Beautiful weather

This looks fuzzy, but that is the way I feel. I went out this morning to pull the rest of the water grass around the bean plants. That is the center section of the garden. I then was putting the grass in a 5 gal bucket and sitting on the bottom of another 5 gal bucket to get closer so I could see the grass from the beans. I had done 1/2 of it and needed to get the rest done. I then placed newspaper down on the aisles and then straw over the top. Well before I got the second half done I got up to empty my bucket into a taller trash can. I replaced the empty bucket and moved the one I was sitting on. I backed up to the seat and the bucket wasn't sitting level I backed up to it and my caboose hit the ground. I laid there and thought I wonder if anyone saw me fall. Then I thought I ruined the plants and how was I going to explain that. I finally got my feet under me and got up, but I am aching to say the least. I came in and my son called and he wanted me to do something for him today and I said no I just fell. He giggled. He did call back later and asked if I was alright. Well I was back out in the garden placing the straw around by that point. I am ready for bed. I got my nightgown on and trying to relax the hip I fell on. Of course it is the one that hurts all the time. The grass is pulled the the straw is down. Hopefully other than picking the beans I don't have to pull anymore grass for a few days. I know you are giggling. Chris

The sun is out

Today is beautiful and we are to have great weather almost all week long. I can't go out to play because I have such a dirty house. I need to scrub floors and dust and vacuum the whole house. The gloomy weather made for a depressing time and nothing got done. Now that the sun is out boy can I see the dust on everything. Out of 28 days we have had 17 days of rain and I am not talking 1/4 inch more like 1 inch plus for all those days. We have almost 8 inches more rain fall for the this month than what is normal for this time of the year. No wonder I have to mow every other day. And the weeds are taking over in the garden. Maybe I can get to the garden after I work on the house some. Tomorrow for sure. Suppose to be less humidity tomorrow. I gotta go find a dust rag. Yuck! LOL Chris

My Shopping Trip

I have been looking for a fabric for some sashing for some blocks I have made. I found it today at 50% off. I got 4 yards of it. It is a Thimbleberries called House and Garden from 2007, but it works for my purpose.

This quilt shop has cribs to show off the bolts of fabrics. So in a doll crib they have scraps from making samples for the displays at the shop. They put them in storage bags and mark them. I applique and always looking for small prints. If I don't use them in applique I can use them in a scrappy quilt which I am sure will emerge someplace down the road. I have 6 patterns on my to-do list right now. Chris

As of yesterday 6 months till Christmas

I know you wanted to hear that right. Well I thought it was a good idea to get the lists out and see what needs to be done. I have got a quilt started for my son that I do want finished for Christmas. Today I am taking my Mom to the quilt shop and going to look for the sashing fabric for this quilt top. Time is getting away from me and I need this one done for Christmas. I should get another one done before the end of July. My Brother is coming to visit and my Mom wants one quilted for him. The yard work is on hold today because of the heat advisory so maybe after shopping I can get into the sewing room and get something more done. I haven't really sewn for almost two weeks. Painting, yard work and cleaning and everyday stuff has gotten in the way. Shut the drapes turn on the ceiling fan get the machine warmed up and see the thread fly off the spool. Chris

Quilting Design

I have been pondering how to quilt this top. It has some small pieces and I think because of the usage it is going to get I need to do it by machine. Would rather tackle it by hand because of the look it has, but it is going to be used on the couch and the stress of the use may take it's toll on it I roughly played with a design that might work. So many quilts in the magazines say quilt as desired. Well I want it to look nice and be secure besides. An all over design or free motion quilting will get lost in the scrappiness of the quilt. The small squares are going to be lost if you outline stitch each one. The quilting recommendations are 2-4 inches apart for the batting I am using.

I guess texture is the main thing with a scrappy quilt. This is the idea I have in a very rough drawing.

