I reckon I have had a vegie garden just about all my married life. That's a lot of tomatoes, capsicum, zucchini, lettuce and silver beet in 46 years! Of course over the years I've tried my hand at growing lots of other vegies besides these. Then I always like to have different herbs ready for gathering at the back door. There's nothing like being able to pick your own fresh home-grown vegetables!
With that in mind, a new little design popped into existence a few months ago and it is now published in the latest Country Threads magazine, Vol 13, No 1. Here is Maisie's Market Garden:
and on the front cover:
Maisie is growing pumpkins, egg plant, carrots, turnips and peas, all neatly laid out in front of her sweet little cottage! (That's a wonderful Queensland Blue pumpkin on the left!)
When we lived in cool climate country, we had a small backyard full of wonderful stone fruit. I planted an apple tree a couple of years before we moved but we never did get to enjoy its produce. Maisie has done well with her apples:
I also tried growing a couple of grape vines, but obviously I should have left that to the experts like Maisie:
Now that we live in the subtropics, we can't grow fruit like stone fruit and pears, but I still like to preserve the fruit when it is in season. Last week, pears were only 99c a kilo, so 10 kilos later and a few hours work and we now have a couple of months supply of diced pears to top our breakfast cereal.
On the sewing front, my wall-hanging is all quilted, bound, hanging sleeve attached ... and I have even written up the pattern! My stitching accessory set is coming together with a few hiccups along the way. Being a perfectionist is a pain sometimes!
Meanwhile, I have been getting organised for the Creative Craft Retreat where I will be teaching in November. The project is complete and I've started on the pattern writing. Next job on the list for this week is to prepare the next pattern in the free Block of the Month "Thoughts in Thread"quilt. Watch out for it next week!
Happy stitching
Val
Meanwhile, I have been getting organised for the Creative Craft Retreat where I will be teaching in November. The project is complete and I've started on the pattern writing. Next job on the list for this week is to prepare the next pattern in the free Block of the Month "Thoughts in Thread"quilt. Watch out for it next week!
Happy stitching
Val
9 comments:
Wow Val, this stitchery looks gorgeous!!! ... And would be perfect for my sister's birthday in a few months time! Will certainly keep my eye out for that issue at my local newsagent!! ... Also, wanted to know if you use a particular recipe/method when canning your fruit? We don't do a lot of canning here ... nor really a Darwin thing, lol ... but I have been interested in trying it every so often when I see the apples or pears low in price. Is there a recipe/site/cookbook you could recommend?
Your embroidery is so wonderfull! It ´s amazing, so dreamy.
I love it.
Greetings, Marita
Your little stitchery is gorgeous! I love things with houses on them and the embroidery is so pretty!
I love Maisie's Market Garden. It's gorgeous. My copy of Country Threads hasn't arrived yet. Can't wait for it! Hopefully I get it this week.
I really love that project Val. Do you do permaculture for your vegie garden? We had a really prolific garden of organic food but need to redo it all. My DH is in a wheelchair and does it all but we now need to modify it again. I hate buying conventional vegies but at the moment that is all we can get.
What a beautiful stitchery!
Lovely Val, totally enjoy your blog :)
May I ask how you preserve your pears? I have never been successful, they either turn hard or brown.
Love the design! While you were doing pears, I was doing tomatoes into salsa!
Val, this may be my favorite of yours so far - I'm going to look for the magazine here, you never know, sometimes the quilt shops carry them!
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