Soy Milk and Quilting

It's been several days since I posted anything here, obviously. Kristy has had some tasty looking recipes. As for me...I've hit a vegan dry spell. I tried coming up with a new recipe for Jicama and Radish salad, but it was a dud. I moved on, but couldn't think of anything else worthy of posting.

I did try to find a suitable substitute for my favorite breakfast of Greek yogurt with honey and berries, but the only vegan yogurt I found out here in the boonies was Soy. I was excited to try it, though my experience with Soy milk was that it was pretty foul. I am not a milk drinker anyway, though I do use milk on cereal and occasionally as an accompaniment to Oreos, but I rarely drink it straight. I've tried Soy milk and hated it, so I had my doubts about the Soy yogurt.

I wish I could say that my opinion of Soy dairy had changed after trying the yogurt, but sadly, it was only solidified. I'm usually pretty good about new flavors, but the Soy is just something I cannot stomach. Sorry Soy lovers, I tried. Now, if I could find the Coconut yogurt anywhere, we might have a deal.

I still have 4 yogurts left and I will probably use them in smoothies so they won't go to waste, but I'll most likely add honey to that making them a non-vegan recipe. I doubt I'll post that.

So, on to something non-food related...

About a year and a half ago my sweet nephew was born, adopted by my brother and sister in-law, and brought into our lives. I call him "Short, Dark, and Handsome" and he is my little buddy. I get to see him most of the week and he's as much a part of my life as my own children are. We are lucky to have him in our family.

When we knew for sure he was going to be here, I immediately started a quilt for him. Now my record of starting quilts is greater than my record of finishing them, but this one, I was determined to finish. I needed a simple but striking design and found one at the Moda Bake Shop. A very clever and useful site with tons of great free patterns.

I found some fabric locally and got to work. Here are some of the pictures...

Here's where I laid out just how I wanted the blocks to go

This is the top pieced together. You can see it's a tad wonky...

This is the back. 

Lovely shot of my walking foot and  the quilting process. Again you can see how wonky the blocks are. 

                               

This is the finished product. Wonky or not, I still like how it turned out. 

Front

                                                             Back
                                                                                                       


So all in all, I was happy with the finished quilt. Here is the pattern if you'd like to try it yourself. I hope to get back to vegan food soon. Thanks for reading!

Danna

Quilty WIPs

This is a post about quilting, procrastination, and good intentions.

I hope some of you can relate to this.

Let me start by saying that quilting is in my blood. My Granny Syvalene (great name huh?), My Great Granny Gaylor-Bittner, and my Great Great Granny Brisco all were quilters. Probably their mothers and grandmothers also quilted, but that's as far back as I know. I still have the hand quilted fan quilt that Great Granny Gaylor-Bittner made for me when I was a child. It is in need of repair because I used it all the time as a child.

I always wanted to make a quilt, but for some reason I didn't start one until I was in my 20's. A woman I worked with was an avid quilter. She even used to own her own quilt store. One day she brought in a quilt catalog and I made the leap. I ordered my first kit.

Now the one I picked was probably not the one I should have started with, but I figured since I already knew how to sew clothing, quilting shouldn't be a problem.

Here are the pictures of my WIP quilts. (a WIP is a work in progress)

This is the first quilt I ever started. The key word here is "started" as this is also the first quilt I have yet to finish.

It's called a watercolor quilt. The background is made up of small squares of different shades of floral printed fabric. I love this pattern. It was supposed to be machine appliqued, but I did all of the applique by hand. It was rather difficult, due to some of the tiny, pointed pieces, but it turned out nice in the end.

Here's a closer look. I plan on adding some embroidered details and beads when I quilt it. Someday I will hang this on my wall.

This is the second quilt I started, even though the first wasn't done. Do you see the trend?

It is a beautiful wildflower quilt by Mckenna Ryan. It's called "Petals of My Heart" and I bought it as a block of the month kit. That means you agree to be charged once a month and they send you one block at a time. That is supposed to help you get the quilt done quickly by having a whole month to finish one block.

Obviously, I had other things to do, so here it sits waiting to be finished.

The thing I love about this quilt is that McKenna Ryan herself picks all of the fabrics for the kits and she should know what looks good. Most of the fabric is Batik, my favorite. I am also crazy about wildflowers.

The pattern calls for lots of tiny flower pieces to be cut and fused then machine appliqued as it is quilted. There are also several 3D elements such as butterflies, bees, and flower petals that give this wall hanging lots of amazing texture and interest. Several of the flowers also overlap the block next to it, making it look as though they are outgrowing their respective backgrounds.

Needless to say, this is a big undertaking and I don't expect to be done with this anytime soon.

I still love it though.

This is one of my favorite blocks. The hummingbird looks so real and the rich blue background makes the fiery red Columbine flowers pop. Sorry if the picture doesn't do it justice.

This quilt was a kit that my Mother bought me for my birthday one year. It's a paper-piecing, crazy quilt. The fabric is Asian style and the colors are stunning. (in my opinion) Again, the photo does not do it justice. I really need a better camera.

This is the backing fabric I chose, though I didn't buy enough. Something you really have to think about when quilting. There is no skimping permitted. You always have to have more than you think.

I hope to add a black border to the top to make it wide enough for our bed and also plan on adding two black sections to the back to fill in for the lack of fabric.

This is a quilt I had originally planned on giving to one of my nephews when he was born. While I was working on it I got the news that someone I knew had died after a long struggle with Leukemia. That made this quilt mean something else. It's almost as if my memories of that person became a part of this quilt and I just couldn't give it away. If I do get this one finished I will most likely give it to my son or daughter, to keep it in the immediate family.

The dancing animals in the border have to be machine appliqued and all of them have embroidered details, so this has a log way to go. By the Way, the center section with all of those tiny triangles was a real pain in the behind. I think it turned out nice though, and I'm crazy about all of the bright colors.

This is the latest quilt and it's the furthest along of this batch. I started it after my daughter was born. It's obviously for her and very girly. I love the Prairie Point border, something I'd never done. The fabric is 1930's repro. and I am crazy about the colors. The backing fabric has pink Hydrangeas on a sky blue background.

All that is left to do is the quilting on this one. I haven't done it yet mostly because I'm afraid to mess it up. I wan to make it perfect for my daughter.

Maybe that's the problem though. I'm afraid to screw up.

There is one quilt I finished and gave to my eldest niece when she was born. Here it is, with my son blocking most of it.

I'm sure it has been well used. After all, that why we make things for people right?

I have every intention of finishing all of these quilts, and starting some new ones. I already have several patterns for my next batch of unfinished, quilty goodness.

You might ask, "Why not finish one before starting another?" and I might reply "Why not?", but what I really mean is that I get bored easily and I am addicted to fabric. Although my fabric stash is considerably smaller than most.

I just love creating things, even if I never get done. I know I'm not the only one. Just look around the "blogosphere."

Thanks for reading!