Loving on my neutrals

What is a better task on a cold winter's day than steam pressing beautiful fabrics?And with my Reliable Digital Velocity iron it is a steam bath in the cutting room. This is not a task for a summer's day. The sweat (sparkle) is rolling down my face. Hey! People actually pay to get a steam facial!!!

I dug deep into my stash. The earliest date on a selvedge was 1997. I ripped 1/2 yard pieces from 27 fabrics. Another 15 were almost a yard only so I just pressed the entire chunk. I have been collecting this paperbag shade of neutrals for eons.

And I am thinking it was a statement by Alex Anderson I remember very early in my fabric collecting to always buy extra neutrals. Even with no plan in mind, buy neutrals. I have never regretted doing this.

And immersing myself into Bonnie Hunter's version of neutrals is so easy to do. I use the backs of many prints for subtle shadings. Hey I bought both sides!!!

I also unfolded and pressed a 40 piece collection from Moda Little Primitives. Dated 2004? maybe?
The book there is by Pat Wyss  Spotlight on Neutrals.
A book after my own heart. I want to make all of the quilts in this book.

Here is a long view of my cutting room. Yes I have a lot of fabric. And yes I use it all all the time!!!!!!
Again a great way to spend a sunny cold winter day.

XOXOXO Subee
p.s. my bread came out perfect yesterday!!!

bread baking and supplying my pantry for the next year.

I cannot help it. I am a major hoarder. I hoard fabric, thread, yarn, useless plastic containers and food stuffs.
I actually sit down and figure out how many garbage bags I will need for the winter months. The same thing with dishwasher detergent and anything that is heavy or large. It is so hard for me to push a heavy cart across a snow filled parking lot with 30 mph winds. I had a package of batting blow out of a cart. I had to chase it across the parking lot.

I have decided to really keep a good supply of bread baking products by buying in larger sizes. I still have 4 jars of yeast in the freezer and 6 boxes of vital wheat gluten. I go through bread flour very fast so I am hardly ahead with this item.

So I ordered and have received a 32 oz. container of vital wheat gluten.
(the little boxes have only 6 oz.)
And a pound package of yeast. The first package had an expired use by date. I e-mailed the company and the next day I received a package that is good for 2 years!!!
The company I decided to use you ask??
http://shop.honeyville.com/

I cannot say enough good things about this company.
The yeast I bought:
http://media.honeyville.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/s/a/saf-instant-yeast-sideview.jpg

The vital wheat gluten:
http://media.honeyville.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/v/i/vital-wheat-gluten-can-honeyville.jpg

XOXOXOXOX Subee

Swaps all mailed out and the tile floor is done!

The tiling is all done except for sealing and trying to find the transition thingies for the tile to the carpet. We need a four foot and a six foot piece. We have not been able to find them at Lowes, Menards or our hometown carpet dealer's storefront.

Despite all the construction going on I managed to complete three swaps. Here is the back of my Explorer all loaded up with 46 packages. What you cannot see are the Priority boxes behind the row of totes.

I swapped red 2 1/2" strips, 1 1/2" squares and recycled sleeves this week.
WHEW!!! Talk about job security for the Post Office.
I was a real courteous customer and had the clerk total me out 4 times so the lines did not get too long. Small good deeds will always come back to me. Another reason I did that was I could not carry it all in at the same time! HA!!

It felt so good to get my kitchen back yesterday that I made a real nice pork chop dinner for my Hubby. I also made some whole wheat bread and a double batch of banana bread (with the new mixer). And then I had to do four loads of laundry! Construction can sure make a lot of dirty clothes and towels.

XOXOXO Subee

String "H" blocks

Nita,

Since I have been the hostess for the washed swaps on Yahoo (2+ years) I do wash the fabrics I swap.

I always wash batiks before using them in a quilt.

Most of my scraps are now a mix of washed and unwashed. Most of the strings are from my past WASHED swaps.

Well, I have went and done it again. I am hooked on another version of string blocks. The versatility and fabric/stash busting value of string blocks just cannot be beat!!!

And yes, that is my version of Jamestown Landing being assembled. I have a bad habit of making ALL the units for a quilt and then putting all them away in a box. This has been sitting and waiting for assembly ever since the pattern came out. (designer is Our Bonnie Hunter of course)

In an effort to find any pitfalls of making these blocks I became a guinea pig. I consider myself a competent string block maker. But this 45 degree angle can make you cut your strip off too short if you try to eyeball the edge before folding the strip out.
I eliminated most of that issue by cutting my foundation papers a bit larger than Michele Foster has in her tutorial.
http://quiltinggallery.com/2013/02/20/tutorial-scrappy-herringbone-quilt-block/

Michele was trying to be frugal with her expensive leave-in foundation papers. We are not using those type of foundations. We are using removable papers. And telephone book pages are free!!!! So I cut my foundations 4" X 8.5" instead of 3.5" X 8.5" as Michele recommends. Problem solved.
And by cutting this way I can get a matched set of lefties and righties all ready for sewing.
Note to self...use a waste piece of paper under foundations to avoid pencil marks on the cutting mat.

