Saturday Update from the Resort

First, I am pleased to announce that all Christmas items are back in the closet and provide proof with a new picture of the basement hall:


Several of you spotted the treadle sewing machine behind all the boxes in my last picture, so I wanted to assure you that it has a treasured spot and is not usually hidden from sight.

Second, we had Will and Briana over again last night, and I am excited to tell you I triumphed in the dessert department (you may remember my failed attempt at gluten-free cherry crisp last time). I made flourless peanut butter cookies and they were delicious! From some deep recess of my mind, I remembered that my grandmother had made peanut butter cookies when I was about nine or ten and had excitedly shared that this amazing recipe contained no flour. So I Googled flourless pb cookies and found the recipe. Will loved them! Here's the recipe in case you have a gluten-free person over sometime, or a child or grandchild needs a treat for school and has a gluten-free classmate. (We had one in my room last year.)

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda

Mix peanut butter and sugars well, then add egg and baking soda and mix two minutes. The mixture will look crumbly, but roll into walnut sized balls and place on cookie sheet. Smash with fork and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

And last, here's a peek at part of my next project:


My house is clean since we had guests last night, so I'm free to stitch! Happy Saturday from The Resort!

A Little Do-over

Four years ago we spent Christmas with our son and family in Virginia. Amy and I had a wonderful time visiting quilt shops and although the economy was doing fine at the time, I did my best to keep it that way. One of my purchases was a Moda charm pack with unusual (for me) colors and patterns. Amy had just taken a class called Tessellations and so I used the charm pack to try it myself. I loved the result and brought my little top home and quilted it. I should have added some borders to it, but I didn't, for whatever reason, and I was never happy with how it turned out. Too small. Night before last, I decided the time had come and I ripped it all apart, down to the little pieced top.

Here is the redo with borders added:


and a closer picture of the tessellations:


I am so happy I found a fabric for the new borders in my stash. In fact, I must really like this fabric, because I found three different cuts of it on my shelves!! And now I have a new table topper for spring.

Pillowcases

In my continued attempt to do some spiffing up after the holidays, I decided to make some new pillowcases for our bed. Here's what I made today.


Our sheets and blankets, as well as our bedspread, are all cream colored, so it's fun to make seasonal pillowcases. Here're our Christmas ones which are just going back in the linen drawer today.


And here are our Valentine's ones which are going on our bed today. (Gotta get that bed made up before bedtime! I confess, I hate changing the sheets.)


We were the recipients of many sets of sheets and blankets when we got married. As it was 1972, the colors were mostly gold and green, with some pink and blue thrown in just for good measure. Our first bed was a double bed. When we bought a new queen bed some years later, it necessitated new sheets and blankets. After years of multi-colored bedding, I choose the all-cream theme we still have. It's much more restful. And it's fun to throw back the bedspread and find the colorful pillowcases.

Welcome Back, Winter

This was the view out my front door this morning.



And this is the view in my basement to the left of the stairs,


and to the right.


The good news is that I think all traces of Christmas have been removed from the main floor.

How I Came to Be a Quilter

When I was little, two to be exact, my parents moved to a duplex from their tiny one-bedroom cottage, and I got my first big bed (actually my only big bed as I used it until I was married). They bought me a double bed which could also be used as a guest bed when needed. My blankets were quilts that my paternal great-grandmothers had made. They were old and worn, well used. And they were heavy. To this day I equate warmth on a cold winter night with weight. As I grew older, I became a reader and my favorite books were by Louisa May Alcott and L.M. Montgomery. I was a dreamer and a romantic, and the "olden days" were golden in my dreams. Anything that hinted of days gone by intrigued me. And certainly no one I knew was quilting, so it seemed to be a long-lost art of the past. I made up my mind that someday I would quilt, just like my great-grandmothers whose work kept me warm.

When I got my own home and my own sewing machine, I tried to do a little patchwork, but in the '70's, cotton fabric was hard to find. And the colors, well, if you are old enough to remember the '70's, you know what I mean. I did pick up a couple of the very few quilt books published in those days, and most items were crafty: patchwork vests, placemats, etc. I fiddled, and I played, but I had no idea how to create a real quilt.

