Economy vegetable patch

Our garden planter box reminded me of a classic quilt block. Sure enough, it is listed in Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns as “Economy Patch,” number 2370.
So, if you can’t build your own outdoor vegetable patch you can make some tasty quilt blocks. I did a quick paper pieced pattern today. If you click on the diagram below it will take you to a full size paper piecing foundation to print out.
If you want to learn how to paper piece, click on the yellow arrow below and it will take you to my Paper Piecing Primer. I hope our garden will be as abundant as my vegetable patch block with lettuce, carrots, cabbage, chilies, pepper, celery, green onions, and lots and lots of zucchini.

Our White House garden

We live in a white house, so we are following the trend set at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by putting in a vegetable garden here. Robert built a “ziggurat-style” planter this weekend. Today, he planted the first vegetables. To see the original idea and a diagram, click HERE.

He bought some redwood boards – 1 x 6s and 1 x 4s and cut them to the proper lengths. He reinforced the corners with 2 x 2s. He filled the boxes with soil. We still need a tomato trellis in the top box. We will be able to sit on our back porch and watch the tomatoes, carrots, beets, radishes, eggplants, bell peppers, Anaheim peppers, and zucchini appear. The round pot on the white column has a cherry tomato plant in it. Herbs will be planted in the strawberry pot on top of the pile.

More eggs

I just sent away for a White House egg. I watched a video of the traditional White House Egg Roll this morning. I couldn’t resist getting a special souvenir wooden egg. I chose an orange one. I went to The National Park Foundation’s store site. Each egg is made in the U.S. from FSC-Certified hardwood from sustainably managed forests.

Eggs

I decorated these eggs years ago. I wanted to take a photo but I didn’t want to go outside and put them on the damp lawn. What to do?

Green grass fabric from my quilting stash made a good background.

Happy Easter.

A handsome lad

My oldest son was born April 8, 1961.
He spoke his first word – car -- while seated in his little car seat turning the built-in steering wheel. (Those were probably very dangerous car seats because they were not securely strapped in, but merely dangled over the backrest.) He loved to “drive” as he accompanied me around town.

He loved wheels and had many toy cars and trucks. His favorite book was The Great Big Book of Cars and Trucks. He was always fascinated by wheels. He had lots of bicycles. He would modify them and go motocross racing on them. He won frequently and his fellow racers concluded that his bikes were the reason. He sold his winning bikes and then bought parts and frames and put together new ones. He won races on those too.

He is still a handsome guy and he is still driving. He is a trucker.

Happy birthday, Robbie.

Gramineous

Gramineous:
Pronunciation – gruh-MIN-ee-uhs
Meaning – (adjective) Of or relating to grass.
Etymology – From Latin gramineus, from gramen (grass).

I’ve been watching the grass grow. That’s about it for the past week. I’ve been so bored and lazy.

Our lawn just grows. No chemical fertilizers, no watering, nothing. Every two weeks the lawnmower guys arrive and run around with their machines for 15 minutes. Pretty simple. The grass is Bermuda grass and it grows all over the California Delta with no help from anyone. It can be a pesky weed with its long stolens and invasive habits. Back when we had flower beds I fought it constantly. When the sewer trench was dug across the yard we could see that the grass roots went down in the ground at least six feet.

The word Gramineous was a “word of the day” last week from Wordsmith.org. http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscribe.html I really enjoy getting a delicious word every day in my e-mail. Try it