Off To Strawberry Patches!

           This afternoon I took a little jaunt to Strawberry Patches, one of our local quilt shops. It is difficult to visit without picking up some of their delightful fat quarters.

         I actually went to get some more blenders for the background sky of my whimsical quilt. They had many lovely choices.

          I had shopped their online store first. I was interested in their Mixmasters Dot.to.Dot by Robert Kaufman in the color called Ice. In the picture above, it is the fourth fabric from the left in the stack. Looked like it would make great clouds!

          Since I wanted to see the fabric "in person", I jumped in my car and drove to Strawberry Patches's  physical store. This is a close-up of the Mixmasters Dot.to.Dot:

 

          I think it will be perfect!

Tropical Sunset

          This rose is from the second bush I bought for my yard when I moved in 11 years ago. The variety is called Tropical Sunset and features striped petals. I am surprised to get an intact blossom this late in the summer because the heat seems to take its toll. The various shades and colors are thrilling, but the bush does have to be kept trimmed back and not sprinkled since it is prone to leaf mildew.
          I took this picture just as the sun was going down yesterday evening.

Looking for Friday

Looking forward to the three-day weekend. It's definitely been one of those days...

Zippy, Zany, Fun!

              Bit by bit, I am getting this puppy quilted.  Who needs TV with all of this entertainment?

Bee in a Blossom

Happy Monday!!!

Back to work we go like bees in a squash blossom.

Pepper Time

          Today I have two large mixing bowls full of peppers that need to be cleaned, chopped, and frozen. Most of them are the prolific hot banana peppers that I tried for the first time this year in my garden. I was pleasantly surprised. They are not all that hot, grow to be about seven to eight inches long, and are about four inches around at the top. I like how they turn a beautiful orange, then red if left on the bush to ripen awhile.

          There are a few bell peppers to preserve as well. The deep red chilies are Anaheim peppers. I don't chop the small peppers, especially if they are really hot. Instead, I just rinse them with water, pack them loosely in a freezer bag, then pop them in the freezer. When I need a really hot pepper for flavoring in soup, I just throw in a whole pepper or two. For casseroles, I chop them up. With the pepper being frozen, it is very easy to mince.

          The larger peppers will be washed and cut into strips with the stems and seeds discarded. Then they will be blanched very briefly in hot water, packed loosely in freezer bags, and frozen. Perfect for stir fries, casseroles, and soups!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Great Bean Experiment

          A couple weeks ago, I planted five varieties of beans in my garden. I devoted an entire raised bed to the purple snap beans because they have been the most reliable in the past. These are Royal Burgundy purple snap beans from Johnny's Selected Seeds. This is what they looked like this morning.

 

 

          These are the Northeaster snap beans that I also bought from Johnny's Selected Seeds. They are pole beans, which means that they have to grow on a trellis or some sort of support. I had to retrain these a bit this morning because they were twirling around each other and falling forward rather than leaning back and wrapping around the trellis.

 

          This is a view of a long bed where I planted four small samplings of beans. Up close are Blue Lake 274 bush beans from Burpee, then a little to the right are the Northeaster climbing beans. To the far left are California Blackeye No. 5 from Burpee Seeds, commonly known as black-eye peas. To the far right is a novelty climber from Johnny's called Red Noodle. I still need to put up a support for them. They are supposed to produce yard-long purple snap beans, so it will be fun to see what they look like.

 

 

A Surprise at the Top of the Ladder

          Two summers ago, I left my ladder under one of my cherry trees instead of putting it away right after picking cherries. A week or so later when I went to get it, a mother pigeon had already made a nest on the very top of the ladder and had laid eggs. The only decent thing I could do was let her have the ladder until the end of the summer. What a devoted mother she was!

Another Layer of Clouds

          Bit by bit, the layers of colors are creating the illusion of clouds for the background of my whimsical wall hanging. These colors and print patterns are such a joy to hand applique at the end of a long day.

Colorful Transition

          It seems that every day my garden teaches me something new. For example, I never knew that purple bell peppers could turn orange during a heat wave.  The three peppers below are from the very same plant, the largest being the most mature. My eyes did a double-take when I saw that beautiful golden bell.

Whimsical Sky

          I have finally gotten around to working on the background for my whimsical wall hanging. The first layer of the clouds has been hand-appliqued with several more layers to go.

