7/29/24

Eight is Great!

Good morning, my friends. I'm feeling like a prisoner about to be paroled this morning. There are just four more quilts to sandwich, and then I'll be set with quilts for quilting for some time to come. As you probably know, I've been working, working, working at getting a dozen finished quilt tops sandwiched. It's a big job, and I'll be happy to have it finished.

When I headed out to the garage yesterday, I looked out into the field to see a doe staring back at me. She's probably the mama of the fawn I saw recently. I didn't see the fawn, so I hope it's okay.


Getting back to the task at hand, I went to work spreading, smoothing, layering, spraying, smoothing, and more smoothing. Yesterday's quilts were the Shop Hop 2.0 quilt,


Vintage Linen,


Barnyard,


and New Mexico Kitchen. This is my oldest WIP, and so it will be next to go under my quilting needle.


And now, I have a stack of eight quilts for quilting. 


When that was finished, I spent some time icing my knee and my neck. I'm not surprised my neck was aching, but the knee had me wondering. My right knee bothers me pretty much 100% of the time, but it was my left knee that was hurting. It's probably from spending two whole days on the concrete floor of our garage. 

There could have been time for some sewing yesterday afternoon, but I wasn't in the mood for handling more fabric. I decided to continue on with my slow stitching. Now I've stitched it this far, and I expect to finish it off this morning.


Knowing it would be finished soon, I checked in on the Kittens. These were all prepped for stitching when I took them on a camping trip a while back. This will be the 11th of 12 kittens when I get started on it.


For the last gasp of my sewing day, I rifled through my fat quarter bins and came up with some fat quarters that are suitable for the Merry, Merry Snowmen quilt. When I get to this, I'll be starting with this first block.


Probably I won't use all of these, but it gives me a place to start. I'll be picking from my scrap bins too.


For dinner last night, I tried another of the Cooking Light Diet recipes I snagged before they ceased publication. These are Wild Mushroom, Flank Steak, and Poblano Tacos.


I've made taco filling with different kinds of meat...shrimp, chicken, and fish...but this might be the first one I've made using beef. They were really good, and there's enough for another meal. I've linked to the recipe back there, but I made some changes. Sometimes I can find "exotic" mushrooms at our grocery store, but not during this last trip. I used cremini instead. Also, the poblano peppers looked awful, and so I used an Anaheim instead. The Anaheim peppers are not as spicy as the poblano peppers, and so it might have been a better choice.  Also, I skipped the first step of frying the meat in a skillet. Mike grilled ours on the BBQ. Usually, we substitute flour tortillas for the corn, as we did here. We like them better, and they're less brittle when folded into a taco.

So that was a good day of quilting, stitching, and cooking. Today will be about the same, although I might actually do some sewing today. The four quilts left for sandwiching are the smallest of the group, and so they'll be less taxing. And if I'm not too tired, I might run around the property waving a banner and yelling "I'M FINISHED!!!!!" I expect the neighbors will be shaking their heads and muttering, "I knew the quilting would drive her mad eventually." 

We had a little rain this morning. It gave everything a good wetting down, which is desirable with so many fires burning right now. Breakfast is next. I'm ready to get started on my finishing. What's driving you mad today?

12 comments:

Barbara said...

I love living with animals. And my children love animals. I love walking around and being with the horses. But the deer? They're naughty. ~ Stephanie Seymour

Magpie's Mumblings said...

It's no wonder you're hurting with all that being on cement floors and bending over. Nice to see the quilts making another appearance though - at least from our pain-free standpoint!

Marianne said...

I'm impressed that you had so many finished tops to quilt. I assume you use spray glue for basting. I use pins and spread the quilt out on a double bed. I move an old cutting board around underneath to do the pinning. This is tough on the back. I used to use the big meeting room table at our historical building but since the floods two years ago, I haven't been back except for the occasional program. I ought to return there for basting, though, since the table is higher than the bed. I quilt with a walking foot and only occasionally get out the free motion foot, so I try to keep up with the quilting or take bigger quilts to a friend for long arming.

CarolE said...

You have been working hard - I am impressed! It's fun to see the quilts again as I had forgotten about a couple of them. And you have picked out a nice selection of fabrics for the snowman quilt. That is such a cute quilt and I have been tempted to get that pattern.

Helen said...

Love your fabric for the snowmen quilt. That looks quite difficult but I know you have the skills for it. Also, loving seeing all those quilts sandwiched. You too I'm sure. Will the spray basting hold them very long? just curious. Thanks for sharing the pics. Good luck with the quilting too. Also, hard on the back.

Sara said...

You must have a really well organized process for sandwiching quilts. I'm sure doing a bunch at once will save you lots of time later. The snowman looks like it will be a very cute one.

M. Hair said...

In this group I think my favorite is the New Mexico Kitchen. So colorful. Glad that it is first up for quilting. Looking for forward to t seeing it. Marjorie

Pam Dempsey said...

Good job! If you do get to running around the property please get hubby to take pictures!🤭

Nancy said...

Wow! Good job on getting 4 more quilts sandwiched. I bet by this time of day you are finished with the other 4. The rain today was very refreshing. So we inherited a cat last week and kitty has been having a bit of trouble adjusting to the loss of his mama and learning to live with us. We didn’t even know we were in the paperwork to take her cat. Apparently about 12 years ago my husband made a statement to our friend to not worry about her pets as we would make sure they were carried for, a dog and two cats predeceased her but we now have an 8 year old cat when she slipped into a coma. Our friend has since passed away but we did reassure her that we would care for Shurby. Kitty had an upset tummy over the weekend and puked on a quilt on the bed. (I thing my husband had slipped him people food.) Of course it was the one with wool batting. I had to rush to get it washed yesterday and laid out flat in the back yard to dry before the rains came. When I picked it up last night and brought it into the house it was still damp but I could hang it over the rail of the quilting machine by then. Before it was much to wet since I washed it in cold on gentle cycle. I guess this one will be put away for a while. So far Shurby is not a quilting kitty as I have not allowed him in the sewing room. He still hides to much and there are way to many places to hide in the sewing room and I don’t want him to think a quilt on the long arm machine is a kitty hammock. We are making adjustments to our life. I am now working on a cats in pajamas quilt. It only seems fitting.

Kate said...

You've made good progress and I'm sure you are glad to have them all done and on stand by for quilting. Sorry about the knee. I'm sure you've seen the meme's about how at a certain age, doing anything can hurt everything. Hopefully the knee is feeling better after a bit of ice and TLC.

Judy from Maine said...

Just a quick question..your shop hop 2.0, are those blocks photos printed on fabric? Very interesting indeed. Congratulations on sandwiching all beautiful quilts. A tough job well done.

piecefulwendy said...

It's fun to see what quilts are getting basted, a bit like a mini quilt show! The heat is driving me mad, well, actually it's the humidity. I'm thankful for a cool house!