Getting Caught Up!

Woo Hoo - I'm finally getting caught up! LOL - Not really but it sounds good.

The other day, was a beautiful day. Since photography is my 1st love, I went out and took photos. The flowers in the yard are wonderful, all to the work of my hubby. I realized I really like purple because most of the flowers are purple. Funny how I didn't notice that before.

WA state Rhodies. They will be blooming for the next 4 months, depending on what Rhodie one gets.

Yet to come.

I believe these are the only white flowers in the yard. Funny how I kept away from white.

One of my favorite flowers - Calenbines (sp?).

Now you can tell what inspired me to do my Hawaiian quilt. This flower and the one above are where I came up with the design in the Hawaiian quilt.

Over the last few days, I was working on the friendship blocks. I got one done and I'm very close to having the other one done as well. The circles are many and taking some work to make them a close to a perfect circle. It's fun though and I'm happy.

This block is for Barb's friendship quilt. I was surprised at how fast it went.

I tried to do more quilting, but my finger hurt, and that did surprise me. I haven't had that much trouble with my thimble finger in a long time. I may have to go in and do the surgery sooner than I thought. The doctor told me it was up to me when I wanted it removed. "It" is a bump on the knuckle. Which happens to be where the thimble touches.

Okay, there you go, a quicker post, with stuff actually getting done. Life is good.

Now on a sad note, received word my neice was within 2 miles of the Oklahama tornado. She was lucky enough to only loose water to her apartment, when the first report from them was she had lost the apartment and was at work at the time. My prayers go out to everyone who has been affected by the tornado.

I used to live in Oklahoma - all around Oklahoma City - Del City, Midwest City, Moore, and Norman. I probably know a few people that was in that mess, but it's been 20 years since I was there. The place were I met my hubby is gone, and something new in it's place. I know the area, and I send my best wishes to all who are effected by this mess.

Now back to my quilting - hoping to get the circles done today, as we have a potluck tomorrow at the shop. Wish me luck as it looks like hubby wants to go out tonight.

In the mean time, hope to be Happy Quilting again.

Times Flys When Your Having Fun

I'm happy to report my Birthday was a success. I had a great day. My husband took me out to the Berry Fields restaurant and we had breakfast together. Food was good, but expensive. After that we went to 3 stores looking for africian violets, to replace mine that died when I took them out of the living room. Afterwords we sat and I played on the computer. By 3 pm we were off to my folks and heading up to Olympia for dinner. We went to The Ram for supper and I was thrilled. It was the first time I went and it had food for EVERYONE who has different tastes and diets. Then we played cards when we got back to my folks. Awesome day!

On Friday we attended the TAS (The Applique Society) meeting in Sequim WA. When I say "we," I mean Bev, Ethel, my mother and I drove up to Sequim to attend. It was a wonderful meeting! We stayed way too long as we didn't get back till around 6 pm, but it was well worth going. I was introducted as a new Board member of TAS and met the President who is from Canada. It will be interesting but fun! I'm excited to help TAS out and try to get more members to our little world of applique! It's well worth joining. The newsletters are AWESOME and you can learn a LOT!

We were in a small Church, which was a lot smaller than the one I attended last year. It worked out. Mom is the one in the Norweign sweater and Ethal is in the white coat. We stopped to chit chat with those we attended the Retreat with. It was good to see them all again, after just a month's absence.

Demonstrations were given on how to paint your quilt with the paint staying on the quilt. I was really interested in this one. It was "natural" stuff and not stuff you needed gloves and masks for.

Loretta, our outgoing President is in the chair closest, with the new President of TAS right next to her.

While at TAS meeting, I was able to get a lot done on my friendship block.

One more star and then a few leaves, and it will be done for barb. I was surprised at how fast it went, and I was trying to "tone down" my colors as I'm very bright and Barb is more the Civil War, and darker colors. It's a learning tool for me.

During the week when I was "grandma sitting" I was able to get more done on Susy's friendship block. I'm now trying to decide on what to do with the circles. Trust me, there are a ton of circle and that is why I changed and worked on Barb's before finishing Susy's. Susy wanted Civil War colors, and I went shopping for those colors - again, not colors I would use.

At first I thought I could use this fabric (in photo) for the handle of the basket. After starting to work on the handle, I realized it would go, and the fabrics almost blended too well with each other. I needed a contrast. At first I didn't realize the piece was part of the basket, till I really looked at the pattern. The block is a really pretty block! I then re-thought the pattern, and realized it was a handle and not a leaf like the other side.

Then I decided to keep the basket all one fabric. That worked out well. I then used greens from the pieces friends gave me that would work with the basket. Looking at the photo, they look more blue then green. Each of the three leaves have circles around them. As you can see, I though I could use the design from the previous fabric (that I used for the basket) to see if they would work as buds. NOPE. Now I need to iron on more circles and cut them out to finish the block. I'm going to use either a light green or a blue fabric for the circles. I haven't really decided yet, and that's why this has stopped at this point. I laughed at myself the other day when I put the bottom of the basket on - it was lopsided. I ended up taking it out. Funny what happens when you don't pay attention to the fabric bottom to see if your lined up right.