          I am going to try and not get too detailed and busy since the other elements in the composition will be zany and bold. These are the borders tacked quite haphazardly to my design wall. Sorry for the mess.

          My challenge will be to end up with a blue fabric behind the little feline star of my quilt that will define her black and white coat rather than have it disappear into a white cloud.

          By the way, this is Panda, and she has been waiting patiently for me to get to "her" quilt. Like most tuxedo cats, she has quite a vivacious little personality and keeps the household entertained.

Very Berry Good--But Late

          These thornless blackberries are usually ripe by the middle of summer. This year I pruned the bushes way back, so everything took a little longer. It is time to go back to school today, and the blackberries are ready to be picked.

Who's In Charge Here, Anyway?

          Sometimes I wonder who really is the boss in my garden.

          Yesterday morning when I went out to pick peppers, I was scolded severely. One of a family of scrub jays who have reportedly lived in my neighborhood for decades, thought that I needed to go back inside and leave "his" garden alone. He perched high upon a bough in the pyracantha hedge and called me all kinds of naughty bird names.

          That wasn't the first time. Usually he is complaining about my cats, who come with me when I tend my garden. He doesn't realize my little feline friends are so well fed that they are hardly interested in him and his sharp beak. They are also rather spoiled and helpless. I once offered them a leftover slab of salmon on a plate, and they wouldn't touch it until I cut it into bite-sized pieces for them.

         I do enjoy having the scrub jays about, in spite of their raucous personalities. Maybe it is simply because of their occasional flashes of brilliant blue that accent my garden.

          I don't know that there are actually any benefits to having them as garden residents. In fact, I have read that jays think nothing of pilfering if given the chance. They do consume the fruit that I can't reach at the top of my trees, but since they keep me entertained, they are welcome to that. I understand that they are particularly fond of peanuts and a former neighbor literally had the birds eating the tasty treats out of his hand.

          Maybe that is what Mr. Scrub Jay was griping about yesterday morning: I never feed him peanuts.

Pick, Pick, Pick

          This is what my living room floor looks like.

          I love paper-piecing, but I don't like the time it takes to remove the paper when I am finished. Or the mess. I used to pry all of the paper loose with my fingertips. Now I use a pair of needle-nosed tweezers. The job goes a lot faster that way.

          I was so happy to finish this task today. Now I get to sandwich the quilt.

Make Your Hydrangeas Blush

          Have you ever been mesmerized by the vibrant blues, pinks, and lavender petals of hydrangeas at your local garden center? Then within a few weeks or months of planting your lovely new purchase in your own garden, the blooms begin to fade to a dull green.

          Tip: Make your soil more acid by placing your used coffee grounds around the base of the plant, then watering. You will be back in the pink--or blue or lavender--in no time.

Mustard is Up!

          The Pacific Gold Mustard seeds that I planted on Monday morning popped up in two days. Here is a picture of the little seedlings as of this afternoon.

          You can tell from the tiny four-leaf clover shape of the seedlings that the mustard plants are a member of the cruciferous family. That includes radishes, turnips, broccoli, collard greens, and many others.

Golden Glory

          The last peach tree to produce in my yard each year is the Golden Glory. It is a genetic dwarf so never grows taller than five feet or so. That makes it very easy to prune, and a ladder is not needed to pick the fruit. I just call it Cousin Itt. The tree's really long, thin leaves sort of look like hair and remind me of the funny Addams Family character.

          It produces medium-sized yellow peaches. Last year, there weren't many. This year, there are probably 50 or so. Perfect to take to work for snacks or lunches. These peaches will be ready to pick in less than a week or so. The color of the fruit will become a little more orange and have a dark pink blush on the outside.

Two Borders Finished

          It is amazing what can be accomplished when the top of my design table is clear. I have been able to get borders sewn on two Asian-inspired quilts that have been waiting in the wings for over a year..

          Actually, this one quilt has three borders.

           This one is much simpler.

           I wonder when I will actually get around to quilting these two.

Testing, Testing...

          Today is the launch of my experiment with the Pacific Gold Mustard. As I explained in a previous post, this is a cover crop that will be dug into the soil, not something I will be eating. I want to see if it does improve my soil and puts a lid on the nematode problem. I am not going to have my soil tested. I know I have nematodes in my soil because when I pull up the old plants in my garden, there are big knots on the roots. Also, some plants just don't produce fruit or plain fail to thrive.

