Bow-Ties, Tomatoes And SPIDERS

 In my quilting lifetime I've heard many quilters say they don't like scrap quilts.  How is this possible?  To me they are works of art even if it's a just a bunch of squares sewn together.  The joy of a scrap quilt is seeing the different prints. 

Let's be honest, they are a pain to make.  It's understandable why someone would not like them for that reason alone.  Digging through the scraps to find the right size fabric pieces. Pressing and cutting tiny pieces.  It takes 10 times longer to make a scrap quilt.  Cutting for this quilt would be much easier if I only had to deal with one dark color yardage and white yardage.  It would still beautiful but not as interesting.  This is literally a pain in the neck but I'm loving it!  Even the mistake of not paying attention to the directional fabrics makes me a smile.  My neck is stiff and sore from looking down, pressing and cutting fabric.  Whatever is causing it, it's worth a little discomfort and the visit to the chiropractor later this week.  I love seeing the vintage prints playing well with the newer prints.  The calico floral in the middle  and the one with the arrow are both from the 60's or 70's.  I still have about one yard of both.  They were purchased at an estate sale years ago.  How do I know they are older?  Width of fabric is less than 40 inches and the weave of fabric isn't as "smooth" as todays quilting fabric.

EDIT 8/22/24  The print with the arrow is from the 80's.  Confirmed by Facebook friend.

The 25 red blocks were made on Monday night.  Some of the fabrics used are from my earlier days of quilting when I didn't starch the dickens out of my fabric.  I chose to use them as is, just press.  Well, that was a mistake.  As we all know starch helps in many ways.  It makes piecing and cutting easier and more accurate.  And it stops fraying.  Fraying can be a really bad situation when you have a white background fabric.  Those tiny red strings could show through the white background fabric and be visible on the front of the quilt forever.

From this point on all fabrics will be starched.  A little time consuming but worth the extra work.  The rest of the red prints have been starched, pressed and have been waiting patiently for me to return to the studio.  There's a total of 96 different red prints.  That includes the blocks in the above picture.  The quilt requires 900 bow-tie blocks.  Every color but black will be used in the quilt.  So I will need

100 of each color. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown and gray.  I don't have 100 different prints of each color.  Low volumes and larger florals will need fill in the gaps.  Of course I may end up using a print more than once.  Not desirable but if necessary I will.

Hopefully today I'll be able to get back in the studio and make a few more blocks.  Yesterday I didn't have any stitching time due tomatoes needing to be preserved.  We have a bumper crop of tomatoes this year in the garden.  I wasn't going to process anymore tomatoes.  A good rule of thumb when preserving is a two year supply because next years crop may not be as good.  Best to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.  Our Roma tomatoes didn't do well this year but I cut off the bad bug spots and used them anyway.  I'll never plant them again.  They may be good for sauces and salsa but they require too much care and chemicals to be worth my time.   And I don't do chemicals in my veggie garden.  100% chemical free!

How long did it take to process all of these and clean up the kitchen?  Eight hours!  Tomatoes take so long even when you do what we like to call rebel canning.  Now, don't get all preachy on me but I do an old fashion method for tomatoes called Open Kettle canning.  It was the way I was taught by my mom and granny.  This means I don't water bath or pressure can tomatoes.  The process is to have sterilized hot jars and hot tomatoes.  Just add the hot tomato's to the hot jars.  If you're interested in this process I found a video to show you the method. 

I ended up with 29 pint jars of salsa, 8 quarts of tomato juice and 2 partial pints that will be used for veggie soup this evening.  The next topic is spiders.  If you don't like spiders this would be a good point to leave.  Thanks for dropping by!

A few weeks ago Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville posted her daily quote. If you don't follow Bonnies blog you're missing out.  She's an amazing quilter and teacher.  I've been reading her blog almost daily since 2005!  Anyway, her daily quote gave me a good chuckle because I could relate.  There has been many times I thought a wad of thread on the floor was a spider.   

But this week I had a run in with a wolf spider and at first I thought it was thread.  For 3 or 4 days this spider would come out, scare the dickens out of me and run faster than Forrest Gump to evade capture or death.  

Wolf spiders jump and they are fast.  They get HUGE.  This one is just a baby.  They get about 3 times bigger than this, if not bigger.  I've seen them as large as my hand.

  If you're thinking I could have caught it and put it outside you obviously have never seen a wolf spider.  They are almost impossible to catch due to speed.  The slightest movement spooks them and they flee.  You would think since they are so big they wouldn't be able to hide very well but they can get in the smallest of spaces.  They don't typically bite humans but they can.  And really who cares, they are scary!  So I went into fox mode. Moving as slow as humanly possible until I was close enough to make my move.

Game over!  I win!

This post is being link up over at Quilt Fabrications for Midweek Makers.  Hop over to for quilty inspiration!

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Monkey Butter and More

 Not a stitch has been made in the last couple of days.   One day was spent working hard in the garden and yesterday was spent canning Strawberry Jam and Monkey Butter.  Monkey Butter?  What on earth is that?!  I assure you no monkeys are in this tasty spread.  It's nothing more than bananas, pineapple and coconut.  This is my first time canning Monkey butter but not my last! YUMMY!  

Now let me say that the FDA says bananas cannot be safely home canned.  Well the FDA says a lot of things I don't think are quite true.  Millions of home canners all over the world preserve bananas and none of them have spent anytime in the ER or the bathroom for days on end.  As long as you follow the instructions you'll be fine.  So if you're still interested in trying your hand at something new and living on the wild side you can find the recipe I used by CLICKING HERE. 

Yesterday while at the grocery store I found pineapples on sale for .98 cents and 5 lbs. of carrots for $3.  So today I'll be canning pineapple chunks and pineapple jelly from the scraps.  Then last years leftover blackberries and black raspberries will become jam.  And the carrots... I can't decide if I want to drag out the pressure canner or just freeze them.  We'll see how I feel after preserving the fruit.

