Quilt Shop: Patchwork Moose; Talkeetna, Alaska

Good afternoon, my friends. We just got back from our grocery shopping trip. (Limited quantities and selection here in this part of Alaska.) So now seems as good a time as any to tell you about the quilt shop. Look at this cute little shop. It was our first stop on our Talkeetna self-guided walking tour. That should come as no surprise to you. By the way, those signs in front say that parking is for customers only. Violators will be sprayed with fusible and doused in glitter. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Stepping inside the front door…

It was a gift shop and a quilt shop. As I walked straight ahead, I was smitten with these little crocheted booties.

Some very friendly women were manning the store. (Can women “man” a store?) They showed me all the Alaska themed batiks. These were created specifically for Alaska and designed by Alaska designers. On this wall were mainly flowers and other vegetation-related themes. I looked here for some lupine or some wild roses, but I didn’t see anything like that.

On this wall were more landscape and animal designs, also Alaska themed.

These fabrics were on sale, but I didn’t see anything I wanted.

On this wall were more traditional quilters’ cottons.

This wall was designated as “blenders.”

You’ll see in tomorrow’s post that we saw this sign when we started our walk down main street. They had this as a kit.

This bear caught my eye. It was also available in a kit.

This one nearly stole my heart:

And look how pretty this one is…Northern Lights.

And look at this vintage sewing machine. When I see these, they are usually Singer machines. It was unusual to see a Janome.

When I see displays of yarn like this, it makes me wish I was a knitter. I used to crochet, but it’s been decades. I’d have to reteach myself if I took it up again.

So I liked this store. They hastened to let me know they have an online presence right here. I’m going to be making that Alaska quilt when I get home, and so it’s good to know where I might find Alaska-themed prints.

So what did I buy? Well, that bear captured my fancy, and so I purchased the pattern…not the kit, which sold for $95! A little rich for my blood. The pattern was $15. It’s from an Alaska designer. Her Wildfire Designs Alaska website is right here.

Also, a fat quarter of this batik for my Shop Hop 4.0 quilt. We saw a moose on our drive yesterday. It wandered off into the woods before I could get a picture of it. If you’re keeping score that’s four fabrics down, two to go.

Okay, so that’s all I have to tell you about that shop. From there, we went on a walk up and down Talkeetna Main Street. I’ll tell you about that in tomorrow’s post.

Sidetracked

Good morning, my friends. It's January's last gasp today. Tomorrow is the reveal for the challenge quilt I've teased you with. Are you ready? 

My post is written and I'm ready to go. Yesterday saw me sidetracked by the Bernie's Mittens project. I was supposed to work on the Purrfectly Pieced quilt, but you know...the best laid plans, and all that. 

Mike and Erik are getting together this week to work on a project, and I really wanted to finish it off. When I saw it lying on Eliza's table, I decided to go ahead and finish it on the "big machine." Big Bertha hasn't come back yet, and I don't like quilting on Pfelicity. Pfelicity has a very strange free motion foot that I have to figure out every time I use it. It seemed easier to wait for Big Bertha to come home...except she's still not home. Maybe today. In any case, the show must go on, and so I went to work on Bernie.

He was already sandwiched for quilting. Originally, I had in mind to stitch all around the edges of the embroidery. Since I don't have as much control and accuracy with Eliza, I decided instead to do a hooking meander all around. Then, I quilted one straight line just outside the lavender border. It's a small piece at 15 x 12 inches, and so that was enough quilting to hold it.

From there, I squared it up for binding.

Sadie was sorry she showed up late to the show. She was going to help hold my ruler. Next time, Baby.

I had some long strips of backing fabric left over from the Wind in the Whiskers quilt, and those made a good binding for Bernie.

Since Erik has spoken for this one, I wanted to add a label to it. I had some "I love you" labels that I've used before. I used one on the Dream Big quilt that Matthew requested.

It must have been my last one, because I couldn't find any more. In my searching, I found a box of different iron-on labels, and this one happened to be just perfect. Being iron-on was a nice bonus.

Then, I went to work hand-stitching. By day's end, it was finished.

Bernie's Mittens is my seventh finish in January. Admittedly, six out of the seven quilts finished in January have been small wall-hangings. With apologies to Dr. Seuss, a quilt's a quilt no matter how small.

