May is Gone!!!

Not sure where the heck this month went or 5 months in 2013!!  Time seems to be moving faster each day.

The garden is planted and everything is doing well.  This is one of our bed of cabbages.  Some of these will be used for sauerkraut.  They survived the transplant much better this year as it wasn't blazing hot.  We have Stonehead, Pixies, Bobcats, Blue Dynasty, Blue Thunder, Bourbon, Late Flat Dutch, Red cabbage and Caraflex.  There are shallots and peas in the bed behind the cabbages.

  Looking from the east gate to the west end of the hoop house.  The tomatoes are doing much better this year as well.  Our paste/sauce varieties this year are San Marzano, Viva Italia, Margherita, Daiquiri (these are real varities), Plum Regal, Martinos Roma, plus a few others.  We are trying a couple of Heirlooms this year, Black Krim and Costoluta.



The garlic has made up for lost time when it was frozen back in the deep freeze we had go through here in early April.  Some of it didn't make it back, in particular one of the Creoles.
We have a number of different varieties, trying them to see which ones we like the most.  A few are Siberian, Chesnok Red, Tuscan, German Red, Spanish Rojo, Italian Late and Duganski.  I even remembered to mark the rows and keep a copy of the plan, where I can find it.

 Our major project this year is an addition to our home.  This is the before photo and after waiting 5 months to stat, the process is underway.  We are turning the current office into the hallway, the extra bedroom into the office and adding a bedroom and my dream studio.  I will have everything together under one roof when we are finished.  It will be wonderful!!!  Joedy has all the cabinets built for the dyeing room.

This is how the house looked this morning after they were out here two days.  They have removed all the bricks from the front of the house, with the exception of the garage. The addition will be built on to the west wall that extends out.  So much for having both ends equal one another, but I can live with it.  There was an ash tree in the middle of the grass and it was removed several weeks ago.

They broke ground this morning, digging out the soil for the crawl space and footings.  I am finally getting a little excited about it.
We have looked at a lot of stuff, I have finally decided on paint colors for the cabinets, we found some brick we like for a couple of the interior walls, have the sliding doors figured out, found an old door from the original farm house that we will use between the dyeing room and studio area, so we are happy to be underway.  More to come as we move along with the project.  

Spring!!??? and Buttons

I have been trying to figure out if spring is here yet or if it isn't going to bother showing up this year.  There are a few remnants of the last snow storm which was on Tuesday or Wednesday.  We have had more snow in the last 30 days than what we did all winter.  A few have actually been beneficial for the crops.  The deep, flash freeze the first of April was not.  The only positive thing about that night was that all the tiny little weeds coming up in the garlic bed died.  Along with the daffodils and anything else that was up.

The greenhouse is thriving, a little slower than years past, largely due to lack of sunshine and cold weather.  Nonetheless the little plants continue to demand more space and larger containers!  Unfortunately for some of them it is not happening fast enough.

I revisited a hobby I have had for many years, collecting buttons, but have never been very serious about it.  Just sort of a hit and miss thing for the most part. I would pick some up at quilt shows now and then, some from my husband's grandmother, some I purchased at an antique store in Colby.  My button collection is slowly coming together.  My source has been ebay and Etsy, no place around here to find the type of buttons I am seeking.

I think Shelia, who delivers our mail, might be getting a little tired of my small packages.  I do think she might like the little ones over the larger ones I was getting when I was buying Geo Trax for the boys.  Another advantage to the buttons is the postage, not the factor it was with the Geo Trax.

Back to the buttons.  I have acquired  some nice cards and right now I have a lot of loose buttons floating around the house that have been sorted.  They are in little piles here and there.  I can see a need to get them gathered up and stored for the time being until I get some frames purchased and know what size to cut the mat board so that I can mount them.

Tiny, small, diminutive, whatever you want to label them

This card came from some lady's estate in New Hampshire.  A number of buttons I have purchased come from back East.  I have received some great ones from Wisconsin, of course Alex would tell me what do you expect.  And then California, some of my favorite ones have come from there.

I have found that some people displayed them in some very unique ways, like the group above, which has a title in the orange, "SUN".  There are rays radiating out from the center circle.  I have seen many different configurations, paintings or drawings on the cards, labeling in some unique way.  It has been an interesting journey on several levels.

