The Honey Man Quilt

A while back I shared that our girl was telling me about an elderly gentleman that sells honey on a roadside stand 7 days a week and I just felt the need to make him a quilt. That very day, a bundle of bee fabric was showcased as the deal of the day at Missouri Star. Alas, it had metallics in it and I wasn't so sure about that, but I figured it was a sign that I DID need to make this gentleman a quilt. So when I found a bundle of honey/bee inspired fat quarters on Etsy, I ordered it. I added this burlap-honey-colored fabric

from my stash and asked our girl to choose from 2 patterns. This is the one she chose:

It's called Slice of Life and it's a Missouri Star pattern. I subscribe to their Block magazine and it's in one of their issues.

I cut out the fabric on a Monday morning before work. The pattern calls for a layer cake, but I edited the pattern to make the best use out of my fat quarters and began making the blocks. Instead of making the giant 9-patches with 10" squares, I used 8" squares and the sashing called for 2 1/2" strips, but I down-sized mine to 2". This is a fast and easy pattern and as a bonus, there are no seams to match:

I put the top together on Tuesday, as my friend, C and I, had made plans for a road trip to Texas and I was hoping to find a backing. I hit paydirt in the first shop with this fabric from the clearance shelf.
There wasn't quite enough so I added a strip of the sashing fabric down the middle to add the needed length

and I bound it with more of the sashing fabric

                          

The finished quilt is 50"x 62"

 Jackie quilted a pantograph that has flowers and bees on it...so perfect

And she loved this quilt and mentioned a sweet couple that sells honey and produce locally. The wife is a quilter and makes quilts for charity. I took my scraps to Jackie and her daughter made this quilt for the couple:

Isn't that great?! Jackie and Sandy are so clever and generous.

And we were back in the mountains this weekend so I took advantage of  my in-laws' deck to show off this quilt:

                                                   

I hope the Honey Man likes it.

                           

Our girl said he is quite the Casanova. LOL

                                           

Escaping the Heat

We had a fun weekend last week. Friends invited us to a Fish Fry on Saturday and we enjoyed a good visit and the best fish we'd ever had. I didn't take a single picture, but rest assured, the fun and friends and fish were all fabulous.

Saturday found us back on the road. We met my in-laws in a mountain town for a Father's Day lunch. No photos there either because it's an in-law law. :) Then DH and I changed into t-shirts and hiking boots, took the road less traveled and spent the rest of the day hiking. And no, I don't wear jewelry when I'm hiking. I just forgot to take it off when I changed after having dinner with my in-laws. :)

DH said we'd just make a small circle and stretch our legs, but you have to remember, I'm married to a mountain goat.

  We stretched our legs for 6 miles

 and climbed 900 ft. in elevation.

The mountains are DRY. No campfires allowed. Folks in town can't even grill burgers on their grill. $500 fine. A few years ago this area was ravaged by a wildfire that licked the edges of the town and destroyed a lot of land and homes.

                                               

There's a popular fishing lake, but it's been drained and is in the process of being cleaned because the ash from the fire killed all the fish and other aquatic life and they needed to keep the contaminated water from filtering downstream:

Still, we enjoyed the afternoon in the dappled sunshine

                             

In such a pretty spot:

                             

I spent  a lot of time looking at the ground because I can be a klutz and I didn't want to DH to have to drag me back down the mountain:

                               

Even in a drought, things were a-buzz and a-bloom:

                               

The streams were barely running at a trickle. We didn't have much of a winter and no snow. That hit this little town, that is known for and relies on it's tourism - skiing in the winter and fishing in the summer, hard.

                                

And even though yesterday was the first official day of summer, it's been here since May. Here's our forecast for the coming week:

So it was nice to escape to the mountains for a day where we soaked up the 66° and sunshine:

                                  

And although I love the crisp blue skies of this desert country, I am ready for the sun to begin setting just a tad earlier these days. Around here, our mornings start early in order to beat the heat and I'm just plumb wore out when it doesn't get dark until almost 9 p.m.

