Ginger Belle Quilt

I'm just tickled to have this quilt finished and on the bed! I started it in October of last year. The pattern is Ginger Belle, from Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. It's in this book

this is, hands down, my favorite quilt book. I love everything Carrie Nelson publishes and she's my favorite designer. There are several patterns in it that are on my list to make, but this was at the top of the list:

I cut everything from my stash of Civil War / Thimbleberry type fabrics.

Sometime I wonder why I have so much fabric and question if I really need it all, but I love digging through my stash when I'm beginning a new project and pulling fabrics. It's one of my favorite parts of the quilt making process and this quilt was a long process. I'd stitch a bit here and there and then another project would take precedence.

Ginger Belle is 81 x 81, but I made it bigger. The blocks are big and after only adding another row, it finishes at 114" x 114". I cut 12 strips for the binding and it took me literally weeks to get it bound. I chose this green fabric that is from Moda's Union Blues collection for the binding:

I backed this one with one of my bargain fabrics that I bought for $3.00 at a little quilt shop that was going out of business a few years ago. I didn't quite have enough, but I found more at Whittles for $5.00/yd. I love that shop. I think I heard about it from Jo, over at Jo's Country Junction. 

Jackie quilted it using a pattern called Cafe de Munde, another perfect choice from my superstar quilter:

Photographing a quilt this size is a challenge. While we were all out shooting pistols the other day, it dawned on me that the flat bed trailer would be perfect

 so my champion quilt holders and the canine assistants were called into action:

I adore everything about this quilt. 

Scrappy quilts just tickle me to pieces and this one is a joy to snuggle under. Right now it has a huge pile of laundry on it that needs folding, but that's not even a chore when I get to see this after everything is put away.

The First Week in December

We rarely work cattle in December, but we gathered a small crew to brand a few late calves and process some cows for a few days.

                                        

 That put me back in the kitchen.
Thursday's menu was Steak Tampequena, mashed potatoes, corn, taquitos, salad, and rolls, and I made Cajun Cake for dessert - recipe posted here: Cajun Cake.

                                  

Then I went easy on myself on Friday and made stew with french bread rolls and leftover cake for dessert.
Our mornings are a tad frosty around here this time of year and I felt sorry for the boys when I dropped them off to gather cattle in 17° as I headed back to a warm kitchen:

                                           

The sale barn Christmas party was last night so we dusted off our social skills and dancing boots and two-stepped the night away. We used to do that a lot and it was still fun.

I'll have a crew again on Tuesday. Menu to be decided. :)

I've been packing away fall and pulling out Christmas boxes as time allows. We are a real tree family so it doesn't get put up this early, but I'm making progress in the Christmas hall-decking.

                                   

I want to finish up a few quilt tops before I put my stitching up for a few weeks. We just have too many family and friends staying throughout the holidays to keep it out. Well, we can never have TOO MANY friends and family, but the house will be bustling.

I did manage to make the 24 extra blocks for my Ginger Belle and get it pieced.

                                                   

I thought I was done, but I forgot about the borders that completed the design so I had to dig fabrics back out and do some more figuring, cutting and stitching that included making another 72 4-patches:

                                                 

Hope to have this one ready to hand off to Jackie next time I get to town. It ended up being 108 x 108. Just how many king-sized quilts does one family need?

As I've set this to post, I'm either hauling hay from the barn floor to the chicken coop or bouncing across pastures making a feed run with DH... or sneaking in a nap! :)

What I've Been Up To

My sewing time is about to come to a halt for a while, but its for a good reason. Our girl and her pup arrived yesterday and have settled in for a week:

                               

Good thing he likes a bath. He's discovering all sorts of treasures around here:

                              

 She even brought a delicious apple pie she had baked the day before. Her Daddy loves apple pie and he loves it twice as much for breakfast!

                               

We've been spending lots of time putting out mineral:

Searching for cattle:

                            

And filling up the hay shed:

Hubby brought home a deer on Saturday. He found him on the north side of the ranch and was able to stalk 10 yards away from him. That's close! He said he was making too much noise so he took his shoes off and moved in closer to him for about 70 yards in his socks through the sand burrs and mesquite. Then he hobbled back to his shoes and pulled the burrs and thorns from his socks. :) So we dined on tenderloin that night and will be putting the dehydrator to work making jerky for the better part of a week.

Then we had a cake calamity in the kitchen:

                                               

And yes, that is the way it came out of the oven. Do not ask me what happened. I have made 300 of these through the years and alas, this one was a total loss. Our girl said that we needed to mark the occasion with a moment of silence.

