Saturday Accomplishments

My week has been hectic!  How about yours?  You would think with the kids moved out and just DH and I that life would be kind of slowing down.  Not even remotely!

We have a garden, not huge, but it has the things we use.  Tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, pablano peppers, and jalapenos.  The summer has been harsh.  extremely hot temperatures with tons of rain, hurricane force winds on several occasions.  Last year I had Roma Tomatoes which were the size of a big beefsteak tomato.  I probably harvested off of 8 plants at least 3 bushels of them.  We made salsa, spaghetti sauce, and tomato basil soup and still had tons left over. 

This is my poor garden this year.  The winds have toppled my tomato cages, there are weeds which are huge, but you can't go into the garden for long because of the huge mosquitoes.  We had two nice days.  Day 1 I pulled weeds in my flower beds, and berry patch.  Day 2 I mowed the lawn for DH and pulled more weeds in the berry patch, a few huge weeds in the garden, picked up the huge deadfall branches from all the storms.  Harvested a small handful of berries, and a couple of tomatoes.  Even after using mosquito repellants I was bit all over my body, even through my clothes! 

Yesterday the neighbor guy came by and sprayed for mosquitoes.  It is really worth it for the 30 days we do not have to run to and from the car for fear of being eaten alive.  The problem is that with all the rain he couldn't spray for over a month.  Early this morning I went out and harvested what tomatoes I could find.  Yeah no mosquitoes!

I even managed to find 2 nice slicing tomatoes for lunch later.

I processed the Romas by at least blanching them, removing the skins,  and putting them in a gallon freezer bag.  Unfortunately I think we are going to have to purchase a couple of bushels of tomatoes to process for the tomato basil soup, spaghetti sauce, and salsa. 

After my domestic chores, I finished my Lincoln Schnibbles quilt.  I decided that I needed to quit messing with it.  I tried some new to me techniques. 

1.  I made my own bias binding.  Easy peasy, and I found a great tutorial here on how to estimate, cut, and sew it together.  I was pleased with how easy it was.

2.  I used the method for Susie's Magic Binding to make the binding.

3.  I made a super cute quilt label (for once)!

4.  I made it so it could be hung easily just using a dowel since DH scowls at me when I put anything on the walls.  :D

This is how it turned out.

I need to wash it now. 

Lessons learned?

 I need to make wider binding than what is in the tutorial for Susie's Magic Binding.  I had to really fight mine, and that takes all the pleasure out of it.

I finally got a really nice biased finish to my binding though but it took me several tries.

Some times it is best just to call it finished even if it is not perfect and walk away!

How's your Saturday?

Oh and my intention of pulling weeds was put on hold.  It is raining.  Guess I will have to work on a new project  I am in the September pin cushion blog hop and I have some great ideas rolling around in my little brain that I just need to "Make it Sew!"  LOL