With the ladies finished with their women of the bible quilts and the men of the bible being another 24 plus month project, we found 2 more ideas for the ladies to make in 2024. They always have individual projects but we usually have one or two everyone tries out.

Pam found another bargello pattern she’d like to try. I think we need a short bargello break so this will be a while. It should be interesting to see how many different color ideas the ladies come up with. and how different they all look once they are finished.

I also want them to try the blooming nine patch. I think they’ll like it when finished and they will learn a lot about color placement. How you line up colors is what makes the final look of this quilt.

Apparently I love salt a lot more than I love food. At the rate I’m going I should be 100 pounds lighter but that hasn’t happened – lol.

I have found you can flavor food with anything you like, and as much of it as you like, but the bottom line is, salt is delicious. Food without it is just well, blah. However I found one breakfast that you can make ahead and it isn’t terrible. Note I didn’t say it was great, I said it’s not terrible. It requires you to season your own pork sausage, use nasty swiss cheese and Hawaiian buns as they are lower in salt, but they reheat well and are edible.

This one isn’t low salt except I just didn’t season it with salt. Since pasta has no sodium and ground beef has very little, the only thing you have to count is the sauce and the mozzarella cheese. It’s called sheet pan lasagna. I didn’t have a sheet pan but I made do. It’s made with all the same ingredients you just don’t layer and bake for an hour.

I made my sauce, added some cheese and meat then once the noodles were boiled I just chopped them up and tossed them in the sauce. Added cheese on top and baked 30 minutes. It was pretty good. Just needed salt lol. I should have taken a picture after I cooked it.

Ok if you’ve never had a nuclear stress test, they will give you stress. It takes about 4 or 5 hours, most of which is waiting around. You get an IV and wait, then meds and wait, then pictures, then wait, then a treadmill and more meds, then wait and more pictures. I think the test gave me stress. But at least that is past and so is my week of wearing a heart monitor. Funny they warn you the tape may irritate your skin but don’ tell you the small electric monitor will leave blisters on your skin. I guess it’s all for a good cause.

I am believing it will be good news just ruling out possible things and I can just stay on my current meds.

I can’t believe I’ve had this pattern for probably 3 or 4 years. I decided it was time to make a traditional lone star. I think this one said it’s a version of a pattern called Bethlehem Star. I’ll have to look that up one day.

I don’t normally quilt mine this dense but I hoped it distracted from the few places where my seams could have lined up a bit better. It must have helped because I had to really look for them. I like how this came out but it’s one of those quilts I can say I made it, but I likely wouldn’t make another. It’s pretty and came out as I expected, but I didn’t enjoy making it enough to do another.

I normally wait and post once finished but this is a gift for my dog groomer. She comes Saturday and I’ll be hard pressed to get the binding finished and it washed in time so I might not get another picture. I won’t see her again till after Christmas. The second picture is the binding I’m using. I love using striped and polka dot binding whenever I can.

I tried to talk the ladies into trying this one but so far only Claudia has done one. Maybe once the others catch up on projects they will give it a try also. This was made using jelly roll strips I cut from various Tula Pink fabrics.

Wow our quilt group is sewing up a storm. I could literally fill up a blog with the quilts the ladies have made this year. Thought I’d share a few they recently finished.

This is Pam’s puzzle box she made using some of the fabrics she bought on her trip to Italy, Spain, etc. It came out so soft and pretty. All 3 ladies made this pattern,

Another one of Pam’s. She found this pattern on line called Tessa. It really is a super pretty pattern and she did a great job deciding on colors. These fabrics came from her trip also.

This is Pam’s women of the bible done in Christmas fabrics. We spent 24 months making blocks and it is finally quilted and done. I’ll post the other ladies once theirs is finished. She did an amazing job on this quilt.

This is Marilyn’s puzzle box. In person those colors are amazing. Very feminine. Another one we used her stash so I don’t know the fabric lines.

This is Marilyn’s Tessa quilt. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of it once it was completed. She has a couple more finished but I need to get pictures. This one is all random fabrics we picked from her stash.

Aww I should not have said just ladies. This is Robert’s newest one block wonder. The orange really set off the colors. I don’t have a pic since it’s been finished. Can’t wait to show you his compass quilt that is almost finished.

This is one Claudia just finished. I spent about a year deciding on the colors then made the large center and realized I couldn’t see the pieces well enough to finish the top with the smaller stars. Claudia asked to finish it and she did a great job. The blue background is what really makes the look of this quilt. I’ve seen one done in yellow and one in white and not near as pretty.

Claudia made this beautiful version of a pattern called Fresh Grapes. The colors all blend together so well. I’m not sure of the jelly roll line or I’d include that for you.

This is Brenda’s first finished quilt. She is kinda of new to our local group. She joined when the group started and had to quit to deal with some health issues. She is back and doing a great job. This came out lovely and I’ve seen a few more she has finished and just waiting for lessons in how to baste her tops. Can’t wait to see what all she accomplishes. She used a Robert Kaufman vintage Christmas jelly roll.

Some of the ladies in my local quilt group had never been to a quilt show so we decided instead of our monthly group, we’d take a road trip. Our plan was originally to go to Spring Hill but then I heard that was a small show, maybe 30-40 quilts. We decided to try Ocala since it boasted 200+ quilts and vendors.

I have to say I haven’t been to a show since before Covid and maybe that’s what affected it, but it wasn’t the best I’d seen. I think the local guild tried their best but they were way short of 200 quilts and I was surprised to see how many were the same pattern, in the same fabrics. I was more surprised that the few vendors they had only brought their sale fabrics instead of new lines and there were no food or drink vendors. They did have an excellent array of donated gift baskets. They looked enticing until we found out they won’t mail. We’d have to make a 4 hour round trip to pick it up if we won.

