Gaurdians of the Garden

I got an email from an "inquiring mind" that asked about my garden. Everything is growing great and I have started to pick some stuff. I've had several small batches of broccoli, 3 huge heads of cauliflower (some went into the freezer), I've snacked on peas. The tomatoes and tomatillos are loaded and starting to turn color. We picked the first of the zuchinni and had some for dinner last night. I was very happy to see bees working yesterday.

Grampa, Clella and Crystal are watching things grow. I swear that it grows right before our eyes. We haven't had a garden for a lot of years and this has been fun as well as a whole bunch of work. It has turned into a family project. I just wish the bodacious corn would grow faster. Part of it is in too much shade. I don't think too much will make it into the freezer because everyone is waiting for it. Supposedly toward the end of August it should be ready.

We have learned a lot for next year. I should make notes of the things we want to do different. Nah, I'll just remember. Actually I have told everyone so I am counting on them to remember!

Time Flies...

...when you're having fun! I'm not sure why the week went so darn fast but it did. I was busy every day and got a lot accomplished.

I have a fabulous new quilt on my bed. My friend, Vicki, gave her nephew and his new wife their quilt and they love it. Sister Sue and her friend came over yesterday to pick up her quilt and she loves it. I'm working to finish a top so it doesn't become a UFO and I'm loving it!

Thursday I picked up Taylor and we went to Crystal's house for a while then went out to lunch at a yummy Mexican resturant (I can't wait to go back there!) and then we made a trip the the Walmart for a bedazzler. Taylor wanted a rhinestone studded hat while in Sisters but we decided to make one. We found a Gemsetter and hats and visors. Better keep ahold of your possessions because we might glitz em up for you!

Saturday we took Ashton and Taylor with us to the Great Oregon Steam Up. I hope they had a good time. Lots of tractors and dozers to look at. This year the flea market vendors didn't hold my interest. I think after a few years of seeing the same stuff for sale you start to wonder. That's a lot of work packing that stuff in and setting up. Then you have to sit there and play nice while people try to beat your prices down. I wonder if they sleep there with their stuff. Are they worried about someone coming in with the cloud of darkness and walking away with the treasures........my mind does wander in all directions.

Then on Sunday, we got up bright (for some people, not for me!) and early to head up to bring home the motor home. "Judy Time" is now over. (Judy Time was from 3:15 am on Monday until about 7 pm Friday when Hubby leaves for the week and comes home for the weekend.) Now time is back to normal. Hubby gets up, goes to work, comes home, needs dinner (not grilled cheese or Cheerios!) and watches his TV, falls asleep in his chair....you all know what I'm talking about! Things are back to normal. I love normal.

My plan for the week is to keep plugging along. I worked on my Orange Crush quilt top. The top is almost put together, 2 more seams. Then the border and the pieced border goes on. I've had that thing up on my design wall for a month and I finally decided to get to it. I now like it and am anxious to get it finished. I don't want any new UFOs this year! Then I'll work on a couple of my swap obligations.

Have a great week. I'm going to!

Whoopsie!

I think Blogger/Picasa/dial up don't like it when too much is going on with the computer. Sometimes I have multiple pages trying to load and forget that I am trying to publish a post. So hopefully this picture will show up.

Before I hit publish, I will check my other pages so nothing else is happening. Thanks for letting me know.

It's Done, Done, DONE!!!

The Scrappy Bargello is done, complete with label and it looks good on our bed! I think so anyhow, but we'll find out for sure tonight.

I've been accused of trying to girlify our bedroom. Why would he say that? Could it be my flower and Gramma's button wallhanging? My pink flower lei over the canoe shelf?? A quilt full of flowers and pretties??? Funny Man, where do you get that idea? I left the elk picture alone. And the fish wall hanging. And besides this quilt was free (or so I think) because I used everything out of my strip box and my backing squares box. That should make it perfect.

I just needed to share my feel good morning with you all. Now I have to get into the shower and head out for my sewing day. I was going to finish the quilt there but now I will work on a wall hanging for the kitchen. More on that later.

Have an awesome day.

Weekly Goals

This is a photo of my friend Vicki's quilt. She made this for her nephew and his new wife. It's a cuddle on the couch quilt. Quick framed 4 patch with a border. I did a meander on it and she is very happy. So is Mr. Elliot, quilt inpector. I think there was an oooh and and aaaah. Too bad the picture isn't real clear.

