Is It Fall Yet?

How are you? What have you been working on? What have *I* been working on?

I’d love to say that my summer was smooth sailing and glorious. But let’s be honest with each other here. I had some minor health issues, and was struggling to find our son a car in time for him to go back to school. Once kids are no longer first year in college, they aren’t necessarily guaranteed a dorm room…at his school at least. So he made arrangements for an apartment, and it’s crazy to prep a 20 year old for his first apartment–long distance.

And the car? Have you tried to purchase a car lately? Dealers will take a deposit, and then you wait for the manufacturer to deliver whatever they have the parts to build. Seriously. Used cars? Ha. They cost as much as new (well, almost). My husband’s car is now worth more used than he paid for it brand new two years ago. Crazy times.

But for now, we are somewhat on track. He moves out again next week to his own place with a functioning car.

And in my spare time, I have been consumed with the vegetable garden.(And the bugs, the weeds, the critters, the watering). For whatever reason, the tomatoes have gone nuts this year. No kidding, the plants have jumped the shark.

Shown are Supersweet 100 cherry tomatoes, San Marzano Roma, Early Girl, Big Red and Beefmaster. All varieties are as disease-resistant as I could find. But things still nibble on them once in awhile. An old gardener once told me “If the nothing else will eat it, neither should you.”.

I have roasted tomatoes, given them to friends, forced my family to eat them for breakfast lunch and dinner. And this is after the cucumbers exploded. I planted *one* cucumber plant, knowing that would be just enough. But the plant produced well over 40 cucumbers. All in the span of a few days. I made jars and jars of fridge pickles, bread and butter pickles, carried armloads off to the Salvation Army Food Pantry and we had cukes with every meal.

Dear readers, I am suburban. If I were capable of canning I would certainly do it, but it scares the h— out of me. I don’t want to poison anyone down the road. I know how to cook and freeze things. I’m not afraid of letting things pickle in the fridge. But guaranteeing a seal with a water bath and all that jazz? Mmm…No. So this weekend, is Tomato Sauce Weekend. I will be spending my time making two different types of sauce and freezing them in meal sized portions.

And on top of that, I planted cantaloupe on a whim.

Now I have 5 cantaloupes in the fridge to eat (and counting…still some on the vine). So far, they have been tasty but not super sweet. I would have liked them to get a little sweeter, but I did as YouTube instructed me, and waited till they easily came off the vine. Some are delicious and some I throw out the back door into the woods for the squirrels. An experiment for sure.

And I have two watermelons. I really have no idea when those should be picked. They resemble what would be referred to as Black Diamond or Blackjack watermelons. Which just means they don’t have the traditional watermelon stripes. I am clueless. The name was not on the small container when I purchased them and now it’s just an interesting game. I am not invested in these being tasty at all…just curious as to what I’ve grown here. They look like black soccer balls in the garden.

Here’s a little recipe for you. I’m sure you can come up with your own way of consuming cherry tomatoes. I grew Supersweet 100 cherry tomatoes this year. I highly recommend them as they are disease-resistant and prolific.

These are roasted. Simply cut in half and arrange on a baking sheet with the cut side up, parchment paper lining. In a separate bowl, combine 2-3 tablespoons of good olive oil, 2 cloves of minced garlic and a teaspoon or so of Italian seasoning. Mix it up and meticulously spread it little by little over the top of every teensy cherry tomato half.

400 degrees in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Toast some crunchy bread (I use gluten free), top with some goat cheese and then pile on the tomatoes. Chop a little basil if you have it. This year I grew Amazel Basil. Totally worth it. I’ve been harvesting for weeks and weeks.

I’ve been pounding out the pesto too.

Finally, every few days I get an amazing display of zinnias.

Here’s a two-gallon bucket full of them, just one morning’s trip. They are blooming so profusely that if I don’t cut the flowers and bring them inside the plants will begin to fall over from the heavy stems and blooms.

So have I sewn at all? Not a stitch. Though I have been knitting a tiny bit for stress relief.

But once that first cool breeze hits, I promise, I’ll get back to sewing. Suddenly, in the car this morning, I had an idea for something I’d like to try with fabric scraps.

Enjoy the last days of summer before the routines all change. My experience in the garden has been that lately, summer lasts through mid-October. But once the kids are back in school, even the plants are ready for a change.

And once I dig out from under these tomatoes, I’ll be back at the sewing machine. I’m feeling something new coming on. Happy harvest!

#GardenFail–But It’s All Good

So do you remember the barren piece of dirt from the garden plot from my last post?

I went to work on it like a crazed garden lady, and by June I had conquered some of the hurdles and seed was in the ground. I also managed to plant a few things, like tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and peppers.

Day after day during the drought, I showed up. I dragged gallon after gallon of water onto the tomatoes the lettuces, the kales, the flowers.

