My Favorite Christmas Gift

I had a great time with the California children and grandkids this Christmas. We exchanged some neat gifts. I finally got all my Christmas remembrances for friends out yesterday. However, I must admit that my favorite Christmas gift that I received this year came from my visiting teacher, Ruth. It expanded my mind and my spirit instead of my waistline (and hips and....)

Ruth knows I am a history nut. She gave me the book In the Dark Streets Shineth by David McCullough and published by Shadow Mountain. It also has a DVD that came with it taken from the 2009 Tabernacle Choir Christmas program. I haven't watched that yet. I do not need to in order to love the gift because I read the book.

It is the story of when in December of 1941, just weeks after Pear Harbor was bombed and the United States entered World War Two, Winston Churchill made a highly secret voyage across the Atlantic to join President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the lighting of the National Christmas Tree and to participate in the President's Christmas Eve broadcast to the nation.

The story is inspiring. It also highlights the stark contrast between a 1941 president and his country full of people of faith as compared to our current national leadership that discourages open expressions of faith and will not even refer to the holiday as "Christmas." How far we have fallen.

I would love to quote in full both President Roosevelt's and Prime Minister Churchill's 1941 Christmas Eve addresses to the American people, but will only give a few words from of each. These speeches are probably in the Library of Congress collection, but I will steer clear of any copyright issues at this time. It is well worth it to purchase this beautiful book with its period photographs and the full story in order to read the speeches in their entirety.

President Roosevelt:  "...We are confident in our devotion to country, in our love of freedom, in our inheritance of courage. But our strength, as the strength of all men everywhere, is of greater avail as God upholds us.

"Therefore, I...do hereby appoint the first day of the year 1942 as a day of prayer, of asking for forgiveness for our shortcomings of the past, of consecration to the tasks of the present, and of asking God's help in the days to come."

Winston Churchill:  "I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home....Let the children have their night of fun and laughter....Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied the right to live in a free and decent world.

"And so, in God's mercy, a happy Christmas to you all."

In the Dark Street Shineth on Shadow Mountain
In the Dark Streets Shineth on Amazon
In the Dark Streets Shineth on Barnes & Noble

No More Palm Tree

A few years ago, I wouldn't let Buck cut down the little volunteer palm tree that sprung up next to our side porch. I thought it looked terribly cute the way the fronds shaded the porch from the morning sun.

Unfortunately, the thing grew. The leaves waved high above the eaves, it sterilized the ground so nothing but a few scraggly weeds grew and the roots were starting to lift the porch foundation. I told Buck he now had permission to cut down the palm.

The only ones who have had a problem with this were, of course, the cats. They used that palm tree  to climb on the roof. The other day Archie raced across the yard headed for the palm tree. He came to a screeching halt and for the longest time stared at the little stump that remains. (We don't dare pull the root ball out for fear of tearing up the porch.)

What happened to the kittie ladder?

Thanksgiving Burn-out

That oven and range of mine got a real work-out this past Thanksgiving holiday. Wednesday, we had a big turkey dinner here for the missionaries and friends at our house. We started doing this on Wednesdays before Thanksgiving because Buck wants to cook a bird even when we go elsewhere for Thanksgiving day. He gets grumpy when he does not get his turkey for sandwiches. Thursday, we went to dinner at a friend's house with the daughters and California grandchildren on my side. Friday, we had another big Thanksgiving dinner for the family on Buck's side. By Saturday, we were turkeyed out.

My 20+ year old oven was burnt out. My first clue was when I could not get the heat regulated for the quick bread I tried to make Monday. First, the bread was not baking fast enough and was raw inside even though it had been in long enough. I put it back in a little longer and adjusted the temperature. The next thing I knew, everything was burnt black top and bottom. (No pictures--take my word for it.)

Specifically, the temperature knob for the oven fell apart while I was trying to adjust the heat level for the quick bread. I guess those all day pie, turkey and casserole baking sessions on Wednesday and Thursday put it over the edge.

