Well, Hello Again

 

First of all, allow me to introduce Clementine. I met her one day when I was shopping and insisted she come home to live here at Muddle Manor. I think she will fit right in with us. (Maybe not Buddy. He is not at all impressed with her.)

 

 

Somehow, he doesn't look as if his intentions are all good.

 

 

Our son took this one home with him last week.

 

 

And our darling daughter in law took this one home for herself.  They had come over delivering some Mexican food for us all to share for lunch. Big happiness all around!

 

 

We still have lots of brilliant flowers in the back yard, but only because I do a lot of watering out there. The heat has been especially brutal this Summer, and we have had very little rain.

 

And would you look at this little guy! He was tiny. You just never know what you'll see if you go outside and look around at night!

 

 

I am working on this one for a friend and neighbor of ours. She and her husband are decorating their house in earth tones and that is what they wanted for their bedroom quilt. I was not very excited about that until I started pulling fabrics and cutting and putting them up on the design wall. Now, I really am liking it! Long way to go though. It is to be a queen size. That should keep me out of trouble for a while!

 

Now for the serious stuff.  My darling husband, Mr. Muddling has received a diagnosis that has hit us pretty hard. That is why I have been absent even longer than usual. We are working through things and believing our God to turn things around for our good. He is able!

 

I hope all is well in your world and that you are finding things that bring you joy!

 

Hugs and kisses and lots of love,

Elaine 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                               

 

 

 

Flannel Quilt

 

Our daughter came for a visit recently. She was here for a week and I took advantage of that to make a flannel quilt for her to take back to Upper New York State with her. She is back there now and enjoying the warmth and the love of that quilt!  I think Buddy had an idea the quilt might be for him. Doesn't he look heartbroken? He is such an entertainer!

 

 

The backing is also flannel, and yes, Buddy had to supervise this shot as well.

 

We've had a bit of colder weather here, too, so vegetable beef soup and a pan of Southern cornbread were the menu, and mighty good it was, too!

 

 

 

Before our daughter got here, I completed this rather masculine quilt for a friend of ours. He (and his wife!) were very happy with it. I like it a lot myself!

 

 

My sister sent me such a pleasant surprise this week! This live evergreen candle arrangement is so pretty. We are really enjoying seeing it on our table every day.

 

 

 

And here is Buddy watching television with Mr. Muddling. Would you like to see what has him so interested?

 

 I think he might be a John Wayne fan. The movie was Donovan's Reef, and he was just mesmerized by it.

 

I cannot tell you how very thankful I am for this little boy. He has really made our life interesting, and a lot more fun (and frustration, too!). Buddy really does want to be a good boy, and I'm sure he'll grow into it soon.

 

Till then, we'll just enjoy his antics, and there are quite a few of them!

 

I do hope you're having an interesting time of it as well. Christmas will soon be here. We've had several family gatherings while our daughter Mary was here and it was so good to have our family around us.

 

May God bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you! Life is good.

 

Until next time

Hugs and kisses,

Elaine 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goodbye and Welcome Home

I had to let Buddy go last Friday. I miss him so much.

 

I posted about his story when he came here to live in this post. In the past few months he has had seizures. We took him to our vet and got no answers. Then more recently a stroke that left his left front leg mostly useless. Still he was happy and did not appear to be in any distress. So I enjoyed every minute I could with him. 

The time came, as I knew it would, when I had to let him go. I know it was the right thing to do and the right time to do it, but that doesn't make it easier to do. 

He left peacefully with Mr. Muddling and me right there with him. 

 

Now you might not agree with what I did or think it was right, but when we got home from Buddy's release, I went online and stated looking at our local animal shelter.

 

I saw this little guy whose eyes said, "Come get me!" 

They had called him Petey, but we decided on Buddy, Jr.

We call him BJ.

 

 

BJ is six months old, and starting to make himself right at home. 

Not going to kid you, it is quite a bit of a change, a lot like suddenly having a two year old little boy arrive to stay! He is into everything. Absolutely no limits, he thinks. Thankful we have a kennel!

I really do love him, and hopefully with time he will grow into the perfect companion for my late night sewing adventures that Buddy and Bruno before him were.

 

Speaking of sewing adventures, I am working (when opportunity arises!) on a new quilt for a very wonderful lady who loves blues. So of course I had to get a few more. These came from Glorious Color, and they are wonderful and arrived quickly! I may have also bought a red lotus leaf for myself. I really like that one.

