The Potholder Fairy Has Been At It Again

A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to give someone a set of my quilted potholders as a thank you, but when I dug in my stash I was surprised to see I had only two sets with a "summer" theme and one of them was definitely "4th of July" made with patriotic fabrics.

So over the past few days of rainy weather, I found a little time here and there to plop down in my quilt room and make some more "summer-ish" potholders.

These are bright enough to wake you up in the morning.

For some silly reason, I just adore this fabric showing a jumble of shell peas.

I fudged on the backs of this set and used whole pieces of this cows-in-a-field fabric.

This set is a little more subdued in color.  However, this photo shows the blue as more gray than it truly is.

I've had this little bit of gardening fabric forever.  I liked it and didn't want to toss it, but knew it wasn't enough to do much with.  Now it's gone!

Pieced the backs on these.  Here, for some reason (!), the color came through more true to life.  (Some day I really must take time to learn how to use my camera.)

I'd like to make more to have on hand, but yesterday was a gorgeous day and I was outside all day.  Today looks like it will be just as nice.  Thursday might bring us more rain so I may be sitting at my sewing machine again.

Uh-Oh!

What happened to my onions?!

Well, I know exactly what happened to my onions.

I had all two tons of them (I grow and use a lot of onions!) squirreled away in the basement which seemed to be the perfect storage temperature for them this winter.

Then about six weeks ago, we started doing some work in the basement and turned on the heat to help dry some sealant we had used down there.

Ooops, I forgot to move the remainder of our onion crop out of the warmth and into a cooler location.

So they did what any self-respecting onions would do when experiencing this false "spring" weather.  They started to grow.

I took them out onto the deck table this morning to sort through them to see if I could salvage any of them.

I was really happy to find that almost half of them were unsprouted and firm.  These remaining good ones should be enough to tide me over until this season's onions in the garden are big enough to start using.  The rest of the valiantly sprouted ones?  Into the compost heap!

I'm A Big Dummy and Other Stuff

First the dummy part.  I succumbed to Carolyn of Krazo Acres challenge to post a Blog-A-Day for the whole month of June.  (This is June 2nd.  How'm I doin'?)  I truly don't know if I can muckle it, but I'm giving it a go.  Wanna join?  There's still time.  Just pop on over to Krazo Acres and let her know you're in.

Now the other stuff.  I just checked our rain gauge, and we got 1-1/2" yesterday and last night.  (I reminded Papa Pea that he should feel good it's not still winter because that amount of moisture would translate into 15" of snow and he would be spending a good portion of the day today removing and moving the white stuff.)  Forest fire danger is now way, way down.  And that's a good thing.

The rain is still steadily coming down this morning.  I tried to get a picture of the drops splashing in the birdbath on the deck railing, but my photographic skills leave a lot to be desired.

This is a graphic illustration of why doing a re-roofing job is a biggie on our list for this summer.  Yes, it's "raining" inside our enclosed entry porch.  This is not a good thing.

The rain all day yesterday kept me inside so I used the time to make soup for the freezer.  The end tally for my effort was 2 quarts of Barley Beef, 4 quarts of Black Bean Chili, 4-1/2 quarts of Navy Bean with Ham and 2 batches (about a quart and a half each) of Chicken with Dumplings.  Minus the dumplings which I'll make and add to the soup when I serve it.  Kind of amazing how pooped one can feel at the end of a day of doing nothing but standing in the kitchen cooking, isn't it?

I'm doing laundry today, but none of it will be hung out on the lines obviously.  Hmmm, wonder if between loads I can sneak some time in my quilt room on this wet day?  I could go back to the wood shed and start working on next heating season's kindling supply.  Let's see . . . quilting?  Making kindling?  Quilting?  Making kindling?  What a hard decision to make! 

Finished Handwork

There is a little corner wall space in our living room that has always wanted a picture or wall hanging or some kind of decoration on it.  Since the living room was finished a couple of years ago, I've had a black and white quilted wall hanging I made in 1994 hanging there.

This wall hanging is actually the very first piece I ever made when I started quilting.  It was very hard for me to pick out colors (still is but I'm a smidge bit better now) . . . so that's why I went with the rather bland black and white.  (I was a total Scaredy Cat lacking in color confidence.)

A couple of months ago, I decided I wanted something with a little more color to grace the spot.

I chose the pattern for this wall hanging from Kim Diehl's book, Simple Traditions - 14 Quilts to Warm Your Home.  

I'm pleased with the way it turned out and had fun doing it.

It's a combination of pieced work and applique, and I hand quilted it.  Now I can cross that project off my list.  Yippee, a finished piece and some color in the corner!

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` 

We had 1/2" of much needed rain yesterday and overnight.  Much more forecast for today and tomorrow.  Both Papa Pea and I spent much of the drizzly day yesterday digging through the built-up mounds of "stuff" on our desk tops.  I actually made it to the bare wood of mine and washed it off.  (How does a desk top get so dirty if it's totally covered with papers?)

