Animal Baby Quilt

 

A couple of weeks ago my friend and I went to Apron Quilt Strings Quilt Shop in Maysville, KY.  The day was pretty, the quilt shop had many lovely fabrics, and we rode the Augusta ferry across the Ohio River after the shopping.

One of the fun things about Apron Strings is that the have a sale room, called The Vault, open just on Fridays and Saturdays.  And in The Vault were some panels perfect, if you bought two, for a baby quilt.  So I bought two.

As these things go, I quickly had a request for a baby quilt.  A little sewing, a little free motion and the quilt came together.  The backing has little paw prints, actually little kitten prints, but all the animals have paws.

The stripe on the binding was part of the panels, and you know how I like a pieced binding.

Pink Flowers

 

I've loved the bright pink flowers on my back porch this summer.  The pink colors are almost shocking.  Petunias and impaients.

I'm been lazy with gardening this summer.  Including with these flowers.  

I brought them home from the big box store and arranged them on top of the soil in the big planter - and never planted them.  And yet, somehow, they thrived, root bound in their little pots except for a few roots that escaped and found the soil.

Maybe I'll do the same next year.

Last year's morning glories came back this spring, but never took off.  A few vines trellised up the upright railings, a few purple flowers ame out, and then nothing. 

School Kit Bags

 

We've talked about comforters distributed by Mennonite Central Committee, but there are also school kits.  Last year almost 90,000 were sent to disaster areas overseas.

My church usually picks up already-sewn bags from a distribution center and fills them from a list of supplies.  This year people were especially generous and we had more supplies than bags.

It was my first time sewing a few bags.  I followed the directions for some, then used the serger to speed things up.  It was sort of like serging pillowcases.

It brought back memories of making Girl Scout kit bags and threading the drawstrings.  Back then, I just couldn't figure out how to make my drawstrings draw - I think my mother ended up doing it for me.  All those years later, I can do it.

Dill Bread

 A claasic cookbook for many Mennonite families is More With Less, first printed fifty years ago.

One of the events marking the 50 year celebration is Cook Through More-With-Less.  Participants signed up to receive a recipe assignment, make the recipe, and send back a photo.

My assignment was Dill Bread, which I'd never made, despite making the oatmeal bread recipe over and over again.

The deadline for sending photos is today, so of course I was making mine last night.  It's a savory bread, really good.  It took a long time to rise, probably because I added the cottage cheese cold out of the refrigerator.  Next time I'll warm it up.

Table Topper This Week

Last week's sewing project was an alteration, a pair of my grandson's wool suit pnts becuse he's taller than when he bought the suit, and he also needed a couple of inches at the waist.

We thought he could just buy a new pair of suit pants, but the color had been discontinued.  it's a very, very dark navy.  I'm grateful that th jacket still fit and now the pants do too.

I wanted to start out this week with a mindless project before going back to comforter binding - four mor to go, my goal for this week is two.

I had four blocks left over from the Moda Blockheads project, so it was easy enough to sew them together for a table topper, then quilt and bind.

I'd never tried out the laser feature of my sewing machine - it projects a thin red line to guide the sewing.  This quilting probablly wasn't the best project for using it, but it was fun to try it out.  I'll come back to it  again.

Enough?

It's almost August - and maybe this is enough flower shopping..

Maybe.

When I lived in Michigan, a frost could come any time after Labor Day.

But this is Kentucky, and I'm looking forward to a nice long fall.

Once, many years ago, my husband was mowing the yard in Kentucky when his sister called from Michigan.  They were shoveling snow there.  And my husband, in typical youngest child fashion, took great delight in this.

Future Monarch

 

This year there are three milkweed plants in my garden, but so far just one monarch caterpillar.  I keep looking hopefully for more, but so far there is only one.

Lots of seed pods, one faithful bee, but just one caterpillar.  Maybe there's still time. Maybe I'll have to be happy with just one.

Every morning, I look.