Bah humbug - my blog is moving

I've deleted over half of my posts and Blogger will STILL not let me post a new picture.  So, I've changed to Wordpress.  Please come visit me.  The new address is

http://gwendiequilts.wordpress.com/

(It should now be a live link.  And there is no "s" in the middle of the new address.)  

I realize this is a pain for all of us.  I really value the comments I get but I also want to be able to post photos.  Without fighting with Blogger.

I have a LOT to learn about Wordpress.  Somehow, I have to figure out how to change the header picture. 

I still had yarn left

So I made these ---

I'd never made booties before so I thought I'd give them a try.  They were fairly easy to make and definitely didn't take much yarn - I still have some left (!) but this is the last thing I'm going to make in camo green.  The pattern is a free one on the Lion yarn site.

All the knitting pictures were taken on a doll I made years ago just to wear this dress.  It's the christening dress I made that all my daughters and The Princess wore.

 
 

I had yarn left ...

I had yarn left after I finished the ribbed baby hat so thought I'd make another.  I use circular needles so don't have to put in a seam.  I don't like seams in hats - that's just not comfortable!  This is size newborn (0-3 months).

The directions would have been easy enough to come up with - I've made them for me without any - but this hat is in the book Itty Bitty Hats, which I have.  The book has some really darling hats for babies and small children and the directions are easy to follow.      

I need a little help

I'm trying to add pictures to a post but just get the message that I have no storage room left.  Can anyone tell me how to get to my pictures so I can delete the old ones?  I already have off-site storage and don't want to pay Google to store the same photos.  I really need some help here!  Thank you to anyone who can help me with this!!!

EDIT:  Thank you to Kathie, Dorothy, and Angela Lee.  I deleted about 40 of my oldest posts and will resize the photos I post.  Between the two fixes, I should be good to go for a while.  And the picture I was trying to post is up.

Knitting ...

While pregnant daughter and I were shopping for curtain fabric for the nursery, she picked up a skein of yarn and asked me if I'd knit a hat for the baby.  We talked about the style and she decided she'd like a ribbed hat since they'll stretch and it would fit longer.

Next was figuring out just how big to make it without directions.  We looked on the internet to find the average size head for a baby at different ages and we settled on the 3-6 month size.

This is my own pattern, one I've made many times in different sizes.  And I had yarn left ....

November Schnibble - Drop

I really like these Little Bites quilts.  They're the perfect size for a doll.  When my grandchildren are here, they get a lot of use - good children always cover their dolls!  

I used French General's Chateau Rouge for this little quilt.  This is the small version without the outer border.  I didn't realize I had threads hanging off of it when I took the picture - my bad!  I had a charm pack so cut the squares down. 

Be sure you visit the Schnibbles parade on December 1 at Sinta's and Sheri's.  They do an incredible job each month posting all the photos. 

To everyone in the USA, have a happy Thanksgiving.  I hope you have a wonderful day.  

To go with the quilt...

I've had this pattern for over a year, fully intending to make it for my youngest daughter (YD) because she loves elephants.  Then middle daughter (MD) decided to do elephants as the theme in the nursery.  How perfect is this?  She said she wanted something small so it would be easier for a baby to grab and this is about 4".  I had some of the blue fabric left and turned it in to this.  For obvious reasons, I left off the eyes.

MD's birthday was on Saturday so gave her both the quilt (last post) and the elephant with her other birthday gifts.  She loves them!

October quilt

I didn't make a Schnibble pattern this month even though we had two choices.  One was for a full sized quilt, which I don't need, and the other was for a star which has never been on my list of favorites.  And besides --- 

Middle daughter is expecting her baby soon and I need to get the baby quilt finished (and some other birthday and Christmas gifts) before I work on something for myself.

I call this quilt "Godot" (with thanks to Samuel Beckett) because they're waiting.  It's a pattern I've wanted to make for several years.  I put white in the same place on the stars in each block but other than that, it's random.  The bright blue with the white elephants is what she chose for the curtains.   

Also, I want to say a public thank you to my no-blog friend Synthia.  When I told her my daughter had an elephant theme for the nursery, she saw the same blue print in a shop and sent me a fat quarter of it.  I think of her every time I look at the quilt.

