Tomato Stash

This has been a very good tomato year.

A little over a week ago we brought in all the tomatoes we could find before a hard freeze. But since it didn't freeze that hard (or since our covering worked) I still found more tomatoes hiding in the foliage and brought those in too. 

This is my tomato stash. It is in the mudroom in the way of everybody who wants to walk through there. 

I keep an eye on it and as soon as some start to turn a little bit less green or even have a tinge of orange then they get to move to the east window in the kitchen. 

I love how the window sill looks when it is full of tomatoes.

I check that window everyday. 

Once I get enough tomatoes to fill a roasting pan they come off the windowsill and go onto the counter.

This looks like it will fill a half sheet pan nicely.

The ones on the counter get washed, sliced into quarters, stemmed and have the seeds mushed out of them. Except the Roma's. They just get halved and get to keep their tiny seeds.  There is not much to them otherwise.

Then I roast them. Usually I chop up a few onions to go with them, drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle them with basil.

Waiting to go into the oven.

I put them in the oven at 400° I roast them for 30 minutes. Then I turn them over and roast another 30 minutes. When they're done they come out of the oven sit around till they're cool enough to handle. 

This is the version I make Tomato Soup with.
The carrots are the secret ingredient.

Once cooled down enough to handle they get weighed and stuffed into freezer bags and labeled and put in my freezer.  I've already used some in recipes whenever they ask for canned tomatoes. They sure are tasty.

It's been a good tomato year.

River Rat TOGA Raffle Quilt

  9.5" unfinished block

Dear River Rat Togateers,
As you know we will not be meeting for a Sew-In this Spring. We still want to have a raffle quilt ready for the River Rat Toga in September even if we have to save it for next year.

We are designing this year's quilt around four 24" blocks that were made by Cindy Peters. We want to add more star blocks around them in order to arrive at a 66" x 72" top.  We put out a call earlier and asked for assorted 3.5", 6.5" and 9.5" unfinished STAR blocks.

I have designed a simple quilt that is built with four quadrants.  We are planning to have you mail your blocks to a central person (me) who will scramble them all up (for color variation) and then send them to four volunteers who will assemble them into their quadrants and then send them on to the next volunteer who will put the four pieces together.   OUR MAIL BY DATE IS MAY 8TH!

9.5" unfinished block.

This is what we need for the star blocks.
Thirty two (32)
6.5" unfinished blocks.
They can be made up of one 6.5" blocks
OR
Four 3.5" blocks.

Sixteen (16)
9.5" unfinished blocks.
They can be made up of one 9.5" block
OR
Nine 3.5" blocks
OR
One 6.5" and five 3.5" unfinished blocks
OR 
Four 4.5" unfinished blocks.
We would appreciate you sending one or more 10" light background pieces (just in case we need to fill in some spots.) when you send your blocks. Or send any of the other sizes if you can.

Cindy's block with muslin shown on the left and white on the right. 
If this doesn't look like a pale creamy yellow the computer color is incorrect.
It is NOT a tan color.

Color and Star Rules                                          
All the backgrounds should be light and scrappy unless you prefer to use a single background color.
The backgrounds can be anything from the white and the muslin shown above to the creamy light yellow that is in Cindy's block,
The star points can be any color you want.  They can be monochromatic or multicolored and scrappy.
The stars can float inside the block or reach to the edge of the quarter inch seam.

6.5" unfinished block with a scrappy background.

Send your blocks to Nancy Drew.  
OUR MAIL BY DATE IS MAY 8TH!
My address and phone numbers will be posted on the River Rat Toga.io site and the Minn/Wisc Junkies.io site.
You may also leave a message for me in the comments and I will answer them.

These blocks are not patterns you must follow.  They just happen to be the ones I made. They really are square, it is just the camera angle. - N.

A tap on the pictures will enlarge them.

6.5" unfinished block.

Remember, OUR MAIL BY DATE IS MAY 8TH!
Hugs, Nancy