Some final touches

Four quilts get 100% COMPLETELY marked off now.

Splendidly Marching Along and Transitions only needed labels to be complete. SMA will be sent to Alycia as soon as Maltese Star gets finished (my next to be loaded on the frame). Transitions will be in the hands of a new owner by the end of this week as she heads off to college.

Hopscotch needed binding; I had LOADS of this burgundy in my 2.5" strip drawer; NO IDEA where it was from???? But, used most of it :0) FINISHED!

Despite having had Roll, Roll Cottonboll marked off as" finished" in May, it still needed binding as well as a label even though it had been living on our bed :0). So, using some yellow and blue 2.5" strips from the drawer....it's FINISHED!

Feels good having those putzy tiny finishing tasks DONE! ;0)

Check
Check
Check
and
Check!

Hopscotch & Tater Tot casserole

Hopscotch (70" x 85")
After picking beans from 7:00 - 8:00 AM, I headed downstairs and decided to try to get some more finishes during my last few days of summer vacation. Nope....no canning today. I'll keep the beans safely waiting in the fridge until the next picking tomorrow or Thursday, so I had the WHOLE day open for quilting.

Around 9:00, I had two lil' girls joining me since I had "Balto" on as my background-noise movie of choice. Yeah....LOL.....not really an adult-female choice, but.....**shrug**....it's just background noise! :0)

By lunch-time, the quilt was taken off the frame and trimmed up. The pantograph used was Snapdragons (petite 4 3/4") and I used 6 bobbins of Aurifil thread. I can't remember the exact name of the color, but it's a taupe-like color that blended well with the various scrappy colors.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle at its fullest with this quilt! The backing was a $3.00 Goodwill bedsheet purchase. It feels SO good...100% cotton; almost a shame NOT to use it as a sheet :0)

The batting used was one of those old blankets.....hmmmm....I think I still have the tag downstairs. I'm kinda curious to know the actual makeup of the material.....but it's providing LOTS of weight to this quilt. I LOVE heavy-feeling quilts.....I don't think I can give this one away. I'm kind of partial to it....I think it's going to be kept for ME!

I haven't been able to get back downstairs since lunch time; had some afternoon errands to run. Binding remains to be done yet; I plan on using some 2.5" scrap strips from the 2.5" strip-bin.

So......Tater Tot casserole for dinner tonight. We haven't had this in a while, and I THINK it's one of Paul's more enjoyed meals that I make. There are so many variations out there......this is how I've adapted them to fit my family:

Tater Tot Casserole
1 lb. ground beef, browned
1 med. onion (optional--I don't always add it).
1 package frozen tater tots
1 can corn (or 1 bag of our frozen corn) :0)
1 can cream/potato (most recipes call for cream/mushroom----YUCK!)
Grated cheese (to your liking)

Brown beef with onion; drain.
Drain corn, reserving juice .
Add soup, corn, and 1 soup can of liquid (1/2 milk and 1/2 corn juice). Mix well.
Pour mixture into 9x13 baking dish.
Spread cheese over mixture (to your liking---I usually cover the mixture lightly) ~1 cup?
Top with frozen tater tots.
Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, or until tater tots are brown and crispy.

**smacking lips**
Just typing up that recipe is making me hungry! 10 more minutes remaining on timer :D

10 minutes later
Looks like Candace is a fan, too :0) Too bad she needs to wait for a bit while it cools down.

Other weekend moments...

Friday, before leaving for the farm, I DID decide to load a quilt to the frame for it to be ready whenever the next available opportunity hit.

Hopscotch was loaded, the machine was cleaned and threaded with Aurifil thread....and I did a few passes trying out another new pantograph: Snapdragons (petite 4 3/4"). It's definitely a simple pantograph and I know it'll be a new favorite.

While I was doing that, Paul and the girls were out in one of the sweet-corn patches picking some baby-corn ears. It's hard to see, but there is a wheelbarrow plump full of baby-corn on the other side of the picnic table.



It was a family shucking ceremony in order to get all the corn ready for canning; and I really didn't want to be stuck ALL DAY shucking and canning when we needed to get to the farm SOMETIME before midnight!

This lil' critter gave us some entertainment for a few moments when it decided to hop off of Paul's arm when Candace was getting a little closer look. After a few dance steps from Candace (and myself when it jumped into my personal space), it hopped onto the siding of the house.

