Monday, August 30, 2021

Songbook Quilt Finish

 It's not often that I begin a quilt and finish it the same year, much less the same month, but I pieced this a few weeks ago using fabric from the Songbook collection


 And this pattern

 I shared it with ya'll a few posts ago here:

Songbook

And I handed it off to Jackie on a Monday. I have a few others waiting in the wings, but I asked her to move this one to the top and she called a week ago Sunday to let me know it was ready:

I love the fun quilting design her daughter, Sandy, used - it shows up beautifully on the gray Minky I used on the back:


I bound it in this burnt orange from the line because it's one of Brooke's favorite colors - I teased her and told her she was going to the wrong school because their colors are red and black. 😉

I don't usually stitch binding during the day, but I spent some extra time working on it during the week:

And yes, I am watching an Aurora Teagarden movie on Hallmark. That series is one of my guilty pleasures.

I really like the addition of the pieced border:

I loved these fun prints and am looking forward to making another quilt...or two!

The colors practically glowed in the setting sun

The quilt is 60"x72" and I was able to hand it off to the new college girl when she drove by the ranch on Saturday. 

Friday, August 27, 2021

New Jelly Roll Project

 I've brought home a lot of Jelly Rolls through the years. 

Jelly Roll Admission

I don't buy them anymore and have been working on releasing them and turning them into quilts. Last week I ran across some 2x4 quilts online and that led me to this tutorial:

2x4 Quilt Tutorial from Film in the Fridge

It uses fat quarters, but I was determined to use a couple of Jelly Rolls. I've had these 2 Posh Pumpkin Jelly Rolls since 2013 and suddenly I felt they just needed to become a 2x4 quilt.

And then on the very first cut, I made a mistake. I made a cut at 3 1/2" instead of 4". Sigh. But that ended up being a good mistake because it allowed me to make 3 blocks from 2 strips instead of only 2. If you make one though, beware that there are literally NO scraps so cut carefully:

I pulled a few coordinating pieces from my stash for some of the blocks because I like the options better:

And the blocks came together quickly. Long-stashed jelly rolls and a tutorial that's been around a while made for lots of fun, mindless sewing which I must have needed because I loved every minute:

I threw a few blocks out on the bed and I like the way this is coming together. Nothing fancy. Just a beginning of a good, Autumn snuggle quilt. 


It crossed my mind that a design wall might come in handy, but I think I'll just live dangerously. 😉

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Lemonade Pie

 I've been making this refreshing summer pie for a coon's age -which probably translates to about 34 years because before I was married I didn't know how to cook even though this recipe doesn't even involve any cooking. It doesn't get any easier than stir and pour, but DH loves this pie so it earns a spot in our favorite family recipe book as well as a post. It's especially welcome when the temps shoot up in the summer so it made it's way to our table last week:

I think I found this in an Eagle Brand cookbook when I was a new bride. I haven't made this in a couple of years because last year I never could find frozen pink lemonade. And yes, you could use this with regular lemonade and even orange juice, but I've just always made it with pink lemonade and I couldn't find those either.

Lemonade Pie

Graham Cracker Crust (the 2-extra serving kind)

1 8 oz tub of Cool Whip

1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk

1 container frozen pink lemonade concentrate

2 or 3 drops of red food coloring (optional, but amps up the pink factor)

*Thaw out Cool Whip and lemonade. Combine Cool Whip, lemonade, food coloring, and sweetened condensed milk and mix well with electric mixer. Pour into graham cracker crust. Freeze overnight. Pucker up! 😉

P.S. I just thought about adding a bunch of fresh strawberries to this. Who wants to come over so I have an excuse to make another one?

Monday, August 23, 2021

Another Spring Splash Baby Quilt

 5 or 6 years ago I ran across this pattern online - here's the link 

Spring Splash

 and I made it once in 2017


a second time in 2019:

And when I found this fabric last year

I made it a 3rd time:

I found a peachy-pink minky that works well for the backing:

                                     

This has become my go-to pattern for a baby quilt when I find a print I really love

I used a green dot from my stash for the binding 

and Jackie used a sweet flower with a soft feather pantograph for the quilting:

I added a wider border than the pattern calls for so this one finishes at 44"x44". This pattern is hard to beat for a sweet, fast baby quilt


Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Answered Prayers

 When the kids were here Memorial weekend, it began to rain. Our girl is in Oklahoma and I don't think they've dried out in 3 years. They are sick of the rain. She even said she thought she was beginning to mold and she was looking forward to soaking in some of our NM sun and drying out. Alas,  she got wet in the desert. We've been praying for rain and we were so grateful for answered prayers. 

