Category Archives: Quilting

My quilt projects.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It is, you know. The most wonderful time of the year. The season of giving and peace and love. Oh, you look around the world and see all the evil that is going on, but what you don’t see very often because it doesn’t make a good news story, is the good that is going on. The nurse in the hospital who gives a lonely patient a little extra time and patience, the boy on your street who helps his elderly neighbor clear the snow off her walk, the man who pays the tab for a soldier eating at the next table in a restaurant, a teen-ager who calls his grandma and asks about her day. There is a lot of bad, but if you look, you will see the good also. There will always be sin in this world. Jesus said there would be wars and rumors of wars.

We can all make this world a little bit better. It’s the small things that count. A smile, patience for that slow driver in front of you, a kind word, a pat on the back, a hug. What if everyone decided that they were not going to be the problem, but the answer? That we would all decide we would get along with our neighbor, that we would look on the bright side of things for a change, that your life really isn’t so bad if you can get up in the morning and do something for others. It’s time to stop being so self-centered. To stop wondering when things are going to get better. You can make them better.

I decided quite a long time ago that I was not going to look at the glass half empty. My glass is always half full. If I don’t feel well one day I think I am no better than anyone else and cannot escape the trials of man and accept it. I have lived through tragedies, sadness, pain, separation, and most of the other human ills. We all must face these things at some time in our lives. It is how you face them that counts. I know people who have the most awful diseases who wear a smile on their faces in their adversity. There is one thing they have. They have Jesus in their heart. It makes a difference, you know. At this season rest in the knowledge that God loved us all enough that He came down to earth as a tiny baby and lived among us for a time. He died a wretched death on the cross and took every one of our sins upon Himself. He died but He arose the third day and now lives in heaven. One day He will come back for those who believe in Him. I believe. He makes my life complete.

I love Christmas because I can give presents to friends and family. I love making gifts and this year I went all out. I can’t show most of what I have made, but I have already given some things away so those I will show.

I made felt ice skates for the children in my Sunday school class and filled them with candy and little toys and stickers.

I have a friend who loves cats so I made her this little ornament out of felt.

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The lady I help in Sunday school got this because I told her she was an angel.

Another friend keeps bees so, voila! When I found this pattern I immediately thought of her.

I was on a roll and made another ornament. I may make more before I’m done. I love working with felt.

I’ve been knitting up a storm too.

Hats and scarves for the children in my Sunday school class.

A year or so ago, a nice lady from my church gave me a big bagful of quilt blocks, embroidery floss, a whole quilt that she had cross stitched and several other goodies. She said she gave it to me because she knew I would get some good out of it since I love to quilt. There were enough of these school house blocks to make a full size quilt So, I did. I asked her who had made the blocks and she told me her grandmother. I knew I could not keep this quilt for myself. It belonged in her family so this Sunday I gave it to her. It made me so happy to see her smile. The quilt was probably started in the 1950’s and now sixty some years later it is finished and the family can enjoy it for years to come.

I think my brothers had pajamas made from material like this back in the day.

There were plaid blocks.

One block was made with a satin or crepe de chine. Is that spelled right?

Yes, I have been a busy beaver. And I have enjoyed every bit of the making.

In other news. Molly Marshmallow continues to grow and grow.

Doesn’t she look adorable here? Wellllllll. This dog loves wood. She chews on wood every chance she gets. She has chewed on our house, around the windows, the wooden deck benches. She goes out in the yard and drags up pieces of wood and chips them like a beaver all over our back deck. She climbs on top of the woodpile, I don’t know why. Maybe she is planning on working her way down it. Anyway, today I took hot sauce and a brush and painted it all over the back of our house. Molly immediately started licking it up. Finally she decided maybe it wasn’t so good. I am going to hot sauce everything I don’t want her to chew. She loves chewing the heels of my shoes as I walk so on will go the hot sauce. I hope I have found the remedy to her constant chewing. It’s not like she doesn’t get toys and rawhide bones to chew. I just hope she outgrows this affinity for wood and me. I still love her, though and get a lot of laughs from her antics. If you walk by me and I smell like hot sauce, you will know why.

I look at this face and I cannot stay angry with her. She is a puppy and chewing is what puppies do.

