Cathedral Windows Pillow Covers

 I used the construction method for Cathedral Windows taught by Jenny Doan at Missouri Star Quilt Company in this tutorial:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akKU0zg-qaw  The main differences are that I used the 2.5" square size and the same fabric color for the background and the "frames" and only used colored squares for the "window panes".

Also, I found it easiest to keep the pieces in the right places using pins.  The 2.5" background square gets 2 more 2.5" background squares folded on the diagonal pinned to it.

Line up the layered, pinned squares next to each other to form a "V" shape as above.  The backs of the joined squares then look like this:

Form a diamond shape with 4 squares:

Make rows of the diamonds, then join the rows together.

To make an 18" pillow cover, I joined 9 quantity 2.5 inch squares together, which produces 4 1/2 "diamonds per row.  

Yes, it's a lot of 2.5 inch squares to cut.  243 squares of just the background and frames if you do them the same color.

Once you have the size you want, you can count how many "diamond" shapes to know how many colored fabric squares you'll need.  You can get away with 2.25" squares for the colors.

I laid out the colors in sort of ombre style since I had lots of blues and aquas, but you can choose any layout.  I also wanted to continue the colors on the edges, so I cut some of the squares in half diagonally. 

I put a pin in the center of each square to hold it in place while sewing the background "diamond" edges down on the bias to get the curved effect.  Jenny's video tutorial explains this step really well.

I added 2 rectangles of coordinating fabric to the back of the cathedral front to make this cover.  The 2 back panels were cut at 18" by 12" so that they overlap the pillow and so that the cover is removable. 

Dinosaur Print Baby Quilt

 

Here's a simple quilt I made using the free pattern from Riley Blake designs.  It was their "Little Giraffe" pattern for the baby fabric line, which I adapted to dinosaur.  Here's a link to the free pdf pattern:  https://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/assets/images/freepatterns/quiltpatterns/GiraffeCrossingFreePattern.pdf

These aren't the best photos, but they give an idea of the finished quilt.  The cute Robert Kaufman dinosaur print didn't seem to be part of a fabric bundle of coordinating prints, so I pulled the primary colors from the dinosaur print and got my own coordinates.  Some are from Joann's fabric, some from Walmart fat quarters, and one Dr. Seuss stripe print from Robert Kaufman.  It's photographed upside down and right side up since the print isn't directional, there really isn't a right side to it.

2021 Garden

 Now that November and cold temperatures have arrived, our garden is gone.  I plan to start some indoor gardening to keep seeing green during the Winter months, but here was this year's garden:

We tried using bamboo poles in teepee shapes with netting stretched between them to support vertical pumpkin vines.  As you can see, it didn't work.  The pumpkin vines are too heavy for the netting, so we'll try it for beans or peas next year.

We grew 2 kinds of pumpkins:  mini decorative pumpkins and jack-o-lantern pumpkins.  These photos were taken after our first frost, so the vines had started to die.  We got 6 large pumpkins and over 40 mini ones from our garden.

I learned this year that mini pumpkins are edible and are not just cute decorations.  Using my 4.5 quart instant pot, I put the trivet in the bottom and added 2 cups of water, then cooked 4 mini pumpkins at high pressure for 10 minutes.   The peels came right off after cooking, the seeds came out easily, and each mini pumpkin produced around 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree.

I had to take close up pictures of the pepper plants because I grew them from seed started indoors in February 2021.  I was so glad they actually survived and produced peppers!  Most pepper plants we've grown in the garden in the past have been transplants from home improvement stores and we were lucky if one pepper grew from each plant. 

 These plants produced 4 - 6 bell peppers each, which is a first for us.

We experimented with walls of water or "Cozy Coats" we ordered online from Amazon.com this year.  I probably put the plants out too late and left on the insulation all summer.  They actually helped the plants survive the early frost we got in September.  We'll use them again next year.

Even though I accidentally stunted the tomato plants by keeping them in coconut coir too long, not realizing it has no nutrients, the tomato plants survived and produced a large crop.  I was even able to share seedlings transplants with my Dad in May, since I had also started them from seed in February.  The basil plants came from a nursery since they don't grow true from seed for me.

This is the aftermath of the romaine lettuce and arugula I grew.  The lettuce bolted during July and August, so I ripped it out.

This is a view of all the garden area with some of our backyard lawn.  That rotating compost bin doesn't get as used as I expected.  It had grass clippings that turned to dry straw and just never amounted to compost.  It requires more tending and attention than I'm willing to give it.

Favorite Things Quilts

 Working full time as a Technical Support Engineer for large Enterprise data center servers meant I had less time to craft.  During the COVID restrictions and distancing in 2020 and 2021, I turned to quilting.

I made "Favorite Things" quilts for each family member with various designs that show case busy fabric prints representing things we like.  

The design inspiration for my daughter's quilt was this Craftsman Style quilt pattern:  

She chose navy blue minky fabric with gold zodiac symbols for the backing.

The design for my son's quilt was just squares separated by sashing strips and corner squares the same size as the sashing.

We didn't photograph the backing, but it's the same gray as the corner stone squares.

My husband's quilt front was inspired by the "Key to my Heart" quilt as well as an ocean themed quilt I made in 2019.  

