Did I get lost?

 I know you probably thought we got lost in the fabric warehouse in Arkansas.  Sorry for the delay in posting.  We were really only gone for 2 days.  Things have just been very busy since we returned.

We arrived at the warehouse in the afternoon and spent some time looking at things.  I did a wholesale purchase of a roll of batting and some bolts of neutrals.  I was also looking at the upholstery fabric so that I could recover the cushion in the window seat which had really faded in the sunshine (it has been there over 10 years, so it was definitely time).  

Here is the first fabric a sent for David's approval............

His response, "Are those marijuana leaves?"  I took that as a NO.  After a few more photos, we finally settled on this one.  And I have to say it was on the bargain table.  The piece I purchased was less than $5 TOTAL!

We went to a fish place for supper that had been recommended by the owner of the warehouse.  He was an interesting guy.  He showed us a new fabric he was designing for quilt backs.  It was gorgeous.  He said it should be ready in 4 months.  

Our hotel wasn't the greatest, but hey, we were saving money to spend on fabric!  We went back to the warehouse the next morning and did a little more damage shopping!  This is what the back of the car looked like when we were finished.  

On the drive back, we stopped and bought watermelons from a roadside stand.  They had come from the boothill.  I can't say I was overly impressed when we cut ours, but it's ok.  I just thought it might be better.  We did learn about the annual watermelon festival that is held every year in Cave City, AR.  They are supposed to have sugar melons that are delicious.  That's on my bucket list for next year, maybe.  A trip to the fabric warehouse on the weekend of the watermelon festival!

When we got home, there was lots to unload and put away.  The first thing I did was to recover the window seat cushion.  I figured, why store the fabric, just use it.  Cici was a little perturbed by the lack of cushion while I worked on it.

But once the new covering was on and the cushion back in place, she was a happy kitty again.  The new cover sort of blends with her fur.

Someone gave us a lot of peaches while I was gone, so I have spent some time working on those.  And we picked 3 gallon of blackberries this past Sunday, so I got those in the freezer as well.  

I have also spent a lot of time quilting.  I finished up the dozen things my mom had left, did a quilt for a neighbor, and a couple of mine.  I have one on the machine I would like to finish quilting today.  I was working on getting the TBQ closet EMPTY!, but a trip to Bethany gave me another load from my mom to work on.

It's still a goal.............and EMPTY TBQ closet.  

I'll catch you up on the quilting in the next post!

Christi

A Hot Day!

 My animals all hunkered down in cool dark places to sleep through the heat yesterday.  Esme has taken over Cici's spot on the spare bed.  I put a fuzzy blanket on it to avoid cat hair on the quilt.  This always worked well for Cici as she loved the polar fleece.  Esme has become very good at rolling the blanket up so that she can lay on the quilt.  

Obviously she loves quilts and quilting.  She spends the first part of every morning channeling her inner border collie to try to herd me to the sewing room.  

And Willow spent the majority of the day "guarding" the back door.  Yes, that loud snoring would scare off any intruder.  I spent the day stepping over her and she never even opened her eyes or moved.

We started table runners at the guild meeting last night.  They were all really different.  A few people went home with completed blocks.

I can't wait to see them all in August.  It's gonna be another hot one today.  I'm trying to do laundry early and want to vacuum out the car for a road trip with my mom.  And there's sweet corn to deal with.

I probably won't blog again until next week as we are leaving early in the morning to head to Arkansas to a fabric warehouse.  

Christi

Cleaning, Cooking, and a little sewing

 

After spending the morning running errands, doing bookwork, and cooking lunch, (and then a nap), I had time to clean the sewing room.  Esme had the job of supervision while the floors were swept and Longarm Lucey had a "spa" treatment.  I started a shopping list for a trip to Marshall Dry Goods in Arkansas later this week.  I also finished the binding on the Space Cats quilt.  This will be a Christmas gift for Sarah and is another UFO checked off.

 

I quilted around the parts on the space suits and quilted stars, comets, and planets in the background.  It's not perfect, but it's finished!

As I predicted, there weren't many photo moments.  Today has some cleaning on the list, grocery shopping, and hopefully quilting.  Probably another nap as the alarm has been set for 4:30 am to allow for loading pigs for market.  And then we have a quilt guild meeting this evening.  We will be doing the table runner project that I wrote up.  Here is the photo of my table runner.

Somehow, I'm already feeling the need for a nap and I just finished breakfast.  It could be a long day.

Christi

Sweet Sweet Corn

 Well, it was an incredibly busy day yesterday with very little photographic evidence to show for it.  In the morning, I dried some more herbs.......lots of basil, cinnamon basil, and parsley.  The house smelled very basil-y???  We had a nice lunch, sent Sarah and her kitty on their way back to St. Louis, and then pounded out 11 tenderloins, breaded them, and put them in the freezer.  During all of this, David kept walking out to the sweet corn patch and bringing back predictions as to how much corn was ready.  The predictions grew each time and resulted in this.........

We had a half dozen fresh picked ears at lunch and they were delicious!  So I also reworked the freezer, to make some room and in the process counted 30 containers left from last year.  Do we really need much more?  Well, we have now doubled the amount of corn in the freezer.  (And now the house smells like a sweet corn patch!)

David pulled the stampede into a shady spot and we sat in lawn chairs and shucked and brushed off silks.  We called friends to come and take corn, and even Willow did her part by eating as much as she could (we're just not gonna talk about the poop situation in the yard).  

In the end, David drove around the neighborhood on the stampede and dropped off corn to people.  It's really fun to share and catch up with neighbors and friends, even when you're dog tired from putting up corn, and you are wearing a shirt that is stiff from corn juice splatter.  

