My 'Gardens' Are Growing...

Time for the beginning of a week so I can relax! (Pysically, that is...) It was another weekend of hard grueling labor, and it was hotter than blazes yesterdday. Initially, I had thought we were going to finish the walls around the windows in my quilting studio this weekend, but DH had a different idea in mind. He got motivated to start some major landscaping, and has ideas for 3 entirely new flower beds or areas. He tackled the largest one first.





It may be a little hard to envision yet at this point, but there WILL be flowers once the retaining walls are filled with dirt, and the arborvitae will have mulch around them so I'm not constantly doing battle with the weeds and tall grasses that love all that watering. The other meandering bricks around the existing planted area will be gone. They were just thrown down there by me, 'temporarily', a year or two ago... :-] I gaurantee you, if DH had thrown them down, they would have been a heck of a lot straighter, temporary or not!


My young friend Makiah came over and we worked hard gardening in the front yard for a couple hours. Then we finished her pillowcase which she started before we both went on our vacations.


Notice the four 4-patches on the pillowcase cuff? She pieced those by hand.

Tomorrow she's accompanying me when we go to a senior independent/assisted living facility to conduct a quilting workshop. I'm also getting help with coaching the residents from two other guild members, one who is a also a member of my S.I.S. group (Jean).

When I posted pictures of the recent DJ blocks a couple of days ago, I forgot one, E-4, Buffalo Tree Hopper. Now how did I manage to do that?



I also finished another of the kites today. So that leaves just one more to do. I finished Goshen. The picture won't look like the others because I'm having gremlins all over the place, so I just took a digital picture of Goshen. NOBODY can be having this much bad PC luck. First my laptop was going, it would keep crashing spontaneously. Then the external hard drive bit the dust (probably from having dropped it one too many times), and now the desktop isn't even working properly. It won't recognize the internet modem. I'm ready to pull my hair out. And I don't have time to stop and fight with it right now, so I'll limp along for another week or two, then deal with it when things slow down a bit.




Oh, I also picked up a couple of very interesting relics at a rummage sale last week. They're in pretty tough shape, plus I haven't even wiped the thick dust off them yet! But I love the looks of them and if I do nothing but set them on a top shelf for decoration, it's worth what I paid for them, which was practically nothing....





And one last thing... for those of you who are interested in hand piecing, my good friend Crispy has added another blog to her repertoire, Hand Piecing With Crispy.

It is an absolutely EXCELLENT tutorial of how she does hand piecing. Check it out, it's well worth it. Even if you're already hand piecing, you'll probably be able to pick up a thing or two, she's the master!!!

Winding Down the Weekend

Whew... time to relax. Went out to do just a bit of gardening this morning, and the next thing I knew, it was time for our son to come up, which was to be about 2:00pm...





My favorite Asiatic lilies (or are the the Oriental lilies, I can never get it straight... )




And the daylilies are starting to really come on now...



My favorite clematis...





We went geo-caching again. This could be one more addiction. What a fun thing to do. We found 2 caches today, neither one with a 'treasure', but just as much fun anyway.



Oh, we also took in a little of an airshow. We purposely selected one of our geocaches that was in the vicinity of the airport, to make it on our way.









And last but not least, I finished another 'tri' last night, RS1. This one doesn't look so very pretty. I'm sure when it gets quilted though, it will smooth out the ripples in the tiny border pieces. (It will also not be 'tipping' like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree!)

A Gifty from Hubby

One more short post tonight... because it's worth mentioning to fellow quilters. DH just got back from a week in the Czech Republic, and guess what he brought home for me... squishies!!! He did an EXCELLENT job. When we lived there, I got quite a bit of fabric, but none as high quality as what he found for me. He went to the textile shop of family members of a business associate over there. And he brought home 3 pieces of cotton and one of silk. What he found had a VERY nice hand, He got about 12 yards (10+ meters) combined of the three cottons, and one meter of the silk. Isn't he a sweetie? :)

He did the same thing for me once when going back to France. When we lived in Nantes, I had brought back quite a lot of BEAUTIFUL French toiles from my favorite store there, Bouchara. And when he went back sometime after our return to the States, he went shopping and brought me back more pieces of the toile I love so much. He did an excellent job of selecting that time also!!!

Click on the images to see an enlarged view of my new Czech fabrics.




