Another Good Weekend!

We woke up on Saturday to miserable weather -- rainy, gray, misty, damp, dreary -- the kind of day that most people hate.  I, on the other hand, really love them because they make me feel like staying home and being domestic!  After a couple of cups of tea I mixed up some pork stew and threw it in the crockpot and then decided I needed homemade bread to go with the stew so I made a big loaf of New York Rye.  The recipe is from my friend, Mary LeClerc, and it's SUCH good bread!  So -- with the stew cooking and the bread raising I headed off to my sewing room.  (Yippee!!)  I'd started working on the pieced border for Queenie and I really wanted to get that done.  What a pleasant way to spend a rainy day!  I got the border pieced and added to the quilt, the stew was great and the bread was even better!  All in all -- a very successful rainy day!  (BTW:  The big blob on the quilt is a shadow.  I didn't have the patience to wait!)

We bought a new cardboard scratching pad for the cats.  It comes with a packet of catnip to pour into the little holes in the cardboard -- which we did.  Now we have an addicted cat.  Missy has decided that catnip is the next best thing to tuna!  In fact, she may think it's even BETTER than tuna!

Greg picked some tomatoes for me on Sunday afternoon so I got busy and made up a big batch of salsa. It's going to taste good this winter!

All in all -- a very successful weekend!

Editing, Canning & Queenie

I spent last weekend mostly tied to my computer editing my table runner book for the publisher.  NOT what I really wanted to be doing!  After all -- I wrote the damned thing couldn't somebody ELSE be responsible for correcting the things I screwed up?  (I know I'm being unreasonable but HEY!  I'm an ARTISTE!)  Actually, it didn't go that badly -- I simply didn't want to do it but I promised I'd have it back by Monday sooooooo..........  Got it done and sent back on Sunday afternoon.  I still need to write a couple of paragraphs to be added in -- but that shouldn't take too long.  (Famous last words!) 

I did manage to take a couple of breaks and do some fun things -- or at least things that I actually WANTED to do!  Once of them was to make some Dilled Green Beans.  Since we've got a healthy crop of green beans in our garden I thought it would be fun to try them.  I made four pints and then cold-packed them.  The recipe says to let them sit for at least two weeks before you taste.  Sure hope they're as good as people say!

Earlier in the week I made four pints of pickled green grape tomatoes.  I'm REALLY anxious to give them a try!  The recipe said they'd keep in the fridge if I didn't want to cold pack them so -- in the fridge they went.  These guys only have to sit for a week -- so next weekend I'm going to give them a try and I'll let you know.  I've got HUNDREDS of little green tomatoes and if these are good they may all get pickled and canned!  I'm thinking they might make nice Christmas gifts for those daring enough to give them a try!

After I ceremoniously sent off the corrected edits I celebrated by heading to my sewing room.    I had all the pieces and parts ready to sew together for my Queen's Court (Queenie) quilt so I at least got that done.  I even managed to get parts of the pieced bordered sewn so maybe I can get that added next weekend.  I'd love to sneak some time in my room before the weekend but I've got something every night this week and I know it's not likely to happen.  Anyway -- here's where I am on Queenie.  It looks okay now -- but wait until you see it with the border! 

Queenie

I made a promise to myself several weeks ago that I wasn't going to spend the entire three-day Labor Day weekend working and doing chores.  There needed to be some fun involved!  I managed to accomplish that!  On Saturday evening Greg and I attended a Farm Party at our friends' home out in the country.  We had SUCH a good time!  If you've never been to a Farm Party -- then you've really missed out.  This one was in honor of our wonderful friend Gladys Nekola and it was an absolute blast!  The party was held in their large machine shed (Rex had to move all his equipment and tools!), there were tables set up for eating, a dance floor because there was a karaoke DJ, and so much food it was absolutely impossible to "try a little of everything!"  The family provided pulled pork, potato salad and pasta salad.  Gladys made her famous kolaches and with two pastry chefs in the family you can about imagine the desserts!  Everyone else brought food to share and they actually had to set up more tables to hold it all.  People ate, sang, danced, laughed and then ate some more!  Greg and I had a wonderful time and it was a wonderful way to spend Saturday night.  THANK YOU!

Sunday we attended church, did chores and some gardening and then I snuck into my sewing room.  I'd picked out some fabrics a couple of weeks ago and I'd been cutting away on them whenever I got a few minutes.  Actually, I'd started updating one of my first published patterns (Queen's Court) and it's been so long since I've made the quilt that I got myself thoroughly confused when I was figuring yardage so I decided to make the lap size version to reacquaint myself with how everything went together.  I'd forgotten how much I actually enjoyed making this pattern because the blocks go together so quickly!  I declared Labor Day to be a Sewing Day and got all the blocks finished up.  Now I need to piece the setting triangles and the border and put it all together.  Maybe this weekend?  Here's a photo of some of the blocks.  I think it's going to look just fine.  Now I can't wait to get the rest of it done!