The Tiny Joy Project

 Besides writing here, I don't participate in a lot of social media. I pop on Instagram every so often and pick up recipes or quilty inspiration and a while back this account called the tiny joy project popped up and it was simple...and sweet...and profound...all at the same time. 

I've always approached my days with a sense of wonder and taken notice of the many, tiny, quiet gifts that are tucked into every day. I shut out much of the 'news', the loud, the noise from my life. I make room for Christ...and family...and friends...and tiny little joys.

And I wanted to share that with you.

The Tiny Joy Project

Under the Needle: September

 Time for another end of the month sewing recap. I think time speeds up when we sleep. It's the only way I can explain how fast I'm flipping the calendar pages.

Five or six years ago I picked up this chicken fabric, pulling a few coordinates from my stash as soon as I brought it home

Since then, it's moved around my sewing room a lot, I switched out the red, but I finally took the next step, pressing and cutting it out for a baby quilt

Making something with this bundle, has been on my list for a few years too. It's an older line called Snuggle Season and it finally saw the light of day this month as I contemplated possible patterns while pressing the fat quarters

The jury's still out, but I'm leaning  towards using either the Ramona quilt pattern or making a triangle quilt, but the triangles may not make the best use of the fabric I have. I'm still browsing through my stash to see what I can add. I know that will include plaids. 😊

Saddle Ranch was cut out in August, and I enjoyed stitching it into a top this month although in this photo, it's still just in blocks.

I also dusted off this Blueberry Cobbler project. It's an older Bonnie Hunter pattern she calls Winter Blues, but I had to rename it because we live in the land of sunshine and we don't get the winter blues here. I started this one years ago and it makes the UFO list every year. I had 86 little blocks made, but needed more and then started in on another block. 

I worked on it quite a bit the last half of the month and made good progress as well as a huge mess.

I handed off 6 quilts to be quilted early in the month. I see lots of binding in my future...good thing it's one of my favorite parts of making quilts. Finally Flannel Season is my current binding project

My S'mores quilt finally made it over the finish line this month

And this Dream Big Little One baby quilt also had the last stitch added

I just keep chipping away at the quilt list I made back in January and I've managed to stay pretty focused, while still working on whatever catches my eye. One thing that is certain... I don't foresee running out of projects any time soon. 😉

Dream Big, Little One Quilt

This was never even a UFO. Just 2 pieces of flannel I picked up probably 10 years ago at Joann's in Amarillo, TX. I still think it's cute and thought it was high time it became a quilt

It finishes 45"x51" and as fast as I've been handing out baby quilts lately, it won't be long before it makes it's way home to welcome a new arrival.

It's not a cheater cloth - it's actually pieced, but it came that way on the bolt. It's a combination of minky and flannel and it's incredibly soft. Sandy quilted it with a design called Chantilly Lace.

For a sweet quilt that I didn't have to piece, it sure took a long time to finish.

Mud on the Mountain

 Praying for rain is a daily occurance in our lives. When you ranch in the desert, where annual rainfall averages 11", rain is measured in drops. 

We've had 2 really nice years, with lovely rainfall, mild winters and lengthy autumns...and we got spoiled.

This year, we had a good spring and then not a drop of rain from May 27th until September 16th. We kept hearing about a Super El Nino. We scanned the brillant blue skies, every day, for any sign of it.

Patience grasshopper. Your prayers have been answered.

7.5" in 10 days! 

Not a lot of growing season left, but enough.

 This country bounces back quickly and the grass here is nutritionally strong. 

The sound of the water rushing through the canyons on both sides of us was music to our ears as we tended to chores Thursday evening.

The spring that comes into our property stopped flowing so we went up to the spring box to problem solve. 

The end of the pipe came up out of the spring and DH welded some pipe as weights to hold it down

Part of it pulled apart in another spot, but DH is good at engineering solutions

And we're back in business

It's such a pretty spot to spend a morning

Skeet concurs