Forest Quilt Along, and July Finish!

Over the week-end, I put the finishing binding on my Forest Quilt Along blocks / quilts!  As I mentioned in this post, it was also my July "A Lovely Year of Finishes" goal. I was hoping to make all 12 blocks, but life suddenly got really busy after 6 were made.  I hope to make at least a few extras in the months to come.

Since I only had 6, and love, love, love these blocks, I knew that I wanted to make something that I could put up on our walls, and look at every day.  I decided to split them all up to spread the love all over the house, and made 2 mini quilts, and 1 throw pillow.

As usual, the quilting part of theses was a lot of fun too.  Here's a few details:

Thanks again to Joanna, Julianna, and all of the other artists and wonderful hosts of this quilt along!

More Tula Pink City Sampler Blocks

Despite being super busy with kids' swim schedule, I did manage to get a few more City Sampler blocks sewn up recently. Enjoy!

A Bit of Do Good Sewing

When I saw that Cheryl Arkison, co-author of "Sunday Morning Quilts" was collecting quilt blocks for making flood relief quilts for those in Canada affected by recent flooding, I jumped at the chance to help out.  These slab blocks are fun to make, and quite addictive.  I see more of these blocks in my future...

I also decided to use up my "left over" black and white quilt blocks to turn into a Project Linus Quilt top.  Kate is again running 100 quilts for kids.  It's a great motivator for me!

Other than these projects, I've been quilting up my Forest QAL blocks, and spending lots of time taking kids to and from our local public pool.  My husband is back from his first full 14 day fire assignment, in Colorado, and gearing up for a potentially busy Oregon fire season here.  The garden is one of our worst ever, here in Pendleton, sadly... Thank goodness for farmer's markets, and co-ops!  I hope everyone's summer is going well!

Tzatziki Sauce

Yesterday, Debbie of A Quilter's Table decided to write an impromptu Tuesday at the Table post!  She's also decided to give away some of her fabric scraps to a lucky person who links up!

I decided to share what we had for dinner last night.

It all was determined by a newly discovered pre-made Tzatziki sauce that I found in our local grocery store.  Living in a small town, with only a few small-ish grocery stores, I get pretty excited about stuff like this!  I normally make my own, which, like any home made food is better than store bought, but the pre-made is pretty good, and super easy!

As the label says, it's basically just yogurt, chopped or diced cucumbers, garlic and spices, which usually includes lemon juice, salt and pepper.  My favorite recipe is this one from Emeril Lagasse on the Food Network site. Our garden is off to a really lousy start, but if we get some cucumbers, I'll be making this over and over again until frost hits!  It's great on fish, as a dip for vegetables and pita bread, on sandwiches, or just plain all by itself!

Summer in the PNW means wonderful fresh salmon, which we try to eat as much as we can.  Tabouli is a bulgur wheat salad that also contains lemon juice, parsley, cucumber and garlic, and spices.  Again, it's really hard to find bulgur wheat in a small town, but every now and then I get lucky.  Unfortunately, the only type sold here is a "quick cooking red wheat", which isn't as good as what I get in bulk from bigger grocery stores.  I may have to start buying it on-line.  If anyone has a brand they like let me know!

July Finish Goal

My A Lovely Year of Finishes goal for July is to make a project, or piece for the Forest Quilt Along finish link up.  I have until August to finish it.  I kind of stalled out after the first 6 blocks, but hope to eventually make a few more of these amazing blocks.

I knew almost from the start that I did NOT want to make a quilt out of these beauties.  They're something I want to look at every day, so I hope to make a small mini wall hanging quilt (or 2).  I may even make a pillow out of them for our couch.