December Cornucopia

Happy New Year's Eve! Well, we've made it all the way to the end of yet another year. Are you looking forward to 2025? I'm trying my best, I swear I am, but it's hard not to worry about what's coming. To that end I've done my very best this past month to pay more attention to reading books and magazines and listening to music and story podcasts (instead of political ones). Filling up the tank with good stuff instead of solely focusing on what's going wrong in the world. Still paying attention of course, but not hyper-focusing. 

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A very delightful episode of Quilter On Fire Podcast interviewing Mx. Domestic. 

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Before Moo Deng, the viral sensation mini-hippo, there was William Johnson Hippopotamus.

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I like the Pantone Color of the Year, Mocha Mousse. It looks so soft and cozy and tasty.

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Belle at Seams Sew Me has two great (and free) video tutorials on making a post-hysterectomy support pillow and a lava sand heating wrap.

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A very cool idea for a podcast, Bowie Book Club based on a list Bowie left listing his top 100 books that had changed his life. Definitely some great books on there.

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Putting this on the make for holiday decorations next year list, a woven fabric advent star tree topper/decoration from Mx. Domestic made with ombré fabric.

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A very funky layering process demo (especially for National Quilter's Circle) to make a layered, raw-edge (what!?) piece, possibly a table runner or wall piece. I quite liked the result in the video.

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I thought I had a lot of scissors, but this young woman really has a collection going. So interesting to see so many types of scissors I've never encountered before.

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A very well-designed and free printable calendar from Carolyn Friedlander.

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Squares In Squares

 

I guess I'm just randomly working on the clues in the Old Town mystery quilt, jumping from one to the other as I feel like it. These are square in a squares that I made with paper piecing flip and sew method  not the usual tear off the paper method. They came out very precisely.

Here's the rest of the combinations for all the remaining blocks I have yet to make all laid out.

There's a pretty big variety of color choices and fabric patterns. Maybe too much variety? We shall see.

Not sure why so much yellow ended up in my choices as it's supposed to be coral/melon, but I'm going with it anyway. A little yellow in a quilt is always good for moving the eye around.

Wandering Wednesday on a Friday: Alum Rock Park

For our usual New Year's Day hike we went a few days early (yesterday that is) to Alum Rock Park in East San Jose. It was rather muddy due to the recent rains and we braved a "closed" trail. Thankfully no one fell in the river.

We managed to time it just right and go in-between rainstorms and had blue skies most of the way.
There were a lot of old bridge pilings from the former steam train that went over the river that were quite interesting.

 I liked the big wreath with sparkly ornaments hung on the overpass.

Interesting cave spots on the crumbly rock face.

An old falling apart cabin from 1915. I believe that it's made out of redwood given the peeling bark on the logs.

Plenty of Red-Hot Poker aka Torch Lily (kniphofia)

These are really interesting plants and I really should grow some in my own garden.

There was an interesting structure with this interior roof.

It was set over a non-functioning water fountain. Reminded me of the Las Pulgas Water Temple

We got a little elevation and got this lovely view.

Up at the summit of the trail we were on, looking back out into the South Bay, the view was blocked by clouds unfortunately.

The underside bark of one of the oaks was so striking.

All in all, about 4.5 miles were hiked with my SIL's family and then we had wonderful ramen at Hinodeya and got to light the menorah with them for the 3rd night of Hannukkah.

Seven Slots

I just received another great 3-D print from my DH, this time it was a quilting ruler holder. This is about 5" square and can hold fairly large rulers. I was surprised because it isn't terribly heavy but it didn't topple over. I'm excited to have another smaller one to corral the rulers I'm always using that seem to get lost amongst the larger ones in the long wood ruler stand that I have.

These are the first words he's 3-D printed and it was very fun to see how they were made. "Measure twice-cut once-cuss-repeat."

There are seven slots in all, so I'm able to have the rulers I'm working with the most all in one place and easy to grab right on my table top. I was finding that the smaller rulers were getting lost among the larger ones in the long wooden ruler stand that I already had set up. 

