July is here!

And canning season has started. Whew! Yesterday was a marathon canning session. Both canners went all day long. I put up TONS of tomatoes and peppers. It seems that some years cayenne peppers do better and other years jalapenos do better. This year is definitely a jalapeno year which is good since my supply of canned ones was very low. The boys and I picked Thursday night and filled the wagon up.

See those monster zucchini? That's the last of the zucchini for the year. Thankfully they shred well to go in soups or spaghetti sauce.

On the quilting front I started on two of Pat Sloan's quilt alongs. It's fun doing a block a week and when I finish I will have two quilts.
Look at this bottom block. It's from her quilt Winter Solstice. This will be my first quilt where all the blocks are not the same size.

The top block is from the new quilt along Grandma's Kitchen. I'm going to do both of them quilt as you go. Grandma's Kitchen on the machine and Winter Solstice by hand.

All quilts and quilt blocks on the premises are inspected for quality as soon as they are made. Standards are high and this one passed with flying colors. I could barely finish quilting it before she took over. She had a bath and then a nice long nap.

And just in case you thought all I do is can and quilt (would be fine with me!) Here's a pic I took Sunday...dh asked me if I would iron a "couple" shirts for him.....

More sewing stuff

I just love this Minnesota machine! It sounds like my Davis but has the vibrating shuttle of my Singer 127. It is a beautiful machine and in a parlor cabinet. Then while on a shop hop yesterday I found this old pie safe. Actually I don't think its that old as it has initials and the numbers 88 carved in the bottom. But it has character! It was super cheap too as it has some water damage on the bottom back but not enough to hurt anything. Doesn't it go perfectly with the treadle? I will use it to keep some basic sewing supplies in the den. Please just don't look at my walls. I desperately need to paint them! That is the project for next month though.

So long since I've updated!

Life has been so busy! There were two graduations in our family in the space of three weeks. To start the ball rolling our youngest daughter graduated from high school. Where did the years go? I can't believe that all my girls are now adults...

Then a week off to recover and plan for the trip to Florida to see daughter #2 graduate from college. To add to the stress dh could only take two days off work. When you're the boss and have a deadline that happens. So we rented a large van, loaded seven of us up, oldest dd went with us, and headed out on Thursday night. We made it to dd's around 5am to sleep. Then that night to her graduation. She graduated with high honors! It took her a while to get her life straight but now she is on a good path and we couldn't be prouder of her!

We got back home early Sunday morning and I crashed. Really I went to bed and stayed all day. Monday we started VBS at church and I had volunteered to help in the kitchen. If you can have jet lag from driving I had it. Also that week was our yearly TreadleOn gathering otherwise known as TOGA. I only got to go to two half days but it was better than nothing. I brought this sweet, sweet machine home with me from TOGA. 

And in the quilting world.....

This is what I'm still working on. I so want to finish it but I keep getting sidetracked! See my design wall? It's made out of thick foam-like posterboard and duct tape from Dollar Tree. It works and it folds out of the way when I need it to. I like that I don't have to pin to it like I do my design curtain...plus its right behind my machine. The quilt on it I'm calling Field of Colors and is something I just came up with.

This is what I've been sidetracked with....the Evil Villain chair as the kids call it. I bought this several years ago at an antique store. I just fell in love with it. The only thing I didn't love was the fabric. It collected every single bit of cat, dog, and people hair that it could. Every single bit. Weekly vacuuming only held it barely at bay.

It took me forever to decide on a fabric though. I picked out a beautiful red floral at a second hand store only to discover I didn't have enough of it. Then I remembered this roll of fabric given to me several years ago and languishing in my closet. I wasn't crazy about it at first and then a friend and I started recovering the chair. It is absolutely perfect! It blends with my couch and I see a beautiful color in it to paint my walls this summer! Now all I need to do is find some teal fabric to redo the footstool and the throw cushions on the couch.
You know you have a true friend when she will come help you tackle a project like this!

Of course I can't leave Miss Calikat out of this post! I got a small package from Amazon last week. She barely fit but she made it into the box. All boxes must be inspected and approved you know.

Senior Prom for my daughter...

This is my youngest daughter...my last girl to go to prom....it was bittersweet. She looked gorgeous! There's a story behind that dress. We looked for weeks to find the "perfect" dress.
Then the store didn't have her size when we found it.
We ordered the wrong size and then they couldn't find one smaller. We ended up getting one at another store that needed the zipper fixed.
All of that took weeks and it was the week before prom when she finally had "her" dress.

Boys are easy compared to that! All you have to do is convince them they have to actually put on a tie!

This is my daughter and oldest son....don't they clean up good? lol!

You might be a quilter if.....

Where is the most unusual place you have ever quilted? I quilt on card rides, waiting for kids at various activities, at the beach, on vacation, in the mountains, basically anywhere we go I have a quilt. I am not a good passenger so the hubster appreciates me quilting while he drives lol!

But this past weekend I had a first time for a new quilting experience! The boy child wanted to go skating with a friend who had free tickets. I didn't know anyone there and wasn't comfortable dropping him off so I stayed and my quilting friend (his friend's grandmom) stayed also. I no longer have the ankles to skate so guess what we did? We quilted of course! Here's a quick snapshot I took.

So skating rinks aren't only for skating lol!
 

Gardening time! and some quilting....

Look at this beautiful raised bed the Hubster built. I have been asking for ones like this for forever in the garden. No bending over and hopefully less weeds! This one is not in the garden though....its in the front yard and is for herbs. I started planting it but need to either get some more plants or some seeds. I can't wait for fresh Basil and Thyme, and Cilantro and Parsley! Oh my. I love gardening almost as much as I love quilting. At least till it gets to be 100 degrees lol, then I want to sit inside in the AC and quilt.



The crib bumpers for my niece got finished. A good thing since she is doing her best to have her baby early. He's not due until May 11th but she's been in to the L&D unit three times now with contractions. They were nowhere near as hard to make as I thought they would be so I don't know why I put them off so long.


And last but not least the Quilting Chicks are having a sew day today! I'm going to start on this quilt. I got the idea from a picture of the tulip fields in Holland. I actually woke up in the middle of the night thinking about making this into a quilt. So here goes my attempt at turning an idea in my head into a quilt. I will post how it's going!