Monthly Archives: September 2012

Summer Pillow!

sewing, ,

A few months ago, I finished my summer quilt to liven up our living room. Because I had so much fabric left over from the experience, I decided to go ahead and make a matching throw pillow.  The center is an 8.5″x8.5″ block, fussy-cut to let the big motif stand out.  The top and bottom borders are two 4.5″x8.5″ coordinating pieces.  Then, on the sides, I pieced together small remnants, again using 4.5″x8.5″ as my end-size before piecing everything together.  The back side of the pillow has a red-orange wavy center, rather than the fussy-cut giant motif.  I had run out of the big motif fabric, or at least run out of 8.5″x8.5″ portions that centered the circle motif, so I went with something different to coordinate, but still keep the same pieced pattern.  I used a 16″x16″ pillow form to stuff it with.

Now that it’s fall, I’m thinking I might need to make myself a fall-colored lap quilt and coordinating throw pillow…

Jammin’!

baking, summer, , ,

Last year, the hubby and I set about making jam.  I had made a few half-pints of blackberry jam at my mother’s house, and, once I realized what a simple process it was, and coming home with boxes of peaches and nectarines, we decided to try making a few varieties of jam.

This year, a friend of mine and I made jam together over the course of a couple of afternoons.  We both gained quite the appreciation for those who process boxes and boxes of fruit.  We only had two and were pretty tired of peaches by the end of the second afternoon of our jam-making adventures.

I found all of the jam from last year, and combined with this year, we have quite the selection!  Below are the varieties:

– Blackberry
– Nectarine-blackberry
– Peach
– Peach-blueberry
– Peach-blackberry
– Peach-mango
– Peach-ginger
– Peach-habanero