          I will have some idea if the mustard is doing its job if my winter root vegetables that I plant afterwards are relatively free of knots.

          First I cleared away the old squash and tomato plants that had been occupying a raised bed during the summer. The squash had produced well. The Celebrity tomatoes--not so much. Then I spaded the soil. This was relatively easy since the soil has been shoveled and turned on a regular basis for 11 years now.

           Then I raked the dirt clumps somewhat flat and broadcast a liberal amount of mustard seeds by hand. After that, I raked again with a heavy metal rake, the purpose being to work the seeds into the soft soil. Finally, I covered it all with bagged top soil then sprinkled the bed with the hose until there was a layer of standing water.

           With the temperatures being in the 100s this time of year, I will have to water this bed every single day until they drop down into the 80s. I plan on letting the mustard grow until it is about a foot tall, then will spade it into the soil and plant winter crops over it. I am excited to see what the results might be.

Summer Cannas

          This summer heat is becoming unbearable--not so much because of the heat itself but because it is keeping me away from my garden. I rose at dawn today, determined that I was going to spend some time tending my plants and trees.

          What a delightful time I had! The cannas were in full bloom.

A Bit of Embellishment

          Before I was a quilter, I was an avid garment seamstress. I started when I was about six years old, making clothes for my Barbie and the cute little troll dolls that were so popular at the time.

          My first sewing machine was one of those miniatures that only sewed a chain stitch. Depending on whether the chain stitch was tied off properly at the end of a seam meant the difference between the stitching staying put or unraveling altogether. I must have figured it out because one of my friends talked her mother into buying--yes, buying--a skirt that I had made for my Barbie. She wanted her Barbie to rock that gathered turquoise skirt with silver braid that ran a half-inch or so above the hem. Sort of a Southwestern desert look.

          By the time I was high school, I was making most of my own clothing. Those were the days when money could really be saved by sewing your own garments.

          Nowadays with time being so precious and clothing being relatively inexpensive, I don't make garments. I do treasure hunt at stores like T J Maxx and Marshall's though, and occasionally find great things that need just a little bit of help. For instance, I found a hand-dyed knit blouse that most would describe the color as being terribly mousy. Didn't matter. I loved the way it fit. It was comfortable. And yes, the color was boring. And there was a minute little tuck in the neckline which would cause a more noticeable glitch if corrected rather than just left alone.

          All things being considered, I still wanted the blouse. It was soft. It flowed. It was muted enough to wear to a meeting at work.

           Solution: I bought the blouse for a song and a yard of trim at a local fabric store. I hand-stitched the braid around the neck. Since the trim wanted to unravel, I applied a liberal amount of Fray Check to each end before stitching them in place.

          This is the result:

          The braid covered up the little tuck, added some color, and strengthened the neckline.         

          Thank you, Barbie and all of your little friends.

         
         

Red Hot Garden

          Just when I thought I had no more tomatoes on the vine, the high temperatures in California's Central San Joaquin Valley have proven me wrong. Those little green tomatoes that had been hiding in the bushes up until now have lit up like big red bulbs on a Christmas tree. This is the harvest from yesterday evening.

          The cayenne peppers are turning from green to red.

           Even the banana peppers are turning red.

          Salsa!!!

All I Needed Was a Spool of Thread

          Yesterday evening, I went to a local store to buy this:

          Just 1,200 yards if basic cream colored cotton thread. I go through these fairly quickly, and  I am always so amazed when it happens. This should be no mystery to me, but it is.

          By the time I had left the store, I had also bought this:

          How that happened shouldn't be a surprise to me, either. Look at those vibrant batiks!

          Quilters will recognize them as being fat quarters. For my non-quilting family and friends, that simply means that a yard of fabric, which measures 36" X 44" is first cut across, then lengthwise. This yields 4 fat quarters, measuring approximately 18" X 22". Quilters love fat quarters. They are almost like little jewels that be mixed and matched to come up with all sorts of delightful creations.

          Seems like there are a lot of fabric sales going on out there in Cyberland right now with really deep discounts for long-time customers. Lots of new fabric is coming in, and the vendors need to clear the old--although very good--stuff away to make room. Some of the merchants are even selling their new goods at 30% off. There are some very good bargains out there for those of you who are looking for a favorite you have had your eye on for a while.

Garden Seeds Are Here!