My Santa rests on the couch before the big day. He’s been asked at the store for stickers and other toys. Little children think he’s the real thing.

A big package came to our front door the other day. David and I had gone to a Christmas party and when we came home there was this box sitting on our front porch.

It was for me!!!!!!

Do not open until Christmas. Oh, no! I feel like a kid again waiting for the big day.

I knew it had to be from someone I knew who knew I liked chickens because this was on the package……

A rooster made out of what looks like an old quilt. Interesting. Hmmmmmmm. Well, I guess I will just have to wait until Christmas until I can open it.

Couldn’t let Christmas go by without dressing up one of the hens for the season. This is Ada and she’s the only one who will allow me to pick her up now. She got a little squirrely toward the end of the photo shoot and finally flew out of my arms, but David got a good picture of her.

Must go. Just four more days. Hope you are ready. It will come whether you are ready or not. See you on the other side. Merry Christmas. Bye.

Finishing Up and Starting Again

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I have pledged to myself that I am going to finish some quilts I have begun. I have a box full of them. It’s fun to pick out new fabrics and piece a brand new quilt and I could do that every month, but there comes a time when one needs to finish what one has started. So….

This week I completed a Christmas quilt I started last year. These sheep were as crazy to make as they are to herd. Every single one of these sheep is sewn together wrong except for one. Every one. And it’s not the sheep that is facing a different direction than the rest as that is suppose to be the wayward sheep. It’s the only one sewn correctly. I am sure if you look closely you will notice one big mistake I made on one. I didn’t notice it until I had it half quilted. Anyway, as a friend of mine use to tell me, “you won’t see it on a galloping horse.” Now I have to find the horse. I didn’t follow the pattern maker’s design completely. There was suppose to be a shepherd in this quilt, but I didn’t like how it looked so I made an extra sheep and this block.

I like the way it turned out. One project completed. Check.

I finished two other quilts that I cannot show because of the season coming up. Two more projects completed. Check.

I made a skirt from some fabric I have had for quite some time. You can wear it this way.

Or this way. Almost like having two different skirts. We went over to Nashville with some friends the other day and I got a couple of tops that go with this skirt. We have been to Nashville twice in two weeks and not one time did I remember to take pictures with my camera. There was so much to photograph there but I was too busy looking.

I put together this outfit and like it a lot. Another project completed. Check.

David and I took one morning and sealed the siding on our porch wall. We make a good team and finished it within a couple of hours. Now the wall should not turn grey.

Project completed. Check.

I made a couple of brooches. I have ideas for several more.

Years ago, we needed a coffee table and there was a company where you could order furniture unfinished and not put together. You built the furniture yourself and put your own finish on it. So, I ordered this butler’s table and David put it together and I stained it a rich, deep brown. It has served its purpose for many years. The leaves on the table go up and down and most little boys and girls liked to lift the leaves up and down over and over. Toy cars have been run on this table. It’s been hammered, pounded and naturally distressed over the years. David says you pay big money to get distressed furniture and we got ours for free!

I decided it was time to redo the table so I am painting it a cream color and will distress it a little or will have some children over to do it for me.

I’m putting several coats of paint on it. When I am finished with it, it’s going in my girly room.

A friend brought me this pile of luscious fabric. I am so blessed. I will use this for sure.

Miss Molly Marshmallow is growing so fast. She runs with the big dogs and doesn’t want to be separated from them. She cries when I take Belle her walk even after I have already taken her on a walk. She is doing really well on the leash. Sometimes I let her walk herself and she will carry the leash in her mouth and walk along beside me.

The chickens are molting right now and I won’t show you a picture of them because it would embarrass them. One of them is completely bare on her backside, poor girl. She stays in the chicken house and acts ashamed of her looks, but David said he noticed today that her feathers are finally coming back in. The egg laying has been pretty sparse right now as the hens conserve their energy to grow their new feathers for the winter. I still get two or three dozen eggs a week. The younger hens should start laying soon.

Fall is moving right along. Soon it will be Thanksgiving,(when I am walking a 5K that morning before dinner) then Christmas and then we will be right back to Spring again. The seasons are running together now. I love each one and especially love the cooler weather we are having right now. Hope you are having a wonderful Autumn. Bye.

