T-shirt Quilt: Part 3

Posted on by

I did it!  The t-shirt quilt is complete, though not without some blood and tears.  Well, maybe not tears, but blood was shed from the prick of many straight pins. 1016150916a

Once we got the quilt top, batting, and fleece sewn together we flipped it back through like a pillow case.

1016151032

Next step was to sew around the edges in order to close the hole we used for flipping.

1016151212

We ended up using the yarn method to keep the front and back pieces together by tying yarn in the corners of the t-shirt blocks.  It too was a long and tedious process, but with the help of my mother we prevailed.

1016151341

It may be about eight years after graduation, but it’s just in time for cold weather!

1016151340a

Posted in Crafts

T-shirt Quilt: Part 2

Posted on by

You may not remember, but there was a T-shirt quilt part 1 back in December 2014 when I was between garden and busy season and had cut out and prepped my t-shirt squares.  Almost a year later and I do believe it is time to move forward.  Luckily, this time I had the help of my mother who is more adept at sewing than I am.

DSC02971

Here she is threading the sewing machine.

DSC02969

First step was to sew the rows together.

DSC02972

That wasn’t too bad, but sewing the rows to the other rows proved to be a bit more challenging.  Some stretching of the fabric made it difficult to keep the shirts lined up exactly.

DSC02973

But we prevailed and now have a complete quilt top.

DSC02974

Unfortunately, when we went to sew on the fleece back we found that I had been shorted on fabric.  A trip back to the fabric store corrected this error, but the final sew job will have to wait for another day. Preferably not another year from now.

Posted in Uncategorized

Hello Fall

Posted on by

We have a few new residents in the garden now that leaves are starting to drop.  Peas,

DSC02961

kale,

DSC02958

and a mix of cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.  Don’t ask me which is which.

DSC02959

DSC02960

Last year only the kale worked out.  We planted earlier this time hoping to beat the snow.

Posted in Vegetables

Shelling Beans

Posted on by

One of the fun activities for our weekend was to shell all the beans that we had dried up in our loft.  A throwback 90’s play list helped us pass the time (think Space Jam and Spice Girls). Last year we had issues with mold on our beans and only got one quesadilla worth of the little suckers.  Not so this year.

DSC02956

The pods

Other than that, we have been slowly collecting cherry tomatoes for salsa, as well as a few other hold outs in the garden.

DSC02954

DSC02953

DSC02951

Posted in Fruits, Vegetables

Rain Barrel

Posted on by

Drew moved a couple hastas and added sand, dirt, and paving stones to create the perfect spot for my new rain barrel.

DSC02947

 

Willis helped of course.

DSC02950

 

Now I’m actually hoping to see some rain soon.

Posted in Uncategorized

Green Egg Ribs

Posted on by

A few weekends ago Drew grilled ribs low and slow on the Big Green Egg.  They were amazing.  Thanks to my sister-in-law’s many troubles in procuring the BGE, we had complementary John Henry’s Honey Rib Rub to use on this fine meat.

DSC02933

We continue to get batches of tomatoes each week.  The Roma are destined for sauce, while the Cherry will become an experimental salsa.

DSC02936

 

 

Posted in Cooking, Vegetables

Pesto and Cucumber Soup

Posted on by

I decided to grow a few herbs this year, but I have such a habit of using dried herbs that I forget to ever cook with fresh.  Today I fixed this issue with my basil plant by making a small batch of pesto.  I’m freezing it in an ice cube tray to have chunks to use for later dishes.  Hopefully I’ll get even more basil to add to this.

DSC02929

DSC02930

We are overflowing with cucumbers at the moment but as I still have pickles left over from last season I need to find different uses for my cucumbers.  I love fresh cucumber salad in a vinegar/sugar dressing and plan to make plenty of it this year.  I also went ahead and experimented with making a cucumber soup.  It called for avocado, yogurt, parsley, chicken broth, and spices.  I used our garden onions too.

DSC02931

DSC02932

I ate it warm and thought it was good.  Drew says he will only eat it chilled, so he is patiently waiting as it cools in the fridge.

Posted in Cooking

The Lemon

Posted on by

Can you believe it?  While we were gone our lemon turned yellow, fell off, and turned squishy on one side as it sat in water for who knows how long.  Here is the pretty side.  Drew is telling me to be happy that it at least made a lemon.

DSC02925I did make a couple batches of carrot soup with our large harvest of carrots.  It was the consistency of a butternut squash soup and I great way to use the carrots. First you roast the carrots.

DSC02885Then you boil them with chicken broth, butter, onion, ginger and spices.  Very easy.

Here is the rest of the loot that was waiting for us after getting back from Washington D.C.

DSC02927

Roma Tomatoes

Huge Zucchini

Huge Zucchini

Pepper and Onion

Pepper and Onion

 

 

 

Posted in Cooking, Vegetables

Carrot Harvest

Posted on by

It was time to pull the carrots today.  I’ll say that we ended up with plenty of them.  The variety we chose was the short, stubby kind.

DSC02867

It has been good for us to experiment with growing different vegetables in order to determine what our favorites are.  I think I’ve decided that root vegetables are too much of a pain to mess with.  The beets had to be cooked and peeled all while trying not to dye everything in sight pink.  The carrots took a lot of scrubbing and were difficult to peel without losing a lot of the carrot.  I will try sweet potatoes one day, but I’m saying good bye to the rest of these underground babies.  At least for now while real estate is limited.

DSC02868

 

DSC02869

DSC02870

Ugh! And tomorrow I still need to make something with these.  I’m leaning towards carrot soup.

Posted in Vegetables

Zucchini Arrival

Posted on by

We tried another beet recipe that involved putting a layer of roasted beets in a baking dish, topped with shredded sweet potato and cracked eggs.  Not bad but I’m still liking the beet salad best.  Mostly I was trying to find creative ways to use all my eggs. This weekend we are pulling up the rest of the beets and pickling them.

DSC02864

 

Say hello to our first zucchini.

DSC02865

We also have a yellow squash forming that should be ready this weekend.  I know gardeners tend to end up with excessive amounts of zucchini and squash, but I am going to be very disappointed if that doesn’t happen to me.  Zucchini noodles anyone?  Probably the best healthy thing ever and you need to try them immediately if you haven’t already.  However, tonight it will be a zucchini quesadilla.

Posted in Vegetables
« Older Entries Recent Entries »