My Lilacs Are Blooming!

Good evening,

I know that title probably doesn't excite many, but it sure does me. I will tell you about my lilacs. I have lived here for almost 33 years. I moved in with my husband after our wedding. This place had no lilacs.  Where I grew up we had lilacs. They are my favorite flower and I look forward to their blooms every spring. Now I tried to plant lilacs here more times than I can remember. I have transplanted starts from friends, my MIL, my parents' home, and several different mail order companies. They never survive more than 2 seasons. I decided that I just wasn't supposed to have lilacs. So I would just enjoy them at other homes. Then about 5 years ago, our daughter, Carolyn gave me some starts from hers to try one more time. She gave me several starts, but as usual, they all died, except one. (grin) I was so excited when it survived. I added some fertilizer and blood meal. I put a guard around it. I carried water to it. When I had goats, I warned them to leave my lilac bush alone.LOL I didn't quite trust them, so Kevin helped me put a fence around it.LOL I have babied this plant so much. Then  last year, I decided there was no use. It would never have blooms, but just keep spreading and be green. I was disappointed, but ok with that. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to find blooms this week while out walking in the yard! I have a blooming lilac!

Now I need to get back to babying it. It needs some trimming around the base. Aren't they beautiful?

I wish you could smell them. They smell so wonderful. I know, I am kind of lame, but I do love lilacs. LOL

While out and about in the yard, I took a couple of pictures of our fruit trees. Looks like we may have some cherries this year. These are tart cherries that make great pies. Our original tree blew down several years ago, but a couple of trees came up from dropped cherries. They are just now starting to put enough cherries on to do some good.

We have a couple of apple trees. I was shocked to see blooms on them. Our goats were not kind to them, so I just figured they would never bear fruit. I hope this means we might actually get a few apples. I need to get my books out and reread about pruning. It will have to wait till next winter, but if they are actually going to have fruit, I need to start pruning again.

We also have a couple of pear trees, 3 peach trees, some raspberries, blackberries, and grapes. Maybe this will be a fruitful year! (grin)

Thank you all for your ideas to get me out of my slump. I think I am on my way to getting my mojo back. I have worked on my Birds and Blooms for 2 evenings in a row. I have just a little bit of the top border left to quilt. I have also been looking through some books and magazines to spark an interest in a new project. Also thinking about a fabric shopping trip. Yep, I am slowly getting back into the groove. (grin)  Bren and Chris asked what tube piecing was. I think it is actually called tube quilting, but it looks more like piecing to me. LOL Anyway, here is a link that shows how to do it. It really does look neat, but mine didn't line up quite the way theirs did. That's ok, I figured it out anyway. LOL I hope this link works. If not, I will try again.

Well, time to get off the computer and do some quilting. (grin) Everyone have a nice evening. Thanks for visiting.




 

I'm in a Slump!

Good day to everyone,

I guess you all noticed that I did not post again last week. I am in such a slump. I have not gone this long without quilting since I began, over 3 years ago. I keep thinking I want to do something, but just can't get started. I have not used my sewing machine since Christmas. Well, I did mend a pair of Kevin's jeans, but that doesn't count because I hate mending. LOL  I have even been sitting in front of the tv with nothing in my hands to work on. What is wrong with me? I never do that. Any ideas on how to get my mojo back? About every 3 evenings, I do work on some redwork, but can't even do that consistently. Maybe I just needed a break from crafts, but I want to get back on the ball. Hmm, I have a couple of projects that I need to finish piecing and several flimsies to quilt, but maybe I just need to start a new project. What do you think?

Now after writing all that, I will say that spring is a busy time of the year for us. I have been working outside a lot. I love when it gets warm enough that I can hang my clothes on the line. I do that all spring, summer, and fall. We have been cleaning up after the rough winter, burning, and mowing. I will soon be planting some garden. I use to always have garden planted before the middle of March, but not this year. Last year, spray from the field across the road stunted our garden. We got nothing from it. So this year we decided to wait a little while to plant in hopes that they will get their spraying done before we have anything up. Our old neighbors have passed on and their property sold. The new people are not careful about spraying. We never use to have to worry about spray drift. Those days are gone.

Ok, enough belly aching. I have dishes to do, bananas to use up, meat loaf to fix, and animals to feed. So I will post a few pictures of some redwork, then get with it.
While in KC I started A Tisket a Tasket by Bunny Hill. This was a BOM last year, but I never got around to starting it, so I am only a year behind. LOL

Jan.'s block

Feb.'s block

Mar.'s block

Ok, not sure what is going on, but I am having a terrible time getting my pictures and captions to show up where I want them to. I now have April and May's blocks done, but haven't taken pictures of them yet. I am working on June. 

I need to get busy. This took longer than I expected. I will try to get back later in the week. Everyone have a great day. Thank you for visiting. 

