I went to the ranch to check on Cookie, my very pregnant cow, due any time to have her first calf. She was happily grazing with the rest of the herd, which belongs to my cousin. While there, I got some pics of this finished Strip Mirage quilt I made for my great-nephew. The pattern is free from Sew Yeah Quilting. You can find a video tutorial on YouTube, along with a link to the printable pattern. It’s a fast, fun jelly roll pattern. I chose to buy some coordinating Bella solid fabric and add some size by adding borders. The jelly roll is Stomp Stomp Roar from Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda.
Well, after being down with a bad headache all day yesterday, I felt much better today and made up for lost time. I even had to keep my two youngest grandsons from 3:45 yesterday afternoon until their parents and older brother got home from his track meet last night. I’m usually a pretty fun grandma, playing games, going for walks and pretty much whatever they want, but my husband had to take up the slack for me last night. I hated that I couldn’t play.
Back to today, I stayed on track with starting my day with household chores. Then onto my longarm business time. I started loading my next client quilt while waiting for a drop off and consult with a client. Then I got to stitching. Such a cute mermaid quilt for a little girl’s birthday. I’ll show a little peek of my progress.
I worked on it til time for dinner, stopping for a quick lunch and to swap out and fold some laundry. After dinner, which was a delicious Home Chef meal, I worked on my Barn Star Sampler a a teeny bit and then sewed two more rows of a special t-shirt quilt I’m making for a family.
I ordered a set of Bloc Loc rulers to trim half square triangles, and they have already shipped, but I may have to trim this whole stack before they get here. I only trimmed 8 of the 64 today, and made these little units. I have the next 8 units lines up and ready to trim and sew.
And, that’s about a wrap on today. I’m going to mix up my sourdough before I go to bed so it can rise overnight. I hope that works out. I’m basing it on how long the first batch took to rise. We shall see!
The first project I worked on today was the machine sewn binding on the quilt I’m making for my great-nephew. Then I pulled out a WIP I started last February. I joined Shelley Cavanna’s Barn Star Sampler quilt along, and should have been assembling my quilt top this month, but I fell behind in December. Today, I cut out all the pieces for my next block. Just as I finished cutting the pieces, we had an unexpected thunderstorm that brought hail, and a tornado that caused some damage on the south side of town. Not fun considering my town was hit by a bad tornado last June, killing three people, injuring many more and leaving many homeless. Businesses were also lost. Anyway, we are fine. And, now it’s supposed to snow tomorrow!
Is anyone else reading doing the Barn Star Sampler?
After everything calmed down, I finished the hand stitched binding on my friend’s commissioned quilt.
Memorial quilt and nephew’s quilt
Thankful not to have lost anyone or our home today in this tornado. Counting my blessing as I go to sleep.
I had this adorable, cheerful client quilt under my needle to brighten the cloudy, cold, wet day we had.
We were supposed to get 4″ or more of snow overnight and into the afternoon, but we ended up with only a dusting.
I spent the rest of my quilting time today working on more star blocks for the commissioned quilt I’m making. I’m keeping my little grandsons the rest of the week. I didn’t have them today, however I did have lunch with them, my son and hubby. So, I had some “son-shine” in my day, as well. 😍
Today was just a good day. I had my two youngest grandsons and they were a blast today. A client dropped off a quilt for me to longarm quilt for her. And, I got a nice squishy in the mail from Missouri Star Quilt Company. In addition to the two lovely quilt backs I bought, they threw in two extra goodies for free! A sweet little pattern and cute pin set. Gotta love that! Thank you, MSQC!
Yesterday I didn’t have my littles and got quite a bit more work done on the commissioned memorial quilt I’m making for a recently widowed client. I laid a few blocks out on the floor to see how they look mixed together.
There will be 49 blocks altogether. These blocks are made from several of his shirts and even some swimming trunks he wore on their vacation trips to Mexico. I hope it brings her much comfort when it’s finished. I purchased the pattern several years ago from Quiltin’ Tia Quiltworks called Gracie’s Star. I’ve really enjoyed this pattern. This is one of my own quilts and the first one I made using this pattern. I love this quilt. ❤️
And, this is a cute cowboy themed baby quilt I made with it.
Have good night and a fantastic Friday tomorrow! Thanks for visiting me.
It was a busy day taking care of grandsons. I feel so blessed to have been able to take my retirement at my earliest eligibility from my job in criminal justice, and be able to be so involved in their lives while they are still so young. I never got to be a stay at home mom with my son when he was growing up. Being able to step away from outside employment has also finally given me the freedom to pursue my career as a longarm quilter, a job I love and am passionate about it. Finally. I also do all the administrative duties for my husband’s and my small oilfield service company, so I’m retired, but not retired, if that makes sense. Anyway, I mostly popped in here tonight to finish posting pictures from my hike at the family farm yesterday. I’m certainly not a real photographer. I’m fully aware of that, but I enjoy looking for things that catch my eye and taking pictures anyway. Maybe someday I’ll be able to take a class and learn how to take better photos. For now, I’ll just keep having fun with it. I do have a fairly nice digital camera, but these were all taken with my iPhone.
Today, I thought I’d share some pictures I took while my mister and I were doing a little hiking on some family farm & ranch land I share with my brother and my cousin Dee. It belonged to our grandparents on Mom’s side. Someday soon I’ll try to write a longer post about it, but for tonight it’s a quick post with some of my favorite shots from our day. We went to move some game cameras and change batteries in them, but I can never resist exploring when I’m there. ❤️
That sky, though.
Deer scrape on this little scraggly cedar.
This tree hanging on to the inside edge of a pretty deep ravine by its roots.
View from above.
There wasn’t enough time today to follow this little trail down into the ravine, but I’m looking forward to the first opportunity to follow it down.
I have more to share, but it’s getting late and I’m tired. If you enjoyed these, be checking back for part 2. I’ll try to get the rest posted soon! Thanks for stopping by!
Noon-time has brought sunshine breaking through and the ice is releasing its hold on the captives it has encased in its frosty, glistening coating. Some is simply dripping away, and from time to time I hear large chunks crash onto the patio out back. It’s pretty to look at, but treacherous for travel so I’m glad it isn’t sticking around long.
As this day has wound down to a close, I’m sitting by the bedroom fireplace listening to little sleet balls ping against the windows. It’s supposed to do that all night. I’m glad I don’t have anywhere I have to go in the morning.
I did pretty good at getting most of my to do list tackled today. I did my paperwork that needed tended. I focused on cutting out more pieces for the commissioned quilt instead of sewing. The cutting seems to be moving rather slowly as I’m not using fat quarters I can stack and cut multiple block sets from at once. Using clothing makes that part quite a bit more tedious. At least it does for me. Some of the fabrics are a bit fussy to work with, also. I’m anxious to see how it comes together. It has such a varied array of patterns, colors and fabrics, but each item has special meaning to my client.
I did make my first chicken fried venison steaks with some back strap meat from the doe my husband harvested. This was a first for us both as it was his first deer. I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out quite tasty.
I used my Pampered Chef meat tenderizer on it before soaking in it milk for about 4 hours before frying. It was also my first time using it as it’s a recent purchase. I was very pleased with it. It made quick work of getting the steaks prepped. I had them all done and soaking in less than 15 minutes. I have no affiliation with Pampered Chef, but I do have and use several of their products.
I always lose some of the crispy coating when I cook chicken fried steaks and I don’t know why. If you have any tips for keeping it stuck, I’d love to hear them.
Ramblings From Randi, The Wild Rose Quilter 