No guilt quilting day

 This is what I'm looking at.  We got 8 1/2" of snow last night.  More is expected tonight.

My grandkids were excited for a "Snow Day" until the schools all went to remote learning.

But, for me, it's a no guilt quilting day.  The only problem is I'm in-between projects.  To bad I'm not doing Bonnie's mystery because this would be a good day to hunker down and sew.

I think I'll get my orphan blocks out and arrange them.  It might be orphan day.

Robin

This is going to be a way bigger project than I thought.  Whew!!!

Love Letters, Sweet Land of Liberty, SNOW

I finished the machine applique on the Love Letters quilt by Barb Adams.  I am normally a hand appliquer but I thought this method would be faster.  And it was. . .  

But, it was not nearly as satisfying and it got a bit monotonous by the 3rd block.  I would wake up at night with the rhythm of stitch forward- stitch left-stitch right- repeat, going on and on in my brain.

But, it turned out to be a lovely quilt top and I look forward to hand quilting it later this year.  I'm tempted to do a border on the top and bottom that would make it longer for the bed, it is 84" X 84" square.  That being said, I don't have any more of the solid background fabric.  I don't remember what color it is.  It might be Kona Bone but it is definitely not Kona Snow or White.

I realized I never show my finished Sweet Land of Liberty quilt, pattern by Cheri Payne.  It was fun to hand quilt.

This is the back of the quilt.  I had these two panels from long ago by Sandy Gervais and since they had a patriotic theme, I used them for the backing along with some leftover twill-like fabric from the backing of another quilt.

I mostly quilted in the ditch and around the designs but once in a while I felt like doing more hand quilting .

I followed the design of the background to do quilting on this angel.

I just added some echo curves for this angel.

And I quilted a star in this blue field that needed a little embellishment.

I layered my Cheddarback (that I am calling The Children's Hour) quilt top weeks ago and now that Love Letters is done I can start hand quilting it.  This picture is dark because I took it downstairs on a snowy day but you can see some of the hand quilting.  

AND, speaking of snow, we finally got our first snowfall of the season.  I know it doesn't look like much but in our drought ridden state it is absolutely delightful.  We only go 2" here in the valleys but the mountains got over a foot of powder.  The skiers are all so excited.  I don't ski but love love love the snow. 

 

                                                               I am so grateful!!!

My sister-in-law is a shopper.  She bought this forlorn Santa at a Christmas clearance sale a few years ago.  He's missing the center "HO" in his banner.  She mailed it to me saying she thought I would know what to do with it.  Ha! Ha!

I'm thinking about redressing it in a pieced coat.  I was thinking rows of tiny flying geese but after seeing Barbara Brackman's latest post on cat mummies. . . I'm wondering about tiny log cabins.

I don't really know what I'm going to do with it but I'll take pictures if any re-decorating happens to go on. 

This year my husband is down with a back injury.  It makes carrying big boxes of Christmas decorations impossible.  So I decided I would just decorate my little 3 ft. tree that I could carry by myself.

All of the decorations are jewel-like in colors of teal, chartreuse, magenta, and purple.

 It's so unlike my usual tree of Hallmark, Country, and Homemade ornaments and garlands.  It's a pretty little tree but I miss my usual one.  Sometimes we have to make new memories, don't we?

Robin

Check out the other blogs on Slow Sunday Stitching

 

Warm Chamomile tea with honey feels so good going down a sore throat.  I figured honey has antiseptic qualities so it might help me keep from turning this cold into a sinus infection.   I'd show you my satisfied face but bed-hair is best kept from everyone - ha!

Robin

End of November

Still working on "Love Letter's".  I sew on it every day (except Sunday).  I sew until my back aches or the muscle on the back of my thigh complains.  This is usually about an hour.  These aging bodies sure complain a lot - ha!

I have seven blocks completely machine appliqued.  I tried to do the harder ones first so the easy ones would be left at the end.  I was wrong. This coxcomb block is going to be a bear going around all those curves.

I was at Canadian needle nana's blog last week (a delightful blog) and she had a link or I clicked on one of the blogs she follows.  Anyway, I came across some Red & White quilts that were so great.  I still want to make a Red & White quilt someday.  A few of the quilts were from the book  'Patches of Blue' by Edyta Sitar.  This book is all about blue and white quilts but the ones that were made in red and white instead were really what interested me.  I ordered the book from Amazon.

Well, I searched through my history and found those quilts on Gladiquits (another great blog).  Click on her name for a quick quilt show.  Gladi's quilt is the crib quilt - so nice.

You probably remember seeing this quilt online a few years ago.  The book came out in 2017.

 I want to make this quilt in red and white and put in more trees.

I also want to add this branch at the top of the houses.

If I wasn't toward the end of the current quilt I'm working on I'd start right away.  But, I determined to finish "Love Letters" before I start anything else.

That's the end of the quilty stuff.    I went outside about an hour ago.  I was struck by the vivid blue of the sky.  It makes even this crowded corner of our yard look nice.  It was a balmy 46 degrees outside.

One of the things I love about this time of year is the tree skeletons.  They can be so artistic.  So, here are a few in my yard.

Peach tree

Cutleaf Weeping Birch

Lilac

Trio of unknown trees

Autumn Splendor Maple

Grapevine

 Have a great day.  I caught a 'no fun' cold and sore throat over Thanksgiving so I'm homebound.

