Road to Oklahoma quilt flimsy

I love the Oklahoma themed batik

I'm in the homestretch of my Oklahoma quilt. It took forever for me to find a sashing fabric. I looked locally as well as online. Big bomb. Then I saw someone comment about Hancocks of Paducah and that's where I scored! Lovely horse shoes on a warm western brown batik. The multi colors tie in with the colors of my Oklahoma batiks.

I was initially concerned that the horse shoes might be too busy. Thankfully I was wrong. Next to the various blocks it is low volume.

Playing with layout.

I was playing with the layout WHILE it was on my En Provence quilt. What was I thinking?! The colors and patterns of En Provence messed with my eyes.

quilt top indoors

The layout tested me as I've never done a sampler quilt before. (I sure am checking off several 'firsts' with this quilt.) I arranged and rearranged a dozen times. Then I put my girls on the task and they whipped out a great design quickly.

Outside on the line seeking sunlight

I really love the 'artistic' slant of different sized and patterned blocks. I think I'm getting brave. I'm eager to get this quilt finished.

In the midst of pain came On The Scene

Bonnie Hunter named this quilt pattern On Ringo Lake with her inspiration coming from pics of a small boat literally on Ringo Lake in Minnesota.

I changed the colors.
Increased the size.
Made the blocks incorrectly.
Skipped the pieced sashing and cut the wrong width of plain sashing.
Added a border that nearly drove me mad.
You see a theme of *ugh* going on here? LOL
I admit I was lost. Physically and most of all emotionally.

Center of the unfinished top

In the zillion tiny pieces of the red, blue, gray and black confetti border I saw the light.
I was crying. Too much chaos in my life.
My vision was blurry. I could only see the pops of the bright colors. No pattern was visible.
I was seeing the emergency lights the night I found my mother dead in her home.

Confetti border has about 2500 pieces

An ambulance came even though my husband told them nothing could be done.
911 sent firemen as well.
The street was a sea of flashing lights. Confusing chaos.

Not my pic. See the red, blue, gray and black?

Sounds receded. I was numb, yet felt so much.
Firemen who all stopped and shook my hand or touched my shoulder offering sympathy.
Ambulance EMT's leaned in to offer a comforting word.
Police officers who spoke to me gently and stayed until the funeral home arrived hours later.
So many kind people were there for me. All strangers.

I survived.
My husband kept encouraging me to move forward with this quilt. He told me how much he loved it. I couldn't see past my melancholy to love it.
Until I started the borders in late July.

OKC Police Honor Guard 2015

Amidst my tears, I saw that night again and knew the name of this quilt.
On The Scene.
My husband is a 31 year veteran police officer. He still works the street.
The vivid colors are his.
The vivid color pops are his normal.
His comfort.
It means the cavalry is there to back him up.
He is not alone.
God and St. Michael are always with him. However, having your fellow officers on a scene too is comforting.

St. Michael is the patron saint of law enforcement

Now I know why I chose these colors.
Why it is so eye poppingly bright.
God knew my husband wanted this quilt before it was ever created.
My 'mistakes' were His wonderful directions.
His creation from my lowly hands.

The backing has a Thin Blue Line

I present to you On The Scene.
Design by Bonnie Hunter, On Ringo Lake, 2017 Mystery quilt
Pieced (and altered endlessly) by me.
Quilted by Bush Family Affair quilt shop, Chickasha, OK

On the Scene, final stitch 12-27-2018

I sat alone late at night hand stitching the label. I finally felt some peace. My piecing mistakes were loved and wanted. My struggle had become a thing of beauty for my loved one.

Thank you Bonnie for designing this quilt. You are helping heal my family <3

On our bed finally

I finally was able to get a pic in the late afternoon sun. I was happy to have any sunshine at all! 

A close up in the sun. Quilting is a loose stipple to keep it soft.

And to really scramble your eyes ... a close up of the vivid design.

I am so happy this quilt is complete. Amen.

Stitches and soup

It's been chilly here in Oklahoma lately. Some days are in the 50's but others ... bbbrrrrr! I love soup both for its delicious comfort and because it will cook while I stitch. Win win!

This weekend I made my favorite sausage cabbage soup. It's my version of cabbage roll soup and stuffed pepper soup. I tweaked it to fit what we want. If you don't make homemade soup, you might consider it this winter. It tastes so much better than the canned stuff.

No green cabbage at the store so I used purple cabbage

I toss some breakfast sausage in a pot to brown and start chopping veggies. An onion, a few carrots and stalks of celery. Minced garlic (or plenty of garlic powder). If I have it, I dice up some green pepper. I usually drain my sausage on paper towels. Then I toss everything back in the pot to sweat the onions and start softening my veggies. I cut a head of cabbage into 1 inch pieces until my pot is full. We love chunky soups. Add a couple of cans of stewed tomatoes, diced tomatoes or tomato sauce. Today I used 2 stewed and 1 tomato sauce. A spoon of italian seasoning, generous spoon of pepper and I put the lid on and walked away.

Tomatoes added

The sausage adds such a rich scent that I never smell any stink from the cabbage cooking. The tomatoes elevate this to a fancy soup. Later on .... voila! Dinner is ready!

This is hearty, low carb, low fat and delicious.

Now on to the stitching.

I've been plugging away on my Oklahoma quilt in between Bonnie Hunter's mystery clues. I'm finishing up an applique block then it should be time to assemble the top. Unless I decide to go bigger. We'll see.

The guitar blades tie into the play Oklahoma!

I debated if I really wanted to make the windmill. It's a lot of small pieces and I want them all stitched down snug so the quilt can be washed many times. I'm still new to applique in quilts so humor me please. Or reassure me if you have experience :)

Here is the final block. My other blocks are 12 1/2" unfinished so this was a block and half and needed borders to beef it up to fit into the layout. I love it!