Soaping Sunday, RSC 15 & some quilt reparing

The lard-rendering crockpot was emptied and turned off last night at 11:00;  four quart jars were filled and cooled overnight...

...never having rendered lard before, waking up to this picture was kinda fun!  Pie crusts recipes were sought out and discussed, however, the first use of the lard was reserved for a new soap recipe to try!

Tropical Vacation, hot process soap will spend the night in the mold seeing I didn't make it up until mid-afternoon.

The 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge had me teaming up with Andee (The Modern Diary).  She pieced up Bonnie K. Hunter's "Betty's Choice" blocks (shown below) while I designed up a simple connector block; each of us creating two blocks per month;  one to keep and one to share.  A final block (aqua) was pieced today to round out my collection to a dozen.  I can't wait to see these blocks play together!

A bit of time was spent organizing up my 'piles' around the sewing area, and an old "FIX-ME-UP-SOMEDAY" quilt has me inspired.

This Blue Hearts was one of my first quilts made in the early 2000s, and is begging for some mending.

The quilt was only tied with buttons & yarn in a few locations; clearly this was created LONG before I knew about the method and idea of actually QUILTING the layers together! 

It has been loved and wore in, certainly!  A poly batting had been used, a simple muslin backing -- it was such a snuggler!!!!

....and falling apart at the seams from its use.  

I've already separated the layers and stitched up the seams that were falling apart.  I'm planning to play around with the quilting, branching out with some custom quilting rather than a pantograph.  It'll be a good piece to practice with.

Happy Sunday everyone!