Peachy!

Yesterday was a peach salsa-making kind of day!

The last time I made this was two years ago...we'd run out of it a while back and every time we passed a fruit stand Mr. P would ask me, "Are you going to make peach salsa this year?" So I did.

 

Fifteen jars!

 

Yum! I already tried it out last night. Gotta do quality control. If you want to make your own batch, you can find the recipe here.

 

You know what else is peachy? Missy Higgins. I love her music!

In other, quilt-related news... I finished the Patisserie quilt top. This is actually the Coming Home pattern from Camille Roskelley's book Simplify.

 

If you saw my first version of the top (in the previous post), you'll see that I changed a few blocks around. I wanted more of the Xs but I had made it look like Os. I like this one much better.

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I also made the Halloween Cat wall-hanging from the kit I bought on the weekend.

Isn't it cute!

Now I have two projects ready to be quilted...and just one day left before I have to go back to work. Boo hoo.

The 'Bridge

Mr. P and I took a road trip for a couple of days. He had some meetings in the south and I hung out with my friend Kim in Lethbridge. It is where the OnlyChild will be going to university (that didn't have anything to do with our trip this week) and it's - usually - a five-hour drive from where we live.

We took the scenic route because Mr. P didn't want to drive on the highway. The scenery really was beautiful, but I didn't have my camera (and I'm quite sure my need to take photos would not have been indulged anyway). I scouted the internet so you could see what I saw on the drive.

We travelled through some small towns:

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Past the Hoo Doos:

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Through Dinosaur Land:

 

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Then to outer space...?

 

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Taking the scenic route cost us some time. It ended up taking us six hours to get to our destination! But at least we didn't have the aggravation of highway traffic on those seldom-travelled back roads.

I spent Thursday with Kim and her girls (go over to Kim's blog and tell her it's time she started posting again). Of course we went to a quilt shop!

I picked up some more reds for my bow tie quilt.

 

I also got about .65m of a Patisserie print to do the borders on my little quilt (you can see it in the bottom right-hand corner of the photo). This was the only print from this line left in the store! I put the blocks together when I got home this afternoon and should have the top done this weekend.

And remember when I made the Little Lamb? I got a Halloween kit to hang from the same stand. I'm so excited about it that I plan to put it together right away. The snowman kit on the right was a gift from Kim last Christmas and it fits the same stand, so now I'm set for the next couple of holidays!

After the quilt shop, we took a little drive in the country to visit a lovely antique shop. I spent a whopping $10 on these three spools.

All in all, a very quick but fun trip. I'm going back down to the 'Bridge next weekend to take the OnlyChild to school. That is a lot of driving!

Small project and new project

The OnlyChild and I have been packing and cleaning. She's getting ready to go to university in a city 5 hours south! I'm not sure it's sunk in quite yet that she will be leaving.

No more dishes left all over the house. No more baskets overflowing in the laundry room. No more backpack left right where I'm sure to trip over it.

And no more Friday Night Sew-ins with my girl. Or impromptu shopping trips. Or silly movies when we're home alone. Or fashion consultations (how will I dress myself?).

What am I going to do? It is going to be so weird without her around.

While we were doing some clothes-sorting this afternoon, we found this old t-shirt of hers and decided to make it into a pillow for her dorm room.

With a bit of Kona brown and a couple of buttons from Paris, it made a cute little pillow...perfect for a journalism student!

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I also started a new project - another baby quilt. This time I'm using a Patisserie charm pack that Jen sent me ages ago and some Kona parchment. I had been "saving" the charm pack until I found the perfect little quilt pattern. So far I really like it, but I need to find some fabric for the borders, perhaps some hard-to-find Patisserie yardage...or not. I really need to cut down on my online fabric shopping now that I have to pay tuition!

I also have to keep busy so I don't spend too much time thinking about my baby chick leaving the nest...

p.s. This post was linked to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. 

FNSI Results

Baby Bow Ties - Finished!

All washed and snuggly, and ready to be given as a gift. I hope one of my pregnant colleagues has a boy!

An easy and relaxing finish for Friday Night Sew-In.

Pets on Quilts

Have you heard about the Pets on Quilts contest over at Sew Cal Gal?

I have decided to enter DerbyDog in the contest. He's been my faithful quilting friend this summer. DerbyDog is really Mr. P's baby. But Mr. P has been doing quite a bit of travelling over the past few months, which means DerbyDog and I have spent a lot of time together. He follows me around the house (even to the bathroom!) and snuggles when I have a lap for him. He also sleeps on my feet when I'm at the computer and (dangerously) behind my chair when I'm at the sewing machine. He thinks every quilt I make should be his, and my Green and White sampler, finished in January, was no exception.

