Mountain Musings

Love Those Mail Box Treats!!

It's here!! The package I knew was headed my way just arrived in our mailbox! And what a special package it was! Jodi over at The Deputy Domain outdid herself! And all because my name was drawn as one of the winners of her 200th blog post!

Check out all the great stuff she included in the box: Better Homes & Gardens Decorating Ideas book (the pictures inside are wonderful; I love it, and it's right up my alley!); the current March/April issue of Southern Lady's Tea Time magazine (I just read Brenda's glowing recommendation of this periodical over at her blog, and I'm looking forward to reading through it); a Grace Livingston Hill novel; a sweet personal note; and last, but certainly not least, a valentine heart box lined with a floral hankerchief and full of chocolate Truffles and Treasures...yum!

Jodi, I love it all! Thank you so much for such a creative gift, and thanks for drawing my name! :)

~Deb

Treasure Tuesday

My old blue sewing basket - given to me by my dad one Christmas when I was about 15 years old; I remember using it for my ninth grade home ec class sewing assignment. I think that makes this vintage, for sure!

The basket has become just a storing place for odd ribbons and threads and usually sits on my closet shelf unopened until someone needs an iron-on patch for mending. I loved it when I first received this treasured sewing chest, and I still do because it reminds me of my dad. Check out that piece of old lace tied around the handle. What's with that? I have no idea, but it's been tied there for as long as I can remember!

This morning I was perusing some quilting blogs and ran across this Debbie Mumm site: Decorating with Sewing Collectibles - Five Easy Ideas. After reading these ideas, I'm thinking maybe my antique sewing basket should occupy a more prominent place in my home!

~Deb

Tracks Tell a Story

This snowy scene greeted us Sunday morning: cancelling church, calling Tom out to work all day with forecasts of freezing rain (that never really materialized after all), and inviting us to spend a cozy afternoon involved in various interests.

For me, that was putting the final touches on the quilted wall hanging. Yay! As of yesterday afternoon, it is finished! What shall I start on next?

~Deb

Mr. Edwards and His Parents

From "Jonathan Edwards, A New Biography" by Iain H. Murray:

"But given the need of Yale, and given Edwards' availability, it is highly probable that efforts to place him in Connecticut's only college were under active consideration in 1723. It may well also have been the case that Timothy Edwards regarded a further period of study as a tutor at Yale as being in Jonathan's best long-term interests. He knew well that more than warm piety is needed for the right discharge of the work of the ministry. Confronted by these perplexing alternatives and not yet twenty years of age, Edwards is likely to have depended upon his father's counsel. We have already noted that Timothy Edwards' advice had played a part in his not continuing in New York, and in the summer of 1723 parents and son were closer than they had ever been. A Diary entry for May 18, 1723, reads: 'I now plainly perceive what great obligation I am under to love and honour my parents. I have great reason to believe that their counsel and education have been my making.' "

~ Tom

Death by Chocolate!

I made a very chocolatey cheesecake the other day...good thing that it's healthy for you! Well, actually it DOESN'T have cocoa in it, only chocolate chips. But I say that it's all the same. So there. :)

Chocolate Cheesecake

• 1 cup crushed chocolate wafer crumbs (I used Oreos, as we didn't have any chocolate wafers.)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, combine cookie crumbs and sugar; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom of a greased 9-in. springform pan; set aside. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add flour and beat well. Add eggs; beat on low just until combined. Stir in vanilla and melted chocolate just until blended. Pour over crust.

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Chill overnight. Remove side of pan. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 12 servings

Note: Even a tight-fitting springform pan may leak. To prevent drips, place the filled springform on a baking sheet in the oven.

~Sarah

Karla's Cards Giveaway!

Did everyone remember to go visit Karla Dornacher's new blog? I've enjoyed perusing her website and reading her everyday thoughts over at Karla's Korner. How fun!

Now...listen to this! She's giving away her newest notecards and also an additional surprise gift if you will visit her blog and give her your opinion on her audio message and whether she should post these snippets in the future. Take a listen to the first snippet she has posted entitled "A Peculiar Person." And leave a comment on her blog for a chance to win!

~Deb

Birdhouse Wallhanging - Final Day 6

Yesterday, Day 6, included a few setbacks like ripping a fused bird off the fabric and completely redoing him, but still all went well. And guess what? I finished the background panel!!

I only need to purchase some smaller beads (rather than the ones I bought on Saturday for this project); they will be attached to each birdhouse so it will look like they're all hanging from each other and from the top branch rather than just floating in space.

In this picture you can see the bird flying that I mentioned yesterday; he's the one that needed revamping because of a wing color mistake on the pattern (at least the pattern didn't match the cover picture). Also I've tacked some eye lash yarn to the first birdhouse hole so it will look like a nest is built inside.

Other embellishments I added today include flower bead centers, yarn on the third birdhouse roof, and ribbon on the fourth birdhouse perch. (Right click and open in a new window for the entire picture to show a closer view. And you will see flaws, which I'm leaving in - adds character!)

The project is basically finished now as far as posting more of my progress. The final wall hanging will look just as you see it, with the exception of the quilting.

