Monday, September 30, 2019

Halloween Finishing Spree Day One

Hi, stitching friends!

If you're like me, you've got a bin or a drawer full of finished-but-not-finished projects. And if you've been reading my blog, you know that "finishing" is a four-letter word in my book. I don't usually enjoy it. But thanks to some inspiration from all of you, I've been on a finishing spree.


"Moon Over Blackbird," a freebie from Lizzie*Kate, was in my to-do pile. I stitched this in 2018 and featured it on the blog in this post. It is stitched on 32-count coffee/tea-dyed linen. I used colors I had on hand, as well as some of the called-for colors.


I laced the stitch onto foam core and added a fabric-covered chipboard backing. Then I joined the two together and pinned two layers of ribbon to the outside.


Both ribbons were from my stash of old Stampin' Up supplies. I used the orange chevron ribbon for the hanger, and then folded it in half to go around the outside. Then I layered a ruffled ribbon over that, picking up the light and dark oranges in the pumpkin. A sweet, simple little finish to help kick off fall and Halloween!

Hello, Green Tomatoes!



Last night, our local weather forecaster said, "Freeze warning for Boise tonight. Better get out and harvest what you can now. The growing season is OVER." Ugghhhh.

Winter is coming.....

My husband spent the weekend at his family ranch in central Idaho, and he had to brush four inches of snow off the car before driving home.

When he got home, we spent a good two hours out in the garden picking green and mostly green tomatoes. I estimated that we had 100 pounds out there, and I think I may be right. We've had to do this in the past, and while it does take time, they do eventually turn red.

I looked up "how to make green tomatoes turn red" and a YouTube video showed this lady wrapping each little tomato in tissue paper. I nearly laughed myself to death. Can you imagine? Another had a guy putting them in a paper sack with a banana (which gives off a gas that speeds the ripening process). I'm going to try that this year (with lots of paper sacks and lots of bananas). Hopefully it will speed up the process. In any case, we will have tomatoes well into fall and early winter.

See you again tomorrow, friends. I'll have another fall/Halloween finish to show you. Until then, I hope you have lots of time to stitch!