Category Archive: Life
He is on the quilting machine and ready to go, but I have not been able to get the tension right today. I’m just giving up and will go knit for the next hour. Tomorrow, it may work like it is supposed to as I find sometimes walking away and coming back the next day works magic.Tidying up
There always seem to be so many odds and ends that don’t take a lot of time after one gets “to it” I picked about 3 cups of raspberries this morning. We are between the first and second crop.
We brought in 2 boxes of potatoes about 3 weeks ago, so I sorted them today for any bad ones. We probably have about 3 times this many more to dig and bring in. I’m just procrastinating, hoping they will last longer through the winter.
Then it was off to get a part for an older serger and some wood for shelves – which we could not get because the saw wasn’t working at Lowe’s yet. We came home and worked cleaning weeds and watering the greenhouse and before we knew it, we were out of energy and it was suppertime. Some days are like this.
Serger ruffle and cording
This year, one of my goals was to learn to use the serger for more than just finishing seams. Today I took my first serger class on how to use the various feet. These classes will occur once a month for 6 months. So we gathered on a plain piece of fabric and then we gathered and attached a ruffled at once.
Then we worked with the cording foot, first making and putting cording on a single piece of fabric and then making it and putting it between two pieces of fabric like one would do making a pillow.
Using the cording foot again, we made a “puffing strip” and inserted a zipper.
We did not have time to make the spaghetti straps, but she demonstrated it and I will get it done this week. A really nice feature is that this teacher brings the instructions in a plastic envelope with the fabric, so when you have done your sample it becomes part of your notebook. Notice that on each page, she has put the serger settings so these will easy to refer to at a later time.
7 more blocks to go
Just 7 more blocks and I can put this all together. I’m aiming to have it to the flimsy stage by Sunday.
Canning and socks
A new beginning because one needs to do something while waiting for the pressure cooker to do it’s job.
Today was 22 pints of beets – all plain. Lemon juice or ? can be added at time of using. There were also enough green beans for another 4 pints. Then I picked parsley and basil. I’m happy that the garden has produced so much food. And I did try to take a short nap after lunch, but had 3 phone calls come in, so gave that up. How do people know these things?
A busy Sunday
I took the zucchini plants out of the hoop house and planted lettuce in its place. It should be ready just in time to hold throughout the winter.
The big garden now has some empty spaces from where the first potatoes, the onions and the garlic were planted. No, I’m not coördinated enough to have planted something else there this year.
The freezer is defrosted and now has a some empty shelves for this year’s food. (blueberries and strawberries are already in there).
I made 5 qts of zucchini soup and put 4 in the freezer, then made some no oil, vegan zucchini bread. It turned out quite good so am on the hook to make several more loaves tomorrow and try to find a zucchini patty recipe that we like.
And there was a bit of time for some sewing. 25 of the 48 blocks are now up.
Rather warm day
86 degrees with 40% humidity is rather warm in the Pacific Northwest. So shopping we went as the stores are cool. We took 2 dying sewing machines to the dealer to use any parts they could.
Then to JoAnn’s as I have a gift card. The clerk managed to find 3 discounts on my phone for the items we wanted So I only used $13.00 and I bought 2 pieces of fabric and DH a skein of yarn for the babies hats he makes. But we wandered and look at other items as the temperature in the stores was cool.
Next, off to the eye doctor to pick up the prescription glasses. It was nice and cool there as well.
Target is a wonderful place to browse midday, when others are elsewhere. There were not many customers at noon. We did pick up a small plastic wastebasket. I was surprised at how their grocery department has grown.
Costco is another good browsing place. We bought some dog biscuits and light bulbs as well as a few groceries. But we took our times. 2 of the items we would have purchased, they no longer carry. All this cool browsing put about 500o steps on our pedometers. We finally came home mid afternoon and had lunch from the garden. I’m happy that we don’t have many of these days as we might have to get air conditioning in our house. Tomorrow is also supposed to be this temperature, so am lining up places to visit.
July Sew Fun
Today I woke up thinking of all the things I wanted to get done, then I remembered, that’s not the important thing. I didn’t get my list done, but I pray God’s list was achieved. And I am thankful for a large garden and the work involved because of it, especially when I remember those who don’t eat 3 meals a day. I count my blessings and ask to be a blessing to others. These are 16 pints of green beans for the coming winter from the 7# picked yesterday.
The Sew Fun this week was put on by Lana Jones. She comes up with ideas in her sleep – of which she doesn’t need much. These 3 signs used sticky metallic paper on boards and mounted denim. Aren’t they cute?
Using a piece of tile that she found at Lowes, she put metallic paper on these “rocks”. And they did look like flat rocks. This is such a wonderful way to give a little inspirational gift.
These are made of “Ice Resin” a product to pour in molds. These would make lovely jewelry or nice for key chains.
The animals at the top come with stuffing in a bag that can be removed from both the body and the head to make it easy to embroider. The two bags below them were from a pattern book “Sew Useful” by Debbie Shore. There were several items in that book to help you make storage items for the home.
The black dress and the dress with the green skirt were from “Sew Pretty T Shirt Dresses” Simple little dresses that start with a recycled or purchased T shirt in the child’s size. This would be a terrific gift for the busy mom or grandmother to sew.
This is where she caught me. I loved this lightweight jacket you see in peach and black. And it can be made totally on the serger. So I will be looking for fabric to make this.
This book also had some fun projects and the items in this book have both the patterns you can cut out or if you have a Accuquilt, they have a die by Edyta Sitar to make them.
This “Buddy Blanket Bear” has only a stuffed head, so if a young child likes to take a huggie to bed, one could either hand or machine embroider on the open skirt.
It was a very good Sew Fun, well worth my time. And there were several more items that didn’t really catch my attention. All I need is time for some of the projects that I all ready have, then I can take on some new ones.
After I got home, I had company. I did not get all my steps in, but will get them all in by the end of the week.
After all this, I took a brief rest on the deck. Isn’t this a lovely view? It was such a pretty day. Tomorrow will be more garden time and maybe zucchini bread baking. Don’t hold your breath on that though.
Produce and machine servicing
Today’s pickings – a canner load of beans
8 large zucchini because I forgot we had planted them in that spot and I thought that was a different type of squash.
5 ears of corn – most of the corn didn’t do very good this year. I will have to deal with canning and making zucchini patties and bread the rest of this week.
Often when I get a new machine, they aren’t interested in what I have to trade in, so they sit here. It was time to clean all that out. So I pulled out the machines and readied for sale the ones that are working. There are two that don’t work well enough to sell them. Since they are electronic machines, I’m not sure what I can do with them. And I’m not sure if anyone will want the accessories that came with them. However, the machines are leaving here shortly. I just have to decide how to deal with them. The good ones will go on Craig’s list.
RAIN and shelves
Rain! I got up to a good steady rain this morning, which went on for at least 2 hours after I got up. I don’t know when it started, but oh, the ground was so happy. And I took advantage to repair these units. They came with fiberboard shelves which worked for a few years, but were bending under the stress of gallon jars of beans and grains. I replaced them with plywood boards I had cut at Lowe’s. When I knew it was going to work, I went back for another 4. But I came home empty handed when they said their saw was broken. I’ll try again next week. We eat a lot of beans and grains. This also means that if things get bad for any reason, we will eat as I buy these products in 20# bags. That is why the storage is important.