Still trying out the new camera, I snapped a few zoomed-in closeups before getting back to the shucking.

At 3:30, we were finished shucking so Paul headed out to pick up some more pig food while I started working on preserving some of the cobs in pints.

Outcome: 14 pints of pickled Baby Corn. This is the first year we have preserved our own baby-corn; we have intentions of using it in some stir-fries and other chinese food dishes.

And I barely made a dent in what had been picked! But, it was 5:00....and time to get packed up for the farm before it got to be TOO late. The rest of the corn was bagged up and taken up with us so that Paul could do some canning on Saturday.

Saturday......well, you all know what most of that day consisted of! :0) Later that afternoon, back at the farm, Bethann was relaxing with a good book on her Kindle while I started downloading/editing the pictures from the day.

We left quite early on Sunday; 9:30 AM! That's a new record, I think. But both myself and Paul were of the same mindset; the garden awaited and we had "things to do" at home.

Unpacking the car took a whole 5 minutes since it was a quick visit. We were out in the garden picking beans and cucumbers by 11:30AM, and done an hour later. It was quite warm.....Candace and Caitlyn both made sure we all knew how warm it was!

Candace: {{wiping hair from face, sighing loudly}} It's HOT out here!
Caitlyn: {{sighing even louder}} Oh, I KNOW! Can we go inside yet?

The whip was cracked and we stuck to the picking. Then after a short simple sandwich lunch, I said.....let's go boating and swimming! And that's exactly what we did for the rest of the afternoon.

Hmmm.......Candace, is it STILL HOT out here??? ;0) This pose just looks TOO relaxing! Can't you just see her brain saying...."THIS is the life, Mom!"

Or maybe she was talking to Dad? :0)

Last night I spent much of the evening relaxing in my glider while blogging about the Paavo Nurmi Marathon relay.

By 10:00, I was pretty tuckered out and looked forward to saying goodnight to the world. My camera may be pretty cool, but it can't quite zoom in to get a great shot of the moon. Shucks :0)

This post is complete enough, so I'll save my morning of bean cutting, cucumber slicing, pickling and canning stories for the next one. Then again, how many posts can one write about canning beans and cucumbers????

Hopscotch - Flimsy?

After printing out Clue #5 for Frost 25, I headed downstairs to layout the blocks. However, my Hopscotch center was still taking up the floor space with the first inner border pinned from the other day. SO, NATURALLY, rather than setting it aside, I figured that I'd take care of the inner border.

The inner border finished lead me to some thinking of the outer pieced border suggested by Bonnie's pattern.....

A couple of hours of piecing after digging in the 2.5" scrap strip bin....

70" x 85" are the measurements as is.....I'm not sure if I'm calling this at flimsy stage though. I wonder if I have enough of the copper fabric left over for a final outer border....

However, time for me to close up shop today. Cassie has a softball tournament tonight and tomorrow, so it's time to start thinking about getting ready for that.

Hindsight after my border sewing push for Hopscotch in order to clear up the floor:
I could have used my design wall to layout the Frost 25 blocks! ;0)

Before & After - Sewing area

Feeling ambitious, I headed downstairs after prepping dinner (BBQ Pork Chops - trying a new recipe tonight) with all intentions of loading With Heart onto the frame and get some quilting in.

BUT.....I decided it was TIME to deal with THIS!

Everytime I walk to my sewing room in the background, I always had to step over this MESS!

Two hours later, three donation boxes later, and two garbage bags later.... ahhhhhhhhh. There IS something about tidiness, isn't there!!??!?!!? I was just saying this to Angela with her lovely Before/After pictures of her longarm/sewing area.

And as most of you know, when you clean, you find/see things. Ooooohhhh...my mind was just hummmming when I came across the left over Morning Run fabrics.

Cassie would LOVE a quilt made out of these, so I pulled some fabrics amidst the cleaning time and laid them out. I haven't thought much more about this yet, so if any of you "see" a pattern for the center, feel free to share. It will most like be third, no wait, FOURTH on my to-do list.

