All Twisted Up...

You'll have to be patient with this blog, as I'm trying to be patient with Blogger.  I tried to do a facelift on my blog and all is goofed up. Layout problems abound.  *sigh*

-Donna

Round 4 Quilts of Valor

It might be tacky to post more than once a day, but I'm catching up on my QOV show...

Once I got my garden to bed a couple of weeks ago, I started quilting. I can't seem to start on any project for myself without making a QOV first. I leafed through a few ideas and this one struck me. I loved this RailRoad Crossing quilt. Vivid and manly, hopefully a soldier will enjoy it.

I've been cutting a 1 1/2" strip x width of most fabrics I've used for years. I lay them neatly in a drawer. With all the red, white and blue fabrics I've used in the last couple of years, this was a snap to sew together. I cut only about 10 strips to add to what I already had.

Six strips are sewn together, then cut into 3 1/2" units. They are paired with 6 1/2" blocks and 3 1/2" squares. Lickety split. The tan fabric is printed with tiny American flags. I've used this fabric over and over. It's one of the few I use from JoAnn's - most are too stiff or thin. I buy yards and yards whenever I see it.

Again, its scrappy-ness tugs at my heartstrings. Bits used again look so lovely together, even when thrown together. Fabric is like some dishes I cook. Beef burgundy tastes even better two days later. ;-)

This RR Crossing quilt is currently with a longarmer in Ohio. I'll post a photo when it's returned to me.

Cheers,

Donna

Round 3 of Quilts of Valor

Hello today...

Continuing with my QOV show, here are numbers 5 and 6, made last winter. This snowball variation entitiled "Shooting Stars" is one of my favorites. It's a scrap quilt, which always pulls at my heartstrings to begin with.
The narrow half square triangle borders are made from the lopped off leftovers from piecing the snowball blocks from a large square and two small squares. I still have hundreds of them left!

It was longarm quilted by Larry Gore, a retired US Army Master Sergeant. He did a fabulous job, using large pantographs of American historical symbols like the US Capitol, Statue of Liberty, George Washington's face and the Lincoln Memorial.

Here is a typical label of mine. I like to use Pigma brand pens. I hand stitch the label onto the bag before the quilt is washed. I generally run a row of light hand quilting (not through the front) in the ditch of the label border.

Half the blocks of this sampler quilt were given to me from my Lally Quilter friends. I made the other blocks. Larry quilted this quilt, also. Again, gorgeous quilting. Each block is uniquely quilted with patriotic themes.

The sampler, its label and bag...

Both quilts ready to be delivered. These were sent to the Naval Academy for two prior service Marines.

Have a good day,

Cheers,

Donna

Round 2 of Quilts of Valor

More QOV's with a little help from my friends. A couple of years ago, Daisy in Louisiana made these Log Cabin blocks that I turned into a quilt for a wounded warrior.

And Tooki in New Zealand made these Nine Patch blocks. It was a lot of fun turning these well pieced blocks from both of these friends into QOV's. Love ya, girls.

Here are their presentation cases.

Cheers,

Donna

First Quilts of Valor

Some of you may not be aware that I garden all spring and summer and sew all fall and winter. Mostly I quilt, but I also make costumes for our French & Indian War living history hobby and misc. curtains and such.

My main quilt focus for the last few years has been Quilts of Valor. I make quilts for our wounded warriors. I've been an Army wife for 22 years and have a soft spot for soldiers. :-) I can't not make them.

A few years ago, Hunky Man came home with an Army magazine and showed me an article about Quilts of Valor. I immediately went to my computer and checked out the web site. http://www.qovf.org/ I signed up and have been quilting for them as much as I can since. Warning: don't read the comments from the recipients without a tissue handy. (They are currently having some technical problems, but will be up and running soon, I hope.)

These are the first quilts I made. I'm a "quilt topper", I make the top and backing. Then I'm hooked up with a long arm quilter somewhere in the country. I mail the top and back to her, she/he returns to me a quilted quilt. I bind it, make a presentation case, label it and write a personal letter.

I made these quilts first. I tend to make them in pairs. This simple Nine Patch came first.

Then I made this scrappy Texas Two Step. This one is very special to me. I rec'd a phone call one Saturday morning, right around Veteran's Day from the recipient. A very sweet young Marine called me to thank me from his hospital bed in the burn unit of Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio. I will never forget his voice. God Bless you Sam, wherever you are.

This is the type of presentation case I started making. Handy for transporting the quilts and keeping them clean.

More quilts to follow...

Cheers,

Donna

Back in the Saddle Again...

