Scrap Dance Two-Step Mystery Quilt

Carole, over at From My Carolina Home started a mystery quilt back in February. I wasn't previously aware of her blog, but looked back and saw her previous mysteries, both of which I am definitely going to make. She designs my kind of scrappy quilt so I jumped in on Two-Step. I did a lot of two-steppin' growing up.

I liked the laid back pace...one clue a month. I chose to use western fabrics, as I felt the need to make this for our 93 yr old neighbor, on the neighboring ranch, Grandma Lillian...aka: Miss Lillian. Until recently, she even worked 5 days a week at the Farm Store.

I've written about Miss Lillian here and here. I adore this lady! She is a true testament to a life well lived through faith. Part of the greatest generation and I'm glad she's sticking around because I still have a lot to learn from her.

Carole, thanks so much for another beautiful mystery quilt! You are a wonderful designer and I'm looking forward to the next one!

I chose favorite prints from my stash

                               

and eagerly stitched up each clue. Feb

                               

March

                               

April

                               

May

                                
June & July

 Piecing the top. I guess I forgot to take a picture of the pieced top, but the minute I finished it, I took it to Jackie. I love all these fabrics:

I wasn't sure what I wanted to use for a border so I turned to DH who chose this blue tooled leather print that is one of my favorite prints. It came in cream, black, blue, red, and brown and I am sad to see it dwindling in my stash. I love it in everything. And I bought a ton of this rust red print for a backing so I had plenty of it for the binding.

Jackie quilted this barbed wire pantograph - the perfect choice...she has a knack for doing that!

And I backed it with a warm, brown Minkee

I delivered it to her yesterday and she was thrilled with it, but I got the better end of the deal because I spent the most enjoyable 3 hours in her company! Grandma Lillian is still sharp as a tack and I'm making a point of stopping in for a visit more often to soak up more of that old school wisdom. The world could use a  lot more of it these days.

This finishes at 50"x 68" and  I hope that this dear lady knows how much I love and respect and adore her.

Time to Sew

I actually found time to sew on Friday, but with the rain last week, the mustard weed was threatening to take over the yard so I pulled out the mower for the first time this year:

As much as I fuss about mowing, this old mower has been incredibly reliable. It's 10 years old and after sitting in the shed all winter, it started up with the very first pull of the rope. Mowing before sewing. *grin* Skeet has really been enjoying the spring weather too:

Since the rain put him out of his feeding gig, he's been finding alternative entertainment.

Once I tamed the yard, I worked on some sewing projects. I caught up with the Two-Step mystery Quilt clues from My Carolina Home. This is the March clue - still need to trim these:

And this is April's clue:

And I made 12 of these little flower blocks:

I just Googled 'free flower block' and picked one I liked. This one starts out with 4 - 3 1/2" squares and you snowball each corner with 1 1/2" squares. This was the inspiration fabric:

It's been in my stash forever and I haven't a clue what I had in mind when I bought it, but it needs to be used. Thus, I thought the flower blocks might fit and make a cute baby quilt:

Then I fell upon this little fat quarter pack in my stash that included this cute piece:

I didn't particularly care to work with the other fat quarters and I thought this little chunk needed to be a baby quilt. I'm not quite sure how to make a baby quilt using 1 fat quarter that I don't want to cut up, but I started pulling coordinating fabrics from my various bins and am thinking about building some borders, one of which will be patchwork.

It's been a while since I've had this much time in a day to sew. I felt pretty spoiled and a little guilty, but it was nice to have a little stitching time.

What's Up on Wednesday

It's been a busy week, but then I know that ya'll have even more going on than I do. And when is it NOT a busy week?  We made 3 trips to the physical therapist and haven't hit on the magic solution yet, but we're managing. I told a friend the other day that we're building our days on faith, prayer, and a whole lot of humor. She replied back, " the human version of the holy trinity."  :)

After 12 days, I was still without a washing machine and I was about 2 days away from grabbing the old washboard I have hanging in the laundry / mud room

and washing clothes the way the Montana ranch women wash their clothes in the book I'm still reading. Come to find out, the part they ordered did not fix the problem and I need a new washer after all. Sigh.

Wednesday, the day we were chasing appointments, we drove right past the appliance store that had my washer and DH said we just needed to stop in and pick something. Not my favorite thing to do, but I was out of options. So I did a bit of horsetrading and finagled a deal, promised them homemade cookies if they'd throw in a free delivery, and had the new washer delivered on Friday afternoon. So we're back in business and I've been spending a lot of time tending to laundry.

I'd like to make a runner to go across the washer and dryer, but I pulled one out of a drawer in the buffet for now. I always keep something across them so they don't get too scratched up.

On Saturday we had a special Brangus sale so I worked. I've missed two Mondays. Mondays are physical therapy and feed days for now so I don't know how all of that's going to play out.

