I sewed up a storm!!!!

August 19, 2012

what a great vacation i had! my big sister is truly such a treasure. here she is with the serger chip and i bought her for her birthday (her birthday is in december but since i don't see her then i celebrate it with mine). we both LOVE it. we used it almost daily. now i'll feel more confident to use my very expensive and complicated one that i have had for 6 years but been too afraid to use! we made clothes for our granddaughters: 4 dresses, 2 skirts, 3 pillowcases, 2 bibs, 2 tutu's and doll skirts and blouses and tutus with the left over material for her granddaughter's american girl doll.

we also took a soap making class at "the Flying Pig". what fun that was! Danielle, the owner,  had the cutest shop with all kinds of homemade and antique goodies. there were 8 of us in the class. the scent i used was "brown sugar and fig". we made the soap using goat's milk and a ton of other ingredients. to buy all of the stuff isn't very expensive and i think i'll make up a batch or two for christmas presents. i'm letting my soap "cure" right now and i'll tell you in a week or two how i like it!

my sister and i also went to the musical "legally blonde". we had front row center seats (she is a long season ticket holder). the seats are about 2 feet from the symphony orchestra that plays during the play. it is so wonderful! we ate out a few times but mostly ate in. this fish was my favorite meal. it would have rivaled any 5 star restaurant, it was that good! she also made corned beef hash the way our mother made it and she made me pumpkin muffins. i got so spoiled! the only thing we didn't do was quilt! we had so much fun it didn't matter.

this week i:  LOVE my big sister, my big brother (who sent us each a check to spend celebrating our birthdays!), my husband chip for being such a great guy and not minding that i leave him every year for 2 weeks, my serger and the fact that i have time to enjoy my hobbies. yeah!!! see you next week. nancyb

happy birthday to me!

my wonderful granddaughter, kendall, made this cake for me! it was sooooo delicious and we all enjoyed every bite! the second picture shows kendall and her brother, paxton  (who also is no stranger to the kitchen) after they've lit the cake. i had a wonderful birthday party. there's nothing better than family! although i complain about only having 2 grandchildren, i have to say that they are so much fun that i should be embarrassed to complain. but then again, they're so much fun that i want more! grandchildren really are the gift to us parents. our only responsibility is to make them happy. we don't have to spend a ton of money on them, just spend time with them and love them.

i'm getting ready to go to kansas. i'll be leaving at 3am tuesday morning and will arrive at 11:30am. my sister and i have been skyping back and forth daily, planning our great vacation. we have so many projects and things we want to do! wichita is a very large and busy city. while i'll miss my hubby a great deal, i can't wait to spend one on one time with my big sister. i will try to do a blog while i'm out there but as i've told you, i can't always figure things out on the computer! i have improved a great deal and will honestly try to publish a blog.

it is a balmy 82 degrees here in new hampshire and a whopping 108 degrees in wichita! thank heavens for air conditioning! well, this week i love.............birthdays (especially mine), grandchildren, my sons and daughter in law, books, crossword puzzles and my ipod with my favorite podcasts downloaded and ready for the bus and plane ride. see you in a couple of weeks if not sooner! nancyb

new scrappy quilt & BLUEBERRIES!!!

July 19, 2012

what an unbelievably busy week i've had. the blueberries are out early this year and they are wonderful! i love, love, love the high bush blueberries. they are large and sweet and easy to pick. chip and i picked 6 quarts in an hour. i froze those and went back the next day and froze the next batch. yesterday i went by myself and picked 3 more quarts to have fresh. it was too hot to cook but i did make my blueberry sauce. this is so easy and soooooooo delicious! it is best on pancakes or ice cream but my friends put it on their cereal and over sweet biscuits with whipped cream on top. i also like to put it on my toast. it is a jam consistancy when it is cold. here's the recipe:
GRANDMA'S BLUEBERRY SAUCE:
2 cups blueberries
3 TBSP honey
1/2 c orange juice
1 TBSP cornstarch
mix 1.5 cups blueberries, honey & 1/4 cup oj in saucepan. cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. mix the remaining 1/4 cup oj with the cornstarch and slowly stir it into the boiling mixture stirring constantly until the sauce is thickened (about 2-3 minutes). add remaining 1/2 cup blueberries and serve warm. refrigerate remaining sauce.....it reheats in microwave well.
i have canned this recipe and given it out as gifts throughout the year with great reviews.

