Busy Week!

I finished the Appalachian Autumn quilt top! Okay, it's not my best work, but I do love it anyway! It's now in the hands of a long arm quilter.

Last week I celebrated my 2 year anniversary of my mastectomy - a day that has become more important than my birthday. I treated myself to this breast cancer t-shirt - I love it because it doesn't SCREAM breast cancer. Perfect for me!

My fabric labeling has continued. I can see the color of each drawer at a glance. I still have to make 3 more laminated labels.

I have to say a word about Alex Trebek. RIP..... Here's a photo of me and our girls with him at the Pillbury Bake-Off many years ago. He was so kind to us. He even autographed the little Doughboy I'm holding in the picture. Alex hosted the TV show about the Bake-Off that year. It was such a pleasure to meet him.

I've changed my mind about Bonnie Hunter's mystery - I think I'll save the instructions as they are released, but for now I think I'll pass. I have so many UFO's and I think I'll continue to tackle them instead. It has felt so good to get some of these finished this year. I have a Christmas table runner that I want to quilt (picture soon!). I haven't sewn the last few days because I've been working on my labels on my fabric. Also I've been having computer woes. I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new one soon. Ugh! 

That's all from here! Stay safe!

Moving Along with Appalachian Autumn

I finished the leaf blocks this week! Today I added the first border and one side of the outer border. This quilt top is almost in the rear view mirror. I've thoroughly enjoyed this Bonnie Hunter pattern. It's not as fiddly as some of her patterns. And what could be better than to make an Autumn quilt during AUTUMN! The colorful leaves were falling from the trees on the golf course behind us as I've been sewing.

But what about Bonnie's mystery? Grassy Creek? Hmmm.... 

I pulled fabrics from my stash. So I guess that means I'm going for it? You know me - I don't love red, so my stash is sorely lacking in this hue. So I did what I had to do....I went online to Whittle's Fabrics. They always have a tab at the top for the latest Bonnie Hunter mystery. Yes, I ordered a couple of fat quarter packs of assorted reds. Their prices are the BEST!

This is another project I've been working on. I've been making large labels for my stash drawers. I'm using paint samples to indicate the fabric color and printing labels for other drawer items. I have laminated them. Now they need trimming and installing (with cable ties). 

Cheddar Bowties are still ongoing - each day I still make four of these. I think that I'll cut more scraps for these over the weekend - I'm getting low. 

Stay safe!

Back to My Daily Quilting Progress...

I've now made enough Appalachian Autumn blocks that I wanted to start sashing them. Because the background colors I chose are very close in value, Bonnie Hunter's sashing design would have been lost. So I decided to do my own thing with the sashing. I have had this fine wale corduroy in my stash for years and it fit the bill.

I'm liking it! Just a few more leaf blocks to go and I'll be ready for the pieced borders!

Yesterday I made the last four-block unit of cheddar bowties for another large block unit. Now I have two of these. I'm loving this!

Yesterday we decided to open doors and windows and burn off the fumes from our fireplace. We wanted to do this on a day that Sadie wasn't here. Cooper really appreciated the fire. Okay, now we're ready for cooler weather.

Stay safe!

A Slower Week

 

I machine embroidered another little onesie for Sadie. I need to order more in a bigger size - she is growing so fast that these are already tight! 

I pulled out this pillow kit I purchased in Houston last year - I cut the pieces and have it ready for hand stitching. I cut out the letters that go in the mouth when I get to that point.

Food. During a pandemic...

I finally hit a wall in cooking. I enjoy cooking normally, but enough is enough. So my new routine is to cook something on Sunday every week. I try to make a meal that will feed us twice or more. This past week it was Ravioli Lasagna - recipe here. This Sunday I'll make Cheesy Ground Beef Empanadas - recipe here.

We order take out pizza every week - we get two meals from that. 