Weekly Goals by next Friday:
1) Finish With Heart
2) Finish Hopscotch
3) Finish Maltese Star

Design wall - Hopscotch and some more Hostess

While waiting to hear from Jody about her suggestion for the applique heart for Hostess with Heart, I decided to tackle my Hopscotch blocks. I left off having completed all the blocks and just starting playing around with cutting sashing ((April 10th post). Pictured, the final quilt center is pieced and awaits border treatments. I haven't even thought that far ahead yet, so I'll have to look around to see what fabrics I have and whether I'll use a pieced border.

Since that was finished, I still needed something more to play around with, so I figured I'd at least prep the borders for Hostess with Heart so that I can jump to it tomorrow after hearing from Jody. I didn't want to put a quilt on the frame since I hope to have Hostess reading for quilting tomorrow.

Throughout all this activity, I've managed a few loads of clothes, some lunch, dishes, and watering the garden. My GOSH!!!! It's HOT HOT HOT out there! I absolutely FEEL for Paul today having to work out in this heat and humidity! UGH UGH!!! Cassie has a softball game tonight at 5:15, and although the sun won't be at its highest, it'll STILL be blasted HOT out there!

Oh, AND....Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Blogger isn't sending comments to my email again! Rotten luck! Here I had thought that all my followers had left me after such a dry-blogging-spell ;0)........ but.....nope! You've commented! I just wasn't seeing them in email.

Hopscotch; Stash Report; Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Hopscotch....I guess I've determined how large I want the center. It's quite amazing how fate works.....I ran out of 4-patches at the completion of 63 blocks, so a 7x9 layout it is. I have plenty of the copper fabric for sashing and may even have enough left over for a final border. For now, it rests.

A few nights this past week, I started sorting and cutting some purple scraps for April's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I have not counted any of this into my stash report yet.....

Stash Report: April 4 - 10
Used/week: 16.25 yds (Backing for RRCB & Raven Stars; Hopscotch blocks)
Purch/week: 0.0 yds

Used/year: 62.875 yds
Purch/year: 11.0 yds

Net Used: 51.875 yds

To close this post.....I always enjoy glimpsing through pictures after Candace has had the camera. There is what she snapped over the past two days....







Off to eat some late lunch and then head outside. We broke SEVENTY DEGREES TODAY!!!!! Wooooooo :0)

Design Wall - Hopscotch

Progress on Hopscotch. Not much more to show you tonight. 30 blocks done; working on sashing for a change of pace. Will make some more blocks though----thinking of going a bit "large" with this quilt. Heaven knows I have enough 1.5" scraps.


;0)

Happy Tuesday.

Roll Roll Cottonboll top done; Hopscotch started

Measuring at 95" x 110", Roll Roll Cottonboll top is complete. It's big. Very big. And will be perfect for my our king-size bed. I'm not sold on the 4.5" blue outer border, but I didn't want to stay-stitch around the edge of the quilt in order to pin it to my frame. One thing for sure...I am GLAD I have a frame that will fit this baby! I actually measured the length of my frame---about 125". So, I'll be able to load this sideways to reduce as much bulk as possible on the take-up bar.

Like I said yesterday....a little bit here and a little bit there....and the top just slowly came together. Once those string blocks and the HSTs were complete, it sped up a bit, but still probably the most time-consuming quilt top I've ever made to date.

With some downtime last night, I pulled out Bonnie's Adventures with Leaders and Enders book to see if there was a perfect pattern for the 4-patches I tidied yesterday. Sure enough....



So, I started pulling scraps from my 1.5" box. {{The pattern calls for 2" strips, but I modified it to fit the smaller 4-patches I had pieced.}} These blocks will finish at 6", and I don't have any preset notion of how large I'll make this quilt. I don't have any yellow/cheddar/orange as suggested in Bonnie's pattern, but I have had this copper fabric in my stash for over a year. I think it may be the ticket; definitely will be ideal for a boy/male/gentleman's quilt.

I haven't included any numbers of these blocks into my stash report yet. I'll wait until I have all the blocks pieced. But, I did add a bit (removed a bit) due to adding the borders to RRCB and the baby quilt I pieced last week.

Stash Report: March 21 - April 3
Used/week: 3.875 yds
Purch/week: 0.0 yds

Used/year: 46.625 yds
Purch/year: 11.0 yds

Net Used: 35.625 yds

Happy Sunday.