Busy Morning, Slow Afternoon

When I last wrote, I was headed into the kitchen to pickle some beets. They don't take very long, but after they boil, they need a few minutes to cool enough that I can handle them. Once they've been skinned and chunked up, they're pretty quick to load into jars and process. When they were finished, I had four pints...as expected.

You can see in the jar on the right there are some chioggia beets in the mix. If you've never seen a chioggia beet, they look like this:

(image credit: Michael Thompson)

When they're boiled, the color leaches out of them, turning them white. Also, if you have really sharp eyes, you might notice the curly-cue thingy in the middle of the jar on the left. I looked closely at that too. It's just a cinnamon stick. These beets are spiced with a half cinnamon stick, four whole cloves, and two allspice berries in each jar.

So that didn't take long, and that gave me time to get started on the 7th of 12 sundresses. I stitched this far before getting tired of it.

After that, I took off for my monthly pedicure...always a pleasure...and then I had some errands to run. After lunch, I had some time to get started on the fourth row of the Shop Hop quilt. Two blocks are done now.

This first one is from Three Crafty Ladies. We were visiting Sanibel Island to see the shell beaches there.

It was a fun day and there was a lighthouse on the island as well. You can read my blog post about our visit to the island right here. The post about the quilt shop is right here. I can recall this shop was loaded with beautiful fabrics, and it was hard not to buy the place out. The regional fabric was an easy choice.

If I'm remembering correctly, Three Crafty Ladies has been there a long time. I expected it would still be in business, and it is. Their web presence is right here.

The next block was from Kerrville Creations in Kerrville, Texas. We were staying in nearby Fredericksburg, and several of you had encouraged me to visit Kerrville Creations. What a lovely shop. You can read my blog post about it right here. This shop went on and on. Each time I thought I'd covered it all, I'd find a new room to explore. It was great fun. There were some patterns I couldn't resist, even though I'd sworn off patterns. There was a pasture near the RV park where I was able to see close-up my first Texas longhorns,

and so it was easy to choose this as my regional fabric.

Kerrville Creations is kind of a "destination" quilt shop, and so I knew it would still be in business as well. You can see their website right here.

While I was working on my blocks, Miss Sadie came down wearing her best furs and asked to please be let into the clubhouse. How could I resist when she asked so politely?

This morning I'll be canning some more Spicy Dill Carrot Spears. They're a favorite of the kids...and the cook as well. It's one of those things I need to stock up on so that we can make it through the season. Fortunately, carrots are available year-round, but the CSA carrots are particularly nice. Also, I need to make another trip to the grocery store. My list for the week is short, but I don't want to wait until the weekend. After that, I'll get back to work on the Shop Hop quilt. I'm hoping to get the whole row completed today.