Beginning a Round Robin, Ending the Harvest

Without putting too fine a point on it, Autumn always seems to be a time of endings (nice weather, long sunny days, fresh veggies and fruits) and beginnings (school, new projects, new clothes).

Our little personal garden went out with a bang this year. A colorful ending to a educational (for the grandkids) and delicious year.

These were the pumpkins we picked last week - the last of them. That was after sharing with the grandkids and the neighbors. We thought we only had a “few” left. HA!  I’ve been giving them to passers-by and used a few to decorate my house inside and on the front porch area (see below).

I’ve also tied some of the dried cornstalks to the front pillars (not pictured).  The red and green grapes have made great snacks for the last month or more, and these were the last of the large bunches. The rest I left on the vines for the bees (gone now since the frost) and the birds. The purple Concord grapes in the yellow colander is another batch that I picked on that morning. Later they were juiced into about 4 quarts of grape juice and bottled.  Yum!!  We got almost 12 quarts off the one bush this year.

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My latest “beginning” is a round robin for Crazy Quilting International.  This one is called “I Love Paris”.  Sound familiar?  It was my idea because I wanted MORE after doing my Paris purse a couple years ago.  (see posts here).

Among those posts is one that explains how I do my piecing. This one was more complicated than my purse, and I had to add that central lavender piece (vertical, curvy, to the right of the toile) because I didn’t leave large enough selvages on my pieces.  But it finally came together with some hand stitching and adding trim to cover some raw edges. Luckily, the many imperfections will be covered up by the embellishments!

This is in the mail to Theresa, and I look forward to stitching on their blocks! 

Until next time,

Another Little Quilt

In between stitching for my round robins and the CQ Journal Project, I am trying to complete a half dozen quilts before Christmas. Sounds impressive, eh?  It isn’t really - these are small, very easy quilts.  The idea was to get me back into quilting with easy patterns for the grandkids’ quilts.

Bruce helping Hunter with Pumpkin

Hunter checks out our pumpkin patch

Cars and trucks Christmas quilt for Hunter

Detail view

Minky backing showing quilting

Below, I just love our orange front door, especially at this time of year when it makes a great backdrop for an autumn wreath!

I’ve started winterizing the yard, so most of the flowering annuals are gone and things are looking a bit bare.  The weather is still clear, gorgeous and warm during the days, but evenings are nippy.

The Japanese maple is also showing off for autumn.

The entryway looks so bare without all my flower-filled Mexican Talavera pots.  Well, I had to keep one there for another couple weeks . . .

Next time I am out in the garden, I will tackle this front flower bed.  I want to enjoy that delphinium as long as I can and pretend it’s still summer!

There are a lot of autumn themed laces in my Etsy shop.  Below I have just a sampling.  There are Christmas appliques and laces, too (we crafters like to get an early start).  Enjoy the fall colors, LOL!!

Hugs,

Lauren Visits

Yikes! It has been almost a month since I posted!  Is anyone still out there?!?  LOL   I have actually been thinking about you all as I bustle about my summer.  It has been a busy one and a hot one, and from my blog reading, I can tell it has been the same for many of you.

I have taken pictures here and there, so I hope to get caught up a bit with blogging this week.  And I still need to take pictures of my CQ Journal Project blocks and to-date progress, and promise to do that this week.

Last week I had my granddaughter Lauren here to spend the day with me last week before school started. She’s 8 and going into 3rd grade.  Actually, my son Ryan and her mom Kim are getting married next June, but have been together for over 5 years and we have known and loved Lauren and her brother Easton since they were little.

The plan was to have sewing lesson #2.  The first one was about a month ago, when we made her a tote bag (visible in blue in the background of the second picture, below). She learns quickly and did 90% of the sewing. I only did enough to show her, plus I attached the handles.  No good pictures of that.

Anyway, our plan went awry as soon as Lauren saw the gold Victorian pincushion that my friend Gerry K had made for me some time ago.  Lauren fell in love with it and wanted to know if she could make one like it.

