Sawtooth

     I finished all the tops I had in progress and now have 9 tops to quilt.  Oh fun.  As I have mentioned before, I hate the quilting part, but it isn't a quilt until it's quilted.

      I looked at the Sawtooth pattern and saw this huge 12" center square that needs to be filled with quilting.  This is a great space for those of you who love the quiltng part and you can use some of those oversize designs you have.  But I kept trying to think of a way to shrink that square to something not quite so time consuming.

     My daughter put in a request for a quilt some time ago, and I though, aha!  I can run off pictures of her dogs and fill the square with those.  I could then get by with minimal quilting in the square.  I ran the idea by her and we both agreed that this particular quilt was better suited to pictures of children, because of the bright, scrappy colors.

 

 

     We agreed that for her dogs the half square triangles should be in shades of brown and black. 

 



       This is still a little bright, but the colors in my graphics program are pretty vivid.  You could adapt this idea to feature family members, using their favorite colors to form the half square triangle frames.

     Another treatment for this square would be embroidery or red work.  The redwork would be truly stunning.  It doesn't show up well in the photo above, but I quilted  each of the squares using a different design in blue thread.  It looked really good.

February Garden To Do

Things To Do This Month

     Order seeds and plants if not alredy done
     Clean up winter debris
     Continue dormant pruning
     Aply dormant pest controls to fruit trees
     Take cuttings of geraniums
     Sow indoors seeds reuiring up to 12 weeks to transplnt

     Every seed packet tells you in which zones you can plant their particular seed.  For example on my packet of chives it tells me that the plants will grow in zones 3-9.  Also on the seed packet is a map of the US divided into 10 zones  

 

 

 

 

                                                                  

                                                                     Date of Last Spring       Date of First Fall

                                                                                Frost                         Frost

                                                                      Zone

                                                                     

                                                                         1      Junw 15                August 1

                                                                         2      June 10                 August 20

                                                                         3      May 30                 September 25

                                                                         4      May 20                 October 1

                                                                         5      May 10                  October 10

                                                                         6      April 30                October 20

                                                                         7      March 30              November 10

                                                                         8      March 10              November 20

                                                                         9      January 30             December 10

                                                                      10      No frost                 No frost 

 

     To use this information, I live in Zone 5.  I would count back 12 weeks from May 10, which would be about February 10 to sow seeds indoors for any seed requiring 12 weeks to transplant size.

 

       To determine fall planting dates you must take into account that the days are getting shorter and extra time will be needed for plants to reach maturity than when planted in the spring.  This is known as the short day factor and amounts to about 14 days.  In other words, if the packet lists 50 days to maturity, you would add 5 days for germination, plus the 14 short day factor, for a total of 69 days from date of first frost.





 

Autumn Tints

     I am getting  sick of half square triangles, so when I came across this picture I decided to take a break from then.  I made this quilt several years ago for a book called Christmas Scrapcrafts.   I sent all the projects to New York to be photographed  and someone walked off with all of them.  The only thing I got back was a few photos. 

     This is a super easy, quick quilt that you could probably finish in a weekend.  I used fabric I had on hand but you can use any colors you want.  You will need 3  yards for the large squares and 3 yards for the light squares, plus assorted amounts of 12 colors for the small squares.

     Cut dark fabric into 7" squares.  Cut light fabric into 4: wide strips.  Cut colored fabrics into 4" strips.  Sew a light and colored fabric together, then cut apart every 4".  Sew two such squares together to form a checkerboard. 

     Working across, start with a plain square, then alternate with a pieced square, end with a plain square.
You will need 12 print #1, 10 print #2, 8 print #3, 6 print #4, 4 print #5 and 2 print#6.
For the second row, start with print #7 then follow the same sequence as the first row.  The left side will start with a new print, then follow the sequence as before.   You will need 12 print #7, 10 print #8, 8 print #9, 6 print # 10, 4 print #11 and 2 print #12.

It's Garden Time

       Next to quilting, gardening is my second passion.   I know it's January and at least here in Ohio there is snow on the ground, but now is the time to start planning the garden.   Several years ago I wrote a book called "Garden Diary".  It's broken down into months and each section begins with "Things To Do This Month."  Here is
the one for January.