I've done very well with my goals this week. I have Sister Sue's quilt on the frame right now and it is over half done. It should be complete tonight sometime. So 3 quilts done in a week is pretty darn good for me. I'm excited to get another of my UFO's on the frame. It's time to buy another roll of batting.

So what are my goals for this week??? Hubby will be home for a couple days more before going out of town for the rest of the week. That means I'll have to fix a real dinner! I think I can handle that.

1-Meet Sister Sue for lunch, quilt shop shopping and hand off of the quilt.
2-Do the binding on the bargello so it will be done and put on my bed.
3-Do the next postcards for my swap.
4-Thursday will be Camp Gramma. Ashlee needs to work on her dress.
5-Get the oil changed in my car.
6-I don't know, I'm sure something will come up!

What have YOU been doing???

Quiltathon Success!!

Woo Hoo! My Scrappy Bargello is quilted. It did not make it into the UFO container. That's a biggie. I'd like to get the binding sewn on tomorrow so I can take it to Marian's on Wed. to finish it.

Thanks to Judy at Patchwork Times for holding the Quiltathon. Day 1 was fun. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. My Sister Sue showed up with my neice's quilt and we needed to have a major gab fest. So tomorrow I will make the back for that quilt and get it loaded. I am going to do a pantograph on it. I'm just not sure which one yet. Sue was gone for 5 minutes when my Dear Son, Doug drove in.

I don't get to see my working man very often but his SO and son weren't home for the evening so he decided to check up on his "Old Momma". Such a nice boy. It was fun to visit with just him. Usually we don't get to have these nice chats because there's always other people here.

I'm tired now so I think I'll go to bed to read for a couple minutes. TTFN

Sisters Picture and Quiltathon

This is my Sisters Traveling Companion. Isn't she cute with all her outdoor quilt show wear. The hat, sunglasses, over the neck purse with the money that is burning a hole in her leg wanting to buy a new hat!!! We hadn't picked up out commerative water bottles yet. She is all set for the next one.

Today is the first day of a 2 day Quiltaton with Judy over at Patchwork Times. Since Vicki's quilt is finished (YeeHaw!), I am going to quilt my bargello from The Bargello Bowl we did in January at Quiltville Chat. The instructions for the Scrappy Bargello are at Quiltville. This is a fun quilt to make and I used a ton of my 2 1/2" strips on it. I had to make mine a little longer so it changed the design just a bit but I don't care, I'll use that part as the pillow cover and no one will be the wiser. It was a design opportunity!

So my washer and dishwasher are both running, the floors have been vacuumed and I am ready to get started. The only thing I will have to do is hang the load of clothes outside when they are finished and then bring them back in and put them away. I fold them as I take them down. Nothing like dried outside clothes to make you feel fresh.

The MP3 player is fully charged so it's time to get stitchin'!

Inspired

The trip to Sisters was a huge inspiration for me. I am in the finish quilt mode now. I have Vicki's quilt almost quilted and then I will put on the binding to stitch down at Wednesday at Marian's. Then I am going to fill bobbins for my bargello and get it loaded and done.

It feels good to be energetic about things. That was a pretty long damp spell. Can't call it a dry spell because I did work on a few things. I just didn't see much progress.

How fabulous is this little block! I wish I knew for sure if it was made by sewing teeny tiny strips or if it was paper peiced or if it is piping. I think maybe it's piping but I don't know for sure. If you do, would you please satisfy my curiousity?

Gotta go, I have a project to finish tonight. WooHoo!

Week Goals

What a week! I feel like I accomplished nothing. I know I did stuff, it just doesn't show. Except for the explosion in my sewing room. I'm making progess, I know I am, it's just kind of hard to see right now. Like things are living with like things. I just need to get all the things together.

Satuday at Sisters was awesome. I spent the day with 8 year old Taylor. After a very long bus ride, an ice cream cone and some wandering around, we met up with my friends for a while and then went our seperate ways again. I missed my regular quilt show partner but Taylor was a pretty good substitute. I didn't get to see all the quilts because after a hour, they became "boring" and we were on the hunt for a very cool hat. We found several but the prices were unreal. We will just make our own!

