Sunday, October 31, 2010

Dead Dog Creek Ravine, end of October

Dead Dog Creek Ravine is at the end of our block.  It's beautiful at any time of year.  Yesterday was the first time I'd remembered to take my camera.  (New resolution:  I will try to do so each month to record seasonal changes.)

Entry to the ravine from our street
The creek


Saturday, October 30, 2010

Harvest

As I mentioned earlier, this summer we had a vegetable garden. It was the first since we've been in this house (2003).  Because I planted it late I just grabbed seed packets at the nursery so we had nice string beans and snow peas, TREMENDOUS cucumbers, and slow-growing carrots. The basil, sage, and mint (all from setting plants) were lush.  There were four different kinds of tomatoes, planted WAY too close, but oh, so abundant!  Delicious in salads and out-of-hand.  The freezer is stocked with tomato sauce and many packets of pesto.

The first frost was a couple of days ago, so Stevens pulled out the tomato vines and dug up the carrots. I made a green tomato pie yesterday and there's a green tomato cake in the oven now.

A bounty of green tomatoes!

There were a few almost-red tomatoes left.  The basil had been nipped by the cold.


Slow-growing but soooo sweet.

And next summer?  We're going to enlarge the garden plot!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Another finish Nine Patch and Blue

It's funny how a quilt with no destination and no deadline can come together quickly and without angst.  That's the case with "Nine Patch and Blue," which I began a week ago (October 17) and finished last evening. 

Most of the 272 mini 9-patches (3" finished) came from the occasional exchanges of the online  Block Swappers.   The fabric for the setting, border, and back came from my stash.  The back is a vintage cheater pattern from the late 60's/early 70's-- 36" wide -- made by VIP, I think.  I did simple straight-line quilting.  The quilt is 88 x 88.



Thursday, October 14, 2010

Christmas Cottages II

This is the second Christmas Cottages quilt.  It will be raffled by the Friends of the Library.  Barb C., one of the library staff, contributed blocks to add to those I made.  There were five blocks extra and I pieced them into the back. I quilted it with a meandering pattern in the center, parallel zigzags in the inner border, and holly leaves in the outer border.    ( Click this to see the first quilt, which AAUW is raffling.)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

October in northeasternmost Illinois

It's Columbus Day weekend. What better way to commemorate it than by going to the.....beach?   (The water was warm enough to wade in.) 

All photos taken at Camp Logan (North Unit, Illinois Beach State Park) about a mile and half from our house.














And one piece of beach glass for my recently-started collection.