Garden Update

I thought I would share some photos of the garden. It was a tough summer. At our home we did not get a drop of rain the whole month of July even though we had storms all around us. We did a lot of watering by hand but there is nothing like real rain from God to refresh and restore the plants in a garden.

I had a few Gardenias bloom recently. They smell delightful!

This photo shows all our sweet potatoes in the right hand corners. In the fore ground are some melons and corn. This was a second try at corn which is probably not going to make. Our first crop a raccoon got into it.

These are all the melons and squash. There is cantaloupe, watermelon, spaghetti squash, and pumpkin. The pumpkin are not going to make it this year either. Some critter keeps getting the little pumpkins and now some kind of leave mold is on the leaves. I tried planting butternut squash too but squash borers got to them and they died. We are going to make more beds this winter which will have much better soil for the melons and squash next year. It was a struggle trying to keep these mounds watered. We just didn't have enough time to get them built before it was time to plant.

I have planted cabbage in the front bed. Kale and onions in the second bed. I just pulled up that zucchini plant to the left today. Next bed has some bell peppers and way in back are pinto beans that I am going to let dry on the plant so I will have dried beans for wintertime.

Tomatoes to the left which have done horribly this year. More sweet potatoes, chili peppers and asparagus. In the middle are black beans which I will dry on the plant like the pinto beans. Under that white cloth are carrots which are doing okay.

Here is one of the cantaloupe we got this summer. It was the sweetest melon I ever ate.

From some of the tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and basil I harvested I decided to make some homemade pizza.

I roasted some garlic that I also grew.

Don't these pizzas look good? They were very, very good!

This is a papaya-dew melon. It was so sweet and juicy too. I will definitely grow these again

 I am still getting a baggy full of green beans every two days.

 Here are some of the tomatoes. I tried to grow some big slicing tomatoes and paste tomatoes but they did not do well at all.

 I leave you with this photo of some blooms from the sweet potatoes vines. I thought we had morning glories growing among the potato vines.

Gardening can be tough be it is good to get out in the garden and work. I really enjoy watching things grow and even better I enjoy the fresh fruits.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Slow Sunday Stitching

It is Slow Sunday Stitching. 

This pattern is from Clover and Violet. I am getting close to having the blocks finished.
I just want to thank you all who have taken word verification off your comment section. It will make my commenting easier and the pain in my elbow will get better sooner. THANKS!

Enjoy your Sunday,
Carrie P.

A little bit of applique and a complaint

I have been doing a little bit of applique and you know what? I would rather do that then cause the tendinitis in my elbow to flare up again. That is what has happened again I think from having to go through the word verification on blogs. I don't use my blog to complain but I am really tired of the word verification and I am not the only one. I feel the same way as Karen and Lori about this. I tried recently to do the word verification on a blog six times before I finally gave up. I am to the point where I will just not leave a comment because of the word verification. If you find less comments on your blog that might be the reason because others are tired of it too. Consider turning it off and if you get lots of spam then turn it back on. At the end of Lori's post she shares how to turn it off. You might not even know you have it on. When blogger changed to the new interface, word verification was on my blog. Someone told me about it and I turned it off. I follow a lot of blogs. I enjoy reading and commenting but I want to save my elbow so that I can do applique and embroidery.
Okay, I am done. Have a great weekend.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Remember

How would you like to help make the holiday season for some service men and women special? I am so grateful to those in the military that serve our country. Melissa and Kristy want to make a gift for each of the soldiers that are in the same battery as Melissa's husband. They are asking fellow bloggers to make a pillow case or e-reader cover. I am going to help. Would you consider helping  too? There will be tutorials for the e-readers and pillowcases on the blogs so you don't have to worry about trying to find a pattern.

You can read all the information and see photos of Melissa, her husband, and their sweet daughter on her blog. You can also get more information from Kristy's blog about how to send your gifts.
And if you make a pillow case you can add it to American Patchwork and Quilting Pillowcase challenge going on right now. You can make a pillow case, donate to Melissa and Kristy and then let APQ know that you made a donation so that they can reach their goal of one million pillowcases donated.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Quiltmaker Rocks the Block

I have shown and told you all how much I really like the Quiltmaker 100 blocks magazines. On the August 28 post you saw the newest magazine by Quiltmaker that they sent to me. You can have a chance to win your own magazine if you go to the Quiltmaker blog and check out all the other designers from the magazine. They are giving away a copy of the magazine. Good luck!

Here is another block that I used from the Quiltmaker 100 blocks magazine. I joined a block swap in the Modern quilt guild. I had to make 9 blocks using red, aqua, and any solid fabric. I chose gray. I think all the blocks put together make a nice looking quilt. Next week we exchange the blocks so I will show the blocks to you next week. 

 This is the original block from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol. 5
Old Town Star, block #448 by Katie Blakesley of Swimbikequilt.com