it's so easy, i know you can do it!

a little while ago i promised a free quilt tutorial from my quilting class that i taught at the Ben Franklin in September. here, (at long last) it is! (and i guess it's been even longer than i thought since i posted last. after trying unsuccessfully to log into blogger, i found that i had forgotten my password! imagine that!)

anyway- this quilt, Trip Around the Scrap Basket, (and tutorial) is taken from the book "Slice 'Em and Dice 'Em Quilts"

while this quilt may look overwhelming with all the triangles, it's actually very easy once you break it down into manageable (and understandable) parts. this quilt is made entirely of squares ~ 9 patch blocks and also larger squares.

before we really get started, remember that it's always important with quilting to have an accurate 1/4" seam allowance. a sixteenth here and a sixteenth there can quickly add up, causing your quilt to not go together properly. that's really frustrating when you've spent money and time on piecing the top. so take the time to check for accuracy- you'll be glad you did later! also, i almost always use grey thread in the top and bobbin when quilting. it's a universal match, and if you wind several bobbins ahead, you can really make good time.

this quilt, as I've already said, is made up of 9 patch blocks. (it's actually very similar to the Tossed 9 i pieced last winter.) the center square of the 9 patch is always the same- in my case, the yellow. the inner 4 blocks are your lightest fabric (tan) and the outer 4 are the colors that you've chosen to make predominant in your quilt. (blue and brown). look at my square below to help make that a bit clearer.

the selection of your fabrics is actually the most difficult part of this quilt. it is very important that the center square is different in color and/or value from all the other fabrics that you choose. and the lights need to be LIGHT ~ not just sortakinda light. (and don't use muslin either, that's too 1980's!)

i chose a multitude of blues and browns for my quilt. I've laid out all the fabrics that i used in my quilt, just to give you an idea. my quilt is significantly bigger than the one in the book, so i needed lots of different fabrics. (this is where we all do a happy dance for the invention of fat quarters~ a great way to build your stash without alot of money)



since the center square is the "dark" and the inner 4 are the "light", that leaves us with "medium" for the outer 4. it's important that all your fabrics be of the same value. an easy and quick way to determine if all your fabric choices are "keepers" is to take a digital picture of them and then change it to black and white. you can see above that all my fabrics "read" with the same "value". there are no fabrics that jump out at you. again, this is very important to the design of this quilt- you want the eye to travel around the quilt, and not get stuck on any particular fabric.




if you're still with me at this point, you're home free! the rest is easy-peasy! these squares are all 3 ½". (including seam allowance) you can either strip piece them, or do it the traditional way. (which is square by square) the orientation of the outer 4 blocks (my blue and brown) makes absolutely no difference. trust me on this one. just make sure that you've used an equal amount of each color.

once you've pieced all your 9 patch units cut them up into 4 equal sized blocks.

now, here's where the really interesting and intriguing part comes. from all your blues and browns, cut squares that are 4 3/4". draw a line from corner to corner diagonally. then match this plain square to one of your quartered 9 patches. with a 1/8 seam, sew down either side of your drawn line.


make sure you orient your quarter 9 patch unit like is in the picture. trust me on this, too.

next, cut the new unit apart on the drawn line. press, with the SA towards the square.

after you've done this to each of the quarter units of the original 9 patch, you'll have 8 new blocks.

here's what happens if you're not paying attention and orient the square units the wrong way on the quarter 9 patch. since these are the only 2 that i did wrong in my whole quilt, I'm not feeling too bad about it! (and besides, i needed this example to show to all my students, right?)

for each 9 patch that you sew, you'll get 8 of the new blocks, so plan accordingly. my quilt is 14X18 units square. that means i only had to make 32 9 patch blocks. with quick and easy strip piecing, surely that's not an unmanageable number! with an inner border of 2" and the outer border at 4" my quilt finished at 67" X 83"

if you click on the picture of my completed quilt, you'll be able to see how to arrange all your squares. if you have a design wall, more power to ya! otherwise, wait until the kids are in bed and lay it out on the living room floor. you'll want to do this to make sure that you don't have 2 like fabrics next to each other.

i quilted this quilt (in a evening) using invisible thread (and a walking foot, of course), and stitch-in-the-ditch. (the backing is brown)

if you really love this quilt, but don't want to make your own, it's for sale. contact me if you're interested in buying it. soon my quilt gallery will be up and running, so you'll be able to see some of the other quilts that i've made.

this quilt was fun (and easy) to make, and since the old-fashioned 9 patch is one of my favorite blocks i really enjoyed the new challenge and look that resulted from this old standby. already I've had one of my children drop a not-so-subtle hint that this quilt would make a wonderful graduation-from-college gift.