The back of his quilt uses the corner HST scraps from the quilt front to make pinwheel border strips for the Riley Blake 4 Utah National Park panels.  I think I like it even better than the front!

My quilt is based on the "Dazzling Diamonds" pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  I saw a cute Halloween fabrics version of it in one of their publications as well.  It has a sort of retro 60s new age space needle vibe to it, so I used planet fabric for the borders and backing.

I took all 4 quilts to a long arm quilting store to be quilted since I don't enjoy machine quilting.  The shop I like to use for quilting is called "Quilts on the Corner" in Sandy, Utah.

2015 Year In Review

I stopped blogging and moved on to other adventures in 2015.

In June 2015, my family and I went to the beautiful city of San Francisco. So many scenic views captivated us throughout the city.  Like Pier 15 below.

We went to historic Alcatraz island, which has become a bird refuge (see white bird pictured above), and took the self-guided prison tour.

We traveled through Reno, Nevada and stopped at Lake Tahoe where a blue jay adopted my husband.

We visited and hiked in Bryce Canyon, National Park. We also climbed inside the cave of a small waterfall in southeastern Utah (see below) and belly crawled through Mammoth Caves (not pictured).

My husband, daughter and I took the 15 mile round trip hike up and down Mount Timpanogos in Utah County, Utah.

Pollution and strong winds from forest fires in Idaho obscured much of the normal views from the summit even in Utah, but we still got to see a lot of pretty wildflowers and varied terrain trails.

I returned to school in June to study web development and computer programming.   **UPDATE -- I graduated on August 6, 2016!! **

Halloween Cards

Our next card swap in September has Halloween as one of the themes.  I found a really cute card online at http://www.faithabigaildesigns.com/2011/10/stuck-on-u-sketches-design-team-post_21.html   It looked like a fun card to try, so I made some similar ones for the swap.  Here they are:

 I used a combination of left-over die cuts and patterned cardstock from a Little Yellow Bicycle Halloween mini album kit and the haunted house and fence cuts from Happy Hauntings.  I added black Stickles spider webs to the haunted houses to dress them up a bit.  I didn't cut the windows and doors details from the haunted house because they came out too tiny at this size.  I saved the cut-outs from the yellow fence sections to make the door and windows on the haunted house.

These cards are A2 sized.  Each one has a different phrase or style.  I like them all!

2014 Garden

I love to garden! Spending time outdoors among living things and watching them grow is a satisfying experience.

The flavors of home grown, naturally ripened produce far surpasses store bought produce. Blogging about each year's garden helps me remember what I planted for the next year's plan.  It's fun to look back at the garden pictures on dreary Winter days to remember Summer.  Here's this year's garden:

From left to right, we have:

 1-strawberry plants with Kale peeking up from behind them

2-Mint, Thyme, and 2 kinds of basil with nothing in the neighboring box

3-Red onions, Brussels Sprouts, and Peas with Parsnips and Mixed leaf Lettuce next door

4-Hot Peppers, Chamomile, and Tomatoes

East of the planting boxes, I decided to finally plant crops in the open space along with the compost bin instead of battling weeds there.  Next to the house and along the fence behind the corn, we have raspberry plants.  All around the corn plants, we have a pumpkin vine.  Corn and squash are good companion plants, and I figured that since pumpkins are a kind of squash, they could grow well together.

The corn with the reddish silk is actually popping corn.  Last year I thought it would be fun to try growing my own popping corn, so I found a seed packet labelled popping corn and planted some right next to the sweet corn to see how it does.  It looks like it is working so far.  It just needs to dry out before popping, as far as I know.

(Close-up of two kinds of basil, mint and thyme)

(Close-up of peppers, chamomile, and tomatoes)

I honestly don't know what kinds of peppers I planted.  The tags said either serrano or poblano, but I think I got one Anaheim plant, too.  I've never grown hot peppers or chamomile before, so I'm just experimenting this year.

These raspberry plants are in their second year, so they are producing fruit really well, thanks to our local bees.

This planting box is empty because the watermelon and canteloupe plants I planted there died soon after transplanting when unseasonably cold weather hit.  I decided to leave it empty to rest for this season.

This pumpkin plant loves growing alonside the corn stalks.  The vine has grown even longer since I took these pictures in July.  Three pumpkins have formed so far.  Hopefully, they'll be ready for Halloween!

The red leaf lettuce has started to bolt, due to heat.  The parsnips seem to be doing just fine.  They take a long time to sprout leaves, much like carrots.

This was my first time planting onions and Brussels Spouts.  I have no idea how either crop should look at this stage.  I'm not seeing any sprouts on the Brussels Sprouts.  They look really bushy and leafy.  Maybe they need cooler weather to form sprouts?  I picked one onion, because it had droopy leaves.  It had gouges in the outer layers, as though a snail, slug, rodent, or something ate a long, thin chunk of the onion.  Plus, the onion had begun to rot.  I don't know if the other onions will make it.  I planted them for homemade salsa, along with the hot peppers and tomatoes.

The strawberry plants like to send out runners everywhere, so I'm going to let them take over the rest of the neighboring planting box.  They will probably fill it in completely by next summer.  By then, the kale and the lettuce will be gone.

I plan to use all of the garden space next year, too.  The corn probably needs to go to another area to give the soil a break, but we'll see.