End of Summer Daze

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Before God takes His big paintbrush and paints the scenery with golds, reds, oranges and yellows, I am basking in the last few days of Summer, enjoying the cooler mornings and the sunny days. Enjoying the burst of color in my garden as the flowers seem to know that soon the frost will come and they will be gone. The bees and butterflies seem extra busy gathering nectar. The hummingbirds feast at the feeders preparing for their long flight south. I always feel a little sad when they leave.

We have tried to pack in as much as we could this Summer, from a trip to Chicago, a trip to Cincinnati and short trips antiquing. We got our new puppy and two new chickens. We connected with family and friends we don’t see very often. It’s been a good Summer, but I do look forward to cooler days.

My little Sunday school class had a party to celebrate the year and the children who will go up to a new class. We had cupcakes and cheese puffs and balloons.

This little girl will go into the kindergarten class. I’m going to miss her.

I’ve had this little boy in our class since he was tiny. He is now a big kindergartner. I’ll miss him too.

This little boy is so funny and will be staying with us for another year.

This little girl always has the cutest clothes on. I have taught her since she was two. She’ll be with us another year and I am glad.

As I took pictures of the class the children kept showing me things to photograph.

This is suppose to be a cheese puff butterfly!

I bought some more fabric. Surprise, surprise!

It’s all going in a new quilt I am piecing. I am tending toward pastels and pinks lately. Years ago I would never have chosen these colors. David says I have had different phases in my fabric buying from dark Confederate colors, to polka dots, to pastels. I guess quilting is kind of like painting when you choose colors. It is very hard for me to work on a dark quilt right now. I need bright, happy colors.

I couldn’t resist this fabric and I am going to make an apron from it.

We got out the kiddie pool for Molly. She loved it. I think she is going to like water more than our other dogs. She tries to drink out of the hose while I am filling her bowl. Now I have three dogs at the back door begging for treats. Molly sits as soon as I come out because she knows she gets a treat when she sits. She doesn’t always get one, though.

Molly is growing so fast. She is almost twice the size she was when we got her. I think she will be bigger than Belle. They play really well together now and Belle hardly ever growls at her anymore. I think there is going to be a challenge on who is the alpha dog with those two.

I finished all my sister-in-law’s books and got this book from the church library. I like Max Lucado as he writes in such an easy manner and explains the Bible in terms anyone can understand. Do I want to be like Jesus? I try every day. I fail sometimes and other days I do better, but my goal is to try to be more like Him every day.

We went up to our grandchildren’s house Saturday. I had promised my younger grandson that when I got a new camera, he could have mine. Well, I got my new camera so we got a new memory card and batteries and a charger for my old one and took the camera to him and the look on his face when we handed it to him was priceless(wish I had taken a picture.) He and I took a short walk and he snapped pictures around the neighborhood. I think he likes his new camera. David thinks he will be a photographer.

Here he is showing his sister his new camera as he snaps her picture.

Love this boy. He’s growing too fast.

This is one of their family cats. He looks like he has a mustache. Very distinguished.

We decided to go up to Pendleton for lunch.

They were having some kind of festival going on and the streets were crowded and parking was at a minimum. By the way, I love that shirt that lady is wearing.

The fragrance of funnel cakes was in the air.

These were the menus at the restaurant we went to.

Loved the ceiling and old looking lights.

Waiting to be seated. I love this grandson’s red hair. I think I need to be a redhead again.

We ate our lunch and then after we were finished we began to walk around when suddenly my stomach felt queasy and we had to leave. I felt so bad that I ruined the day, but David took me home, I took a bath and went straight to bed and I felt queasy for a couple of days. We really have to go back there soon as their antique stores looked really good.

The gardenia one of my sons gave me for Mother’s Day finally bloomed. The plant has grown a lot and I will have to over winter it in my shop. The flower smells wonderful. I don’t know how big these get, but this one has tripled in size since I got it.

I am hooked on silent movies. Crazy, huh? There is something about them that draws me in. I think these are movies my mother or father may have gone to the theater to see when they were young.

This was about World War l. My mother was born just before the first World War. This man was getting a tooth pulled here. The script on screen read:

This was kind of a comedy, love, drama movie. It took place in France where a soldier fell in love with a peasant girl. Anyway, I enjoyed it. I love old Charlie Chaplin movies and they make me laugh much more than most of the so-called comedies now. Nowadays the comedies go for the gross and crass and are not my cup of tea.

