Everything is coming up roses...

Today is October 1 and my flowers are still beautiful.  Some years we have already had several killing frosts by this time but this year my roses are still showing off.  Husband is still picking blueberries... just a few every few days and people are still stopping to look at the dahlias in the garden.  Yep.  We think we should maybe have a donation box for a charity of choice that people could donate to after the dahlia tour.  So funny.  Maybe that is the beauty of growing flowers.  So other people can see them too.

And then there is Webster wondering what the heck I am doing in the rosebush in my slippers and a camera.

Sunflower day

We measured them this morning.  10 and a half feet tall and still growing!  So crazy.  The squirrels and the birds are doing a happy dance in the woods.  They just can't wait.  

Lots of sewing done yesterday and quilt guild tonight.  Mum is coming for a visit so she gets to go to the quilt guild with me tonight.  It is a good day.  A sunflower kind of a day and that is a good thing.  

I am off to sew the baby boy quilt blocks together.  Have a lovely Thursday!

Some Fabric for Friday...

I picked these fat quarters up the other day.   I think I was thinking of the Olympics.  Cute or what?  Husband and I have been junking out on lots of Olympic coverage.  I enjoy our own commentary far more than those paid to comment.

And on a completely different topic... can you take a look at those sunflowers against the wood shed??  They are the tallest sunflowers we have ever grown.  Happy Friday!

I just have to say... life is good!

It is a beautiful day and I have a very strong sense of everything feeling right.  An overall sense of things being right with the world.  I made a few more of these funky string blocks last evening.  I took them outside to enjoy the sunshine.  I forgot to take pins so I didn't pin them to the barn wall.  I decided to lay them out on this little patch of bricks that rest underneath an old grindstone.  A little piece of original farm.   I had to pull some weeds first and then the light wasn't quite right coming through the trees but close enough to make me happy and to give an idea about what this is going to look like.  Being a bit of a lazy quilter, I am always trying to find a better way that might be just a bit more efficient.  Last evening, I tried a few things to see if it made a difference to how fast I can churn out these blocks.  I had mixed results.  I made a long, long strip of strings, then attached the white strips and then cut the strips to 10.5" ... blah blah blah.  I was able to make 3 and a bit of a 4th block that way.  So like I said, mixed results.  I think I will stick to the one block at a time.  I do think they look snazzy though!

While I was out in the yard, I got a little distracted with some of the flowers in the back garden.  Peonies and azaleas.  Just so pretty!  Oh, and a few million buttercups in the background.

And then I noticed that I was so distracted by the flowers that I had dropped my blocks all over the place.  Oops.  All rescued and safely back inside.  None the worse for wear.  Have a lovely day!

Huge welcome to all my new followers and all my oldies but goodies.  If you have not yet entered my Sew Mama Sew Giveaway, please do!  You have until Friday at 5 pm PST!!!!

The Perfect Day...

Husband declared today to be the "Perfect Day."  And it was.  Blue skies, warm with a slight breeze.  Flowers, trees, birds and bees.  A perfect day.  We planted a mother's day tree.  A magnolia.  I picked the spot.  The only spot in the yard, it seems with a giant boulder in just the place we wanted to plant the tree.  Good grief.  Husband had to go all cave man on it to get it out of the hole.

On the quilting front... I sandwiched, quilted and bound the wedding quilt.  No photos yet though.  And I sandwiched the Garden Trellis quilt.  I made the back yesterday and the back is really the only thing on the design clothesline this weekend.  I had to make all sorts of tough quilting decisions on the how to quilt the wedding quilt and which fabric to use for binding but the stage of each quilt is such that design decisions are not on a wall.

So here is the back of the Garden Trellis quilt on a sunny Mother's Day.  The perfect day.  Even the blueberries are blooming.

Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday!  Happy Mother's Day!!!

From the Rhubarb Patch...

We have pretty deep sinks and the sink is filled with the first big rhubarb harvest.  Husband says it is just the beginning.  This represents 33 pounds of rhubarb goodness.  It is really so exciting that this humble, old-fashioned plant comes up each spring.  It never asks for anything and yet, produces hundreds of pounds of food for us, our friends and family.  It is a wonderful thing.

Happy spring!

I just have to say...

that these are the most perfect flowers.  Small, bright and prolific.  These perennial primulas live underneath our hazelnut trees in perfect circles.  They bloom early and start out tiny each spring.  They grow and fill out until they form a dense carpet of colour under each of the trees.  Their blooming time lasts well over a month and each spring we marvel at the richness of colour.  They just make us happy.

