They’re bacckkkk…

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Sewfrench

We were a little nervous, what with all the landscape changes, that the deer would not return. Never fear they are back and I think they approve.

As seen, on a foggy morning, through the window~  They look so small way out there.

And from the trail cam, hung on a tree, on our east property/tree line~

Oh and look at that sweet buck!  We’ve not seen him, in daylight, in a very long time. Glad to know he’s still out there!

Around dusk, a couple of evenings ago, I snuck out the front door and walked around out back.  Ducking behind a car, in the drive, I got several shots before I decided to walk up closer.  There were three of them and one appeared to be the *lookout*.  We’ve seen her for years, she is easily identified by the injury on her side.

She just watched as I walked closer and closer.  That tender young grass is more tempting than I am dangerous, I’m guessing.  One of her back legs has an issue, too.  Poor thing…

They finally decided they had enough.  *Lookout* watches for planes on the runway before they all cross.

Hmmm, that’s a joke people.  We have seen exactly two planes land there in the 5 years we’ve been here.  It’s private and I believe there are only a couple of pilots, besides Peter, that still have permission to land here.  But why would you want to?  It’s a grass landing strip that runs behind the half dozen houses that line our street.  It’s not like it will take you anywhere.  Well, unless you’re coming to see me!

What I didn’t photograph was the older two teaching the younger to cross the fence.  They kept nudging her, in the rear, trying to get him to jump.  They finally went ahead and went over and left her to her own devices.  She was so tempted.  Finally opting to walk to the east, (right) about 20 feet, where the fence is partially down, to just walk across.  I think she’ll last around here.  She seems pretty smart to me!

Yeah, they approve of the changes…  I’m happy.

Posted in Landscape, Nature | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Hand quilting vs Machine quilting

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Sewfrench

What a windy day I chose to photograph this project! At least the rain had stopped and the sky was blue.  And warm.  60° at noon in late October?  It doesn’t get any better than this!

This was a quilt I started way back in the summer.  It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, at the cottage, not particularly suitable for the usual Lake Day.  I had the urge to create something with what little inventory I had, on hand, and having recently spotted this I decided I should give it a try.  Because I wanted only one set of the five blocks, as opposed to all four sets, and I wanted it larger than one-fourth of the quilt, I had to enlarge all the parts proportionally….  I got the math figured out and went to work.  Then daughter decided it would be even more interesting if I linked the squares…  I set about recutting parts…  I barely had enough of the blue.  I was just able to squeak by.

Lilie's Quilt

All the solid fabrics are Kona cotton solids. On the back, I used the same size square repeated, in the same Robert Kaufman Primrose Dot, as the front and the binding for continuity.

Lilie's Quilt the back

I chose to hand quilt a spiral square at 1 1/4″ intervals, which makes for superfast quilting.

Then I added my embroidered, quilt signing, discreet signature.  The date and the baby’s name will have to wait for the arrival, in a couple of months.  I am ahead for once!

Because I truly love the look of some of the machine quilted quilts I’m always tempted to think it’s quicker and would be fun to do.  So many options….  So for this project I thought I’d check and see just how much time I’m putting into the quilting.  This one is 44″ square, a nice sized baby quilt.

I machine piece most baby quilts so I didn’t bother taking the time to track that because what I do is no different that the next.  A Sunday afternoon and it was finished.

I tracked the hand quilting and hand binding on this one and it came out to

1/2 hour to mark the quilting lines.

5 1/2 hours to hand quilt it.

1 1/2 hour to bind and embroidery it.

The verdict is in, for now….

For the 7 hours involved (a good part of which was done as a passenger in a car) I suppose I will continue to hand quilt.  I love the way it looks and I love the feeling that I’m stitching every quilt with love.  I often second guess myself, knowing that I could produce more and faster, but for me and now, I’m going to continue to hand quilt.

What about you?  What’s your choice for quilting?  I’d really like to hear it if you think I’m just a stuck in the mud dinosaur and need to get help….

Off to my local quilt store this morning to hopefully find all the colors for my next Kona solids project.  I’m *really* excited about this one.  Everyone in our house has been involved in this project.  Can’t wait until I have enough to share!

Hey, don’t forget to click on the WIP button at the top.  There are some really cool things going on, all over the world!!

