September Wrap Up

It has been a busy month putting blocks into quilts to be sent to Quilts of Compassion for their deployment to the Carolinas later this year. Got the quilts together that have been ready for just such a need. Those are off to the group now. About the middle of the month I found a 140 blocks from various swaps over the years-string blocks. They were 7.5 inches square.

                         These have since been made into 4 quilts of 35 blocks each.

As soon as I get these back from my wonderful quilted they will also be headed to Quilts of Compassion along with some from friends. Yes, am keeping Kerry @ tincanquilting.com busy!

I am part of a small group of quilting friends that have become very close. One of our members does a lot for others and we decided it was time for her to have a quilt of her own. She only makes small ones and we wanted her to have one she could curl up in! One of the members found a fun pattern. We each made the string blocks in her colors. Kerry got it quilted for me and we sent her a surprise. She has it now so I can show the picture.

                                                     It's a nice size for snuggling!

I did manage to get 10 blocks made this month for my Kaffe quilt block of the month. Need to make 10 more though. Fun making snowball blocks!


We took off one day for the day and drove out to Kerrville. I can not go to Kerrville without a stop at Creations. My batik collection grew along with one Kaffe.

Another day we finally made it to our Korean Grocery store H-Mart.

First time there and we had a fun checking it out. Loved the fresh produce and fruit section. Having lived in Asia for 10 years we enjoyed seeing some things we had not seen since leaving there.

That pretty much sums up September 2018!

                                             Linking up with Small Quilts for some eye candy

Sunday Sept. 9, 2018

September has so far been busy for us. Always helps to have a special event happen. Our 48th wedding anniversary was on the 5th and we had lots of well wishes and fun comments about the writing on Galen's shoes. His middle bother and a good friend wrote Help on the insoles. Of course we had no clue until we knelt toward the end of the ceremony. We could hear giggling throughout our small church! But so much about that. We did go our for a nice dinner.

I have been sewing on a special project which I can't show yet. But have also managed to finish up 2 quilts. They are packed away until needed some where. My Cowboy Christmas quilt is finally finished

Kerry Lynn at Tincanquilting.com did another great job

                    This is a jelly roll drag race quilt from a u tube video by Jordan fabrics. I only used a 20 strip roll plus background

Another great quilt job by Kerry

On the cooking front I tried a new recipe for pork carnitas made in the crock pot. It is a keeper.We have had 2 meals. The rest is going in the freezer in meal size portions for us. Will be a great and easy meal.

We have been getting some rain this week. Any rain is good. Several inches so far and more predicted. Hoping the predictions are true. I think most of the cotton has been picked so it shouldn't hurt those farmers too much. And the late cotton isn't ready yet hopefully the rain is not hurting it!

See what others have been doing

What happened to August?

Not sure what happened to the month of August. It flew by! Dad always said the older we get the time seems to go by faster. He was sure right there!

                                       We made progress and got the quilts hung.
                                                              My perfect Union
                 Hand pieced by me and machine quilted by Bonnie Hunter (Quiltville)

Looking down from the second floor landing

Have this one on the railing.

The insert finally came for my machine and the Koala cabinet

Sewing the binding on my Kaffe scrap quilt (Blue Bricks pattern)

And now a finished quilt

This is the wide backing. Not a Kaffe but it was perfect for the quilt.Had it quilted by my friend Kerry at Tincanquilting.com.  As always she did a wonderful job.

And this is the completed quilt from the last of the straight furrow 9 patch blocks. Kerry did another great job on this one as well 

I actually have 6 months of blocks done for the Kaffe BOM quilt. This only shows 5. The other one is another grouping of 20 checkerboards. 70 blocks made so far for the mystery quilt! I must be enjoying it. I am usually not up to date!

Other happenings this past month. Had our trees trimmed and thinned out. The grass does want some sun.And we refuse to put more rock in the front yard and mulch beds in the back. Need some grass especially in the back for the girls Tilly and Tiki!

Since I am keeping track on my monthly block total for the 350 block challenge I can report 70 blocks for August. 430 blocks through July.With my 70 this month  -500! As soon as out temperatures get a little lower and we start taking off more for bird and butterfly migrations I may not get as much accomplished.

Will be interesting to see what September has in store. I do know one thing-we celebrate our 48th Wedding Anniversary on September 5th!

Design Wall Monday August 6, 2018

Nothing is on my wall at the moment! Yes, need to remedy that!

I did manage to get several quilts bound and 2 tops completed!

This is Arcadia.

This is the back. The back is actually green but the sun was bright when we took the pictures! This was machine quilted by Kerry from TinCanQuilting.com

                          This one is called Hashbrowns. It was a strip club from Honey Bee

                                                         And another great quilting job b Kerry

I had one left over block. Put it on the back. Can write a note on the light fabric.