I'll have to ponder that one for a spell.

8 women signed up for this class, and i remembered to take pictures of 3 of the quilts. you can see the great variety that is accomplished just in the different fabrics chosen.

Sondra made this quilt for her dog (!)

Carla's grand daughter will be the happy recipient of this quilt.

and (???) made this quilt for her bed. notice that she did hers differently, and it turned out just fine. all her 9 patch squares used only blue (in the outer 4), and her other square units were brown exclusively. i was worried that it would not work, but obviously this is a beautiful quilt!

if you decide to make a quilt of your own using this pattern, please feel free to ask any questions about some of the important information I'm sure I've inadvertently omitted.

and by all means, e-mail me a picture of your competed (or not) quilt! I'd love to see what you've made.

so would my 8 other faithful readers!

i would even go so far as to say that it made 26 hours in the car worth it!

when we took M and N down to Bob Jones University in August, the highlight of the trip was that Papa and Nanny drove up from Florida to spend time with us.


the girls regularly talk to nanny and papa on the phone, but it had been over a year since they saw them.



it took the little girls some time to warm up to the real people behind the loving voices on the phone, but both A and B were so happy to see their grandparents.

we didn't do anything more special together other than visit and spend time talking and catching up.

A is quite happy and secure in the knowledge of how much her papa loves her.

she loved interacting with him, and teasing him, as well as being teased right back!

baby B was a little bit more reserved and hesitant to be so exuberant, but she was full of smiles and giggles too!

i had a special quilt that i wanted to give Bud and Joyce. even though they live so far away, and we rarely see them, it's no doubt that they love our whole family. i wanted to give them a little something to let them know how much they mean to me, and how much we all love them right back.

our visit was much too short, but we were so happy to see them, and are looking forward to seeing nanny and papa again.

hopefully sooner rather than later!

but only if you're a world famous blogger...

on the first Friday of every month our downtown has a little shindig. there's discounts at all the stores, giveaways, activities for the children and just general frivolity and happiness. all in the spirit of Spend Money At A Local Buisness And Buy More Stuff.

i usually go and participate. that is, me and my faithful sewing machine, Miss Bernina.

we go and demonstrate whatever quilting class I'll be teaching that month at the Ben Franklin. it's just a time for me to sew in piece and quiet, and chat with any prospective students, encouraging them to come to my classes.

this month the Dry Goods Store had a little contest. an apple bake-off. with gift certificates being awarded to first, second and third place.

i thought that it would be fun to participate, being the domestic homemaker that i am.

*ahem*

so i signed up early in the week, paid my entry fee, bought a handful of granny smith apples and this afternoon while the girls were sleeping i made PW's Upside Down Apple Cake.

i figured that the odds were pretty good for me to win something.

not.

i got fourth place.

and that's only if you're being polite.

there were only three other entries: emergency cake (whatever that is!), apple dumplings and a spicy pie.

so really, i came in last.

what's with that, anyway?

PW got 444 comments on that post, saying how wonderful her cake is, it's so delicious, we had it for dinner last night when George Bush came over, it's my dog's favorite dessert, this cake changed my life and saved my marriage, I'm going to run out and buy a cast iron skillet... blah, blah, blah.

444!

so now we know 2 things: I'm really whiny tonight.

and I'm obviously not a world famous blogger.

(but i guess we knew that already, didn't we?)

next month the bake-off is for a pumpkin dessert.

if I'm done whining about it, i think i might try again.

and no hard feelings, PW.

really.

Thursday's Livestock and Garden Report ~ Week 27

although we still have just a few things going on in the gardens, i will reluctantly call this the last L&G post for 2009. it's been a busy growing season for us, but not nearly as busy as it could have been. we'll remember all the things that we've learned this year, and by doing better next year, we'll be busier~ and have more of a harvest. but all-in-all, it's been a good year.

here's a view of the upper garden from the duck puddle. you can see the buckwheat and pole bean cover crop. the soil is not that great, as evidenced by the stunted buckwheat, but we're still working on it!

we did finally pick the beans, and i got enough to freeze for 3 meals. the yield was disappointing, but I'm thankful for what we did get.

note to self: although i did plant these beans (back in July) as a cover crop, i was certainly hoping to harvest a fair amount of beans, both to eat and to sell. however, all that was available at Agway were pole beans. i wasn't able to stake all the beans, so we just let them crawl over the ground. they did their main job of shading out the weeds in an area of the garden that had just been tilled up. (we decided halfway through the summer that we wanted less yard and more garden) however, pole beans apparently really do need to climb. (go figure) consequently, the beans were in all stages of maturity- from blossoms to tiny beans to nicely edible to cigar size. i sorted them out for people consumption and animal consumption and just called it a lesson learned.

