A Little Color

I had to work late tonight and then stop at Trader Joe's . . . then make and eat a sandwich for a late dinner. I had no time for sewing and not too much time for blogging (although I DID do my little housecleaning chores--still on task!), so I may talk a little more about colors and picking fabrics another night, but I thought I'd at least talk about using something other than white--or cream--as a background fabric tonight.

First the disclaimer: I'm not a color expert. I don't even play a color expert on TV. I know a little bit about the color wheel and primary colors and secondary colors and tones and such, but not all that much. If someone gave me a quiz right now, I might get a C if I was lucky and guessed right on some of the questions. But here are a couple thoughts I have, and please feel free to leave a comment agreeing, disagreeing, or offering additional insights, okay? After all, we're all in this crazy quilting world together.

Yes, we all know about whites, off whites, and creams. For years I didn't like to use white, and that's probably because it didn't look very good with many of the country-toned colors I liked to use. Now I'm more open-minded. White, I think, looks great with clear, jewel toned colors--the colors I think of as happy colors, for instance. Off whites and creams, to my eye, look better with deeper and grayed down colors--think Thimbleberries, many of the 1800s repros, and primitives, for instance.

I think recently we've all seen this Amish with a Twist block of the month project, right?

This is a good example of using a background color that isn't white. The black looks great against the brighter colors and gives them a high contrast. As a background color, white would go well with these colors too, but it wouldn't give the quilt the visual punch that the black does. One of these days soon, I want to use black as a background.

Here's one of my favorite quilts:

For this Schnibbles quilt, I used a Fig Tree line of fabric. The soft, sunwashed shades would have looked okay with an off white background but I think the quilt would have appeared a little boring. A black background might have been too jarring to the eye. And the problem I find in working with charm packs is that you need to find a background color that goes with the colors in the fabric line but doesn't duplicate the colors in the line--because that would mean we couldn't use the charms that were the same color as the background, and that would leave us with fewer usable charm squares. For awhile, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to use as a background, and then I started looking at other Fig Tree lines--because quite often, designers like to work with colors that blend together from line to line. I saw that there were browns in a number of the Fig Tree lines, so I tried a brown from my stash--not a Fig Tree fabric but one in a shade that was similar. I liked it! The brown is a soft enough shade to look like it goes with the other fabrics, but it still provides a good contrast.

Finally, my recent Doc Schnibbles:

I'm not a big fan of 30s fabric, although I like the colors--just not all those tiny little prints. The difficult thing--in my mind--about working with 30s fabrics is the lack of contrast: Most of the colors used in 30s fabrics are medium value colors. When I work with the colors of 30s fabrics, I treat white as the light fabric and I like to use red as the dark contrast fabric. And that's kind of what I did with Doc.

The fabric I used, Make Life, had a lot of light charm squares and a lot of colors a bit like the colors found in 30s fabrics, with the exception of that dark gray. And although there was red running through the entire line, there were only about four charm squares in each pack that were solid--or nearly solid--red. So I already knew red would go well with the rest of the colors, and I even knew what SHADE of red worked--all I needed to do was set aside the red charm squares for something else and use red as the background.

And just like using the darker contrast of black as a background color in the first quilt, Amish with a Twist, using red as a background color in Doc provided a surprising contrast that made the other colors pop.

Busy Little Quilter left a comment yesterday saying she uses red as a neutral. I kind of agree, but it doesn't go with everything--or maybe it does, if you find the right shade. But it's certainly an option if you're looking for contrast. Next time you're thinking about a background fabric, think about using something unusual. Gray is a popular color now and would make a good background in many instances. I'd also suggest yellow--I use it as a wall color for about half the rooms in my house, because I'm hard pressed to think of a color I wouldn't like with yellow. (See the yellow wall behind Doc?) If most of the fabrics you want to use in a project are light, think about trying out a dark background.

It doesn't hurt to experiment--after all, it's only fabric, and there's plenty more of it out there! But you might surprise yourself, and wouldn't that be fun?!

