Finishes and a Start

I finished block 8 for the Jelly Roll Sampler. This one was a bit tricky. With my fabric, I definitely needed my background fabric in the middle to break up all of my busy prints. The outer border is a bit wonky, but the block measures 12 1/2 like it should be, so I am happy!



I signed up for Stephanie's "no strings attached challenge" quite a while ago. Of course I procrastinated and my intended tablerunner is now 2 potholders. I have the muslin cut for more squares, so maybe I still will do the tablerunner....Christmas scraps???

Now on to something new and refreshing.....a modern siggy swap that Julie is hosting. This one is simple and fun. I am using Neptune by Tula Pink. Lots of blues and greens. I haven't used those colors together recently and I am looking forward to seeing them come together. This one is due July 1st.....that is coming up soon!

Summer (almost)

I think Summer is officially here, by the temperatures anyway, but the calendar says Monday the 21st is the actual day that will be the longest of the year....the first day of Summer. My flowers are really growing great. I think maybe all of that rain we had for awhile really helped.

And this little pot amazes me. As you can see it is amongst some Sedum (can't remember the actual name) and it stayed here over winter. Well, this spring I noticed it had seeded itself in the pot although it never grew in the pot! Also, the petunias that were in the pot last summer also came back all by themselves. I have had petunias reseed the next year, but this pot really amazes me. We had a very cold and snowy winter and yet here they are. ( if I tried to do that, it never would have worked)!!!

Fly the Flag with Pride

Happy Flag Day to all of you who observe this holiday.

Yummy

We were up at the lake and guess where we went for dinner on Friday? Yep, a hibachi style restaurant. Our chef is about to catch that egg into his hat.....I never tire of this kind of "showy" cooking!



Have you ever in your life seen a ball of butter that looked like this???

The infamous flaming volcano onion.

Yummo! Haven't had this kind of food for quite a while and it was totally delicious!!

Update on Mrs. Swan....there are 3 little ones now, so darn cute....and Daddy was there too, but didn't get in my pictures.

Quilt Guild

Tonight was June's quilt guild meeting, Material Girl's Quilt Guild! Such a great bunch of gals....I really enjoy being with them. We are a small but mighty group! Our speaker was Emily Illson, a button collector. This gal knows her buttons. She has only been collecting for 4 1/2 years, but has been an antique collector for 37. She only collects buttons from 1840-1940! What a glorious variety she had....all labeled on trays that we could pass around and look at up close. She makes bracelets from the antique buttons and they were for sale and gorgeous. Thank you, Emily!

June was also Secret Sister month....we exchange every other month. Look at my cute bag....and the sweetest things inside. A large piece of Garden Party by Anna Marie Horner, hand cream, chocolate, an emery board and the cutest pair of socks ever.....the friendship star pattern! Love it all, secret sis!

Sewing again....

I finally got my nametag made for Quilt Guild. I haven't done paper piecing for a while, but this one was fun.....after I re-read basic instructions on doing it! ;o)


I also got my 7th block for the Jelly Roll Sampler made. This one is going to be a little different when the quilt is assembled....it called for background fabric on the outside....background fabric is supposed to be for sashing too!! Well, I did not have anything in Verna that was neutral to substitute, so this block may look like it is "floating" in the final quilt top. It will be interesting, if nothing else!

Here are all of my blocks for the sampler so far!

Decided to do something pronto for Loft Creations No Strings Attached Challenge....it ends the end of June....that seemed far into the future, but it isn't!! These are really fun and I got 2 blocks done in no time. I think a few more for a small tablerunner!

And this is what has been happening in our backyard lately....hubby's new barn!

Wonderful Weekend

This weekend we were up at our place at Lake Erie. Our darling daughters, Laura and Amy and 6 of the grandkids came up to help us paint. It didn't look like a lot, until they actually started on Saturday morning. Hubby and I had power washed the porch on Friday, so it was all ready.


It took both of them several hours.....then on Sunday they painted the red trim on the actual trailer. (no picture of that). Bless their hearts it really was a help.

The sky was so blue all weekend, just gorgeous.

Sunday afternoon they got a much needed break around the pool down by the marina.

Oliver wasn't too happy with the pool....it could have been because it was verrrry cold!

Graham was really super lovey with Grandma! He cooked Friday's hot dogs and Sunday's hamburgers for all of us. Mia cooked Saturday's BBQ chicken.....all on the grill. Love you guys!

Just an update on the swan.....she is still nesting as of noon today!



