It's that time of year..........always something to can or freeze! I did 13 pints of pickles on Friday afternoon. Then on Saturday, it was applesauce time! We use Lodi apples which are a summer apple that is only good for applesauce. It makes the best applesauce in my humble opinion. Issues we faced this year - our upright freezer quit working AGAIN! We just had it repaired about 3 weeks ago. So, I was faced with having to can the applesauce because there is no freezer space available since we had to empty the upright and cram everything into the other freezers. We have sacrificed ice cream twice now. The first time, the containers were mostly empty, but this time I had just bought more ice cream...........talk about a brain freeze! Apparently it's not our summer to have ice cream.
We did half the apples on Saturday afternoon and got 24 pints. We were then counting pint jars, and discovered that we only had 24 left (including the 2 boxes I had begged from my in-laws). And I still want to do more pickles and beets and maybe a few green beans if we get enough. So, the decision was made on Sunday morning to put off making more applesauce until Wednesday and hope the freezer was fixed by then so that we can freeze it. (Can you tell that we were still exhausted from the first go-round and putting it off wasn't really that difficult of a decision?)
In the efforts to create freezer space, a whole chicken was thawed on Friday and David cut it up Friday evening with the assistance from Sarah who was watching a youtube tutorial about how to cut up a chicken. So, we had fried chicken on Saturday for lunch. Once you've made the mess of frying chicken, you might as well go ahead and do applesauce in the afternoon while the cooktop is still a mess! We rewarded ourselves with my favorite summer meal on Saturday evening.
BLT, cucumbers and onions in vinegar, and sweet corn! David's cousin told me that I had 2/3 of the trifecta when I had a wild turkey breast and mushrooms in the spring - the missing component was crappie. I consider this the trifecta. We purchased the sweet corn called Coon's Choice. It was very sweet. Our sweet corn should be ready in a week or so (hoping the freezer is fixed!) if we can beat the coons to it. David has trapped 11 coons, 1 possum, and Boots the kitten (twice).
On Sunday, we smoked a couple of slabs of ribs (again trying to create freezer room and some leftovers for the coming week). I had to work on Sunday afternoon and evening for an event that no one else could do.
Other fun activities of the last week were a trip to Columbia to the dentist for a followup for me. Sarah went along and then we spent some time looking for things for her apartment.
She is working with one of my piano students on robotics. The fair is this week and they worked on his robot to show at the fair.
Sarah also helped me organize some 1.5" squares from my stash. She found sets of 4 matching ones and 2 matching ones so that I can use them in a project.
We also worked some more on her quilt design. This is BB-8 from Star Wars.
You may remember BB-8 from a 4-H cake decorating project about 4 years ago.........
I'm enjoying working on the quilt with her much more than I did decorating a cake!
I also finished cutting everything I needed for this Sha La La quilt pattern that my sister had picked up for me from The Stitch in Jefferson.
Here are my pieces laid out.
I also recently finished this ironing station to use in the basement when I sew.
And I completed the first 12 blocks for the Jelly Snowflake Quilt Along that The Fat Quarter Shop is doing. It uses half a jelly roll and some background fabric. I'm all caught up on this one now. I like having this design wall right behind my sewing machine in the basement.
I've been sewing in the basement some. I can watch TV while I sew there, usually Heartland, since I'm still slogging through it. Lizzie hasn't seen much action lately and she is such a good machine. Also, Tucker, my 301 is in timeout right now. He has been acting up and not sewing right. And, Lady Vi, my Viking is working, but I have duct tape keeping the pressure dial for the presser foot in place. She needs to make a trip to the shop as well. So many things needing repairs.........freezers, sewing machines, what's next?
All in all, it was a long weekend, but much was accomplished!
Christi
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