July Wrap Up

Well, it's time to recap the last of July............

1.  I took my Mom and Dad to St. Peters to visit Sarah and see her new house.  She took us all to "her" library.........one of her favorite places.  I have to admit, it is a really nice library.  There is even a fireplace with lots of comfy seating around it.  She wasn't going to check out any books, so only left with FOUR!

Every time she takes me there, I always spot something I'd like to read.  So I took a picture of this one.  I later found it on hoopla and read it that way.  It was good.  All through the book they were trying to recreate a mac and cheese recipe and in the end, they finally did it.  I was really hoping there would be a recipe at the end of the book, but there wasn't.  That was the only disappointment.

I took Sarah an early birthday present.  She loved the t-shirt until she realized I had a matching one, then maybe not so much.  However, we won't be together much, so probably no one will know her mom has a matching one.

She took us to her favorite Italian restaurant, Erio's, which is only a couple of blocks from her house.  This is our favorite dessert!  

2.  The garden is going crazy!  I wisely let David pull the cucumbers so it could just stop raining cucumbers on me.  The pumpkin, spaghetti squash, and butternut squash vines quickly took over the cucumber area.  They are trying to overtake the tomatoes as well.  My romas have come much earlier this year........and if you notice the tomato in the lower left, they aren't all romas like they are supposed to be.

I have been making pasta sauce.  We love this recipe and it uses lots of fresh herbs which I have right now as well.  I even made up a couple of pans of lasagna with fresh sauce and herbs to freeze for Carter and Jackson.  This got my sister in to trouble last year when I did it.  Jackson asked her to recreate it, so she called me for the secret recipe and when I said fresh tomatoes and herbs, and it was January in Iowa, she told Jackson she hoped he enjoyed the pan I had made for him.  My freezer now smells like an Italian restaurant.

I had no more than used all the tomatoes when I visited the garden and picked more stuff!  This sweet corn is from some seed we found in the garage that was probably 4 years old.  This is a year when I think ANYTHING would grow.

I have made lots of pasta sauce and still have lots of tomato sauce left from last year and I made pizza sauce for the first time and canned it.  Fortunately my neighbor said he would be interested in any extra roma tomatoes, so there is a home for them.

3.  Chain saw accident................yes, David has been at it again.  He came in for lunch and asked me to patch up his knee.  He hit it with the chainsaw.  He seemed a little more worried about his jeans, a like-new pair, so...........

they are now mended.  Quilter's are never impressed when asked to mend clothes especially not when asked to from someone who was probably doing something he shouldn't have been doing.

4.  I finally started working on my challenge project for guild.  I can honestly say that I found so many ways of procrastinating before starting on this one.  My sewing room has never been cleaner, almost all of my projects are to the flimsy stage waiting to be quilted, with bindings already made.  I have cut 4 projects to take to a retreat at the end of August.  I even cleaned the house! (not that you can tell it now).  But I finally started.  I was at a 50% seam ripping rate at the beginning, but seam! to have gotten the hang of it.  I have told myself to just work on it for an hour a day and see how it goes.  Of course, I haven't even been to the sewing room this week.  Here is a sneak peek.............I don't want to show it until after the reveal in October.  I am depicting the idiom, Through Thick and Thin.

and yes, I grayed the photo so you can't tell colors yet, and yes, that is a glue stick!

5.  It's been Hot!

This has precipitated the need for the occasional chocolate malt.

Esme knows there must be something good in there and has been trying to master the art of the straw.  Don't worry, the glass was empty and I was through before she started practicing.

All of this hot weather has really brought on the napping too...............

What can I say.............It's a Hard-Knock Life around here!

6.  The last, be definitely not the least...................Willow's 4th birthday!  

We made our annual trek to my parent's house to visit the county lake and let Willow swim.  It was so hot that the water felt really good.  

For those who thing she's gotten really big, you can now see that it's just a LOT of hair.

The place was almost deserted, except for this heron (we think).

And that wraps up July!  I am heading up to the sewing room today to get back to work on my challenge project and maybe get something on the longarm.

Christi

Quilt Show!

I talked my cousins, Pam and Susie, into going to the Rooster Creek Quilt Show in Holt's Summit last week.   I didn't have to talk too hard to get them to go.  I'd never been to this show before, but was hungry to see some quilts and get some inspiration.