Side note for Sandy who asked me a question in a previous post. I am unable to reply to your comment as there is no email associated with your account. If you'll shoot me an email, I'll get back to you today. :)

Under the Needle - June

I haven't been spending any time in the sewing room lately. It's either feast or famine around here when it comes to sewing. I could have sewn a little on Saturday, but I think I needed a day to recuperate from those 19 hour days last week and I really needed to scrub my stove and floors. However, Sunday found me stitching up some blocks. Our Quilt Squad group is making this quilt:

                                               

We had our monthly meeting on Saturday, but I didn't make it in. We're all making 13 blocks using 30's prints. Yes, that's an odd number, but that's how many members we have. Our Captain 😊 told me that some folks are making extra blocks and we will exchange them in August. I'll probably make a few more too. It'll be fun to see how we all set our blocks. I know for a fact that I'll not follow the original layout. Not that I don't like it - I just want to play around and see where that leads.
Blocks complete:

 On Tuesday I dug back into my Scrap Dance Waltz project bin.These were put on the back burner last year, but I had a hankering to play with these 30's prints again:

                                          

I've also needed to come up with a backing for my Buckaroo Plus Quilt. The only fabric I had enough of is pretty dark. It's the top fabric in the photo below:

                                           

I looked around online, but I really want to use something I have and an idea came to me as I was washing dishes yesterday. I'll still use the dark print, but I'm going to mix it up a bit. For now, all you get is chicken scratch, but I'm hoping it'll all pan out.

                                             

 I also made the binding and stitched it to the front of the Honey Man Quilt today and will work on getting it stitched to the back as soon as the temps fall below 110°:

                                              

And that's a wrap from my sewing room for the time being. I'm missing ya'lls comments! I sure hope Blogger finds a fix soon, but I'll still reply to your comments if I have your email.

Where I Like to Browse

Last time I was in town I didn't have a ton of errands to run. I usually spend the least amount to time in town as possible and I run through my list and stops as quickly as I can. On occasion, I will take the time to stop and browse at this antique-collectible store:

                           

 The world seems to slow down when I walk into shops like this. I'm not looking for anything in particular, but I just really enjoy browsing. This time I noticed an unusually large number of vintage quilts. Oh, how I wish these quilts could talk because I know every one of them has a story.

Here's a churn dash:

                                          

it was priced at $125 and labeled for a double bed. Here's a star quilt:

                                       

$125 also for a double bed. I know nothing about aging quilts, but some of the fabrics in these vintage quilts are just not ones I would reach for, yet they all combine to make the most charming quilts.

                                         

And here's a scrappy tulip quilt:

                                          

Fun scraps:

                                      

I think this one is more recent, but still drew my attention:

And this one:

                                            

TINY hexagons. I should have added something for comparison, but those hexagons are no larger than a dime. Maybe it's the hand piecing and quilting that adds such charm:

                              

The stitches are far from perfect, yet it all adds up to perfection. Something to remember when I rip something out because the points don't match perfectly.

                                        

This label was on the back:
                                           

But I know this quilt dates back much further than 2000. Makes me think someone must have given this heirloom quilt as a gift in 2000 and it makes me sad to see it hanging here. I so wanted to bring it home and whisper to it's maker that it was going to spend the rest of it's days being treasured and loved. I am going to go back and ask the owners for more information. Surely someone knows something.

I do not need to start bring home vintage quilts. Lord knows I have quilts coming out of my ears as is. Hubby might think I've gone over the cliff. Some folks take in stray animals. I could start bringing home abandoned quilts. I've done the critter thing. I could easily follow suit with the quilts and convince DH by telling him that quilts don't need to be fed. Think he'll buy it?

