Tis the Season for Pickling and Fairs

Only the bottom two shelves had any pickles

So not much is happening on the quilting front. The cause is one trip to an open veggie market and now I am pickling. Three  batches of salsa, pickled dills, pickled dill green beans,beets, mustard cucumbers and ground up tomatoes for spaghetti sauce this winter. The pickle cupboard it looking fuller now but I am slowly running out of large bottles.  I opened my mouth and said yes of course I will take those extra beets that you don't want....what was I thinking!?!?! I enlisted the help of DH and my daughter who is home working every second week. Why shouldn't they help...they eat the pickles.My daughter thinks we are crazy to make salsa..you can buy it in the store she says!!!There just isn't anything like homemade! Even if the fair judges don't agree! What you don't see in the picture is the two boxes of Salsa tucked under that pingpong table. I think we will make it through the winter with these bottles!!!

Some of my fair entries

Yes it is fair weekend here this weekend. My pickles,relishes, jams didn't do so great but I did do well at the sewing,quilting end of the fair. Only a couple of things didn't get any ribbons. A lot of red 1st place and one of my entries, a collection of sewn things(with the orange card) will be going to Toronto in February to be displayed! Never been asked to do that before.

So after the busy week I have had, I am settling in to do some sewing and hand stitching today. Isn't this fabric fun. It is going to be the backing for my Easy Street. I used wine themed fabrics on the front and found this and thought it would be perfect. Also had enough to do the borders!!! Check out Kathy's Quilts and see what others are doing today!

Summer holidays

It has been a busy two weeks. Wedding weekend and today finds me returning from DH family reunion. So not much has gotten done on the quilting front. Although I have been knitting and that is what I did today on the 5 hour drive home!
Sending thoughts and prayers out to my dear friend and her brother. These flowers are for her to let her know I am thinking of her.

Wedding Weekend

Well the weekend has arrived and the quilt is done! yes I fell short on my deadlines. In trying to get both quilts done, I only succeeded in getting the one finished. Luckily I have a little more time to finish hand quilting the other one, as I won't be seeing that bride and groom for a bit!   Not bad for     1 1/2 weeks!

Wedding Log Cabin

Easy Street Mystery Quilt

Also have been working on the last pieces of Easy Street. I have been giving out clue for one of our guilds and this month is the last one and putting the top together.Don't mind the kitchen floor, it was the only bright spot to take a pic this late at night. 

Well off to bed it will be a busy morning getting ready and off to the wedding. Hoping and praying for no rain...it is all outdoors!!

Count down is on!

It is one week to the weddings well it will be all over by this time next weekend! Yes two...although I won't be attending both as they are far apart(one is in a different province than I live) I do want to get both quilts done. Now having said that I will have a little more time for the out of province quilt because I am not sure when I will see them to give them their gift in person. But the other quilt I have completed the top(log cabin) in under a week and I am whimping out and sending it out to be long armed quilted. Hope I won't be binding it on the way to the wedding.I will post a pic later in the week once it is back from being quilted. So today I will continue to work on the hand quilting of the other wedding quilt.

Looking very summery

 Now somewhere in there this week I also have to finish the last clue in Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Mystery. I  was asked to do a mystery quilt at one of my guilds. So I chose that one and we have been doing it since January.Along with the last clue, I want to put the top together to give the ladies some incentive to finish their tops for our September meeting.

Love these pink lilies

SQUIRREL!!!... funny saying around our house for completely changing the subject. I was out mowing the lawn and realized my lilies were starting to bloom. Now this is the flowerbed that was almost destroyed earlier this summer when we removed some trees. It has come along nicely I think! Check out Kathy's Quilts  and see what other hand stitching is going on today!

Busy, busy, busy!!!

this is how it looked before quilting

Well the hand quilting is coming along. Although I am not going to meet my deadline, I am lucky that I will have extra time to finish it before I give it to the bride and groom. I won't be going to the wedding and may not see them till the Fall. But people have told me I have one year to give a gift....so well...I have lots of time!!! I was asked last week, what I was quilting in the squares.

feathered star block from the back of the quilt

 So here are the pics...on the feathered star blocks I am outlining the star and added a heart in each corner. With a center octagon to help hold things.


On the plain alternate blocks I have  used a quilting stencil.

alternate block from the back of the quilt.

The set in triangles, also got the stencil in part. All the quilting is being done with chocolate brown thread. So I am making sure there are no oops, and stitches are evenly spaced..so this means removing stitches and redoing them sometimes!
Today's job is log cabin blocks. This is for a wedding in two weeks. I have a couple of days to sew the top and get it to my friend the longarm quilter.Cutting it a little close..yes...but I lost track of days and this wedding has snuck up on me!! Wish me luck!!! We'll see how fast I am, hoping to have it done by Wednesday!! YIKES
Linking to Kathy's quilts a day late...but check out what everyone is up to!

Hot Slow Stitching Sunday

Just before I started quilting

It is a warm one today. I have opened and now closed the windows to keep the heat out and am trying to figure out how to hand quilt my queen sized quilt on my lap. This is just the wrong time of year to be doing this but what is a girl to do?!?! I set a schedule for myself...two blocks a day. I started on Monday this past week  and by Tuesday I was behind already!!!!!oops!! I am using a nice 16" almost square hoop borrowed from a friend. It is nice, I can almost do a whole 12" block without moving the hoop!
Linking up today Kathy's Quilts and doing some much needed catching up!!Let's see what everyone else is up to!

Beautiful summery Sunday

Almost ready to quilt

It is slow stitching Sunday with Kathy and I will definitely be there as soon as I finish basting this quilt top that I plan on hand quilting. Got it half pinned last night and run out of pins...have to locate more today or I will be thread basting it.OUCH!!! With the warm weather we have been having our new to us Gazebo is proving very useful. I think I may find myself out there quilting a lot.









 Also got a couple little projects completed this week while not working or ignoring the wedding quilt (cause I couldn't find the right stencil to do the quilting design)I just know when it is the right one somehow!!
 The bag we made at our summer ending guild banquet. It was a tea and tote party.We received kits and created the bag and we served a light tea and finger foods supper. The needle case I received from the Guelph guild for helping with a workshop they put on. I was visiting my friend Barb who belongs to the guild. What a fun day!