There were many quilts, some well done, some not so much.  But it was definitely fun to see.

Here are some that I took photos of..........

I had never seen a Monopoly board as a quilt before........Fun! 

And someone has been "canning" this summer!

And this was a cute row by row, or row along quilt.

This one appealed to my traditional side.

And the quilting was especially nice on this one.

I liked the quilting on this one too.

This was a Dream Big panel..........actually, more than one panel put together.  I have watched videos of people quilting these, so it was fun to see one in person.

This Halloween quilt was very fun as well.

The Duke was popular as he showed up in more than one quilt.  This was the one I liked best.

And a one block wonder quilt done with the same butterfly panel I quilted for my mom a couple of years ago.

Some brightly pieced butterflies.  I liked how this was set with some plants as part of the blocks.

And this quilt was all thread painting and coloring.  

This was my choice for favorite pieced quilt as you will see from all the photos I have of it.  There were just so many little details in it.

The cat sleeping in the tree and the barn quilt with quilts hanging out on the line......

The cats roasting their "fish"mallows.............

And the cats in the pumpkin were adorable as well.  

It was such a fun day.  We went to the local quilt shop, one I hadn't been to before and then had a late lunch that was delicious.  I was tired when I got home, but still managed to come up with something creative for supper (see, all the quilt inspiration paid off)..........pulled pork nachos with grilled corn and red onion, bbq sauce for salsa, cheese, and sour cream.............delicious!

My cohorts have already asked when the next quilt show is and I know of one in Columbia in September, so we'll probably check it out.  It's also Pam's birthday, so I'll be buying her lunch that day!

Christi

Racing to the Finish Line

 I am getting so close to having all my UFO's and even recent starts completed.  I was able to get 2 quilts to the flimsy stage this week even though I had lots of extra "help".  I wasn't sure Esme was going to relinquish this last border.

I finally managed to get her off of it so that it could be added to this quilt called Stars for Carter.  All of the fabrics were part of my $6 bag from an estate sale in St. Charles.  This wasn't even all of the fabric.  Much of it has been gifted to my mom including the scraps from this quilt.  

I even got the backing and binding made for it.  It's hanging in the TBQ closet.  The sewing room seemed to be the "safe place" for everyone this week.  Even Willow sought refuge from the heat outside and from all the noise David was making in the basement installing new flooring.  Cici and Esme were not amused to have her invasion into the sewing room.  I had to be careful where I stepped as she tends to blend into the floor.

Esme was finally able to relax even though Willow was present.

Cici hid in her spot close to the longarm.  Willow doesn't like the longarm because it can make a lot of noise.

And this rainbow scrap quilt is finally a finished flimsy.  It's pressed and hanging in the TBQ closet.  I still need to get the binding and backing together for it.  It's the last of the items on my UFO list to get to the flimsy stage.  I only have 2 left to quilt.

I have to say there are quite a lot of empty project boxes going back into the closet.  I'm going to need to start some things soon!

Christi

Butterflies!

More butterflies have joined the rabble!  Did you know that a group of butterflies are known as a rabble, or a flutter, or a flight, or a kaleidoscope?  So I am now up to 5.  The colors were all chosen from my batik scrap bin.  I'm not sure if there will be more or not.  I have moved on to other things....

like bird houses!  I made this quilt from parts of a panel I picked up at a garage sale (the remainder of the panel has been gifted to my Aunt Judy).  The rest is entirely from my scrap bin.  

And remember that snowman block that was trimmed a quarter inch too small?  Well, I now have a cute snowman pillow.

I was planning to enter both of these items in the state fair (birdhouse category and snowman category).  Entries are due next week, and I spent some time today going through the list of categories and the items I have completed this year - or have almost completed - I got 16 items listed correctly on the online entry form, but could never get it to accept my credit card entry payment.  I even called the state fair entry office.  The girl was less than helpful and finally told me I was the only person experiencing this difficulty.  So, I decided to punt the project all together.  Upon conferring with my DH about the amount of time I had already spent just trying to enter, and then the waiting in line to enter items and waiting in line to pick things up, and his comment about how poorly everything is displayed each year, I decided time could be better spent just enjoying working on my projects.  Once the decision was made, it sort of lifted the pressure of trying to finish some things quickly.  Cici thought it was an excellent idea as well and showed her support by lounging in the window seat.

We should all be so relaxed!

Christi

 

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