The only other sewing I did yesterday was to spend quite a bit of time on the Sewing Day stitchery. 

I really want to finish this off today since the "Stitched Inchies" start tomorrow. There is still quite a bit to do, but I think I can get 'er done. I'll get started on that right after breakfast. 

Also today, I'm really, really, really, really going to get started on the final section for the Purrfectly Pieced quilt. I think I've procrastinated long enough that Big Bertha should be home when I'm ready to do the top-stitching. Don't you just hate this waiting and not knowing about something like that? And I'm especially perturbed at how long it's taking. It's been nearly three weeks, and she was promised in two. Sigh. Patience, Grasshopper. This too shall pass.

Semper Finished!

When I left you yesterday, I had several possibilities on my sewing room agenda. As it turns out, my only trip into the sewing room yesterday was to retrieve a blue spool of thread used to sew the label onto Semper Fi. It was the last thing I needed to do to call this very large quilt a finish.

Sadie helped yesterday by staying put on her window shelf while I sewed the last of the binding.

My goal was to turn the fourth corner, and then I realized only about 40 inches remained to get it into the finished column. So I just kept going.

When the binding was finished, I laid it out on the floor. Sadie consented to sitting there for some scale. Big quilt. Little cat.

Then I took a few random pictures of the quilting.

And then I sewed on the label.

And now, it's folded up, ready for gifting, although I'll probably re-fold it so that the label appears on top.

So that was a good day's work. I loved making this quilt for my friend, and I love even more that it's finished. It's like getting a new lease on life. For my new lease, I'm celebrating by making a trip to the grocery store today. I know...such a party girl! Andy and I have been friends since high school, and so he can say he knew me when.

This was my goal for December's

So, I'll be linking up to the finishing party at the end of the month.

The unconfirmed plan is for all of us to drive to Kalama, Washington, next week, meeting halfway for lunch and a hand-off. It will be fun to hand it over to them in person. Also, I've already scoped out the availability of quilt shops in the area, and so I'll combine both for the trip up there if I can do it and still avoid rush-hour traffic.

As for today, I'll get back to work on the Tiny Tree blocks. There are two to make today, and then I'll try to get caught up on the Garden Sunshine quilt blocks.

With A Little Help from my Cats

It was a marvelously relaxing day of slow stitching yesterday. I barely moved from our reclining chair next to the living room window. First, I embroidered a few more names for the next row of the Shop Hop quilt.

Then it was time to sew on the hanging sleeve for the Quiltmaker's Garden quilt. For this, Smitty was my faithful companion. He stayed on my quilt-covered lap for the entirety of this sewing exercise.

As I was taking the final stitches on the sleeve, Sadie walked by the glass door. When I didn't hear her come inside, I went outside to investigate. There she was in her little cat house inside the catio. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to close the catio door and that was the end of their outdoor time for the day. Generally, they come in around 1:00 p.m., and they seem relieved when they can spend the rest of the afternoon napping.

With the miles of hanging sleeve finished, I needed to sew on the label.

For that, my little cat Sadie joined me and remained there until the label was finished.

And with that, this quilt is ready for its debut at the Oregon State Fair next month.

Today is a CSA pick-up day, but aside from that, I'll enjoy another NBS day. Today I'm going to make a hanging sleeve for the Working for Peanuts quilt. That one is going to hang on one of the walls in our bedroom. If I finish with that, I might get a head start on my goal for August's OMG. I'm a day early, but I'll just say that my goal is going to be to sew the Wine Country quilt into a flimsy.

When I last worked on this quilt, I had the blocks finished, but had to think about how to sew them together. My original idea was discarded, and so I was back to the "thinking board" with it. Now, I think I know just what to do to finish it off. When the linky party goes live (presumably tomorrow), I'll link up with my goal for August.

Kitchen Duty

We're having guests for dinner tonight. It's really just an excuse to clean the place up. Mike (aka Blow Man) went around yesterday with his leaf blower and blew all the debris off the patios and sidewalks, and hey! The place looks a whole lot better. It's amazing how much one's eyes can avoid seeing until its all gone from view, if that makes any sense.

