Prairie Points & Mug/Rug Swap

This is another one of those quilts where I hoped the maker would not come and pick it up after quilting.  Sadly, that didn't happen and it has gone back home.  The name of the block is Granny's Stars.

Prairie Points are definitely a challenge.  Once it's loaded on the longarm, flip the points OUT, baste one inch inside the base of the points, and leave the basting in.  Don't quilt anything beyond that - the maker will be turning the backing under and needs that space to work in.

The yoyo's added another bit of a challenge.  I outlined around the applique and the yoyo's, then modified the pantograph pattern which I used in the body of the quilt, and added freemotion quilting to fill the background.

Fresh, springy, and girly.

So pretty.

At one of my guilds the December meeting included a Mug and Rug swap.  It was done on a "make one, take one" basis, so if you didn't want to participate you didn't have to.  Here's my contribution.

And here's what I brought home.

I've been on vacation (or whatever it's called when you stay home and do chores?) for two weeks.  Sadie got clipped so she looks like a dog again, instead of a Wookiee.  All the upstairs windows (23 panes) and screens (11) have been scrubbed & shined.  My workroom has been defuzzed (you'll never find someone with MORE dust than me) and several hours has been spent on bookkeeping.  The house has been vacuumed and dusted.  I finished a UFO and quilted TWO of my own quilts - one needs hand stitching on the binding, but the other one is destined for the donation pile so it got machine binding.  I'll post pics of those later, but it makes my TFUQ list and UFO list look a little better. 😁  However, unfortunately while I was cleaning and defuzzing the workroom, I found ANOTHER UFO in a bag.  The blocks are all made and squared up, since 2008.  Geez Louise.
Now, I think I need a vacation from my vacation.

Dresden Plate Quilt, Selvages, and Garden Update with Zucchini Report

The Dresden Plate is at the top of my FAVORITE QUILTS LIST.

I have made two of my own and I have a third in progress.  This quiltmaker repeated all of the fabrics identically in each plate, and also positioned them identically in the background square.  She used different fabrics for the centers.

I quilted S.I.D. around the sashing, outside of the plates, and around the inside circle.  Mauve thread was used in the sashing and inside the plates; the rest was white thread.  The maker requested feminine quilting, so I went with flowers.  So pretty.

One of my hobbies seems to be collecting selvages.  I have, probably, twelve pounds of them by now.  Never done a thing with them.  But LOOK!!!  I MADE SOMETHING!!!

OK, On to the garden update.  Can anybody tell me what the hell these are?

I swear to God, I planted Butternut Squash seeds.  I'm not sure any of them sprouted because I ended up with these football sized things, AND I have pumpkins growing too, which I also did not plant. I have "people" who do that for me. 😀 These HAD to come out of the compost, because that's where the pumpkin seeds would have been.  I am accustomed to butternut squash growing from the compost, so when I had volunteers back in the spring I gave some seedlings to my neighbour.  Won't she be surprised!  ha ha ha, I'm so bad....

Cherry tomatoes have been ripening for about two weeks now.  Oh, so good!  And the rainy summer has made the peppers very happy - look at the size of that jalapeno.  It is easily the size of the overfertilized produce that you buy at the grocery store, but mine are organic.  Yay me.

Now, what you've all been waiting for...
ZUCCHINI REPORT
Picked this week:  13
Picked YTD:         59

This week I made five jars of Zucchini Pickles from one of my Bernardin cookbooks.  I've never made them before, so hopefully they're edible.