The Hatfields & The McCoys: A Review

Are you watching the Kevin Costner mini-series? We have been. We watched the first episode Monday night at 8 p.m., a good time for me, Hubby, and the Wild Child. Night two, we gathered at 8 p.m., only to find a repeat showing of the first episode. (I don't get home from work in time to watch the 6 p.m. showing of the newest episode.) So, we had to postpone and reconvene at 10 p.m. We'll be doing the same thing tonight for episode three.

If you've missed it so far, here's what it's about:

Too many guns,
Too much moonshine,
Too much testosterone,
Not enough brains.
The whole feud was a prime example of how natural selection works to clean up the gene pool and make it safer for the rest of us to dive in.

Seriously, I'm not sure why I'm planning to watch the third episode, but I figure I'm this far in, I might as well finish it. At least the actors are pretty good.

Bet you're more interested to find out whose name was chosen to win the Doc Schnibbles pattern than to read my take on the story of a bunch of sweaty men who died over 100 years ago, right? (Thank goodness for the modern convenience of plumbing and the invention of toothpaste!) Marj, come on down! Marj wrote: "I love the way you make a pattern your own by changing up the colors and borders. I would love to win the pattern and make my own version. Thanks for the chance."

Marj, email me your mailing address and I'll get the pattern in the mail to you this week.

When I showed my version of Doc the other day, several of you commented on my somewhat surprising use of red as the background fabric, so I thought I'd write a post with a few of my thoughts about color--just a couple things I've noticed over the years. I'll try to write and post that tomorrow night. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by to visit!

Time to Get Back to This . . .

Remember the Garden Club quilt I've been working on since . . . oh, I think it was probably in the late summer/early fall of 2011 when I started it. When I finished piecing Doc Monday morning, I wasn't sure what to work on next. I'd already finished this month's Autumn House and Country Cottages blocks; did I want to work on Merry, Merry Snowmen? I have nearly two weeks until the next block kit arrives, and this month's block looks like it will go fairly quickly. Or did I want to work on Harrington and Hannah? I have more than two weeks before the next block of that project is posted. I kept feeling like I was forgetting something, and then I remembered the Garden Club quilt. I hadn't worked on that for about two months. What block was supposed to be completed next?

I flipped through the book and the next block was of three topiaries--yep, I could do that easily in a couple days. So I pulled out the bag of fabrics I set aside for this project and started planning.

The really hard thing about doing a block of the month when you're not using the same types of fabrics and colors as were used in the original is trying to keep track of what colors have been used in which places. A really smart quilter probably would have made a photocopy of the overall quilt pattern--because there is a page with outlines of the different blocks that would lend itself fairly well to the idea--and colored in the blocks as she went. Apparently I'm not that really smart quilter.

What I did instead was to lay out the pieces I've made so far on my bed and take a photo of what's done. Then I printed that out as a color reference. Since I only have a couple sections left to make, I think this should work okay for me. Here's my photo, but be aware that it's kind of hard to differentiate between my blocks and the "hat quilt" that's on my bed--they both use many of the same colors and tones--and the photo doesn't really show everything--I was mostly interested in what colors are already used in blocks that border the waiting-to-be-made sections.

The topiary section I'm working on will fit above the chair and beehive on the right side of the quilt.

The nice thing about laying out the pieces on my bed is that I can see it's probably not going to be wide enough--even for the double bed I'll want to put it on--although it's certainly LOOOOONG enough. And in the original pattern, there are two long snakes running along the right side of the quilt--I'm not planning to add snakes to my quilt, so I won't even have the benefit of knowing I can count on the width of the snakes to make the quilt a little larger. What I'm thinking instead is that these quilt sections don't fit nicely together--as designed, there are at least a couple inset seams, and I don't like that, so maybe I can add a little width in those sections by adding in some small pieced blocks. Pinwheels seem right for a garden, don't they? I'll have to play around with the idea and decide.

