The weekend rains have stalled my gardening plans. The Husband and I walked down to the garden yesterday morning to see if the pea rows were drowning. The lower end of the garden was standing in water. And it rained again last night.
If this new batch of peas drowns, I may just give up on peas.
Wonder what crops love to grow in water?
Yesterday morning, I spent about two hours in the garden, digging up crabgrass and moving wood chips to the rows. Came home, showered, and went out for groceries and lawnmower blades. I kind of wanted to go back to the garden after putting the groceries away, but we were taking Nanny out to dinner for her birthday, and I didn't want to take another shower.
The Husband has gone to a funeral this morning. When he comes home, we'll put the new blades on the lawnmower. Nanny's yard needs finishing, and our grass is tall. While he mows, I'm going to finish moving the wood chips. There's about another tractor bucket or two of chips in the original chip pile. Maybe I can talk The Husband into moving it to the garden today so that I can spread it next week.
I'm going to plant some pumpkin seeds today.
When we left the garden Wednesday evening, Nanny handed The Husband a bag of tomatoes - maybe 10 or 12 - that she had picked from our vines. Yesterday morning, as he was leaving for work, he had that bag of tomatoes in his hand. I said, "Whoa! Where are you going with those tomatoes?" He said he was taking them to work. In past years, he's taken vegetables to work when I didn't have the time or the desire to preserve them. But I'm retired now, and while there weren't enough tomatoes for a full canner load, there were enough to fool with. I've worked hard for those tomatoes!
I made him hand them over. The very idea . . . .
I did not can them yesterday, as they need to ripen a little more. I don't know why Nanny felt compelled to pick them.
My gardening plan for yesterday was to (1) plant the marigolds and (2) dig out some crabgrass, but I couldn't get started early for waiting on the cable guy. A little before 10, I heard a truck door slam and looked outside to see the cable company truck parked across the road. A few minutes later, the truck drove away. The TV was showing a picture, so I went to the garden.
I worked for two hours, planting marigolds and digging grass. Around 3:30, I went back to the garden and dug grass and moved wood chips for two more hours. Dinner last night was fried bologna sandwiches.
I'm going back to the garden for a little while this morning, then I have to go buy groceries.
And lawnmower blades.
As I typed today's date, I realized that it's my father's birthday. He would have been over 100 years old, if he had lived this long. He is one of the reasons why neither of my sons are afraid to fix anything that breaks. He is also one of the reasons why they can rattle off some world-class cussin' while they work. ;)
I rattled off a few nasties, myself, yesterday.
The first thing yesterday morning, a technician showed up at our door to do routine maintenance on our air-conditioning system. I'd known for a month - but had forgotten - that he was coming, and I'd planned to get an early start on re-planting the peas in the community garden. It was pushing 10:00 by the time the dude left, and it was already hot.
The peas in the community garden looked better than I expected, considering all the rain. And they'd come up better than I remembered, so there wasn't much re-planting to do. However, the keepers of the garden plot next to mine aren't all that fastidious about weeding, and bermuda grass and assorted weeds had crept across the walkway into my plot (as had their squash vines). I spent 30 minutes or so weeding, and called it quits.
While I was out of the house, I dropped by the garden center (for the marigolds I forgot last week) and the grocery store. It was about noon by the time headed home. On the way, I decided that I would drop the marigolds off in our vegetable garden before coming home to put away the perishables. This was a mistake.
Nanny came out of the house before I made it to the garden with the flat of marigolds. She immediately started complaining that it was too hot for me to be in the garden. I told her that I did not intend to work in the garden until later in the day (which was true), but that I was coming back to mow her yard after I put away my groceries and ate a bite of lunch. While I was there, I checked the ground where the peas need re-planting to see if it was dry enough, and I checked the tomato plants for worms (found two fatties and offed them). On the way through the garden, I found my favorite garden tool, abandoned among the rows after my last garden work, and I used it to dig up a monstrous clump of crabgrass in the squash row. The minute Nanny saw me pull up a blade of grass, she started pulling up grass, squawking the whole time, "It's too hot!"
I wanted to tell her, "Then take your ass back in the house!"
But I didn't. I left, after telling her I'd be back later to mow. She started the "too hot" routine again, but I over-ruled her. The grass was tall; I could hear millions of chiggers murmuring, "Get her." I wanted that grass mowed so we didn't have to wade through it on the way to the garden. She said she'd go to get gas for the mower. I told her we had gas, and I'd bring it when I came back.
She was unloading a gas can from her van by the time I went back to mow an hour later. As I filled up the lawnmower gas tank, she said it was too hot to mow.
It's a riding lawnmower. Much of the yard is shady. I had on my big hat. It was not too hot to mow, nevertheless, she came outside at least three times to ask if I wanted water (I told her the first time that I'd brought water and showed her the cup in the lawnmower's cup holder). Each time, I had to stop, and turn off the lawnmower, and hope it would crank again.
