Time's up!

We have a winner, chosen by my very special helper, L.T.

I came in from class and L.T. was standing guard over her piece of paper. The little thief (she has a thing for paper) had stolen it out of my drawing bowl. So much cuter than a random integer generator, don't you think?

Congratulations go to Ellena who said her favorite color was red. Send me your address and I'll pop your prize in the mail.

Thank you to everyone who played along.

I can, because I can

I managed to get 28 pints of green beans canned today with no disasters and no busted jars. I'd love to do more.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats home-canned green beans in December. Growing up, I helped my granny can vegetables in the summer and loved it. The whole process is just so darned much fun. If you're into that kind of thing that is.

Today, I feel like I really accomplished something every time I hear a 'pop' coming from the kitchen. Another pint sealed. Another pint of green beans for later.

I enjoy knowing what exactly is in those jars. I know there's no stems or yucky beans. Just good stuff.

DH loves green beans and would eat them every day if I'd let him. At that rate I'd need to can at least as much as I did today just to have green beans once a week.

Next up for canning, assuming I can find it at a good price, more green beans, black eyed peas, pinto beans, peaches, corn, a couple of different soups. Heck I might even give pickles a whirl if my cucumbers do as well as I think they will.

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday. I know I am. :)

Quick! June's nearly done give-away

I can't believe I forgot about the monthly give-away for June.

Up for grabs is a mystery apron. It could be one that I've made, or it could be one that I've picked up at a sale.

To enter, leave a comment and tell me what is your favorite color in the whole wide world.

Drawing ends Monday at noon. Good luck!

Quilt along week 9 and Dear Jane blocks

I spent a little quality time with my sewing machine yesterday afternoon. I miss being able to sew on a whim. Once this summer class is over I'm sewing like a mad woman.

Quilt along week 9 block. The cherry fabric doesn't show the points well.
The next three are Dear Jane blocks.

I had such a hard time picking the next block to do that I put all of the block numbers in a jar and I'm doing it lottery style. It's kind of fun not knowing what the next block will be.

Thankful Thursday

Hosted by Annie at Life Served Sweet.

I'm thankful for insect spray.

We've been invaded by ants in the kitchen and mosquitoes outside.

Yes, I'm very thankful for insect spray.

A frustrating 30 minutes

Sixth Dear Jane block, 25 pieces. I can normally look at a block once it's laid out and figure out how to sew it together. Not this one. The bottom row was sewn together and picked apart four times before I got it right.

The middle was the easy part even with that 1/2 inch square smack dab in the center.

Quilt along week 8 - caught up

Whew! I'm caught up and ready to do week 9.

I'm not exactly thrilled with my color choice/combination in this block, but I'm going to live with it.
Here's the whole mess laid out on the guest bed. I think it's going to be okay when I get it done.

What I've been doing

A whole lot of hard labor. Well, not really, but there's been no sewing time.

For some reason, I started painting the inside of my kitchen cabinets yesterday. I'm not sure if it was a fever or what exactly. It took me most of the day to do this one little cabinet and then clean up the mess.
My kitchen is both my favorite and least favorite room in the entire house. I love it because it's big and you have plenty of space to do stuff. I hate it because it's dark and those cabinets aren't helping matters any.

I decided to try painting the inside and see if it helps any. It really did lighten up the inside of the cabinet. Didn't do squat for the outside though. That was a joke. Ha! Ha!

Eventually, I hope to paint all of my cabinets, inside and out. Hopefully just about the time we remodel the kitchen.
I would love to have all new cabinets, but I don't think DH will swing for them. So, I'll just paint and put up with the ones already in place. I have talked him into new counter tops though. Small steps I suppose.

In other news, I dried two trays of chopped onions, one tray of chives, one tray of pineapple sage, and one tray of peppermint/spearmint.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Quilt along week 7

I'm still one block behind, but hope to catch up this evening.

Signature quilt

I bought a tatty old quilt at a garage sale on Friday. The seller was the grandson of the quiltmaker and said that she was from Shamrock, Texas and the quilt was probably 100 years old or older.

Since then I've done a little snooping and if the Doris Ann Hoodenpyle is the same one (what are the chances there are two with a mother by the name of Ruth?) then this quilt would date from 1931 to 1940. I've found four of the signers in Cotton Co., OK.So now, what do I do with it?

