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I usually make a quilt for the new babies entering our family and for close friends, but as I have been told on many occasions I have never made a quilt for my daughter. When she was little I saved many of her outfits for just the purpose of cutting them up and 
making a quilt for her – but 7 years have come and gone and the clothes still sit in the attic and the quilt still lives in my mind.
For me the worst part of making a quilt is cutting all the pieces and of course the larger the quilt the more pieces there are to cut. The quilt I want to make for my daughter is queen size – so many, many pieces to cut. Several years back I was leafing through a catalog and came across the perfect quilt pattern – I ripped the page out and put it into my binder with all the other patterns and ideas I have come across. Every once and awhile I would look at the picture and tell myself that I needed to start the quilt, but that is about as far as it ever got – until now. My daughter was away for the month of July – so up into the attic I went and down came the box of clothes. A trip down memory lane followed and lasted for a long afternoon. Pulling out each piece of clothing and remembering the pictures taken in them, the special occasions she wore them and of course – I can’t cut this up!
I pulled out the picture of the quilt that I had thought I would be making, but the quilt no longer seemed the “right” one to make with the treasure trove of clothes that I had collected. Out came the quilt books and for several hours I went through the books – marking the pages of the maybes and then I went to the internet, again for several hours – but after all of that I did not find the “right” quilt pattern. The next day it was off to the library, where for about an hour I sat on the floor in front on the bookshelf, pulling one quilt book out after another – but then there it was – the perfect, right quilt pattern! So home I walked and the cutting began.
I had decided on the Lemoyne Star quilt pattern and now the cutting would begin. I needed to cut 168 squares, 168 triangles and 336 diamonds – why did I choose this pattern? Oh, yeah I remember because it is the perfect, right quilt for Stella. I cut the templates and then I cut the squares and then the triangles and now I needed to cut 336 diamonds. I hate to iron, but I needed to iron the clothes in order to start cutting them, but of course we had a heat wave and I of course could not iron and heat up the house or myself – so there the clothes sat on the ironing board – reminding me several times a day that I still had 336 diamonds to cut and not much time left before my daughter was back home.
I made a schedule of how many diamonds I had to cut each night in order to get the 
cutting done and all the items back up in the attic. Everything still just sat where I had put it a week ago, 2 weeks ago – time was running out – I needed to get cutting – the self inflicted guilt was building – I had to get this done. Late in the afternoon I could hear the scissors calling me and the calling just kept getting louder and louder – I could not take it anymore – I started cutting and cutting and on that first night I had cut 96 squares – ok that was not so bad. The next night I cut some more and after 4 more evenings all 336 diamonds had been cut.
Everything was put back in the attic – did not want any clues as to what I had been up to and the cut pieces are hidden in my bedroom. Now in the evenings I will start sewing the quilt while Stella is sleeping and I hope procrastination does not take over. I have until Christmas to get this done -since this will be her Christmas present from me.
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This year I grew curly kale just so I would be able to make kale chips more often – it really does not work as well with the Russian kale that I normally grow. I was lucky to have a beautiful bunch 
of kale given to me from a friend – freshly picked from their garden. Since we had a movie from the library that we needed to watch and it was raining, what better way to spend the rest of yesterday afternoon but to watch a movie and indulge in freshly made kale chips.
1. One bunch of kale, thoroughly washed.
once I get to where the stem is harder and larger I pull the kale from the stalk or you can use scissors, keeping the pieces to about an inch.
4. Place all pieces into a glass bowl, drizzle some olive oil and then toss the kale to coat. You can also just put the kale pieces on a cookie sheet and spray with olive oil and then toss. I find it easier to just do it all in a bowl.
some salt and toss again.
8. I put the timer on for another 4 minutes. The chips will take about 8 – 12 minutes, but once they get crunchy they burn very quickly – so you need to keep an eye on them. After 8 minutes I continually check on them.
