Sunday Stretch for Sewists #3

I am in an Ashtanga yoga workshop all weekend, Friday-Sunday, with David Robson from Ashtanga Yoga Centre Toronto.  He is AMAZING.  I am totally wiped out, and I've only done 3 of the 5 sessions for the weekend...

My daughter Dayna took some photos of me Saturday at her house for some of the poses and stretches I want to share with you specifically for the long hours we spend hunched over our machines, so I now have material for 3 Sunday Stretch posts!

While I'm sweating my butt off Sunday during workshops, you can read about a great pose you might already know.  Then stop reading!  Go do it!

Here we go:

This is Cowface Arms aka Gomukhasana pose.  Take yourself to the floor first of all!  You know I've said how good just sitting on the floor is for our hips.  You can sit in a loose cross-legged position as I did here, or tighter, or half lotus or full lotus.  Heck, put the soles of your feet together and let the knees fall apart if you like for a lovely outward rotation in the hip joint, known as Butterfly in Yin, or Baddha Konasana.  Remember "asana" just means "pose" in Sanskrit. Please excuse the somewhat wet hair; I'd just got out of the shower.

Take a belt, a strap, a tie, or a piece of fabric selvage in your right hand (wink) and drop it down your back.  Reach around with your left arm, grabbing onto the strap.  Breathing steadily and slowly to a count of 3 or 4, start to work your hands closer together, lifting your right elbow into the air and keeping your shoulders relaxed and away from your ears.

You may not need a strap.  If so grab fingertips.

After you've held the stretch for about 30 seconds, look up at your right raised elbow.  Stay here for a 30-45 seconds, breathing steadily.  Listen to your breath.  It should be calm.  Back off if you're huffing and puffing. Bernie Clark says you want to feel sensation, but don't make it sensational!

Then look down towards the left elbow that you cannot see, still steadily and calmly breathing.  Enjoy this intense tug and pull, examining, as you breathe, where exactly you are feeling sensations.  Send your breath to those areas.  That will increase the blood flow there, which increases healing, noursishes that area with your oxygen-rich blood, as well as helps to remove toxins with this increased blood flow.

Release the strap or your fingers after 1-2 minutes (you may need to work up to two minutes, no worries) and s-l-o-w-l-y undo your arms, imagining there are two walls crushing into your sides, so put the palms up and push those imaginary walls apart, engaging all the muscles in your arms as you do so.  Shake the arms gently.  Repeat on the other side.

This is wonderful for the neck and shoulders and arms. :-)

I had company when I did my Yin practice Friday morning.

This was what I saw as I came out of savasana, corpse pose, which is our final resting pose after a practice.  Mine should be called dog-asana right?! Yes, that is Wings!  It is one of Cynthia's Scrap-a-Palooza quilts.  Although it is not quite done, I wanted to try out the Minkee backing.  Ahhhh.  Divine!  No, it's not finished yet; some tweaking needed on the quilting, and then binding.  Yep, Avril and I are on good terms once more.

Musings on Guilds

I joined Erie Shores Quilters' Guild two years ago this month.  It has been a hard group to break into, but I don't think this guild is the anomaly.  Part of the reason, I believe, is that it is in a small town and rural area, where so many people are either related to each other, have gone to school together, grew up together, or have just known each other for a long long time.  Not only was I new to the guild, I was new to the area, and I am younger than the majority of the members.  Much like my beloved pittie puppy, who is 6 years old today, I was regarded, especially here in Ontario where there is a ban, with perhaps a little wariness.

Posing Tuesday night for the camera on my daughter, Dayna's, first quilt I made her, circa 1997

Making the two wheelchair quilts for seniors and donating them to a local residence caught the attention of a couple of members, and that has become our Christmas charity project for this year.  This past Tuesday, a small group of us got together at the Kiwanis Camp to sew for a day, using fabric from the guild's charity fabric stash.  It was fun!  Now I know a few more people by name and face as well as a little more about some of them!  One is a retired teacher, and is happy living alone, another is a longarmer, got her APQS machine in 2008, and quilted the fundraiser (gorgeous) quilt for the Christmas raffle (I think), another's husband has just been through some alarming times in hospital where he was sedated because he was on a ventilator (she is now going to be my helper with the guild library, yay), another is going through some fairly serious eye issues, another just won the Grand Champion in one of the quilting categories at the Harrow Fair, and another who has her own little fabric store, is going to bring to the next meeting (we hope) the rest of a gorgeous aqua fabric she used on the back of one of the wheelchair quilts so we can buy it!