we pulled all the beans out, and tilled the green stuff under,


including the buckwheat. already we have a winter cover crop of annual rye and oats in. with the rain that we've received in the last few days, the shoots are already peeking through the soil. both of these crops are not winter hardy, so at some point we'll roll out some of our mulch hay.


last week we butchered our 2nd crop of chickens. that was the batch that we had such a miserable time with, having only 21 chickens to butcher! (out of the 50 that we started with!) 15 were sold, and the remaining 6 i put in our own freezer.

the chickens are winding down as well, with our final batch of 50 4 weeks old today, giving them another 6-8 weeks to get pleasingly plump.



the first crop of green beans that i planted is still growing! we left them on the tomato cages and just planted the rye around them. the girls love to go out and pick beans for the chickens.

the chickens are always eager for something green, and B is quite adept at poking the beans through the wire without getting pecked by a greedy hen.



we are getting almost a dozen eggs nearly every day, and it's hard to keep up with that production rate! i freely share with some friends from church~ but still...


soon the older hens will be destined for the pot. it seems such a shame (disloyal, even) but they're getting ragged looking and old. from the 5 older hens, we're only getting 2 or 3 eggs a day now, so there's definitely some slackers in there!


B is still enjoying some of our fresh peppers- what's left of them. i forgot all about them down in the lower garden, so we definitely could have had more for the freezer if i had remembered!


the big red pig was ready to butcher, and i was able to sell him at the last minute to someone we found through our butcher! Dave still wants to try our hand at butchering our own pig, and since it's still too warm to do that, i was so glad to not be stuck with this gigantic pig!


we got him all crated up and i drove him on his final journey to the butcher shop. we got a call later in the week that he hung at 223lb! that's some pig!


we found this praying mantis while working down in the lower garden


and had a fascinating time looking at him. a praying mantis is a cool looking bug~ in a freaky sort of way!





but the really big news is~ we bought a potato plow! with 5+ rows of potatoes to dig, any help we can get is appreciated!


it's actually a horse drawn walking plow (close-up pictures later, hopefully) but easily adaptable to our horses Massey and Ferguson. i was elected to drive, while Dave wrestled with the plow behind. the idea is to run the tip of the plow right down the middle of the potato hill, and all the potatoes just pop up and out, neatly laying in the row for the happy helpers to gather up.



*ahem*


there's definitely a technique for using this implement, and we're still learning. but even with several stops and starts, we were able to dig a whole row rather quickly.

we filled the wagon with Red Pontiac and kennebec, plus a few renegade pumpkins.

next year perhaps I'll grow all my veggies like we did these pumpkins- benign neglect. (and come to think of it, the whole gardening thing would be so much easier!) we did not plant one. single. pumpkin. seed. and at the beginning of the season, i was even pulling the baby pumpkin shoots like weeds! but still~ we got a respectable showing of pumpkins, did we not?

however, i can say that the philosophy of benign neglect does not work for flower beds! i really need to get out and weed before we close everything down for the winter.

i also have bulbs to plant- garlic and spring flower bulbs. i ordered some bulbs from gurney's and Dave got me tons of tulips and daffodils for my birthday so i can see another gardening day in my near future!

I've never planted garlic before, so I'm looking forward to trying it. i still haven't decided where in the garden to put them- i don't want to forget about them and accidentally till them under in the spring!

our freezing and canning is also winding to a close- just some grape jelly (today) and applesauce (next week) to do yet.

we also need to put the cover back on the high tunnel. it's getting chilly here at night (no frost) and the broccoli and cauliflower are doing well. hopefully well enough to actually produce something!

I'd also like to get a planing of lettuce and spinach in the high tunnel and cold frames. i should have done that a few weeks ago, but never got to it... i have noticed, in all my second plantings, that the plants do well, but take longer to mature and produce.

so- i guess that's it! we learned alot, and had a good time with our gardens this year. before you know it, the seed catalogs will be pourning in again, encouraging us to dream and plan for next year.

whatever happened to that sporadic blogger, anyway?

i figured since I'm starting to get e-mails, phone calls and other frantic inquiries from people that i know in real life, i better at least post something up here, so my hundreds of faithful readers MIL won't wonder if I'm sick or dead.

ever since M and N went to college and G started school again, I've lost a bunch of people to boss around help out, it seems as if I'm too busy to post about my exciting life.

but- i haven't forgotten about all of you, my dear and faithful readers, and i have a few posts up my sleeve that I'd like to share with you.

soon.

but until then- here's a sneak preview of coming attractions:

* the final Livestock and Garden Report for 2009

* chores and the getting of them done (happily)

* my first ever giveaway!

