quilts

A Great Big Red Block

 

This block is 21 inches square. That’s big! For Sew.Quilt.Give. last month, we were asked to make one block following these instructions from Dining Room Empire. If I ever do something like this block again, I’ll do the math ahead of time and make a 4-patch out of it. Twenty-one inches is almost bigger than my cutting mat – this block may not be properly squared up as a result. Everyone was supposed to make their block one color, out of lots of scraps. We’ll see if my red selections turn out to be more saturated than everyone elses. If …

homesteading

Harvest Time: Grapes

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This is the third bowl of grapes harvested this year. This is the biggest bowl I have, sitting here in one of our patio chairs. I didn’t weigh it but I expect it’s about 25-30 pounds of grapes. At the time I brought this bowl in, I already had 8 pints of home-dried raisins in the fridge. I now have several pounds of frozen grapes in the freezer. And I’ve given away grapes to several neighbors, at least one of whom had jelly ambitions. I have not made grape jelly this year as we are still eating our way through …

homesteading, in the kitchen, Seasons

Harvest time: Tomatoes

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I think I’m going to stop trying to grow any tomatoes that aren’t a cherry variety. For the last few years, I’ve put in a couple cherry tomato plants and a couple of others. I get little tomatoes, Sungolds and Sweet Millions, not loads, but some, but very few of the big tomatoes. My neighbors last year got lots of big tomatoes, so it’s probably more my fault as a tomato grower than the fault of the tomatoes or our summers. But perhaps it’s time to acknowledge and run with what I appear to be good at. Because I can …

homesteading, in the kitchen, Seasons

Preserving Season

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I’ve discovered Preserves this summer. Sure, I’ve been “preserving” for a few years now: freezing, drying, canning, etc. And I’ve certainly preserved fruit before. But a Preserve. It’s not whole or sliced fruit floating in simple syrup. It’s not jam or jelly. It’s somewhere between the two: chunks of fruit in a syrup, often with additional flavors. I know it sounds strange, but I’m finding preserves to be a little bit more flexible, more “ready to eat” than just fruit in jars. See, I canned apricots back in 2010. Almost 20 pints of golden orange yumminess. We’re still eating them. …

Seasons

Harvest Time: Pumpkins

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Some people grow enormous squash. This week at our farmers’ market, our favorite farmer brought in a squash so folks could guess its weight. It was a funny looking thing, about three feet long, a foot tall, just over a foot wide, with a all-over bumpy surface. I watched a man lift his son, then lift the squash, to better gauge the weight of the squash. I guessed it to be 96 lbs. Caitlyn refused to guess, although she admitted to wanting one of the farmers’ market t-shirts that was the prize. The farmer told me (later, not near the …

quilts

A Beach Blanket Quilt

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Back at the beginning of the summer, Stash was approached by the local portion of the Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases for contributions to their silent auction portion of a fundraiser they were planning for later in the season. We put out a call for donations, and I committed to making a quilt. Since the fundraiser’s theme was going to be “Beach Party” (referencing the movies that made Ms. Funicello famous), I attempted to go with a beach blanket theme for the quilt. I’m not sure I’ve quite captured the idea, but this is the quilt that resulted. …