I weeded. I got out the hula hoe and I worked it, baby.

Here is what I managed to eke out of it by mid-June.

I harvested young lettuces, and kale. Delicious.

Then the rains came. And came. And came. A small pond formed in the garden at one end. Rivers flowed from the tomatoes to the dahlias on down to the peppers and just kept flowing.

I couldn’t walk in the garden even a little. My shoes sank down into squishy mud, and I could barely pull them out. If I managed to pull out a weed, it took out a pound of dirt with it. The waters didn’t recede, but I did.

I’ll give it a couple of days, I thought.

In the meantime, I started feeling pain on the ball of my right foot. It felt like a balled up sock was there. I had to stop walking on it. I started to see doctors…what’s happening with my foot? Well, they said…could be overuse, could be neuroma. Try rest.

So while the garden dried out, I rested my quirky foot. On a day when it didn’t feel too bad, I ventured back to the plot.

Wait. This is not my nice little plot. This is some overgrown parcel of wildness with random plants. I made a feeble attempt to catch up on the madness.

Now let me just say that while the weeds are taking over, and Mother Earth is returning this site to its natural meadowland, I am getting an astounding amount of harvest. Despite the chaos, every day, I am able to harvest at least a pint of cherry tomatoes. (They are in the far left in the back) The zinnias, by the way, are prolific. They are producing like nobody’s business, and tolerated both drought and biblical flooding without the tiniest interruption in growth.

The dahlias (one shown above) on the other hand, are like precious fragile blown glass figurines. They wilt when it’s hot. They rot when they sit in moist soil around the tubers. They take forever to start growing and bloom late in the season. And mine? I have no idea if they will ever bloom. But for now, they are still alive. The grass growing in there? I can’t pull it, because if I do, the whole tuber will come up. Sigh.

All is not lost. My peppers and beans, tomatoes and cucumbers are producing well, despite my ping-ponging from doting obsession to negligence.

The cosmos and asters are happy as can be. They don’t seem to mind competition from weeds and grass.

A volunteer tomato plant appeared in the back and seems to be happily producing with no encouragement whatsoever. Same for some sort of weed that looks like it might produce either sunflowers or some sort of puffy seed pod.

Someone on social media was lamenting that they worked hard all season only to harvest 5 peas. Someone else recommended “The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden.”

I can relate.

Still. The first bite of that homegrown tomato was worth it all. The green beans…simply boiled, were the stuff of heaven. I had forgotten what food is supposed to taste like. Fresh green peppers? Like candy.

So.

If I try this again next year, I’m going to simplify. I really wanted cut flowers. Gonna have to stay with zinnias and cosmos.

Vegetables? Tried and true. Tomatoes, green beans, peppers.

And me? I’m getting too old for this.

But I’m not giving up.

For the Gardeners Among Us

I’m guilty of spending a teensy bit less time in the sewing studio, and a bit more time out in the yard these days…like most of you, I’m guessing.

It will be raining off and on this weekend, so between trips to the store and out in the garden, I might get in a bit of organizing/sewing.

But for now, here’s a tribute to those of us who cannot resist the flowers. They cheer us, bloom under almost any circumstances, and lead the way into a new season.

What would we do without them?

Kraft-Tex in the Garden

kraft-tex for the garden. learn to use Kraft-Tex for lots of fun projects. Edgestitch.

If you’ve followed this blog at all, you know that I have a lot of fun with Kraft-Tex, a paper/fabric that can be washed, doesn’t fray, and needs no finishing.

Here’s a link to a couple other of my blog posts on Kraft-Tex.

This time, since I am into garden season, I thought I’d try something slightly different by adding a garden flag made from Kraft-Tex. Now, I know that it has been a truly rainy season in my area, so I though it would be interesting to find out how the flag holds up during rain. I know it can be washed and dried without any issues, and I already tested the ribbon I’m using for color-fastness. So I’m not really worried about the rain.

I promise to show you what it looks like after a few weeks. We’ll all find out!

The embroidery showed up really well on white, and then I placed it on the grey or charcoal color. I find that Kraft-Tex holds up well with lots of embroidery…upwards of 20,000 stitches..as long as I use the right stabilizers. I find it best to use a medium weight cutaway, with a layer of Stabilstick cutaway on top of that — 2 layers of cutaway in total.

Then I cut out the pieces and used a bit of scrapbook tape to hold them in position while I stitched them down onto a larger piece of Kraft-Tex.

These designs can be purchased at emblibrary.com.

After assembling the flag, I added some velcro to the top, along with a fold so that it hangs nicely on the iron bar. A bone folder works great to give a nice solid crease. And the velcro makes it easy on-off. I’m thinking that I could make a number or these through the seasons…Fourth of July next.

