Moving Along

The last time I shared the hand-pieced Hollow 9 patch project, I had sewn the blocks into four sections.  That was at the end of August!  This week I pulled those sections back out and stitched them together into a small flimsy - 24 inches square.

I found a backing piece in the box of goodies Nann sent me.  It's a pretty floral with tiny bouquets of pink and purple flowers.  It required a couple seams to bring it to the right size/shape for the backing, but that didn't take too long.

I've been in the mood for a hand-quilting project for awhile, so it was really enjoyable to get started on it on Thursday night.  It's such a treat to stitch along and look at each scrappy square!  I'm using white 12 wt. Perle cotton for the thread.

Stars, hearts, seagulls, clouds, even cats!

Sharing at all my favorite weekend parties:

SoScrappy

Quilting is More Fun than Housework and

Kathy's Quilts - because this will be my Slow Sunday stitching!

Melva Loves Scraps

 

I Like Thursday #409

I've been baking again this week!  After making all that applesauce over the weekend, I decided to see what I could make out of it, and found this recipe for Applesauce Cake.  It is yummy!   I substituted chocolate chips for the raisins - that works just fine.  Interestingly, there are no eggs in this cake.  Googling that, it turns out that applesauce can be a substitute for eggs! I'd never heard that before.

This is like a snack cake - no frosting - but very moist.

It's good with morning coffee!

My flower garden is pretty much done, but the sunflowers decided to put out a last hurrah!  I was just about to pull them out the other day when we were doing some yard clean-up, but realized there were buds on them.

Judy sent me a fun surprise package in the mail last week.  She made these neat little fabric baskets that start out flat, but snap together in the corners to make a little basket.  Pretty fall fabrics, too!  Thank you, Judy!

I read the best book this last week - The Music of Bees, by Eileen Garvin.  Same author as Crow Talk which I read back in August.  She is really good at creating a story with characters you care about and adding science into it.  This book is about a beekeeper, so lots of fascinating information about bees.

LeeAnna's question of the week is about hay rides - have we taken one? did we enjoy it?  And I'm not sure I have ever been on an actual hay ride.  I did ride in a parade in a wagon filled with hay bales for us to sit on.  It was a float in a local parade with our Cub Scout pack.  I actually found a picture from back then!  Being in a parade was kind of fun - different than watching from the sidelines, that's for sure.

Hope you're having a great week!  Joining in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.

Midweek Makers

Block 19 for Melva's Pieces of My Life QAL is called Rough Road.  Looking at the group of blocks that I've made so far, I decided I needed more red in this quilt, so that determined my fabric choices.  

Melva said in her post that the focus of this block and post is family and travel, which in our household went hand in hand as the kids were growing up!  We have two sons, both born in the 1980s.  Our oldest son loved maps when he was growing up (still does!) so he was always planning out places for us to go.  When my parents bought their winter home in Mesa, Arizona, in 1982, that became a frequent Spring Break destination for us.  Other road trip destinations included Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Disneyland, and the Pacific Northwest.

But the ultimate road trip for us was a trip to Washington, D.C., in 1993.  I talked about my dad passing away in 1992 in my last Pieces post.  He left us some money which we decided to use for two things - this trip to D.C. and to pay my tuition to go to graduate school.  We also had a fairly new Dodge mini-van which we knew would be perfect for taking a long road trip.

And we had a blast!  We planned out stops along the way that were about every half day.  We stopped in St. Louis and went up in the Gateway Arch, and put our toes in the Mississippi River.  We toured the Corvette factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and watched fireflies by the river in Charleston, W. Virginia.  (We don't have them out here in Colorado.  We stayed with friends in Manassasas, Virginia, and took the Metro rail into the city every day, and visited all the monuments and memorials and important buildings.

A very special stop was the Vietnam Veterans Wall, because Mike is a Vietnam veteran and his best friend in high school died there.  We were able to find out where Dennis' name is on the Wall and go to that section to see it.  It's a very moving experience.

