A Really Good Combination

 

A deck + a mountain + a book + a quilt + a freshly baked Banana Nut Muffin + a mug of hot tea + green pastures + a slow, steady rain = the perfect morning. 

See, we DO know how to slow down. 😉

Mountain Monday

Yes, I know it's not Monday, but this is just a peek into our Monday last week.

Our days are always full, but I still feel like we lead a pretty quiet, laid-back life so it always takes me by surprise at how fast time goes. It seems like I'm flipping the calendar to a new month every couple of weeks. Since moving to the mountains, I feel like we live in a bit of a time warp. I don't look at clocks or calendars and when I do, I am always caught off guard when I realize what day it is. Did 5 minutes pass as we sat watching a summer storm roll across

Or was it an hour?

DH and Skeet take off to scout the hills in the mornings and return with stories of new discoveries

While they were out exploring, the chickens got a clean coop

Looks like I woke someone up from a nap when I went to fetch the wheelbarrow

The kittens are sweet 

they are so playful at this age

                                       

Time for a new hot water heater we picked up last week (Marcos is our plumbing-heating-cooling guru and he was out to diagnose a problem with our air conditioner and showed up as DH was removing the old hot water heater)

I was in the kitchen making Lemon Cowboy Cookies

And Taco Pizza and a salad for dinner

And then we made a trip up the mountain                               

where DH changed into shorts to fix the intake at the spring

                         

Skeet says it was a good day

We agree, Skeet

Under the Needle: June

Is it just me or did June just whizz by? Somewhere along the way, I did manage to make some progress and get some stitching done. It doesn't happen every day, maybe 2 or 3 days a week most weeks, but that's a good balance for me. It might just be 30 minutes, but every once in a while, I manage to sneak in a couple of hours. 

 My big accomplishment this month was getting all of the HSTs made for the Land of Enchantment quilt. SO many HSTs, but I enjoy making them. They may be my favorite unit to make because of their versatility.

I also pieced all of the blocks, but that's the extent of my progress in June. There are 3 different blocks in this quilt.

I did pick up 3 quilts from Jackie earlier in the month and stitched those bindings to the fronts

I finished 2 of them this month...the Jungle Jam quilt

And the Summer Farm Stand quilt 

So I didn't accomplish a whole lot, but I feel good about getting those 2 oldest UFOs finished.

I've just got 3 more tops ready to be quilted and then that'll be the end of my UFO tops so even though I have a few projects lingering in bins, I'm feeling the urge to start something new. I may have already begun. 😉

Online Fabric Swap

In December 2023 I joined a red and white fabric swap hosted by @redrainbootshandmade on Instagram. I sent in (5) 1 yard cuts of fabric, cut into (56) 5" squares and received 70 (4 of each print) in return. This is what I sent in.

I made this quilt that I posted about HERE and still have some charm squares left over. 

Last year, Julia also hosted a blue swap, but I didn't get in on that one.

This year it was a low volume swap and I signed up for 8 groups. I love low volume prints. I have a good variety in my stash, but they are smaller cuts so I did a little shopping for the swap. I bought some of these with part of a gift certificate, and some were sourced online, on sale

Julia is offering 2 pretty patterns, but of course, you can make whatever you wish. There are so many options with charm squares.

The swap groups filled up in 2 hours so I'm glad I was able to take part. The variety I got back was so good!

It's been a while since I made a low volume quilt, but there are quite a few on my radar. I made my You Make Me Smile quilt 3 years ago and gifted it to our girl. 

It's still one of my favorites and I'm hankering to make another.

Summer Days

 We have been chipping away at our fence project. There is more to do, but fence project #1 is complete! Building fence in mountain country is challenging

Especially since we're in our 60's and no longer spring chickens.

Most days, I'm DH's sidekick, but our boy's been helping with the big jobs like grubbing cactus, pounding pipe and stretching the wire.

I gathered and stacked wood

Even little E is a part of the apprentice program

She's learning about hard work (she helped Pap grease all the gates)

A dip in the water trough is the perfect treat after helping Pap.

I was hauling water to the chickens and when I turned around, Pap had her in the water. 😂

The barn is also the best place to  build memories 

Pap is handing down skills to the next generation

Atta girl!

Will she remember the summer she was 4?

Probably not

But according to her

Today was 'the best day EVER'!

Clever girl to recognize that the best things in life are not things

Pancake Poppers

 I ran across this recipe on Pinterest last week and I thought it sounded like something grandchiddlers might like.

Pancake Poppers

And it just so happened that little E was here bright and early on Thursday morning and she agreed to be my taste tester

More please!

I made half of them according to the recipe and then I added cinnamon to the remaining batter.

I may be making these a lot. 😋

Summer Farm Stand Quilt

 Today I've got another old, recently finished, UFO to herald in the first day of summer.

 I think it was around 2010 when I found a bin of fruit and vegetable fat quarters at a quilt shop in Buda, Texas and I bought 20 of them.

 I hadn't been making quilts very long and I didn't know what to make with them so they sat for a long time and when I saw the Chandelier quilt pattern, I thought they would be a good fit. So in 2018, I finally started making blocks. I used this crackle print as a background for a rustic feel, but then I ran out of it and I just let the unfinished top sit in the back of the closet.

I finally decided to just pull something close from my stash to finish it off

Then it sat again because I couldn't decide on a backing and I was determined to use something from my stash. I have always loved this print, but I didn't have enough so I used what I had for a strip down the middle and added a green gingham to each end.

Sandy quilted it with a design called Dusty Miller

And I bound it with a green from my stash

It's just a small lap size at  61" x 61"

We've been so busy with other projects that I didn't get a garden in this year so a quilted garden is all I have to harvest.