This makes me happy too.  Husband is perfecting these super-dooper, multigrain, good for you buns.  Yum!

Go Canucks, Go!

Sunday Stash

I picked up some fabric on sale at my fabulous local quilt shop.  Ruby charm packs times 2!  It always takes some time before new lines find their way up to the Great White North so I was tickled to find some Ruby and it is really lovely.  I have a project in mind for these.  Yummy!

Some Michael Miller bicycles and jigsaw camo.  Nice to have around.

And some stripes and florals of Prospect Park by Kitty Yoshida for Benartex.  Very pretty and versatile, I thought.

A little downy woodpecker was trying to figure out the bird feeder with little success.  And the roses are still blooming and a honey bee was working hard at getting whatever she could find in.  Husband and I dug up the dahlias tuber today.  It is such a huge job but the tubers are all on racks downstairs drying. Once they are dry, they will get a dusting of copper sulphate and a bed of hamster shavings before they are stored away in the cold room until next spring. Totally worth the effort when the flowers are so beautiful.

Cabbage Head

I just have to say that today I feel like... I don't know.  Maybe like a cabbage head!  This is me yesterday posing with one of Husband's prize cabbages. Weighing in at a whopping 6.5 pounds, these are the most beautiful cabbages we have EVER grown.  If a cabbage could be a thing of beauty, these cabbages are beautiful!  Prize winning.

The plants came from my friend Patti.  (And Husband says whenever he says "Patti,"  I smile. I think it means something good.)  Anyway... back to the cabbages.  Patti got the baby plants from her neighbour.  They were extras and evidence of generous garden sharing.  Too many for the neighbour, but enough for Patti to share with us.  Today they are all grown up.  8 gorgeous cabbages.  Getting bigger by the day.  Sometimes gardens just do amazing things.

And speaking of amazing things.  The squirrels in our yard have actually worn a path in the lawn, from the forest to the grandmother nut tree!  You can see a line across the lawn from little busy squirrel feet!  That is crazy!!!!!

Sunday Stash... and the garden

some roll ends from my fabulous local quilt shop yesterday... buy one get one free!

French Journal Collection by London Portfolio for Michael Miller

The French Journal fabric is so gorgeous!  It was a birthday gift from a dear friend.  She bought it for me this summer when in Oregon!  I LOVE IT!!!!!

I was just out in the garden beating back the flowers.  We have had quite a bit of rain in the past week and the rain beats the dahlias down.  I dead headed the wet soggy spent flowers.  The plants are taller than I am and I kept getting hit in the face with soggy wet kleenex-like flowers that hold an amazing quantity of water!  The garden continues to produce great quantities of vegetables. Husband picked a 5.5 pound cabbage yesterday.  It is incredible!  And the birds of fall have returned.  They are gobbling up the nuts, gleaning in the blueberries and filling the trees and they gobble up the fruit and seeds from the native wild apples and cascara trees.  What a wonderful time of the year!  Harvest time for everyone.

Lots of sewing done this weekend.  I feel most productive!

Don't forget my fabric giveway!!!!  It is open until next Friday evening.  Have a super rest of your day!

Sunday stash!

I have been sorting and resorting my fabric windfall.   Some of it has gone into the donate pile only to migrate back to the keep pile a few days later.  Last evening my card ladies were over and I was showing them the fabric and they found some treasures they liked in my donate boxes and bags.  Who knows what they will make out of they stuff they hauled home because they are not quilters or sewers for that matter but the fabric made them happy!

This fabric is one that migrated from the donate pile back to the keep file.  Look at it closely.  Yep.  Scotty dogs.  Originally, I thought it was just a random fabric with a blotchy sort of pattern.  I don't know what made me look closer.  FUNNY!!!!

We had a blueberry picking party today.  My aunt and uncle brought my grampa out. Along with my teen cousin and her friend and one of my buddies, that patch was bopping along with pickers.  Grampa did pretty well considering he is in his 90s and has serious vision issues.  Decked out in his straw cowboy hat, his love of blueberries really motivated him, I guess.  Husband made delectable blueberry tarts for when we were finished picking.  So yummy!!!

I will be drawing a winner for my giveaway tonight and posting it tomorrow after work.  Good luck everyone!!!  And have a lovely week.

Paper pieced letter... done!

I did it.  A letter an evening for 4 evenings.  I am not totally happy with the letter "P" but the rest are great.  There were a great many wee pieces in "P" and it is a little funny looking. (editor's note:  I did not intend to make a funny by speaking about "wee" pieces and the letter "P" but I did and now I think it is very funny!)