I know, I know, it's been far too long since I've posted. And I've missed it terribly. Between some very busy family time, then a long stretch with a defunct camera, blogging has fallen away from me. But it's been in my mind the whole time. So enough talk of all that, I'm jumping back in, even though my camera is still broken and I'm making the point n' shoot span the gap. Good pictures may not be with me for a while, but the words still work.

I've put my garden to bed for the winter. Come October, I'm gardened out. Or could it be that I just really hate cutting down plants and doing that necessary drudge work? I think so. Although, once I'm doing it, I love it. I love the clean slate and feeling of preparation that comes from having tidy garden beds ready for foul weather.

Some late summer garden bits:

**Late blight hit my gorgeous tomatoes. I had to cut down all my big luscious heirlooms. Tears rolled silently down my face. My husband was very supportive and held the trash bag for me while I dumped my sorely afflicted beauties in. I diligently worked for days to save the others. All went well for weeks. Then I went on vacation, and the vile thing crept in while I was away. All was lost within a week or two.

**I was fortunate that my zucchini were never adversely affected by the squash vine borer this year. In fact, I still have two humongous mutants sitting on my kitchen counter. I just couldn't take them anymore, so there they sit, staring at me.

**No more traveling in August for me. Everything is ready for harvest in August and I was away for two out of three weeks, right during prime time. I missed too much of the good action.

**Somebody smack me upside the head before I plant so many banana peppers next year, okay? There are only so many stuffed peppers and pickled hot pepper rings a family can eat. And I've also decided that we only need a half of a jalapeno plant, too. Maybe those hybrid geneticists can work on that for me. The trials and tribulations of good dirt! :-)

**My heirloom bed around the vegetable garden was a raucous success. A jumble of interesting heirlooms, mostly annuals, but all huge. Beware mushroom/topsoil mix, you may get much bigger plants than you bargained for! I'm expecting an onslaught of nicotiana and amaranthus next year. Millions of seeds scattered themselves.

"My garden is never as good as it will be next year." Don't know who said it, but it sure applies to me!

Cheers,
Donna

Evolution of a Greenhouse II

As promised, albeit almost too late to remember, is the progressive continuation of the evolution of my greenhouse. I left off with it's exterior construction. You can read more about that in an earlier post here.

We (Hunky Man, Jr. Hunky Man and myself encouraging cheerily) got the windows in just before the snow fell in November and we started working on it again in March. The bricks you see stacked to the side are waiting for inspiration to become a short walkway in front. The ladder will hang horizontally from the ceiling for drying herbs and such.

We had 42' of old picket fence, purchased for a song at the re-use-it center. We needed twice that much, so Hunky Man made it out of our old recycled deck boards. We surrounded the vegetable garden with the fencing. It took a grueling week to paint it this spring. My garden went in late because of the extent of this fencing project. It seemed so easy in the planning stages! ;-)


Even though it's really a combination potting shed and greenhouse, we call it the greenhouse to ease confusion. There was a shed on our property. A few years ago, Hunky Man disassembled it and moved it to the wood line. We put up the small barn you can see through the door. We already have "the barn" and "the shed" so "the potting shed" would have been too much. Besides, I have these long lovely greenhouse windows (south-facing, of course.)


The diamond pane windows were a double hung set. We bought them for $5 each, the door for $15 and the long paned window beside the door for $8. Paint is a fabulously transforming thing. These long horizontal windows came from my in-laws old farmhouse. They were the original winter storm windows for their 1890 farmhouse and had been up in the barn for near 80 years.

I chose a sage green wood stain for the interior and Hunky Man finished the job speedily with the power painter (with which I have a hard time getting along.) The plywood floor is painted brown. Here is the finished product.

The old feed box stores my soil and such. It has worn down places where the horses from my husband's youth would lift the lid with their noses in search of mash and other treats.

The white wire shelf is very convenient. It's hinged, so I can fold it down when I don't need it. It's supported by old railing balusters. The whole greenhouse was overflowing in the spring. I could even use twice the plant space.

I feel very blessed to have this space of my own.

It is my sanctuary.

Cheers,

Donna

My first 'Bloom Day'

So I noticed all the hip garden bloggers are participating in Bloom Day. Having no idea what it really was, but not wanting to be left out, I did some Googling and I'm getting myself in on the action.

Bloom Day (as far as I understand it) is the 15th of the month and garden bloggers post photos of what's blooming in their gardens. (Gads, I hope I don't have to be licensed or pre-approved...I'm just nominating myself here.) These are just a few shots of what's blooming in my garden at 5 pm today. (Unfortunately, I'm dealing with camera difficulties and a big lens that must go to the camera doctor.)