The red line is the quilting design I have come up with so far. It would be more of a perfect design image when I made a stencil to mark it with. I have a lot of difficulty as others do about what would look good. I just get stupid over how to go about doing it. My Mom comes to me over doing things on her quilts and I think boy you came to the wrong person. I am going to play with the look on paper for awhile and see if I can come up with something a little better. I am using black thread for the quilting also. Any suggestions will be welcomed. Chris

Nothing new to say here

More rain and more warnings. That is all we get as far as weather. The weeds are taking over the mosquitoes are on the rise and the Japanese Beetles have returned. I have a lot of house cleaning to do. The grandkids were here, well part of them over Father's Day and the grass was tracked through the house. Need to be on weed control duties outside, but going to be a heat wave today. Tomorrow is shopping day and I will be gone doing the grocery shopping and paying bills. The Taxes are due tomorrow and that thrills me, but it is an evil we all face. Might say to heck with it all and sew. Time will terll it is early. Chris

Sadly Missed

Many of you still have your Father's for today. Mine has been gone for a long time. He died in 1976. He was 49 years old. I am the oldest in my family. This is me in 1953 and I was one year old at the time this picture was taken. My Mother was pregnant with my brother at the time. There is another daughter my sister that was born in 1956. He loved his family and was always there for us. He listen as we read our books and he played board games with use. We camped and vacationed with us and we took his Father with us. My dad was the youngest of three boys and was always picked on growing up, but had many good stories to tell us of his adventures as a young boy. He has been missed for a long time. Father's Day, Birthdays and holidays are hard because we remember the fun we had as a family. Love your Fathers and love your Husbands as they are part of the chain of events for Father's Day

Life is taken away fast and we don't remember their voice or their touch for ever. Irvin E. Nelson 1926-1976. We love you Dad. Chris

Beautiful Day

This is what I feel like trying to find. I have had to mow every other day for the last week. We had 2 inches of rain yesterday. It needs mowing again. Between mowing and going to help my son paint I have not gotten a whole lot done the last few days. He is going through a tough time with his Ex and she won't let him even have his kids over Father's Day. If I remember right three years ago she asked for a divorce on Father's Day. So he needed his Mommy today and we spent a few hours together and I think he needed the time to reflect. He rationally talked to me about his feelings about what was happening and I had the same thoughts, but needed to hear it from him. He is growing up and learning patience at a high price.

As a Mother you want to take the hurt away but this one I can't. He is 33 years old and misses his kids and his former life as a married man. It has been a month since he has seen them and their isn't any reason for this action. I am sure it will be in the court again. Life isn't grand somedays. Chris

No pictures

Not a good day here. The weather is going to be awful. Heat to 90 plus degrees and the humidity will make it to over 100 with the heat index. I have to go and get my son and take him to Savanna and then take him back home. His car window is shot in his car. He had it fixed almost two weeks ago and it quit again. So it is raining and will be for several days again. He needs it fixed. Not going to be a good weekend either. His EX is keeping the kids from him over Father's Day. I am so furious. Why can't life be more fair? I have nothing good to say today. Sorry. Chris

Suppose to be sun today

This is the Trumpet vine in bloom. I am so thrilled the sun is suppose to be out today. We need to dry out. I have water grass in the garden and it needs to be gone. My lilies are in bloom and such a pretty color. They have so many blooms on each stem. A friend gave me the bulbs and I have separated them almost 5 times and they keep multiplying.

Got cleaning and mowing done between rains yesterday so I can be in the garden or in the sewing room today. I really want to sew, but I need to get some other things done I can't when it is raining. More rain tomorrow. This is almost as bad as it was when we got snow every other day this last winter. We are in a funny weather pattern. Just announced 85*F for the high today. Hope your day is great for you. Chris

Rain 10 days out of 15

The faucet is still running. We have had almost 5 inches in the last week. The yard just keeps soaking it up. The water grass in the veggie garden is taking over. We put a small fence up around the vegetables and we caught a rabbit inside the fence yesterday. It jumped over it. I am frustrated. I quilted some on the Star quilt yesterday and my bobbin thread was giving me fits. It was not right. Found out the bobbin isn't filling right. So now I have to rewind this bobbin. Going to try and save this thread. Gray day again so I will turn on the lights and get in there and start on some more quilting. Chris

Yesterday was rainy same today

Yesterday we worked on a trellis for some annuals. Last night got it mounted in the ground and stabilized on the garage wall.

