my quilting future?

I recently "inherited" a whole box full of fabric from my in-laws.  I went through it all last night and got so excited about the possibilities!

What is on the couch above isn't even half of what I was given! 

So, the next steps are to:
1) get a sewing machine -buy or borrow (Spassky- tell me who you are!)
2) decide on a pattern
3) get some supplies
4) go to it!

I have been getting inspiration lately by checking out a few blogs/websites focusing on modern quilting.  Here are a few I really like:
Amy's Creative Side
Handmade by Alissa
Oh, Fransson!
Film in the Fridge
Sew, Mama, Sew

the quilt was presented

I had the honor of presenting Weston's quilt to Jodi and Matt yesterday.  Here are the two photos I took with my phone yesterday.

Weston, chillin' on the his new quilt!

 Jodi and Matt opening the present and checking it out :)

a quilt for Weston

One day at work I was talking with my colleagues at the lunch table. I explained that I wanted to get my sister and her husband and bun in the oven a nice gift, not just some onesies from Target.  My friend, J, suggested that I make a quilt for the baby.  I laughed it off and joked that I had no idea how to make a quilt, nor do I even have a sewing machine.  So incredibly gracious, she offered to teach me how to make a quilt and let me borrow all her quilting supplies.  After thinking it over a bit, I decided that this sounded like a great idea, if a little ambitious, and I took her up on the idea.  I'm always up for a challenge, so head-first, I dove into the world of quilts.

Here I will chronicle some of the steps in the process.

Going to the fabric store was the first step and so much fun.  J went with me, and we searched all over the cutest little quilt shop in Ballard called: The Quilting Loft.  I found these three great fabrics that were all part of a theme (see owls, frogs and foxes/squirrels in 2nd picture down).  And then I saw the monkey fabric, which I loved.  So then I spent the rest of the time coming up with coordinating fabrics for these four fabrics.  I bought a quarter yard (or more) of each of the fabrics in the pictures below.

Thirteen different patterns/fabrics in total!  I lived with these fabrics for a week or so, trying different combinations of them to see what I liked best. I emailed my mom pictures of the fabric to get her opinion on which ones I should use.  In the end, five of them were cut from the final design.

Then, knowing which fabrics I would ultimately use, I did some conceptual drawings.  The plan, at first, was to make the quilt 8 squares across and 10 squares down for a total of 80 squares.  That sort of freaked me out a bit, given that was my first quilt.  In all honesty, it scared me so silly that I re-vamped my design.

[First design ideas with 80 squares]

Here is the new idea for the quilt. A much more manageable 35 squares (5 squares across by 7 squares down).  I was playing around with the location of the different fabrics, as shown by the different colors in the drawing.  Neither of these ended up being the final design.

Here are the 35 squares, each one assembled, but not attached to each other yet.  You are supposed to pin up your squares to make sure they are in the right locations.  I found that this design was not quite right so I slightly changed the location of a few of the polka-dot squares in the final version.

Here we have the blocks sewn into the rows, with the brown sashing material.

And here is the quilt top finished, with all the sashing and the polka-dot border material.  J. usually uses a wide border, but I wanted to keep the size of the quilt manageable for a baby quilt. It was already almost as big as the top of a queen size bed!

Then I had to go find the backing fabric.  I used a flannel so it would be nice and soft.  J helped me every step of the way, including making the "sandwich", which is the backing material, the batting and the quilt top all "sandwiched" together.  Then you safety pin the heck out of it so that you can quilt it without the different layers moving around on you. This picture shows the backing fabric and many of the safety pins.

I started by sewing "stitch in the ditch", sewing along the already existing seams.  Then, I did the rest in free-motion quilting techniques.

Here is the quilt, completely quilted, but without the binding.  The binding is a small strip that goes around the edges to seal it all together.  I used a doubled binding, to give it extra strength and machine sewed it to the front of the quilt and then hand-sewed it to the back.

TA-DA!

The final quilt!  This was after washing the quilt, and it seemed to shrink up a bit.  I washed it in Woolite on cold, but there was still some shrinkage.

Those are my feet in the picture.  It is a tall blanket!

And here I am, so happy to have made this quilt for my new nephew!

Oh!  Lest I forget, I wanted to do something special for the signature block that goes on the back of the quilt.  So, I learned how to embroider!  It is amazing what you can learn these days from the internet.  I found the website Needle n' Thread  to be especially helpful in teaching me how to embroider.  Below is a close up of part of the signature block.  I used 4 different stitches in this signature block:  stem stitch, whipped backstitch, backstitch and satin stitch.

