FO: 100% scraps throw quilt

The quilts I've sewn over the past few years have had lots of tiny triangles, points and little pieces. I'd finish them and then I'd give the quilts away, then start something else with lots of little points and pieces. This scrappy throw is a huge departure from that. It's scraps cut into big, plain 4-1/2" squares that I collected in a plastic shoe box. Sometimes I'd sew a 4-patch block and toss it into the box too. There was never a plan on exactly when it would get done. My normal project MO is to plot and plan and wrangle a quilt project to death with a feeling of urgency to reach the finished object deadline that loomed over my head from the get go. This throw happened on it's own peaceful time.

This is the most fun I've had sewing in years. I'm not a 'completely random sewer' so I played around with the layout to keep the same fabric pieces from ending up side by side and I spread out the white pieces.

There's an excellent tutorial (and many others) on binding quilts at Amanda Jean's incredible blog Crazy Mom Quilts for the same method I use to bind my quilts. Amanda Jean is always inspiring and TALENTED!

The finished throw is 40 x 60 inches: 150 squares cut to 4-1/2". I squeaked it onto the beige & red backing fabric with only a centimeter to spare on the width and maybe 3 inches on each end for length. I didn't want to piece more fabric into the back since my goal was to be as simple as I could make it. It's quilted in the ditch, not beside the seams a touch like normal in the ditch machine work, but literally in the seam.

We love this throw. It'll be well used, washed and worn. My husband doesn't want me to gift or sell this one. I've never felt as rewarded as I did to hear him say this one's a keeper. He's never said that about any quilt before. It's changed the sort of quilts I'm going to sew in the coming year(s). The reaction to this quilt when people see it tossed over the backyard deck rail or folded in the truck has been surprisingly positive. It's about colour and comfort, not skill or style. I'm going to enjoy the pleasure of simplicity in my quilts more now. More rustic and homey. More 'use-me' than 'be careful' with me quilts. I have 2 new shoe boxes on the go ~ one is a collection of 3" squares and the other is 4-1/2" again. I'll sew plenty more quilts like this one in the future.

Tasty Kitchen

Tasty Kitchen is a brilliant site created by Ree Drummond, aka Pioneer Woman. Tasty Recipes from Real Kitchens. You can keep a recipe box of your own and/or other people's favourites in your profile. Recipes can be searches by category, ingredient or by name. There's also a chat wire, user feedback, a rating system, plus member profiles and links to their blogs. And it's free. There's photos of lots of delicious food. Think Ravelry for recipes. It's brilliant and wonderful. It's inspiring. Go check it out, you won't be sorry ~ you'll thank me ~ so will the people you cook for.

I've been spending a lot of time there. The recipes are printable. Categories and tags help you search for any recipe you could possibly want like chicken, chocolate, glutton-free, desserts, main courses, soups, salads, sides, canning. The list goes on and on and the data base is being updated constantly.

Every so often I find I've fallen into a culinary rut. Tasty Kitchen is a great resource to get me out of that. It's fun, it's free and maybe just a bit addictive.

Autumn sees the gourmand wanna be in me take a firm hold, happens every year. I spend more time in the kitchen cooking and baking. Like most people we barbecue less and eat heartier foods during cold weather. I've been checking out slow cooker recipes on TK, love those. Coming home after a long day at work in the fall or winter to a house that smells wonderful feels like walking into a favourite restaurant where I don't need to be the one doing the cooking. I'll often set the table for supper before I go to work so it's ready for us to just sit and dine at the end of the day. Tasty Kitchen is expanding our eating pleasures one recipe at a time.


It's been comfort type knitting on the couch while checking out the new season of tv for me. I'm not a tv watcher most of the year, but I'm hopeful of something I'll enjoy at the beginning of the new season that will hook me. Rowan Felted Tweed as Celeste's beautiful Wandering the Moor shawl is on my needles right now. On Rav you can find it here. I can hardly wait to get to the lace border. This pattern is going to be my Christmas knit gift of choice this year. Ssh, don't tell.



Be good and scoot yourself over to Tasty Kitchen!
Best,
Renee

"The Farm"

As requested, here is a picture of The Farm. We love this farm and farmhouse. Originally built in 1855 it's historically significant in our area and even on a bus tour for the region. The road it's on is one of the oldest roads in Ontario. It stretches from The Grand River all the way to Lake Huron. It was a main stage coach route with a stage coach depot about a mile up the road.