Posted in 2011 completes, fabric, hand quilting, Quilting, Quilts and their History, Sewing, WIP | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

The sky last night

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Sewfrench

was incredible where we live!  If I hadn’t been on Facebook, when I was, to see the local weatherman chatting about the sky, I may have missed it.  It was the strongest Aurora Borealis I’ve ever seen. Granted, I’ve only seen one other Northern Lights event and it was back in the dinosaur print photography days.  There are no photos to prove what I saw, then.

According to Bill, our local weatherman, A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth’s magnetic field on Oct. 24th around 1837 UT (2:37 pm EDT). The impact strongly compressed our planet’s magnetosphere and may have exposed geosynchronous satellites to solar wind plasma. Mild to moderate geomagnetic storms are possible in the hours ahead as Earth’s magnetic field continues to reverberate from the hit.  Sky watchers in Scandinavia, Canada, and northern-tier US States should be alert for auroras, especially during the hours around local midnight.  This Aurora are visible down to Illinois, Indiana and Ohio so far.  You got that.   Right?

I chuckled when my friend asked if isn’t this what happened in the movie Frequency? Anybody tried the CB radio yet? 🙂  It definitely was very alien~esque feeling.
And what a gorgeous star filled night it was to watch the sky.  If it wasn’t for the smell of a recent skunk, it would have been perfect!

I have to give the photo credits to our daughter, Amanda.  She ripped my camera right out of my hands and sent me running for the tripod and a flashlight.  She assigned me Facebook update duty, too.  Not sure how I fell for that, but I did.  She did a great job! No photoshopping needed.

We did try to video the movement, in the sky, but I was using a little pocket video camera. The quality wasn’t enough to record anything.

If you are interested in seeing more, check out this quick 28 second time-lapse video from a guy just south of us.  It is amazing.

I need to learn how to do that…  Next time, I could probably use my good camera to do the videoing and make daughter run, for hers, for the prints….

Posted in Nature | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Join me on my favorite hike. Quietly, please.

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Sewfrench

Smelling.

Listening.

Reflecting.

Pure Michigan.

There’s nothing else like it.

Posted in Cottage, Nature | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Thai Vegetables with Seared Cod

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Sewfrench

On a recent trip to Detroit, we had time to kill before a ball game.  We headed out, dodging the raindrops, while looking for something a little healthier (not to mention gluten-free) before the big game.  We happened upon Detroit Seafood Market and decided to give it a whirl. Boy were we impressed.  The lunch menu had so many great options, cheaper than the price of a hotdog.  And this was *good* food!  The fish was so fresh the food didn’t last long enough to even take a picture…

Decisions, decisions…  It was a tough choice but I went with the Pan seared Tilapia with sweet chili sauce over vegetables.  It was our last great meal before we lost that fateful ALCS, game 3.

The game wasn’t pretty, but the meal we enjoyed so much, we came home and recreated it.  We’ve had it twice since.

It is SO good, I need to record it here!

Thai Vegetables with Seared Cod

Sauce
1/2 c sweet chili sauce, we like Taste of Asia
1 TBS seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp Sriracha sauce (or more)

Vegetables
1/2 carrot, cut into match sticks
1/2 a stem of broccoli, cut into tiny florets
1/4 red bell pepper, slivered
1/4 red onion, slivered
1/4 zucchini, cut in circles, then halved
1 green onion, sliced
several mushrooms, quartered, if I have them
1 or 2 garlic cloves chopped

Wild or brown rice, prepared

Stir all the sauce ingredients together.  Set aside.

In a twirl of olive oil, stir fry or saute the veggies until near tender.  Add a splash of water, cover and steam for a few minutes, if needed, then toss in most of the sauce, reserving some for the top.  This is really pretty quick.

We like to get a cast iron skillet smoking hot, on the outside grill.  Then sear our fish, salt and pepper, for seasoning, until cooked through.  This was about 3-4 minutes a side. Then serve it over the veggies and wild rice, topping with additional sauce.

You could easily do this with bite sized chicken pieces, tofu, or just veggies.  I have also seen fried eggs served over the sautéed, sauced vegetables.

Make it your own, just make it!

Posted in cod, Cooking, Eating, fish, Gluten Free, Recipes, Thai | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

WIP #12

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Sewfrench

Yup, I crossed one item off my list.  Two weeks in a row, wow.

We just don’t need to talk about how long it’s been there. But when push comes to shove sometimes you just have to put your nose down do what you’ve been dreading most.

I turned this humongous, way too big and heavy, 40# tarp…

Into this…

A custom fitted, hot tub cover’s, cover.

