A little sewing and some gardening soothes the soul

I have been staring at my dead-head roses for weeks now and finally went out front and trimmed them.  Luckily, they weren't all dead!!  They even smelled as good as they looked.  



I did get a little sewing done, working on my Mount Mellick Di Ford project.  I am trying now to decide on the circles that go on the diamonds... Next up will be four hexagons in each corner;  then the border goes on.  I may add more flowers in the vase but I wanted to start with this.  Can you see my butterfly and bird???  Such a gorgeous quilt.  I didn't want it to be too busy which is why the center is not filled in.  It'll be easier to add items, I think once I get more of it onto the center piece.  Any ideas for colors for the little circles?  I'm thinking maybe green?  They will also be the centers for the four hexagons in the corners.



We did have a little visit from the youngest grandchild, Eli, who is now nearly 7 months.  My daughter in law's family from Dresden was visiting and we invited them over for an American barbecue.  Julia's grandmother had never had a hamburger;  her brother had never tried corn on the cob!  They were real troopers to try it all (along with the salami, cheese and beer I had, too!! vbg)

No grandkids = what to do with myself????

This is the first weekend in a very long time that we don't have our grandkids and we are home.  It just seems so WEIRD!! vbg.

Anyway, my dh is outside butchering my trees (doing what he calls "trimming") and I'm trying to get a little sewing done.  I find I am in that "in-between" stage once again where I'm really stuck, trying to decide what to do.  This sew along has really been great for me, to keep me doing something on a regular basis!  Not a lot of other sewing going on, though.

I did catch up on my two Triangle Gatherings blocks I was due to make:


I actually picked up these fabrics in Bend last week.  Aren't they fun??



I did whip up another little bag... I just love these bags!  And they make great gifts! The colors didn't come out very well... it is primarily blues.







Now back to my ufos or maybe the quilts I've been printing out this past year. Moda Blockheads?  What colors??  Such problems!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Fabulous little quilt show

I was able to make a quick trip up to our cabin this week in order to check on the progress of the repairs to our damages from the ice dam leaks over the winter.  What a mess.

Can't make a trip up to Bend without stopping into Quilt Works.  I especially wanted to get in to see the exhibit that Lori had organized showing all those fabulous quilts made last year under the theme Gwennie Inspired Medallions.  Great little quilts!


Here is the summary.  Each month, those taskmasters chose a theme for each round.  Here are the quilts that were in the show:
























This is a close up of Wendy Reed's quilt.  Those of you who follow her  will know that she has a technique to hand quilt a small block and then sews the blocks together.  She did that on this quilt; although she also machine quilted one border; then went back to hand quilting for the outer border.  Such a great quilt, Wendy!

I loved all these quilts and am sorry that I didn't participate. I think that I felt a little intimidated at the time so was afraid that it'd be out of my abilities to come up with these themes.  So the lesson is don't be afraid.  I think I could've handled it!


This was a different part of their exhibit and I couldn't resist sharing this with you.  The quilt is amazing.  All the quilting by Julia Jeans was fabulous.  I particularly liked the story behind this quilt!  Plus it's an Edyta Sitar pattern!

A fun child's quilt

I pulled out a child's quilt to give away and thought I'd share it.  I made it a couple of years ago, using orphan kid blocks I made.  This is actually all my own design!  Obviously!  HEHEHE



close up:

It's a fun quilt and I'm hoping that the little boy I'm sending it to will enjoy it!

The good news is that I finally found my file with the pin cushion participants.  It literally took me TWO DAYS!! EEEK.  Now I'm still trying to find the water bottle I opened the other night and set down someplace.... vbg

Now on to winners of the giveaway:

Embroidery book:

RINA MASON!!

Hearts book:

LIVELY MONKEY!

Please send me an email (randyiris@gmail.com) with your snail mail address and I'll get them out on Monday!

Have a great weekend!

Two more triangle blocks and an OOPS

Thanks to Janet O. for carefully looking over my blocks and pointing out my mistake in block 27.. All fixed!!