Here are the signature blocks.
Ressie Austin
J.A.L.
J.C.L.
Gladys Crow
Stella M.
Margaret Hawkins
Ethel Hoodenpile
Helen L.
Jessie Daniels
Sandlin
Doris Ann Hoodenpyle
Louise Hawkins
Clara Crow
Ella Susan or Suson
Ruth Hoodenpyle
Mrs. W.D. Spurlock
Mrs. L.?
Betty D.
Mrs. Hawkins
Doris L.
I know I would be thrilled to find a block that one of my grandmothers had signed, even if I could only have a picture. Should I offer the blocks to descendants in the unlikely event they contact me? Donate the quilt? What? Help me out here.

Two more Dear Jane blocks

I've done 5 of 255 blocks. The one on the left is five pieces. The one on the right is 46 pieces.

I'm behind on the Star quilt-along, but plan on catching up today. I'll be back later with pictures.

Thankful Thursday

Julie stopped hosting Thankful Thursday and I fell off the wagon in a bad way. On that note, Annie is now hosting Thankful Thursday and I'm getting back on the wagon. Thank you, Annie!

Today finds me thankful that it is Thursday and I'm done with school for the week. I gritch and complain about school, studying, tests, etc., I am thankful for the opportunity to go to school.

I'm thankful for my family, especially my mother and my husband. Without those two, I don't think I could make it.

Finally, I'm thankful tomorrow is Friday and God willing, I'll wake up to see it.

Early this morning

I gave myself a stern talking to last night and got out my package of bean seeds. According to my calendar it's still June and I can still plant beans.

So I was up early this morning, barefoot, in my nightgown, and armed with a hoe, ready to plant beans. (Don't let that mental picture scar your brain.) I leveled out the gourd hill and planted between 20 and 30 soaked Kentucky Wonder beans in two rows. I erected a red-neck fence of cedar poles and granite slabs and told the dog, "No digging.". Yeah right. He might not dig back there though because it's the only place he hasn't dug for oil already. We'll see.

With any luck at all, I'll have beans at the end of August. I may not have many, but I can hope for a few.

Now, a few pictures I thought I'd share. Mr. & Mrs. Mockingbird are building a nest in the grape arbor.
A crook-neck squash baby.
A teeny tiny pickle, uh, cucumber.
Tomatoes almost ready to be picked.
Little bitty banana peppers
A straight-neck squash baby.

My head exploded

Okay, not really, but it feels like it could. I have a headache.

I've been making flash cards so Mom can help me study. I think I'm going in circles right now so I put it up.

In other news, I wish I'd planted more garden. I want a couple of bushels of green beans, black-eyed peas, etc. If I hurry I might be able to get some beans in, but not nearly enough to can since I didn't plan early and get the ground worked.

Mom and I went to the Farmer's Market tonight and I was tempted by some pretty little potatoes. I ended up with $3.50 worth. I forgot about the guy down on Main Street with veggies. I'll try to remember to go on Friday.

After dinner I diced up a bunch of onions, flash froze, and vacuumed them into bags for the freezer. Perfect for soups and such.

In my little garden the squash are doing well. I noticed about a dozen little 1-1/2 to 2 inch squash babies. My five cucumber plants have tons of little 1 inch or less cukes. More peppers are on the way. I may freeze some of those as well.

The radishes were a bust this year. Some of them did okay, but others didn't make before going to seed. We got so little return that I'm not planting them next year.

I need to go dig out the dehydrator so I can dry some onions too. Onions are plentiful right now.

I hope everyone had a great Tuesday even if you're cutting wheat and got rained out. ;)

Two more bibs and a purse

I made two more bibs out of fat quarters I picked up on Saturday. Only 11 more to go.

I have the hardest time finding purses that I like. I detest leather purses and so I end up with canvas/cloth. This season, there's nothing I even come close to liking so I decided to put some of the blue toile to good use. The whole bag was made for less than $1.
I hope everyone is having a dandy Monday.

Is it Friday already?

Wow! This week blew by in a hurry.

Guess how much sewing I've done. Go ahead, guess. Zero. Nada. Zip. Zilch. I've only been downstairs long enough to empty the dehumidifier and come back up.

Mom and I toodled off to an estate sale this morning. I didn't buy anything. Ha! I had you there for a minute didn't I. Of course I bought stuff.

This hand-quilted lap quilt. Double-sided no less. $5.

4 yards of 60 inch blue toile for $2.
More glassware. $4 for the big pink bowl, 10 cents for the pink saucer, 25 cents each for the clear bowls, and $2 for the oblong pink dish.
Does anyone recognize this pattern?
These two little saucers were 10 cents each.
I picked up three gingham aprons with chicken scratch on them too, but they're in the wash right now.

That's it except for the little dish I picked up for Mom. We had child behavior problems and so she took the monsters to the car and she missed the sale. Rotten brats.

Tomorrow, we conquer the fabric store.