Gardening - the rest of the story...

So, the cabbage got delivered and dumped onto the table.  Oh boy.  

See the food processor in the background (right side)?  It's kinda dwarfed, wouldn't you say!?!?

Candace continued to be my helper, filling the processor, pushing button, filling processor, pushing button...  quite the tedious process :\

Eventually, she tired of it, so Cassie took over for a bit...until it eventually was handed back to me.

And our Christmas present could FINALLY come out for its intended purpose!  This was a present given to Paul by my parents;  what a terrific gift!!!

So...Cassie and I were shredding....Paul was stamping (stomping? tamping? whatever the term is) the cabbage/kraut.........and then we hear from our open window....

"Got any cabbage?"

LOL!  A coworker (actually husband and wife work at the school) and the family snuck into the driveway, unnoticed by all of us.  Paul had invited them to stop over to pick green beans, and they did!!!

 Wife Audrey (HS SpEd teacher), Husband Dan (4th grade teacher), daughter Frances (4th grader)....

and other daughter Meredith (who will be venturing into my 7th grade math class in a few weeks)...

They walked away with a few buckets of beans;  with everyone all the happier.  Me, because the beans were still producing AND getting used; and them because they had free beans :)

And then the rest of the afternoon was spent around the kitchen table ( ....yeah...I was STILL shredding cabbage!!!!! ), and we all visited with each other. 

By the time they left (5:30PM), the final bit of cabbage was shredded...and Cassie took over stomping the cabbage for kraut.  LOADED crock!  And we STILL have lots of cabbage out in the garden.  (See, I'm not the ONLY one who over plants.  The cabbage plants are all Paul's babies!)

A weight wasn't included with the crock, so Paul improvised by placing a layer of plastic wrap on top, with a "weight" of the base of our cake stand.

Dinner is finished;  a shower has been had.  And now, I'm enjoying a small bowl of ice cream.  Just a bit ago, trying to remember everything from this afternoon....I suddenly groaned to Paul..."ugh!  corn yet."

His response, "I know."  And he went back to eating his ice cream... so I don't know what that means.  If he'll take care of finishing up the sealing process.... or what.

But....

**shrug**

Wall-E is on ABCFamily right now;  the girls are glued to the screen.  I have my prepped labels sitting next to me waiting to be traced, so.... that's my plan right now.

Happy Saturday evening.

Gardening - A Family affair

I have a few moments of downtime to catch up on the morning harvest so far.

Today:  cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, cabbage, peppers!  A full load!!!

And we all knew today was going to be a full garden harvest day with EVERYONE helping out.

Candace and I are starting to get hit fairly bad with allergies;  ragweed is reaching full bloom! Ugh!

And thankfully Paul is understanding the sheer MISERY we face when needing to be outside in or even NEAR the weeds!  So, Paul, Cassie and Caitlyn started the day by picking ripe cucumbers and tomatoes before heading to the corn field.

This way, Candace and I could start the preservation tasks INSIDE the house!

6 1/2 years old, and truly getting to be a helper.  I showed her once how to prep the cuks for relish and off she went....

...while I stuffed jars for Dill pickles.  BUT, these cuks...they were taken back out.  I couldn't see using a jar for only FOUR pickles!  Besides, I have a large gallon full of Giant Dills from a few weeks ago anyway.  

With the dill pickles in the water for the hot water bath, Candace and I moved onto peeling tomatoes.

LOL!  Doesn't the face say it all???  And I quote..."Mom, this is kinda gross!"  BUT, she kept plugging away so that I could core and cut them up for a batch of pizza sauce.

In the meantime, Paul, Caitlyn and Cass had already picked rows and rows! of corn and were in the process of shucking - blanching - cooling.    Slightly cooler, drizzly morning.  Cassie grabbed the hooded sweatshirt.  Sorry for those of you in the South who are yet AGAIN fighting hot temps!!!

Back inside, Candace was putting the tomatoes in the little processor to puree up for pizza sauce.  I swear....she INSISTED on smiling in every picture this morning.  Whew----still having fun!

By the time I had the pizza sauce cooking and in jars for the next hot water bath time, Paul was instructing Cassie on using the electric knife to cut the corn from the cobs.