I have a very finicky hydrangea, the name of which I don't know other than, "The Persnickety One." Some years it blooms its head off, other years it hides. I am always happy to see it. This year, I am enjoying 8 blooms and here's one of them.

In the vegetable garden, the first Roma Italian pole bean is blooming and asking the bees to come hither...

In my herb/heirloom bed outside of the vegetable garden, borage is blooming. I think I like the hairy buds as much as the blooms, but the bee begs to differ. I have four borage plants I grew from seed this year. Two are nekkid sticks and two are a bit taller, nekkid from the shoulders down. Damn rabbits.

I have an enormous perennial sunflower (which may be relocated to roomier accommodations next year) in my front perennial garden. It was very happy in this evening's sunshine. I see the wee bitty beetle on the tip of a petal has discovered it. This beetle (and its 14,731 redneck cousins) have devoured the petals on most all of my rudbeckia and echinacea. They may meet The Fog of Death soon. This is the third and worst year of their infestation.

And the crowning glory of my heirloom bed, Love Lies Bleeding Amaranthus. These big beauties have grown to mutant heights and widths. The long 'pony tail' here is over 2' in length. Cool! I took the pruners to them last week, to thin them a bit so everything else could live! Some nicotiana is peeking in the picture, too. I have that growing in white, light pink, dark pink and burgundy.

A close up of its funky beauty.

Cheers,

Donna

Mid-Summer Garden Chores

I am blissfully alone this week. My menfolk are yucking it up at Scout Camp and I'm thoroughly enjoying my breather from the Men's Club. Don't get me wrong, I love them to death and all that, but a girl truly can die (at least on the inside, anyway) from environmental testosterone poisoning. A break from one another is always a good thing. Just not too long of a break.

Anyway, I'm refreshing my soul by taking care of a lot of garden chores. It's that time of year in my Pennsylvania garden that some things are bloomed out, going to seed or looking generally raggedy. I was feeling especially ruthless and experimental and gave my stella d'oro lilies, salvia, oregano and lemon balm a proper beheading.

I would normally painstakingly sift through my lilies and remove all spent stems and brown foliage, but frankly, I really don't even like these lilies all that much. I wanted to see if they'd come back on their own. I think it's impossible to kill lemon balm. It's got those impervious mint-y genes.

My oregano is a friendly monster that has endured many amputations and only seems invigorated by the challenge. We have a healthy respect for one another. He flavors my Lemon Chicken, I promise not to dig him up entirely and chuck him in the burn pile even though he grows eighteen times his size every month.

I felt a bit guilty though. I normally can't bear to part with blooms that the bees are thoroughly needing and enjoying. The oregano and white salvia were still blooming. I would usually wait a week til they were done, out of respect for the bumblers' food supply. I felt no such compassion yesterday. I'm sure it had a bit to do with the aforementioned testosterone poisoning. I have lots of other things in my garden the bees love, so they're not starving.

In my vegetable garden, I hosed my tomato plants up and down to wash off aphids. I've always heard that tip and have done it before, but I never knew that the aphids won't climb back up on the plant. (Thanks for that tidbit, Dad. As well as all the other garden wisdom with which you've enriched me over the years.)

I've got 16 tomato plants this year. (For my little garden and family of four with only three tomato eaters, that's a lot.) They are gorgeous and lush and beginning to fruit very well. (Remind me of this loving statement in a month when I've made myself crazy with too many 'maters to deal with.) I did plant them a bit too close to one another. So far, they don't mind.

Trying to hose them off was a bit like sending myself through a tomato-planty automatic car wash, though. As it is, I tend to walk through the rows very carefully, sometimes with my arms in the air, so as not to break off any stems. I came out of the tomato wringer soaking wet smeared with green plant stains and many of those aphids clinging to me for dear life.

My peppers are coming along beautifully, especially the home grown plants. Dad gave me two bells, two Mucho Nacho jalepenos and two Volcanos. I grew sweet bells. They are all big and fat with healthy little peppers coming on.

My purchased hot banana peppers (from a local greenhouse) are tiny plants, loaded with more peppers than it looks like the plants can support. My sweet banana's are tall and spindly, but all healthy. Next year, I'll grow my own banana peppers.

Today, all the peppers got a thorough spraying with Epsom salts. They love the magnesium as they set fruit. I also put some of the salts in the hole at planting time. Works beautifully. Just ask my Dad, he knows everything.

I've been encouraging my Dad to write a book, "Everything Pappa Knows About Your Garden" or somesuch title. So far, he's not digging it.

