Double wedding ring mat finished!

Presenting my first finish for the First Quarter FAL 2013:

I started this project on May 2nd, 2012. Listed it in several FAL posts, but somehow it always got overlooked. Do you remember what it looked like?

It's a little wobbly because I used my less quality fabrics and I believe the white was a sheet from my friend. I knew I will not make a whole quilt out of it, just wanted to try what it looked like if I strip pieced the fabrics and used the large curved templates as opposed to cut out the individual patches one-by-one. It doesn't look bad, but will try the patches anyway.

As some of you know I signed up for Leah Day's class Free Motion quilting a sampler on Craftsy with the intention of getting an idea of how to quilt my  blue and white baby quilts. She  had these  3  patterns I liked and wanted to practice so that's what I decided to use.

So here are the finished pictures after washing:

Close-up paisley ring:

Close-up paisley stitching:

Close-up  ring crossing pattern:

Close-up smaller paisley:

Close-up swirls:

That's all for now, I'm in the process of deciding what pattern to use on the blue-white baby quilts. Stay tuned! :)

'Til we blog again! :)

Basting done, Nemo pictures

Hi  Everyone,

I've been away from the blog because I don't have much quilting progress to report. Except that I'm still on Easy Street, have all my patches done and finished sewing all my "B" blocks together. I  still have to make 7 "A" blocks, and 3 set-in triangles. Sigh... I'll get it done eventually. Right now I decided to take a short break.

This weekend while we had Winter Storm Nemo howling through dumping 15 inches of snow on  us I finished basting my Baby Boy  Blue quilt tops. Yes, both of them! I only have phone pictures, but they'll have to do for now. By the time I was finished I ran out of safety pins. I'm not gonna say I had just enough because I could've used a few more for safety, but it's alright.

While I was basting the boyz were hanging out on the futon next to me. Guess what were they doing...

As some of you  know yesterday we went for a hike in the afternoon with a goal of taking some pictures of the sunset from the top of a hill that's about 3 miles from our house. It never occurred to me that the snow will be knee deep (we got 15 inches of it, hello?) and only had sweat pants and an ankle high pair of boots on with ankle socks. Clever, isn't it? By the time we got half way up the hill my ankle was frozen from all the snow and so was my shin. I just couldn't feel my legs! So we turned back and marched home defeated. I have to mention that it was almost 5:30 and we were late for the 5:23 sunset anyway. I saw no point of continuing.

We took the kitties outside this morning and have some pictures of them enjoying the snow too :)

Looking for trouble!

He's a nice size kitty and the snow is still above him

His Royalness is so serious!

Notice that he's sitting on TOP of the snow!

The 3 brothers from left to right: Grumpy, Gandalf, and Furry. They have the same mother as Sleepy.

Attention, the snowball is in the air! :)

In the afternoon we went out to the park to look around and decided to take the hike again with the modification of taking the car up  to the park and just climb the hill which was about half a mile long. I was still sore from yesterday and was really glad Fiance decided to drive there this time. I was still having a hard time trying to balance to step into his footsteps to get the least amount of snow in my boots as possible. It was fascinating that no one, but us were there since last night.

The ducks were having a blast at the park:

Someone went cross-country skiing:

The  view from top of the hill:

Cool ripples made by the wind:

Love the way the sky looks!

Now I think I'm done for the day :)

I'll be back with the questions answered part 2, but right now I can't even think straight.

'Til we blog again!

Some questions answered Part 1

Hi Everybody,

I'm happy you're here on this cold day (at least in the Northeast it is)!

I read a great blog post by Sandy and it was a real eye opener to see her answering those questions. Since most of us live in blog land and mostly blog about our quilting passion I thought it would be fun to answer these random questions. I know I'm the kind of person who is curious about other people and like to know what's going on with them. So maybe I'm doing it for me, or those who have the same personality as I do.

Now get ready, because it will be a rather long and text heavy blog post! I'm doing questions 1-5 right now.

