Enjoying the outdoors a little more...

There is so much to post today picture wise. I will have to break it up into 2 posts or else it will get unbearably long. I will give you all the outdoor pictures today and then tomorrow I will show you the pictures of the quilted projects that I promised you the other day, was that only yesterday that I alluded to those? Wow it seems like last week. Any how, here is were I am sitting this morning posting this.

I bought this patio set last summer and I haven't even used it much. I need to come out here more often and enjoy the fresh air and the sounds of the birds singing. I even heard a hummingbird earlier buzzing through. I think that he is a little upset with me because I am sitting a little too close to his feeder for his comfort. He went up and lit on a branch and just watched me for a while. Don't worry, there are 2 other feeders he can go to for his breakfast. He won't starve.

I switched up the order in which I do my blog this morning. I got a rather late start due to a bad headache that I have been battling with over the past 3 days. I am going through caffeine withdrawal. Need I say more? So I went outside to work in the dirt pile first before it got too hot. This is what I did yesterday, the second pile of dirt was conquered.

I don't know if you can even tell how much was done but let me tell you it was enough. I had sweat pouring down into my eyes, stinging like crazy, and my feet were black when I was done. DH brought the stepping stones around that we made with DDIL and DGD.

Aren't they cute. I can't wait to put them in the place. So here is the pile I attacked this morning.

And here you can see how much I managed to move.

It looks like Georgie is trying to take credit for all the work that was done this morning but don't let her fool you. She had me throwing the tennis ball for her and if I ignored her for too long she let me know by barking continually. She wants to play all the time. I would try to make her hunt for the ball by throwing it in different directions but after a couple of times of doing that she wised up and waited for me to throw it before starting to run. She still has me throwing the ball for her while I am doing this.

The rest of the day I am going to go back into my studio and work on more projects. I have to get another customer quilt ready to quilt. I have been putting it off long enough. I also started another redwork piece yesterday. It is on a linen napkin. It will be beautiful. I also need to start a Hawaiian pillow cover too. I have a quilt that I have collected fabrics for since DD#1 was at the Air Force Academy and I would like to start it and do a Hawaiian pillow to go with it. The quilt will be made with indigo blue batiks and white. That will be really nice in a pillow top too.

Well, I best get myself back inside to work. It has been fun posting the blog from outside today, although the heat is beginning to pick up now and I am in the shade so I know that I would not have gotten much done in the big dirt pile had I waited. Good call.

Have a wonderful day and be thankful for schedules that can be flexible enough to allow us to get done that which is important and not just what has to be done. Our to do lists can always be tweaked to allow time for what is most important to us.

(I think I have created a monster with Georgie, now she is going to want me to sit on the patio all the time so I can throw the ball for her. She has not stopped since I came out here. She should be ready for a nap though soon.)

Small progress is part of larger wins...

I managed to get some cleaning done in my studio yesterday, not as much as I had hoped for but a good start none the less. This morning before the sun gets too hot I am going outside and work in my flower bed. I still have dirt to spread around. My morning energy levels have been pretty low of late but I think I can get out there today and get a good bit done before I crash. The air conditioning will feel real nicde when I come back in.

There are lots of things that need to be done before next weekend. I am hosting a fabric dyeing day with my friend Tina for our quilting group and friends. This is our 3rd year I think of doing this. We have a great time, everyone brings a covered dish to share, we work outside dyeing fabric and/or other projects for those who don't want to dye fabric. This year our theme is a Hawaiian theme and so I need to get my projects all lined up and make sure I have enough supplies on hand. We have had around 12 each time. There is always good food and lots of sharing going on. That's one reason I want to have the flower bed done.

I finished up 3 small wallhangings over the weekend along with one table runner. I just have to hand stitch the binding down, good projects for evening TV watching. I will get photos of these soon. Once I get the studio cleaned up (another of those things that need done before next weekend) I am going to pull out another customer quilt and get it started. I have been alternating doing some of my projects with my cusomer's quilts so that I don't feel deprived of getting anything done for myself.

Well, I think I have procrastinated long enough this morning, if I don't get outside soon it will be too hot to work for long. So I best be getting out there.

Have a great day and do something kind for someone today, that could be just giving them a smile and a warm greeting. These small things can mean more than some grand gesture.

