SEWCIALITES

I love Fat Quarter Shop. I watch Kimberly Jolly's Livestream on YouTube every week.  Like for a couple years.  Her videography has improved so much.  I think Lily might have been pretty instrumental in htat.  Sadly, Lily has left the show.  I miss her giggles behind the scenes and comments.  Sheadded quite a bit of personality to the show.  Kimberly is funny in a quirky kind of way, it's endearing really and that is why I like her. Plus, I love all the quilt eye candy she has on the stream.  Her tips which sometimes I agree with and sometimes I don't.  Everyone has their own style and their own way of doing things. Kimberly has kind of gotten away from telling little stories about her kids.  I am not sure why but I miss it.  They were funny stories that I enjoyed.  

The latest free quilt along (QAL) was Sewcialites.  I did quite a few in really small blocks and that was all I was going to do.  After seeing the blocks and how they were looking, I decided to make 6 inch blocks. I am crazy happy with how it turned out. I used Pat Sloan's idea for a layout. 

ORPHAN BLOCK QUILT

This is essentially a history quilt, right?  There are blocks in here of things I started and decided I wasnt really interested i a whole quilt. Things that I experimented on with color or design. Things that I made extra of in a previous quilt because I lost count. Things that my daughters wore when they were little girls.  Things that I practiced on and plan to do but needed a whole lot more fabric.  So much in this quilt. 

It's a mess to be sure but overall its happy and cohesive and I am happy with the results. I named it, "Finding Gratitude."

Then I had to snap some photos of my daughter and her "friend".  Yeah.  okay. Friend.  As if.

This picture was taken at Hamlin Beach State Park in New York.

Grand Illusion- Finally Finished

Finally finished my Grand Illusion.  Its taken a long time!  It kept getting lower and lower ont he priority list as my quilt tops piled up.  But I had made a decision two years ago that all my Bonnie Hunter quilts would get quilted.  I have done 5 in total.  This one, was not my favorite. But its done an some thing magical does happen when you finish a quilt.  You may not like it, but once it is all finished you like it a whole lot better.  

Meadowland Quilt

I love this quilt.  Fast, fun and fabulous.  Then Came June is the designer.

My daughter in her quilt dress.  Thank goodness I have this tall girl to hold up my quilts.  Thank you cutie!
 

BLOCK HEADS 3 Finished

Whats great about quarantine?.... uhm... thinking... getting quilts done.  See I knew there had to be something.  Right.  Find something to appreciate about this time. If you can.  I got my block head quilt done and a few others.  

Dresden Flowers

I was so happy to get out to a local park near the lake to photograph this quilt. Its been super long in the making.  It was its time to finish.  And so nice to see all the colors out on a day when it was warm and sunny.

Colorful Diamond Star Quilt

I made this quilt fast and furious over a retreat weekend, then quilted pretty soon after.  I gave it to my daughters BFF.  They were buds from the beginning of fourth grade until now.  She and her family have been so good to my daughter.  It was the least I could do to say thank you for so much. I dont think I ever shared it on the blog so here it is, in all it's colorful glory.

Charcoal Black Soap

Black Charcoal Soap.  It is so expensive in the store.  I found this recipe on the Soap Queen Blog.  She has a great tutorial video you can watch.  She is an awesome soaper.  Great recipes and she has her own store which I have ordered from.  I did change this recipe a bit, swapping out some of the tea tree oil for peppermint oil. 

I love this soap.  It is creamy and has great lather but yet is is harder than some of the other soaps I have made.  I am definitely new to making soap.  If I can do it, so can you. 

My friend made this for me- isn't it wild?  

CHARCOAL SOAP

1.8 oz. Castor Oil (5%)
9 oz. Coconut Oil (25%)
14.4 oz. Olive Oil (40%)
9 oz. Palm Oil (25%)
1.8 oz. Tamanu Oil (5%)
5.1 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
10.1 oz. Distilled Water (15% water discount)
1 oz. Tea Tree Essential Oil

.7 oz. Peppermint Essential Oil
2 Tbsp. Activated Charcoal

1. Add lye to water (NEVER THE OTHER WAY AROUND). Stir until dissolved.  

2. While the lye is cooling, melt oils: Palm oil (it is recommended that you fully melt your container of palm oil before portioning out), castor oil, coconut oil, olive oil. tamanu oil. Cool to 130°F

3. Once your lye and your oils are under 130°F and about 10°F of one another, pour the lye mixture into the oils, and begin to stir.

4. Add charcoal slowly as it is super fine and will likely go all over.  Once it is immersed, then start your stick blender.

5. Stop, add in your essential oils.

6. When it is at trace, pour into molds. Spritz tops of soaps with isopropyl alcohol. This will definitely need 3 to 4 days to get hard enough to unmold.  Be patient.

