San Antonio Missions historic sites (edited to remove fox photo as that was already posted)

Hello,  everyone.  I was out of town for a few days, but now have returned home. I saw some interesting things on this road trip.

Mission S. Francisco de Espada, near the Loop 1604 south portion, was the first of the mission churches we visited.

The mission front garden (there is a community of believers that come to pray and someone looks after the landscaping near the church building) was surprisingly colorful for August. In addition to the sunflowers in bloom, they had some beautyberry shrubs with berries. (The purple things) I didn't know beautyberry would grow so far south! I think San Antonio is in about zone 8b in the USDA growing zones map. Now I wonder if beautyberry would consent to grow in 9b, about 7 F degrees warmer on the winter cold days, I guess.

The front of the church. The reddish flowers on the left are poinciana, which is gorgeous in bloom but a freeze will at least knock it to the ground. They might be growing it on hope, and expecting the plants to return from the roots if the temp gets down to slightly below freezing.

Wildlife on the move

Hello, everyone. It's always fun to see an unexpected animal.

This fox was out for a stroll near the Mission S Francis De Espada historical park on the south side of San Antonio. I didn't know they come in that color variety. 

Tapas ideas, American style

Hello, everyone.  We love eating pinchos and tapas so much when we're on the Camino. At home, we get to missing them. Sometimes we try to make some of our own.

Cucumber rounds with tuna and pomegranate on the blue plate, also bread rounds with soft cream cheese and wild salmon on the yellow plate

Cucumber with dates, walnuts, and goat cheese. After making these we concluded that peeling and making thick slices of the Cucumber and scooping out the middle with a melon baller would work better.

Bread rounds variety: cream cheese with wild salmon, slices of meatball with Mexican cheese blend, cream cheese with piquillo pepper relish, combinations of the above. This last plate was turned sideways by the Blogger app, I did crop it but the first version was still in memory or something like that.

I always feel like I need to use the test stitching

Hello, everyone.  Today I finished a book tote. It started out as test stitches for the embroidered brown pillow last year. The pillow went to its new home, but the test swatch sat there staring at me. For months. Reminding me that something should be made from it.

Fortunately there was more of the red duck in the stash.

It is lined and has a slip pocket. There is also a small D ring at the side for a key chain or charm. It's the right size for many hard cover books, too. 

Fabric: cotton duck canvas from stash, quilting cotton lining also from stash.

Another class project finished

Hello, everyone.  Today's finish is a sewing club project that we started last February.  It's the Sisters Common Thread Caddy Pad. I did the "Junior" size because that's the one that fits my travel iron. They also have a tiny size and a regular size. 

This is a combination iron tote and small ironing pad. 

The front cover of the instructions.  If you shop carefully you can get a pattern that includes the silver toned heat resistant fabric for the inner surface.

The finished tote. (Yes, I did stick the iron in it without removing the official Rowenta cover. It's late.) I followed the directions as written, pretty much. It's been a while since I started the project

 I did make a stitched box for attaching the handles, though, even though it will probably not have a lot of strain to contend with. I just like it this way.

Fabric: a fat quarters of quilting cotton for the outside in a lilacs and leaves abstract print. Binding and handles are from stash fabric, as also the yellow buttons and the elastic loops.

The parrot is finished

Hello, everyone.  I might have put up a project progress report a few months ago on this bird. It's from a quilt pattern by Quilt Fox Design. The wall hanging version was a class project at RGV Sew and Quilt, a little ways down the road. The class was a lot of fun.

I was so excited to have this finished that I hung it up even before ironing the rumples out. (Sorry) Much of the quilting was basically echoes of the fabric shapes, with a couple of areas done in straight lines. I did change the thread color to go with the fabric substrate so that the bird would remain the focus of the project. 

The pattern, in case anyone wants to make a pieced parrot.

A small project to relax with

Hello,  everyone.  After the big quilt, I was a little tired, mentally,  and wanted to do something that's not such a HUGE commitment of time and energy. 

A piece of scrap from the vinyl sided zipper bag we did in Sewing Club a while back looked a little bit like a boat...one thing led to another and it turned into a fidget mat.

There was a satin triangle that had been a stitching test piece, so now it has stitched texture, and a triangle also left from that zipper bag, a piece of solid blue left over from making a different zipper pouch, some more of the shiny, blue "fur" in the stash...I embroidered a couple of fish in the blue water and added bead "bubbles" and some decorative stitches from the sewing machine to imply currents and seaweed, more scraps to make a hillside building with a little path and some button shrubs...it was all very relaxing until it was time to stitch onto the fur. Then the texture was getting into the presser foot of the machine. I ended up covering all of the fur with Sulky Solvy to hold it still.

At the end, I  used solid golden binding that was left from the big quilt. (I had cut about 10 yards and connected them all together. It wasn't a surprise that there was some extra.)

It was a nice break from manipulating huge piles of fabric.