And time marches on...

Where does the time go? We've been home from the Virginia trip for a month. I've done lots of freezing and dehydrating - sweet corn, tomatoes, potatoes... We get most of our produce from an Amish family who live about 25 miles from us - I love knowing where and how our food is grown. I think I'm about done with vegetables for the year. Have you every frozen twice baked potatoes? It is one of my favorite things to have in the freezer -just pop one or more in the oven whenever you want. 

Before long, we'll visit some orchards near Gays Mills, WI and get apples. I'll freeze some for pies and crisps. I'll also make applesauce and freeze what I think we'll use in the next year. And I'll dry some apple chips to enjoy throughout the year and longer. When the apple are done, the produce is done for the year. 

I've done some quilting. It's really hard to get pictures of my design wall - there seems to be a long arm in the way. Anyway, these pictures aren't the best and some have shadows - I took them at night.

The first quilt was 'in progress' and I finished the top. It just needs to be quilted.

I bought this blue fabric and the coordinating ones at Sew Classic Fabrics in Harrisonburg, VA, on our trip. I saw a photo of a quilt similar to this but it had a white background. I thought the blue background would be neat. I used some graph paper and figured out how to make the star and how big I could make it based on the fabric I had. I wish I had bought backing fabric but I'll find something. It's ready to be quilted.

I saw a picture on the next quilt; I think they called it Vintage Jewels. It doesn't say who made the quilt - the picture was on the Grace Company website showing the quilting. I decided it would be a neat scrap quilt. As I was making the blocks, I realized that I should make 2 quilts - one with bright fabrics and one with pastels. Most of the fabrics are from my stash and a few are recent purchases. The bright fabric quilt just needs to have the blocks sewn together. The pastel quilt is still in the planning stages; I think those blocks will be smaller.

We are planning a trip to northern Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan in a couple weeks to visit two of my brothers and hopefully see the fall colors. Ray is still recovering - he's back in PT and has had some additional problems. He seems a little better and we think he is making progress. 

Today we watched some of Queen Elizabeth II's funeral. We've been watching a lot of the events for the past week. And now the era of King Charles III is beginning...