Wishing everyone a wonderful New Year from snowy CT!

Vintage blocks

I have been hand stitching my English Paper Pieced vintage hexagon blocks. I bought them from an antique store and they still had the paper hexagon cutouts inside many of the pieces. It looks like these paper pieces were cut from index cards. They had writing on them and must have been old cards that were recycled. Some had partial names and dates from the 1950's. Recycling is certainly nothing new.

An Easy Way to Grow Potatoes!

This year I tried growing my potatoes in a special bin I bought online from a garden supply site. I placed it in a sunny location and filled it with rich compost from my compost bin. I added garden soil and mixed it up. Then I placed about 8 seed potatoes about six inches deep. I like Yukon Gold seed potatoes. Sunday, I put on some gloves and dug through the soil to find all these wonderful potatoes. It was easy to feel for them and just brush off the soil. They were undamaged because I didn't have to use any tools. George cooked up a batch for supper,Yummm!

Quilts

I took my first on line quilting class from Annie Smith, one of my favorite quilting podcasters. I learned many new tricks including the use of "fork pins" to make joined pieces match up perfectly. I wish I had learned this trick a lot sooner. My blocks would have been much better. These are pictures of my "Pickle Road" quilt in progress.

Fall is in the air!

We are weathering the remnants of Tropical Storm Danny. Lots of rain and surprisingly cool air. Fall is still definitely in the air. School started for teachers this week and students start Monday. I am definitely having a mind shift and have to focus on lots of new information and procedures for the new school year. Yesterday I walked through the garden before going into school. A hummingbird was busy visiting all the flowers. It was early and the crickets were still chirping but everything else was so STILL. Very peaceful and quiet. I wished I could stay longer and soak up the peace but it was time to go into the fray! I have a feeling I will be spending mornings in that peaceful place as much as I can.

Movie: Julie & Julia

Yesterday I went to the movies with my Mom. She is 85 years old and incredible. She still drives and volunteers and is very active in her church. The other day she asked me if I would like to go to the movies with her. She doesn't have too many friends left who are able to get out and do things with her. Since my summer vacation days are winding down I agreed to go to a matinee. We went to see Julie & Julia and both loved it. I am now very interested in getting a copy of Julia Child's cookbook. Since I was going to college for Home Economics back in the late 60's, I took many cooking classes. I always felt I knew the basics of cooking. I certainly used all the lessons I learned over the years and prided myself on being a decent cook. I remember a few meals that didn't turn out so well in my younger years. I know a few dinner guests were very polite in their comments. I learned by experience and made homemade bread from scratch and canned tomatoes from the garden many times. However, I never looked through Julia's book in all those years. I had The Joy of Cooking, which I learned from the movie is nothing compared to Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Perhaps it just looked like another big cookbook that I would probably leave on the shelf. But now, after taking the class at Johnson & Wales and then seeing this movie, my interest is peaked. Unfortunately, so is the interest of many others. Maybe I'll just try the library first. I'm sure book sales will be up everywhere for the cookbook. One thing that seems like common knowledge from the cooking class, the movie and Julia herself, everything always tastes better when you use real butter in the recipe!

Etsy Shop Added

I added my daughter's Etsy Shop link to my blog. Check out her work! The link is located on the right.

Summer preserves

I have a good crop of jalapeno peppers and decided to try my hand at pickling them. I like the pickled ones on sandwiches and just heard on a gardening podcast that it is very hard to find organic pickled jalapenos. Well, where there is a need there is someone who can fill it! It is very easy to make these. You just wash and slice your peppers, pack them into a sterilized canning jar, boil cider vinegar and a little honey. Pour over the sliced peppers and screw on a new lid. In a few minutes you will hear the lid pop, which means it is sealed.

I also made some flavored vinegar from my baby Egyptian onions and my purple basil. It has such a nice color. I used regular vinegar, boiled it and poured it over my washed basil and onions, screwed on the lid and listened for the pop! Aren't they pretty in their jars?

Apron

I completed an apron from the directions in the vintage apron book a purchased a few weeks ago, with a few minor changes. I feel very good about this apron because I used some old dish towels that my mother-in-law made from an old worn tablecloth. She recycled the cloth many, many years ago and I re-recycled it into an apron. So, even this was just created, it was made with a vintage pattern, of vintage fabric and I even sewed it on my vintage machine. I liked the pattern because it has potholders incorporated into the apron corners, I used quilted muslin but also added Insul-Bright inside, to make them very well insulated. If you have never used this, you can buy it at most fabric stores and it is similar to quilt batting but has fibers imbedded in it to make it a wonderful insulator. If you notice, I appliqued cutouts from the vintage print, onto the potholder corners. I thought they needed some embellishment. I also used an elastic remnant in the front waistband, just because I wanted to use it up. So this was definitely a very "green" project.
The other apron was made with a pattern I purchased from Montessori By Hand. It is the "Emmeline" Apron. I used Amy Butler fabric and made it reversible. I think this is my dressy apron because it has so much style and feels like I have put a dress on, no matter what I have on under it. I think I will have to add a pocket to at least one of the sides. My aprons must have pockets!