Fall is in the Air

Here I am again, and it only took me four days to get back to it this time.
It's been awhile since I posted about our SIS hand sewing bee, so I thought I'd throw in a couple of pictures from our gathering yesterday.

There were only 3 of us that day, Jean has been awfully busy this summer.

Chris was working on her 9-patches, and showed us the 'hybrid' project which was the result of melding 2 projects... something that was not planned but turned out wonderfully. She had been working on the 9-patches for some time, and then she had these adorable wonky houses.













And Alice is hand quilting her Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, which is one of my favorite quilts, so I am particularly interested in watching her progess with that one. She's doing a great job with it, and it's going to be a precious heirloom!

I haven't been doing as much sewing lately, as fall is definitely in the air, and there can't be too many beautiful days left like the ones we've been having. So DH and I have been working outdoors mostly, getting ready for winter. I did finish another Dear Jane block yesterday though, and got a good start on another one. It looks lop-sided but it's not. It's just the way I had it aligned in the scanner.

M-12 Hopscotch


Another reason I wanted to blog today was to test something that Chris taught me. Actually, she had to re-teach me with a little remedial tutoring on blogging as I can't seem to remember things very well! So I wanted her to refresh my memory on how to create a link within one's blog. So here goes, I am going to try to link to her EXCELLENT blog, Crispy Quilts. And once you get there, you can also follow a link to a second blog of hers where she does tutorials on hand piecing which I highly recommend. Even if you haven't thought you'd like to be a hand-piecer, why not give it a try! You might like it.

And a rare remaining daylily bloom... this one is really hanging in there. I took the photo at dusk, so the flash went off and it gave a striking backdrop which was much darker than reality.


Have a great day, take time to smell the 'daylilies', and SEW!!!

My Name Is Rita, and I'm a Slacker

I have only done one more block since my last post, but here it is. Our guild is getting ready for our annual quilt show, and that's taking up a lot of my time. After the first weekend in November, that'll be behind us though. Then I'll really kick it into high gear on my Dear Jane.

M-8 Enchanted Square

Catching Up on DJ Blocks

I was feeling rather guilty today about how little time I've spent posting on here lately. And then I got sidetracked playing with spreadsheets of my completed blocks, vs. which ones I've posted. And I realized there wsas a huge 'gap'. So I am going to try to get the rest posted... perhaps in installments.

SOOOoooo, here we go! Hope this isn't too boring... but after all, the primary objective for me of this blog was sort of to document my Dear Jane journey, and I just got way behind on it. One thing I'm wishing I had done differently was to note the dates each block was done, and perhaps journal a little bit about what was going on at the time (my private thoughts).

And in reviewing, I realized a couple of these I'm not particularly proud of. Some were among the very earliest. But I'm posting them anyway. I may or may not redo the worst of the worst... we'll just see.

I also see GLARING threads sitting atop some of the blocks. Funny how you don't see those little guys until the image is blown up on-screen. I'll have to rescan all of those with lose threads on them as soon as I can get around to it.

***
A-1 Pinwheel Gone Awry


A-2 One-Two Buckle My Shoe


A-3 Hunter's Moon


A-5 Cathie's Campfire


A-6 Uncle Homer


A-8 Florence Nightingale


B-1 Bachelor Buttons


B-6 Wild Goose Chase



C-3 Rayelle's Fence


C-5 Eye of the Cyclone


C-12 Family Reunion


D-3 Jason's Jacks


D-6 Challenge


D-12 Crossed Swords


D-13 Field of Dreams



H-1 Peek-a-Boo


H-13 Farm Fields


I-12 Fred's Square Fair


J-4 Adelaine's Apron Strings


J-12 Rebecca's Basket


K-1 Crooked Creek


L-10 Nan's Naiad


L-11 Caitlin's Rose


M-10 Simple Simon

And One More...

I've already found one block I missed. And this one is a really recent one.

F-1 Big Top

Catching a Breather

I'm back... I promise to be better at posting more often this winter when we get past the busy gardening season, and I can turn my attention almost exclusively to sewing or sewing related past-times.

This has been a very 'sewing intense' week however. It began when we went to Iowa to visit very good friends, John & Kathy, and I sewed little Jane blocks all the way down and back, plus one or two while we were there sitting and visiting, and in the hotel room on the way.

Then I had 2 all-day sewing days back-to-back on Wednesday and Thursday with 2 of my small groups. Unfortunately I didn't think to take my camera. We sewed at Diana's on Wednesday, with Carol and Kimm. That's a machine sewing group, but the last few times I've sewed by hand anyway, as I am obsessed with 'Jane' right now. Then Thursday we had our hand sewing bee, and went to 'Crispy's' house for the first time. She lives 35 miles west of Bismarck, in a charming little home that was moved into town from the country! In the past we've met at the country club in her small town in the summer months when it's worked out. We also got a chance to meet her very nice S.O.

Then Saturday was guild day. I'm still getting comfortable with my role as president, so I get a bit nervous. It surprises me, but it has been a few years since I've been in the work world, so maybe it shouldn't. Anyway, each month it gets easier! And I taught the morning workshop this month, which was on hand piecing (now THERE'S a surprsie!). :) I tried to twist Crispy's arm into teaching it, as she's the pro, but she had to work so wasn't available with her expertise.

