Weatherman is calling for possible freeze....(UPDATE)

This morning Shawn Rutherford called for a possible freeze for tonight and tomorrow night.  I currently have tomatoes and peppers still growing.  I was debating this morning about what to do with them due to the possibility of a light freeze.  I contemplated pulling all the fruit and leaving the plants covered, just in case the flowers that are on the plants still produce (I know it is getting later in the season and they may not have a chance to produce any edible fruit) or the choice is to leave the fruit and winterize everything.  Still in debate, since I am deemed to be in the Hill Country and we get colder than others when temperatures change.  The first freeze that I know of is usually in December.  Maybe things are changing.  What would you do in this situation?

Average Freeze Dates For Texas

I got home this afternoon around 6:00 and decided to pull some of the items (of course while trying to cover some of the tomato plants, vines broke so I had tomatoes from that) and bring them in and cover everything else.  Took me almost 2 hours to cover everything (with watering all the plants to hopefully help them get through the freeze, I read this helps).  I realized while covering the plants that I did not buy more winter row covers.  The amount I had was before the extra boxes I built and the extra old sheets I had did not finish the job either.  Well guess I will be buying more since a real freeze is sure to be on the way.

I also saved some Thai and Sweet Basil plants that somehow ended up growing in beds where they were not originally planted and also from the pathway of my garden.

In each pot there is enough plants to make several individual pots of basil.  I will be giving some away once I get a chance to pot them in individual little pots this weekend.

Hopefully my covering of all the plants helps and I can still enjoy my vegetables.

11/07/10-The temperatures did drop on Friday night as well as Saturday night.  According to the weather forecast tonight will also be around 42 degrees.  So I will wrap the plants again.  It shows that the rest of the week the lows will be in the 50's.  So I SHOULD be okay until the weekend.  Let's hope so.  These are photo's from Saturday morning.  I did not go out Sunday morning as I had been up since 4 am preparing roast for my Father-In-Law's birthday luncheon today.  My husband was nice enough to go out and unwrap the plants.  Nice sunny day today.  Headed out to wrap the plants.  You can see that one of the coverings blew partly off.  This bed has the eggplant.  I think I have lost them (never got any fruit, but tons of flowers).

Team Ra-Ras Kicks Breast Cancer

Let's help kick breast cancer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This dance routine is to benefit "Susan G. Komen for the Cure" (Breast Cancer). Each time someone views the video, United Healthcare will make a $.10 donation to The Philadelphia Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Please take a moment to watch the video - and, just as important, pass this link onto your network of friends, family and colleagues? It benefits a very important cause!

Thanks for helping!

My Frist Quilt

I took my first quilting class in the later part of 2008 from Ann Randall.  I came across her while googling local areas to learn quilting.  Everywhere I looked they had just completed their beginner series and I would have to wait after the new year to learn.  I was so happy to come across her and when I met her she made my anxiety about quilting subside.  From that class on, I have been sewing every since and it sparked my volunteer work with her group as well.  Ann helped me pick out a pattern for my quilt and do the math.  The pattern called for one that was 80X97.   I was going to make it that big, but Ann suggested with it being my first quilt that I should go smaller.  Well I went 66X67 after all was said and done (I should have went much smaller like she suggested, listen to your quilt teacher students).  Sometimes I don't listen, HA HA HA.  The piecing of the top was no problem, but finagling that quilt into my sewing machine to quilt it was the problem.  That was a lot of work. I learned that you can do it if your mind is into it (forget about your arms and shoulders hurting), so I did not get discouraged, it just took me a lot longer than the other students to complete my quilt due to the size.  The binding is where I learned I don't like hand binding.  That took me until September of 2010 to finish.  Every time I kept thinking "hey I need to finish that quilt, the binding is only left",  I kept putting it down.  I should have machined bind it due to the size.  However, I am glad that I did not waiver and I persevered.  After washing it the quilt soften up and I noticed even though it is not a heavy quilt, my husband still likes it on the bed.

  

  

I stopped at the inner boarder and pieced it from left over rectangles from the pinwheels.  I also left off the corner pinwheels in the boarder (too limit the size)

The backing was pieced together using remnants when purchasing the main fabric. The brown added a pop to the back of the quilt that I love and I use this technique a lot in my charity quilts (due to the fact that we don't get a lot of yardage donated).

