The Days Are Counted!: squash

Monday, May 22, 2017

Just Plain Stuffed (Plus a Quilting Update)

A few weeks ago I attended another quilt retreat at Homeplace Bed & Breakfast (SC). As always it was a lot of fun, food, laughter & a good time spent with friends. I made my first 'big girl' quilt.

It's a king size! I used some fabrics that were gifted to me & some I had gotten at garage sales over the years. I finished the top at the retreat then had one of the quilting ladies there, quilt it on her long arm machine. She did a beautiful job! It's 108" x 112" & there was NO WAY I was going to tackle this behemoth! The pattern is called "Broken Star", a variation of a Carpenter's Star.from a booklet published by Debbie Maddy of Calico Carriage Quilt Designs.

Close up of center star.

Once I finished w/this I decided to make a laptop quilt out of some vintage reproduction fabrics I had in my stash. Pic is sideways but you get the idea. It's called a ribbon box quilt, free pattern from Coud9 Fabrics. It is 56" x 62".

Since I got home I've finished up on my Christmas Table toppers that I will be using as a lining for baskets of goodies to give away this year.

While at the retreat my sewing machine wasn't working very well & I had neglected to take my Featherweight. My friend Debbie (the enabler) kindly loaned me one of hers to use. Otherwise, I would have been twiddling my thumbs the whole time.

Now I have to get my mid arm machine (another post entirely) set up so I can get all these projects quilted & bound before Christmas time rolls around.

On another note, I actually planted a few things in my garden beds here in the city. As usual it is proving that only about 3 or 4 hours of sunlight is NOT enough to produce prolific results.

String Beans & carrots in the pot.

Squash Zucchini, Cucumbers, more carrots & marigolds in front.

Onions taken over by weeds.

I had waited way to late to plant the onions & scallions so most just died. I still have a couple at the very back of the bed, we'll see if they hang on. Too darn hot for them.

The squash & zucchini have lots & lots of blooms but never product any fruit. No pollination happening & I'm not doing it by hand. One of our neighbors has gotten bees but their scouts haven't come down to visits. Sooooo, since they aren't making baby squash I decided to stuff some of the blossoms.

Cheese mixture in bag.

Decent sized blossom. Most were smaller than this.

Stuffed with cheese mixture.

All stuffed & ready to fry.

I picked & stuffed yesterday & as the last pic shows, I had a bit of cheese left over so I picked a few more this morning & finished up the cheese. Will fry them up tonight using a tempura type batter. We've had these before & they are delicious!

Well that all that been happening around here ... until next time.

p.s. I have been scrounging the Internet looking for this discontinued fabric.

It's called Anastasia by Robert Kaufman (orange, black & gold colors). If you have some in your stash or see any for sale, please let me know. I'm more than willing to pay for it.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

The Expo Was a Lot of Work!

As mentioned in my prior post, I had volunteered to help my friends over at Hoss Tools at the AG Expo last week (Tuesday thru Thursday). This Expo is mainly geared towards commercial farmers but my friend talked the shows representatives into letting him open a Sustainable Living Center for home gardeners that were interested in more natural & organic growing methods. Especially since at least a third of the attendees are home gardeners as well.

The location of the show is on an old airfield (over 600 acres). Last year was the first year & it rained almost the entire time & was basically a muddy mess. But, there was a lot of interest so the Center was deemed to stay. They added an open air metal building to hold the vendors & displays of pumpkins which was the theme this year. And, they have a garden shed where attendees can select which implements they want to try. There are single wheel hoes, double ones as well, plus a double seeder & a sweeper attachment (to cut weeds off while pushing through the rows), raised bed kits & a variety of rakes & hoes. The garden was fenced off & divided into 9 or 10 sections. Each holding various flowers & vegetables (4 or 5 kinds of pumpkins, 7 or 8 of squash, pinkeye peas, 2 kinds of okra, various lettuces, pak choy, broccoli, zinnias & cockscomb & sunflowers just to name a few).

They had to bring in over 18 cubic yards of compost because the dirt there was in bad condition. Farmers Organic supplied the compost & Johnny's Seeds supplied the seeds & they both had booths in the building. There was also a speaking tent where various people gave speeches throughout the days, including NY Times best selling author Forrest Pritchard who was promoting his newest book Growing Tomorrow.

We got started each day around 7:00a & ended around 5:00p. The first day started out quite chilly but warmed up to a nice 78 degrees. The next 2 days were quite warm. There were 2 other volunteers from nearby who both have organic gardens, One has a CSA with her brother. We walked around the garden answering peoples questions. Hoss Tools demonstrated their products & let people try them out for themselves. It was quite tiring & as I arose each morning around 5:30a I felt like I had gone back to work!

The interest & enthusiasm showed by attendees was outstanding. Greg from Hoss was interviewed by various newspapers & gave 2 separate live interviews from local newstations. The gardens were beautiful & people were very impressed. We hope to expand next year, maybe have some raw milk & grass fed beef and/or pork products.

There was another vendor (Lauri Jo's) who was exhibiting in one of the larger buildings, doing live cooking demonstrations. She brought in celebrity chefs each day & they came to the garden each morning to pick product to use in some of their demos. Who knows maybe next year we can have a chef or two on site (in the building).

Although this show is always held in the fall, the Media Girl from the show was talking about doing a Spring/Early Summer event just for the Center (read ... no big AG). We'll see.

Here are a few random pictures ...