What a difference!

Just a few short weeks ago, I was saying how wet the back flower bed was and that I wished the rain would let up for a few days so I could work out there.  Now, it's so dry I need a jack hammer to work out there!  No such thing as a happy medium, I guess.

So, in spite of the fact that I have to watch for wilted flowers like these,  I also have volunteers like the snapdragon above!  I'm saving water from dishes  and showers to water the flowers with. (I have never had to worry about my well going dry and I don't intend to test it!)







I had a relaxing holiday weekend last week.  I worked outside in the mornings when it was cool, doing my best to keep up with the weeds, who are not bothered by the lack of moisture.  Then I spent as long as I could in the sewing room, which gets very stuffy in the afternoons.  I'll show what  I made soon- it's kind of a surprise for the "Art C Girlz".

I am also addicted to the flowers from the book I showed last time.  Here are a few more.  At some point I'll figure out what to do with them!  I hope to make a bouquet of them for my desk at work.












We're still "enjoying" visits from our natural neighbors.

This guy came for a breakfast of grubs or beetles I guess- he rooted around out there for about an hour!

This time it's Mockingbirds nested in the Magnolia tree right off the front porch!

I'm happy to say the nicotiana is doing well- and matches most of my summer wardrobe!

I couldn't resist buying this lettuce at the farmer's market!  Isn't it gorgeous???










I decided to add a "green tip" of the week.  Nothing you haven't heard before, but we all need reminders of the basics now and then, right?  This week I'm reminding you to buy the largest size possible at the store.  If you use small portions, split a large package of product into small reusable containers when you get it home.  Less packaging means less materials and energy to produce, less to throw away and less cost to you in the long run!

I am grateful for:
Quiet time in the garden and the sewing room.
Visits with my sons both far and near.
Friends who understand and support you when you need it.
My bursitis subsided without having to get a shot!
Doing "nothing" with my hubby!

The joys of country living- and a sewing day!

Welcome to July! Not that the flip flops aren't cute, but I wonder why no one can think of interesting motifs for the summer months???



 I have been asked for updates on the critter story.  The raccoon has not been sighted since there was a very loud noise aimed in his direction last week around this time.  (actually I think it was a momma and babies).  I didn't do it, but it seems to have worked.  The red squirrel is going to meet a similar sound very soon.

The robins are trying to build a new nest for the second hatch of the season, and think my front porch is a prime location.  The ledges above the doors and windows are all of 2 1/2 inches wide and the darned birds keep hauling in dry grass mixed with mud and leaving a mess.  So I started by employing my dress form, who I call Ethyl, to stand guard.  That worked,but Ethyl is not made for rain.  Once she came inside the robins came back.  Plan B- used cd's and plan C wires sticking up to prevent them building were not effective at all. (In fact , the wire seems to have made nice "rebar" for the foundation of the nest).

So I pondered a way to make the ledge smaller and hit on a solution that is working so far.  Yup, Cheerios boxes cut to bow out and block the ledge. It's a lovely decoration as well, don't you think?
There are bunnies everywhere, but I haven't found any babies so far.  I hope we don't find them with the mower!!!
I hope no one gets the impression I don't like sharing my habitat with the wildlife!!   I love watching the bunnies frolic, having the occasional frog in my rain barrel (which is sunk into the ground), and especially things like the Yellow Warbler's nest we discovered last weekend!
The destructive ones just have to be shown their boundaries.  :-)

OOPS- forgot to rotate. 

Meanwhile, during the week of rain we had, I found time to sew!!!  I had an actual sewing day, where I wandered from one project to the next with merry abandon.
This is the project I worked on at the Guild UFO day- my first One Block Wonder.  I never got around to putting the top together once I got the block laid out.  This is a long skinny quilt that will either dress up my new office or warm my side only of the bed when it is needed.  The borders are a nice purple that I would not have chosen but for some friends who made me see how perfect it was!

Just some random bits made from scraps and strips.  Not sure what they'll be yet.

I learned to make "Kanzashi" flowers last week. The first one matched this bag I made last year, so I moved into the bag to show it off.

"Posey Tote" with Kanzashi flower

This is from a "Liberated Quiltmaking class I took with Janet Root a year ago April.  I made my blocks into a cover for the little shelves in the studio.  The Patchwork looked so nice there I have never had the incentive to quilt them, but decided it was time!  I'm playing with fillers and straight line quilting for now.