Chinese Coins wheelchair quilt; I added 3 strips, the yellow, the taupe trees, and the taupe gypsy jewels

I quilted this up at home in no time on my Bernina (it was when Avril and I were on the outs over thread, and I was not going to unload Wings to do these two small quilts).  I did a wavy line with my walking foot in the columns of coins, and then FMQ-ed the square spiral, which I LOVED, and did not mark a thing for, so I was glad it ended up pretty evenly spaced!

This one is made with some of the orphan blocks I adopted at our August meeting

I used the pillowcase turn method on that flying geese one, so didn't even have to bind it!  Because the geese are so big (they finish at 5X10") I used my walking foot to do the dot to dot. I also quilted it on my Bernina, ditched and then did the loopy meander in the low volume areas.

The backs. The floral is from my stash, the horse one the guild's

Yes, you see ties on these quilts, ties to attach the quilt to the wheelchair arms to prevent it from sliding off a lap, or tangling in the wheels.  Each has a pocket on the back as well.  This makes 4 quilts for seniors in wheelchairs I have completed, one top waiting, another top I worked on that day (which is proving to be a "leedle" more involved than I'd anticipated, can you say 120 2" HSTs without a shiver), and almost enough orphan geese blocks for another.  That day I also cut fabric to make kits to have for take-home at the October meeting.

In musing over the past two days on the way I now feel about the guild, I think that I have some advice for both sides:
1.  For the new member:  get involved as soon as you can find a way.  I joined the executive in a fairly minor role as the new librarian.  In attending the executive meetings, I get to meet a group of about 10-12 great women, and means more people will know who I am.  Going to the sewing bee day meant I got to meet several more, and was able to get to know those I did already know by name on a more personal basis.  I was invited to a cottage group on my first meeting, but it isn't very close to my house...(our guild covers the entire Essex County, so a lot of area)

2.  For the guild:  1. Something I am going to put either to the new executive or in our new suggestion/tip box, is to have a person or persons in charge of meeting and greeting the new people and getting them involved right away in some small way.  This could be in a block exchange, or a mini-quilt activity, or a bring your favourite quilt book to the next meeting and the four, or however many new ones join at any given meeting, get together with the persons in charge either just before the meeting or during the break.  2. Make a bigger deal out of Show 'n Tell that is brought by new members.  That nearly made me not go back, I was so crushed over that first year.  Although I'm not looking to be revered, I sure would have liked a little more recognition for or interaction about the quilts I first brought to this group where I knew not a soul.  (btw, I'm hoping to change a bit the way we do Show 'n Tell, as in time and a space to get up close and all touchy-feely with the quilts!)  3. Somehow have a list of cottage groups available for all members to see, and where/when they meet and if they are open to someone new joining.

Back to Rocco, I cannot believe he is six years old today.  It's been a little while since he's been on the blog, so today he's a star:

Happy pittie...on a human bed with a pillow and a stuffie!

This morning after I'd given him his birthday biscuit, and sung Happy Birthday to him, and of course he'd joined in his best pitbull throaty singing voice!

Wheelchair Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Chinese coins and original design with flying geese
Size: approximately 28X36"
Fabric: guild charity quilt stash, and orphan blocks and my own stash
Batting: Warm 'n Natural
Quilted: on my Bernina, walking foot and FMQ
Threads:  Gütermann for piecing and for quilting

Linking up with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation!

Blog-iversary Winner

Should have called this the shortest post ever.

You will have to trust me on this, menopausal melon ailments struck again, as I forgot to take a screenshot of prize #1.

There were 58 comments (two came in today and two late last night, and I said I'd draw yesterday late afternoon but I forgot that Mondays I teach yoga...and then today I was gone all day 9-3:30 sewing wheelchair quilts with some of my guild members, so I just counted everyone), and one entry by email, as she is currently somewhere in Europe--love that!--for a total of 59.

The first prize of $20 of fabric from Miller's Dry Goods goes to

Anja of Anja Quilts!!!  Woot!  Woot!  I'll be in touch by email, Anja.  We met first when she hosted TGIFF, and then shortly thereafter got to know each other better through the New Bloggers Hop.