A Visit from Madison!

  
Hello,
I made it back again. I thought I would share our Easter with you. We usually have a  whole family gathering for Easter, but everything was so crazy this year, we decided to just chill instead. Kevin and I grilled burgers and hot dogs. They sure were good. That afternoon, Isaiah and Madison came out. Isaiah helped his dad work on the brakes of our truck while I played with Madison. She has grown so much since Christmas. She sits up now and jabbers away. She has two bottom teeth. She loves her daddy. In fact, she doesn't really want him out of her sight. LOL I know the feeling is mutual. Isaiah takes such good care of his daughter.

Look at those teeth shining through.









Isaiah looking at his daughter. Sometimes it is hard for me to believe that our children are all grown up with children of their own. Time really does fly by when your family is young.

We had a wonderful visit with Isaiah and Madison. Even though our Easter wasn't like it usually is, it was still good. (grin)

I tried my hand at tube piecing. Mine didn't quite come out like it was supposed to, but I made it work. I love this black fabric. I have used it in several projects, but will soon be out of it. I made this table runner from the tube piecing. I quilted this while I was in Kansas City. Now it just needs a binding and to be washed. 

Here is a closeup of one of the center blocks.

Of course, you know I have to share the back. This one really looks neat on the back, if I do say so myself. (grin)

I really think I am about ready to get back to quilting. I have done nothing since being home. I just needed some time to kick back and relax. Of course, I couldn't do that till I had the house back in order. LOL I have even sat in front of the tv for the past few evenings with absolutely nothing in my hands to work on. That is very unusual for me. I am starting to feel the call of my fabric, though. 

Speaking of call....I talked to Noah on the phone the other day. He said, 'Grandma, when are you going to come back home?' How sweet is that?  He thinks I belong at their home now. (grin) I told him I would come visit soon. That seemed to satisfy him, so then he started rambling on about Sponge Bob. LOL Izzie got on the phone too, then had a fit when her mama tried to get it away from her. I do miss them. 

Well, I need to get some things done around here. Thanks for visiting. Have a great day.

I'm Back!

Hello everyone,

Do you all remember me? I thought I would be gone for a couple of weeks, but it ended up being a couple of months. I have been in Kansas City watching Noah and Izabella, two of our grandchildren. Their father is from Mexico. He and our daughter flew down there the first part of Feb. Ten days later, Hazel returned to KC, but Ivan went on to Mexico City to visit his family. Hazel had to go back to work and needed someone to take care of the kids for her. So of course, grandma stepped in. (grin)  I got so close to those two little darlings. Noah is 4 and Izzie will be 2 in May. I will admit that at first it was rather hard. After all, I haven't had children that young for at least 18 years, but I soon got used to it.

We had a few bumps along the way, but everyone survived. LOL Not long after I got there, I decided to cut some bangs for Izzie. Her hair is very fine and I couldn't keep a barrette in it. It was always hanging down in her eyes. I made the mistake of cutting them in front of Noah. A few days later I was sitting at the computer when I noticed how quiet it was. Hmm, not good! LOL Noah had pushed a toy up to the kitchen counter and got the scissors down. Yep! He cut the whole right side of Izzie's hair off. I just stood there gasping when I saw her. Noah took off and hid under his sleeping bag. LOL I found him and explained that only adults could cut hair. He must have understood, because he never did it again. His mama wasn't too happy when she saw it, but it will grow back. So Hazel tried to straighten the mess up. Now it looks like a boy's haircut, but it will grow back. Right?

We also had some issues with a certain little girl getting in the bathroom and pouring whole bottles of shampoo in the tub. I think that happened 3 times, till I finally started keeping the door shut. The problem was that Noah would forget to shut it when he pottied.  Then Izzie found the butter I had out softening for grilled cheese sandwiches. Hmm, yes, I had a greasy girl to take care of. LOL But all in all, things weren't too bad. After all, I was there for 2 months.

Hazel and I took them to the park a couple of times when the weather was nice enough. We had lots of snow in this 2 month period, so outings were sparse. They had so much fun on this slide.

This is Hazel, Izzie, and Noah at the park. I had so much fun with the kids, but I was so glad to get back home to my husband and kitties. Kevin did a wonderful job of keeping everything going around here while I was gone. The cats were both mad at me for a few hours after I got home, but were all over me after I went to bed. LOL Something how cats pout.

I got some projects done while I was gone, but not as much as I figured. I spent alot of  my time just playing with the kids. Izzie was fascinated with my hand quilting. She would run her little fingers over the quilted stitches, just like a quilter. I think I have a future quilter in the family. (grin) I keep all of my notions for quilting in a little purple zippered pouch. Goodness. I had to keep that on top of the mantel.  She just could not resist it. LOL  This is the first thing I finished hand quilting. I still need to put the binding on and wash it. The blue you see is a washout pencil. This is a Thimbleberries' pattern, but I can't remember the name. It was a lot of fun and quilted very quickly. Straight lines are easier.  Here is a closeup of the pumpkin block.

