My adventures in quilting, my adventures at Hackberry Spring Ranch, and other tidbits of my life.
Author: Wild Rose Quilter
I’m a simple woman…at least that what my DH (Dear Husband) used to say about me…I was a wife, I am now a widow, mother, step-mother & step-grandmother, quilter, and have a full time job in criminal justice. I lost my DH on May 22nd, 2011. I live in a small town in Texas. I love piecing quilts, I love quilting quilts. I have a serious addiction to fabric. I’ve been quilting since 1998, and purchased my first longarm, a Gammill Premier, in 2004. I upgraded to an A-1 Elite, named Corky, in March, 2007. I am in the process of rebuilding my life after losing my spouse. All photos and content in this blog are my own, and I request that you not download, copy or otherwise use anything here without my permission. I hope you enjoy visiting my blog and would love to hear your comments. Thanks for stopping by!
Sunday afternoon sewing time was quite productive this week. I trimmed the Stip Mirage quilt for my great niece and made the label for her quilt. I made the label for my Barn Star Sampler, and I got the binding sewn to the front and have been working on hand stitching it to the back. Business wise, I had three quilts come in from a client in Colorado this month, and I also trim and bind for her. I have two of those ready to ship back, and have one left to bind. I am currently working on a custom job for client that is her entry in an upcoming show. My “sew-jo” is in full force right now. Really enjoying working on my projects.
My great-niece’s stip mirage during quilting.
I guess this isn’t so much a label for the back, but more of a name tag. I will sew one of my little tags I had made that has my business name and made by information into the binding, as well.
Weather here is psycho again. We were plunged into arctic temps this week, and currently it is -4 with a windchill of -17. But Sunday, we are supposed to be almost 70! Weather whiplash! I hope you are warm and having a great week. Thanks for stopping by.
Today’s sewing was all WIP related. I have chosen the Strip Mirage I started for my great-niece as my February UFO to work on, and hopefully FINISH in February. I had the top all done except for borders. I got them added today, made the backing and I have the binding strips cut. It’s all ready for the longarm.
After, I got that done, I pulled out some indigo fabric from my stash to make 380” of binding for my Barn Star Sampler. I used quite a bit of fabric from my stash for my Barn Star Sampler, but I did have to buy a few background fabrics, and some teals as I didn’t have enough in my stash. I had plenty of indigos in my stash as called for in the pattern, and used this one in some of the blocks and also had plenty for the binding. As I was cutting the binding strips, I saw the date in the selvedge. Oh my, it’s 20 years old! How can it be that 20 years have passed since I acquired this fabric?! I still love it and glad to be using it, finally. I also still have about 1.5 yards left.
I would love to finish both of these this month, but I plan to hand stitch the binding on the Barn Star Sampler, so I seriously doubt I will get it finished this month. We shall see….
Before washing.As close to a label as it’s getting. It says “handmade by Randi Ortega” on the backside of the tag. After washing.
I was aiming for a very old fashioned, vintage quilt look and I think I achieved that goal. It’s a cheery little quilt that makes me think of sunshine and blue skies. Pattern by Kairle Oakes, Virgin River Quilt Co. I purchased new fabric for the top, but was able to clear almost 4 yards from my stash for the backing.
One of the things that took up a lot of my time last year, along with the fact that I’m in the process of building a second house at the ranch, was that I agreed to make three large t-shirt quilts for a grieving family. It felt like a monumental task, and I had to get them all done by Christmas. Which I did! I’ll add that I do not enjoy making t-shirt quilts. It’s simply not my jam, but I was thankful to have the opportunity to make these as I dearly love the sweet family, and the loved one they lost. She was a beautiful, vibrant mother, grandmother, super active member of our community and was killed by the tornado that tore through our small town in 2023. I felt God gave me the gift of being able to do something for them, when I was at a loss to figure out what I could possibly do to comfort them. Anyway…once that was behind me, I felt free to return to my own projects and my sewjo mojo is back with a vengeance!