And the second prize, one of my Pyramid Pouches I designed,

Janis, yours is the one quilted with the red thread ;-)

goes to Janis!  Yippee!! She was the email entry, and I wrote her down as #53 as that was where we were up to when I got her email.  She is doing a bike and barge trip from Amsterdam to Brugge--this would have been handy for the cosmetics on the trip.  You know a gal's always gotta look her best when biking around Europe... um, dedication to get in touch with me, too!

Thanks so much for entering and thanks for following me and for reading my blog!  And, yes, you may think this was rigged, but one thing I am is totally honest, and it was not rigged. Those were the first two in that order I did with the random number generator, and I am just tickled that A. they are both friends, Anja from QBL and Janis, another quilter, but a former colleague and a good friend, and B. they are both Canadian!  Woot! Woot!

Whirling Star Block

When Eileen of Eileen in Stitches put out a call for Star blocks in soothing blues and neutrals to help her make a quilt for her ill grandfather, I immediately said count me in for a 12" one.  Stars are, have been, and always will be, my favourite quilt block.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to make it.  I originally thought I'd make her one of my star blocks from Blue Ribbon Stars, as I had one strip-pieced centre left over.  I pulled out the little stack of leftovers, grabbed my Rubbermaid plastic box of blue scraps, and this fell onto my cutting table:

This little baggie contains triangle corners cut off and saved, because they are a decent size, from the second quilt I ever made, oh, back in 1996.  I admitted that I still had scraps from it last summer in this post where you can see that quilt.  I still love these blues, and the motifs on the fabric.

Here is the process of how I arrived at the block.  When I realized that my leftover centre was a little too big for a 12" block, I started doing the math to get 4 strips to make a 6" finished centre.  Easy.  1.5" each.  For whatever reason, when I looked at my strip centre, an 8.5" centre, I thought, too bad it couldn't just be cut up and rotated...wait...rail fence...what if I did four small 4-strip squares and rotated them like in a rail fence quilt?  (Was I in for a pleasant surprise once I started rotating them...)

More math.

6" finished centre, made up of 4 squares that each, in turn, are made up of 4 strips...how big do those strips have to be?  I used my fingers, lol, kind of, at first, then counted again in my head to be sure, then thought yep, just what I thought, but didn't trust my brain...

If 1.5" would give me the 6" finished square, half of that would give me the 3" finished square, so 3/4" finished strips.  Add 1/2" and you get 1 1/4" cut strips, 4 of which will make a 3.5" unfinished square!  Multiply a 3.5" unfinished square by 4 and you will need 14" long of a strip by 1.25" wide.  You follow?  I know, use the fingers, scrunch up your eyes and imagine it.  That is what helps me when my math brain does math at warp speed and the rest of my brain needs time to catch up and process the calculations.

Here's what you will need to do for one block!

Cut
1.  Cut 4 strips of fabric (I liked the gradation effect but you can do whatever you like) 1 1/4" wide by 14.5" long (nice to have that 1/2" wiggle room).

2.  Cut either 3 7/8" squares, four in the neutral background and four in blue, OR if you have leftover triangles, use them.  They need to be about 3 3/4 or 3 7/8 edges that make the right angle.

3.  Cut four 3 1/2" squares in neutral for the four corners.

Sew
1. Sew the four 14" long strips together to make the strata you see above.  I pressed all my seams to the darker fabric.  Cut the strata into four 3.5" squares.

2.  HST units - If you are working with 3 7/8" squares, draw a diagonal line either with your Hera marker as I did, love it, or a pencil or erasable marker.  Sew a scant 1/4" on either side of the line.  Cut apart, press to the dark and square to 3.5".  If you are using triangles, sew carefully along the diagonal, press and square to 3.5".  Make 8 neutral/blue HSTs.

I got so excited to see the whirling effect if I kept on rotating the centre blocks à la pinwheels instead of doing them in rail fence formation, that I forgot to take a picture of all 16 units, but I think you get the idea.  I sewed pairs together, working in columns for the pairs, chain piecing the entire block.  Then sew sets of pairs together to make the four quadrants you see above.  Press seams in opposing directions so the seams abut or nest together nicely to get those crisp inner corners.

Ta da! Whirling Star

I was über-happy to find I had a little bit of my New York City fabric left from my hobo bag I made with fabric bought from The City Quilter when I was in NYC for the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) conference in 2007.  Eileen lives in NYC.  I'm not sure about her grandpa, but the connection to her works regardless. :-)  Ah, whirling effect, NYC fabric, some days it's good to be Sandra! (and a bit of a scrap-a-holic/hoarder)

When I messaged a photo of the block to Julie of Pink Doxies, she wondered what it would look like on point...so turn your head 45 degrees, and you will see!  I think it would be pretty cool!  I plan to make a quilt (shocker) with this block.