That also included having to clean my studio so I had room to work on the stiff, unweilding piece.  It tried to knock everything it bumped into, to the floor.  Hubby had to help support the weight of it to keep it from pulling my needle into a breakable position. Thank goodness I have a huge table to work on, but still.  No fun.

Yeah, we’re those kind of people that shut our tub down in the winter…  Strange, I know, but it doesn’t get used, so why not save the electricity and chemicals??  Better ways to spend my money, I say.  And if I could have bought one of these covers, I gladly would have.  Apparently it’s our brainchild.  Someone should run with the idea and make a fortune.

Between the 1o0+ inches of snow and the southern exposure and wind, yes, we should talk about the wind, lots of wind, our hot tub cover would never be able to withstand the elements and keep the tub dry, on the inside, without protection over the insulated cover that is used year round.  The last one, I made, lasted 7-8 years before it got so thin in spots that I feared I had waited too long.  I was glad when we pulled it off in the spring that all was as we left it.   Knowing this tarp is much heavier I’m hoping to have bought myself plenty of extra time for more entertaining things than cleaning a wet,  mildewy tub….  Glad to have that chore off my back.

Speaking of entertaining things….  Like making double fold, continuous bias binding?  Yeah, fun, you know it is!  Taking a square yard of fabric, cutting it corner to corner, putting it back together in a whole new shape and cutting round and around into one really long 2 1/2″ strip.  Then pressing it in half lengthwise. I’m getting dizzy thinking about it, but yeah, I do that for every quilt I make.  No strip pieced binding for me. Grandma told me otherwise.  I listened to my Grandma…..

Sometimes I wish I hadn’t…..  If you do binding, this way, you know what I’m talking about.

What do you do for your binding?  Should I be doing it another way?  What say ye??

And while marking and cutting binding it gives you lots and lots of time to think….

I have been thinking a lot about how to quilt my version of this Moda Sunkissed Squares quilt.  I started it a while back and after finishing the top, I put it away to work on other projects.  Now it’s time has come.

Decisions, decisions…

Lots of sketching, coloring, drawing, trying different ideas…  This quilt just called for some kind of straight line quilting.  I went with a square spiral.  It’s fast quilting, that’s for sure.  For the first time, ever, I’m timing how long it takes to hand quilt a project. This should be interesting.

If all goes as planned, I hope to have it finished next week.

If you got through this long-winded post then you must really be bored and ought to pop over to Freshly pieced and see what Lee and everyone else has been up to this week!

Make it a great one!

Posted in Cottage, Quilting, Snow | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

It’s that time again…

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Sewfrench

in Northern Michigan.

to fall.

It’s that time of year to cut back and clean up.

everywhere.

That includes cutting back the ever producing Green Zebras and finishing them off. We were totally shocked and surprised that it stood up to the winds and has kept on producing.

Brrr….  the winds are blowing out of the northwest with strong gusts.  It’s not quite 50° and hard to get enough layers on.

We persevere.  The deck has been cleared, the herbs harvested, the hostas and grasses have been cut back.  The refrigerator has been cleaned out and the spare beds covered like ghosts.

After a long hard day of house and never ending yard work we sit back and reflect (bundled in blankets) on what a wonderful summer it has been.  It really is the most beautiful place in America.

It’s beginning to look like a winter sky out there.

Posted in Cottage, Eating, Gardening, Landscape | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Heather’s Quilt

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Sewfrench

Quilts and their history ~ An ongoing series.

At the time I made this High School graduation quilt for my oldest niece, Heather, I was still pretty new to this whole quilting thing.  It was 1994.

I *thought* I created this pattern and maybe I did.  But there are an awful many similar ones out there.  It appears to often be called Ocean Waves, but most are a bit different. They usually have four rows of half square triangles, around the center blocks, where this one has only two.  Often the center block is done in one block, as opposed to the two colors and four triangles.

After doing a lot of searching, on the web, I did come up with this blogger who has a rather large collection of Ocean Waves quilts and there is one, the blue and white one at the top, that is very similar, so who knows.  If there is another name for this particular version, I’d love to know what it is.

Heather was really in to yellow when she was heading off to college and her mother requested that if we wanted to get her things to help decorate her first dorm room that to get it in sunflowers.  You remember the 90’s, right?  Sunflowers were everywhere. Heather soon possessed the largest collection of sunflower decor I have ever seen.  I am just glad I didn’t fall for *that* trend, LOL!  Yellow and white is a classic and totally unrelated to the 90’s fad decor….

