Gardening

I just returned from spending a couple of hours in the garden. Last week, Don and I cleaned up one  of our two plots, leaving the broccoli, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and green beans, since they were still producing. I got many more bags of beans in the freezer and Don made up a batch of his salsa, and maybe there will be enough tomatoes for a second batch. Only he will determine that!

Today dawned clear and cool and I decided it was the day to begin digging in the newspapers and hay that has served as mulch all summer as well as the rotted horse manure that Don spread over the cleaned up half of the garden.  Yes, some people do think I'm a little crazy when I say I enjoy turning over dirt with a spade. I say, what's the difference between 2 hours digging and 2 hours of running in place on the treadmill.  Crazy is as crazy does.  For me, there's something therapeutic about actually working with the soil, nourishing it for the next season of growth. And it's a really good workout to boot!

In 2 hours I managed to dig in the cleaned up garden plot, and I feel as though it was time well spent. I took a couple of breaks during that time, chatting with the few other gardeners who were there and just enjoying the overall solitude of the place.  I listened for the birds that I normally hear out there but they've left--gone to warmer parts for the winter, I guess. There was a gentle breeze that kept me cool as I worked in the Autumn sun.  Even though the temp is in the low 60's today, I got quite warm in the garden.  I could hear the breeze rustling the leaves in the dried up corn stalks in the neighbor's garden.  So quiet and peaceful.  

So now I'm home and ready to do a little quilting. I have this banner pinned and ready to quilt up

and this table runner is ready as well. Both will go into the Etsy store for the fall season. 

Yesterday, I stitched the binding on the Swirling Geese quilt and made this for the label:  

and I just noticed that the date line is crooked.  I'm going to leave it like that.  In order to change it, I'd have to take off part of the binding and make an entire new label, and this is the best of the 4 or 5 practice ones that I made.  As you can see, I put Bonnie's name on the label. She and I worked together to piece the top, and she's going to do the final hand stitching.  Sandy, my teacher in my initial quilting class, explained that the last person to stitch on a quilt was the official quilter, so Bonnie's name goes on this quilt. Besides, it's being donated to her AAUW group, not mine, so it's fitting that her name be on the quilt.   

I also used up the extra fabric and made a couple of pillow cases to go with, one to store the quilt in and the second one, just because.

I'm having a peaceful and productive day and I hope you are too.