 





Here is a closeup of the star block.

 Finally a picture of the back.Not sure what is going on with the pictures. They are kind of just showing up where they want. LOL

 Whew! I think I have almost gotten through this post. It has been so long, I was afraid I would forget how. As you can see, I finally figured out how to change my blog appearance. I have tried numerous times to change it. Then I tried something new and it worked.(grin) I also updated the pictures of our grandbabies. This year has been rough so far for us. I think things are finally getting back on track. The merry-go-round is slowing down so that I can get off and get back to my normal life. I also want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes to me a little over a month ago. I really did appreciate it. I did not like Hazel's computer, so seldom used it. Besides every time I got on the computer, the kids got into something. Remember the haircut? LOL I hope to be back tomorrow and get into the groove of posting again. I am also trying to catch up with all my blog reading, but it may take a while. So until later...Thank you for visiting. Have a great day.

Taking a Blog Break

Hello all, 

I will be taking a couple of weeks off from the computer, so I thought I should let you all know. I will start this on Monday, but may not have time to post tomorrow. So I figured I'd get a post in tonight. Since I won't be on here for a little bit, I am going to share some pictures of recent projects.

I finished the binding on Alpine Star last week. This one was lots of fun to piece and quilt. It is another Thimbleberries pattern. Hmmm, think I might be obsessed with Thimbleberries? LOL

 

Here is a closeup of the center.

 

I used muslin on the back, so the hand quilting really shows up.

 

I also finished Froggy Went a Courtin' last week. This one is not a Thimbleberries pattern. I kind of came up with this one from a couple of other patterns. I bought the fabric several years ago. I started it, but it was just plain boring, so I switched things around and came up with this. I like the way this one turned out. 

 

Here is a closeup of the star block.

 

Here is a close up of the square in a square block.

 

I used leftover fabrics from the front for the backing and the binding. I love projects where I have enough fabric from the front to make the back. Just pulls it all together for me. I used cotton batting so it crinkled when I washed it.(grin)

 

Here is some of what I will be doing in the next few weeks. It is the Birds and Blooms wall quilt and a couple of table runners. They are marked, sandwiched and ready to be hand quilted. 

 

Ok, I will leave you with a project that I am so proud of. I finished this little knitted dish cloth tonight. It is the first project that I knitted by following a pattern and without anyone's help. I am thinking about using this same pattern for a scarf. I showed it to my husband and asked if he thought the pattern would be ok for a scarf for our SIL. He said 'He's a man', with this shocked expression on his face and in his voice. LOL I told him I did not intend to make it lime green, just use the pattern. I think he still thinks this is a girly pattern, so I may change the pattern. I'll have to see how I am feeling when I begin it. I am very slow at knitting (much faster at crocheting), but I am starting to enjoy it. I printed off a 23 page tutorial on knitting socks earlier. Good thing Kevin just put new cartridges in the printer. LOL

 

Well, that is it for me tonight. Everyone have a good couple of weeks. I hope to be back by the end of the month. Thank you for visiting. 

And the Winners Are....

Good early morning,

I put the names of everyone who participated in my giveaway in my hat and drew out a name. The first name I drew is 'Cathy'. Cathy, you are the winner of the little mini quilt. The winner of the tote bag is Leah S. Congratulations ladies! I will get these out to you as soon as I get the mailing info.

Thank you to everyone who commented. I wish I could give you all something. I really do appreciate the people who read my blog whether you comment or not, but a comment is always nice. (grin)

I am off to mom's to take care of her monthly bills and meds. I may be back this afternoon. Everyone have a great day. Thank you for visiting.

Snow Treats

Hello,

I decided to make a short post to remind anyone who is interested to make a comment on the previous post for my giveaway. I plan to draw the names on Wed. morning.  In the mean time, I thought I would share another little mini quilt that I just finished. This is another Thimbleberries pattern. Maybe Lynette Jensen should get me to advertise for her. LOL  Anyway, this is called Snow Treats. I love the colors on this one. I guess I just love the dark deep colors.

 

Here is a closeup of the snowmen blocks. I fused and machine appliqued around their bodies. I hand embroidered the eyes, mouth, buttons, and arms. I did very little hand quilting on this one because I didn't think it needed it. 

 

I used muslin on the back of it. Muslin really shows off the quilting. Here is the back.

 

 Well, that is it for me tonight. It is about bed time. Don't forget to comment on the previous post to be eligible for the giveaway. I am having fun with this. I hope you all are too. Thank you for visiting. See you tomorrow.