Not a Quilt

Monday week ago I spent nearly all day in my studio, something I hadn't really ever done before. Have to say, that was pretty fun. :-)

With adding in gardening responsibilities, I rearranged my weekly schedule.  I also wanted to move my stamping to another day because the previous schedule made it hard to get to.  So yesterday I spent the morning working on quilts.  After lunch I worked on some general sewing and then worked on Christmas cards.

General sewing is also a task I have had a hard time getting to as well, not being inclined to use my quilting time for such.  Quilt…sew, quilt….mend, hmmm, let me think.  Yep, quilting won every time.  

As I have mentioned in my posts on organizing, time is like space.  Picture the week as a closet with seven shelves.  How much stuff is put on those shelves and how it is arranged can make for a peaceful, effective schedule or it can make for chaos.  So, for me at least, I have found that if I don't have a space on the shelf for an activity, it just never gets done.  If I try to cram too much onto a shelf, I get stressed.  I want to be steadily busy, but not start the day running and hope I keep up. Some days end up being like that, even with planning, but planning helps make them happen occasionally rather than constantly.  

So, now I have time in the schedule for general sewing, and my first projects were some clothes adjustments.  Being a person on the short side, hemming is just something I plan to do when I buy clothes, so that was first up on my to-dos.  Next up was finding a way to adjust some pants that were basically new, but were now a size too big.  Mulled over ideas and talked it over with my younger daughter, a graduate in fashion design.  Decided on trying to insert some elastic in the waistband and had good success with that.  Finally, needing a belt for some other pants that tended to be a little on the loose-side, I took sturdy ribbon I had in my miscellaneous stash and made a belt.  

I would still rather quilt though…..   

An Unexpected Find

A few weeks ago we were trying to make some room in one of the cabinets at my quilt group.  I pulled out what looked like a green suitcase and asked what it was.  "An old sewing machine," was the reply.  I opened it up and there was a Bernina 730 Record.  My eyes got big, and since no one uses it, suggested that we could sell it and have the church put the money in our group's budget.  

I brought it home to see what condition it was in.  It was missing all the accessories except the basic straight stitch/zigzag foot that was on it.  The machine was in good shape and ran well, but the foot control would hesitate and then go too fast, making it hard to control the sewing speed.  I seriously considered buying it myself, but after doing some research online, saw that it would be difficult and expensive to replace the foot control.  

Still, Grandma Bernie, as I dubbed her, is a really neat machine and I will be sorry to let her go.  They just don't make machines like that anymore, sadly.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Being our first winter garden and the growing of greens, we are definitely trying to figure out how to best work with these plants as we go along.  So far so good.

Though the harvest is still mostly a bit here and a bit there, we are getting enough to be a good supplement to the greens I buy at the store and farmer's market.

In this post, I wanted to share some of my latest favorite gardening tools/supplies.  First, the above harvesting basket was something I bought a good while back, about the time we put our garden to rest.  While it can't support a heavy load of produce, it is perfect for greens.  I set it over the sink after harvesting so I can rinse off the leaves before I put them in the frig.

I purchased this watering wand in the gardening department of our local grocery store, and what a great tool it has turned out to be!  I can set the water to be like a gentle rainfall and give the plants a good soaking without the water running off a lot.  The long handle makes it easy to reach all the plants.  

Since wet flip flops make for treacherous walking, a couple of years ago I bought these Crocs to use as yard shoes for when I am hauling sprinkles around the yard for watering.  Knowing that bare feet are not very pleasant once the weather turns cold, I checked to see if Crocs had boots.  Sure enough! I ordered some right away.  While I am not generally a person who gets excited about shoes, I was so excited to get these boots.  Up to now I have dreaded watering days in the late fall and early spring when it is chilly and I am dealing with sprinklers.  Now I can put on some toasty socks, tuck in my pants, and brave the cold and wet.  They will be nice when I need to go to the farmer's market on a cold and rainy day, too.  (Hopefully we have quite a few of those this winter.  We sure still need the rain.)  

Winter is coming, and, at least with gardening, I am ready. :-)

Tip-toe Through the Tulips

Lately my quilt group has done several group projects where each contributes a block for a top.  Having a continual supply of tops to be quilted, I don't usual make a block, but I have done the quilting on several.  Here is one we recently finished. 

Restart

I am not a plant person.  My parents and my brother have lovely green thumbs, but that gene pretty much skipped me.  However, the one botanical endeavor I am willing put time and energy into is a vegetable garden. 

Years ago, my husband and I lived in a more rural area and we planted our first vegetable garden. And I learned to can green beans and tomatoes, make pickles and plum butter, and gained a great appreciation for all the work my ancestors did just to keep food in the pantry.  I also learned that, like making bread, seeing a row of jars of home-canned goods can be very satisfying.  Having said that, it is more of a been there, done that experience that I am not particularly interesting in taking on again.  

A few years ago, we decided to do another garden--small, just enough for two.  We planted tomatoes, green beans, squash, and peppers with varying success.  This was during my food journey, and I learned that most of the above were things I couldn't eat anyway.  With my husband's work schedule being what it is, most of the upkeep of the garden fell to me, and after a couple of seasons, we decided to let the garden space hibernate for a while.  

In the past month or so, though, I had an urge to get things started again, this time with a good handle on what foods are good for me.  My dear hubby gallantly scraped off the wood chips we had covered the garden with to hold back erosion and turned the soil. 

Then he worked in the mulch from our grass clippings.

We made a trip to the nursery and came home with all my greens for a winter garden and planted them together.  That was fun! :-)

Now it is up to me to keep things going, but it is a lovely feeling to see the garden planted again.  We will see how it goes….

Quilt Group Happenings

I love my quilt group.  They are an awesome bunch of ladies, and it has been really a pleasure for me to see their growth as quilters.  Several tentatively waded into free-motion quilting and are starting to get more adventurous.  Makes me so happy!  And the resulting quilts have been wonderful.  So, for current and former members along with others who might enjoy seeing what we have been up to, I am going to try doing a quarterly post showing some of the quilts we have been working on.  Here we go….

Hurray, ladies!

Autumn Light

It is hard to describe the special quality of the sunlight in autumn.  Sometime in August, though we are still experiencing hot temperatures, I can usually sense as the sun moves south when it changes from the hot summer light to the warm glow of the coming autumn.  Then I start to anticipate the cool mornings and warm comfort of the sun as the season shifts.  

The sun's light, especially in the mornings and evenings draws me to the window to see it make the leaves and flowers glow.  Partly cloudy days make for lovely sunrises and sunsets.  Though I couldn't really catch the loveliness of the light, I wanted to take a picture to remind me of how much I love the fall.