavy-handed tactics in US cities, like Portland. And of course, I realized that there were many US citizens who were not happy with the decisions and directives coming from the White House. And so the "No Kings" movement was born, protesting the fact that the president, instead of being the servant of the people, was acting like a dictatorial monarch. And because of an inflatable frog costume worn at a peaceful protest in Portland, the frog became an icon of "the resistance". And more and more frogs appeared. And I found myself siding with the frogs, and the unicorns, and dinosaurs... Because we all recognize that democracy is at stake. 

And as I looked at the green in this quilt top, I realized it was the same green as the frogs (or very similar), and I decided to quilt it with frogs in solidarity with the protesters. 

(The design is Pond Lily, and I just used it recently in Swan Lake Surprise.)
Initially, I thought about calling the quilt Portland Defended. But then I realized it was much broader than that and decided on Democracy Defended. And I believe that that is very consistent with the original meaning behind this quilt block. - freedom from autocratic, dictatorial control. And makes a lot more sense to the non-historian than "Burgoyne Surrounded".
I have to admit that I was thinking of Betsy Ross as I was working on this quilt. But what difference will a quilt make? What difference will all of the protests make? Will they make a difference? Or is it too late in this world's history? Allow me to explain. 
I believe that the United States is portrayed in Bible prophecy in the book of Revelation:

 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Revelation 13:11

If you want to know the explanation for why and how I believe this beast is the United States of America, this video gives a good overview:

The question is: Will the United States recover from this, or is this the beginning of the final downward slide that leads to the enforcement of the Mark of the Beast? I guess only time will tell. But the Bible gives us this admonition: 

So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man (Jesus) will come at an hour when you do not expect him. 

Matthew 24:44 NIV

The Great Bread Making Adventure: Scottish Morning Rolls & a St. Andrew's Day Feast

 

To honour my Scottish ancestry, I thought of observing St. Andrew's Day, November 30. Unfortunately, I have been so busy making quilts that I didn't get around to it until now. I had, however, done an internet search on how the Scottish celebrate St. Andrew's Day, and one of the things mentioned was eating haggis and Cullen Skink. I knew what haggis was but Cullen Skink? The name doesn't give me any clue as to what it is. Well, neither does haggis for that matter. But the internet is such a useful thing and not only did I find recipes for vegan haggis (Ultimate Vegan Haggis and Easy Vegan Haggis), but I also found out that Cullen Skink is a creamy smoked haddock soup, named after the village of Cullen, where it apparently originated. And skink? It is a Scots word that refers to a shin, knuckle or hough of beef that would traditionally be used to make a broth. But somewhere in its history, it must have been switched to fish. Whatever, at least it's not lizard soup, which is what a skink is in English in the rest of the world. And I was able to find a vegan version of Cullen Skink as well. And I was very thankful that the recipe didn't include seaweed to make it taste "fishy". Seaweed probably ranks higher than cilantro in my list of what not to eat. 
What else to serve? Well, my research said some type of bread and greens - cabbage or kale - and tatties and neeps. I already knew that tatties were potatoes and neeps were turnips or rutabagas (known as Swedes in Great Britain), often served together in the same "mash". I had some cabbage in my fridge, so I googled once again to find how the Scots served it, and found a recipe for Rumbledethumps, which is a mixture of mashed potatoes and cooked cabbage, topped with cheese and browned in the oven. That recipe was easy to veganize and incredibly tasty. You'll see it at the top of the picture. And that took care of the "tatties" part of the "tatties and neeps", so I just made mashed rutabaga as another side dish (on the left in the picture). 
The Cullen Skink was also very tasty. It called for a can of banana blossoms, which I didn't even know were a thing. Maybe I could find it in an Asian food store or one of the large supermarkets in the city. But I wasn't planning a trip to the city any time soon. Fortunately, the recipe did offer the options of artichoke hearts or green jackfruit, both of which I had. And I chose the artichoke hearts, which I should have rinsed as they had a bit of a tang, which I don't think was needed in the soup. But it was still delicious. 
I chose the Ultimate Vegan Haggis recipe and certainly, the ingredients are far more palatable than in the original haggis. I don't imagine I would have ventured to try it even when I was a meat eater. But, to me, nutmeg is a sweet spice, belonging in desserts. And I'm not even that fond of it in desserts. So, to put it in a savory dish just isn't my thing. The flavour is not horrible, but I think I might try it with a sauce or gravy to try and tone down the nutmeg. And if I ever decide to try it again, I might switch to sage or poultry seasoning instead of the nutmeg. I'm really not sure why people like that flavour in a savory dish. I'm also not to sure about the texture - is haggis supposed to be crunchy/tough? Because my steel-cut oats did not get well done, and I don't know if it's supposed to be that way. 
And since it was a Scottish meal, I decided to try the Scottish Morning Rolls for the bread, even though this wasn't a morning meal. The odd thing about the recipe on page 140 in The World Encyclopedia of Bread and Bread Making is that it includes no added fat: no lard, even though the description on page 55 states that they are made with lard; nor any butter, shortening or vegetable oil. That left me scratching my head, and wondering if the person writing the recipes actually corroborated with the one that wrote the descriptions. And also wondering how authentic the recipes actually are. And even though I had no intention of using lard, I wanted a more authentic recipe, and I would choose how to modify it. So, once again, I resorted to the internet, and found a more authentic recipe for Morning Rolls, which gave me the option of lard or vegetable shortening. I also switched out the white flour for whole grain (using a combination of hard red and hard white wheat flour) and adding extra water, since whole grain flours absorb more moisture than white flour. I probably should have added more as it was a rather stiff dough, and I'm wondering if there was sufficient liquid in the original recipe, as it says that it should form a "sticky dough" and it definitely was not, even with the extra water. Either that or I had very "thirsty" flour. 😁 One thing I found rather amusing in both this recipe and the one in the cookbook was baking sheet size. This recipe, which makes 8 rolls, says to grease a "large" baking sheet, and the one in the book, which makes 10 rolls, says to grease 2 baking sheets. For 8 rolls, I used one of my smaller baking sheets, and even then, there likely would have been room for a dozen rolls. And my largest baking sheets would hold enough rolls for a banquet. So, just how big are baking sheets in the United Kingdom? For that matter, how big are their ovens, if my smaller baking sheet would be considered large over there? Anyway, you'll see my results in the centre in the picture above. The taste was good, but I think the texture could have been a little softer. I also found that working in only 30 g of shortening into 500 g of flour did not yield a breadcrumb-like texture. I could barely tell that there was any fat in the flour at all. But I wouldn't want any more fat, especially since shortening is a particularly unhealthy fat. 
So Rumbledethumps and Cullen Skink are definite keepers. The haggis could use a little work, as could the morning rolls. 