I don't know if I'll ever get that pan clean again and we won't even talk about my oven. I am so glad that I keep aluminum foil on the bottom of it. I had to redeem myself:

On the sewing front, before our girl came home, I managed to get all the blocks pieced for Ginger Belle, squared them up, and stitch the top together:

                                   

and then I decided, yep, you guessed it...it needs to be bigger. So back to making blocks. In order for the design to stay balanced, it needs two more rows both vertically and horizontally. These are 15" blocks so that adds 30" both ways. Perfect for a king sized bed.

I had this in my stash that'll work for a backing:

                                 

And I will be making a scrappy binding, but it'll have to wait because we are going to soak up the essence of Thanksgiving this week even though we'll be missing our boy and hoping he'll be here for Christmas. I don't know if I'll be popping in between now and Thanksgiving so I wanted to wish y'all a blessed one. We've been enjoying such a pretty autumn this year. This morning it was 16° when DH went out. I am going to hang onto autumn as long as I can.

                                               

A Wet Thursday Morning

We fell asleep to the sound of rain again on Tuesday night, but this time the storm blew in fast and hard and LOUD!

All you Texas folks who have been waiting for rain...hang on to your hats...it's headed your way. The news mentioned 12" in places. Hunker down and stay safe. That's a lot of rain.

Thunder roared and lightening cracked all night. It was the kind of storm that used to send our kiddos popping out of their beds and scampering into ours when they were small. Heck, it even made me burrow under the covers a bit deeper and I'm a hard sleeper.

Don't remember if I've ever shared this tale, but I padded into the kitchen one morning and told DH that I smelled a skunk. He looked at me in disbelief and took my hand, leading me back into the bedroom, and pointing out the window by the bed. There lay a dead skunk. He said he couldn't believe that I didn't hear him last night. I asked him what happened and he said he smelled the skunk late last night and went out with his flashlight that could blind you if you were on the moon and his shotgun and chased the skunk around. He said he even shot more than once. Yes, right outside the bedroom...with a shotgun... and I never heard a thing. Sound sleeper? Just a little. :)

We were anxious to make the rounds and check tank water, but we'll have to wait a day or two for the roads to set up a bit so we headed south to a town about 80 miles away to pick up our beef from the meat market on Wednesday morning. Thankfully the rain held off long enough for us to get home and get it into the deep freeze. We had to use the bunkhouse freezer too and there still wasn't enough room for even one extra ice cube.

And yes, I should have defrosted it first. Sure hope I won't be needing that brisket anytime soon though, because it's at the bottom!

We used to have 2 big freezers but one went out years ago and we never replaced it because we always split our beef with the family at North Camp. Since no one's there, we get the whole thing, but we are very thankful because the price of beef at the store is crazy. I don't know if those prices will drop, but recently the cattle market has.

Its always a good day when we are greeted with a photo op like this:

                                 

Its the first time we've seen the sun since Sunday.

It was 42° this morning. DH went to check a well, but there's not going to be much running around today. I've got enough stew left over from yesterday and I'm taking advantage of the free time and working a bit on Ginger Belle. I'm going to be spending some quality time with my iron today:

                            

Stitching in the Rain

Our heat wave broke on Saturday evening and we thoroughly enjoyed a wet, soggy Sunday! All the antelope hunters were successful and headed back to the city so the afternoon was ours and we were very thankful for the opportunity to recuperate from the previous week.

We dumped .8" from the rain gauge on Sunday morning and enjoyed another good shower in the afternoon that brought our total to 1.6" by Monday morning.  I feel a little guilty celebrating our 1.6" of rain when the Carolinas are wishing it would stop. I hope all of y'all who live in that part of the country stay safe and dry out soon. As much as we appreciate every drop of rain here, too much of it can certainly wreak havoc.

For us desert rats, this is a forecast that has us dancing a jig.

                                                   

I cleaned the stove and worked on apples and cut out a couple of quilts this weekend too.  It feels good to be starting a new project. I've worked almost exclusively on UFO's for a couple of years now. There are still 7 that need binding, but they are still at Jackie's and one is at Shelly's. Besides the Wash Day baby quilt, I cut out this one:

It's a Miss Rosie pattern called Ginger Belle and I was able to cut everything from my stash. The slow, steady cadence of rain drumming on the roof along with the hum of the sewing machine was music to my ears:

It was the perfect way to unwind from the busy week.