Anyway, here's the topiary section--it's nearly done but I have two of the green circles to finish appliqueing:

The next section should be pretty fast too, so maybe I'll go on to make it. Or maybe I'll put it away until next month, because there are a couple other projects I need to work on. I don't think I'll ever lack for projects to work on, that's for sure!

What's Up? Doc!

I wanted to show you my version of the Schnibbles pattern, Doc. This was the Schnibbles project "assigned" to us this month by Sherri and Sinta. I've tacked it up on the wall because I didn't have a better place to photograph it, but keep in mind it's just a quilt top so far, so it doesn't really hang all that well.

You know how sometimes you find a fabric you love, and then you just CAN'T use it because you want to save it for the perfect project? The charm packs I purchased a couple years ago of Make Life by Sweetwater were like that. But after thinking and thinking and changing my mind several times about what fabric I wanted to use for Doc, it finally occurred to me that it would look terrific in the Make Life line, and since there weren't too many reds in the line (but a LOT of whites and light colors!), I thought using a red background would work well. I like the way the colors pop, and they're so cheerful, it makes me smile just looking at it.

Originally, I thought I might like to add an outer border--I had a couple border-type fabrics from the Make Life line. But once I put the half square triangles on, I thought if I added anything, it should just be a bit more of the background fabric to make the triangles float, so that's what I did.

Here you can see the original quilt from the pattern, without that added background border:

Would you like a chance to win the pattern? Leave me a comment asking to be entered into the drawing. I'll pick a name Wednesday night and announce the winner on my Thursday blog post. Good luck!

Fair Trade?

I'm sure you'll remember I was drawing the winner of the above pattern tonight, right? Well, I wanted to have the Wild Child pick the winner, but when I emerged from the Sweat Shop after my late-night appointment with Doc Schnibbles, I found everyone had already gone to bed. Drat! So I defaulted to the old, reliable random number method of picking a winner, and that winner is Mary of Quilt Hollow.

Now the really odd coincidence is that out of 66 entries, Mary's name came up, and I just won a pattern from HER a week or two ago. So we're sort of just trading patterns, in a way.

If you didn't win this one, don't despair. I'll be having another giveaway for the Doc pattern before too long. I'll probably be ready to debut my quilt top tomorrow--I'm really loving this one and I bet you'd love making a version of it too!

Have a happy Memorial Day!

The Weekend Begins

Saturday was a pretty good day--a nice start to the Memorial Day weekend. Our temperatures were in the high 70s--pretty perfect in my book!

I've been thinking for awhile now that I needed to sort out all of my bundles of wool, cut the wool into squares, and list some of it in my Etsy shop, so I started on the sorting and cutting today. I have WAAAAAAAAY more wool than I'll ever use, and storing it takes up a LOT of room! Today I got through about six bundles in shades of blue, teal, and purple; when I say "bundles," what I mean is all of the wool I've gotten from one of the wool blazers or skirts I've felted, so there's quite a lot! I know some of you like to work with wool, so I'll let you know when I've listed some of it, in case you're interested. I'll be listing several sizes of squares and I'll probably also sell bundles of assorted colors/shades.

Besides playing in the wool, I spent part of the day working on this month's Schnibbles pattern, Doc. I'm really enjoying making this one--it's a lot of fun seeing how each block comes together. If you haven't seen the pattern, it's made up of nine card trick blocks--I've always wanted to try that block.

I also did a little cooking. For our dinner, I stuffed and baked the gypsy peppers I mentioned a few days ago, and they turned out great! I stuffed them with fresh corn sliced off the cobb, sauteed onions and garlic, and a combination of cream cheese and feta. I found the recipe HERE, although I substituted the cream cheese and feta from another recipe. The feta I used was the cheese my daughter and I made at the cheese-making class last December. How cool is that?!

