Halloween Jelly Roll Race Quilt

Have you heard of a Jelly Roll Race Quilt? I had not until last year when I talked with a coworker whose quilting group was making them for a charity. She referred to a video on YouTube which I found here I thought, wow I could do that. I had been wanting to make a Halloween quilt in time for Halloween (have I mentioned this was early last year?). I ordered a jelly roll of Moda's Happy H"owl"o-ween. A jelly roll is a collections of 2 1/2" x 44" strips of fabric, typically include 40 strips of fabric. Following the instructions in the video I made the quilt top, it went very quickly and I had a quilt top in just a few hours. I also included a five inch border to make it a little larger. 

It was at this point in time that my sewing machine died. I had a Singer Confidence that I purchased just under two years before. Needless to say I went without a sewing machine for awhile. I tried to get the machine repaired but was told the electronics had fried and it could not be repaired. I had contact with Singer multiple time but to no result. Eventually I bought a Brother machine and still hesitated to open it hoping I could get my Singer fixed. Finally I opened my new machine and a few months ago learned how to use it. I got this quilt and one other quilted and was pretty happy with the machines performance. Next I did the binding and now have a completed quilt with plenty of time until Halloween!

Here is a closer look, I quilted it with black thread to help the Halloween look.

Now a look at the binding and back too.

This is the backing fabric.

Katie is a big fan of this quilt.

Backyard Lawn

My backyard lawn project has done much better than I expected. Here is a look at it a little over a week ago. There are some patches that did not take but that was because of the sprinklers that have since been replaced. If needed I will reseed in the fall.

It is thicker and longer than this now. I plan to mow it for the first time this weekend and then will post some updated pictures. It is a vast improvement over dirt!

Strawberries

We planted strawberries not too long ago and the resulting plants have been surprisingly productive and large.

As you can see Katie has become adept at finding the small red berries and will do what she needs to do to get them. They quickly go into her mouth so there are not many to photograph but we did catch this one.

We usually get a small bowl for her to collect them in.

She will run back and forth putting the ones she has not eaten right away into the bowl.

Katie does love her strawberries. These are small and sweet and are nothing like what you find in a store.

My front planters are doing really good. The roses are doing well and so is the jasmine which should start blooming soon. 

The second planter has grown like crazy and I did not plant or seed anything in it this year. We have alyssum, desert primrose and sweet peas thriving.