Another quilt to sandwich, another day for James to "help"...trying to get wrinkles out of the fabric is pretty useless with her help.  Oh well, at least if/when there is a wrinkle in the finished project, it's all her fault, right???

 

Decorating for Fall becomes decorating for Halloween when Jessie adds herself to the display....nothing like a black cat for a Halloween decoration!

 

Cindy M and I went to a quilt show (Shasta Quilt Sew-Society) at the fairgrounds last weekend, and there were so many beautiful quilts!  I only took one picture though - just for AJ. He is a big fan of quail, and this quilt was beautiful!!

 

I checked for eggs the other day, and if I hadn't counted the chickens before I did, I would have worried that I'd lost one - there are chicken feathers everywhere!  Silver molted earlier this summer, and think the other three are all molting now.  That explains why I'm not getting very many eggs lately too.  (The eggs shown here are fake eggs, kept in the nesting boxes to discourage the chickens from pecking the real eggs.)

 

After ripping out looong seams on my quilt Sunday, I was done with my quilts for a bit and decided to try a new project.  When I was in Susanville for my high school reunion, Jeff had asked if I could make a quilted soup bowl cozy - they had bought a couple and he "just knew" his sister could make them.  Challenge accepted!  Why, yes, I can make them!  My first one turned out pretty darn well - I have a whole lot of scrap fabric to make more as well, so this may be my winter project.

 

Done!  (at least the quilt top...)  I got this finished on Sunday, and it took me 10 times longer than it should have.  I managed to sew the borders on upside down on the bottom of the quilt and on one of the sides of the quilt.  Ripping out seams takes soooo much longer than sewing them!  I didn't even notice when I was doing the final pressing - it was when I put it up on the design board to admire my work....and had chickens running in circles.  Not the look I was going for.

 

My latest chicken quilt is moving right along!  I got the blocks pieced together Saturday.

And got the border cut out - not sewn on yet, so this just shows the placement.

This is the backing fabric.  These chickens are just too cute!

I finished up the baby bear hats, and made gift bags - these will go with me, and two quilts, to Roseburg next month - hopefully before K. has her baby (due at the end of October....)

I'll keep working on baby things between now and then, and maybe have a couple more items to add to the bags....

The cacti near the field where we walk the dogs have huge fruit on them!  These were planted fairly recently and this is the first time I've seen them with fruit. 

We got rain in yesterday, right about the time I got off work and took the dogs for a walk....of course!  When I got back, I noticed that the hummers had drained the feeder - I filled it on Saturday!  I refilled it for them, and then noticed just how many hummers I had.  There were even more that I couldn't capture in either the pictures or the video - they were everywhere!  I think they are migrating, coming back into the valley for the winter.

 

The chicken quilt is getting closer!  I got all the quilt blocks done...

And borders around the chicken panels, sashings and corner stone cut.

I ordered some fabric yesterday to make a border (from the same fabric collection/designer) so the quilt will be a bit bigger when finished. Right now, it would be around 44" by 58", adding a border will make it around 56" by 70". I hope to get this part of the top completed before it come in, but no promises.

Yesterday was a productive day in the kitchen, as well as around the house.  AJ and I made a dump run (he did all the loading of "junk" while I fed Alli lunch - a big win for me!) and when we got back, he helped me make kimchi and homemade pasta/raviolis.  I love the homemade raviolis, but the prep work is sooo much longer than the enjoyment part....a couple of hours to make them, and just a few minutes to eat them, but they are so good!  The prep work for the kimchi is about the same, but the results last a lot longer - hopefully all winter.    

It worked out well to do them together.  I started the ravioli filling first so it could cool, then made the pasta so it could rest. Once those were prepped, we started the kimchi process.  We salted the cabbage and started the kimchi paste, again so it could cool. The cabbage needs to rest for 90 minutes after salting, and that's just about how long it took up to get the ravioli rolled out and made - good timing. Once we were done with the raviolis we could make the kimchi.  And then clean up the kitchen - what a mess!!!

The "chicken quilt" is coming together. My plan - loosely - is to use 6 of the chicken panels and surround them with quilt blocks.  I have half of the quilt blocks done so far.

Again, unhelpful help when quilting....any non-straight fabric cuts I make are her fault!

 

I did get the "Mystery Quilt" finished while I was on vacation.  It took forever to quilt it - I timed my quilting (yes, I'm still slow) and it took almost 30 minutes to quilt one row across - about 6 inches wide.  AJ is holding it up for me - he's 6' 6", and couldn't hold it off the ground by the corners.

 

I need new helpers....these are NOT helping!  James was stealing the tape I was using to hold the fabric stable on the floor, and Jessie just decided she needed a nap....

 

A couple more pictures from my walk with Ripley.  She enjoyed the McCloud River:

Lots of sniffs on the trails:

And she spotted a squirrel....

And the Summer Block Party quilt is done, including a label.  As usual, I had help....

I like this quilt - it is a "happy" quilt, but....it is very yellow/green.  It will need someone special to take it home, I think.

I treated myself to a hike (really, just a walk...) on my birthday.  Ripley and I went to Lower and Middle McCloud Falls in the morning. As we approached Lower Falls, there was a group of school kids gathered at the viewing area, getting ready to start the hike to Middle Falls, so Rip and I started out a head of them.  The photos of Middle Falls came first - while it was still cool.  By the time I got back to Lower Falls, the hair was up in a pony tail!

 It was a beautiful morning!

And just like that, I broke it....I was so excited to "play" with my new BBQ that I forgot to pay attention to a few things...One being that not all the burners were turned off!  I don't usually use the side burner and didn't even think about checking it when I seasoned the griddle.  The burner was on, the lid was down, and....it overheated and melted part of the plastic.  Bummer.  I now have a permanent reminder to pay attention.

I did use the griddle last night for dinner though. It really did keep the heat down in the kitchen, so I'm a fan!  (We were 106 degrees here yesterday.....)

The birthday present I ordered for myself was delivered today!  I have it set up and ready to go and have seasoned the griddle. It will also use charcoal so it’s a three in one, a propane grill, a griddle, and charcoal grill.

The only downside was all those stickers on front were a bear to get off. Some came off quite nicely, but two of them required a lot of time.

I started some cat grass for the kittens, and noticed as it started to sprout that there were drops of water on the tips of the grass - too cool!!

 

I'm caught up on the Society Sparkler BOM (Block of the Month) quilt blocks - just in time to get another one next week.  Six blocks left to make - 3 months left in the project.  I might have this one done by Christmas???  I took a peek at the blocks remaining, and they are becoming more complex now. I'm not a fan of this block, but that's my own skill level.  It's a pretty block.

Since my vacation plans got cancelled, instead of driving to Sac to pick up Margene and Jordan, I spent my afternoon quilting.  

I did have an issue with quilting the Summer Block Party quilt though - two kittens snuggled in for a nap when I took a break.