...my favorite...
Notice the pixies. I LOVE pixies!




This one kind of reminds me of French toile.








...and the silk...

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This...

Warning: If I totally drop off the radar screen for a bit, it's because I'm having gremlins in my stupid laptop again. No more Dells!!! I'm hoping DH surprises me with a new HP for my birthday next month.

It's been awhile again since I was on here. I guess that's just the way it goes in the summer.

We've been busy with our Little Green Acres, watering, watering, and more watering. We did finally get much prayed for rain last week, 1.4" in 24 hours. But that was about it, nothing measurable since. We NEED it, June is our month for precip.... so if June is dry, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the summer.

My neighbor youth friends, Makiah and Nathan, have continued to come over and help me with the yard work this past week.



I also spent some one-on-one time with Makiah, teaching her to piece by hand.

I just love working with this impressive young lady! She is so mature and composed for her age, and is interested in everything, and is always up for anything, whether it be gardening, or sewing, or even helping in the house. She definitely is NOT afraid of working! In fact, she's quite eager for the opportunity.

One afternoon Makiah joined my granddaughter Darian and I for some sewing with all three of us together.



So between the three of these young people, one or more of them either sewed or gardened with me, or both, every day but one last week. It doesn't get any better than being totally immersed in your two favorite hobbies...

I'm always amused at how amazed young ones are at themselves the first time they sew with a machine. Makiah's words were identical to my granddaughter's on her first go-round, "I can't believe I'm sewing on a sewing machine!"



I mentioned in my last post that Darian has begun a new bargello project. It's moving right along, and she's doing a very good job with accuracy. She had some good help with fabric selection from one of our most favorite quilt shops, Bismarck Sewing and Quilting, but she also does a good job with colors herself.

It's Arrived!

Look what's here, it came 2 or 3 days ago. I have been so anxious for its arrival. I really haven't had that much time yet, to explore just what all the differences are between EQ6 and EQ7. But I'm pretty happy abut the unlimited number of activiations. Because of all my PC gremlins and bad luck in that area, I ended up having to purchase EQ6 twice, due to exhausting the number of allowed activations, including a courtesy one at the end. What a string of bad PC luck! Oh well... and soon I'll get Windows 7 and get rid of this darned Vista 64-bit, and hopefully that will make life easier too. I really suspect my hobby software applications don't like to play well together: (EQ 6, 4D Embroidery, and now my Babylock embroidery software), because after I got my Dell laptop back from the factory for major repairs, I didn't load hardly anything else back on it, and have still had nothing but horrendous performance with it. Perhaps I just got a lemon.... Next time an HP!

Got another DJ triangle done last night, LS7, Sally's Steeple.





And our forest is growing on 'Little Green Acres'.... :)



We put in 3 Quaking Aspens this week. Now we just have to water the heck out of everything because we keep getting rain forecast, but it keeps skirting around us. It even missed us yesterday, with a 70% chance of rain!!!

A Very Busy Week

What a busy week it's been. DH and I were contemplating on it as we took a break at the end of the weekend and thought about all we've accomplished in just the last week.

Our time has shifted away from finishing my quilting studio for the time being, and into his shop and outdoor work. Since I got his undivided time and attention all winter, I guess I won't complain (at least for the time being). :)

Here's a closet he built around his heating system in his shop. The French door was really a bit of over-kill, but it was free, so what the hey... When we bought our home, it was part of the many materials that had been left in the basement by the former owners who never quite realized all their ambitions. Since the door is pine, and our woodwork is oak, we had no use for it in the house. My job is the 'painting princess' for this and any other finishing project.



I want to call attention to my French friends of a couple of the artifacts up on the shelf. When we were living in France, we loved going to the open air flea markets. We found LOTS of treasures there. One thing we were collecting were the old galvanized steel watering pitchers, which you'll see a couple of. And also at the left end of the shelf is an old metal carrying 'tote' for bottles or whatever (like our old milk delivery pieces here in the US). We developed a real appreciation for French wine while there, and we had wine bottles sitting in this item for decoration purposes, as much as anything. Ever since then, Dennis has referred to it as his 'French 6-pack'.

