May's 1st post!

May 5th was a big day in the garden: Put down 4 paths of straw, transplant parsely, lettuce, chives, green onion from cold frame into the garden, make pea teepees, plant peas, dig up and divide the rhubarb into 3 plants.

This weekends garden plans

This weekend will be big in the garden: 1). Spread out the compost bin all over the garden. 2). Till in the compost, and do one final deep till. 3). Finish installing the teeny tiny holed wire fence before the baby bunnies are born and squeeze thru. 4). Form the beds, lay down newspaper and straw in pathways. 5). Lay bricks - dry stack to form raised beds @ string lines. 6). Cut pampas grasses down. 7). Make pea teepee's from pampas bamboo shoots. 8). Finally plant the peas. Happy Arbor Day!

April 2013!!!

Cannot believe its been a month since my last post! It has been a very eventful spring so far, with temps still in the 40-50s you would think that garden work has been little to nill, but it is well underway. This past weekend I moved the little fence over in order to relocate the pathway from down the center of the garden to the West side so that we have more room for vegetables and flowers. Here is a photo of the goings on in the cold frame this morning:

Bright-MOD-Banner quilt

So Ive been DVR'ing a quilting show lately "Quilting Arts", its a really neat show because it showcases ideas and techniques that are all a buzz in quilting today.  This episode was all about whats new and exciting in the world of quilting - Banner quilts.  Here is my 1st banner quilt hanging from a budding Maple this morning.

Banner quilts are nice because they can be used as lap quilts or around your shoulders as a wrap or shawl and they

do not take as much time to make as a traditional bed sized quilt.  Have you tried sewing a banner quilt yet?

Visit Fabric Tuesday over on Quiltstory for more inspiration!

Cold Frame temps

Here is a photo of the garden today, temps are hovering in the 40's with a 50 degree high predicted this weekend.  I had to dig a path to get to the cold frame, we put a wireless thermometer in there and so far at 7am it was already at 42 degrees!  The soil in there is not ready to plant, it still has some turf to remove and I have to turn over the dirt so Im anticipating getting that done this weekend with the warm-up.

Ill post another pic of the cold frame this weekend.

Snow !!!

We had snow here in Chicago today, 6-8" give or take!

My pretty Amaryllis in the front window.

I started a few flats of seeds this week, strawberries, broccoli, lettuce, parsely, broccoli-flour, eggplant and onions according to the frost free date Im using of May 15th.  You will know when to start seeds indoors by the back of each seed packet, it will tell you to "start indoors 10 weeks before frost", etc.  I have also cleared out a few mouse houses in the cold frame to get it ready for setting the seedlings out there, I need to line it with bricks for added heat retention of the midday sun and add a few inches of compost and it will be ready.

Did you start any seeds yet?

2013 Garden Layout

This year will be exciting for the garden, I plan to move the path from the center to the West side to be able to use the space that was previously occupied by the path for crops. This year I will try to move the rhubarb or just keep an eye on it so that its not shaded by neighboring shrubs. Last year was the worst year for rhubarb since a bush grew so large it was in the shade and did not grow very well. 2013 Shall be a year full of new additions, asparagus and artichokes and a possible raised bed. Im somewhat "on the fence" about raised beds as I like to till each spring but many are blogging that tilling is not as beneficial as the loose uncompacted soil in raised beds are. Im hearing the soil composition is far better when you leave it rather than till each spring. I may just try this line of thought in one small area using cedar as the boards. What are your thoughts on raised beds vs. tilling? Soon we start seeds indoors and I cannot wait, I've had my little seed starting station all ready for months! Spring is only about 40 days away! February sunsrise on Le' Cabbage Patch:

Handmade scarves

Ive been making a few scarves lately, Ive finished 4. Here is a photo of 2 of them for some cute little people. I mailed them off today, I hope they like them (and dont think their frumpy or dorky). Have you tried making scarves? What fun they are because you see the finished quilt quick and you can wear them!

Whats growing out there?