The area was original known as New Aberdeen but as happened to many towns as politics and settling happened it became a ghost town for many years, mostly abandoned. Years later is was re-settled by a German population and came to be known as Berlin. In 1916 during the World War it was renamed as Kitchener. It's surrounded by black walnut trees and very old evergreens. The settlers at the time it was build looked for land with black walnut trees on it as it was an indication of fertile soil excellent for farming and grazing livestock. A local university student wrote his thesis on the century homes on our road several years ago and supplied us with a wealth of history about this house. The photo above is the side view of the house.

Original working shutters lasted over 150 years, today's technology has not. Replacement aluminum shutters have quickly torn from the windows after just a few storms. I still have the original shutters and we've got them stash and coveted away until we get our own farmhouse one day. My dad didn't want "those old things" on the house anymore. Shame, that. Anyway, we have them and I wouldn't part with those historic shutters for anything.

The stone walls are up to 28" thick. They're awe inspiring. The main house is 2 stories. There are multiple chimneys for fireplaces and stoves. Many have been closed up. We discovered access to a chimney where the original kitchen was during renovations. We discovered a lot of surprises during renovations that previous owners had closed up... The interior walls are horizontal strip board with the original horsehair plasterwork. Protected under the plush carpets my parents fancy in the main house on both floors are the original floor boards. The main support of the house in the basement, which has been excavated to full height, is a very old tree as the post with it's bark stripped off.

The glass window sliders and centre peak area in the photos is now a solarium where the original court yard was. The single story stone portion between the solarium and garage was the regions ice house. Various owners over the years added their own renovations to the home and at some point the two stone buildings were built together. There are additions off the back of the house as well. Directly behind the original ice house is now the summer kitchen which was the wood shed before it became the summer cooking kitchen. After refrigeration was available and the ice house was no longer an area necessity it became a common room that opens to the solarium. The solarium transformed from court yard to a screened porch and now the sun room it is with high vaulted ceilings. The stories about this house and it's previous owners are mostly unknown, but the ones that are really are charming.


Previous to my parents buying the farm it stood vacant for 3 years, not considering the racoons, mice and rats, and numberous birds and squirrels that managed to gain access to the house via the odd hole and unscreened chimneys. There was a huge bank barn across the island (middle round grass area in the driveway where the pit is for fires and we have a couple of picnic tables, blocked from view by my suv) that was bigger and longer than the farmhouse. It filled the grass area to back side of this picture and then some. It was one of the largest historic barns in southern Ontario. Over the years it had seen many uses from livestock, hay and a riding school to storage and then dismantled for it's materials. The people my parents bought the farm from sold the barn to the Mennonite Community the summer before my parents purchase it. The Mennonites came by horse and wagon and dismantled the barn taking all they could from the materials. The only remaining wood was the center roof beam. It was old and petrified like hardened steel. They had tried to cut it up and couldn't so they left it behind. We spend a long, long time drilling it as best we could and burning it. It was too long and heavy to move or deal with. Chain saws didn't touch it.

The land surrounding the farm itself has fallen way to city development. Hundreds of acres surrounding my parents farm when they first moved there was leased grazing land for cattle and corn fields. I had plenty of adventures helping out the local police when the cattle would escape and their owner couldn't be found. They'd head for the road or into neighbours hay fields. We had the only horses around for a ways and the authorities always knocked on our door when they were loose assuming that the cattle were ours and asking if I could saddle up and help bring back the AWOL cows. As long as it wasn't the bull I was happy to help.

I was a teenager at the time and my horse was born and bred at the Saddle and Surrey Ranch in Aubrey, Texas. He was bred with the cutting gene rooted down deep. I have more than a few tales where well meaning city officers believed they could move cattle with their car and siren. I warned them otherwise, more than one hit the siren when they thought they had the cow penned between a fence and the cruiser and could move it in the direction they wanted to. It was darned funny (for me - Not Them!) to see a cow go straight over the hood of their cruiser, leaving a crumpled hood behind in it's wake. Yeah well, I warned them not to hit the siren, but did they listen? One officer looked at me sheepish and said, "Uh, you were right, but I'm not writing that part in my report."... and then woefully looked back at the cow mashed cruiser hood.
Wonder, my quarter horse, loved to cut and chase calves and cows. He had to be turned out well separated from the steers and sheep dad raised for meat because he would've run them around the pasture for hours on end. He came with his name by the way, Certain Wonder. I'll have to tell you about him some time.
My best to you all,
Renee

the Giveaway winner and Chase

Thanks everyone who was willing to give this yarn a new home. Without haste, the winner by drawing from a hat is: Philigry! If you email me your address to rycole at hotmail dot com I'll send the yarn on it's way. I wish I could mail it to everyone. If it was possible, I would. I'll go stash diving again soon and see what else lurks there that the knitters amongst you would enjoy. There's plenty of new non-knitting stuff looking for a home where it gets more attention than it gets from me here too...

