Weekend Wrap Up

I am happy to say I got my disappearing nine patch put together. 

This was a goal I had set for myself. It is current 72” x 72”, and I am trying to figure out the borders. I used the same white throughout, so I am thinking I will use that for an inner broader, and then I still need an outer border.

I was hoping this green might work. Or maybe it is too light. I’m not sure. I pulled a floral print off the shelf.

I think the background is too dark. Oh dear. I don’t want to go buy more fabric. I have lots of fabric. I just have trouble finding what is perfect. 😕

I have been working on a quilt that I am making for a church in Refugio. I make them one every year, and this year my they asked for a patriotic pattern. I have had nothing but issues wtb it. 

It has a pieced border which I cut wrong.

The hst’s should have been 4.5” and I made them 5”. Okay, take them all apart and cut them down to the correct size. And then this:

I put the side pieces on wrong. More seam ripping and resewing. I need to get this right! I will be so happy when then is finally finished and off of my to-do list!

How is your week shaping up? 

A Quick Update

Happy weekend everyone!

If I’m being honest, I was ready for this week to be over. It’s been a little too stressful. I’m hoping to put it all behind me and move on.

I did finish piecing another baby quilt.

I think it’s cute. The fabric has little blue and gray cats on it.

I have another vintage quilt to finish for Rhonda. She’s the one I did the vintage signature quilt for.

It’s small hand-stitched pieces. A lot of feedsacks.

She wants me to put a border on it before I quilt it, and I think that’s a good idea. The edges are pretty uneven and wavy, and a border will stabilize it. I’ll get it done probably this coming week.

My little kitty is doing okay after her surgery. She’s wanting to go outside, but I have been keeping her in. I plan to let her out today. When I got to my shop yesterday morning, she had eaten all her food and was starving. 

She gobbled a whole plate of food. 

Next week’s weather forecast looks too good to be true.

Do I really believe it? I don’t know. I’m hoping the rain part is real. I’ll find out today, I guess.

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!