The next time she came out again to tell me it was too hot, I said to myself, "F this." By this time, I'd mowed everything except the long, slightly dangerous strip between Nanny's driveway and the field. I said to Nanny, "I'm quitting. Your son will finish the job tomorrow." I was on my way back to the shop with the lawnmower when I spied a square of grass in front of the shop that I had not finished mowing. It would only take a couple of passes to knock it out. I'd started the second pass when the lawnmower hit something hidden in the tall grass. A metal mole trap. It got hung in the blades, and we could not get it out.
Nanny was hovering, lifting the lawnmower flap, looking under it. She started crying. It was her fault (everything is her fault, you see), and she wished she could do the yardwork herself instead of her kids having to do it, yada, yada.
It was more than I could stand.
I left the lawnmower where it was, came home, showered, drank some water on the back porch, tried to calm down and recalculate my gardening plans. Nanny had irritated the shit out of me from the get-go. There was no way I would set foot in the garden again that day for fear of actually saying some of the stuff I was thinking.
The Husband had a meeting after work, and so I did not cook dinner. Instead, I dragged out the weed-eater-on-wheels, gassed it up, did a little weed-eating around the flower beds and such, nullifying the shower I'd just had. I dreaded telling The Husband that I'd f'd up the lawnmower (AGAIN). He took it well. ("You can just buy me another one." I said ok.) ;)
I ought to be in the garden right now, re-planting the peas, but I'm daresome to set foot in Nanny's yard. When The Husband comes home from work today, we'll go over there together; he can work on the lawnmower while I plant peas, and Nanny will "help" him instead of me. ;)
Sometimes, the smallest things can send you around the bend.
After I retired, my BFF gifted me with a subscription to This Month's Craft. The first shipment was a kit to carve a wooden bird, which I loved. The second was a build-it-yourself miniature coffee shop. This kit was full of tiny pieces that my arthritic hands had trouble assembling; I mailed the kit to my BFF for her to complete. The third was a kit to make hot sauce. Since The Husband is the hot sauce king, I left it for him to do (he still hasn't done it). The fourth was a wire-wrapping jewelry kit, which included two "stones," several packages of wire in various gauges, and two or three pliers to cut and shape the wire. The end result was supposed to be two stones, made into pendants, which could then be strung onto a chain or string (not included in the kit).
The instructions for the first stone said to measure the perimeter of the stone, triple that measurement, then cut 8 strands of .24-gauge wire to that length. The perimenter of the stone measured 3"; thus, 72" (3 x 3 x 8) of .24-gauge wire was needed. However, the package of .24-gauge wire contained only 60" of wire, information that was clearly labeled on the wire package.
Although I probably have a whole spool of .24-gauge wire in my craft stash, I emailed the company, explained the problem, and asked them to send more wire. My thought was that the company needed to know that either their instructions were wrong, or their packagers had put in the wrong pre-packaged wire. In the email, I sent them pictures of the instruction booklet, the stone (alongside a ruler showing how big it was), and the wire package, clearly marked ".24-ga., 60."
Instead of sending me the wire, the company asked for more details about the order. I sent them my BFF's name, assuming they could find all the information they needed. Their response was, "We’ve received your inquiry and are currently checking in with our team to review the instructions and the materials included in your kit. We’ll follow up with you as soon as we have more details." I forwarded their response to my BFF so that she would know what was up if/when they contacted her.
Their next email to me was, "Thank you for providing the details about the wire-wrapping project. I’m so sorry to hear that the amount of 24ga wire included may not have been sufficient for the instructions provided. To help us locate the order and send out the additional wire you need, could you please provide the email address associated with the subscription, as well as the order number? Once we have that information, we’ll be happy to send the missing wire your way." I sent them my friend's email address and forwarded that email to my BFF, who had already sent them the information they requested, based on their first email request.
I waited to hear from them. A week or so later, I received an email from the company that said, "How are you? We haven't heard from you in a while. Just a gentle follow-up, please. 💛" I forwarded that email to my BFF, who said she'd sent them the information they requested. I told them my friend had already responded to their request.
Yesterday, I received the following email: "That’s great to hear she responded! Just to make sure everything goes smoothly, it would be best if [your BFF] could communicate with us directly. That way, we’ll have all her order info on file and can send any replacements or updates straight to her."
This email was followed up by another email, asking me to rate their customer service.
I responded: "On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, I would rate you a NEGATIVE five. My friend sent me this wire-wrapping kit. It did not contain enough .24-ga wire to complete the first step. My stone is 1" x 1/2", so I need 72" of wire to wrap it as instructed. I sent you pictures of the instruction book, the stone (laying alongside a ruler), and the wire package, clearly marked ".24-ga, 60". You have my mailing address, my friend's name, and my friend's e-mail address. Why can't you just mail me the wire? Do you think I'm trying to cheat you? For a few inches of wire???"