In 1985 we moved to our present town and it had a lovely fabric shop that had, be still my heart, quilt fabrics!! A whole row of cotton "calicos" actually labeled "Quilt Fabric". About the same time I met a new friend through church who quilted. Anne was about my age, and she had made several quilts. She offered to teach a class at church using Marilyn Burns' book, Log Cabin in a Day. I signed up.

About two weeks before the class, I was working up a box of peaches and was bitten on my right hand by some type of spider which had set up housekeeping among the peaches. Eventually I ended up at the emergency room and by the time I was through, we had used our extra fun money for not so fun medical expenses. How was I going to get fabric for that quilt? I dug through all my fabric and was able to find enough blue and brown to be able to go. I'm sure some of the fabric was not all cotton, having been purchased with clothing and home dec in mind, but nevertheless, it became part of my first quilt.


I actually hand-quilted this quilt; after all, that's how the great-grandmothers did it. It's not quilted well, but it's held together for all these years. I was on my way!

Charmed, I'm Sure

I picked up a charm pack of Moda's Snow Blooms by Kansas Troubles Quilters a year or so ago. I love their fabrics--the colors are just my style. I mentioned in my January Sorting post that I'd like to make a few changes around the house and that a new runner would be one of them. Then I was over at Sew Cindy's the other day and saw the runner on her hutch. It caught my eye and I thought, "Charm squares." And then I remembered the Snow Blooms and, more amazingly, found them! There were twenty-four squares in the pack, just enough to lay them out in a three by eight rectangle.


Super simple, but I love how it goes with the "Spoon Flowers" wallhanging in the breakfast nook.


Just ignore the Dustbuster on the floor. :-)

Sewing Room

Hmm, seems I'm a little behind in posting. We went to Costco yesterday and that took much of the day, not to mention the work that goes on once you get home. Where to put everything? Dan came up from our basement pantry to tell me I shouldn't worry about running out of canned chicken broth. By his calculations, with our latest purchases, we now have twenty-one cans. Guess we're set for now! :-)

But on to today's subject: my sewing room. Or as Dan refers to it, my "studio". When we purchased this house ten years ago, I designated the second main floor bedroom as my sewing room. Then several years ago, my parents went through a year when they each had both knees replaced. Yup, four new knees in one year. The non-surgery parent stayed with us and both stayed the night before the surgery. This worked out fine until Dad had his second surgery just six weeks following his first. No stairs for him, so the basement guest bedrooms were out. After some thinking, we decided to move the twin beds upstairs rather than the queen bed in the other bedroom. That way when grandsons stayed over without parents, they'd be just across the hall from us instead of a floor away. This move meant my sewing room would now be downstairs. Unintentionally this also meant it would go into a much larger room. Score!

As you know, I began my sewing on Mom's Singer, in its cabinet, in the living room of the house I grew up in. When Dan and I were first married, we lived in an 8'x35' trailer so I sewed on the little kitchen table. In our first real house, I sewed on the table in the little dining nook off the living room and then moved to the laundry room in the basement where Dan built me a wonderful sewing area. Unfortunately, it was built-in and when we moved, it stayed. We learned a valuable lesson: sewing cabinets need to be free standing. He built me a nice sewing center in our next house, and we were able to take it with us when we moved to a new town, and it's become the center of the much larger area I use now.


This is the view from the door into my sewing room. The Brother sits on my original sewing cabinet, to the right is a long table Dan built to match. It slides into the corner and holds my trusty Pfaff and my serger. While everything looks a bit scrunched in the photo, I can easily move from one machine to the other.


My 200/730 sits on a quilting table I purchased several years ago. It has the extra leaf which folds out on the back and has the lift for raising and lowering the machines. I have plexiglass surrounds for both the Brother and the Pfaff, and Dan cleverly made a wooden piece so the Bernina fits down in. Notice the little stand to the left--Dan made it to hold my embroidery threads, manuals, and extra stabilizers. It has wheels so I can move it around. It's so handy for sorting threads when I embroider, and then it's perfect to turn in place when I'm quilting or sewing on bindings to help hold the bulk of the quilt.


My Handi-Quilter fits into this same room. It wouldn't fit in the upstairs sewing room and so I was using it in the family room where it was not a happy fit. Having everything in one room is wonderful and I love it. I also love having its table for laying out fabrics.


This last picture is of a long table I use for sorting, um, piling things when I get creative. It's also the place where others can set up machines and sew. My daughter usually sets up two machines when she comes to sew and we have a blast visiting and watching chick flicks while we stitch away.