Well, luckily, I have been saving candlestick bases for just that, so, she selected her favorite (the biggest and heaviest one!) and we got to work.   There were plenty of crafty lessons along the way, but the only sewing was making the red velvet square into a round yo-yo; so I taught her about gathering stitches, yo-yos, and stuffing things.

We also had fun glueing the components together, and it was quite a challenge since both of my tubes of E6000 were dried up. We ended up using the silicone that I used to glue together my recent garden ornaments.

Another lesson was a color one. As a typical young girl, she loves anything flashy and bright. She wanted red, pink, purple, silver, gold, jewels, flowers, strawberries, butterflies, etc. on it.  So first we selected the color red, based on what I had in the way of trims that matched fancy fabrics she liked.

After that, I had her bring out everything she thought was a possibility, and once the stuffed yo-yo and trims were glued to the base, we began auditioning things.  To her credit, Lauren realized quickly that some things did not look good and others would have to be saved for another project later. It did not all have to go onto this one.

One thing she really liked was the dangly things, so even I made concessions to let her design and put on as many as she liked; a key, jewels, a tiny locket, fancy pins, vintage jewelry, etc.  I had previously made the organdy rose, and she wanted to add the gold vintage leaf brooch to it.

Lauren also fell in love with rhinestones (that’s my girl!!) and so to satisfy her Deep Need for More Bling, we included a vintage rhinestone clip-on earring on the back side.   It turned out really cute and she wants to come back as soon as she can to make another one!!

Here is a picture of some of garden produce, taken about a month ago. Our corn is gone now, so we are picking it from the Community Garden we participate in (that is also where the peppers and onions come from).

Over the last couple weeks I have made a lot of strawberry-rhubarb compote, frozen green beans, peppers, and tomatoes. And then there is the jam: strawberry was early summer, but jumbleberry peach was this past weekend (peach, red and black raspberries and strawberries).   Later this week I will freeze more peaches and make some peach jam.   And the tomatoes, peppers and squash (zucchini and yellow crookneck) keep coming.  We are eating soooooo healthily!

Talk to you soon!

More CQJP Blocks - and RAIN!!!

We were so excited to wake up this morning and see threatening clouds!  It has been so hot and dry here, like much of the Western US.  And sure enough, by about 9 am the rains came.  It was relatively warm, so Bruce and I took our coffee and iPads out to the patio, and I snatched my camera as well.  While we listened to the pitter-patter of rain on the patio roof (in our pajamas!), I snapped some garden pictures.

Our healthy pumpkin plants are blossoming

Corn, pumpkins and green beans (and yes, a few little weeds)

Every once in awhile, Bruce likes to plant Indian-style. The corn (this year is Indian corn and some edible corn) is planted in a circle, with green beans planted in a circle around the corn, on which they will climb.  The pumpkins are scattered around to grow on the ground in between.

If everything sprouts, it is a beautiful thing, but as you can see, everything did NOT sprout, so we have some gaping holes.  This year we will re-install a chicken-wire fence where the rocks are for next year`s beans.   Luckily, we are participating in two community gardens this year, so we will (and have been getting) get our tomatoes, onions, peppers, squash, garlic, cabbage, eating corn, etc. from there.

But the grape vines (above and below) are doing nicely.  Look at the bunches of grapes that are growing along the north side of our patio (below).  The vines and grapes form a green curtain.

The vines mainly grow along the west (latticed) side of the patio, shading us from direct sun and giving us a lovely green seating area on the patio. We have lights and a fan out there, too. I can see from this picture that I need to hang my wind chimes!

Evenutally, I came inside and showered and changed into real clothes.  My first order of business was to get out my May CQJP and finish it up. It had been finished and was shown here, but I ripped out the heavy silk ribbon and replaced it with some light stitching. The silk ribbon at the end of the pink row of stitching looks dumb in the picture (I guess it needs more tacking down), but it is a double gathered bloom in person.

This is my June CQ Journal Project Block, below.  I did do the cable-chain stitch for TAST, but need to get caught up with other stitches in the July block.

Below are the May and June blocks together.

