Prairie quilt finish

The last few days have been spent watching the World Series while finishing this quilt.  I don't think I have enjoyed myself this much in quite some time.  I only wish the games were a little more exciting.  Besides one weird obstruction rule call, and last nights home run, there hasn't been too much worth noting.  Oh yeah, and I wish these guys would shave. What's up with the beards?  They all look like they came from the set of Duck Dynasty, not Major League athletes.  Still I hope they go the full 7 games.  I hate to see baseball season end.
This  quilt was made by pulling from my scrap bin, using "blendy" muted fabrics.  The resulting blocks fly in the face of the modern, high contrast look so popular in quilting these days.
I love all the new fabrics, but a scrappy pieced quilt, a la Little House on the Prairie, using up what you have, still pulls at my heartstrings.  I didn't use a pattern, just put the blocks together with lattice and posts.  It measures 50x60 inches.
The backing is a queen sized bed sheet full of peachy/pink roses, found at the thrift store. The binding was a fabric from JoAnns.  I also used Aurifil thread in the color Sand (50wt.) to quilt it.  Despite my fancy machine (not always better, although I do love the automatic needle down, and thread cutter), it constantly gives me grief.  I have taken it to the shop repeatedly, but still have to re-thread, or take out the bobbin and put it back in, several times during a project.
Anyway my machine LOVED the Aurifil thread, and I was able to quilt without a hitch. For the record, I usually use Gutermann or Mettler thread for everything.  Despite success with the thread change, I want to get a Singer featherweight 221 for Christmas.  When I asked about the Singer at my LQS, the lady there (who knows me) said "You mean you don't have one?" Like I was missing out on something BIG.  Being a complete sewing geek, now all of a sudden I need one.  My husband (Santa) has been given the particulars and he's off on a mission.

We finally have cooler weather, and I'm trying to make a pot of soup a week.  Last week was a chicken broth based soup with cheese tortellini, fresh spinach, basil, and a can of diced tomatoes thrown in.  Lots of garlic.  Yummm.  This week is sausage, potato and kale.  More garlic. A splash of cream at the end puts it right over the top.  Here is the recipe.
By the way, the crochet piece I made to match the quilt has been turned into a cushion.  Since I have 4 crochet blankets in the works already, I just didn't have another one in me.  I'm sewing it together now, so it should show up in the next post.
I'm off to rake up all the redwood tree droppings you see in the pictures above. Unless it rains.  Then I'm back to the sewing room. Wouldn't that be just horrible.