Words & Stitches

Born to be Wild (and Pink!)

Posted on May 19, 2021 | 20 comments

I love, love, love blog hops! For many reasons, first is the inspiration of seeing what everyone else is making…so fun! Second is the pressure to finish something that I may or may not have tried. Third…well, playing with friends and fabric, of course! I’ve been trying to finish some UFOs along the way and I had one quilt jump to mind when I heard about this hop. And, I appreciate so much all the work that goes into these! Carol over at Just Let Me Quilt is wonderful at pulling all of us together with a great theme!

It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for pink and one of my favorite animals is a FLAMINGO! I would love to see these in the wild someday. So far, I’ve seen them in wild animal parks, zoos and, of course, the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. There’s just something so whimsical about them that they always make me smile.

Years ago, I made a little attic windows quilt for a class sample featuring my favorited feathered pink cuties. I was never quite happy with it, though. The wide pink outer border didn’t quite do it for me. It languished on a shelf until I rediscovered it recently. I began fabric auditions and found this one. Hmmm….not quite the same but maybe….

Obviously, the wide pink border had to go. I trimmed it down to a 2 inch border and I carefully cut my strips so that the fabric would all run the right direction and began borders.

Wildlife of another sort provided me with support and supervision.

This turned out to be just what the doctor ordered for this little quilt!

Now my little quilt top looks ready for a wild flamingo party! On a side note, we’ve had super nice weather for a few days and today it rained buckets! I was lucky to get this little break to take my photo. The sky was stunning, though.

Please check out all the other bloggers on the hop! I’m off to an early (for me) bed and possibly a bath. Oh, but I have to tell you, last night I crawled into bed after negotiating my way around Milo (the big guy) and barely got into bed when the crew swarmed me! First Griff who wanted me for his personal heating pad, Jack to curl up next to me under the covers and Winnie who wanted to be petted and sleep on my hips. Talk about a cuddle puddle! Gizmo had his spot at the top of the pillow staked out but it was like being at the center of a feeding frenzy!

Seriously, though, Mr. Griff seems to be feeling his age a bit and his arthritis is getting worse so I gave him a bath the other night. To say he was not amused is a bit of an understatement! I did dig out a favorite soft jacket and added it to the other side of the bed on the pillows so he and Gizmo don’t have to fight anymore, though, which seems to have improved his mood.

There are so many great bloggers to visit! I hope we’ll inspire you to go a little wild with a quilt soon!

Happy quilting,

Beth

May 17^th

Creatin’ in the Sticks
Vroomans Quilts
Homespun Hannah’s Blog
Scrapdash
Kathleen McMusing
Just Sew Quilter
Just Because Quilts

May 18^thMooseStashQuilting
Selina Quilts
For The Love Of Geese
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Quilt Schmilt
Life in the Scrapatch
Sewing Up My Fabric
May 19^thMs P Designs USA
Patchouli Moon Studio
Beaquilter
Hill Valley Quilter
Quilted Delights
Stitchin At Home
Sew Many Yarns

May 20^thSamelia’s Mum
Inflorescence
Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel
Words & Stitches
Websterquilt That Fabric Feeling
May 21^stJust Let Me Quilt
Days Filled With Joy
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting
Quilting Gail
Lianne Makes Stuff
Quilt Fabrication
Food for Thought

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Wild Week Ahead!

Posted on May 16, 2021 | Leave a comment

ACK – I started this post Sunday night and here it is Wednesday already! Watch this space for my post later tonight but have fun hopping to all the bloggers who are already posted!

(Just pretend it’s Sunday night…I always wanted to time travel…) Tomorrow kicks off the Born to be Wild blog hop from Just Let Me Quilt! I’m not until Thursday but I’ll be wildly scrambling to finish up on time!

Speaking of wild, how was your weekend? I made progress on the great chair project. We’re now down to bare bones and ready to start rebuilding (after a good vacuuming. )

I also got started with the garden. Talk about weeds gone wild! One small bed and one section of path are planted and I need to find a way to secure the wire for the cucumber to grow on. As usual, I’ve purchased before I was ready to plant and now I’m scrambling!

I did hit a goal this weekend in my Duolingo app….first place in the top league!

I’ve been using Duolingo for over a year now to practice my French. Someday, when the world rights itself again and Covid is a sorrowful memory, I want to see Paris again.

So, here’s the lineup for the week, have fun and I’ll see you Thursday!