I am not a hard core collector, as I just collect the ones I like, which seems to be increasing the more I know about them and the more I see.

  I like metal/brass/steel ones, which there a number of different types here, but I am attracted to the floral variety on these for the most part.  Diminutive buttons, didn't know that word was associated with buttons until I really got into them.  I like glass, metal, mop, you name it, I just like tiny buttons!!  Then there are Depression glass buttons and the ever infamous Bakelite, which anyone selling a plastic button on ebay at the moment likes to attach that label to it and most of the time it isn't that.  There are vegetable ivory buttons, never knew about that stuff, but I have an awesome button with a dragon fly on it.  Horn, composition, whistle buttons, cricket cage, I have come across many different and interesting types of buttons and I know more about buttons now than I did a few weeks ago and I am having fun!!

Bakelite Buttons, yellow ones known as "apple juice"

And or course there are items to check out there that go along with buttons, thread, needles, needle cases, bodkins, baskets, etc. I have decided the best antique sewing items come from Europe.  I have seen some beautiful pieces listed and they usually come from Europe at some point in time or are still in England.  Of course there are the beautifully carved needle cases and items that come from the Far East.

My husband has commented on the irony of buying something that was once given away.  Little mending sets, needle cases with business names on them, packets of needles, button hooks with a business' name on it, are now sold.  There are some fun little items.  

This is just like the one I had growing up

Viewing sewing baskets has really aged me.  I found out that I am 'vintage' because I had one of those 'vintage' pink, round sewing baskets with the hard lid that had the floral decal in the middle of it.  And then it had a little ledge on one side where the spools of thread would sit.  Both my sister and I had one.   I saw one that looked quite similar to mine the last time I remember seeing it, pleated on one side.

I think I am getting pretty good at telling when a sewing basket has been emptied out and the good stuff taken.  I am not sure I have seen one yet that has been sold in tact.  There are always a few wooden spools of thread, maybe a card of ric rac or bias tape, sometimes both, a packet of needles, maybe a darning egg or tracing wheel, now and then some DMC thread or perle cotton.  Some crappy, old scissors they found someplace else in some junk drawer they purchased.  If you sew, you know exactly what I am talking about when it comes to scissors!!!  

  My mom collected buttons when she was growing up and had a wonderful button collection, I have seen it one time.  I guess that is one of the things we have in common, a love for buttons.  I use to pick out the buttons first when I was making something, then the pattern and fabric to go with the buttons.  I still do that, except I have a heck of a lot of awesome buttons, but don't seem to make anything anymore.  Maybe they will just have to become part of the collection.

Texas

Coming to Texas actually started when I went to Paducah, KY.  Strange how things work.  

I took a dye painting class from Hollis Chatelain, in April of 2008.  Little did I know what I was getting myself into when I took that class!!!

The photo to the right is one of the pieces I painted in the class.  It still needs to be quilted, maybe after this year's class, I will tackle the thing.  There is a turtle hanging on the design wall at home begging to be finished as well.  

I am about to embark on year 8 of Hollis's Master Series class.  Yes, year 8, when all I wanted to do was learn how to dye paint.  

It has been a journey to say the least.  I made two trips to Silverton, OR for two classes and introduced one of my friends to the classes.

Time will tell what becomes of some of the fabric I posted last week.  Hopefully it will be a good thing.   

Where does the time go???

It has been over a month since the last post and I was really going to try and do a better job this year.  I even considered trying the 365 photo thing again.  Good intentions--- as they say.

I believe I was catching up from last year so the last quarter is going to be brief.  Kathy, ReneeL, Judy, Sheena and I went to the AQS Quilt show in Des Moines, IA at the beginning of Oct.  Had a great time, saw some beautiful quilts and saw some interesting country side.  I would love to spend more time in that part of IA.  Some of my family came from that area as well.

I took another class from David Taylor in Denver in Oct.  Stayed with my daughter and her family, which was close to the class location.  So now I have two quilts I am working on and no work has been done on either of them.

We had a less than productive corn harvest after the heat and drought last summer.   The dry land wheat didn't come up in some places and it is still dry!

