Garden work

Last year we had several huge old trees removed from the side/front of the house so to prevent disaster from striking.  Unfortunately, our rhodedendrens were damaged in the process.

So, taking advantage of the comfortable weather (72deg and overcast)  I went out this morning and after a couple hours was able to remove the damaged plant, weeds and black paper burried under pebbles and mulch. The broken plant is going home with my daughter to be planted in her yard.  If it survives she may have a very pretty bush.  If not, there is no great loss. 

 The soil is a bit muddy and clumpy, so I'm going to give it a couple of days to dry out a bit before planting my new Easter present.

Goodwill Find

A recent trip to Goodwill netted me these two shelves... perfect for storing projects and fabric!

Those rails make loading the shelves a bit tricky, so hubby is cutting them off for me.  I'll need to sand a bit and to smooth out the rough spots; then I think I will line the shelves with contact paper for added protection... I don't want anything snagged.

Orca Bay

I've finally finished piecing and quilting my Orca Bay.  I literally took it off the quilter and folded it up and put it in the car to bring for show and tell time during the Dancing 9s class Bonnie was teaching in Oliver Springs.

 
Bonnie asked me about my color choices .... 



At the time this mystery began, both my girls were taking classes at TTU.  The school colors are purple and gold... so I changed the black and white of the orginal pattern to purple and gold.


It also happens that the local high school colors are red and blue (navy).  Navy was too dark but the lighter blues worked well.



Since I still had some of these fabrics remaining I decided to piece a backing with the leftovers rather than buying more fabric for a solid backing.  With an idea and some help from an online friend (Thanks Cindy!)  we determined I had just enough fabric....

 

I love the way it turned out.  And the red binding I think frames it nicely

Easter

After the Easter Egg hunt we took a walk around the neighborhood.  Of course no walk is complete without picking some beautiful flowers for Nana!

My youngest grandson beginning to eat real table food instead of jarred baby food.  He loves his mashed potatoes and we can sneak a mashed carrot or green been in there once in a while!

We gave Matthew his "uniform" for the Knights of Columbus.  We still have to get the tux to go with it.

Spring flowers are popping up everywhere!

I received these beautiful azaleas for the garden.

Totals 2014 - March

Ok, I am definitely late with this, but life has been busy and I have been mostly offline lately in order to keep up.  I'll catch up with several different posts on what's been happening, but for now I am just going to update my work progress

I completed the quilting on my Orca Bay just in time to take to Oliver Springs, TN to show at class with Bonnie early in March.  I now have the binding on and just need to add a label.  The class was Dancing 9s... the baby quilt she made for her two nephews.  Mine will be shades of pink/orange/lavender... what I call sunset colors... and will be given to my brand new grand-niece when complete.  As of today I have enough blocks  assembled for the first two rows and must cut up more strips to continue progress.

I have agreed to help encourage a friend by starting and working on a new quilt together.   Make It Your Way    I'm not sure if this link will work, but you can copy/paste to see the pattern and directions.  

http://www.mccallsquilting.com/MakeItYourWay

I am trying to stick with clearing things out and using my stash, so I chose 8 goodwill shirts in green and blue.  I did supplement with 4 yards of cream fabric with either blue or green tiny dots on it.  This will make a nice low volume quilt. 

WORK COMPLETED IN January-February 2014
 ....07.....customer tops quilted (YTD  15)
.....01.....customer quilts bound (YTD  4)
.....00.....flimsy completed waiting for quilting (YTD )
......01.......quilted flimsy (YTD 1 )
.....10.....hand-work hours (50TD )

Bonnie Projects in Progress

....done..Orca Bay
............... Celtic Solstice Step 1 blue triangles cut( 350 of 380 pairs)
............... Celtic Solstice Step 1 white and orange star points cut (380 of 380)
..............  Celtic Solstice Step 1 orange star point units sewed (50 of 140)
............... Celtic Solstice Step 1 white star point units sewed (100 of 240)
......24..... Dancing 9s  9patch blocks made (YTD 24)

.....00.....cheddar bowties blocks hand-pieced (YTD  6  of  81in 2013)   ...  (81 of 162 in 2012)
.....00.....cheddar bowtie rows stitched (YTD  0 .... 9 of 18 in 2012)
.............. Talkin Turkey..... 2 blocks complete plus parts
.............. Midnight Flight....1 block complete plus parts
.............. Winston Ways... 2 blocks complete plus parts

UFOs – WIPs

2006 Barn Blocks
2009 1950s Santa

2009 Sunbonnet sue …prairie point borders

2010 Swartz Creek Quilt
2010 Vicksburg BOM 

2011 Cheddar Bowties 
2011 Happiness Key

2011 Novelty Quilt (pat sloan)

2011 Dear Jane/Hot Momma Rose

2012 Basic Class Wall Hanging…. Borders, quilting

2012 Winston Ways

2012 Turkey Tracks

2012 Midnight Flight 
2012 Pillow Cover …assembly

2012 Red/White D4P…assembly

2013 Daisy placemats/runner (sept)…. needs binding

2013 Red blue floral placemats (sept)…. Needs binding
2013 Florals & 9Patch (aug)

2013 Maddie Bea Sweet & Sassy (becky’s barn)

2013 Spring Wall Hanging (WSS project)

2013 Becky’s Barn Basket wall hanging… borders, quilting

2013 Celtic Solstice (nov)

2014 Cracker Barrel - Blue/White strip quilt (jan)… L/E for CS

Waiting to be Quilted

Rosewood Cottage (since 2006) quilting by hand

Monkey Wrench BOM (since 2007) for sale

2 blue placemats (R taylor)