Late summer garden

My garden is ready to be put to bed, and not looking all that great, so I thought I'd share a few photos of my garden as it was in late August.  Be sure to check out all the other gardens at http://msgreenthumbjean.blogspot.com/ because it's Bloomin' Tuesday!

Coreopsis in the front - they were late to bloom this year for some reason.  This variety is Zagreb.



Drumstick alliums in front of the globe spruce.  I planted geraniums and nasturtiums in the container.  They were just starting to come back after a nasty hail storm earlier in the month.

 

I purchased a packet of seeds three years ago and they have self-sown ever since - they're called Musk Mallow (I think - like I said, it's been three years! lol).  It's always a delight to see where they pop up in the spring and summer.

 

I left the cover on the pool one morning and the birds came to play in the water.

A shot of the middle raised bed towards the back of the yard.  The reddish shrub in the foreground is a barberry.  On the right is my Betty Corning clematis. 

 

A shot of the back bed with Rose Campion on the right and a rather sad looking Cleome by the watering can.  On the left at the back is the lone zuchinni plant I put in, we still picked over 20 zuchinnis from this one plant though.



This photo was taken early October, a lone snapdragon that popped up late August - love the dark red colour.

Cheers,
Mary-Frances

Extra blocks? Make art!

Good morning all -

Just thought I'd share with you a little something I did with two quilt blocks.  They are from projects I started in 2004, but never finished. 

I took a class for each and of course in the class you make your initial block, then are supposed to do the rest at home, but that just didn't work out for me.  So, instead of putting the blocks away, I thought I'd add a little colour to my walls. 

All you need to do is pick up a few inexpensive frames - these are from IKEA - and insert the block into the frame.  There's no need to add any type of adhesive to the back of the quilt block.  Voila, something colourful for your wall.

I still have all the fabric for these quilts tucked away in the sewing room, I've been toying with the idea of pulling it out and actually finishing the projects....something else to add to my ever growing 'quilts to make' list!

Cheers,
Mary-Frances

Bountiful Harvest and Turkey Leftover Recipe

There will be turkey and potatoes and pickles and pie and a whole lot of other yummy stuff this weekend because my oven is FIXED!  Hooray!  I've been baking up a storm this week, getting everything ready for Thanksgiving, banana chocolate chip muffins are just out of the oven and then it's on to the cranberry sauce and the pumpkin pies. 

Stocking up the pantry and freezer with dill pickles, bread & butter pickles and tomato sauce.  The potatoes and carrots are from a friends garden as my carrots are still in the ground, guess I should get on that.  I baked the pumpkin yesterday and the puree will be used for pies.



First thing I made after the oven was fixed - apple crisp.

 

Cheater cookies - not as good as homemade but oh so cute.

 For those of you wondering what to do with some of that leftover turkey, here's a recipe that my family enjoys - it's from the Canadian Living Christmas Cookbook.  These are not breakfast pancakes (but hey, who am I to judge?) but are good for lunch with a nice green salad.  They sound awful - well, I thought they did until I actually tried them.

Turkey Cranberry Pancakes

1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 sour cream
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups chopped cooked turkey
1/2 cup cranberry sauce
2 tbsp chopped green onion

In large bowl, beat together egg, milk, sour cream and butter.  Stir in flour, baking powder and salt just until blended.  Fold in turkey, cranberry sauce and onion.

Heat pan until a few drops of water bounce and sizzle when sprinkled on top.  Drop 1/4 cup batter for each pancake onto hot pan, spreading into circle 1/2 inch thick.

Cook over medium-high heat for 4 minutes or until bubbles appear on top; turn and cook for 4 minutes more.  Remove to warm serving platter.  Makes 8 - 10 pancakes.

Serve with additional cranberry sauce and salad.

Something borrowed, something blue....

I picked up a book from the library yesterday showcasing the 2009 Quilt National exhibit.  This is a biennial exhibit that showcases contemporary art quilts.  Now these are beyond anything I hope to do, or can do, or want to do really, but they're pretty amazing quilts and worth looking at.  Here's a link to the website and some photos of the quilts http://www.dairybarn.org/quilt/index.php?section=226&page=240  Over 1000 quilts are entered into the competition and 87 were selected.  Two Canadians made the cut, Anna Hergert of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan (http://www.annahergert.com/Anna_Hergert_Artist/Welcome.html) & Andree Fredette of Saturna Island, BC.  Check it out if you have time.

Now that takes care of the something borrowed so on to the something blue...cool blue that is.



This is a photo of the quilt as shown in the magazine.  Finished quilt is 60 x 76. 
BH &G American Patchwork & Quilting, February 2010, Issue 102.