now for the quilting news! i don't think i've told you that i really love making scrap quilts. i can't seem to help it. i try to follow a pattern and start throwing in more colors or different prints of the same colorway. this is what i've been working on: this quilt will be large so that it completely covers our bed. the top photo is the 16 blocks i've made up. they are finishing up at 12.5". i can't decide whether to put sashing in it or not. i think i won't but haven't committed to that yet. i'm also thinking of not adding a border......just keeping it all over scrappy. any opinions out there? the kitty is leftover from another project but i may applique some throughout the quilt top in honor of our wonderful nora jean. it dresses it up a bit i think. i've had this material quite a while but can't seem to remember where i bought it. since i had so much of the same line of fabric it was probably at a quilt show. i've cut this whole quilt out on my accuquilt. it really saves you so much time and wear and tear on the hands and elbows. i'm glad i like it so much but i really think the dies are way too expensive.

it has been very hot up here in northern nh. where we are, we get some wonderful cool breezes every evening from the woods in our backyard. it is so comfortable and feels better than airconditioning. its easy on the electric bill too!

this week i love: blueberries, quilting & nh mountains. have a great day and i will too! nancyb

Squirrel catching and still quilting in the mountains

July 10, 2012

how is everyone this week? we have, as usual, been busy but we're loving it up here. this week we've been catching squirrels. we got that very aggressive gray squirrel in our have a heart trap and let him go 3 miles up the road in the national forest. since then we've caught 2 of our little red squirrels. they've been literally climbing up the screen of our door trying to get in the house! we are marking our mileage hoping to let them out at about the same spot so that maybe they can find each other. i don't know if that's silly but we don't like to think they've been separated from their families. does anyone know if that's important to them? our killer cat nora jean, meanwhile, has been quite amused by these antics and quietly watches them as they make noise and holes in our screens. here's a picture of nora babysitting the one i caught this morning. she loved watching him and he didn't seem too scared of her! we've had lots of bear stories up here this year. there seems to be a little more than usual. i wouldn't say there's been a whole lot of construction up here in the last few years so that their homes are being displaced. i think from all the campsites they are learning that its easy to get people food. one woman was barbequeing and brought the meat in her kitchen. when she came out of the bathroom there was a bear in the kitchen eating her dinner! another just last night got up to see what the noise was about and there was a male black bear eating her dog's food! the biggest problem we are having with all this is that our bedroom windows are on the ground floor and we've been keeping the windows open to let that beautiful cool breeze in. i don't think it would be too big a problem for me if one decided to climb through the window.........i'm sure i'd have a heart attack and drop dead right there!!!!! and of course, nora (our attack cat) would probably be calmly sitting in the corner watching the whole fiasco wondering........well if mom's dead who's going to feed me?

i've been sewing this week getting ready for my sister visit to kansas. every year i go to kansas while her husband goes on his "guy" vacation and we just have the best time. we sew and cook together. we go to a play (she has front row center seats and the musical is always amazing) and watch girly shows and talk and talk. these are some of the things we made for her granddaughter. she has my middle name and started kindergarten last year. we made her jumpers, a backpack, a jacket and i can't remember what else! we also made pocketbooks and a vest and hat for my granddaughter and hers. it was so much fun. this year i am giving her more quilt lessons. i've fussy cut 5.5" squares to make samantha jean and my sister's little neighbor christopher(he's 4) each an I Spy in a Jar quilt. i bought her a serger for her birthday and we will be using that for sewing (not for quilting). i have a very intricate serger that i haven't used even close to its ability and we will both be learning how to use it. i've bought a cool pattern through nancy's notions for a one size fits all jacket that we can use the serger on. hopefully we'll have them made so that we can go to the musical in them. it is a very fancy affair and i don't dress up very often! we dress up similar so that we jive in our clothes. its a little hokey but we don't care. we want everyone to know we're sisters. it is nice when you have a sister who is not only nice but your best friend. i wish she lived closer!

well, i'm going down to my sewing studio (i've decided to call it a fancy name....it sounds good don't you think?). i've put 19 things on my etsy shoppe and am still adding more. my son, andrew,  is going to come over some time and hook up my blog to my etsy shoppe. if he doesn't, when i get back from kansas i will work on it. i'm also thinking of doing a podcast. i have so much to say! have a great day everyone.......it is another beautiful day and i know i'm going to enjoy it. my oldest son gregory and my 2 grandchildren are coming over for lunch tomorrow. i'm making them a new vegetarian dish. i'll tell you all how it comes out. i love to experiment with recipes and since most of them come out really great they don't mind in the least. by for now! nancyb of swiftriver quilting

Happy 4th of July!

