Project Progress

 I've been enjoying some time in my sewing room over the past week, but after working on 3 blue-green quilts, I found myself left with a colossal, jumbled mess and I needed to set things to rights before I could move forward.

After making 3 pretty good-sized quilts, you would think there would be a noticeable space in my bins, but I have yet to find it. I will admit to adding a few new pieces - not enough to offset what I used, but a quilter ought not to complain about having an abundance of fabric. I hope the quilts I make bring people joy and one can never have too much of that!

So, the projects continue! I pieced another gingham quilt

Made the bindings, pressed the tops and backings for 2 of the blue-green quilts

Pulled fabric and made the scrappy binding for my Americana Hourglass quilt

And pulled out my potholder bin

I've got to get some made for gifts. Some were already partially made, but I need to finish those and make more. The original idea came from Deanna over at Wedding Dress Blue years ago and I'm betting I've made more than 50 sets of these through the years. I'll include the link to her tutorial below:

                                                            String Potholders

I'm keeping them somewhat categorized into floral, safari, chickens, western, wine and coffee. That pretty much covers everyone in my circle. LOL

So a new mess is about to transpire - let the fun begin!

Lazy HOT Days of Summer

 Who coined the phrase 'lazy days of summer'? We don't get many of those around here. Something's always needing to be mowed

Or cleaned out

Or fixed

Or moved

Or hauled

Our shovels don't get a whole lotta downtime. 😉

But I'm really not complaining because I'm grateful that we are able to do whatever needs doing. Even if that means we're dog tired at the end of the day. Which these days, we definitely are. The only explanation I have is that we're not 30...or 40...or 50 anymore. And it's SO cotton-pickin HOT!

And honestly, I think our lifestyle is pretty laid back. We're always busy, but I don't feel like we're in the rat race. It's been a record setting summer for heat and we're hoping the monsoon isn't going to completely bypass us this year. I think we're up to 2.5" for the year so far here at headquarters. That's pretty rough when you're in agriculture, but I always say we're one day closer to the next big rain.

The baby guineas are growing - 6 hatched and they are growing fast. They can often be found wherever the sprinkler is running, but they are always on the go, making them hard to photograph.

Our old broken down backhoe and old broken down little red tractor were hauled off last week. DH spent more time fixing them than using them.

And he's been spending a lot of time with his new toy

I told him he's spoiled now - this one has a radio and an air-conditioner! He's walking in high cotton now! Makes things a little more bearable while we eagerly await the next big rain.

Until then, we'll just soak up the abundant blessings that have been bestowed upon us...

Taco Pizza

 I only had 4 extras to feed the other day so I poured some chips into a bowl, made salsa, guacamole, queso, and this Taco Pizza. I've made this for us before, but never for a crew. They went back for seconds and still had room for apple pie and ice cream for dessert before they rolled back out the door. I guess pizza is always a hit and this is a fun variation on traditional pizza. I made 2 pizzas, but I'll just give you the ingredients for one.

Taco Pizza

Pizza crust

1 lb ground beef

1 Tbsp Taco Seasoning (I make my own)

1/2 chopped onion

1 can refried beans

1/2 C chopped green chile

2 C sharp cheddar cheese or a Mexican cheese blend

 sliced black olives

 pickled jalapenos

salsa

*Brown ground beef with chopped onion and taco seasoning. In separate saucepan, warm refried beans and stir in chopped green chile. Preheat oven to 400°. Bake pizza crust for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Spread beans over pizza crust. Top with ground beef, cheese, olives, and pickled jalapenos. Pop back into oven just to warm through. Like any pizza, you can add whatever you like. I'm thinking a little bit of chopped red onion. Serve with salsa.

I don't recall where I found this recipe. I usually make a note on the recipe card, but neglected to do so for this one. 

I don't have a pizza stone, but I've got a big cast iron pizza pan that I love. We're a crispy, thin crust pizza family and cast iron turns out a perfect pizza every time. I also have a wonderful homemade pizza crust recipe a dear lady shared with me, but your favorite recipe or I'll bet the Pillsbury pizza crust would work too. 