~ Lea Anne ~

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Just Jammin

It's been a busy week so far with very little actual sewing.  Between the the garden and the Black Raspberries there's little time for anything else.  Besides these jars of jam I've also made a Black Raspberry cobbler that Ross has plowed through and is now asking for another!  As you can see I take the easy way out and leave the seeds in the jam.  Also I prefer not to use pectin to thicken my jams and jellies .  Here's a link to a basic Jam recipe with no pectin added.   If you've never made jam or jelly and want to try, here's my advice.  Wear cloths that you don't mind getting stained, and wear an oven mitt when stirring the boiling berries.

Last year  we gave home canned goods to friends and family for Christmas.  If we do that again I'll need to make some pretty labels.  I found these super cute free printable labels.  Even if you don't need labels you need to take a look at this blog....CUTENESS!

There's plenty more berries to be picked for freezing.  We've a bumper crop this year.  Normally the Raspberries don't do as well as the Blackberries.  

 Because they both grow wild we've really no way to control where they grow.  So they're intertwined all over the property.  This is the little patch at the side of the backyard.

While working with the berries my mind is still on quilting.  How about some Jar quilt patterns?  Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt has a easy pattern using charm packs.  Just click on the picture to watch.

 Over at Crafttown.com you'll find a tutorial for a larger version of this block.

And my personal favorite is from Creativity Amongst Chaos.  How adorable are these!  I just can't get enough of Cori Blunts patterns.  She's offering this one for FREE as a stitch along that is currently in progress.  There's still plenty of time to join.  And her tutorials are excellent if you're new to applique or embroidery.

Well the fog is starting to lift outside which means the temperature is on the rise.  That means I need to get out there and pick some berries before the heat cooks them on the vine.

~ Lea Anne ~

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No design wall Monday

Good Monday morning!  So did you sew all weekend?  Its design wall Monday again and I've nothing to share that's new and quilty.  You know how it is with planning, it never plans out!  The plan was to sew in the evenings this past week and leave the day time hours open for canning, harvesting and housework.  Well almost all of the last three were accomplished.   The blackberries are really starting to ripen.

 See this Jungle?  The big berries are in there.  Am I going in there?  MOST CERTAINLY NOT! I stay to the edges where I can see whats getting ready to attack me!

  If you look close you can see them, I'm not getting any closer.

I always carry a garden hoe with me while berry picking.  It serves 2 purposes, protection being number one.  Protection from what you ask.  One, the thorns, I can use the hoe to pull the vines closer and move vines out of the way, and smash down any tall weeds while looking for critters.  And if I'm attacked by some wild beast I can swat at him with my hoe!  Today it was Muskrats!  They are dumb critters.  No I didn't swat them, I stomped my foot and screamed "Get out of here! Go on get!"  And they didn't move.  " Don't make me use my hoe!  GET!"  Finally they scurried off to the pond.  Man that was close, I could have been attacked and mangled by Muskrats.....LOL!  Really they are pretty easy going and don't bother humans, but I still don't want one close to me.  What kinda country girl am I that I let a little ole Muskrat stop me in my tracks....well I'm the " I lived in the city for 15 years kind of country girl."

Well after my adventure in berry pickin, the canning began.  Blackberry jelly, cowboy pickles, sweet cuke relish, and frozen shredded zucchini and a couple of loaves of Zucchini bread to freeze.  I ran out of onions so the Bread and Butter Pickles will need to wait for another day.

 The backing for the monster quilt is sewn together it just needs to be pressed and checked for square.  Look at this mess!  I'm not showing you the worst parts that are to the left and right of this picture.

Normally I end my post with Until next time "Quilt out of Your Comfort Zone!".  I'm going to retire using the same quote and end with something different each day.  Some days a quote, or inspiration, just what ever suits my fancy!

Lea

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I get to sew again!

Finally all the canning is done...well for now.  So tomorrow the studio and me have a date!  

The relish was made from the Zucchini.  

I used this recipe for the relish

12 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini 4 cups chopped onion 5 tablespoons canning salt 1 red bell pepper, chopped 1 green bell pepper, chopped 6 cups white sugar 1. Place the zucchini and onion in a large, non-metallic bowl, and sprinkle the salt over top. Use your hands to evenly mix the salt throughout the zucchini. Cover, and refrigerate overnight. 2. The following day, drain the zucchini in a colander, and rinse well with cool water. Squeeze out excess water and set aside. Place the red and green bell pepper, sugar, vinegar, and cornstarch into a large pot. Add the nutmeg, turmeric, celery seed and pepper. Stir to combine, then add the drained zucchini. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer 30 minutes. 3. Meanwhile, sterilize 7 one-pint jars and lids to hold relish. Pack relish into sterilized jars, making sure there are no spaces or air pockets. Fill jars all the way to top. Screw on lids. 4. Place a rack in the bottom of a large stockpot and fill halfway with boiling water. Carefully lower jars into pot using a holder. Leave a 2 inch space between jars. Pour in more boiling water if necessary, until tops of jars are covered by 2 inches of water. Bring water to a full boil, then cover and process for 30 minutes. 5. Remove jars from pot and place on cloth-covered or wood surface, several inches apart, until cool. Once cool, press top of each lid with finger, ensuring that seal is tight (lid does not move up or down at all).

2 1/2 cups white vinegar 1 tablespoon cornstarch 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 3/4 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

It's hard to believe that all that came from these.  The green beans will be used in a stir fry later in the week.  And the Pablano peppers will be grilled for veggie sandwiches...yummy!

Until next time "Quilt out of Your Comfort Zone"

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