Log-Cabin Star Quilt Top Finish

I'm a little behind and I've been anxious to share this
quilt top so, now that I have a little time,
 I'm not going to wait for my Monday Check-In.
Today it's a Friday Check-In!

I love how it turned out in "the big picture"; up close you do kind of

lose the design but it's full of prints that lean toward the autumn

season and colors that should carry it through Christmas so I'm

hoping that will be the "up close" enjoyment.

As we know, I'm a border person so I tried like heck to get a

border to work on here but this quilt would just have none of it.

I gave up and settled on a binding fabric that would pull out

the deep brown in the middle of the log cabins as well as the

reds in the quilts.  If you recall, I picked up the backing for this

 quilt on the shop hop, buying all that was on the bolt from the

clearance rack.  Amazingly, I have just barely enough.  Barely.

(And I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me when I go to baste it together!)

So, it turns out the "no border" is a win regardless of my personal

design tastes.  And, frankly, it's already too big for me to enjoy

 the quilting--73" x 97".  Good thing I left off a column and row!

Over in the kitchen...

It seems I just can't let a year go by without some canning.

I always make more fruit jams and jellies than we can possibly eat

so I'm always looking for different ways to serve it.  Lately, we've

come to love pepper jellies so I wanted to start experimenting there.

I've had a batch of blackberry that just didn't set up well this summer

so I decided to try re-processing it.  I also decided to add in jalapeños

(and lemon for acidity)--not a new jelly for us but I've never

tried to re-process (and add in more pectin) anything before.

Because we had a good pear harvest this year, I also thought

it would be a great time try some pear jalapeño jelly...

and then thought why not

try roasted poblano pear jelly as well?

The final products of my work in the Test Kitchen.

Jams and jellies are tricky to mess with so the final test

will be when we taste them, and if they last on the shelf.

Our quick and easy snack is to pour a pepper jelly over

softened cream cheese and serve with tortilla chips.

However, my favorite way to enjoy them is on a good brie

grilled on a cedar plank and topped with pecan halves, 

and served up with some nice crackers,

which is exactly how I'm hoping to try out the one

of pear jellies this weekend.

Our first football play-off game is tomorrow night--an easy win.

The following evening's forecast should be perfect for our plans of

enjoying drinks and snacks with friends around the fire pit...

and under some quilts, of course.  

Also, our daughter and her husband will be in town.

All of this will keep me busy but I had my son set up my machine

in our sunroom just this evening which means I'm ready

to get all four of those quilts quilted.

I should still find a little time to get a start.

Happy fall quilting!