* a quilting tutorial

* another quilting tutorial

* more pictures from our trip to SC

* general profound ramblings about evangelical Anabaptists

* another giveaway that i'll be participating in at weareTHATfamily

* a new feature of my blog: QUILT gallery

so- since nap time is officially over, and can not be stretched out any longer (and believe me, I've tried!) i need to get off the computer.

but I'll try to be back soon.

promise!

it's got to be some kind of bloggy record!

can you believe it ~ we actually built another outbuilding without me giving you an agonizing blow-by-blow (with pictures) to accompany every board and nail that went into the construction!

wow. like i said ~ some kind of record!

we need a woodshed to store all our wood for the winter- Dave estimates that we burn 35 face cords of wood each heating season. (which around here can truly be from September to April!)



originally we had planned on building the shed over top of the stove, and running the chimney up through the roof of the wood shed.

that's until we heard the startling story of what happened to friends of ours from church: it seems that after the stove was fed and stoked for the afternoon, the door was not shut. this led to a massive buildup of gasses at the top of their wood shed, which in turn lead to a massive (if not impressive!) explosion which sounded like a train barreling down the tracks at full steam.

after hearing this story at the church picnic, Dave decided that he didn't want to chance the same thing happening at our house.

even if it is covered by insurance!


we bought a truck load of logs, and Dave worked at cutting that into lengths.

with the tractor, G and N, it didn't take long to get all that wood cut and stacked. the wood shed will hold only about half of what we burn, so the rest will be stored somewhere else, under tarps.


we decided to get another truck load of logs, and in addition to being fairly green, the logs were much bigger than the previous load.

so yesterday Dave brought home an early Christmas present for G: a gasoline powered wood-splitter that he borrowed from a friend at work. (as opposed to the old-fashioned way: a son-powered wood splitter. with really great muscles. named G.)

it's helpful to have 2 people working the splitter, and in just 1 hour this morning, Dave and G split the same amount of wood that would have taken nearly all day by hand!

the girls and i took out a snack for the hard-working wood crew, and admired their work.


and reflected on how true that old adage is- "he who heats with wood warms himself twice"

just a little bloggy love!

a beautiful northern PA fall day was even more delightful when i received a package in the mail from my "bloggy friend" Milah. inside was a handmade in Indiana pottery bowl:

(notice the zucchini and summer squash? my late planting is really, finally producing!)

AND... this wonderful pebble-ware-surfaced 9X9 baking dish! it's aluminum, and i can tell already that it's going to be my new favorite baking dish. (especially since my family is so much smaller now)


i got right to work making apple crisp- so much easier than apple pie, and every bit as good! (although, the topping is much darker than it normally is. i didn't have any brown sugar, and had to make a substitution involving white sugar and molasses. because, since when do i ever follow a recipe exactly?)

here's the finished yummyness- and the baking dish was great! if you finally won a bloggy giveaway after entering about 87 of them don't have a great baking dish like this, you can still make this apple crisp for your family. now that the weather is finally getting cooler, it's a great dessert for a autumn night!

this in an authentic, old~fashioned country recipe given to me by a dear friend, ages and ages ago. i hope your family enjoys it as much as our family has!

Apple Crisp Recipe

peel and slice apples, filling your dish to slightly mounded. drizzle with maple syrup, and dot with butter if you wish.

crumb topping:

1 cup oats (i use old~fashioned)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

combine in bowl, and work together like pastry until crumbly. (this will make enough topping for a 9X9 pan; but often i quadruple the recipe and freeze the rest, making it even easier to throw together at the last minute!) bake at 350 until apples are soft, and your whole kitchen starts to smell wonderful. serve with ice cream as a special treat!

it's just not the same without them

last weekend we packed up the van again and drove over 700 miles south, stopping at Bob Jones University in South Carolina. in addition to M returning to college as a sophomore, we also took N as a freshman in the class of 2013, majoring in chemistry.

it's a comfort to me to have them both there at the same place, but BJU is so far away!

parts of this year have been very difficult, especially after our oldest son left home last October. i treasured all the more the time that we had as a family, realizing that it's all too fleeting. it seems like it was just yesterday that i had my first baby girl, M, and already it's over 20 years later and my children are growing up!



