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Monday, April 16, 2012

To sew or to sow?

Morning all, well it is a cold day here, cold but bright and dry.  Being Irish it's obligitory to comment on the weather regardless of what it is...so that's done.  The Easter holidays are over for me and it's back to my real job later today.  As I am going to a craft fair next weekend ( the visit Nenagh cycle event) I thought I should get some more products made.  I had some fun fabric with coffee cups and went to The Limerick Quilt Centre to get some matching fabrics.  I was SOOOOOOOOOO restrained and brough a list with me a stuck to it...almost.  I am trying to be cost effective with fabrics, I had a half yard of the coffee cups and so bought a half yard of two matching spotty fabrics and then another for pink binding fabric.  I cut and sewed the tops on Saturday and got the backing and wadding cut.

Tops ready to be quilted

Typical, I have these bits leftover, and need to buy even more fabric to finish them off.



I left them all out ready to quilt then on Sunday morning.  Up early and was at the machine by 8am ready to get started...and blast, the machine wouldn't work.  It keeps catching the thread underneath.  I think it's the timing...it happened before and I have noticed it happens after I have been using the walking foot.  Last time I gave it a good clean out and discovered it would work with slightly thicker thread and had been using that for a number of weeks.  Then for some reason it was fine with any thread...now it won't work at all no matter what thread I use.  I know the sensible thing would be to take it for a service...but then what will I do all week.

Anyway, so that meant I had a Sunday free and the weather was dry so I decided to finally get out into the garden. We have four large raised vegetable beds which have had nothing done to them this year and were left to waste last year aswell. So I dug and I dug and I dug...and now my back is killing me but we have three beds all ready to plant.  I cleaned up the asparagus bed and can see the little shoots already peeking through.  Last year was the first year we could pick it and I'm already looking forward to asparagus with a soft boiled egg chopped over it in June out in the garden under the sun I need us to get.  That bed had loads of strawberry plants so I dug them up and divided them and gave them a bed of their own, about 60 plants in it...mmm strawberry jam.  We moved the hen house, it was at the back of the garden but is now at the front in the orchard (pretentious word for 5 skinny apple trees).   We need to fence them in now, they have had free reign of the garden but I don't want them pecking newly planted veggies. 

I have loads of seeds growing indoors in post, tomatoes, peppers, courgette, cucumber, pumpkins and squashes and sweetcorn.  The sweetcorn hasn't taken off and the runner beans just rotted.  Outdoors in pots we have sprouts, cabbage, kale, broccoli, peas and beans. Today I need to sow in the ground all the salads aswell as turnips, kol rabi, scallions and leeks.  I still have loads more seeds to get going in the house but have run out of containers and windowsills.  And I still haven't got my promised polytunnel...boo hoo.

We got loads of weeding done including a huge amount of dandelions.  Darling husband was sending me in to the kitchen to make him a salad with them but they were a little bitter.  They seemed so succulent and it was a pity to waste them so we popped them into a bucket and brought them up to our newly aquired and cute as a button pigs.  They loved them and ate them all...good to know for future reference, I wonder what other weeds they would like?

The pink boy and black girl together on the left are ours. The girl is called Pixie.

Anyway, I'm off to garden.  Any suggestions about my sewing machine please comment.  I suppose I'm off to sow or sew.

3 comments:

LollipopsDaydreams said...

Now I feel guilty for neglecting our vegetable patch! Am going to plant some salad leaves tomorrow now you've inspired me!

Quirky Apple said...

Good, salad is great, though I got my machine to work again so today it was sew and not sow. Thank for comment.

Unknown said...

How cool. I'd love a veggie patch.