June in South Texas

This is long overdue... my last post indicated that we were in the process of moving back to Ohio.  Well, that is not going to happen.  So just to be sure there is no confusion... we are staying in Texas, right where we have been for all these wonderful years, in our little homestead just south of San Antonio.  When we started looking at houses in Ohio, it became very evident that we were not going to be happy leaving Texas behind.

Now back in Texas I did not plant a spring garden because I was not going to be here... but I did have lots left from my winter garden.  Well, I did plant potatoes in February, so technically I think that would kind of be a spring garden.  I harvested the potatoes a couple weeks ago already.  I had a pretty good crop of potatoes, both red ones and white ones.

Just this past week I pulled up all my onions and let them dry some before I braided them into a rope so I could hang them like I used to.  I had red, yellow and some small white ones.  All are very impressive for my first real onions in Texas.  My dill plant was taller than I am and I thought I had harvested all my Brussels sprouts, but when I was thinking I should be pulling up the plants, I found them loaded with a whole new crop of sprouts.  A garden that just keeps on giving.

My quilt room has been expanded.  There previously was a doorway going into the room which limited the length of the frame that my longarm sits on.  Ron basically knocked out the wall that the doorway was in and opened that end of the room. It is amazing how different that work area looks now.  It has a whole different feel.  Now this picture does not show where the doorway used to be, but it does show the longer frame.  With the longer frame I also had to make longer leaders, so last week was a busy one. 

 This is a quilt that I had in the closet for several years now... waiting to be finished.  Since I had time, I was able to get one of my own quilts on the frame.  So many times I have several quilts from friends that usually take up alot of my quilting time.

I saw a pin on Pinterest for this pieced binding.  The pieces are 2 1/2" strips sewn together then cut on the bias into the long 2 1/2" strip to go around the quilt.  I think it really turned out cool... and so did the cats.  Boston has pretty much claimed the upper spot.  This quilt does not have a destination yet... not sure what I will do with it.  Don't know why I chose the size, but I sure do like how it all turned out.

Updates coming up in the backyard.

Hopefully it won't be so long to my next post.

A new lamp & my quilting room

I actually could have added this to my previous post today, but I thought I would leave that one alone. Went to SA and one of my purchases was a new lamp for my sewing room to clamp on the shelf over my ironing board.  The other one just got in the way.  I saw this pink one and knew it was the one I needed.

When we got home this afternoon I had to take the box out to the shop that I had filled from the reorganization of my stash shelves.  Pieces that were either very big or that were not 100% cotton did not need to be crowding my shelves.  We have been out of business for a couple of years now, but we still had lots of vinyl that we used for making signs and creating heat applied graphics.  We took all the vinyl and put it in bins.  Then I took the fabric that was in bins in the closet and put it on the shelves where the vinyl was.


I also have lots of books that needed to find a new bookshelf.  Most are older craft books that I agreed to move out to the shop, but now there is space in the house that has been freed up.  I will not agree to move my quilting books out there... at least not yet.

The embroidery area is around the corner from the quilting machine... across from the shelves with the fabric. When we closed the business I had lots of space in the shop to expand my quilting.  I now have taken over more with the move of the fabric and books in the place of the vinyl.

Last item today is a shot of my quilt wing out in the shop area of our garage.  Someone asked about this room recently.  The room is long and narrow and on the far end there is a doorway into a storage closet.  Nothing fancy, but it works very well for my quilting space.