To Do Tuesday 11-1-22

Hello and welcome to To Do Tuesday on this first day of November! Here is where you can share your accomplishments for the past week and your playlists for the coming week, and as Peggy from Quilts and Adventures put it so well, "helps us be accountable and to see cool projects". Everything you need to know about participating in To Do Tuesday can be found by clicking on the couple above.

Brenda at Songbird Designs has started a new linky party called Monday Musings. Isn't that the cutest logo ever! You can find more information about that right here.

Gail at Quilting Gail has started a Fall 2022 Scrappy Mystery Quilt-Along! You can find information about it right here.

Here is a happy mail book that arrived last week - County Seat Quilts by Julie Hendricksen and Vickie Gerike. I was inspired by Cheree at The Morning Latte, who made a few quilts from this book and they are just gorgeous! You can find a few of them on her blog right here.

My friend Pattie, who posts delicious recipes and beautiful tablescapes

at Olla Podrida, sent me a link to this pattern. Isn't it darling!

Speaking of Pattie, I made her recipe for Italian Sausage Soup yesterday and froze it for those cold winter days when I crave soup. It is made with hearty chunks of carrots and zucchini along with mushroom, spinach, and white beans, and it is delicious! You can find her recipe right here.

RBD quilt blocks on point

My goals for this past week:

✅1. Work on RBD quilt - I decided to put the blocks on point and got a few done before I ran out of fabric, which was ordered from Missouri Star Quilt Co on 10/24 but hasn't shipped yet.😕

❌2. Crochet hat - I only got a few stitches done, so no real progress.

✔3. Wall hanging and Christmas quilt - I got pieces cut for the wall hanging but nothing done on the Christmas quilt

✅4. See Jenni and The Littles when we go to Laney's soccer game on Saturday - Laney's game was canceled (rain) and since she and Everett were with their Dad this weekend, we visited and grocery shopped with just our daughter and had a wonderful time!

✔5. Do some cross stitching in the evening - Catching up on Joy's Autumn SAL 

I still need to finish the binding on The Wedding Quilt! Watch for a post about it later this week.

My playlist for the coming week:

1. Bind The Wedding Quilt and post about it.

2. Continue work on the RBD quilt if fabric arrives.

3. Work on Quilting Gail's Mystery QAL

4. Work on wall hanging and Christmas quilt

5. Keep working on needlework in the evenings

You are invited to share with us and add your post to the linky below. We are not picky about your content, we just like to see what you have (or have not) been up to this past week! Please be sure to visit other blogs and give each other a pat on the back or a word of encouragement. And if you see a link from Marsha's Spot and have trouble accessing her blog, just copy this URL and paste it into your browser: https://marshasspot.com/

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🎃To Do Tuesday 10-25-22 🎃

Welcome to the Halloween edition of To Do Tuesday! Please share your spook-tacular posts with us as we too quickly creep toward November. If you need more information about this weekly event please click on the mysterious couple above.

Finished up the coin purses!

Last week my goals were:

✅1. Keep quilting on The Wedding Quilt - DONE! Finished the quilting, just need the binding.

✅2. Try to get some plans going for the RBD quilt - I have a plan and have ordered fabric for finishing!

✅3. Coin purses and hat - Finished the coin purses (see above); some progress on the hat

❌4. Wall hanging and Christmas quilt - get pieces cut - Did not do - my fabric pulls are waiting patiently

✔5. Sunday - celebrate our daughter's 47th birthday and our 53rd wedding anniversary! - Jenni had a deadline for her job (she got a job that she can do at home!), so we postponed our get-together. But we did "celebrate" our 53rd with a quiet day and steaks on the Blackstone.

Joy of Days Filled With Joy has started a Mystery Autumn Stitchalong - you can get the first part of it right here and the next part will be posted on her blog on Friday.

