Retreat!

Just got back Wednesday evening from my first sewing retreat with our quilt guild.  Aside from one little project, it's been a few months since I've sewn anything, so I was really excited to get some things done.

Here's an in-progress peek at a quilt top I finished:

I also made some progress on an overdue gift...waiting to show pics until it's done.

And another completed project - it took up until the very last second of the retreat to finish this bag.

 

So happy with the result; it took hours longer than I thought it would to complete and in spite of forgetting a couple key pieces I managed to get it done (thanks to the local quilt shop and a fabric scrap from a friend).  Thanks again girls for hanging out with me to the very end!  And special thanks to Rebecca, whose clear thinking got me through those darn gussets.

There were so many lovely projects being worked on during the retreat; I'll see if I can get some pics to share.

And of course we fit in some shopping time.  Bought these with the intention of making a few little somethings from this book.  But ran out of time at the retreat so I'll have to make some time to sew at home!

Love this pair.

And then - WOW - stopped at an amazing quilt shop in Brainerd.  Definitely a good thing I don't live closer.  I couldn't resist picking up a couple fat quarters of my favorites from the Sherbet pips line, and a few other lovelies as well.  They had Anna Maria's new line Loulouthi, which just came out a few weeks ago, and they were already out of my favorite prints...sigh.

Check out their selection of modern fabrics...again, wow.  Check out the slide show of shop pics on their home page and you'll see what I mean; tons of beautiful samples - quilts, bags, clothing.  Definitely not to be missed if you're in the area.

A wonderful few days, hanging out with friends, watching chick flicks, and getting lots of sewing done.  Perfect little summer vacation.

Catching Up

Um wow; it's been a month (gulp!) since I blogged.  So, to catch up: lots of time spent away from the gardens - working on projects around the house, spending more time together as a family, and lots of events with friends.  The weeds have lost no time trying to take over, but luckily the vegetables are holding their own.  I was just on a sewing retreat for a few days (more on that in the next post), but before I left I weeded and re-mulched 1 1/2 pepper beds, weeded around the tomatoes and finally got cages around them and all the stems tied up, then added grass clipping mulch over those areas.  Hmm..forgot to take pictures of all that; maybe I can get out there tomorrow to remedy that.

The tomatoes are still doing really well; noticed one tonight with blossom end rot and fingers are crossed that it's the only one.  I forgot to pick the snow peas before I left on Monday. They were in desperate need of picking and I'm undecided on whether I'll pick and shell the peas, or just let them keep maturing and collect the seed.  I also got in a planting of green beans; the seed is a few years old so I'll be happy with whatever comes up.

The morning of the fourth of July was spent picking strawberries; after spending the afternoon with family we started washing, sorting and cutting.  I made "Bottled Strawberries"; essentially just canned strawberries, tried a new recipe for strawberry jam, made a batch of strawberry sauce for freezing, froze a bunch of plain berries, and of course made some fresh strawberry sauce, poured it over ice cream and ate with delight.

 Blueberry season is already upon us; not sure when I can fit in going to the berry farm again, but I'd really like to freeze a bunch as they are my daughter's favorite fruit and I'm quite fond of blueberry pancakes.

We also had a large storm a couple weeks back that resulted in a day of yard cleanup.  Our Cottonwood trees are huge, and it sounds lovely at night when the wind is rustling through the leaves, but every time there's even a hint of a breeze something falls off them.  This storm resulted in chainsaws being needed to cut up the two huge branches that fell in the yard, and one that fell onto the edge of the farmer's field behind us.

Sunset after the storm.

A couple trips to the farmer's market, running through the sprinkler, going for walks, and sitting on the porch after dark - summer's in full swing.

A New Beginning

I'm so excited about this new space to write and play.  I haven't yet come up with that perfect short description of what this space is about, but I do know I'm going to talk a lot about gardening.  As in real-life gardening - not just the pretty stuff, but the ugly too.  I'll talk more about that in a later post; for now, let's dive in to an overview of the current state of the gardens around here.

I'll start off with some of the good stuff.  The peas finally started flowering last week, and the pods are starting to form.  At least on these Golden Sweet peas.  They're one of my favorite varieties; tasty and so pretty with their purple flowers and yellow pods.

And the last of the irises are still in bloom; I missed the main show last week being out of town so didn't get many pictures of them this year.

More good news is that the tomatoes are looking awesome this year; I have high hopes.

Love seeing this Nyagous tomato plant growing well with some companions - from left to back right - a radish, borage, and romaine lettuce.  The companions are all volunteers from plants that re-seeded themselves last year.

This is one of four of my Italian Heirloom tomatoes; my absolute favorite variety for sauce.  I purchased these as a 4-pack, so they were quite small when I put them in at the beginning of May.  I'm really happy with how well they've done in all the cold, rainy weather we've had so far this year.

Love the flowers on this Anna Russian plant; they're quite large and so cheerful-looking.  This is the first year I've tried this variety.

I'm really excited about this plant.  It's a Japanese Black Trifele tomato.  This is the 3rd or 4th time I've tried this variety; so far with no success whatsoever.  But for some reason I'm convinced it's going to do well at some point; seeing how well this one's doing I'm thinking this may finally be its year to prove me right.

And another of the Italian Heirlooms with some Borage that came up right next to it; probably a little too close but they both seem to be doing well so I'm leaving it for now.  I've grown to love Borage; it has beautiful flowers, re-seeds itself, grows well, and it's such a wonderful companion for the tomatoes as the bees love it.  The flowers and leaves are also edible, but I haven't tried them yet.  On the list of things I'd like to do this summer.

Because of all that, I decided to leave this large patch of Borage that came up this spring; I may end up tearing part of it out if I need the garden space, but in the meantime they're providing a lot of value. 

 We also have several Milkweed plants that come up each year around the yard; I like to let them grow whenever possible as we do get quite a few Monarch caterpillars munching on them.  Tucked behind the Milkweed is a Cosmo; also one of my favorite flowers to have near the tomatoes.

Hmm, I'm noticing the good stuff going on in the garden makes for a good-sized blog post, so I guess I'll save the ugly stuff for tomorrow.