Since I worked Saturday, I made my feed run on Sunday. I made chicken noodle soup in the Insta-pot and on Friday I made a Shepard's Pie so we've got leftovers for a couple of days. I'll share that recipe in a few days because it was a keeper even if the picture doesn't look like it. A food blogger I am not!

I stopped to change out some tires and pick up 2 baby quilts from Jackie before work on Saturday. With our sleepless nights, Saturday night found me trimming the quilts at midnight and cutting the binding for the one I hadn't made yet. I got them attached and they are ready for some hand stitching. I may have some time to work on those this week.

I stitched up the second clue for the Two-Step Mystery quilt over at My Carolina Home

It didn't take long. I'm just making the throw size because it occurred to me that I want to make this for Miss Lillian, our 93 yr old neighbor lady. She recently retired from the Farm Store and I think she'd enjoy a cozy quilt to spread across her lap. This is the first clue. Just posting it so I can share it on the Flickr group:

Monday we had wind. Tuesday we had WIND. 35-40 mph sustained winds with 50-60 mph gusts.We just about had white caps in the storage tanks:

I've used this graphic before. I could use it a lot out here.

On our way home from physical therapy, the tumbleweeds were blowing past us faster than we were driving. Made it challenging to feed in that mess and I told DH that I probably had enough dirt in my ears to grow a crop of potatoes.

Here a Stitch, There a Stitch

Seems that lately, I've been adding a lot of quilts to the "to be made" list and not spending any time sewing. I finally spent some time with my sewing machine the last few days though.

 I dug into my stash for borders for the Stars and Bars QOV and stitched those on as well as made a backing and binding for it:

I also pieced my Color Box top. Tell me: how is it possible to begin with a box of 2 1/2" scraps:

Piece a top that is 72 x 84:

And still have this left:

I think I am going to simply piece all of these into 9-patches and find another pattern for them. I am determined to empty this box! I'm no longer going to stash 2 1/2" squares. I'll just keep strips because I think they'll give me more options in the long run.

 Next up was the Valentine table runner and I quilted it, just using organic straight line stitching:

I made the binding and am stitching it on in the evenings as time allows.

Still, progress has been made. Makes me feel less guilty about adding new things to my list if I can cross a few off. :)

Today, I'm meeting my partner in crime in town and we're taking a road trip to another town to check out a new quilt shop that opened up 2 weeks ago. Stay tuned for my investigative report. :)

What's Up on Wednesday

This morning I was up early baking:

I made 9 dozen peanut butter chocolate chip cookies by 8, bagged up 4 dozen to distribute to the Vet, the brand inspector, the trucker, and our North Camp man:

And headed out to the pens to help tag calves

that we were shipping North:

before heading to town to pick up health papers at the vet's. That's all you get for pictures because I only have 2 hands and they were busy. :)

When I got home, I was tempted to sneak in a nap, but I made my way to my sewing machine to do a little stitching. I pulled fabrics for my Scrap Dance Two-Step Mystery Quilt:

And stitched up the first clue:

Then I simply could not make myself stay indoors for one more minute. The other night we had a hard frost and the sky has been this incredible shade of blue for the past few days:

And now, with 22 degree mornings, we are enjoying 75 degree afternoons and we are basking in it. I'm also basking in this:

DH cleaned out the horse pens a few days ago and this is a heavenly concoction of dirt, horse manure, and hay, and I am hauling it to my garden one wheelbarrow load at a time. This is golden stuff!

And now it's 3:00 and I'm wondering if I can still sneak in that nap!

Two-Steppin' Mystery Quilt

Last week I stumbled upon a new to me blog called My Carolina Home through 2 quilts I had pinned and will have to make. This is Scrap Dance Waltz, last year's mystery:

And this is Scrap Dance Tango:

I really like both of them and I saw that another Scrap Dance mystery was just beginning. Add the fact that it is called Two-step and Carole referenced George Strait, whom I happened to play pool with once, many moons ago, and I decided to jump in.

 I grew up in dance halls. Well, not literally, but I sure spent every chance I got shuffling across a lot of dance floors in Texas. We paid .50 cents to dance to George Strait at The Crystal Chandelier in San Marcos back when he first started. Gruene Hall, The Bluebonnet, and St. Hedwig's were also places we'd gather, not to mention the street dances in Wimberly and I pretty much danced my way through college at Texas A&M. Whoop! Gig' em Ags! :)

I was a tomboy and although my poor mom tried, she never could talk me into shopping anywhere for clothes but the feed store. She was born and raised in Vienna, Austria and shook her head at her redneck only child. I'm fairly certain she still shakes her head. I was a good kid and didn't get into trouble, but I wore a lot of leather off the bottoms of my boots in those days.

Writing that makes me think I may be digging out the western prints again for this one. One clue a month for 7 months. I like the laid back pace and am looking forward to pulling fabrics.