Gingham Baby Quilt Finish

 A few years ago I made these 2 little quilts for a friend's sweet set of twin granddaughters:

Gingham Baby Quilts

And while I was at it, I also pieced one in purple:

I think I found these prints at Hobby Lobby years ago and often they have the same prints forever, but I never did see see these again. They came in these three colorways and I thought they were very sweet. I love the simplicity of gingham and I think these prints were just right for this pattern:

I had a little extra of the purple so I added another couple of rows to this one, making it 40" x 48":

I pieced the back with the last of the paisley and added some gingham to finish things up 

before handing it off to Jackie to let her do what she does so well - bring my quilt tops to life:

                                             

I pulled a solid purple from my stash for the binding

Then I waited for my lilac bush to bloom because I thought it would make a pretty picture, but we're in desperate need of rain and although I water it, I think it's waiting for rain  so no lilacs this year. Even the little apricot tree didn't want to bloom:

Another sweet baby quilt 

waiting in the wings for the arrival of a little girl this summer:

Peep! Peep!

 This week we had our usual Monday sale on Tuesday so folks could enjoy Easter. If the sale's on Monday, the sale barn crew has to work on Sunday, receiving cattle. It was a short sale, as holiday sales generally are, and we were finished at noon. That gave me time to run a few errands and bring home a dozen of these

Every 3 years or so I replenish my flock as the older chickens move into retirement:

This year I brought home 3 Red Sex Links, 3 Black Sex Links, 3 Red Productions, and 3 Easter Eggers.

I hauled an empty water tub into the bunkhouse and set up a little brooder to welcome them home

Hard to believe these little fluffballs will devour a 50# sack of starter in a matter of weeks.

 but they eat nonstop:

You can't even see the feeder when they converge upon it

They are fun to watch - this little one looks like she's praying. LOL

I am easily entertained

I don't know why baby chicks bring me so much joy, but they do!

Baby Sails Quilt Finish

 Yes, I am sharing a lot of finished quilts lately. I'm not finding much time to sew, but quilts have stacked up at Jackie's for a while. I've picked up 6 in the last few weeks. I always let her know that I am not in a hurry to have them back unless it's something I really need soon and in those cases (twice in 12 years) she zips them out in a day or two.

A quilt top might hang around here for a few years before I hand it off to her so from start to finish, my quilts usually go through a proofing season...or two. 

I do not sew in the evenings because I prefer to spend that time with DH, but I DO generally have a quilt to bind so I will often stitch on that as we visit. 

I bought a fat quarter pack of On Deck fabrics from Craftsy back in2017:

And I paired it with this pattern:

I love having a few baby quilt on hand and I needed some little boy quilts to fill in the gaps and I thought this one fit the bill nicely. I still love all of these prints and this was a quick one to piece:

The little appliqued boats are such fun

I bought 2 of the offered backing pieces and used one for this quilt

Jackie's daughter, Sandy, quilted fun rollicking waves across the quilt and I bound it with a blue from my stash:

At 42" x 48", it's going to be a perfect little quilt to welcome a new baby boy. 

                                  

I am ready to empty this bin and I still want to add to my baby quilt supply so I cut the leftover prints into 5" squares and set about making HSTs. I needed some more light background fabric so I added this little print  on the right to finish out the HSTs

And I left a stack of rectangles for a possible piano key border. I am pretty sure there are 2 more quilts hiding in here:

Rhubarb Crisp

 I don't bake much these days, or at least not as much as I used to. I still bake when the kids are here, or when I've got a crew, or when the county works our road, but not so much for just the two of us. However, DH loves Rhubarb and the season is short. I probably should have been growing it in the garden, but I saw some last week and added it to my cart. I could tell the checker didn't know what it was so I told him. He'd never heard of it and I had to repeat it a few times, but I was kind. Then he proceeded to ring it up as Rutabaga. 🤣 The cabbage also stumped him and he rang that up as lettuce. He was a nice kid and I didn't want to embarrass him anymore so I just let it slide. 

The next morning I called my MIL and she dug out her recipe. She is a wonderful cook and so many of our family favorites originated with her.

Rhubarb Crisp

4-6 C Rhubarb

3/4 C sugar 

4 tsp flour

1 TBSP Tapioca flour

*Mix together

Topping: 

1/2 C brown sugar

1/2 C flour

1/2 C butter, melted

1/2 C rolled oats

*Mix together and dot onto Rhubarb

*Preheat oven to 350°. Bake 50-60 minutes. I bake this in a deep dish pie plate for this amount. Serve with ice cream. 

*My MIL uses 1 C sugar, but we love the tartness so I use less. Her recipe also calls for 4 tsp of flour to mix with the Rhubarb, but I love using Tapioca flour as a thickener so I use a combination of flour and Tapioca flour.

So good!