Iggy

This is Iggy. He was added to our family in May. I would estimate his age at about ten months then. He was very thin and appeared to have been existing on a diet of grass snakes.

He is quite a character, chatty and very friendly except to Boysie. Boysie is the enemy.

Although Iggy is quite a bit larger than Blue and looks to have had a much tougher life he is quite content to be number two in the katten pecking order. Blue pesters him and bullies without mercy.

Iggy has been neutered and vaccinated, neither of which bothered him at all. 90% of his focus is on the next meal, the other 10% on getting outside, although he doesn't actually go anywhere when he succeeds. Favorite hangout is on the shelf where the cat food bowl lives, second favorite is in the basement, both he and Blue spent a great deal of time down there.

Iggy was very fortunate in that Janet, who adopted Blue agreed to take him too.


Y'all come back!

Pillowcases For My Upcoming Hibernation

Here in the frozen North (I capitalize with deep meaning,) certain species hibernate for the winter. I sympathize. I may join them.

I have always made pillowcases.

In the days when we were struggling to pay fees for two kids in private school, and later, college, I couldn't see paying as much as $9 per pillowcase when I could simply buy an extra twin flat sheet for the same price, or less and make four.

Grazing through Lori's stash the other day I discovered the most wonderful sheep fabric. Naturally it came home with me together with some pretty beige co-ordinating contrast fabric and I whipped up a plain pillowcase, shown at left.

Strangely (to me anyway) it looks fabulous with all my other pillowcases which are assorted estate auction bargains in pink. The 'box of assorted linens for a dollar or two' bargains which abound here in South Dakota.

Discussing this with Lori she offered to teach me a specific method for making fancier pillowcases than is my wont (def.#2). This will be pretty cool!

I plundered my own fairly puny stash and found the three fabrics at right. I have enough to make two matching pillowcases. Expect a post on the process in the not too far distant future.


Y'all come back!

Design wall Monday

My design wall is like my brain these days, scattered. See many more design walls here on Patchwork Times.

At the very top of my wall are four blocks of a leader and ender project inspired by an antique baby quilt I saw at the Vermillion Quilt Show, shown below.

My tribute to this unknown quilter is made (mostly so far) from 2" finished off-cut triangles from the scrappy red and green Poinsettia Block quilt on the left of my design wall in the picture above. Inspired, not a copy, my triangles all march in the same direction. I will make more as the mood strikes.

To the right of the Poinsettia quilt are more leaders and enders in "stamps" and snowball blocks.

All the fabrics in this project except the Kaufman Kona Snow used in the snowballs are from several years of rootling through Lori's cutting room trash box. I cut most of my gleanings into 2-1/2" squares. I also cut 1-1/2" and 3-1/2" squares.

The triangles in the corners of the snowballs are 3-1/4" squares cut once diagonally and then trimmed. The plan is for a throw consisting of  10" blocks set 5 x 7 with a plain inner border and probably a pieced checkerboard outer border, if I have enough squares.

Finally the Poinsettia, I had an urge to make something in red and green and saw a picture on the Interwebs. I later discovered the original pattern is a freebie from Timeless Treasures which you can download and print here. Needless to say mine is not made from the pattern but that works for me.

I should confess there is yet another project hidden under the poinsettia, did I mention I am somewhat scattered these days?


Y'all come back!

The Block From H E Double Hockey Sticks

There it is. Looks quite innocent doesn't it? Smug, simple even.

I have made many of these blocks. This one was different.

This block is made in four units, the first three were totally uneventful. Then I sewed one piece with the wrong sides together, no problem, just unpick, press and resew, right?

My ripper broke. I went to Lori's and got a new one out of stock and went back home. That one broke too, must be a defective batch. I went back to Lori's, again, set that box aside to return and got a new ripper out of a different box. That one did its job and I resewed the segment. Next comes press.

I had spilled something on my ironing board, a huge scorch appeared instantly. The air turned blue and it was not from the burning whatever I spilled.

OK. Deep breath, clean the iron, scrub the ironing board. Iron it dry with a paper towel. Place a clean paper towel there just in case the goop is not all gone.

Unpick block, again. Throw away the scorched bits and search madly for the last little piece of the right fabric. Resew very carefully -

with the wrong sides together.

Unpick. block. again.

You ever do things like that?



Y'all come back!

My Boy

Boysie likes to lie in a patch of sunlight on the living room carpet. In the nice air conditioning of course. Sunbathing with all mod cons.

Y'all come back!

A Tale of Two Yo-Yos

The Yo-yo story started a couple of years ago when Lori said she wanted to use her huge collection of fabric nickels and expressed interest in something to do with yo-yos. She is a sucker for handwork which I generally loathe.

I slipped some Clover Quick Yo-yo Makers into our regular order from the wholesaler. At the time I ordered the extra-large size (because making less is better right?) and of course the end product was larger than I had expected, requiring a larger than 5" square of  fabric. Strike one ...

Then there was a magazine, this one,  American Patchwork & Quilting, June 2011. I dropped heavy hints to no avail, even took the magazine to South Dakota on my summer trip, but there was no divine turquoise yo-yo lap quilt in my Christmas box. I can't find the magazine but seem to remember it is made by stitching the yo-yos onto 3" strips.
Last week I re-ordered and got the right size, large, which makes the traditional almost 2" yo-yo from a 4-1/2" square. Yay!

When the box arrived Lori was literally hovering. Since then I know she has made more than 200. I am impressed that the ugliest of fabric looks nice scrunched into a yo-yo.

The Yo-Yo Makers are fiendishly clever. A stupendously simple idea, you sandwich the fabric between the two plastic pieces of the template, trim around the edges and stitch in the holes. After popping out the template you pull on the thread to gather the fabric, knot, bury the thread and it is done. Quite amazing.

Lori wants to make a queen sized quilt.

She is going to make a plain white wholecloth quilt, quilt it and then stitch 'blocks' of yo-yos to make a medallion on top. I think she told me she would need a couple of thousand yo-yos.

The thought of that makes my mind spin wheelies and feel quite hysterical. I think I shall make a small pillow. Maybe.

The two yo-yos? Well obviously Lori (2000 of them!) and me because I am making them too.

Y'all come back!

Lime Tree

Regular readers will know that the Lime Tree long arm quilting pantograph by Keryn Emerson is my current favorite. One of the many things I didn't know is that the Lime tree that inspired Keryn to make her pantograph not only grows all over North America, including in my town, but is called something completely different here from the rest of the English speaking world.

Let me introduce you to the Lime tree, (Tilia americana) is also known as a Linden or Basswood tree in the USA.

I discovered these trees on an evening walk when the most heady and familiar tropical perfume simply had to be tracked down. Boysie and I followed it upwind until we found where it was coming from.

On the corner of Depot and Elm Streets is the old County Highway Department building and judging from their height, around 60 years ago someone planted five Linden trees along the street frontages.

Click images to enlarge 

As you can see the tree is loaded with blossoms, the source of that heavenly jasmine-like fragrance that had me tracking like a hound dog.

Sadly the blooming period is brief and the flowers do not last more than a few hours in a vase.

See a close-up of the flower here.

This last picture is of the tiny berry like seeds which follow

the flowers. I have read that the tree does not grow easily from seed, commercial growers find it easier to propagate them from cuttings.

Do you have a Linden tree in your town?

Y'all come back!