This is a drawing of my interpretation of that same quilt. 
I haven't quite decided what I'll do with the large white squares in the corner, but there are a number of possibilities - I could free-hand quilt the squares in a pattern that copies the blocks, I could create blue and white crazy quilt blocks, I could sew together strips of blue fabric and cut them so they create a diamond pattern.....etc, etc.  I'm sure you can think of other possibilities too.



So here's the quilt taking shape.  I'm running out of floor space so taking photos is a bit of a challenge right now.  I stood on my sewing chair to get this shot - sorry it's so dark. 
This should give you a sense of what it will look like though. 
The finished quilt will be 80 x 80.



Unfortunately, that's all I have for you today.  Haven't been in the sewing room much this week, something I hope to rectify today...woohoo! 

Mary-Frances

In my garden

Hello all, it's Bloomin' Tuesday over at Ms. Greenthumb's, ( http://msgreenthumbjean.blogspot.com/ ), so thought I'd share a few photos of my garden...Enjoy...



'

Here's the last of my fall/winter containers with the plants I purchased at Home Depot, there's Euonymus in front, a cedar in the back, ribbon grass on the right and two Juncus 'Unicorn' which is this odd upright spiral type of plant.



Here's a closer look at the Unicorn plant.



This is the view from my kitchen window.  The empty containers are ready for their winter arrangements, but they won't go in until mid-November when the pine and cedar boughs are available at the garden centers.




This is what that same area looked like earlier this year.



My pincushion flowers are still going strong.



And of course, the sedum, this variety is Matrona.



You've gotta love those silver plants that look good all season long too, in front is my lamb's ear and a sage is in the back.  The statue is of Saint Francis of Assisi.



Something old, something new...

Good morning everyone, hope the sun is shining where you are.  It's a little grey here today, we had rain overnight but the golds, reds and green in the trees outside are making up for the dullness of the sky. 

Well, this was a weekend of trying new things for me.  I've been following Victoria at

http://bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com/ and all the wonderful folks at http://www.15minutesplay.com/ and was inspired to try something new instead of just thinking about it.  Thank you Victoria for your kind words of encouragement.  Here goes...



My supplies, the something old if you will.  This is all I have left of my scraps because I used to be one of those quilters who threw out the little bits and the selvages...oh well, live and learn, right?  The phonebook page on the left is what I used to piece my block together...something new to me, paper piecing.



Voila, my first ever scrappy paper-pieced block.  I cut out an 8 inch square from the phone book page, changed the stitch length to 1.5 and started sewing...sort of, I still couldn't quite let go of the need to direct what fabric I used....I still think it needs a little something though...

Presto!  Two wonky cuts with a batik insert and the block is done.  I call this my 'kitchen sink' block, because it has everything in it but the kitchen sink....
I know, that's a really bad joke isn't it :-)?



Here's my first ever liberated star.  I thought I'd give it a go and use up some of my little triangles from all the flying geese blocks I made for my Cool Blues quilt (which is coming along nicely I must say...there will be photos later this week).  I took a look at my Freddy & Gwen book for inspiration and opted for a vibrant orange background for my blue star.  I cut the blocks 2-1/2 inches square but I think I'll try a smaller block for the next one...maybe a purple batik with a white star?



Here's a photo of my CQC - canine quilting companion - Max.  He likes to supervise from my corner chair in the sewing room.  He was not impressed with me when I took this photo as I woke him from his nap! 

See you all tomorrow,

Mary-Frances

Run for the Cure and updates...

Good morning everyone, happy Friday. A big thank you goes out to all those taking part in this Sunday's Run for the Cure, especially to my daughter Sarah and her friend Rachel, Sharon in Edmonton and Joyce and Erin in Cambridge. I'll be cheering you on Sunday morning.


Here's what you get when you make a whole bunch of flying geese, lots of little triangles waiting to be made into squares. If any of you have had a chance to check out Kaffe Fassett's latest book 'Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts' there is a quilt called 'Indigo Points' that makes use of small triangles like this. Here's a link to some photos of his quilts in the book -
www.whipup.net/2010/05/12/blog-tour-kaffe-fassetts-simple-shapes-spectacular-quilt/ .

I could also use these small triangles to make liberated stars, a la Gwen Marston. I'd just have to cut some squares and use the triangles to make the star points....mmmh, decisions, decisions...

Here are three blocks done for my Cool Blues quilt. So far, so good. One option for putting them together is to add a 2 inch sashing between the blocks.

Here's another option for putting the blocks together, setting it on point.


Or, I could just follow the pattern as written and put them all together - four rows of three blocks each.

Here's a final shot of my front container, I think it looks much nicer now.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Mary-Frances