Had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I managed to make three quilts for each of my grandsons.  I even had them wrapped and under the tree the Wednesday before Christmas.  So 2012 ended with the usual book work.  I think they should change the end of the year for closing ones books so it doesn't interfere with Christmas.  It is a drag and I dislike it more each year!!!  So we wrapped up 2012.

2013, I can start the New Year and two months have almost been completed !!  As the title states, where does the time go??   

As is usually the case around here the New Year starts off with more book work, which was the case this year.  I was really organized, didn't make too many mistakes on the info I took to the accountant, got all the nasty little forms required by our benevolent government completed quickly and mailed. 

   I was ready to take the Dyeing to Design class taught by Elizabeth Barton on QU.  That was something I attempted last fall and ran into too many other things.  I did get the black gradation dyed and then I managed to come down with strep again.  Grand kids share so many things with their grandmas!!!  So I was a little behind in that class once again and then I felt the pressure to dye fabric for Hollis' class in TX.  Now I did have an entire year to work that in, but it didn't happen and the class is very close at hand now.

So that is what I have been doing for the last two weeks.  Now I am sure there are some who would say, go to your sewing room and get some you have already dyed.  But that won't work!!!   I needed gradations and I have wanted to do some ice dyeing for some time now.  I now have a lot of gradations and some awesome ice dyeing pieces.  Thanks to Judi, who taught me how to do it during our Retreat almost 3 years ago now.

Golden Brown and Marigold

Caribbean Blue and Citrus Yellow

 These are some of the pieces I made using ice in one form or another.  Hopefully they will be useful somewhere along the way.

Golden Brown

Havana Brown

 I will post some of the gradations later.

   

Ice Blue and Citrus Yellow

A good friend sent word this evening that Carol Miller, founder of Quilt University, lost her battle with cancer.  When she founded QU, she did a wonderful thing for many of us in the quilting world. Thank you Carol!!!   

Looks like I am behind, again

Thought I would post on the blog today, especially since nothing has been posted for months and months.  This is old stuff, but I had a number of good times in 2012 and want to document them so I can look back and remember what I did.  This blog is my diary.

Since July, the garden has been harvested, some of it cleaned out and now it is time to start ordering seeds for this year's garden.  I would say the hoop house was a success due to the brutal growing conditions we had last summer.  

The stewed tomatoes, roasted tomatoes, salsa, dill pickles, pickle relish, cabbage relish, zucchini/jalapeno relish, sauerkraut, green beans, onions, garlic, salsa w/black beans and roasted corn, and roasted corn relish (the corn came from the field, but the other things came from the garden) are in jars or the freezer.  We have been enjoying them this winter.  


We managed to get away for another camping trip in August to a ranch near Walden.  It is an interesting area.  Dry, with sage brush on the hills and then you can be right up among the aspen and pines in a second.

 
Grandpa and our oldest grandson had a good time fishing.  And there was some different equipment on the Ranch that our grandson had not seen before so that really made the trip worthwhile.  He had a million questions about all of it as well.  

The end of August rolled around and friends Ricky and Don from Winnipeg came for a week.  Ricky and I had a great time dyeing, while Don was roped into helping Joedy, Cory and Rodney build the "Sky Fort".   

We celebrated my mom's 85th birthday party the evening they finished it, so it was thoroughly tested by a number of her great grand kids during the party.  It held up well, thanks to the great construction crew.  It does actually set level.   My grandson refers to it as "Grandma's Park".  Works for me.

Ricky and I traveled to Steamboat Springs the next week to take an applique class from David Taylor.  We stayed at the The Steamboat Grand .  It is a very nice place, but quite a hike from our room to the classroom.  We decided that was our exercise each day.  

One morning when I was admiring the beauty of the valley, I saw this bushy, tailed fox searching for breakfast on the path below our hotel window.   His photo showed up in the local paper on Friday.  

It was a great class!!!  We had a good time, meet some very  nice women, with a great deal of talent.  There were 25 of us and we came from all over the place.  Sheri took very good care of us, too. 

 David is an excellent instructor and is shown giving us some tips on quilting.   I learned a great deal and hopefully it won't be too much longer before I get back to working on the piece I started.  It is a  photo of Vixey, our little Pomeranian we had for a number of years.     

