Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Let Them Eat Cake!

Our twin grandchildren were one year old on the 19th and celebrated their birthday Sunday in their new house. They moved in on Saturday and had a birthday party on Sunday for a whole bunch of people. Mom & Dad looked a little tired on Sunday. :) Of course, we had the required birthday-cake-all-over-the-face pictures....


Holden wasn't really into it...he'd just had supper and he was tired...missed the afternoon nap. Hayden, on the other hand, got right down to business stuffing that piece of cake into her mouth. And then looked around for more. It really was good cake....the other grandma baked & decorated it.

And here's their new house:


I think they are going to miss their acreage, but this house has so much more room & it's in a nice quiet part of town where they won't have all the noisy truck traffic that developed on their road after a big grain handling facility was built to the south.  And hey, you can see by the piles of shingles that it got a new roof just before they bought it.

As for me, I've been working on some Fall projects that I will post later and celebrating National Sewing Month by cruising the online fabric stores and buying fabric. I added up the amount and realized I may have gone a bit overboard. Most of it has a planned purpose and like I always say, fabric is an investment, and the price isn't likely to go down.


Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Pears 'n Apples

The harvest is good this year.

Hanging in clusters, like grapes....really big grapes.  :)



More were added after I took this picture.
Last of the McIntosh apples...they're really nice this year.


Some serious canning and dehydrating work here.  The Golden Delicious apples are my preference for dehydrating and they're ready to pick too.  Tomatoes are about done, red bell peppers are getting ripe, squash is about ready to eat. The sweet corn didn't produce as much this year for the amount planted, but all in all the garden did well this year.

Pretty soon we'll be eating a lot of Pear Pie and Squash, Potato & Sausage Casserole. We look forward to it all year.


Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Latest Finish

Today we have a beautiful Fall day and I should be outside enjoying it. Instead, here I am, in the house sewing and taking breaks to play on the computer.  Here is a picture of my latest finish....just so you know I do get some things done. I always like to take my finishes to Quilt Club for Show 'n Tell before I put them on the blog.  That way my hometown quilting friends get to see them first.


It will be donated to Quilts of Valor. It's a good thing there's such a worthy cause to donate to since I love making them, but what would I do with all of them? Pictures to go through from time to time take up much less space in my small house.

And here's the next project.....it will look completely different when finished.


I have a perfectly good UFO that just needs borders before it's ready to quilt, but do I work on that??Oh, no!! Starting something new is so much more fun.


Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Don't Even Think About It!!

Has your DH or one of your dear children ever asked to use your fabric scissors?  Should they have the audacity to do so, this diagram might be useful:
I found it on Bonnie Hunter's blog and it was just screaming to be shared. :)

There's a quilt on the frame, so maybe I'll have something "quilty" to share soon. This past month I've spent a good bit of time freezing & canning corn & canning tomatoes.  I had picked another batch of tomatoes & a neighbor brought over a 5-gallon bucket full that should all be ready to can on Friday. I still have some canned whole tomatoes left from last year so will maybe do one more canner full of those and then start making tomato/veggie juice.  It's my choice of juice for breakfast.

Have you used the Tattler reusable lids....plastic lid & rubber ring? I used some last year and didn't have much trouble, but this year I've lost 2 jars (bottoms fell out) due to over tightening the metal rings and had two jars pop open as soon as they came out of the canner. I decided I had reused the metal ring from the first jar that popped open on the second one and that it must be defective, so it got tossed.  Put on a different ring, re-processed about 25 min. and all was good. There is a knack to using the Tattlers. Kind of like when my Grandma used the old zinc lids with the rubber rings.  When putting the lids on the jars just tighten lightly....finger tight, the directions say. Then when they come out of the canner you finish tightening them up.

After having the long weekend and my regular days off work, I head back tomorrow. Not really terribly enthused about it, but the money buys quilt fabric and pays for Internet service, among other things, so..............hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go.  :)  :)