Now that the weather is getting better and the sun is shining, I am not feeling as sleepy as I have been.  Being out in the sunshine is good medicine and I certainly got a lot of good medicine today.

As I have told you, we are building a new front porch on our house and we are having to move several flowers.  Like about one hundred or more flowers.  Flowers it took me years to plant in the front garden and now they have to be moved in a few days before the builders get here.  My body has had a workout today digging up flowers, digging holes and replanting the flowers. We cut down the rose on the rose arbor because it never did very well.  David planted it by the fence in hopes it will grow on it.   I am going to sow some morning glory seeds at the base of the arbor and soon it will be covered with morning glory  vines.

  I have loved our old porch.  Many people have entered our house via this porch.  My mother sat on this porch and watched our children ride their bikes.   David and I have sat out here and talked and watched the world go by. We’ve thrown firecrackers from here and watched our grandchildren hunt Easter eggs from here.  One summer our sons and a neighbor boy sat on this porch all summer playing with Legos.  I have sat on this porch and timed my children to see how fast they could run around the house.  That was before we had fenced in our back yard.  I have looked on the porch for packages I have ordered.  Sat with my dogs and passed the time.  Don’t mind me if I get a little teary eyed when they start tearing it down.

 

  The front of our house is going to look so different. I love those old white pillars.

 

I don’t know how many times I have painted these pillars.  They need a new paint job now, but, they won’t be here in a few days or weeks.   I thought about saving one, but thought it would be dangerous if one of the grandchildren leaned against it and it fell over, so the pillars are going.

I got a package from the UPS man while I was working outside.  I decided I would wait until I had all my work done before I opened it.  Anticipation.  I kept thinking about that box all morning and part of the afternoon.  I knew what was in it, you see, and that is what made it even more exciting.

I

I love getting packages like this.  Especially when it says this on the side…….

 

 

 

Can you believe I just discovered this company?  A friend of

mine showed me some fabric she had purchased while in Tennessee and I fell in love with it and knew exactly what I would do with it should I get some.  I searched for it online and every fabric site I went to said “sold out” of this particular fabric until I got to this site.  Yay, they had it.

 

Isn’t it absolutely the cutest?  It’s called Quaint Cupcakes.  It has a little bling in the fabric.

 

I am loving this.

With the doilies and all, it’s just so pretty.  I know what I am doing with this.

But that wasn’t all I purchased.  I have a new designer I am liking right now.  Michael Miller.  He designed this fabric.

I love the vintage look of this.  Yes, I know what I am doing with this, too.

He designed this and I really wish I had bought more than one yard of it.  It is the most beautiful fabric I think I have ever seen.  There are so many possibilities for this, but, I wish I had bought more.  Hmmmmm.

Oh, this is going to go in several quilts.  I know it.  Looks like old love letters.  French.  Roses. What could be better?

This is one of those fabrics that can work its way into any number of different quilts and make them special.   Do I wax too lovingly about fabric?   I have always loved fabric, from the green cotton polyester suit with the matching printed blouse I made in home ec in junior high, to the red dotted swiss dress I wore to the Ruth Lyons’ television show, to the pink dotted swiss I kind of stole from my mother’s stash and made a bathing suit once while she was gone for the day.  Oops, got in a little trouble for that!

Yes, I love fabric.  Friends make fun of me for saving little bits and pieces of my fabric.

Right now I am cutting over two thousand two inch squares to make a quilt.  The smallest square I will cut and save is a one and a half inch square.  I plan to one day sew all those tiny squares together into a quilt and it will be a catalog of all my fabrics I have used through the years.  But right now the two inch squares need my attention.

 

They are being sown into these blocks.  I will need many of these for the quilt I am making.  I love doing this.  Fabric just makes me happy.

 

If you are a Downton Abbey fan, you probably know there is now Downton Abbey fabric.  I made a skirt out of this fabric and then I put together a Downton Abbey outfit.

 

 

Complete with hat.  I loved wearing this.  I wish women still wore hats like this all the time and dressed up more when they went out in public.  When you look at old pictures, both men and women are wearing hats and they always looked dressed up.  Now people wear pajamas in public.  Pajamas!!! If you are one of them, well, I will just keep quiet, but I am frowning while typing this.  David says people come into the Ralph Lauren store all the time in pajamas.  Really?????

Anyway, I do love textiles and have practically all my life.  I remember most of my clothes I had growing up from the plaid dresses with big sashes I wore to school, to the sleeveless blouses I wore in the summer, to the blue jeans and sweatshirts I wore when I rode my horse.  I notice what people are wearing all the time.  I tell people when I like something they are wearing.

Changing direction a little(a lot.)  Walking the other day I heard the sandhill cranes.  I always hear them before I see them.  Put your tongue to the roof of your mouth and hum while fluttering your tongue and that is kind of how they sound.  They have a very distinct call.  There was one flock and then there were two and then a third flock came from the south.  They go up to Camp Atterbury where there is a lake where they land and you can go up there and climb a platform and watch them.  I have never done it, but I have always wanted to.  They swooped and circled above our house for quite some time.  A true sign of Spring.

Can’t believe March is almost over.  It’s my birthday month and it is one of my favorite months.  I always hate to see it go knowing I will have to wait a whole year before March comes around again.  I found this poem in a little, old poetry book I have had since I was a girl and it was old when I was a girl.

 

Happy April.  Easter is less than three weeks away.  Bye.