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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Green thumb..not me

For National Quilt Day I met with Sarah,http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/ and turned in the quilt I finished for the church ministry. While I was there I took the nine patch squares I had made last week and made a disappearing nine patch quilt, well, everything but the borders. I was upset alittle because the sashing did not match up like I like them to, but Sarah thought it would be ok.

When I got home from quilting I had to do yard stuff. Fun, fun. The builder had left a big stack of leftover bricks in our garage, so I moved them to the backyard (last year) and was going to made a little platform for our grill, so that I could move it off of the deck. It took longer than I had want it to (seeing that I would rather be upstairs quilting)but I got it done. Nice platform for the grill.

My mother and my sister have beautiful yards, nicely landscaped (they do everything themselves.) I think their yard are just beautiful, I love the islands in their yards filled with shrubs and flower and plants. All of the landscaping around their house, just love it, I want mine to look that way. One problem, I do not share their green thumb, (I have a quilting thumb and they don't). They always take bets when I purchase plants on how long it will take me to kill the plant. But every year I try and I start out real good, it's in the heat of the summer when I start having the worst of my problems. Anyway, Friday night I stopped by my neighborhood green thumb store and purchased a few plants that I thought would take me atleast a couple of months to kill. While talking with my mother, I happened to mention that I saw a weeping cherry tree that I would like to have (the one I bought last year did not survive, go figure) but that it would not fit in my SUV. Well the minute the word "tree" came out of my mouth she volunteered my father assistance and his truck, on Sunday after church. I think my mother thinks that I will someday get the hang of this plant and tree stuff. They met me at Lowes and I picked up 7 boxwoods(something I have not been able to kill) and some other things (she knew the names) that my mother said I would have trouble killing and set sail for home. I forgot I wanted to buy an umbrella for the deck so they left headed to my house. I bought my umbrella, walked out to my SUV, put the key, turned the key and NOTHING!!! Would not start, would not turn over. Called my mom and dad (thank goodness for cell phones) and they had to turn around and come back. We tried jumping it off, no start. I happened to notice that my SUV was not in park but rather in reverse. WHAT??? how did that happen, it has a safety thing that won't let that happen. Had to call Mr Dan, my knight in shining armor my mechanic. He couldn't fix it. Had to leave my baby in Lowes parking lot over night (boo). Mr Dan figured out what was wrong with my baby (yea!) but has to get a part (boo) won't be fix until tomorrow. (get to drive mom's SUV) Yea! With my dad's help (he's my hole digger) I got all of my "stuff" planted.

Ok, all of that was told to say I will not be quilting very much this week....I have order sod for the back yard that was total washed away with the (Nashville)flood last year (we moved into our house on friday and the rain started on Sat. and floods came on Sunday.) Total washed away our back yard. Anyway, I have ordered sod and I have to till up our yard this week and be prepared to lay sod on Saturday. So every afternoon this week after work I will be tilling and raking our backyard. (7000 sq ft backyard) Doesn't seem very big until you have to rake it. Why don't I just let someone lay it (sod). Because I 'm cheap about some things. I would rather spend my hard earned money on useful things like fabric than to pay someone to do something that I can do. Do you know how much fabric and "stuff" I can buy with $2000.00 (that was my quote not counting the sod) The bad thing is I don't have much help, my husband is disabled and can't walk very well, my parents are elderly and my sister lives in NY. My oldest sons think I'm crazy for putting down sod or anything that looks like grass because then you have to mow it. He has less of a green thumb than his mother.

I will take before and after pictures, I want to show the difference and
all my hard work.

Are you still with me?? I did load my friend retirement quilt on my frame (three times actually, two times the wrong way and third time is the charm) and I made one swipe across it. My first time for using a pantogram. I'll show my progress but it might be next week. Hope the Boss doesn't let him retire early.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Friday already?

Another Friday, boy this year is flying by. Remember when you were 16, 17 years old and it felt like Friday would never come soon enough. Well....now they come way too fast. Let's see what have I done this week, other than be a mom, a cook, a dishwasher, oh let's not forget the 8-5 job. Not really try to complain, just sounds that way. Love my life and all my jobs.




