homesteading, Seasons

Garlic!

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One of the things I love about planting garlic: you put the cloves in the ground in the fall, when the air is crisp enough to let you know the season is shifting but not yet so cold as to be really unpleasant. Then you go inside, where it’s warm, and watch the weather, the windstorms, the rain, the occasional snow. And by the time the seasons have swung around and you can think about going outside in something less than 14 layers, this has happened: Sometimes gardening is a lot of work: weeding, fertilizing, watering. Sometimes, it just happens …

quilts

Finished!

 

We did the math. There are 1,225 little squares in this quilt top. I think I would be completely crazy by now if I had cut them all out individually and pieced this together one square at at time. Hooray for strip piecing! I’m really happy with how this turned out, and really pleased that start-to-finish (or at least this stage of finish – there’s still a possible border and a backing and binding to add, not to mention the actual quilting part) was just a month. The PS I Quilt Quilt Along part was probably crucial for making sure …

sewing

Stuffing Without Stuffing

 

I am a contradiction. I like things organized, everything in it’s place, with minimal clutter. I don’t generally have things just to have things; each thing should fill a purpose, the more the better. But I also have my grandmother’s pack-rat gene. If it might be useful someday, it’s really hard to let go of it. I force myself to recycle cardboard boxes instead of keeping every single one we acquire; otherwise we’d never be able to put the car in the garage. Caitlyn’s baby things have gone into a box, although I’m not always sure who I might be …

homesteading

Of Rabbits and Carrots

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I pulled up the rest of the carrots that were in the backyard over the weekend. They seem to have survived nicely, despite being snowed on and frozen. The greens were a little bedraggled, but the carrots themselves are short and reasonably fat, and cleaned up to a brilliant orange. The only thing left out there now is the kale, some of which is destined for a kale and yam something later this week. Quiche? Or with orzo and black beans? If I can get a similar number of carrots successfully germinated next summer, it’s possible we will be able …

quilts

Quilting Along

 

Last week’s strip sets are this week’s strips. Next up: piecing these together into blocks, which are likely going to be next week’s project, despite being part of this week’s instructions. Cutting 16 strip sets into approximately 272 (give or take a few) strips takes a bit longer to do than it does to say. Quandary of the moment: do I put these strips together somewhat randomly or do I try to organize them into thematic blocks? I’m leaning toward the random approach since it feels a little late to be organized. There are a few highly organized strips sets …