 

 

You know, life goes on. There are always going to be challenges and bad things do happen with disgusting regularity. But. God is still on the throne, and there is still always so much for which to thank Him! And I do.

 

I thank Him for you! And I hope you are not having any of those bad things happening right now!

 

Hugs and kisses,

Elaine 

 

 

 

Flower Garden

 

I am documenting now the pretty things outside. Mainly because I know it will look nothing like this next week. I am not excited about the polar vortex we are promised. I am not a fan of cold weather. However, sometimes you just don't get to choose! LOL!

 

I've been working on another quilt. I know that is not a big surprise, but I like to document the quilts I make, so here we go. This one is for a special friend of ours. She is such a great blessing to us, and we love her a lot! She gave me a little idea of colors she would like and I've done my best to give her at least some of what she wants. 

For anyone who might be interested, the flower prints are cut into 6 1/2 inch squares and the gray/burgundy quarter square triangle blocks in between are also 6 1/2 inches, turned gray side up in one row and burgundy side up in the next.  There is a 1 1/2 inch burgundy inner border and a 2 1/2 inch outer border of Lotus Blossom, one of my all time favorites in all colorways.

If you want beautiful floral fabrics, it's just really hard to go wrong with Kaffe Fassett/Philip Jacobs designs. They are the best!

 

 

So here we have it: FLOWER GARDEN.

 

I sent my friend Sandy a picture of it on the quilt frame when it was close to being finished and she said, "You made a flower garden". 

That's a pretty good name for it, isn't it!

 

This was a daily page on my new Mary Engelbreit daily calendar. Not necessarily advocating this, but it did strike me as funny! And sometimes a laugh is a very good thing. 

I hope you are having a good start to this new year. A lot of how it turns out is going to be up to us. Not all, but still a lot. I am going to try to keep a good attitude and to continue to be thankful for all the many good things in my life. They are all from the Lord!

You know, you are some of the good things! I am so thankful for the friends I've made here in blogland! I'm glad we "met"!

Hugs and kisses,

Elaine

 

Quilt in the Making

 

Here I am again at last. I will show you a little of Gloria's quilt I've been working on this long time.

 

I have cut so many 6 1/2 inch half square triangles! Thank you Accuquilt Studio 2!

 

 

And I kept adding them to the design wall.

 

 

And soon that design wall was full.

 

 

So I added the other design wall and kept adding half square triangles.

 

 

At last! Now to sew it all together.

 

 

All sewn together and ready to load on the quilt frame!

 

 

The quilting is started!

 

 

Many hours later the quilting is finished and I am congratulating myself that the quilting is done, when I notice that I have sewn one of the blocks in upside down. I seriously thought about just ignoring it, but I couldn't.

 

 

And once you see it, you can't UN-see it!

 

 

More time ripping out the quilting stitches and removing the offending block.

 

 

New block sewn (since I had torn the old block) pinned and hand stitched into place. Quilt was reloaded and re-quilted in the spots I had to rip out.

 

 

All quilted now and trimmed. Binding is cut, so maybe soon it will actually be finished. 

I hope I haven't bored you too much with all this "how the quilt was made" stuff, but sometimes I think we need to share the truth that these quilts don't just happen. And sometimes we make mistakes and have to fix them.

It is like life, isn't it? None of us is perfect, and we all make mistakes. I try to admit it when I do and I try to make it right. I'm so thankful that I am not in this life alone. The Lord has promised never to leave us and never to forsake us. I'm glad, because I need His help all the time.

I hope your life is good and that your mistakes are few and easily remedied!

Hugs and kisses,

Elaine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving Along

Greetings from Houston in the very hot summertime!

 

 

First of all I'd like to show you this baby quilt. It is made from the generously provided instructions of Mary Johnson. I have learned so much from her over the years, and I really appreciate how she shares with others. I left off the outer borders to give it a more modern look. It is made primarily from half square triangles which I cut with my Studio Cutter.

 

This one goes to our great niece who has a little boy due the end of this month. The green backing is a very soft flannel. These are the colors she wanted and I hear she likes it a lot!

 

 

 

Little glimpses of what is happening at Muddle Manor. Slowly but surely we are getting things repaired and all the mess cleared. It is a big job! In the meantime, there are always pretty things to see and quilts to be made. The one on the lower left is on the quilt frame now, and I should finish it soon. The wooden fence on the east side of the house has been replaced and the chickens are enjoying its shade. Their house is a long way from where we want it, but they can be closed in safely at night and they have the back yard to roam in for now.

