Persistance Pays Off

Oof.  I was having all kinds of issues quilting yesterday.  I had a little section of Zippling with Stars to finish up before doing the Lava Paisley.  I quilted an entire section, thinking that the quilt felt a little heavy and slow moving.  I checked it a couple of times, but thought it was just me.  You also have to understand that this is the same day that I almost put cumin in my cake batter instead of cloves, so I already thought I was going loopy.  Luckily, my bobbin ran out and when I moved the quilt I saw that I had quilted it together.  I still have no idea how I managed to get it folded under itself like that, but I am SO glad my bobbin ran out or else I would of had some serious picking out to do.

So, I get it all picked out and you're not going to believe it - I did it again!!!  The batting got folded under.  Gratefully, I felt it this time and stopped.

Ya - it was that kind of day.   I was going to throw in the towel and call it a day, but I really wanted to try the Lava Paisley.  I'm so glad I did, because I really enjoyed it and they went a lot more smoothly for me than I thought they would.  The spacing isn't perfect, but it was really great practice and I love how it looks in the overall quilt.  I love the sharp lines of Zippling contrasting with the curves of the Paisley.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

It's mid-September and I still have zucchinis coming from my garden.  It's actually getting a bit ridiculous how many zucchinis these 2 plants have produced.  We have tried a ton of zucchini recipes, but there are still 5 huge zucchinis sitting on my counter with more on the way.  

I saw this recipe for Zucchini Cakes (similar to Potato Cakes) that we're going to try.  I'll let you know if they're any good, but in the mean time my absolute favorite zucchini recipe is Chocolate Zucchini Cake.  I do love zucchini bread quite a bit, but this recipe is like combining zucchini bread with chocolate cake and adding chocolate chips on top- how can you not love that?!!

When you cut into the cake the chocolate chips melt all over the sides of the cake.  It's pure heavenly yumminess. Here's the recipe:

½ c. Butter, softened
½ c. Oil
1¾c. Sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp. Vanilla
½ c. Buttermilk
2 1/2 c. Flour
4 Tbs. Cocoa
½ tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Cinnamon
¼ tsp. Cloves
2 c. Grated Zucchini
1 c. Chocolate Chips
1 c. Nuts (opt.)

Combine all ingredients (except nuts and chips) in order given. Pour batter into greased &
floured 9x13 pan. Sprinkle chips & nuts on top. Bake @ 325F for 45 minutes. Needs no frosting.

As you can see above, the chocolate chips bake right into the top of the cake. We're not nut 

people around here, but I have heard that walnuts or pecans taste particularly nice. For the life of 

me I can't remember the origin of this recipe, so if you feel slighted that it's yours, let me know so 

I can give you credit. In the meantime I'm going to say it's a family recipe.  I'm linking up to  

Tuesday at the Table.  :)


Just a funny side note: When I was making it this morning I almost put cumin in the batter

instead of cloves. They both start with C. That's close enough, right? Yikes. Good thing I noticed 

the smell before it went in the bowl. It would have ruined some perfectly lovely cake.

School Yard Fun

For the last 15 months I've been doing Activity Days for the 8-11 year old girls at my church.  We do all sorts of things.  I was recently released from my duties, and this past Wednesday was my last time with the girls.  I was really sad, because I really love these girls.  This past activity was all about recess.  :)  They played one huge game of hopscotch, jumped rope and colored with sidewalk chalk.



Some fun facts about hopscotch - did you know it originated in England in the 17th century?  It is found in a manuscript of compiled games as early as 1635. 

 I love this picture of Cora's hair flying:

Wish Circle Blocks

This month's block for do.Good Stitches is Converging Corners.  We had to make 2 blocks using all scraps with a white background.  Can I just say how much I love these blocks?  You put them together in a log cabin formation, and they're a lot of fun.  I was thrilled to be able to use tiny scraps that I had been holding on to wondering if there would ever be a use for them.  I think I may have to make a quilt of these, because my scrap bin is seriously overflowing. 

Paisley Problems

Well, it wasn't exactly the design that gave me issues - it was thread tension problems on my machine which led to some ugly paisley echoing.  After re-threading my machine it was back to normal and I finished up a small sashing section.