RBD quilt blocks and backing

The playlist for the coming week:

1. Work on RBD quilt

2. Crochet hat

3. Wall hanging and Christmas quilt

4. See Jenni and The Littles when we go to Laney's soccer game on Saturday

5. Do some cross stitching in the evening

We would love to see the hair-raising and ghostly happenings in your world! Just click on the Inlinkz linky below to add your post to those of the 25+ bloggers who participate each week. If you see a post from Marsha's Spot and have trouble accessing her blog, just copy this URL and paste it into your browser: https://marshasspot.com/

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To Do Tuesday 10-18-22

It's time for To Do Tuesday on this third week of October. We welcome your posts about books you've read, quilts made, crochet, recipes made, tablescapes, photography, art, journaling, scrapbooking, thrifting, collecting, travel - we love it all! If you are wanting to participate but don't know how, just click on the busy couple above for more information.

I've been quilting The Wedding Quilt using the quilt-from-the-back kit for Longmire. It's time consuming because I'm still getting used to where to position the panto, how to continue the pattern, and where to position the quilt. It isn't perfect, but I'm very happy with how it's going!

Here were my goals for last week:

✔1. Get finished with The Wedding Quilt - Not finished but good progress

❌2. RBD quilt - Nope!

✔3. Coin purses and crochet hat - Some progress on both

✔4. Autumn wall hanging - maybe from this Wind Drifter pattern featured on Wendy's post - she made a gorgeous version! - Nothing done except a fabric pull, but not for this particular pattern.

I'm so excited for my favorite time of year - fall and holiday fabrics!

Eeeek, my favorite time before the holidays is flying by! I have sooooo many projects I want to do for fall, have started on too many and gotten nothing finished. I got distracted (big shocker) by fabric pulls for an autumn wall hanging and a Christmas quilt. Life (in a good way) was also a distraction, but I hope to get myself together for the coming week:

1. Keep quilting on The Wedding Quilt

2. Try to get some plans going for the RBD quilt

3. Coin purses and hat

4. Wall hanging and Christmas quilt - get pieces cut

5. Sunday - celebrate our daughter's 47th birthday and our 53rd wedding anniversary!

I just read on Instagram that Carol from Just Let Me Quilt is hosting the very fun virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange on December 5-8! Just click right here for more information.

And now please click on the Inlinkz link below to add your post. If you are having trouble accessing Marsha's Spot, just copy this URL and paste it into your browser:

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To Do Tuesday 10-11-22

Welcome to To Do Tuesday on this second week of October. You are invited to share with us by clicking on the link below to add your post to the 25+ bloggers who link up each week - we would love to see whatis going on in your world! You may not feel you have anything to post about, but your creativity is in everything you do, and you never know what is going to inspire another person. If you need more information, just click on the couple above.

How is your month going? Are you already feeling the pull of Christmas like I am? Apparently Lowe's is feeling it too!

Here were my goals for last week:

✅1. Start on quilting The Wedding Quilt - Started! Taking it slow on this one..

❌2. Decide on sashing and start putting RBD quilt together - Nope, but I did get it out of the closet!

✅3. Work on coin purses - I finished cutting out fabric for 3 purses

❌4. Work on autumn wall hanging - Nada

❌5. Work on crochet hat - It was sitting next to me every night before I became transfixed with whatever series we were watching - lol!

❌6. Have our daughter and The Littles up for visit on Saturday! This was postponed for another couple weeks. 😞

Copper pipe insulation wrap

Last week Jocelyn described in her post the less-than-pleasant process of sandwiching a quilt on the floor. I used to have the same issues described by Jocelyn, so I started doing mine on my design wall. Unfortunately I have to climb on a ladder to reach all parts of my quilts, so that is an issue for me as I get older and am told by my husband and children "Don't climb on ladders!" Have you heard of the quilt sandwiching method using pool noodles as rollers, such as in this video? And this video shows how to use copper pipe insulation for the same purpose. The premise is to roll each part of the sandwich onto the "rollers", smoothing as you go, and then unroll them all together, either pinning or spray-basting as you unroll and smooth. I bought three pieces of insulation wrap to give it a try and will report on my findings!