Mornings are misty and cool. Happy Autumn. Bye.

How to Bathe a Baby

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Today I will give you instructions on how to bathe a baby. It’s really very easy.

First you get the shampoo, a towel and a bowl for rinsing. A Cool Whip bowl is the best to use. It reminds you of delicious desserts you ate while you are bathing the baby.

Oh, did I neglect to tell you the baby was a puppy? Yes, Molly is getting her first bath. We didn’t bathe our other two dogs when they were pups and therefore it is impossible to bathe them now. It is dangerous to even try. So, Molly will get regular baths so she won’t be afraid when she gets too big to handle. First you get the puppy wet. Keep the water and shampoo away from her eyes. This also works with human babies.

Then with very rapid motions you put shampoo on the puppy and rub it all over her until she is a bubbly little furball.

Continuing to wash the puppy until your hands almost disappear, you get her nice and clean. So far the puppy does not know what is happening to her. She only tried climbing out of the tub once. But, as you can see, I can move fast and kept her in.

Then you gently rinse the puppy under the faucet because it is faster that way and gets the soap off her really well.

By this time the puppy is resigned to the fact she is going to have to endure this just a little longer.

Then you take a clean towel and begin drying her. She loves this and makes moaning sounds as I rub her.

Here she is. A nice clean puppy who smells like baby powder. Or as David says, “She smells like a baby’s butt.” Then you sniff her for about a half hour and rub her dry and think how adorable she is.

Molly has made herself right at home here at the Craig house.

She sleeps among the shoes.

She and I both slept on the couch the other day.

She sleeps with the chickens. See the black Australorp? She cosied as close as she felt safe by Molly and laid there for a while. I am trying to get both chickens and puppy used to each other so Molly won’t want to eat them later.

The chickens were very curious about her, but didn’t allow her near.

She sleeps with Bonnie. I’m rethinking that extension cord right there where she can reach it. She hasn’t found it yet, but I’m not taking any chances. I have puppy proofed my shop as well as I can, but I am sure she will find something I never thought of to chew one day.

Yes, she sleeps a lot and I have a hundred or so pictures of her doing so. I just can’t resist.

Lest you think all I have done since we got Molly is watch her, play with her and walk her, I have done other things.

I picked our first pumpkin out of our garden this week.

This is one of twelve or thirteen we have seen in the garden. This is one of the small ones.

I tea dyed some lace for a project and hung it out to dry in the wind.

I also finished my Christmas sheep quilt top. I really love it and can’t wait to show it to you. I finished knitting another hat. I finished a book and began another. I did laundry. I started a new quilt. I fed and watered the chickens. I gathered eggs. I went to church. I took a walk. I baked an apple crunch and a rhubarb crunch, both of which have been eaten in a matter of days. I would say I dusted the house, but I would be lying. I cleaned up after the pup. My shop floor looks like I have a real baby with all the toys scattered all over. I cooked lasagna. I baked a chocolate chip applesauce cake that I forgot to put vanilla in, but it still tastes pretty good. I made three trips to the vet with three dogs. I had to hold Bonnie down while they trimmed her nails. I sat in the air condition because it has been so hot and humid. I would rather be outside, but I am getting a lot of hand quilting done on a quilt that I hope to have finished next week. I did a few other things, but the pup has had a lot of my attention this week.

Here’s to bathing babies(human or canine.) Bye.

Bringing Up Baby

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If you have ever adopted a new puppy, you know it is almost as hard as bringing home a new human baby. I decided I could raise another puppy. Friday we picked up our new baby and brought her home. I thought maybe I had bitten off more than I could chew. Just like a human baby you have to keep her fed and watered, clean up her messes and make sure she doesn’t hurt herself. And give her lots and lots of love.

Meet Molly Marshmallow. She is one part registered Boxer and one part registered Lab and so adorable. She is also very energetic. We named her Molly just because I like the name and Marshmallow because that is what the children who owned her had named her. She is like a little squishy marshmallow.

We got Molly from this young lady. She ran around with my daughter in high school and was in the youth group at church. Now she is grown up and has four kids and had eight puppies until we took Molly. It was nice seeing her again. I hadn’t seen her in years. She advertised her puppies on Facebook and that is how we got connected. I’m so glad we did.

