A Few More

Can you believe it’s September already? I can’t, but here it is. September and October are typically my busiest months and I am trying to stay caught up on everything. I know it is a losing battle, but I try anyway! 

My friend had picked me up Saturday and we went to Hobby Lobby to shop for fabric for baby quilts. We spent about an hour in there looking at fabric and waiting in line to get ours cut.

I found this cute fabric and ended up making two baby quilts with it.

I didn’t really want the 42” width so I cut it in half from top to bottom and added borders. The tops came out to 37” x 45”. Super fast and easy. 

I made a top with the same yellow and some bee fat quarters I bought.

 

Here’s a closeup of the bees:

I got some kitty fat quarters too, and I’m working on that, but I haven’t finished it. 

Speaking of kitties, this one isn’t pregnant any more.

She’s a tiny little cat, not to mention young, and the babies didn’t live. It’s sad, but maybe for the best. She is going to the vet today to get spayed, and she will stay inside my shop for a few days until her incision heals. I already got her a litter box and a little bed. I don’t know if she will sleep in it or not. 

In between working on baby quilts, I put a large piece of fabric on the quilting frame and quilted several runners and placemats.

Now I will have to bind all this stuff! 

Tonight I’m going to a program at church called “Cook Once, Eat Twice”. It’s being put on by the Agriculture Extension Program. My mom is coming too so that will be fun! 

We actually got a little rain Tuesday evening. It was some the fragments from tropical storm Eduardo. It only rained about 15 minutes, but anything is good. 

You can see how dry the grass is. I am praying for more rain. We need it badly.

A New Soup Recipe

I have been on a soup kick lately. When the weather is as hot as it has been lately, I am not in the mood to eat a heavy evening meal, and you can only eat so many sandwiches, so soup it is. 

I made this recipe three or four weeks ago, and it was really good. It was the chickpea soup that I made with cannellini beans.

It made a lot, and I froze some. I had thawed the rest out a few days ago and finished it. The same recipe site posted another recipe on Facebook this week, and I am anxious to try it. It looks so good.

It’s called Cowboy Bean Soup, and the recipe is here: https://theplantbasedschool.com/cowboy-bean-soup/?fbclid=IwY2xjawT1y4RwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMVh3UkhjMVM4eFRmMVptbWVzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeHkxiwXVr7iEqr8a6YiXymNjHF1LtyzkflLsHBgvkrmIK1EYmLsE0nTuk_Sg_aem_HUaIpwjaTFv-uuVFs_dVcQ

I thought I had all the ingredients, but I ended up having to stop by the grocery store for potatoes and smoked paprika. Here’s what it looked like:

It was a little soupy; it was thicker the second night. I froze two ziploc bags of it with about two servings each. It’s very good. The only thing I changed was to use fire roasted diced tomatoes instead of crushed tomatoes. 

Some Quick Wins

I have been getting tired of working on things that take forever to finish. I needed a quick finish! I got these four fat quarters from the “free” table at our quilt guild meeting. 

I thought the little sloths were cute. I ended up using only two of them and got this baby quilt pieced.

I should have adjusted the lighting on the picture, but you get the idea. I already had the gray—I bought it for something and ended up not using it. I think I still have enough for another quilt or two. I know I have enough nine patches made for another quilt this size. I went to Hobby Lobby with my friend and got a couple of fat quarters I can use, so hopefully I will be able to get another one done soon. Oh, I only used two of the sloth fat quarters so I have enough of those for another baby quilt too! 

I ironed all the green nine patches I made for a disappearing nine patch.

I started trimming them (I didn’t quite finish), and started laying them out so I can get the top sewn together. 

This is just half of it…..I’ll get the rest trimmed and laid out later this week. 

We had a UFO sew day at quilt guild. I couldn’t decide on a UFO to take—I have plenty of them but nothing was motivating me. I took some black and white strips and my box of 2-1/2” squares and worked on this (not my picture):

I honestly didn’t get very far, but I like it so far. I’ll have to see how it goes. My goal for today is to clean up my utility room. I park in the garage so it is the first room I enter when I come in the house. It is easy for it to be a dumping ground for mail and other clutter. It is starting to drive me crazy! It’s also where I keep the dog leashes and harnesses, etc. I want all the clutter gone today! 

Progress

I knew I would be at quilt guild today and tomorrow, so I got busy and started catching up on customer quilts. I got four done, and none of these needed me to bind them, so it went relatively fast.

I did three for Janice. I will see her today at the guild meeting, so I wanted to get hers done and ready to go since she lives out of town. Since she will be coming to town for the meeting, she can kill two birds with one stone. This one is the smallest of the three:

Its’s around 60” x 70”. It’s a cute pattern; I assume it is a Villa Rosa pattern, but I’m not sure. I don’t know if you can tell from the picture , but the back is flannel.

