YUMMMMMM!

Sometimes it pays to get sucked into a project.  (See previous post if you have no clue what I am talking about.)

I now have 24 jars of yummy mayhaw jelly to show for today’s labor.  I really believe mayhaw is the absolutely best jelly there is, and second is muscadine, or scuppernong, as they are called in other places.

On another note, I STRONGLY recommend when you are cooking mayhaws you do NOT go to the other end of the house to get something, get distracted and work on a blog post, run back to the kitchen and discover that the mayhaws are boiling over and making a huge mess on your stove.  It was no fun.  UGGHH!  YUCK!!! Gee, what was I thinking? (Or perhaps NOT thinking?)

Now I need to strongly resist the urge to make some homemade biscuits to go with this.  Perhaps tomorrow biscuits will make the menu at my house.

Mayhaw jelly…. IT’S A GOOD THING!

KAT

Sucked In…

 

Today I was sucked into something I have been procrastinating on… making may haw jelly.  I have been putting this off for 6 years now.  I know this is so because the bags of frozen may haws are labeled “06”.

As Christmas is fast approaching each year DH always says , “We ought to cook up that may haw jelly and give it for gifts.”  Who has time for such activities when Christmas is just a few days away?  Does he not understand the craziness in a woman’s life when Christmas is moving upon you faster than you can get things ready?  Obviously, NOT!

Why am I doing this today?

1.  We are trying to make some space in the freezers.

2.  I should be quilting but we are having thunder storms so I can’t turn on the machine.

3.  Why not?  My day has already not gone the direction I thought it would, so why not just go WAAAYYYYY off the path I thought I would be following?

May haws are a tiny fruit that resemble crab apples, and they grow abundantly in river bottoms.  We used to live in Arkansas, very close to the Ouachita River.  The Felsenthal Wildlife Refuge was just one mile from our house, and the roads there are just lined with may haw trees.  In early May (thus the name “May haw”) the fruit gets ripe and smells wonderful.  Adventurous souls that don’t mind chasing away a few snakes and such can pick all the may haws they want.  That is how 4 bags of them came to reside in my freezer. 

I have been intending to cook them down since we moved to Louisiana in 2007 .  So here I am… sucked into making jelly today.  I’ve always heard you should not make jelly when it is raining.  I am hoping enough Sure-Jell and sugar will overcome that problem, because whether or not that is so, we ARE making jelly today!

So, I am off to the kitchen, back to cooking down berries.  So now you know… no quilt retreat pictures today for you, but the good news is they ARE now loaded onto my computer… that is good progress for me!

LATER!  I’m off to squeeze fruit!

KAT 

10 Things About Quilt Retreat

1.  It was LOADS of fun.

2.  I got LOTS done!

3.  I stayed up WAYYYYYYYY too late.

4.  And I got up WAYYYYYYY earlier than I usually do.

5.  I think some in our group are absolutely CRAZY!

6.  There were several quilters going on their first retreat this time, and that made it even more fun.

7.  What does quilt retreat have to do with frogs and flamingoes?  I’ll tell you tomorrow, or the next day, or sometime soon.

8.  I really DID take pictures!  YAHHH!  You’ll see them later.

9.  We shopped… 2 quilt shops on the way there, and 2 shops on the way home.

10.  I’ll be super-busy tomorrow and Saturday, so it will realistically   be Sunday before I will have time to post about retreat.  Stay tuned… you’re gonna love it!  And did I mention there are PICTURES?  Oh yeah, I did.  Sorry… I’m so whooped after all of this travel and excitement I clearly don’t know what I am doing. 

See you again soon!  It will be worth revisiting me… I promise!

KAT

Another Whopper; Practicing for Retreat

I know… you thought it was another veggie, didn’t you?  This walking stick was clinging to the wheel well of my car.  It was 9” long!  This is the largest one I have ever seen, so I just had to take it’s picture.

We are getting ready to go to Cold Spring, TX for our annual quilt retreat.  One of the SILs will not be able to go this time so we had a “practice” retreat at the lake so we could spend time together.  Above is Mary Anne’s mystery quilt.  Absolutely LOVELY!

 

Debbie finished her Flower Garden quilt.  BEAUTIFUL!  She loved doing this so much I think she has another one in the planning stages.

 

And I finished this simple jelly roll quilt.  It will go to a local charity once it is quilted and bound.  It was a quick and fun project.  I also got a LOT done on an old (10-years-ago?) UFO.  This Stack ‘N Whack quilt from ages ago will go to the same charity when finished.  It will be my #1 project at the REAL retreat. 

We are leaving early in the morning and I will try to give you some posts while there.  I KNOW there will be plenty of things to show, so I am hoping the internet access works well.

And on the sock front… I did finally finish my MAY socks!  Sorry, I just did not manage a picture yet.  I have reached the heel turn on the 1st sock for June.  Yes, I am running behind, but I will probably be able to catch up this fall when there is less busy-ness in my life.  If not, the world really won’t stop turning if I only crank out 11 pairs of socks this year instead of my goal of 12 pair… will it?