We have a three dogs. Hunter is the oldest. Piper is the middle child at 7 years old. She's showing signs of her age with silvering in her coat but she's spry, playful and full of herself. She's the Grand Dame of her domain. Chase is the current baby, he's 4. My crew calls him Momma's Boy. He really is. He's my bud, my boy, my almost constant companion. He's happy to keep tabs on me and pose for the camera.

He's always on the job.

He needs a bath.

And a shave. Under all that hair is a handsome mug. Somewhere.

Have a great rest of your weekend everyone!
Renee

do we live in the country or the city?

A question that came up from two people via email was if we live in the city or the country?

Both, actually. We do most of our living in the country on our parents farms and hang our hats at the end of the day in the city in this house. Because it's north facing, blooming flowers are only planted on the east side (left side of this picture, hidden behind our truck) where there's enough morning sun to grow my grandfather's favourite lilies. All the rest of the blooms are in the backyard. I love gardens. Love them. Lots. And lots. I would happily quadruple the size of them at this house and then some if we had the space. Ironically, I only have issues with rabbits raiding my garden here in the city, no problems out on the farm.

The front shade garden is limited to ornamental grasses, a variety of hostas and some sedum. The tall stand of bamboo grass on the right of the living room window grows up to 10 feet by the end of the growing season. Until 2 years ago there was a massive Colorado Blue Spruce in front of the windows on that tiny speck of lawn. It was encroaching the property line and that was an issue with our previous next door neighbour so we had to saw it down. It was gorgeous and regal and we didn't mind that it hid most of the front facade from the street. We decorated it at the farm for Christmas. Well, the top 14 feet of it anyway. And it was wide. We tied in it's branches as best we could with baler twine and used brute force to shove it through the doors to get it inside the house. It was so heavy it needed a custom made tree stand my husband welded out of 7/8" steal.

This place was the closest house we could buy to my parents farm where we keep our critters. It was the closest house to the farm 15 years ago but now the city has grown up between us. The adage "location, location, location" was absolutely true and it's biggest selling feature. We call this place our "Postage Stamp" because of it has no land.

I realize now that talking about our horses, baling hay, chickens, the tractor and other farm related things gives the impression we're currently residing on a farm. Our city neighbours enjoy having a handy farm guy living on the street and aren't in a hurry to see us move. Right now it works for us to live here. The kids are in school/college nearby and active in sports and recreational endeavours. Work, shopping and hospitals are all right here as are lots of restaurants (even if we almost never eat out) and access to most all city amenities and coffee shops. We have multiple Tim Horton's, Starbucks, Second Cup and Williams Coffee Pubs. Ontario people have a big thing for their coffee 'n donut shops.

My parents have a beautiful century stone farm house build in 1855. We're there several times a day. Everyday. Our kids were raised as country kids. They enjoy pleasures and chores citified kids aren't exposed to. They help us take care of the landscaping, barns, equipment, horses and livestock. Mom and dad don't have a dog anymore but our 3 romp around there every day. We love every minute we spend at the farm. Well, sometimes mucking stalls not so much...

So do we live in the country on a farm or the city? Yes. To both. It's the best of of both worlds. We reside in the city, but we're country folk.

questions and answers

I love reading about everyone in the comments for the Giveaway, thanks so much for commenting. The Giveaway is open until Sunday, September 20th. Here's the Q and A:

~Sue asked how many socks I knit in a year? About a pair per season. Here's where I'll let you all in on a secret: a good portion of the knitting/sewing I do is for gifts ~ because of that most of my FO's don't make their presence known on the blog or Rav, unless the giftee is willing to be mentioned on the blog. I like to knit socks in stocking stitch with about 3"of 2 x 2 ribbing at the cuff. They stay up and are comfy.

~RenataS asked where I got the Socken Wolle? I bought it last year at the Knitters Fair here in Kitchener. I don't remember who the vendor was, sorry.

