Maybe I was a geologist in a past life?

 I love rocks.  Always have.  When I was a kid, I spent a large portion of my summers at my grandmother's house.  There was a creek running through it where we used to go play- wading and catching crawfish, swimming in the deep spots on hot days, or just walking along the creek bed.  (And get this!- we went unsupervised, no lifeguards on duty or anything.  We were taught responsibility back in the stone ages.)  I would always come back with a pocket full of rocks- or a single rock if it was bigger.  I wonder where they all went.  Maybe my grandmother's garden?

I still collect rocks.  Almost always bring one home when we go on vacation.  We brought some back from the Pacific Ocean on the plane (in my checked luggage of course) when we visited Guy!




So when we bought our first house, I made a trip down to the creek and gathered some nice big rocks to use as a border around the flower bed.  When we moved, I brought them to the new house and replaced them with ordinary rocks from the field around the new house!






I use them everywhere in the garden- as borders, as walkways through the perennials.  They reduce the amount of open areas which need weeding- in theory.
 I am even building a sort of stone fence! I doubt it will be very stable, but it's just for decoration anyway.










This is one of my very favorites- it has a little depression where the rainwater collects- a natural butterfly pit-stop!








So every spring before the farmer comes to plant, I go out in the field to gather rocks. They migrate up over the winter.  I take my weeding tool

out to pry them loose from the dirt and toss them into a bucket or my little garden cart. But one of the last days I was out there before Joe (the farmer)  came I was having trouble with one good looking rock, so I went up to get the trowel instead.  Hubby was passing by, and asked if I wanted some help.  I said sure.  So he followed me out to the field and I started poking around the rock and prying gently to see if I had loosened enough of the soil.  I even bent the trowel a bit at one point! That was when hubby said that must be a big rock.  I got excited over that!  So he went up to the shed and got a shovel.  Meanwhile, I was picking up more of the ones the right size for my fence, and I traded my little cart for the wheel barrow.
He dug and dug and just couldn't find the edge of this rock.  I think he was ready to give up, but by now I had to see this rock!  So he kept digging and finally revealed this!

 The clean part at the lower right of the picture is all that was showing.  (A friend called it an iceberg rock!)  It was pretty deep hole, and hubby said he'd never be able to lift it.  So I suggested he pry it up a bit with the shovel and I could push dirt under it to raise it up.  That worked pretty well.  To get it into the wheel barrow, we laid it on its side and rolled the rock into it.  Then we carefully stood the wheel barrow back up together.  It was a pretty long hike up to the garden from where the rock had been, so I ran ahead and cleared a spot  for it-  a prominent place at the front of the garden!  It rained the other day, so the whole thing is much less mud covered now.
(I bet it will be a while before hubby offers to help me again)

I've spent a lot of time in the gardens the last couple of weeks, trying to make up for lost time earlier in the spring.  Sadly, by the time I get around the biggest bed, it's time to start all over.  And that's only that one bed.  There are gardens everywhere at my house!  But I do it because it gets me outside, gets me some exercise- and I get pretty flowers!
This is the bouquet I brought to work for this week.
(Salvia, pink yarrow and Lady's mantle)












I read an article in the paper a week or so ago (I read it on my ipad, but still call it reading the paper) reported that 89 million to 340 million birds suffer fatal injuries from vehicle encounters annually.  The report will be published in an upcoming issue of The Journal of Wildlife Management.  According to this article, wind turbines account for FAR fewer bird deaths, at a quarter to a half a million. And yet, opponents of wind turbines point to bird deaths as a major concern.  Are these same bird lovers raising any hue and cry to get cars off the road?  Of course not.  It's just one example of how the mind sets of people need to be changed before we can make any real changes to protect/ save our environment!

I am grateful for:
Some much-needed rain, which came late in the day and didn't spoil anyone's plans!
Small bits of sewing time.
My husband, who is willing to join my insanity at times.
Laughter
Good sleep, when I can get it.

Look for me in the garden!

 Late may to early June is my favorite time to be in the garden.  Seeing everything turn green, or re-emerge, then all the fabulous blooms re-energizes me. I have my enthusiasm for gardening again.  I got off to a slow start, partly due to the weather of course, but also because I am always fighting a losing battle with the weeds and this year seemed worse than ever before.

  This spot in the perennial garden gives me such a feeling of serenity.  It's my happy place!
Ignore the weeds still living here.  The garden angel used to be taller but her stick broke.