I hope to really tackle some older UFO’s, WIPS and squeeze in some new projects as well this year. I have actually made a list to track my progress. I was hoping to finish one UFO a month. Well, I picked one for January and I almost made it to the finish line before the month was over. It is on my longarm and I’ve almost completed the custom quilting on it, so I will get the binding done as soon as I complete that. My January pick was the quilt I started in 2023 that was supposed to be my entry for our quilt guild challenge, due at the October 2024 meeting, but didn’t finish in time since I took on the t-shirt quilts. (I won’t be sharing the t-shirt quilts out of respect for the family’s privacy.) The pattern for this one is called Douple Dip quilt and it’s a free pattern from Kairle Oaks, Virgin River Quilt Company, on Instagram. The guild challenge was to make a two color quilt. I purchased new fabrics for the top and binding, but I did get 4 yards out of my stash for the backing.
Completed TopQuilting in Progress
I’ll share again once completed. I have so many new projects I’m dying to work on, so as long as I’m working on a UFO or older WIP, I’m allowing myself some new projects time each month, as well. I don’t usually do the “word thing” for a new year, but this year I have decided that I must be a finisher and not just a starter 😂 so I guess my word to focus on this year is FINISH. I have way to many works in progress or unfinished projects that haven’t been actively worked on in years, and that must change.
So, the new project recap is that I started on my challenge quilt for this year’s guild challenge, which is to make a quilt that uses half square triangles. I had a quilt kit that I bought several years ago that fit the bill perfectly, so I pulled it out and got started, and I almost completed the whole top in January. It just needs the flange and border added to be ready for quilting. The pattern and fabric is Rural Jardin from French General. I love it so much!
Center Portion of Rural Jardin Quilt Top
I’ve also wanted to make a pineapple quilt forever, and this quilt kit was quite generous with the fabric and there’s a decent amount of scraps, so I pulled out a pack of pineapple paper piecing blocks from It’s Sew Emma that I purchased from The Fat Quarter Shop. This will be a long term project, unless I get quite a bit speedier as I go. It takes me almost an hour to do one block. I’ve had two Instagram quilting friends recommend the Creative Grids pineapple rulers for future projects. These are turning out so pretty!
I also made a little heart from Lella Boutique’s free valentine heart pattern to give to my step-grandson and his wife, in celebration of what would have been their sweet angel baby’s 1st birthday. She passed away in the womb at full term and was delivered straight into the arms of Jesus on January 23, 2024. When I saw Vanessa’s pattern, I thought how perfect to remember our sweet Ella June.
I have also started trying to learn crochet and some embroidery. This post is already quite long, so I’ll save that for its own post. I hope 2025 is treating you well! Thanks for stopping by!
I had intended to work my way up to this by posting a couple more posts showing the baby turkey vultures as they grew, and I will get back to that because I think they were just so interesting. But, I’m so excited about what is going on over there, that I’m just jumping right to it. This is one of the big reasons my attention to social media has been so slim recently. I’ve been a bit preoccupied with a certain red metal farmhouse. When I inherited my portion of my grandparents’ farm & ranch, I initially hoped to restore their old house, but really, the best path was to demolish and replace. Still far from finished, but dried in! Septic is done. I had the well drilled last year. Interior framing will start in about a month. I’m so excited to have a place to stay over and really enjoy the blessing my family left for me.
Sometimes simple custom quilting is the perfect touch to make a quilt shine. My client requested custom quilting, but wanted it simple, with just background stipple around the butterflies. I think it turned out very nicely! What do you think? Are you a fan of the simple stipple, no absolutely not? Personally, I think it has its place, for sure.
July 5th, we went to the ranch and I took one of my older quilts with me to take some #quiltsinthewild pics with it. I hung it on this section of fence by the old garage, and as I knelt down to straighten the bottom corner by that little cedar tree, while my head was right next to the tree, a loud hissing noise came from inside of it. I jumped back, not knowing what was making that sound so close to my face.
I walked around to the other side of the tree to investigate. At first, I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing, at first glance my brain thought melting snow, but it’s July, so obviously not that, lol.
And then, I noticed the feet.
