Short Attention Span Girl

Progress Report

Posted April 30th, 2012 by marcella and filed in garden

Well, I didn’t get as much done on my basket blocks as I had hoped. I did finish the embroidery for the May block so that one is now completely done.

Nearly all of my quilting time this week was spent quilting my April ufo project. I picked a rather involved pattern for the quilting and then had a time finding a marking tool that would show up on all those different fabrics. Then, that involved pattern took a long time to mark. Know that that means?

Yep, anything that takes a long time to mark also takes a long time to quilt. Oh, and lots and lots of bobbins. Probably more thread than you thought too, meaning you will be on a roll and run out of thread and have to scramble out the door to the quilt shop before it closes to get more. Learn from me people!

But, the quilting is finally finished!

And there is the view from the back. The front is still covered in magenta ink and it’s just a little distracting. Today’s job is to bind it and wash it and then I promise a picture of the front.

I’m sure the other BOM rehab quilters have great things to show you so hop over to Pink Pincushion.

Over at Judy’s you can see all kinds of wonderful quilts that people are working on this week.

- – marcella

Beautiful Spring

Posted April 18th, 2012 by marcella and filed in garden

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After many grey days and some wild rainy weather we finally had a sunny weekend. We spent some time outside in the sunshine at Filoli enjoying all the spring blossoms.

California poppies are one of my favorites and they were scattered about the gardens.

Most plants have labels, but this flower is a mystery. Maybe Dr. Seuss blossom?

Some of the trees still had blossoms, like this apple tree.

This pear tree has moved on to setting fruit. A little baby pear.

The bees were working hard everywhere. This was the only ladybug I spotted though.

The camellia’s were all in bloom brightening up the shade garden.

Out in the parking lot the sign on this tree said Chestnut. Is that really what is inside those spiky balls?

There were quite a few wild turkeys running around under the oak trees enjoying the spring weather too.

Hope spring is beautiful where you are.

- – marcella

Today’s View

Posted February 29th, 2012 by marcella and filed in garden

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This is what is going on in our backyard right now.

Eight deer came for a visit. Maybe leap day is a holiday for them.

- – marcella

Birthday Finish

Posted December 1st, 2011 by marcella and filed in garden

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Last December I gave my husband half a gift for his birthday. I know, tacky. However, try as I might I just could not finish the quilt in time. Instead of a lovely finished quilt, he got a basted together quilt for his birthday.

He was gracious about it, but still, not a very exciting gift.

Now you know I am not the swiftest quilter. A quilt a year is my goal; two quilts is a fantasy. I marvel at those quilting bloggers who whip up a quilt in mere days. Quilters who complete dozens of quilts in a year – or a month. That’s just not me. I get distracted too. I start working on one thing and then something else comes up and the current project gets pushed aside.

That happened to the birthday quilt many times this year.

Then I decided that I really, really needed to finish his quilt before his birthday hit again. It would just be too sad to still have last birthdays gift unfinished when this years birthday rolls around.

So, I set a goal to get it quilted and bound by the end of November.

Here’s a close up so you can see that it really is quilted. I did double straight lines through the checker board and cables in the navy strips. All the checker board fabrics are batiks, mostly from a bali pop. The navy is a mode marble fabric. The quilt is bound in the same navy. The backing is an ivory and tan pin striped flannel.

Here’s the whole thing from a wonky floor view. I made the quilt for my husband to wrap up in so there’s no hanging sleeve which makes photographing it tricky.

The pattern is Cobblestones from Debbie Caffery’s book Open a Can of Worms – which really has nothing to do with worms – but uses 2 1/2″ wide strips of fabrics. The finished quilt measures 68″ x 81″

The quilt is in the washing machine right now to remove all the quilting design marks. It should be really ready for my husband when he gets home from work tonight.

Now, time for a finished quilt happy dance!

- – marcella

Garden

Posted June 24th, 2011 by marcella and filed in garden

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People around here have been complaining about the weather. Our usually hot week in May? Didn’t happen. What happened instead was cold and wet and filled with too much rain. Even June started out cold and dreary.

It’s one of those years where the garden harvest is uncertain because of the late start.

The past two weeks have been really nice with even some hot days tossed in for good measure. I went out to water the plants and saw this,

I have never had a ripe tomato before mid-July.

Weird

- – marcella

Out in the Garden

Posted June 27th, 2010 by marcella and filed in garden

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Well, not in my garden. That would be a short entry with many weeds and a few deer.

This was a real garden tour put on by the local Master Gardner’s group. They apparently do this once a year, but this was the first time we had heard about it. We were able to tour 5 different gardens near our home.