So, there is all the news from the home-front.  The next report will be from the Red Barn Retreat in Cold Spring, TX.  WOO-HOO!!!  It’s gonna’ be fun!

KAT

A Real WHOPPER!

 

Yes, it is HUGE!  The variety of tomato is “beefsteak”.  DH has been babying this for several weeks.  It tried to grow through the wires on the tomato cage so he had to keep rearranging it.  The stats for this tomato:   over 6” across and it weighed 28 ounces!

I have very large hands, and this one filled it up.  DH picked it one day last week while it was still a little green because he was afraid a critter would get it before we could.  It has been sitting in the kitchen window sill with us just watching it get to the perfect state of ripeness… today it did.

This is what we got out of ONE tomato.  That is a regular size (10 inch) dinner plate.  I thought perhaps I would need to slice another small tomato to go with this one for our 3 BLT sandwiches.  I surely didn’t!  Almost half of the tomato was left after 3 of us had sandwiches and then just ate some more tomato off the plate.

Fresh tomatoes… YUMMO!  And there are more where this came from, although they are not quite as large as this one.

KAT

Welcome to the Family, Jonah!!

Meet Jonah.

Meet Chet, Jonah  and Donya.  Welcome to the family, Jonah!  Jonah joined our family a few months ago.  He was a gift of God into the lives of Donya (my niece) and Chet… The story of how he came to join their family is a miracle.  I don’t wish to give out details here, but just know  that we all recognized the Hand of God touching this situation and working things out.

 

We had a party to welcome Jonah into the family.  I made him a quilt.

    

I think he likes it!  It is bright and busy, and it is a “using” quilt.  Kool-Aid stains WON’T show on this one!

It was a “No-Brainer” pattern, simple and quick.  I used a race car fabric for the large blocks and coordinating colors for the rail fence blocks.  Sorry for the dark pictures.  I’m a quilter, not a photographer (obviously).

Welcome, Jonah!  Congrats, Donya and Chet!  Love to all…

Aunt Kat

Eating An Elephant

      Do you remember that little riddle you probably learned as a child?  “How do you eat an elephant? … One bite at a time!”

I feel like I have been eating an elephant.  The quilt I thought would take 3-4 days to quilt (HAHA!  Was I CRAZY?) has been in the machine for 2 WEEKS.  That is partially because I had not planned on doing all the SID (stitch in the ditch) around the edges of each block, but after I got it in the machine I realized it had to have that done to look right.  SID is the absolutely HARDEST and most time consuming thing one can do on a longarm… especially on curved edges, as these are. 

 

One bite (block) at a time I have worked through this.  It seemed to take forever because each block and melon had to be quilted individually.  Align the machine, stitch pattern, tie/bury thread tails, CHOMP!   Move to next one.    Repeat process umpteen million times.  CHOMP!! Actually, it was for 99 blocks and 218 melon shapes.  WHEW!!

The pattern is Glorified 9-Patch, and the quilting design is “Curved Feather” by Christy Dillon of My Creative Stitches.  I had purchased a set of these designs, but nothing fit the melon shape.  I emailed Christy and suggested she design a melon shape for this set.  I knew it would not be done in time for me, but would be helpful to others.  Her response, “Give me an hour!”  She designed the feather spray just as I wanted and emailed it to me.  Now THAT’S customer service! 

TODAY I FINISHED IT!!  I’m doing a happy dance!  I love the way it turned out.  And the back of the quilt is as pretty as the front.  I will really enjoy using this quilt.  It is the first project I have done with the huge collection of 30’s reproduction prints I have amassed over the years.  These fabrics just make me happy looking at them.

The next step is the binding.  I found the perfect fabric at a shop in Alexandria.  This binding will be a bugger  challenge due to the shape of the edges of the quilt.  I’m hoping to get the binding sewn onto the quilt Saturday when our quilt group meets.

Once again, perseverance pays off.  I can mark this UFO off the list.  That feel great!  And now back to customer quilts, where I am doing over-all designs and not tied to the quilting machine, as I have been for the last 2 weeks.  It feels good to be set free!

Have you eaten any elephants lately?  Persevere… one bite at a time.  Have a blessed week!

KAT

You are invited…

You are invited to visit my other blog, Enjoying the Journey.  It was started several years ago, but has been idle for over 2 1/2 years now.  BUT now I am posting there again.

It is a blog about my journey in life.  Currently that means focusing on spiritual growth and healthy lifestyle.

And if you read that post you will understand why my postings here have been few lately.

Now back to quilting on a bugger of a quilt… it’s mine, I am doing custom quilting on it, and it is taking 9 forevers to finish.  But it is turning out nicely.  It also reminds me why I do not do computerized custom quilting for customers… there is a huge time investment in custom quilting.

I’ll post another picture that shows the quilting when I am done, which will probably be tomorrow, but then yesterday I thought I would be finished  “tomorrow” .  AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN!!

KAT