And here is the final signature block!  I even added a monkey to it- since I know Weston is the newest monkey in the family!

Here are a few detail shots of the different squares.  I used a different free-motion technique for each of the different fabrics in the center squares.  I got some great ideas for my free motion quilting from the Free-Motion Quilting Project website.

Monkeys got spirals.

Frogs got a wavy, watery looking design.

Squirrels/foxes got a sort of raindrop looking design.

Owls got swirls.

Oh, and I couldn't just learn to quilt and embroider, I had to also make a quilted pillow.  I know, I know, glutton....punishment....me. :)


The first photo below is the pillow front, before quilting and sewing on the back. Next is the finished product, quilted and back sewn on.  The last photo is of the back, just to show you that I didn't choose the hardest design for a pillow- no zippers or anything like that- just a simple envelope style back.

So that's all folks!  My first foray into Aunt-hood combined with my first quilt.  I don't think it is my last quilt though.  Now I just need to get a sewing machine that will take a quilting foot!

gardening update

I can't believe it has been so long since I've written.  I'm including a gardening update, since I have been so bad about posting lately.  The garden is one of the big things that has been going on in my world right now.  It is always just amazing to see it grow and I challenge anyone to plant a garden and not get excited when the veggies start producing. 

 Here is the pumpkin/squash patch at the beginning of the growing season.

 and here it is now!  I can barely walk through it without stepping on vines!

Here is one of the many pumpkins we will have grown!

Here is one of the three raised beds.  Tomatoes in the back, rainbow chard in the front right, and some newly planted carrots in the front left.

Here is another one.  Tomatoes in the back, along with bush green beans.  In the front is some newly planted arugula, lettuce, basil, and a huge sage plant.

Maybe these tomatoes will actually get ripe before it gets too cold...I'll hold my breath given the weather we've had this season.

Here is one of the green bean plants.  They've been pretty good producers. 

I picked these the other day and cooked them with some garlic, dried red chili flakes, and chicken broth. David really enjoyed them.

The Chard is a little out of control. I've been giving it away like crazy, and I still can't use it all.  Looks like one of the plants is beginning to bolt :(

We had so many Kale plants that there wasn't room in the boxes, so I planted these down by the patio. they grew pretty well down there, and have mostly been decoration. I gave away a bunch of the Kale too, but we still have more than we can eat.

Fun in DC!

I just got back from a work trip to DC. While I was there I got to see my good friend Jen and her husband. I also got to meet their new cat, Horus! I had a great time. On friday night they took me down to the national mall and I got to see the monuments all lit up at night-a sight I had never seen before. We took this picture that evening.

Beets, amazing beets

Here are four of the beets from my garden. Aren't they enormous? I waited a little too long before pulling them out of the ground, but i think they will still be tasty. The salad spinner contains the beet greens that I later braised and added to some pasta with kalamata olives and feta cheese. It was yummy!

I baked the beets in foil tonight and I will use them tomorrow for some sort of dinner dish.

Photo from NYC trip

I wanted to share this photo from my work trip to NYC.  David got to tag along and we took these cute pictures at one of the work events I attended.

growing tomatoes

Photo courtesy of "The Ewan" on Flickr, shared under Creative Commons Licensing

Here are some of my notes from the "how to grow tomatoes" seminar I went to:

