First batch of Ketchup

For the last couple of years I have been getting more and more canning done. I love canning, and with my other half working on a farm, we get lots of fresh fruits and vegi's each year. I have canned strawberry jam, cherry jam, cherries, and peaches so far this year. I just started getting the tomatoes in. I spent most of last evening making ketchup.

I got 6 half pint jars of ketchup with my first batch. That is about 15 pounds tomatoes for it.  But so worth it.

My family is very big on my home made ketchup. They love it. When it starts to get close to being ready to go into jars they are all in the kitchen with a spoon wanting samples.

It is like they could drink it. I do have to admit that it is very good. The recipe is from my mother. She makes only one batch a year now since it is just her and Dad. I have to make at least three batches to keep us in ketchup for the year. I also make one batch of spicy ketchup a year also. The spicy ketchup recipe I make came about as a "whoops" a couple of years ago. I was busy making ketchup and making dinner and helping my daughter with homework at the same time and accidentally put too much cayenne in the mixture and did not even realize it until it was made and we were at the taste test part. 

Thank goodness for me, the family loved it. It goes wonderfully when you are making things that you would like a little more bite in. We used it mostly with meat loaf to spice it up and my husband loves it on burgers.

I have started another batch today and should have that one canned by this evening.

Then it is a change of pace a little and I will be making some spaghetti sauce next and some dried tomatoes.

I will also be taking some of the dried tomatoes and making tomato powder for adding to soups and stews. I have not decided if I will be doing stewed tomatoes or whole tomatoes canned this year or not.

Hope everyone out there is doing well and getting ready for the wonderful season of Fall.

Happy quilting and canning all.

Fall Table Topper

Sorry I have not posted for a couple of weeks, but school started. My goodness it takes a lot of time to get a new High Schooler ready for School. Now that we are into school for the second week things have started to slow down to a manageable pace and I was finally able to get back on the sewing machine for a bit.

I was able to start piecing more of my fall table topper again. Here it is about half way together.

This is a fun topper. I love the fall fabrics for this. The magazine I saw it in had the topper as a Halloween topper with all fun Halloween fabrics, but I wanted something I could use for a couple of months instead so I chose fall and more Thanksgiving type fabrics. These fabrics have been in my stash for a few years so I am not sure who they were by.

Here it is almost completed. The top still has some edges that need to be put on yet. I am getting ready to put a backer on this portion soon. I love the colors. I am such a fall person. I love all the rich colors of fall myself.

Here is closer look at the side of the topper.

I love the smiling pumpkins. They are so cute.

I really like this print. It is so adorable. I love the birds and birdhouses on it.

Hopefully I will have time this weekend to sandwich and quilt this.

As soon as I get it completed I will post the pictures of it.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy your week.

Tabble Topper

Hello all. It has been a couple of weeks since I posted last and I am sorry. It has been hectic around here, we had some family time and went camping with the kids, got them registered for school, and did some cleaning up getting ready for another year at home. Some people do Spring cleaning, not me, I wait until it is just about school time again and we go through and clean things up, get rid of old stuff, clean out closets, and get organized again for the coming year. I like to do it just before Fall because it makes me feel like I am getting ready for when we have to close the house up again for Winter and knowing things are cleaned up before I have to it.

I also decided I was going to make some things for Fall this year to decorate the house. My first project is a table topper I saw in one of my quilting magazines. It was made with Halloween fabrics in the magazine, but I wanted to add some Thanksgiving fabrics to it, so I could use it for a couple of months instead of just one.

So I started with making the squares this last weekend. I also cut it all out, but forgot to get a picture of that first. I was so anxious to get started sewing it together that I just forgot to get pictures of the cut outs.

There are 44 of these wonderful blocks.

Once I got these done, I started putting the rows together.

These are fun to make and went pretty fast when you chain sew.

Here it is so far. I love the different fall colors in this. I still have a couple more rows to add before the outside rows go on. Those have pumpkin prints in them. I will get more pictures posted once the center is done and the outside rows go on. I think it is going to be cute on the table when it is done.  I will get all the information on the pattern as soon as I write it down.

Hope everyone had a wonderful day today. See you all later.

Kids at Lake

It was warm here this weekend. It reached over 100 degrees. For Oregon, that is hot. My sister and I took the kids to Detroit Lake for a swim for the day.


They had a blast. They were so excited to go. Andrew could not wait. He was so bouncy and every half hour I heard, "Are we almost there?"

It usually takes about an hour and a half to get there.


They did not even want to have their lunch before they jumped in. I figured if they got hungry enough they would be out eating. We found a wonderful spot under the trees so we did not die in the sun. There was a nice cool breeze coming off the lake also, which made it tolerable to be there.

It took Jessie some time to get used to the water. It was nice and cool. 

Andrew could not wait for Jess to get all the way in so while he waited he found sticks to play with.

He also found some rocks he could climb on while he waited. My sister could not believe it, he is just like all boys was my advise.

He even talked his mom into letting him jump off the boat dock. He enjoyed that for a while. I could not get him while he was jumping, he is just too fast for me.