Joedy and Don came over to meet us after the class was over.   While Ricky and Don headed west, we headed east.  We went home the back way, stopped by the Ranch near Walden and through Winter Park.  The aspen were starting to turn, something we seldom see since we are busy with fall work most of the time.    

That takes care of the third quarter of 2012.  Will get another post completed about the rest of 2012.   Then I can start on 2013.  

The veggies are growing

This spring we put up a hoop house covered with shade cloth.  The benefits-- less wind, less heat, protection from hail.  I think fewer large insects, i.e. the white butterflies have less access along with the sphinx moths and larger grasshoppers. 

The first photo is the frame as it looked in May.  We then covered the hoops with 40% shade cloth.  I made the ends as they cannot be ordered.  It took a few days in the 'sweat' shop to get those made.  And of course one week after it was completed we had one of our horrendous days of wind that have been far too common this year and due to a minor design problem, the shade cloth was cut and ended up with a 4' opening in it on the east end.  Of course that had to be repaired, in the wind,  and we solved the problem so it wouldn't happen again.

This is the south side after it was planted.  We had all of the plants in by the end of May.  Our tomato varieties are Viva Italia, Rutgers, San Marzano, Super San Marzano, Harlequin, Margarita, Principe Borghese and Tachi.

   To the left is the garden at the end of May and to the right is the garden today.  You can see the grain trailer to the right, which helps block more wind.  As I said, the wind has over done its thing this year.

 These are the San Marzano tomatoes.  They have continued to set during the heat we have had in June and July.  The ones that have done the best are the Viva Italia though.  They have been going non stop and since it cooled down over the weekend, they have really gone nuts.

 The cabbages are doing well.  We have Pixie, Bourbon, Bobcat, Stonehead, Late Flat Dutch, Copenhagen Market, Blue Thunder, Blue Dynasty, Caraflex and one  Mammoth Red.  One bed is doing quite well, while the other one is sort of taking it's sweet time.  This photo is of the good bed.  I had a hard time getting this bed to live while the other bed took off, but they have since reversed their attitude.

 The carrots are planted between the green bean rows.  We have Circus, Kuroda, Little Fingers and Cosmic Purple.  The Circus carrots have three colors, orange, white and purple.  Anxious to see the colored ones as I have not grown any before.  I grew them for our grandsons, who eat purple carrots in the squeeze packs of baby food they have now days.  The oldest grandson might wonder about them.  We have purple pod green beans and regular green beans that we refer to as Bob beans. 

The peppers are in two different beds.  We put the support between the rows so we can tie the plants to them as they grow.  They were getting a little too much water, but I now have that under control and they are doing better.  We have several kinds of Anaheims, Jalapenos, Spanish Padron, Cayenne, and California Wonder. 

The onions are grown in a bed outside of the hoop house.   I start the plants from seeds early in the spring.  We have Australian Browns, Yellow Parma, Candy, White Cipollins, Italian Torpedo, and Borteannas.  There is another bed in the old garden area of onions as not all the plants would fit in this one.  One can never have too many onions or too much garlic. 

We have a couple of types of winter squash, gourds, baby beets and various herbs scattered around in the hoop house and outside of it.

  

The garlic bed as it looked in May of this year to the left.  First time I have ever really worked at growing garlic.  Have grown it over the years, but I am trying to learn how to grow and harvest it correctly.  We planted the garlic in late October of 2011.  The varieties we planted were Polish Softneck, Italian Late, Purple Glazer, Duganski, Chesnok Red, and Mt. St. Helens.  I harvested the garlic at the end of June, braided the soft neck varieties and bundled the hardnecks.  The garlic was then hung under a shed where it will be out of the sun and will cure for 4 weeks.

That is the end of the garden tour.  I will say the hoop house has far exceeded my expectations.  The wind and heat have been overbearing this summer, I know the plants would have suffered greatly had they not been in the hoop house.   

In Memory.....

Two years ago today my sister passed away from breast cancer.  I still miss her very much.   Some lovely person gave this 'Knockout Rose' bush to the family after her death.  Everyone thought I should take it home.  It is in our flower garden and I remember what a beautiful and wonderful person she was when I see it, even when it isn't blooming.