• Always water in the morning or before 12 noon.  It discourages insect activity and gives plants what they need for a sunny day. 
• Use liquid kelp every 2 weeks on tomatoes- it helps the tomatoes grow strong.  You can also use the kelp as a foliar spray (maybe even better this way), but you can use it as a drench.  Only use one capful to a gallon of water.
• Fertilizers with the 5-7-3 ratio is just about right for tomatoes. The nursery I went to recommended "Dr. Earth tomato, vegetable, herb organic fertilizer".  The seminar speaker said to use Dr. Earth as a top dressing every 8 weeks once you have planted your plants.  Don't work it into the soil because of the feeder roots.  Best to work it into the soil before you plant or put some in the bottom of the planting hole when you plant.
• Another thing you can do is save your eggshells and put them in a container with water (let them sit for about a week or week and a half).  The calcium from the egg shells will get in the water, and then you can water the tomatoes with the water.  The tomatoes like calcium.
• Tomatoes have feeder roots that run along the soil and tap roots that go deep.  You want your soil to be at least 18 inches deep.
• Until your plants get big enough, it is good to protect them from hard winds.  You can buy things like "harvest guard", or just use some bubble wrap you have around the house to wrap around the tomato plant to protect it until it gets big enough.  I used some bubble wrap.
• Never put plastic over a tomato plant (it will get baked!)
• Always prune "suckers" from the plant.  You can just break the suckers off-they don't need to be cut.    Suckers are the branches on the tomato plant that come off the plant at a less than 90 degree angle.  The main branches that will produce fruit come off the main stem at about 90 degrees.  Cherry tomatoes produce lots of suckers.  No need to prune anything else on a tomato plant, other than suckers.
• Never let your tomato leaves touch the ground.  This is inviting bacteria to come play with your plant.
• Tomatoes need air and don't like overhead watering.  Always water between bottom branches and the dirt.  Dig down in your dirt to see if the tomato is getting enough water.  
• A lot of water, less often is better than a little water, all the time.  Think deep watering.
• In Seattle, when the weather is in the 70's and 80's, it is suggested to water almost every morning.  However, if you have an 80 day plant you might want to cut back on watering in, say, mid-august or so because you want the roots to bring the sugar to the fruit and they don't do that as much if they are getting lots of water.
• And by the way, the "80 days" or "72 days" is the time from when you actually plant the plant in your garden, not when it grows from seed.  So, when buying plants from a nursery, the bigger tomato plants will only probably get you maybe 2 or 3 weeks of a head start, even though the plants are much older than that.  So, save some money, and buy the smaller plant.
• The woman who gave the seminar said that if at the end of the season you still have green tomatoes on your plants, you should cut the whole branch with the tomatoes on it and hang it upside down, inside your house, to ripen. 

Those are the main things I learned.  I hope something here helps you in your garden!

gardening update

Some of you have been wondering "how my garden grows".  So, here goes!

Before we get to the veggie garden, check out my white rhodies in the front of the house.  They aren't super full of blooms, but this is the first year they have bloomed, so I'm excited.  We planted them awhile back and they should have bloomed last summer, but they must have been too traumatized to do so.

 A close up of one of the rhododendron flowers. The pattern reminds me of intricate henna tattoos.

 I like this photo because of all the different colors in it. We have a purple rhododendron up top, and all kinds of different plants in different colors. 

So, here is the east-most raised bed/box.  From L to R: Spinach, Romaine, Kale, and Brussel Sprouts in the back.  I think the Kale is just about ready to use! And the romaine would make a nice young and tender Caesar salad.

 Middle box.  L to R: Buttercrunch lettuce, basil, sage, cilantro (about to bolt), cherry tomatoes, and bush beans along the back.  I've got some tiny lettuce seedlings, not visible in the picture, coming up along the front edge of the bed.

 West-most box.  L to R: Beets, cilantro (kind of sickly, but seem to be growing slowly), rainbow chard, and two different kinds of big tomatoes in the back.  One is a yellow heirloom and the other is big beef.

The pumpkin/squash patch.  We planted 6 mounds, but slugs have eaten all the plants that were in the mound in the back left.  We recently had to re-weed the whole area, which was such a pain in the back (truly!), so we decided to put down some mulch in between the mounds to help cut down on the weeding.  We'll see how that goes!

I also recently went to a "how to grow tomatoes" seminar at Swanson's Nursery. I was planning to write up and summarize some of my notes, but I'll have to do that another day, soon.

So, here is the long-awaited update. I can't wait to compare these pictures to the ones I posted back in May.

we beat the bridge!

Kim and I ran an 8k this morning.  She took this photo post race.  My running jacket worked really well keeping the rain off me, and it had its work cut out for it since it was rainy the whole time. 

As I mentioned in prior post, we haven't really been training, but we ran the first two miles to get over the bridge before it went up, and we made it over with plenty of time before it did go up.  My knee was really hurting around miles 3-5 so we mostly walked the rest of the way.  Even with the walking, we did 5 miles this morning in the rain.  It was awesome and it felt to good to beat the bridge!

time for a new template-it's spring!

As I was looking at my blog this morning I realized that my winter rain template was bringing me down. In the winter it just felt right. But now that flowers and trees are blooming, I've got veggies in the ground growing, and my tulips are still standing up strong, I feel like it is time for a new background.  Hope you like this one.  Reminds me of fresh spring mornings.

I have to go pick up my race packet for the Beat the Bridge race tomorrow.  Kim and I have been alternately injured (my knee, her hip, my hamstring), so we won't be beating the bridge this time.  The race is an 8k (5 miles), and at the second mile is the University Street bridge, which goes up 20 minutes into the race, so you have to be faster than a 10 minute mile to make it over the bridge before it goes up.  Everyone who doesn't make it over the bridge in time still gets to finish, they are just delayed a few minutes :)  My goal, when I signed up for the race, was to Beat the Bridge.  But, given the lack of training I have been doing, I don't think that will be happening. 

