Oodles & Oodles of Tomatoes . . .

Today, at 4:00 pm, I decided we had to do something with the pot of pizza/spaghetti sauce sitting on the stove (Sarah made this a few days ago) PLUS all the tomatoes overrunning the refrigerator and garden. Two hours later, 9 pints of sauce and 19 pints of tomatoes were either in the water bath canner or waiting to be put in! This picture is the beautiful result of our work. Sarah was gracious enough to help me, and I must say that I much prefer canning with someone else over doing it alone. (I included the red pepper in the photo because it looks gorgeous.) Needless to say, we ordered pizza for dinner.

All of the tomatoes came from Sarah's garden (see the link to "A Gardener's Gazette" to get to her blog). We figured out that we canned 30 lbs. of tomatoes; the sauce started as, I believe, 24 or 28 pounds of tomatoes. This is in addition to the sauce she made previously. As long as the weather holds, there are plenty more tomatoes in the garden; the weather forecast is for above-average temperatures again this week. Hard to believe that Monday is the first day of October!

About that blue shirt I wrote about this past Monday - I had an opportunity to wear it when Sarah and I went shopping on Thursday and she said it looked store bought. That makes two shirts from that one pattern that she's made that comment about, and it sure makes me feel good! My only regret, and this holds true for much of what I make, is that the shirt will have to be ironed after washing. I love sewing on and wearing cotton; sometimes I'm able to find fabric that has some polyester in it, but often I just head for the calico section. Not that ironing is horrid - it's not - but it means I have to go out in the garage and get the ironing board, then find a place to set it up. I never can find a convenient place - I'm always in someone's way. Sometimes I use the small tabletop board, but it's a bit harder to work on.

Also this week I decided to organize my pink/purple/bit of green fabric bin. I'm trying to follow the directions I found here. I have found quite a few pieces that are large enough to actually make something from; these go in a separate tote with labels on them to tell me how big the pieces are. This is making me think I should go back through the tote of blue fabric and see if there are any larger pieces in there . . .

And as if I don't have enough fabric, I bought 14-1/2 yards of good quality cottons at a sale this week. I decline to mention the price, since my dh may read this blog, but I probably paid a bit more than 1/3 of the original prices (I got them from a nice mainly-quilting shop). In addition, I bought six Children's Corner patterns for $1.00 each!! This means I got over $60 worth of patterns for pennies. I am so excited. I'll try to get some pictures of the additions to my fabric stash.

After the fabric store, Sarah and I went across the street to a nice yarn shop. Sarah loves to knit and enjoyed seeing all the specialty yarns (I like touching them, but they're so expensive that I can't consider buying any.) The shop had an extensive selection of books - mainly knitting, but some lovely crocheting ones, too. I picked up two: "Crochet for Tots" by Nancy Queen, and "More Crocheted Aran Sweaters" by Jane Snedden Peever. Back before we had children, I spent time sitting in the auto repair shop (too often) crocheting an Aran-type sweater for Phil . . . he wore it out some years ago, as he wore it under his coat nearly every day in the winter.

Lastly, on Tuesday evening I finished stitching a 4-2/4" x 29-1/2" bell pull that I've been working on since spring. The pattern is "Simple Gifts" from "Told in a Garden." All that's needed is to sew muslin to the back and insert the bell pull hardware, of which I only have half because the shop had only one of the size I needed (the other is on order.) I chose black, instead of the gold the shop used on their sample. This piece will be hung in our upstairs hallway, which has an Amish theme. The picture here doesn't do it justice, so I'll try to get some pics of my completed piece. Perhaps I can do it in two halves.

On my crafting "to do" list is to finish folding that fabric; move the totes before my hubby's dialysis supplies come on Tuesday (since they're sitting right where those supplies need to be placed); choose a pattern to make a skirt for one of my nieces (Christmas gift); decide whether to keep trying to stop a piece of fabric from running so I can make overalls for my nephew in CA with it, or crochet him something from my new book (another Christmas gift); decide on Christmas gifts, preferably handmade, for Julia and Jamie Rae (JR is my niece in North Carolina); put away last week's purchases; and make a fabric pumpkin before winter arrives. This should keep me busy for a while. Problem is, I always find other things to do!