I called all the appliance repair places. They were very kind and did not laugh when I told them I wanted a part for a stove that was on model close-out when we bought it over 20 years ago. A few said they were not able to find anything on the internet. No kidding. Before I called them, I couldn't find anything on the internet, either.

Someone suggested we get a universal knob at a big box store that sells appliances. We did. This knob fits "MOST" stoves. It did not fit ours. It may say it is on "Broil," but, trust me, that is the "off" position--at least as of the time this picture was taken. Yes, I can turn the oven on and off. However, if I twist the knob just so, it slips to a different position for "off." So much for accurate heat regulation.....

Buck tried one last company that assured him they could order in the original factory part for our make and model of stove. I cringed when Buck told me that after tax and shipping, the cost for that little piece of plastic came to over $50. But, with new stoves starting at over $1,000, we both agreed that a new knob at $50 was cheaper than buying a whole new range.

Speaking of searching the internet, our little people kitty Archie decided to hop on the table and keep Buck company while Buck was working on his emails. After walking across the computer, Archie plopped himself down to take a nap. That tail of his is so long and fluffy, it practically covered the entire keyboard.

It's Cold Outside

Through the good weather, even our "indoor" kitties prefer to spend most of their time outside, coming in only to eat. Only Archie likes to take his morning nap in the house. Once the weather turned cold for the first time a couple of weeks ago, all three decided they would rather be in the house. Suddenly, Buck and I had a hard time finding a place to sit.

Bootsie decided she needed to nap in my favorite place on the couch (the nerve of her!) Then, because she liked that spot, later Archie, then Precious decided they would try to beat her to it. More than once I have been faced with the choice of pushing a sleeping kitty off my spot, clearing my computer, books and other junk from the other half of the loveseat in order to sit, or dragging my sewing chair out into the living room. I usually mutter a few empty threats and then leave sleeping kitties lie.

Archie still prefers Buck's side of the bed, although he also likes my spot on the loveseat and Buck's chair, too.

Precious started out in what I call "four corners." It is the one place in the hallway where, without moving her body, she can see the front window, the back sliding glass door, Buck's desk in the side bedroom, and, if she cranks her head around a little, she can see what's going on in the kitchen. Although, like I said, once she realized the other kitties thought Mom's seat was the best, she snuck up on the pillow on the loveseat as often as she could.

This last rainstorm, no one has wanted to go out. The cat box has seen a lot of action. Even our Archie who much prefers to go outside to do his business resorted to his favorite indoor emergency place. His former owners tub-trained him, so last night Buck found a little "kitty-kiss" in our new hall bathtub.

It has been cold. But with Buck busy doing all his firewood thing, he has not had time to clean the chimney flu or bring in the firewood box. So, no fires in the woodstove yet. This morning at 8:00a.m. it was 62 degrees in the house. I'm okay with 68, even 66 degrees, but that was too cold. I felt motivated to do a load of wash and bake something just to heat the house a little. No way, though, am I turning on the furnace and running up the utility bill--not yet!

Then I try to keep things in perspective. I think about those millions of people back in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut who have been through Hurricane Sandy and two major winter storms. They have been without power for two weeks. This is nothing. My thoughts and prayers have been with them and the utility workers who have been struggling to restore power to everyone back there. I am so grateful right now that I live where the weather is mild in comparison.

Changing the subject, Buck and I harvested some sweet potatoes from a field a block away (we are in the country. Our blocks are big.) The farmer had already harvested the field for commercial purposes and is waiting for the vines to dry before he disks what's left under. There are still a lot of culls remaining and the farmers don't mind people coming to get them for personal use.

Look at those sweet potatoes! There is nothing wrong with them except they are a little small. I have been handing them out like crazy to friends.

Wounded Warrior Quilt

The Gateway Quilters' Guild sponsored quilts for the Blue Star Mothers of America "Quilts for Wounded" program. Here is the link that explains the purpose for these quilts:  http://www.bluestarsouthbayla.org/?q=node%2F254.

My quilt I named "Wounded Warrior" (not very original, I know) because not only is it destined for a service man or woman wounded in the line of duty, it has one block that is "wounded."