May 17^th

Night Time Shenanigans and Other News

Posted on May 14, 2021 | 3 comments

So I was recently diagnosed with sleep apnea and can I just tell you that while I love my new little machine, the first night with the cats was ridiculous! Wait, what kind of nighttime shenanigans did you think I meant? LOL

So, first, Gizmo objected to the tube on “his” pillow (which I also use) so he went to the other side of the bed to pout. While he was there, Griffie stole the spot on the pillow. Winnie couldn’t figure who I was in the nose mask and was quite freaked out. When Gizmo was over his pout, he was shocked to find his spot occupied and so the night went. In spite of it all, I woke up feeling like a new woman and I’m thoroughly impressed with my new little sleep machine. Now if I could just figure out why I keep taking it off at night!

On the sewing end of things, I haven’t been doing nearly as much quilting as I would like. I’ve finished a few more scrub caps and I’m adding to my string block count.

I’ve also started on a long-procrastinated project. This old chair was one I reupholstered in a class when I was pregnant 30 years ago. It was my very favorite and we made a lot of good memories in this chair reading stories and watching movies. With my new-found, sleep-fueled energy, I’m tackling this project. The chair, after all, couldn’t look worse than it does now!

Next week we have a blog hop coming up and I’m excited to share a little “wildlife” with you all as part of the “Born to be Wild” blog hop.

In the kitty news, senior cat Griff just turned 18 this past week! May 8th was his 18th birthday and now he’s nagging about being able to vote. I still haven’t convinced him that he can’t sign up for drivers’ ed after turning 16!

Around the place there are blooms and more blooms (and weeds and more weeds) but I had to share this picture of the azaleas that Phil and I planted years ago. They’re my favorite color!

Well, I’m going to have to knock off here because my lunch break is over and I have to get back to it.

I hope you are safe and well and I’ll write more soon!

Happy quilting

Beth

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In the Kitchen Stitchin’ Blog Hop

Posted on April 19, 2021 | 26 comments

So, I have stitched in almost every room of my house and, at one point, I kept a mini sewing station in my kitchen complete with a featherweight, iron, cutting board and a rotary cutter stashed in the knife drawer! While my work station has migrated back to the sewing room, it was fun to figure what to stitch for my old sewing space.

My goal for my projects this year is to use fabrics I have on hand and have fun playing with some scraps. So when it came to stitching something for my kitchen, I reached for my scrappy binding tub and several yards of white terrycloth. Do you keep your binding leftovers? I keep mine in little rolls in a plastic tub (I haven’t been able to shut the lid for a while which is a sign wouldn’t you say?) It’s not uncommon for me to string a bunch of these gems together to make a scrappy binding. For this hop, though, I had other plans. After extensive research on dish towell sizes (seriously 20″x30″? A dish towel? After I cut one out I opted for 15″x20″. Then, I dug into the binding bin.

Using a post-it to mark my seam guide, I sewed a couple of shorter strips in parallel lines and top-stitched them down.

Then, I bound my towels with more leftover binding strips and, voila! New (and cute and quilterly) kitchen towels!

I put my binding on from the back and finished with a decorative stitch. After all, I’m going to wipe up spilled milk with these so no way am I hand stitching binding!

Just hanging out on the fridge…I left them hanging from the stove handle and they were dirty before I turned around… definitely useable!

These were so fun and easy! If you don’t have terrycloth, remember this would be a great way to upcycle a towel with a frayed edge. What about a cute baby towel? The million dollar question, of course, is, “How many do you have enough binding for?” I refuse to answer on the grounds that I may fall out of favor with “The Stash.”

I’m so excited to be part of this group that Carla over at Creatin’ in the Sticks has put together. You can visit Carla here.

Be sure to hop on over and catch up with the rest of the crew! Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out my fellow kitchen stitchers!

Monday, April 19th
Just Let Me Quilt

Kathleen McMusing

selina quilts

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Quiltscapes
Tuesday, April 20th
Life in the Scrapatch

Websterquilt

Ms P Designs

USA Stitch and Quilt

Tuesday, April 20th
Life in the Scrapatch Websterquilt Ms P Designs USA Stitch and Quilt

The Joyful Quilter Inflorescence

Words & Stitches

Scrapdash

My Bumbleberry Life

Wednesday, April 21st
MooseStashQuilting

Kathy Kwilts and More

Stitchin At Home

Songbird Designs

Days Filled With Joy
Thursday, April 22nd
Creatin’ in the Sticks

Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Becky’s adventures in quilting and travel

Homespun Hannah’s Blog

Food For Thought

And, of course, a little kitty cuteness…

What do you get when you lay a ribbon board across a tub? Apparently a cat bed!

Happy quilting,

Beth!