I guess you could call my daughter and me rock hounds. My love of rocks started early – any rock that was sparkly and shiny in the sun was a keeper. And what kid does not like to play in the dirt, get as dirty as they possibly can and collect rocks to take home and fill their room, the car, the house and the yard with their collection?
I had always wanted to take a trip to Arkansas and go mining for crystals and diamonds. Crater of Diamonds State Park is the only place in the US that you can mine for diamonds and keep what you find. I had planned the trip with my grandma to do just these things, but of course we kept putting the trip off – life. Two summers ago I had finally mapped out the trip and planned to do it with Stella. At our family reunion I was telling my grandmother
that we were finally going to do “our” trip and she told me that she was going to join us – I could pick her up on our way through Virginia. At this time, my grandmother was very ill and in a wheel chair, but I told her of course we would find a way that she could come with us. My grandmother passed away a week later. She was definitely with us on our trip, watching over us and guiding us to great finds – we were not successful in our quest for diamonds, but what a trip we had!
Last summer we stayed closer to home – heading up to the Catskill and Adirondack mountains to hunt for Herkimer diamonds and garnets. Most of the time it rained while we were there, we played a lot of go fish and yahtzee, but the rain made it much easier to find what we came searching for. The rain washed
away the dirt and the Herkimer diamonds, which are really double pointed crystals, were much easier to find and we did not have to do as much cracking of rocks. The garnets were fun – very similar to panning for gold. You pour some dirt on the ground and then wash it with water to search for the ruby red stones.
Yesterday we drove about an hour north-west into New Jersey to search for fluorescent minerals. We ended up at the Franklin Mineral Museum and Buckwheat Dump. Franklin, New Jersey is supposedly the fluorescent mineral capital of the world. If you go I highly suggest that you go on the museum tour – very interesting. After arriving, we looked at the exhibit of the rocks 
that we would be searching for and headed to the dump. We brought with us a neighborhood friend – this was his first venture into rock hunting – and he has already asked when are we going rock hunting again and can he come – I think we have another convert!
The thing about fluorescents is that you aren’t sure what you have until you put them under an ultraviolet light – and then it is magical. We hunted and searched for about 1 1/2 hours and then up the hill we went to the testing facilities – we had found success! The glow of orange, yellow, purple and green were seen when we held the rocks in the fluorescent light boxes – 
some of the rocks rubbed off on our hands and we had colorful fingertips. Each one of us put every rock under the light and decided what we wanted to keep and what not. It was time for a break – we had our lunch and then went on the tour, which is about an hour long. Then it was back out to the dump for another hour of hunting.
We weeded the beds of the producing plants and I filled in with some more bush bean seeds where there were openings in the bean part of the bed. Then we pulled the plants that were past their prime, pulled weeds, again, and turned the soil, mounded the dirt and flattened the tops. Ready to plant. Pulling out the seeds we put aside what we wanted to plant and then looked at the days to maturity and that determined what we would plant.
In the other bed, Stella harvested the last of the lettuce – so we will definitely be having salad with dinner tonight – later I will go into the garden and get a cucumber to add. As I was pulling weeds in this bed I accidentally pulled a carrot – still not ready!
having that problem, but I am having a problem with my beds. The culprit of the problem is our cat – she loves to lay in the barren dirt, roll in it and bask in the sun, absorbing the warmth from above and below. Not sure if what I did will work, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. I put in wooden stakes and
then wrapped sting around it – making a fence, if you can call it that. I will let you know how it works out. Then I watered all the places we planted.
Big Baby became part of the family on Stella’s first birthday and almost 7 years later she is still a big part of the family. Big Baby has come with us on airplanes, road trips (she wears her seat belt just like everyone else in the car), sleep-overs, trains, subways, 
Broadway shows, the movies, bike rides (in the basket of course), hikes, boat rides and many a meal out. I am not sure how she came to be called Big Baby, she just did and Stella has never wanted to change it. It reminds me of my days living in the South when friends would refer to their grandmother as Big Mama.
