Only a week behind now

I'm catching up, I think.   (if only that were true!)
I had thought to do a second post last week and then I could be back to current events.  Life is just moving too fast for me.  So here is a collection of random things from the last couple of weeks. 

My beautiful backyard "wild flower garden"

I was thinking- as I drove home from getting groceries last week- and noticed how the fields of winter wheat and the unploughed fields, which are full of dandelions, make a lovely patchwork of color- that Dandelions aren't so bad.  We all hate them in our gardens (In fact, I refer to them as Damned-delions!), but really there are worse weeds than dandelions.  I'm not ready to have the foolish Brit who imported them beatified or anything.  But just thank goodness skunk cabbage isn't as prolific.

After the quilt guild meeting last week, we had the second session of the jacket class.  I am happy to report we have a new "overachiever" in the group.  Marcia showed up with her jacket assembled and the lining ready to sew in.   Isn't it gorgeous?!?


















 
Hopefully I will soon get to see a few more of them in this state, including my own!


  

 

 

You know there's a problem if it's too busy even by MY standards!

 As you may remember, the last time I mentioned the jacket I was working on, it was in a bag in the corner of the closet.  These pieces of patchwork were just not working well together.  So I was ready to abandon the whole project.  But two days before the class I had an epiphany.  I had a piece of black fabric with flowers embroidered in a shimmery black thread all over it.  that I had kept setting aside because I didn't know what to make with it.  DUH!  So I replaced many of the patchwork sections with the black, and ...

It Is Alive!  (thank goodness since I really hated to waste all the time and $ I had spent on this project)
I'm hoping to have it assembled this weekend, depending on the amount of water I have to wade through to work in the gardens.













The last bit of news is that I am settling in to my new job and enjoying the work so far!  I have a slightly different schedule so the adjustment won't be too difficult there.  The new office is small and has no windows.  That was a big change from the wide open spaces I had before!

 Interesting color choices for the walls, don't you think?  (I hypothesize they were using up paint)  I arrived with a box of my stuff, ready to transform it. Think of the scene where the "ladies" decorated their hotel room in "To Wong Foo"

Not quite as amazing a transformation, but at least it has a bit of personality!  (And a "view" since I brought the one landscape type quilt I have made)










I am grateful for:
A job that makes me feel good about going to work.
Colorful birds coming to visit the feeder.
I haven't had to worry about watering the flowers.
Family time
Sleeping with the windows open.

In Loving Memory

This is a group of my closest friends, confidants, partners in crime, and inspiration!  They are members of the yahoo group called "The Quilt Pocket".  We were having our biennial retreat, which we call a Jamboree, in London, Ontario last week.
The first one was held in 2007, and the following year, we lost one of our members to breast cancer.  Jenny was one of those people you meet once and instantly feel comfortable with- and welcomed by!  She was a talented quilter and a giving friend.
So at the second Jamboree, held in Seattle, Washington, we collected quilts made by our members and donated them to a cancer treatment center there. We wanted the love we all felt for Jenny to be a comfort to people still battling the disease that took her from us.  The project was such a success, we made it a part of the Jamboree again this year!

This is the atrium at "Merlin House" where we stayed, filled with the quilts we donated this year.  Don't they look lovely all laid out together?  We donated 25 quilts this time to a facility where people living with cancer stay while receiving their treatments.

This is my contribution.  It's a wonderful pattern from Kaffe Fassett's "Quilt Road" book.  I learned to machine quilt feathers for this one!  I didn't get a good enough picture of the feathers to share them, but enjoyed doing them, so I'm sure you'll be seeing them soon!












I am grateful for:
FABULOUS weather this weekend!
Unforgettable time with some really amazing women who have made a big difference in my life.
I missed that toad when I mowed around the front flower bed.
Thirty years with a good man.
Catching up on my sleep last night.

Too much time and too little to do!!!

Check that, and reverse it, of course!!! :-)

Bleeding Heart in my shade garden

Well, finally!  We have had a few days of gardening weather and therefore that is how I have been spending my time!!  I am thrilled to have flowers greeting me when I visit the gardens now.  With the flowers, I am also happily enjoying some of my favorite summer birds.  The other day I heard the Oriole singing out back so I rushed to put out some jelly for him.  I had to improvise an orange flower. I guess it was pretty good because not ten minutes after I hung it out there- he came to have a taste!!



I have been focusing my energies on my big perennial bed this weekend.  It has been far too wet up until now to even set foot out there.  It is still too wet for much other than basic weeding and cleaning up.  I have made some interesting discoveries, though!

I love moss.  This one is VERY soft!

 

 

 

 

 

A type of Euphorbia I think.  I never knew it was blossoming at this time of year!!!

I am thrilled to death that for the first time in several years- maybe since we planted it!- the frost has not killed the Magnolia blooms!

In the sewing room, I am stuck on the layout for my patchwork jacket.  I am teaching this as a class very soon and fear I will not be able to show the students the next step, as I will not yet be there myself!

The jacket is designed around this lovely mola I got from Priscilla Kibbee

 This is the back of the jacket, which I think I am satisfied with.  The fronts are what have given me trouble.  At present they are nothing but a pile of patchwork in a random heap ( in other words, I got frustrated and threw them on the floor)

It's always nice to have a friend give you a second opinion when doing this type of work!

 

 

I am grateful for:
New challenges at work, and nice people to help me with them!
Fabulous weather!
Hotdogs on the grill ( burnt!) and macaroni salad.
The waiting is almost over!
Being able to listen to the birds sing!