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Sunday Musing (On Monday)

Posted on April 11, 2021 | Leave a comment

The

I’m going to be very honest, I had a major slowdown in my production after Project Quilting ended. I had a massive allergic reaction back in February which left me not feeling well for some time. However, the lingering effects seem to have worked their way out of my system now! As you can see, there has been a lot of kitty time! Griffie has joined the lineup that sleeps in my room and you can see the feline obstacle course they provide me with at bedtime! Winnie is not rightly pleased with the addition although she tolerates it but squeaks at me more.

I did get some blocks finished. I’ve decided I want a larger string quilt for my bed and so far I have 24 9.5″ blocks done. 76 more and we’ll be good! The string blocks are almost too good at hiding any “surprises” the cats generously leave for me but I love the look of them!

Now that I’m feeling better, I tackled a few things and got to be socially-distanced but social with the quarterly tea group! Caroline made an amazing box-lunch style tea and we exchanged our blue fabrics! Oregon decided it was summer preview week and our temps shot up into the 80’s which led the cats to decide that outdoor adventures were needed. Milo will just go out and hang out but Gizmo is a travelin’ cat and so has to wear his “weesh.” Of course, I decided to bake on the hottest day…silly me! I also finished a scrub cap to donate to the ICU nurses. I have five or six cut out of that fabric.

This weekend, I actually tried my hand at a minor repair…I fixed my first leaky faucet! I was all kinds of proud of that until I turned the hot water back on and realized that I need to fix that side, too! At least now I know how!

And, speaking of sinks, today kicks off the “In the Kitchen” Blog Hop organized by Creatin’ in the Sticks.

You can hop over to https://createinthesticks.blogspot.com/ to get the whole schedule!

I’ll be back tomorrow with my little kitchen craft!

Happy quilting,

Beth

Happy Easter!

Posted on April 4, 2021 | 2 comments

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it and happy spring to those who don’t. We have had a beautiful weekend and fit in a trip to both the Portland Japanese Garden and the Tulip Festival.

Of course, I brought home a pot of tulips. (Mostly red with one stray pink one!) I also have the catalogue so I can order some for fall. It was so good to get outside in the beauty and now I have a head start on the cleaning, too!

I also made bunny pancakes in honor of the day…. they’re not as hard as I thought they’d be and they’re very cute! My ear technique needs work but they were tasty!

I honestly hardly stitched at all this week. I think I was having a case of the doldrums. After quilting all these years, though, I know that it will pass. Tomorrow is Monday so it’s the cleaning lady’s day (the cleaning lady is me) and I think I’ll set aside the rest of the week to sew. Except that I should probably cook, and empty the desk, oh, and pay the bills… all the pesky things that keep us from sewing as much as we’d like!

There are, of course, the demands of being a cat concierge as well….I cater to a select and very demanding clientele!

Speaking of which, it’s time to start the nightly routines and get ready to go back to the work world tomorrow. Now that I only work one job, I’m enchanted with this whole weekend thing. It’s like “buy 5, get two free” but with days!

Happy quilting!

Beth

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Salt and Sand (and memories)

Posted on March 24, 2021 | 24 comments

The minute I see that Carol over Just Let Me Quilt is hosting a blog hop, I’m in! I just love this lady and her work is beautiful! And the color combo that’s been lighting me up lately has been blue and sand, like this quilt that was my entry for Project Quilting’s Crazy Quilting.

Do you have any bucket list quilts? You know, those quilts you really want to make some day? I’ve loved Ocean Waves quilts for about ever. I remember in about 1981 finding the pattern in a magazine like Women’s Day. This was back in the days when you had a really pretty quilt picture and the instructions were the angles to draft your own templates in about 3 inches of column in the back. No exactly beginner friendly. This was the first time I realized that I probably should have embraced studying geometry…sigh. After looking at a whole bunch of tutorials and patterns, I realized that I needed to go back to the drawing board. After all these years, I really needed to figure out my own math…darn it! I had some adventures with rulers but I’m on my way (well, one block, some graph paper numbers and a whole lot of excitement.) I’m going for queen size with this one so don’t hold your breath!

The week hasn’t gone exactly to plan. My youngest had some surgery (routine) on Friday and then had a second surgery (not as routine) due to some complications on Saturday. So the many hours of spring break quilting morphed into hours of hanging out watching TV and providing popsicles and moral support. (I wouldn’t trade it for being anywhere else, though. This time with my girls is precious to me although I’d prefer it when everyone feels well.)

I did want to contribute to the hop, though, and so I paper-pieced these tiny boats to make a wall-hanging for my downstairs bathroom which is sea-themed. It will finish a little under 8″x12″ and hang near the sink.

