It's time to sew!

I've been sewing alot the last couple of days.....

....mainly making covers for my outdoor furniture.

A few years ago Mike bought this huge roll of light blue fabric at a Honeywell garage sale for $5!

(you can see the roll in one of the pictures below)

Actually he bought several of them.

The fabric is very durable AND washable without shrinking!

So it is perfect fabric for making covers and tableclothes for outside.

My ultimate plan is to make pillows and throw quilts in co-ordinating/contrasting fabric to add some sparkle. As you can see from some of these pictures I've already kinda started this.

I've been working on piecing a quilt from the co-ordinating fabric. The pattern is called a Love Ring and it is from an old quilting book that still had you make cardboard templates. AND do pieced curves. It's been a long time since I've made templates, but it was kinda fun to do since when I started quilting that was ALL the was available. It's amazing to see how far quilting has evolved in the last 20 years!

The last customer quilt I finished is this one:

This pieced top was the very first one this quiltmaker has ever sewn. She made simple squares out of bright fabric and this quilt looks fabulous!

I think she did a great job!

I've got a king-sized quilt on the frames at the moment. It's a BIG one!

I've been having so much fun in my garden this year. I've actually got one big, red tomato that is almost ready to be picked. It's the first one!

However I have been enjoying my cherry tomatoes for a week or so now.

This is Betsy.........she just wanted to say hello.........

and tell you that anytime is NAP time.

Locks of Love

What a beautiful redhead! Jenny has some of the most beautiful

natural red hair that I've ever seen.

Before

Every other year or so Jenny goes to the salon

and gets it all cut off

to donate to Locks of Love.

After

Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. We meet a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics.

The Great Tomato Race

I spent last week in San Diego visiting with my parents. The weather was beautiful and just perfect for planting flowers and such. The above are pictures of mom and dad with thier tomato plants. One planted in a pot....(to be moved to a bigger pot soon) and another planted in the Topsy Turvy Tomato planter. I named it the "Great Tomato Race". I'm anxious to see which tomato plant does better. Altho it is NOT a controlled experiment.......they both have different varieties of tomato plants............

Dad has a Boxcar Willy heirloom variety (named after Willy Nelson) and mom has a grape tomato plant. It'll still be fun to see what effect the growing method has on the tomato plant.

Hopefully they will send me pictures!

While in San Diego I read an article in the local paper about a man who decided to "help" in these hard economic times by growing his own tomatoes. He produced 17 tomatoes during the growing season, but spent the equivilant of $64 PER TOMATO on soil, soil amendments, fertilizer, etc. YIKES! Let's hope that is NOT the case with mom and dad's tomatos!