Fun with the grandbebe...

The joys of having a two year old around are many. We had a great visit with our DGD and DDIL. On Friday we went to town to get supplies for making stepping stones to put in my new flower bed. We also visited some of "Nana's friends" which Avery was a little shy at first to do but once the secret stash drawer was opened and a piece of yummy chocolate was located everything was pretty ok. Once we got everything, we came back home and stayed in the house for a while. It was so hot that you would be drenched in sweat after just 5 minutes outside. We also bought some sidewalk chalk to create some masterpieces on the driveway. Avery did not mind the heat so much so we headed back outside to play with the chalk and to blow bubbles. She could spend hours blowing bubbles and then chasing them. We drew and then blew more bubbles. Here is some of our works of art.

Once it cooled off more in the evening we went outside again to make the stepping stones. Here DDIL and AV are sitting in the driveway with the starts of our supplies around them.

We even enlisted Papa's help in measuring out and mixing the Kwik-crete.

Avery very carefully added glass marbles to one of the stones.

Meghan created a beautiful stone too.

Avery's foot prints and hand prints were put in several.

This is a fun and rather inexpensive activity to do with the kiddo's. The bag of Kwik-crete was less than $5.oo and the forms are inexpensive plastic dishes used under a potted plant to collect the water. They were about $1.25 a piece. I bought 4 of those. All the items we used to decorate I already had in my craft supplies.

Avery brought her tent to show Papa. It is a puppy tent. It is adorable. I even climbed inside with her. Too bad it was already pretty dark so the photo isn't the best.

We finished off the evening by watching a movie. Avery said she was hungry so I made some popcorn and we enjoyed the cool of the air conditioning.

Along with all the cute and adorable things Avery said during the visit and everything she could imagine to do inside we had a very entertaining weekend. One of my favorite things she would say was, "I am going downstairs now to my workshop." Also "Don't worry, I will fix it." She is such a sweet and loving child (in between her self admitted-fits) and so smart. I had bought her a book while we were in Hawaii called Chameleon's Colors and when I handed it to her she looked at it and said chameleon. Very smart. Very determined. Very active. Very adorable.

Well, that was my weekend fun. I hope you had a good fun weekend too. Everyone needs time to decompress from the stress of the work week and I think we can all learn a lesson from the children in our lives and play a little more.

Have a great week and remember to be thankful for something. I am very thankful for the sweetness of grandchildren and that they go home after a visit. LOL. I used yesterday to catch up on my rest.

Learning to go with the flow...

I mentioned that this week has been totally different for me than last. I am learning to go with the flow of the energy that is available to me. Yesterday, I was able to clean the house and do the laundry in preparation for DDIL and DGD's arrival. Once that was done I started working on that little tree wallhanging again. It is coming along rather nicely. I have the center swirls completed around the tree and 3 sides of the inner border done. This has been a learning week all around, as I used a new design in the border. The inner border sides are not the same size so this design had to be customized for the difference in sizes which really only affected the corners where the 2 different sizes meet. I found a great blog that has several great tutorials. I tried out this one The simple diamond sash motif. It is a lot of fun and adds an extra level of complexity to the design even though it is very easy quilting motifs that are used. That is one thing I am learning too, something doesn't have to be difficult in order to be complex. You need to break everything down into doable steps. A lot of repetition of smaller components makes it look much more difficult and more impressive. Several of the quilting motifs I have learned this week use this simple idea of combining 2 or 3 simple motifs to create a more complex design. Another thing I am learning to do is to add the links to take you elsewhere for additional information such as the tutorial above. We are never too old to learn new things.

Today will be spent trying to keep up with one very smart and very active 2 year old. She is so adorable, and she amazes me. Last night she was counting and she counted to 100 by 10's. You know ...50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100. Just before bedtime (mine not necessarily her's) she decided that we needed to have a party and we needed to get party hats, balloons, and decorations. She didn't know who would come to our party but we needed to get those things. Later on she decided we needed a birthday cake too.
She speaks so clearly and advanced for her age. She and papa went out last evening to catch lightning bugs. She had him all over the yard searching for bugs.

Well, I am going to go get myself ready for the day because as soon as the little one wakes up I don't think I will have time to do anything else but entertain her and be entertained by her.