1. List 20 random facts about yourself

1. I went to music school through 8th grade by the recommendation of my kindergarten teacher
2. I played the piano, recorder and clarinet in aforementioned school
3. I was in the school choir and went to places like Germany and Canada for contests
4. Won the spelling contest in 8th grade and as a reward I got to say the graduation speech
5. I have very good language skills and pick up languages very easily
6. My  now Fiance moved in with me the first day we met in person (over 12 years ago)
7. I did not speak any English when I came to the US 15 years ago
8. I prefer tea over coffee even though I started to drink coffee a few years ago, but still not friends with mocha flavored anything
9. I'm very good with numbers and could calculate in my head pretty quickly
10. I'm an organized person when I have enough room to put things away :)
11. I learned to embroider from our neighbor who was 18 and pregnant at the time and tried to make some extra money by selling her things. My Grandma has all my masterpieces :)
12. I used to knit sweaters when I was in middle- and high school, I did knitting for hire
13. I'm obsessed with log cabins :) My dream weekend is to go to a snowy part of the country in a log cabin, have fire in the fireplace and watch the snow falling outside
14. I also love snow :)
15. Never lived by myself, although I'm an independent person
16. I can change a flat tire :)
17. I am a procrastinator...  Always leave things to the last minute (bad  habit, I know!)
18. I'm a morning person rather than  being a night owl
19. I used to be a dog person until one of the cats we started to feed in the backyard had babies and abandoned them. THEN I became a rescue person and babied 2 of the kitties that were still alive, one of them only made it for 3 days :( The other one became one of the helper cats... Now I'm a dog AND a cat person :)
20. I haven't been on the Subway in New  York City by myself  :)

2. Describe 3 legitimate fears  you have and explain how they became fear

1. I'm afraid of the dark. My parents used to leave us alone with my sister on the weekends when they went out and because of that I was afraid of the dark. Still don't like to go on the street in the dark by myself. I used to stay up until I heard the key in the lock turning and knew they were home.  There were no babysitters in Hungary that time (talking about the '70-s)
2. Tornadoes. I used to babysit for an Indian family watching 2 kids. One of them were taking tennis lessons and one day while we were at tennis a category 2 tornado came through (Hawthorne, NY). I've never seen destruction like that in my life. The building next door collapsed. It was in July and we were stranded for several hours outside in the sun, no shade. Since then I'm terrified of tornadoes.
3. I have a fear of heights (which my Fiance says is rather a fear of depths). I'm getting better at it, but have that block inside me that says if I fell I'd be paralyzed. I think it comes from me being overweight through most of my adulthood and I know I can't hold my own weight when it comes to hanging off things. My arms are too weak.

3. Describe your relationship with your parents

Sooo..... I was always a Daddy's girl growing up. He used to travel for work quiet a lot and I was always eager to have him come home every time. I used to run to open the gate for him to pull in the driveway. My parents were fighting a lot and I think on the edge of divorce when He suddenly died at age 36 when I was 14, sister was 10. I was devastated and kind of lost for years. Somehow I never had a good relationship with my Mom, I never felt like She loves me. I always compared her to my friends' Moms and was expecting her to be like the others, and She never was. We're still distant in a way. When I finished high school I couldn't wait to go to work to be independent financially so I never went to college (which I highly regret now). I think my Mom was never the house wife type, She's not the best cook in the world and doesn't bake at all. I think because of this I'm trying to be the opposite (I bake a lot and somewhat  like to cook) Her being the way She was with me definitely shaped me into the person I am even though I still catch myself being like her sometimes. I'm always fighting with that part of me. Now I know She loves me, just in a different way. I'm still not sure if I could be with her under the same roof for a longer period of time. That lad me to leave everything behind when I was 25.