Today started early.  It's the Weighing of the Pigs.  (this is nothing like the weighing of the wands for the triwizard tournament in Harry Potter book 4)  It means I'm preparing lunch which will include sweet corn (of course), tenderloin sandwiches (good planning yesterday!), and fried potatoes (thanks for the bucket of potatoes Mom and Dad).  And I made them some cookies.

It may be a slow day for photos again as my afternoon plan includes cleaning the sewing room floor and some longarm maintenance - oiling, blowing off lint, changing the needle, etc.  

We'll see if there is anything interesting to report tomorrow!

Christi

Weekend Wrap Up

Sarah took a week's vacation and spent the first half with us and then went to Bethany so she could do some fishing at Grandpa and Grandma's house.

Obviously they had some success!  While she was gone, her kitty stayed with us.  She had some fun with Cici.

I think she really missed Sarah.  She followed my around like a puppy which is usually Esme's job.  I spent a lot of time with Longarm Lucey.  My mom had left 11 things for me to quilt and I got 6 of them done.

Then the kitty found a comfy place to hangout where she could keep track of things.

Then she discovered the pin cushion!  

I will be getting my magnet out to find all the pins.

And I quilted this quilt and finished the binding!  I think it turned out pretty well.

And my dog has been her usual goofy self.  

Sarah and her cat will be heading back to St. Louis.  I think my animals will be glad to get back to normal.  

Christi

 

The Quilting Catchup

 Well, I can honestly say that only 2 things got quilted during June............I was on the good meds, the ones that say don't operate heavy machinery, so didn't spend a lot of time with Longarm Lucey.  I did change out her leaders though.  Not a very fun or inspiring task, but am really glad I did it.

The first step was to take photos of the leaders so that we could get them back on the same way.  David was a big help with this project.

I had to sew casings in all of the new leaders for the red snappers too.  Again really glad it's done!

Looking back at the post in May, I had displayed this top which is now all quilted.

This was the Criss Cross Kisses pattern I picked up on our way to Nebraska for the track meet in February.  I really like this one.  This photo doesn't do the colors justice.

And you might remember that I was working on how to get the Reeling It In churn dash blocks to fit into some sort of border for a quilt.  Well, it's all pieced and hanging in the TBQ closet.  It even has a pieced backing.

And speaking of fish, Sarah needed another baby quilt gift for a fish inspired nursery.

This came from my batik scraps.  Each fish is different.  Sarah came up with the scrappy border.  Three fish tried to swim off the quilt, but I caught them on the back.

While I was sick, if I felt like sewing, it had to be something where I didn't have to think too much, but could just follow step by step directions.  I had pulled out this Slam Dunk kit and started working on it.  So whenever I felt like it, I sewed basketballs.

This will be a graduation gift for a piano student who is really into basketball.  I'm so thankful that I had someone to make this quilt for.  It was a lot of fun to make.  I am piecing a backing from polar fleece.  I love the sashing fabric and had a lot of it left.  Nephew Jackson has commissioned a quilt for his bed in his college apartment, so I'm using the rest of the fabric for that.

A recent trip to Hamilton reminded me of the quilts we used to make from a yard and a quarter of a striped fabric.  I found a piece of striped fabric on a sale rack and made this.  

Also saw a quilt that had been made from a layer cake using the large tumbler template, so I put this together. 

So, with a month of almost no quilting, but some piecing, the TBQ closet is once again crammed full.  Especially since my mom just brought 10 things to have quilted.  July is going to need to be a quilting month.

Christi

Things on the Farm

 Well, things are dry on the farm.  It's not going to be a good crop year at all.  We've had so little rain.  My garden did produce some peas and I put a few in the freezer.  Also, I picked several black raspberries and put them in the freezer.  I wasn't feeling well at the time, so put off making any jelly.  David picked cherries twice at some friends' place.  We got close to 5 gallon.  I made one batch of preserves and put 6 pies in the freezer and then several more boxes of cherries for pie.  On my Mother's Day trip in May, I stopped at the Amish Markets in Clark and bought 12 quarts of strawberries.  David ended up with 2 pies, and I made 2 batches of preserves (nephew Jackson got 1 batch), and put the rest in the freezer.  A friend gave me a few apricots.

They made some beautiful and tasty preserves.  And this past Monday, I made applesauce from the Lodi apples.  We didn't have very many and they were really small.  It yielded 15 pints.  They didn't have very much juice, so David had to run them through the press as the sauce was so thick.............think Dairy Queen blizzard when they hand you the cup upside down!  You can eat this sauce with a fork!  And you've seen the sweet corn patch.  We are up to 10 coons now.

The animals are doing fairly well.  I'm working on the Elizabeth Hartman Fab Farm quilt as a block of the month.  Two of these horses underwent surgery to correct some "mane" issues, but all are fine now.

These 2 cows had some nose issues and also had surgery.  It was "snot" for the faint of heart!

The red cows managed to avoid any "surgery".

All four of the pigs experienced some surgery to correct a chin deformity.  And obviously 2 of them were shy and didn't pose for photos.

So far, the chickens haven't shown any signs of malformation, so no needed surgeries for these!

We are expecting the arrival of goats, sheep, bees, and some sunflowers for this quilt.

And this beast had a urinary infection that required of week of twice a day liquid medication down her throat............it did take 4 hands to accomplish this.  

She seems better now, if not as trusting when she's picked up.  So that's the farm update.  The next update should come from the sewing/quilting room, although not much happened there due to illness in June.

Christi