On Monday it was realized that Big Baby was injured in three 
places and would definitely need to have surgery. She had broken her right arm in one place and her left arm in two places. Big Baby was admitted to the hospital and the necessary preparations were made – finding the proper thread and needle.
This morning I turned the compost, did some laundry, hung it to dry and then checked on the garden. We had some really intense thunder storms last night. My dream must have been of the future, because my carrots are still not ready to harvest.
along with many herbs.
they have finally come up and are flowering!
The other vegetable plants are continuing to produce nicely. I love seeing the little zucchini and yellow squash hiding under the
leaves. Sometimes all of a sudden there is a huge squash that I wonder “did it grow overnight?” since they seem to magically appear, when I never saw one growing. This year for the first time I am growing bush cucumbers – instead of vining up they vine out 
forming a low, spreading plant – the cucumbers are smaller, but very tasty. The snap beans this year had very little taste and were disappointing – I usually snack on them while in the garden weeding, planting or harvesting, but not this year.
daughter after a month of being away – so of course Friday night and Saturday I tried to keep myself as busy as possible until I had to leave for the airport. I finished the baby blanket for my sister’s upcoming arrival in August. I used two shades of pink in a very soft bamboo yarn and knitted the blanket in
a basket weave. I usually do a quilt for the new arrivals in the family and close friends, but I fell in love with this yarn and had to knit something – and thought how perfect – a girl is on the way!
Saturday morning as I was sitting in my yard having my tea and petting and talking to the cat – I noticed a large butterfly. I watched this butterfly for about 45 minutes going from flower to flower and being chased by bees. It was very relaxing to watch and I always love it when I see nature enjoying the garden.
I try and make all my gifts for the holidays and birthdays, but usually do not knit in the summer – just too hot. But trying to keep myself busy I started a neck warmer scarf. I will have to be careful when I write about my projects so as not to lead on as to
who’s gift it is – just in case they are reading. This went quickly and with it not be a complicated stitch – I did not get into trouble when my mind wandered.
Finished dehydrating the apricots and the house and kitchen are back in order after several days of dehydrating and jam making… until it starts all over again in a couple of weeks and continues through October. Next on the list are white peaches and then there are pears, apples, pumpkins, grapes and if I can find a farm I am hoping for figs!
not have an electric sander. Day after day I took the table outside and sanded – I probably could have used my hands to sand the table, they became so rough. The progress was slow, painstakingly slow! I will talk to anyone about almost anything, so I happened to mention to my neighbor what I was doing and he said I have a sander do you want to use it – of course I did.
Then I was able to get a few days of sanding in and then the heat came, again no sanding. My daughter has been away for the month of July visiting her father and I was determined to finish before she got back (I go tomorrow to pick her up – excited does not even explain the emotion I am feeling about that!) and to be able to take the items that sat on this table off the dining table. I 
have been eating most of my meals from the coffee table.
enjoyed in celebration. That same night I started staining the drawers and the underside of the table and then yesterday morning I stained the top of the table.
where was I going to display my treasure. That started a spring like cleaning of the house because of course I wanted it where another piece of furniture was and when I moved it, having 2 pets, there were many hair bunnies hiding – so the vacuum came out and then the mop. I moved the table into the house and admired it for quite some time, even having another neighbor come over and admire it too! Now I am hoping that my nails will grow back – since they were sanded away in very weird ways during this whole process. Enjoy your weekend – I know that I am going to!!!!!
10:30 last night! Apricots are probably one of the easiest fruits to dehydrate. Wash, cut them, de-pitt them, flatten some and they are ready to go. If you are one that is concerned with the color of your dehydrated fruit then you can place the fruit is a mixture of water and either lemon juice or pineapple juice – the acidity of the juice helps with discoloration – before placing on the dehydrator tray.
4. Finely cut up 1 cup of apricots (about 7) and 1 cup of mangos (about 1 medium size).
9. Place the lids into a pan of water and set to boil. Once the water has boiled turn the burner off and let the lids sit in the hot water. Keep the cover of the pot on.
