Fussy Cut Friday

Crib Quilts Finished

These crib quilts were quilted by Sherryl Tobias, Nappanee, Ind. I had originally planned to hand quilt them, but that just didn’t happen. As always, she has done a beautiful job.

The Berenstein Bear quilt was a simple project. I thought the center fabric was too cute to cut up, so I just sewed borders on it.

I didn’t have a pattern for this HST crib quilt. I just pieced it.

I don’t remember where the pattern for this quilt came from, I think it was in an American Patchwork & Quilt magazine. I’ve paged through the magazines, but I can’t find it, it has been at least 2 years since it has been pieced.

This is a big baby quilt. I know when I was rocking my babies, I like to cover up in the quilt too.

Our son, daughter-in-law and their children were here a week ago. They’re expecting a baby boy in October and he needs a quilt of his own. My DIL selected the Berenstein Bear quilt.

Buck A Block

There was a lot of catch-up work to do on the Buck A Block project. First I sewed the alternate blocks for the blue and brown quilt.

The basket blocks for June . . .

July . . .

And August.

What a great feeling to be completely caught up on the BOM projects!

Fussy Friday

Country Threads BOM

The next BOM I worked on was the Country Threads project. The July blocks were 3 12″ blocks.

The quilt top is being sewn in 3 sections. In the middle of July the first section layout was released. Here it is!

For August I pieced seven 8″ blocks! They are supposed to be sewn together in a continuous strip, but I’m waiting to sew them together until I see what blocks adjoin them.

Seven blocks are too long to fit into 1 photo.

I’m caught up with the Country Threads BOM, at least until September 1st.

Putting Up Corn

I used to grow sweet corn for my family to eat and to freeze but I don’t anymore. It’s just too easy to go to the neighbors produce stand and buy it there. I recently purchased 2 bushels of sweet corn to freeze.

First the corn needs to be husked, preferably in a nice shady spot.

I sat a chair on the back of the truck. The Farmer will just sweep the husks off and feed them to the cows.

Next the corn is blanched in boiling water . . .

Then cooled quickly in ice water. Ice cream buckets work great for freezing large chunks of ice.

Drain the corn throughly, then holding the ear of corn in my left hand, I take a very sharp knife in my right hand, and cut the corn off the cob. I wasn’t able to take a picture of myself cutting the corn. You just have to take my word for it. I keep putting the cut corn in a dish pan until it is full, then I fill the freezer boxes.

The 2 bushels yielded 30 pints and five 3/4-quart boxes of corn. Plenty for the two of us for this winter.

 

Pumpkinvine BOM

The farmer was gone several days the first part of the month, which means, no hay baling! I had time to work on some BOM projects and completed the Pumpkinvine BOM top!

She’ll go to the machine quilter this month. I was worried about the fabrics I had selected but they pulled together nicely. I wanted something different and I got it.

I also pieced a small project in connection with the Maple Leaf Quilt Guild. In appreciation of the work the outgoing president has done on behalf of the guild, each member pieces a quilt block for her. They usually give some kind of guide lines; the size or color or, in this case, the actual pattern. I’ve finally got my block sewn and will turn it in at the next guild meeting.

The block is oversized but I’ll let her square it up.

Fussy Cut Friday

The August Garden

The early garden crops have been harvested and I have rough tilled the soil in that area. Field radishes have been sown to keep the weeds from taking over and will help loosen the soil for next year’s garden.

Field radish seed looks just like regular radish seed.

I plant the seed in my garden drill. The white round thingy is a “plate”. The planter has 6 plates for different size seeds. I can plant carrot seeds to seed corn. The farmer gave it to me for Christmas many years ago.

I make the rows approximately 6 inches apart. They don’t need to be exact.

The tomato plants are loaded, they just need to ripen!

I replanted the carrots in July. The first planting just didn’t come up.

Barn Swallows

All summer I’ve been trying to get a picture of the baby barn swallows. I finally got one. These little guys were just about ready to fly!

Sorry it’s blurry, it wasn’t easy to take. The birds did fly away shortly after I took this photo.