My beloved Lupines are blossoming.  I lost a couple to the brutal winter, but there are lots of babies who I hope will make it through to next year. (they don't blossom the first year)

 The first Columbine blossoms.  Apparently those baby spiders were here....

...And speaking of baby spiders, I found another new hatch on this Salvia plant.  If any of them hang around long enough, I'll try to get a picture when they get bigger.  I can't remember if they are the crab spiders, or a kind of orb weaver.  Stay tuned.














These irises just showed up one year in the wild part of the area around the garden. I fear they may be this invasive species.  But they are so pretty!










This is a form of sedum, I believe.  But it behaves differently than most.  Rather than just spreading out to form a nice ground cover, it self seeds, making lots of little plants.  They blossom earlier, too.








Such pretty little flowers!

Oh, yeah- remember the "alien plant life"? 
The blossoms finally opened up so I could get a picture.

It has taken me forever to get this post finished to this point, so I will save the other part of the garden story for next time.

My green thought is to leave the grass clippings where they fall.  They improve your soil over time!

I am grateful for:
Wine O'clock
My aunt's doctors and nurses are all very patient with my questions
I have flowers on my desk- picked from the garden!
Air conditioning
New kittens to cuddle!!

Please help my Annabelle go home

This is Annabelle-  the mom of the sweet kittens I have been fostering.  She is still at the shelter waiting for her new family to find her.  She is one of the featured pets this week!  She may be hard to place because she has a history of digestive trouble.  It's not like she needs to go to the vet every week.  She needs food for a sensitive stomach, and a high sided litter pan. Pretty simple!  It's not her fault.   
She is a VERY affectionate girl, and will be a wonderful companion.  She is young enough to be playful.  She loves catnip toys she can carry around.  And those crinkly balls just bring out the kitten in her!
She just needs someone to see that an adult cat is already a good pet, and to overlook her issues. 
Can you help her?  Pass this on to anyone you know who needs a lap warmer!
Annabelle and I would sure appreciate it.
<!-- Facebook sharing information tags

Short URL Copy

• Facebook 0 likes
• Twitter 0 tweets
• Google +1

• Subscribe
• Share
• Past Issues
• RSS
• Translate
  • English
  • العربية
  • Afrikaans
  • беларуская мова
  • български
  • català
  • 中文（简体）
  • 中文（繁體）
  • Hrvatski
  • Česky
  • Dansk
  • eesti keel
  • Nederlands
  • Suomi
  • Français
  • Deutsch
  • Ελληνική
  • हिन्दी
  • Magyar
  • Gaeilge
  • Indonesia
  • íslenska
  • Italiano
  • 日本語
  • 한국어
  • македонски јазик
  • بهاس ملايو
  • Malti
  • Norsk
  • Polski
  • Português
  • Português - Portugal
  • Română
  • Русский
  • Español
  • Kiswahili
  • Svenska
  • עברית
  • Lietuvių
  • latviešu
  • slovenčina
  • slovenščina
  • српски
  • ภาษาไทย
  • Türkçe
  • Filipino
  • украї́нська
  • Tiếng Việt

Please post and/or forward to help get shelter animals get home. ADOPT ME Pokie Face Beagle Adult / Male Sweet and quiet Easy going Affectionate friend Annabelle Tiger DSH Adult / Spayed Female  Very affectionate Loves toys A purrfect lap cat Genesee County Animal Shelter 3841 West Main St Rd, Batavia, NY Hours: Sun, Mon, Tues, Fri 1 - 3 pm Wednesday 1 - 3 pm and 7 - 9 pm Saturday 11 - 1 pm www.vol4animals.org follow on Twitter| friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Copyright © 2014 Volunteers For Animals, All rights reserved.  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

-->

Unstuck!

 I finished piecing this quilt last year- or was it the year before?  It was from the class with Anita Grossman Soloman the Museum Quilt Guild hosted in 2011.  I got stuck on this the first time because I had a small piece of the stripe I used, and wanted a bigger quilt.  I finally solved that issue by making my own striped fabric with strip sets I pieced!