Brandon, Raegan, and us (my hair is hiding in a ponytail!)

We got to meet the oldest grandson's lovely girlfriend over lunch at a place called Son Of A Butcher on Lower Greenville in Dallas on Sunday. Raegan is in law school at University of Oklahoma and was in town for the OU-Texas game. The menu was all sliders, and we ate outside in near perfect weather.

My playlist for the coming week:

1. Get finished with The Wedding Quilt

2. RBD quilt

3. Coin purses and crochet hat

4. Autumn wall hanging - maybe from this Wind Drifter pattern featured on Wendy's post - she made a gorgeous version!

That's it for me, now let's see what you have coming up! Just click on the link below, add your post, and go visit your friends and give them a pat on the back or a word of encouragement. If Marsha adds her post, I suggest you copy this URL and paste it into your browser to more easily access her blog:  https://marshasspot.com/

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To Do Tuesday 10-4-22

Welcome to the Fall edition of To Do Tuesday! This is the day we show off our project status from last week and share out playlists for the coming week. All of your activities are welcome - sewing, gardening, photography, tablescapes, reading, travel - we want you to join in! Just click on the Inlinkz widget box below to add your posts.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Starting today

To Do Tuesday will open on Mondays at 9:00pm

Closing time remains the same - Mondays at 11:59pm

Indian Corn Finish!

Last week my goals were:

✅1. Sew binding on RSS quilt and take to with us on Friday while we babysit our grandson so our daughter can go to the dentist. Our granddaughter will be in school, so our daughter will send us a photo of her with her new quilt. Finished the quilt and posted here but not yet delivered - Jenni postponed her dentist visit due to insurance issues, but they will visit over the weekend!

✔2. Get The Wedding Quilt sandwiched and ready for quilting! Halfway done and almost ready to load on Longmire.

✅3. Finish crochet hat and start on my next crochet project - maybe another hat or maybe a scarf. - Done, but I messed up and made it too tall, so it looks like a gnome hat.😆It will become a "work in the yard during winter" hat.

✅4. Look at my next two quilting projects: One is a quilt I started last September - Indian Corn - and the other project is the RBD (Riley Blake Designs) blocks, which I need to sew together with sashing - I looked at both projects and went ahead and finished Indian Corn - posted here!

These brownies are dense with the crackle top I love

My husband expressed a craving for brownies so I tried a new recipe - the result was delicious. You can find the original recipe here, but below is my tweaked version:

Best Brownies

Makes 9 to 12 brownies

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon espresso powder

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

10 tablespoons salted butter, melted

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup melted milk chocolate chips

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped pecans are optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 9x9 inch pan for baking. I sprayed mine with baking spray and added parchment paper to the bottom. Whisk together flour, cocoa, salt, espresso powder, and cinnamon. Set aside.

Mix melted butter and sugars until well blended. Whisk eggs with fork and add with vanilla to sugar mixture, mixing well. Whisk in melted chocolate. Add flour mixture and blend with spatula until no flour shows. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans, if using. Spread in pan.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with very moist crumbs. Cool before cutting (we didn’t wait!)

Last week I won a pattern just for posting a photo on Instagram for National Sewing Month - thank you to Melva for the prompt! I chose a beautiful foundation paper pieced pattern from Denise's stunning selection in her shop, For The Love of Geese. I  have only made one paper small pieced project in 2015, but I really enjoyed the process, so I look forward to trying a paper pieced quilt.

My playlist for the coming week:

1. Start on quilting The Wedding Quilt

2. Decide on sashing and start putting RBD quilt together

3. Work on coin purses

4. Work on autumn wall hanging

5. Work on crochet hat

6. Have our daughter and The Littles up for visit on Saturday!

It's your turn! Give us a chance to visit your blog and cheer you on - just click on the link below to add your post. If you see Marsha's Spot on the list, please copy this URL and paste it into your browser and that will help you access her website. https://marshasspot.com/

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

I finished The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley today and wow, I loved it. It was first published in 2008, but I only read about it recently, on one of your blogs, and I'm so glad I did!