Of course, this says a lot about the half-marathon I signed up for in June.  Definitely won't be running that race.  I might try to walk it, though.  We'll see.  The race is right between two conferences I have (one in Seattle/Bellevue, and one in Vancouver, BC), so I'll probably be pretty exhausted by that time.

my new garden!

My dad was recently in Seattle for a visit.  Really, he came to work. For four days, Dad, David and myself worked on my new raised garden beds!  He got in town on a Wednesday and we spent Wednesday night talking over and working through the design.  On Thursday we went out and bought the cedar, and David and Dad spent the rest of the day and into the night putting the three beds together.  In total, I got three new beds, each about 4' by 6'.

 It was probably 11pm on Thursday night when dad and David carried the three boxes up to the yard in the dark.  On Friday, we woke up and saw it was a beautiful day and there were three beautiful garden beds in place.

 TA-DA!  These are the beds before they were sunk into place, leveled and filled with dirt. 

 Look at the Craftsmanship on these boxes!  Dad and David out-did themselves!  They are wonderful. (Dad and David and the new beds :)   )

 So, on Friday we rented a dump truck that had a capacity of 3 cubic yards of dirt.  We went to Pacific Topsoils and bought two yards of their garden mix soil.  Just fyi-two yards of soil equals about two tons in weight.

We brought the dump truck and dirt back to the house and then had to spend a few hours settling the boxes into their places, leveling them up, and making sure they were properly terraced (each is just a bit lower in elevation then the one before it).

In this photo, Dad was already hauling dirt via buckets, and I was finishing up the garden cover system.

 The PVC pipes were attached three to a side to enable me to put covers over the garden so that I can extend my growing season in the Fall and begin it earlier in the Spring.  We attached the posts onto each box, although I doubt I'll be using all 3 boxes in the off-season.

 We also set each of the boxes up with a hose so that we could install an irrigation system. 

 Here is a box before we filled it with dirt.

 And here are all three boxes full of dirt.   Two yards of dirt was the perfect amount for the three boxes.  We all hauled dirt, back and forth, back and forth, one bucket in each hand.

David got the job of shoveling the dirt out of the truck bed into our buckets.  At first I thought he had the easy job, but then I switched him for a bit and quickly conceded that the shoveling was definitely harder than the hauling.  My back was sore after only filling up 6 buckets!

 Post-hauling happiness!  Beds are ready.

 Since we had that monster truck, we went back and bought two yards of mulch to mulch around the beds (where you see bare dirt in the photo) and re-mulch the rest of our yard.  It was a good thing we got the dump truck because it was time to take the truck back before we had completely unloaded the mulch, so we pulled the truck around to the front and dumped the rest on our parking strip, to be distributed later.

 This is the garden cover system I mentioned above.  We used a smaller diameter PVC piping that fits into the posts we installed. This allows me to attach some clear plastic sheeting when it is time to extend the gardening season.

 Dad and Sam enjoying the fruits of our labor.  This must have been Saturday morning before we went to the garden center to buy plants and seeds.  You can see that the mulch is spread around the sides of the beds in this photo.

 Here is the first of three beds with irrigation tubing installed and plants planted.  This bed is the easternmost bed and contains spinach, romaine lettuce, kale (left to right) and Brussel sprouts (along the top).

 This bed currently only has buttercrunch lettuce, sage, cilantro, but is spaced to eventually contain a cherry tomato plant, more buttercrunch lettuce (planted from seed every couple of weeks), basil and bush green beans.

And finally, the westernmost bed currently has beet plants, some cilantro that looks like it might not make it, and some rainbow chard.  Soon I'll plant some cilantro and more chard (from seed), and some cucumbers  and two big tomato plants.  I'm going to try to train the cucumbers to climb up a trellis so I can save space in the garden.







The area where my garden used to be is where our pumpkin/squash patch will be.  I'll plant some butternut squash, zucchini, and 4 kinds of pumpkins (3 of which are edible).  David will be in charge of the pumpkin patch--making sure the vines don't go crazy and take over the top of our yard!

Dad bought a soil testing kit while he was here, and we tested our soil.  Turns out the PH of the soil is fine for what we will be growing.  But we are deficient in Nitrogen and Phosphate.   So I'll need to go get some fertilizers and work those into the soils to make sure the veggies have all the stuff they need to grow big and strong!