In other words, I messed up. And, unfortunately, I didn't catch it until after I took the picture.

Overall, except for that one little sign of individual "uniqueness," I was pleased with how my quilt blocks turned out.


I started with the fabric design I used as the backing. I also used it for the block centers and strips on either side of my blocks in front.




 

My original plan was to use this beautiful gold star on dark red fabric as the outside border with the inside border/sashing in the coordinating gold star on dark blue fabric. Then I realized the symbolism of the gold stars. Starting in World War II, women who had lost sons in combat were called "Gold Star Mothers" and displayed a gold star in their windows.

NO! NO! NO! That fabric would not do for quilts intended for wounded warriors. So, I searched for other patriotic fabric.

The quilts are 48" x 78" gurney quilts and designed to go with the wounded serviceman or servicewoman along with the coordinated pillowcase to the hospital bed.We were told to use bright, patriotic colors. No camouflage -- active service personnel get plenty of camouflage and tend to get sick of it.

This is my coordinating pillowcase. The body is of the same fabric as the quilt backing.

I quilted the layers together with white thread because I did not want to detract from the white star on white fabric in the squares. The rest of the quilt was so busy that I went with a plain navy blue binding. The following pictures show how I sewed on the binding. Even though I used a two-inch strip for my binding, I felt my machine finished binding turned out pretty well. A big part of the secret was that I used a quality cotton fabric.

First, I stitched the folded fabric to the front of the quilt using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

 I pressed the binding flat on the front, then turned the quilt over, folded over the binding and pressed it in place on the back.

Next I pinned the binding on the front of the quilt so that, looking from the back, the pins barely caught the folded outside edge of the binding.

From the front, the pins were about 1/16 to 1/32 inch from the seam of the binding. It was just wide enough for the machine needle to stitch between the pin and the binding. I used both ball-head pins and butterfly pins. One nice thing about butterfly pins is that I can sew up to the bottom of the pin-head and easily grasp the butterfly wing with my fingernail to pull the pin out.

I have this nifty little presser foot with a quarter inch seam guide. The prongs also extend out front longer than most quarter inch presser feet which helps "grab" the next block as well as holds the fabric to the bottom gripper teeth. I use it to assemble my quilt blocks. It also worked well to help keep the binding from slipping out from under the presser foot while stitching. It was a pricy little item, but well worth it to me.

My finished binding. I like a narrow binding on most quilts. I was very happy with the straight seam that finished it.

I understand the theme for the Gateway Quilt Guild's quilt show next year is going to be based on veterans. I look forward to doing another gurney quilt for the Blue Star Mothers of America program. I also hope to put together a Civil War theme quilt although we no longer have veterans from that war still living.

Stupid Human Tricks

Kids, don't try this at home.....

I wanted some honey. My honey was in the refrigerator because we had an ant problem several months ago. So, I stuck my "honey bear" bottle in the microwave. What I should have done is set it for 10% or 20% power for only a few seconds until it softened. Instead, I put it on auto-defrost, thinking that surely that would be at a low setting. Guess again.

I opened the microwave after several seconds and my honey was bubbling. Okay, hotter than I wanted, but time to get it out. Just as I reached for the bottle, Honey Bear blew his top. Boiling honey spewed all over my shirt, all across the kitchen floor with the back of my right hand bearing the brunt of the eruption.

The microwave was a mess (This picture is post-clean-up.), the kitchen floor spattered and me coated better than a honey-glazed ham. But, I had the presence of mind to tip-toe through the hot honey drops on the floor and stick my hand under cold water for several minutes before I did anything else. Last night the hand was red and burned, but tolerable, thanks to several smear-ons of cortisone with aloe vera cream. This morning it was only pink with minimal pain, although I sported several large blisters. I spared you, dear readers, a picture of the blisters because it was not a pretty sight.

Last night, after changing all my clothes, I mopped the floor three times. This morning, my shoes still stuck to the tile. Let's hope the lesson sticks in my brain so I do not repeat this stupid human trick.

