A Year in Review

The 2008-2009 Scraptamers' Year is over today. What a year!

I made just a few quilts. I really feel like setting goals, keeping this list and being accountable to my readers helped me complete some many projects.

The next thing I need to do is inventory of my UFOs and my unstarted projects, and get them organized. Once I'm done with that, I'm hoping it will be apparent what my next year's goals need to be. Plus I'll be organized.

I'm sure that once I've gone through my projects, I will be swearing off fabric.

Stay tuned for next years goals and an inventory summary.

Beauty and the Beasts

I have a few of reasons why I'm not getting as much sewing done. Their names are Daisy, Pippin and Steve.

Aren't they cute! It would be hard to give up my sewing time if they weren't so cute.

They like to be in the center of everything, so they help me sew and cook. Ever so helpful!

Steve has me helping in the yard too, which is taking me away from sewing. If he weren't so cute I don't think I'd do it.

We planted shasta daisies and black-eyed susans along the drive way. They are just beautiful!

We'll see what other yard work Steve will find for me after he reads this posting.

Better With Bacon

The harvest continues at our little garden patch. We are getting corn now.

We pulled our last cabbage head this week and needed a recipe to use it up.

As the adage goes, everything is better with bacon in it. It is true with cabbage.

We made Fried Cabbage II. I loved it right off the bat, with just a hint of vinegar. Steve liked it better after the flavors had developed more.

I'm not sure if all the health benefits of the cabbage is undone by cooking it in bacon grease, but it does add great flavor.

Yes, We Can Can!

Steve and I are turning into quite the domestic goddesses. Watch out Martha!

This weekend we decided to do some canning. It all started with wanting to do something with the onions we were taking out of the garden.

Really, I got tired of smelling onions on Steve's breath, but don't tell him that.

We bottled Steve's mom's recipe for pickles. We also made Crisp Pickled Green Beans and Traditional English Pickled Onions.

The problem with pickling is that I can't tell you how they turned out for a month or so, but they do look pretty. Well, except the onions. They look like eyes floating in dirty water.

Veggie Dessert

I love to eat my veggies, especially when I can bake them into a dessert.

I needed the treat for my quilting group meeting. I also wanted to use up some of our summer squash, so I made Mom's Zucchini Bread.

It happens to be some of the last squash. Our squash plants got powdery mildew and rotted out. Thank goodness, no more squash.

I thought the bread might need a little more, so I stole the frosting off Carrot Cake III. I didn't do the nuts in the frosting, because of the nuts in the bread.

The frosting is light and fluffy. Delicious!

To MT and Back to MN

So I'm back from Montana and came back with a bit more fabric.

Cheri and I packed up the car and headed out Aug. 5 in my car to Missoula. Like good quilters, we left plenty of room in the trunk for fabric.

We spent the week with Cheri's brother, Jeff, and his wife, Cathy. They took us out to see the town, the farmers market and sailing on flat head lake. Thanks for the hospitality!

We got back yesterday after visit 17 quilt shops. You can see the trouble I got into in the picture. Here is a list of the quilt shops we visited.

1. The Quilt Haus

2. Fiberworks

3. ReproductionFabrics.com

4. Main Street Quilt Co.

5. Vicki's Quilts Down Under

6. Quilter's Quarry

7. Bernina Sewing Center

8. Timeless Quilts and Friends

9. Deer Country Quilts

10. Glacier Quilts

11. Back Door General Store

12. Quilt Gallery

13. All In Stitches

14. Quilter's Corner Etc.

15. Quilts On Broadway

16. Quilting In The Country

17. The Enchanted Room

The sad thing is that I bought so much stuff that I've had to add another storage bin for my fabric.

I think I need to go back on a strict fabric diet, where I actually have to limit how much I can buy.

You know a real diet.