Raspberry Streusel Muffins

I haven't been doing a lot of baking lately. In fact, truth be told, I haven't been doing ANY baking lately. It's been over 100° every single day, for months now and  heating up the kitchen has been at the top of my daily not-to-do list. We've grilled and smoked A LOT. I did make Buckaroo Bundles when we had company, but that was an exception. But on Saturday, at 5 a.m., I caved. I made these incredible Raspberry Streusel Muffins from the Smitten Kitchen. And I don't know if they were incredible because I haven't baked anything in months or if they really are that good, but YUM! This is not a sweet muffin and DH said they'd be great with ice cream, but he thinks everything's better with ice cream. 😉 

Click on the link below and whip these up - you won't be sorry!

Raspberry Streusel Muffins

The recipe says it makes 6 huge muffins, but there was no way I could stuff all the batter into 6 muffin tins. My batch made 10 and it was a struggle to not eat all of them Saturday morning, but it was worth holding back because they were just as wonderful on Sunday morning.

These are a keeper and if her blueberry muffins are as good as these are, I'm going to nominate her for Muffin Queen. Maybe we'll cool off before Christmas so I can turn on the oven again and try them, but for now I'm going to be gracious and let DH have the last Raspberry Muffin. This is the man who always cuts the last banana in half so we can share it so I'm pretty sure he'll let me have a bite of the last muffin. 💕

Under the Needle : July

 Still trying to catch up so I'm a little late, but thus far, my July projects have spilled over into August. Too many trips to town in July made me seek refuge in my sewing room the second half of the month. I cut and pieced a special baby quilt that I'm keeping under wraps for the time being, but suffice it to say I am smitten with those ducks!

                                

I've got plans for another Gingham quilt

And I spent a lot of time pulling and cutting and sewing fabrics for the blue-green quilts I posted about previously. 

110 blocks stitched and trimmed and sewn into a top 

And 65 blocks sewn and trimmed  with 130 different fabrics for the 2nd quilt - I just kind of threw these out on the bed to get an idea of where I was headed

I'm going to need a lot more so I've been sorting through my scraps and bins again and having such fun matching up pieces for additional blocks 

This blue-green obsession has created a huge mess so at some point I'm going to have to stop and get things back under control, but for the time being I'm just having too much fun!

Catching Up

  It's been a while since I've popped in here. No excuses unless the excessive heat has rendered me useless. 109° again on Saturday. 😟 

Had a blowout a few weeks ago

That caused some body damage to our rig, but I'm grateful it wasn't worse and no one was hurt

So that, along with 4 new tires... sigh.

 But after a visit to the mechanic, the body shop, and the tire shop (that's too many trips to town) - we're back in business.

We've also got a newly hatched batch of baby guineas

I made a little 4 hour roadtrip.

I don't even have the words to describe how much joy this child has brought us

30 years of joy - Happy Birthday Sprout!

Since they live in a different state, I don't get to see them as often as I would like, so when I had the unexpected opportunity to spend a day with her, I jumped at the chance. A friend was driving to Amarillo on Thursday to pick up her sewing machine and had invited me along.

 On Wednesday I learned that our girl was going to be in Amarillo as well (her husband was taking 3 pigs to an invitational sale) so I shuffled things around a bit. I was still able to spend Thursday with my friend, but we took separate vehicles and I spent the night at the hotel where our girl was staying. Thursday was filled with fellowship and fabric with my ranch wife-quilting buddy - an old photo, but this pretty much conveys the trouble we got into - 😉

Doesn't everyone travel with a quilt? It just adds a little bit of home to a hotel room and I always sleep better under a quilt

We didn't have any agenda the next day, but bookstore visits are a family tradition and we spent 2 1/2 hours among the shelves browsing and discussing books. 

We ended up on the floor in the children's section 

A little girl walked up to our girl and after contemplating her for a minute, she piped up, "I'm a kid too"! it was as if she wasn't quite sure if our girl was a kid or not, but she was plopped on the floor, surrounded by children's books so a kid she must be. LOL. We got so tickled! 

We laughed until we cried over books - it was the perfect way to spend time together

And as you can tell, we didn't go home empty-handed. When we were discussing this trip, our girl said she didn't want to add anything else to my plate and I told her spending time with her wasn't adding anything to my plate, it was adding to my heart.