More Wool projects

Pumpkin wools

 Since I have all of this wool I am trying to find projects that I like using wool applique.  I love anything that Lisa Bongean does and I recently purchased her book, Autumn Gatherings.  There are several patterns in it that I would like to make, but I decided that the first one I would try is the Pumpkin Bed Pillow.  I went through all of my "pumpkin" pieces of wool and picked out 7 pieces for the different pumpkins, some greens and browns for the stems, leaves, and the vines. 

The pumpkins ironed down, ready for stitching.

Starting to stitch the pumpkins down.

This is a project that I just finished for Pat over at Silver Thimble.  It is a mantle scarf with snowflakes.  I really like the way it turned out.  The background is a dark blue houndstooth and all of the snowflakes are off white.  She will be offering a kit soon on her website.

Slowly back in the groove

 Wow, this has been a really busy week.  My DH had back surgery on Wednesday, everything went well.  He went into the surgery thinking that he would have to have a fusion, thankfully he didn't have to have a fusion.  Overall he is doing well.  I took three days off to help him out, and he really hasn't needed that much help which meant that I could get a few things done that I wanted to.  I did some wool dyeing.  Love the reds that I came up with.  I also had time to get  my etsy shop up and running, I only have a couple of items on it, but check it out, Pig in a Blanket Wools.

Also did some mustards, or golds.  Love the plaid one!!

I have also started working on a penny rug, this is my first penny rug.  I was inspired by seeing the one that Sarah was making last week at Thimbles and I thought I can do that.  I have plenty of little wool pieces and I really like doing this.  I think I might make some coasters like this later.  I really just like putting all of the wool together and seeing what color combinations I can come up with.  This is a Primitive Gatherings pattern, don't remember the name of it but you could find it on their website. 

Great New Reads

Now that school is back in session, I have to be honest, not a  lot is getting done at my house.  This year is really different for me, as a media specialist my job (until this year) consisted of running the media center and all that entails.  However, this year I am teaching 4 specials (classes) a day, ranging from kindergarten to 3 grade.  It is definitely an adjustment!!!  I am exhausted everyday when I get home, hopefully that will change soon as a I get adjusted to this schedule.  One thing I have been doing is some reading and I have discovered a new author that I really like, Emily March.  Her books are very similar to Robin Carr in a way, the first in the series is Angel's Rest.  These stories take place in the fictional town of Eternity Springs in Colorado with quite a cast of characters.  I  found this entirely by accident when scanning the shelves at the library a few weeks ago.  Luckily the first two of the series were available, the second title is Hummingbird Lake.  I enjoyed these two so much that I purchased the third one for my Nook.


Second in the series, Hummingbird Lake.
 

Another great book that I just finished is The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Café.  What made me pick this one up was this  "if you like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society you will like this one".  Since I liked that book I had to try this one out.  It is really one of those feel good books, the setting is small town Beacon, Maine.  The main character, Ellen travels there to deliver a letter from her recently deceased grandmother to  her first love.  You just know that this is not going to be a simple delivery when on the first page Ellen almost drowns and is rescued by the first love's grandson (although she doesn't know it at the time).  This is just the first of  many encounters Ellen has with Roy while looking for his grandfather and discovering what she really wants out of her life.  A very quick and feel good read.

New Acquisition

Just got a new quilt for my collection.  Not sure what the pattern is, I will have to do some research on it.  I really like this pattern!  The fabrics are so pretty and soft.  It is probably from the mid to late 1800's.  The fabrics are really soft and pretty, everything is in shades of blues, tans and reds. Some of the tans were probably green when the quilt was first made and have faded over time.  The only problem is that the binding is starting to fray but not badly.

Inner order of red and white triangles.  Love the little baby triangle shown above.

Close up of one of the blocks.

Canning Queen

After getting back to school last week, I was looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend doing some sewing and things that would make be forget about school.  I should have known better than to plan on something like that.  I was the canning queen this weekend.  First I made some Blueberry Jam from blueberries that we picked last weekend while we were up in Blueridge.  This was my first time making blueberry jam, hope it turned out ok.  It tasted ok going into the jars.

Then I canned 5 quarts of tomatoes.  Our garden has been awful this year. We have had so much rain that everything just washed away.  By this time of the year I usually have about 20-25 quarts of tomatoes, but this year I have only had 10.  Luckily we had some left from last year so we will have enough to see us through.

The next project was figs.  The figs have also been disappointing this year.  I managed to pick enough to make one batch of preserves.  I made fig/raspberry preserves using raspberry jello, I had 6 jars of this.  It should last DH for a while, it is one of his favorites. 

Then we had the jalapenos.  I only had enough to make two quarts of pepper sauce.  Kind of disappointing after the banner pepper crop we had last year!

By this time I was tired of canning, all that was left was a few blueberries and  jalapenos.  I decided to mix them together and make some blueberry pepper jell, kind of different but it tasted pretty good as it was going into the jar.  Can't wait to try it with some cream cheese.

 

Maybe next weekend I will be able to  sit down at the sewing machine and do some sewing.

Last Minute Vacation

Our cabin

Quilt or Vacation?  Which should it be?  Vacation won out!!  I love Pat's sewing retreat, but this year it just didn't work out, vacation won out.  I had only paid for one day of sewing retreat because I just had too much other stuff going on.  Then DH decided he wanted to get away for a few days.  Well I am not one to say no to a vacation.  We went to Brevard, NC and stayed at Deerwood Inn, and it was wonderful.  We had the River Cabin, a beautiful cabin with a porch right on the French Broad River.



View from our cabin.

Yard art and garden at Deerwood Inn.

One of the lakes at Deerwood Inn.

 While in Brevard we went to Pisgah National Forest and Dupont State Forest.  They were both beautiful.  The waterfalls were outstanding, not surprising with all of the rain that we have had this year.  My favorite was called Triple Falls, it was so beautiful. 

Triple Falls

The top of Triple Falls.

I can't believe that vacation is over and school will soon be starting!!

A little of this and a little of that

Where oh where has the summer gone?  I can't believe that in a little more than a week I will be back at work.  Not at all looking forward to it.  The last week has been filled with a variety of activities, the first was pickle making.  Our garden has not done at all well this year, we have had too much rain, (if there is such a thing), 11 inches just last week, that plus very little sun has lead to a very poor garden.  We have gathered a few cucumbers.  I finally gathered enough to make a batch of pickles.  These are the same pickles I made last year from the Pioneer Woman's cookbook.  DH really liked them. 

Pickles in ice

Pickles draining just before the cooking and canning process.

 I also had an order for some charm packs of wool.  I absolutely love dyeing wool and would do it everyday if I could.  Maxine up at a Stitch in Time order some more charm packs so I had to get those ready to go.  This was in addition to delivering the monthly order for Tiny Stitches and stopping off at Little Quilts in the hope that Mary Ellen would be there and purchase some wool.  I was in luck she was there and made a very nice purchase. 

 

I also finished the piece that I was working on for Pat, Glory Garden.  I absolutely love the way that it turned out.  Check out Pat's website at Silver Thimble for a kit in the near future for this.  In addition to all of this, I did some reading, yard work and housecleaning, why can't I just sew all of the time?