A happy weekend

I had a very nice weekend--a little work and a little play, and that made Barb a happy girl.  I spent both days at home.  On Saturday, I just did a little housework--remember, I'd really cleaned house for the Handwork Group on Thursday evening--and made a trip to the grocery store.  I spent the afternoon at the computer, learning how to quilt feathers in my Craftsy class with Angela Walters.  I was practicing with paper and pencil as she was teaching, and I think I can actually do this!  Of course, working on the quilt will be a bit different, I'm sure.

I was looking through my box of batting scraps when I found this. Back in 2013, I think, I'd taken a class at a machine quilting show in Milwaukee. This was the piece we worked on, honing our skills at quilting on the domestic sewing machine.  During class, I'd completed stitch in the ditch work around the wedding rings and also the more intricate designs in the center and corners of the square.  

 

But I didn't even get started on the second part of the exercise and I haven't done any of the quilting in the pink borders.  I'd planned on finishing it when I got home and making a large pillow out of it.  

So, when I discovered it, hidden in that bin of batting, I realized that this would be the perfect practice piece before I begin the feathers on the Flying Geese quilt. Working on this piece is on today's agenda. With luck and hope, I'll have enough confidence to begin quilting the real quilt after I finish with this.

On Saturday, I also did a little work on getting this candle mat completed.  I'd already embroidered the 4 pumpkin motifs so I just needed to add the borders and stitch it all together. I decided to follow the directions in the pattern which were to make the quilt sandwich kind of inside out (a little differently than when adding binding) and stitch it all together around the edges. Then I turned it right side out through a 3" opening, which ended up being 4" after I'd shoved all the fabric and batting through. But no matter--that opening is pressed and pinned and ready to be hand stitched. A little machine quilting and it'll be ready for the Jolly Ruby shop.

I love the little spiders!  But not in real life!

Sunday was a day for working in the garden. Both Don and I went out there--he harvested and I pulled weeds in preparation for sowing a cover crop for the winter.  In addition to bringing home some green beans, tomatoes, jalapenos, and cabbage, we also found these beautiful carrots ready to be pulled and brought home. Some of these carrots are between 2 and 3 inches in diameter!  We've never had such great carrots before. Also found a couple of onions that had  been overlooked when we harvested the onions.

And another good thing in the garden yesterday was my discovery of 2 earthworms!  This is great news since we've been gardening in very sandy soil and everyone is doing their best to add organic materials to lure in the worms.  Don and I have been spreading as much cow shit manure as we can, and I guess it's paying off now!  Welcome, little wormies!

Today's task is to get these carrots cleaned up and mostly in the freezer, as well as the green beans. Don will be making salsa out of the tomatoes and peppers he brought home.  I think for dinner tonight, I'll use some of the carrots for a grated carrot and apple salad and I'll cook up some of the green beans as well. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it so I'd better get a move on and get my work done.