A week of tomatoes, sewing and circles

Gosh, the week sure has flown by! The weather has been pretty hot, and I've tried to stay inside as much as I can. Today, Hubby did his "every other day" garden thing with his tomatoes. All our neighbors benefited today, and tomorrow the doctor's office will get some, too. Aren't they all so pretty? There's about 5 different varieties there, including some heirloom ones that are my favorites.


I spent most of the week behind the sewing machine or on the other end of a sewing needle. I managed to hand sew the binding completely on the Kitchen Sink quilt. The one thing left for it is a label - why I didn't make one for it at the same time I did my other two is beyond my memory.

The second and last circle class was Saturday, so I spent most of Thursday and Friday preparing for that. We had a lot of fun, and both of the students had all twenty of their circles complete before class began. Of course, they needed to make another 20 in class, so unfortunately, their quilts are not to a where they can be photographed yet. The "girls" assure me that they WILL finish them, though. When they do, I'll post pictures of them for sure!

In the meantime, here's a little trick to get a pretty cool background or even an entire quilt, just by making four patches. You end up with bias edged squares, but if you handle them carefully, you can manage.

We started with 6.5" squares of darks and lights, and made them into four patches. Then when they are done, take a 9.5" square ruler, and cut half of them on one direction of slant, and the other half on the other slant.



When you are done, here's how they go together:


Does this look familiar in some way? Well, golly, I just couldn't stay away from my Cherry Limeade. If you look close, you might see a couple of surprises in my "cups"! The border will have to wait until I return from Tennessee on Friday. Between the AQS quilt show and my genealogy sleuthing, I'll be one tired, but very happy camper!

New (additional) blog, flimsies, and more zucchini!

I've had a bit of time to think recently.

I had a bit of a scare with a sudden and extreme elevation of blood pressure, so I've been quiet, and resting until some medication kicks in. With that thinking, I've decided that I need another blog page just to keep my quilt pictures, my art, and my creative writing in one place. So, with that in mind, I've added an additional blog: Granny's Hands. You can use the link on the right side of this page to switch back and forth easily, I think.

I've been pondering creative writing for a while. I will probably use Grannys Hands mostly for that, but I will also from time to time, save other finished art with little or no dialog there. Well, at least I think I will not add dialog. That might be difficult for this Chatty Cathy! So check out Grannys Hands from time to time and see what my "other brain" has been doing!

In the meantime, I'm getting all my stuff ready to teach a circle class tomorrow. It's for the first time, so I hope I have everything I need. I hope everyone has a good time. And, I hope everyone gets a circle quilt done by the end of the second class! Im going to be working on Cherry Limeade as part of the demonstrations.


I've also decided to try a couple of other local quilters (new to me). I've got to get the flannel backing ready on the Dogz flimsie (red and black. Then the blue and white friendship exchange block flimsie is all set to go. Both of them are small, so it will be a nice test to see how their stitches are, and how well we communicate with each other.

Local machine quilters prices are so high, even for overall pantographs, that I often hiccup and just leave them as completed flimsies without finishing them. And no, I don't want to learn how to machine quilt. I WILL do small wall hangings, and I do all my charity lap quilts, but I don't want to do anything bigger. I still have an Inspira quilt frame for sale, with no takers, so if it's not gone by the end of the year, I might have to donate it to a guild, or something creative like that. Oh! I get my Sunbonnet Sue Story back tomorrow, and I am anxious to see how it looks, too!


More zucchini came in from the garden last night. Here's the next best thing to zucchini bread (and healthier too). Last night's dinner was Ocean Perch, green beans from the garden, and zucchini cakes. Ummm yum! Recipe follows the picture.

ZUCCHINI PATTIES
5 TBSP Bisquick
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 eggs
2 TBSP butter
2 c shredded zucchini

Blend the bisquick, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper; add the eggs. Grate the zucchini (I like mine coarse) and add to the mixture. Spray a griddle or skillet with butter flavored cooking spray over medium heat. Pour batter into patties; cook about 3 minutes on each side until done to the desired degree of browness/crispness. Make about 5 good sized patties.