More Thoughts on 2011

2011 started off with a bang!!  Not literally because I went to bed around 10pm on New Year's Eve.  I know, how boring can you get???  Anyway, I can't tell you what kind of bang we had around here YET but I promise I will tell you all about it real soon.

Anyway, I have decided that 2011 is going to be my year to Finish It Up and Slash my Stash.  I have so many projects that are in progress.  I know all quilters do but I'm tired of having far more unfinished projects than finished ones.  So, since I got my Janome this past year

I am determined to finish up as many of my unfinished projects as possible.  I am also going to attempt to not buy any fabric except what is needed to finish up those projects.  Now I'm not saying that I might not start some new projects but I will use what I have to do them.  I have so many kits and patterns that I have bought that I just have to get to these or I'm going to drown in my sewing room.  Besides, that way I can buy more fabric and patterns without feeling guilty, right????  I thought so!!

So the first step was to clean up my sewing room.  That started last fall when our daughter went off to college and my sweet hubby took over her room for his art studio.  I took over the formal living room.  We definitely are not formal people here!!  Here are a couple of pictures taken during that process.  Beware, it's a mess!!

I told you it was a mess.  You can't even see my sewing machine in any of those pictures.  Anyway, here is the start of the re-do.  There is still much more to be done but it is in good enough shape that I can get to everything easily so I've been sewing instead of re-doing.

That's better but not done.  The bookshelves hold only my craft paraphernalia.  The cutting table has been moved but still needs a skirt to hide all the junk under it.  I still need more of the storage bins to hold my fabric and scraps.  Well, maybe not once I get finished stash-busting, huh?  So, we'll see if I can finish up the room re-do and stay the course for my project finishes and stash busting.   I'm signed up for a machine quilting class on February 14th so that should REALLY help.  I have so many quilt tops that need to be quilted.

Thanks for stopping by,

How Do You Like My Vue?

No, not my "view", my Saturn Vue.  This is my new ride.  And yes, it is sitting out in the icy driveway.  Welcome to northwestern Ohio weather in January!

Isn't is great?!!!  One of our vehicles died week before last.  After looking at all the options, we decided that we didn't want to put any more money into an old car so we headed out in the snow(of course) to look at what was out there.  After driving seven different SUV's this was our choice(well,mostly my choice...my sweet hubby wanted the Jeep).  I LOVE IT!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Summer Squash and a Murder Mystery

What do you get when you cross two prolific summer squash plants with a murder mystery?  Here at my house we got cookies!!  Let me explain......

I just finished reading Apple Turnover Murder by JoAnna Fluke.  It is a cozy mystery whose main character Hannah Swenson owns a cookie shop in Small Town, MN.  I love cozy mysteries - no sex, foul language, or blood and guts!  The author always includes recipes used by Hannah in her shop.  They always sounded so mouth watering but until yesterday I had not tried any of the recipes.

Here's where my yellow squash plants enter into the story.  In this book there is a recipe for Rose's Zucchini Cookies.  Now, we didn't grow any zucchini because we couldn't find any to plant last spring but our two little yellow squash plants have given us MORE than enough squash.  I thought, What could it hurt?  We have eaten squash almost every way you can imagine so why not in cookies? 

They are delicious!  Granted, it doesn't hurt that they include pecans and chocolate chips in the recipe.  They are so soft and chewy.  Who knew I could get in my 5 fruits and vegetables each day by eating cookies!!  Yummy!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Spicy Doin's Round Here, Ya'll

Another week has come and gone.  We have been busy.  Besides all the normal happenings of life and gardening, we have been preparing to send our youngest off to college in a few weeks.  Very bittersweet days!!  And, since I don't want to cry all over you I will move onto another happier subject.

Our garden is doing so well.  We are just so excited about the bounty! I spent yesterday afternoon canning jalapenos.  Yes, jalapenos.  We are native Texans, you know!!  I guess it's true what they say...You might take the girl out of Texas but you'll never take the Texas out of the girl. 

So many jalapenos but that's okay because we eat alot of them.

After slicing up all those little peppers, I filled four pint jars full of them along with a vinegar brine to pickle them.  I then put them in a water bath for 10 minutes and out they came.  They will have to set up for about six weeks before we can eat them.  I expect to be able to get at least 4 more pints of peppers put up with the way out plants are producing.  If only the tomatoes would ripen we could have homemade salsa.  Now we're talking!!!

And, I think I forgot to tell you that a couple of weeks ago I spent one afternoon canning 18 half-pints of  homemade strawberry jam.  It didn't have to set up and we are really enjoying it!!

