What I've Been Up To this Fall.............

Since I last posted I've been to the Fryeburg Fair..................

Red & Rusty.......

 Rough day at the fair...............

I soaked in the sights, smells & flavors of the fair.  My favorite fair treat is fried dough with melted butter and cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top, of course I had some fair fries and a few other goodies too! 

I also worked on a few UFOs, here are some photos of them...................

The 1 1/4" squares for one of the borders of the Garden Basket wall quilt, I'm not quite finished cutting them.....

 Here are the blocks for the center of the GB quilt, while trimming these blocks I noticed that I forgot to stitch the stems on one of them, I'll get that done before I finish the top.......


This is one of the quilts from Lori Smith's Fat Quarter Quilting that I started working on last winter!  I have to finished a little more hand quilting and put the hanging sleeve on the back.

I "ripped" the boards for the chicken yard expansion, hoping to get it finished next week,  in case you haven't noticed it's taking me a long time to get this done, I'm not really excited to be working on this project.  The pullets are really in need of more area, we are also hoping this will help with "integrating" them with the older hens and Rudy......it didn't go so well the first time we tried :0(  Hoping it works next time or I may need two coops.  I also showed them what an egg looks like and told them to start thinking about laying soon or else, LOL!

I've also been cleaning up the gardens and getting the yard ready for winter.  Here are the last of the Hydrangea flowers that I cut today before the rains came........

I also harvested 3/4s of a bushel of grapes from my vines and made jelly from them.  Now I am waiting to see if it sets up after it cools, it's been over 6 years since I've made any jelly and can't remember how long it takes to "jell".  



The soap is curing nicely.......I can't wait for it to finish up so I can try it out!  I'm tempted to make more before this one is finished curing so I can use some as gifts.  If I wait, the second batch won't have time to cure before Christmas......something to ponder!  I also am hoping to make a few gifts for Christmas, but I'm NOT going to stress out if it doesn't work out. 

Hope you are having a wonderful Fall!

Quilting & Soapmaking

Finally caught up on the Tonga Rhapsody BOM, here are all seven blocks with the sashing.........

There is more sashing and other stuff that goes along with the blocks, you can see a photo of the finished quilt if you go here.

In the past few months I have been busy researching soap making......Rhonda at Down to Earth has a very informative post (just click on the blog name) the recipe that she posted is the one that I used, it's very simple, just what I needed for the first time.  The only thing that I added was Lavender Essential Oil.  I also read 'Soap Maker's Workshop' by Dr. Robert S. & Katherine J. McDaniel, it was very helpful and included a DVD that showed the process.  Here are some photos I took, the first one shows how I had everything set up and ready for each step................

The white "box" is an old Styrofoam cooler that is lined with a trash bag, I used this as my "mold".  The jar with the clear liquid in it is the water that I added the lye into, it is cooling while I heat the oils.  You can see the small bottle of essential oil that is ready to be added to the soap, you can also see off around the corner the hand blender ready to go, I just used newspaper to protect the counter top. 

Heating the olive oil and coconut oil (the white chunks).......

The soap just before it's ready to be poured into the "mold"...............

Today I took it out of the mold and cut it into bars, now I just need to wait approximately 6 weeks for them to "cure"!  Overall the process is very simple, that being said, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you do your homework before making your first  batch of soap, Lye is very caustic, so please do the research before trying this for the first time.  I was also able to speak to a friend of a friend that has been making soap for over 10 years she was able to give me some great tips, like the cooler as a mold, and using a tall jar to mix the water and lye, so be sure to check with friends they might be able to give you some great tips! 

See the "chicken" in the background, I picked up her up in the free bin at the quilt shop, rusted to perfection!

Finally A Post About Quilting!

I finished the Batik Vintage Nine Patch.........

 My incentive to get it done was to share it at the "Strut Your Stuff" at the local quilt shop last night.  It was a fun time enjoying a glass of wine and some chocolate while watching fellow quilters show off their talents.  NOTE:  This pattern is from Nine-Patch Gatherings by Lisa Bongean & Carole Charles.
Here is a close-up of the binding, I decided to make it a "scrappy" one using the leftovers from the block making, I think it looks pretty nice if I might say so myself.  I quilted around the leaves and just stippled in the center, a great chance to practice my quilting skills and I think I could use more practice!

Today I finished up the remaining three of four blocks for Month 3 of the Civil War Chronicles, they are the four corner blocks...........

I still have Months 4-9 (month 10 should be on its way to me as I type) to catch up, not to mention that I still have the last 3 months of the first quilt Civil War Tribute!  I must get moving on these as I plan on signing up for the third BOM in this series, Civil War Journals.  I probably sound crazy, especially since I haven't finished the first two yet, but I believe they are planning on doing a total of five and I would like to make all of them.

Here's month 4 waiting for me to get started, hopefully tomorrow, we are expecting another rainy day!

Time to call it a day!