Happy Father's Day - Crochet News - More Garden Pics

Good Morning...and what a Beautiful day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!
We have been blessed to have our youngest daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons visiting. The little boys keep us hopping! Hopefully, there will be some good pictures to post in the next blog.

Hey! Do any of you CROCHET?  I get regular emails from a great free crochet source called All Free Crochet and they are having a Book Give-Away! The book is Austentatious Crochet (click on the book name for the full book review.) Click here for the sign up link if you are interested. It is ONLY available until June 27, 2012 so hurry on over and sign up! 

Crocheting is my 'other' addiction after quilting!

Our daughter that is visiting brought her quilt top for me to quilt. She just wants Stitch-in-the-Ditch. Right...just...that thing has lots and lots of "ditches". LOL  She wanted it backed with one of the fabrics she had used in the top, but didn't think there was enough to do it. So she brought all the scraps she had left of two of the other fabrics. Let's just say I can get really really creative when its necessary! (I did NOT want to MAKE a keyboard border for the back and SHE did NOT want one if we could avoid it....and WE DID!)  There was enough of the main fabric after some creative piecing for the back AND the binding. Since it is a floral print, I don't think any of the seams will be all that noticeable once it is quilted. Besides, it is NOT to be entered in a show; it is for her and husband and boys to cuddle up under on their couch. It's going to look just fine.  Here is a diagram of what we did to make this happen.

The center seam doesn't show up very well under the writing, but it's there. I will post a photo of the finished quilt......eventually. :-)

The garden is still growing and producing like .....well.... everyone always hopes it would. LOL
I have an over abundance of zucchini this year. Usually we only get a couple zuc's before the plants die or the critters eat them up for us. We are also getting a lot of early cucumbers. Here is a pic of what I picked on Friday afternoon. I picked an additional 7 zucchini and 4 cucumbers this morning!

Needless to say I ordered a Food Processor to arrive on Tuesday to help with all of this. For the last few years, I have just sliced and diced and shredded by hand. I refuse to continue with that insanity! Those zuc's are huge, but that's the way they are  growing this year. The skins are still very tender and they don't even have mature seeds yet...same with the cucumbers. Planning to try something new to us this year...Sweet Zucchini Relish. My frig is full of zuc's and cuk's. I already have SIX 2 cup bags of shredded zucchini in the freezer and have given away several. Good thing we like the stuff!

Hope you all have a SEW productive week and I'll chat with you soon!
Quilty Hugs,
Kathy

Barn Blocks 3 & 4 and More Garden Inspiration

For those of you reading this or following my blog, this Little Red Barn Quilt is one of the cutest quilts I think I have ever attempted.  Although, it is being done as a "Quilt-Along"  in conjunction with the Quilt With Us Barn Blog Quilt Along of Connecting Threads, I have jumped ahead and finished blocks three and four. With company coming in starting Monday and being here on and off for the next two weeks, it was either get ahead or lag way behind. Hey, it's me...gonna' jump ahead of the plan!  Besides, I want to devote my undivided attention to the grandsons when they arrive with no worries about "should be sewing"!
Anyway, without further delay presenting Block 3:

This one is called "Lucky's Barn"...guess Lucky is the horse...could be the chicken.... There is a little horse shoe 'button' from the accessory packet that goes over the barn door when completed. Lucky and the chicken are part of the accessory packet also.

Barn 4 is celebrating the 4th of July:

The blocks are the same size, just don't look it because of the photo shoot.
This completes the Barns blocks. Well, sort of completes them....I am waiting until all the pieces are constructed to do the applique stitching, but construction is complete.

The next step for this quilt is the darling little chickens! I won't be able to start on them until my company leaves. So it will be close to 3 weeks before pictures get posted. Hope you can hold on that long. LOL

And, since I have your undivided attention...how about a couple of garden shots from today???
I thought I could include the garden goodies and a color inspiration thought at the same time. What do you think of Monochromatic themes? Today's thought is green on green....look at the color variations, shadows and light highlights and try to come up with ways to incorporate these into a quilt project. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas or comments, too.
Ok, first up is the big bowl of Green Beans I picked this morning...cleaned, blanched and now have a one gallon bag of whole green beans in the freezer!  I do them this way to throw in the crock pot with the pot roasts. Yum!

Probably NOT colors of green I would put together in a quilt...but who knows.... sometimes it just takes the strange idea to work.

And after picking the beans, I decided to check on the grapes....yes they are still green too. Just hoping we can get some of them before the opossums and racoons discover them. Those stinkers can wipe the vines clean overnight...and have.

Two different kinds of grapes and a slight variation in color. More ideas to play with...
Let me know what you think. I'll let you know if we get to enjoy the grapes in a few weeks!

Well, that's all I have today. Hang in there and sew something fantastic.