Symbolic Sewing

 Over the summer a good friend of mine asked if I would make an art quilt for her brother-in-law's wedding gift. I've known her brother-in-law since college and was honored to contemplate this quilt. The happy couple lives in Assisi, Italy and are lay Franciscans. The request involved several parts. First, I was asked to add the Tau Cross to the quilt. I had actually never known about this cross or it's connection to St. Francis and so was thrilled to learn something new. Secondly, I was asked to try to add the wedding ring quilt design in some capacity. The bride is Italian and was apparently very taken by everything Lancaster County, including quilts.


I did quite a bit of research and contemplation for this quilt. I determined that I was not going to be able to add the wedding ring patchwork to such a small quilt. I'm sure it can be done someway but I've never done that particular pattern in regular size, let alone in a mini. As I was thinking about St. Francis, I thought about his love for nature and simplicity. It came to me that the cross should be out of some fabric that reminded us of the Franciscan robe and that I could make the wedding rings out of the rope that the Franciscans use to hold their robes together.

I played around with the quilted part of the quilt for some time. Apparently Assisi is very green and beautiful so I wanted to include green in the quilt. I've wanted to make a Bargello quilt for some time (and am thrilled that the style originated from tapestry at Bargello Palace in Florance, Italy) and thought it would visually work with this quilt. There were several ideations of the quilting and the piecing before I came up with what I consider the stained glass version you see here.


I'm very pleased with how this turned out and I think my friend is, too. I hope the bride and groom like it and I wish them the greatest happiness.


Since I was paid for this quilt, I decided that I would put the money toward something I've had on my mind for a long time. I used the cash to buy some medals from Alice Cantrell's Garden of Grace site. If you've never seen her site, I highly recommend you check it out. It has been on my mind to make prayer mini quilts for a long time. Right now I don't have lots of time or space for a lot but I think making mini quilts will suite my life right now. The medals are so beautiful and I am excited to research the saints and crucifixes to best determine the layout of each quilt. 


For now, have a blessed Lord's Day. Although I haven't had the time to attend practice, the choir sings at Mass today and I'm grateful to be joining them. I've missed the singing and the fellowship. Be at peace. Do something lovely.

A New Voyage

I have found my life in the last year to be a journey of unknown destination. Just when I thought I knew what I was about, I found a log in the stream and had to meander around it. It's happened many times in my life and I should think by now I would be used to the journey. Alas, I am not. 


This journey of mine is mountainous. It is full of tough climbs and days without sustenance. Ok, I'm being dramatic, but that's who I am. Really, my life is wonderful. It is just that I find these changes to be difficult, not bad, not wholly unwelcome, but difficult. My identity is being challenged. 


So I won't be visiting this blog nearly as much as I want. It isn't the first time. My boys are teenagers. I'm working a full-time job. My life consists of packing lunches, getting in a short walk after the boys leave for school, working, picking up Nathan from Cross Country, Dinner, homework and taking Nolan swimming. There is little time for the other things I enjoy.


Which is fine for now. This is one part of my life. I will never regret packing up my sewing room so I can focus on my boys and their needs. Someday they will be independent young men and I will wonder where all my free time came from. I can make quilts at that time. 


So for now there is little time to write, to take superfluous photographs. I'll do it as I have time and as I have desire. My life is full, it just won't be internet worthy!

Simply Garden

Is what I really should call this blog these days. I guess it's like anything new....you obsess over it for a while until it becomes old hat. I did actually spend some time in the sewing room yesterday. I have a mini quilt in the works. It's stumping me a bit so I've had to walk away and come back and walk away to think over it. That's good creative processing I think.

Today's post is really about failure. We love sweet red peppers and have gotten tons of them from our CSA. I have tried and tried for years to grow them to no avail. All I get is a small green pepper that starts to rot. I'm thinking I've not given my plant the proper personal space to grow well. Next year I plan to grow them in my square foot garden. If they don't grow that way I think I'll give up!


I've been freezing our CSA peppers for the winter. Yesterday I seeded and sliced about 8, laid them on a tray in the freezer and then transfered them to a plastic freezer bag once they were frozen. I have about 8 more to do as well as wanting to freeze some of my tomatoes that way. I peel, slice and freeze them on a tray and then transfer to a bag. I loved pulling them out for soups and recipes last winter.


Happy Labor day. Nolan tells us this is his favorite holiday because, despite the name, on Labor day you do no labor. Have a good one, folks.

Again with the garden....bugs this time

 The above photo is one of my broccoli plants. It's growing nicely which makes me happy. I started noticing a lot of holes in the leaves which did not make me happy. Upon closer inspection I noticed the little green feller using my plant as his own personal all-he-can-eat buffet. Look right in the middle of the lower part of the leaf for him.