 

Blue Squares

I made some time for cutting out some blue squares for another part of another clue for the Old Town Mystery Quilt. These are going to be square in a square blocks with coral on the corners. I'm going to try the flip and sew paper piecing for these to see how accurate I can get them.

Not related at all but these are very good mints! They're more sugary than minty though, just an fyi. I got these in my stocking yesterday, and they are quite tasty, sometimes green tea flavored stuff is bleah for me. I'm honestly very excited about the container which is why I was measuring it. Will it fit something useful? I quite like the little window and the nicely rounded corners.

Furred Holidays

We got our Christmas tree a bit late (thank you Boulder Creek Volunteer Fire Department) and my DH got it all set up in the stand. I wasn't up for decorating it that very moment, but he told me he'd taken care of it. Yes, those our three furry pose-able spider that we put up for Halloween. I have to say they look pretty cute. 

They are very cute and cuddly.

After I got the lights on the tree, I put them back up,  but they kind of blocked out the lights too much.

Korben isn't too worried about them.

We hung up our new starburst lights out on the deck. 

Everyone is taking turns hanging out under the tree. The spiders are still on the tree, with bows on, hanging out near the wall. A new holiday tradition is born??

I hope you've had a lovely celebration today or just a wonderful Wednesday. If you find yourself needing something good to read about Midwinter Gods and Folk Heroes, this essay was quite tasty.

 

Red & White Allover

On to the other clues for the Old Town mystery quilt  I go. Seen here are some sort of festive for the holiday, neutrals and reds I've been working with for several different clues all at once. I'm trying to be efficient with cutting out the various shapes. There's going to be a whole lot more piecing going on for this quilt.  But with the helpful way the directions are written and organized it seems very do-able. It turns out that it's kind of nice to have a project to work on during the holidays, I see why Bonnie K. Hunter does it at this time of year.

First Clue Down

 

Well, the rest of the flying geese flew together (hah!) so fast I could barely catch them. Apparently I made one set too many than what the first clue of the mystery quilt asked for. But that's okay, more choices when I'm assembling the quilt in the last steps. So that's the first clue done, and now onto the much easier other clue tasks. This is probably the most flying geese I've ever made all at once. So, a pretty good range of aqua to turquoise colors and shades here.

Halfway Geese

 

The last of the flying geese blocks for the Old Town mystery quilt are halfway done now. Finally, sheesh they're taking me forever to make. I am, however, very happy with the fabric choices I've been working with.

This one is my favorite combinations of all. Double checks!

Some of these white on white prints are super stiff and very hard to pin through. They sew up okay though.

My DH has continued churning out all kinds of new gizmos on his 3-D printer. This is a stand that fits my phone. And he's working on one that'll be big enough for my iPad. I'm going to ask for a storage rack to hold these (haha).

Musical Interlude

 In lieu of any sewing related content, as there hasn't been much of late around here, how about some new-ish (and old) holiday songs I've been enjoying this year:

For enjoying today, (Happy Solstice by the way), here's a great one to celebrate with: Winter Solstice Song by Lisa Thiel.

Leslie Odom Jr. (he played Aaron Burr in Hamilton on Broadway) and Cynthia Erivo (she plays Elphaba in the new movie Wicked), two divine voices on Winter Song.

Somehow I missed this song from 2008, it's The Hives with Cyndi Lauper, A Christmas Duel

I recommend the entire Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings album, It's A Holiday Soul Party, but here's just one of the songs, God Rest Ye Merry Gents. There's even a great version of Little Drummer Boy on here too. 

Tim Minchin's White Wine in the Sun always makes me cry, but it's so very good.

From the Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special, the "kidnapped" Kevin Bacon and the Old 97's with a pretty good and new Christmas song. Mostly fun to watch if you liked the GoG movies.

And last but not least, a short history on The Waitresses and their very excellent song, Christmas Wrapping.

