This and That

Bread and butter pickles
Quilting is done on the beach quilt!

Before Kara arrived this morning at 10:00 I had the bread and butter pickles ready for the canner. Now that might not seem like to big a deal to make 5 measly pints of pickles but trust me it takes just as long to get 5 pints done as to do 15 pints. That's one of the stinky things I will be dealing more with this year. Instead of supplementing from the farmer down the road so I could do all the bread and butter at one time I will be doing smaller batches as they come in from our own garden. I would like to put up 20 pints of bread and butter this year along with maybe a dozen 1/2 pints for gifts. It took 6 pounds of cucumbers that I picked over 2 days to make this batch, looks to be a long summer over the canner! I won't be doing as many different dills as in the past, we just don't go through them as much, maybe a 1/2 dozen of each variety, at least I am off the hook on those.

While I was waiting on the cucumbers to cure (3 hours) this morning I worked on some quilting, nothing like a little mindless sewing before the sun comes up. I finished up the quilting tonight instead of canning the tomatoes. At least the tomatoes are ready to heat up, cook down a bit then just can tomorrow I did all the rest of the work while Kara was napping this afternoon. By Saturday it will be back to pickle making and possible more tomatoes, I brought in 14 tonight from the garden, the tacky owl has already paid for himself in saved tomatoes!!
I have and unexpected day off tomorrow as our Son-In-Laws folks are in for Kara's 1st Birthday and want to have the day with her. Figure I will get the canning done early, putter in the garden a bit then start working on making the binding for the quilt. I would like to use up the scraps from the quilt top for the binding but have no idea what would be the best way to go about it. Looks like I will be searching for tutorials on that step.
Is anyone else trying to make due this year as far as veggies are concerned from your own back yard? I have been amazed at how many of our neighbors who have never had a garden put one in this year, how cool is that? In the last 2 years just about every house on our street has a little something to eat growing, the ladies across the street from us have a massive garden along with a mini orchard, I have garden envy. Keeping up with the Jones has a whole new meaning these days!!