Design Wall Monday

Crumbs! I'm playing with crumbs. Remember Jo's Crumb Along? I'm a little behind. I want to make some like she showed,--stars, triangles, pinwheels, maybe a few more geese.

I haven't had a lot of sewing time this week but when I did sew, I mostly played with crumbs and strings. This weekend is another retreat-I know, lucky me! And a few of us are going to sit together, dump out our crumbs and strings and go crazy. How much fun will we have?!? I am going in with a plan, the other gals are crumb beginners. I know for one of them, this is a major milestone but she is super excited and I am excited to show them how to do this.

I'm going over to Judy L's now to start checking other design walls......I should be there for a while.

Design Wall Monday...

... 3am Thoughts

I woke up this morning at 3 with thoughts of blue spirals in my head. I have so many strips left and I'm on a mission to use them up. I decided to see what this little quilt would look like with a scrappy blue border on it. I like it so much that I am going to add it on this morning.

For your viewing pleasure (click to enlarge), a collage of some of the retreat show and tell. None of these projects are mine, they belong to my talented friends!

Retreat Report

I love spending time at Royal Ridges. Fall is so beautiful surrounded by these huge old Maple trees. It's so quiet and peaceful there. A quilter's paradise.

My first project was to make this top for newest grandson Corbin. I used the tutorial at Love Laugh Quilt. I like how it turned out. I think I will add another 2" border before I quilt it. Right now it's 36" x 36".
Then I started working on my blocks for the quilt like Julie's. I learned that if I have only 1 earbud in listening to my music, the volume is higher than if I have them both in. The gals several tables away could hear my music....I was a bit embarrassed not because of what I was listening to but because I didn't know it was so loud. LOL

I sewed and sewed, press and snipped, stacked and sewed again. After the end of Saturday, I had 202 4" blocks made. I'm 2 blocks over half way. Now I have to dig through more of my scraps and cut more triangles. That will be cutting session 3. But that's fine, I'm going to love this quilt.

My face and stomach hurt from laughing so much....that's a good thing. Thanks quilter friends for making my weekend so special. I can't wait to do it again!

Retreat Prep

It's hard work for me to prepare projects for a retreat. It's even harder if you have 2 retreats within 2 weeks. Am I complaining? Goodness no! (I love Pete the Cat!) It's hard because I have so many things I want to do that it's a bit overwhelming. So I made a list. Now I am kitting projects.

I will start with a project that I have wanted to do for a long time. I read this post from Julie at Quilter Behind The Barn Door. It got my blood pumping.

As you can see, I've collected a few inspiration pictures for this block. So easy but creates such drama...for me anyhow.

Today I will cut this pile of fabrics.

Using these fabulous dies.

I will add bits and pieces to my bin.

As you can see, I had to make a few (23) test blocks.

I am inspired by Julie's attitude, it matches mine.

See why I say it is the ultimate scrap quilt? And for pete's sake. If you are one of those people who try to keep the same fabric from touching when you make scrap quilts, don't attempt this one. You will go berserk. Just slap those squares together any old way. And don't worry about an occasional point getting cut off in the seams. Believe me when I say No one will ever notice.

Next (or if I get bored) I will work on this Spiral Log Cabin. I found the tutorial at

Love Laugh Quilt.

It's over on the right hand side bar under Tutorials.

This should keep my out of trouble. If I run out of something to do, I'll grab another project when I come home to let the dogs out. It's good to be so close to home and retreating at the same time.

Design Wall Monday...

...on Sunday night.

I spent quite a bit of time Sunday working on the Twisting Mystery from Carol Doak's Yahoo Group.

These are the fabrics I chose.

Clue 1 was completed here.

Then all my focus was shifted to new grandson Corbin.

And finishing up the canning.

Sunday I did Clue 2.

And Clue 3.

And Clue 4.

And half of Clue 5 with the other half needing piece 3 sewn on, trimmed and joined together.

Maybe that will happen Monday.

If it does, I will work on Clue 6.

I'm hoping to be caught up before Clue 7 is posted.

I'm afraid of getting distracted by reading Design Wall Monday posts that can be found at Patchwork Times on Mondays.

Wish me luck.

My Apple Butter

I was asked for my recipe for Apple Butter. Ummm, it's one of those things that I just do. So I'll tell you how I do it.

I use a 7 quart crock pot like this one. I use the apple peeler/corer/slicer thingie and then I cut the sliced apple into quarters. I fill the crockpot. I honestly don't remember how many apples I used. I used Gala and Honeycrisp. I peeled until the crockpot was full.

Then I added 2 cups of brown sugar, 2 cups of white sugar (Kathy started with 1/2 cup white sugar and says hers is perfect, so maybe try that first), 1-2 tablespoons of cinnamon-depending on how much you like cinnamon, you can always add more but you can't take it away and 1 cup of apple juice. Mix everything together.