Two fluffy baby turkey vultures! What a complete surprise to find those under that cedar. I was obsessed with them this summer. I was worried for them with so many predators around, but I’ll save you the worry and put a spoiler alert here. As far as I can tell, they made it to flight stage just fine. I have to run now, but there will be more to see on these two in upcoming posts! Have a fabulous Friday!
Gosh y’all…it’s been a minute! Summer was incredibly busy, and I just pretty much let my posting on all my media accounts slide. Thought I’d pop in quickly this morning as I try to get back on track. Keeping up with blogging, IG and FB does tend to be a big time sucker and I just needed a bit of a break while I focused on other aspects of life. I spent lots of time with my grandsons this summer, and lots to keep up with in my quilting work, plus I got started on a BIG project at the ranch that I’ve been dreaming about for the past 4 years. I’ll get to that in future posts, but the summer was great. All is well and I appreciate those that missed me and reached out to check! Thank you!
At the beginning of June, we had a lovely getaway with my son and his family to Red River, NM. We hiked to the top of one of the mountain trails, and we all made it, including the youngest grand, who is 7. It was a great day and precious memories made.
Hubby and me after making it to the top. What a beautiful view as a reward for our efforts. My son. He was still just a kid when I started this blog, and now he’s a 33 year old husband and father. Just starting out. It was just a spectacular day.
Thanks for taking time out of your day to stop by. I’ll be recapping more of the summer and catching up with my blog reading as I go. Now, I’m going to give the golden doodle another brushing before he goes to the groomer this morning.
It has been a very busy past few days. We had some bad weather threats on Wednesday, and ended up with several people sheltering with us in our basement during two separate tornado warnings that were issued. Thankfully, all turned out well here.
My husband went on his days off Thursday thru Sunday. Thursday, our two youngest grandsons had their school field day activities and we went to watch those. Friday, we went to the ranch to plant my vegetable garden. I plant my garden in the same spot my grandparents grew theirs. My cousin, Dee, tills it up for me with his tractor. Since I can’t be there to water every day, we set up a drip irrigation system with a solar powered timer on the water storage tank attached to the windmill. This was the windmill and storage system my grandad built for the water supply to their home and also the garden when he and my grandma bought the property in 1939 or 1940. The storage tank is made from an old railroad tank.
We got it all set up and while Efren was working on reinforcing the fence, I planted just shy of 4 rows of sweet corn, approximately 30 feet long. I planted one row of stringless green beans, and in two weeks will plant another beside it. He dug holes, and I planted 6 tomato plants, and 4 jalapeño plants. I planted a row of okra, and some acorn squash and sugar cube cantaloupe seeds. I have some cilantro seed to plant, but I decided to wait just a little longer to plant those, as it always seems to be ready for harvest before I have tomatoes and jalapeños.
The drip irrigation system looked to be working well before we left to head home. I plan to get back over to check on it sometime this week. It was just a beautiful day to be working outside. With recent rains, everything is greening up so nicely.
In this photo, I’m standing where I plan to have a small barndo built so we can go and stay for overnight visits, extended weekends, etc.
The wild plum bushes are bearing fruit.
By the time we were finishing up, thunderstorms were beginning to build.
We were exhausted, but it was that good kind of tired. What a great day.
Saturday morning, we had a funeral to attend, and Saturday evening we went to a graduation party. Yesterday, we took care of the yard work here at the house. Today, it’s back to quilt work, house work and the other normal routines. Have a wonderful week, y’all!
Whew! Just unloaded a huge client quilt from the longarm. 106” X 113” of snuggly flannel for a lucky little boy! Quilted with edge to edge digital design, Tire Tracks from Urban Elementz. This quilted up so nicely! I know my client will be pleased. She was so hard on herself about the quality of her work. This quilt is great! I’m telling her she needs to ease up on herself. Nothing is perfect, and it doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful, anyway! It was actually quite square and I had zero issues with it. Even being ginormous, lol. It was a joy to work on!
It pushed the limits of my leaders, for sure.
We missed the tornadoes Thursday, thankfully, but my heart breaks for those in Nebraska and Iowa that did not. Now, our neighbors in Oklahoma are under the threat today. Sure hope they are spared.
Ramblings From Randi, The Wild Rose Quilter 