Summer Garden Bounty

Day 3 pf the 31 day blogging challenge.  

I was going through my phone and came across these photos from the summer.  I love having a garden right in my backyard.  It isn't large by any means, but just right to get some great veggies.  We grow all kinds of tomatoes, including my favorite yummy yellow ones.  When I don't use them up I tend to freeze them until I can can them, or until I use them. When they thaw just a little the skin peels right off.  

My cucumber plants did very well this summer, too.  They seemed to start late, but once they did it was nonstop through the entire summer.  I made two batches of pickles, one made 9 pints and the other was 8 pints and 3 half pints.  

I use a recipe from my "Make Your Own Groceries" cookbook by Daphne Hartwig to make them.  I also use a recipe from that book for my pickled green tomatoes.  One thing I add to my cucumbers and tomatoes is a hot pepper, love the spicy kick it gives.  Oh and a bit of celery is super yummy pickled.  

Just tonight I opened a jar of pickles, so yummy!  I am happy to have my garden grown veggies available all year long in my home.  

Simple Purple Baby Quilt

Day 2 of the 31 day blog challenge. Today I have decided to share a baby quilt that I was asked to create by my sister. She always comes to me when she needs a baby gift for a friend or coworker. Because of her work travels, my baby quilts are all over the world and that makes me smile.

This baby quilt I decided to keep simple. Sometimes, simplicity works best for these little quilts. I pulled from my stash of purples and cut them into 3.5" squares. I alternated the purples with a creamy print. 

I also decided to do nice straight line quilting to emphasize the blocks.  The backing is a simple print with little birds   

This baby quilt was very happily received by the family. Hope their little one enjoys it. 

While I was photographing the quilt my helper puppy was playing in the leaves. 

The 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

So I have decided to join in on the 31 day blog writing challenge this month hosted by Cheryl Sleboda at muppin.com (link to blog challenge).  Lately I have been kinda neglecting my blog since my computer took a dump back in August.  I did buy a mini tablet, but that was still not as nice as having a laptop to type on.

Since I have awesome family, my parents actually gave me my Christmas gift early and I am typing on it now.  Yay for my new HP laptop.  

So in this challenge I figure it will give me a chance to catch up on posting a lot of the quilts that I created in the time that I was minus a computer.  

Anyone can join in, too.  :)  

Target Practice Mini Quilt

This is the final month of the Project Quilting Cherrywood off season Focus Through the Prism challenge. I'm sad to see it end, but super excited for another season of Project Quilting starting in January.

This month the challenge block was the snowball block. My first thought was, uh oh... I left orange for last and couldn't think of anything at first. The reason I left orange last was to support RSD/CRPS awareness month. Color the World Orange was Monday November 2. 

I randomly started making different size snowballs and tossing them at my design  wall. When I posted on our Facebook group joking about throwing a ball at the snowballs the name Target Pracrice was suggested by Jo and I loved it so I ran with it. I created some more small snowballs and tossed them on the board. From there I started piecing the quilt around where the blocks landed. They only moved if I had to make piecing easier. 

Once it was all together I kept my theme and quilted circles into it using the perfect color orange of Aurifil. It matched the circles in my background fabric perfectly! 

I chose to do the binding on the background fabric to make it seem like it kept going. 

This was a fun quilt to finish the challenge  with. Thanks Kim for all the fun you provided in the off season! 

Target Practice 

20"x 20"

Machine pieced

Machine quilted

Hand bound

And of course an obligatory Maggie pic... or two. 

Maggie and Matt smiled so nicely for the camera.

And here Maggie and CJ are both smiling. She had a lot of attention on Thanksgiving.

Strawberry Patch Mini Quilt

Another month of Project Quilting is over, only one more left. These have been some fun challenges and it is awesome to have at least one finished quilt each month. 

This months challenge was the nine patch. For some reason I was really stumped with this block.  I pulled out my  cherrywood   fabrics and chose the red this month.it sat for weeks until I decided to just cut it and start playing to figure out a design. I paired the cherrywood with a great moda print of pink and red squares. 

In the disappearing none patch blocks I did reverse appliqué circles to mimic the circles on the print. 

The tiny nine patches are only 1.5" square. Sometimes it's fun to go small. The red strips are just a quarter inch wide. I liked the little pops of red it gave. 

The quilting is just simple straight lines to enhance my strawberry patch mini. 

Sad there is only one more month of these cherrywood Project Quilting off season focus through the prisom  challenges. But i am excited to find out what our final block will be! 

And as usual, a quick pic of miss Maggie with my quilt. She is such a great model. 

I interrupted her playing with her own quilt to model mine. 

Geese on the Beach Mini Quilt.

It's the end of the month again and I'm just squeezing in my Project Quilting Focus Through the Prism mini quilt. This month was so awesome, it was flying geese!  My absolute favorite quilt block!  Of course I was going to have fun and do a mix of paper piecing and regular piecing. 

