finished baby quilt

While we humans rush to the store for milk and bread when it snows, the birds are hanging out close to the bird feeder, waiting for an empty perch so they can hurriedly gobble down a couple of sunflower seeds.

  I counted 12 male cardinals in this apple tree and a couple more on the ground.  There are females in there too but they are hard to see.

I've been working on a baby quilt for a baby on Lonnie's side of the family. The pattern came from a magazine. It was for a wall hanging but it was easy to just make more blocks and make it baby quilt sized.

The flowers were appliqued on. That's a technique that I don't have much experience with.

You cut the shapes from freezer paper and iron onto your fabric. Cut around the paper leaving seam allowance.

Snip the seam allowance on the curved edges...

Dot with glue and iron the raw edges to the back. 

Remove the paper and there's your piece ready to attach to the background.

I just sewed the flowers down with a straight stitch on my machine.  This is a wrong and bad way to do this.  It doesn't make a nice smooth finish, but at least it won't ravel or come apart.

Here is the finished quilt...

The colors are much more vivid than either photo shows.  More like this.... 

You might notice that this quilt is more puckery than usual. I had to run it through the washer and dryer to remove the glue used for the applique pieces.

Here is the fabric I used for the back...Cute!

Now I need to box it up and get it in the mail to baby Piper.

photos from October

I was unloading photos from the camera to the computer and thought I would take a minute and show these photos - from October- of Barbara's donation quilt.

She had collected the blocks in a  quilt block exchange group and wanted to use them in a donation quilt. I told her I would put the blocks together and quilt it.
So here it is all finished...

It turned out so bright and cheerful!  Barbara told me later that she gave the quilt to an elderly "shut-in", a member of her church.

On the back I used this "cheater" quilt fabric...it's printed to look like a quilt.  

I had bought this fabric from a lady who was downsizing and selling off some of her stash, so it helped her out in a small way, gave me a bargain on fabric...and Barbara was able to brighten up her elderly friend's day, who now has a nice quilt to snuggle with. Win-win all around.

 Also in the camera from October...a beautiful fall sunrise....

 It changes so fast...

Here comes the sun...

🙋💗

a pause

Just letting you know that my posts will be few and far between for awhile. I need to focus all of my attention elsewhere at this time.

I do enjoy writing and showing photos here, so I will be on from time to time...just not on a regular schedule.

Thanks for reading!

Darla

roast beef - again

I keep a written record of my Sunday dinner menus...so I don't make the same foods too often. Some times I just look back through it to get ideas or even repeat a meal exactly.

Actually it hasn't been too long since we had roast beef, but it was so good last time, I thought my family would be ready to eat it again...and besides...the roast has been taking up a lot of freezer space!

We had roast beef, mashed red skin potatoes and gravy, Grands biscuits, creamed corn, peas and broccoli salad.

Dessert was a choice of chocolate pie or banana cream pie, topped with sweetened whipped cream.

I have quit trying to make a cooked creamy pie filling from scratch...too many disasters!
But, I have found the Jello Cook and Serve pudding mix makes a good filling that you can depend on not to turn watery. I use a half cup less milk than the pudding directions  (for the big box).

At least I made the pie crust from scratch.  I have never mastered the fancy fluted edges so my crusts aren't pretty, but my husband always tells me he likes them.

Hoping we get a good amount of rain today. I've really had to keep an eye on the plants I've planted this year to make sure they don't dry out. A lot of water bucket carrying!

pears are popular

Not much for me to yammer away about today - but I do have some more of the Sasquatch's nature photos you might enjoy....

On his pear tree, a wasp enjoying pear juice. Not sure if they make a hole or just take advantage of one already there.

Some type of bee also seeking pear juice...

Butterflies like it too...

It must be delicious!

"Hello friend - there are juicy pears on this tree!"

This one just soaking up the suns rays....

And this giant furry caterpillar.  Not sure what kind or which end is which!

See the size of it compared to that Sasquatch finger?

Purple Heart vine...

And this little lizard he rescued from the pool.

Such nice photos!  Thank you Sasquatch!

busy days

Trying to keep my mind off of some worries and the best way to do that is to stay extra busy.

I have cleaned the fridge and freezer by taking everything out of there and washing all the shelves and reorganizing the contents. I washed the top and sides, pulled it out, vacuumed behind it...and vacuumed those impossible-to -reach coils.

I pulled a baggie of chicken thighs out of there, that weren't getting any younger, and made some chicken and broccoli soup.  No recipe...just stewed chicken, a bag of frozen broccoli, onions, carrots, celery, yellow pepper and chicken base, spices.

I worked a little on this baby quilt.  I will tell all about that later.

Found a good deal on mulch...$1.00 a bag (it's only 1 cubic foot bags - easy to handle though) It's really the wrong time of year to put it down...that's why it was cheap.  

Next, I started dragging all of the old landscape fabric out of this border.  I used to think it was the greatest way to suppress weeds. I bought rolls and rolls of the stuff. Now I realize that even though water goes through it, as the mulch on top breaks down it can't enrich the soil below...and the fabric gets pushed further into the ground.  A mess!  Spreading the new mulch as I get it cleared.

I had a nice dip in the pool. The water is a little cool but still swimable. Invigorating, really.

I may go back for more mulch while the weather is nice!

what I've been sewing

I finally finished the quilting on Barbara's donation quilt.  I have the binding ready to put on and then I will be done!

See those little thread snips laying on top of the quilt?  My friend, Isolde, gave those to me, and they are the handiest things ever.  Quick to pick up and use, nice and sharp, and they can cut a thread right down close to the fabric.  Perfect to use when machine quilting!   Thank you, Isolde!

You might remember that all of last year I was showing the "Block of the Month" progress as I made this quilt.  I finished it in February and posted photos of it here at that time.

Well, another of the ladies in my group, Barbara, has finished piecing her quilt top from the same pattern...

and look how stunning it is in these gorgeous fall colors.

It's amazing how the same pattern can look so different.  The blocks may be arranged in a different order - but it's the colors that make all the difference.

Below is Joan's quilt. She was the first to try this pattern and shared it with the group.

It's a striking color combo too.

I think there are one or two members of the group still working on their version of this quilt. I will show theirs as they finish.

There is another Block of the Month going on this year...but I've gotten behind with mine.

But I'll catch up!