End of the Summer garden produce

My husband is a great gardener!

I buy the plants, but

he plants, waters, weeds and most importantly,

he talks to the plants.

I do not remember purchasing a banana squash plant,

but obviously I did!

Getting out the food dryer

to start drying lots and lots (and lots) of squash.

It will be so good in casseroles and soups

in the Winter time!

Week wrap-up

I had a great time this week with all the quilting and sewing related activities with the Utah Quilt Fest. I just wish I could space out the fun here and there instead of all in one week. Some of the Highlights:

Tuesday was the teacher meet and greet. This year's theme was "Piecable Paradise" which translated into Polynesian related decor, food and classes. The evening started off with a singer and his wife-she danced the hula beautifully! After some announcements, Laura Wasilowski spoke. If you ever get a chance to take one of her fusing classes or listen to one of her lectures....go! She was one of the funniest speakers I've ever heard. She had a great slide/photo presentation, along with alot of laughter and singing. Very entertaining, as well as educational! It was a great night, even if the refreshments were yucky..... I also went to the quilt show. As I posted last time, Utah has very small shows. I enjoyed seeing what everyone was doing, but disappointed in the small amount of quilts hung at the show. I did take some photos, but did not get permission to post from the makers, so below is a publicity photo from the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii of a Hawaiian related quilt for you to ooohhh and aaawwwweeee over.

Friday, I went with my friend Teri to a lecture class. The class was suppose to be about how to use your scrap to make new quilts. I was very disappointed with the class. The teacher just rambled on about how she uses scraps, showed some of her quilts from when she redecorated her house, then kept asking if anyone had ideas how to use scraps. At the end, she said she had heard about some bloggers who use up their scraps/stash and mentioned she had heard about a lady named "Judy" who posted weekly about her quilts. I finally figured out she was talking about Judy at Patchworktimes.com, one of my favorite blogs to read. The class was to be two hours, but it was only about an hour, then she spent the time trying to sell patterns and handing out papers about the classes she teaches. I don't know how other Fest are, but Utah Fest usually discourages the teacher spending more time selling then teaching.

Saturday, I was suppose to go to a family baby shower, but it didn't happen....too much other stuff. Hubby and I did major landscaping. We've let the summer swish by without alot of garden maintenance, and the yard looks awful. We moved two large Russian Sage bushes, relocated alot of ground cover, and transplanted Shasta daisies and lilies (from Teri's front yard). Next weekend, it's thinning out the strawberries, planting raspberries and a couple of peach trees. We also stopped by the last summer farmers market in Syracuse. I had some of my mom's earrings repaired, plus treated myself to 4 pairs of earrings and 2 pendants. I am not much of a jewelry person, but I am definitely trying to change my look. The earrings I choose must be okay, because daughter V already borrowed a pair to wear to Church today!

In Closing: I have noticed lately how friendly and thoughtful others are to me-usually strangers. At the market, the vendor repaired my mom's earrings for free before she knew I was thinking of purchasing anything! What nice things have you had done for you lately?

Summer Garden

Hubby and I got the garden planted this evening. We've had most of the plants for a few weeks, but did not plant them directly into the ground because of our Utah Spring....warm one day and snowing the next. I'm glad the garden is planted though....I'm ready for some yummy tasting produce. We planted our strawberry patch a few years ago, so it is doing great. Not alot of plants, but enough to keep we three in fresh berries on our oatmeal for a few weeks. Our strawberries are only June baring type. We planted them in the front flowerbed by the front door.

We planted the usual in the summer garden:a few varieties of tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, green peppers, pumpkins, green beans, onions and various hot peppers (for my hubby)

This year, we are also trying watermelon, cantaloupe and lemon cucumbers.

Daughter V graduated from High School last night...hopefully, I'll have photos to share soon!

In closing: My favorite quilt stores:

Locally-Threads of Time in Centerville (Utah). The store is on it's third owner and keeps getting better. Whenever I need a quick boost, I take a mystery class there to keep me on my toes.

I also like Quilt, Quilt, Quilt, Etc. in Sandy (Utah). I only go there when I am in that area of the state, but they always have things to tempt me....about 14,000 bolts of fabric, too many patterns to finish in a lifetime, plus....across the street are two connected shops....one is their quilting services with discounted fabric/kits and the other is embellishments and needlework related kits.

For all the good shops in Utah, go to www.utahshophop.com for a list of stores participating in the June 25-28 shop hop.

Not local-The little quilt shop in Nyssa, Oregon. I don't know the name of it, but Nyssa is a very small town, so it is probably the only one. I found it on the way to the Sisters, Oregon show last year. They did not have a huge inventory, but the staff made up for it in friendliness and helpfulness. If I ever go back to Sisters, I will definitely stop by Nyssa again.

How about you....your favorite locally and not locally? Share, please!

The dress is done, so this weekend..

I can do something else! Weeding....sleeping.....cleaning....quilting.....reading! So many choices!

V's dress is very cute. I'll have photo's tomorrow when they attend the actual prom. V is very creative with her sewing. She has been in my sewingroom since she could crawl, so maybe some magical sewing fairy has influenced her for the good all these years. She finds a pattern for a basic dress, then goes from there. Her prom dress is a retro 1950-1960's look. The pattern is a strapless fitted bodice with a pleated skirt that goes just below the knee. She added straps that are trimmed with ribbon that she also used in a belt. I did the zipper (badly) since she doesn't do zippers. She is alot more advanced in her sewing ability then I was at 18 years old. My Mom was a supreme seamstress, so I never had much need to do it myself if Mom could do it faster, easier and better. It is definitely prom season on the blogs....over at dressaday and quiltswithlove both have posts about creating prom dresses.

We made our annual trip to J & J Nursery last night for veggie garden plants. We start alot from seeds each Spring ourselves, but some plants don't do well that way in our area, so it's easier to buy plants. We got tomatoes, peppers(sweet & hot & call 911!), zucchini, cucumbers, and pumpkins. We are also going to try cantaloupe and watermelon this Summer. I picked up 6 new herbs to add to my kitchen herbs. It's still freezing at night, so the plants go out on the porch during the day and back in the house during the night. Izzy the cat has attacked a couple plants for fun.....bad kitty!

I have continued the indexing for the Family History project online. We had a new assighment come out today......letters and documents for the Freeman Project. Some of these records will be the only records some African American searchers will ever have to follow their trail back to their own ancestors. There are all sorts of records, so when I sign on to index them, I never know if I am going to be looking at a land record, or a marriage record, or a death record. We are trying to have everything indexed and double checked for publishing to the internet by June. Lots of work to do!

Happy weekend!