Here’s Bonnie and her new baby.

Molly thinks Bonnie is her mother. She keeps trying to suckle on her. Poor Bonnie.

Any part of Bonnie that Molly can chew, she will chew.

She especially likes Bonnie’s tail. Sometimes she is holding on to her tail when Bonnie decides to walk off and she just hangs on it. So funny.

I don’t know what she is trying to do here. She tries to go under things where she doesn’t fit or go over things that are too high for her.

“I’m still your favorite, right?’

I go into my shop to cut quilt pieces and Molly lays here.

Right between my feet.

By the way, I’m working on this quilt. I am using pastels in it however.

It’s called “Pressed Flowers.” Most of the fabrics I am using are floral.

Back to Molly and Belle. Belle isn’t quite sure what to think about this new creature that has come into her life. I think she is deciding she will be fun to play with. Molly jumps at her and barks and Belle barks back. Belle isn’t use to Molly ignoring her and tries continuously to get her attention.

When Belle and Molly are side by side, they look alike. Both have their bright pink collars on. Molly still isn’t sure she likes hers.

Don’t they look like mother and daughter?

I know this sweet little puppy won’t stay little long. Just like human babies. So I will enjoy her puppyhood.

Here’s to puppies and the joy they bring. Bye.

I See the Moon. Oh, No I Didn’t.

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The other night we had one of the biggest, brightest moons of the year. On my Susan Branch calender it is called the Green Corn Moon. I had every intention of staying up and looking at it and looking for the meteor showers we were suppose to be getting that night also.

Sadly, sleepiness overcame my desire to stay up and look at the moon. So, while I snoozed upstairs, David got the tripod out and took some spectacular pictures of it for me.

This is our front garden at night. It looks magical, doesn’t it?

There were some clouds that night. David wasn’t sure he would get a good shot of the old man in the moon.

But then, there he appeared. A glorious, shining orb in the sky.

Just absolutely gorgeous. To think, men have walked upon the face of the moon.

If you look at these quickly, it looks like the moon is bouncing in the air. To think, God formed this with his own hand and placed it in the sky for us to dream upon, wish upon, and kiss under. How many romantic stories have the moon as a backdrop? Ancient men looked at this very moon and probably wondered about it. We are looking at the very moon Jesus looked upon while he was living on this earth. Galileo looked at this moon. Michelangelo and every human who has ever lived has looked at this moon. It’s nice to know we do share things in common with people all around the world.

Some people said the moon was made of cheese. That would be enough cheese to feed people for thousands of years I expect.

I don’t know when the next big, bright moon will be, but I hope I won’t sleep through it.

In other news, I gave this quilt to a newly married couple this week. People had signed blocks.

It originally started as a twin bed and grew like Topsy until it became a king size quilt. I quilted it all on my sewing machine. I think they were happy to get it.

Here is the birdhouse my sister-in-law Terry painted for me. This is a picture of a hibiscus from our garden.

A sunflower on one side.

A coneflower on the other. She didn’t get to finish it, but I still think it’s beautiful and it will make some bird very happy.

Since I have been talking about the moon, here is some material with the stars and galaxies on it. I am going to make someone something with this.

And now for some pink. It seems pink is the ever present color in my garden.

I hope you saw the moon this week. It’s been a busy one with a revival going on at our church, the garden bursting at the seams with vegetables, finishing a quilt, and Friday, a new puppy is coming to live with us. What more could one ask for? Bye.

Give a Wife a Camera……..

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Yesterday I was sitting in my girly room, minding my own business, knitting a hat. Suddenly David pushed the camera into my face with this picture.

Okay, I thought. A little blurry and I said take another one and he took this…

Much better. You like my blue fingernails? Then David started to show me more pictures.

Okay, what’s going on? ” I used the zoom lens,” David said. “Here, look.” I looked at my camera and saw the zoom was fixed. You see, last summer on a small trip we took, I dropped the camera in my car and broke the zoom thingamajig on it. I have still continued to use my camera, but couldn’t zoom in. Then, David, bless his heart, bought me a new camera for Christmas. Unfortunately, me and that camera did not get along well. It was heavy, took too long(for me) to focus and I had to change lenses if I wanted to zoom. It’s really a nice camera, just too much for me. I told him he could have it and take pictures for me while I would continue to use my little, broken camera. It’s worked out pretty well. David takes good pictures.