Yesterday was sunny and hot, and so muggy that you sweated sitting perfectly still. I worked in the flower beds for a literally hot minute, planting some flower tubers my daughter-in-law gave me - hosta, balloon flowers, crocosmia, and columbine.
Granddaughters 1 and 3 came over mid-morning. #1 worked on her quilt while #3 piddled with fabric and paint.
#1's quilt is going to be so heavy she won't be able to roll over in bed. She used a variety of prints and solids for the top, a spongy fleece-y batting, and minky for the backing, cutting it all in 10" blocks, intending to sew them together with the joining seams exposed on top. Although she used the walking foot for the sewing, the quilt sandwich did not want to go through the machine; the minky more or less just wiggled when the feed dogs moved. We tried putting a sheet of paper under the minky, and the sandwich buzzed right through the machine, but that left bits of paper in the minky (not to mention the waste of good paper). We tried Press & Seal under the minky, but it was a no-go, as it wanted to stick to the machine. Lengthening the stitch length to 4mm, lowering the tension to 3, and "helping" the sandwich through the machine was the answer. By the end of the day, she'd quilted all of the blocks and squared them. Today, she'll start sewing them together.
The skies were clear at sunset, but a couple of hours later, it started to thunder, and lightning flashes were nearly non-stop. It rained heavily during the night, and some of the roads flooded. Farmers and gardeners seriously need a break from all this rain.
Today, I need to go to the grocery store. There's a pot-luck dinner/reunion of Nanny's family this weekend. Everybody's supposed to bring a dish, and I have nothing to cook.
You've heard about the fire ant problem on the hill. They're in our yards and in the fields. We've tried nearly every chemical remedy out there with limited success. Usually, when we poke the hills with a stick the next day, no ants boil out. But, a day or two later, a new hill will spring up a few feet away.
I hate poisons and have tried various home remedies - sugar and borax, dish detergent, etc.
The ants in the garden didn't even investigate the sugar and borax remedy.
Today, as I was frying bacon to go with the season's first tomato (picked yesterday), it occurred to me that fire ants are meat eaters, as is clear from a glance at my ankles. So when that grease cooled down a little, I put a 50/50 mix of borax and bacon grease in a plastic container, poked some holes in it, and set it by a fire ant hill. Thirty minutes later, the ants were investigating it. I don't know if they're actually eating it, or how long it will take to "off" them if they do eat it.
Tomorrow, I'll poke a stick in the hill and see what happens.
This morning, I ran across a video about how to root hydrangeas from cuttings. I stopped it halfway through and went outside, took some cuttings, potted them, and set the pots in the cold frame, which is right in my line of vision when I'm seated at the table on the porch. Maybe I won't forget to water them since they're basically in my face.
How many times have I tried to root hydrangeas? How many ways? I've tried cuttings. I've tried layering. I even tried digging up a sprout that had layered ITSELF. Last year, I thought I'd had some success with three cuttings, but . . . no.
Maybe my luck will change this time.
Took a couple of pics of the yard flowers while I was out. It's phlox time.
I should do some weeding, eh?
Yesterday I picked 7 ripening tomatoes. They were not quite perfectly ripe, but they were low-hanging fruit, and the turtle would have beaten me to them if I'd waited for perfection. I left three of them on Nanny's back porch table and brought the rest home. One had already been tasted by a bird, or something, and had a nasty wound, so I tossed it. But we've still got 3, and there will be BLTs happening soon (with lettuce from the garden, if it hasn't turned bitter).
I just about worked myself to a pulp in the garden yesterday, moving the wood chip mulch into the garden with a pitchfork. Two straight hours of toting and spreading. This has made my butt muscles sore. Every time I take a step, it's like, "ow. ow." Kinda like the walking farts, only silent. There's plenty more mulch to be moved, so there'll be opportunity to work the soreness out, if it ever stops raining.
The purple hull peas haven't sprouted well. We'll probably need to re-plant, if the ground ever dries up enough to work. The whole north end of the garden is a soggy mess right now.
So I'll be stuck in the house for a couple of days, probably working on the lavender quilt. Yesterday I cut all the hexes and background blocks for the hex flowers before I went to the garden. While I was pitchforking, Granddaughter #1 texted me to ask if she could use the sewing room to cut out a quilt. My cup overflowed. ;)
She'd asked for a Hobby Lobby gift certificate for her birthday, and she'd used it to buy quilt fabric. When I came home from the garden, she was at the cutting table, wielding the rotary cutter and rulers like a pro. I stayed out of her way.