But then I fizzled out at the point where many quilts hit a roadblock- How do I quilt this?
So I put it on the pile of unfinished tops to let it percolate for a while.  Every so often, I would take it out and look at it but never had the "aha!" moment! 
When the guild had a meeting focusing on getting unstuck so we can finish projects (hopefully in time for the October quilt show), I brought this in.  It was a fun meeting- seeing others having the same issues I do and helping each other resolve those issues.
Suggestions were dropped into a shoebox if we weren't standing there to discuss them.   (because we had great ideas for everyone's project but our own!)
Using my "draw free" app, I have auditioned some of the ideas I got.



The first suggestion made me say, "yes- that's it!"
Since it has the strong geometric already- and doesn't need anything else to make it interesting- just enhance that with the quilting.  The lines are hard to see, but that would be the point of this type of quilting.  Using the black lines in the original fabric is perfect, but where would I quilt in the other blocks?

(I just noticed I drew squares in an X block)



There were several suggestions following the though that you should add curves to a quilt with strong lines.  Using one of my favorite zentangle patterns (called a tangle), I thought maybe just a few curves in each block?  (Not fan quilting)  The direction of the curve alternates, so it would make a nice texture.

 But the suggestion that really made me say "hmmmmmm!"  was the suggestion of all over wavy lines like Jane Sassaman does on many of her pieces.  In this one, she uses a feather stitch, or maybe it was two lines of the blind hem stitch. 
So I started playing with wavy lines.

 

Which direction would they look best?
Obviously they would be closer together on the quilt- and I hope I could echo my lines better on the machine!

 Or maybe follow the "frame" made by the strip set blocks?  If I do this what do I do in the corners?  It doesn't divide evenly into quarters.

 So now I've gone from not having ideas at all to having too many options- and I want to try them all.  Drawing lines on a printout, or doing it digitally as I have done, is a great way to audition ideas.  But you can never really tell how it will look until you start quilting.  And with machine quilting, that is the point of no return. 
My first impulse is to keep it simple- as Anita taught us!
Of course, I haven't even thought about the quilting in the borders......


My green thought is having noticed how often religious literature- small pamphlets, trading card sized things, etc- is left in public restrooms to be tossed in the garbage.  Apparently those who want to save my soul have no concern at all for saving the planet.  Just a bit of irony, in my opinion. 

I am grateful for:
Angela finally started purring when I pet her the other day!
Watching a hummingbird feed just a few feet from me as I worked in the garden.  (it almost makes up for the hours and hours of weeding I have to do.  almost)
Perry's now makes a dark chocolate ice cream.
Finding a fabulous vintage skirt at Goodwill yesterday.
I finally made it to the sewing room for a few minutes yesterday.

Alien plant life

When I watered my plants the other day, I was struck by the visual texture of the plants in this pot.  I don't know the name of either, as most cacti and succulents are sold with the label, "cactus"- no species name.  Both of these plants are fairly fragile, so I end up with pieces when I move them.  I dropped the succulent- a sort of hens and chicks- into the dirt with the newly potted cactus waiting to see what would root.  It all did.  They seem happy, though.





The succulent is happy enough to be blossoming.  See the fuzzy  little antenna sticking up on the left side of this picture?













There are more of them right at the edge of this one.






And coming right out of the center of this one.
















I'll have to try and remember to get pictures of the blossoms.  (but don't hold your breath)
I may have to try and interpret this in a quilt.  You know, in all my spare time.

For the "green tip" I'm just going to remind everyone ( myself included) that, although Roundup is faster, it is poison. There is more and  more evidence that pesticide use is killing the honeybees.  Who knows what harm roundup is doing?  (personally I think we are creating roundup resistant dandelions!)
 I am making it a habit to bring the spray bottle of vinegar out with me when I am outside, even going to get the mail.  You have to spray it more often and repeatedly but it does the job for the most part. 

I am grateful for:
People to be silly with
Listening to the Orioles sing while pulling the dastardly weeds in the garden
Hugs
Mary Lee is now living in a house "on my way" from work to home!
Quiet time in the office.

Lost at sea

I went from having nothing to say to having no time to say anything in the past couple of weeks.  I am going to try and make posts regularly again, though they may be shorter.  I see so many bloggers who make this promise.  So I guess I am not alone in having this problem.
Anyway, I am going to try and make it a regular part of my routine again.  I know my loyal reader will be pleased. Do let me know if you prefer more posts or newsier ones...
Today's post will be short. 




About this time last week, I noticed the area around my house that we laughingly refer to as the lawn, was a sea of yellow.  It happens every year.  I have come to accept it as part of life.  My husband sees it as a personal failing on his part that he can't get rid of them.