This quilt was hanging off in a corner all by it's self. It is quite spectacular with the little tiny pieced blocks on the top of the quilt. I wish my picture would have turned out a little better. Next I'll post a picture of one of the little blocks.

Well, I didn't get much done on the quilting front this week. Vicki's quilt will be loaded tomorrow and finished up at Wednesday's group. The UFO I've been working on is put away for a while. I think it's keeping me from sewing so I'll wait on it. Sue didn't get here with her quilt top so nothing was quilted this past week. I hope to get my bargello done too but I'm not putting any pressure on myself.

I am going to focus on Vicki's quilt and organizing this week. Also I have a couple of postcard swaps to work on and my Dotee Dolls are ready to drop at the post office on Wednesday. I do have the garden to keep up with. Today I saw brocolli, zuchinni, tomatillas and tomatoes. Also some acorn squash have set on. The cukes, carrots, cauliflower will follow soon. Yumm.

The laundry is done and put away and I have an awesome salad that will be dinner for most of the week. So I have a plan and I hope I can keep to it.

Goals For The Week

I did pretty good on my goals for last week. I did the everyday stuff almost every day and hung out laundry on the nice days. I spent alot of time in the garden and it shows! It looks awesome out there. I kind of blew off cleaning in the sewing room. I know shame on me but I did do about a half hour this morning.

I also got the back for the bargello sewn! Yee Haw!!! It's 10 1/2" squares ala Bonnie Hunter style. I love the scrappy back. I know one of my daughters (maybe 2) cringes as do a few of my friends but each to his own. I love it, it's fun and funky and uses a bunch of stash. Things I don't know what I would do with. There are even some peices in there that have dye runs in them. Nothing wrong with the fabric, just colored outside the lines. :-) And Crystal, there are a few places where the same fabrics are side by side!!! Just for you.

I decided not to go to quilt party so I didn't make my block. It will get made and put it in the orphan box for a different project.

OK, now it's time for this week.
1-You know the everyday stuff! and Marian's on Wednesday and continue the sewing room project.
2-Saturday is Sisters OR outdoor quilt show and I'm going. WooHoo
3-Quilt my friend Vicki's quilt. Her nephew is getting married on Saturday. Nothing like a little pressure for the both of us. Good thing it will be a quick and easy meander.
4-Continue to work on my UFO from last post. The rows are finished, they need to be sewn together and then binding put on. I will never do another quilt as you go when I have a long arm sitting right here. But I had to try it to make sure.
5-Quilt Sister Sue's quilt if she gets it up here.

That should be enough to keep me out of trouble. If it isn't, I have a few swap postcards to work on.

How Many Times Can A UFO Be A UFO?

I've been working on this quilt for what seems to be forever. It's a quilt as you go that I started quilting in May. I actually thought I had started it way before that. I just can't get motivated to work on it. And it's right out in plain sight.

I think when it's done, I will give it to Lacey, my not quite DIL. She liked it when she was looking at it so I think she will give it a good home. So this is my project for the weekend.

I am going to get off here and work on it. I only need to put together 1 1/2 more rows and I can start setting them together.

I hope this makes my sister happy. Evidently she thinks I don't post often enough!

Summer 2008 Exercise Plan

The latest exercise craze around here is the ginormous garden that needs to be weeded every other day. This morning I got up early because the dogs needed to go outside. So I decided to go outside also. I spent an hour putzing around the garden. Weeding from one end to the other, picking up rocks and admiring. I have tiny tomatillos (how do you spell that word?) set on my plant and lots of tomato flowers on the 9 bushes we planted. I have been stocking up on freezer bags when they are on sale in anticipation of the harvest.

We haven't had a garden in years so after taking off some of the sod, rototilling and weeding, we had to enhance the soil with lots of good, organic compost. No chemicals were used so there are lots of weeds coming up. But it is good exercise and Lord knows I need it.

I pulled the wagon around and picked up stuff and pulled a few weeds from the flowerbeds. Now I will wait for another half hour while the sprinkler is on and then I can take a shower. Since I have to wait, I may as well go dance with the vacuum. Then I can sew the rest of the day if I want to. You know I do.

There is always a method to my madness.