Hey, I got a new toy!!! After all the chatter about hand piecing, I bought a new sewing machine. I've been wanting a Babylock and I finally got one. They just came out with a new model, the Symphony, to replace the Espire. And I got a deal I couldn't refuse from one of Bismarck's FINEST quilt shops, Bismarck Sewing & Quilting. (We have 3 good shops, and one BAD one... and anyone in Bismarck knows which is which, I'm sure!). ;-) Later I'll follow up with a picture of new Annie (her name), but right now I can't find my camera cable. (Another big surprise....!) This machine does everything but embroider, which I don't need because I recently bought the Babylock Professional Embroidery machine, also from Joy.

Here are the Dear Jane blocks I've completed recently. Actually, some aren't that recent but just haven't ever been posted. I think there are still more that have been missed, and one day I'll get that all straightened out, but not today.

A-12 Framed Fancy



B-2 Sweet Tater Pie



B-5 Hot Cross Buns



B-9 Tinker Toy



B-10 Jud's Trophy



C-6 Ashley's Aura (Needs work... applique is not my forte' yet)



C-7 Megan's Mountain Laurel



G-1 Hattie's Hen House



H-11 Piercing Rays



I-2 Kaye's Courtyard



J-6 Granny Weaver



K-7 Rose of Sharing (Another one that's going to need a little more work...)



And with that, I'm off... have a wonderful rest of the weekend, and a great new week! We're getting ready for autum up here in North Dakota.

Coffee Break

I said I'd come back and post some more gardening pictures, so will do so now, while I'm taking a little break. (Doing some serious cleaning today as we're having a dinner guest tonight...) :)

First, I was having a chat with my sister on the phone, who is married to a farmer. I was describing my 'farm fleet', which I get such a kick out of, and I "think" I "need" each and every one of them. So I took a picture to show her my wagon train. Will put it here too, for a good chuckle.



Here's the completion of our new tiered landscaping area. It is now full of daylilies, and the ground level which shows bare dirt in the picture is now full of sedum ground cover. But I won't show those pictures just yet, as the daylilies were just transplanted recently, and looking less than beautiful! Even if they hadn't just been transplanted, it's getting past the daylily season, so there's nothing really beautiful growing on our 'Little Green Acres' these days. Just a few straggling late daylilies in the original bed. I can't wait for next spring to come!

Taken looking down from our upper deck.

Taken from the ground level looking towards the backyard and new landscaping.


OK, break's over... I'll be back tomorrow and try to make up for lost time since I've been so inactive for the past several weeks. A bientot!

A Little Dear Jane Action

Just finished with 2 more little babies for my Purple Jane in the last day. It was really nice to do two easy ones after a little challenge I was struggling with the last 2 days before these. Remind me to tell you the story of B13. LOL But not tonight, that's subject for a later post, I'm going to hit the hay now. The rain is coming down softly, and will make for an excellent night of sleep.

D-5 Cathedral Window













C-1 Trooper Green's Badge

Just Popping in for a Moment

Hey friends, I'm going to put out a really short post, just to let you know I haven't given up and abandoned my blog! It's been extremely busy around here the last couple of months. Summers, as many of you know, are too short and precious in the Dakotas. And we have so much we're trying to get down outdoors while we can.

Today we are having a beautiful long and peaceful rain with harmless rumbling thunder. It's wonderful!!! I went out quickly in between rainfalls to quickly stick #14 daylily back in the ground (the poor little thing doesn't even have a name, other than #14)! I had dug her up recently to see what was going on beneath the soil, the same as I did with a few other ones that were looking a bit peaked. Guess what! I am also growing a 'herd' of grubs! So it was off to Lowe's to buy a huge bag of grub killer. I haven't put it down yet, because there is some reconstructive work I want to do on all the existing beds first. This becomes rather farcical as I'm trying to figure out which comes first, the cart or the horse. I need to move stuff out to re-till, and amend the soil, then put down the grub killer (or put it down concurrently with the soil amendments). But each place I think to put them, that place also needs work.

The new landscaping project I posted about last time is done now, or very nearly, the beds are done, but still need to do some steps and paths around it. But it is already full of my new acquisitions from the Daylily Society auction last month. I know, I know, I should have held off buying more until I could cope with what I already have. But that's about like telling me to have willpower when going into a quilt shop! The pictures at the auction were SO beautiful, and the prices are so much better than buying directly or through mail order. So I'm just dealing with it! :)

There is one more new bed on the agenda for this year yet. If that were done, it would make this game of musical chairs with my daylilies a lot easier. But before we can do that, we're waiting for a tiller to arrive which DH has ordered. It seems to be taking forever to get here. The last area he landscaped, he did with shovel and back and elbow grease, but that isn't such a good idea at this stage of our lives, we figured out!!!

I will post a bunch of pictures later of flowers and quilty things. But right now, I'll be content with just one... hope you havea strong stomach. THIS is what I'm dealing with right now.

And I promise, I will be back on strong, and soon!



OK, OK, that wasn't fair. You deserve to have something 'pretty' to look at after that. So I'll post just 3 new daylilies I got at the auction (3 out of 26), and the rest I'll save for another day. Bye for now...

North Winds Dancer


Rascal in Ruffles


When I Dream