~ Amanda would really like to see my stash. I've thought about cataloguing my stash on Raverly. I'm in stash denial. If I can't see it all at once it can't really be that big, right? I have a list to inventory all the un-knit yarn I have right now. While searching stash busting groups online I realized my stash isn't that out of hand, but I also sew, quilt, spin and um, have stashes for those too.

~Kristin asked when I knit my first pair of sock? I was 18. I really didn't enjoy knitting socks then. I suspect that was because I had awful plastic DPN's. Now I have nice wooden ones , metal ones and addi turbos for Magic Loop.

~Selkie -- I'm going on the yarn diet with you. That means some planned projects like the Wrapigan won't happen this year. I'll buy the right yarn for it after I defeat my stash. I'm in Stash Busting mode!

If anyone has other questions or interesting things to share about yourselves I'd love to hear from you. Not many sleeps until the Giveaway - sharpen your needles and hunt down some patterns, that yarn is going to a new home soon!

every blog needs a gorgeous hunk, right?

Yeah, I think so too. One of my favourite subjects to photograph is my gorgeous hunk of a virile husband. How about some of him roofing? Did I mention he's drop dead handsome ~ in that capable, muscular, handy and talented sort of way? The first time I met him he was driving a pick up truck, wore a shearling lined winter denim jacket and cowboy boots. Be still my heart ~ when I saw that smile I knew I was done.

The house rooftop is finished, just this area left to do.

"What...?" he didn't realize I was in the upstairs window taking his picture.

"Ah, it's you."

We've lived here for 15 years. We're the second owners of this 24 year old house. The original owners didn't upgrade anything from builder basics so pretty much the whole house needs work (read as spend lots of money doing repairs and maintenance). Amongst our current projects are the backyard, which is a construction zone right now, and the roof. The shingling is almost done except for the kitchen breakfast nook portion on the back of the house. It's got 5 different slopes and 4 seams that need capping. There's a lot of shingle cutting to work the angles.

And then more cutting. For a little area it's a deceptively large amount of fiddly work. Our house is north facing. We have a shady, cool front yard. When everyone else's snow has melted we still have a mountain of it up front that has lasted in to May and sometimes June. Handsome husband has to pile it a storey high with the front end loader when there's a lot of snow so we can park the trucks in the driveway. That used to really excite our kids when they were little.

The sun rises to the left side (east) of the backyard and sets to the right side (west). The back side of our house is a hot pit with full sun all day and the tall wood fence around the pool. The wear and sun damage on the south side of our house is significantly more than the front.

That's a long way down.

And not a bad view up.

Here he's telling me to stop taking his picture already...

Consider this last shot the "before" picture. I almost didn't show it because it's got so much that needs to happen there and it's a mess right now: finish the roofing, build new stairs for the still under construction new deck, and enclose the bottom portion under the deck with planter boxes, cleaning up all the construction tools and stuff. Lots to do before the snow flies again. We have had snow by the first weekend of October (many times) and that's not that far off.

It's rained all summer. We only have time to work on projects on weekends. The few dry weekends have been used up baling and putting up hay for our in laws cattle and our horses. The farmer idiom of 'make hay while the sun shines' has definitely been true this year for us. Working on our yard projects hasn't happened as quickly as we'd have hoped, but they're getting there.

My handsome, charming, loving husband is the best thing that ever happened to me. I'm seriously lucky. He's my true love. The first time I ever saw him he made my heart do a flip. He still has that affect on me each and every time I see him. Sounds corny, doesn't it? It's true though. Some times I have to pinch myself to be sure I'm awake. I take a lot of pictures of him since he's always doing something interesting and well, who wouldn't want to take lots of photos of a gorgeous guy with that smile, with those deep, dark blues eye and that... oh, wait... getting carried away, sorry.

We always have a lot of projects on the go. I'll try to make a point of showing you what we're up to around here and add a bunch of gorgeous hunk pictures while I'm at it. He has the best smile. :)

Win some Yarn ~ It's Giveaway time again

Could you use some new sock yarn? I'm feeling the urge to share some fingering weight love. There's enough to make 4 pairs of socks or 4 scarves or 4 pairs of gloves or whatever your heart fancies. It could be your new stash enhancement until you decide what you'd like to do with it yarn with no buyers remorse? Free to a good home.

This is two skeins of Knit Picks Gloss in Cocoa, which is a 70% Merino and 30% silk blend.

Two balls of Socken Wolle 4-ply in blues, greens, purples and turquoise. I have got to tell you ~ these were hard to part with, but I'm sure someone else will love them as much as I do. A 75% Virgin Wool and 25% Polyamid (nylon) blend that's machine washable and felt resistant, says so on the label.