Wednesday night is burger night at the clubhouse in our neighborhood - see picture above. These are GIGANTIC! We each get one (along with their delicious sweet potato fries) and eat half one night, saving the other half for another meal. The clubhouse has a very safe food pick up protocol. 

I know - not the healthiest of routines, but it gets us fed with minimal cooking. Last week we skipped the burgers and ordered a taco kit from a restaurant. Sometimes we skip the pizza and we grill out something. 

About Zeta:

Zeta hit our region harder than expected - it was the wind that was so damaging. We were lucky and have no damage at either home. The power was out at the lake for more than 24 hours. Hubby went yesterday and cleaned up the yard and emptied the refrigerator. There were so many tree and power lines across roads that he struggled to get there. So many people have trees on their houses and/or cars. Let's hope that was the last hurricane for the time being!

Today I think I'll set my machine back up for stitching and pull out the cheddar bow ties and Appalachian Autumn blocks. 

Stay safe! 

Embroidery and Applique!

 

Before I get back to my regular routine of cheddar bowties, Fall leaves, and stars...I decided to pull out the embroidery module for my Bernina and work on some onesies for Sadie. I bought a five pack of long sleeve onesies. I did this pumpkin one yesterday. Sadie loved watching the machine do its thing.

Today I'll do another.

And I've done a bit of Fall baking. Pumpkin Bread - yum! And this delightful snack. 

Caramel Puff Corn is so easy to make - you start with cheese puff corn. I love this stuff - no 'old maids' or kernels. Great for snacking during a football game. It's very addictive, so make lots! You'll find the recipe HERE! NOTE: the recipe calls for one bag of puff corn - I used two bags, each just over 4 oz. Here's the kind I used:

Your family will LOVE it! I made two batches of this last week - from 4 bags of puff corn - it went fast! Yes, I shared with our daughters....

We're expecting rain and wind from Zeta today and tomorrow. This will be the third hurricane that has affected us. Of course Sally took part of our fence out - it's now repaired. Let's hope this one isn't too bad.

Stay safe!

Sew Be It: A Curved Hexie Quilt

 

Ta-Dah! Ta-Done! I may go back and add a bit more quilting to the center section, but we'll see. 30 hours of quilting in this so far!

I used more of Tula Pink's Homemade fabric for the rest of the quilt.

This fluorescent green background - whoa, it's bright! But it was nice to have those grid lines to help with quilting a diagonal crosshatch.

This has been a busy two week push to finish this quilt. Daughter 1 came over yesterday afternoon to take more professional photos for me - she's a master with the camera. (Please note that photos shown here are my own, done with my cell phone). Her photos are really amazing, but my computer is on the old side and those photos don't like to load on it. 

Do you want to know why I was in such a rush to finish? Well...

As we were nearing the end of the Curved Hexie Stitch Along, I realized that Free Spirit is running a competition for quilts made with the Homemade fabric line by Tula Pink. I knew the deadline would be tight - so I had to HURRY! And hurry, I did. 

My daughter also helped me fill out the entry form and attach her photos - my computer just couldn't handle it. And so.... or should I say, and SEW, it is officially entered. I'll keep you posted on that. And yes, I've named it: Sew Be It: A Curved Hexie Quilt. The quilt measures 60" x 63".

Sew Be It!

Stay safe!

Curved Hexie Stitch Along- Show and Tell!

Above it from Cynthia W - isn't it lovely? That cobalt blue really holds it all together - wonderful job!

And this is made by Steve C. Wonderful work, Steve! Your colors are fabulous!!!!

How are the rest of you coming along? I hope you're almost done.

So, did I make my deadline of finishing the quilting on mine by Friday and hand stitching the binding on Saturday? Yes and No. 

I didn't quite finish the quilting, but I almost finished it. I got enough done to do the binding. Yes, I hand stitched binding all day today. Tomorrow I'll finish the quilting. And then hand stitch the sleeve. Yes, I made a sleeve for this one. So far I have spent 28 hours machine quilting this quilt.

Stay safe!