Thanks for hanging with me on this long post and visiting my sewing room!

January Sorting

Normally, taking down the Christmas decorations makes me sad. Christmas lover that I am, every room of the house gets a makeover come December and it's a rather slow process to get everything out and placed. Getting it out is fun, putting it away is not. But a strange thing happened today. I actually wanted to start the process. Maybe it was the sunshine we had that made me think of spring. Whatever, I found myself changing out table runners, pictures, and quilts. I'm not done, and we're still using the Christmas dishes, at least until tomorrow, but I'm started and it felt good.

Does this happen to anyone else? I couldn't find the picture that goes in the main upstairs bathroom. Just before Christmas I replaced it with a small Christmas quilt I had made and displayed at the shop. I must have spent half an hour looking for that picture. Where, oh where, had I stashed it? I looked in every closet, every bedroom, and finally under every bed. It was nowhere to be found. An item I had stashed last Christmas only came to light just before this one, and I was afraid I was about to have a repeat. A vague nagging in my head told me the picture was in our bedrom closet, and finally after at least my third check, I looked down just inside the door and saw it leaning up against the upright of some floor-to-ceiling shelves. The white back blended right in and made it virtually invisible. Sometimes I'm just too clever.

Below is a wall quilt I made late last summer. It's a Country Threads pattern. When Dan saw it, he said, "Those are funny looking spoons." I told him they weren't spoons, they were folk art flowers! Well, the label on the back now reads, "Spoon Flowers". It's in the primitive style, and I really like it. It goes on the wall in the breakfast nook, and it was good to get it back up.


I've been perusing a few blogs and am in the mood to continue sorting out the house and making a few changes. Perhaps a few new pillows, a new runner, and maybe a new rug for in front of the fireplace will materialize in the next few weeks. Here's hoping!

Knitting

I have a Longaberger cake basket sitting on the floor next to the loveseat where I always sit. It's full of Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn in various colors. Whenever I feel the urge, I reach into the basket and pull out my needles and knit a row or two on my newest dish cloth. I love the pattern and have knit dozens of them since I discovered it on the Homespun Living blog (link to main blog on sidebar). Here's a picture of my latest one in progress.


I learned to knit when I was about nine years old. And once again, it was my dad who taught me! I remember sitting in the doorway of the back door between dad's legs, our legs dangling down to the ground because we had no steps yet, as he showed me how.

A few words about my dad. When I was growing up, I had two heroes--my dad and John Wayne, and they were both bigger than life. :-) My dad had been a paratrooper in WWII in the 101st Airborne, the division featured in the Band of Brothers book and mini series. He jumped at D-Day and the invasion of Holland, and was wounded in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. He was one of the original smokejumpers out of Missoula, Montana after the war. He was gruff and tough although he has mellowed through the years. He learned to knit from the grandmother who raised him after his father was killed in a car accident when dad was fifteen months old. (His twenty-three-year-old mother had two older children, and held down two, sometimes three jobs to survive, so relied on both sets of grandparents to help her with the children.)

I guess I was and still am, the proverbial "daddy's girl." As a matter of fact, the father's day card I sent him last year said just that on the front and on the inside it said, "and proud of it!" Mom said dad loved it.

Here's a picture of me, my Bruder Bear, and Dad taken last May just after Dad's eighty-sixth birthday.
.

Creating

I mentioned several posts ago that I teach embroidery classes at my local Bernina shop. This was a sort of serendipitous happening. The original Bernina shop closed about three years ago and I was crushed! I had been going to an embroidery club there for many years and loved it. Originally we all had Deco machines and so we called it "Deco Therapy". For a teacher with no energy left at the end of the day, machine embroidery was perfect. Pick design, thread machine, and let the sounds of stitching lull me.

