Finished that quilt

 Usually when I have a deadline for finishing up a quilt I have to drop everything else to finish it, or I am a few days or weeks late in getting it done.

Not so with this one. I have it done well before the wedding date at the end of September.

This quilt was a kit I ordered on clearance a while back. I have to say that the fabrics included are not the usual colors I work with, but it was fun trying something different.

This apricot colored fabric on the back happened to be a freebie. It was shipped by mistake with another online order and the company told me to keep it then sent the fabric I ordered too.

It was a good match for this quilt and I added the strip of leftover floral from the kit fabrics.

The quilt is for a young lady who works at our library. She hosts the Coffee Chat group I go to.  It's been fun listening to her wedding plans over these past months.

The quilt isn't really big enough for a queen bed but it's big enough to snuggle  under for a nap or for a friendly couple to  get cozy under while watching TV.

Maybe you can't see it in these photos but I did have some trouble with piecing this quilt.

There were lots of fabric layers when joining the blocks and things didn't line up perfectly.

I decided not to stress out too much over it. It's home made so for me, that means not perfect.

If I used this pattern again, I might use some narrow sashing between the blocks to better separate the fabric layers.

It was a fun pattern though and I liked how the instructions were to cut the floral motifs out of the border fabric to use for the center of the blocks.

I machine quilted this quilt with a spiral design.

I will take it in early before the next Coffee Chat. Hope she likes it!

Burs and a hair trim

 Well, lazy me.  I haven't been keeping things weeded at all this summer. I have a whole list of excuses as to why I've been so neglectful...but none are really valid.

But the humidity is letting up a bit now, so I started pulling some overgrown weeds.

When bending to reach into the edge of this area, the top of my head touched right into the middle of a plant with burs.

They attached to my hair instantly.

I tried pulling the burs out but they became more tightly wound in. 

I tried getting my hair down from a ponytail to make it easier to pull loose from the bur...but that just made things worse.

I came inside and took a photo to see how bad it was.

It was hopeless.   All I could do was to grab the closest scissors and snip the burs out.

Not a very attractive hair cut but it will grow out.

I've had these burs on my clothes before but never in my hair. I will be sure to watch out for them in the future!

On a more fun note.  I went shopping at Trader Joe's.  I only go there a couple of times a year and it's always fun to see what different things they have.

I only picked up a jar of pesto for myself but picked out a few treats for the Sasquatch.

He liked everything but said the barbecued jackfruit was a bit strange to eat and maybe never buy that again.

Sewing the binding on the quilt

 I've finished quilting the wedding gift quilt and now I'm spending a few evenings on the back porch hand sewing the binding down.

I'm trying to keep the quilt mostly in a plastic garbage bag to keep it from dragging around and getting dirty while I'm working on it.

Of course Puss is keeping me company in the chair next to mine.

I tried to get her to take a selfie with me but she wasn't into it.

Okay grumpy face!

I had something different for supper...green beans, onions, and ham.

It was a nice change from mostly eating soup!

Mushroom bucket...another extension class

 This county extension class was in July, but I had to wait until this month to see results.

The subject was learning to grow mushrooms at home.

We each received take home instruction pages...

The mushrooms are grown in a bucket.  The agents had the buckets ready for our class...sanitized and with holes drilled in the sides for the mushrooms to grow through.

They had a big pile of wet straw and we took turns going up and filling our buckets, packing it in tightly to the top.

While packing in the straw we added layers of this bagged mushroom spawn.

The lid goes on the bucket then its kept in a black garbage bag in a cool dark place for a few weeks.

I put my bucket in the basement near the air conditioning unit.

In a month or so I checked and found one nice sized mushroom.

There were a few more small sprouts growing out of the bucket.

I wrapped it back in the garbage bag and waited a couple more weeks.

No more big mushrooms.

By this time I was starting to feel uneasy about the mushrooms.  The one that did grow wasn't very flavorful and my brain was telling me not to eat it.

I guess it's just the idea of eating something that grew in the dark in my basement...not a pleasant thought.  

I was sort of worried that other basement mold and so forth could grow in there too.

So, I opened the bucket to empty it out. Lots of activity in there.

I spread the straw around a flower bed to enrich the soil.

It was a fun and interesting project. I learned that I'd rather buy my mushrooms at the grocery!

Slow summer days

 I'm enjoying the long days of summer. I'm inside when during the heat of the days then outside in the evenings.

There is always something to do but still time for a bit of housekeeping and sometimes a nap.

I've finished the top of the quilt I'm working on and got it layered and pin basted and ready to quilt.

First, a dusting and oiling of my sewing machine.

Then starting the quilting. I'm trying a swirl design on this one.  I'm not really satisfied with how it's looking but I've found from past experience to just keep going and things usually look better once it's finished.

Puss is keeping me company in the sewing room.

Just so you know...I don't have a cat tree in every room but she needed one in here so she doesn't keep trying to get on my sewing table.

Also in the photo above...look out the window at the vines growing along the deck railing.

Those are loofah vines the Sasquatch planted.

They have grown up to this second story and still growing. Pretty yellow blooms but slow to form any of the loofah gourds.

I made some spaghetti squash soup.  It's the first time I've used it in a soup.

I cooked the chicken and vegetables together first and cooked the spaghetti squash separately in the microwave...then added it to the cooked soup.

It came out pretty good...with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top.

Well, you can't really see the spaghetti squash here in my bowl - but it's in there.

The library craft class this month was a macrame key chain.

Gosh, I haven't tried macrame since art class in elementary school.  It was fun but I think I goofed up on the knots in a couple of places.

That's mine- the orange and white one.

Glad to have more summer days stretching out ahead.

county extension class - peppers

 Another good and interesting  class from the horticulture department of the county extension office.

Growing peppers and making hot sauce.

Lots of good information and some recipes for hot sauce. They even had a few types of homemade hot sauce prepared so we could taste them.

Then the fun part...we could grab a bottle for using for hot sauce and a bag and...

...choose from a huge selection of peppers to take home.

Each type of pepper had an information sheet to describe it and rating of heat level.

I tried to choose some mid-level hot peppers...more for taste than for scorching heat.

So colorful!

I knew what I wanted to do with these peppers rather than make hot sauce.

I wanted to give them to The Sasquatch so he could make a delicious pepper relish recipe he's made in the past.

It was a wise decision!

His recipe calls for bell peppers as a base. I really liked this batch but he said he would have liked it better if it was hotter.

Besides eating it with cream cheese on a cracker, it's  a good topping for cooked chicken breasts.

There is some sugar in the recipe so not something I should have all the time.

Ongoing storm clean up

 

As I mentioned before...I am lucky to have the Sasquatch willing and able to deal with clearing the downed trees from the storm.

He has worked a cycle of chain sawing trunks into smaller sections, gathering broken limbs, hauling it back to the burn pit area, then burning.

It's hard, heavy work.

I haven't been able to do much to help. It's better if I just stay out of the way.

At times there is a burn ban in our county (when it's dry or windy) so the brush can pile up a bit waiting to be burned.

No reason to be in a hurry...the wood piles will still be there waiting.

One of the broken Sassafrass turned out be be hollowed out inside. The trunk had a bunch of giant wood eating grubs inside that may have contributed to the tree damage.

(I will write about those grubs another day).

The Sasquatch saved a few of the big logs and stacked them at the rear of the field.

They look like they could be handy for something.

In fact a friend of his asked for a few of them to hollow out for a grill chimney or something like that.

The clean up continues!