4. List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old yourself if you could

1. Listen to Mom, she always wants what's best for you
2. Spend more time on studying so you can go to college, work can wait!
3. McDonald's is not the coolest place to hang out...
4. Don't let your future boyfriend tell you what to do
5. Keep taking German lessons, it never hurts to speak more languages
6. Make your bed every day, you never know who's gonna drop by
7. Always clean up after yourself
8. Stop drinking diet soda, it doesn't do any good for you!
9. Go back to playing volley ball, you're good at it, doesn't matter if you're too short!
10. Sweets are not part of healthy eating :)

5. What are 5 things that make you most happy right now?

1. My virtual quilting friends
2. The sun is out
3. Our kitties
4. I have 3 days off!
5. Our heat is working and don't have to use electric space heaters to warm up the house... it's brutal cold outside!

There you have it! Next time I'll do  the next 5 questions that are on the list.

6. What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?
7. What is your dream job, and why?
8. What are 5 passions you have?
9. List 10 people who have influenced you and describe how.
10. Describe your most embarrasing moment.
11. Describe 10 pet peeves you have.
12. Describe a typical day in your current life.
13. Describe 5 weaknesses you have.
14. Describe 5 strengths you have.
15. If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
16. What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?
17. What is the thing you most wish you were great at?
18. What has been the most difficult thing you have had to forgive?
19. If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?
20. Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood.
21. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?
22. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?
23. List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them.
24. Describe your family dynamic of your childhood vs. your family dynamic now.
25. If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be and what would you eat?
26. What popular notion do you think the world has most wrong?
27. What is your favorite part of your body and why?
28. What is your love language?
29. What do you think people misundertand most about you?
30. List 10 things you would hope to be remembered for.

Hope you had fun and if you feel like playing along please leave a comment and leave  a link for your blog post so I can read your answers too! I'm always eager to learn about others! Thank you! :)

'Til we blog again! :)

Q1 Finish Along 2013 goals

Hey Everyone,

I'm happy you're back! 

I haven't been blogging in a while because I keep on marching through Easy Street. It's a long street to be strolling on, but I'm starting to see the end of the tunnel. I was stuck for a few days because I only have 1 kind of black&white fabric left and would need to make some patches with at least 2 kinds. Luckily I had my birthday this week and I got to order some fabrics from the Fatquarter Shop and hopefully they'll be here next week. Until then I keep working and managed to finish all the pieced triangles, and last night finally  all 9 block "B"-s! I have to say some of them gave me a hard time because I had to pay very close attention to which way  the patches go and the first block was ripped and ripped again maybe 3x by the time I got it right. AND by block #6 I realized I had to re-trim all my 4 patches because they  were a hair too big and I had to do a lot of easing while I was putting the blocks together. Now the last 3 was a lot easier to finish. All those things I can remember in case I want to make another one which may or may not happen in the future.

I also started to look through my quilting books and got inspired by 101 Fabulous Rotary Cut Quilts by Judy Hopkins and Nancy J. Martin. It's an older book, but the patterns moved me in a way I haven't been moved in a while. It'll be time to scan my newer fabrics and play along in EQ soon. Which takes me to...

As I was reminded on Twitter today is the last day to link up your goals to the First Quarter Finish Along hosted by  She Can Quilt. She has some wonderful stuff to finish and I can't wait to see her end results! If it's not too late  you should join us.  She has some cool sponsors and prices to give away at the end.

My list  is gonna be very long, but I was thinking to put everything I have out so I have all my UFO-s/VIP-s in one place, so just bare with me!

Chocolate pink monkey quilt:

Plain squares (the kitties are fighting over this one already)

Double wedding ring top for kitties

'N Blu

Craftsy "D"

Easy Street corner triangles are all done:

Set-in triangles all done:

Block "B"-s all done:

Some block "A"-s:

And the rest lined up, ready to sew:

Tote bag with no handles

I think I'll need to do an inventory of how much batting I have on hand. I have a feeling it's not gonna be enough for all the tops I have lined up. I decided to use wool batting on the Easy Street quilt since it's for me and I'd like it to be puffy. Might throw in a cotton batt also for good measure :)

Oh, if  only I could have at least 48 hours a day that would be grand! :))) I  have so many ideas in my head and I haven't even sat down to play with the computer designs. That's life, right?