This is a book that weaves together two stories, one during the early 1700s during the early stages of the Jacobite rebellion and the other in present day Scotland. The descriptions of the scenery and the weather could not be any more evocative and made me long to live there.

Slains Castle, Aberdeen, Scotland - it's a real place!

Without revealing too much, I will say that this is a little different than the time travel in Outlander but has the same appeal for me. Instead of actual travel, it deals with the ancestral memories of Carrie, a successful historical fiction writer who is visiting Scotland. She decides to relocate there to jump start her next book. While staying in a quaint cottage near the remains of Slains Castle, Carrie finds herself compelled to write, as the story comes alive through the heroine, Sophia, who lived for awhile in Slains Castle. The intimate details of the story seem to spill out of Carrie, and after researching, she finds that the words she has typed are actual facts, including the names she has given her characters.

There is gentle romance in both time timelines, but fortunately no intimate scenes. (I'm no prude, but I don't need to read details about it, I like to use my imagination.) I have to admit, I tend to skim through the history to get to the "real" story, but Kearsley's characters' careful conversations about the politics of the period are rich and entertaining. And there is a very unexpected twist, which I did not see coming!

This book is the first in a series, so I will definitely get the next one, The Firebird!

I am linking to Kathryn's It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Indian Corn Quilt Finish

Presenting Indian Corn, my squirrel-spiration quilt for fall!

I started this quilt in September 2021 after being inspired by the colors in a cross stich photo posted on Instagram by Fat Quarter Shop and an internet photo of Indian Corn. I found the Irish chain-esque pattern in a pamphlet by Teri Christopherson of Black Mountain Needlework - Mad About Plaid.

The blocks are big at 15-1/2 inches unfinished and are placed in a 4 across-5 down grid.

When I make this quilt again, (I think it would be beautiful in Christmas colors) I would not follow the pattern instructions for the "chains". This pattern is designed for a quick make by strip piecing light and dark together see above left). Although the result is beautiful, this method created a lot of skew for me, and that affected the final assembly with many crooked and unmatched segments. I think I will more accuracy by sewing together two four-patches with two squares (see above right).

I finished the flimsy last November and had almost finished quilting when I ran out of the Magnifico gold thread I was using for the top. It was the week before Thanksgiving, and I had planned to have it displayed and ready to use when family came. I ordered the thread and it was not scheduled to arrive until the day before Thanksgiving, so I dejectedly put it away to finish later. Last week I pulled it out and was elated to finish the quilting - it was fun to see all the fabrics again!

Sunrise cast a warm glow on it!

This was a good scrap buster, and I had fun pulling fabrics from stash to use. I think these fall colors might be my favorite quilting colors.

My shadow approves of the gingham plaid backing in harvest colors 

Closeup of the backing and binding

Magnifico thread has a beautiful sheen 

Laundered and crinkly soft  for a cozy read with appropriately hued Jack

Quilt Details:

Finished pre-laundered size: 60 x 75 inches

Finished laundered size: 57.5 x 72 inches

Pattern: Indian Corn from Mad About Plaid

Quilting: All over meander on Longmire

Fabrics

Main:

Scraps and fabric from stash

Backing:

Harvest Plaid from Joann's Fabrics

Binding:

Petal Vines from the Harvest Moon Collection by Renee Nanneman for Andover Fabrics

Batting:

Quilters Dream Cotton Select Loft

Superior Threads:

So Fine #50 for piecing and binding:

Genoa Gray #503
Marigold #421

Black #411

Magnifico #40 for quilting:

Ingot #2068

I am linking to Melva's Sew and Tell on Melva Loves Scraps!