Harvest Time

What a beautiful late summer day this is!

As all of you who raise and grow your own food know, it is very satisfying to look at a day's harvest. We have been picking beans, broccoli, lettuce, and cucumbers for a few weeks.  And there is more out in the garden, but this is all I had time to deal with today.

Only one lonely tomato.  There are quite a few tomatoes out there, but they are not ripening very fast this summer.  The nights have been cooler, so that could have something to do with it.

We love knowing where our produce comes from and that it hasn't been covered with pesticides or altered in any way.   The same goes for pork and chicken which we raise ourselves, and fresh eggs from our neighbor's free range chickens.

Rain and More Rain!

It wasn't more than a week ago that I commented to Mr. M that we really could use some rain.  We had planted a few things in the vegetable garden and the soil was so dry.
Well, did we get rain!!  As of today, we have had 6 3/4 inches of rain since Monday night.  The soil is plenty wet now!

These are pictures of our pumpkin patch a couple of days ago.  Thankfully, we had not planted the pumpkin seeds yet.  This is a low area of our garden, and usually does not get flooded like this---about once every 6 or 8 years, it is under water for a few days.


We are hoping to be able to get out and do some planting in the rest of the garden now that rain is no longer in the forecast.  It will be nice to see the sun again after so many days without it!

Laundry

This time of year is so exciting because I get to hang laundry outside again.  Love the fresh smell of the clothes after they have been hanging outside in the sunshine and wind!

And the grass is going to be ready for the first mowing of the year this week.

I love Spring!!

Spring!

SPRING!!

So happy winter is over.  These are the first flowers of the year, arriving at Easter time.

A pretty daffodil.

This one is a lungwort from my sister.  The first couple of years, I didn't think it would survive.  Now it has beautiful little flowers every Spring.

And finally, this delicate blue flower.  I have no idea what it is and do not remember planting it.  It showed up a couple of years ago, and I am so glad it did.

Hope you are enjoying this lovely time of year.

Miscellany

This beautiful hydrangea called "Incrediball" is one that I planted 3 years ago.  Each year it gets bigger, and this year it's loaded with more flowers than ever.

And here are a few quilts I have finished in the past few months.

This is a quilt top that my Mom made several years ago.  My sister got it after Mom died.  I found some fabric in my stash to do a border, back, and binding.  So I finished it for her.

This is the donation quilt I made.  It's similar to another one I made earlier for friends.

This is from a kit I bought at a shop in Grand Rapids, MN, during the Minnesota Shop Hop a few years ago.

I've done a few smaller projects, but will wait until next time to post pictures.

Hope you are enjoying summer!

Garden Work in Progress

 

 

Life has been very busy lately, but I have managed to make some good progress on that messy garden area.

 

 

Now the Baptisia is no longer competing with a tangle of weeds.  The pink geranium in the lower foreground was lost in weeds, and I was surprised to see it not only still surviving but blooming as well.

The iris are not crowded anymore.  There are still a couple of small oak seedlings growing in here.  I hate to just cut them off, but I don't know if they would survive being dug up and transplanted.  I may try it though.  The blue in the background is a sheet.  I didn't put mulch over it because I want the weeds to die out and then I'll put down mulch after I plant some flowers in that area. 

You can tell that there is still a lot of work to do, but I am pleased with the progress so far.

Re-doing a Messy Garden

Good morning!

Lately, I've been re-doing one of the flower gardens.  Over the past couple of years I have neglected it because of other things going on.  When we moved here eleven years ago, this particular garden had phlox planted in it.  They were pretty, but they act like a weed!  They crowded out almost every other kind of flower that I planted.  So, they had to go!  As you can see, even a couple of trees got started in there, as well as lots of weeds.  It was a mess.  That poor iris looks so lonely.

So, I've been pulling up the phlox and weeds, digging the roots out, and covering the area with a couple of old sheets and then wood mulch on top of them.  It looks better already.  Will post a picture when I am finished with it.

I've used old sheets to keep weeds down in other flower beds, and they work very well. The very few weeds that do try to come through are easy to pull.  I only grow perennials, so these beds have become very low maintenance.  Works for me!  As much as I enjoy working in the gardens and digging in the dirt, I don't want to spend a lot of time with weeds.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought two garden statues at a garage sale when I was visiting my daughter and her family.  They were $8 for the pair.  At first I was only going to buy the boy statue, but the guy at the sale talked me into getting the girl as well, and now I'm glad I did.  They look very cute in this garden. 

