It's that time of year again when Cheryl Sleboda of Muppin.com has challenged us as quilt pattern designers to up our blogging game for the month of December. This is the second year I have joined in this challenge. I started strong last year and then fizzled out. This year my goal is to post every day of the challenge. I stretch so many of you with my patterns and sew alongs; this is something I will do to stretch myself as a professional. I still feel like a hobbyist most days, but I have this vision for my business to grow and actually begin to support the hubs and myself as we near those happy golden years of retirement. That day keeps coming closer and closer and yet we just mentioned the other day that we have a hard time grasping we are reaching that age. He will qualify for the senior National Park card next year which we are thrilled about; and the Golden Eagle Pass for discounts on campground fees too! There are some definite perks. My brother is celebrating his first day of retirement today and that too is blowing my mind. The days keep zipping by at breakneck speed. Those days lead into months which lead into years which, well I shall just stop there. Let's just say I am a child of the 60's and it is starting to show. I made my first quilt in the 1980's to celebrate the birth of a niece. Followed closely by a second to celebrate the birth of our firstborn son. These quilts were made using cross-stitched blocks as that was my first love in needle arts. Those two quilts took me on a journey of quilt discovery that continues to this day. I learn best by reading and doing so that is I how I started; with McClun and Nownes' classic Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! (1st edition baby!) I poured over that book, learned techniques and dreamed of someday being able to make even the most intricate of quilts. At the time we lived in Michigan near Amish country and I was inspired by the beautiful work being done in that community. It spoke to my desire for the simple things in life. And so a quilter was born. Back then I did pieced on my machine and hand quilted everything. My hand quilting was good enough that I was noticed by a woman who made her living restoring antique quilts and I learned quilt restoration from her. That aspect really spoke to my hidden history buff. Which may be why I continue to be drawn to classic blocks. Though ever evolving I am drawn to all sorts of quilts these days, art quilts, modern quilts...quilts, quilts, quilts. I am pretty new to the pattern writing side of things as this is only my third year. It has added a whole new dimension to my quilting life. But there is more to my life than quilting. I also love to get out in the world with my camera and capture moments in time. My main subjects are birds and landscapes, but sometimes the minutest detail will capture my attention. I love to bake and cook a wide variety of foods. I enjoy trying international cuisines. After Sunday worship at church my favorite thing to do is go for a drive in the nearby woods. Doubly fun if there has been a recent snowstorm. This Great Gray Owl is one of my favorites to come across and this is only the fourth one I have seen in my, ahem, many years of birding. I am looking forward to letting you in to see a little bit about me and my life this month. I am not alone on this journey though, there are more bloggers to discover and you can find us all by clicking on the following link. http://muppin.com/wordpress/index.php/the-2020-31-day-blog-writing-challenge/ Thank you for coming into my online home and visiting for a bit. Feel free to explore my site for patterns and tutorials. And if you would like you can even say hello in the comments. Whatever the rest of your day brings I do want to wish you as always.... Happy Quilting!
Here we are at the final block in our journey to the stars. Block 9: Achernar. This block goes together pretty quickly using the skills we have worked on throughout this quilt. I do have one tip to share with you about how I matched up the points of the Flying Geese units. First I tried just sewing them without pins or anything. You can see that the points just do not quite match. So this next bit is only for those, who like me, who tend to have a bit of the perfectionist about us. I put just a little dab of glue from my fabric glue stick right at the edge of pieces before sewing together. The top point had no glue while the bottom one did. I think you will see why I stuck with the glue for this part of the block. Since I was pressing these seams open, I went ahead and finger pressed them open and then waited just a bit to let the glue completely dry before using my iron. I did not seem to get any gummy, gluey, residue on the sole plate of my iron from this process. Here is my Baby Block version. A little fussy cutting for the center of course. I think I will see if I have enough of the fabric with the bunnies to use as fussy cut cornerstones to go with the sashing for the blocks when I put them all together. This was a busy time for my quilt pattern testers but they once again have created some beautiful blocks to share. I have my plan sketched out of how I am going to put my blocks together. Both will be using sashing and cornerstones with some borders to complete the quilt top. I picked up a lovely rich black fabric that my stars will be hung in. I have often admired quilts that used black as a background for how they make the colors pop out and decided this was a good time to give that a try. At first this was my idea. But then as I began to play with my quilt I decided to add another little border and I think this is what I am going to do. I will have the finishing directions out to you soon. We are in the process of testing everything right now and as soon as that is done I will post them for you.
My baby quilt is on hold for now as I have several others projects that need my attention. I hope to get to it after the new year. In the meantime if you want to go ahead with finishing your quilt I am going to refer you to my blog post for how I finished an earlier quilt. It will take you through the sashing and cornerstone process I use. For my quilt I will then be adding a 3/4" border, a 3" border, a 2.5" border and finally another 3" border. Always cut your border strips to the width and length of your quilt as measured in the middle and that will help keep things nice and square. It's Thanksgiving week here in the USA which adds its own set of goals into the usual mix. It will just be Ken and I around our table this year but that is not stopping me from going big with our traditional dinner. Yes, we will have lots of leftovers because I love stuffing so much, and it tastes so much better cooked in the bird, that I always get the largest that will fit into my oven. I am that person. I am perfectly fine with eating leftovers for awhile and not having to spend time out of my day cooking. It's how I normally operate anyway. But there are other things I need to accomplish this week as well. All too soon after Thanksgiving on Thursday comes Dec 1st. A whole new set of activities come with Advent, but I am getting ahead of myself. Dec. 1st is also the release of the final block in this year's BOM, Star Light, Star Bright. So, near the top of my list is getting that blog post written. I have some items to get out to my pattern testers as well. And this week I also have some newsletters to write- for my own newsletter, ans I also do the newsletter for our local Audubon chapter. I am trying to get back into the Flylady habit. For those that are not familiar, Flylady is a site dedicated mainly to keeping a clean home. This week she has us focused on the master bedroom...I will be doing a LOT of de-cluttering in there for sure. It seems to be my dumping ground when I don't want to take time to find a proper home for things. With the coming of winter comes my commitment to doing a citizen science project Ken and I have participated in for the last two years. Winter Raptor surveys. We have two routes that we cover which total almost 200 miles. The purpose of this survey is to collect data on the numbers of raptors, (hawks, eagles, owls) that winter in the area. The area being covered extends from our home state of Oregon into California, Washington and Idaho. Our area of the state is the winter home to hundreds of Bald Eagles so we get such a thrill going out to see how many we can see. And then there are the occasional surprises of rare bird sightings as well. We will need to fit that in this week as well. Somewhere in there I need to make time just to relax and do something that restores my soul as well. So, all in all, I think I have plenty to keep me busy this week. I have laid out my plan. Now on to meeting the goals I have set for myself. What do you have on tap to accomplish this week?
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Welcome to the site of Debra Davis-a woman who loves the Lord and loves to quilt.
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