I'll be shopping for the backing tomorrow.  Daughter has requested flannel and Fabric Depot has a great section of children's flannel.

Bias binding question

I have a formula for figuring how much yardage I'll need to bind a quilt (see a Quilting Life here for the link to here for the formula) but does anyone have the formula that will tell me how much bias I can cut from a piece of fabric or where to find it?  I need help!

2012 Aurora Colony Quilt Show

This is always my favorite quilt show of the year.  The theme this year was "Seeing Red" but there were still many quilts that weren't "just" red and white.  I used a different lens on my camera this year and couldn't get back far enough to get pictures of the full quilts - lesson learned.  Next year, I'll take a shorter lens.

One of the curators told us that next year's show will be quilts from their collection.  I'm really looking forward to that!  The first quilt is from the collection.  I was helping to wrangle my grandchildren this year so didn't get as many pictures as last year and I also missed getting photos of the labels.  

Close up of above quilt

The upper right and lower left baskets were navy blue

Displayed in the children's room

 

Lower left block of above quilt

I love this cradle and look forward to seeing the quilt in it each year

 

This is truly a 'make-do' quilt

My 4-year-old granddaughter (The Princess) looked at the beautiful Hawaiian quilt with pineapples all around the center (which I didn't manage to get a picture of) and told me she thinks that is what God looks like.  The bottom pineapple (which is upside down) is His foot, she said, with His toes on the bottom.  I think she horrified an older woman standing next to her as the woman told her, VERY firmly and quickly, that it's NOT. 

Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk

The photo walk was on Saturday and, according to Scott's blog, there were about 32,000 of us all over the world taking pictures at some time during the day.  There were 11 of us in the group I joined in Oregon City - a perfect number for the size of our sidewalks.  I shot over 100 pictures and others took a lot more.  Here are a few of mine ---

This is just before the walk started.  I wanted to get the 'open' sign.  There's a street between the short wall and the buildings.

This is the neighborhood where we walked for the first of the two hours.

John McLoughlin was known as the Father of the Northwest Territories.  His grave is on the right, his wife's on the left.

This fountain is a few feet from the graves.  

This section of Oregon City is divided into two sections - on the bluffs and down by the Willamette River where Main St. is.  Oregon City is the oldest incorporated city west of the Missouri River so Main St is very old.  I wanted to show the difference in the two sections but didn't get any shots of Main St - just of the old industrial section.  Maybe next year.

There's a promenade along the bluffs.  You can see the Falls in the center of the picture.  Lewis and Clark stopped here because there was no way around the falls.  There are two paper mills, built on each side of the river.  The mill in this shot closed a couple of years ago.  There's just no way to get a picture of the beautiful falls from the promenade without the mill in the foreground.

Looking across the Willamette River at the other paper mill, still operating.  The hill leads up to the town of West Linn.

This is the Oregon City elevator, legally a vertical street.  We can take the elevator or stairs between the downtown, Main St, area and the bluffs above.

The Oregon City Arch Bridge has been closed for repairs for almost two years and reopened this morning.  It's one of two bridges connecting Oregon City with the other side of the Willamette.

This is from the other end of town, next to the marina.   If you click on the picture, you can see the Arch Bridge between the legs of this one, the Interstate bridge.  The Falls are under the Arch Bridge.  If it had been a sunny day and not misting, you'd be able to see them.

Anonymous comments

I've been having trouble with "Anonymous" emailing me spam disguised as blog comments.  The thing is, they've never shown up here under "comments" so they must be direct emails.  The last one began, "Nice article."  The thing is, it wasn't an article so I didn't even open it.  

I'm really tired of getting spammed this way so have changed my comments to registered users only, including Open ID.  Now, I have no idea what Open ID is but it sounds like you have to identify yourself in some way.  Since I receive very few legitimate comments from "Anonymous", I hope this won't make things harder on those of you who want to say something about the posts because I really love it when you do.  And thanks for understanding.

September Schnibble

The Schnibble for September is Speck although I prefer to call it John Mayer because I had his music on the entire time I was working on it. 

It looks nothing like John Mayer.  His music is soft and smooth while this quilt is bright and angled but it will forever be linked with his sound in my mind.  Have you heard Born and Raised?  It's awesome!

