My first ever pickle day~!

This morning I went out to the garden and there were a million sorta large pickles on the vine! I had just picked a bunch the other day, but did not do it yesterday. We had rain last night, so they were really ready today! So, I decided to try making kosher dill pickles for the first time. I searched around for recipes, but some books seemed a little complicated. Then I remembered that book called Country Wisdom and Know-How, which I use as a reference for everything all summer and fall. It had a super easy recipe for a million kinds of pickles and they were easy to follow. So, I packed the two dogs into the truck and went out for dill, mustard seed, garlic and a new jar-grabber (to grab the hot jars from the canning pot). Then it was time to pickle. Seeing the pretty green pickles in the jars on the Hoosier makes me happy. I hope they taste as good as some other pickles that I have gotten from my friends.

There is very little cooking time with these, so they should be crunchy when we open them in three weeks. So, besides pickles today, I had to do very little housework. The whole house is almost sparkly clean since I have been off from school. I did the bathroom upstairs yesterday and then I started my bedroom this morning. Ken is vacuuming the house now, and then it will be time to start dinner already. Then a little sewing time is in order. Oh, I have been listening to the podcast called "Within a Quarter Inch" which I started a while back and then had a friend remind me about. It is fun to listen to that while sewing and cutting. I can't get the Alex Anderson one to just play without downloading (it's still free though), so that will have to wait for a while.

Has it already been six months since I last posted?!

My friend Brad got married this June, so I made him and his fiancee this wallhanging. He is our band teacher, and the quilt has fabric with musical notes, and songs on it. I thought he would like it because the colors are bold and loud too. He did love it.

I did an all over loopy pattern with the quilting. This quilt was made during a mystery quilt session at Pieceful Quilting. We did not know what we would be making until we had all of the pieces made. The clues were that it was related to a famous singer. It turned out to be Kenny Rogers and the song was the one about knowing when to hold them or fold them (cards). The pattern for the quilt is called card sharks or something like that.

I was happy when he saw it and loved it. It's hard for a quilter when the gift is for a guy, especially one in his 20s. They don't always realize what goes into something like this, but he did. Oh look, Millie and Penny are sleeping on the couch together. Aren't they cute? Ok, they do this all of the time, but I still think it's cute!

My Aunt Ellen had a battle with lung cancer last year and now she is all healed!! She was an amazing patient who just knew she would be ok. Boy did that make it easy to help her and deal with it alongside of her. Anyway, she was a little baldie bean for a long time and now she has HAIR!!! Look at how cute it is!! It came in all curly, which is not her normal hair texture.

This is a quilt I made in a class last month. It came out so lovely!! Our teacher, Alice, is so patient and kind with people like me who kind of rush through everything. She made me slow my machine down and really make my points perfect. We had to cut and measure several times to achieve perfection. I had a great time and finally finished it today.

Here is the corner piece. I hung the quilt on the clothesline to take this picture so you could see the shadowing from dark to light.

I used only three colors, which I think made it work for me!! I loved making this project because it reminded me of my past, which many of my friends know about. However, I am working on a story for a magazing about the significance of the design, my color choices, etc. so will discuss it later! (Oh, a cliff hanger!!) A fall wallhanging just waiting for binding. It's been waiting a few years already, so I guess it's time!! I just found this when I was cleaning the sewing room in my attic. For all of this time, I was wondering where all my pretty fall wallhangings went. Finding them was like going shopping and finding something I just had to have!

We made this quilt in a class in the spring. Dresden plate is a great quilt block and this is a HUGE one. It will eventually be hanging in my kitchen between the doors. This one will be
quilted as I attach the dresden plate to the background. Right now it is all just pinned on.

Now that it's summer, I hope to keep my blog going. It really is a great source for me to see my work over the years. Even though I did not post, I was still sewing every night!