As far as weather goes, we've had a cool-ish summer. No rain for at least 10 days, though and we're parched. There's a chance tomorrow, crossing fingers. My rain barrels are almost empty. I've heavily mulched my vegetables with compost and straw, so they are hanging in there. I water when really needed.

My other chore with which I have a love/hate relationship is my daily collection of Japanese beetles. They are eating my precious Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate's to lace. I'm out there several times a day, butter tub of soapy water in hand, bumping them to their watery deaths. It's especially satisfying when I successfully interrupt, via murder, a flourishing orgy on one leaf. If I do this after a glass of wine, I find myself giggling like a gleeful child as I watch them drown. (Oh come on, you hate 'em, too!)

But I must say, I fear the super-mutant huge green ones that buzz my head like an F-15. I find myself cowering amongst my corn plants when they're circling above. I think they come from eggs laid too close to the power plant.

Can anyone supply me with the address of the moron who brought Japanese beetles to this country? I have a small friend (in the form of an old rubber hose - actually given to me by my Dad, wise man that he is) and we'd like to have a chat with him. He's probably the same knucklehead who thought kudzu was a good idea.

Realizing that I sound like a maniac, let me say that I really am a compassionate gardener. I collect ladybug larvae and deposit them on plants with aphids (they'll help the plant and have much more to eat than what's available on the front porch,) I let the big wasps that make small nests have at it under the shutters and I have even been known to collect a tomato horn worm and relocate him in the woods.

Back to the garden I go for a little more zen therapy...

Cheers,

Donna

Home Again...

The travellers have returned from their summer jaunt. We deposited our eldest at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico (where he had a fantastic time) and took off on our week long exploration of New Mexico and Arizona. Here are just a few highlights.

We rented this RV, which we affectionately called the "Desert Buggy." 25' long and slept five, but two adults and a twelve year old filled it to the brim, imho. We put 1,400 rattling miles on it over the course of the week, spending no more than 2 nights in any one place.

One of our first stops was the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Gorgeous and fascinating! We were there at noon, so the sun was very bright and the colors were not their richest. I would love to see it at sunset.


The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest are connected by a 28 mile National Park road. The road has many stops of great interest. One I found most intriguing was Newpaper Rock. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when the ancient petroglyphs were etched in the rocks.
http://www.scienceviews.com/indian/newspaper.html I was fascinated by the Kokopelli petroglyph and later found some Kokopelli fabric at a quilt shop. Now I can quilt myself a momento of our trip.

On to Giant Logs. The petrified logs seemingly just lying around are truly amazing! One can only say, "Wow" so much.


Later that day, we drove to Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim to the RV Park. Just before bed, a woman knocked on our door, "Yoohoo, can you help me?" I open the door to see a large woman in a mumu with a white cockatoo on her shoulder. Seems she as driven her Tahoe towing a very large trailer the wrong way down our road and was stuck, in the dark. My husband was trying to help her back it up (perhaps driving with a cockatoo on your shoulder inhibits your rear view, or was it that she had no back up lights or large enough mirrors?) The helpful next door neighbor was a trucker who finally squared her away. Whew! You just can't make up stuff like that.

The Village is wonderfully set up with shuttle buses everywhere, no need to drive again. Next day, we hiked the South Kaibab trail in the canyon to Ooh Aah Point. We thoroughly oohed and aahed and took a million photos. I loved this plant growing through the rock in a shady spot on our way down.

We went back to Yaki Point for sunset. There isn't a photo in the world that can begin to capture the beauty of the Grand Canyon. My recurrent thought was, "Yay God!"


Hunky Man taking in the beauty. While I was focusing this shot, we heard a rustle in the shrubs beside us and three very large elk emerged to nibble the junipers. I'm 6 ft. from the canyon's edge and the elk are about 15 ft. from me. Wow! And all Bob could say was, "Forget the elk Babe, take my picture, the light is just right!" Funny.
Sunset at the Grand Canyon was breathtaking. We loved it so much we were back at 5 a.m. for sunrise. Encore!
And finally, a photo only a 12 yr. old would take. Love the body language in this one! This was while we were trying to figure out how to dump the tank of the RV for the first time. (The photographer was giggling his head off.) A few minutes earlier, I was laughing so hard I could barely take a picture. To make matters worse, a young couple in an ancient compact car held together with duct tape was driving back and forth laughing at us. I was tempted to yell, "Yeah, well you're driving the real rolling terd!" but I held my tongue. If I was a young kid, I would have thought the family in the 1-800-RV4-RENT ride trying to dump the load out would have been pretty hilarious!

Cheers,
Donna

What's Growing in Mrs. McGregor's Garden...