DH said we ought to hold our girl and Kenny hostage and then rent them out to all the ranchers since they had brought rain with them. LOL. And it really hasn't dried out since then. That's 2 months of wet and we are so just tickled. This is what the above area looks like now:

This is so unusual for us. It pretty much quit raining in 2010. Of course, we've had some rain, but our annual rainfall is 9" here and for the majority of those years, we had 2-5". It's hard to grow grass with those numbers. So far we're at 14" here at headquarters. With 128,000 acres, the rainfall amounts, of course, differ across the ranch, but that's a pretty good average. We've been spending lots of time in the ranger, checking rain gauges and marveling at the water:

And studying the forage:

We're seeing grasses headed out:

And that's worthy of celebration after a 10 yr drought. We sold 70% of the cattle and are giving the ground some time to heal. Without the pressure of livestock (we kept 300 hd), these grasses will go to seed, disperse and multiply if it continues to rain. We're just so tickled to see growing green things:

We've got weeds shooting up taller than the fence in places:

DH and I have been having fun discovering new plants we've never seen. This is a Scarlet muskflower or Devil's bouquet. Such a strange name for this beautiful flower, but it has a very unpleasant smell.

And grasses as far as the eye can see in places:

If we're not together, we discuss what we've found at the end of the day and when we are together, we're making lots of stops to study what we've discovered, capture a picture and check our plant identification app. We just discovered these apps and they are fun, but they're not so good at identifying grasses so we still rely on the books we've collected:

Skeet and I have been enjoying our morning walk-abouts:

It's a fun way to begin the day:

And Skeet is particularly thrilled to have water holes to sink into along the way:

Who wouldn't want to begin the day with joy!


God has blessed us abundantly this summer


And now I've been praying for the fire ravished areas. Ya'll need it more than we do right now. Be safe!

Monday, August 16, 2021

Howdy Baby Quilt

 A few years ago I was browsing quilting magazines at the grocery store and came across a pattern I HAD to make:


I found the pattern online here too in case anyone else HAS to make it. 😉 HOWDY

I loved the fabric line and the pattern and my quilting partner in crime who also happens to be a ranch wife, also wanted to make it so we ordered fabric and split it between us. She made hers right away, but I just finished putting the last few stitches in mine:

I am so smitten with the cute fabrics in this line:

                                           

And I think it made a darling quilt

I backed it with a buttery yellow Minky I found at Joann's and Jackie quilted these fun stars with a swirl across it:

It finishes at 42" x 42" and this one is staying in the family. 😉


I'll pull it out when little cowpokes come to visit and need to hit the hay:

Thursday, August 12, 2021

Dirt Tank Morning

 Last week we loaded up Skeet

Although it's really the other way around because he's always the first one in the rig, waiting for us to load up - this is one of my favorite pictures of him from a few years ago because it looks like he's saying: But I want to go fishing NOWWWW. 😂


And we spent a couple of hours casting a line

The tanks were pretty weedy on the edges

And there's just bare dirt right now because the county flood control fella has been working this area for about a year and he's moved a lot of dirt:

We met up with him a few days ago and he and DH made more plans - he and Jim Bob get along so well:

We have always caught loads of fish


and have thrown loads back, only keeping enough to eat for one meal but this time we only caught small ones and went home empty handed although we tossed about 10 back

We'll come back and catch a bunch of small ones again and relocate them to some of the other dirt tanks now that they are full

Spending a cool morning on the side of a dirt tank is a pretty good way to begin the day

Something about listening to the whir of a fishing line being cast into the water and watching the fish splash across the quiet, glassy surface in the middle of nowhere just makes the noise of the world fade away and then you begin to treasure the details

and you can soak in the things that really matter.

Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing it is not really fish they are after

-Henry David Thoreau

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