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.