Friday Happenings

Let's give this another try.  Sometimes I cannot believe how stupid I can be.

Life is grand!!!  It has been a busy and fun week with lots going on around here.  It started off with a high school friend and her husband visiting from Oregon.  It was so much fun.  Sandy happens to be an extremely talented fiber artist so it was a thrill to see what she is currently working on.  As well, another high school friend who lives in our general area joined us for a day and brought some of her beautiful hand dyed fabrics.  There is so much inspiration to gain from get togethers like that.  I did not want the time to end.  Did I take any pictures????  Of course not!!!  What was I thinking?

The sewing studio has been beckoning me this week.  Perhaps it was the extra motivation (as if I needed any) of creative friends that got me going.  Wanda always has such wonderful projects in the works.  She uses so many of her fabrics and I always love what she creates.  She is currently working on triangle quilt blocks with a lot of batik fabrics.  I decided to give a few of my batiks a try.  Although I am not sure about this block, I do think that I will make a few more to be sure.  I may have to resort to Wanda's blocks for them even though I know that mine will never be as stunning as hers.  I think I need to shop in her stash.  Somehow I just love scrappy quilts.

I managed to get more blocks finished in a project that has been in the works for awhile now.  Again, it is scrappy, but I am loving the way it is coming out.

My September barn block is done.  This was a great quilt block for the barn and I am looking forward to the final installment next month.  It will be fun to see these all together in a quilt.

I would really like to start a new project that Barb has just finished up.  It is called Orange Slice.  Quilt Taffy had a package of the great orange fabrics for sale a while back, but they were sold out before I could get them.  I have since been saving all of my orange fabrics.  It should go up quickly.

Another project that I am excited to get to is some flowers with some wonderful threads that I won from Tonya a few weeks ago.  I'll share them with you when I get them done.

Also completed was some sewing for my niece's upcoming wedding.  She had requested of me to design jackets for the junior bridesmaids.  The picture is awful because the fabric had a sheen to it.  It was so slinky and there was a ton of hand basting and undersewing.  They need to be professionally pressed, but I am glad to be finished with them. 

Sewing for the wedding reminded me of the bridesmaid "bouquets" that I made for our daughter's wedding three years ago.  I did purses for them to carry.  This shows them done with silk flowers, but for the wedding the florist put in hot pink Gerbera daisies.  They really looked great and gave all of the girls a place to carry their personal items.

This week has also seen several days of canning tomatoes.  They are FINALLY ripe!!!  What a summer it has been.  By the time you spend two full days of peeling, seeding and chopping tomatoes you really don't care if you ever see another tomato.

But....... we have frozen cups of fresh tomatoes that are now vacuum sealed and ready to use in sauces or in our favorite meal - seared ahi with a ponzu sauce.  YUM!

As well we have canned tomatoes and chili sauce.  Why is it that after a full day of preparation you only have nine jars of chili sauce.  The house surely smelled great afterwards.  DH asked me if I was ready for the next batch of ripe ones to be brought inside.  WHAT???

The weekend plans are for a bridal shower and then home to start canning the peaches and pears.  Anyone want to volunteer to help????

Have a great weekend.