Potpourri…

 

….or, a collection of miscellaneous literary extracts.

Potpourri would be a really lovely name for a future quilt.  But today it’s a list of how I have been spending my time lately, not necessarily in the right order.

1.  Picking tomatoes. Yes, my tomato garden continues to test my limits physically and time-wise. But this is the garden’s season to shine and it will not be like this this in a few months. Because of the heat, I have been going out after the afternoon sun goes down behind my eucalyptus trees….so much better. I am planning a winter garden but I think a much smaller one than the one that’s keeping me busy and busier right now. Just a nice stand of snow peas, enough lettuce for salads and some good greens for a potful every couple of weeks.

2.  Drying and freezing tomatoes. I got tired of dehydrating tomatoes so I went out and bought a good-sized upright freezer. All I had before was the one that’s a part of my refrigerator and that wasn’t doing it for the Gal with the Big Garden. Now I am freezing them whole in gallon plastic bags. I gave another 10 pounds to Jeff and Sherry and 10 pounds to my DH’s brother. My nephew Chris is known to be a “tomato-eating machine.”

3.  Went to a party in honor of my son Jeff’s birthday and got to visit with some of his friends from high school, got lots of hugs and kisses from my little grandsons, ate good barbeque and in general had more fun than anybody has a right ta’.

4.  Went camping near Monterey/Moss Landing for 5 days with son Jeff and his family. Let’s see if I can figure out how to get my pictures off of my new ipad and onto this blog post.

 

 

 

This is Jonah decorating cookies that we made together in my RV.  He is quite an artist and he gave just as much time and care with these cookies as he does with his other artistic endeavors.

 

Here is our little Miles with Ondie carefully watching over him.

5.  Taking my mother to her doctor appointments (lots of them), her shopping trips and taking care of her on weekends.   

6.  For the first time in all the years that I have been safely handling a rotary cutter, I cut my finger. And I never do anything halfway, so it was a doozy! My left index finger required THREE STITCHES to stop the bleeding and to close up the slab of skin that I opened up. I had DH take pictures but I decided to spare you, dear readers, all the gore and disfigurement. After all, I want you all to make more quilts, not to give it up forever! The nice lady at the ER sure did a good job of stitching my finger….I don’t even have a scar.

 

 

7.  I finished two quilts lately, my Bulls-Eye and the Bonnie Hunter Orca Bay mystery quilt.    Here is a close-up of the Baptist Fan quilting that I did on Orca Bay. It really shows up nice on the dark fabric that I used for the border. In this pic the quilt was still on the frame after finishing the last row of the Baptist Fans. 

Here is my Bulls-Eye quilt:

                                  

I’ve shown the whole top before so this is just another close-up to show the quilting.  The meander quilting that I chose made it come out soft and puffy-looking, which I like.  It makes me realize why quilts are sometimes known as comforters.  They do, literally, comfort us.

8.  And lastly, tryin’ to stay cool but mostly not succeedin’