This is from Miss Rosie's new pattern line and calls for 2 1/2" pieces rather than charm squares.  I'm really happy with the smaller size.  It's great for a doll quilt or for putting on the wall with some of my other Littles.  I think I may reduce the size of the other Schnibbles I have planned and make them from the smaller squares, too.  This size is more useful for me - not fewer pieces or less work, just more useful.

I used the Carolers line by Mary Engelbreit for this one.  I had a charm pack so cut the squares into quarters - easy!  The setting posts and binding are from American Jane. 

Bread making day

I have several favorite bread recipes.  This one is a multi-grain bread from 

America's Test Kitchen.  (I think it's also available online.)

You start by soaking the multi-grain cereal (I use Bob's Red Mill, a local company but widely available).  

While it soaked, I measured the rest of the ingredients.

  

The risen dough.

Formed and after the second rise.

I wish you could smell this!

Delicious!

They've been finished for a while

but I never remembered to take a picture until a couple of days ago.  The grandchildren were here for a few hours and I gave a camera to The Princess so she could have something quiet to do while her brother was napping.  Mostly she took some really good pictures, especially considering she's only four, but one of the things she wanted to do was model for me.  Remember these?

I posted them way back in March.  I finished most of the projects but haven't taken any pictures of some.  I turned the top three fabrics into these --- 

The dress on the left is for The Princess, on the right for The Princess in Training.

The Princess was wearing hers and decided she wanted to model it, sans apron.  For some reason, she doesn't like the apron.  I'm thinking I'll remove the buttons that hold it on since she never wears it.

Full, twirly skirts are so much fun!

July Schnibble - Our Choice

Decoy

This month, we got to choose whichever Schnibble we wanted to make.  I knew I wanted to make a star in red, white, and blue for July and had purchased this charm pack of Minnick and Simpson fabrics when I saw it a few months ago.  I don't remember the name of the line but if I find the tag I'll edit this post later.  

I decided on the pattern Decoy from the book Another Bite of Schnibbles.  If you look at all the patterns, you'll see there are several that feature stars.  What put Decoy at the top of the list was the amount of background fabric needed.  I had 1/2 yard and this was the only one that didn't need more than that.  The pattern has sashing and borders pieced from charms but I wanted a plain sashing and will leave the border off.  I'll piece the binding from the charms I have left over - there are quite a few.   I'm going to have this in the stack of small quilts my grandchildren play with when they're here and I wanted a stars quilt for next summer.

This star is cut and sewn in a different way than most.  I have to say that I get my points lined up better when I make traditional flying geese but I still like this one.

June Schnibble - Leap Year

Leap Year

Schnibbles Parade

All of us who participated last month on either Sinta's blog or Sherri's blog were given a new pattern, Leap Year, by Carrie of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company even before it was available!  How cool is that?  Be sure you check the Schnibbles Parades again on July 1st, just like every month, on Sinta's and Sherri's blogs.  You'll see all of the pictures participants post of this quilt and find out the project for next month.  To me, Schnibbles are really fun projects.  Most take two charm packs plus background but I've done a couple that took only one charm pack.  I made Leap Year using fabrics from my '30's box.  Each square is one fabric plus white.  I haven't decided if I'll use one fabric for the binding or make it scrappy.  I'll quilt it before I decide and see how I feel that day.

I hope everyone (at least those of us in the northern hemisphere) is enjoying summer.  I have most of my garden in and just have a couple of things left to plant.  

     

May Schnibble - Doc

Basically, Doc is what Carrie has named a quilt made from Card Trick blocks.  The last time I tried one of these, I had to name it Misdeal and I haven't tried another since.  That just made me more determined to get it right this time - and I succeeded!  I used charm packs of Fresh Flowers by Deb Strain.  (Fresh Flowers - May quilt.  Get it?)  

The first thing that came to mind when I spread out the squares of fabrics was the saying everything old is new again.  The prints and colors really remind me of the '60's, first because of this fabric -

Picture it about as dark as along the right side of the photo, pretend it's flocked wallpaper, and it's what my mother put in the downstairs powder room of their new home.  Honestly, I hated that wallpaper.  It reminded me of a brothel in a B-Western.  I did like the rest of the fabrics, though.

