I Had a Design Wall

I did. I actually had a design wall. I took down pictures and the cuckoo clock and tacked up some quilt batting.

I had a lot of fun putting up all the quilt squares I'd pieced and pressed and trimmed.




And I played and I played and I played.


Then Chloe happened.

I did repair this part where she had jumped up and torn the batting, but the next time she came back and tried to climb up the wall. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I carefully took down the batting, rolling the squares in it as I went. I'll just have to work on it somewhere inaccessible to Chloe.

We're having a beautiful, breezy day here today. I planted my six little marigolds outside and I can see some of them from my kitchen window.

Hope your day is going well!

Hugs and kisses,

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

I don't know about you, but flowers just make me happy. I love to see them, smell them and have them around me.

I like to cut flowers and bring them inside to brighten cloudy, gray days. And let's be honest - on every other kind of day, too!

It's really interesting, isn't it, how many quilters also enjoy flowers? Maybe there's something about the arranging of colors and the enjoyment of their texture that appeals to us in gardens as well as in fabric.

I've got some new colors and textures I'm playing around with right now.

It's fun, too! I'm not sure exactly what all this will become (other than a quilt). I'm playing, and I haven't made up my mind yet.

Miss Ru and I had errands to run this morning and I had to pick up this little six-pack of marigolds. Sunshine colored flowers help.

Especially when this view from my sewing room window is so brown and gray. I'm glad the chickens are out there doing their little chicken antics to amuse me.

Mr. Homer Pigeon has taken over the little bunny candy dish in my window. I think he might be waiting for a refill of chocolates in there. :)

And look what I discovered on the back fence the other day.

If you looks closely you can see that one of my little plum trees that I bought in 2008, is BLOOMING!!! We're having another little cold snap tonight, maybe down to freezing, so I hope it will be all right.

Here are a few other colorful things I found around the house:

I hope there's lots of colorful cheerfulness where you are.

Hugs and kisses,

New Quilt, Creative Nails and Other Stuff

So, there's been lots going on around here. I've just been real lazy about writing about it. I'm sorry to have been absent for so long!

We' had some beautiful sunshiny blue skies, though it's still been pretty cool.

I've got some seeds growing into little, baby plants. I can hardly wait until it's time to set them out in the garden. Have I mentioned that I LOVE Spring? I do. We've had a cold winter this year and lots of things that usually don't - - have died. I'm hoping at least some of them will come back. We'll see. Anyway, Spring is the season of new beginnings, fresh growth and hope.

Miss Ru has been playing with some new nail polish. Can you tell that she's had lots of fun?

I tried it, but somehow it doesn't look as good on my nails. :)

And, my plans changed (big surprise). This was going to be the back of my Christmas Pinwheels quilt, but I decided to let it live its life as a quilt in its own right.Once again, I've used the Laura Ashley fabric for backing.It's nice, huh? My sister-in-law gave me a LOT of this fabric. A thrift store had the end of a bolt and didn't know what to do with it. They were going to throw it in the trash!!! My sister-in-law thought of me and asked for it and they gave it to her. How sweet is that!

I've bound the quilt with jellyroll strips of Charisma. You can see that I used the same line of fabric on the table runner binding. I'm sure all you smart quilters already know this, but it makes life a lot simpler to buy jellyrolls and use those strips for your binding. They're already cut! I just sew as many together end to end as I'll need, press them folded in half and stitch the raw edges to the quilt's back side. Then I fold it over and stitch to the front. EASY.

This time, instead of making a label, I just wrote directly on a light-colored piece of the backing. So, all done, and ready to be given to my friend.

I do so hope you're having a wonderful time doing things you love!

Hugs and kisses,

I've added a button on the upper right for something dear to my heart. It's a charity quilt being made in Australia to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation there. Here, I believe is the original link. And here's the flickr group. (By the way, the painting above was done by a sweet friend of ours, Diane Apple, an artist here in Houston.)

Our daughter was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis shortly before her second birthday. We were told at that time to prepare ourselves, that she most likely would not live beyond her tenth birthday. This is not what parents want to hear forecast for their first child together. We also have another daughter who was a newborn at the time. Thankfully, testing determined that she does not have the disease.

Miss Ru is twenty-seven years old now and a beautiful lady. I have been inspired often by her courage and grace in confronting a disease for which there is no cure. We've learned over and over again to listen to the people on her medical team, but to trust yourself more than you trust them.

Chronic illness is not a thing I would wish for anyone. It takes a toll. As Ru tells me sometimes, "I know God doesn't give us more than we can handle, but I sure wish He didn't trust me so much."

Basically, I just wanted to share with you all a little personal bit of my life. I know that each and every one of you has your own burden to carry, and what might seem insurmountable to one is just daily work for another. But it's good to remember that no one is immune to the storms of life. We all go through them. I'm thankful for so many things - a wonderful husband who is always there when we need him, family and friends who love and pray for us, and you, my dear blogging friends. I've enjoyed getting to know a bit of your lives and seeing the beautiful, creative things you're doing. We provide a bit of an outlet for each other, don't we?

Most of all, I'm thankful for a Friend who sticks closer than a brother, Jesus Christ.

Thank you for being bloggy friends!

Hugs and kisses,

How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?

Those are some mighty colorful doggies in these windows! I finished the little baby quilt and it's on its way. Coincidentally, I finished it last night and then I found out that the baby was born at 12:13 p.m. yesterday. How's that for timing!

I love the bright colors in this one.

But, I made the back much more muted, just for a change if the brightness gets to be too much.

Here's a close-up of the fabric on the back. How sweet is that?

I also made one of those necessity discoveries while I was pinning the quilt "sandwich" together. My poor fingers got so sore! And that's not even telling about the number of times I stuck myself. Anyway, I discovered that a steel crochet hook is a very good tool for opening and closing those safety pins. Yay! I know there is a tool made specifically for that, but I don't have one and as usual I was doing this in the middle of the night - not a good time for shopping.

Of course Chloe had to show me how she thought it should be done!

Hugs and kisses,