In my kitchen wanderings yesterday, I had most things about half done, and ready to put the final touches on them today. I made the same Dilled Potato and Pickled Cucumber Salad I made last week. Mike has declared it the best potato salad I've ever made. Sounds like a winner to me. Also, I made this BLT Bow Tie Pasta Salad. With our salads, we'll be having a Crisp Skin High Roast Chicken from Cook's Illustrated. Mike can grill this, and that makes it easier for me. The link I've given you includes the potatoes that can be cooked below the chicken. The chicken fat drips into them, cooking and flavoring the potatoes, but we think they end up too greasy. It'll be just the chicken for us. Today I'm making a lemon meringue pie. Here's a picture of one I made for Pi day a couple of years ago. I knew you'd want to see it.

It's not a difficult pie to make, but there are a lot of steps involved. That will take me the better part of the morning.

So that's yesterday and today's morning in a nutshell...or a pie shell...or whatever.

There was a little time for sewing yesterday. I've nearly completed two more shops for the Shop Hop quilt embroidery.

This row has seven names because the center block will be a double. There are two fabrics with a larger scale that will get a little more room on the quilt than the others.

Also, I made the hanging sleeve for the Quiltmaker's Garden quilt. It's pinned to the quilt and ready for hand-sewing. I doubt anything more will happen on this until tomorrow.

The label is also made and ready for sewing.

When I was ready to leave the sewing room, Smitty showed up. His dinner dish needed attention.

How would it be if I knocked this box of binding clips to the floor? I could, you know. Just a thought.

Guess I'd better take care of the cat. There's lots to do in the kitchen today. Mustn't keep the pie (or the cat) waiting.

Lazy Beyond Belief

Friday started off with a warning of sorts. Sue came through with the weenie award, which I'd won, fair and square. I claimed the weenie award several weeks ago when I weenied out on our regularly-scheduled walk, whining about being too busy. "I need to go grocery shopping...whaaaaaaaaa." I think those might have been my exact words. Anyway...there it is...mine until Sue weenies out next time. Then it will be hers again.

Yesterday I noticed the date on the back: 11/09. One or the other of us has been the official holder of the weenie award since November of 2009. We've been walking since sometime in 2005...I can't remember for sure when we started.

We were walking the Fanno Creek Trail. There's a section of the trail where a small pond forms and we often see ducks and ducklings there, along with the occasional red-winged or tri-colored blackbird, great blue heron, and/or snowy egrets. A time or two, we've seen hawks. Yesterday, we were met by some ducks.

Got any Cheetohs? Fritos? Doritos?

And the pond had flooded the trail. We considered passing, but the water was several inches deep, and murky with sludge.

We decided to turn back, and then took a different branch of the trail. Same thing there. This seems very unusual in July.

Mike thought water might have been released from a dam upstream. I tried to find some information about it, but couldn't find anything relevant to the current time period. Nevertheless, I did find some information about Fanno Creek here, if you're interested.

We turned back again, and then headed back to our cars, appropriately discouraged for the day. Along the way, we passed this sign.

Now they tell us. We could have died out there!

There were a few things I needed from the grocery store. When I got home, I took a nap. There's no good reason for that, except that I felt like it. Sometimes I think it's important to give in to our strongest of laziness urges. We had some lunch, and then I worked a little bit on the Shop Hop embroidery, polishing off the name of one shop.

And then I tried to bore myself to death. I considered all the possible ways I could spend my afternoon, checking each one off with a heart-felt "Nah!" Finally, being unable to stand myself any longer, I got up and made a label for the Quiltmaker's Garden. It's due in Salem mid-August, and so I really need to get it ready to go. The border for this was a free download I found online. I added the text.

And now It's printed on fabric. I'll put a little border around it and then sew it to the quilt. Also, I started piecing together the remaining scraps of fabric I have to try to come up with the length and width I need for a hanging sleeve. It might be a lost cause since the fabric appears to have been chewed off the end of the quilt by squirrels; not actual squirrels, you understand. It was me and my scissors, masquerading as squirrels. If that's the case, I'll use some muslin.

As for today, I'll be doing some cooking. We have dinner guests coming tomorrow. I'm keeping our menu simple and making most things ahead. There will be more things to do tomorrow, but getting a head start today will help. I'm hoping to get some time to work on the hanging sleeve later today.