Then today he starts using my little camera again. “Did you fix it?” I said. “How did you fix it? Oh, I am so glad to have my camera working again.” Then he began to laugh and I looked at the camera closer. It was a new camera. Just like my little broken one, only better. And I could zoom again.

David had ordered a new pump for our water fountain and I had brought him the box from the mail thinking nothing about it. The camera was in the box with the pump. He sure surprised me. Soooo, today I went around taking pictures just checking it out. Here they are in no particular order.

Getting ripe.

You know those bulbs I bought at a big box store and didn’t think they would grow? Well, they are growing and blooming. I have several different gladiola right now and each one is so pretty.

This one was almost hidden behind the Shasta Daisies. It’s amazingly beautiful in person.

Gorgeous.

Magic or August Lilies. In the Spring these flowers grow their foliage, but no flowers. Then as the Summer progresses, the foliage completely dies and disappears and then these spikes of flowers appear. Then they turn into this.

What I am wondering is, how do they know it’s August?

I have a lot of these around the garden. Whoever lived here before us planted them and they have come up every year since we’ve been here for thirty-seven years almost.

Last Summer a friend and I went to a shop hop and I won this quilting book. I haven’t made anything from it yet, but I keep looking at it and planning.

I think this is a darling pillow. I would make it with wools and I think I will make this pretty soon.

Isn’t this bee skep pin cushion cute. It’s kind of labor intensive, but I won’t take it off my list to make yet.

I love this purse although the giant bee on it kind of turns me off, but I could put something else there where the bee is.

Right now I am making a quilt from this book.

Yes, I am making a sheep quilt. I am not going to make it exactly like in the book, but I think it will be cute when I am finished. I’ll try to remember to show you when it’s done. I won’t guarantee it. But I will try.

For those of you too young to remember these are insulators that use to be on the top of electric line poles. When the poles started to be taken down, the workmen would often just leave these laying around. My dad collected a few and I have found some at auctions. They are just a part of history and I like history.

My trusty Riccar sewing machine. One of four I have plus I have a few other sewing machines. A friend asked me one time why I had so many sewing machines. I told her it was because I never wanted to be without a sewing machine when I am working on a project should the one I am using break. Plus, we sold these years ago and I brought the leftovers home with me when we closed our store.

I collect old chairs.

I come from creative parents. My dad used to build and paint these little houses and sell them. I was blessed to receive some from him.

He made this little church.

It even has a bell in the belfrey.

This was the last thing my dad gave me before he died. The cow’s eyes are a little wonky which makes me love it even more. Dad had had gall bladder surgery that year and his health never got back to normal. I use to just put these houses out at Christmas, but I keep them out all year now to remind me of my father. I can’t wait to see him again and I know I will.

Shhh, this is my favorite chicken, but the others don’t know it. Penninah always greets me when I come into the chicken yard. Honestly, sometimes I think I can understand what she is clucking. Here she is engrossed in my pants.

Ada and Abby are now in with the big chooks. David said they went into the coop all by themselves last night. He had been putting them in after it got dark. Seems things have settled down and the big chooks have accepted them more or less although there is an occasional peck when the younguns’ get around their food.

The best fertilizer. I’m just sayin’.

Bonnie. I love this dog. She is getting old. Ten years. We are looking to get another puppy maybe this Fall. When we got Bonnie, we had an older dog who got a new lease on life when Bonnie arrived. They played together and ran and had so much fun. That dog, Subaka, lived to be eighteen years old. I hope Bonnie lives that long. Seems that it would be nice if your dog could live as long as you do, but it’s not the way. I have many dogs waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge. Dogs are the best and the nearest thing to how we people should treat each other. They love us unconditionally, forgive everything and only live to be with you. Sounds like God, doesn’t it?

Belle, the silly girl. She always manages to strike a very silly pose every time I try to get her picture.

Here’s to new cameras and the wonderful husband who surprised me with one. Bye.

Beautilicious Beauty

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Sometimes I get so busy, I forget to notice the flowers in my garden until they have come and gone. Stop and smell the roses, Katie. So I went into my garden to photograph all the beautiliciousness that is going on right now right under my nose.