Today I'm in the kitchen restocking the freezer with soups and maybe some cookies.  

I'm nearly done planting in the garden.  Just the beans, squash, eggplant, corn, peppers and such that need some consistently warmer temps before planting the seeds or setting out the transplants. 

Mishmash

Yesterday was spent in the garden again although I don't feel as if I got a lot done.  (I told hubby a couple of weeks ago I was not going to panic -- my usual mode of operation this time of year -- until the first of June.  Hmmm, methinks that date is drawing close purdy darn fast.)  Because our soil and air temp is never consistently warm enough for some transplants and seeds to go into the ground until the first part of June, I never planned on having everything done in the garden by June 1st, but I wanted to feel at least "on top" of it by then.

So what did I accomplish yesterday?  Got our red and green cabbages set out and 75' of potatoes planted.  And that took ALL DAY?  Yep.  But I did come in a smidge before 11 a.m. to make a nice lunch as B was here helping Papa Pea with a special project, and it was 1 p.m. before I got back outside again.

Speaking of our friend B, she gave me an amaryllis bulb last fall with instructions to let it sleep all winter in our basement.  I've never had one before and had no idea how to handle it.  'Round about the end of March, she said it was time to bring it upstairs and put it in a sunny window.

It was very slow to bloom, and just finally popped out the first flower this past Monday perhaps because it didn't get quite as much sun as it would have liked through the window where I had it.

Sure does make an impressive plant (over two feet tall) in a relatively short time.  Now to see if I can (with B's help and guidance) do what needs to be done to keep it going to bloom again next year.

We polished off the pan of Rhubarb Crunch I made in short order, and being the crazy rhubarb-craving gal I am, I made a Rhubarb Upsidedown Cake last night before bed.  Recipe is here if you're interested.

After getting the cake in the oven (and me in the shower), I was too pooped to process the rest I had harvested, but I'll make more rhubarb pie filling for the freezer with the remaining stalks today.

Sending congratulations out to my brother and sister-in-law on the birth of their second little granddaughter yesterday.  My nephew is proud as punch and his wife and 8 pound-plus little babe are doing fine.  This baby has a "big" sister, just two years older than she, to grow up with.

I know it's hard to believe after having our massive snow melt this spring, but our conditions here are now dry and the fire danger is listed as high.  But rain is a possibility (our ever-accurate [ahem] weather forecasters say) for both Saturday and Sunday this weekend.  Let's hope moisture does fall down upon us and soak everything so the threatening fire danger will be no more.  Plus, if it does rain, I'll be forced to spend time inside to clean and catch up on many other tasks which have fallen by the wayside while I've been concentrating my efforts outside.  Isn't it amazing how quickly a household can fall apart if no one is available to keep it all under control?  Yep, just amazing. 

I'm Gaining On It!

Both hubby and I were out in the garden by 7:30 this morning, and we had a very profitable day.

He got the field garden and pumpkin patch cultivated and ready for me to work in.

With his helpful hands and brute strength, I got the pea trellises (cattle panels . . . how did I ever garden without them?) up, and then I got the shell peas planted.  Come on now, you little seeds, do your thing.

Also marked the two bean rows, but haven't planted them yet.  It's a little early; I'll wait until the first week of June probably.

Planted lemon cucs in one raised bed and slicing cucs in another.  Covered them both with cold frames which should enable them to get an early start without coming down with chilblains.  I also planted several rows of assorted lettuces in a bed in between a four foot trellis on each end of a bed where I planted sugar snap peas.  (Sugar snap peas on the end trellises.  Really bad sentence structure.)

Took our first harvest of rhubarb of the season and made a pan of Rhubarb Crunch.  Recipe is here if anyone is interested.

I had enough of the lovely, red stalks to make a bag of rhubarb pie filling for the freezer.  My very first preserved item of the season!

Got in one bed of half spinach and half Swiss chard.  Another of about a third kale and the rest beets.  Got some tilling done around the edge of the field garden.  That darn sod (quack grass) will sneak into the garden if you don't keep it beat back constantly.

Papa Pea got the little chicks moved to their new home outside.  It's an 8' x 8' pen covered in greenhouse plastic.  He rigged a brooder light for them, too, in case they get chilly at night.  They're four weeks old now and just about completely feathered out.  We'll keep them confined in their new abode (which is within the regular chicken pasture that's surrounded by electric fencing) for a few more weeks before opening their door so they can begin to socialize with the "big girls."

As I say, a good day it was, and I can hardly wait to start again tomorrow.  But first, a long, hot shower, maybe a little drinkie-poo of the alcoholic variety, and a little reading.  If I can stay awake that long.