Two more UFOs finished!

I finished two more UFOs...yes...! This first one will be a donation quilt, but I'm not sure where I'm donating it yet. I sewed the binding down by machine. I'm finding that when I sew binding down by machine it caused the edges to be wavy, as if the binding is a tad bit longer than the quilt. Bindings that I sew down by hand don't do this.
The Quilt Police would not approve! That's okay, these quilts will never be in a quilt show.
Next time I machine sew the bindings, I'm going to try to very slightly scrunch, by hand, the quilt edge before I sew the binding onto it.
This is a close-up of the quilt. The yellow fabric is a strange pattern, probably from the 1970's. It was hard to find a use for it, but I think that in this quilt the cool colors of the blues and purples calms it down.



This is the 2nd UFO. I'll be donating this to the local chemo center, to be used as a comfort quilt for their patients. One of the members of my small quilt group is going through treatments and spends lots of time there. The quilts they have are looking worn and ratty, so we made more as a group project. The chemo center agreed to pay for the quilting on these quilts.
I already had the middle part done, languishing in my UFO closet, so I added the rows of purple & yellow on the top and the bottom to make it longer. In person, it looks very soft and serene.
It's turning cold here now! We've had 2 nights of below 40 degrees. I still have some healthy tomato plants, which I covered with sheets overnight. It'll be warmer for the next week or so, so I'm hoping to get some more tomatoes out of them! Last year, I picked a few dozen green tomatoes off my plants before the cold killed them. I let them ripen in a sunny part of the kitchen and they actually tasted decent - at least better than store-bought. I had heard that one could do this, but I didn't believe it!

Louise

Blocks for Sunshine

I made these nine-patch blocks for one of the ladies, Gail, on my Yahoo Sunshine group. She'll make donation quilts with them. This was an opportunity for me to use up some of my bright scraps, and they were fun to make as well. These 14 blocks depleted my stash by approximately 1 yard. A mere drop in the bucket! I guess I could make 1,400 blocks, instead of only 14!

These bright blocks were sent to another Sunshine lady, Tammy, to use in donation quilts. That's another yard depleted from my stash. I guess every yard counts! I like the cat block, which is in Block Magic, Too by Nancy Johnson-Srebro. It's a fun block to make, and I think it adds interest to a kid's quilt.




This is one of the bright blocks from above. I
"invented" it to use leftover half-square triangles,
though I'm sure it's been made before. It's too simple not to have been thought of before!
I can see this one in traditional fabric, maybe Civil War or 1900 reproductions, or made from shirts. I envision it in "controlled scrappy", using a light where the yellow is, maybe a dark where the red is, and a medium for the rest. Basically, just to emphasize the diagonal lines that the yellow and the red create. It's a very simple block, yet has interesting possibilities.


I've decided to postpone my fabric acquisition/depletion records until January. (I've been bad...shhhh!) I'll just concentrate on finishing UFOs. I have 5 more that are very close to completion. Yeah!

Grandma's favorite recipes

A few years ago, I found my Grandma Nelson's handwritten recipe notebook in my mother's things. She died in 1963, and I'm sorry that I never got to know her. I can only learn about her through photos, and through simple items like this notebook:

There are dozens of recipes in this notebook, and I keep meaning to try them all. Many of these recipes are for cakes and cookies. There is one for real Spaghetti Sauce that calls for 1 cup of olive oil. Sounds good, but...well....oily!
I did make this one for Tamale Loaf and it was good. In fact, I think I remember my mom making it when we were little. (click on photo to enlarge)

Grandma Nelson was more of an outdoors person and was not a quilter, but she did hand sew some fan pieces for a Grandmother's Fan quilt, in pretty 1930's & 1940's prints. I ended up with those and someday will finish them into a small quilt. I'm sentimental, but these kinds of things mean so much to me! I surf on ebay sometimes, and come across people selling their grandmother's, or even great-grandmother's, quilts or quilt tops! I guess they have their reasons, but it is so hard for me to imagine doing that!