She went home for dinner - home is just across the road now, you know - and when she came back, she had #2 and #3 with her. They both grabbed needles, thread, and fabric scraps and started stitching. (Be still my heart!) #3 needed help tying a knot in her thread. For several years, I've been showing her how to wrap the thread around her finger and roll it into a knot, but she just hadn't "got it." Last night when she came to me with her needle and thread, I asked her, "Do you know how to roll a booger?" She giggled and said, "Yeah," and I showed her one more time. She's got it now. :)
#4 had been here with #2 earlier in the afternoon. She came bee-bopping in the door, all full of herself, wearing daisy-shaped sunglasses and a knitted sun dress that was so big on her that her boobies were showing. She's about to go on "bay-cation," and needed me to adjust the dress. I didn't want to cut those knitted straps, so I folded them and sewed buttons on them to make them look like little bows on her shoulders. Her highness was pleased with the result. ;)
I'm having lunch with my former boss today. Although when she retired, we vowed to have lunch once a month, we haven't seen each other since January, for one reason or another. I'm looking forward to seeing her today.
I just wish it would stop raining before time to leave.
We had the best weekend.
The Granddaughters' birthday party started at 2 o'clock Saturday. #3's fondant-covered cake was so heavy that we put it in the truck drove it across the road instead of walking it across. #3 squealed with delight when she saw it.
As you can see, the gymnast's head was a little top-heavy. ;) The little girls didn't care.
On #1's cake, her dad placed a "blooming" birthday candle that, when lit, spun around and played the "Happy Birthday" song. After the cake-cutting, the Little Rotten Baby claimed the candle. She took it outside for a bit, then came back inside and announced, "This thang is still sangin'." I told her mother, "That child is as country as cornbread." Just one more reason why we adore her. :)
We were invited to Son #1's house for Father's Day lunch. I took a pecan cobbler and butter pecan ice cream for dessert. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we sat outside and visited with our daughter-in-law's family before and after lunch.
I gave The Husband a cornhole game set for Father's Day. Hopefully, it will get more use than the pickleball set I gave him for Christmas (which is still in the sealed package).
Between breakfast and lunch yesterday, I went down to the garden to put down some cardboard boxes I'd collected. It had rained during the night, and parts of the garden were standing in water. The low end of the garden may have to be re-planted when the ground dries. Except for that, things were looking pretty good. Tomatoes are ripening on the vines. The butternut squash plants are loaded with squash and are trying to escape the confines of the garden. The summer squash seeds have sprouted well and are growing fast. Ditto on the okra.
When we came home from Son #1's house, we started watching a murder mystery series that a friend had recommended and watched until bedtime. While it was on, I hand-pieced 6 hexagon flowers for the lavender quilt. Since the garden will be too wet to work for a few days, I hope to get those 6 flowers appliqued to their blocks before the week is over.
I was a little afraid that there wouldn't be enough fabric to make all of the blocks, but this morning I cut out the rest of the hexagon blocks, and there were a few more than needed, so all is good in that department. The next thing is to cut the remaining background blocks.
I am trying not to rush through this quilt, but I do hope to get it done before the fabric rots.
My daughter-in-law and I finished decorating The Granddaughters' birthday cakes around lunchtime yesterday.
Our phrase for the day was "It'll be fine." :)
I'd frozen the cake layers overnight, and right off the bat I cut my finger trying to saw off the top of a layer to level it. I bled like a stuck hog. I bandaged it and put on disposable gloves and moved on.
I made several missteps in designing the gymnast cake. Remember that it was to be covered in fondant. The misstep was in making the bottom layer bigger than the top two layers. I don't know why I did that. Someone who knew what they were doing might not have made a bigger layer, or they might have known how to smooth the fondant over the "ledge" and down the side of the bigger layer. But I couldn't. Didn't even try, in fact. I just cut a strip of fondant as tall as the lowest layer and wrapped it around the cake. We covered up the seam and the ledge with buttercream flowers and piping. We went a little over the top sticking stars all over it.
And it was a little lop-sided. The chubby fondant gymnast on top may pull the whole cake over before I deliver it.
Speaking of the chubby gymnast, she was looking fairly young and cute before I put her head on. Following along with a you-tube video, I'd fashioned a neck out of gum paste, and it had dried slightly while I made the head. When I pressed the head down, the neck skin wrinkled. So she's got the smooth, pink face of a kid, and the neck of a Sharpei puppy. I stuck a little star over it to camouflage it. It'll be fine.
I made two batches of chocolate cake batter and, after filling the two 6" pans and one 8" pan, there was enough batter left over for a dozen cupcakes. I frosted those yesterday with peanut butter cream cheese frosting. There was enough peanut butter frosting left over to use as filling between the three layers. I covered the entire cake with chocolate ganache before adding the fondant. The cake may look like heck, but it ought to be really yummy under that nasty fondant.
Granddaughter #1's grape soda cake is free of fondant; it's frosted with buttercream. My daughter-in-law made purple roses and blue forget-me-nots for the top, and she piped some yellow and blue flowers around the sides. Her wrist is in a cast, and she had a hard time doing some of the work.