 

I was going to post some quilt pictures, but that will have to wait until next time.

Hope you are enjoying these nice early summer (late spring officially) days.

I'm Back!

Wow! That was a long break.

Here we are going into summer, and I'm loving it.  Spent most of the day outside yesterday cutting the grass and working in the flower gardens.  The Siberian iris are blooming, and they are beautiful! These are all from one overgrown clump that I divided 3 years ago.  I hated to throw any of them away, so I just put them all on the east side of the house where they get lots of morning sun.  This is the first year that they have bloomed.

Also, the Columbines are in bloom as well as the Wiegela.

Isn't summer grand?  I never tire of looking at the green grass, the leaves on the trees, the flowers, etc. after winter is over.  And it's fun to greet the arrival of the birds who migrate to the area for a few months.  I love having the Barn Swallows swooping around to get insects while I cut the grass.

So, what did I do all winter?  Among other things, I spent a fair amount of time working on quilts which I will show you in my next post.

It feels good to be back!

A Break

I've been doing this blog for two and a half years, and now I feel that it's time to take a break.  There are other things going on in my life right now, so that is what I'm focusing on.

I may be back later, however.  Just not sure when.

Update on Northwoodsy Quilt

Hi there,

Just a short post to show you the latest picture of the Northwoodsy quilt I'm making.  The borders are now attached, and I'm ready to sandwich it. 

I came across an easy way to baste large quilts without having to get on hands and knees on the floor.  That method is just too hard on my knees.  If  you are interested, the tutorial is here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnke_KzeT18

I'll let you know how if it's as easy to do as it looks.


Linking up with Sew Darn Crafty

Beginning of Canning Season

Now that it's mid-August, the time has come to get the canning supplies out.  I picked some beets this morning and canned them this afternoon.

We started with 6 pints, but one ended up with a hairline crack in it so I threw it out.


I also dug some carrots.  Something has been eating the tops, so I thought I'd get them out of the garden before they were completely gone.

These are called Red Dragon, red on the outside and orange on the inside.

Some regular orange carrots with one that is kind of yellowish--not sure where that came from.  I don't think we planted seeds for yellow carrots.

Mr. M dug the row of red potatoes today and a row of Yukon Gold a couple of days ago.  I forgot to take a picture before they went in the cold room.


While I was in the kitchen, I also made a batch of yogurt.  I haven't made any for probably 30 years, but wanted to try it again. 

We've been having some great August weather lately.  It's nice to be able to walk barefoot in the grass whenever possible in the summer; it's something I love to do.

Quilt Progress and Daylilies

Good afternoon! 

I finally have more of the "Northwoodsy" quilt finished.  The top is pieced, and this morning I laid it out on the floor so I could position the animal silhouettes.

There is one more silhouette that will go on the left side.  Now I can start stitching them to the top.

Hot here today and no rain in sight, so we'll be watering the gardens.  We've been enjoying lettuce and peas so far, as well as new potatoes.  Beets will be ready soon. 

I bought 2 boxes of Georgia peaches from the Tree-Ripe Citrus truck last week.  The peaches I've been buying from them for at least ten years are always delicious.   Yesterday I canned 14 pints plus put 3 packages in the freezer. And of course, we've eaten lots of them fresh. 

I love summer with all its wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables!

Here are a few of the daylilies in the flower gardens.  It's hard for me to pick a favorite since each one is more beautiful than the last.

This is a peachy one with yellowish throat (and a couple of pretty daisies--as Meg Ryan says in "You've Got Mail", "Daisies are such happy flowers").

This is more of a lemon yellow than appears in this picture.

Different shades of pink.

A beautiful big orange one and more daisies.

I never used to plant daylilies, but after trying one, I am hooked.  They are all lovely, and with several flower buds on each stalk, there are flowers for a long time.


I'm linking up to Sew Darn Crafty

On My Design Wall

We are almost finished with the new bathroom, and I have moved my sewing room back down to the original one on the first floor.  The one upstairs was nice, but I really feel more at home in my old one.  It just seems like a better fit; and now I can watch the birds at the feeder right outside the windows.