I'm really enjoying the new sewing machine.  The knee lift for the pressure foot is great for speeding along on chain piecing.  Soooo much more to learn!! 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Our Weekend

I hope you had a great July 4th weekend.  We didn't do much different than any other weekend but it was nice having Bill home on Monday (or at least until he got a call to go play golf for the afternoon!!).  We grilled out Saturday night and it was scrumptious, especially since the squash and green beans came out of our own garden.  We were so excited!!! 

YUMM-O!!!












It took me three whole days to gather enough nerve to actually plug my new Janome into the wall and turn it on.  After reading the instruction manual Friday afternoon, I had myself convinced that a Janome rep would need to come live with us if I was ever going to use the machine.  Since that was not remotely a possibility, I convinced myself that come Monday I would venture over to the sewing shop and ask for lessons.  I chickened out!!  So again, I grabbed the intimidating instruction manual, moved my little Singer off the sewing table and plugged in the electrical cord, the foot petal and even the knee lift bar.  Good to go!!!  I mustered up the courage to flip the little on/off switch and Woo Hoo..you should have heard all the little beeps!!!

So, I thought, "so far, so good!  Surely I can figure out how to thread the bobbin and then thread the machine."  And, what do you know, I did it!!  (Thanks to the step by step instructions with illustrations, I might add.  Have I ever told you I'm a visual learner??)  Well, next think I knew I was sewing along piecing some blocks and sewing on borders and today I finished up my 2008 (yes, that's not a typo - 2008) Thimbleberries Lodge quilt top. 

That's Rudy, our daughter's border collie, guarding the top from the wind so I could get a picture. 
One UFO down (that's unfinished object for you non-quilting readers) and a couple more tops to go.  Then I'm going to have to get brave again and learn how to quilt with my new machine since I told Bill that's the main reason I needed the new machine.  I can't even begin to tell you how many tops I have to finish up with the quilting and binding but I've decided that July and August are going to be FIU (yes, that's finish it up, non-quilters) months here. 

I'll keep you posted on the progress.  Thanks for stopping by!!

Garden Revisited

         In May, I wrote about our hopes to have a garden that actually produces more than frustration.

So after Bill's hard work at tilling the garden plot.  I jumped in the van and did the easy work of buying the plants.

Then he did the hard work again and got all these into the ground along with some sweet corn.

God watered the garden for us yesterday and as you can see from the standing water He did a great job of it.  I, however, didn't want to slop out in the mud so I took this picture of our little garden plot from the deck.  Don't pay any attention to the acres of corn planted behind it.  That belongs to the farmers next door!!

And here are the first fruits(or veggies, LOL) from the garden.  Not enough for a good pot of beans yet but hopefully in the next day or so more will be ready and we can have some fresh from the garden beans.  Nothing else is ready to be harvested but it looks like we may actually have a producing garden for the first time in our gardening experience. 

Thanks for stopping by!! 

The Case of the Missing Tulips

I love to read. The past few years I have really enjoyed reading what they call "cozy" mystery series'. That would be those that have no sex or bad language in them. Of course, they couldn't leave out the murder or they wouldn't be mysteries but there is really no "blood and guts" in them either. They are fun to read and there are loads of them out there. Our local library has a ton of them so I'm fortunate to never be at a loss as to what to read next.

Imagine my surprise to find my own real live mystery here at home. Relax folks, no murder here.....yet!! The tulips have been blooming for a couple of weeks now. I love tulips. We have pink ones and purple ones and yellow ones. Here is a shot of some of the pink and purple tulips. Aren't they pretty?

But wait, what's this?

Here's a picture of this group from last year.

Beautiful yellow tulips. Ok, I ask myself..."What's the deal?"

A ha!! Mystery solved. Our little puppy (yeah, I know, he's not little anymore!!!) is eating the tulips. I certainly hope tulips aren't poisonous. Although, a little stomach ache for his transgression wouldn't hurt my feelings any! Just kidding. I'd have to clean up the results.

No worries! See him spitting out the pretty pink flower. I caught it in mid-air. This puppy is going to be the death of me!! Or maybe another mystery title.....Murder in the Tulips???!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Quilting!!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!!!

This was last week's snow. We got about 10 inches which may not seem like alot to those of you further north but to this southern born girl transplanted here to Ohio it's HUGE! It might have been okay if I could have stayed in all week but that was not the case. It was our turn to host Family Promise again so that meant a great deal of time on the road back and forth to church. It's been a blessing to be a part of the solution for hurting families during this hard economic time. What we do may not be big but it is a step in the right direction for the two families we served this past week.