I'll deliver the cakes tomorrow.
They'll be fine. :)
Yesterday, I spent the day making cake layers and frosting for the birthday cakes. Today is assembly day.
Earlier in the week, I learned that my daughter-in-law once worked at an ice cream parlor and knows how to make and decorate cakes.
I said, "WHAT???"
She's coming over this morning to help. I hope to learn some things from her.
Granddaughter #3's cake (the one that must be covered in fondant) is chocolate, and I do mean CHOCOLATE. It will be three layers. I made a double batch of batter and had enough left over for 12 cupcakes. I frosted them with peanut butter cream cheese frosting. The cake will be frosted with ganache, then draped with pink fondant. I had enough peanut butter frosting left over that I could use it between the layers. Might do that.
Granddaughter #1's cake is a grape soda cake. It is seriously purple. We'll frost it with buttercream.
While I was cleaning up the kitchen, Cousin Myra came to visit. I made a pot of coffee and we shared a cupcake. (That peanut butter frosting is amazing.) When The Husband came home, we all went out for dinner.
Time to start working on the cakes. I'll let you know how it goes. ;)
My goal for yesterday was to fashion at least one acceptable fondant gymnast.
When I looked at all the supplies waiting on the kitchen table, I thought, Not right now, Satan, and I put on my yard clothes and went outside.
I mowed our yard and part of Nanny's yard, moved some wood chips to the vegetable garden, dug up crabgrass from the rows. It was close to 1 p.m. by the time I came home, showered, and sat down at the table to make a gymnast.
The night before, I'd re-watched the video that inspired the work and suspected that the artist was using gum paste even though the supply list said fondant. I had bought some gum paste to mix with fondant to make it stiffer. I decided to try straight gum paste.
And it worked.
I made a little figure, doing the splits, with her arms raised in victory. She's sitting on the table, waiting for a cake. This morning, her arms are still in the air, and her butt hasn't sunk into a globby puddle. While she is not the handsomest little creature, I consider her a SUCCESS and have halted further fondant efforts.
The cake-baking happens today, decorating Friday, eating Saturday.
I presented Granddaughter #3 with her quilt last night. She was tired after a long day of swimming, but she seemed touched by the gift. After the "unveiling," I folded the quilt wrong side out and laid it across the back of a chair at the table, next to where the Little Rotten Baby was sitting, while I visited another minute. The LRB was eating a cookie that had been decorated with purple frosting . . . .
Yep.
Maybe it'll come out in the wash.
At least it's on the back side.
I am not having much success at sculpting cute fondant gymnasts. Yesterday's attempt produced what in real life would be a 70-year-old 500-pounder. I would show you pictures of my sad attempts if they weren't so embarrassing. I'm going to try ONE MORE TIME today.
Tomorrow I will bake the cakes. #3 wants chocolate. #1 wants the same grape soda cake that #4 got for her birthday. The frosting and decorating will happen Friday, cute gymnast or no.
When The Husband came home from work yesterday, he volunteered to start moving the arborist wood chips from the front field to the garden. I pounced on it - strike when the iron is hot, as they say. He moved 6 or 7 tractor buckets full of mulch to the ends of the garden; I pitch-forked it to the rows. There were more wood chips to be moved, but the tractor was almost out of diesel, so The Husband parked it, grabbed another pitchfork, and helped move the chips.
There are about 7 rows of peas, with thin landscape fabric between each row. The landscape fabric gets slicker than owl sh*t once it rains and mud washes onto the fabric. My intention in moving the wood chips was to spread it atop the landscape fabric to cut down on the slipperiness. But these chips are about half leaves, which is great, except that the leaves will be slick when they get wet. I went ahead and piled the chips/leaves on top of the landscape fabric between the rows, but when all the seeds have sprouted, I will probably rake most of it into the rows for weed control.
As we were preparing to leave the garden last night, I said to The Husband, "Let's take the lawnmower home and I'll mow the yard tomorrow." I could tell he was tired, so I offered him the lawnmower so that he could ride home. He didn't protest.
He got on that hateful lawnmower and turned the key ONE TIME, and it fired right up.
I shot the bird at the lawnmower as he backed it out of the shop.
He grinned smugly and said, "Don't be talking bad about the mower. It won't like you."
I said it was a little late for that tip.
As soon as the dew dries this morning, I'll mow the yard and then head to the garden to dig up some grass and finish spreading the wood chips. Then we'll see what we can do about that gymnast.
Late Friday afternoon, I decided it was time to stop pussyfooting around with pencil and paper and actually put scissors to fabric for the lavender quilt. It was kind of scary since I've had this fabric for a while and might not be able to get more if I screw up.
I'd decided that the best way to use this fabric (the one on top - there's only a yard of it) . . .