And this is the entire project to date, just pinned of course.  The missing block is the July block, which I am about to start.  The positions of the blocks are not set in stone; once they are all finished I will play with their arrangement.

But today I couldn’t resist auditioning some trim for the inside border. I am not sure if I will have enough, but I can always find something similar.  What do you think??

Well, now I am off to paint some laces to restock my Etsy shop. I sold out of a lot of stuff with the sale that ended yesterday, and I am thrilled.  :-)

Today I love:
The sound of the rain
The smell of the rain
The sight of Boomer curled up asleep with his paw over his eyes
The taste of fresh apricots
The feel of hands that have not been numb today.

Hugs,

Garden Art - Nature’s and Mine

I want to show you some fun craftiness I had a couple of weeks ago.

After checking out some delightful garden art on Etsy and Pinterest, Bruce and I made a trip to the thrift store (well, a couple thrift stores actually, but who’s counting?) and purchased some fun glassware.   Then Bruce went to the hardware store and got the necessary things, and the next day I put these together.

Instant Birdbath (click to embiggen; I got my blog restored to the old picture viewing format).

The birdbath is three pieces; a large glass flower vase turned upside down, a ceramic vase with flowers, and a large glass platter.  I use waterproof silicone that comes in a tube, and apply it like hot glue with a caulking gun.  Let it cure for several hours (although it feels pretty sturdy within an hour), and voila!

Then I decided to make “flowers”.  This is just four pieces stacked and glued as described above. The large outer plate is a floral ceramic, but you could use colored glass. I think the wavy edges look better than the plain edges. The next layer in this case was a clear glass dish - again, just the cheapies from the thrift store.  The next layer is a frosted and fluted candle holder and inside that is a green shot glass.

Below is the “bird bath” in the backyard, which is slightly smaller and doesn’t impress me as much as my other one in the front.  :-)

This is the other “flower” I did; three plates of varying sizes,  and the center was a candle holder thingy that had beads wired on from its previous life. 

You can see it a bit better here.  These are all waterproof, but I do plan to bring them inside in the fall.

Here’s a picture of the attaching arrangement on the back. I glued a piece of PVC pipe on the back of the plate. It was plain on one end and had a threaded female area on the other. Into that I screwed a corner (elbow), and then a longer piece of PVC as a stake.  Inside the stake is a piece of rebar that we pounded into the ground to the desired height, then we just slipped this contraption and plate over it.  Soooo simple!

And speaking of Garden Art, Boomer’s favorite place in the backyard is here, next to his Stone Cat friend. Boomer is NOT an outdoor cat, but when we spend time out on the patio, he often wants to join us. If the weather is not too cold, too hot, too windy or too wet (he is very persnickety), he will come out and join us. And he is safe because our yard is fenced in, he has no front claws, and he is OLD. He will be celebrating his 17th birthday in July.  This is his favorite sunning spot, but when the vegetable garden gets bigger, he likes to lay under the corn.  And he usually ends up jumping up onto a wicker chair cushion and curling up to sleep on the covered patio.  :-)

This is a shot of some of our front pots a few days ago. The heat has made them just explode with color!

I loved the way these wilted and almost-dried roses looked, so before I began deadheading, I snapped a few pictures.

And here again is our troublesome side yard.  A couple months ago I posted a horrendous “before” picture. Ghastly. But I have worked away, slowly but surely, and gotten the grass and weeds pulled (it looks even better after my session yesterday).  Everything has been trimmed. Now I am just waiting for August and September to begin dividing and replanting the irises, lilies, some goldenrod and my poppy.

That’s it for now, garden-wise.

I have decided to take the pink ribbon trim off my May CQJP. It might have been OK if I had chosen a better path for it or used a bit narrower ribbon. The truth is I just wanted to get rid of some of my old Bucilla crap.  But off it comes, and I will figure out something else. The silk ribbon, however - and a better brand - will be used to fill in the “black holes” that are being created by abutting blocks. And since I haven’t really finalized what blocks are going where, that will be saved for the end.

I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Hugs,