In the next couple of days, I'll cut the backing and batting and sew all three layers together, start the quilting, and finally sew on the binding with mitered corners. To answer Tammy S.'s question...I will stitch-in-the-ditch at each border. So, yes, I will sew all the borders down through three layers. Then I will sew around the edges of all the fused pieces; in other words, this will quilt the wall hanging and make it slightly puffy looking and more complete.

I hope you've enjoyed watching the progress on this project. I'm taking a much deserved day off today, and I'll start back on the actual sewing tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by and encouraging me to keep going these last few days. I've had a fun time!

~Deb

Related posts:  Day 1, Day 2, Days 3 - 4, Day 5.

Birdhouse Wallhanging - Day 5

Day 5 - Yesterday was Monday play day for me! It was exciting, but a little scary, too, getting to the point of fusing some pieces onto the background fabric to see how the wall hanging would shape up.

First I started ironing patterns to all the various fabrics - very fun to use the exact fabric selected for each little piece, review all the colors, and see how they would meld together. The Heat-n-Bond fusing went well and quicker than I thought it would.

Next step: tons of snipping tiny details like birds' wings and beaks, flowers, and vines. I used a pair of small, very sharp, scissors which were able to snip into tight crevices of all the little vine patterns. The birdhouses, which were mostly box shapes, went quickly, but the greenery and birds took quite a bit longer.

Here's a picture of bird pieces already traced, ironed to their respective fabrics, and cut along the tracing line. At this point the pattern placement guide is underneath the Teflon Pressing Sheet, which is see-through so I can place each individual bird piece where it belongs. After I practice enough to know how I want it, I will remove the tracing paper and once again align each piece on top of the placement guide. Then I will iron the bird which fuses all the little pieces onto each other (this is what the Heat-'n Bond does and the Pressing Sheet protects the pieces from adhering to anything else). Mostly this is an exercise in knowing how to lap and overlap to get the desired effect. I actually need one of those tiny craft irons for this step.

The ironing and snipping for the entire project took mostly all day. Finally I was ready to test out birdhouse #1 on the background fabric. Yay! the exciting part! Here's the first birdhouse ironed down. It was fun working with the branches and leaves and positioning them around the birdhouse, and the bird you see above will end up on the right flying towards the birdhouse. (You can review the actual pattern here.)

In the picture you can see the top roof of birdhouse #2, although it's not ironed down yet. I started thinking that maybe I'd better iron the 4th birdhouse at the bottom and work up so I'd be sure and not run out of space - would that be a disaster or what?! So the picture on the right shows the beginning of the 4th birdhouse ironed down but without the blue bird which will be added with his body just tucked under a perch. Aren't those little bird holes cunnings?

That's all I had time for yesterday. Is this fun? I am loving it! Someone mentioned that this was a big project. Not really. Just think, I started it only last week, and I hope to be finished by this weekend - although that might be a little ambitious! Someone else mentioned about "all this pre-work before the sewing starts." Well, this is 25 percent a sewing project and 75 percent a cut and glue project.

Today on Day 6 I will continue to iron on each of the remaining birdhouses, the other birds, and the vines and flowers. I can't wait to see the panel completed!

~Deb

Birdhouse Wallhanging - Days 3 & 4

Friday afternoon was Day 3 of working on the birdhouse wall hanging, and most of what was accomplished was lots of cutting. All the patterns that I traced onto the iron-on adhesive the previous afternoon were cut 1/4" around the drawn lines and readied to adhere to the individual fabrics. I can hardly wait to start working with the fabrics chosen for each roof, house, and front porch; however, Friday was spent with only scissors snipping away! Here's a picture of some of the little pieces marked and placed in identifying piles.

Saturday was Day 4. My plan was to begin the next step of ironing each pattern piece onto the fabrics on Saturday afternoon; however, Tom and I spent most of the day out celebrating, arriving home late afternoon (extenuating circumstances: I fell on the ice in front of a shop, we were stranded at the bottom of our steep, icy driveway for two hours before finally getting home, and Tom fell twice while trying to get us out of the ditch! We're so thankful to the Lord that there were no broken bones and that we were safe!)

As I was lamenting the fact that all my plans did not materialize, Hannah reminded me that I, in fact, accomplished a lot by buying the buttons, ribbon, and yarn embellishments needed to add a 3-D effect before completing the quilting. I had a fun time matching some of the yarns at Ragtime Fabrics with the colors in the quilted hanging. So I guess a fair amount of work did get done this weekend!

Today is Day 5, and I will begin ironing each pattern to the fabric. Here are a few I've already started--looking good so far! These colors are for Birdhouse #3 on the pattern. Birdhouses #1 and #2 are ironed and in the background of the picture.

My goal is to finish all the ironing today and start cutting out each fabric piece--a lot of detailed scissor work for one day. But if all goes well, tomorrow I will start placing all the cut pieces on the background and get a realistic idea of what the wall hanging will eventually look like. It's all coming together!

~Deb

Celebrating!

No time for an update this morning to show you the results of Day 3 and what was accomplished on the wallhanging--later perhaps. Tom and I are headed out to Harrisonburg for errands today and to have lunch together. Since he worked so hard all week restoring power to folks from the ice storm, not only are we celebrating Valentine's Day...but we're also celebrating this!

Hope your Saturday is a good one!

~Deb