Wednesday Wandering and #7

Just so you know...

I have not just been quilting this month! 

I've been doing some gardening, reading and some other things have been going on too.  We were without water for a day because the well pump burned up and that was evidently because the holding tank bladder sprung a leak and worked that pump overtime. Not complaining. It was only a day. But it was an unexpected expense. And today I'll be at the periodontist for scaling and root planing. Ugh. Then I go again next week for round two. (Another unexpected but unavoidable expense).  With all those unexpected expenses I guess I won't order the bulbs for fall planting I had in mind! And that's the way it goes. On a good note I get a free Iowa  lottery scratch ticket every month and that resulted this month in a $50 win, And I was also a winner of last month's Quilts Beyond Borders Fat Quarter Challenge drawing so now I am in possession of a $25 gift certificate. 

Well...on to wandering!

Above is my trellis of Sweet Autumn Clematis. And does it smell sweet!

It's been a little cooler the last week so the Four O'clocks stay open a little longer. 

Every once in awhile I stop to smell (and deadhead) the roses that are still blooming. 

Yellow Four O'clocks. 

A couple of years ago I planted a border of chives in front of some of my Oriental and Asiatic Lilies in an effort to keep varmints away from those areas. They are in bloom now and buzzing with bees. 

More Roses. The purplish flower is Obedient Plant that is kind of straggly and falling over. It grows wild here and there in that part of the cottage garden. 

Speaking of wild...this is a big bush of Wild Aster in bloom. 

I harvested a big bag of Christmas Limas but have not shelled them yet. That's a good job to do while watching TV.  The dried beans are so good in soups.

I harvested and dried several herbs like basil...

...and Sage and (not shown) oregano, thyme and rosemary. 

I still need to dig the horseradish. I always wait to do that in a month that has an "R" in it. But that may be some old wives tale. 

The last couple of years the deer or some other critter has eaten all of my grapes but this year we had quite a harvest. In the recent past years I have made jelly with them or juiced them. I think I have enough grape jelly to last me the rest of my life and that is after I've given lots of it away. My husband used to make wine but we really don't drink much these days so don't need that either. So this year I asked my sister-in-law if she wanted them. She did. We harvested three big buckets full. Yes, sir, yes, sir, three buckets full. Gosh they smell soooooo good. 

I started a new native wildflower garden this year in an area I cleared last year. I blogged about some of the seeds I winter sowed back on January 13. Most of the flowers are perennials so I didn't really expect to see blooms this year but I spy Heliopsis...

....and Datura...

...and Agastache. 

The Rattlesnake Master is slow growing and I've almost pulled it up several times thinking it might be a weed. Thank goodness for my little labels. But sometimes the raccoons pull up my labels and move them elsewhere. So I think I may have pulled up the Liatris thinking it was grass. I guess I'll wait and see what pops up next year. Now that I have some plants established in the native wildflower area I will sprinkle the remaining seeds from those winter sown packets right into the garden after we have a hard freeze. Then next January I will winter sow in my milk jugs some new native wildflower seeds that like shade and need cold stratification. 

I think this is a different variety of Heliopsis that I started from a package of free seeds. 

I planted some tall Sunflowers near the barbed wire fence that separates the neighbor's corn field from my native wildflower area.  I also planted a "Sunflower House" back by the cottage garden but some critters pulled up Sunflowers or knocked over Sunflowers (or maybe the big bad wolf blew my house down) so no Sunflower House this year. I'll try again next year.  I used to grow Sunflower Houses for the kids and grandkids when they were younger. Now I just try to grow Sunflower Houses for myself. 

I also harvested a lot of Lunaria (aka Money Plant or Honesty) for wreath making and dried flower arrangements this spring. Money Plant always reminds me of my maternal great grandmother. I only met her a few times but she had Money Plant in vases all over her house and she gave me some seeds when I was about 13 years old. I did plant them but I had no idea what the plant was supposed to look like and I didn't know about biennials back then so I never did end up with a single vase of Money Plant when I was a teenager.  (Great grandmother also made the most beautiful braided rugs out of old clothes and she showed me how to do that. I did make a rug for my bedroom out of my younger sister's unused flannel receiving blankets after getting mom's approval. If I was 13 my younger sister with unused receiving blankets was 6 years old.  I had that rug on the wooden floor near my side of the double bed I shared with another sister until I went away to college. Then I think a step mom came around and threw my rug and other treasuers away. But that's another tale for another day). 

 I forgot to take a picture but I also have a big box of a few other dried flowers I grew this year like Statice and Gomphrena and Sweet Annie.  

I'm always making Sourdough bread for toast with homemade jelly and/or jam for breakfast along with my yogurt and fruit. I like grilled cheese sandwiches on homemade bread for lunch along with veggies from the garden. And, mmmm...have you ever made sourdough crackers? I need to do that now that it's getting cooler and we will start making more soups for dinner. That's where some of our dried herbs get used. 

That sauerkraut that I started and blogged about back around August 18 has now been canned. That 35 lbs. of cabbage yielded 15 quarts of sauerkraut. Hubby will eat most of that. I have to say that it was a good batch from those cabbages we grew. 

I've almost finished digging potatoes. So far I think we have 60 lbs. but we have also eaten and given away quite a few spuds. 

Onions have all been harvested...

...and so have the carrots. Most of them are processed and then go into the freezer. 

My husband grows lots of different kinds of peppers. He likes to give them to family and friends, pickle them, eat them fresh and in salsa. And almost everything he cooks this time of year has peppers in it. He made Pepper Steak for dinner last night.

Sweet peppers for stuffed peppers later in the week and for eating slices with lunches. He gave a bunch to his sister when she was harvesting grapes. 

Now let's wander back to quilting.

 I'm trying to finish a many quilts as I can this month and I think I have used Frankenbatts in most so far. But I did see I was about out of batting on my roll so ordered a roll that was on sale at JoAnn's on September 1 but it still has not arrived and I have no shipping info yet so several emails have gone back and forth between me and customer service who is now waiting to hear back from the manufacturer about the order and then they will relay that back to me hopefully. 

And so now that brings me to today's quilt - #7 finish for the month. 

Ribbit!

40 x 60

This one has a variety of pink and green frog scraps that were given to me last March. I quilted it with some flowers - lily pads?????

I figured the frogs needed some green land and blue water so used more scraps to make some very scrappy Disappearing Nine Patch blocks without making the Nine Patch and cutting them apart. 

The backing is pink with Fairies. 

This is another donation quilt for Quilts Beyond Borders. 

And on to the next!