How to sew a Brick Quilt

Finished measurements: 35.5 x 42.5"

Squares needed: 48 squares of coordinated fabric, size 6.5 x 6.5"
Illustrations show 3 squares each of 16 different fabrics. You could also use 2 squares each of 24 fabrics.

Steps:

1. Lay out which fabrics you want in each of your eight rows.


 
2. Stitch each row together, alternating fabrics.

3. In every second row, cut the leftmost square in half vertically and add it to the right end of the row.
   
 
 

4. Press your seams flat, left to right.



5. Cut each row in half horizontally. You should now have 16 rows.




 
6. Lay the 2 1/4 inch rows out, alternating the ones with short bricks with those that don't. Note that those with short bricks are now half an inch shorter than the others.







 
7. Stitch the rows together, pinning the center of the middle brick of a shortened row to the middle seam of a regular row and working your way out.

 

8. To avoid warping, stitch four sets of four together first, then stitch the sets together.

Why I love to sew...

I've been revisiting my love of sewing and fabrics of late. Early in my life, when I had more time than money, I made many of my own clothes, made stuffed animals, even did embroidery. Then I went through a long period of working too many hours and being able to buy whatever I needed, so I put all that aside.

Standing in the fabric store the other day, I found myself wanting to buy a multitude of fabrics that caught my eye and started to reminisce... you see, my love of sewing and of fabric was passed on to me from my mother, and I found myself remembering the pieces of fabric she had squirreled away in her cedar chest. When I was a child, we would take them out periodically and think about what they might become one day and then fold them back up for another day.

That must be when I learned to love all the different textures and colours. The vibrant ones make me feel alive and the unique ones awaken my creativity. I can stand in a fabric store envisioning the possibilities for hours. I worked in one while going to school and that feeling never went away, even after a full day shift.

But I realized, standing in the store the other day, how much that feeling is tied to the love I have for my mother. She taught me to see the possibilities and to try new things. Thanks, mom!

Spring meets winter

Just two weeks ago I was thinking spring had come to Texas in January. Now we're getting more snow than the Dallas area has seen in twenty years.

My Easter lillies were popping up...

My maple tree was starting to bud...

I guess snow and mistletoe do go together. But usually that's plastic mistletoe and fake snow. The green stuff in this photo is the real deal. I never knew it was a parasite until I moved here!

But, to me, the ultimate juxtaposition of southern and northern climates is this snow-covered southern magnolia.

Some thoughts on advertising

Let's face it, online advertising works, even if it is only subliminally. They take up real estate when we are trying to read something and yet we are drawn to them anyway.

This week I decided to get in the game and enable ads on this blog. Who knows what they will have cycled through to by the time anybody reads this, but when I checked out the look for the first time I had to laugh. The top ad was for Schwans frozen food. How did they know I was a regular customer?

Seriously, it does look like they picked ads based on my content to date, since there is a lot of healthy food and animal food ads so far, even an ad for attracting hummingbirds. Eerie, isn't it?

But back to Schwan's. I'm not sure how many states they are in and my Canadian friends are probably wondering who they are, but they make a lot of sense here in Texas. When it is 100 degrees outside and your car is even hotter by the time you leave the grocery store, you have to worry about your frozen foods. Or, you can have a freezer truck pull up to your house with your order.... I've been going with the freezer truck since I started working from home.

To be honest, their stuff isn't cheap. But in many cases, you are paying for quality. And there's always something on sale--my driver has learned what a sucker for a sale I am! I've tried a variety of things and keep coming back to the ones that are worth the buck. My picks?
- the best ice cream ever!
- Buffalo Chicken dip (spicy, but that's a plus in this house)
- the new Fresco pastas
- pizza's reasonably good if it's on sale
- chicken on a biscuit

And on the healthy food theme, check out their LiveSmart recipes!

Hummingbird update

In an earlier post, I promised pics if I could get one. I spotted a pair of hummingbirds at one point, but only caught the male with the camera. Turns out he is a ruby-throated hummingbird, probably the most common species. It is easier to see his colours in a freezeframe than in person. The morning sun behind them made it hard to pick them out too.

This picture also shows how my oak tree has decided to absorb the hanger for my regular birdfeeder into its trunk. I have a number of different birds that regularly visit, but I'm partial to the cardinals. I had a pair that looked rough and did some research online. Apparently cardinals will "molt" and get new feathers as they approach maturity and that's all that was going on. They both look great now.