Blog Your Life

Today for the Salida Ward Relief Society Super Saturday I gave a presentation on blogging. No, I do not live in Salida. My daughter does. She was on the committee. When they said that some of the women wanted to learn more about blogging and they needed a teacher, guess who she called?

This is my little class. Sorry you missed it, T. Also, Susan, sorry to hear you suffered a re-injury recently and were unable to come.

As part of my training, I set up an entirely new blog while they watched. I tried out this background and really like it even though I am not a pink person. I liked it so well, you may note that I changed my wallpaper on Robyn's Echo to the orange version.

A few minutes ago when I went into this site to capture the image, I was going to delete the site afterwards. Then I noticed that I have had eight views. Eight views in only five hours? Maybe I will leave it up there and make something of it. The link is robynecholsstuff.blogspot.com.

I put a pdf file of my PowerPoint presentation on my website under the PRESENTATIONS page. I will leave it there until at least November 1, 2012. The web address for that is www.robynechols.com/testimonials.

I did pull some images from other blogs to use for examples. I apologize to any of those bloggers who feel I infringed on your copyright. I hope that with the understanding that this presentation was developed for non-commercial use that you will consider my using a portion of your blog as a form of free promotion for you and your site.

Crunchy Chili Beans

After both Buck and I had our gastric bypass surgery, we ate a lot of chili. One cup was a meal and left us feeling satisfied for a long time. I made a big batch of chili in the slow cooker about every week to ten days and we ate it one to two times a day.

That all changed when I managed to get hold of the crunchy chili beans. I was buying my pinto beans at Costco--25 pound bags at a time--then filling every empty food storage container I could find. I tried to keep two bags ahead, part of that food storage thing. However, one bag I bought was full of beans that would not soften when cooked. Even after twelve hours of cooking, when everything else that made up the chili was cooked to death, the beans were chewy.

Buck does not like the crunchy beans. He kept telling me to cook them longer. It made no difference. Then he  insisted that they were too old and I need to throw them out. I was tempted to do that until I made a batch of chili with beans I found hidden far back in my cabinet that were marked as having been purchased months earlier than the crunchy beans. Those beans cooked up nice and soft in no time at all.

I made chili a month ago and the beans were crunchy. Dang! Thought I already used up all those crunchy beans! After the first night, Buck wouldn't touch the chili. I ended up eating the rest of the batch by myself.

Monday I pulled out beans to soak, thinking Hooray! now all the old beans are gone for sure because I used the last of them a month ago. Buck looked at the beans and announced that they were awful dark. Must be too old. He wanted me to throw them out. I retrieved another container of beans. They were less dark and were dated for three months earlier. The more I thought about it, the "too old" theory did not add up for me. I insisted that the beans were not crunchy because they were too old but because we got a bad batch of beans. Maybe they were harvested too soon or something.

Besides, I was pretty sure I already used up the last of the crunchy beans. Then again, maybe this last jug of crunchy beans escaped my notice last month and had since jumped to the front of my cupboard. To appease Buck, I put the less dark but older beans on to soak.

Buck didn't like the idea of using the older beans. He was sure I was soaking more crunchy beans. He proposed a contest. He suggested I take two cups from the darker beans that are dated more recently and put them on to soak, too, and cook up two batches of chili at the same time.

Throughout the day, the beans from the newer, darker in color batch, the ones I suspected just might be the last holdouts from the crunchy beans, soaked up to double their size. The other beans, not so much. Buck was sure the ones that swelled up the most were non-crunchy beans. I suspected just the opposite. I wanted the opposite to be true because I found about 10-12 pounds of those beans tucked away in the back of another cupboard.

Yesterday I cooked both batches of beans into chili. The older beans, the ones I still have lots of, cooked up nice and soft within 5-6 hours. The newer, darker beans I cooked and cooked and cooked ad nauseum.  

The good news is, the bulk of the beans I have left cook up to be soft. The bad news is, I won the contest by demonstrating that it was not because the beans were too old; they were just destined to be CRUNCHY!!! --the bad news part being that I have a choice of throwing out that batch of chili or, once again, eating it all by myself.