Zinnias. Next to peonies zinnias are my favorite flowers. They are so easy to grow and come in every color in the rainbow.

Almost like a dahlia. So pretty.

Love, love this salmon color. I think I painted a room that color once. But we called it Pepto-bismo pink.

I get my zinnia seeds from Wildseed Farm out of Texas. I order them by the pound and you really get a lot of seeds in a pound. I can have zinnias all over the yard. How can you not smile when you see this sunshiny color in the garden?

Two of my favorite colors together, pink and white.

Hard to believe this……

Will turn into this in a day. Sunshine from a seed.

Why don’t people believe in miracles? They happen right under our noses every single day. A seed in the ground grows into a beautiful flower in a matter of weeks. That’s miraculous to me.

Cleome. An old fashion flower that I have all over the garden. Some I have planted. Some that have reseeded themselves. They are such good little plants. David does not like them close to the pool because they like to droop over and drop their seeds right by the patio around it. So I try to keep them a good distance from the pool, but they still creep back sometimes.

They look good beside the zinnia bed.

I want to get this imprinted on my mind so that this winter when I am looking out at a foot of snow on the ground and everything is white, brown and grey, I will know that one day there will be an abundance of colors once again. God is good. He sends Spring to us when we need it most.

I found three new plants at a grocery store this week. This I thought was a cone flower or echinacea, but after I planted it and read the message with it I found it was a rudbeckia or black eyed Susan.

It didn’t look like any black eyed Susans I have grown before.

This is a coneflower. A white one that I have never seen. I have a red one, a green one, an orange one and the ordinary pink ones that I have grown for years. I hope this one will multiply like the pink ones do.

I am going to try to grow this crepe myrtle. I always thought they were more of a southern plant, but this one says to mulch it well in the autumn to overwinter it. So we shall see.

I do grow vegetables in my garden. I have dozens of tomatoes almost ready. I can’t wait to bite into that first red, ripe tomato still warm from the sun.

More green beans than we can eat.

Pumpkin blossoms dredged in egg and flour and fried in butter. Yum. What I couldn’t eat, the chickens loved.

We have pumpkin vines taking over the garden and into the flower beds. There are several pumpkins growing.

I’ve seen a couple of these big ones. I never get over the excitement of finding these in the garden. Sometimes I have good luck with pumpkin growing and some years, not so much, but so far, this has been a good year for just about everything. I think letting the chickens scratch in the garden over the fall and winter and leaving their, ahem, fertilizer, has really made the garden the best ever. They will do their work again this year. Such good chickens. I love those little girls. I will have to show you our two new ones soon. They are still being kept in a cage right now to protect them from the bigger chooks, but in a few weeks we will clip their wings and let them out. I let them out one day and they flew up onto the gate. Can’t let them do that with the dogs around.

Do you like butternut squash? I don’t know why I planted these other than I just like to grow them. They are good cut in half, sprinkled with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and baked in the oven.

This is the pumpkin vines coming right up to the fence saying, “Let us out.” They don’t listen to me and come right on over and spread over everything. The good thing about that is that I have less lawn to mow.

Belle in the garden. I have always said the backyard garden is the dog garden because I don’t get too upset when they walk through a flower bed or eat a few blossoms. Belle likes to smell the flowers too.

Bonnie has been with us for ten years and ever since she was a pup she has been right beside me when I plant and weed in the garden. She’s a flower child dog.

We keep a small patch of clover for the bees. Actually, it’s so I don’t have to mow here!

I’ve given David a new project.

Years ago we bought this old soda shoppe chair at an auction and I have wanted to do something with it. So…..David is taking it apart and I will sand it and paint it(David will sand and paint it)and David will add a new wooden seat to it and then I will add something else that you will have to wait to see when it is finished. I can’t wait to show it to you.

Meanwhile, I am working on this, but cannot show any more because who I am making it for is nosy and reads my blog(you know who you are.) I am really liking how this is looking and I hope I can get it done before Christmas. I have five other quilts looking at me and saying, “Finish me!!!” So many quilts, so little time.

Here’s to gardens, flower child dogs and the One who made them all. Bye.