If you make one, send me a photo please!  Email address in the top right sidebar.

Oh!  Don't forget to go back one post to my anniversary giveaway for a pretty sweet giveaway! Two prizes!  Fabric moola and a pyramid pouch.  Here are the two side by side so you can see the subtle differences.  I must admit I prefer that red variegated thread. 

Linking up with Patchwork Times DWM, and a new one for me, and fairly new to QBL, Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts.  Love seeing what's on others' design walls.

Happy Second Anniversary mmm quilts! Giveaway!

Flash back to September 18, 2013.  I'd already had a dummy blog set up since the Spring of that year.  It took me six months to get up the nerve to publish that first post.  Funny, the subject of that post, Seaside Rose, took 8 years from start to finish, and just this past Tuesday at our guild meeting, as a member of the new executive, it was my quilt for "My Favourite Quilt" we had to show.

The first heavily quilted quilt I did on Avril, my longarm

Jack and Friends for Brady

Brianne and Brady left us three days ago, and both MacGyver and I are still feeling pretty down.  It was a wonderful 10 days.  I did get his Halloween "commissioned" quilt done in time with one day to spare!

Perfect size for snuggling on the couch or taking to bed as an extra blankie

Remember it was one he'd seen last November when I was out west visiting him and my daughter.  He is such an incredible child in so many ways, but especially in the genuine interest he takes in his surroundings and in people around him.  He had been studying my American Patchwork & Quilting magazine and spotted this photo in an ad for their website:

A Little Greens For You

MacGyver found a great website, Blue Zones, a couple of weeks ago, after seeing Dan Buettner interviewed on Bill Maher.  Buettner is, among other things, a National Geographic writer who has studied people with longer life expectancies, who live in certain areas, called "blue zones". He has a TED talk I plan to watch. There are so many great, easy to make recipes on this site!

At my first perusal, I saw this salad and right away knew I had to make it.  I had everything except for an avocado in my fridge.

That was an easy enough fix, so we whipped it up in no time and was it ever good.  You can find the original recipe on Blue Zones here.

But here it is with notes as to what we did:

Quick and Easy Lemon and Dill Bean Salad

two 15.5 oz cans of beans, rinsed (equal to 3 cups) (I just used garbanzo, aka chick peas, as that was all I had)
1 medium tomato, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
4 celery ribs, chopped
1 T olive oil
1/2 T lemon juice
cilantro, dill and pepper, all to taste

Optional ingredients:
8-10 cups greens of your choice (I used spinach; they say also arugula or kale)
1 cup broccoli (I had none in)
1/2-1 cup blueberries
1 avocado
1/2 c walnuts (I used pecans)

Directions
1.  In a bowl mix together all of the main ingredients.
2.  Add in cilantro, dill and pepper, all to taste.
3.  Put the greens and any or all of the optional ingredients in a large bowl.  Toss in the bean mixture. Serve.

I've been a bit otherwise occupied for the past few days, so I haven't been sewing as much.  My daughter, Brianne, and my beloved grandson, Brady, are here from Alberta for a 10-day visit.  Yesterday we went cruising on the Detroit River in our boat.  What a great way to spend a few hours on a very hot and steamy sunny afternoon.  We were cool cats though... Brady especially.

Last Fall when I visited them, Brady "commissioned" this quilt:

Jack in the Box quilt

He studied several pages in my quilt magazine, American Patchwork & Quilting, spotted this, and asked me to make it for him.   So I collected a few Halloween prints over the winter in Florida at Alma Sue's Quilts.  They are the jack-o'lantern print, the purple owls (love this one) that you see below, and a white with black bats that I haven't used yet.

Tentative layout, evening of September 7

I added in some Halloween-coloured fabrics from my stash and found a few scraps of very old Halloween fabric to use for some alternate centre squares.  The red "Skulls on Fire" fabric is an Alexander Henry I also got this winter, a quilt for MacGyver in mind.  It's a tad scary for a 7-year-old, so I just put one in.  It's been on the back burner, with the wheelchair charity quilts pushing it even more aside since I have to do a demo at September's guild meeting.

Think I may have mentioned that I work well under pressure...