Soaping supplies

Below in the pic you will see the pickling lime bag.  I will never use this again for soap. It's a super fine powder.  I much prefer the granules.  Easier to control.

My set up.

On Ringo Lake Fun!

Excited to be doing Bonnie's Ringo Lake.

Those are the words I typed several weeks ago.  Now. I am surprised to say that it's nearly a year since my last post on this blog.  I am working on Bonnie Hunters latest, On Ringo Lake.  I love the quilt.  It was much fun, as always.

It's my fifth one.  I guess I must really like doing her quilts.  Its not like I havent got ten million of my own quilts to finish.  It must be that community thing.  Lots of my other friends have been more obsesses with out local sensation, Charlotte Hawkes quilts.  She starts her Mystery Quilt very soon.  You can see her mystery, here.

Bonnies Mystery En Provence Reveal

Finished! Yeah!  I am so excited.  After I quilt it I will give it a proper photo shoot.  Because that is always fun!

 I am so excited.  I love this quilt.  I replaced only one color.  I exchanged the yellow for some blue.

Update:  Someone just pointed out that the third row, fourth star from the left is messed up.  Dang! Should I, shouldn't I?  It's always a metaphor to life for me.  Says one voice, "Nothing is perfect, let it go."

Says another voice, "Seriously girl!  You know that's going to drive your OCD crazy!"

Says the other voice, "Just let it go! Who cares?"  Back and forth it goes until one of those voices finally wins out.  After its quilted I will let you know who won!

Bonnie Hunter Mystery En Provence, Week 5

By some miracle, I have been able to keep up with this weekly mystery.  I almost feel as if I am missing something because I have been able to keep up.  Ha!  I haven't made it to the link every week, mostly due to some issues with my computer.  Hopefully it will be resolved soon.  Isn't it funny how your whole self can be in a pinch when you dont have your internet/computer.  25 years ago that would be hard to conceive of.  Computers were a small part of my life, mostly wrestling with Microsoft Word to get my company newspaper together.  No internet, just that.

 Some purple flowers to share on this grey winter day.

The time for the reveal is almost here.  I can't wait!  But then I will be sad, no more mystery...

Bonnie Hunter Mystery

Step #2 Done

Step #3 Done

So far, I have definitely been able to keep up with the steps since I gave up Holiday cookies this year. I gain a lot of weight over the Holidays every year as most people do.  This year I decided to skip the cookies. I will make a cake for Christmas instead.  This will help narrow down the caloric consumption to a one time deal.

The kids are asking me when we are doing cut outs though.  I will have to do that...

Instead of baking I have been sewing.  I have got a lot done.  Totally excited!

My purple four patches are nearly done.  I am anxiously awaiting step #4.

To join in on the Holiday fun sewing mystery quilt, En Provence, click the button below.

Bonnie Hunter's En Provence Mystery Quilt

At last count I have 200 made.

I can't help myself.  Bonnie's Mystery Quilts are oh, so tempting for me.  I love the thrill of quilting with a large community and my friends too.  It's  a blast.  I learn a lot.  I escape the pressures of the season and I get a quilt made.

The one time I did different colors.

I always want to do different colors to be different, but then I get so jazzed about her colors and that's what I end up doing.

I am a huge fan of lavender.  Had a few bushes out front for a couple years.  They were big and beautiful.  Sadly a few years back when we had such cold temps int he winter, I lost my lavender. Sigh.  I haven't had the heart yet to plant them again.

Provence.  Now, that is a place I have always wanted to go.  I would love to visit France.  The countryside, Paris, the coast... all of it.

So its a win, win situation. Click the button above if you want to join the fun.

Autumn Wreath

I loved making this wreath yesterday.  It worked up really fast once I had all the stuff to go on it.

I watched this video on how to make a burlap wreath.  Then went to the store and bought some flowers and saw these cute little acorns for a pop of orange for Autumn.

Syracuse Quilt Show

Has it really been since the end of June that I have posted to my blog?  It's so hard to keep up with two blogs in the summer.  I do my best.  I went to Syracuse last weekend for the AQS Quilt Show. Sadly, it will be the last one as it just didn't have the turn out.  I know they were happy to see me and my friends because we sure spent a lot of money there. Ha!  Not hard to do at a quilt show.

Here are some of the quilts at the show.

I bought a light box.  I am really happy about my purchase as I have been doing a lot of embroidery lately.  I will get my use out of it I am sure.  It was my birthday present to myself.


You can get one too ordering it online.  They are available at Walmart, Amazon, etc.

A few people remarked that the show seemed to be a lot of thread painting and artsy designs and not a lot of traditional quilts.  Which I agree with

Here is a link to the other winning quilts at the show.  If I had to pick my overall favorite from the whole show, I would pick this one.  I love the feeling of the quilt, the traditional stylings, the color, the detail.  Its a winner in my book.

Janet Stone, "Ewe Are My Sunshine"

Here is a little detail of it.