The Borders are On!

I got the borders put on the quilt top today. HOORAH!!



The next step will be to make a "quilt sandwich" and put on the binding. That means the back of the quilt top will forever be hidden, so here is one last picture of it:

A New Favorite Photo

My Mom took this picture with her camera phone Saturday evening. My son was working hard helping my Dad hoe up some weeds. See that truck in the background? It is a 1972 canary yellow Chevrolet. I learned to drive in that truck. This picture is my new favorite.

A Weekend For Outdoor Projects

As can be seen in the picture below, all of the plants that I overwintered in the basement and garage are sitting in the lower driveway waiting to be put on the deck.



The problem is that the deck is in desperate need of staining/waterproofing, and that can't be done until some deck boards are replaced. So, on Thursday I took the kids to Lowes and we bought some deck boards. When my husband got home he was evidently inspired by the pile of boards in the driveway, and decided I had not bought enough. We all went back to Lowes and bought some more.

On Friday, my parents visited and brought some flowers that my Mom started from seed. Every year I get a great selection of flowers from her in the Spring. Here is a picture of some of the plants after I got them in pots.



My parents also brought two watermelon plants, and I planted them in hay bales. One of them already has a little watermelon on it!



While my parents were here my Dad pulled up all the deck boards that needed to be removed. My son had a great time following him around "helping" with the process. He ended up going home with them Friday night and is still with them. So far he has picked and shelled peas, dug potatoes, picked strawberries and made strawberry ice cream and hoed weeds. He is having a great time.

On Saturday my husband was able to get a lot of work done on the deck. As can be see in this picture, my daughter supervised his work from her play yard.



Steps removed and deck boards ready to be cut:


Today, my husband has worked on the deck all afternoon, and is currently back at Lowes because we needed still more wood. I've been watching the deck supervisor today because it has been too rainy for her to be outside (she getting over being sick). So my accomplishments today have been minimal. I did manage to get my hen and chicks repotted, though.



Yep, that's a bundt pan that I potted them in. My Mother-in-Law sent a picture to me that her sister took. It was some hen and chicks planted in tap shoes that she got at a yard sale for 25 cents:



How cute are those? They inspired me to find something different to plant mine in. I had actually thrown the bundt pan in the trash yesterday afternoon because it was too scratched to use anymore. This afternoon while my daughter took a short nap I dug the pan out of the trash and gave it a new use.



I haven't done any work on the quilt lately. In fact, I had to hide it when my Mom was here so she wouldn't see it. I should be able to get some work done on it this week.

The Appliques are On!

Today I cut out and applied to the quilt top the tree trunk, bird bath and birds:



Next step - borders!

New Banner

Just a note that the new banner you see up top is compliments of one the three year olds in the Sunday School class my husband and I teach. On Sunday, the sweet little guy brought the most beautiful flower as a present for me, and I just had to photograph it when I got home. The result is my new banner!

Edit July 08 - I have just updated my banner again, but will put a picture of the tulip banner here for reference (click to view full size):

I Almost Went to Bed

My husband is out of town tonight for training related to his job, and after the kids got to sleep (each in a bed by themselves!!), I sat down and watched about 30 minutes of television. I don't really watch very much t.v., but last night my husband was also out of town and I watched Iron Chef and really enjoyed it. I thought I could find something tonight I would enjoy, but did not. So, I was getting ready to make my way to the bedroom when I decided it would be beneficial if I took a couple minutes to do a little work on "the quilt".

My next step for the quilt is applying the appliques, and I am using Steam-A-Seam II for that. I've never used that product before, and thought it best to do a practice run with it. I thought I could do a test with it tonight, and then when time allows over the next day or so go ahead and make and place the real appliques.

The scrap fabric I pulled out to do the test with was some that I have had stapeled over a cork board in the basement for about five years. The cork board wasn't being used any longer, and last week during a 3 hour "clean the basement marathon" (some of you will understand my need to have one of these marathons more than others - you know who you are), I banished the corkboard to the trash. I did pull the fabric off, though, because who wants to waste perfectly good fabric (staple holes excluded)?

Anyways, after I cut out the tree trunk applique piece from the scrap fabric and gave it a good look, a creative light bulb came on in my head. You see, in January I saved some of the flowers that I made that were on my daughter's first birthday cake. The things are hard as rocks, and my plans were to somehow put them in a shadow box to preserve them for her. I'm hoping that one day it will be special to her to have the decorations her Mommy made for her first birthday cake. On a shopping trip at Big Lots about two months ago I found a frame that I decided to use for this endeavor - it was "open box" and was just $5! Up to now, though, I haven't put much effort into putting the project together. I've just been waiting for a good idea to strike - and tonight it did!

