Embroidered Applique and Winter Prep

This is one of those quilts where there is not a whole lot of decorative quilting. 

The bulk of this quilt is just stitch in the ditch.  (hah.  "just")
.

 

You can see the quarter-square blocks were quilted with continuous curve.

This is such a pretty border design.  I pulled the little flower motif out and used it in the blocks, too.  This design has a nice wave to the bottom edge, so I suggested to the quilt maker that she might want to scallop the outer edge. She gave me the hairy eyeball at that idea, but seemed to come around by the time she left.

Pretty, pretty, pretty.

The applique is the star of the quilt, so I kept the quilting very quiet, adding only where necessary to keep the empty spaces to a reasonable size.

Some of the design space was taken up with straight line quilting around the edge, and echoed at 1/4".

DH and I spent some time in the garden today, starting the pre-winter cleanup.  This is the last of the green beans, getting a 10 minute steam.  I've frozen them in the past, but they are just ... (can I say crappy?) that way.  This year I am going to dehydrate them.  They will take up much less space.  I can put 'em in a glass jar in the pantry and throw them into soups or stews or casseroles.  We shall see - hopefully they will be better this way.

Tonight was the first ROAST BEEF DINNER of the fall season.  Yum.  With mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, and roasted carrots & onions.  All summer long we eat pretty light meals, mostly chicken or sausage with fresh veggies.  Fall and winter seems to be the time for the B's:  beef, bread, and baked goods.
After supper I made an Apple Betty. (oh, how clever - another 'B'!)  Two of our wonderful neighbours have each brought over a grocery bag of slightly wormy organic apples for me, because they know I like to can and bake, and I will put them to good use.  In the next week or two I will be helping myself to the slightly wormy organic pears from the roadside tree nearby.

If you are looking for a delicious dessert using apples AND pears, try this Autumn Fruit Flan.

OK, now, everyone, sing along with Joni Mitchell: 
Hey farmer, farmer
Put away that DDT now
Give me spots on my apples
But LEAVE me the birds and the bees
Please!