Saturday, June 14, 2025

Orange Scraps Part II

Buckeye Beauty
6 inch

Orange is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for June so I dug into my orange 2 and 3.5 inch width orange scraps to make these blocks.

Easy Breezy
6 inch blocks
Made with 2 inch width scraps

Buckeye Beauty
8 inch
Made with 2.5 and 4.5 inch width scraps.

The 8 inch Buckeye Beauty blocks are combined with low volume scraps and the 6 inch blocks (first photo) are combined with black scraps.

Going where the scraps take me and making comfort quilts one scrap at a time. 

And sew on...


 

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Table Topper Finish

Table Topper
28 x 28
It's a finish! 

I didn't make the top. I received it in a box with a couple of other unfinished projects in March 2024. I needed something to do in the evenings (otherwise I fall asleep the minute I sit down) so decided to big stitch hand quilt it and then bind it. 

This is the backing so I guess it is reversible. It will go into the box of items I keep on hand for gifting. It will go nicely with those embroidered dish towels with chickens I made back in April. 

And sew on...


***
I complain a lot about all the critters that wreak havoc in my gardens but they do sometimes leave something for me to eat.  

The last week or so I've been eating snow peas...

...strawberries...

...and lots of salad greens. 

 

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Wednesday Wandering






























I took the camera with me this morning on my Wednesday wander through my gardens.

***
We both forgot our 52nd wedding anniversary on June 7.  I barely ever know what day it is let alone the date but yesterday I had to put the date on hubby's sputum sample I needed to drop at the lab and noticed our anniversary had passed. 



 

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Intersections



Intersections
11 inch blocks
Because I had some green and blue 8, 8.5 and 9 inch squares


And sew on...

***
I received a couple of boxes of treasures (scraps) from Doris. One baggie contains a lot of cut pieces for Flying Geese. Oh, I know what I'm going to do with those!  Stay tuned...

Who knew that bone meal attracted raccoons big time? I put it in an area where the soil needed a little help before I put in some plants I started this winter. I've never used bone meal before. Well, anyway, next day everything I planted was dug up and area was a disaster. And, the bone meal bag I left out in the barn was torn into and all of it was gone. Yes, research after that showed it attracts raccoons. I salvaged what I could and then sprinkled cayenne pepper around (I have a big jug I use to try to keep voles out of my plants) and sprayed everything with cider vinegar. I went out this a.m. and it looks like all is well.

I was working in my veg garden yesterday - harvesting snow peas and strawberries, weeding around the tomatoes and when I went down to the bottom of the garden there to my surprise was a baby fawn resting in my onion patch. It didn't move even when I clapped my hands several times. I think it must have thought it was hidden and ignored me. I got a little closer to see if it was injured and when it turned it's head and looked at me it scampered off. I don't know what I would have done if it was injured. Now I think I know what has been eating my shelling peas that are planted next to the onions. I have hoops and row covers over those peas but something keeps pulling the row cover off in order to munch my peas!

Ah, the adventures of gardening! 

 

Saturday, June 7, 2025

Orange Scraps Part I

Four Patches

Orange is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for June. This week I worked with the orange 4 inch width scraps. 

Four Patches
Made with 4 inch squares

Bricks and Stones
Made with 2.5 x 4 inch rectangles and black 2.5 inch squares.

Coins Strip
Leftover pieces after making this week's blocks from 4 inch width scraps. 
Will be future Coins quilt.


Yankee Puzzle blocks
Made with 4 inch orange and neutral squares following tutorial at Susie's Scraps.     (She uses 3.5 inch squares but I'm using 4 inch squares)

More Yankee Puzzle blocks made with 4 inch squares. This will be a separate quilt from the one above with neutrals. I'm trying to use up all the scraps in the 4 inch width scrap box so am using two contrasting scraps in that box to make these blocks. 

Other names for this block are Big Dipper, Hourglass, The Whirling Blade and Pork and Beans.

And sew on...



***

In the last couple of posts I've shown the roses and peonies in bloom around here. This time I thought I would show pics of what's blooming in the veg garden. I forgot to take a pic of the strawberries in bloom. I've been harvesting and eating a lot of salad crops - butterhead lettuces, spinach, mustard greens. I did pick a few snow peas to make a stir fry along with some onions and sliced up pork chop. I made a little sweet/sour sauce to add to the mix. 


Potatoes are blooming. Can't wait to harvest! 

It seems a little early for the tomatoes to be in bloom but we have had some beautiful weather (except for the haze from Canadian wildfires). 

I start all of my tomatoes from seed and like the heirloom varieties - Brandywine, Big Rainbow, Black Krim to name a few. For making sauces I like Jersey Devil which a big meaty tomato. 

I like Green Beauty Snow Peas. Aren't the blossoms pretty? 



The Peppers are also starting to bloom. Again, this seems early in the season. I also start these from seed. I can't tolerate hot peppers and since John now gets all his nutrition via G-tube, I don't grow many hot peppers anymore. I do grow Anaheim which is mildly hot but I give a lot of those away.  I like an old variety called Jimmy Nardello for cooking and I like Baby Bell for eating fresh. One Baby Bell pepper makes a nice snack. 


 

Friday, June 6, 2025

Greens and Blues



Intersections
11 inch blocks


I recently received some baggies of 8 and 9 inch squares. I had accumulated a few to add to those as well as some 8.5 inch squares. I will be using only the green and blue 8, 8.5 and 9 inch squares to make blocks and using scrap chunks in those colors to cut pieces for the center cross.   I plan to make 35 blocks for a quilt 55 x 77.  I'm using different measurements for the rounds (see tutorial) so I don't have to worry about matching up seams in blocks when I go to assemble them. 

Kaleidoscope Blocks
11 inch
For a quilt of 35 blocks in all greens.


Kaleidoscope Blocks
11 inch
For a quilt of 35 blocks in all bues.

I was recently given a bin of 6 inch strips. I pulled out all the blues and greens to make blocks and will also use blue and green scrap chunks since I have them out already for the Intersections quilt.

Making comfort quilts one scrap at time.

And sew on...


***
I finished reading the medical thriller The Boomerang by Robert Bailey. A cure for cancer exists but the government wants to keep it secret. 

The Peonies are in bloom. These are old ones I've separated several times and planted in different spots. I see so many fancy ones in the nursery catalogs these days. These remind me of the ones that were in the side yard between our house and the neighbor's house growing up.