I did get two more done!  Blocks 35 and 36!  I'm now officially up to date!  Of course, I haven't started the Moda Blockheads, the Buttermilk Basin mystery, the Count your Blessings,  the summer mystery blog hop, Cheri Payne's Baskets of Plenty, or the Piecing the Past blocks.  Oh, there's also the Canadian Women quilt.  I've printed all these patterns and hope to get to them SOON.  So many choices this year, don't ya think??

I also got the border sewn on to the large kit I bought last year, using the French General's very bright red and grays.  Not bad, right??  Sadly, the picture doesn't capture the vividness of the reds!  It's quite a striking color.  Of course, the quilt turned out a bit larger than I had thought. but oh well...off to the machine quilter it's going, once I make the backing!










Amazing how much sewing I can get done when I don't have any distractions!!

Now to find my file with everyone's names from the pin cushion swap... I know I put it somewhere... @#$@#$#$

Catching up using my "collection" and GIVEAWAY

I think I struck a nerve yesterday with that page from the book about hoarders.  Collection or Stockpile~!!!  No one seemed to feel bad about stockpiling.  I personally do NOT; the woman who wrote the book obviously never met a quilter!! ;-))  
thanks to everyone for your sweet comments.

My dh went back to work this week (WOOHOO) so I got my house back and my sewing mojo!!! YEEHAW!!

First on my list is to catch up on the Triangle Gatherings!  I really fell behind!











The colors didn't come out great.  It's definitely purple and green~~  See the little birdies??!!

I was very lucky this Mother's Day.  All 3 of my kids came together along with their kids;  we also had my mom (who is 89 and still very much independent!  Hopefully I have inherited her genes!).



This is the entire family!  I am so blessed~~

Now for the giveaway-- need to reduce my stockpile/collection!  Do you have any use for "An Encyclopedia of Ribbon Embroidery Flowers?"  It has 121 designs.  I'll also include  some beautiful purple hand dyed silk ribbon.

Also, how about "A Celebration of Hearts?"  It's by Jean Wells and Marina Anderson, dated 1988! It's a collector's edition!!


Please give me an idea of which book you'd like to win.  I'd like to pick a winner on Friday!

What's next up for sewing?  I'm going to sew the binding on  my Sentimental Stitches quilt from last year!  YEAH!~!

Am I a hoarder???

I recently read a book called, "The Hoarder in You" about the problems people have with accumulating too many things.  Stuff.

There was one section where the author tried to differentiate between a collection and a stockpile!  I think the point was that stockpiling is BAD whereas if you are a collector, it's GOOD.

I thought it was kind of funny, actually, since I figure I'm guilty on all counts!  What about you???  



Thoughts??

Back and almost ready to roll

I realized that I may have neglected to post information about the doll quilt swap which Lori (humblequilts) recently hosted.  I apologize for not posting this, although I did thank Heather for sending this adorable doll quilt!  If I have already posted this, then you are lucky to get a second look at this great little quilt.  Who doesn't love cheddar???






I just returned from an unexpected jaunt to Kauai, I went on a tour of the Allerton Gardens and found the most amazing trees...Moreton Fig Trees.  They were in the movies Jurassic Park and others!  In the garden, there was a bamboo section with a fabulous Buddha.




Can you believe those roots??

of course, I had to stop in the gift shop before the tour and spied these fabulous little Hawaiian wallhangings.  They were definitely made in China and were selling for a whopping $150 and were handquilted.  



This one is of course my favorite and a friend of mine was debating about whether this would fit in her house.  Otherwise, I'd have snagged it!  It had a matching pillow too!




If you've never made a Hawaiian quilt, you may be surprised to learn that they take a ridiculous amount of time!  The work is worth it, in the end, because they are just beautiful.  I've only done small wallhangings.

I am watching the grandkids this weekend so won't get any sewing done, but next week?  WOOHOO!  And my dh is working so I get my house back to myself so I should be getting lots done!!

Where in the world is Randy...

okay this isn't a hard one...









We had the kids last weekend and little Emma decided she didn't want to go home on Sunday so i kept her until Tuesday.  We stopped off to see my son and the new baby. Emma loves her new cousin Eli!!


Note the quilt.  This is a jelly roll quilt I made when my son was just dating Julia and I gave it to her.

just a quick trip, by the way!