About six months after the first shop closed, I got a notice in the mail that a new shop was opening, very near my house! Oh the joy!! Several of the ladies who had worked in the old shop now worked at this one and one day the owner said one of those ladies had suggested me as someone who might teach a new embroidery club. Me?? Well, after thinking about it for a month or so, I said yes. It's been so much fun, but I have to admit, coming up with ideas sometimes causes a little stress. A week or so ago I lay awake one night wondering what we could do this month and an idea came to me. I worked it up in my Explorations software, and here it is:


Each triangle pennant is stitched in the hoop then trimmed and attached to the binding. Voila--a valentine banner to hang wherever the maker chooses. I kinda like it. :-)

Happy, Happy

anniversary to us! Yes, thirty-eight years ago today Dan and I were married on a wintery Sunday afternoon. I am so thankful for him! What a blessing he has been and how steadfast he has been as a husband and father. And fun, too! How amazing that it has been thirty-eight years. He was twenty-six and I was twenty-two and I thought we were oh so grownup. :-)

We've been busy over the last few days getting some needed chores done so I have no new pictures, but I'll leave you with one of some of Dan's wonderful woodworking.


The china hutch was a birthday present to me some years ago. He also made the table, the shelf on the wall, and the turned candlestick. I love having my own custom furniture maker--just one of the many reasons I love him! (And ignore the none-too-scenic curtain rod--we're in the process of revamping the dining room curtains and have removed the Austrian shade valance that formerly covered the rod.)

Comfort Cookies

Dan and I drove out to the woods this morning and it was beautiful. Not much snow, but heavy frost which made every pine needle, every branch, every weed a thing of grace and beauty. The sun was out and it was as if the world was created out of diamonds. My sweetie is a total woods man. He has spent many, many years working in and caring for his beloved woods. I love the woods, too, but not like he does. "See those dying trees? Grand fir. The soil isn't good for them." And when I pointed out an adorable little tree by the side of the road, he said, "Spruce." The man knows his trees. I think adorable, he thinks species. :-)

When we got home it was noon and we grabbed some lunch and then I noticed our empty cookie jar. And beside it a basket of fruit which included one and a half bananas which were past their prime. Hmmm, memories of an old family recipe came to mind so I hunted it up, pulled my trusty Kitchenaid over, and began. The recipe is from my aunt, my dad's older sister, Betty Jane. When I was growing up, she was one of my most favorite people. If I came home from school and found her at our house, it was like chancing upon a wonderful party. She was fun. When I was in high school, I was at her house one afternoon and she was making these cookies. When I left, I had the recipe. They are comfort cookies--soft inside, with a crispy exterior. Perfect on a winter's day with tea. Here's the recipe.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup mashed banana
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup nuts (I used pecans)

Cream shortening and sugar. Add bananas and egg and mix. Add dry ingredients, then oatmeal. Add nuts. Drop on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes. Makes 3 1/2 dozen.


And yes, that's a Christmas towel beside them. Or, let's just say it's a red plaid towel with a woodsy tree on it. ;-) (A Mary Mulari machine applique design.)

Sewing: More Buffaloes Conquered

If you have been reading my blog, last week I wrote about several of last year's Christmas gifts that had me "buffaloed", meaning I had put off using them for so long that they seemed impossible to do. Well, in the sewing room there have lurked several items that had become buffaloes.

I teach embroidery classes at the local Bernina shop, so I stop by the shop often to see what's new. One day in November I was looking around and saw the ruffler attachment. It led to a conversation with a friend who was working the counter about how it worked. She said to give it a try, so I popped it on a 730 and played. It was fun! I almost bought it but decided to wait a day (it's not cheap). When I got home, there was a little niggle in the back of my mind, and a dim memory came to me. Did I own one for the Pfaff? I dug through a couple of drawers, and sure enough, there was a box and a special book of instructions I had ordered from Nancy's Notions years ago. It had come, looked intimidating, and since I was short on time due to teaching, I had stuck it in the drawer and forgotten about it. Fresh from playing with the one at the shop, I attached it and it worked!!

Another confession. I've had the Pfaff for almost twenty years, and know it like the back of my hand, so I've continued to use it for buttonholes. Haven't tried the 200/730. I know, how difficult could it be? But I'd have to look at the instruction book. That takes time. It was much easier to just go to the Pfaff.

The Sunday before Christmas, I found a very cute design for hand embroidery on Gail Pan's blog. I printed it out, traced it on some osnaburg, and stitched it out that night. I decided it would make a darling pillow, so last weekend, I decided to slay some buffaloes. I made the ruffle on the Pfaff with the ruffler attachment and used the 200/730 to make the buttonholes to fasten the back after the pillow was inserted. The automatic buttonhole attachment worked perfectly, and I loved how I could measure the button on the screen and set the size. I know, I know. I could have been doing it for the last four years... Sigh.