Happy New year!! Still no snow here in Chicago, we have not had any measurable snow yet this wintertime and we are all (well I am at least) wishing and hoping for some! Went out today and peeked under the row covers and the lettuce and onions are growing! Im completely shocked since temps have been well wintery (teens to 50 but mostly about 20 ish). I will try some new crops in the garden this year, potatoes, sweet potatoes and artichokes, will order those thru mail order and the rest I already have seeds from previous years or saved seeds from last year. One crop I will not grow is corn, I really mean it this time, the raccoons get it every year the night before I pick it! Not growing corn will free up a nice area to grow more squash and potatoes and maybe a watermelon. Here are the pics from today:

600 Pillowcases for Sandy Hook

There is a movement out there in the sewing and quilting world to create 600 pillowcases for the school children of Sandy Hook Elementary School. You can read more about it here: http://maureencracknellhandmade.blogspot.com/2012/12/today.html - I have one made so far to send to Quilters Corner https://www.facebook.com/pages/QUILTERS-CORNER/182422601980 Quilters Corner 312 Danubury Road (RT 7) Milford, CT., 06776 www.quilterscorneronline.com Hopefully a colorful pillowcase will provide some comfort to the children who lost so much last Friday.

Current Project sneak peak

Stay tuned ; )

The Felt Village

We made our own little village for our Christmas table. Sure we have the ceramic Christmas villages but this one we got to MAKE! Our cousin saved her milk cartons from lunch each day and we covered them with felt in bright colors (using wood glue). The stained glass windows are made from melting crayon shavings between two pieces of wax paper using the heat from an iron (make sure you put a towel over your work to protect the iron).

Turkey Trot Camping

Just are back from a camptrip, this one is very apro-po, Wild Turkeys abound this Northern Illinois State Park; Rock Cut State Park. We decorated Belle to take our annual Christmas card photo. I will not post the photos we picked for our card since some family may be reading this, but here are a few pics of our campsite! What fun we had! Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

The $3.90 Japanese Maples

Went on over to Lowes and found they had all their live nursery stock 75% off! As I was looking thru the tables something pretty caught my eye.. a Japanese Maple, about 12 of them! The "Bloodgood" Japanese Maples were reg $39, but not yesterday, they were $9 each, 2 followed me home. By time I got home I kicked myself for not buying more at that price. Today I went back and there were only a handful left but at an even better price $3.90 each! 4 More came home today! Now Ive got to get them in the ground this weekend as well as stain the shed. A before pic of the potting shed bench.

EPP Progress!

Well the EPP king sized quilt is going very well, I threw two strong days at it and here it is so far along with our kitten "Tiger" all over it! Its about 2' wide and 3' long, the quilt that is not Tiger. Im looking forward to a long winter's worth of work on the quilt!

This post featured on Freshly Pieced:

Clean out the shed/seed starting greenhouse

Our little shed was a mess, you could not even walk into it. I spent from 10am to 2pm on it and its now all cleaened out. Im kicking myself that I did not take any "Before" pics. In our little 8 x 8 shed we have two giant skylights and two little windows with southern and eastern exposure and a long counter that runs the entire length of one wall. The shed gets so warm inside in the winter you only need a light jacket to hand out in there on sunny days. This prompted me to get it ready for a seed starting spot, I may even be able to grow greens and onions in trays all winter, its fun to experiment anyway ; ) For the windows I will sew some curtains out of some cute fabric that has seed packet images on it, this was an estate sale purchase a few months ago and I have not known what to do with it. Update on the row cover winter crops: I peeked out there today and there are no little sprouts under there yet so I watered again and closed it all back up.

Winter crops planted today!

Today was a great day in the garden! After doing some research with Daphne ( http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/) I went out yesterday to round up the material for making some row covers, my 1st stop was Menards and in the garden center they had 10' premade row covers for only $6.88 each, how could I pass that up! I bought two of their kits and went on to Prestige Nursery and then a final stop at Platt Hill Nursery in a search for seeds. Platt Hill still had their seed rack up and I came home with about 15 packets (lettuce, radish, carrots, winter squash and cabbage) all at 70% off! I roughed up the soil to a depth of 8-10" with my fork and planted two beds with cabbage, lettuce, carrots and onion seeds. Then I covered them with the fleece row covers. After assembly it occured to me that I still have an enormous problem: bunnies getting thru my fence. So back out I go to install the 100' roll of coated chicken wire around the entire perimeter. If nothing else at least it will help with the baby bunny problem in the springtime.

Chicago Botanic Gardens Trip

If you have not been to the Chicago Botanic Gardens and you are in the area, its a must see for any gardener. The best thing about this place is there is something for everyone and every plant is labeled as to what it is. Here are some photos. Their Vegetable and Fruit Garden is really spectacular and I cannot wait to go in the spring to see what they plant.