So, now that the room is mostly organized, I've been doing a little sewing.  This is eventually going to be a queen sized quilt for a couple who are friends of ours. 

I have almost 100 more blocks to make, and then once all the blocks are sewn together, I'll applique dark brown silhouettes of animals such as elk and bear on it.



Here's a picture of one of the Campanula varieties in my garden.  It's such a pretty flower.

Happy July!  Hope you're enjoying summer.

Busy and Flowers

I haven't posted for awhile because we have been very busy doing a remodeling project--converting a very small bedroom into a bathroom, and trying to get it done as soon as possible.  I'll show pictures when we get finished, or at least close to finishing.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of flowers in my gardens.  They all seem to be blooming a little later this year.

Peony

Light purple Siberian Iris

Weigela 'Midnight Wine'

Baptisia

'Johnson Blue' Geranium

Dark blue Siberian Iris


Now the gardens really need a good soaking rain, or if not, we'll be watering soon.

It's so good to be outdoors with no coat, scarf, gloves, etc.  I hope you are enjoying June as much as I am!

Trip

A few days ago, we got back from a trip out west.  The main reason for the trip was to visit Mr. M's Dad, sister, and brother-in-law in Colorado.  We saw them last year at Mr. M's Mother's memorial service, but it was nice to see them again this year. 

Our younger son's visit there overlapped ours by about a day, so it was nice seeing him also.  He is moving back to our area from Las Vegas this summer, so he brought along a car load of his things for us to bring back with us. 

On our way home, we visited the Black Hills.  We've been there a few times before, but it's always nice to go through such a beautiful area.

 There's a tree growing right on the top of this rock formation.

This is a view that we missed the other times we were here.  It's the side of Mount Rushmore.

Here's a close-up of that same view, showing the side of George Washington's head.  It was a surprise to be able to see it from this vantage point.


Below are a couple of interesting cloud formations that we saw as we were traveling across South Dakota.  We had such great weather the whole time we were on the trip.

This one was several long strings of clouds, which I thought was quite unusual.  Maybe not, but I had never seen any like this before.


And a cute little duckling near a pond at Al's Oasis.  There was a second one but it wouldn't stand still long enough for me to get a picture.

It was a good trip, but it's always nice to get back home again.

The garden is entirely planted and mulched.  Now we wait for fresh veggies, although we have been eating lots of asparagus the past week or two.  So good!

 

 

 

 

New Embroidery Floss Storage

A few weeks ago when I was visiting my daughter, we went to a few estate sales.  One of the things I found was a small drawer unit. It was full of nuts and bolts, etc., all of which I gave to Mr. M.

There are 60 drawers, and I thought it might work well for storing all of my embroidery floss.

It is perfect! 

Plenty of room for all the floss wrapped around those little cardboard holders.

Plus enough room for the floss that I haven't put around the holders and any extra skeins.  There was even a drawer for the extra cardboard holders.


On another note, the birds are coming back.  This morning we had an indigo bunting join the group.  They are such a beautiful blue.

I am so happy that Spring has arrived!  We've planted seed potatoes and onion sets, as well as carrots and lettuce.  Hope to get the tomato, pepper, and artichoke seedlings set out this weekend.  Then the rest in a week or so.


I'm linking up with Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party

New Quilt Top

I finally finished the quilt top I started at my friend's house two weeks ago.

It's made with one layer cake plus the fabric for the stars.  This one doesn't have a border, so what's left is to find something in my stash for the backing and then get it sandwiched, quilted, and bound.


Linking up with Sew Darn Crafty

Fabric Collecting

Well, I haven't accomplished much in terms of quilting lately.  I am working on a new quilt top but am not far enough along to show any pictures.  Perhaps later this week.

I've had this hanging on my quilting/sewing room wall for several years and sometimes I think I might be more of a fabric collector than a quilter/sewer. 

I do love beautiful fabrics, and I often find it hard to cut them up to use in a quilt.


Spring has finally arrived here in the northern half of Wisconsin, so I've been outside working in the yard.  It is so nice to be able to go out without a jacket, etc.  I love this time of year when everything looks so fresh and new!

Happy Spring to all of you!