Two balls of Knit Picks Essential 75% Superwash Wool and 25% Nylon in a two-tone brown and cedar shade called Dune Twist.

And finally two more balls of Socken Wolle in the same 75% Virgin Woole and 25% Polyamid blend in really delicious solid green. It's photographed on the olive side in this picture but this yarn is a vibrant apple-y green.

If you're interesting in re-homing this pretty yarn leave a comment and tell me something about yourself. I really, truly enjoy getting to know you all. Or if you'd rather not tell me something about yourself, feel free to ask a question or two, or three about me! Ask anything at all you might be interested in knowing about me EXCEPT how much I weigh... 'cause I am just not going to answer that question! A simple 'want yarn' will do too.

The Giveaway will stay open until Sunday, September 20th at noon. Let me hear from you if you want this to show up in your mailbox and I'll send this sock yarn happily your way doesn't matter where you live!

31 questions and answers

This went around I think a few years ago, or a close variation of it. I had it sent to me twice just this week via emails so I thought I'd answer it and share on the blog. Tagging anyone who wants to play along:

Your significant other? still at work. love him madly and he's darned handsome
Your hair colour? dark blond
Your mother? is at the farm
Your father? he's with mom
Your favourite thing? standard poodles, no horses. it's a toss up. I'll go with standard poodles since they can sleep on our bed
Your dream last night? Painting the bedroom walls in a house I didn't recognize pale blue
Your dream goal? move out of the city
The room you're in? dining room
Your hobby? dogs, horses, quilting, knitting, spinning, renovating our house, gardening, dreaming
Your fear? losing my sight, I'm a very visual person
Where do you want to be in 6 years? on a farm with a huge garden and a barn, lots of pasture and hay fields, and a big country kitchen for cooking, baking and entertaining... heh, guess I'd have to win the lottery. Maybe my goal in 6 years is to be a lottery winner. I better buy some tickets.
Where were you last night? home, it was our anniversary :)
What you're not? patient, I think everything should be done yesterday
One of your wish-list items? long arm quilting machine
Where you grew up? Kitchener
The last thing you did? came home from work
What are you wearing? Jeans and a white shirt, barefoot
Your TV? is old. It's tuned to HGTV when I'm watching, sports or Discovery channel for Don and Ryan, Nicole is all over the dial
Your pets? 2 horses, 3 standard poodles, an assortment of chickens and we're getting some rabbits again soon
Your computer? it's Don's actually. Dell
Your mood? unsettled, restless, hungry... we're invited to the farm for supper with my parents, yum.
Missing someone? always
Your car? Ford suv
Something you're not wearing? socks
Favourite foot wear? my cowboy and hiking boots
Favourite shop? quilt shop, tack shop, garden centre...
Your summer? was cool and rainy
Love someone? yes ~ deeply
Your favourite colour? just one again? apparently I don't follow directions well: watery blues and greens and gray
When is the last time you laughed? now, at this question
When is the last time you cried? last week

Tag, you're it!

Going to the Fall Fair

This past long weekend we went to theFall Fair in Paris, ON. The midway and vendors have grown in number from previous years, but for me the fall fair is mostly about the animals and crafts. There's competitions to enter in almost anything you can imagine.

Food, produce, flowers, crafts, art, photography, 3 horse shows, dog show, and anything you could think of in between as well as the usual Fall Fair food, grandstand shows, high dives, wild birds of prey shows and helicopter rides.

There were a lot of years the I rode the Central Ontario exhibition show on the Friday in Kitchener, the western show on the Saturday in Paris, and the AQHA show both western and english on the Sunday at this venue. Labour Day long weekends before school started for me were the beginning of the fall show season, much appreciated after having shown the horses in the blazing heat of summer. I miss those days, we don't show our horses anymore, but the competitive nature I have rears it's head every time I see someone in show clothes on their horse. They are fond and wonderful memories.

Now that the kids are older we wander the midway and carnival sections, but don't play along. The kids loved the rides back when, now they aren't interested.
We're more keen on stuff like this (even though we have most of it at home anyway):

Sweet, doe-eyed Jersey cows and calves

Every imaginable breed of hen

...and rooster

This very affectionate pigeon took a real shine to Don

Nicole was smitten by the various breed of adorable bunnies.

Now we don't have an assortment of donkeys, sheep, goats at home...

But we do have horses, this mare was patiently waiting in a rented fair stall.

