Plus a Nine Patch Quilt

 Today I'm sharing another jelly roll quilt. I'm tickled to be making a dent in these and finally finishing  some quilts that have been UFOs for a while. I saw a picture online for this quilt called Egg Hunt, from the Fat Quarter Shop. It was just a picture and searching for it now, the only reference I am able to find is a post that leads to Facebook for a kit that is no longer available. 

I had this Little Ruby Jelly Roll 

and in an effort to turn my Jelly Rolls into quilts, I settled on 2 alternate blocks. I didn't use a pattern. I just alternated a 9-patch with a plus block, using the picture of the Egg Hunt quilt as my inspiration. 

I pulled the Riley Blake Swiss Dot fabric from my stash for the background. I pieced this quilt way back in May 2019 and finally handed it off to Jackie when I found this backing on clearance. Sandy quilted a design called Flower Trails across it, but it's a little hard to see - this shot probably shows the design better than others

I pulled this print from my stash for the binding

At 72 x 77, it will make a good cuddle quilt. 

The combination of 2 simple blocks made a darling quilt and those Jelly Rolls are thrilled to be living their best life! 😉

Sourdough : Blueberry Sourdough Sweet Rolls

Stop the presses. Grab your sourdough starter. And make these. I made these Sunday morning and they instantly earned a place in my favorite recipes cookbook. Here's the original recipe - as always, I encourage you to get the recipe there. My notes are always an abbreviated version that works for me.

Blueberry Sourdough Sweet Rolls

My sourdough starter has been very happy 

and when I stumbled upon this recipe I was too weak to resist the calling and boy howdy! Am I ever glad I caved to temptation - it will be worth the extra trekking miles. 

And yes, I'm sure you could make these from regular dough instead of sourdough, but the sourdough takes them over the top. We think the sourdough keeps them from being too sweet and thus, it enhances the blueberries. Sourdough elevates everything! Next time, I'd like to substitute raspberries, but these were simply off the charts amazing.

Blueberry Sourdough Sweet Rolls

Dough

2 C flour

1/2 C active sourdough starter

1/2 C water

2 Tbsp honey

1/4 C butter, melted

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Blueberry Filling

2 Tbsp butter

1 C blueberries

2 tsp cornstarch

1/2 C brown sugar, lightly packed

Glaze

1 C powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp milk

*In a large bowl, mix together flour, honey, melted butter, water, and sourdough starter. It will be firm. Cover and allow to ferment for 12-24 hours for the most benefit from the sourdough. It won't rise like traditional yeast dough. 

*Preheat oven to 375°. In a saucepan, cook blueberries and butter a bit until cooked down. Then sprinkle with cornstarch. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar. Allow to cool down a bit.

*Sprinkle the dough with salt, baking soda, and baking powder and knead together until well combined.

*Roll out dough. Spread with cooled blueberries. 

*Roll up, Slice and place rolls in greased 9"x11" baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove and drizzle with glaze.

*Warning: foundering is a real possibility. 😉

Spring House Quilt

 This quilt is from an old Moda Bakeshop tutorial called Sweet Menagerie. I've been on a mission to use up old jelly rolls and I thought this would be a good way to showcase these. I used a jelly roll called Spring House that I bought on sale back in 2013.

 I finished piecing this in March 2021. Blogs are good for record keeping. 😉 

The fabrics have a modern vibe - very different from anything I have ever used - but the colors are fresh and fun

It's 70" x 78" and Sandy used a fun pattern called Modern Squares that shows up nicely on the back

In an attempt to use up the scraps, I pieced the back

A sweet finish and I'm very happy to know that another jellyroll has been released and is ready to enjoy life as a cozy quilt

Shipping Out Steers

 On Wednesday morning, the boys gathered 122 steers from Middle Bull Trap and brought them into the pens (this is a shot from a different day - I was tied up with the brand inspector and missed them driving the calves in, but the sun was just coming up and it would have looked like this)

we shipped out 2 loads of steers that we sold private treaty. That's just a handful compared to what we sold in years past, but a few years ago we had to sell 70% of the herd due to prolonged drought. We're incredibly grateful we were able to keep the other 30%. 

Beef prices are incredible right now, along with everything else like feed and vaccine and fuel, so it all balances out

The trucks arrived at 7:30 

And everyone was loaded and ready to roll an hour later

I didn't have to cook, but bags of fresh baked cookies (Gingersnaps) were doled out to truck drivers, the brand inspector, and 3 extra hands

I threw steaks on the grill for an early lunch  and then DH and I made a quick trip into town to pick up the feed truck from the mechanic before heading back out for another feed run.

Radiant Voyage Quilt

Way back in June 2018, I found this pattern and paired it with a Layer Cake that I won online 

I wanted some mindless sewing and I love the versatility of HSTs so after a few marathon sessions I had  a nice stack and then the trimming began

Once I had it pieced, it got pushed back again and again as other projects took precedence and it took a while for me to settle on a backing

And I pulled a navy from my stash for the binding

 It's 64" x 64" and Sandy quilted a pattern called Geranium across it.

And 5 years after I took that first stitch, I have a finish

It's smaller than I usually make, but I only had the Layer Cake and although the fabric is pretty, it's not generally the kind of fabric I gravitate towards

I think it made a fun quilt though and I'll definitely use this design again. 

The Dirt Blizzard Aftermath

 On Monday's post, I mentioned the 60 mph sustained winds (70-80 mph gusts) we experienced on Sunday and posted this photo.

I have lots of similar photos through the years

And no, I didn't edit the photos or convert them to sepia. Those are straight from the camera. Many places have wind and it certainly makes our daily lives as ranchers challenging, but it's the blowing dirt that really  makes it miserable. It's hard to find cows in this

But regardless the weather, they still need to be caked

 A reader commented that it's similar to the blizzards with blowing snow that she and many others experience and that lead me to rename our windy/dirt flying days as Dirt Blizzards and this

along with shingle salutations

leaves us with the aftermath

I'm just grateful we didn't have a repeat of this (this happened when we lived in Texas)

And we didn't lose electricity, or have downed trees, or powerlines so this was just a minor inconvenience. 10 years ago we had a new roof installed here and they did a wonderful job because we haven't lost a single shingle

I work at the Sale Barn on Mondays so I wasn't home as DH spent some of the morning on the roof of the salt shed, screwing down loose tin. The bunkhouse and shed are in need of new roofs although they are not leaking so they are added to the bottom of a very long list of ranch improvements. 

DH had a good idea and suggested I use a pitchfork to save my back - I married a clever man

And I had an assistant who was moping because DH left him behind

After an hour, we had quite the collection to take to the dump

                                                 

Still more to go, but another round of wind chased me inside where there was plenty to keep me busy as well. 😉

I just saw that today's forecast includes more flying shingles. 😄