Yes, I kept the crunchy chili separate from the chili with the soft beans, and yes, I will end up eating the crunchy chili all by myself because I am too cheap to toss something that, other than being a little chewy, is perfectly good food. However, I think the rest of the beans that cook up crunchy are going to go into homemade heating pads for my back and neck.

Going Batty

No, I am not referring to my mental state. Nor am I gearing up for Halloween.

Last Monday the Gateway Quilter's Guild hosted Denise Mullenix from Fremont as our guest speaker. Her topic was quilt batting. I took copious notes, but hope the other member who said she would write a recap of the information for our next "Threads That Bind" newsletter comes through, because I know there were a few details I missed.

One issue Denise covered was shrinkage after washing. Her research shows that the Warm & Natural and Warm & White that is 80% cotton-20% polyester averages 3% shrinkage. A 100% cotton bat averages 5%.

With that news about the shrinkage, I started sweating bullets about the bat I have already cut for the quilt I am making for the wounded soldiers project the guild is sponsoring. The dimensions are to be 48" by 68" to fit a gurney or hospital bed. I already preshrunk some of the fabric I plan to use and I already cut out a section of the Pellon 100% cotton batting 50 inches wide because I know that the quilting process often takes up the width and height by about a half-inch to an inch. So, if there was going to be 5% shrinkage in that cotton batting, my width might end up only being 47-1/2 inches and my finished quilted width even less.

Denise quoted the "manufacturer's recommended" instructions for pre-washing batting that included putting it in a bathtub with hot water, gently wringing it out and then laying it flat to dry. She also mentioned that a wet king-size bed quilt batting is a lot of weight to wring out plus she personally has no place in her house big enough to lay flat something that size. (Join the club, Denise.) She uses a commercial steamer-pressing machine she purchased to shrink her batting. I can't help but wonder how much space that baby takes up.

A guild member who has been quilting for years spoke up to say that she pre-washes her quilt batting in the washing machine on gentle and then drys it on gentle and they turn out fine.

To find out if my batting would shrink and be too small for this project, I washed it. In the washing machine. Actually, I let it soak for five minutes in hot water, let it wring out, and skipped the rinse cycle. While I was at it, I also threw in the rest of the cotton batting which is enough for two more large quilts. Then I dried it all in the dryer on warm/hot for about 55 minutes. There were a few damp spots where the bat clumped together, so I loosely folded the big piece in quarters and the small piece in half and left them on top of my bed (on a clean sheet to protect them from any Archie fur that may be on my bedspread) to finish drying.

And the final results were -- drum roll, please -- no shrinkage that I could tell on either piece. I make no claims, and pre-washing batting may produce different results for others. But all I got out of the exercise was slightly softer batting and two nice little piles of the softest, whitest fluff balls that you would ever want to see from my dryer lint trap.

So, my 50 inch wide piece is back with the fabric I am collecting for the wounded warrior quilt and the rest of the fabric that I pre-washed today is sitting on my sewing table next to the gigantic tote bag I threw together the other night which is currently holding the rest of the washed quilt batting. Now that I have the batting situation worked out, it is time to get that fabric pressed, folded and ready for cutting.

Sharon's Sweet Summer and Cheerful Quilts

My friend Sharon keeps busy taking care of her household as well as being involved in helping others. Although she is just barely on the south side of eighty years old, she goes to the rest home in Turlock once a week to sing for the old people. She had been doing this for forty odd years.

Sharon also makes lap quilts for the rest home residents. She uses fabric scraps of all kinds and stretches her quilting budget by buying cotton sheets to use as backing. She and another friend Celeste, who considers Sharon to be a second mom, get together once a week to pool resources and sew either baby quilts for the new mothers in Atwater First Ward or lap quilts for the rest home. I do not meet with them as often, but I occasionally offer fabric and batting. Now that I have the Brother on the quilt frame, using that to quilt the layers on some of the quilts is starting to be part of my contribution.