Final Fabric

 

I very much enjoyed my slightly postponed birthday lunch with friends Jaye and Tim last week. I still can't believe that I'm sixty now, but that's a whole 'nother blog post. After lunch we had a look around at the nearby Granary quilt store. I was very restrained and didn't buy the FIGO space dyes fat quarter pack that I was drooling over. Instead I opted for just one single FQ of this really interesting purple (that they had in lots of other colors) and 1/2 yard of the teal tracks fabric. 

I also got another bottle of unscented Best Press as mine is finally running out. I think I go through a bottle a year. Tim told me about using a vodka and water mixture to press out wrinkles in fabric and I am very intrigued to try this. Sometimes even Best Press won't work on some wrinkles. He also mentioned to only use very cheap vodka like the stuff for sale in plastic bottles, don't waste the good stuff, got it.

I also picked up a little mini windsock pattern. It has the metal rings included, it looked like a fun thing to make. They had some of them made up as examples in the shop and I thought they were pretty cute.

Will this be the final fabric purchase of the year? Most likely yes. Unless you count the pre-order I made of the beautiful Kona color of the year, Nocturne.

New Hobby

 

Reporting in today on my DH's new hobby. After many years of threatening to get one, he finally got a personal recommendation for a 3-D printer from a friend at work. He's very very excited about it which is all kinds of cute. It's a little bit smelly but not too terrible even with the heated up plastic.

The first thing he made was a scraper for the platten (the base that gets printed upon).  The second thing was this very cute bookmark.

Here it is at work holding my place in my latest read, the novel that the great TV series was based on, The Old Man.

It does a pretty great job, very flexible but strong.

His second effort was a holiday decoration of baby Yoda (aka Grogru) holding an ornament (an orb?). This is a character that I really really love, so it was nice that he picked that out for his second make. The stuff in the forefront is little bits of excess plastic that are left on the piece when it's done. Looks a bit like dry rice noodles. Unfortunately Lee-loo tried to eat it, so we'll have to be careful to keep it cleaned up.

There's all kinds of things he can make now, it's kind of endless. Let me know if you think of anything quilt-related he can make that would be useful. Hooray for new hobbies!

Old Town Geese

 

I've been plugging away at the Clue #1 on the Old Town Mystery quilt, a whole lot of sets of matching flying geese in neutral and aqua/turquoise. Quite a few left to make though. It'll be a whole flock of geese once I'm finally done with making them.

I'm finding I like working with the aqua and turquoise colors. The white on white printed neutrals not so much, but they look pretty nice.

I feel like I'm getting enough variation in these, but who knows as it is a mystery quilt design...

Free And Giving

 

There were a lot of choices on the free table at Sew Day. Friend Cindy had bought an estate sale lot of fabrics, and she brought in a literal table full for us to choose from. I was happy to snag a bunch of neutrals to use for the Old Town mystery quilt. The reds and oranges are also for that quilt. That black and white print was just cool.

There was also a bag of big cones of purple rayon embroidery threads. I snagged these two beauties. Not sure who contributed those, but I'll be happy to get my purple on with these. It's so nice to be in a quilt guild with such giving people.

And then over at the Community Giving table, I turned in the quilt that I had just finished the binding on and picked up another quilt to do the binding for. There were also some quilt block packets that will be good to use as leaders and enders

Old Town at Sew Day

More sewing of blocks for the Old Town mystery quilt happened at the BAMQ Sew Day. I got some more sets of flying geese done.

I also cut out and sewed together red and neutral strips for the second clue which is making a whole bunch of four-patches. I made quite a few of them, but then I got too busy socializing and made a mistake of sewing together two pairs of the two-strip pairs the long way instead of cutting segments and sewing. Whoops!

After some un-sewing and then cutting and sewing together into four patches a whole lot of them got finished at home. I really have to remember to bring more boring projects to Sew Day. Not that this is super intricate piecing of course, but I was trying to read the pattern directions on my phone and then I'd get interrupted between steps and...mistakes were made. No worries, it was well worth the time getting to talk to people.

And when I actually followed the great directions in the pattern, there's this very cool thing that happens at the four-patch intersection. I look forward to seeing how that helps when I sew all these blocks together further on into the quilt.