Pink is Perfect Quilt

 This is a pretty special quilt because little miss E was a very important part of making it.

I don't know if she'll grow up to be a quilter, but she'll be able to say that she made her 1st quilt at 4 years old. 

She had requested a pink quilt. I asked her if she was sure she wanted a pink one, she replied, "Yes, please, because pink is perfect!" - thus the quilt name. 😉  I let her go through my bin of pink fabrics and select which ones she wanted to include and we ended up with "all the pinks!" 

We looked at a few patterns and she chose this one...Plan C

 from this book

I made all the flying geese ahead of time in order to simplify our day when she came back

We also chose to make it a little bigger since the original was just 32 x 32. I showed her how to lay everything out and let the designer choose where each fabric went. During our time together she piped up, " It's like a puzzle, Gram!" 

It is indeed, sweet girl.

I let her sit on my lap and showed her how to feed the fabric through the machine while I worked the foot pedal. 

Her first 4-patches

Piano key border for the win!

She chose a pink Minky (the only choice according to her. 😆) for the backing

Jackie and Sandy used this fun design called Timeless Hearts for the quilting

And this pink print was selected for the binding

Once I got it bound, and created a label that has both of our names on it, it was wrapped and will soon be gifted to the newest little quilter in the family. It finishes at 45"x45". Not a great shot of the quilt, but I couldn't bring myself to delete the mountains. 😉

This is a more accurate dipiction of the colors

She's already asking about making the next one so there's hope...

At least until Pap came in and asked if she wanted to help him feed horses. 😂

Orange Pineapple Fluff

 I've been making Cherry Salad for close to 40 years and seeing as it is always requested, I have made it A LOT.

Then, not too long ago, I ran across a similar recipe for this Orange Pineapple Fluff and I thought it looked promising.

I will link to it HERE, but there were so many ads that I had a hard time reading through the post and it was awfully frustrating.

I made this as a side dish for Easter and we really liked it although I should have made it the night before because it set up much better the next day.

Orange Pineapple Fluff

3 oz instant vanilla pudding

1 C milk

15 oz can mandarin oranges, drained

20 oz can crushed pineapple, drained

* 1 can fruit cocktail, drained (my addition)

3 oz box of orange jello

1 8 oz Cool Whip

*Drain oranges, pineapple & fruit cocktail. Set aside several orange slices for garnish. In a large mixing bowl, mix milk and pudding mix. Fold in Cool Whip and jello powder. Fold in well- drained fruit. Place reserved orange slices on top. Cover. Chill overnight.

DH left the day after Easter and I finished up the leftovers. I thought it was better the next day and I stirred in some well-drained fruit cocktail which made it even yummier and more like Cherry Salad.

Cherry salad will never be replaced, but Orange Pineapple Fluff is a welcome new addition to my side-dish collection.

Road Time

 Yesterday we loaded up and headed out at 4:30 in the morning and pulled back up to the barn at 5:30 that evening.

Seems like we do that a lot for retired folks. 😉

We headed 2 1/2 hours North to pick up our heifer bulls

We branded them before loading them

Drove another 4 hours southeast, crossed state lines, unloaded the bulls 

So they could get aquainted with the heifers

Looks like he's charming them already

Then another 160 miles west to ride through the cows and baby calves and check on the 3 bulls he picked up the day before.

No cute pictures of the little ones because I couldn't get close enough so here's one of my favorites from the past

Then another 60 miles home. Whew. We didn't even stop anywhere for dinner, but dug into leftovers when we got home. Showers and under the covers by 8 where I tapped out this post and turned out the light,  because DH was going to be back on the road again at 4:30. 

Over 600 miles made for a long day, 

but I did manage to add some stitches to a binding when we traveled smoother roads

Well, I guess it keeps us out of the the rocking chairs. 😂 Rocking chair or truck seat... either way, we were sure tired of sitting!

What's in the Orchard

 You can just scroll past this post. It's just a list for our information. We wanted to document what we planted in the orchard and backyard. The nursery owner, Jaimee also asked us to record it for her since many of these trees are heirloom trees. We have a hard copy and a map, but I wanted to keep a backup here.

                                                            

1. Pomogranite (planted behind the house)

2. Heirloom Pear - 2 varieties: Lower Orchard & Lemon Hogan on a Quince rootstock

3. Heirloom Pear - Jaimee's Big Sweet

4. Stella Cherry

5. Montmorency Cherry - pie cherries

6. Tartarian Cherry

7. Contender Peach

8. Red Haven Peach

9. Heirloom Cinderella Peach (Krymsk 1 rootstock)

10. Heirloom Peach - Brill + 2 other varieties (to be planted in September behind the house)

11. Santa Rosa Plum

12. Heirloom Stanley Plum x Krymsk 1

13. Heirloom Plum & Pluot (to be planted in September)

14. Sweet Gem Apricot

15. Heirloom Apricot (to be planted in September)

16. Jonathon Apple - applesauce & apple cookies

17. Jonamac Apple - applesauce & apple cookies

18. Honeycrisp Apple

19. Heirloom White Cloud Applè x M7

20. Heirloom Black Twig Apple (Salazar Canyon) x Bud9

21. Arkansas Black Apple

22.  Letizia Fig - planted behind the house

23. Heirloom Apple (Antenouka) (planted behind the house) with 4 varieties:

 Black Twig (N) Beechie -Rio Ruidoso Watershed

 Greer #3 (S) Bonito 

 Sawmill (W) Beechie - Rio Ruidoso Watershed

Northwest Greening (E) Old Greer Orchard - no DNA verification. Possibly Fameuse or Montgomery Apple.

Whew. Hopefully we can put our shovels up for a little while. The waiting season has arrived. Waiting...we're not very good at that. 😉