Summer baskets

This basket block has been on my bucket list for a while now.  It's from Liberated Quiltmaking II by Gwen Marston.   She shows you how to make a block and attach the handle, then you just kind of wing it from there.  The border fabric from Joann's dictated my color scheme, and the addition of some linen in the background of 3 of the blocks neutralized it a bit.
I only made nine of them, enough to satisfy my need to try it out.  This one measures  40x34 inches, perfect for a wall hanging or baby girl quilt.

There's a lot going on here at Pieceful, so I may be absent for a while.  Enjoy what's left of this summer and I hope to keep up with my visits to your blogs!

Picnics, books and paper piecing

Friday night we went to Durst Winery and had a picnic.  There was salami, cheese, olives, deviled eggs, bread and fruit and mini pies from the farmers market.  We drank wine and listened to the band and talked until the sun went down and the mosquitoes came out.  It was cool for once and it turned out to be a really nice evening.  Thanks to my sister in law Karen and her guy Gabe for suggesting it and meeting us there.  There are so many great wineries within 20 minutes of our house we really should take advantage of this more often.

I've barely been in the sewing room except to retrieve a pair of scissors or iron a blouse.  I read this book, and now I'm off on a tangent reading about Permaculture, here and here.  If you like to garden, this is heady stuff.  I feel as though everything I have ever learned about gardening is all wrong, and I'm blown away by how simple and natural it can all be.  Who knew.
 I'm shamelessly copying this quilt (scroll down a bit when you get there).  I ran out and bought a few fat quarters to add to my red stash.  I would like something to show for this handwork by Christmas, but who am I kidding.  It's going to be a long slow project, and if I did nothing else, I could maybe have a table runner by the holidays.

Lastly, there has to be a place in my yard for this.  If only I could make a chicken coop like I can make a quilt.  I would have coops all over my yard!  A whole chicken village with flowers and pathways and ponds, maybe some ducks too......... 
Sigh.

I have to go vacuum dog hair.
See ya :)

Busy not sewing

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen last week.  In the garden too.  I'm trying to keep up with the weeding because it will mean less clean up come the end of Autumn.
This risotto recipe was delicious.  I added some zucchini and served it with a salad.  I will be making that again for sure.
I bought two nice bowls and a calico apron, (you know the kind that crisscross in the back?) during a thrift store shopping trip. I really like that blue bowl.
Then I made some granola, using a combination of this recipe and this one. I love to see that big jar sitting on the kitchen counter.
The pumpkins that sprouted from the compost pile are slowly ripening (there are 4 so far), and the cantaloupe are ridiculously sweet. 
The cherry tomatoes are plentiful, yet four feet away, my regular tomatoes are struggling.  The yellow and red peppers are doing great, but my jalapeno plant had exactly 3 peppers and looks like it's done.  That's gardening for ya.  You just never know.
I picked basil and sage, dried them in a 200 degree oven on cookie sheets then packed them into old glass spice jars.  Next week I'll dry rosemary, but not in the oven.  The last time I tried it, my oven and everything I cooked in it afterwards reeked of rosemary for at least a week.  It put me off of using rosemary for a while.  
I'm slowly quilting a small basket quilt and made a few pink blocks (more on that later) for my next scrap quilt, but I just haven't been in the sewing room much at all.  I felt like I needed break, so I'm just going with it.  Hopefully I'll get back into some sort of rhythm here soon.
It's August!  Fall is right around the corner.  Yippee! I can't wait :)