Have a great day, I will try to get some fun pictures of our activities today to share with you tomorrow. Remember to love on the little one's that are in your life as they don't stay little very long.

Different kind of week...

This week sure has been different for me, especially after last week. I have not accomplished much. Tuesday was pretty much a bust for me and yesterday was not a whole lot better. I did get into my studio and quilted some. I finished this art piece that I started during an online class probably 2 years ago.

I had the top and about 1/3 of the quilting done so when I was cleaning up the studio (which still needs to be done) I came across this and decided to play with the quilting again. I wanted to try out some new techniques I have been learning. So I finished it up and used the escape hatch method of applying the backing and finishing the edges. This rolls the edges under so there is no binding needed.

I also started the quilting on this piece.

Tina and I had a fabric dyeing day that included applying drops of dyes on top of shaving cream that was smoothed out in a tray, racking the dyes together and then laying the fabric on top of the foam surface to pick up the dyes. It is a variation on fabric marbling. Once the dyes were picked up from the tray there was still plenty that could be salvaged and used again, so we picked up the foam, place a stencil on a piece of fabric and applied the dye colored foam over the stencil with a squeegie. This tree is one of the images we got and I created a small wallhanging with it. Here is the detail of the quilting motif I am doing in the background.

Note to self. The thread choice was not ideal. It is too dark and stands out too much. A lighter thread color, even white would have looked better. I wanted to see the texture but not have the color of the thread change the background color. It is ok for a practice piece. This is good knowledge to have so I don't make the same mistake again. I do think it is detracts a little from the tree itself.

DH and I headed out to Joann's so I could pick up some batting yesterday afternoon and ate our lunch out at Appleby's, which is pretty amazing as DH really does not care for Appleby's. We ended up having a nice lunch and by the time we got home I was ready for another nap.

My plans for today are to get the laundry done and clean up the house as DDIL is coming with DGD. They were here when we were in Hawaii and since we didn't get to see them, she is coming back for a short visit. We are going to make stepping stones for the flower bed and I will be sure to put DGD foot prints and hand prints in them. It will be lots of fun. So there are my plans for today. Once again, I am open to them getting changed at any time for any reason. This is the day the Lord has made and I will be glad and rejoice in it, no matter what I am doing.

Have a great day and enjoy all your many blessings.

blissful ignorance

I did not anticipate not posting anything yesterday, but the truth is I simply did not have the energy or mental capacity to write anything. The activities of the day before just knocked me off my feet a little longer than I had anticipated. I did not do much of anything except go to the plant/produce auction to see if they had any plants that I wanted for my new soon to be flower bed. Nothing in plants although they had lots of beautiful fresh produce. I got right back in my car to come home. I decided to run up to a local nursery to see if they had anything, once again, no luck. This whole trip took about 1/2 hour and when I got home I crawled back into bed for a nap. The rest of the day was spent in bed or on the couch except for the 2 hours or so I was at the eye doctor's for my exam. By the time I got home I was ready to take another nap on the couch. Not such an exciting day. Perhaps today will be a more productive day. So far I managed to get up when the alarm went off.

It rained pretty good through out the day yesterday, so I won't be able to do any work in the flower bed. It will just be mud. So I think I will work in my studio. I don't promise any big completed projects but at least I will give it the good old American try.

I want to thank all those who have served our country in war and in peace time to keep our country free from oppression and domination. I am thankful for this great country in which we live. I know the sacrifices that have been made by many a person and family to keep this nation great. I pray for the safety of all who are serving now. I pray for those who are away from their families today, who are doing there jobs so that I can live in blissful ignorance of the all the work that is being done to keep us free in our "land of the free." I created a quilt for a challenge named Thread Tails to Vapor Trails that travelled around the U.S. last year. It is named Blissful Ignorance, after the quote by George Will. Here is a photo of the quilt.

You can click on the photos for a larger image.
You can see more about this quilt in this post

I hope you can read the quote.

Have a great Independence Day and if you have the chance, or perhaps make the chance, to thank someone for the service they have given to their country, please do so. It is what keeps our country strong and free.

Treatment day..

Sorry there is no post today as it is treatment day.
Have a great day.