The Best Stewed Tomatoes Ever

My garden is just bursting with San Marzano tomatoes. I can pick an entire bowlful every day. Today I decided to gather them all up and make some stewed tomatoes.

I cleaned and blanched 126 tomatoes. After removing the peels, I hand-squeezed all the tomatoes into a pot, added a green bell pepper I picked from my garden and cut a bunch of parsley from my herb garden.

I love it when I can make an entire recipe with all the ingredients grown right in my backyard. The amazing thing is that I can pick another 100 tomatoes each week. And I look forward to having them keep coming for as long as possible.

The recipe can be found here.

I was surprised that all those tomatoes made a grand total of 8 pints of stewed tomatoes. I am happy to have this task completed and look forward to the next batch...I think I will be making some salsa next time.

Fanciful Quilt

I made this quilt from a pattern found in the Summer 2016 issue of Easy Quilts by Fons & Porter. The pattern is called Fanciful and it goes together very easily.

I love how the bright colors look using this pattern. The colors all play well together. On the back I used some large flannel pieces from my stash. The fabric for the top was from a large collection donated for making quilts for Quilts for Kids.

I've been making so many quilts for Quilts for Kids that I ran out of labels. I look forward to our next Quilts for Kids meeting so I can get some more.

Patchwork Quilt

I had a panel from the donated fabrics over at Quilts for Kids. I decided to dig out some matching colors from my fat quarter stash and experiment with making blocks. I settled on just some simple patchwork. I cut the panel so that I could make an asymmetrical grouping from the cute prints.

The quilt design didn't turn out great, but that's the fun of working with the donated fabrics; I get to experiment and try things I would not have otherwise. I used some large flannel pieces from my stash for the back and made some matching binding out of a nice blue marble.

The quilt still has a nice warm and cuddly feel so I would like to think someone will get some comfort from it.

Fabric Scrap Contest

I purchased this bag of scraps with the intentions of entering a contest over at Coins and Quilts fabric shop. All I have to do in the contest is take a photo of all the fabric in the bag (which I did) and then make something out of it. It can be anything. So I think I have a plan for the Berenstain Bears fabrics but that's as far as I got. Hopefully inspiration will kick in and I will be able to have a decent entry for the contest. The contest ends in September so I better get moving.

Snug as a Bug Quilt

Last week me and my favorite sewing partner, Sue decided to join the local senior center and sign up for their open sew/quilting session. They meet on Wednesdays or Thursdays and we chose to attend the Wednesday sessions. The thing is, they have two longarm sewing machines available for use. So we stayed a while last week and watched someone from the group use the longarm. The ladies were a happy, friendly group and we looked forward to sewing with them.

This week I prepped a quilt for the longarm machine. As soon as I got to the open sew session, the group leader, Alice asked me if I was ready to test out one of the machines. I said sure and off we went into this new quilting adventure. I learned about loading the backing, quilt top and batting onto the frame and how to use the machine. There were quite a few instructions and my biggest fear was forgetting one of them; I was not afraid of doing the actual quilting. I chose a pantograph from their collection and Alice asked me to choose a simpler one. When using a longarm machine for the first time, it's best to make it as simple as possible.

I chose a simple leaf pattern and 2 hours later, I was done. It wasn't as fast as I thought it would be due to constantly having to roll the quilt, batting and backing down after completing a row of quilting. I certainly enjoyed the process and look forward to trying it again very soon.

This quilt was made using a pattern called Snug as a Bug from the Summer 2016 issue of Easy Quilts Magazine. I used more of my friend Mary's fabrics to make this and even after completing it, I can still make more quilts from her fabrics. I will keep going until I use it all up and Quilts for Kids will get more quilting made from these happy fabrics.

Kindred Quilt - Moda Frivols Kit

I just completed Moda Frivols Kit No. 1. The pattern in the kit is called Kindred and the fabric is from a collection called Hello Darling by Bonnie and Camille. The blocks finish at 8 1/2" x 8 1/2" and the finished size is 40 1/4" x 40 1/4". It's not all that large, but it will make a nice piece to hang over the back of the sofa or cover the kitchen table.
I won this kit at a quilt show last year and I am happy to finally get it completed All I had to do was add the Kona solid (color: bone) and the backing fabric (I used Kona color: ice frappe). The backing fabric I chose was so pretty I decided to use it for the binding as well. I really wanted that color to show up on the front of the quilt as well as the back.

I have always loved the granny square block and was glad to make something using it. There are 24 pieces in each block so it was a little tough to get started since I like to chain piece. But after I got the first two blocks done, I had a strategy for chain-piecing down so the rest went together rather easily.

Fox and Hedgehog Quilt

I got this panel from the Quilts for Kids fabric stash and really needed to figure out what to do with it. Then I came across a pattern called Road Work that used Tonka Truck fabric. That's quite a stretch from the cute fox and hedgehog on this panel but I really liked the square in a square blocks used to frame the panel in the Road Work quilt pattern.

I dug out some fabric from the stuff Mary donated to me and made the frame for the panel. I also found some really cute swirly, whimsical fabric to use for the backing, however I did have to piece the back with another fabric since there just wasn't a big enough piece. Mary's donated stash also had some cute wavy striped fabric in it that I used for the binding. I just love working with these fun colors.

Table Runner Completed

After I perused Pinterest's photos of table runners I decided to draw up a plan to make my own version. It was based on some fat quarters of fabric I got from my friend Mary. She gave away so much fabric that I don't think I will ever use it all up. But I'm sure going to try.

This table runner is about 20" x 44". It was designed to best show off the rich colors in the fabrics within the matching fat quarters. I like how it turned out so I just might have to make another one.

A mutual friend of Mary's and mine is very involved in a charity for PKD (polycystic kidney disease). In fall there's a PKD awareness walk here in town and a silent auction that day. I think Mary will be happy when I donate this table runner to the silent auction for that walk.