Boise Basin Quilt Show

Well, I thought I had written about the upcoming Boise Basin Quilter’s quilt show…and, now that the event has come and gone this past weekend, I guess I can write a little something!

Not only was the show fun, I bought a ticket to hear the lecture by Marianne Fons, from Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting.  She was quite entertaining and I even got to get a picture taken with her beforehand.  I didn’t bring my own camera, as I didn’t realize there was going to be a Meet ‘n Greet, so someone else took the picture for me.  I’ll have to post it when I get it.

I had two quilts in the show and got some solid (+) Good ratings.  All constructive criticisms were in line with my own perceptions and expectations, which I think is a good thing because then I know I’m on the same track as the judges.  I am also very happy to be able to finally post a picture of the Happy Quilt!  Once I get a closeup of the quilting, I'll post a picture of that, too, as it turned out quite well and you can't see the variegated thread or the design in this photo.

One particularly nice comment that I just *have* to relay, though, was “outside edges impressively straight and square”.  Woo Hoo!

Now that the show is over I can concentrate on the lone star customer quilt that is still on the frame.  Almost done, but the free motion design in the star part is giving me a hard time, I can’t seem to get it right….and she wants it back!   Can’t say I blame her, I’ve had it quite awhile.

Not all has been procrastination, though.  My DH tore his rotator cuff in his left shoulder last week, I re-tweaked my back a bit over the weekend, and the dog went in for a cyst removal and major dental surgery.  So, it was a rough week.

Then the dog had to wake me up this morning at 2AM and I couldn’t get back to sleep.  So, I’ve been up since 2:30AM…and I’m going to bed now.

A Place for the Onions

I finally got my garden planted.  Not that I didn't have a few challenges along the way, however.  You see, here in Boise the weather has been very chilly, windy, and downright undesirable, as far as spring goes.  I am a fair weather gardner, however my procrastination has been rewarded!  Those serious gardeners, who actually planted when they were supposed to this spring, are re-planting, spending the same time in the nursery that I was looking for plants this weekend and not any further ahead then I am.  Whew, off the hook for this year!

Before I started on this journey though,  I confirmed with the local nursery that it wasn't too late to plant.  Mind you, I am planting in June, which is at least a month later than when I planted last year, and I really felt like I didn't get much produce at all last year; I didn't even can anything!  We have really missed the lack of canned goods, too, I can tell you.

So, radiating with the afterglow of a 50% off the edible plants sale, I started calling around for a rototilling service, as DH strained his ankle working last week.  I was lucky enough to find someone who would come on Saturday and he did a great job!  E-mail me if you would like his contact information, as I definitely recommend his services.

With the soil freshly tilled, I started my early-morning journey to planet the garden.  I bent over and reached for a T-shirt on a lower shelf and…CRACK…. I threw out my back.  All I could think of was “this is not how I planned to spend my day”.  DH to the rescue, as he offered to "help" me with the garden and ended up planting everything where I told him to plant it.  With the new space I had rototilled, I was able to make room for one more tomato plant and two cucumber plants for which DH pre-dug the holes.

Fast forward beyond two days of intense chiropractic care and I am now walking and being very careful of how I move, although that is fading fast.  I stopped at Lowe's tonight to get a sprinkler head replacement and came out with the additional items I needed for the garden, plus a pack of candy onions.  I have never grown onions before, so I'm interested to see how they turn out.  Because DH had helped me carefully lay out the other plants, I had to come up with a creative solution for planting the onions.  I ended up making a "corner L-bracket" configuration of the onions around a jalepeno pepper plant, which I think will work out just fine.

I decided that I should call my garden “The Salsa and Pickle Patch” because I have planted the majority of the ingredients for both salsa and pickles.  This year though, if the peppers don't grow I am giving up on them!