Since I just finished up a top using batik fabrics I decided to keep with the batik trend. All the fabrics, besides the Cherrywood fabrics, are batiks. I love the creamy background batiks.  You might be able to see I even pieced some geese with just the background batiks, which gave me one of my ideas for a name as Hide and Goose Seek. But Geese on the Beach works well, too. The colors give me a beachy feel. 

I wanted something different for the quilting and I struggled with what to do. I thought hand work, but the quilt told me no. Then I thought pebbling and echoing, but both weren't right either. Then I saw a feathery loopy thing and said yes that's it!  In just over an hour I had my mini totally quilted. The quilting really shows on the back. 

I decided to use the Cheerywood to bind my mini quilt. I feel it frames it nicely. 

I can't believe we already have 5 mini quilts already done for this challenge. I love seeing this collection grow. Thanks Kim (at Persimmon Dreams) for this awesome challenge!  

And of course I have to share a Maggie picture.  She was helping carry my top after I took some pictures the other day. 

(Mc) Swirly Twirly Pinwheel

This month seemed to get away from me but I finished my Project Quilting off season Focus Through the Prism challenge just in time. This months block, pinwheels, through me for a loop. And I used a color for them that is not a normal  one for me, green. But in the ending love it!  And thanks to Trisha for helping with the name.  

I used a 3d pinwheel pattern and made them in 2 sizes. For some reason I really like tiny blocks. There are lots of different polka dots in this mini, too. I really wanted to bind with more Cheerywood green, but only had a tiny piece left so I went with a batik polka dot. 

The quilting is swirly like the pinwheels are blowing in the wind. Overall this was a fun quilt to make, once I decided on what I was doing that is. And I was able to piece some of my pinwheels on my new to my 1948 featherweight. She sewed right through the bulky centers. 

I'm so ready for next month! 

Cabin on the Water Mini Quilt

Another month is almost over and I have my Project Quilting mini quilt for our Focus Through the Prism off season challenge complete.

This months block was the log cabin. I'll be honest that I didn't start it until just 5 days before the end of the month. I mean, it is Project Quilting so why start early?  

I chose the blue this month since I would love a cabin on the water. I chose to go a scrappy route, having the cherrywood fabric spiral out.

I added strips of blues and a couple text prints until it was more than large enough. I decided to quilt it with lines meeting in the center where the heart of the home is. 

I added in some hand stitching to accent the quilting. I had a great supervisor while  I was working outside, Spooky kitty. 

Once I was ready I chose to bind it by matching the last strips around the quilt so it didn't break up the pattern. 

I seriously love the quilting on the back!

And of course Maggie had to check it out while I was taking pictures. She is such a quilt dog. I think she was contemplating grabbing it and running in this picture.  

It is called Cabin on the Water since I would love to have a cabin on the water one day.

Can't wait for next months challenge!  Maybe I will even start it earlier, haha!

A (Friendship) Star is Born

Last months Project Quilting off season block was the friendship star. I wasn't sure what color to use or what I planned to do at all until the last 2 weeks of the month. Honestly, I barely sewed anything in June. Since sitting at my machine for any length of time wasn't an option I decided that this needed to be a mostly hand stitched project. 

I decided to base my design on the star forming, coming together piece by piece.  I drew out my design and just started building the idea. Once the top was together I started the hand work. I followed the lines of some of the star sections and stitched in the outline of the missing star parts and 2 whole stars. 

 

I filled in the entire background with stitching. 

 I loved how the back looked as it was coming together. 

I was able to complete my mini quilt and post it on time, thankfully. 

There is almost an entire roll of verigated pearl cotton in this mini. 

And here it is with my May mini. Two totally different quilts. May is more my normal style of quilt, but I love June's.  wonder how July will turn out. 

I love these off season mini challenges with Cherrywood fabrics! 

Through the Monkey Wrench

So excited for the off season challenges of Project Quilting.  This year is Focus Through the Prism for the off season using Cherrywood fabrics. 

The May challenge was the monkey wrench block.  Choosing one color, we were to create a 20" mini quilt using the monkey wrench (churn dash) block.  I had a little bit of a slow start, not knowing what color I wanted to use or how I wanted my little quilt to look, but once I started it just came together so quickly. 

I chose to use the violet for this challenge.  I started with a few tiny blocks that finished at 1.5" and went up from there.  The little blocks are framed out with the larger monkey wrench block.  I added a few flying geese for fun.

The quilting is swirls, to resemble the swirls on some of the background fabrics.

The quilting is only on the background fabrics, I wanted the violet to pop.

I think it fit well in my garden next to my flower ball.  Stands out in all the green.

Maggie was helping me take pictures in the yard so I wanted one with her.  She is not as small as she looks in this photo, haha.  

Through the Monkey Wrench

20" x 20"

Cherrywood Violet fabric with assorted others from my stash

Check out the other Project Quilting quilts here.