I am canning beans as we speak and the pressure cooker canner is bopping away in the other room.  Husband is convinced it will blow.  We have almost declared "you win" with the veggie garden.  Today Husband decided it is not possible to keep up with the broccoli, zucchini or beans.  If there was only a way to keep it all going for more than just one season!

I have to tell you about a great week over at Kristie's blog.  She is having Bag Lady Week with lots of great "bag" tutorials.  Lots of fun!

I Spy Wall Quilt... Phase 1

I started working on the I Spy wall quilt for my office.  I decided I would paper piece letters to form the words "I Spy...".  I began working on this a few evenings ago.  It was really tricky to pick the colours for the letters since I have not started the actual quilt yet.  I also sought Husband's opinion.  We both agreed on the choice.  So far it just says "IS" but trust me, it will say "I Spy..." in a few days.  If you look really closely, you can see that the blue print used for the letters has wee teddy bears.  That in itself could be a total I Spy challenge.  I have not done any paper piecing before other than hexies so this is all very interesting.  Last evening, I proudly held up the almost finished "S" only to realize that I had sewn it together reversed.  Good grief.  It really is time to get back to school.  I found the patterns on Quilter's Cache.  And Quilter's Cache is totally awesome if you have not checked it out before.

It was a very flowery day out in the garden so I leave you with some lovelies.

Farmer's Wife Check In: Week 13 Oh My Goodness!

Two blocks this week and again I seem to be gravitating towards fall-ish fabrics.  It is very sunny so please bear with these photos!

Block # 54 Kitchen Woodbox  (and I love this block!!!!!!)

Block #69 Practical Orchard

Husband objected to me taking the picture in the little pear tree but I thought that it was appropriate with the name of this block!

From this Farmer's wife, more bread and butter pickles went into the cold room and many pints of green beans.  More green beans are waiting to be canned and the counter is covered with blueberries for the freezer.  The blueberries are so late this year and now Husband is picking them solo with me back to work.  Once those berries are ready, there is no stopping them!  We actually thought the crop would be a big giant bust but they are surprising us now with the quantity.  Blueberries are apparently a "super food" and a food that does not lose any of its nutritional value when frozen.  There you go.  Eat blueberries.  They are good for you.  They taste awesome too!!!

And big thank yous go out to Paulette who blogs at the Cheerful Thrifty Door.  Paulette has added me to her list and thrown me the Versatile Blogger recognition.  I will do a little bit of work on that and more to follow!  Thanks Paulette!

Farmer's Wife Check In: Week 12

Block #30  End of Day

Block # 31 Evening Star

Hanging out with the flowers!

Some easy blocks this week and autumn must be approaching because I pulled some very autumnal scraps to make these 2 blocks!  Evening Star was a breeze!  It is really lovely to see the stack of little blocks growing into a substantial pile!

This Farmer's Wife helped Husband pick the Transparent Apples this morning.  There are beans to can and we are coaxing the cucumbers to hurry up and become pickle sized.  We are at that lovely part of the summer when we rarely go to the veggie store.  The deep freeze is filling up and I have lost the chocolate chip cookies that were placed in the freezer.  They are hiding somewhere underneath the frozen berries and all the frozen broccoli!  Hopefully they will surface at some point.  I guess I would have looked harder if they were something I eat.  I am one of the few who do not eat chocolate at all!

Have a lovely end of summer kind of day!

Picnic anyone?

Vintage sheets in the woods.  Here is the completed picnic/camping quilt for Daughter.  I think it looks quite nice out in the woods with a picnic basket!  4" squares in a nine patch with 2" sashing/borders around each 9 patch.  5" borders all round from 2 different sheets.  Backed completely with a vintage sheet and bound in the brown floral vintage sheet.  I like it!!!

Beautiful sunny day and the garden is producing overtime.  Yesterday it was pesto day.  The bowl of basil above is big enough to bathe a baby.  We gave away a shopping bag of basil to a friend.  We will be picking the same amount in a week or so and doing the same thing.  Blueberries, beans, cucumbers and the dreaded zucchini are filling up the house!  I love it!!!

Pesto

2 cups fresh basil leaves
1 cup parsley sprigs
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cups pine nuts
1/2 cup romano cheese, grated
1/2 cup to 1 cup olive oil

Blend to a paste.  Taste and add salt if desired.  Store unused in a jar or freeze in single use sizes.  Yummy!

I am going to link up with a great blog I just discovered!  Very Merry Vintage Style and her share the love Wednesday!  Fun!  Check out the other lovely ideas!!!