Cover and turn on high. When the apples are hot, open the lid to let the steam out. You will not put the lid back on. I prop mine on a wooden spoon layed across the crockpot. Let it cook like that for several hours. If I am cooking it overnight or if I am leaving the house, I turned it to low. Stir once in a while.

Do a taste test. If you want it sweeter, add more sugar. If you want more cinnamon, add a bit more.

When the apples and juice have reduced, turn off the heat and let cool a bit. Then I use my stick blender kind of like this one and start mixing. You could use a blender or food processor also. If it is not thick enough, cook it longer.

When it is the consistency I like, I test it on a piece of toast. Put hot butter into hot jars. If you want to seal it, add the lid and ring and do a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. My yield was 9 half pints. Check the Ball Blue Book for more information.

Remember this is the way I do it. There are lots of recipes online. I'm ready to make pear butter and pumpkin butter. Now I need a piece of toast. ;o)

Design Wall Monday

Not much of a change on my design wall from last week.

There isn't much quilting time when there is a new grandson.

I finished the table topper top Sunday night.

I am not making quilting plans for today.

Maybe I'll remove the paper from the back.

See other great design walls here.

When Plans Change

You know how it is when you make plans? I had sewing plans. I was going to finish this table topper and get it basted for quilting. So instead of my hours of sewing marathon I had planned, I just did a few minutes here and there and now I have a finished top. I still need to remove the paper and figure out how I want to quilt it.

I'm not too upset about my plans not working out. I now have 11 more pints and 7 more quarts of green beans in my pantry. I have 9 1/2 pints of apple butter. I made 2 apple pies. I spent lots of time at Crystal and Mike's cuddling with kiddos. I knitted on my new socks. I had a great weekend. I can sew Tuesday.

Granny Gone Wild Crochet Along

My friend LuAnn has posted about a new crochet along. I love the name they have chosen. Granny Gone Wild. Isn't that great! See my link on the side bar. And perfect timing for me!

I finished the striped throw I had been working on and am ready for a new granny project. A few days ago, I was watching Brothers and Sisters on Netflix--season 5, episode 4, 5 or 6-I don't remember. Anyhow right in the beginning they showed this afghan. I backed it up, paused it and ran for the camera. I have an app on my phone for my shopping lists and I hurried and put in the colors for this new project. I'll have to do some research on Ravelry to figure how much yarn I need to buy. The colors are a bit off in the photo, they are an emerald green, mint green and royal blue. Shouldn't be much trouble finding the perfect colors.

I am ready to go shopping! But I won't, not today. Did I not say right here that I was done canning! I was a bit wrong. Today I have my crockpot full of apples for apple butter. I am getting ready to make a couple pies and I have jars in the dishwasher for apple pie filling. Yes, I was wrong.

Afternoon update: I went back and read my post and saw that I was expecting the apples but not this: My darling husband just walked in the door with a 5 gallon bucket full of green beans.....good thing there are more jars and lids ready to go! I love that man! The house smells heavenly.....apple butter slow cooking in the crockpot, pies in the oven.

Hello Baby!

Welcome to the family Corbin.

October 4, 2011

6 lbs. 10 oz

19 1/2" tall

Pictured here with his Grampa, Sister Clella, Brother Leland.

Hiding from the camera is Brother Elliot.

Mom and Corbin are both doing wonderful.

Design Wall Monday

I have a lot on my wall today. On the right is the Sunset At Sea wall hanging that is patiently waiting to be quilted.

In the middle is my UFO table topper. The left side border is almost all paper pieced and ready to put up on the wall. Then I will do the 8 corner blocks. I'm still not sure about the inner border. I have a couple other pieces to put up and look at for a while.

Then on the left side of the wall on top is clue 1 to Carol Doak's Twisted Mystery. Below that is September's BOM for BOM-QA group and below that is the poor little block rejected block that has yet to be put in the orphan block bin.

The rain has set in here for a few days so I am planning an in the house away from the kitchen retreat. That is after I process that last canner of tomatoes that didn't get done yesterday. And after I check in at Judy L's and spend some time seeing what my friends in Blogland have on their walls.

I'm Done, And...

...I'm done in! I'm tired of green beans. I'm tired of tomatoes. Friday was a long tomato day. Saturday was a short green bean day. I picked the garden clean and snapped all the beans. I couldn't believe there were exactly the right amount of beans for a full canner. No jars were short and no beans were left over. Amazing! So 14 more pints done. And we are done doing beans this year.

Ernie brought home 45 pounds of Roma tomatoes yesterday. Today was spent canning 7 more quarts and 7 quarts of sauce. Both crock pots are full and will cook overnight. I should have 5 or 6 more quarts of sauce in the morning. The dehydrator is full and there are about 6 pounds of whole tomatoes in the freezer. As soon as the last sauce is sealed in jars Monday, I will be officially done!

Except for the apples that we will get next weekend...........I better wash more jars!