            My order of vegetable seeds has arrived from Johnny's Selected Seeds in Maine.

          This is who helped open the package.

          Zia or "Zee" is a Maine Coon. Her assistance, in this case, is appropriate since the seeds came from Maine. After her hard work, she took a break.



           Back to the box.

           I ordered three kinds of beans. Most gardeners sow beans in spring. In Central California, they are best planted in August. The plants will grow if they are planted in the spring, but by the time they are ready to set fruit, the weather is too hot. The result is no pods. I have had success with the purple snap beans in the past so will try those as well as a small planting of a few other varieties.

          Come September, it will be time to plant the carrots, turnips, and greens.


          I also ordered something called Pacific Gold Mustard. It is not to eat.

          There are microscopic worms in some soils called nematodes. They are prevalent here. You know you have them when you pull up your old vegetable plants--particularly beets and tomatoes--and there are big nodules on the roots. Many tomato varieties have been developed that are somewhat resistant to the nematodes and carry on in spite of them. Other crops don't do so well.

          The first line of defense against the nematodes is to keep a healthy soil with lots of organic matter added. There are also beneficial nematodes that can be purchased and mixed into the soil. My understanding is that they destroy the bad nematodes. They, too, are microscopic and come in a refrigerated carton at garden centers. This method does help, but only to a point.

          Another method is to cover your garden soil over with plastic for a number of hot months to effectively bake the nematodes. The soil is then tilled, and finally, covered again for a certain amount of time. That means your garden will be unavailable for that particular growing season.

          There are also fumigants such as methyl bromide than are used in commercial applications. According to my local garden center, ordinary home gardeners are not allowed to purchase those.

          It has been my experience that none of the methods seem to be a good solution for home gardeners.

          As I was ordering my seeds from Johnny's, something caught my eye. I was looking for mustard greens to grow for eating, but also found a listing for the Pacific Gold Mustard. Apparently, it is a cover crop, which means it is to be grown to just before it begins to develop seeds, then tilled into the soil. The plant matter is supposed to control the nematodes and soil fungus!

          Since all of my garden is in raised beds, I suppose I will have to try the mustard in a few beds at a time and rotate crops. It will be interesting to see if the mustard plants work.

   

Ode to Quilter57

          Occasionally, as I am searching through my stash looking for a certain fabric, I light upon another piece and the memories attached to it come flooding back. In this particular case, it was some yardage that I had won online in a fabric auction. The name of the auction, I will not reveal. Let's just say that it was a lot of fun while it lasted.

          I am not really sure how I even found the website. Probably surfing the internet. At that time, I was busy building a stash, so all the potential bargains did look attractive.

          When I won my first auction, I was elated and called the vendor promptly to arrange payment. I explained that it was my first time and wasn't sure what to expect. The sweet lady, who was from one of the Southern states said, "Oh, you'll love the fabric auction! It's so addictive."

          Maybe the Southern belle was right, but I had no time to waste. I needed to get back online and bid on some fat quarters I had seen. The only problem was that I kept getting outbid by Quilter57. It didn't seem to matter what I wanted to purchase. Quilter57 was making her dominance known. She wouldn't let anyone outbid her on anything. Even when the asking price had risen higher than buying silk at an upscale boutique, she kept on bidding.

          Her postman must have hated her.

          Finally, when Quilter57 had the audacity to outbid me on some Victorian print fat quarters, I decided that I had had enough. Being the demure sort that I am, it is rare that I am goaded into being overtly ornery.

          I decided to test Quilter57. If she was bidding on some merchandise in a low to average range, I always slightly outbid her, whether I was terribly interested in the goods or not. I knew I was taking a risk. She could have just walked away and left me to pay for my experiment. But she never did. Ever.

          As I recall, the auction only lasted a little over a year. Maybe more. I am not sure why it went under.

          I did get some really nice fabric on the rare days that Quilter57 wasn't paying attention. Good prices, too.

          The colors in this Amy Butler print had me from the start. Robin's egg blue and pink.

          This nostalgic toile designed by Robin Pandolph tugged at my heart.

          This half bolt of Fairy Frost went for pennies on the dollar. It was not only a treasure trove to me. It was gold. I go through a lot of bling on Asian-inspired quilts.

          Sometimes I wonder what ever happened to Quilter57.