Amy had to pull him back out each time, so she got her exercise for the day too.

There they are, finally all the way in. That only took about an hour.

Those two were tuckered out when we were finally done. They fell asleep in the car on the way home. We were there for over 5 hours swimming.

Until later, I hope everyone is staying cool in this wonderfully warm summer.

Sisters Quilt Show Part 2

This was a wonderful and fun day. I had my sister, my daughter, and my nephew with me that day. Being a mom, I bribed the children into going if I promised we would stop at the lake and do some swimming after the show. They were more than eager to go then.

My nephew, Andrew, loves to hang out with us. I did not think he would enjoy the show as much as he did. He has the Nintendo 3DS and it takes pictures too.

He was right there next to me taking pictures of all the different quilts too. He would actually wait until no one was coming and say, "OK Aunt Lala, you can get your picture now." Then he would run next to me and hold up his "camera" and take the picture too.

He found some quilts he really liked and was in no time taking his own pictures with his own opinions on each of the "night blankets" as he called them. Pretty soon we had quite a few people interested in watching him run around and get the pictures of the quilts himself. There were a few that would actually move out of the way just for him. There was a cute older couple that must have been watching Andrew for a while because they came over and said he was the best entertainment they had all morning. They picked him up a package of kettle caramel corn for the trip home. He thought that was the best.

I really liked the colors in this one. The yellow just goes so well with the blues and greens.

I like the look of spring and the sun feeling with this quilt. It is by Norma Wells of Bend, OR. It is titled Dandelions.

I can see how she got the title.

I like the colors of this quilt too. I like the look of the sampler quilt here. It seems to flow very well.

I like the different mountains in this quilt. It is a quilt hanging in the Stitchin' Post and shows the different mountains in the area. I really like the Mt. St. Helen's picture with the plume of smoke.

This is one of the wonderful quilts on the Stitchin' Post's side wall outside. This is the wall of the challenge quilts of the workers of the quilt shop.

I like how the lights are on in the town and it is dusk out. It just seems to glow.

I really like this one too. I seem to like the more traditional and busy quilts. Do not get me wrong, modern quilts have their own wonderfulness, but I seem to really like the more "home and cuddly" type.  I love the trees and house in this one.

Here are more quilts on the side of the quilt shop.

I love the different colors in each one.

I really like the look of this one. I love how the mountains and moon and suns play on each other.

It looks like sunsets and moon rises in the country.

Here is another quilt I like. I like the different stars in this quilt and how they look together. I also like the geese borders and how they are offset.

That is all I have for today. I should have more for you soon. I will also have to post the pictures of the kids swimming in the lake too, to prove I did keep my word and they got to have fun too.

Sister's Quilt Show Part 1

First off let me say I am sorry it has been a while. I was going to start these posts as soon as I got back from the show but I had pneumonia and was in bed for a week. I should not have gone to the show, but I could not pass up on the Quilt Show another year. I have missed it for a couple years due to other obligations and there was just no way you were keeping me away another year. I was going through withdrawals, if that is possible. So without further ado here are the first of several pictures of the wonderful quilts at Sister's Quilt Show in Oregon this year.

This is the first quilt we got to just after we parked and enjoyed the wonderful view of the three sisters mountains. I was too busy looking at them that I forgot to get a picture of them.


This was a wonder and colorful quilt. I loved the look of it and the odd shapes of the blocks. It was called "Bubblicious" by Concetta Boscardin of Texas.

Here is the information I got from that wonderful quilt.

Here is another quilt. I love the wonderful fussy cuts in this one.

It is not a wonderful picture but this is the information on the wonderful fussy cut.

Here is another well done quilt. I love the panels in this one. It makes you feel like you should be in a lodge somewhere getting ready for a wonderful fishing or hunting trip.

I loved this one too. The colors and scrappyness, if that is a real word, of this quilt just awed me. I loved it and want to make one for myself. Another wonderful quilt to add to my bucket list. 

Here is a close up of the wonderful stars.

I love the colors, they are so soothing together.

And last but definitely not least in today's posting is this wonderful quilt. I love how the reds in this quilt just pop so well. I love the gray print in this too. It was a wonderful day there. It was warm but we had a nice breeze. The only problem with the breeze is you have to time your photo's just right or you miss the whole thing. More tomorrow with some pictures of my nephew, who had more fun than I did.

Drag Strip Trip

The drag strip is a favorite of my family's. So we went to the strip this last weekend to satisfy the urge for a while. It was a nice day for the most part. We were dodging rain drops in the later part of the day but otherwise we had a blast.


We love the funny cars out there, they are fast and loud. The kids have to wear ear plugs. I even wear ear plugs because they are so loud.

It is fun to watch them take off at the line.

They love doing burn outs when they are coming up to the line. It is interesting to watch how they line them up.

This guy lost control half way up the track. I did not get that picture though because it was at an awkward angle and did not come out well at all.

What I love about this is the pits are close and they allow people to walk around the pits and visit the drivers. We love Steve Germaine. We visit him every time we are there. He always gives us shirts and signs them for us.

It was a wonderful weekend. I hope everyone else had a great weekend.