First, I got a piece of blue scrap fabric from the basment and put the Steam-A-Seam on the wrong side of it. I then ironed it onto the hard backing of the frame (not sure if this is an "approved" use of Steam-A-Seam, but it seems to have worked). I then ironed on the tree trunk applique and a little bird applique (both from the quilt pattern), and glued the gum paste flowers to the tree. Here is a picture without the frame:



And here is a picture I took to give an idea of how it will looked framed. I just laid the frame on top because the glue is still wet.



NOW I am going to go to bed!

Status Update - Watercolor Quilt

Here is a picture that shows the status of the watercolor quilt. The two-inch squares are all sewn together, and the next steps will be to put on the appliques and sew on the borders.



Here is the back:


And here are the pictures of the patterns I got at the thrift store yesterday for a grand total of sixty-eight cents:



I really like the one on the bottom left (Simplicity 7197). It is from 1975, and I can't wait to make a dress and pinafore for my daughter from it!

Downy Woodpecker

I have been trying to get a picture of this guy for some time. He has finally decided I pose no threat, so when I went out the kitchen door tonight he kept on eating his food while I snapped a picture.



Here are some facts about Downy Woodpeckers from All About Georgia Birds by Fred J. Alsop III:

"Downy Woodpeckers, the smallest and most common woodpeckers in the Southeast, look like small hairy Woodpeckers with sparrow-size bills. Their fondness for small broken woodlots makes them at home in cities as well as in suburbs and rural settings.

You can attract Downy Woodpeckers by providing nesting boxes...and by offering black oil sunflower seeds, suet, peanut butter, nuts, and table scraps, especially cornbread and doughnuts."

I started sewing the watercolor quilt together this morning, and got four kids' clothing patterns at the thrift store today that I think are really cute. My daughter is falling asleep now though, so I will have to take pictures of them to post tomorrow.

Saturday night fun: standing on my dining room chair with binoculars held backwards staring at my table...

So I admit that this is probably not most people's idea of fun, but I already know that I'm not like most people, so it's o.k.

The reason I've been standing on my dining room chair with binoculars is because I've gotten all the pieces of the watercolor quilt I'm making for my Mom in place, and seeing it from above helps me get perspective on how it will look hanging on a wall. The instructions that came with the quilt kit said that using binoculars held backwards would help see any squares that stand out from the rest, and it works great!

Finding some binoculars wasn't easy, though. My binoculars seem to have disappeared, and no one could find them this morning. My son let me use what I thought were his toy binoculars, but it turns out that they really work. He wasn't very patient with me, though, and wanted them right back. So after everyone went to bed tonight I snuck them back out of his room to use them again.

I've told myself that I am not going to keep moving squares around, and that I am going to settle on an arrangement and move forward. With a watercolor quilt, the subtle change from light to dark colors is suppose to be what creates the images. I could see myself going back to this thing hour after hour and never quite being completely happy with all the squares. So, with that, I think that I have it arranged as best as I can. I cut the tree trunk out of paper just to help me visualize how things should go. Here is a picture of what I've got right now.



And just so no one thinks I'm spoiling any birthday surprises by posting about this, my Mom isn't aware that my blog even exists - and no one better tell her, o.k.?

The Three Year Olds Have Spoken: A Most Amazing, Cool Bag

Remember the crayon holder bag I made for my daughter for Easter? Well, she really enjoys it. I guess I should say she has enjoyed it when her brother hasn't been carrying it around. He has been telling me that his sister likes sharing it with him, but I could anticipate what a big problem it was going to be when they both wanted to be using the bag at the same time.

So, I convinced my son that he needed his own crayon holder bag. This was not an easy sell. For some reason, he felt that sharing his sister's bag was much better than having his own. But I persevered, and finally he agreed that having his own bag would be a good idea. Today I was able to get the bag made for him. I used the fabric that was originally intended to be his apron. Why didn't I use it for the apron? Well, he was really excited about his "test apron"...for about ten minutes. He hasn't cared much for it since then. I think he has worn it maybe three times at the most. I didn't want to make another one just to have it suffer the same fate, so I saved the fabric for another project.

Amazingly, my daughter let me lay her in my bed and leave her there while she napped this afternoon. This gave me extra time to sew and finish the crayon bag before we had to leave for church. When the bag was finished, my son took it from me and went into the kitchen without a word. I had a really bad feeling at that moment that it was going to be joining the apron in the "this is nice, but who needs it" corner. Soon, my son came back in the office and went over to the front door to sit in a sunbeam. He had his hands full of crayons and his bag with him.

A few minutes later, he says to me "Now, Mommy, this crayercon bag is amazing". (when he was younger he called crayons "crayercons". Now he knows how to say crayons, but we all still say "crayercons" because we thought it was cute and it stuck). I smiled, and said "Thank you; I tried hard to make it nice for you. Then he says "it looks amazing". I must say that this was the best compliment I've received in a long time!





So happy with his bag is he, that he took it to church tonight. My son and one of his friends were sitting together, and I could see the friend eyeing the bag. He looks at my son and says, "that is one cool bag". My son was very happy that his friend thought his bag was cool, and I was pretty pleased too!