Finally 2 bonus pictures of our babies:

Sleepy in one of his favorite drawers enjoying "nature"

Smoky

'Til we blog again! :)

Lucky Stars BOM January block

Hi Everybody and Happy New Year!

Since you could read it in my last blog post you know it by  now that I managed to sign up to another BOM project for this year. This one is called the Lucky Star BOM hosted by Elizabeth Dackson @Don't call me Betsy.

She emailed the January block yesterday and I started to work on it, but had to put it aside and I finished it after I got home.

I'm gonna try to follow her color suggestions which happened to be yellow-orange-red this month, very similar to the one I made for the test block blogged here.

I'll keep working on my Easy Street mystery quilt and in order to do that I'll have to go back to previous weeks' instructions and cut the required fabrics to finish it up. I didn't do the pre-cutting when Bonnie suggested it since I knew I was using a different method to sew the blocks (not the Easy Angle rulers) and to do that I had to cut my fabric patches to different sizes every time we were making shapes other than rectangles or squares. I didn't want to end up with my patches pre-cut just to find out I needed a different size. Now I'm paying for it since I'll have to do the catch-up cutting all at once :)

They are the following:

• Part 2 requires 64- 2" x 3.5" rectangles out of black&white prints
• Part 3 requires 2- 3" green squares cut into 4 half-square triangles
• Part 4 requires 145- 3.5" squares out of the green fabrics
• Part 6 requires 128 double brick 3.5" squares, I only have 33, so need to make 95 more when my b&w fabrics arrive
• Part  6 also requires  19- 5.5" green squares  cut into quarter square triangles
• Need to sew the 64 rectangles to the flying geese
• When it's all done I'll just have to follow the block instructions to put everything together. Piece of cake. NOT! :)

Now  that I've put all my cards out on the table it's time to go to bed.

'Til we blog again! :)

Reflections and saying good-bye.... to 2012 :)

I'm sitting down to write my last post for the year. I decided to stay home  for New Years Eve (as we've done it more than going out the past 12 years). I blamed it on my now-gone cold and the fact that  both of us has to go back to work on Wednesday.

As I'm looking back to the past year my quilting life has changed tremendously. I started to blog at the end of January which inspired me to finish more stuff than I used to. I found  so much inspiration in other people's blogs that I let a lot of subscriptions elapse on my magazines. Instead I signed up to Pinterest which is a great place to gather my ideas and things that inspire me. Not even mentioning food!

I got my dream sewing machine at the moment  which helped me dig through some of my UFO-s which seemed impossible with my newer machine. I don't use it as much as I should because of the lack  of space,  but I piled up a few quilt tops to be finished. One more to go and I'm ready to get it  out and quilt away :) I think I'll name her Gracie.

Thanks to Gracie I made my first Free Motion Quilted quilt. Before her I only did straight lines without a walking foot.

Speaking of walking foot, I used my walking foot for the first time a few months ago. I was not able to use it the  way it was supposed to be used and I always thought I did something wrong. As it turned out part of the presser foot was missing and it couldn't push the fabric through properly. Live and learn, right? :)

I discovered some great new podcasts which I haven't listened to before.

I met some beautiful virtual friends who are very supportive of what I do.

I signed up to Twitter. In the back of my mind I knew what I'll be in for, but it actually blew my mind. I spend lots of hours chatting away  and feel even closer to my cyber friends. And because  of that I kind of fell behind on reading the blogs I want to follow. Occasionally I go back and catch up, leaving 5-6 comments at the time, please forgive me :)) 

I also ventured into the world of Craftsy which I'm really thankful for. I  always wanted to take classes, but when I had a place to go to my schedule was hectic. Now  I would have more time, but the  quilt shop closed down. I'm really happy with the Craftsy classes and have several in the queue to go through.

I started to make my first "pattern" quilt with the Craftsy BOM class.