We took a northern route home, stopping at the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and visiting friends in Michigan who took us for a boat ride on Lake Michigan, and stayed in downtown Chicago in a high rise hotel with a roof top pool!  

Of course, there were a few "rough roads" along the way!  Younger son got sick and we had to find an urgent care to help us out.  When driving into Chicago, we took a wrong turn and got into a part of town that we didn't really want to be in.  And on the way home our route got diverted from our plan because the Mississippi was flooding and we couldn't cross where we had originally planned.  But we eventually arrived back home, very tired of driving, but full of memories.  This map is in the front of the photograph album I made of the trip.

4,326 miles!

These days instead of traveling with our kids, we are more likely to travel to see them.  But they are going on road trips of their own - and so are we!  

Linking up with Melva for Block 19

and at Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.

Slow Sunday Stitching

This week I finished up the September heart for my Year of Hearts project, hosted by Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting.  It was a pleasure to stitch and I think it turned out so cute!  At the link ⬆️ to Melisa's post, you will find the new October heart and some bonus blocks, too, as well as the hearts from all the previous months.  

Remember the tiny apple I shared last week?  I had my tall son pick a basket full of them so that I could make some applesauce.

I cooked them down until they were soft and used my mom's (vintage now!) food mill to make the applesauce.

That basket of apples made quite a bit of applesauce, and it turned out yummy.  No sugar needed at all, just season to taste with some cinnamon.

I've stitched ten of the heart blocks now, a sweet group of blocks!

What will I stitch on today for my slow Sunday stitching?  It's time for the October section of the Kathy Schmitz Woven Wreaths project.  It's a jack o'lantern filled with oak leaves and blueberries - should be fun to work on!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Bits and Pieces

My September darks and October lights are finished for the patchwork heart project.  It has been really enjoyable to work with fall colors - browns, tans, golds, and whatever else fit in!

This group of blocks still needs one more heart and one more alternate block.  So I decided to make an additional four patch block in greens since there are two green hearts.  The four patches are made for it.  I used some very light greens for this one.

And then it was decision making time for the final heart.  And here's what I came up with -  a very random mixture of all the colors!  I'm seeing this as the center heart with all the other colors coming out from it.  It's not sewn together yet, but you can get the idea.  Those HSTs that look black are actually a dark green.

Hopefully in the next week, I can get these last two blocks sewn up and try some layout ideas for these blocks!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Sew and Tell Monday at Melva Loves Scraps 

I Like Thursday #408

I like October!  I like the Colorado landscape this time of year.

Saturday we went up to a mountain park west of us and took a picnic lunch.

Such a beautiful day!

I enjoy seeing flowers still blooming at our sculpture park.

I love pumpkins and especially baked things made out of pumpkin, and especially when I actually grew the pumpkin!  Yesterday, I roasted one of the little pie pumpkins that I grew in my garden this summer - 

And made some pumpkin bread out of it!  Yum!

I use a recipe that I got from Carole at From My Carolina Home.

It has orange zest in it - I love the fresh flavor it gives to the bread.

Carole, thinking of you and your husband and neighbors 

as you deal with the destruction of Hurricane Helene.  🩷

LeeAnna's question of the week is about corn mazes- do we like them, have we done one?  And I have to admit that I have not ever been in a corn maze.  I've always been a little afraid that I would never find my way out, lol!  We did love hiking around in the redwood forests in California on our trip last month, and they feel a bit like mazes!

We did eventually find our way out, although there were a few moments when we weren't quite sure where we were!

Joining in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.

 

Midweek Update

Back in July, I posted that I decided to make Bonnie Hunter's County Clare blocks as leaders and enders this second half of the year, and I've continued to work on them.  They're really cute blocks, but have lots of little parts!  Consequently,  I am making them very slowly.

They do work well as leaders and enders, though, so I make a few parts of a block whenever I have some scraps that will work.

I'm up to nine of these little blocks now.  😜  

Linking up with Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.