Missed my sewing machine this weekend. Looking forward to some serious sewing this coming week!

Sewing

I felt so bad because I got behind in the Jelly Roll Sampler....well now I am caught up and have 10 more days to do the current block. I really love this sampler and the line I am using, Verna. I know I have said this before. Every time I pick out my fabrics for a new block I think, no, this will never work together. It always does though, thank you Kate Spain!


I won a giveaway from JoLynn over at West Side of Straight. Such sweet things she included. I must ask her also where her blog title came from.

Last weekend up at the Lake, we saw a swan's nest in the pond really close to the road....how beautiful this looks and the nest is really big. We will be there again this weekend and am anxious to see if there are any babies yet.

Spring Fever Bingo

I'm going to have some fun with this bingo over at The Quilt Shoppe. It starts next week and there are going to be some very nice prizes also!

Guild Meeting

Last night was Material Girls Quilt Guild and I was armed with a full battery in my camera for show and tell, and there was very few! I think a lot of gals are working out in their flowers beds and not sewing as much....although around here lately we need to build an Ark we have had so much rain (with more to come). Below is the block for May. I really liked this one and especially so with using the line, Patisserie. And my friend and I have never won the blocks since we have been going to meetings in 1 1/2 years.....well Sandy M. won them last night....hurrah....15 of them.!



She will probably kill me for showing this picture, but hey, we were having fun! She had liked this month's block so well that she made a tablerunner from the block pattern...very cute!

Our LQS had us make a block (I had posted mine before) and Karen put all of them together and quilted the quilt and is now binding it for the ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) fund raiser and competition. It is gorgeous and amazing how it all came together. The guild will fund the shipping and we will see if we hear back anything. It had to be at least 36x45 and ours is 100x100! Great job girls!

And just because we haven't seen any sun in awhile, I am also adding a picture of my beautiful columbine....I sure wish they bloomed all summer!

Block 5

Got to do one of my favorite things this evening on Mother's Day and that is sewing. Block 5 of Jelly Roll Sampler is completed and posted on Flickr and I'm ready for Block 6 to be posted tomorrow. I didn't know if I chose the right fabrics from my jelly roll, but I really like how it photographed. This jelly roll is out of my comfort zone, but I am so enjoying working with these "modern" prints...lotsa fun!

Happy Mother's Day

If I had a flower for each time I thought of my Mother, I could walk in my garden forever!......Anonymous

Shopping

On our travels for the shop hop, we purchased a few things also. This was the cutest wallhanging made up at one of the shops. I bought the panel and some fat quarters to make my version of it. I have an antique sewing book for children that has characters in it that look just like these kids.






I found Rural Jardin that I have been wanting to get and the cutest little stitchery kits that come with the fabric "aged" and the pattern stamped and you just do the stitching....something to get going on for Christmas this year.

May

May is a good month. In NE Ohio it is the time to think about planting seeds, putting out your hanging baskets and maybe planting the delicate garden produce (tomatoes, peppers, etc) by the end of the month. You never know when you will get a frost around here at night. For instance our high predicted for this coming Saturday is only 49 deg. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 80 deg. See what I mean?
Anyway, I have always loved May....it contains my birthday and also starting 39 years ago, Mother's Day for me. May's flower is Lillies of the Valley. They are soooo fragrant and so delicate. I have had the same ones growing in my yard since we have moved here....and that is 32 years ago. They really multiply (underground roots) and can take over like a weed. In fact I got the starts of these from my bil's house....he just mowed them down and I dug what I wanted. I have kept mine under control and love a vase or two every Spring!

Spring Fling Shop Hop

Sandy and I had a great time on Wednesday and Friday traveling around for the Spring Fling Shop Hop...the Baker's Dozen....13 shops in 13 days. And travel we did, 185 miles on my car Wednesday and 146 miles on hers on Friday! Thank goodness for our GPSs!
Every shop gave out a free pattern for a block and a free recipe. We have one more shop to visit before next Saturday when the hop ends. It is local, so no real traveling for this one. We then hand in our stamped "passport" at the end and hope that one or both of us wins one of the sweet prizes each shop has offered. The following are some of the pictures of the blocks and how the shops made them up as their project.

Sorry for the blurry picture here....these purses were really cute and I bought the kit for the blue and peach one....batiks.

This shop had 3 different sizes of its block.....this was the largest hanging outdoors on the front of the building.

I love the 30's fabric in this table topper.