And now before Christmas I started my first mystery quilt which I enjoy a lot and can't wait for the conclusion.

I made my first bag which was not a big deal, but I never tried bag making before.

I made my first zippered pouch using a  Youtube video. I never thought it was that easy.

I got to meet the wonderful Jennifer Paganelli who made me feel like no one before. I'm truly thankful, She's such a wonderful  person!

I made a collage of the things I made this year. I might've forgot some things, but that's OK.

Finally I made a paper pieced test star for the Lucky Stars BOM 2013 club this evening as the last thing for this year.

Tomorrow I will be working on my Easy Street project as much as I can since I'm almost out of black and white fabrics and the ones I ordered are not here yet. I wish everyone a Wonderful New Year and may all your resolutions be unbroken!

'Til we blog again! :)

Walnut beigels recipe

As a few of you asked before Christmas I'm posting the walnut beigels recipe below. They're traditional Hungarian "cookies" for Christmas and Easter. There's also a version with poppy filling, but since we're not a fan of the poppy filling I only make the walnut ones every year. I took a few pictures with my phone just for myself  as I was making them so excuse the picture quality. If you make them please let me know how they turned out!

Dios Beigli (walnut beigels)

Ingredients:

For dough (4 rolls)

1 tsp sugar

½ cup milk

15 g fresh yeast

1/3 cup sugar

¾ cup flour

1 stick and 5 tbsp butter softened

2 eggs + 1 egg yolk for glazing

1 tsp grated lemon zest

pinch of salt

1 pack of vanilla sugar

For nut filling (4 rolls):

Scant 1 cup milk

1 cup superfine sugar

2 envelopes vanilla sugar

1 tsp grated lemon zest

6 tbsp raisins

pinch of cinnamon

6 cups ground walnuts

4-5 tbsp apricot jam or 6-8 tbsp honey

Yeast dough:

Activating yeast:

Dissolve 1 tsp sugar in a large cup of warm milk (blood hot). There should be no sugar left on the base of the cup. Crumble the fresh compressed yeast into the milk. Cover and leave it to work in a moderately warm place. After 8-10 minutes, the yeast should have frothed up to the rim of the cup.

Starter dough:

In a bowl, mix together the activated yeast and 1 heaping Tbsp flour to make a runny porridge. Cover with a dish towel and leave to rise in a warm place until bubbles form (about 15 minutes). It can then be worked.

Mixing the dough:

All the ingredients should be at room temperature. Sift the flour into a deep bowl and make a well in the center, then add the starter as well as the sugar, salt, butter and egg, vanilla sugar, and lemon zest. Knead until a smooth, moderately firm dough forms and comes away from the sides of the bowl. Sprinkle flour over the dough, then cover and leave to raise in a warm, but not hot place (max. 95 F) that is protected from drafts, until in has doubled in size (about 30 minutes-1 hr). While the dough is proofing you can make the filling.

Walnut filling:

Put the milk in a pan with the sugar and bring to a boil. Take it off the heat and add the vanilla sugar, lemon zest, raisins, cinnamon, walnuts and apricot jam. If your  raisins are a little dry you can put them in with the milk in the beginning to make them softer.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Divide the dough into four (this is only the last quarter)

 and roll out each piece into a floured surface, shaping a rectangle measuring about 12x14 inches. Spread the dough with the nut filling

and roll up lengthwise, ensuring that the rolls remain firm. Close ends by pushing the dough together. 

Grease a baking sheet and carefully transfer the rolls onto the sheet and brush with egg yolk. (You can also use parchment paper, in that case no greasing is necessary.)

Bake in a preheated oven until golden brown for about 35 minutes.

 Only remove from the oven when completely cool. If kept covered and stored in a cool, dry place the beigels will stay fresh for a long time. (I packed them  in saran wrap and then into aluminum foil)  Do not slice until just before serving, arranging the slices like roof tiles on a plate.

'Til we blog  again! :)