Robin

News from Bonar Bridge

Hawaiian print quilt top is my daughter's project

Here is a look at "Quilting Central" down in my basement.  Finishing up UFOs is kind of like having a job.  There's a task to be completed so each day I go downstairs and put my time in.  Love Letters on the design wall is progressing slowly but each day I get more done.  I've completely finished machine appliqueing the center wreath and now I'm working on the Oak Leaf block from the empty space on the wall.

I'm still hand quilting the Plaidish quilt.  It is "big stitch" quilting so it's going fast.  I should be finished in about 3 days or less if I'm diligent.

I decided to pick out a backing for my "Cheddarback quilt".  I had originally decided on using a big blue floral that is purposely faded looking.  When I got it out there was 9 yds. in the piece and this quilt only needed 4 yds. so I looked for something else.  I found this early Fons & Porter piece.  It is marked on both selvages but it only says Fons & Porter by Bernartex with 2 colors.  I think it looks great with the quilt top and am anxious to begin.

As you can see in the top picture this quilt is layered on the floor.  I ran out of pins for the pin basting (there is still a bunch in the Plaidish quilt).  I don't know whether to unpin the border now or buy new pins or leave the quilt sandwich on the floor until I finish quilting the other quilt.

I remembered the Cheddarback quilt begin quite large but it is only 68" X 75" or something like that.  I suppose I could have put a border on it but I wanted it to be more like the original.  It is sure a fun quilt to look at.  I think I'm going to enjoy quilting each individual block, like visiting an old friend.

 This is a picture of my 'Spring Cheer' daffodil that blooms both spring and fall.  It has quite a heady fragrance and show no sign of wilting anytime soon.

My husband ruptured another disc a month ago and has been flat in bed during that time.  The insurance company won't pay for the MRI unless you go through 6 wks. of physical therapy.  He's been in this situation before and is gladly jumping through the hoops so he can further the process toward surgery.  He had his MRI Wednesday and is waiting for the results.

So I am staying close to home and filling my hours with my quilting.  And I'm his chauffeur as well.

He's the kind of guy who always has a project going and he's an avid gardener.  The garden was cleaned out and prepared for fall by my daughter, her kids, and me last Saturday.  I didn't know I had it in me!

Robin

It appears I can be talked into anything

This could be considered a squirrel project but since it's my granddaughter's and not mine - I'm not counting it as such.  I was planning on beginning the machine applique for my "Love Letters" quilt top when I suggested to my granddaughter that we do a Halloween decoration together.

I bought the small Kitty Corn panel and a few pieces of fabric from the line, thinking we would make a wall hanging.  

Silly me, it tuned out not to be a little afternoon craft project.  

No, she came over with a plan to make a whole quilt.

These are the fabrics from the Kitty Corn line that I bought to go with the panel - the orange check, the green dot, and the mauvey candy corn print.  I picked out some pieces from my stash and she and her mother went shopping for something with a light background and came home with four more fabrics and a backing.

It seemed that this franken-batting was appropriate for a Halloween quilt.

So I trimmed down the panel to a 23" square and then added the black border so it measured 24 1/2".  I cut out 6 1/2" squares from all our fabrics and then we began sewing.

 I finished it up today and here it is layered and ready to pin baste.  the piece of fabric that surprised me is the peach colored one.  It is from my stash and it really adds a sparkle to the quilt.

My granddaughter wanted me to hand quilt it and with everything else that is going on I told her that I couldn't complete it by Halloween so she has settle for "Blind Tying".  Not my first choice but I haven't been in control of this project from the beginning.😁

But, we're making memories right?

Robin

Yesterday

This is what I woke up to.  Isn't it gorgeous.  The whole eastern sky was engorged with colors like this.

We had a hard freeze warning for today so that meant it was time to harvest whatever was left and bring it inside.  My husband and daughter picked the corn that was ripe enough to use.  If  it froze at the end of October like it usually does, we would have had two more weeks for the corn to ripen.  But, snow was coming and during a drought like we've had, I wasn't going to complain about some long needed moisture.

They also picked all the peppers in varying states of ripening.  Actually, all the green peppers you see in the picture are unripened red peppers not bell peppers so the flavor was minimal.  But, I had enough for my goal of making corn relish, one of my favorite things.

The dahlias are in bloom and some of the blossoms got knocked off as they were brought in to winter in the garage.

I got all the peppers washed and chopped as well as the onions.  The funny thing about the purple peppers is that they look beautiful when raw and they have a wonderful crunch but, there is no flavor.  It's kind of disappointing.  We won't be buying that variety again.

My husband and daughter husked the corn.  My husband says "husked" and I say "shucked".  I guess it's just where we were raised.  What do you say?

Then the ears were scalded and dipped in icy water.

Soon, the corn was cut off the ears (my least favorite part).

And everything was mixed together to boil i.e. corn, onions, peppers, spices, vinegar, sugar, pickling salt, and a little water.

Then I put it the hot relish in 7 pts and processed them.  Lids are hard to come by this year and I had saved a few for just this very purpose.  The pints aren't as pretty as last year because I had less red pepper and it's not quite as flavorful as last year because I didn't have any green bell pepper.  But, I'm so grateful to have these 7 pts.  I'm going to really enjoy the relish as the year proceeds.

Thanks for stopping by,

Robin