Yellow Bell Peppers are setting on.

First Purple Cone Flower for this year.

Hopefully today I can get more done in the house. I have been in and out all day yesterday help my husband in the garage. Today I need to dust and get to sewing.
Chris

Ray of color

This is what is in bloom in my yard right now. The Asiatic Lilly and the Japanese Iris. They are a neat contrast to each other. The color is the only color we are seeing. The skies are gray and it is raining at the moment. Talking about Flash floods. The flowers haven't had much of a chance to be pretty this years so far because of all the rain. They die off fast being wet all the time. The sewing room is calling. I mowed the yard first to get my mowing in before it has to be baled. It was getting so long. Chris

Played with the new look

Yesterday during the day I decided I wanted a new look for the blog. I played off and on during the day and then let it go over night. Today I tweaked it. Hopefully it looks ok to all of you. I machine quilted yesterday and was pleased with the progress. Plan on some more today. Need to go to my son's house and see if I can help him some there. He has a major mess. He has been remodeling and the dust is everywhere. The machine quilting is hard because of so much stopping and starting. I tried a look of all over quilting, but because this is and older quilt I wanted the more traditional look. The bulk of the quilt is constantly in my lap and under the machine head. It is almost queen size and I didn't plan this one well. Hopefully I can get it done in the next few days and go onto another project with less bulk. Chris

Weather and my mood

I really would like to get this quilt done, but the weather is ugly and I have the star quilt in the process. So today I will quilt on the star quilt.

The days are running into each other around here. I have had so much stress and the mood is gray like the sky. Families can be the hardest to deal with. If it was a friend you just wouldn't talk to them for several days but when a family member has issues it is hard to walk away from. Today I plan on getting a lot of sewing done. Then tomorrow the dusting tools need to come out. OMGosh is it dusty in my house. Guess because I am sewing and dragging stuff out. I have some purses to get done also. So more fabric needs to come out also. Hope everyone has a great day. Chris

Ho Hum Day

The sun isn't out. The sky is gray the weather is changing. I did get up and get out and spray the yard for weeds. We had Creeping Charlie or I call it Creeping Crud in the yard beside the Violets and Clover and Dandelions. Just went out to look at it and it is starting to curl up in the throws of a slow death. Will probably have to do it again in a couple weeks. We have a storm front coming from Iowa. Should be here in about an hour. But the chemicals have been on long enough to get the work started. I don't know which is worse chasing the snow around in the Winter or all the yard work in the Summer. I should live in a perfect World and we wouldn't have any of that. "RIGHT"! Maybe in another life. Chris

Another project done

Another project done. The garden picture is of the old wagon. My husband tore it apart and got rid of the old wood. He remade the wagon.

This is the finished project. I think it is great. He designed the wagon all but the under carriage. Hours of painting and fitting, but it looks great. Chris

Got it started

Famous last words. Wish it were done is the other set of words. Because the seams are so wonky I had trouble deciding how to quilt this. I think it will lay fairly flat by the time I get done with it. Now I see why a professional quilter gets frustrated with customers quilts.

The quilting is going slow. To many stops and starts. I got two blocks and most of the stabilizing done last night. Then I had to frog stitch. You know "rippit". I had not gotten the pin basting real taut in the outer border and it was bunching. But I stopped and got that done last night.
I had to just use my dictionary. I am getting to be such a bad speller. Well back to the quilt. If I can do a couple blocks each day maybe in a couple weeks I will have it done. Wishful thinking. My days never go that smoothly. Something always comes up. Yesterday I started to clean my machine before I started and got interrupted by my neighbor needing a ride. Today I need to change the needle. It started to ping by the time I was stopping for the day. The fabric in the quilt hasn't been washed and the white is a form of sheeting and that fabric is always hard on needles. It is densely woven. Off to the work area and get started. Chris

I was a good girl and got something finished

I really had a talking to myself this morning. I decided I had been neglect in my sewing and I had to many things in the works and nothing finished. I have so many things started and almost finished so something got finished today. The borders are on the top and it turned out looking pretty good.