While I was cutting wool today, I was watching some of the food/cooking shows on TV, and one of the shows, The Perfect 3, was about pizza. I picked up a couple tips from that show and tried them out for dinner--I think this turned out to be the best pizza I've ever made, too. I preheated a cast iron flat griddle to cook the pizza on and used olive oil on the griddle; I also drizzled olive oil on top of the pizza and cooked it at a higher temperature than normal. The result was a crispier, tastier pizza.

I love weekends, and I particularly LOVE lo-o-o-o-o-o-ong weekends! I hope you're enjoying yours too!

Haven't Done This in Awhile

You're familiar with Lori Smith's patterns, right? Her company is From my Heart to Your Hands. A couple weeks ago, I was looking for the pattern for a quilt I saw at the last Thimbleberries Club meeting and I ended up ordering two different patterns from her website--she has wonderful designs using traditional quilt blocks.

Anyway, she was at quilt market when I placed my order and I guess she felt badly that it took awhile for her to get the order in the mail--not that it bothered me at all because Lord knows I have PLENTY to keep me busy! Along with my two patterns, though, she sent along a freebie for making me wait--

There are patterns for all nine small quilts in the one package. Each quilt finishes at 16" x 20". Are you interested in winning the pattern? I already have several of her mini quilt patterns and I think I might even have this one, so I'm willing to pass it on to a lucky someone. Unfortunately, I can only afford to mail the pattern to residents of the US or Canada. I'll randomly pick a winner on Sunday night and will post the winner's name on Monday's blog post. Just leave me a comment on this post, telling me you want to be entered.

If you click on the link where I mention Lori's pattern company above, it will take you to a page on her website showing some of her patterns. If you aren't familar with her stuff, take a look.

Country Cottages, Block 5

I've been working this week on the fifth Country Cottages block--this is the free block of the month from Shabby Fabrics.

The house and plant hook look like they're leaning a bit in the photo, but I think it's at least partly camera distortion. It turned out kind of cute, don't you think? But I had a little difficulty early on. I'd decided on the fabrics I was going to use and started making the house. I got to the point where I'd glued down most of the parts of the house, and here's what it looked like:

There wasn't anything really WRONG with it, but the colors and fabrics didn't feel like "May" or spring to me, so I started over. No loss, of course--I think this one will work just fine as a block for June or July, and now I have a head start. AND I have the block partially prepped, so I can take it with me to the office and do some applique on days when I don't have any other lunch plans.

The next project I plan to work on is the Schnibbles pattern, Doc. Have you made that one yet? I'm leaning toward using baby fabrics for that one and saving it until a baby gift is needed. If you've made the quilt, what fabrics did you use and what did you think of the pattern?

Unexpected Benefits

The third day of the daily cleaning schedule has come to an end, and I'm still going strong! I don't remember if I told you, but I printed the schedule out and taped it to the inside of one of our kitchen cupboard doors, where I can take a look at it each morning.

On Tuesday, as I thought I might, I cleaned various things in the kitchen while I sent Hubby out for fast food. Not great for our waistlines or pocketbooks but it got the job done. I was thinking maybe next week, we (actually HUBBY) could just make salads and sandwiches earlier in the day and pull them out of the fridge for dinner--that way, I could still clean in the kitchen and not be in his way while he cooks. But here's the cool thing. One of the chores on Tuesday's list was "drawers." I think I'm at least a halfway decent housekeeper, but my drawers don't get a lot of attention*, and I'll often pull one open and think, "Gee, that drawer needs to be cleaned! Maybe I can get to it this weekend." And then drawer-cleaning time never seems to arrive. But on Tuesday night, since it was on the list, I thought it was a good time to start on the drawers. So I picked two drawers to start with, took everything out of them, wiped them down, tossed out the stuff I no longer wanted, and put the rest back. It probably took me about 15 or 20 minutes, and now I have two clean drawers! After a month or two, I think the whole kitchen will be in pretty good shape.

