Project Linus

This past Tuesday night at our meeting, the Rosebud Quilt Guild collected 18 quilts and blankets for Project Linus.  :)  All different sizes and colors, these quilts and blankets will go to sick kids and babies in the hospital.

Daddy's helper

It is a good thing he didn't know what he was helping with at the time...  :)

The tomato invasion

So we have plenty of tomatoes coming...too many to just eat sliced so the processing is going to start.  :)    We are also getting lots of beans now that the weather cooled for a bit (although it wasn't for long).  Hoping to freeze some of these for the middle of the winter too.

And just for you Kim, I have a few baseball bat sized zucchini coming your way...lock your car doors ;)

Stars 1 and 2

So call me crazy, but I am going to do a star sampler quilt for our bed (queen sized).  I am using patterns from two sew-alongs at Fresh Lemon Quilts.  Some are pretty simple piecing (second star below) and some involve paper piecing (the first star below).  I have never paper pieced before, but was really interested in trying it out and I have to say that it is a lot of fun!  (The point is to make more complex blocks and get all of your points to line up)  

I picked out 14 stars that I want to try, each one is a 12" square, and I am going to do 3 of each for 42 stars.  I think when I put sashing and borders with them, it should be a good sized quilt.  For fabric, I ordered a bundle of fabric called Berry Picking from Pink Castle Fabrics.  They have some nice bundles that are put together by lots of different people and take patterns from lots of different lines of fabric.  I suppose I could have done that on my own, but when you find it already done, it helps narrow down the process (especially when ordering online and looking at hundreds of prints that are digital images, not photographs).  There are some really fun prints that include florals, geometric prints, alarm clocks, and coffee pots.  :)

My goal is to make 3 of the same star each week for 14 weeks.  I started last week, so here is what I have done so far:

Whirling Star, week 1

Ribbon Star, week 2 

(made today...the other two are cut and will be done soon!)

what I have been up to

The blob is growing!  Thanks to a trip down to Yankton for the River Boat Days festival, I was able to double it's size very quickly.  The point of this is not to rush though...this is my project for the car and when Timothy is playing outside in his water table and I am lounging in a chair nearby.  But I really want to use it, so the intended leisurely pace has been quickened.  :)  For reference, it needs to double and a little more in length, plus be another hexagon or two wider at it's widest point to be ready.  So I still have lots of hexagons to sew.  

Second, I decorated another wall in our house.  :)  I saw this idea on pinterest for a few frames with clips to hold artwork and/or school papers.  The "home sweet home" sign I bought (sorry if that is a disappointment), but I saw it at Pamida on clearance, so I took the easy way out.  The frames all came from garage sales or the thrift shop and spray painted a glossy green.  With Jared's help, I added cork to some of the frames and the two frames without clips will have chalkboard inserts.  The chalkboards are still being painted and may take a little while to complete because somebody got a new toy in the mail today...

:)
When we were dating, Jared would tell me that one of his goals was to learn how to play the banjo.  Here we go!

And a cute picture of Timothy to round everything out!

2 quilts to give away

First, a baby quilt for Project Linus.  Made with a double hourglass pattern found here.  It is a 36 inch square, perfect for throwing over a baby carrier, in the stroller, or stuffed in a diaper bag.  My friend Sonya quilted it for me in one day (because she is awesome and a workaholic like me) and it just came out of the dryer soooo soft!

Second, a wedding gift for a friend that was married over a month ago.  Oops!  It was all done before the wedding, but I decided to quilt it with lots of wavy lines that turned out awesome, but took a lot of strength that I didn't have right after a c-section.  So, a little at a time, it is finally finished.  58" x 66" and made from a pattern I found in a quilter's magazine (if I could find it, I would tell you which one).  Blessings on many happy years Michelle and Nate!

I got both of the bindings done over 2 days, although I am not sure how that happened.  :)

Our lives have just changed in a big way...

:)

Small project update

I have a couple of larger projects that I am currently binding (yay!), but I have recently been working on a few smaller projects...

1. Potholders - a great way to use up scraps.  I have several sets I would like to make for our LWML bizarre this October - all of the funds go towards different mission projects.  I can crank a few of them out and bind them in the car.

2. Dishrags - because you can never have too many.  :)  I am also trying to get a few done for the already mentioned bizarre.  Great for the car.

3. Hexagons - my new obsession!  I have seen many people working on these and I have never tried English paper piecing.  I am looking to make a table runner out of these.  The first few I basted I put together right away to see what they are going to look like.  Love!  I have 160 cut, ready to be basted and then sewn together.  I have no idea how many it takes, but I'll let you know.  This is also a great road project.

Do you see the running theme?  We have 4 upcoming trips to Sioux Falls for various reasons (a 3-hour trip each way) and hopefully a trip out to Spearfish over Labor Day weekend.  Looking forward to using the family trailer for a peaceful getaway...and lots of productive time in the van!

Future Farmers and Gardening

Thursday we headed to the park for the 4-H achievement day.  Timothy had a good time looking at all of the animals (and squinting into the sun) and Jared and I enjoyed all of the other projects the kids did that I didn't get pictures of (sewing, canning, baking, crafting and woodworking).  Maybe Timothy will be a part of 4-H as well???

Garden update:  Raspberries as tall as I am, our first blushing tomato (!), pumpkins and lots of squash, some of which are already harvested!  I am still bewildered by the happenings in our garden.  How did the squash finish before our first tomato picked?  Cucumbers in the hundreds but only one handful of beans?  It will be interesting to watch.

Oh, Granddad, Jared ate the first green pepper yesterday off of the plants you gave us.  :)

Peaches and Pickles

Canned so far:

Pickles - 33 pints and 10 quarts (although that includes the 2 jars my husband has already eaten...do I count those?)

Peaches - 15 jars of jam and 12 pints of sliced

Frozen - 10 cups of blueberries and 10 cups of sweet corn

Still coming - I am hoping for some apples to can and dehydrate

Not happening this year - zucchini...I still have plenty from last year!  :)

Don't you just love Jared crashing my photo?

too busy to blog...

I'm still here.  :)  

So many things and not enough time to blog, so here is a quick update:

I finished a disappearing 9-patch quilt, perfect size to throw out on the grass or curling up under on the couch.  It has already been given to friends that just moved to South Dakota and ministering to people north of Pierre.  Hope you guys are having fun unpacking and getting to know your lovely congregations!

We finally found some chalkboard chalk (apparently the chalkboards in our area are going extinct) so Timothy enjoyed art class with daddy.  Day 1:  How to draw monster trucks.  I think Timothy was in charge of drawing the smoke.  :)

We have a fenced in backyard!  Jared's dad came down and, over 2 weekends, the two of them fenced in the one side of the yard that was still open.  It is still kinda weird to walk back to the garden and have it completely enclosed, but it will be really nice when Timothy is running outside and I don't have to worry about him running straight for the street or stray dogs wandering into our yard.  While the boys were working outside, my mother-in-law and I canned another 15 pints of pickles, bringing the total so far to 27 pints and 10 quarts.  I am thinking I might do one more batch...I would like to try another recipe, but we are pretty much done.  We ripped out a couple of our vines and also a zucchini plant to make room for other plants and to slow the onslaught of vegetables.

Speaking of Timothy running, he still isn't walking on his own (just between Jared and I), but at 20 months, he has decided to crawl.  Yes, a full-fledged crawl on both hands and knees.  He is still doing the butt-scootch, but will start into crawling all on his own without us bribing him.  I have a feeling that walking will be down by the end of the month...