What does your garden grow?

This year my garden includes much more than flowers and my usual salsa garden. It includes a nice variety of vegetables too!



Last year we sowed seeds for radishes, carrots, peas, snap beans, and onions but our lack of planning and veggie-growing knowledge was evident in our harvest. I don't have any photos to document the end result but it wasn't pretty. Those veggies were grown in my "cut flower" garden but space was limited and we ended up with many weeds and volunteer tomato and tomatillo plants all throughout the garden--thanks to our compost. It was "zero fun" weeding so I gave up on that garden after a few attempts. That garden turned into a jungle of weeds and over grown plants and it was time for a new beginning. (BTW, I now avoid putting any tomatoes/tomatillos in the compost bin and I am also selective about which weeds make it in there. We also watered and turned it often during the winter months.)

I am a big fan of "Lasagna Gardening" so in early fall 2008, after I cleaned up the jungle mess and transplanted the perennial flower plants, I covered the garden area with cardboard to smother the weeds, grass, seeds and prepare the ground for a blank slate for 2009.

This is what we have now and I couldn't be happier!

My husband worked very hard to build these two beds and he did a beautiful job! I have never worked with raised garden beds before and so I had a few questions about gardening this way. I was told time after time to look into "Square Foot Gardening". Wow, it's an amazing concept! I'm looking forward to sweet success this year with an abundant harvest.

Here's our list of plants:
Black from Tula Tomatoes
Cherokee Purple Tomato
German Pink Tomato
Gold Medal Tomato
Dragon's Tongue Bean
Golden Zucchini
Verte et Blanc Squash
Golden Zucchini
Double Yield Cucumber
Chioggia Beet
Dragon Carrot
Lettuce Mixture
Pumpkin
Jalapeño, Serrano, and Anaheim Chile Peppers
Red Bell Pepper
Radish
Watermelon Radish
Green Onion
Green Bell Pepper
Purple Queen Bush Bean
Bush Snap Bean
Snow Peas
Sugar Bon Peas
Sweet Treat Carrot
Basil
Chives
Cilantro
Italian Parsley
Oregano
Lemon Balm

I also included a few flower plants for color and protection too! I hope to transplant some of these to my main flower garden soon.
Marigold
Nastartium
Portulaca
4 varieties of Zinnia
Candytuft

two months

Last time I posted here I was working on sewing more clothes for myself. That hasn't gone so well but I have done a little sewing. . .

-a hoodie, I altered the Summer Blouse pattern from "Weekend Sewing"



-I started a quilt using the great Mod Sampler Quilt-Along tutorial
(My progress can be found here.)

-Easter dresses for my girls


-a skirt for Maria's Kindergarten Continuation


-a headband for the Bolder Boulder


With many commitments behind me now, I hope to get more sewing time in the next few months!

garments

In January I challenged myself to change my wardrobe by sewing my own clothes! I thought it would be simple to work on one garment a week but soon realized I was being a little too ambitious. I also started a blog to journal all about the completed pieces and the random stuff that I learn as each piece is being constructed.

This is the 13th week of 2009 and so far, I've only made three pieces: a tunic, a "trial" summer blouse, and a different summer blouse. The blog is pretty sad at this moment so I won't even give you a link until I can actually get more posted.

#1-This is the tunic


#2-The summer blouse is a pattern from the book "downtownDIY sewing". It's a very cute design but I won't post a photo because mine didn't turn out so cute. . . As this was my first attempt at sewing this blouse, I made a trial blouse from a cheap cotton instead of muslin just so that I could wear it when I completed it. (Yes, I'm a bit confident in my skills. HA!) Well, sadly, I didn't have enough fabric for the whole blouse but I didn't figure that out until I had already cut out the main pieces. Needless to say, it's ugly but, hey, now I know how to construct it in the right size for me! Maybe next time I'll go with muslin. Um, nah--see my next garmet description!

#3-The third piece I've made is another summer blouse except this one is from the latest book to hit the sewing world, "Weekend Sewing" by Heather Ross. I first read about the book on this post at this great blog! It's a quick sew and it's very comfortable! I can see myself making a few more with some variations--sleeveless, 3/4 length sleeves, a dress, a different neckline and a hoodie!!! The variations will certainly help me catch up to my goal of one garment per week! (If I can finish the year with 52 pieces, I'll be happy even if they weren't all made "one per week".)

This blouse was made using a thrifted sheet. Probably cheaper than muslin and wearable too!

Taxi Tote

I made the Taxi Tote bag from the book "Seams To Me" by Anna Maria Horner.



It's a simple bag to construct but because I was making it late at night it took me longer than I had anticipated due to some really dumb mistakes! Nobody should sew late at night or when they are tired! I didn't have trouble with the bias tape but spent a lot of time taking out stitches after I stitched the whole exterior shut!!! I'm so used to making lined totes and, even with nice illustrations on the pattern instructions, I couldn't clearly understand the way the lining was going to fit inside the exterior fabric because there is no turning involved--it was midnight!

I used fabric I had on hand--the flower fabric is from a fabric store in Puebla, Mexico; the lining is a bright pink cotton solid; the bias tape is a pink cotton with a red flower print--left over fabric from the "In Stitches" loung pants.

Now, I just have to get used to carrying a purse over my shoulder since I've been staying away from carrying a diaper bag and use a wristlet to carry the basics.

5!

Juju turned five earlier this month so I made her another birthday tee. For this one, I appliquéd 5 circles onto a strip of fabric and added some crazy stitching to the strip to give it some texture. Then, I zigzag stitched the strip onto the front of a t-shirt (I backed it with some flannel). It was simple and cute and I liked it but it was all over too quickly so I decided to add 5 more circles to the back. She loved it!

(I know you can only see 4 circles, but the fifth circle is off to the right.)

quilt-along

I'm very excited to participate in the Mod Sampler Quilt-Along. Elizabeth, the host, will certainly be teaching us lots of great skills for quilting. Check out her amazing work on her blog.

I purchased fabric today at Fancy Tiger and spent a long time trying to figure out my color choices. I started off thinking I would work with a green and orange palette but then the Anna Maria Horner fabric just had to be included!!! I ended up with blue, yellow and orange as my color palette and I am very pleased with this combo. I'm ready to get cutting AND sewing!

ATC Kids Swap

Both of my girls participated in the ATC Kids Swap. I decided to come up with a theme to make the process a bit more focused and a whole lot easier, on me. Our theme was "New Life - SPRING". Our art media consisted of watercolors and black marker. From the looks of it, watercolors were very popular for these ATC's.

Maria (age 6) had lots of ideas and finished her cards in no time.

Julia (4) had a hard time getting started but with some extra guidance from Mom ("Paint the card. What do those colors remind you of? Okay, draw that!") she made some wonderful cards too.

Along with their ATC, each swap partner received a few heirloom pumpkin seeds (Rouge Vif d' Etampes) w/instructions for how to grow these beautiful "Cinderella" pumpkins. (FYI, the seeds are from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.)

Happy Spring, friends!

We're happy we could share our art with you and would love to hear about your pumpkin adventures!

Friday's Yellow

Fabric, vintage:

Some vintage fabric just waiting for the right project!


I'm not certain this fabric is vintage, but it sure seems like it to me. This is a wristlet I made.


Another wristlet I made using more vintage fabric.