Flutterby!

 Our new block lotto block to be working on is a butterfly!  We are hoping to have a kaleidoscope of butterflies at the next guild meeting.  I have 3 more completed to add to these.  I just picked through my batik scrap bin and the black background came from a strip of leftover black binding that was still lying on the cutting table (see, it pays to not put things away!).

And I managed another finish before the meeting on Tuesday............Cats in Space #2 is complete (note the black binding, ergo the scrap above!).  Yes, it was still smoking as I finished binding just after 5 pm.

And I have decided that maybe my wardrobe needs some updating.............

I stopped by my friend, Tiffany's to order some new shirts.  The Harry Potter ones are going to be for Sarah for her birthday but I got them for myself as well.  Do you think she will mind matching with her mom?

We picked blackberries in the rain Tuesday morning.  I could not have been wetter if I had jumped in the lake!  At least the moisture dripping from us wasn't sweat.  It did put a chill in me (imagine, in July!) so sitting in the recliner under a quilt to bind all afternoon was kinda nice!

Tried a new recipe from pinterest last night.  Mini mashed potato puffs.  Yes, I made mashed potatoes in the afternoon for the sole purpose of having them to make these.  I thought if I made these cute little minis we wouldn't eat so many at a time and the recipe said they freeze well.  

Well, freezing won't work.  It made 2 pans, but David went through almost one pan last night.  They were that good.  We had them with steak and sweet corn.  The rest will probably be consumed tonight with some pineapple brauts and more sweet corn.

Have an awesome day!

Christi

Finishes!!!!!

Woo Hoo!!! Get ready for some Ta-Dahs!!!  I spent a good portion of the afternoon and evening (after my nap) yesterday hand binding.  

The three lady bugs are all finished just in time to really enjoy the summer.

And remember this?  That lovely space-themed quilted keyboard cover???  Well, we couldn't waste those cutoff corners...........

Slap some leftover binding strips from lady bugs on them and you have coasters!  

And there were a couple of UFO finishes..............

Last year's Criss Cross Kisses quilt 

yielded the scraps for this.  The blocks finish at 2.25" and the little squares in the nine patch blocks finish at .75".  

And the Mr. Snow SAL is finished!  So happy to have this one completed and that the embroidery didn't take me 10 years to do like the barn quilts did.

 So for those who are counting, that leaves just 3 UFO's out of my original list of 22 for 2024 to finish!  One of those is ready for binding, one is ready for quilting, and one has all the blocks made but still needs to be put together.  Not bad for the first half of the year.

There is a quilt guild meeting tomorrow evening, so I will definitely have something for show and tell.

Christi

More Quilting

I put away the patriotic table runner and decorations and put out this summer runner and a couple of the sunflowers I made from canning jar lids and rings.  

Cats in Space made it to the longarm and got quilted.  It's still hanging out there but will get removed tomorrow.  I still need to shop for something for binding for this one.

I also laid out the pieces for my birdhouse quilt.  

That was when I realized that I was missing a few pieces so Esme supervised the cutting of 4 more pieces.  I got a little of it together.

I need to spend quite a lot of time binding things now.  

Christi



 

Kitty Hangover

I don't know what Esme did all night last night, but she wasn't sleeping on the foot of the bed.  Whatever it was, she was incredibly tired this morning!  

It took awhile for her to get up and face the day.  It was all I could do to coax her into the sewing room.  Normally she's trying to herd me there.  I did finish the snowman quilt but not before I discovered the bobbin thread was all tangled on one of the blocks and needed to be ripped out and redone.  And since there was still room left on the backing fabric, I threw the last lady bug on there for quilting.  

I even got them all trimmed and the bindings machine sewn on before we left for a cookout and fireworks celebration this evening.  Now there will be lots of hand binding to do. 

Maybe more sewing will happen tomorrow!  I think there are enough leftovers that I won't need to do much cooking, but there is a little cleaning that needs to happen.  We'll see what the day brings.

TTFN,

Christi

Happy Independence Day!

 

Well this is it!  Your only photo from the day.  I swear I don't know where the day has gone...........ok, a couple of loads of laundry, a trip to Walmart and a trip to Peters Orchard and then time in the kitchen.

I should explain that a trip to our local Walmart right now can sometimes be an all day experience.  They are in the process of moving everything around.  Last week David asked me to pick up command strips on my Walmart run...........can you imagine?  Well first, I was looking for fruit fresh and in normal times this can be a difficult item to find.  But I overheard 2 ladies explaining to a Walmart employee they were looking for Mrs. Wages Salsa mixes.  Well, I went into stalker mode and followed them because I knew fruit fresh would probably be in the same area.  When all 4 of us arrived at the correct spot, I loaded 5 containers of fruit fresh into my cart.  When they questioned how much fruit fresh a person needed to use, I simply said that I was stocking up because I would probably not be able to find it in its new location next time.  Now, back to the command strips.  I went to the location where these could normally be found and well, now we have 2 new pillows on the bed in Sarah's room.  Ok, they weren't on the list, but we had company coming, so new pillows were not a bad item to pick up. and who knows where they might be next time!  Finally with the help of another Walmart employee, we found command strips..........in the middle of the automotive section!  