The next thing I realized is I should do this -

 

and not this -

There's a difference in the way they're cut.  Unfortunately, the orange print was one of my favorites and I couldn't use it.

All the blocks cut out and stacked individually

 

 

I use sheets of deli paper (from Costco) to keep each block separate from the others

These are finished blocks

And here is the completed top.  I know I won't finish the quilting this month so decided to show it just as the flimsy.

Look what I won!

A while ago, Kate Spain had a give-away and I was one of the lucky winners!  I thought I was getting a charm pack but there was a goof up with the mail delivery so she sent me a layer cake instead.  Can you believe it?  The fabric isn't even supposed to be in stores till next month so I think I'm doubly lucky.  This fabric line is called Joy.  To me, the designs say '50's even though designers call it Mid-Century.  (When you've lived through it, Mid-Century just sounds too old.) 

Sorry for the glare - it's the wrapper

Obviously, I'm going to use this for is a Christmas quilt.  Most of the fabrics are prints with a few geometrics.  (To see the line, click here, then click on "Joy" - third row, third column.)   I'm just not sure what to use for the quilt pattern.  Most of the prints are about the size of the trees so tiny little pieces won't show off the fabric.  I want to do piecing, not applique, for this one so I can have it completely finished by Thanksgiving along with several other quuilts I want to do for gifts.

So my question is - what pattern would you use to show off the fabrics?  The fabrics use white as a background and I have lots of white I can add.  Obviously, no piece can be larger than 10".  I'd like a pattern that reflects the same time period and that's where I'm stumped.

April Schnibble - Summer Day

This month, I actually followed the pattern!  I used Reunion by Sweetwater for the fabrics - I love the line and they really do look summery to me.  I purchased some 1/2 yard pieces to go with the charm packs before we were given the pattern for April so I used one of those for the sashing on the flying geese blocks.  Because of that, I only needed to use one charm pack and still have one left.  I'll probably use it for a doll quilt. 

Summer Day in Reunion fabrics

I hand quilted this by following the outside of the large triangles in the geese and stitched two parallel lines in the border, closer to the inside of the quilt than the outside, 1/4 inch apart.  It's been finished for a couple of weeks but I haven't had a chance to take a picture of it until today.  You know how life can be. 

This week, I made clothes

These are two dresses for The Princess.    The first is McCall's 6310.  I bought everything for this last year and needed to get it made while I still had enough fabric to make it fit her.  She's growing fast.  I don't remember ever making something exactly like the pattern but I loved the fabrics shown and went with those.

 

I took this picture with the right orientation with my camera but it just doesn't want to let me post it that way.  Bummer.  The bag is plain in the pattern so I added a flower with one leaf and the rickrack stem.  I think it looks cuter this way but that's my only change. 

I used the Wonder Tape to hold down the rickrack before I stitched it and I love the way it worked!  If you click on the picture, you can see it.  Wonder Tape dissolves in water so I gave it a quick spritz with my spray bottle before I pressed the skirt and it vanished.  I really love this product!

I swear assembling the back was like putting together a cross between a Chinese puzzle box and solving someone else's Rubik's Cube.  But I love the way it turned out.  The periwinkle straps are applied after the top is complete so you can see the front just above the lining. 

Next is Simplicity 2237, a Project Runway pattern.  I love the way the yardage is listed on these - mix and match.  If you want to combine different tops with the skirt or want to make the jacket from a different fabric, it's easy because the yardage is listed separately for each section.  I wish other companies would give yardage requirements like this.

This pattern uses bias tape (I prefer to make my own that matches) rather than facings and this is the prep work I do to be sure it lies flat.  After I cut the strips and put them through the bias tube, I put them wrong sides together (right sides together works just as well) and press the curve.  I have the top fold along the stitching line.  If I stitch it on without pressing the curve in first, I can't get it flat no matter how much I press it after it's sewn on.  Right side to wrong side puts the curves in the wrong place so the way you put the fabrics together is important.

Another sideways photo.  Sorry.  This is the completed dress with the jacket on it.  It's kind of hard to see the jacket since it's such a busy print.

Jacket sleeve from the side.  It's sort of a tulip petal shape.

Jacket from the front.

And that's what I sewed this week.  Tomorrow, the April Schnibble should be posted.  I have my fabrics and I'm ready to sew!!!