I just remembered a looming deadline, so I will have to put this aside and do that in my next sewing session.



I am grateful for:
How much Jake loved his quilt!
Lunch with some friends and a nice break in my road trip.
Magnum ice cream bars (double chocolate!)
Cool nights.
My deep blue funk has passed for the moment.

Critters and UFO's and wearable art!

 A jacket by Paula Schultz, Inspired by Matisse.

I haven't had much sewing time myself lately, so I really enjoyed a day of sewing with friends and being inspired at the meeting of the Museum Quilt Guild last weekend.





Paula from Cottons, etc in Oneida brought a great selection of her award winning work.  The "runway addicts" projects are LOTS of fun, and you'll never look at a fishing lure the same way again!

 

Those aren't beads, they are swivels for fishing lures!

After the jacket I made which gave me such headaches, I shouldn't be thinking of trying another garment anytime soon.  But I sure got a lot of great ideas that are wanting to come out and play!

Can this garden be saved????

It has been a tough year in the garden so far.  First it was so wet I couldn't work the soil.  The weeds got a giant head start and are laughing at my attempts to catch up.   Now I am also battling the critters!
As you know, I couldn't work the one bed because of the baby robins, who flew away last week.  I hope they're ok out in the big bad world!
Then a varmint of some sort decided to start digging up the plants in my flower pots on my porches.  (The same flowers I grew FROM SEED on a table in my dining room last winter!)  I have been patient, filling in the holes, spraying tabasco in an effort to deter them.  But today I found some of my zinnias tossed out of the pots and left to die. This means all out war. ( and I know where there are some varmint guns!)

Add to that a raccoon who decided to go swimming in the grease trap on my grill.

Maybe living out in the boonies with the critters isn't as charming as I've been led to believe.







After the Guild meeting a few of us stayed to work on UFO's.  This weekend, some of my internet quilting buddies will be working on them, too.  Maybe I can get SOMETHING done??? (if it rains so I can stay inside for a while)

I did manage to get the quilt I made for my step grandson's High School graduation done a whole week early!! It's a pattern called "The Big EZ" by Bloom Creek.  The fabrics are all football themed since we have so enjoyed watching him play the past few years.  Coincidentally, his school colors were black and orange.











I am grateful for:
A nice boss who is keeping me so busy at work she has to remind me it's time to go home.
My sons who are both thoughtful men.
Ice Cream with hot fudge sauce.
A few hours in my hammock.
Cool nights so I can sleep.

Spending all my time in the garden

  I have lots of frogs and toads in the gardens- little resin and pottery statues.  None of them hop around and scare me half to death, though.

I was watering the baby plants and found a squatter in the flower pots!   I guess I don't have to worry about bugs eating that one.

This  Clematis is right off the screen porch at the back of my house

I think they were JUST hatched

I had planned to trim the clematis when I was first able to get out to the gardens, but look what I found.  The robins squawking in the tree confirmed who this belonged to.  It had one egg in it the day I found it- somewhere around May 18. I haven't worked in this flower bed since making this discovery, except to peek in the nest when I knew the momma wasn't there.  I kept hoping every day to hear the tweeting of baby birds through the open window.  Finally, on June 3, I peeked in and saw babies!
Judging by their color I think they were fresh from the shell!  Only three of the four hatched, apparently.

I go out every day and annoy the parents by peeking in the nest and taking a picture.  I'm amazed at how fast they are growing!

Day 3

Day 4

Today, June 9

I won't dare to keep doing this much longer for fear of scaring them out of the nest prematurely.

Other than gardening, I enjoyed going to the "Diamond Jubilee" quilt show held by the Genesee Valley Quilt Club last week. We went to cheer on Kathi, who took part in the "Iron Quilter" event- and WON first place- a new Bernina sewing machine!  I am also proud (and jealous as heck!) of my BFF, Mary, who won a third place ribbon at the show! (See her picture here)

I am grateful for:
Being able to be outside to enjoy the "neighbors".
Air conditioning in my bedroom last night!
Talented friends to inspire me.
Not needing to watch the clock at work anymore.
Ice cream with peanut butter sauce

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!