Harvesting and Hopping

Before I could do anything else yesterday, I needed to tend the garden. Things are looking good there. The beans have climbed nearly to the top of their poles.

And there are flowers appearing. I expect we'll start seeing tiny beans very soon.

And I harvested the first of the veggies. As I was pulling weeds from among the beet greens, I could see the "shoulders" of the beets showing above the soil line, and I started pulling them up. We roasted those and ate them with our dinner last night. Also, I decided to harvest the first of the zucchini.

There is enough zucchini for relish now, and I'm certain if I put my mind to it, I can pull up enough beets to make pickled beets. Both are on my to-do list for the week's end. Also, I noticed one of the sunflowers is starting to open, although this isn't a very good picture. When I check this morning, I might find it open all the way.

From there, I watered the flower pots. As I've mentioned before, I have trouble getting the gerbera daisies to rebloom, but these two are volunteers from a completely different pot. I might have planted these a few years ago, and for whatever reason, they decided to make an appearance this year. The others are planted in full shade. These are planted in full sun. Maybe lack of sunshine is the problem with the others, although I've planted them in full sun before too, only to have them wilt in the heat.

Maybe next year, I'll try planting them with partial sunshine and see how it goes. Besides, the squirrels would love to eat them, I'm sure.

The purple poppies seem to be one-day wonders. The first blossom has already dropped its petals and gone to seed. Not to worry, though. There are plenty more buds to take its place.

Okay, so it was lunch time by then. After lunch, I went back to work on the Shop Hop quilt. This first block was purchased just north of where we stay some winters on our snowbirding adventures. This shop was brand new when I visited, having only been open a month or two. You can find its web presence right here. This fabric appears again elsewhere in the quilt, in reverse colors. In reverse, it was from a quilt shop in South Carolina, the palmetto state, and it represented the palmettos. Here, it represents the date palms planted all over the area in Southern California. You can find my blog post about this shop right here.

This next block is made from a fabric I picked up on a rainy day in Virginia. We had plans for the day, and then in the rain, decided to make it an indoor-excursion day. We visited a quilt museum, and one other quilt shop on the same day. You can find my blog post right here. This was an interesting shop, located in a shopping center. It was more of an all-around sewing center, and one could find quilting fabric, drapery fabric, upholstery fabric, and all the hardware associated with all of it. Fall was in full swing by that time, and so I picked up this fabric with changing leaves. The shop's web presence is right here. 

I'm impressed as I go through these blocks how many of these shops are still open. I worried the pandemic might put many of them out of business. No doubt, some have closed, but most of these are still open, which is reassuring to this quilter.

This next shop was unexpectedly located. We'd driven from one side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the other. The park straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee, and so we found ourselves in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, for lunch. While we were eating, I inquired of The Google whether there was a quilt shop near me. And there was! It was located inside a small craft mall, and it took me a bit to find it. It was great fun to visit. The shop's owner had a long-arm business across the hall, and her husband was tending the fabric store. We'd seen a bear that day, 

and so this fabric was an easy choice. You can find my blog post right here, and the store's web presence is right here.

My mid-arm machine is located in my office...where I'm sitting as I write this. Up to this point, I hadn't had any kitties helping me with my quilting. For whatever reason, I went to the computer to look at something. While there, I heard what I refer to as a "sigh-purr." There is a hutch-style bookcase on my desk. I looked over my head to see this:

George used to sleep on top of the bookcase, and now Sadie sleeps there sometimes too. She would rather be in her Clubhouse in the basement, but in a pinch, the bookcase is a good choice too.

Pause here for a moment to admire the volume of cat fur here. It might be time to call in a clean-up crew.

Okay, moving on, this next quilt shop was a good one. We were in Fredericksburg for a number of reasons. While there, we made an excursion to Creations in nearby Kerrville, and then I located this shop back in Fredericksburg. We were staying at a KOA, and I'd seen my first Texas longhorns there. 

This was an easy choice for fabric. And this was a winner of a quilt shop. Fredericksburg is an interesting place, and worth a visit, even if you aren't a quilter. But the quilt shop should be a big draw too. Definitely stop in to both shops if you find yourself in the area. My blog post about One Quilt Place is right here. The shop's web presence is right here.

All up and down the Atlantic coast, we'd seen blue crabs on the menu. I was familiar with blue crabs having "fished" for them when I was a child living in Cherry Point, North Carolina. We'd lower a line with a piece of raw chicken attached. The crabs would hop on, and we'd pull them out of the water with ease. The man holding the crab there was a friend of the family...the kid behind him...I don't know. Who wears a Christmas bow in their hair?

And whose mother makes all her clothes? That kid...I heard she turned derelict later in life. It must have been the Christmas bow that made a good girl turn bad.

So anyway...when I found this fabric with blue crabs in Wilmington, North Carolina, it was another easy pick for my quilt. This was a fun shop with some funny signs. You can read my blog post about it right here. Their web presence is right here.

This next shop was one we found in historic Colonial Williamsburg. That was a fun part of our trip. I wasn't expecting a fabric store, but there it was. You can find my blog post about our day and this shop right here. This was another shop where the name on the shop differed from the name on the receipt. I went with the name on the receipt. There is no web presence, other than photos from other people. I chose this fabric because it was representative of what I found in the store. There were some other fun historic items too.

This next fabric is another from my day with Robin in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This was the fourth shop we visited on that day, and I think our eyes were full by that time. I ended up purchasing quite a bit here. Robin and I grew better acquainted on that day. Up until then, she was a blogging friend I'd never met. However, I did make a pawtrait of her kitty, The Emperor.

And so when I saw this fabric, it seemed like the perfect choice. The Emperor is right there. The shop doesn't seem to have a web presence, and so I'm not sure if it is still in business.

This last fabric was purchased on our Quilty Day in Virginia. I linked to the post about our day earlier. This was a fun shop. It was another that was a little hard to find because it was located inside a shopping mall. I chose this fabric because we'd been plagued with ladybugs all the way to Virginia from a stop early in our trip in Manitoba, Canada. This picture was only the beginning:

I think ladybugs were having a banner year that year, and we could not seem to eradicate them from inside the RV. This fabric was a perfect choice. You can find the store's web presence right here.

Okay, and so I finished up my sewing by stitching a horizontal straight line in the sashing. After that, I didn't do any more sewing for the day. I'll get back at it today, and I'll be quilting the final row of blocks. I'm coming down the home stretch, but I'll still have to do some straight line stitching in all the vertical sashings before it's ready for squaring up and binding.

First, though, it's a grocery shopping day. I need one more cup of coffee, and then I think I'll be ready to face the hoard. All I can say is I better not see anybody without a mask.