Sharon asked me to machine-stitch two quilts she has put together. We pinned them together two weeks ago and I brought them home. Friday I set up my two six foot tables, putting one table on risers to  turn it into a pressing table by covering it with an old mattress pad and a heavy beach towel. I pressed the quilt I have named Sweet Summer (blues & pinks, etc.) with the pins in, using the second table to hold the weight and keep it from sliding off the pressing surface.

 

Sweet Summer being pressed

The second quilt had a lot of uneven seams and puckers when Sharon and I pinned it together. I took it apart and pressed and trimmed the backing and top separately. It still is a little uneven, but was much easier to quilt with a minimum of puckers once I pressed the quilt top on the big table.

Sharon claims she deliberately does not make her quilts really pretty because the pretty ones often get stolen by the staff or family members. However, I think these two are beautiful scrap quilts. Sharon has an excellent eye for color and balances her light and dark blocks to be visually pleasing.

Cheerful

Sharon says she likes to use cheerful colors for the lap quilts intended for the rest home. The one quilt with a lot of yellows and pinks is definitely uplifting, which is why I named it Cheerful.

These two quilts are larger than lap quilts and are to go on twin beds. Sharon is making them ahead for Christmas. She knows there are always a few rest home residents who do not get a gift or a visit at Christmastime. She plans to present these quilts to some of those residents.

After pressing Cheerful, I removed the risers so the tabletops were even. I clamped the backing fabric to the two tables pushed together to keep the fabric from puckering and bunching up when I added the batting and the top. I used safety pins to baste the pieces together and to hold the edges in place. Then I used the flat butterfly pins to attach the top to the leader for the quilt frame.

Cheerful on the quilt frame

Since I had my smaller leader already in the quilt frame, I attached my lap quilt, "Dogs and Cats at the Beach" (more later on that quilt when I finish the binding) and stitched it first. After all, it was the first quilt in the queue to be stitched. Then I did three rows of Sweet Summer before calling it quits last Saturday.

This morning, starting at about 7:00a.m., I worked to finish Sweet Summer. Sharon gave me her pink thread -- cheap stuff from Walmart -- and never again. What a mess! I had at least one break each row, broke two needles and fought to remove at least two major rat's nests (and countless minor ones). Fortunately, I used light blue Gutermann's for the bobbin thread, so I was okay there.

Because Sharon used a 100% polyester batting, I used a loose freehand meandering pattern to help bring out the loft.

Sweet Summer with meandering quilt stitch

After a break, I put Cheerful on the quilt frame and  completed that. I used some of the Coats & Clark polyester wrapped polyester thread that I had left from an earlier project for both the top and bottom. I had a couple of breaks and one rat's nest, but much better. I used a combination of freehand meandering plus a lot of loop-de-loop on Cheerful.

When I use cotton batting, I do not usually need to secure the bottom edge until the very end. However, the polyester batting is not as heavy. In order to keep these quilts as straight and smooth as possible to avoid puckering, I used claw clamps (lined with strips of batting) to secure the fourth side.

I finished both quilts by 5:00p.m. Keep in mind the temperature rose to about 108 degrees today. Although I ran the air conditioning unit in the studio, it still was in the eighties inside most of the day. By 5:00 o'clock, I was hot and tired, but finished.

Cheerful finished with meandering loop-de-loop stitch

Okay, not quite. Later in the evening I tied off loose ends and clipped threads. But, now Sweet Summer and Cheerful can go back to Sharon so she can trim the edges and add the binding.

Christmas in August is always fun.

Leaves

 Can you see the kitty in the garden hiding under the leaves of my overgrown broccoli plants? This is where she chose to hide out from our triple-digit heat days, especially the one where it got to 106 degrees. She got mad every time the sprinklers came on.

We tried to explain that the water in the ground was what helped her stay cool. She was not buying it.

 Finally finished with the redo of the hall bath -- such as it is. I designed a valance to coordinate with the leaf design in the shower curtain.

 The back, showing how I stitched in the vein design for the leaves.