With a small window of time available, I used up some of the sauce that didn't fit into a full jar to make up some bagel pizzas.  If you haven't tried them before----they are SIMPLE and quite delicious.  

Simple directions:

1 - toast the bagel (I like doing this so they don't get so 'soft' from the sauce)

2 - "plug the hole"  (LOL)  NOT required, but certainly easier for clean up.  I usually just use a piece of meat (pepperoni today -- we've also done sausage)

3 - top with sauce, cheese and meat

4 - Broil on low for a few minutes until the cheese melts to your liking

Once lunch ended, Paul, Cassie and I got busy finishing the corn by cutting the rest of the cobs, filling bags (we use vacuum seal 'bags') and placing the bags in the freezer for a few hours.  We do this step before sealing them as to freeze up the milk juice.  The first year we froze corn, we (Paul) sealed the corn right away, and the milk would get sucked up from the vacuuming and would hinder the sealing process :\  So now, we freeze them up a bit before sealing so that the juice doesn't 'get in the way.' (newbies always learn better methods after the first year!)

ALRIGHT!! Break time is over!  Here come Cassie and Paul with a load of cabbage.  My next "inside" task is to shred up the cabbage for Kraut! (YUM!)  

So far today -- 

5 halfpints relish

10 halfpints pizza sauce

3 quarts kill pickles

and LOTS of bags of corn

Sewing with Bonnie - Friday night

WOW! It truly is different quilting with "someone," even if that someone (or someONES!) are across Internet waves.  Tonight... I had my own little retreat in my sewing room with Bonnie, Andee, Angela and Nancy all via my laptop.

My goals for the evening;  bind and label two QOVs that need to get mailed out SOON!  

Okay.... well, I PREPPED both bindings.  And I PREPPED the labels (the blank white fabric ironed to freezer paper in the lower left of pic).... but that's about it.

My Christmas Goose units were simply calling out my name too much.   

And now... all 20 are finished.

Not sure when I will complete the binding on the quilts because I predict MUCH of tomorrow being dedicated to the garden/harvest/preserving.

Happy FRIDAY everyone!

RWB all over the place!

Today, with inspiration and motivation BACK in action, I was busy, busy, busy quilting Old Glory in-between loads of laundry.  KNOWING I had LOTS of laundry, I set the alarm clock on my phone for every 45 minutes so that I wouldn't get "lost downstairs" all day.  Worked like a charm, 'cept for the one time when I was SO tuned into my quilting that the alarm nearly gave me a heart attack and I made a little 'oops' in the quilting!  I've lost track of how many loads I've done....maybe the 8th is in the washer???  (Yeah, it got a bit out of hand the past two weeks!)

I tried out a new pantograph on Old Glory:  Pageboy.  It's extremely repetitive, wouldn't you say?  I'll have to think some more on how much I like it and what types of quilts to use it on.  I LOVED the actual quilting of it;  a nice-n-easy loopy pattern that went rather quickly.

I never showed a close up of the quilting on Star Harbor the other day.  Pantograph:  Climber.  A very forgiving panto, and not so repetitive/linear looking.

So now, I am resting my back for a bit with a sit-down before needing to make dinner and start my evening goals of labels and binding in order to get these out to Karen, the Wisconsin QOV contact person.  Bonnie is giving the impression that she is going to be on QuiltCam tonight, and I can't wait to have a sewing-buddy while I'm working away this evening.

Found this the other day:  figured it would hit home with a few of us :)

Happy Weekend!

Losing steam...

Yup.  Tired today.  Sadly, still having lingering thoughts on the blah from yesterday, I think.  I know I'm not alone when I say I WISH I had an on/off switch!

I'm hoping some Beegees will get me into the mood!  Playing on Spotify right now: "STAYIN' ALIVE!"  (Sooo needed right now!)  (haven't heard of Spotify?  If you are a Facebook user, check it out!  FREE music; and they have just about EVERY artist and song that has ever existed!)


At least I did have about an hour of happiness last night while watching Bonnie on Quiltcam!  (and laughing while chattin' away with Andee!)


Thankfully the tomatoes need another day of ripening before I need to process them.  No ambition today for that.  **sigh**

The design wall is seeing slow leader-ender progress;  a few more "C" block gaps ....

