Road Trip

Road trip? Not really but I am driving about 30 miles north to visit a friend, give quilting lessons and have a little Bible study and midrash with her. I've never been to her house before so I'm taking my map and her phone number.

And a report on my little fig tree: We had a storm come through on Monday night. The winds must have been 75 miles an hour. I haven't seen wind that strong since I was a little girl when a hurricane hit in the Northeast. I was going to pull my tree inside for shelter when I heard the weather report earlier in the day but, alas, I forgot! I was leaning up against the window watching the lightening show when the wind hit. I literally felt the window move! Then I remembered my poor little fig tree. I ran to the front door and looked out and Oh My! I thought the tree was going to get blown right off the front porch. I didn't dare go out and rescue it because I thought I might get blown off the porch! Or the door might get ripped of it's hinges. But don't worry, my fig tree survived. And the baby fig count is now up to 10.

My SAHR is finally done!!!!!

I just had to share this. Sunny over at quiltingdreams.blog invited interested quilters to join in a stay-at-home robin a few months ago. And I'm finally done with my quilt. Yay! I decided to stop at wall hanging size instead of full size because it will great on the bare wall about our bed. That is as soon as the cornice is nailed up...that is after the hubby gets the new plumbing installed. LOL. Well anyways, my project is completed and awaits it's new location. I machine quilted everything on it but the center block. The center block is my own design and I hand quilted that part. I guess you could say I'm not a purist.

It's Gonna Be A Hot One!

The weatherman predicted temperatures up to 98 degrees today. Whew! I was outside tying up more tomato plants at 6:30 this morning to beat the heat. Watered the rhubarb and came inside escaping from the flies and mosquitoes. Then it was an omelet for breakfast and on to the computer to check out my email and the blogs I follow. I was planning to go to our local nature park with the grandchildren but rescheduled our visit until tomorrow when the temperature will be more bearable. We don't want Gramma to be hauled away for heat exhaustion do we. Today I'll stay inside and finish up my SAHR with the binding and take a picture of it for my next post.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, so they say, I purchased a fig tree from a local nursery this spring. It's sitting on my front landing and producing figs already. This fall it will go dormant and I'll insulated it well and store it our unheated shed until next spring. At last count I have 7 little figgies on it. LOL

And What Have I Been Up To Lately?

You know how they say "The older you get, the faster time passes"? Well,I must be getting old because I can't believe how fast the summer is flying by. I bet you wonder what I've been doing since the last time I posted on my blog.

1. Watering and weeding the vegetable garden and trying to stay ahead of the hot and dry weather.
2. Working on my Stay-At-Home-Robin

3. Picking blueberries with my daughter.
4. Enjoying not having to share my car with my husband anymore because he replaced his
    non-working vehicle with one that does work.
5. Attending the yearly family barbeque.
6. Reading the book The New Work of Our Hands Contemporary Jewish Needlework and
    Quilts by Mae Rockland Tupa .
7. Cruising the internet (can ya tell?).
8. And the best activity... Enjoying a visit from two great grandchildren

Jamming with Great Grampa at the keyboard...it can't get better than this!

A Giveaway!

For those interested or know someone who is interested there is a give away at http://sketchbookchallenge.blogspot.com/2012/06/sketchbook-challenge-book-blog-hop.html
Lots of prizes!

Finally...Another Project Completed!

With the weather so hot last week...at least three days in the 90's....the gardens were left to the weeds while I stayed inside in the air conditioning and used the opportunity to finished my version of our quilt guild project: The Underground Railroad Quilt. We received instructions for the blocks one at a time. It took so long to complete that frankly I got really tired of the fabric I chose to use in this quilt. But, now that it's finished, I've decided that I like it after all but I'm glad most of the fabric has been used up. What is left will go into a scrappy quilt in the future.

Quilt top

Unbleached muslin was used for the sashing and on the backing. I used twelve of the sixteen blocks on the top and the remaining four blocks on the backing. Leftover fabric from the blocks was used to make binding for the quilt.

Quilt backing

I'll let you in on a little secret though. I didn't assemble these blocks in the recommended order. I guess you could chalk it up to artistic license .

Wow! It's Been A While

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted on my blog..26 days. Where does the time go? Yes , I have been busy. I spent time in the gardens when it wasn't raining. We've had so much rain I haven't been able to work in the veggie garden...too much mud. So I shifted to cleaning the front perennial bed. Some plants were hiding in the weeds I'm ashamed to say. I still have one more hosta to free from captivity. Last week the temperatures were in the 90's. I stayed in the air conditioning. I'm such a wuss! Today it was nice and cool so I worked on the herb and fruit bush garden. It's almost done and I'll finish up tomorrow.

On Monday my daughter Dianne and I went strawberry picking. I picked 11 quarters in an hour. I cleaned them the same day, sugared one quart for strawberry shortcake, and froze the other ten. We'll enjoy strawberry goodness this winter if we can leave them alone that long. LOL!

Members of our quilt guild have each been working on the Underground Railroad Quilt. I haven't quilted mine yet but I did finish the top.

 

Have a good week everyone. I'll be back blogging and quilting as soon as I can.