. . . is to cut it apart horizontally along the different sections. This made 360" of stripes, 180" of daisies, and 144" of lavender field. Experienced quilters will probably know that 360" is enough for a border on a good-sized quilt, but the stripes will finish only 1" wide. I could cut the daisies in half to make 360", but this, too, would finish only 1"+ wide and it would diminish its effect. And I'd probably make a mess of the cutting. Ditto on the lavender field section.
I plan to make "vignettes" with the lavender field section. There's enough of it to make 24 blocks. The stripe will become a narrow border or binding around the quilt. The floral section would be really cute as half-square triangles (making a diamond shape where 4 blocks join), but there's not enough of it.
Here's what I've come up with, so far:
The hex flower block on the right is the first one I made. The flower is just pinned on. It seemed to need something around the flower to make it "pop" against the background fabric. Note that I included the selvedge (through mindlessness) when I cut the background fabric and will need to re-do it.
The vignette block in the middle is not even constructed - it's just pinned together to see how it would look. The vignette didn't "pop" much against a print background, so I tried a white-on-white for the background. I'm not liking it much, so if I have enough of the print background fabric, I may use it, after all.
The hex flower block on the left is nearly finished; I want to do some embroidery in the yellow center but haven't worked out what/how to do it. It would be cute with some french knots or short fringe/chenille, but . . . .
This is going to be a bed quilt. For my bed. I don't want to feel knots and tickle-y fringe when I'm trying to sleep under it. Plus, I don't want to tie 100,000 french knots, and I'd like to get it done before I die. So, the yellow center will get something simple, like blanket-stitching. Maybe.
The hexes and the triangles are being cut with a Go Cutter. The Husband gave me this tool for Christmas at least 5 years ago. I played with it a little bit, and The Granddaughters had a big time running scraps of fabric and paper through it, but I have not used it in a project until now. It's a handy little machine. I haven't tested for the maximum layers of fabric that it'll cut at once, but I already know that it will cut through at least 4 layers of cotton fabric at a time.
I still haven't decided what to do with the daisy sections. I might be able to use it for triangles on some of the blocks - haven't calculated it, yet - but I foresee all kinds of mishaps and miseries in trying to do that.
I may cut more hexes and triangles this week, but the sewing will have to wait, as I have cakes bake and decorate. I played with fondant last week to see if I could sculpt little 3-D girl gymnasts to tumble around the sides and top of #3's cake but made a mess of them. 3-D gymnasts may be a "no go." Yesterday, I printed out some gymnasts and used them to cut out 2-D gymnasts from rolled fondant and painted their features and clothes on them with gel food coloring. This might work. More experimenting ahead.
* * * * * * * *
We did not get any wood chips moved to the garden this weekend. It rained, and we didn't want to rut Nanny's yard with the tractor. It rained again this morning, so there's no telling when we can move it with the tractor. I could move it one wagon load at a time, but - damn, that driveway is long and those wet wood chips are heavy . . . .
The previous post, titled "Watermelons and zinnias," never mentioned them.
Ah, well...it was just for me, anyway, to remind me when I planted them.
For what it's worth, they're in the vegetable garden. The zinnias are between the okra and the cucumbers. The okra will probably shade them, and then the cucumbers will drag them down to the ground. Whatever. I was tee-totally pooped by the time I got to the watermelon seed package. I buried the whole packet of seeds in one mound in the northwest corner of the garden.
I had hoped to get the wood chips moved to the garden today, but it's raining.
Yesterday, after I got back from the greenhouse and planted the peppers, I played with fondant. I made some little gymnast figurines. They were supposed to look like little girls, but they look more like little granny gymnasts. I left them uncovered on the kitchen table to see what the texture would be like when they dried - whether their body parts will fall off when I pick them up, etc. They held together right well. Now, if I can only make them look a little younger. :) Today, with all the rain, is probably not a good day to resume the experiments. But I need to figure it out soon. The birthday party is next weekend.
The vegetable garden(s) did a number on me this week.
Monday, I wheelbarrowed multiple loads of mulch to the community garden plot and planted peas in it. Got a little sunburned.
Tuesday afternoon, I went to our vegetable garden only to see if the soil would be dry enough to work the next day. The ground was dry except in a few spots on the low end. I pulled a few weeds, but my butt muscles were sore from the previous day's wheelbarrowing, so I did not work long.
Wednesday, I worked hard in the garden most of the day. Got a little more sunburned. By bedtime, all of my joints felt like there was sand in them, my skin was hot, and my wasp-stung hand was swollen enough that it looked like it didn't have any knuckles. It itched all night.