A Day in My Shop

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I have a shop. Some may call it a studio. It’s where I go to create, sew and quilt and have some fun time. It use to be a two and a half car garage, but slowly it was enclosed, wall board put up and painted, new lighting installed, a furnace added, air conditioner added, a new ceiling(I posted about this ceiling last year) the floor painted and all David’s tools were relegated to one small corner or out in the shed and shelves were put in for bolts and boxes of fabric. I moved all the fabric I had stored in an upstairs bedroom out to the shop. Fabric we had sold at our quilt shop several years ago. Hundreds of bolts. Bolts that are slowly disappearing as I use the fabric for backing for quilts or in quilts. I started out with about three hundred bolts and am down to about one hundred. Does that tell you how much I sew? Even then I cannot pass up fabric. Online, in stores, in antique stores which are great places to find vintage fabric. You just have to be careful when buying from there as the fabric isn’t all it seems to be. I have bought fabric at what I thought was a great price and got it home and it had holes in several different places. Not a bad thing if you are just going to cut out a piece out here and there, but, still, disappointing. I bought three yards of fabric just recently and when I got it home it was three yards alright, just three yards that had been pieced together in one long piece. I am cutting it up for a quilt so no problem again, but I should have checked more closely, but the lady who had the booth was there and was soooo helpful in helping me find cottons after I told her I looked for fabric for quilts. It is pretty fabric, though.

Now, when I can grab an hour or two or three, I will go out there and create.

I light a sweet scented candle because of these:

My two puppers who have decided they like to be indoor dogs better than outdoor dogs now. That’s okay. I love having them with me except when Bonnie gets all excited about the flies flying against the door window and slobbers all over it trying to grab them and eat them. I wash that window every, single, day and right now it has slobber all over it.

Then I turn on talk radio. Ever since I was a little girl, I have listened to the radio. My mother always had the radio turned onto WKBV in Richmond, Indiana listening to the Chuck Yount afternoon talk show. There was a Breakfast Club show she listened to, but I can’t remember the man who was the host of it. Mom’s radio is where I first heard John Denver sing “Country Roads” and I have loved that song ever since. It was on Mom’s radio that my brother heard that he had won a Gene Autry gun and holster in a contest he had entered. It was the time when the musical “Camelot” was popular and I just loved that song. It didn’t matter where I was on the farm, out in the barn, in the chicken house, in the garden, when that song would come on the radio Mom would send one of my brothers out to call me in so I could listen to it. Camelot was on television just the other day and I still love it. I was blessed to see Richard Harris as King Arthur in the play years ago. I sat transfixed at every song and feel it was a highlight of my life. I saw it again years later with Michael York as King Arthur and it wasn’t nearly as good. The radio has always been a part of my life. Now I listen to talk radio and the local news and I am fine with that.

I mainly work on quilts although I do do a few craft things with felt and I make purses when the mood hits me. This is a quilt top begging me to finish it. I have several more that are calling to me. Right now I am working on a quilt for a gift for Christmas and a wedding quilt.

This is another quilt on the bottom, the backing in the middle and the binding on top. I have about five quilts in process right now not including the large plastic box full of tops to be quilted. So many quilts. Too little time. I will get them completed. I will. I will. I won’t. Maybe.

A while back I made this quilt for a great-great niece. A great-great niece. Am I that old? I love making baby quilts. Sometimes I just make one because they are quick to complete and I am always hoping for another baby in the family.

I give away probably ninety-five per cent of the things I make. I use to sell things in our quilt shop, but I’m through with that now and I love giving things to others.

I haven’t had a whole day in my shop for quite a while. The garden and yard and chickens take a lot of my time. Good thing we have winter once in a while when I can stay inside and make things. I’m not complaining. I feel blessed to have a shop I can go to when I can. I hope you have a place you can go to create, read, knit or whatever you enjoy doing. A special, quiet place that is all yours.

Here’s to creative places and talk radio. Bye.

Awake and Ready

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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 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.

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Snicklefritz

So glad you came. Come sit a spell and read about the tale of my life.

Category Archives: Quilting

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Finishing Up and Starting Again

End of Summer Daze

How to Bathe a Baby

Bringing Up Baby

I See the Moon. Oh, No I Didn’t.

Give a Wife a Camera……..

Beautilicious Beauty

A Day in My Shop

Awake and Ready