Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Recent Quilting Adventures

Back in 2009, I have finished my second ever quilt.  The workmanship of the "elephant quilt" was not too great, but it was my own design, and I was (and am) quite proud of it.
My finished Elephant Quilt (2009)
This past year, almost two years later, I tackled another quilt.  Rather than trying to come up with a design, I decided to follow instructions from  One Block Wonders: One Fabric, One Shape, One-of-a-Kind Quilts book by Maxine Rosenthal.  (Stay tuned for my review of the book.) 

Making the quilt went something like this:
 
I "shredded" 4 yards of fabric into 600+ unilateral triangles (648 triangles, to be precise). 

648 triangles (plus some scrap fabric)
In the course of the next two weeks I sewed the triangles into 100+ hexagons.  (Honestly, they were really half hexagons pinned in the middle.)

Hexagons
The next step was particularly entertaining--deciding how to arrange the hexagons.  This part was so much fun that even Nick got involved, and we spent several evenings arranging and rearranging the hexagons.  (In the end we have decided that the process is pretty much infinite.)
Hexagons
We were taking care of a tiny adorable and most rambunctious dog, Rascal, right when it was time for me to make the quilt "sandwich"--pin the backing, the filling and the top layers all together.  Rascal really wanted to participate.

Rascal is helping me with the quilt
(Don't worry--I washed the quilt when I finished it)
Then I decided that I just have to do "free motion" quilting on this quilt.  So I put together several flannel baby blankets to practice the technique on them.  In the end doing free motion quilting on the quilt turned out a bit easier because it was much stiffer than the baby blankets.

The quilt "stuffed" into my new machine!
Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the finished quilt, because I finished it literally hours before gifting it to my friend.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas Eve in Walla Walla

Christie is setting up the table for the Christmas Eve dinner

Parker House Rolls is a serious business out here in Walla Walla
I rolled out a triple batch, and Christie, the chef, provides direction on how to serve them

Sitting down for the Christmas Eve dinner
We did not have any "kid" tables this year,
but one long table set for 20 (counting little Ethan) instead

Little Ethan and Britney do a little after dinner dance

Relaxing after dinner
The measurements should be not in the number of rolls
I had for dinner (1), but in weeks (25 weeks)

Socializing and relaxing after dinner