  They look so rough before trimming!!!!

 And so nice when done!!!

String piecing can be messy. And I have one cat who is bound and determined to kill herself by eating threads. She knows I am watching her watch me for any lapse in my concentration on just where she is at during the sewing process. This is the same cat who ate two quilting needles with quilting thread attached. The thread wound around the base of her tongue and the needles lodged in her stomach. She had to have abdominal surgery to fix this...my fault. It will never happen again if I can help it!!!

Another perfect loaf of wheat bread came out of the bread machine. 

 XOXOOXOXOXO Subee

My bread recipe for a bread machine

It always seems to come out a little lopsided. I even reach and and rearrange the dough and try to make cuts in the top after the 3rd rise.

here is the recipe I use:

1 1/2 c. + 2 tbl. room temp milk
2 tbl. butter cut into pieces
these two items go in the pan first
then I add:
 3 cups bread flour
1 cup wheat flour
3 tbl. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. fast rise yeast (I keep it away from the salt)
1 tbl. vital wheat gluten
1 tbl. milled flax seed

This makes a 2 pound loaf of bread.
XOXOXOX Subee

One spoiled Siamese named Macy Gray

Poor Macy...she suffers so when the colder weather hits. She can tolerate summer when we have the air conditioning on...she goes to the warm garage. But now that winter is here she craves deep warmth.
So, out comes the old heating pad. If a cat can hug a flat object, she can!!! Here she is on my Hubby's computer desk. She will sit on the pad and scream for it to be turned on. We also move it around the room for her. No she is not too spoiled!!

I feel that the backside of your patchwork should be neat and straight too. And if it is the front side will be even better!!!

I have the 4 triangle #1's done. And eight (8) of the twelve (12) triangles #2 done.
I was surprised to see clue #7 posted today. No complaints here!!!

I lay a "master" plan on a piece of batting and use that as my guide. I have folded it away for tonight and will finish the last four (4) triangles tomorrow.

Perhaps three years ago when Bonnie Hunter's first book came out, I made my bed quilt. I called it Batik Virginia Stars. It is retired from the bed right now because I have my log cabin quilt on the bed.
I was going through a drawer where I have all of Kaye England's rulers and patterns. And I found 12 more blocks. In as little as an hour I have the above small lap quilt pieced into a lap size quilt!!! WHOOHOOO!!! I was watching the newer King Kong movie. Naomi Watts is so beautiful!!!

I am finally getting the hang of my bread machine. I have been making two loaves a week. It smells so good when it is baking!!! And makes the best french toast!!!

And here was another find while searching for greens. 24 star blocks with a Dan Morris kitty fussy cut as the centers. One of my swappers actually sent me more of this fabric so I cut one center block and voila' another lap size quilt to join the LONG line of quilts that need quilted!!!

My Tulip Fields designed by Bonnie Hunter

I cannot apologize enough to Our Bonnie Hunter for me not staying for her trunk show or for not attending the Crumb Class the next day.
But on the brighter side, I did get to see and talk to Bonnie. And I also made this great quilt:

The pattern, Tulip Fields, can be found in her newest book String Fling.

I only made 6 blocks during the class. But I have spent this week immersed in piecing this quilt. I decided on my color scheme by wanting a quilt to match this border fabric by Jinny Beyer. My burgundy fabric is also a Jinny Beyer fabric. Both printed by RJR fabrics. They are also both pretty ancient. I am sure they are both out of print (OOP).
I harvested the thin border strips from the fabric and used that for the sashings. I loved the effect!!!
I am not sure if I even want to add the thicker border print. I will have to let this quilt stay on the design wall for a few days as I decide.

Of course the thicker border print will be mitered.

I used 1 1/2" strips to cut my QST. And Bonnie taught another way in the class. (I am not telling!) So I took my ruler and cut a 3 7/8" square once on the diagonal and taped that UNDER my ruler and used that to trim all my units. It worked great!!

My copy of Pieced Hexies by Mickey Depre came on Tuesday. Such a great and clever idea for getting more "art" out of Hexies. Before it had come I did guess how she was achieving those results. And I was right. But once again I am not telling. Buy her book!!!!

The cooler weather has made me bake some whole wheat bread. Oh my is it ever good!!!  The happy postman came yesterday with his arms full of swap packages. He is so nice and so careful with these precious envelopes that I gifted him with a huge hunk of bread!!! He took it gladly!!!

I did not have any molasses as the recipe called for so I used honey. I will have to add that to my "winter" grocery list. I am slowly really stocking up the cupboards with canned goods. I try to buy all the heavy groceries before the snow and ice hit. DH put up three huge storage shelves in the garage for the excess canned goods. WHOOHOOO!!!!

Then I will start my Christmas shopping. I already have a few items bought from last year's clearance sales after the holidays. I get everyone two pair of pajamas. That is so easy to do.  Then socks and slippers and a few little items.
And I also buy myself "home wear".
 I am so looking forward to being snow bound with DH!