this big old house seems strangely silent without M and N. i find myself glancing at the clock to see how soon either of them might be home. i find myself leaving the back porch light on for M, since she always worked 2nd shift and came home after dark. i catch myself wondering if N will bring home coffee or (and?!) donuts when he gets off work at Dunkin' Donuts.


there are still 3 children here at home with us, and a long way to go before we have an empty nest. but still, after 20+ years of mothering, i find that i wasn't quite ready to be done.



did i miss something? did i teach them all that they needed to know? did i forget something gigantic and really important?


do they know not to mix the lights and darks? not to wash something red in hot water? when to put the fabric softener in? are they organized enough? will the homework, reading and assignments all be done on time? do they know what a dangling participle is? (do i even know what a dangling participle is?) do they remember the difference between their, they're and there? will they eat right and not drink too much coffee? take their contacts out every night? wear sensible shoes? listen to the weather report before getting dressed?


i could talk myself into dashing down to South Carolina to give them that final list of Really Important Stuff That I May Have Forgotten To Mention.


But don't worry~ i won't do that. because i know that in spite of all my parental flaws and imperfections they are going to turn out just fine. along the way we may have missed a few important tidbits about prepositions or ancient Greek history, but i think that M and N have learned the Really Important Lessons Of Life.


Love God with all their soul.


Serve Him with all their might.


Seek Him with all their heart.


they had a good foundation, and now they are ready and eager to build their own house.

and i, for one, will be their greatest fan and cheerleader.


because I'm so proud of them both!

Thursday's Livestock and Garden Report ~ Week 23

can you believe that it's week 23 already? almost half of the year, and I've been posting these weekly sporadic L&G reports! are you as tired of reading them as i am of posting them? could anybody possibly still be interested in the weekly blow-by-blow of our garden? most likely not- but thanks for being polite and reading anyway! the garden is winding down, so this should be near the end.

did i hear a big internets sigh of relief from all my readers?

yesterday we got our last 50 peeps, bringing our grand total for the year to 175 chickens. (25 buff orpingtons and 150 cornish cross cockerels.) we are still on a learning curve as far as the meat birds go. our last batch of 50 had the shocking and disappointing mortality rate of 50%!!!! hopefully this batch will not be so. some of this batch is for selling, and some for us to eat.

the pigs are growing well- as of this morning the larger of the 2 weighs approximately 250 pounds. come the cooler weather, i guess we'll be butchering! we've already eaten nearly all of the pig that we had butchered last April. just a few pounds of bacon and miscellaneous roasts floating about in the freezer. with that consumption rate, we're guessing that our family will eat about 3 pigs a year. (in addition to the 100 chickens that we butcher and freeze for ourselves)

I've finally and officially given up on the tomatoes. this meager spread is all the beefsteak that G and i were able to salvage. (although there may be a few more out there that we'll find when we pull up the remaining 2 rows of tomatoes this afternoon, this is truly the end.) all in all, a very disappointing year for tomatoes. however, we cannot count the tomatoes as a total loss, since we "harvested" well over six 5 gallon buckets of tomatoes to feed the pigs. at least we got some food value out of all that work!

next year the tomatoes will be planted in the lower garden, so we don't have to worry about the spores of the blight hibernating in the soil to attack again.

the cauliflower and broccoli is doing very well in the high tunnel- perhaps I'll actually harvest some?

the beans are very lush and green, and they are all flowering, leading me to believe (hope?) that we'll get more beans for the freezer. the buckwheat cover is doing well, too, here in the upper garden.

many of the potatoes are still in the ground down in the lower garden. we've still been steadily selling them in the produce stand, as well as giving some away. we're hoping to borrow a potato digger for the tractor~ there is probably over 500 feet of potato rows, between the kennebec, red Pontiac and yukon gold. neither G or i look forward to that much manual labor, so I'll try to nail down the rumor of a potato digger for the tractor.

we bought 4 more bales of hay for mulch, and between the hay, buckwheat and annual rye, we'll make sure that both gardens have an adequate cover of mulch/green manure for the winter. additionally, we'll have soil samples from both gardens tested to make sure that we're on the right track as far as the soil nutrients go. i have no problem trying to address the deficiencies in our soil's nutrients organically with mulch and green manure cover, but i am not opposed to some synthetic fertilizer, either.

so, except for some beans, cauliflower and broccoli, and a ton of potatoes, we're done! it's hard to imagine that it's been almost 6 months that we've been working at our garden! I'm tired just thinking about it, and i look forward to those long winter days to just relax. i can read to the girls, sew and maybe even knit something.

won't that be nice!