Then we turned our efforts to outdoors. We got instant forest two days ago. We have some really great neighbors, and a couple of years ago they gave us first shot at buying some really nice big spruce trees from their lot. To make the deal even more enticing is that they have a friend who moves trees, so we got these very mature trees for a song. We moved 8 of them 2 years ago, and 8 more Monday. I'll try to show before and after shots of the various spots where they were planted.


















Can you say Happy Farmer???




How it's done...









And today, we are FINALLY going to plant our vegetable garden. We had debated about not even having one this year, what with hurting knees and feet (for BOTH of us). But we just couldn't quite make ourselves do without... especially fresh tomatoes! That's why we're getting the late start. We were lucky to even find nice plants anymore at this time of the year. (We never start with seeds, our growing season is too short and/or the kinds of veggies we concentrate on are more conducive to just starting with already established plants.)


After all the hard work, it was time for another sewing day with friends. This time it was with Evelyn and Denise. I really wanted to get a day in with Denise as she is starting a new job very soon, and had a couple week lapse between the last and the new one. And I definitely wanted to take advantage of that window of opportunity. Evelyn was finishing up a quilt top on a mystery quilt we started in guild workshop last Saturday (which Denise taught, incidentally).

Denise was working on a Jinny Beyer BOM, Moonglow, from Bismarck Sewing and Quilting, a favorite shop I've mentioned recently. (N-O-T to be confused with a very unscrupulous local shop who shall not be named, which I've noted has recently taken part of Bismarck Sewing & Quilting's name as part of their advertising, to plant branding confusion: "Bismarck's Sewing and Quilting Headquarters". No coincidence, I might add.) Denise also works part-time at Bismarck Sewing and Quilting. Small world isn't it?



Anyhoo, she got me going again on my Jinny Beyer project, and now I'm all inspired to keep working on it. Thus far, I had only done the first block, and block #6 is now out! I had ended up hand-piecing block #1, which I'm finding myself doing more and more when I'm challenged with something tricky when machine-piecing. But I think it may end up being a combination of paper piecing the various units, then hand piecing them together. We'll just see...

And last but not least, I did knock off another Dear Jane block last night. This was B-3, Mirror Images.

OK, that was NOT last, need an update of 'how my garden grows'...


Same hosta scene, different day.


Note the pixie, not the errant weed!


"Stepping Out" Irises from Mom! Don't you just love them!?


What an assist the sun gives in this beauty.


First time seeing this little bloomer. It's a variegated miniature iris.

And did I mention spring is absolutely my favorite time of year!!!???? :) :) :)

K-2 Grandpa's Chickens

I guess it's time I post a little something. It's fun to have the counter/map to show how many visitors I've had, but if I don't get on the ball, nobody will come calling anymore. :)

I also haven't had much chance to work on my Dear Jane babies. But I did get this little nipper done.


It's been a busy week or so since I last wrote. We had company over Memorial Day weekend. Hubby's brother and his wife came for the weekend.


Just before they came, I brought home a new 'baby', a Babylock Embroidery Professional. So I was able to play with that while we were squirreled away in my quilting sanctuary! :-)

Wow, is that fun! Of course, I got it from one of my very favorite quilt shops, and Bismarck's "First and Finest" Babylock dealer, Joy, at Bismarck Sewing & Quilting. She and her husband even delivered it and set it up for me, and helped me get started with excellent guidance on how to operate it. We got it ready to embroider, then went upstairs, and when we went back downstairs, here was this sweet little monogram, all done!!! ....six thread colors, with no manual thread changes in between!





I'm not able to play with it as much as I'd like right now because this weekend is my first guild meeting as president, so I'm trying to hurry and get myself up to speed on parliamentary procedure and such matters. I'd love to take part in the morning workshop, a really fun sounding mystery quilt. But I just don't think I'm going to have time between now and then to do the prep work required! As usual, I always think I still have plenty of time, until the 11th hour is upon me, and I wonder where the time went!

We're also busily trying to give some new arborvitae and other shrubs that we just planted, a good start. So that takes some intensive watering every single day for the first week. Have to give an upate of what we're seeing today in one of my flower gardens.



Hydrangea

On a totally different note, I'm having fun starting to look forward to a road trip to Fargo for their annual quilt show, and taking a few classes with good friends. That isn't for months to come yet, but it's already time to start thinking, planning and getting registered to make sure we can take the classes together that we've selected. More about all that later.