 

I haven't shown Buddy lately, but here he is, smiling to say hello! I do love this big ole dog! He is a blessing to me.

 

I hope there are blessings aplenty where you are living! God is still on His throne, and He is still good!

 

Hugs and kisses,

Elaine

 

 

 

News from Muddle Manor

 

First I'd like to show you this fun "potato chip" quilt I finished for the USO. It was so easy and so much fun to make, and I think it turned out to be a quilt the USO Lounge at our local airport will enjoy.

 

This pretty one was made by my friend Sandy for the USO as well. I love the little extra zip she put on the backing!

 

This little cutie is a freebie from Taryn at Reproduction Quilt Lover.

Clicking on her name should take you to the free pattern if you're interested. It was fun. I cannot even pretend that I did a wonderful job, but I like it anyway! 

 

 

And now for the not so fun news. Perhaps you heard about Hurricane Beryl visiting our city on Monday. This is the aftermath in our back yard. The picture in the far right center shows the culprit - our neighbor's huge pine tree fell into our back yard, bringing with it parts of his pecan tree and doing a number on our fence, our chicken yard, and the greenhouse. We don't even have any trees in our back yard, so all that you see is storm damage.  That was Monday. 

We had a wonderful tree crew come in on Tuesday and clear all of that out. Now we just have to do repairs after the adjuster makes his report. We are still without electricity, but so thankful to have a whole house generator. And really thankful that tree didn't fall across our house instead! 

Our friend Sandy's house got a branch through the roof. It was right over their bed and had they still been in it, I do not want to think about. 

Through all this, God had been good. As always. There are many people here still without power. And it is really hot as it always is in Houston in the summertime (and lots of other times as well!)

But, we are a resilient country, I believe. There will always be challenges, but I believe our good God will help us to overcome them.

 

I really hope all is well for you and that you are finding fun things to do!

 

Hugs and love,

Elaine 

 

 

Oh, Happy Day

 

I was up early (for a change) this morning so I went outside and took some photos. It always makes me happy to see things growing and looking so happy out in our very own back yard!

 

Another thing that makes me happy is when I do something smart. 

I remembered a couple of nights ago that I had put some 2 inch squares together for nine patches. I took them out of their box and had some fun! 

 

Aren't they just the cutest?

 

Happy, happy, happy!

 

And the really good part is that I have a box with lots more pieces ready to go!

 

I've had some medical issues for a while now, and it took forever to get an appointment with a doctor. Then, she was not the one I needed, so another wait. But today I saw the right one, and I really believe all is well! Hallelujah!!! I am so happy and so relieved for a good and an easy resolution. Mr. Muddling is beyond happy. 

 

Thank you for sharing my life and for caring. You know that I care about you, too. God is so good to us all. Much better than I deserve, I know!

 

I hope you are rejoicing over something really good in your life, too!

 

Hugs and kisses, and lots of love,

Elaine 

 

June, the Flower of the Year

 

But first, a couple of quilts! This one is made of 2 1/2" by 4 1/2" rectangles. I have Karen of Sunburnt Quilts to thank for this idea. She made one in blue and white and I loved it so much I had to make one, too.

 

This one will be going to the USO Lounge at our local airport. We have almost enough of them ready to take!!!

 

Don't you like this colorful backing and striped binding?

 

Perhaps you remember the leftover triangles I was playing with a while back. This is what they became.

 

I have had this fabric in my stash for quite a while. I think it's perfect for this one!

 

One of the pretty reproduction fabrics seemed perfect for the binding.

 

Mothers Day was really sweet for me. I love the mug from our son and daughter, and the lighted picture frame our granddaughter sent. Isn't she a cutie! Nothing to do with Mothers Day, but I made some more candied orange peel. So good. And some of it found its way into some cranberry orange scones tonight!

 

 

Meanwhile, outside in the back yard we have rampant growth. Not very well manicured, but it IS growing! And incidentally giving me a lot of joy.

 

I hope there are lots of things in your world that are giving you joy. It seems that everything in this world tries to bring doom and disaster into our thoughts every minute. BUT. We don't have to give those thoughts a home. And I choose to replace them with thoughts of good. And to remember that God has good thoughts for us, to give us a hope and a future. Look at Jeremiah 29:11!

 

Hugs and kisses, and lots of love,

Elaine