Celtic Dragons

 

Earlier this year, my daughter, grandson and I visited a large fabric store in the city. Damian and I went in search of dragons, and found them in the form of a 6-dragon panel, with Celtic motifs at the top and bottom of the panel.

I purchased the panel, and later decided to continue the Celtic idea, using the Celtic Twist quilt block that I had used in the Tales of Ireland quilt. Since the individual dragon panels were 10" square, I decided to reduce the size of the quilt block to match. 

It made for some relatively small pieces. And it is a rather challenging quilt block. Nevertheless, I made 14 of them. Originally, I had thought to incorporate the Celtic motifs from the panel into the quilt top, but didn't see any way to make that work. I may later make use them in a pillowcase to coordinate with the quilt. 
Damian and I chose colours from the dragons to use in the quilt blocks. He said that he wanted the quilt to be slightly larger than Dancing Snowflakes, that I made him for last Christmas.I used my Quilt Pro 6 design software to plan the layout and calculate yardage. (I purchased my software, but you can now download it for free because they're not making it any more), and included a narrow border of each fabric. I ordered what I was hoping were the best colours online, but when they arrived, the red was more pinkish - definitely not a dragon red. Fortunately, I also had an orange-red in my stash, so we substituted it for the pinkish one.
When we went to the close-out sale at our local quilt shop, we found a thick black minky with an arrow design. They didn't have any of the regular black minky left, or not enough, and I figured since dinosaurs are rather medieval and arrows were used during medieval times, shooting them from slit windows in castle walls, the arrow minky was appropriate. 
The original plan was for this to be a joint project - me making the blocks, and Damian stitching the blocks together. But recently, when I thought about making it for him for Christmas, I didn't want to leave him out if he still wanted to be part of the project. He didn't. So, I went ahead and made it up. 
I've been going to the local Lutheran church for their weekly craft/sew day, and made up the first block there. I like to have one block made, especially for complex blocks, to see how it looks and use it for reference when I make up the remaining blocks. But since it is rather complex, and I tend to get sidetracked by the socialization (I make more mistakes there than I do at home), I decided to finish the quilt top at home, rather than at the church. 
One night when I was having trouble sleeping, I got up and finished the binding on a couple of quilts, and added the first two borders to this one. 

When I got up the following morning, and went downstairs, I was rather startled to discover that one of the links in the quilt top appeared to be glowing. It was an almost perfect square of light from a window in another room, highlighting that one link. 
I chose Irish Swirls as the most Celtic-looking pantograph I own and quilted it with a variegated thread that featured the colours in the quilt top. 

I used a black Glide 60 in the bobbin, so I was close to finishing the quilting before the bobbin ran out. After I changed the bobbin, the top thread broke, so I rethreaded it, did a machine tie-off and started quilting again. And it seemed to be quilting fine without any issues until I was further down the row. That's when it started skipping large areas, so I knew that there was a bobbin issue. Somehow the bobbin thread had come out of the slot/guide (whatever you call it), so I rethreaded it, did another tie-off back before the stitching had started skipping and finished the quilting without further problems. 
While I was attaching the binding, I noticed some of the stitching in the quilting was really loose, so I figured I would have to re-stitch that area. But when I pulled on the loose stitching, the thread kept coming and coming. The entire length of quilting between those two tie-offs had come loose. And it had looked like perfect good quilting. But there apparently was no bobbin thead. What I later concluded was that the bobbin thread must have come loose with that thread break and the upper thread was rather rough-textured, compared to Glide, and that the extra thick minky was holding it in place until I started handling the quilt during binding. 
But now I was left in a quandary as to how I was going to replace all of that quilting. My Red Snappers would not snap over the thickness of the quilt in order to load it back onto the longarm. I don't own corsage pins (except for a few in some corsages that I still have around) and my regular pins were not heavy duty enough for the job. So, I ended up doing the job on my Janome sewing machine. There are a few zigs and zags where they don't belong, but it's really not noticeable unless you're looking for it. 
Finished, thankfully, and ready to gift on Christmas day. 

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.