 Ta-dah!

 I am glad I swapped out the old aqua blinds for these white blinds.

 Not my favorite color palate, but fun. I like how these colors brighten up all that white.

 I unloaded the contents of the old sink cabinet into this office box when we started the project. Since I have not yet purchased a new cabinet for the side of the new pedestal sink, I put the box in the corner. At least it is color-coordinated. Precious thought we did it just for her. This is where she hid out during our two triple-digit heat spells, although she moved to the bathtub two days ago.

My sister gets the credit for this idea. She suggested converting our "You might be a redneck if..." photo to black and white to hang in the bathroom. I gave this to Buck for his birthday. He loved it. If anything in the bathroom draws a comment, it is this picture!

Sea the Scrappy Quilt

Finshed size was 48" x 43".

I finally finished my scrappy quilt with the remaining nautical and pirate theme fabrics from previous projects. I have several projects in the works, but kept getting motivated to finish this in order to get one UFO (unfinished fabric object) completed and the project box freed up. Plus, this fabric is FINALLY gone except for a few pieces I stuck in a baggie and will keep for awhile in case I need some of it for an applique embellishment (kind of wish now I had embellished that red box in the lower right-hand corner before I stitched the layers together. Oh, well.)

I also used up several miscellaneous leftover strips from other projects. I probably would not have chosen some of them if I had to go to the fabric store and pick out coordinating fabrics. But, as I pulled them from my strip collection, they worked.

A few people I showed the quilt to were more impressed with the backing. That is the only piece of fabric I bought especially for this project. I also like this particular design. The rest was stash reduction.

I decided after my quilt I made for the California Rural Letter Carriers' Association PAC that I would use a letter with an applique stamp motif for my name label. I need to get black fabric paint. I do not like the way the fine-tip Sharpie bleeds.

Friend Celeste and I took turns stitching the center section in a freehand meandering pattern. I started a loop-to-loop design on the top outside sash, but did not like how the sides were turning out. I picked out the stitches on the sides and pinned my take-up lead on each side of the sashing, one side at a time, to do the loop-to-loop design. I still am not real thrilled with it.

CaRLCA PAC Fundraising Quilt

I'm using an over-sized freehand pebble pattern.

 Except for a little practice quilt that I did for our Relief Society group that makes baby quilts for new moms and lap quilts for seniors in rest homes, this is my first serious attempt to use my new Brother sewing machine and quilt frame. (See post for 14 Jan 2012, "My Brother's Been Framed" )  It was a learning experience. For one thing, I thought we followed instructions correctly, but turned out we had the take-up pole on backwards. The fabric should have been rolling onto the pole from the underside so that the stitching area stayed flat. I had a lot of skipped stitches and tying off on the first half of the quilt because of the upward slope going over the pole.

The auto-stitcher on the arm is touchy, but worth it--a lot easier than using a foot pedal.

YES I am gritting my teeth! It took me at least half the quilt before I started to feel comfortable quilting on the frame.

I did this quilt in two halves, removing the take-up lead cloth from the one side and attaching it to the other side for the second half of the stitching. Buck and I also swapped the take-up pole around so that the quilt stayed flat. What a big difference! I have decided that this machine quilting, even without it being a long-arm, is the only way to go. I may never hand-quilt another piece again, except for my Civil War Sampler quilt that is still in the works. Even the blocks I have stitched together by hand, trying to keep it fairly authentic.

The finished quilt.

Fabric design has both a beach and stamp theme.

Miss Bootsie had to check it out.

 I hurriedly stitched on the binding Friday in an effort to get pictures of the quilt before I lost all my light. Unfortunately, it was still late enough there was quite a bit of shadow.

I liked my name label so well that I cut out a bunch of stamps from the scraps to make more to put on other quilting projects that I finish. They say every quilter should put something on with their name and the date finished so that generations down the line, people will know who created the quilt. I have been a little lax on that score. I even sent my sister's quilt to her without a name label. Either that, or a part of me is smart enough to know I am probably better off if no one can connect the quilts with me.