Wedding Quilt

When my eldest niece - who’s also one of my very favorite people - got married in May, I wanted to send her something special. 

I was in the hospital with her mom (and my mom) on the night Lacey was born. 

 Quilted with hearts, of course

It was supposed to be my 30-minute dinner break from work, 

but in the excitement, I kinda sorta forgot to go back for several hours. And almost got fired. (Oopsie)

But I got to see and hold Baby Lacey before she was even an hour old. So worth it.

Best wishes for a long, happy life with your beloved, Lacey. We love you bunches.

Pattern is “Charming Lucy”, made with two charm packs from French General that I’ve had safely hidden in my stash for years, waiting for the perfect project. The backing fabric - bought on a whim awhile back - is for the couple’s mutual love of nature and the outdoors. 

Snazzy

When it came time to hang my barn quilt on the back fence, I figured four nails, big hammer, done. 

Which might have been the case if hubby wasn’t a woodworker with a garage full of snazzy tools.

Instead, we have a “French cleat”,

where the angled wood pieces on the barn quilt fit neatly, and very securely, into the angled pieces on the fence.

Our howling Fall winds will blow down the fence before they get this thing to move. So snazzy.

These Two

Donovan thinks Jackie is the best.person.ever. (except maybe his mama)

and can’t wait for her to come visit.

And then they cry and argue over toys for an hour (a very looooooong hour)

before turning into the best of friends. 

Today Jac tried teaching Donovan to walk in a circle. He didn’t understand but he had fun giggling and watching her. 

Disaster Averted

This quilt has given me grief since I started it. And last night I thought it was going to have the last word. 

 Pretty backing. 

I finished the binding and label, took some beauty shots and put it in the wash. Like always. 

Because the binding is red, I thought I’d give it a quick check for bleeding before tossing it in the dryer.  

Disaster! The binding and at least one of the red squares bled onto the white. And the blue bobbin thread I used to sew this top (yeah, not my smartest move) also bled and showed clearly in multiple places.  Just.Shoot.Me.

 Bathtub soak

I remembered reading about a possible fix, so did a quick search of Pinterest. Success! After a 10-hour soak in scalding hot water and Dawn dish detergent, both the red and blue bleeds are gone. So much relief. 

It’s going out in tomorrow’s mail, so I can show the beauty shots soon.

Harbor View

We took Leanne and Jac to Ventura Harbor 

 Leanne got a ton of compliments on her sunglasses

to enjoy the beautiful weather,

 Perfect Jackie picture - ‘Imma take charge now.’

eat some ice cream

 
and increase the stuffie collection. 

Introducing Alice Dolphin and Beluga Rainbow. Jac says she *knows* it is an orca whale but it’s *name* is Beluga. Silly grandma. 

Sisters

On the same day I took this - 

look what showed up in my memories from 9 years ago.

Such cuties. 

Almost Perfect

Leia wanted to bake today

so we tried our hand 

at cinnamon rolls 

for the first time. 

Delicious!

We’ll probably try a different recipe next time.

These were almost, but not quite, perfect.

Didn’t stop us from eating them though. 

Baking Day

My plan for today was a leisurely afternoon 

baking bread with Jackie

for the first time

while Leanne worked on making her first bowl without Pop’s supervision.

Leanne finished more quickly than expected

and wanted to make pretzel bites - 

using a new recipe for the air fryer - 

and just like that my “leisurely” 

became a juggling act of over-boiling pots

and rising dough timers. 

The good? The pretzels and bread were delicious,

 and the handmade, stoneware baking dish I bought on Etsy from a cousin worked perfectly. 

The bad? Cooking pretzel bites eight at a time in an air fryer takes forEVER. Definitely using the oven next time. 

Chocolate!

In addition to pottery sessions, the big girls and I have been baking each day. 

Leia doesn’t like fruity/sour things, 

so when we talk about our next project, her vote always goes to chocolate. 

Leanne likes most anything sweet, so she’s much easier to please. 

Since I’m a chocolate fan too, that’s what we’ve concentrated on this week,

starting with lava cakes on Wednesday

and mini-chocolate soufflés today. (This recipe)

The girls (me too!) prefer semi-sweet chocolate so we switched out the bittersweet called for in the recipe. 

Genius move - it was sooooooo good. Tomorrow I’m thinking we’ll make a chili rellano quiche (for meeeeeee) - Leanne will enjoy rolling out the pie crust - and a batch of peasant bread, which is easy enough that Jackie can help.

And now a word from our sponsor:

The past two days activity made possible by this guy’s 3-hour naps. Yay, Donovan!