On Wednesday, one of the chores was "organize closets." I'd been putting off packing away the winter clothes and pulling out the summer clothes, thinking I'd do it some weekend when I had time--and, like the drawer cleaning, so far I haven't had time--or at least no spare time I wanted to waste playing around with seasonal clothing. But tonight? Tonight I took care of it. And it feels so good knowing it's done--besides now I have cooler clothes to wear.

Earlier in the day on Wednesday, I talked to Hubby on the phone. He said something like, "I noticed on your list of chores that today you're supposed to do laundry. I could do that if you want." I know--a lot of you would kill to have your husband offer to do a chore like laundry, but laundry actually IS and HAS BEEN Hubby's chore for a long time. The problem is that I'd decided recently I need to launder my own work clothes because I think somewhere along the line, he stuffs them into zippered snack bags and has an elephant sit on them for three days before hanging them on hangers. So I said, "No, no, that's alright honey. I already started a wash load this morning, so all I have to do is dry them and hang and fold them when I get home tonight. Thanks, though." But here's the really astonishing thing: He then said, "I saw you're also supposed to vacuum the house, so I did that for you already."

So, of course I thought,

When I got home tonight, I asked Hubby, "What was the name of your first pet?" Well, I don't know if it really confirms his identity 100 percent, but for what it's worth, he got the answer right.

Thursday's chores involve cleaning stuff in the bathroom. So, of course now I'm thinking,

I'll let you know how it works out.

[No, the guy in the photo bears absolutely no resemblance to Hubby, but it's MY imagination, so I can dream what I want, right?]

*Up there where I said "my drawers don't get a lot of attention"? No, I didn't mean THAT. I can't believe your mind went there!

Farm Fresh

It's always bothered me a bit that most farmers' markets are held in the morning. Don't farmers have better things to do in the morning? Why can't they spend the morning picking their produce and then bring it to a farmers' market in the afternoon for goodness sake?!

I like fresh fruits and vegetables, but I'm not a morning person, nor am I any longer at an age where staying up all night to greet the dawn is an option. So unless I grew it myself, having fresh fruits and vegetables in the house--I mean REALLY fresh!--wasn't very likely.

Now, though, there are farm co-ops that are happy to deliver fresh, organic fruits and vegetables to my home, and I think that's an excellent alternative!

I recently signed up for home delivery of a box of organic mixed fruit and vegetables every third Tuesday. We can use a box of produce in a couple weeks, and by the third week, I'm kind of excited again to see what arrives next--and I can check online to see what's being delivered that week and postpone if that week's produce doesn't appeal to me.

So every third week, the organic fruits and vegetables equivalent of Santa Claus arrives at my house between 1 a.m. and 1 p.m. and delivers a box to my door. And you know what I said about not being a morning person? It was never so apparent as it was last night when I was making a last check of the house before going to bed, and I saw through my front window a box of produce on the patio table.

One of the interesting things about getting these boxes is that there's usually something in the box that's a bit of a challenge. Kind of like the TV show Chopped! but for the household cook rather than the professional chef. Last time it was baby bok choy--we'd never cooked with it before, and we received a POUND of baby bok choy. Sadly we didn't use it all before it got too old, but we did make stir fry one night. The time before that, it was red chard. My grandma used to cook Swiss chard but my mom never was into cooked greens other than spinach, so cooking chard was a little different for me.

And this week? This week, our box contained (among other things) a pound of gypsy peppers that look like this:

I had no idea what kind of peppers they were--thank goodness for the internet! Now I know they're sweet peppers, similar to bell peppers, and they have a thin skin. I've found a couple recipes for stuffed gypsy peppers that sound intriguing, and they're supposed to be good raw in salads too.

I would love to have a garden to grow my own produce in, but that requires more time and effort than I want to put into it. This year, we've planted three tomato plants in a raised planter, and I'll have to be satisfied with that--my own homegrown, ripe tomatoes and a box of fresh, organic produce delivered to my door every couple weeks. AND I don't have to get up early and go anywhere to get it. Not a bad deal, I think!