ps

Oops, forgot to say, had to commit more blossomcide! Oh those flowers are so pretty, such a shame to pick them, but the plants do better.

Dawn, you made me laugh with your celery dreams! Try planting it now, hon, and see what you get--after all, if your frost-free fall lasts until October, you will have *some* celery even if it's skinny and short... and if your gamble pays off well, you'll have the celery of your dreams! Otherwise, you can wait until very early spring and start it under some form of row cover, either the fabric kind or else the fancy pants recycler's bell jar substitute--yep! Ye old plastic milk jug (with the bottom cut out!) buried around the plant, lol... You take the lid off when it's bright and sunny and close it back up at night, then remove it entirely when the weather is frost free. High tech, nuthin' but the best for this recycle girl! *wink and a grin*

Cindy, purslane is really pretty good; it tastes like a lemony spinach, which is why it's so good in my spinach pies. The stems are a little crunchy like celery (not quite as crunchy, just reminiscent) and also they have a milder flavor than the leaves. I took off the flower buds, then chopped the leaves and stems and cooked them with the spinach in olive oil and lemon juice--they were doggoned good before I put them in the pies!

Pam and Ursy, I am SO with you on the heat. It was pretty hard to take the last couple weeks, but nowhere near as bad as I'm used to. I have to say, I did mourn when the last of the snow melted and I knew there wouldn't be any more for months.

Although if we got snow here like you get there, Pam, I think I might change my mind! *big eyes*

Welcome to my blog, The Queen of Fifty Cents! Tis lovely to have you here and I REALLY enjoyed your blog also!

Comments! and more pics

Hello Ari, Lisa, and those who have commented privately! Thank you so very much! *huge grin* I really appreciate that you took the time to read my blog and also to comment!

Ari, I looked up the book you recommended, Stitch Graffiti. Here are a couple links I found in following the trail, so to speak. http://www.monsterbubbles.com/index.html This is the author's website, and she has three images in her gallery right now. There's also a link called "stuff" that takes you to a page that's like an artist's portfolio--it has links to everything she's published and the TV shows she's appeared on.

The company that publishes the book also publishes PieceWork magazine, a truly inspirational work! Here is a link to their free projects page. http://www.interweave.com/needle/projects_articles.asp

Lisa, thank you for your lovely comments! I figured anyone who is so much inspiration needs to be acknowledged!

Here is the progression on my first strip-pieced fabric. I knew the minute I read a tutorial on strip piecing that I could do it... but I didn't know how successfully, and I SURE didn't know that it's magic! So amazing!

Here they are, in order, as I sewed the strip in half again and again and opened it out each time. I started with 2 inch wide strips of fabric and sewed them together at the short ends with quarter inch seams, to sew the strips into one humongously long strip, piece after piece. Then I folded that long skinny thing in half and sewed up the long side, again with quarter inch seams. I confess I was just dying to see what would happen when I cut that short little fold open the first time. It was interesting.

Then the second time, folding it in half and sewing up the long side, cutting the short little fold open... the length halved and the width doubled again... how cool!
The third time, I began to get an inkling of what I had done.... it began to look like a real piece of fabric!
Then my dears, the finish... and I realized what magic I held in my hands. From a pile of strips--your basic pieces of nothing much and not very special-- I created this stripedy wonder:
You see here a piece of fabric that is big enough to make a cover for the back of that hard wooden chair! It is absolutely magic!

Here is the thing that told me what I had REALLY done, though.

There, do you see that?! I draped the fabric over the back of the chair to check the size, stepped back... and saw custom decorator fabric in MY Craft Room!!! Not just that... custom decorator fabric that *I* made!

See? I told you it was magic!

The second piece of fabric is twice as big. Pressing out all those teeny seams last night took quite a while, and I enjoyed it except for the part where my injured knee complained mightily about having to stand for so long--but yanno, once the seams were all pressed and the fabric was finished-looking, I was certainly impressed with it and with myself! *grins*I think my next step is to stay-stitch and wash my thrift store fabrics. I bought several pieces of white for backing, and a yellow blanket to cut apart and use in lieu of batting. This chair cover set (seat and back) is going to take some heavy wear, so I think I will line my Custom Decorator Fabric (lol!!) with the white fabric, use the (bright yellow, lol) blanket-batting, and then back the assembly with the green corduroy, a wonderful fine-wale deep hunter/forest green corduroy that I also found at the thrift store. The color is so deep that I can't actually tell which it is, hunter or forest--but it coordinates and that's what matters to me. The ties will most likely be from the corduroy, but other than that, I haven't yet worked out the design. I'm okay as long as I know the next step to take--stay-stitching.