Garden Bounty

There has been very little sewing at my house. I did cut and fit an A-line skirt for DD this last week. I still have to finish the seams as the fabric has a tendency to ravel. Then I also have to put on the waistband and do the hem. It felt so different sewing a garment as I haven't done that in a long time. I'm proud to say I can still put in a zipper! I'll take some pictures once I finish the skirt.

My container garden tomatoes are doing well. I planted red roma, yellow roma and cherry tomatoes. I like the flavor of the cherry tomatoes the best. Here's a little sampling of my bounty.
The peppers are a variety of jalapeno called "Fooled You". They are not hot, but instead taste much more like a bell pepper. The one bush I have is loaded with peppers. I also planted one hot jalapeno for DH. It is producing, but not as much as the FY pepper. The real trick is to pick the peppers at the same time and make sure I don't mix them up because they look so much alike. I don't like the real hot peppers!

I also have been harvesting basil and oregano. I'm drying that, crushing it and putting it in bags so I won't have to buy it at the grocery. I've also been snipping off the plants when I make pasta sauce. Fresh herbs give sauce a wonderful flavor!
It's raining at my house today, so I'm hoping that watering from nature will keep my plants producing those wonderful tomatoes and peppers!

Orange.....

If you were to ask me what my least favorite color is when it comes to quilting, I would immediately tell you orange. Orange is an OK color, but one I just don't use much in quilting. When I look around my yard at my flowers, orange seems to be a much more appealing color. I have day lilies blooming that are a dark orange.
Isn't this day lily bloom so pretty? I love the way the orange and yellow blend!

Remember the lantana from my previous post. Here's a closeup of one of the blooms. The yellow and orange are pretty together here too.
If you enlarge the photo, you should be able to see the ant who thought these were nice flowers.

My orange daylilies are planted in this bed along with red bee balm and some other flowers. I planted them to screen the ugly green utility box. My neighbor thought Pampas grass would be a good idea....but I hate Pampas grass! When we lived in Texas, it was a wonderful hiding place for rattlesnakes. I've never liked it for that reason. Since the box is in the corner of MY yard, I got to do the landscaping......and it did not include Pampas grass! My neighbor even told me she liked what I had done.
I also have day lilies on the other side of the box. Hopefully the bed will be even more filled in next year.

Norma at Random Stitches is one of my very best friends. As she mentioned in her blog, we communicate via e-mail almost every morning as we each enjoy our cup of coffee. She said some really nice things about me and gave me this award




I am then suppose to pick 5 blogs I read on a regular basis and give them the award. Well, as I looked at the ones I read on a regular basis....I noticed most of them have already received the award....so I will just say, if you haven't received this yet...consider yourself awarded.

I enjoy my time visiting blogs, seeing the various projects others are working on, and reading about things other than stitching that they enjoy doing in their daily lives. So many of the bloggers are so talented and their blogs are filled with wonderful ideas.

Thanks again to Norma for giving me the award.

Testing a knitted Swiffer cover

Two posts in one day....can you believe it! I just had to share an item I finished this afternoon. But first a little info and background.

This morning I swept and dust mopped my hardwood floors. That's something I do daily. I do like to think I keep a fairly clean house....not spotless....but clean enough to be healthy. Some days I even sweep more than once a day. What I'm going to show later in this post is going to make you doubt this, but I'm going to show this anyway. And I promise....I really do clean my floors each morning.

Several weeks ago when my in-laws were here, I started knitting a cotton cover for my Swiffer. I had found the pattern here
http://erica.brembos.googlepages.com/KPZoom.pdf
I thought I would just give this knitted cover a try. My thoughts were I'd make a few and maybe not have to buy so many of the disposable sheets. I really had my doubts though as to whether this cover would really work. This afternoon I finished the last few stitches on that first knitted cover, sewed the side seams, and put it on my Swiffer handle. See....here it is.
I decided to run it over the same area of the floor I swept and dust mopped this morning just to see how it was going to work. I put it on dry....not wetting or spraying anything on it. I think I'm going to be making plenty more of these little covers because look what it picked up!
Yes, I know this looks awful....but.....see all that dust! It makes me feel like a sorry excuse for a housekeeper since I know I cleaned the same floor this morning. Maybe I can just blame the dust on this critter. Yep, that's right....Truffles my kitty!
I know Truffles contributes to the dust, but she is a lot of company to me during the day. She has a unique personality and makes herself right at home with all of us....

even DH. Don't they look comfortable! They were watching the new tv we bought. We finally bought a new one after having the old one for 15 years. Now my next "to do" item is finding a cabinet for it so I can hide all those ugly cords!

Still no sewing

I've read on lots of other people's blogs that they are in a stitching slump, so I realize I'm not the only one. I have started the second of 4 blocks for the wallhanging I'm doing, but I haven't made enough progress to really share a picture of it. A few evenings this week I have been working on something to use up some small bits and pieces of crochet thread and yarn. Here's what I've been doing.
Some of my plastic hangers have been breaking. I've had these wire hangers stored on top of a cabinet for years and since I am trying to eliminate as much plastic as possible from my house...I thought I would get these wire hangers down and start using them. My husband's grandmother use to cover all of her hangers using using a heavy rug yarn. That was back in the day before plastic hangers were ever made! I learned how to do it from her. I thought I would use some of the crochet cotton that I have on hand to do mine. By doing that, I would be using up bits and pieces and would be covering the wire hangers so they wouldn't leave rust on any of our clothing. The next picture is a close up of the 2 hangers that I covered with bedspread weight crochet cotton.
And in the photo above....I used the heavier cotton knitting yarn that was left from knitting some dish rags. These were actually fun to do....and I'm recycling!

I have been spending a lot of time watering and caring for my outdoor plants. I don't have a garden in my yard, but I do have a container garden on my patio. I have been enjoying a few tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Mmmm! Those homegrown tomatoes taste so much better than anything bought in the store.
If you enlarge the picture, you might be able to see my tomatoes and peppers. This is my area where I also try to attract hummingbirds. They love the bright red pentas. They also like the lantana. If you don't have lantana in your area....it's the solid yellow plant on the left and the variegated yellow and orange plant in the center. You can also see my small pot of herbs in the right front of the photo. I planted spicy basil, Greek oregano, parsley and a yellow marigold in that pot. I have made spaghetti sauce using those fresh herbs and it was wonderful.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I'm up to...and for taking a look at my patio garden.

Summer is proving to be a very unproductive time for me with my sewing. I am busy, but not with stitching. For some reason those daily activities of life....like cooking, cleaning, ironing, mowing the lawn, caring for the flowers and veggies....are taking lots of my time. My flowers are doing very well and I picked my first tomatoes and cucumbers yesterday! I'm looking forward to fall when life will settle down a little. I always have more time for stitching. Now, while I am busy....I do a few stitches here and there. Over the 4th of July weekend I did finish this block that I had shown you in an earlier post. I have started the second of the 4 blocks I plan to use to make the wall hanging.