Happy August! I hope you've been having a fabulous summer and enjoying the heat, sun, and all the delicious foods that are in season this time of the year. I've been frying okra a lot lately, one of our favorite before-dinner snacks. It's easy and fast so I've
included the recipe at the end of this email so you can try it too.
We finished up our last canning day this past weekend and ended up putting away a total of 55 quarts and 13 pint and a half jars of tomatoes. I'll be honest - I used to hate canning days as a kid. It was intensely hot work inside with no air conditioning and it seemed like the job went on forever.
As an adult, I've made it my mission to make canning days fun, faster, and a lot more comfortable. We do all the hot,
messy work - boiling the tomatoes, peeling, slicing, and pressure cooking outside in the carport. With Josh, Dad, James and I working together we were able to can four boxes of tomatoes in five hours, and that included a stop for lunch to refuel and rest a bit.
I wouldn't know anything about canning today if I hadn't been introduced to it as a kid and I encourage you to give it a try with your kids or grandkids. It is a lot of work and you may have to navigate through bad attitudes and
fussy tempers, but I think teaching food preserving and teamwork is a valuable thing. I also think a promise of ice cream and a movie the next day doesn't hurt a bit.
Leaf Peepers Starting August 13th |
I know the cooler weather and changing leaves of fall still feels a long way away, but it'll be here before you know it. I want you to have the perfect wall hanging or table runner to decorate for this changing season so we're starting early enough so you can
have your quilt finished in time to decorate. This new quilt along is going to be co-hosted by me and Sheri Cilfaldi-Morrill from WholeCircleStudio.com. Each Monday starting on August 13th, we'll share a new post with tips on piecing the units and the blocks.
Of course, it wouldn't be one of my quilt alongs without a focus on the
quilting. You'll get to learn from both of us on how to quilt designs with walking foot quilting, free motion quilting, and ruler foot quilting. How do you join in the fun? Just pick up a copy of the Leaf Peepers Quilt Pattern and you'll be ready to go! We also have a beautiful Leaf Peepers Fat Quarter Bundle with the 9 bright batik fabrics I used in my
quilts. If you cut carefully, you can make two sets of blocks from this fabric and create both the table runner and wall hanging quilts.
How to Ribbon in a Quilt Show |
Have you ever wondered how quilt shows work? How exactly do you win a ribbon? What are quilt show judges looking for?
Our Last Walking Foot Quilting Design |
We've come to the end of our Walking Foot design tutorials. And what a design to end on... I call it Psycho Ziggie!
This design is quilted with all zigzag lines and it’s super easy to stitch with walking foot quilting. Starting in the middle of
your quilting space, stitch a zigzag line from one end to the other. Travel stitch along the edge and quilt another line across, as wild and crazy as you can.
Have all your
Marvelous Mosaic walking foot blocks complete and ready to come together?
Practice FMQ with Quilty Box |
This month's Quilty Box arrived filled with fun gear and
beautiful fabrics to play with and I decided to use this as an excuse to practice free motion quilting designs.
This month's Quilty Box was filled with fun gear picked by Yoko Saito and a beautiful printed fabric panel. The fabric had larger floral designs that instantly made me itch to quilt around them with different free motion quilting designs.
On a side note, practice is NEVER a waste. Your quilted squares can be turned into pot holders, quilted fat quarters can be
turned into throw pillows and blankets for the animal shelter, and even small rectangles can be sewn into bags.
That's exactly what I made with my quilted panel! I cut up the piece into two rectangles and used the bag strap from Quilty Box to create a cute zippered pouch!
Well, that's it for this week. Let me know if you'd be interested in learning more about our canning this year. It was the most productive and efficient we've done so far. I'd love to hear any tips or stories about your own
canning!
Until next week, let's go quilt.
Leah Day |
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