I stood at my new garden gate and snapped a few photos last week. Things are so much bigger now. What a difference a week makes! (Especially when you've got sunny days after 4" of rain.)

I planted my garden late due to the construction and painting of the fence. So, no onions or sugar snap peas this year.

Starting at the left of the garden, I have two small rows of corn. Peaches and Cream Hybrid. It's an experiment, why not try something new?

Then I have 16 tomato plants. Those I purchased from fellow Master Gardeners at our plant

sale are 2 Roma's and 1 Jetsonic. My father grew and gave me 1 Big Beefy, 3 Delicious and 2 Park's Whoppers. He also gave me a Juliet Grape, but it suffered some sun scald and died. A first for me to have a tomato transplant die. I purchased a cherry tomato plant at the farmer's market to replace it.

I grew from seed 3 Brandywine tomatoes, from seed purchased at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. I also planted three Holy Land tomato plants. I bought several large Holy Land tomatoes at a farm stand in OH last summer. The owner assured me they were delicious dense fruit with few seeds. His grandmother would sit and pick through them just to find the seed.

I saved the seed and planted them this spring and they're coming on like gangbusters. Hopefully they will have a good yield. I love the heirlooms and try to plant many of them.

I have 24 pepper plants. (I know, I'm not only nuts, but a sucker.) 6 each Hungarian wax banana, sweet and hot, 2 Jalepeno, 2 Volcano, and 8 sweet bell. I only purchased the Hungarian Wax. My father or I grew the others from seed.

On the teepees, I have Kentucky Wonder and Roma pole beans. I have Straight Eight cucumbers started on the small fence gate and Blue Lake pole beans on the bean trellis in the back.

You see three kinds of lettuce growing. Black Seeded Simpson, Buttercrunch and Bath Cos (Romaine.) Cherry Belle and White Icicle radishes, Black Beauty zucchini, dill and my old favorite annual flowers, Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate. I just had to put them on either side of the gate, also in the back corner.

Soon, I'll post photos of the inside of the greenhouse and talk about me new heirloom bed that's around the edges of the veg. garden. I'm still playing catch up!

Chat soon,

Donna

June lull

So here we are in the third week of June already. *sigh* I love June. It's that delicious spot right between spring and high summer. My blood has finally and thoroughly warmed up and I believe in my heart that the nice weather will stay and snow flurries won't be flying tomorrow. I still have months of fabulous summer to go. I have the promise of tomatoes and fresh beans and corn on the cob, with its buttery salty juice running down my hands. Bugs have not infested yet, drought hasn't hit. I'm still enchanted by my garden.

Like most gardeners, I visit my vegetable patch every day. I'm sure the neighbors (and my family, for that matter) think I'm bats, hearing me talk to my plants. "Hello Dahlings!" (Some days they're even treated to chatter in an English accent, they seem to like that one.) And some days it's simply an impatient, "Grow, dammit." I know, I know, just reserve me the corner room at Shady Pines...I'll check in any day now.

I've just come off two months of breakneck garden work. Ever have a project that you wanted so much you could taste it and it took a long time to complete and when the end was in sight you bolted for the finish line? (Gosh, I sound like a little kid telling a giant run-on sentence story.) That was me with my greenhouse and new garden bed around it. Now, I'm enjoying the fruits of my (our) labor.

Proper (and virtually all) credit is paid to my awesome husband and other muscled males in my household. He has worked skillfully and diligently on this project for over a year and has built something truly beautiful. A few weeks ago we were hanging some hooks and putting the finishing touches inside the greenhouse. He was working from outside on the frame of the double diamond paned windows. I had just pounded a nail from which to hang my broom near the door. I turned around and was struck by the beauty of the walls holding all my tools and everything where I need it. Tears sprung from my eyes and rolled down my cheeks.

Poking his head in the window, Hunky Man asked, "What's the matter? Smack your thumb with the hammer?"

I responded, "No ... it's just so ... beautiful!" *sup*sup*sup*

"It's all about love, baby. Just consider it payback for 22 years of good cooking."

(He's got a point there, he has been very well fed for a couple of decades. ;-)

I have dreamed of a picturesque, but more importantly, highly functional greenhouse/garden shed for years and years. I have discovered about myself that if my tools aren't near and easy to find I won't use them as much as I need to. (Read: I'll weed tomorrow...)

I also have a high need to be organized. My soul is completely disrupted when I'm surrounded by chaos. It clutters all the pathways of my creativity. I feel like it's finally free in my greenhouse. My garden creativity is now completely unfettered. I didn't know it would feel quite this good.