Some of the snow has melted and we expect to get up into the 40's by the weekend so we might see some of our dead grass. I have to tell you that I have stayed inside as much as possible, though. I have spent a great deal of time at my sewing machine and have this to show for the effort (Once again, picture is from my phone as the camera is still broken. I'll shoot better pics when it's repaired.)
I'm so sorry you can't see all the wonderful civil war repro fabrics. They are just amazing. This is a Bonnie Blue Quilts pattern named Second Hand Clothes. There are over 110 different fabrics in this quilt. It is so easy to put together and turned out beautifully. I promise, better pictures of the fabrics soon!!!

Progress on my BOM's is slow. I have finished the first block of Ellie's Country Calendar (shown here) and have printed off the second month's pattern. I have almost finished the first block of the Snowladies BOM and have not even started the Bunny Hill Basket BOM and she is due out with the next block on the 5th. I usually only do my handwork in the evenings while we watch TV so that makes for slow going. I also spent a couple of days working on my Grandmother's flower garden blocks so that has helped me lag behind. Hmmm, I guess with all these different projects going, I certainly can't complain about being bored. ;-)

And, of course, I couldn't end the post without showing you this cute picture of our sweet(fast growing) puppy taking a nap while "grandma" blogs.


Thanks for stopping by. Happy Quilting!!

Mums and Fall Pumpkins

When it comes to gardening I am a total failure. Two brown thumbs!! It is so great that the couple we bought this house from were pros at landscaping. I watch in amazement as each season changes to see what the gardens are going to bring forth. Our gorgeous mums are all abloom.
Last year as I began decorating for fall I bought two large pumpkins and set them out in the beds. My true nature took over as winter fell upon us and the pumpkin just melted into obscurity. In other words, as they rotted in the flower beds I did nothing with them. My daughter and one of her friends carried one off to the fields next door and played "smash the melon" until it was pulp. The other pumpkin stayed right where I had placed it.

After our spring bulbs began to die off something else began to appear from under the soil. You guessed it!! We had a pumpkin plant in our front flower bed. Curiosity got the best of us and we left it for the summer.
You can see it has not been cut loose from the vine yet. We need to do this soon as we have just discovered that another is on it's way.
I'm so excited to have a pumpkin for fall decorating with possibly another on the way. The sad fact remains that if I had planted the pumpkin intentionally I never would have gotten one. Mrs. Brown Thumbs is here to stay!!

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Quilting!!

It's a Hole in One!

My husband LOVES to play golf. In fact, that's what he's doing today. Now, I don't mind watching the game on TV. I have even gone with him to the U.S. Open. But I don't especially like playing the game myself. I should. It's in my blood. My grandmother was a great golfer in her day. The love of the game must have skipped me. Anyway, back to my husband. Everyday when he gets home from work he changes clothes and goes outside. He has set up a golf hole in our back yard and he spends hours out there hitting golf balls. As I said, I don't get it but he loves it. The other day I went out to tell him something(important, I'm sure) and on my way back into the house I saw this.

When I pointed it out to him he said, "It's a hole in one. I was aiming at the tree." He's hopeless!!! But I love him!

Note to you quilters who have stuck with me these past few unproductive (on the sewing front at least) weeks: I promise, the sewing is going to be back soon.

Flora and Fauna

There seems to be a theme emerging on several of the blogs I read daily, namely Anna and Sharon, displaying the beautiful flora and fauna in their yards. I thought I would jump on the bandwagon with them. My husband showed me this little nest last weekend when he was mowing. I have been watching it all week and decided to get some pictures last Friday.
Aren't they adorable. There are five little baby robins in the little bitty nest. I couldn't get any closer because mama robin was really fussing at me. After reading Anna's post about her baby hawks I decided to run out and try to get another picture of the robins. This little one (well, not really so little)was out on a limb just chirping up a storm. I didn't want to scare him away to look into the nest so he(she, maybe) is the only one I could snap.
Can you see him/her out there? I guess it's almost to to fly the coop, make that nest. I'll try later this evening to see what the other four are up to.

Now on to the flora.
This is the first bloom on our hybiscus. This one is almost as big as a dinner plate. As you can see from the next picture, we are about to have many, many more blooms. I just love them!!

And, going from big to little this next shot is of a miniature pansy. I've never seem such small pansies ever.
This is a close up shot but each bloom is about the size of a nickel. So darn cute!! I'm a real dunce where gardening is concerned and was so surprised to see this one grow up and bloom this year. I REALLY need to get some books and learn a thing or two about the plants we have here in our yard.

These fields are not ours but this is what we see on all four sides of our property. And as the lyrics go - The corn is as high as an elephant's eye (even if we do live in Ohio and not Oklahoma).They planted soybeans last year and we find we really like the look of the corn better.
So, do you have any flora or fauna around your place you would like to share? It would be fun to know what's blooming at your house!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy quilting!