Things I learned making my first quilt:

• Reading a pattern.
• Making a plastic template.
• Using a rotary cuter/ruler/mat (I cut part of my pointer finger off, not pretty).
• Working out math for the amount of fabric, so that you don't have to make a lot of trips to the store (don't get me wrong I love shopping at the store (my husband could attest to that), but I rather work on the quilt).
• Working on getting the 1/4 seam allowance right, that is real work, still working on it.
• Selecting fabric that blends well on quilt top.
• Using imagination to piece a quilt back.
• Sometimes your points are lost.
• Stitching in the ditch when your blocks don't align quite right.
• Frustration of working with such a large quilt on such a small sewing machine.
• Using a walking foot (very interesting bringing up the bobbin thread BEFORE you start sewing).
• BINDING, need I say more

I still love quilting.

Quilt Projects In Process

Back in July, 2009, I took my first paper piece class from Jennifer Ofenstein where I learned to make a pineapple block.  I have been taking more of her classes and I currently have 2 of her paper piecing projects on my To-Do List.  She makes up her own patterns and she is currently doing a somewhat monthly project.  If you can't take her class at Honey Bee Quilt Store, then drop into Honey Bee (you may also run into Jen while you are there as she is their website guru) to see if her pattern is still there (as limited paper versions are made) or check out her site or her blog to purchase her patterns.  Believe me you will not be disappointed.  What I love about Jen is that she is always available to help if you don't understand something about her patterns and she is just an overall fun person to talk with.  She also has a class at Honey Bee Quilt Store where you can bring in any paper piece project and work on it (shhhh you will want to work on hers I am sure).

Intermediate Paper Piecing + Curves, 04/24/10

Book: Paper Piecing with Alex Anderson
New York Beauty Block

Floating Mariner, 09/25/10

In addition to the projects above, I also have this one that I came across and thought you have to give it a try.  I purchased and started on this project maybe at the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010 and put it to the side. While I was organizing (or should say re-organizing then organizing again as I have to do frequently to find all of my TO-DO projects and put them in containers so they could be found easily) I found this one in the back of my fabric closet. This has been my first project with Batiks. The reason I put it down before is that you could not really use pins as the holes stay and when you sew incorrectly and have to "un-sew" those pin marks stay and is not real attractive.  Since I was new to quilting, I relied on pins heavily, but now I can sew some pieces without using pins.  I started work again on this project last weekend and I am more than halfway done piecing the blocks.  I hope I can finish piecing the top this weekend.  I have to figure out what baking I will use.  Also, I will have to research how you quilt with batiks  I don't think I will use batik fabric as all of the baking (too expensive, plus don't like that feel against my skin).  Click on the link below for the pattern.  I will surely make this quilt again using regular fabric.  I like it and it is fairly quick pattern.

Treasure Box Quilt

All of these quilts are so different and that is what I love about them. They encompass various styles and techniques.

Gardening-Tomatoes

Trisha Shirey on Central Texas Gardener talks about the caring for tomatoes in your garden.  She covers everything from blossom end rot to bug damage.  The information she shares answered quite a few questions I had on my tomatoes (so happy I got some this year).  Take a look.

 

Very Interesting

In August, my husband and daughter discovered this in our backyard.  I was busy in the enclosed garden and did not see it.  I did a little research and it is a dragonfly.  The color on it is fascinating and it is truly amazing at how transparent the wings are.  God's creatures.  AMAZING.



Mexican Mint Marigold (Texas Tarragon)

Tarragon

Last year I had to find Tarragon in the store to make a chicken salad recipe that I tasted at a Bunco meeting (it was amazing and the Tarragon is what set off the whole dish).  The cost of fresh herbs in the store is crazy.  So I found some and of course they only sold by 6 packs (crazy me did not read the planting directions and I planted them close together).  Now they have truly grown.  By the time I realized they were going to get so big, I could not find the tag to name it and determine what I needed to do with it for the winter.  I happen to come across a recently found friend on Facebook and there she had a photo of what looked like my plant and then the light bulb went off.  That's what that was and then I remember why I loved it so much.  The smell is truly awesome.  If your ever needing any and it survies the winter, your more than welcome to have some.  HA HA.