A Wedding, A Quilt, and a Gazillion Tomatoes

It's been a busy and productive weekend. I've had so much going on that I've had little extra time to sit down and blog about it. Here's the past few days in a nutshell..... Friday evening we went to Meggan and Phillip's wedding. For those who don't know, Meggan lived with our family during the last school year due to some unfortunate circumstances in her family. Eighteen is mighty young to get married, but we wish the best for their new life together. Since the family situation is a little bit strained, we opted to cut out after the wedding and not stay for the reception.

Thing 4 (did you ever read The Cat in the Hat?) was the only child at home, so she went to the wedding with us. Afterward we went to the Happy Sumo for dinner. Look at her handle those chop sticks. It was a beautiful evening so we chose to dine on the patio.

Thing 3 was at a Diamond Rio concert with her friend who lives across the street. The father of her friend played in the "warm up" band and got them complimentary tickets. She had a great time!

I love this fountain! It is just outside the Happy Sumo, so we were able to enjoy the baggling water all through dinner. The characters on top of the fountain are James Christensen figures. I've been a big admirer of his work for years. As a matter of fact, we have his Superstitions print hanging in our family room and a couple more pieces that still need to be framed.

I spent most of Saturday working on my Thimbleberries Month by Month quilt. Up until Saturday I only had the March through July blocks finished. That morning I started with the August and January blocks and then realized that I didn't have enough of the background fabric to finish the quilt. I put out a call to all of my Thimbleberries friends hoping that I could find a source for an additional half yard to finish the quilt. My friend, Jackie, who lives in Calgary told me that she had a half and yard and was just heading out the door to put it in the mail. WOW! Everyone needs a friend like her! I'm blessed to have many! This quilt has been fun to work on. For the most part I've been able to make the blocks from fabric found in my scrap box.

Occasionally, I've used pieces from my stash and my fat quarter box. Next time you see this quilt the top will be finished and ready to go to the quilter.

See this box of tomatoes? This is only half of what I've got. Word got out that my own tomato crop was pretty puny, so once again my friends came to the rescue. Truth be told, I think they were actually just trying to get rid of their tomatoes so that THEY wouldn't have to can them. Not only did my friend, Robyn, give me a box of tomatoes, but she also gave me her chili sauce recipe and told me that I just HAD to make a batch. My house would smell wonderful, she said.

So my plan for yesterday was to meet my girlfriends for bagels in the morning and then head straight home to bottle up those red beauties. It was that 11:00 doctors appointment that really messed up my day. After 2 1/2 weeks of physical therapy I cried "uncle". It seemed that the PT was aggravating my shoulder more than it was helping. Additionally, I've been having a lot of pain where my gall bladder used to be.

Well, the doctor now thinks that I may have a small tear in my rotator cuff, so he referred me to a specialist for that. And tomorrow morning I have an abdominal scan scheduled to see what's going on. You know what that means...no food after midnight and for breakfast I'll be enjoying a bottle of contrast solution. Yum. NOT!

By the time the doctors appointment is over and I've made my second stop at the market...forgot the vinegar...it's after 1:00 and I still haven't made much progress on my chili sauce. It took me almost three hours to cut 8 large onions, 6 bell peppers and 36 tomatoes. Let's not forget to throw in a car pool. lol!

This is what the chili sauce looked like after simmering for an hour or two. To my friend's credit, the house did smell wonderful and I was actually getting pretty excited about having 14 pints of chili sauce on my shelves this winter.

But, look...I still have half a box of tomatoes left...plus two refrigerator drawers full!!! I guess that means today I'll be bottling MORE tomatoes. I usually do a couple of batches of whole tomatoes in quart jars that I use in taco soup during the winter, so that was already in the plans. And who knows...maybe tomorrow I'll be bottling salsa.

And here's the finished product.

Before I forget...if you haven't already, make sure you stop by and visit my friend, Kristie, at her new blog...Quilt Harvest.

Now I've gotta run...the tomatoes are calling me!!!