This was an early quilt done with white as opposed to my usual natural/unbleached muslin.  All these years later, it’s still a toss-up over which I prefer….

I believe this is a twin size and it is definitely hand quilted.  It has its corners cut off to follow the angles of the on point blocks. It’s quilted with straight lines through the centers of the blocks and around the borders, about 1″ apart, if I recall correctly, and I believe outlining of the smaller triangles, 1/4″ in.  I haven’t seen this quilt in forever.  I suspect it may be up there at the top of the *loved to death* quilts list.

It looks as if Grandma Sue was possibly still doing my embroidery.  And it looks like I wasn’t really into photography.  Pretty sure if I had had a digital camera, then, that bottom corner of the bed would have been remade.  And that’s definitely not my wallpaper.

Revisiting this quilt and the web, looking at other variations, of similar quilts, makes me consider doing another one of these.  It’s so traditional but with a fresh cheerfulness about it.

I do know that stash-busting, scrappy quilts will always be one of my favorites.   Making quilts for those who love, use and appreciate them, makes it all the better.

Posted in 1994 completes, fabric, Photography, Quilt stories, Quilts and their History, Sewing | Tagged | 3 Comments

I may have felt hounded but now it’s done.

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Sewfrench

Same story, different week….

Here we are again.

I have yet another road trip under my belt but *this* time I have a finish.

Finally.

My Houndstooth quilt bound, in continuous bias binding, hand quilted and hand bound.
48″ x 58″


Kona Cotton Solids in Bone, Chocolate and Curry.

The bummer is I had it finished in the first hour and had 15 more hours of riding with no quilting to do.  Even though there are another 4 stacked and waiting….  You would think I would always have something waiting at the back door, but this one caught me off guard and I had nothing ready.  I just wasn’t prepared for this trip…

It wasn’t often that so many of us kids were able to get together, but most of us did, just one month ago. I feel blessed for that.

As many of you heard, my Dad passed away unexpectedly last week. He was a a Father to many and friend to even more. He was a hard worker who was always willing to lend a hand.  He will be sorely missed by the 6 of us kids, 5 additional children and the 39 grand and great-grandchildren.

Thanks so much for all your thoughts, prayers, flowers, cards and calls.  We appreciate it.

Posted in 2011 completes, fabric, Family, Quilting, WIP | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

My ever changing view

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Sewfrench

It’s settling in and looking like it belongs.

It’s nice to see the maples are changing colors.  A nice bonus over all the evergreens we had before.

You can still see the line between the new lawn and the old lawn.  You can still see where the heavy equipment damage has not quite filled back in, yet, but it’s coming.

Looks as if most of the befores were snow photos.  Though the big bushy trees did make for beautiful snow pictures, they also blocked our view.  We can now more clearly see the fox and the deer.  And the moles.  Must do something about the moles on our beautiful new lawn….

The view below my kitchen window before…

The three bushes in the back would grow to the gutters by late July.  It was hard to keep this corner cut back enough.  It was either a jungle or cut to the ground, hardly an in between to enjoy.

And the after…  So young and fresh.

What a difference, in person, anyway.  It shows just how over grown a landscape can get in just 5 years, even with regular pruning, this is what it looked like not long ago, hopeful these new varieties won’t take over so quickly.  It took lots of heavy equipment to get that jungle out of there.

Pretty sure I’ve always despised this creeping hunk of dead thing…

It looks so much better with the new stone and plantings.  These are wee little grasses, similar to a monkey grass, but not.  I forgot what they are.  I need an updated plan from the Landscapers, they altered their original plan, a bit…

Out my studio window…

And after…  You can’t really tell, but all the half dead ground cover has been replaced with Pachysandra, a better variety for this location.  And our leaves have started falling!

And the front before…

Circa 2007, before we swapped the bark for stone.  Look how little everything was!

And now after the latest freshener…  Look how that tree has grown!

Tree huggers, don’t stress.  We removed 12 trees and then planted 21 super healthy ones.   We also added lots of other greenery.

And provided jobs for several individuals for a couple of weeks.  Which gets my head spinning, in circles, as in The Exorcist, thinking that the Obama Jobs Bill wants me to send more money to Washington so that *they* can hire my landscapers????  Not sure that I believe the Feds (no matter who they are) can provide more jobs to *my* local economy, better than me.  But we won’t go there….

We couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out.

And to think it just started with Peter wanting to play on his lawn mower….

Posted in Landscape | Tagged | 4 Comments