Visiting a UFO

          While spending long hours at the sewing machine as I do in the summer, my mind tends to wander. The more difficult the project, the more I find myself wishing that I could pull something out of a black bag that would be amazingly easy to whip up and would also look great when I finished it.

          Ultimately for me, that means mentally toying with almost every UFO I have hiding in the house.    

          For those of you among my friends and family who are not quilters, that DOES NOT mean that I have flying saucers in my house. It means that I have several----okay...MANY----unfinished objects tucked here and there in one room or another. Unfinished quilts, to be exact.

          Some are unfinished because I have run out of certain supplies that I need. Others hang on quilt racks waiting for room on the design wall or table. Many are patiently waiting in line for their turn at the sewing machine. Some are in a sort of limbo, biding their time until my brain figures how to accomplish one skill or another that is needed to complete them.

          Then there is the occasional quilt that is roughly folded, or even crumpled and shoved to the back of a drawer or into the dark recess of a trunk because I have made some sort of mistake. Yup, that's what I just said. Mistake. I do make them.

          A couple days ago, I found my mind wandering back to one such UFO--enough so that I decided to go visit the poor thing. I opened up the trunk where I had hid it a year or so ago, and there it was--crumpled up along with all of the pieces of fabric I had cut too small.

          The beginnings of the quilt actually looked pretty good. I had meticulously pieced 18 Stack-n-Whack wheels from an Asian-inspired fabric.



          That should have been the hard part, but it wasn't. It was when I went about incorporating them into a quilt top of my own design that I ran into trouble. I thought I was measuring carefully, but again and again, I cut through one expensive piece of fabric after another. When I finally thought I had the design licked, I realized that there was only room for 9 of my wheels rather than all 18. Unacceptable, after all that work I had put into them. Fortunately, I hadn't ruined those.

          Well, into the trunk that whole mess went. That was until the day before yesterday when I was finally curious enough to take a second look. I hadn't realized it, but somewhere in the back of my mind I had been trying to figure out how to fix the quilt. There must have been a small glimmer of hope burning inside me after all.

          Sometimes, our brains come up with some wonderful answers. As soon as I carefully laid the pieces out on my design table, the solution to the disaster was immediately clear. It was even simpler than my original design but looked better.

          Now I am happy. My innate urge to fix things has been satisfied. All the fabric that I did not cut correctly doesn't matter. No scrap will ever goes unused in my sewing room, anyway. I  am enthusiastic about working on this quilt again.

          Sometimes it's a good thing to visit a UFO.

          

Worth Stealing? Apparently.

          A common thief alerted me to the seductiveness of the human senses. One early autumn about two years ago, I happened to see her pacing in front of my neighbor's hedge. The sun was setting as the woman studied the front of the house. After a quick glance over her shoulder, she stopped at the far corner of Roger's lot and reached into the branches of a tree that stood there. Then just as suddenly, the woman disappeared down the sidewalk.

          I have to admit that I had been living in my own home for nine years and hadn't paid any attention at all to that sprawling, rangy tree.

          My interest was piqued. With the sun almost down, I couldn't really see a whole lot as I approached the tree. But then a musky perfume hit me like a dense cloud. The heavenly odor was definitely tropical, and most likely meant fruit. It was almost intoxicating.

          Over the next few days, I noticed Roger's nurse picking the fruit to take inside to her charge, who was well into his nineties. She told me they were guavas. Rather than steal from the elderly man, I immediately made a trip to the local nursery and purchased my own yellow guava tree. It stood about three feet tall. I planted it in the middle of an island of grass in my front lawn, surmising that it would do well there since Roger's tree was only forty or so feet away and was thriving.

          Three days later, my tree was gone! It had literally been plucked out of the ground, leaving a concentric hole where it had once been planted. No need to rack my brain in regards to who the thief might be. Too bad I had no clue where she lived. She wasn't a regular in the neighborhood.

          Back to the nursery. I purchased a slightly larger red guava tree, guaranteed to produce large oval gems with a juicy red flesh inside. I planted it closer to my house, slightly screened by an old Chinese magnolia that was on my list to have removed within the next year.

          The first year, the small tree produced a half dozen or so fruit, complete with the delicious red flesh.

          This year the small tree is branching upward and outward since the towering magnolia has been removed. As the summer heads toward its end, there are tiny green fruit on its branches, which will ripen in late September.

          Hopefully, the thief will stay home and pick guavas from her own ill-begotten tree.