But right now, the "C" blocks are fighting with some Christmas Goose units in the leader-ender area.

Under the needle: Old Glory, blanket stitching the applique stars.  

**Stretching**  **yawning**

I think I need a change of pace today.  Beach maybe?  Maybe a walk outside will help?

On another note: when I was snapping pictures around the quilting room, I saw THESE hanging on the back of Cassie's sewing chair.  So, I schlepted them upstairs and had her pose.  Great progress on her self-designed quilt!  The Fab Five.  But even she isn't down with me in my quilt room right now;  she has the duty of going through her clothes and cleaning her room today;  she wants to spend the night tomorrow at a friend's house, so that's the deal.  

Bleh......

Moving on...

While trying to keep my mind occupied on other things today.....I sat in my chair, in front of my machine...and pieced....

Old Glory

And even today, the Quiltmaker ScrapSquad posted a variation of the original of this pattern (Jen's rendition).

Now that I see it in a picture, I'm not a huge fan of all the lighter blue strips, but I still hope it can make for a nice QOV quilt.  I had to alter the borders; I didn't have enough of any one red in my stash to make the border as called for :(   

Karen of the Wisconsin QOV has put an all-call out for some quilts, so I am hoping to send out Star Harbor, Star Path and now Old Glory for her to use at some upcoming Wisconsin-area QOV presentations.  SORRY ALYCIA!!!! But know that I will be 6 quilts into my 12-challenge!

My self-set goal:  all three in the mail by this Friday.  Quilting to do on Old Glory, and binding to go on the other two.  Should be do-able .

A 33-minute phone conversation with Mom...

I'm sorry...but no matter HOW old you get.....Mom is still Mom!  And when she's needed.....I'm thankful mine is still there!

What

A

Day!

I internalize anything that has my name attached to it!  I put my BEST WORK forward.  I pride myself on a strong, motivated work ethic. I pride myself on GOOD products that have my name on them.  Do you get the drift that I want my name to bring on comments of dedication, pride, work ethic, ...

So, this morning, when I come in from picking tomatoes and after a few moments of quilting...I check my phone at 10:30...showing a missed call and 2 texts.  :|  That's not the norm for MY phone.

Missed called:  school office
Text #1:  Teacher colleague #1 -- "Are you here at school?"
Text #2:  Teacher colleague #2 -- "Are you ok?  Where are you?"

Uhoh....this can't be good.
So I call the office.........only to be informed that I was scheduled to PRESENT today at 10:00 and 11:00 at our school's Technology Institute.

?!?!?!?!?!!?

WHAT!  How did I miss THAT one?!?!?

So, with my heart beating out of my chest and my body reacting to a sheer panic....adrenaline painfully shooting through my arms (does that happen to anyone else?!?!)....I pull up my school email account to see what on earth I might have missed;  maybe an unread attachment?????  I knew ABOUT the Institute today, and I am (was?) a member of the technology committee, but really didn't have any intentions in being a participant, despite a stipend being offered to participants and presenters.

I couldn't find anything.  Nothing.  Nada.  No email.  No phone call.  No text.

In the next hour, a few emails were sent between myself and other individuals involved.   And in the end, some ownership was claimed ... "I knew you hadn't received any emails about this."

My thoughts are SCA-REAMING comments right now based on that line, but I've been attempting to "let it go...let it go....let it go."

But again....for ME....it comes down to:  MY NAME WAS LISTED ON THAT PROGRAM!  And I was never contacted.


So, yeah.......after hours of continual fretting, wondering if a legitimate mistake was made.....or if a growing target is on my back.......I finally called Mom.   THANKS MOM!!!!!


I can't BUH-LIEVE my job truly may lead me to therapy!!!!!!

And thanks for letting me vent to all of you who have read down this far.
Commenting has been removed from this post.  If you really want to talk to me, my email is open.

Tiny Tuesday: #25 Guiding Star

GAH!!! HIT ME!

I'm still plugging away on the midget blocks, cutting, piecing, appliqueing, paper-piecing......

MISTAKING!!!!!

but.... I'm not the least bit interested in ripping out these mistakes to have a "correct" block; they'll simply be staying that way and become part of the maybe-someday-huge final quilt :\

Do ya see 'em?????

bleh.......