Quilting Some

I have started quilting on the most recent T-shirt quilt.

I don't know what I am doing wrong, but this quilt is being difficult. It is not difficult to quilt it; it is difficult to keep the backing tight. I am picking out two of the three straight stiching lines that I quilted and will quilt it a different way. Maybe this tactic will work better.

Canning

I have a garden that is bursting with tomatoes.

So, I have spent some time this summer canning them.

Canning is not something I remember my mother doing. I am sure that my grandparents canned, but since we never lived near, within driving distance, or even in the same state as them, I was unable to be a part of their canning ventures.

One thing I learned from my mother was that being prepared to feed your family is important. She did this by compiling a large pantry of food, almost to the point of hoarding.

With that in mind, I put away what I can from my garden. I use to only freeze my vegetables, but last summer I learned how to can pickles and tomatoes. My husband LOVES the pickle,s and I really enjoyed not having to purchase canned tomatoes. Opening a jar of tomatoes that I canned was bliss this past winter, especially with the limited budget we were on during my student internship.

So, while I have not been sewing or making things, this is what I have been doing: picking, rinsing, and canning.

Boiling water to loosen the skin

Cool down

peeled and put in jars

thinking of winter already with that towel

water bath

my canning products that have not already been eaten or given away

salsa, pickles, tomatoes, and jalapenos

Are you canning anything this summer?

Loss

The sadness that I alluded to in this post has manifested into loss.
On June 7 we lost my father-in-law.
He began battling pancreatic cancer in 2009 and seemed to be doing very well after surgery and chemotherapy.
Last summer, he developed liver cancer.
On March 7 his doctor told him that he had three to six months without chemotherapy and six to nine months with chemotherapy.
With this knowledge he decided to stop chemotherapy.
It was very hard for the family to watch him in pain, slowly slipping away.
It seems surreal knowing that he is gone.
There is so much that he will miss, and we will miss he so much.
Even with all of this, we know that he will never feel pain again, and that gives us comfort.

New Iron

Five years ago I broke my iron. So that I could finish the baby quilt I was working on for the arrival my nephew, I "borrowed" an iron from my mother-in-law (this was her second grand baby). She told me at that time to not worry about it because she had bought a new one anyways. (Thank you Lisa for loaning me the iron.)
Well, it never made its way back. I have used it well making many quilts in these past five years.

I do not know its age exactly, but I think that it is over ten years old. It has my sister-in-law's (the one who had the baby) name on it from when she took it to Atlanta when she was a senior in high school. That was about ten years ago.

It is not fancy. It does not have a timer to shut off, a sprayer on the front, or anything else fancy like that, but it has worked great. Just right for pressing quilt pieces.

This past winter my husband and I were watching "Quilty" on PBS. Mary Fons was using an iron that would lift up on its own. Right away my husband said that I should get an iron like that.

I am one of those people who doesn't replace something that isn't broken. My "borrowed" iron worked just fine, thank you. Still we looked a little for irons, but I was just not going to get an iron while I still had a working one.

Well, about three weeks ago my "borrowed" iron began to leak. It was leaking brownish water on my fabric. Let me tell you it was a sad day.

I went on-line and found the iron and in just a little while it arrived on my porch.

So far I have been enjoying it. It doesn't leak on my fabric, so that is a plus.

Check out Quilty's homepage. I find it helpful and fun.