Here it is from last night; a few tweaks occurred:

I'm making it bigger, as it is only a 32" wallhanging with the 9 blocks.  I plan to add two or three borders so he should have a lap quilt about 40X48.  They are here for another week, but we are busy doing stuff every day.
Wish me luck!

Linking up with:

Sunday Stash--a little more loot

Just when you thought, she did pretty good at Miller's Dry Goods in Amish Country, yep, there is more!

Not including the brushed cotton in aqua on the bottom of the stack, this was a kit at Millers' Dry Goods to make a tree skirt.  I am going to turn it into a quilt, possibly with the Moda "Storybook" by Kate and Birdie 4 yard cut incorporated in the front and as the backing. Love these colours together.

One of Julie's of Pink Doxies all-time favourite yellows, which I very nearly didn't pick up, as I didn't have any thought as to where/what I'd use it (like that has EVER stopped me in the past from a fabric purchase, I'll admit), I'm so glad I went back and got a yard.  I love it.  Okay, to be honest, all 3 of these fabrics I have no clue as to intended project, but they will grow up into quilts, have no fear.  Love the Robert Kaufman ivory on the bottom, a great neutral. Love that aqua.  I'm working on getting more aqua shades in my stash. Oh, I also snagged five spools of Coats' Dual Duty thread at 75c for a 250 yd spool.  Ahh, I miss Miller's...

At Zinck's I also picked up some flannel at a great price, still all within my $200 total, remember; there are two other posts, here and here, about the wonderful trip.  Julie has tested it, and found that it has pretty low shrinkage.  Flannel is ideal for tablerunners, and smaller lightweight projects and quilts.  As well, I haven't shown, nor will I until I use it, a 2 1/8 yard roll of a wide fleece product I want to try in the wheelchair charity quilts.  Those should be being quilted soon (yes, I said those; there are 3 more flimsies complete with a fourth one being laid out all on the design wall.  I need a second design wall!

More on these various projects in another post

I also miss Boyd and Wurthmann...

The very best homemade pecan pie with homemade ice cream I have ever tasted

 Linking up with Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash Share.

Avril and I Aren't Speaking

So, please, any help or advice to help mend our rift is much appreciated.  Here's how it ended:

The cause: Sulky; the possible solution: Isacord and Coats and Clark

I have quilted on my Bernina, and before her, on my Elna, for 20 years.  For most of those years I have used a variety of cool threads, and as you know, I love love Sulky threads, Holoshimmer and Blendables in particular.

Apparently Avril does not.

Mystery Quilt Progress

I had these done (finally) mid-week last week, but just never got up a post.  Here are my geese for Step 1 of Cheryl's Mystery Quilt-along at Meadow Mist Designs:

I  played a little after trimming them all up:

 I was rather amazed at the designs one can make just with a flying geese unit!

All I did was add 4 more units to the corners of the star block

There is a name for the block that is formed in the centre here...I think...

I like the squares that you get when you fill in the side gaps with another unit.

If you rotate those units from the previous photo, this is what you get!

As a kid, I LOVED my wooden mosaics; I've been a quilter longer than even I know...

In the end, yesterday I decided to lay them out all nicely for a proper shot. I got half of them all laid out, and then Bella got involved and mussed a bunch up.  I shooed her away, fixed them back up, decided that half of them laid out, all pretty, was good enough, and got a quick photo.

I'm looking forward to the next step!

Sunday night I tested a block for the Fabri-Quilt New Block Blog Hop we are in for my dear friend, Julie, at Pink Doxies.  It is a great one!

Head on over to her blog to get the instructions (no special rulers required, yeah!).  I even did it without a compass...think I may have got rid of my ancient um, 40-year-old math set.  Love this block.  Then again I do love the sun! My version is with my own stash fabrics, and of course, for a little more shine, Sulky Holoshimmer for the top-stitching. ;-)

Check out Cheryl's post today at Meadow Mist Designs for about 15 more brand spanking new blocks complete with tutorials.  If you want to get in on the Mystery Quilt you will find the tab for that there too!
If you missed yesterday's line-up for the New Block Block Hop, check out Yvonne's post.  My block is here! There's a fabulous giveaway on each host's post for oh, 3 yards of fabric...
For another 30 or so blocks, and more giveaways (Fabri-Quilt has been so generous!) on
Wednesday you can visit Stephanie at Late Night Quilter.
Thursday you can visit Terri at Childlike Fascination.