Productive Weekend

The best part of this past weekend is that I never left the dirt road. It was an absolutely glorious fall weekend! I should have spent more time outside, but although I did enjoy a few hours basking (well, weeding actually) in the autumn sun each afternoon and walking, the majority of my weekend was spent in front of the sewing machine and at the ironing board. Why is is that I detest ironing, yet I thoroughly enjoyed ironing fabric for about 4 hours this weekend?

But before I could dig into my sewing projects, I had a huge pile of green tomatoes that were begging to be made into chow chow.

DH loves this stuff and we always had a ready supply from the neighbor in Texas. Since our move, DH has been without, so as soon as Ranch Wife blessed us with a plethora of green tomatoes (thank you!), I called our friend and begged and pleaded for his recipe. It's a good thing I love DH, because only love could make me withstand the nasty smell that this concoction emits! It may taste fabulous, but you would never know it from the aroma it produces while brewing on the stove! Oh my! The cider vinegar mixed with the jalapenos and peppers and cabbage and tomatoes was enough to send everyone running for the hills and that's exactly what everyone did on Saturday morning. Well, everyone except me, who had to stay and keep watch over the bubbling brew.

The things you do for love!

Then DH and I proceeded to process the deer he brought home earlier in the week. Yum! Nothing quite as tasty as fresh tenderloin and homegrown tomatoes for dinner! Our dehydrator has been working at full speed. After drying loads of apples dusted in cinnamon and sugar, it has now been commissioned to produce this years stash of deer jerky and it is running 24-7.

I then made a good dent in some of my projects once the chow chow was safely confined to the canning jars.

The fall table runner has now been pieced and is only awaiting a trip into town for batting in order to begin the quilting. I'll post pictures once it's completed.

DD's quilt is in the process of being quilted as well so now I am officially a quilter and that makes me happy! There is something very comforting about curling up in our big leather chair with a big quilt, a spool of quilting thread, a hoop, and a good movie on a cold evening, with my family, that just seems to soothes the soul.

I cut out and completely pieced a baby blanket for Clint and Tiffany's baby. It's 41x46 and so cute that I'm not sure I can part with it! I'll have to scrounge around and see if I can make another one to keep! They are using reds and blues for her colors and I was unsure of which direction to go until I stumbled across the inspiration fabric. I'm very uncertain of my fabric coordinating abilities, but I was somehow able to successfully pull together 10 various fabrics into this adorable quilt! Don't mean to toot my own horn, but I am just tickled pink about it! Now, it too, awaits batting. I'll be putting that 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby to good use this week! I'll use the deep blue fabric for the binding. I also cut out and sewed the fall apron I have been planning to make. The table runner uses this fabric too. The apron's finished so here's a photo: As well as cut out the pattern for the apron I'm making for my mom. She is so hard to buy for, but she likes to cook and she wears the half aprons so I found some classy material that I think she will love. It's on the bottom of this pile that Zoe chose as her afternoon throne. There's a coordinating stripe in there as well.
And I made a couple of potholders. The ones I have bought just seem so flimsy so I went in search of something more suited to what I want. I found some cute ones online with ragged edges that I thought looked kind of rustic so I proceeded to make up a couple.

Then I cut out material for a Christmas table runner. I have recently been blessed with a new friendship, another fellow Christian, quilter, scrapbooker who directed me to a beautiful free pattern online. I decided to search through my stash to see what I might have on hand and came across the perfect pieces. The funny thing is, it was purchased 14 years ago for a skirt! LOL! DO you remember those silly looking tiered skirts with the ruffles on the outside using 4 different fabrics?

When I showed it to DD and told her what I had originally planned to use it for, she laughed, "Gosh Mom! Aren't you embarrassed?!" If she only knew that one day she too will look back at the fashions of yesteryear and cringe! Although, in all reality, her entire wardrobe consists of Wranglers and boots and western shirts and that never goes out of style. Thus, I feel good about repurposing this fabric. I still love the fabric and it really will make a much prettier table runner than skirt and not a ruffle in site!

Then I ironed 20 yards of fabric in preparation of my next projects, plus 80 8x8 pieces from a layer cake package from a line called Portobello Market. I just fell in love with these prints and with Ranch Wife's urging, I took the plunge. Many of the prints are reminiscent of western paisleys in the wildrags that the cowboys wear. So, I have now selected a pattern and the fabric to finally make a quilt for our bed. I have been searching for something for years but the ones I found and fell in love with were just crazy expensive! I could buy a ton of quilting fabric for what they cost and apparently, that's what I'm in the process of doing! Grin!

I'm well on my way to being known as the crazy old quilt lady. That's fine - I'm just following in Ranch Wife's footsteps and blaming her as well as thanking her although I think she's created a monster! I'll tell you one thing, I do believe that I've gotten my money's worth out of the little $120 Kenmore sewing machine I've had for 20 years!