They make a nice contrast with the redbud tree, don't they?

Sadly, they are also the only blossoms in my big perennial bed right now.  









Then we had two days of heavy and somewhat unrelenting rain.  Hubby had mowed the lawn the morning before the deluge began.



This created a sea of a different kind.

Fortunately we are on high ground.  I cannot imagine what the poor people in the Penn Yan area are suffering after the storms hit them twice!

I heard reports that this kind of weather will be more common as our climate continues to change.  And still there are people who deny it.

I am grateful for:
audiobooks
the kind people caring for my aunt
the kittens are all doing well at last
wine o'clock
a very sweet reunion!

How long does it take?

I have had a hard time the last couple of weeks finding something to write about. 
I thought of doing a post about
Billy- my poor little foster kitten who almost died.  But sick kitten pictures aren't very appealing.  And the story isn't exciting.  Every time I went into the nursery for nealry two days I expected him to have expired.  But he didn't.  I take no credit.  I got advice from one of the other foster moms and medicine from the vet- who really didn't expect him to live.  But he did. 

Otherwise, until a few days ago I was spending most of my creative time on the raffle quilt.  I mentioned to my husband that I wish I was one of those people who keeps track of the time I spend on a project, because I bet I have a couple hundred hours into the raffle quilt.  ( I really have to get a decent picture of it one of these days)
Quilters are often asked how long does it take to make a quilt??
Well, that depends on the quilt.  This one has been a very long journey for me.  And in the end, I will have nothing at all to show for the time.

First there were the hours spent researching ideas with my committee.  Once we decided on a basket medallion quilt- based on a design I had done before with "a few" modifications- there were the hours spent designing, drafting, and calculating size and materials. 
There was the hardest part- the shopping.  (Thanks again to Emmy for helping me choose the wonderful fabrics!!!) 

Then there was the making of sample blocks and writing out directions for all skill levels to be able to follow since this is a group project.
 I had to make the center applique before I could even decide which fabrics would look best in the borders around it.  So there were the hours in doing hand applique. 

Then came cutting and packaging of kits. (thanks to Mary Ellen for coming way out to the boonies to help with that one!) And more shopping when I changed my mind on one of the fabrics and needed more.






I distributed the blocks at guild meetings, recording who had which blocks.  There was the receiving of completed blocks, most of which I had drafted over-sized so I could trim them to size once they were returned to me.  So I spent hours squaring up blocks (my least favorite part of quilt making!)








THEN came the say when laying out the blocks for assembly that I discovered my rookie mistake- adding the width of the border only once instead of twice!  That required me to make more blocks.  Many more.












Once I finally had it assembled, I layered and basted it myself since finding space and a time for others to help was harder than spending three days on my dining room floor. 
While it was down there, I marked out to the third border for hand quilting.  And I started hand quilting it until the next meeting when it would be passed off to the first name on the list to help. 






But the marks faded, so I had to re-mark the third border.  There is no pattern, I made it up.  So no one else could do it.

I had it most recently to finish marking the last border and corner baskets. 






I am not telling this so anyone will know how hard I worked on this quilt.  I'm not looking for sympathy, recognition, awards, or adulation.  But once I started thinking about it, I decided maybe I am glad I didn't keep track of my time!

The project I worked on last weekend is for a swap with my online friends.  (it is in transit so I hope she gets it before she reads my blog- if she reads my blog!)  It was MUCH quicker, although it did help that I had done most of the small piecing as samples for the class I taught.  (I cleaned out my sample box recently!)

I have made this bag several times, from a Scrap Therapy pattern. 

It's a great project bag, but I always give the warning that if you fill it to capacity you may not be able to lift it!










Hopefully now that we are getting some nice weather, I can show pictures of flowers soon.  I was out in the garden yesterday, but the only thing blooming is those yellow flowers- you know, the sort of fuzzy ones that grow low to the ground everywhere?  I guess they have been around for thousands of years.  We used to look forward to eating the greens in the spring, but I haven't had them in years.

I am grateful for:
Being able to walk outside, eat dinner on my screen porch and have windows open all night in the bedroom.
The people who helped me through the kitten crisis.
My best friend who never tells me to stop whining.
I am nearly finished with the raffle quilt. (well, at least the end is in sight)
Chocolate- every day!