1.   Plan this year's garden.
2.   Prune fruit trees, summer blooming trees and shrubs as weather   permits.
3.   Fertilize spring blooming shrubs.
4.   Keep snow build up off evergreen brances to prevent breaking.
5.   Force rhubarb.
6.   Force chichons.
7.   Force bulbs.
8.   Clean and sharpen tools.
9.   Comparison shop the seed companies and decide what you will plant this year.
10.  Assemble flats and soil for next month's indoor planting.

     Hope this gets you in the mood.

 

More Quilt As You Go

      I completed all the blocks for Rainbow Flower, but when I moved the blocks disappeared.  But it was so easy I may try it again.

     This is an 8" block, so cut batting 9" and backing 10".  Each strip finishes at 2" so I would cut 3" strips because I use a 1/2" seam allowance. 

     Position 2" yellow square at upper left corner.  Lay 2" pink square right sides facing over yellow square and stitch in place.  Open out.  Lay pink strip right sides together covering yellow and pink strip.  Cut off even with bottom of pink strip and stitch in place.

Continue adding strips until block is finished.

Below are other designs that can be used with this technique.

Half Square Triangles

     I am obsessed with triangles.  I mentioned before that I cut any leftover scraps into 2: triangles and toss them into a box.  I've decided to use up all those triangles and currently have six quilts in progress.



  For this I sorted the triangles into color groups.  Each block of 25 squares is a different color group.  I plan to set them with white lattice strips.







Half square trangles were made into pinwheels and set with plain white 4" squares.

 

 

I don't know the name of this pattern but the block finishes at 16".  It may look like quarter square triangles, but is three rows of half square triangles set on the diagonal and filled with a half triangle.

 



Lady of the Lake

 

Delectable Mountains

 

 

Designs for half square triangles are limitless.  Many regular patterns use them and are easily adapted to a scrap quilt, either by using scraps for each trangle or using color blocks separated by lattice strips or white squares.

 

 

 

                                        

 

Hey, those are quarter square triangles.  What are they doing here?  Well, I find that quarter square triangles are time consuming to piece and require too much effort to make sure they come out right.  By sewing together to half squae triangles, I now have a quarter square triangle that took only seconds to piece.  Try it, it is much easier.

 



 





 





 

This and That

I did it.  I finished one.  I'm so proud of me.

 

 

I'll grant you it is the smallest, but I finished it!

 

 

My second favorite hobby is gardening.  I have been trying to grow my own herbs for the past few years.  It's amazing how large one small starter plant can get.  The thyme plant I planted two years ago has spread to cover a three foot square.  I use it fresh during the summer and fall, but then I dry armloads for winter use.  With such a harvest, I needed something in which to store the dried herbs. 

      My husband loves Parmesan cheese sprinkled on his popcorn and I decided these wre ideal for storing the herbs.  I printed out labels, glued them onto the jara and viola, herb jars.

 



What I don't grow myself, I purchase in bulk.  I can buy 6-8 ounces of bulk herbs and spices for approximately the same cost as a 2 ounce jar.  The really nice thing about these jars is that they have a divided lid, one side large enough to spoon out the herb, the other side with holes in it for sprinkling.

     When I was in California visiting my daughter, I stumbled across large Folgers coffee containers.  I don't remember exactly how much coffee they contained, but I think about three pounds. They are the perfect size to hold 5 pounds of flour or sugar, and of course, I have one for coffee.

I use the smaller cans for things like brown sugar, rice, powdered sugar, you name it.  Since I put my borwn sugar in one of these containers, I haven't had any hard, dried out sugar.

Decorating the cans has limitless possibilities. There are three separate panels on each can.  For the brown sugar, I copied a picutre of a bear onto a grocery sack, with the label on a separate piece of paper.  For the popcorn, I copied an illustration for an ear of corn.  For the flour and sugar canisters, I copied my favorite recipes for the two side panels.  I really want one with a picture of Cookie Monster for a cookie jar but so far I haven't been able to copy a decent picture of Cookie Monster.

To make the labels, I scanned the desired pictures into a graphics program and sized it to the proper size.  After printing out, I sprayed each picture, front and back with a fixative.   This adds body to the paper and also helps prevent the ink from running.

Cut out the labels and glue in place on the cans.  Allow glue to dry then spray with a clear acrylic sealer.  This will make the labels water resistant so it's easy to wipe off any cooking spills