This one is all Tula Pink fabrics. 

It looks like she fussy cut the designs where appropriate.

This one is Lucky Stars from Atkinson Designs:

It’s quite large, 90” x 105”, and the fabrics are Texas wildflowers.

I also did one for Karen, who I also will seem at the guild meeting today. Hers is a donation quilt for the Day One Graduation Project. 

Green has been popular lately—I have been seeing a lot of green quilts. I have been working on the green and white disappearing nine patch I started last month. I have gotten all the nine patches made and cut into fourths. I am currently assembling the rows. I have two rows done and part of the third row. I need 12 rows, but they are easy to sew together (nothing to match) so it will go fast. 

We have a UFO sew day today after the meeting and tomorrow all day, or however long we want to stay. I don’t have anything in particular I want to work on, but I got out some black and white fabric and my box of 2-1/2” squares. I am going to start the scrappy Irish Chain quilt I saw on Pinterest. 

Bazaar Sewing

Notice I didn’t say bizarre sewing, although that may fit also! I am making small things to sell at our quilt guild open house and at our church fall festival. I am trying to get some baby quilts done, but my quilting customers already bought two of them. I think I have time to get a couple more done. I sure hope so.

For now, I have been trying to work on small things that aren’t very expensive to buy. We generally sell out of that type of thing. I made these two potholders from a remnant I had.

Not everyone’s taste, but they make me smile! I also have been making some glasses cases and key fobs. They are in various stages of construction, but these two are finished. 

The glasses cases open up into a heart shape.

I have several of the kitchen towels done that hang over the oven door. I can usually get two from each towel, depending on how they are printed.

Note to self: Avoid directional prints. LOL. 

I went with a friend to a Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute concert last night. 

The band is called Texas Flood, and it was such a good performance. We both enjoyed it a lot. So much so, we already bought tickets to the Santana Tribute in September. Fun fact: I have actually seen Stevie Ray perform, but I have never seen Santana live. I’m sure we will have fun!

Irish Chain and Other News

I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but the heat is horrible. Almost every day is 100 degrees or higher, and we need rain so badly. The ground is dry and as hard as concrete.

 I am praying for rain, but there is none in our 10-day forecast. I have been running the sprinklers every other day on the foundation, so my flower beds look pretty good. My desert rose is blooming again, and has more buds.

As far as my Irish chain quilt, I still need some more pink + jellyroll pairs, but I am continuing to sew them as leaders and enders. Melva posted the Week VI clue a few days ago which is the instructions for assembling the blocks. Unfortunately, I didn’t bother reading the directions until last night and already started doing mine differently. If you know me, this won’t come as any surprise! It’s the same principle, just a little different. I visualized it this way:

A nine patch with the pink four patches comprising one patch, and the white/scrappy squares making another patch, and of course, the pink centers. It is working, but I am not sure the pressing directions are going to work. I think they should…..

I sewed a couple of blocks together to see how it would look.

I like it! I can’t wait to get some more done. I saw another version on Pinterest that had black and white with scraps. No instructions, but it would be easy to figure out from the picture. I am putting it on my “to do” list. 

Speaking of to-do lists, I have been doing some projects for our quilt guild sale and our church craft sale. In other words, I am doing multiples of everything. I will post pictures tomorrow if I can remember to take some.

I finished the second baby afghan,

and started on a third one. I will have to see how I do on time. I can either sew or crochet but cannot do both. I can crochet small things like dishcloths or washcloths when I am waiting in the pickup line at my grandson’s school, but I don’t always remember to take something with me. We went to Dairy Queen after school today for a blizzard. He had a blizzard; I didn’t. There is about 1000 calories in one, so not on my diet. It won’t hurt him. I noticed yesterday when I picked him up from football practice that he was one of the skinniest boys on the field. I wouldn’t mind fattening him up a little. 

Lost and Found

Maybe I should say “Lost and Replaced”. I have a friend who literally finishes every quilt she starts. I start a lot, but don’t always finish. Or more likely, I finish them, but it takes me a few years. My friend reminded me I didn’t finish the quilt I started last year for the church auction. She told me to quit procrastinating and get it done. I dug it out and realized I’ve misplaced four blocks.

Oh my heavens! I looked and looked and can’t find them. I spent about half a day looking, and then realized it would be quicker to remake them. Oh, I didn’t want to. I wasn’t wanting to dig out all the fabric and cut enough pieces to get a good variety. I finally made myself do it Sunday evening.

What a total pain. But now that they are done, I can get all the rows put together and start on the borders.