So, here is the pillow. I'm crazy about it!


Who said buffalo are getting scarce?

Sewing: A Tale of Equal Opportunity Machine Purchases

I haven't mentioned much about one of my favorite things to do--sew. From the time I was little, anything done with a needle and thread (and needle and yarn, but that's another story) has lured me in. My Mom made all my clothes when I was young, and they were beautifully done. We had very little money, so Mom would peruse catalogs and store windows and then make me similar dresses. Ruffles, piping, ties, lace edging, all done on a straight stitch Singer 301 my Dad bought for her.

My early sewing was done by hand and I longed to use the Singer. When I was about eleven, I had to have a number of teeth pulled to make room in my mouth before I got braces. Dad took me to the dentist, and when we came home, as a reward, he opened up Mom's machine and showed me how to use it. Forget my mouth stuffed with gauze--I was in heaven! And thus began a love affair with sewing machines that continues to this day. I've been blessed to have wonderful machines. Mom and Dad got me a Singer Touch and Sew for a wedding present and I used it to make many clothes for both Matt and Ann--it was the era of knits so I was able to make t-shirts, shorts, sweats, etc., as well as dresses and pajamas. It was my therapy! One thing that stayed done, in contrast to the laundry, dishes, and housecleaning. :-)

My next machine was a Viking that had needle up/down, the ability to change needle position, and other amazing features. (Should I tell you I sold the twenty or so pieces of sterling silverware I had to help pay for it? I did and I've never regretted it!) I loved it and kept right on stitching. I used this machine to make my first quilt.

My next machine was a Pfaff 1475. My mother-in-law had always been a Pfaff fan and after she died, I decided to buy one in honor of her. I loved the built-in even-feed foot and it had an amazing number of stitches including some embroidery-like ones. I still have this machine and for certain things, there is nothing better. I will never part with it.

My next purchase was a Deco 600 embroidery machine and it was a gem. That little machine stitched out hundreds of designs with never a whimper. It's pretty much retired now, but I know I could get it out and away it would go. I longed for a bigger stitching field and so purchased a Brother ULT 2002, in part because it came with many Disney designs and took the same embroidery cards the Deco used.

My latest purchase is a Bernina Artista 200, upgraded to a 730. It's a great machine and I plan on using it for a long, long time. It sits out in my sewing room, along with the Brother ULT, the Pfaff, and my Bernina 2000D serger. I also have the Handi-Quilter HQ-16 and am fortunate enough to have space for it in the same room.

I'm a long way from my Mom's trusty Singer 301 in the cabinet in the living room. I know how blessed I am to have these great machines with which I can create anything I can dream of.

Singer, Viking, Pfaff, Brother, Bernina...they all sing my name when they stitch and they're singin' my song!


Pictured above is a table topper I made for my Mom's last birthday. It's called Taco Salad and is in Terry Atkinson's book Let's Do Lunch. I quilted it using the BSR on my 200/730.

Family

At the start of a new year, thoughts always turn to the past year and then to what's to come. I want to start this new year with some thoughts about family. I have been so blessed with love--parents who gave their all to raise a family through sometimes difficult times, brother John who is my wonderful Bruder Bear (and has blessed me with my only "sister" and two nieces and a nephew), my Sweetie Dan, and my incredible children, Matt and Ann and their families: daughter-in-law Amy, grandson Ryan, and son-in-law Eric and grandsons Cameron and Keaton. I don't think any of us takes the love we have for one another for granted, and we seldom miss a chance to tell one another, "I love you!" And I think that's one of our secrets. Spending time with my loved ones is my number one joy. I can tend towards hermitness (is that a word?), but when it comes to family, come one, come all! My house is your house. One of the reasons we bought this house after our children were grown is so that we have space for everyone to come home, and come they do. Thanks, gang!

So in this new year, I hope each of you have many opportunities to spend with those you love. Order a pizza, grill some burgers, or whip up a box of good ol' Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (a favorite of the shorter people in our family) and kick back and enjoy. Giggle over old memories, remember those who have gone on, and give hugs to those who are there. And tell them you love them. Don't miss a chance.


Two of my favorite people--son Matt and grandson, Ryan, whipping around the backyard on the 4-wheeler this fall.


Bye guys, see you soon. I love you!