Picking and Jamming

This weekend had such beautiful weather for picking our harvest and making Jam.  Usually, when the fruit is ready, it's too hot to really have fun in the kitchen, but this was perfect weather!  We picked tomatoes, cabbage, plums, corn and blackberries, and I don't have pictures of the last two, because we ate them before I got my camera out - oops!

These are little Italian plums - very sweet and tasty!!!

Blackberries are the most fragile, so the first thing I made was a batch of blackberry jam.  But there were more berries, just not enough for a full batch of cooked jam, so I decided to make a batch of freezer jam (first time for that), and it is totally yummy, way more of a fresh fruit flavor!

And still there were more... but not enough for a batch, so I decided to use the remaining crushed berries to plums and make a combination recipe.  Even though there was less than a cup of blackberries in the batch, it has lots of blackberry flavor in it!

Gardening and Sewing

This year's garden is quite productive, especially when I think how much cooler and wetter our summer has been!  Of course, those heat loving fruit and veggies are a bit behind when it comes to growing and ripening, so I've got my fingers crossed that our tomatoes and pumpkins will have time to mature before it gets too chilly for them!  Looking at the veggies in the baskets, I really didn't think I had as much as I did, until I started bagging them.  There were about 2 gallons of beans, 1 gallon of white cucumbers, and probably at least 1/ 3 gallon of the green cucumbers.  Only a few carrots were pulled, because I'd rather pull them when I want them, and we've got plenty more continuing to grow!

When we were in Sisters, OR, my friend Ellen gave all her housemates a kit for a Peek-a-Boo bag.  I love the way mine came out and am happy my larger than normal sewing kit fits inside!  Thank you Ellen!!!

Almost there...

A few weeks ago, this was filled with weeds (really one big mass), but I finally got the weeds out (okay, there will always be more sprouting) and have a lot of mulch spread.  The mulch not only makes the garden look better, but helps retain moisture, which really helps in the summer.  I think one more weekend and the major work will be finished!

We have lots of fruit and vegetables sprouting in the vegetable garden!

Huge Gardening Project

As you might have guessed, I haven't been working on the Figs and Ginger quilts because this garden has taken a lot of my (our) time lately.  We work so hard, sometimes it's hard to get moving the next day, because my muscles are stiff from working out there and by evening, I just want to sit and work on something small with my feet up.

Luckily, the tractor is doing the tilling, because there are so many rocks in this field.  I think we have picked up enough "large" rocks to fill the large front scooper at least 3 times.  Some are small boulders, others are smaller, but they are large enough to have stalled the tractor several times.  I also found 2 large pieces of bent up sheet metal in the field.  Now I'm not talking small pieces, they must have weighed at least a couple pounds each!

I think we have all the vegetable beds ready for this year, and I've reserved a couple rows to plant later, to help spread out the harvest, but we're still working on the watering system.  Since it's the first year of our garden in this area, we're learning about the soil and nutrients needed and hoping the warmer space with more sun will bring us more tomatoes, melons and squash, which weren't as happy with their old location.

The plants had to go in the ground before the seeds, but everything I wanted to plant is in the ground! Later I'll plant more lettuce, beans and other short growing crops, and then fall crops will need to be planted in the summer.

Earlier this year I bought some strawberries, grapes and blueberries, but didn't get them in the ground until this weekend, so I lost some of the strawberries and am crossing my fingers that the rest will still be ok since I kept them cool in our garage.  A couple of the grapes have new growth, so that's a good sign.

Some of our young fruit trees looks like it will have fruit this year and we're hoping we will get to taste the fruits of our labors, after patiently waiting for a few years!

Garden, Quilt, Knit, Knit, Weave... and Book Giveaway!

Since April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, I thought it might be time I offered to giveaway a copy of my book!  Post a comment to this post before April 15th, and on April 15th, I'll draw a winner, so you can start making a floral quilt in May! 

This year, my gardening started indoors, planting seeds in flats, but is now moving outside.  Space has been cleared for the peas, and they're now all in the ground. There are two kinds, snow peas and snap peas, and we're looking forward to eating the fruits of my labor in the future.  In the meantime, I'll be watching over these, as well as the other babies that will be to small to go outside for a while, like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and some others.

The stack of sewn blocks for the Figs and Ginger quilts is growing, and I get a feeling of satisfaction every time I get to change to the next set of colors!

I've ripped back to my mistake on the Aquitaine Cuffs, fixed the error, and am now ready to move on:

My green Oatmeal Sweater, is moving along, and for those that were wondering what I was going to make with the yarn I'm spinning, this is the project that inspired the wool purchase, but since I'm making it in the green yarn, I'll probably choose a pattern when the yarn is finished.  The sleeves have been attached, and I'm now working on the pattern at the bottom of the yoke and working up, so I'm nearing the finish line! (Sorry, this isn't the best picture - the sweater is really green.)

On the weaving front, I've finished the scarf I showed you last time, and have begun to weave the last scarf on the warp.  This one will go much quicker, because the treadling pattern is easier, and I'm only using one shuttle!

Madrona, Oasis and gardening

Not much progress on Madrona, due to forces beyone my control - the company changed the location they planned to hang it, and I needed to go see how it would fit. Originally I had allowed about 8-12" extra for wrapping the quilt around stretcher bars so that it could be hung as "art" insead of the way I would hang a quilt. However, after visiting the shop this week, I've found I need to keep it as wide and tall as the largest areas, so the trees will be removed and the background can be made larger in the areas needed. After that is done, the trees can return and be collaged into shape. I'm thinking (at this time) that while most of the leaves will be placed flat on the quilt, some dimensional leaves might make it more interesting. I'll just have to see what the quilt tells me when I get that far. Hopefully, I'll be able to spend some quality time working on it this week.




One of the Quilter's Affair classes that I took when I was in Sisters, was Oasis, with Vivienne Moore, and chose to do teal / green with pink accent. The top is finished and waiting to be layered and quilted. (Sorry if these first two pictures aren't the most straight and clear, the only way I could take them at all was to stand on a stepstool and hold the camera over my head, while hopefully pointing it at the quilt at the floor. Not the best way, but the best I could do for a quick picture without a design wall, or a ladder.)




Most of the last two days was spent out in the garden. You know, those nasty green things that come up between the plants you want, well, this garden was almost totally green when I began, but now I can see the plants, and the weeds are gone! Unfortunately, I also had to remove some plants that have not survived where they were planted, and I'll have to see what I'm going to replace them with in the fall.

Instant garden - well almost....

Just yesterday morning this area was empty, except for weeds, and the large herbs on the left!

With all the different things we're trying to juggle this year, much of what is usually a vegetable garden is still full of weeds or overgrown oregano, as it has taken over the strawberry beds! My husband did manage to till two of the beds, but one still has grass that needs to be dug out, before it can be planted. Lucky for me, we have a local garden center, which still had lovely large plants, so I could "pretend" that I had grown them from seeds as usual, but instead, quickly weeded, fertilized, and planted some tomatos, peppers, cucumber and watermelon plants, then added mulch to keep in the moisture as much as possible - it also looks nicer than dirt. In the past, melons have not always done well, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will end up with at least a few to eat.

Right now it may look like I could have put in more plants, but for the first time, I did not over plant the space! When I begin with seeds, I always end up cramming all the ones that sprout and grow into the space, and then later in the season, can hardly get in to harvest the fruits of my labor.