There will be lots of Pets on Quilts on display this weekend over at Sew Cal Gal. DerbyDog (and I) would love it if you would vote for us! And if you'd tell all your friends about how cute he is *wink wink*.

Thanks!

Friday Night Sew-In, August Edition

Don't forget... tonight is the Friday Night Sew-In

I missed July's because I was in San Antonio. Tonight I'll be finishing the Baby Bow Tie quilt.

Terrible, terrible photo - my camera's on the fritz

so I'm taking pics with my phone

I quilted it and sewed on the binding last night (completely by machine - I'll never do that again!) so tonight's job is to weave in all the threads. Easy!

Hope you're planning to join us.

Twenty Roses

Mr. P brought home a nice surprise for me yesterday.

Twenty Roses - one for each year we've been married.

I certainly wasn't expecting anything since we don't usually "do" anniversaries. Most years we go out for dinner.

Aren't they beautiful!

Twenty

That's how many years I've been married...as of today.

Wow, time flies!

I'm trying to come up with a new story so I can preserve my age. How about: it was an arranged marriage that took place when I was nine...? No? Oh well.

Here are Mr. P and me shortly after we first met. We lived in the same residence at university. He was soooo cool! And he had great muscles.

I thought he liked my roommate, Melody. She was (still is) a crazy redhead. But, no, he liked the dorky little brunette.

We went to a movie together a few days after we met - Mr. P, me, Melody and another friend, Bobby (I wonder where he is now?). We saw Casualties of War, a very violent film about the Vietnam War. I fell asleep sitting cross-legged on the seat. I probably snored and drooled. Mr. P probably thought it was adorable. Ha.

Twenty years, one child, and about half a dozen moves later, we're still plugging along. Being married is hard work, isn't it?

Sewing Day!

My friend Kim was in town this past weekend, so I went over to visit her with my sewing machine.

I helped her finish a quilt top for her youngest daughter:

These photos, taken with my phone, don't really show off the vibrant colours. That first border is lime green!

I also worked on some more Bow Tie blocks.

My container is slowly filling up... I have 108 blocks completed so far.

In other news, I finished my master's course! Hurray! I submitted my final paper last night. I hope we get our marks back by the end of the week. I have ONE course left in this degree. One! I am registered for that last course this fall.

Now I have to get on with the school work I brought home...only two more weeks until I go back to work :(

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my OnlyChild who is 19 today!!!



At four years old, heading to ballet class.

Have a wonderful day!

xoxo

 

Extra Extra!

I added one extra row to my baby bow tie quilt.

DerbyDog was eager to help me decide on block layout.

And then he helped me pick out some fabric for the borders. He chose the dark blue with polka-dots.

So now the baby bow tie is a good-sized quilt at 36" x 36".

I'm not quite sure how to quilt this one. Any suggestions?

Baby bows

In between my last Bow Tie block-making session and today, when I finally went to buy more red fabric, I started another little project.

I wanted to try making scrappy Bow Ties so I whipped up a baby quilt using some bright-coloured, novelty fabrics.

This is small (24" x 30") so it's going to need some borders, but I think it will make a nice gift for a new baby.

And here are the reds I found at the quilt shop. There wasn't much of a selection in fat quarters but I'm happy with these four for now. I'll try the other quilt shops and see what they have.

I also found another nice red print in my stash, left over from making Anne Sutton's A Tisket A Tasket BOM last year. I made four more Bow Ties out of it.

These blocks are a bit addictive...and kind of mindless, which is exactly what I need right now!

75 Bow Ties

I might have to make a quilt shop run for more reds...

Chain Gang

I feel like a prisoner, stuck up here in my little room. I've been working lots of hours on both the master's course I'm taking and on new learning materials for the courses I'll be teaching in the Fall. Ten hours and counting today. I need a break...and I need to avoid answering the phone because Mr. P keeps calling me from work and asking me to run errands. "Well, you're home all day..."

Sheesh, I bet I'm working harder than he is.

Anyway...every once in a while I put the books and papers aside and do a little something fun. And, in keeping with the prisoner theme, I've been on the chain gang - that is, I've been doing a bit of chain piecing.

I have 43 Bow Tie blocks done and when I finish this pile, I should be near 100. They're repeats of the first lot, though, since I ran out of unique red fabric. This will not be a charm quilt.

(I ordered a couple of prints from the Fat Quarter Shop. Shhhh.)

Not much else happening around here. I always think I'm going to have soooo much time to do what I want in the summer then it just races by. Before I know it, I'll be back at school... I don't want to say the S-word too loudly...