Yesterday, I worked in the garden again. It helped work out the soreness in my muscles, but it raised up a big blister in the palm of my "good" hand. (I'll tell Rhett I went riding without my gloves.) There's a purple bruise the size of a lemon on my right knee. I'm guessing the tiller handle got me when it snagged the tomato fence on Wednesday. That was also probably the event that nearly tore my gardening apron off, which I did not notice until later, when the clippers in one of the pockets was bumping me in the knee instead of the thigh. I had to repair it before I went back to the garden yesterday morning.
Today, my arthritic finger is complaining. I don't know if it's from over-use or from the wasp-sting. I'd planned to start practicing with #3's birthday cake fondant today, but this would require a whole bunch of kneading. I may give it a rest today and save the fondant for tomorrow.
I'm telling you ... between the blisters, the bruises, the stings, and the sunburns ... gardening ain't for sissies.
The garden is in good shape, though. For now, it's mostly free of weeds, and all the seeds have been planted. The drizzle that ran me out of the garden yesterday turned into a real rain later in the afternoon. This should bring those seeds right up. There are a few empty spots where I want to plant more peppers. I'll go to the greenhouse this morning to get some.
Might go to the fabric store while I'm out.
Seeds in the ground.
It started to drizzle just as I covered up the last seed.
Yesterday morning, when I came home from running errands, I went to the vegetable garden to plant the purple hull peas and do some weeding. Nanny was already at work in her big straw hat, chopping weeds on the first tomato row.
My main objective was to get the #(@)! peas in the ground before the day was over. The Husband had tilled up the pea patch with the tractor one evening a week or two ago, but it had rained the next morning, and the soil hadn't dried up enough to work until yesterday. The ground was crusty on top, and I decided to till it again - just the rows, not the middles.
The little red tiller would have been perfect for the job, but I couldn't get it to crank. The big black tiller's hand-yank starter cord broke the first time I yanked it this year, and although The Nephew had volunteered to fix it, he had not done so. This tiller has an electric starter, so I pushed it from the garden shed to the shop, where there's electricity. It fired right off. I tilled up 7 rows and then sat down in a lawn chair to rest and drink some water. Nanny took a break, too, and while we were sitting there, a wasp stung me on the hand (he was building a nest under my chair). I came back to the house to ice the sting and put medicine on it. After eating a sandwich, I went back to the garden to plant the peas. Nanny came back out to help. By this time, my stung hand was swollen enough that I had a little trouble getting my gloves on.
We had work on the bicycle-on-a-stick planter to make it drop the seeds correctly. We made quick work of the planting, once we got going. I dug the drills with a hoe, and she came behind me with the planter. When we finished the planting, I started weeding the back side of the tomato fence.
The Husband and I made a big mistake when we set up the tomato fences; we situated the hog wire all the way to the ground, making it difficult to do the weeding with a hoe. We discussed raising the wire at least a foot off the ground, but we never got around to it, and the weeds and grass had taken over and needed to be DUG out, not chopped out. The ground was hard, and I dug with a hand spade for about an hour, making very little progress. I tried the little red tiller again, thinking I'd run it along the fence to loosen the soil. Surprisingly, it agreed to crank, and I was able to get about 75% of the row weeded before I snagged the fence with one of its tines. The tiller objected to cranking again, and I didn't blame her. I was tired and irritable, too. It was 4:30. There were things that still needed doing, but I was pooped. I came back home to await The Husband's arrival from work, intending to draft him for the rest of the chores.
We mostly solved the weed problems around the fences by sliding cardboard boxes under the fence between each tomato, smothering the weeds on both sides of the fence. We then laid down a bunch of landscape fabric in the middles of the pea rows. The Husband asked if I wanted him to start moving the arborist wood chips to the garden, but I was D-O-N-E by then. Hopefully, we'll get to that this evening.
I still need to get the okra, cucumbers, and squash in the ground.
The lavender quilt is coming together . . . on paper. I'm trying to figure out the best way to use the fabric before I put scissors to it. There's only a yard of the fabric that started it all, and that's enough to do what I want to do with it, but not enough to do the whole quilt, so I'm alternating it with another block design to make the quilt bigger.
I have about decided that the alternate block will be a hexagon flower - a yellow center with 6 lavender petals. I'll applique it onto background fabric with some decorative stitching. I can't decide whether to do 7 honking big hexes or a whole bunch of little ones. Hence, the drawing it out on paper. Yesterday, I used some left-over squares from the wedding quilt to make a practice flower. The first attempt turned out badly, but I watched a video and learned how to do it. I'll have to mark seam lines and stitch points on every. single. hexagon, and that will be a pain, so I expect the flower will be a big 6-petal flower. I might hand-piece the hexagon flowers. There will be 24 of them, but that seems like nothing compared to the all the hand-stitching I've done this past 6 months, and I can do it in the recliner while I watch Antiques Roadshow. ;)
I went out shopping for cake-decorating stuff this morning, specifically fondant, for #3's birthday cake. I bought a chunk of white fondant and a chunk of pink fondant and a few bottles of gel food coloring. I am going to color the white and see if I can make little gymnast figurines. The pink is to drape over the cake. In all my years of baking and crafting, I've never fooled with fondant, and I'm expecting problems. But I've painted and know how to mix colors, and I've molded clay and made armatures for people and animals. As long as the fondant, itself, doesn't act a fool, I think I can figure this out.