Did I buy anything? Yes. A rolling pin and a bread dough bowl. 😁

                        

Orange Creamsicle Dessert

I tried a new recipe on Thursday and it received the cowboy seal of approval...16 thumbs up, which means I am adding it to my permanent recipe file and sharing it with ya'll. They even asked if they could have it again today. This is a good one ya'll!

It's been hot here and this dessert is perfect for those scorching summer days. And it's easy. It's really just a glorified ice cream dessert, but it's so refreshing.

I found it on Pinterest and here's the link to the original recipe:

Orange Creamsicle Dessert

I'm just posting an abbreviated one here for my records and I want to give credit and thanks to Norine at Norine's Nest because I had a crew of happy cowboys on Thursday.

Ingredients:

1 package Mother's Coconut Cocades
16 oz of Cool Whip
1 qt orange sherbert
1 qt vanilla ice cream
Mandarin Orange slices

Crush cookies into fine crumbs. Reserve 1 C of cookie crumbs for top of dessert. Split remaining crumbs in 1/2. Mix 1/2 of the cookie crumbs with 8 oz of Cool Whip. Spread in bottom of 9 x 13" pan. Freeze until firm. Mix sherbert and vanilla ice cream just enough to incorporate together, but still leave some streaks of the orange and vanilla. Spread over  the crust. Mix the remaining cookie crumbs with the 2nd 8 oz of Cool Whip and spread over sherbert-ice cream mixture. Sprinkle reserved cookie crumbs over top of dessert. Cover and Freeze overnight.

Here's a photo of the cookies. You can use Macaroons too, but all I found was these:

Norine's dessert is prettier with whipped cream, mandarin orange slices and mint, but I didn't fancy mine up for the crew although next time I will probably add the orange slice and maybe a dollop of Cool Whip. They might balk at the sprig of mint. Cowboys are skeptical of anything green. 😄

Rain and a Recipe

Day 1 is in the books and it was worthy of celebrating because it was wet! On Monday morning we awoke to this:

I really wanted to spend the day checking rain gauges with DH, but I had to go to work. However, my sidekick and I made a short circle before it was time to leave:

There was not a drop in this dirt tank on Sunday:

We had 1.1" here at the house and DH poured out 1.5" south of the house. We haven't been able to get to other spots as branding is taking precedence:

But we get to retire the feed wagon for the summer and that's HUGE.

Breakfast was at 4 so I stumbled out of bed at 2:30. Biscuits and sausage, gravy, eggs, and fruit for breakfast. Nothing new or share-worthy, but devoured nonetheless.

I made Taco Lasagna, taquitos, salad, chile relleno casserole, and corn for dinner with Strawberry Shortcake Dessert for dessert.

Thought I'd share my Taco Lasagna recipe today. It's another one I've been making for years. It comes from my Taste of Home magazine files. I'm not a food photographer, but I'm sharing anyway because everyone really likes this.

Taco Lasagna

2 lbs ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 pkg taco seasoning (I make my own and use 2 Tbsp)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can Rotel
1 can refried beans
6 large flour tortillas
5 C shredded cheese

*Brown ground beef with onions. The original recipe calls for 1# of ground beef, but we have our ground beef processed in 2# packages and I rarely make anything with just 1# of ground beef. Season with pepper and taco seasoning. Add Rotel and black beans. Spread 1/2 of the refried beans on 2 of the tortillas and place in bottom of 9 x 13" baking pan.
Layer 1/2 of the ground beef mixture. Sprinkle with 2 cups of the cheese. Repeat layers. Add the last 2 tortillas and sprinkle with additional cheese. Cover and bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes. Serve with salsa and sour cream.


Note:
Blogger's still not sending ya'lls comments to my email. I tried commenting on my own post and clicking "send all comments to email" but that didn't work. So, I have been copying your comments when they show up and pasting them to a new email and replying that way. If I have your email in my contacts, I can do that so I hope ya'll are getting my replies. Your comments always make my day!