While they were incredible to see, mostly they made me tired. All I could think of looking around was how I would need to spend all day every day all year working in the yard to have yards like theirs. Sure, all of these people had staff to tend their gardens. Some of the gardeners were even on hand to talk about what they did. I have no staff. My yard will never be like that, but that’s ok. It’s more fun to peek into others’ yards and enjoy what they have and not have any weeding to do nor pests to contend with.

I admit it. I’m not really a flower person. Sure, I see them and think they’re pretty and then my brain flits off onto other things. This dahlia caught my eye though. The colors look like a pineapple tomato. See? There I go with the food thing again.

There were lots of animals on the tour as well. I particularly liked the chickens. I have no idea why, but I’ve always had a thing for chickens. When I was in elementary school my friend had chickens (and turkeys which may be the dumbest of all animals) and I loved to visit the chicken coop. Maybe it was that book about chickens my mother gave me. Whatever it was, I love chickens. We also saw quite a few horses and I was surprised to see an elephant.

I was so busy looking down at the amazing vegetable garden that it took me by surprise to look up and see this huge ivy elephant. Talk about a garden ornament. The sign told us that he will be underplanted with sweet potatoes soon.

Several of the houses also had orchards. I love walking through fruit trees.

This reminds me that I should get outside and see if we have any pears growing.

These gardens were probably only 5 miles south of us, but their vegetables were so much farther along. It’s really quite a bit warmer there than at our house. The tomatoes all had fruit on them while mine are still just blossoms. There were lettuces, green beans and even the start of squashes. Don’t you just want to reach out and pick these raspberries?

The homes all had different ways to manage pests of the four legged variety. There were fences both tall and electrical. Some trees had been netted. I think to be successful at our house I might need something like this house has:

Isn’t it amazing? A screened in house. The screening is small enough that even birds are kept out. It had two rows of planter beds and lovely gravel walkways. In the back was a sink! I cannot even imagine a house like this with plumbing too.

At several of the homes they had short lectures. We learned about keeping chickens as well as beekeeping and container gardening. The bee man will also set up a hive in your yard, tend it and give you a share of the honey. I think that’s the way to go if we ever get a fence. I used to think I’d take the beekeepers class they teach near me, but realistic me says it would be better to let a pro do it and just have fun watching the bees and enjoy a little honey from our neighborhood. The container teacher said she is really successful with her container veggies because she really crowds the plants. She said if the plants have to compete for space and resources they grow bigger and produce more fruit so that their offspring will have a better chance. I’m going to try adding some herbs and flowers to one of my tomato pots. I’ll let you know if we can see a difference.

– marcella

Big Lettuce

Posted September 28th, 2009 by marcella and filed in food, garden

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How did this happen in a week?

We just cut this all back last Sunday and now look how huge it is! Time for another salad.

Caesar Salad Dressing

I like this one because it makes a small amount and is fairly low in calories (about 32 per tablespoon). I believe Julia Child who says that the original caesar dressing didn’t contain anchovies but rather worcestershire, so that’s what you’ll find in this recipe.

1 small clove garlic

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon reduced-fat mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

Mince the garlic and salt together until a paste is formed. Place garlic-salt mixture into a bowl and add in the lemon juice, mayo, mustard, worchestershire and pepper and whisk to combine. Slowly drizzle in oil, whisking constantly until thickened. Stir in cheese.

Here’s the printable version: caesardressing.pdf

– marcella

Time for a Haircut

Posted September 20th, 2009 by marcella and filed in garden

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The lettuce has been growing like crazy!

We had to move the lights up a notch to give them room. The lettuce leaves are totally blocking the herbs from the light. It was time to make some salad!

Now there’s more room for the light to shine down on the herbs.

The parsley is doing pretty well. It’s about 4 inches high and has quite a few leaves going.

The basil is finally growing. I’m hoping it does well, because it’s one of my favorites!

– marcella

Week 4

Posted September 14th, 2009 by marcella and filed in garden

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The parsley is working to catch up with the lettuce. It finally is getting some true leaves.

Most of the lettuce is looking great. One set of seeds is just sprouting, but the rest are really growing well. It’s nearly time to trim off some of the larger leaves to add to a salad. The chives are still sad and spindly like three skinny blades of grass. No basil yet either.

– marcella

Week 3

Posted September 8th, 2009 by marcella and filed in garden

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Boy, I leave town for a week and the lettuce just shot up!

It’s now about 4 inches tall.

The chives are a bit taller, the parsley is finally sprouting. However, one lettuce is just starting to sprout and the basil is still doing nothing. Hopefully the basil will sprout soon.

– marcella

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