This top was to be for a couch sized quilt. Well it fits the top of a queen sized bed as you can see in the picture. Now I have to get it sandwiched and pinned. Which that maybe on hold for a little while. I need to get the star quilt done that my grandmother pieced and it is pin basted already. I feel like I got something done worth while today. This was a lot of dicing and slicing to get all the blocks done for this quilt. Chris

Not sewing with this coming

This is 5:12pm CST. where I live. This is facing the East and the wind is coming out of the North. Decided to shut the sewing machine off and as soon as I post this the computer is shut down also.They just keep getting blacker by the minute

This is facing East again with the sun to the west.

This is facing NE and it isn't doing anything but windy at this point.


In the garage Jeff is painting my wagon. He tore the old one apart and made me a new one.

I think it is so neat and it will look great with flowers in the back.
Stay safe. Chris

OMGosh I ate to much

I know I am nuts. 89*F and I had the oven on today. This is homemade red sauce. I raised the tomatoes and the peppers that were in the sauce. Also the flat leaf parsley. I cooked this for several hours to get the right thickness. Smelled so good while cooking.

I cheated and got the oven ready noodles for lasagna.

Got it all assembled and ready for the oven.
Decided on homemade Italian bread also. I worked at a hospital and we compiled a cookbook and in it a fella's mom worked at a pizza and spaghetti place in town that made wonderful Italian bread. So now I have the recipe and make my own.

It makes two fair sized loaves or three smaller ones. Great for the marinara sauce or just butter and eat it.

Here is the recipe. It is the top one Matt's Italian Bread. The other ones on the page are good too. Save it to your documents and it will be readable.

As you can see I had plenty. It is a nice texture bread. I made it with my dough hooks on my mixer.

Here is the dinner complete. It was delicious if I do say so myself. Comfort food. I have been eating a lot of greens and cutting back and I couldn't take it anymore. The house is finally cooling off. The oven was on for over an hour.
My husband even ate some of it. He can't swallow and has a feeding tube so I was lucky he got some of it down ok. He misses not having the taste of certain foods. Hope you had a good supper tonight. Chris

More color on a gloomy day

Japanese Iris. they are so delicate. They look like an origami project.

Red Penstemon They are Common to this area in the Midwest.

This is a clump of them. They do not totally die back in the Winter. The leaves stay red to green in color.

This is my first Bell Pepper. It is about 2 1/2 inches long. Yippppeeee!



Buttercup Day Lilly

No sewing yet. Made Spaghetti sauce and going to make Italian bread and Lasagna
. Chris

Where is the sun??

Got up and it is dark out for this time of day. We were to have bad weather last night and it never happened. Must have been around us. Well that means I need to water the garden today then. The heat yesterday was bad along with the humidity. So today I will turn on the lights and finally get to the sewing room to get the stabilizing of the quilt started. When the sun is out I find I can't go in that room. Not that it is a boring room or it is dark in there, but I have this thing about sunlight. I want to be out in the free air. I have had this reoccurring thought. When am I going to get everything done I want to as far as sewing goes?? My list gets longer and my ability to get it done is falling so far behind. When I was younger I would sew about 3-6 hours a day. Imagine the quilts you can get done doing that much sewing. I am floored at the amount of sewing others are getting done and posting on the blogs. Maybe it is my life style. I wake up early and have to go to bed early. Never have been a night person. My husband always says if you don't have it done by noon you are never finishing it. I use to work three jobs and sleep odd times and I got more done then. Maybe my age. I don't move as fast. Maybe my attitude. Maybe I realize there are other things in life that need attending. Who knows I sure don't . No priorities today, but get something started whether I finish it or not. Maybe some comfort food. I have been eating lighter and I am in a food mode. Well should be an interesting day I have no idea what I am going to do. Ever have one of those days? Chris

Load 'Em Up Move 'Em Out

This was a wagon we bought at a craft show years ago. It was made with planks from a 1920 Sears Barn kit. The planks were 20inches wide. It rotted all to heck in the yard over the last 9 years. Jeff kept the undercarriage intact and made a new box part for it.

Need to get some painting done on it now.

I can see some plants in the back of it and set out in the garden space behind the veggie garden.

It is longer and not quite as bulky as the original was. Chris