You Make Me Smile Quilt

 In 2019 I stumbled upon this HST triangle quilt on Instagram and I fell for it hard. 

Handmade Myrth

I have a healthy collection of low volume prints and this is the perfect way to showcase them, but I'd be lying if I said I still didn't bring them home from time to time

 I intended to make this a long term leader-ender project, but once I sewed a few, I simply could not stop. I had so much fun pulling colored fabrics from my scraps and stash. Anything goes.

The HST's finish at 2 1/2".  I used my Easy Angle ruler and cut them from short strips. I like to nest my seams and this is what worked best for me and how I pieced the blocks. I just let everything fall where it fell. 

I finished piecing it in September 2020. There are so many fun fabrics in this quilt! 

And as much as I love the whole quilt, the fun really begins when you take a closer look. 

Jackie said that when Sandy was quilting it, she kept calling Jackie over, saying, "Look at this one!"...:and this one!"..."Oh, this one is so fun,"..."Come look at this one!". She used a pattern called Whisper. 

I ordered this fun wide backing from Missouri Star and used a turquoise print from my stash. 

I call this my You Make Me Smile Quilt because when I was piecing it, I would often break out in song: This song

I also sing this when I'm dancing around the kitchen a lot - it's one of my favorites! It's part of the song track of my life.

This quilt finishes at 74x82 and I'm seriously considering making another one because this one was just so much fun and now I want everyone in my life to have one!

Branded Quilt

 This will probably be the first in a series of Branded quilts because I love this collection from Sweetwater. I love that it's western, yet understated. Sometimes western can get kind of cheesy (not a criticism because I have lots of western fabrics and I love the quilts I've used them in, just not what a lot of folks living this lifestyle really want). This time they got it right.

I used it as a jumping off point and pulled lots of coordinating fabrics from my stash to make this quilt. This is a quilt I made on commission for a friend who requested a few. Guy quilts are hard unless they're sports- themed, but I think the plaid worked well for one quilt

And this is the second one

I didn't use a pattern - just a simple block design and added an hourglass block in alternating blocks

I had Jackie and Sandy use a simple stipple with stars design that I think is called Barbed Wire

I found this wide backing somewhere online and I was really pleased with the way it looked with the other fabrics. I bound it with a brown from my stash.

I added labels

I love the end result and I hope our dear friend will enjoy them both

At 10 x 11 blocks, it finishes at 87 x 96. I do not have a design wall so things just fall where they fall and then it's kind of a fun surprise when I throw them up on the side of the barn.

Made for a special friend who is a great hand and always made our cow works more fun!

And thankfully there is more fabric, because these were both hard to give away - good thing we like him so much! 😉

                                    

Green Chile Quiche

 I made this last month and served it with some fresh green beans for a light lunch

We both really liked it and the leftovers, with fresh fruit, made a wonderful breakfast the next morning. We liked it so much that I made it again when the kids came home a few weeks ago 

And I quickly made a new recipe card to add to my recipe book because it's a keeper! Here's the original recipe

                                                        Bacon and Green Chile Quiche

                                             

Bacon & Green Chile Quiche

8 strips cooked bacon, chopped

8 oz green chile, drained and chopped (I never measure - I just dump a bunch in there)

1 1/2 C sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1 1/2 C pepper jack cheese, grated

1/2 diced jalapeno

1 1/4 C 1/2 & 1/2

4 - 5 large eggs

crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 green onions, chopped

1 pie crust

*Preheat oven to 425°. Prepare pie crust. Bake for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 400°. Sprinkle bacon, chilies, green onions, jalapeno, & cheeses over crust. Beat eggs, pepper, 1/2 & 1/2, crushed red pepper flakes in bowl and pour over crust. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the top is set. Remove from oven and let set for 10 minutes, Cut into wedges.

I only made a couple of changes from the original - I added crushed black pepper and red pepper flakes to the egg-1/2 & 1/2 mixture and omitted the Kosher salt - we thought it was too salty with it. I used Pepper Jack cheese instead of Monterrey Jack and I used more. I also used fresh New Mexico green chile and at least twice as much. 😉

                                

You can substitute a store-bought pie crust, but I just make my own. Now that I'm writing this to post, I'm getting a hankering to make it again

                                                

The Dangers of Cleaning

 I've been a bit unfocused lately and finely decided I ought to do something about the state of affairs in my sewing room. The room I sew in doubles as a guest room and that means I have a bed that attracts piles of fabric when I'm in project mode. I've been wanting to make another Americana quilt since I made this one for friends 

and the pile is precarious:

I need more project bins, but I am determined to make due with what I've got. I've got the Branded leftovers out because there is nowhere to stash them 

and I want to make one for us, possibly something along these lines - I think this is a Country Threads pattern called Dixie

And as I sort, one fabric touches another, catches my attention, and the wheels start turning

One

Two

Three

Four

And just like that, new projects crop up. I need to figure out a way to sort and clean with my eyes closed. 😉

A Binding Marathon

 I was in the middle of binding this quilt

When I picked this one up from Jackie

And I promised it, along with this quilt 

to a friend on Tuesday. I am a slow binder so I've been spending lots of extra time with needle in hand.

I also made the binding for the I Spy Quilt I made for our granddaughter - I dropped it off with Jackie when I picked up the Branded Quilt.

Lots of finishes on the horizon! One of these days I'll give machine binding a whirl, but I love binding by hand so let's hope my hands hold out because these are all good sized quilts. I have to slow down when I bind and I think this is God's way of making me do just that because there is so much going on around here these days. So glad he's in control!

Recently

 Yes, all is well and I don't really have an excuse for my lack of posting other than I must have lost my blogging mojo. There are some things taking place behind the scenes that have required our attention and I think that has contributed to my scattered mindset. I'll share more about that when there is more to share. 😉

We've been making some day trips to the mountains

The kiddos came home one weekend and that means we'll be firing up the smoker

Cooking up some biscuits

Sharing new recipes

Anticipating the first bite

And swapping stories around the firepit

The wind's been up to it's old shenanigans again

And last night, we chased a fire

Yesterday was our anniversary and we thought we'd go out to eat after running some errands in town. Alas, we had an unexpected phone call before we left that a semi load of mineral was on it's way and DH needed to be here to unload it. As he was unloading it, he noticed smoke to the east. The sky was brown from all of the dirt in the air so it's amazing that he could even see the smoke. He called the neighbor and he went to look into it and sure enough there was a fire that had started in an oilfield on his place. As soon as the mineral was stored away, DH drove over and met the neighbor and firetrucks. The wind was fierce - according to the news it was clocked at 68 mph in town and it was blowing out of the west, sending the fire our way. As long as the wind didn't change, the neighbor's home was safe as it was west of the fire. I stayed at the house and began to take stock of what needed to be loaded in case of evacuation. The fire burned about a section (640 acres) and jumped over to one of our pastures. Thankfully, the fire department was well-equipped and able to get it all under control which is a miracle in that kind of wind! 

There wasn't a lot of grass on the neighbor's pasture, thus, not enough fuel for the fire to really take off. We've got a pretty good stand of old grass for winter feed and we're so thankful it didn't start in fuel-rich pasture or we'd be singing a sad song today. The fire was about 1 1/2 miles from the house so the photos I took from inside aren't great, but I'm SO thankful everyone is safe

It was just a little too close for comfort, but I'm grateful for the firefighters and for the mineral truck that showed up unexpectedly because if it hadn't, we'd have been in town and had the fire moved just a tiny bit closer to more grass, it could have been a very different outcome. So thank you, Jesus for the sending the firefighters and a mineral truck!