I wish I could show you more, there was a lot of interesting things to see... but at this point the battery died in my digital camera. There were sheep shearing demonstrations, how to process the fleece, sign ups for classes and vending of sheep sheering, breeding, fleece, raising, you name it stuff to do with their fibre. Two women were spinning the whole 5 days of the fair. One woman in today's clothing fashion was spinning on an oak Lendrum with a double treadle, just like my maple one. The woman beside her was in traditional garb spinning on a walking wheel doing 6 - 7 feet of long draw and then working it back on to the spindle, turning the giant wheel with her hand. It was fascinating to watch and made me really appreciate my treadle wheel.

Our Canadian military was there, a full dress marching band to lead them in the parade, multiple live Canadian performances on the Grand stand and plenty of Carnival and midway noise, lights and midway food.

There were few quilts and needle crafts ~ far fewer than previous years. Needle point, cross stitch, sewing and quilting were all present, but in small numbers and all behind glass or wire fence panels. It seemed a bit sad that the wares had to be behind glass away from dirty fingers, thieving hands and locked up behind cages to not escape... well, really be lifted and stolen. I guess it was just another sign on how times are changing and people have little respect for other people's property.

We spend a good while wandering around the giant tractors, combines, loaders and other various farm equipment, wishing for the day we could afford some of it for the farm we don't live on or have yet. We picked up lottery numbers just in case... someone usually wins the jackpot, why not us? lol

Fall always leaves me restless and wishful. It's my favourite time of the year and every September I find myself wishing we could move. It's not that we don't live in a nice house - but the country calls us back so strongly. 2 farm kids raising our 2 kids in the city makes us shake our heads ~ because if someone had told us that at our 21st wedding anniversary (tomorrow, how did the time go so fast?) we'd still be living in the concrete jungle of the city we wouldn't have believed it... very big sigh...

Ryan started College today. Nicole's started 10th grade. I'm proud of them both and thrilled with the people they're becoming, but a little sad too that my babies aren't babies anymore. Seems just yesterday I was taking their pictures for their first day of school and that was Kindergarten. For us summer ends with the Labour Day Weekend. This year it's extremely late with where the first Monday falls on the calendar, and even though fall doesn't officially start until later this month, for us today is the first day of fall.

Homemade Chunky Salsa

Smells and tastes so good. We use this for more than just dipping corn chips. I'll add a jar of this to tomato paste for lasagna and to ground beef with spaghetti sauce for over spaghetti. It can be used to doctor up all sorts of different dishes.

We're really lucky that Don's parents have huge vegetable gardens on their 86 acres beef and hay farm (2 hours away). What we don't grow here at home in our yard or at my parents farm (2 minutes away) is supplemented by them. Homemade salsa just tastes so much better than store bought.

CHUNKY SALSA (use plum or Roma tomatoes if possible)

8 quarts tomatoes, diced (you can peel them too if you want, we don't)
1 quart chopped celery
1 quart chopped sweet peppers
1 quart chopped onions
1 quart cider vinegar
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/3 cup canning salt (not iodized)
1 tablespoon whole picking spice (tie in a cloth)
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 to 3 teaspoons cayenne pepper (more for hotter sauce)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Combine all ingredients in a large, heavy kettle. Bring to a boil; simmer 3 to 3-1/2 hours.
Pour hot sauce into clean, sterilized pint jars. Process in a pressure canner at 10 lbs. pressure for 30 minutes.
YIELD: 14 pints

tomatoes

...and there's more. Lots more. There's also sweet peppers, onions and fresh garlic harvested from my in laws farm garden. This box full will be salsa...

Happy long weekend everyone ~ I'm off to start chopping.

purple surprise

This year I didn't plant any petunias but this determined and inspiring bloom seeded itself from last years crop in the most unusual place. It's growing out of the tiniest crack of the interlocking deck stone under the edge of the gas BBQ. Of all the plants and flowers in the garden this year this is hands down my favourite and most cherished. Yeah for flourishing in the worst of conditions with no help at all. If I can get seed from this hardy annual maybe they'll be some planned surprises next year.

The Greener Celadon is wound off into a cake while I decide what to do with it.

I'm surprised by the strength of the single. Still not sure about plying it on itself or to something else, I'm also considering swatching it and playing around with a little lace type knit. The fun part about this is that it's just learning and playing so I can try things I normally wouldn't. Experimenting while so naive is really enjoyable.

Have a great Wednesday everyone!