Feb 20

dan’s climb

I finally got the pictures of the quilt I made for an auction back in October!

Phew!  :D

My dad got the quilt (he was told to bid it up…LOL) and my mom has taken it with her up to the apartment they are staying in during her recovery from the stem cell transplant.

As a reminder the quilt pattern is named after my friend Dan Alexander who, last year, did the Scott Firefighter Stair Climb at the Seattle Tower in honor of my mom.  The Scott Firefighter Stair Climb is a fund raiser for the Lymphoma/Leukemia Society.

The quilt pattern was a fund-raiser for my mom to aid in the stem cell transplant she had to combat her cancer.

I’m so pleased to say that she’s doing very, very well and will be home soon.

And for the shameless plug (because it’s such a good cause), the new Spring Mystery Quilt is quickly approaching on April 27th.

It’s $10 with all the money raised going to our Mystery Quilt recipient, Sandee.  You can meet her here http://www.heatherspencedesigns.com/recipients/.

Please consider joining us!

We also have a spring retreat happening here in Washington.  If you are close and want more info please send me a message through ‘Contact Us’.  We’d love to have you!

And now…Dan’s Climb!

I got the fabrics at SewBatik.

Aren’t they gorgeous?

You can really see the stairwells!

Now, I used my moms camera and all the pictures turned out long and skinny.

Not sure what that’s about.

Check out the quilting too…I did my new pantograph, Nouveaux Feathers.

And that’s the back!

I love the back.

It’s the coordinating 108″ wide.  There’s a stripe at the top and bottom with vines reaching to the middle.

The vines are more dense nearer the strips and thin out as they get to the middle.

To get the strips to line up with the top and bottom edges I ran a seam through the middle of the fabric.

I love how it turned out!

Now…to start our day…

Have a lovely one!

p.s. the pattern is available in my etsy shop…as well as signing up for the mystery quilt!

Feb 19

the six-year project

And I’m done.

The quilt is 30 x 39.5.

Every little hexi is hand pieced.

I truly should’ve been finished with it a long time ago (even by hand-piecing standards).

In my defense my all the hand piecing and binding has caused a bit of tendonitis.

As a result I take my time when doing hand work.

Now…the question is how to finish it?

I would like very much to hand quilt it (I’ve hand quilted before).

Though I have a problem:

How do I get the outside paper pieces out?

It’s perplexing.

Help??

:D

Feb 10

the purple beast

Four days to quilt.

Three different purples.

Two trips to the quilt shop.

One happy customer.

So very thankful it’s over with!

Now I’m getting caught up as I only set aside two days to quilt this guy.

This, my friends, is a lot of feathers!

But it turned out beautifully.

By the way…that is two different King Tut threads I used.

The darker thread I was able to use in the medium and dark purples.

The lighter in the light purple.

I’m entirely grateful that I didn’t have to use three threads.

It probably would’ve taken me longer, otherwise!!

I believe it’s the tumbling blocks quilt pattern.

Feb 04

birthday surprises!

My dear hubby told me that i needed to ready for a friend at 2.

So my friend and running partner, Shawna, arrives with a big box, wrapped, of course.

I try to get her to talk about her half marathon but she’s surprisingly hesitant.

I am then ordered to open the box.

All right.

And guess what’s in the box?

Yeehaw!!

Aren’t they great?!?

Shawna then ordered me to put them on and then told we were headed out.

To where?

Well…we’ve got to put those boots to use.  Right?!?

We went riding!  For an hour and half.

This is, folks, a childhood dream come true.

(sorry…no photo…forgot and then we ran out of time)

But that’s not it.

As if that wasn’t good enough,  afterwards she takes me back to her house under the guise of having dinner with D and the girls.

And guess who’s there?

Church friends, school friends, family friends…

and my mom shows up!  :D

I haven’t seen her since October.

She’s doing so well though she’s still so weak.

And that’s my dad (did you notice he’s wearing his cowboy boots?) and my brother (no boots on that boy).

My sister and my other brother weren’t at the party.  But they were missed…very much.

It was  such a good day.

I feel so loved.  <3

Feb 03

two down, twelve to go

That’s right…I’ve done two of my UFO Challenge quilts.

The easiest ones, of course.

The first one to make it across the finish line was my flannel winter quilt.

Just so you know, I love it.

 It’s just big enough to cover me chin to toes.  As in, it covers my toes.

My toes get cold.

The second guy…well, it’s really perty.

I really like the blue.  A lot.  It makes me happy.

And it makes me think of the caribbean.

Where I’d like to be.

Right.

Now.

