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.

Slow stitching this week...

My big basket of tiny samplers is filling up!

I added the Little Red Schoolhouse Mini Sampler to the collection this week.  Thank you, Melisa, for offering so many fun freebies to keep me stitching!

I realized that before I start anymore cross-stitch projects, I need to work on the September heart for my Year of Hearts collection.  So I got it prepped and traced, and I've stitched the outer borders.

I need to color in some sections on this one, too.

Melisa has the apples in different colors on hers - 

green, yellow, and red - so cute!

Meanwhile our apple tree is covered in tiny apples, the size of a golf ball at the most.  I haven't even tried to do anything with them.  I think it would take about a thousand to get enough to feed anyone!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

 

Table Scraps for September

Over the last few years, I have had the best time using up scraps to make a rainbow of quilted placemats, both to give away and to use on our table.   This is just a fraction of them for the photo, but you can tell they are used, washed, and used again!

One color combination that I've never made into a placemats is browns - or the Fall colors as I like to think of them - dark and light browns, golds, and sandy tones.  Since I had those out this month to make some patchwork hearts, it was the perfect timing to make a new placemat, too.

I started with strips and rectangles, and pieced them in columns.

Zooming in - there are leaves in some of these prints, too.  (That's our extra challenge for the month, from Joy)!

Next I connected the columns with some strips of a gold print that has been in my stash for a long time.  It started as a wide backing that I used for a quilt I made several years ago, and now the leftovers are in the scrap bin, waiting to be used up!

Some simple quilting of a curvy grid, plus backing, and binding, and it's ready to use!

The backing comes from a piece of fabric Nann included in her goody box 

that she sent to me last month.  Perfect for the "brown" theme!

So now there is a placemat to get out for Fall.  Maybe I need to make a few more?!

Linking up at all my favorite scrappy places:

Joyful Quilter

Alycia Quilts

SoScrappy

Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Melva Loves Scraps

I Like Thursday #407

Autumn seems to have arrived in our neck of the woods!  The leaves are already turning. (Although I have to say, afternoon highs of upper 80s are not very fall-like, but I am enjoying the cool mornings!)

LeeAnna asks - what is our favorite fall scent?  Mine is the scent you get while crunching through a pile of fallen leaves - kind of spicy, earthy - do you know what I mean?  I have had a couple of pumpkin spice lattes over the years and, of course, delicious spiced cider, but my favorite pumpkin or apple scent is the baking kind - pumpkin bread, apple pie, lots of cinnamon!  Yum! 

Or how about a peach pie?  My thoughtful sister brought one over to me yesterday afternoon - right out of the oven!  Definitely yummy!

I've been enjoying this book this week, recommended by Nann at With Strings Attached.  It's so enjoyable to read all kinds of interesting things about our national parks, from history to animals to architecture.  And if you hunt a little bit on YouTube, you can find the author's clips from the CBS Sunday Morning TV show where he shares his year of visiting all the national parks.

Thanks for the recommendation,

Nann!

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

Midweek Update

I've had a visit from the lovely Covid this week, everyone's least favorite company.  There's been plenty of laying around wrapped in a quilt, snoozing in front of the TV or reading, and not too much sewing.  But yesterday I just had to get up and do something - I was going a little stir crazy!  

Fortunately, the next blocks for Melva's Pieces of My Life QAL were simple and quick, and I was able to sew them up without any problem.  I started with the Spool block.

Making this block has us thinking about who taught us to sew, and of course, for me, that was my mom.  She was a very accomplished seamstress and could sew everything from curtains to wedding dresses to men's suits and all of our clothes (4 kids)!  I was a reluctant learner, and never really liked sewing back then - everything was about sewing clothing and I just never found that to be enjoyable.  I always had a hard time picking the right pattern/fabric combination.  Mom said to me more than once that she was surprised I ever got into quilting!  

Of course, though - those skills learned back then were the foundation for the sewing I do now, and I am immensely grateful.    

 

Block number two is a twelve inch Monkey Wrench block.  I chose to make this one with only two fabrics - the background and one color.  All the rest of my twelve inch blocks have some of the floral focus fabric in them, but that just didn't seem right for this one.  And it turns out that I like its simplicity.

For this block, the question is - what is the hardest thing you've ever done?  And I think, as a young adult, that was losing my dad.  He died in 1992, and I still miss him.  Hard to believe he has been gone 32 years now.  It was very sudden and unexpected, which is a big part of what made it so hard.  At the time, my parents lived just a few blocks from us, and one afternoon we started hearing a bunch of sirens.  Then the phone rang and one of their neighbors was calling - "Diann, you need to get over here," and from that moment everything changed.  

This photo was taken in 1985.  Dad got to know his three oldest grand kids up to the ages of 11, 8, and 2.  I have always imagined that he would love knowing them as adults.

Now that all of the blocks are made for the third quarter of the quilt, I'll be able to start sewing them together!

Sharing at Melva Loves Scraps and at

Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.

 

Slow Sunday Stitching

I'm still working on the the Little Red Schoolhouse Mini Sampler from Melisa at PinkernPunkin, but it won't be too much longer before it's all stitched.  Just some of the alphabet left to do.

It's time to stitch something for fall - maybe I'll start this Prairie Schooler pumpkin, from one of the charts that Nann sent me.  It looks like a fun one!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

A little bit more for September

I just love the landscape of the wine country of northern California!  There's quite a contrast between the miles and miles of green vineyards and the dry, grassy hills.  It fascinates me!

After arriving home from our trip, I had enough time to make one more patchwork heart, all in light browns this time.   The above photo kind of inspired the colors of this one!

All laid out:

And sewn together:

Four patches for the alternate block made good leaders and enders.  Just one more needed and the plain squares before I can sew this one together.

After that, two more blocks will be needed for this quilt top, and I've finally got an idea for the final patchwork heart!   More on that coming up.  Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

And at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!