I've sewn my Haunted Mountains blocks into columns, and I love the way it's looking...very Halloween-ish! I won't have my camera for a few weeks, so no photos yet.

After a hot, hot summer, it's finally starting to get colder here in the Ozarks, and I'm loving it!

Louise

Halloween blog hop

I've never participated in a Blog Hop. In fact, I never even heard of one! I stumbled across this one on Godrun's World blog, with a Halloween theme. It involves visiting the blogs of specific fabric and/or pattern designers, on designated dates. It sounds like fun, and as a bonus the designers give away cool prizes!
Now...I'll just have to write down all the different date so I don't forget to show up!
Louise

Haunted Mountains quilt

I've been wanting to make a Halloween quilt with an antique feel to it, and over time I've gathered black and orange shirts for that purpose. The "oranges" range from light orange to rust. I chose Bonnie Hunter's pattern Scrappy Mountains Majesty, which she generously offers for free on her Quiltville website. If you love scrappy quilts, you'll spend hours on her website!

The blocks are finished and I'm starting to put them together. Here is a sampling of my fabrics, which entirely came from recycled garments, mostly shirts:
My favorites, shown above, are the madder-like leaf print, the black with squares, and the black stripe which looks like a mourning print. They really have an antique style to them.
So far, I really like how these black and orange fabrics look together. I am working to get this done well before Halloween, so I can actually enjoy it this year! I'll be calling my quilt Haunted Mountains, instead of Scrappy Mountains Majesty.

Aside from this, I quilted one top today and started on another. I hope to get more UFOs done this month, and the days are slipping by fast! Hard to believe it's officially Autumn!

Louise

Random reading program

Occasionally I come across a blog where the owner has embarked on methodically reading their way through the alphabet. I found that idea intriguing, and decided to start my own reading program. I'm going to be reading fiction from A to Z, by author's last name, with the books chosen at random from my public library's shelves. By random, I mean standing in the section that applies, closing my eyes, and picking a book totally at random!
Why random? I want to force myself to read books that are totally different than what I would normally choose to read. Plus, I love surprises! Each new letter will bring a new surprise.
I've already read the letter "A" book, which is The River Wife, by Jonis Agee.

This book, set in southeastern Missouri on the Mississippi River, began in 1811 during the New Madrid earthquake. The story, spanning generations, followed a family from the early 1800's to the 1930's. I would classify this as historical fiction. It was clear that the author did some research on the area and the different time periods.
This book was well written and held my interest. Every time I sat down to read, I was quickly drawn into the story. The characters were well developed and believable.
If you're prone to melancholy, however, this is not the book for you. The plot seemed to focus on the dark side of life, with an abundance of human tragedy, sadness and violence.
I identified with the book because of the setting, and because I love history. My own family settled in Missouri around 1850, a few hundred miles from where this book is set. My family, however, didn't experience even a fraction of the drama and passion of the family in the book!
I enjoyed this book, and would like to read more from this same author.
I'm looking forward to my random "B" pick!

Louise

Apple season

I love all the trees in my yard. I just love trees! They are green and shady, and convert our carbon dioxide back into oxygen, if I remember correctly.
This Red Delicious apple tree is about 3 years old. We planted it, and like all trees that we planted ourselves, it's my baby! This year it's had lots of apples. Being a novice orchardist, I didn't know you were supposed to thin out the apples when they were small. As they grew bigger, they thinned themselves by falling off the tree!

The fallen apples weren't mature yet, and were more like Granny Smith and were delicious in baking. One result is this Apple Crisp with cranberries, which turned out really yummy!

It's a Weight Watcher's recipe from one of my books. I hesitate to post it here because I'm not sure of copyright issues, but I'd be happy to share if requested. One generous serving (1/4 of the pan) has only 3 WW points. It is light on the sugar, but was sweet enough for me. One could easily add more sugar. I plopped a bit of vanilla ice cream on top and it was great!

I've recently gotten back on Weight Watchers, and so far so good.

Louise