It's not the prettiest thing I've ever done, but I liked the new challenge of this design and could see it growing on me as I got better at it.  Here's a view from the back:

 Here's the thin sashing section:

Grooving Along

My goal as part of One Thing, One Week Challenge was to start the Grooves quilt.  I've been putting it off, because the pattern looked complex to me.  I rarely use patterns, so that didn't help much either.  Then I saw I tutorial at Crafty Fox showing how to put it together log cabin style and it completely made sense to me, so I pieced it together that way and the quilt top came together in no time.   It's the baby quilt size in the pattern (it's actually quite large for a baby quilt), because I am using it for a lap-sized quilt for someone who uses a wheel chair.  I also wanted it to be usable for a guy, so I went with different shades of Kona blues. 

I'm pretty happy to have finally sewn it together.  Now my wheels are turning about what I should do for the quilting.  Any suggestions is terms of thread color?  Would you use one thread color or change it by the curve you're working on?  Match or make it stick out?  I really don't know, so any suggestions would be helpful. :)

Left For Dead

Source

I started reading this month's book and realized I forgot to post about last month's book club.  We read Left for Dead by Peter Nelson.  Here's a brief summary:

"Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The ship sank in 14 minutes. More than 1,000 men were thrown into shark-infested waters. Those who survived the fiery sinking—some injured, many without life jackets—struggled to stay afloat in shark-infested waters as they waited for rescue. But the United States Navy did not even know they were missing. The Navy needed a scapegoat for this disaster. So it court-martialed the captain for “hazarding” his ship. The survivors of the Indianapolis knew that their captain was not to blame. For 50 years they worked to clear his name, even after his untimely death. But the navy would not budge—until an 11-year-old boy named Hunter Scott entered the picture. His history fair project on the Indianapolis soon became a crusade to restore the captain’s good name and the honor of the men who served under him. "

In my opinion, this book exemplifies all that is wrong in the world while still showing us the amazing perseverance and hope that still lies within the human race.  I found the accounts of the sailors to be thoroughly horrifying.  I can't even imagine being stranded in the ocean for almost 5 days while watching fellow shipmates being eaten by sharks, hallucinating from exhaustion, and drowning from drinking salt water.  Sadly though, the part of this book that upset me the most was the cover up of the Navy and the captain they broke down as part of their own personal agendas.  I never fail to be amazed at how out of touch people become once they gain a little power, and the amount of damage they do when they wield their sword of vengeance without using common sense and when they fail to be honest with themselves and others.

If this was the whole story I wouldn't have liked it, but what made this story meaningful to me was the triumph of a 5th grader and a crew who rallied to finally have history reversed and a captain's honor restored.  I was inspired by each of these men and particularly by the father of this boy who gave him the encouragement and support to follow through with such an enormous undertaking.  I think only a child could have accomplished what Hunter did, and it gives me hope for the future and restores my faith that once in a while there really is someone who is not afraid to stand up for what is right and true.

Mixing designs

I loved the Free Motion Quilt Along this past week.  For some reason adding hearts to each of the 5 designs felt like a natural progression.  I practiced adding hearts to Stippling, Sharp Stippling, Zippling, and Circuit Board.  I also added some stars into the Zippling, because the straight lines in the star worked really well with the zippling lines.

 The last design was perfect for a doll quilt I needed to finish up.  I added hearts to Loopy Lines.

I really loved how easily the hearts fit in with the loopy lines.  Adding the hearts definitely makes the quilting more interesting.















A view of the back:

I typically hand bind, but with small projects like doll quilts and table runners I like to play with different machine stitches and practice my machine binding (since it tends to not be very exact when I do it).  This time I cut the binding out at 2 1/8"  and I think it worked a little better for me. 


I've been out of town, so nothing else was accomplished this week on my list.









Other projects
Quiet Book - pages need to be put together
Cupcake & Roar Quilt Tops - need to be layered
Christmas blocks - no progress
Halloween Wall Hanging- no progress

Do.Good Stitches - need to do September blocks
Bloggers BOM - up to date

Coming up:
I really need to get going on the Groovy Quilt Along.

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 1
WIP- 7