Today's trip actually wasn't too bad.  I needed a couple of items in the pharmacy and found ONE of them.  The rest of the list came from the produce section and a loaf of bread was needed.  Feeling so successful made me decide we could make the trip to the orchard and pick up some apricots.  We love apricot preserves over smoked cream cheese.  I also picked up some peaches to eat on, some cheese curds, and since the hubster was with me, apple cider donuts made it home with us.

I prepped all the veggies to go on the grill for some grilled corn salsa and after lunch went to work on the deviled eggs I was told to bring to the inlaws this evening and then the preserves.  And I waded into the garden to pick MORE cucumbers.  We had another 1.5" of rain last night and the cucumbers magically appeared again.  So I had enough to finish the dill solution left from the last batch.  And there you have the only photo I took............apricot preserves and dill pickles.  And my goal today was to get finished quilting the snowmen and I haven't even climbed the steps to the sewing room.  Maybe we can just eat supper and then head home early and I can do a little quilting this evening!!!

Happy 4th!

Christi

Quilting Catch Up!

I know, it's kinda late for this post, but we had 3.6" of rain last night in two different storms that came through.  The first was about 10:30 just after we had gone to bed.  BOTH dogs had to come inside.  Kinze retreated to her "safe area" behind the door in the basement and Willow camped out on the floor on the back porch.  The first storm brought some wind and really hard rain.  The second, around 2 am, had lots of thunder and Willow made her way into the bedroom but couldn't jump on the bed because Esme already had that space staked out (and Willow is smart enough to know that a 100 pound dog jumping on the bed in the middle of the night is a good way to get yourself banished outside with all the thunder!).  She settled in on the floor at the foot of the bed during the worst of the storm.  Of course, this meant that Esme was "trapped" on the bed for the rest of the night.  

We got up early and picked most of the rest of the sweet corn, about 8 five gallon buckets, and took 6 of them to Bethany to my parents.  We shucked and brushed it all before lunch and then blanched it and cut it all off for the freezer.  Mom got 25 bags for her freezer.  We should all sleep well tonight.

You may remember this embroidered snowman quilt I was working on.  When I started to sew the blocks together, I realized that the one missing from this photo had been trimmed a quarter inch too short.  So I made a replacement.

The one that was too small will be made into a pillow using the leftover scraps from the quilt.  It was the first thing I quilted yesterday.

Then, I realized there was room to quilt a couple of lady bugs on the same piece of backing, so those were added next.

The lady bugs came from our quilt retreat.  I was in charge of the mystery project.  We had a summertime picnic theme, so the mystery project was a lady bug.  I had cut for 3 separate bugs so that I would have plenty for demonstrating.  

Here are all of the different lady bugs that were made at retreat.  Everyone was given a list of fabric pieces to have cut prior to retreat and then instructions were given hourly to make the project.

After I had the 2 lady bugs quilted, I put the snowman quilt on the same piece of backing (note the red check backing is working for so many projects!).  I am custom quilting this one and am doing so ruler work which makes me reach and bend over the longarm, so I can only do so much at a time.  I'm hoping to get this finished tomorrow.  Then, I think there will be enough backing to throw the last lady bug on the bottom to quilt.

I think the next project to quilt will be the space cats.  This is the second one of these I have made.

I got several things done at retreat.  One was this little mini quilt from scraps of another project.  Here it is laid out on the table prior to sewing together.  It now has a border and more scrap blocks in the border.  

And this is our opportunity (raffle) quilt for this year.  Yes, I am selling tickets.  It is really an amazing quilt.  I made one of each style of block, but I couldn't tell you which ones are mine.

And I know you are missing seeing Esme.  Here she is in one of her favorite places........the stack of towels in the bathroom closet.  We have learned that this will happen if the door doesn't get shut completely.  AND, we've learned to check the closet before shutting the door.

Sorry for the late post and 

TTFN,

Christi

Sweet Times!

 Cousin Brenda and hubby Jeff came to visit this past weekend.  They got to help put sweet corn in the freezer!  (and we wonder why no one comes to visit us!).  We did 57 containers on Saturday.  Of course, we also played lots of cards.  The girls won pitch and the boys won at hand and foot.  And we even played Nurtz!

My cucumbers have been early and plentiful as well.

I've already made some dill pickles.  I may make a few more with the leftover juice and maybe a few sweet pickle spears, but really don't need to do too many as the cabinet is still pretty full of pickles.

David took Jeff and Brenda over to some wild blackberry bushes and they picked a couple quarts to take home.  He and I went this morning early and startled a couple of turkeys who were have a blackberry breakfast.  We got about 5 pints which we will take up to my mom.  

It's gonna be a hot one so I'm planning to spend most of the day sewing/quilting (of course plans can change).  I'll post a quilting update tomorrow!

TTFN

Christi