One man's garbage is another man's treasure

I recycle paper, bottles and cans like everybody else does (or should), but I also have another little rule for myself. Nothing goes in the garbage if I think anybody else could possibly have a use for it. Whether I can afford to be wasteful or not, I refuse to become part of a throw-away society.
I once took a silly little toy from my cereal box to my manager and asked her if her young son would want it. She tilted her head and looked at me strangely until I explained I'd rather find a home for it than see it go in our landfill. She then laughed and agreed that was a fine extension of recycling. She took the toy home too.
People are usually touched that you thought of them if you have an item you suspect they'll have use for. If that doesn't work, charities will happily take almost anything.
Garage sales, eBay or Craigslist are good alternatives too. The strangest items will make you money. Or, again, a tax receipt from a charity works too.

Akita love

Much has been said about the loyalty of Akitas, but they inspire a similar depth of feeling in their owners. Akitas have such a strong personality that it is impossible not to love them.

Each of the three Akitas I have owned had a variety of facial expressions that reflected their intelligence and heart. Each of them were special and remain dear to my heart, but especially my girl, Pepper.

Everyone who met her grew to love her, even many people who professed not to like dogs much! How could you not, when she looked at you like this?

Several years ago, I went on a business trip that allowed me to meet many of the folks I'd been working with remotely. Of all the people I met, the one person who stood out and remains my friend today is a fellow Akita owner. I recognized the Akita charm Andrea was wearing and we've been comparing Akita photos and stories ever since. Unfortunately that included consoling each other when our dogs passed, but it was nice to have someone who understood our loss. And I follow the progress of her newest Akita, Lily, on her blog.

I was reminded of how I connected with Andrea when I sold some books online yesterday. The buyer asked me when she could expect delivery so that she could watch for them, explaining that "I have Akita's that are 160 and 130lbs each and don't let anyone out of their car." Protective dogs! Maybe it's time to get another one. I keep thinking about it, but when I look I see dogs that look so much like Pepper it hurts.

Eating healthy and enjoying it too!

Most people enjoy good food. Many people equate good taste with things that are bad for you. I know that creamy rich ingredients and fried foods are my weakness, while for others it is chocolate, sodas or junk food. Whatever your indulgence, there does tend to be a point in our life where the scale and/or the doctor tell us that it is time to make some changes. The trick is learning how to avoid making those changes seem like punishment for our previous ways.

I have to admit that I feel better when I make the effort to do two simple things: eat more fruit and vegetables, and avoid processed food. Easy to do at home, especially with the help of tasty recipes from sites such as Eat Better America. Just buy fresh foods from the outside aisles of your grocery store and avoid the packaged foods in the middle aisles.

I recently discovered a restaurant that applied those same principles to their menu. Now I can eat out and feel good too, yeah! We need more places like Healthy Me Cafe throughout North America!

Even bakeries are taking the healthy approach. With obesity at epidemic levels, more and more of us are having to learn ways to enjoy our cake and diet too. Tasty treats on the DessertJunky menu include glucose-free and sugar-free items.

But whatever you do, pay attention to the signals your body is sending you. Vegetables are good, but plenty of people have adverse reactions to specific vegetables, such as corn or onions. Another benefit of eating simple, fresh food can be easier identification of foods that disagree with you.

Being healthy means enjoying life. And yes, that can definitely include enjoying tasty, healthy food!

Stars or lights?

I recently read a comment that people can be divided into two groups: those who are attracted to big city lights and those that prefer to stare at the stars. As usual, I refuse to be categorized that easily. I like both.
That's why I live in a small town nestled inside a huge metroplex. I love that I have easy access to major league sports, concerts, restaurants of every food type, great shopping and all the other draws of big city life. Even more, I love that I'm likely to drive past livestock of some kind on my way there!
Tails to tailgate, I'm in! That is, I'm equally happy dressing up for the opera or dressing down for Nascar. How 'bout you?

Gone Fishing

I found a fishing lure on my morning walk. Given where I picked it up, I probably saved someone's tire, but I thought of it as karma. After all, I'm going fishing tomorrow and beat up, old, found lures sometimes have a strange appeal to fish...

No, I don't live on a lake and I'm not on vacation. That's just one of the little quirks of having a park at the end of my street. People fish in the ponds there. (Texans call them lakes, but if I can walk around one in 20 minutes...reality check, please!)

