From the Strawberry Patch...: serger

It's high time for the stash closet to give up some of its bounty. I harvested a full crop this weekend in the form of napkins, all fruit themed, from the shelves. First, a set of five berry printed lovelies. This fabric has been stashed for aWHILE.

Cranston Print Works closed its doors over fifteen years ago, and yet, I had this ꜛ saved for posterity. There's no time like now. Making good on my promise to USE my recently revitalized serger on a more regular basis I threaded her up and got to work. Any of you who use sergers know that this part goes lickity-split.

I dialed in the settings for a narrow hem and I was off! My napkins are cut at a generous 17" square and double-faced (because I don't like seeing the wrong side of the print) making them quite substantial. This uses up some stashed yardage to be sure; win-win!!

A pair of apple napkins are all ready for our September dining as well. It was a fruitful day.

🍎

Life is Good!

It's been a fruitful month; lots going on and plenty accomplished on the home front. These peaches from our own trees were as delicious and sweet as they look. The deer thought so too. We managed to harvest a few more than are pictured here but, sadly, not many. Everything was looking great out in the orchard. We checked on the peaches daily and watched them grow and ripen to perfection. I was lulled into thinking that the deer repellent that I was spraying regularly was keeping them at bay. Silly me. Apparently the aroma of these picture-perfect beauties was simply too tempting. Last week we discovered piles of pits on the ground and half eaten fruit tossed all about. It was heart breaking, I had big plans for peach desserts and putting up jars and jars for the winter months; not anymore. Mr. G is already hatching a plan to protect our maturing fruit trees and their bounty for next year. It's too late to try anything now, plus and he's too occupied with the kitchen project at hand. We hope for better luck next year.

I've begun quilting on the Susan Ache "Gratitude" quilt from last summer's sew-along. I found a wonderful pantograph: Strawberry Fields which seems just right. I have backed this one with the same fabric as the outer borders and I'm simply in love with the print!

Here's the selvedge trimmings to give you an idea of why I have a huge crush on it.

Take a look at that serged edge on the backing; isn't it a thing of beauty? Say "yes"! I've made a pact with myself to use my serger more; "Why?" you might ask. A few weeks ago I pulled my old Bernette 334D out from the depths of the stash closet where it has resided for years on end. My son needed some camping towels to be trimmed down, "easy enough", I thought. Think again, it was a disaster! I couldn't get it to stitch, or move for that matter, without seizing up and breaking threads. It was in bad shape and I was frustrated to my core. Mr. G looked at it and made some suggestions (oil and a good cleaning were two of them). I'm embarrassed to say that I've had the serger since September of 1990 and have never performed even the simplest of maintenance tasks on it, I know better. Treat your machines well and they'll do the same for you! I ditched all of my 30+ year old serger threads and bought some new, fresh cones. After considerable work, some tuning and some good, old-fashioned TLC we're back in business. To honor my pact with myself regarding the use of the serger I am leaving it out where I can see it, and use it, on a regular basis. It's a workhorse and it deserves to be used for what it's designed for, certainly not put out to pasture or back into the recesses of a dark closet!

Our oldest grandson turned 15 last week, we celebrated in the Capital City with both he and our daughter who each had birthdays within days of each other.

He's a permitted driver now!

The Learner's Permit rules and regulations are complicated and ever-changing, but from what I can tell he'll have lots of in-car time with parents over the coming year before he's driving with a full license, even that's a graduated process. I sure wasn't prepared to see Mason behind the wheel of the Driver Ed car. Wasn't he just learning to walk last week?

Sigh.

From the kitchen: I baked up a batch of pretzel rolls (something completely new to me) last week. The kitchen space is becoming more and more user-friendly every day with the installation of new appliances as well as drawers and shelves returning to hold utensils and cooking/baking supplies. The rolls turned out great, soft inside and chewy on the outside.

We've needed to get new pots and pans for the induction cooktop. Along with those I recently purchased a stovetop griddle and was encouraged to read this guarantee on the box. That about covers it all, we should be in good shape!

Augie's about to turn ten months old in August and has become the best canine companion. 💗

As this month concludes we once again have forty-five nap blankets ready to go, thanks to my Bee Buddies and friends. The Pre-Ks at a local elementary school are well covered! We adopted this particular school back in 2010 and since then have donated close to 600 nap blankets to the cause; we may have missed a few here and there with COVID but that number is close. (The photo above is borrowed from a previous year.)