First Garden Harvest

Michelle and I went to the community garden this morning to harvest a couple of rows of garlic with the garden director; he demonstrated how to get the plants out of the ground and worked along with us.

Rows are about 25-30 feet long, so we gathered quite a few plants! It rained very hard last night for about 10 minutes, so the ground was pretty wet this morning. Because there was so much mud on the garlic, we put the plants into low-sided crates (about 2' x 3') with lattice bottoms and rinsed them well, then put them out in the shade to dry.

These rows are in the Common Grounds part of the community garden, so they will go to the local food banks.

After that wonderful harvest, I weeded my row of white onions in the Common Grounds, which I had forgotten about. There were quite a lot of weeds to pull! I also care for a row of Chinese Cabbage, but about half of it has already been harvested, and there were no weeds (thankfully!)

Then it was time to check out my little plot (8' x 16'). I am a novice, so I planted waaaay too many plants, waaaaay too close together. But at least I'll have bountiful harvests throughout the summer! And plenty to share with my neighbors!

I did eat one medium-size string bean (the biggest one I saw) while I was harvesting other plants, and it was DELISH!!

Look what came out of my garden today! I was able to share some of this with Darlene, my kind next door neighbor, and with Michelle, who does so much for me.



sunflowers


beets and baby carrots
(Denny and I sampled a couple of carrots as soon as I got home! YUM!)


yellow squash (5!)

oak leaf lettuce - so tender and sweet!

Women's Voices Quilt - Blocks 5 and 7

Today I'm sharing blocks 5 and 7 from my Women's Voices Quilt. Block 6 is in progress. Above each block is the description from the package - interesting history behind the names and origins of these blocks!



Block 5 - Crowned Cross

Quilts frequently echoed the religions of the Civil War era. The Crowned Cross was a popular block often used by church groups in quilts sent to the battlefield. Over 250,000 were stitched for the soldiers. They covered the wounded in army hospitals. If a soldier died, he was buried in his quilt.









Block #7 - Sherman's March / Lincoln's Platform / Monkey Wrench

This block was labeled "Lincoln's Platform" during his presidential campaign. It was also named after Sherman's March through the South during the Civil War. One could conclude it was a "union" block. This block was also known as "Monkey Wrench." It is interesting that one rarely comes across a reference to Sherman's March or Lincoln's Platform. Lavender or purple was first introduced in 1850 and became popular in Civil War quilts. It usually faded to shades of pink or brown. In 1825 manganese bronze was first used as a chemical dye. From this dye, khaki was introduced and became well used. The arrival of magenta was seen during this same era.

Wedding Gift

I'm pretty sure I never posted this, so...

Here's what I made for my nephew and new neice for their wedding last year: a set of towels, etc. for their kitchen.


white scrubby pad, red-white dish cloth, 2 pot holders (my original tea pot design), and 2 linen towels


the 2 towels with red fabric accent

I love linen! It's so wonderful to handle and so absorbant!