June 30, 2012
I love this country! i have always been so proud to be an american and grateful that i live here! i don't have a place to hang my statue of liberty but by next july i should! right now i have it hanging on a railing so that i can at least admire it.

nora jean is sacked out on my large quilt which is on the back of my couch for the holidays. she looks comfy doesn't she! what are you doing for the holiday? we are still working hard on the house so we'll be spending the day here. last year we were able to see the fireworks from our kitchen window (where my little fire cracker wallhanging is) and i hope we'll be lucky this year.

we took an early morning "moose" ride this week and we were not disappointed! we were gone for 45 minutes and in that time saw a huge bull moose, a fox, a turkey, ducks, a hawk, and a young deer.
we live about 2 miles from the famous kancamagus highway (or better known up here as the kanc).  here is our moose trying to hide! they are such a docile and patient animal........as long as you don't threaten them or get in their space. he was right on the side of the highway so we were no more than 10 feet from him. as long as we stay in the car and are quiet he's fine with us taking pictures. he tried to hide when another car pulled up along side of us to see what we were looking at. they got out of their car! he tried to hide behind this tree and then ambled off into the woods.

 well this week i've done quite a bit of sewing. i started a scrap quilt using my accuquilt and my "kiddie" prints. i liked the way it was turning out so well that i started working on a quilt i'll be making for our bedroom using the same pattern that i made up. i'm in no hurry to make either quilt since they are for my pleasure. it's nice to relax and just sew for the heck of it! i don't do that often enough. i'll post some pictures of my blocks when i get some together. right now i'm cutting and sewing squares together. i love doing that. i was watching a tutorial on the Missouri Star Quilt site and they had the CUTEST I Spy quilt. they are my favorite quilts to make and i've made dozens of them in all sizes. this was I Spy in a Jar. i'll be making at least one of them. check out the site. its wonderful.
today is another gorgeous day up here. there's a nice breeze wafting in from the windows.....not too hot or cold. i can tell i'm going to have a great day and i hope you do the same! nancyb

I'm a quilter and this is a quilting blog (sort of)

June 21, 2012

hi everyone! is it as hot where you are as it is here? it's 90degrees and i have NO air conditioning! i do have a new refrigerator in my house that has an ice cube maker and water tap. i have to say that it is an awesome thing to have. everyone said we'd love it and we do! this hot weather will only last for a few days and if it keeps up i'll go down to the swift river and take a swim (unfortunately i can't find my bathing suit!). we still have a lot of unpacking to do but our closets aren't done so i've got things stuffed whereever i can find a spot.

i feel like i haven't made this a proper quilt blog (mixed with mountains and animals and woods) so i'm going to put a few pictures in today that say a bit about myself. this bookcase quilt was a challenge that my guild i belonged to on the seacoast presented. we had to make a wallhanging that said something about ourselves. i was in the mood to make another bookcase quilt and so i made this. each shelf represents 20 years of my life. if you look at it closely there's quite a bit of information in there. i plan on eventually adding one more shelf to represent my retirement years, our new house and living up north. i have it on my wall in my sewing room and like to look at it. any questions? just ask!

the next picture is our maine coon cat nora jean sitting on my quilt chest that my sister gave me as a retirement present. she's laying on my  husbands amish quilt (i made him that but don't like amish colors myself). she is insistent on laying on my quilts, especially my WIPs. i think she feels she's helping me and gets quite quiet and bummed out if i don't let her lay on them. i have to keep my beautiful chest covered because she lays on it whether there's a quilt on top of it or not.  its glass and i don't want her to scratch it. i haven't been able to convince her that we didn't put it there for her to sleep on. she is a good cat tho and we love her and spoil her. we've had her 10 years already! i keep wanting to get her a little dog to keep her company but the mister isn't going for it right now. i figure i'll wear him down! nora likes dogs and little kids but HATES other cats! it's the only time we see her show any aggression.

i went to another meeting of the material girls of conway and we made out mystery quilt. they have material there that you can take for these projects but i found something in my stash that i used instead. it came out cute and some little child will love it. they have someone who machine quilts and sews the binding on the quilt tops so you just get to make the top. that's the best part! i also finished my bowtie quilt and will be putting that in my etsy shoppe. if anyone is interested in checking out my shoppe its under nancyb or sewingontheswift. i still have quite a few things to add to it but one thing at a time!
well we've had some very interesting wild animal tales to tell this week but i don't want this to be too long. i'll definitely tell you about it in the next blog! have a great week and i will too. nancyb

Emily's Mum

Emily's Mum
hi emily.....i am trying to figure out how to add you to my blogger list so that i can follow you. i need your url and don't know where that is! i'll figure it out tho. hopefully you'll get this! nancyb