So was it worth a 4 hour round trip? For the quilt show, maybe not. For the fun and fellowship, I think so. We had a day away from home with breakfast and a lot of funny stories and I had a great time. We even found an Ocala quilt shop retiring and offering 45% off the entire shop.

I think the ladies had a good time. I didn’t get to talk to Pam or Claudia before they left but Pam messaged to say she had a blast and Marilyn and Brenda were thrilled for a day away from hubby with friends and having fun.

So all in all, I think it was a great day. we’ve already planned to go to the sewing expo in January so that should really give them a look at quilt shows.

Last night I was cleaning out old emails and found so many between my sister Jilly and I. It’s hard to believe she’s now been gone 2 years. When I think of things we did or talked about, it seems like it was just last week. I ran across an email after our road trip to Mississippi to meet a fellow quilter, Judi.

On the drive there I was reading us weird internet stuff and stumbled across an article on how college girls are soaking their tampons in vodka then putting them in their wooha so they get the alcohol absorbed but don’t smell like they had been drinking. As we pondered this we kept laughing at how stupid this was, did it really work? You know because minds like mine and Jilly always want to know.

After reading the whole article I said well next thing you know men will be putting Jack Daniels up their butt to get drunk and not smell like they’ve been drinking. You know like a coffee colonic. After laughing terribly we started to wonder if that would actually get you drunk and well, you know I had to google it. I am not kidding when I say I was laughing so hard I couldn’t even tell her what I found. Imagine my surprise when I found it’s not just a thing but they actually have a name for it. Butt chugging. Yes you read that right.

Ok at this point I thought her husband was going to have to pull off the road on some lonely back road in Alabama. We literally, I kid you not, had tears running down our faces from laughing so hard. We got to discussing it was one thing to actually put Jack Daniels up your butt but you have to ask, who’s the first idiot that thought of this? I said to Jilly, this means someone was standing around, whiskey bottle in hand and said hmmm wonder if I can put this up my butt and get drunk. I admitted, ok I have been drunk beyond remembering the night, but I don’t think I’ve ever been that drunk. This resulted in again laughing so hard we couldn’t talk but I will say I thought she’d laugh herself sick when I said here’s the big question.

Do you put it up your own butt or ask a friend hey can you squirt this bourbon up my butt hole. And did he say yes? I have never laughed so hard in my entire life and I am not sure I ever will again. Lord I miss that woman. I think she was the only person I ever felt I could be 100% me and she still loved me and never thought about judging me.

I wish she could be here now when I think of the follow up questions on that like – If you’re one of those people that walk around with your head up your butt, will your breath still smell like alcohol? Will police every think to smell your butt for alcohol? Oh Jilly I miss you.

PS – maybe later today I’ll tell you about how she used to tuck me in bed.

Last post for the day. I’m entering a new phase of life. Last month I was diagnosed with dystolic heart failure and then kidney disease. It has been a bit of a journey getting a doctor that would talk to you and hopefully after some more test this month, I will know more. Kinda makes you regret giving up alcohol and cigarettes because now I have to give up salt and caffeine.

My friend Claudia brought me some fresh made taco shells with no sodium. I may be eating every meal on a taco or lettuce wrap. Quite tasty. And OMG salt is in nearly everything.

Well, I guess you can but I’d be offended. LOL. Anyway, I gave me dear friend Claudia a king size quilt I’d made. If you scroll back I used the fabric in it on 3 quilts and swore I was keeping each as I absolutely loved it. However, after making the 3rd one it was so big I realized washing it weekly was a pain if the dogs slept on the bed so I sent it to live with Claudia. I gave Brenda a pretty poinsettia quilt.

I wanted to gift Pam and Marilyn one also but of course they said no, you don’t have to do that. Well too bad, they both had birthdays that hadn’t passed yet so I gave them as gifts so they couldn’t refuse to take them. I love how they came out.

This is Marilyn’s. Oh I wish the picture showed as nicely as the quilt. I loved it. It’s a 4 patch posey but I combined 2 colorways of the same fabric instead of just one color. And of course, everything is better with polka dots.

This one is Pam’s and I expected to dislike it. I am not a pink person at all and this is PINK. She adores pink. When I got done I couldn’t stop thinking how much i loved it. While I dislike making half square triangles, I am pretty sure there is another one of these in my future. The background looks black but it’s a beautiful orchid color. I hope all 4 enjoy their quilts.

These 3 were kind of special to me. The first one is made using a fabric printed with West Virginia all over it. It was designed for a West Virginia shop hop. It’s the last fabric my sister and I bought together before she passed away. I so glad I made a last minute decision to go up for her birthday. This quilt will remain with me. When I’m gone hopefully someone loves it.

The next one is special based on how long it took. The ladies in my local group decided to make a Women of The Bible quilt. The pattern is made using 40 blocks that each represent a woman in the bible. After that you still had to make 30 or more setting blocks to put it all together. We decided to make 2 blocks a month so this is a 2 year project. I gifted it to a friend of my friend Marilyn. She saw it before it was finished and loved the colors.

The next is my Spain quilt. Our wonderful friend Pam went to Spain, Italy, etc. Oh the effort that poor woman made running around trying to find fabric stores. If you knew the story you’d know how much we each appreciate our quilts. She brought each of us a piece of fabric and we all made the same pattern in different colors. I love it.