Monthly Archives: August 2016
The Dreamweaver is finished as is August. Yeah! I have an August finish.Dreamweaver quilted
The quilting is DONE!. Dreamweaver from the Strip your Stash book is couch size at 60×80″. It still needs a binding but that will happen in time.
Other than that, I picked raspberries and apples today.
New items for the kitchen
Look what came today!. A tofu press and instructions on how to make it. Whole wheat sour dough starter and yogurt starter for vegan yogurt. Now I will need to find the time to use these items.
The neighbor gave me apples for immediate use which made 10 pints of applesauce. I picked another 11 pounds and there are 3 trees left with apples to pick. But if the apples are in good shape, I’ll wait a bit to make the sauce. And there is one jar of pickles because that is all the little cukes off the vines so far.
I cooked up a bunch of potatoes from last weeks harvest, but they need to dry out a bit, they were just too gummy or maybe that’s just one of the types that were planted. They will make good mashed potatoes.
I have this feeling that I am procrastinating quilting the flimsies I’ve made. I keep putting them off for what seems like good reasons. I really must talk to myself about this.
End of August
The heel flap is done and next comes the heel. Progress is slow. The summer is winding down and maybe when the weather turns cold, I’ll be more interested in hand work. But right now, I want to be outside enjoying what summer is left. My guess is that we may get an early fall.
Today we took the shade cloth off the hoop house. Something is enjoying my peppers just before they are ripe enough to pick. Tomorrow promises to be a very nice day and then the rest of the week is forecast to be showers and rain. And we definitely need that!
Scraps
Did you ever stop to think how useless these 2.5″ squares are by themselves. They are really too small for anything. But when they work together, look what happens. I think that applies to humans as well I separated these 9 patches with an almost white fabric of 2 1/2″ strips. When quilted it will be a perfect size (50×50″)for a lap quilt. So two things happened: I have used up some of my scraps, and someone will get a useful quilt.
I pray you have a restful Sabbath and a great weekend.
Sewing and a recipe
I cleaned floors this morning – which was much over due. This afternoon I SEWED and it felt GOOD. This will be a lap quilt. I finished the blocks and started putting them together.
thevegan8.com has some great recipes. We loved this one which I will share so you can get an idea. She has good recipes.
Oil-free Creamy Italian Dressing
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3/4 cup raw, unsalted cashews
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1/2 cup + 2/t water
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3 T wine vinegar (she called for red wine vinegar)
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1 teas maple syrup
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1/2 teas garlic powder
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1/4 teas dry yellow mustard powder
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1/2 teas sea salt
Blend all together in VitaMix and add 1 T dried Italian herbs.
System shutdown
These are something new that I found interesting. There were 30 little bulblets in the package and are now planted in the hoophouse. Many will be transplanted outside in the spring as they have to be planted a foot apart.
My laptop and the chainsaw weren’t working yesterday so we took both in to have looked at and with minor adjustments, both work now. And since we were out at noon, we made a stop at Panera’s for lunch. Out of the last 5 times I have been there, 4 have had mistakes in my order. No wonder I don’t eat there often. Yes, they fix them, but it is inconvenient.
When we came home, I collapsed, my body wouldn’t go any farther, so I listened and napped.
This afternoon, I watched a webinar with Lindee G on applique and am hoping tomorrow I will feel refreshed. Does your body ever just quit on you?
More potatoes
Another 2.5 hours of digging potatoes this morning, followed by lunch and a brief rest in the sun (before we lose it for winter). The afternoon was spent sorting about 2/3 of the 300+ pounds of potatoes and company came for a bit. I promise you this is the end of potatoes for a long while.
4 shorter rows and 1 1/2 long rows are just waiting until the straw comes in to get put to bed for the winter. I saw chickens munching on beets this morning, so perhaps it’s time to bring them in, but I was hoping they could stay in the garden another month along with the carrots. The third you see is pumpkins and squash. Under the trellis are more squash, green beans and cucumbers.
August = harvest month
The morning started with mending 2 pair of pants. These turned out surprisingly well for daughter. Then it was off to give a bit of supervision to someone who was going to help me today. He did get the “wee barn” swept out and the sleeping area for the three sheep all cleaned. It looks and smells good in there now.
Look at these silly ducks. Why would you go outside the fence to be able to put your head inside to get water? Silly, silly ducks.
I asked my new helper to dig up the potatoes. The ground is hard, but there are about 100# of potatoes in a 30′ space. We had a lot of potatoes that didn’t get eaten in time this spring, so we just planted them. And had the best harvest ever. I think we’ll get another 100# out of each of the two rows we have left to harvest. No we don’t need that many, but we won’t starve. Well, he dug about 30#, decided it was lunch and came and asked for his money after lunch. Ah, help is not perfect these days. So instead of sewing or quilting, I dug potatoes, picked tomatoes, picked a few raspberries and a couple cabbage. (but you are probably as tired of photos of these as I am of taking them). Then it was time to fertilize and water the hoop house and the raspberries which are looking rather shriveled from lack of water. Next the front yard and driveway plants were watered and supper was simply leftovers. There was my day and when did I sew or quilt?
But winter (sewing/quilting time) is coming and the way this harvest has been going, I won’t be spending much time at the grocery store. I was lucky that all the running around took care of half of my steps for the day – I’m over my 10,000 goal, and yes I did work in 5 minutes on the elliptical. I need that exercise to be able to do the other things. Who has time to grow old?
Lemon Squeeze jacket and shelves
Shelves have been replaced, so now I can load them up with jars again. That fiberboard just doesn’t hold them. I have been to Lowe’s several times to get this wood cut, but their saw has been down. I get them to cut the right size and then I can put them in myself.
I am drying the parsley I picked Friday and decided to freeze the kale. I just freeze it whole and when frozen, it is so easy to crumble off the stems. Then it is easy to add to various dishes.
This is the Lemon Squeeze jacket I showed you earlier. I finally threaded the serger and sewed this up. It still needs to be hemmed, but it is all in one piece.