Sunday, March 27, 2022

Slow Sunday Stitching

This week has been a busy one for me, but with no social activities per se.  Monday I went off to find some weed killer.  Because of that tiny bit of rain we had, I have a bunch of weeds in the side yard, coming up in my brick pathway, just about everywhere.  The side yard has always been unfinished, and I haven't figured out what I am going to do with it yet, but I don't want to mow weeds.  It is where my husband usually built his boats, and where my SIL and I dismantled his last sailboat last year.  

Anyway buying weed killer led me to buying about 6 different kinds of tomatoes, 3 pepper plants and squash, and planting them, which took place over several days as it has been quite toasty here this past week in the 80's.  I overheated myself a couple of days really badly.  I need to come in when it starts getting so hot.  I also bought a fuchsia plant which I love.  This week my wisteria has also burst out with blossoms.  I need to weed that garden as there are a bunch of weeds there too I need to hand pull.  Most of that vegetation below the wisteria are my Naked Ladies or Amaryllis Belladonna in their vegetation phase.  The flowers will come later this summer.


The orchid I inherited from my daughter's mother-in-law's mother is also blooming again.


My candy cane camellia has also bloomed again.  I don't think it did the past few years.  



And my new fuchsia plant.  Now if I can keep it alive during our sweltering summer.  



I also trimmed my Creeping Charley plant out front, and switched out the stand.  It was trying to get in my front door!  I have started so many plants from the original one my friend gave me many, many years ago.  


This week I have been busy assembling my brother and SIL's lighthouse quilt and making some blocks for fillers.  It measures 56x88 right now.  Next I am going to make a round of Storm at Sea blocks.  I will probably cut them out on my Accuquilt so I can sew them when I have time, but we are coming up on April, and I have a lot of guild activities associated with out quilt show.  I think the 12 inch Storm at Sea blocks will put me almost at where I need to be for a king sized quilt.  


I cut out a couple of quotes on my Cricut and used those for two of the blocks.  



For National Puppy Day this week, my daughter Kristen posted a picture of her husband Jeff, and their four dogs.  Capri (boxer), Daisy (Jack Russell), Ronald (chihuahua), and Rigby/Piggy (pug). I was surprised they got them all to sit still. Usually Rigby, the pug is running all over the place.




For Slow Sunday Stitching this week I will be working on my friend's Boho purse. I did get a little more done this week.



I'll be linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching @ Kathy's Quilts. Head on over and check out what everyone is working on!

Saturday evening daughter Katie and I are went to the 74th BD celebration for our Begonia Society with a nice dinner, and had an excellent speaker, Mike Flaherty. He gave a slide show of his visits to Australia and their beautiful botanical gardens, and other gardens. After a great dinner and presentation, they had drawings for various begonias, soils, and other items used in gardening. We got to choose 6 prizes, and even got to take home the table plants.


This next week is heading into a rough one for us. I took John to the hospital March 31st last year where he stayed for 12 days, and then came home on Hospice. His birthday is April 5th, and that will be another hard thing to get through. I am so blessed to have my family and to be able to spend time with them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, March 20, 2022

Hand Quilt Along, Slow Sunday Stitching

I can't believe another 3 weeks have flown by.  I have had a lot of activities the past three weeks.  

I finished my project for the Time in a Bottle Blog Hop that posted on Friday this week.  You can see the post here.  


I also made the gnomes in my header with socks I found at Target.

This week my grandson Jaeger has been home for college, and left Saturday evening.  We had several family dinners.  He is such a wonderful young man.  I had to get a picture before he left on Saturday, especially with my hair recently done and looking better than I can do it!


This week I have also been working on my brother and SIL's lighthouse quilt.  I finished the two weeks I was working on last week, and I also did four more.   I have laid it out on the floor so I can figure out what else I am going to do.  




I have the Accuquilt Storm at Sea die, and those will used somewhere.  I need to figure out what filler blocks I going to use too.

This week was also quilt guild meeting.  Sue, one of the members of my mini quilt group put our house blocks together last week.  Nancy, one of the other members is going to quilt it in time for our quilt show in April.  My blocks are the Victorian house, the hen coop, and the lighthouse.  


Tonight I have been watching one of favorite movies, Beaches with Bette Midler.  I love it so much, but I know the sad part is coming up.  

What I will be working on this week will be my Kathy Schmitz One Stitch at a Time project. 


I also need to work on my friend's crazy quilt purse.   I haven't worked on the bag flap since I pieced it.  


Be sure to check out the other hand quilting links below.

Hand Quilt Along Links


This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

KathyMargaretDebNanetteSharonKarrinDaisy and Theresa


I also will be linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.    Head on over and check out what those ladies have been doing too!  

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Time In a Bottle Blog Hop, My Day

 


Today is the final day, and my day of the Time in a Bottle Blog Hop, hosted by Carol @ Just Let Me Quilt.  She is one of the three ladies, including Carla @ Creatin in the Sticks and Joan @Moosestash Quilting who come up with the greatest blog hops!  Thanks so much Carol for another wonderful hop.  I have the entire schedule listed below.  

The challenge for this blog hop was to make something with an hourglass block in it.  From the very first, the lyrics of Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle kept going through my mind.  My husband and I loved Jim Croce, and John used to play some of his songs on his guitar.  

This song is still going through my mind.  

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day 'til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure, and then
Again, I would spend them with you
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go through time with
If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory of how they were answered by you
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go through time with

So I decided I wanted to have a bottle, with part of the lyrics inside, and put the hourglass blocks around it.

I searched around on the internet for an SVG of a bottle, and a scroll that I could print part of the lyrics on and place inside the bottle, so I could cut them out on my Cricut.

I finally came up with this.  I wanted a darker green for the bottle, but I am trying to work from my stash, so I used what I had.  




I made some tabs up at the top so I could hang it from my FRESH hanger.  



These lyrics to the song are especially meaningful to me this year, as my husband passed away the end of April last year.  We were together 49 years, married 45, and he was the love of my life.   I'll always wish I had just one more day to spend with him.