Side Yard

This year I want to expand the garden to my side yard, we have been working on cleaning up the branches that were put there when removed a few years ago. The branches are almost gone! With the recent rain storm the weeds grew like crazy, some were over a few feet tall. This weekend was time to mow and weed whack to clean it up. Here is a look a little over half down. 

I moved the remaining branches and wood near the house to get everything down. I had a helper from the window.

A look at the finished mowing. There are still tree stumps here from the cottonwood trees that took forever to get rid of.

My brother happened to show up so he started tilling it.

Here is the finished tilled area, cant wait to get some plants in here!

Speaking of plants here is a look at how they are doing.

Vegetable Broth

I recently had an abundance of veggies in the refrigerator, this means its time to make some broth. Everything gets cut up and put in the pressure cooker. Throw in some herbs and water and it cooks for about 20 minutes.

The pressure cooker quickly cooks it all up, the solids get strained out and the liquid goes into the freezer. It is an easy way to use up scraps and veggies you do not have a use for.

Precious in Pink Quilt

This quilt is called Precious in Pink and is a pinwheel quilt. The pattern is by Caitlin Bevevino and uses Sweetie Pie fabric. I first saw this quilt in Quilt magazine which I got from the library and the quilt kit was available from the Fat Quarter Shop. I really like quilt kits because everything comes together, pick coordinating fabrics is not my strength. 

 First the fabric is cut into squares.

Next you draw lines to sew along, ignore the diagonal ones.

Once the line are sewn you cut a 1/4 inch on each side of the sewn lines.

This results in little triangles....

...which are ironed flat into little squares. This is a simple method to create a lot of squares easily.

The squares are sewn into pinwheels and the pinwheels are sewn into rows with white pieces. Once completed a checked border is added, then a white border. Here the quilt top is laid out and pinned. 

Here is the finished quilt. This quilt was a challenge once washed as the red fabric bleed into the white. This caused quite a bit of panic as I have read about but never experienced this before. A trip to my local quilt shop I got a little bottle for fabric dye sealant. The quilt took several trips in the bathtub with near boiling water and soaked for long periods of time. Eventually the issue was resolved and my quilt looked normal again. Here is the finished quilt: 

This is probably one of my favorite quilts I have made, I love the pattern and color.

The backing is the red polka dot print found in some of the pinwheels on the front.