Pillowcases for Appendicitis

My brother-in-law had emergency surgery in November and I sewed pillowcases for him and his wife using the Easy Tube Pillow Case Tutorial as presented by Missouri Star Quilt Company for the Million Pillowcase Challenge.

 The corn theme is because they are from Iowa.
These pillowcases are easy to make and are also easy to customize.  Nice fast project!

A Happy Birthday Quilt

This is the second quilt I ever made, and I finished it just in time for my stepdaughter's birthday:

The pattern is Rectangle Reverie by Happy Zombie.  Fabric = Good Fortune.

Yum! Tomato and basil

 Despite a lot of drought interspersed with heavy rains, I got a good crop of tomatoes and basil with the biggest leaf size I've ever seen.

Hey look at those chickens!

 We chicken-sat for my parents in July.  The chickens had just moved into their new coop and yard from the garage.

 They must have been happy, because one of them started laying eggs the day before my parents returned.

Sunflower happiness

Some of the sunflowers in the garden are already >8 feet tall, and a couple bloomed late last week.  Several others are just about ready to go for it.  I love these guys, although they can really get in the way of other plants and humans trying to navigate the garden.

Yay! Tomatoes (and eggplants)

The tomato plants are just going nuts in the warm, dry weather this year.  Romas (top), big heirloom tomatoes (Cherokee purple, 2nd down) have been growing fruit for a while, but none has a pink tinge yet.  Some of the volunteer cherry tomatoes are nearly ripe though (3rd pic).  Amazongly, I seem to actually have succeeded in getting a few eggplants to survive the constant onslaught of flea beetles this year by planting them in pots near the house (bottom picture).  I love tomatoes, and it seems like we might be on track for a record early harvest this year.

Weedy insanity, and corn

Well, being out-of-commission for several weeks starting mid-May took its toll on the garden.  The plants are growing just fine, but so is the grass and other weeds.  The plot containing popcorn, squashes of various sorts, and sunflowers is really taking off though.  I see some blooms on the yellowneck squash.

No more peas please

What a great pea-producing spring!  I got 9 family-sized servings of shelled peas frozen, and at least 10 parcels of sugar snap peas frozen for the coming year.  And enough peas for everyone to get completely sick of eating them in May.  Except maybe my husband, who can't ever seem to stop eating them raw, cooked, whatever :)

Progress in early May

Due to no frost this year (especially where we live, at the top of a hill in town) everything is already growing like crazy even though the last frost date used to be May 15 (it was officially moved up to the beginning of May this year).  I only needed to move the tomato seedlings indoors twice, mostly for my own peace of mind.  The broccoli, cabbage, peas, and lettuce are all going strong in these pictures.  I planted ~100 tomato seedlings on the right side of the garden, and other volunteers spring up here and there.

Walking onions

The Egyptian walking onions are doing much better this year.  These things grow mini-onions instead of bulb sets on top, then the stalks fall over and the new onions plant themselves.  Hence, the "walking."

Lettuce success

This variety of Romaine lettuce from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange did awesome this spring, despite weird weather.  I will definitely grow this one again. 

Just starting

The garden in mid February, just after I planed the peas (under white cloth).  I tried to cut down on weeds by covering with black plastic over the winter.