Here's my stash

Judy L. over on Patchworktimes.com has issued a "Show Us Your Stash" challenge. She asked for "A Picture." LOL I needed four to show mine and there's a small set of plastic drawers off to the right of the tubs in the first picture that you can't see that holds cut squares and bricks.






The bookcase and the two tubs are overflow in the basement. The nearest set of plastic drawers under the tubs has more fabric.






Oh, yes, there's a box of scraps lurking on a shelf in the basement storeroom but I didn't feel like climbing over everything to get to it. Isn't what I've already shown bad enough???

UPDATE: Oops!!! I just realized I forgot the box of hand-dye scraps and the large tub & 3 smaller plastic tubs of hand-dyes in a basement closet. See, I really need one big room where everything can be together....not in this lifetime, I'm afraid.

Finally!!

I finally DID get to some sewing on Wednesday. Nothing exciting, just some black & white four patches for my Bricks & Stepping Stones.



And on Friday I pressed. It's just nice to work with fabric again.

I canned the last of the tomatoes that I intend to can this year. The total comes to 35 qts. and 21 pints. I doubt if we'll have to raise any next year. My canning for the year should be done now. DH is picking the pears now, but those and the Golden Delicious apples will get dehydrated so I'll probably be working on those for the next month, off & on. Lots of butternut squash out in the garden...hopefully I'll be able to find good homes for some of them.

Life in the slow lane

About the most exciting thing that's happened around here lately is getting our new furnace installed yesterday...fancy shmancy programmable thermostat and all. My husband will never be able to figure out how to set it. He's hopeless with electronics and they keep getting more complicated all the time. Isn't he lucky to have me to deal with them??? LOL

I'm still canning. The apples are finished and I'd like to say I'm done with the tomatoes, but there's still a box of them sitting here so I may do a few more. Here's what was done on Sunday & Tuesday---apple pie filling, Caramel Apple Jam [ala Judy L.] and pints of tomatoes to put in hamburger vegetable soup.


Next on the list will be dehydrating the Golden Delicious apples and the pears. The squash are pretty well ripe but they can set for a while before I have to think about doing anything other than make some pies & maybe a little pumpkin bread or bars. There's still deer meat from last fall that needs to be ground up and made into jerky so will have to get on that. Before I know it there will be more.

And here's a blurry picture of my hand with is canning injuries. You have to watch out for those sharp knives & be careful to not peel the skin right off when tightening those jar rings. LOL


Today I WILL sew. It's been way to long since I actually sat down at the machine. I have my hand-dye Bricks & Stepping stones handy & will work on that. It was started as my quilt club project but this year we've mostly worked on string quilt blocks for charity at meetings so I might as well work on it at home. Someday it might even get finished :D I'm getting kind of antsy to start on Bonnie Hunter's Orange Crush. I've got the fabrics picked out and that orange is calling to me :D

Time flies..........

....whether you're having fun or not!! I checked the blog & couldn't believe it had been almost two weeks since I posted. With two "family" weekends in a row it kind of ate up the spare time. One weekend was our nephew's wedding and last Sunday was our granddaughter's Confirmation. I find it hard to believe that she will be fourteen next month. To me she's still that tiny red-headed baby who we all stood around trying to figure out where the red hair came from. LOL Now she's a blonde, but it changes from time to time. LOL


And here are a few of the things that have been keeping me busy. Tons of apples...we've given away more than three dozen 5-gal. bucketsfull already and there's no end in sight. I only need to make some apple dumplings to freeze, 1 or 2 batches of pie filling and maybe some Caramel Apple Jam (Judy L.'s recipe). I still have quite a few bags of frozen ones left from last year. Below are pictures of one of the trees from two angles. It's just loaded. There are four of these, though the other three might not have quite a many apples on. Click on the pictures to get the full effect.










As if the apples weren't enough, I have these to deal with. My tomatoes have been awfully slow to ripen, and I've complained to several people about it, so a boxful was left on my porch today. Most of these are really ripe & with what I had picked 2-3 days ago from my own, I'll have about two canners full or 14 qts. to can tomorrow. I was going to make the apple dumplings or can pie filling tomorrow, but I guess that plan got changed.

On the genealogy front, I got a reply from the gentleman in the Netherlands about his family tree. We've exchanged information. He sent me a 14-page report that's much easier to figure out than his online family tree and I sent him a report on the descendants of the couple that immigrated to the USA. I also have information on two of the names that he didn't have so I'll be sending that to him once I have time to get it organized. Maybe some pictures of the descendants as well. His report gives me another 3 generations or so of the elusive Veenkers and the von Hebel lines going back to the mid-1400s. Yay.

And now, a completely gratuitous kitty picture. Doesn't she just look very regal lying there? All 14 lbs. of her!! And that's my Double Delight behind her, the only thing quilty in this whole post.