We're headed up to Lake Texoma this weekend, where we've become good friends with Captain Cal, reputed to be the best guide on the lake. Texoma straddles the Texas/Oklahoma border, so it takes a special fishing license. It is well-known for having an unusually high salt content for an inland lake, which allows Striper bass to thrive there. It is also something to consider if you plan to have your boat in the water there for any length of time.

Cal's wife can catch crappie like no one else I've ever seen--even got a record one a few years back. And some monster catfish have been caught right off their dock as well--click Bragging Rights on their site to see a 64lb monster. Personally, I'll never forget the thrill of cautiously reeling in one around 14lbs on a crappie rod! Maybe I can do that again this weekend...

Hummingbirds

"Pooh wondered if the hummingbird knew that he was a Humming Bear. "

I put a hummingbird feeder up a few weeks ago and have been wondering if anyone other than the finches were drinking out of it. This morning I spotted one flitting through for a quick drink of sugar water while I sipped on my coffee.

Don't tell her I said this, but she seemed drab for a hummingbird. It was a small hummingbird, so maybe it wasn't mature enough to have all the colour, or maybe I just couldn't see the markings with the morning sun behind her. Or maybe she's a species where the girls have less colour, hence the "she".

I'll keep a lookout and, if I can get them visiting regularly, I'll try to get some pictures posted.

Groundhog Day

It's July 13th. Again. Not even a Friday, nor was it last year. And yet I feel like I'm reliving a really bad day, just like in the movie Groundhog Day.

Last year, I was laid off from startup I'd been with for six years. I knew layoffs were coming, but there's still that "oh wow, it's really happening" feeling in the pit of your stomach.

By the quirks of staying networked, I managed to start a new position just two days later, on July 15th. A contract position that I knew would be a temporary move, but as it stretched to a year I got to feel close to my team and thought it might continue a little longer.

Nope. Groundhog Day. Got the word today (the 13th) that I will finish on the 15th, a year to the day from when I started.

Isn't life strange sometimes?

Bags o' milk

When I moved to the US I was amazed that there were no bags of milk in the grocery stores here. Ten years later, it seems that is being raised as a great idea. See Slashfood and Wikipedia for descriptions and pictures.

The articles I've read point out that a thin plastic bag is a huge environmental improvement over milk jugs, that countries around the world have been doing this for years and that, for the most part, it is much more convenient. Unless you are one of the posters that can't handle cutting a corner off a milk bag without spillage. The stores I frequented in Toronto actually sold a little cutting tool to help with that problem.

What I didn't see in any of the articles was something I consider the most convenient part of bagged milk--that you can freeze it! Typically, I'd buy a 3-pack, with each bag being just over a litre (or a quart, for those of you who don't speak metric), slip one into the milk pitcher and toss the others in the freezer. That lets you stock up on milk when it is on sale and prevents running to the store because you are out. Unless of course you forget to note you're taking the last bag out of the freezer.

Because this option hasn't been available to me down here, I'm constantly pouring bad milk down the drain, something I rarely had to do in Canada. Sometimes, that's because the gallon jug was on sale for just 10 cents more than the quart jug, so now we've got a system. We keep a quart jug that we fill from the gallon jug and then the rest goes in the freezer.

If you've never done this, you're probably thinking thawed milk will be different somehow, either in taste or consistency. Not! It thaws beautifully and the kids have not noticed the difference. Trust me, if anyone could, they would.

My First Time (blogging that is)

I haven't felt this kind of peer pressure since high school... everybody's "doing it", when are you going to?

"It" being blogging, tweeting, Facebooking and all the other social media verbs that have us online, or at least connected by phone, 24x7. I've been reluctant to "go all the way" and commit to being that connected--heck, I already work on a computer all day, it's probably healthier to get away from it when I can--but I've always been the type to try anything once and so I've dallied... and now I'm blogging.

Like Twitter and Facebook, blogging assumes you have something to say and I'm somewhat amazed that people make time to follow as much as they do. But my peers have followers so there must be interest out there.

I've spent enough of my career writing for a living to think I can come up with an articulate posting or two. And I do think I have a unique point of view. For one thing, people often ask me about the differences between living in Canada and living in the US. And there are those faithful few who ask me when I'm going to write more--hopefully this will help me ease back into that.