*Looks out the window.*

Nope.  Still in Sumner.

Well, that’s okay.

 It’s sunny here today and warm enough that I didn’t need to wear my coat when picking the girls up from school.

That’s saying something for early February in Washington.

When I was 16 we got snow.  And snow.  And more snow.

We went to my friends house.

She lived on a golf course and there was a huge hill across the street.

When I say ‘huge’ I mean…*looking for adequate analogy*…bigger than a bunny slope, people.

We went sledding.  In the dark.

Best birthday.  Ever.

I wonder what tomorrow will hold…

p.s. did you see my cute little tags?  my friend julie made them for me.  i like her.  she’s nice to me.  :D

Feb 03

a feathery civil war quilt

It took all week, two trips to the quilt store and about six hours of un-picking but I got there in the end.

The quilt is big measuring 92 x 94.

There’s continuous curve in the 9-patches and feather wreaths in the squares.

The borders have…well, I guess they would be considered feather swags with a variation in the corners.

And it’s a good reason to take a day off tomorrow and celebrate my birthday.  :D

Hopefully when someone goes looking for ideas for quilting one of these quilts this will prove helpful!

Ciao!!

Jan 31

making progress

Do you ever feel pressure when the one thing you want to do doesn’t get done because of the 5 million…well, okay…NOT 5 million (though it feels like it) other things need attending to first?

Yep…that’s been my life the last couple of months.

But (BUT!) yesterday I made some headway.

My quilt for this springs Mystery Quilt is about half way finished!

All the blocks constructed and everything is going together nicely.

(Imagine a photo here)

I know.  I’m a tease.  But I can’t rightly post a photo…it wouldn’t be a mystery then!!

Also, I got Sandee’s bio and photos up on the website this morning.

Here’s the link over there:

http://www.heatherspencedesigns.com/recipients/

Please stop by and “meet” her!

I’ll get her benevolence fund info posted there soon so you have other options for helping her and her family.

And if you’ve not done it yet, please consider joining the Mystery Quilt.

We’d love to have you join us!

Ciao!!

p.s. also posted a better photo of my mom.  :D

Jan 30

mashed potatoes with chicken gravy

It’s not often that I strike upon culinary genius.

But this, folks, was brilliant.

My husband even proclaimed (as he very rarely does), “This is so good!  Where’d you get the recipe?”

The beauty of it is this:  It’s dairy free, gluten free, egg free…and nut free.

Care for a gander?

Mashed Potatoes

Cook in usual fashion.  In lieu of milk and butter use chicken broth and vegan butter (I use Earth Balance).

Chicken Gravy

About 2 cups of chicken (I picked mine from a roasted chicken)

2 tablespoons vegan butter

3 cloves garlic, pressed

2 tablespoons starch of choice (potato, arrowroot or tapioca ~ I used arrowroot because I had it on hand)

Chicken broth

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

In a pan melt vegan butter.  Add crushed garlic and cook until sizzling & fragrant.  Then add starch, stirring continually until fully incorporated.  As soon as it is incorporated start drizzling the chicken broth while stirring.  The gravy will thicken to a paste so keep drizzling & stirring until you get a gravy consistency.

Once at the consistency you desire add the dried parsley and lemon juice then taste.  Add salt and pepper to your liking.  Let it bubble a bit to soften the parsley and let the flavors sink in.

Reheats beautifully!

Bon apetit!!

Jan 30

tulips for a winters day

Last week was snow…and ice (and more ice)…with power outages.

In the midst of it, when one is stuck indoors, one might be inclined to ask, “What shall I do?”

Not this chica.  Oh no.  This chica had it figured out.

The unexpected (though welcome) discovery of three client quilts with backings that were too short opened up my week.

So I bound.

No, my darling…not through the snow.

(I left that to the girls.)

No.  I put binding on quilts.

Particularly, my quilt.

Isn’t she pretty?!?

I used a 30′s reproduction jelly roll and a white on white for the background.

She’s been sitting around for ages (since October) with the binding on but not finished.

Like going to work with your shirt un-buttoned.

Now she’s happily hanging in my studio.

Tulips for a winters day…

Ciao!

Jan 26

minkee as quilt backs

It’s heavenly.

It’s soft.

Perfect for children.  Heck!  Perfect for me.

Tip:  Always use batting.

The quilt will have more weight and the feel is out of this world.

Make a smaller quilt for car seats covers…over even to go over strollers.

Another tip:  Keep quilt size to under 60″.

Piecing a back with minkee is asking for sewing nightmares!  It can be done, you just won’t have any fun.

Ciao!