I'm hoping to pull out the quilt today and get back to quilting on it. Patrick is out mowing the yard, and I'm doing laundry along with playing.

I did sit down yesterday and draft a pattern for my friendship quilt. Decided I would use the Kimono #1 pattern for my blocks to give to the group to make for me. That is a Sindy Rodenmeyer pattern. She has a couple of really pretty patterns. As I was doing that, I found 12 butterfly patterns, that I thought I could use in the quilt, but Patrick looked at me as if I was crazy when I explained what I wanted to do. So, I'll do the blocks on point and wait and see what comes in to what I will be doing for that quilt.

Looking forward to being Happy Quilting.......today........

Another Busy Week

Another busy week went by. Hard to believe how busy a person can get. I believe I need to work on the "NO" word again.

Mom's Birthday was on the 3rd (goes to show how long I've been trying to get myself to write on here). For her Birthday, dad and I took her up to the Wild Bird shop in Olympia. She bought herself a ton of bird "stuff." She bought all 4 of those feeders, 2 baths, and the stand that you can see here.

I wanted to take a photo of the birds, but there was a guy in the backyard that was working. So, I was only able to get a photo of one of the Gold Finch. They are a lot, and I mean a lot, of birds in their feeders now. 

I wanted to make my cousin's salsa last week, and it turned out really good. I was taking photos as I was going. 

Added more and mixed it up. It's awesome! But way too much for one person to eat. lol 

The afghan I was working on is now done!! Yea!! It's ready to be washed and given to Abby for her graduation gift. I'm so thrilled to have it done. I had so much fun.  I will try and get a photo of it after I wash it and get it ready to give to her. 

Last week, my hubby decided it was time to get rid of the old swing set and get the new one. We went up to Olympia where he bought this one from Fred Meyers. We cleared out the deck, moved out all the old chairs and stuff. Then we put my folks old table and chairs they had. The deck is now ready for meals outside and a good swing set to sit in and enjoy the weather. 

Now you know why he wanted another swing!! lol Too funny! He's already been taking a few naps out there. Even Charlie joins him on occassion. I had to go take a towel out there and put it on the swing so when she sleeps out there I can get the hair off the pads easier.

While I was out "Grandma sitting," I decided to pull out my friends quilt top and try to get it done. So, I put all the small sets of blocks together. It took a good day of work. The best part is, I was able to get most of the blocks done, and I had 4 of the bigger blocks put together, with the other two ready to be put together. I thought, "What the heck, mom wants me to spend time with her, so why not ask her to help." I asked, she agreed and I went over to her place last week to work on the quilt top. 

She pinned and I sewed. We took about 3 hrs of time to finish up the bigger blocks. We were able to get all 6 blocks done and put together. Then we called it quits so I could talk to my friend to see what colors she wanted were for the borders. 

When the 4 blocks were done.

What it looks like with all 6 blocks. I'm not real happy with the finished product, but since my friend started it "one way" and I do it with trimming (that she didn't do), it didn't get put together as well as I would have liked. Talked to my friend about the border and how big she wanted it, now I'm ready to finish it up. I have 18" to work with. Thinking I will do 20" for the borders to make sure it has plenty of room to work with whe it's quilted and bound. 

I just had to show this - it's a white on white quilt that my mother is doing for my son. She's quilting it in brown, the color he asked for. Knowing mom, she will have this done in the next couple weeks. 

On top of working with the quilt top, I got the tea cup block done for Janet. It looks great. I got a little off on the tea cup, but then I can always say I did that on purpose! lol I have started working on Susy's civil war fabric block. I need to change the color for the basket handle. I may need to ask her for some red in civil war fabrics, as I don't do much in civil war fabrics. Funny how that works, because I love the civil war history. You'd think I would combine both interests, but so far it hasn't hit me yet. 

Mother's Day Weekend was awesome!! My son took me to the Mariners game on Saturday. We were so close to winning but it just didn't happen. I had a blast! 

One of my problems there was the guy in front of me that must of been 6' 6" tall. He was in my line of view. 

I wondered the whole time I was there, if people just go for the food or just to socialize. You would not believe how many people got up and down from the stadium. It is even more funny at how many people can't fit in the chairs and has to put their arm around the one they came with. Food was going hot and heavy with the family two rows in front of us. They got up and went for everything every time they finished one thing. We had a hard time being able to enjoy the game when everyone was up and down the whole time. I had so much fun! I could people watch as well as game watch. lol 

Life is good, and I'm going to be "grandma sitting" again this Wednesday, so I may take the borders for the quilt top and see if I can get it done. 

In the mean time, I'm ba at it and Happy Quilting.....