Finally, I’m playing around with placement outside. I don’t have my annuals set up out there yet, so it’s a bit early. In the meantime, this is easy and gratifying stitching to get done for any season.

For the Gardener

I’ve been sewing, I promise.

Just not as much as I would like.

But here’s a little peak at the hyacinth that have started popping up in my backyard. We all need a bit of the wild earth to sweep us away every now and then. For me, that happens in the spring and summer when the light and the blooms blend into tiny miracles. The closer I look, the more miraculous it all seems.

Enjoy.

Seeing Life Through a New Lens

No one uses actual cameras any more, they just don’t.  I know. Why would you? Everyone is armed with a phone with a camera and instant video. A modern luxury or curse, depending on how you look at it.

I was one of the last people to switch from a film camera to digital, and even then, I would not make the switch until Canon delivered a DSLR. (Digital Single Lens Reflex.)

To me, nothing is more satisfying than the mechanical “click” of a 35 mm.

This changed the world for me.  Finally, I could shoot digitally, and get the kind of quality I had grown to love from my Canon. (My first 35mm was given to me as a high school graduation gift by my parents…specifically my Dad, who loved photography, and shot with what is now considered a vintage 35 mm Leica from Germany. Somewhere in this house, I still have that camera. Don’t make me look for it now.)

But the new DSLR meant I could also still live in the world of lenses — zoom, standard, and wide angle.

I recently bought the lens of my dreams.

For those of you who are photo savvy, it’s 180mm, f/3.5 Macro USM.

It’s magic.

It lays pixie dust on everything in its frame.

It’s designed for macro photography….so flowers, jewelry, nature.

I ran around the house and started taking pics of ordinary items, watching them become extraordinary.

Now this particular lens does not have image stabilization.  That’s $$$$$. So I must use it with a tri-pod. But what fun.

Here’s a little sample. I can’t wait to use it for more. Everything in the world is a small miracle if you look closely enough.

Yellow Valdani.

Red Valdani.

Emerging daffodils.

Dormant hens and chicks.

Silk flowers in the house.

Ginger Peach tea.

More daffodils.

 

 

 

Mother’s Day Blooming

I’m always charmed by the peony tree in my backyard.  When I first planted it, it stayed basically bloomless and green for 5 years…an oddity, with it’s twiggy branches and mini-trunk.  Very different from your normal peony bush.

Then one year, and I’m not sure why, it developed a bloom.  A big, beautiful 7 in. diameter bloom.  But just one.

The next year, the plant had 7 giant blooms.  I’m not sure what gave it the courage to erupt.  More sunshine as I cut away some of the brush?  Another nearby plant which helped it to polinate?  An adjustment to the soil? No idea.

I don’t know enough about plant dynamics to understand all the factors involved.

But I can enjoy it while it’s here. And every year, it is just stunning. This year, it bloomed on Mother’s Day.  Have a happy one.

Daffodils Should Rule the World

daffodils6

They’re stunningly gorgeous, reliable, and resist pests.  They require very little maintenance and they promote peace.

They don’t feed the hungry, but most world leaders don’t either.

Yes, daffodils should rule the world.

Until the peonies and irises come along, and then the duties will be shared.

But for now, we live in a daffodil world.

I started a couple of years ago with a cheap bag of bulbs from Costco. It produced lovely little yellow daffodils.  So the next year, I turned to a catalog and purchased a few more varieties.

Now I am hooked, and these quiet, yet lovely little early risers of spring are enough to give me signs of hope every year.  They cautiously poke from the ground when the frost is still in the air, when flurries are still flying, having full trust that the 70 degree weather will appear. And it does.

dafodils2daffofils3daffodils4daffodils5daffodils long shotBut look out daffodils, the hostas are not far behind, and I hear they are willing to redefine world order.  They are fresh and green and itching to unfurl.  Uh oh. Peace out.

hosta

 

 

Quilting vs. Gardening: It Must Be June

I’ve been busy.  Too busy to write a blog.

And not only too busy, but too boring.  And while I don’t mind writing a boring blog, I’m not sure you want to read one.  All of that aside, I have also reached the point in the year where all good quilters/gardeners have to make some decisions.  Inside or outside.  Quilt or garden. Flowers and vegetables or blocks and table runners.

And while I may be able to hold it all in my mind simultaneously, I certainly can’t work on it all simultaneously.  So although I have some very ambitious sewing plans and classes lined up, as my farmer grandfather used to say (and do), “Make hay while the sun is shining.”  Of course, he made hay in August, but you get the idea.

In the hopes of providing a little temporary entertainment, here’s a gallery of recent flowers from the garden.  Most are done blooming, so I’ll be back in the sewing room shortly.  In the meantime…it’s summer…let’s all go for a walk!