Finished the flimsy I started Saturday while sewing with Sarah and the ladies from her church.






Made 9 nine patch squares for another church ministry quilt.






I'm going to have to take this quilt outside and take a picture to show it's true beauty. It really is a pretty quilt. This is the retirement quilt for a friend at work. Flimsy is finished, have to finish piecing the back and it will be ready for the frame.



Have you hear about "Just One Star?" The Moda staff and designers have a new challenge. They need 1800 star blocks, to make 100 quilt for the brave men and women serving over seas in Iraq and Afghanistan by Flag Day, June 14. Deadline to submit one star or as many as you want to make is May 1. This is the fabric I chose. I want to have mine finished to mail on Monday.

What else?



This is going to be a
t-shirt graduation quilt for a friends son. She has to find me a couple more t-shirts. You will be seeing more of this quilt real soon. I've never made a t-shirt quilt so wish me luck. On the back will be squares that his friend, coaches and family have signed.



Well I guess that's my week. How was yours?

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Found another giveaway

Check it out....http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/ is having a giveaway also. Real pretty Civil War Reproduction and a book to boot. 10 1/2 yards of fabric. Woo Hoo!

Hurry Jaybird is having a giveaway

Check out the giveaway Jaybird is having.http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/ The new line is fantastic, bright cheery colors just in time for summer.

Finished the retirement flimsy for the man I work with, it is ready to load on my frame to quilt.

I visited with Sarah, http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/ and the church ladies on Saturday and had a wonderful time sewing with them and fellowship. Several quilts were started and several backs were finished, a couple were ready for quilting. I had a lot of fun and enjoyed myself very much. Such love and devotion goes into every quilt. Sarah is hosting another quilting day this coming Saturday, which is also National Quilt Day.

Thank you to everyone that left a comment. For some strange reason I cannot respond from my home computer, but I do appreciate all the wonderful comments.

Friday, March 11, 2011

It's Friday!!

TGIF!! After a very long week at work, here is my Friday update. First I want to visit Sarah at http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and join in on Friday Whoop Whoop. I worked on several quilts this week.

I started on this quilt, I making it for a man I have worked with for almost 20 years and he is retiring at the end of April. He has been a teacher, a listener, a sounding board and mostly he has been a friend. I will miss him dearly when he leaves, he has helped me through the most difficult days.
What a terrible picture! I will make sure the next picture is a whole lot better.

He loves to fish and makes his own lures. I found this fabric, Holly Taylor's Classic, with fishing lures and trout baskets, etc. I think it will fit him well. I plan to make an over sized label so people at work can sign it. This is what I will using on the back.




I loaded Little Sprout on the frame last night and began quilting. This is only the third quilt that I have quilted on my new frame. The second one I'll show in a bit.





I decided to use loopie loops on the background around the stems and leaves.







Now staying with Friday Whoop Whoop and joining Susan over at http://www.blackberrycreek.typepad.com for UFO's updates.


I finished quilting and binding the quilt for my family room. Mark another one off my UFO list. I did cheat a little, I machine stitched the binding, instead of handing sewing, for a couple of reasons. First, even though I love black, I found out it's not real easy to quilt, hard to see stitching. Next it will used in our family room and my DH and DS are very hard on binding, they pull and drag and throw it round and it doesn't take long for all of my little hand stitches to break.



Because it is black you can't see it (machine stitching) anyway. I was a little disappointed in this quilt but DH likes it so I guess it's ok.

Well, that's my week, what about you?

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

All is Good

Thank you for all the prayers and comments for and about my father. He went back to the doctor for his follow up and to get the path reports. His doctor was very pleased, the report showed all cancer cells removed and it had NOT attached to the muscle wall, so yesterday he was cancer free. No additional treatments, nothing, just has to go back every three months for 2 years. But my father was told that this kind of cancer will probably come back and that is why he has to be tested every 3 months. I think it was a very good report so I am smiling ear to ear today. Love my Dad!! He's my buddy!!

Feeling a little better, just a little. Been doing a little quilting but nothing to show yet.