And, speaking of beaches, our trip to Australia in 2019 has been popping up in my memories. I’m so grateful I had that amazing trip with my husband before everything fell apart.

Beach photo on Phillip Island taken by a nice random stranger who pretended to drop my camera…lol!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Salty Crew. They are such a talented group…you don’t want to miss a thing!

Thanks, Carol, for putting all of this together!

Happy Quilting,

Beth

March 22

Creatin’ in the Sticks

Selina Quilts

That Fabric Feeling

Days Filled With Joy

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

March 23

Life in the Scrapatch

Food for Thought

For The Love Of Geese

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Karrin’s Crazy World

Sew Many Yarns

Kathy’s Kwilts and More

March 24

The Darling Dogwood Daughters of Dorinda

March 25

Freckled Fox Quiltery

Quilts Fabric and Thread Tales

March 26

Little Penguin Quilts

Just Sew Quilter

Inflorescence

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PQ 12.6, Salt & Sand and Energency Medicine

Posted on March 23, 2021 | 2 comments

Well, I nearly made it to all six challenges this season. The last challenge was to do a piece that spoke to who we are on the inside. I used this charm pack to revisit a design I tried last year. I wanted to show the spark at the center that we have to be careful to keep despite the darkness that tries to push in.

I decided to quilt it with freehand feather-ish things interspersed with pebbles. So, why didn’t it get finished? Well, on Friday, my youngest had her tonsils removed. Everything went well and she was home early. Later in the day, she began spitting out blood and by the next morning, we were back in the ER and prepping for emergency surgery to get the bleeding stopped. We stayed overnight and I spent some time on Worldwide Quilting Day doing EPP on my Violet Craft Lion. I took the lion to Australia with me and didn’t really have the heart to work on it again. This was my view as I worked in the window seat in the hospital room. We were able to come home again on Sunday and are back in recovery mode. (Needless to say, I’m one grateful and relieved mom.)

I also spotted this adorable quilt in the hallway to the Children’s Hospital Wing. It’s not a great photo but I love the lollipop trees. (Below it is the artist info.)

Meanwhile, in my yard there are signs of spring. The daphne is blooming…possibly the best scent ever…and my crocuses and tulips that I planted under the shepherd’s hook are pushing up and blooming. There’s much weeding to be done but there’s been a lot of rain. So I am content to stay inside and sew.

And what am I sewing? A little something for this hop. And, speaking of hop, I’d better hop to it or I’ll have nothing to show! Hop on over to any one of these quilters for some amazing inspiration!

Happy quilting,

Beth

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Project Quilting 12.5….A Little Crazy in the Middle!

Posted on March 7, 2021 | 2 comments

This week’s Project Quilting challenge was crazy quilting. Now, I’m not much of ribbon and embroidery person but I love improve piecing with tiny bits that my friends think I’m “crazy” to keep. The process is the same as crazy quilting.

I started by dumping the blue crumb jar on the table.

Then I started sewing bits together until I could get 9 6.5″ squares. I dived into the 3.5″ strip bin for star points and background.

I added a fun quilter’s map fabric between the blocks with blue cornerstones and finished it with one of my mini- bolts in blue. (It’s so fun to use up pieces of fabric!)

I backed it with flannel and bound it with a two- toned binding. The quilting is a freehand of loops and hearts using my Q’nique 21 Pro. This one is definitely one I’m keeping because I love how it came out! (It’s 60″×60″, by the way. )

Happy quilting!

Beth

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Dust Off a Book Blog Hop!

Posted on February 28, 2021 | 11 comments

Dusting… not my favorite activity. After all, you dust and then you just have to do it all again but dusting off my quilt books is a whole other story!

I’ve cut down my books in the last couple of years from four shelves to two. The remaining books either inspire me or are on the bucket list or they are tried and true useful old friends.

“Quilts for Baby, Easy as ABC” is one of those that went right into the keeper pile! Written by Ursula Reikes and published by That Patchwork Place in 1993, this book is chock full of fun, fast and easy baby quilts.

In 1993, I had a busy two year-old and lots of friends having babies. Now it’s younger friends and neighbors having babies, including some of those friends of my daughters!

This book has really stood the test of time! The quilts are fun and fast and easy enough to finish quickly. They have the added bonus of finishing at 38″ wide so you don’t need to piece a back!

This little alternating four- patch is one of my go-to’s.

I just need to add a red binding for a pop of color at the outer edge and this one is ready to find a home! I backed it with a cute nautical flannel and it’s almost ready for snuggle time!