This one is the last of the nine patch straight furrow made from blocks from members of the Yahoo group Quilted With Love. Tiki was not going to be left out of the picture!

         
I am participating on the Kaffe Mystery.  Late last week they gave this out this pattern to the participants. The pattern is Blue Bricks. As you see mine is anything but Blue!  It was fun to make and used up some of my scraps from other Kaffe Quilts.

I finally convinced Galen to hang a couple quilts at the front entry. We have too many windows in the house so space it very limited as to where we can display quilts.

    He did get one up yesterday afternoon. This one the Pattern is called Water Lily and I made it using Kaffe fabrics.

Today he will get the other one up. Totally different style. This one I pieced by hand. It is called Perfect Union.I took a 6 week class the summer after we moved here. This quilt had been hanging on the only wall in the living room however we brought a cabinet down from the second floor. Needed a smaller quilt for there now. 

This is my pride and joy and I want to see it!

That is about all for here. It has been hot and dry in our part of Texas.

Linking up with Small Quilts/Doll Quilts

July 2018 Wrap Up

July has been a busy month around here. Mostly with inside stuff as we have had quite a few triple digits. I think all of the last half of the month.  Galen did manage 2 all day trips with friends searching for Dragonflies. They were productive trips. Good thing as both days  they had a heat index at 105 or above!!! The girls and I enjoyed the AC at home. They will run out into the yard, see what is around and then are ready to come back in. Early morning and late evening they like to be out. I think middle of the day they have no interest in  chasing squirrels!

One exciting thing happened-my Koala Cabinet arrived on the 24th.  Those cabinets are heavy and it needed to go to the 2nd floor

We do have a nasty turn at the top of our stairs. 2 guys came with the delivery, then they called a third and then a fourth showed up. The cabinets weigh between 500 and 600 lbs. They had the doors off and drawers out but still very heavy and awkward. The guys were very professional-did not want to damage cabinet or our walls. They did a great job.

                           

  Probably the only time the top will be completely free of fabrics!

Put the nice big surface to use when machine binding quilts for Quilted With Love

 

Speaking of Quilted with Love these are the 4 quilts made from blocks that people sent. They are on their way to a chapter in NC.

I didn't get any farther along on my last cowboy quilt. Did get the July Kaffe mystery blocks completed. Guess that means I should get May and June made! Then I could say I was caught up!

Mailed off 7 completed quilts to Quilts of Compassion. And did get 2 more quilts bound. So all in all it wasn't a bad month for sewing! Now If I can get the thumb on my right hand to stop giving me problems I will be happy!

Happenings

The first 2 weeks of July have been busy! Actually making progress on the upstairs sort, toss and organize job. I even found the couch on the landing that had been piled with "stuff".

Now the girls have a place to hang out when they are upstairs with me. If Daddy isn't home they will come to see me. And having the couch covered means they are not underfoot.

 Also got our smoker going once again. 3 pork shoulders smoked for Buckboard Bacon. I pretty much follow my friend's Judy way of making it.

All sliced, packaged and in the freezer. It's good. Had some for breakfast this past week. Also smoked a brisket. So once was big pieces in the freezer are now in small packs!

I have also been getting a little sewing in-have to have some therapy! This is the quilt that was cut out and next in line to put together.

 My theme rows are done but need to sash them and finish putting the top together. This was a kit from Poppies in Georgetown. 2010 vintage! So not as old as the previous 2!

Also needed to get back to putting the block challenge blocks from Quilted With Love group on Yahoo.One of our missions is to make quilts kids. We doing block challenges this year. The first one
Nine Patch Straight Furrows

This setting is 4 x 5. This is taken on the design wall before putting them together. . Yes missing row 4 in the picture. Will get a better picture when pressed. This is top 2 from the blocks sent to me. Have enough for 2 maybe 3 more tops!

We had a rain event-that is what we call it when we haven't had rain for awhile. This was much needed.

Caught up this past week with a very good friend from our time in Taiwan and her son. Of course we went for Chinese food!

And for the final pictures for today! A friend sent me several red/white and blue tops to be quilted and delivered to a group here who take quilts to Ft. Hood. Since it is a lot less expensive to send tops and not the completed quilt I told Wendy I would get the rest taken care of. 2 are finished.

Wendy Owens here are 2 of them!

They will be delivered the next time the group meets at Honey Bee!

Enough for today. i still have more to do upstairs and want to get a lot done before my new sewing cabinet arrives-probably this coming week or the next!

Linking up with Small Quilts Doll Quilts