 You can see him a little better on this photo. He's a cabbage white worm. He and his family and friends have discovered my garden. So, what's a girl to do?

 Pick and squash. It's a good thing I'm not squeamish. I'm thinking this might be a good project for the boys. Those little worms are hard to see but they really wreak havok on the broccoli and bok choy.

You can see how much they've eaten on this plant. Now that I'm in the worm sleuthing business, I think my plants will fair much better. It's actually nice to get down to plant level and notice all the niceties. I love how the leaves start out in the center all curled up and light green. It's amazing to be able to take the time to notice all the ways each plant is growing and the differences among them. I think this will be my new lunch time job. 


Hope your lunch was a good one today. Mike and I had BLT's with homegrown tomatoes, local lettuce, homemade bread and happy bacon (that's what we call our woodlands pigs). Now I have a hankering for corn on the cob. All these goodies will be gone soon so I want to enjoy them now!

Comparison Gardening

Well, here you can see our Square Foot Garden on the day of planting last Wed. and just over one week later. I love being able to see results that fast! I spent the afternoon in the back yard working on the weeds and in the sunroom deep cleaning, purging and rearranging.

The boys (all three) are at a ball game tonight so I think I'll get some take out (I also cleaned the kitchen and I hate to make it dirty again) and finish going through the "stuff" I pulled out of the sunroom. My main goal is to organize my recipes. Might have to pop in a movie while I'm working! I love having time off on a day that I'd usually be at work. I got so much done and still have a whole Saturday! Of course it's supposed to be a rainy one so I may spend some time in the sewing room. Have a good weekend. Stay clear of Hurricane Irene.

The Square Foot Garden

Mike and I have been doing quite a bit of research on turning our back yard into a garden. We've lived in this house for just over three years. In that time, we've really tackled some problematic areas in the yard including English Ivy and Bamboo. This year the boys and I dug up a little gardening space for tomatoes and lettuce (ok, and broccoli that didn't make it). It was grand. We've grown so many grape tomatoes I just keep giving them away. We loved being a part of our CSA but really want to grow our own food. For our yard, Square Foot Gardening seemed the best bet. We followed the book pretty much to a T. In some of the other areas of the yard that are already in beds I'm planning on doing some lasagna layering this fall in preparation for spring planting of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. I've also been thinking of adding grapes but I have to think about that a little more. Well....here's what we did. The pictures say it all. Well, I guess the captions under the pictures help, too.

We bought 2-2x6x8 foot pieces of lumber and had the store cut them into 4 foot sections. We screwed them together right in the sunroom.

Here's the section of the yard prior to the garden.

Nathan is cutting the weed cover to fit.

Our compost isn't ready to use yet so we had to buy compost. You have to buy several kinds and mix it together to get the right nutrients. Nolan is pouring the poop! (this was composted cow manure).

You can see the color differences in the different types of compost. 

Wow. I need a shower.  Here we have our Mix prior to mixing. 1/3 part compost, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss.

We mixed it by grabbing the ends of the tarp and pulling over and over. It was fun! Here Mike and I are helping things along by playing in the dirt.

Adding the mix to the box. Pull the tarp right up to the side so you don't lose any of that black magic.

Here it is. The giant litter box. Ok, we have LOTS of cats that walk through our yard so we know it needed protection! This is actually right after adding all the mix.

The book recommends using wood lath to make the squares. It was a bit more pricey than we had hoped so we decided to use twine. The box isn't exactly 4x4 as the lumber was off by an inch so my squares are a little crooked. It really doesn't matter.

Here's the finished product with cat and bunny protection in the form of wire fencing. I'll probably get a little more creative with this part next year so it's easier to get into the garden. But...the wire came with the house so I'm happy to be using it!

The fall garden: broccoli, lettuce and bok choy.

The Bouncing Pillow

The bouncing pillow is the funniest name but so appropriate for this very fun activity. We just came home from several days near Pittsburgh. We decided to Kamp instead of Camp. Yes, we rented a cabin at a Kampground of America. It is somewhat tacky but very nice since it rained quite a bit. We were happy to pack up without having to take down a sopping wet tent only to set it back up again when we got home. I'll always love tenting but this week we were happy to have another option.

Nolan was itching to catch a fish but to no avail. He even set his alarm at something like 5:30 a.m. We had big intentions of heading into Pittsburgh but just couldn't get ourselves to make the drive. We just sat, fished, bounced, read, sewed, cooked and relaxed.


Today we had plans to possibly spend the day at the beach. I think we were sick of the car and ended up staying home and doing something I've been wanting to do for quite a while.....we made our first Square Foot Garden. More on that tomorrow.