But not today. Today, I've got to get in the vegetable garden. It's not too late to plant the purple hull peas, but it will be, if I don't get on it. I've already warned The Husband not to get comfortable when he gets home from work, 'cause we're going to the garden. I'm going down there early to run the tiller over the rows, and if I'm not too hot and worn out after that, I may just go ahead and plant the peas. If I can get that done by the time The Husband gets home, maybe he can haul wood chips to the garden with the tractor instead of planting peas.
OMG...I can barely move today.
I was in the community garden by about 8:30 yesterday morning. The 10' x 10' plot had been tilled fairly well in the middle, but the edges were hard and full of grass and weeds. I spent about an hour digging out the grass and hauling it away. Then I filled a wheelbarrow with compost, trucked it to my plot, and spread it. While I worked, some students and their instructor from the agriculture class at the Voc-Tech school showed up to work on their plot. They took turns on a tractor, tilling up another plot. The tractor had a bucket on it, and while the youngsters were driving it, I eased over to the instructor and said, "If you want to teach them how to use the bucket, I could use a couple of scoops of that compost." My plot is in a corner, where space too tight for the tractor, so instead of bringing the compost to my plot, the instructor dumped it inside the gate, and I had to shovel it into the wheelbarrow and truck it to the plot. It took about 6 loads to cover the plot with about 3-4 inches of compost. I planted nothing but purple hull peas.
On the way home, I stopped by the hardware store for a bag of wild bird food. The caked bird food that we smashed with a hammer and put in the fancy-schmancy bird feeder is evidently not to the birds' liking, for they rarely visit it. I came home with the intention of dumping the old bird food out and re-filling the feeder with the new, loose stuff. The caked stuff had re-caked inside the feeder and would not come out. And it was 5 or 6 feet off the ground, where I had trouble reaching it. I had to take the feeder off the pole to get the old stuff out, had to hack it with a knife and jet it out with the water hose. And then I could not get the feeder back on the pole. The bolts wouldn't grip - it was like there weren't any threads in the bolt holes - and they just fell out instead of "catching."
I gave up on trying to re-attach the feeder until The Husband came home. As it turned out, I didn't need to take out the bolts to remove the feeder from its bracket, I just needed to lift it straight up. But in all the jostling in un-screwing the feeder (I dropped it a couple of times), I'd lost some little nuts that had been underneath the feeder. That's why the bolts weren't catching. I searched for the nuts all over the yard but couldn't find them. Fortunately, we have a collection of stray nuts, bolts, screws, nails, etc., and we were able to find four bolts and four nuts that fit reasonably well into the bolt holes. The feeder is back on the pole, with non-sticky bird seed in it.
Granddaughter #3 wants a "cake with fondant" for her birthday. I've never worked with fondant. This morning, I have been watching videos. I think I can do it. I'll be out hunting for supplies today. #3 is into gymnastics, so that's the theme I'll use for the cake.
The wedding quilt is finished. I'm not sure when I started it (some time this spring), but this has to be a personal record for finishing a quilt.
Friday afternoon, I started to work on the wire-wrapped jewelry kit that my BFF sent to me. The kit came with wire, two stones to be made into pendants, and some tools. The first step was to measure the perimeter of the stone, triple that measurement, then cut eight 24-gauge wires to that length. The stone I'd chosen to wrap was flat and thin. It measured 1" x 1/2", for a perimeter length of 3". Triple that, you get 9".
9" x 8 = 72"
There were only 60" of 24 gauge wire in the kit. I emailed the company, sent pictures of the stone, the instruction manual, and the wire package (which was clearly labeled "24ga" and "60 inches"), and asked for more wire. Someone answered the e-mail right away, saying they'd check into it and get back to me. I put away the wire-wrapping stuff and spent the rest of the afternoon putting the sewing room back in order - sort of.
Saturday, I worked in the yard. I cleaned off a spot for a new flower bed and seeded it with six packages of dollar store flower seeds. Mid-afternoon, I got a text from the guy who manages the community garden, along with a picture of the plot I worked last year, wondering if I could get a crew together to plant something in last year's plot. The picture showed nothing but weeds in the plot. I worked last year's plot on behalf of the County government, where I was employed at the time, but I did not intend to work it this year, and I'd told them this. Nevertheless, I told the garden manager, "If you can get the Ag Class to till it up for me, I'll plant something in it." Before the afternoon was over, he sent another picture of my plot, all weeded and ready to plant. I'm going to fill it up with purple hull peas today.
